"Wow, you really cut these really thin," Lavender said, admiring Harry's sliced ginger root.
"It's a julienne cut," Harry explained. "And you can get really uniform pieces if you make thin planks of the ginger first. Like this." He showed Lavender and Parvati how to square the ginger first, trimming the root into an even rectangle and slicing them thinly width-wise before cutting long thin pieces.
"Huh, you know, I think my mum tried to teach me this once," Parvati remarked.
"For Potions?" Lavender asked.
"No, for cooking," Parvati said. "I didn't pay attention 'cause I don't care to cook much but now I wish I did. Though she didn't do it as neatly as this."
"How did you learn to cut things?" Lavender asked.
"I was lucky to have a couple of cookbooks and one of them taught knife cuts," Harry said as he continued to work on his potion materials. "The few times I was allowed to watch the telly were cooking shows too." So engrossed in his work, he missed the look Lavender and Parvati exchanged.
"It's actually really interesting that potion prepping is a lot like cooking knife cuts," Harry continued. "I noticed that when I was reading the book before school started."
"Gosh, I need to introduce you to my sister. She read the textbooks before school started too," Parvati laughed. "Maybe you should have gotten into Ravenclaw too."
"I only read the Potions one," Harry laughed. "It interested me the most 'cause, well you know."
"You really like to think about cooking and stuff," Lavender said gently, remembering how it was said another way at another time.
Harry smiled gratefully, catching the change in tone and meaning. "Yeah, it's fun."
They continued to work together, checking the instructions on the board and reading the related material in the textbooks. "Oh wait," Parvati said, "I think we need to add the daisy petals before the rose petals."
"Oh you're right, thanks," Harry said after he rechecked the instructions.
"Shouldn't you be better at following a recipe?" Lavender teased.
"Everyone makes mistakes," Harry laughed. "One time when I was younger I completely skipped a step and forgot to cook out the flour in a gravy. It came out lumpy and tasted like flour, it was pretty bad."
"Aww, what did you do after?" Lavender asked.
"I had to remake it so the Dursleys had proper gravy and then I had to eat all of the gravy I messed up." He shrugged but once again missed the look the girls gave each other. "Lesson learned though. Some steps you can't skip or mix up."
"Well at least this potion doesn't look lumpy," Lavender said with a smile.
"It does look flowery though, with the petals," Parvati said. She giggled mightily while Lavender groaned and Harry joined her merriment.
...
Two sets of eyes watched the trio.
Snape split his attention between the rest of the class and with them. He was still having trouble coming to terms with Harry's presence. He looked so much like his father and Snape loathed James Potter. Harry also had his mother's eyes and Snape had very complicated feelings around Lily Potter nee Evans. He very much wanted to make Harry suffer like how James made him suffer when they were students at Hogwarts.
Unfortunately, Harry seemed to actually like Potions and that was confusing to Snape. Lily had been very good at Potions so perhaps it was a hereditary trait. Snape wanted to find fault in Harry's work, in his demeanor. He had carefully chosen three questions to humiliate Harry that first class, questions the boy should not have known.
Yet Harry had answered two of them correctly and despite the coldness that Snape exuded, the boy had continued to pay attention in class, complete his homework well, and brew perfectly acceptable potions.
Snape had been livid when Harry compared Potions to cooking, but one cannot deny that Harry was decent at the art, and thus Snape was developing some very complicated feelings around Harry as well.
Perhaps that was another hereditary trait.
Draco was seething. It was not fair to his mind. He should be the one standing out, he should be the favorite. Yet Snape seemed to pay more attention to Harry and it was not wholly negative.
True, Harry had yet to earn any points, despite answering things correctly or doing well. True, Draco had earned points for his talent and skills. Yet Harry was not being beaten down here when Draco had counted on it. It nettled him.
The initial meeting on the Hogwarts Express still rankled him. He had pushed his way into the compartment, ready to prove how much Harry needed Draco. He was ready to take Harry in, to teach him how things were done.
Yet the boy had not laughed at the insult Draco threw at Ron, had ignored his offer to replace the plebian sandwich that he was eating, and refused Draco's obviously superior friendship. The only highlight from that disastrous encounter was that it appeared Harry was not close to Ron either.