Harry sighed in relief when he and Snape hit the solid ground of Hogwarts. Light seeped out through every window of the castle. It looked warm and inviting. Harry looked longingly at the Gryffindor tower where his soft bed was waiting for him. Snape let go of Harry's arm and continued his brisk walk toward the castle without as much as a glance back. The pain in Harry's hand kept growing and his feet had gone numb with cold, making it hard to even take two steps without loosing balance. He tried to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other as he staggered after Snape. The distance between them had already grown so that Snape soon would be completely swallowed by darkness.

Harry doubled over as the most excruciating pain imaginable suddenly seared up his arm. The curse was spreading deeper and deeper under his skin. He took a few deep breaths as he waited out the worst of the nausea. Snape would probably keep walking all the way to the castle, pretending to have forgotten all about him. He closed his eyes but opened them quickly as he was blinded by a bright light. Snape was standing in front of him with his wand raised, glaring down testily. His arms came to rest in a crossed position.

"We don't have time for star gazing Potter." He said as he grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him up.

Harry was just about to give Snape a nasty retort as he spotted his right hand. Gasping he freed himself from Snape's pincer like grip. The veins were swollen and had turned a dark shade of grey. A horrifying thought crossed Harry's mind. What if this was the same curse that Voldemort had put on his ring? He grimaced as the memory of Dumbledore's dead hand surfaced. Maybe that was why Snape was in such a hurry to get Harry the antidote, otherwise his hand would rot!

Harry looked up to see Snape eying him questioningly. An expression very similar to concern washed away his harsh features.

"Is this the same curse that was put on the ring Dumbledore put on?" Harry tried to keep his voice from quavering.

"Convinced as you may be Potter, I am not the Dark Lord." Snape said, sounding slightly embittered. Ignoring Harry's ashamed look he continued to drag him toward the castle.

"Would you have paid even the slightest of attention in our lessons a few years back, you would have known to appreciate the power of occlumency. It's a very effective way of relieving pain" Snape made a short pause, then added spitefully "but obviously you feel no need for it as long as you get the attention you so desperately crave, or do you simply take pleasure in your endless suffering? Either way, I'm sure it can't be easy."

Harry quickened his pace in hopes of escaping Snape's snide remarks faster.

"I'm so thankful to have someone who can sympathize with me." He threw back.

Snape heaved a sigh in apparent frustration and tightened his already painful grip around Harry's arm.

"If insufferability was a subject I would without a second's hesitation give you and O Potter." Snape spat back and quickened the pace even more.

Harry tried hard not to loose balance. Despite all the pain he could not keep the corner of his mouth from twitching. To drive Snape to madness was amusing enough to drive away the after effects of the cruciatus curse. Anyway, it worked better than any for of occlumency.

Snape flung the castle door open and headed for the dungeons. The corridors were completely deserted. Not even a ghost could be sighted. Faint green light from the snake-shaped silver candlesticks made it somewhat easier for Harry to navigate in the darkness. Snape on the other hand kept walking as though in broad daylight.

When they were almost outside the Slytherin headquarters Snape stopped abruptly. Harry barely managed to avoid bumping into him. He turned his head in the direction Snape was looking and immediately saw what had caught his attention. Light seeped out from the potions classroom. Apparently they weren't the only ones awake this time of hour. A familiar scent found its way into Harry's nostrils. Someone was brewing potions, but who would be crazy enough to do that in the middle of the night? Harry could only think of one other person and he was standing right beside him, eying the door with a curious expression mingled with suspicion. Slughorn was of course another possibility, but Harry ruled him out as this probably wasn't a Christmas dinner party.

Snape had already put a hand on the door handle. The door opened to reveal not Slughorn but a girl about Harry's age. She stood bent over a steaming cauldron. The flame under the cauldron gave her long blond hair a golden shimmer. Her head snapped up as the door gave a sharp creaked.

Oh she would regret this! Harry was convinced Snape would rave about rule breaking and what exactly happened to students foolish enough to disregard the rules. She had lost her house at least 50 points and earned herself a month of detentions. Harry looked from the girl to Snape, but instead of taking points Snape only raised an eyebrow and gave her an inquiring look. When he spoke it was in a soft smooth voice.

"Isn't it a little late for homework? I can't remember myself expressing any dissatisfaction over your last brewings."

The girl didn't seem unnerved in the slightest by being caught in the act by Hogwarts most detention-generous teacher. She met Snape's black eyes unflinchingly and answered in a cool steady voice.

"I know, but I can't relax until I am completely satisfied with a potion." She put a blond strand behind her air and turned her attention back to the bubbling cauldron.

Harry's jaw had almost dropped to the floor in disbelief. He must have heard wrong. Obviously the pain had made him delirious. That could be classed as praise from Snape and she wasn't satisfied? Hermione would probably die of joy if he ever offered her the same compliment.

Apparently Snape had accepted this ridiculous excuse, because he was walking toward his personal potions store while pointing his wand at a chair close to the girl.

"Sit Potter." he demanded.

Harry was ripped from his thoughts and slowly walked over to a chair at the girls table. His arms and legs ached with cold. After he had taken a few deep breaths he looked up to find the girl glaring at him in disgust, like he was something contaminating. She looked away quickly as Harry's emerald green eyes met her icy blue. The first thing Harry noticed was the green and silver snake embroidered on her black robe. So that's why Snape looked past her rule breaking so easily, she was a Slytherin! He should have known.

"I see you're a Slytherin." Harry said in an attempt to start some sort of polite conversation.

"Excellent observation." She replied without bothering to hide the sarcasm in her voice. She didn't even look up when she spoke.

A typical Slytherin! Harry strained to keep his calm. The girl was working very effectively. With precision she measured up ingredient after ingredient and occasionally gave the simmering potion a stir or adjusted the flame under the cauldron. You could tell she was a really devoted potion maker.

"I meant that I don't think I've seen you before, are you new here?" Harry tried again.

"You Gryffindors are too busy running away from us to ever have a clue of what's going on in our house."

Her words were laced with bitterness and she scowled at Harry's perplexed expression.

"Well, let me inform you. I've attended Hogwarts for five years just a class under you. I spent my sixth year as an exchange student in Bulgaria where I studied in Durmstrang."

Her clipped tones indicated that conversation with Harry was something she considered a complete waste of time. Snape probably cherished her as Slytherin's golden snake.

He looked over at the dark haired man hunched over a steaming cauldron a few tables away. Without any instructions he was pouring in ingredients of all kinds. The skilful way he worked made even Slughorn pale in comparison.

Suddenly another attack of pain shot through Harry's hand. He gasped loudly and looked at his hand. What he saw him see black clouds; his hand had turned black as the robe he was wearing! Harry had to steady himself with one hand against the table. Within a second Snape had stridden over to his side.

"Let me see your hand Potter." he spoke with urgency.

Harry held out his hand to Snape who let out a sharp hiss at the sight of it. Shaking his head slightly he thoughtfully studied Harry's hand for a few seconds, and then addressed the blond girl.

"Miss Carrow you brewed the Sharnogs draught the day before yesterday, am I correct? Would you pour up some of it in a bowl for Mr. Potter?" It was more of an order than a request.

Yes sir." She obeyed without questions.

Once again Harry's jaw hung wide open. Carrow! Had Snape gone mad?! Apparently teaching defence against the dark arts wasn't exciting enough anymore. He privately educated his own death eater army! Nobody in their right mind would have anything what so ever to do with someone named Carrow, and especially not after the war. This was very unnerving.

The Carrow girl had obviously noticed the look of dismay on Harry's face, because she was scowling coldly at him while she corked a vial filled with a blood-coloured potion.

"I know what you're thinking! So typical Gryffindors to judge us all by the house we're sorted into." She offered him a glare of outright dislike as she made to pour up the potion.

Harry started to get really annoyed. He hadn't even uttered one offending sentence and she was sneering at him in a way that almost resembled Snape himself.

"I'm not judging anyone." Harry said defiantly, although he knew it wasn't entirely true. "Only reason why I don't get along with Slytherins is that they often don't give me a reason to do so."

The Carrow girl and Snape snorted in unison, which made even more irritated. Without realising it she had as much prejudice toward Gryffindors as Harry had for Slytherins.

He frowned and looked at the neatly lined up potion bottles on the table and suddenly realised something. He had brewed the same potion just yesterday! It was called the Sharnogs draught and was used for...used for something. Harry struggled to remember its properties. It had something to do with wounds. It was used to heal cursed wounds. That was it!

"Professor, there's no need to use Miss Carrow's potion. I made the exact same potion just yesterday."

Snape looked up at Harry, his face suffused with incredulity.

"Certainly Potter. If you wish to be rid of both your hands by the end of the night, be my guest." Maliciously he added. "If not, I suggest you do as I say and put you hands in Miss Carrow's cauldron."

It was Harry's turn to snort.

"I brewed that potion correctly. Mine looked exactly like hers!" Harry gave Snape an indignant look while reluctantly putting his hand into the potion. He didn't want to admit that Snape probably had a point.

The pain was immediately alleviated. Harry felt how the irritation began to fade. He looked up at the girl who still ignored him determinedly. She was busy cutting up what Harry thought were Sopophorus beans. Frowning she traced a finger through the instructions in her copy of Advanced Potion-Making. You could tell by the smudged pages that the book had been well used. Her frown deepened and she clicked her tongue in apparent displeasure. If Harry interrupted her now she would probably freeze him with those icy blue eyes of hers, but he was determined to prove her and Snape that he wasn't the obnoxious attention seeking Gryffindor they both seemed so convinced of.

"What are you brewing?" He asked in an excessively polite voice.

The girl rolled her eyes and heaved a small dejected sigh.

"The Draught of the living death. It's used to create a state of deep sleep, so deep that the drinker will in fact appear dead." She explained it like Harry was some first year student who had never heard of the draught before.

Harry hid a devilish smirk. He looked over to Snape who was busy measuring a green liquid that looked alarmingly much like poison. The greasy black hair curtained his pale face.

"I would try crushing the sopophorus beans with the flat side of a silver dagger, that way you can extract the most juice." His words reverberated to the other side of the classroom.

The girl eyed him sceptically with raised eyebrows. She frowned and put a blond strand behind her ear while trying Harry's advice. When the juice was released from the sopophorus bean her eyes filled with surprise. Harry tried to stop the satisfied grin from spreading across his face. He didn't dare to look in Snape's direction, but he could feel the black eyes burning him with an angry glare.

The girl had already poured the juice into the potion and blue steams started to rise. In five seconds the potion had gone from clear blue to a black currant colour. The ideal halfway stage, Harry remembered.

She skimmed the instructions again and began stirring the potion in an anti-clockwise direction.

"Try adding a clockwise stir after every seventh counter-clockwise stir." He said lazily.

"Why would I do that? She looked at Harry as though he had a stamp that said stupid on his forehead.

"Just try it."

Harry could hear Snape working with his potion a little more loudly than necessary and he tried with all his might not to smirk.

To Harry's satisfaction the girl had once again taken his advice and the potion turned a shade of lilac, then eventually clear as water.

"Where on earth did you learn all this stuff?!" She sounded impressed and envious at the same time. Her irritation was as vanished.

"Just something I picked up my sixth year" Harry tried to sound modest.

"There's nothing in the books about this; you must have gotten it from somewhere." Her attempts at hiding her curiosity were now feeble.

Harry could constantly feel Snape's dark eyes shooing murderous glares at his back. A little uneased he shifted position. He hadn't intended to answer detailed questions about where and how he had obtained such impressing skills in potion-making.

"Well..." Harry started, unsure of how to explain his way out of it all without Snape making him spend the remaining weekends of the year in detention.

"An acquaintance of mine gave me some very useful tips" Harry struggled to find the right words "but I decided not to take them anymore.."

"Why?!" the girl interrupted aghast by what she herad.

"He seemed to think it was unfair to the other students. I got all the top marks while they had to struggle with the real instructions"

The girl continued to look at him in utter disbelief.

"Cheating he called it." Harry added while glancing bitterly at Snape who didn't show any sign of having heard Harry.

"That's nonsense! Who would ever think that? You simply followed different instructions. That doesn't necessarily mean the potion was easier to make." She shook her head slightly.

Harry wished she would shut up already, because this was becoming very embarrassing. He groaned inwardly as she continued.

"Reminds me of you Gryffindors with your tedious ravings about equitable treatment" She was rolling her eyes again.

Harry didn't know where to look or what to answer. If only the chair he sat on would sink through the floor. He thought desperately. Without knowing it the Carrow girl had just thrown the ultimate insult at Snape, accusing him of being a Gryffindor! He remembered the stricken look on Snape's face when Dumbledore had once made the same mistake.

"Gryffindor or not, I have to say that I agree with him." Harry said in an attempt to end the embarrassing discussion before Snape would change his mind and not give Harry the antidote.

"I wish the teachers would teach us cool things like that." She said in a low voice and glanced meaningly at Snape.

Harry glanced nervously over his shoulder, unsure whether Snape had heard or not. He was in the middle of cutting up an ingredient, but seemed to sense Harry's eyes on him and looked up. Their eyes met for a short second.

"I wish too." Harry heaved a small sigh and was for once in a long time the first one to look away.