A/N: JKR owns all of these characters, I own the plot only.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews so far. I know I won't be able to keep posting 4 chapters a day with the work week starting but I'll do what I can.
A/N: Moonlight --- thanks for keeping up and the faithful reviews
A/N: Alex --- let me know if I can answer any specific questions for you
Chapter 13 Sinister Snape
When they arrived at Hogsmeade, Professor McGonagall walked around the edges of the park before joining her students near the benches.
"Now class," she began "there's nothing to be nervous about."
Except for Neville no one was nervous. Harry figured this little speech was for his benefit. He had defeated the Dark Lord four times in his lifetime (even if he only remembered three of them) and yet some people still insisted on treating him like a little kid. He supposed he didn't mind all that much. After all he never got treated like a little kid back when he was a little kid. Back at the Dursley's he was only treated like a slave or possibly some sort of deformed creature. But that had changed this past summer. He had gotten to spend this .
"OUCH!" Harry turned to ask Ron why he had elbowed him in the side when he realized everyone was looking at him. Professor McGonagall must have asked him a question while he was daydreaming.
"Welcome back Mr Potter." Although she looked far from amused, the memories of how worried she was when Harry disappeared last time they were at this park that kept her from punishing him.
"Let's get started then, shall we?"
Neville walked up to her and said something in a voice so quiet that no one could hear what it was. However it was easy enough to figure out because a few seconds later Professor McGonagall conjured up another curtain for Neville to practice behind.
Harry wasn't able to do it. He couldn't understand it. How could he possibly have apparated himself to the Burrow a month ago but today be unable to go even a few inches? It didn't make any sense. The harder he concentrated, the more tired he felt. He decided to rest up a bit and then try again.
He sat down and watched the rest of the students try. The sight before him was so unforgettably funny that he couldn't believe he wasn't around last time to enjoy it. Just to name a new things that he saw while Professor McGonagall was running around cleaning up the messes was: a bald Hermione (she had managed to apparate her hair only), Ron's version of Mr PotatoHead (it was funnier than he ever imagined), more than one person's head lying next to their body, and a rather disgusting sight of what appeared to be Seamus' skin lying in a heap next to his body. (Harry quickly tried to get that picture out of his head.)
Harry tried a few more times and although he thought he would be able to do it by the end of the session, he still wasn't able to do it. He wished that he could practice some at school but he knew that he couldn't --- everyone who was friends with Hermione knew that you couldn't apparate nor disapparate on school grounds.
He was determined that he'd successfully do it next time.
Their professor was kept too busy walking around and helping her students undo their individual messes to notice the rat that was watching them from across the street.
When they got back to Hogwarts Professor McGonagall had told all her students not to worry that they hadn't done it yet. After all it was a very difficult spell for advanced wizards and they were being taught this three years earlier than most witches or wizards.
Harry was still extremely tired from trying so hard that he was glad to find out that his lessons with Dumbledore would only involve him reading more of that book tonight. Sirius and Lupin were there tonight just about to leave when Harry entered the headmaster's office. Harry commented on how rarely he had seen either of them in the last few weeks.
Sirius looked at the headmaster and awaited his reaction before proceeding. When Dumbledore nodded, Sirius began speaking.
"Harry, Dark activity is very much on the rise. We've lost track of Wormtail and we know that Voldemort has gained a new generation of followers. It's a busy time right now. I'm only telling you this because I want to ensure that you keep an eye out for anything unusual and tell one of us if your scar hurts even a tiny bit --- got it?"
Harry knew deep down that Dark activity must be growing but it was a completely different thing to hear someone say it out loud.
He asked Lupin and Sirius if they'd be able to make it to his first quidditch game of the season.
"Dementors couldn't keep me away," Sirius answered.
"And a full moon couldn't keep me from going," was Lupin's answer.
With that, they were gone. Dumbledore also left so Harry could be alone with "Step 4 --- Remaining Calm" This chapter mainly tried to convey to the reader that there would be some different and potentially unpleasant sensations during the transformations, especially at first, and that the prospective animagus must be able to remain focused through these or else bad things could happen.
Although Harry recognized the dangers this book was trying to convey, he wasn't worried for a couple of reasons. First, he had demonstrated his ability to remain calm during the worst of situations --- he knew he could do it again. Secondly, he figured that Dumbledore could put one of those charms on him like McGonagall did before their apparation sessions that would stop him from seriously hurting himself. Although he decided to finish reading his lesson, he wasn't at all concerned.
When Harry would later look back on this week, he wouldn't be able to remember half of it. As boring and dull as the last couple had been weren't anything to as draining and demanding of a week this would prove to be.
There were quite a few things for Harry and his friends to survive through before their quidditch game on Saturday. Their lessons were getting more and more difficult and even if they weren't being assigned a lot of homework they'd still be spending hours each night preparing for the next day. Harry was amazed that all of his lessons were starting to tie into each other. The only thing he couldn't figure out was why most of their lessons were related to healing but they hadn't had any lessons with Madame Pomfrey yet.
"Oh Harry, that's so obvious" Hermione exclaimed when he mentioned this to her. Everything was obvious to Hermione.
"Harry, we're not advanced enough for lessons with her yet. We still have much more to learn."
He hated to admit it but after hearing Hermione's reasoning, it did seem kind of obvious.
Professor McGonagall had cancelled their usual Friday independent study lessons (Harry correctly surmised she didn't was to risk any injuries on the day before their first game). However, this period was being filled by a practical charms exam. The students already knew what it was but that didn't make it any easier to study for. They were going to have to charm a stretcher to carry someone from one end of the room to the other. Although most of the class could get a little distance before the stretchers grew tired and fell to the ground, Neville's stretcher had the unfortunate habit of trying to "stand up" which would launch its occupant several feet in the air.
Neville would never find out that Professor McGonagall had told Harry to ensure that no one on the team was to partner Neville for this particular test.
When he awoke on Friday morning, Harry realized that the difficult charms test would be the highlight of his day. The first part of that day would be double potions with the Slytherins.
On this particular day Snape was making them brew a clumsiness potion.
Harry and Ron were furious. They knew Snape was only doing this because of their quidditch game tomorrow. They knew Snape was hoping that one or more members of the Gryffindor team would spill some on themselves and hurt their chances of winning tomorrow. All term long they had been working on healing potions and today, all of a sudden, Snape decided to make them brew a clumsiness potion --- not a coincidence. None of them trusted themselves enough to speak lest they give the slimy git an excuse to take fifty points from Gryffindor. If that wasn't bad enough, they could hear Malfoy and his daft duo (as Ron and Harry had taken to calling them) sniggering all morning.
Harry motioned to Ron, Dean and Seamus to put on their dragon-hide gloves. He also motioned for them to give Neville a wide berth. Hermione got the hint and decided to share the table with Neville. Not only was she not on the team but maybe she could stop him from doing anything too terribly wrong to his potion.
Harry doubted that escaping potions class unharmed was what his godfather had in mind when he told Harry to keep a close eye on things, but it should have been. The first hour of the lesson had barely passed and already Snape had done everything short of adding wrong ingredients to Neville's potion to mess him up.
Snape had yelled at Neville while he was measuring ingredients, he had insulted him while he was dicing roots, and he had "accidentally" bumped Neville while he was stirring his potion.
Harry had to admire Hermione's composure. She had not only been able to remain calm but she had also saved Neville's potion more than once. However, he had to admit that he wasn't really surprised when it became too much even for Hermione. As had happened so many times in the past, Neville's potion exploded. Students ran for their usual hiding places. Hermione and Neville never had a chance, they were covered with the concoction. Harry quickly conjured a shield around himself. Dean, Seamus and Ron all ducked under a table, but not quickly enough.
"AAACCCKKK!" Ron screamed as some got on his face. The potion didn't hurt in any way but Ron knew that it couldn't be a good thing to be on the receiving end of something Neville brewed.
The mess took so long to clean up that the bell rang before Snape had a chance to test anyone's potion. As the students filed out of the classroom, the Gryffindors were all glaring at the smiling Snape.
The students from the potions class were all getting nervous during lunch. It had already been twenty minutes since some of them had Neville's potion douse them. No one had noticed any effects yet and the fear of the unknown was starting to set in.
The look on Professor McGonagall's face coupled with the fact that she was running to the Gryffindor table, led Harry to surmise that she heard what happened in their last class.
"Potter, did you get any on you?" she asked hurriedly.
"No --- but Ron did --- uh --- how did you find out?"
"Professor Snape was still smiling when he reached the staff table. We knew something was wrong and he finally told us." Harry looked over to the staff table and noticed Snape still smiling --- it wasn't very becoming on him.
"Potter, you send Weasley to my office at once if you notice any side effects."
He nodded and glanced towards a scared Neville who seemed to be trying to pretend he was somewhere else. Neville often messed up and had occasionally in the past felt Professor McGonagall's wrath.
It wasn't until the Gryffindors were about to begin their charms exam that the full effects of Neville's potion became known to everyone who was present.
A/N - Please R/R - share your thoughts.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews so far. I know I won't be able to keep posting 4 chapters a day with the work week starting but I'll do what I can.
A/N: Moonlight --- thanks for keeping up and the faithful reviews
A/N: Alex --- let me know if I can answer any specific questions for you
Chapter 13 Sinister Snape
When they arrived at Hogsmeade, Professor McGonagall walked around the edges of the park before joining her students near the benches.
"Now class," she began "there's nothing to be nervous about."
Except for Neville no one was nervous. Harry figured this little speech was for his benefit. He had defeated the Dark Lord four times in his lifetime (even if he only remembered three of them) and yet some people still insisted on treating him like a little kid. He supposed he didn't mind all that much. After all he never got treated like a little kid back when he was a little kid. Back at the Dursley's he was only treated like a slave or possibly some sort of deformed creature. But that had changed this past summer. He had gotten to spend this .
"OUCH!" Harry turned to ask Ron why he had elbowed him in the side when he realized everyone was looking at him. Professor McGonagall must have asked him a question while he was daydreaming.
"Welcome back Mr Potter." Although she looked far from amused, the memories of how worried she was when Harry disappeared last time they were at this park that kept her from punishing him.
"Let's get started then, shall we?"
Neville walked up to her and said something in a voice so quiet that no one could hear what it was. However it was easy enough to figure out because a few seconds later Professor McGonagall conjured up another curtain for Neville to practice behind.
Harry wasn't able to do it. He couldn't understand it. How could he possibly have apparated himself to the Burrow a month ago but today be unable to go even a few inches? It didn't make any sense. The harder he concentrated, the more tired he felt. He decided to rest up a bit and then try again.
He sat down and watched the rest of the students try. The sight before him was so unforgettably funny that he couldn't believe he wasn't around last time to enjoy it. Just to name a new things that he saw while Professor McGonagall was running around cleaning up the messes was: a bald Hermione (she had managed to apparate her hair only), Ron's version of Mr PotatoHead (it was funnier than he ever imagined), more than one person's head lying next to their body, and a rather disgusting sight of what appeared to be Seamus' skin lying in a heap next to his body. (Harry quickly tried to get that picture out of his head.)
Harry tried a few more times and although he thought he would be able to do it by the end of the session, he still wasn't able to do it. He wished that he could practice some at school but he knew that he couldn't --- everyone who was friends with Hermione knew that you couldn't apparate nor disapparate on school grounds.
He was determined that he'd successfully do it next time.
Their professor was kept too busy walking around and helping her students undo their individual messes to notice the rat that was watching them from across the street.
When they got back to Hogwarts Professor McGonagall had told all her students not to worry that they hadn't done it yet. After all it was a very difficult spell for advanced wizards and they were being taught this three years earlier than most witches or wizards.
Harry was still extremely tired from trying so hard that he was glad to find out that his lessons with Dumbledore would only involve him reading more of that book tonight. Sirius and Lupin were there tonight just about to leave when Harry entered the headmaster's office. Harry commented on how rarely he had seen either of them in the last few weeks.
Sirius looked at the headmaster and awaited his reaction before proceeding. When Dumbledore nodded, Sirius began speaking.
"Harry, Dark activity is very much on the rise. We've lost track of Wormtail and we know that Voldemort has gained a new generation of followers. It's a busy time right now. I'm only telling you this because I want to ensure that you keep an eye out for anything unusual and tell one of us if your scar hurts even a tiny bit --- got it?"
Harry knew deep down that Dark activity must be growing but it was a completely different thing to hear someone say it out loud.
He asked Lupin and Sirius if they'd be able to make it to his first quidditch game of the season.
"Dementors couldn't keep me away," Sirius answered.
"And a full moon couldn't keep me from going," was Lupin's answer.
With that, they were gone. Dumbledore also left so Harry could be alone with "Step 4 --- Remaining Calm" This chapter mainly tried to convey to the reader that there would be some different and potentially unpleasant sensations during the transformations, especially at first, and that the prospective animagus must be able to remain focused through these or else bad things could happen.
Although Harry recognized the dangers this book was trying to convey, he wasn't worried for a couple of reasons. First, he had demonstrated his ability to remain calm during the worst of situations --- he knew he could do it again. Secondly, he figured that Dumbledore could put one of those charms on him like McGonagall did before their apparation sessions that would stop him from seriously hurting himself. Although he decided to finish reading his lesson, he wasn't at all concerned.
When Harry would later look back on this week, he wouldn't be able to remember half of it. As boring and dull as the last couple had been weren't anything to as draining and demanding of a week this would prove to be.
There were quite a few things for Harry and his friends to survive through before their quidditch game on Saturday. Their lessons were getting more and more difficult and even if they weren't being assigned a lot of homework they'd still be spending hours each night preparing for the next day. Harry was amazed that all of his lessons were starting to tie into each other. The only thing he couldn't figure out was why most of their lessons were related to healing but they hadn't had any lessons with Madame Pomfrey yet.
"Oh Harry, that's so obvious" Hermione exclaimed when he mentioned this to her. Everything was obvious to Hermione.
"Harry, we're not advanced enough for lessons with her yet. We still have much more to learn."
He hated to admit it but after hearing Hermione's reasoning, it did seem kind of obvious.
Professor McGonagall had cancelled their usual Friday independent study lessons (Harry correctly surmised she didn't was to risk any injuries on the day before their first game). However, this period was being filled by a practical charms exam. The students already knew what it was but that didn't make it any easier to study for. They were going to have to charm a stretcher to carry someone from one end of the room to the other. Although most of the class could get a little distance before the stretchers grew tired and fell to the ground, Neville's stretcher had the unfortunate habit of trying to "stand up" which would launch its occupant several feet in the air.
Neville would never find out that Professor McGonagall had told Harry to ensure that no one on the team was to partner Neville for this particular test.
When he awoke on Friday morning, Harry realized that the difficult charms test would be the highlight of his day. The first part of that day would be double potions with the Slytherins.
On this particular day Snape was making them brew a clumsiness potion.
Harry and Ron were furious. They knew Snape was only doing this because of their quidditch game tomorrow. They knew Snape was hoping that one or more members of the Gryffindor team would spill some on themselves and hurt their chances of winning tomorrow. All term long they had been working on healing potions and today, all of a sudden, Snape decided to make them brew a clumsiness potion --- not a coincidence. None of them trusted themselves enough to speak lest they give the slimy git an excuse to take fifty points from Gryffindor. If that wasn't bad enough, they could hear Malfoy and his daft duo (as Ron and Harry had taken to calling them) sniggering all morning.
Harry motioned to Ron, Dean and Seamus to put on their dragon-hide gloves. He also motioned for them to give Neville a wide berth. Hermione got the hint and decided to share the table with Neville. Not only was she not on the team but maybe she could stop him from doing anything too terribly wrong to his potion.
Harry doubted that escaping potions class unharmed was what his godfather had in mind when he told Harry to keep a close eye on things, but it should have been. The first hour of the lesson had barely passed and already Snape had done everything short of adding wrong ingredients to Neville's potion to mess him up.
Snape had yelled at Neville while he was measuring ingredients, he had insulted him while he was dicing roots, and he had "accidentally" bumped Neville while he was stirring his potion.
Harry had to admire Hermione's composure. She had not only been able to remain calm but she had also saved Neville's potion more than once. However, he had to admit that he wasn't really surprised when it became too much even for Hermione. As had happened so many times in the past, Neville's potion exploded. Students ran for their usual hiding places. Hermione and Neville never had a chance, they were covered with the concoction. Harry quickly conjured a shield around himself. Dean, Seamus and Ron all ducked under a table, but not quickly enough.
"AAACCCKKK!" Ron screamed as some got on his face. The potion didn't hurt in any way but Ron knew that it couldn't be a good thing to be on the receiving end of something Neville brewed.
The mess took so long to clean up that the bell rang before Snape had a chance to test anyone's potion. As the students filed out of the classroom, the Gryffindors were all glaring at the smiling Snape.
The students from the potions class were all getting nervous during lunch. It had already been twenty minutes since some of them had Neville's potion douse them. No one had noticed any effects yet and the fear of the unknown was starting to set in.
The look on Professor McGonagall's face coupled with the fact that she was running to the Gryffindor table, led Harry to surmise that she heard what happened in their last class.
"Potter, did you get any on you?" she asked hurriedly.
"No --- but Ron did --- uh --- how did you find out?"
"Professor Snape was still smiling when he reached the staff table. We knew something was wrong and he finally told us." Harry looked over to the staff table and noticed Snape still smiling --- it wasn't very becoming on him.
"Potter, you send Weasley to my office at once if you notice any side effects."
He nodded and glanced towards a scared Neville who seemed to be trying to pretend he was somewhere else. Neville often messed up and had occasionally in the past felt Professor McGonagall's wrath.
It wasn't until the Gryffindors were about to begin their charms exam that the full effects of Neville's potion became known to everyone who was present.
A/N - Please R/R - share your thoughts.