-1A/n: Thanks to all three of my reviewers! Japanese Jew, Sarah R Potter, and SufferingIdentityCrisis.

Chosen

Chapter Two

Harry didn't manage to get to bed until midnight that night. Between plotting and talking about the wedding, as well as some exploding snap, chess and a few pranks from the Twins it took forever to get to bed. Not to mention the long line for the shower and the amount of time he spent talking to Ron after the lights went out. All in all, he was lucky he made it to sleep at all.

Harry woke feeling fully rested… at 5:30 in the morning. It was too early to wake Ron or anyone else. He wasn't tired, so sleep was out of the question, and Harry thought he'd go mad if he stayed in his bed doing nothing except listening to Ron's snores.

When he couldn't take it any longer, he decided to dig out his summer homework for his classes. While he was nearly certain he wouldn't be going back to Hogwarts in September, he did want to keep in practice. After all, if Voldemort died or ran away, he'd certainly want to go back to school. Or he might be forced to return due to circumstances out of his control. And he was bored. Between all of that, he couldn't see any reason why he shouldn't do his homework now. The first homework piece he managed to find was Potions. With a sigh, he got out his potion ingredients, his cauldron, and set up the flame underneath. (Harry had a really nice cauldron stand. His fire had a on/off switch. Most wizards made due with having someone else light the fire or using non-magical fire.)

Harry read from his potions book, muttering under his breath. He was always hopeless at potions. He could never remember the instructions properly, or he would forget to do something.

"Let's see… where are the beetle eyes?" Harry asked under his breath. Harry started tossing in what he hoped were the proper quantities of ingredients and tossing them into the cauldron.

"What the hell is this thing supposed to look like anyway… and what's it do?" Harry murmured before reading the passage under his breath.

"The Neethbrumg Potion is an extraordinarily difficult Potion to brew. It should not be made without adult spuervision…blah blah blah. Has a tendency to turn toxic if not prepared properly…. Aha. It says it should be a pale green when I'm done. And it bestows the ability to speak with plants to the drinker. Interesting…"

Harry added the hellebore and began to stir vigorously, as the directions said. He counted his stirs. Twenty-seven exactly, just as the directions said. Harry removed the stirring paddle and set it on a dirty t-shirt. He peered over the edge of the cauldron once the steam had cleared.

The potion was green. Exactly the shade of green it needed to be. Harry extinguished the flame and poured his potion into an unbreakable flask. The room smelled vaguely of spring Honeysuckle now. Harry cleaned up his potion supplies and made his way downstairs.

"Why is it that once I finally get the hang of potion-making and do it properly, nobody is there to see it?" Harry asked nobody in particular.

"Because you're actually brilliant at potions. We've just sabotaged every one of your attempts so far." George said from directly behind him.

"If I'd know you were brewing something up this morning I'd have re-rigged your cauldron this morning. You'd be amazed as to what a simple dung bomb can do to a potion." Fred added.

Harry laughed. "Either way, I just brewed up a batch of….erm… something to do with plants. Smells like honeysuckle and it's bright green. Neeth-something."

"Bullsh-" George started.

"We never managed to brew that one. We needed it for our Kudzu Konfections but we finally ended up having to buy it. Did you really manage it?" Fred asked, flabbergasted.

"Yeah. I've got some in my flask. Ron's room still smells like it. Honestly, it wasn't so bad. The dizzines potions we brewed in 4th year were harder than this. Honestly." Harry tried to explain, wondering why the twins seemed so shocked.

"Hey, why were you brewing it anyway?" George asked.

"Slughorn assigned it." Harry responded.

"No way! That potion is way beyond NEWT level. I want to see the assignment sheet." Fred tossed in.

Harry opened the door to Ron's room and pulled out the flask full of the potion.

"You make it out to be such a big deal." Harry said, passing the flask to Fred. He passed his potions assignment paper to George so he could see.

Fred whistled as he looked at the potion. "We might have to buy this off you."

George was reading over the assignment still. "See!" he suddenly exclaimed. "I told you it wasn't assigned. It says that any student who completes this potion successfully over the summer gets an immediate twenty points added to their NEWT score at the end of the year. He didn't expect anybody to be able to finish it!"

"Oh." Harry managed.

It suddenly felt like a terrible waste to not attend Hogwarts this year. Apparenty he might be better at potons than he thought.

The Twins left Harry there with his mouth hanging open in shock and went off to do other things.

"Must've been luck." Harry muttered, shaking his head. He poked Ron in the ribs a few times before heading down to breakfast.