First Assignment for the "Potions Class" at "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)"

I want to find out what you know about Potions, give me something about what may happen if you mess up a potion. Your prompts are: exact, disaster and melting.

I hope you all enjoy reading this one, leave me a review, I am always happy to get some feedback :)

Severus Snape, the best Potions Master in Great Britain, was having a splitting headache. His day had been horrible, his students had tried to blow up his classroom multiple times a lesson, all the coffee, his essence of life, had disappeared from the Staff Room and then, just as he had been about to settle in for the night early, Poppy had sent him a letter, requesting a complicated potion for the next day, meaning that he would be doing a night shift. His headache cure had been empty, so he had to brew while dealing with the troll walking around on his skull.

The black eyes of the man were focused on the liquid he was stirring at the moment, counter-clockwise, 20 times... His left hand reached up and he massaged his temple for a second, then he removed the stirring spoon and turned to chop the next ingredients. His hand reached for the silver knife, but then he decided to close his eyes for a short moment. As soon as his lids had fallen he felt himself drifting away to a beautiful beach, the steady sound of the waves hitting the sand, a little bit of wind cooling the skin from the warming sun...

BAM!

Severus' eyes flew open in alert and he looked around, confused, angry... The door to his private lab was open, in fact, it had hit the wall and caused the loud bang that had ripped him from his little nap, and in the doorway stood a silhouette. Severus blinked a few times, but then he was able to identify the young witch as Rolanda Hooch, the flying instructor.

"Oh, I am so sorry, Severus, the door slipped out of my hand", she said with a small chuckle in her voice, then she entered the room and closed the door behind herself without waiting for any permission by him. Severus rolled his eyes and asked:"What do you want, Rolanda?!"

She let her eyes wander around the lab, then she answered:"I was wandering around and saw light here, so I was wondering why you were working so late and thought I could keep your company."

"Rolanda...", Severus murmured, closing his eyes to massage his temples again. His headache was suddenly increasing in intensity! "I am trying to work here, Poppy needs this potion tomorrow. I am sorry, but you can´t hang out here!"

Rolanda stared at him for a second and he feared that she would throw something at him, but then she started to grin.

"My my, Severus, your condition must be really bad if you say you are sorry! In fact you were nearly polite for your standards!"

"Rolanda... I am having a headache and I need to work here!"

"I could help you, Severus", Rolanda suggested with a serious face. Severus returned her gaze, then he fell into a low chuckle. He pointed at her with one finger and snarled:"You? You want to help ME? This is advanced potions, Rolanda, not trying to catch a crazy bludger!"

There was a short moment of silence and Severus was already sure that he had gotten rid of Rolanda with this comment about her intelligence, but suddenly she made a step forward, grabbing the front of his robes and pulled him closer so she could stare at him with her best death glare.

"Did you wanted to say that I don´t know anything about advanced magic because I became a Quidditch professional?!"

"Yes."

Severus' eyes widened as he realised that the word had slipped from his mouth without himself noticing and he was sure that his last hour had come – Rolanda was not somebody who you could make jokes about without receiving the proper repay.

"How dare you?! I was in Ravenclaw, god dammit! I had a E in potions at the O.W.L.s and I passed my N.E.W.T.s in potions, DADA and transfigurations with a damned OUTSTANDING, by merlin! It is so rude of you to think that nobody could be as competent as you, you arrogant..."

"Okay, okay!", Severus stopped her ranting, feeling the pressure on his head getting impossibly worse. He had no energy left to argue with her, something they normally always did when they met - they loved to challenge each other just for the fun. "It´s... I am sorry, I just... you can stay, but please, don´t touch anything."

Rolanda looked at least a little bit satisfied as she crossed her arms and took a interested look at the recipe that was lying on his preparation desk next to the ingredients. Severus took the silver knife and started to chop the root that was already lying on the cutting board into pieces of exactly the same size. He was just about to put the pieces of root into the cauldron as Rolanda cleared her throat more loudly then necessary and walked around the table to stand next to him, the recipe in her hands.

"Severus, I think you are doing something wrong here!"

It took a moment until her statement was fully understood by him, then he gave her a dark look. No one had ever dared to question him in his own lab!

"What did you say?", he asked in a dangerous tone, glaring at her even though it started to hurt. This woman was driving him crazy! Storming into his lab, destroying the last peace he had had for today and now she was trying to bungle his work!

"You read the recipe wrong, Severus. You chopped the root into 21 pieces, but it has to be 20! You know how dangerous it can be if you don´t follow the exact recipe?"

Was she kidding?! Severus gulped and took a deep breath to prevent himself from screaming – it would have hurt far to much.

"Rolanda, I STUDIED potions for three years, I have a degree, not only a lousy N.E.W.T! And now ask yourself if it was necessary to ask me if I am sure about what I am doing!"

"Severus, I don´t need a freakin' degree to count the pieces of a rotten root, you leek! And to read, to be precise!"

"I am doing nothing wrong here, Rolanda!", Severus hissed, then he threw the pieces into the cauldron without waiting for her response.

In the next second the two of them were thrown back by a giant shock wave as the liquid inside the cauldron exploded. Severus slowly opened one eye, seeing that the rest of the potion and the cauldron were melting into a thick greyish-pink mass that covered the floor and the walls around the fireplace. The desk had been thrown over and many vials in the cupboards had been shattered by the explosion. A pink smoke filled the air and he coughed a few times before he was reminded that he had not been alone in his lab by a pair of hands hitting his chest. He looked down and realised that he must have grabbed Rolanda in the moment of the explosion to shield her with his own body and now she was lying underneath him, giving him a accusing stare.

"This is a disaster...", he mumbled, trying to get off her, but they were both tangled in his long black robes. "It will take weeks to replace the potions..."

"I told you that you were doing something wrong! Let me guess, you stirred 20 times?! It had to be 21 times with 20 root pieces!"

He rolled his eyes, then he hissed:"Okay, okay, you were right. I... I must have mixed up the lines while reading... This is a disaster..."

"B-by the way... which potion were you brewing?", Rolanda asked, a little bit worried about the fact that she did not feel really uncomfortable in her current situation.

"The antidote for Amortentia..."

He looked down at her and suddenly noticed the scent of vanilla and flowers that gently invaded his nose. How come he had never noticed how beautiful her golden eyes were and how silky her blonde hair was flowing over her shoulders?! Her tempting rosy lips seemed to invite him to kiss them... Her body was pressed up against his...

"Severus...", she whispered as their faces came closer. "We... we shouldn´t... this isn´t real... it is the smoke of the potion..."

"I know...", he breathed against her lips, his voice sounding husky. He could not look anywhere else then into her eyes... Her fingers sneaked up to his neck and she pulled him down for a kiss and all he was capable of was responding and wrapping his arms around her slender body. This woman was really driving him crazy... And while he kissed her he remembered the words that had been written under the recipe by the writers of Advanced Antidotes - "If the antidote to Amortentia, the strongest love potion ever invented, is brewed in a false way, it´s fumes will, if inhaled, bring true feelings to the surface and the subject won´t be able to suppress them any more."

She was really, really driving him crazy.