The Potion - Chapter 2

Two weeks later, after many a long hour alone together in the dungeons, the mysterious potion was minutes away from being finished.

"I can't believe we're actually going to drink this," whined Severus. "We're going to die and I'll be forever known as the stupidest member of my family. And that's saying something, trust me. I have no idea why I let you talk me into this."

Lily smiled wolfishly and said, "You never really had any choice in the matter. I used my feminine wiles."

Severus snorted in laughter and muttered, "You've got about as much feminine wiles as I have aristocratic charm."

Lily gasped, slapped Severus' arm and exclaimed, "I take offense at that!"

Severus nodded and said, "Yeah, that's why I said it."

Severus, who had been counting away the seconds in his head, suddenly straightened and called out, "Alright! We have ten seconds until we take this off the fire. And then it'll be done, and we can get ready to die. In...four...three...two...NOW!"

Lily quickly moved the cauldron from the fire and cast a cooling spell. She carefully walked to the next table and placed it there. While she was doing this Severus crossed the room and picked out two vials from the supply closet. He brought them back and set them next to the cauldron.

The two students stood together and gazed at the completed potion. "It's times like these," quipped Severus, "that I regret not knowing Latin."

Lily shifted her gaze from the potentially deadly potion to her friend. "Times when you've brewed, with a beautiful girl from a rival house, an archaic potion that could kill you since it's written in a dead language?"

Severus considered for a moment and said flatly, "Yeah...pretty much."

Lily returned, just as flatly, "Oh. Call me crazy, but I had thought this was one of those situations that's pretty unique."

Severus smiled wryly and said, "You're crazy. Last year I did the same thing with Sanskrit and Manijeh Caldwell"

"And you're full of shit."

"And you're jealous because I've made potions with other beautiful girls. What, did you think that I lived in a cave before you?"

Lily raised an eyebrow and asked, "You think I'm beautiful?"

For a split second Severus looked like a deer caught in headlights, then he recovered his composure and shot back, "Well, you're nothing compared to Manni, but you're pretty damn good."

Lily looked slightly crestfallen, and Severus felt the urge to take back what he said and tell her the truth: that he thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world. But, she recovered so quickly that he lost his chance. "You're no catch yourself, Sev."

"Ouch."

"Awww, Severus, you know I'm just kidding."

Severus chuckled slightly, and said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. I was just kidding with you too."

There was a short silence, in which Lily surveyed Severus with interest. He was such an enigma to her. To everyone else he was this brutal, nasty, slimy bastard. To her, though, he acted like a totally different person. He was...nice. And charming. And, for God's sake, he was playful. Playful!

Lily was shaken from her reverie as Severus gestured to the cooling potion. "If this kills us," he said, glaring, "I'll kill you."

Lily raised an eyebrow and said, "That's nowhere even close to making sense."

"Maybe not to those of inferior intellects, such as yourself."

Lily balked at that statement and smacked Severus on the arm. Severus winced and rubbed the spot where she had struck him, saying, "You know, if you keep doing that, people are going to say you batter me."

Lily snorted and laughed. "Oh please." Deciding that she didn't want to waste anymore time, she moved over to the potion and poured out two carefully measured amounts of it into the vials.

"Here," she said, handing one vial to Severus, who took it carefully. The two teens stood silent for a few seconds, neither very sure if they really wanted to do this.

Finally, steeling himself for the worst, Severus said, "Well, I guess this is the moment of truth." He raised his vial in a mock salute to Lily, and then downed the entire contents. Not to be outdone, Lily followed suit, almost instantly.

The two stood in the middle of the dungeon, tensed up for anything to happen. A few seconds went by, and nothing did. Second by second they relaxed until finally they were grinning at each other in profound relief.

"I guess, maybe, the recipe wasn't complete," Severus said through his smile. "It doesn't seem to be having any effect."

Almost as soon as these words were out of his mouth, however, his legs lost all feeling and he collapsed to the ground. He vaguely noticed, through blurry eyes, that Lily had also collapsed and was lying directly in front of him.

Through the haze that his mind had become, Severus thought, "I just wish I'd told her how I felt." And then his entire world went black.