Hagrid leaned down and peered closely at the snake. "Can't tell yeh fer certain, but I'd say she's likely jus' a snake."
Nodding, Harry tucked Sals back into a pocket, then walked back to where the students were waiting for Hagrid to dismiss them. When Harry began the trek back up to the castle, Nott fell into step beside him. Ron didn't look pleased, but he was good enough not to openly glare. He trailed along at a distance, his wand hand tensed and ready.
Harry caught his eye, then shrugged to say he was mystified by Nott but wanted to see what he could find out.
"So I was thinking," said Nott when they were about halfway up the hill. "If you're going to go around sporting a snake on your crest, you ought to get to know us a little better, don't you think?"
Harry glanced around. "Actually, I don't think anybody else in Slytherin wants to know me. Not sure why you do, actually."
Nott lowered his voice and steered Harry away from the other students, though the Slytherins were already cutting them a wide berth. "Letters," he whispered, looking left and right in rapid succession.
Harry pitched his voice equally low. "Oh. You're one of the students Draco's been writing to?"
"Yeah. He makes... ah, a certain lifestyle sound not so very appealing, if you catch my meaning. Listen, I don't expect you to believe a word I say, especially since if you ask around you'll find out I talked pretty tough about how Draco must have lost his mind. I had to, Potter. I wasn't sure his change of loyalties was for real, at first. I thought it all might be some complicated scheme his father had cooked up."
"To deliver me back to Voldemort?"
Nott nodded, a muscle in his throat jerking when he heard that name. "And also to identify disloyal elements in Slytherin. But after a while, Pansy was starting to really think Draco had a safe way out. I could tell. And well, now it's all obvious that I was being too suspicious. Draco's on the up-and-up, all right. I mean, you obviously think so, and after what his father did, I figure you'd pretty much be a stickler for proof."
"To say the least," Harry murmured. "He's for real, all right."
Nott nodded, the motion slight enough that nobody but Harry could likely detect it. "So about Slytherin," he resumed in a louder voice. "You're welcome to dine at our table. You've a right to, in fact."
Harry had planned to go eat with the Slytherins sooner or later, but the offer still took him aback. He couldn't quite figure out if Nott was sincere, or up to no good. In other circumstances he'd probably repeat the entire conversation to Draco and see what the other boy said, but the mood Draco was in these days, he'd just snarl that all of Slytherin was out to get him and Harry'd be better off letting the lot of them rot. Then he'd start making fun, say something about Harry being too dim to see a plot if it was about to bite him.
"I'll think about it," Harry only said.
Nott lowered his voice again. "Good. But listen, there might be some resentment, so it'd be best to wait for a night when Snape's at the head table and can look out for you. Not to imply you can't look out for yourself... but, um, the way I hear it you pretty much can't. And even if you could, you've got no idea how... sneaky Slytherins can be."
Oh, yes I do, thought Harry, but being more than a bit sneaky himself, he wasn't going to say so. "Thanks for the advice," he said with a smile. "I have to catch up with my friends now, all right? But I'll think about the dinner thing. And I guess I'll see you in Potions tomorrow. 'Bye, Nott."
The Slytherin boy nodded briefly.
When Harry reached Ron and Hermione, he glanced back to find Theodore Nott still watching him. He met Harry's gaze, his own rather troubled, and gave a strange half-wave that anybody else would think was him batting away a bee.
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Coming Soon in A Year Like None Other
Chapter Eighty: Potions
Comments very welcome,
Aspen
Chapter 80: Potions
http://archive.skyehawke.com/story.php?no=5036&chapter=80
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A Year Like None Other
by Aspen in the Sunlight
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Chapter Eighty: Potions
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"As Slytherin is once more represented adequately in class," Snape announced the next afternoon, "we'll resume our practice of inter-house pairs. Arrange yourselves accordingly and decide how to apportion last Tuesday's Magma Potions." His black gaze swept across the classroom and alighted on Hermione's raised hand. "Yes, Miss Granger?"
"But how will we be marked, sir? Each potion will have been brewed by at least three different students."
"I can always mark yours in its current state if that troubles you."
"No sir," said Hermione, glancing over at Harry as if she expected him to say something.
Ha, not likely.
"Well?" Snape crossed the classroom in a flurry of billowing robes. "Pair up!"
Nott caught Harry's eye, so Harry headed that way.
"Had me worried for a second there," the Slytherin boy quietly said as he began to organise his equipment. "Since you're sort of your own inter-house pair."
"Hadn't thought of that." Harry very nearly laughed. "I suppose I could have kept working with Hermione after all."
"Just as well you didn't attempt that, Mr. Potter," said Snape in a low voice as he passed almost silently behind him.
Harry glanced over his shoulder and gave a little nod. "Yes, sir."
Nott laughed low under his breath. "It's a bit weird to see you two getting on."
Harry didn't know what to say to that, so he merely replied, "I'll go fetch my potion from the storeroom."
When he got there though, Hermione was already emerging, his cauldron in hand. "I need half of that," Harry said.
Hermione frowned slightly. "I'm a bit concerned about critical mass. I don't think this potion was meant to be split into such small quantities halfway through brewing."
She hadn't said no, exactly, and she was probably just talking for the sake of figuring things out--Hermione did a lot of that, Harry thought--but he still found the comment irritating. "Well, I'm working with Nott and he was out sick last Tuesday, so he doesn't have any!"
Hermione narrowed her eyes. "Well, I'm working with Zabini who was just as sick, so you think he does?"
"He wasn't just as sick; Snape said Nott was one of the worst affected!" Harry wasn't sure quite why he let fly with that; he just knew that Hermione was still standing there grasping his cauldron with both hands as though it was hers and she would go down fighting or something.
The moment he finished speaking, she got a very strange look on her face; it didn't take Harry long to figure out why.
"Mr. Potter," said a cold voice from directly behind him. "In class you're to address me respectfully. I believe I was quite clear on that."
Chastened, Harry smoothed his fringe down over his scar as he whirled around, but he still found time to give Hermione a good, hard glare. "Yes, sir."
Snape's gaze seemed to reach behind him, the black in his eyes glittering when he spoke next. "Is there a problem, Miss Granger?"
"No, Professor."
"Then I suggest you stop attempting to create one, and get to work!"