Snapus Disaparecio

Snapus Disaparecio

Chapter 1

"Twenty points from Gryffindor, Mr Potter, for your continuously pathetic work. You must learn that to succeed in your OWLs and NEWTs, heaven forbid you should select Potions, you must put in more effort, and rely less on Miss Granger. She would do better if she didn't have you nagging her constantly." Professor Severus Snape scolded the fifteen-year-old Harry Potter in a seemingly endless double Potions lesson; it was his seventh telling off that period, and Draco Malfoy and his cronies were enjoying every bit of it. "In fact, I believe detentions, one each day this week, with Mr Filch, should teach you a lesson."

Harry chanced a glare at the teacher as he turned back to the class to address them once more, but his luck was fading fast; Snape's eye turned, quickly followed by his whole head, which was covered in short black hair.

"A further... shall we say... thirty points for insulting a teacher, Potter. And an additional week of detentions."

Harry looked straight at Snape, doing his best not to relent to the Professor; he had to maintain calm, or risk losing more points and free time. He had already lost fifty points for his house this lesson, and he could not afford to lose further scores which had been hard-earned by his entire house.

"Now then, if Potter has finished behaving in that despicable manner," he snarled, with the tiniest hint of an evil grin on his face as he glared at Harry, "your grades on the Albusian and Minervaran potions from last lesson. I award fifty points to Slytherin for their efforts; especially those of Mr Malfoy, who successfully managed to create both potions to an acceptable standard. Now," he turned to the Gryffindors again, after having given a bright smile to the Slytherin members of the class, "the only one to create the potions at all was Miss Granger, as usual, which is beginning to bore me a little. Someone other than her must be able to do it. As punishment for this lack of skills... no, it's not lack of ability, it's lack of willingness to apply it, I deduct twenty points from your house. I may restore points to Gryffindor, if I see an improvement by the end of term. If not, further points will be taken. I will take 100 points, I think, should my warning not be heeded. Let that be a warning to you."

There were numerous sighs from around the room, and from the Slytherins a number of giggles and evil grins aimed at the Gryffindor house members.

When the bell rung to signify the end of the lesson, Harry and his friends were extremely relieved. They were safe, at least until next Potions lesson. However, getting there had been difficult; Neville had knocked over his cauldron and spilt Reducto mix over Pansy Parkinson, resulting in her being reduced to the size of a fly; Snape had reduced Neville to the size of a fly and placed him in a jar for an hour to punish him, giving the jar to Draco Malfoy to 'observe lesser life forms in action', and made Harry clean up the spillage, after having restored Pansy and awarding her ten points for her 'bravery'. Additionally Ron had been hit in the face by a piece of Wildstone thrown by Draco, and on attempting to retaliate had lost five further points and had had to go outside and find Draco another Wildstone; not an easy task, as they were able to shapeshift.

As they reached the Gryffindor common room, Ron exploded with rage.

"How dare he threaten to take a hundred points? How can he? And why is he being allowed to get away with turning Neville into a fly and giving him to Draco to torture for an hour? The things I'd like to do to him..." His face burned red, and Hermione thought briefly about putting a rasher of bacon there to see if she could fry it, before realising what she was thinking and going to console Ron.

"Look, Ron, attacking him's not going to get us anywhere! We'll just get expelled or something! We'll just have to be very careful. And you can still come and ask me for help if you want to, don't listen to him. Listen, Christmas is only two weeks away, we only have to do well for that long, and then we can relax for a bit. Right Harry?"

Harry nodded, but more to humour Hermione than anything else. "Yep," he commented with false enthusiasm.

Neville simply ran to the stairs, found the 5^th year dormitory and dived into his bed.

***

Those two weeks passed very slowly for all concerned. Potions was as dreadful as it had ever been; Ron accidentally changed Hermione's hair into spaghetti in Transfiguration, much to her disgust; when Draco tried to eat it he got a very forceful slap from Hermione, who spent two hours reversing the damage to her coiffure; in Herbology the year's Mandrakes escaped from their pots and ran around the room screeching; several people fainted before they were recaptured. Neville did not attend another Potions lesson until Professor McGonagall realised what he was doing and got Professor Snape to agree not to use Transfiguration as a punishment again.

When the last day finally arrived, Harry, Ron and Hermione ate a hearty lunch in the Great Hall with everyone else; the meal consisted of turkey, potatoes, vegetables, and much, much more, with a massive assortment of puddings to follow. After finishing the meal, with somewhat more bulging stomachs than before, the three were on the verge of leaving when one of the school's barn owls flew threw the roof of the Hall and came to rest in front of Hermione. After untying and opening the letter, Hermione began to read:

Herm, this is Mum. Of course it's ok to bring Harry and Ron round for the holidays! We'd love to see them again. Plus it saves us the trouble of sending their presents.

We'll meet you at Platform 9¾ in a couple of hours' time.

See you soon,

Mum

Harry and Ron looked rather shocked to see the contents of the owl letter.

"You never told us you wanted us to stay with you this Christmas!" Ron exclaimed with a smile on his face, mirrored by Harry.

"Well, it would've ruined the surprise wouldn't it?" she said with a little smirk on her face.