your love is my drug; }{ open!

[severus allen snape]

The potions room was locked like usual, when classes weren’t going on, and the professor was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he was browsing around Hogsmeade or tucked away for an early night’s sleep but Severus wasn’t asking those types of questions. He was more concerned about the cauldron that sat before him with a mess of recipes laying around, some that had been spilled on, some that had been crumpled and thrown out. Severus, though it wasn’t his favorite subject, was skilled at the art of potion making. Never did he ask for the ability to make good luck potions or love potions or potions to rid anyone of warts, but he was good at it and he would hide away in the extra dungeon and make those extraneous potions in the evenings when everyone else was watching quidditch or eating dinner. This particular brew was glowing a brilliant red and it smelled so sweetly of burning fall leaves, the castle stone when drenched in rain, and the scent of Lily Evan’s perfume. It was, of course, a love potion…one that had been toyed with as Severus experimented and played around. Sitting on the desk next to him were vials of old recipes that he had just made, all slightly different and of varying degrees of strength. What a treasure that would be to find as the year starts and relationships begin.

The candle light flickered as Severus sat stirring his potion all different ways. He stopped to read his book only once or twice, confident that he didn’t need it at all. His hair was pushed back away from his eyes, but still laying down black and almost greasy. He was wearing his Slytherin robes, all out of place and messy. His tie was hanging off his neck undone, and his shirt wasn’t tucked in. With his sleeves rolled up and his black, beady eyes staring deeply at the cauldron, you’d almost bet he was oblivious to the world around him. Every once in a while a band of students would giggle as they walked by back to their dormitory, or a group of rowdy boys would run down the hallway shooting jinxes at each other. Most left Severus well enough alone and mainly because they didn’t care to even look for him. He was content with this, and kept working diligently, hoping to master this potion before the night was out. What he wouldn’t give for a perfect love potion, but would he have the guts to use it?

[ryan daniel willis]

Ryan knew there was a party tonight, but he didn't care. Terria had never been a party person, and she wouldn't talk to him anymore. He headed down all the different staircases. There were a lot of people heading towards the party, but he slipped past. He ended up down in the dungeons. The sixth year knew that Slytherins would not approve of a Gryffindor being around there, but they would have to live with it. He headed over to the extra potions room, and tried to see if it was unlocked. "'Course not." Was what he muttered when he quickly learned that the door was locked. "Alohomora."

He walked inside once he heard the clicking sound of it unlocking. Ryan looked around at the one cauldron, and saw the concentrated Severous Snape. The smell in the air was very comforting, and that made him realize what it was. "You're making a Love Potion aren't you Snape?" A huge grin came on to his face and headed over to he could be by him. "I could use that myself, Terria is completely ignoring me now." It was unwise to speak before speaking, but he did it anyways. Snape wasn't bad in his opinion, just someone that tried to not be shunned by his own house.

Ryan's uniform was also disheveled, and it was pretty obvious he had no intention of going to the party Sirius and James were going to try to crash. "If I help you out, I get part of it. Sound like a deal?" The grin was still on his face, though he was just as much of a failure with the source of his passion as Severous was. "We're on the same page here." He tried to reassure him, trying to convince him that a friend of James and Sirius might just be worth trusting. If he did this right, he would have a love potion, and maybe Terria would finally care about him. It was what he wanted more than anything in the world, to have Terria for his own.

He looked over at the book to see what all they might still need in order for it to be finished properly. Ryan dug out his own book and goes to the page that talks about different love potions and their effects. As much as he tried to study potions and remember such things, he had a hard time with it. "Snape, do you know what this is supposed to do?" The Gryffindor stated, being curious and unable to focus on the pages that were in front of him for more than five seconds. All of his brain was buzzing, and despite him being a rather sharp man, he blocked all red flags and wanted to go along with it anyways.

[severus allen snape]

The night drew on all around Severus, but his time stood still for a while. He didn't ever notice the hours falling behind him, he just knew what was his cauldron and his own thoughts. The sound of the dungeon door unlocking escaped him. Whether professor or student, Severus didn't noticed that anyone had joined him that night. His right arm stirred the potion counter clockwise, for five good turns, and his left hand sifted through the ingredients sitting on the table just in front of him. He needed frozen ashwinder eggs next. As the sound of Ryan's voice carried through to his unaccustomed ears, Severus knocked over the vial of eggs and watched the glass shatter with a small, terrifying sound. He quickly collected himself, finished his last stir and whipped around to look him dead in the face. A strand of hair fell over his eyes.

"I'm just practicing, that's all." he spoke defensively, although they had proven to be alright friends. His voice drifted off as he turned back to his potion, a little worry left carrying through his voice. With shaking hands, Severus pulled his wand out of his pocket and cleaned up the spilled eggs. "What are you doing here Ryan?" Although Severus would prefer that was his name, not his last name or that rotten nickname, he had started to not notice when people called him something other than Severus. Most people weren't worth noticing sometimes, not when all they could say to him was "SNIVELLUS!" from across the great hall. Ryan walked up closer to him and his cauldron, and pulled out his own potions book. Severus glanced down at his own, so full of scribbles and notes, rewriting recipes, and a few new spells here and there. In a different time, with a different outlook on the world, Ravenclaw would have loved to have Severus, and some days he wished that he had been so lucky as to have been seated at their table first. But there was no use crying over it now.

"You want to help me?" I think I can do this on my own, thanks." Severus looked down at his potions, such long hours toiling over them. He was going to use them himself, that was the secret plan in all of this business. He even told himself that hew as just practicing, but his aching heart would tell him differently. Lily wouldn't be so stupid to take a love potion so unwillingly, would she? He glanced back up at Ryan and gave a little sigh. "Well, if you insist." He pushed the already filled vials towards his friend. "This will give the drinker a strong infatuation with the first person they see after drinking. I next need frozen Ashwinder eggs, there should be more in the shelves straight ahead..these have unthawed since they spilled."

[ryan daniel willis]

He looked at the shattered item and sighed. Ryan always came to see Severus at very inconvenient times. It was clear that he was very nervous about what he was doing. He started to help out by getting the eggs and it took him awhile to process what he was saying. "Isn't infatuation not real love?" The boy knew that he might sound stupid, but he was asking an honest question. The frozen eggs were given to Severous and he started to have a nervous look on his face himself. "Are you sure you want to do that to Lily, Severus?" It was his inner voice of reason that rung out, trying to make sure that this was honestly what his friend wanted to do.

"If it is I am not going to argue with you, I'll help you." Even though he was having second thught himself, he would still help Severus with what he wanted to do and take a vial unless he decided to back out as well. All of Ryan's moral compass was telling him it was a bad idea, but for the moment trying to make Severus see he wasn't just someone trying to just use him for his own interests was more important. "I mean I've talked to Lily before, she just wants somebody that thinks of her as an equal along with all people like her." Ryan tried to speak cautiously, saying the words gently, knowing that they would deter him from what he was trying to do to her. It would not be fair to either of them if he ended up doing that to the two of them for his own selfish reasons.

He thought about if Terria found out and how ashamed she probably would be and his heart sunk a bit. Ryan started to mumble under his breath. "I am sorry, I shouldn't have even thought about that." Severus should have known he would have probably backed down once he fully understood. The book Severus was using to make the potion he looked down at. "We can back out at any point, you don't have to go through with this, if you decide not to." Maybe, just maybe he could get the two out of there, and they could go to that overrated party and at least see the two people that they really cared about from a distance. To him, maybe that should be enough due to what he thought about doing. He met his eyes with Severus', wondering just what he would say about Ryan's sudden change of heart.

[severus allen snape]

Severus gave one hard look at Ryan for a moment. His eyes searched the boy before him, like looking for something he might have missed. Severus was quite interested in what Ryan was saying, but yet so confused. He looked down, then, at his own robes, at the potion before him, and at his hands. Had he given away a secret? Had Severus mindlessly conveyed extra information to a person such as Ryan? A little nervously, he closed up his potions book..suddenly aware of his own mess of scribbles. "Do what to Lily!?" He looked away and went back to stirring. "Ryan, I'm just practicing." The potion was nearing completion, its aroma truly something to marvel at. Severus thought that for sure, this time he had done it. This was the love potion of the year, and the year was only just beginning. He added the finishing ingredients, those eggs as strange as they were, but his mind wasn't on the potion.

Ryan was talking about Lily. Lily Evans. A conversation subject Severus did like to keep quiet. Listening patiently as the boy kept going, seeming to change his mind half way through the monologue. "You talked to Lily about her love life...?" Severus blurted out, completely confused as to how she even became the subject matter at all. His face was growing red, and his hands were shaking more from the figure of her that popped into his head than from the potion he just messed up by stirring one to many times. Oh of all that's righteous! he scolded himself and slammed his hand on the desk before him. The ruined potion splashed up and out of the cauldron and dissolved before his eyes. Frustrated and confused, Severus gazed back over at Ryan. His black eyes scanned him up and down, and he put one arm out grabbed the potions he had handed over to Ryan and took them back. "I wasn't planning anything!" he shouted. Sure his voice had reached a tone he didn't mean to reach, but that's what girls tended to do to him.

[severus allen snape]

dead.