..
The eyes of the students collectively trembled. What the hell kind of school does he think Hogwarts is? Peverell let out a wicked grin, and urged them on.
"Come on. Back in my day, at the age of eleven, I drank an obscure potion without any hesitation, trusting just a note from my Potions professor. I had the mindset, as any student should, that I'll even go through fire without a shred of doubt if my professor's note says I can! I tell you, students should just believe and obey what your teachers tell you to do. Aah, but lads those days!"
"..."
The Hogwarts professor's authority in his classroom was absolute. Finally, a few Gryffindors cautiously popped the silver drops into their mouths. As soon as they opened their mouths with the intention of tasting it, the silver gem, which had been floating in the air in front of them, slipped into their mouths. It resembled an oval pearl, but it wasn't hard, and was clearly liquid.
The Slytherins, based on some reasonable grounds that Professor Peverell would not be poisoning the Hogwarts fifth years en masse, reluctantly opened their mouths, tasted it, and then spat it out hurriedly.
"Now, what's this potion?"
Silence.
Severus racked his brain.
The taste... is very faintly sour, with a slippery bitterness. Colour... silver, highly reflective to look oily, as observed before eating. He deliberately swallowed it without spitting it out like his housemates to feel the effects, but he don't feel any noticeable effects yet.
What the hell is this potion?
"...Professor?"
To his consternation, Potter slowly raised his hand from the Gryffindor side.
"Mr. Potter. You may answer."
"It's a drinking hair-dye, which was developed two years ago, sir."
Peverell smiled. "Correct. Two points for Gryffindor."
With a clink, two rubies filled the lower bulb of the red hourglass in front of the classroom. Severus's eyes widened.
"Now, then, why didn't the dye work on your hair?"
Much to Severus's chagrin, Potter raised his hand again.
"...The silver hair dye requires you to eat a certain vegetable or fruit within ten minutes of ingestion to get the colour. Besides, it takes at least five sips to work properly, so the colour would have been barely noticeable after just one sip."
"Another correct answer; take two points."
With a click, two more rubies fell, filling the hourglass. The students' eyes began to sparkle.
Peverell asked three more questions about the dyeing potion, and coincidentally, Potter and his cronies raised their hands and answered correctly (they had obviously used it for pranks, Severus seethed). When he was done, the red hourglass was filled with nine rubies, and the Slytherins began to glare openly.
Peverell, ostensibly oblivious to their mood (he must have been so totally aware of it!), pulled out the next potion vial nonchalantly.
This time it was a light green colour. Quickly, Severus began to list up all the green-coloured potions he knew in his brain.
Dozens of forked streams of liquid shot out of the vial, and the pale green droplets began to gather before the students' eyes.
This time, Peverell didn't even need to urge. Eighty students, Slytherins included, popped the green drops into their mouths without complaints, with barely a pause.
This time, the effect was palpable: as soon as the drops passed down their throats, they felt a pleasant coolness and an inexplicable warmth at the same time. The very next moment, a girl from the Slytherin side quickly raised her hand.
"I got it, Professor! It's the Elixir of Euphoria."
Severus frowned. But it couldn't be the Euphoria, could it?
Peverell nodded. "Correct. Two points."
The first two emeralds filled the green hourglass. Peverell grinned.
"For your information, it is a delicate drug that St. Mungo's Hospital never prescribes more than half a vial to anyone under the age of 15. The sensations you just felt are the precursors to the high, the euphoria, of the Elixir. You are very perceptive to detect this purely on the basis of symptoms. Very well done."
The girl beamed broadly. The students around her began to grin as well.
"Now, the Elixir of Euphoria is normally of a sunshine yellow colour, but this one is light green. Do you know why?"
The class fell silent with huge smiles on their faces; after a few seconds, Severus slowly raised his hand.
"Because... you adjusted the ingredients... I think it's dried mint leaves... you intentionally enhanced the side effects, so the euphoric effect is a little weaker and the colour of the potion has also changed."
"Two points say you're right, and what do you think are the enhanced side effects?"
Lily raised her hand, this time on the Gryffindor side.
"The side effect of excessive singing, Professor."
"I don't see any students humming a song right now."
"...Euphoria has two side effects, the nose-tweaking comes on at about the same time as the euphoria, but the singing one comes on about ten minutes after ingestion. We're not nose-tweaking right now, you probably suppressed the first side effect; so it's singing."
"Correct. You're a good deducer, Miss Evans. Take two points."
Peverell asked a few more questions about the Elixir, then pulled out a new potion. The students looked at it expectantly.
The lesson continued.
...
An antidote to the Euphoria which was awfully bitter (the description of Euphoria Antidote wasn't in the textbook, but Potter, noticing that no one was humming a song after ten minutes to Euphoria, got the answer correctly),
A base of Polyjuice, made textbook-style (no human ingredients put in, so no one transformed. Several students lamented the fact that they had to endure the awful taste but did not get to transform. The professor expressed sincere sympathy),
A Calming Draught that tasted and worked the same, but was of a rainbow of fluorescent colours (when asked if he had changed the colour purely as a trivia trap, the professor pleaded silence),
A plain Forgetfulness Potion that interacted with a potion they'd taken minutes before and made to taste as tasteless as pure water (no one guessed this one including Severus; Severus, who was close to the professor's desk, could swear he saw Peverell giggle softly)...
In total, the students tasted fifteen different potions in the lab.
Severus and Lily got quite a few of them right, but several other students got some of the best questions, which required logic and reasoning rather than potions knowledge. And some students with keen senses who noticed the subtle symptoms, smells, and unusual tastes that occurred at lower doses also gained significant points. There were also one-point questions that could be answered purely on the spur of the moment, which favored those with quick reflexes.
The potions ranged from common cold remedies to more exotic ones such as Polyjuice, that students had heard of but never actually saw or tasted.
Each correct answer increased the student's personal point tally and added gems to the hourglass in front of the classroom. Although they were familiar with the hourglasses in the Great Hall, the addictive nature of watching the House Point gems tick away in real time in front of them during class was intoxicating, and the students became increasingly enthusiastic.
Towards the end of the lesson, a bubbling stream of bloody-red coloured liquid flew in front of the class from a Gallon-sized glass vial, almost too large to be a potion bottle, but not a single Gryffindor or Slytherin hesitated to gulp down a fistful of the crimson red potion with wide, frenzied eyes.
...The final mystery potion was cranberry fizzy juice.
Professor Peverell's speciality, fortified with detoxifying and purifying ingredients to neutralise any potential after-effects of multiple potions they sampled, he said.
It tasted good, actually.
At the end of the lesson, the hourglass score was 126:124 in favour of Gryffindor. The Gryffindors roared in victory in front of the clinking rubies.
Unfortunately, the Potter bastard also scored 16 points, and his roar was like the roar of a rabid lion.
The students filed out of the classroom, chattering animatedly about the lesson they had just experienced. If Hogwarts was a school that reflected the practice of 21st century, the teacher evaluation by students, Peverell's grade at that moment would have been a definite O.
Severus was in an indescribable mood after his first Potions practical lesson.
It was perhaps like the first time he'd stared at the dinner in the Great Hall on the first day of his first year, all the food on the tables, or the time he'd gotten drunk the summer before after sneaking half a glass of his father's cheap whisky from the cupboard. It was also the indescribable feeling of exhilaration and excitement that he savoured in the air on a rattling old broomstick in his first year flying lessons, for about ten seconds before Potter's 'prank' sent him tumbling out of the sky.
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..Hope you enjoyed! 😸