Harry didn't particularly care about Quidditch, but it seemed like a lot of special dispenses were given to the boy. No wonder the boy was so spoilt and entitled. What the hell had McGonagall been thinking when she gave him that position?
It had been almost two weeks since all the professors, for some reason, had chosen to partner him up with Hermione Granger, and Harry was starting to lose it. Don't get him wrong, it had nothing to do with her being a muggleborn Gryffindor. Yes, he had to admit that the girl was smart. Oh, she wasn't some prodigy like he imagined, just a lonely girl that spends every second of her life reading.
Honestly, Harry wouldn't care, really, if it wasn't for her attitude. She was just so inflexible with everything. She considered the textbooks to be gospel and did not even try to find an alternate way of solving a problem. It wasn't exactly a bad thing, since she was new to magic and experimenting with magic was dangerous, but the fact that she kept trying to boss Harry around was so frustrating. She kept watching him like a hawk and commented on every modification he tries to make to any spell.
One time during charms class, Harry was trying to modify the colour of the Periculum charm which sends red sparks from the wand. The Potter scion was able to turn the sparks into something resembling flares, and one where the sparks could be controlled by the wand, by combining certain elements of the Lumos Maxima spell.
The girl kept lecturing him on the proper wand movements of the spell, that he was doing it wrong and why it was wrong with a smug tone of superiority. She also seemed to develop some kind of rivalry with him; she tried to answer every possible question by the professors, while Harry rarely ever raised his hand. She tried to master spells before him, while he was trying to experiment with his magic. She was like a badgering beaver that wouldn't leave him alone and Harry was very close to blowing up on her.
He was definitely getting closer during the potions lesson. Snape had been grinning maliciously at him as he revealed his partnership with Granger. Potions were by far the worst place to stick him with Granger.
The girl quickly took command and asked him to prepare the ingredients while she brewed the potions, and Harry was too tired of arguing with her, having spent the previous night trying to modify the Contego shield which was a lot harder than it seemed. He did manage to add an extra layer to the shield and create the Contego Duo spell, but he was trying to turn the second layer into a repelling shield and be able to switch between them. It was the biggest project he had undertaken so far, and it was as hard as it sounded.
In this class, they were brewing a bruise healing potion. It wasn't that hard, considering how complex the subject could be. So, Harry prepared the ingredients as written on the board in silence with the possible arithmancy permutations of his new spell on his mind. Half an hour in, he finally started to look at the potion Granger was looking at.
It didn't look right. Oh, it had the right colour, but the melody was too soft, and out of tune. Harry looked at the instruction and saw that she had over stabilized the potion by adding too much flour. It was a perfectly acceptable error for a first year, where the potion recipes are often too stabilized to prevent accidents from happening, even if the effects are very reduced in their effectivity. To rectify it, Harry added a mild catalyst in the form of crushed unicorn horns that was already used as a main ingredient but was dissolved in the acid from before.
The moment Harry put the pinch of unicorn horn, the potion didn't change colour, but Harry could feel the difference in its song.
Happy with his work, Harry returned to dicing a few ingredients but was interrupted by a shrilly voice, "What do you think you were doing?"
The young Slytherin answered her with a bored tone, "I'm cutting the ingredients."
"What did you put in the potion?"
Choosing not to convince her that it was possible to modify a potion, "I don't know what you're talking about."
The girl started to get redder and redder, "I saw you put something in the potion!"
Harry shrugged, "Doesn't ring a bell."
"You're trying to ruin my grades, aren't you? Just because I'm better and I answer more questions in class, and I have a better potions grade than you. You're trying to ruin my grade so that you be better overall."
Seriously, what was that girl talking about? Harry didn't even know what her grades were, only that Snape seemed insistent on giving him no grade over Exceeds Expectations not that he cared. If the man wanted to be petty, then let him. As far as he was concerned, only the OWL and NEWT grades mattered, and they wouldn't be given by a childish teacher with a grudge.
Of course, the Batman wannabe had to sneak on them, "What is this ruckus, Miss Granger?"
Harry wanted to groan, he wanted nothing more than go back to the common room and just take a nap, "Potter sabotaged my potion, professor."
The greasy haired professor turned to Harry, "And what do you have to say about that?"
.....
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