“For Merlin’s sake.”

Harry pulled his pillow over his head. Why did he always have to be woken up so rudely? He never had the chance to just sleep as long as he wanted.

“Oof-”

Harry sat bolt upright to try to dislodge the heavy weight which had suddenly landed itself on his chest.

It was a book.

Harry grabbed his glasses of the bedside table, settling them onto his nose to look at the thing. Essential Household Spells for the Modern Witch. The book looked about a hundred years old. Harry sneezed from the dust, then looked up to see Snape standing in the doorway with his arms crossed.

“Ouch.” Harry said.

Snape rolled his eyes. “You are fine. As I anticipated, you are also not yet up. I want you outside my office in forty minutes. Put that book in your bag as well, you will be needing it.”

“Why?” Harry looked at the book without much optimism. “I’m not a witch or… a hundred and twenty. And I don’t have a house.”

“You do however have the need to learn many of the spells which are mentioned in that book. Those are spells usually taught to children by their parents. I expect most of my Slytherins and all of your friends with wizarding blood already know most of these. This book uses particularly simple words. Even you should be able to make a couple of the spells work before Monday.”

“Huh?”

“Just get up. Bring your bag with you.”

Snape left and Harry checked his watch. It was twenty past six! He idly wondered whether he could get away with staying in bed for another ten minutes. Reluctantly, he realised that he could probably do with having a shower, so he rolled out of bed.

After checking that there was some movement in the Slytherin common room, Severus Snape walked up to his office door. He could see Potter was already waiting outside and a flick of his wand told him that the boy was a couple of minutes early. The boy’s hair was dripping slightly down the back of his neck.

“You might have taken a moment or two to care for your appearance, then you might not appear so scruffy for once.”

Potter smooth down the crumpled material of his robe, looking a little contrite. He followed his professor’s gaze to run a hand through his hair.

“It’s going to dry itself before the end of breakfast.” He said defensively, wiping his damp hand.

Snape just frowned and made a jabbing motion with his wand. Harry’s hair warmed to an almost uncomfortable level, before cooling again. 

“You can start with that spell,” he said. “And don’t let me see you in such a state again.”

At breakfast, the two sixth year prefects spoke to him about the Potion’s Club. Harry was careful with what he said due to the fact Snape was very obviously listening in to the conversation. Harry suspected that the only reason Blackfort and his girlfriend were even talking to him was because Snape had asked them to at some point.

The couple were working on a potion together, apparently they were partners on some project in Snape’s NEWT class. Harry didn’t quite understand it, but apparently they were trying to work out if there was a way to miss out some of the stages involved in brewing the Elixir to Induce Euphoria.

He didn’t know much about the potion, and especially not anything about the technique, so most of the conversation went straight over his head.

“Hey, Potter.” Harry turned around in his seat to see Ernie MacMillan calling to him. The boy pointed at the floor beneath the Slytherin bench.

“That’s your wand isn’t it?”

It was.

Harry dived under the seat instantly to get it, accidentally upsetting Snape’s coffee – and Snape for that matter. The stupid thing had fallen out of his pocket again.

“Constant vigilance!” Somebody shouted, nearby. Harry jumped out of shock and smacked his head off the underside of the seat. Groaning, he re-emerged to see Moody standing in the aisle above him, and Snape nursing what seemed to be a scalded hand.

“Professor Moody,” Snape growled. “In the future could you please keep your theatrical mantras quiet until after I have had the opportunity to finish my coffee?”

“That would be counterproductive, Snape, don’t you think? Up you come, sonny.”

Harry didn’t have the chance to refuse as Moody bent down and dragged him up by the arm. Gingerly feeling the bump on his head, Harry sat back down behind his pile of toast. Snape stared at Moody as the man took a swig from his flask, before turning away with a look of disgust.

The smell of whatever it was drifted across to Harry as the man flipped it closed. Harry recognised it. Before he had thought it must be alcohol and knew that other students thought so too, Seamus and Dean had joked about nicking it earlier in the term- back before they had realised quite how paranoid the Professor was.

But it didn’t smell like any alcohol Harry knew of and it definitely wasn’t pumpkin juice.

Moody stomped up to get his own breakfast, and after a second Harry shrugged and span back around to face the table. A couple of seats down, Malfoy was trying to get Goyle to read something off the back of a leaflet. The big Slytherin was mouthing the words, slowly, as he made his way through the sentence. For some reason, that made Harry think about the flask again. But whatever the link was, Harry couldn’t think of it this early in the morning.

Harry put his wand down next to his plate. “I really need to stop losing you.”

In his peripheral vision, Harry saw Snape raise an eyebrow.

“You lose your wand often, Potter? That’s remarkably careless, even for you.”

“Well, last time it got nicked. It disappeared at the quiddich world cup this summer. Somebody used it to conjure the dark mark, but then they dropped it, so I got it back.”

Snape stared at him for a full minute. He opened his mouth about four times, about to say something but closed it each time.

“But that’s the only time. Oh, apart from when Riddle stole it in the Chamber of Secrets. But it wasn’t really lost then, he just had it.”

“Potter, shut up,” said Blackfort from the other side of the table. The boy was watching his head of house with a slight smile though, it wasn’t often that the man was lost for words.

Harry noticed that Snape poured himself an extra coffee. It must have been a stressful morning for the man.

“Mr Potter!”

For what felt like the hundredth time already that morning, Harry looked around to see who was calling his name. It took Snape a couple of seconds longer to remember to wait but Harry had braced himself for being pulled along.

It was McGonagall. She didn’t look happy.

“Minerva, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Snape strode back towards them, looking mildly irritated. Luckily mildly irritated was slightly less than usual.

“Potter, I did tell you yesterday to have that work to me by curfew. I might even have found it acceptable if you had found me first thing this morning. But here you are, and no sign of anything.”

Harry’s thoughts raced. He had sent the work up to her. He had spent so long doing the stuff, surely she had it?

“I asked someone else to bring it up to you,” he spluttered.

“And who would that be?”

“I don’t know,” Harry frowned. “Some Slytherin girl, she said she was going to see you last night.”

“Miss Lyss?” McGonagall looked to Snape for confirmation and the man shrugged. “She was the last Slytherin I spoke to last night. I asked her if she had been asked to bring anything to me and she denied it.”

“Maybe it wasn’t her then…”

“The girl who you chased out of my Potions class last night was Miss Lyss,” Snape said to Harry.

“Lyss insisted that she had no such errand. I specifically asked her because it was so close to curfew.”

“I did do it!” Harry maintained. “Sir, you must have seen me working on it. I was doing it all afternoon.”

“I did not look, Potter.” Snape said. “I saw it was incomplete in the afternoon. I have no idea if you finished it, or if you actually gave it to my student. Either way, it sounds like you will have to redo the work.”

“Do it again?” Harry whined. “It took me ages to do it the first time! I can’t even remember how to work it all out.”

“Stop being such a brat.” Snape folded his arms. “If the work is lost, then of course you have to do it again. And if you cannot remember the calculations the next day, how do you expect to remember them in your OWLs? It will do you good to have the practice.”

McGonagall nodded. “Perhaps if you brought Mr Potter to the staff meeting this afternoon, he could do his work then. I would be able to mark it straight afterwards.”

Snape pulled a face, “I see no reason to inflict Potter’s presence on the entire staff. Not to mention we will be discussing confidential information, Potter has no right to hear that.”

McGonagall waved a hand dismissively, “We can put him in a sound bubble, Filius is an expert after all. You can’t read lips, can you, Potter?”

“No…”

“There you go, problem averted. Don’t cause any trouble, Potter.”

With those parting words, McGonagall swept off towards the Grand Staircase.

Snape steered Harry away, muttering.

Along with the first potions class there arrived a pile of work from Professor Flitwick. The work was simple enough, basically he had to answer questions on Banishing charms based on the right chapter of his textbook. The Ravenclaw who had brought it down had instructions to return it at morning break, so Harry had to hurry to get all of his answers down. Luckily Snape didn’t have his class doing anything too loud.

Harry didn’t pay much attention to the second year class which came in next, that is until Snape started calling the register and began demanding to know where Fowley was. Harry looked up, surprised to see that the bench next to him was empty. Nobody seemed to know, but a Ravenclaw boy suggested the Slytherin might be in the hospital wing. Snape dismissed the idea.

“They are probably just late. Fowley does not believe in punctuality.”

 When the lesson was about half way through, Harry got permission off an irritated Snape to go to the bathroom. The man looked annoyed at having to let him out, but as the alternative was escorting the boy at lunch, he really had no option.

Expecting the corridors to be deserted, Harry was surprised when he heard raised voices coming from the boy’s bathroom.

“Let me out! I’ve got to get to class. The Professor is going to kill me as it is-“

“What, so you can run away and whine to your Housemaster that we’ve been ‘calling you names’? Not a chance. We’re not going anywhere and neither are you.”

Harry recognised Fowley’s voice. Why was it Slytherins were always in the middle of any trouble that was to be had? He drew his wand cautiously before opening the door, glad that he had brought it with him.

Just inside the door were three Ravenclaw students who were blocking his way in. More importantly, they were blocking Fowley’s way out. Harry didn’t recognise the other students, but they looked younger than him, so he guessed they must be third years.

Everyone turned to look at him as he entered. The Ravenclaw who seemed to be in charge was a slight boy with spiked up hair. He nodded to Harry in a friendly way.

“Hello, Potter. We’re just teaching this slimy snake a lesson in manners. She’s not got any.” Fowley flinched.

Harry tried to keep his expression neutral, but he was concerned for the second year. The kid tried to hide it, but there were tears rolling slowly down their face. The three boys did notice, and the two bigger ones jeered.

“What did they do?” Harry asked, trying to work out if there was a way to get hold of a teacher before he lost his temper and started Cursing them. In the dungeons they were far away from most teachers, Snape was closest and Harry couldn’t think of a way to get the man’s attention.

“She’s in our bathroom, of course,” the boy said. “And if she’s so determined to not be a boy, then she shouldn’t be allowed in here.”

“Professor McGonagall said I’m allowed to use either of the bathrooms, so it’s mine too. And I’m not a girl!” Fowley, took a step forward with their fists clenched. A second later, the kid had to take two back as the Ravenclaws responded to the challenge. One of the third years cracked their knuckles in a menacing way.

“You’re offending us by being here.” The boy spat on the floor in front of Fowley.

Fowley pulled out a wand, hands shaking. “Let me out of here.”

The Ravenclaws howled with laughter, bringing their wands out too.

“What do you think you’re gonna do?” One of the bigger boys asked. “Cast a Cheering Charm on us?”

Fowley swallowed nervously, “I bet I know better spells than you do! My mum’s been teaching me magic since I was about three.”

“Ooh, going to use Mummy’s spells are you? Was Mummy a death eater? Was it her fault you’r-“

“That’s enough.” Harry said, stepping into the room and letting the door close behind him. The Ravenclaws spun around at this new threat, bunching together. Harry pushed past them so he could stand beside Fowley.

“Fowley said McGonagall’s okay with them being in here, so what’s it to you? It doesn’t hurt you if someone uses the guy’s bathroom. If it was a girl who was in here you wouldn’t attack them! For Ravenclaws you’re being complete idiots.”

The boy in front went pale in anger, making a stark contrast to his dark hair. “You say that again, Potter...”

“And what? You think you know so many spells as a third year? You know my name because of what I’ve done. I don’t even know your name, what does that tell you? It tells me that you’re nothing to worry about and you’d better get out of here before I decide to make you leave.”

The third year’s face contorted in fury. Harry thought he could see the boy’s jaws grinding together from where he stood.

“You’re going to pay for that comment, Potter. Obviously all that time you’ve spent with those Snakes is turning you into one.”

Harry rolled his eyes, “You know, that was more annoying two years ago. If you payed any attention, you would have noticed that the Slytherins all hate me- I did turn them all pink yesterday, you know. Do try to come up with an original insult.”

Harry was very aware that he was playing for time, and they were already close to a fight, surely somebody would turn up soon? Even another Slytherin would have been alright, as long as he wasn’t outnumbered three to one in a wand-fight.

“Then why the hell are you standing with him?”

“Because you have no bloody right to attack anyone somewhere they should be safe, you asshole.”

This seemed too much for the Ravenclaw and he drew his wand to cast a spell.

Harry thought quickly, he needed a spell which would hopefully scare the Ravenclaws away from a fight. He didn’t think he could keep up a battle on his own, and it was unlikely that Fowley would know any decent shielding spells yet.

“Expecto Patronum!” Prongs burst out from the tip of Harry’s wand and as he had hoped, charged towards the boys.

The three of them startled back a few steps. The boy closest to Harry decided to try his hand at a hex, which was aimed surprisingly well towards the Slytherin. Harry was so focussed on maintaining the Patronus, that he couldn’t cast the counter. One look at Fowley told him that the child didn’t know what to do either. Harry was already pushing Fowley out of the way when Prongs leapt to the side and swallowed the curse whole. The stag then lowered his head, pawed at the tiled floor, and charged.

The three boys didn’t waste any time and ran for it, pushing each other to be the first through the door before the stag could reach them. As the last Ravenclaw stumbled out, Prongs exploded into a fine silver mist, fading fast.

Harry looked down at Fowley who was lying on the floor- where Harry had pushed them. If anything the kid was crying more now.

Harry was suddenly worried in case the bullies had hurt Fowley before Harry had got there, or what if one of them had cast a spell without him noticing? What if Harry had hurt Fowley most when they were knocked over?

“Are you hurt? Can I help-?”

The door opened again and Snape appeared in the doorway. His first impression was of Harry standing over the younger student with his wand still drawn. The second thing he noticed was the child sobbing.

“Potter.” Snape growled.

In an instant, Snape had disarmed Harry and with quick strides was beside the teenager, grabbing him tightly by the arm.

Harry was speechless, totally baffled about where to begin. His mind was still reeling from the confrontation with the Ravenclaws, he couldn’t process what Snape being here meant.

“Sir-“

“Potter, get out. I don’t want to listen to you now.”

“But-“

“Out!”

Snape pushed him towards the door and Harry hurried out.

Once the door closed behind him, Harry didn’t know what to do. Snape had made it clear that he didn’t want to see him, and at some point the man would want to leave the bathroom. Harry thought about waiting just around one of the corners, in case the man needed help in getting Fowley somewhere. Then he remembered that the Ravenclaw students would be nearby and it would be unwise to run into them again so soon. Especially not while Snape still had his wand.

That left the Potions Classroom, which would probably be filled with startled second years; waiting outside Snape’s office, where he was highly likely to run into Slytherin students in his year; or the room where he had been sleeping.

Suddenly he was very aware of why he had headed to the bathroom in the first place and decided it would probably be best to go to his own room (and its adjoining bathroom). Snape would be able to find him whenever he wanted anyway, and if the man really didn’t want to see him, then Harry would be far enough out of the way to avoid his teacher’s wrath.

There were shuffling noises in the room behind him and Harry hastened away, deeper into the dungeons.