The Enemy's Ball

9. Potions

Harry:

Harry sat next to Hermione and Ron, who had sat at the front of the room. Apparently no one wanted to sit there. But that didn't matter right now, Harry had bigger problems to think about, such as his inability to not stare at Malfoy. He sighed and stared at the blank black board. The professor, whoever that may be, had yet to arrive.

The classroom was dark and dimly lit, as expected from a room in the dungeons. Harry found himself wondering if this was how it was in the Slytherin common rooms. When he and Ron had... visited... them, they had been kind of dark, but it probably felt different to live there.

The door burst open and the students turned in their seats to see who it was. There were scattered gasps and mumbles. Harry himself almost fell out of his chair. Standing in the doorway was none other than Severus Snape. The professor flourished his robes and walked to the front of the room. He whipped around and faced his students.

"Welcome back students." Snape's eyes swept the room. "And yes, you are students, no matter what extra privileges you may have been allowed." He sneered.

Harry sat back in his chair, trying to take it in. How could Snape be alive? He was dead. Harry watched him die. And now the teacher was here, teaching as if nothing had happened. Harry wiped his eyes, this was no time to cry. Hermione and Ron were whispering next to him, and the whispers soon grew louder.

"Quiet!" Snape said. The class went silent immediately. Harry noticed that Malfoy hadn't even seemed fazed by Snape's revival. Harry was once again staring at Malfoy. He jerked his head away. "Pull out your book and turn to page three-hundred, ninety-four." Snape demanded.

Harry felt eyes on the back of his head, so he glanced back. Malfoy seemed to have dropped a quill, and his face was tinted pink.

There were butterflies in Harry's stomach, and he tried to suppress a grin. He was trying so hard to not stare at Malfoy, and he had just caught the Slytherin staring at him. He opened his book to page 394, and began to read: How to Brew the Perfect Healing Potion.

Hermione raised her hand and Ron glanced at Harry. They both sighed.

"Yes? Miss Granger." Snape sighed.

"Sir, at the bottom of the page here it says that we are to work with a partner." Hermione said.

Ron and Harry nodded at each other. It was to be expected of Hermione to not only have read the whole page, but also understood it, in such a short amount of time.

"Yes." Snape snarled, "I was getting to that." He looked over the class until his eyes landed on Malfoy. "I will be assigning you partners." The class was too scared to complain about that. "Longbottom with Abbot, Thomas and Finnigan..." He listed the groups. Hermione was paired off with a Ravenclaw, which she seemed delighted about. Ron sighed in relief when he wasn't paired with her, and Harry held back a snicker.

Snape had not yet called Harry's or Ron's name, and they were excited to work together. "Potter and Weasley," Snape drawled. Ron grinned. "And Malfoy." His grin evaporated.

Everyone stood up and sat with their partners. Harry switched seats with Ron, putting himself in the middle of Malfoy and his friend. Although he didn't really like the idea that he would be put in between the two, it was better than Ron stabbing Malfoy as he had just threatened.

"You are to read and know everything about this potion by tomorrow, and then you will begin brewing it." Snape said, and sat down at his desk.

Tiny whispers broke out among the students. Harry's desk was silent. He frowned and started reading. He got about two sentences in and had a question, so he looked up, the question on the tip of his tongue, where it quickly went away.