Chapter Number: 20
Chapter Name: The New Potions teacher?*!
When Harry and rest of the Gryffindor house walked into the Potions class they found it almost empty. The class wasn't scheduled to start for another five minutes but because of the loud argument between Harry and Hermione on a Dueling move the whole house had woken up about half an hour before they were supposed to.
The Gryffindor students as usual, took their seat as far back as they could from the front of the room without actually going out side the room. Harry took his usual seat between Hermione and Ron with Neville on the other side of Hermione.
When Malfoy and rest of the Slytherins came into the room, they mumbled something as they passed the table where Harry and his friends were sitting. Malfoy headed for a table that was occupied by Pansy Parkinson. Usually she would be all over Malfoy trying to get his affection but today she had decided she was too good for him. As soon as Malfoy sat down on the table she got up and took a seat next to one of her other friends.
This was a surprise that didn't go unnoticed by either of the houses but they said nothing about it. But the day would hold many more surprises that neither Harry nor the Gryffindors could have had seen coming.
A man dressed in bright green robes and nicely parted black shoulder length hair entered the room. The Slytherins were puzzled to see that the man took a seat in what used to be Professor Snape's table. He started to look through the scrolls rolled neatly on one side of the table. Malfoy felt as the Slytherin prefect, he should ask what this stranger was doing. He stood up and was about to say something when the stranger used Professor Snape's voice and said without looking up, "Mr. Malfoy. Can I help you?".
The Slytherins were about as much shocked as a person can be before they die. But the Gryffindors knew the man's identity, even before he entered the room.
The Gryffindors had all memorized the distinct tap noise his shoes made every six steps, the noise that he made as he took his customary deep breath upon entering the dungeon where the class was always held.
Harry had always assumed that Professor Snape did that to fill him self up with the fear and anxiety of the Gryffindor students. But the one thing that was etched in their brain, more than any other, was the rustling sound his robes made when he would use his left index finger to scratch his bottom once after he entered.
" Good Morning Class. Beautiful day today isn't it" Snape had a silly grin plastered all over his face as he looked through the crowd of students in the class. He did a double take when he saw that Harry was actually on time and reading his Potions book with much enthusiasm. " I came home particularly late... No need to bore you with my life details ... First order of business today is the official speech that I am obliged to give you." He took out a piece of paper and started to read out.
" The OWL were first...." the speech was about when and how the OWL came into being, what was required of them and what they were expected to do. It took almost one and half hours to get through it. Much to his annoyance only two people in the whole class was looking at him when he had finished. And they were Harry and Hermione.
The rest were either concentrating on their quill or something very interesting on the floor - a scratch or a speck of dust on the floor or the ceiling or their table. Malfoy was trying to cozy up to the girl that came and sat with him after Pansy left. Her name was, as Harry recalled from his very first year, Blaise Zabini. Though Snape saw it he did absolutely nothing to stop it. If two Gryffindors were just sitting closer to each other than normal he would have had put both of them in detention.
" Ahem" he coughed a loud false one to get everyone's attention. " Now that I have finished my official act... From the looks on your face a lot of you had a good holiday others however did their homework.
He gave Neville a look, making him shriek. ' That was a good start of the year.' thought Snape, when he heard the nervous Gryffindor make the noise.
" It's hard to believe that even the laziest and clumsiest amongst you have started to work harder now since the OWLS are this year. Mr. Longbottom, I was shocked beyond belief to see that you actually wrote something that made sense, though half the questions weren't answered or done properly. It was a proud day for the Gryffindors, when you finally managed to do a homework without Ms. Granger telling you the answers."
Most of the Slytherins broke out in laughter. He then went through all the student's work until there was only four left. Harry, Ron, Hermione and the teachers pet Malfoy.
" Mr. Weasley... did you have a good holiday?"
Ron opened his mouth, but Snape put up his hand. " Wait. Don't answer that question. I can see the answer by the shabby work that you handed in. It was barely any better than Mr. Longbottom's. The only thing you made progress in answering the questions was getting all the spelling right. Yet another big achievement for the Gryffindor House. Three points off the Gryffindors for poor structure of the essay, one for content and two for neatness." He threw Ron's paper at him.
" Now I come to Ms. Know-it-all-Granger.... Oh look you've had a hair cut. I was wondering how long it will take you to realize that long bushy hair only suits a mountain gorilla."
Malfoy burst into laughter at this, as did a few of the Slytherins. Most didn't since they had seen her fight and didn't fancy meeting her in a dueling class they were taking. They knew Hermione had a great memory and were pretty sure that if they did laugh at her she would remember. They didn't know whether Hermione would attack them really hard when she had a chance, but they had no intention of finding out. Hermione seemed rather unmoved by the comment unlike Ron who had to be restrained by Harry so that he didn't say anything to Snape. There was no reason to loose anymore points than they already had. Snape continued in his snobbish tone of voice though he had seen Harry restrain Ron.
" I do seem to remember telling you that the essay was supposed to be only three scrolls. I wasn't surprised to see that you handed in nine scrolls of very...very small writing. Ten points off the Gryffindors for Ms. Grangers disobedience."
He then looked back and forth between Malfoy and Harry, before finally holding up one of the two papers left in his hand. " This paper,.." he said " When I read this paper, I was surprised. It was clearly written, thoroughly researched though not as much as Ms. Granger's, then again no ones ever is. Not only did this paper cover all the points I listed in the assignment sheet it covered one that I had overlooked before handing out the assignment sheets." Malfoy looked very happy to hear the praises and was positively beaming.
" ... Imagine my surprise when I find that it was written by none other than our resident celebrity, Mr. Potter." Harry's name came out of Snape's mouth with a hiss.
Everyone in the class looked at Harry like he was Lord Voldemort. " Even the penmanship was good. Three and three fifth points off the Gryffindors for Mr. Potter's inability to write his name in a clear way at the front of the scrolls as asked, instead of putting them on the back of the scrolls."
Malfoy so shocked when he heard that the only thing his archenemy did wrong was the fact that he was written the name in the wrong place. But that was not the only surprise for him. Professor Snape was looking at his class pet like a vermin. " Mr. Malfoy good essay. I expected more from one of my own."
Harry's face had changed from normal to pale white to pale white with a sickening shade of red. He had expected a lot of things for Professor Snape to criticize. The Gryffindor were shocked enough that most of their mouths hung open. Ron looked like he had been petrified. Hermione was the only person in the room who wasn't surprised. She patted him on the back and said, " I told you. Hard work always pays off."
" That's enough public show of affection, Ms. Granger." Hermione blushed and removed her hand from Harry's back. " Now I have a treat for all of you. There is going to be a quiz session now. Every right answer saves the Gryffindors from getting a detention and the Slytherins a point. Wrong answers are automatic detentions. Just to make it interesting I choose the representative from each of the houses."
Everyone was certain Professor Snape would pick Neville for Gryffindors and Malfoy for the Slytherins. Neville expecting this quickly jumped off his seat and hid under the table. But that day was the day of surprises.
" Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy, make you way to the front of the room. Ms. Granger I want you to look the other way since I have a feeling that you'll tell Mr. Potter something, if I'm not looking." Hermione looked offended at the suggestion, however true it might have had been. Hermione would have had tried to give answers to Harry.
Harry and Malfoy took the seats that Professor Snape had pointed towards each of them. " Name two potions that involve the tree of life? Gryffindor."
" Wolfsbane and Soul inhibitor Potion" said Harry nonchalantly. Professor Snape was surprised to see him answer the question but went to the next question after recovering quickly.
" Name two uses of Boomslang? Slytherin" the Gryffindors were outraged. They had just done an essay on the topic so it was hardly fair that the Slytherins would get to answer questions based on that while Professor Snape asked questions that might well been a few years ahead. " Narcotic agent and cleaning agent" answered Malfoy.
" This question isn't on the sheet... Mr. Potter name the main ingredients of the Soul inhibitor potion?"
" Blood of Chimera and a Bach from the tree of life."
" For thirty points for your house Mr. Malfoy I would like you to answer the following question. Name a requirement of the Polyjuice potion?"
" Something like a hair sample of the intended person"
" Good work. Thirty points to the Slytherins..." He looked at Harry and said,
" Mr. Potter if you can answer this I'll award your house thirty points and if you don't I'll give you a detention. But if you answer, and it's wrong, then your Gryffindor buddies would be in detention."
Harry thought that he knew how sinister Snape could be, but the last comment made him appear a close second to Lord Voldemort himself. " While you enjoy a nice relaxing day."
" What's the Question?" asked Harry a bit worried.
" That's the catch, Potter. You don't know." Snape was snarling. " Do you give up or answer?" answered back Professor Snape with an evil smirk on his face. Harry took a fraction of a second to think it through. Snape was definitely trying to get him to get a detention. He decided that he wanted to try anyway. " I'll answer."
There was a loud cry from Neville who said, " Don't do it, Harry."
" What is the purpose of the Soul Inhibitor Potion and name five different side effects? Mr. Potter"
Hermione's heart jumped. ' I should have had told him about side effects. He won't know any...' thought Hermione as she tried to calm her panicked mind.
" Takes away pain from the person. Effective only if administered within ten minutes of the start of the pain." Harry did a quick glance at Hermione and then looked straight at the wall before answering, " Vomiting, Passing out, twitching of the left big toe."
A small pause led Professor Snape to believe that Harry could not think of the rest. He was getting ready to celebrate, when Harry, like his father a long time ago, destroyed his plans. " In a man it causes them to grow toe hair. In a woman between the ages of thirteen and sixty-nine it increases hormonal level. It basically leaves a woman unable to bear children for approximately a five year period or to be exact 1509 days."
Harry saw the look on the faces of many of the boys and thought, ' No use guys. The girls had to be in severe pain before you can administer it.'
He inwardly smiled at the boys who looked like had taken a mental note to remember the name of the potion. Hermione's heart jumped. ' He knew. He didn't tell me. Why would he do that?'
Her face started to turn red when she heard, " I'm surprised Mr. Potter. It's almost as if you have had experience with the potion yourself."
" No sir. It was in one of the books that Mr. Pas- I mean Professor Pasha gave me." Came the quick reply from Harry.
Professor Snape desperately didn't want to give any points to the Gryffindor house. He started to grasp at straws, like he always did. "Oh so you admit that you had a teacher's help in preparing for the test. I'm afraid I'll have to take five points off the Gryffindors for cheating."
Everyone knew what Professor Snape was doing, but they dared not to say anything. Harry could have said something, but he really didn't care how many points Snape took off, as there was no way Professor Snape could stop Harry and rest of the Gryffindors from getting them back in other classes. Snape's eyes twinkled and his smile went even more evil then it was before.
The quiz session lasted for another five minutes in which time Harry didn't miss a single question, but Snape didn't offer any extra points to either of the houses. He had made the mistake of underestimating Harry's intelligence once; he wasn't about to do it again. Not soon after he made the first one. Deep inside.... Granted very very very deep inside, he felt proud that Harry was beginning to show Lily's prowess in potions.
More than his life, Professor Snape, hoped that Harry was strong enough to defeat Lord Voldemort. His hatred for the dark lord was only equal to that of a few people. Harry was amongst them. The dark lord had taken so much from him, so many he cared greatly about. Though he knew that Lily, as his first love was amongst them, she was not the reason he had switched allegiances during the darker times of Lord Voldemort's rule. He was never in love with her enough to cause any reaction like the one that made him change his allegiance.
His reasons for changing sides were to do with an event that occurred about six months before the downfall of the Dark lord. To this day, events of that night haunted his dreams. So much so for the last fifteen years he had been taking a potion to go to a dreamless sleep. Side effects were his greasy hair. But recently something happened that made his life a much better thing. He noticed it a few days ago that he had forgotten to take his potion, before going to sleep. Yet he dreamed not of the event of that night, but of.....
After the quiz session there was only fifteen minutes of the class left and it was abnormally normal. Neville managed to spill his cauldron three times (a record for him). Professor Snape had paired Harry with Pansy Parkinson and she was behaving like a klutz. The only thing that was any different than his normal potion class was the fact that Hermione was avoiding looking at Harry.
' She must be a little embarrassed about her situation... I'll have to have a talk with her soon' thought Harry as he busied himself with the cauldron. From time to time, he patted his right hand side pocket in his cloak to see if the cushioning charm inside was still working. There was something long and thin in there, but someone had to watch for a long time to see.
Once the class was finished, Harry saw Hermione leave so quickly out the door that she didn't notice leaving her potions book behind. He was about to leave the room when he remembered what he had for Snape. He turned to where Ron had been standing to give him the book to give it to Hermione when he saw that Ron was already halfway to catching up with Hermione. Professor Snape was sitting at his desk and busily going over the lesson plan for his next class while he took minuscule bites from the sandwich in his right hand. " ... yes, Potter can I do something for you?" there was a bitterness in it as always but it was less than it was usually.
" Sir. I stayed with Professor Pasha, during the holidays..." Harry started to say but was interrupted by Snape
" So what. I stayed with my cousin Balthazar. Get to the point, Potter."
" He told me the story of how you were friends with my mother even though most of the Slytherins and shamefully the her own housemates hated and picked on her. I would like to express my deepest thanks to you for the invaluable friendship that you no doubt provided her with. As a token of my thanks I would like you to accept this." It was a bowl and a small round bit of stone.
Professor Snape was confounded but when he saw what the boy had given him he was ready to die. " Potter, is this what I think it is?" Professor Snape was shaking uncontrollably when he saw a golden crest on the side of the stone bowl.
" An original Mortar and Pestle made by the famous Alchemist Methyl Magda. I know he died in the Shozar wars and all his works lost... I found it on the streets of Morocco and thought you might like it."
" How much did it cost? Even you can't afford this..." he looked at Harry as he put down the stone bowl from his shaking hands. " It's well over twenty thousand galleons worth..." ' Not to mention it's priceless to a true potions aficionado like myself.' thought Snape.
" You don't have to think of the cost. I'm giving it to you for all that you did for my mother. This is no way anything other than to say my thanks for being there for my mom." As Harry left he thought he heard a mumbled thanks as he left but dismissed the concept of Snape of ever saying thanks to him.
As soon as he was out of the classroom, Harry ran towards the secret passageway that he remembered led right to the great hall. Less than twenty seconds into the passageway, he tripped on something small inside the dimly lighted passageway and fell on top of a person. ' Great Merlin! Three days and I'm still tripping on top of people. If this is another girl I'm definitely doing a curse removal ceremony.'
He looked down to see the face of Hermione Granger. With an exasperated sigh he got to his feet very fast. He was a bit too fast, so when he slipped on the back of his robes, he didn't have enough time to actually try and recover. He looked up and saw Hermione trying to stifle a giggle as she offered her hand. He took it. Hermione as it seemed had forgotten that she was trying to avoid Harry." Thanks... Nice to see you haven't taken off in the other direction" said Harry.
Hermione blushed at the comment. She knew Harry had found out the common side effects of the potion. She was hoping against all hopes that Harry wouldn't know why the Chimera blood made a woman unable to bear children for five years. As if sensing what she had thought Harry replied, " Don't worry... I didn't tell anyone about the potion."
Harry suddenly got a very mischievous grin before saying, " You're free to go on sex rampage anytime you feel..." He didn't get to finish the sentence when she punched him on the arm very fast and very hard. " OW." He said grabbing his arm where she had hurt him and started to rub it. Even when it hurt he didn't stop grinning at her.
' Why does he always smile like that?' thought Hermione. " I just hit you and you're hurting. So why in the hell are you grinning like an idiot?" she asked.
" Because... now you're normal. Well..." he was going to add something more to make her hit him again but thought it was better that he didn't. " Nah... you're too easy. Here take this." Hermione looked at what Harry offered her from one of the pockets of his cloak. It was a small vial with a glowing green potion inside.
" You know about 'Purifying Solutions' too?" she asked astounded. Before that day she hadn't realized how much work Harry had actually done over the summer.
" Of course I do. Didn't you think I would do my research properly?" Harry saw Hermione blush. " It's your own fault. If you hadn't made me do all that studying in the holidays..."
" ...my fault" she burst up in anger. " As I recall someone wanted their powers to grow." Hermione retorted before realizing Harry had done that just to provoke her from the grin he had plastered all over his face. She didn't stay mad long. She emptied the solution in her mouth and waited for a green glow to appear. She glowed green, for about a second and then she was cured of one of the dreaded side effect that Harry didn't tell Professor Snape.
This one is related to the one about not being able to bear children. The potion increased the sexual appetite of the females. It eventually becomes too much for the person to handle and some people end up St. Mungo's hospital. The headmaster told Hermione of this, since even she didn't know of this particular part of the side effect, on her first day at Hogwarts that year. She then realized that this might have had been the reason that Professor Pasha owled the people making the potion for her everyday since they got back.
But she didn't have to worry about it anymore since Harry had thought to buy it when they were in Morocco though he didn't tell anyone about it. How Harry had got hold of the purifying potion, when it took several weeks to make one was a total mystery to Hermione, but she decided that it was a mystery she had no problem not getting an answer to.
" Thanks" she said. She gave Harry a small peck on the cheek and started to walk back toward the exit. Harry quickly wiped away the area where she had kissed him.
" Did you have to do that?" he asked a little annoyed. His friend knew he didn't like being kissed or hugged for too long and this one was definitely not necessary in Harry's opinion.
" Let's go we have transfiguration next..." she said as she started to walk to the next class.
" But I haven't had my lunch yet..." even as he said this Harry started to look around for something to turn into a bread. The he though about how long he spent talking with Hermione and Snape and realized that there was still over twenty minutes left. " Hey..." he stopped and started to walk the other way.
Hermione noticed that the footsteps that were following her a few seconds ago were going the opposite way. " Where are you going?" She asked, rushing to catch up to him.
" You just want to see Professor McGonagall again. I need food. I didn't have that much in the morning and all the tension in Potions class took its toll." Harry started to move even faster. Hermione had a hard time keeping up and when they finally entered the Great Hall there were a few people about.
Ron was taking part in a contest to see who actually can eat more pieces of the strawberry short cake. Lavender was winning, and that was no mean feat!
Hermione and Harry were both disgusted at the sight of them stuffing food in their mouth like that and decided to seat as far from the pair as humanly possible. Harry only ate a little bit as he was thinking about the summer assignment for Transfiguration. It was to find out about the way to becoming an animagus. The topic was not what the students of the previous years had done. His thoughts about transfiguration were interrupted when Hermione tapped on his shoulder to tell him it was time they left for next class.
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END OF CHAPTER
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