Severus Snape and Harry Potter

Chapter 5

Potions that day was even more interesting than usual. They were working on a Sleeping Draught, and Harry had always like the combination of crushed lavender and sweetroot, it made him feel peaceful and the bit of sheep's wool added to the mixture, which soaked up any large particles, reminded him of a stuffed lamb he'd had when he was a baby. It had been in his bassinet as a fifteen month old, when he'd been dropped off at the Durselys, and he had kept it until he was five and it had fallen prey to one of Dudley's tantrums and been ripped to shreds. That had been one of the few times Harry had actually done something to Dudley with magic, he had made the fat little troublemaker get a terrible itchy rash all over his bottom. The best part was that he had done it at a distance, and so couldn't be blamed for anything. Petunia had thought Dudley contracted an infection from a public toilet. Of course, it didn't replace the shredded toy, but it had made Harry feel a little better.

He was working today with Hermione, and they were moving along nicely with their recipe. It was just at the stage when it needed to bubble gently and be given three clockwise stirs and four counterclockwise. Harry kept an eye upon the cauldron, and also on one Draco Malfoy, who was known to enjoy sabotaging other people's potions projects. But today, Snape seemed to be keeping an extra sharp eye on this class, and so Malfoy wasn't able to do anything to Harry's solution. Not to mention the fact that Malfoy was on the other side of the room.

"Almost done," he told Hermione excitedly. The potion was emitting a gentle soothing aroma and was the color of twilight, a soft rosy purple.

Thus far, Snape had not come to inspect their cauldron, instead busying himself with scowling at a few other students. Since the troll incident on Halloween, Harry had noticed that Snape was much more lenient on him in class. He sometimes used Harry's potion as a sample to other years, and also gave points, though what points Harry had accrued often ended up being eclipsed by Longbottom's abysmal potions skills and the deduction of points for exploding or totally botched potions. Harry had also noticed that Severus was careful to separate Harry and whoever partnered him, usually it was Ron or Hermione, and occasionally Dean, from Malfoy and the more boisterous Slytherins, which made it ten times as hard for Malfoy to pull pranks on him in class.

Harry was very grateful for that, because nothing irritated him more than a potion ruined on purpose. In that, he was very like Lily, if he only had known. He gave the mixture one final stir then asked Hermione to douse the fire under the cauldron, which she did with a simple "Extingue!"

"Looks perfect to me," she whispered, smiling.

Harry smiled too. "I wouldn't go that far. Perfect's for Masters. But it's good for us."

They strained and decanted the potion into their vials, then labeled them. Just then Severus arrived at their workstation and examined the rest of their potion before bottling a sample. "The color is a bit too bright, but otherwise this is an exceptional draft. Ten points to Gryffindor." He said quietly, with a nod of approval.

Harry smiled then. "Thank you, sir."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "For what? You earned the grade yourself, Potter." He then waved his wand at the cauldron and vanished the excess potion. "Everyone, solutions on my desk in five minutes. Those of you who are late will suffer a five point deduction."

He then swept up to his desk, where he could watch the students as they came and handed in their potions.

Harry walked alongside Ron and asked, "Well? How did you do?"

Ron shrugged. "Not too bad. He didn't tear strips off my ass this time at least." He showed Harry his potion, which was a light lavender color, not the correct shade but at least it was in the vicinity of the right shade.