Fear of a Name

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Draught of Peace

"Miss Riddle," Snape said in a cold voice as I walked into the Potions classroom, an hour late. "I see you have finally decided to join us."
"Sorry, sir," I said quietly, putting my shaking hands into my pocket and looking down slightly.
"You are an hour late, so I think we'll make it sixty points from Gryffindor," he continued, "and you will come to my office tonight for a detention."
The back of my right hand seemed to tingle slightly at these words as I thought of what had happened in my last detention with him.
"Yes, sir."

"Now sit down," he ordered.
I sat at my desk quickly, trying to ignore the many pairs of eyes I could feel staring right at me. I knew the Slytherins would probably be enjoying seeing my obvious fear, especially Draco and his friends, and the Gryffindors all still thought I was just acting.
"Continue," Snape said to the rest of the class, and everyone started to add ingredients to their cauldrons and stir their potions again.

I raised my hand, now regretting my decision not to get my book before coming to the lesson.
"Page one hundred and twenty-seven," Snape said without even looking at me.
"I-I don't have my book, sir," I said quietly.
A sneer appeared on his face and he said, "Well you'll just have to work it out for yourself then."

I looked down at the ingredients on my desk — powdered Moonstone, syrup of Hellebore, powdered porcupine quills and powdered unicorn horn. All the ingredients needed to make a Draught of Peace.
I glanced around the room, looking for confirmation that this was what we were brewing.
How can I make sure...?

I thought about this for about a minute, before wandlessly making a message appear in Dean Thomas' book: Drop your book on the floor if we're making a Draught of Peace. Thanks, Ivory.
I watched as he gave a small start, then pushed his book onto the floor with a slight nod.
"Mr Thomas, what do you think you're doing?" Snape said coolly.
I quickly wiped the message from the book.
"Nothing, Professor, I just knocked my book off the desk," Dean said, picking it up and putting it on his desk again.

Snape sneered at him, then turned to look at me.
"Why haven't you started yet, Miss Riddle?"
"I was just about to, sir," I said quietly.
I got a few curious looks when I said that. Obviously nobody expected me to be able to brew a Draught of Peace without the instructions, but what they didn't know was that I'd brewed so many batches of this particular potion that I could do it with my eyes closed.

It was just as I was adding the second lot of powdered Moonstone to my potion that things started to go wrong for someone else — namely, Neville. His cauldron spontaneously combusted, letting his thick, green potion start to spread across the floor.
"Stupid boy!" snarled Snape. "Can you not read? It clearly says to keep stirring while you add the powdered unicorn horn!"

Neville's face went pale, and I suddenly remembered his Boggart. I pulled my wand out, not wanting Snape to see me doing wandless magic, pointed it at the place Neville's cauldron had once stood, and silently did a fairly complicated spell. The potion swirled up into the air, where it hovered for a few seconds, before falling suddenly into a new cauldron. Neville looked at it in surprise — it was now pink, the perfect colour for the stage he was at.

I quickly stuffed my wand back into my pocket and continued with my potion, hoping that nobody had seen it was me who'd helped Neville out.
"I don't recall asking you to show off, Miss Riddle," Snape said in a cold voice.
Oh Merlin...
"I was just helping, Sir," I said, not taking my eyes off my potion.
"Your help wasn't necessary," he said, his voice making a shiver of fear run down my spine, though I didn't let it show. "Longbottom needs to get it into that thick skull of his—"
"Maybe he would be better if you actually taught him something rather than putting him down at every opportunity!" I interrupted, too angry at his treatment of Neville to think about the consequences.

Snape's lip curled as he stalked over to me, ignoring the fact that the whole class was watching his every move.
"What did I say before about criticising my methods of teaching?" he hissed.
I started to add syrup of Hellebore to my potion, trying not to show how scared I was.
"You said if you ever heard me criticise the way you teach a class again, I would be very sorry indeed, sir," I said, my voice barely a whisper.

Whatever he said next was drowned out by a sudden, deafening whistling coming from Seamus' cauldron. With a last warning glare at me, Snape swept away to silence the potion, which was getting louder and louder by the second. I gave a small sigh of relief.
I really need to stop standing up for people like that — it isn't worth the pain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You can all go," Snape said as the bell rang at the end of the lesson, "except for Miss Riddle."
I looked up from my turquoise potion, worry clearly etched into my face.
"You will stay until you have completed your potion," he said as the rest of the class started to file out of the room, some shooting me sympathetic glances.
"But, sir," I said quietly, doing some quick calculations in my head, "then I'll miss lunch completely, and I'll probably be late for Defence Against the Dark Arts as well."
"You should have thought about that before you were an hour late," he sneered.
I sighed quietly. Evidently there was no point in arguing with him, he wasn't going to change his mind, and it would probably just end up with me getting more detentions.

As the chatter of voices grew fainter and fainter on the other side of the closed door, Snape walked over to my desk.
Oh Merlin, this is not going to end well...
"Now, Ivory," he hissed, his voice thick with venom.
"Yes, sir?" I whispered, trying to suppress a shudder.

"Your behaviour today was disgraceful," he said in a low, dangerous voice, "and if it continues, I will be talking to your father. I'm sure you don't want another visit to your parents like you had at Christmas, do you?"
"N-no, sir." I could feel the colour rapidly draining from my already pale face.
"So you're not going to give me any reason to talk to him, are you?"
"No, sir," I whispered, my hands trembling now.
"Good. Now get on with your potion."

(A/n: whoaaaa I've finally updated! Sorry it took a little while, I had writer's block again 😐)