Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or much else for that matter. ;)

Chapter 109

"I don't understand," huffed Hermione.

That statement alone had Harry and Ron looking at her incredulously.

"Uh, what don't you understand?" asked Harry carefully.

"This assignment for Professor Snape. He said my potion was wrong, but I can't figure out what I did incorrectly. I followed the directions word for word."

Harry and Ron looked at each other, clearly, neither of them wanting to answer her.

His and Malfoy's potions had turned out near perfect, which made him all the more wary to answer her. Ron had been on the right track but he had missed an important step, which had caused it to become chunky.

Finally, Harry took up the challenge of breaking this to her as gently as he could. "Hermione, the book is wrong."

Just as he expected, she looked at him like he had grown a second head.

"Books aren't wrong."

"They can be sometimes. Misprints happen, methods go out of style, ingredients become harder to get ..."

"Then why use those books?" she demanded.

"So that we can learn," answered Ron - which clearly surprised her. "I've had both Bill and Charlie tell me that whatever O.W.L. potion we brew, the recipe is wrong and that in order to pass with an Outstanding, we have to figure out the correct version and brew it. The N.E.W.T.'s are like that too, but the potion is supposedly a lot more complicated."

"But how can anyone do that?"

"Harry did it just fine and so did Malfoy."

He sent a traitorous glare toward Ron.

"But I'm sure Harry has been receiving tutoring from Professor Snape."

His eyes, no doubt, showed how hurt he was. He quickly gathered his stuff and stood up. "I'll have you know that he hasn't help me with the first thing for class." He then stormed out of the common room.

"Way to go, Hermione. What a way to piss him off."

"But he has to be getting help. His grades and skills have improved these past couple of weeks."

"Hermione, he's been hiding how smart he is. How could you not know that?"

"Why would he do something like that? It seems a fairly stupid thing to do."

"That's something you should ask him," replied the red head with a scowl.

Harry put his head in his hands. Yes, he had allowed everyone to believe that he was a dunderhead in some things, but not everything. Hermione had already accosted him once about hiding how smart he was when she had seen him apply the glamour to his hand.

He had pushed off her suspicions by saying that he had really studied hard to learn how to cast a glamour.

Maybe he should have come clean then.

"Harry?"

Harry startled slightly and looked up to see Susan staring at him. "Huh?"

"What did your book do to you?"

"What?"

"You're glaring at your potions book awfully hard and I wondered what it did to you?"

"Oh. Nothing. I just had a fight with Hermione so I came to the library to study for a bit."

"Can I join you?"

"Sure." He moved his books to his side of the table so Susan could sit across from him.

"Have you started studying for our O.W.L. exams yet?"

He grimaced. "I've been trying but it's hard to review the old stuff while we're still learning the new stuff."

"March is when the teacher's start reviewing with us, at least according to my aunt."

Harry nodded. The twins had told him the same thing.

They studied together until curfew. When he went to stand, he knocked all of his books to the floor, which earned a glare from Madam Pince. "Bloody hell," he muttered under his breath.

"See you tomorrow," she said with a smile.

"See you," he grumbled as he finished picking up all of his things. He just hoped that by the time he got to the common room, his face would no longer resemble the color of a quaffle.

A couple days later, Harry entered the dorm after Quidditch practice to find Hermione looking at him funny.

"Can I talk to you?" she asked quietly.

"Sure. Let me shower first. Flitwick and Hooch were trying to fix the boys locker room showers so I couldn't use those."

Hermione nodded and resumed reading her book.

A half hour later found them up in the boys dorm.

"What did you need?" he asked as he plundered in his desk for a piece of candy.

"I want to know why you were hiding your intelligence."

"The truth?" he asked as he pulled out a box of Bertie's Every Flavor Beans.

"Of course."

"Growing up, if I brought home better grades than Dudley, in anything, I was punished. After a while I got the message. That still didn't stop me from learning the material though." He shrugged slightly as he pulled out an orange colored bean - which actually tasted like an orange.

Hermione looked scandalized. "That was wrong of them to punish you for doing better than your cousin."

"I know that now, but I didn't know that then."

"What about when you entered Hogwarts?"

"I had met you. You used to get so angry if I answered something correctly first. So again, I learned the stuff, but hid some of what I knew."

"Why?"

"Because you became tolerable to be around before we were friends and after, I was afraid to lose your friendship."

"I wouldn't have stopped being friends with you over that."

He made a horrible face. The yellow bean he had just taken a bite of tasted like a flower. He then put the box down. "Hermione, you've not said a word to me for the past two days." Despite the fact that it had been softly spoken, the pain in his voice was clear.

She flushed. "That had more to do with me, than you."

Now Harry was confused.

"I ... don't take too kindly to being informed that I'm wrong about something. To actually hear it, hurt. So I've been trying to study and watch you at the same time. Did you know that Ron and Neville both figured out that you were smarter than you let on?"

He snickered. "Neville confronted me last year. Evidently I helped him in charms with something but when Flitwick called on me, I said I didn't know the answer. I didn't know Ron knew though."

"Why are you showing your intelligence now?"

Harry grimaced. "Because Snape threatened me. He's known for a while. Before he couldn't give me good grades. Now though, he's grading me fairly - well somewhat fairly."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I think he's grading me a little harsher than everyone else but that's because he's been trying to ferret out how smart I actually am."

Hermione smiled. "I'm sorry I didn't believe in your intelligence. My parents always encouraged me to learn and hiding my knowledge is something foreign to me. Even though you explained it, I'm still having a little trouble wrapping my mind around it."

"You're still smarter than me, Hermione. I actually am a big dunderhead in most of my subjects."

"So, will you help me with this potions work? Because I'm having issues with something that is probably simple."

He smiled. 'Sure. You can come in now, Ron. We're done maiming each other."

"Uh ... how did you know I was there?" asked a blob of red hair as the door opened.

"Magic," grinned Harry.

"That and we saw your shadow under the door," chimed in Hermione.

Ron huffed.

Severus was in a fairly good mood when he entered the Great Hall for dinner on Friday. As he did during every meal, he scanned the Slytherin table to make sure everyone in his House was present.

He then scanned the Gryffindor table to look for Harry.

He frowned when he didn't see him. He had told Harry to be at every meal, whether he was hungry or not.

Twenty minutes had passed before the boy rushed in, grabbed a plate of dessert, and rushed off.

Severus growled. That was not enough food to count as dinner.

After he ate, he headed off to supervise a detention. One of the 2nd year Gryffindor's thought it'd be cute to feed a hair growth potion to one of his Slytherins' cats. The boy wouldn't ever make that mistake again.

To Severus' surprise, when he entered his quarter's later that evening, Harry was sitting in the floor surrounded by notes and his transfiguration books. It was the first time his son had entered while Severus had not been present. It pleased him that he felt comfortable enough to do so.

"Harry?"

"Oh! Uh, hi."

"What are you doing here?"

Harry frowned. "Studying. I can go if you -"

"No. This is your home as well. I was just startled to see you."

Harry nodded and returned to his work. "Oh! Dobby told me that Winky works for the Weasley's now," he exclaimed after a minute had passed.

Severus entered from the kitchen. "Indeed?"

"Yep. Dobby popped in the library and told me earlier. Right in front of Ron and Hermione."

"And how did they take that news?"

"Not very well. Ron thought it meant he'd never taste his mom's cooking again but Dobby said Mr. and Mrs. Weasley agreed to bind to her as long as Mrs. Weasley could still cook. Evidently Winky was hard-pressed to agree with that, but eventually caved.

"Hermione, on the other hand, lost it. Dobby eventually stunned her, woke her up, and make her listen as he explained about house elves. I then handed her the book to read that he had leant me."

"That is why you only grabbed dessert for dinner?"

Harry laughed. "That was for Ron. Dobby fed us so while he answered Hermione's questions, I ran down to get dessert. I knew that if you didn't see me at dinner, I'd be in trouble."

"And how is Ms. Granger handling the news, now?"

"Oh, she's still on about better treatment of elves, which I agree with her on that, but she's no longer trying to free the Hogwarts elves. Dobby explained to her that they are treated perfect here. He also explained that he knew he was an oddball in wanting money and clothes, that most elves really did not want such thing."

Severus smirked, then headed to his potions lab to check on some healing potions he had been brewing. When he left the lab twenty minutes later, he saw his son glaring at a book. 'Maybe it's time to share what I done for him.'

"Harry, can I show you something?"

"Sure." The boy got up from his mess of papers and followed him down the hall.

"I realized that I've told you I wanted this to be your home. In order to make that happen, you needed a room of your own." He then pushed open the door of his old storage room (that had been cleaned and expanded to thrice it's previous size) to reveal a bedroom.

The expression he saw on his sons face was one he swore he would never forget.

"My ... my room?"

"Yes, your room. Your elf helped decorate it. That door leads to your own bathroom," he said as he pointed to a door in the back of the room.

"Professor ... you didn't have to do this," Harry said as he took in the room's surroundings.

There was a bed, desk, bookshelves, and a few other things that he would need.

"I wanted to. I couldn't allow you to continue sleeping on the couch during those times you did stay down here."

"Th - Thank you."

An hour later, he watched as Harry picked up his stuff to head back to the dorms. "Harry, tomorrow, would you mind re-applying the silver coil around my Mark?"

"Is it hurting?" the boy asked, concern filling his eyes.

"It is, but it's not so bad that it can't wait."

"If you floo the Headmaster, I can do it now."

"That's not necessary. I'm not in so much pain that it cannot wait until morning."

"If we don't do it now, I'll just head straight up to his office. No doubt, we'll both be back down here within a few minutes."

Severus eyed the young man in front of him. With a sigh and a grimace, he got up and placed a floo call to the Headmaster. He couldn't believe he was being out-maneuvered by a fifteen year old.

Harry idly stared at Susan as she ate her breakfast. It had finally dawned on him why he was clumsy in her presence. He found her to be very pretty.

"Ow!" He glared at Hermione, who had just elbowed him in the ribs. "What was that for?"

"Just ask her out, already."

"What are you talking about?"

"You're staring at Susan as if she's a piece of meat."

"I am not," he denied, clearly in shock.

"Harry, you're drooling."

'Oh dear Merlin,' he thought as he self consciously wiped his mouth. "Hey! I am not," he whispered with a frown.

"But you had to check, didn't you," she said with a smug expression. "Seriously, just ask her out. Hogsmeade is this weekend. Ask her to join you."

"Hermione, I can't do that."

"And why not?"

He grimaced. "She's safer if I stay away from her. Everyone is," he added, pointedly.

"Honestly. Are you going to spend the rest of your life living as a monk? If so, I'm sure I can find you some information about Wizarding Monasteries."

"Of course not. Only until Voldemort is gone."

"Ron is right. You are a prat. Seriously Harry, I'm sure that anyone you ask out would know what they were getting themselves into. Don't you believe they have a say on the matter? You're really doing Susan a disservice by not giving her enough credit."

He watched as Hermione gathered her books and headed off to class.

"What was that about?" asked Ron as he looked up from his plate of food. Evidently he had missed the entire conversation.

"Don't ask," muttered Harry, mulling over what she had said.

"How on Earth did you find this place?" asked Ron. "I'm gonna get lost as we leave here."

Harry laughed. "If Remus hadn't shown me, I'd probably still be running around looking for the right hallway." He then placed his hand below the painting and muttered, "Amaranth". A person could have the password but it still wouldn't open unless they also matched a certain magical signature. (After Pettigrew had managed to get into his rooms, Snape had strengthened the wards.)

The door opened and Harry and his three friends entered Snape's quarters.

"Wow. It's nice down here," Hermione commented as she looked at the room. Naturally, her eyes gravitated to the large library and Harry chuckled under his breath as he saw her have to physically restrain herself from going over to see what the bookshelves contained.

"Are you sure it's okay for us to be down here?" asked Neville, who for some reason, was whispering.

"Yes. I got permission last night. C'mon. Let's go to my room," he said eagerly.

"You have your own room?" asked Neville.

Before he could respond, Hermione piped in. "Of course he has his own room. Professor Snape isn't going to make him sleep on the floor when he stays down here."

Harry just shook his head, slightly amused. "There's not a lot in it right now, but it's all mine. And, it's less noisy than the common room."

Within the next twenty minutes, they had all started studying for their History of Magic exam that was to be the next day.

"Why, in the name of Merlin, do I need to know when Igbold the Inventor died? I mean, I can understand why I have to know what he did, but what does when he died have to do with anything?"

Just as Hermione opened her mouth, to no doubt tell him why he had to know when Igbold died, a knock sounded at the bedroom door.

"Come in."

Snape was on the other side. "Hmm ... It's nice to see you haven't blown up the castle yet."

Harry grinned. "Give us time, sir. I'm sure we could."

"That's what I'm afraid of. Have your elf fix you all a snack in about two hours time. I'll be in my lab if you need me."

"Alright."

"Oh, and keep Longbottom and Weasley out of my supply room. Fresh human blood is so hard to find and keep." Snape quirked a smile big enough to show vampire fangs before closing the door.

Before Harry could burst out laughing, he heard Neville begin to hyperventilate.

"Breathe Neville. He was just kidding. He's not a vampire."

"But the fangs," said Ron numbly. "I mean ... it was just a rumor ... but the fangs!"

Hermione suddenly huffed. "You two are hopeless. Snape's been out in the sunlight plenty of times. He can't be a vampire."

"The blood. He said he had a supply room of blood," wheezed Neville.

At that point, Harry did burst out laughing. It took him a minute to regain his composure. "It's a spell, you two. Seriously, he's not a vampire. He was just teasing."

"I've never seen or heard of Snape joking. Ever," pointed out Ron after he had quit having his own mild panic attack.

"From my understanding," said Harry with an amused grin, "he does it all the time. Do you remember the other day when McGonagall skipped every other step?"

All three of them nodded. It had caused rampant speculation in the tower as to why she was behaving so peculiar.

"Snape gave her jinxed catnip while she was in her cat form."

All three looked at Harry in shock, then burst out laughing - including Hermione.

"So ... he doesn't have human blood in his supply closet?" asked Neville, after they had all calmed down.

Harry snickered. "Not that I've seen. C'mon. Let's finish studying for this test then we can call Dobby for a snack."

Harry looked around nervously. He was waiting on Susan to leave Herbology. "Go on, Ron. I'll catch up."

"Why?" asked the red head, suspiciously.

"I'll explain later," he said, dismissing his friend from his sight.

Ron walked away with Hermione, who was currently sporting a smug expression.

A few seconds later, Susan exited Herbology talking to Hannah.

"Susan? Can I ... uh ... borrow you for a second?"

"Sure."

Great. What was he supposed to do now that he had her alone. "Well ... uh ..."

"Let's walk to Defense," she suggested. "We don't want to be late."

"Oh. Yeah. Okay."

They were a hallway away from the classroom when Susan spoke up again. "Was there something you needed, Harry?"

He jumped slightly before taking a deep breath. "Would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow? Together?"

"Are you asking me on a date?"

He didn't think she sounded disgusted by the idea, so he peeked up at her. "Yeah. Uh ... unless you don't want too. We could just go as friends, or not go at all. I mean ..." 'Argh! Why is this so hard?' he wondered.

She laughed. "Calm down, Harry. Yes."

"Yes, what?" He was sure he had a perplexed look on his face.

She giggled. "Yes, I'd like to go to Hogsmeade with you, on a date."

"You would?"

She nodded and stepped into the Defense classroom.

He stood there stunned for a moment before grinning like an idiot and walking in the room to take his seat.

Thankfully, the bell sounded, which cut off Ron's inquires - temporarily.

A/N: Sorry it's late ... again. I have issues editing on a computer. My eyes glance over things that I would normally catch if I had it printed out and edited that way. Unfortunately, my printer is still not working, so if there are a few mistakes, I apologize.

Sadly, I hit a brick wall of writer's block. I have a ... very interesting scene in the next chapter, so I've been pouring over it. However, it wouldn't go where I needed it to go, so I stepped away from it for a few days. During that time, I corrected a few minor things from the beginning of the story. (I put an updated notice at the bottom of the chapter for those I've gotten to so far.)

And when I picked my writing back up, words just flowed. I've basically re-written that chapter and the one after that. So, it'll be at least a week and a half before I get it posted. Plus, my family and I are going to Dollywood on vacation for 4 days next weekend. So it'll be after that when I post it.

What's in the next chapter? Let's just say that when I type it up, I believe the Hogsmeade visit will be almost 5000 words, if not longer. It's 18 hand written pages. lol

Also wanna thank everyone for the reviews! For the new reviewers, cake and ice cream is in the corner!

*sigh* I had something else I wanted to mention but I don't remember it now. Blah!