Everyone else knows this place, everyone is running around to get to their lessons, knowing exactly where they are. I have no idea. It all the the same, old and brown! Apparently I have potions in the dungeon but I don't see any stair cases. This is so confusing.
"Excuse me?" I tap of a girl labelled Prefect, "could you tell me how to get to the dungeons? I've got potions."
"Well, the easiest way would be to trip over a small brown cat." I think she might be mad, I need a staircase not a cat. "But if you take a left at those big doors, you'll see the stairs, try not to get lost down there. And if you do see a small brown cat, do not pet it."
"Umm, thanks." I'm instantly carried up by a stream of students coming from another corridor. When we pass the doors, I try to turn left but I don't need to becuase the kids I'm being sandwiched by are going down here to. The dungeons are lit dimly with candles and have low celebrations, I think I saw a rat under someone's foot a moment ago. And it stinks. It really stinks. But before the stench can kill off all my sense of smell completely, I'm pushed into an even worse room. With an even worse smell. Everyone around me takes a seat around the small room, until I'm left on my own. The teacher at the front stares at me. He looks like he just had a shower and is still wet, but from the smell and the look of his robes, I think it's just oil and grease. And he's still staring at me. I look around the room for a free seat and the only one is right at the back next to a ginger haired boy. I walk over, with everyone staring at me, and drop my bag on the floor. The stool creaks loudly as I sit down and I hear some sniggers from the table to my left.
"I hope we haven't forgotten how to make that antidote we brewed at the end of last year. I've got a perfectly aduquote dose of poison here, so everyone can do their own taste-testing." The teacher drawls, flicking something from his black robe. Some more sniggers come from the table to my left. A boy with blind hair is doing most of it, along with a dark haired girl and a few others. All Slytherin. I raise my hand sharply, I think my excuse is good enough.
"I'm new this year, so I don't know what potion your talking about." A smirk appears across his slimy face.
"You can work with Potter and Weasley, I'll tell Madam Pomfrey to arrange three beds in the infirmary." The Slytherin boy let out a loud sneering laugh, and turned round. The boy next to be mouthed something to him (along the lines of "Shove Off") and he sneered again before turned back round to his friends.
"Go! We haven't got all day!" The man shouts as everyone pushed their seats away and ran to their friends.
"Come on then." The redhead got up and shoved his stool under the desk. His friends came round to our side of the desk, he had black messy hair and a toothy smile.
"Hi, I'm Isabella. I'm new, I started this year." I replied to his grin, standing up too.
"hi, I'm harry, and this is Ron." He gestured to the shy looking redhead, who smiled quietly and flicked some of his wavy hair inform rod his ears, probably to hide that they had gone bright red.
"Nice to meet you! this is your third year?"
"Yeah, we could show you around if you like, at lunch."
"if it isn't too much of a bother."
"it'd our pleasure. Just hope Snape doesn't poison us before we can, though."
"I can't tell if you're being serious." He didn't answer, just smiled some more.
"What house are you in? You haven't got your colour on." He asked, pointing to my plain black tie.
I hadn't actually been given a house yet. The headmaster, Dumbledore, said that they didn't usually let students in late and that I'd be embarrassed to go and get sorted with the new year sevens.
"I don't know yet, I'm seeing professor dumbledore next period to find out. I researched it and I think I'm most likely a Gryffindor." Ron looked at me, slightly confused, but didn't say anything, though he looked like was about to.
"Dumbledore must think you're a Gryffindor or Slytherin because he put you in this class, and believe me, if he didn't think it was necessary, you would not have had potions as your first lesson."
"yeah about that, what about this potion? I don't know about you, but I'd prefer not to be poisoned, thanks." I laugh quietly because I still don't know whether he's serious about the 'taste-testing' thing or not, and both boys grin back.