Unlikely Beginnings

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Chapter Two

The next day, Harry made his way to Potions in a trance-like state. His
thoughts had decided not to come along with him, still stuck on what had
transpired the day before, with Draco. He knew it was almost impossible that
they would come out being a couple, just because they had shagged, but he
had the feeling he wouldn\'t simply be blown off, either. During breakfast
that morning, he\'d glanced across the Great Hall towards the Slytherin
table, trying to catch Malfoy\'s eye. The other boy seemingly ignored him,
and when he did spare a moment for his eyes to dart up, catching Harry\'s,
he\'d smirk and turn his attention back to his house mates.

Lost as he was in his mind\'s wonderings, he didn\'t notice what Ron had been
saying. He turned his head when he felt a sharp prod to his shoulder. Harry
simply stared back at Ron, who was giving him a funny look. \"I\'m sorry,
what?\"

Ron\'s look turned to a frown, but he repeated himself, nonetheless. \"I said,
do you reckon Snape\'ll pop a quiz on us?\" Ron still looked like he wanted to
ask what he was thinking of, but decided against it. He passed it off as
fatigue, since he had heard Harry\'s fitful sleep the night before.

Harry blinked, mentally rearranging his thoughts to the present, and then
let his shoulders give a loose shrug. \"I wouldn\'t be too surprised, if he
did,\" he replied, turning his attention to the hallway in front of him as a
few students from Snape\'s last class filed out of the room. They looked
rather harassed, and Harry hoped Snape wasn\'t in too bad of a snit.

Hermione and Ron shared a squeamish look with each other as they, too,
caught the look on the other students\' faces. When the doorway was clear,
Harry walked through the threshold and into the room, leaving his two
friends behind to exchange concerned looks with each other; both for the
fact that Harry seemed rather dazed, and, of course, the horrors of a
potential pop quiz.

They followed after their friend, selecting a seat on either side of Harry.
Ron had decided to ask Harry if he was okay, as he set his books down on the
table in front of him. He sat down and turned in his seat, ready to ask what
was bothering him when Snape came bursting through the door as he normally
did.

Once, Hermione said Snape did it to scare them all into thinking he was an
arse, that she thought, deep down, he was really a nice guy. After waiting
for the boys\' laughter to die down, she vowed to never share her inner
opinions on Snape again. As he swished past their table, she straightened in
her chair as they all prepared to be scrutinized, er, taught.

\"Alright,\" Snape began curtly. \"As you\'ve all most likely not been told,\" he
sent an unamused glance over to the Slytherin side of the room, \"There\'s
going to be a quiz today.\" There was a collective sound, mostly forming
along the lines of \'argh\' as the Gryffindors followed Snape\'s eyes. The
other side of the room seemed to let out a small chuckle, though a few did
add to the \'argh\'.

Ron glared daggers at the Slytherins, and thinking back to his earlier
comment, wondered if he\'d venture so far as to predict that Professor
Trelawney would stop giving them ridiculous homework for the rest of the
year.

\"Remove your books; place them under your chairs. I want only your quills
atop your desks.\" Snape picked up a stack of parchment from his own desk and
started towards the students, passing out tests to each.

\"I want to know if anything I\'ve been teaching the last two weeks has sunk
into those black holes you children call minds,\" Snape finished rather
derisively, leveling another steady glare around the entire room.

There was another group effort to groan as students read what was on his or
her test sheet. Ron leaned over until he could whisper to Harry, watching as
Snape\'s back was to them, shuffling papers on his desk. \"I swear Snape gets
worse and worse each year.\"

Harry gave a little nod, once again struggling to keep his thoughts in the
present. \"I\'d guess from a lack of a good shag; course, I can\'t blame anyone
not wanting to touch the ugly git,\" Ron continued, sitting back. Harry was
jerked out of his daze long enough to elicit a short snort of laughter in
response to his friend\'s comment. He\'d tried to hold it back, but,
unfortunately for him, Snape had heard.

\"Something you\'d like to share with the rest of the class, Mr. Potter?\"
Snape had turned around where he was standing, and leaned back against his
desk. Arms crossed, he slid his eyes over to Ron momentarily before settling
them back on Harry, waiting for an answer.

Harry fidgeted under the unblinking scowl Snape had targeted him with. \"Er,\"
was all he could manage to get out. He really, particularly, did not want to
tell Snape what had made him snicker.

Snape sniffed, making a disgusted face that seemed to look half pleased at
the same time. \"I thought not,\" he said, turning back to his desk. \"Ten
points from Gryffindor for disrupting my class.\"

The displeased Gryffindors were a rather palpable force, and Harry felt them
quite well as he lost them points for the umpteenth time. He was almost sure
some of them were glaring at him out the corner of their eyes. The feeling
faded after a moment, though. Owing to the fact that many of them had lost
points at one time or another due to Snape\'s unfortunate dislike for their
whole lot.

Snape, meanwhile, smirked to himself at the goings on behind him. He
straightened and turned back to face his class, a little clock in his hand
he\'d grabbed from his desk. \"At my notice, you will have one hour, and only
one hour, to complete your quizzes.\"

The class stared at him, waiting, and someone dared to clear their throat
slightly. Snape was watching the time piece in his hand, though, and paid no
heed to that, for once. The small time piece in his hand clicked into place
on the twelve. \"Begin,\" Snape said, loud and clear, and of course menacing,
warranting the almost coordinated shuffle as every student started into the
test before them.

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