Alexandra Weasley: Book 6

11

"One tiny bottle of Felix Felicis, is what I shall be offering as a prize in this lesson." Alex gazed longingly at the potion in the cauldron. A perfect day was what she needed. Desperately. "Enough for twelve hours' luck. From dawn till dusk, you will be lucky in everything you attempt." Slughorn enticed before cautioning them. "Now, I must give you warning that Felix Felicis is a banned substance in organized competition; sporting events, for instance, examinations, or elections. So the winner is to use it on an ordinary day only, and watch how that ordinary day becomes extraordinary!"

"One perfect day." Alex muttered to Hermione. "I want it."

"Me too." Hermione replied wishfully.

"So," Slughorn was suddenly brisk, "how are you to win this fabulous prize? Well, by turning to page ten of Advanced Potion Making. We have a little over an hour left to us, which should be time for you to make a decent attempt at the Draught of Living Death. I know it is more complex than anything most of you have attempted before, and I do not expect a perfect potion from anybody. The person who does best, however, will win little Felix here. Off you go!"

"Yes!" Alex grinned, and got out her cauldron and equipment. Slughorn made his way over to her table.

"Miss Weasley, I'm afraid you'll be exempt from the competition." He told her and her face dropped. "Now, now, don't look too down. You have an unfair advantage being the winner of the most exclusive young adults potions contest. I've also been informed that you've already worked through most of the potions we'll be working on this year. Therefore you will be working on a separate task."

"What kind of task?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Why, the chance to brew a felix felicis of your own." She brightened.

"Really?"

"If you can brew the potion to a satisfactory standard, you'll get to keep what you make."

"Yes!" This was definitely a suitable alternative. "But I don't have ashwinder egg in my supplies."

"Not to worry, I'll supply you with it. You'll have to move away from Miss Granger and Miss-?" He looked to Megan.

"Jones." She answered. "Megan Jones."

"Right. You'll have to move away from Miss Granger and Miss Jones for safety. Any accidental mix of ingredients can be disastrous."

"Yes, sir." She said and moved a table over. Hermione was still close by as she grinned proudly at her friend.

Alex's first part of her potion was thawing out the ashwinder egg over a very low heat. It would do no good to irritate the egg and end up exploding the classroom. She saw Draco walk up to Slughorn.

"Sir, I think you knew my grandfather, Abraxas Malfoy?" Alex looked piteously at him. She knew how much Abraxas meant to Draco, though it had been some months since his death.

"Yes," Slughorn glanced at him. "I was sorry to hear he had died, although of course it wasn't unexpected, dragon pox at his age."

"Touch my cauldron and you'll lose a hand, Nott." She quickly turned her attention back at her own work table.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"If you mess with my potion, the entire lab goes boom. And then I will personally come and gut you like a fish. Remove yourself from my environment."

"Okay, fine. Whatever." He moved away. She turned back to her cauldron and watching the egg thaw. It had been both frozen in time and frozen all the way through. She knew once the egg had thawed, she'd have a very brief window of time to unfreeze the time spell on the egg, add the horseradish and cover her cauldron with a lid to contain any possible explosions. Still that wouldn't be for months so her only job for now was to keep an eye on the thawing egg.

She sat, staring at her egg for the entire lesson, knowing taking her eyes off would be an invitation to Nott or someone else to mess with it. She wasn't risking that.

Before calling the rest of the class to a stop, Slughorn came over. "I'm glad to see you haven't tired of watching the ashwinder thaw."

"Of course not." She said.

"Well, that's all we have time for today. If you put your cauldron in the potion cupboards, we'll lock it and tune it to your wand. You'll be able to come back and check on it before next lesson."

"Thanks." She lifted her cauldron and followed him to the cupboards. She put her cauldron away and put her wand to the lock when Slughorn asked.

"Now make sure you don't forget it."

"Yes sir." She grinned, and skipped back to her work table to clear away.

"And time's... up!" Slughorn called. "Stop stirring, please!"

Alex looked around the room and stood by Hermione's table. "How did the guy who barely scraped past with an E produce an outstanding draught on his first try?" She asked, gesturing to Harry behind.

"He cheated. He followed notes that were scribbled into his book." Hermione said as Slughorn praised him.

"The clear winner!" He cried to the dungeon. "Excellent, excellent, Harry! Good lord, it's clear you've inherited your mother's talent. She was a dab hand at Potions, Lily was! Here you are, then, here you are- one bottle of Felix Felicis, as promised, and use it well!"

"I can scribble notes in your book if you want." She told Hermione who looked disappointed.

"That's cheating." Hermione frowned. "But I wouldn't say no to a little tutoring."

"Got it." Alex grinned, nudging her friend. "Besides, if I can make felix felicis, I'll obviously share my doses with you. The potion makes enough for four, doesn't it?"

A/N- Yeah okay, but I obviously couldn't have Alex actually take part in the competition, because there's no way Harry would beat her. Even if he was using the half blood Prince's notes, it would be a draw at the least. She's already made the potion with Snape, so she already knows his notes. And she wouldn't have to refer to the book every other second so she'd probably finish first. And I would do that, but we all know Harry needs the felix felicis. So, Alex is making her own. I don't know the exact process or what part would take six months to brew, so aside from the ingredients, there's a lot of made up logic involved.

Anyways, favourite line "If you mess with my potion, the entire lab goes boom. And then I will personally come and gut you like a fish. Remove yourself from my environment."

I love the animosity between Alex and Nott. At this present moment in time, there's no friendship between them, and I don't see it happening anytime soon, because he's a total arse, but we'll see if there's anything human about him in the future, I guess. I doubt it though.