The Slytherin Potter

The First Potion Lesson

After supper, a 3rd year student brought Hattie a rolled up piece of parchment. The students were filing out of the great hall slowly but Hattie stayed behind to read her letter.
Hattie Potter
Dungeons, 10 pm.
Bring a cauldron and your vial set.
Professor Snape
"Private lessons Hattie?" Draco murmured, reading over her shoulder.
"Perhaps." Hattie answered dimly, she grabbed a treacle tart before the rest of the food disappeared.
"I take it your exams went well then?" Draco asked, a cheeky smile on his face.
"I'll still take History of Magic with you, and Herbology as well. The rest of my classes are on their own for now." Hattie replied, finishing her little treat. She glanced up at the clock. 9:20. She needed to get her cauldron.
"That's good. Walk to the common room with me? You need your things." Draco asked, standing up. Hattie nodded. They were walking through the common room when Draco stopped her.
"Hattie..." he stopped for a second, as if he couldn't think. "Good luck." He said, walking off towards the boys dorm. Hattie ran up to hers to grab her things and throw them into her bag, she decided she would carry the vial set. She didn't want them to break.
"Early I see Potter. Better than your brother already." Snape said as she walked in. 9:53 was on the strange clock in the corner of the room.
"Yes Professor, my brother is always late. I apologize for him." Hattie said, her head tilted down.
"Do not apologize for something you had nothing to do with Miss Potter. Now, I want you to try and identify these two potions for me." Snape drawled, but he seemed to be lacking his usual deafening boredom. It seemed almost as if he was slightly facininated with the girl in front of him.
"It's yellow, and it smells awfully dreadful. I bet you it tastes like bile. I think it's skele-grow. I read about it and I heard someone say it tasted like you threw up and drank it again." Hattie inferred, pointing to the the thin yellow potion in a black cauldron. Professor Snape nodded slightly.
"And the second." Snape gestured, stepping away slightly.
"Eugh, that's disgusting. And chunky. There's only one thing that could be. Polyjuice potion." Hattie gagged, taking a step back.
"Yes, Dumbledore asked me to make some for the Minister. And the skele-grow is for Madam Pomfrey. By the end of this week I want you to be able to make Polyjuice potion and Skele-grow. I will give you a book and you will study it and start making it on the last day of our lessons this week. You will stop by periodically during the off hours to check on your potions after that as Polyjuice takes quite awhile. You will also be studying an easy first year lesson so that, when you are finished with your Polyjuice, you can teach them a single lesson. As me." Snape finished. He did not like this idea one bit, but Dumbledore suggested it. Saying if her first lesson was 'fun' she would be more motivated. So he made it 'fun' with 6th year and 4th year potions.
"Yes Professor." Hattie said. She approached the cauldrons again, studying the potions. She wanted to know exactly how they were supposed to look. And she figured, Professor Snape must be one of the best potion makers in the world if he works at Hogwarts. Snape explained exactly how to brew Polyjuice that night, he said they would go over Skelegrow tomorrow, and then begin brewing after she finished her chapters in the books he gave her. Then he sent her to bed, it was 11:45 as he escorted her through the halls. She wasn't allowed out this late.
"Next time we will do 9pm, maybe it won't end up so late." Snape said as they stopped at the entrance to the dorms. Hattie went in without another word. She was tired. Snape did not walk back to his office or to his room. He went to the top of the astronomy tower. He went and he looked over the grounds of Hogwarts. And like so many others before him, and like himself so many years ago, he thought to himself. "Hogwarts is my home." And when he closed his eyes, he saw Lily. Staring at him over a book in the great hall. Sitting in the grass with him. Everywhere he went, Lily was there. But when he opened them, Lily was gone.