Chapter 89: 89 The Potions Class

“You bought more cauldrons.” Seamus said as Harry tried to show him how to use his transfiguration lessons to create the same ingredients as the better parts of what he had.

“Yeah.” Harry said and pointed to the divided piles of ingredients. “You just have to remember what it felt like when changing the burned match into a normal match.” He said. “Only, you're changing these bad ingredients into the good ones.” He said and pointed between the two piles.

“Even though I told you it was a waste of money.” Seamus said and ignored Harry's words.

“Yeah. Now if you concentrate, you can...” Harry started to say.

“You bought six cauldrons!” Seamus said. “Do you know what a guy could do with that much money?”

“Buy more cauldrons?” Harry asked and Seamus glared at him. “I stopped at six.”

“Get away from me.” Seamus said angrily.

Harry looked surprised for a second, shrugged and moved to help Dean. The black boy shook his head. “Good luck making a bad potion.” He said and walked around their table, only to find that he had run out of Griffindors to help. He turned and looked at the Slytherin side of the room and he was going to go back to his seat, then he caught sight of one of the girls struggling to separate the good and bad ingredients.

Harry debated not helping, since they had laughed at him, then he saw the potions professor as he tried, quite fruitlessly, to help one of the large overweight kids that guarded Draco. He was taking too long and wouldn't get to them all in time. He held in his sigh and walked over to the blonde haired girl's table.

“What do you want?” The dark brown haired girl on her other side asked, angrily.

“Nothing to do with you.” Harry said and looked at the blonde. “Please excuse me. Do you need any help?”

The blonde girl lifted her head and looked surprised for a moment. “W-what?”

“I've already helped the Griffindors that wanted help and Professor Snape is too busy to get here in time.” Harry said. “I can either do it for you or show you how to do it yourself.”

“Why?” The girl asked.

“Yeah! Why are you wasting our time?” The other girl asked.

“That's not what I said, Pansy.” The blonde said as she looked at her.

“It's what you meant, Daphne.” Pansy said with a smirk.

“No, it...” Daphne sighed and looked at Harry. “Why help me?”

“I've always had to do things for myself and I know what it's like to not have anyone around to help me.” Harry said. “You look like you need help.”

Daphne looked at him for a few seconds, trying to discern his motives. “I laughed at you.”

“A lot of people do that, especially Slytherins.” Harry said.

“Draco...”

“...has two huge bullies to help him.” Harry said. “If Slytherins didn't bully everyone they meet that's not a member of their House, people wouldn't hate you so much.”

Daphne opened her mouth to respond with a hot retort to defend her Housemates, then she let out a sigh. “I guess you're not wrong.”

“Daphne!” Pansy exclaimed.

“You're just as bad as Draco, Pansy.” Daphne said. “How many girls have you made cry during the last week?”

“Seven, and I'm not counting that snivelling Ravenclaw. She's always crying.” Pansy said, proudly.

Daphne shook her head and looked at Harry. “What do you get out of helping me?”

“I get to see the surprise on Professor Snape's face.” Harry said and let a grin appear on his face.

Daphne had to laugh at that. Softly, of course. She didn't want to give it away. “All right.”

Harry's grin softened to a small smile and he started to divide her ingredients properly. As he did that, he explained to her about using transfiguration to fix the bad parts to make them like the good parts.

Daphne was amazed when he did it for her with one of the ingredients and she now had two good piles of it, instead of one good pile and one mangled. “How did you do that again?”

Harry asked her to take out her wand and she did so, even though Snape said there would be no wand waving in his class. “Do you remember what changing the match was like?” He asked and Daphne nodded. “What about the oven mitt?”

“That class was fun.” Daphne said. “I made mine look like a dragon's paw.”

Harry's mouth dropped open in surprise and Daphne let out a laugh before she could stop herself. A few of the other students turned to look at her and she muttered an apology and waved at them to turn back.

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“Did the professor let you keep it?” Harry asked and she nodded. “I'd like to see it.”

“I will bring it to our flying lesson on Wednesday.” Daphne said and then she was almost stunned when Harry beamed a smile at her. His bright green eyes almost sparkled and they were unlike any other eyes she had ever seen.

“You just have to remember that feeling of making the mitt.” Harry said and moved to put his hand around hers that held the wand. He shared his magic with her, which made her take in a quick breath, then he expertly did the motion and said the incantation. To her surprise, the next ingredient magically changed to be perfect. “Did you get it?”

“Y-yes.” Daphne said.

Harry wasn't so sure of that, so he had her do the next one while still sharing his magic with her. She did it, even though she was a bit distracted. “That's good.” He said and stopped sharing with her. “You can't copy the liquid like that, though. Do you know the refilling charm?”

Daphne and Pansy took in sharp breaths. They both knew that was a fifth year spell and Daphne shook her head.

“I'll loan you the book if you want.” Harry said and vanished the liquid she had in a vial. He poured in about a quarter of his and then used the refilling charm to fill both vials.

“That... I would like that.” Daphne said.

“It takes a lot of practice.” Harry warned and she nodded. “I'll bring it on Wednesday.”

“Thank you.” Daphne said.

“Do mine, too!” Pansy said and held out her vial with the discolored liquid in it.

Harry thought about refusing and saw Daphne's concerned face. “I shouldn't... but... I don't want you switching with Daphne's when I leave.” Harry said and did her vial, too.

“Sucker.” Pansy said out loud instead of in her head. She didn't realize that, though.

Daphne sighed and gave Harry an apologetic smile. “Do you think you can help Millicent and...”

“No.” The girl at the next table said. “I don't want anything to do with 'The Boy Who Craves Attention'.” She said. “I'm surprised you're even looking at him, Daph.”

“I said to call me Daphne.” Daphne said.

“Whatever, Daph.” Millicent said and didn't even turn around.

Daphne sighed and shook her head at Harry, who shrugged and went back to his table. She looked up just in time to see the shocked look on her Head of House's face as Harry walked away and then Professor Snape's eyes went to Daphne's restored ingredients. She schooled her features, even though she wanted to laugh at Snape's face, because Harry had been right. It was worth the trouble of him coming over to help her, just to see that look.

“That was nice of you.” Hermione whispered as Harry came back to their table.

“She was doing a worse job at it than Lavender was.” Harry whispered back.

Hermione covered her mouth with her hand to stop her laugh. “She's a danger with a knife, isn't she?”

“Only to her fingers.” Harry responded and Hermione had to cast silence on herself and him as they both laughed.

After that, Snape went back to the front of the class and the actual potion brewing commenced. He quickly provided the slightly altered brewing options to Harry and his friends that used the gold cauldrons. He then sat down and observed them all as they worked. Not surprisingly, now that they all had more appropriate ingredients, the procedures went smoothly for most of them, even for the difficult cases in his own House.

It took them the entire class to brew their potions. Snape had done it as a test of their patience. One full double class to prepare the ingredients and one full class just to brew it. He knew that many of them thought of it as a pain to spend so much time on a single potion. A few... he reluctantly had to admit... didn't complain or even ask why it had to take so long. They just accepted it and did their work.

Snape noted them and wasn't surprised that both Potter and the Granger girl were among them. What did surprise him was that Neville was right there with them. Unlike the last few classes, the boy had a lot more confidence and seemed happier for some reason. He looked at his own students and saw Daphne Greengrass was also diligently performing well.

That had stumped him, he had to admit. Harry Potter helping one of the Slytherin girls, an occasional verbal abuser towards him, was not something Snape had ever expected to see. It was puzzling if he was a Griffindor, understandable if he was a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, and expected if he was a Slytherin.

I need to continue to see him as a Slytherin, or I won't make sense of his actions. Snape thought.

Although, he knew that if he had gotten Harry Potter into his House, he would not have treated Harry well. He was man enough to admit that. He still hated the boy's father and always would. The man was dead and no amount of retribution on the son could bring the fool back to life or make up for all the things that had been done to Snape.

Snape sighed under his breath, as to not alarm his students into thinking he was disappointed in them. Having doubts and distractions in the middle of a delicate procedure that you needed to pay attention to, was not something he would do. That was also why he sat at his desk and didn't roam around. He knew some of them, especially Longbottom and Weasley, would be too nervous to work properly if he hovered nearby.

He smiled briefly and let it fade, then he sat there and watched everyone work. He could take a brief walk during the simmering portion of the instruction. The smile reappeared when that time came and he strode right over to Weasley's table and earned a squeak from the redhead when he was finally noticed.

Ah, the simple joys of teaching. Snape thought with satisfaction and continued on as he made his rounds to check the progress of the potions that the students were brewing. A higher number of students than was normally expected had their potions at the proper stage, to his surprise. What didn't surprise him was that they were the students that Harry had helped.

Snape offered advice to those that needed it, then the class continued on and he resumed his seat at his desk and didn't interfere further. It was all up to time now and he would have to wait to see how everything turned out. His eyes went to Harry Potter and saw him working on his own potion while whispering to the Granger girl beside him. He couldn't help but see that they were both happy as they worked and followed the complicated instructions without messing them up.

He nodded mentally and he had already assigned double EEs to their potions in his head. They had earned Exceeds Expectations already.

The class ended and Harry had to levitate the gold cauldrons into his trunk to carry them. Neither Lavender nor Ron knew how to use the levitation spell, so he ended up carrying them again. He made sure to mark them all with their names, so that they wouldn't mix them up, and they all left the class fairly happy with how everything turned out.

As Harry passed the Slytherins on the way out, among the sneers and a few whispered comments, he saw a smile and a slight nod from Daphne as her deep blue eyes locked onto his for a moment. The moment passed and she diverted her gaze. Harry left the classroom a little bit happier than he had been a few seconds before.

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