Chapter 2 Detention

The rumors spread through the school like wildfire. Ivan, detention, Snape, demons, colors, monsters, lost tempers, pranks, and more. All the rumors agreed on one thing though, even though I van had only a 5-minute detention; they were bound to be 5 minutes that he would remember for the rest of his life, and not for any good reason. Ivan got to brag that he had gotten away with his pranks, and everyone was in awe of him, asking questions and asking for autographs (as if they were never going to see him again). As potions was Ivan's second to last class of the day he didn't have long to wait for dinner where he was surrounded by older students asking questions and patting him on the back. Most of the younger students stayed away from Ivan, as they didn't know enough magic to protect themselves from his "so called" pranks.

Finally Dumbledore had to call the school to attention so dinner could start. Everyone sat down, and had started eating, when Snape threw open the doors to the great hall and stalked up to the staff table. The hall went silent and then a roar of conversation with fleeting glances at Snape and Ivan commenced. Eventually conversation returned to its normal volume. If anyone had paid attention to Snape a little longer they would have noticed that he was eating very little, despite the Headmasters encouragement to eat more than vegetables, and was smirking to the point of it almost being a smile. If they had looked at Dumbledore they would have noticed the slight twinkle in his eye at Snape's behavior. Ivan joked about how Snape was a greasy git, and he wasn't afraid of him all through dinner.

Dinner ended and the Great Hall emptied, students going to their common rooms to relax, the excitement had died down. Until 7:40 in the Hufflepuff common room. The Hufflepuffs were proud that they had such a brave person in their House. They were also quite mad that he had almost lost them all their points and were even angrier at his mean pranks, but that would be forgiven if he came back alive from this detention.

Ivan left for the dungeon at 7:50 and got there at 8:01. "Minus 1 point for being late." Snape said idly. Ivan just sat down and put his feet on the table. Snape continued to grade a paper. When he was finished he put it away and looked at Ivan who smiled up at him. Snape ignored it and started talking.

"Ivan, what are the properties of the Flux Draught?" Snape said as he got up. Ivan, startled for a second, regained his composure and answered.

"The potion causes random changes in a wizards appearance, things like tails, wings, color, texture, skin type, etc, nothing extremely harmful."

"Correct, and on non-wizards?"

"Muggles simply turn a random color. Non-magical plants, like lettuce, while still have properties that make them useful in magic, don't actually have magic in them, so they turn a random color as well."

"Continue."

"Umm…Magical plants vary on the size, large plants grow limbs that change color, like red to blue to green, and the changes are very slow. Medium sized plants grow limbs that have the same changes as the large plants, though only that limb is affected, however any fruit or seeds from that limb will result in a plant that has the color changing properties, the change from one color to the next is slightly faster than the large plants. Small plants completely change color repeatedly, the whole plant is affected and the change from one color to the next is very fast. Any offspring of this plant will have the same properties. The effects fade eventually, at different-"

"Enough. Next organism."

"Umm."

"Non-humans, beasts."

"Oh. They change colors continuously like the small plant, but slower, and the effect is permanent."

"Continue."

"What else is there?"

"You very well know Mr. Johnson. Humanoids, centaurs demons, giants, vampires, werewolves."

"The more magic blood the creature has the less effect the potion has, werewolves for example have a lower amount of magic in their blood than lets say a demon. Werewolves are affected just like wizards, muggle werewolf or otherwise, they are not affected the week of the full moon. Demons, however, are not affected at all. For some creatures the potion, if drunk, has the same effect as alcohol would have on a full human."

"And?"

"Uh, that's it?" Snape turned and looked like he was about to slam his hand onto the table Ivan was sitting at, but that wasn't Snape. He walked up with his deadly stare and stood in front of Ivan.

"You know very well that's not it. I will take away 50 points if you do not state the last fact. You are purposely being difficult, or maybe you truly do not know? Perhaps you are scared?" Snape sneered at him. Ivan raised an eyebrow at Snape.

"And here I thought I was just being polite. The last fact is that the potion forces any creature hiding its true form to show itself. The potion can sometimes cause an advance in power when the creature's true form is forced into the open." Ivan said lazily. Snape nodded.

"You answered every question correctly and with detail, 50 points." Ivan's eyes bugged out.

"Why are you taking points for answering questions correctly?!?" Ivan shouted. Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Did I say I was taking points?" Snape asked darkly. Ivan looked stunned, this was not fathomable, Snape had given points! "Five minutes have passed, be back in an hour, tell people who ask that I had you answer potions questions, and for every one you got wrong I would take away 20 points, for every correct answer, I would give you 10. Tell them that I had you extract bubotuber pus without gloves while answering the questions. A good enough story yes?" Ivan nodded and asked if Snape had actually done that. Snape walked over to Ivan and preformed glamour on his hands that made them look as if they had been seriously burned by the pus, while he did this he answered Ivan's question. "No, if someone did something to deserve that I would just take away the 50 points before hand, and let them remove the pus after removing the spikes from a bultak plant, without gloves as well." Snape motioned for Ivan to leave.

As he left Ivan remembered that there was no possible way to remove spikes from a bultak plant without getting cut, even with gloves…he'd have to remember that little idea in case he wanted to use it sometime.

Snape meanwhile prepared for Ivan's return. Setting knives out on a workbench he set about sharpening them, with out magic. Sharpening knives by hand is so much more satisfying anyway. Snape set down the knives and proceeded to put unbreakable charms and immobile (object cannot be knocked over on purpose or accident, the hand with either hit the object or pass through it. With Snape's unbreakable charms the hand would most likely break if someone tried to knock it over.) spells on everything from bottles and ingredients to whole bookshelves. He then moved all the desks out of the way and sat down at his own to wait.

Ivan went to the common room and told everyone about his detention, everyone was of course astounded that he had gotten fifty points while being in immense pain from the pus. Everyone congratulated him for hours with pats on the back and food. The common room slowly emptied and it was time to go to bed. Ivan pretended to fall asleep on the couch and everyone left him there in peace. With 10 minutes to go till curfew Ivan slipped out of the common room and headed for the dungeons.