The Founding of Happiness
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
COMPLETELY AU! Partly OOC! Time travel!
It is my story, and I intend to write it the way I want it. If you don't like it, don't read it.
Reviews are very welcome, as they inspire my muse. Thank you very much for the kind reviews for the previous chapter!
Severus threw Harry a nasty look. "You missed two classes this week, during which your classmates brewed a healing salve and a fever reducing potion. You will stay until you finish both. The recipes are in your book on pages twenty-three and thirty-four."
'Thank Merlin I know the fever reducer by heart. Let's see, which healing salve he means; maybe I can brew them at the same time,' Harry thought. He considered the brewing time for a moment and decided to borrow Neville's cauldron for the second potion. He quickly gathered the ingredients he would need, prepared the cauldrons, and began to prepare the ingredients.
In the meantime, Severus remained at his own desk, grading homework. However, he was intensely watching Harry's every move. "What do you think you're doing?" he hissed, when Harry started to brew the second potion only two minutes after he had began with the first one.
"I'm going to brew the potions simultaneously," Harry replied shortly and tried to concentrate on the brewing.
"Do you want to destroy the classroom?" the professor sneered, glaring at the boy.
Harry was having a hard time concentrating anyway and preferred to ignore the teacher's comment for the time being, which naturally made the professor even more upset.
"Potter!" he shouted. "I want you to brew the potions separately!"
Harry continued the brewing process for another minute until both potions reached a stage, in which he could safely put them under a stasis charm. He waved his wand and leaned back in relief. "Professor," he began in a firm voice, "first of all, I know what I'm doing. Secondly, I don't feel well today and would like to finish as soon as possible. And finally, due to my splitting headache I have difficulties concentrating anyway; therefore it would really help if you could just let me do my work."
"If you're still ill, you should go to Madam Pomfrey," Severus sneered, giving Harry a piercing look. 'Well, he looks as if he was in a lot of pain,' Severus observed, wondering, 'How is he so confident and proficient at Potions when he grew up with his Muggle relatives?'
"May I continue, please?" Harry asked, no, begged the teacher.
"Do you need a headache potion?" Severus asked without any malice in his voice.
"No thank you, Professor. It won't help," Harry replied in a small voice. "May I continue?" Green eyes slowly looked up into the teacher's dark eyes.
"If you destroy the classroom, understand now that you'll be in detention until the end of the school year," Severus threatened using his traditional sneer.
"Thanks," Harry replied in relief and removed the stasis charms on the two cauldrons and continued on with both potions.
ハリーと幸せの願い
From the corner of his eye Severus observed Harry's every move and noticed that he knew the fever reducing potion by heart and hardly needed to consult the page containing the healing salve. 'I'll have to speak with Albus,' he mused. 'Where did this child learn to brew potions? His father was a complete dunderhead at potions.' 'Well, his mother was as adept as you were, wasn't she?' a small voice in the back of his head spoke up, but Severus dismissed the thought immediately. 'However, I cannot give the child zero points for his potions anymore. Everyone, who observes him brewing, has to realise that he knows what he's doing,' he decided.
In the meantime, Harry was having a hard time concentrating, and it was at the last step of the fever reducing potion that he nearly stirred in the wrong direction, feeling very dizzy for a moment. However, he caught himself just in time and finished the potion flawlessly. 'Thank Merlin,' he thought in relief, knowing that the healing salve would be finished in another fifteen minutes, and he would be able to go to his room and to bed.
While Harry was concentrating on the last steps of the salve, Severus examined the potion in Neville's cauldron. 'The colour looks correct,' he noticed, sniffed at the potion, and even tasted the liquid, before he stepped through the classroom and fetched a batch of phials. Keeping his voice as neutral as possible, he told Harry, "If you're finished with the healing salve, you can bottle the fever reducer in these phials. I will take this batch to Madam Pomfrey later on."
Harry nearly chocked. 'I didn't know that they use potions in the hospital wing that were brewed by students,' he mused, shuddering at the thought of one of Neville's potions being given to another student.
A few minutes later, Severus examined the healing salve and once more deemed it brewed well enough for Madam Pomfrey's use. "Has Madam Pomfrey released you to do magic yet?" he enquired.
"No sir."
Severus continued, "In that case I will bottle the salve for you." The teacher magically transferred the salve into several small glass containers and waved his wand at the containers and the phials to label both.
Seeing that Harry had to hold on to the table whenever he had to stand up while he was cleaning his working space, Severus waved his wand, clearing the whole table in the blink of an eye. Harry threw the teacher a shocked glance, muttering, "Thank you, sir."
"Follow me," the professor sneered and left the room with billowing robes, both batches of potions tucked safely under his arm.
Harry hurried after the teacher, wondering if he would be allowed to return to his room soon. However, Severus waited for him in front of the hospital wing and motioned him to follow him inside. Harry hesitantly followed the teacher to the door of Poppy's office, taking in how different and bigger everything looked compared to the time of his parents, when he had spent so much time playing in Mum Helga's office.
"Mr. Potter brewed two potions in his detention," Severus explained in a much softer voice than Harry realised that he was capable of.
Frantically trying to lean on to the doorframe, Harry didn't notice the amazed look he received from Poppy when she thanked him profoundly, nor did he hear the teacher ask Poppy to examine him. "He told me he had a splitting headache, and he is obviously feeling dizzy," Severus explained and Poppy ushered him to a nearby bed, waving her wand over him.
"He seems to be suffering from a disturbance in his equilibrium," she spoke up, giving Harry a confused look. "What happened, Mr. Potter? Do you have any idea what caused this?" she asked as she motioned him to lie down.
Harry sighed, glad that he could lie down. "Yes. This morning, I was flying on Löwi, my familiar, and then suddenly Professor McGonagall called me down, and I was so shocked that I lost the grip on Löwi and fell a few meters in a free fall before Löwi was able to catch me, but he was able to before I hit the ground. Since then I've been having problems."
"Well, that matches my diagnosis," Poppy replied softly. "Do your ears hurt as well, Mr. Potter?"
"A bit," Harry replied, feeling bad enough not to care that Severus was listening to the whole conversation.
"All right, I'm keeping you here for the time being. You'll probably be all right by Monday morning." Poppy handed Harry hospital pyjamas and asked him to change, before she headed back to her office to fetch a few potions for him, with Severus on her heels.
"Thanks for bringing him to me," Poppy thanked Severus, who inclined his head.
"Do you have any idea, how that boy can be so adept at potions?" Severus enquired, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes Severus, I know the reason, but I cannot tell you his secret. Minerva is the only one except for me, who knows, and she cannot tell you the reason either, since we are both sworn to secrecy. However, I can assure you that everything is all right," the Healer replied sternly.
ハリーと幸せの願い
Poppy kept Harry until Monday morning and secretly told him that she would have released him on Sunday evening but didn't want him to have to go back to detention again so soon. She also told him that he was the first first-year student, who had brewed a potion which Severus had deemed acceptable enough to use in the hospital wing.
Over the next few weeks, Harry continued serving detention every evening, and although Severus had talked to Harry in a normal voice when he had taken him to the hospital wing that evening, he was now back to his normal cranky and menacing self. He belittled Harry as much as he possibly could and always tried to intimidate the boy or he would breathe down his neck during class, hoping that Harry would make a mistake due to his presence. Sometimes during Potions class, Harry really had to try hard to ignore the teacher's insults and concentrate on his potion.
During most of the detentions, Harry had to clean dirty cauldrons, which he normally did with wandless magic, so that he could use the rest of the evening brewing potions that he wanted to brew. However, sometimes, when Professor Snape needed to brew potions for the hospital wing, he would remain in the classroom. Harry always hoped that the professor would assign him a potion to brew during his detention, but Professor Snape never did him the favour.
In the second half of November, Harry began to use his detention time, whenever he was unsupervised, to brew fruit drops with pears and ginger for his friends for Christmas. 'Maybe I should give some to Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey, too,' he mused. 'They are really nice to me.'
Minerva came to check on Harry nearly every evening after curfew. Although she was not his Head of House, she somehow felt responsible for the child, knowing that he didn't have a Head of House and that she was the one whom he had confided in and who knew the truth about him.
Sometimes, she even took the time to drink tea with Harry, provided that he had already finished all of his homework for the day. Minerva was very interested in the time of the founders and enjoyed all of Harry's stories a lot.
One day, Harry told her, "On one hand, I like it a lot not to be sorted into one of the Houses, because it gives me the chance to be friends with people of different Houses; however, on the other hand I'm a bit sad that I don't have the chance to play Quidditch for one of the house teams. In the past, my older self invented Quidditch and everyone just played against each other. Later when they had the first house teams, I could sometimes play as a reserve when a player was sick or injured."
Minerva eyed him thoughtfully. "What position do you prefer to play, Harry?"
"Seeker," Harry replied immediately. "I've always played Seeker, and as far as I know I've never lost a game."
"I'll speak with Professor Dumbledore about it," the professor promised. "Since you are not in a house, maybe we could make you a reserve player here as well. Would you be willing to play other positions as well?"
"Well, I would try, but I don't think that I'd be any good since I've never played anything but Seeker," Harry replied hesitantly.
"I'll also ask the Gryffindor team if they'd let you train with them, provided that you promise not to tell the other teams about their tactics, even if you played reserve Seeker for their team," Minerva continued thoughtfully.
"Of course I'll promise that," Harry reassured the professor.
Later in bed, Harry reflected on his conversation with Minerva and thought longingly, 'It would be brilliant if I could play Quidditch again.' Neither Minerva nor Harry could know that this dream would come true only two weeks later.
ハリーと幸せの願い
On the Friday evening before the first Quidditch match of the school year, Gryffindor versus Slytherin, Severus entered the staff room for the staff meeting in a very bad mood. "What's wrong, Severus?" Minerva asked immediately.
"Well, it's good for you, Minerva. One of the Slytherin Beaters broke his leg in the Quidditch practice right before dinner, and Poppy told him that he wouldn't be able to play tomorrow," Severus explained, sounding very annoyed.
Minerva smirked. "Would your Seeker be able to play Beater?"
"Our Seeker? Beater? Minerva, are you all right? Are you telling me we should play without a Seeker?" Severus sneered.
"What I meant is the following," Minerva explained. "As everyone knows, Harry isn't sorted but belongs to all houses. Therefore, he can't play in one fixed team. However, and in fact I wanted to speak about that in our meeting tonight, he's a very good Seeker, and Albus and I thought that he could play as reserve Seeker for any house team in need of a reserve, even if he is still a first year."
"You want Potter to play Seeker for Slytherin against Gryffindor?" Severus asked incredulously.
"I'm sure that Gryffindor will lose, but, well, maybe we'll be able to let Harry play for us at another time," Minerva replied crisply.
"I've seen him flying and catching the Snitch," Rolanda spoke up. "He is absolutely brilliant."
"Do you think he could fly with my team for a while right now, so that they'll be at least familiar with each other?" Severus asked.
"He's once again serving detention in your classroom anyway. Just go and ask him," Minerva replied. "We'll excuse you for a while."
Severus stormed away and entered the Slytherin common room, calling his Quidditch team together. He told his students about Minerva's suggestion and asked, "Are you interested? Would you like to practise with Potter tonight?"
"No, we don't have to practise with him," Marcus Flint, the team captain, spoke up. "I know how he flies; he's extremely good. If we can get him for the match tomorrow, then of course we want him, Professor."
"Very well, Flint. Potter's serving detention in the Potions classroom. Go and ask him if he is willing to play for us tomorrow. I have to return to the staff meeting."
Harry had just finished cleaning the cauldrons and was contemplating if he should brew a potion or flash two hours into the future, when the door opened and Marcus Flint entered the room. "Hello Harry," he said in a friendly greeting. "Detention?"
"Yes," Harry sighed. "Your Head of House loves having me here in detention."
"I'd like to ask you something, Harry. Would you be willing to play Seeker for us tomorrow in the match against Gryffindor?"
Harry didn't even think about it. "Of course," he blurted out, immediately.
ハリーと幸せの願い
On Saturday morning, Minerva came into Harry's room and handed him a set of Slytherin Quidditch robes. "Harry, I'm glad that you have the opportunity to play, and I wish you good luck, although I'd be happier if you were playing for Gryffindor," she said smirking.
"Thanks, Professor," Harry answered, feeling very grateful towards the teacher.
In spite of being much too excited to eat a bite, he joined Blaise and Draco, whom he was getting along with as well, at the Slytherin table for breakfast. While he was talking with Blaise and Draco, he saw the Slytherin Head of House approach the corner of the table, where a few of the older students from the Quidditch team were sitting. Like from far away he could hear the professor sneer, "I just hope that they made him reserve Seeker because of his skills and not only due to his fame."