The second year students of Slytherin and Gryffindor stood in front of the Potions room door. On either side, glaring at each other waiting for their Professor. Thankfully they didn't have to wait long before the doors to the classroom opened. Severus Snape ushered them in and ordered them to stand along the wall, quickly and quietly.
"This year is going to be different. After I graded your results from last years class, I sat down and made a setting plan." Loud groans came from the Gryffindors at the latest announcement.
"Silence!" Severus snarled.
"I am placing you with others to help your studies and to put a stop to sabotage. Yes I noticed every incident last year" he glared at Henry and Ron when he said this.
"You will be paired with people based on your knowledge, patience, and compatibility." He stated.
"Right, the first pairing will be in the front seats on the right." he said leaving a pause, enjoying the Gryffindors shuffling in their seats.
"Mr Riddle and Longbottom." Harry's eyebrows shot up in surprise. He wasn't that bothered, he knew the boy was insanely good in Herbology, and he knew he could use that to help him in Potions. He also suspected the boy was nervous around Severus. He hoped being paired with him, a Slytherin, would help him relax.
"Miss Riddle and Dunbar! In the front row, middle seats." Severus said. Harry watched as a brunette moved forwards with Hermione to their delegated seats.
"Who's that? I don't remember her" Harry whispered to Neville.
"Fay Dunbar. Transferred for this year from Beauxbatons along with her cousin Lily. They both got sorted into Gryffindor, they are nice." Neville whispered back hesitantly. Harry grinned at the boy, once he got the Gryffindor out of his shell, he reckoned they would get along perfectly.
"Malfoy and Thomas. front row, left side." Severus said glaring at the Muggleborn Gryffindor who was grumbling as he made to his seat.
"Nott and Finnigan, second row, left side" Theo scowled as he sat behind Draco.
"Zabini and Potter, middle seats." Severus started to read quicker wanting to start the actual lesson.
"Parkinson and Weasley on the right." The scowls from the Gryffindor's got darker and darker as each name was read out.
"Greengrass and Patil, third row on the right."
"Lovegood and Moon third row middle seats." Harry turned to Neville with a raised eyebrow, his green eyes clearly asking the question.
"Yeah, that's Fay's cousin, their Mothers are sisters I think." Neville whispered.
"Crabbe and Brown, left side" Harry sniggered when he saw the horrified look on Lavender Brown's face.
"Then we are out of Gryffindor's so the last pairing is Goyle and Bulstrode. Take the middle seat of the last row"
"Now, these pairs will stay this way until next year. There will be no arguments, complaints and no attempting to swap partners. Get used to it, and I don't care if you hate each other you will work together! Am I clear?" Severus snarled.
"Yes Professor" the class chorused.
"Now, I am sure you have done this in your other classes, but today we will be re-doing a potion from last year." the class collectively groaned, for once both Gryffindors and Slytherins in agreement.
"I don't want any complaints. Many of you couldn't do this Potion last year, and I want to be sure that almost everyone remembers the basics." Severus said sternly as he walked to the board off to the side of the room, his robes billowing behind him.
"You will be making the Herbicide Potion. Can any of you remember what this Potion is for?" he asked as he charmed a piece of chalk to write the ingredients on the board. Hermione's hand was of course in the air followed by Harry, Draco and Hermione's partner Fay Dunbar.
"Dunbar! Let's see if you deserved the grades you got from Beauxbatons"
"Herbicide is a Potion used to kill or damage plants, like weeds. Herbologists use it as protection from dangerous plants." Fay Dunbar said softly.
"Well, it seems the Gryffindors actually has someone with a brain among them now." Severus said sneering at Potter and Weasley.
"For those that remember, the first part shouldn't take long. Then you leave your Potion for 45 minutes before returning to it. During that time you will clean your stations and get prepared for part two. Once that is done, if you still have time remaining you will read over the passage in your books about this Potion and each of the ingredients. Now get started" Harry grinned at Neville.
"Stay here and read over the instructions until I return with the ingredients." Harry said before getting a tray and heading to the storage cupboard. He looked at his hand written list quickly before grabbing everything they needed.
"Lionfish spines" he murmured to himself before grabbing six. The Potion only called for four, but Harry had been taught to always have more than needed.
"Horklump Juice, ah there"
"Flobberworm Mucus, gross"
"And Standard Ingredient"
"Do you know what they say about talking to yourself?" Hermione's amused voice came from behind him, grinning and shaking his head he turned around.
"That it's a sign of insanity?"
"No, that you have an idiot for an audience" she smirked.
"Oh haha" he said sarcastically, rolling his eyes he walked back to his table.
"You ready?" Harry asked his partner.
"No, what if I blow it up again" Neville asked his eyes wide.
"Hey, breathe, I am fantastic at Potions. Now turn the fire on to boil the water and follow me" Harry said calmly.
"What is the first step?" he asked keeping his voice relaxed and calm.
"First step is to add four lionfish spines to the mortar." Neville said shakily.
"Good, then add them and crush them into a rough powder. Now a rough powder means it doesn't have to be fine or precise so don't worry about that just crush them." He grinned as Neville nodded and did so perfectly.
"Now I will add two measurements of standard ingredient okay?" Neville nodded.
"What is standard ingredient?" he asked quietly as if he was worried about being teased.
"Oh, you don't know? Well it is just a mixture of herbs that are always needed together instead of separately. In every Potion that requires it they are combined first, so we store them together in one tub labelled standard ingredient. You will find it is the most popular ingredients as well." Harry explained as he added said ingredient mix to the lionfish spines and crushed them together to make a combined powder.
"Now what Nev?" Harry asked grinning when the boy startled at the nickname before smiling back.
"Three measures of that go into the cauldron, and we wave our wand." he said reading the instructions out loud.
"And we are done for part one" Harry declared.
"See, you can do this"
"Thanks, no one really believed in me before." Neville whispered as they started tidying up their station.
"Look Nev, screw them. I've seen you in Herbology, you are incredible at it. Daphne and Pansy were always telling me about how you would help them last year, with Herbology homework in the library. Just put that into work here."
"How?" Neville asked in disbelief.
"Well Potions is all about the ingredients mixing together to make something new right? A lot of the time we use plants. So use your plant knowledge to know which plant would react badly or correctly with what. The fact that you know things about plants that no-one else in our year knows shows you have brains. Get a book on Potions ingredients and learn about the ones that aren't plants. You can clearly store knowledge easily, so just learn the ingredients and you will be great before you know it."
"I never, I didn't even think about how many of the ingredients are plants" Neville breathed.
"I mean I knew they were, but it didn't click you know?"
"Yeah I know, trust me, after a bit of reading and you will be as good as me" Harry boasted.
"Well I don't know about that" Neville chuckled.
"Want to know a secret?" Harry whispered, Neville nodded eagerly as he leant in.
"I am only good at Potions because growing up Uncle Sev taught us all about Potions." Harry whispered before winking at the shocked and gaping Gryffindor.
"You're related to Snape?" Neville finally asked.
"Not by blood, but he is a good friend of my parents, my Mother in particular. She was a few years younger than him in Hogwarts and they got closer after me and Hermione were born" Harry grinned.
"Wow, you must be pretty bored in class then, surely you are years ahead of us"
"Not really. He didn't want to take away from the excitement of learning new Potions. So we only got taught what each instruction means. Like the difference between powder and dust, or chopping and dicing. We also learnt about each ingredient, and what would happen if you added heat or removed heat, or added another ingredient to it." Harry explained.
"Do you, um do you think you could help me with that stuff?" Neville asked nervously, but he let out a breathe when Harry grinned at him.
"Sure! I'd be happy to help, for a price" he smirked when Neville's face fell.
"Help me out in Herbology. my Mother and Aunts were great at Herbology but it would be nice having someone my age to talk to about it." Harry smirked when Neville hastily nodded in agreement. Harry had Pansy and Daphne to help him in Herbology if he truly needed it. But he saw it as the perfect opportunity to get to know Neville. He suspected that Neville didn't actually know the relation three of his classmates had to Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange . If he did he would be more wary around Hermione, Draco and himself. But Harry also knew that there was no way Neville had been told the truth. The story released to the public upon their arrest; was that after their Master, The Dark Lord Voldemort had been 'vanquished' by Henry Potter. The four inner circle Death Eaters went looking for information to bring him back. The story reported that they decided to torture Frank and Alice Longbottom for two reasons. Because they were they trained Aurors, and they were both members of The Order of Phoenix. Dumbledore's own league of fighters to stand against Voldemort and the Death Eaters. The Light, never reported the truth about the War though. Harry had high hopes that eventually, he would be able to tell Neville the truth about his parents and what they did to his Aunt and Uncle's. But until then, he had gain Neville's trust and friendship.
"Potter won't be happy about our arrangement you know." Harry said bringing himself out of his thoughts. When his Aunt had told him she didn't blame Neville for his parent's offences Harry had been shocked. But he knew afterwards, he shouldn't of been. His Aunt was an amazing woman, who had just been hurt one too many times by The Light, and she snapped.
"Then we won't tell him." Neville said grinning. He didn't like Henry that much but staying on his good side meant he wasn't shunned and alone in the Gryffindor tower. He didn't have many friends, he wasn't like the other four boys in his dorm. Although he suspected the Weasley twins sort of liked him, they were always warning him of their pranks and talked to him in the common room.
"Careful Nev, your Slytherin is showing" Harry smirked when Neville chuckled.
"My ancestors would roll over in their graves, Longbottom's have been Gryffindors for as far back as we can trace. My Mother's family were all Hufflepuffs until her and her Father were Gryffindors. Slytherin would be their nightmares come to life" Neville said grinning.
"What about your family?" he asked.
"Entire family is Slytherin on my Mother's side. My birth Father's family was Slytherin. But my adopted Father, he went to Beauxbatons" Harry shrugged with a grin.
"Oh shit, it's time for part two." Harry gasped when he looked at the magical clock that was on the wall behind Severus Snape's desk.
"Alright, so I've got the Horklump Juice and Flobberworm Mucus here and ready to go" Neville smiled.
"Add two measurements of Horklump Juice." Harry said as he had his wand pointed at the fire beneath the cauldron. Once Neville added the Horklump Juice, Harry turned the heat up to medium and held it for ten seconds before turning it back down to low heat. But before the Potion could cool down with fire, he added in the last ingredient, two blobs of Flobberworm Mucus.
"Stir four times, clockwise." He told Neville, the moment Neville finished stirring, Harry waved his wand over the Potion. Pouring pure magic into it, which then sealed the final step.
"Now, let's bottle up our vials." Harry grinned widely.
"How does it feel to complete a Potion?" Harry asked playfully.
"Pretty good" Neville laughed. Together they bottled up their Potion, wrote their names on their vials and dropped them off in the tray on Severus' desk.
"Well done" Severus said nodding at them after he inspected the vials. Only three groups had finished so far, unsurprisingly it was Harry, Hermione and Draco's pairs that had. Gregory Goyle and Millicent Bulstrode somehow managed to blow up their Potion at the very start. Vincent Crabbe and Lavender Brown left their cauldron on medium heat for too long and it bubbled and then hardened.
"Alright everyone! You have another ten minutes until this class ends. If your Potion is not bottled in a named vial and on my desk before then.. Well you fail this lesson, and you will repeat this Potion next lesson instead of moving forward. The longer you take, the less time you get for your future work, and you risk failing this year. If you fail this year, you will be repeating it instead of moving forward to your third year." Severus said, he was staring at them all intently. Failing would be horrifying for any student; it was a shame to their house, but for half-bloods and purebloods; it was a shame for their family name.
"You have two weeks to write me an essay on the use of Flobberworm Mucus in Potions. I expect no less than two rolls of parchment, but no more than four." he continued, the charmed chalk was now writing down their homework on the board for them to copy. The last of class was starting to bottle up their finished Potion's as their Professor spoke. But everyone stopped where they were standing or sitting, when a knock on the door interrupted the speech. Without waiting for Severus to acknowledge them, the knocker opened the door and stepped inside. Professor Dumbledore stood there, his blue eyes devoid of the usual twinkle, he looked tired and upset. Madam Pomfrey stood beside him, her own eyes sad and downcast.
"Headmaster? Madam?" Severus asked as the entire class watched on.
"I am sorry to interrupt Severus, but I need to bring Mr and Miss Riddle and Mr Malfoy to my office." Immediately the three Slytherins looked at each other in shock. Potter, Weasley, Finnigan and Thomas started sniggering believing they were in trouble.
"This is not a laughing matter boys!" Dumbledore boomed angrily, much to their shock.
"50 points from Gryffindor" the four boys mouths dropped open in horror.
"Come along children" Madam Pomfrey said softly, her eyes glistening with tears as she held her hands out for them.
"Your parents are in the Headmaster's office waiting for you." Together the three Slytherins stood, and walked to the nurse, with no idea what information was waiting for them.
Hello to all my lovely readers!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I apologize for any mistakes my partner edited this one instead of my best friend like usual. =)
All information for the potion came from the Harry Potter Wikia.
Sorry for the cliffhanger, I wonder if any of you can guess what's going on?
Let me know if you enjoyed this chapter or if you have any questions let me know.
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See you all next chapter!