A week later
I coughed as the bitter liquid ran down my throat, true to his word as soon as Severus was once again accepted back into the order he had concocted the cure for my ferret flu. I was not enjoying it though. Gently so as not to attract attention I pushed my drinking bowl along the table top were I was situated, towards the waste sink at the other end of the work surface, hoping to get rid of the disgusting medicine before my Master noticed.
"Don't even think about it Sophie" Severus warned, his back to me as he bent over a cauldron at the other end of the rather small potions lab that Grimauld place sported.
Glaring at both Severus and the green medicine in my bowl I pleaded my case, "but I feel a lot better now Severus" I whined (I was that desperate) "I don't need it". The fates must really get a laugh out of me because as soon as I proclaimed this I suffered from a fit of sneezing.
Turning and raising an eyebrow at me, Severus could barely hold back his grin. Stupid potions master, he refused to flavour the medicine as he did to the human version, something about a small mammals system compared to a human's. I think he just wanted a laugh. And he definitely needed one, acceptance back into the order had been difficult, at the appearance of Dumbledore many had accepted his explanation and had apologised to Severus. Boy-wonder was an exception. I had said before that he was a bit dim; well I was wrong, he was a complete imbecile.
Despite the fact that Dumbledore was standing right in front of him, he still proclaimed Severus a traitor and had to be restrained be Weasley and Granger, I think his glasses might have steamed up so he couldn't see that Dumbledore was standing alive and kicking around 2 feet from him. He was being quite insulting really and breaking free from his side-kicks he had attempted to attack Severus, in a Muggle fashion as well as though he didn't understand that the length of Holly in his pocket was a wand that he could use to curse someone with. Severus had been a bit surprised at this form of attack and had been a bit slow on the uptake, I am sure Potter would at least have gotten a punch in (although Severus still firmly believes he could have hexed him before that) if I had not (bravely) thrown my self off my Masters shoulder (were I had sat concealed by lengths of black hair) at Potter. Really you think his God-father would have told him not to mess with me, but clearly he had not and as a result the boy-who-lived-only-to-be-attacked-by-a-ferret now sported various scratches on his spectacled face. Serves him right.
Still that didn't change the fact that I still had half a bowl of medicine that tasted like rancid meat and smelt like vomit to drink. Just as I prepared myself for my fate a mass of brown hair bounded into the lab, it took me all of 10 seconds to realise it was Hermione Granger. Dumbledore had insisted that Severus accept the help of Granger in an attempt to speed up the production of helpful potions, at least that was what he had said. I think he just wanted to meddle with another person's life which I was a bit peeved at it, I could meddle in Severus' life quite well on my own thank you very much. The man in question had moaned at this new development, I knew however that he was quite looking forward to working with someone who had the potential that Granger did.
A few terse words were exchanged (well terse on Severus' side), he instructed her to begin making a rather powerful healing draft before turning back to his own brew. Shrugging Granger placed her bag under the work surface, scratched me briefly (too briefly in my eyes) behind my ears and began setting up her potion. Still trying to put off the inevitable I ignored my potion and concentrated on the two humans.
Severus had just finished his potion when he hissed in pain, nearly dropping the finished liquid.
"What is the matter sir?" asked Granger turning from her own task.
"I am being called Miss Granger, I expect you to continue working while I am detained and I want everything finished and cleaned away when I return" snapped Severus quickly writing a note to Dumbledore.
"Be careful" I put in.
"I will be" he replied, glancing at me quickly "make sure Granger works well, and finish your potion" he said smirking, I began to argue but he was out of the door before I could plead my
case.
Sighing Granger added the correct amount of Armadillo bile, I crept closer so that I could see what she was doing.
"Is he always like that?" she asked turning to me. I nodded. Big mistake. Gasping she moved closer to me, so we were face to face.
"You can understand me?" I decided to play ignorant; she was having none of that though.
"Oh come on" she said "I know what I saw, and don't think that acting all Slytherin will help you." I decided to give in; secretly I quite liked the girl and couldn't see the harm in letting her know that I wasn't just a regular animal, like her cat.
I nodded and a bright grin broke out over her face. "Wow" she sighed "that's amazing I take it you're a bonded familiar then, to be so intelligent" I nodded again, no need to tell her that all wizarding animals were intelligent to a certain extent, although she was right in a sense, only bonded animals really tried to communicate with humans, others just couldn't see the point.
"So your bonded to Professor Snape?" again a nod, my neck was beginning to ache, attempting to change the subject slightly to save my neck I directed her attention towards her potion.
"Oh yes!" she exclaimed quickly carrying out the required steps "thanks, I almost forgot". Sighing I turned back towards my medicine bowl, might as well get rid of it while Severus was not in the room. After a few moments she noticed what I was doing, and setting her cauldron to simmer she took the bowl from me.
"What's this?" she asked, sniffing at it slightly, her face wrinkling in disgust. As answer to her question I began sneezing once again (not intentionally).
"You poor thing" she cried scratching me again, have I mentioned that she is very good at giving scratches?
Setting the bowl back down in front of me she quickly retrieved a book from her bag and flicked through it until she found the appropriate potion. "Alright a simple cold and fever relief potion, but Professor Snape obviously didn't add essence of mint to flavour it". Sighing she turned back to me. Seeing the resolve in her eyes to make sure that I took the correct dosage, I decided to implement my baby ferret look. This look had been perfected throughout the years and had always resulted in me getting my way, unfortunately Severus had become immune to it over the years, luckily though, his colleagues have not and I can frequently be found with a large slab of Minerva McGonagall's Scottish Shortbread, as a result of said look. This advanced manoeuvre involves puffing up my fur slightly and opening my eyes very wide, to give the impression of innocence, dooking quietly also helps.
I could practically see her heart melt and I had to work very hard to stop myself from sniggering at my success.
"Well" she said "I do need you to take this medicine" to which my head shot up, was it possible that my look had failed? Was my age finally catching up with me? Even despite the fact that in wizarding animals I was still considered young? "But I will flavour it for you" she finished. I sighed in relief, thank the gods, I thought I had lost my touch.
After drinking the changed potion, I sat close to her working area and continued to answer her questions. It only got difficult when I could not answer with a nod or a shake of the head. However we came to a compromise, in which I would point my nose at letters in one of her text books, spelling out my answer.
"S-o-p-h-i-a" she read "that's such a pretty name" she said and I puffed out my chest slightly.
I was getting quite fond of the girl, I would have to tell Severus to stop being so harsh on her, I needed her to be in a good mood so that she would scratch me.