"So, Professor..."
Harry carefully chose his words, trying not to sound disrespectful.
"A friend of mine was injured. It's a fairly serious wound, and they need some Blood-Replenishing Potion..."
Snape raised an eyebrow.
"So you have decided to treat your poor, miserable professor as a clerk at Pippin's Potions? Or perhaps you've mistaken my office for Madam Pomfrey's Hospital Wing?"
His voice remained as cold and venomous as ever.
Harry looked up and answered sincerely.
"Among everyone I know, you're the only Potions Master. So..."
He held Snape's gaze without blinking.
Snape stared into Harry's green eyes for a long moment.
Finally, he gave a quiet snort, turned around, and walked over to a cabinet at the back of the classroom.
Just as Harry was convinced he was about to be thrown out...
Snape returned carrying six bottles of potion.
"Even if your injured friend were a troll, this would be more than enough."
He paused briefly.
Then a faint, mocking smile curled at the corner of his lips.
"Ah, forgive me, Mr. Potter. I momentarily forgot that you do, in fact, keep company with several remarkably uncultured little trolls."
Harry beamed.
"Thank you very much, Professor!"
He carefully accepted the potions and gave Snape a deep bow.
This time...
His gratitude was completely genuine.
Once Snape dismissed him with a simple gesture, Harry obediently left the Potions classroom.
"My goodness!"
Ron's eyes were wide with disbelief.
"You actually stayed behind alone in the Potions classroom?"
His tone was dramatically exaggerated.
"I'd bet that if Neville spent thirty more seconds alone with Snape, he'd wet himself!"
"I think you're right, Ron."
Neville didn't seem offended in the slightest.
If anything, he thought Ron was giving him too much credit.
"Thirty seconds? Ten would probably be enough."
"So..."
Seamus stepped forward curiously.
"What did you two talk about?"
Harry glanced behind him.
The Potions classroom door was still firmly shut.
Then, as though he were about to reveal some top-secret treasure, he slowly opened the inside of his robes.
Hidden in the inner pocket...
Were six bottles of Blood-Replenishing Potion.
"Whoa!"
Ron's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Pointing at the bottles with a trembling finger, he asked,
"Merlin's beard... did you raid Snape's potion cabinet?"
Harry laughed.
"No. The professor gave them to me."
He tucked the bottles safely back inside his robes.
Seamus was completely speechless.
"Harry... you're..."
He searched desperately for a word capable of expressing even a fraction of the admiration he felt.
None came to mind.
Ron and Neville looked at Harry as though he were a legendary hero.
They had always known Harry was extraordinary.
After all, defeating Dark Wizards...
Facing Voldemort...
That had practically been part of Harry's legend since he was a year old.
But convincing the Head of Slytherin House to voluntarily hand over six bottles of potion free of charge...
That was on an entirely different level.
If someone claimed Harry had defeated another Dark Wizard, they'd simply shrug and say,
"Well... that's Harry."
But getting Severus Snape to give away potions?
Now that was a feat worthy of Gryffindor history.
Ron slapped Harry on the shoulder.
"Harry, your name is definitely going down in Gryffindor history!"
Then he grinned.
"No... come to think of it, I bet Hogwarts: A History will devote an entire chapter to the day you defeated the Great Serpent of Slytherin!"
"Mr. Weasley..."
A slow, oily voice drifted from behind them.
Ron froze instantly.
He turned around little by little.
Only to find Snape's black eyes fixed directly upon him.
"Ten points from Gryffindor."
Snape's voice remained calm.
"For discussing a professor behind his back."
Without waiting for a reply, his black robes billowed dramatically behind him like the wings of an enormous bat as he swept down the corridor.
Ron finally exhaled once Snape disappeared.
"Honestly..."
He pressed a hand to his chest.
"You never know when he's going to show up, do you?"
After lunch, Harry packed some food—sausages, bacon, and a few sandwiches—and led Ron, Hermione, Neville, and Seamus to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.
Poppy was already waiting exactly where they had agreed to meet.
The moment she saw Harry, she happily trotted over and, just as always, gently grabbed the hem of his robes in her mouth, playfully tugging them from side to side.
"Alright, alright, Poppy..."
Harry smiled as he rubbed behind her ears.
Then he took out one of the potions and handed it to her.
Poppy gently held the bottle in her mouth, tilted her head back, and drank it in one gulp.
The Blood-Replenishing Potion certainly wasn't delicious.
But Snape had never brewed potions to taste good.
He brewed them to work.
Once she finished, Poppy smiled.
"One bottle is enough to last nearly a week, Harry. You don't need to bring one every day."
Harry smiled back.
"Don't worry. The Potions professor gave them to me. He's actually very easy to talk to."
The four friends behind him all gasped at the same time.
"Harry?!"
Neville looked utterly dumbfounded.
"Did... did you just say... Professor Snape is easy to talk to?"
He put a hand to his forehead.
"My goodness... either the world has gone mad... or I have."
Ron, Seamus, and Hermione nodded vigorously.
Neville had perfectly voiced what they were all thinking.
Poppy looked at the four of them curiously.
"Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"
Harry smacked his forehead.
"Oh! Right!"
He pulled Ron closer.
"This is Ron Weasley."
Then he pointed toward Neville.
"And the big fellow over there is Neville Longbottom."
Next came Seamus.
"The one with the missing patch of eyebrow is Seamus Finnigan."
Finally, he smiled at Hermione.
"And this is Hermione Granger... probably the most Ravenclaw-like Gryffindor you'll ever meet."
Poppy smiled warmly.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm Poppy... one of Harry's oldest friends."
Hermione stepped a little closer but kept a respectful distance.
"Are... are you really a unicorn?"
Her voice was filled with amazement.
"You can actually speak..."
Poppy simply smiled.
Before she could answer, Harry spoke first.
"Magical creatures are always full of surprises, aren't they?"
As he spoke, he pulled out the food he had brought for her.
The moment Hermione saw the bread, Butterbeer, bacon, and sausages, her eyes widened.
"Harry! You can't!"
she blurted out.
"Unicorns don't eat things like that! They only eat wild berries..."
Before she could finish...
Poppy gave a cheerful little neigh.
Then she enthusiastically bit into the bacon-and-sausage sandwich Harry was holding out.
Hermione stood completely frozen.
Then quietly finished her sentence, no longer sounding entirely convinced.
"...and... grass."
Harry glanced back over his shoulder.
Hermione wore the expression of someone whose entire understanding of the world had just collapsed.
Meanwhile...
He continued feeding Poppy.
A little farther back, Ron whispered to Seamus and Neville,
"Looks like Miss Know-It-All has her moments when she doesn't know everything."
The two boys immediately nodded.
Truthfully, both of them looked eager to get closer to Poppy.
But then they remembered Hermione's earlier words.
"Unicorns only approach girls with the purest hearts."
The pair immediately lost their nerve.
After all...
The sharp horn on Miss Poppy's forehead clearly wasn't just for decoration.
Neither of them had any desire to find out firsthand what would happen if she decided to run them through with it.
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