Later, after Harry cleaned up his work area and headed down to one of the potions classrooms to put ingredients away, Hermione walked by him, still praising her friend for his intimate knowledge of potions.
"I mean, I still can't believe it, Harry. We're the same age and you were able to create that difficult potion without any help at all. It's just amazing."
They entered the classroom and he went to the ingredients cupboard. He looked around to make sure they were alone and smiled at his friend, saying, "I really didn't do that much, Hermione. It's no big deal."
"No big deal? Harry, I read up on that potion. It's routinely used when grading a potions mastery. And here you go and create a perfect go of it first try. That's just… astounding, Harry!"
"Hermione, I knew about the potion. I read up on it. But in all honesty, I counter-cheated my way to victory."
That stopped her. She looked at him, confusion apparent in her eyes. "What do you mean?"
"It's like this. Professor Snape was responsible for supplying my ingredients. He didn't do it. He deliberately set me up to fail, leaving out several key things - oh, they were there and all, but they were under a glamour to show one thing when it was something else. Final result should have been a greenish-putrid looking concoction. So I skipped adding those ingredients, and also destabliszed magically other ingredients. See? They're all still at the bottom of this cauldron."
Hermione looked inside the cauldron and sure enough there was some… wet mess at the bottom of it.
"Then how did you…" she began.
"It was easier than you think, Hermione. I knew what the end results were so I came prepared with my own vial that I switched just before labeling it. That's what I gave the judges."
"Wait, you're saying you already brewed veritaserum before today's competition?"
Harry grinned. "Not really. Think about it. The end result is a truth potion that is odor-less, colorless, and tasteless. What else do you know of that fits that criteria? I'll give you a hint: it's a liquid."
Hermione thought on it for a few minutes while Harry put the supplies away, and then grinned. "Water! You gave them a vial of water!"
Harry closed the cupboard and secured it with a locking spell. "Bottled water actually. As long as they don't test it on someone, they'll never know how useless it is to get the truth out of someone. And Snape can't tell anyone he deliberately tried to sabotage me without losing face to an 11-year old. You know, I can't wait to tell my folks about this. Especially my dad. He's going to go spare."
As they prepared to leave, Hermione said, "I can't believe it. You pranked the entire school on that."
"Thanks."
"Harry, I have to admit. You pulled off an ingenious prank. You're not at all what I expected after having only known you for less than a month. I mean, yes, I knew you were mischievous, but I thought any type of prank you pulled would lead more to… physical comedy than these setups you've been doing."
"What setups do you mean?"
"Please, Harry. The Pepsi at dinner last week that exploded in Professor Snape's face? That had your handwriting all over it."
"But Fred and George Weasley got blamed for it."
"Exactly. From what I've heard the older students saying, it was a joke like they would have pulled. But I could tell it had your handwriting all over it."
"I can neither confirm or deny your accusation then, Hermione. But I'm curious. What kind of jokes did you think I'd pull?"
"Truthfully? I thought you would have tried to bring in a Magic 8 Ball and used it as a divination aid." (3)
Harry waved her suggestion off. "Ah, it's been done. I need to do something fresh. Something that I won't be caught doing."
"I can't believe I'm going to say this," Hermione started, "but as my first ever friend… do you need any help?"
....
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