Chapter 76: Potions

Gone were the days when William feared that Flich would find him while he was sneaking through the corridors at night when leaving the library or for his visits to Hagrid's hut, he only had to fear the teachers and of course his headmaster.

Only one day had passed since he started his second year and he already had one of his goals completed, now he only had to advance in the next important points, but first he had to go to class, he didn't want to earn a punishment.

The first of all the classes of his second year was one of the subjects in which William was currently specializing, potions with the head of the Slytherin house, Severus Snape.

Getting to dungeon five was no problem at all, he had arrived just in time, Snape was approaching the classroom in the opposite direction to William, both gave each other a look and William simply continued on his way as if William didn't exist at all, the truth is that the young wizard didn't care either.

Once in the classroom he looked for an empty seat, among all the students and away from the golden trio, he really didn't need to stand out in his little trouble club, besides he didn't want to have Snape's hatred.

"There will be your books on page 74, today we will start with the flame protection potion" the muffled and somewhat slurred voice echoed in the silent classroom, all the students had great respect for Snape and preferred to remain completely silent so as not to draw the dark professor's hatred upon them.

So while the class was underway and everyone was immersed in their own affairs, William concentrated on his, this was the perfect opportunity to increase his knowledge of potion to the highest degree possible.

"What's wrong with your book, Rosier?" the voice came from behind William's back, he knew the owner of the voice was Snape, but he didn't want to see his face right now.

William opened his book as requested, there was a drawing of the potion, the history of it, ingredients for its preparation and of course, the method of preparation, the only problem was that William's book had scratches all over it, there was almost nothing left of the original text, this was mainly because last year he had already practiced with this potion and his mastery of it was up to sixty-eight percent.

"I may have messed it up a bit while I was practicing" William tried to say it in a tone that sounded as delicate as possible.

"Are you trying to say that in addition to practicing a potion that belongs in the second year curriculum, you also made changes to the recipe that is practically perfect?" the Snape's voice sounded more ironic than usual "Is that what you're trying to say, Mr. Rosier?"

<Shit...> he grumbled in his mind as he clenched his fists under the table.

William felt that this year it was he was the target, Hermione could be annoying with her amount of answers, but William the year before had no mistakes in potions and also gave advice to many students, he may have transformed himself into a target without realizing it.

In this case there are many ways out, admitting everything Snape says would probably lead to a test of the potion in front of everyone, which is no problem and it was obvious that the potion would be perfect, but it would generate cheers from some students and more hatred from Snape. In case he failed in the demonstration it would be the mockery. In case he didn't accept the changes Snape mentioned then he would be a mockery and in case he didn't answer Snape's questions then he would be a coward.

William could feel how the gazes of everyone in the dungeon were on him, out of the corner of his eye he could see Hermione from the other side, even she seemed curious to the situation, last year she witnessed the potion with her eyes but she didn't have time to talk about it with William.

Any of the possible ways to avoid the problem were at his fingertips, he just had to choose one carefully, but all the ways to solve the problem were also incredibly counterproductive, so while William was racking his brains thinking an event occurred that no one could predict in an ordinary classroom.

On the other side of the classroom an explosion occurred, attention was directed to that spot, a young seamus had a black face and was looking at everyone around him in surprise, then Snape growled in his gravelly voice.

"Finnigan!"

Snape gave William a look full of anger, he wanted to say something but at that moment he had to go to the other side of the hall, to come back once more to get more answers out of William would not be well seen, it could even be related to a personal attack towards William.

For the young wizard this was a path to a peaceful solution that he had not been able to have in his mind before, that is to say this path really appeared because of an external event out of his control, but of course in the end it became the ideal solution.

"Sigh..." William sighed quietly, now he just had to get on with the potion, Snape will be busy for a while with Seamus' explosion, he had to deal with the aftermath of a failed potion.

It was while William was looking in the direction of the failed enthesus potion that an idea popped into his head, one that meant twenty percent in the compression of the flame-protecting potion.