Potions Class

"You are Harry Potter?" Sebastian asked, astonished by the reveal. 'I should have known when that funny-looking kid said Potter.'

Harry, awkward at the reveal, stammered a bit.

"Y-Yeah, that's me." He said, a bit surprised that even Sebastian knew of him.

"I have heard a lot of interesting things about you," Sebastian said, slightly disappointed by the magic he possessed. 'He is stronger than every other kid around him, but his magic's potency is still not that strong.'

"Really?" Harry felt both happy and embarrassed, as the person who had gotten all the spotlight was not focusing on him.

"Yes, and I must admit that it is nice to finally meet you." He said, extending a friendly hand.

Harry took the hand, albeit awkwardly and shook it. Like the rest, Sebastian had already greeted them.

"You said your name was Hermoine Granger, correct?" He asked, making the frizzy haired girl nod.

"Yes, and thank you for not looking down on us." Hermoine was surprised to see Sebastian's personality flipping entirely after his introduction. 'He does not seem to be that bad of a person.'

"And you two are Gabrielle Union and Melanie Laurent, right?"

Both the girls nodded at that, a little happy at that attention given by Sebastian.

"All of us have the same classes, don't we?" He asked, quite interested to know about the course structure.

"For the first year, it is almost the same for all and I think that you also have the same subjects as us." Hermoine said, recalling that there were a few optional classes that students could take.

"And… if we don't want to be late for professor Snape's class, we have to hurry." Ron said, his face turning a little pale.

"Oh no!" almost everyone said simultaneously, except Sebastian who looked confused.

"Is it bad to be late for his class?"

At that question, everyone looked at him in bafflement.

"You… you will know once you meet him." Ron said, unaware of the fact that Sebastian had indeed met with Snape.

But unfortunately, the personality that Snape had in front of Sebastian and the one he had in front of the rest was totally different.

Something that he realized in a very short amount of time.

…

…

"Mr. Potter," Snape's frown was something that scared Harry, "You seem to have been spreading your disease of being late to even others now."

His eyes roamed around every person that was late and he was especially surprised to see Sebastian in that crowd.

"And I would especially appreciate it if you could not hamper the learning experience of the new student." His eyes shifted to Sebastian, "And Mr. Slytherin, I hope you can be a better judge of character and not mix in with the wrong crowd."

"I apologize for being late, professor." Sebastian said, noticing the shift in personality he had while in class. "But a few of the students got a little too excited to talk and that ended up delaying us. If not for Potter and the rest, I might have been far behind compared to now."

Sebastian noticed that Snape openly targeted Harry, which confused him.

'Did Harry do something?' He wondered as the few times he talked with Snape, he didn't seem like a bad guy.

"Is that correct, Mr. Potter?" He asked Harry, wondering how the boy helped the Slytherin heir.

Truth was that it was the other way around, but neither Harry nor the rest were going to decline that offer.

"We… we justed helped him get away from the crowd, sir." Ron added, trying to help Harry out.

"I do not think that I asked you, Mr. Weasley." Snape's frown deepened, "But since you did help a student out, I will pardon you this time around."

Everyone other than Sebastian took a sigh of relief as Snape pointed them towards their seat.

"Go to your seat and prepare to make the potion to cure boils." Snape instructed, "All the ingredients have been provided and you can refer to the previous class for reference."

He walked forward, "As for Sebastian," Snape said, trying not to continue with the name Slytherin to not mix the house and the surname, "I have heard that you were taught the basics of Potions."

"That is correct, sir." Sebastian nodded.

"Then, you may take the notes from your classmates and follow the instructions for this potions recipe." He said as he wrote the potion's name on the board. "You will know that the potion is completed when you see pink smoke rise from the cauldron."

With these instructions, Sebastian looked around for the notes. But most students seemed a little afraid or uneasy to look him in the eye.

He already knew that this was going to happen after the introduction but he didn't mind. He had no need for brats that couldn't even cast a proper spell.

He noticed that Draco smiled when no one was offering him the notes. Unfortunately, for the Malfoy heir –Sebastian received them from possibly the most studious student of their class.

"Here, Sebastian."

He heard the familiar voice of Hermoine from behind him, and as he turned around, he saw her passing him a notebook with a smile.

"This should help." She said.

Sebastian raised an eyebrow, "Don't you need it?"

Hermione shook her head, "I have the potion memorized."

Now, this amazed Sebastian. He knew that he was a little late for class, but it was not by a lot. So, for a first year student to actively memorize the potions instead of enjoying the new school life, he truly was amazed.

"Thank you." He smiled, learning something new about the people around him. 'She is quite the studious one."

'But let's see…'

He had not read the potions and their recipe of the present time and most of his knowledge was from the past –which was both good and bad.

'This is quite an interesting recipe.'

The potions he knew of were strong and extremely effective, however the downside was that the recipe for most of those potions required ingredients that were either extinct or hard to come by.

'Crush six snake fangs into a fine powder and add four measures of it in a cauldron.' He liked that the potion was rather simple. 'Heat the mixture to 250 for ten minutes and brew it for 33-45 minutes, while inducing it with magic from your wand.'

Snake fangs were the parts that were used for venom extraction and excretion, so it made sense to Sebastian that those fangs were used for the cure.

'It still contains minuscule amounts of poison so being embedded with magic will help it to burn off the nasty bacteria causing the boil.' He mused, 'But one wrong step and you will have boils growing on you instead.'

"Ah! Why is this turning purple?!" Ron exclaimed, seeing his concoction turn purple after just two minutes of putting it in the cauldron.

"Idiot!" Hermoine immediately scolded, "The heat is too high!"

'Yeah, easy to make and easy to mess up.' Sebastian mused, 'Especially for beginners.'

He felt like it was definitely one of the best potions for a first class as while it was simple, it also taught students how easy it was to mess up.

"Ahhh!" He heard another student shout, and that shout sounded familiar.

"It reeks!" Ron yelled, turning his head around and noticing Draco with his face covered in black ash.

"Malfoy!" Snape yelled, "It is explicitly written to use four potions! Why did you add more!"

'Yep, the more the merrier is not the case with potions.' Sebastian didn't bother with Draco, 'Potions always have to be in harmony with the ingredients.'

Saying this, he finally started making the powder for the potion.

'The finer the powder, the easier it is to mix in the solution.'

The powder that he saw most students using was quite coarse and that was another reason that the potion did not heat properly.

'Four perfect portions.' He slowly started to add the portions one after another. 'Add the other portion only when the previous portion is fully mixed.'

It took a few seconds for the powder to fully mix in the solution and once it was done, Sebastian finally took out his snakewood wand.

In a way, it looked comical as everyone's wand was bigger than his but he still preferred his wand. He believed that a bigger wand was more susceptible to being damaged as well as being difficult to carry.

But once he was done with imbuing the concoction with his magic, he saw the potion slowly turning to a shade of blue and that was exactly what he was looking for.

'Now, I just have to wait a bit till it produces a pink smoke.'

"Remember that this is simply a sample potion." Snape said, "What it means is that the effects will not be permanent. So, if you want to go for the complete version, you may add porcupine quills till the potion turns orange and then add stewed horned slugs till it turns turquoise. Lastly you heat it till it is red for it to be complete."

"Do remember that it is not mandatory for today's class that you make the potion permanent." He said, "But if you do manage to complete it, you will be rewarded extra points."

His face then turned cold, "That being said, minus ten points to house Gryffindor for being the house with the most failures in this class."

"What?"

"That's not fair!"

"But we have not even completed the potion!"

Sebastian heard the students complain, and he did agree that it was a bit extreme.

"It doesn't require a potion to be completed for someone to know if it is proper or ruined, Mr. Weasley."

Sebastian couldn't deny Snape's words. While he did feel that Snape was being strict, it was still far more tame than what he went through in the past.

"Ugh! I can never complete this!" He heard most students complaining.

But there were quite a few that did not.

And that included Hermoine.

"I just have to regain those points by making the complete potion." She said it under her breath, but as she was directly behind him, he heard her.

And that gave him an idea.

"Why don't we see whose potion is better, Hermoine?" He suggested with a mischievous smile.

For a second, Hermoine paused and looked at him. While Ron and Harry looked at them with surprise.

"We are struggling with the basics and you want to compete with her?" Ron said, "Do not do it, Hermione. We are already at a loss."

Harry shared the same sentiment, unfortunately, it fell to Hermoine's deaf ear.

"Are you sure?" Because if there was something that Hermoine truly enjoyed, it was competition.

"Why not." Sebastian smiled, "Competition always aids improvement."

"Hermoine don't!" Ron warned, but it was already too late.

"Alright!" Hermoine said enthusiastically, "I don't mind!"

Both Ron and Harry's faces fell as they knew that one mistake could cause them another loss of points, but Hermoine had already made up her mind.

If anything, the pink fumes rising from the cauldron only fueled her competitive spirit.

Both the Slytherin and Gryffindor students rushed to fetch porcupine quills, seeing which Snape remarked. "Interesting. Miss Granger and Mr. Slytherin seem to have completed their potions."

He looked at the hurrying students, "But do remember that while it is not mandatory to make the potion permanent, if you try and fail, you will lose points." He frowned, something that was very common for him. "And it will be thirty points this time."

But this fell to their deaf ears as both came back with porcupine quills and immediately started to add it to the concoction.

Peter and Ron both stared at Hermione in nervousness and the same was done by the Slytherin students as they stared at Sebastian.

They prayed that the boy knew what he was doing, but there was nothing they could do about it. They knew that they couldn't help, especially since they couldn't even finish the basic potion without putting their best efforts.

To their relief, the potion of both the students turned orange.

But that relief did not last long as the two rushed to get the next ingredient.

Stewed horn slugs.

They were very easy to overcook and when they were overcooked, they produced a nasty stench.

So when the two added the slugs, everyone that knew about the smell prepared for the worst.

A minute passed then two and then three, but thankfully there was nothing that went wrong.

This feeling turned sweeter when the solution turned turquoise.

And finally they waited for it to turn red, after they imbued it with magic –which prevented the slugs from overcooking.

This was the final process and everyone was at the edge of their seats.

"Red… please turn red."

Harry prayed as he didn't want to lose more points.

Even Snape, who usually seemed disinterested seemed to have taken a slight interest in their little competition.

And the result seemed to have been great for both as after four more minutes, both their solutions turned red –indicating the completion of the solution.

Hermoine immediately extinguished the fire, not wanting to overheat it.

"Yes!" Ron and Harry yelled and the same happened for Sebastian with the students of Slytherin sighing in relief.

"Professor, the potion is done." Hermoine nearly shouted, in her excited tone as she took a bit of the potion into a vile before rushing towards Snape.

However…

Snape did not like that.

"Do not come any closer, Miss Granger." He warned, "If anything, take three steps back."

This confused everyone within the room.

Everyone but two people.

One being Snape and the other –Sebastian.

"But why professor?" Hermoine asked, at which Snape replied.

"Take a look at Sebastian's cauldron and you will understand."

The confused Hermione turned to look at Sebastian and so did everyone in the classroom.

But no one noticed anything special about his cauldron.

Until…

Until the girl that they were previously with –Gabrielle pointed out something significant.

"His cauldron is still over the fire!"

And that was when it clicked for everyone –including Hermoine.

But by then, it was already too late.

The vile with the potion turned black and even before she could throw it away –the vile exploded, releasing a black smoke all around her– instantly painting her face and clothes black and leaving behind a very pungent smell.

"And that is why you should always be patient, even when you are competing." Snape said, before announcing. "And this will cost Gryffindor another 30 points. Congratulations, you have managed to lose forty points in a single class."

Just like that, the lead that Hermoine acquired in the last few days went down the drain, leaving a chuckling and also sorry feeling Sebastian with his perfected potion.

…

…

"I expected you to help her out, Sebastian." Snape commented as the class ended and Sebastian followed him with his vile of potion.

"I would have, but it was a competition. And I just did not want to lose." The boy smiled, which amused Snape.

"The potion is quite decent, so congratulations you have gotten your house thirty points." Snape commended. "But try to refrain from such acts or it might harm you in the long run."

Sebastian nodded, "I will keep that in mind."

He looked back, seeing Ron and Harry tending to a teary eyed Hermoine.

"I should still probably apologize to her." He said, before suddenly looking at Snape. "Oh, by the way professor."

This drew Snape's attention.

"Why did we use horned slugs?"

This made Snape raise an eyebrow. "The slime and the essence of the slug helps to improve the spread and absorption of the potion as well as to make it long lasting."

"Then… wouldn't phoenix tears have been better?"

This question cum statement by Sebastian surprised Snape.

"What do you mean?" The professor asked, as while he knew that Phoenix tears were expensive they were still potion ingredients. Yet they were not used in the boil cure potion.

"When I made a similar potion a very long time ago, grandfather instructed me to use phoenix tears. It made the effect of the potion permanent while also adding the additional effect of making the consumer resistant to boils and skin diseases."

This claim shocked Snape to the core. As he had neither heard of this nor did he manage to create anything with such effects despite his years in the field.

"You mean… there was a better version of the boil cure in the past?" Snape asked and Sebastian immediately nodded.

"Considering the effects of both potions, I will say so." Sebastian affirmed.

"You…" Snape paused, a look of interest visible on his face. His eyes shone for a second before going back to the same disinterested and dull ones. "I see."

He looked at the messy haired girl sitting at the far corner of the class. "You should tend to the Granger girl." He commented, showing concern that he never showed. "If you do not want to possibly ruin your friendship."

Sebastian scratched the back of his head, "I guess so. I think I should have given her a bit of a hint."

Snape shook his head, "As you said, competition is about winning and it is the responsibility of the competitor to consider every aspect and make sure that the result is correct before submitting it." His face softened a tiny bit, "Do not blame yourself."

Sebastian sighed, "I… yes."

He looked at Hermione and walked back a little, "I'll talk to her." Saying this, he started to walk towards her. But before he could leave, Snape called him.

"Sebastian." Snape called.

"Yes professor?"

"If…" Snape said, his voice low and slow, "If you do not have anything to do this Saturday. Meet me at my office, there is something that I have to talk to you about."

Sebastian was curious, "What is it professor?"

Snape shook his head, "Don't worry about it now. We will discuss it on Saturday." He paused, "If you are free."

"I am free." Sebastian assured, aware that he had nothing other than studying magic to do. "I will be there then professor."

"Very well then." He said before showing a tiny smile, surprising Sebastian. "I will trust your words."

And before Sebastian could ask anything, Snape turned around and left.

Leaving a confused Sebastian behind.

"What was that about…" He scratched his head, "But… there is something more important to worry about for now."

He sighed as he saw the trio sitting at the corner of the class.

"Will an apology suffice?"

He sure hoped that it would.

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