Potions Lesson 1

Rowan and William exchanged looks as they both glanced up from jotting down things for later lessons on this potion. It was common knowledge that Professor Snape didn't care for Gryffindor House, but today was really one of the first times that 'didn't care' was more of an understatement. Not daring to say a word to one another, they went back to their note taking. Before Rowan wrote down another thing, she glanced over at Neville and shot him a comforting smile. She knew how nervous Professor Snape made him, and she thought he did a pretty good job answering at all.

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Watching Professor Snape make a fool of her housemate, Serena's brow furrowed. She knew he was hard on members of her house, but this was near cruel. Looking towards Neville, she smiled to hopefully help him feel better before dropping her eyes to her notes and writing the proper placement of the sprigs the professor was talking about.

Severus completely ignored the glares he received from the Gryffindor students in the room who of course felt insulted by his behaviour towards one of their house's member. By now, he was relaxed enough to not take offense anymore, rather he felt quite amused by their little annoyed faces. Children and especially Gryffindor children were too easy to provoke, it really wasn't a great surprise that most Slytherins liked to do it so much.

Turning his eyes on the Ravenclaw, Severus awarded her with a short nod. "Precisely, Ms Prince. Five points to Ravenclaw." he said and then shot a glare to another Gryffindor. "Weasely!" Severus barked sharply to get the boy's attention. "When do you add the Lavender to the cauldron and how much do you use?" he asked the red-head sharply, expecting to get an answer right away.

Ron had been paying attention... Well, for the most part... It wasn't until he heard Snape bark out his name, making him jump and answer in a skittish, "Yes...." Hearing the question, Ron looked away and wracked his brain trying to remember what potion they were even talking about. Then he remembered, it was the Sleeping Draught. Lavender.... When do we use it.... He had glanced over this potion before when he was flipping pages the other day.... What did it say? Praying he had it right so his house could earn some points, Ron swallowed hard and said, "Ummmmm.... You would use three measures of the mix you made with it at the beginning.... And, you would add it...." Letting his sentence trail off, Ron tried to remember when you used it..... Looking at Serena, he saw her point to the heat source where their cauldrons usually sat. "Add it after you heat it up what's already in your cauldron for a bit...." Ron answered, looking back at the professor. He couldn't remember for how long, but he thought it sounded right that you added the mix after you heated what was in the cauldron up.

A satisfied sneer formed on Severus’ lips, as he watched the boy struggle for an answer to his question. Typical Weasley, he thought sardonically, the finer art of potions was just beyond these simpletons. But it seemed that the youngest son of Arthur and Molly Weasley exceeded even the rest of his family with his utter dullness.
Finally, even the boy's feeble mind seemed to come up with an answer, or at least what might resemble one from the way he blabbered out his unstructured thoughts. Severus was slightly impressed to hear at least some correct parts come out of the Gryffindor's mouth, but of course it was by no means good enough for him. Especially not on a day like this.

Prowling closer to the boy, Severus smirked down at him and crossed his arms over his chest. "That ..." he spat out "is your answer, Weasley?" His face was clearly showing disgust, as Severus looked down at him. "You just proved that you have absolutely no understanding of the brewing process of today's potion. You neither mentioned how much the Lavender is to be crushed, nor have you been precise on when to add the mixture." Leaning closer to the Gryffindor, Severus lowered his voice to a dark growl. "While brewing the Sleeping Draught you heat the potion twice, Weasley. You neglected to tell us to add the mixture after heating the potion for the first time." Straightening up again, Severus sneered once more at the boy, a sick kind of amusement glinting in his eyes. "Anyone who would follow your instructions would fail. Ten points off Gryffindor. Pathetic, Weasley."

With that, Severus stalked back to the front of the classroom and shot all of his students a dark glare. "Today's lesson has proved that the majority of you are absolute failures in this subject, so I will end this farce right now. For next lesson, you will gather the ingredients for the potion we covered today in groups of no more than two students. Now get out of my sight!" he hissed and with a flick of his wand the door jumped open to release the students.

David glared at Snape as he totally ignored him. If it wasn't for the looks he knew Mio was giving him, he was have burst out in anger, but he kept it in check. He was close to bursting as Snape harrassed one of his friends, but kept it in until the end. His hands were clenched while wondered how Dumbledore could employ such a man.

When Snape told them to get out of sight, David stood up and said "with pleasure" picking up his books and sweeping out of class without another word to the professors, or even his friends.

Neville was still shaking, though his tears had finally stopped. He was immensely relieved when Snape ended the lesson and he tried to hurry out of the room, almost falling over his feet on the way. Ian looked after his friend, quite worried about him and shot his mates a look, mouthing "Meet you later!" before rushing after the upset Gryffindor.

Junis noted down the homework and slowly started putting her writing material back into her school bag. She would be starting to look for the ingredients right this afternoon and maybe someone would like to join her. Otherwise she would just go alone, not that it mattered a lot.