Rise of the Death Eaters [3]

Chapter 70: Potions Darling

"It's Polyjuice Potion, sir!"

"Excellent! Excellent, now this one over here—"

I barely had time to catch sight of the toadstool-green potion that turned translucent with a stir of the ladle before Hermione blurted out "Aging Potion!"

"Very good, Miss Granger," Slughorn stated, looking somewhat bemused at her enthusiasm. Some of the others around the room didn't seem to be as bemused, if not a bit more irritated by her answers but Slughorn didn't pay them a single mind.

"You don't perhaps, Miss Granger, happen to be related to Hector Dagworth-Granger, who founded the Most Excellent Society of Potioneers?"

"No sir," Hermione said, and I heard before I saw how her face dwindled at what was to come next. "I'm Muggle-born, you see."

At the corner of my eye, I spotted Nott snicker, and his two companions moved to follow suit. I ignored it.

Slughorn, to his credit, beamed at Hermione, before turning to Harry with a wagging finger of excitement. "The best friend of yours I assume? The best in your year who happens to be Muggle-born as you say? Ha ha! Yes I see it now, very good Miss Granger. A well-earned 20 points is to be awarded to Gryffindor. Very good."

The earnest look that spread over Hermione's face was enough to make anyone with a conscience smile as Slughorn's word took effect.

I only managed to elbow her gently in congratulations before noting Slughorn's slow walk towards our table, stopping short in front of us to take the top off the cauldron.

Immediately the room was filled with the smell of the ocean breeze, the scent of a thunderstorm about to break open cold air, the freshness of a certain shampoo after quidditch practice that was not my own.

Oh for fucks sake

"Now what, pray tell, is this potion, class?"

Hermione moved as if to speak, but to the class's surprise, Slughorn moved a hand to silence Hermione kindly, adding, "While I know you to have the answer, my dear, perhaps another may get a chance, yes?"

I felt Hermione deflate a tad as she cleared her throat in acceptance but I didn't look to see her expression as I was fixated on my notes, writing a number 4 on a new indent in my page.

Slughorn cleared his throat and I froze my quill and slowly looked up to see him staring at me with eyes that seemed ready to pop out of his face should he mistakenly sneeze in the next minute.

Those eyes of his then dropped to my note pad and after a moment, he released a merry chuckle before turning the note pad closer towards him to read on.

"I see here we have a quiet mind at work. Pray, my dear, tell me what potion you think this is."

He was looking up at me again with a curiosity of examining a creature under the microscope. I turned my head to the cauldron, seeing as I would imagine, the steam that rose from the cauldron shaped in elongated spirals. A very pretty description for a potion. Very few potions were described as being pretty.

My eyes glanced down to the potion itself and not to my surprise, I noted the molten mother-of pearl sheen that made one think pearls had been melted down into liquid. It was beautiful, gorgeous even. The product of what little girls with bows in their hair would want to wash their face in.

"It's Amortentia," I said wistfully, turning back to the professor expectingly. His eyes were gleaming in anticipation as he added, "And what, my dear, does this potion do?"

"It is a powerful love potion," I said calmly. "It can great a rather dangerous form of obsession or infatuation that is so powerful it can overtake the drinker. The scent is different for everyone and it alone is meant to entice anyone in its vicinity to drink it and be lost to its depths."