Cynical Relations

The students of Hogwarts had been back for almost a month and nothing much had changed for Lacie who was getting by okay with only receiving a few snide remarks every now again from Carly Huntchester at meal times. It was Friday, last lesson and the brown haired witch was making her way down to the dungeons for her potions class with Professor Snape.

The air grew substantially colder as she came to the dungeons but this Lacie was used to with her common room being down there. She pulled her robes tighter to her body as she stepped into the classroom that was already being occupied by half of her class. She took her usual seat at the far left hand corner of the room and waited for her teacher to arrive.

Pulling out her notebook, Lacie began to draw on a spare page, secretly listening as students around her as they talked about their plans for the weekend. Lacie decided that she’d probably just read muggle books to pass the time. Her favourites were what her parents called the classics and ranged from Wuthering Heights to The Shining.

“Quiet,” Snape demanded as he walked down the centre of his classroom. Quickly, Lacie closed her notebook and looked to the front where Snape was now stood, looking out at the class begrudgingly.

“I’m going to give you all different pages, each that’ll have a selection of potions on them to work from. I want you to pick one of the potions and proceed to making it. You are to work independently and are only to call upon me if you are in dire need of my attention, are there any questions?” Snape was walking along the long rows of desks and making sure that all of the students had their potion books with them. Bunsen burners were beneath black cauldrons on their desks and vials filled with ingredients were on the side walls, waiting for students to pick the ones that they needed.

When no one raised their hands, Snape went back to his desk before flicking his wand several times until each student’s potion book had opened to their designated pages. Lacie scanned the double page spread in front of her with a small smile gracing her lips. She had wanted to make the Euphoria potion ever since she had first read about it in her second year at Hogwarts and now she had the chance to make her very own liquid happiness. She pulled the hair tie from her wrist and proceeded to quickly pull her hair back before she started to gather her needed ingredients.

Lacie was half way through making her potion and she was happy with how it was turning out. She looked up and wiped the back of her hand across her forehead; these were the moments that she was happy that her potions class was in the cold dungeons and not in one of the warmer upper level classrooms. She took a breather and was surveying her fellow students as they worked. To her right she watched as Ron Weasley was about to put a whole caterpillar into his potion. With wide eyes, Lacie shot her hand out to stop him, pulling his hand back which in turn startled him.

“Don’t add it whole,” She uttered with her voice low and urgent. He looked at her sceptically for a few minutes and then looked to his potions book.

“Why?” He questioned, eyeing her suspiciously when the book said nothing about how to prepare the slimy insect. Lacie noticed as Hermione watched her out of the corner of her eye as she stood on the other side of Ron.

“You need to slice it and add it slowly until it turns the colour that the book tells you. You never add a caterpillar whole, it’ll explode,” Lacie said softly, taking time to glance back at her cauldron to make sure that it hadn’t spoiled.

“Oh, okay. Thank you,” Ron said with a small smile as he began to cut the caterpillar carefully.

“I’m quite sure that I said you were to work independently Miss Horncroft, Mr Weasley,” Snape’s voice drawled as he stepped towards the two. Lacie hadn’t noticed her potions teacher had been watching and looked up with startled eyes as she heard Ron audibly gulp.

“Sorry Sir,” Lacie said and moved back to her cauldron quickly.

“Detention, both of you,” Snape muttered and Lacie heard Ron groan audibly. The Slytherin girl automatically felt bad due to it not really having been Ron’s fault as she had been the one that had stuck her nose in. However she didn’t say anything else as she bowed her head down and started to stir her own bubbling potion.

***

Snape slowly walked through the rows, staring down into the cauldrons of each student, praising a small selection of students whilst scoffing at others. He came to Ron and glanced from his cauldron and then to the boy’s face.

“Surely you should have known exactly what to do to make a simple shrinking solution considering we covered it in your third year Mr Weasley,” Snape drawled out, checking the potion for any flaws. Lacie glanced up as she heard sniggering and immediately she noticed that it was Draco and his cronies. She rolled her eyes before Snape turned to her and started to assess her work.

“Euphoria, an elixir to induce,” The man uttered to himself with what Lacie could only describe as a slight smile on his lips. “Perfect,” Was the word he muttered before suddenly turning and stalking back to the front.

“Mister Malfoy and Miss Horncroft were the only two to successfully create potions that we hadn’t touched on before,” Lacie was hugely surprised as the words left her professors mouth and she couldn’t help but look down at her table, hiding the smile that was on her face. With a swift tug, she pulled the hair tie from her hair and allowed it to flutter around her and fall back into her face, concealing her smile even more.

Snape had dismissed the class but instead of hurrying out like the other students, Lacie waited until everyone had left before walking towards where Snape was sat at his desk, writing. He intimidated her, yes, but she wasn’t afraid of him like many of the other students were.

“Professor Snape?” She asked timidly.

“What is it Miss Horncroft?” His eyes slowly raised to hers and she couldn’t help but study his tired face before meeting his almost black eyes.

“I was just wondering sir, why was I put in Slytherin?” The question had been playing on the girls mind for so many years but now she finally had picked up the courage to ask her head of house the question.

“You obviously possess the personality of a Slytherin student,” Snape studied her face with a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

“But sir, no one else thinks that. I mean the rest of the house resent me. I’m nothing like them,” Lacie pushed her hair back behind her ears, frustration clearly showing in her voice.

“You just haven’t had the chance to prove yourself yet,” Snape’s eyes were what unnerved her at that moment as they watched her studiously.

“Okay, thank you Sir,” Lacie uttered when she knew that she wasn’t going to get anything more from her professor. He nodded in acknowledgement and lowered his eyes back to the parchment he’d previously been writing on.