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“Severus.” Harry began seriously. Severus knew that voice, it was Harry's 'this is going to be a very serious conversation about something that is not very serious but you'll have to treat it as such or I'll get huffy' voice.
“Yes?” Severus asked, matching the seriousness, if a bit mockingly, clasping his hands together and raising an eyebrow.
“Well, I was wondering if you were willing to review taking me out of the Latin lessons. I don't think they're a good idea any more.” Harry said very business like.
“When did you come to this conclusion?”
“I've been thinking about it for a long time, but wanted to wait until the right moment to tell you.” This wasn't completely true, actually he'd thought of it a few minutes ago when he'd been trying desperately to force the ridiculousness that was Latin verbs into his head.
“Really?”
“Yes, and I've decided that right now is the best time. It's not that I don't like Latin, it's just that it's an archaic language that doesn't really matter any more, and so there's no point in me learning it at all.” Harry said confidently, he was sure Severus would like his choice of words, he'd spent a while in the thesaurus looking for that one.
“Is that so?”
“Yep, and so I think my time would be better spent on other things, and request that I be taken out of it to focus on things of more importance.”
“A compelling argument, but no.”
“What? Why not?” He had been certain it would work, he'd spent a whole five minutes thinking about what he was going to say. He'd never put that much preparation into anything!
“I know Latin may not seem important and might be very hard, but it will come in very useful later on.” Harry gave him a disbelieving look. “Shall I show you?” He asked, and before Harry could answer he had brought down a Potions book from his shelf and flicked to the right page. “When I was younger I... let's say dabbled, in creating my own spells. Here's one. See that?”
“Levicorpus?” Harry read confused, he could tell that some of it was Latin but didn't know what it had to do with the situation.
“What do you think the spell does?”
“Floats things?” Harry asked, racking his mind for all the Latin he knew.
“Exactly,” Severus praised before flicking to another. “What about this one?”
“Sectumsempra? Cuts things!” Harry answered, beginning to enjoy this game.
“Precisely. Lots of spells have to be incanted in Latin.”
“Why does it say 'use on enemy'?” Harry asked, leaning in closer and reading the words around it.
“Never you mind.” Severus said, closing the book sharply and putting it away. “Regardless, spells aren't often said in English. Learning Latin will help you not only say them correctly, but correctly predict what they will do, which can come in handy with older spells that don't have good definitions, and you'll be able to read texts others can't. Learning this now will help you a lot in the future.”
“Will I be able to make my own spells if I learn Latin?”
“It will certainly help.”
Harry squinted at him for a while before nodding. “Sold... but can you help me with my homework?”
“Of course.” Severus said, ruffling Harry's hair.