Part 35 – Mission Impossible

Severus walked into the Potions classroom the next morning, Lucius's words in the Great Hall at breakfast that morning still fresh in his mind.

"Your first class today's with Gryffindor, right?"

They were words that would not draw attention from anyone else, words that seemed casual and offhand, but were in fact designed to remind Severus of the task he had been given the previous day.

Sirius was already in his seat when Severus walked into the room. The other boy was leaning back casually in his chair as he balanced it on the back two legs, an expression of boredom was evident on his face.

There was no sign of Remus but James and Peter were present, the former was sitting next to Sirius and was telling a story that had reduced Peter, alone at the desk in front, to hysterical laughter.

"…and then, would you believe he only went and accidentally let off the dung bombs too…."

Severus sat down in the empty seat next to Peter and laughed along with Peter at James's story.

"You lost Snivellus?" asked James the moment he spotted him in the seat.

"N-n-no," Severus stuttered, his nerves returning at the thought of the job before him. "But Remus isn't here and I'll be made to work with him anyway." He nodded at Peter.

"Where's Avery?" Sirius asked curiously as he looked around the room for the Slytherin Severus usually worked with.

"He's gone to see Madam Pomfrey, his allergies are acting up," Severus muttered.

"Allergies?" James asked sceptically.

Suddenly all three of them were drawn to look at Peter as he suddenly started to violently convulse and struggle for breath. "My allergies," he gasped out at last. "They're acting up. I've developed an allergy to Snivellus."

James and Sirius collapsed onto their desk laughing as Severus glared at Peter, wishing him the worst sort of allergic reactions he could think of. They continued to mess around and laugh at Severus's expense until the arrival of Professor Slughorn when they finally settled down.

"Ah good, Severus, you're working with Peter I see. Good to see the students of the different houses are all still working together. Only by standing strong together will we all get through these trying times."

Severus nodded obediently as Peter piped up beside him. "Of course Professor."

A snort from a couple of rows behind him brought Severus face to face with Veronica who had been clearly listening to every word and was no more convinced of Peter's sincerity than Severus was. In fact as Severus's eyes swept the room he saw that the faces of the students were a mixture of those who were still trying to contain their laughter at the Gryffindor boys' antics and those who merely looked bored. No one seemed to be eager to ask him to join their group. Even the Slytherins were as quiet as they usually were in such situations.

He had little time to ponder things though and was soon working hard at the task the class had been set. He soon found out why it was that neither James nor Sirius wanted to work with Peter. He found that he was constantly double checking Peter's work, correcting his actions and re-reading the instructions over and over to be sure that he was telling him correctly what the next step in the potion was. After fifteen minutes he had no doubt that it was not that Peter was deliberately trying to make him fail. He was simply one of the most easily distracted students in the room and his lack of concentration meant that his potion making was certainly amongst the worst in the class.

It was the hardest Potions lesson he had ever undertaken and his difficulties were only increased by the constant running commentary whispered in his direction from the table behind him.

"Not like that Peter, you missed his hand," James interjected at one point whilst Peter was carelessly chopping some of the ingredients, into far too large pieces, despite Severus's instructions to the contrary.

"If it's poisonous then make sure that Snivellus tests it first," Sirius snickered as they were measuring out the potion into the beakers ready to hand in.

If Severus had thought of it himself he would have done something to bring it about, but as it happened it was by a pure stroke of luck that Sirius and James collided with each other and their own finished potion spilt to the floor. The glass didn't smash and Professor Slughorn was none the wiser to their mishap from his position at the other side of the room where great clouds of purple smoke were billowing from one of the cauldrons, a visual indication that someone had made a serious error in their potion.

"Looks like we'll fail this one," James said.

"Give the rest of the class a chance to catch up with us," Sirius replied, not the least bothered that they would earn no marks at all for their work.

"Here," Severus said as he reached across their desk and picked up the newly cleaned beaker from where James had placed it. "We haven't emptied our cauldron yet, Professor Slughorn won't know the difference, he's busy over there."

Quickly measuring out some of their own left over potion, Severus filled their beaker and slid it back onto their desk with plenty of time before they came to hand it in to be marked.

"Did he slip something else into it?" James whispered to Sirius.

"No I didn't," Severus hissed back.

"If he did, I didn't see him," Sirius replied. "But Slytherin's are crafty and sly so we won't find out 'til next class."

"I didn't see him put anything in it," Peter said although the expressions on faces of James and Sirius clearly said they wouldn't have expected him to notice if the potion was an entirely different colour and started flying round the room whilst singing the school song.

"How about you wait and see what marks you get?" Severus asked, knowing that their potion would get the same marks as his and Peter's.

"Not like we have any choice," James said as they all filed towards the front of the room, potions in hand, before heading out into the corridor.


"How's it going?"

Severus looked up from his table in the Slytherin common room to see Lucius standing over him, a sly smirk on his face.

"Not bad," Severus replied before turning back to the scroll he was scribbling down his homework on.

"The little mission I gave you?" Lucius asked. "Any progress there?"

"A bit," Severus said as he started toying with his quill, distracted from what he had intended to write about wolfsbane.

"And?" Lucius pushed.

"I worked with them in potions and let them use some of my potion when their own was spilt," Severus said with a shrug.

"Sweeten them up," Lucius said with a grin. "I like it. Keep me informed and hopefully Sirius will be here where he belongs by the end of the month."

"Maybe not that soon," Severus blurted in horror.

"Don't sell yourself short," Lucius offered with a benevolent smile before he strolled over to the sofa in front of the fireplace where Narcissa and Bellatrix were waiting for him to join them.

A month? Severus thought to himself, less than a month to convince Sirius that he should ask for a transfer to Slytherin house. Could things get any worse?


Severus spent most of his free period the next morning thinking up and discarding one plan after another, each more desperate than the last, in his quest to become close enough friends with Sirius that he would request a transfer into Slytherin.

Even though he knew that there would be no chance of him being transferred Severus found himself pondering on whether it would even be allowed. Was there ever a case of someone else being removed from one house and placed in another? There had been no mention of such a thing in Hogwarts: A History but that didn't mean to say that it had never happened. He just had to know where to look to find out.

The library seemed like the most sensible place to start his search but he found that by the time he had come to that conclusion and made his way there he could not get into the library at all.

Madam Pince stood at the doorway barring entrance to everyone.

"But I've got my NEWTs coming up," complained one seventh year Ravenclaw boy who stood waving books and parchment about as though this would gain him access.

"The library's closed until the fireworks have been removed," Madam Pince repeated.

"When will that be?"

"When Mr Filch had caught them all," Madam Pince replied.

"Well can you ask him?"

"No, I can't."

Severus stood back as the pair continued to argue. He could see through the door that Mr Filch was leaping about the library trying to catch the fireworks that had been set off inside. The crowd outside the library was growing, more from people watching the goings on than any desperate thirst for knowledge.

Seeing that the commotion was likely to last for some time Severus moved on past, resolving to come back some other time to see what he could find out. In the meantime he hoped he would have made some headway with Sirius after their next Potions class.


Potions class came round again and with Remus still mysteriously absent Severus seated himself down beside Peter once again.

Martin Avery, back from his visit to Madam Pomfrey, raised his eyebrows in question but Severus ignored him, resolving to fill him in later with the task that he had been assigned.

Professor Slughorn arrived and began handing out the marks for their previous lesson's work.

"Excellent work Severus," he said as he came over to his desk. "You too Peter, the best work you've done all year. Full marks for both of you."

Peter's face lit up at the first words of praise he had received from the Potions Professor and he turned to crow to James and Sirius. Severus bit down the sharp feeling of resentment that his hard work had gained the poorer student full marks, and he waited for James and Sirius to receive their own results.

"Good work from you too as well," Professor Slughorn said as he moved to the table behind Severus. "Not quite up to the standards of Severus here but still very good."

Sirius glared at Severus as Professor Slughorn moved on to the next table. "What did you do to our potion?" he hissed in a low voice.

"Nothing," Severus replied, safe in the knowledge that the potion they had handed in was identical to his own.

"You must have done something," James pointed out or we'd have got the same marks as you.

"I didn't do anything to the potion," Severus repeated before turning back to the front of the room, ready to start that day's work.

He was halfway through the lesson when he realised what had happened. The potion had been the same, he knew it was, so there was only one other explanation. Professor Slughorn had merely given him higher marks because he was in Slytherin. The professor's favouritism had done wonders for his grades but had nicely ruined the first stage of his plan to befriend Sirius Black.