Harry watched Snape stalk around to each table finally ending with the last two tables, Zambini and his and Pansy and Padma’s. He watched with a neutral expression as Snape smirked at him, he knew that he had made his perfectly because he had in fact made it for himself before. It was a more complex type of stomach soother, used for people that had gone through painful or upsetting experiences.

As Snape announced in a victorious voice that the girls’ potion was not perfect and began to slowly walk over to their table. He saw that Blaise was nervously fidgeting his hands “Must think we are going to fail, ha-ha.” He tried to smile at him but Blaise was just staring at the cauldron.

Harry turned as Snape reached their table and began to test it. When he finished his tests that he had done with all the previous potions he waited for him to announce that it was indeed perfect. Instead he watched as Snape straightened up with a strange expression on his face.

“Mr. Longbottom, come here at once!” Snape barked out.

He felt his jaw drop as he heard Snape tell Nev to come over. He had a bad feeling that he was going to have Nev try the potion out. While he knew that it was perfect, he still knew that Nev would be nervous and scared to try it. He shut his mouth and tried to encourage Nev with his eyes. He watched as Nev slowly drank the potion and his face lost all signs of stress. He knew at that moment without a doubt that it was perfect because that’s how he felt when he drank this potion.

He felt a sliver of pride sweep through his heart as Snape announced it perfect but the feeling was abruptly crushed when Snape told him that he had yet another detention for “cheating.” He slumped down in his chair and muttered to himself “I can’t believe it! I did all the work! Even Blaise saw me do it!” As he sat up to begin clearing the table he heard Snape tell the class to clear the supplies but leave their potions on the tables.

When Snape dismissed them he walked out without even trying to fight the detention. He was resigned to the fact that he was going to have to spend the rest of his life in the dungeon serving out detention. As he slung his satchel over his shoulder he hung his head and continued to walk. He heard Hermione yelling his name but kept walking.

“HARRY! STOP!!!” Hermione yelled as she ran up to him and grabbed his shoulder.

As she grabbed his shoulder, it took all of his strength to keep his knees from collapsing from the jolting pain that went through his body. “What ‘Mione? I need to go see Hagrid then study for the big history exam.” Harry lied barely managing to keep a calm tone.

“I just wanted to make sure that you were okay. The potion you made was brilliant, I could tell.” Hermione rushed out. “Wait, what did you just say? About the exam?”

“Yeah,” Harry continued lying. “Weren’t you paying attention? Professor Binns announced that there was going to be a big exam on Friday.” He just wanted her to leave him alone. He didn’t have the strength to deal with her.

“Oh my! I don’t know what you are talking about! I need to go talk to Professor Binns right now! See you later Harry!” Hermione yelled as she dashed off.

Harry kept walking and kicked some leaves contemplating skipping the rest of his classes. “I really do feel bad for doing that to Mione…she and Nev are the only friends I really have left. Oh well, what’s done is done. I better not skip classes though or Mione will be extra put off.”

As he sat in through the next two morning classes and the afternoon classes he could not pay attention at all. All he could think about was going back to the library and making a list of ingredients that he would need for his potions experiments. They would be pretty pricey but they would fit into his budget if he didn’t order anything for the following month. Harry chuckled to himself, “I bet Snape would stoke if he found out that I am not the idiotic money-blowing boy that he thinks I am.” As he sat there slumped in his chair, he sat up with a jolt. “Damn, I forgot what time he told me for detention. Wait…did he tell me a time?” Harry swore to himself, he could ask Mione if she had heard him say a time but she wasn’t speaking to him at this moment. He looked over at her and she sniffed and turned her face away and looked out the window. “I guess I’ll just have to make a trip back down to find out. Great.” He sat back, slumped down and tried to listen to Professor Binns drone on about certain Goblin Wars that held no relation to his life or interest.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Severus was hungry and tired but most of all hungry. It wasn’t the empty feeling that you can deal with for a little while. No that time had passed; instead it was to the point that his stomach was dominating his thoughts. Every time he started to get up to order something from the kitchen students interrupted him or another class was starting. He swore at himself, “You are just too smart aren’t you Severus? Deciding to skip lunch and instead working! I want FOOD!”

Dismissing his last class two minutes early he stalked into his office shut the door, threw some floo powder into the fire and waited until an elf stuck his head through. “Will you please send me soup, bread and fresh fruit? Leave it on my desk.” Turning on his heel he went back out to the classroom, grabbed the foot tall stack parchments that he had gotten just from todays classes. He walked back into his office and sighed as his delicate nose took in the delicious smell of cheesy potato soup and homemade sweet bread. He laid the parchment down on the corner and walked around to where the elf had put the food. They had been generous as they always were with him. They had given him an entire pot of soup with the six thick pieces of bread with platter of butter. He grinned as he took in the glorious sight of bananas and slices of mango. “Those elves really are starting to know my tastes!”

He conjured a bowl, plate and silverware. He helped himself to a large helping of soup, two slices of bread and both a mango and banana. He reached for a banana and peeled it. As he took his first bite he couldn’t stop himself from yelling out loud, “MERLIN! I love bananas!” As he ate he allowed his mind to wander and examine his day so far. It had been a moderately successful day even though he had had a terrible surprise from Potter’s potion. “The amount of calm that Longbottom emitted was uncanny, not even my potions have rendered that much peace.” He sighed; he didn’t know how Potter had managed to make such a good potion considering that Zambini was almost as bad as him in Potions. In fact, he couldn’t understand how Slughorn could think Potter was good at Potions at all but that seemed like all he could talk about was the promise that Potter seemed to have and the natural ability like his mother and father had possessed. Well he hadn’t seen that in the years that he had taught him, no not at all. He finished eating his soup and bread and cast a stasis spell over all of it and hovered it over to another table by the wall to save for later. He reached over and grabbed the first 4 inches of the one-foot tall stack and began to read. He sighed as he made corrections and changes to the first years papers. Why they couldn’t learn correct grammar and spelling baffled him.

A couple hours went by and it seemed to Severus that his eyes were going to start leaking his red correction ink. He had finally gotten through the first year’s papers and had moved onto the third and fifth year’s papers. Instead of their gregarious mistakes in spelling they made stupid mistakes such as misinterpreting the text and just plain saying stupid things. That aspect never seemed to leave their papers until they reached the sixth or seventh year when they had either decided to listen to his lectures or find someone that had.

As he made his final markings on a sixth year’s paper he sighed and leaned back into his chair. He reached up to his face and rubbed his eyes and massaged his temples. He had accomplished a lot in the last two hours and he was beginning to get sleepy. “Thank Merlin this was a light day for Slughorn and my classes. I still have detention tonight and I need to look over Potter’s potion more carefully.” He had made the entire class leave behind potions so that he could take the ones that were perfect and give to Madam Pomphry but mostly because he had wanted to examine Potter’s potion more closely. The said potion was now sitting on the same table as his leftover afternoon snack in it’s own stasis.

“BAH!! What I would give to take nap right now!” He rubbed his eyes again and tried to focus back on the tasks that needed to be done. A thought began to creep into his mind as he thought back to when he had been a potion apprentice and had learned to sleep with his eyes open. It had taken him awhile to perfect it but he had, and he had put it to use many times. He looked over at the clock and saw that it was 5:45 he decided that he could fit in a one-hour nap. He sat forward in his chair and grabbed a potions journal and arranged his body so that it looked like he was studying it in case anyone came in. As he began to fall into unconsciousness he thought back to his days of quiddich and the feeling of wind zipping through his hair and stinging his cheeks. He could almost feel his body zipping though the air searching for the snitch.

Almost two and a half hours later, Severus woke up in a start. He thought he had heard something slam. He peered around his study but didn’t notice anything out of sorts but he did notice that it was not one hour but two hours later than when he had fallen asleep. “What?! Damn it all. I though I set an alarm. It’s almost dinnertime. I need to speak to Minerva!”
As he stood he noticed a note on his desk, it was from Potter asking about the time of detention. “Potter came down here when I had been SLEEPING?! Bloody hell, I hope he didn’t know what was going on” He looked back down at the note. Hadn’t he said the time? He thought back, no he hadn’t indeed said the time. Well he would just have to send a response back to Potter at dinner. He hastily wrote down a reply and stuck the note into his pocket as he swiftly stalked up to the Great Hall. As he took his seat next to Minerva he was pleased to see that he wasn’t late in fact he had gotten there in 5 minutes to spare.

As Minerva and Severus talked about who was going to make the list for the supervision of students at Hogsmead. It was always such a pain to make because none of the Professors ever wanted to supervise and had “so many duties” on their day. While they were discussing, Severus kept an eye on the students that were streaming into the hall. He kept an eye on his snakes as he always did and was slightly distracted as he noticed that Crabbe pushed a little first year girl snake onto the ground on purpose. He made a note to talk to both of his snakes and continued to keep an eye on the students and finished his discussion with Minerva. He had of course lost the argument and had to assign the supervising dates.

He turned to look over to the Gryffindor table, as most of the students were already seated and staring expectantly at the tables and talking amongst themselves. He finally spotted Weasley and the other boys that he usually sat with but he wasn’t sitting there. Moving down the table he saw Ms. Granger, Mr. Longbottom and Ms. Weasley sitting together but once again no Potter. “Hmm…I wonder where he is. Of course he is late, he is his father’s son.“ He took out the note and set it down next to his plate and decided to wait till halfway through the meal and look for him again. Halfway through the meal, he once again looked up and down the tables and still saw no Potter. He sighed, “Always have to make things difficult for everyone don’t you Potter. I suppose you thought that you would ransack the kitchen instead of eating what everyone else it.” Taking out his wand, he charmed the note to go back to Potter wherever he was no matter where he was. He wasn’t going to be the excuse for Potter missing detention. He picked his fork back up and reached for his plate that held his dessert. Taking a bite he barely held back a gag. He discretely reached for his napkin and spit into it. He muttered as he drank down most of his wine “Damn those orange salads!”