What He Knew

Chapter 17

The summer sun was becoming stronger as the weeks at Hogwarts went on but I hardly noticed, I had taken to holing myself up in the library with my Beauxbatons potions textbooks. Hogwarts had this sort of God Complex, they were the only school in Europe not to teach the Dark Arts and they took immense pride in that. However, while they were acting holier than thou we were learning about them, learning how to brew death incase we ever had to use their own practices against them. It made far more sense that way, everyone on the Dark Lord's side knew all the spells they taught here but we could be one step ahead by studying them.

Ryan had given out to me for spending so much time in the library after exams.

"There's no need to punish yourself now, Fiadh, it's over until next year."

But I couldn't tell Ryan what I was really up to of course, so I went along with the guilt charade. Truth be told, I wasn't worried about my exam results anymore now this task was on my mind. Poisoning Dumbledore had never been on my to do list before I got here, but after meeting Draco and seeing the glimpses of what a sad boy he truly was, I couldn't let him do this alone.

I had almost given up on finding a potion strong enough Dumbledore when a page fluttered out of my book. On it was a hand written potion. I grabbed it quickly out of sight of anyone who may have been watching and read it quickly. I was soon reminded of a potions class in Beauxbatons when we'd been given permission to have a look at "potions les plus mortelles," purely for research purposes. I had seen this one and hadn't hesitated to scribble it down. I had simply labelled it "for enemies."

I clutched the paper tightly in my hand, stuffing my books away and running straight to the Slytherin common room. Before I reached the common room though, I collided with Draco.

"I found it," I hissed, looking over my shoulder.

He stared at me in surprise like he hadn't actually expected me to have found one. He poked his head into the closest classroom, found it empty and ushered me in.

"I found it in my old Beauxbatons book, it's really dangerous, we weren't allowed check the book out," I explained, shoving the piece of paper into his hand.

His eyes scanned the ingredients list, nodding slowly.

"I can get these."

I raised my eyebrows at him, "planning on raiding Snape's stash?"

He ignored me and folded the potion, placing it delicately into his trouser pocket.

"You're going to have to help me brew it..."

"Yeah, fine. Where?"

"Room of Requirement, I'll have the ingredients by tonight."

Without another word, he left, leaving me wondering how on earth he was going to come by all those ingredients in one night.

The Slytherin common room took longer than usual to empty out now that exams were over and everyone was staying up late playing exploding snap or wizards chess. Around midnight Ryan and I retreated to our dorms. She was moaning about an argument her and Hermione had had over Draco earlier but I wasn't listening. As a matter of fact, I hadn't been listening to most of what she had been saying of late, my mind preoccupied with potions and Draco. I hated to admit it but the slimy bastard took up way more of my brain than I liked.

"...don't you agree?" Ryan asked me as she climbed into bed.

"Oh, yeah," I replied hoping that my answer was sufficient.

As it happened, it wasn't. Ryan raised her eyebrows at me.

"What?" I asked, faking confusion.

"I just asked you if you thought all muggle borns deserved the death penalty," she laughed, throwing her shoe at me, "I knew you weren't listening. What's going on."