Fortune of Fate (A female Harry Potter fanfiction)

[18]

  At the start-of-term banquet, Rose had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked her. By the end of the first Potions lesson, she knew she'd be wrong. Snape didn't dislike Rose- no -he hated her.

  Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.

  Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Rose's name.

  ''Ah yes,'' he said softly, ''Rose Potter. Our new- celebrity.''

  Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.

  ''You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making,'' he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.

   ''As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses. . . . I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.''

  More silence followed this little speech. Rose and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of his seat and looked desperate to start proving that he wasn't a dunderhead.

  ''Potter!'' said Snape suddenly. ''What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?''

  Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Rose glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as she was; Hermione's hand hat shot into the air.

  ''I-I'm sorry sir.. I don't know..'' Rose trailed off as her cheeks grew redder by the minute.

  Snape's lips curled into a sneer.

  ''Tut, tut- fame clearly isn't everything.''

  He ignored Hermione's hand.

  ''Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?''

  Hermione stretched out her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Rose didn't have the the faintest idea what a bezoar was. 

  She tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.

  ''I-I'm quite sorry, but frankly I don't even know what a bezoar even is.'' She said, shrugging her shoulders in an awkward manner. This comment caused many in the room to silently laugh while Rose nervously played with the hem of her robes.

  ''Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?'' Rose's cheeks burned even brighter as she looked down. ''Look at me while I am speaking Miss Potter.'' The Professor approached her desk.

  Rose forced herself to look straight into those cold eyes. She had looked through her books at the Dursley's, but did Snape expect her to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?

  As Snape looked into her eyes, he must have remembered something because his frown almost faltered, but it was a mere split second and in no time were his eyes back to their hardened state. 

  He was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand.

  ''What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?''

  At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching towards the dungeon ceiling.

  ''I don't know,'' said Rose quietly. ''I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?''

  A few people laughed; Rose caught Seamus's eye, and Seamus winked. Snape, however, was not pleased.

  ''Sit down,'' he snapped at Hermione.

   ''For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?''

  There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, ''And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter.''

  Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. 

  Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black clock, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like. 

  He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeons.

  Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes.

  ''Rose!'' Ron quickly yelled as he saw Rose's feet get burned by the liquid, he abruptly lifted her up and set her on top of a stool, joining her not long after, within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs. 

  ''Are you okay?'' Asked Ron in a worried tone of voice. Rose tried to reassure him, ''I'm fine.'' Rose was, in fact, not fine. The potion had burned her feet and it was scalding her, she didn't want Ron to worry or Snape to curse at her for her incompetence, though. 

  She would take the pain over the humiliation.

  ''Idiot boy!'' snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. ''I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?''

  Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose. ''Take him up to the hospital wing,'' Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Rose and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.

  ''You- Potter- why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor.''

  This was so unfair that Rose opened her mouth to argue, but Ron nudged her behind their cauldron.

  ''Don't push it,'' he muttered, ''I've heard Snape can turn very nasty.''