Chapter 73: 6th September 1991, Friday: Part 2

After finishing his deliberately mysterious speech, George placed the signed parchment into his pocket. Once it was out of sight he ignited it into flames before it even touched the fabric. He had to make sure that there was no evidence, except for Harry's recollection, of this friendly talk. Although this action might seem counterintuitive to remaining undercover, the mission needed to succeed. The sole purpose was to provide George with the means to keep in contact with Harry, perhaps to even form a friendship and an artificial sense of trust.

This was best achieved by building a subconscious reliance from Harry on George's knowledge, he would be acting as an information broker of sorts for the up-n-coming hero. Most of Harry's first year is a mystery to the boy, he barely understands what is going on around him until the last month of the term. If George was to drip-feed Harry the answers to all his most burning questions throughout the year, then he can keep close to major events as they occur whilst avoiding being personally involved. Of course, using his high-sight as a bargaining chip was a double-ended sword.

George had already felt the pain and benefits of informing his patron of his gift, telling Harry could very well be even worse. Once Harry realises what George could do, there was a high possibility he could tell others. And as far as George was concerned, his ability to see the future must never be allowed to become public information. The consequences would be a hundred times worse than the leaking of information about his wandless magic. He would even consider murder to keep specific individuals from knowing. That being said, George knew these monumental risks but accepted them nonetheless.

There only needed to be one reason, George couldn't imagine any other guaranteed way his mission could succeed. That was the bottom line, failing the mission was not worth the price of his secret. This decision wasn't taken lightly, hinting to others about the future was by far the riskiest part of this entire endeavour. His heart would have been beating out of his chest if he wasn't under the effect of the Calming Draught. The idea of Harry going straight to Dumbledore and telling him everything still send a shiver down George's spine.

Without any delay, George turned around and left Harry in the dark alcove. Harry was left standing there in an undoubtedly stunned and disordered state of mind. The unusual request for a signature paired with the note left on the parchment and finalised with the incredibly obscure riddle left by George all added together to overload Harry. The chosen one's brain must have been firmly fried. Regardless of what Harry may have been feeling, George immediately entered the potion class without looking back. He needed something to distract his mind from the potentially terrible decision he'd just made.

Once he entered the potion classroom, George was greeted with a smoky haze as if he had just entered an old English pub exclusively attended by chain smokers. The hayes was so bad that he could barely see the opposite end of the classroom, it was a good thing it wasn't cigarette smoke or he'd be coughing up a storm. George looked over to his right to see the origin of all the fog, there were three rows of tables with a bubbling cauldron for every other student attending this class. The cauldrons all had the same sort of unknown liquid bubbling inside of them, the liquid was shrouded in a thick white vapour that looked like dry ice vaporising.

Underneath each cauldron was a bunsen burner that heated them, the orange flames shone through the smoke which made it easier for George to see the potion-making equipment. He could just about see that each student also had a few tools such as a wooden spoon and a pair of large metal tweezers on the table next to the burner. Underneath the student's tables were a few crates with large corked glass beakers inside, they presumably contained a bulk quantity of the ingredients the students needed to perform their brewing experiments.

George squinted whilst looking around the small classroom, it was not unfamiliar from the other potion classrooms he had been snooping around. The ceiling was relatively low compared to the other rooms in Hogwarts and had many pillars scattered around which supported the arched ceiling. Throughout the room were several arched coves that were filled with many shelves, the shelves were home to many indistinguishable brown leatherback books. The rest of the walls were lined with small shelves and narrow tables that housed many jars with specimens inside just like in Snape's office.

At the opposite end of the classroom was a series of windows that were open which allowed the morning sun to shine through, they illuminated the classroom and the thick fog with golden light. Just below the windows was a large wooden table with some old-fashioned chemistry equipment placed on top, it appeared to be prepped for a demonstration by Snape. There were glass vials that were suspended by metal stands with various colours of liquid vaporising inside, and droplets of condensation were dripping down through a glass tube into a large circular beaker. Just ahead of George was a table and stool allocated for the professor. The teacher's desk was very small with only a candle, an inkwell and a few pieces of parchment dressing it.

George took a second look around the classroom to see the students that were currently sitting down. He wanted to find the best place to sit to avoid any unnecessary attention. Just like with Sprout, George had no plans of befriending or, for lack of a better word, brown-nosing Snape. If anything, since Snape worked directly under Dumbledore, George would be going out of his way to avoid him. All of the Slytherin students he had come to know and love were sitting all along the front row. Draco and his best friends were currently sitting right underneath the teacher's desk, their pompous behaviour was so predictable that it was boring.

The next row back was predominantly Gryffindor students, George could see Hermione sitting by herself with her notebook and quill out. She looked primed and ready for the class like a well-disciplined soldier waiting for the drill sergeant to tell them what to do. He felt a little empathy knowing that Snape wouldn't care less about Hermione's attitude regardless of how much potential she showed, all her brilliant academic talent was wasted on him. From what he could make out from the fog, the final row had the fewest students and they were all the dregs of Gryffindor. Neville was sitting there alone looking as nervous as usual.

Oh the pleasures of knowing what was to come, George smirked at how ignorant most of these Gryffindor students were towards Snape and the way he taught. Subsequent lessons after today would have the last row in the classroom be full of Gryffindor students, they would be practically fighting over the furthest distance away from the professor's desk. Since the opportunity to sit out of the way had conveniently presented itself, George was quite happy to sit at the back whilst he still could.

Whilst making sure not to knock over any glass bottles sitting precariously on the wall, George shimmied down to the back of the class and sat down next to Neville. He didn't see any reason not to say hello to Neville as his persona was meant to be friends with him. Also, he promised Neville they would still be able to see each other during class. He didn't like breaking his promises if it could be avoided, it wasn't good for his image. As he was sitting down on his stool and pulling out his notebook, Neville immediately jumped in surprise and stared up at him. His chubby little face lit up upon recognising George.

"George! Where have you been? I haven't seen you since Monday. I've been looking for you during lunch and dinner but I haven't seen you at the Slytherin table once.

I was worried that you might have been in the hospital again but Hermione told me that I was worrying over nothing. I guess she was right, she's..."

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Neville enthusiastically spoke to him in a louder voice than he probably had intended. George covered Neville's mouth with his hand before he could start rambling any further. There were already a few Gryffindor students in front of him that were looking in his direction. He briefly scanned the room to see who was listening in before looking back towards Neville with a serious expression

George whispered, "speak quietly in here Neville. Don't go drawing unnecessary attention to me, I've already had enough people staring at me the past few days. Anyway, I don't want to sound like a bad friend and I'm glad that you're looking out for me, but I really am fine so stop worrying. I was busy during lunch but I'll tell you about that another time.

How are things in Gryffindor? Is there any new gossip?"

Neville nodded his head and was about to respond but he stopped right as he was about to open his mouth. He was quick to compose himself and lowered his volume before speaking. What a good boy, George was happy his words weren't falling on deaf ears.

"It's still really good, but there's been a lot of rumours about Professor Snape. I've heard some of the students talking about how he treats Gryffindor students badly in his classes and will use any excuse to give you detention or take away house points.

His detentions are meant to be the worst so you should be careful. Oh wait, I almost forgot, you're in Slytherin so you should be fine."

George was quite surprised by how proactive Neville was in acquiring information about his classes in advance. Even if it was driven by fear and apprehension, Neville showed great promise in his planning and preparation skills. He should prove to be a great source of information in a few months' time.

George decided it would be best to not sugarcoat the situation to Neville, "you're probably right about Professor Snape. I've heard similar things in Slytherin so it's probably true.

I think you've got the right idea sitting at the back of the class, just keep your mouth shut and do as you're told and everything should be fine. He will be here in a minute so I think we should stay quiet so we don't get shouted at the moment he comes through the door."

Neville, being the timid child he was, took George's words as gospel as he quickly nodded and refrained from talking any further. George made a mental note in his head, threatening Neville with provoking a professor's wrath would always be successful in ending a conversation, especially during class. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy talking to Neville, he quite liked the company as it was relaxing to hear about a normal child's problems. As proof, he'd already started to wind down from talking to Harry. George just believed that like all good things in this world, they're best when they're consumed in moderation.

After Neville settled down, George heard the classroom door open. He turned around and saw Harry and Ron had entered the room. Harry looked around the room until he eventually saw George sitting next to Neville. Harry's face was still looking very confused and his eyes were screaming for George to explain. George had no plans of talking to Harry during this lesson so he decided to simply nod and smile. Then he turned back towards his cauldron as if he were suddenly fascinated with its content.

The silent treatment continued until George heard Harry give up and walk down to the second row and sit next to Hermione, which coincidentally, happened to be almost right in front of him. He glanced upwards to see Harry and Hermione talking quietly to each other before they both simultaneously looked back towards him. He made sure to avert his eyes at the moment that their bodies started to turn. George only looked forward once he sensed that Harry and Hermione had returned to their original forward position.

George didn't mind if Harry told Hermione or Ron about his conversation since he had specifically condoned it in his parchment. The only reason that he wrote that Harry could tell his friends was because he was well aware the boy would do it regardless of his consent. There was nothing that Harry wouldn't tell Ron and Hermione as he would soon trust them with his life. Since George had already convinced Hermione his future sight was a scam, he didn't have to worry about her taking this incident too seriously. Also, Ron would be sceptical just because he didn't trust Slytherin students. Therefore, only Harry had a chance of believing George's warning and that's all that mattered.

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