Spiteful Beginnings // Severus Snape x OC

19 - Damaged Draught

One morning, Kalina had made her way down to the Greenhouse in which the draught was being prepared in. She walked through the grounds wearing a long red coat with a hood covering her head as the soft droplets of snow covered her. She pulls out the key from her satchel but freezes when she noticed that the door was already open.

Confused, she pushed the door open and stepped inside. Nothing was out of place along the workbenches. The Mandrakes were squirming in their little pots, the hanging baskets swung in the gentle breeze coming from an extractor fan but then her heat pumped against her chest rapidly as her eyes set on the draught. Only this time, the cauldron in which it was simmering in was knocked onto the floor, its contents having burned and singed the soil that was scattered on the ground

"What in the world?" She exasperated, her hand flying to her mouth as the work she had work tirelessly on had been destroyed.

Who could have done this? Why would they have done this? She thought to herself as she crouched down, inspecting the damage.

Just then, the door was pushed open followed by a faint shuffling sound making Kalina look over her shoulder to see Pomona waltz in, brushing off the snow from her hat and smile towards the younger woman. "Good morning, how're you?" She greeted but she was met with a sad smile instead and shook her head.

"Not so good I'm afraid," Kalina winced as she stood back up, stepping to the side and pointing towards the damage on the floor, "Someone doesn't seem to want the students to get better."

Pomona looked up to Kalina with worried eyes and hobbled over, her stumpy legs slowing her down in comparison to others who had much longer legs such as herself and looked down at the mess.

Pomona, in a fit of anger, took off her hat and slammed it into the workbench beside her, her grey and curly hair more aloof than normal. "Who would do this?" She asked in disbelief, looking at their work being completely destroyed.

"I don't know. We should speak to Dumbledore before breakfast, let's go." She told the elderly lady, placing her hand on her shoulder before going to grab a pair of Dragonhide gloves and picking up the cauldron from the floor. As she did, she noticed that the edges were bent in so something had knocked it off the work bench with a force. It wasn't a small cauldron either, it was at least ten times as big as the ones students typically got which made her think if it was a student or not.

She decided on taking the cauldron over to Dumbledore's office too so he could see for himself, luckily, she was fairly strong and was able to carry the cauldron at least halfway there until they bumped into Hagrid.

"What yer doin' with that?" The large man asked, a friendly tone in his voice but Kalina was too focused on the dead rooster in his hand, it's stomach slightly ripped open.

"Oh er..." honestly, she couldn't stop staring at the deceased animal so much so that it was starting to make her feel queasy so it was Pomona who spoke up for her instead.

"Someone has damaged the draught for the Petrified students... we found it on the floor this morning."

Hagrid's eyes widened in surprise and looked to the much smaller women's expressions which were filled with sadness and stress. And of course, a little green on Kalina's behalf.

"Oh, that is awful. Who could do sucher thin'?" Hagrid asked rhetorically, tutting before lifting the dead rooster up to his eye level and pointed to it, "still, I have to speak to Dumbledore myself. The schools rooster farm is under attack. Could be a fox or summit, maybe a spider?" He said aloud but that instantly caught her attention.

"A SPIDER?" She shrieked at the thought. A spider killing something that was probably a lot bigger than the average house spider.

Hagrid waved what he said off and pointed to the cauldron. "Do you wan' me to carry tha' for ya? Would be no trouble." The heavily set man asked.