Saturday January 4th, 1975
That morning at breakfast, after most of the post had already been delivered, a large, tawny owl swept in through the great hall carrying a small brown papered package, circling over the Slytherin table twice before it landed in front of Severus. He untied the brown twine carefully from the owl's talon and patted it appreciatively on the head. It bent and nibbled his bacon in an interested fashion before it flew away, up and out the open window behind where the staff sat.
"What's that?" Evan Rosier asked. Evan was sitting between Severus and Adrian, munching a bit of toast, his elbow leaning on the long table. Adrian, in his sixth year, was nursing a hang-over and sipping his pumpkin juice with a perpetual grimace.
"I think it's a book." Severus said, his dextrous fingers working at the knotted twine. When he undid the twine, the brown paper fell away, revealing a small, blue, cloth-bound volume. He opened the cover and there was a folded piece of parchment nestled there, a letter from his Mum. He tucked the letter in his pocket and put the book away in the large pocket of his robe to give to Lily after breakfast.
"You have more books than anyone I know." Evan said, not unkindly.
"You're like a fucking librarian."
Severus smirked. He had two extra trunks that he kept under his bed that were filled with books, most of them titles he would be in quite a bit of trouble for having, if Slughorn were to discover them in Severus' possession. Not that he would.
There were also the three heavy stacks of less-forbidden books by his bed stand, which, at times, stood taller than he did. Over the years, Severus and the other Slytherin boys in his year had sometimes been awakened in the night by a terrible crashing of all of his books to the stone floor.
Most often these nighttime avalanches were caused by Evan's cat, Baphomet, attempting to get on to Severus' nightstand to drink from his glass of water. Most recently, this had happened in October of that year, when everyone had been startled awake at five in the morning by a terrific crash, the yowl of a cat, and the sound of glass breaking sharply on stone.
"Snape, you weirdo!" Evan had hollered accusingly. "Get a fucking bookcase!"
Severus crumpled the brown paper wrapping from the package and set it on his mostly empty plate. Breakfast, it seemed, was ending, and some students were drifting away from their tables, headed back to their common rooms, or to Quidditch practice, or to the library. Severus saw Lily cross the great hall, and watched her head toward the door closest to the staircase that led to the Slytherin dungeons, Evan following his eyes in amusement. Severus drank the rest of his pumpkin juice and stood up.
"Where are you off to?" Evan asked, waggling his eyebrows. Adrian, beside him, his camera on the table, was just managing to get a bit of porridge down, but Severus noticed he looked a tad green around the mouth.
"Homework," Severus said shortly.
Evan looked to his left and saw Lily standing in the doorway, her back to them. She was talking to Professor Slughorn and he was laughing.
"Oho! Homework.. Riight." Evan said knowingly, and winked a rakish wink at Severus.
"Rosier, you are an idiot." Severus said, but he was smiling just a little.
As Severus walked away, Evan helped himself to more toast and turned to Adrian, who was looking marginally better.
"I don't know how he got a girl like that. Too bad she's a mudblood."
"Ah, Severus!" Slughorn said, extending his arms expansively as Severus approached them. In one hand he clutched a piece of parchment, a replication of Lily's hand-copied instructions for brewing Amorestmorta.
"I was just telling Lily here about a little fete I'm having in February. I expect you both to be in attendance, of course!"
Though Severus was not fond of some of the other members of the Slug Club, he always attended Slughorn's parties, subconsciously enjoying the subtle elitist notoriety that being a member entailed.
"I wouldn't miss it!" Lily said.
"I left the smallest potions lab unlocked for you," Slughorn told them, getting down to business. He pulled a ring of jangly keys from his pocket and charmed a replica of the key to his store cupboard, handing it to Lily.
"I have everything you will need for the first part of the potion in my stores. Here," he said, digging in his pocket, "is the hair of a married woman." He handed Severus a small glass jar, stoppered with a cork. Inside was coiled one long, blond hair.
"While it's aging, we can acquire the widow's silver ring, the cemetery dirt and the heart of a nightingale," Slughorn told them. "I have a friend in London, an apothecary by trade, I'll send him a letter."
He put a fond hand on each of their shoulders before heading in towards the great hall. "Right, you two, off you go."
"The book on Amorestmorta came," Severus told her, reaching in his robe and pulling the small book from his pocket.
"I saw!" she said, smiling. He handed it to her and their fingers just touched. Lily took the book away and flipped open its cover.
"Amorestmorta: Love and Courtship in the Wizarding World by Anonymous," she read. "This is going to be fascinating."
"I thought some parts of it were a bit girly, but it was interesting." Severus told her, and she rolled her eyes.
"Not very feminist of you, Sev," She said, and tucked the book away in her bag as they headed down the stairs and towards the third potion lab on the left. "Be sure to thank your Mum for me," Lily told him.
The smallest potion lab was the best, in Severus' opinion, because it had a large window that you could open wide in case things got unbearably smelly or smoky or if you were choking to death on fumes. The larger potion labs had almost no windows- a serious oversight in Salazar Slytherin's building plans.
Severus went to the cupboard and hefted out a large, standard size three iron cauldron while Lily opened the window and lit the fire that would heat the cauldron. Rather than carry it, Severus drew out his wand and floated it gracefully onto the table next to where Lily stood fiddling with the brazier that would hold the coals and fire beneath the cauldron. She added the coals and, in order to save time, zapped them quickly with her wand. A fire suddenly burned in the brazier and she stepped back as Severus enchanted the cauldron to move over the fire, attaching itself by it's broad iron handle to the hook on the cauldron stand.
Lily picked up the key to the teacher's store closet from the table where she had set it, and went to unlock the door to the store cupboard while Severus went to the large armoire in the corner and got the water. The armoire had six enormous glass containers of distilled water, each successively numbered according to how many times the water within it had been distilled. Pouring half a gallon from the great glass container labeled '3' into a large tin pitcher, he carried the water to the warming cauldron and repeated this step five more times, until the standard size three cauldron contained exactly three gallons of thrice distilled water.
Lily rummaged in the cupboard, looking for the box of red rose petals. The boxes of pink petals were where they should be, and the boxes of yellow petals, but the red petals simply didn't seem to be there. Eventually she found three boxes at the very back of the shelf below where the rose petals were kept.
She tucked the boxes under her arm one at a time and took the jar of scorpion stingers down from its place on the top shelf, transferring it to her other hand. With her empty hand she grabbed the bag of rose thorns and a medium sized jar of Flobberworm mucus. All this she recalled from memory, having studied the instructions on and off for the past four days.
Kicking the door to the store cupboard closed, she brought everything to the table. Severus had taken a mortar and pestle from the shelf above them and immediately reached for the jar of scorpion stingers to grind them.
Weak noontime light came from the window, and as Severus fished the three scorpion stingers out of the jar with a pair of tweezers, Lily pointed her wand one at a time at the various candles in the room, to give themselves some extra light. Though they were expected to use spells verbally in front of teachers, they hardly bothered in front of one another- it was a point of pride to both of them that they'd mastered nonverbal spell-casting so early (in their third year).
Lily opened the boxes of rose petals one at a time, the freshness enchantment that had been cast on them causing a temporary whiff of sweet roses to waft at them. Pausing to smell a petal, she carefully measured one medium-sized handful of petals out of one box and dropped them in to the cauldron.
After repeating this three more times, she stood for a minute and watched the rise and fall of Severus' thin shoulders as he worked at grinding the dried scorpion stingers to powder. His skinny wrists were sticking far out of his shirt sleeves, corded with tendons and veins, deft hands like quick white spiders twisting the pestle, turning the mortar to get the consistency of the stingers even.
Though she was only half aware of it, often times when they brewed together, neither of them had much to say. Both of them were too busy paying attention to what they were doing, or watching one another for subconscious cues, working in concert, a true team. Lily found that they were both capable of anticipating what the other might need simply by watching the other work.
Severus looked up at her, away from the mortar and smiled, before leaning over the cauldron to look in to it. The petals floated serenely on the surface of the water, and Lily reached for long glass stirring wand to poke them down in to the depths of the cauldron. Severus dug in his robes and pulled the little corked jar out of his pocket. He handed it to her and went back to what he had been doing.
The heat from the fire was getting warm, and she pushed her sleeves up around her elbows. Her freckled arms seemed pale in the dim light.
She uncorked the vial and pulled out the long blond hair, dropping it into the cauldron where it sat on the surface for a minute, before curiously sinking to the bottom of the water and dissolving. The water itself began to take on an oily, opalescent sheen.
She selected two rose thorns from the bag, and set them carefully on the table, before taking the boxes of petals, bag of thorns, and jar of scorpion stingers back to the store closet. She left the Flobberworm mucus on the table.
Severus gave the scorpion stingers in the mortar a few more good grinds, before pulling out the pestle and tapping it on the side of the mortar to remove any excess powder.
The cauldron was just beginning to simmer when Lily returned to the table. Tipping the contents of the mortar into the barely bubbling cauldron, Lily plopped in the two rose thorns and the potion immediately turned a candy pink color as the red rose petals, too, dissolved. Severus took a small timer from the shelf above them and set it for seven minutes while Lily took a piece of parchment, quill, and bottle of ink from her bag. She un-stoppered the ink, dipped her quill, and made a tally mark on the blank parchment.
Severus knew what she was doing- in their third year the two of them had lost a class competition to win a vial of Essence of Mirth, because Lily had lost count of how many times she'd already stirred, and stirred two extra times, turning their potion into a noxious black mess that ate away the cauldron and burned through the work table.
"What are we going to do about the virgin blood?" Lily asked.
Severus hesitated and his face grew red. "I can prick my finger," he mumbled. "It's only three drops."
Lily nodded and thought nothing more of it, while Severus was suddenly consumed with a desire to know whether she was a virgin, and a vile hatred towards the boy she'd been with if she wasn't.
Lily drew her wand and conjured a cup and a half of sugar from the castle kitchens, setting it off to the side with the jar of Flobberworm mucus.
"We could use your blood, though?" He asked, trying to be nonchalant. "If we needed to?"
His heart was pounding. He tried to look as though he didn't care, but really, he just looked vaguely troubled and expectant as he peered at her.
"For the potion?" Lily asked. "We could if you really don't want to prick your finger, I mean, it's not pleasant but I'll do it if you truly don't want to. Are you afraid of needles?"
Severus felt his racing heart skip a relieved beat and then sink from where it had been lodged in his throat, back down in to his chest where it belonged.
"Yeah, I am," he falsely confessed. Truthfully he wouldn't have minded pricking his finger for the potion, but it was worth letting her think he had a fear of needles in order to learn whether or not she'd ever been with anyone.
There were three minutes left on the timer. Severus pulled the letter from his Mum out of his pocket and read: Severus, here is the book you asked me to send. Things are fine, I miss you. Love, Mum.
He folded it and put it back in his pocket.
When the timer went off, Severus took up the glass stirring rod from beside the cauldron and gave it one good stir. The potion turned a shade darker, simmering merrily. "This is getting rather hot," He said to himself, and pointed his wand at the fire, silently casting a heat sustaining charm, so the fire would neither cool nor get warmer, but stay just at it's current temperature. It was supposed to simmer, after all, not boil outright. Lily made a second tally mark on her parchment and set the timer for seven more minutes as Severus set down the stirring wand.
They passed the time talking idly and soon the remainder of the fifty-six minutes had passed. With each stir the potion had gotten darker, and was now a deep, blushing pink. Severus put out the fire beneath the cauldron and opened the jar of Flobberworm mucus, pouring out two ounces of the thick, ropy stuff into a beaker. He set their timer for twelve minutes and sat to wait beside the steaming cauldron.
"We're probably the first people to brew this potion correctly in two hundred years," Severus said, watching the steam waft up from the brim of the cauldron and dissipate high above it near the ceiling.
"With the exception of Desmond Maplethwit." Lily remarked.
"I don't know if I believe Slughorn's story about Maplethwit," Severus said skeptically.
"Why would he lie, though? He knows everyone, it's not too far a stretch to think he'd have extra information about his death."
"Maplethwit was a brilliant wizard, why would he do something so foolish as to take a potion that he'd more than likely die from?"
"But you're brilliant, and you said you'd take it if you thought you knew there was no risk involved. Does that mean you're foolish, too?" Lily said, catching him in his own double standard.
Severus hardly cared, though- the way Lily had said it, as though his brilliance was some accepted fact, surprised and thrilled him so much for a moment that he couldn't think of anything to say. She thought he was brilliant! his mind sang. It never occurred to him to thank her for her compliment.
"I thought so," said Lily in a satisfied way when he didn't respond.
"I guess I am," He admitted happily. He looked at the timer; seven minutes left.
Their conversation tapered into a comfortable silence, and eventually Lily rummaged in her bag and took out the blue book. Looking for a way to pass the remaining time while they waited for the potion to cool, she opened the book at random and began to read:
"For the will of love is stronger than the will of man, and we are subject to its whims as leaves blown about in the gust, swept away in the torrent, and eventually decayed by winter's hand. We have no more control over whom we may come to love than we have over the rising of the moon, the pulling of the tides, or the influence of the planets in their orbit on our humble and fractious lives. "
Severus looked at her for a minute as she read, but he only half heard her words. He was still basking in the pleasant afterglow of having been thought of as brilliant.
"Rather poetic, isn't it?" Lily mused. She thumbed towards the back of the book, skimming it, and then put it away in her bag on the table. The door to the potions lab creaked open slightly and Lily sat up straighter on her stool, while Severus went to the door. He pulled it open suspiciously but there was no one there. "It was a draft," He told her, and closed the door.
"Two minutes," Severus said, looking at the timer, and reached for the sugar and the Flobberworm mucus. Lily conjured a needle from her small sewing kit in Gryffindor tower and held it between her fingers gingerly. She wasn't looking forward to sticking herself, but unlike Sev, she wasn't especially afraid of needles, and didn't want to subject him to something he had a fear of.
When the timer went off, Severus poured the Flobberworm mucus into the warm cauldron. It hit the water with a thickly wet slopping sound. Lily poured the sugar in, and set the empty measuring cup away to the side of their workspace.
Wincing in anticipation of the painful prick, Lily stuck the needle into the pad of her forefinger, her movement quick but purposeful. Severus watched her do this with a certain measure of excitement and admiration as he saw the fat crimson drop of blood that welled there on her fingertip.
Lily stuck her hand over the cauldron and let the first drop of blood fall into the potion. There was a hiss of rising vapor and the potion turned a midnight blue-black for a second, before turning a deep shade of scarlet red. Squeezing her finger, she managed the next two drops and then stuck her smarting finger in her mouth. The potion seemed to swirl on it's own, thick and red, darker than blood but still gory to look at somehow.
Severus lifted the heavy lid to the cauldron and placed it with a resonant and final clang over the rim.
"Well that's that." Lily said. Lifting her wand, she levitated the cauldron carefully towards the window where it could sit in the weak sunlight.
Severus chewed his lip thoughtfully for a second, thinking, and cast a quick barrier enchantment on the cauldron. Lily reached out her hand to touch it, but found she couldn't. "You enchanted it?" She asked, trying to touch it again and failing. "Barrier charm," Severus said. "So no one bothers it."
Lily nodded approvingly.
"I suppose we'd better tell Slughorn we've finished." She said. It took no time using magic to tidy their workspace and clear away the brazier full of ashes, and soon they were standing at the door to Slughorn's office. They knocked and he called them in, smiling. He was sitting with Adrian drinking something bright blue from a pair of silvery goblets.
"Lily! Severus! I was just thinking of you! Tell me, is everything in order?" He asked, half rising from his seat.
"Yes, sir." Severus told him. Adrian smiled knowingly at Severus and waved at Lily, taking a sip of his blue drink in a relaxed fashion.
"Excellent, excellent! Adrian and I were just talking about my Valentine's Day party, weren't we, Adrian?" Adrian nodded and held up the enchanted camera that had been sitting in his lap.
"Adrian's going to shoot the party for me." Slughorn said.
"The professor is going to send some of the best shots in to the society section of the Prophet," Adrian said, and he seemed very pleased with himself over this.
"That's great," Lily said supportively, in a well-mannered fashion. "I'm sure it'll be a lovely party."
"We just wanted to come and tell you that we're finished for the day," Severus said.
"Thank you, Severus. See me on Monday, you two, and have a pleasant weekend." He said, and dismissed them with a wave of his hand. As the door was closing behind them they heard Adrian make a comment and Slughorn laugh merrily.