Chapter 2: In Which Some Brewing Takes Place

After the meal, Severus Snape gave Sprout a last glare before he sailed out of the Great Hall, robes billowing and pink-clad girl in tow. The blonde had to run in order to keep up with the potions master.

"Wait!" she squealed when they reached the corridor that led down to the dungeons. "I don't know my way around the castle yet!"

Snape stopped immediately. "I apologize," he said formally. "I just wanted to get away from those judging looks."

"Let them look all that they want," the apprentice advised. "What will we do next?"

"I need to brew some pepper-up potion for the hospital wing," Snape informed the witch. "You can assist me. But first, let me show you the potions classroom."

They proceeded at a slower pace to Snape's classroom.

"I told you that you are expected to help with teaching. I thought that you can help me proctor the students while the work first, and once you know what is required, you can take over the first years and maybe the second years. You will also need to assist me with grading."

The girl nodded. "I never thought I'd become a teacher," she informed the potions master.

"You are not a teacher," Snape corrected her. "You are my assistant. It is still me who is responsible for the curriculum and the marking."

The blonde blew a breath she had been holding. "Thank Merlin! I don't think I could handle the responsibility that early in my training."

When they reached the classroom door, Snape laid his hand on the doorframe and advised the apprentice to do the same. When the girl obeyed, he drew his wand and performed a lengthy spell which made the frame glow Slytherin green.

"Now the door will recognize you and open for you without having to utter a password or any such nonsense. We will perform the same spell for the doors to my lab and my quarters."

The girl thanked the potions master and followed him into the classroom where she got a small tour of the desks, the little bookshelf and the store cupboards.

"These cupboards need sorting," the girl declared. "If you don't mind I'll do it later."

"You won't," Snape refused. "That's a task for detention. Which reminds me that you will occasionally have to oversee detentions when I'm otherwise occupied." He didn't mention meetings with the Dark Lord. There was nothing to be gained by scaring the girl unnecessarily. "Now for that pepper-up potion. Come."

He led the way to his private lab which was right opposite of the classroom. The laboratory had a half dozen of workplaces and a couple of heavy work tables to prepare ingredients. The store cupboards were much bigger than those in the classroom and held a much wider variety of ingredients. Other than the students' cupboards, these were diligently sorted.

"This cupboard," Snape pointed at the smallest, "holds the potentially dangerous ingredients. There is no lock because so far I was the only one to use this lab. Will I have to put one there or can you promise to not open this cupboard unless you are expressly told to?"

"I will stay away from this cupboard unless you order otherwise," the apprentice promised solemnly.

"Excellent," said Snape and started to explain about the tools and cauldrons which were laid out on shelves against the back wall of the room.

The apprentice listened intently.

"This door," Snape ended his little speech, "is a connection to my quarters. It is magical obviously. Therefore, I advise you strongly to never carry and potions or ingredients through it. The magic of the passageway is likely to interfere with the properties of your brew."

The girl nodded again.

"Well, let's get started. I assume that you know how to make pepper-up potion?" Snape asked. It was, after all, one of the basic recipes. Wizards and witches with families brewed it all the time and since the girl had said she had learned potions through assisting her grandmother, it seemed certain that she knew about pepper-up potion.

The girl nodded that, yes, she knew how to make pepper-up potion.

"Excellent," said Snape. "I suggest we brew a cauldron each. "Sometimes I think our students drink it like pumpkin juice. There are times when I have to make several batches a week." He reached for a cauldron and handed it to the witch before getting down a second one for himself.

For some time, the wizard and the witch worked in silence, side by side. They cut up various ingredients before they started the actual brewing process.

To Snape's great irritation, the girl started to sing as soon as she had put the first ingredients into her cauldron.

"Can you stop that," he snarled. "I will miscount the stirs if you make such a racket in here."

"How am I supposed to know how long I have to stir if I'm not allowed to sing?" asked the apprentice.

"You count stirs, of course!"

"But my grandmother told me that I need to stir through two verses of 'Cauldron full of love'!"

"Tell me that you don't sing every time you brew!" cried Snape.

The apprentice huffed. "The only thing that doesn't require song is coffee! Everything else needs song. The music adds to the magic of the brew!"

"Nonsense!" Snape snapped angrily.

The girl glared at the potions master. How was she supposed to brew when he forbade her timing method? After some quick thinking the girl cast a bubblehead charm and a silencing charm. "Can you hear me?" she asked. When Snape didn't react but remained focussed on his cauldron, the girl smiled and started to sing.

Once she was done with her potion, the apprentice cancelled her spells and waited for her master to inspect the result of her efforts.

Snape eyed the content of the girl's cauldron suspiciously. "Don't think I didn't notice what you did," he snarled before he declared the brew acceptable and showed the witch where to find phials into which to put the potion.

Once they had finished filling their task, Snape sent a house elf up to the hospital wing to deliver a basket full of pepper-up doses. Then he ushered the apprentice to his quarters.

"That was not bad," he admitted, "but your timing method is completely unacceptable. You cannot sing in a lab. Therefore, you will go to the library after dinner and research timing methods. I want five feet of parchment on the advantages of stir-counting over any other method you find."

"You want me to write an essay?" cried the witch. "I'm not one of your students!"

"No, you are not," admitted the potions master, "you are my apprentice and as such your learning is much more important than any student's. And if I deem an essay the right way to teach you, you will write an essay."

The apprentice muttered under her breath and turned to Snape's bedroom door.

"Where do you think you are going?" Snape growled.

"I'll be taking a nap before dinner," the girl informed him. "I cannot write when I'm tired."

The wizard followed the apprentice into the bedroom. "It's barely three in the afternoon! You can't just lie down in the middle of the day!" he cried.

"Watch me," snapped the girl. "Oh, I forgot, you can't because you are not welcome in the cupboard!" That said she disappeared into the piece of furniture and slammed the door behind her.

Snape tried to follow but the door would not open for him. "Open that door!" he cried. "What if I need robes?"

The door opened instantly and the blonde's head appeared. "You have robes on and you are a wizard. I can hardly imagine something happening to your robes that can't be repaired with a spell." She slammed the door shut again and this time no shouting and rattling the handle helped.

At last, Snape gave up and sat in front of his fireplace with a book. If the witch wanted to eat, she had to move past him. He was looking forward to that.