Brewing the Potion

Hermione made her way up to the common room first. She decided it would best to return most of her borrowed books and gather her own potion supplies, putting them in her bag which held what money she had, just in case she needed to leave any for rarer ingredients. The Fat Lady was still half-asleep, so didn't say anything as Hermione headed to the library, where she filled out the paperwork to return the books before going into the restricted section.

Hermione had read Moste Potente Potions before to make polyjuice potion when she was in her second year. There were a number of gruesome-looking potions inside, but managed to find the recipe for the birth control potion.

She copied down the list of ingredients. Borage, Abraxan hair, Haliwinkles... Most of these should be available right in the student storage cupboard.

Hermione then saw Russian's Dragon Nails. That was going to be difficult. That would likely be found in the Potion Master's personal storage, but any dragon parts were going to be expensive. She hoped she might have enough money to appease Slughorn...

Hermione looked over how the potion was made, and it was remarkably simple, if slightly dangerous. While the potion mainly involved just stewing the ingredients before casting a spell on the mixture, the potion was highly corrosive. The instructions noted that the drinker should mix it with an equal portion of whole milk at time of consumption and recommended having a cure for burns, just in case. Hermione double-checked her bag. She still had some dittany essence from her travels last year, and it should still be good.

She made her way into the dungeons. She heard shuffling from a nearby chamber, but focused on her mission, heading straight to the potions classroom. She began to pull all the needed ingredients from the storage cupboard and placing them in the cauldron inside her bag.

Hermione then made her way to Slughorn's cupboard. She aimed her wand at the lock and silently opened it. She had been inside here once before to steal Boomslang skin and powdered bicorn horn when she was a second-year, but she felt guiltier about taking ingredients from Slughorn than Snape, even if she intended to pay for them.

After she scanned her eyes for a few seconds, she found the jar of the red talons. She measured out exactly what she needed for the potion before depositing the remainder back.

After putting the talons in the cauldron, Hermione counted how much money she had left in her bag. With a handful of coins having been taken by Pansy several nights ago to pay for her drinks, she had enough to reimburse Slughorn for the Russian's Dragon Nails, but she'd be left with only two knuts to rub together.

Hermione sighed as she left the pile of coins in the cupboard before locking it up again.

To be safe, Hermione made her way to a bathroom near Gryffindor Tower. She knew that the bathroom most of the students used had showers, and she could use them should she need to clean herself off quickly.

She set her bag on a counter near a sink and set the cauldron between the sink and bag so that she could take what she needed and dispose of the rest quickly. Hermione then set a fire under the cauldron and got straight to work. Considering the ease of the preparation, Hermione was rather bored. She began to practice wandless magic in the bathroom on the stall doors. She noticed that the doors were opening and closing easier the more she practiced.

When the potion was ready, Hermione waved her wand over the cauldron. "Infans Renuo!" The potion turned from a broth brown to a light pink. Hermione carefully poured the potion into an empty bottle and corked it. As Hermione was about to pour out the potion, she had an idea... She was getting better at wandless magic, so why not try to make the cauldron pour the potion out itself?

As Hermione waggled her fingers and said the charm allowed, the cauldron began to wobble. Her eyes widened as she saw it tip towards her bag. "NO!" She cried, waving her hand. At the wave, the cauldron changed direction and poured right onto her!

Already feeling some burning, Hermione ran to the shower and turned it on. As she let the potion wash off her, mixing with water down the drain, she felt several burns on her from potion that had made its way through the robe. In her frenzy to wash the concoction off of her, she practically ripped the robes off of her wet body, now fully exposing to the water.

After the potion was no longer on her, Hermione gingerly made her way to her bag. She dabbed dittany on her burns, and they healed completely within minutes. She looked herself over in the mirror. She saw no more red marks over her nude form. Well... It was clear that she should practice wandless magic with safe materials from now on. Picking up her wand, she turned off the shower and examined what remained of her now sopping robes. The front was completely ruined. Everything from the neckline down was gone, so if she wore them, she'd only have her backside covered.

"Reparo!", Hermione exclaimed, pointing her wand at the robes.

But nothing happened.

Hermione was confused. "Reparo!", she repeated, but the robes only dripped.

She began to panic now. "Reparo! Reparo! Reparo!", she repeated, but the only effect was that the gap burned slightly wider, making the sleeves she had worked so hard on adjusting fall off.

She ran to the potions book, rereading the instructions. She noticed a citation mark by the part that said how the potion was corrosive. Hermione flipped to the footnotes as fast as possible. Her heart sank as she read the footnote.

While the corrosive properties appear to be ineffective on metals, ceramics and stones, it will cause burns of the third-degree on any skin it touches. Textiles, however, are especially affected. It will destroy them beyond magical repair. Therefore, if one wishes to indulge in the wickedest of magical inventions, it is advised that one not use a textile.

"The wickedest of magical inventions," Hermione thought. This book had just hinted at a way to destroy a Horcrux beyond magical repair, so long as it was a textile... The only Horcrux Voldemort had that could possibly be destroyed with it was the diary, and Harry managed to destroy that with a basilisk fang.

She let out a sigh as she dried out what remained of her robes. There was nothing for it. She couldn't even use the potion to remove the silver collar from her neck. She now only owned one more robe, and it wasn't one that fit her well.