Chapter 3: The Memory-Retaining Potion
On Sunday after detention, Harry began to compose his letters to Aunt Malory and Uncle Lionel.
A week prior to Halloween, Harry had received responses from both of them.
With all the injustice of Snape it just wasn't fair he couldn't visit Hagrid after curfew. Aunt Malory had told him about her intentions of dropping by Hagrid's to pick up some potion ingredients.
He always had this thought but today he worked up the nerve to do such a rebellious thing. The dangers of the Forbidden Forest just seemed minor in comparison.
Fueled by the desire to see his aunt again, Harry had rummaged the library planning for that night until he had finally found a potion that made the drinker invisible.
Snape had used weeks of detention to scorn him. Once he had found the recipe, he welcomed it as he noticed the professor seemed easily angered whenever he was around.
He imagined he could use Snape's anger as a diversion to sneak some potions into the extendable bag, Aunt Malory and Uncle Lionel had conjured for his 11th birthday.
The moment he got his ingredients, he had worked on the potion day and night before it was finally complete. As it was a potion only taught to seventh years, Harry had indirectly got some assistance from Cedric.
Most of the instructions were fairly complex, it was lucky that Harry had asked about some of the word usage. Cedric had said the instructions become more complex the more complicated the potion and even fourth years had trouble distinguishing simple instructions.
'He was alot of help though.' Harry thought, as he had needed help specifically with understanding the differences in the subtleties.
Harry had began his journey early Saturday evening before the Sunday prior to Halloween after detention with Snape. The sun was just about to go down as he snuck through the corridors, past the entrance to the Forbidden Forest straight to Hagrid's home.
The invisibility potion wore off as he knocked on the door. He was faintly surprised to see Malory was the only person there.
"Harry, what are you doing down here so late?" Malory scolded. "I'd take you back to the castle but the headmaster won't allow it so late and Hagrid won't be back until morning. Tomorrow you're going to be in so much trouble, mister."
Harry came in. This was the first time, Harry had ever been inside Hagrid's house. There was a giant fireplace with a large dog laying by the fire.
The next morning Harry awoke to the sound of birds chirping. It seemed Malory had already left Hagrid's hut. Faintly he could hear someone murmuring outside a nearby window.
Quietly sneaking near the window to make out the voices, Harry could make out two familiar voices. Eyes peering over the window, Harry could see Hagrid talking with Professor Quirrell.
Harry went outside.
"Professor, what are you doing out here?" Harry inquired curiously.
The two men were startled at the boy's presence.
"What were you doing alone outside after curfew, Mr Potter?" Quirrell asked, with what Harry thought was genuine worry.
"Oh, I just went to visit Aunt Malory."
"Say Quirrell, 'you still need to retrieve a troll in order to practise defence next class? There is a troll habitat near a mountain in the middle of the forest."
"Maybe another time." Quirrell replied turning on his heel in the direction of the forest.
Hagrid turned towards Harry, black beetle eyes staring at him with worry. " Arry, you shouldn't make people worry about you like that. Professor McGonagall dropped by and says she wants to see you before you head to class."
Harry was amazed the man hadn't said anything that sooner. Maybe he wanted him to catch up on beauty sleep.
HPSS
Most of Harry's professors greeted him in the main hall.
"Oh there you are." Professor McGonagall took a breath of relief.
Harry was surprised to see Professors Sprout, Flitwick, McGonagall looking so worried about him. Much to Harry's shock he even saw Professor Snape among them.
Professor McGonagall's worry though was quickly overshadowed by stern strictness.
"Mr Potter, it is prohibited to leave Gryffindor Tower after curfew. So why did you think such an action was a good idea."
"That's just it, Minerva. Potter never thinks." Snape said, causing McGonagall to turn and scowl his direction. "I believe detention with me for another month might whip him into shape."
"Severus..."
Harry scowled. He knew he did wrong but to have Snape revel at his wrongs didn't amuse him in the slightest. Still his head of house did have a point.
"Alright." Harry said grudgingly.
Professor McGonagall looked at him in shock.
"Well then I guess this settles it."
Not much was settled with the endless howlers he had received from Aunt Malory the entire week it was lucky he even had the voice to look forward to.
Early Halloween, Harry and Ron walked into the Great Hall to have lunch like they usually did seeing Hermione on the corner of their eye with a book in her hand.
Her hair was disheveled, her eyes had dark bags drooping beneath them. To sum it up she looked like a complete mess.
"What's wrong with her?" Ron asked curiously.
Suddenly she collapsed on the floor.
"Hermione." They called to her before she fell unconscious.
At the same time, Professor Snape and McGonagall immediately ran to their table.
Snape waved his wand over her body.
"It seems she's ingested too much of the potion."
McGonagall seemed to know immediately what he was talking about.
"What's he talking about, Professor?" Ron asked curiously.
"Ms Granger it seems desired the effect of the memory-retaining potion kept in Professor Snape's stores.
Professor McGonagall's revelation seemed to irk the two boys for different reasons. Harry just didn't see what was so important about Hermione Granger being so smart. It was irritating how she used her intelligence to kiss up to her professors. The worst part about it, under normal circumstances he could bury it in his mind as insignificant. In fact he was certain if this happened under normal circumstances he wouldn't have thought about it, as in hindsight he really deemed it as something he could care less about as just thinking about it angered him.
Ron on the other hand was irked from different reasons. That girl had to act as if everything her classmates did was so insignificant, as if her intelligence put them above the rest. The image reminded him about his older siblings. Each and every one of his siblings had something significant about them, except him. His mother had showered praise on the one thing they were good at. He remembered it was one thing that had generally irked him about his mother. Was he so insignificant that his mother had to abandon him because there was nothing distinguishing him from the rest of his family?
In the back of his mind he admitted he was jealous but he had a right to be. There were students everyday who craved the attention and respect of their professors but it seemed they were overshadowed by the skill and intelligence of those who were brighter and smarter. He was certain the dumbest students could be potentially smart too. It just didn't seem right to pass it off as something so skindeep.
HPSS
During the first week of November it would be his first detention for the second month. Harry didn't look forward to it, instead begrudgingly wondering when his death sentence would be.
Like usual he was told to scrub cauldrons but something had been nagging at him since the beginning of the feast.
"Professor?"
Despite the dangerous vibes emitting out of the man, Harry used this time to ask something that was bugging him. A surge of confidence that would have been beneficial if Harry had enough good sense to begin with.
Harry imagined if Snape were a bad guy he'd have the benefit of having most if not all professors be his witness.
"I was just wondering why did my scar hurt when I looked at you at the beginning of the feast?" Harry asked.
Snape looked at Harry with something akin to fury.
"I love how you assume I'm the direct cause of your insufferable pain. I must look the type too. Dark, brooding, sarcastic and ugly, I have it all don't I?" Snape prattled on smugly. "Pity, that body of yours is all brawn and no brain."
He said this while looking Harry over. The scrutiny was akin to that of a man checking on a woman without the romance involved.
Harry thought the man was almost trying to make him uncomfortable but he wasn't deterred.
"Don't try to act so smug, there's not exactly any proof that proves you aren't some dark wizard rising up from the depths of hell."
Snape's face contorted in impatient fury.
"Yes, because if I looked just a tad more friendly like their was no evil in me, then you'd totally trust me."
Harry's face flushed.
The fact his points were justified only caused the man's words to spear his pride. So what if he had thought the man was a dark wizard based on his looks alone. The man was really pissing him off.
"I take it such cruel words happened to mar your pride, yes? The part of you that is just brawn probably takes quite an offence to that." Snape said smugly.
The man knew that every word he breathed was insulting, that was apparent otherwise he wouldn't have said what he had.
Did Snape really think his insults had penetrated him so thoroughly? What did he mean when he mentioned the brawn side of him? No one with an ounce of intelligence could have possibly took for nothing other than an insult. Brawn was what Dudley and Aunt Malory had referred to as physical strength, the makeup of the male gender. Why would he imply that Harry had a big proportion of it?
Aunt Marge when she was angry with Vernon often talked with Petunia always comparing her brains with her nephews brawn.
"I'll never understand how that man managed to get a job with all that brawn and no brains."
It was a statement Aunt Malory had used also referring to Uncle Lionel. For one time she had come close to offending the man.
Uncle Lionel had been repairing some damages to the outer layers of his house which had collapsed.
"The stone should go here." Malory said referring to the gaps near the bottom of the wall while Lionel had been repairing the top of the wall.
"If you don't repair the bottom of the wall, it will collapse."
However the stubborn man had continued causing the wall to collapse.
"All you think about is repairing that damn wall." Malory said irritably.
The man had been at it for months, every time he tried to repair it the wall had collapsed days, weeks at the latest.
Eventually he had just about enough of Aunt Malory taking out all his anger on her by the end of the second month.
"Well, if you had any brains in that noggin of yours, you would have listened to me."
At the time the only thought crossing Harry's mind was why the heck didn't the man realize that repairing a wall from the top was the dumbest idea in the book. Anyone with half a mind would have known to start from the bottom.
Perhaps he might have been reading Snape wrong. Snape clearly thought Harry was a young boy who used none of the brains he had offered. The man was probably used to so many people judging his character by first glance that he wasn't eager to prove them wrong and maybe Harry thought, maybe that's the point Snape was trying to make by insulting him with an otherwise blatant message about his lack of thorough thought.
The man had been telling Harry about looks, maybe Snape was telling Harry cryptically not to trust a wizard based on their looks alone.
'That would be too competent.' Harry thought.
Still Harry kept the cryptic lesson in his mind, determined to pay more attention to what the professor said and not the stabs at his pride.
HPSS
By the time Hermione woke up it had been a couple of weeks.
Ron the more chattier of the two had asked Harry to accompany him to visit Hermione. Harry however particularly detested visiting the know-it-all until Ron had come clean about some info about Hermione that he had acquired from Parvati.
Apparently the girl had no friends.
She had woke up on Saturday and unfortunately they weren't her only company.
The headmaster himself was there and Professor Snape was also there, scowling at her.
"Professor?" She inquired with confusion.
He snapped.
"You foolish girl." He snarled.
Hermione flinched visibly.
"What made you possibly think you'd be unharmed after taking big doses of that potion?"
"Uh, I-I."
"Needed an excuse to show off in class?"
Hermione turned red.
"Well, it's lucky I happened to brew the antidote on the same day or your brain would have burst from too much knowledge."
Snape scrutinised her further. Harry noticed his eyes were focused directly on her own.
Was he reading her mind?
"I see with that simple minded brain of yours you think intelligence is so easy to come by. That if knowledge was at your grasp you could do great things? If you must know not everything is so easily solved by knowledge or intelligence." Snape said.
Harry's eyes widened at Snape's words. Earlier Snape had been insulting him for his lack of brains and now he scolded Hermione for the opposite? Was that Snape's cryptic way of teaching her? Under normal circumstances he wouldn't have been able to see it that way at all.
The potion professor huffed and turned on his heel though the headmaster still remained.
"Say Ms Granger what were you reading before your collapse?"
Hermione's eyes lit up.
"It was 'The Tales of Beedle Bard'. I was reading about 'The Warlock's Hairy Heart'."
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.
"Oh, that one. Funny story." He said. "It's a lot like Lord Voldemort's actually. Voldemort himself was once a student here you know."
Harry's eyes widened.
"Really?"
"That man having been deceived by love closed his heart to it the moment since the moment he was born. Quite sad really."
"Are there really dark arts that can prevent the caster from falling in love with someone?"
The headmaster turned red.
"There is a saying that even if magic has no bounds, there is always a price for accomplishing that which is unobtainable."
Hermione knew all too well what Dumbledore was talking about.
After she had attended a day of classes upon her recovery, Ron and Harry had walked with her to Professor McGonagall's office. Ron didn't easily forgive the stabs to his pride and at that point had sought to be just as smart as Hermione though at that point, there was an unspoken friendship between the three as they approached the stern professor promoting guilt with her gaze.
Harry gazed at the newspaper on her desk, eyes catching the headline concerning Nicholas Flamel and the Philosopher's stone. Apparently there had been an attempt of stealing the philosopher's stone from Gringotts several months ago and because of that the stone was now being held at Hogwarts.
Unnoticed by Harry, Hermione seemed to be absorbing the same information at the exact same time.
"Ms Granger, are you paying attention?"
Harry looked to his side to see Hermione off in her own little world for a brief moment before her eyes looked directly into her professors.
His eyes didn't stop there however and as he stared behind the desk he saw two triangular grey ears peering from behind her desk.
Not wanting to be rude he waited until Professor McGonagall finished lecturing Hermione.
"Um, Professor. What's that behind your desk?" Harry asked.
Professor McGonagall directed her attention to the creature behind her desk and using both hands she grabbed it and set it on the desk.
The creature was none other than a grey cat.
"Her name's Frisky."
McGonagall pet the creature stroking behind it's ears.
"Well what are you doing standing there? You want to pet her too don't you?" She praddled on with encouragement.
Nothing more needed to be said as Harry, Ron and Hermione began petting the cat. It's attention however seemed to be on something else.
It began scratching on the upmost wooden drawer on the left side of her desk.
She opened the drawer and took out the glass jar with Ron's rat and set it on the table.
"Ah that's my rat." Ron pointed out.
"I have yet to mail it back to your parents." McGonagall said.
"How long have you had him for Ron."
"11 years." Ron said.
"Don't rats usually have shorter life spans?" Hermione asked McGonagall curiously.
"From gazing closely at it the rat doesn't seem to be any magical creature of any sort. It's just your average rat?"
"Then how did it live so long?"
"Many creatures of this size could live for long periods of time. I've yet to see an average looking rat live longer than 4 years." McGonagall said. "It's either a rat with an abnormal life span or it could possibly be an animagus."
"An animagus? What's that?" Both Harry and Hermione inquired with curiosity.
"It's a piece of transfiguration that could causes one to change shape into an animal form." McGonagall explained.
"I imagine it must be very difficult to learn." Hermione pointed out.
"Very."
"Surely if you learned it though why not stay in your animagus form all the time."
"It's dangerous. For those who don't know the counterspell, one has to survive any potential predators and hunt for potential prey."
"So it's possible for animagus to remain in their animal forms and thrive independently for say 11 years?" Hermione asked.
"Theoretically."
"I'm curious why don't you try the counterspell on Ron's rat. It could be a witch or a wizard stuck in their animagus form."
Ron winced. "Please don't hurt him."
The rat began to move around squeaking anxiously in the jar.
McGonagall finally opened it and pointed her wand at the rat casting the counterspell just as it leapt from the jar. A shabby man suddenly landed on his feet in front of Professor McGonagall's desk.
"Pettigrew?" McGonagall inquired with disbelief.
The shabby man had the nerve to look shocked and amazed under the stern woman's scrutiny.
"You know this man, Professor?" Hermione asked.
"Harry, this man is one of your father's friends." McGonagall said.
"Oh? He wouldn't have happened to hand them the beer, that caused them to drive straight into a car accident would he?"
McGonagall snorted.
"Mr Pettigrew, aren't you supposed to be dead?"
"Look can we talk about this later. I have somewhere I have to be." Peter said but not before he said his final goodbyes. "Nice to see you again, Harry."
He left out the front door of her office shapeshifting back into Ron's pet rat.
When McGonagall had recovered from her shock, Harry saw her confusion hadn't faded in the slightest.
"What's the matter?"
"Peter Pettigrew died 11 years ago. Sirius Black was put in prison after killing him and all those muggles. There's no way he could still be alive."
"Sirius Black?"
"He's another one of your father's friends. He was sent to Azkaban after killing twelve muggles."
"Azkaban?"
"The Wizarding Prison."
"I didn't know wizards had a justice system." Harry said.
"Er...well.."
"Then I imagine he got the justice he deserved?"
"Yes."
"Good."
"I think now would be as good of a time as ever to tell Dumbledore that Pettigrew is still alive so if you'll excuse me."
Harry and Hermione both left her classroom on that note.
HPSS
After all that drama the trio quickly became fast friends.
All three would take the time to discuss classes, teachers and family. Ron had come clean about her little sister having a crush on him as well.
"Mum used to tell Ginny about how you defeat Voldemort. She always admired you and looked up to you as a hero." Ron said. "Now not so much. I think it has to do with that article about you in the Daily Prophet a couple of months ago."
The only time Harry had seen the Daily Prophet was before he boarded the train.
"What did it say about me?" Harry asked curiously.
"Nothing much, it just said how you extorted your fame to get people to like you."
Harry sighed and eventually came clean about his opinion of Snape.
Hermione's ears were peaked with attention while Ron seemed more concerned about the flies he was shooting in the air with his wand.
"You'd be amazed with how much I've learned from him despite the fact I detest him." Harry said modestly.
At one point he brought up a detention that he had attended to while she was in the hospital wing.
"For the life of me, I don't exactly see what he's talking about. What did he mean when he said that. It's like he was trying to me that looks could be deceiving?"
Harry also told her of how he had originally thought he had felt pain after looking at Professor Snape.
"He was sitting by Professor Quirrell that day wasn't he?" She asked with something akin to excitement.
"I think so." Harry said, so lost in his wonder that he was oblivious to the two pieces of the puzzle coming together in Hermione's mind.
Every day since that had happened, Harry and Ron always saw her wrapped in some book. Perhaps Snape's words hadn't appealed to her as they had to him.
Harry had managed to exchanges letter frequently with his aunt and uncle after being assigned another monthly detention.
One of her letters had been a howler in which Malory gave Harry a complete lecture of heading head first into danger. The letter afterwards, Malory had told Harry about her granddaughter coming over to visit Harry and her nephew as well.
Over this period of time, slowly Harry began to warm up to the potions professor.
HPSS
With revelations of her first impression of the information from the Daily Prophet concerning Nicholas Flamel coupled with Harry's pain in his scar upon looking at Snape immediately she had thought Snape might have stolen the Philosopher's Stone.
Something though had nagged on the corner of Hermione's brain particularly about Harry feeling pain upon looking at Snape. She had also remembered Ron talking about the curse on the Defence Against the Dark Arts position.
Thinking about it more, Harry did essentially kill Voldemort with his scar. Could there be a connection induced due to this?
After classes, Hermione dropped by Professor McGonagall's to bounce ideas. She was about to knock on the door until she heard two voices. One was Professor McGonagall. The other one much to her bafflement was Professor Dumbledore's.
The two were talking about the story of 'The Warlock's Hairy Heart.'
"I hope your barmy self didn't fill those children's heads with a bunch of codswallop. That's all we need is a bunch of kids who think they can save the world." Minerva muttered irritably.
"All we were talking about was the tale of 'The Warlock's Hairy Heart.'"
"In 'The Tales of Beedle Bard'?"
"Yes and how similar it is to a certain wizard."
"You know the one thing I could never figure out about that story is how the wizard is able to remove his heart in the first place. I've never heard of any dark magic that can do such a thing."
"Oh but I have. It's very similar to the magic needed in forming a horcrux. Killing someone to split your soul so you don't die."
"I hope you weren't so open about these things to those children. With all the dangers at this school the last thing we need is children running about thinking they could use magic responsibly."
Quietly Hermione left. Just that information alone was enough to prove her point. The only question was if horcruxes could be placed into living entities. If not, then her suspicions might have been incorrect and it was probably just her paranoia.
Since the soul in essence would be connected to Voldemort even if it was split from his body was it a fair assumption to think he was here among the teachers. It would explain the pain he felt when looking at Snape.
HPSS
It was lucky that Hermione had retained the invisibility spell so as to slink into the library. She wondered where a book about horcruxes might be as it was nowhere to be found from any books on the shelf.
She stepped into the library and into the Forbidden Corridor.
Skimming through the books she finally found one about horcruxes. She opened the book rummaging through the pages.
By making horcruxes, a witch or wizard it seems completely sacrifices their deaths. Implying that a soul split in half by a horcrux could never completely die and lives somewhere in between life and death.
Further on the book explained how those who have succeeded in making horcruxes often make vessels in living or non-living entities. Herpo the Foul often created makeshift bodies to reside in.
The parts of a soul will always call out to the person it belongs to and the connection reciprocated.
By making horcruxes, it was guaranteed that the person who split their soul sacrificed their own mental stability. In conclusion, a person who had become a horcrux or victim to an unstable soul caused by a horcrux would bear great pain just by looking at Harry.
Snape hadn't caused Harry any physical pain with a single glance like someone who was possessed by a person who had split their soul. At the same time the man didn't look to be mentally instable and Hermione knew for certain that unless their headmaster was that incompetent that Snape surely would have been mentally stable in order to be hired for the position.
There was only one person besides Snape who could have possibly been affected by a person holding a horcrux and judging by the cursed DADA position and the fact he was sitting by Snape, she remembered with great recollection who it was.
Further in the book however there was no address of a horcrux being placed in a living entity in the book whatsoever and Hermione only theories to go on. This was the only one that made sense to her.
Hermione couldn't help but wonder whether the professor's would believe her. She couldn't very well tell them that she was in the forbidden section. The whole bit about the horcrux was ridiculous, even the whole bit about the Dark Arts.
She had no choice, she had to get evidence.
'But I'm just a first year, there's no way I can use my magic to spy on Professor Quirrell. He'd discover me in an instant. Not to mention he could kill me.' Hermione thought but an idea hit her. 'Unless...unless I can study magic and become stronger.'
With this dedication she proceeded in cramming as much knowledge from her spell books as possible, looking for potential spells to use in defence, practising spells until she memorised them.