Disclaimer:

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

James took hold of the knife and spun it between his fingers while examining the ingredients.

"Let's see… cauldron temperature… the heart must be cut thin… then the petals of the lavender… and then…"

Bellatrix tried to follow his muttering, but his rapid pace made it impossible.

Suddenly, he sprang into action with swift and decisive movements.

He began by removing most of the water from the cauldron and pouring it into a secondary one. Then he raised the flame to its maximum setting and placed the cauldron back on the burner.

His hands moved at a tremendous speed as he chopped the remaining half of the heart into paper-thin slices...they were so thin that Bellatrix thought they looked almost translucent.

"Wait! You put the fire too high!" she yelled as she saw him dump all the slices into the boiling cauldron.

But James ignored her, focusing on processing the rest of the ingredients.

She noticed that he didn't cut a single ingredient in the way the book suggested. Everything was then thrown into the cauldron, and Bellatrix fully expected to see smoke rising from the charred ingredients at any moment.

Not only had James removed most of the water, but he had also raised the flame so high that it was changing colors.

"I've never seen the flame turn blue before…" she commented out loud without realizing she was doing it.

Another minute passed as James finished adding ingredients and stirred the mixture. But to her surprise, no smoke came out, and there wasn't even the faintest smell of burning.

Her curiosity got the better of her, and she stood up to peer into the cauldron. Inside was a dark blue paste.

"What is that?" she asked.

"It's almost done." James grabbed the other cauldron and added a few splashes of water to his own.

A small puff of white smoke rose as he continued to stir.

"Give me that vial."

Mesmerized, Bellatrix handed him one of the vials they had prepared earlier.

James carefully poured the contents of the cauldron into the vial, filling it to the top before sealing it with a cork.

"Done," he declared.

"Wait… already?" She found it hard to believe. The potion was supposed to take nearly forty minutes to brew, yet he claimed to have finished it in less than ten.

She glanced back at the book to confirm. It indeed stated that the brewing time was approximately forty minutes. Moreover, the recipe was supposed to produce three vials, but James had only made one.

"We're done, Professor," James called.

"Wait!" Bellatrix hesitated. She still hadn't fully grasped what had just happened.

"Already? How can that be? Did you run into any issues, Miss Black?" Professor Slughorn approached their table.

"No problems. Here is the potion." James handed over the vial, which now had a bluish-brown hue.

"Hmmm… how curious. I've never seen it retain so much of the blue tone," the professor remarked, noting that the lavender's color usually faded, leaving the potion murky brown.

He uncorked the vial and sniffed its contents.

"Oh! What is this?"

"Is there a problem? Because it was James who—" Bellatrix began, worried about their grades.

"This is so potent!" Slughorn exclaimed, his eyes wide with astonishment. He dipped his pinky finger into the potion.

"Careful, Professor. More than one drop, and you'll be asleep right here," James warned.

The professor took half a drop, and the effects were immediate.

"By Merlin! Even this tiny amount has such a powerful effect!"

The students couldn't help but notice Slughorn's exaggerated reaction, and soon, murmurs filled the room as they speculated about the unusual potion James and Bellatrix had brewed.

Snape, distracted by his ongoing spat with Sirius, had missed the entire process and now regretted it deeply. In his mind, this had to be Bellatrix's doing. After all, James was almost as bad at Potions as the idiot sitting next to him, while Bellatrix was consistently competent.

Lily, however, had been watching intently. Unlike Snape, she had seen James's bizarre brewing method. Initially, she thought he was trying to sabotage the potion to get back at Bellatrix, but clearly, that wasn't the case.

'Where did he learn to make potions like that?' she wondered.

"Excellent work, Miss Black!" Professor Slughorn clapped with a delighted expression.

"And you too, of course, Mister Potter," he added, though it was clear he believed Bellatrix had done most of the work.

"This gets an Outstanding! …No, wait! An Outstanding Plus!" he declared loudly.

"Miss Black, would you be willing to share your brewing method to achieve this result?"

"What? Um…" Bellatrix stammered, unsure how to respond.

"Oh… was this perhaps a family secret from your grandfather? Then I won't ask again. I wouldn't want to anger that man," Slughorn said, wiping sweat from his brow.

"Everyone, back to work! Forty minutes left!" the professor announced.

"Oi, Snivellus! Is this thing supposed to smoke so much?" Sirius asked.

"Don't call me that, you damn—" Snape stopped mid-sentence, noticing the thick smoke billowing from his cauldron. In his distraction, he had forgotten to lower the flame after the potion began boiling, and now half of his ingredients were burnt.

"Bloody hell!" he shouted in frustration.

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