Indecent Transactions

I gotta stick a little backround in here, and a little Harry!
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Harry, Hermione, and Ron entered the Great Hall for dinner, a little late and all still chatting at once about the enormous amount of Herbology reading they had just been assigned.

\"...Well if it was on anything even the slightest bit interesting,\" said Ron, gesturing wildly with his hands, \"but come on, DIRT?\"

\"Hey, it\'s better than extra potions reading,\" retorted Hermione. Both boys agreed with her on this one, dirt was better than extra potions any day.

\"Wait a moment,\" said Hermione, stopping abruptly. Ron walked straight into her. \"Ouch, no wait! Look up at the teacher\'s table, who is that?\"

Harry turned his attention to the very front of the great hall. \"Who\'s who?\" he asked.

Hermione looked annoyed, \"LOOK! That woman sitting between Dumbledore and Snape, in green!\"

\"Didn\'t know we had any openings for new teachers,\" said Ron.

\"Well we don\'t, although we could probably use a new astrology professor,\" said Hermione.

\"Dunno,\" said Harry, now looking hungrily at the tables piled with steaming food. \"She looks nice enough to me, maybe a new potions master?\"

All three laughing they began making their way towards the Gryffindor table. They paused near a group of Slytherins talking loudly.

\"I saw her before with my father, only last week.\" The three Gryffindors cringed at the too familiar sound of Draco Malfoy\'s voice. \"An associate, he said to me, she is one of us...or soon will be. That\'s all I know, but she is sitting next to Snape.\"

\"Yeah, well she is also sitting next to Dumbledore,\" shouted Harry over the crowd, a little too enthusiastically. The entire Slytherin table turned and glared at the three invaders.

\"Yeah, well maybe you should mind your own business, Potty.\"

Hermione dragged Harry and Ron away towards their table before any other words could be exchanged, but they could here all the Slytherins laughing as they walked away. Fuming, Harry was almost too angry to eat, almost. Luckily, after a full, warm meal they all felt much calmer and left for the common room without incident.
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The next day in Potions:

Harry looked at his potion and over to Hermione\'s bright red one. Well, his was almost red, more of a light pink, and kind of watery. He looked over a Ron\'s kind of purplish potion and Ron grinned back at him. \"Almost got it,\" said Ron, \"just a little bit more newt\'s eye...\"

POOF! The cloud of smoke dispersed before Professor Snape saw it, but Ron\'s potion was now an evil-looking, sticky, black substance.

\"Careful Weasly,\" laughed Draco from behind them, \"use too much of that newt and they start charging you for it, and then what would your family do!\" Next to Draco, Crabe and Goyle burst out laughing, falling to the floor. Ron turned the color of Hermione\'s potion.

At that moment Professor Snape, probably alerted by the noisy laughter, began walking towards them, his cloak billowing behind him.

\"Darn that,\" whispered Ron under his breath, \"and now Snape coming over...smirk on his face...happy to give detention...won\'t say anything \'bout the color of Goyle\'s potion...\"

But just then the door to the dungeon swung open. Snape paused and turned. In the doorway stood the woman in green, now wearing a lighter shade.

\"Um, professor, a word?\" she said quietly.

Snape glared back at her, looking angry. \"I am in the middle of a class, what is the problem?\" he asked hurriedly.

The woman\'s gaze hardened, \"I assure you, it will only take a moment of your time, professor.\" She walked down the center isle to Snape and stopped six inches from of him, looking straight at him, unblinking. Neither moved for almost 30 seconds.

Finally, without looking away from her, Snape raised his voice to the class and said, \"You will continue to work on your potions, on you own.\"

With that, the woman turned and continued to walk down the isle to Snape\'s desk. Snape simultaneously whirled around, his hand behind her back, and walked next to her to his desk at the head of the room.

\"What was that?\" asked Ron.

\"I\'m not sure,\" said Harry, \"but I don\'t think she\'s a teacher.\"

Hermione shushed them, trying to listen in on the conversation at the front of the room while attempting to fix up Ron\'s excess newt potion mess. They only caught bits and pieces of the conversation, \"a little Knoxgrass, perhaps...certainly you have tried Wormwood...this is not some silly sleeping potion...no, no, but if only there was time.....AHHA!!\"

The whole class turned forward at the shout, the woman was laughing, \"Daisy roots! Of course, daisy roots how could I have been so...Oh wonderful Severus! Thank you!\"

\"Certainly, certainly,\" said Snape more quietly, obviously aware and uncomfortable of the loud attention he was getting from the woman. \"It should work perfectly, please tell me how it goes, Brin.\"

\"I will at that,\" she smiled at him and clasped his shoulder for a moment before turning to the rest of the class and looking around at the class, as if she was only now realizing the room she was in. As she made her was to the back doorway she turned and causally said, \"Mr. Malfoy, hello again, do tell your father I say hi, and Mr. Potter, good to finally meet you.\" And she was gone. It was the end of double potions for that day and, thanks to Hermione, Ron\'s potion was now almost the color of Harry\'s.

\"Daisy roots!\" they heard shouted from down the corridor, \"Haha! Daisy roots!\"