CHAPTER 6

Arya awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and excited. She felt a pang of disappointment at being in Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw, but it vanished at the recollection that Harry was in Gryffindor, too. She got up quietly, noticing she was awake early, and tiptoed to shower before the others.

By the time she got out the others were awake, not up, but awake. Arya changed into a pair of tight jeans, a tight camouflage T-shirt, and black sneakers. She threw her hair into a messy bun, put on some earthy makeup, and went downstairs.

Harry was standing awkwardly in the common room, glancing around and just standing there. He was wearing just a plain pair of jeans and a loose T-shirt. 'Waiting for me?' Arya asked teasingly as she bounded down the stairs. He did look relieved to see her.

'Yeah, actually,' he said. 'Want to go down for breakfast? They'll be giving us our schedules there. Luckily, all the Gryffindors in our year will be in the same classes.' They walked together all the way down to the Great Hall, Arya assuring that they only got lost once.

'There, look.'

'Where?'

'Next to that girl with black hair.'

'Wearing the glasses?'

'Did you see his face?'

'Did you see his scar?'

Whispers followed them the whole way there, adding to Harry's tension. By the time they got to breakfast, he was in a very agitated mood.

They sat down at the Gryffindor table and pulled many plates of food toward them. They ate in silence for a while. Arya glanced at Harry and saw him looking toward the door. She looked that way, too, and saw the cause of his distraction. Ron was standing indecisively in the doorway, looking around for a place to sit.

'Ron! You can sit with us!' she called hopefully. Ron glanced at her in surprise. His face contorted in a frown and he sat down determinedly between his older brothers again. Arya sighed. 'I guess he really doesn't like us anymore,' she said miserably.

'It's okay,' Harry said. 'You've still got me and I won't leave you. Besides, Ron will have to come back sooner or later. He can't hang out with his brothers forever,' he chuckled, glancing down the table at them. His brothers, twins named Fred and George, were joking and laughing, Ron sandwiched between them, slumping sullenly.

'Yeah,' Arya said, trying to suppress a grin at the look on Ron's face. 'I don't think he likes tagging along with his brothers very much.' They continued eating, though they were more subdued until something happened that knocked them out of their trance immediately.

A hundred plus owls swooped into the hall, drowning out all sound with the whooshing of their wings. They milled around the ceiling, looking for the students to whom their letters and packages were addressed, then dropping down to them.

'Whoa!' Harry said breathlessly. Arya nodded. The owls had given them both a good surprise. Once the owls had flown back out of the Hall, they settled back down to eat their breakfasts.

Eventually, McGonagall came around handing everyone their schedules. 'Better start on our way now so that we have a margin of error, in case we do get lost,' Arya sighed, standing up and leading him out of the hall. She tried to catch Ron's eye as she passed but he sat still, looking stonily at his kippers.

'You? Get lost? I don't think you could get lost if you tried,' Harry joked, following behind her.

'Well, fairies have a very good sense of direction,' she said. 'but that doesn't keep us from getting lost from time to time. Especially half-breeds.'

They made it through their made it through their first four days of classes without great incident. Harry's lurking fear of falling behind the class was wiped away. There was so much to learn that even the kids from pureblood families like Ron's weren't far ahead.

Arya excelled in everything they did. The only person that got close to her level was Hermione Granger. Harry practically marveled at how adept she was with her wand, as did all the teachers. She got at least twenty points from any given teacher every lesson. Except for Snape.

Harry read aloud the note he had gotten at breakfast:

Dear Harry,

I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.

Hagrid

'Oo! Can I come?' Arya asked, handing Harry a quill with which to write a response.

'For sure,' Harry said. 'I'm sure Hagrid would love the extra company.' He scribbled an answer on the back of the parchment, retied it to Hedwig's leg and sent her off again.

After breakfast, Arya and Harry followed the rest of the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years down to double Potions. They filed into the dark, dungeon classroom, eyeing the pickled things in jars very warily. They seated themselves on what was apparently the self-appointed Gryffindor side of the classroom.

A brooding man with a curtain of shoulder-length black, greasy hair, sallow skin, a hooked nose, and cold black eyes, swept into the classroom, his robes billowing behind him. The dungeon fell silent. He began the class by taking role.

When he called out Arya's name, he paused, looked at her for a moment, then continued. When he called out Harry's name, he paused again.

'Ah, yes,' he said softly. 'Harry Potter. Our new -- celebrity.'

Draco Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle sniggered quietly. Snape finished the role call and surveyed the class, looking disgusted.

'You are here to lean the subtle science and exact art of potion-making,' he said. His voice was quiet but they caught every word. He and Professor McGonagall both had the gift of keeping a class absolutely noiseless with only their presence.

'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, and even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.'

More silence. Arya caught Harry's eye, looking surprised. Hermione Granger looked eager and willing to prove that she definitely wasn't a dunderhead. Arya thought of laughing at the look on her face, but decided against it.

'Potter!' Snape snapped abruptly, making Harry jump. 'What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?'

Arya looked at him expectantly. She knew the answer but it was clear that Harry didn't. He just stared blankly back at Snape. She rolled her eyes and raised her hand. So did Hermione.

'I don't know, sir,' Harry said uneasily. Snape sneered at him.

'Tut, tut -- fame clearly isn't everything.' He ignored Arya, waiting patiently to see if he would call on her, and Hermione, quivering in her seat and glaring at Arya.

'Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?' Once again, Harry looked completely stumped. Arya left her hand in the air, as did Hermione, who glared at her again and tried to stretch her hand higher than Arya's.

'I don't know, sir.'

'Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?'

Arya could see a muscle working in Harry's jaw, and she knew he was getting angry. Snape still ignored she and Hermione's hands.

'What is the difference, Potter, between monkswood and wolfsbane?'

Hermione stood up, unable to keep to her seat and watch Harry suffer to answer what she knew. Arya looked patronizingly at her, but kept her seat and left her hand in the air.

'I don't know,' Harry said calmly. 'I think Hermione and Arya do, though, why don't you ask them?' A couple people laughed at this, but not many. Snape was obviously not amused.

'Sit down!' he barked at Hermione. She did so, looking a little abashed. Arya put her hand down, still looking disdainfully at Hermione. '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 found in the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkswood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?'

Everyone searched their bags for parchment and quills. 'And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for you cheek, Potter.' Harry glared at him indignantly before trying to remember what he had said so that he could copy it all down.

Later, Snape split them up into pairs to work on a potion to cure boils. Snape, an imposing figure in his billowing black robes, criticized everyone but Malfoy, whom he appeared to favor. Soon, Neville accidentally turn Seamus's cauldron into a molten glob and the potion was seeping across the dungeon floor and burning holes in people shoes and they were all standing on their chairs to avoid the substance.

Neville had been soaked with the potion when the cauldron collapsed, and was now groaning as boils began to cover his entire body.

'Idiot boy!' Snape snapped, vanishing the spilt potion. 'I supposed you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?' Neville only whimpered in pain. 'Take him to the hospital wing,' Snape instructing Seamus bitingly. Then he turned angrily to Harry and Arya.

'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.' Harry looked as though he was about to reply scathingly, but Arya intervened.

'Professor Snape, we didn't know that Neville was adding the porcupine quills too early,' she said quietly. 'We were trying to concentrate on our own potion, we didn't have time to watch everyone else's. It really wasn't our fault at all.' Snape stared at her. No student had ever tried to reason themselves out of a punishment like that.

He didn't respond, just dismissed the class, sweeping back to his desk to grade some of the older students' papers. Arya rolled her eyes; She could tell they would both be on his most wanted list now. Harry looked very dispirited as they climbed the steps up from the dungeons.

'It's okay, Harry,' she said. 'It was only one point. I'm sure things will get easier.'

'I just don't understand why Snape hates me so much,' Harry said miserably.

'He hates all the Gryffindors,' Arya pointed out.

'Yeah, but me especially,' Harry said. 'I can tell. He just seems to despise me for no reason at all. It's really unfair,' he complained, crossing his arms across his chest. Arya sighed at him, then grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the oak front doors to the grounds, laughing.

'It's almost three, let's get to Hagrid's,' she called, still pulling him along behind her. She stopped to allow Harry some time to breathe. 'I'll race you!' she said as soon as he got his breath back.

'Oh, you are so on!' he said smiling at her. 'On you mark, get set, go!' They both set off running at a dead sprint toward the small hut at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. They raced their way down, speeding in front of each other and weaving side to side, anything to try and slow the other down.

They got there in the same amount of time it would have taken them to walk, but it was much more fun. Arya won, but only by a few inches. Then they collapsed in the pumpkin patch, panting and laughing. It took them a moment to compose themselves, then they knocked on Hagrid's front door.

Load booming barks answered, alarming them slightly. 'Back, Fang - Back,' came Hagrid's loud gruff voice from behind the door. His ruddy face appeared through the slightly opened door.

'Hang on. Back, Fang.' He opened the door the rest of the way, holding back a huge boarhound, and allowed them entrance to his humble abode. It was one room, with meat and birds hanging from the ceiling, a gigantic bed with a patchwork quilt, and a large copper kettle boiling in the fireplace. 'Make yerselves at home.'

They sat down at the table and sipped the tea Hagrid poured them. They talked about their classes, about the teachers, about themselves for a bit. Then Hagrid said something that nearly made Arya choke on her tea.

'You know, Arya, I knew yer parents.' She stared at him.

'Both of them?' she asked cryptically. She could hardly believe that Hagrid had met her fairy mum.

'Yeah, I was there when they met,' he said. 'It was Christmas Eve, and yer mum was a decoration on one of the Christmas trees. Fairies have a very quarrelsome nature but are really passive if yah want 'em ter be decorative. He saw her in passin' and stopped to talk to her. He couldn't, obviously, so he asked me ter translate for 'em. I did, then taught him fairy-speak, and they fell in love. It was real sweet.' Arya listened to him avidly.

'Wow! So I don't have to pretend that I'm full human around you?' she asked hopefully.

''Course not,' he said, waving a big hand dismissively. 'Even I'm not full human, if you hadn't guessed that by now. Me mum was a giantess. Fridwulfa. She left when I was real young.'

'Wow,' Harry and Arya said in unison.

The conversation eventually steered away from lineage, an uncomfortable subject for all of them, and Hagrid offered them rock cakes. It was a fitting names, seeing as they were every bit as hard as rocks, but Harry and Arya were too nice to refuse them, so they discreetly slipped them into their pockets so as to avoid hurting his feelings.

'Hagrid, what do you know about Snape?' Harry asked, when he finished explaining what had happened in potions class. 'Do you have any idea why he hates me so much?'

Hagrid didn't answer for a moment, but busied himself with making more tea, his back to them. 'Nah, nah, he doesn't hate yer,' he said, still not turning around. 'He has no reason to. He's always been a bit of a sour one, that Snape.'

Arya had a nagging feeling that he wasn't telling them the whole truth, but she dismissed it, supposing they would figure it out eventually, after more hideously intimidating lessons with Snape. After all, they had potions every Friday.

'Oh, goodness me, look at the time,' Hagrid said a few minutes later, catching sight of a large cuckoo clock up on the wall. 'It's nearly six o'clock. Yah better get back up to the castle fer dinner, you two. Wouldn't want you ter miss it 'cause of me.' And he ushered them out the door after making plans to meet again the next week for further discussions.

Harry and Arya disposed of the hidden rock cakes behind a bush by the lake on the way up to the castle, sniggering quietly and covering them with dirt. Then they sprinted back the way they had come, reaching the front doors just as some of the only people that could dampen their mood stepped through it.

'Well, well, Potter. You and your girlfriend off for a good snog?' Malfoy sneered, eyeing their flushed faces and ruffled robes. Crabbe and Goyle cracked their knuckles threateningly, glaring dully at the pair of them.

'She's not my girlfriend,' Harry said calmly, crossing his arms over his chest, mirroring Malfoy's disdainful posture. 'And it wouldn't be any of your business if she was, now would it, Malfoy?'

'If you two weren't snogging then what exactly got you two all disheveled like that?' Malfoy asked dubiously, eyeing them with a kind of scornful distaste.

'Come on, Harry, we don't have to stand here and listen to this git's stupid accusations,' Arya said, taking Harry's hand and leading him past through the doors, past Malfoy and his cronies.

'Well, Elias. Not as keen to fight now, are you?' Malfoy said smugly. Arya stopped for a second, taking a deep breath to calm herself. Then she turned back to Malfoy, who was startled to see a sweet smile on her face. She sauntered up to him, swinging her hips languorously and turning on all the charisma she had.

'Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy,' she said lightly, still approaching, making him back up. 'Didn't you learn your lesson on the train? You do remember what happened on the train, don't you? Yes, we wouldn't want to repeat that, would we? Well, you obviously don't, but I would no problem with it, none at all. Get my drift?'

By this point she had backed him into the door. She purposefully let her control slip down a notch, just enough so that her eyes glossed over, turning their pearlescent black. Malfoy squealed and ducked out from under her arm. She snagged him by the collar and slammed him back against the door.

'Leave me and Harry alone, or you will find yourself wrapped up in a cocoon at the bottom of the Black Lake. Got it?' Arya whispered harshly. He nodded tremulously, fear having rendered him incapable of speech. 'Good.'

She released him, her eyes clearing. Malfoy sprinted out range of her grasp and attempted--and failed--to compose himself. He gestured to Crabbe and Goyle in an effort to try and retain some semblance of authority, and lead them quickly down the stone stairway to the dungeons.

Harry came up and put a hand on her shoulder, beaming at her.

'Arya, you're my hero, you know that?' he said, satisfaction at Malfoy's little reality check having boosted his morale a great deal. Arya giggled and nodded. They entered the Great Hall, hand in hand and laughing.