Every New Iteration by JAWorley
Summary: Something strange is happening at Hogwarts, and Severus Snape is determined to find out what. Harry’s acting strange, Dumbledore seems oddly aloof about the whole situation and… wait, haven’t they done this day already? Several times?
Categories: Teacher Snape > Professor Snape Main Characters: .Snape and Harry (required), Dumbledore
Snape Flavour: Snape is Angry, Canon Snape, Snape is Desperate, Snape is Stern
Genres: Angst, Fantasy, General, Hurt/Comfort, Mystery
Media Type: None
Tags: Injured!Harry
Takes Place: 5th Year
Warnings: Abusive Dursleys, Bullying, Neglect, Violence
Prompts: Groundhog Day At Hogwarts
Challenges: Groundhog Day At Hogwarts
Series: None
Chapters: 4 Completed: No Word count: 10627 Read: 19510 Published: 05 Oct 2021 Updated: 27 Jan 2022
Haven't We Done This All Before? by JAWorley
Potter was acting... odd. There was no other way to describe it. The fifteen year old Gryffindor had just gone up to one of the sixth year Slytherin girls and smiled at her. What was that all about? What was the brat up to now? Severus had known for years that the boy was full of himself, strutting about the school as if he owned the place. His fame had clearly gone to his head well before he'd even arrived for his first year of schooling, and the rest of the staff played into it, bending and breaking rules for the boy wherever he went. It was one of the things that was predictable about the boy and fit neatly into what Severus believed about him. The other predictable thing (aside from trouble following wherever he went), was that Potter hated all Slytherins and avoided them like the plague. So what was he up to smiling at Jade Jones, and what was she doing smiling back?

Severus narrowed his eyes as Potter sauntered away, bruise beginning to form on his right eye. It looked as though he'd been fighting, and Severus wouldn't put it past him. He fully intended on questioning the brat, but the child had already slipped away and into the Transfiguration classroom. Severus turned and strode down the corridor away from the staff room, where he'd gone to find Filch to repair the leak in the boy's bathroom in the Dungeons and headed for his office. He had a free period before his first class (with Potter coincidentally), and he wanted to finish grading the first year papers on the healing properties of wormwood.

He was nearly to the Entrance Hall when something solid collided with him on the stairs, followed by a squeak. On pure instinct he reached out and grabbed for whoever it was so they wouldn't topple down the stairs.

"I'm so sorry sir!" said Dennis Creevy, trying to regain his balance so his Potions Master would let go of the front of his robe. "I'm late to third year Charms!"

"See that you leave breakfast earlier next time," he snapped, already feeling as though this was the worst start to a Monday morning he'd had in ages. "If I catch you running again in the corridors I will charm your feet to be sticky for the week to teach you to go slower."

"Yes sir," the Gryffindor said, and made it a point of walking slowly away from Snape, though the further away he got the faster he walked.

Severus dusted off his robes and continued down to the dungeons.

Half an hour into grading the first year essays, he already had a headache and reached into a desk drawer for a headache draught. These little fools would get themselves killed if they didn't learn what they could and couldn't mix wormwood with in a potion. Rowan Bailie had written that to improve the taste of healing potions one should add cherries or citrus fruits. Citrus and wormwood would explode in his face if he tried, and cherries mixed with powdered wormwood would cause a caustic mixture that would take skin off if it splashed anywhere. Marking a large red D across the top of the Hufflepuff's paper he moved on to the paper of Bram Bath. The first year Slytherin had clearly not understood the text or not paid attention and had written to heat wormwood potions to two hundred degrees. That much heat for any amount of time would ruin the healing qualities and make it little better than water.

The strange thing was, Severus was certain he had told both of these boys this before. He remembered telling Bram to keep the temperature around 90 degrees and he could have sworn he'd written a lengthy note to Rowan to stick to the written ingredients so he didn't kill himself or his peers. He had, hadn't he?

Severus shook the feeling away, thinking that if he hadn't told them already then he really should, and brought both of the essays back to himself to write the notes out quickly in red ink.

The rest of the day didn't seem to go much better for Severus. Potter slipped out of the room at the end of his class before Severus could ask him what he was up to, Minerva had made fun of him at lunch for ‘causing a scene on the stairwell and scaring Dennis Creevy half to death', and just after dinner he'd had to give several of his fourth year's detention for fighting in the corridor leading to the Slytherin common room.

At the end of the worst Monday ever, Severus went to bed after a third headache draught and felt reassured that bad days like this one rarely ever repeated themselves. Tomorrow was Tuesday, a fresh day in which he was determined to keep to himself as much as possible.

* * *

Severus was nursing a headache when he woke. Wonderful, he snipped at himself. This was just the way he wanted to start a Monday morning. He had first year papers to grade before his first class, and he needed to track down Argus about the leak in the boy's bathroom outside the Potions classrooms before the caretaker got too busy with other tasks for the day.

Dressing himself and ignoring his headache, Severus went to the Great Hall only to retrieve a mug of coffee with a lid and headed up to the staff room on the first floor. Filch usually avoided breakfast in favor of the staff room, which was always stocked with hot coffee, tea, scones and muffins by the house elves. Severus sometimes skipped meals and took refuge in the quiet of the staffroom as well if he was having a particularly difficult day, especially if he knew the other staff were in class.

He couldn't find Filch in the staffroom this morning though. When was that man going to fix that leak? He'd asked him yesterday hadn't he? Irritated with the caretaker for neglecting his duties to the Slytherin students living in the dungeons he left the staff room and headed for the dungeons to grade the first year paper's on the healing properties of wormwood.

Pulling back just short of the stairs to avoid Dennis Creevy, he was glad his mug had a lid or his coffee would have spilled. "Mr. Creevy!" he snapped, and Dennis skidded to a halt at the top of the stairs, nearly toppling backwards and down the stairs with the effort.

"Pedibus Reptans!" Severus aimed the spell down at the boy's feet. The boy lifted his foot, dismayed to find that it was hard to do so as the bottom of it was sticky and hard to pull away from the stone floor.

"Sir?"

"I told you to stop running in the corridors! Now you will be forced to walk until I remove the spell."

"You did sir? Sorry sir, I was late to Charms class."

"If I have to send a house elf to drag you away from breakfast earlier so you can get to your classes on time, I will be very displeased."

"Yes sir, I swear it won't happen again," the third year said, eyes wide.

"See that it doesn't."

Severus continued down to his office in the dungeons and sat to grade papers. He barely looked at Rowan's paper before marking it with a D. It was obvious from the first few sentences that the boy was going to brew something dangerous. Moving on to Bram's paper it was clear right away that it was a D as well and that the Slytherin hadn't understood a word of the text. Severus went to reach for a third paper to grade but paused, hand over the stack of parchments. He had the oddest feeling that he'd graded these already. Hadn't he? Had he done it the night before, before he'd gone to bed? That would explain his headache this morning, but it wouldn't explain why the papers sat here still waiting to be graded. Brushing the feeling away, he reached for the stack of first year essays and continued working until it was time to go to the fifth year Gryffindor-Slytherin Potions class.

An hour later, Severus sneered when Potter came into the potions room with a black eye. What had the brat been doing now, starting a brawl in the corridors? He intended to find out, but couldn't find a single reason to hold the boy after class. His potion was perfect, and the brat had even raised his hand to answer several questions, though Severus has never called on him. What was he up to? The fifth year Gryffindor slipped out of his class at the end of the lesson before he could make him stay behind.

* * *

Monday's were the worst. Severus felt like he had a hangover. He hadn't been drinking the night before had he? Pulling himself from bed, he dragged his body into the bathroom for a hot shower. He had things to do today, like find Filch and get him to repair the leak in the boy's bathroom, and grade student essays before his first class of the day. He just didn't want to though. His head pounded and after he got out of the shower he rummaged around for a headache potion. The potion did nothing to knock down the throbbing in his temple, so he also downed a hangover potion, though he really could not remember drinking the night before. He rarely drank during the term, and even then only a little and only on weekends. The Headmaster would never let him get away with skipping classes because he was hungover. He wasn't Sybill.

By the time he left his quarters it was too late to get breakfast or coffee, and too late to find Filch about the leak in the boy's bathroom in the dungeons. Dennis Creevy went running up the stairs to the first floor and Severus shouted a leg locker jynx at the boy, sending him face first into the floor at the top of the stairs. He waved his wand to unlock the boy's legs and the child sat up, looking confused.

"Detention!" Snape shouted. "If I have to tell you one more time not to run in the corridors, I'll ask the Headmaster to have you expelled!"

The boy squeaked, got to his feet, and hurried off as slowly as he could so he didn't get yelled at again by the grouchy Potion's Master standing down in the Entrance Hall. He turned and found Potter sitting on the steps leading up to the first floor with one of his sixth year Slytherin girls, Jade Jones. The brat had a black eye and was giving Severus an odd look... it was almost like the boy was trying to tell him something with his eyes... trying to get him to understand something only the two of them should. Didn't the brat have any sense of self-preservation?

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" Severus snapped. "That goes for you as well Miss Jones," he said, and turned on his heel to stalk away and back into the Dungeons. Forget grading papers, he had a feeling most of them would be D's anyway. He might as well just re-teach the lesson on wormwood to the first years because they probably hadn't understood the lesson at all.

In fifth year Potions an hour later, Potter's hand was in the air. Why was his hand in the air? He never offered to answer questions in class. Severus was too tired, his headache sapping all his energy to care who he called on, so he waved to Potter, and pinched the bridge of his nose, waiting for whatever foolish thing the boy would say.

"The potion needs to be attenuated in the first stage to remove the impurities sir," Harry said. "Then it has to be done again in the second stage. At the third stage it has to be mixed with barberry before it can be attenuated a third time."

Severus narrowed his eyes. He'd only asked about removing impurities in the first stage. Headache growing worse, he thought ahead and realized the boy had answered all of the questions he had been prepared to ask the class before they began their brewing for the day.

"Get to work," he snapped, and sat in his chair, wishing this Monday would just be over already. Potter's potion was perfect at the end of class, and the irritating whelp hung around after he'd dismissed the class, the last to leave the room. He kept giving Severus a meaningful look, but Severus was intentionally ignoring him. What was the brat's problem? Severus felt like he was up to something, but didn't have the energy to figure out what it was.

To be continued...


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