Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. Need I say more? So please don't sue me…
A/N: Thank you to all of those who previously reviewed! Expect chapter 4 soon! Sorry this one took so long! Thank you also to my BETA Rachael! You're a star!
Longing for You
Chapter 3
"Now class," began Snape, once they were all in. "Today we are going to make the Veritaserum. Can anyone tell me what it does?"
Hermione automatically shot up her hand. Snape ignored her however and looked around the class sneering. It wasn't the first time he had done this.
"No one?" taunted Snape, clearly enjoying the blank looks on everyone's faces.
Suddenly, for the first time ever in potions, Neville put his hand up.
"Yes," snarled Snape, with evident disbelief.
"Please Professor," squeaked Neville.
Hermione felt the poor boy next to her cower under the potions master's menacing form.
"-You better ask Hermione. Otherwise, I think she might explode…"
Hermione felt her face redden as she heard giggling and smirks circulate around the room.
Snape walked over to her. "Well?" he spat.
Hermione felt relieved, "The Veritaserum or what is more commonly known as the truth potion does exactly as its common name suggests. The Veritaserum is so powerful that only three drops are required to allow the questioner to discover anything they want, by asking the victim questions they are reluctant or do not want to reveal the answer to." She beamed triumphantly, as Ron rolled his eyes and Harry grinned.
Snape paled, but his face remained set. "Yes," he said stiffly. "Can anyone tell me why the Veritaserum is a very useful potion, particularly to the Ministry?"
Hermione's hand lunged upwards again, almost making Neville's cauldron topple over in the process.
"Anyone apart from Miss Granger; who seems to know the answer to everything?" said Snape, looking down at her in disdain.
Malfoy put his hand up, looking very smug indeed.
Snape looked absolutely delighted. "Mr Malfoy?"
"It is very useful for interrogation and more effective than other methods that Aurors use to find out things, like the Imperious Curse, for instance. Although it is a strong potion it can wear off in a couple of days and a simple memory charm can be used to allow the person to have no recollection of ever taking the potion or anything that happened afterwards." Draco drawled, very pleased by the look of repulse on Hermione's face.
"Precisely, twenty points to Slytherin!" Snape said in an unusually enthusiastic voice. "Considering the Veritaserum is not an easy potion to make; I am allowing you all six lessons to work on it. In the first, I will set time aside for you to study its affects out of your Text Book. At the end of the assignment I want a written essay consisting of seven feet of parchment. You will be working in pairs that I have already chosen..."
A deep groan coursed through the class.
"Brown, Zambini. Bulstrode, Patil…Finnigan, Kennedy…Granger, Malfoy…"
Her heart skipped a beat. You bastard, she thought, looking at Snape.
"-Potter, Parkinson ...Weasley, Goyle-"
Ron looked like he wanted to drown himself. Hermione didn't blame him. But she had to say; she'd rather work with Goyle than Malfoy. Then again, maybe not, she thought looking at the boy who very much resembled a giant ape. At least Malfoy's…pleasant looking…and…sexy… she gasped. Did I just think that? She shook her head. It must have been the effect of staying in dark, damp, gloomy places for too long. Yes, that was it…
She looked over at Malfoy, wanting to see his reaction…honest. He didn't look too thrilled about being her partner either. Noticing that he was being watched he turned around and met her eyes.
He smirked, "Not checking me out again, then, Granger?"
She turned to look at Ron, "Kill me…" she begged him.
"If you have successfully made the potion in the time I have set for you… which I doubt you will have, then you may test it on one another." Snape continued, not noticing that Ron was making very rude hand signs in Draco's direction. "Oh, yes, and I will also test some students with Veritaserum I have made next lesson as part of the assessment on its affects; to give you an idea on how it works, before you attempt to test it on each other yourselves." At these last words he eyed Harry beadily and gave an evil grin, then swiftly he turned around to write the details down on the black board.
Hermione looked over at Ron who tried to say something, but only managed a chocking sound to escape his mouth. She patted his hand in a comforting manner, really feeling sorry for the agonies he must have been experiencing at that precise moment.
Harry looked disturbed, "I don't like to think who he wants to test that potion on next lesson," he whispered to them. "That Veritaserum is damn bloody strong stuff, I saw it being used on Barty Crouch Junior in our fourth year, and it worked instantly, he blabbed everything out, just like that…"
Ron gulped.
"Words to build a dream on…" she replied quietly.
"I really don't want to work with Goyle…" Ron moaned, finally.
Hermione gawked at him. "You think I want to work with Malfoy?"
"-Or Pansy Parkinson…" Harry said mournfully, looking grievously at the pug faced girl sitting next to Malfoy.
"Silence!" Snape barked at the front of the class. "Are you all writing this down?"
Hermione bent her head down and finished taking her notes while listening to Snape's droning. With much relief she heard the bell ring, marking the end of potions.
"Oh yes, fifteen more points from Gryffindor," Snape said dismissing them.
"What for?" yelled Dean Thomas outraged.
"Ask Weasley…" Snape replied nastily.
Ron turned pale and scowled.
Walking out with Harry and Ron, Hermione exhaled freely, trying to feel like her old self again.
"This is going to be a long term," she told the other two boys, as they made their way to their next lesson.
***
Hermione lay on her bed in the girl's dorm, she barely could keep her eyes open, and before she knew it she was drifting into a deep slumber…
She was running. Suddenly she stopped; it looked as if she was in the forbidden forest. She couldn't be sure. Unexpectedly a clump of trees moved behind her and out of it emerged a white stag. The beast looked awfully familiar, she was sure she had seen it before. She just couldn't put her finger on it. But before she had been given time to think the stag had began what sounded like a riddle or a long passage that rhymed anyway…
The dark one will rise once more
From the surface of the earth
To the depths of the shore
Many people you count as friends
Will betray you in the end
One of your foes is pure of heart
But are from a family of the dark arts
The whole world shall be on fire
Humans and beast alike perspire
But good shall triumph over evil
Creating a revelation to the people
And when all is said and done
Your true task has just began
For to recover what is lost
One must pay its true cost
Every time a life is gone
A baby shall always be born
Many shall become seers
Predicting what the future fears
Prophecy is a tool
To tell people who will rule
Few of them shall be wrong
By revealing the dark Lord is gone
For he shall never go away
Until his followers are all enslaved
For a scarce amount of six years
A boy has grown among his peers
Troubled and haunted by his past
He needs to take action fast
Harry Potter will learn soon
Of the danger in his room
See the blood upon his bed
And find a person on it dead
When you are to wake
Write this down without haste
Now I fear my time is up
Take this necklace just for luck
At this Hermione felt a chain being conjured around her neck, the stag however did not notice her astonishment and went on.
It is time to bid you farewell
Send all evil straight to hell
Now I shall say good-bye
Remember, love will show you how to fly
The stag disappeared in a shimmer of silver light.
And then there was darkness.
***
Hermione woke with a start; she could see through the window of her dormitory that it was still early morning. She scrambled out of bed hurrying to find a quill and a sheaf of parchment.
When she had got every thing she hurried down the staircase to the Gryffindor common room where she quickly scribbled down the riddle. She sat there for a long time and then curiously felt her neck, around it was a necklace identical to the one in her dream, it was silver and in middle of it was lightening bolt; the exact replica of Harry's scar.
Hermione sat flabbergasted for a while, her heart beating as if it would burst. She then took the riddle and the necklace back to her dorm and put them in her trunk next to "Hogwarts; A History".
She gently lay on the bed and thought about the dream; she would work out the riddle on the weekend. After all it was Thursday morning and she had a detention to do tonight (she had got a note the night before from Professor Mc Gonagall, explaining she had to meet Filch at the prefects bathroom at 8:00) and a pile full of homework to complete. She opened a large book and began to read, oblivious to the fact that the other girls in her dorm had started to wake.