Oleandra Makes a Mess

The Draught of Living Death, as it turned out, was much more complex than Oleandra had anticipated. But unlike a few fellows whose names need not be mentioned, she was able to follow simple instructions, so she was progressing at a steady pace.

However, steady was not going to be nearly enough— not if she wanted to win Professor Slughorn's prize, a small bottle of Felix Felicis. Due to Professor Slughorn's lengthy introduction, there was little time left for the class to complete their potions, so she needed to hurry and take risks.

Daphne had already finished ten minutes ago, and she was sitting up straight in her chair with her eyes closed. There was no way Oleandra could manage to make her potion as good as hers, but if she could somehow draw with her, then perhaps Professor Slughorn would give them both the prize…

In a bid to save time, Oleandra discarded her ingredients-chopping knife, and she began furiously chopping at her sopophorous beans with her rune engraving dagger, which was much sharper than the cheap knife that had come with her potioneering kit. She then scooped up the liquid the shrivelled bean had exuded and poured it into her cauldron…

…and its contents then began bubbling furiously, turning darker than the blackest night and coughing up copious amounts of astringent smoke, instead of turning a pleasant shade of lilac.

Oleandra rifled through her copy Advanced Potion-Making. She'd been doing well so far, so where on earth had she gone so wrong? She must have missed something, somehow…

"What a shame," came Professor Slughorn's voice from above her.

Oleandra looked up from her book. Professor Slughorn was peering into her cauldron, holding a handkerchief to his nose.

"The sopophorous beans must be cut with a silver knife, you see," he explained. "Its juices react with the silver— or more precisely, the silver acts as a catalyst. Your potion might be somewhat salvageable should you throw your knife into your cauldron now, but I'm afraid this potion won't be winning any prizes…"

Professor Snape would have just Vanished the contents of her cauldron and made her start all over again, but Professor Slughorn was kind enough to offer advice… even though most of the bean juice had already reacted with the rest of the potion.

A few minutes later…

"And time's… up!" Professor Slughorn declared. "Stop stirring, please!"

He then began walking ponderously among the tables to look at everyone's Draughts of Living Death, at times giving the potions a stir or a sniff when he approved. After examining the potions on Malfoy's table, he moved on to Oleandra's.

He tactfully chose not to offer any comments on Oleandra's potion, which had turned into a silver knife sticking out of a charred mess. He didn't say anything as he looked at Tracey's attempt, which was much better than Oleandra's— but since it was a few steps away from the finished product, it wouldn't be winning any prizes either. And finally, he looked into Daphne's cauldron…

"Marvellous!" he exclaimed in elation. "Professor Snape had told me of your immense talent, and here's the proof in the pudding! Excellent work, Miss Greengrass!"

Daphne understood the minute intricacies of potioneering theory, and as such, she was able to sniff out shortcuts and improvements better than anyone else!

Professor Slughorn then made his way to the Ravenclaw table, but it was clear to everyone that he had already made up his mind, and that he was only going through the motions in the interest of fairness. Once he had inspected each of the Ravenclaw students' potions, he finally moved on to the Gryffindors, clearly expecting nothing amazing on their part.

Hermione was smart to be sure, but she was simply blindly following instructions— she lacked the pioneering spirit of a researcher.

"My word, Harry!" Professor Slughorn suddenly cried out— startling Oleandra, who was trying to extract her silver knife from the congealed mess at the bottom of her cauldron. "Excellent, truly excellent! Good Lord, it's clear you've inherited your mother's talent, she was a dab hand at Potions, Lily was!"

Oleandra whirled around in her seat, a dumbfounded look etched into her face— there was no way that Harry of all people had beaten her at Potioneering, right?

"It seems to me like we have two winners!" said Professor Slughorn happily. "Oh yes, oh yes, which means you both win the prize! Come on, come and get your prizes, Harry and Daphne!"

Daphne hopped off her chair and trotted over to the Gryffindor table, whereupon Professor Slughorn placed a tiny bottle of the golden-coloured potion in the palm of her hand.

Even though he had just handed over a small fortune's worth of luck potion which he could have sold, Professor Slughorn was over the moon— he had managed to curry favour with two of his favourite students!

…

"Oleandra, wait up!" Harry called out to Oleandra, as they left the dungeon.

Oleandra stopped and turned to face him.

"What?" said Oleandra a bit more harshly than she had meant to.

It wasn't that she was envious that Harry had managed to snag Professor Slughorn's prize, since she didn't even believe in luck herself— it was that the student who consistently scored the lowest in their class had managed to make a better potion than her!

"It's… it's about Sirius," said Harry haltingly.

"Didn't he wake up from his coma already?" asked Oleandra rather abrasively.

Faced with Oleandra's hostile attitude, Harry seemed at a loss as to what to say next, but luckily for him, Hermione took over.

"Sirius did wake up, but he's not really responsive, you see?" said Hermione, who seemed to understand Oleandra's feelings. "He's being kept in the Hospital Wing here at Hogwarts, and Harry was hoping you might know what's wrong with him, seeing as you came out of the Archway just fine…?"

"If you could just have a look at him," said Harry pleadingly.

Oleandra chewed her lip, deep in thought. Her comatose mother was also being kept in the Hospital Wing, so she might as well kill one bird with two stones…