Chapter Thirty-Seven: Problems with Potions
Raiden smirked as he made his way to Potions class. It was about three quarters of the way through the year and he had finally got Professor Slughorn off his back. Sluggy, as he was known hadn't left him alone until Raiden had informed him quite bluntly that he hated people trying to use him to make themselves famous. That had shut Sluggy up quite nicely.
The young Dark Lord's lip curled in a sneer as he saw Ron Weasley sitting next to Hermione. The youngest Weasley boy had made it into NEWT potions only because Slughorn had less strict standards than Snape had had. Raiden would have been fine as he'd got an O on the OWLs, as had all of the Avengers, and under Snape, only the students with O grades in Potions would have been admitted. Under Slughorn however, anyone with an E or up could take the course.
Raiden sat with Daphne, just behind Ron and Hermione so that they could keep an eye on Ron. They knew that Hermione would be fine but they weren't going to risk him slipping something into Hermione's potion just to ruin it. It would be just like him, as he was insanely jealous of Hermione's ability to make almost any potion flawlessly the first time round.
Just as the last students were sitting down Slughorn entered the room and closed the door. "Settle down everyone" he said calmly. The sixth years looked at each other but stopped talking. Slughorn looked round and saw that they all had their books out. Ron had had to borrow one of the old ones at the start of the year and had not replaced it yet.
"Today you will all be making the Draught of Living Death. The person that makes the best attempt will win this tiny bottle of Felix Felicis potion. Can anyone tell me what that is?" Slughorn asked expectantly. Raiden and Daphne looked at each other and shrugged while Hermione as usual put her hand up.
"It's a luck potion professor. It gives you good luck in any situation that you use it but its effects are temporary."
Slughorn nodded. "Very good. Ten points to Ravenclaw. Everyone gather the ingredients for the Draught of Living Death, you will all be making this potion separately. Quickly now."
Daphne went up to gather the ingredients for both her and Raiden. He in turn, set up both their workstations how they liked them. As she came back she was frowning.
"Keep an eye on the Weasel. He picked up an ingredient that wasn't part of the list. It could be potentially problematic" she murmured as they began. Raiden nodded as he set up his potion base and got it simmering. At the halfway stage he frowned as he came to the sophoporous beans. He remembered Snape saying something about this potion, and how to get the best results. What was it?
Looking round he saw Daphne following the instructions which said to cut up the beans to release the juice and it triggered a memory.
"Crush the beans with the flat side of the knife as it releases the juice better" Snape had said in a lecture last year. Raiden smirked and followed the memory, only to gape at the amount of juice the small beans produced. He gathered it up and put in his potion, smiling as it turned the light shade of lilac that the book said it should be.
He felt someone watching him and looked up. Hermione was glaring at him and he noticed that her potion was still deep purple, as was Daphne's. Shrugging, he returned his attention to his potion.
Once it was finished he bottled it and looked round at the other students' attempts. Most were OK, but his looked to be about the best. He had looked up the Draught of Living Death after Snape's lecture the year before and had discovered something else that he'd used in the potion today. Snape had mentioned that the potion was better made if the brewer added one clockwise stir after every seven counterclockwise stirs until the potion turned clear like water.
Raiden smiled in satisfaction. His was the clearest in the class, even Hermione and Daphne's weren't as good as theirs were still purple. Slughorn was going round the class inspecting the results and when he got to Raiden's he grinned.
"We have a winner class. Here you go Mr Potter, one bottle of Felix Felicis, good for twelve hours of luck. Use it well."
Ron was fuming with jealousy. His potion looked like liquid liquorice, and he wasn't happy. Carefully he picked up the extra ingredient he'd collected at the start of the class and threw it into Raiden's cauldron which was still bubbling softly as it cooled down.
The effect was instantaneous. The cauldron exploded, throwing Raiden and Daphne all the way to the back of the class, where they slammed against the wall with a dull thud. As the class looked on in horror, Daphne groaned and tried to sit up. Raiden, who had thrown himself in front of Daphne in an effort to protect her, wasn't moving at all. He had been drenched in his potion and was completely unresponsive.
Professor Slughorn was not happy. He dashed over to Raiden and Daphne and checked them thoroughly. "Take both of them to the hospital wing. Tell Professor Snape what happened, and Madam Pomfrey. Move, now!"
The Avengers leapt into action, Draco levitating Raiden while Hermione levitated Daphne. Blaise followed behind them, while the rest of the Slytherins formed a sort of guard as they headed to the hospital wing. As they left they could hear Slughorn yelling himself hoarse at Ron, and promising all sorts of horrible punishments.
Madam Pomfrey was in her office when the Avengers burst into the infirmary, levitating Daphne and Raiden with them. The two unfortunate students were placed on beds next to each other and the other Avengers, plus the rest of the sixth year Slytherins sat near them.
Pomfrey ran her wand over both Raiden and Daphne and scowled. "What happened? Miss Greengrass is concussed, as well as having a fractured arm and bruised ribs. Mr Potter is more seriously hurt. He has several broken ribs, a broken arm and burns from an explosion. He is also not responding to anything I do."
Snape had arrived during this little speech and he was scowling as well. "That list is fairly extensive Poppy. Do we know what happened?"
Hermione spoke up then, seeing that the Slytherins were too focused on Raiden and Daphne to answer. "We were brewing the Draught of Living Death, and the person with the best attempt at it would win a small bottle of Felix Felicis potion. Harry's was the best, and he was just putting the potion in his bag when Ron Weasley dropped something in his cauldron. I don't know what ingredient it was, only that it wasn't part of the ingredient list for the Draught and then his cauldron blew up."
"Harry put himself in between Daphne and the cauldron, taking the full blast while shielding her. Most of the breaks and other things would have come from their impact with the back wall. They left a nice dent in it" Draco commented.
Snape frowned. "Draught of Living Death, was it not finished?"
"No sir. We got it as close as possible in an hour. Harry's was a light pink, almost clear. It was still bubbling softly, cooling down as the flame was off. Will they recover?" Blaise asked in a strained voice.
Snape looked as his students, and then at Hermione, who, while not being a Slytherin, was sort of an honorary one as she was in and out of their common room all the time. His expression softened slightly as he replied, "I will do my best to help cure them. The antidote to the Draught of Living Death is complex, and when you factor in the added ingredient that made it explode, as well as the potion's not quite finished status, you have a problem. Nevertheless, Mr Potter is in no real danger, the potion will keep him in a sort of stasis for a while, until I come up with an antidote. Now, I know you're all worried but you need to go to whatever class you have next. I'm sure that Madam Pomfrey would like some peace and quiet to tend to her patients."
The Slytherins all grumbled at leaving their friends but obediently left as soon as Snape glared at them. The Slytherin Head of House followed them out, intent on talking to both Professor Slughorn and Professor McGonagall, to find out what Ron had thrown in Raiden's cauldron. He would then add his own punishment onto whatever Slughorn and McGonagall had imposed.
In Riddle Manor Voldemort was hissing in pain, as he struggled to make sense of why his bond with Raiden had flared with pain and had then become muted somehow, as though Raiden was half there and half not. He downed a pain relief potion and then grabbed some parchment. A minute or two later and a black owl took wing, flying at top speed to Hogwarts.
Snape was busy with the antidote to Raiden's accidental drenching when the owl came down the special mail chute. He opened it and paled before writing a hasty reply and tossing the owl back up the chute again. He turned back to the potion; it would not look good if Raiden wasn't home during the holidays. The Dark Lord would not be pleased.
Ron was not having a good time of it. He'd been yelled at by Professors Slughorn, McGonagall and Snape, been treated to a Howler from his mother, the Gryffindors were shocked and upset and the Slytherins were being downright vicious towards him.
'All because I almost killed their precious Chosen One' Ron growled to himself as he made his way up to Gryffindor Tower after his latest detention with Filch. He looked at the pile of homework on his bedside table and shook his head. He was too tired to do it then, maybe later…. He was asleep the moment his head hit his pillow.
Raiden was still asleep in the infirmary. Daphne had recovered in a few days and now spent every free moment by his bed. The rest of the Avengers joined her at various times, helping her with homework and other things. They were all trusting that Snape could come through with a cure fast. Raiden wouldn't like being stuck in the infirmary for long.
A week after the accident, the Avengers were all present in the hospital wing as Madam Pomfrey gave Raiden the antidote. A few minutes passed and then Raiden gasped for air for a couple of seconds until his breathing evened out. Once he'd recovered, he looked round and smiled. "Hi guys" he said with a small smile.
That was all it took as Daphne flung herself at him and hugged him tightly, sobbing into his shoulder. The startled and vaguely panicked look on Raiden's face had the other males in the room smirking while Hermione was trying to pry Daphne off her boyfriend long enough for Hermione to have a go at hugging him to death too.
Once everyone had calmed down Raiden looked at Snape and asked calmly, "So what happened while I was sleeping?" Snape smirked and replied "Not much. You have some homework to make up, which I'm sure your friends will help with, and Ronald Weasley has been given detention for the rest of the year, to be served with either me or Filch. I did push for his expulsion but the headmaster overruled me on that."
Raiden scowled. "Of course, he always favors his pet Gryffies" he said bitterly. "If it had been one of us we would have been expelled." Snape nodded curtly.
"I agree Mr Potter. A similar situation occurred when I was at school here, and the Gryffindors involved got let off lightly too."
At the interested looks on his students' faces Snape elaborated. "Mr Potter's godfather, Sirius Black thought it would be a funny idea to send me down that secret passage under the Whomping Willow on a full moon. Remus Lupin, who was one of Black's friends, is as you know, a werewolf. I didn't know this at the time, nor did I know that that passage led to his hiding place where he transformed. If it weren't for James Potter I would be dead."
There was dead silence as Raiden tried to digest the fact that his godfather had apparently tried to murder his head of house while they were students. "Didn't he know that if his little joke had succeeded that Remus would have been executed?"
Snape shook his head. "Your godfather, Mr Potter, wasn't one to think things through. I do know that Lupin and your father didn't speak to him for months afterwards, but the point of this little story is that I was given a detention for being out after curfew while they just had points taken off. Never mind the fact that I almost died!"
Raiden shook his head. "It's no wonder you hate Sirius. Is that why you were prepared to hate me back in first year Professor? Because I reminded you too much of my father?"
Snape nodded. "I'm not proud of it but that is the reason. I don't hate you though; the only thing you share with your father now is a physical resemblance, although you do still have some quite odd notions of decency and honor that are pure Gryffindor."
Raiden smirked. "I like you too Professor. Now, how much time do I have to make up my work and can I do it back in the common room?"
Snape smirked back and replied, "That is up to Madam Pomfrey Potter, even I'm not allowed to overrule her in matters of student health." He was very amused to see Raiden promptly start pleading with the nurse to be let out. The Avengers all added their pleas as well, and finally Raiden was allowed out, under strict supervision from his friends.
As soon as they got back to the common room Raiden pulled his pile of missed work towards him and picked up a quill. "Right. Who's going to help me with that essay that McGonagall assigned on Tuesday?"
The Avengers all looked at each other and shook their heads. Only Raiden could want to start homework immediately after returning from the infirmary. Upon seeing an annoyed scowl being directed at them though, they sighed and began helping him catch up.
Author Note: Hello everyone, yes I'm finally getting around to reposting the rest of Dark Apprentice. Thank you for being so patient while I sorted out my real life issues. Work has been extremely busy lately, and add in the fact that I've been catching up on a lot of study as well and I have had literally no time to write much less update anything. Still, hopefully I've organised things enough that I can study and still write and update.
Hope everyone had a good Easter
Padawan Lynne