By All Means, Enlighten Me

7 - Did You Enjoy The Show?

Draco grumbled under his breath and Hermione shook with rage. There was a wolf whistle from across the classroom and Draco pulled a finger in the direction of the sound. Hermione looked to the opposite side of the room at Pansy who looked about ready to lay an egg.

"Mister Malfoy! That is enough. Five points from Slytherin now sit down! Both of you!" Slughorn growled before waving his wand, clearing up the mess and walking back to the front of the class.

Hermione and Draco took a seat at their newly cleaned table and sat as far from each other as possible.

"Our first potion of the year is one I'm sure you have all heard of at some point. It is the Draught of Peace." Slughorn announced. "We will be brewing it to a N.E.W.T standard so that you may be able to accurately produce a detailed essay on its origins, magical properties, effects and of course characteristics.

"As, it is one of the most notorious sleeping potions in the wizarding world, we will be brewing this particular potion over the course of the whole term. Looking, in excruciating depth, at every possible angle we can."

The entire  class groaned and Hermione looked furious. She scowled in Malfoy's direction, clearly under the impression that this was all his fault.

"We'll now, today we will be looking at the more complex ingredients involved in the potion and their properties to better determine the part they play in the creation of the concoction as a whole." Slughorn said as he reached for a piece of chalk and began writing up a recipe for the Draught of Peace. "We will be studying, the history behind the very first makings of the mixture. We will study ingredient comparison between the Ancient First Wizards' recipes and variations of brews between then and now. We will be doing case studies on when the potion was used and the effects and outcomes of it's involvement in major Wizarding Times. We will essentially be taking this recipe apart and observing it at every angle possible over the course outlined for this month.

He finished with a smile that looked as though he had just told them he was flying them all to Paris for the Holidays when really all they seemed to think he'd done was give them a one way ticket to hell.

"Well now! There's no need to look so glum! You've had six years to simply make potions and learn where simple ingredients come from. N.E.W.Ts are your highest school grade you can achieve as a witch or wizard! You didn't expect another walk in the park for exams this year did you?"

The class remained silent. At this, Hermione frowned so hard she could have permanently stuck her brows together as she hastened to jot down everything that was on the blackboard. She knew that N.E.W.Ts would be harder than her O.W.Ls but she didn't expect so much theory! Especially in Potions! She dreaded to think what History of Magic exams would be like.

Hermione immediately got to work reading over the potion origins in her text book while Draco idly doodled on his book.

Halfway through the class, he slid a note across the desk at her as Slughorn rambled on about ancient sedatives. When she saw what he had drawn, she screwed the parchment into a ball and bounced it off the side of his head.

Draco had drawn an illustration titled: Golden Princess Club. It was of Hermione looking down over a small crowd of students, handing out tiaras as they bowed and worshiped her at her feet.

By the time Draco had suppressed his anger enough to reply (he couldn't afford to lose more points for Slytherin this early on in the year) he turned to her and she shot him a filthy look. Only when he opened his mouth to insult her, did he notice a huge split in her bottom lip that had definitely not been there previously.

"Tridog Hair!" Came Slughorn's voice pulling Hermione attention towards the front, much to Draco's frustration as he craned his neck to get a better look and make sure he wasn't seeing things. "Very rare creatures, a suicide mission to even think about getting near one if you don't know what you're doing. Can anyone tell me their only weakness?"