Myst at Hogwarts Part 7 (Patreon)

Snape sneered at Harry. “Mr. Potter, our new celebrity. Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”

Hermione looked shocked at the blatant disrespect the professor was showing. Even the worst teacher she’d had in school had at least tried to appear professional in class.

‘So much for avoiding him being an ass by paying attention to his lecture,’ Myst thought to himself as he answered Snape’s question as politely as he could. “Depending on the rest of the ingredients, you might be making Draught of Living Death.” He grabbed Hermione’s hand under the table and gave it a light squeeze before letting it go to calm her down.

Snape blinked in surprise then asked, “Where, Mr. Potter, would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?”

“In here? For safety reasons there should be some in the supply cabinet.” Harry pointed toward the supply cabinets then continued speaking before Snape could interrupt, “In Diagon alley, a potions supply store would be the quickest option. In the wild, the stomach of a goat would be your best bet.”

Snape narrowed his eyes. “Five points from Gryffindor for being flippant. What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?”

“Different names for the same plant,” Myst said with a shrug, “as anyone could tell you that had read any of the guides to plant based potion reagents that used to be recommended for this class before you started teaching it and that I see on some of the Slytherins’ desks.”

“What are you accusing me of Potter?” Snape asked menacingly, almost looming over his student.

“Nothing, for all I know the purebloods might just have family that informed them that the book would be useful after you started teaching and removed it from the recommended reading list. I wouldn’t dream of implying that you told the Slytherins to pick up a copy or Merlin forbid, handed out duplicated books for all of your house’s students so they’d have an unfair advantage, despite the fact that a quick glance shows the majority of the books display the same discoloration from where someone spilled something on the book, as if they were all created by the use of the gemino charm,” Myst said in his best customer service tone, knowing from experience that it would simply piss Snape off even more while making his own response seem reasonable.

“Twenty points for your cheek!” Snape snapped then stalked over to the board to start the lesson, more upset with his house than annoyed that Potter knew about the books. He was going to have to give someone an object lesson about spilling secrets they shouldn’t as there was no way the spawn of James would have been intelligent enough to notice them without help.

‘Screw it, he’s going to be a problem anyways, I might as well expose him as being a completely unreasonable ass right now.’ Myst grinned slightly as he got a cheap disposable pen and notebook out of his bag and started taking notes, waiting for Snape to shout at him for not using a quill. He barely contained a smirk when a minute later Snape turned around and saw his choice of writing implement.

Hermione glanced over at her friend, concerned but he seemed relaxed and waved at her that it was fine, so she figured he had some plan. She wondered how he’d known this professor was going to behave this way, but didn’t ask. She could ask him later in private.

“Mr. Potter! Put that away, we use quills at Hogwarts,” Snape snapped.

Myst turned to look at Snape. “I’m sorry, I must have missed that in the rulebook. Can you point out which section that particular rule is in?”

“The section on supplies,” Snape said sarcastically.

“Then I’m afraid your memory might be suspect, as the rule in question states that students need quills for tests as they’ve been charmed with various anti cheating charms. It doesn’t put any requirements on using quills for note taking.”

“This is my classroom, you will use a quill!” Snape demanded.

“It’s like you haven’t even read the school handbook. There is nothing in there that requires me to take notes so if you’re not going to be reasonable, I think I’ll pass on taking notes.”

“In that case, I forbid anyone from sharing their notes,” Snape snapped as he turned back to the board. “Twenty points for wasting your classmates’ time.”

“Again, I think you really need to read the rules, the points can’t drop below zero and this is the first class of the first day but don’t worry, I’ll be talking to my head of house about the blatant favoritism you’ve shown,” Myst said, sounding disappointed and shaking his head as if he’d just discovered his cat had coughed a hairball up on the rug.

“Since you don’t care about the points, you can serve detention with me tonight at six for blatant disrespect,” Snape replied with a sneer, his nails digging into his palms as he forced himself not to reach for his wand.

Myst shrugged then went back to taking notes. Snape vanished his pen and he sighed loudly. He pulled out another cheap plastic pen and went back to work then shook his head as Snape vanished his notes much to the amusement of the Slytherins. “Must you really be this petty?”

“Follow the directions on the board!” Snape said with a sneer, wishing he could get away with taking a sip of the calming potion he kept in his drawer for dealing with the Weasley twins.

Myst shrugged as he set his hands on the desk and read through the potion on the board and compared it to his potions book so he’d get all of the steps right. The best way to screw with Snape in class would be to do the potion perfectly after all, that was one of the reasons he’d hired Remus as a tutor after all and he didn’t want to screw that up by making a mistake in class.

0o0o0

“I’m starting to hate this school,” Myst grumbled, just loud enough for their head of house to hear as he listened to the last bit of Hermione’s rant to Professor McGonagall about Snape vanishing the contents of their cauldron before he dropped their vial and gave them a zero for lacking a potion sample to turn in.

“I’m afraid that accidents happen,” McGonagall said, knowing from experience that trying to enforce the behavioral standards that all the professors were supposed to follow was a waste of time when it came to Severus since Albus would just overrule her on the matter.

Myst pulled his attention off the decorations in McGonagall’s office and focused on McGonagall. “While that is certainly true, he didn’t vanish anyone else’s cauldron and he deliberately dropped our potion sample.”

“You can’t prove that,” McGonagall said, annoyed that Severus hadn’t been able to behave himself. They’d all suspected he would behave less than perfectly when Harry started his schooling, but she was still disappointed that he’d already resorted to destroying his students work.

“I probably could with a pensieve and looking at the memory of his smirk when he dropped the vial but at this point, why bother?” He pulled a note out of his pocket and handed it to the professor. “Here is a bill for the notebook and pens that he destroyed and an estimated value of the magical research he cost me.”

“Magical research? 10,000 galleons?” McGonagall asked in disbelief.

Myst shrugged. “The notebook contained notes on family magic and he destroyed it, thus I’m billing him.”

“You can’t be serious,” McGonagall said shocked.

“Why? He destroyed my property, which he had no legal right to do, I have enough evidence to take this to court and destroy him. I have absolutely no problem with ruining his life considering he is determined to ruin my education. And no, I’m not serving detention with a marked Death Eater. If this is a problem, I’m more than happy to transfer schools and write a letter to the Daily Prophet explaining exactly why I’m leaving Hogwarts.”

McGonagall sighed. “Please hold off on that while I have a talk with the Headmaster.”

“I’ll hold off on mailing it until I get word back,” Myst replied, fairly sure that Dumbledore would try to talk him out of screwing Snape over, but that he could at least gain some major concessions out of him if he decided not to nuke the greasy bastard. He still wasn’t sure what Dumbledore could offer him that was worth more than getting rid of the greasy bastard, but it was always possible he knew of something.  

0o0o0

“Did you kill his pet or discover it was an animagus too? He really hates you,” Ron mumbled through half a turkey leg as Myst helped Hermione to her seat before taking his own.

“Not that I know of,” Myst replied as he grabbed a sandwich off the platter.

“Did you hit him in the head with a cauldron?” Fred asked with amusement, fairly sure that Harry hadn’t actually hit him with a cauldron.

“Where did you hear that?” Hermione asked in surprise.

George swallowed the food he’d been chewing. “From a girl in Ravenclaw that heard it from a Slytherin.”

“Which means it’s a bit suspect but you managed to get under his skin the first day which is fairly impressive,” Fred said. “It took us the better part of a week of classes.”

George smirked. “Which means we’re curious what our new favorite person did to vex him so.”

“And how we can duplicate it,” Fred agreed smugly.

Myst finished chewing his food and swallowed it, doing his best not to look at the staff table where Quirrell was talking with Sinestra which meant that the back of his turban was facing him which was probably why he was starting to get a slight headache. “I just pointed out that there wasn’t anything in the rules about using muggle pens and answered his question about The Draught of Living Death and where I’d find a bezoar. As near as I can figure out, he took offense at the fact that I got the answers right.”

“It was brilliant,” Ron said eyeing Snape’s empty seat at the staff table. “I’m just not sure how he stayed so calm.”

Myst shrugged. “It wasn’t anything to get worked up about, though I’m a bit annoyed that he decided to vanish the contents of our potion then ‘accidently’ drop our potion sample.”

“Accidently?” Seamus asked sarcastically. “Did you see his smirk?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Myst replied. “I’m not sure why he hates me outside of his ex-boss managing to kill himself when he tried to off me as a baby, but I’m not going to put up with it.”

“Ex-boss?” Dean asked.

“Snape’s an ex-Death Eater, turned Crown’s evidence from what I heard. Something about him being a double agent for Dumbledore in the last war.” Myst noticed Malfoy walking over to gloat or do something else equally stupid. “I’m not sure how he managed to convince Voldemort that he was loyal, but it had to be something dirty or revolting or maybe Voldemort just wasn’t real bright.”

“You shouldn’t talk about your betters like that Potter or you’ll end up like your parents,” Draco said with a sneer.

“That was uncalled for,” Hermione leapt to Harry’s defense.

“Either way, Snape really should down a couple calming draughts and relax a bit,” Myst said, pretending to ignore Draco.

“Are you deaf Potter?” Draco asked with a sneer.

“Did Professor Quirrell always have that stutter?” Myst asked Fred and George, doing his best to not acknowledge Draco, knowing it would drive him crazy.

“Maybe you need your mudblood to translate for you,” Draco said snidely.

Hermione glared at Draco while Myst stiffened.

Myst glanced at George. “Is dueling still legal?”

“Technically, it’s just frowned on at Hogwarts,” George said as he examined Draco the way he would an insect they’d caught to use as a test subject for a particularly dodgy potion.

“Good to know,” Myst replied then took a sip of his apple juice.

“That’s it?” Draco asked with disdain. “I insult your girl and that’s it from the famous Mr. Potter?”

Myst turned his attention toward Draco. “I’ll explain this once, because you don’t seem to understand. Not only can Hermione defend herself, your opinion matters less than pig shit in a sty. Your father is on record as being a weak willed coward and blood traitor. So again, your opinion is as worthless as you are.”

“You can’t talk to me like that. I challenge you to a wizard’s duel!” Draco blurted.

“Being that you challenged me, that means that I set the time and place, correct?” Myst asked, rather amused that Draco had given him the perfect legal method of dealing with the little shit. Maybe picking on an eleven year old was a bit unfair, but considering it was Draco he didn’t really care.

“That is correct,” Percy spoke up, having heard Draco digging himself into a hole and less than impressed with his behavior.

Myst nodded. “In that case, we’ll have to talk with Flitwick, as we’ll need an impartial official to make the duel legit. I’m leaning toward the end of the week, that would give me a chance to study up on the traditions.”

“Does Saturday work for you Mr. Potter?” Flitwick asked from his seat at the teacher’s table.

“Saturday works nicely,” Myst agreed cheerfully. “That should give me plenty of time to read up on some dueling spells.”

“Do you have your seconds?” Flitwick asked.

“Crabbe,” Draco said smugly, expecting Harry to be intimidated by his minion’s size.

Myst turned to look at Fred and George. “Care to help a fellow out?”

“We’d be delighted,” the twins replied with matching grins that held far too many teeth to be friendly.

“I meant Snape,” Draco said quickly as the blood drained from his face, recalling how the upper years had already passed out warnings about the two blood traitors, without even asking for anything in return!

“I’m sorry, but you’ve already named your second and if you’re asking adults to do your dueling, I’m sure that Professor McGonagall would be willing to defend her house then we’d need a new teacher and let’s avoid that. You have the rest of the week to practice,” Flitwick said, with a gleam in his eye.

“See you Saturday,” Myst said turning to talk to Hermione. After a second he turned back to Draco. “In case you have failed to realize it, that was your cue to slink off like the yellow cur you are.”

Draco opened his mouth to reply but the twins leaned forward and he quickly turned and left.

“I was thinking of practicing defense a bit this evening,” Myst told Hermione, “wanna find an empty room, grab some food, and make sure I can uphold the honor of our house?”

“Are you sure that you’re okay with this?” Hermione asked, concerned about the duel.

“Think of it as a bit of practical classwork. Flitwick should be able to keep things safe enough, but honestly, this is safer than letting Draco get his way,” Myst said quietly. “If you don’t stamp down on bullies quickly it just encourages them to escalate matters. I want to make it very clear to him that insult... certain behaviors are not acceptable.”

Hermione took a sip of her juice to cover her blush.

0o0o0

Myst deflected Hermione’s weak stunner off his less than perfect shield, annoyed at how badly his shield wobbled as it deflected her red bolt of magic. He turned and blocked Fred or George’s stunner, they were moving around enough that he wasn’t sure which was which. He scowled as his shield shattered leaving him open for the other twin’s stunner. He reached out and blocked it with his dragon hide glove as he pointed his wand at Hermione and shouted, “Stupefy!”

Hermione squeaked as she took the stunner on the arm and her entire wand arm went numb. “Get him!”

Myst jumped out of the way of a pink ball of light that he didn’t like the look of, then worked on tossing his own stunners at the twins while he tried his best to avoid getting tagged. ‘Screw it, they’re going to win if I play fair.’ He pointed his wand at the twins as he charged them. “Lumos!”

“Shit!” Fred cursed as he closed his eyes to avoid the worst of the spell then scowled as he felt something touch his temple. “What?”

“Give up or I’ll zap the redhead!” Myst exclaimed dramatically with his wand touching Fred’s temple.

“Fine, fine, we give up,” George replied as he held up his wand.

“Not a bad trick but shouting out the incantation sort of ruins it,” Fred mused as he put his wand back behind his ear, knowing that George would take care of things.

George used Harry’s distraction to line up his shot then blinked as he found himself falling over sideways. He sighed as he caught sight of Hermione holding her wand in her left hand. “You were supposed to be on our side.”

“The match was over,” Hermione replied, “and this is my practice for if Crabbe tries something as well.”

George grinned as he wandlessly cast finite on his legs. “Good instincts.”

“My hero,” Fred said jokingly.  

“Another go?” George asked. “Two on two this time?”

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Harry said turning to Hermione who nodded. “Okay, let’s do th-” He dove to the side as George cast a stunner at him.

0o0o0

Myst wasn’t sure if he should laugh or kick himself as he glared at the instructions for an anti possession amulet that was in the section for making foci to permanently deal with ghosts in his book of dark magical foci that he’d picked up. ‘That’s what I get for trusting the table of contents to have everything useful laid out.’ He read over the instructions a second time then grabbed his journal and pen and started copying down the instructions and the notes. Making a note next to everything he didn’t understand so that he could look it up.

Hermione looked up from her book as she noticed Harry start writing stuff down in his journal. “What are you working on?” she asked in a whisper as she didn’t want to upset the librarian.

“I’m trying to figure out how to create a protective amulet against possession by spirits,” Myst explained in a whisper, glad that he’d taken the time to make a slipcover for his book on dark magical foci as it was an extremely useful book and he really didn’t need anyone bringing attention to it.

“Is that something we really need to worry about?” Hermione asked warily, knowing they should probably be looking up dueling rules and spells for the upcoming duel.

“Need? Probably not but I’m done with my homework and if I go back to the common room, I’ll have to explain to Ron that I have more important things to do than play chess.”

“So what do we need to make it work?” Hermione asked, curious what was involved in making magical charms.

“Some ingredients that should be in our potions kit, some herbs I can probably talk Professor Sprout out of, and a drop of blood for each amulet from the person that is going to wear it to attune it. On second thought, I have a feeling the Weasley twins have most of the herbs.”

“Why would they?” Hermione asked.

“Because they like experimenting with potions. Either way, it doesn’t hurt to ask.” Myst copied the ingredients down and doubled the amounts so that he could make a protective amulet for Hermione. He wasn’t sure she needed the amulet but it hadn’t surprised Dumbledore in the Ministry fight when Riddle had pulled off his possession trick and they did have a poltergeist flying around. He wanted the defense for when he dealt with Quirrell because he didn’t want to be knocked out for several hours or days when Voldemort flew through him after being turned into a spirit. “Besides, even if it’s not directly useful, it’s magic and should get us one step closer to understanding how everything works which might let me make a general foci for magic.”

“What can I help with?” Hermione asked eagerly.

Myst glanced at the large bookcases scattered around the room. “You can find a book on spirits and help me fact check the instructions for the protective amulet.”

Hermione shifted uncomfortably. “You don’t trust the book?”

“I’m reasonably sure the amulet works but it doesn’t hurt to check. You’re not afraid of a little research are you?” Myst teased, knowing that she’d probably go overboard.

“Of course not, what are you going to do while I’m working on that?” Hermione asked in a whisper.

“See if I can figure out how to make the shield foci so I can use my left hand to shield and cast with my right for the duel.”

“That would be useful. Other than Merlin’s staff, why is this the first we’ve heard of alternate foci?” Hermione asked, curious why there had only been the barest hints about alternate foci in any of the books she’d read.

“I’m guessing because the wand is a decent all purpose focus and the ones in the book are more specialized. Rather than needing a bunch of foci, you’d just need the one wand.”

“In other words, they’re lazy?” Hermione said, a touch disappointed in the wizarding world.

“Do you have a better explanation?” Myst asked quietly, knowing the ministry probably had a hand in the switch.

“Not at present,” Hermione replied in a whisper as she left to look up what she could find on ghosts.

Myst turned his attention toward the section on defensive foci.