Oi, extremely late and crappy chappie will ensue, ye have been warned. (heavy sigh)

The class entered nervously, jumpy if one student set their books down too hard, one girl even went so far as to scream as one tapped her on the shoulder too hard. Harry rolled his eyes as the girl smiled apologetically at the other person and sat down hastily, her eyes darting around.

He could smell her fear, he could smell all their fear, even Ron was edgy and it was starting to give him a headache. His hand strayed to his scar, truth be told, he was not looking forward to this meeting at all, more than likely, Snape would corner him, yell at him, take away points for no reason and leave him with a worse headache than before. Needless to say, he was not looking forward to the confrontation. He sighed tapping his fingers on the desk and glancing about, the classroom was the same, same dark, forbidding-looking desk, same deadly array of potions ingredients, same, same, same, same, SAME! He dropped his head to his desk, causing an overly-loud 'thump' to echo in the classroom, making everyone jump at the noise and stare. He rolled his eyes, taking out his quill and playing with it between his fingers, before reaching over and tickling Ron with it.

"Harry, quit it." Ron hissed.

Harry complied, but reached over again and tickled him behind his ear, tittering to himself.

"Harry…"

The door flew open with a dramatic BANG! And there in all his 6' 4" glory, dark, brooding, venomous and deadly stood the indomitable Severus Snape. His ebony eyes sneered at the room with hardly a glance, the frown lines around his mouth deepening at the sight of his first class, first thing Monday morning, the teeth barely showing in a hint of the inevitable snarl.

Harry could do nothing but stare at the dark Adonis that had practically fallen into his lap, "Oh gods…" He murmured.

The black eyes settled on him, the poisonous mouth twisting into a lethal smirk, "What was that, Mr. Potter?"

The satin voice ran through Harry's system like a terrible drug, exciting and terrifying him at the same time, this year was going to prove interesting, "I said, 'Hell never looked so good,' sir." Harry replied, his own mouth twisting into a smirk to make any Slytherin jealous.

Snape sneered, "Ten points from Gryffindor for your cheek, Potter." He said dismissively, turning to the chalk board and tapping it with his wand. "Welcome, as Mr. Potter so eloquently put it, to hell. This is your seventh year, NEWT's class, a place to learn some of the more volatile and deadly potions, poisons, and various other breweries this year. I. Will. Not, put up with mistakes, as these mistakes will likely cost some of your lives. I suppose we can be thankful that Mr. Longbottom is not here." He smirked nastily, "The potion today… Mr. Malfoy, eyes up here!" Snape snarled at the blonde and rapped his wand sharply across the table, dangerously close to the pale boy's knuckles, "As I was saying, most of you will not recognise this potion, those that do…" Snape twirled his wand, "It is a particularly dangerous healing potion, apply too little, the ingredients will seep into your skin and cause and odd rash and/or skin discolouration, too much and you'll die. It can be ingested, but it is not the recommended way to use this, mostly because of…" He stopped as he realised ever face was turned to his, "Why aren't you writing this down, you lot of simple-minded imbeciles!" He growled, tapping his wand against the ingredients table and the various substances popping up. "The healing potion is used only in severe cases of injury, but rarely on anyone under the age of thirteen. They had better be done by the end of class. Begin!" Snape whirled his robes around himself and sat at his desk with a glower as the students went to retrieve their things.

Harry stood to gather his and Ron's things as an idea struck him and a malicious smirk lit up his face. He held back from the rest of the students gathering their things and was pressed close to the Professor's desk; he leaned back casually and nearly heard Snape snarl at the invasion of his precious space

"Potter! Why, pray tell, are you not gathering what you must?" His voice was dead calm and dripped poison, "Lazing will not be tolerated here, and 10 points for failing to follow instruction. Now get. Off. My. Desk."

"Why professor, I was waiting until everyone else had gotten their things, rather than pushing, possibly making something bad happen with an accidental mix?" Harry pouted coyly and pushed off from the sturdy oak desk, nudging his way through the crowd to gather his things as he felt Snape's burning gaze narrow in suspicion. He gathered the ingredients and sauntered back to his desk, setting himself gracefully into his seat and getting to work on grinding the dragon bone as he instructed Ron to chop the tulip stems finely.

Snape swirled his robes around himself, Harry taking notice of the way that the mans hips pivoted as he stood and stepped from behind his desk, the dark eyes sweeping the class with a practiced eye, "As soon as you add the tulips there should be an emission of pale orange smoke from the rolling boil that your potions should be at, if it is not doing so, dispose of the potion and you will fail the class for the day." He paused before Harry and Ron's cauldron, obviously disappointed that he couldn't force them to dispose of the steadily boiling liquid.

"Carefully, Ron." Harry admonished as Ron went to dump all the tulips in, in one go. He added the specified amount of manticore blood with the eye dropper and the potion turned and vibrant acid green almost instantly as the last drop went in.

Snape sneered as he came by, but moved on without a word even as Harry smiled flirtatiously at him.

The class came to a quick and deliberate close as Snape slammed a book down onto the desk, "Your potion should be complete, Zabini, you have failed to create even a decent rendition of the mixture, I am deeply disappointed in you. Ms. Parkinson, you are pathetic, did you not clearly read that only five drops of wolfsbane extract was to be injected into the potion, not seven, plopped into, five points from Slytherin for your inability to follow the simplest of directions, and Potter, twenty points from Gryffindor, the colour is off, it is clearly stated that the potion should be a pale silver, not light grey. The lot of you, out of my sight!" He dismissed them with a vehement wave of his hand and sat down heavily into his chair, massaging the bridge of his nose.

Harry lingered for a moment, watching the determinedly secretive professor before retreating hastily, for fear of removing even more points from Gryffindor, running to catch up to Ron and Hermione. "Wow, that was fun."

"Not." Ron huffed.

"Oh, go on you two, I have Arithmancy, you have Charms, get lost and I'll see you at lunch." Hermione rolled her eyes and trotted off.

Ack! I'm unwaveringly apologetic for the short, stunted chapter and for the enormously long update wait, my brain did a total fart on me and I was left to scrape up the shoddy bits of my imagination. I don't particularly like this chapter, it was more than likely my most difficult to spit out, but, no matter, it's here and functionable, though also very changeable, so keep peering at the updates and make sure a complaint is lodged if it is not satisfactory. Love and Kisses- Wings