บท 101: Bitter and Sweet

"Hello? Professor Lupin, are you there?" called out Oleandra, knocking on the door to his office with her free hand. "I have something for you."

"Come in!" came the response, and the door swung open by itself.

Oleandra did as she was told and entered the room. Professor Lupin wasn't alone; Harry was also there, sleeves rolled up, sponge in hand, cleaning an empty tank.

"Ah, Oleandra," said Professor Lupin with a smile. "Harry was just telling me about how both of you ended up in detention. I must admit that at your age, I wouldn't have dared to trick Professor McGonagall like that."

"Ahem," Oleandra cleared her throat. "It just happens that I'm here for my detention, actually. Professor Snape made me brew this potion for you."

She offered him the goblet, which was filled with the still smoking potion. Unexpectedly, Professor Lupin did not immediately refuse to take the suspicious-looking brew nor accept it without question.

"Severus… made you brew this?" Professor Lupin said, his face becoming pale. "He didn't tell you what it was, did he?"

"No, he only left the brewing instructions before leaving me to it," Oleandra explained. "For your privacy, I think he said. Didn't look too pleased about having to make a potion for you, so he passed the job to me."

"You must be a very talented potion brewer, if Severus left this task to you," said Professor Lupin, regaining some colour. "I've never been very good at making potions, and this one is particularly complex."

"It wasn't that hard," said Oleandra, shrugging her shoulders. "You just need to follow the steps, you know? I hate to say it, but my sister's much better than me. She can invent new potion recipes from scratch. Oh, and you should drink that straight away, by the way. And you can't add any sugar, no matter how bad it tastes."

"Professor, you shouldn't drink that," said Harry immediately. "Nothing good can come out of it."

"Hey, I'm standing right here," complained Oleandra, feeling slightly miffed. "I'm certain I didn't make any mistakes."

"If Severus found Oleandra worthy enough to make this potion for me, then I trust he made the right decision," Professor Lupin said, before draining the goblet in one go. He made a face after he was done.

"That's not what I meant," Harry blurted out. "I heard that Professor Snape would do anything to get the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, and who knows what he made Oleandra make…"

"Eugh, disgusting," complained Professor Lupin, before adding for Oleandra's sake, "But very effective. Thank you, I appreciate it very much."

"You're welcome," said Oleandra with a slight bow.

"Well, both of you, I think you've served your sentences," Professor Lupin joked. "You're free to go, and I will see you later at the feast."

Once the pair had exited Professor Lupin's office, Harry turned to Oleandra.

"You really don't know what Snape had you make?" he questioned her. "Do you think he'd try to poison Lupin?"

"I really have no idea," answered Oleandra truthfully. "Nearly all of the ingredients are poisonous by themselves, but you know how potion making is. The end product won't necessarily be poisonous as well."

This response did nothing to allay Harry's concerns, naturally.

"Look, if Professor Snape really wanted to harm Professor Lupin," Oleandra said in an attempt to assuage his fears, "then do you really think he'd use me as his proxy? He'd slip something in Professor Lupin's food, and nobody would be the wiser. Since he hasn't done that, there's nothing to worry about."

All of a sudden, Harry started to feel a lot less hungry.

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Back in the Slytherin common room, third years were beginning to stream in, talking excitedly about their Hogsmeade visit. As the only exclusively Wizard village left in Britain, it was one of the very rare places where Wizards could be themselves out in the open, which was something Slytherins valued very much.

"Oh, it was wonderful!" Oleandra could hear Tracey saying. "We went for Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks, and I bought this Quick-Quotes quill at Dervish and Banges. Guaranteed to last one year, and for only sixteen sickles!"

"Forget about it you want to use it in class," Daphne was saying. "The quill won't be able to hear the teachers from too far away. I daresay it'll be more likely to record the Patil twins' gossiping, really."

"Did you get the fireworks from Zonko's like I asked you?" Oleandra asked her sister. "The Weasley twins charge a premium for them."

"Yes, yes," Daphne answered. "And I bought a bucket of Lime Slime from Honeydukes. Mm, delicious."

She had just eaten a heaping spoonful of the radioactive-green-coloured jelly.

"Don't forget about the feast, Sis," said Oleandra, laughing. "Leave yourself some room in there!"

"By the way, I —" Daphne began, before being rudely interrupted.

As the girls were heading up to the Great Hall, they found that an annoying person was blocking their way out of the common room.

"Well, well, well," sneered Pansy Parkinson, flanked by Millicent Bulstrode and Blaise Zabini, who leered at Oleandra. "If it isn't the Greengrass twins and their loyal maid."

"What is it now, Pansy?" asked Daphne, frowning.

"I couldn't help but notice that your dear sister didn't come to Hogsmeade with the rest of us," Pansy sneered.

"So what if I didn't?" Oleandra said, puzzled. "I had detention from Professor McGonagall."

"How awfully convenient," Pansy said, sporting an evil grin, "that you'd miss your only chance to prove that you could, what was it you had said, make a Dementor do a cartwheel? Old Dumby won't allow the Dementors on school grounds, after all."

Oh. Oleandra had completely forgotten about that little bet, and she hadn't been expecting to have it bite her in the behind now, of all times! The only time she'd ever get the chance to meet a Dementor was when she left castle grounds.

"There are still more Hogsmeade outings," Oleandra said dismissively. "There's still time."

Pansy watched her attentively. There were no signs of doubt on Oleandra's face. Could she really do it, or was she just delusional? Probably the latter, she decided.

"I'll hold you to that," Pansy said, turning away from her. "Ahh, my oldest friend, Daphne. Millicent told me something very interesting, the other day. Apparently, you and the Mudblood were hugging in the Great Hall?"

Millicent must have told Pansy about what she'd seen, when Hermione and Daphne had been spotted using the Time-Turner, Daphne realized.

"She must have been seeing things," said Daphne, maintaining her poker face. "When exactly was this?"