In Potions class, students stopped what they were doing and their eyes focused on Harry and Snape.
"What are you doing, Potter?"
"I, I'm looking at the steps." Harry stammered.
"What's that in your hand, bring it to me!"
Harry showed a clear sign of rejection and his hand clutching the parchment subconsciously went behind him, but Snape walked over and snatched it away. Then he began to read the writing on it.
Harry looked furious, he hadn't done anything wrong, and he wasn't banging the cauldron like Crabbe and Goyle, which was a serious breach of classroom discipline, so why is he only bothering him?
Soon Snape's expression turned suspicious as he glanced back and forth between the parchment and Harry, sizing him up with a gaze that made Harry uncomfortable as he subconsciously used Occlumency.
A mocking smile tugged at the corner of Snape's mouth.
A wave of quick relief rose up in Harry for no apparent reason. He was actually expecting Snape to find fault with him and ask him where he got all this information, so he could say 'I got some help from Professor Hap and the Half-Blood Prince, and frankly, I think they are teaching me better.'
He didn't care about the fact that Snape had published a number of dissertations about the new material Blast-Ended Skrewt mucus some time ago or about the published comment in some newspaper that says he was 'just one recommendation away' from the Order of Merlin; all he knew for sure is that he and Snape hated each other, and every time that hatred waned a little, Snape had a way of blazing it up with a word or two, or even a look in his eyes is enough to push the hatred back to new heights in Harry's mind.
But Snape ignored Harry.
He circled around to the other side and reached out to take the textbook off the table, and Ron and Neville let out a faint groan from their throats as if they were being choked, but Harry shook his head at them, and they immediately relaxed their nerves.
Hermione grunted softly through her nose.
Snape flipped through the textbook, but it was just a very ordinary textbook, except for the two more sheets of parchment he had retrieved from it. Neville didn't need to look at them to know that Harry had recorded the simplified moderating and reinforcing procedure for the potion ingredients on them because he was the one that had tucked them inside the book.
Snape read them carefully, and only the gurgling sound of boiling potion from the cauldron was heard in the classroom; pretty soon white steam began to fill the room, but the students in the class seemed to forget to look after their own work and stared at their side with rapt attention.
Snape lowered the parchment, his hawkish nose disappearing in the steam.
"I underestimated you, Potter." He said calmly, "Apparently, once again, you've gained something that doesn't belong to you by virtue of your accrued fame; perhaps I should go through the list of members of the 'Harry Potter Fan Club'; the names on it might surprise me."
"That's interesting, you check it out." Harry said through gritted teeth while waiting for him to ask the question: where did the contents on it come from, he can't wait ...
"You should call me 'sir', or 'professor'." Snape said coldly, as he turned through a blurred layer of fog and returned to the podium. "Harry Potter, how many points should I deduce for tampering with the textbook, breaking the rules, and talking back to your teacher?"
Despite not being able to see his eyes, Harry could feel an unkind gaze fall on him.
Gryffindor students scowled at Snape all at once.
"I thought normal professors would reward the innovative ideas that meet the specifications!" A pinched voice echoed through the fog.
"Who!" Snape shouted angrily, but the voice died away. He waved his sleeve and the window burst open, the classroom drained of its pearly white mist in the blink of an eye, the students below stared at him in silence and Harry noticed Seamus quietly remove his hand from near his throat, and he is certain there must be a wand hidden inside that broad robe.
"No one's going to admit it? Eh?" Snape said slowly, the students were immediately taken aback, and it was clear that Snape was quite pleased with the state of the class as he pulled a slip of parchment out of nowhere, spread it out, and nonchalantly picked up the quill on the lectern and dipped it in full ink:
"Let's see, Gryffindor each gets a five points deduction-"
"Wait!" Harry shouted, feeling he had to do something. Snape paused cooperatively, his eyes displayed the sophistication and cunning of a hunter chasing his prey, which let Harry know that all his struggles would be to no avail, when a flash of light went through Harry's head and the memory of when Professor Hap had pulled out the textbook popped up. Harry shouted, "You can't deny this method unless you want to deny your own-"
At the words, both Harry and Snape froze.
Hermione froze too as she thought of something and inhaled softly, looking at Snape incredulously.
"Shut up, Potter." Snape said, "Sit down - and you guys, I'd like to see what sort of crap you are going to produce in this class!" He stopped paying attention to Harry and walked around the classroom, pointing out the students' mistakes one by one.
Harry sat down dizzily and stared at his cauldron.
"That's brilliant, Harry!" Ron said as an aside, "We need to get a grip, there's not much time left, eh? I thought it was boiling dilute before, now it's just right."
Harry didn't listen that much during the afternoon classes, and Sirius asked him what was wrong, which he brushed off with an upset stomach excuse. In the evening, he worked on his assignment in the library with Ron and Hermione, and Ron was incredibly efficient today, finishing his assignment an hour ahead of Harry.
He even had the extra energy to look through the fifth-year Potions textbook Professor Hap had given them.
"It's a shame I can only make out Professor Hap's handwriting, the other one's too scribbly." Ron couldn't help but mutter, his eyes almost brought near the pages, as he stared at the blackened mess of ink stains.
Hermione's attitude was complicated, she did her best to help them organize the notes, but she was also determined that she wouldn't do what it said.
"Hermione, Snape is wrong about everything he teaches in class." Ron held up steps in the textbook and pointed them out to her.
"That's an error in the textbook." Hermione calmly answered.
"Well - what are you saying?"
"If you had listened carefully, you would have noticed that Snape always shows the ingredients and the method of preparation on the board every time, you didn't think it was exactly the same as the textbook, did you?"
Ron stared at her dazedly, and even a somewhat depressed Harry stared at her.
Hermione sighed, "Harry, you shouldn't just listen to half of what you're told, although Professor Hap implied that Professor Snape is a half-blood prince, he likewise said that Snape is teaching in correct methodology-"
"Wait!" Ron yelled, "Half-blood prince? Who? Did you say Snape? Him?" He stared at Harry and Hermione's faces and managed to get some sort of evidence. "You guys ... know all about it? When did this happen? Why am I not aware of it?"
He threw out a series of questions in one breath, but neither Harry nor Hermione answered him. Harry was in a depressed mood and didn't want to answer, while Hermione was packing up her things quickly, stuffing the parchments, ink bottle, and textbooks into her book bag in one go, zipping it up and getting up to leave hurriedly.
"Where are you going?" Ron shouted.
"Of course, I am running away as fast as I can, and for a reminder, Mrs. Pince will appear in about ten seconds." She dashed off on her feet and slipped away.
Harry and Ron froze for a few seconds then yelped in unison and quickly gathered their things, and sure enough, a few seconds later the grim face of Mrs. Pince, the librarian, appeared, brimming with anger.
" Yelling in the library! What's that? Scribbling on a book? A gross blasphemy! A despicable act-"
"It's my book!" Harry shouted, grabbing his Potions textbook from her and running out of the library clutching various bits and pieces, with a flying feather duster following behind them, both he and Ron received a few smacks.
"This sucks, can't Hermione tell us in advance?" Ron rubbed the back of his head indignantly, "It's bloody swollen."
When they got back to the common room, Hermione was reading a book while sitting elegantly.
Ron immediately became furious and snapped at her, which made Hermione's eyebrows arch as she listened. Harry also had some complaints, but he had other things on his mind, so he used the Muffliato Charm to interrupt Ron and asked, "Hermione, have you thought about Firenze and Luna's recent Prophecy?"
"You're still obsessing about it." Hermione asked, as if she had forgotten about it.
"Merlin's beard," Ron said excitedly, immediately forgetting all about his earlier outburst, as if he hadn't been the one who had called out Hermione earlier. "That's a prophecy that points to the Deathly Hallows, we could even consider it as a proof that proves that the Deathly Hallows really exist!"
"Maybe." Hermione said lightly, "Remember what we discussed last time? The Elder Wand may be real, but the Resurrection Stone and the Invisibility Cloak-"
"Harry's Invisibility cloak might be the one from the legend." Ron said, this is one of the possibilities they had previously discussed.
"Okay, I don't want to argue with you guys." Hermione said, "But the Resurrection Stone." She said firmly, "There can't be such a thing, at best, at best it's some deceptive imitation that's vastly less effective, maybe even an evil artefact that can only be used to control armies of Inferius or something."
Harry and Ron stared at her, they had already become accustomed to hearing this same reasoning, but they are just as helpless as they were before, unable to come up with any evidence to refute it. So for the moment, they could only listen to Hermione repeat it again.
"Firstly, even in the Fairy Tale of the Three Brothers, the Resurrection Stone does not bring people back to life, as you can remember, the second brother who got it ended up committing suicide; Secondly, all existing magical theories do not support the idea of resurrection from the dead, at best there are some similar alternatives, such as ghosts, magical portraits, the memory body of Classroom Seven, or even... ..." Hermione mouthed a word, and Harry and Ron knew she wanted to say Horcrux.
"... is also nothing more than a fragment of your soul forcefully tugging your soul to linger in the world."
"Does the time-turner barely count?" Harry asked softly.
" No way it could possibly be capable of support the return of a definitively dead person to the human world - in a living form!" Hermione said firmly, "Remember Ms. Grey, as long as the dead person chooses to 'go on', there's nothing anyone can do to stop it."
"And finally, I don't know if you noticed, but Luna's prophecy - let's just assume it's a prophecy - says that she passes by the Resurrection Stone, which means that she won't be able to get it in the end, or use it to fulfil her wishes."
After a moment of silence, Harry asked, "Hermione, maybe you're right, but it doesn't prevent the fact that Luna's prophecy mentioned the Resurrection Stone - or a similar artefact - being in the school. If that's true, who would have it now?"
"Headmaster Dumbledore?" Ron guessed, "Or maybe it's in Professor Hap's possession!"
"That's not necessarily true," Harry said, "it's likely that the person who owns it is also unaware of it himself."
"What do you mean?"
"The Elder Wand would probably just look like an ordinary wand, wouldn't it? If it had been particularly conspicuous and extraordinary at a glance, it wouldn't have become an unsolved mystery." Harry said, "The same might be true for the Resurrection Stone, as in - as in -" he racked his brain for examples.
"A Philosopher's Stone?" Hermione replied.
"Exactly!" Harry slapped his thighs together and said excitedly, "I've seen the Philosopher's Stone, and I've touched it! It looks so mundane compared to its immense fame. I mean, it's just a somewhat brightly coloured red stone, and it doesn't even compare to the Moonstone."
Of course, Ron and Hermione knew what Moonstone is, it is a pretty useful potion ingredient that can also be used in jewellery - with a little polishing, these stones will bloom with a halo of ghostly blue or bright white that resembles moonlight.
"Then there's no way to find it." Ron said, with disappointment.
"Seriously," Hermione looked up from her book, "do you guys realize that the O.W.Ls exams are less than four weeks away? Even if you can take a make-up exam, I doubt that after a year's delay, you'll still have enough time to get your N.E.W.Ts certificates before we graduate."
Harry and Ron immediately became as sullen as defeated roosters, losing all temper and lazily resuming their assignments. After a while, Hermione dropped the book in her hand and stood up to leave in a victorious manner.
" There you go, I've finished reading it."
Everyone was studying hard as the exams approached, and despite Harry's constant yawns, he struggled to read the words in the textbook. This was when the Advanced Potion-Making book Hermione had left behind became very attractive, and Harry had been wanting to see the description of the Polyjuice Potion in it.
"How did you do that?" He rubbed his forehead drowsily.
"What?" Ron asked, reading the History of Magic textbook with avid interest, which seemed incredible to Harry. If there is any time Ron looked at it for five minutes without dozing off, it means he is acting abnormal.
"It's like you're on steroids." Harry yawned again, wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes as he said.
"What's a steroid? Never mind, it doesn't matter. I did drink something though."
Ron looked around and sneakily pulled a small vial of potion out of his pocket.
Harry stared at the glass vial in shock, recognizing the contents, after all he had just seen it in Potions class today-
"Vitality Potion?"
"Shhh! Smuggled it out of class," Ron said, handing it to Harry from under the table, and Harry instantly understood why Ron had been so energetic all afternoon. Ron lowered his voice and said, "We need it, and it's just right for us."
Harry suddenly felt a little tempted, the potion worked by temporarily boosting the user's vitality and giving a boost of energy.
"How does it works?" Harry asked in a whisper, he felt he had to ask this because a few weeks ago their grades were hovering between 'passing' and 'failing' and he just didn't have the courage to drink the potion that Ron - -or himself - had personally prepared.
If only Hermione had prepared it. She is absolutely trustworthy in this area, Harry thought as she had managed to successfully brew a polyjuice potion in the second year, with an hour-long duration of effect. And this is Advanced class content.
But on second thought, if Hermione learned about it, she most likely would exercise her Prefect powers immediately and confiscate the vial from his hand.
"Works like a charm!" Ron said, pointing to himself.
For the next ten minutes or so, Ron enthusiastically promoted his potion, while Harry hesitated - he seriously doubted that this enthusiasm of Ron's came from the side effects of the potion, but it certainly isn't unacceptable, so he took a small sip.
"How does it taste?" Ron asked with a look of anticipation.
"Well ... it's probably not bad?" Harry replied uncertainly, not perceiving any effect.
"One more sip." Ron said encouragingly.
Harry took another small sip when someone tapped him on the shoulder, "I heard you and Snape had a fight, Harry?" Harry choked, the potion fully gulped down his throat all at once, and he began to cough violently for a good while.
"Oh, I'm really sorry," Fred said, spreading his hands, "what are you drinking? Some kind of scar removing potion?"
Harry rolled his eyes at him without a smile. George sat down next to him and took the small glass vial from Harry's hand to examine it carefully, the light blue liquid inside barely made it past the bottom layer. George shook it and sniffed it a bit, "Vitality potion?"
"Very knowledgeable." Ron pretended to compliment.
"I hope you strictly followed the instructions on how to take it." Fred suddenly jumped forward.
" Or else what would happen?" Harry asked worriedly, but Fred and George's faces showed both apprehension and gloating at the same time.
"Nothing really, except that you might not be able to sleep." George said briefly.
"-slightly hyper." Fred said very nostalgically, ignoring the two men's somewhat pale faces.
Some time passed after they left and the last person in the common room had also departed. Only Harry and Ron remained behind, but they didn't feel like going to bed at all, "We can't go on like this, we have class tomorrow." Harry made a snap decision and dragged Ron to their dorm room.
But they were completely sleep-deprived and were lying in bed, tossing and turning, before finally slipping back into the common room.
"I can't believe that being energetic can be a torture." Ron said, his eyes staring straight at Harry for almost three seconds. In one moment he took out his History of Magic textbook, intending to spend the night going through it, in another he wanted to practice magic with Harry, and the next instant he offered to go for a walk.
"You can read a book with me." Harry said, he is now reading the book Hermione left behind, Advanced Potion-Making, the chapter names alone are enough to get one excited: Draught of Living Death, Polyjuice Potion, Elixir to Induce Euphoria, Everlasting Elixirs, Hiccoughing Solution...
But he was mostly reading the notes of two people, and the thought that one of them might have come from Snape in his school days gave him a twinge of nausea.
Ron's symptoms tended to worsen as he began to become hysterical, developing an inexplicable worry, "What if I can't sleep again?" He said with a horrified look on his face, "Or what would happen when the potion wears off I fall asleep and can't wake up again?"
"That's the effect of the Draught of Living Death." Harry couldn't resist showing off the knowledge he had just read, "You can brew one yourself later if you need it, provided we can manage to get into the Advanced class."
Finally, Ron made a very irrational request, one that would never have come out of his mouth if he is in his right mind.
"Knock me out." Ron said with a gloomy look on his face.
"What?" Harry looked at him in surprise.
"I don't bloody care! I need to sleep, I have class tomorrow." Ron said, then he started rambling, walking around the common room, coming over to tease Harry every now and then, and finally, Harry drew his wand and agreed to Ron's request.
There was a flash of red light and Ron passed out happily.
After that Harry brought him back to their dormitory, he looked at Ron, who had a small smile on his lips, and suddenly panicked a little, what if he became like that himself in a moment?
Who would knock him out?
When he saw Neville, Seamus, and Dean, who were sleeping soundly, Harry was slightly relaxed, he could wake one of them up to help knock him out if necessary before he makes a bigger scene.
Moodily Harry carried his little magic lamp back to the common room and glared at the old textbook.
He glanced at the window, the moon is still high in the sky, and the distant end of the Forbidden Forest is splashed with grey-green colour; he reckons there is still four or five hours before dawn, which means he has a good chunk of free time to do what he wants to do. Maybe it is a good idea to go out for a stroll? He suddenly thought of the idea Ron had suggested earlier, followed by a churning in his stomach.
The side effects of the potion wouldn't have kicked in already, right?
He muttered under his breath, "Expecto Patronum." A stag jumped out, its silver body translucent like crystal, its fur distinctly visible. Harry gently stroked the stag's antlers and head, which felt very real to touch.
The uneasiness in his mind disappeared, and he continued to read the book, Advanced Potion-Making.
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