Back in business, are we?
My reply to challenge 182.
Title: I'm calling it "History repeating?" for the time being
Summary: Some things never change. But Potions lessons can have unexpected endings.
Rating: G
Characters: Severus Snape, Hermione Granger
Words: 750
Author's Notes: I haven't written a one-shot in a while, and I thought the exchange had completely killed my muse for the moment. But this came to mind when I read the challenge, and I thought I might revive Severus to do my part in reviving the community. I'm still an SS/HG shipper at heart. ;-)
Things weren't going exactly to plan. Hermione frowned at the muddy mixture bubbling in the cauldron. According to the instructions, the potion should have turned a bright blue by now.
Chewing her lower lip in frustration, she went over the list of ingredients again and compared them with what she had set out. There was nothing wrong! She hadn’t made any mistake.
Unless… But they couldn’t be this mean, could they? This was not N.E.W.T. standard, it was university level, but still, they wouldn’t give wrong instructions, would they?
She tapped the page with an impatient finger as she contemplated her options. There had been a rather wide time limit set, and the students had been given instructions. She had just assumed it was to be an easy assignment, a break from the relentless studying of the past weeks. She should have been more wary. Timeo Danaos and all that.
Wrapping her ankles around the legs of her spindly stool, she pondered the list of ingredients again, using the rules firmly ingrained in years of the most demanding potions lessons ever to be taught on British soil. Like a hawk, her gaze fixed on the armadillo bile. That made no sense whatsoever! It would counter the rattlesnake poison and would react with the juice of the valerian root, so that this wouldn’t be able to bond with the dragon’s blood.
Jumping up, she replenished her stock of ingredients from the store room, cleaned out her cauldron and repeated the first steps of the brewing process.
“You forgot the armadillo bile,” Sarah whispered from the work bench next to her.
“It’s a trap,” she whispered back, glancing up to make sure the professor wasn’t looking. Luckily, he was bending low over his own cauldron.
Sarah frowned and looked down on her sheet of instructions, her mouth moving silently as she tried to follow her friend’s line of thought. She cursed softly.
Next to her, Hermione went on adding ingredients, stirring the potion as required. This time, it did turn the appropriate shade of blue.
Grinning widely, she filled a small phial with a sample and started cleaning up. At first, she had tried to make sure she handed in an assignment before cleaning the cauldron, she remembered well how particularly nasty teachers might drop a phial and claim they had never been handed in, but she knew by now that it was useless. As long as the equipment wasn’t all cleaned and put away, no assignment would be accepted.
She pushed her cauldron into the back of the storage closet and went back to her work bench. With a wink to Sarah, whose potion was moving along nicely, she picked up her phial and stepped to the work bench on the dais in front of the classroom.
The professor was still busy with his own project. She could see the pale white skin of the scars on his neck, barely covered by the thin black hair.
“Professor?” she said softly, unsure whether she was interrupting him at a critical stage.
He looked up immediately, his wand moving with unconscious grace to provide a stasis charm for his potion.
“Miss Granger?” He still hissed the sibilants more than he had before the attack, but that was a minor drawback compared to being dead.
“I’m done.” She held up the phial.
Looking at her closely, he took it from her hands. “Indeed. I assume you have other lessons now, Miss Granger, but you should be free at seven tonight, shouldn’t you?”
She frowned, flustered. Why was Severus Snape asking her for her plans for the evening? “Erm, no, I mean, yes, I have nothing planned,” she stuttered.
“Excellent. Then you will join me here at seven sharp for your detention.”
“Detention, Sir?” she squeaked breathlessly. “But why? Sir, this is university, we-”
“Did I say detention? I meant a special assignment, of course. As you are so eager to help her fellow students” - he glanced up at Sarah, who was blessedly unaware of his eyes upon her - “I am sure you will be glad to prepare the bases for a number of potions I’m going to discuss with my classes in the next weeks.”
Hermione bit her lip. “Of course, Sir,” she muttered.
As she turned to leave, his soft voice called her back. “Oh, and Miss Granger? There will be no need to have dinner before you arrive. The university house elves will be glad to provide a meal for us.”
Title: I'm calling it "History repeating?" for the time being
Summary: Some things never change. But Potions lessons can have unexpected endings.
Rating: G
Characters: Severus Snape, Hermione Granger
Words: 750
Author's Notes: I haven't written a one-shot in a while, and I thought the exchange had completely killed my muse for the moment. But this came to mind when I read the challenge, and I thought I might revive Severus to do my part in reviving the community. I'm still an SS/HG shipper at heart. ;-)
Things weren't going exactly to plan. Hermione frowned at the muddy mixture bubbling in the cauldron. According to the instructions, the potion should have turned a bright blue by now.
Chewing her lower lip in frustration, she went over the list of ingredients again and compared them with what she had set out. There was nothing wrong! She hadn’t made any mistake.
Unless… But they couldn’t be this mean, could they? This was not N.E.W.T. standard, it was university level, but still, they wouldn’t give wrong instructions, would they?
She tapped the page with an impatient finger as she contemplated her options. There had been a rather wide time limit set, and the students had been given instructions. She had just assumed it was to be an easy assignment, a break from the relentless studying of the past weeks. She should have been more wary. Timeo Danaos and all that.
Wrapping her ankles around the legs of her spindly stool, she pondered the list of ingredients again, using the rules firmly ingrained in years of the most demanding potions lessons ever to be taught on British soil. Like a hawk, her gaze fixed on the armadillo bile. That made no sense whatsoever! It would counter the rattlesnake poison and would react with the juice of the valerian root, so that this wouldn’t be able to bond with the dragon’s blood.
Jumping up, she replenished her stock of ingredients from the store room, cleaned out her cauldron and repeated the first steps of the brewing process.
“You forgot the armadillo bile,” Sarah whispered from the work bench next to her.
“It’s a trap,” she whispered back, glancing up to make sure the professor wasn’t looking. Luckily, he was bending low over his own cauldron.
Sarah frowned and looked down on her sheet of instructions, her mouth moving silently as she tried to follow her friend’s line of thought. She cursed softly.
Next to her, Hermione went on adding ingredients, stirring the potion as required. This time, it did turn the appropriate shade of blue.
Grinning widely, she filled a small phial with a sample and started cleaning up. At first, she had tried to make sure she handed in an assignment before cleaning the cauldron, she remembered well how particularly nasty teachers might drop a phial and claim they had never been handed in, but she knew by now that it was useless. As long as the equipment wasn’t all cleaned and put away, no assignment would be accepted.
She pushed her cauldron into the back of the storage closet and went back to her work bench. With a wink to Sarah, whose potion was moving along nicely, she picked up her phial and stepped to the work bench on the dais in front of the classroom.
The professor was still busy with his own project. She could see the pale white skin of the scars on his neck, barely covered by the thin black hair.
“Professor?” she said softly, unsure whether she was interrupting him at a critical stage.
He looked up immediately, his wand moving with unconscious grace to provide a stasis charm for his potion.
“Miss Granger?” He still hissed the sibilants more than he had before the attack, but that was a minor drawback compared to being dead.
“I’m done.” She held up the phial.
Looking at her closely, he took it from her hands. “Indeed. I assume you have other lessons now, Miss Granger, but you should be free at seven tonight, shouldn’t you?”
She frowned, flustered. Why was Severus Snape asking her for her plans for the evening? “Erm, no, I mean, yes, I have nothing planned,” she stuttered.
“Excellent. Then you will join me here at seven sharp for your detention.”
“Detention, Sir?” she squeaked breathlessly. “But why? Sir, this is university, we-”
“Did I say detention? I meant a special assignment, of course. As you are so eager to help her fellow students” - he glanced up at Sarah, who was blessedly unaware of his eyes upon her - “I am sure you will be glad to prepare the bases for a number of potions I’m going to discuss with my classes in the next weeks.”
Hermione bit her lip. “Of course, Sir,” she muttered.
As she turned to leave, his soft voice called her back. “Oh, and Miss Granger? There will be no need to have dinner before you arrive. The university house elves will be glad to provide a meal for us.”