#professor slughorn
(I feel like I haven’t posted in too long, but here’s my signature dish: Wolfstar accidental public love confession with Super Oblivious Remus)
“That has got to be the most embarrassing thing to have ever happened in Potions class.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Remus says, sitting down on the bed across from Sirius cross-legged. “You weren’t there when this one guy asked why his potion didn’t work, and then his fifty-year-old professor had to explain to him in front of the whole class that the guy he has a crush on actually fancies him.”
Things You Can Learn In Potions Class
“Black!” Wilkes grabs Sirius by the collar of his robes and shoves him against the wall.
“Why, hello Wilkes,” Sirius says calmly. “To what do I owe this… enthusiasticgreeting?”
“You listen to me-!”
“You’ve surely gotten my attention.”
“I’m warning you, Black,” Wilkes spits. “You stay away from my girlfriend!”
“Gladly,” Sirius replies instantly. “Now if you could please have this conversation with your girlfriend as well? Though I might suggest you do it without the ‘shoving against the wall’-part.”
Heloise Lestrange. Wilkes’ girlfriend. Her parents are family friends of the Blacks, and they stayed at the Black manor for a week during the summer. There, Heloise had let her eye fall on the handsome, rebellious, oldest son of the Blacks.
Remus couldn’t really blame her, especially with her boyfriend having both the looks and personality of a goat. Well, maybe that’s a little uncalled for. Some goats are actually cute.
Back at Hogwarts, Heloise didn’t let her boyfriend being around stop her from making eyes at Sirius, causing rumours to fly about what had happened between the two during the summer. Though according to Sirius, that was mostly him hiding in his room in his attempt to avoid her.
SCREAMING CRYING DYING OVER THIS!!!
This is so cute!!!! Professor Slughorn: secret wingman
Hahaha, professor Slughorn was mostly like “they don’t pay me enough for this”
(I feel like I haven’t posted in too long, but here’s my signature dish: Wolfstar accidental public love confession with Super Oblivious Remus)
“That has got to be the most embarrassing thing to have ever happened in Potions class.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Remus says, sitting down on the bed across from Sirius cross-legged. “You weren’t there when this one guy asked why his potion didn’t work, and then his fifty-year-old professor had to explain to him in front of the whole class that the guy he has a crush on actually fancies him.”
Things You Can Learn In Potions Class
“Black!” Wilkes grabs Sirius by the collar of his robes and shoves him against the wall.
“Why, hello Wilkes,” Sirius says calmly. “To what do I owe this… enthusiasticgreeting?”
“You listen to me-!”
“You’ve surely gotten my attention.”
“I’m warning you, Black,” Wilkes spits. “You stay away from my girlfriend!”
“Gladly,” Sirius replies instantly. “Now if you could please have this conversation with your girlfriend as well? Though I might suggest you do it without the ‘shoving against the wall’-part.”
Heloise Lestrange. Wilkes’ girlfriend. Her parents are family friends of the Blacks, and they stayed at the Black manor for a week during the summer. There, Heloise had let her eye fall on the handsome, rebellious, oldest son of the Blacks.
Remus couldn’t really blame her, especially with her boyfriend having both the looks and personality of a goat. Well, maybe that’s a little uncalled for. Some goats are actually cute.
Back at Hogwarts, Heloise didn’t let her boyfriend being around stop her from making eyes at Sirius, causing rumours to fly about what had happened between the two during the summer. Though according to Sirius, that was mostly him hiding in his room in his attempt to avoid her.
“I swear, Black,” Wilkes hisses. “If you dare hook up with her…”
“I’m no expert in relationships, Wilkes,” Sirius says dryly. “But you might have some bigger problems if you assume your girlfriend will cheat every time someone more attractive than you comes along. Because, let’s face it, that’s a substantially large group.”
“You little…” Wilkes brings his fist back.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” James says calmly, stepping up beside Sirius with his wand drawn.
“Come to defend your boyfriend?” Wilkes sneers.
“Aw,” Sirius says. “Your girlfriend, James, you must think everybody wants me! Honestly, I’m flattered. Do you perhaps have a little crush on me?”
“In your dreams!” Wilkes’ face flushes red in anger.
“Oh, are you blushing?” Sirius coos.
Wilkes opens his mouth, but at that moment professor Slughorn opens the door to the Potions classroom, calling for the Gryffindors and Slytherins to enter.
Avery grabs Wilkes’ arm and drags him inside, probably knowing Wilkes is only going to embarrass himself further.
Sirius pushes himself away from the wall and straightens his robes. “What a tosser.”
“Did really nothing happen between you and his girlfriend?” Peter asks again. “I mean, she’s rather pretty, and if she’s in your house throwing herself at you… Plus, pissing Wilkes off seems like an added bonus.”
“Pete, she’s a Slytherin!” Sirius exclaims. “The pureblood, Sacred Twenty-Eight, blood supremacy kind!” Sirius shudders. “Honestly, I’d rather compete with Evans for the giant squid’s affections.”
“Oi!” James scoffs.
“Come on, Prongs,” Remus says, slapping him on the shoulder. “If Sirius snatches up the giant squid, your chances might increase!”
“Remus John Lupin!” Lily, passing by on her way to the classroom, pauses and places her hands on her hips, giving Remus a mock-glare. “Are you seriously implying that the giant squid would chose this plonker-” She gives Sirius a playful nudge “-over me?”
“Oh, bring it on, Evans!” Sirius grins, walking after her into the classroom.
Remus pairs up with Sirius for Potions. They always do, mostly because after three exploded kettles, Sirius is the only one still willing to pair up with Remus. At first, Sirius tried to teach Remus, but after fishing green slime out of his hair for over a week, he decided it was better for Remus to just watch.
Now, Remus might not be very proficient at potion brewing, but sitting and staring at Sirius, the focused look on his face, the way he bites his lip in concentration, how his eyes light up when the potion changes colour at exactly the right moment… Well, that Remus can do.
“…Moony? Moony? Moony!”
Remus gives a start, realizing Sirius has asked him a question. “Sorry, what was that?”
Sirius chuckles. “I asked what do you smell?”
Remus inhales deeply, but even with his enhanced sense of smell, Remus doesn’t pick up anything from the clear, colourless liquid. “Ehm, nothing?”
“Excellent!” Sirius grins.
“Alright everybody!” Professor Slughorn claps his hands. “Let’s see… Rosier, can you tell me what potion you have just brewed?”
“I guess… Veritaserum?”
“Indeed! The truth potion. Ten points to Slytherin!”
“Figures,” Sirius grumbles under his breath. “Giving the easy question to a Slytherin, so he can give his own house easy points.”
“If you’ve gone through the steps correctly,” professor Slughorn continues. “You will have obtained a potion that is without colour, without smell, and without taste. Thereby, ideal to slip to someone unnoticed. It is important that you learn what it feels like to be under the influence of the truth potion, to experience it pulling your mind, bending your intentions, and twisting your tongue, so that you can recognize these symptoms.”
Nervous whispers echo around the room. Brewing potions they do often enough, trying them out is another thing. “When I call your name,” Professor Slughorn says, drawing the class’ attention back. “You’ll fill a flask with your potion, walk forward to come stand in front of the class and take one sip. I will then ask you one question, a simple question, just your name, nothing more. You will try as hard as you can to lie. That way, we can immediately see whether your potion was brewed correctly. Please, do not pretend your potion works if it doesn’t. This isn’t for a grade, so it is in your own best interest to be honest, so that we can decipher where the mistake lies, and you have a chance to improve.”
“And one more thing,” professor Slughorn adds after letting his words sink in. “Someone in front on the class under the influence of Veritaserum is placing themselves in a very vulnerable position. Therefore, only I will ask a question, just one question, and I want nobody else to ask anything, or even dare speak. If you try to take advantage of your classmate who has taken Veritaserum, I will deduct one hundred-” Shocked sounds are heard throughout the classroom- “Yes, one hundred points from your respective house,” Professor Slughorn finishes, looking around the room sternly.
They watch James grimace and make a face like he’s having a stroke, before sighing in defeat and replying “James Potter.” Peter immediately squeaks “Peter Pettigrew.” “Marlene McKinnon,” Marlene replies directly, before her eyes widen in surprise. After a lot of stuttering and stammering, Frank manages to say in a shaking voice that his name is Hank. After some back and forth, professor Slughorn determines that he used only two Jobberknoll feathers instead of three, which makes lying difficult, but not impossible. Frank’s shoulders sag, but he visibly brightens once professor Slughorn tells him that he must have a very strong mind to be able to lie even with only two Jobberknoll feathers. “Fabian Prewett,” whom professor Slughorn had thought was Gideon Prewett replies, and professor Slughorn scolds the twins for having switched places again.
Eventually, Sirius fills his flask and walks to the front. Remus isn’t worried in the slightest that the potion is anything less than perfect. Everything Sirius does is perfect.
Sirius takes his sip, and professor Slughorn opens his mouth to speak, but then Wilkes shouts from his bench “Do you want to hook up with my girlfriend?!”
Professor Slughorn tries to intervene, but Sirius, caught off guard and under the influence of the truth potion, immediately replies. “Absolutely not. I’m in love with Remus.”
A stunned silence falls over the room, as Sirius stands in front of the class, looking shocked, his face gone pale.
Then Wilkes snorts loudly. “Merlin’s beard, I really was worried over nothing!” He says mockingly. “I can’t believe you’re a bloody-”
“Mr Wilkes!” Professor Slughorn interjects sharply. “You have already cost your house one hundred points, and you better believe that me being Head of House for Slytherin won’t stop me from making it two hundred if you so much as dare to open your mouth again.”
Wilkes notices even his own housemates glaring at him furiously, and he snaps his mouth shut.
The sound of a door slamming shut alerts the class to the fact that Sirius has stormed out of the room. Everywhere, groups of people start talking to each other in hushed tones.
“Silence!” Professor Slughorn demands. “We will continue with class. So, who’s next…”
“Professor!” Remus raises his hand.
“…Yes?” Professor Slughorn eyes Remus warily.
“You haven’t told us what we did wrong,” Remus says.
“Wrong?”
“Well, yeah,” Remus glances around the room, seeing his schoolmates blink at him. “Clearly, we made some mistake with our potion. Instead of truth serum, we must’ve accidentally made some sort of love potion or something.”
The whole class stares at Remus in disbelief.
“I can assure you,” Professor Slughorn says. “That it is absolutely impossible to accidentally brew a love potion using the ingredients for Veritaserum.”
Remus frowns. “Well, there has to be some sort of explanation! What else could’ve made Sirius have such a reaction?”
Remus can hear James softly groan beside him.
Professor Slughorn wrings his hands uncomfortably, looking like he wants to be anywhere but here having this conversation. “Mr Lupin,” he says slowly. “The most logical explanation for the potion causing this reaction, is Mr Black being, in fact, in love with you.”
Remus stares at his teacher. “He’s not.”
“Yes, he is!” James and Peter say, Lily, Marlene, Dorcas and Mary say, Fabian and Gideon say, Avery, Rosier and Mulciber say, the Bloody Baron says, the portraits on the wall say.
Remus looks around the room, processing, and then raises his hand again. “Professor!”
“Yes, Mr Lupin?” Professor Slughorn asks reluctantly.
“May I be excused?”
“Oh, thank Salazar.” Professor Slughorn releases a breath. “I was almost considering deducting points of you hadn’t asked permission to leave. Yes, please, go!”
Remus hurriedly leaves the room and rushes up the stairs out of the dungeon.
Sirius, sitting on his bed with his knees tucked against his chest, looks up as Remus enters the room. He sighs. “That has got to be the most embarrassing thing to have ever happened in Potions class.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Remus says, sitting down on the bed across from him cross-legged. “You weren’t there when this one guy asked why his potion didn’t work, and then his fifty-year-old professor had to explain to him in front of the whole class that the guy he has a crush on actually fancies him.”
Sirius blinks. And then bursts out laughing. “Godric, Moony! I literally stood in front of the class, took Veritaserum, and said ‘I am in love with Remus Lupin’, and your reaction was ‘Hmmm, what could this possibly mean?’”
Remus hides his face in his hands. “I’m never going to live down this embarrassment!”
He feels Sirius shift on the bed, and when he peaks through his fingers, Sirius is sitting right in front of him, leaning in with a suggestive smile. “Maybe I can help take your mind off of it?”
As it turns out, Sirius is very good at that.
With Sirius straddling him, pinning him to the bed and snogging him senseless, professor Slughorn is definitely the last thing on Remus’ mind.
Hermione being the only one who volunteers as Draco’s potions partner.
Sorry for the repost! I took the cropped version from instagram, and although it was just a bit of ceiling missing I prefer the spacier feeling
Mother’s Request - New Oneshot [a bit angsty and mild trigger warnings but nothing graphic or so bad, imo]
A very confused school owl hovered slowly over the Slytherin table carrying a letter that had clearly been sent by Muggle post, in a plain envelope stamped “urgent”. Severus felt all eyes on him - the other Slytherins rarely encountered letters tucked in envelopes rather than in rolls of parchment. In fact, the owl had to hold it in its beak, as its claws could not grasp the flat square. It dropped the letter with relief, and Severus put it in his pocket. Curiosity tinged with worry nearly overcame him, but he preferred to open his envelope in solitude.
Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/37711678
“Doesn’t your mom know how to send a letter?” Rosier sneered across the table. “I thought you said she was a witch.”
“We don’t have an owl,” Severus apologized. “The mug… the filth sends mail through the post.”
This seemed to placate Rosier, even if Severus secretly thought the Muggle system was better. It required less cleaning, for one, and presented only minor risk of being clawed or pecked at by the postal workers. Still, he wished whoever had sent it could think to be more discreet. His Hufflepuff mother had probably seen Muggle-borns get letters every day, and had no idea how much he stuck out.
Breakfast was followed by electives, where the stream of students from different houses split into separate classrooms. He and Lily and several others who could handle ancient runes entered a small, circular room, and Lily squeezed between him and a Ravenclaw, and glared at the Slytherin who recoiled from her. Severus did not notice the silent exchange: the letter distracted him.
“Did you figure out what ‘mot’ means?” She asked him.
“I think these ones are right to left, and if they are, it means ‘end’ or ‘innocence’, but if you are right, it means ‘death’ or ‘death of’”.
“Great, so if I were to carve this on something, it would make it either innocent or dead?”
“Better than alive and guilty,” Severus muttered, and the professor came in to put an end to their exchange - and to the ambiguity. Both were correct, depending on context, making this rune a highly risky one to misread or carve on the wrong thing.
Severus lagged behind in the corridor, to open his letter in peace.
“Severus dear, I’m sick with a witch’s disease and I need your help. I don’t want anyone else to know, especially not your father. I know it will be difficult, but I wouldn’t have asked if it wasn’t important. Please, brew this for me and send it as soon as you can, it’s essential.”
His eyes travelled down the list of ingredients and instructions above the “Love, mum”, copied out by hand and streaked with tear marks. Many of them were toxic, and the others were agents to mitigate the formers’ toxicity.
What the fuck? Severus asked himself. What sort of illness did you cure with this - and where in Cokeworth might his mother have contracted a magical illness? He left the classroom more distracted than before, wondering where he might get his hands on all these things.
“Accio Snivelly’s letter,” a voice rang, and Severus’s insides froze cold. The three flunkies soon appeared behind James, and Severus protested, “That’s private, you piece of shit!”
“Even your own mother only writes you for potions,” Black jeered. His own mother only ever sent him howlers, but he seemed to delight in trying to guess which of his many violations they might be about, and imitating his mother as they went off.
“How about she stays ill for a bit longer,” James said. “She deserves it.”
“Tear it,” Pettigrew suggested, and Severus had had enough. As James tore at his letter, Severus mended it and made it stronger, and Severus’s charm rendered Potter powerless even against a piece of paper. Furious, they left, muttering a string of curses in their wake. Severus worried more about the letter, though: his mending efforts left it even less clear than before. He skipped lunch to try and solve the world’s worst puzzle with multiple rounds of Reparo, but some pieces were missing and others still made no sense, and he knew he now had no choice but to ask Professor Slughorn for help.
Finally, the day had come to an end, and rather than go to the library to work on his assignments, he crossed to Slughorn’s office.
“How may I help you, my boy?”
Severus wondered if Slughorn had learned his name yet. “My mother sent me this, Sir, but I don’t understand it and Pot - er - Someone’s torn it.”
Slughorn straightened the letter out on his desk and began to read, and Severus watched his jovial features twist in sour concern.
“I will make this for you. Properly, indeed. If you had followed this recipe… I shudder to think of what might have happened.”
“Thank you, sir, but I want to – “
“My boy, I should not be the one to tell you this, but better you heard from me than tried to make this yourself, and better I tell you than you found out from a book what it is you’re making, as I trust that you would.”
Slughorn sighed and Severus’s breath caught in his throat. “Your mother is pregnant, and she wants to get rid of it.”
The ceiling started to spin.
“Don’t think badly of her. Better to do this than to have more babies than you can afford.”
She already had a baby she couldn’t afford, Severus found himself thinking.
“The Muggle methods won’t work on a magical baby, I’m afraid, and if she ingests a poorly-made termination potion she might produce –“ his voice dropped to a whisper – “a Squib!”
Tobias already hated magic, had already made it plain that only his faith kept him married. If he finds out mum had an abortion, he would do her in. Severus turned white.
“And Mungo’s aren’t liberal with their care these days. When you’ve seen as much of the world as I have, you would not judge her so harshly.”
Severus felt no judgment, exactly. He had no idea what he felt. Abortion suggested too many things he did not care to think about, and Slughorn’s words came to him as through spoken through a line with a lag.
“It would have been easier - and cheaper – to use contraception, if you know you don’t want a baby, but you know how these things are!” Slughorn said, forgetting all about his reserve.
“I’m thirteen, Sir,” Severus reminded him, and Slughorn collected himself immediately and sent Severus on his way, assuring him that “I would take care of it, and you can count on me, my boy!”
Severus did not count on Slughorn’s discretion in the least, but he trusted his skills and hoped that if ever Slughorn let slip anything, his inability to remember the name “Snape” would protect Severus. Severus believed himself capable of brewing it, but he knew this was not the time to argue: it would be too hard to focus on the complicated potion while knowing why she needed it to begin with, and if it had to be misbrewed, Severus figured it would be best if the responsibility lay with Slughorn.
Severus could handle things going wrong, but not things going wrong because of him.
He walked absently out of the office and toward the Slytherin common room, his thoughts colliding in his mind. This was the closest thing to independence Eileen had done in a very long time and Severus had no idea what it had meant. Worse, even when attempting independence, she couldn’t actually accomplish it on her own. He hated Tobias, but for the first time, he felt utter contempt for Eileen. He knew for a fact that Eileen could not afford another baby indeed, not least because Severus’s own academic performance would suffer if he had to worry about a brother or sister growing up like he had, and all at once it struck him that none of it was right, and that none of it had been set in stone. Had Eileen thought to do it fourteen years ago… but her decisions left her son with only one dear ambition: Escape, however you can.
The next morning at Charms, Lily passed him a note, using one of her clever tricks. Flitwick was always so impressed with her, he forgot to punish her even when he caught her. “What’s wrong?” It said. He did not like being so transparent.
“Mom’s sick,” he wrote. Lily grew concerned and wrote to him to meet her in the courtyard.
“So?” She asked without preamble. “What’s wrong with her? Is she going to be okay?”
“Slughorn is helping me brew a potion for her. She’s pregnant.” He hoped he sounded matter-of-factly, but Lily’s cheer made her forget all her worries. She covered her mouth and then hugged him.
“A baby! That’s so adorable! I love -”
“She en’t keeping it.”
Lily was crestfallen “Oh. Well, it’s very nice of Slughorn to help!”
“Suppose.” Severus kicked at the ground. “I don’t want a brother or a sister anyway. Enough fighting with just the three of us.”
“Maybe a baby would make them turn things around,” Lily suggested quietly.
“She is turning things around, she en’t keeping it! And you can’t tell anyone either.”
“I won’t,” she promised, and he believed her.
They spent a while in idle chatter (Lily congratulated him on beating Potter and said his head was full of hot air), and suddenly, Severus blurted out: “I hate being a half-blood. Imagine your mother going to you with this.”
“Don’t say that, Sev. The pure bloods are all idiots, and the Muggle-borns have parents too, asking them to divine the lottery numbers. I told dad a thousand times divination isn’t real, but he’s such a Muggle, he doesn’t understand. And no one calls you a mudblood, either, so you should be proud of being a half blood!”
He smiled despite himself. Lily had a good point. Sometimes she knew just what to say… he felt strong and unique and capable when she talked to him. “She’ll be alright, Sev,” Lily promised. “And so will you.”
He thought that Lily would make a good mother one day, and it made him blush profusely, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Are you going to meet me at Honeydukes next week?” She asked next, and Severus wished he could stop time, because they were growing up, and soon they would be too old for sweet shops. And then, he also couldn’t wait for next week, and for a moment he felt a rush of gratitude that his mother hadn’t thought to get rid of him, or had failed to, and that he was a half-blood and not a Squib, and that he came from Cokeworth.
