Chapter Two: Potions With Potter
It wasn't hard for Daphne to settle into a rhythm for her classes. Though Hogwarts was a strange, confusing place, she'd read up on it before going, and her parents had told her many of the small tricks the castle liked to play on its occupants. Because of this, she was reasonably certain about which steps to avoid on staircases, and quick to respond when the castle decided its layout needed changing.
Of course, she got it wrong every now and then, but fortunately her few mishaps hadn't seemed to affect her reputation yet.
To her amusement, Draco Malfoy had actually fallen through a trick step on his very first day. He'd glowered at everyone around him while Crabbe hoisted him back out, and Daphne could just see him thinking that he would write his father about the first person who dared to laugh at him.
Beyond that, though, everything seemed to be quite normal in her first week at Hogwarts. The tutoring her parents had been giving her all her life paid off, and she was able to keep up with the coursework with relative ease. Sure, it was challenging, but not nearly to the extent that she had feared.
By Friday, she had actually managed to earn Slytherin some points in the House Cup by correctly answering questions, which had earned her some appreciative, yet calculating looks from her classmates.
Now, though, would come a lesson she'd actually been looking forward to: Potions with the Gryffindors. She hadn't had any classes with them yet, and she'd be lying to herself if she wasn't a little bit curious as to who her classmates would have been if the Sorting Hat had decided to put her there instead. She had also heard that Professor Snape was quite partial to his own students, and had a habit of giving them House points fairly easily. She wasn't too fond of that kind of thing, but it might prove useful to her.
So, when it was time for class to begin, she eagerly sat down at one of the tables. Tracey Davis sat down next to her, looking a bit pale. She'd probably heard stories about Professor Snape as well.
"Don't worry," Daphne said. "We're in his House."
Davis nodded slowly, though she didn't seem particularly reassured.
Then, the Gryffindors began to file in. Daphne watched them with interest as they took their places, and only remembered that Harry Potter was in this class as well when she saw him sitting down next to the Weasley boy.
This could turn out to be an even more interesting lesson than she'd initially thought. A first-hand look at the skills of the Boy-Who-Lived would surely be of use at some point.
At that point, Professor Snape entered the classroom, and a deathly hush fell over the group. He regarded them with his dark eyes, half hidden behind his curtains of greasy hair. His expression was unreadable as he began the roll call. When he reached Potter, he paused.
"Ah, yes. Harry Potter. Our new — celebrity."
Daphne saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle sniggering behind their hands.
Professor Snape gave a short opening speech on the beauties of potion-making, and Daphne shuddered involuntarily at the somewhat creepy tone he used for it.
"Potter!" he bellowed suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Daphne frowned. She'd seen something like that in the book — near the end. She didn't think she would know the answer to that.
Potter, evidently, didn't either. "I don't know, sir," he said.
Professor Snape sneered at him. "Tut, tut — fame clearly isn't everything."
Daphne could see that the Granger girl had had her hand raised the entire time and wondered why Professor Snape hadn't simply asked her instead.
"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
Again, a question from fairly far into the book. Daphne knew it was a stone from goat's stomach, but that was because she'd learned it when she was younger, not because she'd memorized the book so well.
"I don't know, sir," Potter said again.
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Snape asked.
Potter glared back defiantly, but said nothing, and Daphne could see his humiliation and anger. She couldn't blame him. What Snape was doing was completely unfair.
"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
The Granger girl jumped up from her seat, waving her arm into the air as far as it would go. Daphne would've laughed at it if she hadn't been so stunned at watching a teacher — a teacher! — bullying a student so openly.
"I don't know. I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?" Potter asked, to the amusement of some of the people in the class.
Snape glared at Granger. "Sit down," he snapped. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down? And a point will be taken from Gryffindor for your cheek, Potter."
Daphne couldn't believe her eyes. He'd take a point for this? Ridiculous! Even though Slytherin and Gryffindor were rivals to a quite literally legendary degree, that was no reason for Snape to abuse his power as a teacher. Professor McGonagall certainly hadn't been so vindictive during the Slytherins' first Transfiguration class.
Snape, meanwhile, had ordered the class to pair off and begin brewing a simple potion to cure boils. While the students worked, Snape patrolled through the classroom, watching them weigh and mix ingredients. Daphne noticed he spent much more time glaring at the Gryffindors than the Slytherins.
She saw Potter and the Weasley boy rummaging with ingredients, and noticed that the nettles they planned to use weren't the right species, and knew that Snape would certainly dock them points for it.
Thinking quickly, she loudly said to Davis, "It's hemp nettle, right? Not hedge nettle."
"Uh, yeah, that's what the book says," Davis replied with a curious glance at Daphne.
Daphne, though, didn't pay her much heed. Instead, she looked at Potter and Weasley, who were hastily switching the nettles.
Potter glanced in her direction, looking both grateful and surprised. Daphne gave him a small smile, then quickly returned to her own work when Snape stood next to her with a stern expression on his face.
Daphne looked back as innocently as she could, almost daring Snape to dock her a point…but he remained silent and moved on.
A few minutes later, Snape was loudly praising Malfoy's concoction, which, while undeniably close to what the book said it should look like, wasn't nearly as good as Granger's mixture, which had somehow gone unnoticed by Snape. Daphne wondered if Snape was in debt to Lucius Malfoy, that he had to praise Draco this much.
At that moment, acid green clouds of smoke and a loud hissing sound filled the dungeon. Daphne looked over, and saw that Neville Longbottom had managed to melt his partner's cauldron into twisted metal, causing corrosive potion to spread across the floor, burning people's shoes where it touched them. The stools, magically protected against exactly this kind of thing, were mercifully unharmed, and the students quickly pulled up their legs to keep themselves safe.
"Idiot boy! I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" Snape demanded as Neville whimpered in pain from the angry boils popping up all over his body, which had been drenched when the cauldron melted.
"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape said callously to Longbottom's partner, before turning to Potter and Weasley. "You — Potter — why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."
That went too far for Daphne, and she said, "Oh please. Potter's a Gryffindor. As if he'd have the forethought to do something like that. Surely you don't mean to suggest he should be in Slytherin, sir?"
Weasley looked highly offended, but Potter looked at Daphne with a curious expression. Snape's lips curled into an unpleasant smile. Many of the other Slytherins sniggered at Daphne's remark, and Snape nodded slowly.
"Very well, then. Consider yourself lucky this time, Potter. A point back to Gryffindor for being too shortsighted to plan ahead."
"That's the second time you helped them," Davis whispered neutrally when Snape had vanished the spilled potion.
Daphne shrugged. "He was going too far," she said.
She knew she'd have to be careful, doing things like that. Visibly meddling in the House rivalry would draw attention to her, and doing it on behalf of their rivals probably wouldn't bring the good kind of attention. She dearly hoped she wouldn't have to dome something like that again anytime soon.
At the end of the class, when the students were filing out into the hallway, Daphne noticed Potter looking at her, saying something to Weasley, and then walking over.
"Hi," he said awkwardly. "Thanks for helping us out back there. Twice. Er, I'm Harry, by the way. Harry Potter."
He held out his hand.
Daphne gave him an amused look. Despite all of his fame, this skinny boy with messy hair looked out of his depth.
She took his hand and said, "Daphne Greengrass."
"Nice to meet you. I, er, hadn't expected a Slytherin to help us out," Potter said.
"We're not all bad," Daphne said.
She tried to sound casual, but Potter's admission that he, after only a week at Hogwarts, already thought that everyone in Slytherin was no good stung her more than she would have liked.
"Besides, there is nothing to be gained from that kind of bullying. Snape should know better."
Potter looked at her curiously, and Daphne hoped she'd undone at least some of his prejudices against the House she'd chosen to be in.
"Well, thanks, in any case. See you," he said.
He raised his hand in greeting and walked back to Weasley, who looked at him as if he'd gone mad.
"Have you gone mad, mate? She's a Slytherin!" she heard him say.
"She helped us twice, though, didn't she? Can't be all bad then…"
Their voices trailed off, and Daphne smiled. That explained where the anti-Slytherin sentiment had come from, at least.
"So, Greengrass, what was all that about in Potions, then?" Parkinson asked Daphne in the dorm that night.
Daphne sighed. She'd expected the question to come, but that didn't mean she felt like answering it.
"I don't like senseless bullying," she said. "What does Snape stand to gain from belittling Potter? Surely he doesn't feel threatened by an eleven-year-old boy."
"He did defeat the Dark Lord, though," Parkinson said conspiratorially. "And no one knows how he did it."
Daphne laughed humorlessly. "In that case, Snape is even more foolish to taunt him, isn't he?" She shook her head. "I don't think Snape should be quite so obvious about his favoritism. It will get him, and by extension us, in trouble with everyone else. What good could come of that?"
Parkinson shot her a mocking look. "Typical Greengrass, always trying to stay neutral. You'll have to pick a side sometime, you know. Can't stay in the background forever."
Daphne shrugged. "Why not? My family's managed it so far. I don't see why that can't continue. I'm used to a comfortable life, Parkinson, and I'd like to keep it that way."
Parkinson didn't seem to fully accept what Daphne was saying, but she remained quiet.
Bulstrode, Runcorn, and Davis had been listening, but apparently had nothing to add to the conversation, so Daphne pulled the curtains shut and relaxed.
She wondered if Parkinson even really knew what she was talking about. 'Picking sides' was a thing that was very important during the war, but that war had ended when Potter had stopped the Dark Lord.
In everyday Noble House politics, there were as many sides as there were people, and the only one you could count on to be on yours was yourself.
It was exactly for that reason that Daphne's parents tried to remain as neutral as possible, always choosing the options least likely to offend people, never giving anyone ammunition against them.
As far as Daphne was concerned, there was no reason why she couldn't just stay in the background — but if she truly wanted to do that, she wouldn't be able to bail out the Gryffindors every time Snape started tormenting them. You better learn the whole Potions book by heart, Potter…