20|What are Friends for?
Hermione had a great start that day even though she slept through breakfast. She didn’t even notice herself smiling all the way to her first lesson which is Potions.
Hermione entered the classroom and sat in front. After a while, Harry sat at the seat next to her.
“Hey.” He greeted.
“Something’s wrong.” Hermione said.
“What’s wrong?”
“You don’t usually seat in front, Harry.” She said.
“Besides, you always seat beside Ron.” She added.
But before he could answer, Professor Slughorn already entered the room.
“Okay everyone, settle down.” The professor said.
“Can anyone in this room tell me is in this cauldron?” He said referring to the vial beside a cauldron.
Immediately, Hermione raised her hand.
“Ms. Granger.”
“It’s a Wiggenweld potion. It is a healing potion with a power to awaken a person from a magically-induced sleep.”
Hermione said in her know-it-all tone.
“Excellent. 10 points to Gryffindor.” Professor Slughorn said and Hermione smiled.
“It is an antidote for the Draught of Living Dead.”
“As you can see, today you will be making this potion. The procedure will be found on page 20 of your textbooks. Your partner is the person beside you.”Professor Slughorn added.
“It’s totally awesome if I get paired up with you, Hermione. I’m pretty confident that we finish this potion in perfection.” Harry whispered to Hermione as they opened their books.
“If you sat beside me because you somehow foresaw this-“ Hermione whispered back but Harry cut her off.
“I sat beside you because Ron isn’t here and I want to sit with my bestfriend who is avoiding me for weeks.” He said.
Hermione looked around and he was right. Ron was nowhere to be found. She instantly became guilty of what she said.
“Harry, could you get these ingredients? I’m just gonna prepare our cauldron.” She changed the topic.
“Let me look at the list.”
One pint of Horklump juice
2 drops of Flobberworn Mucus
7 Chizpurfle fangs
Billywig sting slime
A sprig of mint
Boom berry juice
One stewed Mandrake
Drops of Honeywater
Sloth brain Mucus
Moondew drops
Salamander blood
10 Lionfish spines
Unicorn horn
Wolfsbane
And then Harry left to get the ingredients as Hermione sigh in relief and started preparing the cauldron.
***
They didn’t talk to each other as soon as Harry came back along with the ingredients. They exchanged a few words such as “pass me that” or “could you get me that” but other than that they haven’t.
It was not until the potion turned green that one of them started talking.
“You know, you could tell me what happened with you and Ron.” He said.
“I-I’m sorry but I can’t.” She replied putting some salamander blood into the potion and it turned turquoise.
“Why can’t you tell me? It’s been many weeks, Hermione.”
The potion turned indigo.
“I’m afraid, Harry.” She confessed as she continued making the potion that turned pink as she said those words.
“Afraid of what?” The potion was now red. The same colour as Hermione face.
“Afraid of going back through the pain again.”
She continued making the potion. It turned yellow.
She added a few more ingredients until it turned purple.
“It’s part of moving on, Hermione. Besides, we’re you’re bestfriends. What are friends for?”
She didn’t reply. Instead she focused herself more into the potion until it turns red again.
And then as the potion turns orange, Harry realised that Hermione isn’t going to reply so he said,”If you really want to move on, you need to stop running away from it and face it. Bravely like a Gryffindor.”
The potion turned yellow.
And then to orange again.
And into turquoise.
And into pink.
And when Professor Slughorn came into their table, the potion turned green.
“Excellent! What a perfectly brewed potion. 20 points to Gryffindor.” He exclaimed.
“Just put it into a vial with your names on it and put it in my table. Then you can go.” He added.
Hermione did what she was told immediately and went straight to the door.
But not before slipping a note on Harry’s hand.
After Lunch
ROR
Bring Ginny with you
YOU ARE READING
Painful Things
FanfictionAs Hermione came back to Hogwarts for her final year, she found herself spending a lot of time with Draco Malfoy due to the fact that both of her friends have been too busy with their own girlfriends. As they spend time together, Draco Malfoy fell i...
