Chapter 7: Matchsticks to Needles and Brew Potion
A/N: Still do not own a thing. I almost wanted to borrow the severity of transfiguration from the Methods of Rationality (An amazing fanfic you should read) but decided to keep it more brief and not to bother Mr. Yudkowsky to ask permission in favor of Arts vs Magic. Enjoy the read!
After an exhilarating time in History trying not to fall asleep, Harry compared notes with Malfoy and Hermione, who seemed to be getting along well enough. Lunch was another ordeal in itself, the plates still loaded down with lots of choices with lots of food. While it was nice to find anything to eat, Harry limited himself down to only a few things here and there unlike Ron who seemed to stuff anything he could find onto his plate and into his mouth. After lunch, they found themselves in Transfiguration with their Head of House, Professor McGonagall. Harry was quite right when he thought she was not a teacher to cross. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts, Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." She changed a clean desk into a pig and back again. They got very excited until Professor McGonagal slammed her hands on her desk. "Write this down. Write this down many times. Remember these rules well!" Having taking down plenty of scary rules and notes, and being impressed that Transfiguration should not be attempted lightly they were given a match. Neville looked frightened of his wand and the match. Professor McGonagall passed by him and whispered to him, he nodded and looked at the wand and the matchsticks again, focusing on making the transfiguration possible. Harry decided to look to his own. He focused his magic through his wand and began concentrating.
Nothing seemed to happen, and Harry grew nervous. This was his first pure concentration on magic that was not from the spell book. Professor McGonagall leaned over to him and whispered gently. "Focus Harry, let your magic flow through your wand and into the matchstick. Focus on the color, the shape, the properties of a needle versus the match. Do not expect greatness in your first try." Harry nodded, and focused again. The color began to change and Harry almost stopped concentrating but kept focusing. By the end of the class, though he was no Draco or Hermione, his match was now appearing like it had been painted silver. Defense against the Dark Arts threw of Harry's first plan of telling a professor. Professor Quirrel seemed afraid of nearly everything and hesitated speaking about his bizarre turban. It seemed like this class would be mainly theoretical, which saddened Harry as Charms and transfiguration would be one of the few classes to use wandwork. The rest of the classes they took were straightforward in their practice. Astronomy detailed the stars and heavenly bodies, and Herbology detailed the earth and what sort of plants grew where and their uses. There was some practical lessons but they seemed to be on the care of Greenhouse 1, which housed interesting plants of magical and non-magical natures. Finally it was Friday, and Harry and Neville had yet to tell a Professor about what had happened on the first day of school, but luckily both had made the wise decision of sticking with groups of students and thus were in less trouble of getting lost. "So Potions today." Harry announced to his group. "With the Slytherins no less." Draco responded. "Should be fun, mates." Ron responded, he and Draco seemed to have cooled down a bit to each other but were still tense. Being roommates tended to do that. The owl post arrived, as the week had gone on Harry had discovered a sort of bond with his owl and while they could not exactly speak to each other, Harry could feel Hedwig in his mind and knew Hedwig could feel him. As she fluttered down to the table, she sent warmth and greetings to him and he sent them back to her. She carried a note to him and ate a bit of food of his plate as he read the note from Hagrid inviting him for tea.
This was the perfect opportunity! Harry scribbled down that yes, we would enjoy seeing him. But first, Potions. They traipsed down to the dungeons mixed in with the Slytherins. Since it was incredibly likely that the two houses were to fight, a Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff Prefect traveled with them. They entered the creepy classroom and sat separately, Snape awaiting them at the front of the classroom and took roll as soon as the clock struck the time. He, like other Professors, paused at Draco's name but carried on. And then of course paused at Harry's name as well. Finally, he finished the list of long names, "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking..." he began, extolling the virtues of his class to them. "Potter!" He said suddenly, "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Harry paused to think, but his brain kept stumbling over what exactly the Professor had asked. "Er..." "Hmmm. Yes, Ms... Granger was it?" "The Draught of the Living Death." She responded smiling. "Point to Gryffindor then." Snape responded looking unhappy. "How about a bezoar Potter, surely you know where to find one of those." Harry frowned as he mulled in his head, at least he could remember what he asked. "Come now Mr. Malfoy, tell the famous Potter where you can find one." "Well, baring access to your stores, a shop or owl-order. The stomach of a goat. It's a very nice antidote in a pinch and most experienced traveling Wizards carry a few on them just in case." "Excellent Mr. Malfoy... Point to Gryffindor." Snape was looking more unhappy by the moment. "Fine, last one Potter, what's the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
Almost as soon as he finished the question, Harry's eyes brightened as if he knew almost everything about the plant and what exactly Snape was saying to him before. "Monkshood and wolfsbane are the same plant sir, it also goes by the name of aconite. Belongs to the 250 species of Aconitum which are toxic but when used towards making potions can be a pain-reliever, diuretic, heart sedative and to induce sweating. It is most commonly known however as an ingredient of Wolfsbane Potion, a potion to help the symptoms of lycanthropy. Sorry for earlier but thank you for the chance professor." Harry finished his monologue with a hint of meaning to the Professor, after all, he had just apologized to him about Lily's death. The professor nearly smiled in spite of himself, then frowned. "I'm glad you finally have come to your senses MR. Potter. I do so hope the rest of you wrote all of those answers down though." A scribbling of notes soon took place and Harry sighed as he wrote his own notes. They then split into pairs to brew a simple potion to cure boils. Harry found himself paired with Neville, while Hermione and Ron worked together and Malfoy worked with Seamus. Harry and Neville worked carefully together and successfully brewed the potion well enough. They were finally out of the dungeons an hour later where Fred and George met them for lunch. "Is it true?" One said, "Did you really manage to make the impossible happen?" the other asked. Harry looked to his companions in confusion, Malfoy seemed to be smiling. "What do you mean?" he asked. "Snape's giving Gryffindor points!" The one who seemed to be George said, "It's the END OF DAYS!" Fred responded and they laughed chaotically and walked on. "Are your brothers always this bizarre?" Harry asked Ron. "Depends on who their audience is really." Ron answered.
A/N: Yes, I did make knowledge (Potions) checks for Harry. He made a natural 1 on the first, a 6 and finally a natural 20 on that last one, and thus may change the very nature of the year/story itself. I made a small edit to the chapter 1 A/N, about deducing answers to why things are changing beyond Harry having the Arts. Some may be answerable by the reader, of course, some may have to wait for more information.