Effervescence | h.p.

i | xxi. the advantage

Being Snape's favorite students definitely had its advantages. If you wanted to know how great it was, you had two options; 1. Become one of Snape's favorites — which he almost never chose favorites —or 2. Ask Lyra or Draco.

Lyra didn't always use her knowledge of Potions and her extra lessons with Snape to her advantage, but even she couldn't deny the fact that Snape was more lenient with her. She didn't use her special treatment from Snape in any serious ways, like cheating on a test or something to that caliber — she used those to show how good she actually was in Potions. She tended to use her favoritism to escape punishment when she talked to Draco as they brewed their daily potions.

Usually if a student, in any House that wasn't Slytherin, was caught speaking to anyone else during the lesson, no matter how quietly you were speaking, Snape would take off a few House points. If it was Gryffindor, it would be more than just a few points, so Gryffindor students were always warned to not attempt to speak in Potions unless you wanted to be the reason your House lost a great sum of points that day.

But Lyra was not just any Gryffindor student. She was exceedingly brilliant in Potions and had, somehow, gotten Snape to treat her better than almost all students, despite being in his House's rivaling House.

She got to talk to Draco and the most Snape would ever say to her regarding her noise would be "Miss Lupin-Black, a little quieter, please," to which she would mumble a small "sorry, Professor" before returning to her work, with a slightly red face from embarrassment.

Most students were already surprised by her lack of punishment for her small disturbances and if they weren't shocked enough from that, they were blown away with her talent for potion-making; she could almost definitely already take her O.W.L.s for Potions and pass with flying colors. If this didn't impress them enough, then they were completely awe-struck by her when she would receive respect and polite responses during class. 

Professor Snape was never particularly known for using his manners with students. Well, students who weren't Draco Malfoy and Lyra Lupin-Black. He would say 'please' and 'thank you' when in conversation with them. One student swore they even heard Snape give an apology to the little girl and her blond friend, but this student's claim was, obviously, believed to be false.

"So, are you really going to get detention with Snape just because I have detention with him? Seriously?" Lyra asked Draco. She really, really, really didn't want him to get himself into trouble for her, but he couldn't be dissuaded.

"Yes, because it should've been me who got dragged away from Flying, not you," he responded coolly.

His plan was simple — somehow get Snape to give him detention during the lesson so that he could serve it with his new best friend. Only problem was that Draco didn't usually get any punishment from Snape at all.

"I can't believe that you are actually going to keep blaming yourself for that. Honestly, I would be here anyways, whether I had detention or not. You should know that by now, Draco, I have private lessons almost every day after dinner with Snape."

"Well, maybe I can just . . . I don't know, walk in when your serving your detention? Then I could ask for help on our essay, or something? Yeah — that's a good idea," Draco convinced himself. He hadn't even thought about just coming to a private lesson until Lyra mentioned it. Maybe he wouldn't need to figure out how to get detention.

"You do that," Lyra said, her response was laced with sarcasm. Suddenly, she proposed, "We should have nicknames for each other, you know? I don't always want to call you 'Draco.' It seems so formal that way. Maybe something like . . . Ferret. That somehow seems like a fitting name for you," she teased.