Potions Assortment

Chapter 3: Wrath Potion

It was after dinner on a Wednesday night and Parvati and Lavender were snooping around the halls seeing if there was anything interesting going on worthy of gossip. Going down into the dangerous 'Slytherin territory', the two girls heard people speaking in hushed voices in a classroom.

Creeping silently towards the partially open door, the two peered in and had simultaneous heart attacks seeing what they saw.

They shared a shocked look and ran all the way back to the Gryffindor common room, their charmed Silent Shoes not making any sound.

As they entered the common room, everyone already in there turned to stare at the two girls in their wild state.

"Oh my god!" Lavender and Parvati both screamed out in disgust.

"What happened?" Ginny asked, knowing that they were about to lean a juicy piece of gossip.

"Bulstrode and Goyle were making out in one of the classrooms!" Parvati squealed, wanting to forget the painful vision permanently imprinted into her memory.

A chorus of "Ew!", "Yuck!", "Gross!", "That is so wrong!" and "Did you have to tell us?" filled the air.

"Hey!" Lavender yelled at the top of her voice. Immediately, all of the talking stopped and the Gryffindors stared at Lavender. "Parvati and I saw them making out. You guys only heard about it. Consider yourselves blessed."

* * *

It was a new day at Hogwarts. The clear blue sky was as bright as bright could be. Everything was perfect, absolutely nothing could possibly go wrong.

Until the mail came...

A large eagle owl swooped towards the Slytherin table with a howler tied to its leg. Much to everyone's surprise, it dropped the letter in front of Malfoy. A few seconds later, Lucius Malfoy's voice filled the Great Hall.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?! I DOUBT THAT YOU WERE THINKING AT ALL! KISSING A MUDBLOOD! ARE YOU ACTUALLY DELIBERATELY TRYING TO DISHONOUR ME? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOU'RE GOING TO BE SO SORRY FOR WHAT YOU DID. I DIDN'T BELIEVE IT MYSELF AT FIRST WHEN PANSY PARKINSON'S FATHER TOLD ME. BUT IT SEEMS SO LIKE YOU! YOU JUST HAVE TO BE THE REBEL, DON'T YOU?! ONE MORE MISTAKE LIKE THAT AND YOU CAN CONSIDER YOURSELF DISOWNED?!"

The howler then burst into a little flame but Lucius' voice was still echoing all around them. Other than that, everyone and everything was silent.

A few moments later, another eagle owl flew over the students and towards the teacher's table. It too was carrying a howler which it dropped in front of Professor Snape.

All of the students looked on nervously as the professor reached out to open the dreaded thing. Once again, Lucius' voice rang through the air...

"WHO THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? HOW DARE YOU GIVE MY SON THAT POTION. PERFECT KISS POTION INDEED! MY SON ISN'T OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW WHAT PERFECT IS! HAVE YOU ANY IDEA WHAT YOU HAVE DONE? IF I BECOME THE LAUGHING STOCK THEN YOU'RE GOING TO SERVERELY PAY! BELIEVE ME, I'LL BE GOING TO THE HIGHER AUTHORITIES ABOUT THIS ISSUE!"

The howler then burst into a little flame and after a few more minutes of Lucius' voice ringing in the rafters, everything was silent.

"Well," Dumbledore said, standing up from his place at the teacher's table, "I think it's time that you all went to class."

There was a great hurry for the students to get out of the Great Hall and to their classes.

Malfoy didn't have any classes until after lunch so he decided to take a walk around the lake to clear his head.

Disowned? His father had threatened to disown him lots of time before and it had lost its affect on Draco after the fifth time. But there was a slight chance that he meant it this time. Draco had kissed Granger instead of Pansy. But who could blame him? Pansy was whiny, annoying, and slow and could barely perform simple charms. At least Granger could do magic, she was the top in the class. Why wouldn't he think that Granger was more perfect?

"Hey Malfoy!" a voice from high above him shouted.

Draco looked, stunned, up in the trees, trying to see who had so rudely interrupted his thoughts.

"Back here," the voice said, coming from behind him.

Draco spun around too quickly making his robes twist around his legs and he fell down rather ungracefully on the grass beneath him.

"Very graceful," Harry said, offering Malfoy a hand to help him up.

"What are you doing here, Potter? Shouldn't you be in class or something?" Malfoy retorted, preferring to stay where he was.

"No," Harry replied, sitting on the ground next to Malfoy, "I don't have any classes until after lunch."

"Good for you," Malfoy muttered, rearranging his position so he wasn't in some strange looking yoga position.

"Honeydukes chocolate?" Harry asked, taking out a big block of chocolate from his robe pocket. He unwrapped the block and waved it under Malfoy's nose until the Slytherin finally broke of a piece.

"So, a howler from you father," Harry said, braking off a piece of chocolate for himself and putting the rest back into his robe pocket.

"Yeah," Malfoy replied, biting into the chocolate.

"Disownment."

"Yeah."

"Harsh."

"Listen Potter," Malfoy spat out, "I have no bloody clue why I kissed Granger so don't even bother asking."

"Well, I thought it was rather obvious why you kissed Hermione."

"What?"

"Well, it's plain simple," Harry replied. "Want some more chocolate?"

"Yeah," Draco replied, taking another piece of chocolate. "So why is it so plain simple to you why I kissed Granger and yet I have no bloody idea why?"

"Well, once you narrow down the field," Harry explained with his mouth full of chocolate, "it's rather simple."

Malfoy simply stared at Harry until he decided to continue.

"Well, Lavender and Parvati are too giggly and gossipy. They don't take anything seriously unless it's boys or divination. Millicent, well, you know," Harry shuddered. "Poor thing's probably been hit several times with the ugly stick. And it's obvious that you can't stand Pansy."

"It's that obvious?" Malfoy asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, and I eat Bubotuber pus for breakfast each day."

"That explains a lot," Malfoy smirked.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing," Malfoy replied nonchalantly. "So how does that leave Granger to be the most perfect?"

"Well, I'd hate to say it but Pansy's not much better at magic than Neville is and seeing as you took a Perfect Kiss potion and you had to kiss the most perfect person in the room, that definitely rules out Pansy because the can barely do simple spells. And she's whiny and clingy and it looks like she puts on make-up with a pallet knife."

"Have to agree with you there, Potter."

"So that leaves Hermione," Harry summed up. "Hermione takes her schoolwork seriously, she's top of the class, she's not giggly or gossipy and she's not dependent on others."

Malfoy was silent as he took all of the information in. A few moments later, his thoughts were, again, interrupted by Harry who had just realized what time it was.

"Lunch! I'm starved!"

"But you had like half a block of Honeydukes chocolate!"

The two boys kept bickering like this until they reached the Great Hall and went to sit at their respective tables.

"What did you do this morning Harry? You disappeared right after breakfast," Ron asked with a mouth full of carrots as soon as Harry sat down opposite him.

"I took a walk outside," Harry replied. "What did you do?"

"Played wizard's chess with Dean. Where were you, Hermione? You disappeared right after breakfast too."

"Nothing much," Hermione said, pouring some pumpkin juice for herself and the two boys. "I just went to see Professor McGonagall about an extra credit project I'm doing and then went to Professor Sinistra about my astronomy homework."

"Hermione, I think you're getting sick or something! How do you manage an extra credit project on top of all the other homework that the other professors are piling on us too?" Ron asked.

"Simple, Ron. I manage my time well and I don't do all of my homework the night before it's due," Hermione replied curtly.

After lunch, Hermione hurried off to her Arithmancy class while Harry and Ron went the other way towards Divination. Harry and Ron attempted to stay half-awake, feeling drugged out by the heavy incense that Professor Trelawney always burned. The boys had figured out that the incense made the professor delusional and so she was always seeing things that weren't really there like Grims and Harry's death.

"Strange," Professor Trelawney whispered in that soft, misty sort of voice of hers. "I sense a peculiar new aura in the lower levels of the castle. No...not new...different."

Parvati and Lavender gave the Professor their full attention while the others only pretended to give half of their attention.

"What kind of aura is it, professor?" Lavender asked, in total awe of the professor.

"It's one of...love...and there's a strong sense of confusion as well. I pity the poor soul with all of these mixed emotions."

"Can you tell us who it is?" Parvati persuaded.

"I feel that he is from Slytherin house. But he does not take my class. There is a strong sense of pride in him."

"Oh my god!" Lavender said, "It's Draco Malfoy! He's in love with Hermione!"

"What?" Ron exclaimed before falling off the cushion he was sitting on.

"Yes, that name does draw a strong connection to the aura," Professor Trelawney said softly.