Silver Serpent Box
As Harry walked down the corridor and the spiral staircase that lead down to the dungeons he truly did not know what to expect. Would Snape change the way he treated Harry? Would Snape be in his right mind to even remember Harry? Would he ever find out exactly what happened after he left Dumbledore's room that night when he found Snape with Mr. Malfoy? These different thoughts and possibilities continued to race through his head as he finally reached dungeons. He entered the room and to his great disbelief, no one was there. Harry stood perplexed for a moment, trying to decide what he should do and began to walk slowly down the isle of the rows of tables. He looked up to see a shiny Green box across the room on Snape's desk that caught his eye. Harry slowly strode over to it, lead by his curiosity. He gingerly untwisted the silver, serpent latch and opened the box. It was entirely open for about two seconds giving Harry the chance to see a fancy glass vile with a clear liquid inside and what appeared to be a note lying loose on the other side of the box when the lid was slammed down by none other then Professor Snape, missing his fingers by a quarter of a second.
"Well, well, well," Snape sneered at Harry. "Thought that after you saved my life you'd take a shot at destroying it, eh?" Harry narrowed his eyebrows and his mouth opened.
"Sorry, I was just - "
"What the bloody hell were you doing in here, anyway, Potter?" Snape remarked furiously, refusing to take his gaze off Harry for one second. Harry took a deep breath.
"Well, you see I have this class. It's called potions, have you heard of it? Well, anyway, it takes place this period in this room and well… I don't know… I just thought maybe I'd show up and see what was going on." Harry's anger was starting to boil over. How could Snape still treat him this way after saving his life? What a prick! What more could he possibly want?
Snape glared more heatedly then before. He seemed to grow about two feet since the beginning of their little dispute. "Take a moment to observe the blackboard, Potter, and next time you decide to be an imprudent, thoughtless, idiot, don't let it lead you to my personal belongings that are none of your concern." Harry looked up to the black board in the back of the room and to his dismay, right on the board in clear white chalk read, "Go To The Back Room For Class Today -" with an arrow pointing towards the door on the far right side of the room. Harry looked back up at Snape and muttered,
"Sorry," in a tone that delivered a message completely opposite that which he said. And with one last glare at one another Harry stormed into the back room and sat down hard on a stool next to Ron that they had been saving for him. This room was very small compared to the usual classroom. There were shelves, cabinets, and bookcases against walls all around the room filled with different books, potions and jars of all sorts of different disgusting ingredients. This room seemed almost humid where the other was cold and damp and the stools they sat on in here were smaller and appeared to be rotting.
Snape came in just a second after Harry and went to the front of the class.
"I'm not in the mood to be toyed with today so I highly suggest you all pay attention," he hissed as he flung a strand of greasy black hair away from his face. His eyes rolled around the room and his crooked long nose turned up when his eyes fell on Harry. The class was silent. Harry glanced around the room and saw that everyone was so tightly crammed into the spots at the tables that their shoulders were almost all touching. "We're in here today because I have some work to do in the other room so here are your instructions." Snape waved his wand at the small blackboard that covered almost an entire wall of the room. Directions on how to make a Gargoyle Potion covered it. "Here's all the things you'll need," Snape pointed at the pile of supplies and ingredients stacked to one corner the desk he was standing behind. He turned to exit but lingered in the doorway for a moment and turned his head back around and said treacherously, "If any one of you tries anything, and I mean anything, you'll suffer detention down here every after school, morning and evening for the rest of the year." Snape stormed out of the room and the class was silent for a few more moments until a few students were brave enough to cautiously go to the front of the class to retrieve their ingredients. It was going to be a long day.
Hermione sighed and stormed up to the front to retrieve their supplies and Ron glanced at Harry questioningly, and Harry looked down at his hands that were weaved together and resting on the table. After a moment Ron muttered,
"What did you do, mate? To get him so angry I mean." Harry looked sideways at Ron and then he turned all the way to him.
"That's just it, I don't know." Harry sighed and ran his hands through his long black hair. Well, he supposed he did know but was that really it? Was Snape going to treat Harry just the same as he always did after he saved his life? Even if he did open a box on his desk, does that really change what he did? Hermione walked back with a tray of different colorful, slimy, items and a few different measuring spoons and a sheet of paper with the directions on it, which she had copied magically while she was getting the things they needed.
"Well that certainly was interesting wasn't it?" Hermione said under her breath to her two best friends as she rummages through the large tray looking for something. "Why were you late Harry?"
"I – I was talking to Lupin and then when I came in nobody was there and I didn't see the note on the board," Harry muttered.
"How did you not see the note on the board?" Hermione asked.
"I was a bit distracted by the green box with silver snake latches sitting right on top of his desk."
"What green box?" Ron asked. Harry lowered his voice to a whisper.
"There was a green Slytherin box sitting on his desk and I went over and undid the silver serpentlatches and lifted the lid and had a moment to see a vile of clear liquid and a small note when it was snapped shut by Snape. I have a strange feeling that was part of the thing that Mr. Malfoy wanted from him when he was threatening Snape in the Dark Forest," Harry said sitting back in his chair and trying to think about something other then that night or anything else having to do with Lord Voldermort.
"Let's talk about this later," Hermione whispered as if she had read Harry's mind instantly. "I think those Slytherins over there might be able to hear us," Hermione said nodding at a few dark haired slytherin girls glancing in their direction.
"So what does this potion do, anyway?" Harry asked
"It allows any human who drinks it turn into a gargoyle any time they want for a period of thirty minutes," Hermione said excitedly as Ron rolled his eyes. It was going to be a long day.
"Harry could you hand me that jar of cement and Ron could you measure meone cupof chopped rotten celery?" Hermione stired the cauldron with her right hand as she held the directions in her left. Harry was slumped down over the table resting his head on his arms. He was feeling extremely tired and his mind kept wandering onto things other then potions, for example: Sirius, Ginny, Hogsmeade, Snape, The Sickness of Loss...
"Harry?" Ron said.
"What?" Harry mumbled.
"You were asleep," Ron said. "At least I think you were. Come on wake up, we're almost done. Only a half an hour left," Ron said nudging Harry. How did that happen? Harry wondered.
"We only have to add the bat tongues and the five Polish pebbles and then we're done," Hermione said matter-of-factly.
Finally after a long half hour of stiring and concocting a grayish colored potion (the exact color it was mean to be) they poured it into a large vile and turned it in to Professor Snape. As they were exiting through the new smaller room's door into the usual dungeon so they could head up to the commonroom and relax before supper, Harry spotted the note that was before inside the green box lying on the stone ground in front of Snape's desk. It must have blown out of the box when Snape snapped it shut or perhaps it was a completely different note all together. He'd have to see. Harry looked up to see that Hermione and Ron were walking way ahead of him and hadn't yet noticed that he was gone. Harry rushed out the door to catch up. They would have toread this together.
