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Snape is not a very nice character and Harry takes some extreme counter measures…

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Chapter 16 Hogwarts as usual

They found out the following morning that Snape was just as nasty as they had feared.

"You will find that most of you will leave this class and not come back" Snape hissed and glared at the non Slytherin part of the class. Draco Malfoy smirked delightedly together with the rest of the Slytherins. Harry was sure that not even half of them had managed to get Os in their potion OWL.

"We will be brewing antidotes and testing them this term… And you better get them right" He added and glared at Harry "Get your cauldrons we will be making an antidote to most snake venoms. Instructions are on the blackboard and ingredients are in the store cupboard. You got until lunch!"

"Potter you sit here in front so you don't get help from your fans" Snape said, Draco Malfoy sniggered. Harry took a deep breath picked up his cauldron and bag and walked over to the table closest to Snape. It was a very complex hybrid potion they had to brew. They would have to combine two different potions and then add the final ingredient: powdered dragon blood.

"You know Potter" Snape whispered as he prepared his ingredients for the first of the two potions that he would need to combine "I don't know how you tricked that OWL inspector but you don't fool me. I am going to make sure that you regret cheating" Snape paused hoping to get a reaction out of him.

Harry tried to focus hard on crushing his beetle eyes so hard that he wouldn't hear Snape's voice.

"We will be testing your antidote at the end of the class you better get it right or you will spend weeks in the hospital wing" Snape said dangerously "I am going to give you a fair chance Potter, I'm going to leave you alone to do your best"

Harry didn't reply he had once been poisoned by snake venom. That time he had been sure that he was going to die, the mere memory gave him goose bumps. He just had to get this potion right. He copied the formula down on parchment to be able to follow it more carefully and tick of the lines he had done. He groaned involuntarily when he looked over the recipe, he had never managed a so advanced potion before. He wondered for a moment if it all was just a big joke and then he realised that it probably was Snape and the Slytherins was going to laugh their heads of when his antidote didn't work. He tried to pull himself together, he would need to focus on his potion, and after all, he had a chance as Snape had said. The potion was supposed to turn from red to clear green when you added the powdered dragon blood. Harry's potion turned from brown to dark green, he knew he had added all the ingredient right but he guessed that he should have been a bit more careful with the timing. The only other potion that was green was Hermione's but hers was bright she beamed at him proudly from her seat she didn't know he was to be poisoned. He hoped that his potion was good enough not poison him and perhaps even if he was lucky cure him.

"Now everyone" Snape said gleefully "Potter here is as noble as ever" every one in the class looked up at Snape and Harry "our own wonder boy has agreed to try out his antidote"

Hermione and Ron gaped in horror while the Slytherins smiled expectantly.

"I have for the occasion a mild dose of Basilisk venom that would normally send him to the hospital wing for weeks" Snape said "But since Potter has his antidote he will not be in any direct danger"

Laughter burst out from the Slytherin side of the room led by Pansy Parkinson's shriek of glee. The other side was dead silent. Ron looked as if he wanted to run up to Harry and pull him away from Snape, but Hermione managed to contain him. Harry was a bit surprised by Hermione's coolness but then he guessed that she must think that his antidote is good enough.

"Drink this Mr Potter" Snape said and added in an undertone "Or get out and never become an auror"

Harry was stunned he didn't have any choice if he wanted to become an auror, besides he would look like a coward if he ran for it. There was only one thing to do he grabbed the vial was holding in his right hand. He drank it all down in one gulp, readying himself for the pain that was to come. He felt a headache starting to build up but it wasn't too bad but then he had just swallowed it. He waited for another few moments the Slytherins was watching him expectantly, Ron seemed to be waiting for him to collapse on the spot but Hermione had a smile building up on her face. Harry was a bit irritated by this he didn't wand her to worry too much about him but a little compassion wouldn't be wrong.

"Well" Snape asked irritably.

"My head hurts a bit" Harry said.

"Nothing more" Snape spat.

"No nothing" Harry replied he was glad to her the anger in Snape's voice, hopefully Snape had made a mistake. He felt a small smile spread across his lips as he thought this even his headache didn't seem so bad anymore in fact he couldn't even feel it anymore.

Hermione smiled even wider now, Harry knew that she must have expected this. He glanced over at the Slytherins and smiled triumphantly at them, they had lost their smiles now instead they were glaring at him.

"Have you drunk you antidote?" Snape asked glancing over at Harry's cauldron.

"No" Harry said and then added teasingly "Professor"

Hermione now had a wide smile across her face unfortunately Snape saw this. Hermione seemed to see what was coming because she hurriedly filled a vial with her antidote.

"Get up here Granger" Snape hissed at her so snake like that Harry almost thought he could be a parselmouth.

Hermione grabbed her vial and walked up to Snape and Harry. Harry wasn't really worried about Hermione he knew that she had done her antidote properly. Hermione seemed to be confident that her antidote would work too because she held out her hand to get the poison from him.

"I'll hold your cure Granger" Snape said and took it from her and handed her a vial with poison. Hermione cast an uncertain glance at Harry before she drunk the poison. The affect was instantaneous Hermione turned pale as a ghost and started to sweat, she looked as if she had been suffering from a high fever for days. Snape gave a triumphant look around at the Slytherins who applauded.

"Give Hermione her antidote" Ron yelled furiously at Snape and Ran over to Hermione and held her. Harry would have said something himself but Ron beat him to it.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor" Snape said wickedly and then turned back to the class ignoring Ron "As you can see Basilisk venom is highly poisonous a single drop of it would kill a full grown man. What I have given Miss Granger here is just about one tenth of that"

"ACCIO ANTIDOTE" Ron yelled and summoned Hermione's antidote from Snape's hand. Ron quickly poured the vial down Hermione's throat.

"Detention for a month Weasley and another fifty points" Snape said triumphantly and the Slytherins sniggered appreciative.

"You better give Hermione a hundred house points for her antidote then" Ron replied furiously "And if you think I give a damn about your detention"

"Get out Weasley and don't come back" Snape said smilingly as if he had planed to days lesson to get rid of the unwanted students.

Ron made a quick check that Hermione was okay and when he seemed satisfied, he got his bag and left without a word. Hermione did look much better now though her face was still shiny with sweat.

"You got a problem with my teaching methods as well" Snape asked Harry hoping to get a reason to throw him out too. Harry had a big problem with Snape's teaching methods he would have done the same thing as Ron but Ron did it first. Harry kept trying to focus on Fleur to get his anger to fade and he was quite successful too. One year ago, he would probably have cursed Snape by now but this year he had more then detentions to fear he wanted very badly to teach the dueling club with Tonks and Fleur and it wouldn't be possible if he cursed Snape.

"No" Harry replied shortly focusing harder then ever on Fleur and what it felt like to hold her. He tried to imagine holding her hand tightly so that he could feel her soft heart beat. He felt much calmer now, he took a deep breath and the last of his anger seemed to fade.

"I said get back to your seat Potter" Snape hissed and Hermione pulled his hand to make him move.

"Right" Harry replied calmly and walked back to his seat.

They wrote their name on bottles with their potion and handed in to Snape and then cleaned up after themselves.

"Homework until next week" Snape said "I want four roles of parchment on basic antidotes. Potter I want another four roles from you describing why you didn't get poisoned"

Harry who still thought of Fleur managed to stay seated even if he wanted to stand up and yell all sort of insults at Snape. Instead, he decided to go strait to McGonagall after class and ask if there was some kind of report to fill out if you wanted to complain about a teacher.

Harry and Hermione left the classroom together a few moments later.

"Where do you think Ron have gone" Hermione asked worriedly.

"I don't know" Harry replied "I'm going strait to McGonagall"

"Yes" Hermione agreed grimly.

"Are you all right" Harry asked as he suddenly remembered that Hermione had been poisoned.

"Yes of course I am you don't think I would have let him poison me if I wouldn't be okay?" Hermione asked raising an eyebrow.

"Well I let him poison me" Harry muttered he now felt rather stupid that he let Snape poison him. He should just have refused and accepted a detention or something, but then again the poison had not affected him.

"I suppose you became immune down in the chamber"

"Then you must be immune to it as well now" Harry stated.

"No, I don't think so" Hermione said "If you got immune to basilisk venom by just exposing yourself to it everyone would know"

"But I got…"

"That's different you were bitten" Hermione said.

"Pierced" Harry muttered "So if you get bitten by a basilisk you get immune"

"I don't know I doubt that there are many peoples that have actually been bitten by a basilisk and I bet that those who survive a basilisk bite… I haven't even read of anyone being bitten by a basilisk"

"Then how did you guess that I wasn't going to be poisoned" Harry asked as they walked the final set of stairs up from the dungeons.

"I wasn't sure but many magical poisons work that way" Hermione said simply.

They reached McGonagall office and the door swung open before Harry or Hermione had time to knock.

"Did you want something?" McGonagall asked a bit surprised to see them standing right outside her door.

"uh… yes Professor" Hermione said "We just had potions"

"Snape tried to poison me with and…" Harry exclaimed.

"Did you lose your temper?" McGonagall interrupted "Potter you will have too…"

"No" Hermione interrupted. McGonagall eyed Hermione curiously she normally hated when peoples interrupted her but as Hermione were her favourite student and she didn't seem to mind too much.

"Why don't you come inside" McGonagall said and step aside and let them enter. She conjured an extra chair for them since she only had two chairs in her office, one behind her desk and one for visitors.

"You had potions?" McGonagall asked.

"Yes Professor" Hermione said eagerly, Hermione always loved to have a professors full attention even if the subject was not regarding schoolwork.

"We were a making a common antidote base and had dragons blood as the final ingredient" Hermione said "At the end of the class Snape announced that Harry would be testing his antidote and poisoned him with basilisk venom"

"He did" McGonagall asked "Your antidote worked very well then Potter?"

"Actually no" Hermione said "The poison didn't affect Harry I think that's because he was bitten down in the chamber"

McGonagall eyed Harry curiously "Yes, that seems like a logical explanation"

"I was smiling at Harry when it didn't poison him" Hermione explained "And Snape seemed to think that I was smiling at him so he decided to poison me too"

McGonagall didn't say anything, though Harry could tell that she didn't like the way Snape poisoned her house students.

"I got really ill" Hermione said "And Snape wouldn't give me the antidote at once so Ron got very upset and yelled at him to give me my antidote but he wouldn't instead he took fifty points from us and started to explain how poisonous Basilisk venom was"

McGonagall had drawn her mouth into a thin line Harry could tell that she was furious at Snape.

"Ron didn't care he summoned my vial with antidote from Snape and gave it to me" Hermione said and took a deep breath and continued "Snape took another fifty points and gave Ron detention for a month"

"But Ron didn't care he told Snape that he better give a hundred house points for Hermione's antidote then" Harry said angrily "But he didn't care so Snape told him to get out and not come back"

"Neither of you got any points for being poisoned" McGonagall asked.

"No" Hermione said and added sadly "If Ron doesn't take his potion NEWTs then he can't become an auror" This thought had not occurred to Harry, the auror future didn't seem half as funny without Ron.

McGonagall sighed "I'll see what I can do, but I can't promise anything professor Snape is a very good and well respected teacher"

The three of them left for lunch Harry and Hermione walked over to the Gryffindor table. Harry caught sight of Selena Malfoy for the first time since the sorting she was sitting next to Ginny and some other fifth years. He glanced over to the other side of the great hall to the Slytherin table and saw that Draco Malfoy was watching them angrily. Apparently the joy of Ron been thrown out of potions was forgotten. He sat down next to Hermione at their usual seats and looked up at the staff table, Fleur smiled at him he smiled back and then he looked over at Snape who focus to one hundred percent on his food. McGonagall sat down at her usual seat, later along the table he saw Hagrid who had just finished lunch and was getting up.

"Care of Magical Creatures Next" Harry stated as he started lunch with a huge glass of pumpkin juice.

"Yeah" Hermione replied distractedly also starting with something to drink "Do you think Ron's all right? I bet he's really miserable"

"Probably" Harry greed.

"I got to go and find him" Hermione said and got up "can I borrow your map?"

"Sorry but I lent it to Fleur when she couldn't find her way back from Gryffindor tower" Harry explained "I would help you look for him, but I bet he wants to be found by you"

Hermione smiled slightly in a very girlish way "Got any idea of where he is?"

"Nope" He said and then after a moment of though he added "You might want to try the Quidditch pitch though"

"See you at Care" Hermione said and ran off to find Ron. Hermione's and Harry's friendship had changed Harry realised, they spoke openly to each other about their love lives and had in a way become even closer. Ever since that night in Grimmauld place they leaned heavily on each other perhaps that's because none of them had any siblings, or close relatives around at least.

Harry enjoyed a quiet meal. It was very unusual for him to be able to eat an entire meal in silence in the great hall. He wondered if McGonagall would manage to do something about Snape and if Ron would continue taking potions if he was allowed. Hermione could probably persuade Ron if she wanted too. Then he wondered what Snape might do to them next week, if he had another potion class like this one he might just give up on it. After all most order members were not aurors, he could become a curse breaker like Fleur it was not perhaps as exiting or fun as an auror but it was a good job and maybe Ron could become a curse breaker too. He tried to imagine life as a curse breaker with Ron and Fleur for a few moments but then he remembered that to become a curse breaker they required Arithmancy. He sighted and took a gulp of his pumpkin juice he didn't want to become a curse breaker anyway he wanted to be an auror and if a stupid greasy haired git tried to stop him or Ron.

The sorting hat can't have been so far off in his first year Harry realised as he seriously considered putting Snape under the imperius curse. He didn't really have to make Snape do anything he didn't wand to. Just let Ron back into his potion class and behave just a little bit better. He would allow Snape to take house points of them as usual as long as it wasn't a hundred points every lesson and he could stand Snape passing snide remarks at him during class as long as they were about him alone and not his friends or relatives. He knew perfectly well how to cast the imperius curse he had read all about in Dueling for Masters. All the unforgivables required more then the incantation you had to focus hard on something. To perform the imperius curse you had to focus really hard on feeling superior to the subject. Harry couldn't imagine having any problems feeling superior to Snape. It was a risk however that the order would test Snape if he was under the imperius, so it would be best if Snape had no idea who had put it on him in case anyone found out. After a few moments, he remembered that he had an invisibility cloak and he could make sure that no one was around on his map. All he would have to do was to wait outside Snape's office one night wearing his father's old cloak and curse Snape when he left his office. An even better and cooler way would to just knock on Snape's office door and cast the imperius curse on him when he opened. He decided to practise the imperius curse later, in any case it would be a handy curse to know illegal or not. The fact that it was illegal didn't bother him too much he wasn't going to use it to do any harm, it wasn't even painful besides he was tired of being the victim all the time if there was going to be trouble with Snape he might as well be the one causing it not just suffering from it.

He finished his lunch and walked up to his dorm he emptied his bag of his potion equipments and put his copy Befriending Beasts in it instead. He had half an hour before care of magical creatures started and he hoped that Hagrid would have time for a little chat before class. A few minutes later, he was standing outside Hagrid's hut knocking on his door. Fang barked madly inside and seamed to be trying to open the door.

"Easy there, get back" Hagrid's voice boomed through the door "Get back Fang, get back!"

Hagrid opened the door Fang burst out and jumped up on Harry with his front paws almost knocking Harry to the ground.

"Hello Fang" Harry said as he forced Fang off him. Fang really was a very nice dog, just a little too large and a bit too keen on greeting.

"Hey there Harry" Hagrid said happily "Where is Ron and Hermione"

"Something came up" Harry said "They kind of spend time together these days"

Hagrid chuckled "Heard you spend some time together as well"

Harry blushed.

"I would ask you in for tea, but I figure you just had lunch"

"Yeah" Harry said, his mid drifted over to Snape "Would it be wrong to do a bad thing if only good came out of it"

Hagrid eyed him curiously from inside his house "I suppose, if you mean well… hold on it's nothing illegal is it?"

"No" Harry lied too quickly.

Harry could tell by the way Hagrid looked at him that he didn't believe him. Hagrid gave him a sad look as if he thought Harry trusted him.

"Well kind off" Harry said he could not bear Hagrid sad look "And it should be" he added darkly as he imagined Snape putting the imperius curse on him.

Hagrid smiled "I trust you not to do anything stupid Harry"

They stood in silence for a moment before Hagrid glanced inside at his old wall clock. "Oh better prepare your lesson"

"Can I help" Harry asked, he always felt rather left out when Ron and Hermione spent time together and didn't want to be even more alone.

"If you think you are up to it" Hagrid said, Harry felt cool sweat appear on his forehead. If Hagrid asked if he was up to it, the monster had to be bad.

"I thought we should follow up on flying horses" Hagrid said "Olympe lent me some of her Abraxans"

"Oh" Harry said, he had no greater interest in getting too close to a flying horse the size of an elephant, especially as Madam Maxime had said that they require forceful handling. They walked away towards a paddock on the other side of the school grounds.

"Hagrid" Harry said sadly looking down on the ground, as they walked.

"What's the matter Harry" Hagrid said and stopped to watch him more carefully.

Harry looked down "You heard about Hedwig?"

Hagrid sighted heavily. Harry continued walking again and Hagrid did too.

"She was a nice Bird" Hagrid said "One of the nicest I ever met, a bit pompous sometimes perhaps, wouldn't eat from Fangs food"

"Yeah" Harry agreed smiling sadly he had loved the way Hedwig was pompous "She didn't approve of pig, thought he couldn't behave properly"

"Arhh" Hagrid sighed dreamily "She used to visit me, just like you lot"

"Do you have many visitors?" Harry asked curiously, he knew that Ginny visited him sometimes.

"Yeah got a couple, Ginny is nice girl usually visits me and Dumbledore visits me when he has a spare moment" Hagrid said "I recon Tonks will visit me as usual now that she's back"

"You knew Tonks well?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, she had a hard time in her first years" Hagrid said "They used to teas her for being clumsy and then Fitch caught her running around at night, scared her half to death wouldn't walk around in the castle without Fang for a couple weeks"

"But she still loved Hogwarts" Harry said or rather asked.

"Yeah, she always loved the castle and she got loads of self confidence when she discovered that she could change her appearance" Hagrid said fondly.

"I thought she was born a Metamorphmagus?"

"Yeah, but she didn't know how to control it until her third year" Hagrid explained "Every thing changed then she became much happier and dared to stand up to people. She became the most popular girl in school but never once forgot to visit me in my house. 'Course she teased and said that it was only because I wouldn't be to ruff on her if I found her in the forbidden forest again"

"She used to run around in the forest?" Harry asked as they approached the paddock. Three huge horses were inside.

"Yeah, loves animals Tonks, she was in there looking for unicorns as a Slytherin" Hagrid replied "But she didn't fool me, knew her too well by then"

"I'm planning of bringing Buckbeak back" said Hagrid thoughtfully as he opened the paddock.

Hagrid greeted the horses fondly. A couple of minutes later, with loads of whiskey, had they managed to get the horses outside Hagrid's hut. Hagrid seemed to like Abraxans even though they weren't even poisonous or had fangs. Harry supposed they must make Hagrid feel normal in size for once. The sixth year NEWT class slowly gathered around Hagrid's hut. Ron and Hermione who both usually remembered to turn up in good time for Hagrid's lessons wasn't there however when the class started.

Hagrid looked around and seemed to come to the same conclusion as Harry "Where's Ron and Hermione"

Padma, Parvarti and Lavender burst out giggling "They are busy" Lavender managed to say through her giggles.

"Oh, well, every one else here?" Hagrid asked and seemed to count them "Right, well Welcome to my newt class"

Every one was quiet as they expected Hagrid to give them a speech as all their other teacher had done. He didn't.

"So, knew what these are?" Hagrid asked after a short moment and gestured to the horses.

It felt a bit empty without Hermione stretching her hand as far up as possible and giving anyone else that dared to raise their hand completive looks as if the one with the hand furthest up would get the question.

"Oh I know" Said Lavender eagerly stretching her arm up.

"Abraxans" Said the only Slytherin Pansy Parkinson without even raising her hand, Lavender glared at her.

"Err, yes that right" Hagrid said. They had a very enjoyable above average safe Care of Magical Creatures lesson. Ron and Hermione arrived halfway through the lesson just in time to fly around the castle. Both of Harry's best friends blushed deep crimson when the Lavender asked them innocently if there was any particular reason why they were late. Hagrid didn't ask where they had been or what they had done he just filled them in quickly that they were doing Abraxans today.

When the lesson was over Harry, Ron and especially Hermione was exhausted since Hermione had been the one that had been poisoned. Hagrid had as the rest of their teachers given them more homework then ever before, he had actually asked them for two rolls of parchment on flying horses and urged them to go and visit the Abraxans to study them.

Harry didn't mention the morning as he Ron and Hermione walked up towards the castle he trusted Hermione to talk to Ron about what had happened in potions. Instead, he caught on the subject Ron suggested: Quidditch tryouts.

Later that night Harry managed to slip out from the common room under his invisibility cloak. Harry doubted that Ron and Hermione would notice that he was missing. They had one of their arguments regarding the daily prophet and somehow they managed to mix it with house elves and Quidditch. Harry wondered where he was going to go to practise the imperius curse, the room of requirements was too well known by now. He couldn't risk any one walking in on him practising an unforgivable. His mind was blank he couldn't think of any place where he could practise except the chamber of secrets and he didn't ever want to enter that place again. He figured that if he would stand a chance in learning the imperius curse he would have to be in a very safe place or he wouldn't be able to relax enough. It was a great risk in trying to learn the imperius curse. If he were caught, he would probably be expelled. After a few moments of reasoning, he concluded that entering the chamber would be a necessary precaution. He walked fast towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He hoped that Myrtle wouldn't notice him sneaking down. How would he get back up? He had not considered this but soon figured out that a broom would probably be the best solution. He quickly summoned a school broom and entered Myrtle's bathroom carefully, to his relief the bathroom was empty or at least Myrtle was not insight. He walked over to the sink and without too much problems hissed "Open" in parseltongue. He jumped up on the broom and flew down he hissed "Close" back at the entrance and it sealed itself. For a few moments, everything was dark before he lit his wand. Harry flew slowly down the huge pipe on the old school broom it shivered a lot and the cushioning charm had started to wear of so that it was very uncomfortable to sit on. Luckily, he soon reached the end of the pipe and landed on the damp floor of stone tunnel leading in to the chamber of secrets. He lit a magical fire on the floor so that he could use his wand freely.

"Accio Spider" He cried, his voice echoed in the dark tunnel. He shivered involuntary, it really was a scary place and the fact that it had been home to a basilisk for about a thousand years didn't help, neither did his memories of this place. A huge spider by muggle measurements came flying helplessly towards him and fell to the floor. The spider seemed to sense danger because it started to run as fast as it could away from him.

This was the moment; he was going to cast an unforgivable curse. Harry felt bad it was not called unforgivable for nothing. He was going to control the spiders mind.

"IMPERIO!" Harry yelled and waved his wand in the preferable way at the spider. Harry knew at once that it had not worked because the spider sprinted on as if it had not noticed anything. He summoned the spider back next to him and tried again but nothing happened. He didn't focus enough, he had to focus harder on being superior to the spider. He took a deep breath and tried again but it didn't work. Harry spent what seemed to him several hours in the semi darkness before giving up for the night. He felt disappointed in himself he had not expected it to be this hard he had expected it to work more or less on the first try. He decided to practise more as soon as possible. He grabbed the school broom and flew up the pipe towards Myrtle's bathroom he tried to listen carefully to make sure that no one was in the bathroom. When he couldn't hear anything he made sure that his invisibility cloak covered him and hissed "Open". The blinding white light from Myrtle's bathroom blinded him as the sink slowly opened. His eyes slowly adjusted to the light and he saw to his horror that someone was standing in the room facing him he could not make out who it was the light was still too blinding. Harry blinked his eye's furiously to make them adjust to light quicker.

"Fleur" He exclaimed as he recognized who it was. Fleur was looking strait at him with the Marauder's Map in her hands. Harry took a huge breath of relief. Fleur was the only person that Harry had considered telling about his decision to learn the imperius curse. He had not however since she was currently his teacher. She probably would not like to know that he planed to put an illegal curse on her colleague.

"Accio Cloak" Fleur said firmly and Harry's invisibility cloak flew off him. Harry now noticed that Fleur was looking very sad, as if he might have been breeding Basilisks or something. He knew Fleur well enough to know that she had a tendency to expect the very worst, maybe it had something to do with loosing her family.

"What were you doing down there Harry?" She asked hoarsely.

Harry didn't mind telling Fleur but not here, Myrtle might over hear them.

"Can I tell you somewhere else?" Harry asked timidly.

Fleur looked at him seriously before she handed him his cloak back "Follow me to my office"

Soon they were standing in Fleur's and Tonks's bedroom.

"Tonks is off, running in the corridors" Fleur explained as they entered. Their bedroom was very nice and expensive looking. Two four-poster beds stood in each side of the room.

"What's she running around for" Harry asked.

"She says she is making up for lost time" Fleur explained smiling faintly.

There was a short silence and he knew that Fleur wanted him to explain himself.

"I was down there to practise the imperius curse" Harry said abruptly.

"Harry" Fleur said disapprovingly "Why?"

Harry told Fleur every thing that had happened that morning in his potion class and how they had told McGonagall about it and finally that he had decided to learn the imperius curse.

"So that was what I was doing down there" Harry said "I tried to control a spider but it just wouldn't work"

"Harry, you can't put the imperius curse on Snape"

"Why not?" Harry said irritably "I'm not going to let him stop Ron or me!"

"It doesn't work at him" Fleur explained "He can throw it off"

Harry didn't say anything, he had never even considered the possibly that Snape could be able to throw it of, but now that Fleur told him he realised that he should have known. Snape was very good at Occlumency and was probably even better at defeating the imperious.

"I could talk to him too" Fleur offered.

"So he will know you favour me?" He replied angrily.

They stood silent for a moment, Fleur grabbed his hand and Harry could feel all is anxiety fade away.

"I would have been kicked out too if it was not for you" He said softly and sat down on her bed, Fleur placed herself gently in his lap.

"How's that?" She asked softly putting an arm around him.

"I thought of you when I was about to curse Snape"

"You're so sweet Wingbeat" Fleur said and kissed his cheek, Harry hugged her tightly.

"What are we going to do about Snape?" Harry asked softly "He's screwing up Ron's life just because he happens to be James Potter's son's best friend"

"We'll figure something out" Fleur said soothingly "If worst comes to the worst we'll shut him in the chamber of secrets"

Harry laughed "I always thought that a basilisk was a bad thing"

The door to the flung open and Tonks entered.

"Sorry" Tonks said as she saw them "I'll just take another walk"

"No, come in Tonks" Fleur said "It's okay"

"Yeah" Harry agreed even though it had been nice to be alone with Fleur he knew he had to get to bed soon.

"Right" Tonks said and walked over to her bed.

"So how's Hogwarts?" Harry asked to have something to talk about.

"That secret passage behind the mirror has collapsed" Tonks said sadly "How am I now supposed to sneak out of the castle?"

"Take a look at this" Harry said and handed Tonks his map.

"WOW" Tonks yelled as she saw what it was "I can see Filch on this!"

"There are seven passages out of school?" Tonks said when she had visible counted the lines leading off the map. Tonks couldn't help moving her lips when she was reading and the same was apparently true when she was counting.

"Yes" Harry said "But Fitch knows about these four"

Harry told Tonks all about the Marauder's Map and how it work. He walked back towards his dorm a little later under his indivisibility cloak. He entered the common room and walked swiftly up the stairs to his dormitory.

The Quidditch tryouts was a disaster, nobody in Gryffindor seemed to ever have gone near a broom and much less actually considered flying on it. Except Ginny who was a good flyer and fairly good with the Quaffle too. Half way through the tryouts Ron lost his temper and flew right into Gryffindor tower and yelled furiously at every one to get down to the Quidditch pitch at once. Harry wondered if the Quidditch captain post was cursed because Ron showed every piece of frantic energy that Oliver Wood and Angelina Johnson had showed. Or perhaps this was just Ron's way of dealing with the pressure and expectations.

No matter how hard they tried, they could not find a third chaser. Those few who managed to throw the Quaffle while flying had no interest in Quidditch what so ever and were there only because Ron had forced them. Ron even tried to force Hermione up on a broom but quickly gave up, when Hermione threatened to debone his legs.

"Stupid" Ron cursed badly "Quidditch"

"We better ask your mum for more Weasley's" Dean Thomas said to Ron as they were walking back towards the castle for dinner.

"Nah, why bother let's just ask Hermione" Seamus Finnigan teased. Ron turned red it was now common knowledge in the school that Harry Potter's friends were a couple.

"Shut up" Ron said angrily.

"Oh come on it's for the team" Dean urged him teasingly.

"Shut up" Ginny snapped furiously. They all spun around none of them had noticed that Ginny was walking behind them with a friend of hers "Don't make me force you two to clean the bed pans"

"Sorry" Shamus muttered "I didn't see you"

"That's your excuse?" Ginny hissed dangerously.

"We were just joking" Dean said apologetically.

"Hope you keep you're humour when you are cleaning" She spat furiously.

"Ginny" Ron said softly "they were just joking"

"That's just your problem Ron, you are too bloody soft!" Ginny snapped at him "What do you think Hermione would say?"

"What?" Ron replied, too shocked to come up with a better answer.

"Fine! Go make babies with Hermione" Ginny yelled and ran off towards the castle.

Ron blushed so badly that his hair looked blonde.

"What's up with her?" Ron said as he watched her run away.

"No idea" Harry replied "Think she really is Ginny?"

"Yes" Ron said "Didn't you see the way she glared at me? Mum must have taught her that"

Dean and Seamus didn't say anything they were too shocked to speak. Ginny had never ever yelled like this, much less in public. Dean and Seamus spent that evening cleaning the entrance hall with Fitch. Hermione told Harry and Ron during dinner that it was Ginny's forth and fifth detention.

"I've never even taken house points" Ron exclaimed.

"I know" Hermione said "But it's not as if Ginny has made any faults she's just very strict"

"She loves it" Ron stated.

"That's you and your brother's fault" Hermione said coolly.

"How's that" Ron said irritably.

"You always treated her like a little baby. And now that she got some power she enjoys it" Hermione explained.

"Treated her like a baby?" Ron said incredulously "You have no idea how we used to fight"

"Did you fight?" Hermione asked curiously "Over what?"

"All sorts of stuff" Ron said dismissingly "Why don't you ask Ginny"

Hermione looked down on her plate and muttered "I don't think she will, she kind of told me that if I was not a prefect she would put me in detention"

"What" Ron and Harry exclaimed.

"She said she was tired of my… nagging and every thing" Hermione said sadly.

"Of you're nagging?" Ron asked "She wanted to give you a detention for caring?"

"Not only" Hermione said still looking down "I was stupid"

"Not possible!"

"Don't be stupid Ron. It's my fault we only got one house elf cleaning Gryffindor tower"

Harry had no idea that Hermione knew about the house elves apparently Ron knew too because he didn't seem the least surprised.

"It's not your fault" Ron said firmly "They just doesn't know better"

Hermione looked up at Ron and looked at him as if she wanted to cry madly in to his shoulder but managed to contain herself.

"I have to go down and apologize to them" Hermione said looking down on her plate again. "Maybe they just need some human contact so that they can see that we are not all what they seems to think we are"

"I'll go with you" Said Ron dreamily obviously thinking of all the sweets he could eat.

Hermione snorted "You are so hopeless Ron"

Harry was happily surprised later that evening when Ron and Hermione asked him to follow them down to the kitchens. Harry had thought that Ron and Hermione wanted to be alone like some sort of date.

"Harry Potter sir" Dobby squealed as they entered the kitchen and ran over to him. Dobby was still wearing most of Hermione's hats and socks.

"Hello Dobby" Harry replied.

"Harry Potter has his noble and brave friends with him" Dobby said as he looked over to Ron and Hermione.

"Hello Dobby" Ron said.

"Oh mister Wheezy wizard sir" Dobby said sadly as he bowed deeply "Dobby heard, Dobby heard what happened in the dungeons"

"Oh" Ron replied.

"But you must not worry sir Wheezy" Dobby said "Miss Granger and Harry Potter sir will help"

"Yeah" Hermione said at once brightening up considerably "You don't have to take potions to write your NEWT"

"But if I don't take potions I will not even get a D" Ron said.

"I'll teach you" Hermione said "And when you write your potion NEWT you will just as good as the rest of us"

This was a much better plan then to put Snape under the imperius curse Harry thought and more obvious too.

"But what about your studies?" Ron asked.

"I'll manage" Hermione said.

"I'll help too you can do my potions homework" Harry joked.

"As if I would let you" Hermione said in a stern happy way.

"And I who figured we would have to put Snape under the Imperius" Harry said hoping they would take it as a joke "And Fleur suggested that we shut him up in the Chamber"

"You discussed me?" Ron asked.

"Yes of course we did" Harry said.

There was uncomfortable silence that was broken by a group of elves that offered them all kinds of sweets and food.

"Listen to me every one for a moment" Hermione said loudly. All the tiny house elves in the kitchen turned and looked at her. Hermione took a deep breath and swallowed.

"I am sorry I placed clothes in Gryffindor tower" Hermione said, every elf stood absolutely still. Hermione stood still too as if hoping that someone would say that they forgave her but nobody did.

"And I promise not to leave clothes laying around anymore" Hermione finally said and when no one replied she added "Please come and clean as usual so that Dobby doesn't have to do it all by himself"

"We will Miss" Said an old house elf who seemed to be in some sort of command "We are sorry we neglected our duties"

"No don't be sorry it was my fault" Hermione said.

"If you say so Miss" The old elf replied and bowed.

Hermione sighed "I was thinking that, maybe I could help you in here to make up for my mistake"

"Oh no Miss. Miss does not have to worry…"

"But I want to" Hermione said firmly.

"Miss Granger can help Dobby if she wants to" Dobby said uncertainly, many of the elves gave Dobby disapproving glances.

"Yes I would like that Dobby" Said Hermione still very firmly and some of the house elves looked at her again instead of Dobby.

"Thank you for visiting us Miss" The old elf said and started to beckon them towards the door.

Before they knew what had happened they were standing outside the painting picturing the ball of fruit, arms full of pumpkin pasties, tart and several bottles of Butterbeer.

"You are going to clean with them?" Ron asked.

"Yes. But don't worry I'm not going to force you to do something nice" Hermione replied.

"I do nice things" Ron said indignantly.

Ron and Hermione had soon worked up a full-fledged argument, they argued all the way up to Gryffindor tower but as they entered the portrait, they miraculously managed to call it off. The following day they spent making homework. Harry and Ron had loads of fun for once Hermione had more homework to do then they had, however Hermione finished her History of Magic and Arithmancy assay before Harry and Ron was finished with their potion assay. When they were finally done, Hermione kindly reminded Harry that he had four rolls of parchment more to do on why he was not poisoned. Harry had planned to refuse writing the assay but then he thought that that was exactly what Snape hoped for, it would be an excuse for a detention and fifty points from Gryffindor. Fleur wasn't terribly good at potions but she was glad to help him when he told her, it turned out to be one of the least boring assays he had ever written.

Harry, Fleur and Tonks agreed that they would start the dueling club the following Saturday afternoon. Both the defence against the dark arts Professors had received complains that they did not plan to teach practical defence neither of them had told anyone that they planned a dueling club, the only one who knew that there was going to be a dueling club was Harry's DA. So when Fleur announced Wednesday dinner that there was going to be a dueling club it was a complete surprise to most of the great hall. Most of the students seemed very happy about it even the Slytherins or that was until Fleur announced that Mr Potter was going to teach too.

Snape was as horrible as ever in potions on Thursday morning, but as Harry had managed to keep his temper and he had made all his homework all Snape could do was to take twenty points off Harry for his cheek. Harry wondered whether McGonagall had spoken with Snape at all, the only big difference was that that Snape didn't give Harry any more homework then anyone else and did not accidentally drop the sample of Harry potion at the end of the class.

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Just for the record, Harry's headache when he was poisoned was from pure nerves.

Please Review if you read this!

Oh and thanks for all the useful pointers, Seaver.