The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff class was a little less organised. The students had been warned by the other second years about what to expect so they weren’t hugely surprised when he had them passing the ball around and answering his questions. Harry was also introduced to Emily Jacks.

Emily was a muggleborn Ravenclaw who had read a ridiculous amount of books. Harry had begun to imagine her as a sort of second Hermione – although Hermione was not as keen on fictional books as this girl. The class was interrupted as they had a five minute argument over why Werewolves couldn’t change form just at will. In the end she perked up when he suggested animagi as a possible explanation.

Far worse than that was the quarter of an hour while the girl tried to convince Harry that Vampires could come out in daylight but would be too obvious to muggles because they sparkled. Harry wasn’t very sure what to say to that. In the end he pulled down a few texts from the bookcase and showed her the passages on vampires, in an attempt to persuade her. She reminded Harry of Luna Lovegood’s tenacity with the Crumple Horned Snorkack. Except Harry was 100% certain the second year was wrong.

Harry recognised other literary works from her interpretations of inferi, dementors and kraken. He was forced to wonder if she ever spent any time actually studying for school work. Luckily, she didn’t seem to be too put out when he proved how each of her points were wrong. He even got a small round of applause from the class at the end of the lesson when he had firmly disproved her last objection.

 So the greatest disruption in his class so far was that one child was too enthusiastic about the topic… He supposed he should be glad about that.

“Professor Snape usually just takes points and sets us extra homework, Sir.” One Ravenclaw told him in confidence on his way to Flying class.

Harry himself had to run to his Herbology class. Professor Sprout was in a better mood than she had been last night and Harry guessed she must have had a productive set of detentions- at any rate, the compost heap was significantly bigger and fouler smelling. Maybe Hagrid had finally rid himself of all of the thestral dung that had been accumulating at the edge of the forest.

Harry was going to partner himself with Ron for the lesson but Professor Sprout stepped in and paired him with Neville instead, leaving Ron with Hermione.

Harry managed to whisper to Ron for a moment as they were both collecting pots from the back of the class.

“Are you okay mate? You were in the hospital wing for ages.”

Ron nodded quickly and hurried back to his desk without saying anything. Hermione looked worried but she didn’t say anything to him either.

 Harry tried asking Neville about what was going on with the school but he said he had been spending any and all of his spare time for the past few days in the greenhouses. Apparently, Professor Sprout had been really angry with him for getting involved in the fight and hadn’t forgiven him yet. Neville thought she might be getting there though and insisted that it wouldn’t take more than a few more hours of work.

Harry liked that idea - he knew Neville looked up to Sprout a lot, the teacher seemed to see this as a sort of penance.

Maybe all of the teachers would treat him normally again if Harry served his by behaving and teaching his classes well.

It was a long and lonely walk back to charms, following the Ravenclaws to the classroom. Trying to talk to Terry Boot wasn’t successful and the boy had ignored him, marching away with the others.

Harry was partnered with Crabbe in this lesson for the first time ever. Goyle looked lost for a minute before Millicent Bulstrode appeared to drag him away.

Today’s lesson was to make bottles spin; a progression from the previous lesson. This was for a specialised brewing technique where the brewer was required to spin an infusion of Butober Pus and Gillyweed extract. The mixture released a lot of gas and so the top couldn’t be stoppered shut while it was spinning. It was tricky to get right, and potentially dangerous if you managed to throw the ingredients at somebody at top speed.

For this lesson, they were practising with a coloured dye. The idea was to encourage them to not spill the contents all over themselves. Every so often, Professor Flitwick would come around and de-blue each pair. After the third time Crabbe had made a whole bottle empty itself over his head, Harry really began to miss being paired with Hermione.

Eventually, Harry was managing to get the spell to work three out of four times. The issue he had was trying to work out how to stop Crabbe from setting the bottle down open end first every single time. They made some progress, but it would take a lot of effort from the house elves to get the blue stain off the floor.

The next time the tiny professor passed, he gave Crabbe some advice on his wandwork and some house points. The boy grinned, it wasn’t very often he earned points for his house. Goyle was gaping, slack-jawed, at his friend, from the other side of the room – he couldn’t believe it either.

As he was leaving the classroom Harry tripped flat on his face, catching himself badly with his arm. Looking around, the only students who had noticed were a group of laughing Ravenclaw girls. As he tried to get up off the floor, Harry noticed that his laces had been knotted together. He grit his teeth and decided to say nothing to them. There was no point in confronting them in the corridor, and besides that, his wand arm was really starting to ache. Harry reluctantly made his way to the hospital wing instead of to lunch, his stomach complaining loudly.

The hospital wing was very quiet. Only one bed was occupied and the curtains were pulled tight around it. An educated guess told him it must be Malfoy’s bed.  Before he could get any further than closing the door, Madam Pomfrey appeared.

“What do you need, Potter?”

Oh good, one more person angry with him. He had been expecting this one though - Madam Pomfrey was fiercely protective to downright scary when students injured each other on purpose. Most of the school thought the matron had been a Hufflepuff in her own Hogwarts years, but Harry was convinced she was from Slytherin.

“I hurt my wrist” Harry wet his lips nervously. “Would you have a look please, Ma’am?”

She whipped out her wand so fast that Harry almost flinched away from it. She cast a quick charm.

“Sprained, It won’t take two seconds, Potter.”

Harry hissed in pain as she straightened out his wrist. There was a rush of warmth, then a sharp tug as the muscles in his arm all shifted slightly. Pomfrey handed him a mild pain draught and practically pushed him out of the infirmary.

All in all, it was less than ten minutes between the accident and Harry walking into the Great Hall. He skirted along between the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables, guessing that it was the safest route. He couldn’t be bothered trying to deal with angry Slytherins or Ravenclaws right now.

Wanting to get to the Defence classroom quickly so he could prepare for his next class, Harry only sat at the staff table long enough for his glass of pumpkin juice to appear. He downed that, then gathered himself a napkin full of sandwiches, before jumping up and leaving. Harry was sure he heard McGonagall and Sprout laughing at his hasty attendance but kept walking away.

Snape was still in the classroom after his last lesson. Harry was surprised to see him there, he hadn’t noticed that the man hadn’t been in lunch.

Harry knocked and waited to be admitted. Snape waved him inside, impatiently. The man started in surprise when Harry offered him his pile of sandwiches. Harry got the bigger surprise when Snape actually picked a ham and mustard from the middle.

“Not laced with a sleeping draught, I take it, Mr Potter?”

Harry blinked, the only sleeping draught he had ever given to anyone had been Crabbe and Goyle in second year. Harry was sure that Snape didn’t know about that, but it was an oddly specific choice otherwise. It was hard to know what exactly the man had seen in their Occlumency lessons though, and Snape always seemed to know more than he should. Harry couldn’t think of an answer and instead took a huge mouthful of a tuna roll as an excuse to stay quiet. Snape arched one of his eyebrows before tucking into his own.

He chewed so slowly that Harry became inordinately nervous there might be a sleeping draught in the sandwich. But he felt if anyone was going to recognise a suspicious potion, it was Snape. He finished the food with no further comments and brushed the crumbs off his hands.

“Mr Potter, you may feel it is acceptable for you to skip lunch but you should make yourself available in the great hall during dinner. Your presence will be required.”

Harry’s stomach dropped in the space of about a third of a second.

“Is it Malfoy, sir? Is he OK again?”

Snape nodded, “Mr Malfoy is due to be released from the hospital wing after the last class of the day. It would be incredibly helpful if you would avoid any … altercations with him until after then. The headmaster will also be present this evening.” Snape gave him a significant look. “You would do well to behave appropriately. Do not, for example, incite another rebellion.”

“I didn’t incite anything, Sir!” Harry forced himself to calm down. “I didn’t know anyone was going to do that, professor. It isn’t like I told everyone ‘I’m going to fight Malfoy, if I’m not back in an hour, go start a war with the rest of his house.’” He took a deep breath. “I really didn’t want that. I didn’t go looking for a fight, let alone whatever is going on now.”

Snape just stared at him for a minute before clearing his throat. “I believe the appropriate term is insurrection. Potter, I cannot pretend that I understand the reasons behind the headmaster’s actions, but rest assured there will be a valid purpose to this.”

Harry nodded back at him soberly. If there was, then Harry couldn’t figure it out.  

“What is your intended plan for today’s lesson? You are not moving on to combative spells yet?”

“No, sir. Today we are covering non-combative defensive spells. Going over the different forms of Lumos, silver transfiguration and Cacophonous spells.”

Snape nodded, “Make sure they know the difference between Solem and Maxima, lots of them forget that in their second year. Professor Flitwick does not cover them in any great detail.”

“Of course, Professor. I am planning to mention Devil’s Snare as well. It’s become slightly more common recently and hardly anyone remembers what to do with it.”

Snape left, presumably to get some more lunch and Harry dropped into one of the front row desks and started writing out a homework assignment for his classes. Professor McGonagall had suggested he try to set at least three hours’ worth each week. Hopefully, this would be a little more exciting than the essays they were used to. Harry thought even Ron might have been interested enough to do this by himself when he was in second year- rather than getting Hermione to help as he always did.

Snape appeared back in the classroom before the bell rang for the end of lunch. He strode across to peer over Harry’s shoulder at the growing pile of parchment slips.

“I thought even you might have mastered a copying charm by now, Mr Potter.”

“I’m not supposed to use magic when I’m not in class, sir. And even then, only with permission from my teacher. Besides that, they’re mostly different. ”

“That’s rubbish,” Snape interrupted, “I saw you use transfiguration yesterday and you used a hovering charm on that blasted kettle.”

“I forgot, sir. Professor Dumbledore noticed as well and confiscated my cl- something of mine.”

The black eyes glinted. “He took that ridiculous invisibility cloak?”

Harry nodded glumly, “Yes, sometime yesterday.”

There was a moment of silence as Snape reached over to take a look at some of the parchments lower in the pile.

“What do you mean, these are all different? It is only homework for the second year class.”

Harry smiled a little, “I’ve made little scenarios for them; so all their answers will have to be different. I’m going to get them to write one, consult on another, then mark and cross mark the other two in class next week. They’ve got to write about the best course of action. I thought it might be interesting to see what they come up with.”

Snape picked up the pile of completed sheets. “This is going to take up much more time than it is worth. Do you realise how long these will take to mark?”

“Not so long after they’ve gone over them a few times. Hopefully they’ll only ask me about them if they have any problems. It should be easier to get through and save me setting everyone four sets of homework.”

The door opened and a group of Slytherins came in. Harry moved so that he was sitting in his usual seat and put away his homework. Hermione came in and gave him an apologetic look before walking with Ron to a different place. Ron wouldn’t even look at Harry. The next Gryffindor in the room was Neville. The boy looked around at where everyone was sitting before nodding to himself and taking Ron’s usual seat next to Harry.

Harry looked at him gratefully, glad that he didn’t have to sit by himself in yet another class. There was no chance to talk to the other boy though because the next bell rang and Professor Snape jumped straight into his lecture, not even waiting for his students to pull out quill and ink.

The lecture was a long diatribe on the difference between dark and non-dark spells. Harry felt it was sort of pointed at him, the Sectumsempera curse was definitely dark. But, as Harry was quick to tell himself himself, so was Draco’s Cruciatus.

“The main driving force,” Snape was saying, “behind all spells- as even complete dolts such as you should have discovered by now- is intent. Of course power is required. There is no such thing as a dark wizard or witch who is weak. Evil is not necessarily dark, though dark is never good.” Hermione’s hand shot up.

“Miss Granger, if you are looking for an in-depth debate on the morality of some dark spells, I have to inform you that this is not subjective. Dark spells have dark intent, have a malignant purpose. You cannot cast the killing curse with compassion as your motive. The Imperius curse cannot be used to save or help.” Snape glanced around the room, resting on Harry, “You have to mean it.”

Harry’s heart skipped at least two beats. He couldn’t draw in breath. Bellatrix’s words as exactly as Harry could remember them. Snape stopped speaking and watched him intently. There was a long silence. So long, in fact, that the class had started to turn around in their seats to look at the two of them. Harry forced himself to take in air as his light-headedness built up to a nauseating level. He was terrified Snape was going to see straight into his thoughts. Then he would call him out in front of everyone, or drag him to the headmaster. He wasn’t sure which would be worse.

“Mr Potter, do not doodle in my class!”

It was one of Snape’s usual brisk snaps. Harry glanced down at his sheet of parchment. There was doodles all along the margins, there for anyone to see if they looked. Harry hadn’t drawn them though.

It was only Harry and Snape who knew that this was a cover. Snape had certainly noticed the words strike a chord. Harry knew there was going to be a very awkward conversation with him in the very near future.

Harry coughed a little to clear his throat, it had constricted itself in his nervousness.

“I’m sorry, sir. It won’t happen again.”

Snape narrowed his eyes. Harry frantically tried to decide if his words might be an admission of guilt.

“It had better not Mr Potter, or you shall be spending a very, very long time in detentions with me.”

“Miss Granger,” Hermione jumped a little as Snape swung suddenly on her. “As I was saying, any ethical and moral points you may have are rendered invalid by this fact, do you disagree.”

Hermione bit her lip, obviously reluctant to give up on this point.

“Very well, you may submit a thesis to me and we shall see if you can find any evidence of merit. No more than 16 inches.”

Snape swept back to the front of the classroom. “To continue; Dark spells increase the levels of darkness in each witch or wizard. The summoning of the emotions used in these spells is addictive. It preys on the caster, becoming easier to gather such feeling each time they attempt to do so. The caster uses such spells more often and may become dependent on them. They begin to feel that there is no power without Dark Spells and that those who do not seek to use it to their gain are weak.”

That rang a bell as well, though Harry couldn’t remember why. It niggled at the back of his mind while he dutifully wrote down everything the professor was saying. Maybe he had heard another death eater say it sometime?

The homework assignment was as long and complicated as all of Snape’s assigned work was. It would take at least three books from the school library… although, maybe Harry could stay in the classroom and use the ones from the teacher’s bookcase instead.

Finally the school bell rang for the end of the lesson. Harry was up and out of his seat before the professor was halfway through the word ‘dismissed’.

“Miss Granger, if you would remain behind for a moment, we will discuss your extra homework. Mr Potter, you will see me here after your last class of the day or you will not have a spare moment until you leave this school.”

Harry agreed dully, there wasn’t any way to avoid the conversation about dark magic. It was going to happen, no matter what.

Transfiguration passed all too quickly for Harry. Hermione and Ron sat together again, though Harry could hear Hermione’s nagging and Ron trying to distract her the whole way through. Professor McGonagall was nice to him as well. She congratulated him warmly on his conjured cutlery, despite the knife’s habit of flashing red every few minutes.

Harry’s next class was his second teaching the Gryffindor and Slytherin class. The students seemed to already know each of the spells and were able to cast them tolerably well. For the majority, they just seemed to be surprised to find out that the spells they had learned in Herbology or Charms at the beginning of their first year could be useful to defence.

Harry cast a couple of illusions to show them how large the creatures were, or to let them see how they moved and acted in real life. They were all shocked by how huge the trolls were and the hag Harry conjured looked a bit too much like Umbridge for anyone’s comfort.

All the while, Harry was keeping little mental tabs on how each child performed, he considered keeping a written note as well so that, when Snape finally took the class back, they would know how well each child had done.

He showed them the Verdimillious charm as well, to catch their interest, and told them to try and research it for the next lesson. Hopefully they would be able to have a couple of reviews in class time and perfect it within a fortnight.

One Slytherin, Barnabas Granville seemed to have been doing his research since the last lesson. He knew a lot more about the spells and creatures than he had before. Harry wished he could give out house points to his students.

A Gryffindor girl called Cartwright was amazing at the charms and Harry bet she was one of Flitwick’s favourites. Harry would have been fonder of her if she didn’t spend so much time chatting to Dawson, the boy who made lots of jokes.

Zabini minor from the Slytherin side was exceptionally good with the practical aspects of the spells, he also knew a lot of obscure theory but this seemed to come from family teaching and personal experience rather than information from a textbook. He was pretty reluctant to share anything, but anything he did attempt was close to perfect.

The class finished on a funny note. Goodwin- the Gryffindor girl that reminded Harry of Tonks- was trying to cast a focused Lumos Solem. She was attempting to cast a narrow beam which could be used against Devil’s Snare. What she actually achieved was a bright burst of sunlight which dazed everyone for a few minutes so that they all had to cover their eyes and sit down so that they could see again. The class seemed to see this as a fairly normal occurrence- probably in the same way Harry’s potions class already had a firmly ingrained mental protocol for protecting themselves from Neville’s melting cauldrons. So the class laughed it off as a fairly safe accident.

The class left the room cheerfully and mostly with fairly impressive tans. Harry just counted himself lucky that nobody had been blinded or badly sunburnt. He collapsed into one of the seats and buried his face in his hands as the door closed behind the last student.

Except it didn’t.

“Are you planning on starting a business, Mr Potter?” Three guesses who. “I am sure there are plenty of people- purebloods and muggleborns alike who would pay for that look.”

Harry groaned and lifted his head to see Snape walk past him.

“Although they would probably prefer their tans to spread past their robe collars.”

“Just a little too much power in a Lumos Charm, professor.” Harry answered. “Is it that bad?”

Snape smirked, “You have probably started a new wave of fashion. Who was it cast the spell?”

“Goodwin, she’s a Gryffindor.”

“Ah, of course. We shall have to make sure she doesn’t blow anybody up trying to emulate the effects.”

Harry nodded, “It was a pretty intense light: she could blind someone. I did warn her but it might not be enough if Lavender Brown or Parkinson find out.”

Snape shrugged, “It’s nothing Poppy Pomfrey couldn’t fix. The fright might teach them a lesson.”

Harry bit his lip. It would probably not help his case if he started on how unethical that was.

The professor picked one of the student chairs and moved it so he could sit facing Harry.

“Sir?”

Snape took a deep breath, this might have been the first time Harry saw him uncertain of how to start a conversation with a student.

“Tell me all of the Dark spells you have used. I need to know each spell, each incantation as well as when you cast it and who on.”

Or maybe not. That was pretty comprehensive. Oh dear.

“Sir- I don’t… Not…”  Harry breathed for a second, mostly to stop himself stammering like an idiot.

“Get on with it, Potter. You are not leaving until I am satisfied with your answers.”

“Sectumsempera, you know about. That’s the only time I’ve cast it.”

Snape narrowed his eyes, “What else?”

“Nothing at school, sir.”

The black eyes got even sterner. There probably wasn’t any point in stalling.”

“Potter, I know you cast Sectumsempra, I want you to tell me whatever dark spells you have cast. Whether it be in headquarters, Diagon Alley or anywhere else. If you continue to waste my time…”

Harry nodded, dejected. “I blew up my aunt before third year, si-“

“Potter! You know that was not dark magic and I know that the Minister for Magic did not tell you that ‘you have to mean’ dark magic. That is a saying among a certain kind of wizard. Who did say that, and why did you curse them?!”

Harry gave up. A ‘certain kind of wizard’ probably meant the death eaters. He suspected the man was quite close to using Legilimency by now. Nobody would acuse Snape of being patient.

“I used a dark curse on Bellatrix Lestrange in the Ministry last year. The first time hardly anything happened.”

“The first?”

“I cast it twice. It… it didn’t work the first time. Didn’t work very well the second either…”

“What was it?”

Harry looked down and mumbled the answer. Snape made an impatient noise, showing that he hadn’t heard him.

“The Cruciatus, sir.” Harry repeated, barely louder

There was silence for a moment. Harry thought he might have managed to surprise the teacher for once, but Harry couldn’t look up at him to check. He focussed his attention on running his fingers along the scratches etched into the table instead, tracing the decades old graffiti of ‘FW loves DC’ over and over. He bit his lip.

“Potter,” Snape stopped, “Mr Potter, that does go a way towards explaining the effectiveness of the curse you used on Mr Malfoy. Normally you would have not caused so much damage- especially not on a first attempt.”

Harry nodded, still not looking up.

“It is perhaps a good thing that you are only using a little magic at the moment. I would like you to attempt to keep from using the darker grey spells especially. That means no duels in the corridors. Do you understand me? And none of your… extracurricular defence classes either.”

“Yes, sir.” Harry’s voice crackled.

“You understand why this is necessary?”

Harry nodded, and Snape turned his head away, sighing. “Of course you don’t. As I was attempting to tell your Defence class this afternoon, dark magic is addictive. I do not think you fully understand the implications here.”

“I do, professor.”

“Do you?” Snape’s voice was hard and Harry was hard put to meet his eyes. “Dark magic uses the wizard, Mr Potter, not the other way around. If I am right, then since you have used that spell, others have seemed more appealing to you. I expect that the Sectumsempra curse especially called to you. You had the urge to cast it for a long time before you did?” A pause, Harry didn’t deny it.

“Of course you did.” Snape closed his eyes wearily and rested his elbow on his desk, pinching the bridge of his long nose.

“Right, at least the Headmaster’s actions are a little more transparent now. He was starting to worry us a little.”

“Sir?”

“The Headmaster knows what he is doing. To you he may be appearing harsh but he has a sound basis for his actions. If he was aware of those Cruciatus curses then he will have anticipated this. Not only that but the Dark Lord has had a good deal of influence over your mind and there is nobody so deeply entrenched in the Dark Arts. He attempted to possess you last summer? And many dark curses have been used on you as well. Yes, there is little wonder you were being drawn in.”

“Sir, you’re saying that Professor Dumbledore thinks I’m… addicted?”

The black eyes rolled to look at the ceiling, “Yes, Potter. It does explain why he is trying to keep you from casting too many spells – it should prevent you from being tempted to use the wrong sort. Your removal from your house where you might have had the use of a small army of supporters. By being harsh towards the rest of the school, they should not look to you as a martyr. You have been removed from your potions class because of the influence you could have cultivated over Professor Slughorn. Although it was more likely to chastise you and provide the time for you to teach Defence.”

Harry blinked at him, trying to take this all in, “But why would he want me to teach anyone? I thought you said I shouldn’t have power over anyone, why would he put me in control of a class?”

“Defence spells are actually a natural antagonist to dark magic, as you should know. You were deliberately given this second year class because it is focussed on mainly defensive spells. They are all completely light. Not to mention there is a great deal of focus and determination necessary to teach. As you have no power to award detentions or take points away from the houses, you will have to learn control through personality and kindness instead of through force. Essentially, the Headmaster is attempting to improve your attitude and defences, while not allowing you to be corrupted into the Dark Arts.”

Harry bit his lip. Said like that in Snape’s calm, no-nonsense tone, Harry could almost see the logic behind Dumbledore’s decisions. He still felt a little hurt by the man though, the loss of his invisibility cloak especially affected him. He had so few of his parents’ possessions…

 “Sir, what about the Latin lessons? They seem a little pointless.” Snape growled, “No, no, wait, sorry! I just meant, they don’t fit in with everything else.”

“I expect the lessons are to give me the opportunity to keep an eye on you, to prevent you from getting into mischief in the evenings and to actually teach you Latin. It is a language that has many benefits for Hogwarts students.”

“Professor Snape,” Harry paused for a second, unsure of whether to continue or not. Probably he should stop now. “Sir, Malfoy was going to use a dark curse. That was why I cursed him first. I know- I know it sounds like I’m trying to get off the hook, and I’m not, honestly! It’s just that, if I could be addicted, then so could he, right?”

Snape was silent for a minute, his face a blank mask as always. Finally, slowly, he began to speak.

“Mr Potter, I will speak with Professor Dumbledore about this. It may be that Mr Malfoy has not actually cast any dark magic yet and you misinterpreted the situation.”

Harry’s heart dropped, Snape didn’t believe him.

“Potter, you aren’t listening to me! Even if that is the case, we shall have to speak with him about it. It is possible he is tempted by the idea. Blind suspicion does not however give you any right to confront him again, do you understand me?”

“I understand, Professor.”

“Good. Under the circumstances, as I am certain you would agree, I believe it would be appropriate for you to write double the assignment I set in class today. You may borrow the books from the teacher’s shelf if you wish, do not damage them or I shall have them re-bound with your skin.”

Ah, the Snape Harry knew and loved. Harry thought he had been overly understanding this afternoon.

“Thank you.”

Snape swept out of the room and Harry collected a pile of texts to help him with his homework, spreading them out over the teacher’s desk and writing out a basic plan as he saw Hermione do before each essay. He did not want Snape to think he wasn’t serious about this. He sighed at the title, before copying it down at the head of his essay parchment.

Addiction and Withdrawal in Regards to the use of the Dark Arts.