"Wait until we make a distraction," Ron whispered to Harry as they walked into the potions classroom. "Then just go and get the stuff we need."
"Here's the list," said Hermione, passing it to him. "Try not to take so long."
They sat down at their table, and were soon joined by Ernie, which kept them from talking freely, much to their dismay."
"I'm finding that even without the stress of the O.W.L's this year, studying has still gotten harder," Ernie droned on. "But I've made a schedule that's similar to the one I had last year, and it really-"
"All right, settle down," said Professor Slughorn, bouncing into the room. "We're going to be concocting a rather unique potion today. The Hallucination Potion, causing drinkers to have sharp images of things that aren't there after they drink it. You'll find the directions on page 145 of your books. You may begin."
Harry flipped through the book absentmindedly, only pretending to examine the recipe because Slughorn was standing over him.
"Excellent thinking Harry my boy!" he boomed. "Sure thing to know what you're doing before you start making the potion!" Giving Harry a beaming smile, he headed over to look at the other potions.
Catching Hermione's eye, he gave her a short nod.
Understanding, she pulled out her wand under the table, and pointed it over at Malfoy's, and preformed a non-verbal spell of some sort, causing a dime sized hole to appear in the side of his cauldron, making the contents spill out all over him. His face got sort of a dazed look on it, and he collapsed into his chair, staring straight ahead.
"Oh-ho looks like you added too much essence of indigo!" Slughorn rushed over. "No matter, there's a simple spell that can get you back to normal in no time. Now let's see, what was it…"
While Slughorn and the rest of the class were being distracted by Malfoy, Harry snuck over to the student store, and rummaged around looking for what he needed. But only basic ingredients seemed to be in there, none of which were on the list Hermione had given him.
After quickly double-checking the labels on the jars, Harry accepted defeat and walked back to his table.
"Did you get them?" Hermione whispered as he sat back down.
"None of them are in there, just stuff we'd use in class."
She swore under her breath, "he must keep them in his office. I know he has them because half of them he would've had to use to make the liquid luck potion at the start of term."
"Well then how do we get them?"
She was about to answer, but just then Slughorn said loudly, "oh I've got it now. Lechertios!"
Malfoy's confused face was then replaced with his usual scowl, and the students rushed away from him.
"Alright there son? Yes, well that was an excellent opportunity for us all to see the effects of the potion. You should all be nearly done by know, I'll be by to collect them in just a few moments."
Realizing that he hadn't even started on his potion, Harry quickly looked over at his open book, hoping that the Prince would have directions for it.
Just poor in some goblin blood into boiling water.
Remembering the jar he saw in the store before, he ran over and grabbed the jar and dumped some in, making the bubbling water turn a misty blue color, just as Professor Slughorn came over to the table.
"Very good, Ms. Granger, Mr. Macmillan. Nice effort Mr. Weasly, but not so much dragon tears next time. And I should've known," he said, hovering above Harry with a grin on his face. "Don't think I could've done much better myself, my boy you really do have the gift!"
The bell rang, much to Harry's relief, and he quickly stuffed his books in his bag and cleared his supplies.
"That book is going to get you into trouble on day," Hermione said coolly as they filed out of the class.
"Hermione, it's just a book!"
"Riddle's diary was just a book, and look what it did to Ginny!"
"I'm not writing in it, just using some of the directions. Anyways, how are we going to get the ingredients now?"
"We'll have to sneak into his office wont we?" said Ron.
"It's the only way," Hermione sighed.
"Well when should we do it then?" asked Harry.
She looked around, and saw no one was around them, and replied in a lowered voice, "We have break next, and he has the second year Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaws so now's the best time…"
Waiting for the halls to clear of bustling students, they waited anxiously outside the door they knew to be Slughorn's office.
At last, silence hung over the castle, and the three cautiously double-checked that the coast was clear, Hermione unlocked the door with her wand, and they went in.
"It smells like a sweet shop in here," Ron commented as a sugary sent filled their nostrils.
"It must be the pineapples," Harry pointed to a large bowl filled with sliced crystallized pineapples.
"Hurry up and look!" Hermione hissed at them as she began opening drawers of the desk.
Nearly fifteen minutes had passed before Ron finally called them over to a large trunk by the window.
"Everything's in here!" Hermione said happily, giving Ron a hug. "We'll have more than enough for the potion!"
"And what potion might this be?" said a cold voice behind them.
They turned around and saw to their horror; Severus Snape was standing at the doorway, his lip curling into a sly smile.