The New Trio and the Goblet of Fire

Chapter 13: The Weighing of the Wands

"We were just showing our school spirit to Potter-Black and his friends, Professor," Parkinson simpered.

Snape raised an eyebrow and looked at the badges as though only just noticing them. "As much as I appreciate that you support your school, Miss Parkinson, I will not have any advertisement of that disgusting Tournament in my classroom. It is bad enough that it is the only thing talked about at the moment."

"Yes, Professor," chimed in the badge-wearing Slytherins, doing as told before making their way inside the classroom.

Harry and his friends passed Snape on his way in, and the man gave a miniscule nod, which they returned in thanks. Harry had noticed that Ron had been strangely quiet and hadn't seemed to react at all throughout the drama, so when he sat down, he twisted so he could see Ron sitting down at the very back of the room. Ron saw him looking and pointedly looked away, which hurt a bit. Sure, Harry and he had drifted away from their friendship slowly during their time at Hogwarts, but he hadn't thought that it was so bad that Ron couldn't see past his jealousy that Harry had something that he didn't to realise that Harry hadn't wanted it in the first place.

He sighed and turned back to the front, where Snape began his short lecture on antidotes. "You should have all prepared your recipes by now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then we will be selecting someone on whom we will be testing theirs to see how effective it is. For a failed antidote, you will receive a Bezoar, and a Troll for the day, and a successful potion's grade will depend on how difficult your selected antidote was. You have one hour, and if it is not immediately obvious to me which antidote you have started, you will receive a Dreadful for the day. After that, you will have half an hour to finish your brew. Begin."

Antidotes were really quite fascinating, since the umbrella term covered such a large range of potions that, technically, a Calming Draught was an antidote to both a Cheering Charm and mental trauma, and a Blood-Replenishing Draught was an 'antidote' to extreme blood loss. Subsequently, the four had each chosen a different potion that was classified as an antidote which interested them-Draco had chosen an Elixir to Induce Euphoria, an antidote to depression, which, even though it was a sixth-year potion, had posed no problems to the future Potions Master; Neville had chosen a Tincture of Courage, which cured shyness and contained two Mimbulus Mimbletonia flowers; Hermione tried for the Wiggenweld Potion, as it was also quite difficult; and Harry had decided upon the far easier General Love Potion Antidote, since he figured that even though it was simple, it had the word 'antidote' in it, and he was positive he could do it well. Harry had only just added his base liquid and turned up the heat to simmer, when Colin knocked timidly on the open door and edged into the room.

"Yes?" Snape said curtly.

"Please, sir, I'm supposed to take Harry Potter-Black upstairs," Colin almost whispered in fear.

"Potter is here for my lesson, and here he shall stay. He will come upstairs when the class is finished."

Colin went pink. "But-sir, Mr Bagman wants him. All the champions have to go, I think they want to take photos or something..."

"Very well, very well," Snape sneered. "Mr Potter-Black, leave your things here. I want you back down here later to test your antidote."

"Please, sir-he's got to take his things with him," Colin squeaked. "All the champions-"

"Very well!" said Snape harshly. "Take your bag with you. You will be completing and testing your antidote tonight, at seven o'clock." He turned to Colin and mocked, "Is he allowed to do that?"

Colin only gave a terrified squeak in answer and fled the classroom, Harry stifling his amusement as he followed him. As they made their way upstairs, Colin whispered, "I don't get why you find him funny. He's so scary!"