Chapter Text
Harry was tired that day at Hogwarts. Between what hell his relatives had put him through during the summer and whatever play this new pink bitch was pulling Harry was having a hard time focusing on his potion. He knew by now that he was mistreated at the Dursleys but years of "training" had him keeping his mouth shut. He also knew that if he weren't at roughly genius level he would already be dead several times over. He had been "taught" never to do better than Dudley at school and by the time he had realized it was cautiously safe not to hide his intelligence at Hogwarts they expected him to be a clone of James Potter.
Harry suspected that Snape knew something was off but they both recognized that letting him get close to the Gryffindor would put them both in a worse situation. The end result of that cautious silent acknowledgement was their sniping back and forth as everyone around them assumed they hated each other. Harry knew that Snape might hate him but it was a painful one filled with past regrets instead of the burning malice that he received regularly from the Dursleys. He also knew that the teacher would do his best to correct and protect Harry despite it all. He wasn't quite sure why the man was willing to face off against a transformed werewolf for him despite his obvious terror to say nothing of the dementors but it was an observed fact none the less.
Today Harry's inattentiveness and exhaustion were easily picked up on by the snarky Potions Master even as his classmates were oblivious to the fact. Today Dumbledore was away attending to ICW (International Confederation of Wizards) business and thus out of reach. Today Umbridge was at the Ministry attending to something that only she could fathom. Today was the day they were brewing a heritage potion. Today Harry's life would be re-written.
"You should be finishing up your potions. I will be checking them and if they are not suitable for use you will use the potion I brewed before class. This heritage test is a legal bloodline test and a copy will be submitted to both Gringotts and the Ministry as a standard procedure for your benefit," Professor Snape announced roughly ten minutes before class ended. "Once you have your results I will use the spell to confirm and certify them which will automatically send a copy to both the Ministry and Gringotts. You may leave with the original once your results are certified. You may not linger, unless of course you wish to be made into my latest potion ingredients."
The class quickly finished brewing and nervously awaited his verdict. Severus stalked around the room examining the potions in front of him and Potter out of the corner of his eye. Making a snap decision after checking Longbottom's pitiful attempt he left Harry for last with the work of his so called friends sorted out before even half of the class was checked to get them out of his way. Besides, the boy had far too many odd things happen to him at the strangest moments barring those incidents at Halloween and the end of the school year which seemed to happen like clockwork. It was a pattern that had most of the sensible staff on high alert to help deal with whatever incident appeared that year. While it wasn't yet Halloween it was close enough to put Severus on edge and worry just a little bit extra about how exhausted Harry happened to be. Hopefully he could head off this year's Halloween issue before it became an actual problem... hopefully.