Severus Snape and The Boy Who Lived
Chapter 29
Snape knocked on Professor Slughorn's door at 12 noon as requested. The door opened and a familiar face appeared.
"Hello, come in, nice to see you're on time" Slughorn flustered as he over greeted.
"Good afternoon Sir"
"No need with the formalities any more Severus, you're one of us now, I trust Dumbledore has told you my plans to retire, I say plans, I have had plans to retire for the past two years but as I've said to Professor Dumbledore, a Potions Master simply cannot be replaced like say a Charms Professor for example, not that I am underselling the position of Charms you understand but a Potions Master needs to have a certain aptitude for the subject that is very rare to come by" Slughorn rambled
Snape look on at him unreadably.
Professor Slughorn paused for a moment, then began busying himself to fill the awkward silence with rustles of parchment and chinks of bottles.
Snape wasn't object to awkward silences.
"Anyway, as I was saying, when Dumbledore told me it was you, I remembered you were the only student I ever taught who had successfully brewed a potion of Living Death and won the Felix Felicis. If you don't mind me asking how did you find it?" he enquired
"I never got to use it" Snape replied shortly.
"Ho that's a shame, I expect you lost it in a game and wizard chess or something" Slughorn said in a jovial 'boys will be boys' manner
"I don't recall" Snape lied.
"Well never mind, I'm sure they'll be plenty of opportunity to brew some more should you need it"
"I doubt that will be necessary" Snape said curling his top lip.
Slughorn now struggling to maintain a fluid conversation, walked over to the open window to breath in the sweet autumn air
"It should be a good year to end on I think, now the school can return to some sort of normality. It's a relief to see the end of these dark times..." Slughorn tailed off "Well - you know" he said most tentatively, his shoulders tensing as he gave Snape a sideways look.
"Yes" Snape uncomfortably replied
"I taught him - you know... Tom" Slughorns eyes glazed as he spoke softly and slowly "Exceptional student he was. even back then he had a..charisma about him.so easy to be seduced.." He spoke so softly that the end of his sentence was inaudible and he seemed to enter some kind of hypnosis for a few moments.
Snape was more relaxed with Slughorns distraction than he was with his overbearing hospitality.
"Anyway" Slughorn snapped himself out of it "To business, have you done any potion making since you left Hogwarts"
Snape considered for a while "Nothing I can think of"
"Never mind, I'm sure it'll all come back to you, a man of your talents" he gave Snape a parchment that had a list of potions with dates next to each one
Polyjuice Potion
Veritaserum
Amortentia
Mandrake Draft
Strengthening Solution
Wolfsbane
Sleeping Draft
Felix Felicis
Shrinking Solution
Unctunis Unction
Living Death
"As a lot of these potions take time to make, I like to plan ahead.. a good Potions Master is well organised with his lesson plans" He said wagging his finger. " I trust you don't need to textbook, but should you need to refresh your memory, I'm sure there's some text books in here somewhere. You should be able to find whatever you need from this office"
Slughorn spoke as he put on his jacket "I have a meeting at the Three Broomsticks this afternoon, purely for academic purposed you understand, so I shall see you at 8:30 sharp tomorrow morning, a good Potions Master is always dedicated to his work" He tailed off as he closed the door behind him.
