RP: James and Snape Who: James Sirius Potter, Severus Snape Where: Malfoy Manor When: 28 December, 2024 (After the attack during the Quidditch match.) Rating/Warnings: Summary: James comes to talk to Snape about training.
After the failed attempt to intercept Riddle, Snape was too keyed up by frustrated post-combat adrenalin to read, so he took his usual refuge, in work.
He hadn't made this sort of preparation since he'd arrived in this new time, but now that Riddle was aware he was alive, he knew with bitter certainty that his all-too-brief reprieve was well and truly over.
So he sat down with several strips of Graphorn hide, and began to prepare war belts.
Graphorn hide naturally repelled spells, and Snape soaked the strips in Impervius potion and other potions that enhanced its spell-repellent effect, so that no stray or intentional hex would disrupt their contents. When the strips had absorbed enough of the potion, he would load their dozens and dozens of tiny pockets with miniature phials: slim and unadorned for a lightning-fast draw-and-throw, and unbreakable-charmed for the safety of the belt's wearer.
When the belts were ready, he'd fill the phials with a selection of the potions he'd invented for use in combat: effective via skin contact or vapour, and concentrated in effect.
They included Incendiolio - if it fell on any combustible matter, it kindled a fire that only died when nothing was left for it to burn; Breath of Living Death - a hyperconcentrated version of the Draught; and Tempus Fugit - which essentially held the victim in bodily and mental stasis.
And there would be many others besides: changing a war belt was as simple as swapping phials. Snape believed in surprises in combat, and all his life, invention had been his only idea of relaxation.