Author's note: I'm so glad everyone thinks I'm doing an acceptable job of continuing the story! Here is chapter twelve!

I'm sorry I had a couple of days without an update, I do have an excuse but I won't go into it now. Hope the chapter makes up for it!

Chapter 12: Brewing up Trouble.

Harry pulled a face as the door creaked as he pushed it open, but the soft snoring from his guardian's room did not waver. He tip-toed out, closing the door carefully behind although the click sounded loud in the still night.

The corridors of Hogwarts were dark and creepy, the only light coming from tiny candles which were floating along the edges and casting a gloomy glow more than actual light. Harry shivered, he hated the dark and as much as he loved Hogwarts during the day; the castle was spooky and cold after hours.

He began to jog slightly, both to warm himself up and to make the journey go faster. The trip to Professor's Snape's dungeons had never seemed to take so long before. He switched the hand he was using to carry the heavy bag which contained his precious ingredients.

The previous day had passed quickly and without incident, if Dumbledore had told Remus about Harry's mysterious 'gifts' the man did not let on or show any suspicion. Remus had suggested an early night and so Harry had had quite a few hours sleep before his 'midnight expedition'. He only hoped Professor Snape had already retired for the night too.

The steep steps down to the dungeon seemed a lot closer than Harry remembered and he only caught himself from falling by gripping the wall. He might have yelped, but if he did then Professor Snape didn't seem to have heard as the door to his chambers remained closed.

Harry almost ran to the small office where he knew Professor Snape brewed sometimes, it would have everything he needed and was adequately far away from the man's chambers; the last thing he needed was the man to wake up.

The room simply held a large worktable with a big cauldron standing on top. It was high, and Harry had to kneel on the old stool to be able to reach. Sighing in relief, he emptied out all of the ingredients on the table around him. He had got this far, surely if he was going to be caught he would be caught by now.

He had never brewed a potion before, despite his begging to Professor Snape. He wondered how you were supposed to start, you obviously needed some sort of liquid in there first.

He studied the little jars before selecting the runniest, the red bottled liquid. Feeling a bit like George out of George's Marvellous Medicine, which had been his bedtime story that night, he poured the full lot in. It hissed and crackled, even though Harry hadn't even lit the flame under the cauldron yet.

Harry watched the cauldron in apprehension, was it supposed to make noises? Deciding that he couldn't really start again now, he quickly added the large stripy gold thing which floated on top of the red liquid like a gigantic snake.

Harry glared at it angrily, it wasn't a Slytherin potion! Hoping it would sink or melt, he quickly added the ingredient from the circular moon tub. But that just floated on the top too making the red thing look even more like a snake.

What Harry needed was to make the potion hot so it would melt, he peeked under the cauldron and could just make out the place the flame was supposed to be, but how was he supposed to light it?

He needed a wand so that he could think really hard about fire and then it would appear, he had done that before to get sweets once when Remus told him he wasn't allowed pudding that day because he accidentally put sneezing powder on Professor Trelawney's dinner. Remus didn't understand anyway; it was annoying when she kept predicting his death.

But it was too late to go back and get a wand now.

Besides, Remus had said he must never ever ever play with magic or fire, this wasn't playing but he was sure Remus wouldn't see it that way. He would just have to make a cold potion, and it would just have to have the snake thing floating around, at least it was in Gryffindor colours.

Harry's smile grew as, when he added the gold paste, the potion became a deep blue. That proved it was working! He began to hum happily as the knotgrass turned it green, and then the blue waxy substance turned it orange. In hardly any time at all, he only had one ingredient left; the huge jar with the wolf picture on front. He knew this was the key ingredient.

He panted as he lifted it as high as the cauldron top before tipping it so the heavy liquid could drip through, his arms ached but he held it there until the substance stopped coming out. He nearly dropped the jar in his eagerness to peer at his potion now; it was a bright yellow. Finished.

It even was the colour of sunshine and just radiated happiness, Harry just knew that it would cure Remus. He scrambled across the room to get a glass vial off the shelf, his eyes widened as he saw the violent bubbling his potion was making by the time he got back. Quickly, he scooped the vial into the cauldron and took some out, the portion in the vial immediately became calm; which was more than could be said for the fierce liquid in the cauldron which was now crashing around so much it threatened to go over the top.

Harry shoved the vial into his pocket and took a hasty step back from the cauldron, he was about to start cautiously making his way back over to it again when a deep voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Another display of your idiocy and Gryffindor suitability, Potter?"

"P-p-professor Snape! I-"

"If you imagine I have nothing better to do then sit around listening to your foolish babbling and excuses then you are sorely mistaken. You can explain yourself to the wolf." Snape snapped, waving a hand over the close to exploding potion which immediately vanished.

Harry watched the long black cloak billow out behind the teacher as he stormed back down the corridor, he really wanted to learn how to do that, but now really didn't seem to be the time to ask and so he quickly scuttled after the irate man.

Harry pleaded for Professor Snape not to tell Remus all the way back to the rooms he had left such a small amount of time ago, but Professor Snape's heart was as cold as ever and all too soon Harry found himself staring very hard at his feet and trying to ignore the disappointed gaze Remus was concentrated on him. Harry hated it when Remus was angry with him, but he hated when he was disappointed even more.

The door slammed as Snape stalked back the way he had come, Remus and Harry were left alone and the fidgeting Harry was finding it extremely hard to ignore the man's eyes.

"Remus…I…"

Remus held up a hand. "We shall discuss this in the morning, Harry, it is 1am and you need your sleep."

"But Remus, I'm so-"

"To bed, Harry."

Harry went, reluctantly.

---

That night seemed to stretch on forever despite how short it was compared to normal. Harry couldn't take his shoes where he had carefully hidden the vial, he still had to get that to Remus. Even though the man was going to be very cross with Harry and would probably stop him from having dessert for days and might even say he can't play Quidditch at the weekend, he still didn't want him to be a werewolf.

The second light came through the gap in his curtains, Harry was up and scrambling into his clothes. He had to be up before Remus.

Luckily, as Harry made a cup of tea, the door to his guardian's room remained tightly shut. It had taken him all night to come up with this plan, but Harry was pretty proud of it. He would give Remus a cup of tea in the morning, as he sometimes (well, very occasionally) did anyway, and Remus would still be too sleepy to be suspicious and he would drink it down and then be all cured and he would be so happy about that that he would totally forget that he still had to tell Harry off.

Harry couldn't stop the grin on his face as he tipped the potion into the cup with a very tiny bit of tea right at the bottom. His grin faded as he looked at his masterpiece. The cup of tea was bright yellow, not even Remus (who had been up in the middle of the night) would be tired enough to fall for that. He needed to turn it brown…

Harry's grin made a very quick comeback as he rushed to the cooking equipment cupboard and found a bottle of brown food dye, left over from when Remus and Harry had made Rudolphs for Christmas. He tipped a few drops in, not wanting it to go to brown and smiled in satisfaction as it turned a very tea-y colour.

He quickly neutralised his expression and even managed to look a little sad and sorry as he took the tea to Remus's room, after all, he was supposed to be in trouble.

Remus sat up in bed as the boy made his way towards him, carefully carrying a cup of tea. He smiled softly at him, rather surprised and grateful even though he was sure the boy was just doing it because he knew he was in trouble and wanted to put his guardian in a good mood before they had to talk. Harry was very much like his father in some ways.

"I hope you like it." Harry whispered and, after nodding at the man's sincere thanks, Harry disappeared out of the room trying very hard not to put too much spring into his step or to look too excited.

Remus smiled down at the tea, the smile fading as he noticed the strange haze it seemed to have. He carefully raised it higher to look at it curiously, Harry had always made nice tea before. But this was…

The density was all wrong, the colour was off and, Remus took a sniff and then immediately crinkled up his nose from the stench, it definitely smelt wrong too. He leant over and tipped a tiny amount of the drink into the potted plant decorating the room, it shrivelled and died immediately.

Remus sighed. "Harry!"

-----

"So, you did manage to take some of the potion before Severus got rid of it?" Remus sighed.

"Umm…yes." Harry shuffled his feet uncomfortably.

"And so, you decided to spike a cup of tea with it with the sole intention of me consuming it?"

"Umm…yes?"

"Despite the fact that it could have made me seriously ill or…worse?"

Harry's eyes prickled with tears. "But it was going to make you better!"

Remus's eye brows rose. "I'm not ill, Harry. And if I was I would go down to the Hospital wing and get a temperature reducer potion, even I would never attempt to brew any health-care potions myself."

"But, you are ill and no one is giving you a potion to make you better and so…so…"

"And so you did?"

Harry nodded, his head hanging slightly.

"What makes you think I'm ill, Harry?" Remus asked the boy curiously.

"You said you were!"

Remus thought back to the previous day, had he complained of a headache? Showed any signs of nausea? He couldn't think of a single example, he had felt very well that day considering how close it was to the full moon. "When did I say I was, Harry?"

Harry felt like stamping his foot in frustration. "In Dumbledore's office! You said you were a…you had a furry little problem!"

He watched as comprehension dawned on Remus.

"You were making something to stop me from being a werewolf?" The man's voice sounded oddly tight.

"Yes, only to help so you didn't get hurt or tired anymore. I wasn't trying to hurt you, honest!"

"Oh, Harry." Remus's eyes moistened up. "Oh, Harry."