VIII - The Potions Master

"Why does he have to get his own chapter?" Sirius whined. Snape didn't say anything, but the smirk on his face was worth a thousand words anyway.

"I'm sure you'll get one in the third book," Harry teased. Remus was pleased to see that Harry was still comfortable around his godfather – he had been expecting that it would take a while for him to get relaxed around Sirius again, but the boy kept surprising him.

McGonagall cleared her throat and said, "Now, if I could begin to read?"

Everyone went quiet. Sirius even mimed zipping his lips.

"That was really annoying, by the way," Harry felt the need to inform the others.

"We know," Ron and Hermione said in unison, Neville just a second behind them. All four of the teenagers looked at each other and burst out laughing. Most of the adults on the other hand, felt the need to roll their eyes.

Neville winced at the mention of the vanishing steps. He lost count of how many times he's forgotten about them and got caught in one of them.

"They can," Sirius teased. Harry did the only thing that he could think of – he ignored his godfather.

"He still does that?" asked a surprised Sirius. Harry had a bad feeling about this comment.

"Of course he does, you taught it to him," Remus said exasperatedly. Harry now knew why he had a bad feeling. He hoped that Sirius hadn't taught anything else to the crazy poltergeist. Or anyone else still in the castle, at that.

"Wow, not even James and I managed to do that," said Sirius proudly.

"And we're thankful for that," McGonagall said, slightly irritated at all the interruptions.

"You have the worst luck, Harry," Tonks said, shaking her head.

"That's Harry for you," Ron quickly said, ignoring the elbow in his ribs – courtesy of Harry.

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other. They all knew that professor Quirrell wasn't just passing by now.

"That sounds like something my mum would say," Ron grumbled disgustedly to the amusement of everyone who knew Molly Weasley.

"I think it's something she actually said," Harry said, grinning. It took Ron a few seconds to remember his mum's Howler from last year and he immediately went as red as his hair. Hermione giggled as she remembered the incident as well.

"I kicked her once," said Sirius proudly.

"I kind of figured that out by myself, thanks," Harry said.

Harry was reminded of his first Potions lesson. It seemed Hermione also remembered it and with a look at each other, they quoted their professor in unison,

"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic."

Harry could see Dumbledore's beard and professor Snape's eyelid twitch, and decided to have a little fun.

"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 continued to quote his Potions professor.

"That was quite the speech professor Snape," Tonks said, after she finished giggling. "You should have stopped at stoppering death though."

Snape glared at everyone, but somehow couldn't make himself glare at Harry – he was impressed that the boy remembered his speech from all those years ago.

"I love Herbology," Neville said with a smile.

McGonagall shook her head at her colleague's antics, and continued reading.

"You warned us too, but you never threw us out," Sirius said smugly.

"That's not something you should be proud of, Mr Black," McGonagall said in her strictest voice.

"You didn't inherit your father's talent in Transfiguration then," Sirius commented. Harry frowned at that. While he loved being compared to his father most of the time, he didn't like it when Sirius did it for some reason. It made him feel as if Sirius was trying to replace him (Harry) with James.

"I am not my father," he said quietly and seriously. Ever since he heard the story about how Sirius had almost set Remus on Snape and how his dad came to save Snape, he had thought about his father a lot. He tried to pretend that his father came to save Snape because he was a good guy, but he had this nagging thought that it was only because of Sirius' stupidity and not because Snape was in danger.

"I know you're not," said Sirius calmly. Somehow, he could sense what went on in Harry's head just then.

Snape couldn't help but silently agree. From what he observed of the boy in classes, out of them and especially in this room, he seemed to be more like Lily. Of course that made him snarl quietly to himself. As more and more of Lily emerged from the boy, the less he could hate him.

"Thank you so much for your vote of confidence," Ron sulked.

"Any time," Harry smirked.

"Congratulations! I'm so proud of you," Sirius mocked. Remus shook his head and decided to deflate his friend's ego a little bit.

"Really, Sirius. You shouldn't talk – it took you two weeks to find it."

"Shut up, Remus," Sirius murmured amidst the teenagers' giggling.

"I remember, you jumped and spilled your cornflakes all over yourself," Ron tried to get back at his mate for his earlier comment. Harry pinked a bit, but didn't reply.

"I'm still shocked you can read his handwriting..." Sirius said, shaking his head as if in disbelief.

"Well, after trying to imitate Dudley's chicken scratch, Hagrid's writing is really easy to decipher," Harry tried to defend himself. This made everyone's mood plummet.

Both Harry and Snape grimaced at that.

Snape's eyebrow rose and fell again with the next sentence.

Sirius was man enough to only roll his eyes at that.

"Here it comes," said Harry cheekily, trying to dissolve the tension in the room. Hermione socked him in the arm, but started giggling again anyway.

"As I said before, you really should've stopped with stoppering death," Tonks reiterated. Snape only huffed in annoyance.

"You saw that," murmured Hermione, embarrassed.

"Of course I did," smirked Harry, earning himself another elbow in the ribs, this time from Hermione.

"Stop maiming me, woman!" he grinned.

"Then stop embarrassing me all the time!" Hermione huffed back.

"I can't help what's written in the book about what I noticed!" Harry argued back.

"You can stop commenting on it, though," Hermione retorted with her arms crossed.

"I'll try, but I can't make any promises," Harry tried to compromise.

"I guess that's the best I'll get out of you," Hermione finally calmed down.

"Besides, you were the one to comment about it just now," Harry got the last word in, making Hermione speechless as she realized that it was, indeed, the truth.

The adults merely observed the two bickering teenagers with amusement. You could see Dumbledore's beard twitching again, and McGonagall's lips were also less thinner as if she was holding back a smile. Remus, Tonks and Sirius on the other hand were all grinning broadly at the display of affection. Ron and Neville could be seen rolling their eyes at the pair and Moody was just staring at the book.

"Severus," McGonagall suddenly said. "That's sixth year material! You can't expect a first year to know that."

Ron, Harry and Neville smirked a bit at the admonishment Snape received and at the fact that indeed, a first years knew that.

"Unless it's Miss Granger, of course," McGonagall corrected herself swiftly, making Snape smirk in amusement.

"Really, Minerva," he said silkily. "You really should have expected that one."

Everyone laughed at the glare McGonagall sent at the Potions Master.

"That's material learned at the end of first year, Severus. Were you going easy on the boy, perchance?" Albus teased, knowing that Severus could ask a harder question than this one.

Snape glared at the Headmaster, making Harry realize that it was a silent agreement since he did not deny it loudly.

"Silly boy," Snape murmured. "That's the Herbology textbook. No wonder you didn't know the answers, if you were reading the wrong book."

Harry pinked. How was he supposed to know about that before coming to Hogwarts.

"I know that now," he grumbled at the professor, who gave him a smirk. Nasty bastard.

"Oooh, a trick question," Tonks piped up, grinning at the absurdness of the Potions lesson. She knew that they should feel a bit indignant for Harry's sake, but seeing as Harry himself didn't mind it, so did no one else.

"Lily's cheek, right there," Sirius smiled.

"Because you didn't tell us to?" Harry dared to say, earning himself another glare from Snape.

"You really were going easy on him," McGonagall commented. Snape stayed quiet – he didn't want to admit that he was taken off guard with the boy's reply – it reminded him of Lily as well – and he couldn't quite bring himself to take more points from the boy. Of course, he corrected the mistake in later classes.

"See, no foolish wand-waving in his classroom," Harry said before anyone else could comment on how Neville was treated. He and Neville had talked about it a few months ago when Ron and Hermione were arguing and they came up with the idea that if Snape wasn't so strict with them, a lot more accidents would happen. Potions were a dangerous subject if treated incorrectly after all.

"And no one got hurt too badly, luckily," Neville added, after catching Harry's eyes and remembering their talk as well.

Sirius, who had just opened his mouth to yell at Snape, fell silent at that.

"Still going easy on him, I see," McGonagall said. She wanted to scold him, of course, but from what Harry and Neville said, she supposed it would be a moot point. They were determined to defend Snape's actions.

"Yes, he can," Harry mumbled as he remembered all of his encounters with Snape.

"Didn't really help," Harry felt the need to inform his best friend.

"He always pounds on me," Ron complained.

"He likes you the best, after all," Harry laughed.

"That didn't make me feel any better either," Ron said.

"From then on, we never ate them again," Harry said.

"Nice," Sirius laughed.

Almost everyone laughed at Hagrid's comment on Mrs Norris.

"Hagrid is a lousy liar, after all," Harry said with a grin.

"And he's also lousy with changing the subject," Ron said, grinning as well.

"Well, that's Hagrid for you," Hermione added her two knuts into the discussion.

"Good instincts," Moody suddenly said, startling almost everyone. They had forgotten that he was in the room as well. No wonder, he almost never commented on anything, just listened.

"That's the end of the chapter," said McGonagall and without a word pushed the book into Dumbledore's hands.