Chapter 17

The weekend meant visiting Hagrid, catching up on sleep and homework that had been left for too long. Ron had insisted on a game of quidditch for which he enlisted their dorm, Lee Jordan and the rest of the Weasley family. It was, in fact, one of the nicest weekends he'd had in a while, Harry thought. He'd managed to smile and joke along with everyone though he hadn't missed the meaningful looks between Ron and Hermione when they thought he wasn't looking. He had even found a bit of time to practice his combat moves, such as they were.

Monday found Harry at the table, eating breakfast with Ron desperately trying to add another five inches onto his transfiguration essay which he had neglected to do. Hermione refused point blank to say anything that might help the redhead but Harry took pity on him and gave him a few ideas. The bell rang and they hurried to their first lessons.

Maybe, Harry thought, just maybe things were finally getting back to normal.

Severus pinched the bridge of his noses, hoping to ward off the headache he could feel starting behind his eyes. The second years he had been trying to teach were fleeing the classroom. It was to early on a Monday to have to teach the Sixth Year Gryffindor and Slytherin class and yet, here they were trooping through the door. Taking a deep breath he turned to face the class and started about the lesson. His last tactic had worked miracles- everybody had produced a usable batch of potions with no accidents, explosions or grievous injuries. Something to be noted in future. Once everyone had settled into their desks he began the day's lecture on the potion they would be brewing.

"Miss Parkinson, Mr Malfoy, concentrate on me please," He growled and the girl gave a start, hiding whatever they had been looking at under the desk. Draco, however, only smirked slightly "As I was saying, Searing Solution has mostly medicinal purposes such as the removal of growths and other afflictions. It contains buburous pus which has what property, Mr Malfoy?"

Draco looked up at him almost lazily. "It causes boils to form Professor." The boy was as insolent in class as his father had been when they had been at school.

"Yes, therefore you are to be extremely careful with it. Making a mistake with such substances can be disastrous. This is probably one of the most complex potions you have brewed to date so I suggest you concentrate. Begin."

There were shuffling noises as the students unpacked the necessary ingredients and apparatus for the potion.

/\/\/\/\/\

Harry began to carefully slice his Mandrake roots while stirring his cauldron anticlockwise once every minute. The potion they were doing was decidedly more complicated then the Pepper Up Potion. Next to him Hermione was so focused on measuring and mixing the right concentration of crushed beetle eyes that Harry doubted she even realised her tongue was sticking out the corner of her mouth. It looked like everyone's attention was solely on their workstations.

Harry began to alternate the direction of his stirring while adding his ground rat spleen two pinches at a time. He noticed Snape was prowling about as usual. He concentrated harder.

/\/\/\/\/\

Severus stopped at one of the tables on the Gryffindor half of the room and demanded to know where in the book it asked for mangled roots. He forced the boy to start again. This particular potion was entirely too finicky to be make with second rate ingredients.

He looked around, and caught Draco staring surreptitiously at Potter for the second time in the lesson. He walked past and tapped his finger on the desk. The boy snapped out of whatever he had been thinking, blushed slightly at being caught and returned his attention to his desk. He gave the blond Slytherin a hard look before moving on. He did not want more issues between him and Potter during his lessons.

Seeing nothing else to criticize, Severus' allowed his thoughts to turn to the most recent Meeting he had attended. Rumours said there were to be new initiates, and he was worried that the new candidates would be students from Hogwarts. He knew a few of the students in his own house would be more than willing to accept the 'honour'. They did not understand what awaited them and it grated Severus no end that he could not tell them the reality without losing his own position as a spy. Once you were in there was no way of truly getting out. Ever.

The bell sounded, indicating that the lesson was half way over. His attention snapped back when he saw green sparks start emitting from Dean Thomas' cauldron as the boy turned back to the desk. Swiftly he walked over and vanished the contents before it could any harm. Severus ordered him to write a two foot essay on what he had done wrong and what could have happened. It was while he was docking a healthy twenty points from the said boy's house - ineptitude in this branch of magic could not be tolerated- everything went wrong.

/\/\/\/\/\

Harry's potion was not the lilac the book dictated it should be but it was too far off either at purple. Next to him, Hermione's had already turned a glowing green colour. He put down his ladle to pick up the vials of venom and birch sap -which had to be added simultaneous- and cursed as it rolled off the desk onto the floor. He bent down to retrieve it and as he straightened…

/\/\/\/\

Severus turned to move on when he saw it. Potter's beaker of buburous pus was gliding oddly to the edge of the desk it stood on. His head whipped round as his hand plunged into his pocket, immediately settling his gaze on Draco, wand under the desk, lips murmuring. He had barely managed to pull his wand from his robes as he looked back and saw the glass container tip straight into the cauldron bubbling away next to it.

"Pott-" But it was too late.

/\/\/\/\

BANG

The ear-splitting explosion threw Harry backwards. He hit the wall hard and fell to the floor in a heap. He felt like he was covered in something sticky. It burned horribly.

Everybody was screaming.

/\/\/\/\/\

"Everybody shield!" Severus yelled above the dim. He cast the Impedimenta curse as quickly as he could through the thick acrid smoke in the classroom, trying to stop Granger's and the other cauldrons surrounding Potter's exploding as well. It was too late for shielding though. Almost everybody who had been near Potter was lying on the ground or clutching at limbs covered in what was no longer Searing Solution. Just as rapidly, he vanished the contents of the offending containers.

"Everybody who was not injured, wait outside," He shouted, "The rest of you, stay where you are." He cast another round of spells to clear the smoke. What he saw when it did clear, made him livid.

The desk tops were covered in an orange goo which looked like it was slowly eating through them. About ten students were on the floor in various positions, groaning, sobbing, coughing, and trying to get up. They too had varying amounts of orange gloop over them. Granger, who had made it to her feet, screamed and rushed to the back where Potter lay crumpled and inert against the far wall, covered in orange gunk.

"Harry? Harry!" The girl shouted as she shook him but apparently had no response.

Shit was the only word that came to Severus' mind. He felt a strange leaden feeling in his stomach as made his way quickly to the back as well. He had not had a disaster like this for years. Reaching the boy, he pulled the bushy haired girl away and laid his fingers against the boy's neck.

Thud thud went the vein against his digits. Not dead then, thank Merlin.

Straightening, he ordered everyone who could move to go to the front and sit by his desk. He had to force Granger to move with them- she did not seem to realise the burn covering her arm from shoulder to wrist needed attention, she was so concerned for the boy.

"Leave him, he will be alright." He snapped as she tried to say something made totally incoherent by her sobs. This was no time for histrionics. At the front, he reached into desk and pulled out a large, clear vile. He quickly glanced at all the teenagers sitting about before deciding on the most capable.

"Do you know what this is, Miss Granger?" The question forced her to focus on him and not Potter.

"E-essence of Dittany?"

"Yes. I assume you know how it is used?" She nodded dumbly. "Good. Make everyone vanish what is left on them first. Then administer two drops onto their wounds. Start with yourself." With that he swept back to Potter.

/\/\/\/\/\

Harry felt hands run over his body before lifting him up and carrying him. The motion made his clothes scrape against him. It was excruciatingly painful. Vaguely he felt himself being set down. He couldn't see. Then the hands were back, running over him. He didn't want to be touched. He tried to move away but that hurt even more.

"Lie still, Potter." A voice said calmly. It sounded distant. He felt the person lift his robes and tried to fight harder, although the effort made him want to scream. A spell was muttered and burning sensation stopped. But not the pain.

The voice cursed before urgently telling him to stop moving.

"S-stop" He managed to say. His tongue felt thick in his mouth and didn't seem to want to move any more than the rest of him.

"Potter, I'm going to take your robes off." The voice said, the tone soothing.

"N-no! D-don't…" His head throbbed as he tried to move away.

"Potter! Stop moving." With that Harry felt his robes and t-shirt vanish.

/\/\/\/\/\

Severus cursed again, as he vanished what was left of Potter's clothes. The boy was covered in burns, raw and oozing. On top of that as soon as he had removed his clothes, the teenager started thrashing about, making strangled screaming noises.

"Potter, stop this now. You are hurting yourself." He said as he grabbed the boys' hands and forced him to lie back, aware that it was probably hurting the teen more. But every movement Potter made was worsening his the injuries.

"N-no p-p-please s-stop" The boy whimpered.

"Professor?" Came Granger's hesitant voice from behind him.

"Yes?" He asked, forcing himself not to snap. The girl looked uncertainly between him and the boy he was holding down.

"Everyone else is healed. Is Harry ok? Why is he fighting like that?" At her voice Harry started struggling desperately once again, trying to turn away. Severus realized the problem. He grabbed Potter's hand and put it on his amulet. Then pinned him down once more. The boy, however, calmed.

"He is disorientated. I suspected he has concussed himself. Wait with the other students. Make sure they have no potion left on them or their clothes."

"Yes sir." With one last look the girl left. Severus' attention went back to the boy.

"Potter I am going to let go now. Do not move around or I will spell you immobile." This appeared to do the trick. The boy lay still, hand still clutching the rock around his neck.

"I am going to heal you."

"H-hurts" The teen mumbled, dazed.

"I know." Severus said quietly. He pulled a smaller vial of Dittany Essence out his robe pocket. He always carried some with him. Carefully he began putting drops onto the burns, starting at the boy's torso and working up. Potter kept still until Severus tried to turn him over to finish the injuries on his back. But the threat of immobilization was enough to make the fighting cease.

"I want you to lay here, Potter, very still. I need to check the other students before they go then I need to check your head. Do you understand?" The boy nodded a bit, unfocused eyes half closed.

Severus unfolded himself from the floor where he had been kneeling and walked to the front. Granger was repairing the burn holes in everyone's robes. He looked over all the students then asked for the few that had hit their heads to wait while sending the rest off.

Then he walked into his office, took a pinch of green powder from the mantle and fire called Poppy.

/\/\/\/\/\

Harry lay thinking. His thoughts felt sluggish as he tried to pull events from the confused and hazy swirl of memory. There had been an explosion and that had made him hit his head. The sticky stuff must have been a potion gone wrong. He couldn't remember very clearly but he thought his own potion had been ok. The voice was the Potions Master's, thus Snape was the one trying to heal him then. Hermione and others had been hurt too, he guessed, by what he could hear.

The most of the pain was gone now but Harry wished his head would stop throbbing. He could hear there were other people still in the room. He felt more aware. He was conscious of the fact that all he was wearing on an old pair of jeans. He gripped his amulet tighter. He wanted his glasses: he hated not being able to see. The only thing that stopped him looking for them was the knowledge Snape would immobilize him without the slightest qualm. If he could not see very well now, at least he could move. Kind of.

He heard a door open, footsteps and then the voice of the school matron as she started asking questions about the incident and muttering charms. Harry forgot about his glasses. He didn't want the woman trying to give him a check up. He tried to sit up.

"Potter, lie down." Snape barked from across the classroom. He didn't need to be told twice. He thought his head was going to explode.

Harry heard talking and people leaving. He thought he heard Snape ask someone to send Malfoy in. Eventually Madame Pomfrey's blurry shape came into view.

"He got the brunt of it?" She asked the Potions Master as if Harry were not there.

"Yes."

"Any signs?"

"Disorientation mainly."

"Right" The mediwitch whipped out her wand and started running a diagnostic spell on Harry's head.

"Can I have my glasses?" He asked, annoyed, as she continued to prod at him. Snape looked around, picked something up and bent down to put them in his hand. Harry would have sworn there was a wry twist in the man's lips. But if there had been it was gone by the time he had put the glasses on.

"His skull is fine, I can't find any fractures. I would say just a concussion. I've done as much as possible but I suggest he take the rest of the day off. Head trauma is often very difficult to treat. He needs to come to the infirmary if he gets any headaches or dizziness." She said, clicking her tongue as she looked around. "What in the world were they brewing to make such a mess?"

"Searing Solution." Snape answered, void of emotion.

She clicked her tongue again and muttered something that sounded distinctly like "Honestly" before allowing Harry to stand up, slowly, and handing him a note she had written. With that she left.

"It is lunch now, Potter. I suggest you get something to eat then go up to your dorm." Snape said, his eyes' looking at Harry's now woundless chest and settling on the amulet. "We will have a lesson as normal this evening, 7 o'clock."

Harry had a horrible feeling he knew what the man wanted to discuss. He bent to pick up his robe and shirt, trying to avoid his professor's look. Unfortunately it was more a case of what was left of it. It seemed to have been discarded in a puddle of the goo that was dripping from everything in the vicinity of where his cauldron had been. He muttered a cleaning charm under his breath; it did little more than stop his things from smoking.

"Repario" He muttered. Nothing happened. He did not want to go wondering around the castle in nothing but his jeans. "Repario" he spoke again flicking his wand. Still nothing. His head throbbed at the effort.

Snape, who he hadn't realized was still there, arched an eyebrow. Harry flushed- it was a simple spell... The man lifted his wand and with a complicated twist, the clothes repairing themselves in his hands. Before he could say anything the Potions Master turned and swept into his office but Harry saw the blond boy sitting in front of his desk before the door closed.

At the Gryffindor table everyone seemed to know what had happened but asked the students who were there to repeat the details anyway. Harry didn't really want to talk about so he just said, repeatedly, that he couldn't really remember and let the others talk about it instead.

"Are you sure you're OK?" Hermione asked quietly as she passed him the Cornish Pasties.

"Yeah I'm fine." He said irritably around a mouthful.

"Leave him, Hermione," Ron said, as he reached for the pumpkin juice.

Hermione chewed her lip. "It's just that when Professor Snape was trying to put Essence of Dittany on you, you wouldn't stop struggling."

"Come on, Hermione!" Ron exclaimed, "Would you? If that git tried to do that to me I'd try fight him off too."

"I was a bit confused Hermione, that's all," Harry answered. "Madame Pomfrey says I concussed myself. Its common to get a bit funny after that, isn't it?" It saddened him that he couldn't tell her the truth.

"Ok, your right. It just gave me a fright that's all." The girl looked down and Harry could see she was still upset. He tried to divert her. "So what did Snape want with Malfoy?"

"I'm not sure. He was angry though. You should have seen the look on his face when Malfoy walked in. If looks could kill…"

"We'd all be dead five times over. Six times in Harry's case. He's always glaring at us." Ron finished for her, eliciting giggles from Ginny who was sitting next to them.

"Seriously though. I think Malfoy had something to do with it."

"This from the girl who said he could do nothing more than jinx me?" Harry asked incredulously. The truth be told, it was exactly what he had thought.

"Maybe I was wrong? But I mean, Harry, he could have killed you and a bunch of other people. That's going a bit far for a school rivalry."

"Dunno. Maybe he has something to prove."

"What's the note say?" Hermione asked, spotting it next to Harry's plate.

"Just says I can skip the afternoon lessons." Harry said, smiling at the envious look on Ron's face.

"You mean you are leaving me to face double Divinations alone?"

"Yip"

"Arse." Ron muttered but Harry smiled. Ron Weasley had to be the only person had to be the only person who could make him feel better by insulting him.

"What do you think you're playing at?" Severus hissed. He had managed to put aside his anger for a while but having the boy here brought it all back. He was furious. No he was far more than that. But the boy merely looked at him impassively.

"Well? Not only did you nearly kill some of your class mates, you destroyed my classroom. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"It's not that bad sir. I mean I was aiming for Potter, but who cares if it hit one or two Gryffindor idiots?" He answered carelessly.

"Potter? Draco I think you fail to grasp the seriousness of this situation" Severus said, his voice becoming steadily more waspish. "Why are you going after Potter?"

"Extra credit sir" The blond said easily.

"You wish to follow your father's footsteps?"

"Of course. Should I not want to?"

"What you wish to do is not the object of this meeting." Snape bit out acidly, " If you ever attempt to do something of this nature again, in my class you will be very, very sorry."

The boy looked at him angrily. "Why shouldn't I go after Potter? It is his wish is it not?"

"What his wishes are or are not are none of your concern. Do you think the Dark Lord needs aid from a boy who has yet to turn 16? Leave this to wizards who know what they are doing." Severus spat. The blond glared at him. He forced himself to take a breath. He could feel his magic curling around him as it did when he became exceptionally angry.

"What are you going to do?" Behind his apparently offhand attitude there was a note of apprehension.

"I am going to give you a two weeks worth of detention for insolence, pride and blatant disrespect. You will begin this lunch with my classroom." Seeing the smirk on the boy's face he added, "without magic. The rest of the week will be spent with Filch." Draco glared at him, furious.

"We could of course make it three weeks if that is what is required to make you know your place." The boy looked down but Severus could still feel his anger. "You may begin in my classroom."