Potions Class

A Potion "Accident"

It was Monday, and Harry was walking with Draco from herbology to transfiguration when he heard the sound of someone whispering. Harry held one hand in front of the blond, effectively halting him in his tracks, the other hand placed over Draco's mouth. It was Ronald Weasley, a voice Harry would know anywhere.

"... telling you, Dean! It's Snape, who else would be after the philosopher's stone?"

Draco and Harry heard Dean ask, "honestly Ron, how do you know what the dog was guarding?"

"Because that's what Dumbledore told me! Don't you ever listen? The old man came to my house during the Summer and gave me a mission. I was to make Harry my best friend, getting him to choose Gryffindor and keeping everyone else away from him. Then, I was supposed to give him small clues throughout the year about the stone. Apparently, it is supposed to be some sort of test for him..." the Weasel rabbited on.

Carefully and silently, the blond and brunette turned to each other, matching looks of horror pasted across their faces. They quickly made their way to the transfiguration classroom and took their seats. Harry spent the lesson trying to take notes and failing miserably because he was too distracted.

By the time they had made their way to potions class, their last class of the day, Harry was a mess. He could hardly breathe, let alone think. Draco decided to situate them in the back of the classroom, away from prying eyes. This worked on everyone... Until Severus Snape swept into the room.

During the lesson, Severus kept his eyes on Harry as much as he could, that is until he noticed this seemed to be making Harry more upset and decided to ignore him for the remainder of the period. He swept over to the Gryffindor side of the room and started to criticise their potions. However, five minutes into this, while he was berating Neville Longbottom for almost blowing up his cauldron, he heard Draco scream out Harry's name.

Severus spun around to face the Slytherin side of the room, what he saw made his heart shatter. There lying on the floor was the boy-who-lived, covered in boiling hot, black sludge.

"Everybody except mister Malfoy, OUT!"

The students, both Slytherin and Gryffindor alike scrambled out the door. Draco stood with his eyes on the ground, knowing if he looked into the professor's eyes, he would see disappointment or worse, hatred.

"WHAT IN SEVEN HELLS JUST HAPPENED?" Severus screamed before taking a deep breath to calm himself, and continuing in a softer voice, "I am sorry for yelling at you Dragon, but I need to know what occurred. Otherwise, I won't be able to counteract the effects."

Draco sniffled and explained that he saw a Gryffindor girl toss something, he wasn't sure what, into Harry's cauldron. He didn't know her name but promised to point her out to his godfather at the next available opportunity.

Severus chose to withdraw the questioning, for now, to deal with the real problem at hand. Quickly he scooped the raven-haired boy off the floor, careful not to get the black concoction on himself. The man ordered Draco to open the door for him and follow them to his quarters. They hurried further into the dungeons and without prompting, Draco flung open the doors leading to the sitting room.

"What do we do, Godfather? What do we do?" the young boy asked frantically.

"You are going to sit there with your mouth clamped shut unless I ask something if you. Do you understand me?" snapped the worried man. He was pacing back and forth thinking of a way to fix this, without involving the school matron or headmaster.

Severus did not wait for a reply before he turned his back on the blond and set to work on Harry. First, he gently removed the boys' outer robe. When it was shown to have soaked through those clothes, he began to remove those as well. This left the young man in his boxer-briefs.

Blushing slightly, the older man called out for his personal Hogwarts-elf, Stippy, and asked them to bring him a bowl of clean, warm water and a soft washcloth. Once the elf had brought back the requested materials, Severus tried to wash the black goop off Harry, hoping this would null the effects and wake the boy up.

However, when the man finished cleaning the boy down, Harry still did not awaken. Thinking quickly, he opened his potion supply closet and grabbed a bezoar out and spelled it into Harry's stomach. Again, nothing happened. Severus realised this was a bigger problem then he initially thought, he needed real help. He jumped up, through a pinch of Floo powder into the fireplace and called out, "Poppy Pomfrey, Hogwarts infirmary."

Severus explained the situation to the healer and asked her to come through. She quickly complied and immediately started to cast diagnostic spells on the injured boy. Severus looked toward Draco who was sitting on as far away from Harry as he could and noticed the boy was silently crying. Carefully he walked over to his godson and sat on the chair next to him.

"Dragon, I am so sorry for yelling at you. It was not your fault at all, and I don't want you blaming yourself. Neither would Harry want you to," the potions master quietly told the young blond child.

"But it was my fault! I should have been quicker, I should have jumped in the way, I should ha-"

Severus had heard enough and quickly pulled his godson into a hug, effectively shutting him up. How long they stayed that way the man did not know, he just held his godson while the boy cried his eyes out.

Eventually, he looked up, towards the raven-haired boy and locked eyes with the matron. In those eyes, he noticed a range of emotions. Severus observed the pity Poppy felt for the adolescent boys in their care, he saw the worry she held for Harry's health, he saw the anger she felt that one student hurt another like this, and he saw the pride she held for himself.

"What's the prognosis Madam Doc?" Severus asked, trying to lighten the mood somewhat.

"It's not good Severus, I can't even tell you exactly what is wrong. He seems to be perfectly healthy, but I cannot get him to wake up, no matter what I try. We may just have to wait and see how long it takes for him to wake on his own."

Severus was shocked but had to ask, "does he have to stay in the hospital wing or can we keep him in the guest bedroom here? I wouldn't trust some of the older Slytherin's enough to leave him there while this vulnerable."

"I don't see why he can't stay here. I have access, and you can call me if the situation changes. The only problem I can foresee is the headmaster."

This caused Draco to finally pull away from his godfather and question, "Excuse me, Madam, but why would the headmaster be a problem?"

Poppy was shocked at the young Malfoy's manners but swiftly replied, "well mister Malfoy, it is difficult to explain, but I have known the headmaster for a long time. In that time, I have observed how he treats certain children. Harry Potter is a hero to everybody in our world, something only Albus Dumbledore could claim before Halloween 10 years ago. He ignored the advice of everyone around him and sent the poor lad to those horrible people.

"In my opinion, he did this so that he could be the person Harry would come to depend on in the future. I don't want this to happen, and I don't think either of you does either. I am glad he has found two people who truly care about his wellbeing. He will need it in order to face the people who are out to see him hurt. Now, the reason I worry about Albus is that I know he won't agree to have Severus house the boy. It would interrupt his master plan. We need to think of a plan, as soon as possible."

Word Count: 1372

My dear readers!
What a pleasure to see you here again, thank you for sticking with this story. I just want to say, I have only a bit of an idea of where I want this to end up but don't have every little detail set out on where I want to take it in the meantime. I do not write up chapters in advance of publishing them,.I write what I feel when I feel it. Having said this, if anyone has any idea of where to take the smaller parts of the plot, please let me know. otherwise, I fear this story may become too convoluted and I may lose some of you as readers. I DO NOT WANT THAT!! It warms my heart to see people enjoying themselves with my story, I never expected it to get this far.

Thank you for reading,
Your author,
~SlySlytherin97 ❤💋

Ps. If someone would be willing to draw up a picture of Harry being covered in the black goop or something else in this chapter for the chapter picture, please let me know, I would be forever grateful!!