21
It was Saturday, and Snape had the intention to enjoy it. That was why he pushed his teaching robes aside early in the morning and stepped into his cupboard.
The apprentice was already up and about, namely she was swimming in the pool.
"You are using it for actually swimming?" Snape asked, amusement lacing his voice. For years the pool had been used for lounging around it and in it on air mattresses.
The apprentice splashed a handful of water at the potions master. "You should try it," she laughed. "It's good for your fitness."
"Excuse me," Snape mock-protested. "I'll have you know that I am very fit."
"For a man of your age," the witch admitted, "but there is always room to improve. All that potion stirring does wonder to your arms, I'll give you that, but what about your legs? And your behind?"
"You have been looking at my backside?" Snape shrugged of his robes and dove into the pool. When he resurfaced beside the witch, he blew up a small fountain of water. "I don't think that's appropriate, young lady."
"You are no longer my master, technically," the witch informed him. "I can stare at any part of you I want for as long as I want and nobody can forbid it."
"In that case, I have to make sure my behind is pleasing for the eye," Snape nodded and pushed away from the poolside. The apprentice followed and they swam side by side.
A half hour later, Snape ordered a light breakfast to the poolside.
Breakfast at the Great Hall was almost over when the two potions experts made their appearance.
"Where were you!" cried Dumbledore. "We have been waiting for you!"
"Don't answer that," McGonagall glared at them sternly. "We don't want to hear about your escapades."
"Escapades?" asked Snape, puzzled.
"Your hair," Sprout stage-whispered.
Ah yes. They had forgotten to dry their hair.
"We were swimming. You should try it, too. It does wonders for your fitness," Snape informed the deputy headmistress with dignity.
"Swimming? Where would you go swimming at this time of the year?"
Snape cursed. The existence of his pool was not common knowledge and he wanted that to remain so. That would be all he needed, McGonagall walking through his bedroom to get to the pool.
"The lake," the apprentice interfered. "Ice swimming has a long tradition on the continent. I've come to love it and I wanted to share the experience with my master."
McGonagall glared at the other witch, clearly not believing a word.
"Why don't you join us one of these days," the apprentice suggested.
"You want me to believe that you destroyed the ice one day before the skating contest Severus has been looking forward to?" McGonagall huffed.
"To be honest, Minerva," Snape took over again, "I do not care what you believe. You are not my mother."
"But the example you set for the students!"
"He teaches them to be open-minded," Dumbledore pointed out. "Now, if you please, Severus, everybody is dying to find out what is in today's calendar window.
Snape took advantage of the change of topic immediately and stood to get the correct envelope. Meanwhile the apprentice cast hair-drying charms on them both.
"Today's window is for everybody," Snape read out. "The person to open it is Ernie McMillan."
The Hufflepuff prefect got up and walked to the head table proudly. It was not often, after all, that Hufflepuff house got some glory. They were hard workers and achieved just as much as the other houses, but unlike some, they were no attention-seekers.
This time the sparks stayed near the head table and when they dissolved, Ernie was standing in front of a big cauldron full of potion.
"What is that?" Snape turned to the apprentice immediately.
"I won't spoil the fun. It's completely harmless and fun."
Snape would not have it. He got up and took a cupful of potion from the cauldron. He did, however, not drink it but carefully sniffed the fumes. First from afar and then right from above the cup.
"Animagius draught?" he then raged at the apprentice. "You call animagius draught harmless? What if we get a couple of elephants? Or heaven forbid, a blue whale?"
"What are you talking about?" asked McGonagall.
"The drinker of animagius draught turns into an animal for a couple of hours. The problem is that you can't determine which animal. There have been accidents in the past."
"I changed the recipe, silly," laughed the apprentice. "I limited the size of animal you can become, and I managed to limit the brew to birds and mammals. Give me that."
Before Snape could do something, the apprentice had taken his cup, filled it and drunk a hearty sip.
The student body watched with baited breath as the witch sprouted feathers and wings and then took off into the rafters. From there, the robin twittered merrily at Snape.
"That looks like fun! I want to be a bird, too!" cried Potter from the Gryffindor table. He hurried to the cauldron and took a cupful, too. Ernie followed his lead, as did many of the students.
Soon the Great Hall was full of small mammals – mice, hamsters, guinea pigs and cats – and various songbirds.
"Come, Severus, it's our turn," Dumbledore slapped the other wizard on his back playfully.
Snape watched in horror how the headmaster turned into a big tomcat and went after hamster-Flitwick immediately. Wonderful, that was how he had imagined his Saturday. Running after the most powerful wizard of the age to prevent him from eating a colleague or a student.
Resigned, Snape sipped some of the potion. He'd rather be an animal, too, then chase after the others all day.
Luckily Snape became a bird, too. He flew up into the rafters and sat beside the apprentice-robin. He wanted to tell her off for causing so much chaos but all he could produce was the caw that was typical for a raven.
The robin chirped at him merrily before it flew away. Snape tried to follow but there were at least twenty robins in the Great Hall.
Luckily the house elves took care of the cat problem. They provided large amounts of cat food and the ten or so cats that were present soon were too full to hunt anything.
Later, when everybody had turned back, and the vast majority agreed that it had been a fun experience, the headmaster thanked the elves for their quick thinking and forbade the apprentice to teach the recipe for the potion to anybody other than the resident potions master.
Snape took his cue. "I want to know what you put in there immediately," he said sternly and they set out for the dungeons.
The potions master and his blonde witch were soon lounging on deck chairs, margaritas in hand, while the Weasley twins were trying to analyse the dose of potion they had nicked from the cauldron before the headmaster had banished what was left of the brew.
"Did you see Malfoy chase after Potter?" the apprentice giggled.
"Indeed," drawled Snape. "Mr Malfoy makes a cute ferret."
"As does Mr Potter," added the apprentice. "We were lucky they were more interested in outrunning each other than eating the other students."
Snape thought that with some students he would not have minded had they been eaten but he didn't say it. Why spoil a pleasant evening with talk about students being eaten.
Instead, he held out his empty glass and watched the blonde refill it for him.