The first day of classes
Chapter 13: The first day of classes
People stare at Harry where ever he goes, whispering and gossiping about him as he walks past them in corridors, standing on tiptoes and craning their necks to look at him. It’s been like this ever since the sorting and people realised, he’s the boy who lived. Harry hates it. Every person that looks at him he has the violent urge to rip their eyes out or just disappear of the face of the earth. But sadly, he can do neither (much to his dismay).
As he walks down to the great hall for breakfast, his every step is being watched. And as much as he hates all the eyes on him, today is the first day of classes so his excitement overrides most of his anxiety.
He’s walking alone because his roommates are still getting ready for the day. It’s 7:30am, but Harry was way too excited to sit around the dorm and wait for them, so he spoke to Luna through the mirror locket and asked if she would meet him for breakfast early. She agreed, so now Harry is going to Meet her with Solace, who is firmly perched on his shoulder. Selena isn’t with him today because she has gone off to explore the castle alone.
He walks into the great hall and spots Luna sitting at the Slytherin table, he flops down into a seat next to her. A few Slytherins seem annoyed that a Ravenclaw is at their table, mainly the blonde boy (Draco Malfoy) and a few of the older students. But most seem ok with it, the Slytherin rivalry is mainly with Gryffindor so a Ravenclaw isn’t too much of a problem. So far Harry has found that the Slytherins are nothing like what people say, the prefects Gemma Farley and Marcus Flint have been nothing but kind and welcoming to all the first years, checking up on them a few times throughout the past two days and making sure their all settling in. Most of the older students are equally as kind and friendly (admittedly with quite a bit of smirking and sarcasm but they’re still nice) and they all refer to the first years as “little snakes” and seem to have some sort of collective agreement as house to look out for the younger Slytherins. There are a few people in Slytherin who seem to hate Harry (they don’t do anything more than glare though, and he guesses it has something to do with his status as the Voldemort killer), but the majority of them are ok.
“Hi Luna.” He says on an exhale.
She doesn’t say anything for a moment, staring at him as if she’s evaluating his very soul, before asking, “What’s wrong, Harry?”
He sighs. “Nothing really. It’s just... a lot of people keep staring at me and my scar.” He tells her with a huff as he tries to pull his messy fringe down across the offending scar. “I even had some random person approach me to thank me for saving the wixen world. Which is ridiculous because I didn't save the world, my mum did.” He looks down at the table staring at the patterns on the wood. “I just want to be left alone; I don’t understand why people have to be so nosy.”
“I think it’s just because they’ve never seen you before, after a few days it will die down.” She says sagely.
“I hope your right Luna.” He says with another world-weary sigh, before moving on to lighter topics. “I’m really excited for classes; do you know when they’ll hand out the schedules?”
Luna points to the staff table and Harry sees professor McGonagall getting up from her seat and start to walk around the room with a stack of papers, handing them out to each student. After about five minutes she approaches Harry and Luna.
“Miss Lovegood and Mr Potter, here are your class schedules, please ask a prefect if you need assistance in finding class rooms.” She informs them and then marches of to the next student, a stern looking tabby cat at her heels.
Harry looks down at his schedule, today he has charms with the Ravenclaws, transfiguration with the Gryffindors, History with the Hufflepuffs, and Potions with the Ravenclaws. “Look Luna! We share charms and potions classes!” He says excitedly.
Luna throws her arms around his neck; she’s been doing this quite frequently since the crying thing on the train. She says she’s ‘teaching him affection’ Harry doesn’t really understand why she thinks hugging is so important, but it makes her happy so Harry will just have to get used to it. “Oh! I’m so excited, my mother was brilliant at charms and I’m hoping that I will be too.” She lets go of him, now beaming brightly.
“I’m most exited for potions. I’ve read so many potions' books; it seems like the coolest subject.” He says with a grin.
“It does seem like an interesting skill.” She muses, with her head tilted to one side like an owl.
“Yeah! And professor Snape is really cool as well, he let me borrow a book! He’s a bit stern and blunt, though.”
“I think the people that care the most are usually quite prickly.” Luna says nodding in agreement to her own statement.
Harry doesn’t quite understand, but he smiles anyway, and hums in agreement. Harry has already decided that he would rather throw himself off a cliff than make Luna even the tiniest bit upset.
He starts to wonder where his roommates have gotten to. Just as they arrive at the table. Blaise slides into the seat next to Harry and the twins sit opposite him.
“Oh, goody the red-haired blood traitors have arrived.” Draco drawls from down the table.
Blaise and George roll their eyes in annoyance, Fred however looks like he’s about to get up and start screaming at the boy but George stops him. Harry bites down on his own anger and glares at the blonde boy, he was about to say something in response, but instead Luna speaks. “Draco, I understand you have a difficult time thinking before you speak, and I know it must be tough for you that Harry doesn’t like you. But do you think you could possibly stop insulting my friends just because you’re feeling insecure.” She says in her typical floaty voice with a warm smile on her face.
Draco turns bright red. “You…I…my father will hear about this!” And then he storms out the great hall. Most of the Slytherins at the table start snickering gleefully. Fred has an overjoyed look on his face, and Blaise is trying and failing to stifle laughter. George is smiling widely.
“Little raven, you are welcome at our table anytime.” Marcus Flint says with a chuckle.
“He’s been strutting around Slytherin like he owns the place, and threatening people with his father. Someone needed to knock him off his high hippogriff.” The grey eyed girl called Pansy says with a smirk.
“Firstys are always so much fun!” Gemma grins.
Luna starts spreading butter onto a slice of toast and doesn’t seem bothered by all the attention she gathered. Harry smiles at her softly, Draco had been making mean comments to the twins since they got here and kept insulting Harry too. He was happy that Luna had defended them, but he had a feeling Draco would retaliate so he would have to keep a close eye on Luna and maybe learn some sort of shielding charm just in case. “You are truly brilliant Luna I’m glad we’re friends.” George declares.
Luna smiles brightly at him, “I’m glad we’re friends too.”
Blaise has recovered from his laughter (Harry has learned that if Blaise finds something even slightly funny, he goes into full on hysterics) and wipes a tear from his eye as he says, “We should head to class now we don’t want to be late.”
They ask Gemma for directions to the charms classroom and then make their way off to class.
~~~
They arrive with five minutes to spare, and all file into the classroom. A very short kind looking man- who Harry assumes must be the professor -is standing on a pile of books behind his desk, with a little sparrow perched on his shoulder. He’s watching with a smile as the children file into his classroom. “Welcome! Please take a seat.” He says jovially.
It’s three people per table, and before Harry has time to think about where he wants to sit, Luna takes his hand and pulls him towards a desk at the front of the class, already occupied by a girl with chocolate brown skin, and dark curly hair, that rested just below her shoulders, she has Hazel brown eyes and an eager look on her face. “Hello Hermione, could we sit with you?” Luna asks.
Harry remembers Luna mentioning Hermione, she’s Luna’s roommate and they had gone to study in the library together.
“Hi Luna! Of course you can.” Hermione replied with a shy smile.
Luna and Harry sat down at the desk either side of Hermione. “What’s your name?” Hermione asked looking at him expectantly.
As has become habit whenever he has to tell someone his name, he shrinks in on himself and looks down at the desk. “Harry Potter.” He says quietly.
“Nice to meet you, Harry. I’m Hermione, Luna’s roommate.”
Harry looks up from the desk and meets her eye, relieved that she is speaking to him like he’s a normal human being and not ‘the boy who lived’. “It’s nice to meet you too, Luna mentioned you.” He says with a smile.
“Oh, she did?” Hermione says with surprise and maybe a little bit of suspicion.
“Yeah, she mentioned you lent her a book and went to the library together?” He tells her.
“Oh… sorry it’s just, not many people really have anything good to say about me. Everyone always tells me I talk too much, even the muggle primary school I went to… I didn’t have many friends.” She says flatly.
“You know Luna I’m starting to think we’re creating some sort of club for friendless eleven-year-olds.” He says with a smirk. “My first friend was Luna, and I only met her about three weeks ago, also you went to a muggle school?” He asks curiously.
“Harry was my first friend too.” Luna adds.
Hermione looks between them as if she’s looking for a lie, and then relaxes (when she realises, they all understand loneliness far too well), and smiles. “Yes, I went to a muggle school, I’m a muggleborn.”
“I went to a primary school too.” He says with a nod, it wasn’t a very fun experience on any level, and he never wants to relive it, but it doesn’t change the fact that he went.
“You did? Are you a muggle born too?” She asks eagerly.
“I was raised by my muggle relatives; but I think I’m a half-blood.” He says frowning lightly in thought. He doesn’t like not knowing things and being unsure of a critical part of yourself isn’t fun either.
“You think?” She asks quizzically.
Harry ponders how to answer without saying to much about his aunt and uncle. “Well, I know my father was a Potter and I read that they were an old pure blood family, and my mother has muggle sister, so I assumed she was a muggleborn, but my relatives never said anything about them, so I don’t know for sure.” He says with a shrug. “I don’t know much about my parents in general.”
“Why don’t you ask one of the teachers about them? Some of the teachers here have been teaching for over fifty years. Professors McGonagall probably taught your parents.”
“Oh… I didn’t think of that.” Harry says quietly.
“I’ll help you find out more about them if you want.” She offers, smiling kindly.
“That would be… that would be great. Thankyou Hermione.” He says a gratefully. Taken aback at how kind she’s being when she barely even knows him.
Hermione nods. “No problem.”
More students file into the classroom, and eventually all the seats fill. Blaise and the twins are sitting in the seat behind them.
“Okay, class!” The professor calls to get their attention. “I’m professor Flitwick and this is my familiar Edward.” He gestures to the sparrow. “I will be teaching charms for your time here at Hogwarts.” He says with a cheerful smile. “Let's start with the register and then we can move on to the lesson.”
He called out each person’s name from a list, he stopped briefly when he called Harry’s name but didn’t say anything.
“Today we’ll be learning a basic levitation charm, wingardium leviosa.” He informs them.
Harry already knows the basic levitation charm, both with his wand and without, but he decides it’s better if he doesn’t say that, so he stays quiet. “Take your wands out and copy my movements.” Flitwick instructed.
Everyone takes out their wands, and watches the professor closely. “Like this, swish and flick.” He demonstrates, the class copies him obediently. “Good! Now say the incantation without waving your wand. Repeat after me; Wingardium leviosa!” He says. The class repeats the incantation obediently. “Well done!” Flitwick praises.
Then he waves his wand and big white feathers appear on the desks, “Now point your wand at the feather, use the swish and flick motion I demonstrated and say the incantation at the same time. Whenever you're ready!”
Harry does what the professor instructed, and his feather floats up into the air. He looks around the only other person that got it first try is Hermione. “Well done! Miss Granger and Mr Potter, very well done indeed!” Flitwick says excitedly. “Five points to Slytherin and Ravenclaw.”
Hermione looks down at the desk hiding a pleased look on her face. Harry keeps his face blank he doesn’t know what to do with the praise.
The rest of the lesson goes by quickly, Luna gets the feather to levitate on her third try. Blaise on his second try. And the twins get it on their fourth attempt. Some of the others in the class managed it to, Pansy Parkinson, Daphne Greengrass, Padma Patil, and Anthony Goldstein.
Draco Malfoy doesn’t succeed in casting the spell, and by the end of the class he looks very annoyed.
~~~
Harry leaves the class accompanied by the twins and Blaise, He and Luna had to separate because she has herbology with the Hufflepuffs, and he has transfiguration with the Gryffindors.
They arrive at professor McGonagall's classroom with two minutes to spare. They walk in and choose seats, Blaise and Harry share a desk, and Fred and George share the one next to them.
He looks around the classroom, all of the Slytherins have arrived but most of the Gryffindors are missing. Then Harry notices two cats sitting on the desk, one is the tabby cat he saw in the great hall walking with McGonagall. The other is also a tabby cat, but its fur appears more silvery, and the markings around its eyes look like spectacles.
The cat with spectacle marks, is surveying the class sternly, looking critically at anyone who talks to loud. Then Harry realises McGonagall isn’t in the classroom, which is very strange to Harry, because McGonagall doesn’t seem like the type of person to run late. Then he takes a closer look at the silvery furred cat, it stares back at him and then it winks. The cat winks.
He has the strange feeling that McGonagall has somehow become a cat. He looks at Blaise to see if the other boy has come to the same strange conclusion as Harry. Blaise is staring at the cat curiously with his head tilted to one side, then he whispers to Harry, “I think our professor is a cat.”
Harry whispers back, “I think you’re right.”
Then the Gryffindors start arriving. The last two students enter and one of them says, “Merlin I’m glad McGonagall isn’t here yet, it would be annoying to get points taken for being late to her first lesson.” Harry and Blaise smirk at each other, knowing that McGonagall is in fact in the classroom.
All of a sudden, the silver furred tabby cat jumps of the desk and morphs into a very stern professor McGonagall. “Ten points from Gryffindor, for your lateness, Mr Finnegan.” She says curtly. Then she turns to look at Harry and Blaise, “you are Mr Potter and Mr Zabini, correct?” She asks.
They both reply, “yes professor.”
“I award ten points to each of you, for recognising that I was indeed in the classroom.” Then she turns to Daphne, “ten points to you also, miss Greengrass. You noticed too”
Most of the class is staring at McGonagall with dropped jaws. The one McGonagall called Mr Finnegan looks most shocked of all. “But…but, professor you can’t give the snakes thirty points!” He blurts out in a thick Irish accent.
“I think you’ll find I can, Mr Finnegan.” She says sternly. “Please find your way to a seat so I can start the lesson.”
The lesson goes smoothly after that. McGonagall tells them that she can turn into a cat because she’s an Animagus, she tells them how difficult it is to become one, and how you have to be registered with the ministry. Harry thinks it’s the coolest thing he’s ever heard of, if he could turn into a cat his life at the Dursleys or even just walking around Hogwarts would be a lot easier. Then they learn how to turn matches into needles, Harry finds it a bit trickier than charms but he still gets it on his second attempt. George gets it immediately, and Blaise manages it on his fourth try, it takes Fred a lot longer but he gets there in the end.
~~~
After transfiguration they go to the great hall for lunch, they sit at the Ravenclaw table with Hermione and Luna. After that they had defence against the dark arts with the Gryffindors, which was… terrible. Quirrell smells strongly of garlic, and he kept staring at Harry which made his scar hurt, and the professor stuttered through the whole lesson and didn’t even teach them anything useful or interesting. Then they had History with the Hufflepuffs, which went well, except that professor Bins is a ghost, and managed to make goblin riots sound boring. Then they had a brief encounter with the Hogwarts poltergeist peeves, that involved getting handfuls of paper clips getting chucked at their faces. And now finally, and much to Harry’s excitement, they are walking to their last class of the day. Potions!
They arrive outside the classroom, and join the queue to enter the room.
Professor Snape is sitting at his desk, watching the Slytherins and Ravenclaws with steady eyes. Harry spots Luna sitting at a desk near the front of the class with Hermione and immediately goes over to sit with them.
Once the rest of the class is seated professor Snape stands and everyone falls silent. “You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little need for 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-but only if you put the necessary effort and brains into this subject.” The whole class stared in awe at the Professor.
Then the professor calls, “Mr potter.”
Harry looks back at the professor nervously (because being called out in class is very rarely a good thing). “Yes, professor Snape?”
The stern man surveys Harry for a moment then asks, “What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”
Harry knows the answer immediately. “You would get a powerful sleeping potion. Known as the draught of living death, professor Snape.”
“Correct Mr potter.” He says with a nod of satisfaction.
Then he turns to Hermione, “and you miss...?”
“Granger sir.” Hermione replied quickly.
“Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?” He asked curtly.
“In the stomach of a goat, Sir. It can also save you from most poisons.” She replies eagerly.
“Correct Miss Granger.” The professor scanned the classroom, then raised a long pale finger to point at Fred, “Mr Weasley, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?”
Fred looks confidently at the professor, “There is no difference, it’s the same plant, Sir. It also goes by the name of aconite.”
“Correct.” Snape says in his typical stern voice, but Harry can see a flicker of pride in his charcoal black eyes. “It’s seems that I have competent students this year. Today you will be brewing a boil cure, open your potions books, gather the necessary ingredients from the store room, and get to work. I will walk around the room and inspect your potions as they brew.”
The class all scramble to open their text books, but Harry doesn’t he has a question for the professor. So, he raises his hand. “Yes, Mr Potter?” Snape asks.
“I just wanted to know sir; do we have to follow the recipe completely? Or are we allowed to change it if we believe there is a better or more efficient way?” He asks curiously.
Professor Snape looks at him in what seems to be slight shock, which is a strange expression on the dower man's face. “If… you believe there is a better way to brew a potion, you may ask me to confirm your theory, and I will tell you whether or not it is safe for you to try.” He says slowly. “I encourage young brewers to experiment and explore different methods of potion making, it is the best way to learn the art of potions.”
Then Fred asks, “Sir? Are we allowed to ask you about different ingredients and why they interact with each other the way that they do?” He questions.
“Yes. Any questions you have I will answer, Mr Weasley.” He replies, still looking a little taken aback.
“Ok, thanks professor.” Fred replies happily.
“Yeah, thanks professor.” Harry adds.
The class goes very well. Harry asks the professor lots of questions, so does Fred, Hermione, and a few other students. He learns a lot in Snapes class, he finds the subject extremely interesting, and although the professor looks a bit like a vampire, speaks in a dangerous voice, and scowls for the majority of the lesson, he’s actually a brilliant teacher and encourages all the questions and curiosity about the subject he teaches.
By the end of the class most people manage a decent boil cure. Harry, Hermione, and Fred achieved the best potions in the class. Harry decides it’s his favourite subject.
~~~
Harry heads to dinner with, Luna, Fred, Blaise, Hermione, and George. He looks around at them and thinks he must be dreaming; because Luna is his best friend who hugs him because she wants to make up for all the affection he missed. Blaise who helped him out of his panic attack, and is so easy to be around it feels like he’s known Blaise forever. Fred and George who have stuck with Harry since the train, and have been nothing but friendly and respectful of him. And Hermione who he only met today, but she seems so smart and kind, and has already agreed to help Harry find out more about his parents.
How he got here he doesn’t know, but he’s extremely glad he did. For the first time in his life, he’s looking forward to the future.