...
He patiently waited for the rest of the students in the class to filter out of the room, his gaze wavering between his parchment and the professor subtly eyeballing the leaving Gryffindors.
He couldn't really blame him- Some of the Gryffindors had realized that a decent number of Slytherin's points came from their shared potions class, and any disruptions involved meant delaying their potential chance at winning points.
Sure it might mean they lose some points for acting out, but based on history, they were going to lose those points with or without a reason, to begin with.
Wasn't like it mattered- Somehow, someway Harry Potter always found a way to get those points back.
Whether it was through his role as a seeker getting hundreds of points per game- The day the celebrity had gotten that role still refused to budge from his mind, from the sheer unfairness of it all. Not that he personally cared about the sport, but rather about the rules being broken by professors.
Even Hermione agreed it was utterly irresponsible and she was definitely right about that. If the professors themselves treated the school rules like guidelines then why should the students give any care to them, right?
He shook his head from the thoughts, only then noticing the bemused looks that Daphne was giving him at his refusal to stand from his seat.
Blaise had already left, the boy either not noticing or caring- His bigger problems coming in the form of a surprise history test on Monday.
Though there was no hint of it being a surprise given Binns had effectively told them a week earlier, nor was there any surprise about History to begin with. It's already happened and been noted. If anyone got surprised by it, it just meant they ought to start reading more.
"I have something I need to ask the professor." He remarked with a shrug, watching as the girl rolled her eyes before leaving the room, a sheepish Tracey on her heels.
The redhead had yet to speak to him since his... Erratic moment of self-preservation taking hold. He couldn't help but wonder if he ought to apologize for it- Sure, he was glad for the lack of distractions but he hadn't meant for it to turn their friendship cold or anything.
With a sigh, he leaned back into his seat, idly tapping the edge of his table as the last of the students filtered out, Snape not bothering to grace his continued presence with a look as he scowled down at the pieces of work.
If he was marking homework, he couldn't blame him. He'd seen some of his year's ones during a study session in the library and it really didn't bode well for the future of the potions community.
Turning his focus back on the parchments at hand he took in some of the notes he'd made in his own free time- During the same study session for that matter. Notes he'd gotten after reading a set of some very old potions notebooks detailing practices and potions that had either gone out of circulation due to better, more efficient, options been figured out or were banned outright for causing more problems than they fixed.
It was the second that caught his attention- Most of those potions had been made with the help of Transfiguration. In that, the makers had used the art to make up for the lack of rarer materials. Which on its own was rather genius if one ignored the fact that after a set of time, said transfiguration wore off.
It was an interesting procedure if he was completely honest. While the ingredients, post being made into the potion, had been transfigured back to their original form, the potions themselves were unaffected, keeping the same look and feel. At the same time, it was that very same reversal that made problems appear as while it didn't remove the needed effects from some of the core materials, it instead tended to introduce unknown ones, with the drinker being none the wiser until he was either dead, cursing the seller, and or regretting life itself.
It must've been pretty galling to drink a potion designed to combat fevers and find themselves with literal pieces of moldy wood magically appearing in their stomach.
But the really interesting part was that, despite the added... Materials, the positions still completed their job. As far as magic was concerned, whatever happened after a potion was properly made was just, well, the icing on top.
In essence, according to magic, those wizards wanted those pieces of moldy wood in their system as an example. Which meant it stayed in their systems.
For all the miracles it performed, magic can be downright stupid sometimes.
"Yes?" Professor Snape finally deigned to reward his patience with a somewhat irritated look.
He almost couldn't stop the gulp that came out as he stood up from his seat, parchment in hand, and promptly walked up to the man's desk.
"I uh... Was reading about Ulren's Book of Incompetence and-"
"It doesn't work." Snape immediately turned his gaze back to his grading.
He blinked a few times at that one.
He wasn't aware his professor could read minds protected by blood magic.
"Oh..." He blinked a few times, wondering if the man knew he was a Grindelwald- If he read about his question... He could practically feel the sudden panic twisting inside of him at the thought.
He'd looked into this particular avenue because he figured starting up on a path related to medicine could help him establish something that might make him indispensable enough for the country not to throw him into a jail cell or worse when they inevitably found out about his heritage.
That time, the gulp came out.
"So... Um." He wasn't even sure what to even say to that conclusion. "Transfiguration doesn't work?" He questioned lamely, rather caught off-guard by the fact his professor was not only capable of bypassing Gellert Grindelwald's protections but was completely unbothered by the fact he was the aforementioned man's grandso-
"What?" Snape's eyes rose back towards him, bemusement coloring his features.
"That... That was going to be my question," He remarked carefully- Maybe he was wrong? Maybe Snape had other students who came to him about the book?
Once a sense of calm washed over him at the fact a potion's teacher wasn't in fact capable of breaking through one of the most powerful wizards on the planet's work...He couldn't help but wonder what the man had assumed he was going to ask.
"I read about how Transfiguration's wore off, yet didn't actually change what the potion's main effect did, but rather added in... Uh," He blinked once. "Extra features to it?"
Snape stared at him for perhaps a moment longer than necessary before leaning back into his seat, a raised eyebrow on his face.
"So... Why not Transfigure something with healing or anti-poisonous features which... Would..." He frowned at the continued look. He coughed once. "Because the uh, magic would make the things that lose their transfiguration stick around in your stomach so if it has healing properties... It could continue healing you?"
The risen eyebrow dropped back to its place.
"Hm." The man got back to his grading. "In theory perhaps." The man remarked with a shrug. "Practically, nobody is going to trust a potion that has transfigured materials inside its making. Too much history."
He blinked at that one. There was something oddly scary about that particular thought given who he was related to.
"What if they're desperate?" He questioned warily.
Snape seemed to mull the words over before he locked gazes with him again.
"The idea is sound," He remarked, completely ignoring his question. "Maybe fruitful even, but it doesn't matter if the world doesn't accept it." He turned his gaze back down to the abysmal homework- Judging by the insults advice the professor had deigned to give it on the side. "And believe it or not Rodrick, anyone desperate enough for any kind of cure, is very unlikely to test an idea with a history of it makings things worse."
"...I see."
Well so much for that.
"Be that as it may, regarding that book, that may be the most sensible suggestion I've heard come from it." The man remarked with a sneer. "For it to have come from a first-year, it is astoundingly worrying."
He wasn't sure how healthy it was to be morbidly curious about the sheer stupidity that others might've come up with...
"Uh, any examples?" He questioned with a strained smile.
The Professor gave him a deadpan look. "As you can see, I happen to be busy at the moment." The man remarked, a pointed look towards the door.
He gave the homework look.
"I could help you mark it?" He deadpanned, earning an amused look from the man, and a much more direct dismissal.
"Leave your notes," Snape remarked the moment he stood up to leave. "You'll have it returned, with a grade-" Cool, his out-of-class work was going to get insulted. "-in a few days."
"...That's not nece-"
The Professor raised the parchment he was currently grading- It was one of the students in his year, a Hufflepuff if he could remember correctly judging by the name.
"So long as it isn't this stupid, I may in fact be looking forward to it." The man deadpanned towards him.
The homework itself had been rather simple in truth- Snape had asked each of them to come up with an idea created out of everything they'd learned until the Christmas holidays using one's creativity.
His own work had been rather socially-focused given it was about the Dark-Art's (Creatures, mostly) inspired properties in certain potions used by Dark Wizards in the past and whether it was their creation or their use that labeled said wizards in the eyes of magical society- If it was the latter, then in his opinion they qualified as Dark Wizards, but if it was the former, then Society had more than likely drove them into becoming Dark Wizards- The subject was his grandfather's idea.
Giving the held homework in front of him a brief look over, he found himself idly considering if he should befriend the Hufflepuff if only to help prevent the world from the mad idiot and his magically sentient, evolving, bezoar that gained the properties of any poison it came into contact with.
...
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