Will's Point of View
It was the day before the potion's competition, and I was going down to the dungeons. Where snape would help me a bit in growing my potion abilities. Snape over the course of almost two years had gone from absolutely spiteful to a bit neutral, and maybe if I could believe it, a bit less cold then he was normally to students.
I took that as a wonderful sign. We had gotten to know each other a bit through that time, and to be honest I did understand why he felt the way he did about our family. Mom's memories were definitely helpful in understanding that aspect.
"You were almost late." Snape chastised me, "Sorry professor, I was making sure my possessions were unpacked correctly." We had literally come back to Hogwarts not three hours ago. I had ran through some of the corridors to the dungeon at vampire speed because I knew that otherwise I would have been late, instead of almost so. I had lost track of time during unpacking, and also got lost in my potions book along the way.
"I see." He said and made some last-minute checks of the cauldron and potion ingredients at a table in the middle of the room. The ingredients I saw that stood out to me specifically, were lavender, crocodile hearts, and peppermint. Usually found in a calming draught. That was a fourth-year potion though, looking at him, he asked, "Is there a problem?"
I shook my head no, "It's just, I don't remember any second-year potions with those ingredients." I said pointing to them. He smirked a bit, "Contrary to your belief will, I think you might be ready for a more complex potion. I'm certain you know which one they make?" I nodded; a bit surprised. You don't receive compliments from snape very often, even if you do extraordinarily well.
"Calming draught." Professor snape didn't really like long or show-offy answers. I learned that early on. those in his opinion just wasted time, and I had to agree. Nodding at my assumption, he said, "We start with simmering the water." He used his wand to put water in both cauldrons and placed a spell that would make the water simmer on his own, knowing I could cast the spell for my cauldron myself.
I cast the spell to get my cauldron simmering. Audibly, of course, and he told me the next step, "Next, we make sure that the lavender has had a chance to seep into the water, so we'll be waiting for ten minutes." After placing in the lavender, we stirred our respective cauldrons five times counterclockwise and sat down somewhere.
It wasn't like there was anything to do to the potion during the ten minutes it would take for the lavender to seep into the water. I decided it might be good to take out my potions book. I think there was the calming draught in it actually if my memory didn't fault me. I decided checking it might be good.
With a quick look at it, I could tell all the ingredients needed were there, not only the main three; but also moonstone that would be crushed into a fine powder before usage; and porcupine quills which also needed to be powdered. There were a few others I could see as well.
"You are going to be participating in the competition, aren't you?" Apparently snape had been watching me while I was looking up the calming draught, "Yes." I had planned to participate, and by the way the lessons were going, I guessed I would do at least somewhat well. It was clear the conversation was over after that until he said, "We should add the peppermint oil now." About five minutes later.
Putting my book away, I took a look at the potion so far. It was pink in color, from what the book said adding in the peppermint the potion should turn it into a more light version of pink then it was now, "Remember, three drops, to much peppermint could cause unwanted side effects." After adding it in we needed to skin the crocodile heart.
Skinning a crocodile heart was exactly as pleasant as it sounds. Although I enjoyed potion making, touching entrails was definitely not my favorite part of the trade, and when the entrails shot out a juice it once used to maintain itself? Absolutely disgusting, even more so when it gets high enough to get in my hair. Which is why I learned to dissect them without the whole getting squirted thing. It made the action considerably less gross, however, there really was no way to forget that this was in fact an internal organ.
Skining a crocodile heart consisted of cutting through the skin and gathering the veins that used to pump oxygenated blood. I wasn't entirely sure what would happen if you took from the side of deoxygenated blood veins, "You have a question?" His words were a statement framed as a question. It was a bit frustrating actually how easily he managed to figure out what I was feeling.
"What would happen if you took the deoxygenated blood veins?" He looked thoughtful for a moment, "Well, I imagine it has to do with breathing. A calming draught makes the drinker involuntarily take deep breaths, one's they wouldn't be in the right mind to take normally; but if you take it from the deoxygenated side, it would either not cause deep breathing," Meaning nothing at all, I thought, "Or, it would cause a difficulty breathing." It sort of made sense, "Thanks." I said while placing the veins in the potion. The potion turned a nice shade of violet, as it was supposed to. Based on what I knew, it would eventually turn blue after moonstone and porcupine quills.
A/N: I have a question for you that I will post in a poll soon after I post this: Should the knights of the round table come to the future in the next book? Or should lily and will go to the past? If they go to the past, should they go to a time where merlin is a child? Or a time when merlin is an adult? Read, Follow, Fav, review, or whatever you want to do.