Time passed quickly at Hogwarts.
As the weather turned colder, October arrived... A damp chill seemed to seep through the castle walls, and soon colds were spreading among students and teachers alike.
Madam Pomfrey specially asked Professor Snape to brew a stimulant potion. After taking it, your head would feel like it was on fire, steam pouring out of your ears—but the cold would be gone in no time.
Jon had been regularly feeding the two South African red spiders the calming potion Professor Kettleburn had given him.
They seemed to be doing much better, though Jon wasn't sure if that was thanks to the potion—or if the Basilisk had simply stopped moving through the castle for a while.
...
In fact, ever since that first Sunday, Jon Hart had rarely gone anywhere alone in Hogwarts.
Every morning and evening, he came and went with a group of first-year Hufflepuff students.
The Basilisk wouldn't attack in broad daylight, right? And there was no way it could squeeze into the two wooden barrels that served as the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room.
He also barely visited the kitchens anymore—maybe once every week or two. Thankfully, Klein and the other house-elves always stuffed his pockets with enough snacks to last a full week.
His time in the Room of Requirement had also been cut down. Now, he only went there around lunchtime or when he had a break between classes.
His progress with the Conjunctivitis Curse was decent—he could now strike the eyes of a practice dummy with pinpoint accuracy with a single cast. Whether it would work in real combat, though, was another question. As for Occlumency, that was proving to be a real struggle. He couldn't tell if he'd made any progress at all—after all, the Room of Requirement couldn't conjure a dummy capable of casting Legilimens.
...
Classes continued as usual.
Transfiguration was the same as always, and Jon's performance wasn't particularly outstanding. Ginny Weasley, on the other hand, was excelling—she could already turn a teapot into a mouse. Professor McGonagall couldn't stop praising her.
Jon made a point of keeping his distance from Miss Weasley. She probably still thought his name was "John Hat."
Colin Creevey seemed to be quite friendly with her. They often whispered together in class. Jon couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for the short Gryffindor boy.
His grades in Charms were about the same as in Transfiguration—solidly above average. Professor Flitwick had just started teaching the spell Wingardium Leviosa. It took Jon about a week to get it right.
In Herbology, he did especially well. Professor Sprout was clearly fond of him... Though as first-years, they weren't allowed to handle the plants yet. She'd only taught them how to tell Shrivelfig from Monkshood, and introduced them to dangerous plants like Devil's Snare and Mandrakes.
Potions class needed no mention—every brew he and Astoria made turned out perfectly. Even someone as harsh and biased as Snape had praised them a few times.
"You might be the only non-Slytherin Snape's ever complimented!" said Gabriel Truman, the Hufflepuff prefect, excitedly.
"No way... at best I'm the second," Jon thought to himself.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was still a joke. Professor Lockhart had students take turns reading passages from his books.
When the dramatic parts came up, he would always invite a pretty Ravenclaw girl named Melinda Bobbin to reenact the scene with him.
Out of habit from his past life, Jon listened to every class with full attention until the very end, no matter how ridiculous it got.
...
In the blink of an eye, October was drawing to a close.
Jon knew perfectly well that Hogwarts' peaceful days weren't going to last much longer.
"Forgetfulness Potion might be the most advanced brew you'll encounter in your first year!" On the last day of October, Snape's cold voice echoed through the Potions classroom. "Frankly, I don't expect any of you to get it right. I just hope you don't fail too idiotically."
As he spoke—bang!—Madeline Yaxley's cauldron exploded.
"Fool!" Snape roared, sweeping the spilled potion off the floor with a flick of his wand.
"Did I not tell you to add sneezeweed before Jobberknoll feathers? I honestly don't know how you ended up in my house."
Ignoring the sobbing Madeline, he turned his gaze to the front row.
Looking at the muddy mixture in Jon and Astoria's cauldron, he sneered. "Seems like Mr. Hart and Miss Greengrass aren't flawless after all."
"No, Professor!" Astoria mustered her courage and looked up. "We haven't added the licorice root yet."
As she spoke, Jon poured a small bottle of dark green liquid into their cauldron... The mixture immediately began to react, the sludge dissolving rapidly until only a clear, emerald-green liquid remained.
"Well done..." Snape said dryly, then walked off without another word.
Astoria quickly stood up and went to the back row to comfort Madeline.
Jon, meanwhile, packed up his things and rushed to the Room of Requirement before sunset.
...
Opening the thick, slightly moldy Advanced Potion-Making, Jon felt that he was finally ready to try brewing some of the potions inside.
And there was a good reason to hurry—as far as he remembered from the original story, the trio would soon be borrowing this exact book from the library. That meant he had to return it in the next couple of days.
He turned carefully to the section on the Polyjuice Potion.
The illustration showed figures caught in the throes of transformation into someone else, their expressions twisted in pain.
Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed, knotgrass... All fairly easy to get—they were stocked in the student ingredient cupboards.
Then there were powdered bicorn horn and shredded boomslang skin... Those two, he didn't have access to.
Still, he had a plan. He could send a letter with the school owl to a potion ingredients shop in Diagon Alley and order some. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too expensive.
Dragon liver only cost seventeen Sickles—surely snake skin wasn't more expensive than that?
Fluxweed had to be picked during a full moon, and the lacewing flies had to stew for twenty days...
If everything went well, he might be able to bring a completed Polyjuice Potion back to Southampton by Christmas break.