To Forgive But Not Forget

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Chapter One- Veritasserum

I stood by the entrance to the potions dungeon, listening to Snape lecture the class. He was being an arsehole as usual. I wasn’t surprised that the Gryffindors hated him. He was a useful Head of House, but that was all. Father always did hate him. Said he was a pitiful coward who couldn’t stand up for our master. But Snape showed more mercy and kindness to me, in a strange way, than was necessary. Perhaps that was because of my exceptional talent in Potions. Not good enough to triumph over Mudblood Granger, though. But I was definitely better than famous Potter, the Quidditch Seeker for Gryffindor. I loathed Potter with every cell of my being. His high and mighty attitude that Gryffindors often adopt is too much for me to tolerate. But I was glad that Snape took the same view as my family and me. He didn’t like our family though. He loathed my parents and the whole Malfoy clan. I suppose Father wasn’t very lenient to him in their Hogwarts days.

I turned my mind back to Snape and the whimpering noises that were coming from Neville Longbottom, no doubt. I smirked to myself. He was a pathetic excuse for a wizard and not in the least worthy of attending Hogwarts. Unfortunately, I don’t decide who comes to this school and who doesn’t. I checked my watch. It was about ten minutes after the bell had rung, signaling the start of afternoon classes. I straightened my robes and smoothed my silvery blonde hair. With a swagger, I strode into Potions class sporting a smirk on my face.

"Mr. Malfoy." An icy voice to my left spoke. I hesitated. One of the fine skills that ran in the Malfoy blood was the talent of analysis. And I could hear that sarcastic and bitter tone in Snape’s voice clearly. Something was wrong here. I turned to him, defiance in my eyes. Most of the class noticed this and sat up. It wasn’t very common for Snape to act up against any student in his own house, let alone me, Draco Malfoy, one of his most prized students. I narrowed my eyes as he spoke.

"How nice of you to come prancing in to my class ten minutes late. Do you, by any chance, possess a pass from a professor?" He continued, scrutinizing me closely.

"No," I told him casually, but watching his every move intently.

"Then I’m afraid I’ll have to take ten points from Slytherin." The unexpected words left the whole class stunned. I stood, rigidly while the rest of the class whispered and murmured among them. Snape made no move to stop them and I could see the Trio watching my back; Ronald Weasley was excitedly whispering to Potter but Mudblood Granger was watching me with an odd statement on her face. I smirked faintly to let her know I what I thought of her. Instead of turning away, she shot back an icy cold glare of her own. I watched Potter and gave him a glare of fiery contempt when he met my eyes. Despite my current condition, I’d never miss an opportunity to provoke and make fun of Potter. Smirking inwardly, I turned away to the rest of the class. When I turned back to Snape, he was watching me with his deadly black eyes. A hint of fire crawled in the shadows of those deep black pools. The class became silent, every eye on us. The air between us crackled with tension and danger, lurking beneath the surface.

"What are you standing there for, then?" His voice broke the uncomfortable silence. "Get to your seat before I’m forced to take another ten points!" The snappish tone in his voice was not lost on the class and the full meaning of the voice was obvious. I walked to my seat with a haughty statement on my face. Why was Snape acting like this? I could see how much he wanted to strangle me, there and then, but what of our previous amicable relationship? Perhaps he had finally reached the point frustration with my parents and decided to take it out on me. But Snape was more cunning than that. He wouldn’t be so open about his emotions and it wouldn’t do at all for him to act out of character. The Slytherins wouldn’t be happy and the Gryffindors would just be encouraged to go on being the dirty little troublemakers they are. Think over this later, Malfoy, I thought. I sat into my seat and set down my book bag. I was aware of the wondering eyes fixed on me. I ignored the stares and set out my materials and turned to the front.

"As I was saying before Mr. Malfoy so rudely interrupted us," Snape spoke softly, putting a sarcastic emphasis on my name. "The Elixir of Teresidus is another name for Veritasserum. Veritasserum, some of you might have heard of. It is a clear, odorless liquid that, when consumed, possess its drinker to tell the complete truth about any questions asked. The full effects of Veritasserum may be found in your textbook, page 239. This potion is harshly restricted by the Ministry and only attempted by sixth and seventh years. Note, many of the ingredients, such as dragon’s scale and powdered unicorn horn are very valuable and rare. Therefore, this potion is not easy to make. The ingredients I have provided you with are courtesy of Headmaster Dumbledore and Rubeus Hagrid, your Care of Magical Creatures teacher." I noted a slightly sarcastic tone in his voice when he mentioned the half-giant. He went on. The class was busy taking notes and I was as well, writing down the main points of the lecture he gave us and a note about page 239 in my neat script with a flourish. When I straightened up, I saw Goyle trying to catch my eye. I sneaked a glance to my right, where he was sitting.

"Psst, what’s up with Snape?" He hissed to me. I was about to answer when Snape looked up from his papers and snapped at me. "Mr. Malfoy! Talking in class when I’m talking is not allowed. Detention for you tonight and Mr. Goyle, if you could refrain from distracting your fellow classmates!" A wave of quiet whispers washed over the dungeon and was quickly stopped by Snape’s deathly gaze. Silence fell abruptly on the class at his murderous statement. People were holding their breath to watch my reaction. I merely nodded and went back to my notes. Dignity was important but self-confidence and retaining that cool exterior to others was more important. I couldn’t let the Gryffindors, much less Potter and his gang see how disturbed I was over this turn of events. After all, the Malfoys have always had a long history of honor and pride to uphold and I’ve never been one to break tradition. Despite the unnatural quiet of the classroom, I knew what they were thinking. First, ten points from his own house and now, a detention to Draco Malfoy? I could hear Weasley whispering to Potter as the heavy silence slowly lifted.

"I tell you, this never happened before! I remember how Charlie told me, a few Slytherin fourth-years pulled a prank on all the Gryffindors in Potions and Snape never said a thing!" Potter nodded and whispered back.

"Now Malfoy walks in late, like he does all the time and Snape snaps at him constantly!" They shook their heads in disbelief. I was the only person unsurprised.

Snape was bitter, to be sure, but he wouldn’t do this for a good reason. I didn’t know why so I didn’t bother to try and figure out Snape’s strange behavior. I turned back to the Veritasserum ingredients laid out in front of me. I’d send an owl to Father later, asking him about this. He’d have an answer. He always does.

"And now, like I said, get paired up and work on the potion together." Snape finished, sitting at his desk and starting to grade papers. I looked to Goyle, but he’d already paired up with Crabbe and I looked about. Nearly everyone was all set and even Potty and the Weasel was preparing their cauldron. But someone was left out, anyone… I turned and saw Hermione Granger making her way towards me. Aw, hell no, I cursed silently. She sat down at my table and looked me in the eye.

"Hello, Malfoy. Looks like we’ll be working together." She said simply, not wavering. I frowned. Then, I opened my mouth, wanting to make a fancy retort, and then I remembered Snape, who had been watching me out of the corner of his eye. No doubt he was looking for an opportunity to punish me further. I swore I wouldn’t give him that satisfaction. I shut my mouth in the nick of time and nodded, my mouth set in a thin line. I ignored her as we started working.

"Two scoops of beetle eyes, a feather from a hippogriff, three caterpillar heads, a powdered whisperknell shell, and a pink Snidget feather," Hermione read out loud from the instruction sheet Snape had given to them. I narrowed my eyes and measured out two scoops of the black beetle eyes.

"And…" Her voice trailed off. I looked back at her. "I know these should be stewed for ten minutes but the instructions say to add something else while stewing." She said hesitantly.

"You sure are slow, even for a Mudblood," I snapped at her and grabbed the sheet out of her hands, looking angry. She stiffened at my side.

"Okay, whisperknell shell, Snidget feather… one cup of powdered unicorn horn and dragon scale?" I looked up from the sheet. "Why would it involve dragon scale? Isn’t Veritasserum supposed to have a cold feeling?"

"Dragon scale because of its fiery force, and unicorn horn because it has a icy effect on anything it touches." She said, not looking me in the eye.

"Sure, Granger, that makes perfect sense except for the fact that would neutralize the effects on each other," I drawled with a bored statement on my face. She shook her head and started talking in a mildly bored tone bordering on exasperation.

"The unicorn horn always has a natural Cooling Spell placed on it after it’s picked from the unicorn which keeps it’s magical power and enables it to be a powerful ingredient in most potions. It was on last night’s reading. You would’ve known if you’d read it, after all. ," She said with a scathing look in my direction. I scowled and swore in my brain. That smarmy Mudblood. What’d she know about that anyway? She was just showing off, I thought to myself. After all, she knew a little about this potion and she was trying to show off. Snorting, I pushed the sheet of ingredients over to her.

I went back to stirring the cauldron as Granger read the rest of the ingredients. I added the rest carefully and sat back to watch the potion turn pale blue. I started to look confused. Wasn’t Veritasserum a transparent liquid? Maybe we did something wrong. Hurriedly, I looked down at the sheet of instructions again to double check. Did it say we were to stir in two scoops of beetle eyes or three?

"Veritasserum always has a pale blue color before its bottled and cooled with a special MSF powder, which is Mind Summoning Floo, to summon a memory of the drinker from the past." Granger started talking in a matter-of-fact tone. "The same ingredient is also in the making of a Pensive. However, the effect is always the same. The taste is just different. If you drink it now, instead of an icy feeling spreading throughout your body, it would be a fiery, hot serum searing your insides and more harmful than the cooled version," I looked up as Granger finished. She looked at me patronizingly. Scowling, I turned away.

It was almost impossible, yet she knew everything. She was an incredibly smart person who knew a lot about the potions. I shook my head. How was she so clever? Suddenly, Mudblood Granger didn’t seem so stupid and ignorant. I shook my head. That couldn’t be. That’s ridiculous. She’s a Mudblood. Therefore, she doesn’t know anything. Not fit to be a magical person and attend Hogwarts like the full-bloods. Father says so and he’s always right, isn’t he? But a little voice in the back of my head said otherwise. I turned back to the potion and found a small vial of sparkling powder in my hand. I looked back and saw Snape’s tall figure passing them out.

"By now, you all should have your potions ready," his cold voice said. "I passed out a vial of Mind Summoning Floo powder to everyone, which you should sprinkle onto your potion. With that, you should extinguish your fire." He continued. I sprinkled the fine powder onto the potion, which immediately turned silver. And then, when Granger put out the fire, the potion slowly turned into a clear liquid.

The rest of the class didn’t do as well as we did, however. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil’s potion had stayed a light blue. Snape was lecturing them over the excessive use of beetle eyes. Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnegan’s had turned a deep brown color, thanks to Longbottom’s failures. I stifled a snigger at Longbottom’s piteous statement as he picked up a few scattered Snidget feathers on the ground.

Snape swept by us and giving Granger a contemptuous look, scribbled a perfect mark on his grade book. I noticed that Granger sighed with relief. Turning to my books, I picked them up quickly. Granger picked up her books and I cleaned up the rest of the ingredients. I watched Potter and Weasley clean up their potion out of the corner of my eye. They were busily talking about Quidditch. When the bell rang, I stood up and started to walk out, but Snape’s voice stopped me.

"Mr. Malfoy, I do believe I need to speak with you for a second," His voice was unpleasant. I stiffened. I saw Granger go out the door after her two friends with a sympathetic look thrown my way. A small sting of irritation hit me. I was annoyed. Why was she feeling sorry for me? I didn’t need anyone’s pity. I was a Malfoy. Still, some part of me deep inside felt happy and grateful. Before the emotion could betray me, I looked away and turned to Snape. I swallowed and stood in front of his desk. Snape stood up and circled around me. In the eerie quiet of the dungeon, I felt frightened. Everyone had left Potions as soon as possible to get to their next class, and get away from the Potions dungeon. I was stuck with Snape.

"Draco, I’m disappointed in you." His voice was harsh. "I am not lenient on you because you are Lucius and Narcissa’s son. You have a talent for potions but you choose to waste it. Also, you have a deep hate for Mr. Potter, I see. That is not healthy." I felt like hurling a cauldron at his greasy head and screaming that he hated Potter too. He continued.

"Because of that, I have assigned you detention. Report to me, tonight at nine o’clock, after dinner. You will be cleaning out my potions storage room," He ended his speech with a flourish. "Now get out to your classes," With a contemptuous frown, he swept out of the room and into his storage room. I watched his retreating black robes with a scowl. Now I wished I could hurl a cauldron full of flobberworms, lacewing flies, and horned toads at him.

I walked out of Potions and hurried along the corridors. The hallways were empty and I felt the chilling cold breeze of the dungeons on my neck. Shaking it off, I turned a corner and nearly smacked into someone. I fell back a few steps, holding my cheek.

"Watch where you’re walking, will-"I stopped short when I saw the person I was talking to. It was Hermione Mudblood Granger. I sneered, putting my old mask on.

"So, Granger," I smirked. She said nothing but only stared at me.

"Are you okay?" Were the only words out of her mouth. I was surprised. "Did Snape say anything?" She looked mildly concerned.

"None of your business," I grunted and walked around her, holding my bag. "Just get lost,"

I bit back a few smart remarks and malicious retorts the old Draco might have made, because even though a part of me was reluctant to admit it, she was smart and in a way, she had earned my respect. Then, I continued my walk to Care of Magical Creatures. Had I looked back, I would have seen her sympathetic look and a tear that fell, for me. But I didn’t look. I never looked back.

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