Chapter - 44 : The Potion Incident

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"Today you will be brewing a simple potion to cure boils. It's easy enough that a toddler could do it, so I expect no mistakes. You will divide into pairs. The recipe can be found in Magical Drafts & Potions. You may begin."

Harry immediately scooted closer to me. He flipped through his copy of the textbook to find the recipe while I opened up my potions kit.

"What do we need?" I asked him. He pushed the book across the table so that it rested between us. I scanned the recipe and began plucking out ingredients and equipment. I passed Harry my jar of snake fangs. "Start counting out six."

He obligingly fished six out, being careful not to stab himself in the finger with them. I offered him the mortar and he dropped them inside.

"It says grind them to a fine powder," Harry said, staring at the recipe. I got to work grinding, eyes fixed on the recipe.

"Get the cauldron ready for them?" I requested, and Harry set to work lighting the fire.

I assumed that this textbook was geared towards younger students. In addition to the actual recipe, the section also held explanations of the ingredients and what they did, as well as what the operative parts were in the mixture. I scanned through all of this quickly.

It looked like we brought the snake fangs to a boil and then stirred. After that, we sliced up and added Pungous Onions. A glance at the section on those showed that it was the juices that reacted with the snake fangs. The slicing was to help release the juices into the potion more quickly that just letting it steep.

"Add four measures of this," I said, passing the mortar to Harry. He took up the measure and began filling it carefully while I reached for the onions and my small silver knife. I raised the blade, ready to slice, but paused.

If the key was to release the juice, then perhaps there was something I could do to help that along.

I set the knife aside and placed the flat of my palm on the onions, pressing lightly and rolling them on the table. It was what bartenders did to make limes for drinks juicier. I had no way of knowing if it would do anything, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try.

Finished rolling, I started slicing the onions into even pieces. I looked up as Harry dropped in the last measure of the snake fangs, setting the remnants aside. He stirred once. I lifted my cutting board up over the potion, but paused as my hair fell in the way. Irritably I swatted it back into place and used the flat of my knife to scrape the pieces of onion into the cauldron. Almost instantly it became the yellowish color it was supposed to and I smiled in satisfaction. I gave the potion a few stirs.

"Now the nettles," Harry said, tossing in the dried nettles. They sank into the potion.

"And the Flobberworm mucus." I pulled the small greenish bottle from my potions kit and took off the lid. I was supposed to stir vigorously after I put it in, but I continued to stir gently as I poured it in to distribute it better. I let a dash fall in and straightened up the bottle, passing it to Harry to close as I started to stir vigorously. The potion began to darken to a deep green, letting off some spirals of smoke.

I glanced back at the recipe, having to blow my hair out of my face again. Next came four horned slugs. But if the reading I had done was correct, adding an extra slug and a little powdered ginger root would help counteract the nausea that some people experienced after taking the potion.

I looked at the rest of my stock of the onions thoughtfully. If I was already getting a little creative, I might as well go all the way. In for a penny in for a pound. Or rather, in for a Knut, in for a Galleon.

"Keep stirring," I advised Harry, passing the stirring rod to him. He took over, continuing to stir vigorously. I counted out four slugs, hesitated, and added a fifth one to the small bowl. On top of it, I sprinkled a little bit of powdered ginger root, picking up the bowl and readying it.

"Whoa, what're you doing?" Harry hissed, staring into the bowl. "What's the brown stuff on top?"

"Powdered ginger root," I replied, nodding to the bottle. The potion was slowly turning the pretty peach color it was supposed to. The steam it was letting off became more consistent, just like the book described.

"The recipe doesn't call for-"

"I know, just trust me," I urged, grabbing my hair in my free hand to keep it from swinging forwards over the cauldron like it had when I added the onions earlier. Harry looked hesitant, but he gave me the go-ahead. I dropped in the snails and ginger. The potion turned a darker peach, the smoke becoming the same color. That was what the book said was supposed to happen, so it seemed we hadn't done anything too horrible.

"What made you think of that?" Harry asked curiously.

I could dimly hear Snape telling the class about how nicely Malfoy's slugs were doing. I explained, "I read that some people get nauseous after they take it. Ginger counteracts nausea, and it shouldn't affect anything else in the potion, so long as we added the extra slug."

Harry looked impressed. "Wow."

I shrugged. "I learned a few things about combining ingredients cooking. And besides, I don't set toasters on fire," I snickered.

"It was one time," Harry groaned. I chuckled softly at the memory. "Come on, we have to take it of the fire so-"

"Already on it."

I had just taken the cauldron off the fire when a loud hissing and a wretched smell filled the classroom. I looked up and saw that two tables over Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, their potion letting off acid green smoke in thick clouds.

Their potion seeped across the floor. It hit Parvati and Lavender first, who yelped when the potion burned holes in their shoes. They leapt onto their stools and the rest of us were quick to follow suit. Neville was groaning, having been sprayed with the potion when the cauldron collapsed. Angry red boils sprang up all over his legs.

"Idiot boy!" Snape brandished his wand and the potion disappeared. Slowly, we came down from our stools. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before you took the cauldron off the fire?"

Neville whimpered as boils appeared on his nose.

"You, take him to the hospital wing," Snape ordered Seamus, who hastened to drag Neville up and out of the room. He whipped around, eyes probing us furiously. They settled on Harry and he opened his mouth. "You, Potter, why didn't you tell him-" He paused. I followed his eyes and realized he'd noticed the ginger still sitting out on the table.

Harry saw where he was looking as well. He hastily shoved the Flobberworm mucus in front of it, but the damage was done. Snape's eyes blazed in triumph.

"How odd," Snape said, voice low. "I don't recall this potion calling for ginger. So why is it on your table, Mr. Potter?"

Harry's mouth dropped open like a fish and he struggled for words. He hadn't put it there, he didn't have the answer.

"I did it, Professor," I spoke up. His eyes flicked to me. Suddenly he looked less pleased to cause harry grief and more curious about why in the world I'd dragged out the ginger.

"I see." He narrowed his eyes. "See me after class, Miss Potter."

Malfoy snickered, Parkinson joining him with a cackle. I scowled at them.

"Yes sir," I replied, turning back to our potion. Unlike Neville, we'd gotten our cauldron off the fire. As class picked up around us again, I tossed in the porcupine quills.

"I shouldn't have let you do that," Harry muttered, shame-faced. "I knew it wasn't in the recipe-"

"It was my idea, it's my fault," I said shortly, stirring counterclockwise, carefully counting. "Don't blame yourself Harry, that's silly."

"But I could have-"

"Said no?" I challenged. "And I would have listened?"

"No," he relented. I smirked.

"Exactly. Now, one more and we should be-" I pulled the stirring rod from the potion. It turned the pink color the book described and let off steam of the same color. "Yes." I sat back in my seat, smiling smugly as I reached for a cloth to dry the stirring rod.

Harry frowned between the book and the potion. "But you added extra stuff in, so why-?"

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