4

4: Double Potions and Mudblood Meeting (May 30, 2003 to June 3, 2003)

If he had been in his world, he would have dreaded his first class of the new school year being Double Potions, but this was this world and he was actually looking forward to it. Even Draco, who in his world and this world was still one of Snape's favorite students looked at him like he was a bit of a nutter. But then again at least Draco half understood that during his spur-of-the-moment examination, Snape had somehow showed a nice and polite side of himself.

"It's Double Potions with Ravenclaw," Draco remarked as they headed toward the dungeons. "Not half bad actually, it could have been with Gryffindor like it was last year. At least, Slytherins don't have any double classes this year with Hufflepuff." He smirked when he noticed two girls that were obviously Ravenclaws since their heads were stuck in the books they were carrying. "If it isn't Mudblood Granger and her shadow sidekick, Padma Patil."

The glare that both girls sent their way was unduly harsh; thankfully for Harry, most of the fury and fire was aimed at Draco. When the girls had entered into the classroom, Harry lifted an eyebrow of inquiry at Draco's rather critical choice of diction. "I take it you two don't get along very well, Draco?"

Draco shrugged his shoulders. "We get along fine academically if we ever have to be partners," he explained. "It's just that Ron Weasley, the Gryffindor 6th year prefect is mad crazy over Granger, and well I usually don't pass up a chance to find a way to irritate him. The Granger girl's the best way to do it, since it gets passed on to him even if he's not there." He looked down at his watch and sighed. "The start of the first class and beginning of the year, though this year we don't have O.W.L.s luckily. Ordinary Wizarding Levels," he told Harry since he figured his friend didn't know. "Let's go in before Snape gets snappish at us for being late."

The two boys made a rather dashing entrance as they moved to the front of the aisle where all the Slytherins were sitting. To their immediate opposite sat both Hermione Granger and Padma Patil, both of whom still wore displeased expressions on their faces. Before Draco and Hermione were given the chance to bicker, Snape made his own noteworthy appearance by slamming the door shut to catch everyone's attention.

Everyone was prepared to tune out the usual speech he gave about twisting their innards out and being the devil on earth if anyone messed up their potions like Neville Longbottom. However, he didn't begin with that torrid of words that terrified first year students; instead, he gave a heavy and distasteful sigh as he shouted, "Stand up!" All the students immediately stood up at his command. "By the Headmaster's request, we will be mixing the Houses for this school year in the double classes."

Snape barely managed to hide the rolling of his eyes up heavenward, yet it could be worse- his double potions class could have been Slytherins with Gryffindors. Ravenclaws and Slytherins mostly got along all right. The keyword being mostly, he knew that if he put Draco with Granger, while both were brilliant potion students, he ran the risk of them tearing up his classroom with their bickering. Another problem was that if he put Granger with anyone without an ounce of ability, she'd end up doing their work for them. Damn Dumbledore and his hair brain schemes!

There was nothing to do but to put Granger with the newcomer. It did tweak his interest on what those two would be able to do together if they got along. Hopefully, Draco's animosity toward Granger hadn't yet been absorbed by his new assistant. "Ms. Granger, you're with Mr. Biggerstaff. Mr. Malfoy, you will be with Ms. Patil." He droned out the rest of the names, knowing that while Draco and Patil didn't get along that well they would were at least civil when Granger wasn't around.

He didn't know why Draco was so hostile to the Granger girl. True, the girl was a bit of a know it all and such, but the way he menaced the girl was outrageous. Then again, Snape smirked, it very well probably had to do with that Weasley boy's infatuation with Granger. What better way to annoy the Weasley boy than to bother his crush? While he didn't hate the Gryffindor prefect, he did find the boy simply insufferable with his foolhardy ways. What a damn troublemaker!

"I haven't properly introduced myself," Harry greeted Hermione with a shy smile as he offered his hand to her. "I'm Sebastian Ethan Biggerstaff. It's nice to meet your acquaintance Ms. Granger," he continued on politely. "I hope that we will be able to work well together."

Hermione narrowed her eyes as if she didn't trust his genial greeting. Then why should she? It was a well known fact that Slytherins were adamantly pro-purebloods and anti-mudbloods. She had no reason to see why this particular boy would be any different than his arrogantly rude friend, Draco Malfoy. And yet there was something about him that was distinctively different than Malfoy. He was gentler and it seemed... nicer. "Hermione Granger," she replied reluctantly, taking his hand briefly.

Whatever Harry might have said to her was forgotten when Snape began to introduce that their first lesson would be in making a potion that was not as powerful of a truth serum as Veritaserum would still work quite well with most people. The people that took the potion would like to tell the truth, but could with enough determination not answer though they couldn't lie. Overall, the potion was quite useful for lesser criminals.

It was a good thing that this was a Double Potions class since they needed to work up to the end of the period if they even hoped to finish brewing the tricky potion. While Draco took charge of the potion with Padma, Harry allowed Hermione to direct him on what to do. If they were going to be working as partners for the rest of their classes together he might as well try to get her to trust and rely on him. If things worked out the way he hoped they were going to, he'd be friends with Hermione in this world as well as his world.

"You need to smash the beetles into a fine powder," Hermione told him as she stirred some shriveled frog legs into the potion, turning it into a sickening shade of vomit green. "While I continue stirring clockwise," she remarked, "you need to add the powder one pinch at a time until the potion turns into a nice blood red."

He did exactly what she asked, making sure that she would find no fault in him. By the end of the class, they were done making the potion but not done waiting for it to cool down enough for them to try it. They weren't the only ones to finish the potion, by the time class was done Draco and Padma had managed to barely finish brewing the potion. The four of them were the only ones that had been able to, and they ended up gaining five points each for their success.

The ones that had failed in the class each got to write a one foot essay on why their potion had failed and another two feet essay on the practical uses of the potion. While the rest of the class groaned, Snape gestured to the two pairs that had succeeded to come to the front with their cooling potions. "So which one of you will test the potion?" he questioned, raising an inquiring eyebrow at each.

"I'll try it," Harry answered immediately, offering a small smile to Hermione since he knew that since the Polyjuice incident in their second year she wasn't too fond of trying out potions first. Then again, this was a different world and yet he didn't think that he wanted anything to happen to this Hermione if something was wrong with it.

"I think only one tester is needed," Snape remarked when both Draco and Padma failed to offer themselves as test guppies. "After all, both of your potions look exactly the same and I have watched you carefully. The potions have been done correctly, now we only need to test to make sure of that. Go ahead, Mr. Biggerstaff."

Secretly, Snape was quite pleased that Biggerstaff had offered to try the potion out. If he was going to be a Potions Master's assistant, he'd be expected to be brave enough to test out the potions that he'd be making when there was time for him to do his own projects. Being afraid to try one's work was a sign that one wasn't truly interested in the art of potion making. Potion making needed guts since one simply didn't know what would happen if the potion went wrong.

Harry took a mental breathe and reached down with a spoon to taste the potion. The taste wasn't as bad as he was expecting considering the ingredients that had been used to make it. When he'd swallowed it, he immediately began to feel a sensation of almost floating in a vacuum. Strange, almost reminded him of dimension sliding except that he definitely wasn't moving anywhere. "I feel lightheaded," Harry stated. "I think that's one of the physical symptoms that hints that the potion is working, right?"

Snape and Hermione nodded, that was definitely one of the symptoms. "Why don't we ask a question to Mr. Biggerstaff to confirm that this potion really makes someone not lie, though it won't make them answer a question. Hmmm... would you like to do the honors Ms. Granger as his partner?"

"What year are you in?" she asked, thinking it was better to begin easy.

"6th."

"What is your name?"

Oh, fuck! He wanted to say that his name was Harry Potter. His name was Harry Potter. Yet, it was true also that his name was Sebastian Ethan Biggerstaff, at least it was here. Was it a lie? No. It wasn't exactly the truth in his world, but in this world- it was to all in it. "Sebastian Ethan Biggerstaff."

"Have you ever kissed a girl?"

He smiled and reflected in his fifth year on the snog sessions he'd shared with Cho Chang before both of them concluded that they were much better as friends than as boyfriend and girlfriend. "Yes."

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"No."

"What is your favorite subject?"

Trust Hermione to come up with a question like that. At least it was more like her than the question about whether or not he'd kissed a girl. "Defense Against the Dark Arts," he responded automatically without really thinking. If he'd bothered to think of it a bit more, he suspected that it wouldn't be long before Potions replaced Defense as his favorite class.

For a long time, Hermione wasn't asking him any questions. Harry heard soft whispers around the room, questions that his classmates wanted to ask him but they didn't since Snape had made it clear that only Ms. Granger was allowed to ask the questions. Since the silence was going on for so long, he wondered if the questioning was going to continue or if it was already over. "Do you want to ask me anything else or am I done?"

Actually there was something that Hermione had wanted to ask him ever since she started questioning him. Like why had he been staring at her so intently at the Welcoming Feast? If Cho hadn't nudged her side, she wouldn't have even noticed that he'd been gazing at her so studiously. It unnerved her, and she'd blushed hotly when Cho had teased her that maybe the new boy liked her. It'd been a pleasant thought that a member of the opposite sex saw her as a girl rather than a walking brain.

"Why did you stare at me at the Welcoming Feast?"

Another question that he'd have to answer half truthfully, well he would answer it truthfully but not answer the entire truth. He must have the mindset to resist the potion, though it wasn't too much of a problem after getting around the Imperius Curse. Hmmm... "Because you remind me of a girl that I use to know. She always had her head in a book that she forgot about her surroundings. I miss her."

The tone of his voice was filled with an undertone of longing that she wondered what the girl had meant to him, if he had possibly thought of her as more than a brain to ask for help in schoolwork. It seemed all the boys that knew her wanted from her, even that Weasley boy that Cho kept teasing her that was infatuated with her. Maybe he did like her, but he hadn't seen her as anything but a book brain until recently.

"I think the potion works Professor Snape," Hermione stated primly but rigidly. "I don't think I really need to question him further, do you?"

Snape shook his head, a bit disappointed that Biggerstaff hadn't answered that Potions was his favorite class. "You have done very well, Ms. Granger and Mr. Biggerstaff as well as you two, Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Patil. This particular potion lasts about an hour before it needs to be administered again. Luckily, Mr. Biggerstaff here won't get to answer all your curious questions you have for him since I have made the antidote incase any of you succeeded in brewing this potion."

After handing and waiting for Biggerstaff to take it, he dismissed the class but asked that Biggerstaff stay after for a minute. Once the rest of the class had left, Snape explained why he'd asked the reason he wanted him to remain after, "I have carefully considered your schedule and I think that on Tuesdays and Thursday would be a good time for us to get together to work on the more complicated potions where I'll be needing your assistance. I will mostly need you to prepare the ingredients until I can fully assess your abilities."

Harry nodded and smiled at the rigid Potions Master. "After dinner then?" Snape nodded. "I'll see you then Professor Snape." He was about to leave, but he turned his head to glance over his shoulder and said, "Thanks for giving me the chance. I look forward to working with you." He really was, especially if he got to see a side of Snape that no one else did. He had always thought deep down that there was more to the man than stern severity and he was going to discover it.

Harry wasn't the only one looking forward to working with Snape. Snape himself was looking forward to it as well. It wasn't often that there was a student that had the talent and the ability to help him with his more difficult projects. If there was, the student often had issues caused by being terrified of him. The fear he struck into his students worked for and against him. It often caused them to hate and fear him, making them ingrain the knowledge more quickly into their heads as not to rouse his aggravation. At the same time, it also made them unable to work with him since they were unable to do anything without trembling. It seemed he'd finally found someone.

~

"Granger reminds you of someone? A girlfriend, maybe?" Draco started probing when Harry rejoined him in the hallway to make the great walk to Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. When Harry didn't answer him immediately, Draco nudged him in the side with his elbow. "You asked for it when you answered the question. Who does Granger remind you of?"

Harry sighed and pulled Draco toward him so that the students giving them curious looks wouldn't be able to overhear what he was about to say. "She reminds me of my best friend," he whispered into Draco's ear. "And stop with the girlfriend talk, you're giving everyone ideas to gossip on."

"Your answer will surely spark attention around the school," Draco retorted with a customary smirk. "You know once Weasley hears about this, he'll stalk you or confront you to leave her alone. He doesn't like anyone that's remotely male hanging around her. I mean, you said she reminds you of a girl, why didn't you say that she reminded you of her best friend? The implication of your words indicate girlfriend."

"I've never been interested in girls that way," Harry admitted softly, only loud enough for Draco to hear. He didn't really know why he was telling Draco this, after all Draco had always been his enemy in his world- and yet with this Draco he felt like he could tell everything to without having to worry about being judged. It was something that he'd always had to worry about with Ron, Ron was straight-laced about almost everything and entirely unreasonable when things didn't meet what he wanted to accept.

Only the slightest widening of Draco's eyes gave that he had even heard Harry's frank omission about his male persuasion. "Are you interested in me then?" Draco teased, an arrogant grin gracing his thin pink lips. He moved closer to Harry until their sides were nearly brushing against each other. "Because you know you are really sexy in that mysterious and loner type way you've got going for yourself."

If anything, Harry was more surprised by Draco's response than Draco was about his confession of his homosexuality. "You swing that way too?" Harry managed to stumble out his astonishment.

"Well," Draco amended, "I don't really care if it's a boy or a girl as long as their beautiful, do you get my drift? Both sexes have their own beauty and appeal, I just happen to be one of those lucky bastards out there that sees the duo attraction." He purposely and deliberately let his eyes trail up and down his friend's lean body. "I must say you are one of the prettiest boys in the school."

Harry blinked and then blushed. "Erm, thanks," Harry replied lamely. Trying to cover up his embarrassment, he started walking hurriedly and called over his shoulder, "We'd better get moving or we'll be late for Transfiguration, Draco!"