Disclaimer: Harry Potter and friends belong to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this story.
A/N: Any italics in the story are either flashback/thoughts or quoted directly from the books.
Please review, your feedback helps my writing improve and inspires me to write more content more often. ;)
Okay everyone, I want to give a big thanks to all of my followers and reviewers. Your feedback motivates me. I also want to apologize for not posting sooner; I am taking another 15 credits this quarter, so I have to put homework first. I promise I will try to keep giving you at least one chapter every couple of weeks. – Cosmyk
Also – bold lettering is Parseltongue.
HLP 2 – Slytherin Secrets
Chapter 8:
Defense against the dark arts was a joke. Professor Lockhart's first order of business was to give them all a quiz focused solely on himself. Harriet thought it was all a big joke, until he brought out the Cornish Pixies. That had been an unmitigated disaster. The professor had lost his wand, and most of the students had hidden under desks, except for poor Neville whom the pixies decided to use as a chandelier ornament. Herman had finally fixed the whole thing with a third-year spell, "Aresto Momentum." It had taken them five minutes to summon all of the pixies to them and get them back in the cage. As they were leaving class, Harriet made a mental note to ask Herman to teach her that spell.
"I'm sorry," Rhonda whispered as they headed to Potions.
"For what?"
"For not believing you about Lockhart," Rhonda replied. "Mum's such a big fan; I didn't want to believe that he could be a fraud."
Herman trailed quietly behind, lost in thought. The girls continued on, glancing behind them with concern from time to time.
"It's alright, just promise me you won't do anything to get caught alone with him. He really creeps me out," Harriet whispered.
"Okay, but what about you, you have detention with him tonight."
"I don't know, I'll think of something. I will certainly be sure to keep my wand close. You can't get expelled for defending yourself against a teacher can you?" Harriet asked with concern.
"I don't think so, you weren't expelled last year."
"Yeah, but he openly attacked me. I think Lockhart would be more subtle," Harriet whispered back.
"I'm not sure that man knows the meaning of the word," Rhonda replied acidly.
They both stopped speaking as they passed the doors of the potions classroom.
"Miss Weasley, Miss Potter, how kind of you to join us," Professor Snape's voice was cold, "Perhaps one of you would mind explaining why you are late."
"I'm sorry, sir, it's my fault. Pixies spilled ink all over my uniform in defense class, I had to go back to dorm and change," Harriet replied.
"Nonetheless, you are late, five points from Gryffindor from each of you," He sneered.
Rhonda gulped and Harriet hung her head, wondering what her uncle's motives were. They took their seats as Professor Snape turned back to the board.
"Today we will be working on a simple potion known as Capulus Regrow, or the Hair Restoration potion. It is used most frequently by men seeking to reverse the effects of baldness. This potion is very tricky, so I want you all to read the directions carefully and prepare your ingredients before starting," Professor Snape instructed.
Harriet blinked. This was a new tack. While her uncle had often explained things for her when teaching her potions at home, he'd never taught this way at Hogwarts. She smiled. Perhaps he'd realized the difficulty many of the students were having reading his crabbed handwriting across a steamy classroom. She set to work, carefully jotting down the instructions on a tiny muggle notepad she had placed between herself and Rhonda while Rhonda got her ingredients and began to lay them out.
Rhonda picked up the notepad and read it over while Harriet prepared her ingredients, using little glass bowls to separate each item. She'd had the forethought of buying some for that express purpose after watching a muggle cooking show where the chef had all of his ingredients separated for easy access. Rhonda goggled beside her. "What are you doing that for?" she whispered.
"I'm separating my ingredients so that they don't contaminate each other or the surface I am working on," Harriet replied.
Rhonda nodded and immediately began putting more space between her ingredients on the table.
Harriet smiled down at the pale yellow substance in her cauldron; it was exactly the shade the instructions said it should be. She looked down at her instructions and felt something whiz by her face. Moments later, her cauldron began to bubble and fizz out of control. She reached over and pulled Rhonda down beneath their table just as the cauldron exploded.
Harriet hissed as hot yellow goo landed on her shoulder. "Merlin's balls," she snarled, as a burning sensation spread down her arm.
"That language has earned you detention, Miss Potter. Miss Weasley, escort Miss Potter to the hospital wing. Mr. Granger, please assist your friends by cleaning up their station. Bring me a sample of Miss Weasley's potion along with your own," Professor Snape instructed.
Rhonda hurried Harriet out of the classroom. Harriet was openly sobbing now as the burning feeling continued to spread down her right arm and hand as well as her back.
~HLPHLPHLP~
"Well, Miss Potter, I wondered how long it would be before I saw you in here again," Madam Pomfrey exclaimed as Rhonda escorted her into the room. "What happened?" she asked, directing her attention to Rhonda.
"Someone threw something into her cauldron in Potions and it exploded. Professor Snape told me to bring her here," Rhonda explained as Madam Pomfrey showed them to an empty cot.
"Well, let's see what we can do," the healer replied, pulling the curtain and vanishing Harriet's outer clothing. Harriet gasped as the cool air hit her skin. Strangely, the cool air did nothing to stymy the fiery pain radiating from her arm and back. Madam Pomfrey gasped at the yellow, bloody blisters covering her arm and side.
"What potion were you making?" she asked.
"Hair regrowth," Harriet gasped out between tightly gritted teeth.
"Do you have any idea what they threw into the cauldron?" Madam Pomfrey asked.
"According to Miss Parkinson, it was a small ball of lead," Professor Snape's voice came from just outside the curtain.
Madam Pomfrey handed Harriet a sheet to cover her naked front, and stepped out of the curtained area. Rhonda strained to hear what the adults were discussing, but a strange buzzing noise filled her ears, preventing her from overhearing the conversation. Madam Pomfrey returned.
"I am going to attempt to clean the wound and apply a burn paste, it will probably hurt a lot, but burns can get infected very easily. Please step outside the curtain, Miss Weasley," the healer gestured toward the curtain.
"Please," Harriet gasped, "let her stay." She reached for her friend, clasping her hand tightly. Rhonda winced slightly, but stood firm.
"Very well, take a seat, Miss Weasley, but make sure you stay out of the way," the healer waved her wand and a wooden straight-backed chair appeared beside the bed.
Rhonda sat down, not letting go of Harriet's hand. Madam Pomfrey cast a gently cleansing charm. Harriet screamed loudly and passed out. Rhonda gasped, "Madam Pomfrey, stop; it's not working." The healer lowered her wand and let out a curse that had Rhonda blushing. The injury had spread across Harriet's back and down her leg. She swore again. With a gesture of her wand, and a word muttered too low for Rhonda to make out, the ghostly figure of a poodle appeared. She looked at the wispy form. "Severus, you are needed in the hospital wing," she waved her wand and the figure vanished through the wall. It was mere moments later when a 'whoosh' was heard from Pomfrey's office and Professor Snape stepped out, brushing floo powder off his robes. Madam Pomfrey opened the curtain for him to enter.
"I tried a low level cleansing charm, and she screamed and passed out. The damage has spread to a large portion of her back and leg now. I'm afraid to try anything else for the time being," she whispered to the greasy-haired man.
He made a gesture with his wand and a small glass dish and a long white object with fluffy ends appeared. He handed them to her. "Get a sample of the wound for me. Make sure you include some of the yellow substance," he instructed. Rhonda watched as Madam Pomfrey took the white object and ran it over Harriet's wound, gathering a large sample of the blood and yellow substance on both ends before placing it in the dish and handing it back to Professor Snape. Harriet let out a loud moan of pain, but didn't regain consciousness.
Professor Snape opened his mouth to speak, just as Herman and Gryffin came rushing in. "Is Harriet okay? What happened?" The words spilled out of their mouths simultaneously.
"We are working on a cure. Mr. Weasley, go back to Gryffindor tower. You and your classmates will be notified as soon as Miss Potter is out of danger. Mr. Granger, come with me, I need an assistant and you will do perfectly well," Professor Snape barked.
The two boys stared at him in awe.
"Don't just stand there, come with me," Snape said, turning on his heel. Herman rushed to follow him, his shorter legs trotting to keep up with the professor's hurried stride.
Gryffin stared as his sister. "I-is she going to be okay?" he asked quietly.
"I hope so," Rhonda replied, "go back to the tower. I promise I will let everyone know the moment we know anything.
Gryffin nodded and rushed out of the room. Rhonda noticed he had bags under his eyes, but shrugged it off. She assumed he'd been having trouble sleeping because he wasn't used to the castle; she knew she'd tossed and turned her first week at Hogwarts.
As soon as he was gone, Madam Pomfrey closed the curtains and waved her wand, causing several bolsters to appear. "Help me turn her," she said to Rhonda. Together they managed to turn Harriet, and with the strategic placement of bolsters, had her lying in such a way that her injury was exposed to the air.
"I want to give her a pain potion, but I'm afraid it might interact dangerously with whatever that goo is," the nurse explained, talking more to herself than the red haired girl fretting silently over her friend. Madam Pomfrey muttered a diagnostic charm, breathing a sigh of relief as it appeared to have no further effect on the injury. She frowned at the results.
~HLPHLPHLP~
Herman brushed off the floo powder and looked around the professor's office. He'd never been in Professor Snape's private office before and he was startled to see all of the strange creatures floating in jars. The room looked strangely like a biology lab. He gasped when Professor Snape waved his wand and a section of the wall slid aside to reveal a shelf with, oddly enough, muggle diagnostic equipment on it. Professor Snape pulled a familiar black object off the shelf and placed it on his desk along with a muggle notepad and pen. He turned back to Herman, "I need you to take careful notes for me. You are not to mention to anyone about these devices or anything else you happen to see in my office, is that clear?"
"Yes sir." Herman said, realizing the professor would probably not be happy if he started asking the questions he was dying to ask. He picked up the notepad and sat down in the hard wooden chair in front of the professor's desk. He watched with fascination as the professor carefully placed the petri dish beside the microscope and tapped the microscope with his wand. A light came on inside of it. Reaching into the right-hand drawer of his desk, Professor Snape pulled out a small plastic box and opened it. Herman gaped to see thin rectangles of glass inside, each separated by a thin sheet of foamy material. He watched with curiosity as the professor picked up the cotton swab filled with goop that Herman assumed came from Harriet's wound and carefully smeared it over three of the sheets of glass.
Herman's hand began to cramp after an hour of scribbling short-hand notes onto the notepad. He'd carefully written down every one of the professor's observation, occasionally jotting his own thoughts in the margin when a thought came to him. He hoped the professor wasn't irked by it. Suddenly Professor Snape looked up.
"Set down the pen and wash your hands. I want you to get out a three more petri dishes from the cabinet behind you and place some of the contaminant into each of them," he instructed the startled boy, taking the notepad from his hands and glancing over it.
Herman hurried to comply with the professor's instructions, wondering what they were going to be doing next. When he turned back to the table, petri dishes in hand, he noticed that there were several potions on the table each with a muggle eye-dropper beside it.
A/N: Yes, I know this is a crappy place to end the chapter, but I thought a bit of suspense was in order. I know, I know, evil me. Well, tune in next time, same bat-time, same bat-channel.
-Cosmyk