Harry Potter and the Ties that Bind

Chapter 22

Harry had been dreading many things when he returned to daily school life. Potions was one of those things.

He didn't fear Snape. Disliked the man intensely, perhaps, but not fear. Snape was the man who, on his first day of school, tried to make Harry look like an idiot by asking questions that were not in the first year curriculum. He'd then deducted points from Harry, claiming that he was a cheater. That said, since last year, the man had done his best to ignore Harry, and Harry, likewise, had done everything he could to ignore the mopy potions professor in turn.

Sadly, such was not the case this time.

Like last year, potions was shared with the Slytherins. Harry and Neville sat with Blaize, Daphne, and Tracey. While he received a few looks from everyone else, no one came up to them. Daphne sat on his right, and Tracey on his left. Blaize and Neville sat at the table in front of them.

"Hey, Harry. You said that you've been attending all of our classes, right?" Tracey asked.

"Yes. That's right."

"Then how come no one ever saw you?"

Harry sighed at having to explain it again, but since Tracey hadn't been there when he'd spoken to Professor McGonagall, he knew she couldn't help it. He pulled out his necklace and showed it to her and Daphne. After explaining how it worked, Tracey whistled.

"That's pretty neat. I didn't know enchanted items could do that."

Before Harry could say anything, the doors slammed open and Snape stalked into the room. His cloak billowed behind him as he gave everyone who wasn't a Slytherin a nasty stare. When he got to Harry's table, he paused. Then he frowned. Then his lips twitched. Harry did not like that twitch.

"Mr. Potter," he purred as he stared down at Harry. His long, hook-like nose almost curled. "How nice of you to finally grace us with your presence. I had thought for sure that you'd been expelled for incompetence and truancy."

Harry could have done many things; he could have snapped at Snape, could have responded with sarcasm, could have returned fire with fire. Numerous visions flashed through his head. He thought of all the things he wanted to say, wanted to do. However, he did none of those things. They wouldn't have helped him here anyway.

He bowed his head. "I apologize, Professor Snape. I promise not to be absent from your class again."

Snape remained silent, his frown deepening as if he was having trouble deciding how to respond. He didn't respond well to receiving such sincere respect–not from Harry.

Finally, after nearly a full minute, his upper lip curled, and he said, "I hope you haven't forgotten everything you've learned. You're going to have a hard time catching up as it is." Then he stalked up to the front of the classroom and began snapping out orders to "follow the instructions on the board, you dunderheads."

Harry sighed. That had gone a bit better than he had expected.

XoX

Early the next morning, while he and everyone else were exercising, Harry tried to decide on how he should broach the topic of Peter Pettigrew. He didn't want to just spring it on them. This was pretty big news. It wasn't every day that people discovered that Sirius Black was not only innocent, but that Peter Pettigrew, the one he was supposed to have murdered, was not only alive, but also responsible for his parents' deaths. This was a serious topic...

Damn it. I'm making Sirius puns in my own mind now.

Harry sighed as he continued doing situps. This entire thing was problematic. He decided to think about something that was easier to bring up.