Just Another Star [Sev]

[adeline claire giovanni]

Tying her hair up into a high ponytail, Adeline Giovanni, decided to take this down time to finish up her potions homework. Now, Adeline was a bright student, one of the brightest, but her star dimmed whenever potions happened to be mentioned. It wasn't that she was particularly bad at potions, she just wasn't particularly good at them. That was where her twin brother came into mind. Oliver Giovanni excelled at many subjects and often became bored with them rather easily, this was why he was not at Hogwarts any longer. He studied Muggle subjects abroad, ranging in the vast sciences of human DNA. It was something that went over Addie's head quickly. Though determined to power through Hogwarts, she wanted to become an Auror like her father, which was why she tried her hardest at every subject so she could be on top, with fantastic marks.

Grabbing her leather book bag, Adeline left the Gryffindor common room for solitude. She most definitely could of finished her homework there, but it was the Gryffindor Dorms, need I say more? It was the home of the marauders, and she had been given grief for falling head over heels in love with a Slytherin boy, there was one issue with that. The two houses were neck and neck in rivalry, and she was the unlucky soul caught in the middle. Clenching her jaw, she closed the portrait of the fat lady behind her and waved farewell. It fascinated the young Giovanni girl to no end, at how understanding the portraits were. Then again, they saw what happened within the walls of the school, and they would tell no private secrets, so she was free to tell them whatever she wished with no harm becoming over her.

Her shoes patted the stone floor as she turned down long hallways, and avoided the moving staircases. Addie could tell any student how to get anywhere within these walls, but has never had the chance. Passing the huge oak doors to the Great Hall she took a sharp left and bounded down the stairs toward the potion labs. It was rather cold down here, but she knew once she got to work it would be far to warm.

Pushing open the door, she realized this lab would be her best bet. Looking up it was number three, a fine number indeed and with only one other student. Instantly she recognized him as Severus Snape, but she's rarely ever talked with him. Addie knew that he was a Slytherin and he was a quiet sort, but he was extraordinary with potion making, and she couldn't of asked for anything better. Setting her books down across the room and pulling an apron out from under the table, she tied it around her waist.

Gathering her materials for Amortentia, which was a very powerful love potion, she set the ingredients on the table and blinked. This was only for an extra credit project, and it was said to be a very difficult potion to make. Being a Giovanni, she thought she could accomplish anything, but little did she know, she may not be as smart as she thought.

{comments} Eee didn't anticipate on it being that long.
{outfit} Clickith

[severus snape]

He was about four minutes into the brewing stage of the third of the three almost identical potions on his desk, each in relatively small cauldrons. He was trialling the differencce in speed caused by addition of crushed butterfly wing at different stages. A fourth cauldron had alread had the addition and had rather spectacularly hardened into what looked like murky grey plastic. He was going to make a pill out of it and see what effect it had, just in case.

He added the last of the butterfly wing, and heard a faint hissing noise, unaware that it was the door behind him openeing. HE stepped back from the cauldron, in case it decided to explode, but it did not change, something that could as easily be a sign of success as of failure. He turned and looked to see who was coming into this lab and hoped to go it wouldn't be another couple looking for somewhere private.

Luckily, it was Giovanni, and more luckily, the potion he was using as a base was a perfectly legal one. He knew her father was an Auror, and didn't know if she would have reported him if she'd seen him last week when he was making, or trying to make, an undetectable poison. Something the ministry guidelines recommended ten years in Azkaban per dram for.

He was suddenly aware of how he'd hunched over his cauldrons, trying to block them from her view. Suspicious behaviour if ever there was any. He needed to show her he was a good law abiding student, so he steppped back, leaving the potions for fifteen minutes was the next part of the instructions in any case. Well... THe one's in his book. Five minutes, as suggested by Libatius Borage was a good time, if on a high temperature, but THelonius De Witt's fourth LAw of PLant based Brewing meant that a lower temperature and a longer time would be far more effective. So one day, when everyone else had been outside, he'd sat in here, with a table and worked out optimum brewing temperatures and times and confirmed them empirically.

"Homewor-"He stopped himself, because the ingredients on the table were familiar. He couldn't hold back the faint smirk and the raised eyebrow. "And here I thought you'd won his heart fair and square. " IT wasn't as cutting as it could have been. Mostly because it was stupid to provoke someone with her connections, and also becasue he didn't enjoy being a heartless git to people who hadn't personally wronged him.

[adeline claire giovanni]

Looking over at Severus, Adeline watched as he was brewing a few potions, but in this moment she wouldn't report anything to her father, unless it was super suspicious, which he wasn't. There were no hard feelings between the two, and she understood that brilliant minds have to be wrong once in a while, after all, you learn from your mistakes, and if you make no mistakes something must be wrong. At least that was what she was told when she was younger. "I-" she stopped speaking, not only because she didn't know what to say, but more or less the fact that Severus had continued.

Speaking about Kaine, was a wee touchy at the moment, the two of them had recently been in a fight, and had not seen eye to eye since the incident, let alone spoken with each other. Clenching her jaw she shook her head. "No, I'm working on extra credit, my father suggested I work on my potion making, since it is one of the subjects I struggle with." That wasn't a lie, but why had she chosen the Love Potion of all things, it wasn't legal to administer, but surely it wasn't illegal to practice, especially if she failed.

Her mind wandered back to Kaine for a few moments and she took a deep breath. Leave it to a Slytherin to bring up painful feelings, but Adeline was not in the mood to banter back and forth, any normal day would of been fine, but Severus wasn't one she cared to hurt. Now, if he were Jamison, that would of been perfectly fine, and she would of found the words to snap back at him, but not to Snape.

"And, no I've not won his heart it seems." Turning away from the Slytherin boy, she began to start a small fire underneath her cauldron and prepare the ingredients, crushing a few vanilla beans feverishly as she thought about the argument the two had prior to coming here. "In fact, he's been a right prick he has." Her hair swung as she crushed the ingredients into a pulp, upon looking down she stared at what were once vanilla bean, and had turned into a fine dust, something she could not use.

[severus snape]

He realised that something he'd said was a bad idea when she suddenly seemed displeased. He dind't feel guilty, per se...but he didn't feel like a big man after that either. "I see."He glanced down at what she was doing,more evidence for emotions being weak as she completely pulverised the vanilla beans.

He could help here. Could give her tips, help her improve her technique...But if Gates found out and took exception to it...Gates would know that SLytherins never do anything for free, and knwoing his own reputation, Severus was fairly sure it would be read as an attempt to get close to the girl in front of him, in an entirely nonplatonic way.

He leant back against one of the benches, wiping some of the sparkling remnants of insect wing off onto the apron. Should he tell her that leaning the pestle would stop her crushing the beans to dust? OR that actually, Amortentia worked fine if one simply put the beans between two sheets of parchemtn and dropped a book on it.

"What did he do then?" Bes to stick with this, he knew that people would ask their friends a similar question , but didn't really count as a friend to Giovanni. IT seeemed like a better idea than pointing out the shortcuts he knew, since he had supplied this particular potion to several students. For a fee of course. And letting slip too much information would grow exponentially more suspicious, so if he did remark, it should be on her technique. IT wasn't the worst he'd seen. Not by a long shot. Didn't mean it was perfect though.

"uhm...Do you want me to do that?" He pointed at the fine dust on the lab bench.

[adeline claire giovanni]

Eyes focused on the mortar in front of her, and she shook her head for a moment, trying to regain composure, but it wasn't helping. Taking in a deep breath she pushed the tool onto the top of the table and turned to look at Snape. He appeared to be in deep thought about something which seemed it may of been important. From Adeline's experience, he was the best at potions in the school, in fact he excelled in this very subject.

Stepping back from her work that had barely just begun, she turned to look at one of the few people she envied for their intelligence in subjects she had very little faith in. Ears perking up as he asked her what had happened Adeline looked down at her hands with a small huff. "He didn't really do anything, it was more of his friend, and then, I don't know." Resting her elbows on the table she shook her head and put her palms to her forhead."I've never had to deal with anything like this, if I was a Ravenclaw it would all be so different." Now, Adeline swore that everything that had happened to her was because she was a Gryffindor. All of her so called friends abandoned her once they found out she was dating Kaine Gates.

Finding a small stool she pulled herself up onto it and sighed. "His best friend hates me, and I've no idea why, perhaps it's because his father is in Azkaban and my dad is an Auror." Scrunching her face up she stared at the ceiling for a minute and then back to the dark haired Slytherin boy. "But, he had the audacity to take Jamison's side over mine, especially before listening to my side. Though perhaps I may of said a few nasty things." she would never admit to how stubborn she actually was, especially to Severus.

Snape mentioned helping her with her potion and looked at him a little skeptically. "You would do that for me?" Eyes moved to the fine powder she created and shook her head. "It wouldn't be fair for you to do my extra credit." Biting her lip she took in a deep breath and glanced at him again. "Perhaps you could help me with it? I'm not particularly good at this subject, and you're the best."