A/N: I'm back because I really don't feel like doing coursework - I'm a terrible student, always have been, always will be. I know I said that I wasn't going to update until 27th September, but I already had this chapter ready and writing this was much more appealing than most of my other commitments, so here I am a week early. I'm not sure on this chapter though as it was actually two short drabbles that I put together - along with the beginning of the original chapter - and lengthened into a chapter (I'm sincerely hoping that it fits in).
I'm going to mention it because 's auto-correct had me confused for a second. Some words (such as defence, grey, colour and realise) may be spelt differently to how you are accustomed to them being spelt; but this is because I live in England. I didn't even know that there was another way to spell defence - it really threw me off and I laughed at my own stupidity. It's currently telling me that spelt isn't a word either... huh. Anyway, I only mentioned this because - looking at the traffic graphs - most of the audience for this fanfiction are American.
I again apologise to any Slytherins. I feel mean and horrible :(
Some characters are harsh towards the Slytherins because the Wizarding War ended the year prior to this fanfiction's setting; this means that some of the Death Eaters are still being caught by Aurors and arrested or tried by the Wizengamot. Naturally, newspapers (Daily Prophet) would be reporting these cases so the wave of hatred towards Death Eaters and their relatives (who were typically in Slytherin) would be renewed with every new story. This will be elaborated on and the attitude towards Slytherin Students will die down - for the time being, I'm not going to pretend that there's no grudge between the Slytherins and those who were affected by the Death Eaters, but I will always try and make sure that there's a rational opinion from other characters.
Thank you for those of you who leave reviews, follow or favourite this story. Your support is greatly appreciated :)
I hope you all enjoy this chapter :)
~Fox
"Oi! Wake up, moron!" Kiba's voice interrupted Naruto's peaceful slumber; making the blond groan irritably as he rolled over and pulled his duvet over his head. "Come on, this is the fourth time we've tried to wake you up. If you don't hurry up, we'll be late for breakfast."
"I have a jug of water if you want to tip it over his head?" Bill's voice offered.
"I'll do it!" Tobio laughed mischievously.
"You wouldn't dare!" Naruto growled as he sat bold upright; but Kiba had already thrown the water over Naruto's bed.
Naruto's four dorm mates stared in a shocked silence; Kiba tried to hide the now empty jug with a guilty expression.
"At least you don't have to worry about taking a shower now." Kiba ruffled his hair anxiously as Naruto slowly turned his head to glower at him.
"Hmph!" Naruto pouted. "I'll get you back for that, y'know!" The blond jumped out of his sodden bed; ignoring the amused grins and sniggering from Kiba, Bill, Tobio and Anthony. He dried and dressed himself before leaving the boys' dormitory with Kiba and Bill - as Anthony and Tobio had already left for breakfast - and headed down to the Great Hall.
Naruto stopped abruptly on a set of stairs after seeing a silvery figure pass through the wall just ahead of Bill, Kiba and himself; the figure seemed to be floating as it crossed the staircase and disappeared through the opposite wall.
"Naruto?" Bill called out to the blond as soon as he had realised the absence of his friend. The redhead glanced back to find Naruto staring at the wall with his mouth hanging opening in a silent scream. "Hey Naruto, are you okay?"
Bill and Kiba retraced their steps until they were standing beside Naruto again.
"Oi dumb-ass, we're talking to you." Kiba waved his hand in front of Naruto's face; jerking the blond out of his stupor. "What's gotten into you?"
"I know it sounds crazy," Naruto spoke in a barely audible whisper; forcing Bill and Kiba to lean closer to him as the concern grew more evident in their expressions, "but I think I just saw a g-ghost, y'know!"
"A ghost?" Kiba frowned.
"Uh huh." The blond nodded.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you did." Bill shrugged. "Ghosts are very common at Hogwarts."
"You're kidding me, right?" Naruto stared at Bill with a mingled expression of disbelief and panic.
"Why?" Kiba asked with an interested look on his face. "You're not scared of ghost, are you?"
"O-of course not!" Naruto snapped defensively.
"Are you sure?" Kiba teased; feeling a great sense of misconduct bestow upon himself. "I've heard that you can hear them screaming in the dead of night as they relive their deaths."
Bill rolled his eyes at Kiba. "I don't think that's quite true."
Kiba gave Bill a mischievous wink when Naruto wasn't looking. "It is too. Sometimes they come into the dormitory when we're asleep at night to look for the next poor, unfortunate soul to join their endless roam of the earth.
"No way!" Naruto shuddered.
"Yup, wait until you see one up close. You can still see the skin rotting off of their hands, blood oozing out of their wounds and some of them -"
"That's enough, Kiba!" Bill lectured the brunet sternly. "You're terrifying him!"
"Nah, he's fine. You don't actually believe all of this, do you?" Kiba sniggered as he turned to the blond. "Right, Naruto?" Kiba observed Naruto's pale, wide eyed expression closely. "Okay, maybe I did go a little too far." The brunet muttered to Bill as he tugged the sleeve of Naruto's robes; forcing the blond to move. "Nothing a good breakfast can't fix, though."
With all talk of ghost pushed to the back of his mind and none in sight; Naruto managed to enjoy his breakfast while he laughed as joked with Kiba and Bill - Bill had made sure that Kiba apologised to the blond as soon as Naruto had returned to his normal self.
Professor McGonagall walk down the Gryffindor table during breakfast and handed out timetables to all of the students; pausing here and there along the table to discuss lessons with the older students.
"Potions, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts and the History of Magic." Bill read aloud as the pointed to the column titled Thursday on his timetable while Kiba and Naruto surveyed their own.
"You've got your timetables then." A bored voice issued from behind Naruto as Shikamaru dropped into the seat beside the blond and helped himself to a piece of toast. "Let's have a look."
Naruto handed his timetable to Shikamaru; who retrieved his own from his pocket to compare the two.
"Have we got any lessons in common?" Naruto asked.
"No." Shikamaru shook his head slowly.
"What lessons have you got today?" Kiba enquired; leaning over the table to read the piece of paper in Shikamaru's hand.
"Charms, Herbology, Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts." Shikamaru replied; examining Naruto's timetable more thoroughly.
"I wonder if we have any lessons with the other house groups." Bill mused.
"You do." Shikamaru pointed at a box on Naruto's timetable. "I've already checked Chōji's timetable, you guys share your Herbology lessons with the Hufflepuffs, whereas I share mine with the Slytherins. I have my potions lessons and flying lessons with the Hufflepuffs, so you must be with the Slytherins."
Kiba gave a groan and hit his head on the table.
"Don't do that!" Shikamaru huffed. "You might dent the table!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Kiba glared at Shikamaru.
"You shouldn't be so quick to judge the Slytherins anyway." Shikamaru frowned at Kiba. "The rumours about them are greatly exaggerated and you're not going to make friends with that attitude."
"Whatever." Kiba snorted. "I have my reasons, anyway."
"Which are?"
Kiba didn't respond; instead he remained motionless with his head resting on the table.
"I might as well talk to a brick wall, it'd be less troublesome." Shikamaru muttered. "I'll talk to you guys later, you might want to start heading to you first lesson, otherwise you'll be late."
"Late?" Naruto blinked at Shikamaru in confusion. "We still have twenty minutes before class starts."
"You look like the type of guy who gets lost easily." The Ravenclaw shrugged as he rose to his feet and returned Naruto's timetable to the blond and stared intently at Kiba. "If I'm right, your first lesson is with the Slytherins. It would be wise to keep any opinions about them to yourself. You might even make friends with one. See you around." Shikamaru turned on his heel and strode away from the Gryffindors; leaving Naruto and Bill to share perplexed glances.
Naruto, Kiba and Bill joined the end of a queue waiting outside the potions classroom - the students were clearly split into two groups; one of Gryffindors and the other of Slytherins.
"What's going on?" Bill asked with a discombobulated expression.
"It's obvious, isn't it?" Kiba whispered back with a dismissive shrug. "They're Slytherins."
"What's that got to do with anything?" Bill frowned at Kiba.
"Slytherin is full of Death Eaters and the like." Kiba muttered; shooting a glare at the small knot of students wearing the green and black robes.
"Not this again." Naruto groaned as he rolled his eyes; feeling exasperated at the fact that Kiba had elected to ignore Shikamaru's advise.
"Don't you think you're being a bit too stereotypical?" Bill quirked an eyebrow at the brunet.
"Well then explain why -"
Kiba was cut off by the sound of a loud clanging noise followed by the creaking of the large wooden doors swinging on their hinges. Both the Gryffindors and the Slytherins stopped their individual murmured conversations to stare as Professor Snape stepped into the corridor and surveyed the students closely.
"Enter." The man said in a chilling tone. He continued to stared at the students under his hooked nose as they passed him into the potions classroom.
"He's not creepy at all." Kiba muttered to Naruto and Bill as the trio settled themselves down around the table at the back of the classroom.
Professor Snape re-entered the classroom behind the last student and briskly walked to the front of the classroom - where his own desk was.
"My name is Professor Snape; I will be your Potions Master." He announced as he glanced around at the students with the same surveying stare as before, before he dropped into his own seat and picked up a quill out of his ink pot. "When I call your name, you will answer 'present' or 'yes sir', otherwise you will remain silent unless spoken to." He glanced down at the list in front of him and began to read aloud. "Tobio Fujiwara."
"Present." A boy who Naruto shared his dormitory with replied; sheepishly raising his hand - lowering it again when Professor Snape curtly nodded at him.
"Michelle Harris."
"Present, sir." This time a girl answered the call.
"Kiyomi Hayashi."
"Sir."
"Alexander Hughes."
"Sir."
"Kiba Inuzuka."
"Here, sir." Kiba raised his hand high enough for Professor Snape to see too.
"Yui Ishida."
"Yes sir."
"Haruka Ito."
"Here."
"Arthur Johnson."
"Present."
"Yuka Kaneko."
"Yes sir."
"Rosalyn Kennedy."
"Present."
"Samantha Masters."
"Present."
"Haley McCormick."
"Yes sir."
"Anthony Pettiford."
"Sir."
"Kaito Saitou."
"Present, sir."
"Paige Smitt."
"Yes sir."
"Sasuke Uchiha."
"Present."
"Naruto Uzumaki."
Naruto gave a small start at his name. "Uh, yes sir." He replied; following the lead of most of his peers and raising his hand slightly.
"William Weasley."
"Yes sir." The redhead between Naruto and Kiba answered Professor Snape's call as he shot his two friends a glare while they sniggered at him. He lowered his voice to a barely audible whisper. "What's so funny?"
"William Weasley." Naruto and Kiba sniggered quietly.
"What about it?"
"It just sounds funny." Kiba replied while Naruto hid his smirk behind his hands and began to shake from containing his laughter. The trio quickly stifled their murmured conversation when Professor Snape's cold eyes locked onto them; causing Naruto, Kiba and Bill to shuffle guiltily in their seats while the rest of the class glanced in their direction curiously.
Professor Snape finally called out the two last names on the register - to which a blonde haired girl in Slytherin robes and another girl with copper hair wearing Gryffindor robes answered - before he rose from his chair and walked toward the class.
"Today we will start with a simple potion. You will all now retrieve you copies of Magical Drafts and Potions and turn to page number one hundred and thirty two." Professor Snape instructed and waited until the class had obliged. As soon as the class had settled again, Professor Snape moved around the classroom and split the class into pairs to work on the potion together - despite this, the split between the Gryffindor and Slytherin students was still obvious, even Professor Snape seemed somewhat reluctant to mingle the two house groups. Finally, the black robes Potions Master halted in front of Naruto, Kiba and Bill's table; staring down his hooked nose at the three boys. "Uzumaki, move." Professor Snape commanded; pointing towards a table with one lone student sitting at it.
Without needing to be told twice, Naruto gathered his belongings - muttering his temporary farewells to Kiba and Bill - and shuffling towards his newly allocated seat.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Professor Snape scowled impatiently. "Start brewing."
Naruto watched as the class began to move in unison; along with the ebony haired boy next to him. He then glanced down at his open copy of Magical Drafts and Potions.
"Cure for Boils?" The blond wrinkled his nose and began to read through the brewing instructions. "One; add six snake fangs to the mortar and crush into a fine powder using the pestle -"
"You can do that." The Slytherin said; giving Naruto both the pestle and the mortar.
"Huh?" Naruto blinked at his peer; taking the two objects.
"The snake fangs. You crush them." The ebony haired boy instructed dismissively as he began to light a fire beneath the cauldron.
"Fine." Naruto agreed in an irked tone; he added the snake fangs into the mortar and followed the instructions.
Naruto worked as closely as possible with his partner, but soon found that he had become extremely irritable and impatient with the Slytherin's lack of conversation and curt tone. It was obvious to Naruto that the raven haired boy wanted to work alone and he - if given the choice - would rather return to Kiba and Bill or work on his own potion too, but both boys had to grin and bear each other's company. Through small talk - due to the other's reluctance to speak more than several syllables at a time - Naruto had learnt that the Slytherin's name was Sasuke Uchiha.
After shooting a glare at the uninterested Slytherin, Naruto peered down at his copy of Magical Drafts and Potions so that he could prepare the next step of the potion.
"You're supposed to wait forty five minutes." Sasuke warned the blond as he watched Naruto count out four Horned Slugs and two Porcupine Quills. "We still have to wait another five minutes.
"I know that." Naruto snapped. "It can't hurt to be read though, y'know."
"Hn." Sasuke snorted; returning his attention to the notes he was making.
While he waited, Naruto read and reread the instructions for the potion until he was able to repeat the whole step by step process under his breath without looking at the book while Sasuke continued to write on his scrap piece of parchment. The blond gazed towards Kiba and Bill to see the brunet resting his head on the table and glaring at his watch - that he had propped up against his school bag - while Bill drummed his fingertips on the table with one hand and doodled on some parchment with the other.
Professor Snape glided between each table; Naruto noticed that the Potions Master made the odd remark about the potions made by the Gryffindors, but seemed to give comments of approval to the Slytherins - but the blond shook his head and convinced himself that he had simply imagined this occurrence.
"It's time." Sasuke muttered - more to himself than to Naruto - as he checked the time on his watch. He picked up the Horned Slugs that the blond had prepared earlier and dropped them into the cauldron one by one.
Naruto then added the two Porcupine Quills and added them to the potion; which then began to hiss and fizz, spilling the potion over the surface and off of the edge of the desk. Naruto and Sasuke leaped to their feet to avoid contact with the corrosive potion.
"What the -?" Naruto stared at the potion in confusion.
"You moron!" Sasuke shot at the blond. "What did you do?"
"I did exactly what the instructions said, y'know!" Naruto flustered; grabbing his Magical Drafts and Potions to examine the page - he felt his heart sink as his eyes fell upon the eight step of the potion.
Within seconds, Professor Snape was standing before them; sneering down at the potion before he turned his cold eyes onto Naruto.
"You were supposed to take the potion off of the heat before you added the Porcupine Quills, Uzumaki." Professor Snape informed the Gryffindor snidely. "Congratulations, you now have no potion to hand in at the end of the lesson. Five points from Gryffindor for failure to follow instructions." Professor Snape turned away from Naruto and Sasuke's desk without a single word to the ebony haired boy. "I suggest you clean up your mess before you cause any more damage to my classroom."
Naruto eyed his melting cauldron with a disheartened expression while Sasuke heaved an annoyed sigh and left Naruto's side to retrieve some cloths. When the Slytherin returned, Sasuke thrust one of the cloths he was holding into Naruto's hands and retrieved a pair of Dragon Hide gloves from his bag - Naruto followed the raven haired boy's lead - and the pair set to work and mopped away the ruined potion without a single word to each other.
At the end of the lesson, Naruto begrudgingly packed away him belongings; after spending the rest of the double period writing an essay about the Cure for Boils potion with Sasuke, and turned his back on the Slytherin to rejoin Kiba and Bill as they finished copying down their notes for the homework that Professor Snape had set for them.
"At least you have a head start on the homework now." Bill joked; playfully nudging the irritable blond.
"You're not funny, y'know." Naruto scowled; shooting a glare at his friend.
"Oh, lighten up." Kiba snorted as he rolled his eyes. "So you messed up your first potion. Everyone makes mistakes every now and again."
"But he only punished me for it, y'know." Naruto huffed. "What about Sasuke? Why didn't Snape take points from Sasu-"
"Because it wasn't me who screwed up." A new voice interrupted Naruto's rant as the Slytherin in question crossed the threshold into the corridor behind Naruto, Kiba and Bill. "It's not my fault that you're an idiot."
"What did you say?" Naruto gritted his teeth angrily.
"What?" Sasuke sneered. "Are you hard of hearing as well as an idiot?"
"Strike two, Uchiha!" Naruto growled; balling his hands into fists. "Once more and I'll wipe the floor with you, y'know!"
"Like you'd be able to lay so much as a scratch on me." Sasuke countered; taking a step closer to the blond.
"Why are you still loitering outside my classroom?" Professor Snape stepped out of the potions classroom and he towered over the two boys. "I do hope that you're not threatening to start a fight in the school corridors."
Naruto and Sasuke stepped away from each other; it was in this moment that Naruto had realised that Kiba and Bill had detached themselves from him and were now waiting for him further down the corridor.
"I was just going to my next class." Sasuke said stiffly as he stepped around the blond and continued down the corridor.
Naruto quickly followed; feeling horribly aware of Professor's Snape's gaze thy followed him down the corridor until the blond was out if sight.
"Bastard." Naruto whispered as he strode past the Slytherin to read his friend.
"Moron." Sasuke retorted; before he turned down another passage.
"Thanks for sticking by my side guys." Naruto said sarcastically as he finally rejoined Kiba and Bill.
"You seemed to be handling things fine on your own." Kiba chuckled as he pulled Akamaru out of his school bag and set the dog down on the floor; to let the puppy stretch his legs.
"Did you have him in your bag this whole time?" Bill asked; giving Kiba an incredulous stare.
"Of course I did." Kiba grinned. "He doesn't like being on his own. I thought Professor Snape saw him earlier when he got out of my bag, but we got lucky this time."
"He got out of your bag?"
"Yeah. He nearly got away too, that's why I ducked under the table."
"I didn't even notice." Bill confessed sheepishly.
Naruto had better luck in his Charms class than he had had in potions. Professor Flitwick; a very short man who reminded Naruto of the Gringotts goblins - but with more human features - was friendlier than Professor Snape. He smiled warmly as the Gryffindors filed into his classroom and encouraged the students to sit at the desks at the front of the class; so they could still hear him.
"Where are the Slytherins?" Naruto muttered to Kiba as the descended into their seats and pulled out their books, quills and ink.
"I don't think we share this class with them." Kiba replied; pulling out his time table to examine it while Naruto and Bill leaned over either shoulder to have a look too. "Nope, this class is just for us Gryffindors."
The class settled down into a hushed silence as Professor Flitwick called out the register and ticked off the students who were in attendance.
"Today we are going to start with the Levitation Charm." Professor Flitwick announced happily as he turned to write on one of his blackboards. "The incantation for this spell is Wingardium Leviosa and - as the name suggests - the nature of this spell is to make objects levitate or fly. There are a few variations of this spell; the Floating Charm, Rocket Charm and the Hover Charm are to name a few, but you'll never get as good a result as you will with the Levitation Charm. You can find the Levitation Charm on page fifty one in your copies of The Standard Book of Spells: Grade One."
The classroom filled with the sound of quills scratching against parchments; along with the odd clink as someone dipped their quill into their ink pots. Naruto found himself quite thankful that Professor Flitwick was writing this information on the board as he was already struggling to keep up with the fast speaking man.
"The Levitation Charm was first invented in the sixteenth century by a warlock called Jarleth Hobart. You can almost lift anything with this spell, but this fact is dependable on the skill of the castor and the weight of the object being levitated. You cannot levitate people with this spell." Professor Flitwick added; flashing a small smile at Kiba after seeing the boy's devilish grin. Professor Flitwick clapped his small hands together with excitement. "Shall we give it a try then?"
The charms master withdrew his wand from his sleeve and cleared his throat. "Wingardium Leviosa!" He flicked his wand at Anthony Pettiford's book and guided it around the room with the movements of his wand before gently lowering the book back onto Anthony's desk.
The Gryffindors clapped as Professor Flitwick took a playful bow.
Naruto stared at Anthony's book; he was reminded of his first meeting with Iruka Umino back in the orphanage - when Iruka had convinced Naruto that he was a wizard too by creating a flying paper swan.
"Now, I have a rather nice collection of feathers for you all to practise on." Professor Flitwick's voice stirred Naruto from his memories. "So please - to avoid any incidents - could you all please put your belongings away and tuck your bags under your desks."
Professor Flitwick waited until the class obliged before he gave the feathers to Paige Smitt to hand out to her peers.
"Now remember, the hand movement is swish and flick!" Professor Flitwick instructed; showing the students the motion with his own wand. "And don't forget to pronounce the spell clearly; Wing-GAR-dee-um Levi-O-sa."
Within seconds the class was filled with untimely variations of Wingardium Leviosa; after some time the voices became more and more frustrated or very bored.
"Did you see that?" Kiba bounced ecstatically. "It moved!"
"Only because you knocked the table." Bill pointed out; he was now slumped over the table, glaring at his feather as though this would make it spring into the air.
"I did not." Kiba argued.
"Oh yeah?" Naruto joined. "Do it again then."
"Fine." Kiba cleared his throat and flicked his wand at the feather. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
The feather remained motionless.
"Wow, Kiba. That flew up real high, y'know." Naruto commented sarcastically while Bill tried to hide his smug grin.
"Like you could do any better!" Kiba snapped defensively.
"Don't lose heart, boys." Professor Flitwick called over to the trio. "Keep practising!"
By the end of the lesson, none of the Gryffindors had managed to levitate their feather and many of them had become rather disgruntled and disheartened.
"Not to worry." Professor Flitwick chimed happily. "We can always pick up on it next lesson. Now for your homework!" The small man turned back to the board and began to write again.
Kiba let out a quiet groan as he folded his arms on the table and resting his chin on his interlocked arms. "More homework?"
"I want you all to write an essay about the history of the Levitation Charm and I would like you all to practice the Levitation Charms to show me during our next lesson." Professor Flitwick surveyed the students as he watched them begrudgingly make a note of their homework before he dismissed the class for lunch.
