For unexplained reasons, Severus Snape had canceled both the enrichment and the "dunderheaded" sessions of his Third Year class. This left Harry Potter actually a little bored in his class, for once. Harry'd learned more about cutting and measuring in those four months than he had through the rest of Snape's class. He was certain if he told this to Snape, however, he'd get his head bit off.
The class had returned to it's general seating assignments, Pansy with Draco and Hermione with Neville. And the class was, in general, safer and better for it.
Harry did wonder, on occasion, what exactly Snape's reasoning had been... But, after a while, he eventually decided that
1) It was Severus Snape
2) It was futile from the first to try to understand a Slytherin's mind.
Harry however, had learned one thing from being in the Gifted Class. He wasn't all that bad at Potions. With his own hard-work-instilled self-confidence, he didn't blink when Snape assigned him detention - despite his potion being the third best in class, in terms of effectivity. Oh, fine, maybe Snape had a point that your Burn Removal potion ought not to look like a Wart Generation Potion, but... his potion would work, by gum!
Snape studied Potter, through means both foul and fair. He found himself oddly surprised. It had been ages since a student had surprised him. He'd assumed by giving Potter a day's worth of time, that Potter would use it to get out of detentions. He found himself expecting it, again and again. Most students lacked the discipline to keep something so easily spendable.
After the tenth detention, Snape had to reconsider.
Perhaps Potter was saving them for truly "unjust" punishments? (In Snape's own books, he did no such thing, though he'd admit with a flash of teeth that Potter might have taken it that way). So Snape assigned Potter detention for truly small things (never nothing, that went against his own code). He could see Potter's eyes flash green fury, and yet, not one single request for as much as five minutes.
It was perplexing.
Snape hadn't been curious about a student's behavior in the longest time.
[a/n: Yes, Snape is kinda bored of teaching. He isn't particularly good at it, and the children hate him besides. Leave a review?]