{Chapter 7}
The Potions Mistress
Trixi was not fitting in well in Hogwarts. All the first-year Gryffindors seemed to hate her, or avoided her because they (and most of the school) considered her weird. All except for Thomas Vandel. He didn't seem to fit in either, he certainly wasn't like the other boys in their House, who were a pretty rowdy bunch. There were seven first year Gryffindors boys. Thomas was the only muggleborn.
He appeared to be a loner, although he had latched himself onto Trixi quickly enough. Not that she had minded; he was one of the very few first-year Gryffindors who didn't call her names. He was also Trixi's only friend, at least in her year.
Thomas was very mature, and Trixi liked his company. He was pretty childish with the idea of magic though. She found this part of him entertaining, allowing herself to feel a bit superior, and she helped him with all kinds of spells. He favored Charms the most, nearly matching her skill in it, which was impressive for a muggleborn. He learned those spells faster than Trixi ever had, and she was the daughter of an extraordinary wizard. Trixi realized that if Thomas had been raised by a set of wizard parents, he may have even been better than her. The only thing that stopped him was that he didn't know of all the spells.
How do muggle-borns possess such ability? How can they be better than children raised as witches or wizards?
The Gryffindor girls (there were only four total, including herself) refused to listen to Trixi about her father. They also continued to believe that Trixi shared his same views on muggleborns (which was untrue), and therefore treated Trixi like she was some scum of the Earth. It didn't help that Trixi had to dorm with The Three Nasties (as she called them), so there was little escaping their wrath. Trixi tried being nice to them, but they wouldn't return the gesture. Sara had even bumped into Trixi on purpose in the bathroom last night, sending the small girl falling to the ground so that one of her elbows now ached from a bruise.
The Weasleys and Harry were involved with their own friends during their free time. They were nice to her (even Ron was starting to warm up), but Trixi knew that she acted younger than her age. Trixi decided that she wouldn't bother them much and would only dine with them if they invited her. She didn't want to get in their way.
Being the daughter of Professor Snape didn't help her ability to make friends. Some of the kids were just flat out scared to even talk to her.
The older Slytherins showed some signs of interest in her, mostly only due to the fact she was Snape's daughter. They were wise enough not to make fun of her, unlike some of the other students from her House, but the majority of them just would justnod or grunt a greeting. None of them wanted to speak with the strange Gryffindor girl.
Trixi was waiting for Draco to cool down before she went and talked to him. She really hadn't wanted to make him mad the other day, but Trixi felt the Hat must have sorted her in Gryffindor for a reason. Her mother was a Gryffindor, and Lily Evans had been a remarkable witch. A muggleborn one at that! In an odd way, being a Gryffindor made her feel closer to the mother she'd never known.
Trixi spent a lot of her time thinking about Harry. She wondered what it would be like to have a big brother. She wanted to tell him, but she didn't have the nerve. Would he even believe her? He may not even like the fact that she was his sister. The hate between her father and brother were mutual - anybody could tell that if they saw the two together even for a second.
He had no close family of his own, but Harry Potter would probably be repulsed by the idea of being related to her. He still sometimes looked at her as if she couldn't be trusted, especially if he were in a discussion with Hermione and Ron. The three would instantly hush up if she walked by them.
"You like him or something?" Thomas whispered to her at breakfast one morning when he caught her staring at Harry.
"Who?" Trixi asked. She was hardly paying attention to him. She was feeling awful for Harry. Trixi at least had her father. Harry didn't even have that. She had recently over heard him talking about some boy named Dudley he had to live with. He sounded like an awful kid.
"Potter." Thomas was looking at her with interest, his head slightly tilted to the side.
"Well, I like him, but not in the way you're thinking." She answered as she fully came out of her daydream.
"Lots of the first years are getting his autograph. He's real famous, I hear." Thomas shrugged, he didn't seem to care much about Harry's celebrity status. "Maybe you should get one."
"I am not going to get his autograph!" She was repulsed by the idea. Sure, it was amazing what Harry did, but Trixi wasn't one to get excited over famous people, they were just people after all. People with talents, people with money, or people with luck.
Her father was talented and incredible, but no one ever asked for his autograph. Trixi had once thought he should have been famous for his skills, but she'd quickly thrown that out the window. While Severus Snape would enjoy the attention, he certainly wouldn't like the constant news reporters and lack of privacy.
Harry appeared to be the same way. He always looked uncomfortable when someone asked for an autograph. Actually her brother looked uncomfortable when he was the centre of attention period. She found it odd that he was the Gryffindor's Seeker, since that brought upon a lot of fans. The most important player was the seeker. The other positions were just there for the crowd's entertainment.
Besides, an autograph is just a signature. Trixi had something better than that. She was Harry Potter's sister. The idea made her pulse pick up with excitement. Not only did she have a brother(she always wanted a sibling; what only child didn't?), but her brother was Harry Potter! The boy who'd destroyed the Dark Lord when he was just a baby!
"Well, you're certainly drooling over him enough." Thomas teased with a grin.
"Drooling?" Trixi made a face. "I'm not drooling. It's just that...we..." Trixi paused, trying to come up with something to say. "Well, I can't tell you, okay?"
Thomas was curious now, but not enough to pry. "Sure, but you may want to keep the drooling to a minimum. You totally look like you're crushing on him." He gave her a toothy smile, then stood up and walked off.
Crushing?
She was much too young to dream over a boy. She scrunched up her face at the thought. Her eyes then drifted back toward her brother.
She should probably stop staring at him though...
I still can't believe I am related to The Boy Who Lived!
"Is there anything I should be doing while this is boiling?" Thomas asked Trixi quietly in Potions on that afternoon.
"Read ahead in the book?" Trixi suggested, looking up from a book of her own. She really had little use for the first year potion book. Instead, she was reading ahead in her History of Magic book as she kept tabs on her ink.
"In a normal brewing, we would be preparing ingredients as we keep a watchful eye on our ink, but Daddy has little faith in his students." She glanced at Professor Snape, who was taking advantage of the boring moment to read a stack of papers piled on his desk. "He will show us the next step when he feels the class is ready."
Thomas fought a yawn as he stirred his bubbling black ink.
He wasn't the only one bored. The Three Nasties were whispering quietly about some pointless gossip. Pete Millart and Royland Fillieur were passing notes and snickering about something. They were Gryffindors. Pete had curly brunet hair and was average sized for his age. He also had a pretty big mouth and often had already gotten points deducted in a few classes because of it. Royland was Pete's friend. He was much better at staying out of trouble. Royland's hair was a golden brown sugar colour. It was straight, and went down to his shoulders. He was an inch or so shorter than Pete.
Most of the Slytherins were also doing things they shouldn't be doing while in class. The five boys of the house were having some sort battle with a bunch of folded up papers. One of them failed to catch it and the paper object landed in Franilda Wildnox's bubbling ink. Trixi heard a quite few chuckles from around the room as the girl gasped. Her beautiful blue hair instantly changed to a blood red. It grew an inch a second and was coiling up into curls like a snake.
"Excuse me, Professor Snape?" Franilda raised her hand, her voice breathless and shrill from anger.
"Yes, Wildnox?" He lifted his head from his work, refraining from chuckling himself at the Metamorphagus' reaction to her unfortunate fate. It had been a few years since Hogwarts had a young Metamorphagus, but they were always entertaining to have around.
"Some of us feel throwing paper around is much more important than watching for our ink to boil." She continued to stare coldly at her housemates. "I am quite disgusted with this! That piece of paper has been kicked around by multiple pairs of shoes! I refuse to work with this brew any longer!"
A red headed Slytherin named Dorian Kuden stuck his tongue out at her, not liking that she was ruining their fun.
"Very well, Mr. Saden, since it was you who threw the paper last, switch cauldrons with Miss. Wildnox."
"Thank you, sir." Franilda sighed with relief, her hair returning to normal. Saden wasn't deeply concerned with the switch. Germs didn't bother him.
Professor Snape's attention returned to his stack of papers. "As soon as all the litter is picked up, I will show you the next step. The paper will have no effect on your potion, Mr. Saden, but I suggest being a bit more careful in the future, as there are a few selective potions that are known to react in a disastrous way if something were to just randomly land into them."
The boys picked up their thrown paper toys and put them in a waste bucket that stood by the exit.
The Professor then put his own papers in a drawer of his desk, clearing a space for a bowl and a strainer.
"It should not take a genius to know that these fluids are boiling hot. Carefully strain the solids from the liquid. We will jar up the solids for the use of other potions. Today, we only need the ink for the Snap Serum - as you all should know by now."
He then strained his own ink that he used for demonstration. Using a slotted utensil, he lightly stirred the solids to collect every possible drop of ink. While he did not tell them, the students were supposed to watch him closely, as he would provide little help should they need it. Which they shouldn't, this was an extremely simple potion, but Trixi had a feeling that quite a few of her fellow first years were going to need help since most of them hardly paid attention. Not enough attention anyway.
Trixi got up from where she sat to get what she needed to strain her ink. Thomas quickly followed.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Professor Snape barked to his students. "Get yourself a bowl and strainer from the shelf!"
"It's like you read his mind." Thomas whispered as he poured his lumpy ink into the strainer.
"I worked with him for five years." She poured the black globs of goo into a jar. "Don't stir it too hard." She whispered to him. "Just lightly."
"Stop helping him!" Cassi sneered. She was sitting in front of Trixi and had turned around to issue the command. "That's cheating, you know, and not fair to the rest of us!"
"Miss Greystone, I will not tolerate your disruption in my class. Five points from Gryffindor."
Trixi purposely avoided her father's eyes. She knew he did that only because of her. Especially since the Slytherins had been playing around not that long ago.
Cassi scowled. "Daddy's little baby." She muttered under her breath.
Her father was doing more harm than anything. Trixi preferred to just allow the Three Nasties be, not wanting anymore reason for them to despise her. She kept silent though and continued to help Thomas as it hadn't seemed to bother the professor when she did so.
"Do any of you know the next step?" Professor Snape asked.
Trixi raised her hand. She didn't want a repeat of last lesson. Answering a question was much less embarrassing than him personally addressing her and showing her off.
Franilda also raised her hand. To Trixi's relief, Professor Snape called on the Slytherin. He must have been curious if the girl from his house was able to correctly answer his question or not.
"As you said the other day, Professor, this is the step where we are to reduce our ink down to a third of a cup."
Franilda earned five House points for her correct answer.
It took only ten minutes to reduce the ink down to size. Trixi had done bigger batches than this before, needing near an hour to reduce enormous amounts of ink. She had never done such a small quantity before, since Professor Snape usually only took bulk orders. Bigger orders gave much more profit margin in the long run, considering the time invested and all. They could also do more work in a sixty minute gap of time rather than a ten minute, giving enough time to brew other potions whilst they were waiting.
Trixi poured her thick ink into the bowl she had previously used. The ink had a consistency between syrup and tar. It smelled like moldy dirt. She then cleaned her cauldron out and tried showing Thomas the spell, he couldn't do it though. That was okay. It had taken Trixi a month to properly cast that charm. It would give him something to work on.
"I suppose we can move on to the next step." Her father's lazy voice came from the front of the room five minutes later. Trixi watched as he cleaned his own cauldron out using one of his favourite washing spells. His was different than hers. He preferred Dutch or Latin spells, but Trixi liked Romanian ones better.
Pumpkin seed shelling was next, Trixi's favourite part of the Snap Serum recipe. Here she could use her wand to remove the shells.
"Why don't these come already shelled?" Kelsa asked. "I feel like a slave here." The Three Nasties then resumed their gossiping. Most was about their favorite celebrities and who was getting married or divorced.
Trixi showed Thomas how to crack open the seeds with their wands, needing no incantation. Thomas smirked when he and Trixi were just about finished and the girls had barely got a quarter of the way through theirs. Thomas didn't care much for The Three Nasties either. He had been a witness to some of the things they had done to Trixi, besides their flapping lips in class.
"With little surprise, it seems Miss. Snape has outdone you all again." Professor Snape smirked. He was standing in the aisle between the two Houses. "Remarkable ingenuity."
Trixi rolled her eyes. Two years ago, she had asked her father if she could use a spell to crack seeds and nuts. He told her doing it by hand would yield a better outcome, but he reluctantly allowed her to do it on the simple potions that she had already mastered. It wasn't long before Professor Snape was impressed by how well she was able to shell nuts; her magic was seven times faster than the manual way, and just as well prepared, if not better. He told Trixi that she must have gotten that from her mother, who was one of the best ingredient preparers he had ever known. That had made his daughter smile very wide.
So her "ingenuity" wasn't very surprising to him, and Trixi figured he had been waiting for her moment to use the spell and show it off to the rest of the class.
"He should reward you House points for that." Thomas grumbled.
"What did you do?!" Sara asked in her sneering voice.
"I bet she cheated!" Cassi shrieked.
"Is there a problem over there?" Professor Snape challenged them from front of the room.
"No, Professor Snape." Kelsa answered in forced sweet voice.
"I had better not hear another outburst from that section of the room." He warned them.
"She didn't cheat." Thomas quietly defended Trixi. "She's just smarter than you."
"Yeah, but you still can't change a match into a needle, can you?" Cassi teased in a whisper. Cassi had already learned how to transfigure her match into a needle, being one of the first in the year to complete Professor McGonagall's first Transfiguration task.
Trixi pursed together her lips to avoid saying anything. She didn't think her father would give her a detention, but she surely didn't want to see if he would remove points from Gryffindor if she were to snap some retort at the girl. Trixi didn't care all too much about the point system, but that didn't mean she wanted to be the cause of a point deduction. She didn't need another reason for her housemates to hate her.
"Come up to the front here. I am only going to show you this once, as it is so simple even an untrained ape can do it." Professor Snape was standing behind his desk. In front of him, his cauldron had a small amount of shelled pumpkin seeds in it. They crowded around and watched as he wordlessly lit the fire under his cauldron and stirred the seeds to brown them. "Your turn." He simply said as he dumped his perfectly toasted seeds into a mortal and pestle.
"Did you count the seconds?" Trixi asked Thomas in a whisper.
"No, was I supposed to?"
Trixi nodded.
Thomas smacked his forehead.
"High flame, seventy-eight seconds. Stirring constantly."
"Why doesn't he just say that?" Thomas whispered back.
Where would this kid be if I wasn't here?
"Self learning is much more gratifying and accomplishing." She answered, quoting her father from years before when she had asked him that same question.
"Professor! Professor!" A breathless voice came from the doorway. Crabbe and Goyle looked liked they were about to collapse from running. Draco's two friends obviously didn't exercise very often. That, or they ate more than they could burn.
"What is it?" Snape walked briskly to them.
"Malfoy!" Crabbe sputtered.
"He's been attacked, sir!"
Trixi got up from her seat, standing in place, anxiously waiting to hear more.
"What happened?" Professor Snape asked.
"In Care of Magical Creatures, Professor!"
"He's with Pomfry now, sir, in the hospital wing."
"I'll be up there shortly." Professor Snape said, and the two disappeared. "Miss Snape, hold the class until I get back."
"No, I am going with you." She rushed up to him.
"You will stay here and assist the class." He told her sternly. "No arguments." He then left, with his cloak flying behind him.
Trixi peered at her classmates and gave them a nervous smile. This wasn't going to go well...
"Why do you get to teach us?" Cassi asked in disbelief. "You're just a baby!"
"Because she's the teacher's baby, that's why." Sara sneered.
"Let's just continue our work." Trixi said quietly with a frown.
"Forget this! This lesson is over!" The Kuden boy spat, snapping his book shut and placing it in his bag.
"Kuden, don't!" Kuden's partner cried "You'll get detention!"
"From who? Goody two shoes over there? Yeah, right!"
"Snape will be back!" Franilda warned.
"I'm not taking orders from a Mudblood lover, even if she is Professor Snape's daughter!" Kuden then exited the room, but not without bumping into Trixi. Many of the Slytherin's exchanged worried looks. Trixi watched the angry Slytherin boy as she absently rubbed her sore shoulder.
"I don't suppose you're brave enough to follow?" Trixi asked The Three Nasties. She would have thought they would had been the first ones to leave.
"Brave?" Sara laughed. "He's not brave! He's stupid!"
"Yeah, that was probably the dumbest thing I have seen yet." Pete chimed.
"Is everyone done with their toasting?" Trixi asked from where she stood at the door. "I can show you the next step." Her eyes fell to the floor as sixteen pairs of eyes looked at her. "If you'll allow me..." To Trixi's amazement, the remaining students followed her up to Professor Snape's desk.
"I consider this the simplest step of them all." She told them. "The toasted pumpkin seeds, and two teaspoons of beetle eyes." She mixed the two in Snape's mortal and pestle and proceeded to grind the ingredients together. "Look simple enough?" She asked them and most of her classmates nodded. Minutes later, she was finished. "This is what you want it to look like." It looked like beach sand with a little black mixed with it.
Everyone went back to their seats to do the task and Trixi sent three jars of Beetle Eyes to be passed around the room.
"What do I do when I have added too many Beetle Eyes?" Gabriella Norman asked. Gabriella was the second of the two first year Slytherin girls, she and Franilda were inseparable in class.
"How on Earth do you add too many Beetle Eyes?!" a boy from the Slytherin side of the room demanded. "It's two teaspoons! One! Two!"
"Be thankful Professor Snape isn't here?" Trixi answered meekly with a sheepish grin. Some of her classmates with a good sense of humour laughed at that. "Your Snap Serum will be a bit salty now, depending on how much you added." She turned to her father's mortar and pestle. "Here, I'll let you use mine."
"Isn't that your Dad's mixture?" Kelsa pointed out as Trixi and Gabriella made the exchange.
Trixi shrugged. "I did half of it myself. If Daddy gets upset, he will scold me for it."
"Like he scolds you!" Pete scoffed. A couple of Pete's friends agreed.
"Believe what you will." Trixi said.
"She's Daddy's wittle girl, he would do no such thing!" Cassi sneered.
"Leave her alone!" Thomas demanded, standing up. "What are you, jealous or something?!"
"Jealous of the ugly, tiny imp?!" Kelsa gasped. "No way would I ever dream of having that fat nose."
Pete laughed, finding Kelsa's insult amusing.
"You are disrupting the lesson. Please just ignore my ugly face and continue your work." Trixi requested. Snickers followed that, but they did return to their grinding.
A few minutes later, Trixi ended the class. Surprisingly, no one gave her any real trouble, not even The Three Nasties. Professor Snape still hadn't returned though. Hopefully, Draco was okay. She decided to skip her Charms class to see how he was doing.
To her relief, the infirmary doors were open.