Friday afternoon found Harry having his final lesson of the week in a classroom on the fourth floor. Usually this room was unused by the staff of Hogwarts, and the last time that Harry had been into this room, the Mirror of Erised had been stored there.
The mirror was long gone by now, its current location probably only known by Dumbledore.
As it was, the room made the perfect place for Harry to receive his private potions lessons from Sarah Abbott.
For now it was just the two of them, but people had been coming up to Harry all week asking if they too could take their potions lessons from Sarah rather than Snape. Something somewhere would soon have to give. Sarah had no reason to refuse teaching those who had potions class at the same time as Harry, but anyone else would probably end up having to make other arrangements. Her first job was at the Ministry, working for Amelia Bones in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement so it wasn't like she had an excessive amount of free time.
The lesson would soon be ending, but Harry had learned quite a lot. They had not brewed anything, but they had instead gone over Morlett's Principle, which helped explain why black beetle eyes were such a common ingredient in the brewing of potions (it made for an excellent stabiliser of potentially volatile liquids when brewing), as their subject for the day.
This, according to Sarah, was basic level stuff – the sort of thing that no student at Hogwarts should have ever have brewed a potion without first being able to recite as if it were the alphabet.
Snape had never deemed it necessary to teach this to those that he allegedly taught, and Harry was only passingly familiar with it because it had come up in a Herbology essay on the potential uses of bubotuber pus.
"You know Harry," said Sarah "I'm considering taking on more students purely out of the morbid curiosity of finding out exactly what they don't know."
"Well, I would imagine that the Slytherins would have a reasonable grasp of the basics," replied Harry "I wouldn't be at all surprised if Snape conducted a lecture on the basics in the middle of the Slytherin Common Room in order to make sure that his first years outshine the rest. Beyond that, the most studious of Ravenclaws probably have the best grasp, along with those dedicated to mastering the art, like Hannah."
"You're probably right," replied Sarah. "You know, ever since Snape started teaching here, there has been a huge decline in the percentage of students who leave Hogwarts with an N.E.W.T level grade in potions."
"Can't imagine why," replied Harry, his voice dripping with sarcasm "Snape's such a charming individual."
Sarah shuddered and replied "Stop talking like that. You'll make me sick."
Harry smirked and said "Well, at least those who actually want to learn can go to Madam Pomfrey's club."
"Club?" asked Sarah "What club?"
"Madam Pomfrey runs a club every Thursday evening for anyone who wants to practice brewing healing potions," replied Harry "Surely Hannah's told you about it. She goes."
"She told me that she helps out in the Hospital Wing on a Thursday, but she never said anything about a club. You didn't go, did you?"
"Of course I did," replied Harry "I'm trying to get better at potions, remember? I'm taking all the help that I can get."
"Harry, you need to be careful around Poppy Pomfrey. Don't forget, she's still under suspicion for either not noticing or ignoring all of the ailments that I discovered back at the start of August."
"You still think that she was involved somehow?" asked Harry.
"I don't know, Harry, but a healer doesn't just miss all of that. You were malnourished, had poorly grown bones, or else ones that had broken and healed incorrectly. And that's before we take in the scars and the loyalty and compulsion potions. Pomfrey has to have been involved in some way, either following orders to ignore what she found, or else having the knowledge removed from her mind before she could take action."
Harry leaned back in his chair and tapped his fingers on the table for a few moments before commenting "I would place gold on it being the latter."
"I would hope it's that," agreed Sarah "Oh, and speaking of potions in your system, I was asked to hand this onto you."
She pulled a letter out of her pocket and handed it to him, explaining "These are the results from that treacle tart you sent off to Amelia for testing."
Harry opened the letter and pulled out the parchment contained within. It confirmed his suspicions.
"Loyalty potion, compulsion potion… wait… a befuddlement draught and a mild love potion?"
"A befuddlement draught can cause the drinker to become somewhat confused and reckless," explained Sarah "And I think that the love potion is pretty much self-explanatory."
"But I didn't test positive for either of those before, did I?" questioned Harry.
"No. I suspect that they are new additions to help keep you in line."
"Well, I suppose that some of my actions in the past have been as if I were under a befuddlement potion…" said Harry "Or at least the reckless part, anyway. But why a love potion?"
"My guess is that they wanted you to be too preoccupied with a girl to carry on as you have."
"Which girl?" asked Harry.
.....
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