Severus... Reformed / SNILY (COMPLETE)

Chapter Five

Potions was Severus and Remus' first lesson the next day. They had it with Lily and the Gryffindors, where Severus didn't doubt Potter's ability to launch a few beginner jokes. There would be cauldrons exploding and fizzing, but Severus was knowledgeable about everything from cough drops to Filibuster fireworks exploding when coming into contact with certain potions.

Severus skipped breakfast to get there early, and took a seat at the back, not to seem too eager. He saved a seat for Lily, and was pleased when she arrived next. It would be awkward if Lupin had expected to sit beside him. As it turned out, Lupin took a seat next to Boot, who was in front of Severus and Lily.

Slughorn arrived late as usual, as Severus could remember easily from his former days.

"Welcome to Potions!" Slughorn exclaimed cheerfully. "We have a year of sweat, blood and tears ahead of us!"

Severus winced at the words. Sweat, along with Slughorn... it wouldn't bear thinking about. He tuned out magnificently, and missed the whole speech. He guessed they would be starting with a potion to cure boils, as both professors had always done, and was pleased when he identified Lily's ingredients as the ones used in the boil remover.

Slughorn kept a beady eye on the tall Snape boy, and watched as he didn't bother even opening his textbook; simply getting started and going at a remarkable pace.

After ten minutes, Severus had reached the midway stage and glanced around interestedly. Lily was doing well, though clearly fatigued by the stirring, and the majority were still struggling on the first steps. He was using many of his shortcut methods that he remembered and, for him, he could do most potions with his eyes closed. Fifteen more minutes later, Severus had finished.

Slughorn looked up at the boy stood before him. Snape seemed to have pre-empted Slughorn's next wish, and in his hand was the draught, bottled and labelled.

"I've finished Professor," Severus said politely. He noticed Potter and Black glare at his back.

"Finished, Mr..." He knew the boy's name perfectly well, but he feigned ignorance. Unknown to him, Severus had noticed this lie, and gathered there'd already been a staff meeting.

"Snape. It's Snape." He had been forever playing this same monotone track of his name in his previous life; nobody had ever bothered remembering it as he was wasn't worth the effort.

"And you've actually finished?" Slughorn couldn't keep the surprise from his voice. This class was one-and-a-half hours long, and the potion was supposed to take forty minutes at the very least for an experienced brewer. He would have thought a first year would finish in the last few minutes.

"Yes, Sir. What should I do now?" Slughorn decided he should up Snape to his third year class. The boy had done extremely well (and better than Slughorn could, he might add) but Albus would disagree to him being in an OWLs class already, and Horace didn't want the boy to have to be studying for his OWL in his first year.

"You can do the cupboards," Slughorn said, pleased that he could get this burden off his hands. "Tidy them, put them in alphabetical order, and so on. Don't worry about gloves; they're all stoppered, and the poisons are in my office."

Severus barely refrained from rolling his eyes, with immense difficulty. Trust Horace to offload the task of his messy cupboards as soon as possible.

"Of course, Sir."

*

Lily finished ten minutes before the end of class, and joined Severus at the cupboards, after handing in a vial of her potion. It wasn't quite the right colour, like Severus', but knowing that Severus was genius at Potions made her feel slightly better. He'd always been experimenting before they joined Hogwarts, or so he'd said, and now it seemed to be he'd told the truth. Not that she thought he hadn't, of course.

"How are you, Sev?" Lily asked softly. She didn't want to scare him; he was engrossed in completely sorting through the horrendously untidy cupboards. He gave a shiver of delight at his old nickname.

"A lot better than Potter's cauldron." James Potter had set off fireworks, and instead of chucking them away, had transformed his potion into a melted mess of metal. He was worse than even Frank Longbottom, who was like Neville at that age. "And you?"

"Brilliant," she smiled radiantly. The sight reminded Severus of long, summer days spent beside the stream with Lily, back in the olden days, the golden days. He was bewitched by her smile, and remained that way until they parted ways; her to Herbology, and him to Transfiguration.

*

Professor McGonagall was already there when the Ravenclaws arrived with the Slytherins. Evan Rosier was among them, Severus' least favourite Slytherin of all time, and not just because he'd been the prime user of the word 'mudblood'. He was the one who'd practised the Cruciatus Curse on Severus 'for the fun of it', and cursed Mary MacDonald, Lily's friend, not soon after. To be fair, he had Rosier to thank for his ability to ignore extreme pain.

"Good morning, class," McGonagall called. The students responded in kind, and filed to their seats; Severus' once more by the back. So far they'd had Charms, Herbology, DADA and Potions, all of Severus' best subjects. For Transfiguration, after his dismal attempt in his last life, he'd been privately tutored by none other than Minerva McGonagall from the age of 11 to 37, just before he killed Albus on the Astronomy Tower. He figured 26 years could stand him in good stead.

McGonagall began with her own variant of a beginner's speech, and described different aspects of Transfiguration in her no-nonsense voice. Even Severus listened to part of this, as Minerva had always been his favourite teacher, and colleague, and smiled when others expressed disappointment at being unable to transfigure a desk into a pig for quite some time.

"I want you all to transfigure a match into a needle," she announced, and left them to it.

Little did she know that Severus had spent that morning practising doing exactly the same thing to see if he'd lost his transfiguration knowledge (albeit the fact he'd had to transfigure his brush into a match to be able to transfigure the match into a needle). He decided to wave his wand for this; wandless magic for transfiguration could turn out to be a disaster, but stuck to his favoured non-verbal.

"Ten points to Ravenclaw, Mr. Snape!" Minerva cried, astonished. Never had she, in her many years of teaching, seen a student transfigure the match on their first go, but then, neither had Slughorn ever brewed a boil-remover potion in twenty-five minutes. Rosier and Mulciber booed and hissed. Severus was beginning to get used to hearing Ravenclaw's name when he earned points, instead of Slytherin's. But Minerva knew his name already. Dumbledore must have taken a keen interest in him.

*

Lupin and Severus spent their History of Magic lesson with the Gryffindors playing hangman. Opposite them, Potter and Black were playing Exploding Snap. This time, Severus figured he could absorb more from a textbook than from any ghost teacher, and after all, he knew more than most about magic history anyway. He wouldn't learn anything in a classroom this noisy.

"G," Severus said. A wave of his wand and it appeared on the first letter. The word was six letters long. "E, I, U."

He waved his wand again, and the letters all took their places in the word. GE_IU_.

"N, S."

GENIUS.

"Why did you think of that?" Severus questioned, curious.

"You're one," Lupin replied simply. "It's obvious. You get the spell on the first try, you finish your potion way earlier than the record time for first years, and you never listen to any of the teachers. You'd clearly already finished your homework last night before I asked you if you did extra studying instead, and you certainly wouldn't be ignoring Professor Binns and playing hangman unless you felt you would have a better chance teaching yourself. Genius."

"Call yourself one, too. Some remarkable Ravenclaw logic there." And for once Severus wasn't being sarcastic. Lupin was slowly earning his right to Wolfsbane. Slowly but surely.

"Thank you."