Disclaimer: I don't own any characters, settings, etc., they all belong to JK Rowling.

Amazing! You guys are awesome, 78 followers!

Also, I have decided to make this into seven parts so this is obviously going to be year 1.


Harry woke slowly, and he looked around. The rest of his year was still asleep and he wasn't going to wait for them.

Harry sat up in bed and turned, and then felt a sharp pain in his back and shoulder. He stiffened and pulled his wand out from his pocket.

"Ambev." He said and felt the pain slide off him with a cold rush. He shook out his shoulders and stretched, feeling his muscle stretch and his mouth open in a yawn.

His yawn seemed to have awoken Malfoy who looked at him in irritation, his eyes hardening when he saw Harry.

"What are you doing Potter?" He asked, sitting up and glaring at Harry from underneathe the locks of white blond hair. Harry raised his eyebrow at him.

"And that concerns you?" Harry asked, lacing his shoes.

"Not at all." Malfoy said, sitting back and propping himself on his pillows as if he meant to talk to Harry. But Malfoy rolled out of bed, pulling his pillow off his bed.

He went over to where one of his friends were laying. He pulled open the curtains to reveal an ape like boy who was sound asleep. Malfoy raised the pillow and brought it down, smacking the boy repeatedly to wake him. What would have awoken other boys just made the ape turn over, disgruntled. Malfoy did this several times before he gave up, looking at Harry with a silent ask for help.

Harry unfolded his arms and pulled out his wand.

"Aguamenti." He said and a flow of water burst from the tip of his wand and hitting the boy. He heard a small scream and the boy sat up at an alarming rate.

Harry left to go to the bathroom and he heard rustling from inside their dorm. He also heard muttering from some of the boys. When Harry came back, he saw that the ape was standing there.

"Get out of my way," he said evenly.

"Are you going to make me?"

"I can," Harry said evenly, "But I don't want to. I'm here to learn, not fight."

"I'm here to learn, not fight," the boy mimicked him, and Harry felt his anger slowly begin to build.

"Well, I'm not moving and you aren't either until I'm ready," Gorilla boy said, taking the chance to swing at Harry's head. Harry knew there was no way out of this and ducked beneath the blow.

He pulled out his wand and pressed it to the boy's neck. They both stood silently, the other boys had awoken and their eyes were shifting between Harry and the ape.

"Now are you ready?" Harry asked, his breathing a bit heavier. The other boy stopped, probably deciding whether or not to risk actually fighting someone with a wand.

"Yes." Ape boy snapped, defeated. And Harry released him. Harry saw that he had attracted the attention of the other boys, who were looking at him incredulously.

The boy was sopping wet still and Harry couldn't stand the sound of the squelch every time the boy moved. Harry waved his wand and dried the boy's clothes.

"I'm not wet anymore," He said to Harry, giving himself a once over.

"You shouldn't. I dried your clothes," the wizard replied, and Ape stared at him. The dumb boy blinked at Harry as he opened his wardrobe, his back turned to the bigger wizard without concern. Normally, he would have taken the chance because Harry's back was turned. But he probably figured that that wasn't the best move and he wouldn't get out of it unharmed.

All the wizards in the room were still staring at him. Irritated, he leveled his green eyes on them.

"Aren't you going to breakfast?" he asked them. All of them nodded at him.

"Then stop staring at me like some kind of zoo attraction and get your arses dressed." And Harry left the room with an air of irritation.

Harry was fixed his robe, stood up and left the dorm room, heading out of the Slytherin common room. Students of all ages milled around, their faces at ease and relaxed. Some were laughing at a joke an older student had told, and Harry maneuvered through the students.

Harry navigated the dungeon corridor, the only Slytherin student to do so, since everyone else was still in the common room. He walked into the main hall, looked around and followed the students of the other houses into the Great Hall. He was the first and only Slytherin there.

Harry walked saw a whole cluster of Gryffindors, of all ages sitting around and eating, their faces puffed from the food that they crammed into their mouths.

He saw Calla, she was sitting with a group of girls, who were touching her hair and exclaiming about things.

"Wow, you have such pretty skin Calla!" One of the girls with brown hair called loud enough to attract the attention of most in the hall.

"Lavendar! I'm sorry." Calla said, looking apologetically at everyone. When her gaze landed on Harry, she smiled and stood. She ran across the hall to him and she came up to him, her eyes happy and her face nearly bursting.

"Harry!" She said, and much to the disgust of her housemates; threw her arms around the Slytherin. Harry smiled at her and place his arm around her.

"Gryffindor is so much fun! I've met so many friendly people and everyone is so kind!" She said, standing next to him her brown eyes were fixed on him and her eyes dimmed a bit when she saw the Slytherin crest on his shirt.

"How's Slytherin?" She asked, still smiling at Harry.

"It's fine." He said and she frowned a bit at the lack of details, but she nodded.

"Okay, I'll see you later Harry." She said, quickly reaching up to hug him again before making her way back to Gryffindor; her hair swinging with her. Her 'friends' stared at her with surprised disgust.

They asked her something, and Calla's face had turned from a happy smile to an angry frown. She said something to them angrily and stood walking down to the end of Gryffindor.

Harry sighed, she would have to get used to that sort of treatment during the next seven years. Harry started to place food on his plate, his stomach grumbling its approval.

"Aren't you going to leave some bacon for someone else?" a female voice said behind him. And Harry looked at her. She had black hair and a rather pointed chin, with a small petulant mouth.

"My name's Desdemona," she said, offering Harry a small pale hand and a smile.

"I'm Harry," he responded,"and that would be a great statement if I was actually eating bacon." Pulling the plate of scrambled eggs toward him.

"I know," Desdemona responded, not remarking on his calling her idiocy out, "Everyone in Slytherin knows your name. And you haven't even been here a full day."

Harry stopped spooning eggs on his plate and looked at her.

"You think that's a good thing?" he asked her. She nodded.

"They say you're dangerous. That you threatened Goyle." she said, her eyes resting on him.

"I'm not dangerous. I just protect myself." Harry replied. "He could probably kill me with one of those fists, better now than later that I settled things with him."

"But first years are the low men on the totem pole. We're supposed to be picked on," Desdemona responded, filling her own plate with bacon as other Slytherins entered the Great Hall. "It's part of being new students."

"He is also a first year, it's not picking on anyone but another low man." Harry shot back.

Desdemona studied the wizard calculatingly. He was handsome, he could fight and already knew powerful spells. The ability of witches of Desdemona's bloodline to quickly identify males of worth was inbred. It was what they did best next to spending galleons after all. Harry was going to be someone special in Slytherin house, someone who it would be good to be close to in the years to come.

As the granddaughter of Treggiari Lebrea, Desdemona had an eye for potentially powerful allies. Her father Andreas was also a powerful man, for he still held influence in the Ministry though he no longer worked there. She smiled at Harry sweetly.

"So, what is your favorite subject?" Desdemona asked Harry, trying to make small talk.

"Potions," Harry said shortly.

"But, you're so good with spells," Desdemona said.

"My mum works with spells all the time. They're fine but not that challenging for me. I'd rather brew…creating a potion requires more skill and concentration, timing and focus. You're not always sure if it will work until the end. I enjoy the process," Harry told her.

Desdemona was about to say something else when suddenly Goyle plummeted into the seat next to her. Crabbe sat on the other side of Harry, then all the chairs around them filled with first years, all of them staring at Harry, who was chewing a mouthful of bacon. The chewing slowed as he realized he was the focus of so many rapt stares. He swallowed and scowled around him. Then he noticed the older Slytherins on the other side of the table whispering to each other and looking at him.


Severus entered the Main Hall, sat down at the teacher's table and ordered his breakfast. He looked down at his Slytherins and saw the first years clustered around Harry, and the other students staring at him and whispering.

He studied the boy who was eating his breakfast under the critical eyes of his housemates.

He had heard the events of this morning from a Prefect. No doubt Lily over educated the boy and his sister and he had an entire arsenal of spells at his disposal. He was probably quite smart as well.

Well, he'd find out in Potions class with a few questions.


Harry was getting very annoyed with everyone staring at him. He stood, and walked out of the hall. Harry then remembered the etchings on the wall and jogged over to the Slytherin dungeons.

He quickly found them and began to study them, they looked like a bunch of marks but when Harry took a closer look he notice that they were runes.

He looked at each and every symbol, commiting them to memory. He was surprised that he didn't recognize any of the symbols for he had read many books on runes.

But the thing that kept his attention was a small etching of a snake near one of the runes.

"Interesting." Harry said kneeling down to peer fully at the small snake. It was a dark green with silver etchings. A small word was written in the wall, Sala.. for the rest of the word had been scratched out.

But Harry knew that he wouldn't have time to fully study them, for he had class in a few minutes. He scowled and stood, brushing off his robes.

He made his way back to the Great Hall just in time to get his schedule. He barely glanced at it.

"Point me, Charms Classroom." He said, and a red compass appeared in a thin misty shadow in front of him. He saw it pointing forward and began his walk.

He was glad he had learned this charm, for he might have walked through several doors and probably gone the wrong way. When he got into the classroom, he took a seat in the front on the left side. Again he was the first one in.

He took the time to study the charms classroom carefully, and he noticed burn marks in some of the walls and there were gouges of wood taken out of corners in other places. The red drapes were held open, letting the sunlight lighten up the classroom and the books on the wall were stacking the shelves.

And that was when he saw Professor Flitwick. The man was small, he wore glasses on the end of his nose and he had a handlebar mustache, his nose was rather big on his tiny face and his brown hair was cut into a bowl like shape.

When the other students began to pile in, the Slytherins and Gryffindors were on different sides of the classroom. Professor Flitwick began to take roll.

Harry and Calla immediately caught Professor Flitwick's attention. His last name was Potter, not a common one.

"I remember your father and mother very well Mr. and Ms. Potter, they were my best student. Though Lily was more at ease with Charms than your father was." Flitwick squeaked, the tiny man stood on a stool and his voice resembled a young boy's.

Professor Flitwick passed around parchments and quills. He then asked the students to list all the spells they knew, but Harry highly doubted all the spells he knew would fit on this single piece of parchment, he knew well over seventy spells. Actually, he knew more spells than most wizards period.

So Harry decided to mend to instructions of Professor Flitwicks to the top twenty-five spells that he knew. As his hand wrote the name of the twenty-five, he noticed the Granger girl's hand moving down the page. He almost raised an eyebrow at the thirty spells she had written on her parchment.

So Granger has been studying, he thought but he wasn't about to get shown up by anyone; especially not a Gryffindor. He wrote down another twenty spells to make a number of fourty-five.

"Alright students, pass your parchments up to the person in front of you and get them all in a neat pile." Flitwick squeaked, watching each student closely. As Harry collected the parchment of the boys and girl behind him, he noticed that each of them couldn't know more than eight spells apiece.

They come from wizarding families, but they don't know more than eight spells? Harry thought, but he didn't say a word as he passed them to the boy next to him.

"Thank you Mr. Odlis, Ms. Yelermen please pass your paper up." Flitwick said, collecting the parchment from Gryffindor first. He took a peek through them and tisked as he looked on some of the papers and his smile was bright when he got to one of the papers, most likely Grangers. He walked over to the Slytherin side and Malfoy passed the man the parchment.

Flitwick looked over the papers and he nodded in approval, some he frowned at, and one paper he was positively beaming at.

"Mr. Potter! What a surprise! I knew you had to be exceedingly talented in Charms, but to know fourty-five! And so young! It's amazing!" Flitwick said, looking at Harry with pride.

"I know I can expect amazing results from you Mr. Potter, especially since you have listed the spell of today's lesson on your parchment as well." Flitwick said, and turned away from Slytherin with one more happy look at Harry.

Harry felt the eyes of his peers on him and he looked sharply at them, most looked away; but Hermione Granger stubbornly stared at him with a red face and angry espression.

He held her gaze for a few moments before she looked away, her eyes straight ahead, but her jaw clenched.

"Now class we will be learning the Levitating Charm 'Wingardium Leviosa', I don't expect everyone to get it on their first try, but if you make an effort than you will notice the feather I will give you will lift a few inches off the desk." Flitwick said, and he walked over to a box that contained a lot of white feathers.

He pulled out his wand and said

"Elisium!" And each feather flew out to the students, landing neatly infront of each of them.

"Remember students it's Wingardium Leviosa."

Soon Charms class was over and the students headed for their next class.

Harry couldn't wait.

For the next class was Potions.


Severus paused outside of his first year Potions class and collected himself. He could hear the students chattering excitedly. The Professor took a deep breath, then strode into the room, his voice booming.

"You will be silent. You will face forward. You will hang on to my every word as if hanging on a precipice for dear life!" he said, striding up to the front of the classroom and stopping in front of his desk, his robes billowing.

Every student in the class stared at the pale wizard in shock and awe as he did his yearly speech.

"My name is Professor Severus Snape, and this is first year Potions. There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few who possess this talent, I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death."

Harry listened with unintentional rapt attention, his eyes locked onto the potions master. Although he had a very through knowledge of Potions ingredients and recipes for quite a few brews, he'd had little opportunity to actually brew them. Professor Snape was going to open a whole new world of learning for him.

"As I call out your name, please answer loudly and clearly with the word 'Here," he said to the class. He began to call out names, and the first years responded accordingly.

"Goyle?" the Professor thought, shaking his head slightly as he looked at the latest ape-like incarnation of the Goyle line.

"Draco Malfoy?" he called, his eyes falling directly on the little blond wizard, who looked at him somberly.

"Hello Professor Snape. We so enjoyed your company at our little get-together at the Manor last month," He said.

Severus sighed inwardly. Another Malfoy. In one sentence the wizard had managed to let the entire class know that he was familiar with him on a personal level, associated with him and was quite rich. He had to be careful with the son of Lucius Malfoy. He would cry to his father if so much as a hair were mussed out of place.

"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy," he replied as the boy looked around the classroom smugly.

"Calla Potter," he said with an edge to his voice as the brown eyed red haired witch answered him.

"Here Sir!" Calla called, her voice lightening up the dungeon like a flame. Snape looked at her critically for a few moments before nodding.

"Harry Potter." His voice was a little sharper.

"Here sir." Harry answered, feeling some looks on him from all sides of the classroom.

"I hope, Mr. Potter that you are not like your father, who was a swollen-headed, rule-breaking show-off who would do anything for attention. I doubt however if that particular mold has been broken," Severus said to the wizard with a sneer. "Suffice it to say, Mr. Potter…I will have my eye on you."

"Yes sir." Harry answered, locking his eyes with Snape's. Harry didn't know it, but he felt that there was something odd about him. And he knew that it involved Voldemort somehow, but it was just a feeling... though feelings should never be ignored.

Severus finished taking the roll, checked off all the names and put the attendance parchment in his drawer. Then he stood up and walked from behind his desk. He clasped his hands behind his back and stared at the students until most were quite uncomfortable. Finally he addressed them.

"In this class you can count on assignments every night, including weekends and over the holidays," he said, smirking a little as the customary groans went up.

"You may think this excessive, but brewing potions is a dangerous art. Before you leave this classroom you will understand which items should never be mixed and what their properties are, also this requires study. If you procrastinate or decide not to study, you will injure yourselves and others. So doing your work is important," he said.

"Note passing is extremely prohibited, If I come across any I will read them aloud and the student and correspondent will take detention from me. If you get a detention from me, you can be quite sure it will not consist of you sitting at a desk writing lines. Or you will be subjected to Filch's detention and I assure you it is more fun than mine. Argus loves to work and utilize students to the fullest.'

Severus began to pace.

"All right. We have come to the most disappointing part of the first day, where I have to see just how many of you have the slightest idea about anything remotely connected with Potions," he said.

His eyes fell directly on Harry, and the young wizard knew he was being targeted.

"Mr. Potter," Severus purred, "what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?

"There is no difference, sir. Wolfsbane and Monkshood are the same poisonous plant. It is also called Aconite. The reason that the plant is called Monkshood is because the flower resembles a monk's cowl," the boy said, his green eyes hard.

"That was a bit more information than I asked for, Mr. Potter, but acceptable. Next time a simpler answer will suffice," he said. "Never offer more than you are asked for. In anything."

"Yes, sir," the young wizard replied, sighing inwardly. This was going to be a rough seven years.

Severus continued to question the class until the end of the lesson period. As usual, their overall knowledge was deplorable. The Potions Master was starting from scratch. He walked up to the blackboard and wrote the night's reading assignment, to be followed by a summation.

"When you enter class tomorrow, you will place your parchments on my desk and take your same seats. For every late student five points will be deducted from that house. If you are late more than twice in the same week, it is detention with Filch. You must arrive before the bell. During the bell counts as lateness. Now you are dismissed," Severus said, watching as the first years hastily hustling from the room.

Harry made his way through the door, his thoughts contemplating.

Now I know why he dislikes me so, Harry thought. Because of his father. It seems I will have to work a bit harder to gain ground with Mr. Snape but it was no matter, Harry thought as he walked away from the potions classroom.