Chapter 110 - What's harder to get?

In the second week of December, each of the heads of houses came around as usual, collecting names of those who would be staying at school for Christmas. Thomas and almost all of his friends signed on the list for one reason only. On the first week of December, as they were about to leave their common room, Tracey and Daphne overheard Draco talking with his minions, telling them to remain over Christmas at school since he too would be staying, which struck them as very suspicious. Nevertheless, with that happening, that would turn the holidays into a perfect time to use the Polyjuice Potion and try to worm a confession out of him.

Unfortunately, the potion was only half finished. Even though they got most of the ingredients, courtesy of Thomas's connection with the devils, unfortunately, no matter how hard Thomas's connections tried to get their hands on all of the ingredients, the bicorn horn and the boomslang skin were not available for outsiders, and the only place they were going to get them was from Snape's private collection.

Talking about Snape's private collection, Thomas did manage to get something from the man's collection, which shocked Thomas quite a lot. While the Phenex clan held the monopoly over their extremely valuable tears, there were some wizards in the past who managed to copy to a lesser extent the effects of the tears using a lot of rare ingredients.

Thanks to the book Thomas got from the restricted section of the library, he managed to copy the whole how-to brew the Phenex potion part before he had to return it to the library. Most, if not all of the ingredients were, to say the least, incredibly impossible to easily get: One phoenix tear from a virgin female phoenix

One liter of dragon blood

Five grams of powdered basilisk fang

Ten grams of powdered unicorn horn

One gram of powdered philosopher's stone

One drop of venom from each of the following: acromantula, manticore, chimera, nundu

One feather from each of the following: hippogriff, griffin, thunderbird, augurey

One scale from each of the following: mermaid, selkie, kelpie, leviathan

One hair from each of the following: centaur, werewolf, veela, vampire

One leaf from each of the following: mandrake, gillyweed, devil's snare, fluxweed

One petal from each of the following: mimbulus mimbletonia, bubotuber, venomous tentacula, diricawl

Other than the first three, Thomas got his hands on all of the other ingredients, either from Snape or from Sera, however no matter how much influence he had gained from his rather small business with devils, that was far from being enough to make the Phenex clan agree to sell a drop of blood to a human. Because of that, Thomas chooses to put aside his project until he either gets strong enough to make the Phenext clan fear him or until his influence amongst the devils grows to such a point that the Phenex clan will be more than happy to sell to him that drop of their blood.

Then out of nowhere, Thomas felt himself being shaken by someone as he opened his eyes, The first face that he saw was that of his dear Gryffindor friend. Looking at Hermione's angry face, Thomas could imagine what earful he was in for sleeping at such an important moment.

"Tom, how can you be so irresponsible? This is not the time to take a nap! We need to figure out how to get the boomslang skin and the bicorn horn from Snape's office without getting caught! Do you have any idea how hard that is? Do you have any idea how much trouble we'll be in if we get caught? "

The others watched as Hermione lectured Thomas, trying not to laugh. They enjoyed seeing their friend being "bullied" for once since, usually, he was one of the most behaved twelve-year-old boys they knew.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep. I was just tired … so please don't be mad at me."

As he said that, Thomas looked at Hermione with a sheepish smile, hoping to calm her down. Before she could even find a way to counter his words, Thomas decided to address the elephant in the room. "So, what do you have in mind? How are we going to get the boomslang skin and the bicorn horn from Snape's office?"

"Well, I what I have in mind is not… let's call it a proper conduct," Hermione said briskly as her Thursday afternoon's double Potions lesson loomed nearer, "I'm thinking about a diversion. Then one of us can sneak into Snape's office and take what we need, preferably someone who can go invisible either with Harry's cloak or Thomas's strange magic."

Harry, Tracey, Daphne, and Ron looked at her nervously, while the four Ravenclaw boys just sighed knowing very well that this would be Thomas's job.

"As I was saying, we need someone to steal those things and under no circumstance will it be Harry, James, or Ron." Hermione continued in a matter-of-fact tone. "You three will be expelled if you get into any more trouble, while our sleepy friend over here can get away with most of the stuff he does just because. So, all we need to do is cause enough mayhem to keep Snape busy for five minutes or so while Thomas gets inside and gets what we need."

Harry smiled feebly, giving a short prayer to Merlin that he wasn't the one sent inside. Deliberately causing mayhem in Snape's Potions class was about as safe as poking a sleeping dragon in the eye.

After Hermione explained her plan, Harry, Hermione, and Ron headed to their Potions class that they shared with the Slytherins for some strange reason. At the same time, they were followed closely by Thomas, who for some reason was both excited and scared to pull such a "heist" in the middle of the day and in the classroom of the best potion master known to him.

As they approached the classroom, Thomas stayed behind and waited for the others to enter. He then used his magic to turn invisible, making sure that no one could see him which was easier said than done, thanks to the bunch of Slytherins that were all over the corridor slowly making their way to their bane. Thankfully it didn't take long at all for all of the Slytherins and Gryffindors to get inside the classroom and after waiting for a few seconds, then slipped into the classroom after the others.

Once he was inside, Thomas spotted the holy grail for any potion master: Snape's own storage of rare or good-quality ingredients. It was a large wooden cabinet that was never locked, after all, what student was crazy enough to try to steal from Snape?

Thomas could see jars and bottles of various shapes and sizes, containing all kinds of substances that he had only read about in books. He could see boomslang skin, bicorn horns, acromantula silk, tri-headed flying frog feathers, and many more. Not letting himself salivate at this sight, Thomas walked slowly toward the back of the room, avoiding the other students. As soon as he reached Harry's table, Thomas patted Harry's back lightly, letting him know that he could start the distraction.

Luckily enough Thomas's pat came right when Snape turned and walked off to bully Neville. Not even a second later, both Harry and Ron ducked swiftly down behind their respective cauldron, pulled each one of Fred's Filibuster fireworks out of their pockets, and gave them a quick prod with their wand. The fireworks began to fizz and sputter. Knowing they had only seconds, both boys straightened up, took aim, and lobbed it into the air; as it landed right on target in Crabbe's and Goyle's cauldrons.

When both potions exploded, it showered the whole class. People shrieked as splashes of the Swelling Solution hit them. By some miracle or divine intervention, Malfoy got the worst of both potions, as his face and his nose began to swell like a balloon. Meanwhile, his minions blundered around, their hands over their eyes, which had expanded to the size of a dinner plate. At the same time, like a good and caring professor, Snape was trying to restore calm and find out what had happened. Through the confusion, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Daphne, and Tracey saw the door to Snape's office, slightly opened, meaning that their friend got inside.

"Silence! SILENCE!" Snape roared. "Anyone who has been splashed, come here for a Deflating Draught … when I find out who did this …"

The two Gryffindors boys at fault for this mess tried not to laugh as they watched Malfoy hurry forward, his head drooping with the weight of a nose like a small melon. As half the class lumbered up to Snape's desk, some weighted down with arms like clubs, others unable to talk through gigantic puffed-up lips, Daphne saw what seemed to be a faint counter slipping out of the class and she could swear she saw a smile on Thomas's face, even though he wasn't visible.

Once Thomas made his way out of the classroom, clutching the last ingredients in his pockets, he rushed towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, where his roommates were already waiting for him. They had agreed to meet there after the class since it was the safest place to brew the Polyjuice potion not to mention that all of them had been working on it for weeks, following the instructions from the book that Thomas got from the restricted section of the library.

The first thing he saw when he walked inside the bathroom were James, Michael, and Adam sitting on the floor, surrounding the cauldron.

"Thomas, you made it!" James exclaimed. "Did you get the ingredients?"

Thomas nodded and took out the boomslang skin and the bicorn horn from his pocket before showing it to them. "Yes, I got them. It was pretty easy, and Harry even got Draco a new and refreshing look."

"Wow, you look tired," Michael commented. "Are you okay?"

Thomas nodded. "I'm fine. Just a bit drained. It's nothing a good rest or some homemade food won't fix."

"Thank God you came so soon. One more second in here and I swear Myrtle will have had me pinned down in one of the stalls."

Thomas shuddered as he remembered his first encounter with Moaning Myrtle, the ghost who haunted the bathroom. While he could understand why she would be all that annoying and creepy, it was still a living hell to deal with her as she kept following him around, asking him personal questions, and even trying to kiss him once. By no means an easy, feat Thomas managed to make the lonely and perverted ghost understand that if ever wanted to get a boyfriend she should never act like this which for some strange reason made her act all shy around him and his friends, at least the ones that weren't Ron or Harry.

After that, Thomas threw the ingredients into the cauldron and the boys took turns stirring it, until Harry and the others came inside the bathroom.

"He knew it was me," Harry shouted as they all entered the bathroom "I could tell."

While Harry was having an existential crisis over this, Hermione and Daphne walk right beside Thomas before Hermione asked him about the potion.

"When do you think it will be done?"

"Two weeks give or take."

Meanwhile, Daphne noticed something sticking out of Thomas's pocket. Before he could even react, she snatched the thing from its pocket only to find that she grabbed some strange black leather.

Seeing that Thomas scratched his head before he let out a sigh. "Saw this cave devil's leather in the cabinet and couldn't help myself."

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