"Well, I just wanted to let everyone know that we have a new student joining us," the dark-haired woman spoke, sounding as if she had eaten an entire onion and was still reeling from its ugly aftereffects. "She just moved here all the way from India. Welcome."
Hari looked around, wondering who the teacher could possible be talking about, only to realize that all eyes were on her. Not even Padmesh and Parvesh Patil were close to the center of attention.
"I'm from Surrey," Hari frowned, making eye contact with the teacher.
"Great. Her name is Harriet," the woman continued, her lip curling unpleasantly.
"Actually my name is Hari and yes it is short for something else, but not an anglicized moniker," Hari continued, wondering what this woman might have in for her.
"My apologies," the teacher replied, not seeming sorry at all. "Miss Potter. Our very own celebrity."
Hari clenched her teeth and fought the urge to correct him once more. But just then, she noticed a hand rise from next to her. A boy with dark brown skin and unmanageable, bushy hair stood up and raised his hand.
"Mister Granger," the dark-haired teacher sneered. "Where are you going?"
"Professor Snape, I have to go to the lavatory," Hermes Granger replied.
"Did I say you could stand up and leave my class, Granger?" Professor Snape asked dangerously. "No, I did not. Sit down and...contain yourself for another half hour, if you can."
Granger frowned, looking uncomfortable.
"Oh, and do wake up Weasley. She would hate to miss another lecture, wouldn't she?" Snape snarled dangerously, banging a snoring Ronnie's desk.
"Gah!" Ronnie woke up with a start, gasping. Hari began to feel somewhat sorry for her as the dark-haired teacher crossed her arms ominously.
"I see my classes aren't important enough for you, are they, Miss Weasley?" she sneered.
"If you p-please, sir..." Ronnie whimpered. "Um...I have to go to the bathroom..."
"Oh, do you now? Do you really?" Snape raised an eyebrow. "I'm afraid I can't let you go, however, Miss Weasley. Do you know why?"
Just then, Quibilah Quirrell banged the dungeons' door open.
"TROLL!" She screamed. "IN THE LAVATORY!"
Snape and the rest of the classroom stood there in speechless silence.
"Oh, did Mourning Melvin find a way into the main stalls?" The bushy-haired boy groaned, crossing his arms.
Without another word, Quibilah gasped dramatically and swooned, nearly falling on top of Snape, who caught her and considered dropping her with disgust.
"Sévérine, we must go - and t-take care of the threat," Quibilah murmured, putting her hand up to her turban and groaning dramatically.
"Yes, indeed," Snape accomplished one of the most weary eye-rolling stunts of all existence. "But hurry. And do not touch anything, understood, you brats? Otherwise I'll take away five hundred points from your pathetic House. No, I retract. I'll take away five hundred points as collateral, right now, and if anything occurs while we are gone, then I will not return them," she sneered and walked out, taking the time to pat a beaming blonde girl on the head.
Hari sat in place, too scarred for life to say anything.
"Um, sorry about the bathrooms, mate," Ronnie murmured, patting the dark-skinned boy on the back.
"W-what? I didn't say I-" Granger's face started to turn red. A very faint red, but red nonetheless.
"It's alright," Ronnie yawned, stretching and unintentionally smacking Hari in the face. "Ayoh, sorry bout that. It's okay, sometimes ya just gotta go," she nodded fervently.
"No, really, I don't have to - oh my god," Granger groaned and covered his face.
Just then, a few loud yells and magicky sounds thundered through the castle, presumably the sounds of responsible grown-ass adults dealing with the troll.
"By the way, if the troll is in the lavatory, doesn't that mean we should evacuate? You know, since we're in the dungeons too," Hermes frowned concernedly.
"Well I don't know about that, Granger," a snide voice replied. "If we were to leave, that would be disobeying Professor Snape's commands, wouldn't that? Why, it would almost appear as if you didn't know how to follow directions."
Hari recognized her as the blonde-haired girl Snape had patted on the head. Granger looked as if he wanted to throw his book at her, but this only made the girl smirk more.
"Nice weave, Granger," the blonde sneered. "What's it made of?"
"A Hairy MacBoon!" Granger replied, crossing his arms and angrily returning to his book. The dark-haired boy and two muscular girls behind the blonde girl laughed cruelly, but the blonde girl had already set her sights on something else.
"And you must be Harriet Potter," the blonde girl nodded at Hari.
"It's Hari Potdar-"
"These are Vivian Crabbe and Gretel Goyle, by the way," the blonde continued, pointing at the muscular girls. The boy on her shoulder scowled. "Oh. And Pandarus too..."
"Great," Hari replied, grinding her teeth. There were a few moments of silence as the two girls made eye contact, sizing each other up.
The blonde paused for a second, squinting curiously at Hari. "You're like, really pretty...did you know?"
Hari growled, feeling the hairs on her neck standing up.
"Oh my god, I love your bindi," she added, smiling coyly.
"It's a scar," Hari deadpanned.
"Where did you get it?" the blonde girl asked, completely unashamed.
"Local tattoo artist who goes by the name Mr. Figg. He also gave me a Pigmy Puff, but you can't see it while I'm wearing a shirt."
"It's adorable," the blonde replied coolly, still unfazed.
"Oh, that is so fleek," Gretel cooed.
"What is "fleek?" The blonde ringleader frowned.
"Oh, it's, like, slang. From America," Gretel replied excitedly, though everyone remained unconvinced.
"So if you're from here...why are you brown?" Crabbe frowned, squinting at Hari.
"Oh my God, Crabbe, you can't just ask people why they're brown," Gretel whined.
"Excuse me, can you two idiots get back on track?" The blonde snapped. "Now, listen up, Potter-"
"It's Potdar-"
"OK, you should just know that we don't do this a lot, so this is, like, a really huge deal. We wanna invite you to have lunch with us every day for the rest of the week. You don't want to end up sitting at a lunch table with the wrong sort, do you?"
"No thanks," Hari replied.
The blonde smirked. "So we'll see you tomorrow-"
"I said, thank you for your generous offer but I'm afraid I'll have to turn it down," Hari replied. "And please apologize to Hermes and Ver-uh, Ronnie."
Hermes looked up, surprised.
The entire classroom stared at the blonde girl and her squad. Her face had turned red and she opened her mouth, about to scream something loud and biting-
"Th-thank you so much f-for taking care of that, Sévérine," Quibilah crooned.
"Yes, yes, now go back to your classroom, Professor Quirrell," Snape replied irritably. "What's this?"
The standing Gryffindors and Slytherins, unsure of what to do, immediately sat down as quickly as possible.
Snape growled.
"Time to start subtracting points, I see."
With that, the dark-haired woman paced the length of the room, muttering to herself. Hari stared, transfixed, at her dark lipstick and thickset eyebrows.
"Veronica Weasley, two points from Gryffindor thanks to you. Hermes Granger, four points. Four because of you, Granger, well done. And...Miss Potter..."
Hari growled. "Potdar. Please."
"Oh, Potter, here you go, fifty negative points for you."
"Do I get one?" Gretel asked excitedly. The professor rolled her eyes.
"And none for Gretel Goyle. Class is dismissed." Before the students could protest, however, the vampy teacher lifted her dark cloak with one arm and vanished into the darkness.
A few seconds passed, before the entire class started getting up and moving again. Within minutes, the whole room had cleared out, leaving Hermes Granger, Ronnie, Hari, and the strange blonde girl's squad.
"How come you didn't lose any points from Slytherin?" Hermes demanded.
"Hey, it's not that big of a deal-" Ronnie spoke, trying to be helpful.
"We just lost a hundred and six points, and you walked out completely untouched! Why is this?" Hermes demanded, tearing out his own hair in frustration. Ronnie looked alarmed, as if watching him do so was somewhat painful.
"Yeah, whatever, loser," the blonde girl rolled her eyes than turned towards Hari. "And as for you...Potdar..." she sneered.
Ah, well at least she figured out my name, Hari deadpanned mentally. "Yes?" She mustered up her best sickly sweet smile as the blonde moved in closer and closer.
"YOU'LL PAY FOR THIS!" the blonde screeched shrilly into her ear. Hari jumped back and clapped hands onto both of her ears, reeling from the pain. Looking satisfied, the blonde beckoned the rest of her squad and they walked out.
"Somebody should just stab her," Ronnie remarked. Neither Hari nor Hermes appeared to disagree.
