Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 22 ⚡️

Vega looked toward the blackboard where the ingredients and instructions for the Draught of Peace were written. She took a moment to memorise the ingredients and then followed the students to the storage cupboard, peering around the shelves to pick up everything that the potion needed. She scrunched her nose up when she realised that she being surrounded by Slytherin boys by now.

Pushing them all aside before they could say anything, Vega left the store cupboard and back to the table that she was sharing with Harry, Ron and Hermione. She glanced over her shoulder to glared toward the snickering Slytherins before composing herself and turning her full attention to her cauldron.

Students were no longer sharing cauldrons, which was a good thing; they needed all the practice they could get with such difficult potions to then go on and perform at their O.W.L examinations, especially since the examiners will be from out of school.

"Everything's fine," Vega assured herself under her breath and tied her bunch of curls up into a bun at the back of her head before folding her sleeves toward her elbows to focus on her work.

The ingredients had to be added to the cauldron in precisely the right order and quantities; the mixture had to be stirred exactly the right number of times, firstly in clockwise, then in counter-clockwise directions; the heat of the flames on which it was simmering had to be lowered to exactly the right level for a specific number of minutes before the final ingredient was added.

"A light silver vapour should now be rising from your potion,"

Only ten minutes were left to go and Vega looked down to see that her potion was as perfectly done as it possibly could at that moment. But when Snape passed by her cauldron, he only glanced at and made no positive comments about it, as per usual. Hermione's potion received the same 'attention'.

When Vega looked around the dungeon, she saw that everyone was going through their own personal hell – Harry's cauldron was issuing copious amounts of dark grey steam; Ron's was spitting green sparks. Seamus was feverishly prodding the flames at the base of his cauldron with the tip of his wand, as they had gone out. Snape stopped at Harry's cauldron with a horrible smirk on his face.

"Potter, what is this supposed to be?" Snape asked.

The Slytherins at the front of the class all looked up eagerly; they loved hearing Snape taunt Harry, and Vega bit the inside of her lip, realising that Harry had just missed the last step.

"The Draught of Peace," Harry responded tensely.

"Tell me, Potter," Snape said softly. "Can you read?"

"Yes, I can," Harry said, his fingers clenched tightly around his wand as Malfoy laughed loudly.

"Read the third line of the instructions for me, Potter," Snape said.

Harry squinted at the blackboard; it was not easy to make out the instructions through the haze of multi-coloured steam now filling the dungeon. Vega was reaching up to grab her head, knowing that Snape was trying to justify his horrible behaviour. He was the kind of teacher that didn't allow his students to excel.

"'Add powdered moonstone, stir three times counter-clockwise, allow to simmer for seven minutes, then add two drops of syrup of hellebore,'" Harry read.

"Did you do everything on the third line, Potter?" Snape inquired.

"No," Harry replied, now very quietly.

"I beg your pardon?" Snape asked, clearly looking to ridicule him.

"No," Harry said, more loudly. "I forgot the hellebore..."