Chapter 9

After a fitful nights sleep, Tom got out of bed and got ready for his first day of sixth year classes.

After a quick shower and dressing, Tom was ready by seven. He preferred getting up early in the morning. That way he could at least eat his breakfast in peace, without having to put up with a sleep deprived Abraxes.

After checking to make sure he had everything he needed for this morning's class, Double Newt Level Potions, Tom left his dormitories.

It wasn't a long journey from the dungeons to the great hall. So Tom got there in only a few minutes.

Upon entering, Tom gladly noticed that there was only a few people there this morning. A few first years from each house, a couple of second, third and forth years, no fith years, and only two sixth and seventh years - the two sixth years being himself and the Gryffindor prefect, McGonagall, and the two heads from Slytherin and Ravenclaw.

This suited Tom just nicely.

Walking gracefully, he went to his usual seat at the far end of the Slytherin table.

Placing the usual fry-up on his plate, Tom began to eat his breakfast.

However, he was annoyingly interrupted by a poke of a finger on his right shoulder. Swallowing, he turned around ready to snap at the person. Yet to his further annoyance, he was faced with McGonagall.

"Minnie." He greeted, making sure to emphasize his usage of her nickname that he knew only her friends used.

Glaring at him, McGonagall shoved a piece of parchment in his hands before stomping off.

Raising his eyebrows mockingly to her back, he unfolded the parchment. He sighed, when he realised it was only his prefect timetable.

Great. He thought, sarcastically, when he saw he had rounds to do late this evening.

Shoving the timetable in his pocket and finishing off his food, Tom stood to leave and head to the Potions room. More and more people were starting to file in, and there was still only about half an hour left before classes started, but Slughorn had asked to have a word with him about something before classes.

He already had a feeling about what he was going to be asked. Probably something to do with the Slug Club.

Tom began to set up his things for class, as he sat down at his bench at the back of the room.

Yep. He was right. Slughorn had started to talk to him about his precious club the minute he walked through the doors.

He was going to be throughing a big welcome party at the end of the month and he wanted to make sure that Tom would be able to come.

Tom had to say that it could sometimes be difficult trying to keep up the charming facade around such a walrus, but he bit back on his sarcasm none-the-less.

It was five minutes before class started, and now people were beginning to show up. Gryffindors and Slytherins. Gryffindors to the right and Slytherins to the left. There wasn't really that many people, mainly because not a lot of people had had the brains to pass Potions.

His mood turned a lot more cold when he saw her walk in the room.

Great! Just what I needed! He thought annoyed.

Granger and McGonagall walked in the room with beaming smiles on their faces. Judging by the shade of red, they had not long since stopped laughing.

He had to wonder now, where Abraxes was. He should of at least been here by now.

The bell rang, indicating the start of class.

Slughorn began the usual speech. "Good morning sixth years! I'm sure you all had an excellent, well revised, summer."

A few murmers were heard around the room. Slughorn just continued to smile. "Thought so. Now! Today I thought we wou-"

Suddenly the door banged open and in came a panting, Abraxes Malfoy. "S-sorry, sir! I... er... got held back by so-some...er ... things."

"Very well. Just don't let it happen again! I'd hate to take points off of my own house on their first day of classes." Slughorn exclaimed.

Abraxes nodded and walked over towards his seat next to Tom.

"Well? What the hell was that about?" Tom whispered dangerously to the Malfoy, who grimaced.

"I... er... would it be okay if I told you after class?" Abraxes asked. Tom nodded in answer. Besides, Abraxes' problems didn't really bother Tom, he just wanted a quick and short, truthful exclamation.

"Right! Now, where was I... Oh yes! Of course! Because of the summer holidays and everything, I thought it best that I give you a small test to check your memory from the past few years, and then after that, you will be given a list of potions to choose from, then you will go off and complete your chosen potion. I shall grade all these, and they should be able to give me a fair insight as to where I will need to start from this year."

Saying that, Slughorn used his wand, and pieces of parchment was given out to everyone, and questions began to appear on the board. He remained oblivious to the loud groans coming from most people in the class.

Tom had to stop himself from scoffing at the sight of questions on the board. They were easy! and there was only ten of them.

It only took about ten minutes to finish the questions in proper detail.

Putting his answers to the side and out of Malfoy's sight, who's eyes seemed to continually shift towards his paper's direction, Tom then picked up the list of potions.

Potions -

Veritaserum

Amortentia

First stages of Polyjuice Potion

Draught of Living Death... ect

Tom crossed out 'Amortentia' and 'Draught of Living Death' at first glance. Amortentia was pointless, in his opinion, and the Draught of Living Death instructions were just too dodgy. Even for him.

The entire list didn't really interest him. He settled for 'Veritaserum'. That way he might even sneak a bottle away with him.

He heard a snort come from across the room as he stood up. He looked across to see that it came from Granger. She rose from her seat also. He noticed that Minerva was looking at her strangly with raised eye brows.

He turned away to head to the supply shelves. Once he had most of his ingrediants he turned head back to his table, when he knocked into something, causing him to drop most of the stuff.

But no crash came. He looked up to see that he had accidentally bumped into Granger, and she had managed to catch his supplies, inches from the ground, via wand.

"Ahh, I see you've chosen to do Veritaserum." She stated, after taking a look at the ingredients.

Tom bent down and picked up his things. When he stood back up to somewhat sneer at her, she had already went past him to retrieve her own things. He took a quick moment to look at the things she was collecting. It only took a few seconds to realise she was going to be trying the Draught of Living Death.

She obviously hasn't tried out the potion before. He thought, knowing that it was a difficult potion to complete using the instructions given in the Potions book.

He then went back to his table to start on is own potion.

"Oh my god you are serious?" Minerva asked Hermione as she sat down at her desk, with her ingredients.

"Yes, I am." Hermione claimed getting her things ready.

What Minerva didn't know was that Hermione didn't plan on using the book's instructions. She learnt that lesson the first time. No, this time she planned on using the half blood prince's instructions. Hermione had made note to read that book inside out as soon as she could get it off Harry. There was still a few things in there that she wanted to try.

Now, lets see if my memory is still up to scratch.

After about ten minutes, Hermione's potion had reached it's 'smooth blackcurrent-coloured liquid.'

Hermione closed her eyes and tried to remember what you had to do next. Smiling at the remembrance, she got her Sopophorous Bean and crushed it with the flat side of her silver dagger, satisfied when it spurted out plenty of juice. She scooped it up and added it to her potion. Next she began to stir counter-clockwise adding in a clockwise stir at every seventh counter-clockwise turn.

When Hermione's potion began to turn as clear as water, she then understood how Harry must have felt at getting it right. When she was sure the potion was ready, Hermione got a flask and ladle, and put some inside, then sealed it with a cork. She wrote on a label her name and the potion, then stuck it on the flask.

She couldn't resist it, however. Looking over she made sure that Minnie wasn't doing anything too vital, then gave her a slight nudge. "Psst. Minnie." Hermione whispered in her friends left ear. When Minnie looked over at her questioningly, Hermione gave a slight nod of her head in her potion's direction.

Minerva's jaw instantly dropped to the floor. Smirking, Hermione stood up and walked over to Slughorn's desk where he was writing down some things. Placing her paper in front of him and her potion on his desk, she walked back to her own and started clearing away.

Tom had just finished adding his last ingrediant to his potion and was now stirring it clockwise until it turned as clear as water. While stirring, he looked up to see that everyone was still working on their potions. It didn't really surprise him. He, afterall, was always the first one finished.

He looked back down at his potion and saw that it now resembled water. Just to make sure, he bent over his cauldron and gave it a quick sniff. Afterall, it was supposed to be orderless. Happy with his completed potion, Tom flasked and labeled it.

Then, making sure nobody was looking, he brought out his own flask - one of many he had bought and Diagon Alley - and scooped some in there also, corked it, then out it into his pocket.

He stood and picked up his question answers and potion, and walked up to Slughorn's desk.

However, about half way there he noticed that Slughorn had his mouth wide open and was staring at a potion in another flask.

When he got past the front bench, he saw that Granger was no longer working on a potion, but instead was reading her Charms book.

Looking back towards Slughorn, Tom reached his desk. He placed his completed answer sheet and put his potion on the desk. To his annoyance, Slughorn didn't even acknowledge him what-so-ever, and just continued to gape at the potion. Tom swiftly turned on his heels and walked back to his own desk.

He tried not to show how not finishing first as usual bugged him, or the fact that Granger had managed to brew a perfect potion - a potion he hadn't even been able to perfect - thouroughly pissed him off.

"Miss Granger? Would you kindly wait behind for a few minutes before heading off to lunch?" Professor Slughorn asked Hermione as she packed away her Charms book.

Hermione tried not to outwardly groan or show her destaste for what she knew was about to be asked.

Slug Club.

Hermione walked up to his desk at took the seat opposite him. Not a second later, and he began his speech.

"Miss Granger. Never in all my years as a potions master at this school have I seen any sixth year student able to complete such a complex potion to such high standards. Yet, I know for a fact that this potion is practically impossible to do, by following the instructions in this book." He held up the potions book, then put it back down. "So you obviously have a maraculous talent in potions, my dear. And! You scored full marks on your question paper."

Now he leaned forward on his desk. "That being said, the actual reason I asked you to stay behind is that, after seeing such skills, I was wondering if you would like to be part of a very special club of mine. It comes together every so often in the form of parties, where you can get together with other students and a few of my very good, high ranking friends."

Hermione's eye brows raised as she noticed his emphasis on 'high ranking'.

"And what club would this be, professor?" Hermione asked, faining interest.

"Why the Slug Club of course!" he beamed, spreading his arms out. "I am having the first meeting, shall we say, in just two weeks time, and I would be very happy if you would attend. I'm sure there would be a lot of people just dying to meet such a talented young lady."

He sure as hell knows how to suck up, I'll give him that. Hermione thought. Sighing, she said, "Very well, professor."

If at all possible, Slughorn's smile widened, and Hermione tried not to cringe.

"Excellent! You are welcome to bring a friend along with you if you'd like." He said while they got up and began walking to the door. "Or, in your case, a date perhaps?"

Hermione gave out a small laugh, trying not to show how uncomfortable it was beginning to turn.

"If you'd like I'm sure I could arrange for one of my top stu-"

"Thank you, proffesor!" Hermione quickly interrupted, when she saw where he was going to go with that particular sentence. "And I'm sure that if I cannot find someone by the end of the month then I will gladly bring Minerva along with me."

Which is exactly what she planned to do.

As soon as Tom and Abraxes were out of people's sight, Abraxes let out a painful groan and had his hands holding his crotch.

Tom raised his eye brows at the sight, although he was still angry about potions, this definitely caught his interest. That groan sounded as if it had been supressed for a while now. He looked at Abraxes expectantly.

"Before I explain, Tom could you please send a numbing charm towards my...well, you know." Abraxes practically begged.

Rolling his eyes, Tom quickly did the charm, then crossed his arms and lent against the wall in the empty hallway they were now occupying. "Well?"

"Well, I...eh..." Abraxes gave out a small nervous cough, "I...er... well, this morning after breakfast, you know that, er...new girl? whats her face... Ranger? Oh well, something like that," He waved the question away with his hand, "Anyways, I caught up with her on the way to potions this morning, once I realised that was where she was going. I just ignored McGonagall and offered to walk her to class. She seemed alright about it. So we walked. Then I...er... began to...pursue her, shall I say, and I must of said something wrong, cause after that I felt... well... I th-think she sent a ...er...a stinging hex at my ... well...you can pretty much guess where. And then they walked off and LEFT me! and for some god awful reason, no matter what I do, the pain wont go away!"

Tom tried his hardest not to laugh out loud. He could only ponder the amount of wrong things Malfoy would have said.

Tom settled for a cough. "Not that this hasn't been the most interesting conversation to have, but I would much rather have lunch before we head off to 'Care for Magical Creatures'."

"As much as I'd rather not, seen as it is you're first year here... I'll come with you." Minerva finally concluded to Hermione, as they walked down towards the edges of the Forbidden Forest.

Hermione beamed at her friend and gave her a quick hug in thanks. "Thank you so much, Minnie! The last thing I wanted was Slughorn making me a date!"

Minnie just snorted. "God! Imagine who he would of partnered you with! eh? It probably would have been Riddle." Minnie grimaced slightly. "The guy may be handsome, but he's also every definition of a snake, bar looks!"

"Not yet anyway." Hermione murmered.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing." Hermione sighed.

Minnie shot Hermione a questioning look, but Hermione just smiled at her and shrugged her shoulders.

Once they reached the gathering of students, they noticed that it was mix of all four houses, which also helped relieve some of the tention that had been present down in the dungeons. After standing and talking for about five minutes, the professor - professor Timmings - started to talk.

"Welcome class." He called out, gathering everyone's attention. "Today, to start off, seen as it's only a single period, I thought I'd let you all do a little bit of exploring." The class began to whisper to each other excitedly. "Ahh... it will be done in pairs, and sorry to burst your bubble, but you will all have to remain on certain grounds." Then came a few groans, causing Timmings to chuckle a bit. "You'll have half an hour to explore, and while you are, I want you to all take notes about what you might see and what is special about them. Clear?"

But by the time he asked 'clear?' everyone had already started to leave.

Typically, Hermione and Minerva went off together.

They were only out for about five minutes, and Hermione now stood stock still. Minerva looked at her friend worriedly, wondering what could be wrong with her. "Hermione?"

Hermione, however, didn't hear her friend call for her. She was too busy staring at the creature a few yards in front of her. The last time she had encountered one of these was when she was made to ride one from Hogwarts to the Ministry in an attempt to save Sirius' life, but was only lead into a trap.

"Sirius..." Hermione choked, but quickly stopped herself from crying at the memory.

Instead she began to walk towards the great beast. It was just like Harry had described it. She still hadn't noticed Minnie's worried glances.

The Thestral looked at her with it's large eyes. Hermione didn't quite know how to get close to one, so she tried bowing to it like Harry had to do with Buckbeak. And to her relief, it bowed back. With a small smile, Hermione went closer to it. Once she was close enough, Hermione reached out her hand and clapped it's large head. Her smile got wider, when it began to lean into her touch.

However, after finally hearing her friend's calls, Hermione turned round and saw Minnie staring at her half worried and half confused. Hermione began to laugh.

"H-Hermione? Is everything alright? What on earth are you doing?" Minnie asked.

"Sorry, Minnie!" Hermione took a few steps in front of the Thestral. "Yes, I'm alright. I take it you've never seen death before, huh?"

Minnie looked slightly taken aback by her bluntness. "Er... no...can't say I have."

"Well, only people that have seen death can see what it is I was just clapping a few moments ago." She smiled wildly, "They're called Thestrals."

Although it still confused her to no end, Minnie gave her a nod of understanding. Then, Minerva McGonagall witnessed something she never thought she'd ever see in her life.

Hermione turned round again to face the Thestral. Yet, to her confusion, it was no longer by her side. She shrugged and made to walk back over to Minnie, when she then heard the sound of hooves on the ground. Eyes widening, she turned round again, to see the Thestral charging towards her with it's head bowed down low.

Hermione hardly got the chance to run when she felt herself being thrown up into the air!

An unearthly scream left her lips, that she was sure the entire school must of heard, when she started to fall back down to earth. But, meters from the ground, she felt herself being caught. Opening her eyes, that she hadn't realised she'd shut, she looked and saw herself on the back of the Thestral.

Quickly, Hermione wrapped her arms around the creatures neck.

Once was bad enough, don't you think?

Hermione didn't know how long she was on for, but after what felt like an hour, Hermione felt herself getting a little bit more confident.

She loosened her grip from the Thestral's neck and looked up some more. Despite her fear of heights, she couldn't stop herself from smiling at the view. They were now flying over the school itself. Doing this just made it look even bigger than she could ever give it credit for.

A mischevous glint came to her eyes, as she thought about the person she'd left behind.

Tom wouldn't be surprised if every being on earth had heard that scream.

He, Abraxes and Maximus had just been walking around a secluded area talking about when they would have their next meeting, when they had heard it. Curiously they ran towards the area they heard it come from.

Except, when they arrived there, all they saw was McGonagall staring around as if something was planning on popping out and scream BOO at her any minute.

Abraxes was the first to speak. "McGonagall? What on earth are you doing?" He ordered.

McGonagall jumped at the sudden noise. She turned round to see the three of them staring at her with both annoyance and confusion. Her face quickly turned to defiance.

Tom could see she was just about to retort, before her face then lost it's colour.

"Hermione! DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!"

Tom spun round, and felt his eyes almost leave their sockets, when he saw the Granger girl flying towards them on the back of a Thestral.

"TO LATE!..." She called back in a sort of sing song voice.

He felt the wind rush past him and then he saw McGonagall being pulled from her spot on the ground and lifted into the air by Granger and the Thestral.

"HERMIONE!" She screamed at the top of her voice.

No sooner was she there, did she disappear again.

R&R