Harry walked in step with Hermione, Susan and Hannah as they walked to potions. Apparently, the potions master and Head of Slytherin house had been away on an assignment and had only come back today. Harry had asked around about him and heard nothing but bad things, sometimes even slurs, but people often said the same about him when he lived with the Dursleys despite killing Cursed Spirits that sometimes ate people and inadvertently saved their lives. 'Some people can be so ungrateful,' he thought with a shake of his head. 

Harry peered down at Hermione and noticed that her eyes weren't as tired and her blisters were healed. "Not being bothered anymore I take it?" He whispered with a smirk on his face. Hermione looked up at him with narrowed eyes "What rune did you put on the door? No one has gone near the three of them ever since, they just sit in the common room alone not talking to anyone," she whispered back. 

"Fastidium Rune," he told her. 

"Otherwise known as the Revulsion Rune, it makes someone feel sick and horrible when they go near an object with it inscribed," Harry explained. 

"What are you two whispering about?!" Hannah asked as she saw Harry leaning down to talk to her. 

"I'm asking her why she won't let me take her out," Harry replied making Hermione blush, and Susan frown. 

"He's not! I just wanted to know about something I read in a book he let me borrow," she replied, though as she tried to explain Harry was shaking his head behind her. She turned around and slapped him making him laugh, Hannah just sighed and walked past them both dragging a concerned Susan with her. 

Hermione then dragged Harry down by his tie "That doesn't explain their behaviour now if you only carved the rune on my door," She whispered loudly. 

Harry nodded "I put two additional runes, one that activates when the intruders have ill intent and the other applies the rune to them," he explained. 

"So that's why no one is going near them at the moment because they have a revulsion rune applied to them?" She asked. 

"Yep, but I did tweak it a bit, others will feel revolted when they get near them, but I also made it so they would feel revolted at themselves," Harry said with a laugh after. 

Hermione just looked at him in awe "You altered the rune... that's sixth-year work," she said completely shocked. 

Harry shrugged "It's easy if you can read the book instantly and memories the parts you need," he replied. 

"How long will it last?" Hermione asked. 

Harry pursed his lips "Maybe a day? Two at most," he replied. 

Hermione frowned "Then why are they still like that now?" She asked. 

Harry looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Oh..." she said as she finally understood, the fact that it was still on them meant they had kept coming back to her room. Hermione didn't understand why they hated her so much or what she had ever done to them 'No I won't cry...' she thought to herself. She wouldn't do that again, not here in front of Harry.

"Don't worry too much about them Hermione, they are idiots," he said putting an arm around her shoulder. She nodded, he was right, Harry had done a lot to include her with his group of friends and she had become friendly with all of them, it felt good not having to worry about people making fun of her or trying to... do things to her at night. For the first time since the incident she felt safe; she didn't feel as if she were about to be killed. 

Harry and Hermione quickly caught up to Hannah and Susan and filed into the potions room with the rest of the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. Harry chuckled as he saw that Ron and two other Gryffindors had been isolated, he looked closer scanning their faces and memorising them. Their uniforms were dishevelled and their eyes could barely stay open, looking closer one of them had a slight discolouration in one hand but not the other; his eyes also looked red. 'Shit didn't mean for it to work that well,' Harry thought to himself with a sigh. He'd have to adjust the strength of the runes on Hermione's door, he didn't want a student killing themselves cause of him. 

"Harry, what are you looking at?" Susan asked as he sat down with her, Hannah and a boy named Justin Finch-Fletchley. 

Harry stopped looking at the boys and smiled at her "Nothing important, you guys excited for the new potions teacher, or I guess I should say old," he asked. Susan and Hannah shook their heads. 

"Everyone's said Professor Snape is a horrible man, he abuses students and takes points away from every house that isn't Slytherin," Hannah said leaning across the table. 

"He can't be that bad, he's still a teacher isn't he?" Justin added, but Susan and Hannah remained adamant. 

Harry didn't care too much, if Snape was an asshole he just wouldn't show up to lessons. He wasn't very interested in potions, to begin with, but was happy to be proven wrong by the man. 

"Shut up!" 

A Professor wearing a black cloak glided into the room after shouting at them all to be silent. He stopped at the front of the class before turning around dramatically "Put your wands away you will not need them, there will be no silly waving of wands in my class," he said before writing a list of instructions on the board. 

"I'm sure you expect me to make some grand speech about the subtle art of potion making, but the truth is 3/4 of you dunderheads won't make it past the 5th year," Snape said throwing his chalk to the ground, before taking a seat at his desk and opening a book. All the students looked surprised, they had expected him to be a lot meaner, but more than that they had expected him to teach. 

Hermione's hand shot up in the air where it stayed there for a while much to the annoyance of Snape "Yes... Miss?"

"Granger sir," she said. 

"What do you want Miss Granger or are you just being an annoyance because you enjoy it," He said to her making her put her hand down. 

"Go on, out with it, you've already disturbed my reading," He said leaning back in his seat. 

"Well sir, I was wondering why you haven't started teaching?" She asked. 

*Snap*

Snape snapped his book shut before standing up. "I assume Miss Granger that you have a basic education?" He asked. 

"Basic?"

"Read, Miss Granger, I assume you can read?" Snape clarified, and she nodded. 

"Then here is my first lesson, read the board, brew the potion, do not disturb me again, five points from Gryffindor,” he said before turning around and going back to his seat. 

'Yep, definitely an asshole,' Harry thought to himself. He looked to the board and then stood up, it wasn’t hard to see where the ingredients were kept as the door was wide open; Snape looked at Harry as he stood up and walked over to the ingredients room, but quickly looked away as if pretending to have not seen him. Harry found that a bit strange, but what he found strange was the sad look he had caught him making when he looked at him. 

He shrugged it off and brought his ingredients back to the table where Susan had already prepared their cauldron. She was excited to work with Harry, most of the time she sat next to Hannah and didn’t have a chance —which she was fine with— but she wanted a chance to get closer to Harry. She found it hard to as she was a nervous and shy person, but bringing her nearby would help, or at least that's what she thought. 

“Corruption Remedy,” Harry said reading the name of the potion on the board. 

“It’s a requirement for every wizard and witch to be able to brew it,” Susan said quietly as she prepared the ingredients. 

“It removes the corruption caused by Cursed Spirits,” Susan explained as she saw Harry’s lost look —one she found incredibly cute.

“Did you not read the potion book at all?” Hannah asked with a raised eyebrow. 

Harry shook his head “It looked boring and didn’t have any cool magic in it so I skipped it,” he said casually making Hannah put her head in her palms. 

“Of course, only a genius would have the option to not try his best,” Hannah said with a sigh. 

Harry smiled as he leaned across the table “Come on Hannah you’re pretty smart yourself, you are friends with me,” he said. 

Hannah looked up at him with a tired expression “That makes me smart?” 

She said disbelievingly

“I’m pretty sure that makes me almost as stupid as you pretend to be,” she said before going back to her potion. 

“I’m not pretending, this stuff is just boring, what else do you expect me to do,” he said while rocking back on his chair. 

“You know what I think… I think you suck at potions, you’re terrible and slacking off just to cover it up,” Hannah said with a wide smile on her face. 

Harry stopped rocking his chair and leaned forward “I could do this in my sleep,” he said with a laugh. 

“I don’t think you can,” she replied with a smirk on her face. Hannah felt so sure that Harry was trying to cover up his lack of skill, he had tried everything else and shown a good degree of skill in it —even Herbology. So there was no reason he should be so reluctant to try it. 

“Wanna bet?” He asked. 

“Terms?” She said putting down her cutting knife and focusing back on Harry. 

“If I can brew a perfect potion by the end of class, you have to fulfil one request, if I can’t then I’ll give you the same,” he said. 

Hannah thought about it for a second ‘Is he playing a trick on me…’ she wondered as she tried to discern any hints from his facial expressions. Sadly Harry revealed none and remained stoic. 

“Fine… deal,” she said as she shook his hands. Harry smirked as he stood up and cracked his back. 

“I hope you don’t mind Susan but I’ll be taking over from here,” Harry said to which she smiled and moved out of the way. 

Harry took a look at the board and then started brewing the potion. He finished preparing the ingredients and placed them all into the cauldron in order according to the recipe. He did everything perfectly and according to the recipe, and when he was finished he saw a pinkish-red mist coming out of his cauldron. Harry frowned as he saw that it had a reddish tint to it, something that shouldn’t be there. On the board, it said the potion should release a pink mist if brewed correctly. 

Hannah looked positively giddy as she looked at his potion “I guess you can’t be good at everything huh Harry?” She said trying to hold back her amusement. 

Harry stood there thinking for a moment “Susan can I see your potions book,” he asked. Susan handed it to him and he flicked to the first page seeing the Corruption Remedy. He quickly read the instructions and saw they had been altered by Snape ‘He probably wants to see who was lazy enough to read the instructions but not cross-check the book,’ he thought to himself. Harry hadn’t read the potions book yet, but he had read herb lore and that book often described the plant's use in potions and the effects it has. 

‘I can salvage this,’ he thought to himself. The problem was that Snape had altered the recipe to not include the correct amount of stirs that the potion needed to correctly mix, thus allowing the frog's brain to overpower the dried bumbleweed and become two distinct flavours rather than one. 

“Ready to admit defeat yet Potter?” Hannah said assured of her victory as there were only five minutes left of class. 

Harry drummed his fingers against the table, and he then started writing on Susan’s boom “Hey at least ask her before you do that,” Hannah said. 

“It’s okay I don’t mind,” Susan said calming her friend. 

Harry wrote down a recipe and instructions that would hopefully alter his potion to change it to what he needed. He quickly stood up and rushed off to the potion stores to get some ingredients; after coming back he laid them all in front of him and with serious rapid hand movements he quickly prepared them all. “Harry you have less than five minutes, just accept you lost,” Hannah said. 

Harry looked up at her and stuck his tongue out, before focusing back on his work. He added all the ingredients and started stirring anti-clockwise, after 30 seconds he changed direction and then after another 30 seconds he turned the heat on high. One minute before the end of class the potion he brewed changed and started emitting a pink mist like it should’ve. 

Harry turned off the heat and bottled the potion before looking at Hannah with a large grin on his face. Hannah looked distraught, in five minutes she had gone from victory straight to defeat “So I guess this means I win,” Harry said with a grin. 

Hannah just sighed and nodded “Fine you win, what do you want?” She asked. 

Harry hummed “I’d like a date with you, Hogsmede weekend is coming up soon, what better time,” he said casually. 

Hannah looked at him with an open mouth as did everyone else at the table. 

“Class is over, get out before I throw up, I’ve looked at you all for too long already,” Snape said while flicking his wand and opening the door. 

Harry got his stuff and started heading towards the door “You coming?” He asked. 

“Mr Potter.”

Harry turned to see Snape standing before him, though he wasn’t looking at him, he seemed to be avoiding his eyes. “The Headmaster wishes to see you in his office, do not delay,” he said before walking away. 

Harry nodded “I guess I’ll see you later,” he said to his friends before heading out of the classroom and walking towards the headmaster's office. It took him a while to get there as the potions classroom was in the dungeons and the headmaster's office was a few floors up, when he arrived at the Gargoyle it opened up for him, he walked up the stairs and was greeted by Dumbledore who had seemingly blown a hole out of the wall of his office and was sitting on the edge with a fishing rod?

“Professor?” Harry said as he walked in. 

Dumbledore turned around and smiled “Ahh my boy I didn’t see you there, please come in,” he said.

“Then who opened the door?” Harry asked with a raised eyebrow. 

Dumbledore paused “How’re you enjoying your classes?” He asked. 

‘Did he just ignore me?’ 

Harry sighed and walked in slumping down next to him on the edge “It’s pretty fun, though I was hoping to be fighting Cursed Spirits more as well as learning cooler magic,” he replied. When he sat next to Dumbledore he could see that his fishing rod stretched all the way to the Great Lake. 

“Perhaps if you took your lessons more seriously you’d be treated more seriously,” Dumbledore suggested. 

Harry shrugged “It’s hard to when the closest people to your level of ability are in the sixth year,” he replied. 

Dumbledore hummed “Can I be honest with you Harry?” He asked. 

Harry nodded and gestured for him to speak. “A lot of the people you see in your classroom right now are going to die before they pass 25,” he said far too casually for such a comment. 

Dumbledore laughed as he looked at Harry’s face “I’m not saying for certain, but with the life a wizard leads they are often destined for death, those that do not come from great families or have vast amounts of wealth often have to risk their lives and die doing so,” he explained. 

“Dear Bellatrix thinks you’re just lazy, but I believe I know what your problem is,” Dumbledore said. 

Harry snickered “Oh yeah what’s my problem?” He asked. 

“You don’t realise the true gravity of your situation, you don’t realise how truly important you are and you don’t realise how easily any of your friends could die at any time,” Dumbledore said with a serious expression. 

‘Pfft sounds like the old man,’ Harry thought. He knew Dumbledore was just exaggerating, Hogwarts was like a fortress, he had read the history of it and knew how well-protected everyone was. 

“I see you don’t believe me, so I’ll do this instead,” Dumbledore said with a smirk of his own. 

Out of his sleeves he took out a red stone “Take this stone and you will see the world for what it truly is, you can refuse of course but that would mean you agree with me and will start to take your studies more seriously,” Dumbledore said. 

Harry grabbed the stone, he expected to be assaulted by a vision or something, but nothing happened. “Very well, that will be all Harry, you can go back to your classes now,” Dumbledore said. 

Harry looked at him with a confused expression “I don’t see anything differently. was something supposed to happen?” He asked. 

Dumbledore just smiled “Keep that stone on you a while, don’t worry you can’t lose it,” he said with a small chuckle. 

Harry just sighed and started walking out of the office ‘I wonder if this is how Hannah feels with me,’ he thought to himself. 

“Harry.”

Harry turned around to look at Dumbledore who had an apologetic expression on his face “I’m sorry Harry, there is no other way, I just want you to know I tried,” he said before turning back around.  

Harry just looked at him with confusion before turning around and leaving. 

‘He’s crazy.’

(AN: Another chapter over, Harry has the Philosophers stone, but why did Dumbledore give it to him and what will Harry do with it, how will he see the world for what it is. Hope you enjoyed the chapter)

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