Jack of All Trades, master of Snape

Gaude had Laly place illusions on a group of her subordinates, to make them look like Moody, the Prewett brothers and a few other better known Aurors.

Then he had Laly bring over a man he had paid to perform a single, very specific task. Once the party of him, his hire and the elves were gathered, he said: "Let us depart for the Hog's Head inn. I have a job interview to conduct."

With a pop and a twist, the elves had co-apparated everyone to the entrance of the inn.

Gaude looked at the only actual human in the party, the only one that didn't have an illusion body cast over themselves and spoke: "Johnny, do your thing."

Johnny pulled out a fire axe from somewhere and a manic smile appeared on his face.

Gaude instantly regretted on not doing a proper background check on the temporary hire. It seemed that he had stumbled on a particularly scary type of eccentricity. Still, he managed to keep his calm façade.

"No, Johnny, the other thing.", Gaude said.

Johnny seemed visibly dejected as he said: "Oh, alright. Another time, I guess.", taking out his wand.

After Johnny finished casting the anti-apparition ward, Gaude walked in slowly, at the head of five fake Aurors.

The first thing he noticed was the strong smell of goats, even though there weren't actually any visible. There was also the head of a Hog hung on a wall, fresh blood still dripping onto the white cloth under it.

###

Severus Snape had graduated from Hogwarts that year. Most of his grades were top-notch, partly due to being singled out by that damnable bastard James Potter and his band of bullies. He had been forced to lay low in the library and study, then study some more. That was of course when he wasn't in the potions' lab, Professor Slughorn had given him a free pass due to his outstanding talents.

Snape had brewed quite a few mild poisons and other potions with nasty effects, but that accursed Potter had either discovered them in his drink or simply shrugged them off like they were nothing. That had only served to anger Snape even more – what kind of a person just shrugs off a laxative potion without as much as a fart?

How was it right that Lily would stay with a monster like that? There was just no justice in the world! Even after Snape had gone the bad boy route and joined the Death Eaters, buying his way in with Polyjuice Potions that lasted for twelve hours, Lily had only looked at him with more disdain and a little bit of pity.

Severus Snape was not one to be pitied! It should be his enemies that should be pitied! This was absolutely unacceptable; he'd just have to find a way to get rid of that piece of trash James!

Suddenly, Snape's thoughts were interrupted by a slightly stifling feeling, as if there was a blockage somewhere in his body.

As soon as he felt that, he saw a slender man with stern face and heavily grayed, formerly black hair walk in.

Behind that man, the crop of the cream in the Auror office were entering. Snape was certain that nobody had told the Aurors about him being a Death Eater, so he should still be safe. Just who were they after?

Suddenly, the older wizard made a beeline straight towards him, the floor in front of his feet being cleansed of the scum from decades of not being washed.

Snape got up, ready to leave.

Then, the old man spoke up in a quiet tone that was still clearly heard by Snape but would likely miss the ears of other patrons: "Take a seat, young man. You don't want to be making a ruckus right now, with that mark on your arm."

That was when Snape realized that everything that was happening at that moment, the Aurors, the old man, they were there for him, and even worse, they knew about the Dark Mark on his arm. He had to get away! He had to escape right that instant!

Snape closed his eyes and tried to apparate, but he didn't manage to feel the connection with the destination, no matter how he tried.

This was a trap! He had been caught in the Auror's trap!

"Now that you've tried to run, how about you take that seat and have a talk with this old man. Name's Charles Vywin.", the old man said again, this time introducing himself.

Snape decided to at least hear the man out. There was no way he was winning a duel against five highly-trained Aurors, or even escaping with his life. They had stealthily surrounded him while pretending to interview other customers, yet their sideways glances in his direction gave their true intentions away.

Of course, Snape had no way of knowing that the elves were actually taking glances at the masked Gaude to find out if they were doing a good job.

Snape finally slumped in a chair, as if waiting for a verdict from the old man. Funny, he had never seen that man before. He would've thought he'd at least know somebody that can command the best of the Aurors for a single person like that.

The old man used wandless magic to pull a chair away from the table before taking a seat in it. Definitely a powerful wizard. Snape knew only of two others that could do something like that, Dumbledore and Voldemort.

"Now, here's how it'll go down: I'll talk for a while and you'll listen. Then I'll give you a choice."

Snape nodded, just hoping that whatever choice the old man gave him would keep him out of Azkaban. Snape might have strong Occlumency, but between the cold and Dementors, only a single moment of weakness would be needed for them to feast on him, and there was a lot of anguish and despair in him, all thanks to that James Potter, the stealer of girls' hearts.

"You see, everyone is young and stupid sometimes. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone can join the wrong kind of a group because of a misguided thought, thinking they could somehow help you achieve your heart's desire. Let me tell you something, from experience: it never ends well. They'll take and take, never giving a thing. In the end, they'll take the object of your heart's desire away from you and laugh in your face.

You're a smart man, created multiple spells of your own while you were still in Hogwarts. You improved upon the process of brewing potions and even created an entirely new potion.

Now, we'll get to my offer. I happen to be in a need of a talented researcher, both in the field of spells and potions, and you're perfect for the job.

So, you have a choice to make: either you get taken away by them or come and work for me. Naturally, you being who you are, certain security measures have to be taken to ensure your loyalty. Who knows, if you behave, I might even help you out with your heart's desire."

Snape thought for a moment and found the offer almost too good to be true. The old man, clearly in a position of great power was offering to help him with Lily?

Since according to the rumors about Moody, he might not even see the inside of a courtroom, Snape didn't have much of a choice in the first place.

"Fine. What do you want me to do?", he asked.

"An unbreakable vow. That's the only way for you to save yourself from just disappearing without a trace."

Sure enough, the old man had just confirmed his suspicions, he would be executed perhaps not a hundred feet from where they were sitting.

Snape's mind was still kept calm by his Occlumency, but that didn't stop his heart from racing as if he'd just been running, and he abhorred the act.

"What are the contents of that vow?", he then asked for the specifics, hoping that there would be a convenient loophole from him to use against the man that wanted to make him not much higher in status from a servant.

"The contents? Let me think for a moment. Oh, yes. It should go something like this: You will not harm me, Gaude Vywin or Ronald Cortshutt, or any of those important to us, either directly or indirectly, meaning no telling about us to anyone that could harm us. You will also not harm our property or employees, or the people close to us either directly or indirectly. You will also reveal any and all schemes that you became aware of, against those mentioned earlier, at the earliest moment that you're free to do so, meaning the moment that doing so will not put your life into direct danger. Finally, you will do your utmost to create new spells and potions that have been assigned for you to research, as well as give your all to improve the quality and taste of currently existing potions.

As for me, I will do my utmost to help you realize your heart's desire and keep you alive long enough for you to enjoy it."

"That sounds somewhat reasonable. Do you want me to swear it right now?", Snape asked.

"It would be for the best.", Charles, the old man said.

Snape proceeded to swear the oath, on his life and magic. As he waited for the old man to swear an oath of his own, the old man only said: "Looks like we're all done here. Then let's get going."

Snape hadn't realized due to his inner turmoil that the old man never promised to swear an unbreakable oath. He had just been made to swear an oath of absolute loyalty, but the other side didn't even make a half-assed oath. He had been tricked! Even old men could be so hateful! He would have to go through the oath syllable by syllable and find even the tiniest of loopholes!

Meanwhile, the old man looked at Moody and spoke: "False alarm. I suppose I'll have to make it up to you now. Go get yourself a big box of donuts."

As he finished, the old man threw a Galleon at the deadliest Auror that ever lived, and the Auror caught it without even looking.

Once they had exited the inn, the old man said: "Laly! Please be so kind and take us to the Potions Lab."

###

Naturally, Gaude had no intention of delivering Lily Evans to Severus Snape on a silver platter. The man hadn't made a single effort to land the girl, not taken her out on even a single date and he wanted the girl to be head over heels for him? A girl's heart can't be won over by experimenting with magic together with her and never really offering her anything of substance beside that.

The man had most likely only fawned at the girl from afar, never making his feelings known, never being decisive, never acting with full confidence. Gaude suspected that Snape had never even looked the girl in the eyes properly, to convey all those gentler feelings towards her or taken her for a moonlit walk on a cool summer night.

In other words, it was hard to call Snape a man at all, always going with the flow, always scheming in the shadows, just being passive-aggressive as if one of the many pranks he undoubtedly fell victim to had caused his balls to vanish for good.

Even as Gaude had given his offer to Snape, he hadn't tried to improve the conditions of the deal by a single iota. He just took it lying down like a deadbeat.

That was why Gaude decided that he would help Snape with his heart's desire, once he found a way to change what a person's heart's desire was, that is.

As Gaude thought that, they had arrived in the Potions lab where twenty Potioneers were toiling away, brewing potions of mediocre quality. It pained Gaude, but it was still better than nothing, they were brushing up their skills and generating a trickle of a cash flow in the process.

The potions lab was a room brightly lit by fluorescent lights with a warm yellow hue. There were Potioneers working in stations that looked more like fume hoods, complete with the sound of air being sucked out of the top. The cauldrons were all inside high durability fume hoods, fastened inside with a chain so that none of the workers would get any funny ideas about doing the brewing outside of the hood – it was a safety feature and meant to be strictly applied.

There were three doors in the room, one on the right hand wall, leading to an ingredient storage that was filled to the brim with shelves that had runic stasis charms carved into them while the other lead to the temporary potions' storage, an area where multiple trunks were waiting to be filled with the merchandise.

At the far end of the room, there was a large, almost monolithic looking fireplace with a bold gothic arch on the opening, tall enough to easily fit a grown man standing inside it – nothing like good old natural fire to brighten the mood and heat the room on the chillier days. There was also the matter of Floo connectivity, naturally. Finally, there was the door leading to the outside, as the potions lab was a building separate from any other. In that doorway, 'Charles' Vywin and Severus Snape were standing.

Charles spoke in a booming voice amplified by magic: "Attention, please, everyone! Put your cauldrons under a stasis charm and listen up!"

A moment later, all the Potioneers were looking at him, some of them were also looking at Snape beside them. As they saw Snape, more and more of them started to snicker, most of them being from the same generation as Snape.

"Everyone! This is the new Potions Master of this lab, and he'll be whipping you into shape. If he says you have to stir eight times clockwise instead of seven, you better damn well stir eight times clockwise from now on. From today onwards, his word is my word in this lab. Now, I know that some of you might consider him as lesser than you due to his people skills, but brewing potions is not about being good with talking to people. Is that understood?"

"Yes, master Vywin!", the Potioneers that had been snickering had fallen silent, and by the end of Gaude's speech had become solemn. They had no choice but to follow the school's punching bag's word from now on, as according to the contract, for them, Gaude's word was law in all matters concerning their work in the lab. There was also no way for them to back out of the contract as their lives and magic would be forfeit, not even granting them the possibility to become ghosts and make complaints to the Ministry.

It wasn't Gaude's intention to empower Snape, but it seemed to be the only way to elevate the quality of the potions produced by his lab.

Then, Gaude spoke to Snape: "Tell me, Snape. Do you know what a microgram is?"

"No, what is it?"

Regardless of his shortcomings, at least Snape seemed willing to learn.

"That's a Muggle unit of weight measurement. From today onwards, I want all your ingredient measurements for potions to be done with the precision of a microgram. I have obtained a set of scales with adjustable high-precision counterweights.

As for anything that can be dissolved in water without changing its magical properties, I want you to be able to measure it in microliters. When developing or improving a potion, I want you to add the ingredients one unit at a time, into a small-sized cauldron at first to optimize the formula and keep the expenditure of ingredients to a minimum.

When you're adjusting the cauldron to different positions while adding ingredients, try finding the optimal position using an angle measurement device. While you're at it, find the best position by trying extremes first and then halving the difference until you arrive at the optimal angle. I expect half a degree precision at least.

Finally, for stirring, I want you to try different starting positions relative to the cauldron's structure as well as precise stirring speeds. It would be best to use a contraption with a gearbox, but let's not make things overly complicated for now.

If you can come up with anything else, run it by me and we'll look into the effectiveness of your idea.

Oh, and once again, find a way to get rid of the side-effects of potions as well as that awful taste.

Here's a manual for the scientific units of measurement."

Naturally, all the recommendations that Gaude gave were simply the scientific method applied to the process of brewing potions. After all, precise measurements and precise steps that even a layman could follow were the basis of repeatably producing results with the exact same quality.

A while later, Snape showed up with the elf on duty in Gaude's study. Gaude had been warned in time, so he managed to have the old man illusion recast over himself.

Snape was carrying a set of scales and a box of counterweights in his hand. He spoke: "Sir, I've managed to get the precision down to a milligram, but the counterweights refused to go any lower. They kept falling over and rolling around. One of them even bit my finger."

"Oh?", Gaude half-exclaimed, a smirk forming on his face as if he had just heard or thought of something amusing. "Show me which one bit you."

Snape opened the box and pointed at one of the counterweights.

Gaude then took a permanent marker out from his Mokeskin pouch that was there for, well, reasons, and wrote 'Charlie' onto the silvery surface of the counterweight.

"Charlie? What's the meaning of this?", Snape asked.

"You wouldn't understand even if I told you. It's something from another time, another world. I suppose we'll have to do with a milligram precision then. Now, unless there's anything else, off to creating potions with unheard of quality you go.", Gaude said, dismissing Snape just like that.