Oh goodness SOOOO sorry about the long time for the update! I was really busy having a ball this last week of summer. I hope you like the chapter and I'll try to update as much as possible once school/work start.
In Hermione Granger's eyes, the door to the dungeons seemed miles away when in reality, it was about ten feet in front of her. All of that sprinting throughout Hogwarts was definitely taking its toll on the out of shape Gryffindor.
"Oh my gods," she sputtered out as she dragged her feet across the floor to her final destination. Draco stood leaning against the wall next to the door with his arms crossed, scowling as she approached him.
"Took you bloody long enough, Granger. I've been standing here for ten minutes!" the Malfoy sneered in disgust as he gazed at her disheveled appearance. Hermione ,under different circumstances ,would have easily come back with a nasty remark for him but her current state of exhaustion only allowed her to give him a dirty look.
"Is that the best you've got? God ,Mudblood, you've really got to start working out that string bean body of yours if you want to come up with a better insult for me," he scoffed with an amused smirk. Hermione shoved him lightly with her last bit of remaining energy.
"At least I'm thinking clearly unlike yourself, Draco," she said coolly, emphasizing his name with distaste. He looked puzzled by her remark, but quickly covered it up with a sneer.
"What the hell are you talking about, Granger?" he asked her spitefully. Hermione rolled her eyes and pointed a finger at the heavy door in front of her, practically shaking with fury.
"Why didn't you go inside to start brewing the potion?! You could have had a bloody head start while I was running here," the bush -haired girl screeched. Draco paled and felt a blush rise to his cheeks.
Oh shit, she's right. Damn it, why didn't I go inside? I shouldn't have fucking waited for her lazy arse to show up! I thought it would be the right thing to do, you know, wait for her….but that was definitely the wrong choice.
Blasted Chilvalry!
"Well, YOU are just wasting more time standing here screaming at me, you idiot," Draco spat back, feeling a lightness in his chest as he realized he saved his own ass with quick thinking.
"Just…you…argh!"
Hermione let out a loud groan as she finally collapsed against the heavy wooden board, pushing it forward with all of her might. The door creaked open exposing the entrance to the dimly lit dungeons; a cold draft hitting the partners' faces.
"Let's get this over with," the Gryffindor mumbled, walking through the doorway first. Draco rolled his eyes and followed behind her, shutting the door with him.
I really don't know how much more of Granger I can take. I'm practically on the verge of suicide the longer I'm around her. Every little thing I say to her gets her so bloody worked up. Merlin, sometimes I think she might have been a great Slytherin.
Too bad she's got that lion mane head of hers that makes her the perfect Gryffindor...
"Where's our equipment and instructions?" the annoying voice of Hermione rang in Draco's ears. He realized they were already standing in the front of the classroom. Looking around, he noticed that Hermione had a credible point. Every desk was cleared and not a single trace of a cauldron or sheaf of paper was visible. This struck Draco as being quite peculiar.
"How are we supposed to brew the potion then? It's impossible to do without having any idea of what it's supposed to be," he said with his face screwed up in perplexity. Hermione didn't bother answering him; instead she walked up to the first desk and started to grasp the empty air. Her hands groped around the nothingness on top of the desk while Draco stared at her incredulously.
"And what, pray tell, are you doing? Have you finally gone off the deep end?" Draco asked her as she continued her feel up. She moved on to the next desk and performed the same motion, this time, her hands staying motionless in one spot.
"It's here…the cauldron!" she declared as she broke into a wide grin. Draco raised an eyebrow and walked over to where she was. He looked down at the spot where Hermione's hands lay in midair and shrugged his shoulders.
"There's nothing there you silly witch. It's just air, you know, the kind your brain doesn't get enough of?" Draco said, shaking his head. Hermione did not retort his comment; her smile only grew larger. She pulled her wand out of her pocket and pointed it at the spot she had previously rested her hands on.
"Finite Incantatem!" she cried out with a twirl of her wand. Draco's jaw practically dislodged itself when he witnessed the silver steel of a cauldron materializing into the space that was empty moments before. A second later, the entire glistening cauldron had manifested itself before their very eyes,
"It was disillusioned! Quite clever really." Hermione's voice was awe stricken at the ingenious concealment. Draco on the other hand, felt like he was going to puke.
Christ Almighty, the Mudblood just made me look like a complete idiot. Me, an idiot! She is the one that's supposed to be embarrassed and out done, not me!
Now she's probably going to be pestering me about this for a bloody year. Ugh….
Note to Self: Fuck Magic...Seriously.
"Oh good, the instructions for the potion are right here in the cauldron," Hermione hummed, pulling out a piece of paper from inside the metal pot. Draco, already having prepared himself for her inevitable insult, looked shell shocked.
"What? You're not going to tell me how I was an arrogant and stupid fool for not believing you?" Draco asked her. She took her eyes off of the parchment and stared at him. A small smirk crept onto the corner of her lips.
"You, Draco Malfoy, are practically giving me an invitation to insult you now?" she said, putting her hands onto her hips. Groaning, Draco slapped his hand onto his forehead.
Shit. Screwed once again by the abominable snow beast. The score is now Fluffhead: 2 Me: 0.
"Don't worry, I'll spare you this time. I figured you were going to doubt me anyway. I was purely guessing about where the cauldron was at first. My hunch just happened to turn out right, that's all," she confessed to him while retying her hair into a bun at the base of her neck.
"Yeah well….nice one," the blonde grumbled out; secretly thankful she hadn't exercised the Slytherin-like quality of gloating.
"Wow, that sounded remotely like a compliment," Hermione said in mock pleasure. Draco took the paper in her hand and scowled.
"Don't get use to it."
"Oh believe me, I won't," the lioness vowed, crossing her arms over her chest. She stared reproachfully at Draco as he perused the instructions.
"I wasn't done with that, you know," she added pointedly.
"It seems we have forgotten there was a time limit on this. The clue from the tower said we had an hour to brew it, and I'm not sure if our time started the second we walked into the dungeon, or when we found the cauldron," Malfoy said in a serious manner as he took his eyes off the paper. Hermione gasped and snatched the paper back.
"Oh no! We've wasted so much time! We have to hurry up now. Quick, you get ingredients and I'll get the tools," Hermione ordered as she shifted into work mode. Draco complied without a fight and took the list back from her as he hurried off into the Supply Closet.
"Beetle eyes…dragon scales…hippogriff feathers…essence of everwood….juice from the root of Devil's Snare," the Slytherin muttered under his breath as he read off the ingredient list on the parchment. His eyes moved from the paper to the massive line of shelves that filled Snape's store room. His eyes diverted back to the instructions and he finished reading the rest of the extensive list. In a flash, he began gathered up all the necessary items; thanking Merlin he knew where they all were due to his unlimited access of the room ,granted by Snape himself.
"Did you find everything alright?" Hermione's shrilly voice floated into the small pantry.
"Yeah, I've got it all. I'm coming out with it in a second," Draco thundered back, attempting to gather all of the jars in his arms. Unsteadily, he began his slow walk outside the room into the main laboratory where Hermione had already set up the burner and had retrieved the tools.
"Oh good gods, you should have said you needed help. You're lucky you didn't drop anything," Hermione yelped as she strode quickly over to Draco ,who was caving slightly under the weight of all the jars.
"I'll take some of these." She pulled a few jars out of his arms and put them into the crook of her other arm. Draco couldn't help but breathe a small sigh of relief for her lightening of the load. One more second and the lot of it would have ended up on the floor.
"Use this knife and start chopping the scales and ginger root finely," Hermione directed once Draco had set everything down onto their table. He nodded his head and took the silver knife from her outstretched hand.
Together they worked in silence: chopping, slicing and dicing ingredients, as well as measuring and decanting others.
"Alright, we can start adding these four ingredients in one by one in increasing order of their density," the witch said as she skimmed the directions on the paper once again.
"Put the feathers in first, then the scales," Draco pointed to the dishes in front of Hermione that were filled separately with each ingredient. Hermione did as she was told and watched as the contents of the cauldron bubble and turn brown. Malfoy proceeded to put in the two ingredients in front of him as well, and the brown color lightened to a hue of navy blue.
"We have to let this simmer for five minutes," Hermione's voice was laced with subtle panic. Draco checked his watch and shook his head.
"Stop worrying Granger, we have plenty of time to finish. Once it's done simmering, we just have to add the rest of the ingredients and stir it properly. The potion will be ready for use at that point becuase it does not have to cooled. It's meant to be warm at completion," he explained to her; withholding a smirk from her as he realized finally that he was better at her in something.
"But what if something goes wrong?! We won't have time to fix it!" Hermione frantically wrung her hands at the mere prospect of her words. Draco sighed and clucked his tongue.
"Would you get a hold of yourself, Granger? Everything will be fine, just trust me," he reassured her, reaching a hand out hesitantly to touch her shoulder. He withdrew it quickly, and scratched the back of his neck with it instead.
"Why should I believe you? You've never given me a reason to trust you," Hermione said quietly with her eyes focused on the floor.
That Draco could not argue.
Throughout the Slytherin's seven year stint at Hogwarts, not once had he done anything that would have made the know it all witch trust him at all; let alone tolerate him. The highlights of their less than friendly relationship were worthy enough to be featured on an American television series: Draco throwing insults at Hermione, her hexing him right back, Malfoy tormenting her friends, Hermione slapping him in the face.
Real touching moments, right?
Brushing off the odd bitter sting of Granger's comment, Draco shrugged his shoulders.
"You've got me there, Granger."
"The five minutes are up, let's start adding the rest of this," Hermione announced as the large clock in the dungeon chimed. She was thankful that the two could do something productive as opposed to the awkward silent brooding they had been doing for the past few minutes.
"I'll put mine in first," Draco said as he picked up the chopping block in front of him. He carefully tipped the ingredients they he had diced on it into the cauldron. The liquid turned forest green, giving off an aroma of cedar. Hermione followed suit and added her own block of ingredients. The potion color remained the same causing distress in the girl.
"Isn't this supposed to be yellow? That's what the paper says!" Hermione peered into the cauldron again and then whipped her head around to look at Draco. He peeked into the steel pot as well.
"We haven't stirred it yet. I'm sure once we do that the color will change," he said knowingly, picking up the wooden spoon next to him.
"Oh gods I hope your right. Make sure you do the correct motion though. It's three turns clockwise every fifteen seconds for exactly one minute," she recited from memory. Draco scoffed and inserted the spoon into the green liquid.
"I know what I'm doing, Granger. I'm a bloody Slytherin for crying out loud; potions is my forte," the blonde commented with dignity as his voice swelled with cockiness.
"Potions may be your forte, but being an asshole is your true calling," Hermione snapped as her concern for the state of the potion flickered away. She had reached the boiling point with the arrogant prick.
I can't let that git get to me, not now at least. We're in the middle of a bloody competition, but all he can do is brag about how he's the next Severus Snape! Lord, I hope he's at least right about half the shit he says. If he is, then at least we'll have a viable potion. If not, then I will surely murder him.
"And a clockwise stir just for kicks," Draco spoke out loud, turning the wooden tool the opposite direction. He figured Hermione probably wouldn't notice the twist he added to the directions since she seemed to be off in her own thoughts at the time being.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Ah, the Squirrel Queen speaks.
"I'm saving this potion from failure," he spoke calmly, removing his spoon from the cauldron and setting it down onto the table.
"I swear I am going to kill you, Draco! Do you know what you've done? You've cost us the game! Why on earth didn't you just do what the directions said? Obviously, you know how to read!" Hermione screamed, throwing her hands in the air. She looked downright malicious with her teeth barred and her hair releasing itself from her ponytail.
"The directions," Malfoy simply stated, "were wrong."
Hermione's eyes instantly grew wide with fury and her voice grew icy and quiet.
"The directions were wrong?" she seethed, stepping closer to Draco. He instinctively stood his ground; no Gryffindor could scare him off though Hermione was coming dangerously close to it.
"Yes, they were, Mudblood. If you had been using your overly large brain, you might have noticed the obvious error in the directions," he said coolly, picking the paper up and handing it back to her. Hermione furrowed her brow and continued to glare at him, waiting for his explanation.
"Must I do everything? Good gods, woman," Draco sighed and pointed his finger at something written on the paper.
"It is common knowledge that any potion containing dragon scales mixed with hippogriff feathers must be stirred using a precise motion in order to counteract the extreme magical properties of these two ingredients," Draco explained in a bored tone.
"The motion that counteracts these ingredients is, quite fittingly, a counterclockwise stir put into effect after the called for amount of clockwise stirs the potion is said to need," he finished, watching Hermione's reaction. She was currently starring numbly at the paper at a loss for words.
"You're….I can't believe it…you're right," she whispered as her eyes danced over to the cauldron. Inside of it, she found to her amazement, the potion gleaming canary yellow.
"Of course I am right, Granger. Now put your mind to use and help me figure out what we are supposed to do with this potion."
Hermione stared blankly back at him; still baffled by his spurge of knowledge.
"Chop, chop, Mudblood!" Draco clapped his hands together twice in hopes of snapping Granger out of her stupor. She shook her head and the cloudiness in her eyes disappeared leaving them alert and ready. And before Draco's grey eyes, she sprung right back into action.
"I'll bottle the potion while you go around the room and 'Finite Incantatem' every bit of empty space you see. Since our directions and cauldron were hidden, I think we can assume that what we need to get the next clue is also hidden as well," Hermione reasoned as she set to work at the cauldron. Looking around wildy, Draco saw that there was a whole lot of empty space.
"This will take a fucking century," he muttered as he sauntered up to the front of the room. Snape's large oak desk took up the majority of the space as it sat looming over everything around it. Here, Draco figured, Snape had the best view of the students and what was going on around them.
"No better place to start then here I suppose."
Taking a deep breath, Draco revealed his wand with a flourish and aimed it at the nothing-ness in front of him.
"Finite Incantatem!"
Nothing.
Draco tried closing his eyes and reopening them in desperation but still no dice. He guessed they could have only gotten so lucky once.
She's got to be shitting me if she thinks I'm going to run around this entire room zapping everything in site screaming'Finite Incantatem!'
"Did it work, Malfoy?" Hermione called from her place at the cauldron.
"Nope, nothing," he replied.
"Well, try again somewhere else," she suggested, corking the vial of potion. Draco groaned and rolled his eyes.
She is shitting me.
"Come on, Potion Gods! Why are you making this such a pain in the arse? We managed to make the perfect potion but for what? There's nothing to do with it!" the Slytherin complained out loud, kicking the wooden desk in front of him. Hermione came scurrying to his side holding the vial in one of her hands.
"I see you're progressing well," she said sarcastically, staring at the fuming young man.
"I see you aren't," Draco shot back, giving her chest a quick, sweeping glance. Hermione turned red from embarrassment…or anger. Malfoy couldn't tell the difference.
"You perverted little ferret!" Hermione shrieked as she raised her free hand to slap him across the face. Her small hand swung towards his face and Draco winced in anticipation of the smack.
It never came.
Hermione's hand had literally stopped a millimeter away from Draco's creamy white skin. The Malfoy was quite curious as to why she didn't knock him off his block, and he intended to find out why.
"Scared you'll turn to dust when you touch my skin?" Draco said with a light chuckle. He watched Hermione drop her hand and he instantly regretted even saying anything when she reached into her pocket for her wand.
"Hey, hey! Settle down, Granger! Killing me won't do you much good in the contest," he said, holding his wand a bit tighter. She was still silent as she pulled her wand out of her jeans.
"Bloody hell, I can't believe you want to kill me," Draco said in disbelief. Hermione sighed in frustration and scowled.
"Will you shut up already? I'm not going to kill you! I'm trying to get the next clue," she hissed, diverting her attention back to what she was planning on doing. She placed the potion vial onto the empty desk in front of them and directed her wand at it.
"Transfigurtia!" Hermione flicked her wand and gold sparks erupted from it. The sparks showered over the potion like rain. A second later, the vial was vibrating violently on the desk. Draco's eyes were moving back and forth between the vial and Hermione. Her breath was held as her lips moved soundlessly.
Is she freaking PRAYING? Holy shit, who would have known Hermione, was a nun- in -training. Hahaha, Nun In Training, NIT! How convenient!
Draco began to laugh out loud at his immature thought when suddenly, there was a loud pop. He looked down expecting to see the vial, when instead, a torn piece of parchment lie in its place.
"We got it!" Hermione cried in delight as she grabbed the paper. Draco stood dumbfounded while the young girl's eyes read the paper hungrily. After a couple moments, she looked up at the blonde with a puzzled expression.
"I don't …I don't know what the clue means," she said, obviously pained that she had not ousted Malfoy once again. He didn't make a movement to grab the paper from her; instead he waived it away from him as she extended it toward him.
"May I ask you why the hell our potion turned into a clue?"
Hermione started to grin and giggle profusely; realizing she had been so excited about getting the clue, she didn't bother to tell Malfoy how she did it.
"I'm s-sorry, Malfoy," she laughed, steadying herself with the table. Draco was getting impatient with the stupid (Ha yeah right) girl in front of him.
"Very funny, Granger," he said, crossing his arms. Hermione's laughing ceased and she stood up straight to look him in the eye.
"I'm sorry for laughing at you; it was rude and uncalled for. I just thought that all of this from your point of view probably seems absolutely outlandish and ridiculous," she told him with sincerity in her words. He nodded for her to continue.
"Calling you a ferret triggered something in my memory dealing with transfigurations. I remembered reading a book about the similarities between Potions and Transfiguration my second year. One entire section of the book was dedicated to the direct connection between the two studies. The concept that the chapter revolved around was called 'Ashwyn's Law'. It stated that a potion specific to a certain object can be transfigured into the said object using the universal spell 'Transfigurtia.' "
"The potions used for transfiguration deal with some of the most heavily magical ingredients, exactly like the ones we used to create our potion. I figured what the heck ,might as well try it and see if it works; which to our great luck it did," she finished with a smile. Draco followed her explanation perfectly, but he still felt something was missing.
"Why would Dumbledore make the clue only accessible to those who read the same blasted book you did? That seems a little unreasonable, don't you think?" Draco asked her with a raised eyebrow. Hermione shook her head and pointed to a book shelf to the right of the student's desks.
"I thought that too until I noticed those books on the shelf while I was bottling the potion. I squint my eyes to read the titles and I found that they all involved Transfiguration. It struck me odd as to why those books would be here until I put two and two together. Dumbledore clearly wanted us to use the resources around us and he even gave everyone a leg up by providing the books that would directly lead to the answer to the problem the teams would face: what is the potion to be used for?"
So Granger really does have this whole game figured out….damn. I can't lie, that's pretty impressive for a Gryffindor…well for anyone actually.
Oh gross I just complimented her in my head.
"That's….amazing," Draco decided on the correct word. 'Amazing' seemed fitting for the situation. Hermione blatantly agreed and she shook her head feverously.
"It is! It's truly astonishing magic," she sighed a little in content. Draco felt nauseated by her unyielding bemusement regarding magic. He decided toswing their discussion onto something more important.
"I'd like to see that clue now," he said and stretched out his hand. Hermione let out an 'oh!' and shoved the paper into his opened palm. Draco brought it closer to his face so he could read it for himself:
If a stroke of genius is all you pack
Then the skill needed for this task is what you lack
Deep you'll search for the clue you strive
Plunge headfirst and take the dive
But watch out for the beast as it hides in disguise
Only one team member can complete this task
So when you choose, be wise!
Scratching his chin, Draco read it over once more. He had an idea of where the clue was, but he wasn't completely sure. He read it over once more and decided his idea was most likely correct since it made perfect sense.
"I think I know what it is," Draco said as he turned his attention to Hermione, who had been hovering over his shoulder reading the clue with him.
"What is it?" she questioned with her brown eyes wide.
"If it's where I think it is, I'll need some swimming trunks."
"No…...not the lake!"
"Oh yes, most definitley at the lake."