AN: Hi everyone, thank you to those that have taken an interest, I'm glad you like, favourite and/or following the story. It's given me more confidence to continue. I am writing this story as I go so you and I will be reading it together. I will write as fast as I can!
I do not own Harry Potter, J.K Rowling got there before me!
Harry reached Snape's office door with two minutes to spare and raised his fist to knock. The large heavy door swung open as if it flinched away from his touch.
"Enter," the baritone voice of his most hated professor echoed through the miserably lit room.
Harry took a deep breath before he walked over the threshold and saw a small desk placed in front of Snape's very large desk which was buried under vials and paperwork. A pile of blank parchment, quill and ink rested on the small desk. Snape looked up at the boy and pointed his raggedy quill at the desk in front of him.
"Sit."
Harry obeyed and as soon as his backside touched the seat Snape dropped a large heavy book down on the desk.
"For the next ninety minutes you are to write out each word in this textbook. I expect your writing to improve as you go along. I don't want any noise from you, Potter. Only speak if spoken to, if it is extremely important of if you need to use the lavatory. However at fifteen years of age, you should have the commonsense to have taken care of your business before making your way down here. You are not here for a chitchat, so I suggest you start now." Snape commanded and swept away with his robes billowing behind him.
Harry reached for the book and looked at the cover; Potions: The Art. Trust Snape to give him a potions book. He opened the cover and looked at the index. If he was to write out each work, he better write out literally every word. Time ticked by and Harry made no sound except for the scratching of his quill and the occasional cough. The book was quite interesting and he made a mental note to himself to see if there was a copy in the library. A soft bubbling sound caught his attention and he looked up at Snape who was stirring a potion. His professor seemed to sense his presence.
"I do not recall telling you to stop, Potter," Snape drawled as he switched directions and stirred anti-clockwise four times before removing the stirrer and cooled the flame. Harry went to return to his writing but noticed the ingredients on the desk; sliced flobberworm, daisy roots, a bottle of squid ink, lionfish spines and crushed charcoal. He looked at the page he was copying and saw the same list there. The page title said that it was a hand protection potion. He read through the instructions to see where Snape was at and followed what the professor was doing step by step as he wrote the instructions down on paper.
"Professor?" Filch's voice rang through the room. "I believe I have two of your first year snakes here."
Snape audibly growled. "I am busy, Filch. Surely it can't be that bad that I must get involved."
Filch popped his head through the doorway. "Your students were tormenting the Giant Squid and it lashed out at them."
Snape sighed as he added a tablespoon of crush charcoal into the cauldron and stirred five times clockwise before walking to the door muttering about blasted squids. Harry looked at the instructions and read that Snape had three minutes before he had to return to the potion.
"Of course the squid would lash out if you send stinging hexes at it, you imbecile!" Snape roared through the stone walls. Harry jumped in surprise and nearly upset his ink bottle. "Look at your face, that's what you get for tormenting it. You are lucky I have a bruise balm in my office."
Snape entered the room with two young Slytherin boys at his heel. One had a large black eye and the other had a bruised jaw and what looked like a sucker mark on his forehead. The dungeon bat reached a closet and pulled out a small jar that smelt of wet dog and applied it to the boy with the black eye.
"You are lucky the squid didn't drag you down to the bottom of the lake! Close your eye," Snape lectured. The boy obeyed and Snape gently swiped a thin layer of balm over the eyelid. The young boy hissed in pain but otherwise remained silent. Harry glanced at the clock again before watching Snape attend to the second boy who flinched when the teacher touched his tender jaw.
"Quit fussing, it's your own fault, Mr. Woodweller," Snape barked as he held the child's shoulder to slather the balm on the skin. Snape had fifteen seconds to add three lionfish spines before the potion would be ruined.
"Professor-," Harry announced.
"Shut it, Potter," Snape said cuttingly.
"But, sir-."
"Do not make me repeat myself. Stay still, Mr. Jarvisberg!"
Harry quickly glanced down at the instructions before he rushed to the brewing potion. He added the spines and stirred eight times clockwise before adding another two spines and stirred the other way twice.
"What's Potter brewing?" Woodweller asked and Snape almost dropped the balm jar in realisation.
"Po-," he began but stopped as he saw Harry drop two drops of squid ink into the potion and a thin black mist spiralled out of the cauldron. The teacher rushed to the cauldron and sighed in relief. The potion was perfect; Snape mentally kicked himself for being so careless. Harry stepped away as Snape turned the flame off.
"I did not give you permission to touch this potion, Potter. You have not learned this yet in class, how did you know what to do?"
"I was copying down the instructions like you said, sir," Harry replied as he pointed to his lines. "I recognised the ingredients and followed what you were doing. It was a hand protection potion wasn't it?"
"What a stupid question! If you didn't know then why touch it? You could have caused an explosion, idiot boy!"
"I just saved your potion!"
"My cauldron would have melted and the potion would solidify. What gave you the right to touch my work?"
"My safety," Harry said venomously. "Though you don't care about that now do you? You would never lend me any healing balm for injuries."
"Watch your tone, Potter. It's not my fault your Head of House is not a Potion's Master."
"No, she's not. But what Potions Master makes a rookie mistake by leaving a potion unattended?"
Snape slammed his palm down hard on the desk and Harry flinched.
"Thirty points from Gryffindor! How dare you talk to me like that! Return here at seven tomorrow morning, you are going to help me gather potion ingredients instead of having a nice little sleep in, you spoilt brat. Get out!" Snape bellowed and pointed to the door as if Harry didn't know where it was. Harry gladly walked out and focused on his yoga breathing. He passed the two young boys who looked at him in amusement.
"Most people put eye shadow on both eyes," Harry taunted and Woodweller's smirk dropped faster than Hermione's hand shot up in class when a teacher asked a question. Snape waved his wand and Harry felt as if someone had lassoed him around the waist and pulled him forward. He was thrown out of Snape's office and the professor appeared at the door as Harry picked himself up off the floor.
"Seven o'clock, on the dot, Potter. Wear something warm, I will not heal your frostbite due to your own stupidity," Snape said before he shut the door in Harry's face. He could barely hear Snape lecture the two boys further but understood Snape telling them to go to their dormitory. Harry brushed himself off as he made his way to his common room.
Snape collapsed in his chair once his two little snakes scrambled out of his office and rubbed his temples in frustration. He glanced at the cauldron and poured the potion into two medium sized jars greased with crocodile fat. The potion thickened almost immediately and turned custard like; just like it was supposed to. He applied the ointment to his hands and felt some of the achiness and dryness ease from his skin; again, just like it was supposed to. Snape blinked in surprise at how easily Potter had completed the potion without being told. Snape reminded himself that he did most of the work and that the two idiotic squid boys were to blame for his mistake. He did not owe Potter anything for continuing the potion. The stupid boy didn't follow the instructions Snape had given him which was to write lines and the boy even made snide remarks about his own reputation in front of an audience nonetheless! Still, the potion was perfect and Granger wasn't there to help him. Snape would keep an even closer eye on the boy and inwardly groaned that he had given away his sleep in for Potter's detention. That boy was going to be the death of him. Now where did Snape put that teapot?
