Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

D Is For Defence, Deception, And Drama
Harry was surprised to find most of Gryffindor tower sitting in the common room the next morning when he and Ron went downstairs with the other boys from their dorm, and even more surprised to find that they seemed to be waiting for him.

"What's this about the new Defense professor Potter?" a seventh year Prefect named Dillon asked. All eyes were on Harry, and he paused in the stairwell, causing Seamus to grouch behind him about him blocking the rest of them from getting out. Harry moved aside and Seamus brushed past him and into the crowd.

"What were you told?" Harry asked.

Dillon crossed his arms and said, "Neville said you were told by McGonagall not to cause any trouble in Defense. What's that got to do with the rest of us?"

"Professor McGonagall told me to pass the info along to everyone. We're not being taught practical defense this year and she doesn't want us to make a stink about it to the new Defense Professor."

"Why aren't we being taught practical defense?" a sixth year girl Harry couldn't remember the name of asked.

"I don't know," Harry lied. "We're getting a new Defense book that teaches the theory of defense." There were murmurs around the room about You-Know-Who, ‘the tournament' and Cedric, but no one said anything directly to Harry about it.

"Why'd she tell you?" Dean asked from beside him.

"I didn't get to take the train to school. I was here before the rest of you. She said we'd get detention if we caused any issues with the new Professor and told me to tell you so we could stay out of trouble."

"Or so you could stay out of trouble more like," Seamus said from somewhere, though Harry had lost sight of him now. There were a few murmurs of agreement though.

"Yeah, I'd prefer not to spend the week in detention," Harry said. "Look," he could feel that Ron was tense beside him and knew Hermione would be too even though he couldn't see her at the moment. "We can learn something from the books we're given. Just study and don't fight the new teacher on it and it'll be fine."

Dillon broke up the impromptu house meeting and told the younger kids to get to class. Hermione made her way over to he and Ron and Neville so they could walk down to breakfast together.

"You don't mean what you said," Ron said, looking as grouchy as Seamus had been acting since the day before. Harry hoped the whole day wouldn't be like this and wished McGonagall hadn't asked him to spread the word. He could tell some students didn't believe him or were skeptical that McGonagall had said anything to him at all about it since he wasn't a Prefect. "We can't be expected to learn to defend ourselves against You-Know-Who if we're not being taught any spells this year."

Neville nodded in agreement. "Learning some new shields would be nice."

"That's what's in the defense books we were supposed to use," Hermione said. "We can still learn what we need to in our free time."

"Just- keep your head down," Harry grumbled as they left the tower and went out into the corridor. He had enough to deal with already between Snape and Umbridge and didn't want his friends to get in trouble. If they did he'd have to stick up for them, because they always did that for him. Then he'd dig himself a deep hole he'd never get out of, because that was how things usually went for him.

McGonagall came down the table midway through breakfast handing out schedules, and she stopped several times before she got to Harry to answer questions students had. When she finally came to him she gave him an appreciative look and said, "Well Mr. Potter, I see you did as I asked."

"Everyone knows," Hermione said without looking up as she took a sip of her orange juice, "even Slytherin."

"Not sure anybody believed us though," Ron said.

"Judging by how many people asked me and the other heads of house about it this morning and last night after the feast, I would say you were believed. I didn't expect you to pass it around to the entire school."

Harry looked up at her and gave her a sorry look but she only smiled. "Carry on," she said, leaving them with their schedules and moving further down the table.

"Damn," Ron said, bringing Harry's attention back to him. He was looking down at his schedule. "Why does the first day have to be the worst?"

Harry looked down at his own schedule and sighed. Defense, followed by double Potions. At least they had Care of Magical Creatures after that, where Harry knew he wouldn't be yelled at and put down or be in fear of getting detention.

"Care of Magical Creatures will be nice to end the day with," Harry commented, and didn't say anything else, aware that other students were listening to their conversation. Snape would be pissed if he found out Harry was complaining about potions, and he was still too wary of Umbridge to say anything in public about Defense aside from what he'd had to say about it that morning.

Harry and his friends dragged their feet after breakfast getting up to Defense Against The Dark Arts that morning to the point where Hermione began rushing them because they were running late. As a result of being so slow there was only one table left for them right next to the table Draco was sharing with Goyle. Hermione had to sit next to Neville up in the front of class as that was the only other open seat.

Harry wasn't really sure what to expect of that first Defense class with Professor Umbridge. The previous year the fake Moody had yelled at them, thrown chalk at them, and done a decent (if not deceptive) job of preparing them for any future battles they might find themselves in. Harry found it odd that a man so intent on kidnapping him and delivering him to Voldemort had been so helpful, but didn't have time to dwell on it now as Umbridge, dressed all in pink with a gray cat brooch stood at the front of the room and gave them all a sickeningly sweet smile.

"Welcome to Defense Against The Dark Arts, I'm so happy you were all on time today and look so eager to learn. My name is Delores Umbridge and I'm so excited to teach you all." She gave a little girlish laugh at the end that made Ron gag quietly beside Harry as he slouched down in his seat.

"Will everyone please take out their defense books and pass them forward? This year the Ministry of Magic has decided to donate brand new books to every Defense student to ensure only the highest quality of learning."

Many eyes in the classroom flickered to Harry, including from the Slytherin side of the room, but he ignored them and pulled out his defense book before passing it forward to Lavender Brown who was at the table in front of him. When the books had made their way up to the front of the room, Umbridge levitated stacks of the new ‘Ministry' defense books to the tables at the front and instructed students to pass them back one at a time until everyone had one.

The new book was plain gray, called ‘The Absolute Theory Of Defense', and had no author listed, only that it had been issued by the Ministry Of Magic.

"The theory of Defense is so important," she said, "wouldn't you agree?" She was looking at Harry when she asked the question, but he only held her gaze, trying to keep his face impassive, and didn't respond.

"Maam?" Teddy Knott asked from the other side of the room. His hand was raised, and she turned to him, a smile still on her face.

"Yes? What is your name dear?"

"Theodore Knott."

"Yes Mr. Knott?"

"Will we be getting our other Defense texts back at the end of the year?"

"Whyever would you need them?" she asked with a little giggle. It seemed like a harmless question, but Harry's muscles were tight like he was ready to go into battle. Shut up, just shut up, he pleaded silently to himself, hoping Teddy wouldn't start something. He didn't care about the Slytherin boy at all, but several of the Slytherins were still shooting him glances as if they expected him to say something to her.

"It's just, my parents paid for it," he said. "I thought the Ministry would like these back at the end of the year for next year's class, and my parents will ask where my other book is when I go home without it."

"I'm afraid all of these will be getting returned to fund your new books," she said. "You may keep your theory book and take that home with you. I shall write you a note home if you're dreadfully worried about it." She gave him another little smile and turned towards Harry again.

"Is there anything else?" she asked the class. Stop looking at me, Harry pleaded silently again to the class. It was like they were egging him on to say anything at all and she was ready for it. "Did you have something you wanted to say about it?" she asked Seamus instead. For the first time in several minutes Harry became aware that Seamus looked irritated and angry again. He must not have slept to be grouching at everyone as he had been, and he hoped he just kept his mouth closed and didn't end up in detention.

"Harry has something to say about it, isn't that right Harry?"

Harry's face paled. Seamus hadn't even turned back to look at him when he'd said it. What was he playing at?

"What were you saying in the common room this morning?" Seamus said, still not turning back to look at him.

Umbridge looked delighted and turned to Harry again. Harry squirmed and sat up in his seat. He could feel the tenseness radiating off of Ron next to him. It was like Ron's muscles had strained so much he'd moved beyond shaking and had frozen completely, locked in place.

"Yes?" Umbridge asked.

Calm, calm, don't be stupid. Harry looked down at his desk, going back to old habits as years spent living under the iron rule of his uncle had taught him to do. It was best not to look adults in the eye when they were angry. Umbridge wasn't angry, or at least if she was he couldn't tell with the smile she wore. Delighted certainly, expectant even, but he couldn't tell beyond that. "We have a lot of things we can learn from this book," he said quietly. Snape's words from a few weeks ago had come back to him in that moment, that it would be best if he kept his mouth shut around her. He couldn't though when he'd been put on the spot like this.

"Yes," Umbridge said, "we certainly do. Could you tell me please Mr. Potter, what brought about this conversation in the common room this morning?"

Harry didn't look up from his desk. "I heard we might be getting new books. Some people asked about it this morning, and I told them we could learn from these books."

"That's not what you said," Seamus said from up front, finally turning to look at Harry. He looked angry. "You said not to fight her."

"That is what he said," Hermione said from the front of the room. Harry could tell she was fuming. "He said we could learn from the books we're being given and not to fuss about it."

"There will be no arguing in my classroom," Umbridge said in a singsong voice to Hermione and Seamus. When she was sure they would be quiet she turned back to Harry. "Why would anyone fight me Mr. Potter?"

He was looking up at her now, mouth dry, completely at a loss for what to say. Ron nudged him under the table with his foot and Harry's mind whirred into motion again. He looked back down at the table. "I just wanted them to be respectful to you." It wasn't a lie exactly, but it wasn't the truth either. "We've had a bad run of Defense teachers in the past. Everyone was wary about getting another new one. When I saw they were upset, I didn't want them to give you a hard time this morning."

Ron was holding his breath beside him, and when no one said anything, Harry looked up. Umbridge looked, shocked, and then her face morphed and her eyes narrowed a little at Harry until she looked as though she was impressed. She hadn't bought a word of what he'd said, but couldn't find fault with what he'd said. To anyone not clued in, Harry would have seemed like a concerned student who wanted to give the new professor a fair chance.

"Well said Mr. Potter," she said. She turned from him and tapped the blackboard with her wand. "Everyone open to page one. Mr. Knott, would you read from page one please? We have a lot to dive into today."

When class was over, Harry tried to will his muscles to relax, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the day wasn't over yet and that something was bound to happen to him. The class was silent as they filed out and no one spoke to him or to each other about the new books or the new teacher. It wasn't until they were all the way down into the dungeons before Draco came up beside Harry and said, "That was so... Slytherin Potter. I never imagined you were that manipulative."

He passed him by and Hermione said, "Ignore him."

Harry felt sick though, whether it was from the tension in Defense class or the truth to what Draco had said. Snape had said Harry was terrible at manipulation at the start of the summer, and Umbridge really hadn't appeared to buy the line Harry had tried to sell her. But Draco approved, and that alone was enough to make him sick, even if Draco hadn't bought it either. More than that though, Harry felt sick at the way Seamus had called him out in class like that. Why had he done that? He supposed he wouldn't be able to ask him until classes were over for the day and they were back in the dorms.

As they entered the potions classroom Ron asked Harry quietly, "How's this gonna go?"

"I dunno," he said.

"Potter, up front," Snape said sharply as Harry and Ron turned to go to their usual seats at the back of class.

"That answer it for you?" Harry asked quietly. Ron held in a groan and went with Harry to the front of the class. Hermione took up a seat at the workbench right behind them, and Snape seemed content to ignore Harry after that.

"Do you have to be up front every class?" Ron asked quietly.

"You can sit with Hermione if you want," Harry said, though he really hoped Ron wouldn't abandon him like that.

Ron turned and saw that Neville was sitting with Hermione though, and the only open seat available was way at the back with Lavender. "Nah," he said, "I'll have to take my chances up here."

When the class was finally seated and settled, Snape said from the front of the room, "You are all in this class for one reason this year: to pass your OWLs. You will all be passing your OWLs or I will be very displeased," he said, voice lowered to a threatening tone. "Only those who receive an Outstanding on their Potions OWL will be accepted into my NEWT potions class next year. Keep that in mind should you find yourself wanting to get a job after Hogwarts that requires NEWT level potions."

He tapped his wand to the blackboard and a list of potions appeared there. He tapped his wand again on the other end of the blackboard and another list of potions appeared.

"The first list has all the potions from previous years that you must have mastered as you will be tested at random on three of them. The examiners will provide the ingredients you need, but will not give you a recipe or tell you which ingredients to use. Each passing potion of the three assigned to you will earn you ten points. Anyone hoping to earn an O on their potions OWL must pass all three of these potions."

He turned and pointed to the second list. "This list has 5th year potions. We will be learning to brew all of these this year. The OWL examiners will assign you one of these at random and will give you the ingredients you need as well as a recipe. Brewing this potion correctly will earn you 30 points. If you are struggling to brew any of these potions this year, you will need to seek out tutoring from a peer that has that potion down. This classroom will be open on Saturdays from 9-11 am for the rest of the year for any 5th through 7th year students that need practice. I will not be tutoring on Saturdays, but will be here to supervise for the two hours the lab is open."

Snape went to his desk and picked up a stack of parchment and handed it to Milicent Bulstrode, who got up and passed them out to the class. "On the parchment are both lists of potions that are on the board, as well as all concepts that will be on the written portion of the potions OWL. The written portion is worth 40 points. Note that most of these concepts are things you should have already mastered in the first four years of Potions class. The rest you will learn this year. In February there will be a practice written potions OWL that you will all take on a Saturday. The practice exam will help you spend the last few months of the school year focusing on concepts you are struggling with. Are there any questions?"

Hermione predictably had a dozen questions, and the rest of the class, knowing how studious Hermione was let her ask them and took notes. Harry wasn't interested in the timetables Hermione wanted to know about, or how many questions were on the written exam, so he instead let his eyes scan down the long list of potions and concepts on the parchment he'd been given.

With the exception of just a few potions from first through fourth year, he felt confident he could brew all of these as he'd had to brew many that summer or after they'd returned to Hogwarts for the Hospital Wing. He could brew bruise balm and pepperup potion in his sleep now.

The second list, the list of potions they'd be brewing that year, were all potions he hadn't brewed yet, though he recognized the names of most of them. Some of them he had notes about already from his time talking to Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing, and others were in his apprenticeship books or had been mentioned in the reading he'd been doing about ingredients.

The list of concepts they'd need to know was long, but Harry mentally crossed twenty off the list right away as they were things he'd been going over all summer long already. There were another ten he thought he'd do well on without studying but wanted to double check to be sure, and ten more concepts he figured they'd be learning this year.

After all the studying he'd done already for his apprenticeship, Harry felt like the things on the list he still had to learn for his OWLs would be nothing to worry about.

"This is going to be awful," Ron said beside him, sounding miserable.

"Shh," Hermione said, "I'm trying to take notes."

Draco was asking questions about the OWLs now and Hermione was trying to copy down Snape's answer word for word.

"It's not so bad," Harry said quietly to Ron. "I can help you."

Ron snorted.

"Really," Harry said, "I got this."

His friend frowned at him for a moment before giving a nod. "Yeah, ok. It'd be wicked if I got an O for once. Mum'd be over the moon."

"SHH," Hermione said more forcefully this time. Harry ducked his head with a grin and Ron sniggered. Snape heard them, and ignored them, and Harry could only wonder at it.

After class was over, Hermione looked stressed and babbled on about having to make a timetable for studying for the rest of the year.

"Forget it," Ron said. "Harry's got us covered."

"He can't take the test for you Ron," she said, exasperated. "Even if he's helping you, you'll still have to take the time to study."

"Yeah, but Harry's on the inside. He'll know how to do it best."

"She's right though," Harry said. "I'm only ahead because I spent hours every day studying in the summer, and brewing. Did you look at the list yet? You need to check off all the ones you know you can brew in your sleep, and then you're going to have to practice brewing the rest on Saturdays." Harry was positive Snape would demand he spend every Saturday brewing, and was hoping Ron and Hermione would be right there with him.

"What do you mean the ones I can brew in my sleep?" Ron asked. "You can brew some of them without having to look at a recipe?"

"I can," Hermione said.

"I know you can," Ron snapped, suddenly sounding a little stressed like Hermione and a lot of the others in class were. "But you can Harry?"

Harry handed his list over to Ron. He'd checked off everything he felt like he didn't need to review or study.

"That's almost every potion on the first list!" Ron said, voice cracking.

"I told you, he made me re-brew everything I failed from the last four years, and then I had to brew a bunch of potions for the Hospital Wing. A lot of the ones on the first list only have four or five ingredients."

"Yeah but we have to memorize them all and how much and in what order and how long to brew and-" he stopped when he ran out of breath and realized Hermione and Harry were both looking at him. "Yeah," he said, deflated. "Gonna have a lot of studying to do."

Hermione gave a nod, satisfied that Ron understood the importance of the timetables she was going to draw up, and then ignored he and Harry for the entire lunch hour as she sat and wrote things down in her calendar.

"You got this, Hermione's got this, but what about me?" Ron asked quietly so Hermione didn't ‘shh' him again.

"We can brew Saturdays. You and I can be at the same workbench and you can just brew and re-brew all the ones you need to memorize. It's not that hard."

"Something wrong with going to school on a Saturday," Ron mumbled, but it seemed he'd run out of steam.

"Will you help me too Harry?" Neville asked. He seemed to have been waiting for a break in his and Ron's conversation to ask.

"Yeah," Harry said. "No problem. Mark all the stuff on your list that you have down already and then let me see it tomorrow night. If you and Ron need help on the same ones we can study and brew those ones together."

"I didn't realize you were so good at potions," Neville said. He must have been following along with them since they were in class. "I thought you were getting average grades."

"Harry's-" Ron started, but closed his mouth.

"It's fine," Harry grumbled. "I'm a potions apprentice now."

Neville raised his brows.

"Snape's apprentice," Ron said.

"Oh no," Neville said quietly, horrified.

"Yeah," Ron snorted in agreement with him.

"I have to pass with an O or I'll be in big trouble," Harry said. "I've been studying potions all summer."

Neville shook his head wordlessly. "No," Neville said. "That's horrible."

"It is what it is," Harry said, aware anyone could be listening. He hated that he had to keep up appearances that everything was fine. It was for Snape's benefit, but he also had to appear to be the happy apprentice in front of Umbridge now after what he'd told her a few weeks before. He was good at pretending, but he wished he didn't have to.

* * *

Harry really needed the break that he got in Care of Magical Creatures that afternoon. He had two full hours to just be himself out on the grounds with Hagrid. They'd had Defense and double Potions that morning with the Slytherins, and still had double Care of Magical Creatures with them too, but at least Harry got to learn from Hagrid without the pressure of feeling as though he'd fail or be in trouble.

Ron was enjoying being outside as well, but Hermione had spent over an hour pestering Hagrid to answer her questions about OWLs. Finally he told her, "It's really not that hard Hermione. Just read yer book and do the homework and yeh'll be fine, see? It's a written test with a hundred questions. Shouldn' even take a smart witch like yeh an hour to finish."

All through dinner Hermione complained about Hagrid not even giving her an idea of where to focus her studies.

"I'm not worried about it," Ron told her.

"You should be. It'll be one of the easiest classes to get a passing OWL in. If you want to be an auror you'll need five above exceeds expectations, and one of them will have to be an O in potions because you need a passing NEWT in your seventh year in Potions to be an auror."

"How do you know all this?" Ron demanded, pointing at the table.

"Because when you and Harry said last year you wanted to be aurors I looked it up!"

Harry drank his pumpkin juice as he watched the two of them go back and forth. He was glad she'd looked it up for them, but he had no desire to watch them bicker for the rest of dinner, so he excused himself, and left the Great Hall. They didn't know where his study nook was in the library yet and he figured he could snag an hour of peace and quiet to do his Defense and Care of Magical Creatures homework if he hurried up to the library.

Harry wasn't the only one with the idea to get an early start on studying it seemed. There were several Ravenclaws and older students in other houses making their way to the library for the evening. One of them called out to Harry when he was almost there.

"Where are you going Potter?"

Harry stopped in the dimly lit corridor to see who had called out to him. It was an older Hufflepuff Harry didn't know.

"Library?" Harry said, wondering why he'd been asked. He threw his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the library.

"Yeah? Studying hard for OWLs, or are you going in there for something else? To meet up with Cedric's old girlfriend maybe?"

"Sorry?" Harry asked, not sure he understood. What did they mean Cedric's old girlfriend.

The boy pushed himself off the wall and came up to Harry so close they were almost touching. He was taller, and looking down at Harry he said, "I know you asked Cho Chang out to the Yule Ball last year. You liked her. That why you dragged Cedric to the graveyard and let him die there, isn't it. You knew He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was waiting there."

"I never- I didn't, I wouldn't," Harry stammered. He was so riled he couldn't even get words out.

"Right Potter," the boy spat. "Cedric was my friend. He was all of our friends. He was worth a thousand of you, and you put an end to him."

Harry shook his head, mouth hanging open.

The boy left him there in the hallway feeling helpless and alone. "You stink Potter!" the boy called out, not turning back to look at Harry. Hufflepuff and Slytherin had made it a point to wear badges throughout the tournament the year before that said ‘Potter Stinks'. He'd had to endure that for an entire school year, and while it had been annoying, maddening even, it hadn't bothered him as much as it did right now to hear it from the sixth year... to hear it from one of Cedric's friends.

Library and homework forgotten, Harry went back to his dorm and closed the curtains around himself. Ron came in twenty minutes later and called out to him, but he didn't answer. He just wanted to be left alone. He didn't want any of the other boys to see him cry.

Chapter End Notes:
Made a quick video walking into the nook. Here it is: https://youtu.be/QxTi-ZssDk4 Posted on the previous chapter's A/N as well.

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