1972-1973: The Potions Prodigy
On Friday, September 1st, Severus took the train to London, disguised as a bit of luggage. It should have been Sev's turn but Severus had spent most of his summer buried in Potions books and he wasn't about to let it go to waste. He had set himself a mission to accomplish as soon as they reached Hogwarts.
A bit more confidently this time than last year, Severus ran toward the barrier between Muggle and Wizard King's Cross, pushing the wooden trunk in front of him. It didn't take five seconds for Lily to notice and sprint toward him, flinging her arms around him and pulling him in a tight hug. Petunia, Severus noted, was not on the platform.
"Oh, I missed you so much!" Lily exclaimed, grabbing his hand and leading him to the compartment where she'd left her bags. She then hopped off the train to exchange a few more good wishes with her parents, and entered again just as the whistle announced that they were off to Hogwarts.
It was only the two of them in the compartment until two first-years slipped inside, but the newcomers kept to themselves the entire ride.
"We have a lot to catch-up on," said Lily. "Who would've guessed so much could happen in two months! Well, go on then, spill the tea. What did you do?"
Severus wholeheartedly agreed that a lot had happened in the past two months. It was just that it had been a lot of the same things and they were things he hoped Lily would never learn about. So instead of mentioning his parents and the overall hell his home had become, he set on describing the research he and Sev had done.
Lily, for her part, spent an hour describing her new house, a muggle neighbour she'd spent some time with and her plans for the upcoming year at Hogwarts. That was until James Potter slid open the door to the compartment and poked his head inside.
"Hey, Evans, heard you're here with Snivelly and came to rescue you. Wanna come to my compartment? Sirius brought butterbeer."
Severus was immensely glad he wasn't on the receiving end of Lily's scowl. It looked quite frightening. "You, Potter," Lily said, "are an insolent toff." And with that, she walked over to the door and closed it in Potter's face. Severus smirked.
Unlike last year, this time Severus and Lily were steered in the direction of a few dozen carriages that moved by themselves on the path around the Hogwarts grounds, occasionally making neighing sounds for effect. As the carriages came to a stop and students started pouring on the path, the voices of the teachers could be heard urging them to go inside before the first-years had arrived.
Severus did go inside. But instead of heading to the feast, as he reached the entrance hall he turned left and picked his way through the dungeons until he reached the Potions classroom. It was lucky Slughorn was stupid enough not to lock both the room itself and the cabinets inside. And so, Severus pulled out a cauldron, dittany leaves and a vial of salt water, and got to work. It took about thirty minutes until the Essence of Dittany was complete and safely pocketed in the Slytherin's robes. Severus scrubbed the cauldron clean and levitated it to its place, then put the left-over ingredients back in their places and left the room.
Along with him, a painted figure left the frame in the Potions classroom and entered a different one in the corridor. But Severus never noticed as it followed him down to Slughorn's storeroom where he collected ingredients for the Elixir to Induce Euphorbia, and back up to the Entrance Hall from where he finally entered the Great Hall just as the plates filled with beef, fish and chips, beans and the other thousand meals the house-elves had provided for the feast disappeared to be replaced by plates of pastries.
It wasn't long until the students were sent to their dormitories where Severus entered the trunk and both he and Sev applied the potion he'd just brewed on the bruises they had obtained during the summer.
Eight floors above Headmaster Albus Dumbledore was having a conversation with Madam Pomfrey, the matron.
"That is what I was told. Dilys was actually quite impressed with the boy's brewing skills."
"Be that as it may, he is not qualified to do it himself," Pomfrey snapped. "He should go to me when he needs medical attention."
"Exactly the reason you are here, Poppy. I trust you will make sure Mr. Snape is not injured and understands that he is to go to the infirmary whenever he needs help."
"Oh, I will," she said firmly, and with a confident step marched to her own rooms.
The following day, as he crossed the common room, Seuthes caught bits of a conversation that promised to be intriguing. So he slowed his step and listened carefully to the group of sixth- and seventh-years that was occupying the sofas near the entrance.
"... well, Lucius did us a favour getting Nadelft fired. The old woman is good as dead but at least she won't give us a hard time. Heard she went to Durmstrang too, Dark Arts might actually be interesting for once..."
Seuthes swept from the room and headed in the direction of the Great Hall where breakfast was just being served. But as he was approaching the big oak doors, he felt a pair of eyes following him and it wasn't long before he realised it was Madam Pomfrey who was observing him. Now, he didn't have a reason to avoid the matron but some inner voice told him he should. So instead of entering the Hall, he waited for Lily outside and asked her to bring some food to their tree. Despite Lily's insistence, he did not elaborate as to why.
Twice more he went out of his way that day to avoid Pomfrey and four times Russ did the same on Sunday. On Monday, Hagrid joined the chase and Snape was finally forced to talk to an adult. Seuthes and the gamekeeper were seated in the latter's hut.
"Hagrid," Seuthes said after a cup of tea had been placed in front of him. "Why am I here?"
He noticed Hagrid fidget and avoid his gaze, as though trying to come up with a plausible response.
"Tell ya the truth, I was wanting to talk t' ya 'bout erm... Well, yer summer. Hasn't happened any bad things at yer place?"
So Hagrid was on Pomfrey's team then.
"Not at my place," Seuthes replied as he stood up and moved around the table. "But I've been harassed by the staff at Hogwarts for three days now." And he tried to go out the door only to find the exit obstructed by Hagrid's huge bulk.
"None o' that, lad. Ain't nobody harassing ya, 't is called 'caring'."
Hagrid put his hand on Seuthes' shoulder, and steered him back to the sofa. Seuthes, however, was not so easily dissuaded.
"Well, no need for your 'caring', then. I'm fine, look." He pushed back to his feet and started moving his hands up and down like a signalman to prove his point.
Hagrid didn't force him to sit again, but made sure to be in such a position so as to block any attempts at escaping. "Ya wouldn't mind me checking ya over then? "
"No!" Seuthes screamed. He might not have bruises, but he had scars. "You won't touch me! I won't let you!"
But Hagrid had already outstretched his hand over the table, mumbling something about tea and cold, and Seuthes, his heart now beating audibly against his chest, climbed on top of the sofa and pressed himself firmly against the wall to be as far away from the giant man as possible.
It was then that his saviour arrived. Albus Dumbledore had stepped through the door and at that moment Seuthes could swear there was light emitting from the Headmaster, as though he was a ray at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Whether Dumbledore was truly emitting light or it was just the association with the sudden hope he roused in this moment of fear and helplessness, Seuthes didn't know. All that mattered was that he was saved.
"Good afternoon, Hagrid," Dumbledore said, only then noticing the little boy in the corner of the room. "Mr Snape, I hope I haven't interrupted anything too important."
"No, sir," Seuthes hastened to say. "I was just leaving, sir." He practically dashed out the door and didn't even turn to look at the pensive gaze of the Headmaster who was observing his escape.
Dumbledore pulled the chair closest to the door and sat on it, conjuring himself a cup of tea with a simple motion of his hand. He then lifted the cup to his lips and looked questioningly at Hagrid, who was now holding Snape's cup in his hand.
"Didna say nothing, the lad did. Won't let me touch him."
"Did he seem injured at all?" asked Dumbledore.
"Not that I saw."
"That is good, at least. Do try to be more gentle with him, Hagrid. He is frightened enough as it is."
"Frightened o' me taking his tea," Hagrid huffed. "Wasn' threatening him or nothing."
Double Potions was the first class the Gryffindor and Slytherin second-years had on Tuesday. As they descended the steps deep into the dungeons after breakfast and entered the Potions classroom, there was a noticeable change in the room compared to last year. Desks were put together to form five wide tables big enough for at least four or five people to be working on them. There was wrestling as students divided into groups and rushed to get the table they wanted.
Avery, Lestrange, Wilkes and Katherine Nawler had formed one group, as had Potter, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew. The rest of the Slytherin girls were gathered around a third table. Six Gryffindor girls were debating which four would be together and which two would be doomed to work with Snape and Mulciber, who still stood by the door, not sure what to do with themselves. At last, it was decided that the unlucky two would be Lily and a girl named Mary Macdonald. The former wasn't as opposed to the idea as was expected of her.
"Now, then," said Slughorn, who had been observing the room for the past five minutes. "I see we've all found partners, so let us begin. One cauldron for each group. Everyone, get your scales out, we'll be brewing a complicated potion today! Has anyone heard of the Swelling Solution?"
Lily's hand shot into the air. Other children raised theirs more tentatively. Severus didn't bother.
"Yes! Miss Evans?"
"A yellow potion that causes everything it touches to swell in size."
"Excellent, excellent! Five points to Gryffindor!"
The next twenty minutes Slughorn spent getting the class to read the instructions ("Page 27, Rabastan, my boy. 27, not 42. Yes, very good! Now everyone look at the bottom of the page!") and to gather the necessary ingredients ("Puffer-fish eyes, Mr. Pettigrew. The little balls to your right. Miss Cattermole, the dried nettles should be the ones over there."). Severus himself, and consequently his group, had gathered the ingredients within half a minute and had even crushed the dried nettles and puffer-fish eyes into the powder required for the potion.
"How can you mistake fairy wings for puffer-fish eyes?" Lily whispered to Snape as they waited for the other groups to accomplish the perplexing task of getting the correct three ingredients. Something that was noticed both by Mulciber, who even heard what was said, and by Potter, who was too far away to make out the conversation.
"If you recall, last year Pettigrew couldn't even boil water, so I'm not the least bit surprised," replied Severus. Mulciber glared at him. The boiling water had burnt his hand too.
"Now then," said Slughorn from where he had returned to the front of the class, everyone now having gathered the necessary ingredients. "This is a complicated brew and I don't expect a perfect potion from you, but as you are in groups of four, it shouldn't be too difficult to brew a decent Swelling Solution. Go ahead now!"
The room was filled with the sound of crushing ingredients and rods clinking against cauldrons. Not even two minutes after the brewing had started, Lestrange hit the mortar so hard that it went flying, spilling all of the powder inside on the table and floor.
"You idiot!" Nawler hissed, casting a not fully-working Vanishing Spell (a spell taught in third-year, so it was commendable that she'd managed even this much). "Give me that! Don't touch anything." And she pushed Lestrange out of the way, taking it upon herself to brew the potion with the occasional help from Avery and the unnecessary instructions coming from Wilkes.
The Gryffindors weren't doing much better. Angela Ogden was the one doing the work for the girls, Potter and Lupin for the boys. The rest just observed the process. The only group that worked as an actual team was the group of Slytherin girls, but then, they were doing a really poor job at brewing an adequate potion. Meanwhile, Severus and Lily were the duo from heaven. Severus added the ingredients and counted the seconds until they were to proceed to the next step. Lily stirred the rod and regulated the heat. They were in perfect sync.
"Are you open to a bit of creative experimentation? One time clockwise and three counter-clockwise seem to me better than four times counter-clockwise," said Severus once the potion was almost complete.
"Are you out of your mind!" interjected Macdonald, that being the first time she'd opened her mouth since the start of the class. "You do your 'experiments' when that won't endanger our grades." She gestured toward Lily, herself and Mulciber.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Severus sneered. "Didn't know you were so fastidious. Remind me again, what exactly have you done to deserve any grade above Dreadful? I don't think you even touched a thing on this table."
Lily was fast to spread her hands between the two in an attempt to make peace. "Severus, please, no need for that now. We'll just do it as the book says this time." She turned to Mulciber and Macdonald. "Does any one of you want to do the last step?"
Macdonald just crossed her arms over her chest and said nothing. Mulciber, however, took the rod Lily was handing them and stirred the mixture in the cauldron. The only thing left to do now was leave the potion to heat for half a minute and it would be complete. That was when Slughorn wobbled over to their cauldron, having heard the commotion from a minute earlier and coming to check if everything was okay. At the sight of the potion, his face lit like a Christmas tree.
"Good Lord, a flawless execution if I've ever seen one! Well done! Well done, Mr. Mulciber!" he exclaimed at seeing the rod in the boy's hand, clapping him on the back.
"Actually, sir, it was Lily and—" Severus started to say, but was cut off.
"Ah, yes. Excellent job from you too, Miss Evans!"
He didn't stay long enough to hear of Snape's involvement in the brewing and for his part, Snape didn't think it was important enough to go and boast about it. So he kept his mouth shut, handed over a sample of the potion, and left the classroom.
The following day the second-years once again had Potions, but as it was only one period, Slughorn had decided to go over the theory of the next potion and leave the practice for next week when they'd have more time for the brewing. The classroom was back to normal with everyone having their own desk and as the man droned on and on, Seuthes let his mind wander. It was the next class that the Slytherins were awaiting — Defence Against the Dark Arts — and so was he. He'd heard from the third-years on Monday that this year the class was nothing like it had been last year. That seemed promising.
True enough, Defence Against the Dark Arts was nothing like it had been last year. The class started in the worst way possible. The new professor introduced herself as Professor Dimova. She was a short and thin woman, whose age could easily be guessed from the wrinkles on her face and hands, as well as her hunched posture. She was wearing a green robe with a black apron. Her hair, tied in a bun, was covered by a black pointed hat. Overall, she reminded Seuthes of a fifty-years-older-McGonagall. Her introduction, however, wasn't the reason the class started badly. It was what followed after, for Professor Dimova asked the students to introduce themselves as well. And it wasn't only a name, oh no. They had to say something interesting about themselves — every student's worst nightmare. Or at least it was Seuthes' worst nightmare. Roughly speaking, of course.
As it usually happens, everything interesting he might have said had left his head the moment the question had left Dimova's lips and the best thing he managed was "My mother was the Gobstones team's leader." His only alleviation was that most of his classmates didn't do any better.
After those first torturous five minutes, Dimova began her lecture on the nature of the Dark Arts and how they were always lurking in the shadows, prowling and striking when you least expected them. All in all, this was shaping up to be another one of the tedious classes along with Potions and History of Magic.
That inference was proven wrong fifteen minutes later when, while Dimova was listing the different types of Dark Magic and explaining what exactly made them Dark, Wilkes yelped as if in pain and shot from his chair. Jumping up and down on his left leg, he held his other with both hands, then rolled up his trousers to reveal a sore red spot on his calf.
"Dat was our firrst lesson. You werre not rready forr an attack, you let yourr guarrd down and dis is the rresult. See dat you are rready next time."
And as the students were trying to process the fact that the teacher had just attacked a student without so much as a warning, another student leapt from her seat — a burn was eating at the skin at the top of her hand. Seuthes extracted his wand, trying to locate the source of the attack.
"There now, good lad. What are the rrest of you doing, staying defenceless like dat!?" Professor Dimova tapped the black board with the tip of her wand and a white chalk positioned itself in front of it, ready to write down the teacher's instructions. "Attention now, please! Assignment: I want to see yourr suggestions on what exactly was attacking you. Thrree suggestions is the bare minimum! Everryone who's been harrmed is to go to the matrron! Class dismissed."
In the following weeks it was a common occurrence to see students running out of the Defence classroom and toward the infirmary. Professor Dimova kept Madam Pomfrey busy. On Thursday Severus was happy to note that Black was rubbing his shoulder after the Gryffindor Defence Against the Dark Arts class.
Seuthes and Severus both worked on the assignment that Thursday for there was a second and third period of Defence on Friday. After pondering the question for about half an hour, they'd reached the consensus that the source of the attack could have been absolutely anything — from the professor herself casting nonverbal spells while presenting her lecture, to the portraits in the room or even the desks which might very well have been enchanted beforehand. That response earned Slytherin ten points.
The weekend went by quickly. Slytherin was trying out for a new Seeker, but that was nothing that interested either of the twins, though at least a third of the school went to watch. Slytherin, as the Snapes understood it, had just lost its best player and was in for a really bad Quidditch season.
Soon enough, it was once again Tuesday and once again Potions and once again the students were divided into five groups. None of the Slytherins except Snape, however, were content with their groups from last week. And so, there were changes. It first started when the girls' group insisted that Nawler join them in place of another girl, who had done a more than miserable job last time. That left an open spot in the boys' group. They welcomed Mulciber with open arms after Slughorn had so openly praised him for his incredible talents. On the other hand, there was nothing that could make Macdonald agree to work with the Slytherins again, and she was replaced by Tiana Cattermole — a girl so inept that the other Gryffindors had been more than happy about the change.
That meant Snape was now stuck with three girls, two of whom didn't seem to have much between their ears, the third being Lily, who made up for the other two. As long as the new additions to the team didn't touch anything, the process should go exactly as it had last week.
It did. Seuthes and Lily's potion was once again an excellent brew that left Slughorn beaming for the rest of the day (really, if the man hadn't been this blatantly biassed, the Snapes might actually have liked him). The Gryffindor boys also did similar to how they had last week, as did the Gryffindor girls (Macdonald, it turned out, was not a big improvement from Cattermole). The differences were in the Slytherins' performance, where there had been more significant changes in the groups. The girls, having been joined by Nawler, now did a decent job and the boys — much to the dismay of Lestrange, Wilkes and Avery, who had expected heroic deeds from Mulciber — ended up with with a brown viscous substance instead of the water-like liquid they were supposed to make.
It wasn't hard for the Slytherins to deduce that the actual person who was skilled in Potions was not Mulciber, but Snape (Lily Evans being a muggle-born Gryffindor and therefore not worth even considering her as someone with skill).
This was why, when Severus sat on the same table with the same three people — Lily, Cattermole and the Slytherin girl called Sherett Marchbanks — Lestrange appeared on his left with Wilkes next to him and Avery standing behind. Lestrange made a show of throwing his bag on the table, then turned to the girls:
"Move along, both of you. Snape here has become our very best friend. Isn't that right, half-breed?" He patted Severus on the back and pushed the girls' bags on the floor. When they first glared at him and then bent to collect their things, the three newcomers quickly took their places and grinned at the sight of hatred and disappointment on Lily's face.
"Have you no decency!" she snapped and marched to the other end of the room, which only made the Slytherins' smiles wider. Snape, meanwhile, stood frozen, still trying to decide if he dared to defend Lily in front of them, or preferred to pare down the hostility between himself and his housemates.
The decision was taken away from him because at that moment Slughorn announced the beginning of the class and Snape was forced to set to work, sending Lily apologetic looks at every opportunity. Needless to say, this time Wilkes, Lestrange and Avery did an amazing job with their potion, earning themselves an Outstanding — a big jump from the Poor from last week.
They did similarly the following week and the week after, earning O after O for years to come. Snape wasn't too happy with the arrangement, but there was no denying the upsides it brought. Both four of his dormmates (for Mulciber and Avery would often swap places in their Potions classes so that both could profit from Snape's skill) would now often defend him against the rest of his housemates. Not every time... He still had to suffer the psychological abuse that went hand in hand with being a half-blood in Slytherin, and would sometimes become the punching bag of older students. But it was nothing compared to what it had been before. His situation had improved tenfold.
Severus even managed to get Avery to lend him his owl. On the third week of school — Friday, to be exact — he finally prepared the Elixir to Induce Euphorbia he'd been planning to brew and give to his mother since before the school year had even begun. Now, the school offered students free owls that resided in the owlery, but seeing as they were free and for everyone to use, they were all old and dishevelled and there was a big chance they wouldn't even reach the intended destination. Avery's owl, on the other hand, now that was a majestic creature, fast and smart. It went to Great Manchester and back in no time.
Meanwhile, Snape was still having lunch with Lily every day. This was frowned upon by many people from different houses and varying ages, but no-one was as disgruntled about it as James Potter and Sirius Black. It was and would be the reason for many of their fights.
One in particular happened on October 5th, 1972, when the two cornered Severus in a deserted classroom, managed to disarm him, and after debating what to do with him for a solid two minutes, the Gryffindors finally agreed on pouring water over his head, and because he'd dropped it right next to him — his bag ("You really needed that shower, Snivellus"). After inspecting their handiwork, the two added the final strokes to their artwork by transfiguring two of Snape's books into frogs and placing them on his head ("His hair does look like a swamp, doesn't it?"). Severus himself had managed to inflict on the duo a few cuts and bruises, but nothing too serious.
He was found in that same room, tied to a column, about thirty minutes later, long after he had given up on screaming for help. In this part of the castle there was seldom anyone who would hear and it was lucky that a portrait had been assigned to follow young Mr Snape, for it had alerted the first staff member it had stumbled upon — Professor Flitwick, and the little Charms instructor had let himself be guided by the portrait until he had reached the crime site.
Potter and Black denied empathically the accusations against them, but since Snape hadn't shied away from giving the full details of what had occurred, including his own involvement, it was easy to prove that his version of the story was the more likely one. The two Gryffindors, after all, had mysterious cuts on their hands that they hadn't been able to explain away. The culprits were given detention for the entirety of the following week. And Snape was plotting his revenge.