Chapter 3, everybody! In which potions happen and a three-headed dog is found….Updates will still be irregular until September, just so you all know; as I've said before, Ph.D. takes priority. ^^;

Harry Potter © JK Rowling

Sunday had Harry and Ron working on homework in the relatively quiet common room—or at least, quiet enough that Snips didn't yip in alarm and instead poked his head out of a fold of Harry's clothes to look at what he was doing.

As it turned out in the following weeks, Snips could read, and was not above tracking inky prints all over Harry's homework if he thought it to be unsalvageable. Ron laughed at that a grand total of once before Snips saw fit to give his homework the same treatment, not even bothering to look at it first.

Another benefit to their homework that Snips provided became evident at their next Potions class.

Harry had been worried about Snips wandering off or not liking being in the Potions classroom, due to him coming from there, but Snips behaved very much like he had in all the other classes: nestled in his spot by Harry's neck and nipping at his jaw when he thought Harry was goofing off or not paying attention. Although in History of Magic class, it was for picking odd letters while he was playing hangman with Ron.

What started the aberration in Snips' behavior was when they were done taking notes and moved on to the practical aspects of the potion—that is, actually making it.

Snips' first nip came when Harry was trying to cut the bean that was to go in the potion, nearly resulting in Harry cutting himself.

"Ow!" Harry hissed, sparing Snips a glare. "What? It says cut it."

Snips shook his head, climbed down Harry's arm, nipped at his hand to make him drop the knife, tugged the blade onto the bean, and mimed pushing down. When Harry just stared, Snips went over to the book, dipped a claw in Harry's inkwell, and crossed out the word chop in the chop the baprill bean line before going back and leaning on the knife blade.

Harry gave him a look, but obliged him in squashing the bean instead.

Immediately the bean released quite a lot more juice than Harry had been expecting—Snips scrambled off the cutting board as Harry quickly lifted it and dumped the juice into the potion, which changed to the exact color the book said it needed to be.

"Wow," Ron said, looking over. "How'd you do that?"

Harry quickly and quietly relegated what Snips had done while writing out crush bean with knife under where Snips had crossed out the original instruction, recalling how he had heard some of the women of Little Whinging talking about how the best cookbooks were ones other people had written in. Ron, who had been having difficulty in chopping his bean as well, immediately copied him and dumped the juice in, ending in similar results.

This resulted in the next hour being them watching Snips and following his directions before copying down what he had changed, following his miming and pointing and watching as he picked out the best ingredients for the job and scuttling up Ron and Harry's arms to check on their potions or hiding in the arms of their robes or under their propped-up textbooks whenever Professor Slughorn came by. It was an arduous and time-consuming process, and they finished up quite a bit after everyone else was bottling up their own work and cleaning up their stations, but the finished product looked exactly like the book said it ought to.

"This is absolutely brilliant, boys!" Professor Slughorn had crowed, upon coming back to ascertain why they were taking so much longer than the rest. "A bit plodding in your pace, but that is precisely how this potion is supposed to look! Full marks, both of you!"

Harry and Ron were cheering as they left the classroom, and Snips got quite a bit of food and pets at lunch.

"Absolutely brilliant!" Ron was gushing, giving Snips another piece of ham.

"So we can add good at potions to the list of identifying traits in what Snips is," Harry said, rereading his potions book with the now-edited recipe.

"Can I copy that later? I didn't get a chance to write everything down."

"Sure—no wait, here's an idea: we take turns copying down what Snips does. So next class you write it down and I copy off of you and the class after that I write it down and you copy off of me—"

During their excited planning, however, they failed to notice Hermione Granger sitting down the table from them and resolving that she wouldn't be second-best in potions next class.

Thus started an unwitting rivalry that Harry and Ron were blissfully unaware of.

For the most part, Harry found the student body of Hogwarts to be tolerable—some were good, some were bad, some were middling.

Some were Draco Malfoy.

Malfoy had not taken Harry turning down his offer on the train well, and Harry had at one point or another tried to explain that it was because Harry hadn't liked his attitude towards Ron or Hagrid, and later the way he picked on Neville Longbottom. Malfoy didn't seem to take the hint, however, and after the incident with Neville's Remembrall and the becoming the youngest seeker in a century instead of being expelled bit, Malfoy had challenged Harry to a duel.

Harry, of course, had no idea what Malfoy was talking about, was even more lost when Ron said he'd be Harry's second. Snips was vocal in his disapproval once Malfoy left, and Harry was forced to hold Snips' beak shut so he could properly question Ron on the matter.

Wizard duels apparently involved shooting spells at each other, although Ron was pretty sure all they'd be able to do would be to shoot sparks at each other at this point. That didn't stop Harry from looking up several defensive spells in his copy of The Standard Book of Spells, Grade One that afternoon and practicing on a cushion that had served the Gryffindor common room quite well and hadn't bothered anybody, thank you very much. And then looking up how to repair said cushion when one spell sent it flying against the wall so hard that it lost its stuffing.

Snips remained vocal in his disapproval of Harry and Ron going out to duel Malfoy that night, and Harry was forced to bring him along before he woke up the rest of the tower. And then Hermione Granger, who had been up studying several potions books in her continuing endeavor to best Harry and Ron in the subject, spotted them and followed them, assisting Snips in his haranguing when she realized what they were doing before deciding that they weren't worth her getting into trouble—only to find that the Fat Lady had left on a nighttime stroll, thus sealing the entrance to Gryffindor tower.

The issues continued when they ran into Neville on their way to the trophy room, who lacked a Snips of his own and therefore had gotten hopelessly lost on the way back to the Gryffindor tower from the hospital wing (having broken his wrist when he fell off his broom earlier that day). Harry told him he could come with them, after they took care of the minor issue of dueling Malfoy, and they arrived in the trophy room (through no help of Snips, who firmly refused to assist with their navigating) shortly before midnight.

Shortly after midnight, they realized they had been had, when they heard Filch approaching.

Which then resulted in a mad dash to get away from the trophy room and Filch, and then away from Peeves the Poltergeist, eventually cumulating in them barreling into a room whose door Hermione had hastily unlocked with a spell, slamming it shut behind them and hoping against all hope that Filch didn't hear.

"Snips, shut up!" Harry hissed, when the little thing in question started yipping in agitation.

Snips did not shut up, was in fact assisted by Neville screaming, which prompted the rest of them to turn around and come to the abrupt realization that they were, in fact, sharing a room with a giant three-headed dog.

It didn't take them very long to vacate the premises, but it did take them a long time to stop running after that, Snips eventually tugging on Harry's ear whenever he wanted him to make a left turn. When they stopped finally, out of breath, it was with the realization that the entrance to the Gryffindor tower was just a few turns away.

Once they were safely back inside, Hermione had been quite vocal in her opinions on the matter.

"I'm going to bed," she finished up. "Before either one of you comes up with another way to get us all killed—or worse, expelled."

And with that, she stormed off to the girls' dorm.

"She really needs to sort out her priorities," Ron said finally.

Snips made a sort of repressive noise that told Harry that he agreed fully with Hermione.

After they all collapsed into their respective beds, however, Harry couldn't help but ponder what Hermione pointed out: that the dog had been guarding something.

But what?

The next morning, Harry had tried cajoling Snips into taking them back to the room the dog had been in. Snips had refused.

Snips was also very pointedly ignoring both Harry and Ron, turning up his beak at them both and refusing to look at them. Harry guessed, rightfully so, that Snips was mad at them for sneaking out.

It eventually came to a head during Potions class, when Snips absolutely refused to help them with their potions and actually went so far as to climb down Harry's robes and go under the table. Ron told Professor Slughorn that Harry had dropped one of his tools when he came by, and the moment he was gone Harry was back to trying to cajole Snips to come back out.

Snips eventually did so when both Harry and Ron were on their knees apologizing, but firmly refused to help them for the rest of the class—their potions were about average, and Hermione Granger looked faintly triumphant, as did Draco Malfoy, who had been fuming at Harry and Ron escaping trouble once again.

But Snips was back to taking food from them and looking at them during lunch, and nipping Harry for neglecting his vegetables, so there was that. And Harry assured him that he wouldn't be doing something quite that idiotic again, which seemed to mollify Snips further.

And Harry, at the end of the day, would much rather have a friend's approval than a winning grade.