Hermione and Harry: Riddle in Time (Tomione/Harmione) UNEDITED

Chapter 4 (Part 2)

Their next class was Potions. Professor Slughorn was not yet there. Hermione and Harry sat close to each other.

"Harry, looks like you'll be Slughorn's favorite student. Since you've memorise Snape's book. You'll know all the potions by now." she whispered.

"I don't remember all. I don't have your brains." he joked.

"Yes, but still." she smiled.

When Slughorn arrived, he smiled at Harry, Hermione and Tom.

"Now then, now then, now then," said Slughorn, whose massive outline was quivering through the many shimmering vapors. "Scales out, everyone, and potion kits, and don't forget your copies of Advanced Potion-Making. " Hermione recognize that it was also his first line in their sixth year.

"Now then," said Slughorn, returning to the front of the class and inflating his already bulging chest so that the buttons on his waistcoat threatened to burst off, "I've prepared a few potions for you to have a look at, just out of interest, you know. These are the kind of thing you ought to be able to make after completing your N.E.W.T.s. You ought to have heard of 'em, even if you haven't made 'em yet. Anyone tell me what this one is?"

He indicated the cauldron nearest the Slytherin table. Harry raised himself slightly in his seat and saw what looked like plain water boiling away inside it.

Hermione's well-practiced hand hit the air before anybody else's; Slughorn pointed at her.

"It's Veritaserum, a colorless, odorless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth," said Hermione.

"Very good, very good!" said Slughorn happily. "Now," he continued, pointing at the cauldron nearest the Ravenclaw table, "this one here is pretty well known. " Featured in a few Ministry leaflets lately too " Who can ,?"

Hermione's hand was fastest once more.

"It's Polyjuice Potion, sir," she said.

Harry too had recognized the slow-bubbling, mudlike substance in the second cauldron, but did not resent Hermione getting the credit for answering the question; she, after all, was the one who had succeeded in making it, back in their second year.

"Excellent, excellent! Now, this one here, yes, my dear?" said Slughorn, now looking slightly bemused, as Hermione's hand punched the air again.

"It's Amortentia!"

"It is indeed. It seems almost foolish to ask," said Slughorn, who was looking mightily impressed, "but I assume you know what it does?"

"It's the most powerful love potion in the world!" said Hermione. She remembered Ron but she pushed it away.

"Quite right! You recognized it, I suppose, by its distinctive mother-of-pearl sheen?"

"And the steam rising in characteristic spirals," said Hermione enthusiastically, "and it's supposed to smell differently to each of us, according to what attracts us, and I can smell freshly mown grass and new parchment and" Ron

But she turned slightly pink and did not complete the sentence.

"Excellent Hermione, my dear! Twenty points to Slytherin. And I assumed Harry taught you this?" he asked. Harry's face turned red.

"Well, yes sir. He brewed some of them last summer. He was great." she said. She knows Harry did memorize Snape's book so she can say that he's great.

"Amortentia doesn't really create love, of course. It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love. No, this will simply cause a powerful infatuation or obsession. It is probably the most dangerous and powerful potion in this room ,oh yes," he said, nodding gravely at older Malfoy and older Nott, both of whom were smirking skeptically. "When you have seen as much of life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love. "

"And now," said Slughorn, "it is time for us to start work."

"Sir, you haven't told us what's in this one," said Lestrange, pointing at a small black cauldron standing on Slughorn's desk. The potion within was splashing about merrily; it was the color of molten gold, and large drops were leaping like goldfish above the surface, though not a particle had spilled.

"Oho," said Slughorn again. Harry was sure that Slughorn had not forgotten the potion at all, but had waited to be asked for dramatic effect. "Yes. That. Well, that one, ladies and gentlemen, is a most curious little potion called Felix Felicis. I take it," he turned, smiling, to look at Hermione, who had let out an audible gasp, "that you know what Felix Felicis does, Miss Granger?"

"It's liquid luck," said Hermione excitedly. "It makes you lucky!"

The whole class seemed to sit up a little straighten.

"Quite right, take another ten points for Slytherin. Yes, it's a funny little potion, Felix Felicis," said Slughorn. "Desperately tricky to make, and disastrous to get wrong. However, if brewed correctly, as this has been, you will find that all your endeavors tend to succeed " at least until the effects wear off."

"Why don't people drink it all the time, sir?" said Malfoy eagerly.

"Because if taken in excess, it causes giddiness, recklessness, and dangerous overconfidence," said Slughorn. "Too much of a good thing, highly toxic in large quantities. But taken sparingly, and very occasionally " said Tom.

Slughorn smiled at Tom and gave him 10 points.

"Have you ever taken it, sir?" asked Amycus Carrow with great interest.

"Once in my life," said Slughorn. "Once when I was twenty-four. Two tablespoonfuls taken with breakfast. One perfect day."

He gazed dreamily into the distance. Whether he was playacting or not, thought Harry, the effect was good.

"And that," said Slughorn, apparently coming back to earth, "is what I shall be offering as a prize in this lesson."

There was silence in which every bubble and gurgle of the surrounding potions seemed magnified tenfold.

"One tiny bottle of Felix Felicis," said Slughorn, taking a minuscule glass bottle with a cork in it out of his pocket and showing it to them all. "Enough for twelve hours' luck. From dawn till dusk, you will be lucky in everything you attempt."

"Now, I must give you warning that Felix Felicis is a banned substance in organized competitions, 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!"

"So," said Slughorn, suddenly brisk, "how are you to win my 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 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!"

There was a scraping as everyone drew their cauldrons toward them and some loud clunks as people began adding weights to their scales, but nobody spoke. The concentration within the room was almost tangible. Harry did memorize Snape's book so he did it without hesitation. Hermione kept glancing at him, she copies what he does that is different to what the book says.

When they're done, Slughorn went around the room. He stopped at Tom's cauldron, "Excellent Tom! You've done it again! Perfect! 20 points to Slytherin." Tom just smiled at him, proud.

When Slughorn stopped at Hermione's he beemed. "Perfect! Just like Tom's. Another 20 points, miss Granger." But when he saw Harry's he gaped. Mouth hanging open, then he closed it. "P-perfect! Harry, this is, this is the best! 50 points Harry! Perfect!" he stumbled to his words. Tom was now glaring at Harry. It was the first that someone better him. Twice.

Harry got the liquid luck. Again. Tom was still glaring at the end of the lesson.