Hello, it's Astig here, sorry about the wait, I was trying to get it as Canon as possible without the books. It has been a busy/scary week spending a couple of days in hospital with dehydration (from the flu) and from a bad reaction to a new drug… but all good now – can breath on my own and all… hope you enjoy, I have almost finished the next chapter so it should be up in a few days… Potterverse is not mine :)
Cauldron Babies
Chapter Two: The potion
"Everyone sit down and put your text books away!" Professor Snape growled.
Hermione looked up surprised as she had not heard Professor Snape enter, quickly putting aside her text book she was ready to begin as Professor Snape started to lecture with distain.
"Today we will be brewing a new potion that the M.O.M. has given me. If you have been paying attention to what has been happening lately you would be aware about the new law they are currently trying to pass. The idiots in the Potion Department at the M.O.M. were unable to complete this project within the set time period. You will be brewing the stage 4 'Partum Novus Vita' potion. This potion is intended to ensure pregnancy…" at the sound of a gasp Professor Snape turned to Miss Terpin and Miss Brocklehurst in time to see the looks of shock and distress on their faces.
"Miss Terpin, Miss Brocklehurst, do not be complete dunderheads. As I stated, the M.O.M. were unable to complete this task. They have been able to achieve fertilization of the embryo but have been unable to finish the process with the embryo attaching with the uterus wall. We would not want you to actually get pregnant… dunderheads having dunderheads, what is the Ministry thinking?"
Snape was defiantly in a bad mood, he had been notified by Professor Dumbledore the night before about the M.O.M. request for him to complete the project (which in itself was acceptable). The problems Severus had with the potion were that Professor Dumbledore thought it be a wonderful idea if the 7th year advanced class could complete the potion as it was – thus changing his plans for the next day and this would mean a significant increase of dunderheads that would enter Hogwarts to be taught through the help of this new potion and law in the next 11 -12 years. You would think that the Ministry would give those teaching a break after the war. He hoped to have finished teaching in the next 11 years so he would not have to teach these dunderheads.
Hermione was ecstatic about this opportunity they would have to brew this potion. As she looked up at the board at the ingredients and the list of instructions she realized it was a little bit like polyjuice potion the golden trio had brewed in 2nd year, only… 'Wait, I remember reading that you need 3 leeches per lacewing flies for the 'Partum Novus Vita' potion to grow permanent bones. Through experiments they had determines that without the correct ratio bone density I not stable, causing bone deterioration… I wonder…
With this in mind Hermione raised her hand to ask Professor Snape about this theory of hers. As Professor Snape saw her raised hand he growled "Not now Miss Granger" and continued to lecture about the potion.
"Now you all need to play close attention while brewing this potion. At the end of class you will each be testing your own potion. At that time I will give you the spell which will determine your grade for this class. You need at least a medium yellow glow of light to get a passing grade. Any other color and you will fail." Upon seeing Draco with his hand raised he nodded.
"Professor Snape, what does the yellow light mean Sir?"
"the yellow indicates that the potion has combined the female and male DNA to create a fertilized embryo Mr. Malfoy. Class, you may now get your ingredients and start. You have the next 80 minutes [of a double potions /2 hour class] to complete this potion." He looked around and saw that Miss Granger had raised her hand again. "Miss Granger, put your hand down, stop asking questions and keep quiet."
Seeing that all of the dunderheads he sometimes called students continued to sit and look at him he yelled "GO!" As the students got up to gather ingredients for their potions they slowly realized they were missing 2 very vital ingredients – hair.
As Terry Boot realized this he raised his hand and asked "Professor Snape, where would you like us to get the hair sir?" looking around the potions lab he saw Hermione sitting down at her desk still thinking.
Professor Snape just glared at him and told them "look around yourself, each use your own hair and then get some from the opposite sex. Misters Malfoy and Zabini, did you get the message I sent you this morning?" they both nodded again "so… get to it."
Hermione had been sitting there thinking about her theory about the potion. That if she put in three leeches in instead of just the two she would be able to get a better potion. Realizing that Professor Snape would not let her ask a question, let alone answer it Hermione determined that she would change the potion, and just hope that the cauldron would not blow up and kill everyone. Looking around she realized that Draco and Blaise had already started to prepare their ingredients while Lisa and Mandy looked like they had just finished gathering theirs and were about to move back to their table as Hermione stood up to go and get the required ingredients needed for her own potion with the additional leech.
Once she had completed this Hermione walked back to place everything on her desk before walking over to Terry Boot to ask for a strand of hair. "Terry may I please have a…"
"Miss Granger you have had plenty of time to get all of your ingredients. Sit down, be quiet and get started now before I start taking points."
"Yes Sir" Hermione said quietly before going back to her desk and turning around to Draco and Blaise to ask for some hair.
"Blaise, Draco, I still need some hair, can I get some off one of you?" Hermione asked quietly.
Draco smirked at the thought of Hermione failing this potion and replied, "Voldemort may have died but it does not mean that I would be willing to share blood with you Granger." Frowning she looked over at Blaise and saw him shaking his head too.
"Miss Granger, I warned you 50 points for talking in class, and detention, see me after class about the time.
Hermione couldn't believe it, that because she was unable to get male hair she would get a failing grade and she had detention. As she started to prepare the ingredients and to boil the water [2 cups] she started to think how she could get the hair. Terry was too far away and Draco and Blaise had already said no, but the only other male in the room was Professor Snape…. Wait, Professor Snape. Yes Professor Snape, he would never find out about it because the potion wouldn't work. Excellent. Now she just had to figure out how to get some of his hair in the next 30 – 40 minutes… Oh, the water has boiled, now to get started making the base of the potion…
25 minutes later Hermione was nervous, she had just added in the 3 leeches into the potion, and so far so good – well, at least it had not blown up yet, but she was going to have a bigger problem soon. She needed to get that hair. The potion now had to simmer for 15 minutes before adding the final ingredients to the potion. Hermione had caught up with the rest of the class, being faster in preparing her ingredients, and within minutes of each other all 7 students were sitting down to finish writing down the notes and instruction from the board before starting to work on their homework assignment as they waited for their potions to finish.
Hermione looked up and smiled. She had an idea. Professor Snape had started to make his rounds around the lab and was currently walking towards Draco and Blaise who were seated at the table in front of her. As he stood there talking to them Hermione pulled out her wand of her bag and she got ready, she just had to wait for the perfect moment. 'Steady hands, it would be slightly bad if I missed and severed his face instead of his hair. No, rephrase that – I would only be slightly dead if I cut him while I do this…' Hermione keep her face towards her parchment as she wrote down the homework assignment. 'Steady hands Hermione'.
As Professor Snape moved in front of Hermione she had her wand ready, and a quick severing charm later Hermione had male hair; and just in time too, 4 minutes till it was needed in the potion. 'That was close, did he hear me? He looked up when I spoke; hopefully he thinks I was just muttering to myself. I almost had a heart attack there… I hope this works'. Looking up she saw Professor Snape had moved away from their said of the room and as currently looming over Padma and Terry's table. After looking at the progress of all the students he moved back to his desk – one of the blessings of advanced potions, the students knew enough about the art of potion making to not kill themselves over a simple potion.
'Finally,' Hermione thought as she added the hair to her potion, the potion could now be taken from the heat and bottled. She glanced up at Professor Snape as he appeared to be marking assignments and rubbing his forehead. 'He must be getting another headache, well, I am glad class is almost over.'
(Professor Snape was actually reading over the notes he had received about the 'Partum Novus Vita' potion from the M.O.M. while correcting the obvious mistakes they had made in the potion ~ 'complete dunderheads, I am relived that I did not teach any of them, the shame.')
Hermione was bottling up her potion as Professor Snape announced to the class, "You now have 2 minutes to complete and bottle up your potions." She was pleased to have her potion completed. The colour was a little off, but that could be explain by the changes she had made to the potion, looking around the room she realized that she must have been daydreaming for a little while as they were all waiting for her in the front of the room.
"Miss Granger, when you are ready. It is a pity that Mr. Longbottom is not in this class, he might have incorrectly brewed a working potion, although with his history he would have probably blown up the cauldron and killed us all in the process."
Hermione went up to the front of the room, standing at the end of the line beside Padma as she wanted to explain the changes she had made before she drunk the potion.
"The spell I will be using class is 'Deprehensio Vita' which means detect life, this spell will allow us to know if the potion had created a living embryo. Remember you need a yellow light of at least medium brightness to pass today."
As Professor Snape went down the line telling each student to drink their potion before performing the spell on them Hermione looked on, so far everyone had passed, although Lisa Turpin had only just, "Miss Patil, your have passed," it was now Hermione's turn.
Hermione was not looking forward to informing the Professor that she had decided to modify her potion on purpose. She knew she was looking at another detention or, if she was lucky, just points taken off, but she didn't want to poison herself either.
"Professor Snape, about my potion, I realized that…"
"Stop wasting my time Miss Granger and drink your potion now! The colour looks a little off," Snape replied with a smirk on his face, "shall we see if you have continued with your know-it-all tendencies or if you have failed."
"But, Professor Snape, I…."
"Stop your consent chattering Miss Granger and drink your potion or you will get a failing grade."
"Yes Sir," Hermione replied as she brought the test tube to her mouth to drink it. She looked up into her Professor eyes before drinking it all in one mouthful. 'Well, at least it taste a lot better that polyjuice potion and it has not killed me yet, mmm I might get away with this yet.'
Pointing his wand to Hermione's abdomen Professor Snape cast the spell "Deprehensio Vita" while performing a complicated wand movement. Looking down expecting to see a yellow light she was shocked to see a purple light.
"Professor?" Hermione said uncertainly looking up into his eyes again, trying to gage his reaction to this new development.
"Miss Granger, what have you done to your potion?"
"I changed it Sir, I tried to tell you" Hermione said looking down at her shoes.
"Get your bag Miss Granger; you are going to see the Headmaster."
As Hermione picked up a strap of her bag she felt Professor Snape grasp her arm and drag her out of the room towards the Headmaster. As he was about to leave the room he growled "class, clean this room then you will leave."
Partum Novus Vita: (latin) Create new life
Deprehensio Vita: (latin) Detect life
From chapter 1. Tutela Superne: (latin) Protection from above
Polyjuice potion ingredients: COS p124