A/N I hope you enjoy this chapter. I think I bit off a lot more than I can chew though, so I'm putting this up for adoption. Please let me know if you want to adopt it so I can delete it on my end once you get the chapters of course. Chapter 4 Cooking Up Potions
It was not until a few days later that I had potions with Professor Snape and the Gryffindors. A bossy looking bushy haired girl had decided to sit right behind me, which frightened me a little, but the shy boy I had almost ended up sitting with on the train ended up two seats away. Of course, that meant his loud red headed friend sat beside him. The boy with the toad ended up right next to me, while Susan and Hannah were in the row in front of me. My kneezle kitten Shadow was off in one corner, observing the dungeon.
Professor Snape's speech was stomach churning, but I kept telling myself that potions was just like magical cooking. I was going to be okay. I felt so bad for poor Harry as he was put through a pop quiz right from the get go, and was not happy when Hermione's, the bossy girl's hand, knocked my head forward slightly as she raised it to answer the question. Her finger caught on one of the barrettes in my hair and it pinged across the floor. Professor Snape summoned the barrette and looked at the initials on it.
"5 points from Gryffindor for harming a student," he said as he tossed it onto my desk, watching my shaking figure as I pinned up the mass of hair back where it belonged. "1 point to Hufflepuff for being prepared for potions class."
He studied me carefully and I shrank back. I didn't have a hair net so a bun and barrettes would have to do. Everyone stared at me. I could feel it. I also wore my chocolate making attire which was an apron, a button up shirt and jeans.
"Next time where robes," Professor Snape snapped."
"W-w-wouldn't th-th-the l-l-loose sl-sleeves g-g-get in th-th-the way s-s-sir?"
"Merlin's beard, her stutter is worse than Quirrell's," said Ron Weasley.
"M-m-may I b-b-be ex-ex-excused to m-m-make my p-potions elsewhere, p-p-professor?" I asked, nearly in tears and these weren't even Slytherins.
"Take your cauldron and supplies to my office," said Professor Snape. "First copy down the recipe and take the ingredients from the store cupboard. I will be bye to check on your potion."
I did as he asked and with precise movements I tried my best to cook up the potion. The cure for boils was not exactly the shade it was supposed to be, but it was so close, I think I might be just being hard on myself. Potions was the last class of the day, and my core was starting to feel pressured. The potion helped, but it wasn't chocolate. I don't know why my core needed such a strange, to most, outlet but since I've been creating, I've been seeing a very happy and healthy crowd of students and teachers. Even Professor Snape didn't look as greasy as he did a few days ago.
"Well now," said the professor, leaning over Violet to inspect her potion. "I see I was right to separate you from the rest. Now I believe you have some work to attend to in the kitchens, and if I see that cat in here one more time I will put him to sleep with the draft of the living death."
"U-u-understood Pr-pr-professor."
Severus pinched the bridge of his nose as the girl emptied her cauldron safely, scrubbed both it and her hands clean, packed it away then hurried out of his office and out of sight. He didn't separate her out of the goodness of his heart, and she was completely right about loose hems and sleeves. No what he did was an experiment and it seemed to have paid off. The vial of potion in his hands smelled like milk chocolate. He would definitely be bringing this up to the staff that mattered. Returning to the classroom, he shooed the students out after collecting samples, not missing the disbelieving look from the Granger girl as she saw the near perfect sample in his hand, the sample good enough to go on Madam Pomfrey's shelves.