Chapter 59: Hermione Granger! Part-1
{Library, Hogwarts}
{4rd Sep 1991}
{3rd Person POV}
Daphne nodded as she replied, "Of course, the instructions in the books follow the cheapest patents that the publisher could find. Most potioneers tweak the recipe to their taste and habits. What I was following was a recipe that my mother created and I tweaked just a little bit." Daphne looked quite proud of her achievement as she continued, "Also the instructions that are given in the book create a potion that does not extract 100% of mana from the ingredients. The Boil cure potion that we created could extract just 36% of the mana, the rest of it was wasted."
"If it is like that then why don't the publisher use a more exotic formula, surely buying one or two recipes to bolster the sales of the books would be worth it?" Rigel questioned.
Daphne rolled her eyes and stated, "Potion making is not just throwing ingredients into a cauldron and hoping magic happens, not everyone would be able to follow along the more intricate steps and the quality of the potion would be even less..."
Daphne paused and then looked around, "In each step, although you are not aware of it, your mana interacts with the ingredients, that is why the steps are so strict in how the Snake fangs need to be crushed on a mortar. It is to reduce contact between the students and the ingredients as much as possible because our mana and intent could ruin the ingredients. That's why we wore those gloves, to keep contact to a minimum..."
Daphne continued after a pause, "...at the same time some potions could only be made during celestial events like the Wolfsbane needs the moon to be almost completely full. The potion needs to be brewed at night and it requires a special flower that only blooms at night. Some potions even react to emotions with negative or positive thoughts leading to different outcomes."
Rigel nodded, though his attention was focused on the brunette who was eavesdropping on their conversation. Hermione was sitting at a table behind Daphne and that's why the blond hadn't noticed it, and maybe she would have gotten away with her attempts if her curiosity hadn't gotten the best of her.
"...So we are not told everything by the book? Is there a different reference book that I could find?" Hermione asked causing Daphne to whip around and glare at the brunette. Hermione jerked back as her curiosity was replaced with embarrassment.
Before Daphne could say something that would lead to both of them being at odds with each other for the foreseeable future, Rigel spoke, "You're Hermione right, Gryffindor, the only one that had a decent-looking potion at the end of our lecture."
Rigel could see that Daphne was looking at him but he focused on Hermione, she gave him a grateful smile. "Why don't you join us, I want to know what your experience was," Rigel spoke and Hermione's eyes shifted to his robes and the batch in the pocket.
"Don't worry I don't bite, I'm the next Dark lord, and in my crusade to enslave all muggle-borns I need a partner who knows how they think and behave." Rigel gave Hermione an innocent smile which caused the girl to back away slightly.
'...'
...
'...'
"Don't tell me I'm that scary?" Rigel asked Daphne.
"Your smile is not innocent, please don't do it," Daphne replied, she mimicked the innocent smile he tried moments ago. Rigel glared at her before he gave Hermione an inviting look. The brunette hesitated before she slowly picked up the massive tome that was in front of her and hobbled over to their table.
Rigel could tell the difference between Daphne's and Hermione's approach just by looking at the book they each selected. While Daphne's book was old, likely the first print of an old book. Hermione had preferred a larger book that likely had gone through several revisions.
"You were looking at Potions?" Rigel asked, his question directed at the brunette.
"Yes, my potion didn't come out the way it should have. The smoke should be light pink color according to the book but my potion excluded a little darker shade of pink." Hermione frowned, she looked at the book with a frustrated expression.
"Your potion was pink wasn't it, on your first try, that's good right?" Rigel consoled Hermione before he directed the ending question at Daphne.
Daphne didn't look like she wanted to be involved in this meeting but seeing that both Rigel and the clueless muggle-born were looking at her she sighed and explained, "It's not technically your fault. The color of the smoke that your potion emitted was pink which meant that your potion would work, it would be a little weaker than a perfectly created potion and might need to be applied a lot more..."
Daphne looked at the slightly confused look in both of their eyes and explained, "...The intensity of the pink color signifies how much of the mana that is in the ingredients is converted into useable potions. The higher the extracted mana the lighter the color of the smoke. What you got signifies around 33% of efficiency which is a good result from the standard recipe, though if you want to get better results you might need to either perfect the crafting process or change the recipe itself."
...
'I guess it makes sense, that's why most Slytherins and other purebloods had better results. They likely used a more refined recipe or were more familiar with the whole process...' Rigel thought, though the crafting mechanic didn't make sense. He had a spells tab which contained all the spells he had learned but there was nothing related to potions on there.
'Maybe I should try to create my first potion later...' Rigel thought and then he turned to look at Hermione who had an enlightened look on her face as she buried her head into her book once again.
'She really is different from an 11-year-old Hermione, I was expecting her to blow up about the unfair advantage that purebloods had over her...' Rigel thought.
"I got what I needed, I need to talk to Tracey so I'll be going, see you later Rigel," Daphne spoke as she hurried away. Her steps had a sense of urgency as Rigel looked at her fleeing back.
'Okay so maybe the stereotypes wouldn't be broken so easily...'
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AN- Introduction to Hermione and Potions, the story would include a lot of potions and runes so do take some time to focus on the theory rather than breezing past it! Thanks!!
P.S- 36 Extra Chapters on P.atreon!
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