A New Story

Chapter 24

Severus and Summer's first potions class was - chaotic to say the least. 

It all started with Severus walking into the classroom with his usual dramatic flare but the only difference was that Summer was trailing behind him. You should know, Severus' cloak is tied around his neck. As I was saying, Summer was trailing behind him when all of a sudden, she tripped and accidentally stepped on his cloak. She fell to the side while Severus stumbled backwards, he would have fallen if it wasn't some of the students catching him. He helped Summer get up and she was beyond embarrassed and apologetic. Severus waved it off and walked to the front of the class. He took attendance and after that said,

'Hello, class, I am Professor Severus Snape, your potions professor for the next seven years. I will tolerate no misbehavior or foolishness. I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death. Today, we will begin with the simple potion, the Cure for Boils potion. Please take out your cauldrons and don't bother with the books, they're useless, instead look at the board and closely follow the instructions. I give you forty-five minutes for this. This potion will be in your final tests.'

They were thirty minutes into the class when suddenly, 'Aghhhhhhhh!' a student screamed. After two seconds, poof!

His potion exploded everywhere, it was dissolving the table and chair and when students saw, they climbed onto tables and chairs to get away from the potion spreading on the floor. Luckily for the student, he ran behind another table before it blew up in his face. Unfortunately, this was not Severus' day, he was standing right next to the table when it exploded and didn't react in time, it covered him from head to toe. It slowly dissolved his clothes and burned his skin. He quickly took over his wand and banished all the potion on the floor and the potion on his clothes. There were little holes in his clothes but more on the upper parts thank goodness.

Some of the girls stared at his death-eater trained six pack in awe. He immediately fixed the holes with a flick of his wand and decided to go to Madame Pomfrey later. He could've easily patched himself up but he just wanted to check if the baby was okay.

The students settled down and Severus asked the student whose potion exploded, 'Mr. Thompson, what happened?' 

'I'm not sure, I was following your instructions and it turned light blue like it should but then, something was thrown into it from that side,' he pointed to the Slytherins' side, 'It just exploded. I didn't do anything wrong.' 

Before, Severus would have took away the Gryffindor's points but this time, he questioned the other students and all Gryffindors and even a few Slytherins told him that it was Avery who did it. 

'Alright, so this is justified, fifteen points from Slytherin for attempting to ruin a classmate's potion and endangering other students.'

'But sir.' Avery tried to clear his name but it was obvious he did the crime. Severus could see it etched on his face.

'And detention for a month with me. Class, please put your potions into a tube and put them on my table. You can leave early.'

The students did what they were told to and sprinted out of the classroom. 

'Hey, Severus, are you okay?'

'Yes, Summer. We have third year classes ten minutes later. Would you mind to help me see if these potions are correct?' he motioned to the pile on his desk.

'Sure.' and she looked over each one carefully. She put the failed ones on one side, the average one in the middle and the successful ones on the other side. 'It was really nice how you handled that situation.'

Severus looked over his third year teacher's textbook and without taking his eyes of the book, he replied, 'Thank you. That's what years of being a teacher do to you. Nothing's new anymore and you know what to do and when to do it.'

'Did you always want to be a professor?'

'I actually wanted and still want to be a curse-breaker. Though this job has enough qualities for me to feel meaningful and at least I have stable  income.'

'Why didn't you become a curse-breaker then?'

'When I left Hogwarts, a classmate that hated me intensely thought I was a death eater wannabe so, as a member of a highly respected family, he wrote to a lot of influential companies and eventually, I was blacklisted. Only Dumbledore would hire me and so I became a Head of House at twenty-one.'

'Wow. That's really young, maybe the youngest Head of House in history of Hogwarts.'

Severus shrugged.