Hope - George Potter

22 - Professor Snape

George's initial excitement for Potions (he had read his book twice at home) was soon gone. Not only did the Ravenclaws have that class together with the Slytherins, but the teacher also seemed to strongly dislike George.

When he entered the classroom, he thought at first that he had imagined the hateful glare Professor Snape sent his way. He hadn't done anything wrong, after all, and had even turned up on time.

Well, now that he thought about it, he had done something, but he was sure the professor hadn't heard George making Henry promise to attack him with a shampoo bottle if he ever ended up with as greasy hair as their teacher. But that was actually after Professor Snape had already started glaring at him, so it was probably not the reason.

George and Henry got seated in the back in order to be as far away as possible from their rather creepy looking teacher.

"He looks like he wants to kill us. Should we be scared? He just led us into a dark and cold room in the dungeons which is filled with strange and creepy stuff. I really don't want to know where the majority of those things come from. That thing in the bottle over there looks an awful lot like human blood," George whispered.

"Maybe he's a vampire and is using all of the children to get blood. He sure looks like it with his pale skin and his black robes... well actually I have no idea what a vampire looks like, but he definitely looks creepy. Maybe more like an overgrown bat," Henry said. Professor Snape had meanwhile started talking in a very sinister voice.

"Don't ever compare him to a bat. Bats are actually quite cute, at least mine is, and I'd definitely not call that," he gestured towards the front, "cute." The two boys laughed.

"Anything you want to add, Mr Potter?" Professor Snape said in a snide tone, "or do you find it more important to talk to Mr Shacklebolt during my lesson?"

"Well, professor, technically the lesson hasn't even started yet. So the answer to your question is no," George said.

"Ten points from Gryffindor for your cheek."

"Actually, professor, you could take some more points from Gryffindor. Do I have to say funny or disrespectful things or do I get them for free? I really wouldn't mind Gryffindor losing some points, it is actually quite fortunate for Ravenclaw to win the house cup. You could take some more from Slytherin and Hufflepuff too if you want to."

Nearly everyone in the classroom was grinning - even Ada Green.

Needless to say, it only got worse from there. Instead of only glaring at George in an extremely creepy way, Professor Snape seemed to be on a mission to destroy George and to somehow try and find a way to ridicule him as much as possible in front of the class. It didn't help that George was extremely annoyed with his teacher and often retorted somewhat disrespectfully, which only seemed to make Professor Snape angrier. Point after point was taken from Ravenclaw.

The only other somehow interesting things that happened in Potions -apart from Professor Snape and George's little fights- were Henry's cauldron exploding after he had apparently added a wrong ingredient (George of course had gotten the blame for that, as he had -according to Professor Snape- seen Henry's mistake and not done anything about it until it was too late). The other thing was Professor Snape being completely irritated by Rosabelle smiling the entire lesson. When asked by him, her answer was only that she was so happy that they had the class with the Slytherins and not the Hufflepuffs. (He of course didn't know anything about the bet and was even more confused after that answer. He had probably never seen a person happy during his class.)

Rosabelle had gotten seated next to Ada Green in order to flee from her Ravenclaw friends' teasing because of the bet she lost. She seemed to be enjoying herself, though, and the two girls were whispering throughout the entire lesson. Professor Snape had taken a few points from Ravenclaw in the beginning because of that (of course the Ravenclaw girl was the one to blame and no points were taken from Slytherin, as Professor Snape -being the head of Slytherin- was a teensy bit biased). Later however, he seemed content with her work and concentrated more on his favourite victim: George.

George was rather happy to leave the dungeons after two hours of pure torture and his spirits were lifted somewhat by the next lesson. Charms with Professor Flitwick was a very cheerful subject and while the theory was a bit annoying, he promised that they would practice their first spell in the next lesson. George managed to earn a small fraction of the points back that he lost for Ravenclaw in Potions.

He had just been about to explain the wand movement of the 'motoris' spell that he had already successfully tried at home, when a bat came flying into the classroom through the window. Professor Flitwick was so shocked by it passing him by inches, that he fell from the pile of books he was standing on (in order to be able to look over his desk and see the pupils). While George couldn't be exactly sure that it really was Fleamont, as he couldn't really see the difference between different bats, he assumed it was, since the bat came flying straight towards him. George was actually most surprised by the fact that Fleamont had come during the day, as he had always thought that bats were nocturnal.

Fleamont landed directly on his desk right in front of him. A smile started to form on his face. He was already missing Harry even though it was only his second day at Hogwarts. Excitedly, he loosened the knot and took the tiny piece of paper that was tied to Fleamont's leg. Opening it, there were only a couple of words, written in Harry's horrible handwriting.

George,

hope this letter actually reaches you. I want to know everything. Write back.

Harry

George chuckled. Harry clearly wasn't exactly talented at writing letters and even though it was so short and not exactly emotional, it still made George happy, because this was just Harry's way of writing: short and only saying the necessary. This letter was so completely Harry-like that George was grinning from ear to ear after finishing it.

He put the letter into his pocket and came back to reality. Everyone in the room was staring at him and Fleamont, completely puzzled. It was dead silent.

"Never seen a bat before?" George chuckled, a bit unsure, "this is Fleamont, by the way."