On Friday, Snape came to the hospital to transport the cauldrons with the unfinished potions to his office. They had agreed to meet at Hogwarts on Saturday evening, so they could complete the final stage together, but Samara decided to travel to there in the afternoon already to have tea with her godmother. She wanted to ask Poppy what she thought about Snape.
Poppy, as always, was complaining that she didn't see more of her godchild. She had made Samara's favourite cauldron cakes, and the two of them sat chatting about this and that. Samara was unsure how to best breach the topic, and in the end decided to dive straight in.
"Poppy, can I ask you something? What is your opinion of Professor Snape?"
"Severus? He is a very competent man, probably the best Potions Master Hogwarts has ever seen. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, it's just that I'm working on something with him, something for Dumbledore."
"Oh, so you are treating Dumbledore? I see..." Poppy seemed a little hurt because she hadn't been asked to help.
"I know he is competent. But I heard...I mean... Did you know he is a Death Eater?"
"Of course I do," Poppy replied unconcerned. "I can see how you must feel about that, dear, but you need not worry. Snape is completely reformed. Whatever horrible things he might have done in the past, he sincerely regrets them."
"But how can you be so sure?"
"Of course, we all had doubts initially. But Snape has proven himself many times since, and more than once put his life in danger in the process. Albus trusts him completely, and nobody fools Albus Dumbledore. Snape might not be a pleasant person, unsociable, hard on the students, but he is a decent man."
Samara hung onto her godmother's lips, thirsting to quench the fear that was nagging inside her, the fear that her dream might suddenly crumble to pieces. So Dumbledore knew, and he didn't doubt Snape's loyalty. Even Poppy was convinced of his integrity. It was such a happy thought that she smiled absent-mindedly. Poppy shot her an inquiring look.
"Oh, dear... Child, you haven't developed a crush on Professor Snape, have you?"
"No! Of course not, what makes you think that?" Samara blushed.
"Oh, I don't know... I hope you haven't. Samara, a man like Snape will never get away from his past. You do not just walk out on You-know-Who. I just want you to be happy, find a nice guy, marry, have a family..."
"You needn't worry, Poppy, our relationship is purely professional."
Samara busied herself with her cauldron cake, in order to avoid looking her godmother in the eye, and quickly changed the subject.
***
When Samara knocked on Snape's door, he had already set out everything they needed on his desk. Once the potions had been heated up and were bubbling vigorously, Snape took the little vial of unicorn blood, and carefully let three drops fall into the first cauldron, stirring three times in between. He looked at the boiling liquid full of anticipation, but then his face turned stony.
"Is anything wrong?" Samara asked.
"This doesn't look right."
She walked over, and peeked into the cauldron herself.
"Oh!" The potion had turned a murky brown and smelled rather unpleasant. "What have you done?"
"You saw me, I just followed your instructions," Snape replied defiantly.
"Give me the vial; I'll do the next one."
Samara repeated the procedure with the second cauldron, and covered her mouth with her hand when she saw the result. The same had happened again.
"Are you sure this is the vial you took out of my pocket?"
"Positively."
They proceeded to the third cauldron which was now their last hope, trepidation showing on both their faces, but the result was the same.
Snape looked at Samara through the stinking vapour that rose from the cauldron. "You know there is only one possible answer; the unicorn blood you bought is fake."
"But I paid over five hundred galleons for it!" Samara was nearly in tears.
"As if that means anything," he sneered. "All it means is that you were ripped off! Why did you even go to Slime & Slouch? Did you not know how dubious that place is?"
"No, it was recommended to me. And there was no other option anyway."
"If you had asked me, I could have told you Slouch is a supporter of the Dark Lord," he hissed angrily. "It would have saved us both and awful lot of trouble."
He pointed his wand at the cauldron and made it explode. Samara ducked behind his desk as stinking brown liquid splattered everywhere, and watched in horror as he proceeded to do the same with the other two cauldrons.
"Scourgify!" she called, doing a 360 degree swipe with her wand, making the brown splatters disappear.
Meanwhile, Snape was scanning the room, his face livid, as if looking for something else to blow up.
"Stop it, will you? It doesn't help!" she rebuked him.
He turned and looked at her, his eyes flashing. Then he gruffly grabbed her arm, and dragged her with him towards the door.
"Come!"
"Where?" she protested.
"You'll see!"
He pulled her out into the dark corridor, up several flights of stairs, down another corridor, past the Great Hall, and further on. Samara could hardly keep up with his ground-covering steps, she almost had to run. She had no idea where they were heading, and why, and his behaviour made her feel uneasy. She had never seen him so angry. Finally he stopped in front of a wall, and as he looked at it intently, a heavy wooden door suddenly appeared. He opened it, pushed her through, and closed it behind them with a bang. Samara found herself in a large room lit by torches on the walls. A circle was drawn on the floor in the centre.
"Now, we are not leaving here until you have produced a decent shield charm!" Snape announced, in a tone that would not tolerate any opposition.
"What?" Samara couldn't believe her ears. This was ridiculous. "I'm not your student!" she rebelled.
"No, my students without exception have mastered this," he said, determination showing on his face, "and I will see to it that you do, too. Now watch!"
Snape moved to stand in the circle in the centre of the room and drew his wand. Suddenly the shining knight's armour that stood in the corner sprung to life and approached the circle. It lifted its arm, and shot some flashes of light towards Snape. But Snape had conjured a perfect shield charm, so that the flashes neatly bounced off, and extinguished on the floor.
Turning to Samara, he called "That's what it should look like, not the frazzled impression that you produced the other day!"
He pointed his wand, and blew the armour to pieces. The shiny metal parts rolled and clattered along the floor a short distance, before magically reforming into the original armour. Then the thing multiplied, and now there were three silver knights moving menacingly toward Snape. Once more he hexed them into a clanking disarray of metal, without so much as pronouncing a word, his wand moving with quick determined strokes. And again they reassembled and multiplied, until there were nine of them, approaching the circle from all sides, shooting flashes of light at him. Snape pivoted round, a whirl of black robes and flashes of light, and nine armours crashed to the floor.
Samara watched from a safe distance, enthralled, as variations of the scenario repeated themselves, faster and faster. Snape was showing off, or maybe he just felt the need to vent his anger. In any case, his skilful display was impressive to watch; she had never seen anything like it.
"Finite Incantatem!" his dark voice finally echoed between the stone pillars.
The armours merged back into one, and went to stand in the corner. Snape returned, breathing heavily, strands of hair stuck to his forehead, where droplets of sweat had appeared. The exercise seemed to have calmed him down. He took off his cloak and jacket, and dropped them in a heap on the floor, revealing the white high-collared linen shirt he wore underneath. Wiping sweat off his face with his sleeve, he tucked his wand underneath the belt of his trousers.
"Now it's your turn," he told Samara.
She looked at him wide-eyed. "I... I can't!"
"Of course you can."
He took her hand and dragged her into the circle.
"Stand straight!" he commanded, and proceeded to adjust her posture with firm, but gentle grip. "Relax, let me guide your hand."
Her pulse accelerated at the softness of his voice. Standing inches behind her, he enclosed his larger hand around her right hand, the hand that held her wand. Samara closed her eyes as he showed her the correct movement, moving her hand in a circle and thrust motion. His hand was warm and strong, and she could feel the heat radiating from his body. The musky scent of sweaty male wafted into her nose. It did little to help her concentrate on the task at hand. Then he stepped aside to watch her try on her own. Samara felt nervous.
"Protego!" she pronounced as clearly as she could.
"Miss Ravenhood," he scolded, "I expect you to perform the incantation in your head, rather than blurt out like a small school child! Try again!"
He waved his wand at the armour in the corner, which started to advance against Samara, who just stared at it transfixed as it started to shoot flashes at her.
"Ouch!" One of them had hit her elbow. "Ouch!" And another one her shoulder. "Stop it, please!" she wailed.
"Miss Ravenhood, will you stop whinging, and at least try to defend yourself!" he shouted at her impatiently.
"Ouch! Please, stop it!"
Snape shoved the armour back into its corner with a casual swipe of his wand, and marched over to her.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" he spat angrily.
"I'm scared!" she snivelled, rubbing her arm.
"Scared of what? This thing will only sting a little, it won't hurt you." His tone was exasperated.
"But I can't help imagining what it would be like for real, what it was like when my mum..." she sniffed, tears glistening in her eyes.
Snape looked at her quietly for a moment, considering her words. Then he took his wand, and drew a line on the floor.
"Here, I want you to stop the armour with your shield charm before it gets to this line. If you fail, I promise I will take it down for you; I won't allow it to get to you. Does that make you feel safer?"
She nodded.
"If however, you do not raise your wand and try, I will let it sting you," he warned.
Samara took up her spot again, smiling meekly, but feeling much more confident with Snape backing her up. This time she managed to get a partial shield up, and Snape blew the armour to pieces before it could cross the line. After less than a dozen attempts, Snape no longer had to intervene, and after a dozen more tries, Samara got a good shield charm every time.
"I did it!" she beamed at him. "Can we try something else?"
A satisfied smile played around the corners of his mouth. "Sure. Can you stun?"
She shook her head. Snape proceeded to show her the technique, and then she practised in the same way as before. Within a couple of hours more, Samara had mastered the stunning spell as well. When they finally stopped, she felt elated, but exhausted and hungry. As she said so, a trolley of sandwiches suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"Did you conjure this?"
"No, the room did."
Samara looked at him confused.
"Have you never heard of the Room of Requirement? It appears when you need it, and gives you what you need. We are using this as a training facility for members of the Order to practice combat skills," Snape explained as they sat down on the stone floor, their backs against the wall, and ate the sandwiches.
After a while Samara got up, and walked to stand by one of the windows. Looking out into the night, she thought about the idea that she had in her head.
"We still have several hours of moonlight in order to start on a new potion," she finally said.
"What for? We have no unicorn blood."
"The solution could just present itself in time."
"Your optimism is endearing, Miss Ravenhood," he scoffed.
She turned to face him. "See, I want to work on it in here, not in your office." She looked at him expectantly. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I know what you're thinking, but unlike you I also know that it won't work," he drawled.
"Now who's being defeatist? Why would it not work?"
"Because the magic of this room is not that powerful," he replied in a bored tone. "Anything in here is from within the castle: The food was from the kitchens. That armour over there normally stands by the staircase leading to the Astronomy Tower. The room will give you cauldrons, tools, and ingredients, but only so long as they are found in my or Professor Slughorn's store's, or the greenhouses. And as there is no unicorn blood anywhere within Hogwarts, it is a pointless exercise."
"Anyway, I'm going to try," she announced, full of determination. She made her way over to the corner, where a work bench with cauldrons and jars of potions ingredients had appeared.
"Are you going to help me or what?"
Snape sighed exasperated, but eventually got up and joined her. It was past three in the morning, when they finally completed the first stage of a new potion, and Samara went home, exhausted.