She nodded, and they continued the brewing. Snape walked around the class and gave some harsh comments about some potions; for others, he simply nodded. Harry and Sally-Anne were one of the pairs that got a nod. When the potion was finished, Harry filled a sample into one of his vials, labeled it with his name, and saw Sally-Anne doing the same. They then took their samples to Professor Snape's desk and put them in the carrier that was placed there for the vials. They returned to their workstation and cleaned up. They were done just when the bell rang for the end of class.
"Homework will be twelve inches about the correct procedure of brewing a boil cure potion and the critical phases of successfully making the potion. Potter, please stay for a moment." Snape said.
Harry wondered what this was about but signaled his housemates to go on to lunch and that he would follow. When all the others had left, Snape turned to him.
"I was surprised with your performance today, Potter. I have to admit, I feared you would be more like your father, whose looks you inherited, but you seem to me to come more like your mother. She was a genius in Potions. How did you get aware of Miss Ranamis's apothecary?" Snape asked.
"Hagrid took me there. He said he had heard you talking about the higher quality of the ingredients sold by her. As we had a lot of time while I was staying at Diagon Alley, he took me there to get my ingredients kit. Miss Ranamis was the one to recommend the books to me and told me you always informed your house of their importance in class." Harry asked.
"I see. That was indeed fortunate for you. What was the reason that you stayed in Diagon Alley? Didn't you live with relatives?"
Harry sighed. "It will come out soon anyway, as there will be a trial. I grew up with my mother's sister, and she and her husband despise magic. I was … well, abused … and I am glad Healer Ickings made sure I got out of there. Did you know my parent compared me to my mother?"
Snape didn't show his shock. Is Harry Potter being abused by Petunia? He had thought the boy had grown up like a pampered prince. Good that Dumbledore had asked him to hold his judgment until after he had got to know the boy in class. This boy had more of Lily's personality than Potter's. He could see it in those intelligent green eyes.
"Indeed. While your father and I couldn't stand each other, I was friends with your mother from the time we were children. I also know your aunt Petunia. She was always kind of nasty, but when your mother got her Hogwarts letter, and she couldn't get here, she developed out of jealousy and an irrational hatred of magic; she called Lily a freak before she started her first year, which sadly seems to have transferred to you. Keep up your work, and I might acknowledge that you aren't a dunderhead." Snape said.
"I will, thank you, sir. If you don't mind, as you are the person who knew my mother the longest, could you perhaps tell me a few stories about her? I'm sure everything Petunia told me about her was lies." Harry asked timidly.
"We will see, Mr Potter. Now I think you should go to lunch; I know Professor Flitwick has impressed upon all his Ravens how important good meals are for you." Snape answered.
"Yes, Professor Snape. Thank you." Harry said and left the room.
'Why, Lily, does your son have to be so much like you?' Snape wondered in his mind.
....
After the second week of term, all first-years had already found out that there simply was nothing Harry Potter wasn't good at. He excelled at using his wand, got spells on his first or second try, was the only student outside Slytherin that Snape seemed to accept, and his essays were top-notch. But from the other Ravenclaw first years, meaning the gossip pipeline Parvati Patil had into the house through her twin sister Padma, it also spread around that Harry didn't spend all his time reading books or learning. Nearly every evening, he could be found in the common room, introducing the wizarding-raised students to the joys of Cluedo and Monopoly. The game 'Wizard' had also become popular and some older students had helped younger ones to make their own sets of cards using a few spells. As they only needed a set of cards with thirteen cards in four colors as well as four 'Wizard' cards and four 'Court Jester' cards, it was easily done, and even the older students liked to play the game. Statements of how many packs of cards they would get were often heard in the evening.
The game was easy to learn. Each round, you got as many cards as rounds were played. So, in the first round, everybody got one card; in the second round, two cards, and so on. The higher the number on your card, the higher the probability of getting a pack. Players looked at their cards and had to guess how many packs they would get over the round. If they were right, they got twenty points and for every pack they got right, ten extra points. If they were wrong, they got ten negative points and, additionally, ten negative points for each pack they were off from their guess. With how you had to serve the color that was played first, one color being chosen as trump before the round by turning up the next card to be played and putting it under the remaining cards, you could never be sure to get a pack or not. Especially as wizards and court jesters could always be played, and 'wizards' trumped everything except another 'wizard' that was played first, and 'court jesters' didn't get a pack except all four cards were the 'court jester.' In the end, you saw who had won overall. Even Professor Flitwick could be seen playing a game with the seventh-years one time as he was interested in learning the new game that kept his house so fascinated.
The muggle classes were taken well by many Ravenclaws. The turnout was lesser in the other houses; from Slytherin, only a few first and second-years went to the Maths and Literature classes as those they could argue were actually useful for magical purposes later on. In the case of Literature for their school work, structuring essays properly and summarizing the material they covered was part of what the students learned. Some students tried the classes to see what they were about, but a lot of them didn't return because they didn't want to add the work on top of their regular studies. The ones to take most classes together with Harry were Hermione Granger and Miranda Lillowe from Gryffindor. Hermione took all of them, and Miranda took Literature, Maths, Science, and Economics.
.....
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