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The end of the school year drew nearer, and your Potions skills still sucked. You didn’t blame Severus for this; it was all your fault. The cauldron just hated you, at least according to yourself. Professor Slughorn started to notice your lack of talent as well, so he made sure Severus and you had all the time you needed to work on your skills. He even made your study sessions obligatory, claiming that you might blow up the dungeons someday if they weren’t- and quite frankly, all your friends agreed. No, really, all of them. Oh, how you revelled in the faith people had in you.

All of this meant of course that you had less time to spend on your other lessons, such as Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Read; especially Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts. The stress coursing through your body had been on an all-time high, and professor McGonagall was not pleased. At all.

“Miss (l/n)” she called you out at the ending of a lesson. It was a Thursday, and Transfiguration was your last class. You still had your Charms homework unfinished (for which you still needed eleven friggin’ inches) and were desperate to go back to the common room, but fate decided to be against you that day. You cursed inwardly when you heard her call your name. Remus gave you a sympathetic look before he exited the classroom - you just hoped he would be sympathetic enough to let you copy his homework.

You walked up to the teacher’s desk. Professor McGonagall’s eyes looked at you from behind her moon shaped spectacles. “I have to say, miss (l/n), that I can’t help but feel disappointed when it comes to your schoolwork. The quality of the work you do continues dropping, and I fear that if you go on like this, your grade might not even reach an A. And I have been hearing the same things about you from professor Merrythought.”

“B-but I love Transfiguration! And Defence Against the Dark Arts as well!”

“Passion for a course is not enough, miss (l/n). It takes hard work and dedication to succeed. Now I know that you have a talent for this course, and it appears for Defence against the Dark Arts as well, but talent alone won’t quite do.”

“I-I’m sorry Professor” you stammered, blushing furiously.

“May I ask why exactly your recent grades have been this low?”

And then it just all came spilling out. “It’s just that I’m busy with so much at the same time; James insists that I train for quidditch so that I can make the team next year which I know isn’t really that important but I would really love to be a beater, a-and professor Slughorn said that I have to keep on working on my potions with Severus which is really really hard because he’s like a genius and I’m a straight disaster when it comes to Potions and everyone just keeps on giving loads of homework and our finals are coming up and then there’s this bloody animagus project-“

“What animagus project?”

…

Poomp. You were so pissed.

“S-sorry professor, I didn’t mean to ramble-“

“What animagus project?”

“It’s nothing, really-“

“Miss (l/n)” she interrupted you again, this time silencing you. “The month after Christmas I couldn’t help but notice a subtle aroma of Mandrake lingering around you and your friends. At the time, you weren’t even working with Mandrake in Herbology, and I would know, because I personally asked professor Sprout. Now of course, this raised my suspicion.”

POOMP.

“As you know, as a teacher, I am obliged to put an end to any experiments, conducted by my students, which I deem a possible threat. Am I clear?”

“Yes Professor” you whispered, barely audible.

“Then you should also know that I should and will not tell you the location of a book containing vital knowledge of this complicated spell, which happens to be in the restricted section of our school library.”

“Ehm, y-yes, professor?”

“And on top of that, I will most certainly not speak a word of the change in guarding duties around the library at 2 at night, sharp, which leaves the library empty for 5 minutes at most.”

“Of course, professor.”

“I take it you understood perfectly everything I said. Tell me, miss (l/n), what do you conclude from our conversation?”

‘Besides that you’re the coolest teacher in history?’

“That I should not neglect my other classes, no matter how much troubles I’m having for potions, professor.”

“Good. I will see you next class.”

“Certainly, professor” you nodded, and walked away. Leaving the classroom, you couldn’t believe that had actually happened. As soon as you rounded a corner you sprinted towards the common room, and when you arrived there three minutes later, you were so out of breath that you needed a moment before you could speak.

Sirius, James, Peter and Remus were all looking at you expectantly as you tried to choke out words.

“Merlin’s beard, (y/n), did Peeves chase you or something?” Sirius asked.

“Nah, Peeves is her partner in crime, he’d never prank her. She’s one of the few students he likes” James grinned. “It was probably McGonagall. Was it that bad?”

“Marauder’s – breathe – meeting – breathe – now” you managed to choke out, making them jump up and drag you up to their room without hesitation. You groaned at the stairs, and the air was pushed out of your lungs once more when Sirius dropped you onto his bed.

“What happened?” he asked once James had closed the doors, dimmed the lights and lit the Ceremonial Candle of Vows.

You, once more with a somewhat healthy breathing pattern, didn’t have as much trouble replying this time. “Minnie knows.”

“She- she knows??” Peter squeaked.

“Please tell me it isn’t about what I think it is” James whined.

“About our Animagus project, yes” you said. “But- and here’s the strange part- she doesn’t mind.”

“She- excuse me??” Remus freaked. “She doesn’t mind?? I thought she was meant to be a responsible teacher!!”

“She is” you shrugged, “she said that it was her job to put an end to it.”

“But I thought you said-“

“I did, Padfoot, and she also said that she shouldn’t tell us that there’s a book we will probably need, in the restricted section. She also shouldn’t tell us that the library is unguarded at two o’clock at night for five minutes tops.”

“I should write this down” Sirius said.

“Yeah, you should. And then wat?” James asked.

“She just let me go.”

Peter looked almost petrified. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“… Wow” Sirius said after he had written everything down. “Told you she likes you.”

“Shut up.”

…

“By the way, Moony, can I borrow your Charms homework?”

~ Happy time skip, sad time skip, mentally disturbed time skip ~

“See you guys later” you said as you started to make your way to the dungeons. You were already running a bit late, and Severus was barely in a good mood anymore when he had to teach you.

“Where are you going?” James asked befuddled.

“Dude, she has potions” Sirius deadpanned.

“Oh. I’ll come with!” he said excitedly.

“Why would you do that?” Peter asked.

You grinned. “He wants to see his Lily Flower.”

“Shut it, Paws.”

“Awww, does ickle Pwongs have a wittle cwush?”

“SHUT UP PADFOOT!”

“How cute, he’s blushing…”

“No, Moony, not you too… Peter, I swear to Godric if you say something I’ll hex you” he grumbled, making you all laugh.

“C’mon, let’s go” you grinned, dragging him along. “BYE GUYS!” you called, before rounding a corner and heading down the stairs.

“You really like her, don’t you?” you said with a slight grin.

“I swear I’m going to marry her someday” he sighed dreamily, making you giggle.

“Good luck with that” you muttered.

A few moments later you had arrived in the dungeons, and as suspected, Severus and Lily were there talking to each other. “You’re late” the boy said when he heard you arrive.

“Yeah, sorry about that” you grinned. “Hey Lily.”

“Hey” she greeted, but a little strained since her eyes were on James. Severus seemed to completely ignore his presence.

“Hello Lily” James said with a slight blush dusting his cheeks.

Instead of greeting him back, she just asked: “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I- um, just figured I could walk (y/n) to her class, y’know?” he slightly stammered.

Smooth, lover boy. Smooth.

“Oh, okay then.” She didn’t buy it. “I’ll just go look for Mary now” she said, and started to walk away.

“I think I saw her on the grounds” James said. “Come on, I’ll take you!” He grabbed her arm and dragged her along, much to her surprise and slight annoyance.

“What was that all about?” Severus asked as you entered the classroom.

You shrugged. “He wants to spend some time with her, get to know her better.”

“B- but she hates him!”

“Hate is a strong word. But yes, she does. I’m guessing she’ll whine my ears off this evening” you laughed, making him snigger a bit as well.

You quickly got started on the potion of the day. You read the recipe, gathered the ingredients, re-read the recipe, heated your cauldron, re-re-read your recipe, and then one more time to be certain. Severus looked on amusedly at your fretting, making you huff.

“Get that smirk off your face. I just want to make sure I don’t blow up the place.”

“That doesn’t make it less funny” he remarked.

You finally got on to making the potion, Sleeping Draught, hoping you would do everything right. You added four sprigs of lavender and two measures of the standard ingredient to your mortar, and crushed them to a paste. Next, you added two blobs of flobberworm mucus to your cauldron, followed by two measures of the standard ingredient, and heated the mixture for 30 seconds. Then you added the mixture from in your mortar. You proceeded taking carefully measured steps, and when you waved your wand to finish the potion, you couldn’t help but feel relieved. You actually felt you had done good this time.

“So? What do you think?” you asked Severus as he inspected the fluid.

He remained silent for a couple more moments. Finally when you felt like you couldn’t take his silence anymore, he stood up straight and grabbed a big spoon.

“I think it’s safe to try.”

“Great!” you cheered, until his words truly dawned on you. “No, wait, not great! I’m not going to drink that!”

“Correct, you’re not. I am” he stated as he filled the spoon.

“What?! No! What if I did something wrong?!”

“Then I will be in trouble, and afterwards you’ll be in trouble” he shrugged, as if it were nothing. “If I fall down, don’t panic, it means that the potions works.”

“Yeah, I’m not that dense, Severus.”

He brought the filled spoon to his lips, blew on the potion and gulped the liquid down. The effects were immediate.

Him falling to the ground, knocked out: normal.

Him choking on the liquid, which had suddenly turned into a thick slime; not normal.

Balls.

Panicking, you had no idea what to do. You were never taught what to do when someone was dying from a potion!! You scrambled to the cabinet which held most of the ingredients, and frantically started to search for something, anything, that could help. ‘Why isn’t there just one big bottle of ‘antidote’??’ you cursed inwardly. It wasn’t until your eyes fell on one particular label that you knew what to do.

[Bezoar]

“Yes!” you yelped, and snatched the package from the shelve. As you tried to open it you landed back next to Severus. You opened his mouth, took the stone and shoved it down his throat. “C’mon, work, damnit!” At first it didn’t really seem to work, but after a short moment he started to breathe normally again.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he said was: “I am never trying one of your potions again.”

You felt so relieved that you barely took notice to his comment, and quite frankly, you would have agreed with him if you had. “Thank Merlin you’re okay” you breathed as you hugged him. He just sat there awkwardly. “Right, sorry” you said as you helped him up. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just want to know why it didn’t work.”

You looked over the recipe again. You looked step by step, and didn’t find anything that could’ve gone wrong, until you reached the step that was last but one.

Stir seven times, clockwise.

You made a circular motion with your hand in one direction, and then in the other, and groaned. “Found it.”

“You stirred counter clockwise? Well, that explains the strange density of your potion” he huffed.

“STRANGE DENSITY?! I ALMOST KILLED YOU!!”

“Rookie mistake. Besides, you saved my life as well, in a very clever manner too, might I add. I’ll be sure to tell professor Slughorn about this.”

“What? No, no! Please don’t-“

“He will be pleased to hear it” Severus assured you. “you did a good thing.”

With that, he started to leave. You watched him walk off with an incredulous look.

“I ALMOST KILLED YOU!!”