Chapter One Hundred and Seven: Potions and Poisons

The return to Hogwarts went paired with a couple of preparations. In keeping with Daphne's prediction that Ron would get poisoned after being spiked with love potion, Harry had used the Half-Blood Prince's book to brew an antidote for love potions, as well as handing Ron a bezoar, which would hopefully protect him against most poisons, or at the very least make sure he wouldn't die.

He had also, during his lesson with Dumbledore, told him about the prediction, but Dumbledore hadn't seemed too worried about it. If anything, Harry said, he seemed to be rather disappointed by it. He had, however, given Harry homework for the first time.

Apparently, Slughorn had given Dumbledore a memory of Voldemort during his school days, but the memory had been tampered with, and Harry had been tasked with retrieving the true memory from Slughorn. Dumbledore had warned him it would be a difficult prospect, however, and Harry hadn't decided yet how to go about it. Asking for it certainly didn't seem like it would be very effective.

Harry did know that the memory had something to do with 'Horcruxes', though he didn't know what those were, and Dumbledore had not explained it yet, saying that he would do so the moment the full memory had been retrieved.

Daphne was fairly certain that Dumbledore was dangling the knowledge in front of Harry's nose like that to keep him focused on his task, and she had to admit that it certainly would've worked on her, and she had no doubts that it was equally effective on Harry.

Beyond that, a notice had gone up that Apparition lessons would be offered to anyone turning seventeen before the end of August, and Daphne, Harry, Hermione, and Ron had immediately signed up for them. Ginny was a bit annoyed that she wasn't allowed to try yet but wished them all luck when they went down to the Great Hall for their first practice session.

The tables had been removed and the Heads of House were present to oversee things. The instructor, a frail-looking wizard named Wilkie Twycross, gave them only the barest amount of instruction before telling everyone to try Apparating into a hoop five feet away from them.

Even though Daphne had been taken along with Side-Along Apparition countless times, doing it on her own was a lot harder than she'd expected it to be, especially given how used she had gotten to focusing on one thing by now.

Other than Susan Bones managing to Splinch herself, nothing of real interest happened during the lesson, and Daphne resolved to read up more about it on her own, given that Twycross's instructions were hardly very helpful. Destination, Determination, Deliberation sounded like the kind of mnemonic that would be perfectly useful to someone who already knew how to do it, but was useless in all other respects.

It was difficult to find time for it, however, between her homework and the Order meetings, which had started up again as well. In keeping with the news in the world getting grimmer by the day, they were now practicing methods of magical concealment like Disillusionment Charms, and stronger variations of the Shield Charm which could be cast on rooms or even entire buildings.

Given the technical skill needed to cast such enchantments, it didn't surprise Daphne that Hermione was generally first in mastering these spells, but she was certainly not displeased with her own efforts, either.

"Is it really necessary for us to learn this?" Smith complained after failing once again to Disillusion himself.

Harry sighed. "Look, you're free to do whatever you want, you know. And if you don't feel like practicing these things, no one's forcing you to be here. The thing is that, as you might be aware, there's a maniac running around killing people just because he can. Since none of us are currently strong enough to fight him directly — or even a group of his Death Eaters — knowing how to hide from them might be pretty useful. If they come to your house and you know you can't fight, you might still be able to hide. Cave Inimicum — or a good Disillusionment Charm — and Homenum Abscondo together might be the difference between life and death. Defending yourself against people isn't always about winning a fight, even Snape says that in his lessons."

They ended the meeting by playing a modified game of hide-and-seek, where the Room was transformed into a maze-like setting with many rooms and corners to hide in. One group of people hid themselves however they wished, while the other group was tasked with finding them by any means necessary, and it was such good fun that by the end of it, even Smith seemed determined to brush up on his concealment spells so as not to get caught next time.

"Y'know, I think at this point, we're the most prepared group of people in all of magical Britain," Ron said by the end of the meeting. "We know more ways to hide and fight than most qualified wizards, I'd wager."

"We should," Harry said. "Even though Voldemort is mostly after me on a personal level, he'll kill anyone who gets in his way. The more people learning to defend themselves, the better it'll be. Maybe we should do some sessions on protecting others instead of only yourself, too. Not that it's likely to help against Voldemort himself, but against the Death Eaters it might." He grinned. "I don't think I've ever been as up-to-date with my homework as I am now, either, for Defense, Charms, and Transfiguration, at least…"

"I'll try and come up with topics involving Herbology and Potions," Hermione said with a smirk, "and then maybe you'll do your homework for those subjects too. Although I guess with the Prince's help you don't need to do your Potions homework…"

"Didn't you cast Muffliato during the hide-and-seek game earlier?" Ginny asked.

Hermione looked a bit guilty. "Well…it is useful…"

"Finally, some pragmatism," Daphne said teasingly. "We'll make a Slytherin out of you yet."

"No thanks, I think our common room is a bit less chilly," Hermione said.

Daphne grinned. She knew there were plenty of other reasons Hermione wouldn't want to be in Slytherin, but she appreciated that she chose the most neutral one this time. It helped that, with all of S.I.N. being in the Order of the Lightning Bolt as well, there were quite a few legitimate friendships between all four Houses now, so most people had even stopped glaring at the Slytherins whenever bad news came out. All in all, things were going rather well.

In the leadup to the second Hogsmeade trip of the year, which would take place on Ron's birthday, Daphne actually managed to Splinch herself in one of the Apparition lessons. She'd always considered Splinching something vaguely abstract, but arriving at your destination minus half an arm was rather disconcerting, not to mention very bloody and painful.

"I was kind of hoping that one traumatizing event this year would be enough, but clearly I was too optimistic," she said when they left the Great Hall after the lesson.

"How'd it feel?" Ron asked.

"Roughly how you'd imagine it would feel to have your arm ripped off. It was like it got stuck while I kept moving," Daphne said. She flexed her left hand, which had been reattached in mere seconds without so much as a scar.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione winced at the description.

"I wonder what would happen if you left your head behind," Harry said.

"I imagine that you'd die," Daphne said. "Even wizards don't do too well without their heads, you know. Not if they lose them unintentionally, anyway."

"You can remove your head intentionally?" Harry asked.

"Sure you can. Variation on the Detachment Charm," Daphne said. "It's tricky and entirely useless most of the time, though. It's sometimes done as a party trick or to scare Muggles."

"And here I was thinking I finally began to understand the wizarding world a bit," Harry said, shaking his head.

When Daphne sat down for breakfast on the morning of the Hogsmeade trip, only Ginny had arrived yet.

"Ready for our date?" she asked with a grin.

"Of course. Been looking forward to it since the last trip — though I rather hope I won't get Imperiused this time," Daphne replied.

Ginny laughed. "I doubt Madam Puddifoot will be Imperiused, but as a precaution, I'll check the bathroom first, okay? I should be able to throw off the Imperius too, at any rate."

At that moment, Harry, Hermione, and Ron arrived at the table as well.

"Happy birthday, Ron," Daphne said, before noticing he looked a bit pale. "What happened?" she asked.

"Love potion," Ron said.

"That means you'll get poisoned now, then?" Ginny asked. "I know you can be a bit of a prat, but to off you on your birthday…"

Ron shrugged. "I don't know, do I? Harry managed to get me to drink the antidote for the love potion without any issues, but the prediction didn't say when or how I'd be poisoned, only that it would happen after this."

"Well, the food is fine, or Ginny and I'd be dead by now," Daphne said. "So you can at least have breakfast."

"We were thinking it might happen in Hogsmeade," Hermione said.

"So…you're not going?" Daphne asked.

"No, we are. It's just that we're probably going to be a bit…on edge the entire time," Hermione said, looking a bit disappointed.

"I think I might stay here," Harry said. "I still need to get that memory from Slughorn, after all, and since you're all going on dates, I don't think you'll miss me much," he added with a grin.

"Next one is with the three of us, okay?" Daphne said with a grin.

Harry grinned back. "Sure, why not?"

It wasn't quite as cold anymore as it had been during their previous trip, which was certainly welcome. Still, many of the stores remained boarded up and there was a rather panicked feel to the people scurrying about in the streets.

Daphne and Ginny therefore quickly made their way to Madam Puddifoot's tea shop, which thankfully wasn't as nauseatingly decorated as it had been on Valentine's Day last year, but it was still quite frilly. Even so, Daphne was excited that she was finally going on an actual date with Ginny.

"So, been talking to Pythia recently?" Ginny asked once they had their steaming drinks in front of them.

Daphne shook her head. "Not really. I haven't had the time. There's too much homework, and honestly I don't really see the point at the moment. There's just…not enough I can do with it," she said.

"Well, you're in the same year, at least. Even though I hang out with you a lot more than I did, I still…I don't know…I want to do more, but I don't know what," Ginny said.

"I suppose everyone feels that way," Daphne said. "But I guess we're already doing all we can with the Order. We're still in school, after all…not like we can go out and take the fight to the Death Eaters."

Ginny frowned. "But what if we could? Even if we could go anywhere we wanted to…what would we do?"

"I imagine we'd join the Order of the Phoenix, and then Dumbledore would probably give us assignments," Daphne said, though the answer didn't satisfy her in the slightest. It was actually something she hadn't really given that much thought about, and that felt like a massive oversight.

"We need to come up with our own plan," Ginny said, as if she'd been reading Daphne's mind. "I don't know about you, but I don't really want to be just following orders without thinking, without having any idea about the next steps. I mean, I get that Dumbledore keeps things secret for security's sake, but I'd rather…I don't know, make my own decisions."

Daphne nodded silently. Aside from simply not wanting to thoughtlessly follow orders — which neither she nor Harry nor any of the others had ever really done, anyway — she wanted some kind of purpose for herself, too. But what could that purpose be?

"It would have to be something we, as barely qualified witches and wizards, could do," she said, thinking out loud.

"I was thinking we might take the Order of the Lightning Bolt a bit further," Ginny said. "Y'know, teach people how to defend themselves, at least to a basic degree. I think with our dueling skills, we could be troublesome for quite a few witches and wizards much older than us. If we can show people how dangerous we are, they might realize how vulnerable they are to Death Eaters.

"I mean, just because we regularly deal with a lot of people better than us at dueling doesn't mean that everyone else does, too. Fred and George even said a lot of Ministry employees can't even cast a Shield Charm, so what are the odds of the average person being able to do it?"

"Not just that, but we could try and protect Muggles as well," Daphne said. "I mean, they can't even see things like Dementors, but we can, and we know how to cast Patronuses now."

"Almost sounds like a pest-removal company," Ginny said with a grin. She put on a gruff voice. "Yeah, ma'am, I saw it. Got a Dementor problem there, but don't you worry, we'll take care of it in a flash." Both of them laughed.

They spent most of the day talking about things they might be able to do once they graduated, if the war hadn't ended yet by then, and fortunately, this time Daphne didn't end up getting cursed. She was in a pretty good mood, therefore, when they headed back to the castle for dinner, where they caught up with the others.

"So, did you manage to get the memory?" Daphne asked.

Harry shook his head. "I ended up just doing homework; I haven't seen Slughorn all day." He turned to Ron and Hermione. "Any poison?" he asked.

Ron shook his head. "Nope. I choked on a sip of Butterbeer, but that was my own fault. I think Daphne might actually have been wrong for a change."

"It could still happen later," Daphne warned. "So keep that bezoar on you for the time being."

"Still," Hermione said thoughtfully, "what if you actually changed things by warning Ron of it? I mean, you said that visions from crystal balls were nearly impossible to change, but this wasn't one of those, was it?"

"That…could be true, I suppose," Daphne said. She turned to Harry and Ron. "What would you have done if Ron had been dosed with love potion without warning?" she asked.

"Er…I'd probably have gone for help. Slughorn, probably, because he and Snape are Potions masters and Snape is the last person I'd go to for help," Harry said.

"Would Slughorn have poisoned me with a faulty antidote?" Ron asked.

"He wouldn't, would he? He's a Potions master; there's no way he wouldn't notice it if one of his ingredients had gone bad," Harry said.

"Unless he wanted to kill Ron, for some reason, and I have considered that several times over the course of my life," Ginny said. "But it does seem unlikely that he would. So…that's a dead end, then?"

"Let's not forget that it's Ron's birthday," Hermione said.

"Er, they've all given me presents, but thanks for mentioning it again?" Ron said.

Hermione shook her head. "No, I mean, if you'd gone to Slughorn it might've come up. I mean, the love potion was in the Chocolate Cauldrons Harry had thrown out of his trunk, which you picked up thinking they were presents, wasn't it? Maybe Slughorn would've offered you a drink, or something to eat, and the poison could've been in that."

"That could be, actually," Harry said. "Because Malfoy crashed his Christmas party. He might've given Slughorn the poison then. But in that case…what if he isn't after Dumbledore at all? What if he's trying to kill Slughorn instead? Dumbledore said that the Death Eaters would've wanted to get their hands on him for his skills, but now that they know they can't have him…"

"We have to warn him, then," Ginny said immediately.

"But didn't Madam Rosmerta say the package she was ordered to give to Daphne was for Dumbledore?" Hermione asked.

"It was, yeah, but who's to say Malfoy hasn't been ordered to get rid of Slughorn as well?" Harry asked.

"It seems odd to try and poison a Potions master like Slughorn, though," Daphne said. "But I suppose if the poison's strong enough and disguised as something else…"

"Let's pay him a visit, at least, and tell him to be on the lookout. Who knows, he might be grateful enough to give me that memory afterward…" Harry said.

They made their way over to Slughorn's office and Harry knocked on the door.

"Harry m'boy!" Slughorn said in surprise when he opened the door. "To what do I owe this visit? And in such numbers, too! I don't recall sending any invites recently…"

"Professor, we think someone might be trying to poison you," Harry said.

"Poison me?" Slughorn said, aghast. "Dear boy, why would you think such a thing?"

"It's…a bit convoluted, but the short version of it is that I'm a Seer, sir," Daphne said.

"And you saw me being poisoned?" Slughorn asked.

"No, actually. I saw Ron being poisoned, but we seem to have prevented that from happening and extrapolated that, if it would have happened, it might have been in your office."

"Well, I'm certainly not in the habit of poisoning students," Slughorn said uncomfortably.

"We don't think you are, sir," Hermione said. "But for your own safety, you should probably test all bottles of wine, mead, or whatever else you may have. Possibly any food as well. For all we know, we're wrong about this…but Daphne's predictions are usually pretty accurate."

"Do you perhaps have any drinks you would be likely to serve to someone else?" Daphne asked. "Like, say, Dumbledore?"

Slughorn's eyes widened. "As a matter of fact, I have," he said.

He rummaged around in a cabinet and brought over a bottle.

"The finest oak-ripened mead," he said. "I was going to give it to Dumbledore for Christmas, but I forgot. Shame, really, I bought it months ago."

"So Draco Malfoy didn't give you that when he crashed the party?" Harry asked, dropping all pretense about not knowing the culprit.

"Malfoy? No, no…I've heard the rumors of course…what with– Merlin's beard!" Slughorn suddenly exclaimed, looking at the bottle in his hand like it might explode.

"What's wrong, sir?" Harry asked.

"I bought this bottle from Rosmerta," Slughorn said. "Shortly after the start of term, but she might have been under the Imperius Curse even then…"

Daphne, Harry, and the others exchanged worried glances while Slughorn pulled out a beaker and poured some of the mead into it. He waved his wand over it and muttered an incantation.

"Oh…oh no," he said, his round face paling.

He turned back to Harry and the others.

"There is an extremely potent poison in this mead. It would've incapacitated the victim in seconds and killed them within minutes. I…I don't know for whom it was meant; I had originally purchased it for myself to enjoy, but as I never got around to drinking it, I decided it might make a good Christmas present."

He looked highly distraught. "Well…you've certainly saved me from a nasty situation, and possibly Professor Dumbledore as well. I'd say this warrants a good deal of points for all of you…" he said, still out of sorts by discovering his mead had been poisoned. "If you will excuse me now, however, I fear I must check if my other bottles and delicacies are compromised as well…"

Harry nodded, and the group left the room.

"This doesn't make any sense," Harry said. "If Slughorn bought that bottle months ago, it can't be Malfoy's second attempt…"

"Well," Daphne said, "what if he didn't sneak into that party to plant the bottle, but to steal it? He might have decided he wanted Dumbledore dead more than Slughorn."

Harry frowned. "Maybe," he conceded. "But that does make me wonder what he'll attempt next, because this plan had even less chance of success than the last one. Well, actually, it might have worked just fine on Slughorn, if Slughorn was a target. He just got unlucky…"

His eyes widened. "Luck!" he said. "Maybe I can use the Felix Felicis to get that memory from Slughorn!"

"Is that really what you want to use it for, though?" Ron asked.

"Not really," Harry admitted. "But Dumbledore said obtaining that memory is of the greatest importance, so if that isn't worth using some luck for, I don't know what is. Besides, I could simply drink only a bit of it. I probably won't need twelve hours of luck for it… But I'm not going to do it today. And I want to give it at least one try without the potion, first."

"Well, we'd better get to the common room," Hermione said. "It's getting late."

"You guys go ahead," Ginny said. "I think I'll try getting lucky some other way in the Room of Requirement."

She grinned at Daphne, who felt her face heating up. In the commotion, she'd nearly forgotten that she and Ginny still had a second part of their date to look forward to.

Ron now looked like he'd taken a swig of Slughorn's poisoned mead after all and Ginny smiled brightly at him.

"See you guys tomorrow," she said, kissing Harry goodnight. Daphne did the same.

"Have fun," Harry said with a grin.

"We will," Daphne replied. She felt she was still blushing furiously.

Daphne and Ginny made their way up to the Room of Requirement, which had become the cozy, neutral-looking common room again.

Daphne felt strangely nervous. After the first time, she'd been here a few more times with Harry, but this was the first time with Ginny. It would surely be very different, but by how much?

Just like she'd done with Harry, she went to take a shower first, and — though she knew she'd be taking it off later — put on her nightshirt. Maybe it was stupid, but since this was a first time she wanted it to be slow and gradual. Ginny, evidently, felt the same, and some time later they were both in the bed, cuddled up close together.

"D'you think this is going to be a tradition on dates of yours?" Ginny asked. "Someone nearly being assassinated, I mean."

Daphne chuckled. "I don't know. I guess the only way to find out is to have more dates…"

"Oh, so you do want more of them?" Ginny asked with a grin.

"Well, the first part was a lot of fun…now let's see if that keeps up…"

This chapter was a bit of a pain to write, because so little of what happens in the book is useful to me. Since I'm under a massive time crunch, that doesn't make things easy. Oh well, I think I've done a fairly decent job, in the end.