Rare Ingredient

A/N: Nope, it's not a belated April Fool's joke, I'm really posting a new chapter. Thanks and hugs to Verity for beta-ing and to Tylenol Farie for sending a house-elf. I just want to make it perfectly clear I hate writing Hagrid. Next time he appears, I think I'll have him keep his big mouth shut.

Chapter 6: Rare Ingredient

The following morning, a few stragglers were still dawdling over the remains of breakfast when Severus arrived in the Great Hall. With a brief nod to Madam Pomfrey and Professor Sprout, he sat down in an empty chair and poured a cup of tea. Glancing at the vacated space next to him, he picked up a discarded copy of the Daily Prophet and opened it. On the second page, a picture of Callista stepping out of Ollivander's was at the top, followed by an article.

Bring out Your Dead!

by Rita Skeeter

At first glance it would seem that Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore has finally been forced to resort to grave-robbing for his next Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor. Or has he? As it turns out, Callista Hawkins, aged 32, the presumed deceased daughter of the late Auror Adolphus Hawkins and Moira (O'Brien) Hawkins of Wexler, Ireland, wasn't dead after all. Miss Hawkins recently returned to Britain after spending the last fifteen years somewhere in North America.

On Halloween 1981, the fall of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the young Healer Trainee vanished suddenly, leaving her grief-stricken parents with no body to bury. At the time, it was assumed that she had been killed by convicted mass murderer Sirius Black or possibly even by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named himself. Did Black, who was killed in the Department of Mysteries in June and has supposedly been exonerated of his crimes, send her away for her own protection? Is it possible the two had been romantically involved? Sources suggest that there may indeed have been an understanding between Black and the Hawkins family--

Severus threw the paper aside in disgust and attempted to take a swallow of his tea. An understanding between Black and Callista's family? It wouldn't have been surprising. Black had been good-looking, well-off, and not Severus Snape--a fine match for Auror Hawkins' only daughter. Being from a pureblood family would have been an added bonus. A nasty half-smile twisted his thin lips. All of Adolphus Hawkins' other noble sensibilities aside, the old man had been a firm believer that those with pure blood were superior to those who were not.

"Ah, Severus." Dumbledore was smiling at him amiably as he passed by the younger man's seat. "I trust your first night back at the castle was a comfortable one?"

While his dreams had kept his sleep from being overly restful, not having the usual anxiety of waking up at wand point was refreshing. "It was adequate, Headmaster."

The old headmaster gave him a nod of understanding. "What were your plans for today, Severus?"

"I planned on cleaning out the store cupboard in the Potions classroom and working on some lesson plans for Defense Against the Dark Arts. Is there something you require of me?" asked Severus, wondering what, if anything, the old man had in store for him.

"Nothing that will require any more time than you have already allotted to your morning's tasks." Dumbledore smiled at Severus's surprise. "What do you normally do with the ingredients that are not up to standard?"

After fifteen years, why would the headmaster suddenly be interested in the fate of out-of-date potion ingredients? Severus wrinkled his forehead and answered, "Toss them into the bin, sir."

"If you would, please set them aside."

"What ever for?" Severus's forehead wrinkled as he tried to think up what earthly purpose saving substandard potion ingredients could serve.

The headmaster's blue eyes twinkled. "Professor Hawkins will be using them to teach the first-years correct preparation methods."

"'Correct preparation methods?'" Severus asked with a sneer. "Any student who isn't a complete dunderhead can learn to correctly prepare the ingredients. Those that can't, deserve to fail."

"Nevertheless, Professor Hawkins feels such basic instruction would be beneficial." The headmaster smiled brightly. "Unless you would rather they used top-quality ingredients to refine their techniques."

Of course he wouldn't want to see ingredients wasted! He was on the verge of informing Dumbledore that Miss Hawkins could sift through the Potions stores herself when he realized that allowing her do so would give her a measure, however small, of control over the classroom, and that was something he absolutely didn't want her to have. He was a senior staff member while she was merely a temporary solution to the school' permanent problem, and Severus had no intention of letting her forget that.

Keeping his face expressionless, Severus replied, "As you wish, Headmaster."

"Thank you, Severus." With a beaming smile, Dumbledore exited the Great Hall.

Feeling more than a little put out, the Potions master mercilessly speared a sausage with his fork. Halfway through his breakfast, he decided to have another go at reading the paper, skipping the page that featured Callista's picture. The Quidditch standings only aggravated his developing case of indigestion. Severus pushed his chair away from the table and strode out of the Great Hall. At the main entrance, he saw Hagrid holding open the door and Callista struggling with a cauldron.

"Can yeh carry it down alrigh' there, Callista?" Hagrid asked, his voice booming in the corridor. "Don' see why yeh can't just charm the thing an' float it down to the dungeon or at least have me carry it for you"

Severus heard Callista' panted answer. "Thank you, but… I really can manage. Don'… want to chance… using magic… and interfering… with its properties."

"Well then, I reckon yeh' know better' me. Feel free to come 'round anytime, now."

"Thank you… so much, Hagrid… for allowing me to join you. I think… I saw a reference book… in the Potions classroom… on the correct method… of preparation for this. If not… I do believe I have one." Callista wasn't paying attention to where she was going and nearly collided with Severus.

He tossed her his best sneer. "Look where you're going, Miss Hawkins!"

She briefly threw him a nasty look and continued on her way, struggling with a covered cauldron. His curiosity getting the better of him, he asked Hagrid, "What on earth does she have?"

"Oh, tha' be the afterbirth o' a unicorn."

Suddenly understanding Callista's reluctance to let someone else handle the weighty parcel, Severus asked, "Unicorn placenta? How the bloody hell did she get that?"

"One o' the dames dropped a foal today, an' we was lucky enough to see it. Bit late in the season, so the poor thing probably won't survive the winter. Anyways, soon as the foal was up, Callista rushed in to claim the afterbirth. Righ' excited 'bout it she was, Callista that is, goin' on 'bout how it's so very rare." Hagrid shrugged his massive shoulders.

Severus leaned against the wall for support, grinding the heels of his hands into his eyes. Unicorn anything was an expensive purchase. The hair was easy enough to come by, but hooves or horn were used only rarely. The blood of a unicorn could stop death, but one had to be desperate to use it. The blood from the placenta was recognized to have the healing properties without cursing the user. Since unicorns were not domesticated, finding a placenta that was still fresh and viable was virtually impossible. The preparation wasn't so much difficult as it was a race against time and using exact but variable amounts of purification solutions and preservatives. Leaving Hagrid to ramble on about the potentially sad fate of the unicorn foal, Severus strode towards the dungeon corridor as he envisioned the multiple ways an unpracticed hand could render the organ and blood useless.

By the time he got to the classroom, Callista was intently reading a preparation guide and assembling the appropriate materials, which included various glass blades, storage bottles and a wooden rack, from the student supply shelves. He fixed his gaze into a cold, unconcerned mask as he strode over to the work bench. Callista pointedly ignored him, concentrating on her work so completely that she could have easily been the only person in the room. He glared at her, waiting for her to ask for assistance. Once she picked up the knife, he had no choice but to break his stony silence.

"Do you know what you are doing?" he said huffily, as she continued to bisect the mass. When Callista failed to acknowledge his question, Severus raised his voice, asking, "Miss Hawkins, I said-"

"I heard you, but this requires all my attention," she said, frowning in concentration. "Please, don't bother me while I'm working. If you can't be quiet or don't wish to be helpful, then please leave."

He couldn't believe that she would actually have the audacity to politely order him out of his own classroom. "If you do it incorrectly, you will foul it up."

"That won't happen if a certain obnoxious berk will kindly remove his overly large nose from my business," she muttered in a quiet voice, continuing to delicately cut. "I can read, you know. Besides, you of all people should be certain of my skills."

He growled in frustration, determined to ascertain if she actually did know what she was doing. "What methods will you be using?"

"The blood will have impurities removed, and then a preservative added to prevent coagulation after bottling, and finally be sealed in crystal vials. It seems to have the longest shelf life with that preparation, while being the most versatile and closest to a natural state. The placenta itself will be dried with a steady stream of warm air and sewn into cotton casing. Satisfied?" She went back to her work, cutting the slippery, silver pieces so the blood could drip into a glass beaker. With that task completed, she began mixing the ingredients for the preservative potion.

"It was amazing, seeing the foal come into the world," Callista mumbled absently as she combined ingredients.

He sneered at her foolish, feminine sentimentality. "Very fortunate for you to stumble upon such a rare ingredient, Miss Hawkins."

"Isn't it though, Severus?" she said. Callista paused before looking up at him with narrowed, angry eyes. "You needn't hover. It's been a while, but I'm confident I can handle the preparations without your assistance. I would hate for it to be made unusable. Blood must be handled carefully, you know."

He gave her a confused look before it dawned on him what she was talking about.

Severus awoke in a daze as someone gently shook his shoulder. Opening his eyes, he looked into the face of Callista Hawkins. She was in his bed, wearing his shirt. The events of the previous night came flooding back. "What time is it?"

"A little before five. I need to return to the dorm before I'm missed." She was lightly stroking his arm. "Sorry, I fell asleep."

"Not your fault," he said with a yawn. "You were tired from your exams and the Relaxing Draught must have affected you more strongly than it normally would have."

She blushed and hesitated before continuing, "I noticed you... um, cleaned things up. I wished I could have helped you prepare it."

"I wish you had, too," he said, pressing his hands against his eyes.

Another pause. "Well, where is it?"

He didn't look at her. "Something went wrong in the preparation, and it coagulated. It's ruined."

Her hand flew to her mouth in disbelief. "Oh, no."

"I'm sorry," he whispered, as he took her in his arms.

Severus shook his head in irritation. If she had only known... Looking up, his eyes met hers, and for the briefest of moments, he thought she would actually ask for his assistance. Her expression suddenly hardened before she turned back to her work.

After studying the page for further instructions, she began squeezing the slimy pieces of organ, coaxing the blood from them. Severus watched tensely as drop by drop she added the correct amount of preservative, all the while painfully aware of the clock ticking in the back of the silent classroom, each second making the difference between viable and useless product. Finally the blood had just enough preservative added, and he nearly shouted at her when she went to add one more drop. As it became apparent the blood was still viable, her excited smile expressed a sense of confidence. and accomplishment. As the finished product was deposited and sealed in a multitude of tiny vials, he caught himself on the verge of congratulating her. Unfortunately, towards the end of the process, the blood began to solidify from exposure to the air. He frowned, realizing that had she allowed him to work with her, the entire batch could have been bottled.

Callista blew out a frustrated breath and mumbled, "Most of it is usable anyway."

Most of it! A former student of her caliber should have been able to bottle all of it before it turned. Aggravated by her lowered standard of success, he scathingly remarked, "If you had bottled the finished product more efficiently, you would have been able to salvage all of it,"

"If you had offered to lend a hand instead of hovering, the process could have been completed more efficiently," she returned testily, vanishing the unusable leftovers with an irritated wave of her wand.

He glared at her. "I was under the impression that you didn't want my assistance."

"Well," Callista began, lifting her chin defiantly, "it certainly wouldn't have killed you to offer, would it?"

"Nor would it have harmed you to ask for assistance," he pointed out critically, not wanting her to get in the last word. Callista made no reply, and he felt his lips twitch into a triumphantly sneering smile as she sent the soiled utensils zooming over to the utility basin at the back of the classroom and set them to washing with a spell. Taking more time and care than was necessary in placing the vials in a box, Callista ignored him. With a sharp snap of the box latch, she secured her treasure and turned her attention to the placenta. After hanging each piece on the wooden rack, she twirled her wand, creating a steady stream of warm, dry air.

Callista checked her watch and said, "It take several hours to dry, so I'll be back sometime in the evening to finish up. Hopefully I won't disturb you."

"See that you don't," he snapped as she closed the door behind her. Stalking to the front of the classroom, he swooped to his desk and read down through the list of tasks he needed to complete before the start of term. Unfortunately, he found the only things left to do were to clean out the storage cupboard and restock it with new ingredients.

"I really need to have a separate work space," Callista grumbled as she climbed the main staircase. "Trying to work with Severus standing over me like I'm some kind of incompetent firstie is intolerable. Of course, if I somehow had managed to totally screw up the preparation of the unicorn blood, I just know I would' never heard the end of it. I suppose I could put a Permanent Silencing Charm on him; that might be appreciated by nearly anyone who has to deal with him. Obnoxious, arrogant bastard."

She continued muttering increasingly rude comments about the Potions master until she reached the sanctuary of her rooms. Once the door was closed, Callista leaned against it, pressing her hands to her face to keep from screaming in frustrated anger. Hoping a long hot shower--or even better, a bath--would rid her of both the mud from her morning adventure and her annoyance with the Potions master, she selected a very old book on healing potions from her shelf and headed to the bathroom.

After her thoughts were more under control, she would request to see the headmaster about a private, Severus-free workroom -- preferably in a warmer part of the castle. Experimenting with existing potions was something she hadn't done for a very long time. However, she had a few ideas for ways to use the unicorn blood, and all of them were best done away from Severus and his sneer.