PART 1: 'NO FRIENDSHIP IS AN ACCIDENT' - O. Henry

Chapter 8 - Brewing challenges

Professor Slughorn began, just as the other teachers had, by taking the register. He didn't stop, like professor Flitwick had, when he got to Remus' name. However, once the register was taken and Slughorn's eyes seemed to scan the room hungrily, something shifted as he moved his gaze from James (whom he almost regarded in a fatherly manner) to Remus. Slughorn looked away almost immediately, and his eyes landed on Sirius, where they rested for a while.

'Now then, now then, now then,' professor Slughorn said as he finally tore his eyes away from the dark-haired boy.

'This class is a little different from many of your other classes - here we don't rely so much on our wands as we do on our wit and curiosity. The best potion-makers know when to execute instructions and when to - dare I say it - tweak the rules a little.'

This was more encouragement than Sirius and James would ever need, Remus thought, as he saw the two friends exchange eager looks.

'But to begin with, I ask that you apply your wit to following the instructions. Until you understand the basics, experimentation can go badly wrong. Come to that, it can go badly wrong even when you know what you're doing, but not under my supervision.'

On the table next to the one the four boys had chosen sat the red-haired girl, Lily Evans, together with a boy Remus had only seen during the sorting. He was a skinny boy with black, overgrown hair and a large nose. Whereas Evans seemed relieved at being told she was not expected to do anything but follow the instructions, her shoulders relaxing slightly, the boy looked annoyed, like he had just been denied a particularly delicious treat.

The warning of course had no effect on Sirius and James. Not that Remus had expected it to.

'While potions may seem nothing like magic, I can promise that the effects of a small bottle of liquid brewed inside - or outside - this classroom can contain some of the most powerful magic there is. Drink - or being forced to drink - the wrong potion, and you may find yourself able to tell nothing but the truth, being infatuated with someone you may not even have noticed or even, an untimely death.'

Professor Slughorn looked around the room to see what effect his speech was having. Some of the students looked scared, others fascinated. Only the two boys that shared a table with Evans and the skinny boy seemed bored and unimpressed.

'Carry the right antidote, and you can avoid all that,' professor Slughorn continued. 'Learn to brew the right potions, and you may find untold strength, wisdom or even luck available to you in a bottle, should you need it. The power of the expert potioneer should not be underestimated. No, it should not.'

'Not that I need to tell you that, m'boy,' professor Slughorn suddenly turned to James, who looked momentarily confused.

'Your father has made a fortune, hasn't he, by inventing just one powerful potion - and that was a man, let me tell you all, who burst with 'traditional' magic. Yet, it was not as a dueller Fleamont Potter became famous, was it? Eh?'

'Well, Sir, I think most people know not to challenge him to a duel, and in a way, that's a kind of fame too,' James said.

'Indeed it is, m'boy,' professor Slughorn said indulgently.

'Now then, I think I've done enough talking for one morning. Why don't you all grab your scales and potions ingredients, and lets put those young brains of yours to work. Today I want you to start brewing a simple cure for boils. I want you to pair up for this particular potion, so select a potions partner and enjoy your first foray into the liquid world of magic.'

Professor Slughorn tapped the board behind him, and suddenly, instructions appeared for everyone to see.

As the class began setting up their cauldrons and preparing their ingredients - weighing dried nettles and crushing snake fangs - professor Slughorn made his way around the classroom, stopping at some tables and talking to the students. It seemed to Remus that their potions professor was more keen to talk about people's families than the potion they were making, an impression that was made stronger still when professor Slughorn spent a whole fifteen minutes talking to James about his father.

James chatted happily to the professor, and it took Remus some time before he noticed that even the professor was growing weary of the conversation, making at least three attempts to escape. James showed no mercy, however. Every time professor Slughorn made to turn to Sirius, James came up with another question about Slughorn and Fleamont Potter, or shared some new story about his father.

It was only when James suddenly startled (a bit too obviously, in Remus' view) and said: 'Professor, I am so sorry, I've been neglecting Sirius. We're going to really have to get a move on if we're going to keep up with the rest,' that Remus realised what James had been doing.

Professor Slughorn, looking disappointed, left the two boys, and ignoring Peter and Remus, moved on to the table with Evans and the three boys. He stopped to talk to the two boys who had seemed unimpressed earlier, and Remus caught the names Avory and Mulciber.

'I don't need your help with Slughorn,' Sirius whispered in an irritated voice to James, 'I can handle him myself.'

'I know you can,' James whispered back, quickly, 'but this way is more fun.'

'What way? You flirting with Slughorn?'

'A challenge,' James hazel eyes glinted in delight, 'I reckon we can keep him off until the end of the class, don't you?'

Remus had to hand it to James. Sirius' annoyance had evaporated.

Sirius grinned, his grey eyes shining just as keenly: 'oh, we can do so much better than that.'

/

The two black-haired boys spent the rest of the lesson alternating between brewing their potion and plotting how to escape various attempts by their professor to talk to Sirius. One particularly daring plan seemed to be the favourite, should professor Slughorn ask to speak to Sirius after class, and Remus hoped for his own sake, and that of his classmates, that this plan wouldn't be enacted.

Remus found that Peter and he were sort of effective, sort of sorry, potions partners. They complemented each other well, but Remus realised quickly neither would do well on their own.

Peter seemed to struggle to remember the instructions he had just read, and mixed up various steps. Towards the end of the lesson, Remus had to stop him from adding the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire. But then, Remus was having his own challenges in class. He had no problem reading and remembering the instructions, but the execution was a whole other matter. His chopping skills were abysmal, he stirred clumsily and he even knocked over his jar of horned slugs when weighing the dried nettle. Never before in his life had Remus been forced to consider himself clumsy, but there was something about working on small benches, pressed between classmates and under time pressure that didn't bring out the best of him.

None of this was made any easier by the looks he was thrown by professor Slughorn, as if the professor had expected no better from a half-breed.

Professor Slughorn passed Remus and Peter's cauldron without comment as he made his final round around the room. This was probably as good a result as they would be able to achieve. It meant there was nothing disastrous to comment on, at least.

'What have we here? Excellent, excellent! Well, m'boy, I should say you will turn out just as good as your father,' Slughorn exclaimed as he looked into the cauldron of Sirius and James.

'That should cure most boils, I would say. Well done indeed! Well then, take 10 points to Gryffindor.'

Remus felt he was beginning to spot a trend. Whether it was because the boys were benefitting from being from pure-blood wizarding families, or because they simply were exceptionally bright, they seemed unbeatable at everything they did.

Slughorn seemed to have thought so too because he was just instructing the class to pack up when he stopped dead in front of the table with the three Slytherins and Lily Evans.

Earlier, Evans and that long-nosed boy had been working quietly away while professor Slughorn had chatted to the two boys, Mulciber and Avory. At the time, the professor had paid the two of them as much attention as he had to Remus and Peter, but now, he looked down at their potion with delight.

'Oho! Now this is... extraordinary! Everybody gather round. Now then, look at the consistency, look at the colour. I couldn't have done it better myself.'

Professor Slughorn spooned out some of the potion and let it fall back into the cauldron for everyone to see.

'Lily Evans and Severus Snape, was it? Yes, I thought so. Very good, very good.'

Professor Slughorn beamed at the pair.

'Evans.. Evans... It's a common enough name... And yet I can't seem to remember having taught anyone with that name before.'

'You wouldn't have taught my family, Sir, they are muggles,' Lily Evans explained. The boy next to her looked extremely uncomfortable.

This news seemed to surprise the two boys that had been sharing their table with Evans and Snape, judging by the fact that they finally showed some interest in the class. While they kept their eyes fixed on Evans and the professor, the two leaned in closer to each other to exchange a few quiet words.

The professor seemed almost as surprised as the two boys: 'Really? Well these things do happen I suppose. And Snape... Now where have I heard that name before?'

'You may remember my mother, Sir, Eileen Prince. She spoke very highly of you,' Severus Snape said quickly.

'Indeed I do remember Miss Prince,' Slughorn said. 'Such a talented girl... A shame really that she decided... Well, in any case, I can see you inherited your mother's talent for potion-making,' Slughorn said kindly, though some of his enthusiasm seemed to have gone out of him.

'Along with all her potions equipment,' James whispered to Sirius, and both boys snorted. As Remus' brass scales were just as shabby-looking and worn-down as Snape's, he found this comment less funny than his classmates.

'Well, what do you two say to another 10 points, each, to Slytherin and Gryffindor?'

Evans beamed at her potions partner, but Snape looked surprisingly unhappy for someone who had just earned his house a whole 10 points.

'Come on,' James said to Sirius, as they had washed their cauldrons and stored their equipment away. 'Lets go before Horace remembers you.'

Remus looked around to see his potions professor look up just in time to see the retreating backs of Sirius Black and James Potter. Their eyes met and the professor smiled, sympathetically, but looked away quickly. The message couldn't have been clearer to Remus, who in any case knew from his father that most wizards and witches would want nothing to do with a werewolf.

A/N

This chapter has been hanging over me a bit because I knew writing Slughorn wasn't going to be my strength. Hopefully I do him justice.

In terms of the Marauders potion skills, we actually know quite a bit. Lily has to be better than James and Sirius based on Slughorn's continued insistence that Harry inherited his potion skills from his mother. But there's no way James and Sirius could be anything other than exceptionally good if they became animagi (+ Remus remarks on both boys' exceptional talents in school in both POA and OOTP). Snape can't be anything other than excellent, for obvious reasons. Remus says he's not particularly good at brewing potions to Harry in POA, and we know Peter isn't going to excel, but he can't be terrible as we know he must make a really complex potion with Voldemort's help in GOF.