A/N: I do not own Harry Potter or any character thereof! I just like to play with them. *nods*

Chapter 71

January 2, 1995

I've still not figured out my egg. February 25th looks a lot closer on this side of Christmas. I can feel the panic settling in now.

I wrote a letter to Sirius telling him about me taking Gabriella to the ball. It's a good thing I did because it was in the Prophet the next day. I just hope he's not mad at me.

I did notice that there wasn't any article by Rita Skeeter in the paper. It makes me wonder what Dumbledore did with her.

I think Snape is the one that sent me the necklace. He's the only one that would be that cryptic about sending me something. It makes me feel strange that he and my mom were friends and that he gave me a necklace belonging to her. He's still not told me whatever it was that he started to tell me back in October. I wonder if he's forgotten all about it. I suppose I could ask him. I figure the worst thing he could do is throw me out of his office.

Gabby has become my girlfriend. Hermione says that she has at any rate. I don't understand all the giggling though. I've never noticed it before, but it seems to be all girls do.

Strangely enough, Theodore Nott has left me alone. I'm gonna have to corner Malfoy and find out what he whispered to him at the ball. My guess is that he's the one that got him to back off … and I want to know why. Ron said that it was a rite of passage being an overprotective big brother. Neville told me that Ron had cornered him before the ball and threatened to do horrible things to him if he so much as glanced at Ginny wrong.

Ron has calmed down since Christmas night. He and Hermione have an unspoken agreement to not mention the after math of the dance again. Unfortunately, neither would tell me how the fight got started. I suppose as long as they're not fighting, I shouldn't worry about it.

-Harry

Severus had just fallen asleep when he was alerted that the wards in his potions cupboard were broken. (Unfortunately he couldn't put stronger wards on the cupboard because the magic would interfere with the ingredients.)

Grabbing his robe, he headed straight there and found Moody rummaging around again. This was the 4th time he'd caught the man in there.

"Moody! Remove yourself at once!"

"Go back to bed Snape."

"That is my property and you will remove yourself from it. Now!"

"I'm looking for dark artifacts with the Headmaster's permission."

"At 1am?" he asked incredulously.

"Of course. Can't give you time to hide anything."

"You are off your rocker. As I have explained to you previously, the Headmaster happens to trust me. Now remove yourself from my ingredient cupboard or I'm going to go wake him up so he can tell you that personally."

"I'm going. Just remember Snape. Once placed, those spots don't come off. I'll always be watching you."

After Moody walked away, Severus replaced the wards on the ingredient cupboard and headed back to bed.

Moody has lost it. The man knew which side Snape had been on during the war but now he's acting as if he didn't remember anything at all. He supposed it was just a matter of time before the curses started flying.

"It's important Ron."

"Alright. When did you want me to distract Crabbe and Goyle?"

"After dinner. I'll head down and wait on Malfoy."

Ron scowled. "I don't like you meeting with him on your own."

"I need to know," whispered Harry, "and besides, I'll be fine. How are you going to distract them?"

"How else?" Ron shrugged as he grinned slightly. "I'm going to use food. I figure I can buy you 10 minutes of time."

Harry nodded. That's all he needed.

Hermione swung around in her chair. "What are you two whispering about back there?"

"Nothing," they both answered simultaneously, while trying to look innocent. Harry suspected that they both looked like they had just been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

"Malfoy," hissed Harry quietly.

Malfoy looked around and saw Harry standing in a darkened corner. "What are you doing lurking around the Slytherin corridor?"

"Waiting on Gabriella. I have a question for you."

"To have a question would mean that you have the ability to think. It's my understanding that you can't do that very well."

Harry simply rolled his eyes while glancing around to make sure Crabbe and Goyle didn't come blundering by. "What did you tell Nott to make him back off of me? And the rest of the Slytherin house for that matter."

To his consternation, Malfoy laughed.

"You mean you don't know?"

"I wouldn't ask if I did."

"Honestly Potter. You've got most of them so confused they don't know if they're coming or going. After all, a Gryffindor does not date a Slytherin. Especially if that Gryffindor is the boy-who-lived. Between that and the rumor going around that the sorting hat actually wanted to place you in Slytherin …"

Malfoy paused … no doubt wanting confirmation. When Harry didn't give any indication one way or another, he continued speaking.

"Well, most don't know how to take you now. You have successfully out Slytherin'd the whole house of Slytherin. You must be proud," sneered the blonde boy.

"And what did you say to Nott at the ball? Other than some glares, and a ruined potion or two, he's largely left me alone."

Malfoy shrugged. "I told him that when you break her heart later, he'll have a reason to kill you."

"Thanks a lot," Harry said frowning.

"My pleasure Potty."

Harry pushed himself off the wall and went to head back upstairs when Malfoy stopped him.

"I thought you were waiting on Gabriella?"

Harry smirked. "I seem to have just remembered that she's serving detention. Later Malfoy." As he walked away, he heard the blonde grumble to himself.

When he reached the last set of stairs that led to the main floor he passed Crabbe and Goyle, who were indeed stuffing their face as they walked by. They didn't even seem to notice him.

Harry was looking at the egg. Every time he opened it, it wailed something horrible.

There was some form of writing along the edge of one side and the rest of it was decorated with circles and what looked like plants.

The writing looked like they could be a form of ancient runes but it wasn't something he had studied yet.

Harry carefully sat the egg on his bed and rummaged through his desk for his ancient runes dictionary.

After an hour of searching through the dictionary, he gave up. He could only figure out one word. The last word was open. It didn't exactly help him any.

Giving up for the day, he picked up his book bag and headed down to the common room.

"Hey Harry."

Harry looked up and smiled. "Hey Gabby. Pull up a chair."

"Whatcha working on?"

"Transfiguration essay."

He snickered at the face she made. Evidently she wasn't any better at it than he was.

"Harry can you read this and see if it makes sense?" Neville asked pointing to whatever essay he was writing.

"Sure." Harry took it and looked it over. "It makes sense but you might want to re-read the section on boiling the pus."

"Ew," the entire table said at the same time, earning them a glare from Madam Pince.

About an hour after Gabriella had joined them, while Harry had been semi-working on his homework, he had his first version of a waking dream.

It was like Voldemort was mad over something. There were curses flying everywhere. Wormtail was huddled in the corner trembling.

"Master we can move the plan up. We can take the boy now."

"No Wormtail. I do not yet have the strength to survive the ritual and if we take the boy now, it just increases the odds that he could be rescued. Send a letter to our friend and tell him that I demand better."

When Harry opened his eyes, he was on the floor throwing up.

'Honestly. I don't get enough of this at night?' he thought.

"Harry, are you alright?" he heard around the ringing in his ears.

Harry nodded as he sat up. Force of habit made him reach up and touch the scar. 'At least it's not bleeding.'

"Harry, you need to go see Madam Pomphrey," Hermione said sternly as she vanished where he got sick.

"C'mon. I'll walk you there," Gabriella whispered as she helped him up.

Harry warily nodded. After a quick stop at the boy's bathroom to rinse his mouth out, he rejoined her in the hallway.

"What was that about?"

Harry didn't want to lie to her so he opted for the half truth. "I get bad headaches sometimes, sort of like having a migraine. All the pain happens at once and it causes me to get sick. Unfortunately I get about a 2 second warning when they happen and uh ... it normally happens at night. Thankfully, they don't last long. I have a potion in my trunk so I don't need to go to the infirmary."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Besides, Madam Pomphrey might decide to keep me. I'm sorry if that freaked you out."

"It takes a lot to freak me out. It just worried me is all, especially when Ron and Hermione didn't do anything to help you at first."

"Sorry," Harry said sheepishly, then added, "they've seen me get those headaches before. There's nothing that can be done except to wait it out. Normally I feel better after I sick up."

She made a funny face at that and Harry figured that he had probably shared too much information, again. They walked the rest of the way to the tower in comfortable silence.

Since neither of them knew how cross house visitation worked, she waited on the steps while Harry ran upstairs to splash water on his face and to supposedly take a potion. What he really done was scribble out what he remembered on a note and gave it to his waiting owl (as if she knew that she was needed) to take to the Headmaster.

"Where do you wanna go?" Harry asked as he exited the portrait. He didn't want to go back to the library and study anymore that evening, especially since Hermione would realize that he didn't go to the infirmary.

"The Great Hall for a game of chess." Clearly Gabriella didn't want to study anymore either.

"You and Ron should play. I'm pants at chess."

"I know. It's always fun beating you."

They hurried off towards the Great Hall only to be ambushed by Moody.

"You two slow down. Never know what's around the corner. Constant vigilance!"

"Alright Professor," they both said.

"We've been dealing with poisons for a while so now we're going to deal with antidotes. I hope you all have done your reading, because if you haven't, then today's grade shall be obtained very easily." Snape said as he swooped in the room. "You will fail.

"I shall give you all a scenario in which you are to brew the potion. You must stay within the parameter's of the scenario or you will also fail."

The class sat up straighter, clearly intrigued by this idea.

"Let's say that you were all pricked by a howling thorn in enemy territory. You look around and see the ingredients you need to make the antidote but there is a problem.

"Any magic use will bring the enemy straight to your location. Assuming any of you could apparate, there are anti-apparation barriers up. A port key cannot be used either," he said, clearly hoping to not give anyone any bright idea's by not brewing the potion.

"As I'm sure you remember, the howling thorn poison will start to take effect fully in 45 minutes. This is a pass / fail practical. I will erect barriers up in a second to ensure that no cheating occurs."

Harry watched as Snape waved his wand causing barriers to be immediately erected around everyone's work station.

"Begin. Now."

Harry looked down at the six ingredients in front of him. At least two needed to be heated for the antidote. One he could use as a base. During his mental intake of ingredients, he paused on the last one.

It was a carafax leaf, at least he thought it was a carafax leaf. If it was, it would only aggravate the poison, so Harry pushed it away.

'Okay. Well, I probably wouldn't have a cauldron in enemy territory,' he mused so he pushed it away as well.

About 10 minutes into the process he heard an alarm.

"I said no magic, Mr. Crabbe."

As Harry was using his finger to mush the paste together, hoping that his innate magic wouldn't set off the alarm – and that it would be enough to bind the ingredients together, he heard Hermione huff. He was tempted to peek to see what had her frustrated because it didn't happen often but knew that Snape would fail him in an instant.

Harry picked up the final ingredient and blew hot air into it while letting the juice it excreted when heated hit his salve.

He had just finished mixing it all together when Snape called out that it was time to stop.

Harry watched as he took down the barriers.

"Any of you that used a cauldron failed."

There were immediate cries of outrage because that had been 3/4ths of the class.

"But sir," protested Seamus.

"Do you normally carry your cauldron with you, Mr. Finnigan?"

"No," he muttered.

"I thought not."

There were 5 people left that had not used the cauldron.

"Ms. Granger and Mr. Nott, you both failed because I saw smoke coming from your locations."

"But sir, we needed heat for two of the ingredients."

"While I am impressed that you both had managed to get a fire going without the use of magic, you gave your location away to the enemy. Even if you did manage to escape them again, you would not have had time to re-brew the antidote."

"Sir," protested Hermione. "How else were we going to get the precise amount of juice from the ingredients needed for the antidote?"

"Parkinson, tell Ms. Granger how you obtained the juice you needed."

"I held the ingredient in between my hands to heat it up and then blew hot air on it. It put out the right amount of juice when I done so," she said with a superior smirk.

"But sir, that's not how the book said to do it. It said that you had to -"

"I'm fully aware of what the book said, Ms. Granger. You cannot always trust in books, especially when you are dealing with a scenario like that one I gave you at the beginning of class."

"Not trust in books?" she screeched.

"Yes, using a fire would have allowed for proper measurement of the ingredients, but even a crudely put together antidote for the howling thorn poison would have worked, buying you some time to get out of enemy territory and someplace where you could properly make it."

Harry heard Hermione huff. He made a mental note to avoid her later. The last time Snape told her that she was wrong, she flew into a rage, actually hexing him and Ron when they had tried to calm her down.

Harry then watched as Snape looked closer at Malfoy's paste, Parkinson's paste, and then finally his paste.

"You have to be kidding me," Snape said as he walked away from Harry's antidote. "Merlin save me from dunderheads and idiots. You all take your O.W.L.'s next year and as long as you all do not read, nor think outside of what's written and use your brain, only Potter, as much as it disgusts me to say, will pass them.

"Malfoy and Parkinson, you both managed to poison yourself even further."

Harry startled. Snape had given him a compliment – if a person squinted really hard. Well, that is until he spoke up again. "Stay after class Potter. I want to know how you cheated … and I will find out." The threat in that was quite clear.

After class let out, Harry shuffled to the front of the room. He flinched when Snape slammed the door using his wand.

"How did you know that a carafax leaf would cause the poison to speed up?"

"I read it, sir."

"Not in your potions textbook you didn't."

Harry was instantly suspicious. "I'm confused, sir. Everyone was supposed to fail?"

Snape nodded. "It was an exercise to get you all to start thinking outside of what is written in the book. No one in 5 years has brewed that potion correctly for one reason or another."

"Sir, I didn't cheat. I swear. I have other potion books. I must have read it in there."

"I'm aware that you didn't cheat Potter. You will receive a pass for the day, but do not tell anyone."

Wide eyed, Harry nodded. "Sir ..." he hesitated briefly before plowing on with his question. "Were you the one that sent me my anonymous present at Christmas?" Harry reached up and fiddled with his invisible necklace.

"I'm afraid I do not know to what you are referring."

"Oh. It's just that you told me before that you and my mom were friends …"

Harry watched as Snape circled around to the front of his desk and sat on it. "We were. We were practically inseparable. You should know that she would have been proud of you for not allowing prejudices against the other houses stop you from taking Miss Nott to the ball."

"You think so?"

"I do. They certainly didn't stop us from going to dances together while we were in school. She would be pleased to know that you are following in her footsteps in that regard."

Harry's eyes went comically wide. "Professor, a couple of months ago you wanted to tell me something but was interrupted because Malfoy had come knocking on the door. What was it you wanted to tell me?"

"I ..." Severus paused. Should he tell Potter now? Was this a sign that it time to do so. They still hadn't figured out how his name had gotten into the goblet to start with. He glanced at Harry who was patiently looking at him.

"Potter ... Harry. What I have to tell you is very important, but you will not be able to tell anyone, not even your friends. I'm ... unsure as to whether you can actually handle the knowledge of what I need to say. I'm afraid that it might distract you from the remaining two tasks in this tournament. People have died in the past while participating and I would prefer that it wasn't you. I need you to keep your wits about you."

Harry frowned. What in the name of Merlin would make Snape think he couldn't handle whatever the man had to tell him. "I won't let it distract me and if I can't tell anyone, then I won't. I do know how to keep a secret."

Snape chuckled, which surprised Harry. "Trust me, Harry. With what I have to tell you, it will distract you a great deal. In fact, I fully expect for there to be explosions of some sort. No. Not right now. At the end of the year, after these tasks are finished, I give you my word that I will tell you then."

Harry ran his hand through his hair with frustration but nodded.

"Now, it's time for dinner and you have 3 essay's to write. And Potter ..."

Harry looked up from picking up his book bag.

"Let's keep this entire conversation between us."

Harry grinned wryly. "No one would believe me anyway, sir."

When Harry left the classroom, Severus returned to his chair.

'Maybe … just maybe I can do this father thing after all,' he thought. And if Harry does indeed keep what he just imparted to the boy a secret, then surely he'd be able to keep their relationship a secret as well. Hopefully he'd be able to finally tell the boy the truth at the end of the year. Of course, if Albus ever figured out how his name ended up in the Goblet to start with, he could even tell Harry the truth sooner than that.

And for the very first time, that thought didn't terrify him.

A/N: Step away from the pitchforks and other sharp objects! *hides behind a tree*

First of all, I do not hate Hermione, which I'm sure a lot of you will think that I do from this chapter and one of the previous ones. She's actually one of my favorite character's from the book. She would have also passed Snape's little scenario had she not built the fire because she also didn't use the carafax leaf. Snape had been looking for something in everyone's work to fail them. Unfortunately, he wasn't counting on Harry to pass. It was like he said, he's trying to get everyone to learn to think outside of what's written. (Growing up, one of my best friends had a photographic memory. She could read something then never have to look at it again. Her papers were full of facts and just basically said what the books had said, just worded differently. When it came to applying herself to things where she had to do something different from what a book said, she had difficulty. So I'm loosely basing what I know of people with photographic memories off of her - and, yes, I do realize that not everyone is like that.) =)

Second of all, I needed Snape to finally come to terms with being Harry's father ... and I didn't see any better way of doing so than letting Snape see a bit of himself (and Lily) in his potion making skills. Now that that's out of the way, there appears to be just the obstacle of making sure that good old Lord Moldy-Pants isn't responsible for Harry's name finding it's way into the goblet. I will say that there is another opportunity to tell Harry the truth before the third task. ;-) And as you just saw ... the thought of telling Harry the truth doesn't terrify Snape anymore. *carefully peeks out from around the tree to see if the sharp objects were dropped*

I would also like to thank everyone for the great reviews! I didn't expect Gabriella to be received on such a good note. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy that she was. =) And first time reviewer's are always welcome. I like reviews. =)

Up next, Harry get's suspicious about what Snape is wanting to tell him, so he sends a letter to Remus. *shifty eyed* I do have a Valentine's Day scene written and I'm debating on how long to make the next chapter. If I decide to make it go all the way up until the first task, then it will be included. If I don't, then it will be in the one after that. It just depends on how long I want to make it. I will admit to procrastinating posting this chapter because of all the things you all might throw at me, but I should have the next one up in a couple of days. I just need to decide on how long it's going to be.

*Leaves out all kinds of treats and shiny things to keep everyone occupied and flee's again* =)