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Chapter 22: A Cauldronfull of Possibilities

There isn't enough firewhisky on this planet to deal with Potter and Malfoy for the rest of the summer, Snape reflected as he sat in his chamber.

With a lazy flick of his wand, Snape cleared away the shards of broken glass that littered his floor.

Snape had warned Tonks. He had warned her against using that potion on Potter. For that matter, he had threatened her with a slow and painful death if she dared to send the boy that potion in his name. He had threatened to skin her alive with a dull knife, and then proceed to remove her intestines with an unfinished wooden spoon. And yet still she insisted on sending the brat the potion anyway. What on earth had the woman been thinking?

Bloody Useless Gryffindor, Snape mentally insulted the woman. The boy could have blurted out anything to Malfoy under the influence of that potion. He could have exposed Severus as a spy, he could have revealed the true prophecy, he could have given away any number of Order secrets...

Snape was extremely irritated with the boy as well. Did the brat never think? Snape knew that it was time for him to go and speak with the boy. He would have to eventually, and he had never been the type to see the purpose in postponing unpleasant conversations.

With that thought in mind, Severus rose from his armchair, left his chambers, and crossed the hall to the boy's room. Snape knocked twice, then waited for an answer.

"Come in," said a voice from within.

Snape entered Potter's room to find the boy sitting at his desk, parchment laid before him and quill in hand. The boy was, mercifully, in fully human form once again, though the attitudinal effects of the potion would not fully wear off for a few more hours.

"Studying?" asked Snape, avoiding putting a name to the boy. "I never should have guessed it of you."

The boy glared. "Can I help you, Professor?" asked the boy coldly.

"I wanted to speak to you regarding the events that transpired in my office earlier today," said Snape.

"The devil made me do it," said the boy, a cheeky grin on his face.

Now it was Snape's turn to glare.

"I realize that you were not in full control of yourself, though you are no less responsible for your actions. You chose to drink that potion, nobody forced it down your throat," said Snape.

"And you chose to send it to me," came the indignant retort.

"I did no such thing, fool boy. Will you never learn not to repeat your mistakes?" sneered Snape.

Latching on to the first part of Snape's statement, the boy formed his next question.

"Then who sent it to me?" asked the boy.

"Nymphadora Tonks is the one responsible for that little joke," Snape's sneer was evident in his voice as well as on his face as he spoke the Metamorphmagus's name.

"Oh," was the boy's brilliant rejoinder. "I apologize for attacking you from behind," said the boy who was now seated across from Snape in front of the fireplace matter-of-factly.

"How very Gryffindor of you," observed Snape. "You should apologize for the entire scene, boy!"

"I don't see why I ought, Professor," responded the Impertinent Boy.

Snape knew that he couldn't really hold the boy's earlier actions against him, or Lily would skin him and remove his intestines with a wooden spoon from beyond the grave. But he would drive home a lesson, nonetheless.

"Because I am your professor, Insolent Brat! For your earlier display, as well as for last night's escapade, your Hogsmeade privileges for the first half of this coming school year are being stripped. Consider yourself lucky that the punishment is not more severe," said Snape.

"WHAT?!" screamed Harry. "You can't do that! What right do you have...?"

"I have every right, foolish boy. I have discussed this with the headmaster, and he agrees that the punishment is appropriate, so don't bother whining to him about how unfair your, let's see, what was it? Oh, yes, 'Snarky Bastard and Sadistic Old Bat' of a potions professor is being, your complaints will accomplish nothing," Snape sneered.

Harry blushed. The boy seemed oddly contrite. "I'm sorry, Professor. I went too far with that."

Interesting, Snape reflected. He didn't think the boy would normally apologize so quickly, or seem sincere about it for that matter. Under normal circumstances, Snape would imagine that the boy's pride would prevent him from saying any such thing.

That was an interesting twist of the potion. It would seem the boy felt compelled to apologize, and the potion allowed him to do so despite his other inhibitions.

Snape almost smiled at the irony. For all the times he had tried to force a Truth Serum down the boy's throat, he now seemed to be under similar effects from a different potion, and it was none of Snape's doing.

"You did. Though your words were nothing more nor less than what you truly desired to say," replied Snape.

Here Snape paused. He didn't want to reveal to the boy that his earlier words had stung, but he had to address them.

"What you said about me abandoning you, Harry," Snape caught Harry's eye and held the contact, "you must realize that I would not willingly do so. 'Wretched Excuse for a Man' though I may be," Harry again blushed at the reminder of his earlier words, "I would claim you as my son if not for the war in which we are currently in the midst of."

A small smile formed on the boy's lips, though Snape had no doubt that the boy had done his best to suppress that smile and would berate himself unendingly for it later. The flashing anger in his eyes attested to that.

Perhaps Snape wouldn't torture Tonks: having the boy under the influence of this potion was proving useful.

"In the meantime, I have taken it upon myself to arrange guardianship for you for the remainder of your school years, seeing as you can't return to Lilly's sister's home," said Snape.

"Why can't I return there?" asked the boy, seemingly confused. "I thought that was the only place that I was fully protected."

"Do you want to return there?" asked Snape.

"Of course not, but..." began Harry.

"Then don't ask questions," said Snape.

"But I want to know!" said Harry. "Nobody ever wants to tell me things that directly effect me, and who will my new guardian be, and..."

"Very well," Snape interrupted the boy's whining. "You cannot return there because they are less pleased now about having a wizard related to them than at any point in past."

Harry snorted. "More than when I blew up my aunt?" said the boy mischievously, a gleam in his eyes.

This potion was even better than a Truth Serum in many ways, Snape noted to himself. With a Truth Serum, you had to ask the correct questions in order to extract information, with this potion, the subject offered information freely, it could prove immensely useful. Snape mentally added the potion to his list of weapons.

"Yes, I would imagine so," said Snape.

Apparently the gleam in the boy's eyes was contagious, because it must have been reflected in Snape's gaze as well.

"What did you do to them?" asked the boy wondrously.