Broomsticks and private lessons

When she woke up in the morning she couldn't remember how she had gotten into bed. She also didn't remember her dreams. The only thing spinning in her mind for a few minutes was the previous evening. She got up, opened the curtains and the windows to let the sunshine and fresh air in while getting dressed and ready for breakfast and lessons. While she looked into the mirror combing her hair she noticed the faint smile on her face. When she had packed her bag for today's lessons she left her room and went down to have breakfast.

Ron, Harry, Fred and George were already there eating porridge.

"Good morning Lillian" said Fred cheerfully.

"Yeah good morning" agreed Fred.

Ron offered her the bowl with porridge. "Help yourself."

"Uhm no thanks. I hate porridge." She grabbed the bowl with cereals instead and underlined her statement with a disgusted sort of face.

"Are you serious?" exclaimed Harry surprised and eyeballed her.

"Yes. I had an unpleasant experience with porridge. Since then I hate it."

"Okay. However, you seem to be in a rather good mood."

"Yes." She poured milk over her cereals and began to eat.

"How come? D-Didn't you follow Snape's order?"

"Yes I did" replied Lillian between two spoons of cereals.

Ron and Harry exchanged looks.

"What did he want?"

"Talk to me." She went on eating as if she had been starving.

"Talk to you? About what?"

"Ron, aren't you a little nosey?" asked Fred and grinned.

"But – she was so worried yesterday and is now so cheerful."

"It was just not as horrible as I had imagined" said Lillian finishing her cereals and grabbing a slice of toast after putting away her bowl.

"But what did you talk about?"

"Possible Potions lessons" she lied without turning red.

"What?" Harry was lost for more words.

"Yup."

"But – but you don't have equipment."

"If Dumbledore agrees that he gives me private lessons he will lend me a book and everything I need."

Harry and Ron exchanged looks again but decided to say nothing further. During the rest of the breakfast they talked about classes, homework and even Quidditch. Class was far easier and far more enjoyable today because there were no worries apart from all the stuff Lillian still had to catch up with. She had a lot of fun learning all the things she by now only could read and dream about and even during the rest of the week nothing could ruin her good mood. Not even all the additional work she had to do.

On Friday after Dinner she stretched out in one of the armchairs in the common room after closing the history book. She had never liked history though magic history was far more entertaining than Muggel history but Professor Binns was far more boring than every Muggel teacher she had ever experienced. She closed her eyes for a few minutes and resolved to practice some charms and transfigurations again during the weekend.

"Hey Lillian!"

She opened her eyes and saw Fred and George standing in front of her armchair. "Hi" she replied a bit tired.

"We've been watching you recently" said Fred and grinned.

"Oh?"

"Yes. You've been working harder than everyone else."

"Of course – I had to catch up with last week's class contents. Unfortunately Harry and your brother haven't been that of a big help."

"Our brother seldom is a big help" said George and grinned.

"You look tired – don't you think it's enough for today?" asked Fred with a smirk.

"Ah well yes – I was about to go to my room."

"Too bad." George looked disappointed. "We hoped we could entertain you a bit to distract you from learning."

"Ah well okay. I guess a few jokes and small talk won't hurt." She stretched again and straightened her body a bit.

The following two hours she spent with Fred, George and soon even Harry, Ron and Lee Jordan. Before she left she borrowed Harry's Potion book for the weekend and he reminded her about the flying instructions the next day. Back in her room she didn't do much more than brushing her teeth, changing into her pyjama and going to bed.

After Breakfast the next day she went down to attend the flying instructions knowing what would happen so she wasn't very surprised, when Neville, nervous as he was, had a crash and had to be taken to the hospital wing. Suppressing the rage when Malfoy started to act up and took Neville's rememberall she let everything happen like it was written down in the books even though she was pretty amazed by Harry's flight. Watching it with her own eyes was far more impressive than just reading it. So it happened that Professor McGonagall took Harry away and only Lillian knew what was going to happen to him. But since she had promised to Dumbledore she would act as if she knew nothing she pretended to be worried. Approximately fifteen minutes later Madam Hooch returned and the instructions went on, this time without interruptions.

Her first flight was a bit jolty and Malfoy tried to laugh at her whenever he passed her by but she just ignored him and he soon lost fun. It was an amazing sensation to fly on a broomstick and the more she practised the more confident she became about it. At the end of the instruction lesson she was quite acceptable. She decided that she would just practise a bit with Fred and George and attend the one or the other Quidditch practise to learn by watching.

At dinner she heard about Harry being made Seeker of the Gryffindor team and tried to be very astonished. Sometimes it was just hard to pretend when you knew most happenings before they happened. She congratulated Harry and then went on eating. After dinner she accompanied Ron, Harry, Fred and George to Gryffindor tower but didn't join the common room. She said Good bye and Good night and returned to the third corridor to practise a few charms in her room. After an hour she had enough, washed herself at the sink and changed into her pyjama. She decided to start reading in Magical Drafts and Potions before she went to bed so she sat down into her comfortable armchair and began to read. An hour later she was so sunken into the book that she almost overheard the knocking on her door. She lowered the book into her lap and looked towards the door.

"Who is there?"

"It's me... Severus."

"Ah come in." She heard him muttering the password, heard the door lock click and how he opened the door and stepped inside. She was still sitting in that armchair reading. "Sorry I need to finish this paragraph..." she mumbled without looking up from the book.

He recognized the book immediately. "You – you read the Potion book?"

She nodded slowly and eventually finished the paragraph, put a piece of parchment between the pages and closed the book. She got up and smiled at him. "Yes I do. I borrowed it from one of the first years." She didn't mention Harry, walked over to the bookcase and put the book down there before returning to the armchair without sitting down.

"How come? You don't have Potion class."

"Unfortunately not, no. I guess we both know why, though."

He nodded slowly and narrowed his lips in displeasure. "You sound as if you'd be interested."

"Well I can't deny that the book has captivated me since I started to read even though it's only a school book."

"Most students don't even seem to manage reading the ingredient lists and brewing instructions properly."

"But beside from how the different potions and poisons work that is the most interesting part. Theory is good to know to a certain degree but what is theory without practice? You can't just tear the page from the book and throw it into the cauldron hoping the potion would brew itself." The more she had said the more Snape's lips pursed into some sort of smile but then he went over to one of her windows and looked out.

"You sound like Lily. She had a real talent for potions and until that incident in our fifth year happened we had a lot of fun during Potions class. She even belonged to the student club of our teacher." He sighed deeply.

"Uhm..." She suddenly felt a bit embarrassed that she reminded him of Lily once again.

He turned around and looked at her how she was standing there shuffling her feet. "Would you like me to give you lessons?"

"Eh? But – But the class room is already crammed with students during the usual lessons and and..." She looked away onto the logs in the fireplace. She hadn't used her chimney yet.

He walked towards her, reached out his arms and turned her face towards his. "Private lessons."

"P-Private l-lessons?" She was astounded. She actually had made up that story because she had promised not to tell what had really happened that evening.

"Well I would have to ask Dumbledore first I mean..." He let go of her face and stared upon the logs himself now. "As you already mentioned, we both know why he kept you away from Potions class."

"Shall I talk to him?

"No no. It will be less suspicious if I talk to him about it."

"Okay." She looked around. "Well – I'd offer you something but I'm afraid I've got anything."

He shook his head. "I don't need anything. Thanks though."

They both fell silent occasionally looking over to each other trying to say something but instead remained silent. After half an hour he eventually sighed and walked towards the door. He said good night and left. When he was gone she felt somewhat sorry because she realized that he had visited her for another reason than talking about potions, but she didn't ask him. She went to bed half excited about possible potion lessons and half guilty because she had let him go like that.

When she woke up the next morning, got up and checked the clock on the mantelpiece she was already late for breakfast. So she decided to kill time paying a visit to Ron and Harry who sat in the Gryffindor common room playing wizard chess. She sat down in a chair beside their table and watched Harry losing badly.

"Shall I teach you too?" asked Ron while he rearranged the board for a new game.

"Well I know the basic rules of chess even though I never played wizard chess. But I assume that, aside from the figures moving on command and beating each other, it's not much different than Muggle chess." replied Lillian.

"Want a game then?"

"Well, can't hurt I guess, but I have to warn you; I'm not very good and I'm not that much of a planner. I consider only the consequences of one maybe two moves and that's about it. I don't care if to win or to lose – I play for the sake of playing."

"I see. Well I will give it a try. Probably I can give you some hints if I feel under challenged. I did that with Harry too even though he couldn't play chess at all in the beginning.

"I still can't" said Harry grinning when exchanging seats with Lillian. "Be careful. I borrowed the pieces from Seamus – they don't trust other players."

"I see. Well I will give it a try."

So it happened that Lillian played her first game of wizard chess with Ron and of course lost. Not only because of the way she was playing but also she had to get used to commanding the chess pieces to the field she wanted them. They played a second game which went a lot better even though she again lost.

"Do you want to play a round with Harry?"

"Ah well no. Actually I'm more interested if you could teach me 'Exploding Snap'."

"Oh you've heard of that already?"

"Yeah, I picked it up somewhere."

"Alright. I'm going to get the cards." Ron stuffed his chess pieces into a little leather bag and carried them up to the boy dormitories while Harry stuffed Seamus' pieces into their repository.

When Ron came back he carried a bunch of slightly burned cards and they sat at the table and he explained the rules. After a few rounds Lillian had burned fingertips and had to go to the hospital wing to get them cured. While she was there she pestered Madam Pomfrey with questions about becoming and being a healer and when she finally left she had to hurry not to miss lunch as well. The rest of the day she spent with reading in the Potion book before returning it to Harry in the evening.

The first two days of the week weren't very spectacular. Now that Lillian had caught up with what she had missed, additionally to the huge piles of homework every day, she found the classes even more enjoyable and even stole Hermione the show now and again. She of course wasn't a happy bunny about it.

She hadn't met Snape again since he had left her room on Saturday so she was surprised to receive another letter from him on Wednesday morning. She offered a sausage to the owl that had brought it and then opened the envelope.

Dumbledore allowed the lessons. If it's not on short notice I would like to see you for your first lesson tomorrow at 7:00 PM in my office.

"Another letter from Snape?" asked Ron his moth half-filled with toast.

Lillian nodded. "Yes. About the private Potion lessons. They have been authorized by Dumbledore and I can start tomorrow after dinner."

"And you really want to do that? He's horrible."

Lillian shrugged. "I'm gonna survive it. He hasn't killed you yet, has he?"

"Well no" admitted Ron with a mutter. "But he's still a rotten sod and he is mean and unfair and –"

But Lillian ignored the rest. The owl had unfortunately already flown off with the sausage so she looked over to the staff table and caught Snape's eye. She smiled faintly and nodded before devoting herself to breakfast again.

The two days spun away and she found herself walking down into the dungeons even still wearing her black robes. When she turned around the corner she saw him walking around in his office apparently preparing things. She stepped towards the door and cleared her throat as he didn't seem to have noticed her. He stopped dead and turned towards her.

"You – You are wearing – working robes..." he discovered with slight surprise in his voice.

"Yes yes – it's a lesson after all, isn't it?" She couldn't hide the eager tone of her voice that sounded a little bit like a child that was finally going to school after kindergarten.

"In-Indeed." After the moment of astonishment had ebbed away his face went somewhat hard again and he frowned. "You missed the content of two weeks" he pointed out towards her. "Though you seem to have a rather a noble attitude towards the art of brewing potions and poisons and have already read in the book, what only very seldom students ever do. Most of them are even too dim-witted to read the ingredient list or the brewing instructions properly." He fell silent for a minute and slowly shook his head his arms held behind his back. "Aside from Ms. Granger – who seems to be a bossy know-it-all wherever she goes. However – " He cleared his throat. "When you are only half as talented as Lily Evans you stand a good chance of not having severe issues catching up."

Lillian had listened closely sucking in his every word like a sponge. When he seemed to have finished, she finally spoke. "I will try my very best." She nodded to underline her statement. "But I will need to borrow a book from you, since I can't always borrow the books from others as they need them themselves."

He nodded stiffly. "I will lend you one as soon as we go into the classroom."

"Alright. I also don't have any other equipment, since Dumbledore didn't put it on my list when I went to Diagon Alley."

He nodded again. "We have an ingredient cabinet for students where you can help yourself and as for equipment -" He pointed down on the things on his desk.

Only now Lillian recognized a brass scale, a pewter cauldron and a set of glass vials. "Oh good. There is another thing I have to insist on."

Snape raised his brow. "That would be?"

"I don't want special treatment" Lillian said calmly. "That means I want homework as every other student. I want to be given and taken points based upon how well or bad I do. I'm a first year student after all."

He furrowed a brow and watched her with an expression she wasn't able to decrypt before he started to nod very slowly. "You know what that would mean though?"

She nodded with some hesitation. "Maybe that I should expect you to treat me with the same nasty behaviour as the other students."

His lips narrowed and he gave her a piercing look before he took a deep breath. "Fine" he finally said stiffly.

"What do you know about monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"They are one and the same plant also known under the term aconite. The plant is used to brew the Wolfsbane potion that tames a werewolf if he drink is regularly a week before transformation."

"What do I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"The Draught of Living Dead, Sir."

He twitched slightly as she called him Sir like a student. "Where do I have to look to find a bezoar and what does it do?"

"A bezoar is a stone that can be found in the stomach of a goat and taken it saves from most poisons."

Snape frowned. "You know a good bunch of things for someone who is only in the first year" he said coldly. "Let's see how you will do with your first potion."

Without further words he headed towards the door and Lillian, after grabbing the equipment, followed him into the dungeon class room. He instructed her to prepare the cauldron and pointed towards a table where she would be preparing and weighing the ingredients. When everything was prepared he handed her a potion book.

"You will brew a potion to cure boils. You find the ingredient list and the brewing instruction within the book."

Lillian opened the book on the correct page as she had already read the pages with the potion and began to collect the ingredients from the student cabinet and put them down on the table in the right order. Then she went to get water to add it to the potion as soon as necessary. She read through the whole page and then started to elaborately prepare the ingredients. While the horned slugs were stewing she checked if the prepared ingredients were ordered correctly on the table and then just followed the instructions sometimes slightly changing the heat of the fire or adding some water. Snape watched her every step and when she had finally added all ingredients and was stirring the last few times he walked closer and inspected a ladle of her potion which had exactly the colour and texture described in the book.

"Very well. Full points." He pursed his lips into a smile. "Madam Pomfrey will be delighted. She used her last vial this morning and she asked me to restock her reserve. I told her I was going to let you brew it and possibly hand her in your result if usable. You don't mind I suppose?"

Lillian smiled broadly and shook her head. "I'd feel honoured."

"Fill the potion into your vials then, I will go and fetch Madam Pomfrey's from my office."

He turned around and went to his office. Lillian filled the potion into the vials as elaborate as she had prepared the ingredients and then waited, but Snape didn't return. She saw him walking up and down in his office with a slightly distorted expression on his face apparently mumbling to himself. She checked if the fire under the cauldron was low enough so that the potion wouldn't burn but also wouldn't go cold and walked towards the office. She knocked but he didn't answer. Eventually she decided to carefully open the door and poke in her head.

"Professor?" she asked quietly not able to suppress the slight concern in her voice.

He stopped dead and turned around. "The lesson is finished" he said severely. "Clean your workspace but leave the cauldron with the potion where it is and the filled vials on the table. I will fill the rest myself."

"Al-Alright." She went out of the office and did as he ordered and when she was done she once again went to the office.

He had sat down at his desk forcing himself to write something down. He didn't look up as he spoke forcing his voice to sound calm. "You will do eight inches of parchment about the ingredients of this potion and how the potion works and is used until next Thursday. Same time. And don't forget the book."

"Yes, Sir."

Lillian left the office and the dungeons with the book in one hand partly cheerful because she had apparently done so well and partly concerned because he was behaving so odd at the end of the lesson. When she finally went to bed it was almost eleven o'clock.