Servitium| Theodore Nott

Chapter Thirty-Four

Ivory never really enjoyed the route to the dungeons, it was long and it was cold, however she had come to like it during her fifth year. Her many journeys down to Snape's office to engage in a battle of the mind, no matter how gruelling it would be. However the route felt, different, no longer was this the route to Snape's classroom, it was Slughorn's. A man that deemed her bad news through no fault of her own.

"Harry Potter! Blaise Zabini! I'm delighted the two of you are in my class," Slughorn greeted jovially as the group of twelve filed into the classroom of which five were Gryffindor, four were Slytherin, two were Ravenclaw and one was Hufflepuff.

"I'm surprised all these Gryffindors chose potions when they thought Professor Snape would be teaching," Draco sneered. "That's how many? Five Gryffindors surprised they even qualified with their lack of knowledge." Ivory rolled her eyes, she didn't know whether Draco had actually meant that or he was doing it to keep up appearances, she went with the former.

"Funny. I could of sworn the brightest witch of our age is in Gryffindor and not in Slytherin,"Fabiola snapped.

"House unity!" Slughorn clapped and Fabiola turned away from Draco with a scowl.

"House unity!" Ivory scoffed, didn't he know Hogwarts? Slytherins didn't get along with anyone other than themselves. Hufflepuff was the only house that managed to get along with the other three houses...barely.

"Yes, house unity... Miss Galliano I presume,"Slughorn observed her his expression grim. "Welcome to sixth-year Potions. I didn't know you were in Gryffindor."

Ivory opted for a polite nod, when really she wanted to hex him for how rudely he was behaving. As the elder and the professor he could have pretended to be nice, instead of looking at her like she was the scum of the earth. Well, she supposed that was the price to pay, with parents like hers, her reputation would be forever tainted. Although, if Slughorn fancied himself a social leech, he would be much better off licking the boot of Ivory Galliano, Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott, at least there was a ninety-nine percent chance that they would guarantee him success to feed off, much more than the likes of Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley.

"Now then, now then, now then" Slughorn cleared his throat and moved to the front of the class. "Scales out, everyone, and potion kits, and don't forget your copies of Advanced Potion-Making."

"Can we share? I didn't know I would be able to do potions. I've written to my mum, I should get all my stuff by tomorrow," Fabiola asked Ivory who nodded.

"Yeah, of course." She pushed over the textbook a little.

"I considered getting potions stuff, I thought I would fight Snape on it, he'd have to let me do it then, I got an Exceeds Expectations. Otherwise I'd burn down the dungeons for revenge but mum convinced me otherwise." Fabiola grinned, Ivory let out a laugh in response.

"Now then I've prepared a few potions for you to have a look at, just out of interest, you know. These are the kind of thing you ought to be able to make after completing your N.E.W.T.s. You ought to have heard of 'em, even if you haven't made 'em yet. Anyone tell me what this one is?" Typically Hermione's hand shot into the air before anyone else could even have time to process the question. Ivory caught the slight eye roll Fabiola gave and she frowned deciding she would speak to her after the lesson about it.

"It's Veritaserum, a colourless, odourless, potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth,"Hermione answered and Ivory smirked. Bellatrix had told her that only those who lived in their memories would Veritaserum work on. Having been trained in Occlumency, Ivory was sure that with enough willpower she could resist Veritaserum or even the Imperius curse. Learning Occlumency had resulted in high mental and emotional discipline for Ivory, and in a way she was grateful to Snape for teaching her the skill, and Draco had become decent at it, thus Dumbledore or anybody wouldn't be able to pluck their plan out of their minds.