Severus met Lily in the common room before breakfast the next morning. She lost no time in discussing the upcoming Prefects meeting when they would be handing out the patrol timetables.

On the way, Severus quickly stole a glance at the notice board. There was already a poster up, giving the date of the first Hogsmeade weekend, which was to be in October.

"So, we have Aquila Black, Emma Vanity, Damocles Belby, Patricia Phillips, Edgar Bones, Zayden Walker, Talia Moon, and Remus," said Lily. "Walker is replacing Dirk Cresswell, and Vanity replacing Stebbins. Then, of course, James has equal status, owing to being Quidditch Captain and all."

"He was pretty proud of that badge last night," Severus stated.

"Of course," said Lily. "Wasn't ever a surprise he would get it eventually though. He's always been a spectacular Chaser. A giant toerag on occasion, but you'd have to be daft to think he can't play Quidditch with his eyes shut."

Severus had to concede the point. It was extremely accurate. He hated the other wizard, but even he would never say the boy hadn't rightfully earned and kept his spot on that team. As much as it annoyed him, it was as easy as breathing to Potter.

"Enough about that, though," said Severus. "I would be hard-pressed to care less about Potter's little badge. For the record, Stebbins losing his badge was the best thing to happen this year. Vanity will take her position seriously."

"Are you sure?" said Lily. "I didn't get much of a reading off Vanity back on the train."

"She was pretty annoyed when she was passed over for Stebbins in fifth-year," he said. "She's going to milk it for all it's worth, and won't risk lowering herself to Stebbins' level."

"You know them better than I do," Lily shrugged. "I'll give her the benefit of the doubt."

Severus nodded in acknowledgement.

"When are you wanting to have the meeting?" he inquired.

"Tonight at seven?" Lily suggested.

"By all means," Severus replied.

It wasn't long before they joined the queue to climb out of the portrait hole, and made their way down to breakfast. They stopped most of the prefects on their way into the Great Hall and finally took their seats at the Gryffindor table.

The ceiling of the Great Hall was serenely blue and streaked with frail, wispy clouds, just like the squares of sky visible through the high mullioned windows. While they tucked into porridge and eggs and bacon, Professor McGonagall moved along the table handing out timetables.

"Look at today," said Severus. "Alchemy, double Potions, Ancient Runes, and double Defence Against the Dark Arts. Should be an interesting day."

"To say the least," Lily said, wholeheartedly agreeing.

"I'll still never understand why you're taking Alchemy," said Marlene. "You're taking more classes than anyone else at this rate."

"Just one more," said Severus, glancing at Lily's timetable. "It's not as though there isn't time for it. It's during a free period."

"That's still the worst Monday I've ever seen," said Marlene.

"Well, if anyone can do it, it's Severus," said Lily. "Besides, he's way too determined to back out now."

"You've got that right," smirked Severus.

Lily, however, had dropped the class, and never looked back. She wanted to hold onto her sanity, thank you very much. Besides, the chances of it hindering any of her career choices were rather slim. Alchemy was a very particular field.

"Good luck, mate," said Alice. "You'll need it."

"D'you reckon this year's going to be really tough? Because of the exams?" said Mary.

"Definitely," said Severus. "It's bound to be, isn't it? N.E.W.T.s are really important, affect the jobs you can apply for and everything. They're probably worse than the OWL exams, and didn't half our year have a nervous breakdown?"

"Something like that," said Lily, rather grimly. "I remember bringing quite a few students up to the hospital wing for calming draughts."

"Fantastic," Marlene grumbled.

With a whoosh and a clatter, hundreds of owls came soaring in through the upper windows. They descended all over the Hall, bringing letters and packages to their owners and showering the breakfasters with droplets of water; it was clearly raining hard outside Lily had to move her orange juice aside quickly to make way for a large damp barn owl bearing a sodden Daily Prophet in its beak.

"Anything new?" inquired Severus, as Lily placed a Knut in the leather pouch on the owl's leg and it took off again. "Or is it just the usual rubbish?"

"I'll tell you in a minute," said Lily darkly, and she unfurled the newspaper and disappeared behind it, not emerging until Severus had finished eating.

"Nothing,' she said simply, rolling up the newspaper and laying it down beside her plate. "Nothing about any new attacks or anything."

"Brilliant," Severus drawled sarcastically.

After breakfast was Alchemy. It wasn't exactly the easiest subject, but Severus found it interesting enough. You dealt with a lot of theory and research in that class, and as a result, the handful of students taking it had essays constantly.

The professor wasn't the most engaging, but it was interesting enough. The first class mostly consisted of review. Professor Vector lectured them on the four basic elements, without pausing, while the students took notes.

Finally, the bell rang signalling the end of class. Severus then quickly made his way down to the dungeons for double Potions. It wasn't long before he joined Lily in the queue lining up outside Slughorn's classroom door.

A moment later the dungeon door creaked open, revealing Slughorn's great walrus moustache curved above his beaming mouth. He filed into the classroom and took his usual table at the back, where he sat down beside Lily and ignored the huffy, irritable noises now issuing from Avery, Bulstrode and Pucey.

"All right then, let's get started," said Professor Slughorn, moving towards the front of the classroom. "Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at the N.E.W.T Level: the Drowsiness Draught."

Severus sat up a little straighter, his expression one of utmost attention.

"What can any of you tell me about it?" Slughorn inquired.

Severus instantly raised his hand.

"Yes, Mister Snape?" Slughorn questioned.

"The Drowsiness Draught, sir, is a potion whose fumes are used to induce drowsiness, tiredness and fatigue in the drinker," he replied smoothly. "The potion produces a light pinkish-purple steam."

"Correct Mister Snape," said Slughorn. "If brewed correctly, the potion will emit the light vapour you described. I must warn you, do to the nature of the potion, you must be careful when brewing. You'll have to work to stay focused if you're around the fumes too long."

"The ingredients and method—" Slughorn flicked his wand "-are on the blackboard" -(they appeared there) – "you will find everything you need" — he flicked his wand again – "in the store cupboard" - (the door of the said cupboard sprang open) "- you have an hour and a half... start."

They immediately set to work. It was quite a challenging potion, but it made the Draught of Peace look easy. Apparently, he had decided not to be too hard on them their first lesson back.

Severus never dropped his concentration, until about halfway through, when they had to let the potion simmer.

Potter and Black had caught his attention, snickering. From the looks of it, they were playing hangman on a corner of a bit of parchment. Lily wasted no time in shooting them filthy looks out of the corner of her eye.

"Do they intend to pass their NEWTs?" Lily said coldly.

"You do realise who you're talking about?" Severus stated.

"They better not ask to borrow any of my notes this year," she said. "If they muck it up, they'd deserve it. They seriously don't try."

"Preaching to the choir, Lils," said Severus.

Lily just sighed.

Before long the potion had taken on a more purple hue, and they returned their focus back to their work stations.

Severus was silent the entire time he cut his Sopophorous beans.

He had just added the last bit of powdered root of asphodel when Professor Slughorn spoke up.

"You should have a slightly redder vapour coming from your potion now," said Slughorn, with ten minutes left to go.

Severus, who was sweating profusely, looked bemused around the dungeon. His own cauldron was issuing a pinkish-purple steam; Mary's was issuing copious amounts of purple steam. Alice was fairing little better. The surface of Lily's potion, however, was a shimmering, slightly darker, mist of pinkish-purple. As Slughorn swept by, he looked down at both Lily and Severus's cauldrons, beaming.

"Well… well… You both have delivered yet again," said Slughorn, rather jovially. "Twenty points apiece ought to do it. Well done to the both of you."

"Thank you, sir," said Lily. Severus just gave a curt nod, lips curling upwards into a wry smile.

Just then the bell rang, signalling the end of class.

"Now, I want everyone to fill one flagon with a sample of your potion, label it clearly with your name and bring it up to my desk for testing," said Slughorn. "Now, for homework: twelve inches of parchment on the properties of moondew and its uses in potion-making, to be handed in on Thursday."

A groan could be heard from Potter and Black, but Slughorn ignored it.

Within minutes everyone marched up to Slughorn's desk with filled and corked flagons.

A moment later there was the usual scuffle of activity as everyone packed their bags and swung them onto their shoulders. Severus and Lily quickly joined the rush of students heading for lunch.

"I can't figure out what I did wrong," sighed Mary, outside of the Great Hall. "Even Alice's potion was better than mine."

"I'd hazard a guess at adding too much Infusion of Wormwood," Severus offered. "If you forgot to drop the temperature down enough, it can be rather temperamental."

"Hmm," said Mary.

"Yours was still better than Pucey's," said Lily consolingly. "Professor Slughorn had to vanish the entire cauldron. He didn't even get to hand in a phial."

"Well Pucey is a hazard to himself and others," sneered Severus. "I have no idea how he managed to scrape by into N.E.W.T level."

Lily looked as if she wanted to argue, but couldn't honestly contest his point. Pucey had melted an outlandish number of cauldrons over the years.