Severus Snape couldn't believe what he was seeing in his classroom; Draco Malfoy had neatly leapt over his desk and across Harry Potter's in order to strangle his despised rival. He'd been in the midst of one of his lectures about the importance of knowing the antidotes for certain potions when the fight broke out. So startled by the rude behavior from one of his own house, he was not in time to stop Ronald Weasley diving into the fray. He had to admit, later, that he was doubly surprised to see a Muggle-style fist-fight break out, instead of a wanding duel. Snape finally snapped out of it just as Hermione Granger decided to try and pull Ron off the other two boys.

"Petrificus Totalus!" Roared Snape as he flourished his wand at all four students. Like dominoes, Draco, Harry, Ron and Hermione froze in place and dropped away from each other. Professor Snape strode over to the frozen foursome and glared darkly down at them. "25 points each from Gryffindor." He caught the hint of a smug smile on Draco's lips and snarled, "50 points from Slytherin!"

"Fifty points?" cried Draco. Further protest was cut off by a deadly glare from the potions teacher.

"All four of you will also meet me at eleven o'clock for detention. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," came the beleaguered chorus.

Snape unfroze them and ordered them back to their seats. "But sir!" Draco began to whine, again, and Snape whirled upon the boy. Any color that was left in Draco's skin fled at the sight of the anger in his head of house's eyes and he plunked down like a stone in his seat. "Not a word, Mr. Malfoy. Not. One. Single. Word."

The lesson continued for the rest of the hour and then the four miscreants were allowed to escape; at least for the time being.

Eleven of the clock came much quicker than any of them expected. Despite this, they were all on time as they entered the classroom. Snape was at his desk, hunched over and grading papers. With his quill, he sharply indicated they were to sit. Ron was about to say something to the professor when Hermione slapped a hand over his mouth. Ron glared and peeled Hermione's hand off his mouth.

After only a few, but agonizing minutes, Snape spoke up, although he did not look up from his work. "Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Potter, front and center. Now."

Neither Draco nor Harry hesitated. Within seconds they had vacated their seats and were standing in front of Snape's desk. The man finally raised his head and his cold, black gaze settled like a lead weight upon them. He glanced back and forth between the two... enemies, and then settled upon Draco. Draco had the fleeting feeling that he was going to burst into flame right there.

"Mr. Malfoy, explain your actions in class today."

"S-sir?" stuttered Draco.

"What precipitated your... fisticuffs with Mr. Potter? And do not incur another loss of points for Slytherin by making me define the big words for you, Mr. Malfoy. Prove to me that you're much more intelligent then your two cotton-headed, Slytherin cohorts, Crabbe and Goyle. Now. Talk."

Draco could have said any number of things and all of them would have sounded ten times smarter and more plausible than what he did say. His brilliant explanation was, "Potter looked at me!"

Snape had to remind himself, silently of course, that blasting students with a blasting spell wasn't allowed at Hogwarts. He was about to lambaste the boy with a scathing remark when the Boy-Who-Didn't-Know-When-To-Keep-His-Mouth-Shut shot back with his own, succinct explanation.

"Malfoy looked at me, first!"

Ron, not one who was known for his fine words, or his timing, leaned over and whispered to Hermione, "Brilliant that. We're dead."

Hermione just glared at Ron. Snape cast the girl a quick smirk. At least she was learning to keep her mouth shut.

Snape let out a dramatic sigh and dropped his quill into the inkwell. Sitting up straight, he crossed his arms across his chest and stared at the two idiots for a moment.

"I am hardly against a healthy house rivalry but the two of you are taking your hostilities even beyond my tolerance. As much as I am tempted to allow the two of you to work out your frustrations upon each other until you both warrant a month in hospital, I am unfortunately not permitted such an action." He smiled, yet there was not one whit of warmth or joviality in it. "However, I can give you both detention," both boys sagged visibly, "for the rest of the semester," this caused them each to gasp, "every... single... night!"

At the same time, both Draco and Harry cried out, "That's not fair!"

"That's 50 points from Gryffindor and Slytherin. One more word out of either of you and it will be another 100 points and both houses will be behind Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff."

"Uhm, sir, won't that mean that Slytherin will be in the negative?" Draco pointed out.

Snape's eyes narrowed dangerously as he peered at the young snake. "Your point being, Mr. Malfoy?" Snape was rather pleased to see the sharp elbow of warning that came from the heroic Gryffindor. Draco was just about retaliate when Snape stopped him with an icy glare.

Snape rose from his desk, walked past Draco and Harry, eyed Ron and Hermione and quietly indicated they were all to follow him. They hadn't even crossed the threshold of the potions classroom when Hermione hissed to Harry, "Now you've done it, Harry. Why couldn't you have left well enough alone?"

Harry's jaw just dropped open. He didn't dare say a word, but he promised himself he'd remind her later that it was Malfoy that had started the whole bloody fight. Snapping his mouth shut, he gave her a nasty glare and purposely strutted ahead of them until he was in the wake of Snape's robe.

After several minutes of wending their way through the castle, they were soon outside with the moon shining down upon them from a clear night sky. There was a chill in the air, but the brisk walk was keeping them each warmed up, as were their heavy winter robes.

Seeing the direction they were headed, Ron began to visibly slow down. Looking toward the Forbidden Forest at this hour of the night only served to remind the red-head of the acromantula, Aragog and his children that lived deep within the forest. Harry saw Ron hesitating and grabbed him by the sleeve. Harry mouthed a quick "c'mon" and dragged Ron beside him.

"Professor!" Hermione's voice cut through the silent night. "What are we going to do in the Forbidden Forest?"

Without stopping his long stride, or looking back, Snape replied, "We are going to harvest a particularly rare orchid that will bloom almost every night until the end of September. Would you care to tell us what flower it might be?"

Hermione, delighted to have been asked, smiled happily as she replied, "The Star Moss Night Blooming Orchid?"

"Very good, Miss Granger. Five points to Gryffindor." Snape began to lecture as they neared the Forbidden Forest. "It takes a delicate hand to properly harvest the Star Moss. One must wait until the flower blooms fully, then grasp the stem close to the ground, and pull with a firm hand straight up. Sight isn't enough to allow one to determine if the blossom has completely opened. The flower will release its perfume upon full bloom. It is a heavy perfume and after the harvesting of five or six blooms, it is almost impossible to continue the harvest as the senses get overwhelmed by the fragrance of the flower. I expect each of you to harvest at least five blossoms with the roots intact. If you manage a sixth, intact bloom, you will earn points for your house."

They entered the Forbidden Forest and Snape gathered them so that Harry and Ron were to his left and Draco and Hermione were to his right. They didn't have to go too far into the forest, a fact Ron was only too happy to discover. Their destination was an area of the forest where several trees had fallen decades ago and had begun to rot on the forest floor. The entire area was a moist, nutrient rich place for the Star Moss Night Blooming Orchid to thrive.

The flower grew close to the ground. Its leaves were plump, waxy and dark green and the flower itself was of two colors. The side of the petal that faced outward was a sharp crimson. The inside of the petal ranged from pale pink at the outermost petals to pure white in the middle. The petals also were waxy, but thin and bruised easily. Its name, Star Moss, came from the shape of the blossom, which was star shaped, and the way that the flower grew closely to its siblings; tightly together and like moss, it covered the decaying trees.

Snape positioned each of his students near a patch of the flowers. Soon the flowers were to begin opening and they had to be ready for the first expression of perfume. As the flowers began to bloom, it was a fascinating site that distracted all of them for a moment. The entire area appeared to come to life as the petals slowly responded to the night.

Draco was the first to pull up a Star Moss. He tugged at too much of an angle, though, which broke the root. The broken flower wilted quickly and the petals began to shrink. He glared at the flower as he was suddenly assaulted by more of the heavy perfume from other blossoms. He wrinkled his nose at the offensive smell.

"Smells like my grandmother," he muttered and pulled up an intact blossom. He grinned triumphantly.

Harry harvested the next successful flower and Snape came over to take it from him as Harry was soon waiting for another blossom to finish opening. Ron was right behind Harry and managed to harvest two of the flowers at once. He grinned happily as he handed his blossoms over to Snape. Snape turned to see how Hermione was doing and saw that she was just harvesting her third flower. He walked over to gather hers just as Draco let out a terrified scream.