A/N: My apologies for how long it took me to get this chapter up compared to the previous ones. December 13 marked one year since my mom passed away from breast cancer, and the memory of that and the fact that I, along with my brother and her sister, had to make the very difficult decision to "pull the plug" made me rather depressed and made going to work a struggle, to say nothing of trying to write. But here you go.
Chapter 4: Snape
Harry grabbed his letter, telling Ron he better hurry if he wanted to have breakfast before class. The other four boys made their way to the Great Hall. They loaded their plates, particularly Harry, Dean and Seamus, having ravenous appetites after their run. Ron finally joined them when they were almost finished. Ron had barely begun eating when they were approached by Professor McGonagall, who was being followed by a smirking Percy.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley tells me that you attacked his brother in your dorm this morning and that you are refusing to serve a detention for it," said McGonagall.
"That's a lie!" shouted Ron. At least that's what he tried to shout. He had barely said 'That's' before he was silenced by Percy.
"Shut it Ronald!" growled Percy.
McGonagall flicked her wand at Ron, dispelling the silencing charm. "As your brother was the one you say was attacked, why don't we let him speak for himself?"
"But Professor, he's just blinded by Potter's fame!" whined Percy.
"Are you going to say Dean, Seamus and Neville are blinded by my supposed fame, too? 'Cause they were there and saw what happened. The four of us were dressed and ready to come down to breakfast but Ron was still sound asleep. I didn't think he wanted to miss breakfast so I decided to wake him up."
"Is this true Mr. Weasley?" McGonagall asked Ron.
"It's true Professor," said Ron, glaring at Percy. "He used a bugle to play some loud music to wake me up. I fell out of bed and Percy burst into the dorm. He saw me on the floor and the rest of them laughing and I assumed that Harry had attacked me. He was explaining what he did when the prat took Harry's bugle, saying it's an illegally charmed Muggle object."
McGonagall turned back to Percy whose face was beginning to turn scarlet. "Just what caused you to think it was illegally charmed and what did you do with the object after you confiscated it?"
"It had clearly visible runes etched into the bell and I turned it into Mr. Filch," muttered Percy.
"Some of them are to hide all the runes from Muggles. Pappy Sherm made it for his company clerk when he got tired of his horrible bugle playing. The runes allow someone to play bugle calls properly. I don't know about British laws, but in America enchanting an object like that is only illegal if the enchantment causes the object to perform a function it was not designed for. A bugle is designed to play musical calls used by the United States Army for various purposes, such as reveille to wake people up in the morning, which is what I did to wake up Ron."
"Percy's just miffed because Harry called him a walking rules violation at King's Cross yesterday," said Ron. "As he left our dorm he said 'Walking rules violation indeed.' Then he called Harry a hypocrite."
McGonagall was furious. She gave Percy an icy glare. "Ten points from Gryffindor Mr. Weasley, for falsely accusing another student. I will collect Mr. Potter's bugle from Mr. Filch and have Professor Flitwick examine it. If the runes are indeed invisible to Muggles as Mr. Potter says, then you will also lose your prefect badge. For a prefect to harass a first year is reprehensible." She handed the five first years their schedules. "Oh, and five points to Gryffindor, Mr. Potter, for making a clear legal argument. If your bugle is as you say, it is legal and will be returned to you by the end of the week."
"Thank you, Professor," said Harry politely. The boys finished their breakfasts and headed off to their first class. Harry decided not to add the bugle incident to his letter since he knew he was going to get it back.
The first few days of classes went smoothly for the most part. Harry was disappointed that the History of Magic teacher, Binns, was a ghost with a fixation for goblin rebellions and frustrated that Professor Quirril, who taught Defense Against The Dark Arts, stuttered so badly Harry could only make out about one word in ten. He thought it was way cool that Professor McGonagall was an Animagus. She was a stern woman who didn't tolerated fooling around in class, but her lectures were both informative and interesting. He couldn't help but smile at Professor Flitwick's enthusiasm and struggled to keep from laughing when the little Professor squeaked and fell off his chair when he read Harry's name when taking attendance. In Herbology he discovered that Neville had the proverbial green thumb even though he struggled a bit in other classes. He offered to help Neville with some of his other classes if he would help Harry with Herbology. "I'm better with animals than plants." Neville eagerly accepted and began spending an hour or two studying with Harry, usually joined by Dean and Seamus. All that changed on Friday however.
The day started off well enough. He had received a note from Hagrid inviting him to tea that afternoon to hear some stories about James and Lily Potter. He invited Dean and Seamus to join him, who readily accepted. They polished off their breakfasts and headed for the dungeons and their first Potions lesson with the Slytherins. Harry loved brewing potions. He felt it was the perfect blend of subtle intuition and benchmark precision. He eagerly found an empty table in the front of the class while Dean and Seamus threw chops to see who would partner with Harry. Dean won and took the seat next to Harry while Seamus sat at the table behind them. The remainder of the class soon filtered in. Harry noticed that Gryffindor generally sat with Gryffindors and Slytherins with Slytherins, the only exception being Hermione who sat with one of the Slytherin girls, Daphne Greengrass. He heard the door slam and Professor Snape swept into the room, his robes billowing behind him while his greasy black hair hung limply around his sallow face.
"There will be no foolish wand waving in this class. As such, I doubt many of you will appreciate the delicate art and subtle science that is Potion making. In this class I will teach you to bottle fame, brew glory, even put a stopper in death." He swept his black eyes over the class before stopping on Harry. "Ah, Mr. Potter, our new celebrity." He stared at Harry for a moment and Harry felt the subtle pressure of Legilimency pushing at his mental barriers. Harry decided not to openly antagonize the greasy twit and let him into his mind, steering him into a memory of a gory scene from the last Freddie Kruger movie. "Potter! What would you get if you added powdered asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
'That's an awfully advanced question to be asking a first year,' thought Harry. "By themselves, nothing. Though they are the active ingredients in the Living Death potion," Harry replied.
"And where would you look if I asked you to find me bezoar?"
'This guy doesn't give up, does he?' thought Harry. 'Time for a little attitude.' Harry smirked and pointed at the supply cabinet.
"Ten points from Gryffindor for your cheek, Potter. Now, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
Harry sighed heavily. "Not a damn thing, Professor. They're the same plant, also called aconite. And a bezoar is a stone found in the stomach of a goat and can cure most poisons."
"Another ten points, Potter," snarled Snape. He spun around, waving his wand at the blackboard. "Today you will be brewing a simple potion to cure boils. Directions are on the board, you have until the end of class. Get to work."
"What a git," muttered Dean as he and Harry set up their cauldrons. "That first question was NEWT level. And the others weren't exactly easy either."
Harry just smiled as they made their way to the supply cabinet. "I've already had six years of magical education, so those questions were a walk in the park." They got the supplies they needed and returned to their seats to begin working on their potions. Harry took out his wand and twirled it over his cauldron and a shimmering dome appeared over his cauldron. Dean looked at him curiously. "At Burnham someone was always trying to sabotage my potion, so Potions Master Ervin taught me this neat little charm to protect my work." He quickly did the same over Dean's cauldron. Dean began preparing their ingredients while Harry began reading the directions on the board. He noticed that one of the instructions didn't look quite right, so he flipped open his book and looked up the potion. 'Aha, I thought so.' He looked around for Snape and saw him stalking around near the back of the classroom, sneering at his fellow Gryffindors' work while expansively praising the Slytherins'. He turned to Dean and whispered, "Ignore step three on the board and use the book. Professor Snape put the wrong instructions up there. I don't know if it was on purpose or not, but I'm not taking any chances." Dean nodded and flipped his book open to the correct page as well.
Class was nearly over before Snape stalked over to Harry and Dean's table. He looked down at Harry's perfectly made potion and sneered. "Pathetic, Potter. Evanesco." Snape's Vanishing spell hit Harry's protection charm and fizzled. Snape growled and turned to look at Dean's equally perfect potion and tried to Vanish it as well, with the same results. "Fifty points from each of you and detention for the both of you." He turned and swept away, his robes billowing while his greasy hair did not move.
Harry calmly filled two vials with his potion, telling Dean to do the same. "I'm going to get it independently checked. I don't trust him to grade my potion objectively." Dean quickly followed Harry's advice and filled two vials, handing one to Harry. They both labeled their other vials and placed it with their classmates' on Snape's desk to be graded before quickly cleaning up after themselves. They left the classroom and headed for the Great Hall for lunch.
After lunch they dropped their bags off in their dorm. They found Seamus pacing and swearing in Irish. He looked up as Harry and Dean walked in.
"What's wrong Seamus?" asked Harry.
"Hey guys. Sorry, I'm just swearing at myself for not asking you to do that protection charm for me, too. Though I am glad I listened to what you said about the instructions. That bastard Vanished my potion while you two were turning yours in."
"Don't worry about it, Seamus. I'll teach you both the charm before our next Potions class. For now though we're going to see McGonagall to tell her what happened."
The three of them went to McGonagall's office and knocked on the door, only entering at her call of 'Come in!' She looked up as they walked in. "Ah, Mr. Potter, I was just about to come find you." She pulled Harry's bugle from a drawer and handed it to him. "Professor Flitwick has thoroughly checked it and found it to be just as you had said. He said that it was some inspired rune work and asked if you would be willing to introduce him to the one who did it."
"I'll ask Pappy," promised Harry.
"Thank you," said McGonagall. "Now, I heard about what happened in your Potions class this morning from Professor Snape. Needless to say, I don't trust his judgment in this matter." She stood and pulled a small stone basin from a cabinet behind her. "This is a Pensieve," she said, setting it on her desk.
"What does it do?" asked Dean.
"It allows a person to view memories," said Harry before McGonagall could answer. "Pappy has one and showed me how they work."
"Five points to Gryffindor, Mr. Potter. That is correct. Would the three of you be willing to share your memories of what happened this morning?"
Harry nodded and placed his wand to his temple and slowly withdrew a long silvery strand, placing it in the basin. He turned to Dean and Seamus, who had looks of confusion on their faces. "I'll help you, just concentrate on the memory you want to share." He placed his wand on Dean's temple and slowly withdrew the memory before placing it in the bowl with his own. He repeated the process for Seamus.
"Thank you boys," said McGonagall. "I'll review these memories after my last class this afternoon. Come see me after dinner." They thanked her and left the office.
A/N: Four down, ? to go… Next chapter will be visiting with Hagrid, and maybe their first flying lesson from Hooch… Not that Harry's going to need it *grin*