Emma Potter; Going to War

74: Poison and Potions

We had stopped by the marble staircase to discuss what we've just witnessed.

"It's Dark Magic" I said "really Dark Magic. And that always leaves a mark; look at how good looking he was!"

"True" said Harry "but what are they? Potions? Objects? Some Flowers?"

"How are flowers dangerous?"

"They'll have properties--"

The  next day Harry and I confided in Zoe, Ron and Hermionethe task that Dumbledore had set us, though separately,for Hermione still refused to remain in Ron's presence longer thanit took to give him a contemptuous look. 

Ron thought that Harry and I were unlikely to have any trouble withSlughorn at all. 

"He loves you," he said over breakfast, waving an airy forkful offried egg. "Won't refuse you anything, will he? Not his little PotionsPrince and Princess. Just hang back after class this afternoon and ask him." 

Zoe said something along the same lines. 

"He'll give to you" she had said, as we got dressed "But it'll take time, won't it? Chances that you have the same answer 'Don't let me catch you mentioning them.' I mean, there'll be a limit right?

Hermione, however, took a gloomier view. 

"He must be determined to hide what really happened if Dumbledore couldn't get itout of him," she said in a low voice, as we stood in the deserted,snowy courtyard at break. "Horcruxes . . . Horcruxes . . . I've nevereven heard of them. . . ."

 "You haven't?" Harry was disappointed; we had hoped that Hermione might have been able to give him a clue as to what Horcruxes were.

 "They must be really advanced Dark Magic, or why wouldVoldemort have wanted to know about them? I think it's goingto be difficult to get the information, Harry, Emma you'll have to be verycareful about how you approach Slughorn, think out a strategy. . . ."

 "Ron reckons we should just hang back after Potions this afternoon. . . ." said Harry

 "Oh, well, if Won-Won thinks that, you'd better do it," she said,flaring up at once. "After all, when has Won-Won's judgment everbeen faulty?"

 "Hermione, can't you — ?" 

"No!" she said angrily, and stormed away, leaving Harry and me, sharing exasperated looks, aloneand ankle-deep in snow.

For Harry, Potions lessons were uncomfortable enough these days, seeing asHarry, Ron, and Hermione had to share a desk. Today, Hermionemoved her cauldron around the table so that she was close to Ernie,and ignored both Harry and Ron.

 "What've you done?"I heard Ron mutter to Harry, looking at Hermione's haughty profile.But before Harry could answer, Slughorn was calling for silencefrom the front of the room. 

"Settle down, settle down, please! Quickly, now, lots of work toget through this afternoon! Golpalott's Third Law . . . who can tellme — ? But Miss Potter can, of course!"

 I recited at top speed: "Golpalott's-Third-Law-states-that-the-antidote-for-a-blended-poison-will-be-equal-to-more-than-the-sum-of-the-antidotes-for-each-of-the-separate-components."

"Precisely!" beamed Slughorn. "Ten points for Slytherin! Now,if we accept Golpalott's Third Law as true . . ."

Nott was trying to peer into my book, into which I had scribbled notes. I smacked him away. 

". . . which means, of course, that assuming we have achievedcorrect identification of the potion's ingredients by Scarpin's Revelaspell, our primary aim is not the relatively simple one of selectingantidotes to those ingredients in and of themselves, but to find thatadded component that will, by an almost alchemical process, transform these disparate elements —"