Dunderhead - A Harry Potter story: Snape becomes Harry's mentor

Chapter 25: BOOM

Professor Snape had encountered many potions incidents and accidents in all his years teaching at Hogwarts. These had included cauldrons sparking, spitting, and even catching fire, and Severus regarded his subject as one of the most dangerous in the school's timetable. Students injuries and reactions had included various parts of the body exponentially growing or shrinking, dancing, including a fox trot once which had admittedly been quite amusing for Severus to watch, and to be forced to act like various animals and fantastical creatures by a potion gone wrong was not an uncommon occurrence.

But, looking back on this day, Severus knew that he would carry this memory to the grave. Severus' colleagues condemned his critical and unfair teaching style but, regardless of whether onlookers hoped that his actions were an exaggerated show that really hid a kind, helpful and approachable character behind - which they did not - Severus knew that an authoritative conduct was the only way to keep the brats safe in his classroom.

After his meeting with the headmaster, Severus had returned to his chambers to make arrangements for a stand-in teacher in preparation for him being officially been marked as absent. Dumbledore and himself were arranging for Severus to go on sick leave with a contagious disease that would allow Severus the privacy and secrecy that he would need to garner all his concentration and skill into making the Binding Potion that Voldemort had requested.

Where today's events left him with this task, Severus did not know...

It had been the tardiness of one of his students that had lead to the series of events that had brought the current situation to a conclusion. Dungeon doors were heavy and Severus himself often found that he had to barge a shoulder into the thickset wood of the door to his main classroom to encourage it to budge. But a late student had pushed open the door as if it had forced no more resistance than a thin cotton curtain, and then she had walked over to him to hand him a piece of parchment bearing Dumbledore's loopy handwritten signature. Severus could not honestly say that there had been an air of arrogance or smugness in the late comer's stride as she had entered, only an air of calm politeness.

Severus had turned on Potter moments after telling the wretched girl (who was in his House apparently yet he could not even remember her name) to find a seat.

Potter, as usual, had seemed to think that today's potions lesson was not worth his attention and Severus had hoped to put Potter in his place accordingly.

Longbottom's disaster of a potion had been the catalyst for the whole event.

Severus had returned to sit at his desk at the front of the classroom and pulled out some essays to mark while he kept a careful eye on the students in his class. When he had seen the girl helping Longbottom and Potter Severus had been livid: Severus had been intending to berate Potter for his inability to help Longbottom with the expectation that Potter would be clueless in this endeavour. Severus was confused too; why did this Slytherin girl insist on aiding Longbottom? She must have been new and yet Severus had no knowledge of her background or even when she had arrived. She had been in the last lesson helping Longbottom, he could recall that, but not any other time prior.

Severus knew that all three students had been watchful of him catching her helping them, but Severus had feigned ignorance. He was actually somewhat interested to see how the Slytherin girl dealt with Longbottom's potion. Of course, he planned to step in if things got out of hand, or if the girl became aggravated by Longbottom, which he fully expected and was quite looking forward to.

But the girl did not become impatient with Longbottom. Or Potter either. Instead, Severus listened intently as the girl calmly, correctly, and methodically explained the potion's reactors to the two boys and then guided them through what she was doing to rectify the mistakes. Severus noticed that she never used language that put blame on Longbottom but rather maintained a distance between her description of the potion, and Longbottom, as though she wanted to emphasise the point that Longbottom was not stupid for what he had done.
Severus firmly disagreed with this approach, even though you had to admire her patience and kindness. Severus did not want to admire either quality in the student.

After this was where something had gone terribly wrong. Severus had thought that he had been keeping an eye on his students. But he had missed Draco Malfoy, his own godson, turning around to glare angrily at the three behind him. Looking back on it, Severus knew that Draco must have been sharing some of Severus' own less-than-kind thoughts about the Slytherin girl's friendliness to the Gryffindor boys.
And so, in one reckless moment, Draco charmed an ingredient to go flying into the cauldron, just as Potter was leaning over it to look into its contents while Longbottom and the red-haired girl huddled over the textbook, smiling satisfactorily about something they had found.

BOOM!

Severus had had a split second wherein he watched as the blurred object went shooting to the back of the classroom and his instinctual reflexes had taken over immediately. He cast a shield charm over himself and the first few rows of students. He had not had the time to seriously think about  whether he had cast a far enough shield to cover the whole class, but he presumed to hope that that would be the case.

When the class got to its feet (some students had actually felt the force of the blow as the cauldron had exploded while others had merely looked terrified and flinched under their desks), there was a moment of complete silence as everyone got their bearings.

Suddenly there was a shout from the back of the class, and then there was a shout from the front of the class, and then another, and another. Severus leapt to his feet and bore down upon the three students right at the back of the class. He was filled with rage to see that there was only one student, the girl who had been unforgivably late was looking slightly anxious but she was unharmed and she wasn't screaming or yelling like the students around her. Severus decided that he would shut those other students up after he had assessed the immediate damage.

"I cast a shield charm at the last minute." she said unnecessarily, "it didn't cover anyone else but me though."

Severus saw not a trace of embarrassment in the girl as she said this. In fact, her face was quite impassive. The anxiousness that Snape had perceived earlier had gone too. "Surely a shield charm usually extends? Unless you are actively trying not to." Severus replied in a challenging tone. Maybe the girl had had ulterior motives in regards to her appeared befriending of the boys.

"It's my wand actually, Sir. It's a bit... temperamental, Mr Ollivander said that it might be selfish." She explained. "It seems to be acting like he warned." And this time she did look embarrassed.

"There is nothing wrong with a loyal wand." Severus frowned, feeling wrong-footed by the girl's doleful honesty.

"It's not loyal actually. It's second hand, Professor." She told him, looking thoroughly depressed as she said this. She peered into the depths of the cauldron standing to the left of her.

Severus followed her stare and inwardly cursed the damage that had been done to his equipment. Cauldrons were expensive and this one had sustained a few dozen holes, not to mention the rim which had melted in the force of the explosion. But it was time to check on his students. Severus had wasted enough time.

He looked around the classroom, expecting to see Potter or Longbottom cowering under a nearby desk, though hoping that they had thrown themselves out of the line of fire, even if they had not had the quick reaction to cast a shield charm. But Severus could see neither boy.

A sound from beneath the very desk that Severus and the girl stood before however forced him to crouch down. He saw two bundles of robes in a heap and barely supressed an intake of breath. Dear God, had Potter and Longbottom been vaporised?

Severus tried not to imagine the look on Dumbledore's face when he told him: I do apologise, Headmaster, but the saviour of the wizarding world has been reduced to mulch in a robe. He won't be able to attend the final battle between Voldemort, I do hope that won't be an inconvenience to  you.

"I think the potion worked." The girl's voice brought Severus back to reality as she crouched down next to him and tentatively lifted one of the robes up. The sleeve dangled uselessly, completely devoid of an arm inside, but there was a small movement in the depths of the robes that encouraged Severus to reach out himself and grab a handful of material.

He nearly fell back in shock when a pair of the most enormous green eyes met his. Severus slowly lifted the school robes to reveal a startling amount of black hair and Potter's pale thin face staring up at him.

"Oh dear." The girl said.

Severus did not believe that oh dear quite expressed it.