Brewing the Potion
“Aging potion, aging potion,” you whispered under your breath. You skimmed over the glossary searching for the potion. Where was it? The damned thing! So hard to find. You flipped the page to the second page of the glossary. Why were there so many potions beginning with A?
“What are you looking for?” Remus asked. You glanced up from the page for half a second.
"A potion,” you mumbled. "Fuck! Now I've lost my place on the bloody page."
"Do you need any help?" he asked. You shook your head. You couldn't have help from him or anyone really. You could not be traced back to the prank. It was your revenge on Sirius and James, and it would not be light. After the two had thought it was incredibly funny to make you meow like a cat every time you opened your mouth to speak for a week, you decided your revenge would be so much worse. You were going to age them overnight into men even older than headmaster Dippet.
"Oh look! The little bookworms!" James called from a distance. You looked up from your page and saw him, Sirius, and Peter approaching from across the greens.
"Oh look! The boy who can't even bag a girl,” you mocked in a quiet voice. Remus snorted but didn't look up from his book. You grinned and shook your head. You looked back down at your book. "Aha! Finally!" you yelled. You'd found it. Aging potion of page 345. You flipped to page 345 and reached for a bookmark. You stuck it in and closed the book right as James, Sirius, and Peter arrived at the tree.
"What are you so eager about?" your brother asked.
"Nothing, James."
"It's not nothing. Let me see," he started. He leaned down and reached for the book, but you grabbed it and sat on it. He tried to push you, but you refused to budge. "What are you hiding?"
You grinned cheekily. Something that would ruin his reputation. He would be all old and ugly for days. But you couldn't tell him that. Instead, you said, "A birthday surprise, and you need to stop pestering me.”
"Did you hear that Sirius? A birthday surprise from my sister! How considerate."
"Considerate indeed. I never got a birthday surprise," he muttered.
"Shut up. We fucked. That was your surprise," you said.
"True," Sirius said. He nodded, remembering the evening. You'd fucked from sundown till sunup in the astronomy tower.
"Okay. Gross," Peter said in the meekest of voices.
"Could have gone my whole life without knowing that," Remus added.
"You fucked?" James asked, looking between the two of you. You nodded slowly. James’ expression grew only more shocked and his mouth fell open in disbelief. Sirius couldn't help it and burst out laughing.
"Shut up Sirius!" James snapped.
"James, we fuck all the time. Why do you think we're always disappearing? We're a couple. It's a thing couples do,” you explained slowly. James found himself at a loss for words.
"But but," he started.
"You're so clueless,” you sighed and shook your head. Sirius walked over and took a seat beside you. You edged off the book cuddled up against him. You made sure to keep the book in your arms lest your brother decide to be a devious prick and grab it. Sirius wrapped his arm around you and pressed a kiss to your head.
"Lily and I have never fucked. What do you mean it's a thing couples do?" he asked.
"I'm surprised. She's constantly making advances on you. Maybe it's just that you're blind." you shrugged. James looked at you offended.
"I'm not," he started.
"Can we change the topic? Peter and I are not interested in hearing about whether or not you've been fucking your partners,” Remus said.
"Tell me about how the class was with Ms. McGonagall," you started. Across the greens, you caught sight of a particular black-haired boy. Snape. Just the boy you needed. You needed to enlist the help of someone unsuspecting for the prank and he was the perfect person.
"It was awful!" James started.
"She made us transfigure feathers into frogs. It was awfully difficult," Sirius added.
"Actually, I need to go," you said. You pulled away from Sirius and got up, book in hand. "I'll see you guys later!" you called as you ran off, across the greens to Snape. You ran about 300 feet and soon reached him. He was sitting under another tree with a book. He looked up from his book to you.
"Yes, Potter?"
"Snape, I need your help. In something, I think you're going to like."
"Oh? What could you possibly have that would," he started.
"I'm going to give James and Sirius Aging potions, going to turn them older than Dippet,” you said.
"I'm interested,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.
"I need you to help me brew the potion. Are you in?" you asked.
"Yes. Let's start right now. Come,” he said. He got up off the ground, grabbed his book then headed off in the direction of the school. You followed close behind. He led you through the halls, down the stairs and into the dungeon. You soon arrived at the potions classroom. Snape opened the door and ushered you inside.
"Are we allowed to be here?" you asked.
"Professor McCall lets me use this room all the time," he said. You nodded. Alright then.
Snape walked over to the nearest table and began taking out the necessary stuff. You came over and took a seat on the stool. You placed your book down on the table and opened it up to your bookmarked page.
"Do you have the page ready?" he asked.
"Already done," you said.
"Okay, read off the ingredients. I'll start collecting them," he said.
"Ashwinder egg, Asphodel, Banana, African Sea Salt, Chicken lips, Wiggenweld, Dittany, Gurdyroot, and Howlet's Wing," you listed off. Snape began walking around the room collecting the ingredients. Once he found them he would come back and place them on the table. The ingredients began piling up and soon he'd reached the last ingredient on the list.
"Howlet's Wing you said?" he asked.
"Yes."
"Alright, that's it," he said. He walked back to the table with a massive jar in hand full of small webby wings. He placed the jar on the table. "Let's start."
"Okay," you said. You had a very long night ahead of you. Nine hours later and you stumbled back into the commons room, exhausted. You hadn't finished brewing the potion. But you could hardly keep your eyes open, so you'd retired to your common room. You wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and go to sleep.
"Y/n?" Sirius piped from the couch. You sighed and looked over. James and Sirius were sitting on the couches of the common room. You walked over to them and plopped down on the couch Sirius was sitting on. Then you laid down and put your head in his lap. "You okay?"
"Mmm.. Tired," you mumbled. You closed your eyes for a moment and fought to open them again, but you just couldn't. You felt Sirius reach down and began stroking your hair. That was the final straw, and you soon found yourself being lulled to sleep.
The next morning you awoke in Sirius’ bed, cuddled up beside him. You yawned and pushed yourself up into a sitting position. You looked around the room and found that it was empty except for you and Sirius. A whole room to yourself. You grinned and laid back down. You cuddled up close to Sirius and wrapped an arm around his chest.
"Mm.. Morning," Sirius said groggily. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to your forehead. You couldn't help the smile that broke on your face.
"Good morning," you greeted.
"What time is it?" he asked. You looked over at his alarm clock. It read 10:00.
"Fuck!" you said. Snape was waiting for you. He was already waiting for you. It would take you 10 minutes to get down there. "Shit, shit, shit!" You pulled away from Sirius and hopped off the bed. You began collecting your clothes from around the room. Hastily, you dressed.
"What's going on?” Sirius asked.
"Nothing!" you yelled. You ran out of the room. You arrived on the staircase and hurried down. The common room was empty except for James, Remus, and Peter. The three were sitting on the couches around the fireplace chatting. They looked up at you, but you ran right by.
"Why the rush?" Remus asked.
"Nothing," you called.
The door opened completely and you ran out. You sprinted down several flights of stairs, hallways, past the dining hall and more halls until finally, you reached the dungeons. You sprinted the last few dozen feet until you finally reached the potions class. You swung the door open and found Snape sitting in the room, pouring the potion into two vials.
"Sorry I'm so late," you said. You stood by the door catching your breath.
"It's fine,” he said. Once you'd caught your breath, you closed the door and walked over to him. "Each of these vials should be enough to turn them 60 years older." He placed down one of the pink vials then picked up the empty vial and began filling it. You grinned. 60 years older. They'd be 88 years older each. Perfect. Snape finished filling the other vial and placed it down. Then he grabbed a vial holder and placed each vial in one of the slots. "There you go,” he said and handed you the vial holder. You took it gratefully.
"Thank you so much, Snape."
"I cannot wait to see the effects on them,” he snickered. You snorted just thinking about it.
"It's going to be the perfect birthday surprise."