Stellarlune

The sky was stormy, the color a fierce grey, matching my mood. It had drizzled quite heavily in the morning, and I was decidedly not a big fan of trudging through wet mud squelching beneath my shoes all the way to where Slughorn's class was due to take place. 

For a while, there was nothing but silence as the students shuffled in, black cloaks emblazed with their house crests swishing with every movement; polished, gleamed shoes winked at me, the fires from the cauldrons now reflected eerily on every surface.

"Good morning, good morning! Settle down!" he cried in that jovial voice of his, exuberant as ever. "And what a good morning it is."

There was a low murmur of assent after the lasting pause when he beamed at the class, obviously expecting some sort of reaction.

 "Instead of studying the standard potions and testing mass batches, I thought to make today's class a more practical one. A two hour class should be enough for attempting Star Glass Essence, shouldn't it?"

He walks around the classroom, pointing out the various ingredients arranged on the tables near the small cauldrons. Heads sway to and fro, watching.

“Star Glass essence…”, he chuckles lowly, and I watch his belly shake with his movements. Drama queen, honestly.

 “…. its uses are varied, but it was commonly consumed as a drug in the Middle Ages by the members of high society. Does anyone know of it?”

He hummed slightly, satisfactorily at the silence, like he was expecting it.

“Not everyone survived. It is a strong, silent killer. But, it is said that children borne from those who survived this toxicant were stronger, smarter, more magical.”

His voice carried across the room, rising, and falling abruptly in his efforts to bring some sort of anticipation to the table.

I raised my eyebrow. Bullshit.

But students all around me were leaning over to hear him better, eyes widened with curiosity and awe. This was not a tale that they had been told by their parents. This was not a part of any history book, any textbook, any generational secret.

And what they did not know scared them.  

Slughorn did not stop. His eyes shined with delight at having ensnared most of his students, and his features twisted slightly into one of delight.
He controlled the power in the room, at that moment. And he was enjoying every second of it.

“It is also said that this potion enabled transformations. Witches and wizards alike started sprouting hideous bat wings, fangs, and claws of lycanthropes, and some, even shedding their skin monthly like the Serpents of The Spine Mountains.”

The Serpents were century-old creatures with ruinous power, who resided in the tallest peaks of the world. Their skin, obtained by monthly shedding was treasured even more than say, a Philosopher’s Stone.

“This potion started a new age, an age when we were able to shapeshift, and thus, the Animagi were born.”

In the silence of the classroom, there was a sharp exhale, and I swiveled around only to catch sight of a pale-faced, trembling Malfoy, one hand tightly braced against the Potions worktable to support himself and gaze fixed firmly on the ground before him.

I couldn’t stop my own slight gasp at the sight of him.

Was it Slughorn’s words that were having this effect on him? Why?

I both loved and hated this look on him, I think.

The thought feathered across my mind before I had time to stop it.

When his hair was just this side of wet from the humidity and hanging over his eyes in jagged edges, and his parted lips exhaled puffs of strangled air and his shirt clung to his frame, moist with sweat and vapor and water droplets. When the grey of his eyes stood out just a tad more starkly, glinting with this sharp, lonely, desperate gaze. Like the fine thread that was Draco Malfoy was unravelling at the ends, and he didn’t know what to do about it.

Nobody else had turned around at his reaction. Only me. And maybe I was overthinking it, but then his gaze snapped to mine, and...

“We will be attempting to recreate Star Glass Essence today. Most of the ingredients here are manually sourced from the Forbidden Forest. One of these,” He picked up a tightly closed, translucent-petaled flower from among the five placed beside each cauldron.

Five tips trailed wispy smoke as he moved it from one hand to another, and the petals seemed to shimmer and curl just a little more. “could possibly be the most dangerous potions ingredient you’ve encountered since your time.”

He took a moment to chuckle, and then, ever so carefully, peeled away one of the petals entirely. It turned white, opaque the moment it was separated from the flower.

Inside, the pulp, a fleshy, water-impregnated substance was a shocking sky-blue.

“Star Glass is a root from the Stelara plant, only potent if harvested in the light of a blood-red moon. It is one of the most fatal poisons known to wizarding kind. This little root has the power to execute an army of fully grown trolls, with just a touch.”

I frowned. Star Glass? I’d never even heard or read its name before, not even in Severus's precious Potions book.

He looked at us imploringly. “Please, as grown-up, experienced almost-graduates, do try not to succumb to its effects. There is no known cure yet for this type of poison.”

He pointedly, I suppose, did not mention its administration. He shared my view, then, of those among us who might still seek revenge.

I mentally counted off the types of poisons, trying to see if I could determine its type and administration on my own. There were corrosive poisons, neurotic poisons, cardiac poisons and asphyxiants.

The blue flesh was not something that could be administered orally, forced through the mouth without direct contact, so maybe dermal…through the skin?

“Execute with maximum caution, and please do refrain from wasting these ingredients, as many would lose life and limb to obtain them. Please remember a quarter of your grade is for class results, conduct and participation."

Having finished his instructions, he settled into his chair busily.

"Also, class," he called abruptly, putting his hand inside his cloak to reveal a small vial, copper top stoppered with wax, the liquid inside sunnily spun gold in color. It drew an uncanny amount of attention.

"I shall be gifting the winner with this vial of Felix Felicis. I don't need to elaborate, do I?" He raised an eyebrow.

Needless to say, that got quite a lot of us up and moving.

That little vial of literal joy would be akin to gold for most of us. It promised a consequence-free escape from the guilt and pain that most of us shared, and I think I knew quite a few who would love to get their hands on it, who’d even tried, previously.

But connections had broken down in the wizarding world, and now, not even gold was a good enough persuader to suppliers and potion-makers.

We all started, almost feverishly.

Twenty minutes into the class, my cauldron was bubbling gently. Students all around me were struggling to manage, some already a few steps ahead of the others.

Star Glass Essence was not an easy potion to make. At all.

I squinted at my book, struggling to read the cramped text. After adding two dashes of syrup of hellebore, and two powdered roots of asphodel, I had to stir in three rotations clockwise and anticlockwise, doubling each time the number from seven.

That was nearly three hundred rotations! I huffed in exhaustion.

No wonder Horace had instructed us to make it. Spell work would be too complex to rely on, and mass production for a potion such as this was nearly impossible without manual labor…us. He was skiving off on his own bloody job.

Git.

Thank god Ron didn't take Advanced Potions.

I turned back to mine.

I had yet to add the dragon skin and the moonseed. Scooping them up and plopping the thin crescent shaped seeds into the cauldron, I turned to the shriveled, curled up piece of skin with something akin to fascination.

Wiry and small, it was extremely brittle, and the smells invading my nostrils were teetering between fresh earth and scorched skin. Every time I tried to cut it, it slipped out of my hand, or simply rebounded away when I applied pressure. I stared at the clock. Time was running out, and I still had a couple steps to go.

I needed to hurry.

I tried to cut it again, pressing the leathery hide down with two fingers on either side to hold it in place. It was still fresh. The knife cut cleanly, blood pooling in around it.

 I tried to cut it into smaller pieces, but the knife, slick with the juice, missed its aim and cut my finger. It wasn't a major cut, I decided. I could go to the Infirmary and get it fixed up after the class.

I scooped up the skin and poured it, blood and all, into the cauldron. The potion immediately turned dark lilac. 

I started stirring, using my hand to measure smooth, precise rotations. The potion was slowly turning light, I just had to keep my hands steady.

One last rotation….

"Time's up!" Slughorn called from the other end of the classroom.

I started in panic.

My hand wavered, ever so slightly. A drop of blood formed from the cut and dripped down into the potion, almost in slow motion.

My garbled, "No!" did nothing.

It immediately changed color to a dirty red, frothing like no tomorrow.

I scowled. My hair was a frizzy halo around my face, having absorbed the hot moisture from the cauldron.   

All that effort, to waste.

Sitting back, I watched Slughorn test the others.

He slowly made his way through the eleven of us, pausing occasionally to check a potion whose color seemed relatable.

Not even one of us had been able to create it?

He stopped at Harry's.