The Other Side of Midnight

Ch 3

Potions

Harry got up at 5:00 am the next day and fumbled around for his running clothes. It was still dark outside and he finally had to light his wand tip to find them, much to the annoyance of his roommates.

"Wha... What the hell?" Seamus mumbled sleepily.

"Put off that darned light Harry," Ron mumbled.

"Just one more minute Mum, I'm just getting up," A still sleepy Dean murmured.

Harry hurriedly pulled on an old pair of shorts and a t-shirt and took along his keikogi with him.

Nox he whispered, putting out the light at the tip of his wand. The curses that were coming out steadily of the various mouths in the room now stopped and they fell back to sleep almost immediately. Harry grinned and slipped out of the dormitory, noiselessly closing the door behind him.

He made his way down to the common room and then let himself out through the portrait hole.

He was making his way out towards the main entrance when he encountered the form of Filch the caretaker and his hateful cat Mrs. Norris right before him.

"So sneaking out of the castle huh? And a prefect at that, this should be interesting," he sneered.

"No I'm going for a run on the grounds," Harry responded keeping his tone emotionless.

"A likely story."

"If you don't believe me you can always come along," said Harry coldly brushing past the caretaker and continuing to walk towards the main entrance.

He could feel the cold eyes of Filch on his back watching him with hatred and he ignored it. He had no respect for Filch, he felt sorry for him at times but he knew that Filch being a squib was no excuse for taking it out on everybody else. After all who said that only people with magical abilities were useful? Filch was wallowing in self pity and a person who pities himself could never make anything of himself and was constantly looking to bring other people down so that he might feel more useful.

Soon he was out of the castle and putting his keikogi down on a rock, where it would not get wet by the early morning dew, started running in an easy distance-eating lope towards Hagrid's hut. When he reached it he turned right and kept going away from the forbidden forest, he then doubled back and ran till the other end of the castle boundaries in the opposite direction of Hagrid's hut and the forbidden forest.

As he ran he felt his mind become peacefully blank. He loved this time of the day as it refreshed him and kept him energized for the rest of the day, it was also one of the few private and sacred times of his day where he could dwell on things that had been bothering him.

Right now his thoughts were dwelling on a certain beautiful brown-eyed girl. He wondered what were his actual feelings towards her, was it just lust or something deeper?

His mind drifted to Cho Chang for a minute and he tried to picture her in his mind, what were his feelings towards her? As he pondered this question he realized that he had never really loved Cho, it had just been a first crush of a young and inexperienced boy for an older and very pretty girl. Right now he couldn't imagine himself with her, it was just too awkward so soon after Cedric's death and somehow he wasn't drawn to her anymore.

Harry finally started pondering on what had been bothering him the most, why had he fought Draco Malfoy?

His common sense told him that it was because Draco had pushed him too far, but Harry somehow had the feeling that it was not the answer. After all he had managed to control his temper until Draco had made that comment about Hermione, then he had suddenly lost it. He finally convinced himself that it was because Hermione was his best friend and he couldn't have let Draco get away with such a remark about her, but somehow he did not believe this.

Harry ran on, increasing his speed gradually, as he felt his muscles warm up. He kept this up for nearly an hour until he decided that it was about the same distance that he ran at Privet Drive.

He sat down on the dewy grass to catch his breath and after ten minutes went up to the Quidditch changing rooms and changed into his keikogi.

He then came out and started the warm up exercises feeling his already warmed up muscles loosen up even further as he executed the simple stretching exercises.

Feeling that he was ready, he then started on the simple defensive exercises going through the motions and bringing his hands down gracefully and quickly into position.

After he finished he started the more complex defensive exercises and felt his body flow into the graceful moves and focusing his energy and speed on the movements of his body.

He wasn't able to generate the same speed for these as the simple defensive exercises but he was already getting quicker at it every day as his body got used to them. He practiced this for an hour and then moved on to the offensive exercises of Taekwondo, starting with the punches and then moving on to kicks and finally moving on to the throws and dodges of Aikido.

~*~~*~~*~

Harry was concentrating very hard on his exercises and didn't pay any attention to his surroundings, unknown to him there were quite a few people watching him practice - most of them girls.

"Looks good out there doesn't he?" Angelina said.

"Looks great!" Hermione replied dreamily.

They were both watching out of the Gryffindor girls' dormitory window along with the other Gryffindor girls who were all looking at Harry dreamily.

It had been Parvati who had noticed him when she had got up to go to the bathroom and she had quickly woken everybody else up.

The seventh year girls had been woken up by the loud comments the fifth years were making about Harry and they had come down to see for themselves.

"So what's up with you and him anyway? I noticed that you two had eyes only for each other yesterday back in the train," Angelina said teasingly.

"Nothing," Hermione said.

"But I'm guessing that you want it to be something?" Angelina asked probingly.

Hermione groaned, "He has just become so..."

"Yummy?" Angelina put in.

"I was going to say handsome but I guess that describes it," Hermione said wryly. "I just find myself staring at him and I know it's wrong."

"Girl it isn't wrong to desire him, after all he is Harry Potter, the boy who lived, only person to have fought You-know-who and have lived, joint winner of the triwizard tournament, youngest seeker in a century, captain of the Quidditch team and now very handsome to go with it."

Hermione nodded "Plus he is the most modest and likeable person you are likely to meet."

"That too, but couldn't you have put it in a better way? You almost make it sound like a bad thing."

"How about a sweet cuddly teddy bear then?" Hermione asked grinning.

"Better," Angelina answered smiling.

"But I feel guilty, after all he's my best friend and you're not supposed to ogle your friends," Hermione said seriously.

Angelina shook her head, "You see even us watching him and he's not even our age, so why shouldn't you as a friend? ...And besides I hear that friends make the best kind of lovers."

Hermione was silent for a minute and then, "But what chance have I against nearly all of Hogwarts?" she wailed.

"Haven't you looked in the mirror lately?" asked Angelina grinning.

~*~~*~~*~

Harry finished his strenuous exercises and sat down to meditate to finish off his workout. This was his favorite time of the workout as he was just able to spend time with himself without any worries, just keeping his mind blank and gathering all nice and positive thoughts to himself. He got up feeling fully refreshed after it and went towards the changing rooms for a shower, when he reached it he decided against it and instead decided to indulge in the luxury of a bath in the prefect's bathroom.

He picked up his running clothes and walked up to the castle and then up the stairs to the prefect's bathroom, he racked his brains for the password, which he knew that Prof. Mcgonagall had told him, and after all he had used it during last year. What was it? He was sure it had something to do with fresh. He suddenly remembered what it was, ah yes! It was Pine fresh.

He gave the password and hurried inside. It was exactly like the last time he had seen it-not that he had expected it to change; the only change now was that he actually had a right to be here.

He deftly filled the tub half with hot water and half with scented bubbles, and then hurriedly undressing jumped in. He sighed with pleasure as the warm water soothed his tired muscles after the long workout. He just stood there in the water and let it lap around him, after about ten minutes he reluctantly climbed out of the tub and took out the drain stopper to let the tub drain.

He then went over to the towel rack, and grabbing one dried himself deftly. He then picked up a fluffy red bathrobe with the Gryffindor lion embroidered on it and put it on. He noticed that the bathrobes were of four different colors, red, blue, green and yellow, each with the house symbol embroidered on it. He looked over at his dirty clothes and bent to pick them up from the floor.

Harry considered leaving the washing of them to the house elves but rejected the idea almost immediately. He had learned, from his sensei, the importance of doing your own work, he learned that it was not a chore but an honor to do your own work, and besides it had become a habit with him to wash his own keikogi.

He went over to the large wash basin in the corner of the room and began the simple process of washing his uniform and running clothes, it took him barely five minutes and after the washing he wrung them out and put them in a large bag that was provided for the carrying of wet clothes and other toiletry articles.

It was only then that Harry realized that he didn't have any clothes to wear back to the Gryffindor dormitory, he had washed them both!

He cursed himself and realized with horror that he would have to walk back to the Gryffindor dormitory with only his robe on.

He opened the door of the prefect's bathroom reluctantly, and seeing that there was no one outside rushed out, dashing the distance to the stairs. It was there that he got his biggest shock. It was time for breakfast and everybody was coming down for it and he was standing in front of them in a bathrobe and nothing else.

There was a moment of shocked silence as he stood there with everybody staring at him and then he dashed up the stairs followed by yells, wolf whistles, hoots and catcalls by the watching crowd, of which a large part consisted of girls.

He wasn't much better off at the Gryffindor common room as he was in full sight of Angelina, Katie and Alicia as well as some of the other girls including Hermione.

"Wow Harry nice bod," Angelina whistled looking at his muscular figure covered only by the thin robe, which was open nearly to the waist.

"You have been busy, haven't you?" drawled Alicia mischievously, her tone suggesting that he had been busy in a highly questionable way.

"Are you hiding a lot more of the same in there?" Katie asked innocently, laying a hand on his chest.

"Girls... girls! Behave now and let me go," Harry said nervously, wondering what had got into them all of a sudden.

He pushed past them and rushed up the steps into the boy's dormitory his ascent followed by similar sounds to when he was making his way to the Gryffindor common room.

~*~~*~~*~

There was a bit of a commotion when Harry entered the Great Hall for breakfast, a couple of whistles, a couple of good natured ribs, and a few nasty comments - these from the Slytherins.

Harry took his usual seat between Ron and Hermione and silently began to eat his breakfast trying to ignore the comments. He was finally glad when the spotlight was taken away from Harry by Dean noticing Ron's prefect badge.

"Hey Ron, what's up with your badge?"

Ron looked down curiously and then his whole body went rigid and started reddening with anger. He turned to the twins angrily.

"This is your doing," he yelled angrily.

"Excuse me?" Fred said, presenting a perfectly innocent face. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't give me that! I know all your tricks so that 'innocent babe in the woods' act won't work with me."

"If you're so smart why don't you get the hint that the badge is giving you?" George asked.

"It's... I'm... I'm not like Percy," Ron choked out. Ron had always been the one to voice the strongest opinions about Percy's behavior and it was a well-known fact that he didn't have the highest regard for him.

Fred snorted. "Polishing your badge, strutting around the mirror looking at your reflection, wearing the badge over your pyjamas at home..."

"Ok, ok, I get the hint, now get it off will you?" Ron said embarrassed.

Fred waved his wand and muttered the counter spell and the badge returned to the original state.

Fred and George finished their breakfast and while they were leaving George slapped Ron heartily on the back. "Sorry about that Ron, couldn't resist doing that."

Ron grinned, his bad temper evaporating. "Ok, but don't do it again."

Harry's ears perked up at this bit of dialogue. The twins apologizing! Something was fishy.

He looked behind Ron's back and sure enough there was attached a small post it note proclaiming 'I am an ass.'

Only this was a wizard post it and they didn't fall off so easily as the Muggle ones, as they needed a counterspell to take it off. They were also waterproof and smudgeproof further increasing its durability.

Plus Fred and George had performed a tricky concealing charm so that Ron couldn't see the note but everybody else could.

~*~~*~~*~

Harry found himself in his first class of the year, which unfortunately for him was Potions. He looked around at the cold and gloomy dungeon and wondered what heights of nastiness Snape would achieve this year. He felt glad to have done the extra reading work on Potions over the holidays, maybe now he could escape Snape's attention.

Prof. Snape entered the class, his black robes billowing behind him. His eyes fell on Harry and his mouth curled up in distaste. To Harry he was the same old Snape as he remembered him from the previous four years.

"So Mr. Potter, I hear that you were roaming the corridors in a bathrobe today? I don't know how you behave at home, but that sort of behavior is unacceptable here at Hogwarts," Snape sneered.

"I'm sorry sir it won't happen again," Harry replied quietly.

Harry knew that Snape's comment was just to get a rise out of him so that he would be able to give him detention or take away points. Well it wasn't going to work; he wasn't going to fall for it. He had decided that he would fight Snape in a different way this year, he would work so hard at Potions that Snape wouldn't be able to pick on him at all. He had a feeling that it would irritate Snape more as he wouldn't be able to take away any points from Gryffindor.

Harry had learned a very important lesson from his sensei - that, to ignore someone is also a very strong weapon. If you became angry or irritated with something it would only serve to satisfy the other party, because they want you to get irritated and angry, and that's why they are doing whatever is making you angry. But if you ignore them they would get more frustrated as they cannot get a rise out of you, and soon they would give up trying.

Snape was surprised by Harry's reaction, he had fully expected an excuse of some sort and when he didn't receive one he had no choice but to move on.

He turned to glare at the other Gryffindors, especially looking distastefully at Neville, who quailed under his stare. He stopped behind Ron for a moment and he looked with amazement at the post-it attached to the back of his robes.

Harry could almost swear that he detected a grin on the Potion master's face.

"Well it certainly is true enough," Snape muttered, and moved on.

Ron turned around bewilderedly to see the Slytherins laughing at him, along with quite a few of the Gryffindors too. He turned around and couldn't see anything wrong with him and he directed a questioning glance at Harry.

Harry decided to spare Ron more humiliation and quickly reached out and peeled the post-it from behind Ron after performing the counterspell. As he did, the post-it became visible to Ron, and as he read the message written on it his face, for the second time that day became as red as a tomato.

"You should learn not to trust the twins," Harry said, fighting to keep his face sober.

Snape suddenly twirled around and looked at Harry, who looked down at his cauldron and did a very convincing act of looking busy.

"Today we shall be learning how to make the tranquility potion. Can you tell me what a tranquility potion is Potter?" Snape said sneering at Harry.

Harry looked up and saw out of the corner of his eyes Draco and his cronies leaning forward, eager to see him (Harry) being ridiculed by Snape.

"A tranquility potion is used to calm people down after they have been through a lot of stress, after drinking it you feel lightheaded and free of tensions for a short period of time."

Snape looked at Harry shocked. He had answered correctly.

"And can you tell us what is it that makes it dangerous?" Snape asked again.

"One of its imperfections are that it is very addictive, and if you take too much of it you will not be able to give it up, not with any ease anyway," Harry replied calmly.

Snape was too shocked for words, and he was getting more and more angry by the second. He turned to the rest of the class. "Well what are you waiting for? Take that down," he barked.

There was a rush for quills and parchment and they quickly took down what Harry had said, they were hardly done when Snape started rattling off the ingredients and how it was to be made.

They wrote at a furious pace, but Harry found that he was unable to keep up with Snape and missed one of the ingredients, he found himself asking against his better judgement

"Sir, could you please repeat those last ingredients again?"

Snape whirled around and glared at Harry angrily.

"I'm not responsible for you not paying attention Potter. You are on your own and if you cannot make the potion by the end of class you will lose Gryffindor ten points for your inattention. I won't tolerate loafers in my class. And listen up, if anybody helps him they will be in for a detention, do I make myself clear Miss Granger?" he said, looking at Hermione who was standing two places away from Harry.

Harry seethed at the injustice but made himself calm down, it wasn't going to help him to get angry he realized. He looked down at the list of ingredients and saw that he had missed hearing the name of the last ingredient properly, was it root of asphodel or root of amorphis?

He also noticed that it was supposed to be added last and decided that when time came he would make the decision. It would do him no good to waste time in trying to figure out which was the right root and delay on making the potion, as it would just be another excuse for Snape to take away points. He went to work quickly crushing his beetles and cutting his tulip roots.

Snape hovered over Harry during this entire time, most probably to make sure that Harry didn't receive any help from any quarters.

Harry ignored him and went about brewing the potion and adding the ingredients, he had spent quite a lot of time reading up on potions during the holidays, as he knew that Snape would try his best to fail him at the O.W.L.s. He was glad of this extra work now, as he watched his potion brew.

Harry realized though, that he was not up to mark on actually making of the potion, his tulip roots were not cut perfectly and his caterpillars were looking like a mess. He decided that he would put in more time in the potions classroom to improve this skill, as he didn't want Snape to catch onto something else that he was not good at.

Finally it was time to add the last ingredient, and Harry looked doubtfully between the two roots, he looked at Snape who was looking at him coldly and he knew that he would not receive any help from him.

He saw from a corner of his eye Draco Malfoy smirk at him and waiting, Harry thought, eagerly for the end of lesson so that he (Harry) might lose some points for Gryffindor.

He looked at the two roots again and took a deep breath. Ok Harry, he told himself, think, you most probably know the answer to this. He racked his brain for any potions that had either of the roots in them. He suddenly remembered, Amorphis roots were used for corrosive potions, the sensible part of his brain told him that any ingredient which had corrosive qualities would most probably not be used for a tranquility potion.

He replaced the roots of Amorphis and neatly cut up the asphodel roots and added them to his potion, only then did he look back into the face of Severus Snape. He fancied he detected a little bit of disappointment in them but he couldn't be sure as Snape turned and walked away going around and looking at the other students potions.

He took it out on Neville instead and after reducing him to a trembling wreck by his cutting and sarcastic remarks took five points from Gryffindor, for what he said was for Neville's 'abysmal potion.' He didn't, however, say anything to Harry for the rest of the class.

After class Hermione walked up to him "How did you do it?" she asked curiously

Harry grinned sheepishly. "I read up a little bit over the holidays and did a bit of guesswork."

Hermione looked at him surprised. "You surprise me more and more everyday Harry Potter," was all she said.

Harry walked over to Neville who was slowly re-packing his potion ingredients. Harry stopped a moment and looked at Neville's potion, which in all honesty was a disaster. But that wasn't reason enough to take five points away from Gryffindor, instead Snape should have helped him to see what he had done wrong.

He softly touched Neville on the arm and Neville jumped up. He turned around and sighed with relief when he saw that it was Harry.

"Oh it's you Harry! For a moment there you scared me."

Harry nodded. "Listen Neville you know that you need a lot more work at potions..."

A shocked Neville cut him off, "Are you taking Snape's side?"

Harry shook his head. "I'm just telling you that if you work harder he won't have any reason to take points away. I am thinking of putting in an hour of work in here everyday, and if you like you can join me."

Neville nodded. "I guess you're right Harry, and of course I'll join you. I could always use company."

"Good, lets say today at six then?" Harry asked inquiringly.

"Suits me," Neville said giving a faint smile.

The rest of the classes were much more tolerable than potions.

They had Herbology where they were set to replant dragon ferns, it was an easy enough job as the plants were harmless except for the large thorns on the lower stem that were very sharp and were shaped and colored like a Horntail's tail spikes. They were very useful for a number of potions and it also contributed to them getting their name as their qualities were compared to the magical qualities of dragon blood.

He was partnering Susan Bones who spent quite a lot of time questioning Harry as to how Jeremy was settling down. Harry assured her that her brother was just fine and was most probably enjoying himself with his newly made friends.

Harry had no such luck with the next lesson though, which was Divination.

He climbed up the ladder into Prof. Trelawney's lair and had to sit through a whole lesson and hear Prof. Trelawney predict his death umpteen times while reading his astrological chart. He wondered for the hundredth time whether she was a fake or not. But he was unable to make any decision about it after the true prediction made by her during his third year. He somehow felt that Divination was not a controllable skill, the visions came in sudden flashes and could not be forced to come whenever you wanted them to. He personally felt that Trelawney would have impressed him far more if she had said this to them instead of faking the ability so elaborately.

Harry found himself staggering sleepily out of the last lesson of the day, which was History of Magic and went and stood by the window inhaling the fresh air gladly after the musty and damp smell of Prof. Binns class.

~*~~*~~*~

Harry was making his way back to the Gryffindor dorm to get freshened up before he headed down to the potion's laboratory. As he was entering the common room he heard a heated argument going on and wearily went over to see what it was about.

Clark Matthew's was looking distastefully at Curly Ambrose, "Get away from me you nigger. I know better than to mix with your kind."

There was a deathly silence in the common room after this hate filled statement from the youngster and Curly Ambrose was looking at the ground, his eyes downcast at these words from one of his co-first years.

"Five points from Gryffindor, and detention Matthew's."

Everybody turned to look with shocked expressions at Harry who had just uttered these words.

"What's the big idea Harry?" muttered Clark.

Harry looked around at the other Gryffindors who were starting to murmur angrily at this action of his. He had taken points from his own house!

"I'll tell you a story Clark and you'd better listen carefully," Harry said, his eyes blazing with anger.

"There was once a man who thought that a particular race was not fit to live on this planet anymore, so he ordered them wiped out and in this way had six million of them killed and nearly succeeded in wiping them out. I think you know who I'm talking about don't you?" Harry asked raising his eyebrow knowing that Clark had Muggle lineage on his mother's side.

"Well then there was this other man who thought the same thing, only he was a wizard. He thought that he was far too superior to the other wizards around him and the only way things should be was everybody serving him and he ruling them. He found Muggle born wizards to be too common to be allowed to study magic and wanted them banned from Hogwarts forever, you know that wizard as Lord Voldemort."

Clark quailed under Harry's stare and was doubly cowed by Harry's use of the Dark Lord's name.

"So you see Clark, it all starts from people like you who think that they are far too superior to other people around them. So remember, when you say things like that you move a step closer towards the darkness, and once you embrace the dark side there is no redemption."

Harry turned around and walked up to the fifth year boys' dormitory leaving the ashamed first year to ponder over his actions.

The other Gryffindors were shocked at Harry's words, about how right he was. What he said was actually true. It all mostly started with one person.

The Gryffindors slowly started to appreciate Harry's action and when Harry came down again none of them made a fuss over the steep punishment that he had dished out. It was their way of showing support for Harry's action and he appreciated it.

Harry made his way down to the potions dungeon and found Neville setting up his cauldron.

"Hi, sorry I'm late," he said.

"No problem. What are we going to make today?"

"How about Scintillating potion? It's sure to come for the O.W.L.s," Harry said

Neville nodded, and Harry set up his own cauldron and they started on making the potion with Harry constantly helping Neville whenever he was going wrong with something.

Suddenly they were startled by a harsh voice "What are you doing Potter?"

Harry twirled around to see Snape standing there regarding him irritably at invading his domain when there were no classes going on.

"Nothing sir, we're just brushing up on our potion making skills," he replied.

Snape looked at him for a moment and nodded. "Will wonders never cease! Harry Potter actually studying."

Harry ignored this.

"Well what are you making?" Snape asked.

"Scintillating potion."

"Well I guess Longbottom and you could both use some," Snape sneered.

Then he surprised both Harry and Neville by coming over and checking their potions.

"Too thin Potter, needs some more leech juice. And I think that your potion is ready for the nettles, Longbottom."

He then turned away and walked towards the door.

Just before he went out he turned and looked at the two boys. "I'm glad that you two are finally taking your studies seriously. You have been clowning around the previous four years."

Harry could never understand why Snape behaved the way he had and he finally put it down as another eccentricity of Severus Snape.

But he also had the feeling that somewhere he was to fault too, it was true that he had never found potions to be interesting and important and had never actually bothered to really study hard for it like he had for Defense against the Dark Arts. Of course added to it Snape had a strong dislike of his father and the other Marauders. Harry knew that the dislike was still strong and it would need a lot of time to heal the old wounds.

As Harry added the required dash of leech juice to his potion he wondered if things yet might change over time.

~*~~*~~*~

A./N- I want to thank my Beta readers Mackenzie Henrick and Jacqueline Newton for their wonderful beta work. *I sure got lucky when they agreed to beta for me* Also I want to thank the FA Mods for all the wonderful work that they are doing.

The last fic of mine a lot of people told me that I go too fast with my storyline, and that there was no meat to the story. Well here's your meat and hope you enjoy it.

Scintillating means witty and clever among other things, (and that's why Snape's remark.) and the potion is meant to enhance your intelligence for a short time.

For those of you Muggles who didn't get it, the first man that Harry was referring to was Adolf Hitler. (Shame on you for not knowing!)