Potion Class, The Bat, and The Room

Harry never really understood his brother's need to tease people, but for the first time, he was looking forward to it, after all, they had Potion classes today.

They had breakfast before making their way to the dungeons, Aaron sat next to his brother, sporting black and red hair, with purple eyes that had star-like silver flakes inside.

At nine, Snape came into the room, his robes waving behind him, 'he does take his Batman cosplay seriously,' Aaron thought.

Snape started the class by taking the roll call and paused at Aaron's name, his eyes hovering between the twins' names.

"Ah yes, the Potter twins, our new… celebrities."

Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels. 

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.

"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you to understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Aaron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. 

Hermione was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to prove she wasn't a dunderhead. 

"Potter!" Snape suddenly said. "where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"In the stomach of a Goat, sir," the twins said.

"Did I tell you both to answer?"

"You didn't specify who should answer, sir," Aaron replied.

Snape was not pleased, "What is the difference, between monkshood and wolfsbane, Potter."

"Monkshood and Wolfsbane are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite, sir," Aaron answered.

Snape turned around, yelling to the class: "why aren't you writing this down?"

"And a point from Gryffindor for your cheek, Potter."

Snape set them up to work together, mixing a potion of cure for boils.

"Well, nothing's changed," Harry whispered to his brother.

"It might get worse," Aaron said.

"How is that possible?"

"Well, our parents are alive, there's no guilt over Mom dying or a feeling of responsibility for it, nor has any of his hatred for our dad dampened because of his death, there might be extra resentment there because I chose to enter the hall looking like dad with Mom's hair and eyes."

"Yup, that's worse, I told you not to do that."

"Nothing will go wrong, I have a plan."

"Is there something you'd like to share with the class, Potter?" Snape said, standing behind them, like a vampire out of the darkness.

"We were talking about the variations of the cure for boils, sir, our mother thought us potions because we didn't need a wand for it, I thought adding dittany leaves to the dried nettles, crushed snake fangs, and horned slugs, would improve the concoction, Harry however reminded me that our Mom would kill me if I tried to experiment with potions, without permission and supervision from an adult, again," Aaron replied, his hair turning completely red, and his pupils taking on a green color.

The change in his hair and eyes shook Snape to his core, and the way Aaron spoke of potions, reminded Snape of another green-eyed redhead he once knew.

"Aaron, your hair!" Harry reminded his brother.

Aaron seemingly taken by surprise, focused a bit on his hair, turning it into purple, with streaks of gold that shimmered in the dim light.

"Sorry sir, I still can't perfectly control this ability of mine yet, I need to picture what I want to look like, and strong feelings and memories do this sometimes," what Aaron said hadn't been a complete lie, intense enough emotions could cause his ability to activate automatically.

"While Dittany is useful in all manners of healing potions, you would need to substitute the snake fangs with a different ingredient to avoid conflict.

"Seeing as you were talking about the subject of the class I will not take points from you, but do make sure to keep your ideas for outside of the class, it could distract your classmates, same thing with your… ability." Snape walked away, leaving Harry and most of the class in shock.

The rest of the class went without much surprise, Harry prevented Neville from melting his cauldron, which seemed to disappoint Snape slightly.

After Potions they had Transfiguration classes, where they witnessed a cat turning into their Professor, who warned them of all the horrible ways they could die if they took Transfiguration lightly.

They also turned matches into needles, with Aaron and Harry earning fifteen points each for turning their matches into matching needles with intricate shapes, Aaron's needle turned golden, with a red rose at the end, and Harry's turned silver, with a dark purple lily, causing Hermione to huff when hers only earned five.

After class, Harry and Aaron ran to their room, practically running from the worshiping stares the Gryffindors, who had by that point heard of what happened with Snape, were giving them.

"Wow, I get why you hate this, I never thought someone looking at me would be so exhausting," Aaron said.

"Yeah, and I had to endure six years of those, although they did mellow down at the end."

"At least we had a fun class," Aaron smirked.

"I can't believe that worked, should I do that too?"

"No way, if you do that, he will realize I was doing it on purpose and we'll go back to square one, or worse."

"Alright, at least tell me why it worked," Harry asked.

"The field of human psychology might be more terrifying than most mind magic, I made him associate me with Mom instead of Dad, I looked like her, talked like her, and I wasn't a brat like Dad used to be."

"Won't our pranks make him associate us with Dad again?"

"It will, but the brilliance of this plan is that my supposed Lily-like attitude will lower his hatred of Dad by proxy," Aaron said.

"What if it doesn't go as planned?"

"I guess we'll find out." Aaron said, changing into more comfortable clothes, he turned to his brother, " Are you ready?"

Changing his clothes with a snap, Harry nodded and started leading his brother outside and to the upper floors.

"So black hair?" he asked.

"I'll be blond, we need to look different, by this point, most people know about us shapeshifting, identical strangers would be a dead giveaway," Aaron replied, ducking into a secret passage following his brother, as they walked each step, their appearance changed.

Reaching their destination, on the seventh floor, Harry led them to a wall next to a painting of dancing trolls, walking three times in front of the wall, a door formed on the wall.

"Wow, this might be the most magical place in Hogwarts or at least the most fantastical," Aaron said, closing the door behind him.

"It is, isn't it? We would've lost the war if this room didn't exist, although Dumbledore died because of this room too," Harry replied.

"The D.A. was held here too, you were Professor Harry Potter."

"Yeah, this room contains some of my best memories, too bad it was destroyed with Fiendfyre after what Crabbe did."

"Seriously, casting a magic-eating fire in Hogwarts, if the room wasn't isolated from the rest of Hogwarts, the fire would've engulfed the school, and everyone inside," Aaron ranted.

"Magic eating fire? How would you know that?"

"Mom did some research on the spell, and when I mentioned reading about it, she made sure I had all the information so I wouldn't be stupid enough to cast it.

"If the theories about Hogwarts being built on lay lines are true, theoretically, the cursed fire could've spread through the whole world."

"Ok, that's way more dangerous than all the unforgivables combined." Harry shuddered.

"Yes, but that's just theory, according to Mom's research, if the caster dies, the fire follows soon after, though in Mom's words, 'she wasn't stupid enough to experiment that much with it'," Aaron said.

"On that terrifying note, let's start," Harry said.

"Alright then," Aaron pointed his wand at Harry.

"Legilimence"