Title: It's Not Cheating
Rating: PG.
Summary: Why was Lily Evans so astounding at Potions? And why was Harry's skill likened to hers-- and not Snape's-- when he was following the instructions of a book written by the Half-Blood Prince? (Written for the Lumos! Community Potions Owl: It had to contain the words Slughorn, Snape, cauldron, boil, and mistake, and mention some sort of potion in it. It was winner by default—but I'd like to think it's pretty good anyway!)
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters of J.K. Rowling's universe.
Warnings: Spoilers for HBP. I had this theory before DH, so I don't consider it spoiler-y for that, but if you haven't finished the series (dude, it's been a year, get up on that already), I do recommend it.
It was just a simple boil-cure potion.
If only "simple" were anything like the simple she was used to. Lily Evans' first day of classes was not going well-- but, she told herself, what could she expect? She had never taken classes involving cauldrons and dried porcupine quills. And she had never had boils to cure, let alone brewed a cure herself.
She sent a pleading sidelong glance towards Severus Snape. He noticed and looked up at her for only a moment, returning calmly back to jotting notes in the margins of his textbook. If only she were confident enough in her success to have anything about which to write notes herself! He was punishing her-- punishing her for wanting to work with someone new her first day, for pairing with the dark-haired boy who had been so rude to him on the train. And he was punishing her for being in Gryffindor, perpetually alongside that same dark-haired boy and his friends. She had told herself he was being cruel and selfish, but she hadn't been able to push the guilt away completely. However, now she felt only pragmatic regret; he seemed to know exactly what to do.
Professor Slughorn made another menacing pass over her cauldron, leaving nothing but a frown in his wake. Had she made a mistake? There was no way of knowing with these strange instructions.
Severus had told her for years of the wonder of this unseen world of wizards and witchcraft, and she had been fascinated. Upon arriving at the school, she had liked nearly everything she had seen. But Lily also liked to do well at things-- and Potions, a class she had expected to be but familiar Chemistry with a twist, was somehow going worse than the unintuitive Charms class in which she had been told she was born to excel!
The dark-haired boy, James, had become less than helpful; he was distracted by an involved conversation with the other dark-haired Gryffindor boy about a game played on broomsticks. (Broomsticks—at a time like this!). Biting her lip, Lily lifted the porcupine quills over the bubbling concoction in preparation for the last step. However, before any could fall, she felt an unmistakable sting on her left cheek. Looking up, her eyes fell directly on Severus. His wand was raised.
How dare he! As if it weren't enough to watch her suffer in front of all these strangers on her very first day! She opened her mouth to unleash what he deserved-- but something in his gaze stopped her. His black eyes remained steady on her, then dropped quickly to the floor at her feet and back up again. Lily couldn't help but look down.
He had slid his Potions textbook along the floor, unseen. With a quick glance around-- even James was not watching-- she scooped it up and opened it to where he had dog-eared the page. His cramped, angular hand littered all space unreserved by the useless printed text, filling in annotations and corrections. Across the top, emblazoned so that she could not miss it, was a message just for her:
You don't have to be a Slytherin to realize it's not cheating if the book is worthless anyway.
She scanned quickly down to the final step, where she had almost made her tragic mistake, and, sure enough:
Add the quills before taking the cauldron off the fire, and we will BOTH never forgive you.
Her heart jumped a little in her chest-- could she possibly still pass this class?-- and she lifted the bubbling cauldron off the heat. The bubbling slowed, and she spilled in the final ingredient with a gentle assuredness. Slughorn passed over again. "Excellent! A perfect batch!" he announced. Praise was enough to pull James from his distracted conversation, and as soon as Slughorn passed, Lily found herself in a hug that, while rough, was surprisingly pleasant.
Yet it was Severus who had saved her grade-- and, it sounded like, her pride. But when she looked to ensure that he had seen her glory, he kept his head down gazing at his own potion and did not meet her eyes.