Kolybel'naya

Chapter 09: The Trio

Hermione grimaced when she heard a loud explosion coming from the table next to hers, and only a few minutes later that she had to raise her arm in order to cover her face from the splash of unfinished potion that exploded from Abraxas Malfoy's cauldron. The girl heard Minerva swear out loud and Charlus, after a brief moment of shock, laughing. The Slytherins on the table next to hers were busy doing the same thing as McGonagall: cursing Malfoy in the most varied ways they could think of.

"Mr. Malfoy!" The witch lowered her arm to see Slughorn approaching the table and scowling at the blond boy who was now covered from head to toe in the slimy liquid that was his potion. "What did I say about being gentle when adding the thyme?"

"I did it gently, professor!" the wizard whined, looking down at his now empty cauldron. "At least I thought I was being pretty gentle."

"We can all see your gentleness, Mr. Malfoy. You're lucky this is a harmless little potion, otherwise you'd be responsible for harming at least five of your classmates!"

Hermione looked around. Aside from her and Minerva, who, thanks to the fact of being the closest to their table, had some of the potion on their robes and hair, the other three Slytherins from Abraxas' table were covered with it. Lestrange was still swearing under his breath, wiping the greyish goo from his face; Avery was running his fingers through his dark hair as if trying to get rid of the filth and, then, occupied himself with the task of removing his dirty cloak; and Riddle was quiet, standing next to Malfoy and staring at his cauldron with a serious expression on his face while his usually neatly-combed hair was falling onto his face, sticking to his forehead and falling over his eyes, greasy with the potion. Slughorn was right: had it been another potion, the simple fact of it touching their skins would be enough to send all of them to the Hospital Wing with serious injuries.

"Clean this mess, Mr. Malfoy, and start it all over again," said the teacher, walking away from them, huffing. "Ten points from Slytherin!"

"Great, Abraxas, great!" whispered Lestrange, shaking his hands and making drops of potion fly from it.

"Scourgify." Riddle's voice was almost inaudible when he said the spell that quickly cleaned the four Slytherins. Hermione wasn't surprised to see that its effect didn't extend to her and Minerva, although she knew that, if he wished to do so, Tom could easily help the two of them with cleaning the mess. "Stop whining and go back to work, Canopus."

"Did you just do a wandless Scourgify?" asked Abraxas, looking over to his housemate as if searching for his wand.

"It's a simple spell; it's easy to perform it without a wand."

"Scourgify!" This time it was Minerva's voice that said the incantation and, soon, Hermione felt her face free of the disgusting liquid. The other Gryffindor smiled at her as she put her wand back in her pocket.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome," said McGonagall, going back to stirring her potion. A few minutes later, she looked up, whispering to her housemate. "I really wish I don't end up in Malfoy's group in this project Slughorn is preparing for us."

"Me too." The girl laughed quietly. "Slughorn will be sorting the groups today, right?"

"Exactly. I hope we get into the same group. It would be nice to be with someone who knows how to not blow up a cauldron."

As expected, once everyone finished their potions, (except for Abraxas, who ended up handing in a glass filled with an unfinished potion) Professor Slughorn asked them to stay in the classroom for a few more minutes for him to sort the project's groups and give a potion for each of them. Hermione hoped she would get the Polyjuice Potion... It would be wonderful to work with something she already knew how to prepare, but her hopes were quickly put down when a group of Gryffindor girls ended up getting the said potion. Charlus cursed under his breath as Slughorn informed him that he would be in a group with Walburga Black and Atlas Avery. Septimus ended up with two other Gryffindor boys: Basil Hopkins and George Johnson. Minerva was radiant as she was put in a group with Dorea and Alphard Black who were, according to her, the best Slytherins the house could have.

"Thank Merlin I got a good group," whispered McGongagall as she smiled at Dorea, who was sitting at the other side of the room. "And we got a nice potion too... I mean, the Mandrake Restorative Draught is a good one."

"Yes, you can do a lot of interesting research with that one," said Hermione as she listened to the Potion Master announce another group that would do Veritaserum. "Oh, that one would be nice..."

"Abraxas Malfoy, Tom Riddle and Hermione Elston." The Gryffindor cringed when she heard her name being called along with the Slytherins'. "Amortentia."

"No way." The girl hid her face behind her hands and took a deep breath. "Out of all the potions that we had, how did I end up with the silliest of them all?"

"I bet there are a lot of people who would like to get the Amortentia," said Minerva, trying to comfort her.

"Yes, a bunch of girls who have a crush on a boy who doesn't pay attention to them." Hermione put her hands down and looked over to where Riddle and Malfoy were standing. "And with them."

"Riddle is a good potion maker, at least. He'll make up for Malfoy's lack of aptitude."

"The thing is though, I don't think I'll get along with him..."

"Look," whispered Minerva, making the other girl stare at her. "I say all these things about Riddle but I cannot say he's not good when it comes to school work. Get in a group with him and you'll be in a good group; your project will be great. You just will have to stand a bit of Riddle's fake politeness... But, who knows, maybe he'll be truthfully nice with you!"

Hermione looked at the Slytherin again and noticed that he was now staring at her. She couldn't be sure of what his expression meant, but she knew one thing: he, just like her, didn't seem to be looking forward to the project.

Tom sighed as he stared at Dumbledore, who was walking along the tables, watching his students work with an incredibly silly and useless spell. The boy had already conjured at least ten feathers of various different colours and shapes in the last twenty minutes, but apparently the teacher let his success pass by unnoticed as he tried to help Potter, who seemed to be unable to create a whole feather. He looked over to Avery and Lestrange, who were now busy with playing with the feathers they had conjure and, then, to Abraxas, who was sitting next to him, creating another dark feather with the spell.

"Why don't you try a different one?" asked Riddle, placing his wand on the top of the table, deciding that Dumbledore couldn't complain about him not practicing the spell anymore. "A different feather, I mean."

"How?"

"Just think about a different kind of feather. You're thinking about the ones we use as quills." The Slytherin extended his hand to grab a dark feather that looked exactly like his quill and showed it to the other. "Just think about something different... A different colour or shape."

Malfoy didn't say anything. He simply stared at his wand, his brows furrowing as he seemed to be thinking about what his housemate had just said. Tom kept himself from rolling his eyes... How could someone have so much difficulty with imagining a feather?

"Penappareo!" Abraxas whispered and, to Riddle's surprise, a long, white feather appeared from his wand. The blond laughed out loud as he grabbed the feather and ran his finger through it.

"Good job, Mr. Malfoy." Tom took his eyes from the white feather to look at Albus Dumbledore, who was now standing next to his table, extending his hand to his friend. The other boy handed him the feather and the teacher stared at it for a while. "Beautifully done. A peacock's feather, am I right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Very good. Ten points to Slytherin."

Riddle stared at Dumbledore in disbelief as the man walked away, without even taking a look at the pile of feathers the boy had conjured. He closed his hands and took a deep breath, trying to soothe the magic that was getting stronger and stronger inside himself due to his irritation. How he hated it when that old fool did that! And how he hated that stupid twinkle that appeared in the man's eyes as he now stared at him from the front of the classroom. Dumbledore knew very well how much he hated it when he ignored him like that, and yet, it seemed that the wizard enjoyed seeing him on the verge of losing his control.

"Oh, that's a nice one too, Ms. Elston." The teacher took a beautiful blue feather from Hermione Elston. "Which bird does it belong to?"

"A blue-and-yellow macaw, sir." The girl gave him a bright smile that made Riddle's gut turn inside his belly. And people said he was the arse kisser.

"Ten points to Gryffindor, Ms. Elston."

"She's good with spells, isn't she?" Abraxas whispered. He was still playing with the peacock feather. "I hope she's good with potions."

"Yes, I would hate to be the only one good with them in the group." Tom ignored the scowl that appeared on the other's face.

"What about our potion? What do you think of it?"

"It's a stupid potion, Abraxas," said Tom. "A stupid potion used by silly girls in order to get a man."

"Wasn't it Amortentia that...?"

"No, it isn't. It was a love potion, indeed, but not Amortentia." Tom sighed. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and waved his wand over the feathers on the top of the table, making them vanish. "Amortentia is the strongest love potion in the world and it's a difficult thing to brew... A fourth year wouldn't be able to brew one."

"But it did work..." Malfoy started to say, but quickly stopped when Tom shot him a cold look. "Oh, well." The blond put his hand inside his pocket, taking out a golden pocket watch and opening its lid. "Almost over."

"How long?"

"A few minutes."

Before the class ended, Dumbledore gave ten more points to Gryffindor when Minerva McGonagall conjured a tiny hummingbird feather. As soon as the teacher released them, Riddle jumped from his seat and walked out of the classroom. He was really not in the mood for the old fool's jokes and stupidities... Actually, he hadn't really been in the mood for anything for the last few days. His nights of sleep kept being disturbed during the whole weekend and he was now worried about the time of sleep he was losing.

Hermione turned her head to look at the person who was making an awful lot of noise while getting up to leave the classroom. The girl was actually surprised to see Riddle as the one stomping like an annoyed child towards the door, leaving a confused Malfoy behind. The witch shrugged, looking back to Minerva, who was now talking about how easy the Penappareo spell actually was.

"What got into him?" the Gryffindor smiled, pointing at the door behind them.

"Riddle? Oh, he's always like that when it comes to Transfiguration classes. I guess it's because Dumbledore doesn't treat him like a god like most teachers do."

"Well, he looked like a spoiled ten year old."

"Indeed." McGonagall laughed. "Oh, I forgot to ask you, what did you think of the Potions extra class today? It was the first one you took, wasn't it?"

"It was nice... Kind of difficult too, I mean, it's not the kind of thing I would think about studying for Potions."

Actually, the extra class had scared her a little. Potions, for her, had always been about knowing how to brew, understanding the ingredients, and the potions' effects and uses. During that morning, Slughorn actually spent a great deal of time teaching them what seemed to be biology in order to explain how the potion they were brewing earlier – a Calming Potion that, according to the Potion Master, would be really useful to them when the NEWTs came up – worked. His explanation was filled with information regarding anatomy and physiology, two things she had never seen being explored in a Hogwarts class like that. By the end of the class, Hermione was actually glad that extra subjects didn't make it to the tests.

"Yes, that's why it's so nice! Also, it's like learning without having the obligation of doing so..." Minerva took her bag and got up, followed by the other Gryffindor. "It's way better."

"I found you!"

Hermione almost jumped as she felt a pair of small hands grasping her shoulders. Turning around quickly, the girl found Dorea looking at her with a silly smile on her face. The Slytherin's hair was a mess and it made the Gryffindor think even more of Harry while looking at her.

"I had been looking for you since the beginning of the afternoon, but then I remembered you take Transfiguration," the witch said as she tried to fix her dark hair with her fingers. "Anyway, remember I said I would talk with Professor Pesty about the dream stuff? I only managed to do it today..."

"Oh, it's all right. What did she say?"

"She said she'll look through her books to see if she finds anything about it," explained Dorea, giving a quick look in Minerva's direction, who was staring at them with a confused look on her face. "She asked you to come to her on Wednesday, after the end of her class which means you should pass by her classroom around nine..."

"Alright, I'll..."

"What are you two talking about?" asked McGonagall, furrowing her brows.

"Hermione wanted to know a few things about dreams and I told her I could ask Professor Pesty about it."

"Divination? Really?" The Gryffindor rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry, Dorea, I know you like the class but I don't think Hermione is looking for interpretations of her dreams."

"I know she's not, Minerva," said Black in a serious tone. It was odd to see the girl like this. "But Professor Pesty's knowledge is not restricted to dreams interpretation or crystal balls' figures."

"Whatever you say." The taller girl shrugged. "I'm going back to Gryffindor Tower, see you two at dinner."

"I really like Minerva," the Slytherin said, watching as the other walked out of the classroom. "But sometimes she's too close-minded."

"She simply doesn't believe in Divination... I must confess that I don't believe in it either, but as you said your teacher knows more stuff about dreams than simply interpreting them."

"Yes, I believe she does. What was I saying...? Oh! Professor Pesty asked if you would be interested in joining the class!"

"Um, thanks, Dorea, but... No," said Hermione, giving the other girl an awkward smile. She couldn't see herself taking Divination classes again. The witch truly believed that it was a way too unstable field of magic... Also, if the future was something yet to come, it wouldn't be as interesting if they knew what was going to happen, right? "I'm not good with it."

"Ah, Hermione, it'll be nice." The Slytherin smiled to her. "We're going o learn a lot about dreams this year, she told us. Also, isn't it interesting, Divination? Knowing the future?"

"I simply don't see a good use of it..."

"Tom Riddle is taking the class," said Dorea. "And he always does what's useful."

"Things that are useful for Tom Riddle may not be useful for me."

"It's your first time in a school of magic, isn't it, Hermione? Then why don't you give it a try? Professor Pesty said she would open an exception for you: she could allow you to take the classes even if you lost the first two weeks."

Hermione looked at Black for a long time. How was it possible that a grandmother was so much like her grandson? The witch knew that persistence from Harry. She remembered very well how difficult it was to take something from the boy's head once he had made up his mind... Like when they decided to invade the Ministry of Magic to go after Sirius, or when he was convinced that they had to save the Philosopher's Stone from Voldemort. From what the girl knew, that personality trait had also been passed down to James Potter; after all, from what Harry had told her, his father had been incredibly persistent in trying to get the chance to get closer to Lily Evans. Anyway, Hermione simply wished she didn't notice those similarities between Dorea and Harry because looking at the young Black pleading her to attend to those Divination classes was almost the same thing as having her friend do so.

"I'm not going to promise I'll stick to it until the end of the year," the Gryffindor said.

"Yes! I bet you'll like it, Hermione!" The witch shrank a bit as she thought the other was about to hug her due to her excitement. "The classes are on Wednesday night. They begin at seven o'clock, in the North Tower."

"Alright, I'll be there."

"Good." Dorea smiled widely, turning around and walking away. "See you later then!"

Hermione sighed as she watched the other girl leaving the classroom. The only thing she could hope was that the Divination classes back in the forties were, at the very least, a little less insufferable.

A/N: Another one. Not much to talk about this one. Just... Vicky, dear, darling Brax for you. Ehehehe.

I hope you guys liked this chapter and I know the story is kinda of slow now but I swear it'll come off this... Stagnation soon enough. Thanks to everyone who left reviews on the previous chapter and those who favourited and added the story to their Story Alert (: I hope you keep enjoying it and, as always, reviews are really welcome! :D