Fame isn't everything

The potion class was held in one of the dungeons near Slytherin's dorm. The freshness of the place probably helped the preservation of the potion ingredients.

I sit at a table with Daphne and two Gryffindor, Seamus and Neville.

Harry and Ron arrive just in time for the start of the class almost pushing Snape into the corridor to be sure to enter before him. Snape enters the room furiously.

"There will be no wands or silly incantations in this class. So I don't expect you to understand anything about subtle science or the rigorous art of preparing potions, yet as for the privileged few who possess predispositions, I can teach them to bewitch a man's spirit and imprison his essence. I can teach them to bottle glory and distil greatness, and even to enclose death in a bottle."

In short, psychotropic and other poisons' class. I am a little disappointed by the introduction of the class, too theatrical to my liking. But I guess the first rule for wizards who dress all in black is to make a noticed first entry?

"Mr. Potter, our new… celebrity. What do I get when I add powdered asphodel to a wormwood infusion?"

"I don't know. Tea?" Answers Harry, who has obviously decided to play comedy with the only teacher he has no chance of making him laugh.

"Very amusing Mr. Potter. Let's try again. Where would you go if I asked you to bring me a bezoar?"

Harry says nothing, apparently annoyed that the professor is picking on him when he has no idea of the answers.

"Still nothing? You obviously didn't bother to open your books before coming to this class. Let's make one last try. What is the difference between monkshood and Wolfsbane?"

Seeing Potter groaning more I allow myself to answer.

"It's the same plant, Professor, it's also called aconite."

"Minus 1 for Gryffindor and Slytherin. Next time you'll wait for permission to speak even if it's to give the right answer. Mr Potter, you just proved to us that celebrity isn't everything." Snape seem faithful to himself. "Mr Bones, since you seem in the mood to satisfy my curiosity, answer the same questions as Mr Potter."

"By mixing asphodel and wormwood, you get a potion called the draught of Living Death. In the potion book, a bezoar is a stone found in the stomach of a goat. But in Muggle books it is defined as a foreign body that is most often found in the stomach of humans or ruminant animals and that cannot be digested. There are four types, phytobezoar which are formed of plant debris, trichobezoar which are formed of hair, pharmacobezoar which are formed by a cluster of one or more medicines, and lactobezoar that consist of a mass of breast milk or artificial milk."

"Good answer, ten points to Slytherin for giving me the surprise of learning something today. You will be kind enough to give me the reference of the book from which you get this information before you leave." Snape seems genuinely satisfied with my answer.

"Well, now that I've assessed the level of some of you, divide into groups of two and make the cure for Boils."

I put myself in a group with Daphne and we begin the make the potion. She obviously has a bit of experience in preparing potions because without me having to tell her, she weighs and cuts the ingredients with precision. While we are almost at the end of the preparation of our potion I see Neville about to put his porcupine quills while his fire is still lit!

"Neville, stop! Remove your cauldron from the fire first or your potion will explode"

Neville stops just in time and read the recipe again with Seamus.

"Wow, thank you Sean." It doesn't cost me much to help him out a little bit and the sympathy I'm getting now might come in handy later.

We just have to let the potion simmer for a few minutes before it is finished. I could have talked to Daphne to pass the time if we weren't in Snape class. But these few minutes of patience are quickly rewarded when I see the mixture changed color to take its final hue which means success in its realization.

I smile at Daphne, who looks just as happy as I do.

"Let's see what we have here." Quietly, Snape came behind my back. I really thought I was going to have a heart attack.

He looks closely at our potion before taking a ladle and extracting a small amount that he sniffs.

"It seems done at least correctly. Now let's see if it works." With a movement of his wand, he makes a big boil appear on Daphne's face.

She starts to feel her face and screams when her fingers meet the huge protuberance on her face. Snape simply raises an eyebrow, pinches her nose, and shoves a ladle of potion into her mouth. A few seconds later, the boil completely disappeared.

Without a word, Snape goes to check the work of the others. Next to me, Daphne is still in a state of shock. I think I'm gonna like this class in the end.

At the end of the class, I gather my things and leave the class. A little fresh air makes me feel good, I have my nostrils filled with the smell of potions.

"Sean waits!" Daphne catches up to me and starts walking beside me. " I will go get my transfiguration's book. Are you waiting for me in the library like we said?"

"Yeah, I'm going anyway to enjoy the free books. Meet me there when you get your stuff." Daphne nods and smiles at me before she quickly walks towards our common room.

The Hogwarts Library is one of the few places that contain semi-free black magic books. For the time being, I will settle for the books available. I still have a few more years to figure out a way to get into the restricted section incognito.

There are quite a few students in the library right now, most of them are from Ravenclaw. I guess it's still too early to see the students interested in this place and there will be more and more people as the exams get closer.

I spot a known head sitting alone at a table.

"Hello, Hermione." My only friend from Ravenclaw raises her head from her book on the medicinal properties of poisonous plants.

"Hello, Sean. you came here to study?"

"No, I'm going to start an alpaca farm in the back of the library." Her surprised face is pretty funny to see. I find myself making more and more of these jokes, let's put it on my recovered childhood. "No, I'm joking, of course I'm here to study. Do you mind if I sit with you?"

"No, settle in. I haven't made many friends since we got here yet, so I got all the table for me only."

I go to the shelves and pick up a book. I come across an interesting book about dragons and go back to sit with her and read quietly. It doesn't take long for a voice to interrupt my reading.

"Um, I'm not bothering you?" I look up to see Daphne with her first-year book on transfiguration pressed against her stomach.

"Not at all, I was waiting for you. This is Hermione Granger. Hermione, this is Daphne Greengrass."

"Nice to meet you." Daphne greets her and puts her attention back on me without giving Hermione time to answer. "We'll find ourselves a table to study."

"Sorry Hermione, it'll be for another time." I take my book on dragons with me and I follow Daphne who settles down some table further.

"Well, can we get started?" Daphne already has her wand out and is ready for the lesson.

"That was a little petty. You could have been nicer."

"It would have just wasted time in useless discussion." She opens her book to the first chapter." Kind of like what you're trying to do now."

I sigh internally. As they say, all roses have thorns. "Well show me where your problem is?"

"I don't know, either I can change the color of the match, or its shape, or it's its texture, but I can't change all three at once." To show me her problem, she pulls out a box of matches and put one on the table in front of me before giving a wand in its direction. The match begins to reflect the light a little like metals.

"Okay, I see. Your problem is that you want to cast the spell without having a good mental image of what you want. That's why we do this exercise first. There is no special need for an incantation for such a simple transfiguration, it allows students to focus on the image of the object they would like to obtain. The problem is that you want the match to become a pin, but you don't imagine the match becoming a pin."

"It still doesn't tell me what I have to do." I sigh. She can be so impatient some time.

"Close your eyes." She seems reluctant but does it anyway." Now imagine the match, its size, its shape, the texture of the wood. Then, what you have to do is imagine each of its details and change them to the shape of the object you desire. When you have that picture in your head, you can cast the spell."

She keeps her eyes closed for a long minute and then she opens them and makes a move of her wand towards the match. It keeps its shape, but it changes color and becomes made of metal. "Failed again."

"At least there's progress. Try again."

It will only take her three more attempts to finally succeed. It would seem I'm not that bad for teaching.