“Potter, you imbecile, the results of this potion can be any shade of green or clear to be correct and you get purple? What did you do wrong?!”

“Hey, I did the exact same thing that Malfoy did.”

“Obviously you didn’t, as his potion is green and yours is purple.” Severus stalked to the makeshift potions cabinet, which probably used to hold teacups and searched for a new cauldron.

“How many drops of blood did you use?”

“Um…a few.” Harry said quietly, and he knew his answer sounded more like a question instead of a statement.

“A few? What the hell does that mean, Potter? Three? Four? Five? Do you even recall what the directions told you to use?” Severus slammed a small cauldron down in front of Harry. He poured some of Harry’s unused potion into the smaller cauldron and waited for an answer.

“No”

“Did it occur to you to open your book and, oh let’s see, what could one do with a book? Oh, yes, READ it!”

“I remember the book saying to add the blood of both people and I figured just a little from each person would do. I mean, Malfoy gave me half a vial of his blood! I didn’t think I needed it all! I guess I should have checked, sir.”

Severus picked up Harry’s potion textbook and thrust it towards him. “Read it! Now!”

Severus waited while Harry quickly found the page and read the directions.

“Two drops,” Harry finally said after a few minutes of reading.

“Not a few? Imagine that, an exact number of drops! Alright Potter, let’s make sure that you understand what the results of this particular potion mean. What does it mean if the color is a shade of green?”

“That there is no blood relation between the two people.”

“Correct. Now, what about clear?”

“That there is a blood relation between the two people.”

“What would have to be the relationship between the two people?” Severus waited while Harry thought it out. He could almost see the boy making a mental list before speaking.

“It would have to be a direct relative or a blood relative that’s close?”

“Are you asking me or telling me the answer?”

“Okay, it would have to be direct. Like, um, the other person would have to be your mom, dad, brother, sister, your own child, grandparent, and um…maybe aunt, uncle or cousin…I don’t know!”

“Potter, you’re giving me a headache. Let’s just finish this potion so that we can move on to something else. Now we need how many drops of your blood, Potter?”

“Two”

“And we need how many drops of someone else’s blood?”

“TWO!” Harry was becoming exasperated with Snape constantly treating him like he was two.

“And what color should the potion be when we are done?”

“Green or clear,” Harry grumbled.

“Yes, however, what color will this potion be?”

“Well, seeing how I have no living relatives, direct or otherwise, I suppose it would be some putrid shade of green!”

“No need for hysterics, Potter. Now add your two drops of blood.” Severus watched while Harry pricked his finger with the lancet and squeezed two drops of blood into the small cauldron.

“Now, where is Draco?”

“What? Why do we need Malfoy? I still have some of his blood right here.”

“The blood needs to be fresh, you idiot! Go find him.”

“He said he was going to go take a nap or something. I’m not going up there.” Every since Severus, Harry and Draco moved into Grimmauld Place, Harry had refused to go into Sirius’ old room. So, naturally, that’s the room Draco claimed.

“Oh, fine. I’ll do it,” Severus said with a sigh. “Now, how many drops do I need again?”

Harry gave Snape a death glare. Not that he could pull it off as well as his professor could.

“Alright, the blood has been added. Now what, Potter?”

“Um..you stir it ten times counterclockwise and then you stir it five times clockwise and then you wait two minutes and then the color should settle into whatever color it’s going to be.”

“I just love your run-on sentences, Potter,” Severus said with sarcasm. ‘Start stirring. Surely you can handle that while I try to bring order to this poor excuse for a potions supply cabinet.” Severus went to the cabinet and started taking out various jars and vials while Harry stirred his potion. Severus soon lost track of time and knew that several minutes had already passed when he looked up at Harry. The boy was standing with his hands down at his sides and he appeared to be simply staring into the small cauldron.

“Potter? What is wrong with you? Purple again? If so, you will need to redo the base potion. That’s probably where the problem is.” Severus stood and walked to Harry’s work table. He peered into the cauldron to view the color.

“Potter, you completely stupid boy! Redo the base potion!”

“Why is it clear?” Harry looked up at Severus waiting for an answer.

“Redo the base potion, Potter. Now!” Severus went back to the cabinet and started slamming things around.

“Professor, I need to…”

“Potter, I said to redo the base potion. Is English your second language? DO IT NOW!”

“I need to tell you that Malfoy and I cheated and made the base potion together and halved it because we knew we wouldn’t need that much and if it worked for Malfoy’s potion, and this is the same base, then what does that mean?” Harry finally took a breath and then another. Now that was a run-on sentence and he waited to see if Snape would comment on it.

Severus just stood there and stared at Harry. This couldn’t be right. Severus quickly grabbed another cauldron and added some more of the base potion to it. He went to the floo and yelled Draco’s name. When Draco’s head appeared in the flames Severus’ only response was, “Get down here, now!”

“Add two drops of your blood, Potter,” Severus said pointing to the cauldron with the potion base in it.

Harry did as he was told, but by now his hands were shaking slightly. He kept telling himself he wasn’t good at potions and that he probably just did something wrong. That’s why the results were all messed up. That had to be it.

The moment Draco walked into the room Severus grabbed him and pulled him to the work table.

“Add two drops of your blood to that cauldron.” Severus pointed to the appropriate cauldron and waited.

“What? I already did my potion. It was green. Did you see?”

“Draco, Merlin help me if you do not do as you’re told right this instant.” Severus gave Draco a small shove to move him closer to the cauldron.

“Alright, alright, keep your knickers on.” Draco added his blood and then was quickly shoved out of the way. Severus took a clean ladle and began to stir. Ten counterclockwise. Five clockwise. Wait two minutes.

“Green. See? I told you Potter and I already did our potions assignment.”

“Yes, and Potter did his wrong. We are redoing it.”

“Well, it looks fine now.” Draco commented as he started to walk out of the room.

“Wait! I want two more drops of your blood.” Severus had to clean the cauldron that had Draco’s successfully finished potion in it, as he had run out of spare ones.

He added more of the base potion and waited while Draco added his blood. Then Severus added two drops of his own, proceeded to stir and then waited. Green.

“Draco, you can go now,” Severus said with dread in his voice.

“Yeah, okay, but I’m telling you that base potion is perfect. I pretty much did all of the work on it. And what results are you getting? Green. Perfect…” Draco’s voice faded as he got further away from the potions lab.

“Potter? I am going to remake the base potion; we will both add our blood and watch it turn green. Do you hear me?” Severus looked at Harry for the first time in the last several minutes. Harry only nodded.

One hour later found Severus and Harry adding their blood again. Severus did the stirring and Harry was grateful. Harry knew that with his professor doing all of the potions work, there would be no way to refute the results. The waiting was killing him, and yet he couldn’t look into the cauldron.

Severus finally stopped stirring and placed the ladle on the worktable. He stood, silent, rigid, watching the potion. When the two minutes were up, Severus cleared away all of the contents of the cauldron and began cleaning up.

“Sir, what color was it? I didn’t get to look.” Harry grabbed the cauldron, but it had already been completely cleaned of all potions. Severus didn’t answer as he went back to the cabinet and began putting ingredients away in a more orderly fashion than they once were.

“Professor? What color?”

“Professor Snape! Green? Clear? What color?”

“Listen, since you’re not answering me, I’m going to assume the worst here! Tell me!” Harry was yelling now, losing all sense of decorum.

“Potter, I can’t deal with this now. Go to bed.”

“You can’t deal with it?” Harry knew what that meant. If it had been green Snape would have just said that. This was bad.

“Potter, really, just go get some sleep. I need to think.”

“Oh god, oh god, oh god…this is not happening. This can’t be true. I mean, what does this mean? We’re related? How the hell can that be possible?” Harry had backed himself up against the wall and slowly slid down into a sitting position. He drew his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He felt like he was going to hyperventilate or pass-out, so he leaned forward to rest his head on his knees.

He sat like that for several minutes, breathing in and out, trying to ground himself in reality. He could hear Snape moving around and the clanking of potions ingredients in their little jars. Why wasn’t the man saying anything? Was he in shock? Not likely with Snape. Was he processing the information, working out the mystery, the possibilities?

Harry couldn’t stand the quiet any longer. “Sir?” Harry tentatively said. No answer. It was almost like he wasn’t there. Invisible.

“Sir? Are you okay?” No answer.

“Okay, I’m just going to go to my room, now. Um..maybe when you’re feeling better we can figure this out.” Harry started to back out the door, intending to turn and run the first chance he got. He would send Hermione a letter, tell her about the potion asssignment and ask her what might have gone wrong. The thing was there was a feeling, deep within Harry, that knew nothing had gone wrong with the potion.

Harry was out the door and was just starting to turn around when Snape called out to him.

“Potter.”

“Yes, Professor?”

“I am not sure,” and here Snape paused, trying to collect his jumbled thoughts, “what this means. I will contact the Headmaster as soon as possible and discuss it with him. Right now, I have no answers. Do not say anything to Draco or your friends. In fact, just don’t say anything at all. That is very important. Do you understand, Potter?”

“Yeah.” Harry turned and went quickly up the stairs.

Severus stood, staring at the spot where Harry had been only seconds ago. All of a sudden nothing made sense and he was truly getting a headache. He could not leave Grimmauld Place to seek answers, so he would wait until morning and contact Albus. It was the best he could do right now. Severus locked the potions cabinet, turned down the lights and left the lab. Tomorrow would come soon enough and whether that was a good thing or not, Severus wasn’t sure.