The Deceiver's Distillation
by Jardyn39
Chapter 4 - Introductions
"Please hold out your hand, Mr Weasley," said Slughorn. "I just need to spread a little of this paste onto the back of your hand. It is a little awkward because I must not touch either the paste nor your skin, and obviously you can't be allowed to interfere."
Ron nodded as Slughorn wrestled with a metal spatula. Eventually a small patch of Ron's hand was covered with a thick light blue paste.
"Good. It needs a short time to react. Just leave your hand on the table in clear view at all times. It may tickle slightly as it dries, but that's perfectly normal."
Slughorn placed a stoppered glass funnel flask on the table next to Ron. A thick greenish fluid was in the bottom but most of the flask was filled with what looked like dark green smoke except that it didn't disperse evenly into the air inside the flash.
As they watched the swirling gas inside the flask, Slughorn tended to Hermione. After applying a light green paste to the back of her hand, he placed another flask beside her on the table.
"Why are these different colours, Professor?" asked Ron.
"The potion reacts differently to each person," explained Slughorn. "The paste for each of you was made up separately and provides a reactive agent. The flask contents are identical for each of you, though."
Harry noticed that Hermione was staring into the flask mists, her face unusually passive. When he'd looked into the flasks, he thought he'd imagined seeing dancing figures in the shapes made by the thick gasses inside.
"So, er, when can we get started?" asked Ron. "Or can we have some lunch first?" he added hopefully.
Harry smiled as Slughorn examined his watch.
"One moment more," Slughorn said under his breath as Professor McGonagall, Hagrid and Sergeant Bateman came back into the hall.
"Okay," he said finally. "You may both uncork your flasks and sniff the contents. You only need to smell the contents to begin the reaction."
They both reached for their flasks, picking them up from the table.
Ron removed his stopped with a pop. He peered down the neck of the flask before cautiously lifting it to his nose. He took a small sniff and his expression showed he couldn't smell anything.
He took another, deeper sniff. The others could see the gas inside move, but it remained stubbornly at the bottom.
Frustrated now, Ron exhaled deeply and brought the flask up to his nose a third time. He began to sniff when suddenly the flask contents propelled themselves up his nose.
Choking, Ron fell backwards. The flask was dropped, smashing against the stone floor.
Rather quicker than anyone expected, Ron stopped choking and sat back on his seat. Looking rather red in the face he said, "Sorry about the flask."
Harry noted that the paste on his hand was now bright red, as his own deep green coloured paste had become.
"Are you okay, Ron?" asked Hermione.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It was a bit of a shock, but it doesn't hurt and it smells like a mixture of fried tomatoes and those fumes from Fred and George's exploding socks. Go ahead, you'll be fine."
Hermione nodded, looking at her flask. She uncorked it with a little difficulty and brought the flask up to her nose.
She breathed out and then sniffed sharply, clearly hoping to get it over with. Again, the flask contents shot out of the flask and up Hermione's nose.
She rocked backwards, closing her eyes, but didn't fall off her seat.
She opened watery eyes and placed the flask down.
Harry sighed with relief.
"I think you can all put the guns down now," said Harry. All of the weapons were lowered and food appeared on the table.
"You may partake of something to eat if you wish," said Professor Slughorn, pushing his trolley back up the hall. "I need to conduct one more test on your samples, but it may be a few minutes before you show a reaction."
*
"Well," said Harry. "Perhaps it's time to introduce you all."
Professor McGonagall waved her wand and the triangle of tables split at one corner. Harry's and Ron's table swung outwards and then a fourth table appeared to make a square. Additional seats appeared around the table as Professor McGonagall walked around to take the middle seat at the new table.
Hagrid and Bateman sat either side of her and Duke and Careem sat either side of Harry. Hope and Carlyle removed their firearms and sat next to Hermione. Hagland and Smith did the same and sat next to Ron who was already busy piling up his plate with the food that had appeared.
"Hermione, to your left is Corporal Terri Hope and to your right is Specialist Carlyle," said Harry.
Hermione smiled and shook hands with each of them.
"Ron, to your left is Private Hagland and to your right is Corporal Smith."
Ron grimaced at them, clearly still remembering their little run, but Hermione smiled and nodded as they were introduced.
"To my left is Lance Corporal Duke and to my right this is Specialist Careem."
"Next to Professor McGonagall is Sergeant Bateman who is in command of this unit. As you may have gathered, they are all soldiers. Actually, they are usually referred to as Special Forces because they originally came from all branches of the armed forces."
Everybody began to help themselves to sandwiches and drink.
"They have been assigned to us as close protection," continued Harry.
"But," interrupted Hermione. "What good will they be? I mean, with respect, how can they possibly defend themselves against qualified wizards and witches?"
Hermione paused seeing the broad smile spreading across Bateman's face.
"I must admit, the same thing occurred to me," said Harry. "But actually, they can more than look after themselves. Kingsley Shacklebolt attacked us every time he came while they were staying with me at the Dursleys, but he was never entirely successful."
Hermione frowned slightly but Ron laughed and said, "I bet your Aunt and Uncle loved that!"
"Their orders," continued Harry seriously, "are to protect us. Frankly, I wasn't too happy about that. I've lost enough people who placed themselves at risk for my benefit, and I have no intention of allowing that to happen again."
The smile slipped from Ron's face.
"Kingsley did make a couple of points that I had to agree with, though. Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, the Order has been compromised. We have to assume that Snape has been loyal to Voldemort ever since he returned. Even if he wasn't the Order's secret keeper, he still had a lot of information to pass on.
"I suppose what I'm saying is, when we set out, we will not be able to rely on the Order. They will do their thing, and we'll do ours. We'll need to work out some kind of communication method, but I suspect it will revolve around Hogwarts."
"Wouldn't we stand a better chance to find-," began Ron.
"Shut up, Ron!" said Hermione sharply.
Ron looked at her indignantly but Harry said, "Ron, we need to be careful. Not even the Order can know our real objectives, nor the people we will involve to achieve them."
"What?"
"It's going to take more than just the three of us, Ron," said Harry.
"I agree," said Hermione. "But, Harry, why are we even discussing this in front of anyone else?"
Harry smiled and said, "That's a fair point, Hermione, but we're not talking about specifics. Also, Voldemort would have to be pretty stupid not to realise we're up to something when the three of us don't return to school in September. I'm hoping he'll assume I've gone into hiding. In a sense, it will be true of course."
Hermione nodded sadly.
"Kingsley also voiced something that has been bothering me for a while now. He asked simply, what preparations I'd been making since I became aware of the Prophecy."
"That's hardly fair," said Hermione at once.
"I'm afraid it is," said Harry. "I've wasted so much time. I suppose I kept hoping Dumbledore would finish with his memories and start teaching me some serious defence. I should have taken things into my own hands much sooner, especially with Snape teaching us Defence Against the Dark Arts."
"But he did teach us properly," said Hermione quickly, "not like Umbridge."
"Whose side are you on, Hermione?" asked Ron rudely.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she replied angrily. "All I said was the truth. Snape did teach us to the required standard. I thought he was rather a good Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, actually. He didn't leave out anything from the Sixth Year texts and he even made a start on the Seventh Year work."
"That's true," agreed Harry, "but it just means Snape was cleverer than Umbridge. He didn't really teach anything serious in terms of defence. I mean, did we really learn much more than we didn't know already from the DA?"
Hermione gave half a shrug but shook her head slowly.
"What really drove it home, of course, was the difficulty we had fighting those Death Eaters."
"You all survived without serious injury," interrupted McGonagall. "That must count for something."
Ron snorted and said, "Yeah, but that was only-"
"Ron!" interrupted Harry and Hermione in unison.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry. Maybe I should just keep quiet."
"Just think before you speak," said Hermione firmly, but with no anger in her voice. "What else did Kingsley say, Harry?"
"He suggested," continued Harry without hesitation, "that I could do with learning a few things that have nothing to do with magic. Kingsley said that, although they probably won't admit it, all of our new friends here have faced mortal dangers and have generally kept themselves alive by not panicking and keeping their heads in a crisis."
"That's part of it," interrupted Bateman, looking over to Hermione, "but there's more. We might maintain high levels of fitness, but then so do many services personnel. We are trained on a wide variety of weapons, and regrettably we have had cause to use them sometimes, but then so have many.
"What really counts," he continued gently, "is collecting your thoughts in a crisis, analysing your problems and quickly assessing your options and strengths. That can be difficult sometimes, especially knowing you may be shot dead at any moment."
"I can see that," said Hermione, "but not everyone can exercise such control. Is this really something you can teach?"
"Some people, I agree, could never be taught such things. It's instinctive. The fight or flight impulse is very strong. Even so, all most people need in a chaotic theatre is one thing that is in control. I can't tell you the number of times I've dived in a crater after a young recruit. They just run or hide. Like a lost child in many ways.
"Anyway, once you get their attention and they realise that you're still functioning, they can start to think. Training helps, but you can never really tell how someone will react until they are in a live firefight.
"The more experienced combatants tend to hold their calmness inside. When I get spooked, and I still do sometimes," he added with a smile seeing surprised looks around the table, "I see the face of my old Colour Sergeant after I first came under live fire. He ran through a hail of gunfire to reach me, cowering behind a garden wall. Once I'd seen his eyes, I regained control. Of course, he gave me hell afterwards, but I'm convinced his strength, his conviction, has been like another flack jacket."
Hermione smiled at him.
"I honestly don't expect you to become a savage killer in the short while we'll have together. From the little I've heard about all three of you, you have all been in dangerous situations and have the skill to defend yourselves. What I believe you are missing, is simply the confidence and presence of mind to think your way through to a victory."
Hermione frowned slightly and then said, "It's true. Ever since our fight with those Death Eaters, I've kept thinking about what I should have done. I knew the hexes, but all I did was the same defensive spells over and over."
Ron nodded and said quietly, "Yeah, me too."
Harry looked down, reminded once again of the dangers he'd placed his friends in.
"Still," Ron added brightly, "at least Harry's much better in a crisis. He's got himself out of many scrapes, haven't you, Harry?"
Harry shook his head slowly.
"My problem is slightly different. We'll talk specifics later, but I still tend not to consider all the options."
Bateman smiled and said, "We've seen a difference even in the few short days you've been putting up with us."
There was general nodding and smiling around the table.
Hermione looked quizzically around the table and asked interestedly, "In what way?"
"Oh, I think we'll keep what we've been doing to ourselves for now," said Bateman mischievously. "We want to keep some surprises for you to enjoy. Besides, I'm not sure Hagrid would entirely approve," he added to several laughs, including from Hagrid himself.
"Let's just say, I hardly recognise the young man we first encountered a few days ago. We stormed his Aunt and Uncle's house at four in the morning, and-"
"You did what?" interrupted Hermione in alarm and Ron sniggered. "What about the neighbours?"
"Kingsley obliged by putting everyone within earshot asleep," Bateman explained. "Of course, Kingsley would have been more of service by telling us that we weren't facing a normal teenager."
The others laughed and Harry began to look embarrassed.
"What we found was a caged animal," said Duke smiling.
"Yeah, one that knew his cage too."
"I think Harry got rid of quite a lot of pent-up energy that night," said Bateman. "In his rage I think he got all of us at various times during the fight, but he was eventually overpowered simply because of two factors. He was clearly trying not to cause permanent injuries and he didn't press his advantage home when he had the chance.
"After that, when we'd moved in, Kingsley acted as the attacker. Harry learned quickly, but what he learned had nothing to do with magic."
Hermione nodded but appeared to become distracted for a moment. She rubbed her stomach and wore an uncomfortable expression.
"Ooh," she said quietly, "I don't think my lunch agreed with me."
"No, Hermione," said Harry coldly. "That will be the Deceiver's Distillation getting to work."
"Oh, did you get stomach ache too?" asked Ron.
"I can't say, I did, Ron," said Harry, watching as Hermione doubled over, clutching her middle with both arms.
"No!" breathed Ron, realising the significance of Harry's words.