"There! Look!"
"Behind the blond one!"
"Did you see his scar?"
"Oh he noticed us!"
Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his common room the next day. They were in shrill contrast with the silence that awaited him with his classmates. The first years Slytherins didn't talk much to Harry. He had been sitting all by himself at the table in the big hall before Diana and Kali had joined him. The brunette boy who had been sitting next to him last night had introduced himself as Theodore 'Theo' Nott when Malfoy didn't look for a moment but the blond had spotted them quickly enough, making Theo turning away from him with a shrug. He had told him to apologize to Malfoy if he wanted it to end but his pride didn't let him. He rather spend the next seven years alone than saying sorry to the blond prat. So that was the reason he was walking a few feet behind his classmates, trying to remember how they went to their classes. The whispering made it harder than it already had been. There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led to a different place according to which day it was and some with a vanishing step in the middle of them you had to remember to jump over. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked them nicely or tickled them in the right place, and doors that weren't doors but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where everything was because the people in the portraits kept visiting each other and Harry was sure the coats of armor could move around. The ghosts didn't help either, it was always a nasty shock when they swept through you. And then of course there was Peeves. If you had a really bad day the poltergeist would drop waste-paper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, or sneak up behind you and grab your nose screaming 'GOT YOUR CRONK!'
But even worse, if possible, was Argus Filch, the caretaker. Theo, Harry and the Italian boy, Blaise Zabini, had tried to force their way through a door which unlucky turned out to be the restricted corridor on the third floor. If it hadn't been for Quirrel the three boy had been locked away in the dungeons on their first day. Filch and his cat, miss Norris, were hated by all students and many of them had the dream to kick miss Norris of the stairs. Diana had told him that you needed to run hard if you did so, because Filch knew the secret passageways almost as well as the Weasley twins.
And then, when you finally found the right class, there were the lessons themselves. Harry soon found out there was a lot more to magic than waving with your wand and saying some funny words.
Every Wednesday evening they had astronomy where they had to study the night sky and study the names of all different stars. Three times a week they had Herbology with a dumpy little witch called professor Sprout. They learnt how to take care of all different strange plants and fungi and found out where they were used for.
But the most boring class was easily History of Magic, thought by professor Binns. Kali and Diana had told him that the professor had fallen asleep in the staffroom one day and had stood up the next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him.
Charms was taught by professor Flitwick, a tiny man who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At their first lesson he had taken the register and when he read Harry's name he had given a squeak of excitement before toppling out of sight, making Malfoy and his cronies snicker.
Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor, had been entirely different again. Harry had been right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to moment they had sat down in their first class.
"Transfiguration is one of the most complex an dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts." She told them. "Anyone messing around in my class and will not come back. You have been warned." She gave Malfoy and his friends a cool look before she turned her desk into a pig and back again. To Harry's disappointment they weren't going to start with turning furniture into animals. After making a lot of complicated notes they were given a match and tried started to turn it into a needle. At the end of class the only one who had managed to change the match a bit was Hermione Granger, the bushy haired girl who had asked him on the train if he had seen a toad. After McGonagall had showed her results she had given the girl a small, rare smile.
After a disappointing D.A. lesson Harry decided to go to the library and start on his homework already. He knew the other Slytherins where going to socialize in the common room but after three days of being ignored by his class mates he decided to do something useful with his time.
With his arms full of books Harry walked through the library, looking for a table to sit. He wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings and let a surprised groan escape his lips when he bumped into someone, making the books flying out all directions, ending shattered on the ground.
"Oh, sorry." He muttered, bending down to pick up the books, coming face to face with no one else than the bushy haired know-it-all Hermione Granger.
"It doesn't matter." She muttered, picking up her own books and looking a bit flustered, "I should have paid attention." She stood up again quickly, putting the books down on an empty table.
"Do you…" Harry stuttered. "Do you mind if I join you?"
"You do know I'm a Gryffindor, right?" The girl asked skeptically. "This better not be a joke, my homework is important." The raven boy chuckled and dumped his books on the already crowded table.
"I know." He said, sitting down next to the girl. "But you're better company than most – if not all – Slytherins." He looked at the parchment in front of her. "That's charms, right? Do you think you could help me with that? I'm rather daft with that subject." After a moment of hesitating the girl nodded and picked up her own charms.
"What do you have already?" She asked him kindly.
"I have the books." He gave her an apologetic smile and after a small sigh she started to explain everything to him.
The next day promised to be a better day. After they had worked for charms together the two of them had gotten to talk and to their surprise they were both brought up by muggles. Hermione was a muggleborn, someone who had muggle parents. She had been really interested in Harry's story about the Dursleys, complaining about how she hated such stuck up people. Before they knew it curfew had been close and they had to run to be in their common room in time. With the new friend he had made, Harry had sat down at the breakfast table that morning, smiling for the first time.
"Someone is in a good mood." Kali greeted him, sitting down next to him.
"Did you see another first year getting a heart attack when the owls arrived?" Diana teased. Referring to the first morning when Harry had been startled from all the owls arriving in the great hall.
"The owls haven't arrived yet." Kali pointed out for her friend.
The two sixth year had sit with Harry every breakfast, lunch and Dinner when they noticed he didn't join the other first years and had made it their task to cheer him up after a rather daft day. Today was the first day they met the boy in a cheery mood.
"I just made a friend. That's all." He told the two girls. They smiled at him.
"That's wonderful. Who is it?" Diana asked.
"Hermione Granger." He told them, a bit hesitantly. He knew Gryffindors and Slytherins didn't get along much, having almost every single lesson with them had been proof of that.
"The Gryffindor muggleborn?" Kali asked, looking over to the table she just mentioned. "She seems nice." She shrugged her shoulders. Just at that moment the owls started to fill up the great hall. Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything, so far. She had flew in with the others sometimes, nibbling his ear and stealing some bread before she took off to sleep a bit in the owlery with the other school-owls. This morning was different. She flew down on Diana's shoulder, dropping a note in front of Harry. He tore it open immediately.
Dear Harry,
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
Harry smiled and looked up to see Kali handing him a quill. He quickly wrote a yes back and send Hedwig of after giving her some toast.
It was lucky Harry had the tea with Hagrid to look out to because potions turned out worse than he though. Although Snape was his head of house he didn't favor Harry at all. At the start of term banquet Harry had thought Snape loathed him but after the first potion lesson he was sure Snape hated him. They had double potions with the Gryffindors and if it wasn't worse enough Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were annoying prats, Weasley and his friends shove Harry out of the way, right into Hermione, so they could pick a good spot. Harry sat down beside Hermione, apologizing for bumping into her again, before Snape entered the class and made everyone go silent.
Snape, like Flitwick, started by reading the register and also paused when Harry's name came on.
"Ah yes," he said softly. " Harry Potter- our new celebrity."
Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hand while Snape finished the list. While Snape started to explain what they were going to learn in barely more than a whisper, the whole class listened in silence.
"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." He ended his speech. Harry pulled up a brow and looked at the girl beside him who looked ready to prove she wasn't one of those dunderheads.
"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Harry looked at his professor, stunned. If you added powder of what with what?
"I don't know, professor." He told the man, looking at Hermione's hand who had shut up in the air. She seemed to know the answer. Snape's lips curled up into a sneer.
"Tut, tut – fame clearly isn't everything." He ignored Hermione's hand. "Let's try again Potter. Where would you look if I told you I need a bezoar?"
Hermione's hand shot even higher than the last time and Harry looked at her if he could read the answer by only looking at the girl. He hadn't the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried to ignore the laughter of Malfoy and his cronies but even more he tried to ignore the snickering Weasley and his two friends.
"I don't know sir." He said again.
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh Potter." Snape sneered. Harry tried to look straight in those black eyes. He had looked into his book at the Dursleys but did Snape really think he could remember everything? Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand and Harry felt sorry for the girl.
"What's the difference, Potter, between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?"
At this Hermione almost jumped of her chair.
"I don't know sir," Harry said quietly. "Though I think Hermione does, sir. Why don't you try her." Harry retorted. A few people laughed and Harry caught Theo snickering. When the boy noticed him looking he gave a wink. Snape, however, was not pleased.
"Get your hand down." He growled at the girl. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so strong it is known as the Draught of the Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat that will save you from most poisons and Monkshood and Wolfsbane are the same plant also known as aconite… Well. Why aren't you all copying that down?" A sound of parchment and quills filled the dungeon and Snape glared at Harry and Hermione.
The lesson didn't improve much and for the Gryffindors it became even worse. Snape had paired them all up and watch them make a simple potion that cured boils. Watching all of them measuring their ingredients and criticizing almost everyone except for Malfoy, who he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his potion when green damps started to fill the classroom. The boy who always lost his toad, Neville, had succeeded in melting his cauldron all over one of Ron's friends who had now red boils sprang up over his arms and legs. Neville himself was drenched in the potion as well and moaned in pain.
"You stupid boy!" snarled Snape. Cleaning the spilled potion with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" Neville and Seamus both whimpered in pain. "Go to the hospital wing." Snape spat before turning around to see Weasley sitting next to him. "Weasley? Why didn't you tell him to take the cauldron of the fire? Thought it would make you looking good? Two points from Gryffindor."
Although Harry knew he wasn't supposed to enjoy this, he did. Karma is a bitch. He thought by himself. If Weasley and his friends hadn't shoved him out of the way he would have felt sympathy but now he only felt sorry for Hermione who had a perfect potion and lost house points.
"Potter, you clean up behind them." Snape snarled at the raven boy. "Granger, you can help him."
That was so unfair Harry almost opened his mouth to argue but one glare from Hermione made him choose not to. After they cleaned up they climbed the stairs.
"I'm going to Hagrid. Do you want to join in?" Harry asked the girl. She hesitated for a moment before she nodded and smiled at him.
"Yeah, why not." The girl answered with a smile. "And cheer up. I heard professor Snape doesn't like any of his students. Except Malfoy…"
They left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid was living in a small wooden house at the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door. When Harry knocked on the door they heard a frantic scrabbling at the door before the booming footsteps of Hagrid came closer.
"Get back, Fang!" They heard the Hagrid's voice rang while he opened the door. "Hang on there." He told them. "Get back Fang!" He let them in, struggling to keep a big, brown dog back at his collar. Inside the house there was only one room and Harry thought it looked rather cozy. "Make yourself at home." Hagrid told them, letting go of Fang who went straight to Hermione to greet the girl enthusiastically. She giggled when he started to lick her. like Hagrid, Fang wasn't as fierce as he looked.
"This is Hermione." He introduced the girl. "Hermione this is Hagrid."
"Nice to meet you." The girl said, giving him a hand.
"So, how are the Slytherins?" Hagrid asked, after greeting the girl and giving everyone some tea and rock cakes that almost broke their teeth.
"I met some friendly sixth years." Harry told the big man, not wanting him to get angry because of the behavior of house. "Kali, Diana and Devin are really nice to me."
"Oh I know them." Hagrid said with a small smile on his face. "Knight and Mathews are the ones who had a prank war with the Weasley twins once. Had to chase them out the forest more than once." He looked at Hermione. "And you? Aren't you a Slytherin?" He asked confused.
"No, I'm a Gryffindor." She told him shyly.
"Great house. Was in there as well." He told the girl.
After that, Harry told him about his lesson with Snape and how he thought his head of house hated him. Hagrid, like Hermione, told him that Snape rarely liked any of his students.
"But I think he really hates me. He's easy on all the other Slytherins but always wants to get me."
"Rubbish." Hagrid said. "Why would he?" When he said it Harry knew for sure he wasn't meeting his eyes on purpose. "So, how are the other Gryffindors to you?" Hagrid asked Hermione. Now he knew for sure and while Hermione tried to sugarcoat her house Harry's eyes traveled over the house, landing on a piece of paper. When Harry picked it up he saw it was a cutting from the daily prophet:
Gringotts brake-in latest
Investigations continue into the break-in at
Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the
work of Dark wizards and 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 spokes goblin this afternoon.
Harry remembered Weasley telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, this of course had been when the Weasley still talked to him.
"Hagrid." Said Harry. "That Gringotts break in happened on my birthday. Maybe even when we were there."
Once again Hagrid didn't dare to meet Harry's eyes and grunted something before he gave Harry another rock cake. Harry read the story again and he saw Hermione looking curious at him and the piece of paper. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day. Hagrid had emptied the vault, if you could call it emptying, taking a grubby package. Had that been what they were looking for? After leaving Hagrid to go to dinner Harry told Hermione everything over Gringotts and the package and she as well thought that would be too much of a coincidence to not be connected. What he didn't share were his thought about Snape and that Hagrid definitely wasn't telling him something. This visit had given him more to think about than all lessons together.
