The Very Unlucky Dragon

It happened on a Monday because of course it did.

Severus had been dealing with yet another of Longbottom's miniature atom-bomb caulderon explosions and when he turned back to the front of the classroom, he realized that Malfoy was behind him. This was odd, because he specifically remembered seeing Malfoy sitting next to Crabbe and smirking at Longbottom's singed, chubby face.

Snape shot him a scowl. Just because Lucius was an old colleague didn't mean that he was soft on the boy.

"Malfoy!" he barked. "Get back to your desk or I shall be forced to take points! You know I do not like students wandering about class in the middle of brewing."

"Yes, Professor!" Malfoy chirped, just a bit too shrilly.

Snape shot a suspicious glare at the boy, but utterly forgot it when he heard the Weasley boy swear loudly. He turned abruptly only moments before another cauldron began to hiss and smoke like a fuse. Snape was faster than before, containing the explosion before it destroyed the cauldron.

"What did I say about properly cleaning your supplies before brewing?!" Snape fumed angrily, his fists clenched in rage. "Someone could have been hurt because you can't stand to scrub the bottom of your cauldron!"

Weasley gave him a disrespectful scowl, so Snape gave the boy detention just to make himself feel slightly less totally out of control.

It wasn't until lunch that he realized that something had gone horribly wrong.

"I love him! You're never going to get him, either!" A tall girl from Hufflepuff stood up, her eyes full of tears as her slender friend shouted at her.

Snape briefly wondered if it wasn't too late to disappear through the side door and pretend that he had no idea of the chaos that was unfolding in the Great Hall.

It wasn't long until the tables began to erupt in fights and shouting matches as students began to say things that they were clearly horrified to be saying.

Severus, who wasn't a fan of the pumpkin juice, poured himself a glass and rolled it slowly around the glass, sniffing it carefully.

"Minerva?" he asked, looking at McGonagall, who sat with a curiously shocked expression on her face.

"Yes, Severus?" She asked, turning her head slowly to show that she'd gone a deathly shade of white.

"What is the most embarrassing place you've ever been in your animagus form?" Severus asked, noticing how her cheeks grew scarlet even as she opened her mouth to reply.

"Why! I never! As though I would tell you about the time that I let a bunch of Hufflepuff first years dress me up like a baby and push me around in a tiny baby buggy!" Minerva blurted the information from between her pinched lips and covered her mouth, stifling a shocked cry.

"Don't worry," Severus said, casting a stern eye around the room for a particular boy with white-blond hair. "Your secret is safe with me, Minerva."

In the end, classes were cancelled for the rest of the day and Madam Pomfrey had to release Calming Drought diffusers through the Great Hall in order to make everyone placid enough to stop fights from breaking out.

Most of the effects of the Veritaserum wore off about an hour, but Severus knew that not all of the students would react the same, especially the smaller students, whose bodies would have work harder to process the potion.

Snape was in a foul mood as he ushered his students back to the dungeons. What was worse was that Malfoy was near the back of the line, his expression turned up in the facsimile of an angel's face. Severus hated to admit it, but he hadn't actually seen Malfoy steal the Veritaserum, though there was no doubt in his mind who'd done it.

After leaving the students with the prefects, Severus went to his classroom immediately, looking through the potions stores for the tiny telltale bottle.

Of course, it wasn't there. He already knew that it wouldn't be, but seeing the bare space on the shelf made him angrier than ever.

This would not do.

"Malfoy, a word." Severus motioned from his desk as the students filed out of the classroom on Friday morning. He'd been planning this encounter for days, letting Malfoy think he'd gotten away with it.

The idiot boy had taken the bait, and was more smug and unbearable than ever. Severus knew that he had no place to tell Lucius and Narcissa what to do, but Draco Malfoy's ego was growing larger than Harry Potter's, and that was saying something.

"Yes sir?" Draco stood in front of his desk, his face screwed up in a poorly hidden gloat.

"Draco, Draco, Draco," Severus said as he stood and towered over the boy, suppressing an evil smirk as the boy's face went pale. "I would like you to do me a favor."

"Y-yes?" Malfoy's voice was shaking and Severus found himself almost bored. Was it really this easy to knock the boy down a peg? Hmph. He'd never have survived Slytherin in the seventies.

"I would like you to share a drink with me," Severus said, pulling a bottle of butterbeer and a mug from a drawer in his desk.

"A...d...drink?"

Severus grinned, then. It wasn't a kind expression- more shark than smile.

"Yes, Draco Lucius Malfoy, a drink."

Draco took a step back, then seemed to reconsider his action and stood in place. "I...I don't understand...sir!"

"But aren't you the teacher's pet?" Severus adopted an exaggerated inquisitive tone. "Aren't I allowed to reward my very talented pupil? After all...your father..."

Draco seemed to recover slightly and nodded, a hint of his usual cocky smirk raising one side of his face in an ugly expression.

Severus gestured with his hand at the chair to the side of his desk and used his wand, which was hidden in his pocket, to levitate the object to the right of where Draco stood.

"Here. Sit." It was a command.

"Thank you, sir!" Draco seemed to think that he was free and clear, even though there could be nothing further from the truth.

"Here," Severus said, popping the top off of the glass, "I shall pour for you."

He made a show of serving the drink to Draco, who gulped it down greedily. Severus had to force the look of disgust off of his face. Draco had obviously not been reading his potions textbook, because if he had, he would have known that when a wizard offers a drink, it is both customary and intelligent to sniff first before imbibing.

Of course, this made things easier.

"Well, then," Severus said, leaning forward as Draco finished off the beverage with a small belch, "How did you like it? Was it good?"

"Oh, yes, very!" Draco said happily.

"I'll have you know that this was very special butterbeer," Severus purred, fixing Draco with a sneer, "in fact...I'd go so far as to say that it might indeed help me to shed some truth on a little problem that I've been having."

Draco stared at the empty butterbeer bottle and then at the Potions master with terror. He looked as though he was about to keel over.

"You see," Severus continued, "I've been having a vermin problem. Some sort of little rat has been sneaking into my potions stores and taking what does not belong to him."

Draco gulped.

"And do you know what I do to rats?" Severus asked dangerously.

"N...no sir," Draco mumbled.

"I set out a trap for them and...SNAP!" Snape brought his hands together suddenly and Draco jumped out of his chair.

"You put Veritaserum in my drink!" Draco yelped, his fear turning into anger. "I could have you fired for that, you know!"

"Oh?" Severus asked, "and why would I do something like that?"

"To discover that it was me who nicked your bloody potion and dumped it into the pumpkin juice vat in the kitchens!" Draco shouted back, his eyes opening wide as he realized just what he'd confessed to doing. "Wait- no! That's because you drugged me! You're the monster, Snape, not me!"

"Actually," Severus said, "this butterbeer...is just a butterbeer. I didn't put anything in it at all. But you, well, let's just say that you won't be enjoying any Hogsmeade trips for quite some time."

Draco gulped loudly, and collapsed onto his knees, staring up at Snape in terror.

"You will learn the meaning of what it means to steal a month's supply of Veritaserum, Malfoy," Snape said, his voice growing deep and terrifying. "If you are lucky, you father shall not hear of any of this."

He dismissed a very sober, silent Draco and sat back in his chair with a sigh of resignation. Malfoy or Potter, they were all the same- if they thought they were above everyone else, they'd try to get away with murder. He knew that it wouldn't change Draco's annoying posturing, but that look of nervous fear that he could provoke in the boy with a single look was rather satisfying.

Severus pulled a stack of parchments from his top drawer and bent over the desk with a groan. Pulling out the second butterbeer he'd purchased earlier, he twisted off the top, sniffed the liquid inside, and took a deep swig.

It was going to be a long week, even though it was already nearly over.