Disclaimer: I am JK Rowling in disguise typing out fanfiction because I don't know what to do with my billions and also because I don't have a life. What? Don't believe me? Boohoohoo!
Breakfast the next morning was uproar, as usual
Breakfast the next morning was uproar, as usual. The first day of classes, and the handing out of timetables, not to mention the owls soaring in…to Harry, it felt home. And he felt another pang in his heart when he thought he would never have another first day here.
Professor McGonagall was bustling about, handing out timetables to Gryffindors. As she passed out their timetables, Hermione felt Ron groan beside her.
"What?" she asked him.
"Just look at this…today we have no free period till break. And the first class is double Potions! What a great start to the year! And look, there's not even a single day when we don't have Potions or Transfigurations! How blessed am I!" Ron looked towards the Heavens.
"C'mon Ron, this is our NEWT year. We just can't study enough! And Potions and Transfiguration are among the most difficult subjects here. Not to mention Defence against the Dark Arts, which is of course, very important, when you consider whom we have to face. And Charms is going to help too, I am sure. And when you consider how much help knowing about magical plants does to us, you would consider adding Herbology to the list. And then you take Arithmancy, it is…"
"No, please don't…stop it!" Ron cut Hermione off midstream, putting both his hands on his ears. Then he glared at her. "Its painful enough just thinking about it, why do you have to spell it out like that! And why do you have to look so enthusiastic about all this?"
"Oh Ron, cut it out. The classes wont hurt you." Hermione huffed at him.
How wrong she was.
They all had lined up outside the dungeon that was their Potion classroom, and waited for Snape to open the door. There were very few of them now, most of them having failed to meet Snape's expectations of a NEWTs class. So now, all the seventh years took this class together. They were standing now, Slytherins on one side, and all the rest on the other.
Harry stood between Ron and Hermione, who had been bickering since breakfast. He was so used to their verbal duels now that he felt strange when they were quiet. To Hermione's utter disgust and Harry's secret delight, the new girl, Sia, was standing next to Hermione. Harry could just see Hermione blowing up at the slightest excuse by the girl. Ginny would have been even better, he mused, as she blows up much better and much faster. He grinned to himself, and suddenly realized he had not talked to her properly since…well, since a long time. He started missing her just then, and made a mental note to meet up with her as soon as he could.
The Slytherins glared at the line up in front of them. Most of them had not forgotten Ron's outburst from last night regarding their prince and were now ready to attack. First was Pansy, who had taken the insult thrown at her Draco to heart.
"Merlin, the standards of this place are really falling. A mudblood for a Head Girl…ewww!" she made a face at Hermione, as the rest of them laughed. Draco, however, who was propped up by the wall beside Pansy with his eyes shut, did not.
Hermione noted this, as she chose to ignore this insult by just glaring at Pansy. How was this, she mused, he is the one who has always initiated insults at us, and now he is not even joining in! She felt the girl beside her stir a bit, but ignored her. Last night she had been insufferable. And talking of last night, Malfoy had done the unthinkable last night! When they had been given the password to their dorms, he had simply said the password to the portrait of a very regal looking witch, stepped inside to their common room, looked around, and had gone up to his dormitory to sleep, all without uttering a single word…a single insult! Weird, that's what it was! Malfoy without his insults or smirks was like Ron without his temper. Totally out of character! And speaking of Ron,…
"Hey, Weaselbee! Heard you have a thing for the mudblood! Even you could've done better, and that's saying something!" More shouts of laughter. Hermione flushed, and Ron started turning red.
"Shut it, Milton." Harry said quietly.
"And here is the Best Man, Scarhead himself!" Bulstrode shouted with glee using Draco's favorite nickname for Harry. The Slytherins snickered at him.
"Hey Potter, we thought you'd end up with the mudblood. Weren't you two an item in our fourth year?"
"Look, the Head Girl has hired a new henchwoman to protect herself! Maybe she has done that to protect herself from you, Weasel King! Are you that bad at kissing?"
Sia had been growing uncomfortable by the minute. These people were really rude. But maybe, they have a history with Harry and Ron and HG. And here they were, standing like dummies, just listening to the taunts. But why start attacking me, she thought! They don't even know me. She knew that the 'henchwoman' was meant for her. As much as she wanted to put these people in their place, she couldn't. Not after last night. Things had gone so horribly wrong…how she hated her father! And her mother too.
Sia looked at the offending Slytherin and gave him a sick sort of smile, and kept her mouth shut. And then the Head Boy lolling against the wall near the bitch who had started it all opened his eyes. Inspite of the bad mood Sia was in, she couldn't help noticing him. He was tall, and the way his cloak hugged his shoulders suggested a good physique. And his hair…they were like finely spun platinum threads doused in liquid silk. His eyes, however, were the most captivating thing about him, unfathomable gray pools with silver bouncing off. They reminded her of a dappled brook of running water, rippling with shards of sunlight. Without a doubt, Sia was impressed. Beauxbaton boys had been fairly good looking, but none had eyes like him. As Sia's gaze slipped to his mouth, she saw the mouth in question form a sneer, and looking up, she saw the sneer directed at her. Realizing she had been caught, Sia glared at him and looked away.
Draco saw the 'henchwoman' checking him out, and couldn't stop his derision. Even scarecrows were attracted to him now, he thought with cruel amusement. She must have a really hideous figure to keep it so well hidden beneath her tightly wrapped and buttoned down cloak. And her hair must be really ridiculous if she has to keep them so tightly under leash. Her face reminded him of McGonagall, it looked that severe. There was Fleur, and there is this girl, he thought sourly. Why couldn't he have someone good-looking from Beauxbatons! Oh well, and he again closed his eyes.
Hermione thought that the offending girl beside her would whiplash the Slytherins with her acid tongue seeing as they were targeting her, but was amazed when she said nothing. So all her bitchiness was just for us, her own Housemates, she thought with rising anger. Meanwhile, the Slytherins has started again.
"Hey, I heard you were taking snogging-classes from Brown last year, Weasley. Did they do you any good? By the way, she learnt it all from me. A lot more than just snogging, I might add."
Hermione felt tears of rage and frustration start in her eyes. There was no point in retaliating to the Slytherins, she knew, but it hurt. Not just for herself, but for the sake of her friends as well. She bit on her lips to stop the tears from falling, not wanting to give the evil gits any satisfaction. Harry simply blocked out whatever he was hearing, and focused on his research on the horcruxes. Ron steadily turned a deeper shade of red at every comment, holding his temper in check with a lot of difficulty.
"Hey Weasley, did you manage to shag the bookworm yet, or are you still trying to get past all the books in the way?"
"Shut it, you!" Ron suddenly pulled out his wand and yelled at the offender, a thin boy with black hair plastered to his head, and pointed his wand at his mouth. "Or I will shut it for you…forever."
"Ooooh, watch out Spacey, he's threatening to kiss you," taunted Pansy, as all the Slytherins guffawed.
"Oh, please don't, I apologize. I don't want a worse-than-death experience!" Spacey threw up his hands in air as he mocked Ron.
Ron had by now turned purple with suppressed anger, and Harry chose this time to log back in. He took one look at his friend and realized how bad things were, so he took out his wand. Just then, however, Draco opened his eyes and said lazily, "Stop it guys, its getting rather monotonous."
Every single student present there stared at him, disbelief in every pair of eyes. Draco Malfoy, passing up the chance to torment and taunt the Golden Trio, specially when he had numbers on his side! Surely Snape will not start giving out 'O' on every assignment! The Ravenclaws present shook their head, while the Hufflepuffs stared on disbelievingly. The Gryffindors looked skeptical, thinking that Malfoy probably had something much worse up his sleeve, while the Slytherins were in shock. But before anyone could say anything the door of their classroom opened, and there stood Snape, and a silence fell on them.
"Enter", he said, and seeing the wands in the hands of Harry and Ron, added "Ten points from Gryffindor. Put away your wands, there is to be no fighting in the corridors."
Harry and Ron entered with the rest, boiling inside at the perfect timing of Malfoy and Snape. The Gryffindors were now convinced they were right.
They all set up their cauldrons, and began working on 'the draught of Insanity', a complex potion that caused various degrees of insanity, depending on its strength and the fullness of moon when it was brewed. They were working individually now, as NEWT students were required to do from sixth year on, Harry trying to concentrate with all his might, as he knew Hermione wouldn't be able to help him. Ron was still gnashing his teeth over what had happened, and Hermione was still pink on the face, but determined to do her best. Right next to her, though, was Sia, which caused Hermione some heartburn.
Sia concentrated on her potion carefully since she could do little else. The letter she had received this morning from her parents had been the bitterest pill she had had to swallow yet, and considering what had happened at Beauxbatons, that was saying something. She was reasonably intelligent, but had never been top of the class, possibly because she had never taken the trouble to concentrate as she was doing now. Or maybe because going through enormous tomes and storing all the information in her brain was not her forte.
At the end of the class, Snape swept through the class checking everybody's work. Malfoy, predictably, got all the praise for doing 'perfect work'. When he reached the Gryffindors, however, the story was different. This time he started from the person farthest from him, and that was Neville.
"Longbottom…what exactly have you brewed, would you care to tell me?" the Slytherins perked up, knowing that fun was about to begin. Even Malfoy was now looking at Neville with a half-smile playing on his lips. "Or maybe the question I should be asking is, can you read at all? The instructions are all on the board, and you cannot seem to even follow what's already written! The dried fang of an adder was to be pounded coarsely, not powdered minutely, and you seem to have added 10 pounds of bluegrass, instead of the required 1. What exactly are you doing in a NEWT class, boy? And more importantly, how did you make the required grade in you OWLs? Are you sure you sat for you own test, Longbottom, instead of using someone else plied with polyjuice potion, which, of course, Miss Granger would have made for you!" Snape was venomous as always in his criticism of Neville, who was visibly falling apart in front of their eyes.
After finding fault with the work of Dean and Parvati, he reached Sia. He looked down his nose at her potion, which was perfect, just like Hermione's, and narrowed his eyes. "Well, well, well. So what do we have here? A perfect concoction of the draught of Insanity by the new Gryffindor." He looked into her eyes, and she looked straight back. "Twenty points from Gryffindor, for copying from your neighbor, Miss Raisingh. In future, please do your own work." He smirked at Sia's shocked face. Then he proceeded to walk to Ron, bypassing Hermione completely. Just before examining Ron's work, however, he turned to Hermione and added "Ten more points from Gryffindor, for letting others copy from you, Miss Granger."
Hermione felt her eyes beginning to well up with tears, as Sia beside her just stared at Snape unbelievingly. Both of them knew that Sia's work was original, and yet, both had to bear the brunt of Snape's animosity. Sia was stunned to see such a biased teacher, and more than that, amazed that his bias had been directed at her. He doesn't even know me, she thought, and he didn't even bother to find out if his suspicion was right! And he is evil, look at the way he treated that poor boy, Neville, was it! Sia itched to say something, but knew that she would get in much more trouble than she already was, and held her tongue. One day, Snape, she promised herself…one day.
Snape, meanwhile, was examining Ron's potion, and the expression on his face matched the one on Filch when he got a chance to punish a student. "Weasley", he positively crowed with delight, "What is this?" he asked as he put a ladle in Ron's potion and brought it up for the entire class to see. When he let it fall back in the cauldron, the Slytherins erupted with laughter. Instead of a clear, pale blue liquid, a charred solid dollop had fallen back in the cauldron. Ron had been so angry with the Slytherins, he had not paid the slightest attention to his potion, and it was now burnt and curdled into a solid precipitate. Ron's ears went red, as Snape shook his head in amazement. "Your potion, Weasley, far surpasses Longbottom's in terms of going wrong, and I, with the utmost regret, of course, will have to give you a detention for being the biggest dunderhead of this year." Snape was actually smiling now, an evil, twisted sort of smile.
Surprisingly, Harry got away rather lightly this time, maybe because Snape already had had much fun at the Gryffindors' expense, or maybe because the bell had rung. Snape had just looked at his potion and walked away without saying anything, probably because his potion, though not perfect, was passable. However, he was boiling inside for the sake of his friends.
The next class was Transfiguration. After lecturing her class for twenty minutes on the importance of NEWTs in their future career and the amount of work they would have to put in, McGonagall asked them to divide in pairs to practice for the work they would do that day.
"Today", she began, "we would be animating inanimate objects. To begin with, I am going to give you a plastic animal each, and you would be required to animate it so that it behaves as a real animal should. As we progress with the Animatus spell, you would be required to transfigure it completely into a real animal, and then to Conjure real animals and make them behave as you want them, finally, you would learn to animate objects that cannot hold life at all and bestow them with life-like behavior. Now, the spell required is Expecto Animatus, and concentrate carefully, all of you, because it requires a lot of force behind it. So get on with it. And try to do it non verbally, though a first time verbal attempt is acceptable for today."
Hermione and Sia, both had taken care not to be paired up with each other this time. Both were angry at the unfair treatment meted out by Snape, and both blamed each other as the reason behind it. Hermione felt her grades had plummeted because the other girl had sat right next to her, and maybe, taken a sneak look at it while she was working. Sia felt that because of Hermione's history with Snape, she had not got credit for her work, and worse, was accused of cheating.
This resulted in Harry pairing up with Hermione, while Ron was forced to pair with Sia. As the class progressed, each student in a pair took turns in trying out the spell. So far, however, there was no progress.
Sia sat there scowling at Ron, who had been waving his wand energetically at the plastic rabbit for the past fifteen minutes. Sia had not asked to try, and Ron had not asked her to either. With every passing moment, Sia was losing her patience with him. Finally, she snapped, and snatched the rabbit out of his grip as he was turning it over and prodding it to check if it had started breathing yet. Ron was startled, and began to scowl at her, but then saw the dark clouds that had settled over Sia's countenance and relented. Fine, you try now, he mocked her with his eyes.
Sia saw the taunt in his eyes, and grew furious. She gave the rabbit a smart tap with her wand while glaring at it as though the plastic rabbit had done her some physical injury, and thought the spell in her mind furiously. The next instant, a live rabbit leaped from their desk and gamboled through the classroom, as noises broke out around them. Then she turned to Ron and glared at him, who turned a little red around the ears but scowled back. He was reminded of his Charms class in their first year, sitting with Hermione. How he wished he had sat with her instead.
McGonagall swept up to them and stared at Sia imperiously in a way as only she could. "Very impressive for a first attempt, Miss Raisingh. Have you done this before at Beauxbatons? No? Then as I said, very impressive indeed. Ten points for Gryffindor, and a further ten for transfiguring your animal completely, though that was not required for today." Then she looked rather expectantly at Hermione, who was both amazed at the intensity of Sia's magic, and a little resentful that it had to be Sia.
Ron, however, was thoroughly put out by Sia's success followed by McGonagall's extravagant praise. As he got a plastic raven from McGonagall to practice, he gave it a very sharp tap from the tip of his wand, making it to fly straight at him and hit him squarely on the nose. At least I got him to fly, Ron thought as he held his bleeding nose, but found, to his dismay, that the raven was lying lifeless on the ground by his feet. And Hermione says classes don't hurt, he seethed, only to find Sia trying hard not to smile.
A/N: Please do let me know what you think of this chapter, and Sia. Munchkins for everyone who reviews! :-)