Well, are you going to take it? IT seems as if much work went into this, and I am certain that Mr. Potter wishes you no ill will, he admires you, this much I know."
Snape looked up in surprise at Minerva's words as she joined the conversation, having been listening the entire time, which he of course knew.
"Are you aware he is currently fighting the Ministry to get you an order of Merlin first class?" Flitwick asks, seeing his former students surprised expression.
"He is calling In quite a lot of favors from what I heard." Aurora inputs.
Snape had not known, but he doesn't say that. "Then you are in agreeance that I should take this potion, with no assurance its contents will not kill me the instant it touches my tongue?"
"Why, that's up to you Severus." They all looked rather trusting, however, and he knows his colleagues are all quite skilled, regardless of what he might say.
Uncorking the bottle, he lifted it up and smelled it- it smelled of joy, he thought idly. The worst that could happen was eternal pain he reasoned, and with that reassuring thought, he swallowed it whole. Immediately he felt a tingling on his left forearm. While the other three professors watched avidly he pushed his black wool sleeve back and watched in awe as the last traces of the dark mark that would have plagued him for the rest of his life, disappeared with a wisp of black smoke puffing up out of his very flesh.
"My word, it does work." was the first thing spoken after witnessing that miracle, courtesy of a certain transfiguration professor. "He had mentioned briefly to me that he had been trying to create it, but I had thought it was simply a lost dream."
Snape didn't say anything, just reached up to touch that pale column of skin to make sure it was really there. At the sound of Minerva clearly her throat, his head snapped up.
"I know-" he paused " I know that Mr. Potter would be difficult to contact until the next term, but, if any of you do happen to have means of speaking to him, please tell give my thanks and…" he hesitated again, and then determined to plough on, continued, " my sincerest apologies and hand in friendship."
"Forgiveness?" the Headmistress said in surprise, "surely you know he doesn't blame you for giving….Voldemort…. the prophecy, he never did, really."
"I wasn't aware of that, but that is not why I offered my apologies."
Minerva's eyes narrowed dangerously, "Then what. Did you. Do?" she asked sharply, the other two professors watching both attentively, hoping that neither would a blow a fuse.
To all of their surprise, The evil bat of the dungeon looked slightly sheepish for a moment before it cleared.
"Prior to giving me the potion, I-ah." Better to rush it out, he thought. "I slammed him against the wall in an abandoned corridor and-" he trailed off. There was complete silence.
"And he still gave you that miracle potion!" and Aurora was the first to break the it. Minerva and Flitwick were simply looking at him in horror, even for him, things like 'against the wall' and 'abandoned corridor' sounded bad when it came to the Golden Boy.
"Severus, I doubt there is a single person alive that could make that potion, including you, it's probably equivalent in difficulty with the Philosopher stone which took Albus, Nicholas, and Merlin knows who else to make. If I'm not mistaken, this potion most likely required Alchemy to create it as well." There was an imperceptible flinch after Minerva's little speech, Snape hadn't really thought about what it must have taken to create something that could banish something such as the dark magic residing on him- but now he was.
"He can barely make a potion." Severus weakly protested.
"Rubbish, and you unknown it, that had his magical signature all over it, get yourself together." The Headmistress' lips where thin, she was right, he did know, and he desperately needed to get himself together. With that last admonishment the other three professors left chatting about different students, and the residents potions master went to brew and collect himself.