The first morning of Hogwarts was filled with the same awe as the night before, James and his dorm had been up early for Augustus to escort them to breakfast as promised and once again there was a vast array of food to choose from.
"Hey James reckon we'll have defence first?" Asked Sirius.
James gulped down the last of his pumpkin juice before replying "I'm not sure, I was hoping to try transfiguration"
Sirius frowned for a moment "best be careful in transfiguration, Bellatrix told me that the head of Gryffindor is the transfiguration professor"
Now it was James' turn to frown "what's so bad about Gryffindor?"
"The house of the headstrong and foolish? Ha! They're the opposite of what Slytherin stand for" Sirius replied "why're you so defensive about Gryffindor" his casual smirk darkened suddenly "it's not because of the mudblood right?"
"What no!" James exclaimed suddenly "my dad was in Gryffindor" and I was meant to be too, he thought.
"I...I don't think we should fight openly" Nathaniel spoke for the first time that morning.
"He's right, we cannot show weakness to the other houses, we are cunning and ambitious after all" Severus added, his tone almost condescending.
Once again however Sirius was smiling "it's all right, I forgot that James's family is new to Slytherin, I'm sorry if I offended"
James replied with a wave of his hand "don't worry about it, I think I'm just nervous about telling my dad"
James turned to Nathaniel and Snape on the other side of the bench, catching a sympathetic look from the former. Before any discussion could continue however, a plump man with a set of fine yet practical robes casually sauntered down to their group "good morning Slytherins! I'm professor Slughorn, sorry I couldn't attend the welcome ceremony last night but I got a tad caught up with an old student of mine, I trust Augustus welcomed you all?" Slughorn fixed his gaze on Nathaniel in particular.
"He was most helpful sir, a fine choice for prefect. Might I ask though is there anything we can help you with?" Evan interjected.
"Oh yes how forgetful of me, your timetables. Say, do any of you know where I might find the first year girls" whilst talking the jovial professor began to hand out pieces of identical parchments.
"Girls!" Nathaniel exclaimed, seemingly afraid of the concept of the opposite sex.
"Oh yes my boy, you didn't think this was a single sex school now did you eh? Ah I believe that's them now" Slughorn replied.
Turning towards the entrance of the great hall, James saw a group of girls being escorted by a Slytherin prefect. There were three in total, the first was quite tall with long blonde hair, the second dark skinned and easiest the happiest of the three and the third had brown hair and a permanent scowl fixed to her face. The trio casually made there way to Slughorn and quietly retrieved their timetables before joining the boys at the table. James was strangely surprised, he didn't remember seeing any girls sorted into Slytherin last night, but then again it had been quite a whirlwind for him.
The first girl, clearly the leader, spoke first "I'm Ophelia Greengrass, these are my friends Natasha Zabini and Theodora Warrington" she gestured to the second and third girls respectively.
"I'm Evan Rosier, this is Sirius Black, Severus Snape, Nathaniel Nott and James Potter" As Evan called out each name, each boy gave a small gesture of hello except Nathaniel.
"So you're the Gryffindor turncoat, word is going round the school that your family have been lions for generations, why the sudden break from tradition James?" Ophelia's tone was lighthearted but it was clear she wanted an answer, and James already knew he did not want to admit the truth.
"Well they're all a bit stupid really aren't they, so headstrong and foolish. I'm smarter than that" James replied, he tried the arrogant tone half his year seemed to have mastered but only ended up sounding as though he were uninterested, a step in the right direction at least.
"Ha!" Sirius exclaimed "now you're getting it James!" Once again Sirius was beaming, an expression which James and the rest of the Slytherins found infectious. A warm feeling spread through him as for the first time, even in a small way, he was accepted by his year.
"As fun as this has been we had really ought to be making our way to defence, it would not bode well for us if we are late to our first lesson" Severus had the same condescending tone as before. However he was right and with a little grumbling, the group of Slytherins proceeded to find there way to the defence classroom.
There arrival last night in the darkness hid the true size of the school from its new students and after navigating many corridors and trying to get past the moving staircases, they managed to find there way to an isolated classroom already filled with Ravenclaws. Of course the studious ones would be there first, thought James. At the front of the class stood a small bit fearsome looking woman who simply stared at the Slytherins as they found there desks and set up for the lesson.
James was of course paired up with Sirius, while Theodore and Severus took the table in front of them, Evan and Natasha behind and Ophelia and Theodora behind them. Once all the commotion of setting up was done, the professor strode slowly but confidently down each row of desks.
"Greetings class, my name is Professor Goodwinter. The time for exchanging pleasantries was last night, now is the time for work. Turn to page 34 of your books. Today we shall be studying Acromantulas, there's rumours of a colony somewhere in Scotland so it's best to be prepared and know what to look for" the professor stopped mid sentence as she fixed her gaze on James" mister Potter, what is the incantation for the spider repelling spell"
"I don't know professor" James was confused, why had she singled him out? He was unimportant. The professor gave a slight huff of indignation before turning to the Ravenclaw side of the class "mister Blythe, name a key feature of the Acromantula"
"Erm there quite big?" The boy seemed as put out as James was for being put on the spot. Instead of berating or even ignoring the answer, Goodwinter showed a slight smile, it was unnerving to James to say the least.
"That's not quite what I was looking for, try again. Perhaps it would be best to think along the lines of what can be gained from an acromantula" James couldn't understand why the professor was being so nice to the Ravenclaw, Sirius was silently fuming beside him.
"Oh! There venom is quite valuable" the professor seemed satisfied with this answer and proceeded back to her desk to retrieve her own copy of the text.
"Five points to Ravenclaw for reading ahead and five points from Slytherin for not being prepared" James was stunned. How could a professor be allowed to show such prejudice and favouritism amongst her students. The Slytherins didn't pay much attention to the rest of the lesson and while they didn't lose any more points, Ravenclaw did gain another ten.
Once they were dismissed and outside the classroom Sirius could not contain himself any longer "what a bloody disaster! We have some moodblood lover as our defence professor, I thought the Goodwinters were an old family, one of the good ones! We'll have lost hundreds of points by the end of the year!" The rest of the Slytherins began to join in with their own complains, about mudbloods, poor quality professors and betraying ones heritage. James stayed largely silent throughout, a fact his newfound friends failed to notice in all there ramblings bar one.
"Are you alright James?" The boy in question stopped as did Nathaniel, he let out a harsh sigh.
"I'm sure you were all told that Slytherins were seen as evil as a way to prepare yourself, I was told it as a warning. Now that I am a slytherin I feel like I'm not prepared for that sort of treatment by the rest of the school" Nathaniel looked thoughtful for a moment before replying.
"You can see how everyone else is reacting, we are all as upset as you. We're all in the same boat" the inclusive message of Nathaniels words have James a small smile, perhaps everything was going to be okay so long as they sticked together in classes.
He glanced to each and every one of his newfound friends, the only people in his year who would probably accept him and felt nothing but hope for the future in that brief moment. This elation however was short lived as the group returned to the great hall for lunch and James spied his family owl gliding down to meet him, he would finally have to tell his parents what had happened at the sorting ceremony and hope that they weren't too angry.