A matter of Heart

Snape had been an employee of Charles Vywin for nearly a year. He had learned to respect the methods that Charles had suggested him to use – he had improved fifteen potions to unimaginable heights, compared to which the potions that he had created so far were as good as throwing good ingredients into tap water, heating it all up, giving it a few stirs and hoping that something good came out of it.

Inspired by Charles' innovative suggestions, Snape had also looked at Muggle scientific equipment with fresh eyes. He had discovered that there were devices to identify individual components of mixtures through various means as well as finding out the purity of a compound.

As a hobby project, Snape had tried replicating such devices with magical means and even had some success in it – now he could tell the purity of a potion. In other words, Snape could tell how effective a batch would be and if there would be any side-effects to taking the potion. If his prototypes for analyzing the composition of a potion hadn't all ran out of the door screaming incoherently and leaped off the nearby cliff, he could've even been able to tell the exact nature of the side-effects.

Naturally, Snape wasn't just spending his life trying to improve the science of brewing Potions. He was also actually brewing potions as those imbeciles that dared to call themselves his coworkers couldn't be trusted near the more delicate ingredients and concoctions. Snape didn't even know for what reason they had been hired.

Among other potions, Snape had brewed and improved various love potions – he wasn't willing to give up on Lily just yet. He knew that James had used some underhanded means to sway her heart, to steal her from him. Snape wanted to take her back, but somehow, for some unfathomable reason, each time he had offered her a drink, each time he had stealthily dosed her drink with the potions, an accident would happen that caused the drink to spill.

Even if the drink wasn't spilled, it accidentally got swapped with somebody else's. Snape had escaped from an older witch that could've crushed him to death more than once, only to find her patiently waiting for him in front of the Apothecary Snape frequented. How those witches found that out remained a mystery to him, but at the very least he was prepared after the first time, always carrying the proper antidotes with him.

After the sixth attempt, Snape had finally decided to go a different route – he would instead remove any love potions that James had undoubtedly dosed Lily with, and as such brewed a high-quality scouring potion – something that would flush the recipient's system of all potions and remove the effects of any charms, hexes or curses.

The potion itself had been something he created himself, as a last resort – if he couldn't get Lily, James wouldn't be able to either when whatever he did to her was dispelled.

That was how Snape had reached the moment he was currently in. He had found out that James and Lily frequented Madam Puddifoot's tea shop ever since they were still in Hogwarts, thus making things rather easy to him.

He first used a glamor charm to change his face and hair, then chose a moment when James was luring Lily's gaze with his undeserving eyes, he walked past their table with an open phial in his sleeve, and as his sleeve passed over Lily's teacup, he let the contents fall in. Neither of them noticed anything.

Then, Snape, as the valiant knight and savior of a damsel in distress that he was, took off the disguise just in time to witness Lily taking a sip from the cup of tea.

What Snape didn't know was that the only potion Lily was dosed with was one with contraceptive properties, and even that she had brewed herself and taken willingly. After all, Snape didn't have the privilege of being informed about the daily lives of his targets by a team of stealthy house elf spies.

Lily suddenly said: "James, I feel a bit strange. I feel as if a Dementor is lurking nearby."

As soon as Lily's word's finished, there was already a wand in James' hand and an incorporeal Patronus extending from its tip, ready to be transformed into a corporeal one as soon as he found out in which direction the Dementor was.

"Don't worry darling, I'll take care of it. Just tell me which direction it's in. For some reason, I can't feel it at all.", James said confidently.

"I can't tell either, all I feel is a deep sense of sadness and self-loathing. Oh, it's gone now. Thank you for your protection, sire.", Lily said with a soft smile.

Snape's heart sank. It seemed that whatever James was using, the scouring potion wasn't enough to beat it. He must've used some sort of a dark ritual to bind Lily's heart. There was no way that Lily would just forget about the bonds they had forged during childhood.

Suddenly, Snape felt ha heavy hand on his shoulder. He jolted and twirled around, his wand already out. He hadn't heard anybody approaching, so perhaps it was an assassin? Had the Death Eaters finally been sent after him due to him not making contact all that time?

However, he was greeted by the stoic face of his employer.

"Master, why are you here?", Snape asked in a quivering voice, holstering his wand.

"Kid, that's enough. You've proven beyond the shadow of the doubt that she's truly in love with James. Anything further would be foolish and delusional. One such as yourself, well-versed in the mind arts should at least be the master of his own thoughts, yet you've proven my assumption wrong.

From today onwards, in addition to any dark witches and wizards, you're also forbidden to be in the proximity of James Potter and Lily Evans. The rule is the same: as soon as you get into casting distance from them, your bracelet will activate and bring you to the cell.

You'll get a free pass for today, but after that, each infringement is a strike. I believe I don't need to remind you what happens after you've got three strikes."

Naturally, the bracelet that 'Charles' mentioned was a custom-made artefact that he had ordered. Its functions were as follows: once the carrier of it approached those that they weren't allowed to by the one holding the key, tried to remove the bracelet, tried to tamper with the bracelet or tried to destroy the bracelet, they would be portkeyed into a cell where wards against any and all kinds of magical transportation would become active the moment the cell had exactly one inhabitant. The carrier of the bracelet would be stunned and Gaude would be alerted.

In addition, the bracelet was linked to a modified Mappa Mundi, which constantly kept track of the wearer's location, allowing quick extraction and approximate surveillance. In modern day Muggle terms, Severus Snape was akin to a parolee under electronic surveillance, except it was much harder to violate the conditions and get away with it as he would immediately be transported into a holding cell.

"Yes, sir, I know that. But there's no way she loves him! I was with her first!", Snape protested.

"Tell me about it. Did you ask her out even once?", Gaude asked sternly.

Snape's facial expression changed a few times between uncertainty and regret before settling back into a scowl. He said glumly: "No, sir, but… it was never the right time."

"So, you're telling me that there was a single moment where Lily was open to being asked out and James snatched it away?"

"Yes, sir, that's exactly what I'm saying.", Snape said, unaware that he had once again admitted to his own inadequacy.

"Where I come, there's a saying: those that wait for the right timing to be created by the world around them rarely succeed while those that make the right timing with their own efforts rarely fail."

Naturally, Gaude was spouting bs about ever knowing about such a saying, but it was the way he felt about those matters. If you didn't forge a path through a mountain of corpses and rivers of blood, you could just as well become a part of that landscape through the hand of someone willing to go all the way towards their goal.

"Now, about that potion you created. You'll get fifty points for that. It seems to be quite useful. Oh, and you'll also get a small five percent raise. I expect you to continue pushing the boundaries of Potioneering."

As 'Charles' was talking with Snape, he was also piling up compulsions to let go of the matter of Lily and concentrate on concocting potions instead. He didn't want one of his most productive employees getting into even more legal trouble. When it came to potions, it was hard to find a replacement after all. He would've liked to erase the entire matter from Snape's mind and memories, but unfortunately, he didn't know how.

Snape's eyes lit up just a little when he heard about being rewarded for creating a new potion, but the perpetual scowl on his face deepened soon after. He realized that there were no secrets he could keep from his master. Somehow, his master managed to always keep an eye on him. He felt that it was an invasion of his privacy, but also realized that he had lost that right when he accepted the Dark Mark.

As they were talking, 'Charles' had guided Snape out of the establishment, onto the street.

"Tell me, Severus, how is your progress with the potions and ink I've requested of you?"

"Sir, the ink is as good as I can make it. According to the artefact, it has ninety-nine percent purity. It could be higher, but that's the limit of what I can test with the artefact.

Things became a lot easier after the supply of Re'em blood increased."

"How have the effectiveness tests of the potions gone?"

"Everything else works, Sir, but so far, I've been unable to try out Basilisk's Bane."

"Do tell me, why is that?"

"I haven't been able to find any Basilisks, Sir."

"Hm. Unrelated to that matter as always, it seems that Mr. Agelhort has found yet another way to disappoint me. No matter. I'm sure our new Keeper of Beasts and Bees can help him out with any issues he might be facing."

Naturally, Gaude didn't just trust Snape's words at face value. His Legilimency was at least good enough to peek into the man's mind, past his Occlumency shields and see the truth of the matter. Gaude had gotten a lot of practice on criminal scum, after all.

"Excellent work, young man. You just earned yourself another hundred points. I believe it's about time for me to test that ink. As for you, I just happen to have another request for you.

I believe the Phoenix blood should be extracted and waiting in storage room four. I want you to purify it, the same as you did with the previous creatures' blood. Unless misfortune strikes, there should be Thunderbird chicks hatching in a month and reaching sufficient age for blood extraction within two more. I want you to obtain enough Thunderbird blood to produce seven drops of the purified version.

Oh, and I want one more thing from you. It's likely to take a very long time to complete, so I recommend you work on it when you don't have more pressing tasks at hand.

Your long-term task is to create a potion that can be dispersed in air, that reacts to either Oxygen or preferably Nitrogen in air and forms a transparent crystal that can stop the movement of anything inside it completely. It is enough if the movement-stopping effect is achieved by the rigidity of the crystal. I recommend you start your search from monocrystalline Boron Nitride."

"Yes, master. It will be done."

Gaude himself went to the snake vivarium – he had a special project of his own, trying to see if Parseltongue could be learned. So far, he had very little progress. As in, there was no progress. It was all just incomprehensible hissing to him.

After three hours of sitting among various non-venomous ingredient-grade serpents, he was sick and tired of his attempt. Gaude concluded that since even after five months there had been no noticeable progress, he would have to find another way, such as using the Slytherin bloodline.

Naturally, he knew exactly where to get that, as a certain Voldesnek or whatever his name was had been quite keen on insisting that he did in fact possess that bloodline. Gaude had obtained that information from Snape during the very first interrogation session he had held with the man.

Now it almost seemed as if it was inevitable for Gaude to clash against Voldesnek, for the simple purpose of obtaining his blood.