It was a close call.
The two Slytherin students were promptly thrown out of the classroom. But even after removing the infamous troublemakers, Snape's temper remained far from soothed.
"The order was wrong! Dunderheads! Weren't you paying attention to my instructions?"
"I wanted a green potion! Are you colourblind? I should make you drink this entire cauldron of blue sludge!"
"Get your filthy hands out of it! This is not bathwater for scrubbing a Hippogriff's hooves!"
...
The dungeon bat was on the warpath.
While the other students quivered and tried not to add to his wrath, Ian noticed Snape slyly pulling a bit of parchment from his robes, the Marauder's Map. His eyes scanned it quickly, no doubt tracking Quirrell's movements within the castle.
"I'll wager he hasn't paid us," Ian muttered as he and Aurora steadily brewed their potions. While their progress was smooth, Ian's recent attempts at using advanced fire charms for his personal experiments had resulted in a few minor explosions. He was now on Snape's particular watchlist.
"He confiscated several maps," Aurora whispered as she sorted through her ingredients. "Some of the first-years in Slytherin are practically in tears."
"Tell them not to worry. The second map is 20% off," Ian quipped, stirring the bubbling contents of his cauldron with a bit too much enthusiasm.
He stirred Aurora's cauldron too, helping her keep pace.
"Snape's already warned me," Aurora continued, her voice dipping into an eerily perfect imitation of Snape's drawl. "If I catch you peddling illicit goods in Slytherin House again, I will personally recommend your immediate transfer to Ravenclaw."
Her mimicry was spot-on, right down to the lingering sneer. Clearly, she had practiced human transfiguration spells, including voice alteration.
"He's bluffing. There's no such thing as house transfers," Ian scoffed. "He's just trying to block my side hustle. And what am I supposed to do? Summon the ghosts of my ancestors to scold him? That'd be a bit much, even for me."
"Well, I called his bluff." Aurora smirked. "Sold two more maps right in front of him. No transfer notice arrived."
Ian snickered, though his laughter faded quickly. "Wait, he didn't confiscate your map, did he?"
Aurora's map wasn't like the others. It lacked a concealment charm for her own location, a security risk if it had fallen into Snape's hands.
"Of course not. He tried, but I had a little backup." Aurora grinned, satisfied. "The Acolytes gathered some rather compelling information for me. After I showed him the evidence, he turned on his heel and stormed off."
"Though," She added with a wicked glint in her eye, "He did growl something about detention. But when I hinted that I might investigate the grave of someone named Lily Evans, he decided against it."
Ian's eyes widened.
Indeed.
The title of Hogwarts' biggest coward did not belong to Ian.
"I didn't; don't talk nonsense. You've been spending too much time with the Slytherins and picked up some of their bad habits," Ian retorted, suddenly concerned that Snape might hold him accountable after Cho Chang's incident.
No wonder Snape's disdain for him and Aurora had been so apparent during class.
"My grandfather said you dug up the graves of Voldemort's whole family." Aurora casually poured the completed potion into a vial, tilting her head and giving a knowing look to the nearby students.
"..."
Ian hadn't expected Grindelwald to have such a loose tongue.
"What exactly do you want those bones for?" Aurora asked, her curiosity piqued.
Ian hesitated, casting a glance toward Snape, who was fortunately preoccupied, and then lowered his voice. "One of Voldemort's uncles is currently in your hands."
Aurora froze, staring blankly at him. Then, with a flash of realization, she hastily pulled the potion Ian had given her from her robes. The grayish liquid inside swirled like aged broth with an unsettling thickness.
"This is possible?" Aurora whispered, her grasp of potion-making struggling to accept what Ian was suggesting.
"I've also uncovered something even bigger," Ian murmured, voice barely above a whisper. "But I can't tell you just yet." He couldn't help but picture Snape's reaction if he ever caught wind of Ian's discoveries.
If the Infinite Firepower Potion had earned Snape's fury, the revelation Ian was withholding would surely make the man cast a hundred Memory Charms on him.
And Ian wouldn't even blame him.
What he'd uncovered was connected to the very origin of wizardkind. He had finally grasped the underlying thesis woven into Professor Morgan's love potion formula. To hide a topic so profound within a concoction that symbolized reproduction was just the sort of dark humor Professor Morgan enjoyed.
"A dangerous secret? From this potion?" Aurora's brows furrowed as her fingers twitched toward the Forbidden Potions Agent. But Ian quickly reached out, pushing her hand away.
"That's for emergencies only. We can't always rely on Dumbledore and your grandfather to swoop in and save us when things go wrong." Ian's concern was palpable. He couldn't shake the memory of that morning, Hagrid lumbering to the headmaster's office with something in tow. If Ian's guess was right, the Mirror of Erised and the Philosopher's Stone were now in Hogwarts.
That would surely draw Voldemort like a moth to a flame.
And considering her lineage, Ian feared Aurora might become a primary target of the Dark Lord's curiosity. Voldemort was nothing if not obsessed with bloodlines.
"I have my own ways to stay safe," Aurora said, the slightest note of defiance in her voice. "But if this thing puts you in danger, maybe you should keep it hidden."
She tried to return the Forbidden Potions Agent, sliding it under the table toward Ian.
"It won't bring me trouble," Ian said calmly, firmly pressing the vial back into her robes. "Without the exact potion formula and the rituals I've mastered, no potioneer would guess its true potential."
"Besides, it has a unique effect against Voldemort. Trust me, it's far better than most so-called 'life-saving' methods." Ian's curiosity burned with the desire to see what would happen if Voldemort ever encountered the potion. Not just Voldemort's visible reaction, but the reaction within him on a fundamental level.
A test of nature versus nurture.
Because Ian's theory, as audacious as it was, involved something as intricate as blood itself. Dominant and recessive traits are the building blocks of magic.
Professor Morgan had once mused that the bloodlines of wizards flowed through everyone. The so-called 'choice of the beyond,' as she called it, could awaken recessive traits, transforming them into dominant ones.
The origin of wizards wasn't a myth, it was embedded in their very bones.
Of course, this is simply a more accessible explanation; a more accurate description would be that humans are encased in a thin magical "membrane." When this membrane is stripped away, their magical power is unleashed.
Ian's Forbidden Potions Agent, however, does the opposite; it reinstates that magical membrane, sealing a wizard's powers temporarily.
While the effect doesn't last long, when the membrane is derived from the remains of Muggle relatives, its compatibility with wizards becomes unnervingly perfect. This results in a much stronger suppression of their magic.
Ian had gradually come to grasp the complexities of this shocking field, though even his conclusions couldn't account for the existence of Squibs. There was clearly more he had yet to uncover.
(To Be Continued…)
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