Hey y'all! How's everyone doing? Sorry that this chapter came out a little late. Anxiety and adulting definitely are two things that don't mix well. But at least writing helps me keep some semblance of control so don't you worry about waiting years for an update, I will always be writing even if the chapters take a while to come out.

Like always, I enjoy comments, in fact I thrive off of positive comments and love constructive critique ones cause it shows an author that their readers are actually paying attention and enjoying their work. Thanks for reading this story! Virtual hugs and cuddles to y'all.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything except any OC's that may come up, any world building that has not yet been officially stated by the books and any plot points/structures that have not been used in the books.

Warning: No beta, we die like Stingbulbs.


Chapter 5: A Duel to Remember

XXXXXX

"You're not serious are you, Harry?" Ron exclaimed in disbelief, "This isn't some joke that Fred and George put you up to is it?"

"I'm being completely serious, no jokes here," Harry responded with one hundred percent absolute certainty.

"Bloody hell," Ron whispered out in awe, his eyes widening in shock.

"Harry's completely serious about what?" Seth asked as he joined the two at the table.

He quickly filled his plate with fries and a meat pie. He also swiped some brownies before the twins, who'd been eyeing the dessert with a particular gleam in their eyes, could get any funny ideas.

Harry and Ron glanced around as if on the lookout for any eavesdroppers. When the coast seemed clear, Ron gestured Seth to lean in. He did so amusedly.

"Harry's the new seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch team," Ron whispered like it was some sort of top-level secret.

Seth's brow furrowed in confusion. "Harry was made the new what? How the hell did that happen? Did I miss something while I was out helping Neville?"

"Oh, you missed a lot, mate," Ron said matter of fact, now speaking at a normal volume.

"How's Neville doing by the way?" Harry asked in concern, "Is he alright?"

Seth waved him off. "Yeah, he's fine. A bit shaken but he's a surprisingly tough nut to crack. He had a lot of fun lording his 'I told you so' privileges over me."

"That's good," Harry sighed out in relief.

"So anyone wanna fill me in on what I missed?" Seth asked, tucking into his delicious meat pie.

Ron nudged Harry. "Well, go on mate. Tell him."

Then Harry wenr off about how as soon as Hooch, Neville, and Seth were gone, Malfoy started insulting Neville and playing around with the remembrall he'd gotten in the mail that morning. Neville had dropped it when the whole broom fiasco happened.

Harry demanded that Malfoy give it back because it wasn't his but then he started insulting Harry instead. Afterwards, he goaded Harry before getting on his broom and taking off. Harry followed soon after despite Hermione's attempts to stop him.

As soon as he was level with Malfoy, the jerk taunted him and tossed the remembrall clear across the field. Harry chased after it and managed to catch it just before it smashed through one of the windows of a nearby tower.

He landed back down before Hooch could return so there was a brief celebratory period where the other Gryffindor's excitedly complimented Harry over his unexpected talent for flying. They were even treated to the wonderful sight of Malfoy's sour expression as imaginary steam seemed to blow out from his ears.

Then that joyful high ended when Mcgonagall appeared and demanded that Harry come with her immediately. Ron thought he was going to get the detention of a lifetime and Harry feared that he'd actually be expelled. Then he was afraid he'd be beaten because Mcgonagall brought him to the DADA classroom and asked Quirrell to get an 'Oliver Wood' for her.

But it turned out his fears were unfounded when Oliver Wood turned out to be an upperclassman who was also the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. After class, Oliver brought him out to the pitch to test his skills and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly Harry caught the snitch.

"And now I've officially been made the seeker of the Gryffindor team," Harry finished explaining.

"The youngest one in a century!" Ron exclaimed beside him.

Seth whistled, impressed. "Damn, you've got some skill if you're already on the team as a first year, Harry."

Harry blushed at the compliment. "Thanks, Seth."

"Eh, no biggie," he said, but then he frowned. "But wait a minute, aren't first years not allowed to have brooms and not allowed to try out for Quidditch until second year?"

"Yes but Professor Mcgonagall said she was making a special exception for me," Harry explained, beaming with pride.

"A special exception?" Seth asked in surprise. Then he narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "This whole thing's starting to sound a lot like favoritism."

"How do you mean?" Ron asked over his mouthful of chicken.

"Well considering how dangerous Quidditch can be, I'm surprised Mcgongall ignored the rules to let you play. I thought she was the logical, rule follower teacher who wouldn't break the rules and allow an 11 year old kid risk his life playing a sport where broken bones are a guarantee even if he is super talented," Seth explained, then tacked on, "No offense."

"Offense greatly taken!" Harry exclaimed in outrage, "For the first time in my life I've been acknowledged for something beyond my name and an accomplishment I don't even remember completing. Professor Mcgonagall said I was talented enough to be on the team and would even give Gryffindor a chance to win the Quidditch cup!"

"And there it is," Seth wryly thought, knowing better than to interrupt a kid in the middle of a rant, "The reason why a teacher's bending the rules to let a freaking kid risk his life is to win a shiny cup and eternal bragging rights. Glad to know that something's don't change even in a secret magical society."

He shook his head with a sigh because he knew that if he was actual his 11-year-old self, he wouldn't think twice about all of this.

He'd be just as excited as Harry and would use this knowledge to lord over the rest of the Houses. Man, he was such a little shit back then. Well, he still was one now but he was a smart little shit. Not a reckless little shit.

"So there!" Harry finished his ranting with a defiant crossing of his arms and a pout.

Seth wanted to coo at how adorably non-threatening Harry was. Instead he just shrugged. "Okay."

"Okay?" Harry parroted, his defiance deflating into confusion.

"Yeah, okay," Seth reiterated, "Even though I still think the whole situation reeks of favoritism and hypocrisy, I'll let it go."

"And be happy for Harry, right?" Ron chimed in.

"And be happy for Harry," he agreed. Then his expression turned serious. "But only on the condition that you practice like your life depends on it, cause it does, and always make sure you're safe. If your teammates would rather risk your health just to win a stupid metal cup, I'll curse them all myself. Are we clear?"

Harry nodded vigorously in agreement. Seth nodded firmly to himself and returned to his lunch, the conversation clearly over...for now. Harry and Ron went back to chattering about this and that until Seth was finished eating.

Then the three boys left the Great Hall to head to their next class.

But then Draco Malfoy popped up out of nowhere with his two goons, Crabbe and Goyle, standing behind him. It was actually a bit of a hilarious sight considering the two 'bodyguards' were about as intimidating as marshmallows were to a fire.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" Harry grit out as Draco used the staircase to literally lord over the trio before him.

"Oh just wanted to ask how your little talk with Mcgonagall went. She's notorious for doling out appropriate punishments, even to her precious little lions," Draco haughtily answered. "So what did she give you? The oh so precious Boy who Lived. Detention? Suspension? Oh! Please say it was expulsion. I would love to have the chance to snap your wand myself."

Crabbe and Goyle snickered like Draco just said the most hilarious thing in the world.

Harry smiled smugly at him and responded, "Actually, she made me the seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team."

Draco balked at him, his face turning red with indignation. "What!" he screeched, "There's no bloody way the most rule abiding professor in the school would reward you for breaking the rules!"

"Well you better believe it cause it's true," Ron gleefully added.

"You must think you're real special, Potter," Draco spat out, face contorting with anger. Then the anger bled away into smugness as a light bulb seemed to go off in his head. "I challenge you to a wizard's duel. If you win, I'll drop my complaints towards your general self and never bother you for the rest of the year. If I win, you have to drop out of the Gryffindor team and admit you have no talent for flying because you're a coward. Do we have a deal?"

He held his hand out. Harry impulsively grabbed it and shook firmly.

"You've got a deal," Harry spat out angrily.

"And I'll be his second," Ron declared.

"Of course you are," Draco scoffed, "Goyle will be my second. We'll meet in the corridor by the third floor, the one next to the Roman dinner painting. Midnight. Be there or else you automatically forfeit."

Harry nodded in agreement. Draco smirked in triumph as he turned away and walked off with his two minions flanking him.

The whole exchange happened so quickly that Seth's mind whirled frantically to comprehend what just occurred.

"You aren't seriously going to go through with that are you?" Hermione asked, suddenly appearing behind the trio like a bloodhound sniffing out whenever someone was breaking the rules.

Seth jumped, startled at her ninja like appearance. "Holy shit, Hermione! What are you? A freaking ninja?"

"And what do you care?" Ron asked in a rather hostile tone.

Hermione gave him a look like he just asked her a stupid question. "Maybe because Malfoy is obviously trying to get you in trouble since it's against the rules to duel without supervision and to be out after curfew! You're going to make us lose house points or worse…be expelled!"

She then turned to give Seth a look. "And you-"

"What did I do?" he asked, hands rising up in surrender. "I'm innocent!"

"You didn't stop them from doing anything stupid!" she rebuked. "I thought you were smarter than that. This is obviously a trap!"

"Ahh, but you see, you don't know how stupid and stubborn us boys can be when it comes to our pride," Seth explained, nodding sagely, "Which is why I'm going to tag along with them to make sure nothing bad happens."

"I rather you didn't tag along at all or better yet, you stopped these two idiots from doing something so stupid. We haven't even been in school for more than a few weeks yet!" she exclaimed angrily.

"Hey!" Ron shouted, highly offended by her remarks.

"We're right here you know," Harry interjected, his tone as dry as the Sahara desert, "You can stop talking like we aren't standing next to you."

"I can talk to you however I please since you are such bloody idiots," she snapped.

"Oh stop acting like you're the head girl already," Ron retorted, "You're only a first year and already you're such a bloody know it all goody two shoes."

Hermione bristled like a cat and her hand dove into her robes for her wand.

"Hey Hermione! Do you want to go study in the library? I need help with my transfiguration essay," Seth quickly interjected, trying to diffuse the situation before someone ended up in the hospital wing and it definitely wasn't going to be him.

She huffed, taking her hand off her wand. "You know what, fine!" she snapped at Ron and Harry, "If you're going to be stupid, then don't come crying to me when you get caught."

She whirled around, making sure her bushy hair smacked Ron in the face.

He shouted indignantly.

"I'll meet you in the library, Seth," she called out over her shoulder. Then she stormed off down the hall.

The trio all let out a sigh of relief at the averted crisis.

"Thanks, Seth," Harry said, expression grateful.

"Don't mention it," he shrugged and then he deadpanned at them, "But seriously, learn to think before you jump headfirst into things. This is the set up for such an obvious trap even a five year old could see through it."

Harry and Ron blushed in embarrassment.

"But you'll still come with us right?" Harry asked almost pleadingly, "Because there's also the possibility that it isn't a trap and then Malfoy will be insufferable for the rest of the year."

Seth continued to stare at them before he sighed. "Yeah, I'll come with cause even though the whole thing stinks, boys will be boys, especially prideful ones."

"Great! We'll make sure to wake you before we leave," Harry said, smiling brightly.

Seth groaned at the thought of having to interrupt his wonderful new sleeping schedule to make sure two boys didn't get into trouble for being prideful little shits.

He really was officially a hypocrite now.

XXXXXX

Seth yawned so widely his jaw cracked loud enough to echo in the empty hallway.

Both Ron and Harry whirled around to shush him. He gave them an unimpressed look in return because he was the one who was sacrificing his precious sleep for these two. And he was only getting more tired because he was actively using his abilities to muffle the sounds of their footsteps and help them blend in with the shadows.

Ugh. He really had become such a mom friend. He'd never hear the end of it from Kendra if she ever found out. He didn't need her to have any more blackmail material over him than she already did.

Speaking of Kendra, her letter in response to his question regarding Professor Snape's potion question was actually...enlightening. But not a fascinating enlightenment like his sister who wanted to know everything there was to know about a person so she could smother them with empathy and make them her friend.

No, it was enlightening in the way that he never wanted to put himself into the romance novel worthy situation of a love triangle. While he wasn't opposed to being in a romantic relationship, he'd prefer any potential partner to be someone who would be completely upfront with him. No beating around the bush or refusing to communicate cause relationship drama was actually the worst. Even though he greatly enjoyed causing it because it was hella hilarious and the retaliation methods of girls towards their significant others were actually rather creative and downright terrifying.

And if there was more than one potential partner (which will never happen unless he wanted it to happen cause again, relationship drama he had to deal with instead of being the one dealing it out was just the worst) then they better get to the point or else he would be the one to let them know where they stood with no mercy in his delivery.

Then there was also the matter on how he was going to confront Snape with this information. He couldn't exactly march up to the man and lecture him on taking a stupid schoolyard grudge out on a kid. Bullying came in many different forms which also effected people in drastically different ways. Maybe he should observe him further before confronting the man?

But then it begged the question on when would be a good time to confront him.

Did he do it before the holidays when he had a full semester of interaction and observations? Then hope it didn't backfire horribly because of lack of information?

Did he do it during holidays where he could bring it up more naturally through Q and A sessions about potions? Then spend the rest of the time dealing with the fallout without anyone around?

Or did he do it after maybe a year or two when he had a notebook's worth of notes on the man and a deeper understanding of his psychology? Then he'd spring it on him during exams when an irate professor couldn't take his anger out on a kid without hundreds of frayed nerve students retaliating? And that was only assuming phase two of his plan went according to plan for phase three to commence without a hitch.

Maybe he was going too quickly with the phases of his plan? Because a year was definitely not a lot of time to be able to establish a solid foundation to knock down the old one. But seven years was also too long and he still wanted to spread as much of his influence to the older students as possible before they graduated. Cause the next generation was the future and all that crap.

And he still needed to come up with back plans and contingencies in case his multi-phase plan failed horribly because magic was unpredictably predictable in causing havoc among people.

As all those thoughts tumbled through his head, his control on his abilities slipped little by little. He soon snapped out of his thoughts when Harry accidentally stepped on a trick step and it let loose the loudest creak he'd ever heard.

All three boys shared a look and quickly booked it up the stairs and into the corridor on the third floor. They didn't stop running until they made it to a portion of the corridor with multiple pillars but no doors. There also weren't any paintings around either.

"Let's never do that again," Harry panted out, leaning against a pillar for support.

"Then don't take any more invitations to duel at freaking midnight," Seth commented sarcastically.

"No can do, mate," Ron said, clasping his hands on his knees for support as he caught his breath, "Telling a Gryffindor not to take a challenge is like telling a fish it's not allowed to swim."

"Ok sure," Seth scoffed, "So where the hell is Draco anyways? I'd like to just get this over with so I can go back to my soft, warm bed."

The boys looked around for any sign of Draco but they saw none. Then they looked to see if they were even in the right corridor but they were since this was the only available corridor on the third floor.

The others apparently had their entrances jinxed away in a pranking accident a few years ago and the professors never managed to counter jinx them back.

"Guess Malfoy really was a coward after all," Ron crowed in delight, "He probably chickened out cause he knew he couldn't beat you, Harry."

"Or maybe this whole thing really was a trap all along and we should probably leave before we get caught," Seth firmly suggested.

Before Ron could retort, a faint meowing could be heard. They all turned around to see a tabby cat appear from around the corner. The cat spotted them and hissed. It ran away before they could react.

"Bloody hell! That was Mrs. Norris, Filch's cat!" Ron exclaimed in fear, "We need to go now!"

The trio booked it in the opposite direction of where the cat appeared. They could hear the sounds of Filch talking with his cat, shouting about students being out of bed and how he'll hang them by their ankles.

They picked up the pace until they finally saw a door and ran in without a second thought. Harry closed the door as quickly and quietly as he could and the three leaned against it, trying to catch their breaths.

Then they held them when they heard Filch and Mrs. Norris getting closer, only breathing again once it sounded like the terrible duo had passed by.

"I am never going to help you guys stay out of trouble ever again," Seth firmly declared, "I can only handle so much excitement after midnight when I should be sleeping in my bed."

"Well I'm still thankful you came with us tonight anyways," Harry said with a grateful expression.

Ron whimpered, catching their attention.

"You alright, Ron?" Harry asked.

Ron whimpered again in response as he raised a shaking hand to point at something in front of him. The other two turned to see that he was pointing at a large three-headed dog slumbering before them. An ear on one of the heads twitched and soon the dog woke up, smacking its lips and shaking the sleep fog away. When the dog spotted the three boys standing before it, it growled and snarled, revealing large and sharp fangs.

Harry and Ron screamed in fright before Seth threw his hands over their mouths to muffle the sounds. Once he was sure they were done yelling, he lowered his hands and slowly walked towards the ferocious three-headed dog. The two boys looked to him, wide-eyed and incredulous.

"Seth," Harry hissed at him, "Come back here!"

"You're going to get killed, mate!" Ron whisper shouted at him.

But Seth ignored them and continued his slow walk towards the dog. He held a hand out to show he wasn't a threat to it. The three heads continued to snarl and growl at him, but the ferocity decreased the closer he got. Soon he was standing right in front of the middle head and he placed his hand gently on the growling snout.

"Calm," Seth growled out in a soft, guttural tone. The dog blinked hazily at him as all three heads slowly calmed down and stop snarling.

"Sleep," he commanded. The dog blinked again before laying all three of its heads on its paws and falling asleep.

Once he was sure the dog was actually fast asleep, Seth turned to face the other two who stared at him with eyes wide enough for them to pop out of their skulls and their jaws on the floor.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Ron exclaimed as Harry's gaze ping-ponged back and forth between the sleeping dog and an increasingly sleepy Seth.

Seth yawned. "Just a little trick I picked up in America. It's not as big a deal as you think it is."

"Like hell it isn't," Ron said, "You just put a scary three headed dog only a moment away from killing us to sleep with a word!"

"It was actually two words," Seth corrected before letting loose another jaw cracking yawn. "Look, I'm too tired to play twenty questions with you now so let's just get back to the dormitory already. I need sleep and I'm willing to leave you both here if you keep me up any longer."

Ron blanched at the thought of being left behind with the three-headed dog and quickly followed Seth out of the room. Harry trailed behind a bit, looking back at the dog and down at the trap door it had been standing over.

Their journey back was rather uneventful (thanks to Seth's abilities) with not a single peep from Mrs. Norris or Filch or any patrolling professors. By the time they crossed the threshold of the common room entrance, Seth was ready to sleep until next week. He silently cursed his 11-year-old body's lack of stamina and dreaded the thought of having to build it back up to his 21-year-old standards.

"Did you two see what the dog was standing on?" Harry asked as they walked back to their room.

"Are you kidding? I wasn't looking at its feet," Ron snapped, "I was a bit preoccupied with its three heads and the weird magic Seth used to put it back to sleep!"

"It was standing on a trap door," Harry explained, "Which must mean the dog wasn't there by accident since I highly doubt the professors would block off a whole corridor just because there was a three headed dog."

"Not when there's a Care of Magical Creatures professor," Seth chimed in, though his mind was too tired to keep up with whatever Nancy Drew antics Harry was dipping into.

"Exactly!" Harry exclaimed, "So it must be guarding something."

"Guarding something?" Ron asked, "Like what?"

"Okay I think that's enough detectiving for tonight," Seth quickly interjected since he was moments away from dropping where he stood. "You two can go back to playing Holmes and Watson when it's not ass o'clock. We have classes in the morning and I'd like to be awake enough to not get detention from Snape or Mcgonagall."

He (quietly) stomped off into their room and flopped onto the bed, whipping out his wand to close the curtains.

Just before they closed completely, he heard Ron asking, "What's a Holmes and Watson?"

XXXXXX

Seth slowly dragged himself through the dungeons towards the potions classroom. While he was thankful for the cool air that slapped him into wakefulness, he also silently lamented about not getting his self-recommended ten hours of sleep because he was busy playing the mom friend.

How the hell did Kendra do it? He'd have long opted out of doing shit like this if it meant having to sacrifice sweet, sweet sleep.

As he was rounding around a corner, he spotted a head of platinum blonde hair lingering nearby another corner of a hallway that led to the Slytherin common room. He visibly perked up when he saw that the hair belonged to Draco Malfoy.

Then he scowled as he made his way over to the little shit. He grabbed Draco by the arm, who jumped in shock at the sudden movement. Then he scowled when Seth dragged and tossed him unceremoniously into a nearby empty room.

"What in the world is wrong with you, Sorenson?" Draco sputtered out indignantly.

"What's wrong with me? I'll tell you what's wrong with me. What's wrong is the fact that I'm trapped in a magical boarding school filled with bullies and dumb asses who conform to societal ideas from the freaking medieval ages," Seth growled out, "And, more importantly, I only slept six hours last night because of you."

"And how exactly is that my problem?" Draco asked, still indignant but also confused.

"Because if you hadn't gotten over yourself and just let Harry deal with the consequences of his actions then I wouldn't have felt compelled to go help him and Ron keep out of trouble!" Seth stated like his reasoning was so obvious even a child would have figured it out.

"Potter dealing with the consequences of his actions?" Draco sputtered out, looking at Seth like he was the most idiotic idiot in the world. "He was rewarded for it! By Professor Mcgonagall of all people!"

"And if you spent even one moment thinking logically instead of getting all jealous you'd remember that Quidditch is a dangerous sport 11 year olds shouldn't be playing in a competitive setting," Seth retorted. "God, aren't you supposed to be a Slytherin? Maybe I should've only expected intelligence from the Ravenclaws."

Draco bristled indignantly at that, so much so that he didn't hear Seth click his tongue in distaste and mutter under his breath. "Maybe I should've gone to the snakes like the hat said because then I could've dealt with this bullshit directly rather than having to clean it up after."

"I'll have you know that I am the purest Slytherin there is due to the superiority of my pureblood lineage," Draco huffed and puffed pompously.

"Ha! That right there is complete bullshit," Seth barked out, "Lemme ask you, are you or your parents or even your grandparents a result of incest? Cause there's no way in hell you can be of 'pure blood' without some inbreeding going on."

Draco's face contorted with disgust at the implication of incest and he also looked a little horrified at the thought.

"And again, you still haven't told me what makes a pureblood better than a muggleborn? If you can't come up with a reasonable answer to that question then the importance you all put on blood purity is bullshit," Seth firmly stated, "Slytherin is known for cunning and ambition, not how pure your bloodline is because again, that's a medieval dark ages centuries ago concept and right now we're in the modern age where muggles can create fire, move water, build skyscrapers, and fly without magic."

Draco crossed his arms, doing his best to look defiant but his face was expressive of the conflict warring within him. "Why are you preaching to me about such things? Do you have no better target for your irrationality?"

Seth shrugged. "You're like the second person I've met in this magical world and I have imprinting issues," he responded like that answered everything when it really didn't, at least not for Draco.

"Just leave me alone, Sorenson," Draco bit out petulantly, waving at him dismissively.

"Then stop picking on Harry, the poor kid never did anything to you except exist," Seth remarked with a frown.

"I'm just teaching him a lesson, not that you would understand. Making sure the Boy who Lived doesn't get too big for his breeches," Draco scoffed.

"He literally didn't even know the magical world existed until last month so I highly doubt he's big enough to fill the breeches he probably doesn't even own," Seth dryly stated.

Draco scowled. "Whatever. Class is going to start soon and I'd prefer not to be partnered with you for potions so excuse me."

He walked off, opening the door with a huff. Seth called out to him, "This conversation isn't done yet! Only tabled for now!"

The door slammed shut. Seth quietly cackled to himself. "Alright, phase one is finally starting to pick up traction which means phase two will go much more smoothly."

XXXXXX

Unfortunately for Draco, he ended up arriving to Potions just before it began and was forced to partner up with Seth anyways.

Harry and Ron kept glancing over at them, shooting worried looks in Seth's direction. While he was flattered at their worry, it was really starting to get annoying especially since they kept shooting daggers at Draco and making the kid more and more tense.

The two reluctant partners silently went through the process of making a Cure for Boils.

Seth tossed six snake fangs into the mortar and methodically ground them into a fine powder using a stone pestle. Meanwhile, Draco evenly sliced pungous onions into fine pieces. They both tossed their ingredients into the cauldron followed by a handful of dried nettles and a dash of flobberworm mucus.

Seth stirred the contents vigorously. Then Draco added a sprinkle of powdered ginger root and Seth vigorously stirred the contents again until there was a thick red mixture boiling in the cauldron.

Next, Draco added pickled Shrake spines and took over stirring duties, making sure to stir gently so as to not excite the spines. The mixture slowly darkened in color. Seth added four horned slugs that had been stewing off to the side and the mixture turned dark purple with significantly reduced viscosity.

They carefully took the cauldron off the fire before adding two porcupine quills. Seth stirred five times clockwise and Draco finished it off with a wave of his wand. The mixture became a shimmering purple liquid that the two carefully bottled up and brought to Snape's desk.

The professor raised an eyebrow at them but didn't say anything, instead waving them off dismissively.

"Not bad for a mudblood, Sorenson," Draco muttered under his breath.

"Not bad for a spoiled brat, Draco," Seth managed to cheerfully mutter back.

Suddenly, a foul smell permeated the room and the two boys looked up to see Neville's cauldron melting and the skin of his arms breaking out in vicious boils.

"Idiot boy!" Snape bellowed as he swooped over to him like a bat out of hell. "I'll bet you forgot to remove your cauldron from the fire before adding porcupine quills, didn't you? 10 points from Gryffindor!"

He turned to Hermione who'd been uttering reassurances to the shaking boy. "You, Granger," Snape snapped at her, "Take him to the hospital wing and then make your way back posthaste if you wish to receive any credit for your potion."

Hermione snapped to attention and vigorously nodded before gently and quickly ushering Neville out of the classroom.

Snape then whirled around to pin Harry with a glare that had him shrinking under the scrutiny of it. "And you, Potter, why didn't you stop Mr. Longbottom from adding those quills?"

"W-What? B-But I-" Harry tried to protest.

"10 points from Gryffindor for your cheek," Snape sneered.

All the Gryffindors in the class frowned as some of the Slytherins snickered at the uncalled for loss of points. Seth idly noted that Draco was not one of the few who snickered. Instead, he looked a bit conflicted resulting in a twisted expression as if he was suffering from constipation.

"Get back to work, all of you!" Snape swooped around to snap at the entire class.

Everyone quickly went back to their work and before anyone knew it, the class ended.

The Gryffindors muttered angrily to each other as they filed out of the classroom while the Slytherins jeered at and mocked them.

As they headed off to their next class, Seth looked back at Snape thoughtfully. His plan to confront the professor on his behavior definitely needed to happen sooner rather than later but still...when, if ever, was the right time to confront a grown adult man on his immature, childish bullshit?


And scene! Also, I've started to notice a trend where I write scenes that should be happening in a later chapter and thus it takes longer for me to get them out and I am so sorry for that. I hope the progression of events and character development seems smooth to y'all and that it makes sense cause sometimes I get the feeling that I'm getting ahead of myself.

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the chapter! See you all next time!