Chapter IV
TWO WEEKS LATER
Snape stood from his desk and began to circle the room, checking his sixth years' potions with an experienced eye. It was a class of Gryffindors and Slytherins. Usually his most disruptive class combination.
"Well done, Mr. Malfoy," Draco smirked up at him, Snape answered with only a vague nod of approval. A sudden movement on the other side of the room caught his eye as Harry Potter stood and took the rest of the rosemary stems back to the supplys on his desk. Pausing to gather a bit of shredded minks' tongue as well.
A hand went up in the back of the classroom, a Slytherin girl. He sighed before walking back to her and taking his eyes off of the boy-who-lived.
Harry, meanwhile, slid into his seat beside Ron and frowned at the bubbling cauldron in which their nasty greenish-yellow potion was boiling. The red-headed wizard quietly reached for the minks' tongue that Harry had gotten, adding it to the bizarre looking mix carefully. Hermione looked over and shook her head with a sigh. Neville was the only one to break the silence with a slight yelp when Professor Snape leaned over to check his and Hermione's light blue potion.
"Well, it seems Ms. Granger that you have kept Longbottom from blotching up another potion," he said nastily, sneering down at the trembling teen boy. He then rasied an eyebrow when he spotted the noxious mess that Harry was stirring. "And what pray tell is this disgusting excuse for a potion, Mr. Potter?"
Harry sighed not responding. Ron sat quietly fuming at their potion being singled out when just moments ago a couple of Slytherins in the back of the classroom had set their potion on fire.
"No answer, Mr. Potter? Mr. Weasley, do you know want you two did wrong?"
Ron flushed and shook his head as Snape again fixed a sneer on his face. Harry gazed down at his shoes, letting the potion intructions go through his head for the thousandth time. He knew exactly where he and Ron had messed up.
"I thought not. How sad that you both lack the intelligence to realize that niether of you has any possiblity of becoming Aurors. I mourn for the future of our world if either of you gain any kind of influence. And I can only wonder why you signed up for advanced potions at all."
Ron was now shaking with his anger and Harry felt the burning rage within him flood forth, overpowering his subconscious fear. The dark-haired boy leapt to his feet, trembling. Snape took a step back in surprise, but managed to keep his face twisted in its mask of hatred and contempt.
"SHUT UP! JUST BE QUIET YOU GREASY OLD GIT! I KNOW WHAT WENT WRONG! I DID IT! I PUT IN TWICE AS MANY BEETLE WINGS THAN WHAT THE POTION CALLED FOR! RON DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!" Harry yelled suddenly, snatching up a pinch of grounded centipede legs as he screamed at his professor. He tossed it into the cauldron, stirred it twice clockwise and thrust it into Snape's arms without warning. "THERE! HAPPY? YOU VICIOUS PRAT!"
Harry turned to stalk off out of the class room. Everyone staring after him in shock as Snape set the warm cauldron down with a quick glance down at the contents. Hermione touched Ron's shoulder and lifted an eyebrow at her boyfriend. The red-haired wizard only shrugged in confusion, still not daring to break the strained silence of the classroom.
"Malfoy, Granger, watch the class momentarily," Snape called as he hurriedly left to search for Harry, his robes billowing behind him as he went.
"Well, it seems that Potter has a screw or two loose, doesn't he?" Malfoy tittered uncomfortably. Hermionie stepped to Ron's and Harry's abandoned cauldron to look into it. She gasped audibly.
"What is it Hermione?" Neville asked behind her. The classmates all looked over at the bushy haired brunette, she picked up the forgotten potion and turned to them.
"I don't get it. . . I've never read anything about it. . . I mean I've read all of the textbooks already. . . None of them said anything. . . " Ron and Neville exchanged a look and Draco scoffed at the muttering girl, but still leaned forward in curiosity.
"What in Merlin's name are you talking about 'Mione?" Ron stepped closer and looked down at the potion.
"He fixed it. The potion's alright again. But he used grounded centipede legs," Hermione continued to mutter. Draco rolled his eyes, took a step forward, and grabbed the wooden ladle. The sixth years crowded forward as Draco lifted the ladle and poured the clear, light blue liquid back into the cauldron.
"Bloody Hell!" Draco glared down at the potion, "Professor Snape never said anything about centipede legs counteracting beetle wings. Where in Merlin's name did Potter learn that?"
No one answered as they began to murmur about what would come to be the talk of the school for many days to come. The day when Potter had bested the top potion students in the school.
OMOMO
Snape hurried down the dungeon halls with sharp strides, hoping to head Harry off before he left the dungeons. The boy had caught him off guard with his sudden outburst and suddenly revealed potions' knowledge. And it angered him so to know that the famous boy-who-lived had showed him up in his own class.
"That bloody little show boating prat," Snape growled under his breath as he took another left and waited. Not even two moments later, Harry slowly walked by his hiding place with a worried look on his face. Snape stepped out and grabbed the back of Harry's robe. With a abrupt jerk, the boy came back to hit the wall of a small alcove with wide eyes.
"Aagg-" Snape covered the teenage boy's mouth with another growl. Green eyes widened in fright as they looked up at Snape, the boy's body going limp. The professor felt the boy stop fighting him and let him go. Harry's knees buckled and he slid down the wall.
"I'll be taking twenty points for that little display of yours and you'll be doing three detentions. Got that Potter?" Snape said quietly, his voice silk over steel as he narrowed his eyes at the limp boy. Harry didn't respond as tears streamed down his face, intent on gazing down at the cracks in the floor. "I am talking to you, Mr. Potter. Have you got that?"
Harry nodded slowly. Not looking up as Snape sneered, drew away, and swept back in the firection of his classroom. Snape ignored the fact that the boy-who-lived didn't make a move to get up. He just sat that staring into space, tears staining his face in the dimly lit hallway.
TBC. . .
