Herbology was the first class on Tuesday, which went rather well. There wasn't much to do to succeed in Herbology except learn and memorize everything, which Hermione felt confident she could do. She doubted she'd ever show much natural talent in the class, but she was sure she could at least perform to be in the top ten in the subject, if tested, and that was probably all she needed to get by. Hermione had noticed Professor Sprout lurking around her, beaming at Hermione anytime she looked up, and Hermione had to fight to not be unnerved. She knew it was because McGonagall had talked to her, but how was Hermione supposed to show aptitude with this? They were re-potting plants!
After lunch, History of Magic was a bore. Professor Binns was a ghost, and had a hollow, empty monotone that made it difficult to figure out where the point of his statements was hidden. Hermione had gotten so frustrated she'd gone up and asked for a course syllabus after class, so she could study the material more on her own time. The ghost had blinked in surprise, but directed her to the second drawer in his desk. Hermione had pulled out an aging, crumbling syllabus, but it was enough – she thanked him and left the class.
There was Astronomy that night, which Hermione enjoyed – she'd learned the planets and the constellations when she was young, and she liked collecting point after point for Slytherin as she fielded every question. She was careful not to raise her hand, and to maintain the bored, disaffected manner that she'd seen all the other Slytherins wear, but she couldn't help but feel proud and warm inside as Professor Sinistra praised her.
The next morning was a free period, to allow them to recuperate from being out so late the night before. Most of the Slytherins were sleeping in, but Hermione enjoyed the alone time to linger over breakfast with Perfecting Your Potions. She was fairly sure they wouldn't be assigned a potion too difficult for their first class, so all she could do was focus on brewing her potion as perfectly as possible. The prefect had said that Professor Snape, their Head of House, would come to bat for them to protect them from bullies and accusations. More than anything, Hermione didn't want to let him down.
Hermione arrived at the Potions classroom promptly, with Theo as her escort, only to discover the work stations seemed to be set up in pairs – clearly, two people would work on one cauldron.
Hermione bit her lip. There were ten first-year Slytherins, and this class was shared with Gryffindor. Tracey and Millicent would presumably work together, Crabbe and Goyle never left each other's sides (or Draco's, for that matter). Draco would probably work with Pansy, as Hermione doubted Pansy would let go of his arm long enough to let anyone else get close, which left Blaise, Daphne, and Theo.
"Partners?" Hermione asked Theo. Theo raised an eyebrow.
"Your ability in Potions is still untested," he said, his voice wary.
"Part of your bodyguard duties, then," she shot back with a smirk. "The Gryffindors are in this class with us. Should one of their cauldrons explode, it's your sworn duty to shield me."
Theo smirked back at that, and amenably set up his work station next to hers.
"You're lucky – I've helped my father with potions before," he told her quietly, as other students began to file in. "We should be able to pull this assignment off without much trouble."
When Professor Snape swept into the room, Hermione caught her breath. His cloak billowed behind him, and Hermione found herself appreciating his flair for the dramatic as he introduced potion-making to them in an enchanting, if foreboding, speech. She leaned forward in her seat, unconsciously trying to catch every word.
She was caught off-guard when he began interrogating Harry with ingredient questions. She knew the answers, but judging from the twisted hatred emblazoned on Snape's face, Snape didn't seem to actually want the answers, so Hermione opted not to interfere.
Both Hermione and Theo relaxed somewhat as Snape turned and gave instructions to collect ingredients and open their books to make a Boil Cure potion, as he turned to the board to write down the most common mistakes.
Theo went off to get ingredients, while Hermione opened her book, and paused.
There were instructions on how to make a Boil Cure potion in their textbook, Magical Drafts and Potions.
There were also instructions on how to make a Boil Cure potion in the more advanced textbook she'd bought, Book of Potions, though they were fairly vague.
Hermione bit her lip, torn. On the one hand, the more advanced book would clearly result in a better potion. However, the recipe was vastly more complicated, and she doubted her ability to brew it correctly on her first try.
When Theo returned, Hermione quietly showed him both books, and Theo turned to Hermione sharply.
"There's no way we'll ever manage the second one," he said in a whisper, as he began to crush the snake fangs. "But…"
"We can add some of the ingredients to enhance our own," Hermione finished. Theo gave her a slow nod.
As Theo worked on crushing the snake fangs with the mortar, Hermione filled the cauldron with water and carefully compared the two recipes, cross-referencing the new ingredients from the harder recipe with 1000 Magical Herbs and Fungi. While she ruled out using shrake spines (she had no idea how to "not over excite" them, as the book said) and flobberworm mucus (she wasn't quite sure what it did, but it seemed to condense the brewing time), pungous onions when combined with horned slugs and ginger had an enhancing effect on healing properties.
It was with great care to be subtle and unseen that Hermione began carefully slicing a few pungous onions, worried about keeping their pungent scent from leaking out into the classroom. Luckily for them, the stink of Longbottom's potion was overruling any other possible smell, and no one seemed to notice the smell of some onions nearby.
Theo watched her carefully as she added the onions, then added a measure of dried nettles to the potion before they set it to boil briefly, and then simmer for a measure of time.
Snape was patrolling the room, looking at students' potions, frequently deducting points for incorrect brewing and mistakes, though deducting fewer from the Slytherin side. Crabbe and Goyle lost five for somehow ending up with a bright blue potion instead of a slowly-enhancing pink, and Malfoy even lost one – he clearly hadn't crushed his snake fangs into a fine enough powder.
When Snape came over to their desk, Hermione was doing her best not to quake in her boots. She'd hidden her other books, but it was obvious something was different with their potion – it was a much deeper shade of pink than the others'.
As Hermione watched Snape, his eyebrows rose, and there was a definite moment of surprise as he regarded their cauldron. It was but a second, and the emotion was quickly masked, but when Snape moved on without a word, Hermione could feel herself let out a breath of relief she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
She shot Theo a quirked smile, which he returned with a smirk.
When the simmering time was done, Hermione sprinkled in some powdered ginger root and stirred the cauldron vigorously when Snape's back was turned, while Theo prepared the horned slugs and carefully added them to the cauldron. Together, they managed to take their cauldron off the fire before slipping their porcupine quills into the potion. Theo stirred it, and Hermione waved her wand over it, and they were both pleased to see a magenta potion cooling in their cauldron, a pink steam rising from it – just as the book had described.
Hermione watched around the room. Neville had forgotten to take his cauldron off the flame before adding the quills, causing his cauldron to melt, and the room smelled horrible. The Gryffindors near him were scrambling to get away from the creeping mixture, and Snape seemed to take great delight in shaming Neville and castigating him for his mistake before finally waving his wand and cleaning up the mess.
"Ours is a deeper pink than the book describes," Theo told Hermione with a frown.
"Well, we didn't do exactly what the book describes, did we?" Hermione murmured. "Let's wait and see what Snape says."
At the end of class, Snape told them each to bring up a labelled flask of their potion for him to grade. Hermione carefully filled a flask and printed her and Theo's names on it in bold, clear letters, before trotting up to lay it on his desk.
"Miss Granger."
Hermione turned, Snape's eyes on her. They were pitch black, and they glinted in the dim light.
"You and Mister Nott – stay after class."
Hermione swallowed.
"Yes, sir."
It was on shaky legs that Hermione made her way back to their work station. Theo looked at her with alarm when she told him Snape's instructions, but he squared his shoulders.
"Even if he fails us this assignment, it's the first one of the year," he said. "We'll be able to make back the points."
The bell rang, and Snape dismissed the class, his eyes glaring at those who dilly-dallied while collecting their things. After the classroom was empty, Snape shut the door with a firm thud, and swept over to their cauldron, his eyes glittering. He gestured to the cauldron.
"Explain."
Hermione swallowed.
"We added pungous onions and ginger to help enhance the healing properties of the boil cure potion, and nettles after the onions to help soothe any burning sensations during application to the end user," Hermione explained quietly. She bit her lip.
"Why did you alter who stirred and who waved the wand at the end?"
Hermione and Theo's eyes darted to each other. Hermione was fairly sure he'd just let her wave her wand as a way to evenly split the work.
"The stirring was clockwise, so I thought a witch waving the wand instead of a wizard would help stabilize it," Hermione admitted. "I don't know if that's actually a thing in potions, but I like symmetry, and it certainly couldn't hurt."
"It couldn't hurt," Snape echoed, sneering. Hermione bit her lip as Snape glared at them, before he let loose a sigh.
"This… this is well done," Snape said finally, slowly, as if it pained him to say so. "This is very well done, for first year work."
Hermione and Theo shared a quick, darting glance of relief, before Snape scowled.
"However, it is dangerous to not follow directions," Snape snapped. "Class is not the place to experiment with improving potion-making."
Hermione blinked.
"Class is a dangerous place regardless," she pointed out. "Neville was trying to follow directions, and his attempt ended up being a disaster."
Theo smirked, but Hermione continued.
"And isn't class the best place to experiment and learn?" Hermione asked. "Surely experimenting without expert supervision outside of class would be far worse, in terms of the potential consequences."
Snape moved to stand in front of her, glaring down at her, and Hermione struggled not to cower.
"In this class," Snape hissed, "you must complete the assignment as it is assigned."
"The assignment was to complete a Boil-Cure potion," Hermione countered, her voice wavering. "And we did that, didn't we?"
Snape drew himself up, before scowling at them with a sigh. Hermione felt a flare of hope leap in her heart, encouraging her to press on.
"Just… I don't want Potions class to be like a cooking class, you know?" she said, her eyes pleading. "These are powerful, magical things. I want to learn how and why they work, and how and why they interact the way they do – not just follow directions from a recipe book."
Snape was quiet for a long time. Hermione looked down, wondering if she had gone too far, speaking out of turn.
"Five points to Slytherin," he said finally, "for completing an excellent potion. Bottle the rest of it up – that's a high-enough quality to help stock the infirmary."
Hermione's hands flew to her mouth, and Theo couldn't suppress his surprised grin.
"…and a further five points," Snape said, eyeing Hermione with something almost like respect, "for keeping your head and using cool logic in the face of a powerful foe."
At that, Hermione gave Snape a brilliant smile, and Snape rolled his eyes.
"You're our foe, sir?" she asked, not quite able to get the teasing tone out of her voice. "That doesn't seem quite right."
"I was in this instance, Miss Granger," Snape said, and Hermione could swear she saw a quirk of his lips. "However: next time you plan to alter a potion's given recipe, wave me over and consult me before you start."
Theo grinned and Hermione beamed, and Snape rolled his eyes and moved away.
"Do not tell the other students about this incident, however," he warned them. "The last thing we need is the Longbottoms of the world thinking they're potion innovators, and melting every cauldron in the castle."
Quietly, Hermione and Theo shared a soft snicker as they ladled out the rest of their potion into bottles, carefully labeling each one.