Potions and Snitches
Snape and Harry Gen Fanfiction Archive

Author's Chapter Notes:
A/N: No limbs are lost in this chapter, though there’s a few moments where there’s talk of losing limbs and talk of soldiers losing limbs and phantom pain. There's also talk of burns. Just a fair warning for anyone who might be triggered by those things.
A Run Of Bad Luck
"It's cruel and unusual punishment," Ron grouched the day after Harry had been kicked off of the Quidditch team. They'd informed Angelina the night before, and then had an unscheduled Quidditch meeting at breakfast the next morning. Despite not being allowed to play, the team still considered Harry their Seeker, and wanted him to weigh in on his replacement for the rest of the year.

"Tell us again what happened?" George asked, leaning over his plate of pancakes.

"Umbridge happened," Ron grouched.

"And Harry saved your neck," Fred put in. "If he hadn't taken the fall you would have been kicked off the team too."

Ron opened his mouth to argue with his brothers but Angelina cut in. "The fact remains Harry can't play for the rest of the year and we need a new Seeker."

"Ginny plays," Fred put in. "She prefers Chaser but she's not half bad as Seeker."

"That's right," George said.

"I can play," Cormac said, puffing his chest up.

"Forget it," Angelina told him. "You're our backup player for anyone who can't finish a match, not to mention you're too big to play Seeker. Ginny would be small enough." She turned to Harry and said, "What do you think Harry?"

Harry nodded, wishing they weren't having this conversation at all. Quidditch was one of the few things he was good at, and he agreed with Ron that this was cruel and unusual punishment. "I'd like to see Ginny have the spot," Harry said. "But I'd like the spot back next year if I'm not banned from Quidditch then too."

"Don't forget Umbridge won't be here next year," Fred said. "The Defense position is cursed."

"Let's just focus on the rest of this year first," Angelina said. "Maybe Harry will get lucky and be unbanned before the end of the school year."

Harry had never felt particularly lucky or unlucky, but thought it would be nice to have a stroke of good luck when it came to getting his spot on the Quidditch team back. George left their little group at the far end of Gryffindor table and went down the table to get Ginny. She came back with him a minute later, and the switch up in Seekers was proposed to her.

"Are you ok with this Harry?" she asked him.

"If someone's going to have my spot it should be you," he said. Harry agreed with Fred and George. He'd seen Ginny play and she was pretty good. She probably would have already been on the team if there had been spots open for her to fill. Now there was one, and she should have it.

Her cheeks turned red and she took a seat with the team to work out the details.

"Harry," Ron said later that day as they made their way to Care of Magical Creatures, "since you're not playing right now, do you think I could use your broom?" He was biting his lip like he knew it was futile to ask.

"Take it," Harry said, feeling down about the whole situation. He wouldn't deny his friend a chance to use his Firebolt, not after all the items of clothing, school supplies and books Ron had lent to him over the years.

"Yes," Ron said happily. "I was worried you'd say you'd already promised it to Ginny."

"To Ginny..." Harry said with a frown. "Why would I do that?"

Ron raised his brows at him and Hermione sighed behind them as they made Hagrid's cabin. "Well, you just told the whole Quidditch team you'd rather she have your spot than anyone else."

"Because she deserves it," Harry said.

"Sure," Ron said with a grin, though Harry wasn't sure why he sounded like he didn't believe him.

Hermione looked as though she wanted to say something to Harry, but she sucked in a deep breath instead when she caught sight of what was waiting for them out in front of Hagrid's cabin. Hagrid was with a gleaming white pegasus. The creature pawed at the ground and shook out its long mane, white hair sparkling in the late autumn sunlight.

"Hagrid, he's gorgeous!" she said, hurrying over. As more girls made it down from the castle, they all crowded around Hagrid and the winged horse. Harry for his part thought the creature was handsome, but none of the boys were willing to crowd around it to gush about how pretty it was like the girls were.

"Aren't pegasuses supposed to be good luck?" Ron asked.

"Very good Ron," Hagrid boomed from where he'd just extricated himself from the crowd of Gryfifndor and Slytherin 5th year girls. "Just ter see one is supposed ter bring good luck fer an entire year."

Ron nudged Harry. "Look at the pegasus," Ron urged him, "make your luck change."

Harry gave him a doubtful look. "To do that I'd have to get rid of Umbridge and Snape or get hold of a time turner."

"Isn't there a potion for luck?" Ron asked. "My aunt won a single sip of a potion like that in a dueling tournament once and won a hundred galleons the moment after she had a sip."

Harry mumbled and Ron said, "What was that?"

"I'll have to look it up," he said. He'd have to ask Snape and he wasn't too keen on doing that. He was still embarrassed about trying to shield his face from the man the night before. Whether he wanted to see him or not, Harry was going to have to see Snape for the next four nights since he was supposed to be having detention with the man.

After their double class with Hagrid they went up to the castle for dinner, but Harry found Umbridge waiting for him in the Entrance Hall. "Your bag if you would please Mr. Potter."

Harry gave his friends a worried look and handed his bag over to her. He didn't have anything with him to worry about, but it was odd for her to be searching him again the day after she'd found the copied book pages.

Satisfied that Harry didn't have any contraband after looking through it for a few moments, she handed his bag back to him and went into the Great Hall without a word.

Hoping to get Harry's mind off of Umbridge and his loss of Quidditch privileges, Hermione asked, "Are we studying tonight after your detention? There's a test in Transfiguration tomorrow and it's a good opportunity to review some of the things on the OWL list as well."

"Sure," Harry said, resisting the urge to glare up at the head table at the toad faced woman dressed all in pink.

It appeared Umbridge wasn't quite done with him that day though. After he was done with his detention with Snape at seven, Umbridge caught up with him somewhere in the Charms corridor and trailed him up to the library and to the potions nook. Harry and his friends had just had a seat and began to pull out their Transfiguration notes when Umbridge and Filch appeared around the corner.

"Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, if you'd please stand up and leave your things there."

"Maam?" Ron asked.

"Now Mr. Weasley. This need only take a few minutes."

Sharing a look again as they had earlier when she'd searched Harry's bag, they stood up and left the nook, standing just outside. Filch and Umbridge went in and began lifting up the cream colored cushions from the benches, and checking the bookshelves for any books that weren't potions related. Finally Umbridge used her wand to accio any loose papers to her, but the only papers that came to her were pages willed with Transfiguration notes from the table. She rifled through them for a few moments before setting them back down.

"I'm so thankful to see you're not hiding contraband here," she said directly to Harry. She seemed to have zeroed in on him now and had no interest in Ron or Hermione like she had the night before. "If I had found something here I would have had to ban you from the library, and that would be a dreadful thing to have to do during an OWL year."

"I don't have anything to hide though," Harry said.

"Good," she said. "It's my goal to ensure it stays that way." She tilted her head, gave him a little smile and then she and Filch left, striding off through the potions stacks.

Harry was ready to leave his bag and books there and just go back to the dorms, done with her and with the library altogether, but Hermione put her hand on his wrist to stop him. "Don't," she said. "This is our spot. You have every right to be here."


He took in a deep breath, closed his eyes and held it, and then let it go. All thoughts of playing the game he had been with her for the last few weeks had vanished. He felt like he was playing defense right now and couldn't go on the offensive. He couldn't put on a fake smile and pretend he respected her when she'd stolen Quidditch and the right to learn defense from him.

They sat down in the nook again and Ron said, "So what's the plan?"

Harry pointed at Hermione's transfiguration notes. "Study."

"I mean-"

"There's no plan Ron," Harry said shortly. Then he sent Ron an apologetic look and rubbed his forehead. "Can we just study tonight so I can pass the Transfiguration test tomorrow?"

They studied until it was almost curfew and Harry was glad for it the next day when he took his Transfiguration test and felt like he'd done well on it.

After dinner Thursday Ginny asked him if he was going to come to the Quidditch Pitch to see her first practice, and he agreed. Hermione went with him, though when they got there and sat up in the Gryffindor stands, Harry was dismayed to find Umbridge sitting in the Gryffindor stands with them.

"Harry," Hermione said, touching his wrist. She nodded her head sideways a little and Harry leaned around her and looked. Umbridge was watching them and gave a little smile and waved as though Harry would be happy to see her.

"Ugh," Harry groaned and forced his eyes back to the practice, where Ginny was chasing after the Snitch and Ron had just failed to stop the Quaffle from going through the top ring.

"This isn't fair," he said.

"No, it's not," Hermione agreed.

Harry was only able to stay for half an hour because he had detention with Snape, so Hermione went back to the castle with him, Umbridge not far behind them. Harry wasn't sure why Umbridge had followed them out to the Pitch, and hoped it was just because she was wanting some fresh air and was curious about what a Quidditch practice looked like. His luck wasn't that good though. She followed him down into the dungeons and to the door of the potions classroom.

"Erm, is there something I can help you with?" Harry asked as he turned and found her right behind him.

"Just ensuring you end up where you're supposed to be," she said with a smile. "It's so important that you learn your lesson and do all the detentions assigned to you. Shouldn't you be meeting Professor Snape at his office?"

In answer to her question the classroom door swung open and Snape snapped, "In Potter, before you're late! Gather all the supplies to scrub cauldrons and go to potions classroom A. There was an incident in the first year potions class today."

Harry went around him into the room and over to the cleaning cupboard inside where mops, buckets, and scrub brushes were kept so students could clean up messes they made or clean out their cauldrons. As he was gathering supplies Snape turned to Umbridge and said, "Good evening. Is there something you needed from me?"

"Oh no Severus, I think you're doing a wonderful job. I just came to ensure Harry made it to detention on time."

He turned and looked at Harry, a sneer on his face, lip curled, and then turned back to Umbridge. "He knows better than to be late to one of my detentions."

"Yes of course, I've heard what a wonderful disciplinarian you are from Minerva."

Harry came over to them with a wooden bucket, two scrub brushes, several rags and a bottle of cleaning liquid that was approved for cleaning up tough potions spills and waited patiently.

"Get on with it Potter," Snape snapped. "Classroom A is unlocked."

"Yes sir." He moved past them and out of sight down the corridor and around the corner. Harry hoped they wouldn't stand there and talk bad about him all night while he was scrubbing cauldrons.

He went into classroom A and emptied his bucket before filling it with water. He had just turned to search out the mess he was supposed to be cleaning up when Snape came in and shut the door, warding it behind him.

"Put that away," he snapped, and Harry frowned.

"There is no mess Potter. You've spent the last two detentions reading and should know better."

"Oh," he said, feeling foolish. He dumped the bucket of water out and looked around the classroom the first and second years usually used, deciding to take a seat by the door. He didn't have a defense book to read, or his apprentice texts. Snape didn't seem to have anything to keep himself occupied either, and Harry was surprised the man wasn't angry with him yet for making him waste time having to come and ‘supervise detention' for five nights.

"Where are you in your apprentice texts?" Snape asked a moment later, bringing Harry's attention back to him.

"Erm... do you mean what chapter in each?"

"Yes. What are you studying right now? What are you having difficulty understanding?"

Harry frowned, wishing he had his text books and notes in front of him. "I don't really have my stuff with me to answer that."

"What do you need?"

"My apprentice books are all in my potions trunk and some of my notes are in my backpack in the other classroom," he said.

Snape called for a house elf and a tiny elf named Tinky appeared.

"Please retrieve the five apprentice textbooks from the small black trunk in the fifth year Gryffindor boy's dormitory," he said, and the elf nodded and disappeared with a loud pop.

"Stay here Potter," Snape said, and left the classroom, locking the door behind him and locking Harry in. For once Harry didn't mind being locked in because it meant Umbridge was locked out while Snape was gone. The elf reappeared and set the apprentice books on Snape's desk.

"Is this all Master Snape is wantings?" the little elf asked.

"I think so, thank you," Harry said. She gave Harry a smile and apparated away. Harry took the books from the teacher's desk and went back to the student table he'd been sitting at. Snape came back a minute later with his bag, and surprised Harry by pulling a stool around to the other side of the student table so he could sit facing him.

Feeling awkward, Harry pulled his notes out along with his note cards on the 27 classes of potions and opened up each of the apprentice textbooks to where he'd last left off reading.

Snape observed where he was in each and then asked, "What is on the notecards?"

Harry pushed them across the table and said, "The 27 classes of potions. I have most of the classes memorized but not all of them yet. I figured after I memorized the classes I could add more details to the back of each card on potions bases."

"How many of them do you have memorized?" Snape asked.

"About 20."

"I will test you now to see," he said. Snape shuffled the note cards and then looked at the one on top. "Class 6 potions," he said.

"Chimaeric," Harry answered.

"Explain to me what you remember about Chimaeric potions."

Harry took a breath and let it out slowly. He'd just started to learn about them the week before.

"Chimaeric potions are two or more potions with different bases. Each base has their own properties, and then when you mix two potions with a chimaeric base together you get a chimaeric potion."

"Give me an example."

"An ice base potion mixed with a fire base potion."

"And the purpose of such a potion?"

Harry scratched the back of his neck. "I haven't read all of that chapter yet."

Snape set the card down.

"Class three," he said.

"Core diminishing potions," Harry said. "There's only one base for this class of potions, but there's seven known potions in class three. Four of them are medical potions to diminish a person's core if they've overdosed on a core strengthening potion or have had something go wrong that's made their core so full it could harm them. The other two potions are weapons."

Snape was about to turn the card over and move on to the next when he paused and looked up at Harry. "Weapons Potter?"

"Well, they could be used as weapons. One is a poison that diminishes a person's core so much it turns in on itself and sucks the person's soul out... like a Dementor. The other one takes a person's core all the way down to zero, basically making them a squib."

"Do not let anyone from the Ministry hear you talking of weaponizing potions. Umbridge would have aurors here to haul you off to the Ministry for questioning so fast you wouldn't have a chance to say goodbye to your friends."

Harry frowned. There were lots of books in the library about weaponized potions. Everything from tipping arrows with poison to potions that exploded and potions that tricked people into thinking they were someone they weren't.

"Yes sir." He didn't understand it, but he did understand that he didn't want to mess with Umbridge anymore at the moment.

"It is not illegal to weaponize potions," Snape said. "The Ministry has an entire department dedicated to potion experimentation to find new potions that can help aurors or catch criminals. However, with your current situation in the eyes of the Ministry and with Umbridge, it would be unwise for you to mention potions as weapons or as a tool for anything other than completing your apprenticeship at present. The last thing you need is for the Ministry to believe you're trying to find potions to use against the Minister of Magic."

"They wouldn't know if an owl landed on their head with poison claws," Harry mumbled, thinking about what Neville's gran often told her grandson.

"What was that?" Snape asked.

"I won't mention it again sir."

"See that you do not."

They made it through all 27 cards by the end of Harry's detention, though Harry had only managed to remember 17 of the classes.

"Bring your notes and apprentice books back tomorrow," Snape told him, and Harry nodded. Umbridge was waiting for him in the Entrance Hall, and though she didn't follow him, her creepy smile stayed with him all the way up to Gryffindor tower.

* * *

Harry had had enough of Umbridge and of Snape both by the time Saturday rolled around, and decided not to go to the Potions lab with his friends. Hermione agreed to help Ron and Neville that day instead and Harry hung back in the dorms. If he stayed in the dorms Umbridge wouldn't be able to check his backpack or follow him around. She had checked his bag two more times that week and followed him once more to the Quidditch Pitch, where she informed him that she wanted to be sure he wasn't flying when he wasn't allowed to.

"Ron has my broom maam. He's using it now since I can't play."

"I see," she had said. "I think I'll just place a spell on the school brooms then to ensure you can't use any of them, just to be safe. I know you have a penchant for skirting around rules and getting yourself into trouble. I'd hate to have to assign you even more detentions Mr. Potter."

She acted as though she was doing Harry a favor, and he hated her for it like he hated uncle Vernon for shipping him off to Snape. Harry wished he had someone, anyone at all to be on his side and to step in and tell Umbridge, or the Headmaster, or even the Ministry that what was happening to Harry was unfair. His mind flitted to aunt Petunia and how she always stuck up for Dudley. He wanted that. He wanted her to stick up for him... to send a howler to the Headmaster and berate him for letting Umbridge take Quidditch away from him, or to owl the Ministry about Harry's right to learn defense... or even just to stand up to uncle Vernon when he wanted to sign Harry's life away to Snape, or to push Harry around.

"Mr. Potter?" Umbridge had been calling him back to reality.

He had let his eyes flit up to her but then let them fall to the ground again, a knot in his gut. Aunt Petunia would never save him from any of the injustices that were happening. She hadn't yet and wouldn't now.

"Hm," she had said, lips pursed. She must have thought Harry looked contrite, or that warding the school brooms against Harry's use would be good enough, because she moved off and left him alone in the Pitch, and didn't follow him out there again after that.

* * *

Sunday morning Harry went out to the Pitch with Ron and Ginny. Hermione was busy studying and hadn't wanted to join him, but Neville had agreed to come along. "I want to get out a bit more before the weather turns," he said. It was the 12th of October and most of the leaves had fallen off the trees now due to a wicked wind that had kicked up the day before. It had rained a few times, but despite being chilly, this day held sunny skies.

"Yeah, be too cold to come out in a few weeks," Harry said. He was used to trying to stay in the castle as much as possible once it began to snow because he usually didn't have a good coat or gloves, but this year he had the Gryffindor scarf and hat, which he was wearing this morning. He also had a deep crimson pair of fabric gloves that were keeping his hands toasty warm as he sat with Neville and watched the Gryffindor players swoop and dive.

"Think they've got a chance against Slytherin later this month?" Neville asked.

Harry shrugged. Ginny was doing great, but Ron still needed a lot of work. Harry would have jumped at the chance to spend evenings helping him, but Umbridge had gone as far as to ward his Firebolt against Harry's use for the time being to ensure only Ron was using it as Harry had said.

"I'm halfway through my list in potions now," Neville said proudly. "I still need help with the concepts list though. I don't understand most of it. No offense to Hermione or anything, but she seems to get angry with me when I don't understand. I'd appreciate your help with it."

"Sure," Harry said. "I'm studying potions all the time anyway. Now that I'm reading the apprenticeship books all the concepts I struggled with before seem easy now."

"Don't tell my gran that," Neville begged him. "If you tell her that she'll sign me up for a potions apprenticeship too."

Harry laughed. "Can you imagine if Snape took both of us on together?"

"Take it back," Neville urged him. "Don't even think it."

"Actually," Harry said, "if it wasn't for me having to be apprenticed to Snape, learning potions hasn't been all that bad. I don't really enjoy the brewing part of it, or the studying, but I spent a lot of time collecting ingredients this summer and that part was kind of fun. We went all over the moores and forests this summer collecting mushrooms and plants like aconite."

Neville thought about it for a moment and said, "So you spent the summer doing herbology work?"

Harry hadn't thought of it like that before. "I guess," he said. "I learned a lot about everything we were collecting. I guess herbology and potions are pretty closely related."

"Has your grade in Herbology gone up since you started the apprenticeship?"

"Yeah actually, it has. Not by much, I mean, I was already passing Herbology, but last year I ended the year with an A and right now I have an E."

"I love herbology," Neville said, and Harry didn't tell him that he already knew. Neville could spend hours talking about herbology with enthusiasm, not noticing that no one else in the room was interested, though Hermione was always polite enough to act like she was. "It's the only class I always get an O in."

"Maybe this is your year to get an O in potions," Harry told him. It was certainly Harry's year to get an O in the class. Just last week his grade had moved up from an E to an O, which he felt very impressed with himself for since Snape seemed to be holding him to a higher standard than the rest of the class. Snape was continuing to make Harry brew potions they were trying to master without a recipe and by giving him the wrong ingredients, or wrong amount of ingredients. Sometimes he tripped Harry up, but Harry was getting good at converting the wrong potions ingredients into what he needed.

"If you help me get an O in potions gran will come to the school and kiss you."

"Neville," Harry said, giving him an unenthused look, and then they both laughed. Then someone screamed, and Harry's attention was drawn to the field where Angelina and Ginny were both racing towards Ron as he hurtled towards the ground on Harry's broom. Harry leapt to his feet and he and Neville raced down the stairs towards the ground.

The Pitch was big, and by the time they got to the far end where Ron had been goal keeping, the entire team was crowded around him.

"What happened?" Harry asked.

"Bludger caught him in the head," Fred said, moving aside so Harry could see. Fred looked worried which was something Harry wasn't used to seeing from either one of the twins. Harry's eyes moved down to Ron who had blood coming from a gash on his temple. He wasn't sure if it was from the Bludger hitting him or from him hitting the ground.

"I caught him by his sleeve just a few feet above the ground," Ginny said. "He still hit the ground pretty hard though."

"Let's get him up to the castle," George said. He was already kneeling down by his brother and Harry knelt down with him to pick him up. Neville grabbed Harry's Firebolt since Harry couldn't even touch it now, and Fred and Cormac grabbed Ron's legs. The four of them carried Ron like this for about ten feet before Fred suggested a charm to lighten the load and Angelina cast one for them.

"I'm going to fly ahead to the castle to get Madam Pomfrey," she said, and left them there to carry Ron awkwardly up to the castle.

"I'm going to learn that charm to conjure a stretcher first change I get," George said, shifting Ron to get a better grip on his shoulders and almost dropping him.

"Wait," Harry said, "let me take his shoulders. You lift up under his back."

Ron was still unconscious twenty minutes later as they made the front steps of the castle. Madam Pomfrey and Professor Flitwick were there waiting for them, and had the boys lower Ron to the ground so Flitwick could conjure a stretcher and then hover Ron the rest of the way up to the Hospital Wing.

Harry, Neville, and the rest of the team followed them up to the Hospital Wing, but most of them were told to go back to their dorms so Madam Pomfrey could work on Ron. Only his siblings and Harry were allowed to stay provided they stay out of her way while she worked.

"Get the bruise balm Harry," she instructed, "and a class one swelling potion. It's the red one, yes."

Harry brought the potions he'd helped brew before school started over to her and set them on the tray next to the bed Ron had been settled on top of. She made Fred, George and Ginny recount what had happened including exactly where he'd been hit, with what, and the position of his body when he'd hit the ground.

After running several scans she stood back and said, "He's got a concussion and a twisted ankle. He'll be all right but I have to keep him here until tomorrow until I'm certain the swelling has gone down from the concussion."

"I'm going to go owl mum and dad," Fred said, and he left his broom with George and took off at a sprint towards the Owlery. Ginny sat down beside Ron's bed while Madam Pomfrey tried to rouse him, failed, and ended up spelling the swelling potion and a general healing potion into Ron's stomach.

"Watch," she told Harry as she pulled Ron's shoe and sock off and opened the tin of bruise balm. "Come closer and look." Harry did as he was told and she took a glob of bruise balm out of the tin and put it onto Ron's ankle.

"It has to go on in a circular motion. It seems like a lot of bruise balm to apply over a small area, but this is the right amount. It needs to be rubbed in until all of it's gone." She pointed to Ron's ankle and then traced a line with her finger down along the top left of his foot. "The sprain is never just in the ankle itself. He doesn't have a torn ligament, but the sprain has extended down to here in the foot, so the bruise balm has to be applied here as well. See how it's disappearing now? It's being absorbed into the skin and down into the muscles. His ankle will be fine by tomorrow morning though it may still be sore for a few days."

She finished applying the balm and stood up. "What ingredient in the balm helps it to absorb through the skin?" she asked Harry.

"Astragalus Root," Harry said.

"Very good. Don't worry about your brother," she said, looking up at Ginny and George. "He's going to be just fine. Harry brewed all of the potions he just took." She left them there to go wash the rest of the bruise balm off of her hands, and George slapped Harry on the back.

"Good job," he said. "Thanks for the potions."

"Erm- no problem," Harry said.

"Is that why she had you look while she was applying the bruise balm?" Ginny asked.

Harry shrugged. "I guess."

"I had him watch because healing and potions are closely related fields," she told them. "Healers can get a second mastery in healing potions, which only takes a year as it only focuses on brewing healing potions. Or," she continued, "Potions masters can get a second mastery in healing."

"Does Professor Snape have a mastery in healing?" Ginny asked, as he was the only potions master she knew.

"No, but he's a competent healer nonetheless. To be a potions master he has to have an intensive knowledge of healing potions and what they do. He doesn't have a license to use more than basic healing spells, but he knows exactly what potions to give a person and how much a person needs based on weight and age. I would wager he probably does have all the necessary knowledge of healing spells he would need to pass the basic healer's exam if he had the desire to do so." She turned to Harry and said, "After your mastery in Potions you may want to consider healing. That's why I had you watch."

"Thanks," Harry said. He was more worried about his friend being injured than learning about treating his injuries, but was grateful at the same time. Being forced to pay attention to her applying the bruise balm had taken his worry away for a few minutes.

"One of you can stay, the rest will have to go. Mr. Weasley needs to rest."

They decided that George would stay and that Ginny would come back later so George could go to lunch.

"That was scary," Ginny said as they left and started back towards Gryffindor. "Fred hit the Bludger towards Angelina but it doubled back towards Ron. He'll feel awful about it. I'd better go find him and make sure he knows Ron's ok."

Harry nodded. "Good luck. I'm glad he's alright. I'll tell Hermione what happened if the others didn't already."

They parted ways and Harry continued down the corridor. He had almost made it to Gryffindor when Umbridge rounded the corner followed a few feet back by Snape. Before Umbridge could say anything to Harry or demand to search his bag again, which he didn't even have with him, Snape said, "Potter, a word."

Harry passed Umbridge without looking at her, mind still back in the Hospital Wing with Ron, and followed Snape down to the dungeons.

They went to Snape's office, and he didn't bother to close or ward the door against eavesdroppers.

"You did not come to the potions lab yesterday," he commented. Harry hoped he wasn't in trouble, but couldn't detect any anger in the man's voice.

"No sir."

"Why?"

Harry looked down and fidgeted for a moment. "I figured it would be best if I stayed in the dorms where I couldn't get... in any trouble sir."

Snape sighed and said, "I see." He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a small book, which he pushed across the desk towards Harry.

"It has been some time since I have had you brewing new potions, aside from those which you are learning in class. You are meeting my expectations for studying the apprentice texts, and I believe you are far enough along to begin brewing potions from this book."

Harry looked down at the cover. It was soft brown leather like some of his apprentice texts, but it had no title.

"What kinds of potions are in here?" Harry asked.

"Caustic ones. I have already asked a house elf to retrieve your dragonhide gloves, copper cauldron and work instruments. If we start now, we will be done by dinner."

He motioned for Harry to follow him out of the office and down the corridor. Harry expected to be led to the upper year classroom they always brewed in, but was instead brought to place he hadn't been to yet.

"Where are we?" Harry asked when they stopped outside an intricately carved heavy wooden door.

"My quarters and private lab."

He opened the door with a password Harry couldn't hear, and Harry expected to find an apartment similar to the one above Camden Alley, but the door only led into a short corridor with two more doors, one straight ahead, and one to the left. Snape opened the door to the left and led Harry into a small potions lab. The lab had three workbenches, each against their own wall, a sink, a square table in the middle of the room, and a door to a potions cupboard.

"Open the book to page 17 and gather the necessary ingredients from the cupboard." Snape moved towards Harry's copper cauldron and instruments and began setting them up along the square table in the center.

Harry took the book and went into the potions cupboard. It was the same size as the corridor potions supply outside the upper year classroom, and had a lot of the same things inside, but it also had jars and jars of mushrooms of every shape and size, some of which Harry suspected he had helped gather that summer. There was also a large jar of the aconite from that summer, and dozens of ingredients Harry couldn't yet identify. Thankfully each jar was labeled like it should be, and Harry came out of the supply cupboard a few minutes later with nine small jars of ingredients.

"Many of these ingredients are caustic all on their own," Severus warned him. "You are to wear your gloves the entire time. Be sure to put them on before you open any of the jars." He also held out a pair of safety glasses and did a spell that stuck them to the outside of Harry's regular glasses. Snape put on a pair of safety glasses as well. "When working with caustic ingredients or caustic potions you must wear safety glasses to shield your eyes. Some potions masters prefer a mask with a large piece of glass that shields their entire face. We are not working with an explosive potion however, so the glasses will be enough protection for now."

Harry put his gloves on and listened as Snape explained the base of the potion and the additional ingredients going in on top of the base, as well as the use of this particular potion. It was a potion used to remove impurities from any number of different minerals and magical objects. The exact caustic ingredients they were using each served to remove a different type of magical impurity from whatever object had been dipped into it.

"If the potion splashes on you, it will dissolve your skin. Ensure that you are not touching the potion or ingredients with any part of your body. If it splashes onto your clothes you have seconds to remove the soiled garment before the potion eats through it and gets to your skin."

Before Harry was allowed to open any of the jars Snape brought over two brown pieces of dragonhide leather with straps, and strapped them to Harry's forearms where the potion was most likely to splash up if he stirred it too vigorously. Snape put on a pair of the forearm guards as well and they began.

"Remove the lid from the dragon saliva first."

"Did Soren collect this?" Harry asked.

"No. I collected it from the Chinese Fireball during the tournament last year after it was incapacitated."

Harry forced himself to focus on the task at hand instead of on the tournament, and used a measuring spoon to measure out one part of the thick gelled saliva. It sizzled as he scooped it out of the jar and it met the air.

"That is flammable Potter, which is why we won't be turning on the flame until it's in the cauldron and that jar of saliva is capped again and returned to the store room."

Snape used a stirring rod to scoop the sizzling saliva out of the scooper Harry held and into the cauldron, and then Harry returned the jar to the potions cupboard, lid firmly reattached.

"Next is the winged scarab. It must be crushed first into a fine powder. The powder is not caustic, but mixed with anything wet it will become so. Ensure you do not sweat and let sweat drip from your face into the powder."

Snape set to preparing one of the other ingredients he considered too dangerous for Harry to handle at this point and let Harry crush the shiny dead scarabs into a fine powder. After Harry had added the powder into the cauldron, there was a little poof of smoke, followed by a sizzling sound as it hit the dragon saliva.

"Is that ok?" Harry asked, looking into the cauldron.

"Yes. Do not lean over the cauldron or you risk the potion splashing up onto you." They worked together for several more minutes preparing ingredients and adding them to the cauldron before Snape set Harry to crushing up a different kind of beetle, this one from China, and went to collect a single dragon scale out of a jar with only a few of them.

The beetle Harry was crushing had a shell that felt as hard as rock and it was going to take him a while to crush it. As he worked his mind drifted back up to the Hospital Wing where Ron was probably still lying unconscious. He wagered that lunch had already come and gone and so Ginny had probably swapped places with George already. She'd probably stay until dinner, and then Fred or maybe Hermione would sit with Ron if he still hadn't woken up yet.

"Is that finished yet?" Snape asked.

Harry nodded and moved from the workbench against the wall to bring over the crushed beetle. He'd needed to prepare it away from the potion as the potion was sizzling and popping and spitting, sending little bits of the potion up into the air now. Harry's ingredient was the last to go in and it was imperative that nothing splash into it until it was dumped into the potion.

"Use both hands," Snape instructed, wanting to ensure Harry was being careful, and Harry nodded, looking into the crushed gray powder. It looked like ash now that he was done with it.

As Harry approached the workbench in the center where the potion continued to pop and sizzle, he lifted the mortar up above his chest to ensure nothing from the potion flew up into it. As a result, Harry was looking up at the mortar instead of down at his feet, and startled a moment later when his shoe hit the edge of the table, painfully jamming his toe. He bit his lip to keep from cursing in front of Snape, and set the mortar down on the table in front of him. He hated walking into things and stubbing his toes.

"Potter! The beetle powder!" Snape snapped, and Harry looked down to realize that some of the potion had sizzled up high enough to splash out of the cauldron and right into the mortar of ash colored powder. Harry didn't even have time to react because as soon as the drop of potion mixed with the powder, it began to bubble and foam, sizzling as it swelled in size and came right over the edge of the mortar and onto Harry's gloves and forearm guards.

"Get them off!" Snape shouted, coming around the table and dragging Harry away from the swelling sizzling mess that was now eating through the wood of the table.

In his panic Harry couldn't seem to get the gloves off in time. He got one off but the fizzing gray concoction had already eaten its way through his left glove and was burning his hand. Snape used both of his hands to pull Harry's contaminated glove off and throw it on the floor before pulling both of his own gloves off which were contaminated now as well. He used his bare hands to pull the arm guards off of Harry's forearms, but not before the potion had eaten through the right arm guard and had burned Harry's arm.

Snape forced Harry to sit down on a stool and then disappeared from view. Harry didn't know where he went but assumed he'd gone to take the cauldron off the table which had begun to dissolve from the caustic gray beetle powder.

It seemed to Harry that Snape had left the room altogether. He must have gone up through the castle to get Madam Pomfrey, because he'd been gone forever. Maybe he'd forgotten that Harry was hurt. He wasn't sure because he was being overwhelmed with a dozen painful sensations all at once. His left hand and right forearm were burning, but they felt cold and hot at the same time. His ears were alight with the sound of sizzling and popping and hissing, and he thought it might be his skin, but couldn't be sure. Lights were dancing in front of his eyes, maybe from the pain, and his lungs had started to burn as well. He was choking, and he was certain he was choking on his own death.

"Come on, get up." The sizzling sound stopped momentarily as Snape's words cut in, but Harry couldn't understand what the man had said anyway. He was too overwhelmed with the sights and sounds of his every sense being lit on fire.

It was long moments before he heard Snape's words again and realized that the lights were no longer dancing in front of his eyes. He wasn't in the potions lab anymore and was sitting on a wooden chair in another room, though he didn't know where he was or how he'd gotten there. Wait, he wasn't on a wooden chair, he was on a closed toilet in a bathroom.

"Potter. Potter!" Snape said, and Harry realized Snape was there with him, kneeling in front of him.

"I'm fine," Harry said.

The man scoffed and his face came into focus even better for Harry, where he found black eyes boring into his own as the haze cleared further.

"Hold your hands still, don't let them touch anything."

Harry tried to look down but Snape snapped at him and grabbed his chin. "Eyes up!" Harry's eyes widened and he stiffened at the man's sharp tone. "Don't look down."

"Are- are my arms still there?" Harry asked in fear. If the man didn't want him to look down he feared it was because his arms had both been dissolved. Maybe it was best that he'd already been kicked off the Quidditch team and loaned his broom to Ron. He would never be able to hold on to his broom if he didn't have hands and arms to hold on with.

"You can't feel them?" Snape asked.

Harry was afraid to say he could feel pain. He definitely felt like his arms were still there and on fire, but was worried now that it was only phantom pain. Dudley always watched shows about World War I where soldiers had lost limbs, and had heard them talking about phantom pain before.

"Potter!" Snape snapped, and Harry came back to his awareness of the bathroom again.

"I'm fine," Harry said again.

"You are not," Snape said quietly. "Yes, your arms and hands are still there, though you're badly burned. I don't have time to take you up to the Hospital Wing. If I don't treat these with a potion now the burns will grow worse. I need to debride the wounds to get rid of any of the potion that may still be lingering and burning you."

Harry looked down to see that Snape had a box full of potions bottles and was scolded for not keeping his eyes up. It was too late, he'd caught sight of his arms and hands already. Along the palm and wrist of his left hand there was a burn where the flesh was black and red and inflamed. The edges of the burn seemed to be glowing red like a pool of lava that had already hardened in the middle but not on the edges. His right hand didn't have burns on it but his right forearm did, and it looked the same.

"Eyes on me," Snape said, and Harry wondered why the man's voice was so soft. Maybe it wasn't soft, maybe it was just the first time Harry had heard him not sound so stern or angry.

"This is anesthetic," Snape said, uncorking a bottle and pouring a tiny bit onto Harry's left hand. Harry hissed as it hit the wound and pulled his hand back, wanting to cradle it to himself.

"Damn," Snape said, and he corked the bottle and put it back in the box.

"What?" Harry asked, looking down to be sure his hand was still there.

"You're allergic to the only anesthetic I have."

"I am?"

"The one part of the wound the anesthetic touched is puffing up. It's an allergic reaction. If I pour it over your wounds so you don't feel anything during the cleaning process, the wounds will swell up so much that I won't be able to clean them."

Snape sighed out of frustration, rummaged through his box again and then looked up at Harry. "I'm sorry. I have to debride it. It's going to hurt."

"Just- just get it over with," Harry said.

Snape uncorked a clear potion with a light blue tint and gripped Harry's left hand at the fingers, careful not to touch his palm or wrist. "I would tell you not to pull it back, but I know you will anyway," Snape said. He did sound sorry, but Harry didn't have time to wonder about it because in the next moment the potion was being poured over the wound and sharp searing pain was being sent all the way up Harry's arm and into his brain. He didn't think he passed out, but he really didn't know if he had or not. He was only aware of pain and then when he came back to himself a moment later, he was slumped sideways on the toilet seat breathing heavily as though he'd never taken a breath before. Snape was holding him up. His left hand was still burning, but not like it had been before the debriding potion had been poured on it. Harry looked down, and the edges were no longer glowing red like lava.

"I have to do you right arm now."

Harry began to breathe heavily in preparation and Snape didn't give him a chance to prepare before pouring the potion over it. Harry really did pass out this time. He knew he had because his vision went black and he woke up on the floor of the bathroom. Snape must have let him slump forward or pulled him onto the floor so he wouldn't fall and hurt himself.

"The chemical reaction has stopped," Snape told him. "I'm going to pour an anti-inflammatory potion. It will sting a little but not like the debriding potion."

Harry steeled himself for what was to come, but barely felt anything when Snape drenched his wounds in the anti-inflammatory potion. This potion seemed to have an immediate effect, even on the spot where his wound had puffed up from the small bit of anesthetic Snape had tried to apply that had caused an allergic reaction.

"Next is a burn potion," he said. He didn't uncork a bottle and instead stood up and left Harry on the bathroom floor for a minute. Harry was grateful to have a few moments to recover and just to breathe. When Snape returned he had a plastic tub which he filled with cold water from the sink and set on Harry's lap. Then he poured the burn potion into it and had Harry lower his arms into the potion so that his wounds were fully submerged in the plastic tub.

"That feels better," Harry said. The water couldn't have been as cold as it felt, he thought. The potion must have been making the tub of water feel like ice, and it felt amazing on his arms, which had stopped stinging for the first time since the accident. Harry wasn't even sure how long ago the accident had been. It could have been minutes, or hours. He'd been so disoriented at first it was hard to tell.

"I'm going to pour in a pain potion as well," Snape said, and uncorked one of the last phials of potion he had in the box. It was electric blue and when he poured it into the plastic tub it turned the liquid blue. Any pain Harry had still been feeling was gone now. His arms had gone numb up to his elbows where they were submerged. Harry let his head fall back and reveled in the feeling of not feeling anything for long moments.

"How are your lungs? Are they burning?" Severus asked, eyes locked on the fifth year on his bathroom floor.

"No," Harry said. He pulled his head back up, looking tired and still not altogether present, eyes hazy, though not as bad as they had been before when Severus had dragged him out of the potions lab. "I think they might have been before... before I was here."

"The lab was filling with noxious purple gas. The crushed beetles were meant to be dumped into the cauldron in one swift motion. If they had been, any noxious gas they were emitting would have been absorbed by the potion immediately. Instead the drop of potion that ended up in the mortar set off a chain reaction, and the room began to fill with gas."

Harry stared at him until Severus' eyes came around to check on the boy again. "I'm sorry," Harry said. "I didn't mean to-" Harry trailed off like his mind was still hazy and couldn't come up with the right words.

"To burn your arms?" Severus asked. He didn't know what the boy was apologizing for. Sometimes accidents happened when brewing. Potions masters did the best they could to avoid accidents, and to prepare for them in the eventuality that they did occur, case in point he had a box of potions for any potions burns ready to go at all times. Regardless, anything from improperly prepared ingredients to potions splashing where they shouldn't could cause an accident. Severus had had some legendary accidents of his own. Once in his third year of apprenticeship he'd accidentally deaged himself, though he wouldn't tell the boy about that.

"See that you are careful to avoid accidents like this in the future," he said, and the boy looked surprised for some reason. "Accidents happen Potter. You were being careful. Next time you work with caustic ingredients you will remember this incident and be more cautious. I was able to dump an extinguishing potion on the cauldron and on the mortar of beetle powder and then move the cauldron from the table before the table collapsed. Thankfully there was not too much noxious gas in the air by the time I was able to get you and I both out of the lab."

He leveled Harry with a serious look. "This is why we do not work with caustic potions alone. You should always work with another person when making something that could go wrong like this. If you had been alone and this had happened you would have been left in the room with the noxious fumes and would have been unable to get the protective equipment off before more damage was done." Severus had learned the hard way. Once in his younger years as a teacher Albus had come down to talk to him only to find him passed out on the floor of his own lab. He hadn't been burned, but he'd been overwhelmed by noxious fumes he hadn't been aware were in the air because they'd been odorless and colorless.

"Lift your arms up," Severus said, and the boy did so. The burns already looked fifty percent better than they had before, and most of the swelling had gone away. "The burns look better. You will need to go to the Hospital Wing so Madam Pomfrey can treat the wounds to regrow the skin and bandage your arms."

"She'll be mad at me for coming back twice in one day," Harry said, not serious at all. It was a great, and yet horrible excuse to spend time with Ron.

"Twice in one day?" Snape asked, removing the plastic tub of potion and helping Harry to his feet.

"I had to take Ron up there earlier. He got knocked out by a Bludger. She tossed me and Ginny out and said only one person at a time could visit him."

"Hm."

Snape accompanied him up through the castle. Umbridge watched them pass on the second floor but Snape must have given her a look that said he wasn't willing to stop and let her scold Harry. Holding his arms gingerly all the way up to the Hospital Wing, Harry let Snape push the heavy doors open and went inside and settled himself onto the bed next to Ron. Ron was awake now but looked tired, and he and Ginny gaped at Harry as he held his bare arms up, unwilling to let the wounds touch anything.

"Harry what happened to you?" Ginny asked, turning in her seat to face him instead of Ron.

He didn't have time to answer because Madam Pomfrey came bustling out since Snape had gone to her office to get her. Instead Ron and Ginny listened as Snape described the incident, the ingredients that had been in the potion that had caused the burns, the noxious gas, and the treatment he'd already administered to Harry's injuries.

Madam Pomfrey shooed Ginny out of the Hospital Wing because she needed to move to both sides of Harry's bed to further treat his injured arms, and after she was done thirty minutes later Snape told Harry he'd be by to check on him later and left the ward as well. Alone together, Ron leaned towards Harry and said, "Harry. Harry."

Harry looked over at him, arms finally bandaged and resting against the bed comfortably.

"You shoulda looked at that Pegasus longer the other day. This has been a rotten string of luck."

"Speak for yourself," Harry said.

"Yeah," Ron said, sitting back against his pillows. "I didn't look long either. I was busy looking at Hermione."

Harry shook his head, wondering if Ron would ever get up the nerve to ask her out. Ron and Hermione had liked each other since third year, but Harry never mentioned it, and neither did they.

"Just don't forget to ask Snape about that luck potion," Ron said. "That's the only way we'll get rid of Umbridge and get you back to Quidditch."

Harry settled further into his pillows and tried to shut Ron out. He'd rather not think about Umbridge, or about anything at all. He wanted to rest and forget this horrible week had ever happened. Later he wondered if Madam Pomfrey had given him something to make him sleep, because he nodded off in the middle of whatever Ron had said next, and didn't wake up until the next morning.


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