Veritas et Tempus

Chapter three: When bad things happen to good people.

“The flowers smell sweeter, the closer you are to the grave.” - Beautiful South

***

"Do you think he's lost it?" whispered Harry as he sat down next to Ron. Ron himself looked ready to start banging his head off of the table at the madness of it all. Neville, who was using foresight to figure that this new insanity would somehow earn him a detention, had wisely sat at the very back, next to Hermione. Seamus and Dean were quivering, and Parvati was clinging to Dean's arm in terror.

However, this was nothing compared to the Slytherins reaction. Malfoy was sitting as if absolutely nothing was wrong, staring calmly at the blackboard, looking to the casual observer as calm, as could be. If you took time to look, though, you would find his gaze did not move from that certain part of the blackboard. Pansy Parkinson was twisting a stray piece of her hair around her finger to the extent that it looked crucibly painful, yet she didn't seem to notice. Blaise Zabini was writing absolutely everything her Professor did down in her notebook as if she was documenting it.

"He's got a screw loose,” murmured Ron back.

"Get real, Ron, all his screws fell out ages ago." whispered Lavender to the two. She seemed to like the change. In fact she'd drawn a very vivid and descriptive picture in the back of her workbook that made both boys shudder in disgust.

"Now, we'll just take a roll call and we can begin," said Snape cheerfully. This caused a Mexican wave of shudders through the class, starting with Malfoy at the front and ending with Neville at the back. With a flourish that strongly reminded Harry of Lockhart, Snape lifted the list of names, and cleared his throat.

"Lavender? Lavender's here... Vincent is here... Hermione? Hermione's here too, so is Gregory... Neville? Is Neville here?" Neville raised a quivering hand at the back of the room.

"Ah." said Snape, continuing. "Seamus is here, Pansy is here... Draco and Harry are here, Ron is here, Parvati is here also, so is Blaise.... and finally Hannah is here. That's everyone then. Lovely."

Extraordinarily, there was no sarcasm in the final comment. In fact, there was a huge, mischievous grin on Snape’s face as he began to set up his cauldron. Dumbly, the others followed his example.

 As Harry set his up he could her snatches of whispered conversations throughout the classroom. Pansy was talking to Blaise in horror about her worry that their head-of-house could be being drugged. She added that it was probably McGonagall who was drugging him. Neville was asking Hermione how the beginning of class had gone, who was re-telling with a creative tale of Snape greeting everyone with a smile and asking them to sit beside who they thought would 'Be their soul mate.'

There was a small gasp running through the classroom now, as small strains of "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down, in the most delightful way." was heard from the top of the classroom.

"Yep. Lost it." muttered Ron, shaking his head.

Lavender was now very carefully using a bright pink pen to ink in the picture she'd drawn, by blotting drips she'd gotten out of the plastic on the inside of the pen on the page. With a look of utter scorn at Ron, she declared that boys had no sense of romance at all, save a select few. She and Parvati were still siding with Hermione, and only talking to the two to display just how much they disliked them at that moment.

"Alright class, today we'll be working on..." Snape checked down a very long list of potions labeled fifth years in the same book he'd called the roll from. No one moved at all, looking at him in acute fear. He was cheerful - and maybe this was because he'd thought up something worse to torture the Gryffindors with this year.

"The boil potion we did back in first year." he finished finally. Leaning forward carefully, Harry would see the word 'revision.' scribbled under 'fifth years.' Neville squeaked in fear, remembering the last time they'd attempted this potion. He ended up in the hospital wing for a good three days. Hermione patted his shoulder re-assuringly.  Contrary to his previous calming look, a small evil smile was now creeping across Malfoy's face.

"That didn't take long." chuckled Seamus, looking over at the Slytherins. The Slytherin trio (Pansy Parkinson and her rookies - Blaise and Sophia.) was now bickering over whom they were sitting with. Blaise and Pansy both wanted to sit beside Malfoy, and Sophia wanted to sit beside one of the two.

***

The only sound now in the almost cramped classroom was the simmer of several cauldrons, as smoke billowed out of each, not one person coughed. The classroom was big, that was a given, but there was a feeling of immense discomfort among the students. Not one pair of eyes kept focus on the potion, Everyone’s eyes flicked up every now and then to hoot a wary glance at their potions master.

The Professor in question did not seem to mention this. He was tending to his own potion with a small smile on his face. He seemed very far away.

As did Harry. The fumes from the potions were beginning to get to him, and all around him things were getting hazier and hazier. He felt himself getting lightheaded He was feeling so dizzy he did not even begin to get worried, as he could hear some voices echoing far away.

Through all of this, he was vaguely aware of Ron noticing something wrong, and telling him to sit down. Obediently, Harry sat on the stool close to him, and closed his eyes. His head was swimming, and the echoing voices were getting louder. A vision began to appear, blurry before his closed eyes.

“Listen to me!!” shouted a disturbingly familiar voice. So like his mothers’, but younger, higher. It sounded exasperated, and distressed at the same time. He could make it out from the red blur before him...  Her breath was coming in deep gasps, as if she was fighting back tears.

“No, you listen to me.” Replied a gruff, unfamiliar voice. To the right or the red blur, he could see another, more focused figure. Everything was beginning to get clearer and clearer, and he could see that the gruff voice was coming from a sixteen year old, with sandy -brown hair that seemed to fall into his eyes as he moved violently towards his younger mother. His firsts were clenched, and there was a malicious glint in his eye.

“Do you, or do you not love me.” Said that same voice. Lily Evans’ voice answered, suddenly startlingly clear, without a tremor.

“Yes, I do! But… but… you have to understand! I’m torn!”

Suddenly the scuffling noise that the male had been making was broken through by an outraged voice.

“Well, I don’t know what you’re thinking, Harry, but that is no way to talk to a teacher. You’re getting a detention, young man.” And suddenly, Harry was standing face to face with the slightly red-faced, and very annoyed Professor Snape.

Harry realized that he was actually standing at the very front of the classroom, with one hand on the door, and the other to his robes. With a sharp shock he realized that there was blood on his hand. With another, even sharper shock, he realized that there was also blood on Snape’s forehead.

'Uh oh...' he thought to himself. However, the only thing he could think of to say was;

"Oh bugger."

***

"Harry!" said Ron, looking gob smacked, as they walked out of the classroom. Luckily enough, Harry had been saved by the bell. Although, perhaps, maybe the scary New Snape wasn't all that bad. If it had been how he was last year, Harry would probably be sitting in Dumbledore's office, awaiting certain expulsion.

"What the heck possessed you to do that?" he asked, shaking his head. He looked half admiring, half disbelieving. Harry still wasn't exactly sure what it was that he had done, but he did have his assumptions. With a wayward glance at Ron, he thought for a second and said;

"Did it look good?" hoping to get Ron to describe what happened.

"Did it look good...? Of course it looked good! It looked absolutely brilliant! You got right up and started towards the door... I didn't get the weird Latin words you were muttering... but I suppose it was for effect, then that git stopped you, and you told him to get his hands off of you. Then you go and punch him when he tells you to sit back down! Did it look good, he asks!" Sure enough, Ron came through. Harry felt very confused. He couldn't have done any of that, he was half asleep, and he couldn't remember any of this.

He wondered whether he should tell Ron about that odd apparition of sorts he saw while all of this was going on, although it would probably make him sound nutters. As he debated this with himself, Hermione swept past him with a disapproving look. Harry felt an immediate pang of guilt, and reached out to stop her.

"Really!" said Lavender loudly behind him. Both boys jumped and turned around, clutching their hearts. She shot a nasty look at Harry, and smiled at Ron toothily. Harry tried not to laugh, even though Lavender was being so horrible to him, she actually tries being extra nice to Ron and looks about as inviting as a manticore.

Lavender put her arm around Ron and dragged him off with a large smile, while Ron sighed in defeat.

"Bye!" shouted Harry after Ron, who sent him a beseeching look that screamed 'Help!'

Harry continued alone, consulting his timetable to check which class was next, and with a smile began to head towards the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom.

***

"Good morning class! My name is Ricki Bell, and I'll be teaching you Defence against the Dark Arts... let's hope for more than this year!" There were a few small laughs through the classroom, as Hermione continued to scowl at Ricki, a scowl of utter loathing which he chose to ignore.

"You seem to have had a very extensive education on the illegal curses last year, but I'm afraid it's all revising this year." She gestured to the board, which had a very squiggly, very advanced sort of diagram on it. There was a large white circle in the corner, a stick man with some red chalk on his arm, some green chalk lines all around and two yellow lines from his toes to his hair.

"Can anyone tell me what this is to do with?" She asked, looking around at the class. Hermione seemed to be squinting at the board and trying to figure out exactly what it was. She probably wouldn't have answered anyway, but she could figure it out and sit smugly. Not one hand rose into the air, even though Seamus's was half suspended in the air, as if he thought he knew the answer, but wasn't sure, and didn't want to risk it.

                                                                                      

"Anyone? Anybody at all? Doesn't matter if you're wrong, just give it a try." said Ricki, looking rather put out. There was a wave of head shaking at once. She sighed.

“Yes! Seamus!” She said quickly. Seamus went red and ducked under the table. Even though he had his hand half suspended he wasn’t sure of the answer.

“A Banshee?” he ventured. Ricki sighed again, and shook her head.

“Nice try though, point to Gryffindor. This is a diagram of Lycanthropy!” She pointed at the large white circle at the side labeled ‘Luna,’ before he looked around, and realizing that he couldn’t ask anyone could they explain it. Hermione was still glaring at the supposed ‘Ricki Bell.’ And every now and then shifting the glare to Harry. If Ricki were actually a woman, he thought to himself, they would have had a cat fight by now… er… dogfight… er…

“Alright, the moon is very magically powerful, everyone realizes that. It controls the tides and various… other things. Now, when a werewolf bites a human, it somehow manages to trap some of the essence of the moon, which is very thick in the air at the time of a full moon, into the skin of that human. The wound will heal but the essence will still be trapped in the skin of the human.

During the next full moon, the human will feel an intense tugging feeling at the skin around where he or she’s been bitten. This is the essence that has been trapped! It will try to get out and mix with the essence that is so strong outside the skin. The pull of the moon on the essence will be so intense that it will try to use the human’s magic to get itself out of the body!

Of course, this never works, and ends up in a very painful transformation from man to wolf. The use of its own magic against it will temporarily drive the werewolf mad, and not knowing where or what he or she is. It will have one thought fixed in its head, and that will be to get revenge on the person who did this to him, the other werewolf – this delusion also clouds common sense and judgment. Therefore the werewolf will hunt down exclusively humans.” Ricki finished, taking one breath and saying all of it in that time.

The entire class goggled at her, not having understood a word she said. Hermione was snickering behind her hand, and Seamus had taken to looking it up in his book – something he normally never would have done. Dean and Neville were frantically taking notes, and Parvati and Lavender were muttering evilly that ‘We finally get a girl Defence teacher and she turns out to be a McGonagall.’

Ricki heard this, and chuckled, looking at Parvati and Lavender. Both gulped, hoping she didn’t deal out punishments as well as McGonagall did.

“Miss Patil, Miss Brown.” She said, her eyes lively. Harry couldn’t help but notice how much happier by the day he – or – she seemed since she’d come here. “You think I’m like Minerva McGonagall?” she asked, eyes wide, looking ever so hurt. Both shook their heads.

“I don’t think I’m like her… at least not much… She hasn’t really been fond of me since the flagpole incident of Sixth year.” Ricki grinned.

“Huh?” asked Lavender, stunned that she hadn’t been told off.

“Er… well… let’s just say there was this boy who was really getting on my nerves. So I snuck into his room in the middle of the night and stole a pair of his drawers, then stung them up the flagpole. Quite cute ones too. They’d a pattern of Snitches on them.” she said, looking up at the ceiling. She then gave a dreamy; reminiscent sigh that caused everyone to crack up.

“It was unfortunate… Especially as it was her son,” snorted Ricki. This started something, as someone asked why she disliked the boy so much. Parvati asked what else she’d done to young McGonagall, and Dean, with a small laugh, asked what she’d done to anyone else she didn’t like.

“There was this slimy git I knew in school… let’s call him Steward. His hair drove me around the bend! I hated it so much! He never seemed to wash it! So one day I thought ‘Wonder if it’s greasy enough to fry an egg on? So –“ Ricki was cut off by the bell. Everyone in the room groaned, even Hermione. Professor Bell seemed to have plenty of good prank ideas, and as they left, Ron whispered that he could swear that if he didn’t know better, that she could have been Fred and George’s mum.

Harry let Ron go ahead, but hung back.

“Did I do well?” asked Sirius, as the door shut behind Harry. Harry grinned and gave him thumbs up.

“Definitely! You’re a hit!” he said with a smile. It was strange to see the same familiar smile on an unfamiliar face, and odd features. Sirius looked utterly thrilled with himself, and Harry couldn’t blame him. He had pulled off being a teacher without any training what so ever. Now all he had to do was revise all the work he’d done in school at the same time as the fifth years, and then use them with the lower years.

Sirius, in fact, looked ready to do a victory dance, it made Harry not want to tell him what had happen. For one, Snape’s behavior would increase Sirius’ worry that he fancied Ricki Bell, or in other words, him. It would also take Sirius out of the mood he’d been in. Harry had barely ever seen the man so happy with himself.

“Any certain reason you stayed back?” asked Sirius, curiously. He tilted his head to one side, making him look like a puppy, even if he didn’t look like himself. Harry opened his mouth, closed it and shook his head.

“No particular reason.” He said, trying to sound as casual as he could. “Sirius, you’ve got an owl.” He pointed at the window, where a small tawny owl was sitting very patiently, waiting to be noticed.

“So I have!” Sirius pulled the window open, and picked up the small owl, which hooted at him and fluttered onto the desk.

“What is it with you and small owls?” laughed Harry. Sirius shrugged, as he unrolled the piece of parchment. As he read it through, at first quickly, before his eyes flicked back to the top of the page, his mouth drew into a thin line.

“Is he mad? It’s only September… It must be important.” He rolled up the parchment again, and smiled apologetically at Harry.

“Got to rush, see you later.” At that, he rushed out of the classroom, running down the corridor to the left. There was a skidding noise, and a crash. A yelled conversation… or rather one-sided argument followed.

“WATCH WHERE YOU’RE BLOODY GOING!”

”Sorry! I didn’t see you there!”

”Bloody hell! Do you always get in my way or what?”

“I don’t mean to!”

“Ack!” screamed Ricki’s voice, and both voices faded away, both in the same direction. Harry raised his eyebrows, shook his head. It was going to be a long year, especially with Sirius and Snape bickering as… one of them did.

The chapter has ended

A/N 2: Oh, so many plots beginning in that chapter! Sorry for the absence of my usual humor there, this chapter is mainly one to introduce the two main plots, and not a full chapter in its own right. It only filled three of the four requirements of all my chapters. Quality, Quantity, Plot, Humor. Alright folks, time to play ‘Spot the plot device!’ Tell me what you think will happen. Why is Harry hearing his mum? Who is the boy with brown hair? Why does Sirius have to rush off? Will Severus really like Ricki? All this and more in coming chapters!