Chapter 10 — Potions
"Now then, listen carefully..."
Penny began her briefing when we reached the Potions classroom and found it locked. She did not seem at all surprised by this.
"...Professor Snape arrives five minutes before the lesson begins. The most important thing to remember: do not argue with him, and do not call out answers without being asked. He asks questions at the start of his lessons, and if you know the answer, simply raise your hand, sit calmly, and wait to be called on -- or not called on. Unfortunately Potions falls on your first full day, so there was simply no chance to advise you to read a few chapters beforehand."
Penny paused briefly, then continued a moment later.
"Professor Snape is very strict and will not tolerate any nonsense in his classroom. Please take the lesson seriously -- for many sought-after careers, such as Auror, Healer, Dragonologist, Curse-Breaker, and many others, Potions will be required at least to O.W.L. standard. And now I shall leave you in the care of Mr Black, Ravenclaw."
"Penny..."
I called to her before she could hurry away.
"Yes?"
"I need to get to Professor Flitwick's classroom about two hours before dinner. I could probably find my way on my own -- the route is not complicated -- but he said you would take me."
"Of course..."
She nodded.
"...I have nothing on at that time anyway, so I am happy to help. But what is this about? Have you already managed to get yourself into trouble?"
"He's been given an exam covering the first two years!"
One of the girls decided to tell Penny the full story on my behalf.
"Is that so?"
Penny looked at me questioningly, and I gave a confirming nod.
"Are you confident about it?"
"Yes."
"Well then -- congratulations. That is quite an achievement. If you pass with top marks..."
Penny pressed one finger to her lips and tapped it thoughtfully a couple of times.
"...I will be your attendant for a week!"
She raised the same finger in the air as though a marvellous idea had just occurred to her.
"Penny, I appreciate the gesture, but I already have an attendant and I am perfectly satisfied with her services. Perhaps you can think of something else?"
I tilted my head slightly.
"What? Oh! Yes, sorry..."
Penny glanced over my shoulder -- at Daphne, I presumed -- with a slightly guilty expression.
"...I got a little carried away. It is not every day one sees a first-year with his own personal attendant, whose rather costly tuition at Hogwarts he is paying for himself."
"But tuition is free!"
Hermi could not stay out of it.
"So then, what should the wager be..."
I saw Penny's eyes flicker briefly towards the voice coming from behind me, but she clearly decided to focus on the question she considered more pressing. I meanwhile found myself reflecting that over all these years my mothers had never quite managed to dislodge Snape from his teaching position. Not that they had thrown every possible effort into it, but still...
The short of it was that Dumbledore had been extremely reluctant to move his personal spy, and at a family council we had concluded that it would be simpler to open a preparatory school -- somewhere that anyone who needed a particular subject could acquire the necessary skills, even if they had failed their O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s.
"Suppose I... well, I really don't know..."
Penny looked at me with a charmingly helpless expression.
"How about this -- if I pass everything, you greet me every morning for a year..."
I paused for a couple of seconds, my gaze drifting briefly over Penny's figure, which was already fairly well-developed. She went slightly pink, and I could see indignation gathering in her expression, ready to be delivered.
"...with a kiss on the cheek."
Her eyes went wide with surprise.
"And if I fail the professor's examination, I will cover your visit to any establishment in Hogsmeade every weekend."
"Just mine, or mine and my friends'?"
I shrugged.
"Yours and, say, two or three friends of your choosing."
It made very little difference to me either way. My pocket money for the year, which my mothers had given me, came to nearly a thousand Galleons -- more than enough for that, with a great deal left over. Well over half, in fact. And if I had somehow underestimated Penny's appetite, I could always ask my mothers to send a little more. After all, I had left almost all of it at home and brought only a hundred and fifty Galleons with me.
"Deal!"
Penny extended her hand, and I seized the moment -- I took it at a slight angle and pressed my lips to the air just above it, rather than shaking it. The prefect went pleasantly pink. Then I turned back to the first-years.
"Miss Patil, would you do us the honour?"
I nodded towards the joined hands, and Padma stepped forward and broke the handshake neatly.
"Thank you."
"Yes, thank you -- and I promise you will be invited to our little outings at least once a month, all on Draco's account."
"Thank you..."
Padma smiled.
"...though I rather think it will be you who ends up kissing him on the cheek every morning for a year."
"Sorry?"
"Well -- he has already demonstrated several spells in class and Professor Flitwick was more than satisfied. They have also already discussed certain arrangements that Mr Black..."
"That will do, Padma."
I smiled at the girl from India, and she gave me a slightly flushed nod.
"...Draco -- will be taking on once he has passed the examination."
"You tricked me!"
Penny gave an expression of exaggerated indignation.
"Tricked you? No..."
I shook my head with a faint smile.
"...I merely entered into a wager knowing the outcome in advance. But..."
I made a show of glancing at my watch.
"...if you like, we can continue this conversation later. Right now you have a lesson to get to, and I should keep an eye on our first-years."
"Tch..."
She gave a slight toss of her chin, doing her best to appear thoroughly displeased. But she smiled at me a moment later nonetheless, gave a nod, and set off at a brisk pace. I turned back to the group.
Before long the Hufflepuffs joined us, brought by their prefect. Why they could possibly have got lost on the way I could not fathom -- unless they had been taken back to their common room first and led here from there. Quite possible, now that I thought about it. In any case, no one delivered a speech at the door. The Hufflepuff prefect simply brought them and stood slightly to one side, smiling quietly as his first-years chattered away amongst themselves.
"Into the classroom..."
I noticed Snape's arrival -- barely, at the very edge of my awareness. Even that much was enough to tell me that he trained regularly, though he was still a very long way from matching Filch's absolute silence. Though he was probably not attempting anything of the sort -- more likely simply maintaining a solid level of physical fitness, since standing over a cauldron for long stretches at a time was demanding enough on its own.
I held the Ravens back with a gesture to let the Hufflepuffs file in first, then we followed and took our seats. Daphne and I each chose separate single workstations for brewing alone; the others mostly settled at the two-person benches.
"In this classroom there will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations."
Snape spoke with a slight air of condescension -- directed not at the activities he was describing, but at us, the children.
"As customary, I do not expect many of you to appreciate the... precise science and subtle art of potion-making."
He made a great show of surveying the class. Snape himself was dressed in a black duelling coat beneath a black cloak left open at the front. The effect was... well, to my eyes it was rather theatrical -- this effort to strike dread and reverence into a roomful of children so they would not misbehave. Though that was only how it seemed to me and Daphne, having sat through Mum Bella's lessons on more than one occasion, and she could be considerably more genuinely frightening whenever she chose.
Though even Bella rarely resorted to it, preferring to present material in a way that made us want to pay attention of our own accord.
"However, those select few... who demonstrate aptitude..."
Snape paused dramatically, his gaze moving across us. I noticed it linger on me and on several other students, apparently on the Ravenclaw side. I expected him to say something, but he chose not to interrupt himself.
"...I can teach to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell them how to brew fame, bottle glory, and even stopper death."
The words were well-chosen, delivered with precisely the right inflection, and produced exactly the right effect. I suspected even Daphne and I might have felt something, were it not for Bella -- and Mum Cissy, for that matter, could command a room far more effectively still.
"Potter!"
I turned my head just enough to see Harry set down his quill and get quickly to his feet.
"Ah, our new celebrity..."
A few of the Hufflepuffs sniggered at that.
"...I imagine you think rather highly of yourself, if you feel free to ignore me and sit there drawing."
"Sir..."
"Well then -- let us see what you have to say for yourself..."
A sardonic smile curved Snape's lips.
"Professor Snape, your speech moved me so much that I wanted to write it down, so I would never forget what Potions is capable of."
Snape's eyes opened fractionally wider in surprise -- and I realised that Harry was not made of simple stuff. Or perhaps Snape's speech had genuinely gripped him so much that he had wanted to record it.
"We shall see..."
As I had anticipated, the professor was not given to credulity. He drew his wand from its holster, Summoned the parchment Harry had apparently been writing on, and read through it quickly. Harry was sharing a bench with Hermione, as it happened.
"Hmm... so it is..."
Snape shook his head and returned the parchment to Potter's desk with the same casual wand movement.
"...though if I were you, Mr Potter, I would consider taking some penmanship lessons. Any essay written in a hand like that will receive no higher than a Poor from me."
"I beg your pardon -- Poor?"
"Miss, kindly do not call out from your seat..."
Snape visibly winced in Hermione's direction -- she had been the one to ask.
"...however, I will excuse it this once and this once only. Normally the grading system used at Hogwarts is explained by my colleague Professor McGonagall, but as you have come to me directly from Charms, and Professor Flitwick does not typically give marks in the first month..."
A note of disapproval was audible in the professor's voice.
"Outstanding -- O, Exceeds Expectations -- E, Acceptable -- A. These are the passing grades. Below that comes Poor -- P. That is a failing grade but does not require a resit. Dreadful -- D, and Troll -- T are fully failing grades and require a resit. I would like you all to remember this: if you receive a D or a T on a practical task, you must come to me on Friday three hours before dinner to brew the potion again. If you receive either of those grades on an essay, you must bring a revised version to the following lesson -- along with whatever essay I set for that lesson -- and the revision must be twice the length of what I originally assigned."
"Is that clear?"
"Yes."
A rather subdued chorus rose from the first-years.
"Good. And I do not wish to hear that you did not know a D or T required redoing, did not know when to come, or did not know you had to rewrite an essay. One more thing..."
He looked the class over with a slightly appraising eye.
"...this applies particularly to Ravenclaw. Every year there are clever students who, instead of writing an essay, simply copy out a chapter or splice together paragraphs from various books and consider themselves clever for it. Such an essay -- like an essay written in illegible handwriting covered in ink blots -- will receive no higher than a Poor from me. Is that understood?"
"Yes."
Another chorus answered him.
"Potter, I do not believe I gave you permission to sit down..."
Snape raised Harry to his feet once more.
"...now then -- let us find out whether you opened your Potions textbook before the start of term. We shall begin with something straightforward. What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
"Er... I don't know, sir..."
Snape winced slightly.
"Very well. If I asked you to find me a bezoar, where would you look?"
"Er..."
Harry looked uncertain.
"...if I am not mistaken, a bezoar is found inside a goat?"
"Acceptable..."
Snape gave a faint nod of something almost like encouragement, and I was genuinely surprised -- Harry had clearly opened the textbook at some point before term began.
"What is the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?"
"I am sorry, sir, I don't know."
"Well... your answers suggest that you did at least open the textbook. One point to Ravenclaw. Had you answered all three questions, you would have earned three points for your House. Now -- everyone please write down the correct answers..."