Hermione's Suspicion

The Potions classroom was a scene of misery. Seamus Finnigan's face had long since been blasted black, and even his hairstyle had changed several times.

Slughorn wandered around with great interest. He was not angry that the students had failed to make it, because this had always been an extremely complicated potion.

He had been a Potions professor for many years, and almost every year, during the first lesson of the NEWT class, he asked students to brew the Draught of Living Death.

Yet over all these years, only one student had truly managed to brew a qualified Draught of Living Death in that lesson.

He still remembered that the Draught of Living Death brewed by that student had been exceptionally fine. One drop could make someone sleep themselves to death.

That student had stayed in his memory for a long time, because he possessed unparalleled talent in Potions.

Later, that student became the youngest Potions professor in history, as well as the youngest Head of Slytherin House in history.

He was a Potions master, a master of Dark Magic, a former Death Eater, and now the professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts. He was Severus Snape.

Among the students, Slughorn spotted Eli at once. The calm, unhurried way he was packing up his tools was just like Snape back then.

He walked over to Eli and discovered that his cauldron contained a potion that was still giving off steam.

Breathing in its sleep-inducing scent, Slughorn, as a Potions master, recognized it immediately. It was a Draught of Living Death, and an exceptionally fine one at that.

"May I test it?" Slughorn asked Eli.

Eli nodded. "Please, go ahead." He gave Slughorn a strange sidelong glance. *How was he going to test it? He wasn't going to take a