Pure Chance
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
When Professor Dumbledore greeted the students after the Sorting, he added, "I also wish to congratulate Harry Potter, who has as the youngest student of all times taken his Potions OWL and NEWT with the highest points that are achievable. Congratulations Mr. Potter."
Harry inwardly groaned, feeling very much upset towards the headmaster. 'Maybe he should have asked me beforehand if I want everyone to know,' he thought, angrily. "What a meddling old coot," he whispered to Blaise.
While everyone enjoyed their dinner, Draco told the others, "My father bought brooms for the whole Quidditch team and arranged with Snape that I'm going to be the new Seeker. But I don't want to be the Seeker, Harry's much better than I. Could I perhaps become Chaser?"
"Of course," Marcus replied, eagerly. "We need a new Chaser anyway, and Harry's the best Seeker we could get. I just hope that Snape'll agree, considering the grudges that he's holding towards Harry."
"He surely won't," Harry threw in, knowing that the Potions Master had to be especially annoyed now after hearing about his OWL and NEWT.
HP
The Slytherins should soon realise how right Harry had been. When Snape informed the house during the house meeting after the welcoming feast that the Quidditch team had received new brooms from Mr. Malfoy and that Draco was the new Seeker, Draco immediately contradicted.
"Professor, the team and I have decided that I'm going to play Chaser, while Harry will be the new Seeker," he spoke up in a firm voice, causing the Slytherin head to see red.
"No Mr. Malfoy," he replied, icily. "You will abide by my rules. Just because all the Potters believe that they're better than everyone else, it doesn't mean that we all have to play along. You're going to play Seeker. If the team needs a Chaser as well, Marcus is going to have tryouts as soon as possible."
"That was clear," Harry whispered to Blaise, unaware that the Potions Master's hearing was extremely good.
"Five toads for your insolence, Mr. Potter," Snape hissed, causing Harry to let out a deep sigh.
'Don't say anything else now' Barkymort advised him, looking up at him from dark brown eyes.
'I know,' Harry replied, feeling very sad at his head of house's behaviour.
HP
However, it became even worse in the morning. The Slytherins' second morning class was Potions, and after breakfast, Harry trailed down to the dungeons together with Hermione, Blaise and Draco with apprehension.
A moment after Hermione, Harry and Blaise had slipped into the first row as usual, the classroom door was shut with a loud bang, and the professor strode towards the front of the room with his robes billowing behind him.
The professor quietly let his eyes wander over the room, before he hissed, "Potter! Out!"
"Sorry?" Harry asked, torn between surprise and shock.
"Since you've already taken your OWLs, there's no reason for you to be in this class," Snape replied, icily. "Out now."
Like in a trance, Harry left the Potions classroom, wondering what he should do now. 'I want to speak with Mum and Dad, but they're in class now,' he thought, trying to suppress the tears that welled up in his eyes. Finally, he decided to pay the headmaster a visit. However, after twenty minutes of inefficiently guessing the password for the gargoyle in front of Dumbledore's office, Harry was so fed up that he returned home, grabbed Barkymort into his arms and stepped into the fireplace, shouting, "The Potter house."
Without thinking about what he was doing, Harry made his way into the potions lab and began to brew the first potion from a prank potions book, which he had received from his godfather for his birthday. In order to not become tempted to prank a specific teacher, he had left it at home. However, now it did not matter anymore anyway. He flawlessly brewed the potion and pocketed the phial with the lime green liquid, before he cleaned the lab with a flick of his wand. Returning to his own room, he threw himself onto his bed and allowed his tears of anger and disappointment to run freely, slowly crying himself to sleep.
HP
At Hogwarts, Hermione, Blaise and Draco became worried when Harry did not only miss his second morning class, which was History of Magic, but did not appear for lunch either.
Hermione swiftly walked up to the head table and informed Lily and Professor McGonagall what had happened in their Potions class and that she had not seen Harry since then.
"Thank you for telling me," Lily said in a soft voice and awarded five points to Gryffindor, before she excused herself, hearing how Minerva verbally attacked the Potions Master, while she crossed the Great Hall.
Unfortunately, Lily could not find Harry, and by the time Hermione, Carol and Neville returned to the Potter quarters after the last afternoon class, Harry had yet to show up.
"Maybe he returned home," Carol suggested, causing Lily to give her daughter a thoughtful look.
Lily hurriedly stepped into the fireplace, barely registering that all three children followed her. They let out a collective sigh of relief, when Barkymort happily greeted them in front of the fireplace.
"If Barkymort's here, Harry must be here too," Carol spoke up and hurried into her brother's room.
HP
Harry woke up, when his sister shouted, "Harry's here."
He lazily opened his eyes that were still red from crying, seeing his mother, Hermione and Neville storm into the room.
"Thank Merlin," Hermione blurted out. "We were so worried."
"I'm sorry," Harry mumbled, feeling very much reassured by the presence of his mother, sister and friends.
They talked about what had happened for a while, before Lily decided, "Very well, Harry, I suggest that you begin studying for the Potions Mastery right away. During your free periods, when your classmates have Potions, you can study the theoretical part, and during the weekends, I'm going to teach you. How's that?"
"Thank you, Mum. That's brilliant," Harry replied, very much consoled.
"Very well then," Lily said, smiling, before she announced, "I need to go back to Hogwarts and attend dinner. I'll excuse you from dinner, but please make sure that you're back at Hogwarts before curfew, all of you," she added, giving Harry a stern look. "I'll deal with Professor Snape."
"Oh, I wouldn't want to be in Professor Snape's skin," Hermione spoke up after Lily had stepped into the fireplace. "When she's angry, she gets really scary."
"And she's brilliant at Charms," Carol added. "I can't wait to see how she's going to deal with Snape."
HP
Harry did not see the Potions Master anymore on that day. When he returned to Hogwarts, he retired to his bedroom and went straight to bed, where he busied himself reading a Potions book that his mother had instructed him to study in order to prepare himself for the mastery.
However, when Professor Snape entered the common room before breakfast on the following morning, the teacher seemed like a different person.
"I've booked the Quidditch pitch for us for tonight," he informed the students, "so that you can try out your new brooms."
Draco raised his hand. "Sir, is it all right if I play Chaser then and Harry Seeker?" he queried, causing Harry to cast his friend a horrified look.
'Don't even mention me in front of Snape,' he thought in annoyance, mentally preparing himself for the outburst that was sure to come.
However, the Potions Master merely nodded. "If that's what the team wants," he replied, positively, causing the students to exchange surprised looks. "Don't be late for breakfast," the professor instructed them and left the common room, his robes billowing behind him as usual.
"Someone has played a prank on Snape," one of the seventh years spoke up what they all thought.
'Probably Mum,' Harry realised, inwardly grinning. 'I just hope it won't wear off too soon.'
HP
To the whole school's surprise, during Harry's second year, Professor Snape turned out to be one of the friendliest professors at Hogwarts. He never said anything negative about anyone else, did not overly take house points from the students and even began to occasionally wear blue and green robes.
Throughout the school year, Harry played Seeker on his house team, and the Slytherin Quidditch team won all matches as well as the Quidditch cup at the end of the school year.
Since Harry did not attend the Potions classes and only returned to the Slytherin common room on time for curfew, he did not come in direct contact with the professor overly often, however, even if he met the Potions Master, Snape behaved civically.
On the one hand, Harry was extremely relieved to not get into fights with his head of house every now and then and delighted to be able to play on the Quidditch team, however, on the other hand, he always worried when the charm that his mother had obviously cast at the Potions Master was going to wear off.
"Don't worry, Harry. When it wears off, I'm just going to cast it again," Lily promised, smiling, reassuringly.
However, to Lily's own surprise, the charm lasted more than two years, and when Lily realised that it seemed to be slowly wearing off, she immediately re-cast the charm, putting as much magic into the spell as she could.
HP
It was at about the same time, at the beginning of Harry's fourth Hogwarts year, that he and Neville suddenly experienced different problems. They were pulled into visions. It was always almost the same vision - about a small creature that was being fed by two wizards. Harry and Neville both put their visions into a Pensieve and showed them to James and Frank, who immediately proceeded to contact the Department of Magical Mysteries that had already helped getting rid of the Horcruxes two years ago.
A few days later, James returned from the Ministry and informed his family that people from the Department of Magical Mysteries had transfigured the small creature into dragon dung and then banished the dung completely. "Whatever it was, it's dead now," he added, contentedly, before he let out a huge gasp. "Harry and Neville, your scars are gone," he blurted out. "That should mean that Voldemort is really gone for good."
"Thank Merlin," Lily replied, sighing in relief. "Please tell your colleagues from the Department of Magical Mysteries just how grateful we are that they helped us and got rid of him." Turning to Alice, she added, "So much about prophecies."
"I think no one but Voldemort and Dumbledore believed in that prophecy anyway," James replied, grinning.
HP
Harry was outright happy that the visions finally stopped, as it had been very annoying to not be able to get undisturbed sleep, which he needed in order to be able to study for his Potions Mastery that he was supposed to take during the summer after his fourth Hogwarts year.
To his relief, Professor Snape was still under the influence of Lily's charm, and Harry could not only peacefully finish his Potions Mastery as well as a year later the OWLs in all the other subjects but also thoroughly enjoy himself.
When Marcus left Hogwarts after his NEWTs, Professor Snape made Draco the Quidditch captain, and as the house team's Seeker, Harry was able to reassure the Quidditch cup for Slytherin five times in a row.
Only during the summer after Harry's sixth Hogwarts year did the charm that Lily had placed on Professor Snape wear off again. Unfortunately, this time, Snape was alert enough to immediately complain to the headmaster, who from his side vehemently forbade his colleagues to cast any kind of charm or spell on another colleague.
tbc...
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