The rumors spread through the school like wildfire. Ivan, detention, Snape, demons, colors, monsters, lost tempers, pranks, and more. All the rumors agreed on one thing though. Even though Ivan had only a 15-minute detention they were bound to be 15 minutes he would remember for the rest of his life, and not for any good reason.

Ivan bragged through his History of Magic class that he had gotten away with his pranks, and he was suitably happy to find everyone in awe of him. They followed him, asking questions and begging for autographs as if they were never going to see him again. Which many thought was a distinct possibility.

At dinner he was quickly surrounded by older students asking questions and patting him on the back. Most of the younger students stayed away from Ivan, because they didn't know enough magic to protect themselves from his so-called pranks.

Finally Dumbledore had to call the school to attention so dinner could start. Everyone had sat down and started eating when Snape threw open the doors to the great hall and stalked up to the staff table.

The hall went silent and then a roar of conversation picked up, accompanied by fleeting glances at Snape and Ivan. Eventually, conversation returns to its normal volume, but furtive glances continue all throughout dinner.

If anyone had paid attention to Snape for more than a brief second they might have noticed that he was eating very little, despite the Headmaster's encouragement to eat more than vegetables. He spent most of the dinner smirking so much it could almost be mistaken for a smile. If anyone had paid attention to Dumbledore they would have noticed the slight twinkle in his eye at Snape's behavior, occasionally replaced by a sad solemn expression.

Ivan joked about how Snape was a greasy wanker, and bragged how he wasn't afraid of him all throughout dinner.

Dinner ended and the Great Hall emptied. Students headed to their common rooms to relax, the excitement dying down. Until 7:40 PM in the Hufflepuff common room. The Hufflepuffs were proud to have such a brave person in their House. They were also quite mad that he had almost lost them all their house points, and were even angrier at his mean pranks. That said, he might be forgiven if he came back alive from this detention.

Ivan left for the dungeon at 7:50 PM and got there at 8:01 PM.

"Minus 1 point for being late." Snape said idly.

Ivan just sat down and put his feet on the table.

Snape continued to grade a paper. When he finished he put it away and looked at Ivan, who smiled back at him.

Snape ignored it and waved his hand, making Ivan's feet slide off the table as he started talking.

"Ivan, what are the properties of the Flux Draught?"

Ivan, startled for a second, regained his composure and answered. "The potion causes random changes in a wizard's appearance, things like tails, eyes, hair, color, texture, skin type, etc, nothing extremely harmful."

"Correct, and on non-wizards?" Queried Snape as he stood near the boy, hovering like a vulture.

"Muggles simply turn a random color. Non-magical plants, like lettuce, while still having properties that make them useful in magic, don't actually have magic in them, so they turn a random color as well."

"Continue."

"Umm…Magical plants vary depending on the size, large plants grow limbs and change color, like red to blue to green, and the changes are very slow. Medium sized plants grow limbs that have the same changes as the large plants, though only that limb is affected, however any fruit or seeds from that limb will result in a plant that has the color changing properties, the change from one color to the next is slightly faster than the large plants. Small plants completely change color repeatedly, the whole plant is affected and the change from one color to the next is very fast. Any offspring of this plant will have the same properties. The effects fade eventually, at different-"

"Enough. Next organism."

Mr. Johnson stopped mid sentence, the confusion in his eyes met with contempt in Snape's own gaze.

"Umm."

"Non-humans, beasts."

"Oh. They change colors continuously like a small plant, but slower, and the effect is permanent."

"Continue." The Potions Master began to pace, circle the room, seemingly absentmindedly. Despite this, his stride was filled with purpose.

"What else is there?"

"You very well know Mr. Johnson. Humanoids. Centaurs, demons, giants, vampires, werewolves."

"The more magic blood the creature has, the less effect the potion has, werewolves for example have a lower amount of magic in their blood than lets say a demon. Werewolves are affected just like wizards, muggle werewolf or otherwise. They are not affected on the week of the full moon. For some creatures the potion, if drunk, has the same effect as alcohol would have on a full human."

"And?"

"Uh, that's it?"

Snape whirled around and looked like he was about to slam his hand onto the table Ivan was sitting at. He strode closer, his stare deadly, and stood in front of Ivan. "You know very well that is 'not it'. I will take away 50 points if you do not state the last fact. Are you purposely being difficult, or maybe you truly do not know? Perhaps you are scared?" Snape sneered at him.

Ivan raised an eyebrow at Snape.

"And here I thought I was just being polite. The last fact is that the potion might force any creature hiding its true form to show itself. The potion can sometimes cause an advance in power if the creature's true form is forced into the open. Not much is known about this effect as it's been decided it wouldn't be the smartest idea to test that aspect of it, as most things getting a power boost get unruly." Ivan said lazily.

Snape nodded. "You answered every question correctly and with detail. You did your research. Twenty points."

Ivan's eyes bugged out. "Why are you taking points for answering questions correctly?!" He shouted.

Snape looked at him blankly. "Did I say I was taking points?" He asked.

Ivan looked stunned. This wasn't fathomable, Snape had given points!

Snape just sneered at the expression. Circumventing expectations was quite a fun disarming tactic, and it was not likely to hurt. The boy would be dead by midnight, might as well make the lad's last free hour full of noise and celebration, so his final ones would be quite jarring in their contrast.

"Fifteen minutes have passed, be back in an hour, tell people who ask that I had you answer potions questions, and for every one you got wrong I would take away 20 points, for every correct answer, I would give you 10. Tell them that I had you extract bubotuber pus without gloves while answering the questions. A good enough story, and simple enough for even an idiot like you to tell."

Ivan nodded dazedly.

"Have you actually done that?"

Snape walked over to Ivan and performed a glamour on his hands making them look as if they had been seriously burned by the pus. While he did this he answered Ivan's question. "No, if someone did something to deserve that I would just take away the 50 points before hand, and make them remove the pus after removing spikes from a bultak plant, without gloves." Snape motioned for Ivan to leave.

As he left, Ivan remembered that there was no possible way to remove spikes from a bultak plant without getting cut, even with gloves…he'd have to remember that little idea in case he wanted to use it sometime.

Snape meanwhile prepared for Ivan's return. Setting knives out on a workbench he set about sharpening them. Like all of his tools for potion making he preferred to take care of them by hand. It was required in fact, some ingredients did not react well to certain types of magic, including ones used to sharpen knives. The whetstone was lubricated with spring water and the hand crafted knives were slowly drawn across it. Snape watched as the soft stone pulled the metal, residue building up on the knives' edges.

After fifteen minutes he wiped each blade down and put the whetstone away. He arranged them on the table, finally satisfied by their sharpness. He then proceeded to put unbreakable charms and immobile charms on nearly everything. Flitwick was quite proud of that little spell, one that stopped objects from being knocked over. Snape nearly praised the man to his face over its creation, but managed to bite back the urge and only gave an impressed nod. It was an invaluable charm for the Potions Master when he was experimenting. With the unbreakable charms any hand that hit the items would most likely be the thing to break instead. It was, however, a nuisance to have on everything all the time. Taking them on and off during classes based on what each class needed was a nuisance as well. Yes, students brought their own ingredients, but you never knew when they would use too much in one potion and have none left for the next. Some ingredients for NEWT levels were too prohibitively expensive to ask students to buy anyway. After finishing his task Snape moved all the tables out of the way and sat down at his desk, to pass the time with yet more marking.

Ivan went to the common room and told everyone about his detention, everyone was, of course, astounded that he had received twenty points while being in such immense pain from the pus. They all congratulated him for hours with pats on the back and food.

The common room slowly emptied and it was time to go to bed. Ivan pretended to fall asleep on the couch and everyone left him there in peace.

With 10 minutes to go till curfew Ivan slipped out of the common room and headed for the dungeons.