Chapter 4: First lessons.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Hetalia.

Harry's POV

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."

"Wearing the glasses?"

"Did you see his face?"

"Did you see his scar?"

Whispers followed Harry all the way to the great hall the next morning. There were people pointing at his scar and people just staring at him, and Harry was starting to feel a bit uncomfortable with all the attention he got.

He sighed as he finally sat down beside Ron at the Gryffindor table. Ron had proven to be a really good friend during the short time they had known each other, he had filled him in on some of the things Harry didn't know about the magical world. Ron also told him about the houses and what type people got into them. Harry looked over towards the Slytherin and saw Arthur Kirkland's blond, messy hair, in the middle, sitting beside Draco Malfoy.

Harry had a hard time thinking of Arthur as a dark wizard. He had been so nice during the train ride and he didn't seem to hate muggles and muggleborns as Ron had said pretty much all the Slytherins did. He seemed to get along with Hermione Granger, who said she was a muggleborn.

He jumped in his seat when suddenly about a hundred owls flew into the great hall and started circling until they found the people they were looking for and dropped letters and packages onto their laps.

Hedwig didn't bring him anything, but she landed on his shoulder and nibbled his ear a bit.

Suddenly Ron put a paper in front of his face.

"It's the new timetable" He said, though it sounded a bit muffled since his mouth was full of food. Harry looked at the time table and quickly realized that there was a lot more to magic than just waving a wand.

During the week that seemed to pass far too fast to really understand what was going on. They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.

They also had subjects like charms, Transfiguration with professor McGonagall, History of magic with a ghost called professor Binns. The lesson they looked forward towards most was Defense Against the Dark Arts with professor Quirrell, it turned out to be a bit of a joke.His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.

So now Harry sat in the Great hall enjoying a bit of breakfast. He had just gotten a letter from Hagrid who asked Harry to come for tea later, with he happily accepted.

"What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge.

"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors them - we'll be able to see if it's true."

"Wish McGonagall favored us, " said Harry. Professor McGonagall was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.

Harry looked towards the Slytherin table, as he had almost every day to see how the blond boy was doing. Arthur started to look more comfortable with the other Slytherins, he even seemed close to Malfoy, who had acted like he disliked Arthur on the train. Maybe Malfoy felt like Harry, and had a hard time finding anything negative about the boy.

Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Ron stand up. Harry sighed and shook his head, he needed to get going to potions and stop thinking about Kirkland already.

~L~I~N~E~

Englands POV (1)

England frowned as he stepped into the chilly underground dungeon where the potions classroom was located.

England had already talked to the schools potions teacher. After the start-of-term banquet, before Arthur had time to go to the Slytherin common room, he had been stopped by Professor Dumbledore himself. The headmaster told him that, since England was in Slytherin and had no guardian, Professor Snape was going to be his guardian until England was seventeen. Arthur felt a bit annoyed that they treated him like a child but he got forced to remind himself that to these people, he was only eleven.

Professor Snape started the lesson with a roll call. Since the Slytherins had potions with the Gryffindors, there were a lot of new faces that England hadn't really paid attention to during the sorting, but he recognized some of the names, like Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom. When Professor Snape got to Harry's name he paused.

"Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new - celebrity."

England could hear Draco Malfoy and his friends snigger behind their hands. Snape finished the roll call and looked up at the class. England couldn't help but shudder under those cold black eyes. They reminded him a bit of Japan's eyes. The asian nation's eyes was a lot duller of course, but still.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," The professor began, and even though his voice was barely more than a whisper, the class listened to every word. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… 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."

Silence followed the little speech. Some students, like Granger, seemed eager to show that they were not a bunch of dunderheads, and some of the students just looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly, making almost everybody jump a bit in their seats. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

England raised an eyebrow. That seemed like a too complicated question to ask a first year on their first potions lesson.

"I don't know, sir," said Harry, sounding a bit nervous.

Snape's lips curled into a sneer.

"Tut, tut - fame clearly isn't everything."

England frowned as the conversation continued. The professor asked where you can find a bezoar and what the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane was, he also completely ignored Granger who had her hand up the entire time and always found some way to insult Harry. After three failed questions and three insults Harry finally said something about Snape picking someone else for these questions. A few people laughed, Snape, however, was not pleased.

"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione, who now stood up in her seat, trying to get the teachers attention. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter."

England, who already knew all of this and didn't feel the need to copy it down, couldn't help but disliking the black haired professor. It was clear that Snape hated Harry for more than just being a Gryffindor, England remembered something about this man going to school at the same time as Harry's father and he had a feeling that the professors favoritism had something to do with that.

Things didn't improve far Harry, or any of the Gryffindors, as the lesson continued, Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like, England hatet that the students were treated differently, England himself was paired with Vincent Crabbe, and the boy wasn't doing a good job with the potion but Snape only seemed to care about what the Gryffindors were doing wrong.England was just stopping Crabbe from adding the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville Longbottom had somehow managed to melt Seamus Finnigans cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

England sighed, he had done the same mistake that Neville had done once before so he knew what the boy did wrong.

"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" England saw Crabbe twitch a little out of the corner of his eye and couldn't help but smirk a little bit, that boy better be thanking him later.

"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.

"You - Potter - why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."

At this England had to try his hardest not to stand up and start lecturing the professor. If this was how he treated his first years then he was not fitt to be a teacher!

England hurried out of the classroom as soon as the lesson was over. On the way out he heard Harry and Ron talking about visiting someone named Hagrid later. He really hoped that the two boys would be doing alright without his help, but knowing his luck, they would probably be kicked out of the school before Halloween.

(1) I was planning to write the entire chapter from Harry's POV but it was to hard.

I'm soooo sorry that this chapter is so late. From the beginning I was doing some things and was a bit busy but that's barely a good excuse so it was mostly just me being lazy. Please review so I know if you liked it. The next chapter will hopefully be up on time.