“...And five points for Gryffindor.”
Today Snape was teaching them the hardest potion to brew in Hogwarts’ program - according to him - Wolfsbane Potion. Right as he heard the name, he knew his doom was coming. Now that explained why Snape took it easy on him earlier.
Lupin told him: “There’s not many wizards who can brew this potion”, and until now Snape was the only person he knew who could brew it, maybe some old men from the Potions Association who he never met. Wouldn’t this be the best opportunity for him to take away Gryffindor’s points…
Ron was still angry at Harry so they didn’t pair up, the person who took upon the duty of carrying the “dumbbell” Ronald Weasley was Hermione. The Gryffindor Gold Trio split up, there’s not really anything more surprising so Harry decided to pair with Alice despite her furious glare and curious glances from others. He was sure that if possible, she’d pull her wand out and give him an Avada immediately.
“I’ll talk to you about this later Harry.”
Alice hissed.
“We’re kind of exposed anyways, I wouldn’t want you sneaking out to talk with me and get punished.”
Welp, they had already gone too far to withdraw, Alice sighed.
Under Snape’s guidance, they quickly came to the step of processing the hardest ingredient - Aconite. Clumsy Neville almost cut his fingers and even potion geniuses like Hermione or Malfoy - Harry hated to admit he’s really good - were fumbling. Harry - also clumsy - Potter was forbidden to process any ingredients by Alice. He wasn’t able to do anything else other than listen because if he dared to resist, maybe he’d be forbidden to even touch the cauldron any time he paired up with her. If he made any mistakes and exploded the cauldron, it’d be a golden excuse for Snape to take Gryffindor’s points away.
The way Alice processed the ingredients were very professional, not at the same level as Snape but when compared to other students, you could say she looks like a potion prodigy that was shrunk into a kid. This made Harry curious and the oily old bat glared at them more than usual.
“What’re you doing? If I’m not wrong this isn’t what Snape said.”
Harry whispered.
“I learned this from Snape’s portrait.” Alice cut the Aconite’s roots, “He may have a poisonous mouth but luckily he still has a little knowledge left about potions, he stuck with it for a few decades after all.”
Maybe it’s because Snape sees potions as a part of his soul, after his death and was put in a portrait he could still remember how to brew some. Not a lot, but luckily Wolfsbane was one of the few.
As The Chosen One’s daughter, sometimes she had special privileges. Alice was allowed to enter the principal’s office when McGonagall gave permission to her, and she luckily learnt how to brew several rare potions from the old bat. It took her a whole year to perfectly brew Wolfsbane potion even under the potion prodigy’s guidance, which showed how hard it is to brew this thing.
“Wow… But didn’t you say you don’t want to draw attention to yourself? If you successfully complete this assignment you're going to be popular.”
Harry mindlessly poked the snail on his table, but he immediately retrieved his finger once he sensed Alice’s glare.
“Oh? Thanks to whom? Thanks to whom, no matter what I do now, people will notice? If I want to be popular, I’d prefer the reason to not be because of my relationship with Boy Who Lived. I’d rather be known for my smartness.”
Alice finished preparing the ingredients once she finished talking, they had come to the hardest step - the mixing part. Alive Snape’s instructions were way easier to understand compared to dead Snape’s, at least he gave them the exact amount not just “put less of these, put more of those, stupid Gryffindor.”
Harry was only allowed to take part in this part since this was the only part he was able to pull off. To avoid confusion, they only put the ingredients in little by little and in a certain order instead of the old bat’s lightning speed. When the liquid in their cauldron had blue smoke rising accompanied by the disgusting smell even worse than a decomposing corpse, they knew they had succeeded.
“Merlin! This is the first time I successfully brewed this potion without exploding a cauldron Harry!
If only dead Snape saw this. When they were still in their original timeline, she caused a few cauldron explosions every time she tried to brew this potion. Every time that happened he scolded her for hours.
“Maybe we should try to do this ourselves.” Harry whispered, “Lupin will need them.”
“Of course Harry, poor Remus must be exhausted after he left Hogwarts.”
Alice agreed.
The most awaited part was scoring. Only Harry’s pair was able to successfully complete the Wolfsbane potion, Hermione’s pair’s was turned solid because they used the wrong ingredients while Malfoy’s pair’s turned into some slimy black liquid after he didn’t use enough magic when mixing. They were sure the best potion would give Slytherin a large amount of points, though Gryffindor would be very lucky to not lose any.
“Maybe your brains will need a dose of boils cure if only one pair had a finished product. No other pair had even a semi-finished product.” Snape started spitting venom as usual, the only unusual part was the Slytherins were scolded as well, “Forty points for Slytherin for Evans’ efforts.”
Snape didn’t fail their expectations at all, Slytherin quickly covered twenty points lost, they even got another twenty. Harry widened his eyes, even if McGonagall was biased the Gryffindors wouldn’t be able to cover their lost points this quick.
“...And five points for Gryffindor.”
See, he started… What?
Harry was shocked, he looked at an equally shocked Hermione then turned to see another equally shocked Alice.
“Did he say… “for” not “from”?”
“If I don’t have hearing problems and no one set up a mirage here then… you just earned five points for Gryffindor from him Harry!”
His five points were different from Alice’s forty. It represented the constant struggles filled with many Gryffindors’ tears all these years. It was a testament to the struggle against the oppressive and exploiting class. Long-term resistance was certain to win.
A Gryffindor earning five points from Snape deserved to be praised.
Their homework for that lesson was to write an essay of at least three thousand words about how to brew, uses and limitations of Wolfsbane potion. Compared to the ten thousand word essays the old bat used to give the lions as a punishment, this was nothing, and he didn’t consider that Harry had a living cheat tool called Alice Lily Potter, now known as Alice Lily Evans. She spent an entire year learning how to brew Wolfsbane potion with Snape in the portrait, he believed that she was the second person who knew about this potion the most in this school, right behind Snape.
“Do you have lessons this afternoon Harry?”
Alice questioned into his ear.
“Care of Magical Creatures, third period.”
Harry replied.
“See you at the forest side behind Hagrid’s cabin then, my schedule is full today.”
Hermione was approaching Harry. Perhaps he and Alice were the only people who got along in Gryffindor and Slytherin, the other students would immediately engage in a fight so Alice quickly left for Study of Ancient Runes as soon as she caught sight of the smart lioness.
“Harry, you know her? She’s a Slytherin!”
Since Alice wasn’t far away, Hermione could only lower her volume as low as she could.
“Alice isn’t bad. You see, she helped me earn five points from Snape.”
Harry’s friend was really caring, but her prejudice of Slytherin was too deep. That gave Harry a headache for quite some time as he was stuck between Gryffindor and his daughter in Slytherin.
“Oh Harry, you haven’t known her for that long, Slytherin has no good students…” Sensing Harry’s sour mood, Hermione switched the topic, “Have you prepared for the Triwizard Tournament’s first task? I heard it’s very hard.”
“Not yet, Hermione, I’m still thinking how.” To finish the Hungarian Horntail in fourth year’s fashion. Harry didn’t say that part out loud or else she’d drag him to Hospital Wing to check if he was affected by any charms.
“It’s okay, don’t stress yourself out. Dumbledore will be there so even if you’re in danger you won’t die.”
Hermione’s encouragement did not help him at all.
Harry was daydreaming about the Triwizard Tournament cup, his destined soulmate, how to take care of the snake face before he harms anyone the entire day. After over a decade of being an Auror, facing all kinds of people in the wizarding world, he couldn’t act normal with his fourteen, fifteen friends. His career age was almost as old as their life age…
Luckily, in other people’s eyes - who he wasn’t really close to, this is a normal behavior of someone who suddenly was chosen to be Hogwarts champion and preparing to dig his grave. Only Ron and Hermione could see his change in attitude. But Ron was still at cold war with him while Hermione - who didn’t want to take anyone’s side - took a step back, no one would know what Harry Potter was thinking.