Harry Potter and the Heart of Power

Chapter 12

-Harry-

Gasping for breath he grinned at Susan as he get into a ready stance, sword in hand, while Susan prepared her wand so they could continue his training. "Ready Harry?" Susan asked as she reached into the crate of fruit next to her and picked up a small melon.

"Ready Su!" he called back as she used her wand to blast the piece of fruit at him, others soon following it as he began an intricate dance, moving around the flying pieces of produce and slicing them in half with his sword. He was covered in a film of sweat from the workout that he had been doing for the past few hours, jogging and calisthenics mainly, as Su joined him in for part and in others she just cheered him on. This was the only exercise they had time left for that morning before they would shower and have lunch before going to their only class of the day, Potions.

All throughout the week their classes had been rather basic, simple introductions to the courses and a couple basic spells, but in each class he had shown exemplary knowledge and was the first to answer a question or master a spell, something that angered the Ravenclaw Hermione Granger to no end when they shared classes with the House of Knowledge. As soon as he showed he had 'mastered' a spell in his courses he immediately began helping Susan and the rest of his Housemates which frequently earned his House Points and it looked like Hufflepuff would gain an early lead in the House Championship but from what he could tell Professor Snape would take even more points from the House of Badgers than normal and for idiotic reasons while giving Slytherin Points for trivial reasons to try and keep the House of the Snakes in the competition's lead, something he planned on reporting to the board of Governors as he knew that Dumbledore was far too senile to actually attempt to correct the behavior of Severus Snape.

He found the teachers themselves very interesting as some, like his Head of House Pomona Sprout or her Colleague Fillius Flitwick, were ecstatic at his grasp of magic and readily encouraged his development, giving him points every time he helped one of his classmates get a spell down. Others were more neutral such as Minerva McGonagall or Aurora Sinistra, and while they did give him points it wasn't to the extent of Sprout or Flitwick. He could still tell though that Sinistra approved greatly of his actions while McGonagall was still rather upset with him and the t-shirts he had been selling to the other Hufflepuffs as most of the House of the Badgers owned one at this point. He had yet to actually meet the infamous Professor Snape but he had heard how the man had tried confiscating the shirts only for his Housemates to report it to McGonagall who had, to the surprise of many, actually stood up to the greasy man and stopped the professor's attempted thefts.

"What is going on here?!" a loud voice broke him from his thoughts and caused him to stumble, his body leaving the autopilot it had entered for his training exercise as he turned to see Professor McGonagall, nostrils flaring, as the Transfiguration Mistress marched down towards him, Hermione Granger following with a smug smirk like a happy little lap dog.

"Training," he said simply as he gestured to the sliced fruit around him with his sword "what did it look like?". Ignoring his question McGonagall reached to grab his sword only to freeze when he glared at her and leveled his wand between her eyes. "I will not allow you to steal a Potter family heirloom," he said coldly, the sword having been registered as such within the family archives "and you'd better have a damn good reason for trying to do so.".

"Students are not permitted to have weapons on campus young man," McGonagall sniffed, the woman pulling out her own wand "and if you do not remove your wand and hand over that weapon then I will be deducting two hundred points from Hufflepuff on top of the month of detention I already plan on giving you.".

"You lack the authority to do either." He growled as he walked over to his schoolbag, an over the shoulder leather satchel with an expanded inside, and pulled out an unedited copy of the Hogwarts Rules. "The School's High Rules, which cannot be changed as the Founder's Lines no longer exist to change them, allow students to have weapons so long as they are only used practice, self-defense, the defense of another, a class on how to use them, or an official sanctioned duel in which they are permitted.".

"Headmaster Dumbledore has forbidden students from using that rule." McGonagall sniffed angrily.

"An act which he lacked the authority to do." He said coldly "Now if you attempt to steal my family heirlooms again through rules that go against the School's unchangeable charter then I can and will sue this school and I guarantee you that I would win, leaving both yourself and Albus Dumbledore out of work.". McGonagall stared at his angrily for a moment, her mouth opening and closing silently, before she spun on her heal and marched inside, a shell shocked Granger following dutifully behind.

"I guess our workout is over?" Su asked as she walked over, his closest friend looking angry at McGonagall's actions.

"Yeah." He said as he tried not to stare at her chest as she heaved, his friend out of breath even more than himself as she wasn't used to the type of workouts he did.

Unfortunately though he failed at not staring and, by the smirk on her face, Susan saw it as she leaned against him as she stared at him with wide eyes, "Carry me?" she asked pitifully as she turned her pout on to full power.

"Gah!" he grumbled as he scooped her up bridal style, enjoying her blush and seeing it as payback for the pout "You know I hate it when you use that pout on me…are you sure that it isn't dark magic?".

"Yeah," Susan giggled "I'm sure. Now mush pony!".

"I'm not a horse." He grumbled but he started moving anyway, studiously ignoring the giggles from his classmates as they saw him carrying Susan around. The sight wasn't that uncommon an occurrence as Susan made some excuse just about every day for him to carry her somewhere and, usually after her evil dark magic pouting, he caved and acquiesced to her request and did so.

"Well if it isn't the power couple of Hufflepuff," a voice called out as he entered the common room, still carrying his friend, as he turned to see fourth year Cedric Diggory who acted like a big brother for most of the first years "you two enjoy your workout?".

"Yeah," he said with a nod as Susan snuggled into his chest "we worked up a good sweat though so we need to shower before heading down to Lunch before Professor Snape's class.".

"You won't be showering together I hope." Cedric said with a wide grin as he choked on his own spit and Susan turned a brighter red than he had ever seen before letting out an eep and leaping out of his arms as she ran up the stairs towards their dorm, likely to hide in the bathroom with the shower.

Scowling he send a glare at the cackling fourth year and fired off a spell he had learned from one of his father's pranking notebooks from his vaults as Cedric stopped laughing and yelped while being hoisted up into the air by his ankle. "Now, are you going to keep making fun of me and Susan?" he asked sternly as he twirled his wand between his fingers, staring down the wide eyed Fourth year while the rest of his house laughed at Cedric's current predicament.

"I'll be good!" Cedric said quickly, the fourth year's face turning red from all the blood flowing to it.

Smirking at the answer he waved his wand as the spell ended and Cedric fell to the ground, "Good boy," he said happily "now if you'll excuse me I have to calm down Susan. Also keep in mind…next time you make a comment like that I'll do a lot worse.".

"Worse?" Cedric squeaked wide eyed as the rest of the house fell silent at the threat.

"My father was a prankster of the highest caliber," he said with a touch of pride at the mention of his parent "along with his three best friends they formed a group called the Marauders and I happen to have my father's journals and notes on prank spells.".

"We'll be good!" the entire House Chorused as one, staring wide eyed as he laughed.

"Just don't make fun of how I act with Su or something equally foolish and you'll be good." He promised as he started walking up the steps before pausing and smirking over his shoulder "But also keep this in mind. The next time the Weasley twins prank Hufflepuff…you have me.".

Walking upstairs he rapped a knuckle on the door of the bathroom he shared with Su, "Hey Su," he called out "just so you know Cedric has been properly chastised and taught what would happen if he tried something like that again.".

"Thanks Harry," the muffled voice of the girl he would admit he was developing feelings for called back over the sound of running water "I'll be out in a few and then you can take the shower.".

"Thanks!" he called back as he walked over to his bed and began undressing from his sweat soaked clothes, slipping on a towel to cover his nudity as he sat on his bed to wait for Susan, his school uniform laid out next to him on the mattress while he flipped through one of his Grimoires, this one on potions, to help get his mind focused on that subject for the upcoming lesson.

About fifteen minutes later he looked up at the sound of a door opening and failed at containing his roaring blush when he saw Susan walking out in nothing but a towel, his friend blushing just as brightly when she saw his reaction. "I-I forgot my clothes inside." She explained as they tried not to stare at each other.

"O-okay." He said before running into the bathroom, not realizing that he had forgotten his own clothes until he was halfway through with his shower.

Half an hour, and an immeasurable amount of embarrassment later, they both sat down at the Hufflepuff table for lunch, their faces an impressive Gryffindor red as his Housemates snickered, likely thinking of an exaggerated scenario for their current expressions.

"Do I even want to know?" Neville asked, their Gryffindor friend sliding in across from them as none of the other Puffs even batted an eye, their shy friend having become a frequent fixture at their table over the past week.

"Long story short we both forgot to bring our changes of clothes with us to the shower so we saw each other in only a towel." He said as he continued to blush, casting furtive glances at Su and noticed her do the same to him, both of them looking away in embarrassment as they remembered what they had seen. Seeing Cedric Diggory about to, again, make a comment he held up his wand and said "Cedric, no matter how much I like you bro, if you make another comment like you did earlier I'll cast that spell again and won't remove it until dinner.".

"Shutting up." Cedric said quickly before returning to lunch as Neville snickered, said snicker turning into a full blown laugh when the Longbottom Heir heard the story of what had happened to Cedric.

"Well I'm going to head out," he said as he wiped his mouth and stood up, Su joining him and lacing her fingers with his own as they gave a little wave to Neville "the rest of our Year mates are already at the Potions classroom by now so we need to hurry to avoid being late.".

"Later guys." Neville, still laughing, responded as they walked off towards the dungeon.

Getting to the Potion's classroom, or the hall outside it at any rate, they had barely stopped moving when the door slammed open and Professor Snape strode out into the hall, staring at them coldly, "Well, what are you waiting for?" the man demanded "Get inside.".

Moving quickly he walked in with Susan, sitting at one of the tables as they saw the rest of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws move into the room and take their seats. Like Professor Flitwick had in Charms, Professor Snape had started the class by calling roll but the man paused when his name was called, "Ah yes, Harry Potter," Snape sneered, "our new…celebrity." Before finishing up the roll.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making." Snape began once the roll had been put away "But as there is little wand waving or silly incantations here many of you will fail to have the intelligence to grasp the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind and ensnaring the senses…I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death." Most of the class was hanging on to every word the man spoke and he would admit that it was an impressive speech but Snape ruined it with the final line "Assuming you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.".

Hearing that line he sighed softly to himself and glanced around, all of his Housemates and most of the Ravenclaws looking offended at the insult but a few Ravens, such as Hermione Granger, were bouncing up and down in their seats, looking eager to prove that they weren't dunderheads.

"Potter!" Snape yelled suddenly, the man spinning around and pointing a long spidery finger at him "What would I get if I added powdered root of Asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?".

"A sleeping potion that is known as the Draught of Living Death due to its great power." He answered instantly, having learned about the potion due to his tutors in the time compression chamber but on the inside he was frowning as most wouldn't learn about that potion until their third year at Hogwarts.

Scowling Snape continued "Where would you look it I fold you to find me a bezoar?".

"In the stomach of a goat," he answered instantly once again, "it is a stone taken from the animal's stomach and will save whoever swallows it from most poisons.". That question, he noted to himself, while not a third year question was one that wasn't meant to be taught until closer to the end of the first year.

"What is the different between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?" Snape demanded, the professor's eyes wide with rage as he idly noticed Hermione Granger bouncing up and down in her seat, hand high in the air.

"There isn't one," he responded "they're the same plant and also go by the name of Aconite.". While on the outside he was completely calm on the inside he was scowling as the question was one they wouldn't learn until their second or third year.

"Five points from Hufflepuff for your cheek Potter." Snape said with a disdainful sniff before marching over to the blackboard while the rest of his House looked enraged. "Today you will be working on a potion to cure boils. The instructions are on the board and the supplies are in the supply cabinet, get to work.". Scowling openly he stood up and began packing up his supplies, "Where do you think you're going Potter?" Snape demanded as all eyes turned in his direction.

"I refuse to be in this environment as you fail to meet any qualification of a teacher." He said simply "You fail to teach, simply saying 'follow these directions' without going through any safety explanations or teaching how to properly create a potion, not even explaining why the potion ingredients react the way they do. You take points without cause and for false pretenses, and only promote a hostile environment. I will instead be hiring a private tutor for my Potion's lessons as is my right and anyone else here who wishes to join me in those lessons is free to do so.". The moment the words left his lips every single Hufflepuff, and even a few Ravenclaws, began packing up their bags and walked out of the classroom. When Snape began deducting points for their actions he turned and glared coldly at the man, "Your actions are deplorable Severus Snape," he said coldly "you are an embarrassment not only to the teaching profession but to the human race itself. I will be reporting your actions to the board of Governors and doing my utmost to see you removed from any position of power at this institution. Oh, and one more thing, my mother was considering forgiving you for your actions back in your fifth year…but then she find out who you told that prophecy to.".

With that he spun around and walked out of the classroom, Susan intertwining her fingers with his own as she could feel the anger and hurt in his voice while Severus Snape stood, rooted to the spot, staring in shock at the now vacant door.