I don't own anything, so please don't sue.

I am so, so sorry for the delay! We've all been sick and Christmas kept coming closer… my sister flew over from Sweden… please don't be mad…

Snape's misery

Harry was royally tired of his fellow Gryffindor students. They had kept him awake all night, asking him questions about his Patronus. And they hadn't taken no for an answer. So Harry had been forced to stay awake until the rest of them had tired. And just when he'd managed to escape this mornings, gathering in the common room, he was ambushed by a group of student's from another house.

"Leave me the bloody hell alone!" he finally snapped at them. The group of Hufflepuff's scattered slowly. Harry hurried through the corridor and in through the doors to the library, nobody would think to look for him in here, he thought.

The library was just as deserted as he had hoped it to be. Grabbing a book on what looked to be sand, he walked over to a corner hidden by a bookshelf and sat down.

"Harry!" he was pulled out of the book, which had been about the sand contained inside time-turners, by Hermione rushing in, screaming his name so that all could hear. He quickly hid the book under his jumper and turned to face her.

"What." he asked her rudely. She furrowed her brow at his tone. "Really, Harry. Have you been hiding in here all morning?" she scolded him. Harry nodded, looking away from her face. "And you had better not drawn any attention to me being in here." he snapped, looking around the still empty library, wildly.

"Oh, really Harry. Stop being so silly." Hermione was rolling her eyes at his glare, sounding a little irritated. "Professor Snape wants to see you in McGonagall's office." Harry winced."What for? I haven't done anything." he said. "I don't know, Harry. But he wanted you there an hour ago." she pulled him out of his seat and he allowed her to drag him through the corridors, towards Professor McGonagall's office.

"Thank you, Miss Granger. You can leave now." Hermione gave Harry a last look before leaving him to his doom.

"What, is the meaning of this." Snape threw Harry's last potion's essay on the table in front of him. Harry picked it up and looked through it, he couldn't find anything wrong with it.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to miss spell the Latin word, for the Chinese water lily. I'll do better next time." Harry meet Snape's eye's, with a look of out most innocence. Snape growled and Professor McGonagall made herself known.

"Professor Snape didn't call you in here for a spelling error, he is curious as to your Potion work's increased standard." Harry eyed them suspiciously. "You think I've been cheating?" He finally asked in a low voice."I happen to have written this assignment all on my own. I had a lot of time in the Leaky Cauldron." Snape snorted at Harry's indignant choice of tone.

"Your father…" Harry stood up so quickly, that the chair he'd been sitting on fell to the floor with an echoing bang.

"Don't you dare bring my father into this! He's dead! And just because I had the luck of looking like him doesn't give you the right to assume that I am anything like him!" both Snape and Professor McGonagall sat with their mouth's open as Harry took a deep calming breath.

"For your information, I bought a new potion's book and it's been very useful. In addition, I actually find the subject rather interesting. If you could just give methe chance to actually brew something without sneering over my shoulder, you might finally see that." the silence was thick as Harry bent down and raised the chair from the floor and sat down on it again, waiting for a reply.

"Well, I've never…Mr Potter! That is not the way to speak to your professor!" Harry rolled his eye's much to McGonagall's horror.

"I'm sorry for taking a tone against you professor Snape. But my parents are a sensitive subject to me." He looked at his head of house, who nodded her approval.

"I will keep a close eye on you Potter." Harry inclined his head in Snape's direction, making the shallow faced man huff. Snape stood and left the room without another word. Harry sat seated in case McGonagall wanted to add anything.

"You're free to go Harry. Enjoy the rest of your weekend." Harry slowly stood and pushed his chair back in under the table. "Oh, and Harry. Well done on the game yesterday." Harry winced, could they not, just let the game rest in peace? He was seriously considering quitting the team, if they didn't stop hounding him about every game.

"Harry! Over here mate." Ron and Hermione came running down the corridor. "What did he want, the greasy git?" Ron earned himself a slap on the back of his head from Hermione." He's a professor, Ron."

"Oh, you know the usual. Accused me of cheating in potions." Hermione gasped in horror. "You would never. Would you?" she asked horrified. "Of course not!" Harry exclaimed insulted. "How can you say such a thing?" Hermione didn't look to ashamed.

"Well, the two of you do make up things for divination." she said in a dignified voice. "But that's beyond the point, mione." Ron said, as if it was obvious that divination required an imaginative mind. "Oh, never mind Ron." she snapped. "What happened then, Harry? Did you tell them that you haven't been cheating." Ron rolled his eyes. "Of course he told them that he isn't a cheat. Right mate?" Harry nodded absentmindly, a group of Ravenclaw's had spotted him.

"Harry. Harry, where did you…" they huddled around him, cutting of any escape routs, making him sneer dangerously. "Get los…" Hermione slapped him on his arm. "They're only first years." Harry grumbled. He couldn't care less, even if they where a group of naked seventh years girls.

"Look! The charm is called Expecto Patronum. You're Ravenclaw's, go look it up. Now I've had a lousy night and just came out after having an argument with Snape. If you're still here when I'm finished ranting, I'll show you some more spells." Harry looked at the group expectantly and amazingly enough, they left. He felt just like a deflated balloon.

"Thank you, Harry." Hermione said, looking approvingly at him. He sighed and motioned for the Great Hall. He really needed to fill up on his energy, if the mobbing in the corridors was going to continue. "What's that under your jumper Harry?" A sharp corner of the book, he'd accidentally smuggled out of the library, could be seen. "Oh, it's just a book." he said, knowing that Hermione would demand to see it.

"Ooh, look pancakes." Ron was already loading food on his plate as they walked over to an empty seat. Parvati who was seated a couple of seats away, looked disgusted, as Ron loaded an entire pancake into his mouth, and started chewing it with his mouth open. "You're disgusting Ron. Close your mouth." Harry sighed in relief. Hermione had temporarily forgotten about the book. He sniggered at Ron's look of confusion. He really was clueless sometimes.

The rest of the Saturday and Sunday passed quickly. Harry guessed that his telling of had worked, as the harassing in hallways, about his Patronus ,had stopped.

When Monday classes began, Harry felt a little worried about attending Potions. Snape was bound to retract revenge for the meeting in McGonagall's office. Hermione dragged him along, muttering about Gryffindor courage. Ron looked on in sympathy.

"Potter. Up front!" Harry sighed as he left the comfort zone of Ron and Hermione. He could see Malfoy sniggering. He trudged up to the seat in front of Snape's desk and sat down heavily. "Brew this." Snape pointed at the bottles and jars lined up on his desk and gave Harry a parchment with the names of the ingredients, Harry groaned. There were no instructions on how to brew or in which order to add the things. The ingredients did look familiar, though. Snape began lecturing the rest of the class, shooting him nasty glares every now and then. Harry spent at least half an hour just rearranging the vials and pots, trying to remember the potion. He suddenly smiled, he knew this potion. It was An Elixir to Induce Euphoria, without the peppermint. He quickly started setting up his cauldron, being thankful for having such a good memory. He watched as the potion slowly turned sunshine yellow. And when the bell, signalling the end of class finally rang, he bottled the potion and walked over to Snape. The professor inspected the vial carefully, before looking up into Harry's expressionless face.

"I guess that I owe you an apology, Potter. Well done." The class was shocked. "I expect a three foot essay on the dangers versus positives of adding different flavours, perfumes or colouring to a potion." Harry nodded. Finally. The classroom was void of sound, not a student dared to utter a word. Ron and Hermione followed Harry out of the classroom, looking as if he'd vanquished Lord Voldemort. "What, in the bloody hell just happened?" Ron had grabbed Harry's shoulder and was pushing him up against the wall, looking confused and a little scared. "Did Snape, the greasy haired git, just say well done? To you? Harry Potter!" Hermione rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, honestly Ron. Harry completed a task set out by Professor Snape. Of course he…eh…felt compiled to praise Harry for a job well done." she said in a strangled voice. "Harry, how did you know what potion it was? I've never seen some of the ingredients that were put out. And what is the potion?" Ron snorted and unhanded Harry. "Wow Harry. You know something that mione doesn't. That is a job well done." Hermione looked at him sternly. "Well, you could do with opening a book every now and then." she huffed and spun around, leaving them in the corridor smirking after her. It took Ron the entire lunch break to make peace with her, since he was stupid enough to confess, that he hadn't even opened the potion's book at all.

"Please. Just stick your head in and see if Snape's there or not." Hermione pushed him to the side and took a look inside. "It's professor Lupin." Ron sagged against the wall in relief before following a preoccupied Harry into the Defence against the dark arts classroom. Harry was reading the library book about sand. He was fairly sure that he now knew how he'd travelled back in time. The book hadn't confirmed his theory yet, but it was just a matter of pages. He hoped.

He didn't notice that the class was finished with rattling on Snape, or that Professor Lupin was lecturing them on Hinkypunk's. When the bell rang, he looked up from the book surprised that the class was over.

"Harry. Could you stay please?" Remus asked, before Harry had a chance to sneak away. Harry nodded, feeling ashamed. It wasn't fair of him to ignore Remus when he was teaching.

"I'm sorry Re…Professor Lupin." he said as soon as the older man sat down next to him. "It's alright Harry. If you can cast a Patronus as powerful as yours, I'm sure you know something about Hinkypunk's." Harry nodded and shifted uncomfortably in the chair. He really didn't want to talk about the Patronus again. Remus seemed to understand, as he didn't ask anything about it. "So are you staying over the Christmas holiday?" Remus asked instead. "Yes, I never go back to the Dursley's over the breaks." Harry answered in a relieved voice. Whether it was because of the changed topic or just relief that he didn't have to go back to his relatives, he didn't know. He shuddered at the thought of celebrating Christmas with the Dursley's again. "I'll be here as well." Lupin said quietly. "It's a full moon." Harry said, remembering that Remus hadn't been part of the Christmas dinner. Remus winced. "Is it?" he asked. Harry nodded, looking sorry for bringing it up. "Ah, well…I just wanted to congratulate you on your well done in potions today. It will no doubt, be written in the history books later how you earned a well done from Snape." Harry smiled, he couldn't help feeling proud of himself. Sure, he'd had a couple of years practise now but still, this was Snape they were talking about!

Ron and Hermione were waiting anxiously for him in the Gryffindor common room. "What did he want?" Ron asked as soon as Harry stepped in through the portrait hole. "Congratulate me on the well done from Snape." Harry answered. "Yes, we heard a rumour!" Fred and George had crept up behind them. "Where is the world going I ask you, brother?" Fred wailed. "Snape giving praise to Gryffindors and Harry doing well in potions!" George ended his part, faking a faint. The twins left laughing.

"No doubt to cause trouble." Hermione said as they disappeared through the portrait hole.