The Green Girl

Sixth Year Part 2

Hermione walked into the first Potions class of the year feeling faintly melancholy. Potions had been - since she'd come to Hogwarts - the place she'd felt most at home outside the dormitories. Snape had insulted her, thrown things at her, sneered at her, even, to some extent, confided in her. She trusted him absolutely. Now this odd sanctuary was going to be invaded by a man who liked to acquire students who might be powerful later and students who were related to the powerful.

If Blaise had played his cards right, her.

It left a bad taste in her mouth.

She watched the students slip into the room. Only twelve of them had progressed to N.E.W.T. level Potions work and she gathered at a table with Draco, Theo, and Blaise. The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students sat together, leaving Weasley and Potter to sit alone. The room was already filled with bubbling cauldrons and wonderful smells and Hermione inhaled deeply.

Professor Slughorn waddled into the room and smiled genially at all of them but far more warmly at Potter and Blaise. "Welcome, welcome," he said. "N.E.W.T. Potions is where it starts to get interesting and I thought we'd explore a few of the draughts you'll be learning to make this year plus one more that is really far too complicated for you to tackle but, oh, worth discussing anyway because I want to make this first class a little, well, sporting shall we say.

"Please take all your things out and don't forget your copy of Advanced Potion Making," Slughorn continued and Potter raised his hand.

"Harry, yes m'boy?" the man asked and Hermione looked at Theo whose expression mirrored her own feeling of disgust at the cheerful, ingratiating familiarity.

"Ron and I don't have, well, anything because we didn't realize we'd be able to take Potions until we got here."

Well, Hermione knew who hadn't gotten 'Outstanding's on their Potions O.W.L.. She felt a tiny bit ashamed at how smug she felt that she and hers had done better than the two Gryffindors on the exam. Slughorn was nattering on about that was quite all right and he was sure that they had some old books around the pair could use and, fishing some out of a store room and handing them over, and, at last, the class was ready to begin.

Slughorn pointed to a clear liquid boiling away. "Now then, let's see who can identify these."

No one responded and, at last, Hermione put her hand up. He nodded at her and she said, "Veritaserum. Colourless, odorless, and forces the drinker to tell the truth. Shouldn't be mixed with Babbling potions."

"Well done Miss..." he glanced down at his roster. As the only girl in the class, she was easy to identify. "Granger."

He moved on to the next potion, a bubbling mud-like substance. Draco, Theo, and Hermione all smiled at one another. They recognized Polyjuice from their adventure brewing it in their second year. When no one responded Theo nudged Hermione and, with a sigh, she put her hand into the air again.

"Polyjuice Potion," she said when Slughorn acknowledged her.

"Well," he said, "I suppose I might as well simply ask you outright what this third one is, Miss Granger."

She looked at the potion with its mother-of-pearl sheen and the spirals of steam rising into the air. "Amortentia," she said softly. "A powerful love potion. It's different for each person; it smells like what they love most in the world." She paused and inhaled. "Like a broom handle, maybe, and herbs, and..." She trailed off and flushed.

"A broom handle?" Theo asked under his breath. "You hate flying."

"Shut up, Theo," she muttered.

"Miss Granger," Slughorn regarded her with great interest. "Could you possibly be related to Hector Dagforth-Granger, the founder of the Most Extraordinary Society of Potioneers?"