Book One: Under the Hunters Moon

Waning Moon IV

Harry Potter, Hogwarts.

"Potter! Stay." The voice of Snape cuts through the class after he had just dismissed the rest of the class, Hermione and Ron look at him a bit worried as Harry hears a few giggles from the rest of the class as they pack up and clean their stations of anything that could be left behind and interfere with the next classes brewing.

As the rest of the class filters out, Harry waves off Ron and Hermione, telling him he'd meet them in the Great Hall for lunch before waiting at his station as Snape collects each sample of the potion they had brewed today before he starts moving to the door to his office and calling out for him to follow.

As the door to the office closes behind them and locks by itself, Harry takes a seat in front of Snape's desk, looking at the desk as Snape takes a seat. It was never good to be called into Snape's office, Harry had no idea what he had done wrong but prepares himself for the dressing down he was about to get, but as Snape takes his own seat, he just looks at Harry not saying a word for a long moment.

Harry fidgets under his gaze, tapping his foot as his eyes jump around the room filled with preserved parts of creatures he couldn't identify, probably used for rare potions and the like. Snape's desk was covered in essays and half-written letters organized in a way that only Snape knew where everything was, bookshelves lined the far wall crammed with books and old magazines that looked like potions monthly and dark magic, if Harry had to guess.

Finally, after a few minutes, Snape speaks, "Potter, we have three pieces of business to discuss before I let you go to lunch and cause whatever mischief you get up to when no one is looking," He tells Harry, "First, is this," Snape reaches into a stack of papers and pulls out a piece of parchment that looked like it was copied from a book and placing it in front of Harry. Most of it was obscured by a charm, he could see it was a list of names followed by a string of letters but couldn't make out any of the letters until he got to his own name.

Potter, Harry: T, T, A, E, A, A, A, E, P, A, A, A, E, E, A, A, A, E, E, A, A, O, A, E, A, P,

Harry looks up to the Potion Master with a confused look, "Umm, … what is this?" He asks.

Snape rolls his eyes before answering, "Your grades Mister Potter, if you were to compare them to the ones of last year, you would find that you went from barely passing to actually passing." Snape tells Harry to his surprise, "You went from one of the worst in your year to slightly better than average, as your grades stand now you would be passing my class with an Acceptable, not counting this lesson and your final exam." Snape says to Harry's shocked face.

Harry reaches out and picks up the parchment with his grade on it, it couldn't be right, He was stupid, worthless, and a waste of space, this had to be a mistake he thought to himself, "This-This is from the Basilisk stuff, right?" Harry says looking back up to Snape.

"I haven't applied those grades yet Potter, congratulations you have managed to…impress me with this turn about," Snape says like they were some of the most painful words he's ever said, "The only thing that holds you back is your written work, it shows that you know what is happening but that you do not understand the why of it all, your essays are short and to the point but lacks the understand and depth I look for in them." He tells Harry, "That being said, I do not expect to see you in my N.E.W.T classes seeing that I only accept those who get an O on the O.W.L's, the classes required a deep understanding of everything involved in the brewing process that you seem to lack." Harry ignores the backhanded insult as he was still trying to understand how he had gotten a higher greater than a Dreadful in, well, anything.