Harry Potter and the Touch of Innocence

Harry Potter and the Touch of Innocence
Chapter 6 - Potions

'You look uncomfortable,' Hermione noted, nodding approvingly of the outfit. Arandelle tugged nervously at the front of her dress, becoming increasingly edgy.

'Actually, that's how I always look,' she disagreed. She checked her watch. 'Can't we go yet? It's six o' clock.'

'It's only going to take a few minutes to get to the restaurant,' Hermione said, leaning back and folding her arms across her chest. 'Twirl for me.'

'What?' No matter how much time they spent together, somehow Hermione always managed to find a new way to surprise her.

'Twirl for me.'

'No.' Arandelle backed away with a haunted look in her phoenix eyes. 'Absolutely not.'

'Why not?' Hermione frowned.

'It's unnatural.'

Hermione made a the tutting noise with her tongue. 'And being a phoenix Animagi is?'

'That's different,' Arandelle insisted.

Hermione raised an eyebrow. 'How so?'

'It ... it ... it just is, okay?' She turned around with a flounce. Then, she laughed to herself. 'I'm being difficult, aren't I?'

'Exactly,' Hermione grinned.

Arandelle sighed, raised her arms, and spun around on the spot. The skirt of her dress flared up slightly - just enough to reveal the shoes that Hermione had so tenaciously picked out. But even she had to agree the necklace was gorgeous. It was a simple silver band that they had bewitched to sparkle like diamonds. The charm would wear off after a few hours, but would remain there just long enough for them to have dinner.

Hermione chuckled, and clapped her hands together delightedly. 'Your transformation is complete, Dandy.' She paused. 'Wow ...' she said. 'Is that all my handiwork?'
'Oh, stop looking so smug, Hermione,' Arandelle half-snapped before she could stop herself. 'Let's get out of here.'

---

'She's a Homomagus,' Dumbledore explained. 'An animal that can change into the shape of a human.'

Lupin nodded. 'That would be about right. I thought she was a too easily persuaded.'

'She sounded very well trained,' Dumbledore noted. 'Homomagi are hard to find ... and even if you come across one, you'd have to train it in the human ways for years and years - and if you wanted to convert an animal that has a normally good nature to evil ... you'd be looking at a very long apprenticeship.'

'Anyway, we got what we came for,' Sirius said. 'And we didn't do too much damage.'

Dumbledore nodded. Then, he gave them a curious look. 'How did you Libitina to agree to let you go?'

Lupin and Sirius exchanged a look full of suppressed mirth. 'Would you be satisfied with a simple, "you don't want to know"?' Sirius asked.

Dumbledore hesitated. 'Well ... when you put it that way ...' He laughed.

'Here's the Box,' Lupin put in. 'I'd rather not keep it any longer than I have to - not after the way you described it.' He pulled it out of his bag and put it on the round table in the center of the room.

Dumbledore stared at it in silence. 'Is there ...anything I should know?' he asked finally.

Lupin shrugged. 'I haven't really examined it, Professor. There seem to be words etched into its sides, though - and ...' He trailed off as something struck him.

'What is it?' Sirius asked his oldest friend.

'When I touched it ...' Lupin frowned. 'When I tried to pick it up ... it burned me.' He held out his hands so that they could see his blisters.

'But you managed just then,' Sirius pointed out.

'I know. That's what's strange.'

'Maybe it's a sort of greeting ritual,' Dumbledore said. 'If you don't feel hurt or anything, Remus, I'll look it up sometime. In the meantime ...'

'Where's Harry?' Sirius wondered.

---

Ron rushed into class and dumped his book on the empty desk next to Hermione. 'Is everything ready?' he asked in a low tone.

Hermione nodded. 'I think so. Just remember ... you've got to keep Snape distracted until I come back.'

'Why do you always get to do all the fun stuff?' Harry joked, trying to keep off the adrenaline that was waiting to flood through his veins.

Hermione shrugged. Clearly she couldn't contain her excitement either.

'Was there any reason we had to do this while we had his class?' Ron asked.

'He locks his office when he's not having classes - didn't you know that?' Hermione replied. 'And you can see the door to the office from here.'

'Actually I didn't,' he shot back. 'I don't make it a practice of finding out the daily habits of my teachers.'

'Where's Draco?' Harry asked.

'Over the other side of the room, as usual.'

'You've thought of everything, haven't you, Hermione?' Ron marveled.

'Naturally.'

Solid footsteps sounded on the cobblestone floor of the lower levels of Hogwarts. Harry slid into his seat and did his best to look normal. Ron glanced around for something to do - but had to satisfy himself by defacing the surface of his desk with his quill. That is, until Hermione elbowed him in the ribs.

'Ron!'

'Hey - OW! What the-'

Ron stopped open-mouthed in the middle of his sentence. Footsteps sounded directly outside the door and the class went silent. The door swung open and -

A short, brown haired woman strode into the room carrying a handful of papers and a text book. 'Hey,' she said easily as she dropped her things on the desk with a thump.

The class stared at her. Malfoy, in particular, looked as if he had been wronged somehow. However, she took no notice of this and proceeded to write her name on the board. Hermione, trembling slightly, raised her hand. The teacher looked a little startled, but gratified her with a, 'Yes?'

'Uh ... if you don't me asking, Professor - Professor Stretchley, where's Professor Snape?'

'He died,' Professor Stretchley replied with an absolutely straight face.

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance. Around him, Harry could hear his classmates whispering amongst each other.

'So,' Professor Stretchley continued, 'since you are talking - no doubt about how you are terribly distraught you are over this tragic event - please forget that I have the only copy of what's going to be in your exam and I am about to set fire to it.'

That brought most of them to attention. She raised her eyebrows, but grinned. 'Now, can anyone tell me what you got up to with Professor Snape?'

While the others volunteered Harry, Ron and Hermione were in quick discussion. 'What are we going to do?' Ron demanded.

'Doesn't sound like he's going to be coming back any time soon, does it?' Harry muttered.

'Is that a good or a bad thing?' Ron wondered.

'Bad, actually.' Hermione said, matter-of-factly. 'Besides, we can't wait for him to come back. We've got to get this over as soon as possible - or Malfoy just might go off the edge.'

'Today then?' Harry asked, watching Professor Stretchley out of the corner of his eye.

Hermione nodded. She looked over at Malfoy, who was completely lost, and nodded slightly. He nodded back. Harry, meanwhile, was showing Ron how to make a paper plane out of parchment.

Hermione put her hand up again. 'Can I please go to the bathroom?' she asked nervously, trying her best to make it look urgent.

Stretchley looked at her watch. 'It's been ten minutes since break. Why didn't you go then?'

'Yes ... well ... please, can I go?' Hermione dodged the question.

'Alright,' the Professor relented. 'Quickly, though.'

'Don't forget,' Hermione muttered out of the corner of her mouth as she slipped out of her seat and headed towards the door.

Harry watched her close the door as she left. Then, in one movement, he pulled an elastic band out of his pocket and hooked it over his thumb. Nobody noticed this - nor did anyone notice Ron stop writing and put his hands protectively over his head. Harry pulled the other end of the band back with his other hand, so that it resembled a catapult. A magically enhanced catapult, that is.

He released it.

Parvati Patil shrieked as it rocketed past her head in a shower of white sparks and bounced off the wall. It was just a blur when it smashed through Neville's ink bottle, off the ceiling, through Pansy Parkinson's hair and hit Dean Thomas' cauldron with a sproing. It was going so fast that as it passed the torches, it blew them out. The entire class sat in fear that they were to be targeted by the rogue elastic band in the darkness.

'Ignis!' came Professor Stretchley's voice. One by one, the torches came alight once more.

Only for her to see the band coming straight for her. There was a massive intake of air as the entire class gasped. But Stretchley calmly caught it on her wand. It spun around several times before slowing down and falling limp with a deflated sigh.

The look she wore on her face was remarkably close to Snape's in anger.

Harry slid down in his seat. 'I am in so much trouble ...' he said to Ron.

'Where is Hermione?' he asked in reply, as Stretchley's stare descended upon them.

'Finish your paper plane,' Harry said tersely. Their surrogate Potions teacher looked as though she might explode.

Ron hurtled the contraption across the room - and tried to make it look like an accident when it hit Malfoy in the eye. Malfoy ripped the plane open and saw two words that had been scrawled on the inside.

Your move.

---

Hermione took a few of the precious moment she had to stare around Snape's office in awe. It was a dank place, admittedly, but it was filled with so many bizarre things that she soon began to ignore the flickering shadows.

But there was no time to dawdle. Professor Stretchley could be coming through the door at any moment. She quickly moved over to the bookshelf - it seemed a likely spot. She marveled at the myriad of different coloured potions, each in a uniquely shaped vial. The Professor, it seemed, had a passion for collecting bottles. The problem was, though, that none of them were labeled.

She had a vague idea what Veritaserum looked like - it was absolutely clear with a slightly salty aftertaste. But she could hardly go and taste every clear potion in the room. There was no knowing what some of them could be.

Standing on tip-toes, Hermione came eye level to a shelf full of bottles shaped like tiny animals. There was a miniature tiger, a lemur, a peacock, an exquisite wren, a horned lizard and what appeared to be a jellyfish (though it was hard to tell). At first glance, they appeared to be empty - but Hermione noticed an almost invisible line at the top of the wren. No, they weren't empty. They were all filled with a different, completely transparent liquid.

And in a dusty corner of the shelf, lay a hastily scribbled note.

An eye for an eye
A tooth for a tooth
The tooth must bite strong
The eye sees the truth

To live is to love
To love is to chance
The wings of affection
Rest in the branch

There but obscure
Boneless but keen
The winds of change
Sweep over the sea

---

Draco looked around frantically for something to distract Professor Stretchley, who was rapidly advancing on Harry and Ron. Part of his mind refused to accept the fact that he was doing something to help them - but what choice did he have? As the space between the teacher and the students diminished, he grew desperate.

So desperate, in fact, that he snatched up his copy of Vicious Viscosity - Quick and Easy Ways to Achieve the Right Consistency and chucked it as hard as he could in the general direction of Neville Longbottom.

In his haste, Malfoy's accuracy was somewhat askew and so the book went flying into the back of Seamus Finnigan's head. Malfoy cringed, swore and lowered his head in attempt to make it look like it had been no fault of his.

Seamus' head snapped forward as inertia went about its business, and his nose smashed into the rim of his cauldron and began to bleed. 'What the-' the Irish student demanded. His eyes searched the room for the culprit - and fell upon Crabbe, who was sitting behind Draco.

But Malfoy'd hardly taking a sigh of belief, when he saw Seamus' gaze switch from Crabbe to himself. He risked a look over his shoulder. Crabbe had a very blank look on his face; he was pointing a disowning finger at Malfoy.

'I didn't do it!' Malfoy lied quickly.

Seamus held up the book with which he had been assailed. Under the eleven word title was a small paragraph. Seamus read this out.

'I, Draco Malfoy, own this book. This means that you keep your stinking hands off it. So why are you reading this? It's mine. MINE (highlighted, underlined and emphasized by the pen that had gone over this word several times). And don't you forget it.'

Draco stared, all denials dying in his throat.

Seamus stood up looking furious. 'The hell was that for, Malfoy?' he yelled.

Sweat began to bead up on his forehead. 'Uhh ...' he began, very conscious of the fact that everyone in the room was watching him.

'Well?'

'Shut up, Mudblood,' was the best Malfoy could do. 'Don't talk about what you don't understand.'

'One - you're right; I don't understand,' Seamus shot back. 'And two - I'm no Mudblood. If you're going to insult me, at least do it properly.'

Draco could hear Pansy Parkinson snigger from where she sat, three desks away. He had a sudden urge to throttle her. Unfortunately it looked like Seamus would get there first - and he wasn't attacking Pansy.

'Boys!' Professor Stretchley shouted as Seamus landed a blow on Malfoy's cheek. A roar rose from their classmates - the Gryffindors were cheering Seamus with elevated enthusiasm, while the Slytherins were urging Draco to hit back.

Draco obliged.

'Go get 'em, Seamus!' Ron yelled, trying to see what was going on. Harry elbowed him.

'We're supposed to be going for Malfoy, remember?' he muttered quietly.

'Oh yeah.' Ron hesitated, trying to come up with a new slogan. 'Run for your life, Malfoy!'

Harry rolled his eyes.

'Boys!' Professor Stretchley had finally broken through the circle that had formed around the pair of them and pulled Draco and Seamus apart. A prune coloured bruise was forming around Seamus' right eye, while Malfoy was sporting a shallow cut across his chin. Neither of them made a move to attack each other.

'He started it, Miss,' Seamus said, panting.

'I know,' Stretchley said, hauling them both off. When she reached Seamus' seat, she pushed him into it. 'You - sit.' She sent Malfoy off with a shove in the back that sent him stumbling. 'You - over there.' Her blue eyes fell upon Harry and Ron. 'You - big, big trouble.'

Ron gulped audibly.

Stretchley dusted her hands off and moved back to the front of the classroom. 'Now, listen up all of you. You're going to learn something in this class if I have to use all three Unforgivable Curses to get it across to you.' She paused for a moment and seemed to swell in her anger.

'Alright. Who knows how invisible ink is made?'

---

Hermione re-read the riddle, a small frown appearing on her forehead as she thought it over. It hadn't been that long since she had first had her chance to prove her ability to solve these kind of things. Snape had written that one, too. In theory, she should be used to his style by now. At least, that was what the half of her brain that controlled her logic was telling her.

The other half was still frozen in the wake of being in the Potions Master's office.

As she read it a third time, she realised that each of the poem's themes was referring to an animal. The eye, the tooth, the wings, the branch, change and sea. The other lines were probably indicating what the potion did.

And there was the keyword - truth. That was the potion she was looking for. But what on earth was the eye?

Well, sea was easy enough; the jellyfish was the only animal connected to water. Hermione mentally crossed the jellyfish out. She also made a tentative association with the tooth and tiger. The more she considered it, the more it made sense. None of the other figure really had teeth.

Wings could either be the peacock or the wren. She had no idea about the other three were - perhaps the branch was the bird that wasn't related to wings. She tried to remember what little she knew about lemurs. They were from Madagascar, they were primates ... and they had long tails ... because they lived in trees!

So that was the branch solved. Only the wings and the eye and the change remained to be connected to a lizard, a wren and a peacock.

Hermione examined the tiny vials carefully for some kind of clue - any clue at all. Time was running out. Then she found herself staring at the lizard's smooth glass horns. Did normal lizards have that?

The answer struck her like a freight train. Of course it wasn't a normal lizard. It was a chameleon - and it symbolised change.

The bell sounded through the dungeon corridors, making Hermione jump to attention. There was no time to figure out which bottle had which potion. She slipped both the wren and the peacock into her pocket and tried to rearrange the others evenly on the shelf. A last glance at the sheet of clues made sure she had memorized it.

And then, as the students struggled to get out of the Potions classroom, Hermione slipped out of the office and tried to blend in.

---

'That was easier than I thought it'd be,' Ron muttered as they merged with the crowd of students pushing to get to the door. 'We didn't even get -'

'Boys,' came Professor Stretchley's voice from the general vicinity of her desk.

Harry winced and nearly dropped Hermione's books; Ron and Draco exchanged their first glance. Then, in one movement, they turned around to face their teacher.

'I almost forgot,' Imogen Stretchley told them with the faintest smile. 'Detention, boys.'

Harry smiled weakly as they backed out of the room. As soon as they were out of her line of sight, they ran as fast as they could away from the room. Hermione was waiting for them at the top of the stairs that lead to the rest of the castle.

'How was Potions?' she asked.

Harry blinked. 'Bizarre.'

'I almost like her,' Ron admitted.

'Professor Stretchley?' Hermione gave him a curious look.

'No, Hermione, Pansy Parkinson,' Ron said in a very sarcastic tone of voice. 'Of course I'm talking about Professor Stretchley. She's the best relief teacher we've ever had.'

'Excuse me,' Draco interrupted, 'but isn't she the only relief teacher we've ever had?'

Ron shrugged. 'That would probably explain it.'

'Did you get it?' Harry asked Hermione.

'Sort of.' She carefully pulled the two fragile vials from her pocket. 'I wasn't sure which one it was so I took them both.'

'Well as long as we got what we came for,' Harry said.

'Yeah, I don't really want to have to go through that again,' Draco muttered.

'Let's get out of here,' Ron suggested. He checked his watch. 'Divination,' he noted. 'We'll meet you two-' he nodded at Draco and Hermione'- in the library after school, okay?'

They had reached the doors that separated the Entrance Hall from the outside. With a final half nod to each other, the four went their separate ways.