belle4life – Comet Chaser

Disclaimer: The characters in this work belong to J. K. Rowling, and no infringement is intended.

Team Notes: This chapter was written by belle4life and betaed by Spiderwort. We hope you enjoy reading it!

A well rested, but symposium weary, Hermione Granger walked into the first panel of the day. A young wizard at the door handed her a pamphlet with a list of all the speakers and their subjects. Her eyes scanned the word-filled page. She saw several names she knew and others that she had only heard bad things about...mostly bad.

She made her way down the aisle and sat down in a chair, looking around to see if she recognized anyone. Her eyes returned to the pamphlet, and she continued to read. The first name on the panel list was Dwight G. Umber, a man she had heard was not as gifted as he led people to believe. The paper said his talk was about an improvement to Veritaserum, a sort of "Super-Serum," as he called it. How ridiculous, she thought. What? Does he use more than three drops and call it an improvement?

A looming shadow fell over her chair, and she looked up to find the scowling face of Severus Snape staring down at her. With a panther-like grace and celerity, he claimed the seat next to her with his ever-present scowl, which clearly proclaimed that he did not want to be there.

"To what do I owe the honor of your presence yet again?" she questioned him.

"The fact that you are the least annoying person here."

"I do believe that was a compliment," she said with a wry smile.

"Yes, well, I have been known to say something nice every once in a while," he replied.

"Not to me, you haven't."

"Would you like me to leave?"

"No, please stay. I have a feeling this first panel is going to be horrendous. Look at the first speaker." She pointed at the pamphlet he held in his skinny, pale hand.

He groaned. "Not that pompous moron. Why do people listen to him? He couldn't put together a complete thought without using someone else's ideas. 'Super-Serum,' what a joke. What does he do, simply use more than three drops?" The scowl on his face grew darker as he sat there.

"I was just thinking the same thing when you sat down. Why does it need to be improved upon? I think regular Veritaserum works perfectly fine. It makes people tell the truth...is there something more needed?"

"I agree."

The hall was filling up, and loud voices began to bounce off the wall. An older wizard stood up on the dais at the front and placed his wand to his throat, activating the Sonorous Charm.

"May I have your attention, please?"

The voices continued, and he cleared his throat, attempting to settle the crowd. "Attention!" he shouted. The hall quieted down immediately, and the wizard gave a small smile. "Thank you. We are going to begin the first panel of the day. Each member of the panel will get up and give their exposition, and then there will be an opportunity for all of you to ask your questions. Our first presenter is Mr. Dwight Umber. He is known for his excellent work in Potions and his ability to expand on useful potions and make them even more valuable to the Wizarding world." The announcer walked off the dais, and almost everyone in the audience clapped as Umber took his place at the podium.

Umber had a rather round figure, reminding Hermione strangely of a less docile version of Horace Slughorn. His beady little eyes scanned the crowd and fell on her and Severus, a smugly nasty look falling across his face. The look was fleeting and quickly became more of a smirk as the applause began to die down. He was clearly reveling in being the cynosure of his colleagues.

"Thank you, thank you, my fellow potioneers. I am so glad to be here today in front of you telling you about my latest invention."

"Oh, right. I'll bet five Galleons it isn't his at all," Hermione whispered into Severus' ear.

"I have been working on this version of the ever-popular Veritaserum for the past year, and I am quite proud of the advancements I've made. It is a super-strength version of the original that, as opposed to merely making the person subjected to it tell the truth, forces them to bring out their unconscious and subconscious thoughts as well, their true emotional state, so to speak."

"Oh, yes, do let's unleash the unstable thoughts of all the crazy people out there," Hermione murmured into her pamphlet. "Please let's give it to Lucius Malfoy or, better yet, Bellatrix Lestrange. That would be useful."

If Umber heard her, he made no sign, but just droned on. "This new form guarantees that the whole truth will come out and that nothing can be kept hidden. And the best part of all is there is no means of preventing it, no antidote. It is far too strong for anything like that."

"A potion without an antidote...ingenious, truly," Severus muttered.

"All you need is two drops on the tongue, and the truth will come out. It lasts for 24 hours once the drops hit the tongue."

"That's not safe," Hermione hissed. She and Severus looked at each other and shook their heads slightly in amazement at the man's stupidity.

Umber raised his voice. "It really is a great improvement on traditional Veritaserum if I do say so myself. I am quite proud of my work on this potion."

"Oh, yes, all two seconds of it," Severus whispered.

"Is anyone actually buying this ridiculousness?" Hermione wondered.

Severus looked at the faces around him and sadly nodded his head at the stupidity of not only the man on the dais, but the people whose faces shone in awe.

Hermione tried to tune him out for the rest of his talk. He babbled on about his brilliance for a good twenty minutes before the master of ceremonies cut him off. The rest of the panel was relatively interesting, and Hermione and Severus paid attention to what each of their colleagues had to say.

The question and answer session was dominated by the foppish Umber, whose potion had raised many questions amongst their clearly clueless colleagues. People asked him everything from how he came up with the idea to how he actually made the potion to when it would be ready to be sold and the recipe for the potion would be released. He somehow managed to skirt answering most of the questions, distracting the questioners with his flowery words and vague explanations.

"You know, he may be scum, but I must admit, the man is a master of distraction," Severus said after the questions were over. "That is skill. Too bad he's such a pompous arse."

"Indeed," Hermione added, chuckling.

They stood up and began to make their way out of the hall, but they were quickly stopped by the rotund figure of Dwight G. Umber.

"My, my, Severus Snape and Hermione Granger. What a surprise! How did you enjoy my lecture?" he questioned, licking his lips in a perverse manner.

"Astounding," Severus responded.

"Yes, yes. I am so glad you thought so. After all, I would hate to make your work obsolete without you enjoying what I'm doing."

"I beg your pardon?" Hermione questioned, stepping closer to him as if she had misheard him.

"I said I would hate to make everything you two have been working on obsolete without you appreciating the genius behind my creation."

"How, pray tell, does your work affect either of ours?" Severus asked.

"Yes, I am wondering the same thing," said Hermione. "I am working on a potion to allow a mind to completely block any intrusion, including Legilimency."

"And I am working on an advanced form of Wolfsbane. Neither of these has anything to do with your so-called 'Super-Serum'."

"So you might think," said Umber, his voice filled with the obvious insult and threat that he was throwing at them. He waddled away from them, leaving the two of them standing there. Hermione's jaw dropped, and Severus' face spoke volumes of the anger coursing through his veins.

"I do believe he is baiting us, Granger, and not well, I must say."

"I believe you are right. It was, at the very least, uncalled for, extremely rude, and disrespectful. How can he be so cocky? He hasn't proven that his potion works. He presented no testing, no results. There's something fishy about him, and I don't just mean his smell."

"I agree. I think he needs to be put in his proper place. He has grown entirely too confident and comfortable in his cheating and lying ways. Someone needs to show him for what he really is. And do you know what?"

"What?"

"I think we are just the people to do it."

"I think you are right. We have an hour till the next panel. Would you care to plot over lunch? Say fish and chips? I could use some comfort food to settle the disgusting feeling I have from being in his presence."

"Sounds delightful."

Team Notes (again): The prompt words used in this chapter were: wand, celerity and cynosure. Once again, thanks for reading; stay tuned...Brandy01 is up next!