Chapter 53

Harry, have a seat please," said Professor Dumbledore, gesturing to one of the empty seats located on the opposite side of his desk.

He really did not wish to sit down; in fact he did wish to be here at all, but he sat anyway.

"I assume that you know why you are here?" asked Dumbledore.

Harry was well aware that this question was meant to be rhetorical, but answered anyway "No, I don't."

Of course, he knew perfectly well why he was here, but knew that his answer would throw Dumbledore for a moment.

Dumbledore stared at him for a moment before trying to mask his surprise by asking "You don't know why you are here?"

"Nope." he replied "Professor McGonagall summoned me and ordered me to follow her up here but gave no reason."

Dumbledore fixed him with a look and asked "And you can think of no reason as to why you might have been asked here?"

"Other than the possibility of you wanting to once again go over the specifics of our previous two meetings, then no, I cannot think of a reason."

"So you have no recollection of walking out of Professor Snape's potions lesson earlier?" asked Dumbledore.

"Oh, that!" said Harry in a tone that suggested that only Dumbledore's mentioning of his had brought it to the forefront of his mind "That was a simple situation that is being blown out of proportion."

"Arrogant brat!" snapped Snape "You're just like your father, never able to admit when he was in the wrong-"

At this point Harry stopped listening and tilted his head backwards and closed his eyes, his lips moving slightly as he spoke silently.

"What are you doing, Mr Potter?" asked Professor McGonagall.

Harry opened his eyes to look at her and answered "I am counting backwards from twenty in order to help keep myself calm. It's a well-established method, as is walking away from a situation that irritates you."

He turned back to Dumbledore and said "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, the situation in the potions classroom has been blown out of proportion. Near the end of the lesson, we were asked to place a sample of our work into a phial and hand it in. I did so, and Snape here decided to knock my work to the floor so as to-"

"Don't lie Potter!" snarled Snape, interrupting him once again.

Harry glared hatefully at the man before closing his eyes and tilting his head back once again. Snape made to say something else, but Dumbledore held up a hand to stop him.

Harry successfully counted down from twenty and then took a deep breath in order to speak again "Snape knocked my potion to the floor. When I collected another sample he smashed-"

"Headmaster, surely you don't believe this nonsense!" ranted Snape.

At this Harry stood and reached into his bag and took out his potions supply kit. From within he took the two phials of soothing solutions that he had made and set them onto Dumbledore's desk.

"This one was tested by Madam Pomfrey" he said, regarding the one of the left "the other has not been touched since coming out of my cauldron."

He reached into his robes and pulled out the piece of parchment that Madam Pomfrey had given him and used his wand to make a copy before tucking the original away again "This is a written review of my potion from Madam Pomfrey. Two other phials are being sent by Professor Umbridge to the offices of the Wizarding Examinations Authority at the Ministry, accompanied by a letter of explanation. This meeting is now over."

And with that he slung his bag over his shoulder and marched towards the doors of the office.

"Harry, please return to your seat," Dumbledore called after him and Snape shouted "Get back here Potter!"

Harry ignored the both of them and wrenched the office door open.

"I believe he just executed his second method of not losing your temper," observed Professor McGonagall.

Dumbledore heaved a great sigh and asked "Minerva, if you would?"

The transfiguration professor nodded and left the office in pursuit of Harry.

Once she was gone, Dumbledore turned in his seat in order to face the potions master "Is any of what Harry said true, Severus?"

Snape's nostrils flared in anger, but he said nothing.

"I have already warned you, Severus," said Dumbledore "in our current position you would do well to not antagonise young Harry so much. You must learn to keep your hatred for his father in check."

Again Snape said nothing. Instead he turned in a swish of his black robes and performed the same move that Harry had now used twice against him – walking away from the situation.

"Mr Potter!" McGonagall called out as she finally caught sight of him, in a corridor two flights of stairs away from the Headmaster's office.

He came to a halt and spun around to face her.

She caught up to him and was just about to ask him to return to Dumbledore's office when he cut her off with a question of his own.

"Are students attending Hogwarts allowed to hire their own personal tutors if they feel that the school's Professors are not good enough?"

The question gave McGonagall pause for a moment. It was certainly a common practice for students to have their own tutors back when she had been a student, though usually these had been for extra lessons in a subject, or for a subject not taught at Hogwarts. There were, of course, a handful of cases where the parents of a student requested their child be taught by a tutor rather than attend any of the lessons put on by Hogwarts staff, but those cases were few.

However, in all of her years of teaching, not once had a student had their own tutor. If you wanted to learn potions you went to Snape, if you wanted to learn charms you went to Flitwick. In addition there were clubs, such as the one that Madam Pomfrey ran for those wanting to learn a few healing techniques, and there was the charms club, as well as the out-of-school lessons. But the idea of a student relying solely upon a tutor rather than make use of a Hogwarts Professor was all but unheard of.

'Not since Dumbledore became Headmaster…' she thought, but it was quickly quashed.

"There is no rule against it, but such a thing has not happened in years," she answered him.

"Well then, it is about to happen," said Harry "Snape has made it very clear throughout the last four years that he does not want to teach me anything, and I see no reason why my education should suffer because of his attitude problems. I will be contacting the Wizarding Examinations Authority to see if they can recommend anyone for the job and I will tell you now, if any student wishes to join me in my tutorial periods rather than endure Snape any further, then I, for one, will welcome their decision."

"Is it really necessary for you to keep in getting the W. E. A. involved in your issues here at the school?" asked McGonagall.

"If you have a complaint to make, then it pays to make it to someone who will listen," replied Harry "Countless voices have complained about Snape over the years, and Dumbledore has done nothing about him. Nor, for that matter, has the Board of Governors. The W. E. A. is the final option available and if Dumbledore doesn't like it, then it's just tough luck – he should have reigned in his potions master sooner."

Just then the man in question came around the corner at the end of the corridor. Without even looking at them he stormed past them and disappeared through the door at the opposite end.

The bell rang signalling the end of lunch and the start of afternoon lessons.

Harry turned back to McGonagall and said "You'll have to excuse me Professor. As much as I would like to stand here and deliberate with you further, I have a study period that I must be getting to."

And with that he turned and headed towards the door that Snape had just gone through. At the door he paused and turned back towards the transfiguration professor "Oh, and just so you are aware, unless it is an absolute emergency, any further attempts by the Headmaster to summon me to his office today will be ignored. I have more important things to be doing with my time."

McGonagall returned to Dumbledore's office and informed him of what Harry had told her.

The old man paled slightly and said "This cannot be allowed to happen. If Harry starts taking tuition with another teacher then everyone else will want to follow suit."

The portrait of Quentin Trimble spoke up at that point "Mr Potter is well within his rights to select for himself an alternate tutor for his potions studies, Dumbledore, and you know this."

"And if other students choose to follow his lead then it is nobody's fault other than yours and Snape's." added Vindictus Viridian.

"Professor Snape," Dumbledore corrected them almost automatically.

The expressions on the faces of numerous past headmasters and headmistresses displayed exactly what they thought of that assertion.

"You'll just have to face it, Albus," said McGonagall "Harry wants nothing more to do with Severus and I, for one, can't say that I blame him. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a class of third years waiting."

In a swirl of tartan she turned and left the office.

"We warned you about ignoring all the complaints that are made about Snape, Dumbledore," said Dilys Derwent "I hope that you are prepared to reap what you have sown."

Dumbledore turned away from the portraits and took a lemon drop out of the bowl on his desk, all the while wondering how he was going to force Harry to continue studying potions under Snape's tutelage.

Harry arrived back at his private quarters and set his schoolbag down on the table. This was supposed to be the first of his study periods, set aside for the completion of homework and for going over the notes that he had taken in class to make sure that things made sense and that he learned them.

However, he currently had no homework, Umbridge's class had not featured any note-taking, and he had learned practically nothing in Snape's class.

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