Who's the One Being Punished Here, Really?

Luckily for Oleandra, she was friends with Draco, who pleaded in her favour with Professor Snape. After hearing from Draco about how she had deviously planned to land Harry in detention, he naturally didn't give her any additional punishment.

However, even though Oleandra was a student from his House, he wouldn't and couldn't remove a punishment that another teacher had given her. Although, Professor McGonagall had tactfully left the finer details of the detention to him, though the date had to remain on the day she had assigned it to be, as it was part of the punishment.

 On Halloween morning, Oleandra dutifully headed to Professor Snape's office after breakfast.

"Professor?" she called, knocking on his door. "I'm here for my punishment."

"Enter," came the reply after a small delay.

Oleandra entered Professor Snape's office, noticing a potioneering set along with an assortment of herbs and ingredients.

"Miss Greengrass," he said quietly. "It seems like you have a knack for getting yourself into trouble."

"Yes, Professor," Oleandra said, not knowing how else to respond.

"Nevertheless, you are somewhat gifted when it comes to Potioneering," Professor Snape complimented her. "Do not let it get to your head, Greengrass. You still have much to learn."

"Thank you, Professor," said Oleandra stiffly.

"Given that I am a busy man, I will be relegating one of my tasks to you as your punishment," Professor Snape continued. "You'll be brewing a certain potion. I've left the recipe and everything you'll need right here. Once you're done, take it up to Lupin. Make sure he drinks it at once, and to the last drop." 

"He'll be expecting me, you only need to tell him it's from me," he added, noticing Oleandra's bewildered expression.

Oleandra sighed in relief. She was fairly certain she didn't have the capacity to feed any teacher a potion against their will. Except Professor Hagrid, provided that she tricked him.

"What will I be making him?" Oleandra asked curiously. The parchment the recipe had been scrawled on didn't have a title.

"It's a fairly new potion. Lupin has a certain condition for which he needs this potion, which I've agreed not to disclose for the sake of his privacy," Professor Snape said, his lips curling upwards slightly. "It would be obvious which condition it happened to be, if you knew which potion he needed."

Professor Snape paused, his grin widening slightly.

"However, if you happened to guess what it was, purely based on the potion ingredients, and shared what you had discovered with your friends, then that would be certainly be a shame, wouldn't it? Purely hypothetically, of course."

"Oh," said Oleandra, who was beginning to feel a little disconcerted.

"I'll leave the rest to you, if there's nothing else," Professor Snape said as he rose from his chair.

"Wait, you won't be watching over me, Professor?" asked Oleandra, somewhat uncomfortable with the position she'd been thrust in. "What if the potion's a failure?"

"Then, don't give it to Lupin. Or do give it to him," Professor Snape said dismissively, "it matters not to me. Madam Pomfrey is a good Healer, she knows how to deal with potion poisoning."

"But, Professor Lupin…" Oleandra began.

"Will have to live without his potion, that's all," completed Professor Snape. "This is a complicated potion to make for a third year, but you should be fine. There's enough for two cauldrons, so you have two chances. And do keep in mind that the ingredients are expensive."

And with those words, he left his office, but not before warning her not to snoop around in his personal cupboard.

"I'd better get started, then…" Oleandra spoke to no one in particular.

The ingredients left to her weren't identified, but they were very conveniently arranged. Oleandra got to work identifying what was what, putting names to ingredients by finding out their properties. She rubbed them between her fingers to check the texture, smelled them and compared their appearances to what she knew. Wolfsbane roots, Dragon blood, Hellebore petals, a moonstone, an Occamy egg, some Sopophorous beans, an entire Murtlap… and a single leaf of vervain.

Oleandra ran through all the potion recipes she had memorized; none of them required all of the ingredients gathered before her. What exactly was it that Professor Snape hoped that she would discover? Nothing good, she supposed; Professor Snape hated Professor Lupin. Nevertheless, she resolved to ask Daphne later, as her sister knew more about potions than she did.

Oleandra started preparing the ingredients, chopping roots, smashing the moonstone into powder, slicing up the Murtlap and squeezing the beans' juices out. After she was done with her preparations, Oleandra followed the brewing instructions, and an hour later, the potion was done.

Oleandra eyed the smoking cauldron full of bubbling potion. According to the recipe, this was exactly what it was supposed to look like, so she scooped up some of it in a goblet and tapped the cauldron with her wand. The liquid contained inside it started swirling and draining out, as if the cauldron were a toilet that had been flushed. Oleandra had no idea where the rest of the potion had gone to, but it had probably gone into storage for future use.

Goblet in hand, Oleandra carefully started making her way to Professor Lupin's office, but as soon as she opened the door to leave Professor Snape's office, she was greeted with a stream of foul-smelling liquid coming straight for her face! She swore and wiped off the liquid with her sleeve, taking care not to let even a single drop of her potion escape from the goblet.

"You little idiots!" Oleandra barked at the Hufflepuff first years playing with Gobstones right in front of Professor Snape's office. "Don't you know whose office this is? Count yourselves lucky it wasn't Professor Snape you got, or you'd have got stuck with detention for the rest of the year!"

The kids collectively blanched and scarpered without even taking the time to pick up their Gobstones. Oleandra had half a mind to use the Impediment Charm to make them trip and fall flat on their faces, but she maturely decided to let them off with the warning.