Alexandra Dursley {Golden Trio}

Chapter 99 - Draught of Living Death

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 Aside from the incidents at breakfast, Al enjoyed her first morning back at Hogwarts. They went over the course aims, and began the basic principles of alchemy for the first lesson, and Al found that Dumbledore was actually quite a good teacher. Arithmancy was the same. She sat with Theo and saw Hermione had taken the class too. Other than that, there were four Ravenclaws and a Hufflepuff called Susan Bones that Al had never spoken to.

 Al had lunch with Daphne and Theo, and told them all about what Dumbledore had said about Draco. "But you've never liked Dumbledore!" Theo protested.

 "Only when we wanted different things. He's offering to train me up now," Al reminded them.

 "Do you really think Draco deserves a second chance? Or Dumbledore for that matter?" Daphne asked, furrowing her brow.

 "I think everyone deserves a second chance," Al admitted, "I'm just going to talk to him. Try and find out where his head's at."

 "Alright," Theo said, "But I'm still not sure."

 Al then spent their free period doing the essay Dumbledore had set on the seven basic laws of Alchemy, three of which, Al discovered, had been found by Dumbledore and Flamel.

 Then, Al headed off to double Potions with Theo, leaving Daphne in the common room, and taking the short trip to the correct classroom. When she arrived, she sat with Theo near the front of the room, and looked at everyone else. Harry, Ron and Hermione were sat with Ernie Macmillan, there were four Ravenclaws that included Terry Boot, Mandy Brocklehurst, Lisa Turpin and Anthony Goldstein, all sat together, and Draco and Zabini were sat together.

 Al and Theo got all their things out, and Slughorn began the lesson by asking the class to identify the four potions in the cauldrons at the front. The first one, a colourless watery substance, was veritaserum, and Hermione identified it so.

 The second one Al recognised from its description in the Ministry leaflets that had been owled to everyone over the summer. Polyjuice potion. Hermione got that one right too. The third one had spiralling smoke and a pearly sheen to it. Amortentia. Al inhaled it and smelt pine trees, new books, chocolate pudding and fireworks going off.

 Slughorn began going on about how it wasn't actually a love potion - more an infatuation potion, because it's impossible to imitate or create love. Al raised her hand. "Yes, Al?"

 "Why is it that you can't create love?" she asked, quill poised to write down the answer.

 "Well, love is one of the most powerful forms of magic there is," Slughorn explained, "It would be impossible to recreate that."

 "Yes," Al said, "But if I was to light a magical fire - let's say feindfire - I could use engorgio and make it bigger. I could make more of it. So if you had a base substance of love-magic, could you make more of it by increasing its size?"

 "An excellent question," Slughorn said with a smile, "Take ten points for Slytherin. But unfortunately I do not know the answer. Perhaps you could look it up and come back to me?"

 Al peered into the fourth cauldron and saw what looked like molten gold or butterscotch syrup. Felix Felicis. Slughorn, however, seemed to have forgotten about it, and began setting them to work. Macmillan interrupted him though and pointed out his mistake. Hermione, of course, answered and explained what it did.

 "And this is what I will be offering as a prize," Slughorn said. The class went completely silent, except for Al, who was making notes on the four potions. "One bottle of liquid luck, only to be taken on an ordinary day. So what do you need to do to win? Brew me the draught of living death. The person who does best will win little Felix. Off you go!"

 There was a scraping of chairs as everyone stood up. Al washed her cauldron let the correct measure of water simmer to a boil. Whilst waiting for this she very carefully prepared all the ingredients needed. She put a small ridge in the valerian roots to maximise absorption, measured the sloth brain exactly, and squeezed the sophorus bean to maximise the juice outtake. She whisked her potion clockwise and watched it go slowly darker, as the steam rose in blue vapours. She kept whisking until the five minutes was over.

 Al then followed the next few stages very carefully, humming jovially to herself as she did. Slughorn came over to check her and Theo's progress, beaming at her, before going to look at the Ravenclaws.

 Al stirred her potion clockwise ten times. The potion grew steadily darker but reached a stopping point of dark purple at the seventh turn. Frowning, she added an anti-clockwise stir and it went indigo. She then did the remaining three clockwise stirs and the potion turned such a dark purple it looked black.

 The only other person to reach this stage was Hermione, whose potion was not nearly as dark as Al's. She noticed she hadn't used the scales, so scribbled a note in the margin next to sloth brain. Use scales. And she scribbled a note next to the clockwise turns. One anti-clockwise after seventh. Al followed the next few steps exactly until she reached more stirring.

 The potion was lightening, turning to indigo again, then teal, then light turquoise, as described. She finally added the last ingredient, and let it simmer until she could see the bottom of the cauldron. Then she took it off the heat and dipped a tulip petal in it. It shrivelled and died, but no residue was left on it. Perfect. "Well done," Theo said, looking at his lilac coloured water with a frown.

 Slughorn called time and went around the room, occasionally stirring or sniffing. He looked into a few cauldrons and nodded, but none got the reaction that Harry received. "Oho! This is the clear winner," he said, and Al beamed at Harry, peering at the colourless potion in his cauldron.

 Slughorn was about to hand over the bottle, when Theo put his hand up. "Sir?" he called, and Al kicked him under the table.

 "Yes, Mr-?" Slughorn asked.

 "Nott, Sir," Theo said, "You haven't looked at our potions yet."

 "Oh, yes, yes," Slughorn said cheerily, but you could see he was put-out. He peered into Theo's potion, "Ah you've just added a bit too much water there, Mr Nott." He then walked over to Al's potion and looked in while Al glared across the bench at Theo, who only smirked. "Merlin - I think you've done the job as well, Al! Look at that - two in a class! Well, I daresay I shall have to get you both a vial!"

 "Oh, no," Al said quickly, her face hot with embarrassment, "It's okay-"

 "And modest too," Slughorn said fondly. Al reluctantly took the vial from him, and packed away all her things, scurrying off when the bell went.

 "That was so embarrassing," Al hissed to Theo as they entered the Great Hall. She smiled faintly at Harry as they passed him, and he smiled back.

 "You deserved that just as much as he did," Theo assured her.

 "Deserved what?" Daphne asked, sitting down next to Theo, while Al helped herself to some potatoes.

 "Al won a bottle of Felix Felicis in Potions, but she thinks she doesn't deserve it," Theo said reproachfully.

 "It's not that," Al protested, "It's the fact that you called him over."

 "I wanted feedback for my potion," Theo said, "Does that make you feel better?"

 Al laughed while pouring some pumpkin juice. "Not really no," she said with a grin, while Daphne just rolled her eyes.