a/n Okay, I know I promised a long chapter, but it was too long, so I split it up into 2 chapters. This is ch 30. Chapter 31 will be awakening reflections and will be up by/on Sunday….

Sorry, no Snape reaction yet, but there is some Snape/Harry interaction.

Italics-Hermione writing

Bold-Harry writing

Chapter 30 problems in potions

"Hurry up, Harry. We don't want to be late."

"No," Harry replied "I don't want to go at all."

"Come on. I highly doubt that Professor Snape is going to tell everyone what you talked about the other night."

"Probably not, but you know he's going to do something. He always takes his anger out on me."

"Not always."

"Fine. Me or Neville, but guess what? Neville won't be there today, so that leaves me."

"If you don't show up he'll just be angrier tonight in detention and you still have to talk with him. Now come on and hurry up, we definitely can't be late." Hermione said as started to leave the great hall to head towards the potion lab.

Harry quickly caught up with her and the two walked silently to class.

"Happy now? We're not late?" Harry said as they sat down.

Hermione ignored Harry's comment and instead asked, "Have you heard from Remus yet? How is Ron?"

"Last I knew, not awake yet. If I'm lucky, he'll wake up during this class and I can leave."

"Harry, I don't think that Ron waking up will be considered a legitimate reason for you to leave class. Unless you want to share with Professor Dumbledore why Ron went into shock."

"Quiet down and get to work." Snape said as he entered the classroom, closing the door behind him. When no one moved, he continued, "Well? If you did your homework you should know what potion we are working on. Get to work." Snape said as he sat down at his desk to grade papers.

As Hermione went to get her ingredients, Harry looked at Hermione's open book and opened his to the same page. He quickly retrieved the necessary ingredients and returned to his seat.

"Harry," Hermione whispered.

"Hermione!" Harry hissed in reply, "Are you trying to get me into trouble? Snape doesn't need an excuse to deduct more points. Can't this wait?"

Hermione looked at Harry and then at the potion master sitting quietly at his desk. Even whispering, the professor was sure to hear them. Quickly she spelled some parchment and placed one sheet in front of Harry before beginning to write on the sheet in front of her.

Harry looked at Hermione in confusion before looking down at the blank piece of paper. Only it was no longer blank. While he was looking at Hermione, words had appeared.

You might want to keep an eye on Malfoy today

Harry read the parchment then looked back at Hermione. As he opened his mouth to reply, Hermione tapped her paper, indicating that he should write it down.

Why?

When I went up to get my ingredients, I heard him complaining to Zabini about how Professor Snape seemed to be in a good mood, today.

Good?

Well, he hadn't yelled at you yet. Malfoy said he wasn't going to let that interfere in his plans.

Plans? What plans?

Don't you remember, honestly, Harry.

Harry snorted, only Hermione can sound condescending in writing.

When Professor Snape kept on assigning you tasks and deducting points, he told Nott that he was going to try to sabotage your potion. To see how much Professor Snape hated you, and to see if he meant what he said that first day.

So, what could he try?

Almost anything, depending at what stage he does it at. My guess is that he will try something at the end of class.

Why at the end?

Because that way, even if you aren't injured, you won't have enough time to start over. You'll end up with a zero for the day and based on the professor's threats, that could mean your expulsion from this class.

I'm more concerned about the injured part. So, what can I do to prevent something from happening.

Not much.

Hermione! That's not much help.

Maybe not, but it's the truth. Actually, this is the perfect potion to try something on. If you try to erect a shield around the potion or desk, then it would interfere with the potion itself. The best thing to do is to keep an eye on him and try to prevent anything from entering the cauldron.

Harry groaned. Great, as if Snape wasn't mad at him as it was, soon his cauldron could explode. That would be a sure fire way to get expelled.

Well, you had better get to work or else it won't matter what Malfoy does, you'll fail anyways. Besides, we don't want Professor Snape to notice that we haven't gotten far on this potion.

Harry nodded and looked at Snape, expecting to be met with a glare. Fortunately, he was still grading papers and wasn't paying much attention to his class. Of course, for Harry, that was also unfortunate, since it probably meant that he wouldn't notice if Malfoy did sabotage his potion.

Hermione grabbed both pieces of parchment and placed them in her book before preparing her ingredients.

Harry followed Hermione's example and tried to prepare his ingredients the best he could while keeping an eye on Malfoy.

Class was almost over when Harry caught a movement in the corner of his eye, something he definitely would have missed if he had been wearing his glasses. He elbowed Hermione and pointed to the item headed in her direction. Her face fell as she caught sight of the Unidentified Flying Object heading towards her cauldron.

Hermione's hands were filled with glass vials. The only way she would be able to keep the UFO from her cauldron would be if she dropped those vials. Either scenario would spell disaster, not to mention detention or a loss of points for Hermione. Luckily, Harry wasn't the youngest seeker in a century for nothing. As soon as he noticed that Hermione wasn't going to be able to prevent the incoming disaster, he climbed up on his stool and reached over to snatch the item from the air seconds before it hit her cauldron.

As his bare hand connected with the item, Harry bit his tongue to keep from screaming. From the corner of his eye, he saw Malfoy frown before his trademark smirk was on his face once more, this time, directed towards Harry as he looked at Harry's hand. Harry followed Malfoy's eye and noticed his hand turning red.

"Ahhh," Harry moaned as his hand started to throb.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked, relieved that disaster had been adverted.

Harry shook his head no and waved his hand in front of Hermione.

"Oh, Harry! You need to go see Madam Pomphrey."

"I will, as soon as class ends. Snape hasn't noticed yet and I don't want to draw attention to myself." Harry whispered.

"But,"

"No, after class, there's ony a few minutes left, anyways."

"Fine. But as soon as the bell rings, you head to the infirmary. I'll clean up and grab your stuff."

Harry nodded as he continued to work on his potion, trying to keep his right hand out of Snape's sight.

"Professor! Professor!" Malfoy cried.

"Yes, Mr. Malfoy?" Snape said as he looked up.

"I think Potter injured his hand."

Harry and Hermione glared at Malfoy as Snape turned in their direction.

"Is this true Mr. Potter?"

"Kind of, sir."

"Kind of? It was a yes or no question, Mr. Potter. Which is it? Yes or no?"

"Um, yes?"

Snape shook his head, Potter couldn't even answer a simple yes or no question. "What happened?"

"I'm not really sure." Harry said.

"How can you not know what happened? I'm assuming that your hand was with you the entire time. Was it cut? or Did you spill something on it?" Harry shook his head as he stared at his professor. Snape sighed. "Let me see your hand."

Harry brought his hand out from under the desk. His hand was red and puffy. The fingers were curled into the same position from when he caught the UFO.

"Class dismissed." Snape said as he moved closer to look at Harry's hand. "Open your hand, Potter."

Harry tried to unclench his fingers, wincing at the pain the movement caused. "I can't."

"I won't know how to treat this if I don't know what caused it. Now tell me what happened."

Harry looked at Hermione who stayed with him after Snape dismissed the class. "I don't know. I saw something heading towards Hermione's cauldron and grabbed it before it made it in."

"And you have no idea what this item was?"

"No. sir."

"You stupid boy. The item probably did more damage to your hand than it would've to the potion that was being made. Not to mention that the item could've been charmed as an illegal portkey."

Harry paled as he remember the first time he came in contact with an illegal portkey. "Oh, Merlin, I didn't even think of that."

"Of course you didn't. I'm beginning to believe that you never think. You just speak and act foolishly, without regards for the consequences."

Harry sat there silently fuming. What else was he suppose to do? He couldn't just let the UFO enter the cauldron. From what he suspected of the objects origin he had no doubt that it would've caused a massive explosion.

"What you should have done is used your wand and levitate the object out of the path of the cauldron. At least you were smart enough not to put up any shields."

"Professor," Hermione interrupted, "Can you help heal his hand?"

"Not without knowing what caused this reaction. Any potions I used could interact with this object, including pain potions." Snape paused as he looked closer at Harry's hand. "He'll have to open his hand first so that I can identify the object." At his words, Snape started to move Harry's fingers.

"Ouch! That hurt." Harry complained.

"Stop acting like a child. You got yourself into this mess in the first place. Miss Granger, kindly distract boy-wonder over here while I try to release this object."

Hermione moved to the other side of the potion master and turned Harry's head in her direction. "It's easier if you don't look at what he's doing," she said. "My dad used to have my mom distract me while he got splinters out of my hand." Hermione continued to tell Harry stories from her childhood. Soon Harry was laughing through the tears as he heard some of the tails from her childhood.

Meanwhile, Snape continued to reposition Harry's fingers and thumb to retract the item in his palm. Once his palm was opened, Snape levitated the item out of Harry's palm and onto the workbench.

"Hmm," he said as he looked at the UFO. "Where did you say this item came from?"

"I didn't." Harry snapped. "I just saw it flying through the air, heading towards her cauldron."

"And from which direction did it come?"

Harry looked at Hermione before replying, "I don't know. I didn't notice it until it was almost right above her cauldron."

Snape glared at Harry. "Unless it was hovering over her cauldron for a few minutes, you had to notice the general direction."

"Sorry, sir, I wasn't really paying attention."

"Why am I not surprised to hear that, Mr. Potter? Well, Miss Granger, did you happen to notice where this item came from?"

Hermione looked at Harry before answering. She wasn't sure why he was trying to protect Malfoy, but if he wasn't going to tell, neither would she. "No, sir."

"Hmm." Snape said as he looked at the two of them. "I cannot say that I believe you, but I will let the matter drop for now, since we need to tend to Mr. Potter's hand."

"Sir," Hermione asked, "What was it?"

"A penguino pebble."

At Hermione's gasp, Snape answered "Indeed."

"What is that?" Harry asked puzzled.

"Probably the only item that could drastically interfere with this potion, if the potion is prepared correctly. It wouldn't have any effect on the color of the potion, and is virtually untraceable once added. But once it is out of the cauldron and poured into glass vials, it would cause the glass vial to explode."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Harry said.

"Not until that explosion set off a series of other explosions in the classroom. Once the penguino pebble mixes with this potion and glass and is exposed to air, it becomes airborne, causing every class item it comes into contact with to explode."

"So, we would have a big mess to clean up. Still doesn't sound that bad."

"Think, Potter, think. Every class item in this room would explode. Not only would the various ingredients and potion held in glass vials explode and mix, causing unheard of disaster, but eyeglasses would also explode, quite possible leaving slivers of glass in someone's eyes."

"Oh," Harry said as he paled, his hands instinctively reaching up to his glasses as he imagined what could've happened, before remembering that he no longer wore glasses. Of course, that wasn't true for his other classmates that needed classes. "So, maybe it was lucky that I grabbed the pebble before it hit the cauldron?"

"Just wonderful, Mr. Potter," Snape replied sarcastically. "If you think the possibility of losing your hand and quite possibly your whole arm is lucky?"

"What?" Harry screeched as he looked over at his hand.

"The penguino pebble has a different effect when it comes into contact with human skin. If you had a drop of this potion on your hand or even trace of any lotions or liquids, it is quite possible that your hand wouldn't have turned red and puffy, but would have fallen off, much like the muggle disease of leprosy."

"But that won't happen right? I mean, my hand is okay, isn't it?"

"After treatment, your hand will be fine, Mr. Potter. Now I suggest that you head up to the infirmary and give this to Madam Pomphrey. Miss Granger, you should head towards class now."

"Yes, sir." Hermione said as she grabbed grabbed her and Harry's books in her arm and gently pushed Harry towards the door.

Once outside the classroom, she said, "Harry, why didn't you tell him that Malfoy threw the pebble?"

"He probably wouldn't have believed me. He would just think that I was trying to get Malfoy into trouble. Besides, even if he did believe me, he wouldn't punish a Slytherin. Especially not Malfoy."

"He might have believed you. Penguino pebbles are very rare and expensive. Malfoy is probably one of the few students in school who could afford one. Besides Harry, he's your f-"

"Shh! Besides, we don't know that for sure, Hermione."

Hermione was silent the rest of the journey, pushing Harry towards the infirmary before entering her next class a half hour late.

End Chapter 30

Upcoming: Chapter 31 awakening reflections

Chapter 32 playing along

12/31/04 Happy New Year!!!

ILLEGAL PORTKEYS: first time tri-wizard tournament, I'm guessing the 2nd time was when AD used it to take them to GP when AW was bitten & the last time when AD used one to bring HP to his office the night of the MOM incident.