Oleandra cast a discreet glance around the classroom, making sure no one was watching her.
The other students were either nose deep in their schoolbooks or hunched over their cauldrons, their heads obscured by the swirling alcoholic vapours rising from the boiling of what was effectively mandrake root vodka. With a prize such as Felix Felicis on the line, nobody could afford even the smallest distraction from their potion-making.
She was so very close to the finish line; she only had to drop a few strands of Common Fairy hair into her mixture, and the potion would be done… but would that guarantee victory in Professor Slughorn's little contest? Being the first to finish did not necessarily mean her Veritaserum would turn out the clearest…
Oleandra twirled a lock of hair pooling in her lap around her finger. Even though she had cut it recently, it still fell to her hips when she stood; surely nobody would notice if she trimmed away a small portion? Though her body was human, she could not help wondering whether her hair might act as a substitute for the ingredient she was meant to add. Surely a lock of hair from a Greater Fairy would produce even better results…?
"Finished!" Lisa Turpin called out.
"Coming, coming!" Professor Slughorn said, groaning as he rose to his feet with some difficulty.
With a decisive slice of her silver knife, Oleandra collected a few strands of her dark brown hair and threw them into her nearly finished potion, which immediately began to froth violently. Fearing her cauldron might explode in her face, Oleandra hastily threw up Elhaz's sign… but rather than exploding, the potion's surface continued to bubble furiously, and by the time she dared peek over the rim, it appeared to have reduced to nothing.
"Ah, what a terrible shame," Professor Slughorn said happily as he passed by. "Such a promising start, too…"
After spending a few moments staring glumly at her seemingly empty cauldron, Oleandra grabbed the brewing implement by the handles and took it off the fire to clean it, only to notice something was off.
This was not the weight of an empty cauldron.
Oleandra opened her Mystic Eyes and peered into the cauldron. Some sort of liquid was definitely sloshing about inside, invisible to the naked eye. It was a good thing she had not tested her theory by dipping a finger into it, as she had first considered, or she would have scalded herself.
She then withdrew a few empty crystal phials from her magical pouch and filled them with the invisible potion, much to Professor Slughorn's confusion, for he could not fathom why she was miming such a thing.
"Now, what to do with this invisible potion…" Oleandra muttered to herself. "Hand it in for the prize, or keep it a secret…"
On the one hand, she could experiment with her specially brewed Veritaserum by slipping it to another student… or have a professional do it for her, and be rewarded in the process.
"Well, if I put it like that…" Oleandra thought out loud. "Then it really is no contest."
Cauldron in hand, Oleandra accosted Professor Slughorn just as he was about to sink into his seat to rest his weary knees, having finished inspecting each of his students' completed potions.
"I couldn't help but notice you failed to rate my potion properly, Professor," Oleandra said, plonking her cauldron down on his desk before him. "Here you go."
"I'll freely admit that you are a gifted Witch, Miss Greengrass," Professor Slughorn said, a note of irritation creeping into his voice. "But part of being a great Potioneer is the ability to recognise one's failures, and to learn from them."
"That's quite right," Oleandra replied, crossing her arms. "I'm giving you the opportunity to admit your mistake, Professor. Well, go on, then. I'm waiting."
Sniggers erupted from the back of the classroom.
"Being the Dark Lady's sister does not give you the right to intimidate me in my own classroom! If you wanted the prize so badly, then you simply ought to have worked harder!" Professor Slughorn said, his voice rising as he struggled to gather his courage. "If you do not get out of my face this instant, believe me, I shall be lodging a complaint with the Headmaster…"
Professor Slughorn's voice faltered, and he flinched as Oleandra suddenly grabbed a ladle from his desk and plunged it into her cauldron. With a flick of her wrist, she tipped it upside down over his annotated copy of Advanced Potion-Making. To his shock, the ink of the printed words began to run. Experimentally, he rubbed the affected page with a fat finger, dragging out a long black smudge; it did not look wet, but it certainly felt wet.
"An invisible… potion?" Professor Slughorn said with difficulty. "Veritaserum should be transparent, but still a completely visible liquid… this cannot be Veritaserum…"
"If I remember correctly," Oleandra said smarmily, "you said the prize would go to the Witch who could brew the clearest potion… not the clearest Veritaserum. I don't believe it gets any clearer than this."
Had he said that? To be perfectly honest, Professor Slughorn no longer remembered.
"Even so, I believe my potion should work just as well as Veritaserum, or perhaps even better," Oleandra sniffed, holding out her hand. "Test it out if it amuses you, but all the same, I should like my prize now, if you please."
Wordlessly, Professor Slughorn reached into his breast pocket and placed a tiny, round bottle filled with golden liquid into Oleandra's palm, Loki's loud laughter echoing in the background. Until he could confirm what Oleandra's mystery potion could do, he would not dare force her to drink it.
"Ah, Miss Greengrass," Professor Slughorn said weakly as she turned on her heel and returned to her seat. "I saw you fill a few phials, earlier… the rules and regulations state that I cannot allow you to leave with…"
Oleandra stopped in her tracks.
"Whatever do you mean, Professor?" she said drily. "Veritaserum is a Ministry of Magic-controlled substance, but you said it yourself: what I have brewed is not Veritaserum, so it should not matter what I do with the extra."
A strand of Fairy magic curled outwards from Professor Slughorn's bulk, and Oleandra snatched it out of the air. Just then, the bell signalling the end of the period rang, so she collected her things and left the classroom with the rest of the class. Ducking behind a corner into an abandoned corridor, she opened her closed fist and smiled.
In her palm lay the second bottle of Felix Felicis.