Part 2: Double Potions; Snape’s Shadow
The Slytherin students entered Potions first, mostly because their Head was the professor, but also to get pick of the best seats before the Gryffindor students
trailed in behind them. Draco was naturally the first one to enter the room, and he came to an abrupt halt when he saw who was there. His comrades passed
him by, just as curious but unwilling to interfere with his confrontation. This was the third time that stranger had invaded his space.
Hiei was seated at the desk closest to the door, his bored yet mocking eyes flicking lazily up to stare at the fuming teenager. Draco glowered in silence.
He still didn’t know a thing about the dark-haired male. All he knew was that he refused to dress properly, and had a voice that was much too deep for his
height or apparent age.
He’d been there at breakfast that morning, seated at the Slytherin table as if he belonged there, and ruining yet another meal for the entire group. Why he
even bothered when he didn’t so much as touch the food, Draco didn’t know. He was starting to think the guy did it just to drive the rest of them to distraction.
He hadn’t been in any of Draco’s other classes, hadn’t followed the rest of them when they left the hall after breakfast. So why was he here now?
The rest of the students filed in around him, many sending startled looks at Hiei as they went by. Harry and his friends were just as curious, but they weren’t
about to say anything, not when Draco was with him. They went past with quietly disgruntled frowns.
Draco didn’t notice, still set in his scowl. He leaned over the desk, his voice a little sharper than he intended. “What are you? I know you’re not a student.”
Hiei just smirked up at the boy, more than willing to let him fume indefinitely.
“Mr. Malfoy, if you’ve chosen that desk,” Snape interrupted coolly, “I suggest you sit at it.”
The tone startled him more than anything. Draco glanced around, not sure what he’d missed. It didn’t take long to realize the rest of the class was seated.
He shot the stranger a challenging look and sat down beside him.
Hiei’s smirk widened, but that was the only reaction he gave the boy.
On the other side of the room, Hermione was staring at Hiei with just as much confusion, but not nearly the frustration Draco was feeling. She’d also noticed
his presence at breakfast that morning, but she didn’t know he hadn’t joined the Slytherin students for the rest of their classes. His outfit was what made her
frown over at him and wonder why Snape hadn’t said anything about it yet.
She didn’t pay much attention to the whispered speculation Harry and Ron were sharing across the isle from her.
“And he definitely looks like a Slytherin,” Ron was saying. “Or like Snape himself. Maybe they’re related.”
Hiei choked back a snort just as Snape snapped around with a sharp, “Five points each for talking.”
The professor waved his wand at the board, giving them instructions for the potion they were to make. Hermione stared glumly at it, still wincing from the
deduction of ten points, not two minutes into their first Potions class. She hadn’t heard what it was the boys had said, but she was sure it was something that
could have waited until they started working – when a few whispers would go unnoticed.
The instructions on the board were more detailed than usual, and Hermione jerked when she read the list of ingredients. Her hand twitched, an instinctual
urge to shoot it up in the air so she could ask a question. She gritted her teeth and kept it down with a lot of effort. Snape was one professor who did not
encourage questions.
Her mind was twisting around the strange word as she got numbly to her feet and joined the students who were filing back to get their ingredients. The word
was something that sounded familiar in her head, but which didn’t fit anything she’d ever heard of. And that just didn’t make sense since she’d diligently read
every book she could get her hands on – determined that at least one Gryffindor student would excel in Potions.
Sure enough, the ingredient was on the shelf with the rest, clearly labeled ‘Loridium.’ Hermione frowned at it for a long moment before taking the required
amount back to her desk. It was a pungent, milky yellow liquid that smelled like ripe earwax. And all she could wonder was what purpose it could have that it
wasn’t listed in any of the textbooks she’d read.
Unfortunately for her curious mind, Snape was teaching the class. Knowing him, he wouldn’t explain what they were making until they were finished. He had a
penchant for making them test their potions out, not realizing the danger until it was already too late to be extra careful.
Hermione was always extra careful, so usually it didn’t bother her to have to wait. This time she had to curl her right hand into a fist to keep from asking.
Draco wasn’t nearly as reserved when it came to withholding curiosity. He glowered at the slopping stuff and shot a glare at Hiei. The strange boy was looking
around the class with visible amusement in his red eyes, that familiar smirk twisting his lips. Obviously he knew something the rest of them didn’t.
“Are you going to take part in the class,” Draco grouched at Hiei, “or just sit there?”
Hiei looked at him for a moment. Then he shifted his gaze to the person standing behind the boy.
“Do you have a problem following the instructions on the board?” asked Snape.
Another of those feelings of having missed something passed over Draco and he turned confused eyes up to his professor. Snape was frowning at him
without even a hint of the partiality he usually showed toward Slytherin students. Draco glanced down at his ingredients and shook his head.
“No,” Draco said quickly, “I was just wondering what this stuff, the loridium was. That’s all.”
When he looked back up, he saw a slight shift pass over Snape’s face. The professor gave him a vague smirk, one of those knowing looks he’d come to
expect from the Head of his house. If they hadn’t been in class, Draco might have sagged in relief. It was bad enough having some stranger hanging around,
without having the only teacher who actually liked him suddenly turn against him.
“It’s rare enough,” Snape confided wryly, “that students don’t have access to it till their sixth year. Try not to spill any on your hands, if you don’t want them to
melt off.”
Hiei’s smirk widened into a darkly amused grin, almost evil really. Draco shivered from it and turned back to his potion with much more care for that easily spilt
liquid.
All around the room, students were suddenly much more careful, and inadvertently much clumsier.
Hermione blanched, lunging to the side to keep Neville from tipping his beaker over onto his lap. His hands were shaking in evident terror at Snape’s warning.
With that catastrophe averted, she let her mind dive off into understanding. Now she knew why the name was so familiar to her. It had to be a concentrated
byproduct of Lorazellia. That species of plant, though extinct now, was once used to get rid of organic material like dead plants…or to melt the bodies of
enemies. From what little she’d read about it, wizards had wiped the species out over a hundred years ago to keep it from being misused.
The only thing she didn’t get was how they could still have some of it, enough of it to give to mere students. It wouldn’t just be rare, it would be nearly
impossible to get. And the types of potions a person could make from such a thing…
She couldn’t imagine what they were making now. Suddenly her year of extra potions was looking to be very informative, and inherently dangerous. Hermione
didn’t know whether to be excited or outraged at the risk to nervous students like Neville.
Her own potion was ready to be mixed into the warmed kettle, so she added the Loridium carefully. She made sure Neville was watching so he’d see how to do
it without spilling any of the liquid. Once she was done, she glanced over to check on Harry and Ron’s progress. She abruptly paled as she spotted Snape
making a beeline for the boys’ desk.
She’d been so worried about Neville she hadn’t noticed that Harry and Ron had already managed to spill some of the liquid. It was only a few drops, but that
was enough to make a light sheen of yellow mist rise an inch above the desktop.
Hermione flinched away, not wanting to see how Snape railed at them, or to think about the extra studying they’d have to do to make up for this.
The sharp, “Next time you’ll lose a hand instead of a grade,” made Hiei turn to look at the back of the room.
He smirked at the ash white boys. The idea of human children handling something so inherently dangerous was foreign to him, but fear would help keep them
on guard. His amusement faded when he spotted Snape’s expression. He turned away in disgust.
Lupin had mentioned the man’s obsession, how he was set on proving the Potter boy an incompetent wizard at best. But Hiei hadn’t expected him to get such
a vindicated look from a simple act of carelessness. Of course the boy spilled it. He’d been too busy whispering with his friend to pay attention to what he was
doing. That was nothing to look vindicated about.
Hiei glowered at the blackboard, though he was still thinking about the mussy-haired boy with the destiny-proscribed mission in life. Anyone who looked at the
boy could tell he didn’t know patience any more than his red-haired friend knew how to whisper without being heard.
Adolescent humans. He’d never understand how Kurama could have spent so many years going to school with the creatures.
.-.-
The griping began the moment they made it out of the Potion’s room, Harry and Ron commiserating with a silent Hermione.
“We didn’t even have a chance to make the bloody potion,” Ron groaned. “It’s not like we failed, we couldn’t even try. He cleared our desk when we’d barely
started, all because of two little drops. And if it’s supposed to be so awfully dangerous, why didn’t it melt the table?”
Hermione mumbled something along the lines of ‘organic,’ and Ron frowned at her. She didn’t seem to be listening at all.
“Don’t you think it was a crock?” asked Ron, prodding her shoulder.
She blinked, seeing his and Harry’s frustrated faces, and spoke her thoughts out loud in a fervent rush.
“How could such a dangerous ingredient be used in a healing potion? Yes, Lorazellia extract was inherently designed to eliminate organic substances, but the
strength of it is incompatible with antitoxin purposes. Even if you specified it to only go after certain types of organics, I just don’t see how they could possibly
dilute it enough for it to be safe – even with dormicin vein to nullify it. Just a hair too much and it could kill a person! We’re not ready to be making such
dangerous potions, certainly not on our very first day. Why, Neville might have been killed, not even a warning until we’d already risked spilling it. And if we
start here, what is he going to have us making next…?”
Ron and Harry paled a bit, exchanging one of their ‘Hermy’s off on a rant again, let’s sneak away before she drags us into it’ looks.
“What about that weird guy,” Ron said quickly, hoping to distract her. “He sure didn’t seem to care much for Malfoy, for someone who sits at the Slytherin
table during meals. And what’s with that outfit? He looks like a first year, but he didn’t lift a finger in there and Snape just ignored him like he was invisible or
something. And did you see the way he kept smirking throughout class? He’s like a – a mini-Snape! Evil little bugger…”
Hermione just blinked at him, that small thoughtful frown giving proof that she was still too deep in thought to so much as smile at his diatribe. Ron gave up
with a loud sigh.
“Well,” said Ron, “we have Care of Magical Creatures next – before we have to see Snape again for Defense.”
Harry drug his feet, grumbling about having Snape look down his long nose at them twice in one day. “It’s almost enough to make me want to skip Defense.”
That woke Hermione like a slap to the face. She wheeled around and gave Harry a sharp lecturing frown. “You’ll never be an Auror if you skip the most
important class! You’ll survive seeing him twice in one day.”
Harry was leaning away from her with wide eyes. Hermione sighed, changing her tone into a more placating one.
“Besides,” she reminded him, “Dumbledore said he was only filling in till the real professor could take over. It’s not like he’ll be teaching us all year.”
“I guess,” Harry sighed, resigning himself to the torture yet to come.
.-.-
Hiei was still seated when the last student left the classroom, Malfoy having been the first to stalk out. He waited a minute to make sure none would return with
questions – the way Kurama had warned him students sometimes did – and shut the door behind them.
Snape was at the ingredient cabinet at the back of the room. Hiei sidled over to lean against the wall nearby, watching the man’s face.
“Interesting choice,” said Hiei, “starting them out with something deadly. Wake them up so they’ll be on guard from here on out.”
A vague, fleeting smirk passed over Snape’s face, but he played it off with a shrug. “I was making it anyway. Might as well use the diluted version in class.”
It hadn’t been a compliment so much as an observation. Hiei yawned and nodded at the hidden cabinet where Snape was locking the Loridium away with
other restricted items.
“You can always reproduce the lesson with the real version,” Hiei commented. “Kurama could get you a Lorazel for that greenhouse of yours.”
Snape sneered and shook his head as he locked the cabinet with a quick spell. “It’s too dangerous,” he spat, “having so much of it, even here. Wizards can’t
be trusted with the primary plant. There aren’t more than three wizards left alive who know how to handle them, and only one…fit enough, to extract the acid.”
He straightened and sent a glare down at Hiei for the suggestion. “I’m not about to be reduced to botanist. If we had a Lorazel here, I’d be the only one
capable of harvesting it. That isn’t my job.”
Hiei snorted, not quite laughing at the wizard’s pompous tone. “No, your job is to clean up your mess.”
Snape bristled, glaring not at Hiei – who was now at his back – but at the blackboard. He waved it clean before stalking from the room, his teeth gnashed
closed on any rejoinder he might have given to the demon’s taunt.
“And yet he has no restraint with the children,” Hiei smirked. He shook his head before zipping after him, back to his role of shadow.
.-.
PART 3
.-.
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