I'm fine, leave me alone!

chapter 7 - first lesson

- Story originally written 20th January 2020, fully edited 18th March 2023 and further edited 30th December 2023.
- This part was originally re-published March 18th 2023. Renamed 3rd January 2024.

Warnings:
> 0
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Harry Potter walked down the student-filled hallway towards his first class of 5th year at Hogwarts, potions taught by Severus Snape. Harry's new green accented robes swayed against his legs, students stared at him in wonder, why was the Harry Potter, the boy who lived, the golden child, why was he wearing Slytherin robes and not his usual red attire?

He kept his eyes on the ground as he walked, ignoring the whispers and the questions, he didn't want to be late to Snape's lesson. Especially after the resorting, they'd removed points from an entirely different house. Now in the classroom, more students whispered about his uniform change. This class was a mix of Gryffindor and Slytherin and upon his arrival Harry noticed Ron sitting in one of the rows of seats.

He wouldn't see Hermione in this class because of her new placement in Ravenclaw. Gryffindor and Ravenclaw rarely, if ever, share classes. Harry always thought it was because Ravenclaw is classed as too smart.

Majority of the students in the class were sat down ready for the lesson to begin while the rest stood at the front reading from a sheet of paper, this paper revealed the seating plan for the students. Not many classes at Hogwarts have assigned seating but Snape's classes were never without them.

Finally managing to get to the thin white sheet on the desk Harry looked for his name among the the list, "Potter, I've seated you next to Malfoy, this will give you extra time to meet new housemates and figure out any existing," he pauses, seeming to look for the correct way of wording it, "Issues you may have." Snape stood to the left of the tired looking boy, Harry knew what Snape was referring to, he and Malfoy's long argumentative relationship with each other.

Following an awkward half smile at each other, Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were now seated, and for the first time in years they were seated next to one another. A loud slam of the door caught the young witches and wizards attention, Snape and his long, back cape hanging over his shoulders and down past his ankles, after slamming the classroom door shut, he made his way to the front of the class, never fails, he would think every time.

"Today we will be learning how to prepare and ingest the 'wit-sharpening' potion. This potion is an indirect cure to the confundus charm, you will be following the instructions from the book placed on your desks, page two-hundred and thirty nine." the class flipped through to the page they needed, this included Draco. They both read the instructions on the off-white paper.

1. Use a knife to cut off two pieces of ginger root and add to the cauldron. Potion should turn from blue to green.

2. Add armadillo bile until the potion turns blue.

3. Grind scarab beetles in pestle, sprinkle into cauldron until potion turns red.

4. Add more armadillo bile until the potion turns purple.

5. Chop four pieces more of ginger root and add to the cauldron. Potion should turn green.

6. Stir clockwise until the potion turns purple.

"You and your partner will have just this lesson to complete a successful batch of the potion, begin." Snape then turned on his heels and walked to his corner desk, it was unorganised to say the least, stacks of books were placed against the wall, papers scattered all over and nearly all of the drawers weren't entirely shut. Harry wasn't much better; his small desk at the Dursley's was a mess, far worse than Snape's.

As students readied themselves with their ingredients, Harry and Draco read the instructions over once again, "It doesn't appear to be too difficult, I'll get the bile, beetles and the knife. You grab the board, stirring utensils and ginger root." After a plan was made they both headed to different sides of the classroom to get what they needed, the cauldrons were always placed on the tables before the beginning of the lessons. Maybe they were just too lazy to have another shelf in the room to account for.

Now with all the ingredients counted for they started getting to work, before Harry started working he looked towards the items laid out on the table, poor armadillo.

The two boys could hear curses and explosions around the room, the potion seemed easy but there were no students' who seemed able to complete it. The only table that hadn't experienced an eruption was Harry's and Draco's who were still working on their first batch.

They completed a small number of steps then Harry spoke, for the first time throughout the day so far, "Somethings wrong with the potion, it doesn't make sense." Draco looked over at the boy then at the page with the instructions, "What doesn't make sense?"

"This," he spoke, pointing to the fourth instruction, "This ingredient, it doesn't turn potions purple, I've read it somewhere else." Draco tried to see what was wrong with the guide but he came up with nothing, "Are you su-" Harry interrupted the blonde, "I've got it."

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842 words - chapter 7: first lesson