Bloodline chapter 11

Chapter 11 -

"So, how was quidditch practice?" Tonks asked as she walked alongside Harry and Daphne.

"It was good...good-ish," Harry shrugged. "It started with the usual and expected challenges that come from trying to do a tryout with a bunch of Slytherins," He couldn't help but add while rolling his eyes.

"Oh, what's that?" Tonks couldn't help but ask.

"A bunch of idiots decided to be 'ambitious' and 'cunning'," Daphne said with a deep, suffering sigh. "The imbeciles decided to try and challenge him in every way possible. Marcus Flint from the year below even tried to ambush him before the tryouts."

"Ah, so he's in the hospital wing now?" Tonks grinned knowingly.

"Most likely once they extract him from the Whomping Willow," Harry said in a casual voice.

"What was he...never mind, I don't want to know," Tonks said before pausing. "Actually, scratch that. I totally want to know how the willow was involved."

"Well, he tried to -" Harry's explanation was cut short by a familiar scream. Dan rushed around the corner and ran straight towards them with a panicked look on his face, only stopping when Harry caught him by the back of the collar and pulled him so he was standing in front of him. "This is starting to become a bit of a habit. Who the hell's chasing you this time?" Harry blinked hard at him.

"Well," Dan rubbed his head with a sheepish look on his face. "It's a bit of a...well..."

"Dan!" A female voice screamed.

"...You'll see," He sighed, gesturing behind them just as Iris arrived, storming forward with her wand in her hand and a thunderous expression on her face. She stopped upon seeing Harry and the rest before resuming her murderous walk, stopping once more when Dan quickly ducked behind Harry.

"Excuse me, Harry and Harry's friends, I'm going to cut down the number of Potters in the world," She said with a glare.

"While I always find violence to be highly entertaining, I'm rather fond of this one," Harry said dryly as he pulled Dan out from behind him. "Now, explain to me what Dan did that is worth murdering him over,"

"He's been selling fake autographs of mine!" Iris said angrily. "He's been selling them to everyone in our year! Telling them they were from me!"

"Did you tell them that they weren't?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Well...no...not yet, I just found out about it," She admitted.

"Good, don't tell them," Harry said before turning to Dan. "You, no more selling Iris's autographs without her permission, fake or otherwise. Got it?"

"Well, I want to continue existing," Dan said thoughtfully, glancing at Iris who glared at him. "So yes, I agree."

"Cool, now tell me how much you made," Harry said, giving him a questioning look.

"Thirty galleons," Dan answered, unable to stop the note of pride in his voice.

"Nice," Harry nodded appreciatively. "Give twenty of it to Iris," He ordered.

"What?!" Dan squawked. "I worked hard for that money,"

"You wouldn't have made a third of that if you hadn't been using my name to sell those autographs," Iris pointed out, her glare now replaced with a smirk.

"Oh come on," Dan whined.

"You'll give her twenty of those galleons or you're giving the whole thirty galleons to me," Harry told him in a firm voice.

"Fine," Dan sighed.

"Don't worry," Daphne said, patting his shoulder sympathetically. "Just take this as a business lesson, licencing is quite important. If you want to make money then my family is one of the richest families in Magical Britain, I can help you out." She offered.

"Really?" Cool!" Dan grinned.

"I know," Daphne said while internally smirking, soon the brother would be on her side.

(.)

"How was your detention?" Dan asked Iris as the two walked side by side down the halls of Hogwarts.

"It wasn't that bad, actually," Iris admitted. "Professor McGonagall made me do lines for a bit before making me complete my transfiguration homework in front of her, she even helped me with it. So I'm sure I'll probably get a good grade when she marks it, though Hermione is still a bit miffed at me for getting detention in the first place, though she understands why I did it so she decided a simple lecture would suffice."

"You got a detention," Dan snorted. "Why does she think that she needs to lecture you as well?

"She means well, she's just like that," Iris shrugged. "Who do you think our potions teacher will be?" She asked him.

After the incident with Snape, it had been agreed that Iris and Dan wouldn't be going to Snape's class since he couldn't be trusted to bury his childhood grudge and treat the Potters with the respect that all students deserve. Neither of the Potter siblings knew that Harry had also been going around collecting other witness reports to add to the complaint that he and Professor McGonagall would send to the school board. But for now, it was agreed that the two would be tutored in potions by a different teacher.

"Not a clue," Dan admitted. "Was Snape really that bad?" He asked with a frown.

"He singled me out in class, asked me hard questions and as soon as I said I didn't know the answer to one, he decided to insult our dad and Harry," Iris scowled. "Yeah, he was that bad. He even pointed a wand at Harry in Professor Dumbledore's office."

"Wow, what a dick," Dan said, rather glad that he hadn't had to take the man's class.

"Exactly," Iris nodded just as they turned the corner and arrived at the class that they were supposed to go to, they found Harry waiting outside along with a tall, brown-haired man with a short brown beard.

"I can't thank you enough for this," Harry was saying whilst shaking the man's hand.

"It's not a problem at all, lad," The man replied warmly before the two of them noticed the arrival of the Potter twins.

"Ah, there you are," Harry smiled at them. "Iris, Dan, I'd like you both to meet Ted Tonks,"

"Tonks?" Iris repeated. "Isn't that the girl who you're friends with?"

"This is her dad," Harry explained, gesturing to the man. "He's a potions genius and a far better teacher than Snape,"

"I don't know about genius," Ted laughed. "But I know my fair share about the subject. Besides, from what I've heard, a bowtruckle would be a better teacher than him."

"It'd smell better at least," Iris said, wrinkling her nose. Earning an amused smile from her big brother and Ted.

"I can confirm that," Harry agreed.

"I've been teaching your brother since his first year," Ted told the twins. "He's quite brilliant in the subject and if either of you two are half as smart as him then I'm sure I'm going to enjoy teaching you."

"Well, I personally think they're little geniuses," Harry said with pride in his voice. "And I wouldn't worry about their behaviour, they're going to behave very well."

"I have no doubt about that," Ted chuckled before opening the door to the classroom and walking in. The Potters followed him inside, once they got in Dan and Iris stopped to look around. For Dan, it was the first time he was ever in a potions class, for Iris it was a vast improvement over Snape's class.

To start with the room at least had a window to let some light in, there was a whiteboard at the end of the room. A small cupboard rested on the side of the room and there was one big desk at the end for Ted and a few smaller desks were scattered around the room, four of those desks had potion equipment set up and the general atmosphere of the room felt much more like a classroom than Snape's where Iris half expected to be dissected if she stayed too long.

"Wait," Dan said suddenly. "Why are there four desks ready if there are three of us?" As if to answer his question, the door burst open and Tonks rushed in.

"I'm not late, am I?" She asked, breathing slightly heavier than normal.

"You're just in time," Ted assured her. "What kept you?"

"Had to hex a prick for trying to grab my ass," She said bluntly. "Barely dodged a detention from Professor Sprout,"

"Nice," Harry and Ted said approvingly.

"Tonks is taking the class with us since Snape's not really a fan of her either," Harry told the twins.

"What? Why? Did you do something to him as well?" Iris asked Ted. "He doesn't like us because of our dad," She added when Ted looked confused, he nodded his head in understanding before he answered.

"I've never really interacted much with Professor Snape, thank Merlin," He said, whispering the last part under his breath.

"Old hook-nose just has a grudge against me because I pretended to be him once in my second year," Tonks grinned. "Honestly, shampoo and jokes are two things that that man doesn't understand." She added. Although, she decided not to mention that that was only partly why Snape didn't like her. The other reason was because she was the daughter of Sirius Black's cousin and the friend of one Harry James Potter. Snape likely would have gone after Daphne as well if she wasn't one of the best students in his house, not to mention the daughter of the Greengrass family. Snape knew better than to mess with them.

"And brushing his teeth," Harry added. "And combing his hair, washing his face, trying a colour that's not black, letting childhood grudges die, not being a prick, not being a dick, not starting new grudges and regular washing. I could go on," He added thoughtfully.

"You imitated Snape?" Iris asked with an amused expression.

"Oh yeah," Tonks laughed before turning her face to an exact copy of Snape's, complete with matching hair. "Miss Tonks," She drawled in a perfect copy of his voice. "My nose is perfectly average, and there is no need to wash my hair. I already had my yearly bath just the other month." She finished, earning a hearty laugh from Iris while Dan and Harry simply looked amused. Tonks turned back and spread her arms out widely as if to say 'ta-da!' before pausing and grimacing. "Ew, I feel unclean now," She shivered.

"Yeah, but unlike Snape you can take a bath," Harry shrugged.

"Does he really smell that bad?" Dan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," The other three Hogwarts students said at the same time.

"Anyway, I'm going to have these two work on potions at their level," Ted said, gesturing to Tonks and Harry. "As for you two, I'm going to start today off with safety procedures and we'll start with a rather easy potion to begin with." He told Iris and Dan before turning to the two older students in the room. "The pair of you know enough that I think you can start working on your potion," He told them. "I had you both make a cough potion last year, think you can make it again?"

"On it, Dad," Tonks chirped before heading to her desk while Harry simply walked to his own desk.

"Call me 'Professor Dad' when I'm teaching," Ted told her before turning to Iris and Dan and gesturing them to head to their desks. "Now, today is mostly a practical lesson and you've both probably noticed that we don't really have any chairs for you to sit in. Why is that do you think?" He asked them, Dan raised his hand and Ted pointed at him.

"Is it so that nothing spills on us when we're working?" Dan guessed, lowering his hand.

"Exactly," Ted said happily, earning a pleased look from the young boy. "If I could award you points, I would. I'll just ask Professor McGonagall to give you some later. Now, Iris, you had a lesson with Professor Snape, did you go over any safety procedures?"

"Um...no, though I didn't really stay for the full lesson," She said sheepishly. She noted that Ted didn't look that surprised.

"It might surprise you to know that your older brother did have a full lesson with him and he didn't go over any safety procedures then," Ted replied. Both twins glanced over to Harry who was stirring something in a cauldron with one hand while his free hand gave them a thumbs-up gesture before he took a pinch of black powder and dropped it into the cauldron. "So, we'll do a quick little safety summary and then we'll start on your potions. I'm going to teach you two how to make a cure for dandruff,"

"For Snape?" Tonks asked from her side of the room.

(.)

"That was a really fun lesson," Dan said as the four students walked out of the classroom.

"Dad's the best of the best at potions," Tonks said proudly. "He's a certified potions master, and that's a hard thing to achieve when you're a muggleborn, trust me. The old sots in the potions committee are just as big of bigots as some of those you see here in school."

"It was so interesting!" Iris gushed. "Different ingredients mixed together and now I've made a potion that all but guarantees no dandruff for a month! Professor Tonks said that next time we're making a boil-curing potion!"

"I've got some of Dad's old potion books if you want to read them," Tonks offered.

"What?! Really?!" Iris asked in an excited voice.

"Yeah, it's not a problem," Tonks smiled at her.

"That's great, thanks!" Iris smiled back.

"That's nice of you, Tonks," Harry said, giving her a fond look.

"It's nothing," Tonks said dismissively. 'I'm going to get the sister on my side,' Tonks thought to herself happily. 'Suck it, Daphne,'