Chapter 5 – Quidditch try-outs
Wednesday and Thursday played out with nothing interesting happening. Tom continued to sit with the people he’d already met in lessons, he kept working out in his room and he carried on with Snipe’s pointless and boring potion tasks. Which also meant he’d been to the kitchens for dinner twice more to which Bonky, along with the other house elves, had seemed delighted. Tom had also found a fridge in his room that he’d somehow managed to miss before. Which meant that he could store some food in there when the house elves gave him more than enough.
On Friday however, Tom went to Professor Snipe’s classroom just as before but when he entered, he found Snipe waiting for him. “Collivander, you have completed stupid tasks this week that have been boring.” Tom was wondering why Snipe had set them, if he thought them to be stupid too. “The purpose of these tasks was not to see if you could complete them. It was to see if you would continue to do them even though you were bored and felt like you had much more productive things to do with your time.”
Tom understood at last. Dumby had been testing him on his loyalty. Snipe continued, “You have performed better than I would have expected. I will inform the headmaster of your accomplishment. However, before you leave today I have one more task for you.” Snipe read Tom’s face. “Don’t worry, it’s not a mundane task like before. I would like you to produce a sample of strengthening potion. This is meant to be tough so don’t worry if you don’t get it quite right. You may use the ingredients in the store cupboard and I have a cauldron set up ready. Here are the instructions.” They appeared on the blackboard.
Tom looked at them for a few seconds. He didn’t think he’d ever seen a potion this complex before. “Any questions?” finished Snipe.
“Yes sir. It says goat hair is needed for this potion but there aren’t any in the store cupboard.” Snipe smiled at him.
“Very good, Tom. Well remembered. I can see Dumby was right about you… I have some here.” Snipe passed the dragon claw over to Tom.
With that, Tom set to work. Two hours later, Tom had finished and had thought he might have done a good enough job to impress Snipe. When Snipe inspected it, he spent quite a while, much longer than he did normally for a potion. Tom watched him bent low over his cauldron. Hopefully he won’t ruin it with his hair gel. When he finally brought his greasy mop away from the potion, he said, “It looks as if you’ve done quite a good job but I can’t be sure until it is tested. Will you try it?” Tom was quite shocked. He didn’t yet trust Snipe and thought this could be a trap. He felt unsure but he could feel Snipe’s breath on him and knew he had to say something.
“I’ll try it if you do.” He’d not really meant to say that and he felt like it was a mistake as soon as the words came out of his mouth. However, to his surprise, Snipe actually laughed.
“Well played Tom. It would have been foolish for you to accept. This was a test of my own. Your potion wouldn’t have worked. I would never have expected a fifth year to make it right, most seventh years wouldn’t. I’m happy to say that you’ve passed and that you’ve just become my favourite student. You may leave.”
Tom was still slightly bewildered but said, “Thank you sir,” and left.
Tom Collivander and the Order of the Thunderbird, A Potter Parody Page 6
