Chapter 17: Potions and Parseltongue

Having taken all the shortcuts, Rein and I reached the Hospital Wing long before Mina did. When she arrived, she launched into an account of what we didn't know.

"Death Eaters!" she exclaimed as she collapsed on the nearest bed. "In Hogsmead! They… tortured… Muggleborns…"

"Now, now Mina," said Madame Pomfrey, "calm yourself. Take deep breaths, that a girl…"

"A swarm of Death Eater attacked the Muggleborns in Hogsmead. They had Dementors with them! Severus and I cast a Divinus Cintum but there were so many, and so many were panicking…"

"It's all right, it's all right. Gather up the ones you can. I'll ready the Infirmary for the arrivals. Where's Severus? I'll need some Phoenix Draught most definitely."

"He's in Hogsmead still…"

"Well I suppose I'll just have to make due. Go on, get back and do what you can. Send the injured here and I'll see what I can do for them."

Mina nodded and left.

"Madam Pomfrey?" I asked anxiously. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"He means is there anything we can do to help?" Rein corrected me.

"Not unless either of you are any good at Potions" she replied, checking her stock of clean towels.

"I am." Rein said.

"Well then, I'll need several batches of Phoenix Draught, if you can brew it."

"Right away. Come on Harry, we need to find ingredients."

Xxx

I led Rein through the school towards the Potions classroom. "Why are we doing this again?"

"Because," she answered, "you want to help, don't you? This is the best way for us to do that. And you said you needed Potions tutelage, so there you have it."

"Killing two birds with one stone, eh?"

"Exactly. Is this it?"

"Yeah," I said, holding the door to the Potions storeroom open for her.

"I can believe that my dad teaches in the dungeons… If he's as cranky as you say he is, it's probably because of the fumes."

"I never thought of it that way…" I responded sheepishly.

We gathered the needed supplies and set up a few cauldrons in the empty classroom. Once all the chopping, crushing, powdering, and measuring was done, there wasn't much to do but stir the cauldrons and wait.

"So," Rein said, breaking the silence that had settled upon us, "I'm teaching you Potions. When do we start my Parseltongue lessons?"

"I guess there's no time like the present." I replied, adding my ground bear claws and stirring clockwise six times. "Let's start with something easy."

"Like…?"

"Counting. I'd start with the alphabet except there really isn't one. We'll count to ten. Repeat after me: ssa."

"Sa."

"Not 'sa', 'ssa'. You have to stretch all your 's' sounds in Parseltongue."

"Oh, ok. Ssah."

I laughed, and Rein gave me dirty look.

"Ssaa, no… ssa. Ha! Ssa!"

"Good job!"

"What did I say before?"

"Well, 'sa' doesn't mean anything. But 'ssah' means tail, so you essentially called me an arse, and 'ssaa' translates to something akin to idot."

"Oh, sorry… So what's two?"

"Eh, like 'a dog, a cat', etc."

"Eh."

"Good. Ih."

"Ih."

"This one might be a little tricky. Sseh."

"Ssay."

"I'm glad you think so. Like this 's-s-a'."

"Sseh."

"Right."

"Isn't that what I said before?"

"You said ssay."

"I take it that's a compliment?"

"You called me handsome."

"Oh. Well, you are. Add the Phoenix tears and stir three times counter-clockwise."

"Ssa, eh, ih. There. Is it supposed to glow like this?"

"Yep."

"Siaheh."

"What's that mean?"

"Awesome."

"Oh… siaheh?" I nodded.

"Next is aht, which is like 'hot' without the 'h'."

"Aht. Like that?"

"Yep. Ith. Like 'sith' without the 's'."

"I hate Star Wars."

"Rein…"

"Ith."

"Ahss."

"What did you just call me?!"

"Nothing! I said 'ahss'! It means 'seven'!"

"Mm hmm." She replied, giving me a disbelieving look.

"It does!"

"Yeah ok Harry…"