Disclaimer: I own little to nothing of what it is named/referred to and am making even less from it.
Chapter 3.
Ron woke up abruptly, and this was in and of itself enough to suggest something was different.
"I want ALL of you in my classroom in the next five minutes, or the Founders help you I will come up there and DRAG your ignorant self-deluded pin-heads out of there myself!" The familiar drawl set him glancing down the room. Having found, much to his relief, that Snape was not actually standing in the doorway, he glanced towards his roommate's beds. He could see that they were also sitting upright and rubbing the sleep out of their eyes.
"Get the feeling he found out about Malfoy's exploits yesterday?" Seamus asked.
"Well, considering the likelihood of us getting the blame in any case, I really don't think we should hang about up here." Dean pointed out as he leapt out of bed and started pulling clothes on.
This seemed to kick-start the rest of them and in less than 60 seconds they were all decent enough to barrel down stairs and into the common room. Hermione was already there, trying to tie back her hair, and the others weren't far behind. It dawned on him then that the charm the Potion's master had used must have been specific to the Seventh year dorms.
"I knew he wasn't going to be happy." Hermione said as they headed out the portrait hole and towards the dungeons. Ron glanced at his watch as they rounded the corner and realised that although they were going to get there on time, that it was barely ten past five in the morning.
"Couldn't he have waited till first period?" He moaned to Harry as they all slid silently into their assigned seats. Apparently not, as most of the Slytherins were already there, and their Head of House was not long in appearing. The sweeping black figure stormed into the room and slammed the heavy door behind him and waited till the sound had dissipated through the room.
"I have never been particularly convinced that there is in fact any credible intelligence present in this group of students, or any other for that matter. However I am willing to give you all the benefit of the doubt for the time being." Ron glanced at Harry and then Hermione trying to see if they were following what was going on as he certainly wasn't.
"In a moment I am going to install magically secure exam conditions under which you will all write a clear and as detailed as your sieve-like-minds can report of what went on yesterday afternoon in this classroom." Oh. He was going to actually ask them what happened before blaming the Gryffindors anyway; that was unusually nice of him. "I suggest that you tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth…or so help you whatever deity you chose to believe in, to coin a phrase, I will ensure that you not only fail to graduate but that your children and their children after them do the same."
The threat might have been ridiculous coming from anybody else, but for some reason he had little doubt that Snape could and would ensure just that. Needless to say, the half hour after the potions master had doled out quills, ink and parchment was spent in silence.
Ron was certain that at one stage he would have taken this opportunity to right the most biased essay of his life, but now he knew that as he had nothing to hide, his best bet was to be honest.
We, Harry, Hermione, Neville and myself all arrived at the same time as we had just had transfigurations together. When we lined up outside the classroom the door was already open and Professor McGonagall was setting up for your class, or at least that's what I assumed from what I could hear. I noted that she had arrived before us even when we were out of her classroom before she had been and we had a discussion, along with Padma and Dean about the school floo networks.
In any case, she called us in and explained that we would be working on a general cleaning solution that we would be needing after the next practical lesson you took. She didn't mention what it was that we would be making, but did suggest that it was going to be detrimental to the state of our caldrons.
We were working on our own and hadn't been at it long when Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle tried to slip back into the potions store. I only saw them because I had turned around to talk to Hermione and check what colour her basis was, but the Professor saw them and asked what it was that they were looking for. I think she suspected they were up to something but I can't be certain.
Anyway, she sent them out and they seemed to be getting back on with their work. Neville's caldron started to over-flow at that point (though I'm certain that it wasn't his fault) so we all got a little distracted. The next unusual thing I noticed, was that Malfoy had his hand in the air wanting to ask something. Professor McGonagall went to go speak to him and that's when his caldron – or at least the contents of it, exploded. It was a little odd in that all the liquid headed in one direction and that none of it hit Malfoy at all, but that could just have been luck I suppose.
Anyway, Professor McGonagall seemed more irritated at the mess and disruption to the class than anything else. She gave him detention and used 'scourgify' to clean herself and the mess up. The rest of the lesson was fairly subdued, nothing major happened apart from the reading and homework she handed out.
Ron wasn't entirely sure how far he was supposed to continue on after the class had been dismissed but as he couldn't remember seeing her at dinner or anytime after that there didn't seem to be any point in carrying on from there. So he placed his quill down, seeing that most of his classmates were doing the same.
Hermione was still scribbling away but that was hardly surprising, she had an irritatingly good mind for details. Snape didn't appear to really be concentrating on the class in front of him, he was far too caught up in the books and parchments he was surrounded by, searching almost frantically for some piece of information or other. It was this scene that genuinely started him thinking though.
If the potions master had been doing this simply in order to find out what had gone on in his class while he was away, he surely would have waited until they had arrived for their class first period. And why did he seem so…'concerned' didn't seem an emotion that he would regularly associate with Snape, but something seemed to be worrying him. Maybe the incident had had more repercussions than he had assumed. It had only been a basic cleaning solution after all…but this was Malfoy… and he had been trying to get into the supply cupboard earlier. If he had altered the potion then…well Ron didn't like to think what had happened to cause this rather unusual turn of events.
A/N: Again thanks to everyone who has reviewed and if you haven't SHAME ON YOU!
lol no really – please do review as I like to know what you're all thinking, it's the psychologist in me grin
Thanks again to M
xLx
