"Everyone, listen carefully!" After finishing his explanation of Gamp's Third Law, Professor Slughorn called out to the class.
"Each of you come up to the podium and take a small bottle. Before class ends, you must brew the antidote to the contents inside. Good luck, and whatever you do, don't forget to wear your protective gloves!"
The students all stood up and crowded toward the front.
Snape also took a small bottle from the podium, pulled out the stopper, and poured the vivid blue-violet poison into his cauldron. Then, with a wave of his wand, a blue flame whooshed to life beneath it.
He silently recited Scarpin's Revelaspell. As the incantation took effect, faint shadows of various ingredients began to emerge within the poison. Watching the reactions closely, Snape went through a sequence of precise and deliberate steps, soon identifying the concealed additives hidden in the mixture.
When Slughorn made his first round of inspection and came to Snape's table, he instinctively glanced into Snape's cauldron. A look of amazement flickered across his face, but he quickly straightened up, folded his hands behind his back, and moved along as if nothing had happened.
"Have you fallen out of favor?" Abbott asked lazily. He had already cleaned out his cauldron full of murky, sulfur-smelling sludge and was now looking around in boredom. "Why didn't the old slug praise you this time?"
"Have some sympathy for the old man's fragile heart, Abbott," Snape replied without looking up, still flicking his wand above the cauldron. "If you were him, you'd think just showing up to teach us is more than enough effort."
Thin white smoke began to rise in delicate curls, filling the air with a faintly pleasant fragrance. Snape's antidote was nearly complete.
"Do you want to get a passing mark for this class?" Snape turned his head toward Abbott. "Go to the supply cabinet and fetch a bezoar. The old slug will give you credit for that."
"A bezoar?" Abbott blinked, puzzled. "What's that good for?"
"Seriously, mate?" Snape said, carefully decanting his antidote, containing eighty-one distinct components, into a crystal vial. "Don't you ever read? A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat. It's a powerful universal antidote."
"You mean books like Advanced Rune Translation and The Book of Potions?" Abbott scratched his head sheepishly. "Those are just the covers. Inside, they're copies of Play Wizard I bought off the school's black market."
"What?" Snape's face scrunched up in dismay. "You've been keeping something that good all to yourself? How could you betray me like that?"
"Two minutes left, everyone!" Slughorn's booming voice interrupted them.
"I'll share it with you when we get back," Abbott said quickly before dashing to the storage cabinet. He rummaged around frantically, shoving aside bundles of dried herbs until, in the far back corner, he finally found a small cardboard box.
Inside were clusters of dried, kidney-shaped brown bezoars. Abbott grabbed one, shoved the box back into place, and hurried back to his station.
"Time... up-"
Bang!
A loud explosion cut Slughorn off midsentence.
Pandora's cauldron had exploded.
Its contents burst out like fireworks, spraying scalding potion in every direction. Students screamed as the hot liquid splattered onto their robes and skin.
"Silence!" Slughorn bellowed, his voice echoing through the dungeon as he whipped out his wand.
A flash of white light swept across the room, and the spilled potion vanished from the floor and from the students' robes.
"Ravenclaw, minus twenty points! Prefects, get the injured to the hospital wing immediately! Class dismissed!"
With the help of the prefects, Slughorn hurried off to tend to the wounded.
Snape, Abbott, and Pandora crawled out from under their table, unharmed.
"My marks!" Abbott shouted resentfully, watching the old slug disappear through the door.
"That was terrifying," Pandora said, still shaken. "Good thing I reacted quickly and ducked when I saw something was wrong."
"Good thing we saw you duck and realized we'd better do the same," Snape said, examining the shattered remains of her cauldron. "Where did you get this thing?"
"It's imported," Pandora explained. "The base is a bit thin, but it was much cheaper than the local ones."
"These foreign cauldrons really are awful," Snape muttered, slinging his bag over his shoulder as he headed for the door. "Still, I suppose you'll have to put up with thin, brittle cauldrons for a while longer, no wizard's been willing to write a full report on base thickness yet..."
Days passed, and soon February arrived.
Hogwarts Castle was awakening from winter. The snow around the grounds had melted away, replaced by tender shoots of green grass.
White clouds drifted lazily across the sky above the castle, gathering and scattering at will. The pleasant weather made the grounds dry and comfortable again.
The long-awaited first Apparition class for the sixth-years was to be held that Saturday morning on the lawn before the castle, so as not to interfere with regular lessons.
Early that morning, the students gathered eagerly on the grass, standing inside a large circle marked off by white ropes.
Apart from the seventh-years, nearly every other student had gathered around the outer edge, whispering to each other in excitement and curiosity.
After a while, the castle doors opened, and the four Heads of House emerged alongside a short wizard. The one they didn't recognize had to be the Ministry's Apparition instructor.
Once they approached, the students quickly separated by House, lining up before Professors McGonagall, Slughorn, Flitwick, and Sprout.
The instructor's skin was so pale it was almost frightening. His eyelashes were nearly transparent, and his hair was fine as silk. He looked unreal, as though a single gust of wind could blow him away.
"Do you think he's that frail because he's always Apparating and Disapparating?" a Gryffindor boy whispered to his friend.
"Maybe that kind of fragile build is naturally suited to Apparition," his friend replied, pushing up his glasses.
"Good morning," said the Ministry wizard once the students had lined up and the four Heads had quieted them. "My name is Wilkie Twycross.
"For the next twelve weeks, I'll be your Apparition Instructor, here to help you prepare for your all-important Apparition Test.
"I sincerely hope that by then, many of you will be skilled enough to take the exam."
"As you all know, ordinarily, Apparition and Disapparition are not possible within Hogwarts."
Twycross paused briefly before continuing, "However, to allow you proper practice, the Headmaster has lifted the enchantment temporarily, only for one hour. And only within this circle.
"I must stress this point: no one is to Apparate outside the boundary of this white circle. Anyone foolish enough to try should have their head examined at St. Mungo's."