The group of fourth years stood in a line outside the potions classroom, waiting to be let inside to begin their lesson. Luna Lovegood stood against the cold, damp stone wall, humming to herself as she perused the latest edition of the Quibbler, sent to her through the owl post that morning. She particularly enjoyed her father's article on Celestina Warbeck's secret life as an amateur fish monger. Some of his finer investigative work, she thought. She'd have to write him a letter at lunch, congratulating him on another fine piece.
"All right Luna?" asked a voice just behind her.
Luna looked up from this month's horoscope and twisted around to see Ginny Weasley standing just behind her.
"Quite well, thank you. I've just found out that this month I will witness a truly remarkable feat of strength from my big toe. I must say that is something to look forward to."
Ginny was at a loss for words but was thankfully saved by the potions door swinging open to admit a steady stream of weary looking 6th year students.
"He's in a right foul mood today," whispered one boy as he passed. "Someone's nicked a bunch of supplies from his cupboard again."
A collective sigh moved through the fourth years as they realized that this lesson would not be something they would escape from unscathed. Someone was going to be losing house points and heading to detention. They all prayed that it would not be them.
"Enter," came the cold sneering voice from deep within the classroom. They filed into the classroom with trepidation, none of them wanting to tred on the coiled snake that waited inside for them.
Professor Snape was standing at the front of the room, potion instructions waiting them on the board beside him. His narrowed eyes watched them as they quietly moved to their seats and sat in silence waiting for instruction. Luna moved to her usual table close to the back. Ginny took a seat directly in front of her. When the last chair had finished scraping against the floor, Snape opened his mouth to address the class.
"As most of you have now managed to make a passable version of a Sleeping Draught, we shall move on to a more difficult potion. I hope that some of you will be able to muster up a better product than you have in the past."
He gestured to the board on his left. "You will be brewing a Dreamless Sleeping potion. This is meant to give the drinker a dreamless slumber and it is more complex than the basic sleeping potion. You have the remainder of the class to brew your potion before receiving a grade. Instructions are on the board."
And with that, Snape left them to work out the potion instructions for themselves. Luna set about pulling ingredients out of her bag and setting up her cauldron. She poked her wand under the bottom of the cauldron and prodded it, creating a little spark and a flame soon grew. She squinted back up at the board, looking at the first set of instructions.
Place one vial of bubotuber pus in cauldron on low heat. Stir once counter clock-wise then let simmer for 3 minutes. Cut cockroach carapace into thin strips while potion simmers.
'Easy enough!' Luna thought as she unstoppered the vial of pus. She brought it up to her nose and gave it a sniff. 'Ugh, not very pleasant.'
She poured the pus into the cauldron with a sinister hiss, then turned to her cutting board and knife. She pulled out her jar of cockroaches and carefully tipped out 3. She picked up her knife to slice up her cockroaches when she became distracted by Professor Snape's critiques at the table three down from her, where lilac hued steam was rolling out of Colin Creevy's cauldron.
"Really Creevy, you couldn't even start your potion off right?! You did not simmer the bubotuber long enough before adding in the cockroaches, which you have idiotically added in whole!" Snape snarled as poor Colin sniffled below his gaze.
"S-s-s-sorry Profess…"
"Enough," Snape said, vanishing out Colin's potion. "10 points will be taken from Gryffindor for your lack of reading ability and you will write me a 12 inch essay on the proper technique of this potion."
With a whirl of his black cape, Snape strode off to pick on another student, leaving poor Colin to simper over his predicament. His friends whispered encouragements carefully to him, looking over their shoulder to make sure they did not incur Snape's wrath.
'How awful for poor Colin!' Luna thought as she lazily tipped her thinly sliced cockroaches into her cauldron. With a happy gurgle, the liquid consumed the added ingredient and bubbled away waiting for the next one. Once again, Luna looked up to the board and began to prepare some lavender sprigs for the next step. As she stripped the plant, she started to hum a merry little tune, lost in her thoughts of the many uses of lavender.
"Miss Lovegood, we are not in choir practice. Kindly refrain from humming or you will be spending some time cleaning out my store cupboard of all spoiled ingredients."
Luna hadn't noticed Snape creeping up behind her and jumped a little when he spoke to her. With her large eyes, she gazed up at him and smiled.
"So sorry Sir," she apologized in her airy voice. "I got distracted by the thought of lavender and its properties in attracting baby Wombgerblies."
A look of utter disgust rested on Snape's face at the mention of a Wombgerblies. A snort of laughter from Ginny was quickly silenced by one look from the professor. He swept off without another word, perhaps in hopes of never having to discover what a Wombgerblies was.
The class seemed to pass excruciatingly slowly, as the instructions seemed to get more complicated the further they read down the board. Luna was growing bored of the list of endless ingredients, and had started to daydream about lunch. She never really had much interest in Potions to begin with, so when her mind began to wander, she knew it was time to refocus her attention elsewhere.
She often remembered her mother brewing up something exciting in her cauldron at home. Sometimes her potions would have unexpected results that created chaos, but other times she would create something which was really very revolutionary.
As her potion bubbled away, she remembered a potion that was very similar to the one she was currently brewing. 'Hmmm,' Luna thought. 'If I substituted the dandelion root for some fairy wings and put in a sprig of white oleander…..'
With a swift motion, Luna pulled her long blonde hair up into a bun and poked her wand through it. Now potions was going to be exciting!
The end of class was swiftly approaching. Last minute scrambling could be seen as the fourth years quickly added ingredients, hoping to turn their potion into something acceptable to be marked. Snape stood silently at the front of the class, like a bird of prey searching for its meal.
"Finish your brewing. I will circulate and assess your progress."
A nervous tension immediately filled the room as they waited for their grade. Snape hunched over potions, sniffing and stirring at them as they went. His insults were sharp as he assessed the potions he felt were poorly executed.
"Your potion is as runny as water, Ewing. And the colour is meant to be dark blue not lilac. I thought Ravenclaw's were meant to be bright."
"It's barely a pass Connors. Clearly your eyesight is poor if you think this is acceptable."
He slowly circled the room, scratching away at the parchment he carried, making notes on each student's work and awarding them a grade. He was making his way closer to Luna, who had started to rethink about the lunch that awaited her upstairs. She could almost smell the delicious aroma. Snape was now hunched over Ginny's cauldron, which was full of a delicate dark blue potion. His lip curled, but any nasty remark was kept at bay, as Ginny's potion was clearly of acceptable quality. Snape looked displeased at his inability to insult a Gryffindor, and a Weasley at that, but even he could not fault something which seemed to have clearly met his instructions.
It was now Luna's turn. As he approached the table, Snape could see what filled her cauldron. A look of revulsion crossed his face.
"Orange, Lovegood. Your potion is orange. And fizzing."
The whole class appeared to stop and turn around to face Luna who was looking up benignly at the clearly irritated Potions Master.
Ginny turned around and peered in Luna's cauldron to find a bright orange fizzing potion, with bubbles popping merrily as they reached the surface. It reminded her of a fizzy drink she had once seen a muggle boy drinking.
"You have clearly ignored the instructions of the lesson. Whatever you have brewed will have none of the qualities of a forgetful sleeping potion. Explain yourself, Miss Lovegood."
Luna smiled dreamily and filled a vial of potion and handed it to Snape who was struggling to maintain his composure. "I didn't like the energy that this potion was giving me. Why brew a potion that makes you forget your dreams when you can have a potion that makes your dreams full of happy and sweet thoughts instead! I'd much rather try and get a good night sleep with happy thoughts than one where you don't wake up with any kind of positivity."
Silence hung in the classroom as they all waited for Snape to explode in a tirade on poor Luna, someone who they all knew was a little odd but had the best of intentions. Instead, Snape was speechless at what Luna had just said to him. At the precise moment of Luna finishing her explanation of her potion, the lunch bell rang. The fourth years quickly rounded up their supplies and scurried out of the dungeon for lunch.
Luna calmly packed up her kit and slung her bag over her shoulder. "I hope you think my potion turned out well Professor. I think it did. Have a lovely day!"
And with a wave to the Professor, she turned and walked out of the classroom, Ginny walking beside her, red with laughter as she caught a glimpse of Snape's bewildered face. Never had a student given him a completely different potion that was meant to be a happier version of the task. He wasn't sure exactly what to do with the potion he had in his hand or what to think of the enigma that was Luna Lovegood. Heaving a great sigh, he simply put the potion down on the desk and walked to his office to contemplate why he was still a teacher.
Outside the classroom, Ginny was trying to speak to Luna through her tears of laughter. "Did you see his face?! I've never seen him look so uncomfortable before!"
Luna smiled at Ginny. "Sometimes I think we need to have a little happiness in our life. I do hope there are those yummy lemon tarts for dessert."
And with that she skipped up the stairs to lunch, with Ginny laughing behind her, amazed at the ridiculous yet brilliant mind that was Luna Lovegood.