Grindelwald's Burden (Books 1-7)

109. Birthday Surprises

At breakfast the next day Harry and Y/n confided in both Ron and Hermione the task that Dumbledore had set them.

Ron thought that Harry was unlikely to have any trouble with Slughorn at all. "He loves you." he said over breakfast, waving an airy forkful of fried egg. "Won't refuse you anything, will he? Not his little Potions Prince. Just hang back after class this afternoon and ask him."

Hermione, however, took a gloomier view. "He must be determined to hide what really happened if Dumbledore couldn't get it out of him." she said in a low voice. "Horcruxes...Horcruxes...I've never even heard of them..."

"Nor have I..." Y/n admitted. "And I read plenty of dark books earlier this year, none of which mentioned them in the slightest."

"You both haven't?" Harry was disappointed.

"They must be really advanced Dark magic, or why would Voldemort have wanted to know about them? I think it's going to be difficult to get the information, Harry, you'll have to both be very careful about how you approach Slughorn, think out a strategy..." Hermione warned them.

That afternoon the four were in potions having just set their cauldrons down.

"Settle down, settle down, please!" Slughorn said. "Quickly, now, lots of work to get through this afternoon! Golpalott's Third Law...who can tell me...But Miss Granger can, of course!"

"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." Hermione recited at top speed.

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

Harry was going to have to take Slughorn's word for it that Golpalott's Third Law was true, because he had not understood any of it. Nobody apart from Y/n and Hermione seemed to be following what Slughorn said next, either.

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

Ron was sitting beside Harry with his mouth half-open, doodling absently on his new copy of Advanced Potion-Making, figuring he could rely on Hermione to help him out of trouble when he failed to grasp what was going on.

"...and so." finished Slughorn. "I want each of you to come and take one of these phials from my desk. You are to create an antidote for the poison within it before the end of the lesson. Good luck, and don't forget your protective gloves!"

Hermione had left her stool and was halfway towards Slughorn's desk before the rest of the class had realised it was time to move, Y/n got up a moment later and followed behind her. As he waited in a small queue Hermione was already rushing back to their table phial in hand. Soon it was Y/n's turn and he looked to pick one out.

"Ah...Grindelwald." Slughorn said. "Dumbledore wants me to see how dab an eye you are at potions so I've prepared a particularly tricky one for you." Slughorn said and he placed a bottle filled with a liquid of blood red. "Let's see how you do eh?" He said enthusiastically.

Y/n just picked up the potion and walked back to the table as he curiously examined the bottle. Hermione had already tipped the contents of her phial into her cauldron and was kindling a fire underneath it.

"That wasn't in the selection..." Hermione said noticing the bottle in Y/n's hand.

"Slughorn brewed this for me specifically. Apparently Dumbledore is testing me." Y/n said.