Potions, Class 4-A (years 1-4)

[Severus Snape]

Severus noticed the shiver, he noticed the chill in the room. It had never really bothered him, lower temperature of the dungeons wasn't much different than his home during most parts of the year, but it occurred to him that perhaps Natalie found it colder than she would like. Severus wasn't prone to thoughts of thoughtfulness, so the urge to cast a warming charm on Natalie's robe felt a little out of place in his usual preparation of his classwork.
He put the thought of being uncomfortable aside and waved his wand and muttered the spell.

Charms to say the least wasn't his best subject, but he was far better at it than Transfiguration. Natalie's robe seemed to fluff itself like a bird ruffling its feathers for warmth, then seemed to settle back down on her frame. He realized he hadn't actually said anything to warn her of his spell use, but decided that she would understand and not prod him into an explanation of the why's and how comes of his decisions.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie felt the warmth almost immediately, as though an invisible person had just come and wrapped her up in warm, soft fur blankets. It even seemed to make the air seem less damp, and she broke into a shy smile.

She knew that he had cast the spell for her, and she thought it was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for her. She hadn't asked for it, or expected it, and had been prepared to suffer through the cold dampness of the dungeon, which did affect her more than the average student. There were lost souls still lingering here, after all, and though she could not see them, she could always feel their misery. But with the warmth surrounding her, it felt easier to bear.

"Thank you," she said softly. If they hadn't been in a classroom full of other students, she might have leaned over and kissed his cheek, but for now, the smile would have to do.

[Severus Snape]

Severus felt his cheeks tingle with warmth. He nodded his head at Natalie then muttered about checking his ingredients for the potion. He ducked his head and hid behind the curtain of dark hair. It wasn't so oily at the moment, but after class it would be undoubtedly be shiny with natural oils.
He got up from his seat and went to Slughorn's potion cabinet. He usually left it open for students to take some ingredients from it if they were in short supply of their own or if the potion they were creating called for something they couldn't afford. Severus usually found himself there more often than not. He picked up a jar and shook out into his palm what looked like a rounded chunk of dried fruit. He replaced the jar and walked back to his seat, smiling at Natalie as he sat back down to fiddle with the ingredient.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie watched him quietly, huddling more deeply into her robes, as if she wanted to disappear inside them. She probably should have stayed in the hospital wing for the rest of the day, because she couldn't seem to shake the sick, queasy feeling that had come over her when she crashed into the evil boy. But the thought of lying alone in the hospital wing, without her best friend, was just as scary.

"Do you think he's going to wake up soon?" she asked Severus, nodding toward Professor Slughorn. The man was still snoring lightly and smacking his lips in his sleep. She suspected he was dreaming about eating, and if she got close enough to him, she probably could have confirmed that. But she stayed right where she was.

[Severus Snape]

Severus frowned at his professor. "I don't think so, maybe we should just start without him." He dropped his lump of still unidentified matter and wished he could stand up again to peer at Slughorn's notes. It was a pity that he wasn't a better teacher, when he wanted to be he could be very charismatic, even Severus couldn't always stand him even then.

"Maybe we should..." then impulsively he threw his lump at Slughorn's wide belly, where it hit with a dull thump and bounced on to the desk as if he had placed it there. He felt a chill run down his spine and gave Natalie a look of mingled shock and mischief before he schooled his features into what he hoped looked like bored indifference as he opened his potions book and began to read the chapter he had been working on from before class.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie's eyes were wide as saucers as Severus hurled the lump at Professor Slughorn's sleeping form. She couldn't believe that he'd had the nerve to do it; it seemed more the kind of thing that James Potter or Sirius Black would do. But knowing Severus as she did, Natalie decided that he hadn't actually meant to hit the Professor with the sticky lump.., had been aiming for the desk, that was all, just to wake him. Whether that was actually true, however, Natalie decided she didn't really want to know, and as such, she carefully avoided touching him.

And really, what harm was it? He wouldn't be hurt by it, and the worst thing that could happen was that the Professor would wake up. Or that Severus would get into trouble... would he? She was scared by this possibility.

Still, as the Professor began to sputter awake, she managed an innocent sort of smile, and looked down at her unopened books.

[Albus Dumbledore]

Professor Slughorn had been in the middle of a very pleasant dream when he abruptly felt something smack against his rotund belly. Absently, he twitched and brushed at it, as though a large insect had merely landed on him. But it was sort of lumpy and sticky, and didn't move easily. The edges of the dream began to fade, but he murmured sleepily, "Don't go, Celestina, tell me again how I inspired your hit song..."

And then the dream was gone and in its place was a fuzzy view of the ceiling of his classroom. And then reality crashed down on him and he sat up abruptly, his head swimming from the effort.

"Wha... what happened?" he said, looking wildly around the classroom, which was still mostly empty. "Did I sleep through class? And what is this?" He picked up the lump on his stomach and held it up between his thumb and forefinger.

[James Potter]

James was focusing his attention on Remus and Sirius, more so than the girl that was deliberately ignoring him. For once, he wasn't planning some trick to play on Slughorn. He was perfectly fine with Slughorn sleeping. That just meant that they wouldn't really have to do anything in class.

Of course that hope was short lived when Slughorn awoke from his sleep. The confused look on the professor's face made James chuckle to himself. He wasn't sure exactly who was the one that awoke the professor, but his reaction was pretty entertaining.

[Sirius Black]

Sirius was less subtle. He hadn't been paying attention, either, and had been rather busy laughing at Remus's panic over the idea of a pop quiz, but he looked up as soon as he heard the loud SPLAT as something landed on the Professor's stomach. He burst out laughing--a loud, sharp laugh that rather resembled a barking sound.

He looked around the room for a likely candidate. Since it had not been James or himself (but Sirius dearly wished he'd thought of it), there weren't a lot of other people in the room who could have done it. There were two Ravenclaw girls--one he didn't know (but she was pretty cute) and the other was Natalie St. Clare. There was Lily Evans, clearly it wasn't her, and Vanessa, a Gryffindor girl. None of them seemed likely to him... which left Severus Snape.

"All right there, Snivellus?" he called out, a wicked grin on his face. "You're up front, you must have seen where it was coming from..."

[Severus Snape]

Severus lifted his head up from his book and saw that Slughorn had indeed awoken. He wondered why he had been so impulsive. The moments ticked by and nothing seemed to happen negatively, so he relaxed and looked at Natalie. He knew he should probably apologize, but it seemed no one saw him throw anything at Slughorn, well the only one who saw was Natalie. He felt a creeping little worm of shame squirm in his gut.
He sat back on his seat and again waited for the professor.

[Albus Dumbledore]

Luckily for Severus, Slughorn was too dazed to make sense of what Sirius had said. He shook his head, trying to snap out of his stupor, and dropped the wad onto his desk with a loud splat.

"Ah, well, it's just as well.... we're running late. We still have to wait for a few students, I see... but those of you who are already here, please turn to page 79. We'll be working on a Deflating Draught today, so make sure you have everything you'll need."

[Severus Snape]

Severus was mentally cursing the day Black was born. He pretended not to hear Black barking laughter or his taunt. He merely turned the pages on his potions text book and started the brewing process. He leaned to Natalie and helped her get her things in order, then went ahead and sliced open her shrivel figs for her. they were nasty leathery things, but once he got the trick to peeling them more like pulling a loose patch of skin from a peach rather than try and peel them with the little silver knife, they went fairly quickly.
Severus pretended to lean over his work and muttered to Natalie, "Here are your skins, if you need help just give me a tap." He deposited a pile of skins for Natalie to slice into ribbons, while he stirred his cauldron exactly eight times.

[Natalie St. Clare]

Natalie was quiet, but of course, this was not unusual. She was always quiet, especially during classes, when the number of feelings and emotions from other students were so loud they were like swarms of bees buzzing in her ears. But for once, the thoughts she was thinking were her own.

The incident with Professor Slughorn had surprised her in more ways than one. Just a few minutes before, Severus had kindly performed a warming spell on her without her even mentioning that she was cold. And now he was peeling her shrivelfigs for her, again without her having asked. It was so sweet and considerate.... and yet he'd just thrown a sticky lump of potion ingredients at the Professor to wake him up. She was sure it hadn't been malicious in intention... and in fact, she was sure that it had been quite accidental. Some, like Sirius Black, might think it funny and interpret it as a prank, but Natalie didn't think it was that, either. It had been an accident, and she didn't think Severus had meant anything by it at all.

This made her wonder again about the boy she had collided with earlier. What if he'd started out in much the same way... innocent, harmless... and somehow, somewhere along the way, something happened to change him? What if he thought he was doing the right thing, and something had happened to him that twisted him in the wrong way? Was it possible?

She said none of this to Severus; she was still quietly trying to understand it all herself. Instead, she began to focus on slicing her shrivelfig skins, while she tried to figure it all out. "Thank you," she said, giving him a small smile before she began her work.

[Severus Snape]

Severus smiled as he heard Natalie thank him. He was happy to do things for her, it made him feel better about himself in a way. He thought about how he woke Slughorn, and he pretended to grimace at the smell of his potion as he added a finely crushed leaf into his potion. He handed Natalie the mortar and pestal

(will finish in morning)