(A/N: Chapter 100 holy shit. Enjoy it)
The next day, after breakfast in the great hall where Ron, God help him, got a letter from his mother, Thomas, and his roommates left in a hurry since they were having potions with Snape as the first lesson of their new school year. There was nothing either of them could do to help Ron or Harry, so per their request, the boys retreat to their class and let the mess sort out itself one way or the other.
Luckily for them and unluckily for a certain blonde boy with daddy issues the Ravenclaws and Slytherins had somewhat the same classes as the last year, meaning that Daphne and Tracey will be able to spend more time with Thomas and his friends. Frankly, Thomas was looking forward to potions, not because he was eager to practice something he had already learned in his first year, but because he enjoyed experimenting with different ingredients and seeing what effects they had, not to mention that he wanted to talk with Snape about the potion he managed to revive from the dead. Thomas was also quite curious about how it will be to work with Daphne.
Daphne was also eager to see how Thomas was in the class, considering that he was in the top 3 last year while she barely just barely managed to slip into the top 15. Maybe she was going crazy, or maybe it was the curse that was plaguing her family acting up making her all crazy to learn more about a boy she just met, but for some reason, Daphne found Thomas more than comfortable to be around.
They met at the entrance of the dungeons, where Snape was waiting for both houses with a sour expression. As soon as all of the kids were inside the class, he once again lectured them on the importance of being calm and calculated as well as the dangers of making mistakes. Once he was sure that all of those ungrateful brats, understood his warning, more or less, he told them what potion they would be making today. It wasn't anything too hard but it wasn't easy either as the Shrinking Solution was something that could be categorized as slightly harder than an antidote. As for its effects.... the potion could reduce anything to a fraction of its original size. While the potion wasn't all that hard to make, Snape still warned them that if they did not follow the instructions carefully, they could end up shrinking themselves or worse.
With his last warning, Snape told them to find a partner and start brewing the potion. Thomas and Daphne quickly found a table near the back of the class, where they could work without being disturbed by any of the students or Malfoy. They gathered their ingredients and equipment and then looked at the recipe in their textbooks. It seemed simple enough: they had to chop up some daisy roots, add them to a cauldron of boiling water, stir clockwise until the liquid turned green, then add some shredded boomslang skin, stir counterclockwise until the liquid turned blue, then add some sliced caterpillars, stir clockwise until the liquid turned purple, then add some leech juice, stir counterclockwise until the liquid turned clear.
Thomas started working on their potion, following each step carefully as he and Daphne chatted quietly switching the jobs of chopping, stirring, and slicing from time to time between them. Even though they barely know anything about each other, Thomas could say that after talking and spending almost an entire hour with her, he felt that they were slowly becoming friends. When Daphne stirred for the last time after Thomas threw into the" soup" the leech juice, both of them looked at their cauldron proudly. Inside the cauldron was a clear liquid that smelled faintly of mint and since Snape didn't say anything to them, the man just nodded his head slightly which in turn made Thomas turn his attention on the last ingredient, a small beetle. None of the students knew what the beetle was for, but now that they had made the potion, it was pretty clear what Snape wanted them to do with the beetle and the potion. So, after taking the little thing out of its enclosure, Daphne put it on the table before apologizing to it.
"I'm sorry little one."
Without wasting any time, Thomas poured a little bit of the concoction on the beetle, and in the next second, the little thing shrunk to the size of a pinhead. Seeing that both Thomas and Daphene smiled at each other, knowing that they had done a perfect job.
Meanwhile, Tracey, who was partnered with James, was overjoyed to work with him. Compared to her friend, she didn't find Thomas all that appealing, maybe since he treated her like a sister for some reason. Well, she knew that it was mostly due to her personality but still, it hurt her feelings slightly, at least until she turned her attention to the red-haired friend of his. James was handsome, athletic, and charming in her eyes and only she knew how much she hoped he liked her back, but she was too nervous to even approach him with that intention.
James on the other hand was not very interested in potions, but for Tracey's sake, he tried to be as careful and attentive as he could given the horrible circumstances the two of them found themselves in. He wasn't like Thomas who could be around a shit ton of girls and act somewhat normally, nor he was as smart as Michael, and he was certainly not as passioned about potions as Adam, but just because he wasn't like them that didn't mean he will have to be a fool and actually threw away such a golden chance. Yes, Tracey was way too innocent, but that made her cute in his eyes.
While Thomas and Daphne sat at the back of the class, due to his reputation, James and Tracey were forced to sit at a table near the front of the class, where Snape could keep an eye on James. Even though he was bad at making potions, James did his best to help Tracey by cutting the ingredients before letting her do the rest since he feared his misfortune would taint her work more than it already did.
Tracey on the other hand saw that James was trying his best to be of help even though most of the things he did were in a way wrong. However, despite that he still managed to chop up some daisy roots, before Tracey added them to a cauldron of boiling water and stirred clockwise until the liquid turned green, then she added some shredded boomslang skin. She stirred counterclockwise until the liquid turned blue, then looked at James expectantly.
"Wow," James smiled at her, clearly impressed to see that a potion he had done wasn't turning into some kind of long-forgotten poison. "You're amazing."
Tracey blushed and giggled when she heard James complimenting her work. While his partner was blushing, James took it upon himself to slice some caterpillars and added them to the cauldron before Tracey stirred clockwise until the liquid turned purple, then looked at James again.
"This might be the first time I will get to see a potion that I worked on turning out to be usable."
Tracey smiled at his joke as she continues to pour some leech juice into the cauldron before she stirred one last counterclockwise until the liquid turned clear.
"I… I think we are done."
"It does look like a potion," James stops talking for a second and sniffs the potion slightly before shaking his head. "But by Merlin, it does smell bad."
She almost let out a chuckle but stopped when he saw Snape's eyes fixed on James' back. So, before the man could say anything to them, she decided to remind him that maybe, just maybe they weren't done with their potion.
"Ja-James… I think… we are not done."
James tilted his head for a second until his eyes found the enclosure with a beetle on their table.
"Ah, right, right. We have to test the potion."
Meanwhile, Michael and Adam were partnered with each other, much to their relief. They were good friends, and they didn't need all the drama and butterflies that were slowly developing between their friends, not because they weren't interested in girls, but because neither of them had found a girl to their liking as of yet.
Just as James and Tracey were about to test their potion on the beetle, the door of the classroom opened with a loud bang. Everyone turned to see who had interrupted their lesson, and to their surprise, they saw Gilderoy Lockhart, the famous author and adventurer, rushing inside. He was wearing a flamboyant purple cloak and a dazzling smile, and he seemed to be looking for someone. Upon seeing him, Thomas starts massaging his temple, knowing very well what was bound to happen next.
"What happened Thomas?" Daphne asked, concerned about the sudden change in her friend's demeanor.
"See that," Thomas said pointing at Lockhart. "If I ever turn into that kill me, please."
Before Daphne could say anything, they heard Lockhart's loud voice calling out for their professor, who somehow managed to make himself somewhat invisible to the living scam's eyes.
"Severus! Severus Snape! Where are you, my old friend?"
Snape, who was sitting at his desk, looked up with a scowl. He clearly did not appreciate Lockhart's intrusion, nor his familiarity.
"What do you want, Lockhart?" he asked coldly.
Lockhart spotted Snape and made his way toward him, ignoring the students and their potions. He had a stack of books in his arms, which he dumped on Snape's desk.
"Severus, I'm so glad to see you! I've brought you some copies of my latest book, Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests. It's a bestseller, you know. You'll find it very useful for dealing with all sorts of nasty creatures, such as boggarts, gnomes, pixies, and of course, beetles. But the cherry on top is that all of these books are hand signed by your truly."
He winked at Snape and picked up one of the books opening it to a page with a picture of himself holding a somewhat smaller-sized creature in his hand.
"See this? I've dealt with it with a shrinking solution. It's very simple to make, really. All you need is some daisy roots, boomslang skin, caterpillars, leech juice, and a beetle to test it on. Just follow the instructions in my book, and you'll have a tiny creature in no time."
He smiled proudly and closed the book before noticing the cauldron on James and Tracey's table, which was filled with a clear liquid.
"Ah, I see you've already made some shrinking solution. Very good, very good. Let me show you how it works."
He grabbed the book from Snape's desk and walked over to James and Tracey's table, not caring even one bit that Snape was glaring daggers at him or that James and Tracey were trying to stop him.
"Excuse me, Mr. Lockhart," James said nervously. "We were just about to test our potion ourselves."
"Yes, yes, of course," Lockhart said dismissively. "But I'm sure you won't mind if I demonstrate it for you first. It's always better to learn from an expert, don't you think?"
He reached for the enclosure with the beetle in it, but Tracey tried to block him.
"Mr. Lockhart, please," Tracey muttered urgently. "We don't think our potion is ready yet."
"Nonsense," Lockhart said confidently. "It looks perfect to me. Clear as water. Just like mine."
He pushed her aside and opened the enclosure before picking up the beetle with his fingers and holding it up for everyone to see.
"Now watch closely," he said. "This is how you test a shrinking solution."
He dropped the beetle into the cauldron and waited for it to shrink. But instead of shrinking, the beetle started to grow.
It grew bigger and bigger until it was the size of a cat before it crawled out of the cauldron alone and charged right at Lockhart to the man's horror. Just as the not-so-small creature was about to him, Lockhart dropped his book and tried to back away.
"What… what is this?" he stammered.
Snape stood up from his desk and pointed his wand at the beetle.
"It's a blunder of your own making," he said icily. "You've just added a beetle to an enlarging solution."
He flicked his wand and muttered an incantation just in time to save Lockhart from embarrassing the school even more than he already did.
"Reducio!"
The beetle shrank back to its normal size and fell onto to everyone's relief.
Snape walked over to Lockhart and glared at him, almost as if he was ready to murder the man.
"Get out of my classroom," he said coldly. "And take your books with you."
Lockhart nodded nervously and gathered his books before running out of the door as fast as he could, leaving behind a trail of laughter from the students.
Meanwhile, Daphne turned to Thomas, who was massaging his temple with a pained expression.
"Is this why you hate him so much?" she asked softly.
Thomas nodded his head, still feeling a headache from Lockhart's presence.
"Yes, this is why. He's a fraud, a liar, and a coward. He's not a hero or even a proper adventurer. He's just a glorified storyteller who for some reason become so popular that even he believes his bullshit."
"Then I guess we can expect all that much from Defense Against Dark Arts teacher this year too."
"Frankly we might even have to practice alone if we want to learn something about DADA this year."
"Yeah, we can do that. For now, though, let's clear out the table since I for one don't want to have our teacher yelling at us for being lazy."
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