CH 13
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
Professor Snape was a man that didn't like surprises. He certainly held strong opinions about people too and he refused to suffer stupidity, especially from the hormonally challenged teenagers that he's forced to teach on a daily basis. His past experiences with James Potter had definitely coloured the man's perspective of the man's son. But he needed the boy's research for the use of the False Diamond Orchid, it was one thing that he'd never had the time for. The men that he considered his Masters, had considered his need to research different potions frivolous because they wanted his talents for war based potions. He knew that assigning the primary research to his students, would give him ideas and directions for potions and who know something good could come out of it.
He had a False Diamond Orchid flower and stem in his stores. He was fully prepared to allow the boy access to it for comparison purposes, but so far the child hadn't even approached him about anything to do with the task he'd been given. 'Little runt,' Severus thought. 'Probably thinks he's too good to ask questions on the subject or get the aid he sorely needs.'
He wasn't curious about what the Gryffindor could find in potions, since he was a Potions Master and he had a good idea of the potions information available for the fourth year boy. Although, since the boy's talents were limited in the field of potions, he wondered if he should have even bothered in making the deal erroneous deal.
"Professor Snape," Harry knocked on the lab door.
'Here he is, on time for once the little blaggard,' Snape thought. "Enter!" He watched the youth scurry to a potion station. "Hand in your analysis of the ingredient and the potion you've chosen to do, then take out the ingredients and prepare them quietly, I have marking to do."
"Yes sir," Harry said with respect, but his Professor didn't look keen on someone trying to butter him up with social niceties, since he believed that's exactly the boy was doing.
The Gryffindor wasn't. He just handed in the scroll copy of his research work. He'd decided at the beginning of this year to only hand in date and time stamped copies of any of his works and that he'd keep his originals in a work journal that he'd created to store his good school work.
"You'll notify me when you're going to conjure the False Diamond Orchid," Snape said. "I want to witness its creation."
"Yes sir," Harry replied. He took out his tools and made sure that they were sharpened and clean before pulling out the jars of ingredients to work on. He took out a tiny phial that had a dropper screwed into the top of it. He had to be careful with this one. Several of his ingredients were in vials and in glass or crystal beakers, so he made sure that the beaker stand is one that would not collapse.
Professor Snape observed the boy from a distance, while marking fourth year essays. He wasn't in a rush to mark Potter's since he hated the boy.
"Professor," Harry called out. "I'm ready to conjure the False Diamond Orchid."
"Stand before me and do it," Professor Snape said, as he remained seated.
Harry set up a barrier around his ingredients before doing so. He noticed his Professor arch an eyebrow in that direction, before he used his wand to form the shape of his spell, as he hissed (...Orchidaceae Epidendrum fulgen puteulanus, gemma, similis scutulatus, reservo, una, diei...)
Snape watched as the flower came into being from the stem up to the petals. He waited until the spell was complete and the boy was holding it to ask, "How long with it last?"
"One day," Harry said.
"Did you want to use a real one for your potion," Severus asked.
"I have one of those too," Harry said and pointed to his workstation. "I didn't know if you wanted me to make two potions or just the one with the conjured flower. I came prepared to do both."
Professor Snape frowned and then he said, "Do both!"
"All right," Harry said. "Just to let you know sir that I'm putting up a proximity barrier. I can't let you within two feet of the potion, until it is complete. It's just for security purposes."
"Hmph," Severus noised. "I can observe well enough from here." The boy nodded and then returned to set up a second station in order to prepare his potions. He watched the barrier rise and then he observed the boy's starting sequence.
'So he's going to use the flowers in a base,' he thought. 'How unimaginative, he's making the Standard Wound Neutralizer.' He sneered in the boy's direction and then chose to continue marking the papers of the boy's year mates. It didn't take too long. He glanced at the boy and noticed that the flames under the two cauldrons were very low. Almost too low for the Wound Neutralizer, but they he shrugged and planned to dock the boy marks for messing up a perfectly good potion.
Harry was glad that he had the barrier up, since he was sure that his Professor would be behind him breathing down his neck, if he could. He had an idea of what the man would do, if he'd noticed how he was preparing the ingredients, however the Gryffindor still hadn't heard a degrading comment yet.
'Hope he makes me test it,' he thought. 'I'm going to look like my mother and then he can't say a thing about me looking like my father.' He'd studied photographs of Lily from the library archives, enough to know what to add and how to look more like her, using the Masking Vapours.
It was too quiet in the boy's direction and Snape had to look up to check on the reckless Gryffindor. The flame was turned up again, but this time he noticed that the boy was carefully letting one tiny, infinitesimal drop fall into his pestle bowl where it looked like he had pounded something. He watched as the boy repeated this step in a second pestle bowl and then watched as the he put the dropper vial away in a pouch hanging from his waist.
'One drop of something,' Snape ran through the list of common ingredients for the potion known as the Wound Neutralizer. 'There's no call for a single drop of anything in that potion,' he looked at the scroll that Harry had handed to him. He took it, opened it and then gasped at the title.
A Study on Conjured versus Original False Diamond Orchid in the Masking Vapours Potion! Written by Harry Potter, fourth year Gryffindor
Snape looked up at the boy's stations and noticed that some of the ingredients were not what he'd assumed they'd be. He stood, walked up to lean over the boy like he normally did to intimidate the boy, but he couldn't because of the proximity barrier. That potion seemed to be delicate. He wanted to bark at the boy for attempting what could be considered a sixth year potion, but then he just watched as the boy followed directions in what was clearly a well used potions journal. It contained notes in the boy's newer and more precise handwriting too.
'Since when does Potter use a potions journal,' he thought. 'I've been trying to get them to use such journal methods since first year, but do they listen. No!' He watched the boy set up a timer over each potion. There were only three ingredients left and to Snape's surprise they were added one at a time, simultaneously to each simmering cauldron without the boy having used his wand to direct them.
He skimmed through the study and found that the boy's reasoning was sound. However one ingredient caught his eye. It was the one ingredient that should have been impossible for the boy to ever obtain, let alone have without paying a fortune for it. 'Basilisk venom,' he thought. 'Where in Salazar's name did the brat get Basilisk venom?'
"Done," Harry said, killing the flames under the cauldrons. He pulled out two large flasks of different colours and emptied the cauldron contents into them and into two smaller ones as samplers for his Professor. He wasn't going to give the man the larger portion of the potions.
"You will test the version with the conjured flower," Snape said automatically, as his mind was still stuck on the fact that the boy had found basilisk venom.
Harry nodded and took out a testing spoon of clear, thick glass. He poured potion from the light blue flash into the spoon, he put a stopper on the flask, before taking the potion. He swallowed it quickly since it thickened to a pudding like texture when exposed to air. At least he was still behind the proximity barrier.
The potion wasn't sweet or sour, but a mix of both with a bitter fruit like aftertaste.
'Still a hundred times better than the Polyjuice Potion,' he thought.
He then turned his mind to the mask he wanted to wear. He had to concentrate and alter his hair, remove his scar and make his eyes a paler version to match those of his mother's from the pictures he'd found from her time as a student at this school.
Professor Snape was shocked at the changes in the boy before him. The infamous scar actually disappeared. The boy's hair grew slightly longer, to the boy's shoulders, turning to shade of red that he only remembered from his memories and those eyes. If he thought the boy had his mother's eyes, everyone would have been mistaken because those eyes were now truly the same shade as his mother's.
"Lily," Snape said in a tone of voice the showed he was shocked and there was hurt behind it.
Harry didn't think it was such a good idea any more after hearing the emotion, to have chosen to change his looks to match that of his mother. It was too late since the mask crested by the potion had settled over his face. He didn't look exactly like her, but it was close enough that he knew he had severely startled his Professor. He turned around and cleaned up his potions stations, quickly and quietly, since the man looked to have been lost in his memories.
Snape shook his head and demanded, "Change back and take that proximity charm down."
"I can't change anything," Harry said, as packed away the rest of the potions that he'd successfully made, leaving the two sample vials on the potion station for the man. Only then did he take the proximity charm down. "The changes will last for approximately ten minutes, according to my calculations."
"Tell me where you got the basilisk venom," Snape asked in a tone that sounded more like an accusation of theft rather than anything else.
"The Chamber of Secrets," Harry said, as he picked up his schoolbag.
"Mr. Potter," Snape snarled. "After all this time, I thought you'd know better than to lie to me." Although, using his Legilimens skill automatically, he could clearly see that the boy was telling him the truth.
"Professor," Harry said in a tone that told the man that he was just holding onto his temper. The Gryffindor felt the push of Legilimency and wondered if that was how it was supposed to feel like. "The creature that I killed, you know, Slytherin's supposed monster was a basilisk. I killed it in my second year. Didn't Professor Dumbledore tell you about it?"
"You're dismissed Potter," Snape said. He was too shocked by the boy's appearance and by that new revelation.
He no longer wanted to torture the boy. Especially looking too much like the Lily Evans, his long ago best friend and the woman that married his schoolboy rival James Potter. It was singularly disturbing to see her expressions of confusion on the face of the boy he knew he hated because of the boy's seeming similarity to his father.
"Um...," Harry hedged.
"I SAID GET OUT," Snape yelled.
The Gryffindor ran out of the room, as though chased by Dementors. Severus locked the door behind the boy, and set up a sign on the door telling his seventh year students to go to the library to research the essays they had due for the following week. It was one of the few times in all his years of teaching that he came to regret some of his actions.
"Damn it Lily," Severus said, as put his head down. "Please forgive me," he whispered to no one. (…i…)
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
Harry had been surprised by his Potions Professor's reaction to the masking potion. However the man had honestly evaluated his work and he received a rare 'Outstanding'grade from him, which of course, didn't count for his final grade. He nearly regretted doing so well, but he couldn't have done any less either or else his portrait tutors would have been disappointed in him.
He was now walking along the road behind the store called Dervish and Bangs. He was going to meet up with his Godfather, finally. He brought the copies of the papers that he'd never sent and hoped that the man would understand his dilemma.
"Woof," a large black dog barked at him. It looked like one of those oversize wolfhounds that he'd seen on the telly, oh so long ago, on a rare day that he'd had the house to himself.
Harry truly smiled a real smile for the first time since this school year began. "Padfoot," he said in a tone that one would use talking to a dog. "Come here boy." The dog barked, danced in a circle and jumped up to lick his face. "Ha, ha," the Gryffindor laughed. "Come, on, let's get you some food."
He followed the dog to a small cave, up a mountain, just outside of Hogsmeade Village. The cave contained a fire pit and a sleeping area and not much else. Suddenly he hugged by an adult person and one that obviously cared about him. Who pointed to the back of the cave and the hippogriff there, waiting to be greeted too, so Harry bowed to the creature who bowed right back.
"Harry, pup," Sirius said, as he hugged the boy again. "You could have brought your friends."
"No," Harry said and buried his face in the man's shoulder. "I'm being selfish right now and I wanted to talk to you without them hanging around."
"Did you at least bring me some food," Sirius asked.
"Better," Harry said and gave him the carryall that he brought with him. "This is for you."
"Really," the man said, excited with the bag. He opened it and noticed that the inside was slightly larger and had many pockets on the inside. In the main compartment of the carryall was the large cylinder container with the tent inside. "What's this?"
He pulled out the tent container, as Harry put out the embers of the fire, hissed the word (...Lumos...) to create a light bubble, he repeated it and sent one of the bubbles to Buckbeak's area so that the animal wasn't stuck in complete darkness. He then helped the man set up the tent, showing him how it all came together. "Go on in," Harry said. "You'll see."
"All right," Sirius said in a tone that he wasn't convinced that his godson had brought him anything good. "Wheeoow," he whistled. He looked to the boy who'd entered the tent after him. "Bloody genius," he said. "Now why didn't I think of something like this?"
"You were too busy running from the Law," Harry said. "You can use magic to set it up and take it down quickly. Come on, let me show you around," he said and pointed out the features, including the fully stocked kitchen with instructions for the muggle pasta. He showed him how to use a can-opener and then the extra food storage units. He made a pasta soup for his Godfather, as the man explored the tent on his own and then went to take a much, needed shower.
"Harry, how are you feeling," Sirius asked, as he came back in a fresh change of clothes and wet hair. "About the tournament and everything else you sent me, like the prophesy information?"
Harry shrugged in order to seem unaffected and then he said, "The Tournament's fine, I'm treating it like a treasure hunt or something of that nature. As for the Prophesy, well I went to the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic, this summer before I met up with the Weasleys. The goblins told me where to go. It was too easy getting into the Hall of Prophesies in order to get mine from that place."
"Do you have it with you now," Sirius asked.
"Yeah," Harry said. "Did you want to hear it?"
"I believe everything you've told me in your letters, but I burned them once I was done," Sirius said. "I did it o protect you. But as your guardian, parental type figure, I think I need to hear it clearly before you destroy it."
Harry nodded and then went into one of the storage rooms. He came back with a small pensieve. "I got this just in case you needed to see it," he explained and then he took out the small ball that contained a tag with his name and Lord Voldemort's name on it. "I replaced it with another sphere that had the same tag, but in it I only put one of the other Prophesies that I found out this summer, it was the one from the Oracle Clan that I put back in the Department of Mysteries."
"Which one is that," Sirius asked as he put the ball of the human Prophesy into the pensieve.
"It's the one that says, 'Hidden, ancient scholars, the thread-born, shall teach the One, who'll destroy the undead wand-waving creature born of blackened magic.' It only talks about my private tutors and nothing big is given away," Harry said. "I doubt that the Dark Idiot would even remember that he'd met one of them when he was back in school. But since the Prophesy exists and it's about the two of us, it was an acceptable replacement and one I don't about."
"I'm not sure I understand what you mean, but at least you do and that's important," Sirius said. "Do you want to go in with me?"
"Nah," Harry said. "I already know what it says and I suspect that it was Trelawney that told this one. I'll just finish making you some lunch, while I wait."
"Okay then," the man said. He put a finger in the bowl with the Prophesy memory. It did sound a lot like the batty Divination Professor of Hogwarts. His godson hadn't been lying about the contents. He came back out and then looked to the boy who seemed to have the weight of the Wizarding World on his shoulders and in a sense the boy did.
"Harry," he started to say, but the noticed that the boy just looked at him as though there was nothing wrong with the contents of the pensieve. He rubbed the back of his neck and asked, "What's for lunch?"
"Hardy soup and sandwiches," the young Gryffindor said. "Here," he gave the man a full bowl and plate. Then he took the Prophesy ball out of the pensieve, while Sirius watched him. He threw in onto the ground destroying it.
"Why," Sirius asked. "Others might have needed to know."
"I believe it's one of Dumbledore's secrets," Harry said with a frown. He explained about the happenings in his first year and then told the man about every school year since. "He's setting me up to try and 'vanquish' the dark lord, but doesn't know about the extra conditions that need to be fulfilled first. Or if he does, he's not talking about it to anyone."
"I can see where you get the idea, based on what I just heard, especially if that's the only prophesy he knows about," Sirius said. "So what are your plans?"
Harry sighed and then said, "I'm going to find the vessels first, but I'm also going to continue my education the best way that I know how." His Godfather nodded for him to continue. "Last year I asked my aunt Petunia to write me a specific permission slip stating that I was permitted to pursue any form of education, provided that she wasn't financially responsible. I'm going to continue that extra education during my summers. She's happy that I don't have to live with them because of it. At that school I'll hopefully gain additional experience in self-defence and other types defensive and offensive magic."
"All right," Sirius said. "I know that wherever that school is located, you're safe. I trust you in this, but I will still expect letters from you to let me know how you're doing. Speaking of which, how's you Occlumency and Legilimency training going."
"Well, I don't really have anyone to cast the spells at me so I'm not sure how they are," Harry said. "Will you do it? I need to know what it feels like, since I think someone did cast Legilimency on me, but I don't think that it was successful."
"All right," Sirius said. "Do you want me to ask you specific questions and to warn you that I'm casting the spell or not?"
"Don't tell me, until you've finished," Harry said and looked into the man's eyes letting him know that he was going to be all right. "I have to know how it feels without being warned about it, since no one honest would warn you anyway."
Sirius had already cast the spell and felt the truth of the boy's answer and then he asked the question he'd had in his mind since his godson had told him about the Prophesies that existed. "Where did you learn about the Prophesies? Who told you what they were?"
Harry smiled and asked, "Have you ever heard or read anything about Morgana being a Seeress?"
"Sure," the man said, still digging into his godson's mind. He was only seeing shapes and shadows along with a sensation of peace that he didn't need to know anymore. He knew that it was the boy's method of protecting his mind, but he was still curious about the answer. "It's one of the little known facts about the woman," he paused and then asked. "Are you telling me that you went to her temple in New Orleans? Harry that place is just a tourist trap!"
"I didn't go to New Orleans," Harry said. "I went to her real temple, the one that's buried underground and has been for hundreds of years."
Sirius knew that it was the truth because he sensed it, but there were no specific images or other information that he could pick up. It was like the boy was dreaming in a fog. Some shapes made no sense to him, like walking or attacking skeletons and there were bears and rats too. "How did you know where to go?"
"I had a map," Harry replied. He felt the pressure that the man was putting on his mind and he knew now that his Professor Snape had used that ability on him. He just hoped that his protections were working and that his godfather was not learning or seeing anything specific. "My summer school likes to send us away to gather natural supplies and they encouraged us to explore places using old pre-explored treasure maps."
The man sighed and then stopped the spell, "I can't see anything. Everything has a sense of truth to it, but all I'm getting are shapes and shadowy outlines and no real sense of place or time."
"It's working then," Harry said. "Did you use your full strength?"
"I did," Sirius said. "Did you feel it?"
"I did, but it was more like getting a slow headache," Harry said. "That's when I actively sent a few spells your way to lull you into peace, so-to-speak."
"I felt that, but I didn't know that it was you," the man said. He watched as the boy sent away the empty plates for washing. "The Headmaster wants me to wait here until the end of your final task. He suspects that something may happen during it and I have a feeling he's going to ask me to round up members of an old group that he'd formed the first time that the Dark Lord was making trouble."
"I understand," Harry said. "I'm better protected at both schools than I ever was with my aunt. I received confirmation that I can continue my studies for the summer program. They're expecting me to obtain Adept rank, as soon as I can. I already have my aunt's blanket written permission to continue."
"You'll have mine as well," Sirius said. "I may be on the run from the Ministry of Magic, but I'm still your magical legal guardian."
Harry grinned and then pulled out the Masking Vapours Potions that had been made with the real False Diamond Orchid. "This potion will help you," he said. "You should be able to get a new wand from somewhere with it, I hope. Maybe interview a few people in person for submissions?"
"Blimey," Sirius said. "I haven't seen one of these in a long time. It's the Masking Vapours, right?"
"Yes," Harry said in a pleased tone. "I made it with you in mind. This version will last for thirty minutes. So I recommend that you put into small vials and take it only when you need to. It is only a mask after all, nothing like the Polyjuice Potion."
"You're right, but this will be enough for me to hide away if I must," Sirius said. Then he looked to the boy and exclaimed, "You made this. I knew you were a little genius..." He paused and then asked, "But your marks?"
"He still hates me, but I think he's going to mark my potions essays with a nearly unbiased eye now because of this," Harry said and then explained the bargain he and his Head of House had made with Professor Snape. "We knew that the mark wouldn't count, but I had to make him see that I wasn't my father. That's why I chose this potion to study and make. Do you want to see how he marked my essay?"
"Of course," Sirius said, hugging the boy, as he exclaimed, "My godson is a genius."
"I'm glad you think so because I need to show you something else about the tent before I have to get back to school," Harry said. He showed the man the runes etched on the frame of the door. "These are security and chameleon runes. You push a bit of your magic into them and the tent will disappear from everyone else's sight. Since you used your own magic, you'll be able to detect it faster than anyone else."
"Little genius," Sirius said. "Next time you come, you'll bring your friends. I'd like to see them again, but don't you worry. I'm locking up everything we discussed so that no one can extract from me. It's a higher form of Occlumency, but I think you've already locked a lot of things away haven't you." He pressed hard to test the boy and his godson developed an instant migraine headache from the push.
"Thank you for testing me," Harry said, as he knew just who it was that was looking into his mind. He lifted a Headache Relieving Potion from his belt pouch and drank it down. "You're right. There's no reason not to keep things hidden at this point in time."
Sirius let up on the young man and nodded. He then looked at the boy and asked, "Is there anything that you want me to do? I was thinking of contacting Remus to get some submissions from him too, what do you think?"
"Yes, that's a good idea. He's got a hard time working, but he should be able to make some good submissions to the paper," Harry replied immediately. "I would also like you to look into the name of a student that attended Hogwarts about fifty or sixty years ago. Ask Hagrid about him, if you can. His name is Tom Marvolo Riddle. I want his mother's name and information about where she lived. His father's name is Thomas Riddle, but he was a muggle. However I get the impression that he was an important man, so there has to be something about him too. Try getting the information from the muggle library archives. This is very important." He was earnest in his request and his godfather was not an ex-Auror for nothing. He knew how to get information and he was experienced in tracking Dark Wizards wherever they chose to set up shop.
"All right pup," the man said with a final hug. "I'll start looking that up for you. Can you tell me why?"
Harry smiled weakly and then used his wand to show the name of Tom Marvolo Riddle. Then with an anagram spell swish of his wand the words, 'I am Lord Voldemort,' appeared in eerie magical light, shocking the ex-con.
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
TBC…(…i…) I'm building something here for a potential sequel, whether it gets written or not. Just so you know.