The compartment was pleasantly quiet. It had been an hour since the train departed from Hogwarts, and the excitement at the prospect of finally returning home after a long year of classes and homework has died down. The sound of papers rustling, a boy snoring, and gentle chugging were the only things keeping the noise level from dropping to bone-chilling silence.

On their side of the compartment, Ron’s head lolled against Harry’s shoulder as he dozed off, muttering something about quidditch. Hermione sat across from them, meticulously reviewing through her summer homework. Harry simply looked at them both. what wonderful friends I’ve made, he thought to himself. The first friends he’s ever made were the most spectacular ones he could ever ask for. I can’t believe I lucked out like this. Happily content with the year he’s had, he joins his friend into the land of dreams with a smile on his face.

Another hour passes in this fashion, until he is waken up by a light tapping on his shoulder. It was Hermione, and she looked like she had something on her mind.

“What is it?”

“Harry... I think we should apologize.”

What was she talking about?

He blinked slowly. “Apologize to who?”

She made a weird face at him. “To Professor Snape! Goodness, Harry, don’t tell me that you forgot what we did to him this year!” She declared.

Harry winced. Whatever she’s on about, he completely forgot it. Before he attempted to string together some flimsy excuse to placate her, he was interrupted by the third passenger in the room.

“What are you--” yawn “--two talking about?” The abrupt change in volume must have awoken Ron from his slumber. He sleepily rubbed his eyes and sat up straighter.

“About Professor Snape, and how we should apologize to him.”

“What!? Why? What do we have to apologize to that greasy git for, anyway?”

Hermione puffed up in indignation. “Oh, it’s nothing much, we just accused him of attempted murder, that’s all!”

Ron scrunched his face and scratched his head. “Bloody hell, ‘Mione. I mean, It’s not our fault that he acts like he wants to murder us, anyway.”

She rolled her eyes and turned back to Harry.“What do you think?”

Harry blinked. “I, er, guess I never... took time to think about it yet...?”

“Well, think about it now. Honestly, he saved your life this year. I think the least you should do is thank him or something!” Hermione sighed. “What am I to do with you two?”

Ron shrugged. “Beats me. Anyway, I don’t think Snape’s the type to even want an apology.”

        “What do you mean?”

“I mean, even if we tried to apologize, he’d probably just give us detention for wasting his time.”

She seemed to consider this point for a second. “…You might be right, actually. He doesn’t seem the type.”

He grinned and leaned back in his seat. “See? We don’t have to do anything, right, Harry?”

Harry ruffled his hair. “Well, To be honest, I don’t think we shouldn't do anything… Hermione is sort of right, you know. We should do something, maybe just not apologize to him directly.”

“Oh, come on! You were supposed to be on my side!”

“Sorry.”

“It’s alright, mate.”

Hermione snorted. “You’re impossible, the both of you.”

Ron furrowed his brows. “Right, so... What brilliant plan has the Brightest Witch of her Age come up with?”

She flushed slightly. “I, ah, haven’t come up with that quite yet…”

“Maybe we could give him a gift or something?” Harry offered. Snape seemed like a practical person, maybe a new cauldron or some nice potion ingredient.

Ron disagreed. “That wouldn’t work. It’s too predictable, for starters. Besides, he’s head of Slytherin House, remember? He might assume we’re trying to gain something from him. To do something nice for a Slytherin, you have to think like one too.”        

Another insightful comment from Ron. Harry mused with a smirk. He and Hermione swear that if he just buckled down and did his assignments, his grades would skyrocket. (Not that he knew what a skyrocket was, mind you).

“Alright then, Ron, pray tell,” He lifted his nose to the air and talked with a haughty accent “-what would the esteemed head of the obviously superior Slytherin House want from us?”

Hermione seemed perplexed, but Ron looked like he saw where he was going with this and chortled a bit before doing his best impression of the dour man, scowling and squinting at the both of them. “What I want… is for you two… dunder-heads... to stop… de-stroying my cauldrons.”

Harry and Hermione stared at their friend agape for a moment, before Harry guffawed loudly and Hermione gave a short little huff.

“That’s was not funny!” Her face, however, gave away her mirth.

After this, the conversation derailed into a heated competition between Harry and Ron to see who could do the best Slytherin impression. Ron was the reigning champion with his perfect Snape, but was dethroned by a surprise ambush from Hermione, who they both assumed didn’t want to participate.

“Can she- Can she do that?” Ron managed out between bouts of laughter.

Hermione persisted. “Admit your defeat, you low-brow hellion.”

“H-Hellion?!” He howled. “Alright! I concede!” and the battle was over with soldiers on all sides in stitches..

A gentle knock from the door brought them back to their senses. Harry, being closest, opened it to reveal the trolley lady.

“Anything from the trolley?” She asked.

The group tentatively agreed that they were quite hungry, so Harry ordered a batch of Pumpkin Pasties and Treacle Tarts for him and his friends, and a single Cauldron Cake for himself. They thanked Harry and ate in relative silence before Hermione spoke up.

“Ron, do you really think Professor Snape would be happier if we were smarter in potions?”

“W’ ea’” Ron said while inhaling his tarts.

“What did you say?”

He swallowed the tarts.“Well, yeah.”

She smiled at this.“Maybe that’s what we could do.”

Ron put down his pasties.“Blimey, ‘Mione, you should know not to take my advice for these things!”

 “But you were right, that would be something he’d appreciate, isn’t it?”

“I was joking! Bloody hell, you don’t really think I’m going to waste my time with that stuff, right?”

She looked exasperated by this. “Ron, you’re not wasting your time! What do you lose from this? We get to apologize in a way he might appreciate, and your grades go up, to boot!” She took a deep breath before continuing. “In any case, doing a little extra studying doesn’t really take that much time. It’s just an hour or two of studying every week or so-- I’ll even tutor you both!” She seemed excited at the prospect of sharing her knowledge.

Ron, resigned to his fate, sighed. “Well, whatever Harry does, I know I’ll eventually end up going with it, So…” He sheepishly turned to him.

Harry considered it seriously. Embarrassing as it is, he was interested in potions. He remembered how captivating Snape made it sound the first class. That fascinating speech about bottling fame and brewing glory. How exciting would that be to create something as extraordinarily magical as that? Actually, thinking about it, why hasn’t he picked it up sooner? But then he remembered how awful he felt when he was singled out that very class and frowned.

The look of pure and unadulterated hatred radiating off the man from day one was so intense. What did he do to make Snape so mad at him? Was it that first day in class? Maybe there was some unspoken rule that you should never take notes on the first day of potions? Or maybe it was before then, at the Welcoming Feast. He might have made eye contact with the man, maybe that was seen as rude?

It wasn’t as if he wasn’t used to teachers disliking him. The Dursleys used to do everything in their power to make Harry the problem child. Probably to paint their little Duddikins in a better light. He thought sardonically. But that was just it. Everything in their power. They don’t have any power here…

…Right?

Yeah, nobody here would listen to them, especially not Snape.

…

…

…

…

…Okay, but like, what if they did--

“--ry? Harry, are you listening?”

“..Yeah, Ron?”

Ron smirked. “You back with us, mate?”

“Huh? What do you mean? I’ve been here the whole time.” Harry joked.

“Right.” He snorted. “So, are you going to do this tutoring thing, or what?”

Hermione cleared her throat. “You know… Don’t have to if you really don’t want to.”

“I… No, I think I do want to. Honest.” Harry decided. “And even if he doesn’t appreciate what we do, it would be pretty fun to see the look on his face when our A’s turn into E’s.” They laughed at this. Ron murmured something about Ravenclaws in Gryffindor clothing but nodded at Hermione.

She beamed. “Excellent! I’ll make sure to buy the textbooks earlier so I can form a plan for next year! You won’t regret it, I promise.”

The boys shared a knowing look with each other and shrugged.

“You haven’t led us astray yet, ‘Mione.” Harry chuckled.

And so, as the Hogwarts Express chugged across the English countryside towards Kings Cross station, the young trio laugh, joke and munch away into the afternoon, putting off any dread over the oncoming school-year until the future.