Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Chapter 3

“Good morning, Harry,” the Headmaster greeted him gently, followed by the other teachers.

“Potter, how dare you miss dinner as well as your detention with me?” the tall man next to him bellowed, throwing him a menacing glare.

“I’m sorry, but I had a bad headache and wanted to lie down for a moment, and then I fell asleep and only woke up a few minutes ago,” Harry explained in a small voice, unconsciously rubbing his forehead.

“You don’t expect me to accept a headache as a reason not to show up for detention, do you?” the man hissed. “You only had to ask me for a potion or go to the hospital wing if you preferred to get a potion from Madam Pomfrey.”

“Mr. Potter, where did you spend the night?” an older lady in green robes, sitting next to the Headmaster, enquired in a stern voice. “I went to look after you last night and then again this morning, but I couldn’t find you in Gryffindor.”

Harry frowned. “I’m sorry, Mme, but I’m not sure. The Gray Lady showed me to a room, where I could sleep for a while. She said it was called the room of wishes or something like that.”

Not aware of the partly strange, partly curious looks the teachers threw him, Harry flinched back badly when all of a sudden a snowy white owl descended to the table, making herself comfortable on his shoulder.

HP SEVERUS’ POV HP

Something is definitely off with the boy,’ Severus mused. ‘He behaves strangely, and why would he choose to sit next to me instead of taking one of the other empty seats next to Minerva or Albus and let them fawn over him all the time?’ He sighed, glancing at the boy, who was munching on a dry piece of toast. ‘I have to consider an adequate punishment for him because of skipping his detention last night. If he feels too sick to attend detention, he has to seek out Madam Pomfrey’s advice and let her excuse him just like all the other students have to do in such a case, apart from the fact that a simple headache potion probably would have sufficed to cure him in the blink of an eye.’

“You’ll serve detention with me every evening this week, and fifty points from Gryffindor for missing your detention unexcused,” he sneered, contentedly watching from the corner of his eye how Minerva let out a small gasp and threw a pitying look towards her little lion.

Strangely, the boy didn’t meet his expectations by throwing a temper tantrum. Instead, he replied, “Yes sir,” in a surprisingly polite voice.

When the post owls flew into the hall, the boy shifted uncomfortably in his seat as his own familiar made herself comfortable on his shoulder. ‘He definitely behaves strangely. I’ll have to talk about him with Minerva and Albus,’ Snape resolved, continuing to watch the boy from the corner of his eye.

HP HARRY’S POV HP

“Hello,” Harry said shyly when the owl began to nib at his earlap, holding out a letter for him that was attached to her foot. “Is that for me?” Harry queried in surprise, thinking, ‘Is that an owl? It’s absolutely beautiful, but who would send me a letter?’

Suddenly getting aware of the fact that everyone was watching him curiously, Harry hesitantly took the letter off the bird’s foot, watching as the owl carefully jumped onto the table and took a sip from his glass, before it took off and flew away. ‘I wonder what kind of juice that is,’ Harry mused. ‘It tastes like nothing I ever drank before, but it’s really delicious.’

He carefully opened the envelope, pulling out a small parchment, written in a very neat, slightly girlish writing.

Dear Harry,
I’m sure you’ll be surprised to receive a letter so soon after we returned home. It’s good that you left Hedwig with me for the holidays, so that I don’t have to wait for Ron or you to write to me. I’m very worried because of what Malfoy did right before he boarded the train. Harry, are you all right? Please promise me that if not you’ll tell one of the professors. They’ll all help you; even Professor Snape is not as bad as he pretends to be.
Take care, Harry. As nice as it is at home, I’m already missing you and Ron.
Love,
Hermione

Who in the world is Hermione? And who is Ron?’ Harry mused, feeling absolutely terrified at the thought that he was obviously supposed to know things which he definitely didn't know. ‘Maybe I’m ill. It seems that I’m supposed to live here, so nobody finds it strange that I am here, but apparently I became ill or something happened to me, and I forgot everything I was supposed to know. What am I going to do? The Gray Lady told me to go and speak with the Headmaster, but I don’t want to ask him right in front of everyone else, and I don’t know him anyway. Maybe I should ask the black man when I serve my detention tonight. I have to follow him to wherever it’ll take place right after dinner,’ he decided, absentmindedly sliding the letter into his robe pocket.

“Harry,” the elder lady’s voice pulled him out of his thoughts. “Do you have time, and would you like to help Professor Flitwick and me decorate the Great Hall and the Christmas tree this morning?”

“Yes, of course, Professor. I’d love to help,” Harry replied hesitantly, musing, ‘I just hope they don’t expect me to do anything, which I don’t know about.’

When everyone stood up to leave, Harry immediately walked over to the elder teacher, anxiously hovering behind her in order not to miss anything due to his obvious lack of memory. The tiny professor, who always sat on the opposite side of the table, joined them, smiling happily.

“I suggest,” he began to speak in a high children’s voice, “we charm the whole Great Hall, for example to a winter landscape, before we decorate the tree by conjuring or transfiguring objects into ornaments. What do you think, Minerva, Harry?”

“That’s a good idea,” the Minerva lady replied in an appreciative voice, glancing at Harry, who nodded unsurely.

I’ve no idea what he is talking about,’ Harry thought horrified, torn between amazement and horror as he observed the tiny man wave a stick, causing most part of the Great Hall’s floor to turn into artifice snow.

“All right, Harry, do you have your wand ready?” the woman queried, throwing him a challenging look.

“I don’t have a wand,” Harry mumbled anxiously, averting his eyes to the floor.

“You walked all over the castle without your wand?” the teacher asked incredulously, sighing in exasperation. “Mr. Potter, you should know better than to be so reckless. Please go and fetch your wand from your dormitory immediately.”

Startled by the professor’s strict voice, Harry jumped up and dashed out of the Great Hall and up the first flight of stairs, before he sat down on a step, sighing in absolute desperation. ‘What am I going to do now?’ he mused, trying to ignore the annoying headache as well as he could in order to be able to think of something a plan. Suddenly remembering what the Gray Lady had told him in the evening, he decided to call the house elf and ask him to fetch her. “Rory!” he spoke up in a small voice, causing a small creature with large eyes and ears like Sunny’s to pop up right next to him on the stairs.

“Hello Master Harry,” Rory said politely, bowing deeply. “The Gray Lady informed me about your situation, Master Harry, and I’d love to help you out, sir.”

“Thank you so much, Rory. I need to get to my dormitory to fetch my wand if I have one,” Harry replied, throwing the small elf a helpless look.

“I’ll fetch your wand for you, Master Harry,” Rory replied and popped away, only to re-appear seconds later with a stick in his hand, which he handed to Harry.

Harry hesitantly took the wand from the elf, sighing in comfortable relief as a reassuring warmth spread over his body as soon as he carefully clasped the stick with his right hand. “Thank you so much, Rory,” he said gratefully and slowly made his way back to the Great Hall.

“All right then, let’s begin,” the tiny professor squeaked in delight at Harry’s sight, and with a flick of his wand it began to snow above their heads. However, the snow didn’t reach them, let alone the floor. Afterwards, the professor showed them how to charm the wall to display Christmas motives and greetings. “It’s not difficult,” he tried to reassure Harry, seeing that the boy threw him an anxious glance.

Harry hesitantly pointed his wand at the wall, looking to the professor.

“Try to speak the charm after me, Harry,” the tiny professor cheered, causing Harry to watch him closely.

Well, I can only try,’ Harry mused, fiercely rubbing his forehead, before he tried to imitate the professor’s wand movement. However, nothing happened.

Chapter End Notes:
I’m not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes or help me to correct them.

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.

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