The potion master
“There, look.”
“Where?”
“Next to the short scary one!”
“Wearing the glasses?”
“Did you see his face?”
“Did you see his scar?”
Ivar couldn't help but feel for Harry he knew what it was like to be whispered and stared at when you were just trying to go about your day.
Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day. People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring. "Liva can you...." Harry gestured towards the people gaping at him, "I thought you'd never ask" she smirked before pulling at her wand and swarmed them with at least 30 angry ducks. The students ran screaming trying to avoid getting bit, "thought i'd go for a non-harmful spell first as a warning before going to the permant damage kind" Liva told him laughing as a boy tripped over a duck and face planted the floor.
"That's one way to do it" Ragnar smiled to himself, "I want to see the dangerous ones" Bjorn grumbled. "She's 11" Helga defended.
There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump.
"That is a lot of stairs" Hvitserk gaped, everyone was staring at the moving stairs, "No wonder they can eat so much food" he carried on thinking about the giant feast.
Then there were doors that wouldn’t open unless you asked politely or as Liva found out threatened.
Ivar smirked to himself in amusement as his brothers laughed at his daughter threatening a door of all things.
Or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren’t really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk.
The ghosts didn’t help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, “GOT YOUR CONK!”
"That ghost would annoy me" Ubbe thought out loud thinking about how annoying it must be to the students who are trying to get to class or their room.
Liva and Peeves formed a friendship after she suggested an idea to the poltergeist which he loved and the two would often bounce ideas off each other. Liva would often drag Harry to hang out with the ghost, while Harry didn't like the ghost that much if Liva was there, so was he.
Even worse than Peeves was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry, Liva and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning. Filch found Harry and Ron trying to force their way through a door (While Liva laughed at them) that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. He wouldn’t believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing. "I wanted to look at the dungeons" Liva complained.
"Magic dungeons that would be interesting" Floki giggled at the thought of all the things he could do to those who worshipped the false God.
Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamplike eyes just like Filch’s. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she’d whisk off for Filch, who’d appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins) and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick or in Livas case feed to Ivan.
"Do it!"
And then, once you had managed to find them, there was the classes themselves. There was a lot more magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words. He was just happy that if he got stuck that Liva would help him, she had a gift for finding easy ways to explain the magic when it got to confusing.
They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.
"I think i'd like that class" Helga smiled at all the different plants, "i would like all the classes! it's magic!" Bjorn exclaimed still excited that magic exsisted.
Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.
"Except that one?" Sigurd asked pointing at the ghost who droned on and on.
Liva called this the nap class as as soon as she sat down she'd lay her head on Harry shoulder and sleep for the hour much to Hermione Grangers annoyance.
"That's one way to pass the time" Ivar laughed he didn't blame her the ghost's voice would put anyone to sleep. "They are definitely going to be together by the end" Sigurd whispered to his other brothers, "we'll see" Ubbe replied.
Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry’s name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.
Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn’t a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class. “Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts,” she said. “Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned.”
"She seems strict"
Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn’t wait to get started, but soon realized they weren’t going to be changing furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson Liva had turned hers into a silver needle with Ivy detailing on it.
"That is the most beautiful needle i've seen" Aslaug complemented.
Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Liva a rare smile. Liva then turned to Draco Malfoy and gave a smug smile, causing the boy to turn red.
"They really don't like each other" "he is a dick to her"
Hermione Granger and Harry were the only other one who had made any difference to their match, Harry asked Liva for help.
The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell’s lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic which only made Liva hungry, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he’d met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren’t sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.
"How is Liva going to learn to defend herself with this pathetic man teaching her" Ivar glared at the man, Ubbe snorted, "I think Liva is learning to defend herself quite well" he reassured. "Yes but that dark man who tried to kill a baby is alive and Liva while talented is still only 11" Ivar raised his voice as he worked himself up. "She has a dragon and the Gods will protect her" Floki smiled at his son.
Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn’t miles behind everyone else, "i wouldn't let you get behind" Liva snorted, "you are the only one insane enough to be my friend". Harry laughed although it wasn't true as many people liked her espically the Weasley twins.
"That's good she's making other friends"
Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn’t had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn’t have much of a head start. After meeting Liva in the common room they finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once. They plummeted into their seats, Liva grabbed some strawberries as she was never really hungry in the morning.
“What have we got today?” Harry asked as he poured sugar onto his porridge before shoving some croissants in a bag for Liva so she could eat later one the way to their second class.
"What a sweet boy" Helga gushed, Floki perked up, Helga wanted a child and Harry wanted parents. He could just take Harry.
“Double Potions with the Slytherins,” said Ron. “Snape’s Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors him – we’ll be able to see if it’s true.” “Wish McGonagall favored us,” said Harry. Professor McGonagall was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn’t stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.
"What's homework?" Bjorn wondered, it must not have been fun as they didn't look happy with it.
Just then, the mail arrived. Harry had gotten used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.
"Look at all those owls!"
Hedwig had brought Harry a few letters and sweets from Merlin which he was grateful for. She always flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls. This morning, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Harry’s plate. Harry tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:
Dear Harry,
I know you don't know me but i knew your parents. I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.
Hagrid
Liva read over Harry's shoulder. "It wouldn't hurt plus he could probably tell you way more about them then Uncle Merly" Liva told him. Harry borrowed Ron’s quill, scribbled Yes, please, see you later on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again.
"It could hurt, that could be a letter drawing you to a trap" Ivar grumbled he was going to have to teach her when it was worth the risk to meet someone.
It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far. At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he’d been wrong. Snape didn’t dislike Harry – he hated him.
Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. "Well this really sets the mood" Liva stated as she looked around her robe wrapped round her like a dressing gown.
"It is kind of creepy" Sigured looked at the room with judgement clear on his face.
Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and, like Flitwick, he paused at Harry’s name.
“Ah, yes,” he said softly, “Harry Potter. Our new – celebrity.”
Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands, "Subtle" Liva whispered to herself. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid’s, but they had none of Hagrid’s warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.
“You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making,” he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word – like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. “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, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses….I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.”
"That was a good speech until he ruined it with that last bit" Aslaug looked at the greasy man with disgust. "Why teach children, if you can't stand children" Ubbe wondered, they hadn't even done anything wrong.
More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Liva just looked at Snape as if he was an idiot, Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn’t a dunderhead.
“Potter!” said Snape suddenly. “What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”
Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was, "Sleeping poition" Liva whispered so quietly that snape didn't hear but luckily Harry did; Hermione’s hand had shot into the air.
“A sleeping poition, sir,” said Harry.
Snape’s face was shocked before his lips curled into a sneer.
“Let’s try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?”
Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn’t have the faintest idea what a bezoar was, "Goat's stomach".
“Goats stomach, sir.”
Snape was still ignoring Hermione’s quivering hand.
“What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?”
At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling. "Same plant"
“It is the same plant,” said Harry getting more bold. Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. Did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi? He's luckily that Liva did even if it was to make Malfoy look stupid.
"See she is very smart and remembered a lot, so hating people and having enemys is good for you" Ivar declared smiling at his child proudly. "It's hard to argue with him when we can see that for her it is working" Hvitserk whispered to Ubbe who nodded in agreement.
"Why is he just picking on Harry" Helga wondered
Snape was still ignoring Hermione’s quivering hand. “Sit down,” he snapped at Hermione. “Potter was correct but he missed some bits, 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?”
"You didn't tell them to!"
There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, “And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter.”
"He didn't do anything!" Ubbe defended he didn't like this man.
Things didn’t approve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Malfoy turned to Liva all smug until Snape walked over to hers and struggled to insult it which he knew meant that is was just as good as his.
"Take that you eldhús-fífl”
Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus’s cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people’s shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.
Everyone winced it looked very painful.
“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?” Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.
"How is this man allowed to be near children" Ubbe yelled getting angry at his disgusting man.
“Take him up to the hospital wing,” Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry, Ron and Liva, who had been working next to Neville. “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.” This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron. “Don’t push it,” he muttered, “I’ve heard Snape can turn very nasty.” Liva however, didn't get the message, "What is your problem?! He's done nothing wrong! it's not his fault that you are a terrible teacher who clearly wasn't hugged enough as a child!"
"You tell him Liva!" Everyone cheered.
Snape turned a startling shade of red, "How dare you speak to me like that! 20 points from Gryffindor and dentention! leave my classroom" he yelled scaring the other students. Liva angrily packed her bag, before she left she turned again, "since you like potions so much heres one you've probably never heard of before…shampoo try it!" she then slammed the door behind her.
"What's shampoo?"
As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry’s mind was racing and his spirits were low. He’d lost two points for Gryffindor in his very first week – why did Snape hate him so much? "Cheer up Harry i lost twenty" Liva nudged him having caught up with the two and was munching on a croissant. “Snape’s always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?” Ron asked.
At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.
When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrambling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid’s voice rang out, saying, “Back, Fang – back.” Hagrid’s big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open. “Hang on,” he said. “Back, Fang.”
He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.
"That is a big hound"
There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it. “Make yerselves at home,” said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Liva and started licking her face making her laugh and turn away so he licked her ears instead. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.
“This is Ron,” Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate.
“Another Weasley, eh?” said Hagrid, glancing at Ron’s freckles. “I spent half me life chasin’ yer twin brothers away from the forest.”
"I want to meet Liva and the twins" Hvitserk said impatiently .
“And this is Liva,” Harry introduced gesturing to Liva who was now sat on the floor with fang draped across her. Hagrid smiled as Fang looked at him with his mouth hanging open. “Pleasure ter meet yeh.”
The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but they pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons. Fang was still sitting on Liva who looked unbothered about the heavy dog using her as a chair.
"That can not be comfortable for her" Ubbe commented looking at the giant dog. "Doesn't seem to be bothering her" Ragnar laughed it did make an amusing sight.
Harry and Ron were especially delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch “that old git.”
“An’ as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I’d like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D’yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can’t get rid of her – Filch puts her up to it.”
"I wanted to feed her to Ivan" Liva grinned at him, "Ivan? Blimely! he's your dragon" Hagrid exclaimed having been told by Dumbledore about the beast that would be staying near the castle for the next seven years. "He is" Liva boasted looking proud at the thought of her beloved familiar. "He is a beauty" Hagrid complimented.
"He is a magnificent beast" Bjorn agreed
Harry told Hagrid about Snape’s lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.
“But he seemed to really hate me.”
“Rubbish!” said Hagrid. “Why should he?”
Yet Harry couldn’t help thinking that Hagrid didn’t quite meet his eyes when he said that.
"He knows something"
“How’s yer brother Charlie?” Hagrid asked Ron. “I liked him a lot – great with animals.”
Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose. While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie’s work with dragons and while Liva was playing with Fangs ears, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cozy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:
GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST
Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown.
Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.
“But we’re not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what’s good for you,” said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.
"The Goblins scare me a little" Aslaug admitted thinking of the wrinkly mean things.
Harry remembered Ron telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn’t mentioned the date. He grunted and offered him another rock cake. Harry read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. "That was lucky" Liva snorted. As they walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they’d been too polite to refuse.
"Good to know that she has manners unlike you" Floki giggled, "you were the one who raised me so that is on you and mother" Ivar smirked as he pointed at the two.
Harry thought that none of the lessons he’d had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn’t want to tell Harry?