A Twisted Web We Weave

CHAPTER 8

Severus sat quietly in the staff lounge his back to the general company and his booted feet resting warmly on the fire surround. Severus hated Wednesday staff meetings. The idea of having to sit around listening to idol gossip was almost intolerable but today more than anything he was dreading it. With the mishap in the potions labs that morning the topic of the evening among the staff was teacher responsibility. Severus had pointedly avoided getting involved with any of the conversation and instead had sat himself down in the arm chair beside the fire with his first year text book, which he would be using for his first class tomorrow morning.

“Ah Severus do you mind?” Severus inwardly groaned as he felt the shadow of his brother fall over him. Julius pointed to the seat beside his brothers and waited for permission to sit. Severus wasn’t in the mood for company, especially his elder brothers.

“Yes actually I do.” Severus muttered not bothering to look up from his textbook as he addressed his brother. Julius sniffed indignantly and sat down anyway. Wisely Severus held his tongue, not willing to give the other staff members the satisfaction of seeing he and his brother fight.

“Rumors around the school are that you tried to kill your sixth year potion class this morning.” Severus gritted his teeth but tried to remain completely calm as he turned the page of the textbook without having spoken a word. Julius it seemed wasn’t waiting for a reply from his brother and relaxed back in the armchair casually continuing the conversation. “Potter wasn’t injured was he? That boy has a remarkable talent for Defense it would be a shame if he couldn’t attend the first meeting of the dueling club tomorrow night. I confess I’m quite intrigued to see how the young boy fights.” Severus narrowed his gaze so that he was glaring at the words in the textbook, now no longer bothering to try and read them. Schooling his emotions Severus looked slowly up from his book to where his brother was sitting smiling at him expectantly.

“Potter burnt his hands, but I believe he is fine. As for the Dueling Club, Potter will be in attendance but seeing as though he is now serving a two month detention with me, after this mornings disaster, he will be confined to sitting on the bench while the other students participate.” Severus smiled coldly at his brother before turning back to his textbook.

“Oh, I’m quite disappointed now. I was looking forward to seeing him work.” Julius sipped from his teacup balance precariously on the edge of the armchair he sat in. “I don’t know why you bother handing out detentions Severus, young wizards respond much better to positive reinforcement than punishment.” In that very instant Severus cracked and he stood up from the armchair to stand towering over his brother who still remained calmly sat in his chair, a smug smile twitching at the corner of his lips.

“Are you questioning my ability to discipline my students Julius? I, of whom have nearly 20 years teaching experience while you can only boast three weeks?” Severus was angry but also a little disappointed that he’d risen to his brother’s bait so easily. Julius smiled his infuriatingly bright smug smile at his little brother, as he replied.

”I’m just suggesting that perhaps there are other ways of discipline Severus.” Julius confidently answered, now completely aware of the audience they had of the other teachers. Severus narrowed his eyes at his elder brother his voice lowering to a dark tone.

“Mr. Potter nearly kill my entire class with his potion Julius, and I believe that punishment such as revoking the boy’s privileges is the only method that will teach the boy a lesson.” Severus glared at Julius who simply nodded non-commitally and sipped from his tea calmly.

“Potter? You think Potter was responsible do you? He does have a lab partner doesn’t he Severus?” Julius looked up knowingly from his teacup and Severus watched in suspicion as his brother drained what was left of his tea and put aside the cup. Something in those emerald green eyes made Severus shiver as he stared at his brother. Something strange was going on behind them but Severus couldn’t make it out. Before Severus could reply however Julius had continued. “But then it was probably just a simple accident Severus, you know how dangerous some activities can be. You need to be more careful in future.” Severus knew an insult when he heard one, even one as well hidden as Julius’s. With a snort of disgust Severus turned and strode towards the exit of the staff room. At the entrance to the room he ran into the headmaster who was just coming in to begin the meeting, however Severus didn’t pause as he pushed past him.

“Severus, we’re just going to begin….” Dumbledore called after his potions master but Severus was already halfway down the corridor.

“Send me a memo.” Was the sharp reply as the professor swept around the corner of the corridor and disappeared from view. Dumbledore sighed heavily and looked back into the staff room. Julius was sitting in the chair beside where Severus usually liked to sit, and it didn’t take a genius to work out what had gone on judging from the self satisfied smirk that played on the corner of Julius thin lips. Staring pointedly at the newest professor Dumbledore entered the room and with another long sigh began the weekly staff meeting.

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Harry and Draco were standing at the large sinks at the back of the potions classroom, which had finally been unsealed after the morning’s accident. Having reported to their detention Snape had ordered them to clean the entire stock of school cauldrons by hand. It was a task and a half but the boys had obediently done as they were told. Snape had left ten minutes into the detention saying he was to attend a staff meeting, but made sure to remind the boys that if they weren’t doing what they were supposed to be doing he’d double the detention. Harry and Draco knew Severus didn’t make idle threats and had set to work in a little chain. Harry emptied and then rinsed the cauldrons, Draco then scrubbed them in hot water, then Harry dried and polished them. It was a good system and worked well. It also gave them some time to talk to one another. The conversation had slowly progressed from how they were both doing in their potions assignment, to general schoolwork to Quidditch and now finally to the newest defense teacher, Professor Julius Snape.

“He’s strange.” Draco muttered as he rinsed the cauldron he just finished scrubbing and handed it to Harry for the boy to dry and polish.

“Yeah, he’s too nice if that makes sense, a bit false?” Harry hoisted the freshly scrubbed cauldron up onto the bench and began drying it with a large cloth.

“Mmm, exactly.” Draco sighed as he pulled another of the heavy cauldrons into the soapy water, which automatically changed to clean water when the new cauldron was put into it, to stop cross contamination.

“Do you know anything about him, what with him being a Snape and all? Personally I didn’t even know old Snivelrus had relatives let along a brother.” Harry questioned as he changed the drying cloth for a polishing one and began to work the polishing oil into the iron bowl. Draco shrugged his shoulders idly as he scrubbed hard to remove the grime from the cauldron in the water.

“Not much, just what I heard from my Dad from when he was at school with them.” Draco thought for a moment about what he could remember before continuing on. “He played keeper for the Slytherin team I’m pretty sure. Severus didn’t play Quidditch at all. According to my Dad, Julius was always the better-looking one but I don’t reckon so. Julius was more popular than Severus, and I think they kind of hated one another because of that. As far as I’m aware Julius disappeared after finishing school, leaving his younger brother to deal with the family. I think he’s been living in the muggle world but doing what I’m not sure. Severus doesn’t talk about his family much, he wasn’t exactly the favorite son.” Harry nodded completely enthralled by the information Draco was feeding him. Never in his life would he have considered ever listening to what Draco had to say and taking it seriously. It was strange hearing stories about other wizarding families that Harry knew nothing about.

Before Harry could comment on what Draco had just said the door to the potions classroom flung open and Snape strode in and threw his cloak across the room, where it landed on his desk scattering parchment and tipping an inkpot onto the floor. Snape was mad and Draco and Harry merely stared at the professor as he stormed to the front of the class and slumped down in his chair behind his desk, seemingly to have forgotten completely about his students.

“Fucking, self righteous, arrogant, son of a bitch.” Harry could hardly believe what he was hearing as Severus swore loudly at no one in particular before he bent his head onto his desk, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in obvious stress. Harry and Draco didn’t dare move as they watched the scene before them and it was only when Draco’s scrubbing brush slipped out of his hand and clattered to the floor that the professor shot to his feet to stare at the two students.

“What are you two staring at? Don’t you have a job to do?” Almost immediately Harry and Draco snapped to attention and turned back to what they were doing before in silence. As Harry worked he listened as Severus sat back down at his desk again, the crackle of magic in the air telling him that Severus had cleaned up the mess he’d just made. After a while Harry slowly became aware of eyes staring at him, and he squirmed uncomfortably under the professors gaze. Finally the stare became too much and Harry dared to glance over his shoulder at where Snape was staring openly at him, a look of complete concentration on his face. The look seemed to fade however as Severus snapped out of his stare and Harry hurriedly turned back around to focus on his task.

“Potter, come here.” Harry stiffened as Snape’s cold voice pierced the silence. Cautiously Harry glanced across at Draco who just shrugged his shoulders and continued with his task. With a steadying sigh Harry put aside his polishing rag and moved over to stand in front of Snape’s desk at the front of the classroom. Snape paused for a moment and looked over Harry’s appearance with a critical eye. The boy was dressed in his school robes but was wearing an apron to protect his clothes from the dirty cauldrons they’d been scrubbing all evening.

“Sir.” Harry whispered wondering what Snape wanted from him or if this was just another excuse to have a go at him.

“What’s the single ingredient that’s the difference between an anti aging potion and the silencer potion?” Harry was confused by Snape’s question but answered it anyway.

“I don’t know sir.” It was an honest answer and Snape knew it. With a soft sigh Snape nodded and turned to Draco who he knew was now standing at the back of the room in his yellow rubber gloves listening in on their conversation.

“Draco?” Snape addressed the blonde who slowly turned around his dripping gloves splattering the floor with water while he held up the scrubbing brush in his right hand.

“Yes sir.” Draco whispered respectfully.

“What’s the single ingredient that’s the difference between an anti aging potion and the silencer potion?” Snape watched as Draco thought for a moment before replying.

“Ground sea sand sir.” Snape nodded at Draco and crooked his finger at the blonde indicating that he was to leave what he was doing and join Harry standing in front of his desk. Draco did as he was bid quickly, and stood silently beside Harry as Snape looked from one boy to the other.

“How do you know that Draco?” Snape inquired cautiously.

“It was an example in our first year text book about how easily a potion could be transformed into a poison, and why Potion Making is such a precise art sir.” Snape nodded and pulled out the first year textbook he’d been reading in the staff meeting and placed it in front of the blonde.

“Show me.” Draco looked strangely at Severus but did so anyway, flicking through the first few chapters of the book before coming to the page he was looking for. Snape read the page slowly taking note of the line that Draco had his finger on, which clearly illustrated the difference between an anti-aging potion and the silencer potion.

“The both of you bring me the same ingredients bottles from your cabinet that you used this morning in the potion.” Draco and Harry glanced at one another as Snape flicked his wand in the direction of the wall cabinet which unlocked itself allowing the boys access. Slowly the boys gathered the eight ingredient bottles and brought them back over to Snape’s table where there were now eight small glass bowls sitting waiting. “Pour the contents of each ingredient bottle in to a dish.” Again the boys followed the procedure and before long there were eight bowls full of ingredients sitting on the table. Slowly Snape looked along the bowls until he came to the second last one on the right and pointed to it. Inside the glass bowl was a yellowy powder. “Draco, what’s that?” The blonde Slytherin picked up the bottle he’d emptied into the dish and read the label.

“Powdered Sneezlewort Sir.” Draco replied simply as he showed Snape the label on the bottle.

“Sneezlewort.” Snape commented quietly as he stared at Draco. Draco merely nodded again completely lost in what the potions master was trying to get at with this demonstration. “Potter do you know what Sneezlewort looks like?” Harry closed his eyes and thought about it for the moment. They’d grown Sneezlewort in Herbology last year but he hadn’t exactly been paying attention that year.

“It’s a pod, about this long sir, and it’s yellow with this kind of pollen things inside.” Snape nodded at Harry’s hand estimation before turning back to Draco who was standing there completely confused by what was going on.

“Draco do you know what powdered sneezlewort looks like?” Snape addressed Draco who shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the dish. Up until now they had only ever dealt with fresh ingredients in potions, not the powdered varieties and so many of the powders Draco wasn’t familiar with.

“Yellow like that sir?” Draco explained hoping that he passed whatever test this was that Snape was putting them through.

“No it’s orange, when crushed and powdered sneezlewort is orange, this is yellow. This is not Sneezlewort.” Standing up from his desk Snape moved over to his own locked store and returned a few moments later with a large stoppered bottle containing what looked to be the same stuff that was inside the glass bowl on the table.

”Then what’s that sir?” Harry queried beginning now to see what Snape was getting at. Snape sat back down at the desk and pushed the large bottle he’d returned with across the desk to Harry so the boy could read the label. “Ground sea sand.” Harry whispered as he looked up from the label on the bottle to Draco then from Draco back to Snape who was reclining on his chair watching the exchange of glances between the two boys standing in front of his desk. There was silence that hung in the air and both Draco and Harry stared at Snape waiting for what was going to happen next. Harry had no idea that what he and Draco had been adding to their potion wasn’t what the labels on the bottles had suggested.

“Having considered the situation more thoroughly I have decided to cancel your two months detention. Now get out of my sight the both of you before I change my mind again.” Harry and Draco were stunned but both boys nodding eagerly and turned to disappear from the potions classroom. Harry was just following Draco out of the room however when he paused and glanced back in at the potions professor who was now staring at the glass bowl containing the ground sea sand and the wrongly labeled bottle.

“Sir.” Harry whispered drawing Snape’s attention to him. “How did it get there then?” Harry wondered if Snape was going to answer him but at length the professor replied.

“I’m not sure Potter but what’s more important is why it was put there. Now I suggest you and Draco head to your respective dorms, curfew is in five minutes.” Obediently Harry nodded and having closed the door to the lab ran to catch up with Draco. The blonde was waiting for him at the end of the corridor.

“Fuck me, I can’t believe he just let us off like that.” Draco was clearly shocked but to Harry it was not so surprising. Snape had been testing them then, trying to find out what they knew about the ingredients, and when they’d showed no knowledge of the powder he knew that neither of them could have intentionally caused the accident.

“Yeah but I don’t think we’ll hear the last of this. Someone deliberately miss labeled the bottles for some reason, we’re going to have to be more careful Draco.” Draco nodded in agreement as the clock tower stuck nine.

”Curfew, I’ve got to go, see you tomorrow.” Draco smiled at Harry as he disappeared down the darkened corridors towards his own dorm while Harry began sprinting for his. If he was caught outside the dorm he’d be back where he started with the detentions. Harry made it back to the dorm unscathed and crawled into bed. Ron was already snoring beside him as was Neville across the room. As Harry lay down to sleep his mind was so pre occupied thinking about what had happened in the dungeons and what it might mean that for the first time since Sirius death the boy didn’t cry himself to sleep…

TBC>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>