Chapter 22 for you all. Enjoy!

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Chapter Twenty-Two

"My Gods, Longbottom, you would think that you might have improved over the four years I've been teaching you, but you seem to have gotten worse! You are the most inept student I have had during my career as a teacher!" Snape yelled at Neville, towering over the cowering student. "If you hadn't been lucky enough to have been paired with Mr. Potter – who seems to have at least some slight ability – you might have been covered with fur and searching for a hole to crawl into by now!"

The class had been attempting to make the Brevis Animagus Potion which they would be using later in Transfiguration to find out what their animagus forms would be, when Neville's potion – as it usually does – went awry. Snape had, of course, deducted points from Gryffindor and was currently chewing out Neville for his inability. Poor Neville was looking like he wanted to find a hole to crawl into even without the potion.

"Next time it happens you might not be so lucky! If anything like this ever happens again you are going to wish that Mr. Potter hadn't been here to save you!" Snape snapped, before spinning on his heel and striding to the front of the classroom. "You will start your potion again and if it is not finished by the end of class you will continue on into lunch time."

"Yes Sir," Neville choked out. Snape paid no mind to him, choosing to praise Malfoy on his potion-making skills instead.

"I'm never going to get this done," Neville said quietly, face pale. Harry glanced at him and sighed.

"You're fine at preparing the ingredients Neville, you just don't seem to be able to mix them together in the right way. I've finished my potion, so how about you get the ingredients ready and I tell you how to put them in?"

"Could you?" Neville said, hope brightening his face. "Thanks a lot, Harry."

They began to work on the potion together. Harry's plan worked surprisingly well, and soon the potion was bubbling away, complete except for one ingredient.

"You'll need a pair of scales for this one Neville," Harry said as he pulled out some fairy wings from Neville's supplies.

"Okay," Neville said, turning towards the cupboard that held them.

"Don't bother, I'll get them," Harry said, waving his hand.

"Accio scales."
A pair landed on the bench beside Harry and, unnoticed, glowed gold for the smallest fraction of a second. Neville, however, didn't begin to prepare the fairy wings.

"Harry? Do wizards kill fairies to get their wings?" Neville asked in a small voice.

Harry glanced at him. "No, Neville. Once a year all the fairies lose their old set of wings and grow a new pair. That's how we get them."
"Oh," Neville said, relieved, and began to chop up the wings finely, weighing the amount he had prepared regularly.

"Mr. Longbottom, just what do you think you are doing?" Snape's voice echoed loudly through the dungeon, scaring Neville so much that he knocked the pair of scales off the bench.

"I-I-I – " Neville stuttered, staring up at Snape, who had crossed the room silently and was now looming over him. "I-I was just making my potion, Professor…"

Snape, however, was not listening to Neville.

"Mr. Potter, do you think that you should be helping Mr. Longbottom? I wonder how you came to be under that impression, as I did not give permission for you to assist him!" Snape sneered. Harry looked back up at him, eyes taking on the look they did when he spotted the snitch.

"I don't see why you should have a problem with it, Sir, especially since you don't seem to mind Malfoy helping Blaise with his potion, even though you didn't give permission," Harry said calmly.

Snape's eyes narrowed. "Ten points from Gryffindor for attempting to undermine a Professor's authority."
Harry's eyes widened slightly, but he didn't appear to be looking at Snape. In fact, it seemed as if he was looking at something no one else could see. After a second his eyes returned to normal.

"Get down," He murmured, looking back at Snape.

"Mr. Potter, do you really think I am stupid enough to – "

"Get down!" Harry hissed, grabbing Professor Snape's wrist and pulling him to the floor, as well as Neville. A split second after he had pulled Severus down a barrage of multi-coloured light shot through the air where the Professor, Harry and Neville had been a moment before. It was followed by a familiar green flash, before an arrow thudded into the wall, embedding itself into the bricks of the wall at the end of the room. The arrow began to hum slightly, and an image shot out of it. A gasp echoed through the class, as thirty-odd memories flashed back to the time when they used Memorius Privatus to regain Harry's memories, and the image of a graveyard projected onto a wall.

"Oh my," You-Know-Who said, amusement filtering into his voice. "It looks like poor old Dumbledore is going to have to find another Potions Teacher…"

A/N – Wouldn't you hate it if I left it here? Don't worry though, I'm not planning to…just messing with your minds…

Harry blinked, staring at the image being projected from the end of the arrow.

'That's it. It's just an image…it can't see that Snape isn't dead!' Harry thought.

The image turned towards Harry. "Don't presume that just because I'm not the real thing I can't see you, Harry. I am real enough to be able to watch you, and I'm definitely real enough to be able to cast a few spells that just might happen to harm some of your classmates. Wouldn't it be a pity if one of them ended up dead? I think you'll agree with me when I say that it would be best if you didn't try anything…"

Harry gulped. 'Scratch that idea. So why doesn't he know that Snape isn't dead?'

Harry glanced around, expecting to see the Potions Master standing up, and getting the students out. He didn't see him however, and turned slightly to check on Neville. Snape was kneeling beside him, healing a gash on Neville's forehead that he must have gotten when Harry pulled him down. Harry nudged him lightly with his foot. Severus turned, ready to take points from Gryffindor, when he noticed the projection.

"Stay there," Harry whispered to him. "He doesn't know that you're still alive."

Snape nodded. Harry was slightly surprised at that, he was sure that the Professor would protest at being told what to do by a student. He turned back to Voldemort's doppelganger.

"What do you want?"

Voldemort smirked. "Sit down, Harry. Sit down and then we can…talk…"