The next morning, Severus collected Harry and brought him down to the potions lab. Harry was amazed to find the several workstations had been set up in the room. Severus had set Harry up in the front of the room next to his workstation. Harry beamed when he saw his own Pewter Cauldron and ingredients. Harry smiled when he saw that Severus was wearing the gloves Harry had gotten him for Christmas. Harry put his own gloves on and smiled at his cauldron.
When the first year students made their way into the room, Harry noted that they're ties were different colours. Some were green and silver and others were red and gold. Harry knew that the green and silver were Slytherin and the red and Gold were Gryffindor. They were both staring up at Harry with big smiles.
"Class, I'd like to introduce you to Harry Potter. Harry has a passion for potions and will be attending class with you. I trust that you will be welcoming towards Mr Potter," Severus said smirking. "Today we will be brewing Hiccoughing Solution. Who can tell me what the volatile ingredient is?"
Harry knew this but wanted to give the older students a chance. But when nobody volunteered, Harry slowly raised his hand, causing Severus to nod.
"Mint leaves because of the reaction they have to the other ingredients," Harry said.
The students in the class stared at their ingredients and Harry smiled slightly, his face turning a bit pink.
"That is correct, Harry. Five points!" Harry watched as five green gems dropped into his hourglass. He noticed that the Slytherin students smiled wider when they saw his gems were green. Harry grinned at his hourglass and began getting his ingredients ready. Harry could see first-year students watching him carefully and if they saw Harry doing something they weren't doing, they would quickly follow his lead. It made Harry feel proud and it made him want to work harder. Occasionally Severus would peer into Harry's cauldron and nod. He would also nod when he passed the cauldrons of those following Harry's lead which was mostly Slytherins and a few Gryffindors.
When Harry completed his potion, Severus had nodded and awarded Harry five more points. As more students finished, he would hear Severus go and check their potions. Those who had followed Harry's lead did better than those who didn't.
"Were you even trying? How did your potion turn yellow? Was it because you left out your mint leaves? I want a six inch paper on why it's bad to leave ingredients out of potions," Severus said to a Gryffindor first year who had simply thrown his ingredients into the cauldron at the last minute. "We'll take a quick break and return in five minutes."
When two Slytherin boys approach Harry, he got a little bit nervous but refused to show it. He sat up straight and put a confident face on. One of the boys was tall and thin with short black hair and the other boy was shorter with curly blonde hair.
"Hello, Harry. I'm Duncan and this is Dave. We noticed you're really good at potions and wanted to ask where you learnt it?" the dark-haired boy said in a smooth voice.
Harry smiled and told them about how he'd worked with Remus and Severus over the holiday. They seemed shocked and excited to hear that.
"Snape is a great potions teacher. It's my favourite class as well," Dave said. "You appear to have a natural affinity for the subject. Will you be coming to more classes?"
Harry shrugged, he hoped so because he enjoyed learning the same potions the older kids were learning. If it weren't for the fact that Harry was just learning how to write, he'd have even done the essay Snape had talked about.
"I have my own potions set in my room; Severus bought it for me so I could practice. He only said not to make potions without letting someone know," Harry said with a cheerful voice.
"He's right about that. Potions can be dangerous. Ingredients can explode, cauldrons can melt and people can get hurt. The Gryffindors are always melting their cauldrons and blowing up their ingredients," Duncan said causing Harry and Dave to laugh. Harry did notice that the Gryffindor students had messier workstations than the Slytherin students.
"Snape is always making sure we're doing well in our classes. We have a study hour with the older Slytherins to make sure we understand the subjects and that we're doing what the teachers expect," Dave said proudly. "It works really well and it's such a shame the other houses don't follow this."
Harry turned around to find Severus standing at the chalkboard, writing the next potion onto the board and he noticed the other students were filling back into the classroom.
"Are you going to the Quidditch game? You should sit with us," Dave asked, causing Harry to smile.
"I've never seen a real Quidditch game," Harry said honestly, wondering what it was going to be like.
"It's Slytherin vs Hufflepuff... They might as well give us the win now!" Duncan laughed. Harry chuckled as well. Hufflepuff didn't sound like a very tough name and he could almost tell why Duncan was laughing.
"I'll have to ask but I don't see why not," Harry said cheerfully before grinning at the board. The next potion was going to be a body warming potion, Harry had made that potion before with Remus and was excited to make this potion again. He told Duncan and Dave that this potion was easy and even told them the best way to crush the coal stone.
Severus cleared his throat for class to continue. Before the end of class, Harry watched shocked at a Gryffindor blew up his ingredients. Harry couldn't help remember what Duncan had said. It was the same student who had messed up his last potion. When class was over, Harry stayed behind with Severus while the rest of the class went off to their next classes.
"I see you were speaking with Dave and Duncan. They're good students, you could learn a lot from them," Severus said smirking. "I was impressed by your performance today. I agree that you do possess a natural affinity for this class," Severus said. "It's a pity I can't actually give you a mark for your potion but I can give you ten points for completing your potion and five more points for helping your classmates."
Harry beamed as he realized he had earned twenty-five points that class and when Remus showed up to take Harry back to his quarters, Harry excitidly told Remus all about his first potions class and how the students had thought he was talented in potions.
"Can I go to the Quidditch match with Duncan and Dave?" Harry asked after they had finished reading a story. Remus had told Harry that if Snape trusted them to keep an eye on Harry that he wouldn't have a problem with Harry going to the match with them. Harry smiled and fell off into a deep slumber, dreaming about the amazing day he had.