This IS Potions, Right?

They entered the Advanced-Potions classroom to find, not a recipe on the blackboard, but rather a list of seemingly unconnected things. Harry had been surprised to find he was allowed to take the class at all, and was seriously considering dropping it, if the random words in front of him were a suggestion on what the rest of the year would be like. He couldn't make heads nor tails of what he was reading.

"Elder Wood, Bezoars, Incense," Hermione muttered. She was setting her things on the desk but her eyes were glued to the board. Harry wondered if she had set up her cauldron so many times over the years that it was second nature and she no longer needed to see what she was doing. Harry grinned to himself as he saw other students doing the same thing while students like Neville, Luna and himself need their full attention on their workspaces to set up without breaking something.

"What do Moon Phases, Sea Salt and Animagi have anything to do with each other?" Ron grunted. When he had seen Advanced Potions on his schedule, he had complained to McGonagll. There was no way he was going to suffer another year of Snape if he didn't have to. But apparently, it was the Headmaster who had put him in the class and if he had, "Any complaints I suggest you take it up with him yourself. That's the last I have to say about it, and if I hear another word I daresay you will beat your Brothers' record of the earliest given detention in the School's history." She had then promptly walked away to finish handing out the schedules. No one else dared to complain after that.

"Indeed, Mister Weasly," They heard Professor Snape drawl from the shadows next to them. "What DO they have in common?" He swept past them to the front of the class and looked expectantly around the room. Daria was also surveying the class. Each house had students in the class as not many had received appropriate grades to continue with the subject. Of course, after she had talked to the Headmaster, he had "asked" Severus to add some exceptions. "Do none of you have enough brain power to muddle together even a guess?" He smirked. Then Daria raised her hand.

He gave a disappointed sigh, "Miss Evans." He knew she had the answer, after all, she had helped him come up with the lesson, but he had hoped that someone would have at least taken a guess. He could see that Miss Granger had the beginning of an idea, but it seemed that Daria would have to spark the theory into forming for her. If they played this according to plan, certain students would leave this lesson changed. As Daria had changed him, though not in the exact same way of course.

For the last few weeks leading up to the start of term, Daria had stayed at the castle. He had come to respect her the more he learned of her, and he remembered one day when she had approached him with a request.

She had been heading back into the Castle after her work out when she spotted him in the shadows of the front doors. She smirked, pretending to not notice him and continued on her path. Just as she passed him, she felt him move to follow. Turning quickly she had him pinned to the wall, her wand at his throat in under a second. She smiled once she realized, he had his wand at her heart. "Very good," she released him. "How long have you been watching me?"

"Just today or the past few weeks?" he smirked.

"Both," she countered, stowing her new wand in the waistband of her shorts. She really didn't expect an answer so she continued walking to the rooms she had been assigned, intent on a shower.

"You'll never know," he answered. In truth, it had only taken him a couple days to memorize her routine, and under two weeks to classify her as 'Not a current threat - but keep an eye out.' He still didn't trust her. Of course, he still didn't completely trust Dumbeldore, but he wouldn't let her know that. So, he followed her, found out her routines, hobbies, skills, etc. He now knew enough to realize they needed her on their side. If not only because she was a skilled fighter, but also because she was a talented witch and he could sense she had powerful magic.

That magic was another reason he followed her, because he could sense her. He had never before been aware of any other magic besides his own, until that fateful night he had met her in the dungeons.

It had started out simply that he'd end up wherever she was. One minute he'd be lost in his own thoughts, giving no care to where his feet took him, and the next he was in the Library, exiting a row of shelves to find her on a window seat in front of him, absorbed in a book. One time, he had ended up in the kitchens. Not two seconds after he began to wonder what brought him there, he heard her talking to the elves. He had tried to escape before anyone noticed him but ended up having the oddest tea he will ever remember.

Her voice brought him out of his thoughts and he realized they'd stopped. "Hmm, yes?"

"I asked if you would like to come in," she was smiling, as if she knew that he'd been staring at her rear the entire walk to her rooms.

He cleared his throat, and his mind, gathering his answer. "I was heading to the Hospital wing to drop off some potions to Madam Pomfrey. I should get them to her as quickly as possible."

"I see," she replied in mock seriousness. "This will only take a moment. I have a favor to ask." He had ended up having breakfast with her as she explained her past to him and where she came from. To say the least, he had been shocked. It had taken the remaining week before school began for him to decide he trusted her-fully and completely-though he still didn't know if he actually believed her. He had agreed to her plan and afterwards they prepared his first lesson,of the year as well as a few key ones for later in the year.

He looked around the classroom again, seeing the curiosity, and confusion, spark as she answered his question. "They can all be used in potions," she stated, very matter-of-fact.

"Obviously. Anyone else? Aside from being used as ingredients, what purpose do they have? Granger?"

"They can affect a potion indirectly," She said, now confident she was on the right track. "Like moon phases affect tides as well as when you should pick a plant to use in a potion."

"That is also correct. However," he continued. "Neither of you have told me what they ALL have in common with each other. Some of them can be ingredients and the rest can affect those ingredients, but what do they all share?"

The class sat in silence until Neville raised his hand. Severus hid his shock well, "Longbottom?"

"Well, sir," he near-whispered. "Each thing is magical i-in it's own respect... and when combined with s-s-something else from the list i-it's very powerful."

"Give me an example."

"Umm," he forced out. "Dittany is a healing plant, magical on it's own, and a Bezoar will cure most poisons. B-b-but if you c-c-crush the Dittany with a Bezoar and then put it on a wound," he took a steadying breath, "it will prevent it from being infected while it's healing."

There was a long pause as the class watched. Neville had just combined Herbology and Potions, and everyone knows you don't mix subjects. Teachers take points when you can't keep to their subject while in their class.

"Five points to Griffindor," he smirked.

"Wait, did he just say to Griffindor? Surely he meant, from Griffindor?" The whispers were growing in volume. Neville looked confused, but proud that he had finally stood up to his fear of Snape. Daria observed the rest of the class with inward satisfaction. Severus wouldn't allow the shock of him giving Neville points to detract from the lesson. They were getting it now. "Any more examples?"

Draco raised his hand, "Yes, Malfoy."

"A broom made from Elder wood, a rare wand-wood, can channel a person's magic very much like a wand, making it handle better in difficult conditions."

"Now combine it with something else on the list."

"If you polished it with Sea Salt, instead of broom-polish, it would repel water better than a spell, but only of you got the salt at high-tide." He said smugly, fully expecting five points for his house.

"Correct, and the tides are created by the gravity of the moon, which would mean you used three things from the list. Ten points to Slytherin." At this more people raised their hands, determined to get points. If all they had to do was mix things on the list and say what would happen, this would be easy. "Miss Greangrass?"

"Well, if you burn Dittany, the fumes kill," She stumbled through. "But if you make a tea out of it, you'll be protected from it's fumes."

"True, and breathing them once you have drank the tea will create a psycotropic feeling many Divination experts will tell you has triggered prophecies," He sneered at his dislike of divination. "However, you didn't combine it with anything from the list, you merely told me it's uses in various subjects - Potions, Herbology and Divination."

"What if you used Dittany as a wand-core? Would it be better at healing spells?"

"Or if you used a glass from a seer's crystal ball to make a cauldron?"

"Could you bring a painting to life with the potion you develop photographs in and then spell it with the personality?"

"How about making an everlasting soup instead of an everlasting potion? would it ever spoil?"

Suggestions went on like this for a while, with Severus and Daria occasionally nudging them back on track with comments of their own, or awarding points to a particularly thought-provoking theory. Eventually, they had exhausted all but a few subjects on the list.

A Ravenclaw spoke up, "What if you were poisoned, a bezoar couldn't cure you, but if you were an Animagus who could turn into something immune to poison? Say, a Rattlesnake?"

"If you were poisoned with rattlesnake venom I'm sure that would be sufficient to save you. However, lets say you were cut with a knife covered in Paralyzing solution and your internal organs were slowly shutting down. What animal would not be affected?"

"An elephant has bigger organs."

"That would only kill you faster."

"Well, an insect has different organs."

"That would merely buy you time."

The class was silent. Every one was intent on getting this answer. Daria and Severus shared a smirk, Hermione looked up just in time to catch it. "Yes, Miss Granger?" She hadn't raised her hand.

She was unsure for the first time in a class, there were no books about this, "Well, a Unicorn is immune to all known poisons." She paused, "But Animagus can only turn into non-magical creatures."

The bell sounded to end class. "I want a five page essay detailing how a common potion can be improved by combining one of it's major ingredients with one of the things on this list. Due next class. And I will consider awarding points to anyone who can expand on Miss Granger's most recent comment."

There was a collective groan at being assigned homework on the first day of classes, but this was Snape so Harry didn't know why they were surprised. "That was the strangest Potions class ever."

"It shouldn't be called Potions anymore, we barely mentioned potions," Ron complained.

"It was more like Introduction to Magical Theory," Hermione mused.

"At lease we got a load of points," Ron grinned.

"Everybody got points, that was the strangest part. Anyway, we only got a fourth of what Slytherin got," Harry finished packing his things and went to leave. Noticing Daria was talking with a Hufflepuff girl, they filed out of the classroom.

"We still got homework though," Ron continued. "If he hadn't assigned homework, I would have suspected he was just someone Polyjuiced to look like Snape. That would have been great!"