All the kids murmured excitedly at their tables. Round, wooden, slightly breaking down, but beautiful in Florens’ eyes. The table had nothing on it yet but their scrolls, quills, and notebooks. But the desk at the front, long and menacing, had soooo many goodies on it. Florens could feel himself shaking in excitement at the sight of both familiar and unfamiliar ingredients.
“You’re, uh, making the table shake.”
It was that girl, the Gryffindor, Hermit(?) maybe? ‘No no that doesn’t sound right. What was it ohhhhhh. Darn this brain of mine.’
Another voice chimed in, “Are you constipated or something?” Florens hadn’t realized he’d been staring at the girl's face while in thought.
He snapped out of it and turned to see a boy with slightly unbrushed red hair, fair skin, and freckles for days. Florens could have sworn he had seen the boy before somewhere. It was there, just in the back of his mind, if only he could just-
“Bloody hell he’s doing it to me now!”
Florens face heated and he shot up as straight as he could, “Ah! I’m sorry! I just thought you looked familiar…Oh and you-” He turned to the girl, “-I was just trying to remember your name…sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you.” The small boy looked down sheepishly. He didn’t look back up until a hand was thrust into the field of vision.
“Hermione. Hermione Granger. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.” She said with a small smile. Curt, to the point, almost like McGonagall, oh but there was definitely something else underneath there. Florens was excited to figure out what.
He took her hand and shook with an appropriate grip and length, “I’m Florens! Florens Arbor! Lovely to meet you!”
“Hang on,” The redhead began, “Arbor? Like Mitis Arbor?”
Florens eyes went wide and his head whipped around to look at the boy.
“Huh?! How’d you know that? That's my mum!”
The boy stood excitedly and pointed at Florens with equally wide eyes, “You’re Miss Arbor’s kid? I love that woman! She’s friends with my mum! She makes the best brownies.” The boy seemed to trail off for a moment, practically drooling at the thought of those brownies.
Florens stared at the boy for a moment, face all scrunched up before it sprung back with joy, “Ron! You’re Ron Weasley! Miss Molly’s kid! Wooooahh small world.”
Ron went to say something else but was cut off by the classroom door slamming open and then closed. Everyone went silent as the cloaked figure walked through the room to the front. He was a large man, maybe not by physical means, but somehow he seems to take up much more space than he does due to his demeanor. His cold gaze looked down at us all over a long crooked nose. His skin was pale like it was used to the walls of the dungeons they were in. His hair was long and pin straight, forever holding a greasy shine.
Professor Snape.
It seemed that some student had not understood to stop talking the moment Snape entered. They continued their conversation loudly, laughing at something someone said. Snape stared them down with piercing eyes, when they still refused to get the hint he began the hunt.
Snape grabbed a large book, nearly a foot worth of pages, and made his way to the table. The students paid no mind to the Professor standing right next to them. That is until the book slammed down onto the table with an alarming, BANG! Every student in the class jumped, Florens included. Then Snape’s nasally voice rang out in the room, echoing off the walls.
“That's five points from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. You speak on your own time. When you are in my class, you are on my time.” He returned to the front of the class to stare everyone down, Florens took note of the fact that his eyes seemed to linger on Harry Potter, “Let that be the first lesson of the day, thanks to your classmates. Day one will consist of a five page essay on respect in the classroom setting, due by the end of class.”
Everyone groaned and some shouted how it would be impossible, Florens and Hermione had already begun to write on their scrolls.
“Should I make it six pages?” Snape asked with a raised brow.
That silenced the rest of the students who quickly got to work, grumbling and moaning to themselves how unfair it was.