Disclaimer: Don't own it. –sigh–
Chapter Four:Morning andPotions
When Harry woke up the next morning, it took him a moment to remember where he was. When he did, he smiled happily. He was at Hogwarts and his dad wasn't mad that he wasn't in Slytherin! Harry pulled back the hangings on his bed and grinned at his dorm-mates.
"Good morning!" he said cheerfully.
"There's nothing good about it," one of the other boys grumbled. None of the others seemed awake enough to comment.
Harry shook his head. All of them seemed to be just like his dad was in the morning: cranky and only half-awake, if that. Personally, Harry had never quite seen the point in being grumpy. You missed the best part of the day.
Dressing quickly, he made his way to the Common Room. The two prefects waiting there nodded at him.
"Hullo," the girl said. "I'm Andrea Wright. Didn't get a chance to meet you last night."
"Harry Potter," he replied, sitting down. "I would've followed you last night, but Professor Sprout told me that the Headmaster wanted to talk to me."
"Sokay," she said. "You know the password though, right?"
"No, Andrea, he walked right through the statue without it," the other Prefect replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, be quiet, John," she snapped. "I wasn't talking to you."
"Does it look like I care?" John replied, raising one eyebrow.
Andrea scowled at him, but any reply she was planning died on her lips as the other first year boys entered the room.
John stood up. "C'mon," he said, grinning at the first years, "Let's head up to breakfast."
"I'll wait," Harry said quietly, glancing towards the girls dormitories.
"Funny," John said, smirking. "That's what the Greengrass girl said last night when we told her she should go up to her dormitory. Anything between you two?"
Harry didn't rise to the bait. "Just friends," he said calmly, steadily meeting the older boy's eyes. "We met on the train yesterday."
John shrugged. "If you say so." With that, he turned and headed out of the Common Room, all the first year boys except for Harry following behind him.
Andrea rolled her eyes at his back. "Don't mind him," she told Harry. "He's annoying and sarcastic, but," she gave a long-suffering sigh, "You get used to him."
He laughed. That was the same way Remus tended to describe Severus.
She smiled wryly at him. "You know someone else like that?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Good morning!" The last was directed at the first year girls emerging from their dorm.
"Morning," one them said, nodding at him.
"Hey Harry," Daph said.
Andrea jumped up. "Breakfast!" she said cheerfully, herding the girls and Harry towards the exit.
Harry fell in next to Daphne and they followed Andrea up to the Great Hall. Harry tried to keep track of the twists and turns, but soon gave up. It was just too confusing. Finally they reached their destination. Professor Sprout was moving up and down the Hufflepuff table passing out schedules.
When she saw Andrea and the first years, the short professor smiled at them as she hurried over. She handed Andrea a slip of parchment and the prefect murmured her thanks and scanned the sheet, grinning happily about something.
"Your schedules are with your year-mates," Professor Sprout told the first years kindly. She gestured vaguely towards where the other first years were sitting and then left.
Andrea glanced at them. "You go sit down. I have to talk with someone." She walked off towards the Gryffindor table.
Harry and the girls obeyed and soon found themselves staring at their schedules, trying to decide whether or not they should just give up the whole idea of becoming wizards. John wasn't really helping much.
I'd hate to be you," he was saying. "Professor Snape first thing on the first day of your first year?" He shook his head. "You must be cursed or something. He's awful. I don't know why Dumbledore lets him stay. He always favors the Slytherins, and he hates all the rest of the students."
Harry stiffened and he had to bite his lip to keep from saying anything. His dad had informed him that he was not a very popular teacher, but Harry still had trouble not leaping to defend his dad.
Fortunately for Harry (and John), one of the older students spoke up. "He's not that bad," the girl said. "You just don't like him because he said that you could get better marks by not showing up at all."
"And isn't that enough of a reason?" John demanded. "It's not like it's a crime to actually help your students, after all!"
"Are you still on about Professor Snape?" Andrea asked, dropping into the seat across from Harry. "Listen, John, he's a Potions Master and Dumbledore obviously trusts him. Besides, this is your last year with him."
That thought seemed to cheer John up, for some reason.
Half an hour later, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw first years were down in the dungeons, waiting for their first Potions lesson to begin. Most of the class sat as far to the back as they could, with the exception of Harry, Daph, Di, and a Ravenclaw boy.
Suddenly, the door at the back of the room slammed open and Professor Snape strode in. As soon as he was done taking roll, he glared around the room. "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began, using his quiet, mess-with-me-and-you-die voice. No one dared move. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the sense...I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
The last comment got the Ravenclaws hooked. All of them looked anxious to prove that they weren't dunderhead, as did a couple of Hufflepuffs. Severus glared around the room for a few seconds before spotting a student who looked slightly panicked.
"Finch-Fletchley!" he snapped. The boy jumped.
"Y-yes, sir?"
"What would you get if you added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Finch-Fletchley looked even more panicked. Mutely, he shook his head.
"Don't know?" Professor Snape sneered. "Pity." He looked at Diana. "Miss Greengrass! Can you enlighten Mr. Finch-Fletchley?"
"Draught of Living Death," she answered clearly.
He nodded curtly and spun to face a pink faced girl. "Miss Abbot! Where would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?"
"Stomach of...of...of a goat?" she asked, her voice squeaking a bit.
"Give me an answer, Miss Abbot. Don't ask another question back at me."
"Stomach of a goat," she said with a bit more force.
"Correct. Boot!" he glared at the Ravenclaw boy at Harry's table. "What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
"There is no difference, sir. They are the same plant, which is also known as aconite."
The answer surprised a raised eyebrow out of the Potions Professor. "Also correct. One point to Ravenclaw for the complete answer."
The boy positively beamed. All of the other Ravenclaws also looked fairly happy: they had earned a point for their House!
Professor Snape ignored their smiles. "Pair up," he snapped. "Let us hope that all of you can brew a potion as easily as your classmates spout off theory."
It took very little time for the first years to pair up, and as soon as they did, Snape tapped the board and instructions for a potion to cure boils appeared there. He glared around the room. "Well?" he demanded. "Get your ingredients," a flick of his wand opened the supply cabinet, "and get started!"
A/N: I know, I know: I said Id have this out ages ago! Blame Murphy's law, since it decided to mess up my life. Grrr...
I think I had a bit of an out of character Snape near the ending, but I figured that he probably doesn't hate Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, he just doesn't like them as much as his Slytherins. What do you guys think?
Anyway, I will try to update more quickly next time, but if I can't, please don't hate me!
Review Replies:
biblios: Ron won't be a big character, sorry. I'll try to give you a couple of glimpses of him, though! Not sure about Draco yet, so I guess you'll just have to wait and see! There really isn't any Harry/Sev interaction here, but I promise there will be some next chapter!
Danu3: Well, it's not really, really soon, but it is finally up! Do I get some points for that? By the way, I hope you do a sequel to My Daddy. I would love to read it.
athenakitty: Yes, Harry will enjoy himself as much as he can (the whole being-wanted-by-a-Dark-Lord kills some of the enjoyment). He will have some fun-otherwise I'd get bored trying writing this! Well, he'll be fairly close to Blaise, Neville, Hermione, Daph, and Di, but if I create a "Trio" out of that group, Blaise will probably be his "Ron," and Daph will be a bit like canon-Harry's "Hermione," even though my Harry already has Hermione. Did that make any sense at all?
lillinfields: Sev? Sweet? Only if he really, really, really wants to! But he does care about Harry. There will be some Harry/Sev next chapter.
Anne: Here ya go!
Thank you all for reviewing!
