I am not the heir of Slytherin, I am Slytherin.

Chapter 18

No one POV

It wasn't until Thursday that they had the class Harry, or rather Salazar, was looking forward most to. Potions. Double potions in fact. Though they were only making a shrinking solution. Something Harry could make in his sleep.

Harry, Neville, Hermione, Ron and Malfoy were preparing their ingredients on the same table. Once he was sure that no one who didn't know his secret was looking his way, especially Snape, he waved his hand and the daisy roots were cut up into perfect equal pieces within 10 seconds. Ron had seen it though and was gaping.

"How did you do that?" He whispered.

"Wandless magic. The type of wandless magic that won't harm the ingredients. Something only potions masters knew. I don't think Snape does. It is a magic lost in time," Harry whispered back before waving his hand again and his shrivelfig was skinned to perfection and his caterpillars were sliced. 

He was making the potion perfectly when he saw something that made his blood boil. Malfoy was about to add two rat spleens to Neville's potion, so he quickly waved his hand and put up a potions shield. Nothing unwanted would go in and if the potion exploded, no one would be hurt. Afterall, Godric, though was an acceptable brewer, still frequently made mistakes.

Harry left his potion to simmer and watched in amusement as Malfoy tried to throw the ingredients into Neville's cauldron but it came in contact with the barrier and hit Malfoy in the face before falling into his potion, which began changing into a rather violent shade of magenta. Malfoy quickly began trying to fix his potion, unsuccessfully. Harry had to hide a snort.

"Hey, Harry," said Seamus Finnigan, leaning over to borrow Harry's brass scales, "have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning — they reckon Bellatrix Lestrange's been sighted." 

"Where?" said Harry, Ron and Neville quickly. On the other side of the table, Malfoy looked up from his messed up potion, listening closely.

"Not too far from here," said Seamus, who looked excited. "It was a Muggle who saw her. 'Course, she didn't really understand. The Muggles think she's just an ordinary criminal, don't they? So she phoned the telephone hot line. By the time the Ministry of Magic got there, she was gone."

"Not too far from here . . . ," Ron repeated, looking significantly at Harry. Harry saw Malfoy watching closely. "What, Malfoy? Need help in correcting your potion?"

But Malfoy's eyes were shining malevolently, and they were fixed on Neville. He leaned across the table.

"Thinking of trying to catch Lestrange single-handed, Longbottom?" 

"Yeah, that's right," said Neville offhandedly. 

Malfoy's thin mouth was curving in a mean smile. 

"Of course, if it was me," he said quietly, "I'd have done something before now. I wouldn't be staying in school like a good boy, I'd be out there looking for her." 

"What are you talking about, Malfoy?" said Ron roughly, but Harry and Neville exchanged dark looks.

"Maybe you'd rather not risk your neck," he said. "Want to leave it to the dementors, do you? But if it was me, I'd want revenge. I'd hunt her down myself."

"Malfoy, mind your own business. Why do you care what we do? Scared that your aunt will be caught by the dementors?" Harry shot back. Draco spluttered in embarrassment.

"Aunt?" Ron looked up in surprise.

"Yeah, she is Lady Malfoy's sister," Harry said with a careless shrug. That shut Draco up. He didn't talk to them after that, going back to correcting his, now purple, potion.

 Soon Harry's potion turned the perfect shade of green. He packed away the unused ingredients and went to wash his hands and ladles in the stone basin in the corner but Snape stopped him.

"Where are you going already Potter? This potion takes more time to brew."

"But mine's ready, professor," Harry said and went back to his cauldron with Snape following him. Harry had already packed five vials of the potions and put them in his pocket and one vial was kept to hand in at the end of the lesson, which was far away.

Snape ladled the remaining potion with a look of surprise and shock on his face. His occlumency didn't seem to be helping him. He looked at Harry with those expressions clear on his face. 

"How, Potter, did you manage to brew this potion to perfection in so less time? I hardly expected you being finished preparing the ingredients," he whispered. The entire class was looking at them.

"I have practiced a lot this summer, given I was living in the Potter Manor," Harry said offhandedly.

"And how do I believe that you did not buy this potion from a shop and pour it in the cauldron?" Snape hissed, unwilling to accept that Harry could brew so well.

"If you want, I can brew again with you watching me every second. I can also swear on my magic if you want me to that I brewed this potion by myself right now," Harry replied without wavering. 

Snape was shocked to say the least. The air of confidence was not fake and he could see that the potion was extremely fresh, brewed less than an hour ago. He just didn't want to believe that Potter could suddenly brew a perfect potion so quickly. In fact, even Severus couldn't brew it this fast if the ingredients weren't already prepared.

"Twenty five points to  Gryffindor," He said begrudgingly. Everyone was shocked. Snape gave points to Gryffindor. He gave points to Harry Potter. Snape turned to Neville next and Harry went back to the stone basin and washed his hands and ladles. 

When he came back, he could see the absolute fury and shock in Snape's face at seeing Neville's potion perfect so far. Snape just couldn't understand how two really bad brewers be perfectionists today. He then turned to Malfoy, whose potion was laughable because of the ingredient hitting  him in the face and falling into his potion instead of falling in Neville's cauldron and Harry had brought up Draco's relation to Bellatrix, due to which Malfoy was unable to pay much attention to his potion. He lost Slytherin five points and got a detention due to Snape's extremely bad mood. Harry smirked and began helping Ron with his ingredients.

At the end of the class, the best potions belonged to Harry, Hermione and Neville, followed by Ron. 

When they made to leave, Snape called out. "Mr. Potter stay back." Harry shrugged and waved the others to go to the Great Hall for lunch.

"Yes Professor Snape?" He asked once he reached the Professor's desk. Severus motioned for Harry to sit and waved his wand, closing the door.

"Now tell me Potter. How did you brew the potion so quickly and flawlessly? How did you cast a Patronus on the train? I know you are hiding something and it's clear that you are. You have developed strong occlumency shields to protect it too. What are you hiding?"

"Professor, as you said, I have developed occlumency shields to protect my secrets. Then why would I tell anyone, especially you? As for the potion, practice makes perfect. The patronus, I learned to cast it without actually casting it during the summer. That practice paid off when I actually came face to face with a dementor. So technically, I did not break any rules. I did not use my wand to practice. Just learned the method to do it so that I can actually do it when I back to Hogwarts. I am not telling anything more," Harry said with crossed arms. Snape was taken aback.

"What would a thirteen year old have to hide that he would be so good at occlumency that not even an accomplished Legilimens can break through? Because I heard that Dumbledore also felt them," Snape spat out.

"So you are telling me that you and Professor Dumbledore use legilimency on me often? Is that even legal?" Harry shot straight back. Snape spluttered indignantly and huffed before dismissing Harry.

Harry left with a smug look on his face and went to the Great Hall.

~Hello dear readers (I know.you actually exist). Thank you very much for 5.1k reads! I can't believe I crossed the 5k milestone already. When I started the story, it was only an outlet for the ideas that keep churning in my head all the time. I barely expected a hundred readers. Thank you very much once again. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Signing off~