CHAPTER EIGHT - THE POTIONS MASTER
Lily's eyes widened when she saw the chapter of the title and you could hear the distaste and anger in her voice as she spoke, 'Chapter eight, the potions master.'
'Oh great,' James groaned, rolling his eyes.
'Just what I wanted to hear about- that greasy git,' Marlene said, she had really disliked Snape when they were at school and couldn't understand Lily's friendship with him.
"There, look."
"Where?"
"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."
"Wearing the glasses?"
"Did you see his face?"
"Did you see his scar?"
'There is no need to point and whisper around him, poor lamb must be so nervous!' Rose fretted indignantly.
'He's going to get it his whole life no doubt,' Charlus said sadly and everyone frowned.
Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day. People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring.
'That sucks,' Gideon said quietly to Fabian. 'Imagine having to put up with that on your first day when you're nervous enough?' Fabian nodded with his brother, he too felt sorry for the young lad.
Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to classes.
Everyone's frowns deepened.
There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts:
'Woah, how does he know that?' James said shocked.
'I assume it's just written that way to add a little description to the story Jamie,' Lily told him.
-wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending.
'That sounds a little daunting,' Rose said.
'Why do they do those things?' Michael asked, he had never heard of a more magical place.
'No one knows. The castle has been there for thousands of years and when the founders moved in I guess more magic was put into the place,' Dorea told him.
It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armour could walk.
'They can,' James told his son.
The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open.
Marlene and Lily shuddered delicately, that always happened to them.
Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindor's in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class.
'Good ol' Peeves,' James and the twins grinned.
He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"
'He still does that?' James laughed.
Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning.
'Only your son,' Lily muttered.
'So he's my son when he gets into trouble?' James asked in amusement, to which Lily simply answered with a grin and a 'Yes.'
Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor.
James and the Prewett twins laughed loudly at this.
He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.
'He can't lock them in the dungeons! Can he?' Rose asked outraged.
'No, Filch just likes to think we can be. Those punishments were lifted from the school years ago,' Charlus told her.
Filch owned a cat called Mrs Norris, a scrawny, dust-coloured creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later.
'I hate that cat,' Marlene muttered to Lily, who nodded vigorously.
Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone
'No he doesn't,' James told the book and everyone laughed.
(except perhaps the Weasley twins)
'I bet!' Gideon and Fabian said together grinning.
-and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs Norris a good kick.
'What I wouldn't give,' a few of the witches and wizards present muttered.
And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.
'That would be cool,' Marlene said and Lily frowned at her.
'You're so lazy Marl,' she muttered to her friend.
They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout,
'She's still there, wonderful!' Lily said, she was fond of her Herbology teacher.
-where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.
Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him.
'Really?' Rose asked in shock.
'Yep, he is the single most boring thing on the planet!' Fabian told her.
Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.
Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk.
Lily smiled at this.
At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.
Everyone laughed.
Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.
'Typical,' James grinned.
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."
'And yet we used to mess around all the time,' James said laughing.
'You were the best Transfiguration student in our year Jamie,' Lily said, 'She wasn't about to kick you out!' he blushed and then motioned for his wife to continue.
Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time.
After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile.
'She must be clever,' Marlene said shocked, she hadn't been able to do it the first time.
'I guess Harry didn't get my talent in Transfiguration then,' James mused, slightly put out.
The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defence Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story.
For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.
'hmm,' Charlus and Dorea said together. They both thought this was a bit odd, especially of a Defence professor. What was going on?
Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.
'That's good,' Rose said happily.
Friday was an important day for Harry and Ron. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once.
'Well done!' Lily enthused causing her husband to laugh.
"What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge.
"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favours them - we'll be able to see if it's true."
'Great,' everyone moaned.
"Wish McGonagall favoured us," said Harry. Professor McGonagall was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.
Just then, the mail arrived. Harry had gotten used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.
Lily and James frowned, they should be able to send letters to their son.
Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls.
This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Harry's plate. Harry tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:
'Must be Hagrid,' James grinned.
Dear Harry,
I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three?
I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.
Hagrid.
'That is so kind!' Lily said happily, she was pleased her son had someone to talk to.
Harry borrowed Ron's quill, scribbledYes, please, see you lateron the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again.
'Good boy,' Charlus said, he too was pleased that his Grandson had someone to be there for him.
It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far.
James grumbled incoherently and everyone else sat up straighter, frowning slightly.
At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he'd been wrong. Snape didn't dislike Harry, he hated him.
'Bloody git!' James fumed and nobody argued.
'Oh Severus,' Lily whimpered.
Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.
Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name. "Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new - celebrity."
'Git.' A few muttered together.
Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.
Lily shivered at this. She used to see at least some happiness in his eyes, what had happened to make him so cold?
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of Potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.
'Cause they're probably all terrified of him!' Marlene fumed.
"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
'He can't talk about students that way!' Dorea said in disgust.
More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.
'Of course,' said Lily grinning at the girls behaviour.
"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
'The Draught of the Living Dead,' Lily answered immediately and then frowned angrily, 'that is not a first year question Severus!' she growled.
Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air.
'What?' Dorea asked incredulously, how could the girl know that already?
"I don't know, sir," said Harry.
Snape's lips curled into a sneer. "Tut, tut - fame clearly isn't everything."
He ignored Hermione's hand.
"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
'In the stomach of a goat,' Lily answered, though her voice was laced with anger. He had no right to treat her son this way! James was also fuming with anger and had gone back to muttering under his breath.
Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.
'Gits,' Gideon and Fabian said together.
"I don't know, sir."
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. He had looked through his books at the Dursleys', but did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi?
'I reckon he would have been shocked if you did know the answers, the git is setting him up to fail!' Marlene fumed.
Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
'That's a trick question! They're the same thing!' James said angrily.
At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.
'She's eager,' Michael laughed.
"I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"
James burst out laughing.
'He defiantly has you cheek Lil,' She blushed slightly but then grinned proudly, she was glad her son wasn't taking this lying down, even though he could get into trouble.
A few people laughed; Harry caught Seamus's eye, and Seamus winked.
Snape, however, was not pleased.
'Good,' Everyone muttered.
"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"
There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter."
'At least it's only one point,' James said shrugging, he expected detention at least.
Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like.
'He would like the son of a fellow Death Eater,' James growled.
He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes.
'Brilliant!' The twins chortled.
Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.
"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape,
'There is no need for that!' Lily said angrily.
'How dare he speak to students that way?' Dorea muttered furiously.
-clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"
Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.
"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.
'Oh give it a rest!' James shouted in fury, he was sick of hearing about Snape's treatment of his son.
"You - Potter - why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."
'That is completely unfair!' The twins said together, disgusted by this behaviour.
This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron.
"Don't push it," he muttered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty."
'Yeah he can,' James and the two twins muttered.
As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's mind was racing and his spirits were low. He'd lost two points for Gryffindor in his very first week - why did Snape hate him so much?
'Because of me,' James and Lily said together and then looked at each other.
'It wasn't you Lily. It was my entire fault,' she opened her mouth to protest but he put his finger to her lips. 'I bullied him and picked a fight with him whenever I could. I made him angry enough to shout at you calling you that disgusting word and then you fell in love with me. I understand why he hates me and I except it fully.'
Lily's eyes brimmed with tears and she wrapped her arms around her husband. This was why she loved James, though he was an arrogant toerag when he was younger, he still had the ability to apologise and feel guilt for the wrongs he caused.
'He should be adult enough to not take his pathetic childhood grudge out on a innocent child though!' Marlene said, her eyes flashing.
"Cheer up," said Ron, "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?"
'That's nice,' Dorea said.
At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.
When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang - back."
'Fang?' Rose fretted.
'I wouldn't worry mum,' Lily laughed. 'Hagrid generally mis-matches the names of his animals. Something fearful he would call 'Bert' and something cowardly he'd call 'Fang'.' All the wizards and witches laughed, knowing this to be true.
Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.
"Hang on," he said. "Back, Fang."
He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.
There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.
"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.
'Told you,' Lily said smugly. 'It's the normal or cute-sounding names you have to watch out for,'
"This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate.
"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles. I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest."
Everyone laughed at this, they could see that to be true.
The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons.
Everyone laughed again.
'Those boys are so kind,' Dorea commented.
Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes.
Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Fitch "that old git."
"An' as fer that cat, Mrs Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her - Fitch puts her up to it."
'No doubt,' Marlene said bitterly, she really disliked that cat.
Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.
"But he seemed to really hate me."
"Rubbish!" said Hagrid. "Why should he?"
'Hagrid knows why,' James laughed.
Yet Harry couldn't help thinking that Hagrid didn't quite meet his eyes when he said that.
Everyone laughed; Hagrid was no good at lying.
"How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot - great with animals."
'Subtle change of subject there,' The twins laughed.
Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose. While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cosy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:
GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST
'What?' Everyone gasped, that was unheard of!
Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July,
'That's the day Harry was there,' Lily commented, frowning slightly.
-widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.
'The vault they went to, maybe?' James asked in a wondering tone.
"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokes-goblin this afternoon.
Everyone laughed at the goblins reaction.
Harry remembered Ron telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn't mentioned the date.
"Hagrid!" said Harry, "that Gringotts break-in happened on my birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!"
'He's putting it together?' Dorea asked incredulously, her grandson seemed quite intelligent.
There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet Harry's eyes this time.
'It was defiantly that vault then,' James commented.
He grunted and offered him another rock cake. Harry read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?
'Clever boy, he has a quick mind,' Charlus commented proudly.
As Harry and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse,
Lily smiled at this.
-Harry thought that none of the lessons he'd had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell Harry?
'Asks a lot of questions doesn't he?' Fabian laughed.
'He's just curious!' Lily defended. 'The chapter is done, who wants to read next?'
'I will,' James said.
Hello all!
The next chapter just as I promised last night, I hope you're all enjoying the story so far and I want to thank you all again for the reviews and favorite/alerts. I need more reviews though! I love when I get them, so please, if you're still reading REVIEW! Thank you to Loves to read books, for wishing me well, I'm feeling a lot better today and ColourMyStarsYellow13 for reviewing last night!
Read, enjoy, review.
Forevertruex
