Harry Potter Short Stories

Inner Slytherin Ch 3

"Congratulations; you really are thinking for yourself," said Severus. "I have never liked Molly much and the way she uses her children is iniquitous. Percy is endurable when he is not getting hung up on believing in authority figures quite as badly as Miss Granger does, and the twins cannot be dictated to. William was a disaster in the dungeon and Charles reminds me too much of Hagrid."

"I like Hagrid," said Harry.

"Liking, and expecting him to be any real help, are two different things," said Snape. "He's lucky that your father decided to take a liking to him instead of persecuting him for his differences. You won't be as popular with the unfortunate squib, Filch, nor with the centaurs."

"Is that why Bane doesn't like me?"

"Yes," said Snape. "Filch is sufficiently embittered that he makes me look jolly, and I can't say I like him, but I do understand him. Squib-baiting was always in season for the Marauders."

Harry went red.

"But squibs should be protected!" he stuttered.

"Which proves that you have more nobility than the scion raised as the heir to the Noble and Ancient family Potter," said Snape.

"It's Noble and Ancient?" asked Harry. "I didn't know."

"Don't you read your bank statements?"

"I don't get any bank statements," said Harry.

Snape froze into stillness again.

"I am going to take you to Gringott's bank at the weekend," he said. "We can find out why you do not get statements. Though if I had to guess, someone has assumed the title of magical guardian for you, whatever your best interests may be."

"Shouldn't it be Sirius?"

"The mutt isn't what you might call too tightly wrapped after 13 years in Azkaban, let alone not being free to take on the guardianship."

Harry wanted to defend Sirius, but he had to admit that a guardian who addressed him as James, and seemed to think that mucking about was more important than schoolwork really was not too tightly wrapped.

"I love him, though," he said. "Why isn't Dumbledore making more effort to have his conviction overturned?"

"Simple," sneered Snape. "If he was free he'd claim your guardianship and the old coot would no longer be able to control you."

"He can't anyway; you're helping me," said Harry.

"He doesn't know that and we keep it that way," said Snape. "Lesson one in working against the headmaster. Note this room is devoid of paintings or statuary. All paintings and statues are obliged to report to the headmaster. Never discuss anything sensitive in front of them, or any of the ghosts. Failure to support the headmaster forces them through the veil to the hereafter in a painful manner. The house elves likewise."

"What about Dobby? He's free and devoted to me."

Snape regarded him through hooded lids.

"Now you are starting to think like a Slytherin," he said. "And remember, owls can be traced, especially one as distinctive as yours. Elves cannot."

"I will remember that," said Harry. "What do you want me to do this evening?"

"I think the most fruitful use of your time will be to teach you how to study," said Snape. "You got out of the habit because of the junior walrus, but there are techniques to enable you to study faster. I will also, do not laugh, teach you to read."

"I'm guessing that's a different matter to what I think I'm doing," said Harry.

"It is. It is possible, with practice, to speed up your rate of reading whilst still assimilating the information on the page," said Snape. "And there are a number of drills and practices to that. I will teach you to skim, scan and absorb, by looking over a page with different levels of concentration to home in on key words and then learn more about them. I will also show you how to set your wand to move down a page at different speeds, obscuring all that is written behind it, so that you can gradually increase your reading speed. I will flash up first words and then sentences on the board lasting fractions of a second so that you can learn to take in whole sentences in a blink of the eye."