"Reducio," I returned charms to place, shrinking the bundle to approximately same sizes. Taking a notebook and pencil from the backpack, tore out a leaf and wrote a short note to Daphne. Wave of the wand, cascade transfiguration formula, and here instead of a leaf an origami-like bird sits on the table. The bird jumped, chirped, and smoothly flew up. Making a circle over us and attracting a little attention, it smoothly flew toward the alerted Slytherins.
I watched the flight, smooth landing, and how the bird turned into a note in Daphne's hands. Five seconds, and the note was read and understood. The girl found me with a gaze and nodded.
"How curious..." drawled Susan. "What an interesting story..."
"Want me to kill all the romance of intrigue?"
"Try."
"In the bundle are ingredients for potions. We have classes with Snape."
"Oh, even so," Susan feigned enthusiasm, just like Hannah sitting next to her. "Only you, she and..."
"And Snape," I finished instead of Susan.
"Killed, indeed," girls lost all enthusiasm.
While we spoke, the same bird flew to me and turned into a note. Besides my text, there was a new line: "After dinner by the Potions classroom."
"Well, that's it."
"And what do you plan to do until that time?"
"What do you mean 'what', Susan? Train in magic. The Patronus, at least."
"And that's true," Susan and Hannah exchanged glances. "Need to learn it before the trip to Hogsmeade. Otherwise, it will be completely ruined, I am sure."
Girls showed amazing organizational abilities, gathering everyone together in five minutes and reshaping guys' plans in their own way. In the end, we sat in the same abandoned auditorium until lunch, working out various spells, but emphasizing the Patronus. Of course, we had various textbooks, and a snack, and juice, and girls brought magazines which they discussed during the break. In general, not bad, mundane; guys waited for when finally clubs and circles would open. Expected that with the start of action of various circles and clubs we will spend less time on such classes.
After lunch, we went to the inner courtyard to simply suffer from idleness in one of the gazebos. True, the others suffered nonsense, cheerfully discussing all sorts of rubbish, while I sat and practiced the Patronus. Well, how "practiced"; tried to perform the spell "honestly," but quickly moved to simulating positive emotions. Gradually, little by little, slowly increasing their power. Guys sometimes gave out something like: "Hard worker, don't overwork," but I only smiled in return.
When it was almost time to go to dinner, a thin trickle of silver-blue smoke began to appear from my wand.
"Merlin's beard!" Ernie immediately shouted. "Folks, he is getting something!"
"Just a lot of labor and sorting through memories," I smiled tiredly, being fully satisfied with such success.
Well, and after dinner I went to the Potions classroom. Doors were open, and inside, at his desk, sat Professor Snape, literally piled with scrolls with homework.
Knocking on the open door, looked inside.
"Permission, Professor?"
"Come in, sit down," not looking at me, Snape pointed a hand to the table closest to him. Only now did I notice Daphne sitting at it, before whom all necessary inventory was laid out, and next to the burner stood an empty cauldron on a stand.
Entered, sat.
"Greengrass."
"Granger."
"How lovely," Snape was sarcastic, crossing out someone's labors with a sweeping movement. "Ingredients?"
I took out and showed the shrunk package on the palm. Snape forced the package to fly to the floor in front of him with one movement, and with the second movement of the wand dispelled shrinking charms. Not peering particularly, not checking, with the third movement opened one of the packages and levitated two sets of various ingredients to our table. With another wave of the wand, Snape forced the recipe to appear on the board.
"Boil Cure Potion, proceed, recipe on the board," the professor got up from his desk and went toward the pantry, levitating remaining ingredients after himself.
Glancing at Daphne, who was already bossing around on the table with might and main, arranging bowls with ingredients in an order known only to her and carefully reading the recipe from the textbook, I could not help but draw her attention to the fact repeated once again.
"On the board is a slightly different recipe, again. Are textbooks so bad?" I whispered quietly, attracting attention.
Daphne calmly glanced at me, at the board, thought for a couple of moments, and in the end closed the textbook, putting it aside on the far corner.
"As always," she nodded briefly to her own thoughts.
"Let me deal with teeth, I have experience in this, and..." I glanced at horned slugs. Live ones. "It seems I have a couple of questions for the professor."
The professor by this moment had already returned and successfully continued checking works, now and then grimacing slightly at the sight of another textual amateur performance authored by students.
"Professor Snape."
Snape raised his gaze to me.
"Yes, Mr. Granger?"
"Professor," I stood up. "Regarding horned slugs. At the moment of danger, they release a special neurotoxin and if one believes ingredient compatibility tables, then in contact with porcupine quills it can cause a hyperthermic reaction. Should one remove the potion from fire and due to this reaction it will reach readiness, or is it necessary to separate the slug body in the sagittal plane with a silver knife?"
The professor looked at me attentively, tapping a finger on the table.
"And what will sagittal separation of a slug give you, especially with a silver knife?" he asked with slight malice in his voice.
"Will kill the slug in such a way that it won't feel danger and won't produce neurotoxin. At the same time, other organs important for the potion will remain undamaged due to paired symmetrical structure of the slug body in this plane."
The professor nodded.
"The answer to your question is quite simple, Mr. Granger. Correct cutting of slugs requires experience which very few can boast. Therefore one should use whole and live horned slugs, and remove the potion from fire before using porcupine quills."
"Thank you, sir," I nodded and was ready to sit down.
"And about the necessity of removing the potion from fire is said in the instructions to the potion in the textbook and on the board. Minus a point, Mr. Granger, for inattentive reading of educational literature."
Well, couldn't be otherwise. On the other hand, this is a purely symbolic "minus a point," for if Snape wanted to punish, he would have taken much more. Look, Potter and company go as much as minus fifteen in one lesson.
"How do you know?" asked Daphne, judging by her face, purely out of politeness.
"Read books, memory is good. And this is indeed an interesting question not stipulated in the recipe."
"Clear. Will you cut?"
"Can, but now we have one potion for two. Were I preparing my personal one, would try, but as it is—no."
Daphne nodded, and we proceeded to cooking the potion.
By the end of the allotted time, when it only remained to keep the potion at a certain temperature until readiness, Snape suddenly spoke:
"You use quite specific terminology, Mr. Granger. Intend to go into medicine?"
This question caught me by surprise. So far I only established connections, adapted to society, and not planned the future at all. What do I want? What does my personal experience suggest, and tatters of shard memories?
"It seems I overestimated the student's intellectual capabilities again," smirked the professor.
Most interesting and diverse was the elf's life. But from these memories it is clear that it was such not at all because it belonged to an elf; some of them have not a life, but swamp and boredom. The reason is different. Reason that forced him to travel, learn the world, end up in most diverse situations and scrapes, about which only mentions remained in memory, but remained nonetheless.
"Healer, Professor."
Snape arched a brow in surprise.
"Healer?"
"Yes, sir. But first need to become a good Hogwarts student and successfully complete this path."
"Well then. Considering your past, such an aspiration is quite explainable. But this is a very difficult path. Perhaps you should pay attention to Auror specialty? or clerk in the Ministry?" Snape smirked much more obviously than ever before. "Hufflepuff students succeed very well in being clerks."
"If it comes to them just as easily as teaching Slytherin students, then I, perhaps, begin to worry about the efficiency of our state apparatus."
"Hmm. Not groundlessly, Mr. Granger."
The potion reached readiness, we removed the cauldron, and Snape checked the quality of the product, looking closely and sniffing.
"This can even be applied," he noted dryly. "In an extreme case. You are free to go."