𓏲 . THE BOY WHO LIVED . .៹♡
                                                       CHAPTER SEVEN
                                      ─── THE POTIONS MASTER

The next morning, Charlus awoke with a smile on his face. For the first time in while, the young boy slept peacefully. He looked at the ground to the left of his bed and saw Phoenix still in a deep sleep. The green eyed boy got out his bed and went to the restroom to start his morning. When he got out, he got dressed in his Slytherin robes. 

Charlus was now wearing his white uniform, which was hidden under his dark gray coat and cast some light on his outfit, the gray trousers and his striped tie fit him perfectly. On one hand he wore a ring with a snake symbol on the third finger. 

"Come on Charlus! We're late for first class!" Alistair shouted at Charlus, trying to hurry him up. "Relax, I'm coming!" Charlus shouted back as he jogged down the stairs.

Alistair and Charlus quickly left the common room with their backpacks full of school supplies. ⸻Except for , Adrian, Matthew, Blaise and Theodore, who were in charge and were already in the classroom. 

The boys sprinted as fast as they could to their first lesson, which was Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall.  While they were running, they bumped into someone who was also running.  "Oh, I'm sorry and.....Oh it's just you both." It was Ronald who immediately smiled in relief when he saw his two Slytherin friends.

"Why aren't you in class?" Harry asked next to the redhead in surprise. "One of us started the day a little sleepy!" Alistair answered him honestly and pointed at Charlus, who could only roll his eyes. "And you?" He then asked the other two. 

"We overslept as well."  said Ron. Charlus grinned at them both before he turned serious. "Now, let's find our class. Minnie will kill us if we're  late!" And with that,he ran down the corridor, followed closely by them.

They turned around a corner, and almost flew down the staircase. They then rushed up another corridor, and turned to the left when they saw a broken torch. There was a portrait of an old couple at the end of the corridor. 

They ran until the end of the corridor, and stopped in front of a closed door. "Do you think we're late?" asked Ron as he placed his hand on the doorknob. "For sure." affirmed Harry. "I can't believe I'm actually going to be late for our first class." groaned Alistair and pushed the door open.

In Professor McGonagall's classroom, the Gryffindors sat on the left while the Slytherins sat on the right. They were already reading their books and taking notes. As soon as they walked in, many of them turned their heads to look at them. 

Hermione rolled her eyes as Draco Malfoy laughed at them with Crabbe and Goyle. "Phew,we made it!" Ron breathed out visibly relieved and looked at the desk, on which a small striped grey cat was sitting. "Could you imagine the look on old McGonagall's face if we were late?"

"I think we'll find out soon enough..." Charlus muttered and eyed the cat suspiciously. At that moment, the cat jumped off the table and transformed back into  Professor McGonagall again, and the four boys looked at the visibly outraged woman speechlessly. "You're right, Mr. Potter."

"That was bloody brilliant!"  Alistair blurted out and looked at the older lady in fascination. "Well, thank you for that assessment, Mr. Black." the woman said sarcastically. "Perhaps it would be more useful if I transfigured Mr. Harry Potter, Mr. Charlus Potter, Mr. Weasley or yourself into a pocket watch. That way at least three of you would be on time."

"We...We got lost." Harry tried to excuse their delay. The other boys nodded to add credibility. "Then maybe a map?" she asked the boys and the four of them looked at each other for a moment without even moving. "I trust you won't need one to find your seats."

McGonagall walked back to her desk as many students giggled. Charlus saw Matthew was sitting alone, so he went to sit with him while Alistair sat in the seat behind him and Harry and Ron sat in the seats in front of Neville and Dean. "Hi." smiled Matthew at him. "Hello." Charlus grinned back.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," McGonagall said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realised they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time.

 After making a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, Hermione Granger and, to their surprise, Charlus Potter had made any difference to their matches; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione and Charlus a rare smile. 

The next lesson of the day was was the Potions one, taught by Severus Snape, the Head of Slytherin House.  Here they were even allowed to sit as they wished, as there were no bench rules, so the three young Gryffindors and the two young Slytherins sat in a row. With Harry on the end, then Charlus, then Hermione,then Alistair, and then Ron.

The Potter twins were talking as the classroom door opened with a loud bang, and a harried Snape entered the room. Charlus immediately rolled his eyes at the Professor's dramatic entrance.  "There will be no foolish wand waving or silly incantations in this class!" The man explained the rules in his classroom and turned to the class, whom he looked at icily. 

"As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion making. However, for those select few.." Now he fell silent for a moment and all you could hear was the brewing in a cauldron and the crackling of candles in the room. "Who possess the predisposition.. I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death.." 

Charlus raised an eyebrow as he heard Professor Snape's entire speech while Harry wrote down key words from Snape's speech on a piece of paper. What the young boy wasn't expecting was the Professor to reprimand him for doing so, "Then again, maybe some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so formidable that you feel comfortable enough to not pay attention."

This made a Gryffindor nudge Harry on the arm to take his attention away from his paper and back to Snape. As he looked up the young boy was met with a scowl. "Mr. Potter, one of our new celebrities. Tell me what would I get if I added powered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Snape asked him as if it was a test.

Harry glanced at Charlus, who was racking his brain to try and remember anything he'd read in one of his textbooks to no avail. He knew he'd read the answer somewhere, it was on the tip of his tongue, he just couldn't seem to remember it. Predictably, however, Hermione's hand had shot into the air immediately.

The youngest Potter just shook his head, at which Snape twisted his mouth into a sneer and ignored Hermione's hand completely. "You don't know? Well, let's try again." the man continued, almost gloating in Harry's lack of knowledge now. "Where, Mr. Potter, would you look if I told you to locate a bezoar?"

Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter. "I don't know, sir." Harry said with an unbothered tone.

Snape continued to ignore Hermione's trembling hand. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" he shot, almost venomously now, at the boy. Ron cursed quietly to himself, and at Snape's words, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.

"Sorry professor, but in case you haven't noticed, Harry doesn't know how to answer your questions." Charlus intervened in the conversation,there was a look of anger in his eyes.. "But I think Hermione knows the answer, in fact, she knows them all. Why didn't you ask her?"

"For your information, Harry, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. " Hermione began to explain abruptly and proudly as she put her hand down. "A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite."

"I don't remember giving you the word, Granger." Snape said dryly. "I will deduct six points from Gryffindor for interfering." "But that's not fair!" Charlus exclaimed angrily and intervened again. He stood up from his chair so that everyone was looking at him. Alistair looked at the boy with a look that was meant to say 'What on earth are you doing?',but he ignored him. "I interfered too and you're not taking points from Slytherin?"

"Shut up, Potter." Draco snarled at him. "Do you really want to lose points, Mr. Potter?" Snape asked him. Charlus, with a determined glint in his eyes, responded defiantly, "If it means standing against your biased actions, then yes, I'd gladly lose points for Slytherin, Snivellus."

Snape's eyes narrowed at Charlus's bold retort. The room hung in an uncomfortable silence, broken only by the distant sounds of students in the corridors. Alistair shifted nervously in his seat, glancing between Charlus and Snape.

The professor's expression darkened as he heard the familiar nickname, "Snivellus," echoing through the classroom. The air became charged with tension, and even the Slytherins looked on, surprised by Charlus's audacity.

Snape's voice cut through the stillness like a whip, "I will take ten points from Slytherin for Mr. Potter's blatant disrespect."  All Slytherins in the room wore expressions of shock, their eyes wide with disbelief. This was unprecedented – Snape, their house head, deducted points from Slytherin.   All Gryffindors in the room began to murmur, as they witnessed a moment of rare vulnerability for the typically favored Slytherin house.

"And I won't be able to forget." Snape continued with a tone of finality.  "Detention, Mr. Potter. This evening, you spend cleaning at least part of the library, and that's without magic." Charlus rolled his eyes. "As if that's a punishment for me. I've had a lot of practice with the Dursleys." he muttered so that no one could hear him.

Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into groups of two and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except the Malfoy Twins, whom he seemed to like.

Charlus and Alistair agreed to split up. At first, Charlus was in charge of weighing the ingredients. He added crushed snake fangs, sliced pungeous onions, and added dried nettles. Then, Alistair added the flobberworm mucus before he added the powdered root and stirred as vigorously as the directions explained.

Charlus added pickled shrake spines. After adding the second to last ingredient and removing it from heat, Charlus added the porcupine quills. As Alistair waved his wand over the potion, successfully completing it,clouds of acid green smoke filled the dungeon. Apparently, Neville had melted Seamus's cauldron, and their potion was all over the stone floor, burning holes in everyone's shoes, so they had to stand on their stools.

Charlus quickly climbed onto his stool before it could get to him, the rest of the class following suit while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" Snape said furiously as he cleared the spilt potion away with one sweep of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off of the fire." Neville's answering whimper as boils popped up on his nose told them everything they needed to know, and Charlus felt a pang of sympathy for the boy.

"Take him up to the hospital wing." Snape barked at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville. "You — Potter — why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point that Gryffindor lost."

Charlus clenched his hands into fists in anger at the blatant abuse of power. Harry wasn't even his partner.  He opened his mouth to stand up for his brother again, but Alistair kicked him behind the cauldron. "Do you want to lose more points, Charlus?" Alistair whispered.

After potions, it was time for the first years to head off to the Great Hall for their study period. Charlus sat down at the Gryffindor table with Matthew,Alistair,Adrian, Ron, Harry, Fred, George, Seamus, Neville, Dean and Hermione, although some Gryffindors were a little skeptical as to why there were four Slytherins at the table.

The green eyed boy sat there quietly and worked on his Transfiguration homework with Alistair ,Harry and Matthew as Adrian, Hermione and Ron sat opposite him. "Eye of rabbit, heartstring hum, turn this water into rum." Charlus could hear Seamus frustratedly working on a spell he was trying to perfect. Nothing happened with his drink, and so the young Irish wizard tried the process again, hoping for a different result.

"What's Seamus trying to do to that glass of water?" Harry asked Ron, visibly irritated Charlus might add. "Turn it to rum. " Ron explained him.  "He actually managed to get it to weak tea yesterday, until-" The ginger haired boy was cut off as there was an explosion heard from down the table where Seamus was. The Irish boy's face, hair, and clothes were now all charred.

Everyone started laughing at the boy while Hermione waved a hand in front of her face to get rid  of the unpleasant smell. She had pure disgust written on her face and Charlus couldn't resist a playful comment. "Lighten up, Granger. It was just a little explosion." he said, and earned an eye roll from the diligent witch.

Ron looked up when he spotted an owl flying down from the window. "Ah, mails here." he exclaimed causing Harry and Charlus to look up.  A flock of owls came soaring above the heads of the students and dropped the letters in front of them. "Can I borrow this?" Harry asked as he saw Ron's paper lying there, who nodded without noticing, as he was only interested in his package."Thanks."

"Hey look, Neville's got a remembrall!" Dean shouted and pointed to the orb in Neville's hand. "I've read about those. When the smoke turns red, it means you've forgotten something." Hermione explained to them and, as if on cue, the smoke inside the orb began to rise, and she was right, it did indeed turn red. "The only problem is, I can't remember what I've forgotten, you know?" Neville said, and was trying to remember what he'd forgotten  as he looked at it.

"That's why it's called-Aua!"Charlus was cut off as he was suddenly kicked under the table. When he looked up, it was Hermione who he was looking at, annoyed. It was obvious what Neville had forgotten. "Look at your cloak." The boy wanted to do it, but then he looked at Charlus in confusion. "I don't have one." The green-eyed boy had to resist rolling his eyes playfully. "That's the problem too." he said, and now Neville's eyes grew wide.

"Hey, look, somebody broke into Gringotts." The sound of Harry's voice made Charlus focus his attention on him. "Listen. 'Believed to be the work of dark wizards or witches unknown Gringotts goblins while acknowledging the breach insists nothing was taken. The vault in question, number 713 had in fact been emptied earlier the same day.'"

Charlus listened closely to his brother as he read. Then when he said the vault number, he remember Hagrid and Griphook's conversation, "That's odd." The oldest Potter said.  "That's the vault you, Hagrid , Alistair and I went to."

Harry and Alistair nodded in confirmation of Charlus' statement. The four boys and the girl with the bushy hair, since she had logically heard it too, all looked at each other with the same look - how suspicious.

━━ AUTHORS NOTE
There you have it! Chapter 7!

 Hope you enjoyed! I'd appreciate it if you could like, comment, vote and share with you friends!Also, if you have any questions feel free to ask!

Until next time!