Do You Have a Bad Relationship with Mr. Snape?

After the door closed, the classroom fell silent.

Only the faint crackle of the fire beneath the cauldron remained, along with silver patches of moonlight spilling across the floor.

Lucretia returned to the cauldron, the silver spoon tracing steady circles in her hand.

The potion rippled with her movements, its surface glimmering faintly.

Every so often, she paused to frown at the changing color before continuing to stir.

Sirius stood where he was, his fingers beginning to tap against his thigh.

James's nonstop chatter and laughter at The Three Broomsticks still echoed in his ears.

The ease he usually felt around his friends had vanished, and the silence of the empty classroom left him with an unfamiliar sense of tension.

His gaze wandered around the room.

First to the window, then to the floor, and finally to Lucretia's profile as she concentrated on stirring the potion.

This was the first time he had been alone with her as a human.

He opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Sirius walked toward the table, moving more slowly than usual. His fingers paused on the Butterbeer's cup...

Checking the temperature, checking the double frosting, checking that everything was exactly the way he remembered she liked it.

"Um, I brought you something. I got it from Hogsmeade. I thought you might need something after being busy here for so long."

Lucretia set down her small spoon and reached for the drink, but the moment her fingers touched the rim, she stopped.

She raised an eyebrow, surprise in her voice. "Double frosting? How did you know I liked it this way?"

Sirius's mind went blank.

Damn it, why hadn't he considered that she might ask?

At this point, who would remember someone else's drinking habits?

He should have prepared a reasonable explanation beforehand—like picking it at random, or Rosmerta recommending it, or...

The words squeezed out of his throat with difficulty.

"Uh... good luck? Rosmerta highly recommended it... I remembered you drinking it like this when we were at The Three Broomsticks before."

Merlin, that explanation sounded even more suspicious.

Lucretia took a sip, and the amusement in her eyes made him even more nervous. "That was true at The Three Broomsticks. But afterward, didn't you and Barty get into a fight with Mr. Potter? I thought you wouldn't have noticed."

Sirius felt the tips of his ears begin to burn. "You and Regulus were sitting in the corner. I saw you."

But the moment the words left his mouth, he wanted to slap himself.

It sounded far too much like he was admitting he'd been secretly watching her through the entire chaos.

Though that was indeed the truth...

Even while wrestling with James, he had been watching her from the corner of his eye, making sure she wasn't frightened, making sure she was... watching him.

He quickly changed the subject, walking over to the workbench and looking at the faintly silver liquid in the cauldron.

"How's the potion coming along?"

"The base is mostly finished."

Lucretia took another two sips of Butterbeer, casually set the cup aside, and adjusted the flame.

"I'm adding the supplementary ingredients now. After that comes the unicorn tear blessing. Did Lupin tell you the details?"

Sirius answered, his gaze shifting from the potion back to her face. "Enough for me to understand how important this potion is. And thank you for being willing to help him. Not everyone would put in this much effort for a... you know."

Lucretia lowered her head somewhat shyly. "You don't need to thank me. He's a good person. He shouldn't have to suffer this. I'll do my best to make it as effective as possible."

Sirius looked at the neatly arranged herbs on the table and lightly touched one of the leaves.

"Do you need any help?"

"Can you help me prepare these ingredients?"

Their voices rang out almost at the same time.

They both stopped and looked at each other.

Then Lucretia smiled first.

Sirius smiled too, and the tension in his shoulders eased.

Lucretia pointed at several herbs. "Looks like we had the same thought. They need to be cut in a specific way."

Sirius immediately picked up a silver knife and began cutting the herbs.

All the Herbology books he had pored over these past few days were finally proving useful.

Lucretia watched his skillful knife work with some surprise. "Your knife skills... are completely different from what Brother Regulus said about your performance in Potions class."

Sirius's cutting motion paused. He looked up at her. "What did Regulus tell you?"

Lucretia held back a laugh. "He only mentioned an accident once. He said Professor Slughorn had to end class, and then your entire class went to Madam Pomfrey."

Sirius defended himself as he resumed working, though the corner of his mouth rose as well. "That was an accident. I was aiming for Snape's cauldron."

Lucretia asked curiously, "Do you have a bad relationship with Mr. Snape?"

That question seemed to flip some switch.

Sirius's knife stopped halfway through a silver leaf, and his mouth twisted into a contemptuous smile.

"Snivellus?"

The word slipped out. His hand tightened, and the blade ruined the herb.

But he couldn't stop, like a breached dam as all the disgust he had kept buried came rushing out.

"We've hated the sight of each other since first year. He spends all day skulking after people, with nothing but Dark—"

Then he saw Lucretia's expression.

The spoon in her hand had stopped, and her entire body had gone stiff.

Not in fear, but in shock.

Shock at the undisguised malice in his voice, shock at the contempt with which that nickname had come from his mouth.

The words caught in his throat.

Lucretia lowered her head and continued stirring, but her shoulders were tighter than before, and her movements had become cautious, as though avoiding something.

Sirius stared at the silver knife in his hand and realized how ugly he must have looked just now.

He remembered her collaboration with Snape, the potion that had helped ease her roommate's headaches.

And his reaction just now had been like some... like some spoiled pure-blood aristocrat, attacking someone with a vicious nickname and expecting her to agree.

Merlin, he had messed up.

He took a deep breath.

"Sorry. I know you're working together on potions. I saw you bring medicine to your roommate that day in the Hospital Wing."

Lucretia nodded, her tone becoming more cautious. "Yes. He really is very helpful when it comes to potions."

Sirius pressed his lips together and lowered his head to continue preparing the herbs, deliberately softening his tone. "I suppose he really does know what he's doing in that regard. Is her headache any better?"

Lucretia relaxed, grateful that he didn't pursue the subject. "Much better, thank you."

The room fell into a brief silence, broken only by the occasional bubbling of the potion and the sound of the knife cutting herbs.

Sirius frowned in frustration, glancing at Lucretia's silent profile before looking back at the herbs in his hands, as though he had thought of something.

"Speaking of potions, I've been reading Herbology books lately, studying the properties of different ingredients. Professor McGonagall saw me carrying so many Herbology books in the library that day and nearly thought I'd poisoned someone. James had an even stronger reaction. He said I must have been possessed by something."

Lucretia imagined Professor McGonagall's expression and smiled behind pressed lips. "Lupin said you used to be interested only in books about pranks, but lately you've been spending all your time in the Herbology section. Don't you find it boring?"

"Of course not, because..."

Sirius's knife stopped on the leaf without cutting any further.

He stared at that leaf for a long time, as though searching for some answer among its veins.

His earlier loss of control over Snape still churned inside him.

He realized he needed to say something—not to save the awkwardness from before, but because... she deserved to hear the truth.

"I want to understand why some people are so fascinated by it. Why a leaf can be worlds apart depending on whether it's cut clockwise or counterclockwise. Why the same ingredients can have completely different effects in different people's hands."

He looked up at her. There was something in those gray eyes she rarely saw, a sincere vulnerability much like when he had spoken honestly in the corridor last time.

"When you truly understand someone's world, that person is no longer just what you see on the surface. Like... when we first met, I only saw you as Regulus's adopted sister, the young lady of the Crouch family. But now..."

He forcibly pushed down the matter of being an Animagus and changed his wording.

"But now I know you'll brew complicated potions for a friend's pain, that you talk to plants, that you become so focused in a classroom late at night that you forget the time."

His voice grew softer and softer, until he was almost talking to himself.

"I want to understand how someone like that becomes who they are."

Lucretia's hand stopped completely, and she looked at him quietly.

This wasn't the first time she had heard Sirius say something deeper than ordinary conversation.

From the training in Godric's Hollow to their conversation after the Hospital Wing, the seriousness and thoughtfulness he occasionally showed always surprised her, yet somehow felt natural.

Her gaze returned to the potion before her, and she said softly, "I understand. People always tend to judge everything by their first impressions, while overlooking the fact that everyone has different sides. Just as I never think of plants as mere ingredients, every flower and herb has its own unique life and patterns."

Sirius smiled with a little embarrassment. "It sounds a bit stupid, doesn't it? The Black family's rebel talking about wanting to understand other people."

Lucretia shook her head and smiled at him. "Not stupid at all. I like hearing you talk about these things. They're much more interesting than all those prank stories Mr. Potter told at Headmaster Dumbledore's house before."

The atmosphere between them became more relaxed and intimate than it had been at first, and they silently resumed their work in mutual understanding.

The potion darkened gradually with each ingredient added. More glittering specks appeared, and a silver halo began to form around the rim of the cauldron.

Lucretia pointed to a silver-green root. "These Mandrake roots need special treatment. In ordinary calming draughts, they would be cut clockwise, but this time we need to cut them counterclockwise to preserve their clarifying properties."

Sirius's knife paused on the root.

He seemed to remember reading a detailed description of Mandrake root's properties in the library, and he also recalled why cutting it counterclockwise would change the potion's effect.

But more importantly, he thought of Lupin.

"So Lupin can retain more awareness during his transformation."

He slowly reversed the angle of his knife, his movements more careful than ever before.

"So it's the reverse process, prioritizing awareness over soothing."

Lucretia looked at him with some surprise.

He understood too quickly—quickly enough for her to realize that he had thought far more deeply about this subject than she had imagined.

Sirius began cutting again, every stroke more deliberate than before.

He still remembered what Lupin looked like when he returned to the dormitory from the Hospital Wing after Full Moon nights long ago.

Covered in injuries and utterly exhausted, but worst of all was that dazed look, that terror of having no idea what he had done.

"If he can stay even a little conscious in those moments, then it's worth enduring more pain."

Lucretia's hand rested on the spoon as she looked at his focused profile.

She took a deep breath. "We'll do our best to balance it. Ease the pain while keeping him conscious. The unicorn's tears should help us find that balance."