A Hop Skip And A Jump Away

potions clothes and spying beetles

"Alright, what was the real reason you let us tell you not to see the Weasley females?" Severus demanded almost the moment they left Gringotts.

"No reason," Harry lied in his most innocent and unconcerned tone, neither of his companions bought it.

"Harry," Voldemort started in a warning tone only for Harry to take off like a shot through the crowds forcing the other two to quickly follow, cursing all the way. They found him just outside of Slug & Jiggers Apothecary smirking at them.

"Wrong shop for actual potions," Severus pointed out softly, causing Harry's face to fall in disappointment at being found out. "Brat, we get your aging potion first then the ingredients for everything else. If we can not find your potion in the appropriate quality I will brew it myself."

"Always the bodyguard, eh Snape?" Harry said wanly.

"I've been guarding your miserable hide since you first came to Hogwarts," Snape scoffed before turning soft. "It is to my shame that I didn't start sooner."

Harry waved away the apology and looked around, trying to figure out which shop actually sold potions and not just ingredients. He finally caught sight of a shop name that, given the Wizarding World's habit of naming things, seemed right and headed for it, this time without trying to loose the other two in the crowd.

"At least he picked the right shop this time," Voldemort said philosophically as they entered J. Pippin's Potions.

"Since we will be returning him to his proper age and the situation is more than a bit unusual I want him to take a Girding potion and several Nutrition potions before he takes the Ageing potion. It will increase his chances of fixing some of the damage done by those damned muggles when he ages," Severus said thoughtfully as they looked around at the inside of the dusty and slightly dark shop. "He should probably take a Replenishing potion directly afterwards as well."

"What about an Oculus potion? His eyes need to be fixed," Voldemort pointed out as he cast a considering eye over the smaller wizard. Harry looked around in interest ignoring the potion based byplay. He kept near them so that he didn't accidentally knock something over or something else that would get him a scolding for being a dunderhead.

"The goblin healer pointed out that some of the damage was partly caused by the lack of nutrition when he was younger. The fact that he doesn't have the correct prescription doesn't help. I suspect that if we fixed his eyes he might be able to brew more than disaster in a potions lab," Severus admitted as they moved through the store, occasionally stopping so that the potions master could examine the quality of this potion or that ingredient.

"Ah, so my secret is out," Harry said lightly, proving that he was listening even if he wasn't particularly interested in the subject of potions.

"The fact that you can't see? Yes, yes, I believe that it is," Severus smirked at him before he grew serious. "Harry, the very fact that the house elves approached me this morning about getting recipes from you is enough to prove you can probably brew most potions successfully. After your little cooking display, yes the elves admitted that you were this morning's primary cook, I wouldn't doubt that very few potions would actually give you trouble. Provided you were able to read the instructions and understood the different preparation methods better. Unless I am mistaken you have either been purposefully making mistakes in my class or someone has been sabotaging you since you started learning potions."

"Why do you say that?" Harry asked in sudden interest.

"Because nearly every time I've had you brew a potion for detention or one of the house elves reported that you were brewing without supervision they turned out, if not perfect than very nearly perfect and were useable," Severus said with complete seriousness. Harry grimaced but held his tongue, knowing that a great deal of the time it was probably one of the Slytherins who had sabotaged his work since he'd caught them at it more than once.