Silvanna Snape {Marauders}

Chapter One-Hundred-and-Twenty-Seven

 Dudes I started watching Doctor Who and it's bloody brilliant. I need a blooming TARDIS just to get these chapters posted on time :)

 The Potions Championship really humbled Silvanna. She thought she was good at Potions - brilliant even - better than her brother anyway. But Lily was the star. Her strength was in criticising methods given to her, adjusting recipes she was given to suit her and the potion. Lily however, was like an artist when she brewed. Her hands moved rapidly, her eyes fierce and narrow, and she did everything with such precision it startled Silvanna. At NEWT level they didn't work in pairs, and she'd developed her technique since she'd last worked with her.

 While they brewed the Jawbind Potion, they designated themselves unofficial roles. Lily took the lead, doing most of the work but seeming perfectly happy. Silvanna intervened where possible, focussing mainly on fetching and prepping the ingredients.

 Once their hour was up, someone from each team took a sample vial and poured it into the stone basin. After all four had been presented, the stone glowed golden, the same way the plaque had before. They waited with baited breath, until Mahoutokoro's workstation glowed red. Looking disgruntled, they went to join their teacher.

 So they were out then?

 They gathered around the book once more, and it flicked through to a new page.

Veritaserum.

Thirty-five minutes.

 "Thirty-five minutes!" exclaimed an Uagadou student, looking around at equally baffled faces.

 "It makes an assessment of our abilities as the competition proceeds," sneered a girl from Koldovstoretz. "Obviously."

 Silvanna turned her back to the girl so she face Lily, scrunched up her face and imitated her. They sniggered as they went back to the workbench, and Lily began heating the cauldron. "Thirty-five minutes though?" she whispered, so that the others couldn't hear them. "It takes a full lunar phase to brew veritaserum, everyone knows that."

 "To brew it from scratch," she corrected, scribbling a list of ingredients down. "Maybe there's ingredients on those shelf-things that are pre-prepared."

 "This," said Lily, "This is why you're brilliant."

 Sure enough, as she looked through the catalogue and selected what she needed, most of the ingredients were already brewed together. As she took it back to Lily, she realised that would make things harder, in a sense. If parts of it were pre-brewed, she had no control over the quality of it. Was that more fun, or more annoying? Probably both.

 The reality of it was that it was far more boring. The task was short because there wasn't much to do. There wasn't anything to do for the Uagadou students, who were still desperately flicking through the catalogue. They ended up submitting a vial of water, and were eliminated.

 The third and final task was quite a lot more fun. The Elixir to Induce Euphoria was the ideal combination of Lily's skill and her own pedantry to produce a better-than-perfect potion. Unfortunately, it was one that she strongly suspected Koldovstoretz had practiced in advance, and yet again she cursed Slughorn for not preparing them sooner. Another year would have been nice.

 Thankfully they didn't have to run the embarrassment of their workspace turning red. Instead, Koldovstoretz's shined gold, and a huge silver cup shimmered into light. The teams shook hands, and the rosebuds of the path began to fade, ushering them out the garden once more.

 They stretched and yawned as they took the train journey back, and after a heavy meal of pie and vegetables, Lily and Silvanna both dismissed themselves to their own compartments for the remainder of the journey.

 She opened her door and stepped inside, finding herself pushed further forward and hearing the door slam shut with a light click behind her. She turned to face Lily, who had crossed her arms but was otherwise calm.

 "Not really necess-"

 "Why do you think Severus wasn't invited?" she cut across.

 Silvanna scratched her head. "I don't know Lily, I just want to go to bed."

 She began to gather her pyjamas and toothbrush, but Lily didn't budge. She merely quirked an eyebrow.

 She sighed. "I suppose - Slughorn's an old professor. He's been at Hogwarts quite a while. Longer than McGonagall, even."

 "What's that got to do with anything?" Silvanna shrugged. "Longer than Dumbledore?"

 "No, I don't think so. But Dumbledore did all sorts before he was a professor." Still, she didn't leave. "Think about it. He must've taught loads of students. Probably the entire Ministry of Magic. And possibly all the Death Eaters. Possibly-"

 "Possibly Voldemort," Lily whispered. "You reckon he knew him as a student? So he's distancing himself from the future Death Eaters?"

 "That would be my closest guess, yes. Now can I please get ready for bed?"

 "Yeah, of course," Lily mumbled, opening the door and taking a step out. "You ought to be careful then, Silvanna. Might not get a great reference from him, what with your new friends."

 "You don't know what you're talking about Lily." She was unable to keep the bitterness from her voice, and attempted to shut the door.

 Lily put her boot in the way. "Is this what you do then? Open up and then push people away? Invite them to be a friend and shoot them down when you get bored? Because it's a really shit thing to do. I mean poor Remus - how long have you two been friends? And now you just-"

 "Remus and I are still friends."

 "Yeah? You might want to check that with him."

 And the worst part wasn't Lily's anger or disappointment, or the fact that she may never get any of them back. It was that she knew every word was true.

 The rest of the term passed quietly. She was bored and alone, and frustrated most of all. Her favourite parts of the week were the tutor sessions with Marlene, which she was extremely grateful McGonagall had approved; they added some amount of normality, even though Marlene was in no way stupid. And they hardly did any work if she was honest. They talked and talked, about all sorts, occasionally saying, "right," and reading a textbook for ten minutes before hopping right back into laughter and conversation. It was brilliant.

 But there was no deterring from her mission. Which was why she stepped off the Hogwarts Express at the start of the Easter holidays with a shaking breath, and walked straight towards her brother and Grandmother. There wasn't so much as a goodbye to the other Gryffindors. Not with this many people watching.