Chapter 4
Scorpia was ready to scream, and the cause was, as she had unfortunately dreaded, Ron Weasley.
She'd expected that when she actually started showing her actual effort, which was much more in line with Hermione's work than Ron's non-work, that there'd be friction. Some grumbling, maybe some whining, probably some name calling, but she still expected...or well she had hoped that it would be short lived and she'd be able to smooth things over and Ron would maybe even become a better student for having two "swots" as friends.
Goddesses was she underestimating that boy's capacity to whine.
Her first warning should have been in First period Charms on Monday morning, the first day of classes after she'd agreed to stop hiding her ability. Ron hadn't really reacted much to her choice to sit next to Hermione (She absolutely needed the support of her friend not to fall back into old habits), they already normally sat close in their group of three, and while she had taken Ron's normal place right next to Hermione, it wasn't that odd for them to switch up every now and then.
What was odd was when it only took five minutes for her to successfully cast Spongify, coming in just after Hermione, she noticed Ron freeze for several minutes and narrow his eyes at her. She'd been disappointed but unsurprised when he started whispering demands to know "what's the trick" as if she hadn't put in the actual effort to study and learn everything she could short of actually casting the spell beforehand. Not that he ever paid attention to what she was doing if she wasn't playing chess with him or going on some 'adventure', or that she did most of her studying where he could see. She preferred to study after everyone went to sleep, hiding out in abandoned classrooms, only returning to her bed when she was so tired she couldn't stay awake enough to register how uncomfortable sleeping in the boys dorm made her.
It took the entire class period, but eventually she managed to get Ron to drop the subject, though that may have had more to do with the five points Flitwick took from him for disturbing the class. Either way he thankfully dropped it, though she thought she heard some angry muttering coming from him for hours after, and he refused to talk to her for the rest of the morning. During History of Magic he...well Scorpia wanted to say he mellowed but honestly she knew he'd just taken a nap, and had been feeling better after, not that it helped during their double Transfiguration block. If anything he was even more annoyed, and annoying, when he saw that Scorpia actually managed to get the Avifors spell before Hermione. He'd apparently even assumed Hermione would actually get angry too, and seemed utterly flabbergasted that Hermione actually seemed excited for Scorpia.
That evening they'd had a screaming row in the common room where Ron accused Scorpia of cheating and not letting him in on it, and when she kept insisting that she was just actually interested and wanted to put in her full effort, he switched to berating her for not being "fun" and being a "bratty swot". Percy Weasly had actually been forced to step in to separate the two, and they'd spent the rest of the week in a tense stalemate.
Then Potions happened.
~~~
To say that Scorpia was feeling stressed would be an understatement. The whole week had honestly been a disaster, between the stress of actively fighting against her ground in instincts to hide her actual intelligence and interests, the growing tension between her and Ron, and the fact that Ron's attitude had spread to a decent number of the other Gryffindors, she was ready to just go hide in a corner until her next meeting with Aquarius. And now she had potions, the one class she was most nervous to actually engage to her fullest in.
So far all of the teachers she'd interacted with had either not particularly cared about her sudden change in aptitude (Binns wouldn't notice if she was a genius or a dunce at all, and Quirell seemed to be ignoring her completely as he had since the year started), or had been cautiously optimistic after making sure that her work was in fact her own. However, she knew her relationship with Professor Snape could only be called antagonistic, and...well...she really didn't want it to be.
She really, truly loved Potions, and despite his less than stellar attitude, Severus Snape was an unquestioned genius when it came to potions brewing and development. She'd looked him up when she'd seen him on the list of instructors, and she found the various treatises and papers he'd published to be, frankly, breathtaking.
Then she'd met the man.
He was rude, short tempered, couldn't teach in a classroom setting to save his life, had a specific hatred towards her individually that she still couldn't understand, and despite all that she still wanted to find a way to get his approval and pick his brain. She also had a sneaking suspicion that his issues with teaching had more to do with his irritation at being forced to look after children with no respect or interest in his craft than a lack of ability.
Scorpia knew that it'd be an uphill battle with him to convince him of her own abilities, so she did her best to put everything else from her mind as she made her way into the classroom and set up next to Hermione, and immediately started noting down the instructions from the board.
She felt more than heard as Professor Snape stopped by her desk and look over her notes, an almost palpable air of disdain radiating off of him, but she could practically feel as that aura shifted from disdain to confusion as he actually saw what she was writing.
"Potter! Why, exactly, are you pulping and straining the billiwig strings?"
Scorpia winced, but didn't respond yet, keeping her silence until the inevitable insult-
"Well? I do expect an answer Potter."
He...wasn't insulting her?
"I-I...well, it's just that billywig strings cause a feeling of intense euphoria and giddiness that can lead to people who are on wideye potions to be...more impulsive then normal. But the property that causes that is contained in the venom inside the strings. The actual strings themselves actually have an inborn ability to counteract the effect, so that the billywigs wouldn't be effected by the venom themselves. The normal process calls for the venom to be squeezed out and added into the potion to avoid the same neutralizing effect reducing the efficacy of the resulting potion."
"Well, I suppose you did do some reading, but apparently came to the completely wrong conclusion. Did it occur to you Potter, that perhaps you shouldn't pulp the entire string? adding the counteragent to a desired effect is normally rather antithetical to our goals. Ten points from Gryffindor for shoddy-"
"I'm not done!"
Snape looked at her in shock, but she continued before he could respond, "Normally yes, this would weaken the potion, but if you add three sprigs of aconite dusted with ground beazor in at the same time, and spin counterclockwise an extra three times with exactly three seconds between each stir, it neutralizes the properties of the strings on the venom, but only in relation to the energy granting effects that are desired, but leaves it free to continue to neutralize the impulse control dampening effects. The end result is a version of the wideye potion that is less addictive and doesn't impair self control."
Snape looked at her closely for a moment, then spoke, "So you fancy yourself a budding potions master Potter? I'll give you one chance to prove that you're not a complete buffoon with a cauldron. Do not waste it."
With that the surly professor resumed his stalking through the room, and left Scorpia scrambling to work on her potion, completely unaware of the look of outraged betrayal on Ron's face at the desk behind her. As the class went on Scorpia continued to make small adjustments to her potion, and Snape continued to regularly stop by and observe her process, though he didn't make any other remarks, just looked at her with an oddly pensive expression. Scorpia actually started to feel optimistic as the class went on and her potion continued to progress exactly as she expected to, if Aquarius was right about Snape being willing to drop whatever weird grudge he had with her if she showed her actual skill level then maybe she'd even manage to break through to the surly proffesor and actually learn from him!
Her hopes were dashed, however, as she prepped the final bundle of aconite to add to the potion. While she was measuring out exactly what she'd need, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye, and found herself blanching. There was a large bundle of aconite and several other ingredients she recognized as being from the first years potion kit floating towards Aquarius' cauldron, and based on what all she could identify at a glance, at best the potion would violently erupt and spew toxic fumes through the entire classroom with Aquarius at ground zero for the worst of the effects.
Scorpia found her wand in her hand before she could even think, "Immutatum Esto!"
Aquarius shouted as her potion seemed to completely freeze in time, and shouted louder as the bundle of ingredients fell on her head, the spell interrupted as the perpetrator lost concentration due to their shock at Scorpia's shouted spell.
"What the bloody hell Harry!"
Scorpia whipped around to face Ron, her eyes flashing in fury, "What the bloody hell right back at you Ron! Are you trying to get Aqu-Malfoy killed! You could have really hurt he-them, and us! What's wrong with you!"
"Wrong with me? What's wrong with you! This whole week you've been like a totally different person! You've been boring and swotty and a pain! And now you're defending stinking slimy snakes?! And worse, Malfoy?! You going dark on us?"
Scorpia snarled, but held back her instinctive response, and took a deep breath to try and get herself under control, but before she could respond Snape's angry drawl filled the room.
"Fifty points from Gryffindor for reckless endangerment of your fellow students Weasley! And another Ten points from Gryffindor for language from both of you Weasley, Potter. Weasley, you will be serving two weeks of detention with me starting tomorrow night. Potter-"
Snape blinked, "Potter what are you doing?"
Part way through Snape's taking of points and assigning of punishment Scorpia had smelled the fumes coming off her potion, and in a panic realized that she'd missed the timing for adding in her Aconite, and was manically adding stabilizing agents and stirring in a complex pattern that Snape recognized incredibly well.
He had pioneered this method of potion recovery after all.
A pensive look returned to Snape's face as he watched Scorpia brew, and both student and Professor seemed to be completely unaware of the whispering, and in one case shouting until Hermione hit him with a silencing charm. After a few minutes Scorpia removed her stirring rod and sighed, giving a satisfied smile as she bottled her potion. She looked up and blinked at the attention she was getting, having completely forgotten that she was in the middle of being dressed down when she'd panicked about her potion. She bit her lip in worry as she looked up at Snape, prepared for an apocalyptic dressing down.
Which never came.
Snape, instead of tearing into her for ignoring him, instead casually vanished the remaining potion in her cauldron and took the bottle from her unresisting hands, holding it up to the light to examine it. He performed several other tests and spells on it before slipping it in his robes and finally speaking, "Detention with me tonight Potter."
He looked up at the rest of the class, his gaze filled with it's normal disdain as he drawled, "Anyone who allowed themselves to be so easily distracted and allowed their potions to suffer for it will not be offered leniency."
Suddenly the room was filled with the sound of panicked attempts to recover their brews as everyone was forcefully reminded of the actual reason they were here. Snape glared at the students before stalking towards his desk.
"Potter, Weasley, you are dismissed, Potter be back here directly after dinner."
Scorpia wanted to argue the detention, but at this point she wanted to be out of the room more, so she just quietly began to put her supplies away. As she made her way to the door she felt herself be pushed roughly aside as Ron pushed past her.
"Traitor."
Scorpia looked sadly at Ron's retreating back, she'd been...not optimistic but still hopeful that she could patch things up with Ron, that he'd still be her friend going forward as she started showing more of herself. Even with everything that had happened this week she'd held out a small hope that this would just be a rough patch and things would get better. But now? She felt secure in saying that bond was severed, and even if they made up, she didn't think she'd be able to call him her friend again.