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Harry Potter and the Expert Potions Master	By : SickPuppy Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Snape Views: 21304 -:- Recommendations : 2 -:- Currently Reading : 2
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter universe. I make no money from this story.

Chapter List
- 17
- 18
- 19
Chapter 17 - Unusual Lessons

After his early morning 'private time' (he had covered his mouth with one hand to keep his screams of pleasure from being heard) Harry had showered, dressed, eaten the delicious breakfast Kreacher had prepared, and then gone to the Ministry.

There was no arrow this morning, but Harry assumed they'd be starting in the same room and made his way there. He was by no means the first to arrive. Neville waved him over and they chatted, wondering what challenges today would hold.

At 9am, the doors sealed again, and a wizard wearing ruby red robes stood in front of them. It took Harry a few moments of careful scrutiny to realise that this was the same wizard who had worn blue robes the previous day. Beside him the other wizard suddenly appeared. He was wearing red robes almost identical to the one his colleague was wearing.

This is going to be a difficult day, Harry thought.

Neither spoke. Instead, each trainee was abruptly gripping a piece of parchment. It was labelled with their name and a question:

Which wizard wore blue robes yesterday?

He glanced up. Each wizard was now forming a letter with sparks. Harry ticked 'A' and at once the sheet popped out of his hand.

When every sheet had been filled in, the first wizard spoke, “Good morning. We didn't explain the scoring yesterday. Each task is marked out of twenty, as I'm sure you saw. This week, because we started on Wednesday, will work slightly differently. Usually, at the start of each week we will tell you what you need to achieve to remain in the programme. Because this is just the very first introduction, we will only fail anyone who doesn't achieve above half marks on any task.”

I'm safe. And Neville. And Ron.

“Next week, the maximum mark is 300. Anyone who does not achieve at least 150 will be leaving the training scheme.”

Harry determined to get as high as possible this week so that he was in a strong position to do well the following one.

“Today, you will each receive one on one tutoring from an Auror. This Auror will explain some important concept to you. Once you have received that information, you will need to consider how you will explain the concept to everyone else. This afternoon, you will each have five minutes to present what you have learnt. There are points for the delivery of the material, the physical task that you will complete at some point during today, and for the examination you will sit that will cover all of the information delivered.”

Swallowing at the word 'examination', Harry tried to calm himself. He had a lot to do before that point.

“If your last name begins with A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, M, N, or O then remain in here. An Auror will come for you shortly. The rest of you follow me.”

The second red robed wizard led Harry, Neville, Ron and all the other trainees out of the hall and into the gymnasium. As odd as it was to have all the people whose surnames began with L with them, Harry saw that it meant the two groups were roughly the same size.

“Hand over your wands,” the wizard demanded and they all complied, not happily; after all, who wanted to be without their wand?

“Your task is simple. All you have to do is retrieve your wand.” The wizard flicked his own and the thirty or so wands flew around the room and settled near the ceiling. “Off you go!”

There was appalled silence.

“How?” that was a man Harry didn't know. He was a few years older than the black-haired wizard himself, and if he had attended Hogwarts, had probably left before Harry had reached third year.

“Use your resources,” the wizard said, not particularly helpfully.

Wishing that he was able to cast wandless magic (and now determining to learn), Harry looked around the practically bare room. The walls had monkey bars clamped to them, but they didn't go high enough to allow even an athletic person the chance of standing on the top bar and grabbing for a wand.

“What has everyone got with them?” one witch asked and people began emptying pockets and pooling what they had. Most had only a few coins, parchment (having clearly learned the lesson of the previous day!), and quills. Harry added his invisibility cloak to the pile, ignoring the muttered comments from those who recognised what it was.

“Well, that's great!” the same wizard snarled. He crossed his arms over his chest. “There's nothing useful here!”

“What about our skills?” a petite witch piped up. “Yesterday, we used our abilities to understand different alphabets to help us. Does anyone have a skill that might be useful?”

There were blanks looks.

“Can anyone here use wandless magic?” Harry asked desperately.

A circle of shaking heads, blank looks, and irritated expressions answered him.

It was Neville who cracked it. “Resources? Resource? Who's the best resource when you're learning?” He turned and spoke directly to their trainer. “Excuse me, sir, could you help me get my wand back?”

The wizard grinned and replied, “Of course!” He flicked his wand and Neville grabbed at his magical item.

Now Neville and the wizard were surrounded by people. Neville got Ron and Harry's wands first, then started on those belonging to others. In less than two minutes everyone held their wand, looking relieved.

“Full marks for you, Neville,” Harry muttered to his friend, smiling at him.

Their trainer spoke to them. “Well done. Longbottom understood that one of your best resources is your teacher. Today is about teaching and being taught. When it is your turn to work with the Aurors make sure you consider how you can teach others what you learn.”

He moved towards the door. “By the way, if any of you tells anyone in the other group how to do this task, you will be kicked off the programme.”

They went back into the main room. Now thirty three small booths had been set up, each one containing an Auror and a trainee. The returning group couldn't hear anything that was being said and so sat down, waiting for their chance to learn whatever they needed to.

It wasn't long before the trainees were leaving the booths and milling with their own group, and the other one too. One wizard led them all off to the gym, whilst the other allocated booths to the group Harry was in.

Harry sat down facing a wizened looking man, who gave a wet cough before commencing with the finer points of wand lore and what you could tell about a person from their wand.

Once Harry had been given the information – and there was a lot of it – he felt the need for a break. But before he could, they were told to go and stand next to the Auror they had been taught by. Harry found himself standing next to a witch he had seen vaguely around Hogwarts when he had been there this year, but whom he didn't really know. Both he and the girl had been told the same details and now the two wizards came along and divided up the pairs, so that some would be telling their own group, whilst others would be telling the group they hadn't worked with. Harry was swapped, as was Ron. Neville remained with the group he had originally helped that day.

They were then all free to go to lunch, after which they had until 2.30 to prepare how they would present the facts they had learned.

Harry didn't really notice what he was eating, and he wasn't the only one. Nearly everyone was planning their mini-lesson and considering how to get their information across in an interesting way. He suddenly grinned as an idea occurred to him. Swallowing the last few mouthfuls of soup hurriedly, he rushed out of the canteen and into the hall they used to begin his work.

“Potter. Your turn.” the wizard pointed at Harry and he stood up. Around him witches and wizards were still scribbling down the last few notes from the previous lesson.

“Your topic?”

“Wand lore and what it can teach us about the dark magic user we are facing.”

His audience looked a little dazed. It was a big topic to cover in five minutes.

Harry conjured up a large piece of parchment that had an outline of a person on it. Briefly he talked about the different types of woods, classifying them according to their rarity and hardness and what each type of wood revealed about the owner. He then asked the group what they could deduce about the owner of a yew wand. As each suggestion was aired, he flicked his wand, and the ideas they suggested surrounded the outline.

Next he talked about cores and their importance. Again he asked for what people thought about a phoenix feather core, and more of their ideas appeared on the sheet.

Finally, he discussed length and clarified that length only mattered if a wand was much longer or much shorter than the wizard's forearm. One final time he got feedback, and as the timer buzzed, the feedback seemed to shiver and the figure finally came into view – Voldemort, holding his yew wand.

There were gasps and a smattering of applause.

Feeling pleased that people had learnt, he'd been interesting, and that his lesson had been memorable, Harry sat down and prepared to listen to the next person who was discussing the limitations of Wiggenweld potion.

After hearing thirty two people giving information, Harry wanted nothing more than to go home and lie down. However he had a test to sit, so after a quick snack and a long drink of water, he went back to the hall and sat down at his allotted table, hoping he did well, and hoping those he had taught had been given enough information to answer the questions about wand lore.

One hundred questions later, and Harry laid his head down on the desk, resisting the urge to groan. His head pounded and he longed to rest. He wasn't the only one. Several people around him had that slightly punch drunk expression on their face that showed they were feeling completely out of their depth.

When the sparks went up, the papers flew into the two wizards' hands and they were finally free to go. Harry checked his score as he went:

Wand test: 11/20; Lesson: 18/20; Test: /20

He shrugged seeing the one blank score. It was hardly surprising that the exam hadn't been marked yet, they had only just handed it in. Barely able to drag himself to the atrium, Harry longed for home, yet even when he got there, he knew he wasn't finished. After the morning's near fiasco, he had some questions to ask Snape.

And, of course, thinking about Snape made a certain part of him react with enthusiasm.

“Master Harry!” Kreacher sounded genuinely pleased to welcome Harry home. He drew off Harry's coat and led the human to a chair before pushing a large hot mug of tea in his master's direction.

“Kreacher, you're a wonder!” Harry said sincerely.

“Master has half an hour before dinner is ready,” Kreacher advised and Harry plodded up to the living room, still cuddling his mug, and began a letter:

Dear sir,

So much has happened just in two days of training! Today we had to get our wands when none of us had access to one which was irritating! It made me realise that I need to learn how to use wandless magic. Can you help?

Also, I was considering today what a wand reveals about its owner, but it is possible to own several wands, some of which would be better at certain types of magic, so does that reveal more about the owner or just show that wandlore is more complicated than people think? Is it common for magic users to deliberately go out and get another wand as a back up?

I think it would be useful to put together an 'emergency kit' (it's something which is mentioned in the Auror book I've been reading) and although they give a few suggestions, what would you advise me to carry at all times? I've already decided on the invisibility cloak, the second wand, the All-Round potion, Wiggenweld potion, some money (Muggle and Wizard), and am thinking about a change of clothes too (Muggle style, in case I have to chase a dark magic user in the Muggle world). What do you think? What obvious thing have I missed? If you got the individual shield charm working, that would prove very helpful!

One final thing that I found out yesterday was that they might award a 'special prize' to a trainee who shows himself to be above the rest. It made me edgy as I had the horrible suspicion that it was going to be given to me, regardless of whether or not I deserved it. Don't get me wrong, it'd be great to earn the award, but I don't want it given to me just so they can say that 'Harry Potter' was awarded the stupid thing. I guess all this means that I'll have to work hard all the time so that if I do get given the wretched thing, I won't feel totally as though I have only received it because of who I am.

I trust you are well,

Harry

Harry slurped his tea and wandered back down to the kitchen. Kreacher was just serving up and pointed Harry to a chair as he placed beef Wellington and crispy roast vegetables on the table. Grateful for a servant, Harry slumped down, mouth watering at the delicious smells.
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Harry Potter and the Expert Potions Master