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Hogwarts' venomous potions' professor, Severus Snape, had taught his fair share of disruptive students during his tenure (most notably the Weasley Twins) and had dealt with them all in the same manner: doling out a black glare and disturbing detentions until they desisted; but in all his years of teaching, he had never come across a student quite like little Luna Lovegood. When the airy, blonde waif of a first year trailed in behind her classmates for her first potions lesson, he hadn't given her a second glance, half expecting the meek looking girl to be the type of student who broke down after her first class.
As such, the tiny Ravenclaw drew many a curious eye when she skipped out of the dungeons at the end of the double period with a serene, soot streaked face and a cheerful "Have a good day, Professor" thrown over her shoulder, leaving the befuddled potions master behind with a smoking vial of thick, violet sludge instead of the simple cure for boils she had been assigned. It was subsequently dismissed.
Classes continued in a similar vein for the rest of the year, as Snape's aggravation with the petite Ravenclaw grew to new heights. No matter how many points he deducted or detentions he gave her for ignoring his instructions and wasting ingredients, the Lovegood girl continued to do as she pleased, a tiny island in a sea of wary Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, all well aware of just how volatile some of Loony Lovegood's concoctions could be.
What infuriated Severus the most though, was that the petite blonde was not dumb, nor incompetent. Despite her less than exemplary performance in class, Luna's homework was always impeccable, neat and on point; a far cry from the usual first year fare, regardless of house.
Professor Snape finally reached the end of his rope when, for the first time in the entire school year, Luna brewed the proper potion for her practical exam perfectly. Furious at her apparent talent and wilful disobedience, Snape called her out on it during her last detention of the year.
"Miss Lovegood," he sneered from where he sat at his desk, marking papers, "how is it, that while you cannot make a pepper up potion weak enough to cure a runny nose, you managed to brew the strongest Forgetfulness potion I have ever received from a first year?"
Unbothered as always by his cold sneers, Luna glanced up from where she was scrubbing cauldrons, shrugged and said in her airy, offhand way, "Mummy taught me."
Thrown, Snape's black glare softened to confusion as he tried to gather his thoughts, "I beg your pardon?" he said carefully.
Everyone had heard of the death of renowned spell crafter and potions mistress, Pandora Lovegood, during a potion accident the year before Luna was accepted to Hogwarts, but until now, Luna had never mentioned her to anyone. A little voice in the back of his head reminded him that the little outcast probably had no one to mention her too.
Luna hummed as she plunged elbow deep in a cauldron of caked on kaki muck. "I'd sit with her in her lab when Daddy was busy and she'd tell me all about what she was working on. Spells, potions, anything."
"Then why do you not brew the proper potions in class? You're obviously capable of it, perhaps even talented enough to be moved up a class or two."
"Bored." Luna sang as she set aside the now sparkling cauldron and reached for the next one, "Mummy's recipes are much more interesting and helpful than simple boil cures and de-aging serums. I thought you knew," she mused, her usually unfocused grey eyes suddenly sharp as she gave the confused potions master a critical look, "the nargles certainly like you well enough."
"Nargles?" Snape ventured carefully, trying to untangle the truth from Luna's suddenly not so nonsensical ramblings.
"Umhm. They would talk to Mummy when she was inventing, give her ideas; they are very smart you know. They talk to me sometimes too. They're the ones who taught me how to brew the instant head ache reliever."
"Head ache reliever?"
"The purple potion, the one that smokes. You looked like you could use it, and my recipe works much faster than the one Madame Pomfrey uses."
Thinking back, Snape noted that each time he had been handed that particular potion at the end of class, he had had a rather stressful day of trying to bang knowledge into stubborn young minds, usually receiving naught but a dull throbbing behind his eyes for his pains.
Snape was thrown, if that potion had been more than the result of a child at play, what other wonders had this overlooked little Ravenclaw been handing him all year.
Glancing down at the budding potions prodigy, Snape's steely heart softened the slightest bit for the first time in eleven years as he gently took away the cauldron Luna was studiously scrubbing and set it on an empty desk, before kneeling beside her and pulling out a quill and parchment, "Miss Lovegood, would you tell me more?"
Luna's answering smile was bright enough to light the entire castle as the little blonde misfit found a sense of kinship with another brilliant, misunderstood soul.