Chapter 18: Potions, Again
Robert returned to the common room in the morning. He was not pleased; putting it mildly, he was furious. The notable detail: his prefect badge was missing from his robes, which meant that either he had already been to see Flitwick, or the Head of House had visited him while he was still in Madam Pomfrey's care.
Daphne and I arrived in the common room after him, only to find him taking out his anger on a second-year.
"I see you've found your courage, have you? Yesterday it was a first-year you were going after, and today, look at that, you've moved up to a second-year. You're coming along."
I said it loudly enough to make my contempt perfectly clear to everyone present, and to draw Robert's attention away from the younger boy.
"Wait, where's your prefect badge?"
I tilted my head to one side. I had noticed it was gone, and I understood why, but redirecting Robert's attention was what mattered.
"You! This is all your fault!"
He stared at me with open fury, though he stopped short of making any move. The night in the hospital wing had apparently given him some time to think.
"No. This is entirely and solely your own fault..."
I shook my head, declining to accept the blame he was trying to shift onto me.
"...if you had simply acknowledged that you made a mistake, if you had just resolved to take your responsibilities more seriously, none of this would have happened. Instead, you decided to make Penny Clearwater look like an even worse prefect than yourself. Well. Here is the result."
"Black!"
"Precisely..."
I allowed myself a slight smile.
"...I am a Black. Remember that the next time you open your mouth. You want to find employment when you finish school, I presume?"
The boy ran straight into a wall. He was old enough to understand perfectly well that House Black carried considerable influence, and that I could genuinely make his life difficult. I doubted he had the wisdom to actually learn from that. More likely, he would simply set about finding himself a patron and looking for ways to make trouble for me in the meantime.
"Well? Is that what you want?"
"No..."
The word cost him a great effort. He even dropped his gaze to the floor, though his clenched fists made it clear that this was anything but submission. Robert was working to conceal his fury.
"Good. The important thing is that you remember. You have already drawn my attention, and I will be watching you closely from now on. What you make of your future is entirely up to you."
"Draco..."
Penny placed a hand on my head.
"Yes?"
"That's enough threatening. Robert may not be perfect, but he is far from stupid and far from a bad person. He slipped up once..."
I tilted my head slightly to look up at her, where she stood beside me. She gave a mild, reproving shake of her head.
"...it happens. He has already paid for what he did. There is no need to keep pressing."
"Well, I am not the one pressing. I simply saw him laying into a second-year. A Muggle-born, by the look of things. Same as himself."
Penny's expression shifted slightly.
"Robert, did you...?"
"Penny..."
He looked at her with something close to helplessness, and I could see a struggle playing out inside him. I half expected him to try to deny it and point the finger at me, but instead he dropped his gaze back to the floor.
"I'm sorry. Yesterday I behaved like an absolute brute. I had no right to drag you into my conflict with Mr Black, and I should never have started it in the first place."
I was, honestly, mildly taken aback. A pity that Legilimency was beyond me. I could work with Occlumency and my own memories, but reading another person's mind would simply burn them out. It would have been interesting to know whether he genuinely felt this way, or was merely trying to lower our guard.
"It's all right, Robert. I understand. You were upset."
He gave a nod. After that, Penny gathered the first years together, received my confirmation that everyone was present, and led us to the Great Hall.
Right, everyone, I have a bit more free time today. Yesterday's visit to the hospital wing with Mr. Potter gave me an idea, so after lunch we are all going to take a little walk and I will show you the way to Madam Pomfrey's.
With that announcement we were taken to breakfast, and then on to our next lesson. The schedule had been set for the month, and with only two periods a day, both before lunch, some subjects inevitably repeated.
Today it was Potions.
"Black."
Snape addressed me within the first few minutes.
"Yes, Professor?"
"Your tests. You have the first half of the lesson to complete them. After that I will give you one potion to prepare during the second half. Begin."
I set to work on Snape's examination while he opened the lesson with a round of rather blunt questioning. He had apparently been restraining himself somewhat during the first lesson. Now he was working in his natural mode. He stopped short of outright insults, but his method was thoroughly effective at crushing any enthusiasm for the subject.
I finished the test in twenty minutes and handed him the sheet. He ran his eyes over my answers and set it down.
"The modified Layrée cold remedy. You know it?"
"Yes."
"Good. Brew it without the recipe and I will raise your grade by one level. Use the recipe and you receive the standard grade. Ask me for help and I lower your grade by one. Clear?"
I gave an understanding nod, went to the supply closet, selected everything I needed, and began to brew.
The preparation took nearly fifty minutes. When I extinguished the flame beneath the cauldron, Snape appeared beside me almost immediately, studying the contents with careful attention.
"Acceptable-plus. You may pack up and go."
I shrugged, gathered my things, and left the classroom, though I did not go far, simply leaning against the wall in the hallway outside.
"Thrown out?"
Filch appeared silently beside me.
"No, Mr. Filch, I took my first-year examination and he asked me to leave the room."
"Should I take you to the Great Hall?"
"Thank you, Mr. Filch, but there's no need..."
Mrs. Norris had materialized beside me, and I crouched down and gave her a gentle stroke, scratching behind her ear. The cat accepted the attention with something that might almost have been grace, then, with a soft, disdainful huff, moved away and sprang up into Filch's arms, where he took over the stroking.
"...I am first-year coordinator for Ravenclaw, and simply leaving would be rather irresponsible on my part."
"Well, well..."
Filch shook his head.
"...a coordinator drawn from within the year group itself. That's never been done before."
"Penny thought it would be amusing to put one of the first-years in charge of the others. The very next day she realized it might be more than just amusing, so she left the arrangement in place."
"Hm. Right then, I'll be off..."
"Good day to you, Mr. Filch."
"And to you, boy... and to you..."
The caretaker made his way along the corridor with his slight shuffling gait, turned the corner, took two steps, and simply vanished. No sound, no sign of him.
"Now that... is something I would very much like to learn."
I shook my head, pulled the book from my bag, and settled in to read. It did not last long before Penny appeared near the classroom.
"Draco?"
"Took my examination. Asked to leave. Waiting for the first-years."
"Good. I was beginning to wonder whether you'd managed to get under Snape's skin and he'd simply expelled you from the room."
"Well..."
I shrugged.
"...that was certainly a possibility, if I'd had to actually sit through his lessons. After being taught by a tutor who made the effort to engage you, who wanted to make the material interesting enough that you would want to learn it yourself..."
I shook my head.
"...Snape seems entirely incompetent as a teacher."
"Fair enough..."
Penny Clearwater gave a nod, and at that moment the bell rang. I put my book away, and as my classmates filed out, I gave the one instruction that mattered: pair up. Then I counted heads, found the number satisfactory, and fell in at the rear. Directly in front of me were Daphne and Tracey, walking side by side.
"How do you both do it?"
"Hmm?"
Daphne glanced at her friend with a faint, questioning look.
"The schoolwork. I know you were both taught before Hogwarts, and with Draco it makes sense. He said himself that he was able to start practicing magic early for medical reasons. But you, Daphne? How does it all come so easily?"
"Tracey, if you know the curriculum, I knew it before training ever began; mastering the spells taught in the first year takes about a month, without rushing. And I was being prepared specifically for this."
"Though it is simpler to say she had strong motivation."
"Motivation?"
Tracey half-turned toward me.
"My lord..."
Daphne half-turned as well, and her look held a clear plea. I had no intention of telling everyone that the girl genuinely relished her role as an attendant. It was simply part of who she was. I had no idea where it had come from, and I admit it took us a while to notice. And there it was; I found it quite agreeable.
"Yes. She serves me under contract, and I find it genuinely pleasant to watch her tending to my room or preparing something. That is not to say I have any objection to house-elves, only that..." I shrugged. "In any case, she simply wanted to carry out her duties as well as possible. My mother put a system of rewards in place. If she did something by hand rather than having it done for her, she would be rewarded. The reward might be additional sessions with an interesting tutor in a subject she chose, or other things of that kind."
"But what does that have to do with her results?"
It is quite simple. When magic became available as a way to make her work easier, she decided to use it and asked to learn household charms first. But she could only receive them after demonstrating progress in her studies and doing her work well. So she arrived at school already rather well prepared.
"I see..."
Tracy gave a nod, and Daphne acknowledged me with the faintest incline of her head. She was embarrassed by the truth of it: that she simply wanted to be the best possible attendant, and if I had said that plainly, she might have wished the floor would swallow her.
"...so she was motivated to make her work easier, and to do that she first had to master the core subjects: only then could she learn the things that would actually help her in her duties..."
Tracy shook her head, not quite approving of the approach.
By that time we had arrived at the next lesson, Professor Flitwick's class.
"Mr. Black, which would you prefer? To take your History examination now, or to help your classmates with the material?"
I shrugged.
"Whatever suits you, Professor. I am confident in my knowledge, so the examination can happen at any time, but if you feel it would be better for me to begin my duties today and take History separately afterwards, I am happy to do that as well."
"In that case, let us see how you perform as my assistant. I shall start by leaving Ravenclaw with you. Today we are working on wrist flexibility, with this exercise..."
Flitwick quickly demonstrated a sequence of wand movements.
"I would like each of you to be able to perform this sequence smoothly, without pausing, three times in a row by the end of the lesson."
"Am I permitted to use magic during the lesson?"
I looked inquiringly at Flitwick, and after he nodded, I smiled.
I tore a few sheets from the notebook in my bag, and after a couple of wand movements, a small wire frame stood in front of me with a sheet of parchment suspended from it. On the parchment I had drawn an elaborate pattern of arrows. Elaborate at first glance, that is. On a second look, it was perfectly clear where the pattern began and where it led.
"Pay attention, everyone. I am now going to transfigure one of these little frames for each of you... Your task for the first half of the lesson is to trace the arrows with the very tip of your wand, touching the parchment as lightly as possible and following the path they show. While you do it, try to commit the movement of your wand to memory."
"A sound method..."
Flitwick gave an approving nod.
"...I know it well. I do not usually employ it myself, but why not..."
With a casual gesture from the professor, the room filled with enough frames to place one in front of every student.
"...try it and see. It may well prove quite effective..."
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