Numerous steps needed to make a perfect potion were long, methodical, and tedious. They required extreme caution and an impressive pulse to ensure that a single batch of soothing potion would turn out well. Because of this, not many dared to pursue this path as a specialization after Hogwarts.
And for that reason, Severus would become the best potions teacher in the magical world. And also because he was passionate about the subject, or whatever.
Severus loved the smell of the dried herbs in his mortar, the sound of his potions boiling, the different colors forming in the cauldron. Severus mainly loved going out to gather the ingredients.
As a young boy, he would go out exploring the outskirts of Spinners End in search of new places with plants and flowers to escape to when life got tough. When he met Lily, he started taking her with him, sometimes even taking Tuney, when she was still pretty, when she wasn't yet consumed by envy and anger.
Before he entered Hogwarts, when his mum was still his mum, Severus would sometimes bring him different plants and wild fruits, asking him how he would use each one in a potion.
Sometimes his mother would sit beside him and explain the uses of plants in potions, medicinal ointments, or relaxants. Other times, she would take things out of his hands and throw them out the window, then wash her hands furiously, muttering how his father would be here any minute. This didn't stop him from trying, as long as there was a chance to make her smile.
The sun was setting, so Severus had to hurry if he wanted to capture the last rays of sunlight so he could bottle it in a jar for his next experimental position. Severus knew the perfect place to trap them. He had studied a very old spell, which had been forgotten due to its complexity, and had altered it slightly. The spell was meant to clone the glow of other objects, taking the source of the glow and transferring it to the wand. Like a Lumos with less practicality.
Severus had changed it to catch the light, or at least some of it, and transfer it to other objects. He had tried trapping the light from the candles in the great hall, the glow from the older gems in Slytering (Lucius nearly had a heart attack because of this), and also the light from Myrthle's bath (She didn't mind, "That horrible light bothers my eyes, would you mind taking it all away?)
He was pretty sure that the sun would not be affected by catching some of its rays, he would test his theory that day. When he finally reached the river clearing, the first thing he saw was the ripest wild berries he had ever seen. A smile spread across his face as he put aside his basket to get a better look in his eyes to see if they were the same type of blackberry he thought.
The second thing he saw, was the shadow of Remus Lupin in front of him. His smile immediately fell, along with the outstretched hand with which he planned to touch the leaves of the blackberry bush.
For several seconds, there was only silence between them. An awkward, heavy silence that made his legs grow weaker with each passing second. After a few more seconds, Severus stood up, uncomfortable at having to crane his neck to look Remus in the eye.
"What do you want?" Remus broke the silence first, his tone dry and cold, as if Severus had been the one invading his space.
The nerve of him.
"I should be the one asking that question. This is my place."
Remus crossed his arms and looked around, craning his neck from side to side with a confused expression. "I don't see your name anywhere, are you sure you pissed on it enough to mark it as your territory?"
Severus scrunched up his face, disgusted at the very idea of doing something like that. But after the initial disgust, came clarity. His expression relaxed into a wry smile.
"I understand if a person with your... condition is more familiar with that kind of animal behavior" he pronounced, making sure to spit out the last word to make it sound like an insult "But humans normally just use this" he finished, pointing with his hand towards one of the rocks by the small stream, where a mark of magic glowed golden, illuminating Severus' initials.
Lupin didn't even bother to look at the mark, he was too busy clenching his jaw and hiding his hands in his trouser pockets. Severus didn't look away, he had fallen right into that insult himself.
Severus had no desire to fight when he arrived on the scene. In fact, even now that he had one of his greatest enemies all alone in a spot so far away from Hogwarts that no one would notice his disappearance, he still had no desire to finish him off.
After a while, Severus let out a sigh and looked away first. "I don't have time for this, keep the stupid stream if you want. Piss on it at your leisure, if you need to."
"I'm not a dog," Remus mumbled in a defensive tone "Just because you know what I am doesn't give you the right to treat me with disgust."
Severus paused at this comment. He had planned to leave in peace, to leave Lupin to whatever it was that had gotten up his arse to be in such a lousy mood, but that comment he simply couldn't let go. The slytering in him couldn't let it go.
He turned to face Lupin again, basket in hand tightly strapped to his knuckles.
"Am I not entitled?" he asked, his voice low and dangerous. "I am the villain who hurts you and makes you feel inferior? Do you think I need to cling to something as pathetic as your illness to hate you?" Severus took three steps forward, just three steps. Each one made Remus change his expression from furious and indignant to confused and dismayed.
"I don't know if I need reminding of this, Lupin, but you and your friends have been making me miserable ever since I got here. Not only that, your little boyfriend nearly killed me using the condition you're so ashamed of against me. Forgive me if I'm not considerate enough of your feelings about it."
Remus ended up stumbling and falling on his backside in the grass, but he didn't take his eyes off Severus, who now stood in front of Lupin, straight and indignant and elegant. His aura was terrifying, but Lupin couldn't take his eyes off him.
"Besides... you started it with the urine. Now suck it up."
Silence seemed to be the only constant between the two that day. They'd never had much in common, anyway (nothing they realized), so the silence stretched a little longer. Just until Remus could detect all the shadows forming on Severus' angular face, all the sharp, straight lines.
Severus looked away from Lupin as the brightness of the sun stopped framing his figure from behind his back and instead, a large purplish shadow covered them both. The sun had gone into hiding.
"Shit," muttered Severus, "I missed it..."
"Remus wasn't thinking much, he was distracted by Snape's disappointed expression. And by the basket full of herbs and flowers in Snape's pale hand. By the impact Severus's words had had on his head. Severus.
"That's not the problem. If I don't add the sun's rays tonight, it won't work..." muttered Severus, before remembering who he was talking to "Ugh, forget it. I don't know why I'm still talking to you. Stay with the stream, Lupin. Keep the tree, keep the whole bloody Hogwarts. I don't care."
Remus decided that he had already been on the ground for a long time when Severus started to walk away from the stream. From him. He stood up quickly and walked at a normal but respectably accelerated speed towards the Slytherin.
"H- Hey!" Severus reacted immediately to Remus' touch, trying to wriggle free and desperately reaching for his wand, dropping his basket of ingredients to get around. He should have expected an attack from behind, even though Lupin wasn't much for getting into fights he was still Lupin. Potter and Black's friend.
It should have been prepared.
"Let go of me this instant or-"
"I know a place," Lupin interrupted, loosening his grip on Severus' hand and then turning to look at him with a warm smile. Severus was so surprised by the change in mood that he forgot to protest further or at least try to get Lupin to let go.
The silences between them had definitely become personal now. They walked until Lupin found a diversion from the normal path that led to Hogsmed. After passing a field of flowers that were already closing their petals due to the hour, they started up a hill. Lupin was still holding his hand when they reached the top, his hands were sweaty and sticky, so Severus let go and Remus let him go.
"I appreciate your... dedication, Lupin, but next time you can just tell me where you want me to go, so I'll be sure to"
The acid comment he was about to make died on his lips when he looked up. The sun should have gone down completely by now. They had been walking for several minutes when the sun was no longer visible in the stream, so the scenario in front of him was most certainly not real.
The expanse of flowers they had seen before expanded into the thousands of trees, usually terrifying in the darkness or covered with snow, glowing golden in the rays of sunshine, which slowly dipped through the trees and seemed to touch the fading earth on the horizon.
Severus watched everything from his place. He didn't remember picking up his basket, but he had his wand in his hand.
Remus' voice made him turn his head, and the scene of a second ago suddenly seemed insignificant. The sun's rays softened his features, illuminated his brown hair, and made the color of his eyes look like honey extracted directly from the honeycomb.
He did not fully register what she had said, so instead he looked at what she was offering him. Lupin stirred slightly, uncomfortable at Severus's apparent indifference to the small glass vial, (the same one that almost broke when he accidentally frightened him to the point of dropping his basket and which he had saved with a wandless action) so he decided to put it in his hands himself.
"For your sunbeams... or, whatever."
Severus suddenly remembered why he was there, so he quickly recovered and pulled out his wand. Remus stood back a little, curious at how the other boy planned to trap the sun in a jar.
Severus decided to push all the strange feelings to the back of his mind and worry about them later. With a firm voice, he extended his wand towards his target and recited the incantation, long and carefully, until a swirl of light formed at the base of his wand.
Remus watched in astonishment as Severus kept a few rays of sunshine in a jar as if this was an everyday activity. When Severus noticed his look of utter amazement, he couldn't help but smile sideways.
"You didn't even know this was possible, yet you still brought me here?"
Remus tried to contain his astonishment, taking a few steps closer to observe the rays that Severus had caught, andwas now showing him as if it were a butterfly or a caterpillar trapped in a jar.
"Well... I owed you. I stole your place."
Severus looked into his eyes. Yes, they were clear as honey. Even now, when the sun had finally gone completely out of sight, he could see the shine in them.
"So... you did actually pee in there?"
Remus let out a deep, shrill laugh that made Severus jump a little at the sound. He wasn't used to making a lot of people laugh. Especially someone like Lupin.
"God, you're never going to let that go, are you?" Severus didn't answer him and just raised an eyebrow like Lucius used to do when Regulus said something particularly insane in his study hours. "Yeah, all right. I asked for it," he muttered as he began to walk towards the path they had taken up the stairs.
They didn't hold hands to go downstairs, but they didn't fall silent again. Remus told him he had fought with his friends in the morning, not wanting to spend that month's full moon with it. Severus thought that if he had turned into a werewolf and they had done what they had done, he wouldn't have let them come near him on any other full moon (He probably would have eaten their faces too, but that was pure preference).
Remus didn't stay on the subject long, anyway. He apologized for taking it out on him and being an idiot and told him how he'd found that place on the hill.
Severus, in return, told him how he had found the clearing. Also, whatwere the uses of the wild blackberries that were growing there, and why they were so rare.
Before saying goodbye, just in front of the entrance to the castle, Remus asked him if he could accompany him tomorrow to pick up the missing materials.
Severus would have said no. He had every desire to. But Remus's honey eyes confused his thoughts enough for a "Yes. All right," to escape his lips.
Remus smiled at him, bright and warm like the sunbeams he had trapped in a jar, hidden in the basket Remus had helped him retrieve and carried for him until that moment.
Severus returned to his room, quite sure that he loved going out to collect the ingredients to make potions. And soon enough, he would discover thatmost of all, he loved the company.