Repaying The Life Debt Chapter 6: Her Fifth Week

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Her Fifth Week

Chapter 6 of 21

They’ve been together a month, and although she’s his apprentice, Severus is beginning to really regret his acceptance of the arrangement. He’s got to nip things in the bud before it simply gets out of hand.

This is my response for the Dictionary Drabbles Fun Challenge for April 26.

This is my response for the Dictionary Drabbles Fun Challenge for May 3.

General Drabble/100-Word Alternate Universe Epilogue What Epilogue? Potions Under Duress 24,381 Words 21 Chapters Complete

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I wish to give the accolades due to my beta, Southern_Witch_69, for all her time making this story presentable. Thank you, so very much, and I just want you to know how much I appreciate it.

April 26

Her Fifth Week

Severus shifted his position again for the ninth time, as he sat on his sofa, trying, unsuccessfully, to read the ancient tome his grandfather had given to his mum before she was married. Below him, lay Miss Granger, still working her way through the assignment he’d given her.

It was as if he’d been given a portent, sitting in his sitting room, watching Miss Granger sprawled on his floor in her dressing robe, pajamas and tiny T-shirt, her bare feet raised up over her bum, reading and scanning the fifteen books he’d pulled from his shelf for her use. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her, since she seemed completely incapable of holding her feet still, had an annoying habit of rubbing the vane of her quill against her lip when she was thinking, and biting on her lower lip while she wrote. Never mind that from his position, she was showing him the soft swell of her breasts every time she reached for a book, turned a page or otherwise moved thank in part to the curve of the neckline of her T-shirt. It was hardly the shape of a ‘T’ at all, in his opinion. It resembled a hourglass with a deep ‘U’ in front, and it obviously was too snug to wear a brassiere. If he was going to keep his sanity, she just simply couldn’t wear those snug fitting T-shirts anymore, especially if she insisted on staying the night in his old, childhood bed. Severus shifted again, trying to adjust himself and not be obvious while doing so.

He hadn’t really meant to lambaste her so severely on Tuesday, but her innumerable questions were grating on his nerves. If he was going to accomplish anything on his own work, she was just simply going to have to learn to rationalize things out herself and not rely on him or a book. “Sometimes you simply have to theorize, based upon commonalities and comparable reactions,” he’d snapped at her. He was simply not ubiquitous!

The potions reactions on his list, which involved the use of Chimera blood and scales, were not in any of the books he allowed her to use. He’d checked each book very carefully, creating a list that would really test her reasoning abilities, and yet still create potions he could sell. Most were very difficult potions to brew, but he knew that she had the skill to do them if she properly applied herself.

He’d been very stern with her when she’d showed up on Wednesday, handing her the list of questions, N.E.W.T. level of course, which she wouldn’t be able to cheat her way through. “None of these answers can be found in those books; however, each one contains the basics and the reactions of each ingredient. In order to answer my questions you will have to reason out the probabilities and deduce what the expected results will be. This is a theoretical exercise of trial and error, and experimentation and discovery,” he’d explained firmly. “You will not be able to simply regurgitate the information back at me, but will have to reason out your own conclusions. Once you have speculated on what you need to make the potion work, you will brew it. Do not melt any of my cauldrons, or our arrangement will be terminated immediately.”

At least she was able to lionize the old family heirlooms from his library, especially the ancient texts he prized so much.

The problem was simply that Miss Granger was too winsome, beguiling, and, well she had turned into a handsome young woman, seemingly overnight. She’s spending nearly three nights a week here in my old bedroom, sharing my loo, and has even begun cooking for me – us. Completely unacceptable behavior for an apprentice!

However, the fact that she’d actually quoted Lockhart’s book, that insipid epigone, had really irked him. But as he sat reading, contemplating what she’d said, it made sense. Lockhart may have been an inferior imitator, but the subjects and events in his books rang with an edge of truth. It was quite possible that he may have quoted and stolen his information from far more gifted wizards and witches than himself.

Still, he was beginning to really regret his acceptance of the arrangements they’d made regarding her apprenticeship. He simply had to gain the upper hand with her, before it got out of control.

~TBC~

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Author’s notes:

The vane is the colorful flat part of the feather made up of the thousands of fine barbs, which branch off the shaft. The barbs are held together by thousands of hooked barbules on each barb, which interlace and look like cloth almost under a microscope. It’s the end of the shaft, the part that is actually under the skin, the calumus, which is cut to make the quill tip.

The word list (swiped from the past week's list from dictonary.com):

portent

lambaste

chimera

lionize

ubiquitous

winsome

epigone

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portent \POR-tent\, noun:

1. A sign of a coming event or calamity; an omen.

2. Prophetic or menacing significance.

3. Something amazing; a marvel.

------------ --------- --------- --------

lambaste \lam-BAYST\, transitive verb:

1. To give a thrashing to; to beat severely.

2. To scold sharply; to attack verbally; to berate.

------------ --------- --------- --------

chimera \ky-MIR-uh\, noun:

1. (Capitalized) A fire-breathing she-monster represented as having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.

2. Any imaginary monster made up of grotesquely incongruous parts.

3. An illusion or mental fabrication; a grotesque product of the imagination.

4. An individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution, produced as a result of organ transplant, grafting, or genetic engineering.

------------ --------- --------- --------- ---

lionize \LY-uh-nyz\, transitive verb:

To treat or regard as an object of great interest or importance.

------------ --------- --------- --------- -----

ubiquitous \yoo-BIK-wih- tuhs\, adjective:

Existing or being everywhere, or in all places, at the same time.

------------ --------- --------- --------- -----

winsome \WIN-suhm\, adjective:

1. Cheerful; merry; gay; light-hearted.

2. Causing joy or pleasure; agreeable; pleasant.

------------ --------- --------- --------- -----

epigone \EP-uh-gohn\ , noun:

An inferior imitator, especially of some distinguished writer, artist, musician, or philosopher.

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Latest 25 Reviews for Repaying The Life Debt

229 Reviews | 7.33/10 Average

10/10

Shadow

I really enjoyed this story. You have a real gift for taking those words and weaving them into your plot seamlessly. Well done.