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corkinavoid · 4 months ago

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DPxDC Hogwarts AU [pt. 8]

Herbology turns out to be an alright class, even if Tim gravely regrets not wearing gloves. His nails are a mess now. But Transfiguration is way worse, because he can't, for the love of him, make his matchstick turn into anything, much less a needle, and Professor McGonagall looks vaguely disappointed at him, with her lips pressed into a thin line and all. She is not even his Head of House, why does it matter what she thinks of him?

But anyway, it looks like the main challenge is still ahead of him.

The Potions class, that is.

Tim doesn't have any love for the subject, he never had. Brewing takes a lot of time and precision, and, what's more, various ingredients have too many different effects when mixed and overlapped, and Tim never understood why does it matter how many times you have to stir the concoction and why clockwise or counterclockwise direction makes a difference. Besides, most potions can be replaced with an appropriate charm or spell, which is way more interesting to study (not to mention that it works faster than spending hours over your cauldron). So, all in all, Tim is understandably not very excited about the class.

Honestly, his only saving grace would be the fact that Potions are taught by Professor Snape, who is his Head of House, so it's unlikely that he is going to actually fail.

However, all those pros, cons, and side notes quickly leave his mind when he enters the classroom. Because, as it turns out - and, yeah, maybe he should have paid more attention to his schedule, but he was rather busy snapping at Manson ever since they left the common room in the morning - they have this class together with Hufflepuffs.

Which means Danny is here. Which means it's his chance to apologize.

Which is why he takes the seat right beside the boy without a split second of hesitation, because if he doesn't act quick then Manson is going to claim it first, and Tim is so done with her. He is immediately proven right when he hears her angry, snake-like hissing behind him, but it doesn't matter since, hey, the early owl gets the treat or whatever.

And then Danny turns to him, visibly startled by his arrival, and all carefully prepared and rehearsed words leave Tim's head in a rush, like someone vanished them right out of his head.

His eyes are very blue.

Wait, no, his apology!

But, right as Tim opens his mouth, the door to the classroom swings open again, and Professor Snape sweeps in, his robes flapping behind his back. Yesterday, after the first-years were escorted to the Slytherin common room, the man left them with a very brief, albeit distinctive impression of a grumpy bat. Today, this impression only strengthens.

Danny blinks at Tim a few times before hesitantly turning his attention to the Professor. Tim's mood instantly sours - couldn't the Professor wait just, like, three more seconds before starting his class?.. Tim is very cross with him right now, Head of Slytherin or not.

Seems like his apology is going to have to wait at least till the end of class.

~~~

Halfway into their period, Tim learns a few very important things.

First, their seats are assigned, and whoever they choose as a partner today is going to be their partner for the rest of the year. Which might have been a bad thing - House unity and whatnot since Tim is the only one to dare pair up with a student of a different House - but. For one, Tim is pretty sure if he didn't sit next to Danny, then Sam would, so the House unity was going to be questioned anyway. For two, Danny turns out to be an honest to Merlin Potions prodigy, so Tim can't bring himself to be upset.

Second, the fact that a Hufflepuff can be good in Potions seems to grate on Professor Snape's nerves quite obviously. And Danny, apparently having no idea how to read the room and keep his mouth shut, doesn't help.

They are making a Boil Cure, and the instructions written on the board are rather simple even for Tim. But Danny doesn't even look at the board, instead going to gather his ingredients as soon as he hears the assignment, and it sparks a whole debate between him and Professor. If their quick question-answer barrage can even be called something so mild as a 'debate'.

"Uses of barn hazel," Professor demands, suddenly snapping his attention back to Danny just as Tim thought they calmed down.

"Urtica dioica, other known as stinging nettle or just nettle," Danny responds without even taking his eyes off the crushed fangs in the mortar in front of him, "It can be just a cooking ingredient if you want, but other than that, the essence goes into the Sleeping Draught, dried leaves can be crushed and used to speed up the brewing of almost any mucus based potion except the Herbicide, because Horklump juice goes into that one. Also goes into Hair-Dye potion, but, just so you know, if you add too much, it can make your hair greasy."

"Just so I know?" Professor sneers, his eyes narrowed dangerously. Danny gives him a side-eye that is all but screaming 'duh'.

"Yeah, since it looks like you've made that mistake repeatedly," he answers, and Tim can't laugh, he absolutely can't laugh, no way. Stephanie, who is sitting at the desk right behind him, doesn't have such reservations, though, and snorts loudly.

Professor's left eye twitches. "Ten points from Hufflepuff for disrespect," he snaps, but Danny merely shrugs and adds the contents of his mortar into the cauldron, eye-measuring the amounts. Tim panics briefly - the instructions said strictly four measurements of it - but the potion turns a perfect pale blue, just as written. Danny adjusts the heat and stirs the whole thing almost absentmindedly.

Professor Snape looks like he's had one too many Pepperup potions, all red-faced and a moment away from having steam come out of his ears.

Sitting next to Danny was simultaneously Tim's best and worst decision for this class.

~~~

It's only about ten minutes before the class ends that Tim gets a chance to actually talk to Danny. Not that they hadn't said a word to each other before, of course, but it was all 'pass me the ginger powder' and 'watch the slugs, they are making a run', so, not very productive. At least not in the area where Tim wanted it to be productive.

They are cleaning their station now, two vials of Boil Cure successfully turned in to Professor. He very begrudgingly gave them both an E for it, even though Tim is pretty sure this was the best Boil Cure to ever exist - it was looking exactly like the finished product was supposed to be. But arguing with a teacher on the first day is not on Tim's 'to do' list, to be honest, and Danny doesn't seem to mind, so he thinks it's okay. For now.

What's not okay is that he still hasn't apologized.

So that's what he does, right as Danny returns from putting the mortar and pestle and the cutting board away. He spells the tabletop clean and quietly offers, "I'm sorry."

Danny looks up from where he is studying the remains of their Cure in the cauldron and blinks. "For what?"

And that... is a good question, actually, because Tim can't exactly formulate his vague feeling of guilt into words.

"For... Well, I never thanked you for the broom," he gives one reason, but it doesn't sound like enough. "And I- ugh, I mean- Okay, there's not a good way to say this, but I'm sorry I forgot to write you. Or talk to you. Or, um, just you, in general," he breathes out finally, still not looking up from the table.

There's a short beat of silence following his poor attempt at making peace, and then, "Huh."

Tim whips his head up, and Danny's expression looks a bit puzzled. Then, he hesitantly smiles, tilting his head to the side like an owl, "So you did like the broom? You just never replied to my letters, so I figured it was, um, not the best gift. Which, technically, it wasn't, I probably should have, like, gotten you a new broom, at least."

Now it's Tim's turn to be puzzled. "Letters?" He asks, staring into Danny's eyes, "Wait, you wrote me letters?" He didn't think this situation can get any worse, but here he is, not only completely forgetting a person but apparently also ignoring them. Way to go, Timothy Drake.

Hold on, no, there was another important question there. "And, yeah, of course I liked the broom," he backtracks, "I still have it, actually, not with me because first-years are not allowed brooms, but it's back home. Dick - err, he is my brother- or, cousin, sort of - taught me how to ride it after I broke my leg at first attempt."

The more he talks - rambles, really - the bigger the smile on Danny's face gets. And, coincidentally, the lesser the anxious knot in Tim's stomach becomes, the tension leaving him slowly.

And then, Danny's smile turns into a grin. The one that reminds Tim of shimmering sparkles in the mirror ceilings and flutes of champagne spiked with silly potions. The one that makes the tension return, but it's a different kind now, an anticipation of something really bad but really fun happening in the next second.

"Okay," Danny says, his blue eyes creasing with a phantom of laughter. He settles the cauldron back on the table and looks over the few potion ingredients that are still scattered around the desk, a contemplating look on his face. "I'm glad," he adds and reaches for one of the vials containing some kind of weird white beans that Tim doesn't recognize, "And I'm going to forgive you, but on one condition."

Two minutes ago, Tim would have jumped at the opportunity. Right now, he is not so eager anymore, cautiously watching Danny uncork the vial.

"Which is?" He prompts the boy, and he gives him a quick glance, his whole posture dripping of mischief.

"I see why you're a Slytherin," Danny mutters almost like to himself, and then adds a bit louder, "On the condition that I get to make it fair." And, before Tim can agree or refuse, he drops all the contents of the vial into their cauldron, which immediately starts making low, aggressively bubbling sounds.

Tim only has a split second to take a quick step back in alarm before it starts spilling over the rim and shooting bright blue foam everywhere like a fountain, covering both him and Danny from head to toe, and Cassius' back , and the whole table and floor around them, and everything.

Professor Snape lets out an enraged battle cry from his desk, and a few other students are screaming, but Danny is laughing, and Tim is not sure what kind of face he is making but it's definitely as far from pleased as possible, and-

The foam smells of something sweet and feels vaguely warm and tickling on his skin.

Tim's insides kind of feel like that foam as well.

—☆—☆—☆—

Vibes for Potions classroom:

I'm having too much fun with Picrews, can you blame me? I didn't do Sam and Tim this time since they were just in the last part, and not much has changed since then, but here's Steph, and Fred and George, who have already figured the entrance to the kitchens, and Valerie who is not excited by that.

[Picrew]

—☆—☆—☆—

Wow, this part turned out way longer than expected. I'm thinking of cross-posting this on ao3 at this point since I'm not planning to stop any time soon,

Anyway, notes!

They didn't get detention only because it's literally their first day, but Snape deducted a shitton of points. However, the number of detentions with Snape that Danny got himself into over the years is twice as much as every other detention he served for all other classes and rule-breaking combined.

Have you ever wondered why it was that Slytherins and Gryffindors, who had the biggest rivalry between them, were paired together for Potions, one of the most volatile classes? I fully intend to give you an explanation for it. It's because Danny motherfucking Fenton is a Potions prodigy, but he is also a shit, no, The Shit, and Tim has no problems enabling him. By the end of their first year, Snape absolutely refused to have the two of them in the same classroom and demanded a change in the schedules. He can deal with the House rivalry by scaring the Gryffindors shitless, but he won't have the Fenton kid paired up with the Drake kid. Just no.

Granted, the Fenton kid is still up for trouble even without his usual partner, but he at least mellowed out without someone he wanted to impress by his side.

Also, Danny is a prodigy mostly because he spent near his whole childhood in his parents basement, and Jack and Maddie are in love with potions and experiments. Also, they saw no reason to gatekeep the knowledge from him for reasons I'm not yet sharing because that would be a spoiler. Just know that they've made their fair share of mistakes with potions, and now they intend to give Danny (and their other kids) all the tools to avoid the same thing.

By the way, Danny's favorite subject is Astronomy, and he absolutely sucks at Charms. Tim, on the other hand, is excellent at Charms and usually has a good grip on Potions - as in, he can follow the instructions just fine when there isn't Danny nearby, cutting out steps that he thinks they don't need or adding ingredients to make the potion better - but he's notoriously bad at Transfiguration. Sam likes Herbology the best but isn't very good at Potions (which is why she wanted to sit with Danny, aside from other reasons), and Stephanie is in a deep love-hate relationship with Transfiguration: she loves the subject but has a rocky relationship with McGonagall due to her behavior.

According to wiki, there was no DADA teacher in Hogwarts in 1989, so I'm sticking with the idea of other teachers rotating the substitute role for it during the whole year. I bet even Dumbledore took a turn.

[<- part 7 | part 9 ->]

#danny phantom #dpxdc #dc x dp #tim drake #cork prompts #hogwarts au #hp #potions #danny is a little shit #and a menace #tim loves him for it #but he doesnt know it yet shhhhhh #god they are so cute

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