I Am Not Nothing

Chapter Six

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"Everyone pair with whoever you'd like. Whoever gets an accurate beautification potion will receive perfect marks for their next assignment. I suggest you get to work." My father said to the class. 

I immediately grabbed Draco's wrist. 

"That's not fair. I need a grade boost." Crabbe groaned. 

I rolled my eyes at the whining child.

"Fine, you get Daco. I'll get Goyle." I said to him.

I quickly got to assigning Goyal things to go get. 

"You can get morning dew, unicorn tail hair and ginger roots, as well as placing the cauldron on the fire and fill it half with water. I'll go get the fairy wings, lady's mantle and rose petals, as well as a mortar and pestle." I explained to Goyle, hoping he would remember everything I told him to do.

I went off to grab everything I needed. When I got back, I was surprised to see Goyle had done everything I told him to. 

"Read me what's first." I told him.

"Put 3 pairs of fairy wings in the mortar and grind with pestle." He read.

I did as he said and grinded the fairy wings. Then, I had to add six measures to the cauldron and stir three times, clockwise. Goyle added five measures of morning dew and stirred ten times, counter-clockwise.

"Turn to high heat for fifteen seconds." I read.

Goyle turned up the heat and counted to fifteen before turning it back down. I waved my wand over it and left the potion to brew. In the mean time, we began to prep for the rest of the potion. I prepared the seven rose petals and chopped the lady's mantle. Goyle crushed the ginger root into powder. When the potion was ready to be continued with, I began to add the petals with Goyle stirring in the right direction. Then, I added the lady's mantle. When I added a lock of unicorn tail hair, I ordered Goyle to stir vigorously, as the instructions told us to. I added the ginger root powder, the raised the heat. Goyle continued to stir as the potion simmered.

"We're going to get the most accurate potion, I know that." Goyle said to me.

I didn't disagree. If anything, I couldn't agree more. We followed exactly what the instructions said and didn't miss a second. Slacking was not an option. 

"You're brilliant. How do you know so much?" He asked me.

I shrugged, "My father is the professor. I have someone to look up to." I told him.

He laughed, "I know, but how do you know all this. Yeah, you grew up around it but-"

"Actually," I interrupted.

He was wrong. My father was a teacher, but he was never around. I was treated like a princess by house elves. That's all. I was taught to read at a young age. Then, when I was four, I started to go to the Malfoy's to be watched over by Narcissa and Lucius. My father feared that I would be too much of a burden for the house elves and I needed to be around other people like me. I explained exactly that to Goyle.

"I guess I just pick things up quickly and remember them well because of my parents. My mother was a Ravenclaw, and my father is a professor." I explained. 

"Oh." He said, awkwardly. 

I looked at the potion. It looked about ready. I turned off the heat and flicked my wand over the potion. I raised my hand and waited for my father to come over. 

"Quite accurate. Perfect, actually. Ten points for Slytherin and a perfect on the next assignment." My father told the two of us.

Soon after Goyle and I had finished, Crabbe and Draco were flicking a wand over the brew and raising their hands.