It was only one week ago that Harry had finally defeated Voldemort in a thirty-minute brain battle on the second day of his sixth year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. Due to Harry’s ingenuous tactics during the battle, all Death Eaters had been pulled into death together with their master. However, somehow, Harry had managed to keep Professor Snape alive. Afterwards he couldn’t even remember why – maybe it was because the professor was fighting for the light side.

He still couldn’t believe it – he had trained spells and defence methods over the years and mulled over the contents of the prophecy during the whole summer holidays after Dumbledore told him about it at the end of his fifth year; however, in the end, it had been love that had helped him to fulfil the prophecy.

After this final battle against the evil, which had pulled the wizarding world into a war for a long time, he had endured a demise party, in which the Minister of Magic had awarded him the Order of Merlin 1st class, and a press conference together with his meddling old Headmaster.

Finally, he was allowed to rest in the Hospital Wing, where he found time and peace to think about his life and a future that was supposed to be better than his past had been. ‘Now I can really be myself and live my life as I wish to do – no more being forced to do something because I’m Harry Potter – maybe I should even change my name!’ he thought, while he absentmindedly endured Pomfrey’s last check-up before his release just in time for breakfast on Monday morning of the second week of classes.

-----

When Harry walked down to the Great Hall to meet his friends at the Gryffindor table, he still couldn’t believe that he had left the prophecy behind and all he had to worry about now was his classes. Sitting down between his friends, he put his head in his bag, feverishly looking for his timetable.

“I can’t find my timetable. What do we have first?” he asked, giving up.

“We’ve double transfiguration first and then a free period,” Hermione announced.

“So we’re all together. That’s good. And in the afternoon?”

“Oh, I’ve Herbology, but I don’t think you want to know what you and Mione have,” Ron said with a very annoyed face.

“Then let me guess: could it be Potions?” Harry asked, his voice laced with venom.

“Even worse. Double Potions!”

Harry groaned. Why did the Potions professor hate him so much? If he managed to let his cauldron explode, he knew he would be thrown out of the class, for sure.

“Oh, shut up you two. Potions isn’t that bad, and Professor Snape isn’t either,” Hermione scolded them. “Now let’s go, otherwise we’ll be late.”

On their way to the Transfiguration lesson, Harry was getting more and more self-conscious because he noticed that many students were watching him or started to whisper as soon as he came into view.

‘How much would I give for just having a normal life without anybody noticing me, with a family just for myself?’ he kept thinking while he tried to configure a button into a live rabbit. And suddenly . . .

“Mr. Potter! What do you think you are doing?” the voice of his Head of House penetrated his ear.

‘What? What did I do?’ He absently looked around and noticed many pink rabbits running around the classroom.

‘Did I just do that?’ he wondered.

“Err... sorry Professor. What happened?”

“Oh, nothing special apart from the fact that I only asked for one rabbit and not for a few dozen,” his teacher replied in a very annoyed voice.

Harry sighed. “Sorry Professor, I really am. I don’t know how it happened.” He looked around, very confused, and noticed that most of his classmates were giggling or more or less successfully trying to hide their laughter.

“Mr. Potter, I am afraid you will have to transfigure each of them back to buttons, or at least vanish them, if you can’t do that. Fortunately, this classroom will not be used until after lunch, and by then I expect all of the rabbits to be gone. As homework, practice transfiguring one button into just one rabbit. Class dismissed.”

Harry sighed again and looked over to Ron and Hermione. “Here goes my free time. I’ll see you two after lunch,” he told them glumly but Hermione put her bag back on her table.

“You don’t think we’ll leave you here alone with all these rabbits?” she asked. “Look, there are about 70 or 80 of them. Let’s try to vanish them together; maybe we’ll even manage to finish in time for lunch.”

It was a difficult job because the rabbits were quite fast, so they decided that Ron and Hermione should stun the rabbits first, and Harry could transfigure or vanish them. Finally, they succeeded in getting rid of all the rabbits before going to lunch.

-----

After lunch, Hermione pulled Harry with her to the dungeons, where he looked around unbelievingly at the classroom. Apart from the two Gryffindors, there were only two Hufflepuffs and four Ravenclaws in the classroom.

“Hey, where are the Slytherins? They can’t have all failed their Potions OWLs,” Harry wondered aloud. In order to get into Professor Snape’s Advanced Potions Class they had to get an ‘O’ in their Potions OWL, which Harry had somehow managed.

“Many of the Slytherins are either dead or still at home because they’ve lost one, or even both, parents because they were Death Eaters. You know that about half of this class consisted of Slytherins; remember you already had a Potions lesson last week,” Hermione reminded him.

“Oh, don’t remind me of that. Even after the stupid six feet of homework, I still didn’t understand how my cauldron could have exploded,” Harry said, very annoyed.

With a loud ‘bang’, the classroom door shut and Professor Snape stormed up to the front of the class. “After the disaster of our last lesson in the previous week, I have once more thought about the standard this class must to hold. I still cannot imagine how some of you have managed to achieve the necessary grade to be in this class, but as you all know, with a famous name everything is possible.” Did Harry only imagine it, or was Snape looking straight at him? Harry dared not look up but watched the floor intensely.

“But I can tell you now: as you have seen last week, this class is very difficult, and we will be brewing dangerous Potions here. If you are too stupid to brew them correctly, neither fame nor the pleadings of my colleagues will save you from dangerous injuries. Mr. Potter, this applies even to you.”

Harry met his teacher’s eyes for the first time today. “Me?”

“Yes, you. You are as arrogant as your father was. Don’t think that you will receive any special treatment because of what you did last week,” Snape said, sneering in Harry’s direction.

“I don’t expect anything, especially not from you. And I didn’t get into this class because of my name or anything, but because I received an ‘O’ in my Potions OWL. Maybe I wouldn’t be so bad at Potions if you weren’t always standing behind me hoping to drive me crazy so that I make silly mistakes!”

Snape sneered. “Potter, watch yourself, or you will be out of this class faster than you can say ‘Quidditch’,” he threatened with a hint of anger in his voice.

Hermione placed a hand on Harry’s arm to stop him from talking back. “Keep calm. Don’t let him get to you. That’s only what he wants,” she whispered.

Harry calmed down, but only for the moment. He knew something else was going to happen by the end of the class.

With a flick of Snape’s wand, the instructions for the Potion appeared on the blackboard. “This is the Esnopia Potion, and be careful; it is highly explosive when the ingredients are not added at the right time.”

Harry chopped the ingredients carefully and had just started to add the first of them, when Hermione spoke up.

“Excuse me, Professor, what is this Potion used for?”

Snape sneered and said, “I know that you are an insufferable know-it-all, but even you will have to wait until the Potion is finished. We will be asking one of you to test it,” he added, addressing the class as a whole.

Hermione blushed and looked away quickly to hide her tears. Harry stood up with a very upset expression on his face.

“How dare you insult my friend like this? What do you have against her? All she did was ask a question, and if I remember right, teachers are supposed to answer nicely.”

“Oh yes, like I said before, as arrogant as your father. Is it not enough to save the whole world? Do you now have to advise your teachers on how to conduct their lessons?” Snape snapped. He looked as if he had devil’s horns, as he was towering threateningly above Harry.

Harry’s face became red with anger. “What’s your problem SIR? Does it bother you that you’ve another life debt to pay to my family? If that’s your problem, then you can forget it. You saved my life often enough, so that you don’t owe me anything SIR.”

Snape exploded. “YOU! I will get you expelled! Detention tonight at 7 o’clock and you better not be late. Then, we will go to see the Headmaster about your behaviour.”

Now Harry saw red. Not thinking, he picked the remaining ingredients up and threw them all together into his cauldron. Within seconds, the Potion exploded all over Harry, who screamed in pain and was gone with a whoosh.

The students were frozen with shock.

“What happened? Where is Harry?” they asked each other questioningly. Even Snape couldn’t believe what had happened and had turned pale.

“Class dismissed. We will try to brew this Potion again in our next lesson. Ms. Granger, if you are sure that you are not injured, be so kind as to accompany me to the headmaster’s office.”

“Yes, of course Professor.” Hermione followed Snape, having to run to keep up with the fast pace of the Potions master, who was storming up to the Headmaster’s Office, his robes billowing as he strode. The Headmaster offered Lemon drops and tea, which Snape and his student both declined before they proceeded to tell the story.

While listening, Dumbledore’s face became more and more pensive. “The Esnopia Potion, you said? I’m sorry, Severus, but frankly speaking, I have no idea what this Potion does, and I’m sure that you are proficient enough at Potions to determine what effect the wrongly made Potion will have had on our Mr. Potter.”

Snape sighed and turned to the student, who had been astonishingly quiet so far. “Ms. Granger, do you have any idea what Potter has done to his Potion?”

Hermione threw a frightened glance at the Professor and returned, “No, sir. I can only guess that he became very upset and threw all ingredients in at once. The last thing I saw him adding properly was the bat wing powder.”

Severus remained pensively for a moment, until suddenly an alert expression showed in his eyes and his always-pale face turned as white as a sheet.