Chapter 522: Ch 548 - Flattery, gets you Nowhere~

"It was about Voldemort, remember?" Lucifer asked them.

It was louder than usual in the Great Hall, so he wasn’t afraid of being overheard.

"He said, ’ His gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust -"

"How do you remember stuff like that?" Ron asked, a look of admiration towards her.

"I listen, Ronald. I remember important things," she said with a touch of aperity.

"I listen as well, but I couldn’t tell you exactly-" Ron started to say.

"The point is," Hermione said hastily, "is that this is exactly what Dumbledore was talking about. Voldemort’s only been back two months and we’ve started fighting amongst ourselves."

"And that’s only because the Daily Prophet is apparently the ’Be All, End All’ and that they must be one-hundred percent right, all the time," Lucifer pointed out, "If Fudge just acknowledged the truth, people would be more willing to stand united."

"And the Sorting Hat’s warning was the same as what Dumbledore said - stand together, be united-"

"And Harry said it last night, if we are to get all matey with the Slytherins, then it won’t happen, will it?" Ron retorted.

"I’m not saying-" Hermione started, but she paused and then said, "it’s a pity that because of them, inter-House unity can’t be fully achieved, but we should at least try with the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff."

As Hermione stopped talking, a couple late arrivals to Breakfast, Ravenclaw girls, hurried past Harry, before they sat down; Lucifer didn’t recognize either Ravenclaw girl.

"Yeah, we really ought to be trying to make friends with people like that..." Harry said sarcastically.

Professor McGonagall came up along Gryffindor Table, handing out schedules.

"Look at today!" Ron groaned, "History of Magic, double Potions, Divination, and double Defense Against the Dark Arts!"

"We’ve got Arithmancy in place of Divination," Hermione said, looking at hers.

"Binns, Snape, Firenze, and that Umbridge woman all in one day!" Ron was clearly not pleased, "I guess at least Divination is tolerable compared to the other three, but still!"

Just before Breakfast ended, a tall black girl with long, braided hair had marched up to Harry and Lucifer, "Hello you two."

"Hi, Angelina," Harry said.

Lucifer said nothing but made a motion acknowledging her arrival, "Good summer?" She asked, but didn’t wait for a response, "Listen, I’ve been made Gryffindor Quidditch Captain." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

"Nice," Harry said, grinning at her.

"Yeah, well, we need a new Keeper now Oliver’s left. Tryouts are on Friday at five o’clock and I want the whole team there," Angelina said before turning to Lucifer, "that means you, too. I know you’ve been made a Prefect, and I know this is your O.W.L. Year, and I know Oliver didn’t make you come to every practice, but you have to show up as well."

Lucifer eyed her carefully for a moment, "No."

Angelina acted like this wasn’t unexpected, "I thought you’d say that, so you’re going if you want to stay on the team," she smirked at him.

’This is how she’s going to be, huh? Holding my position as Reserve Seeker hostage? I love Quidditch, but I’m not going to be coerced into this, no matter how much I don’t want to quit.’ He stood up, breakfast ended in a moment, "Then consider this my resignation."

Hermione saw him turn around just as Angelina’s face gave the look of her being slapped painfully hard.

Her shock was immeasurable, to say the least.

Hermione stood up and quickly followed Lucifer out, "Did you have to do that?"

"This is hypocritical of me to say, I know, but I was not going to be coerced into staying on the Quidditch Team. If she didn’t tell me I had to show up, I would have shown up, and yes I’m going to act childish with this. I’m not doing it if I have to," he said, keeping his head up, his voice dignified.

Hermione shook her head, "You’re impossible..."

"But not Improbable," he smirked.

"Prat!" Hermione yelled and walked ahead of him to History of Magic.

She sat there, waiting for him to arrive as well, when she got to thinking about what Angelina said, that this is their Fifth Year at Hogwarts, their O.W.L. Year.

She saw him sit on her left, "Hey, I know you said that you will have to go down after Hogwarts... but... have you given thought about....us?"

"I have," he said, "I will just have to come back at night from work. There’s nothing I can do about time gap between our realm"

"But that will be so many years gone for you," Hermione said, flabbergasted as she looked at him, "and will that mirror even work so long distance?"

"What do you want to do after Hogwarts?" Lucifer asked back instead.

She stared at him for a moment, before looking down at her desk, ’What do I want to do after Hogwarts?’

She quite honestly wasn’t sure. "Well... I wonder if I can take S.P.E.W. beyond Hogwarts... make it an actual organization recognized by the Ministry."

"If anyone can, Hermione, it’s definitely you," Lucifer said, glancing over and smiling as Harry and Ron showed up with Binns starting class a moment later.

xxxxxxx

After class, Hermione was glaring at Harry as he walked in between classes, going to the inner courtyard for a break before Potions started.

"How would it be if we both refused to lend you our notes this year?" She asked, having seen green-eyed boy playing Hang-Man the last thirty minutes of class.

"I’d fail my O.W.L.s," Harry said, "If you want that on your conscience, Hermione..."

"Then prepare to fail them, because we aren’t going to this year," Hermione said almost vindictively. "You don’t even try to listen to Binns, do you?"

"We do try," Harry said, "we just haven’t got your brains, or your memory, or your concentration - you’re just cleverer than we are."

"Oh, don’t give me that rubbish," Hermione said with a sneer, "Flattery will get you nowhere, Potter."

A fine misty drizzle was falling, so that people standing in huddles around the yard looked blurred at the edges.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Lucifer chose a secluded corner under a heavily dripping balcony, turning up the collars of their robes against the chilly September air, which Lucifer briefly commented on feeling like a Vampire from how Muggles perceived them to be, before they talked about what Snape was possible going to set for them in the first Potions lesson of the year.

They had got as far as agreeing that it was likely to be something extremely difficult for anyone not of Lucifer’s and Hermione’s intellect.

Hermione saying just Lucifer with how much better he was at Potions, just to catch them off guard after a two-month vacation, when someone walked around the corner toward them.

"Hello, Harry!" Cho Chang said bounding up to them.

"Hi," he responded. Lucifer expected him to say more, but he just sat there with a dumb look on his face.

"You got that stuff off, then?" She asked, and Hermione and Lucifer looked at each other briefly, each cocking an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Harry still grinned, then he said, "So did you... er... have a good summer?"

Lucifer face-palmed.

Hermione smacked his arm as Harry and Cho both glanced at him.

Hermione saw Harry’s face go from scrunched up confusion, to regretful understanding in half a second.

Cho looked like she wanted to burst into tears and run away, but she stood her ground and gave an almost autonomous response, "Oh, it was all right, you know..."

"Is that a Tornados badge?" Ron demanded suddenly.

"Alright, let’s leave them alone, come on," Hermione said, standing up with Lucifer, grabbing Ron by the arm, and practically dragging him, but he ended up yelling, "You don’t support them, do you?"

"Shut up, Ronald!" Hermione yelled and when they got out of earshot, she rounded on him, "you are so tactless!"

"What? I only asked her if-"

"Couldn’t you tell she wanted to talk to Harry on her own?" Hermione asked him.

"So? She could’ve done, I wasn’t stopping-" Ron’s mouth continued to move, but no sound came from him.

Hermione looked at Lucifer and caught his eyes fading back to its normal black, "Lucifer?"

"I just used Silencio, nothing major. I just couldn’t fathom his voice any longer," Lucifer said casually.

Ron then made a rude gesture with his arms that he clearly wouldn’t do in front of his mother.

Harry came up to them a moment later, just as the bell sounded, "That’s the bell," he said, not even stopping as he walked.

Lucifer’s eyes glowed again, and Ron’s voice came back, "Not a word, Weasley, or I’ll remove your mouth."

Ron said nothing as they all marched to Snape’s classroom down in the dungeons, and Lucifer commented how it was odd that every year so far they had had the Slytherins in their Potions Class.

Hermione had found it odd that Cho came up to Harry to speak to him specifically, but she didn’t have time to figure it out as she sat down with her two friends at table near the back.

She was brought from her thoughts with Snape’s arrival and incredibly irritable drone of a voice, "Settle down," he said coldly, shutting the door behind him.

There was no real need for the call to order; the moment the class had heard the door close, quiet had fallen and all fidgeting stopped.

Snape’s mere presence was usually enough to ensure a class’ silence.

"Before we begin today’s lesson," Snape said, sweeping over to his desk and staring around at them all, "I think it appropriate to remind you that next June you will be sitting an important examination, during which you will prove how much you have learned about the composition and use of magical potions. Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an ’Acceptable’ in your O.W.L. or suffer my... displeasure."

It was obvious that his gaze lingered on Neville, who gulped.

"After this year, of course, many of you will cease studying with me," Snape went on. "I take only the very best into my N.E.W.T. Potions class, which means that some of us will certainly be saying good-bye," his eyes rested on Harry and his lip curled, "and others... I will have to suffer for two more years..."

Snape glared at Lucifer specifically.

It was clear that he hated to admit he could never find anything wrong with Lucifer’s Potions.

"But we have another year to go before that happy moment of farewell," Snape said softly, "so whether you are intending to attempt N.E.W.T. or not, I advise all of you to concentrate your efforts upon maintaining the high-pass level I have come to expect from my O.W.L. Students.

"Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: the Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Be warned... if you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing." Hermione sat up straighter, displaying the utmost attentiveness.

"the ingredients and method are on the blackboard," Snape waved his wand, "you will find everything you need," he flicked his wand again, "in the store cupboard... you have an hour and a half... Start."

Just as the four of them predicted, it was far from being easy, and would probably rank in the top five hardest Potions they would have to attempt this year.

The ingredients had to be added to the cauldron in precisely the right order and quantities; the mixture had to be stirred exactly the right number of times, firstly in clockwise, then in counterclockwise directions; the heat of the flames on which it was simmering had to be lowered to exactly the right level for a specific number of minutes before the final ingredient was added.

"A light silver vapor should now be rising from your potions," Snape called out, with ten minutes left to go.

Lucifer, who had barely broken a sweat the entire class period, had smirked at his Cauldron; a light silver vapor was protruding from the pewter container.

He looked over and saw that Hermione also had the same vapor.

As he looked around class, no one else had the same effect, and when Snape walked up to his Cauldron, Lucifer just looked at him, the sneer ever present on his crooked face, ’It would be so fucking easy to snap your spine like a twig, to tear the skin off your face, to rip your intestines out and strangle you with them... that would be cathartic... I almost wish you could read my mind, you fucking cunt.’

What really angered Lucifer was Snape stopping in front of Harry specifically, "Potter, what is this supposed to be?"

"The Draught of Peace," Harry said tensely.

"Tell me, Potter," Snape said softly, "can you read?"

Draco Malfoy laughed, despite his potion exhibiting the same fume as Harry’s.

"Yes, I can," Harry said, his teeth clenched.

"Read the third line of the instructions for me, Potter," Snape sneered at him.

Lucifer saw him squint to read through the haze of multicolored steam filling the classroom, "Add powdered moonstone, stir three times counterclockwise, allow to simmer for seven minutes, then add two drops of syrup of hellebore..."

"Did you do everything on the third line, Potter?"

"No," Harry said quietly, but Lucifer could hear as he was sitting next to him.

"I beg your pardon?" Snape smiled evilly.

"No," Harry said loudly, "I forgot the hellebore..."

"I know you did, Potter, which means that this mess is utterly worthless," Snape pulled his wand out.

"Evanesco." The contents of Harry’s cauldron vanished.

Snape didn’t do this for anyone else that did worse at their attempt at making the Potion.

"Those of you who have managed to read the instructions, fill one flagon with a sample of your potion, label it clearly with your name, and bring it up to my desk for testing," Snape said softly, "Homework: twelve inches of parchment on the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion-making, to be handed in on Thursday."

Lucifer raised his hand, but Hermione promptly forced it down.

He glared at her, but she shook her head sternly.

She didn’t want him to cause a disruption that would be non-beneficial to him or Gryffindor.

His glare didn’t let up towards her for a moment.

He looked away, but his glare remained, directed right at Snape.

When the bell rang, Lucifer was the first one out of class, Harry practically on his heels, and he made his way down to the Great Hall for lunch.

He and Harry had already started by the time Hermione and Ron arrived.

When Hermione sat down on his right, he turned to her, "Why did you stop me?"

Hermione had grabbed a plate of Shepherd’s Pie, "Because it would’ve caused an unnecessary disturbance at the end of class. It was completely unfair singling Harry out like that when Ron’s, Neville’s, Crabbe’s, and Goyle’s were all worse than his, but there wasn’t anything you could’ve done."

Ron looked offended, but he said nothing, seeking solace in his food.

"I’m going to Dumbledore," Lucifer said, pushing the rest of his food away from him.

xxxxxx

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