Chapter 5

Thursday, Snape thought to himself with a disgusted snort. I have to try and teach those little dress-up dolls again. Somehow, within the last forty-eight hours, Severus Snape had managed to convince himself that Hermione Granger's children were hopeless incompetents. Tuesday's lesson's success had faded into the background in the light of the blonde little Granger's attempted fixing of her sister's nose. The thought of the sprouting whiskers made him shake his head in disdain and contempt. They may be eleven, but they sure as hell weren't ready to be working on the kinds of potions that he had in mind for today…

For their part, the twins were a little on the nervous side as well.

"Stop fidgeting, Adrienne! Lianna, if you play with your hair any more, it'll fall out! Do you really want Snape to see you're afraid of him?" Hermione was at the end of her tether, and it was all she could do to tie a knot and hang on. "He'll pounce! How will you ever learn how to deal with people who have animosity for you? Argh!"

Spinning around, Hermione walked out of the room, leaving her two, restless girls standing, startled, in the middle of the room.

"Was it something I said?" Lianna asked, making Ri smile nervously at her sister.

"I wonder what's gotten into her? She's more nervous now than she was on her first day of classes!"

"How do you remember her first day of classes? We were five!"

"Well, I remember that she was nervous, that's all. It sort of stood out."

"I don't remember her being so nervous, just that she was a little jittery. This is something different. She's trying to prove something."

"Oh, really? Well… well…" Adrienne trailed off, caught in what she wanted to convey. "Well," she said hesitantly, "I agree. She's trying to prove something. I wonder what it is?" Both girls peered curiously out the kitchen window into the garden, watching Hermione pulling out weeds with her bare hands, even though her wand was sitting on the table. She moved jerkily, flinging the little plants into a pile. When she had completed a bed, she stood up, brushed her hands off a little, grasped her wand and obliterated the pile of leaves. A thin wisp of smoke lifted hesitantly off the scorched pavement. Hermione mouthed some words, and another flicker of light healed the blackened pathway. Then she moved on to the next bed. The girls pulled their heads back out of the window.

"Yup, really wants to prove something."

The girls trotted out the insubstantial wall, down to the dark dungeons.

~*~

Nearly three o'clock. Snape forced himself to sit at his desk, and look at his lesson plans again, although he didn't need to. He had done this so many times it was second nature: when to place the snarl, when to pivot and stare at the child scuffing his shoes, when to slam his hand down on the desk. The words of his opening speech were well rehearsed, and he knew exactly how menacing he was.

What he didn't know how to do, however, was deal with these two girls. The knock came at his door, and he motioned for the door to open. It did so, without his getting up. The girls walked in and stood in front of him at the desk, while he ignored them, thinking quickly about what they would do. Suddenly, he looked up, glaring at them, as though they were the cause for the entire world's evil.

"Sit down. The instructions are on the board. Stop pestering me. I will inspect when you are done." And with a glare, the girls walked- calmly- to their seats. They didn't appear to be afraid of him. He would have to remedy that, somehow. Without a great deal of overt intimidation, or he'd have Minerva and the pests' mother breathing down his neck. Snape pondered this while he appeared to be reviewing his syllabus.

Lianna looked at the board in dismay. "Regeneration Potion?" She mouthed silently at her sister, who shrugged and began to walk towards the supply cupboard. Lianna could find nothing inside herself that was ready to create a third-year level potion. Madame Pomfrey used a vamped-up version of this potion to regrow skin, and she was pretty sure that it was also a variant on this theme that composed Skele-Gro, which would regrow bones inside the human body. She'd never know, of course, because there was a patent on it.

Adrienne placed her sister's ingredients on her table, and moved to seat herself before her own bench. She sat to the left of her sister, where they could maintain eye contact. Ri risked a glance at the imposing man sitting at the table. He didn't appear to be looking at his syllabus much, although he had a quite nasty grin on his face. Adrienne found that she wouldn't be looking forward to Potions very much when she began school.

Reading the instruction for the fourth time, Adrienne began to complete the steps. Lianna read the instructions and didn't know where to start. She sighed, resigning herself to a quite average potion. Oh well, she thought, can't win them all.

Adrienne moved in somewhat of a daze. She knew what she was doing, but the exact timing of everything was something she just felt. The measurements of ingredients and force required to stir the congealing potion were also instinctive. After quite some minutes of such instinct, Adrienne's potion was created. Sniffing it, she knew that it was perfect. She retrieved a volumetric flask from the wall and labelled it. Then she bottled the syrupy potion and stoppered it securely. Not forgetting her last lesson, she cleaned her cauldron- by hand- in the sink at the back of the classroom. It wasn't that she didn't know the incantation to cleanse the thing; but that such things might contaminate any potions she created in her cauldron. Ri accepted this knowledge without thinking, and it was only later that she realised that this wasn't something anyone had told her.

Lianna finished her potion thanks to hard work. It was completed, and not bungled, but she was dripping sweat, and her head was beginning to ache from extended concentration. She thanked her sister for the labelled flask that was handed her, and once she'd bottled the potion, she placed this on the desk before their unwilling tutor quietly, and returned to her seat. She washed out her cauldron as she'd observed her sister do, and the twins then sat calmly, waiting for their teacher to dismiss them.

Snape looked up from his daydreaming to see two tightly stoppered completed potions before him. Having fully expected to see two smoking cauldrons and two whimpering children, nervous enough to have not disturbed him, he was greatly annoyed. How dare these children take his fun away? He snarled, before picking up the potions to inspect them.

The first was average. It was clear, but slightly too thin. The colour was consistent, but a little too light. Nonetheless, if this had been created in class, he would have been happily surprised.

The second: well, Snape wouldn't believe it. It was perfect. He wondered idly whether he could have created this potion so well. He swirled it a little, held it up to the meagre light and set it down quickly, frightened he may drop it. They were both labelled in clean print. Glancing at the clock, he was surprised to see that it was nearly five o'clock. He glared at the girls, before waving at them to leave. They walked out, careful not to hurry, and shut the door softly behind them.

Once they were gone, Snape picked up the potion again to marvel at it.

~*~

"I wonder what he was thinking about when he had that nasty smile on his face. What do you reckon, Ri? I think he was trying to find ways to torture us without mama knowing, or Aunt Minerva." Li looked completely at ease with her answer. Ri answered with her own question.

"Li, do you ever wonder who our father is?"

"Fathers are. I don't think we're from the same father."

Ri looked a little startled. "How could we not be?"

Li floundered a little, but the answer was there, for some reason. "I don't know. I think I remember reading that sometimes, if it happens close enough together, and if the conditions are right, that you can get twins that aren't of the same father."

"Conditions are right?"

"Oh, you know. We've both read the books."

"Yes, I know, it just sounds funny. Well, have you ever wondered who our fathers are?"

"Nope. Never. Don't think I really want to know, either. Mama would have told us by now if she thought it was in our best interests. I sort of get the feeling-" Li did get a feeling then, sort of in her midsection, under her solar plexus. Ri jumped a little at the word feeling, recognising that she hadn't known that she shouldn't charm her cauldron, it was just a feeling, "-that it's connected to some sort of awful story that mama doesn't want to tell us. And if it's connected to some sort of awful story, then I don't want to know. Mama will tell us when it's necessary." Li subsided, and Ri thought over what her sister had said.

"Yes, I think you're right. It makes sense. I still wonder, though."

And with that, the conversation moved on to more pleasant- and less controversial- topics.

~*~

Another portion of the story for you: thankyou to my reviewers! Thankyou all, readers and reviewers alike. Happy dreaming!

*kitten