10. Potions Class
The next morning at breakfast, Professor Snape seemed to be his usual silent self. Though, as he looked a little tired, Evangeline figured he might not have had a particularly restful night. Probably spent the night pacing the dungeon and brooding, she mused. I'll bet there's a lot more to the story than Professor Dumbledore told me.
As she was finishing up her meal, a large barn owl came swooping in and dropped a package next to her plate. She opened it to find her final potion ingredient inside. Perfect timing, she thought, as she turned to Professor Snape and asked, "Severus, this is the last ingredient I needed to make my potions. Would it be okay if I made use of your classroom and equipment today to mix everything up?"
Turning to her, he nodded. "Certainly. Come down whenever you wish."
"That's great!" She smiled happily at him and grabbed up her box. "I'll just go get my things, and I'll meet you down there."
Brimming with excitement, she headed off to her room. Quickly she collected her potions ingredients and headed back down to the dungeons, eager to get started. She could hardly wait to begin the massive task of cleaning and restoring the castle paintings. Coming to Hogwarts had ended up being so much more than just a convenient place to hide. The opportunity that Dumbledore had offered to her lit fire to her imagination, she'd never tackled such a challenging job before, and she was thrilled to get the chance. And although she wasn't quite ready to admit it to herself yet, she was also enjoying the opportunity of getting to know the secretive Potions Master better. The man was like an intriguing mystery, and having the opportunity to delve beneath the surface and learn more about him was proving to be very appealing to her surprise.
When she entered Snape's classroom, she discovered that he'd already set up a work area for her in a well-lighted corner of the room. He'd provided two cauldrons, various instruments, and a large assortment of bottles for her to store her finished potions in. She was touched by his thoughtfulness, but when she told him so, he replied that she was being ridiculous. After all, he'd told her that he was interested in watching her work. It merely seemed sensible to set things up in anticipation of observing her labors.
She smiled at him. "Well, I appreciate your efforts, anyway. I need to make three kinds of potions, a cleaning solution, a restoring potion, and an animating potion. The first two don't take very long to make and will be usable immediately. The animating potion will take several hours, at least, to make, and then it needs to simmer for two days until it's just the right consistency. Would it be better if I made that one up in my quarters upstairs, so it's not a nuisance for you?"
Dismissing her concerns, he shook his head. "It shouldn't matter. You can leave it to simmer on the night hearth, over there against the wall. It won't be any trouble."
Pleased at his answer, she nodded and turned eagerly to her equipment. "Okay then, let's get started."
Evangeline spent a very enjoyable morning brewing up her two easier potions, then after a short lunch break, catered by the wonderfully efficient house elves, spent an equally enjoyable afternoon working on the animating potion. Spending all this time in the dungeon with the Potions Master had turned out to be as interesting as she'd thought and a much more pleasurable experience than she'd been afraid it might be considering his mercurial personality. Having company and assistance helped to make the task flow better and seem more interesting. As they worked, the two of them exchanged a lot of information in a collegial manner. Severus had quite a lot of suggestions on ways that she could improve her techniques. He was fairly polite about how he suggested them to her, although he did tend to lecture a bit. She supposed he couldn't help it, being a teacher, after all. Clearly he knew far more than she ever would about the general art of potion making, and she tried to take his suggestions to heart.
In return Evangeline taught him everything that she knew about concocting animating and restoring potions. He really did seem quite interested, asking lots of questions about all the possible uses of the potions, and suggesting a couple of this own that she'd never thought of before. All in all, it was the most relaxing and enjoyable day that she'd spent at Hogwarts. Severus turned out to be surprisingly pleasant company when he wished to be, and she found herself truly enjoying the time she spent talking to him. Everything was going so smoothly, in fact, that a couple of times she was tempted to ask him about Professor Lupin and his dog, but she didn't want to break the congenial mood, and in the end, her courage failed her, and she kept silent.
"There!" she exclaimed as she set the cauldron of potion to simmer gently on the night hearth and wiped her hands in satisfaction. "I'll need to check on it every few hours over the next two days."
"Could I possibly do that for you at night? It seems a shame for you to have to come all the way down here," he offered unexpectedly.
Surprised but pleased by his offer of aid, she nevertheless felt she needed to decline. "Thank you for the offer, Severus, but I know better than you do what it should look like. I don't mind coming down here to check on it. It's still better than having it smelling up my bedroom or yours."
"It does have a rather pungent odor. Could that be remedied in some fashion?" he inquired with interest.
"I don't think so. Any extra ingredients would alter how the potion works. The smell goes away once the potion is bottled in preparation for use anyway, so it's not really a problem."
Suddenly she found herself staring deeply into his dark eyes again, and the silence between them began to seem a little awkward. The feeling of collegiality fled to be replaced with something more tense and disquieting. Feeling the need to break the mood and fill the silence, she swallowed nervously and turned away from him abruptly. "I'll just take these finished bottles of potion up to my room. I should be able to get started on the paintings tomorrow. Thank you for all of your help, Severus." She flashed him a slightly timid smile.
"It was my pleasure, Evangeline," he said in that silky tone that sent shivers up her spine. Suddenly overwhelmed by his presence, she grabbed up her things and escaped, promising that she'd see him at dinner.