Chapter Nine Slughorn
James, for the first time in his life, could not eat. He had never stayed up the whole night before, but he had not slept a wink. After returning to the portrait hole he had spent the night tossing and turning in his bed.
Though he was fascinated by the secret passage that led out of the castle, the mystery of it—combined with what his father had said about family tradition and how old that key had looked—begged the question … Was he the heir of Slytherin?
In the sunlight of the day the answer seemed clear. No. His father, Fleamont Potter, was the kindest man alive. Good humored, always quick with a joke, and certainly not a Muggle-hater. He was avidly against You-Know-Who and probably the best person James had ever met. There was just no way his father was a Death Eater.
But last night, alone in the darkness, he had not been so sure. He had decided to write to his father all the same to put his mind at ease. The only problem was that he hadn’t determined what exactly to say. But he was spared the trouble of figuring that out when he saw the familiar golden wings and fluffy white body of his father's barn owl soaring down from the ceiling.
“Merlin!” James cried.
“Huh?” Sirius said, looking up from his eggs.
Merlin dropped into a bowl of sausages and then extended the letter clasped in his beak to James.
“It’s from my dad,” James explained, accepting the letter and offering the owl a piece of buttered toast.
Sirius straightened, suddenly alert and interested as James ripped the letter open. He unfolded the parchment and held it out so Sirius could read as well.
James,
I urge you not to share this letter, as in writing it I am breaking a confidence.
Well, it was a little late for that, James thought, but he decided pulling the letter from Sirius now would seem rude.
I am writing to you because I have learned from a trusted friend some information pertaining to Hogwarts that worries me and I think it vital you are warned.
Sirius and James looked at each other and kept reading.
With You-Know-Who becoming increasingly powerful, there was added pressure on the Ministry to not allow Muggle-born students into Hogwarts this year. When the Ministry announced that they would be keeping Hogwarts open for all students, they received an anonymous threat promising that the Chamber of Secrets would be opened in retribution. I am not sure if you are aware—it is possible whispers have already reached you at school, as some families will have talked about it.
The Chamber of Secrets is an old legend about a monster hidden in the school by Salazar Slytherin for the purpose of killing Muggle-born students. The Ministry did not think it necessary to inform the public of this threat, as the Chamber is just a legend and they did not wish to cause a panic, a decision I believe to be a grave error on their part. You-Know-Who and his supporters are known for many things but empty threats is not one of them.
I therefore urge you to warn your classmates to not wander any corridors alone, especially if they are Muggle-born. Stay close with each other. Your mother and I have discussed bringing you home but with things as they are we have decided it may be best for you to remain at Hogwarts. This world is becoming more and more dangerous which makes it all the more essential for you to stay in school and focus on your studies so you will be prepared to face the challenges that are coming.
I fear what may be in the future for all of us who will never ally ourselves to You-Know-Who. We must all stand together and do what we can to resist him. So be warned, be safe, be vigilant and study hard.
With love,
Dad
The boys finished reading the letter and looked at each other, confused. It had not, as they had suspected, contained any information regarding the next clue about the pear or the secret passage. Yet his dad had mentioned the Chamber of Secrets. Did that mean they weren’t connected? Or was the key a secret and he did not want to mention it in case the owl was intercepted?
“What do you reckon?” James asked Sirius, who was carefully rereading the note as he sipped his tea.
“I don’t know,” Sirius said, setting down his cup. “He’s certainly not a Death Eater but …” He traced his fingers down the parchment. “It’s odd. Odd that he didn’t mention the key. I almost think…” He narrowed his eyes, squinting at the paper. “What if it is related? It almost feels like by not saying something he is saying something, you know? Stay at Hogwarts, be ready to face the challenges ahead of you?”
James nodded. He was kind of thinking the same thing. Sirius went on. “What if the key does open the Chamber of Secrets but your dad wants you to kill the monster instead of release it? Or what if it leads to some kind of weapon that could kill it.”
“Yeah!” James said eagerly. That seemed the thing. “Which would explain why he wants me to stay at Hogwarts!”
“And he wouldn’t have mentioned the key in case the owl was intercepted,” Sirius added. “Whatever it is, I reckon we can trust him. So now we just need to find that pear.”
James nodded and folded the parchment closed and put it in his pocket. He felt a wave of relief. He had known his dad wasn’t a Death Eater, but he couldn’t pretend it wasn’t comforting that Sirius had come to the same conclusion.
James piled eggs on his plate, suddenly ravenous. He would send Merlin back with a response to his dad and a letter for his mum too, true to his word. But for now, he could eat comfortably, assured that his father was not secretly a Muggle-hating Death Eater. That was more of a relief than he cared to admit.
* * *
Lily walked with Poppy down the grand staircase. Her heart was pounding fast. More excited than nervous. She was going to learn magic!
She had found herself particularly drawn to the Potions books at Flourish and Blotts. There was a potion for everything. Healing potions, love potions, fear potions, courage potions, beauty potions … and she would learn to make them.
Part of the reason she was so excited for this class was because she knew she could do it. It almost seemed like high-stakes cooking, like even a Muggle could make a potion if they followed the directions correctly. Lily had always done well at Muggle school and she knew she could be good at this.
They opened the dungeon door and Poppy groaned. “You can’t be serious.“
It took Lily a moment to realize what she meant. They were among the last to arrive and there were only a few scattered seats left, no two together. The girls gave each other a sad look as Poppy dropped into the nearest one beside Hannah Fensby, leaving Lily to scan the room for an empty seat.
The dark-haired boy from the ice cream shop looked back and smiled at her, then moved his bag covering the seat beside him as if he had been saving it for her the whole time.
She supposed he had. She knew he felt bad about what she’d heard him say but also didn’t feel like giving him the chance to apologize. So she pretended not to notice and kept searching the room. Until she recognized the familiar greasy black hair and too-long robe.
Lily smiled. Severus Snape. He had been the first one to tell her she was a witch. Slightly awkward but always earnest. He had been sorted into Slytherin and they had not gotten a chance to talk since coming to Hogwarts.
She walked forward and sat in the seat next to him, giving no sign of recognition. She knew the other Slytherins would be watching and would not approve of him being friends with a Muggle-born girl. She could sense his excitement at seeing her but also his fear. He wanted to talk but was nervous about what his friends would think.
Lily pulled out her notebook and quill, still not acknowledging him. She looked up at the board as if to copy it and wrote, ‘How was your first day?’ Then she nudged the notebook ever so slightly in his direction so he would look at it.
She saw the corner of his lips perk up in the slightest of smiles. He picked up his own quill. ‘Good,’ he wrote in his notebook.
‘Good,’ she wrote on hers.
Professor Slughorn winked at her. “Already taking notes I see. Good job.”
Lily blushed and smiled then began copying the actual blackboard to earn her praise.
Soon after, Professor Slughorn clapped his hands together to get their attention. “Let’s get started. I am Professor Horace Slughorn. I know a lot of teachers like to spend the first day explaining what their class is about but I like to think the best way to learn is to do. So if you’ll all turn to page twelve in your books. You’ll find a potion for Hair Growth which is what we will be making today.”
“Do you use it?” a boy in the front row asked dubiously, looking at the bald patch that was starting to form on the top of the professor's head.
Lily’s eyes widened in horror but to her surprise Slughorn only laughed.
“No, I do not,” he chuckled. “Davey Gudgeon is it?”
“Yeah,” the boy said, looking surprised.
Slughorn nodded. “Your sister Diana told me to look out for you. Talented girl, your sister,” he said approvingly.
Lily’s eyes flicked to a list of names on the wall behind Slughorn's desk emboldened in small silver stars. She searched and found the one that read Diana Gudgeon. She wasn’t sure what the stars were about or how you got one but determined all the same that one day her name would be on that wall shining in gold. She could already tell this teacher picked favorites. He had singled her out in the beginning and she felt the pressure to do well and not disappoint.
“I’ll call out the roll and then we’ll get started,” he said.
Lily listened attentively to the roll. He had to call Gideon Prewett twice because his answer was so quiet Slughorn didn’t hear. James Potter stuck his hand up in the air half-heartedly, whispering and laughing with his dark-haired friend about something when his name was called.
They got through the rest of the roll with no problems until … “Lupin, Remus.” No response. “Remus Lupin?” Slughorn asked. “Does anyone know where he is?”
They all shook their heads.
“What house was he in?” a Slytherin boy asked.
“Gryffindor,” Slughorn said, looking down at the parchment.
The Gryffindors all looked at each other in confusion.
“Did anyone see him at breakfast this morning?” Slughorn asked.
“I don’t even know who that is,” a Gryffindor girl said.
Slughorn raised his eyebrows. “Does anyone know Remus Lupin?”
They all shook their heads.
“How very odd,” Slughorn commented, then continued down the list.
Lily pulled Beginners Potions by Creavis Eldridge from her bag and opened it. She felt a wave of complete horror wash over her the moment she did and cursed under her breath. The muddy water from when she had dropped it in Diagon Alley had soaked into the ink, smearing it and making the entire book impossible to read. She couldn't make out a single word.
* * *
Remus ran down the grand staircase, breathing hard. He was late. He didn't know how late for certain.
He had arrived last night after the feast. The headmaster had sorted him privately in his office and then offered to take him to the Gryffindor common room.
Remus had refused, not wanting to walk in late and attract too much attention. He had slept in a cot in the headmaster's office and planned to just slip in with the other students heading to class. But he had gotten lost … and now he was late. So much for being discreet.
He ran through the hall, robe flying out behind him, until he found the door labeled POTIONS. He breathed a sigh of relief then twisted the handle and opened it, still breathing hard.
The whole room turned to look at him.
The professor was a middle-aged man wearing expensive emerald-green robes. He looked up and smiled kindly at him. “Ah, you must be Remus Lupin!” he said, crossing his name off a list. “Welcome.”
Everybody just sat there, gawking at Remus. It was the kind of stare everyone knew was rude if you did it alone, but somehow okay when they all did it together.
All of them looked stunned, except a boy with a mischievous grin and wild unruly curls. He waved and patted the empty chair next to him.
Remus walked towards the boy and his friend, feeling grateful that he wouldn’t have to search for somewhere to sit.
The professor continued speaking. “Like I said, today we will be making a relatively basic potion for hair growth. If you’ll all turn to page twelve in your books …”
“Do you not have a book or scales?” the boy whispered.
Remus shook his head. Dumbledore had said there would be spares he could use but he felt horrible, showing up to class late and unprepared.
“You can have mine,” the boy said, pushing them on his desk. “I’ll just share with Sirius. I’m James by the way. James Potter.”
“Thanks," Remus said. “I’m Remus Lupin.”
The boy grinned. “So we’ve heard.”
His friend Sirius leaned forward. “How come no one knows who you are?” he asked in an excited whisper.
“It's a long story,” Remus said.
“We’re excited to hear it,” James whispered back as the professor started talking again.
“I have the ingredients up on this table,” Slughorn said, patting the table which was indeed covered in an assortment of ingredients that ranged from roots to hair to a couple of dead salamanders. “So you come collect what you need and let’s get started!” he said, rubbing his hands together excitedly.
Remus took James Potter's book and flipped to page twelve, relieved. He didn’t have any misconceptions that these boys wanted to be his friends. He didn’t belong with them, that was clear. The boys were of the same mold, both confident with dark hair and expensive clothes and materials. Whereas Remus had shown up with nothing, in secondhand robes, panting and late for class.
He was a novelty, that was it. They wanted to hear his story and would then probably never talk to him again, but they were friendly. They had helped him and for that he was grateful.
The boys stood up and got in line. “No,” James said, watching horrified as the boy in front of the line squeezed a dead salamander and collected the blood dripping from the gash in its stomach in a small glass vial.
James gagged, looking at Remus. “I am not doing that," he laughed.
Remus nodded, feeling nauseated. But they had no choice when they got to the front of the line.
“Sirius, you squeeze, I'll hold the vials,” James said.
“No way,” Sirius protested, looking at the lifeless amphibians, now mangled and in different stages of being crushed.
“I’ll do it,” Remus volunteered.
“Brave man,” James said, patting him on the shoulder as if sending him off to war.
Remus chose a black spotted one that still looked like it had a decent amount of blood remaining and squeezed. The boys all cringed as the blood gushed out and Remus filled the three glass vials. When he was finished both James and Sirius clapped solemnly in appreciation.
Remus laughed then looked disgusted at his slimy hands.
“We’ll bring your stuff to the table so you can wash up,” Sirius said, taking Remus’s tray as well as his own.
* * *
Lily panicked as she tucked her sweaty hair back from her face and stared into her boiling cauldron. She was a fraud. Everyone else had carefully checked their scales to make sure their measurements were exact. Whereas she had just watched them and tried to guess.
It didn’t help that the person she was copying, Severus Snape, seemed to be doing everything wrong. When other students just chopped, he peeled first. When they squeezed, he crushed. He used half as much fluxweed and twice as much Dittany[35] , but still Lily followed him. Partly because he was closest to her, so she had the best view of his measurements, but mostly because he looked like he knew what he was doing.
She could see it in his posture, the way he rolled his eyes when he read the book's directions and muttered under his breath. He was an expert. Or perhaps just arrogant. Still, she felt confident enough that he knew what he was doing that when he ripped out a good chunk of his own hair and added it to his cauldron, Lily pulled out a cluster of her own hair, though she noticed no one else did and had a sneaking suspicion adding hair was not in the directions.
She stared at the red hairs in her finger then slowly dropped them in. Her potion simmered up and changed from a light green to a sparking lavender. Severus looked over and smiled, pleased that she had followed his lead.
“That’s time!” Professor Slughorn said, looking at his watch. Lily's heart thudded as he came around to look at everyone’s cauldrons.
“Not bad," he said to Poppy, giving her an approving nod. “Hmm,” he said, looking in Alfie Conby's cauldron. Lily wasn’t sure if “hmm” was good or bad.
Slughorn moved on. “These might be toxic,” he said to Potter and his two friends. The three boys seemed like they were trying to hold back smiles but at his words they all burst into laughter. They were standing a safe distance away from their cauldrons as they were all spitting out angry gobs of black liquid. They quickly tried to compose themselves only to lose it again when a particularly large splash landed right in front of James and he jumped back in fright.
“What did you do?” Slughorn asked, seeming both stunned and amused.
Lupin, who recovered the fastest, said, “Well, it seemed too blue. We thought maybe adding more salamander's blood …?”
James and Sirius were overcome with fresh waves of laughter.
“It was my idea,” James confessed, gathering his composure.
“I’m actually very glad you brought that up, boys,” Slughorn said, not seeming angry. “It is important to know that making a potion is not like mixing paint. With potions, the color of the elixir has very little to do with the color of the ingredients and is more about the magical properties of the solution.”
The boys nodded.
“It’s not about the color, James!” Sirius said in a pretend angry voice and they all burst into laughter again.
Slughorn moved on but none of the other cauldrons were anything close to as bad as those.
All too soon, Slughorn got to Lily’s cauldron, she held her breath as he peeked inside and she could feel her heart pounding when he froze, seeming stunned.
He looked up at her in amazement “How?” he asked. Lily could tell he was impressed and she had to fight not to look too pleased. “Did you bring your own unicorn hair, girl?”
Lily shook her head.
“Then how did you get that color?” he asked.
“I used some of my own hair,” she explained.
Slughorn laughed. “Genius! Pure genius! In all my years, I’ve never seen a first year make such a perfect potion!”
Lily blushed. For half a moment she thought about not saying anything, but he would see that Severus had done the same thing and he really did deserve the credit. It had been all him after all.
“It wasn't my idea,” she confessed. She flipped open her muddied book to show him how the pages had been ruined. Slughorn stared at it in disbelief.
“I didn’t have the directions so I copied him," she explained, gesturing at Severus. She thought it would be best to pretend she didn’t know his name so Severus’s Slytherin friends wouldn’t get suspicious. “He was the one who had the idea about the hair.”
Slughorn had not recovered from his shock. He picked up her book as if he couldn’t believe it and then laughed, flipping through the ruined pages. “So you mean to tell me that you did all this by sight, without even knowing the measurements? Impossible. Fantastic! What is your name, girl?”
Lily knew she was blushing now. Probably too proud of herself. Slughorn may have been overly generous with his praise. But Lily had heard Hannah Fensby tell Amanda Pucey last night in the common room that Slughorn had a knack for spotting talent and Lily had been hoping ever since that he would in fact single her out.
“Lily Evans,” she said, no longer able to hide her smile.
“I’ll remember you,” Slughorn promised. “Twenty points to Gryffindor!” he announced.
The Slytherins all looked horrified and began muttering furiously. “What’s he playing at?” “It was Snape's idea!” “Traitor.”
But their whispers were drowned out by the Gryffindor cheers that seemed perhaps a little too loud, like they were trying to rub it in.
Lily could tell already that the tension between the two houses would be high in this class. She couldn’t help feeling guilty as she sat back down at the end of class.
Slughorn had only given Severus’s potion a simple, “Well done,” and moved on. Even though she had told Slughorn she had copied Severus, she still felt like she had stolen his moment. The warmth from Slughorn's praise was gone and now she just felt guilty and ashamed.
‘Sorry,’ she wrote in her notebook. Then pushed it in his direction so he would see.
She looked out of the corner of her eyes to see if he was upset. He wasn’t. He looked unfazed.
‘The book is wrong. Slughorn was stupid to assign it,’ he scribbled. ‘You were right to follow me instead. Keep doing that or you’ll learn bad habits.’
It didn’t seem like he was jealous of Slughorn's praise. Lily had noticed Severus roll his eyes as he told the class they had all done really well and he was impressed. He seemed to hold a certain level of disdain for the professor and probably wouldn’t have valued the praise if Slughorn had given it.
That made Lily feel a little better and she smiled. ‘Thank you,’ she wrote. ‘I will. You’re much smarter than Creavis Eldridge.’
‘I am,’ Severus agreed.
The bell rang and they both packed up to go.