Hermione cleared her throat. "I... lambent, sir? I'd appreciate more of an explanation. Please?"
"Didn't you come to class prepared, Miss Granger?" asked Snape, raising his voice so everyone could hear. "Of course, you are a Gryffindor. It's been my experience that Gryffindors hardly ever do the alternate readings--"
Draco strangled a laugh.
"See to your potion, Mr. Snape," said the Potions Master. And when Draco didn't respond, "Mr. Snape, when I give you an instruction in class it would behove you to reply to me!"
Draco still didn't say anything. In fact, he had a strange look on his face, like he was completely confused by the way Snape was talking. For a second, Harry was pretty sure one of the Slytherins had managed to cast Confundus without Snape noticing. But then, he realised what the real problem was.
"He means you," Harry hissed, voice pitched low. "You're Mr. Snape, now."
Draco coloured, his fair skin flaming. "Oh." And then, a bit louder. "Yes, sir."
"Very good, Mr. Snape," said their father, laying a little bit of extra stress on the name. Evidently he'd had enough of baiting Hermione, for he proceeded to tell her in normal English that her base was too dark and needed to be quite a bit brighter. "Stirring with a glass rod should prove efficacious, Miss Granger."
"Yes, Professor."
Draco waited until Snape had moved to the far side of the room before he spoke again. "Well, that was certainly refreshing. Little Miss Perfect put in her place for once."
"Actually my favourite part was you forgetting your own name," retorted Harry as he poured a small measure of water into their cauldron. "Didn't they call you Mr. Snape at your reinstatement hearing?"
"What hearing?"
Harry turned to his brother. "Didn't you and Dad go to the meeting?"
"No. I got a letter through the Floo. From the headmaster, saying that I'd been cleared to return to classes. Then a few minutes later Severus came down and we went out to settle the matter of my wand."
"Dad went to the meeting without you?"
Draco shook his head. "He wasn't invited either. Don't you see? The governors didn't have the guts to face either one of us. It's a wonder they included the headmaster," he scoffed. "But of course with him they had no choice. Just as well, really. I didn't want to see Lucius, did I?"
Harry remembered that scene in the hallway from after the expulsion. Lucius making those horrible, creepy threats. "Yeah, just as well," he murmured.
"I should be hearing nothing but bubbling cauldrons," snapped Snape from across the room.
Well, that was better than him taking points, Harry thought. From then on, he and Draco only discussed the potion. It paid off, too. Near the end of class, when Snape made his usual survey of the cauldrons, he dispensed scorn and criticism to Gryffindors and Slytherins alike. But when he reached Harry and Draco's table, he raised an eyebrow.
"Promising, Mr. Potter, Mr. Snape. Good colour, not too dark..." Leaning over the cauldron, he inhaled deeply. "Adequate balance of components. This brew, I do believe, is worth testing."
Uh-oh. Right before his father spoke next, Harry had a sudden feeling he knew what was coming.
"Mr. Weasley!" called Snape. "I'd like you to test your classmates' potion."
"Me?" The question came out in a squeaking tone. Ron gruffly cleared his throat and tried again. "Me, sir? Why not them? They made it!"
"Yes, and a poor reward it would be for their excellent work, to subject them to this particular potion." Snape's dark eyes gleamed. "Or is the hero of Hogsmeade, as I hear you are called now, afraid of a mere brew?"
Seamus and Dean started laughing, though they cut it out when Snape flicked a glance their way. The Slytherins, strangely enough, weren't even tittering. Harry figured they were still trying to decide how to act around their head of House after the whole Nott incident. It made him wonder what Snape had had to do that night, to subdue them.
"I'm not afraid of it," insisted Ron, his tones staunch even if his skin was looking a little pasty. "You're sure they made it right?"
Snape shrugged, his robes fluttering. "As I believe I mentioned to you once, I haven't had a student die in class, yet."
"That's encouraging," muttered Ron as he took the vial Snape had ladled from Harry and Draco's cauldron. "Well... here goes nothing."
Harry had to give his friend credit for guts. Ron tipped the whole thing into his mouth and drank it straight down.
For a moment, nothing at all happened.
And then, in a puff of smoke, Ron shrank down to the size of a mouse.
"I think it worked," he said, his voice even higher and squeakier than before. And then, in tones of awe, "You lot are huge."
Harry bent down and scooped him off the floor before he was trod on, and settled him carefully down onto their work table.
"Fifty points to Slytherin," announced Snape, nodding at Draco. "And another fifty for you as well, Mr. Potter." He lifted his chin to address the class as a whole. "Everyone else may submit a sample of your potion so I can mark you. Needless to say, there will be no other Outstandings awarded for this work session. For next time, please read chapter nineteen in your principal text and write twelve inches on the standard variants of shrinking potions. That will be all. Class dismissed."
He began to walk away, leaving a tiny, irate Ron jumping up and down on the work table. "What about me?"
Turning back so quickly his robes flared into a semicircle, Snape smoothly answered, "If you'd read your text you'd realise that it will wear off in five to ten hours. I'd estimate nine, given the quality of this particular batch of potion."
"Nine hours!" squeaked Ron. "We have Quidditch practice!"
"I can shrink your broom down," put in Draco, his eyes amused even if his tone was bored. "Though a Bludger would make quite a mess of you, in your... condition."
"Shut up, Mal... oh, just shut up."
"Oh, come on, Professor," said Harry. Most of the class was gone by then, so he figured it would be safe enough to presume a little. "I'm sure you have an antidote around."
"Oh, very well," sighed Snape, withdrawing a vial of orange fluid from his robes. He handed it to Harry. "One drop atop his head. And I'd strongly advise you place him on the floor again, first."
The minute Ron went back to normal, he shook himself all over like a dog trying to shed water. "Oh, ewwwww."
"Just be glad I didn't partner you," said Harry, laughing a little. "I might have let Sals out of my pocket in that case. Just imagine how big she'd have looked to you."
Ron made a face, but was in good enough spirits to counter, "Harry, if you'd have partnered me our potion wouldn't have been good enough to test like that."
"Yeah, but Draco's would have. And Severus... I mean, Professor Snape, he'd have made you drink it. And it would have worked."
"Well, it worked but it wasn't worth any seventy-five points to Slytherin," said Ron, glaring at Snape's retreating back. "That's just unfair."
"Oh, stop your whinging," said Draco as he waved his wand to clear away the work area he and Harry had used. "So he was a little generous to Slytherin. It's not like we can win the House Cup now, is it?"
The last time Harry had seen the House Counters, Slytherin hadn't been significantly behind. "Huh?"
Draco hefted his school bag over his shoulder. "Oh, you didn't know? Severus took a thousand points from Slytherin."
Harry's eyes widened. From behind him, he heard Hermione gasp. Ron was simply speechless.
"Yeah, for Nott," added Draco.
Ron recovered first. "And you aren't mad about that... er, Draco?"
"I'm not thrilled," said Draco dryly. "But he had cause. Or did you think I'd believe points are more important than Harry? I don't know if anybody's mentioned this, but we are brothers."