An one time opportunity

3. Chapter

Harry followed the dark haired boy into the dining hall. Everything looked as he remembered it looking in his own time. The magical sky above them was light blue and a shining autumn sun just rose. Heads turned towards them, many ignored the boy at his side most of the pupils though, grimaced as if they`d seen an ugly bug as their eyes fell on Severus, obviously the future potion master hadn`t understated the facts about his popularity; only the Slytherin table didn`t react at all. Harry`s eyes flew immediately towards the Gryffindor table.

There at the head sat James Potter, to his right Sirius Black, to his left Lily Evans and next to her Remus Lupin. Staring their son noticed that his mother had the headgirl emblem on her breast, this was no surprise, Sirius had told him that Lily was very much loved by the whole school, just as his father was well admired because of his Quidditch abilities. Harry had thought that his parents were the coolest people until he`d fallen in Snape`s pensive. After that he\'d realised like every child once it grew up did, that they were just normal, fallible people who weren\'t as perfect as it often seemed to their young children.

Suddenly Dumbledore stood and MacGonogall left the table. The hall fell silent abruptly in the same moment as he and Severus came to stand in front of the four tables. The pale emotionless face didn`t show anything as Severus nodded shortly and then went to his table were he sat down at the head, right and left to his place was nobody.
“Students,” Dumbledore`s magically enhanced voice reverberated through the hall and
all attention turned from a very uncomfortable Harry to the headmaster. “I have good news for you, because of unfortunate and private circumstances young Harry Granger here had to change from Drumstrang to Hogwarts as his parents moved to England recently.”
Then he twinkled at Harry who immediately became afraid of what the old wizard had thought up to help him enter the student`s closed circles “As I heard he is an extraordinary Quidditch seeker, even though he didn`t have the opportunity to play lately, whichever House gets him will be very lucky indeed. Therefore let`s welcome him appropriately at Hogwarts.” Everybody clapped enthusiastically only two Gryffindors looked him over coolly, that was the arrogant side he didn`t like on James Potter and Sirius Black.

Again Harry was thankful for Hermione`s hair taming charm. That and the contact lenses he`d still had inside of his jeans made him look quite different from James.
Obviously the men in his mother`s family grew higher because he was nearly half a head taller than his Dad, a surprising growing spurt in his sixth year had led, to an for him impressive 6\'feet and all his Quidditch and fighting training had built up quite a nice musculature, so he was also broader than James. But what made the biggest difference between them was something that went deeper. Harry had already had much more experience, suffering and pain in his life than James Potter ever would, and it showed. In the tiny lines around his eyes and mouth, in the way he held himself, self-assured, not arrogant but also wary, most of all though in his green eyes, which seemed much older than the 17 years the boy had. Heretofore nobody noticed any similarities.

However, Harry really regretted telling the principal that he was a seeker, he`d thought it was safe, unimportant. The Gryffindor Head of House then entered the room with a chair floating in front of her and the Sorting Hat in her left hand. “Wonderful, thank you Minerva. Let`s get the sorting over, shall we Harry?” The boy who`d faced Voldemort numerous times felt suddenly 11 again. What if it didn`t work? What if the hat put him into Gryffindor again, after all he`d used Goderic`s sword. And although he knew that not all Slytherins were evil and followed Voldemort he just didn`t know if he had enough of the skills Salazar appreciated in him to get sorted into this house. There was no way back now.

Harry sat down and put the hat on, as always he fell over his eyes and darkness surrounded him. “So you`ve done this before?” Sounded suddenly the hollow voice of the Sorting Hat, Harry didn`t know if it was in his thoughts or inside the hat but he was sure that nobody else heard it. “Hmm, not only once but twice? Interesting.” What did the hat know? Could he read everything that was in his mind?
“Don`t worry I won`t ask. Let`s get down to business, shall we? Well let`s see. What do we have here? Ahh, lot`s of courage, determination and yes cunning. Great talent, indeed an extraordinary talent, loyal and not stupid. Ambitious too and self-centred. Hmm, hmm a most difficult case.”
As Harry heard what the hat thought of him he was very surprised, that sounded really like a mixture of Slytherin and Gryffindor, some things had changed since the last time he did this. And what did the hat mean with self-centred anyway?
He even forgot to plead for Slytherin until the hat said “I can only repeat my last advice:
Slytherin could lead you to your destiny and Gryffindor to greatness. It is you who has to choose.” Suddenly black eyes appeared in Harry`s mind. His destiny? The last time the hat hadn`t used these words, strange. Had he taken the wrong path? No, he was sure that he`d done the right thing then , as much as he knew it now.
´ Slytherin` he thought as clearly as he could.
“So be it..Slytherin!” The last word was, as always, spoken aloud, relieved Harry pulled the hat from his head and grinned towards the Slytherin table were nearly everybody clapped, even Severus. “Very well, let`s continue with the breakfast now.”

With these words Dumbledore ended the ceremony while Harry made his way towards the Slytherin table and sat left to his later teacher. But Severus seemed to be totally engrossed in dissecting his dry toast. The girl to Harry`s right spoke up. “Hi, I`m Armandrella Pierce, so you`re a seeker, will you play for us, maybe we could beat these damn Gryffindors for once.” This all was said in one hurried flow. The girl was quite pretty, dark brown hair a sharp edged face but deep brown eyes softened her features. Still the tempo with which she spoke humbled Harry.
“You could at least wait with firing me until we`ve seen him fly. I`m not that bad.” Harry looked to the thin boy across from him, he seemed to be all bones and skin, he was even thinner than Severus who looked as of he`d missed to take on the weight needed after his own growing spurt, in the pensive he hadn`t been this tall and pretty, even though he`d been thin too. Harry thought that it was strange how one year could change a boy into a young man.
The guy opposite him had blond hair and freckles all over his face. He grinned at Harry “Hello, I`m Mortimer Firestone. I`m the current seeker, of our rather unlucky team, don`t let Mandy scare you.”

Harry had problems assimilating to the situation. He had a civilised, one might even say friendly conversation with Slytherins!! “It is not my fault that we`ve only won once against Gryffindor since Lucius Malfoy left the school. We really have to arrange a little training session maybe Harry can alter the situation. What about your timetable Granger when do you have time, do you need somebody to show you around? “
A little bit helpless Harry answered the last question “ No thanks, Severus will accompany me to our next class. We have nearly the same schedules.” A distressed look crossed the girl`s face and Mortimer`s grin vanished. They both looked with something akin to pity at Harry then the seeker said “Well, practice is today at 5, be sure to be at the dorm around four, so one of the team members can show you to the field. See you then.” With that the table slowly emptied until only Harry and Severus were left who stood his toast untouched and left the table.

Wondering at the other`s increased silence the new Slytherin followed his guide. “Is something wrong?” he asked as the boy still didn`t acknowledge him. The loosely bound hair fell over his right shoulder and a few strand escaped, hiding his downcast face.
“You did not tell me that you`re a seeker.” That sounded as if he accused him of being a robber. Maybe it was just the bad experience with James Potter, hopefully Dumbledore hadn`t by giving him an in with all the other students taken his chance to get to know the one better who he was interested in. “Yeah, I kinda forgot in all that excitement, you mind? Uhh I mean if you don`t want me to play I won`t…” The boy`s head had turned so fast towards him that he feared he`d gotten whiplash. They stood for a minute staring at each other, dark eyes boring into green, looking for ..deceive. Harry wasn`t surprised, even in his time the potion master was the most distrustful person he knew. He just tried to convey all his good will into their locked gaze. “You`re serious?” The voice he came to love most of all asked, Harry nodded and smiled gently. “Why would you do such a thing? Every stupid brat wants to be a seeker.” Severus sounded regretful. `Did he too want to be a seeker once? No, then he would sound wistful. Had he been a Quidditch player and was forced to quit? Just another secret that made the man that Severus Snape was`. Harry resolutely told himself to be patient.
“I`ve been a seeker for 6 years and I know that real friends are far more important than the glory of a won game. So if it`s going to cost me the chance of being your friend I`d rather decline the position.” The long haired boy looked at him in wonder then he smiled that beautiful but rare smile of his and said “You`re a strange guy Harry Granger, but so am I. Maybe this can be accomplished, it is of no importance if you are a seeker or not for me.”
Harry grinned the trademark idiotic grin which he was so famous for and wanted to clap Severus on his back, at the last second though he remembered how the other boy reacted to touch and just hold his hand out. After a second of hesitance it was taken into a strong grip. “To a friendship that is going to be the stuff of legends.” This startled a little laugh out of the other Slytherin, a sound Harry vowed to make appear more often, such beauty should not be kept locked away. “Why not?” Severus said amused.

The hand was pulled away and Severus warned “We have to hurry or we will be late to potions. Although we would not miss anything important, I value punctuality.” `Don`t I know it´, Harry thought while suppressing the urge to roll his eyes and followed the boy downstairs towards the potion rooms. “You don`t like potions?” Harry latched onto the meaning he got from the words, that just simply couldn`t be. Snape loved potions like nobody else and despite being a lousy teacher even Harry could see that the man was a genius. “No I love potions, I just despise the incompetent imbecile that is our teacher.”

´Yes, that was the Snape he knew and loved´, chuckling at the comment he followed the boy into their class room. Not favouring the Gryffindor`s to his right even a glance he sat next to Severus whose bank was in the first row. This earned him a few surprised looks but everybody just kept on talking. “So you like potions, do you want to study it?” There were a few moments of silence in which Severus nose was buried deeply in his book. Armandrella shot him an excusing look as suddenly the boy answered softly “Yes, I intend to study potions, maybe I will work for one of the bigger potion producing companies. I already have offers from some of them to pay for my education.” The Slytherins around them fell silent in surprise as they heard their prefect talk, something that hadn`t happened for a very long time. “You don`t want to teach?” Severus looked towards him, playing to be as oblivious as Harry to the staring around them. “Do I seem to you the type that would voluntarily teach a bunch of dunderheads the art of potion making?” At the dry deadpan Harry had to laugh out loud, Severus` mouth twitched a bit.

The shutting door made Harry turn with the expectation of billowing black robes and a snarling point deduction only to see a small fat man with confused looking grey eyes behind thick orange coloured glasses. He trotted to the front of the room and stood on a staple of books so that he was able to overlook the whole class. He reminded Harry a lot of Flitwick, but without the hair, because the professor did have absolutely no hair, neither in his face nor on his head.”morning, morning pupils; we will do the Escalatius potion today, the instructions are on page 133, please be careful as it is quite volatile.”

Next to him Severus snarled “not again” absently Harry noted how cute the snarl looked on a young Snape while it was sexy when he was older. “What do you mean?” he whispered. Afraid the professor might hear him, though he was on the other side of the room gossiping with a Gryffindor girl. His future potion master said “We did this one already last week and it is not on the list of potions we need to be able to do for our NEWTs.” The younger man stood and walked towards the cupboards, not even thinking of opening his book. The Slytherins had all paired off and most of them were already working on reading the list in the book, while only half of the Gryffindors were working, the other half joked with their teacher. Harry opened his book helplessly. He remembered vaguely that they`d done this potion once, in fifth class he thought, but Neville had his cauldron exploding in five minutes, so the former Gyffindor didn`t really know what to do. He just read how to mix it all together as Severus came back to their table with an arm full of ingredients, only half of it seemed to be for Escalatius though.

“What are you doing? There`s no spider fangs on the list.” Snape pulled another cauldron towards them and said absently “I want to try the Quintentio potion I´ve read about last week, and it\'s Arachnea fangs, there`s a difference, spiders can essentially produce webs, Arachneas can`t that is why their fangs are bigger than the ones of normal spiders.” Harry grinned as he watched Severus put ingredients in both cauldrons at the same time. He mixed with one hand while he used the other to cut snail tails. His answer sounded a lot like Hermione`s but without the lecturing –you really should know better- tone she usually had in it. As always watching the potion master work was a joy. He whirled around elegantly between the cauldrons and his long fingered hands worked surely while his face had a look of joyful concentration; the man was in his element. So watching he didn`t even notice the professor coming up behind him “You`re the new one, why aren`t you working? Too complicated for you?” Harry turned surprised at the voice full of distaste. A few Gryffindors around them snickered “No, no, I just read through the list again, I`m starting now.”

He turned towards the table of ingredients and had no idea what to do, as he`d been totally engrossed in Severus watching. Suddenly a bottle floated in front of him. “Three drops of me and then cut a dozen of snail tails.” It whispered through a magically added mouth. Harry immediately followed the orders after his first shock of seeing a talking bottle and soon the small professor was gone not even looking into Severus` direction. Relieved the new Slytherin turned towards his saviour to thank him because it had to be Snape\'s doing but the young man was totally engrossed in his Quintentio potion from which a light green smoke rose, his Escalatio was already simmering in perfect dark red. Not wanting to cause any accidents, Harry made a note to thank him later and read the instructions.

The lessons went on silently, as Harry tried to add 6 drops of bamboo root to his potion the bottle started to shake. Shocked the famous boy nearly let it fall. He shot a look towards his later professor but the dark eyed boy had his gaze and obviously full concentration on the potion which seemed to have build up little swirling tornados. Disturbed by this picture Harry turned to his bottle and tried again to put the drops in, but out came only a muffled “No”
Dumbfounded Harry put it on the desk in front of him and after a searching look for the professor who just exchanged cooking recipes with a light haired Gryffindor boy, he whispered “What is it? I need six drops of you.” Again a mouth appeared on the bottle glass and it said “No, the other boy didn`t do it like this.” So Severus really had something to do with his speaking bottles. “How did he do it then?” “He first put some of my blue brother in.” Blue brother? Harry looked at the ingredients laying on the table. There was a blue glassed bottle of dragon tears. Checking he read through the passage in his book again and indeed he`d forgotten to put the tears in before the root. That could have become nasty. Harry put the tears in and then completed his potion carefully. Soon he had a rich red coloured potion, not as burgundy as Snape`s but then nobody`s was. The professor, whose name was Loss, controlled their results and gave points by colour. The only Slytherin who got some was Severus, and then their teacher did it grudgingly. ´Queer world`, Harry thought.

They left the room and went towards the main hall. As they were out of hearing distance Harry turned towards his new friend and wanted to ask about the bottles, but the shining eyes that met his gaze dreamily took his breath. Stuttering he said “Why are you so happy?”
A reluctant smile appeared and the gaze became clearer “It worked Harry, I did it. I did the Quintentio potion.” Helplessly Harry reponded “Yeah, and Loss didn`t even take a look at it.”
Severus laughed “Of course not, because he probably couldn`t brew it if his life depended on it. It`s high quality potion making, done by students doing their work for the master title.”
“Wow.” Was Harry`s only answer to that. Severus nodded happily. As they reached the main hall the content Slytherin said “You have Divination now, why on earth you choose to study humbug like that I really do not understand. I have Arithmancy.” Hesitantly black eyes looked from behind lowered dark lashes “How about we meet up here in two hours and go to lunch together?” Harry asked, the boy nodded, smiled and disappeared in billowing robes. Harry had to chuckle at this. And he still hadn`t asked about the bottles, ah later.

Divination was a surprise because it was exactly the same as in Harry`s time. A younger looking Trelawny taught as competently as ever which meant that while she told some Ravenclaw girls about their unfortunate destiny he could talk with his new housemates.
He soon noticed the difference to his Gryffindor friends. Yes, Slytherins were friendly towards each other but they always kept a polite distance. He joked and talked with them but it was often laced with harsh sarcasm and subtle insults. Harry was shocked about how much he enjoyed their company. Some, for example Nostratus Mingrew and his girlfriend Lisabelle Ason he wouldn`t touch with a stick. They were a lot like Malfoy, assholes and dark magic lovers but they were the exception. What they had all in common though was money and manners. Most of the Slytherin students behaved like young Lords and Ladies; Harry stood out because of the \"legérè\", as a girl called it, way he talked. He excused it with his parents travelling across the world, which made it impossible for him to learn all the mannerisms of the locals.

This was accepted and only Mingrew and his fellowship which consisted of his girlfriend and the brothers Separio and Donite Liroas, guys that with their intellect reminded Harry of Crabbe and Goyle, made jokes about it but were simply ignored by the rest. Obviously you needed more than some low class snide remarks to gain the acknowledgement and position Malfoy had in their time. Harry immediately repressed the glimmer of respect he felt for the blonde at this moment. It was bad enough that he was in lo.. lust with Snape he didn\'t need to feel anything but antagonism for Malfoy. Ron would get a stroke knowing either thing.
All in all he really enjoyed talking with his classmates, one thing they did better than the Gryffindors was small talk, something Harry normally hated was fun with them, most of the Slytherins were better educated and knew lots of interesting stuff.
The distance the students kept was a nice change to the inquisitive way Harry was normally treated.

After Harry had been, as always, told that he would die a soon and painful death, which astonished him a bit as this Trelawny didn\'t even know who he once would be, his classmates loudly declared the uselessness of telling a Slytherin that and the incompetence of their teacher. Harry laughed along with them, ´finally somebody who said what they thought´. The way Trelawny hurried out of the room reminded him of a big dragonfly which he said unthinkingly and earned the obvious acceptance of his mates.
Laughing they all went towards the dining hall, out of the corner of his eyes Harry saw the young Snape standing close to an old rusty armour, doing his best not to be seen but Harry just said “See you” to the other Slytherins and walked directly towards the pale boy.

Somehow he seemed to have lost his black leather tie and his waist long hair fell over his shoulders in a dark silky rainfall. Harry suppressed the amazed staring he wanted to do and smiled at the boy “Hey how was your counting lesson?” Shooting a covered look at the group standing staring at the doors he scowled at Harry “Nice and your guessing hours?” Harry laughed pulled jokingly on a black strand which had fallen into the handsome face. Severus looked sideways at it but didn`t jerk away so the boy now named Granger said pulling a dramatically fearful face “I`m going to die an early and painful death.” Severus snorted and answered “Then let`s get something to eat, we wouldn`t want you to die on an empty stomach.” The young Potter laughed, reluctantly let the hair strand go and followed Severus into the dining hall.