บท 88: Golden Mist

"You do have a gift. But then again. Harry endorsed you so I guess I should have expected this much in the least." Andromeda, her new potions teacher said as she closed her bag and prepared to leave.

"Endorsed?" she asked. Harry had told her that he had found a potions mistress who would teach her potions 4 hours every day had been found but he didn't tell her much more than that.

And to say that she had been shocked to hear that she would taught by Andromeda Tonk nee 'Black' would be a huge understatement.

After all, Andromeda was somewhat of a legend in their social circles, not at anyone ever admitted it. But most pureblood girl out there respected her for marrying for love, leaving the family and then staying alive.

Not many pureblood girls could do the same and stay alive.

She most likely wouldn't have if Harry had not taken her under his wing.

"You don't think I'm think I'm teaching you for free. Do you?" Andromeda asked with a raised eyebrow and she thought about it for a while before she replied.

"I didn't think that there's anything free in this world but I don't know what he gave that you so readily agreed to teach me. After all, you've stayed away from the Pureblood social circles ever since…"

"I know. And just because I'm teaching you doesn't mean I have any interest in joining those stuck up bints any time soon. I'm only teaching you because Harry asked me to. And because he paid a price that I couldn't refuse."

"And you would not tell me what that price was, would you?" Daphne enquired, a bit boldly then she usually would have.

Andromeda gave a hearty laugh and said "Oh… Let's just say that he has some rather rare books in his possession. Books that he decided to share with me in exchange for teaching you. Along with this lab and a lot of galleons."

Daphne almost lost her composure at that bit of news.

She knew that Harry must be paying for her but she didn't knew how much he paid. And she didn't knew that this new underground potions lab was his creation either.

'No wonder it looked so new.' She thought.

"Anyway. I think you should leave now. Your ride is here." Andromeda said with a smile and she turned around to find Bitty patiently waiting for her at the end of the lab.

"Okay. Thanks for your lessons once again Madam Black."

"Tonks. Daphne. Madam Tonks."

"Madam Tonks." Daphne corrected and Andromeda gave her a smile and said "See you tomorrow kid." Before she used the portkey to get out of the lab since there were apparently no window or doors in the whole lab.

She would have to admit that it was a rather ingenious design. Which meant that even if some of her enemies finds this place, they would not be able to enter because of the anti-portkey and anti-apparition wards which meant that they would have to either try to collapse this lab, which was not possible because of it's location 30 meter underground. Or they would have to dig there way to the lab, which gave her plenty of time to pick up her supply and leave.

By the ease and speed with which he crafted this lab, she had no doubt that he had a few more labs like this stranded around the whole Britain.

And the best thing was that even the most powerful magical detection charms cannot penetrate 30 meters of solid ground.

Which meant that she could easily practice with her wand in that underground lab and the trace wouldn't be able to find her.

And something told her that this was just the start of her fortune.

The book that Andromeda had given her to study during her stay in Hogwarts was a very old and very rare book as well and she had no doubt now that the book was given to Andromeda by none other than Harry.

She took a long breath and took Bitty's hand.

She must thank him when she returns back to Hogwarts.

Then the house elf took them to Hogsmeade where she entered the secret passageway to Hogwarts and went back to the castle before the time turner's time could run out and anyone could notice her absence.

—————

The sight of Hermione crying on Penelope's shoulder was not what she had expected to see when she entered Harry's lab.

She could only assume that something big and drastic occurred while she was gone.

She remembered that from before she used the time turner that the three of them were sitting in the Quidditch stadium before they abruptly left for something.

So whatever the reason was behind Hermione's grief, it must have happened once they left the Quidditch stadium.

She must know what caused this and see if she could use it for her advantage in some way.

And since Hermione was too busy crying and Penelope was too busy consoling her, none of them paid a second glance at her and she went to her workbench without any fanfare, trying to listen on their conversation with one ear and hoped that they won't muffle out their conversation.

Thankfully, they didn't.

"He'll… he'll never forgive me again." Hermione said between sobs and Penelope rubbed the girl's back in a gentle manner trying her best to soothe her.

Daphne wondered what the young girl had done this time to catch Harry's displeasure.

She didn't knew what Harry saw in that girl. Sure Hermione was probably one of the most studious and hard working girl in the whole school. And sure she had learned the wandless magic or will and intent magic (as Harry liked to call it) far faster than Daphne herself had but aside from those few facts, there was nothing truly remarkable about the girl.

In fact, Daphne had noticed that Hermione had a lot of weakness in her character. The lack of proper social skills and etiquette being the most glaring of them.

The girl had probably stepped her bounds in some way and displeased Harry once again and Daphne had no doubts about that.

She knew that Harry had some fondness for the girl but even that fondness would only take her so far.

If Hermione continued to disrespect Harry time and time again, then he would most likely cut her out of his immediate social circle.

Just like how the Dark lord cuts those who had displeased him out of their inner circle.

The thought sent a chill down her spine but in a good way.

She knew that Harry would sooner or later rise above both Dumbledore and Voldemort. And when that happens, she planned to stay beside him no matter what.

And this latest quarrel between Harry and Hermione might be the chance she was waiting for. The chance she needed to get in Harry's good graces and replace Hermione once and for all.

—————

"It's not working." Harry said with some anger as a rat whose body was filled with numerous injuries laid dying in front of him.

"What's not working?" Selena asked curiously from her place on his shoulder.

"The golden mist that I used to heal that dog. It has not worked ever since that one time when I tried to heal the numerous burns on the damned dog."

"Perhaps the mist only comes out when you're trying to heal burns?" Selena suggested and he shook his head.

"I doubt it would be something simple like that. But I don't think why I should not test that theory just to be sure."

After two minutes a badly burned rat laid dying in front of him and he pushed all of his magic, will and power to his wand and said "Heal" and the rat did heal to quite an extent.

But this healing was not as good as the golden mist which almost seemed to have given the dog a second life.

The golden mist was one of the best healing spell (if it could be called a spell) that Harry had managed to conjure up till now. But he couldn't bring it out once again.

"If only I had a pensive. It would help me a lot if I could see what I had done that moment when I used the golden mist." As soon as he thought of that, another thought entered his mind.

"Hey. If you want something then why don't you go to that room that gives you everything you want." Selena commented from the sidelines and he gave her a grin.

"You know, that's exactly what I was thinking just now." He said.

And after healing the rat properly, he left for the room of requirement.

Ten minutes later.

He had three pensieves in his possession. Courtesy of the Room of Hidden things.

But the problem was that all of the pensieves had suffered some form of damage and none of them were in any working condition.

So unless he knew how to repair a pensieve, he couldn't use these to see his memories.

He cursed his misfortune and left the room only to stop outside before he started roaming outside the gates once again.

"I want to see my memories in a pensieve."

He muttered to himself continuously and after the third round, a door finally appeared in the wall and inside the door was an empty room with a single artifact kept in the middle of the room..

A pensieve.

He thanked the gods for his luck and took out the memory of the incident near Hagrid's hut.

And after ten minutes, Harry had finally found the reason why the golden mist didn't work in the lab no matter how much he tried.

The answer was that…

The golden mist was a Parselmouth magic.