Potions /Year 1
There was not much time to settle in completely, thanks to a packed time table. Martina hadn't managed much more than catching the names of her roommates. Emma, Elena and Flora.
After first impressions, she liked Emma most of the three girls. The blonde had caught her attention with a few witty jokes while the other two were too shy to speak more than necessary.
They were currently getting ready for their first lesson. The first years were in for an hour of potions.
The excitement that had built up, didn't help with their bad time management at all, because they were all desperately trying to get into the small bathroom.
When they were all done, they emerged from the dorm into the buzzing common room. The Hufflepuff common room was truly beautiful. Many plants decorated the space and on every surface stood a plate of fruit or biscuits. The walls shared the house colour, a dark yellow and a few pictures of former important Hufflepuffs were scattered across them.
Martina didn't really know where the potions classroom was just yet but Emma seemed to have better orientation. The other three followed her blindly up two sets of stairs, through multiple corridors and after many more confusing turns, Emma announced their arrival.
Martina pushed the oak door and even though they were the last ones to find the classroom, the professor was still absent too.
Her roomates quickly left her side quickly to scramble off to their friends. Emma sat down next to Nina (whi was obviously a friend of hers) while Martina scanned the room for an available seat.
She found one near Auri. She sat on Nina's left side while on her own left, sat a Ravenclaw girl. She had long brunette hair and was currently occupied with her quill and a piece of parchment.
"Can I sit here?", she asked as she approached the table. The tall girl jumped a bit at the interaction and answered enthusiastically, "Yeah, of course."
Martina sat down and introduced herself, "Martina Crouch. What's your name?"
"Anna Black. Nice to meet you, Aurelia has mentioned your name before. Do you know each other from preschool?", she asked with as smile.
"No, actually we just met on the Hogwarts express, but we got along really well yesterday. I know a few other first years too, do you know anybody already?"
"Not really. My roomates are fine, but they are extremely shy so we didn't talk all too much in the evening. Luckily, I now do know some nice people.", she sent a smile in Auri's direction and then looked back at her.
Martina returned the smile and just when she wanted to talk some more with Anna, the door flung open. A lanky looking man with really short, greyish hair and glasses on his nose, walked in a fast pace to the big table in the front.
The man turned around, looking around his audience and finally smiled at the students. "Well, welcome to your first lesson of potions. I'm professor Schabasser. I will be teaching you all about potions throughout your time here at Hogwarts. I hope that some of the students in this class, will learn how to appreciate the simplicity in the complexity of this wonderful magical subject."
Martina looked around the room to see faces just as lost and confused as herself.
The teacher continued, "You might not know exactly what I mean with that right now, but I promise you will understand with time." His grin suggested his own liking for the subject. "I will show you how to brew antidotes to various spells - curses even - , how to bottle fame and also how put a stopper to death."
To Martina, all he was saying, did sound kind of intriguing. She knew, that to brew potions you have to measure the ingredients with care and even the stirring is to be done with caution when it came to a brewing station.
She looked over at Anna and then leaned a little forward to shoot a glance at Aurelia as well. The looks that they returned, she interpreted as slightly confused but excited to learn more.
"I'm really glad to some familiar faces in my classroom. Siblings of older and former students and even my colleagues' daughter rught here," he looked at Auri during this statement, he then retured his attention to the entire class again, "I am looking forward to seeing great things from all of you. With a bit of determination every witch and wizard can learn the devine ability of brewing potions. How about we start with a little quiz to see what you know already?"
That's how they spent their first lesson of potions.
Honestly, professor Schabasser was nice enough. However, they learned that he liked his classroom in absolute silence, when a Hufflepuff boy started whispering with his neighbor. The teacher stared at him for a second with a death glare and gathered his composure. "Mister Klein, is it?" The boy nodded. "I'm sure your friend can wait until the break to hear about your weekend." He was a bit passive aggressive.
He also gave them homework that day, apart from it being their first day of having classes.
When the break did arrive, Martina took her things and waited for the girls from her table. Nina, Emma, Auri, Anna and her left the classroom together. They talked about the past hour and exchanged their opinions on Schabasser. The Gryffindors left the little group first to go to their dorm and put their school supplies away.
The other three split up at the grand staircase, so Anna went up the tower and Emma and Martina could make their way to the wine cellar.
Auri had arranged for her, Anna and Martina to meet after lunch to go exploring the castle together and then do their homework in the library.
During the quiz on potions and their ingredients, Anna had revealed a grand width of knowledge on the Wiggenweld potion. And since this was the one they had to study until next time, she gladly offered to help them.
With the other two, time flew by. They located multiple classrooms they had to attend later that week and they did their reading. They also came across more students.
Older Slytherins who laughed at them from across the hallway and more first years they hadn't crossed paths with until then. They met the moody librarian and got lectured on inappropriate loud laughter in the library, from a ghost.
They weren't the only ones who sought help in old books from the library, for the homework, though. A small group of boys had just finished their own research and handed them the books they had used for it. Martina only recognised the Hufflepuff from the group. Sebastian had had a few problems keeping his owl under control when moving into the dormitory.
Things like that don't slip from one's mind quite that fast, when the prefects literally had to get help from professor Schabasser, the head of Hufflepuff house, to catch the nervous animal again.
So when they were handed the books, their first instinct wasn't to start their work, but to discuss their exact opinions on the boys from said group, and if they were 'crush-material'.
Eventually the girls did get on with the task at hand and later went to the great hall for dinner. Technically, if there was no event that required the students to be split into their houses, they could switch seats to the other house's tables for the meals. Being first years however, they were entirely to scared to accidentally break any rules, so they stayed with their houses.
After another great feast, Martina followed the yellow coloured crowd back to the cellar and immediately went for a shower in her dorm.
Another day gone by, the night settled into Hogwarts.