After he, Ron and Hermione finished breakfast, they broke out in a full run to make it down to potions on time. Just as Hermione; who was behind Ron and Harry; stepped into the room, the bell rang. “Whew” whispered Ron, wiping invisible sweat from his head.

“Ahh, so glad you made it here on time Weasley and Potter.” sneered Snape. His expression told them otherwise. “10 points from Gryffindor, you should be seated. Oh Ms. Granger, you are up too, another 5 points. Go. Sit. Quickly.” He turned his back on the class and strolled up to his desk. Potter was surely going to pay for making him so confused this morning.

“Today, we will not be brewing potions.” No one seemed upset by the news, except for Granger who had already taken her cauldron, scales and supply kit out. “Today I want to see what you know.” He glared at Harry darkly. Harry took a deep breath and managed a glare back. He was not going to let Snape win today.

“Mr. Potter, you're first. Tell me, what ingredient can be substituted for human hair in poly juice potion?”

Harry had the most confused look on his face. Poly-what? Who would want to drink a potion with someone's hair in it? That is disgusting. Imagine drinking a potion with Snapes oily black strands mixed in it. Ugh.

“Uh, animal hair sir?” asked Harry. He knew his answer was wrong before Snape even opened his mouth. His smirk told it all.

“NO Mr. Potter, Animal hair in Poly-juice potion would corrupt the poiton. The answer is saliva. If you can get saliva instead of hair, the potion would still work effectively. 5 points from Gryffindor for Potter's ignorance.”

The Gryffindors groaned. That wasn't fair. They were only first years, they never discussed Poly-whatever. He didn't even know what the stupid potion was for!

“Thats---We never---” Harry started to defend himself.

“No, that will be all Potter.”

Harry's face grew red. Why was Snape always picking on him? As soon as he arrived at Hogwarts Snape had it out for him. Before he even said a word to the professor.

That was it, he was going to let the professor know once and for all how he felt about him.

“You're damn right it is all!” Harry yelled. The whole class grew silent.

“You are done singling me out and making me seem like an idiot. I'm sorry that you have no life, but you must be inhaling too much of these potions if you think i'm going to take this Snape!” Harry was breathing hard, angry but all Snape did was smirk, sit back in his desk chairr and cross his arms like he was waiting for a 4 year old to finish a tantrum. This made Harry see red.

“I'm done with your smirking, your sneers and your arrogance. You always call me arrogant, but look at you. Just in case you didn't know, no one thinks you look good with your hair like that. So you can take that arrogant look off your face. You probably never had a girfriend in school, such disgusting hair, bad attitude. If any girl did like you, she probably was delusional.” Snape's smirk dissapearred. At this Harry smiled a triumphant smile. So Snape didn't like him speaking about girls?

“Tell me professor? Did you ever have a girl that liked you? Or did the girls avoid you, knowing you were an evil disgusting, oily, twisted old------”

“SHUT UP POTTER!” Snapes voice boomed over Harry's. He had a mental, derranged look on his face. He also looked like he was in pain, pain that could only be eased with death. Harry fell silent, not because of the command, but because of the pained expression on Snapes face. His teacher, who was much younger than his colleagues, beared the pain of a man 3 times his age. Is face had become worn and stony. His eyes contained such misery that Harry wanted to close his eyes, so as not to see them.

He had to apologize. “Professor I---”

“I-Said-shut-up!-POTTER!” Snape had crossed the room to Harry's table, grabbed his robes and was shaking him violently as he pronounced every word. Harry looked into his professor's face with fear. He had heard that sometimes Snape would hit a Slytherin if they were truly deserving. But never had Snape touched a Gryffindor, and in the middle of a class. Harry stared at the professor, silently begging him to let him go. He didn't like being inches from Snapes murderous glare, and he felt very uncomfortable being handled like that in front of a class of students. Snape seemed to hear Harry's silent plee, because he let go of Harry's robes, pushing him past his chair and onto the floor. No one in class said a word. They were all shocked, even the Slytherins said nothing.

Harry looked up at Ron and Hermione---they were frozen with shock. They could not believe Snape had did that. Harry picked himself off the floor and grabbed his bag. He was not going to sit here for the remainder of class and deal with this.

“Potter” Snape said in the coldest voice Harry had ever heard him use.
“Potter sit back down, I will be letting the class go early, so you can sit back down and listen to what I have to say before releasing you unless you would like to be charmed to that seat for the rest of the day.” Harry did not believe for a second that Snape would charm him to a seat for a whole day, but he wouldn't have believed Snape would grab and shake him like that either, he made an about face and quickly marched to his seat, sat down and fixed his eyes on the wall above Snapes head. He couldn't explain why, but he felt so ashamed of himself. Snape was awful to him, and seemed bent on making his life miserable, but he had let them off easy this morning and nothing----NOTHING permitted him to say things to another person that caused them so much pain and hurt. He took a deep breath and waited for Snape to begin what ever he would say so the class could leave.

“I will be letting you all go early today. I have not the self control to keep from killing one of you at the moment, so you all will leave early and wednesday I want a two foot long essay on the potions we have covered this far in the year and their uses” “Potter I want yours 3 feet” he added without even glancing a look in Harry's direction.

“Yes sir” Harry mumbled, his voice was barely audible.

“When you come back for potions on Wednesday, I want that essay to be ready, anyone that does not have it completely finished will receive two zeros and a weeks worth of detention. Goodbye”

The class quickly got to their feet and grabbed for their things, ready to leave Snapes room.

“Potter!” Snape called as Harry was taking a step out the door. “Potter, you will stay in my office after I release everyone from detention tonight. I will teach you how to respect adults.” Before Harry could even turn fully around to question what he meant, Snape shoved Harry hard between the shoulder blades and told him to get out.