Harry groaned when he read the headline in the first Daily Prophet since the Yule Ball on the twenty-seventh, as the paper didn't print on Christmas or Boxing Day. He really didn't want to, but he read the article to find out what damage control was needed.
My dear readers, for years now we have lived with the legend of the Boy-Who-Lived, the Vanquisher of You-Know-Who. In the recent years since young Mister Potter returned to the spotlight when he started attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, there have been rumours surrounding the boy. Killing a troll and talking to snakes are the least outlandish and widespread among the students Harry shares his classes with. Some of the most fanciful even go so far as to accuse Potter of killing a professor and setting a monster loose on the castle to attack muggleborn students. Personally I ignored any rumours indicating that the Boy-Who-Lived had a violent streak, but, my dear readers, something that happened during the Yule Ball has forced me to reassess that. Ladies and gentlemen, I can reveal that Mr. Potter, in a fit of rage that night, broke the nose of Severus Snape, Potions master and Professor of Potions at Hogwarts. "Potter and Snape have been at each other's throats since day one," said one student. "Professor Snape is the only one of the professors who tries to keep Potter under control," said another. In fact, every student I was able to get a comment from agreed that Harry Potter and Severus Snape truly can't stand each other. However it is the sudden escalation of hostilities from Harry Potter that has this reporter worried. "Snape has said some worse things to Harry before, but I never thought Harry would punch him," said one of Harry's classmates. So why the sudden change? Could it be just teenage hormones as he tries to impress his first girlfriend, or could it be something more sinister? Pansy Parkinson, in the same year as Harry and his girlfriend Hermione Granger, had this to say. "Granger has been following Potter around since first year, but Potter never looked at her twice. Rather understandable, as Granger is a rather plain buck-toothed muggleborn with weird ideas. Then suddenly they were all over each other. Now Granger, despite all her failings, is incredibly smart, I wouldn't put it past her to be able to brew a love potion." Now, my readers, as you will know, love potions are banned at Hogwarts, and this reporter for one hopes that the staff at Hogwarts will take this accusation seriously and will investigate appropriately. Rita Skeeter, reporter for theDaily ProphetHarry cursed and passed the paper to Hermione, who was anxious to find out what the paper said that had annoyed Harry so much. Soon all four of them (Harry, Hermione, Sirius and Charlus) had read the article, and no one was particularly happy about it.
"Harry, come with me for a second," Charlus said, standing up and walking out of the kitchen. Harry followed his grandfather into his potions lab. This was one of the only places in the manor Harry didn't have free access to, not because his grandfather wanted to keep things from Harry but just that there was often a delicate potion brewing in there, and as Harry wasn't a Potions prodigy it was too big a risk for him to be in there unsupervised. Especially given that there was a risk of accidentally turning a potion into a dead poison.
Grandfather Charlus pulled a glass bottle from a shelf and started adding things to it, giving it the occasional shake or swirl. "I'm sorry I have to do this Harry, but I'm gonna have to test your blood for love potions," Harry was about to object but Charlus didn't give him the opportunity. "I trust Hermione, Harry, but if I don't test you now, when it was just in the paper, people will say Hermione got worried about being found out and gave you a purging potion. By testing you right now, I'm not accusing Hermione but protecting her reputation." That got Harry to calm down. A test to prove Hermione innocent was a lot easier of a pill to swallow than his grandfather not trusting Hermione. As far as Harry was concerned, Hermione had earned his trust a thousand times over, even when they had clashed heads it was always about her protecting him.
When Charlus handed Harry the bottle and a Potions knife, Harry cleaned off the blade with the spell his grandfather had taught him over the summer, which earned him an approving nod from the man, before using the knife to slice open a finger and adding a few drops of blood to the flask. The liquid inside fizzed and bubbled when the blood was added, then turned black. Harry looked at his grandfather to see what that meant, only to see a relieved look on his face. "Out of curiosity, what would it have done if it was positive?" Harry asked.
"Oh, the same thing, the black is your blood burning off. However, if there was any love potion in your system it would have also started to glow. Now give me that finger of yours." Harry held out his finger and his grandfather healed it with a quick tap of his wand.
They went back into the kitchen and Hermione shot them both a glare. "So Harry's clean for love potions then." She had obviously worked out why Charlus had taken Harry away, and she was clearly offended.
Harry went to apologise and explain, but Charlus put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Don't blame Harry, I'm the one who did it. And as I explained to Harry when he said there was no chance you had slipped him a love potion, it wasn't about protecting him, it was about protecting you. I did the test straight away, meaning that no one can claim you gave Harry a neutralizer or a flushing potion. Neither of us thought you had done it. But when something is said, we have more than just our faith in you to refute it now." Hermione calmed down a little after Charlus explained and she let Harry pull her into a hug. Before dating Hermione, he wasn't much for hugs, but his girlfriend was the hugging type and he had quickly grown to love hugging her as well. "Now, I'm off for the first day of Snape's reassessment. Sirius, you got everything until I get back?"
Sirius, who definitely wasn't a morning person, looked up from his coffee and said. "Sure I got it. Moony will be here soon as well to teach these two everything he can about what's in the lake."
Charlus nodded, said his goodbyes and made his way to the floo fire. A pinch of sparkling green powder later and Charlus stepped out of the headmaster's fire at Hogwarts. Charlus wasn't the first of the grand masters of the most extraordinary society of Potioneers to arrive, as two others were standing there in the office but at least he wasn't the last. "Dumbledore," Charlus nodded as he greeted the man. Even if he was still a little angry at the headmaster for how he handled his potions master, this was Dumbledore's office and that demanded at least some courtesy.
Charlus looked over the two who were already there. One was Horace Slughorn, and Charlus smiled a bit at that. Slughorn had held the job of Hogwarts Potions Professor before Snape, and he was very likely to understand just why Snape was a problem with the way he currently was acting while holding a position that had the potential to greatly affect the country's future. The other was Tiberius Falter. He was fairly new, only having gained his grandmaster status a few years before Charlus had gotten caught in the time storm. His specialty was inventing medical potions for St Mungo's. It was a specialty that required a lot of skill, and even if Charlus had never gotten to know him socially he had Charlus's respect. Considering a Potions N.E.W.T. is essential to start a healer's apprenticeship, hopefully Charlus would be able to swing his vote to demoting Snape.
The assessment had seven people total in it. One one side would be Snape arguing his case for him to keep his mastery qualifications. Charlus would be his opposite, arguing for his demotion. The other five would take a judging role and would vote for the outcome. Well, technically both he and Snape also had a vote but as people in their positions hardly ever voted for the other side, those votes were mute points. There were a few unanimous votes over the years, but it was basically just a way for one side to say they were wrong after the assessment.
Soon the other three arrived, all witches - Salem Matches, Dawn Lonshop, and Falon Jones. Charlus only knew Dawn Lonshop, who was the owner of the company that his father had sold the Sleekeazy's potion to, as her speciality was cosmetic potions. The other two he had only read a little about from his other friends in the M.E.S.P.
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"So Sirius told me that you're going into the Black Lake for the next task. Now, can you tell me what creatures you are likely to encounter while you are in the lake?" Remus asked Harry and Hermione.
Hermione could probably answer better than Harry, but it was him who was going to be facing the challenge so she let him answer, "Well obviously there is the giant squid, and the clue was in Mermish so I guess merpeople. And it's a Scottish lake, so I should also be on the lookout for kelpies and grindylows, plus whatever Bagman or Crouch decide to dump in the lake to make the tournament more challenging."
Hermione had found out the part about the clue being Mermish a few days after they found the clue when she looked up languages that change under water. Harry was lucky she had thought of it, as he never would have thought of that and he would have completely missed that it was a hint about merfolk.
"Correct. Now merfolk tend to live at the bottom of lakes so while we can't rule out something else it seems likely that you will need to go deep. Can either of you tell me the biggest issue witches and wizards face when combating creatures underwater?" Neither Harry or Hermione could answer that one. "Magic often doesn't work the same under water. A lot of spells impact on the first thing they come into contact with. When you are underwater that becomes the water itself, rather than whatever you are pointing your wand at. So you will have to learn a few new spells if you are going to be safe down there. The two of you are muggle-raised, what can you tell me about how muggles protect themselves when they go diving?"
Harry's life had been a little too sheltered for him to know much, but Hermione had been scuba diving in the Mediterranean over the summer and she had seen the weapon the tour guide had on his boat, though whether it was for emergencies or to impress tourists she didn't know. "A harpoon gun."
"Exactly. Now the spell I'm going to teach you is called the Silver Javelin curse. It was designed to kill werewolves, but as the spell conjures a silver javelin and sends it hurtling towards whatever you are pointing your wand at, it will work under water in the same way a harpoon does."
Harry was hesitant to learn an anti-werewolf spell. As far as he was concerned werewolves were people, and learning a spell that was made purely to kill them was almost as bad as learning the killing curse. Remus had counted every one of Harry's objections, reminding him that, while transformed, a werewolf who wasn't under the effect of wolfsbane was a monster who would not only feel there was nothing wrong with killing people but would actively seek them out to do that. He had finished by saying. "Honestly Harry, if it was me and your choice was to kill me or for you to let me attack anyone, I tell you this now, I would rather you kill me. I would rather never wake up than to wake up and find I had ripped some poor innocent sod to death."
After that, Harry had agreed to learn the spell. Argenti Incarnum took most of the day to learn as the two of them tried again and again to shoot silver javelins at wooden targets Remus had transfigured out of a pile of Firewood. For a change, Hermione was the one who got this defence spell first. She was no stranger to being the first to get a spell, it was rather common in most of their wand classes, but D.A.D.A. was the only exception. It had little to do with Hermione being a little slower in that class than others, a fact she blamed on half of the teachers they had had for the subject so far being absolutely worthless, and had way more to do with Harry being way better at D.A.D.A. than any of his other classes.
By the evening both of them were able to shoot a javelin more times than not, and they were even close to hitting the target. The rest would come with practice. Though they were practising at fifty feet, and according to Remus the spell only had a little over twenty feet effective range underwater, something about water resistance slowing down the javelin.
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"Well, where to begin?" Charlus said as the hearing finally got started in the same empty classroom that they had been using to prepare Harry for the Triwizard Tournament. Dumbledore obviously thought he was making some type of psychological power play with Charlus by assigning them this room for the assessment, but honestly Charlus didn't care. He was more than happy to have Director Bones haul Dumbledore into the D.M.L.E. to answer for endangering the last hair of the House of Potter if he needed to. Dumbledore had enough political enemies on the darker side of the Wizengamot, Charlus could easily use them to hamstring the old fool if he needed to. Not that Charlus wanted to associate with those types if he could help it, but if it came to it they would be useful tools.
"Let's start with competency. Now I will admit that Mr Snape does have some talent in the art of brewing. I bet we could set him any advanced potion to brew and he would be able to provide a respectable potion. However, what of the basics, the very fundamentals? As unusual as it is, I would like us to first go and inspect the classroom and private laboratory here at the school before we do anything else." Charlus said his opening piece, getting straight to the point rather than beating around the bush. The five assessors talked amongst themselves for a few minutes until they agreed to go and inspect the labs. It didn't take long to get there, but Charlus was pleased to note the looks of surprise that they kept going down past the ground floor.
As they walked a familiar redhead came running up. Apparently they had been seen in the castle and word had gotten back to Ronald Weasley. "Warlock Charlus, is everything okay? Are Harry and Hermione alright?"
It was obvious that Ronald was panicking and it took Charlus a second to realise he was afraid that he had been called into the school to expel Harry and Hermione. Unfortunately, before Charlus could say anything Snape had to butt in. "Five points from Gryffindor Weasley for sticking your nose into matters that are none of your concern."
Unfortunately for Snape, he had used a poor choice of words and Charlus was rather fond of the Weasley family. "You know, your Professor is right Ron, if you go poking your nose where it has no business to poke, then eventually someone is just going to break it for you." He finished by giving Ronald a wink.
As Ron was fighting down a laugh, Charlus also reassured him about his friends. "Harry and Hermione are fine, they will be back when the new term starts. I believe they are working on Harry's strategy for the second task today. Now, I would love to stop and chat but I unfortunately don't have the time. I'll tell Harry and Hermione you were asking after them."
"Thanks Warlock Charlus," said Ronald before leaving.
The seven of them arrived at the potions classroom, and Charlus started to point things out to the assessors. "Look at this place. A dungeon isn't exactly suitable for a Potions lab. Where's the ventilation in case a potion starts giving off fumes? What's to stop steam from condensing on the cold ceiling and raining down into brews? And don't get me started on this lighting. How is a student supposed to read a recipe or see the colour their potion has reached in this place? These are the mistakes of an amateur, not a master who has been given the honour of being recognised as a Potions Master." Charlus went on to criticise everything that appeared to be an aesthetic choice for Snape that had even the slightest chance to affect how well someone can brew. He even went as far as to criticise Snape's long hair, as it was possible to drop a hair in a potion and ruin it.
Snape of course tried to rebut everything Charlus said. He claimed that the choice of classroom was to keep the other classes from being affected by the frequent mistakes that novice potioneers made. "Imagine trying to learn Charms or Transfiguration while having your nose assaulted by another idiot who couldn't tell the difference between stink sap and flobberworm mucus."
Charlus had jumped right on that. "Maybe if they had enough light then they would actually have a chance to read the labels properly. And are you saying you failed to teach them the difference between the two?" Snape didn't say anything to that, but the look he shot Charlus could have curdled milk. "Now, while we are here looking at this room I want you to consider the first rule this potion master sets for any students in his class: 'no wands.' Can you imagine telling students that they can't use their wands? I don't know about you, but the first lesson I would be teaching any novice is the charms to clean your equipment between ingredient preparation. And if I was forced to teach here, then also the floating light charm. I would also be casting the cauldron shielding charm on all the cauldrons to prevent condensation raining down into the cauldrons and the Bubble-Head charm on everyone until they were old enough to learn the charms themselves.
"Yet this supposed potions master actively prevented students from casting those spells, even if they learned them elsewhere. I had the opportunity to give three of his current fourth years some extra tutoring over the summer, and I taught them those spells and told them how to use them and why. When those same three students tried to do that when they came back, Snape actually tried to punish them for it. It was the fallout from that attempt to punish Potions students for practising industry standard safety charms that first made me start questioning his ability to hold the rank of potions master." Charlus was practically giving a speech as the five Potions grandmasters inspected the lab, noting all the potential problems with it.
"They were definitely taught those charms when I was the professor here," Slughorn spoke up for the first time. "Severus, I am very disappointed in you if you truly tried to punish students for using protocols put in place to keep them safe."
"Oh, it's true all right. When I came to the castle in the aftermath, as two of the students are members of the House of Potter, Mr. Snape said…what was it exactly?...Oh yes, 'such spells are nothing but a crutch and are unnecessary for a true Potioneer,'" Charlus told them. As the day went on, it was clear that the assessors were not happy with everything Charlus was telling them. By the end of the day, Charlus was happy with what he had done. Tomorrow Snape would start his defence of his position. Charlus said goodbye to his colleagues and Floo'ed home.
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The next day they got word from the Grangers that they were home, via a letter brought by Hedwig at breakfast. When Ron had sent his reply back with Hedwig, Harry had then asked her to go watch for the Grangers. Her Grand Owlness had extorted an entire pack of bacon from Harry for doing this for him but she had agreed. Charlus had to go into Hogwarts again to deal with Snape's assessment. The M.E.S.P. really wanted the assignment done before the new year so that they would have the time to assign a Potions Master to the school before the students returned if Snape lost his qualification. "Sirius, can you take Hermione to her parents this morning and explain what happened, please?"
Sirius had agreed, and after breakfast they all made their way to the Floo. Technically Sirius could have Side-Along Apparated the two teens to London, but the more people you took and the longer the distance caused the difficulty of the Apparition to increase, and whilst he was confident he could have taken one of them his head was still a little too scrambled for him to risk taking both that far and not risk leaving part of someone behind. It was a lot easier to Floo to the Leaky Cauldron and to Apparate them from there, where the trip was only a few miles.
They appeared in a back alley close to Hermione's house and walked the rest of the way. Hermione fished a key from her pocket and opened the door inviting them all in. "Mum, dad, I'm home!" Hermione shouted into the house. "I have Sirius and Harry with me."
"In the kitchen love," came back the call from her father.
It turns out that they had accidentally interrupted the Granger's late breakfast. Hermione busied herself making a pot of tea for everyone as her parents finished their breakfast and engaged in some unimportant small talk. Once they finished eating, everyone took their tea into the living room and Emma asked the all important questions. "OK, what happened, and where is Charlus? Isn't he the one who is supposed to look after Hermione in the magical world?"
"Uncle Charlus is at Hogwarts doing everything he can to get the teacher behind this removed from the school, so he asked me to bring Hermione here and explain what's happening this morning, which is a longer story." The Grangers had already heard most of it, Charlus was keeping them updated like he promised and Hermione hadn't skipped much of the details that had happened in her letters home. Still, it was easier to explain it all from the start of the year rather than risk missing something that they thought the Grangers knew.
Hermione was the one to explain theYule Ball to her parents and how Snape had talked to her and Harry. Dan had naturally assumed that she and Harry had been doing more than they had when Hermione had quoted Snape's tirade. After she had to explain exactly what she and Harry had been doing, which while completely appropriate was mortifying for the teens, Dan calmed down. He realised that when he objectively thought over the chain of events, a middle aged man basically accusing his daughter of being a whore and his daughter's boyfriend breaking the man's nose for it, it called for a different response. He got up from his chair and walked over to Harry and shook the boy's hand. "Good lad Harry. You did a great job." Which, after a moment of surprise, got Harry to grin and promise that if it was ever necessary he'd do it all again.
While the Grangers were not exactly happy with the situation, they were relieved that all Hermione had done was a shield spell and nothing that could be considered attacking a teacher. The discussion soon turned to where Hermione was going to spend her time until she needed to go back to school. She wanted to stay at Potter Manor with Harry and argued that he needed her help preparing for the tournament. Dan and Emma, however, wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to spend some time with the daughter they missed and loved.
It was Sirius who suggested that they use the same schedule they used in the summer, where Hermione could go to the manor in the morning to join Harry for his lessons, then back home later in the day once her parents were finished with work. Sirius even offered to personally Apparate Hermione back and forth to save the Grangers the trip to the Leaky Cauldron. Hermione's parents had accepted the offer, as it was clear they would have a moody teenage daughter on their hands if they had to cut her off from her boyfriend AND the extra lessons for the rest of the break. They did, however, invite Harry to join them and Hermione for their dental association's New Years party. As the Yule Ball was interrupted by Snape, perhaps this would be a good substitute.
Harry, with a nod from Sirius, had quickly accepted, and Sirius left to go get Hermione's things. Hermione pulled Harry into the kitchen so that her parents could have a few minutes to talk, and Harry had spotted the morning's newspaper still folded and unread on the breakfast table where Dan had left it. He hadn't paid any attention to it before, but now he noticed the headline: Child abusers plead guilty to startling list of charges. The picture below it was a courtroom artist's impression of Uncle Vernon and Aunt petunia. "What the fuck!?"