Hey y'all! How's everyone doing? Sorry that this chapter came out a little late. Anxiety and adulating definitely are two things that don't mix well. But at least writing helps me keep some semblance of control so don't you worry about waiting years for an update, I will always be writing even if the chapters take a while to come out.

Like always, I enjoy any comments, except for those that are just full of negativity and not constructive at all. Just give me something to work with instead of just "It's bad." I also appreciate any positive constructive criticism since I'm always looking to improve my writing and storytelling capabilities.

Thanks for reading this story! Virtual hugs and cuddles to y'all.

Disclaimer: I still do not own anything except any OC's that may come up, any world building that has not yet been officially stated by the books or movies, and any plot points/structures that have not been used in the books or movies.

Warning: No beta, we die like Stingbulbs.

Chapter 5: A Duel to Remember

XXXXXX

"You're not serious are you, Harry?" Ron exclaims in disbelief, "This isn't some joke that Fred and George put you up to is it?"

"I'm being completely serious, no jokes here," Harry responds with one hundred percent absolute certainty.

"Bloody hell," Ron whispers out, his eyes widening in shock.

"Harry's completely serious about what?" Seth asks as he joins the two at the table.

He quickly fills his plate with fries and a meat pie. He also swipes some brownies before the twins, who'd been eyeing the dessert with a particular gleam in their eyes, could get any funny ideas.

Harry and Ron glance around as if on the lookout for any eavesdroppers. When the coast seems clear, Ron gestures Seth to lean in. He does amusedly.

"Harry's the new seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team," Ron whispers.

Seth's brow furrows in confusion. "Harry was made the new what? How the hell did that happen? Did I miss something while I was out helping Neville?"

"Oh, you missed a lot, mate," Ron says, now speaking with a normal volume.

"How's Neville doing by the way?" Harry asks, "Is he alright?"

Seth waves him off. "Yeah, he's fine. A bit shaken but he's a surprisingly tough nut to crack. He had a lot of fun lording his "I told you so" privileges over me."

"That's good," Harry sighs out in relief.

"So anyone wanna fill me in on what I missed?" Seth asks, tucking into his delicious meat pie.

Ron nudges Harry. "Well, go on mate. Tell him."

Then Harry goes off about how as soon as Hooch, Neville, and Seth were gone, Malfoy started taunting Neville and playing around with the remembrall he'd gotten in the mail that morning. Neville must've dropped it when the whole broom fiasco happened.

Harry demanded that Malfoy give it back because it wasn't his but then he started taunting Harry instead. Afterwards, he goaded Harry before getting on his broom and taking off. Harry followed soon after despite Hermione's attempts to stop him.

As soon as he was level with Malfoy, the jerk taunted him again and tossed the remembrall. Harry chased after it and managed to catch it just before it smashed through one of the windows of a nearby tower.

He landed back down before Hooch could return so there was a brief celebratory period where the other Gryffindor's excitedly complimented Harry over his unexpected talent for flying. They were even treated to the wonderful sight of Malfoy's sour expression as imaginary steam seemed to blow out from his ears.

Then that joyful high ended when Mcgonagall appeared and demanded that Harry come with her immediately. Ron thought he was going to get the detention of a lifetime and Harry feared that he'd actually be expelled. Then he was afraid he'd be beaten because Mcgonagall brought him to the DADA classroom and asked Quirrell to get an "Oliver Wood" for her.

But it turned out his fears were unfounded when Oliver Wood turned out to be an upperclassman who was also the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. After class, Oliver brought him out to the pitch to test his skills and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly Harry caught the snitch.

"And now I've officially been made the seeker of the Gryffindor team," Harry finishes explaining.

"The youngest one in a century!" Ron exclaims beside him.

Seth whistles, impressed. "Damn, you've got some skill if you're already on the team as a first year, Harry."

Harry blushes at the compliment. "Thanks, Seth."

"Eh, no biggie," he says, but then he frowns. "But wait a minute, aren't first years not allowed to have brooms and not allowed to try out for Quidditch until second year?"

"Yes but Professor Mcgonagall said she was making a special exception for me," Harry explains.

"A special exception?" Seth asks, surprised, then he narrows his eyes in suspicion, "This whole thing's starting to sound a lot like favoritism."

"How do you mean?" Ron asks.

"Well considering how dangerous Quidditch can be, I'm surprised Mcgongall ignored the rules to let you play. I thought she was the logical, rule follower teacher who wouldn't break the rules and allow an 11 year old kid to risk his life playing a sport where broken bones are a guarantee even if he is super talented," Seth explains, then tacks on, "No offense."

"Offense greatly taken!" Harry exclaims, "For the first time in my life I've been acknowledged for something beyond my name and an accomplishment I don't even remember completing. Professor Mcgonagall said I was talented enough to be on the team and would even give Gryffindor a chance to win the Quidditch cup!"

'And there it is,' Seth wryly thought, knowing better than to interrupt a kid in the middle of a rant, 'The reason why a teacher's bending the rules to let a freaking kid risk his life is to win a shiny cup and eternal bragging rights. Glad to know that something's don't change even in a secret magical society.'

He mentally shakes his head to himself because he knew that if he was actually his 11-year-old self, he wouldn't think twice about all of this.

He'd be just as excited as Harry and would use this knowledge to lord over the rest of the Houses. Man, he was such a little shit back then. Well, he still is one now but he's a smart little shit. Not a reckless little shit.

"So there!" Harry finishes his ranting with a defiant crossing of his arms and a pout.

Seth wants to coo at how adorably non-threatening Harry was. Instead he just shrugs. "Okay."

"Okay?" Harry parrots, his defiance deflating into confusion.

"Yeah, okay," Seth reiterates, "Even though I still think the whole situation reeks of favoritism and hypocrisy, I'll let it go."

"And be happy for Harry, right?" Ron chimes in.

"And be happy for Harry," he agrees. Then his expression turns serious. "But only on the condition that you practice like your life depends on it, cause it does, and always make sure you're safe. If your teammates would rather risk your health just to win a stupid metal cup, I'll curse them all myself. Are we clear?"

Harry nods vigorously. Seth nods and returns to his lunch, the conversation clearly over...for now. Harry and Ron go back to chattering about this and that until Seth's finished eating.

Then the three boys leave the Great Hall to head to their next class.

Until Draco Malfoy pops up out of nowhere with his two goons, Crabbe and Goyle, standing behind him. It was actually a bit of a hilarious sight considering the two "bodyguards" were about as intimidating as marshmallows were to a fire.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry grits out as Draco uses the staircase to literally lord over the trio before him.

"Oh just wanted to ask how your little talk with Mcgonagall went. She's notorious for doling out appropriate punishments, even to her precious little lions," Draco haughtily answers. "So what did she give you? The oh so precious Boy who Lived. Detention? Suspension? Oh! Please say it was expulsion. I would love to have the chance to snap your wand myself."

Crabbe and Goyle snicker like Draco's just said the most hilarious thing in the world.

Harry smiles smugly at him and responds, "Actually, she made me the seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team."

Draco balks at him, his face turning red with indignation. "What!" he screeches, "There's no bloody way the most rule abiding professor would reward you for breaking the rules!"

"Well you better believe it cause it's true," Ron gleefully adds.

"You must think you're real special, Potter," Draco spits out, face contorting with anger. Then the anger bleeds away into a smug expression as a light bulb seems to go off in his head. "I challenge you to a wizard's duel. If you win, I'll drop my complaints towards your general self and never bother you for the rest of the year. If I win, you have to drop out of the Gryffindor team and admit you have no talent for flying because you're a coward. Do we have a deal?"

He holds his hand out. Harry impulsively grabs it and shakes firmly.

"You've got a deal," Harry spits out angrily.

"And I'll be his second," Ron declares.

"Of course you are," Draco scoffs, "Goyle will be my second. We'll meet in the corridor by the third floor, the one next to the Roman dinner painting. Midnight. Be there or else you automatically forfeit."

Harry nods in agreement. Draco smirks in triumph as he turns away and walks off with his two minions flanking him.

The whole exchange happens so quickly that Seth's mind whirls frantically to comprehend what just occurred.

"You aren't seriously going to go through with that are you?" Hermione asks, suddenly appearing behind the trio like a bloodhound who could sniff out whenever someone's breaking the rules.

Seth jumps, startled at her ninja like appearance. "Holy shit, Hermione! What are you? A freaking ninja?"

"And what do you care?" Ron asks in a rather hostile tone.

Hermione gives him a look like he just asked her a stupid question. "Maybe because Malfoy is obviously trying to get you in trouble since it's against the rules to duel without supervision and to be out after curfew!" she exclaims, "You're going to make us lose house points or worse…be expelled!"

She then turns to give Seth a look. "And you-"

"What did I do?" he asks, hands rising up in surrender. "I'm innocent!"

"You didn't stop them from doing anything stupid!" she rebukes. "I thought you were smarter than that. This is obviously a trap!"

"Ahh, but you see, you don't know how stupid and stubborn us boys can be when it comes to our pride," Seth explains, nodding sagely, "Which is why I'm going to tag along with them to make sure nothing bad happens."

"I rather you didn't tag along at all or better yet, you stopped these two idiots from doing something so stupid. We haven't even been in school for more than a few weeks yet!" she retorts.

"Hey!" Ron shouts, highly offended.

"We're right here you know," Harry interjects, his tone as dry as the Sahara desert, "You can stop talking like we aren't standing next to you."

"I can talk to you however I please since you are such bloody idiots," she snaps.

"Oh stop acting like you're the head girl already," Ron retorts, "You're only a first year and already you're such a bloody know it all goody two shoes."

Hermione bristles like a cat and her hand dives into her robes for her wand.

"Hey Hermione! Do you want to go study in the library? I need help with my transfiguration essay," Seth quickly interjects, trying to diffuse the situation before someone ends up in the hospital wing and it definitely wasn't going to be him.

She huffs, taking her hand off her wand. "You know what, fine!" she snaps at Ron and Harry, "If you're going to be stupid, then don't come crying to me when you get caught."

She whirls around, making sure her bushy hair smacked Ron in the face.

He shouts indignantly.

"I'll meet you in the library, Seth," she calls out over her shoulder. Then she storms off down the hall.

The trio all let out a sigh of relief at the averted crisis.

"Thanks, Seth," Harry says, expression grateful.

"Don't mention it," he shrugs and then he deadpans at them, "But seriously, learn to think before you jump headfirst into things. This is the set up for such an obvious trap even a five year old could see through it."

Harry and Ron blush in embarrassment.

"But you'll still come with us right?" Harry asks, "Because there's also the possibility that it isn't a trap and then Malfoy will be insufferable for the rest of the year."

Seth continues to stare at them before he sighs. "Yeah, I'll come with cause even though the whole thing stinks, boys will be boys, especially prideful ones."

"Great! We'll make sure to wake you before we leave," Harry says, smiling brightly.

Seth groans at the thought of having to interrupt his wonderful new sleeping schedule to make sure two boys didn't get into trouble for being prideful little shits.

He really is officially a hypocrite now.

XXXXXX

Seth yawns so widely his jaw cracks loud enough to echo a bit in the empty hallway.

Both Ron and Harry whirl around to shush him. He gives them a look in return because he's the one who's sacrificing his precious sleep for these two. And he's only getting more tired because he was actively using his abilities to muffle the sounds of their footsteps and helping them blend in with the shadows.

Ugh. He really has become such a mom friend. He'd never hear the end of it from Kendra if she ever found out. He doesn't need her to have any more blackmail material over him than she already does.

Speaking of Kendra, her letter in response to his question regarding Professor Snape's potion question was actually...enlightening. But not a fascinating enlightenment like his sister who wants to know everything there is to know about a person so she can smother them with empathy and make them her friend.

No, it was enlightening in the way that he never wants to put himself into the romance novel worthy situation of a love triangle. While he's down for being in a romantic relationship, he'd prefer any potential partner to be someone who'll be completely upfront with him. No beating around the bush or refusing to communicate cause relationship drama is actually the worst. Even though he greatly enjoys causing it because it's hella hilarious and the retaliation methods of girls towards their significant others are actually rather creative and downright terrifying.

And if there's more than one potential partner (which will never happen unless he wants it to happen cause again, relationship drama he has to deal with instead of being the one dealing it out is just the worst) then they better get to the point or else he'll be the one to let them know where they stand with no mercy in his delivery.

Then there's also the matter on how he's going to confront Snape with this information. He can't exactly march up to the man and lecture him on taking a stupid schoolyard grudge out on a kid. Bullying comes in many different shapes and forms and cause so many different levels of trauma that effect people in drastically different ways. Maybe he should observe him further before confronting the man?

But then it begs the question on when would be a good time to confront him.

Does he do it before the holidays when he's had a full semester of interaction and observations? Then hope it doesn't backfire horribly because of lack of information?

Does he do it during holidays where he can bring it up more naturally through Q and A sections about potions? Then spend the rest of the time dealing with the fallout without anyone around?

Or does he do it after maybe a year or two when he's got a notebook's worth of notes on the man and a deeper understanding of his psychology? Then he'll spring it on him during exams when an irate professor can't take his anger out on a kid without hundreds of frayed nerve students retaliating? And that's only assuming phase two of his plan goes smoothly allowing for phase three to commence without a hitch.

Maybe he's going too quickly with the phases of his plan? Because a year is definitely not a lot of time to be able to establish a solid foundation to knock down the old one. But seven years is too long and he still wants to spread as much of his influence to the older students as possible before they graduate. Cause the next generation is the future and all that crap.

And he still needs to come up with back plans and contingencies in case his multi-phase plan fails horribly because magic is unpredictably predictable in causing havoc among people.

As all these thoughts tumble through his head, his control on his abilities slip little by little. He soon snaps out of his thoughts when Harry accidentally steps on a trick step and it lets loose the loudest creak he's ever heard.

All three boys share a look and quickly book it up the stairs and into the corridor on the third floor. They don't stop running until they make it to a portion of the corridor with multiple pillars but no doors. There also aren't any paintings around either.

"Let's never do that again," Harry pants out, leaning against a pillar for support.

"Then don't take any more invitations to duel at freaking midnight," Seth comments sarcastically.

"No can do, mate," Ron says, clasping his hands on his knees for support as he catches his breath, "Telling a Gryffindor not to take a challenge is like telling a fish it's not allowed to swim."

"Ok sure," Seth scoffs, "So where the hell is Draco anyways? I'd like to just get this over with so I can go back to my soft, warm bed."

The boys look around for any sign of Draco but they see none. Then they looking to see if they're even in the right corridor but they are since this was the only available corridor on the third floor.

The others apparently had their entrances jinxed away in a pranking accident a few years ago and the professors never managed to counterjinx them back.

"Guess Malfoy really was a coward after all," Ron boasts, "He probably chickened out cause he knew he couldn't beat you, Harry."

"Or maybe this whole thing really was a trap all along and we should probably leave before we get caught," Seth firmly suggests.

Before Ron could retort, a faint meowing could be heard. They all turn around to see a tabby cat appear from around the corner. The cat spots them and hisses. It runs away before they can react.

"Bloody hell! That was Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat!" Ron exclaims, "We need to go now!"

The trio book it in the opposite direction of where the cat appeared. They can hear the sounds of Filch talking with his cat, shouting about students being out of bed and how he'll hang them by their ankles.

They pick up the pace until they finally see a door and run in without a second thought. Harry closes the door as quickly and quietly as he can and the three lean against it, trying to catch their breaths.

Then they hold them when they hear Filch and Mrs. Norris getting closer, only breathing again once it sounded like the terrible duo had passed by.

"I am never going to help you guys stay out of trouble ever again," Seth firmly declares, "I can only handle so much excitement after midnight when I should be sleeping in my bed."

"Well I'm still thankful you came with us tonight anyways," Harry says with a grateful expression.

Ron whimpers, catching their attention.

"You alright, Ron?" Harry asks.

Ron whimpers again in response as he raises a shaking hand to point at something in front of him. The other two turn to see that he's pointing at a large three-headed dog slumbering before them. An ear on one of the heads twitches and soon the dog wakes up, smacking its lips and shaking the sleep fog away. When the dog spots the three boys standing before it, it growls and snarls, revealing large and sharp fangs.

Harry and Ron scream in fright before Seth throws his hands over their mouths to muffle the sounds. Once he's sure they're done yelling, he lowers his hands and slowly walks towards the ferocious three-headed dog. The two boys look to him, wide-eyed and incredulous.

"Seth," Harry hisses at him, "Come back here!"

"You're going to get killed, mate!" Ron whisper shouts at him.

But Seth ignores them and continues his slow walk towards the dog. He holds a hand out to show he's not a threat to it. The three heads continue to snarl and growl at him, but the ferocity decreases the closer he gets. Soon he's standing right in front of the middle head and he places his hand gently on the growling snout.

"Calm," Seth growls out in a soft, guttural tone. The dog blinks hazily at him as all three heads slowly calm down and stop snarling.

"Sleep," he commands. The dog blinks again before laying all three of its heads on its paws and falling asleep.

Once he's sure the dog's actually fast asleep, Seth turns to face the other two who stare at him with eyes wide enough for them to pop out of their skulls and their jaws on the floor.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron exclaims as Harry's gaze ping-pongs back and forth between the sleeping dog and an increasingly sleepy Seth.

Seth yawns. "Just a little trick I picked up in America. It's not as big a deal as you think it is."

"Like hell it isn't," Ron says, "You just put a scary three headed dog only a moment away from killing us to sleep with a word!"

"It was actually two words," Seth corrects before letting loose another jaw cracking yawn. "Look, I'm too tired to play twenty questions with you now so let's just get back to the dormitory already. I need sleep and I'm willing to leave you both here if you keep me up any longer."

Ron blanches at the thought of being left behind with the three-headed dog and quickly follows Seth out of the room. Harry trails behind a bit, looking back at the dog and down at the trap door it had been standing over.

Their journey back was rather uneventful (thanks to Seth's abilities) with not a single peep from Mrs. Norris or Filch or any patrolling professors. By the time they cross the threshold of the common room entrance, Seth was ready to sleep until next week. He silently curses his 11-year-old body's lack of stamina and dreads the thought of having to build it back up to his 21-year-old standards.

"Did you two see what the dog was standing on?" Harry asks as they walk back to their room.

"Are you kidding? I wasn't looking at its feet," Ron snaps, "I was a bit preoccupied with its three heads and the weird magic Seth used to put it back to sleep!"

"It was standing on a trap door," Harry explains, "Which must mean the dog wasn't there by accident since I highly doubt the professors would block off a whole corridor just because there was a three headed dog."

"Not when there's a Care of Magical Creatures professor," Seth chimes in, though his mind was too tired to keep up with whatever Nancy Drew antics Harry was dipping into.

"Exactly!" Harry exclaims, "So it must be guarding something."

"Guarding something?" Ron asks, "Like what?"

"Okay I think that's enough detectiving for tonight," Seth quickly interjects since he's moments away from dropping where he stood. "You two can go back to playing Holmes and Watson when it's not ass o'clock. We have classes in the morning and I'd like to be awake enough to not get detention from Snape or Mcgonagall."

He (quietly) stomps off into their room and flops onto the bed, whipping out his wand to close the curtains.

Just before they close completely, he hears Ron asking, "Who're Holmes and Watson?"

XXXXXX

Seth slowly drags himself through the dungeons towards the potions classroom. While he's thankful for the cool air that slaps him into wakefulness, he also silently laments about not getting his self-recommended ten hours of sleep because he was busy playing the mom friend.

How the hell does Kendra do it? He'd have long opted out of doing shit like this if it meant having to sacrifice sweet, sweet sleep.

As he's rounding around a corner, he spots a head of platinum blonde hair lingering nearby another corner of a hallway that leads to the Slytherin common room. He visibly perks up when he sees that the hair belongs to Draco Malfoy.

Then he scowls as he makes his way over to the little shit. He grabs Draco by the arm, who jumps in shock at the sudden movement. Then he scowls when Seth drags and tosses him unceremoniously into a nearby empty room.

"What in the world is wrong with you, Sorenson?" Draco sputters out indignantly.

"What's wrong with me? I'll tell you what's wrong with me. What's wrong is the fact that I'm trapped in a magical boarding school filled with bullies and dumb asses who conform to societal ideas from the freaking medieval ages," Seth growls out, "And, more importantly, I only slept six hours last night because of you."

"And how exactly is that my problem?" Draco asks, still indignant but also confused.

"Because if you hadn't gotten over yourself and just let Harry deal with the consequences of his actions then I wouldn't have felt compelled to go help him and Ron keep out of trouble!" Seth states like his reasoning was so obvious even a child would have figured it out.

"Potter dealing with the consequences of his actions?" Draco sputters out, looking at Seth like he's the most idiotic idiot in the world. "He was rewarded for it! By Professor Mcgonagall of all people!"

"And if you spent even one moment thinking logically instead of getting all jealous you'd remember that Quidditch is a dangerous sport 11 year olds shouldn't be playing in a competitive setting," Seth retorts. "God, aren't you supposed to be a Slytherin? Maybe I should've only expected intelligence from the Ravenclaws."

Draco bristles indignantly at that, so much so that he doesn't hear Seth click his tongue in distaste and mutter under his breath. "Maybe I should've gone to the snakes like the hat said because then I could've dealt with this bullshit directly rather than having to clean it up after."

"I'll have you know that I am the purest Slytherin there is due to the superiority of my pureblood lineage," Draco huffs and puffs pompously.

"Ha! That right there is complete bullshit," Seth barks out, "Lemme ask you, are you or your parents or even your grandparents a result of incest? Cause there's no way in hell you can be of "pure blood" without some inbreeding going on."

Draco's face contorts with disgust at the implication of incest and he also looks a little horrified at the thought.

"And again, you still haven't told me what makes a pureblood better than a muggleborn? If you can't come up with a reasonable answer to that question then the importance you all put on blood purity is bullshit," Seth firmly states, "Slytherin is known for cunning and ambition, not how pure your bloodline is because again, that's a medieval dark ages centuries ago concept and right now we're in the modern age where muggles can create fire, move water, build skyscrapers, and fly without magic."

Draco crosses his arms, doing his best to look defiant but his face is expressive of the conflict warring within him. "Why are you preaching to me about such things? Do you have no better target for your irrationality?"

Seth shrugs. "You're like the second person I've met in this magical world and I have imprinting issues," he responds like that answered everything when it really didn't, at least not for Draco.

"Just leave me alone, Sorenson," Draco bites out petulantly, waving at him dismissively.

"Then stop picking on Harry, the poor kid never did anything to you except exist," Seth retorts.

"I'm just teaching him a lesson, not that you would understand. Making sure the Boy who Lived doesn't get too big for his breeches," Draco scoffs.

"He literally didn't even know the magical world existed until last month so I highly doubt he's big enough to fill the breeches he probably doesn't even own," Seth states dryly.

Draco scowls. "Whatever. Class is going to start soon and I'd prefer not to be partnered with you for potions so excuse me."

He walks off, opening the door with a huff. Seth calls out to him, "This conversation isn't done yet! Only tabled for now!"

The door slams shut. Seth quietly cackles to himself. "Alright, phase one is finally starting to pick up traction which means phase two will go much more smoothly."

XXXXXX

Unfortunately for Draco, he ends up arriving to Potions just before it begins and is forced to partner up with Seth anyways.

Harry and Ron keep glancing over at them, shooting worried looks in Seth's direction. While he's flattered at their worry, it was really starting to get annoying especially since they kept shooting daggers at Draco and making the kid more and more tense.

The two reluctant partners silently go through the process of making a Cure for Boils.

Seth tosses six snake fangs into the mortar and methodically grinds them into a fine powder using a stone pestle. Meanwhile, Draco evenly slices pungous onions into fine pieces. They both toss their ingredients into the cauldron followed by a handful of dried nettles and a dash of flobberworm mucus.

Seth stirs the contents vigorously. Then Draco adds a sprinkle of powdered ginger root and Seth vigorously stirs the contents again until there is a thick red mixture boiling in the cauldron.

Next, Draco adds pickled Shrake spines and takes over stirring duties, making sure to stir gently so as to not excite the spines. The mixture slowly darkens in color. Seth adds four horned slugs that had been stewing off to the side and the mixture turns dark purple with significantly reduced viscosity.

They carefully take the cauldron off the fire before adding two porcupine quills. Seth stirs five times clockwise and Draco finishes it off with a wave of his wand. The mixture becomes a shimmering purple liquid that the two carefully bottle up and bring to Snape's desk.

The professor raises an eyebrow at them but doesn't say anything, instead waving them off dismissively.

"Not bad for a mudblood, Sorenson," Draco mutters under his breath.

"Not bad for a spoiled brat, Draco," Seth manages to cheerfully mutter back.

Suddenly, a foul smell permeates the room and the two boys look up to see Neville's cauldron melting and the skin of his arms breaking out in vicious boils.

"Idiot boy!" Snape bellows as he swoops over to him like a bat out of hell. "I'll bet you forgot to remove your cauldron from the fire before adding porcupine quills, didn't you? 10 points from Gryffindor!"

He turns to Hermione who's been uttering reassurances to the shaking boy. "You, Granger," Snape snaps at her, "Take him to the hospital wing and then make your way back posthaste if you wish to receive any credit for your potion."

Hermione snaps to attention and vigorously nods before gently, but quickly, ushering Neville out of the classroom.

Snape then whirls around to pin Harry down with a glare that has him shrinking under the scrutiny of it. "And you, Potter, why didn't you stop Mr. Longbottom from adding those quills?"

"W-what? B-but I-" Harry tries to protest.

"10 points from Gryffindor for your cheek," Snape sneers out.

All the Gryffindors in the class frown as some of the Slytherins snicker at the uncalled for loss of points. Seth idly notes that Draco was not one of the few who snickered. Instead, he looked a bit conflicted resulting in a twisted expression as if he was suffering from constipation.

"Get back to work, all of you!" Snape swoops around to snap at the entire class.

Everyone quickly goes back to their work and before anyone knows it, the class ends.

The Gryffindors mutter angrily to each other as they file out of the classroom while the Slytherins jeer at and mock them.

As they head off to their next class, Seth looks back at Snape thoughtfully. His plan to confront the professor on his behavior definitely needs to happen sooner rather than later but still...when, if ever, was the right time to confront a grown adult man on his immature, childish bullshit?

And scene! Also, I've started to notice a trend where I write scenes that should be happening in a later chapter and thus it takes longer for me to get them out and I am so sorry for that. I hope the progression of events and character development seems smooth to y'all and that it makes sense cause sometimes I get the feeling that I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the chapter! See you all next time!