Chapter 22: Potions
“You’ve got mail,” Silversong observed rather cheerfully.
Hailey looked up as her Hedwig- the snowy owl she’d gotten at Ginny's recommendation- fluttered importantly down in front of her, next to Silver’s eagle owl. “Interesting,” she smiled. “The Dursleys promised not to ask me how the first week went until the weekend.” She gently accepted the letter from Hedwig’s beak. “Have a good night?”
Hedwig blinked slowly at her.
She shrugged. “Well, it’s only polite to ask.” She ripped open the envelope- just in time for a large barn owl to land right next to Hedwig, crowding her aside.
Hedwig snapped her beak at the larger owl.
Hailey looked up. “Oy,” she barked. “Don’t be pushy.” She gave the barn owl a little push, so Hedwig was no longer struggling to avoid toppling Hermione’s glass, then took its letter as well.
“Are you talking to the owls?” Hermione asked Hailey, retrieving her glass.
The barn owl snapped its beak angrily at Hailey, then took flight, leaving without another backward glance.
Hailey glanced at her. “Well of course. Just because they can’t speak our language doesn’t mean they aren’t intelligent, or can’t understand our language.” She unfolded the letter Hedwig had delivered. “Now, I wonder…” She read down it for a second, then chuckled softly.
“What is it?” Silver asked.
“It’s Hagrid,” Hailey answered. “The Gamekeeper, who led us across the Lake. He’s asking if I’m interested in ‘chatting’ with him this afternoon, since we’re off.”
“Oh, I’ve heard about him,” Silver mused. “He’s- Well…” She glanced past Hailey at Hermione, who raised her eyebrows. “The way they tell it, he’s some sort of savage living on the school grounds, who gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed.”
“Well, they’re not wrong about the school grounds thing,” Hailey informed her. “He even gave me instructions on how to find his hut. Not that ‘walk out the front doors and look to your right’ is very difficult, but…” She giggled softly.
“So why is he asking?” Hermione asked, taking the letter and scanning it.
“No idea,” Hailey answered. “Looks too genuine to be a ploy, though- and considering what we… well, can do, I don’t see the harm in having a chat. Besides, he’s technically a staff member, just trying to familiarize himself with the student that is most likely to run into problems with other students trying to bug her about the Boy who Lived, so he can better help if he happens to see them bugging her about that?”
“And now you’re talking about yourself in the third person,” Ron observed, seated to Hermione’s left.
“Well yes,” Hailey nodded, “of course I was. In any case, why don’t we all go chat with him after lunch today?”
Silver shrugged. “I don’t see why not. I mean…” She looked between Hailey and Hermione. “I’d ask what could go wrong, but then something probably would.”
Hailey let out a snort of laughter, while Hermione giggled. Hailey then scribbled a quick ‘will do’ on the back of Hagrid’s note, and gave it back to Hedwig.
“What about that other letter?” Ron asked suddenly, pointing at it. “That looked like one of the school owls.”
Hailey glanced down at it, and slit it open. “True. I wonder who…? Oh.” She scanned down it, and rolled her eyes. “Looks like the Headmaster wants me to meet him in his office, this afternoon, so he can ask about The Boy Who Lived.”
“Funny, we were just talking about that,” Silver mused.
“Better not keep him waiting,” Hermione muttered.
Hailey shrugged. “Nah, we already agreed to see Hagrid. Professor Dumbledore can wait.” She gestured at the table. “Besides, his owl already left, so he’s obviously not all that worried about knowing whether or not I’m actually going to show up.”
Silver blinked. “That’s… one way to look at it, I suppose.”
“You’d think he’d be really worried about that,” Hermione mused.
“Yeah, with how much you’ve had to yell that you are not his sister,” Ron agreed.
Hailey rolled her eyes; she’d already had to yell to the entire Gryffindor common room, three times, that she was not Harry’s sister. “I guess he hasn’t heard yet. Well, if he’s going to be so ignorant, I think I’m going to ignore his letters, make him send someone to come get me. And when he does, outright refuse to talk about… Him. See how he likes that.”
“He is not going to be happy,” Silver scowled. “And you are aware of how dangerous an unhappy Dumbledore can be, right?”
Hailey shrugged. “That’s the point.” She leaned in close, and whispered. “And it’s not like he can hurt me, is it?”
“Are you sure about that?”
Hailey raised an eyebrow. “You mean you haven’t noticed Discord’s touch?”
“Dis-?” Silver facepalmed. “Of course.” Then she lowered her hand. “I wonder why…?”
“Protecting his interests, I think,” Hailey mused. Then she straightened up. “And even then, I’m just a student here anyways- if I choose not to obey every single letter that comes in, when I have no idea if it’s fraudulent or not, what is he going to do? Dock points?”
Silver let out a snort of laughter.
Hermione giggled softly as well. “Just don’t lose us the House Cup,” she told Hailey.
“Oh, no worries, we’re already in last place,” Hailey informed her. “I wonder how long that will last, though? I mean, we’ve already seen how imperfect the teachers are- who is to say Dumbledore is any different?” As she spoke, she mimed wrapping a turban around her head.
Silver snickered; she had been supremely unimpressed by Professor Quirrell’s first class as well. “I mean,” she muttered. “He is the one that hired ‘em all.”
“And it’s like Percy said at the welcoming feast,” Hermione grinned, leaning against Hailey. “ ‘He’s a genius!’ ”
“But yes, he is a bit mad,” Ron finished her quote, grinning like a loon.
Hailey snickered. “Anyways, we should probably finish eating before class starts, eh?”
“Yup,” Silver agreed, snatching a piece of bacon from Hailey’s plate and promptly attempting to stick it in Hailey’s mouth, with varied success.
Hailey cheerfully chomped on the offered bacon, before reaching over to fork Silver some of her own scrambled eggs.
Silver, whose owl had long since departed, delivered candy lying forgotten, accepted the offering and promptly reached past Hailey to feed Hermione some sausage.
Once again, Dumbledore found himself watching the Gryffindor table out of the corner of his eye. He couldn’t hear a word of what they were saying from where he was, but that Hailey Potter was certainly a strange one. She’d seemed to have had two friends already, when she first came to the school- a muggleborn named Hermione Granger… and one Silversong Malfoy. It didn’t exactly help that, when he asked the Ministry who Silversong was, all he got was shrugs and a healthy dose of ‘no clue’. He’d eventually found out that the girl’s file with the Ministry was stored in the so-called ‘Secure Drawer’, meaning that even he didn’t have access without Amelia Bones’ explicit permission.
And Amelia Bones did not like giving him permission. She’d outright refused when he’d asked- and when questioned, she’d refused because “The contents of those files are none of your business, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.”
He’d known, right then and there, that he wasn’t going to get any further on her; whenever she used his full name, that was her way of telling him to clear out, or else. He had yet to find out what that ‘or else’ was, but he was very sure that he didn’t want to find out.
But even her refusal had told him something: He was not Hailey’s magical guardian… even though she had required a standard muggleborn introduction, which always meant that the Hogwarts Headmaster- meaning, himself- had been assigned as the magical guardian.
He watched as the three girls started their rapidly-becoming-normal display of feeding each other, and let out a sigh. Ronald Weasley had, it seemed, managed to forge a friendship with them since they arrived- but he evidently had nothing on the bond between the girls.
He was pretty sure that the feeding display had started as a food fight during the welcoming feast. There was always at least one of those each time the school had a feast, after all.
Professor Snape paused in the middle of his roll call, looking at the next name on his list.
He was internally conflicted about how to handle the Potter girl. He was still indebted to the Potter boy’s father- but, with the news of Harry’s death, he had spent several sleepless nights trying to figure out how he would pay James back, without waiting for the man’s ghost to come calling.
He had wondered, ever since the Sorting earlier that week, if Hailey was in any way related- if he could pay James off by protecting her. From the sound of it, he wouldn’t- there was a rumor going around that she wasn’t his sister.
But then she entered his classroom- and whenever he looked at her, he could see young Lily Evans looking back at him. Hailey didn’t look exactly the same; her hair was different, and she had a number of subtle differences that made her just so much cuter than Lily ever was- but the resemblance was uncanny.
Perhaps the Potters had a daughter as well, that the world wasn’t told about? That would also explain Hailey’s last name!
He made a quick decision and, recalling what had happened when McGonagall had called Harry’s name at the Sorting, smiled as nastily as he could. It helped that he was in a nasty mood.
“Ahh, yes. Hailey Potter. Our new…” He paused for a fraction of a second, hunting for something to call her. “Heir of Gryffindor,” he decided.
“Heir of Gryffindor?” Hailey answered amusedly, eyebrows raised. “I think you’ve got the wrong girl.”
He snarled at her, and postponed his normal welcoming spiel. “Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”
Hermione Granger, next to Hailey, raised her hand.
Hailey, however, scowled at her empty cauldron. “Um… I’m not sure.” She looked up at him. “What are the other ingredients in that infusion?”
So, she was going to be specific, huh? Time for something specific, then. He ignored her question. “What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?”
Hermione’s hand stretched even higher, but he still ignored it.
Hailey rubbed her chin this time. “Monkshood and wolfsbane…” She scowled. “I know I’ve read Monkshood somewhere, and that wolfsbane is more commonly referred to as Acolnite, but beyond that…” She shrugged.
His scowl deepened. The girl had obviously read the book. He cast about for something a little more obscure, but that would still have appeared. “Where would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?”
Hermione raised her hand so high that she stood up.
Hailey, however, blinked. “Oh. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat. Works as an antidote to most poisons, so there’s probably at least one in the store cupboard, and I know there’s one in my Potions kit- I got it specifically. Bizarre, aren’t they?” She smiled sweetly up at him.
Hermione sat down again, lowering her hand.
He sighed internally. He couldn’t even make fun of how little she knew, because she knew more than most second-years he’d subjected to that same questioning!
He wanted to take points off of her, but in the seconds he had to think about it, he couldn’t think of any justifiable reason- so he swept wordlessly back up to the front of the class to continue his normal spiel.
Snape had developed a habit of enumerating the ways potions could go wrong, in his head, at any given point in the brewing process. As a result, when his display of Silversong Malfoy’s excellently-stewed horned slugs was interrupted by a loud hissing from right behind him, he knew immediately that one of two things had happened. The first, and more likely, was that someone had added the porcupine quills before they took the cauldron off the fire. It had, after all, been a common mistake in his early years as a teacher, before he added specific warnings against it to his lesson plan.
The other possibility was that someone had done their potion properly, but was using a cheap pewter look-alike cauldron, usually made of iron, brass, or ‘aluminium’, rather than a true pewter cauldron.
Since the former issue was the more sedate of the two and still often caused a bit of a splash, he bolted directly away from the hissing even before he looked. The resultant potion was rather harmful basically no matter which it was, and he did not want to be splashed. He did feel a little sorry for Malfoy, who would have been left in the splash radius. For as much as he hated Gryffindors, the Malfoy family were very good friends of his- to the point where he was actually Draco’s godfather, once the boy resurfaced. He saw no reason he shouldn’t extend the same courtesy to his sister, adopted or not.
Before he had made the two full steps that would put him out of the danger zone of either disaster, he was overtaken by a cloud of acid green smoke.
That was a good thing; that meant it was the porcupine quills. The wrong cauldron would have made sky blue smoke that would infect other cauldrons of potion, causing the problem to cascade throughout the room if he didn’t vanish everyone’s potions.
He reached the safe distance for the porcupine quill mistake and turned around to investigate.
As expected, it was a Gryffindor. This was the Gryffindor side of the room, after all. Neville Longbottom was sitting alone at the ruined cauldron, drenched in the harmful potion. His partner, Saemus Finnegan, had frozen several strides away, carrying some ingredients from the student store cupboard; as Snape recalled, the boy had instructed Longbottom not to do anything until he got back.
The two students at the cauldron on the far side of Longbottom’s were just outside the splash radius- but their cauldron was not. Some contaminated potion had made it inside- so those two students, still unharmed, were leaping away from and fleeing their own contaminated potion. A shame, they had made a far less noticeable mistake almost ten minutes earlier that would’ve merely rendered their potion inert, so long as they didn’t make the quill mistake. He’d planned on using their mistake to show the class what a best-case scenario for a potion gone wrong looked like, and explain why something so simple as stirring it with the wrong hand could cause such a massive difference in the ending potion.
Malfoy and her partner, Hermione Granger, were in the splash zone themselves- but seemed amazingly unharmed. As a matter of fact, in a display of quick thinking, Granger had dumped the contents of her cutting board on the table in front of her- doing significant damage to the ingredients- in order to turn the cutting board into a makeshift lid for their cauldron, protecting it from splashes.
He gave his wand a little wave, using a quick charm to vanish the offensive potion. That was one of the main reasons he chose this potion as his opener, rather than something whose failure states were somewhat less harmful; with this one, no matter how one messed it up, the cleanup- and so, disaster containment- was as easy as a single charm. It was also a fairly easy potion to brew, and about seventy five percent of his students- on average- got it on their first try, even in their first class.
“Idiot boy!” He had, after all, ignored two separate explicit instructions- one in the class materials, and one from his partner not two minutes prior- in order to make that mistake. He couldn’t even blame it on Potter.
The apparent imperviousness of Granger and Malfoy against the harmful potion, though, bore investigation.
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Ooh! Great chapter! I like Snape's inner conflict throughout it
And I bet that "bond" between the three girls is coming from carrying Equestrian magic. Can't wait to see what'll happen when Dumbledore figures out Hailey's not coming. Though knowing him, the second he knows Hailey didn't respond he'll instruct Hagrid to do it for him.
It's Aluminium, with an extra I. The entire world except America calls it that, and as Shape is British, he'd use the correct spelling.
You forgot the lead in the cauldron
10695256
Only low-grade pewter contains lead instead of copper/antimony, giving it a blue tint, though.
Then why is that line the only time in the synopsis where Harry is referred to as female?
10695291
Tell that to the Idiot Wizards
Dumbledore is going to be surprised knowing there is a student out there who does not pay him any mind - especially a first year student.
10695308
Because "Harry" remained male all throughout, and "Hailey" was the girl hiding inside of him... and he thought of the two not as his past and future self, but as two entirely separate people that happened to live in the same body- one male, one female. And the synopsis was referring to the male of the two.
You'll notice that, after that point, the only times he's referred to as "he" (rather than by name or with the plural pronoun "they") are directly connected with telling the Dursleys something... and he kept Hailey secret from the Dursleys, because of course randomly turning into a girl was not the way physics worked, was it?
... Honestly, it's mostly "just because". Back when I wrote that synopsis, I hadn't yet even properly differentiated Hailey and Harry in my own head... Nor had I come out as trans myself, and so truly understood what she was going through.
10695330
Oh yes he is.
... Then of course, there's the second reason Hailey hasn't mentioned, that will undoubtedly come up if Dumbledore directly asks her why she didn't appear: She doesn't know where his office is.
10695334
Speaking of this topic... there wasn't any school map anywhere inside the Hogwarts, was it? How could they expect the new students to know the classroom location if there is none to begin with?
10695375
This is a good question. Especially since Harry & Ron, in canon, had a lot of trouble finding their classes...
Maybe they just (inaccurately) assumed the upper year students would help them out?
I would say there is a special place i would like to send Snape but in the end he does revel his true self.
a grate chapter.
now for Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. he is just a ass out for more power for his self and a little person trying to make a name for him self.
10695247
O you mean pot mettle.
10695403
Or maybe this is just a scheme to make sure none of the houses would get perfect score?
10695414
To be fair, Dumbles is actually very powerful and famous already... But yes, he certainly does seem to have that feel to him, doesn't he?
10695464
That's... evil. But entirely possible, at the same time.
10695247
Hey, Don't lump us Canadians in with "America". We also stuck to the original "aluminum" spelling that was chosen after people rejected Humphry Davy's proposal of "alumium" (because he refined it from alum).
"Aluminium" is just something proposed by Thomas Young that a bunch of people jumped on because they all agreed that "Aluminum" had a "less classical sound".
It's not as if everyone gets up in arms about "platinum" not being "platinium"... and platinum doesn't have the excuse that "alumina" is an actual name for aluminum oxide, while "aluminia" is not.
(Not to mention "tantalum", "molybdenum", and "lanthanum".)
I'll be honest: I find myself looking forward to this more than Parallel Worlds and I'm not sure why.
10695588
Mostly right. For much of the 19th century, aluminium was more common in North America. Webster's Dictionary always used aluminum, but it wasn't until the late 19th century that that spelling became more common.
10696061
Yeah. Wikipedia does say that. I just didn't feel it was necessary to complicate things by going into detail on how everything flip-flopped before it settled.
Aconite? There's an extra letter in there.
I like the research that went into how that potion explosion would work. That was an interesting bit of theorizing.
RE the copper cauldron, though -- there are certain things that can't be cooked in a copper pot or they'll leach copper into the food. Maybe the other ingredients in the pewter would stabilize or halt that reaction, where bare copper would cause problems that way? I don't know if that works in real life, but I could see there being some sort of reason that perhaps the silver or something would stabilize the pewter for the same purpose.
10696037
Perhaps it's because this one has more than a hundred thousand words of additional experience behind it? Or perhaps it's just because this one is in a more narratively interesting position than OtIoPW?
I mean seriously. I've been doing a reread of OtIoPW these last couple days, in an attempt to break the writer's block, but it has so far been unsuccessful. Still got a dozen or so chapters left of the third arc before I finish, but I've reread the third arc alone several times before in similar attempts... The story may have reached the "silent death" scenario, where I almost literally can't continue it, no matter how hard I try. The same situation The Gate found itself in...
Fortunately, I think OtIoPW is still rescuable- though for how long, remains to be seen.
10696553
You're right, Fudge is somehow even more incompetent. I could absolutely see him barging into the safe box if the girls make a big enough of a splash, or if Lucius tells him to. Luckily, Malfoy won't do something like that for once, because he has an interest in keeping the truth about his son and her friends secret.
10696564
I like this and enjoy it, but I do like Implications of Parallel Worlds a bit better. I'm now a tad worried that you won't finish it.
10696933
Me too, believe it or not. I like OtIoPW's unique scenarios, and the planned plot points waiting for it. The challenge, though, is getting to them...
... Though I suppose there is one point where we differ: I personally prefer this one.
10695334
10695375
10695403
Remember, in Canon, the castle moves rooms, so a map, unless magical like the Marauders's Map, is useless.
You might find this useful
10715374
That sounds like a scheme to prevent students to arrive at classroom on time, so the professors can easily deduct their points. How could they promote education when the students have to be worried where the classrooms for today are?
10715374
I haven't considered the castle moving rooms around to actually be canon, since it isn't mentioned in the books. The stairs, on the other hand, are noted- in the books- to move around on occasion, which for someone that isn't expecting it, would have the effect of making the rooms appear to move around...
With such a scenario, a non-magical map would be possible, even though any castle with 142 staircases (Source: Philosopher's Stone) will be large enough to require a very, very large map- not to mention the extra, ultra-confusing notations to tell which staircases go where and when. As such, it makes sense for them to forgo distribution of maps and instead request and expect that older students (ex. prefects) will guide newer students to their classes- this is hinted at by the prefects leading the first-years (and only the first years) up to bed on the first night. Too bad nobody listens well enough to do it the following morning, since Friday was (if I remember right) the first day Harry & Ron made it to breakfast without getting lost.
10715405
That is... an interesting calendar, certainly. Especially how there are a full two weeks between the EOT feast and the train ride home, with basically nothing for anyone to do... Sounds like a waste of time & funding, to me.
10715432
Don't ask me why, that's just what it says in CANON!
I happen to agree with you. However, after describing it in the book, she never again mentions it, except to move the hospital wing to different floors in the castle each year (first year, it's the first floor, another year it is Fourth floor. It's also described as being on the second and third floors).
10715460
Agreed.
10719520
Which would be why I take the moving passages route :)
10719623
But sometimnes . . sometimes . . . it's more fun to make the rooms move, too.
I almost dropped it in the first chapters, but now as I'm more comfortable with the characters it's quite nice : )
Will wait for more!
10730106
It's canon that his wand was not suited to him and warn out. Soon as he got a new wand he started making major improvements with his magic.
10730106
10731033
The way I see it, he was a good, smart wizard... who was overshadowed by his older siblings, and so felt inadequate and didn’t try all that hard. When he got the new wand, even if he didn’t consciously note a difference, he felt important enough for them to spend a few galleons on, and worked harder. This of course would have compounded with, not replaced, the inferior wand and its replacement with a matched one.
10719520
Sounds like an excuse for her as an author to not bother remembering where she'd placed rooms in the castle.
10746990
Yes. And it makes the map the twins made all that more amazing,
Pree modern/ancient pewter contained about 70 percent tin and 30 percent lead. As they age they darken considerably, and more than likely the sort of pewter that would be used by witches and wizards based on the dark colors they used in the movies. Modern pewter doesn't tarnish the way the old pewter did. Modern pewter will tarnish more of a charcoal gray but will have a mellow silver coloration when properly cared for.
10747685
I think you mean the Marauder’s. The twins simply stole it when they stumbled across it at one point.
10790054
Oops. You are right. I mis-wrote.
10757525
No shoes mentioned because who goes wandering in a woods wearing heels? Bra's however, no matter how much you might feel otherwise, are a necessary part of your wardrobe no matter where you are in public. The difference in appearance between bra or no bra is immediately evident. Especially if you are larger than a "B" size.
10790125
Especially considering that most heels are utterly unsuited for things like grassy fields (Hogwarts grounds) and cobbled streets (Diagon Alley).
Something tells me witches probably wear flat shoes just like the wizards do, and like Harry would have... making them utterly unremarkable.
10844506
The idea is that some of those people the boy knew them personally because they all come from the same circle 'death eater children'.