One of the actual heroes of the entire Harry Potter storyline, Severus Snape is treated as a villain throughout most of the stories. This recounting of his early years at Hogwarts School serves to put a bit of perspective into the personality that was Snape.

Professor Snape became potions master at Hogwarts School in the fall semester of 1981. At that time, he was known to travel far and wide in search of flora and fauna for creating his now-well-known potion varieties.

One such outing took place on the Outer Hebrides Islands. Snape had apparated to the location in search of a little-seen plant called the Bog Bean or Bog Hop plant. http://www.wildflowersofireland.net/plant_detail.php?id_flower=358This plant was rumoured to have a calming effect on First-years, provided it was first dried and brewed into a tea. Well - you can imagine Snape's interest in slipping this into a few carefully selected hooligan student teas! No more tipped cauldron "accidents" in class, no more missing quills from every desk anymore, and certainly no more unnecessary cheeky questions from lads and lasses who slowed down his lessons with ridiculous questions designed to delay learning!

It was a summer holiday Saturday as Snape appeared on the edge of a bog at the backside to a shingle beach in Sandwick. This village is located in County Lewis in the Hebrides. It's remote, to say the least. Snape was not long in locating the flower he sought as its bright white shape stood out against the green shafts of stems ending under the brackish water of the bog they were in. Snape had not brought his wellies, and - not wishing to get wet decided to use his want to "pick" the flowers from their stems. it did not take him long as he walked along the edge of the bog. Within 15 minutes he'd collected several dozen flowers of this sort. He felt he had enough to dry and test out the effect on a student or two before fully committing to a greater harvest of the species at some future time. 

Unbeknown to the potions master, he was being observed by a pair of green eyes situated within the bog. Over the moments the wizard had collected his samples, the eyes had followed his every move. If one paid particular attention to the eyes, it would have been clear that whatever they were connected to was not happy at seeing the flowers being taken away. 

It was, in fact, a dragon. A very special type of dragon   - a Hebridean Black. Known for its nefarious nature, the dragon species had at one time been considered as potential guards for a wizarding prison planned for the Hebrides. This plan had been scrapped in favour of Azkaban. In its original form, the Hebridean Black had been planned as a "guard" species against prisoners escaping. This particular dragon had developed a taste for humans and sheep, although the abundance of both had dwindled in recent years as the fear of locals prompted them to move away. It goes without saying that the sight of a young wizard would likely seem like a tasty morsel for a dragon that more recently had been reduced to raw fish species to fill its robust appetite.

"And what, pray young wizard, are you doing by removing my flowers?" asked the dragon, The creature had silently slipped out of its bog and silently slithered up behind the wizard, catching him unaware. 

Although he hated to admit it, Snape was taken aback by the sudden query, but only for a minute. Regaining his composure after a few seconds, Snape screwed up his courage, cleared his throat, and responded with " I am taking these flowers to my laboratory where I will concoct a potion so powerful, it will turn any creature into whatever form I it wish to be!" An outlandish as this might have been, even in the wizarding world, it was designed to gain time until, given a chance to distance himself from the scaly creature, Snape could apparate away from the scene where the conversation had begun.

The dragon saw the potential in such a thing. What if it could be made to appear like a sheep or a human? What if it literally could change its form, walk into the community of animals and people, then change back to its dragonish self and proceed to have the feast of its entire life? 

"You may take my flowers for your purpose, wizard, but first you must let me try out the potion created by you for this purpose." The dragon was not about to lose this opportunity, and any protest by the human departing for a laboratory to develop further progress with the potion it knew would really be a way to escape.

"you will create your potion right here, on the bog's edge," it said. Your skill as a wizard depends on your survival. If you fail, you will become my breakfast!" The beast gave a toothy grin as a giant, forked-tongue licked each tooth in its mouth. "Begin!"

What choice did Snape have? Casting an eye about him, he attempted to figure out a desperate escape route, or espy a means of escape. He noticed that amongst the thousands of flowers, boulders of various sizes and compositions existed. Some looked like squat little garden gnomes, others with tallness much like a wizard wearing his peaked hat. Seeing these, Snape had an idea.

"Now I ask you to move closer in order that you might see every detail of what I am doing for this spell," Snape said as casually as he could manage. "I wouldn't want you to miss a small step and completely undo the spell's intent. I am sure that when you see how well this combination of steps works, you will see the practicality of letting me take my flowers and go in peace."

In fact, what the dragon did think was that a good idea was either making Snape a quick meal for his never-satisfied appetite, or - even better - that he could ensnare Snape into a place where no escape could ever happen, thus making the wizard his willing puppet of capture. Of course, this wizard would do his bidding, knowing that to fail him meant a quick trip down his gullet!

Snape made appear a small cauldron into which he put the petals of several dozen yellow flowers. Next, making sure that he did it so fast the dragon would not be able to tell the detail of what he had done, even though the creature was closely following the steps, the wizard added several potion ingredients that would both create a giant yellow cloud of the flower petal stamens. Snape's plan was to have the dragon take a deep sniff of the cauldron's ingredients (so that he would always recognise the look and smell of the concoction) and then spring upon the unsuspecting creature the second half of his plan - to utter the [EPOXSOMISE]spell which would bind anything within a metre of the dragon. It was his only chance.

The anxious dragon sidle in closer for a better look. Into the cauldron went its scaly nose. With a very large breath, it inhaled the vapour created inside the kettle. At this, Snape sprang his trap. The yellow mixture instantly caused the dragon to emit a dragon-sized sneeze...and the yellow mixture flew into the eyes, ears, snout, and all the way down to the tail of the great creature. You could hear the alarmed roar emitted by the creature for many metres in all directions! Though extremely frightened, Snape used the [EPOXSIMISE] curse while the creature lashed out in its blindness - so clouded was its eyes with the yellow mixture! Round and round the field of flowers the dragon lashed and twisted. As it attempted to clear its eyes it circled and circled, each time getting close to rocks and boulders. And, of course, each time this happened, another rock or boulder would attach itself to the body of the dragon. Within a few seconds, the creature had more than a dozen rocks dragging alongside the torso and tail of the animal. A few smaller boulders even attached themselves to its forearms. And, of course, each time this happened, the weight of the dragon increased, taxing its immense strength as it continued to twist in search of its prey and at the same time trying to clear its eyes.

"I'll get you, wizard, I'll get you!" bellowed the dragon. But as another minute passed, another dozen or so boulders of different shapes and sizes had attached themselves to boulders already attached to the body parts of the dragon. Its huge tail became twice its original length as boulder after boulder stuck to previously attached boulders. The dragon looked as if it had a Hogwarts Express train of magnetised boulders trailing off from its own tail. In desperation, the creature began to reach behind to grab these with its teeth in an attempt to free itself from their weight. But the spell was stronger than the weight the dragon could muster. All that happened was that it circled round and round, with the circle getting smaller and smaller, as it attempted freedom for itself.

Snape had seen enough. Confident that he could now apparate away without danger, the wizard returned to his basket of flower petals and made good his escape.

Now, dear reader, you might think that this is (mostly) the end of the tale, but it is not. Most students would not believe Snape capable of showing kindness, but it was part of his hidden nature. As he apparated away, Snape released the [EPOXOMISE] spell on the creature, who only moments before had intended danger to Snape. At the same time, Snape transformed the sticky yellow mixture covering most of the creature's body into a sweet, lemony candy coating. It was several minutes before the dragon realised that the yellow mixture was his favourite taste, but when he did, he began to lick the covering from every claw, scale, and tendril on its body. Fortunately for creatures and folks in the area, this took more than a day to accomplish. So, of course, the effect of the lemon took its natural course in the mouth of the beast - Its mouth was "puckered" for days afterwards, making any possibility of munching on other creatures impossible.

For his part, years later, Snape recalled this adventure and adapted the events to be what we today call his "Dragon Dance" - a team celebration when students in Hogwarts School circle and circle to show that they can follow a very tricky pattern of circles to accomplish a common goal. And this dance has become a tradition for every first-year student at Westford Hogwarts School!