Permanent Scars

Chapter three

Draco strolled down to the Potions dungeon. Crabbe and Goyle trailed oafishly behind, still muttering and moaning about the upcoming Potions lesson.

Draco was doing his best to ignore them. Instead of listening to their complaining, he was thinking about the new broom his father had promised him, one even better than Potter's.

Draco thought bitterly to himself that if only HE had a Firebolt, he would be able to fly rings around Potter. It wasn't like that dirty blood Potter had TALENT. Oh no! It was just luck and a good broom.

Thinking about Potter made him think about Granger, that nasty Mudblood. "God, I hate Mudbloods. I especially hate Granger, with her ratty-looking hair and her know-it-all attitude. I would love to get Granger alone... and sink a knife into her throat... right up to the hilt... shutting that mouth of hers for good."

The thought of what he would do to Granger if he ever got the chance made him feel better about his inadequate broom. He was in a cheerful mood as he entered the Potions classroom and took his seat.

Snape came in right behind Draco, closing the heavy oak door behind him. He went up to the podium and stood surveying the class.

"Today, class, we are going to make a new potion. The name of the potion is Proprius Malum," he said, writing it on the board. He turned back to the class and continued, "Proprius Malum is a potion that when drunk will give the drinker temporary immunity to most curses cast upon them."

The class sat up straighter and looked more attentive.

Draco could see that dirty Mudblood fairly itching to get started. Potter was right there next to her but seemed distracted. He was staring down at his desk and didn't seem to be listening to what Snape was now saying.

Snape continued with his description of the potion they would be brewing, "This potion is very useful, of course, but very dangerous to brew. The ingredients have to be mixed in the exact amounts and put in exactly as written on the board. If you do not do as instructed, the ingredients become so volatile that they explode. This potion is dangerous and difficult to make, so I have decided to pair the more talented Slytherins with the less talented Gryffindors to insure that no one is killed."

The room immediately broke out in angry protests. "I won't work with a Gryffindor!"

"Slytherin's more talented, bullocks!"

"Enough! This is your assignment and you will do it without protest," Snape bellowed.

Immediately the class fell silent.

"Now then," Snape resumed in a more normal tone of voice, "as I have said before, you will be splitting up into teams of two. Let me see... Goyle and Granger (Goyle lumbered over to Hermione, who looked very disgruntled), Crabbe and Weasley, Longbottom and Malfoy (at hearing he had been paired with Draco, Neville gave out a despairing moan), Potter and Parkinson..."

Snape continued on, pairing everyone up. Draco looked with contempt at Longbottom, now quivering with fear beside him. How did Snape think that he would be able to work with this quaking pile of goo? The only thing he could think of in Longbottom's favour was that he was a pure-blood, even if he associated with Mudbloods. The thought of Longbottom's pure-blood status made Draco feel more benevolent towards him, and so he decided to grace Neville with a smile.

"Who knows?" contemplated Draco. "Maybe I could even turn Longbottom to the evil side."

The sight of Draco smiling at him was too much for Longbottom; he nearly fainted away with fear. His hands shook so badly that it took him five minutes just to get a quill out of his book bag.

Snape turned away from the board, where he had written the ingredients, the amounts and the exact order that the ingredients were to be put into the cauldron. "I want you to pay special attention to ingredient number four on the list. When cutting up your skera root, you have to make sure all the roots are a half centimetre long before putting them into the cauldron. They have to be chopped carefully and exactly. Chopping them roughly and unevenly will cause the contents of the cauldron to explode. If any of the mixture gets on to your skin before the mixture is fully done, it will leave permanent and lasting scarring that not even Madam Pomfrey will be able to heal. The scarring will be completely irreversible."

The classroom was tense as everyone put quill to paper. Longbottom was still shaking like a branch in a hurricane, and now, hearing that one wrong move could scar him for life, Draco decided he needed a different Potions partner.

"Professor Snape, I can't work with Longbottom. He'll blow us both to bits," Draco said angrily.

Snape looked over to where Malfoy and Longbottom were standing beside the cauldron. He could see Longbottom shaking like a leaf on a windy day, and even he had to admit it was an accident waiting to happen.

"Oh all right," snapped Snape. "Parkinson, you partner Longbottom."

"But, Professor Snape, sir, that leaves me with..." Draco protested.

"Well, you asked for a new partner and now you've got it. You and Potter will have to work together," Snape spat.

Harry came over with his things, and slammed them down onto the table. "I don't know why I have to be stuck with you," he said sullenly.

"And you think I'm enjoying this, Potter? Being so close to a Muggle-lover like you?" Draco asked nastily.

Harry tried to calm himself down; Potions was the last place in the world he wanted to get upset. It would give Snape too much pleasure to see that he had gotten to him

.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to relax and said to Draco, "Neither one of us wants to work together. We don't like each other. But right now we have to get this potion made, and we don't have a choice. So can we at least be civil to each other?"

Draco looked at Potter with the utmost disgust on his face, and then said, "I'm going to be civil only because I have to. But as soon as this class is over, I am going to write my father about having to be forced to work with a dirty-blooded, Muggle-lover like you. I am going to make sure Snape pays for this."

Draco began writing the ingredients from the blackboard onto his paper. "Potter we need a half litre of re'em's blood, one largish bezoar, some skera roots and some armadillo bile. I think Snape keeps the bezoars on the left hand side of the Potions cabinet, but I'm not sure where he keeps the skera root... the rest we should have in our potion supplies.

"Why should I go get the bezoar and skera roots?" Harry complained. "Why don't you do it?"

"Because I am busy writing down what ingredients we need, and how to exactly prepare the formula. Didn't you hear Snape say it was dangerous?" Draco asked through gritted teeth. "And besides, you're the one that wanted to play nice."

"Fine, I'll go then," Harry snarled as he stomped off.

He was already in a terrible mood, having had a fight with Ginny right before Potions. He couldn't get the fight out of his mind, which is why he had seemed so distracted when Draco had noticed him earlier.

Harry came back with a large bezoar and the skera roots. Draco had started a fire underneath the cauldron and the water was bubbling.

"Here, let me chop up those skera roots," Draco said. "I personally don't want to be scarred for life because you are so inept that you didn't cut the roots up right and the cauldron exploded all over us."

"I can cut the damn roots, Malfoy," Harry said, grabbing the knife away from Draco.

As he began to chop, Draco said, "You WERE listening to what Snape was saying, weren't you? Those roots have to be a half a centimetre long PRECISELY and put in at just the right time. You ARE making sure they're chopped right, aren't you?"

"Malfoy, will you just shut up about the bloody skera roots and let me get on with it?" Harry ground out.

Draco leaned scowling over the cauldron, adding the chopped bezoar and re'em's blood.

Draco stood stirring the cauldron five times left, three times right. The potion was a bright blue, just like the instructions said it should be. It was almost time for the skera root.

"Potter are you done cutting those roots up? The potion's almost ready for the skera roots."

Harry's mind was once again on his fight with Ginny. No matter what I do, I just can't be what she wants, he thought glumly.

He didn't hear Draco when he said "almost ready". All he heard was skera root and ready.

Harry scooped the skera root up and threw it in the cauldron. Draco didn't see Harry toss the skera root in, he was too intent on stirring the potion correctly. His face was right over the cauldron when it exploded.