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The Advice of the Potions Master


“Oops! I’ve spilled an entire cup of frog spawn,” said Sirius Black in a voice just loud enough that it carried across the Potions classroom. “I wouldn’t want to be the person who has to clean that up, would you?” He grinned wickedly at James Potter.

Severus gritted his teeth. He was already on edge because of the way Lily was giggling shyly at the Lupin boy, and now here was Sirius purposely making a horrible mess at his workstation with James Potter, who was snickering glancing over to see if Severus had heard. And of course he’d heard. He’d heard them thinking of doing it before they ever took hold on the cup of frog spawn to begin with.

Slughorn rumbled by, “What’s happened here?” he asked, looking at the spilled green muck that had splattered on the floor, “You’ve got to be a bit more careful, Master Black,” he said, “Luckily there’s plenty of frog spawn in the student storeroom, and it isn’t very hard to come by, but a rarer ingredient might be less easy to replace if it should be spilled!” He chuckled as he walked on, carefully stepping over the mess.

“Yes, sir,” said Sirius, “I’ll be more careful from now on. I wouldn’t want to make too much of a mess. I feel right bad for Filch or whoever has to clean the floor in here when we’ve finished.” He grinned in Severus’s direction after Slughorn’s back was turned.

It was the memory of that grin - all teeth and smugness - that ground at Severus that night as he knelt on the flagstones with a brush and a bucket of bubbles. He scraped at the mess, bitterly angry with Slughorn for having said there would be no magic used to clean up as part of Severus’s punishment. He hated Sirius Black for getting him into this mess and McGonagall for catching him and Slughorn for assigning him this horrible task and James Potter for laughing and Remus Lupin for holding Lily’s attention… and even Lily herself, for not paying him the attention he wanted from her. For not being a Slytherin. He hated himself, too, he realized, for not being a Gryffindor with her.

“Severus.”

He looked up from the spilled frog spawn to see Slughorn at the front of the classroom, by his teacher’s workstation, a book open across the desk and a monocle in his eye. He was stirring the cauldron carefully - counting one, two, three clockwise turns and one counter-clockwise. “Would you care to help me for a moment? I’m working on a potion and I’ve forgotten to chop the barley-nuts and I can’t chop and stir at the same time. I thought you might be able to lend a hand and keep up the stirring.”

“Yes, sir,” Severus replied, dropping his spawn-covered brush into the bucket of sudsy water and joining Slughorn at the front of the classroom. Slughorn pulled a stool closer with his foot for Severus to climb up on so he could reach the spoon with ease and carefully handed over the stirring duties.

“Three clockwise, one counter-clockwise; keep it up… there you are.” Slughorn released the spoon entirely to Severus and turned to pour out a handful of barley-nuts to the table, getting a silver knife out of a drawer. “Here we are.” He set himself to focusing on the chopping of the barley-nuts. “I appreciate your help, my dear boy,” he said.

Severus nodded, “It’s not a problem, sir.”

“Do you know what sort of potion this is, my boy?” Slughorn asked as he worked.

“Nope,” Severus answered, not caring at all about the ruddy potion or anything else that the fat old man had to say.

“It’s an elixir to cure acne,” Slughorn said. “I’m mixing it for Madam Pomfrey. She’s running low on her store - it seems we have some particularly pimple prone sixth years this term and the store is running low, so she’s asked me to brew up some fresh for her zitty little charges.” He smiled in amusement. “The barley-nut’s juice isn’t the main ingredient, of course, just one of many. The main ingredient is amaranth.”

“Well, that’s brilliant,” said Severus in a flat, uninterested manner.

Slughorn sighed at the cool tone of voice and studied him a moment as he sorted the barley-nuts out. “I know you’re angry with me, about the detentions.”

Severus didn’t answer, he kept his eyes downturned on the pot as he stirred, watching the way the cool blue liquid swished and swirled at his movements.

“I also don’t believe you’re the one who stole the bicorn horn,” Slughorn added.

Severus looked up, wild eyed. “Well if you know it wasn’t me, then what do I have detention for?”

“Because there’s just no other answer!” Slughorn said with a sigh, “There just isn’t and Professor McGonagall insisted…” he paused, shaking his head as he cut up the barley-nuts. “You see, it takes a very fine slice,” he said, talking of the cutting he was doing. “The finer the cut, the more juice you’ll extract when you put them in the pot. You see how they’re oozing all over the cutting board?”

“So you gave me detention because McGonagall insisted?” Severus asked.

Slughorn kept on cutting up the barley-nuts. “What do you say if we treat this time together as a sort of… a sharpening of your skills, rather than a detention? You’ve shown some potential in class, some good instinct...”

“Sharpening of my skills?”

“Yes,” Slughorn reached over for the spoon. “I told you how to cut up the barley-nuts. Why don’t you give it a go? See how thin you can slice them up. Try and get them thin as air.”

Severus released the spoon, his eyes warily watching Slughorn and he shuffled the stool over a bit before climbing back up and lifting the little silver knife. It was much heavier than the plated knives that came in the student kits from Diagon Alley, and sharper, too, Severus noticed, and when he put it to the barley-nut, he was able to slice an impossibly thin sliver off the nut’s side. He held it up. The slice was nearly translucent.

“Very good!” Slughorn said excitedly. “Go on, keep cutting them up.”

“Yes sir,” Severus said and he set to work.

“Do you enjoy Potions, Severus?” Slughorn asked.

Severus took a deep breath. “I s’pose so… It’s alright.” His eyes moved to the spilled pool of frog spawn on the floor. “I mean, I used to.” He’d shared a table with Lily Evans the first year, but second year she’d moved to sit with Remus, after he’d let her down over the summer. He missed the smell of her hair when she moved - how the scent of strawberries filled his nose. Now he sat with Evan Rosier and spent the whole of the classes watching Lily and Remus together, watching her eyes twinkle when she laughed at his jokes and the way she touched his hand or blushed all red across her freckley little nose when he said something nice to her. Now he had to put up with the ridicule from James Potter and Sirius Black without her whispering in his ear that they were prats and toerags and the like.

“You don’t enjoy it any longer?” Slughorn pressed.

Severus shook his head.

“Hmmm,” mused Slughorn thoughtfully. He studied Severus’s hands as he cut the barley-nuts, his actions getting more vicious as he thought about James and Sirius and Remus and Lily. “And I don’t suppose this has anything to do with there being any - ahem - bullies in the Gryffindor house, does it?” he asked, his eye darting to the spilled frog spawn on the floor, as Sirius’s had done when he’d answered.

Severus paused, seeing Slughorn’s eyebrows raise at the more roughly cut slices of barley-nut. He put down the little silver knife a moment and looked up at the old man, his wooly eyebrows thick with age. “I just… I hate them,” he told Slughorn, “I hate the Gryffindor second years.”

“I thought Miss. Evans was your friend?” Slughorn asked.

“She is, but…”

“But she’s seeing the Lupin boy?”

Severus felt his face flush. He hadn’t realized Slughorn was so perceptive - or maybe that he, Severus, was so transparent. He scowled.

“My boy, my boy, my boy,” mused Slughorn heavily, laying a palm across Severus’s shoulder and rocking gently from the heel of his foot to the ball, “When I was young, I, too, fancied a young lady like Lily Evans. She was my sunlight, I could’ve stared at her all the day long.”

Severus was certain he didn’t care.

Slughorn smiled dreamily up at the ceiling as he stirred the pot of boiling potion. “Ah Lucinda Winefelder.. I hadn’t thought of her in decades. She had the prettiest hair, the color of cornsilk. I would’ve lived out my life as a squib if it meant I could’ve run my fingers through that hair but one time.”

In spite of himself, Severus asked, “What happened?”

“Married with two kids living in the country,” Slughorn said. He tsked and sighed, returning to reality - the here and now in the dungeon of Hogwarts. “You see, my boy, I never told her how it was I felt and she never knew. I just kept waiting for the right opportunity and that time never came. She ended up marrying another boy who didn’t wait, who told her straight out in black in white. They were Hufflepuffs, of course, so he had better access to her, but that doesn’t mean a bloody thing! Slytherins fall in love with members of other houses all the time!”

Severus frowned. “A Slytherin and a Hufflepuff is a lot different than a Slytherin and a Gryffindor.”

“Ah yes, the Montagues and the Capulets were a better match than Slytherin and Gryffindor, and we all know how that turned out,” Slughorn agreed. He looked down at the cut up bits of barley-nut. “You’ve done a fine job at that cutting, Severus. Now, if you could put all those slices into the cauldron… gently, so it doesn’t splash…” Severus tipped the cutting board into the pot. “Excellent!” Slughorn praised him as the potion turned a dark shade of orange and began to bubble merrily, “Absolutely marvelous. You’re quite the potions master.”

Severus looked up at Slughorn, forcing a bit of a smile to appease the delight in the professor’s voice. Perhaps the old man wasn’t as bad as he’d thought. Maybe.

That night, Severus decided to stay in his bed instead of lurking about the castle for Voldemort. He hadn’t slept a whole night through since the Dark Lord had given him his assignment to be his ears and eyes at the school and Severus felt that he had earned at least one night’s sleep. He fell off into dreams while reading his potions book and wondering what sort of work Slughorn might have him do the next evening.