Potions Class

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"y/n! Get up! Why are you still in bed?" your roommate Laura shouts while pulling open the curtains around your bed.

You groan as you squint at the bright light coming through the windows from the morning sun. You stayed up late last night, studying for the Transfiguration test you have today, and you barely got any sleep.

"What time is it?" you groan, sitting up, slightly irritated at the fact that you're awake, but nonetheless grateful for your roommate waking you up.

"It's 8:40, I came to check on you when I didn't see you come down to breakfast." she informs you while grabbing her bag filled with books and slinging it over her shoulder. Laura was used to waking you up just in time for classes, you have a bad habit of sleeping in.

"Shit, okay. Thanks." you jump out of bed and scramble to pull on your uniform and your robes.

By the time you get ready and gather your things it's too late to eat breakfast, so you rush straight to your first class of the day: Potions. You silently curse to yourself as you hurry down the stairs; potions is your least favorite class.

But it hadn't always been like that.

Since the start of this year, Professor Snape had taken a dislike to you, which seemed to only be worsening as the year progressed. Sure, you'd receive the occasional rude remark from him throughout your first six years at Hogwarts, but nothing like what he'd thrown at you in the past two and a half months of your seventh year. He had gone from barely glancing at you to making you his sworn enemy.

You were mildly infuriated at the fact he seemed to be slowly ruining your interest for Potions. The way he was acting towards you made no logical sense. You hadn't done anything wrong, you were a perfectly decent student, and you had done well enough in the subject during your years at Hogwarts to get into his N.E.W.T. level class. 

"Here we go." you say under your breath, rolling your eyes as you approach the door to Professor Snape's classroom.

Not one second after you enter the room does the door slam loudly behind you, making you jump and startling you awake.

"You're late." Snape states, a note of annoyance in his voice.

You glance at the watch on your wrist. It reads 8:59.

"Just in time, actually." you smirk smugly at the Professor.

Snape raises an eyebrow, slightly surprised at your confident response, he was used to everyone being scared of him. For a second, he contemplates the idea of scolding you for talking back to him.

You simply stare at him, a daring look flashes across your face as if challenging him. You knew it wasn't the brightest idea to try to provoke him, and that anyone with an ounce of common sense would be cowering to their desk from his menacing glare. 

Yet, you can't help it. It's almost laughable how easily you're able to affect him.

"Take. A seat." he finally says through gritted teeth.

You saunter past him and try to hide your amusement as you sit down in your seat at the front. You didn't usually talk back to teachers, especially the unpleasant Potions Professor, but you had started to give him an attitude the past few classes. He already hated you, might as well give him a reason.

"Now. Today we will be brewing the Befuddlement Draught you all learned about in last night's reading." Professor Snape says in his monotone voice, looking sternly around the room.

Shit. Shit. Shit. 

You were so focused on studying for your Transfiguration test that you completely forgot about the reading he assigned. You scramble to pull your potions textbook out of your bag, gaining a couple of odd glances from the people sitting around you.

"You have until the end of class to successfully brew the potion, ingredients are located by your workstations." Professor Snape says lazily while walking towards his desk. "Get to work." he says as he sits down, briefly glancing at you.

People begin to shuffle to their workstations and you bury your face in your textbook as you walk, trying desperately to cram any information that could help you brew the potion into your head. Not watching where you're going, you stumble into the table where the ingredients for the potion are located and knock over a jar filled with dried plants.

It rolls off the table and crashes to the floor. Several students glance in your direction and silence instantly falls around the room. Professor Snape looks up from his desk and his eyes land on you as you're kneeling down, trying to clean up the spilled scurvy grass.

"Miss y/ln, a word." he says in an unnervingly calm tone. He gives a sharp look to the rest of the class, as if telling them to get back to work.

Fuck. 

You instantly feel your face heat up and your stomach lurches with nervousness. You stand up and leave the mess behind you as you walk towards the Professor while trying to calm yourself. He doesn't glance up from his desk until you're stopped directly in front of his desk. As soon as his gaze lands on your face his eyes darken and a crease forms between his eyebrows.

"I'm sorry Professor, it was an accident, I-" you start to apologize but he interrupts you.

"Feeling a bit distracted today, are we?" Snape glares at you, "Coming to class late and unprepared, talking back to your professor, disrupting everyone's work, very disappointing." he says, shaking his head and looking back down. "10 points from y/h."

"I'm sorry sir, I've just been overwhelmed with school and-" you try to hopelessly explain but he cuts you off once again.

"Enough. I don't want to hear about your excuses." he says while writing something on the parchment on his desk. "See me after class."

"Yes, Professor." you say quickly.

You rush back to your workstation, flustered from the interaction. Everyone else has already started brewing their potion and you scramble to prepare your ingredients. You glance over the instructions in your textbook and quickly throw the herbs into your cauldron. You find the process of making potions very soothing, there's something peaceful about counting the number of times you stir the potion and watching it transform colors.

After a few minutes, the mixture in the cauldron starts to turn a deep green color and you laugh to yourself in disbelief. 

I might not fail this after all. 

Unprepared as you were today, it doesn't change the fact that you have a natural talent for brewing potions.

A voice from behind you pulls you back into reality, "Care to share what's so amusing?" Snape drawls.

You quickly turn to look at him, slightly shocked at how close he's standing. For the first time in your life, you notice how tall he really is. He looms over you, looking quite intimidating with a stern look on his face.

"Nothing." you say, turning back to your cauldron as your face turns a light shade of pink.

Professor Snape raises an eyebrow at you curiously and looks over your shoulder at the contents of your cauldron. Your heart beats faster at his proximity, and you almost drop your wand into the green mixture.

"Hm." he says with slight discontent in his voice. "I see you've somehow managed to pull yourself together." Snape takes a step away from you and starts to walk away to the next table. He suddenly stops and turns to you, giving you an odd glance, a look on his face you can't quite explain. But it disappears as soon as you notice it.

One by one, people in the class finish their potions and the Professor looks over each one, occasionally making a sound of slight disappointment accompanied by the shake of his head.

You go back to your desk and begin to slowly pack up your things. The bell rings and everyone begins to leave the classroom.

Everyone except you.

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