"What is an exploding ginger eyelash?"
Pomona looked at the book Severus Snape had brought from Spinner's End and asked.
"Does it mean the eyelashes of someone with ginger hair?"
After saying that, she looked at Lily Evans some distance away. Lily immediately covered her eyebrows with both hands.
"What are you looking at?" Snape asked, taking the book.
Pomona handed him the old book.
Though still underage, Snape was stern and mature beyond his years. He furrowed his brow tightly, seemingly thinking of something, then left the laboratory.
"Your eyebrows are safe," Pomona said to Lily with a smile.
"My eyelashes won't explode." Lily lowered her hands and picked up the book Pomona had been reading.
Pomona had been looking at the recipe for a stimulant potion. Perhaps because it was encoded, much of it was completely incomprehensible to her, like that business about eyelashes just now.
"Have you ever been to Severus's house?" Pomona asked Lily.
"No. We only meet beneath the willow tree," Lily replied. "Why did you suddenly think to ask that?"
The book in Lily's hands reminded Pomona of Eileen. When she had left the Prince family, she had taken quite a few books with her, which was why Severus had known more upon entering school than seventh-year students did.
Just then, Severus returned.
"This is it!" He placed a glass jar on the table.
Pomona could tell that it contained ginger-colored hair, but she could not be sure whether it was eyelashes. It might have been ginger cat fur.
"You're going to brew this?" Severus asked.
"The book says that once this potion is brewed, it must be drunk immediately," Lily read aloud. "And you'll lose all your friends."
"I was just asking what it was," Pomona said.
"What kind of potion is that?