Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.
AN- Written for the Hogwarts Potions Class, using the prompts exact/melting.
Potion Meltdown
Horace Slughorn walked around the room, observing his students as they worked diligently on their potions. Lily Evans, a very talented girl, and Severus Snape sat side by side, their potions a matching colour of lilac, the exact colour they should be. James Potter and Sirius Black were sitting towards the back, whispering between themselves as they stirred their cauldrons, glancing at Snape and Evans every few seconds. He frowned lightly. He would have to keep an eye on them.
Remus Lupin, the boy with the...problem, was sweating over his cauldron, though it looked alright. Not perfect, but not bad, and only slightly darker than the lilac it was supposed to be. Peter Pettigrew sat beside him, and Horace cringed at the Potion in his cauldron. If it could even be called a potion. It looked more like a burnt dumpling. Shaking his head, Horace moved on to the next cauldrons along, happy to see they were all varying shades of purple or lilac.
He sat down at his desk, happy to be off his feet as he continued to observe, watching Potter and Black in particular. He liked the boys, they were fun, and both from very affluent families of course, but they really should know better than to try and cause trouble in Potions. It was dangerous business, and someone could get hur-
Horace's chain of thought cut off, as he watched, as if in slow motion, Black move to throw something into Snape's cauldron. Instead, the ingredient, of which Horace was unsure of from his position, fell into his own cauldron. Almost immediately, the potion, suddenly an obnoxious orange, started bubbling and Slughorn jumped to his feet, making his was quickly to the unstable potion.
The class watched on with undisguised interest as the cauldron started to melt in front of them, the orange liquid dripping onto blacks trousers. Horace cast a quick shield charm around the cauldron to stop any more of it leaking, but the damage was done. The trousers melted into nothing, leaving Black standing, calm as you like, in front of the class with nothing but his shirt and underpants, (red and gold, of course), looking rather proud of himself.
Eyeing the class, Horace saw Lily chuckling into her hand, and Severus beside her watching with the utmost glee on his face. Potter looked as casual as Black, and both seemed rather amused at the events. Lupin and Pettigrew stood staring in shock, as though they couldn't quite believe an obviously planned prank, had gone so wrong.
"What do you have to say for yourself, Mr Black?" Horace asked, peering at the young man over the cauldron.
"Ah... sorry?" Black replied, looking innocent as can be.
"I see. And what ingredient did you add to the potion to get such a volatile reaction?"
"I think I put some Bertie Botts Beans in," Black said, looking down. Ah. That would explain the colour.
"Did you know what they would do to this particular potion?"
"No, Sir."
"I think you did, Mr Black, because I think you attempted to throw the beans at Mr Snape's cauldron, hoping for exactly this result."
"No, Sir."
"So you intended to do this to yourself?"
"Ah... yes, sir?"
"I see. So that'll be a weeks detention, and thirty points from Gryffindor, Mr Black. Don't bring food into my classroom again."
Horace turned away from the boy, and looked at the rest of the class. "You can pack up your things a little early. Put statis charms on your cauldrons, and we'll pick this up tomorrow."
The hustle and bustle of the class almost stopped Horace from hearing Sirius' next comment, but it didn't.
"Dammit. Do you think he would of give me less punishment if I'd told him I was aiming for Snivellus? I mean, he would have been relieved that the class wasn't horrified by a naked Snape, right?"
Horace heard Potter laugh loudly, and had to chew his own cheek to stop himself from smiling. Teenage boys would always be horrible creatures, but Horace was impressed at the amount of research the boys would have had to go through to find out the reaction the beans would have on this particular potion. If they were learning... well, Horace wasn't going to punish the boy too harshly.
He'd been a bit of a prankster himself after all.