Chapter Text
At breakfast on friday, an owl delivered a letter. Directly on my food. I think I saw a feather.
what an animal.
It seems like most parents already know about the school's delivery system, since I wasn't the only one getting a letter or two.
one of the letters was from my parents. the other's from my brother. the one from my parents is just about how much they miss me. even though i saw them this morning.
good grief...
i'll write back to them by tonight.
as to not raise suspicion. totally.
on to kusuke's letter. i guess i should read it.
"Kusuo,-"
yeah, i'm not doing that. (neither am i 😃🔫)
kusuke goes on about how interesting the classes must be and how he can't wait to see me for christmas, to fight me of course. he tells me that i need to come home because he's surrounded by imbeciles and mentions talking to mcgonagall about waiting for me to approach her. then he goes on about how his peers are all monkeys and he's already getting his first degree-
wait.
this idiot.
I'll talk to her before lunch, i have a free period then. in the mean time, breakfast is almost over and i barely got to eat my plate of... brown.
brits are weird.
___________
After herbology, I made sure to walk through only the empty hallways towards mcgonagall's office. once i reached the door, like any sane person, i knocked.
well no shi-
"come in, though i should warn you, i'm rather busy."
i opened the door to see her at her desk surrounded by a bunch of papers. she looked up at me and sat back in her seat a little.
finally. its been forever.
ok, no need to be so needy.
. .
Sorry, you wanted to talk to me?
"Yes, i did, however unfortunately, i have many things to do at the moment. the start of the year is always a bit of a rush, might i say."
especially with albus's little side projects. goodness, this man is going to be the death of me.
he's going to be the death of me, too, and i hardly even know that lunatic.
"There's much to talk about, but i'm afraid the soonest i'll be free is on saturday. is that alright?"
yes, professor. thank you.
"Oh, and if you do find yourself needing help with anything, my door is always open, regardless of what house you belong to."
yes, professor. thank you.
is he even paying attention to a word i'm saying?
for once, yes.
"And give Professor Snape a nice big whack on the crown for me, will you?"
if only i could.
I raised an eyebrow and pretended to be thrown off.
speaking of professor snape, it's almost lunch time and i have potions afterwards. i've got to get going, thank you.
"Ah, I see. Come to my office at three tomorrow. Enjoy your lunch."
Thank you, goodbye.
(could you tell that i dont know how to end converstations....)
.
I sat down in the great hall and unfortunately got attacked.
"I saw you heading to McGonagall's room after herbology. Getting special treatment, now, are we?"
first of all, ew, you. second of all, creepo. third of all, how??? why are my powers so nerfed????
hm.
"Ah, so you admit to it!" The rat boy screamed, in his little ratty voice.
admit to what, exactly?
"Special treatment."
sure, bud.
“well, that’s incredibly unfair! i’ll have you know blah blah blah blah, blah blah blah!!
good grief...
. . .
"why-"
Malfoy starts speaking (again, unfortunately) and somehow, i hear my savior off in the distance.
oh, nevermind. screw you, rat boy.
___ (I don't even know why that was relevant...)
I wonder where kusuo is?
harry thinks as i appear right behind him.
"Oh, there you are! do you want to come to Hagrid's for tea after classes?"
no, but anything to get away from that nuisance.
sure.
"See, Ron, I told you he'd say yes." harry says, gesturing to the solar flame
"Shut up, Harry. How's class been, kusuo? we really haven't been able to talk much, huh."
hm.
"It's crazy, piling so much work on us in the first week. "
... i think you're just lazy. we did practically nothing.
yeah.
"Hey, Ron, tell him about that one thing..."
_
lunch is almost over. I guess they want me to walk with them?
"I'm actually quite excited, this is the first class we have together. " (Harry)
oh yeah. potions.
and next week we start flying together, too.
"Right, that too! My brothers play Quidditch all the time at home." (Ron)
bless you, what do your brothers play?
"What's that?"
"What's QUIDDITCH?!? Are you- Kusuo?? You know quidditch, right???" (Ron)
I shrugged.
it sounds like a rash.
"Bloody hell- oh, right. I keep forgetting you guys were raised with muggles." (Ron)
"...Right, well, we're here anyway."
"So we are. Did you guys also get a little bit of a chill?"
it's because we're in the dungeons. it's colder down here.
"Damn, it must suck to sleep here. Poor Kusuo."
I don't mind. i don't sleep here anyway
hm. we should go in.
"oh yeah, class is about to start."
____________
jesus, this room is creepy.
a dimly-lit room with old wooden furniture and a simple dirty chalkboard in the back. Oh, and the jars of dead things. everywhere.
The slytherin and gryffindor classes were separated into two sides, gryffindor on the left and slytherin on the right. the desks were long, wooden rows that you would expect to see in a lecture hall. opposite the door was professor snape's desk with notes on a chalkboard behind it. besides that and the cabinets with *old* materials, there wasn't much else in the room.
I sat down as far away from malfoy as i could, which also happened to be closest to the board-- right across from that girl we sat with on the train for a bit.
...Harmony, was it? something like that.
class started and snape—tall, ghouly, greasy man
(probably related to malfoy)
who most likely shouldn't be a teacher— started calling names, but when he got to harry's name he paused.
right, i guess i shouldn't keep forgetting that he's practically THE guy.
"Ah, yes... Harry Potter. Our new... celebrity."
he took an entire moment to glare at harry, then went back to roll-call.
Snape finished calling names and, for whatever reason, started monologuing.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he started.
i quirked an eyebrow, because, well, what else would we be here for?? this is a potions class
"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes..."
ok, calm down bro you're talking to children. no time to fetishize chemistry.
"... the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses..."
…do i even need to say anything?
"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stop death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
ok first of all, most people in this room should NOT be learning how to brew glory. second of all, i'm pretty sure calling almost every single one of YOUR students stupid is a reflection of your character, dunderhead.
I glanced around at the opposite side of the room. Harry and Ron were staring eachother down and having a silent conversation, then glanced at me and tried to will me into being a part of it. the only reason i understood their little eyebrow dance was because i could read their minds. i nodded, then glanced over at Harmony. she... well, it's hard to explain, but she looked like she wanted to prove snape wrong. desperate to, even.
"Potter!" Snape yelled, all of a sudden. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
excuse me?
i could tell that practically no one in the room knew what the hell he was talking about (besides harmony, who's hand shot into the air faster than i could blink, and i don't.), especially harry's, whos thoughts were so loud i almost couldn't hear the rest-
Powdered root of what to an infusion of what?
He looked around and answered honestly,
"I don't know, sir."
Snape sneered, and i could hear Malfoy snicker behind me. "Tut, tut (who actually *says* that??)— clearly fame isn't everything."
to a ten-year-old?
As snape rolled his eyes, harmony continued to go ignored and he spoke again soon.
"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
this creep is stressing me out jesus
Malfoy was practically cackling— like the rat he is— but harry looked up and straight into snape's eyes.
"I don't know, sir."
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"
im gonna pop a blood vessel
and i can tell by the literal fire in harry's eyes that he had read the book, but even if he hadn't, is this not snape's job? to teach?
harmony was standing up, anxious and still going completely ignored, but the tension in the room thickened dangerously, which... might have been my fault. judging by the smell of smoke.
I glanced down at my unusually warm hand, and sure enough, i've set fire onto my uniform.
shi-
no time to focus on my apparently new power, so i quickly put it out and tried to cover the small scorched patch with my cloak. i need to pay attention to this.
"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
harmony got on her toes and started making that sound kindergarteners make when they want to talk but just got yelled at for exactly that. a quiet, high-pitched hum.
"I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?"
her name's hermione..?
The knife at everyone's throat backed up a little, and the tension dispersed, a little. a couple of people laughed and some guy winked at harry, who smiled back. meanwhile, i stopped seeing red.
"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of the Living Death. 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. Well? Why aren't you all copying this down?"
people start scrambling for pencils and paper ("quills and parchment" if you're into that) but... something feels wrong.
"And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter."
what does that even mean
______
as the lesson went on, it was getting harder and harder not to burn this place to the ground. don't worry, i could do the potion with ease, but this thirty-year-old greaseball is an actual bully and, unfortunately, i have history with bullies.
not like that, i'm too average to be bullied. it's just... losing my cool... quite literally, i guess, with the fire and all.
snape kept making snipe comments, and as he was telling us about how perfectly malfoy stewed some slugs, the room flooded with acid smoke and he exploded (unfortunately not literally).
Some kid who looks like he would be bullied melted his partner's cauldron, then his potion started seeping onto the floor and burning people's shoes. it spread throughout the room, so people started kneeling on their chairs, but jesus, that poor kid, he got drenched in the potion and started crying in pain. red welts spread up his skin, and instead of helping the poor kid, snape threw a tantrum.
"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"
the kid nodded as more boils grew on his skin rapidly.
"Take him to the hospital wing, won't you?" snape said, motioning to the kid's partner. Then he turned on his heel and said what's probably the stupidest sentence known to man.
"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 you've lost for Gryffindor."
alright. im invoking my inner colonizer. bloody hell is wrong with this guy??
Harry opened his mouth to argue, but ron put his hand on harry's shoulder and muttered something, clearly signaling that it wasnt worth it because harry shut his mouth in the next moment.
...or better yet, what exactly can i *do*?
glancing at the burn on my leg, i had a thought i probably shouldn't've had.
i pointed and set a small, little, tiny fire on the corner of snape's annoyingly long cloak. but apparantly, whatever gas had been made when that kid's potion... reacted... had gathered in snape's man-cape and he was either too apathetic or stupid to get rid of it... and his cloak exploded. and the fire spread to his hair and that set fire too. which, cannot be entirely my fault, his hair was entirely too greasy to be humanly possible, no way he doesn't soak it in oil every night.
he screamed and reached for his wand, but the damage was already done by the time he put out the fire. What did happen, though was the entire class exploded into laughter, until a glare shook them to their core.
snape bored his eyes into harry, but unfortunately looked ridiculous, seeing as he was both missing 5 inches of hair and the back half of his shirt.
"You. What did you DO, Potter?"
shit, how can i get the blame off him?
"but- pro-professor I didn't-"
But unfortunately, my luck didn't end there. Malfoy shot up from his chair and shouted,
"Professor Snape!"
"WHAT IS IT, DRACO?! AS YOU CAN SEE I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING."
"Professor, as much as I wish it was, it wasn't Potter," Malfoy said, his face contorting into a sneer. He pointed directly at me. "It was that muggle boy, Kusuo." Heads started turning.
CRAP. how did he even find out? why didn't i know he knew? i figured something was up, but everyone else here is too batshit for me to focus.
excuse me-
"Malfoy, have you gone bloody insane?! How could it have been him, you lot haven't even done light charms yet..." Snape muttered, still (metaphorically) fuming. He turned back to yell at harry again until, of course, he finally glanced over at me. He did look away, of course, because there's nothing special about me. But then he threw a shocked double take and I knew.
i'm more cooked than your eyebrows, aren't i-
"Minerva's pet...?"
what are you talking abo-
People started whispering. Slowly, that grew into the only thing I could focus on. People started glancing around and I could physically feel them looking at and thinking about me.
"Boy, get your arse over here!" He shocked me out of my thoughts and who am I to disobey. Slowly, I got my ass over there. "What did you do." I tried to look as scared as possible, which tbh wasn't that hard. the fear of being found out is fueling my pretend fear for this jit
absolutely nothing, i swear. I didn't do anything as bad as what had happened...
"We'll see about that," He yelled and grabbed my arm, then started dragging me out of the classroom painfully slowly. "The rest of you, clean up your stations and enjoy your free period."
I glanced over at Harry and Ron, and although confused, they looked both worried for me and proud of my federal crime. Most of the other students were shocked that a Slytherin would stick up for Harry Potter, but not as many people were mad about what happened as i would have thought.
It seems like the only people who don’t hate Snape to some degree was Malfoy and the kids whose parents were buddy-buddy. Malfoy was sitting back down and smirking directly at me, but his thoughts told me there was something nagging at him, although the rest of what he was thinking were slurs.
i'm gonna throw up. please, god, i know you hate me but please just this once, let them all forget this happened.
The doors closed behind us and we started down the hall to Dumbledore's office.
at least i can hope he's insane enough to let me go...
listen, how was i supposed to know fire was going to react with was left of what that kid made...? despite, you know, the obvious, but still. I assumed it was going to spread slowly and his cloak would just be ruined but nooooooooooooooooo.
On the way, we passed the caretaker, Filch, who I somehow haven't mentioned yet. He was petting his cat, Norris, and jerked an eyebrow.
Soon, we entered the office and my wrist started to ache. Unfortunately, the headmaster wasn't there, which meant more ripping my skin off.
obviously i can make it so that it doesn't hurt, but it'll help me both visually and emotionally convince anyone that snape's crazy.
when we went back out to hallways, there were flooded with students because class had just ended. I could probably get out of this guys grip through this, but then he'd hunt me down in the dorms.
...
his dorms
where i’m supposed to be sleeping
which he has complete access to.
good grief.
He dragged us toward the wall, flicked his wand, and we teleported, but in a different way than i usually do, which made us compress for an entire minute and dematerialize then REmaterialize into McGonagall's office.
I yanked my arm back as softly as I could when we came back into space regularly. Snape almost tripped.
"...May I help you two?" McGonagall said, which reminded me to rub my bright red arm. As expected, she glanced over at where he'd grabbed me and her eyebrow creased. But then, unfortunately, she glanced over at Snape's hair and clothes and pinched her forehead.
"What exactly happened...?"
"This- This BUFFOON set me on FIRE."
"Did you see him do it?"
"Well, no-"
"Do you have any proof?"
"One of my students said-"
"Any physical proof?"
"...No. But Minerva, be reasonable."
"Be reasonable? Severus, from the looks of it you dragged the poor child all the way here like a toddler trying to win an argument."
"Look at my hair! My clothes!" And with a flick of McGonagall's wand, Snape returned to normal.
"Happy? Leave us. Now."
Snape tried to think of a way to argue, but eventually stuttered and stomped out of the room.
phew...
"Now, child, tell me what really happened."
. . .
I... set a fire. on a man. and then his clothes burst into flames. and then his hair. But, to be fair, he was-
"To be fair? You set a man on fire, and think that is fair."
I didn't mean to.
She raised a brow.
I'm being serious. he was screwing with Harry and suddenly i burned a hole on my knee. Then he blamed Harry for someone getting for *no reason*. He was just picking on kids the entire class.
"That sounds like a problem for the staff," She said sternly, taking a deep breath. "Mr. Saiki, have you ever been bullied?"
. . .
how, exactly, did you find that out?
truthfully, no.
I glanced over at her to see if I could get out of elaborating. I couldn't. She wants painfully specific details, too.
I've never been able to control myself, per se, when it comes to people like that. In primary school, there was this kid who would get picked on. We talked to each other often, and one day I came to the classroom after school and saw him on the ground, and he seemed unconscious. I healed him. He found out about my powers and we got closer. Of course, I never confirmed, but we were... friends. I think. He was my first friend.
Not much later, I found him getting beat up and drawn on by his bullies and, well, I went crazy. I was able to erase their memories when I'd calmed down, but we moved away soon after. That was around 5 years ago. He was the first and only friend I've had since then. Besides Harry and Ron... I think. I don't know, maybe when everything was happening I got reminded of my old friend. I'll try to control myself more, sorry.
I looked up to hear a soft sigh.
"Normally, I would expel you for this," She muttered as she wrote a slip for me. "Detention for 6 weeks in the library on Sundays. Give this to Madam Pince. You'll be helping her organize and clean from 3-4, but you'll be able to reschedule depending on what happens. If you finish for the day before the hour is up, come to my office and help me... something." I froze for a minute, but snapped back into it when she said, "Well? I can always just have you gone, so you might as well take this," and waved the note in my face.
...right. thank you.
"And Kusuo, I meant it when I told you to come to me. Hopefully, this will lead to less flaming professors in the future."
She smiled and sent me on my way.
thank god my acting skills are still in commission
I should probably go get my things from the dungeon, but Harry and Ron wanted me to go to Hagrid's... cabin, was it? They're still there, so I'll probably be able to at least run into them on the way there.
I left through the front doors and saw them walk out when i was about halfway there. They looked... troubled. Then they glanced up and ran toward me.
"Kusuo, what happened back there??"
"What happened with Snape? What'd he do?"
"We packed up your stuff from Potions!"
"And brought you some of Hagrid's rock cakes! Oh, but dinner starts soon so you probably shouldn't..."
thanks... i'll fill you in if you do the same?