It was breakfast of the first day of classes. The Heads of Houses were walking down their tables handing out class schedules. The enchanted ceiling of the great hall shone with the promise of a sunny and beautiful day. Students were happily chatting and laughing; friends were catching up and quizzing each other about their summers, groups of lost first years would walk in late every now and again. Other firsties had enough sense to get up in time for their prefects to walk them down.
Professor Neville Longbottom walked along the Gryffindor table and about midway he stopped and muttered "Weasley… Weasley…" as he flipped to the back of the stack. He smiled as he drew out two slips of paper.
"There you go," he said as he handed them to the red-heads.
"Thank you," they said in unison grinning at the familiar man. He continued walking down the table.
"Arithmancy, Defense, Potions, Runes, and Transfiguration today" Lucy said while absentmindedly buttering her toast.
"Ew… hard day!" Dominique complained. "Molly has the same, right?"
"Yup" Lucy said and glanced up to see Molly sitting talking to a brunette first year at the Ravenclaw table.
"What was the deal with the O.W.L. thing?" Domi asked hesitantly.
"Molly thinks that she has to beat me at all thing school because she's in Ravenclaw." Lucy rolled her eyes. "We even told dad that we got the same potions grade."
"Why does it matter so much?"
"I don't know… I got a lower Runes grade than her and dad was still happy for me." Lucy sighed, "She just always has to be better than me."
"Have you talked to Benjamin yet?" Lucy changed the subject away from her sibling quarrels.
"No, we just got here. I haven't even seen him yet." Dominique answered allowing the change.
"Well, here's your chance. BENJAMIN!" Lucy yelled catching the sight of the tall blonde. He looked over and saw the redheaded cousins. He smiled and walked over to them. Dominique glared at her housemate before turning to smile at Benjamin.
"Hello Benjamin!" Lucy said.
"Hello Lucy" he turned to Dominique "Hey"
"Hey," she smiled shyly "How was your summer Ben?"
"Pretty cool, I know that you went to France. How was that?"
"Amazing!" Dominique lit up. "Have you ever been there?"
"No, but it sounds really cool. I want to go to the Mulan Rouge."
Dominique scoffed. "No, Mulan Rouge is good but a little touristy. There's a lot of other places that are WAY more authentic. And the Louvre museum is always worth visit…"
She prattled on while Benjamin listened intently with a small smile. Neither noticed when Lucy slipped away from the table. At the doors of the Great Hall she looked back at the two, who were now laughing, and smiled her work here was done.
~discidium~
Albus, Rose and Hayley walked into the dungeons, their first lesson was potions. Albus and Rose were informing Hayley on the Potions professor, Horace Slughorn.
"He's been here since forever. He taught McGonagall." Al said, "He retired for a while but came back. He taught my parents for a couple years."
"He's head of Slytherin but he's harmless." Rose piped up "He has this 'Slug Club'. He'll invite you for dinner parties if you come from an important family or you're really good at potions or you impress him in some other way. Apparently they are almost impossible to get out of."
"Do you think that you'll be in the club? Hayley asked.
"Yes" Albus said "My brother is in it and both of my parents were. And almost all the Weasleys are in it. James tries to get out, but he never can."
"My mom was in it too. The Weasleys and the Potters are part of the 'important families' category." Rose explained.
"Why? What's so special about your families?" Hayley asked before quickly adding. "I mean no offense but—"
Rose laughed, "None taken, our families played a huge part in ending the last war. I'll explain more tonight."
Slughorn entered the room and Albus and Rose watched in amusement as their new friend's eyes grew wide and suppressed a giggle at the sight of the large, walrus-like potions professor.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," He said. "I am Professor Slughorn." He wrote his name of the board. "I will take role now."
"Mike Belby?"
"Here"
This continued without excitement until he reached…
"Scorpius Malfoy"
"Here"
"Draco & Astoria's boy?"
"Yes sir"
Slughorn looked at him for another moment then continued with "Alexandra Nott".
"Albus Potter?" Slughorn looked up excitedly.
"Here,"
"Well, you're just the spitting image of your father! How is he? And Mrs. Potter?"
"Good, both are good."
"Wonderful, I must write soon. Your father was an excellent potions student! I hope that you can fill his shoes!"
"I hope so too, sir"
Slughorn gave another round of questions at "Rose Weasley".
"Another Weasley? Who might your parents be?"
"Ron and Hermione,"
"Ohhh, two of my favorites, are you the last of the Weasleys that will be coming to Hogwarts for a while?"
"No sir, my younger brother, Hugo, and Albus' little sister, Lily, will start in two years." Rose then added, "Lily is my cousin."
"Oh, I look forward to meeting them!" Slughorn then continued taking role until finally Jared Zambini marked the end.
"Alright. Today we will be making a simple potion to enhance the appearance of your fingernails, just for fun."
I'll let you choose your partners today but expect to have some assigned in the next couple of weeks."
Hayley quickly caught Rose's eye on the word "partners" giving each other the slight smirk that universally meant "you're my partner". Albus paired up with his housemate Collin while the other Gryffindor boys created a group of three. The Harper twins were together as were Chloe and Lisa who were in the process of setting up their caldron. Scorpius Malfoy and Jared Zambini decided to work together leaving Alexandra Nott and Mike Belby.
~discidium~
Hayley was glad Rose had agreed to be her partner. It seemed pretty simple. Just follow the instructions and add the right ingredients… like cooking, just follow the recipe.
"Okay, what do we do first?" Rose asked.
"Umm…" Hayley checked her book, "We bring the caldron to a boil." She reached down to turn the knob that would start the fire. Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw it already boiling.
Rose noticed her reaction, smiled and said "Magic." Hayley laughed.
The two redheads worked well together. Rose ended up laughing at Hayley's reactions to magical substances quite a bit. Hayley knew that she wasn't being mean so she joined in most of the time. They were working peacefully when a scream broke through the room.
Scorpius Malfoy and Jared Zambini's potion had exploded! It wasn't doing them any harm but Scorpius was covered in lavender goo. Rose turned around to find a very guilty looking Albus Potter. Malfoy seemed to notice too.
"YOU!" He pointed, "You did this!"
"I didn't mean too! I accidentally set my hand down on the scale and the unicorn horn bits went flying." Albus defended.
"Oh, I'm sure it was on purpose! You—"
"Boys! What happened here?!"
"Potter sabotaged my potion!"
"I didn't mean to! It was an accident!"
"I believe you Albus." Slughorn raised his wand and the potion disappeared from all caldrons and all over Malfoy. "It is time to go pack up."
Everyone watched as Malfoy quickly and angrily stuffed his things into his bag and hurried from the room with the Harper twins close behind.
Albus left the room with Rose and Hayley and as soon as he left the room he said something that made Hayley go "AL!"
Rose ignored her cousin and said "That was a good first lesson don't ya think Hayley?
~discidium~
Victoire sat taking notes while Professor Clearwater rattled on. She was discussing N.E.W.T.s. The eldest Weasley sighed this was her 3rd class today and they all spent half the lesson talking about the hardest test of her school career.
She looked over her notes and noticed they were the same as the previous classes. She looked up and saw that the professor was sitting behind her desk.
Victoire dipped her quill in ink and started to doodle absentmindedly. She decided to draw a picture of Teddy. Victoire was quite good at sketching. She lovingly drew her boyfriend as the class continued.
As she finished, Professor Clearwater was wrapping up her speech. Her parchment was slowly slid away from her a Holly scribbled "Cute!" in the corner. Victoire turned to her friend and smiled while mouthing "Thank you."
~discidium~
Alice slightly expected what had happened in potions class.
Slughorn took role as usual announced that he would assign partners.
"Roxanne Weasley and Charlotte Jones"
Roxanne turned in her seat to smile at Charlotte behind her who smiled back. Everybody loved Roxanne it was difficult not to with her good sense of humor and big heart.
"Frederick Weasley and Ezra Yagrit"
A shadow of a grimace passed over Fred's face and Alice had to fight down a giggle. Ezra was the most boring kid in the year. He wasn't into sports or games or even collecting anything other than perfect grades. He was only ever seen doing school work, sleeping, and eating.
"James Potter and Alice Longbottom" Alice smiled because she knew that James was good at this class while she happened to take after her father.
Slughorn matched more people and wrote directions on the board while Alice grabbed her stuff and went to sit by James.
"Hello," He said cheerfully.
"Hi, I hope you know what you're getting into James…"
"Don't worry I know about you lack of potions skills. "
"Good."
~discidium~
There was a note pinned on the bulletin board once everyone got back from dinner it read:
GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH TEAM
TRYOUTS
Needed: Keeper
Open Tryouts for: Beaters & Chasers
No first years please
TRYOUTS ON SATURDAY AT 1PM
Thank You—Captain LeAnn Wood
Buzzing with excitement of pending tryouts, the common room was alive. LeAnn flitted around telling last year's players that it was highly unlikely that they would be cut this year.
Albus was thumbing through his transfiguration book, sitting on the sofa, when his brother plopped down beside him.
"How was your first day?" He asked.
"Pretty good, yours?
"Good. Alice was a klutz in Potions though she knocked our potions off the table and it got all over Slughorn" James was smiling and so was Al, "We must have done the potion wrong because I don't think that a dozen roses sprouting out of the ears was the intended product…"
Albus laughed, "What did you do?"
"I was the perfect gentleman I picked them handed one to each girl in the class" James laughed. "Alice was mortified though. Her face was so red. Slughorn must've been in a good mood though, he let it go."
"A potion exploded in our class today too…"
"What happened?"
"I accidentally launched about 3 lbs. of unicorn horn into Scorpius Malfoy's potion…"
James laughed at his little brother. "You know Dad and Draco Malfoy were enemies in school?"
"Really?"
"Yup, fought every time they saw each other. Any other mishaps?"
"I called Neville 'Professor Neville' in Herbology."
"That's gonna spread now."
"That's about it."
"Well," James said as he got up, "You should come watch try-outs Saturday. Their fun to watch too. Half of the people have no clue of what they are doing…"
"Sure, why not?"
"See ya, bro."
Authors note: SOOOOOOO how was it? I know I'm a lousy updater but I'm trying to be better! Anyway Please review and favorite and/or subscribe!
Love DH4AD
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