Severus Snape rearranged the first-year essays on his desk, again, as he waited for his students to file in. He was going to fight tooth and nail to make Gemma Farley Head Girl for her seventh year. The girl deserved it. Not only had she reported Harry's mental breakdown in the Slytherin common room, which had happened in front of the entire Slytherin student body, but she had managed to leverage that display into a house-wide fervor to train harder to defend and guard Harry.
There were still a few open holdouts to the newly organised pro-Potter mentality in the snake pit, most notably Stanton Avery. Harry had apparently sent Avery to the hospital wing with a head wound on Saturday night. Good riddance, and yet, an escalation into violence could tear Slytherin apart, if it wasn't contained.
Having the Boy Who Lived in Slytherin was a risk, one that would only increase, if proof that the Dark Lord was not dead, and was capable of returning, ever surfaced. Many of his snakes had loyalties twisted up in Lord Voldemort's cause. Many of those who saw Potter as a potential ally or tool now, might be tempted to turn on him, or hand him over to the Dark Lord, if they saw that as an avenue to power.
Still, for now, the solidarity that the majority of the Slytherins had shown was a welcome relief.
Harry worried him, though. He had arranged a private meeting with the boy, after Farley had reported the incident. He had reminded Severus of what he'd been like when Severus had insisted on inspecting his home on Privet Drive, overly cheerful and dismissive, with the threat of something more visceral and volatile lurking underneath.
Severus hadn't pushed him. He knew, all too well, the shame that came with feeling unworthy of one's own self-pity, or the empathy of others. He knew what it was like to desperately hide one's own weaknesses sources of trauma, because it was easier to suffer alone, than to admit that one needed help.
Hogwarts had been a promise of safety for Harry, Severus was sure, and now that promise had been ripped away. In Harry's place, an eleven-year-old Severus would feel stupid and perhaps even deserving of the death that had almost landed, for believing the lie that his life could have an element of sanctuary and security within it.
In Severus' own case, he had been subjected to bullying too soon after arriving at Hogwarts, and had been exposed to the blend of the wizarding and muggle worlds, to fully be hoodwinked by the idea that this magical world would be a fairy-tale utopia of never-ending happiness.
He was just glad that the boy did not need to face this realization alone.
The doors to the potions classroom opened, and the Slytherin and Gryffindor first-years filed in, dutifully cowed as they noticed his presence at the head of the room. Severus concealed a smirk, and glowered at a few of the Gryffindors.
The Longbottom brat sat on his own side of the classroom today, for which Severus was grateful. It was hard enough looking at the spare child of prophesy on his own, let alone sitting next to Harry Potter. He was always hit with a bitter mix of guilt, that his tattling to the Dark Lord had led to the boy's parents being tortured into insanity, and resentment that he had not drawn the Dark Lord's attention and murderous obsession, rather than Potter. The boy was a walking reminder that Severus had gotten Lily killed, and had been, and still was, at times, willing to sacrifice a different family, a different innocent child, in order to undo his mistake and keep his best friend and love safe.
Lily would have hated him, if she had lived, and learned that her continued existence was thanks to Severus successfully negotiating for the Dark Lord to target the Longbottoms in her stead. She would have hated him, and Severus would have borne that hatred gratefully, because she would have been alive.
Harry and Draco were among the last to arrive, sliding silently into their usual seats, with Draco standing guard over Harry, and glaring at anyone who so much as glanced at Harry.
It was a rare thing, indeed, to gain the true loyalty of a Malfoy, and all the more valuable for its scarcity.
Severus allowed himself a moment of hope that Draco's friendship with Potter would soften Lucius toward the boy, but quickly dismissed the thought. Lucius was far more likely to use Draco as a shield to hide his true intentions against the child, than to actually soften his stance and view Harry as anything other than a disposable tool.
Harry was quiet and subdued, but he looked less haunted than he had earlier in the week. Severus was glad for it, even if it was only a front. At the very least, the boy was emotionally stable enough to hide his pain, once more, and hopefully the support of his friends had genuinely offered him a measure of peace.
If nothing else, Harry's near-death-experience had motivated the boy to go above and beyond in his homework. The boy's latest essay, assigned the Friday before the attack, and due the next Monday, had been painstakingly detailed as it not only outlined the obligatory ingredients that made a fingernail-strengthening potion effective and why, but also gave step-by-step explanations of how each ingredient, stirring technique, and temperature altered the potion to prepare it for the step that came next, and also offered several changes from the textbook provided recipe to make it more effective, as well as why each change was more challenging or volatile than the textbook version, thus prompting the inferior technique be recommended for first-years.
Severus could recognize a desperate attempt to distract one's own mind from unwanted thoughts when he saw it, but he still had to praise Potter's essay for what it was, ingenious.
The first-year curriculum was designed to familiarize students with the brewing process, and to allow them to pick out a few primary traits in some common ingredients that would determine a potion's purpose. Harry's grasp of how the ingredients interacted with each other under varying circumstances was far above his year level.
The theory of clockwise vs counter-clockwise stirring to either strengthen or diminish the common traits of multiple ingredients, for example, was not even touched upon until NEWT level classes.
Harry, evidently, had not been able to take the textbook's 'these directions are important, trust us, but don't worry about why, just yet' approach at face value, over the summer.
Severus was impressed that Harry had been able to make as much headway as he had, given the books he had purchased that day in Diagon Alley. It showed some true ingenuity, dedication, and problem-solving, to piece together how each specific choice in a potion's formulation contributed to its final outcome.
The fact that the essay was positively riddled with scathing sarcasm at the textbook recipe's cautionary choices was an added bonus, that Severus had greatly enjoyed. It was rare, indeed, for a student to take the risk of injecting humor into an assignment meant to be marked by Severus Snape. The few who tempted fate, succeeded in making Severus chuckle, or at the very least smile, and been rewarded bonus points because of it, tended to guard such a secret to success with vicious avarice.
He doubted that most students would be willing to take the risk of cracking jokes in a potions essay, even if they knew it had a theoretical chance at success, and he was about to put that theory to the test.
He handed back each student's essay to them, pausing to pointedly tap the note next to the perfect score on Harry's essay, praising the boy's efforts. Harry tucked his chin into his chest, as his ears and cheeks pinked at the praise.
"Class, while I was unsurprisingly underwhelmed by the regurgitated drivel that most of you wrote in your last endeavor to skirt the boundaries of plagiarism, I found myself pleasantly surprised to read a single essay that rose above mediocrity. Your homework, due next class, is to compare your own essays to this one, and write a new essay, two feet long, detailing the myriad of ways in which your own work is deficient in comparison. The author of the comparison essay is, naturally, exempt from this assignment. Congratulations, Mr. Potter, in managing to secure a modicum of my respect."
Hermione Granger's head snapped up when Severus mentioned Harry's name, and he stared her down as flicked his wrist, sending a copy of Harry's essay to each student to read over and daring the insufferably self-righteous and egotistical girl to speak out.
She scanned Harry's essay, her frown becoming more and more pronounced with each line she read, and raised her hand.
Severus cracked his neck, and let the hint of a smirk play across his lips. "Yes, Miss Granger?"
"There must be some mistake, Sir. This essay explicitly contradicts the text book's instructions. You can't possibly be rewarding the blatant disregard of your own instructions to follow the steps of the recipe, can you?"
"Perhaps you should do more than merely skim Mr. Potter's essay for what you see as mistakes, before you voice your judgement, Miss Granger. His reasoning is well documented, and it is correct. Your first-year text book outlines a rudimentary formulation for most of the potions it lists, rather than the more complicated, difficult, and dangerous professional recipes for the same potions.
"If you choose to do the bare minimum of copying the beginner's recipes, at face value, without bothering to research the effects each step has on the potion, and therefore deducing that alternative methods may be just as, if not more, effective, then that is your choice, but do not expect full credit, let alone extra credit from me, and do not disparage those that do choose to engage their brains beyond a shallow attempt showing off."
Granger scowled. "But the answers Potter gave weren't anywhere in the text book, or in any of the books the library has on potion. I checked."
"That is correct," Severus said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "One point to Gryffindor."
The Slytherins snickered quietly. It was the first point Severus had awarded to Gryffindor all year.
"But that's not fair! Muggleborns don't have access other magical libraries. How could we possibly be expected to find these answers, if they aren't at the school?"
"Miss Granger, I highly doubt that Mr. Potter has access to any books that you do not. As it happens, writing a book about what the most effective variants of a handful of specific potions happens to be would be pointless, and even counterproductive in the grand scale of education. Potions is not a subject that one can master through research and recitation, alone. This is an art of deduction, of experimentation, and of cultivated intuition. In short, Miss Granger, you must learn to think for yourself."
Severus knew he was being unnecessarily harsh against the girl, but the stress of watching Harry nearly die in front of him needed an outlet, and Granger's penchant for sticking her nose into other people's business acted as a convenient catalyst for his distain. If he could not protect Potter's life, he could at least defend his intelligence and honor, and take satisfaction in doing it in as brutal way as possible. No one expected him to be a nice or fair-minded professor, anyways.
Well, Harry might. Severus glanced over and saw that Harry, indeed, looked very unhappy with Granger's evisceration.
"Enough of this," Severus said, using his wand to write the name of this lesson's potion practical on the board behind him. "This potion is to be brewed by the end of class. Thanks to Miss Granger's interruptions, you will have to use your time efficiently, if you hope to finish, but it is doable. Do not, under any circumstances, alter any of the steps listed in your textbook, unless you already know what you are doing, why, and are willing to explain your alterations to me. Get to it."
Severus sat at his desk with a heavy sigh, as his students scrambled to gather ingredients and begin brewing. He glared at anyone who hesitated or faltered, and took great satisfaction when Hermione Granger made several uncharacteristic mistakes. His diatribe against her had hit its mark.
He avoided making eye contact with Harry, or his little Malfoy minion, but called for both of them to stay after class. Severus was done using half-measures. He was going to keep Harry safe, and he didn't care who saw him do it.