Sorry it's been so long! I don't know where the time went. Hope you enjoy this chapter, will try take take your opinions into account. Please review!
Disclaimer:I do not own Harry Potter
When Harry walked out of transfiguration he was disappointed to see that none of the Marauders had waited for him. He thought James would want to at least, if only because he had Lily with him. But there was no one in sight, and Lily and Harry proceeded to the Charms classroom by themselves, Lily chatting animatedly at his side.
"It's nice to have someone to walk with for once," she said happily, "none of my friends take both transfiguration and potions, and the only other people in Gryffindor who do are Potter and Black."
She scowled as she finished the sentence, causing Harry to chuckle.
"You know, for someone who hates him, you really do talk about James a lot."
Lily blushed red and stared at him, outraged.
"I do not fancy him! He is the most…he's just so…I hate him!"
Harry smirked at her.
"I never said you didn't. I just said you talked about him a lot."
Realising what he meant, Lily went even redder, huffed, and stormed off down the stairs to the dungeons, Harry running after her, laughing.
He caught up with her at the door to the Potions classroom, still chortling. She glared at him, before pushing the door open and entering.
Lily hurried over to sit with her friends at a table, whilst Harry looked around for Sirius and James. Remus didn't take the class because he was terrible at Potions, and Pettigrew was just down-right dangerous.
Harry moved over to sit next to James, but as he sat, he found nothing to hold him up. He overbalanced and fell over, his bag falling on top of him. Laughter rang in his ears, and as he looked up he was surprised and hurt to see that James and Sirius were joining in loudly.
He stood up and looked around, puzzled. He was sure that there had been a chair there a few moments before. He looked suspiciously at Sirius, who was smirking arrogantly. Before Harry could ask, Professor Slughorn entered the classroom, and all fell quiet.
Slughorn walked to the front of the class and turned around. Only then did he see Harry standing in the middle of the room, looking rather confused.
"Ah, so you must be the new boy," Slughorn said, cheerfully, "Well, we must find you a seat. Let's see…" He looked around, searching the room for an empty chair. "Well, you can sit next to Mr Snape!"
Harry did a double-take. He had not realised that sharing classes with the Slytherins would mean that he would be meeting his old Potions professor. However, he was willing to give this Snape a chance; he was only a teenager, and his future self did save the world in the end. Sort of.
Still, it was with a resigned air that he sat down in the darkest corner of the dungeon. He smiled politely at Snape, faltering when he received a scowl in response.
"Right then!" Said Slughorn, clapping his hands together, "Today we will be working in pairs to brew a lovely little potion called the Draught of Living Death. I know, Miss Evans, that it is a sixth year potion, but I feel we should start with the basics, just to see how much we can remember."
Harry jumped a little at the potion. It was the first one he had made using the Half-Blood Prince's book, and now he would be making it with the Half-Blood Prince himself. Weird…
Snape was already at the store cupboard retrieving ingredients for the potion. Harry jumped up to help, but Snape was already back, turning up the heat on his cauldron.
"Just do what I say." He muttered, glaring at his potion. Harry raised his eyebrows. This seemed odd even for Snape. Maybe he should try and make friends with the Slytherin.
They continued the potion in silence, Harry chopping and weighing ingredients, Snape adding them and stirring the potion. It was the precise shade of violet described, but Snape seemed to be struggling to get it any further. His brow was furrowed and his eyes dark.
"Try stirring once clockwise after every seven clockwise stirs," Harry added helpfully. Snape stared at him.
"What?" He asked.
"After every seve-" "Yes yes, I heard you." Snape said impatiently, "But what did you mean? It says in the book clockwise?"
Harry grinned.
"Not sure why, but it works. A…friend told me. Try it."
Watching him suspiciously, Snape stirred seven times counter-clockwise, followed by once clockwise. Harry almost laughed at Snape's face as it turned the perfect shade of pink.
Muttering, Snape bent over his potions book and scribbled in the same, cramped handwriting that had got Harry through sixth year. Just then, Slughorn appeared.
"My, my!" He said in astonishment as he glanced into their cauldron. "It is perfect! Well done Mr Snape! I assume you learnt of the more complicated version of the potion – the one in the book is only elementary of course?"
Harry sat back, fully expecting Snape to take the credit – after all, it was his hint technically – so he was pleasantly surprised when Snape spoke.
"Actually sir, it was Otter who knew what to do. It was him who thought of stirring counter-clockwise."
Slughorn looked astonished for a moment before turning his scrutinising gaze upon Harry.
"Well, it seems we have a potions expert in the class! Tell you what my boy, I'm having a little get together next Monday – nothing to big, just a little party for some selected students. It would be an honor for you to come. What do you say?"
Harry groaned inwardly. Even here he had managed to get into the Slug Club! He couldn't really say no, he hadn't been at school long enough to have a plausible excuse. Instead, he kept a straight face and answered as politely as possible.
"I would be delighted sir. I will try and make it."
"Good!" Said Slughorn joyfully, "Well, ten points each to you and Mr Snape. I haven't seen potion like this for years!"
With that he bounced off to the other side of the classroom, where most of the class had packed their books and were ready to leave. Snape quickly stuffed his books in his bag and turned to leave, but Harry stopped him.
"Why did you do that?" He asked quietly, making sure that the last few Gryffindors leaving couldn't hear, "You could have taken the credit yourself?"
Snape's permanent scowl deepened.
"I don't take credit for what other people deserve. I'm not that arrogant."
Harry grimaced. It seemed his likeness to his father was affecting Snape even now.
"Well, do you want to be partners in potions? I could do with a partner and I know some good tricks for some of the potions."
Snape looked startled for a second, before his scowl returned.
"Your friends would not like that." He said, hatred crossing his face.
Now it was Harry's turn to frown. He had not thought about how his father would take his friendliness towards Snape. But then again he thought, thinking back to James and Sirius laughing at him as he fell to the floor, they didn't control who he made friends with. He shook himself, and answered Snape.
"I don't care. They don't control who I'm friends with. So what do you say?"
Snape glared at him for a second.
"Fine," he snapped, "But you better know some good potions."
Then he turned and swept out of the room in such a way that Harry almost believed he was back in the future, he looked just like his older self.
Shaking his head, Harry smiled. Maybe Snape could open up a bit, make some friends if Harry was nice to him. He could not change the future, but for all he knew he could have affected why Snape acted the way he did. Acted? Acts? Will act? This future stuff was confusing.
Shaking his head, Harry gathered his books and headed for the door. He opened it, and the smile slipped off his face. Snape was lying on the floor, immobilised and wandless, whilst James and Sirius stood over him, sneering. Lily was nowhere in sight.
"What's the matter Snape? Can't get up? Oh well, guess you'll have to stay here for the next few hours." Sirius said, a nasty sneer on his face that reminded Harry far too much of Draco Malfoy.
James laughed, a cruel glint in his eyes.
"That's okay Sirius, no one will come looking for him – that would imply someone cared about him, the greasy haired freak."
At the word freak, Harry snapped out of his horrified stupor.
"Expelliarmus!" He roared, pointing his wand at both James and Sirius. He barely had time to register the surprise on their faces before he was holding both their wands, standing in between them and Snape.
"What are you doing Otter? This isn't your fight." Sirius growled, attempting to grab his wand back.
Harry kept it out of reach, but laughed without humor.
"Fight? Some fight, two against one, defenseless and unprepared. I thought you were better than this Sirius."
"You don't know us at all!" James stepped forward, glaring at Harry. Harry recoiled slightly; he had not been expecting the amount of hate in his father's eyes. "You aren't our friend."
Seeing Harry's confused face he continued, "You are not one of us, and you never will be. Especially if you help little scumbags like Snivellous. He threw a contemptuous glance in Snape's direction. "Wherever they are, I'm sure your parents are proud of you."
Harry did not think about what he was doing. He stepped forward and punched James in the nose with all the strength he could muster. He felt a satisfying crunch and heard Sirius yell. He turned, eyes glowing with anger.
"Don't move!" He snapped at Sirius, who was halfway to helping his friend. Sirius froze, glaring up at Harry.
Harry muttered the counter curse and freed Snape, who got up warily.
"Go!" Harry barked at him, wand still directed at Sirius. Snape backed away uneasily, picking up his wand from where it had fallen. He walked quickly out of sight, his footsteps speeding up.
"I'm going to put your wands down and leave," Harry said to Sirius, who was glaring at him with hate, "You won't come after me. You need to get James to the hospital wing."
Glancing down at his friend, Sirius scowled.
"This isn't over Otter, you'd better watch yourself from now on."
Harry ignored him and put both James and Sirius' wands on the floor. And walked away quickly. As he rounded a corner, he saw Sirius levitating James and glaring after Harry. Harry kept walking. He needed to be alone.
What do you think? I know it's not great, but I really wanted to get something up. Thx for reading!