GREED
Title: I covet...
Rating: G
Warnings:
Word Count: 250
One hundred scrolls, silver-lined, in perfect order, catalogued by ingredient, duration and efficacy against werewolves (if appropriate).
The experimental notes of Stefana de Corwyn, including the last, scorched half-page. She always had been overly adventurous.
And eleven of the twelve globes of Sinus Monstrum, each glowing with its own special light in the dim office in the crypt. Eleven. The gap in the row grated on him every time he looked greedily over the collection, like a sore tooth or an ink blot on a clean parchment. Snape ran his hands lovingly over the row again, trying to ignore the interruption that gnawed at his consciousness.
It couldn't be bought for lover, power or money, but he had the power to make it for himself. The knowledge. The patience. Just not the main ingredient. Distilled essence of a rare fire-breathing salamander-like creature from the far East, filtered through ash, steeped in a flask of rocket-leaves for six weeks ... he knew the steps by heart, could recite them in his sleep, but the creature was elusive, and he had his teaching duties. Time spent drilling the recipe for Murtlap Essence into that slobberworm of a Longbottom could have instead been spent sailing in a balloon over mountains in China, peeking under rocks, drinking tea with local wise men while they chewed tobacco and pondered his questions. One day...
Snape locked the case over the globes, and stomped off to the next class. One day. One day soon. He'd have them all.