Careless Wishes

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Just that a plot bunny crawled into my head and jumped up and down til i wrote it!! I changed the title after DDMalfoy told me there was another fanfic of the same title - so thankyou!!

All Un-beta'd so all mistakes are my own entirely, please don't give me detention!!

Read and Review people!

Comtesse


He had seen it was about to happen, and had begun to rush forward with his wand drawn to try and minimize the damage. He hadn’t been fast enough, and now he was covered in the contents of Hermione Granger’s cauldron. She was surveying the damage, a distressed look on her face.

“Professor… I… How did that happen?” Hermione’s hands wiped congealed potion from her face as she stared at her cauldron and the Potions Master looked around his classroom with dismay. Surely the Gryffindor Know-It-All would not have exploded her cauldron. She had never been anything other than the perfect student, although strangely, things like this had been happening to her recently, first the spitting inkwell, then her book bag splitting of it’s own accord and scattering her books, quills and ink over the corridor, now this.

Severus Snape sighed as he heard a familiar giggling coming from underneath one of the classroom desks. With a lazy flick of his wand he shifted the desk to reveal Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode, who stopped giggling as their Potions Master cocked his eyebrow at them. Putting his nastiest scowl on his face he motioned for the two to stand.

“What did you put into Miss Granger’s cauldron?” He folded his arms carefully over his frock coat as the two girls looked at their toes silently. Severus’ scowl deepened.

“This behaviour I might expect from a first year Hufflepuff, not two seventh year Slytherins.” His eyebrow jumped upwards again. “Now tell me, what did you add to Miss Granger’s potion? Tell me NOW!”

The whole class jumped as his voice boomed across the room. Millicent Bulstrode raised her head, her eyes hovering around his chin and muttered something that only her professor heard. His eyes widened. She had added sneezewort to unfinished Felix Felicis. He hoped she had not added it just as it had started to boil, because if she had, there would be some rather serious side effects.

“Stay here, no one is to move and NO ONE is to clean any of this up… yet.” he snarled, striding across the classroom and into his office. He took a sample of the potion that was splattered on his robes before casting a quick “scourgify” on himself. Snatching a pinch of floo powder he muttered “Headmaster’s Office” and put his head into the flames.

Professor Dumbledore’s office came into view, with the old Wizard perusing an ancient looking tome at his desk. He looked up and smiled at Severus.

“Something I can do for you my boy? Shouldn’t you be in class.” Severus fought the urge to groan, he hated when Albus called him “my boy.” It just made him feel like a first year again.

“I need you in the Potions classroom. There has been an….” Severus racked his brains to think of the right word, “… incident.” Dumbledore closed his book and sat back in his chair.

“Indeed, Severus?” The old wizard played absent mindedly with a strand of his beard. “What sort of incident?” He raised his eyebrows and Severus felt like reaching out and throttling the old coot.

“A serious one, Albus. I would appreciate your presence in the potions classroom as son as possible.” With a curt nod, he pulled his head out of the flames and ran one hand through his hair. He had better go and see what other mischief his class had wrought.

*****

Back in the classroom the seventh year Slytherins and Gryffindors seemed to be behaving well. Most had books and parchment out, quietly studying for their NEWTs. Potter and Weasley, of course, were jabbering on about Quidditch, while their bushy headed friend looked up from her Charms Textbook and tutted. Actually, Severus mused, her hair wasn’t all that bushy anymore. It had calmed somewhat over the years into soft curls that she had secured with a large tortoiseshell hairclip. It had always looked tangled in her younger days, but now her curls looked almost velvety. He wished he could touch them, feel exactly what they felt like twisting between his fingers.

Severus snorted. Silly thoughts, about a silly girl. He picked up the tray of empty vials that had been meant for the seventh years’ Felix Felicis and crossed the classroom past the Golden Trio to the store room, accidentally brushing Hermione’s hair with the back of his hand as he passed. Once inside the store room his placed the tray down and stared at the back of his hand that had touched her hair. Severus gasped. Desiderium Draught. It had to be. That was what you got if you got thus far with Felix Felicis and then added sneezewort just as the mixture started to boil. Desiderium Draught was a complex potion that used a strange and ancient magic to detect what it was that you wished for and grant it to you. Some historians thought that the old Oriental genie lamps that granted wishes were coated in a version of it. The curious thing about this potion was that it didn’t need to be ingested. Contact with the skin was enough.

Severus took a deep breath and stepped back out into the classroom, just as the Headmaster entered the room. Severus strode over to him.

“What seems to be the problem?” Dumbledore asked.

“Desiderium Draught, Headmaster. Miss Parkinson and Miss Bulstrode thought it would be funny to ruin Miss Granger’s potion. Unfortunately they added sneezewort to the Felix Felicis she was brewing… just as it was beginning to boil. The cauldron exploded and covered all of us in the substance.” The Headmaster looked at the two culprits, stood in the same place that Severus had left them, still quaking with fear.

“Severus, do you know of any antidote to this potion.” The twinkle in his eye was gone.

“None, Headmaster.” He spun around as he heard a gasp. Hermione was looking wide eyed at the dish of cherry chocolate ice cream that had appeared on top of her book. Dumbledore sighed and turned to face the class.

“The mixture that exploded all over you is Desiderium Draught.”

*****

The class sat in silence as the Headmaster explained the effects of the Draught. Hermione looked down at the slowly melting cherry chocolate ice cream. Slowly she dipped her finger into it and put it between her lips, her favourite flavour.

Dumbledore also explained that the Draught, when made to this strength, could also bring about intense feelings of lust and he implored them to fight these urges. He didn’t want an entire class found in compromising situations in the Astronomy Tower. The paperwork it would cause would bury him for a month.

Hermione scoffed at that. No way was she silly enough to be caught up in things like that. She’d not needed men before, and she certainly wouldn’t be forced into throwing herself at someone by a potion. She moved the ice cream and turned her attention to her book.

* Desiderium - to wish