Yay, I found myself a beta-reader. My very good friend Niara is helping me out and I want to apologize to her again, for the hard work I put her through. Thank you so much my dear.
NIARA RUUUUUUUULLEEEEEEEEEZZZZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Chapter one:
One week previous:
"I hate him."
Harry didn't even bother to look up from his parchment; he knew perfectly, who his friend was referring to. And he felt tempted to fully agree with Ron. With a sigh, he started to restudy the chapter of "Healing potions and salves," which he just read. His concentration was simply deserting him, when it came to the effects of Wallwurz in a potion and what various results it could have, wherever the plant was smashed, dried, cut or squeezed. And as if that wasn't complicated enough, wherever the plant changed its effect at each different way of preparing it, it was also depending on color, state of growth, and harvest time. On top of all that, Snape demanded an essay about it. With a frustrated groan, Harry threw his quill down on the parchment end slammed the book shut.
"It's no use. I'll never learn this."
He looked over at Ron, who wasn't even pretending to study, and had his elbows braced on his book, his head buried in his hands. "I hate him," he repeated miserably. "Depending on the way you use Wallwurz, it has over threehunderd different effects on a potion. What normal human being, wizard or not, could possibly memorize all this? No one." He slightly lifted his head and peered at Harry through his eyelashes. N-O-O-N-E, I say."
"Hello you two," a joyful voice from the stairs to the girls-dormitory greeted them.
They turned their heads simultaneously, only to see a widely grinning Hermoine approaching them.
"Okay," Ron said. "Cut that. There IS someone."
Hermoine stepped to their side but as she took a glance at the books the two boys were studying, her carefree face changed within a split second into an indignant mask. "Don't tell me, that you still haven't finished Snape's homework yet? You have to hand it in tomorrow!"
"You think we don't know that?" Rom muttered, his eyes going back to the book. He stared blindly at it for a moment, before he sighed resignedly and laid his head down on the open pages. "I hate him."
Harry could not keep from grinning. It was an open secret that Ron considered everything that the potions master did or said as something terrible. Even if the man suddenly acted fairly towards them and reduce the detentions and homework to a tolerable level, Ron would still suspect another evilness behind it.
Hermoine though, didn't seem to see anything amusing in his comment. Outraged, she put her hands on her waist. "Ron Weasley: Don't you go on blaming others, when you postpone your homework until the last possible moment. We knew two weeks ago that we had to write this essay." Her glance wandered from the red-haired boy to Harry, and her look towards him was not less severe. "The same goes for you, Harry. Instead of strolling around and talk about Quiddich, you should have rather spent your time studying, then you'd know the school stuff by now.
"Quiddich is more important than Wallwurz," Ron defied dully, his head still resting on his book.
"Maybe you get to convince Snape of this too. You perfectly know that you'll get detention and at least five points minus, if you appear in potions without your homework. Besides, you'll fail the test about Wallwurz, which Snape has announced to be in two weeks.
At this reminder, Ron and Harry both produced a noise that sounded suspiciously much like a moan.
"What do I even care if you'll fail potions? I for that matter have studied the different effects of the plant cautiously." Hermione's voice clearly won some enthusiasm, as she was talking about her unusual hobby, namely studying. Harry was convinced she would show the same enthusiasm if she were to learn about the color of the wind or the wetness of water.
"Wallwurz is an amazing plant, you know? My essay has in the end gotten twice as long as demanded."
This time, the moaning of the boys was clearly audible.
And this, of course, didn't get past Hermoine, and it cooled her enthusiasm considerably and chased the proud look off her face. "Fine, just go on like this. You'll see where it'll bring you, when you fail potions. I'll go to dinner anyway. You're coming too?" she asked snappish.
Ron threw Harry a bitter look and as if on command, his stomach started to rumble loudly.
Harry sighed again. "If we leave now, we'll never finish the essay. We'll go to the kitchen later, to get some food."
"I hate him," Ron groaned once more, but he didn't protest against Harry's suggestion.
"It's entirely your own fault," Hermoine repeated saucily.
*************
"Psst, Harry. Quiet now. We're entering the war zone."
Unconsciously, Harry pulled the invisible cloak tighter around the two of them, as they entered the dungeons. The secret passage to the kitchen had only one down point. Its entrance was close to where Snape housed and none of them had the desire to bump into the cranky potions master. Last time it had happened, he had almost discovered them.
They were especially careful not to make any noise as they approached the potions classroom, when suddenly, a well-known and threatening voice made them stop in their tracks.
"Out of my dungeons, right now, or I'll get really angry!"
They turned around, or tried at least, under the hindering cloth, but behind them, the corridor was empty.
"You can't order me around, Snape."
Harry inhaled sharply, as he recognized the new voice. Also did they both see now that the angry voices came from an adjoining room further down the corridor, where a door stood slightly ajar.
Harry and Ron exchanged a questioning look, before they sneaked to the open door and glanced into the piece. Harry recognized the place instantly as Snape's supply room. While doing detention, he had once been cleaning the wall-high shelves, and the jars and glasses that were stuffed on them.
But what caught their attention, were the two men, who were facing each other in the middle of the room. And both of them were clearly angry.
Snape was dressed in his usual black robe, his hair as greasy as ever and his black eyes narrowed in resentment. Across from him stood Sirius Black in a dark-brown, well-worn robe, his gaunt face, marked of a hard life, pulled into an angry grimace.
"You can consider yourself lucky that Dumbledore is keeping you here, Black. If the Ministry would know about you, you'd be receiving the Dementor's kiss, before you can say 'I'm innocent'." Snape's voice was not very loud, but its sharpness made Harry's skin crawl. Snape was most dangerous when he spoke in a low voice. This was something every first year student learnt very fast.
"Well, the Headmaster is a little smarter than a certain, slimy Slytherin I know," Black answered with a snort.
"You've always been an arrogant bastard, Black. Growing up didn't change you a bit."
"At least I didn't have myself mark by Voldemort and can still take a look in the mirror without being ashamed of myself. You seem to have given up on that altogether anyway, or you would see how disgusting you are. You ever heard anything about soap or shampoo?"
Harry nudged Ron in the ribs, as the redhead slightly chuckled.
"Get out of my dungeons, Black. I won't repeat it again." Snape's voice was silky and had a very low, threatening timbre. Red alert, as every student knew.
But Black didn't seem impressed. "And if I stay, what will you do about it? Complain to the Headmaster? Oh, wait. Didn't you try that already? Twice even. Both times it had to do with the shrieking shack. And both times it didn't help you a bit. Dumbledore hasn't betrayed or chased me away once. Besides, he knows that I'm here. He himself invited Lupin and me to come to the school."
"Lupin is here too…" Ron whispered excitedly, but Harry shut him up with another nudge into Ron's ribs and a finger across his lips.
Snape's eyes had in the meantime gotten a murderous gleam. Faster, than Harry would have thought possible, the potions master had reached Black, grabbing him violently by the collar of his robe, his face only centimeters from the other's. "I'm warning you for the last time, Black. I don't need the Headmaster to deal with you. The dark lord is getting stronger by the moment and the ministry isn't very fond of Dumbledore. Hundreds of students are living in this castle. Hundreds of students, who believe firmly, that Sirius Black is a serial killer, and whose parents would consider everybody a hero who'd get rid of this murdering menace. Don't you dare me, Black. I can destroy you in a second if I'd wish to do so."
Black barked out a laugh, even if the laughter had a forced edge to it. "If you do that, the Headmaster will have your head."
"The Headmaster has not expelled you once, and thus he owes me something now. I have kept quiet then, about Lupin, and later on I spied for Dumbledore, while risking my life for him and his cause. Dumbledore is more than tolerable towards my actions and me. And even if he should not let me get away with killing you, and send me away from here, then I still have other possibilities than this school. So you better watch out."
"You're completely nuts, Snape. What do you mean, other possibilities?"
Snape let go of Black and stepped back. He just shrugged with an evil smirk. "Get lost, Black," he said in an almost amiable tone.
Black stared at him for another minute with an incredulous expression, before he turned angrily around and hurried to the door.
Harry and Ron had just enough time to jump out of the way, as Black rushed passed them and disappeared around the next corner of the corridor.
"I don't need the Headmaster."
The whispered words made them turn back to look into the room. Snape wore a thoughtful face, while his left hand was gripping his right forearm. At exactly the same place, where Harry had once seen the dark mark.
*********************
T.B.C. maybe:-P
Depending on what people want and on Niara and her willingness to beta the other chapters too, I'll keep on translating the rest of the fic gradually.