Disclaimer: Okay, so Halloween isn't this chapter. Whatever. Just means I get to flesh out some characters more.

Potions lessons for the end of the week came as a huge surprise to everyone. Professor Snape the Giant Bat had been inexplicably replaced by professor Snape the... Ordinary Teacher. The hatred and disgust that once hung about him had all but vanished, and while he still looked down his nose at some students, the identities of those students were completely different.

"Malfoy, silence," he ordered, and the pale Slytherin glared at him, embarrassed and confused. He ignored it in favour of addressing the rest of the class. "Today, we will be making a Cure for Boils. Can anyone tell me the key ingredients of such a potion?" After the last lesson, both Hermione and System were wary of raising their hands, but they did so against their better judgement. "Granger?"

"The main ingredients of the Cure for Boils are horned slugs and porcupine quills, in a two-to-one ratio," Hermione quoted immediately, and Snape nodded.

"Five points for Gryffindor," he said to universal incredulity. "Those are indeed the key ingredients, as stated by One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. However..." he stood at the ingredients cupboard, pulled out a jar and waved his wand over it, and it vanished into thin-air. "We seem to be missing the horned slugs. Fortunately, it is entirely possible to create the same potion in a number of different manners, albeit with different intensities and side-effects. The true hardship of Potions is not to create a potion that does as you wish it to. It is creating one that will not kill you in the process. Finding different methods to create the same effects will become an invaluable skill in the art of potion-making."

He turned back to the class, the jar holding the porcupine fangs in his hand, before he vanished that one too. "This will be a paired project spanning three sessions. Today's session will involve planning the potion out, while monday's double lesson will be the actual creation. You goal is simple: create a Cure for Boils without either porcupine quills or horned slugs, and attempt to minimise the side-effects. You may use your copies of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi for assistance. At the end of this lesson, each pair will be expected to hand in a plan of action detailing the risks that each ingredient will pose, and the counters for those risks. However, I will accept plans handed in any sooner than sunday noon, as long as a sufficient explanation is given. You may begin."

As it turned out, Neville was a genius at the planned aspect of Potions, thanks to his innate knowledge of Herbology. Without the menacing presence of Snape, AJ was quickly drawn into a conversation with him, both bouncing ideas off one another as Twilight listened in rapt attention.

"...So we add the nettles just before the yarrow?"

"No, Ah reckon that'd affect it too much, n' destabilise the whole thing. Try before that."

"Before the snake fangs?" Neville asked pointedly.

"Right. Ah see your point. That'd explode."

"Violently."

"So mix the yarrow... No, mix the nettles in on high heat to stabilise that-"

"-and then add the yarrow?" Neville nodded. "I think that would work... it'd remove the soothing effect of the nettles, but also the venom..."

"And the yarrow would cure it," AJ finished happily. "But what if we added more nettles later on, and used wasp venom to neutralise the nettles?"

"That could work, but we'd need to do that separately... Why not just put the nettles in once, though?"

"'Cause then the potion would-"

"Destabilise, right, of course..."

Their conversation continued on. They both knew that the System would be the one to actually make the potion this time, but Neville had resolved to help as much as possible even during the practical. The fact that Twilight told him she could just stick it to the table so he couldn't knock it over helped.

Albus smiled as Severus took the other seat in his office, looking more worn-out than usual, but also very pleased. "I take it that you had a good first day of 'teaching'?" he asked, emphasising the last word as if he was honest, Severus hadn't been doing much teaching previously.

Severus took a moment to compose himself before answering, crushing down the smile that had threatened to break onto his face. He still had standards, after all. "Today's lessons went extremely well, Albus. The effects of the changes to my lessons were immediate. The majority of my Slytherins stopped antagonising the other houses as they realised that I would not stand for it. Students became more respectful of me, although my... unfavourable reputation has done nothing to help in that regard. A few unlikely students moved higher in the class in response to the change in lesson plans-"

"Unlikely?" Albus interrupted, and the Potions professor nodded.

"Such as the Weasley twins, Neville Longbottom and System Baker."

Albus leaned forward in his chair, eyes twinkling, but was mildly annoyed when Severus didn't react. "And I would assume that you would like to speak of young Mr Baker?"

"In a manner," he replied. "He seems to have a profound effect on those he meets-"

"With exhibit A sitting before me, I am sure," Albus nodded. Severus copied him absently.

"It's as if he has a personality that can match anyone perfectly and change them for the better," he said. "Neville Longbottom, whom at the beginning of the year seemed uncoordinated, magically ungifted and extremely lacking in self-confidence, has shown recent improvement in all three areas, and that is with his father's wand, which I doubt is anywhere close to suitable for him. In fact, I'm thinking of placing the students into groups of three for their next project, and grouping the Granger girl with them. Hopefully they can begin showing her to think outside the box rather than quoting directly from textbooks..."

Albus hummed in acknowledgement, thinking back to what he'd heard of the girl. "An excellent student for sure, but not one with the correct mindset for life beyond school, or even the higher years," he said. "Several other professors have come to me begging to move her up, but I have observed her and refused them on those grounds. Perhaps you could help to explain?"

"I shall do my best," Severus replied.

"I trust you have been awarding and abducting points effectively?"

"Five points for short, correct answers, no points for incorrect ones, ten points off and a warning for fifty and detention for sabotage," Severus rattled off. "While I previously wouldn't have dreamed to be handling points so excessively, it has done wonders for the attentativeness of my students. I shall have to thank Filius for the pointers, next time I see him."

"And what of the project that you mentioned?" Albus pressed.

"This time it was a simple Cure for Boils, for all years. The catch is that the horned slugs and porcupine quills of the conventional recipe are unavailable..."

"So the students' task is to plan and prepare a Cure for Boils from scratch without those ingredients. Ingenious. Have you collected in the plans and reviewed them?"

"I have for the majority, although I gave students until sunday noon to hand them in, as long as they give a proper explanation. Some have taken me up on this, but once again, the most interesting of those who have is the partnership of Baker and Longbottom. I checked on all groups throughout their lessons, and they had a working Cure within the lesson. They gave me their plan an hour later, telling me that they were attempting to minimise side-effects and maximise effectiveness as far as possible."

"And?" Albus asked, sensing that there was something big afoot.

"They created a plan for a potion that would work within minutes, had no side effects aside from healing mild cuts and scratches, used only seven ingredients, and had a difficulty of twelve on the Jadis scale. Not quite up there with such brews as Polyjuice in terms of difficulty, but enough that I considered forbidding them from attempting it."

Albus scratched his beard in thought, leaning back in his chair. "How does the potion compare to its official variations?"

"It is slightly less effective than the one found in Moste Potente Potions, and doesn't contain any effects to counter magic resistance, but the ingredients it uses are far more common and for the most part found in the greenhouses. Both Baker and Longbottom seem to have a way with plants, and their discussions play out in such a way that they often correct each other on details that the other misses. Longbottom seems to have a better grasp on the theory, while Baker thinks outside the box more and works better in the practicals. Putting them together was at first an attempt to minimise the failures of students, as I had assumed that both Baker and Longbottom would ruin the potion that they worked on, so if I put them together, they would ruin only one potion between them. However, I do not regret that decision, as shallow as my assumptions may have been."

"Yes, it was a lucky choice, I suppose... Are there any other groups that had surprising results in the theory?"

"Crabbe and Goyle, while unable to move within a foot of a cauldron without knocking it over, came up with some surprisingly good conclusions, and have the plan which is the simplest, and while only mildly effective, has absolutely no side-effects, and is by far the easiest to brew, making it the second-best plan overall in the first year. While the majority of upper-year students seemed distracted by my change and struggled to string together a proper potion, Fred and George Weasley created one specifically designed to have no side-effects other than to colour one eye red and the other gold for a period of ten minutes, proving their talent without a doubt.

On the opposite end of the scale, Hermione Granger attempted to edit a textbook recipe, and struggled to associate each ingredient and action with its effects, ultimately wasting two thirds of the lesson and leaving herself and Ronald Weasley, who hadn't even attempted to give input, with a plan that had moderate effectiveness but also a comparatively large number of side-effects, which she seemed to realise and was frustrated by. Draco Malfoy, on the other hand, attempted a recipe which involved the unavailable ingredients, and was immediately disqualified."

"Very good, for your first proper teaching session," Albus assured him. "You seem to have everything under control, so please keep up the good work and keep me updated on the promising students. Goodnight." Severus nodded, and got up to leave as quickly as he entered, leaving a list of grades behind on the desk.

Albus looked them over, a smile spreading onto his face as he went over the conversation. Talking with this Severus and the previous Severus had been like night and day, and he was glad to see how excited Severus had gotten now that he had opened his eyes and seen his students as more than just troublemakers and means to an end.

Although Lucius may be a little unhappy about the equal treatment of his son. Albus was sure that Severus could handle that.

News of professor Snape's new disposition spread like wildfire after the first- and third-year lessons, and the fact that he sat in his usual place at the table, hair short and conversing with a bemused head of Gryffindor only served to bolster the rumours.

'I wonder what happened to him,' Twilight absently commented. 'He seemed completely different right up until he got into our mindscape.'

Dashie laughed. 'Well duh! We're just that awesome! See friendship like this and you never see anything the same again!'

'He was in here for four seconds.'

'I can clear the sky faster than that, it doesn't mean anything,' the pegasus replied, speeding past barely under mach 1.

Twilight grimaced. 'Are you still trying to break the sound barrier? The fact that there's one in here doesn't mean you should break it! Who knows what kind of impact it could have on our mental health?'

'If'n y'all are done,' AJ said from the pilot's seat, making Twilight jump and Dashie bounce off the sound barrier into the floor, 'Ah'm trying to speak with Neville, which ain't easy with you blabbering in the back of our mind. Come to the front if y'all wanna talk.'

'Sorry, AJ,' Twilight blushed, and they both turned their attention outwards, to join the rest of the System. 'Any news?'

'Only that Fluttershy's quietly contemplating telling Neville our secret,' Rarity sniffed. 'I agree to an extent, but there's just so much that could go wrong...'

'He's our friend, and I know that he'd never tell anyone-'

'And I'm as certain of that as you are, but we still don't know what wizard magic can do! For all we know, wizards can rummage through your mind and simply pull information out of you, and while we'd be more protected because of our condition, we can't take any chances by putting that information somewhere where other people can get to it.'

Twilight tapped her hoof on the ground three times, a universal sign for everypony to listen in. They all turned to face her immediately, AJ listening in from her place in control, giving a distinct feeling of annoyance, and Dashie focussing outward to join them as Twilight had done.

'This is just a quick one, but I read that wizards do in fact have a way to read minds. However,' she raised her voice over the four others, Pinkie's curiously absent, 'It's good that I came across it because I now know how difficult it is, how it works, and more importantly, how to protect against it.'

'I'm sensing a but,' Dashie interjected, rolling her eyes, and Twilight nodded in agreement.

'There is a but, and a big one. And grow up, Rainbow Dash, that isn't even a pun that could be made in the equestrian language,' she told the snickering pegasus. 'The but is that I seriously doubt that we can make any use of the majority of defenses against legilimency, which include 'Clearing your mind' and 'Putting defenses around your memories'.'

AJ snorted, and they all froze. "Are you okay, System?" came Neville's voice, and AJ nodded.

"Ah'm just fine, sugarcube, just remembered something is all," she replied, and while a few heads still turned, the majority of Gryffindors at the table had gotten used to the System's oddities and didn't pay much attention to the accent or the nickname. Although some people snickered, for a reason that only Twilight and Rarity knew, and that they refused to divulge to the others, Twilight looking mortified and Rarity somewhat ill.

'If anypony's wondering, I think we should tell Neville,' Dashie said, and they turned to her, incredulous. 'What? He's the best friend we've ever had, and it's best that we tell him before he figures it out so that he won't tell anyone.'

'I'd have thought that you'd be suspicious.'

'Pft, suspicious of Neville? He's eleven years old, Twilight.'

'So are we.'

'Yeah but that's different,' Dashie replied dismissively. 'There's six of us, so that makes us like, seventy years old in total!'

'Honestly, Rainbow Dash,' Twilight said with a groan. 'By your logic, we'd be sixty-six, not seventy. Also, we were 'born', for lack of a better term, only a year and a bit ago, so we'd only be around ten in total. And collective age doesn't work by just adding ages together, or that would make a group of sixty one-year-olds more knowledgeable than one fifty-year-old. Age works based on what you've experienced, and as we haven't experienced much compared to most humans, we aren't even old mentally.'

'Bah, words. Anyway, there also the fact that he's Neville! Trying to suspect him is like trying to eat rocks-'

'Or like trying to fly at mach 1,' Applejack supplied drolly. 'Just shouldn't be done, but somepony's gonna try it anyways.' When Dashie glared at the sky, having no real direction to look as she was still controlling the System, she chuckled. 'Ah do agree with y'all, though. Neville's trustworthy as any of us.'

'We'd need to teach him occlumency though,' Twilight insisted, 'and while I would be perfectly willing to teach him, there's the fact that we'd need to come up with a good reason, and we can't learn it ourself, so I'd have no way to teach him!'

'But we could find out right?' Fluttershy reasoned. 'We do have a lot of books that we haven't read yet... A-and if they don't have anything in them, we could ask to go to the restricted section, couldn't we? We don't have to decide straight away, of course, we could wait until we're completely sure, but can you please think about it?'

Twilight took one look at Fluttershy's wide, tear-filled eyes, and felt her resolve crumble to dust. 'Fine, we'll do it as long as the risks are minimal.'

'Oh, thank you, Twilight!' Fluttershy cheered quietly, and Twilight just grumbled under her breath.

DING!

That was the sound of a piping hot chapter, straight from the storyline microwave. And just like a meal from a regular microwave, it's a little soggy and barely edible, but it's still food! Or writing. Whatever, try eating it if you didn't like reading it.

I feel like I went off track somewhere.

Next chapter: Halloween! Possibly. Probably not. It seems to just get further away with each new chapter.