Chapter Four: Fights and the First Class

AN: Sorry about the delay… my internet was down for a few days. Here's the next chapter… finally… Reviews are appreciated, as always.

"Xavier, what's going on? Do you know her or something?" Harry was looking at the girl who was walking towards Professor Dumbledore. Harry took a long look at her. He couldn't help but stare at the girl as she walked down the aisle, followed by nearly every eye in the entire school.

"Know her?!" Xavier yelled so that almost the entire Gryffindor table heard him. "That's my girl, Harry! She must have followed me here!" Xavier was so happy to see her that it was talking all of his self-control not to run over to her. He had missed her nearly everyday since he had left America. Xavier still couldn't believe that she was here, and he didn't notice that she was being sorted as well. Xavier was trying to figure out what to do or what to say, and he was completely oblivious to the world around him until he heard the hat yell "GRYFFINDOR!"

Xavier was thrilled that not only was Tiffany here with him in England, but that they would be in the same house. Xavier watched her walk down to the other end of the table and sit down at the only open seat and start talking to a group of girls. Xavier thought that she looked more beautiful than she ever had before. He thought that was mainly because he hadn't spent time with her in about two months. The truth was that she was near the breaking point, because the grief of Steve's accident and Xavier leaving had been eating away at the cheerful girl that she had been before. For Xavier, the opening feast passed in an instant, and he barely ate at all, preferring to stare down the table at his girlfriend. But he did notice how good the food was, and also how loud and cheerful the atmosphere around him was. As soon as Professor Dumbledore had given his closing speech, and a short, fat woman named Professor Umbridge had given a speech as well, Xavier sprinted down the aisle between the Gryffindor and the Ravenclaw tables chasing after her. Ignoring Ron and Harry's calls to slow down and to get the password to the tower, Xavier kept running until he reached Tiffany and his sneakers skidded to a stop on the marble floor when he was in front of her.

"I really missed you… How have you been?" Xavier realized that his first words were lame almost immediately after he said them. His face started to turn red, and the fact that Tiffany was sending him a look of pure rage didn't exactly help.

"How have I been? How have I been!" She was yelling, and her voice echoed down the hallway. Xavier cringed, because she was the only person that he feared the anger of. "I'm sure you've been just fine! Having fun with your new friends! I don't think you've even thought of anyone back home after you left!" This last comment hurt Xavier deep, because it was simply not true, and he interrupted her.

"That's not true, I've thought about you and Steve every day since I've been gone. And I've been miserable since it happened. So don't you go accusing me of anything." Xavier managed to keep his voice even, and he resisted the temptation to yell back at Tiffany. But she didn't care about that, because out of the corner of his eye, Xavier saw her right hand coming towards the side of his face, but he was frozen, and the impact was loud enough that Harry and Ron could hear it from the other end of the hallway.

"Bloody hell…" Ron whispered to Harry "Xavier's gotten himself into a bit of a jam. And that new girl sure packs a punch."

"Maybe I kinda deserved that." Xavier said softly as he brought his hand up to where Tiffany had slapped him. "I have one question for you…" he said to her as he began to turn away. "Did you come all the way here just to do that, or do you still care for me at all?"

"How amazingly stupid you can be Xavier Matthew Dalton!" Tiffany said with a hint of annoyance. "You leave everyone and everything, and expect me not to be mad at you. You show guts everywhere except when it mattered most, when I needed you there with me the most. And what do you do? You leave! I don't know what to say to you right now!"

"So now you hate me?" Xavier asked, his heart breaking and his voice quavering as he spoke. "Alright, I'll just be going then. See you around" Xavier started to walk away when she grabbed his shoulder and spun him back around, so that his face was inches from hers. Xavier saw the tears in her eyes, and it was probably the worst possible thing that he could see. He had the feeling in his stomach like he had just been hit with a hammer.

"If I hated you, do you think that I would have gone through all this effort just to follow you?" She laughed, and Xavier felt that maybe he still had a chance to make things right.

"With your temper, I really wouldn't know." Xavier laughed, and he saw a smile come across her face for the first time since before he had told her that he was leaving. "You know…" he said, "You look much more beautiful when you're smiling." And before he knew it, Tiffany fell into his arms, and he just held her as she started sobbing into his shirt. It was all he could do because Xavier had no idea what to say, so he just stood there and held her close and stroked her hair. He didn't know how to feel. Because Tiffany had clearly been through a tough period in her life, and that it was partially his fault he felt sad and guilty. But since she was back with him, Xavier felt like nothing could ever go wrong for him again.

"Well, that may have been the weirdest thing I have ever seen, Xavier." About an hour had passed, and after a lengthy talk with his girlfriend, Xavier had gone up to the dormitory, where Ron, Harry, and his other roommates were waiting for him.

"What are you talking about?" Xavier had no idea that Harry and Ron had heard and seen the events of the last half an hour.

"All I'm going to say is that I know why the left side of your face has a red handprint on it..." Ron said and the entire room burst into laughter as the right side of Xavier's face grew red enough to match the left side.

"I don't think that you could have gotten away with what I did though. I'm probably the luckiest guy in the world..." Xavier realized that no one in the room would really know what he meant, and so he covered it up with a laugh to make it seem like a joke.

"Xavier, these are our fellow fifth year Gryffindors, well the boys at least." Harry said looking at Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan and Neville. "Xavier Dalton, meet Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan, and Neville Longbottom." Xavier shook each boy's hand in turn, and then he was asked to tell them all about his life in the States, and also what he thought of England so far. Xavier told them almost everything about himself. He told them about his school, his former Quiddtich career, he tried to explain the sports of American football and baseball to them without much success, and he told them all about American culture. He also told them that he liked England so far, except for the weather, and the fact that it rained more in England and Scotland than it did in Los Angeles or Boston.

"Wow." Dean said after Xavier was done talking. Everyone in the room, except Harry, who had heard most of the story before, was listening intently for nearly an hour. "But you didn't answer my last question. If you were so happy in the United States, and it sounds like you were, then why did you come here to Hogwarts?"

Xavier wasn't ready to tell them the true story of why he left the U.S. In fact, he had always dodged the question whenever Harry had asked him. Xavier hadn't actually told anyone the full story yet, and with the exception of one very important person, everyone else that knew the full sequence of events was still in the United States. Xavier had even told his uncle a few small lies while he was staying in Surrey. "I felt like I needed a change." Xavier said quickly. "And right now I also need to go to bed. Classes start early tomorrow morning." As soon as Xavier mentioned classes, Harry knew something was wrong. From the time he had spent with his new friend, Harry knew that Xavier wasn't the most studious individual. Harry realized that Xavier was hiding something from his past, and this brought back bad memories, as the thoughts of someone else's bad past brought the death of Cedric Diggory vividly back into Harry's mind. As the rest of Gryffindor tower slowly drifted asleep, two fifth year boys were up nearly all night dealing with their own personal demons.

Xavier opened his eyes and noticed that none of his roommates were left in the room. Pulling his watch off of his nightstand, Xavier noticed that it was 7:55. Xavier swore out loud. He was supposed to be down at breakfast at 8:00. And it wasn't like Xavier exactly knew where he was going either. Pulling on his robes quickly, Xavier couldn't help but frown at his reflection in the mirror. While a school uniform made getting dressed quickly easy, it also made all of the nice shirts and pants that Xavier had packed in his trunk a complete waste. Xavier washed his face and brushed his teeth in nearly record time, grabbed his bookbag, and ran out of the room and down the stairs into the Gryffindor common room. Xavier hoped that there was someone down there that he could talk to and hopefully get directions to the Great Hall. So when Xavier saw a brown bushy head of hair and a red-headed girl walking out of the portrait together, he smiled. Xavier knew that it was Hermione and Ginny, and they would be happy to help him out. Xavier jumped down the last few stairs, leaped a scarlet couch and slid out of the portrait door before it closed behind the two girls.

"Good morning Ginny. Good morning Hermione." Xavier said with a big smile on his face.

"Good morning, Xavier." They answered. "You look like you're in a hurry." Ginny added.

"That I am." Xavier responded. "You see. I got myself in a bit of a jam. I have to be down at breakfast in five minutes and I have no idea how to get back to the hall. And so I was wondering if you ladies could give me the fastest way there?" Hermione then proceeded to give Xavier the fastest way she could.

"That's the quickest way without using any secret passages. I don't know those, that's Harry and Ron's expertise." Hermione finished.

"Secret passages?" Xavier asked with his smile now replaced with a look of shock. "Cool. But I have to go. I will see you guys later." Xavier took off down the corridor, having no idea what the first day as a student at Hogwarts held in store for him.

"You never change. Always at least two minutes late. At least." Xavier was out of breath and couldn't respond right away because he had ran from Gryffindor house to the Great Hall in a full sprint.

"Sorry, Tiff. I'm out of shape because I haven't been playing football. So I'm a little fat. And I can't run to places quite as fast when I'm late." Xavier was trying to lighten the mood a little because he hadn't had a chance to just hang out since he had arrived at school.

"Well, I'm glad that you haven't changed much. I was worried that you would be all depressed like you were before you left."

"To be honest, I was worse off than when I left for about a month. But then I realized that I can't change the past, and although I can still hate what happened, I have to accept it and move on. And I met a great new friend, and that's helped me to just be me again." Xavier was speaking from the heart, something that he rarely did. Most of the time, he was just trying to be funny or smooth, rather than just telling the truth. "Speaking of great new friends, here they come now." Xavier saw Harry and Ron walk into the hall over Tiffany's head, and Xavier motioned for them to come over to where he was sitting. "Harry, Ron, I'd like you to meet Tiffany Bellarose. Tiffany, these are my friends Harry Potter and Ron Weasley." Harry and Ron sat down, and they soon saw why Xavier was completely head over heels for her. Harry couldn't help but to feel a little envious of Xavier deep down. Although Harry thought that he had found a girl like Xavier had, Harry couldn't get Cho Chang to even notice him most of the time. Breakfast moved quickly, and soon Harry and Ron were joined by Hermione, Neville, Dean and Seamus. Professor McGonagall had also stopped to hand out schedules to each of them. With Xavier's, she gave him a basic lecture on how his classes were picked.

"I have you in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Potions, Herbology, Transfiguration, Astronomy, Care for Magical Creatures and Arithmancy." She started. "I looked at your grades from your previous education, and the tests you took with Professor Dumbledore, and I must say that you can do better with the talent you've been given. That aside, I, as your Head of House, have put you into the classes that are best for you. You may be a little behind in Care of Magical Creatures, but you should be on pace, or even ahead of the class in the other subjects. And Professor Hagrid will be more than willing to help you in his class if you are behind." As Professor McGonagall walked off, Xavier realized that it was time for his first class, Potions. Happily, he noticed that Gryffindors took all of their classes together, and Xavier walked off to Potions with Ron, Harry, Hermione and Tiffany, who had been given a similar lecture from the Professor. She was taking the same first six classes as Xavier, but was taking Ancient Runes instead of Arithmancy, and Divination instead of Care for Magical Creatures.

"So what's the Potions professor like?" Xavier asked the group. He was worried as soon as he saw the angry look on Harry's face, and the frowns that Hermione and Ron were showing.

"Well Professor Snape shows favoritism towards his house, which is Slytherin." Hermione started. "And since Gryffindor and Slytherin are rivals, the Professor can be a bit unpleasant towards us." And reflecting on that statement, Xavier walked into the Potions classroom, followed by the rest of the group. When Professor Snape walked in, the class was silent almost immediately. Xavier was sitting at a table with Tiffany and Neville, and their table was next to Harry's table, where he was sitting with Ron and Hermione.

"Welcome to fifth year Potions." Snape started as he looked out at the class. "For our two new students, I am Professor Snape, and I will be instructing you in the art of brewing potions." Xavier tuned out the rest of the lecture because he was busy looking closely at the Professor, and the looks of loathing that he often sent towards Harry. Xavier was trying to figure out why the professor could hate Harry like that when he heard Snape instruct the class to begin brewing the potion that was now written on the blackboard. Xavier read the instructions on the board and realized just how hard Potions with Professor Snape would be. Xavier had always been above average at Potions at his old school, but the potion on the board, the Draught of Living Death, would easily be the toughest brew he would have ever attempted. And he was doing it alone, not even having a partner to help him at all. Determined to make a good first impression, Xavier worked slowly and methodically as he could, making sure he did each step of the potion as well as he could. But he was moving too slow, and not only was he not going to finish, but since the timing of his ingredient adding was off, his potion was nearly bubbling out of the cauldron, and was hissing loudly. But it was at least giving off the correct silver vapor, so Xavier hoped that he would get out with a passing grade. He looked around the room, and noticed that he wasn't the only one who was having a tough time with the potion. Tiffany was glaring at her potion that was letting off thick purple smoke. Neville was covered in what looked to Xavier like wet cement. Ron was trying to stop coughing from the green vapor that his potion was letting off. And Harry had simply given up, looking at his incorrect potion with a defeated look on his face. But, Hermione's potion was nearly perfect, much to Xavier's surprise. He hadn't realized how skilled Hermione was as a witch, even though she had seemed smart from when he first met her. And then Xavier asked himself why the professor would give a potion that most people could simply not complete, and not even give them assistance with said potion. Xavier was never able to think of an answer because Snape told his class that time was up, and ordered everyone to put their potions into sample flasks so that he could grade them.

As soon as Professor Snape made a beeline through the classroom towards Harry, Xavier knew that something was up. Xavier pretended to be cleaning up his potions equipment as he watched the exchange between his friend and the professor.

"Potter, can you read?" Snape asked with an almost delighted scowl on his face.

"Yes, sir. I can read." Harry answered.

"Very well, can you read line three for me then?" Harry squinted through the various colored smoke, and Xavier watched Harry's face fall, and heard him mumble,

"I forgot the hellbore, sir."

"I know you did, Potter. And this makes this mess worthless. Evanesco." Snape waved his wand, and Harry's potion disappeared. Xavier shot a look to Ron, and received a look that indicated that this was almost a normal interaction between Harry and the potions professor. Xavier couldn't believe it. Sure, Harry had messed up the potion. But most of the class had done even worse, and yet Harry was the only one that would be getting a zero for the day's grade.

"Damn, that may be the most unfair thing I've ever seen a teacher do." Xavier mumbled under his breath, but Snape was too close. The professor walked over to Xavier's cauldron and leaned against the edge, and his black eyes attempted to stare down Xavier's deep blue ones.

"Mr. Dalton, I would suggest you take back what you said." Snape was almost daring Xavier to challenge his authority with the tone of voice he used, and Xavier took the bait.

"Now why would I do that?" As soon as he said this, Xavier noticed a number of things at once. Tiffany put her hand on his shoulder, trying to prevent the blowup that she knew was coming. Out of the corner of his eye, Xavier noticed the looks that Harry and Ron were sending him, trying to get him to stop talking. And lastly, the entire class went silent, everyone watching what would happen to Xavier. No one in Gryffindor house, or any house for that matter, had ever dared to stand up to Professor Snape. Not at least in the memories of the fifth years that were watching in the potions classroom.

"Because that would be the smart thing to do. That's the problem with you Gryffindors. You think with your hearts, rather than your brains." Snape responded condescendingly.

"He's trying to bait you." A voice in Xavier's head was saying. "For once, please think before you say something really stupid."

"Professor Snape. Let me ask you something." Xavier started talking out loud again. " Just why do you have it in for Harry?"

"Because Potter thinks that his fame will get him through life, and he is arrogant, and has subpar talent, but yet thinks that just since he is a great Quidditch player, people should just bow down to him." Xavier was really confused at this point. He had no idea what Snape meant when he said that Harry was famous. But Xavier also knew that Harry wasn't arrogant, and the fact that Snape would say this for no reason made him angrier than he already was.

"Well, I think that you're just jealous of Harry. You don't seem like the type that was too popular back in school." As soon as this last part slipped out, Xavier knew that he had struck a nerve with the man staring at him, a look of pure anger, loathing and hate being sent his way.

"Detention tonight with me. Eight o' clock. Your attitude is worse than Potter's. And you won't be able to take over this school with a couple jokes, and unwarranted confidence. Now get out of my sight." Not needing another excuse to leave, Xavier grabbed his bag off of the table and walked out of the room, even daring to stare down Snape as he left.

Two steps out of the Potions classroom, Xavier's anger wore off, and he felt really stupid. He had made a really great first impression for his classmates and his first new teacher. And he had detention on the first night of classes. Just how he wanted to be spending his night.

"Did you really have to do that? Now that's one teacher that hates you already. Sure it's good to watch out for your friends, but Xavier you also need to look out for yourself sometimes. And for me too, which you don't always do the best job of." Xavier's stomach fell through the floor as Tiffany ran up to his side. And Xavier couldn't think of anything to say, so they just walked in silence to their next class, which was Defense Against the Dark Arts, with Professor Umbridge.