Cuppa
Sarah was laying out materials for her second year DADA monthly quiz. She laid the final quiz face down on the desk and paused to brush one of her long strands of hair out of her face. As she turned towards her desk, she noticed some movement by her door in her peripheral vision. “You might as well enter if you’re just going to keep lurking out there” she said finally. Satisfyingly, she noticed the figures jump at her voice. Turning fully now, she could see it was the dynamic duo in the flesh. Fred and George Weasley. They looked sheepish, which was an odd sight to see from the two of them.
Having spent the last couple months teaching them, she had begun to notice the nuances that uniquely defined them. Fred was more bold, while George was a little more hesitant. George was a big reader who was fascinated in facts and details, while Fred was a big thinker, who was an excellent writer and had interesting new ideas. They balanced each other out perfectly, however, she had noticed that because the two were always mistaken for one another, they had taken to writing each other’s work to balance each other out. It was brilliant in one way, but in another way, Sarah thought it sad that they didn’t allow themselves the opportunity to shine separately.
Since she had caught on to this, Sarah had spent the bulk of her efforts in their classes making sure to call each of them by name, which they were always pleasantly surprised with (as she always got it right), and to their dismay, she sat them on opposite sides of the room. She was the only teacher they had who had made a true effort to get to know them as individuals however, so they had developed a deep respect for her in only a short time. It didn’t hurt that she was easy on the eyes too.
As she caught their eyes while they stood in the doorway, they both launched into a long-winded apology.
”Professor”
”We just wanted to say…”
”That we are very sorry…”
“Hold up!” She shouted while holding up her hands. “Can we continue this without the twin speak please? It’s making me dizzy” she chucked. “George, what would you like to say?” She decided to start with George, as he often came second in their world. Shocked, the boys looked at one another. George looked up at her and took a deep breath. “Professor, I am so sorry for the other day. It was completely irresponsible of us to brew unsupervised. Snape told us not to, and we did it anyways.” “Professor Snape” she corrected. Fred spoke then, “we had gotten excited by looking at the properties of a certain potion in our textbook. We thought that if we adjusted the measurements of some of the ingredients, we might be able to alter the final result, but we misjudged and… honestly, we didn’t mean for that to happen professor honest!” George leapt in “It was really scary to be honest. The cauldron started bubbling and we only had a moment before we realized we’d gotten it wrong! We ducked out of the way but didn’t know that the blast could blow out a whole wall!” Their eyes glistened. “We were out of our depth and we nearly took yours and that poor girl’s lives. We are so incredibly sorry.” The two boys hung their heads in shame.
That was something that Sarah had noticed over the past couple of months as well. These twins, while silly, while pranksters, generally knew their limits. They knew when their jokes went too far. They weren’t malicious. Sarah tooled at the two red heads and spotted a tear trickling down George’s face. She sighed. “I know you didn’t mean to cause harm. Professor Snape has told you time and time again about the importance of practicing potions supervised. I know you probably don’t want to approach Professor Snape with any of your ideas, however, if you continue to want to learn more about different properties or potentials, I implore you to go through a professor and please, brew while supervised. I could supervise if need be. Just don’t brew alone and please tell me what ingredients you plan to alter prior to trying something new. That explosion was just one of many potentially catastrophic effects that a poorly altered potion could have. We wouldn’t want some child or staff member to end up living in St. Mungos permanently or worse…” she trailed off.
The boys were looking at her then. They were stunned. “You mean…” George began. “You don’t want us to stop brewing completely?” Fred finished. “Merlin no!” Sarah exclaimed. “Why would I ban students from trying to expand on the knowledge we have on the magical world?” She continued. “How would we ever continue to have new inventions or magical discoveries if we banned all creatives from creating?” She went to her desk then and took a seat. The boys still standing slackjawed in the doorway. “The only thing I require is that you do not test out any new potions on other students, that you always brew supervised, and that you always consult with a teacher about the properties you would like to adjust before attempting. I may not be professor Snape, but I do have a love for advanced potions and would endeavour to help you in any way I could.” She finished. The twins practically vibrated with relief and excitement. “Thank you professor!” They exclaimed. “Run along now! Don’t want to be late for your next class! I know you already have enough detentions to last you the month” she chided as the twins thanked her once again before disappearing around the corner. She chuckled to herself as she waited for her second years to arrive.
—
The days following the explosion went perfectly smoothly. Everything went back to normal. Professor Smith remained her usual cheerful self and continued to brew with Severus. Holding his tongue, Severus allowed a few days to pass like this. He had grown accustomed to having her here, and seeing the hurt in her eyes when he admitted his distrust bothered him more deeply than he’d like to admit. He just couldn’t get over her endlessly pleasant demeanor. He was so dour and yet, she remained completely unbothered.
Finally after a week of avoiding it, he finally broke. “You must be an occlumens,” he stated bluntly during one of their brewing sessions. She looked at him quickly with surprise. “What led to that assumption?” she asked. Severus sighed and plowed on. “You have very strong control over your emotions. I never see you thrown off kilter except for the incident on Halloween. I don’t know anyone else who is not an occlumens to have that level of control over themselves. She looked at him openly then and nodded. “Yes. I am an occlumens. I am assuming you are too. Most people wouldn’t focus that much on someone’s emotions.” Finally, Severus thought. I’m getting somewhere. “Yes I am. I was trained in it as a young boy” he admitted casually, offering her a little extra information in the hopes that she might do the same. “I also learned in my younger years” she stated. “I suffered from nightmares, so a professor taught me. It has proved very useful over the years as an auror” she continued.
Severus thought then. “How did you find yourself teaching DADA if you had initially found a path as an auror?” he questioned. She looked saddened then. “I thought I could make a difference as an auror, but the system is so corrupt. There was no way in my position to make any long term change, and the job was brutal at times” she shuddered. Severus wondered what she was remembering. “I decided that I wanted more peace in my life,” she sighed. Severus laughed then. She looked surprised at his reaction. “Peace? You came to a school to teach in order to find peace?” He looked at her incredulously. She chuckled then but then her expression darkened. “It’s much more peaceful teaching rowdy children than risking your life every day.” She looked at her feet then. Lost in thought. Severus felt a tugging in his gut. He shook it off. He had an odd impulse then. “Would you like to join me for a cuppa after we finish brewing this evening?” She looked at him then, her mouth open. She closed it and smiled. “Why yes professor, I would love a cuppa.” Severus had to look away then. He could feel color rising up his neck.