Chapter 1
"Mr. Potter, I would appreciate it if you could be here on time. I understand you wish to give everyone your autograph and would like to submerge your fat head even farther in self-indulgence, but I do very much urge you not to take up anymore of our class time for the rest of the year; otherwise, you may find yourself on the wrong side of a rather disagreeable position. Now, show a bit of courtesy and a little self-discipline by taking your seat!" Professor Snape barked and sneered all at once.
It was only the first class of the year and already Harry had embarrassed himself by being late. He had tried to be on time, but Malfoy had cut him off in one of the hallways. The damn prick had set fire to Harry's head, causing him to run into Professor Flitwick, whom then proceeded to extinguish the flames. Snape was not a professor to trial and yet Harry was already late on his first day. Not a good start.
Malfoy walked through the door only moments later.
"Sorry I'm late professor; Potter attacked me in the hallway." Malfoy smirked at him and Harry knew it was all going to go downhill from there.
"Is that true Potter? Well, I was going to spare you the embarrassment of a detention, but I suppose it is inevitable. You will also be able to gloat to your fellow Gryffindors by telling them exactly how you lost seventy-five house points right at the start of term. Huh, such a pity." Snape smirked at his own words as he saw the pure abhorrence in the emerald eyes of the Boy-Who-Lived, knowing well enough that Harry was going to be disowned by his fellow Gryffindors for at least a day or so.
"Now students, perhaps you may be able to show some intelligence this year and make a perfect Forgive & Forget potion," the liquid words, dripping with poison, came from the black cloaked man.
"Please sir, we've already done that one last year...," Hermione barely whispered.
"Ah yes, I'm so glad you reminded me, Miss Granger. I arranged this to be the first potion you all will make on purpose as you will not be using any books, but be doing it by memory." A gasp was heard clearly in the room as Neville nearly fainted from pure horror.
"And Mr. Longbottom, you will not be partnered with Miss Granger. For this class, you will all be working individually- Longbottom get off of my floor and BACK into your SEAT!"
Harry wasn't sure, but he suspected that Snape was a bit more irritated than usual. He looked around a bit, hoping for inspiration on where to begin with the potion. It wasn't such a difficult potion to do; it was just a bit time consuming, as well as confusing now that his professor had randomly added ingredients to confuse them on what to use. It was as if Snape was going out of his way to make them all fail. Even Malfoy was panicking from his seat in the left side of the room.
"Potter, eyes on your own work! I will not have mindless cheaters sit in my class, regardless of their accidental victories in life! Get to work or leave." Harry jumped at the words, snapping him back to the task at hand. Harry grabbed the four dried rose hips and started dicing them into cubes, tossing them into the wrought iron cauldron before him when he was done. Harry began grinding the five leaves of mint as he again got lost in his own mind.
Harry had just begun to grind the frogs' brains into a paste when he felt a very eerie presence behind him. This made him quite nervous as he felt he had done a well enough decent enough job with the potion so far.
"...Have you been cheating again?" the professor's low voice asked behind gathered his courage and turned in his chair to look into the dark eyes of the lean man before him.
"I beg your pardon sir? I haven't even looked up from my desk. Have...have I done alright?"
Harry, doing his best to be calm and steady as to not anger the man further, saw a glint of something in the professor's eyes. Oddly enough, Snape walked away and sat back in his seat without a word. Harry was surprised he hadn't pissed himself during the encounter it was so terrifying.
As Harry finished by adding the last of the ingredients, he finally looked up in surprise at the surrounding students, almost all of whom, to his surprise, had blown up their potions one way or another. Even poor Hermione looked close to tears after being so close to finishing when Ron had tried to "help out" by adding one of the wrong ingredients.
The red headed boy had felt so sure he had seen four clear crystal quarts in the potion the year before, only to say afterward, "Oh that's right. They were in that weird ego-control potion we tested on Harry", which then led him to receiving a most impressive death stare from Hermione. In fact, in all of this mess it had seemed that Harry was in fact the only one whose potion hadn't exploded or even smoked black.
"Potter, I will give you one chance, so don't toy with me," Professor Snape began.
Harry nearly said "wouldn't dream of it professor", but halted the remark in hopes of not adding to the chaos that was the dungeons.
"Did you cheat, in any way at all? And by cheat I also mean receive help from anyone in or outside of this room?"
Harry looked at his professor with the most honest look he could muster and said, "No professor, and good thing I hadn't or I'd look like Malfoy with his now purple hair." Harry thought he may have almost seen a smile twitch from the corner ofSnape's mouth.
"Very well Potter, but why is it you remember this potion perfectly without default, then? We all know you aren't Granger, Potter, and I for one doubt that you of all people would be one to remember a potion, even if it is as simple as this." Harry thought back to his past summer. It had truly been a terrible one and he was hoping he wouldn't have to recall it. The Dursley's had tried to make his summer this year especially shoddier than the others; this was mainly because he had a few strings pulled and had asked that a certain witch scare the bloody hell out of Uncle Vernon. And so, one morning in the Dursley home, Uncle Vernon had been sitting in a chair in the living room, while Dudley was in the kitchen scarfing down as many poached eggs that could fit in his mouth at once.
Aunt Petunia had just gone out to the backyard to start hanging the laundry when a knock at the door had alarmed Uncle Vernon, causing him to jump in place. He got up after what seemed like five minutes of rocking his obese body over the edge of the recliner. Even moving from one end of the room to the other seemed a difficult task as he started breathing heavily. Another knock at the door announced the visitor's impatience. The large man eventually reached the door and opened it in an aggravated way, revealing as he saw a woman with Carmine red hair and Bleu de France eyes. She wore blue shredded jeans that had seen better days and a white T-shirt with a black blazer. Of all that, what shocked the portly man most was the amount of piercings on her: how "un-normal".
"Wotcher! Harry home?" Tonks casually leaned against the frame while Uncle Vernon stood flabbergasted by the figure before him. When he spoke, his words were inquiring and soft in case any nearby neighbors heard them speaking. " Are you...one of them?"
Tonks stood there with a confused expression, and then replied "One of what?" Suddenly, realization of who the man was showed on her face before the look was quickly replaced by an expression of pure revulsion.
"I see, so you're that great prune Vernon Dursley! I've heard plenty 'bout you. Well, let me tell you something: Harry's godfather may be dead, but I am still here, and if I find out you've hurt or badgered him in anyway then you can be sure you won't have to worry about one of us because you will be too busy worrying about ALL of us. So keep in mind how you treat him. If I get ONE owl from Harry, you can be sure that your weight problem won't be you're only problem. UNDERSTAND?!"
Uncle Vernon's face turned an ugly shade of red mixed with brinjal, but he said nothing. Then After Tonks left, Harry's uncle decided to have a bit of a chat with the young wizard. Uncle Vernon then put a lock on Harry's window and said that the owl was not to see the light of day. Harry was to only let her out of her cage in his room with the door closed so that she could not escape. He was also not allowed to touch any form of writing utensil.
Due to this, Harry was unable to do his summer school work since most of it involved writing. Also, since he was still underage he couldn't practice spells. All that was left were potions. Oddly enough, it kept him quite busy. He started learning potions by using the toilet during midnight hours as a cauldron. Harry, of course, kept to potions that he could only required ingredients from the garden in the backyard, one of which being the potion they did in class.
"Sir, I studied..." Harry spoke meekly, all the while the tall Potions Master stood in front of him with a blank face.
"So, the famous Harry Potter finally decides potions are vital after five years of ignorance. Is this supposed to make me satisfied, Potter? No, I think not; in fact, now that I know you aren't as much of a blubbering idiot as the rest of the class, I believe I should start awarding you additional homework. Just to keep you on your toes."
Harry's heart sank. The one time he didn't completely botcher up a potion and the man was still punishing him. He had finally felt victory, but he supposed he should have known well enough that the man was too high strung to allow his moment of glory. Harry looked around and saw many faces that showed pity for him and anger at Snape. Even Malfoy's held a bit of disgust towards his professor's attitude.
"Sir, what about the rest of us?" Malfoy asked, hoping that he wasn't punished for his failure.
"Ah, yes Mr. Malfoy, you may take the class and leave. Potter will have the honor of cleaning this room alongside Mr. Weasley, since he decided to help Granger after I said no cheating." The class hurriedly gathered their belongings and, with sad looks at Harry and Ron, left.
"Bloody fucking git!" Ron spat as soon as he was sure Snape was out of earshot. The two friends were walking down the halls on their way to the dormitory after hours spent cleaning the dungeons.
"Calm down Ron, it's done. Tomorrow will be better; we won't even have potions." The words left Harry's mouth, but even he didn't believe them. Harry has seen that Snape was going to be bad news this year the moment he walked into the classroom.
"I just wish the bloody git would leave. I mean, every year he pesters on about how he hates us, and then he stays another bloody year! It's MADNESS I tell you!" Ron threw his hands to the sky, a white handkerchief grasped in his fist, as if surrendering to some immortal being. "Why stay and teach children if you bloody well hate children. Really, I don't think Snape ever was a real child to begin with. So why is he still here?"
"Because, Mr. Weasley, I take pride in making you all suffer." The cold voice seeped deeply into their blood streams and pierced the darkest corners of their hearts, while their spines stiffened until they felt as though they were brittle enough to snap. Snape had come out of one of the connecting hallways somewhere and simply walked up behind them. How long he had been listening, Harry thought.
"Long enough to wonder why two mindless Gryffindors haven't gotten to bed yet," Snape replied, as if reading Harry's mind.
"Please professor, we're on our way now. It took us a bit of time to clean everything; we've only just left the classroom." Harry tried to stay calm and fearless, but his voice wavered, giving the older man the stronger side of the conversation.
"Fifty points from Gryffindor...each," the professor scowled with scorn.
After holding back their pleas, Ron and Harry headed off to the Gryffindor Common Room, hoping the billowing man with smoke-like robes wasn't following them once again. Once inside the common room, Ron finally exploded.
"BLOODY FUCKING GIT I TELL YA!" Harry could no longer try to deny Ron's words as even Harry started to believe them true. "I swear, Dracula is missing his bloody twin brother and he's here in the castle." After what seemed like another hour of Ron complaining about the Potions Professor, Harry trudged up the stairs to their dormitories. As he lay down in bed, he thought of the day's happenings and desperately hoped there would not be a repeat tomorrow.