Opia {j. potter}

Ataraxia

𝒜𝓉𝒶𝓇𝒶𝓍𝒾𝒶 (𝓃)
𝒶 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓉𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝑒𝒹𝑜𝓂 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝑒𝓂𝑜𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝒶𝓁 𝒹𝒾𝓈𝓉𝓊𝓇𝒷𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝓍𝒾𝑒𝓉𝓎; 𝓉𝓇𝒶𝓃𝓆𝓊𝒾𝓁𝓁𝒾𝓉𝓎

Elizabeth makes her way down the halls of Hogwarts. With each stride her determination increases. She walked forward with poise, with purpose, and anyone who passed by her could see this as clear as day. The wind blew back the few short strands that lay framing her face, not long enough to have been able to be held back like the rest of her hair. First years squeezed themselves against the walls as to not get in her way. She didn't notice.

Finally, she made it to her destination, if she needed to talk to Severus Snape, this is where he would be. The potions classroom.

Slughorn laid asleep in his office, the door closed as not to be disturbed. He often let his Slugclub students have free reign of the classroom, allowing them to take whatever ingredients they needed. Of course, no one really took him up on this offer other than Elizabeth and Snape so they often had the room to themselves. 

Severus stood there hunched over a cauldron. A dark blue liquid being swirled around with a wooden spoon that no one was holding. Elizabeth could hear the pop of each bubble as it reached the surface, the sound put her at ease. She allowed her shoulders to relax, not realizing how much effort it took to keep them straight up. Glancing around the room it seemed that nothing had changed, not that she really expected it to. The potions room always looked the same. But so many things in Elizabeth's life had been turning themselves upside down that she really didn't know what was going to happen next, not much felt constant to her. 

A smile grew on her face as she dared to take a glance up at the ceiling. And sure enough there it was, right where it was supposed to be.  A mix of magenta and different shades of light blue lay in a big blotch right on the ceiling, just as it had been since a potion-gone-wrong with Snape their third year. Her and Snape spent the rest of that week with purple hair.

This room never failed to bring Elizabeth a sense of ataraxia. Memories of pure joy from the years before. She especially loved the potions that messed up. She was a firm believer that if you never messed up then you never learned anything.
Plus, she kinda liked her hair dyed purple, made her feel rebellious for the first time in her life.
Unfortunately, Snape did not.

Elizabeth remembered the grumpy face that Snape wore for the next month after the incident and laughed at the memory causing Snape to turn around, finally realizing someone else was in the room with him. 

He would never admit it and if you ever brought it up he would deny it till the day he died, but Severus Snape loved Elizabeth Rosier. And no, this wasn't a romantic type of love. It wasn't the kind of affection that he showed for Lily Evans, who he knew to be the only woman he would ever really feel that way for. No, Severus Snape loved Elizabeth Rosier like a brother loves his sister. So when he turned to see her standing in that doorway, a light in her eyes, and the smirk of mischief hidden behind her smile, he instantly lit up.

"Long time no see huh Sev?" Elizabeth walked over to sit on the table next to his cauldron, lifting up her sleeves before taking a hold of the wooden spoon and taking over the stirring from whatever magic was doing it before.

"Glad to see you back, E. Need something in particular?" He didn't want to act to giddy. He forced himself to act as cool as possible, worried that if he makes the wrong move she'd go back to the sad state he'd seen her in too much recently.

"Just need to talk to you about something if you don't mind."

"Go ahead," Snape threw the next ingredient into the cauldron, turning it from dark blue into midnight blue.

"Its about... James Potter." She replied tentatively, testing the waters before going further. She knew how much her friend despised James, which is the big reason why she came to him in the first place. She knew that he would be able to help her and she knew he might be the only one willing. Cassidy would go too far. Dorcas would be too nice. But Snape? Snape would give her advice and help her form a plan, but if she told him not to get involved then he wouldn't and she knew that.

"What about him?" Honestly? Severus Snape hated, and I mean hated, talking about James Potter, especially in the Potions room, his safe space. But Severus also cared greatly for his friend and if this was a topic she needed to talk about right now, he would listen. Although, he wasn't sure if he could keep his cool if she began to talk about anything other than how annoying he is. 

Luckily for Snape, this is exactly what Elizabeth began to talk about, "I need you to tell me what his ego rests on the most, I think the bloke needs to be knocked down a few pegs."

This sounded like magic to his ears, finally, someone who disliked James. It must be some kind of miracle. Little Mr.Charms-The-Socks-Off-Everyone-He-Meets's hate club just got another member. "He really cares about his grades, I guess. Always tends to be top of the class."

"No, no, that's no good. Can't very well sabotage his grades. First off it's a bit difficult of a task and second, it seems a bit too harsh for my liking. Any other ideas?

Snape thought for a minute before it hit him. He glanced up at the girl, who had just cast a quick spell on the wooden spoon so it began to stir on its own again because her hand was starting to get tired. "Quidditch."

She immediately jumped down from the table, "Oh Sev ur a genius! Quidditch! I have to beat him in Quidditch." Elizabeth began to pace the room. A common sight to those who know her well, it meant that she was thinking. "All I have to do is find a way to get back onto the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, practice my ass off, and beat the Gryffindors in the cup. It's his first year as captain and he already thinks that Gryffindors win is inevitable. Oooo but I'll show him to watch his mouth." Her mind was racing with thoughts and ideas before she stopped right in front of the classroom. "Shit" she mumbled.

"What is it?" Snape called up from his book, still working on his potion.

"The quidditch team, I didn't show up for tryouts," she began to rub her forehead, "they'll never let me on the team again. I was supposed to be captain this year... shit."

Snape thought for a moment before making his suggestion. Her head instantly perked up, "Severus Snape you bastard. You have wowed me once again. Do you really think we'll be able to make that?"

"Yea for sure, it's fourth-year stuff."

"Wait, really!?!"

"Have you ever actually looked at the ingredients? Or the directions?"

"No, I always just assumed it was super complex."

"Yea they just make it seem that way so no one makes it, but it's actually really simple."

"Ok then, let's brew this shit." She said with a smile, rolling up her sleeves back. After knowing Elizabeth for six years and being her potions partner-in-crime for three, Snape knew this action meant time to get to business. And he was more than happy to do this.

"I'll nick the recipe from Slughorns office, you go get some thyme, a squill bulb, and common rue from Professor Sprout. A handful of each will do." He replied before quickly casting a spell to clean up his workspace. Whatever project he was working on could wait.

"On it boss," she saluted as she walked out of the classroom "see you in 20 minutes." 

Snape let out a sigh of relief and allowed his smile to grow a bit bigger than it was previously, always afraid to show vulnerability that one, before turning around and heading towards Slughorns office. He was excited to finally send Potter's ego down a few notches, but he was even more excited to hang out with his best friend again. 

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I'm not a Snape sympathist, but I don't wanna make him mean so he's gonna be a decent guy in this :)

What potion do you think Snape and Elizabeth are going to make?

ALSO I HIT 100 READS WHICH IS MORE THAN IVE EVER HAD BEFORE SO THANK YOU I LOVE YOU