On God?

Chapter 38

Focusing up, I glanced at the cauldron, focusing and it didn't take much for me to smell...I smelled Grimmauld Place which was a faint but very there smell of cedarwood and fresh bed sheets. I also smelled marshmallows, one of my favorite sweets from back home and....cologne?

"May I ask your name, my dear?" said Slughorn, ignoring Hermione's embarrassment.

"Hermione Granger, sir." She replied, and I noticed Draco roll his eyes.

"Granger? Granger? Can you possibly be related to Hector Dagworth-Granger, who founded the Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers?"

"No. I don't think so, sir. I'm Muggle-born, you see."

"Oho! 'One of my best friends is Muggle-born, and she's the best in our year!' I'm assuming this is the very friend of whom you spoke, Harry?" Slughorn hooted, resting his hands on his belly.

"Yes, sir." said Harry.

"Well, well, take twenty well-earned points for Gryffindor, Miss Granger." said Slughorn genially.

Hermione turned to Harry with a radiant expression and whispered, "Did you really tell him I'm the best in the year? Oh, Harry!"

"Well, what's so impressive about that?" whispered Ron, who for some reason looked annoyed. "You are the best in the year - I'd've told him so if he'd asked me!"

"Shut up Ron!" I hissed, and he rolled his eyes, but stayed quiet nonetheless.

"Amortentia doesn't really create love, of course. It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love. No, this will simply cause a powerful infatuation or obsession. It is probably the most dangerous and powerful potion in this room - oh yes," he said, nodding gravely at Draco, who was smirking skeptically. "When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love."

"And now," said Slughorn, "it is time for us to start work."

"Sir, you haven't told us what's in this one," said Ernie Macmillan, pointing at a small black cauldron standing on Slughorn's desk. The potion within was splashing about merrily; it was the color of molten gold, and large drops were leaping like goldfish above the surface, though not a particle had spilled.

"Oho," said Slughorn again. I was sure that Slughorn had not forgotten the potion at all, but had waited to be asked for dramatic effect. "Yes. That. Well, that one, ladies and gentlemen, is a most curious little potion called Felix Felicis. I take it," he turned, smiling, to look at Hermione, who had let out an audible gasp, "That you know what Felix Felicis does, Miss Granger?"

"It's liquid luck." Hermione said excitedly. "It makes you lucky!"

The whole class seemed to sit up a little straighter. I saw both Theo's and Draco's attention close in on Slughorn, and I knew that I would do whatever it took to help Theo.

"Quite right, take another ten points for Gryffindor. Yes, it's a funny little potion, Felix Felicis," said Slughorn. "Desperately tricky to make, and disastrous to get wrong. However, if brewed correctly, as this has been, you will find that all your endeavors tend to succeed...at least until the effects wear off."

"Why don't people drink it all the time, sir?" said Terry Boot eagerly.

"Because if taken in excess, it causes giddiness, recklessness, and dangerous overconfidence," said Slughorn. "Too much of a good thing, you know...highly toxic in large quantities. But taken sparingly, and very occasionally..."

I tuned out after that, glancing towards Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry was staring suspiciously at Draco, and I tensed, knowing that I would have to try and keep Harry off of Draco's ass, because if Draco was found out, Theo probably would be too.