Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Author's Chapter Notes:
Ok, this probably has some typos as it's 2:30 in the morning and this is the third chapter I've written today. I'm wiped out, heh. I've enjoyed reading your reviews!
From The Inside Out

Everyone was talking about Harry's supposed theft of expensive school supplies the next morning and Harry wasn't much feeling up to combating the stares and whispers as he walked across the lawns. He skipped breakfast altogether, knowing it would do him no good since he already wasn't feeling well, and opted instead to lay out on the cold damp lawns and try to get some sunshine to warm him up. That's where Hermione found him halfway through breakfast, laying on the grass on the far end of the compound behind building one.


"There you are," she said, and handed him a croissant with a sausage, eggs, and cheese tucked into a cut in the center. "You can't go all day without eating you know."

"I know," Harry said, not getting up as he stared at the cloudy sky. It looked like it might rain. He shuddered to think how damp and cold his cabin would be that night if it did.

"I heard what happened."

"I didn't take the things."

"I know you didn't, Draco gave them to you, just like I gave you some of my things."

Harry looked over to where she was sitting on her knees on a spot she'd dried with her wand.

"How do you know? Draco would never give anything to me."

"But he did, because you wouldn't steal and he is the only Slytherin here."

"I think he was embarrassed for me the day we got here when he saw me with the pink pen and notebook.

"Well," Hermione said, "I should have looked up a spell to change it colors for you. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. I filled it up with notes at night while I was studying in my room. Pretty pink notes with a pretty pink pen."

"Stop it," she said, slapping him lightly on the shoulder, and he feigned an injury.

"You really don't have anything do you?"

He shrugged.

"Why didn't you tell them that? Why didn't you tell them that Draco gave you the things?"

"Well I don't know that he did exactly," Harry said. "I found them on my porch the first day of classes. I figured it had to be him, but how was I supposed to know the pen was worth a whole Galleon and that it was made of real silver? I never thought he was that rich."

"But you could have said that."

"They wouldn't believe me," Harry said. "Five voted to expel me and only two voted against. I think it was Adeline and Gan," he said offhandedly.

"They seem level headed enough."

Harry wiped his nose, which had been running since he'd gotten up that morning, and finally took a bite of the breakfast Hermione had been thoughtful enough to bring him.

"Ron's pretty lucky to have you," Harry said. "Wonder how he survives the summers." He gave her a grin.

"Yes he is, and so are you, now eat that before my warming charm wears off."

"Does your warming charm work on people too?"

"No, only on non-living things. You can't even heat an apple with it because in some ways the apple is still alive after it falls from a tree."

"Hm."

People started to filter out of the Dining Hall and out across the lawns and Harry sat up. "Today is going to suck. They're all going to be staring at me. I didn't think it was too much to ask for this to be different than Hogwarts."

"It wasn't."

They got up and Hermione gave him a sad look. "I'll see you next class."

"Yeah, see ya."

Harry always tried to sit in the front row of every class because his prescription for his glasses wasn't current and he liked to see whatever writing was on the board, but today August seemed intent to make a specific example out of Harry to the other students. Not so much that they needed it, but because he wanted to pound it into Harry's brain that he did not belong. When Harry went into building four for Magery, the other students were already there, and there was an empty chair right at the front in front of the teacher's desk, with Harry's name on a note taped to it.

He sat down in the chair and as August stared hard at him for a full minute, allowing the class, including Draco, to see, Harry got the message loud and clear. ‘I'm watching you, and that is your seat right up front where I can see you to be sure you're not going to steal anything.'

Harry pulled out his green notebook and silver pen and heard several gasps behind him from girls he still couldn't remember the names of. Yes, he thought, so it's true in your mind now, I'm a thief, here is the evidence, it wasn't a rumor. Go ahead, he thought bitterly, I'll never see any of you again after this summer anyway, so what does it matter what you think or who you are. August spoke to the class, but stared at Harry throughout, and though Harry tried to play the staring game back with him, he was feeling weak and finally let his eyes down to his notes. No, he wasn't up to being defiant right now, maybe in Snape's class he would be.

Snape had other plans though. He paired them up again and sent them off to duel on the grounds. He must have thought that pairing Draco and his partner against Harry and Hermione would give Draco a chance to get even for the stolen items, but Harry noted that Draco didn't fight with any real vigor. Harry let Hermione take him out and Harry was shot down by Ivan, Draco's partner, who hit him with a blast of wind that knocked him flat to the earth and knocked the wind out of Harry's lungs. Then Hermione took Ivan out with an angry stinging hex that brought tears to the seventeen year old's eyes. As Hermione helped Harry to his feet, he could see the anger in her eyes, and he had to work hard to keep up with her as she stalked back to the field to report back to Snape that they'd won, top marks again for the day as the duel had been over in less than five minutes.

Harry was quiet through Healing and didn't ask or answer any questions and Axle and Basia took to shooting him uncertain glances. At the end, Axle actually had the nerve to ask if Harry had done it, and Harry told him plainly, "No," and then walked away.

The rest of the day seemed to go by in a blur of stares, whispers, and rude comments from staff and students alike, and he ended up skipping dinner and waiting for Hermione by building one, where she brought him a chicken leg, a roll, and an apple. He was more than grateful.

"I'll take notes for you if you want to skip Literature," she said. Harry shook his head. He knew it wasn't like her to offer to help someone skip a class.

"No, I won't give them the satisfaction of cowing me for something I didn't do. I'm just going to go and get it done with and then go to bed."

"You don't look like you feel very well."

He shrugged and wiped his nose again.

He didn't go to bed after class though, he stayed in his room at his desk with his shutter's closed to keep out the cold, studying and trying to catch up on as much work as he could and even read ahead. He had a feeling he was going to be in even worse shape tomorrow and didn't want to chance not being able to do his reading then. Harry's premonition was right.

Another day of stares, and taunts now even from some of the older students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, and Harry felt like the day swept by him as he was back in bed again after Literature, this time trying to cover himself with all of the clothes from his trunk. He slept in his long pants too. Anything to keep the heat close to his body.

Finally the next morning, Hermione dragged him to the Infirmary, where Adeline was inside making a potion.

"Harry, you don't look well at all," she told him, ushering him and Hermione inside. It was raining this morning and Harry was soaked.

"Where's your coat?"

He shrugged.

"Here, sit down," she told Harry, and he went to the far end of the narrow building and sat on the bed.

"He's been looking bad for days," Hermione said.

"It's just a cold," Harry tried to reassure her again. The Dursleys had never taken him to the doctor for a cold... or, well, for anything that matter. Yes, it had ended up in pneumonia a couple times finally forcing them to get Harry some medical attention, but otherwise he always managed fine on his own.

"He's like this at school too," Hermione told Adeline. "He's impossible to convince to go to the Hospital Wing."

"Oh, a difficult patient then Mr. Potter?" Adeline looked down at him with a kind smile but Harry didn't feel much like returning it.

"Thank you Hermione, but you should get to breakfast. I'll need him to remove his shirt and I'm sure he'd like some privacy."

"Oh," Hermione said as if she were startled, "yes, let me just um- go then." She waved to Harry and then hurried back out into the rain, making sure the door shut tight behind her.

"I'm sure you probably just have a cold Harry, but I want to listen to your heart too. Take off your shirt."

Harry, too tired from his three restless and cold nights, took off his shirt, forgetting about the bruises covering his shoulders, chest, and back, and sat there waiting for Adeline to do her work. When she hadn't done anything after nearly a minute, he looked up to find her staring at him. His first thought, as a hormonal teenage boy was, what, I can't be that good looking, I don't have any abs even, but then he snapped out of it and looked down at his chest. Oh, that.

"So many bruises," Adeline said in a soft voice. Harry watched her eyes. He could usually tell someone's next move, or at least Uncle Vernon's if he watched their eyes. No one had seen his bruises before, not even Madam Pomfrey. He knew Aunt Petunia knew they were there, but she never looked or offered to take care of them. She didn't care.

"How did this happen Harry?"

He shrugged. He didn't want to lie, and not answering was easier.

"Did you fall?"

"No." Darn. That was lie one. He did fall, down the stairs at home, after Dudley pushed him.

"Have the other students been roughing you up?"

"No." He wished they had. It would have given him a good excuse to come in and get the bruises taken care of.

She paused and then pulled out a tin of bruise balm and began smearing it on his chest and injuries. Then she stopped suddenly and looked up at him. "Has a professor done this to you?"

"No," Harry said, shaking his head and looking like she was crazy.

"I don't understand then. Why won't you tell me?"

He shrugged, and she continued to apply the bruise balm.

"These will take a few days to heal. I'm supposed to take a photo of every injury for the records, to prove we've given the correct medical treatment. May I do so?"

"I guess," Harry said, wishing she would hurry so he could put his shirt back on and get some medicine for the cold, which is what Hermione had dragged him in for.

She took out a very wizardish looking camera and snapped a photo of his front and back and then set it down.

"Now for the cold." She waved her wand over him, paused, and then measured out half a cup full of electric blue potion. Harry recognized it as one of the forms of Pepperup potion, the only one he actually liked the taste of. It tasted like blue popsicles to him, well, the one he'd ever had anyway.

"There, you'll be feeling better by lunch. Try to stay out of the rain." She looked up at the clock and then said, "Oh my. Breakfast is already over and you're late for your first class. Here, I'll write you a note."

"Won't matter," Harry said. "August will still be mad."

"Hm. He wasn't mad when I sent Jimmy late yesterday morning."

"Well he's not accused of all sorts of crimes by Professor Snape," Harry said, feeling bitter.

"No, I suppose not."

She wrote him a note and reminded him to stay out of the rain again, and then he left. He ran across the lawns to August's building and hurried inside.

"Late Potter," August said with a dirty look. "Too good to show up on time?"

He held out the note wordlessly. He'd tried to keep it dry in his pocket but it was still moist.

"Oh, he was sick," August said in a mock sympathetic voice. "Well then, sit down so you don't exhaust yourself." Harry noted that Draco was sitting next to him today, and Draco gave him a look he couldn't decipher. It wasn't pity, but it wasn't anything unkind either.

Adeline was right, Harry was feeling better by lunchtime, especially since Snape had decided to hold class inside because of the rain and go over their last few group duels, and Harry got lucky again in Healing when they brewed potions on the counter in the Infirmary. Even Gan had decided to hold classes inside a different building than the gazebo because it was too cold and wet and the wind was blowing the rain in through the gazebo building sideways. Harry enjoyed the warmth of all the buildings and spent his free time after his last class of the day studying in the Dining Hall despite that it was full of other students stuck inside because of the weather. Hermione sat with him and they went over the classes they both had in common, quizzing each other and going over the things both were having difficulty with. Finally at ten when all the other students, including Hermione had cleared out, Harry went back to his cabin in the rain and stripped off his soaking wet clothes, laying them in a heap on the floor. He sent a warming charm at them and hoped they'd be dry by morning because if it was still raining then he didn't want to wear shorts, and he only had the one pair of pants which were now soaking wet.

Harry tried desperately hard to keep his head down in the coming days, but it didn't help the way others treated him. Three days after Hermione had dragged him to the infirmary, she took him back again, literally holding his hand and pulling him all way to the infirmary door. It had stopped raining the day before, but he was sick again.

"Did the last potion help?" Adeline asked, and Harry nodded.

"I can't imagine why you're sick again, it should have stayed in your system for three days. Have you been staying out of the rain?"

"Yes maam," he said.

"Better take some more then, and don't make your friend drag you in here if you're feeling sick again. There's no need to be that stubborn." She made Hermione turn around and then silently lifted up the front of Harry's shirt. The bruises were almost gone but not quite, and after instructing Hermione to keep her back turned, she applied another layer of bruise balm, for which Harry was grateful.

Later that day, when Ganzorig came to the infirmary to wait for the first Healing class of the day to start, Adeline locked the infirmary door and said, "I think you were right about Harry."

"How so."

"He's hiding something."

He raised his brow.

"He's been sick twice in five days. If he was dressed warmly and staying out of the rain he shouldn't have gotten sick again."

"I often find that children have a penchant not to do as they are told," Gan said, "even my own students, who learn to respect their elders since the time they can talk."

"It's more than just that," she said. She wouldn't be breaking any sort of Healer code of conduct by telling a fellow Healer at the school of an issue with a student, especially not one she knew was on Harry's side.

"When I asked him to take his shirt off, his entire torso was covered in bruises. His chest, his back, even his shoulders. He wouldn't tell me how it happened, but he did have a more enthusiastic response when I asked if a teacher had done it."

Gan placed his hands behind his back.

"And his foot?"

"What about his foot?" She took in a deep breath.

"He is required to take his shoes off for Root and meditation. He tried to hid it for the first week, but I was still observant enough to see that it was black and blue. He limps when asked to stand without his shoes on."

"That boy," she said. "He won't come in when he's sick or hurt and now I'll have to see him again for his foot!" She seemed angry and Gan only nodded.

"I will take the class to look for mushrooms for our next healing potion. You can see him then."

"Thank you. But he doesn't seem to want to talk to me. I tried getting him to talk after the vote at the start of the week and he refused. He wouldn't even tell me about Severus."

"Perhaps you should take the class to look for mushrooms then, and I will stay."

She nodded, "Yes. I want to know what's going on."

Harry had no idea when he turned up for Healing class at eleven later that morning that his two Professors had been plotting behind his back to ambush him and make him miss class, but that's exactly what happened. Adeline said they'd be looking for more ingredients today down on the beach, and when Harry went to follow his two classmates out the door, Gan cleared his throat and asked him to stay.

"Teacher?" Harry asked as the door closed, leaving him separated from his peers.

"I would like to see your foot."

Harry bit his lip, but Gan didn't give him time to say no.

"Sit, please."

Harry took a seat on the other bed this time, the one right by the door, though didn't make a move to take his shoe off. He was surprised when Gan got down on one knee and began unlacing Harry's shoe for him, and then pulled it off (with some difficulty as it was so tight) and then his sock. Harry was more ashamed that the man saw his holey socks and too tight gray shoes than his black and blue foot, which he'd already seen earlier in the week.

Gan held his hand over Harry's foot without touching it, and then said, "It is broken."

"Broken?" Wow, he knew Dud was a whale and had been wearing his shoes, but he never imagined that his cousin had broken it when stomping on it. Maybe he wouldn't have if Harry had been smart enough to wear shoes.

"Yes. Will you allow me to heal it?"

"Is it going to take skelegrow?"

Gan smiled. "No. Watch closely. A wise man never misses the opportunity to learn something."

Harry bent forward and watched as Gan placed one hand on top of Harry's foot and another below, cupping his foot between the two hands, and closed his eyes. Harry had read just last night that those who could do magery could also heal others without a wand but thought that it must take some amount of concentration. He didn't feel anything, but then suddenly there was sharp, horrible, terrible pain in his foot and he fell back on the bed and clenched his eyes shut, and then it was over. Breathing hard, he opened his eyes and looked at Gan, who was watching him closely.

"It was not a single fracture, it was three."

"It- it feels better," Harry said, still trying to catch his breath, and Gan nodded. He rose slowly from the floor and retrieved the same jar of bruise balm Adeline had used on his torso that morning, and came back, this time with a chair, where he sat and gently rubbed it into Harry's foot.

"It surprises me, that a man would rather hide his broken bones and walk in pain for so many days, than see a healer."

Harry didn't say anything even at the look he got from Gan. It was a look he'd seen from Dumbledore too many times. One that said he was trying to figure you out, maybe even learn your secrets.

"The same man would hide his torso."

Harry's eyes widened. Ah, they'd been talking to each other and this had been some sort of ambush. Well, it was over with now and he was healed. He couldn't much complain about that.

"It would lead another man to wonder, why one would do such a thing?"

Feeling like an answer was expected out of him, Harry shrugged.

"You do not know why you would do such a thing?"

"I know," Harry said. He hated to feel foolish in front of someone who he thought was wise.

Gan picked up on Harry's need to sound smart though and needled him more. "A man who knows, but does not say. Such a man could be a foolish man, or a wise man hiding inside a foolish man's clothing. Who should I say you are?"

"Just Harry."

"A humble man," Gan said, and Harry kept staring at him as Gan kept putting the bruise balm on his foot.

"Is there anywhere else?"

Harry bit his lip and Gan motioned for him to show him, so Harry pulled down his pants to expose the large bruise across his thigh, which was always covered by his pants or shorts. Gan began applying balm there too.

"Is this why you take so many defense classes?"

"I have to take defense," Harry said. "The Headmaster sent me to get an edge so I can fight Voldemort."

"You will fight him alone?"

"I don't have a choice."

"Every man has a choice."

Harry sighed. "Not me. There's a prophecy. Neither one can live while the other survives. He's come back, and I'm supposed to kill him somehow."

"Professor Snape says you chase after this evil man foolishly, recklessly. He says people die in your pursuit to kill him."

Harry looked away. "I know what he says."

"And?"

"I didn't go after Voldemort at the end of the school year. I didn't learn Occlumency like I was supposed to and Voldemort tricked me. He made me think my godfather was being tortured. I went to save him."

"And your friends?"

"I didn't want them to go. I asked them not to, but they insisted."

"And did you save your Godfather?"

"No." There was a long pause as Harry tried to work around the large lump in his throat. "He died."

Gan pushed his chair back to give Harry some space and motioned for him to pull his pants up again and put his shoe and sock back on.

"And these bruises are from that battle?"

"No." Harry didn't look at him and tried to focus solely on getting his sock on.

"Professor Snape teaches Occlumency at Hogwarts, does he not?"

"No," Harry said, "only to me."

"But you did not learn it."

"No."

"Yet you need to learn it, and stopped taking his class here?"

Harry shrugged.

"Do you want to learn it?"

He nodded. He had to, didn't he?

"Harry Potter."

Harry looked up. With so many people using his last name here, like they didn't respect him as much as the other students who they called by their first names, his full name got his attention.

"Did Severus Snape give you these injuries?"

Harry couldn't help himself and actually burst out in laughter then. When he saw that Gan was serious he said, "No, of course not."

"Then why are you afraid of him?" Harry closed his mouth and his smile faded. Gan was certainly more like Dumbledore than he'd given him credit for. He'd noticed, somehow, that Harry was afraid of Snape. He'd never admit it to anyone, not even Ron and Hermione, but he was. The man was like an acidic mix between uncle Vernon and Lucius Malfoy, and he never knew what he'd do, or what new way he'd come up with to torture him next.

"A wise man who keeps his mouth closed to keep from looking foolish," Gan said, "or a scared man." Harry waited for the rest of that sentence, but it didn't come. Just a scared man.

"The others will be back soon," Harry said.

"Yes."

"You're going to tell Adeline?"

"She knows of your foot."

"It's not Snape," Harry said seriously. The last thing he needed was for them to tell Snape he'd been lying about him.

Gan looked as though he was going to say something, but the door opened just then and Adeline stuck her head inside.

"Class is over."

Harry stood and paused at the door. He turned and gave Gan a look, and Gan gave him a nod, and then he left. It was a ‘thank you' look, and he hoped Gan knew that.

* * *

Severus Snape was seething. He could spit like Granger's demented cat he was so angry. Potter would be the death of him he swore it was true. He paced back and forth in his cabin. That little brat had gone and told Ganzorig and Adeline that he had done something to him. He'd never laid a hand on the boy! Even the jar of cockroaches he'd thrown at him the year before had missed its mark!

He stopped pacing for a moment and said aloud, "Oh, well played Potter, well played." Of course, now that the boy had made accusations, he couldn't go near him, couldn't continue to tell others of the brat's misdeeds at Hogwarts, because it would seem like he really was abusing him. Ganzorig had even had the audacity to ask him if he, SEVERUS SNAPE, was romantically interested in the boy!

He stepped over to his wall and hit it hard with his fist, ignoring the pain now shooting through his knuckles.

Potter would pay. This was HIS professional reputation on the line here! What did spoilt, pampered prince Potter care if he was asked to leave Gemini, or if his reputation was tarnished forever. That sort of accusation, even if it wasn't true, didn't leave. It followed you around everywhere! It would get back to parents who would demand that Dumbledore, or else the Board of Governors remove him from his post! He would lose everything! His post as Potion's Master at Hogwarts was the only status symbol he had, not like famous Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived, who would have fame and fortune wherever he went.

Severus hit the wall again, this time with his other hand and not as hard. Damn him and his attention seeking. He bet the boy had gone in with a scrape and said he'd done it. The way Gan and Adeline talked, the boy had been half beaten to death, and they'd even questioned him about the brat getting sick too as if he'd controlled the wind and rain and made the irritating child get the sniffles. No, Potter was already getting his grips here at Gemini and getting ready to dig his claws in deep and that just wouldn't do. There was still four weeks and Severus was not going to let the boy have this school. How the boy had gotten away with the theft (and even gotten Draco's school supplies back!) he would never know. He would also never understand, he was sure, why Draco refused to tell the truth and say that Potter had stolen the expensive items from him.

Severus stared out his back window and up the hill towards the row of boy's cabins he was responsible for. Somewhere up there, Potter slept in his nice warm bed, laughing at him and the mess he'd made. But it was Severus who would be having the last laugh.

Chapter End Notes:
What oh what will Snape do? What do you want to see happen? We're going to have a big Snape and Harry moment soon, I promise!

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