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The students looked impressed, not including the Slytherins of course, Fred and George whistled in amazement when Percy was done. Snape however did nothing. He simply looked into Percy's eyes and stared. He waited for a moment before he nodded, "correct. 5 points to Hufflepuff."
The twins dropped their jaws, even Angelina and Alicia looked amazed as they stared at Percy. Percy tightened his eyebrow wondering why they acted so surprised, he told them he was good at potions.
"Today you all will attempt to brew the Draught of Living Death. Attempt being the keyword. This is not a simple task, nor one I expect you to complete. Look into your textbooks for the ingredients you will need. You have an hours time," Snape swished his wand, "you may begin!"
Percy took out his book and found the potion immediately. He quickly gathered all that he would need and began the potion. He filled the cauldron with water first, making sure to hide that fact that he did this with his godly powers and not magic.
Percy then looked over the potion and the instructions over and over again. And something seemed off. The effect that the book described would not happen with the ingredients provided. Percy's instincts were screaming at him to change the ingredients, and he trusted them more than anything else in life.
He remembered the first potion he ever made, and when Hecate showed him the official recipe he realised that what the book said, and what should be done may not always be the same thing.
Percy began preparing the ingredients quickly. He powdered Asphodel roots with a simple grinding charm reducing to the fine powder state he needed. He dissected the sloth brain needed and made sure to keep the parts separate so as to not dump the thing all at once, lest the effect not be effectively felt.
He then got to the Sopophorous beans. Here was the tricky part. These things were poisonous and were the main reason the draught was so deadly. Percy needed their juice, which was very hard to bring out.
He couldn't cut it, he learnt from personal experience that was a stupid thing to do. So instead he crushed the beans with his bare hands pouring the liquid into the cauldron directly not wasting a single drop.
At this point Percy was so focused in completing the potion he didn't even realise Snape hovering behind him staring at the way Percy worked.
To say Snape was impressed was an understatement. He had never seen someone work so efficiently, especially not a Puff. It was like he knew exactly what to do.
Snape had to even rear in his surprise when he saw Percy put an extra Sopophorous bean into the mix, his confidence not shaken a bit when he did so going off the book.
Snape continued walking around the room watching everyone else, making sure they didn't do something stupid. But he always had one eye on Percy Jackson, the Hufflepuff that was somehow beating Snape's own record time in creating the potion.
At the 40 minute mark Percy put his cauldron on simmer as it turned into the pale pink hue the book said it should be. Percy grinned at that, he trusted his instincts and it didn't fail him. He even went so far as adding a clockwise spin to it in the end to make the sloth brain more reactive.
The demigod stepped away from his desk and began to pack up. He cleaned his instruments and hands, Hecate had drilled the habit of keeping his workstation and self clean at all time when working with potions or else the ingredient you used for the last potion might seeped into your next one.
"Mr. Jackson," Snape called out as he walked, or rather gliding like a freaking vampire!, towards Percy's desk. He looked into Percy's cauldron and for a second Snape's eyes went wide in shock and surprise. He quickly schooled his features and walked away saying nothing.
"Mate, how did you finish it so fast?" Lee Jordan asked, the twins friend, as Percy later learned.
"I'm good with potions," Percy shrugged back as he looked at Lee's potion. It was maroon, not a good sign. "You need help with that?"
"Please," Lee sighed. Percy did what he could, but there was no way to correct Lee's potion before the one hour mark was up. But at least he had gotten the potion to a few shades lighter, that was a big achievement in Percy's book.
"In the allotted time I have given you only one has been able to successfully create the Draught," Snape said causing everyone to whisper in curiosity. Snape turned to Percy, "Mr. Jackson, you are the now only the second student in the history of Hogwarts to have ever successfully created this potion in the time given. You have even gone as far as beating the old time of 50 minutes by a good 10 minute gap. Congratulations."
The entire class turned as one and gaped. Percy smiled pridefully, he knew he had done it, he didn't need Snape to say it, but it did feel good to have the man acknowledge his skills. Fred and George grinned playfully while the Slytherin's looked murderous to say the least.
"As for your reward," Snape reached into his robes and pulled out a small glass vial that shined gold. Percy eyes widened as he gasped in surprise. "From your reaction I'm guessing you know what this is?"
Percy nodded silently, "i-it's Felix Felicis, liquid luck. One drop and you are guaranteed a day unlike any other. The ability to make the universe your bitch, in a bottle."
Snape gave a small smile at Percy's comment about the universe and nodded, "correct. One drop, and you will have the best day in your life. And it," Snape approached Percy placing the bottle at his desk, "is your prize. Congratulations Mr. Jackson. You have earned it."
Percy held the position in shaking hands as he and the Gryffindors walked out of the potions class.
"I can't believe it Percy! You actually got Snape to give you points! Do you know how amazing that is?!" George yelled.
"Not to mention the fact that he made Snape smile!" Lee cried out, "and don't tell me you didn't see the man do that! He totally smiled!"
"Well it wasn't really a smile-" Fred argued.
"-More like a smirk-" George agreed.
"-Like a small smirk-"
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If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters you could take a visit on my patreon Or check it out.
http://patreon.com/SageOf016