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professorsnape394 · 3 years

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The Potions Master’s Apprentice

Chapter Two: Shrinking Solution

A/N: This is the second part to my fanficiton ‘The Potions Master’s Apprentice (Severus Snape x OC)’. Chapters 1-16 can be found already uploaded on Wattpad under the same name. Feel free to leave requests in my inbox for anything Snape related you want me to write!

Pairing: Seveurs Snape x OC (Dumbledore’s Granddaughter)

Summary: A talented young witch is employed as an apprentice professor at Hogwarts, but who will she be working under? Severus Snape is not best pleased with his new responsibility of taking on an apprentice, however she is relentless to create a friendship between them. Will she be successful? Or might the friendship just go a little two far? With the eyes of her grandfather constantly watching over them, an attempt at a relationship might not be in the cards for Aria Dumbledore and Severus Snape.

Word Count: 2664

Warnings: n/a

Credits to Gif Creator

A week had passed since Severus Snape had stormed out of her grandfather's office in a fit of rage, and Aria concluded that it was time she broke the silence between her and her future mentor. Although Snape and Aria both resided in the Dungeons they had not crossed paths as Severus rarely left his office or his private quarters. She was sure he had the house elves deliver his meals to his office or else he just did not eat. As Dumbledore constantly left the castle grounds this meant Aria often travelled down to eat with Hagrid, the only remaining current resident of Hogwarts. The two of them had become good friends, however this did not stop her searching for friendship among Severus, in the hopes of easing their future working relationship.

Aria left her own private quarters, strolling along the dungeon corridors to Professor Snape's a few doors down from her own. Pacing between his office and his private quarters Aria contemplated whether he would be relaxing in his room or working in his office. Having only met the man once she nevertheless knew exactly where he'd be. Rocking on her heels for a second or two she took a moment to gather her thoughts before knocking confidently on the door.

"Enter." The monotone voice droned after a moment of consideration.

Aria Dumbledore walked into the crowded office covered wall to wall in potion bottles and jarred ingredients. To the back of the room sat behind a desk was a mass of black robes and hair, bent over a stack of books and parchment, scribbling notes furiously onto the parchment. Aria stood there for a minute or two waiting for the professor to look up at her. She wanted him to listen to what she had to say and she wouldn't believe he was truly listening until he faced her.

"Well?" He spoke, face still down towards his notes. "Get on with it."

"I will do so, as soon as I know you are paying attention to me." She spoke clearly, standing firmly on her spot in the middle of the room.

"I'm listening." He droned, scribbling away.

"No." She spoke a little louder, her voice more confident than it had ever been in his presence. this caught his attention. "I want you to look at me, so I know your listening."

Severus nodded in return, motioning for her continue.

"Good." She began, returning his nod, once again trying to remember what she had planned to say. She had been completely thrown off by his reaction to her new position at Hogwarts. From the moment she knew Severus would be arriving at Hogwarts she had made plans in her head to get to know him and his routine. She had hoped they could make a few potions together in order to get more familiar with each other rhythms. She had not yet given up this hope but she knew now it would be a lot harder than she had initially expected. Finally she decided simply being honest with him was the best way to go about it. "I understand this arrangement isn't ideal for you, and I do not agree with the way Professor Dumbledore sprung it on you like that." She started.

"You mean your grandfather." Severus look cut in, his eyes slightly rolling in his head.

Aria cleared her throat, waiting to continue. "As I was saying. I do not want to ruffle any feathers with my being here, however I need this job and there is nothing we can do about it now, so you might as well accept that. Now, in order to familiarise me with your routine I was hoping for the next three weeks or so before term starts that would you tutor me. I just think that it would make the classes flow a lot better if we sort out all of the kinks now rather than later."

"Well, thanks to you and your grandfather I am not sure I will have time to, as you say, 'tutor you'. I have had to complete re-write my entire class curriculum. I am afraid I will be far too busy until the beginning of term. You will simply have to adapt to my way of teaching, whether you like it or not." He droned, turning back to his stack of papers.

Impatiently Aria bit her lip, letting out a small sigh, unsure of where to go from there.

"Like I said, teach me your ways and you will not have to rewrite your entire schedule." She spoke through slightly gritted teeth, becoming annoyed at his lack of cooperation. "We will meet three times a week; Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. No exceptions. I'll see you then." She stated, finally taking control of the situation, leaving the room before the Professor could argue.

* As she arose from her sleep on Tuesday morning Aria opted to dress in more formal attire for her meetings with Professor Snape, as after all this would be a professional interaction, or at least she hoped.

Not wanting to intrude on the man too early in the morning she waited until 1 o'clock in the day, assuming they both would have eaten by then. As the clock stuck 1 she clutched her notebook to her chest and confidently strode along to the professors office.

Aria had spent the previous days carefully planning out a mix of activities and topics to cover in the event that Snape tried to turn her away once more. She was happy with her plan and was confident that Snape could not deem it a waste of either of their time. This thought at the forefront of her brain she gave his door a loud knock before taking it upon herself to enter.

The Potions Master instantly rose from his seat upon her entry, thrusting a stack of parchments into her hands, and immediately set off on a long winded speech he had clearly prepared previously.

She stood aghast by the mans abruptness, staring at him blankly. It was the first time she had properly looked at him since their first meeting. He was tall, taller than she had initially assumed and he towered over her, intimidatingly. He was muscular too, she thought as she focused in on the person standing before her, taking details she had never before noticed. Without the protection of his robes she was able to see his biceps threatening to burst through the material of his black undercoat. Her eyes continued to travel up his body, past his chest that practically touched her own, finally meeting the gaze of the Professor. She instantly noted the exhaustion evident on his face, remembering back to her grandfathers comment on his lack of sleep she guessed the reason for this was not solely caused by the hefty workload of the school year. Despite his tired looking features Aria found his looks intriguing. He was handsome in an interesting sort of way, not in the traditional sense for sure but there was definitely something there, something that made her want to get to know the man more than she expected he would let her.

Severus found himself becoming more and more distracted, losing himself in the woman's eyes as he too fell into a dangerous train of thought.

"Are you paying attention, Miss Dumbledore?" Snape snapped himself back to reality, bringing back Aria with him. She gave herself a shake, her eyes widening realising she had not heard a word the man had spoke.

"Yes. Erm.., no. I'm sorry Severus." Aria stuttered, the blush on her face forming from embarrassment and shame.

"Professor Snape." He corrected, taking a step or too back from her, busying his eyes, focusing them anywhere but on his apprentice. "I will not spend the year repeating myself, Miss Dumbledore. If you cannot prove yourself worthy of this position I'm afraid I cannot work with you. Now, do as I say and we shall get along perfectly fine." He finished, regaining his seat behind his desk, shuffling through yet another stack of papers.

"Actually Professor Snape, I had prepared some tasks for us to get through, myself." Aria begun. "For example, I was hoping today you could go over each years curriculum for the year with me and we could note areas in which I need some revision, which we could tackle later in the week."

"Had you been paying attention, Miss Dumbledore, you would notice that the years curriculum is noted on that stack of parchment I handed you upon your entry. Which I might add showed a complete lack of respect and basic manners. You will knock and wait to be called upon before entering my office from here on out, is that clear." Snape commanded.

Aria glanced at the stack of parchment, noticing the detail in which Snape had gone over the class schedules, it obviously took some time and she was embarrassed she had been too distracted to notice previously. "I apologise, Professor." She said, feeling more like a student being reprimanded than his equal.

The Professor gave a slight nod in response. "In regards to the areas you may need to review, you will have to outline them in your own time, we will visit them at a later date. I do not wish to waste my time with such frivolous things that could so easily been done alone. " He stressed the final word.

It was Arias turn to nod.

The young woman was shocked to find the Professor so prepared for today's meeting, although she was glad he seemed so invested in the cause, she secretly knew he had put in so much effort in order to regain control of the situation. Clearly Aria taking command a few days earlier had not sat right with him.

"As for today." Snape continued. "I have set a task for you to complete, to allow me to analyse your potion making skills as well as your method of brewing."

"Perfect." Aria chirped trying so hard to remember the promise she has made to herself. The man intimidated her she could not hide that fact, but that did not mean she was not a very skilled potioneer. She was determined to prove her abilities to the Professor in the hopes that she gain his respect and therefore develop a balanced working relationship. "What will I be making?" She inquired, taking a step forward towards the Professors desk.

"Shrinking solution." He spoke simply. "I assume, or rather hope, you will not be in need of a recipe? Or should I look out the students text books now and save us both from creating a batch of poison."

"There is no need to be insulting Professor, I am more than capable of brewing a standard OWL level potion. Where will I find my ingredients?" She asked.

Severus Snape lightly rolled his eyes at the young Professor as he focused in on the tattered book in front of him, simply letting out a small grunt and pointing in the directions of a store cupboard off to his left.

Aria ignored her so-called mentor and immediately set to work.

At first Severus let her do her own thing, getting the potion up and running before he decided to interfere and evaluate her work.

He watched intensely as she removed five large and hairy caterpillars from their jar. Skeptically, he emerged from behind his desk, turning up the pressure on Miss Dumbledore.

Unable to contain himself he started to speak. "It helps if you -"

"What? Slice the caterpillars to achieve maximum blood flow." Aria interrupted proudly, knowing he was trying to test her skills. "Surely that would be common knowledge Professor. Now tell me do you prefer to slice horizontally or vertically?" Her confidence getting the better of her.

"It hardly matters." Snape scoffed, displeased by his efforts to belittle the witch.

"Oh I disagree entirely. I found that slicing vertically is not nearly as effective as horizontally. If your doing it vertically.. why it's hardly worth cutting the poor buggers up in the first place." She smirked, feeling like she had achieved a small victory.

The two professors remained silent for a few moments more, allowing Aria to continue her potion while Snape inspected her closely, occasionally jotting down notes and crossing off his personal checklist.

"Don't you have leech juice stocked in your cupboards?" Aria wondered aloud, absentmindedly stirring her concoction.

"I'm sorry?" Severus replied, wondering what she was getting at.

"As you know the recipe calls for the juice of four leeches, though I prefer five." She added slyly. "I had just assumed that a seasoned Potions Master such as yourself would keep readily preserved leech juice in his store cupboard, as this is a staple potion in any school curriculum."

"I prefer to juice my leeches fresh, when it comes to preparing a shrinking solution." Severus admitted through gritted teeth, stunned at the woman's audacity to contradict his methods, when he was supposed to be the one testing her.

"Well each to their own I suppose, I just find it wastes an awful lot of time during the brewing process when a batch of leech juice could easily be prepared beforehand for a many number of potions." Aria Dumbledore shrugged, shooting an innocent smile at her colleague before painstakingly juicing each individual leech directly into the cauldron.

After adding one more shrivelfig and an extra caterpillar, horizontally sliced of course, it was time to let the potion simmer until it reached that perfect green colour Snape anticipated.

And with a wave of her wand the potion was completed to absolute perfection. Aria was confident Severus could find no flaw in her work, although she was slightly nervous that their minor disagreements would only make him more irritable, thus making it more difficult for Aria to gain the approval she now craved.

After five minutes of stirring, testing and inspecting Severus could find no fault with the professor's work to criticise. With a slight hum he returned to his desk, intentionally avoiding looking in the woman's direction.

"As it is, you managed not to create an abomination, therefore I have nothing more to say. Your work is average. I will do what I can to cooperate with you as it seems I have been given no other choice. We are done for the day, you may leave."

"What just like that, and were done? There's so much more we could get through the day is young." Aria pleaded. "I made the perfect potion for you surely that is worthy of your time."

"The perfect potion is expected, Miss Dumbledore. Had you done any less than perfect you would not be qualified to work here. Potion making is an exact science, with very minimal room for creativity. You and I may be daring enough to tread on that line but I have had years of experience, you on the other hand cannot afford the risk of creativity. One day your ego will get the better of you and you may make an irreversible mistake. I suggest you stick to the textbook recipes in the future." Severus raged. He did not appreciate her disobedience or her expectation of a reward for simply doing as she was asked. He saw her open her mouth to object however he managed to get the first and final word in for the night. "Good day, Miss Dumbledore, I have work to get on with." He spat.

And with that he began scribbling some more illegible notes onto his parchment, waiting on the woman to vacate his office.

She stood for a second almost in shock at his rudeness but she had hardly expected any less from him. She supposed she had pushed him far enough for one day and chose to listen to his orders. After all there was not long to go until Hagrid expected her at his home from their meal.

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@ayamenimthiriel

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