Launching Ships, Chapter Three
"I- I won't, sir," said Fred breathlessly, unable to believe that Professor Snape was actually going to help him.
"Don't get used to it," Snape replied, glancing down at the recipe still in his hand. "Will you need to borrow a golden cauldron?"
Fred stared at him, not having thought of it. A golden cauldron (the real ones, not the transfigured cauldrons that they sold cheaply for one-time use) would likely cost more than his house. "You...would that be permitted?"
"Only as long as you don't melt it. And as long as you tell me what you meant by 'basilisk parts'."
Fred face-palmed. "Right. Yeah." And then Fred quickly handed over the ingredients, and Snape found himself with an armful of bags. The tongue, too large to fit fully into the bag, flopped wetly against the professor's arm.
Snape stared at the bags, and then at the slick wet venomous tongue. "Is that...?"
"A basilisk tongue and assorted parts? Yes. And by the way, there's more where that came from."
The Potion Master swallowed hard. "This is...I don't know what to say."
Fred wondered if the event of Professor Snape being rendered speechless would make it into Hogwarts, a History. It was certainly a momentous event.
"How about we hash out the details on paper?" Fred said, grinning. "Accio parchment!" He stared down at said parchment, chewing on his quill.
We, Fred Fabian Weasley and Severus-
"Um, what's your middle name?"
"Tob-" Snape stopped dead. "Give me that contract! If a contract is going to be written, I will be the one to write it!"
"Not without my input," was Fred's reply. "Since it was my idea and I have all the bargaining chips, Mr. Slytherin. You trapped yourself."
Black eyes widened. "Why, you-" he broke off, blinked a few times, and then started to laugh. Fred began to wonder if he had broken him. "Very Slytherin," he said when he could speak. "Very well, you may write it. I reserve the right to change it in any way, however. And my middle name is Tobias."
"Sounds good." Fred put his quill to parchment again.
We, Fred Fabian Weasley and Severus Tobias Snape, do swear to uphold the following arrangement as long as following it will not do harm to us or anyone who has not harmed us (directly or indirectly). The agreement itself is as follows: Severus agrees to assist me substantially in the preparation and test-driving of my formula "Love Poison" and not discipline me in any way for the idea or creation potion itself or take the matter to any of the other head of houses or Dumbledore. (Any pranks played by the usage of said potion are fair game.) I will, in return, give him thirty-eight basilisk scales, two fangs, a vial of venom, a tongue, and a square of skin, and pledge not to use the Love Poison against him (in perpetuity.)
The consequences of breaking this contract made in magic are as follows: anything Severus wears will turn into Gryffindor drag, with golden feathers and sequins, for a month, and everything I eat will taste like custard pie for a month.
Fred handed the contract to the professor, who read it through. When he got to the consequences, his eyes widened. "Custard pie?" was all he said.
"Well, I didn't want something that was actually harmful as a penalty, but there had to be something. I figured you'd hate having to wear Gryffindor colors, and I can't stand custard pie. It's gross! Horrible! It has the consistency of mucous baked into a pie shell! I hate it!"
"That was more detail than I would ever need," Snape returned, going back to looking at the contract. "But very well. He paused a moment, flicking his wand to scan the contract (evidently to detect invisible fine print) and then drew out a quill. "You sign first."
Fred picked it up and signed, with a wary eye on Snape, then handed him the quill. Snape smirked. "Never sign a Wizarding contract first," he responded, a tiny smile on his thin lips. "How do you know I'm going to sign?"
"Because I know where there's a sixty-foot basilisk and can get to it, and you probably want organ meat from it?"
Snape stared at him, opened his mouth, shut it again, and then sighed and drew his spidery signature with a muttered "you better get me the liver."
There was a pause, during which both signatures flashed golden. Then two of them looked at each other.
"So you wish to begin brewing?"
Fred was faint with excitement. "Hell yeah!"
"Language, Mr. Weasley. Five points from Gryffindor."
Fred winced. "Sorry, professor."
A very small smile was Snape's only reply as he removed a golden cauldron, a jug of dew, and twelve bottles, as well as a loosely-woven white cloth and several implements. "Come," he said. "There is an unused classroom which will be adequate for brewing."
Fred could scarcely believe his luck. Professor Snape, the bane of all pranksters, was going to help him? With an experimental love potion? And he was going to let him borrow a golden cauldron? He must have accidentally ingested Felix Felicis!
It was, if possible, even more fun to brew the potion than it had been to come up with it in the first place. Fred had always loved a challenge, and this certainly fulfilled the requirements of a challenge, seeing how difficult the completely new potion was even with the help of the resident Potion Master. He chopped, stirred, and mixed, heating the dew to tepid in the golden cauldron and then adding spearmint which he had bruised himself in a little mortar specifically for aromatics, before adding the hyssop leaves, freshly stripped from the stem, while Snape helped him by pulverizing the moonstone and opal.
After that, Fred had to (very carefully) sift the semiprecious rock dust into the cauldron, turning the mixture a nice opalescent lavender. Interesting. He had had no idea it would do that! Fred quickly grabbed a quill and scrawled a note about the color; he would perhaps have written more, but Snape snapped at him to stir the mixture before the potion was ruined, and Fred hastily abandoned his observations. He could always go back and look at them in a pensive, later...
"Slower! Stir it, don't beat it like egg whites!"
"Yes sir," Fred replied, and then: "Could you please jot that down?"
"You owe me," Snape replied calmly, scrawling the new instruction.
"How about I get you some more basilisk parts?" Fred responded. The potion was now a beautiful iridescent blue.
"The liver and more scales, and I will write whatever you want, within reason."
"Just the liver, I already gave you some scales," Fred bargained, taking the cauldron off the heat to let it stand, while crushing the thorns and slicing the baobob leaves. An hour later, he added the rose petals and extracted a promise from Snape to keep an eye on the potion to ensure that it was not tainted by debris or spoiled.
For twelve days he and Snape kept an eye on the potion. At last, the final ingredients: ashwinder eggs, (they really did splatter a lot), the demiguise hair (which, interestingly, actually rendered the potion itself invisible) Antipodian Opaleye tears, and belladonna (the trigger portion would not be added until the potion was ready to use). Then the potion was bottled and strained. While still warm and Fred thanked Snape for his help and gave the man a vial of the potion to study, taking the rest with him. Let the games begin!