POTIONS
"𝖨'𝖽 𝗋𝖺𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋 𝖽𝗂𝖾."
—THE SLYTHERINS AND GRYFFINDORS WERE NOW IN POTIONS CLASS. Halfway through double Potions, Malfoy finally appeared in class.
He swaggered into the dungeon, his right arm covered in bandages and bound up in a sling, acting, in Alexandria's opinion, as though he was the heroic survivor of some dreadful battle.
"How is it, Draco?" simpered Pansy immediately. "Does it hurt much?'
"Yeah," said Draco, putting on a brave sort of grimace, but winked at Alexandria when Pansy had looked away.
She rolled her eyes and went back to her potion, not wanting to deal with her partner.
"Settle down, settle down," said Professor Snape idly.
On the other side of the classroom, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley scowled at each other; Snape wouldn't have said 'settle down' if they'd walked in late, he'd have given them detention. But the Slytherins had always been able to get away with anything in Snape's classes.
They were making a new potion today, a Shrinking Solution.
Draco set up his cauldron right next to Alexandria's, so that they were preparing their ingredients on the same table.
"Sir," Malfoy called, "sir, I'll need help cutting up these daisy roots, because of my arm—"
"Slytherin, cut up Malfoy roots—"
"Excuse me?" The Slytherin heiress cut him off coldly.
Snape finally looked up from the parchments in front of him, only now realizing what he had gotten himself into.
"I'd rather die." snarled the girl.
"Weasley, cut up Malfoy's roots for him," said Snape.
Ron Weasley went brick red.
Draco took his cauldron and walked up to Ron and Harry's table with a smirk.
"There's nothing wrong with your arm," Weasley hissed at Draco.
Draco's smirk didn't falter. "Weasley, you heard Professor Snape, cut up these roots."
Weasley seized his knife, pulled Draco's roots towards him and began to chop them roughly, so that they were all different sizes.
"Professor," drawled Malfoy, "Weasley's mutilating my roots, sir."
Snape approached their table, stared down his hooked nose at the roots, then gave Weasley an unpleasant smile from beneath his long, greasy black hair. "Change roots with Malfoy, Weasley."
"But sir—!"
Weasley had spent the last quarter of an hour carefully shredding his own roots into exactly equal pieces.
"Now," said Snape in his most dangerous voice.
Weasley shoved his own beautifully cut roots across the table at Draco, then took up the knife again.
"And, sir, I'll need this Shrivelfig skinned," said Draco, his voice full of malicious laughter.
"Potter, you can skin Malfoy's Shrivelfig," said Snape, giving Harry the look of loathing he always reserved just for him.
Harry took Draco's Shrivelfig as Ron set about trying to repair the damage to the roots he now had to use.
Harry skinned the Shrivelfig as fast as he could and flung it back across the table at Draco without speaking.
Draco was smirking more broadly than ever. "Seen your pal Hagrid lately?" he asked them quietly.
"None of your business," said Weasley jerkily, without looking up.
"I'm afraid he won't be a teacher much longer," said Draco, in a tone of mock sorrow. "Father's not very happy about my injury—"
"Keep talking, Malfoy, and I'll give you a real injury," snarled Weasley.
"—he's complained to the school governors. And to the Ministry of Magic. Father's got a lot of influence, you know. And a lasting injury like this—" he gave a huge, fake sigh, "who knows if my arm'll ever be the same again?"
Alexandria, who was passing by them, stopped and turned around. She gave him a mock sorrowful look. "Such weakness, Malfoy. Not that I expected any less, of course."
Draco flushed, but tried to cover it up by a sneer. He didn't have the chance to talk back as the girl was now going back to the other side of the classroom.
"So that's why you're putting it on," said Harry, accidentally beheading a dead caterpillar because his hand was shaking in anger. "To try and get Hagrid sacked."
"Well," said the Malfoy heir, lowering his voice to a whisper, "partly, Potter. But there are other benefits, too. Weasley, slice my caterpillars for me."
A few cauldrons away, Longbottom was in trouble. Neville regularly went to pieces in Potions lessons; it was his worst subject, and his great fear of Professor Snape made things ten times worse. His potion, which was supposed to be a bright, acid green, had turned—
"Orange, Longbottom," said Snape, ladling some up and allowing it to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see. "Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was needed? Didn't I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?"
Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears.
"Please, sir," Granger cut in, "please, I could help Neville put it right—"
"I don't remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger," said Snape coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. "Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly."
Snape moved away, leaving Neville breathless with fear. "Help me!" he said to Hermione.
"Hey, Harry," said Seamus Finnigan, leaning over to borrow Harry's brass scales, "have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning – the dementors reckon they know where your sister is."
"Where?" asked Harry, voice filled with hope. On the other side of the table, Malfoy looked up, listening closely.
"Not too far from here," said Seamus, who looked excited. "It was a dementor who guarded the black lake. Said something about a dark core. They didn't believe it was her at first, but they could still feel it. Course, dementors aren't really good at this, are they? They can't even see, only hear and feel. By the time they had told the Minister, your sister's core thing was gone."
"Not too far from here.. also— your sister had a dark core?" Weasley repeated in disgust, looking significantly at Harry. He turned around and saw Malfoy watching closely. "What, Malfoy? Need something else skinning?"
But Draco's eyes were shining malevolently, and they were fixed on Harry. He leant across the table. "Thinking of trying to find your sister single-handed, Potter?"
"Yeah, that's right," said Harry offhandedly.
Malfoy's thin mouth was curving in a mean smile.
"Of course, if it was me," he said quietly, "I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like a good boy, I'd be out there looking for her."
"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" asked Harry roughly.
"Don't you know, Potter?" breathed Draco, his pale eyes narrowed.
"Know what?"
Malfoy let out a low, sneering laugh.
"Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," he said. "Want to leave it to the Dementors, do you? But if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt down the person who took her myself."
"What are you talking about?" said Harry angrily, but at that moment Snape called, "You should have finished adding your ingredients by now. This potion needs to stew before it can be drunk; clear away while it simmers and then we'll test Longbottom's.."
Crabbe and Goyle laughed openly, watching Neville sweat as he stirred his potion feverishly. Hermione Granger was muttering instructions to him out of the corner of her mouth, so that Snape wouldn't see.
Harry and Ron packed away their unused ingredients and went to wash their hands and ladles in the stone basin in the corner.
"What did Malfoy mean?" Harry muttered to Ron as he stuck his hands under the icy jet that poured from a gargoyle's mouth. "How does he even know that somebody kidnapped my sister?"
"Everyone knows, Harry. Daily prophet," said Ron as if it was obvious, "He's also trying to make you do something stupid."
♡
The end of the lesson in sight, Snape strode over to Neville, who was cowering by his cauldron.
"Everyone gather round," said Snape, his black eyes glittering, "and watch what happens to Longbottom's toad. If he has managed to produce a Shrinking Solution, it will shrink to a tadpole. If, as I don't doubt, he has done it wrong, his toad is likely to be poisoned."
Alexandria stood up with intrigue that was hidden.
The Gryffindors watched fearfully. The Slytherins looked excited.
Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand, and dipped a small spoon into Neville's potion, which was now green.
He trickled a few drops down Trevor's throat.
There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there was a small pop, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape's palm.
The Gryffindors burst into applause, while the Slytherins' shoulders all slumped.
Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.
"Five points from Gryffindor," said Snape, which wiped the smiles from every face. "I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed."