Chapter Seven: First Week of Classes

Hadrian Potter POV

The first of September had been a Tuesday, so Harry had classes the next day and had made sure to get up on time. He wasn't quite sure how long it would take him to find the Great Hall, so it was better to be prepared than to regret it later on if he was late to his first actual class at Hogwarts.

As it turns out, he wasn't the only one that had the idea to wake up early. Michael Corner had woken up while Harry was getting dressed, and Anthony Goldstein had crawled out of bed while he was brushing his hair. Harry grabbed his charms textbook, then he and Michael waited for Anthony to get ready and then they left the dorm room together to find the Great Hall.

"Since our dorm is in a tower, we should probably just find some stairs going down. We'll probably find some other students that way, too," Anthony said as they climbed out of the door to the common room.

Michael said "Stairs sound good. Do you remember where they were?"

Eventually they managed to find the stairs, which had led them to the second year girls from the night before (Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecomb?), who had led them to the Great Hall.

There were already a lot of students in the hall, and when Anthony asked about it Marietta replied, "The timetables are being passed out today. Most responsible students get up early so they can get ready."

It didn't escape Harrys' notice that there were only five older Gryffindors at their table.

The two girls were kind of nice, but Cho was a bit girly and Marietta seemed snobbish, but that was just Harrys' opinion.

Harry saw Padma sitting at the table talking with that Lisa girl and sat next to her, pulling out his textbook so he could revise some points before class. He felt more comfortable around people he knew, and he really didn't know any of the people here. Michael and Anthony sat with them soon a conversation was going on about the classes they were hoping to have today. Lisa had managed to drag him into the conversation, but he only replied the bare minimum.

'Honestly, they only ever talk about classes. Do they have to live up to the stereotype?' Harry asked himself. Then he started to realize something. 'They only talk about classes because they're uncomfortable around others… Yes, that must be it!'

Harry was feeling pretty smug about realizing this when their Head of House (Professor Flitwick?) came around with their schedules.

On Wednesdays they had Defense against the Dark Arts with the Slytherins, Charms by themselves, then lunch, and then History of Magic by themselves. It seemed pretty simple, but Harry was regretful that he didn't get to take his Godfathers class yet.

Harry was also incredibly nervous about having his first class with the Slytherins. What if Draco was mad that he wasn't a Slytherin? What if Draco was mean to him? What id the Professor kept staring at him like he was doing right now?

Harrys' eyes flickered back up to the staff table at the exact time that the weird professor with the turbans eyes left. Harry felt extremely uncomfortable knowing that he was already being watched by his professors. What if Dumbledore put them up to it?

It wasn't exactly a secret to Harry that Professor Dumbledore didn't like him. When Harry was younger he used to wonder why Dumbledore never spoke to him or looked at him or anything. But now it was painfully obvious. Dumbledore didn't like him, and Harry was pretty sure it had something to do with Danny.

Harry sighed when his thoughts went to his brother. There was no doubt in Harrys' mind that his brother was mad at him. Danny was always pretty quick to anger, and this was more than enough to tip him over the edge. Harry glanced over at the Gryffindor table to find his twin glaring at him.

Harry quickly looked away and asked his classmates if they knew where the defense room was.

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Hadrian Potter POV (Again)

It had taken awhile to find the Defense Classroom, even though Cho had told him the way. Harry knew the teacher was still at breakfast, so he sat down on the floor and pulled out his textbook, The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, so he could make sure to know the answers to some pop-up questions the Professor might spring on them.

He honestly didn't know how long he had been sitting there until someone coughed nervously in front of him. Looking up, Hadrian recognized him as the Defense Professor. Harry stood up quickly, it wouldn't be good if he gave the man a bad first impression, even if the man was giving Harry one. I mean, the scent of garlic was practically rolling off him.

"Hello, Mr. P-Potter." He said. "I d-d-d-don't believe we've m-m-met. I'm P-P-Professor Quirrel, and I'll b-b-be your defense t-t-teacher."

Harry had to stop himself from laughing at the man's stutter. Harry himself had one when he was younger, but his father had quickly gotten him help and the problem had been fixed immediately.

"Pleased to meet you, sir." Hadrian knew it was polite to introduce himself as well, but it seemed as if this man already knew his name.

Quirrel smiled at him, and said "S-same to you."

Quirrel then opened the classroom door and walked in, leaving the door open so Harry could follow.

Harry entered the room and noticed that the room smelled strongly of garlic, just like the professor. It took all of Harrys' willpower to not scrunch up his nose at the smell.

About three minutes later Draco came in the room, followed by the two large boys following him. Draco wasn't glaring at him like Daniel did at breakfast, but Harry still felt like the Malfoy Heir was mad at him. He was so sure that Draco was angry at him that he didn't even notice that the blonde had sat next to him until he poked him in the side.

That made Harry turn to look at Draco, and he was about to apologize when Draco cut him off.

"Don't even bother, Hadrian." This made Harry shut up, but he opened his mouth again to ask how Draco knew what he was going to say.

Draco almost laughed, but he seemed to restrain himself since they were in public (and Quirrel was listening in on the conversation, but neither of them knew that.). "I've known you since you were seven, Potter. I'm pretty well versed in your facial expressions."

Harry wanted to argue that they had only written letters since they were seven, and it would be hard to read his expressions if they had only met face-to-face a handful of times since then, then it would be hard to tell what he was thinking. But he just let it slide and the two talked about their common rooms and their dorm mates. Harry felt very sorry for Draco, because Crabbe and Goyle apparently snored a lot. Draco didn't seem to mind that the two larger boys could hear exactly what he was saying.

Eventually the rest of the class filed into the room and they started the lesson.

The class was a severe disappointment in Harrys' eyes. They weren't questioned on anything from the textbook, and the mans' stutter made it near impossible to understand him. They didn't get anything done! Anything! Harry was pretty sure the man didn't know anything about Defense. All of the students were upset about the lack of a decent teacher.

The students complained about Quirrel all the way to Charms, where their Head of House, Professor Flitwick called role. He quizzed them on how much they already knew about the theory of Charms, and then he showed them a couple of spells. He told them about how different Charms were to other areas of magic.

Then he taught them about the branches of magic, which Harry eagerly wrote down in his notebook. There had been no information like this in his textbook!

"The two main branches are light magic and dark magic, as I'm sure you know," he said as his enchanted piece of chalk drew a tree on the board.

"You will be acquainted with all of the branches of magic, including the darker end of it, in Defense Against the Dark Arts. I will just be showing you the brighter side of it for now. On the light side we have the bare basics. Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology, and Defensive. Then there are more branches that come out of those key categories. You will learn more about them as you further your magical education. "

The tree wrote those names down on branches on the right side of the tree, but something was missing. I raised my hand. "Yes, Mister Potter?"

"What about potions?"

Professor Flitwick beamed at him. "I'm glad you noticed that, Mr. Potter." He turned back to the board. "Potions are a very… obscure branch of magic. Some of it is dark, some light, but the majority is a neutral magic, and there are not very many neutral branches of magic left. They've been lost to the path of history. Some of the more accurate magical scholars put the remaining neutral magics on the roots of the tree, so they have a better grasp of it. Do you all understand?"

Harry nodded with the rest of the class, but inside he was just a bundle of questions. How could witches and wizards just let magic fade away? Obviously potions were still doing well in society, but shouldn't that mean the other neutral magics should be able to help as well? What if the neutral magics that people forgot could help them progress even more?

His classmates went to lunch, chatting eagerly about all of the branches of magic that could be learned, and if they could combine branches for a more complicated version of magic, but Harry went in search of the library. It was only the first day of classes, and Harry already had so much to research.

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Daniel Potter POV

Daniel was still upset about his brothers sorting. How could the hat decide Harry was a Ravenclaw? They were twins for Merlins' sake; they had to be the same! Daddy always said they had to be treated equally, and that they were never to be separated; what would happen now that Harry was in a different house? Would he think he was better than Daniel?

Daniel had spent the first day of classes silently moping and not listening to a word his teachers were saying. It wouldn't matter; it was all just introductory speeches. Why would anyone listen to them? No sane person would.

And that was one of the main reasons that beaver-tooth was not sane. Daniel knew her real name was Granger, but Ron always called her the beaver and it sort of stuck. Yes, it was mean. No, he didn't really care. It was only the first week of school and Ron was complaining about her so much that Daniel thought he was going to get a grey hair!

It didn't bother him too much now, because Ron was putting up with his complaints about Harry.

It was now breakfast on Friday, and Daniel had received a letter from his parents and uncles respectively. The first was from Padfoot.

Prongslet,

Congratulations on Gryffindor! We all knew you would make it in! Any wild start of the year parties? Well, even if there were, you wouldn't be invited yet. You're still just firsty! At least you'll be invited eventually, I can't say the same for your brother, I hear Ravenclaw makes the students actually study in the common room!

Have you jinxed any Snakes yet? I can probably teach you some good ones through mail, it wouldn't be a problem. Just ask!

Write back soon! I miss you!

Padfoot

It was a pretty nice letter for Sirius' usual standards. He always sounded so awkward in letters that it made Daniel self-conscious of himself. What if one of his friends saw how weird Sirius was when he wrote letters? It could affect his reputation! Then next letter was from his other godfather, Moony.

Dear Pup,

I heard you got into Gryffindor. I'm so proud of you. I met my best friends during my years in that house, and I'm hoping you will do the same. So, just a bit of forewarning. If you meet a kid that's shy and bookwormish, go ahead and befriend them. You could make them really happy.

On to more pressing matters. Have you been doing well in class so far? I know you will only be doing theory for a while, but you understand it, right? If you don't, feel free to ask me any questions. I'd be doing you a disservice by not helping you if you need it.

Love,

Moony

Remus' letter was better than Sirius' by far, but it made him a bit upset that he wasn't sure that Danny would do well in class. Danny had the best tutors there were, wasn't that enough for them?

Then there was the letter from his parents.

Dear Daniel,

I was so pleased to know you had made it into my house! I had the time of my life in Gryffindor, and I'm looking forward to the stories you'll tell us when you come home for Yule. Your Mother was proud to know, too, but you know she isn't comfortable expressing herself too much through writing.

When is your Flying Lesson? I'm sure you will blow them all out of the water! (Pardon the muggle saying.) Have you pranked Snape yet? If you have, then you've already broken one of the Marauder records. We only pranked him in the second week of our first year.

On another note, I heard Hadrian went to Ravenclaw. Knowing you, you are probably upset that he isn't in the same house as you. But, I will have you know that there is nothing wrong with Ravenclaw. I want you to keep talking to him, Daniel. You know he isn't comfortable around new people. I'm worried for how he will react.

Love,

Mother and Father

Fathers' letter had made him angrier than was normal. How could his father tell him to accept Harrys house when it was obvious his brother didn't belong there?

And his mother wasn't comfortable expressing any emotion when it came to her children. He also hadn't heard anything about his Flying Lesson yet, and he already knew he would dominate everybody when it finally came around. He was the best flyer in a century, after all.

Sadly, he hadn't pranked Snivellus yet. Because he hadn't had potions yet. I mean, he was having it as his last class of the day today, but he was trying not to give the man an excuse to dock points. He and Ron had already lost points to Flitwick because of talking during class, but he had been talking about some boring tree or something. Honestly, wasn't that something Sprout was supposed to talk to them about?

Ron nudged him. "C'mon, we've got Defense, and I want to see if Quirrel's as bad as everyone says." He stuffed his face with some more eggs, and then spoke with his mouth full. "You ca' reply la'er, righ'?"

Swallowing his disgust (He knows he isn't the most polite eater in the world, but seriously?), he nodded his head and finished his biscuit. Time for class, and he had to do well in Defense. It was expected of him, after all.

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Daniel Potter POV (again)

After a horrible Defense class where they were told stories about false adventures that their incompetent Professor supposedly went on, the first year lions all gathered around the door to their Potions classroom.

Daniel was having serious doubts about his teachers' skills. Who in their right mind has a classroom in the dungeons of all places!? It was like an underground maze down there! When all the Gryffindors finally found their way to the classroom, the snakes all stood there snickering at how late they were in getting there. Daniel thought they weren't any better. How long had they stood there, with their impeccable appearance and first class robes?

Finally, the man opened the door.

"Enter!" he snarled at them, and Daniel saw Ron pale. 'Please,' he thought to himself. 'Does he really think he's being intimidating?'

Even as he thought that, he scurried into the room without making eye contact with the obviously ticked off Professor. 'What made him so mad?' With a glance at his classmates, he saw he wasn't the only one curious.

"Sit down!" he shouted at them once again. With a start, Daniel realized that nobody had sat down. Why hadn't they?

They all sat down, with Daniel sitting next to Ron and Dean, Seamus, and Neville sitting at the larger table behind them. Snape then proceeded to give them an intimidating start-of-term speech (which was pretty good until he called them dunderheads), and then called role. Like many of the other teachers, he paused at Daniels name. And while the others had reacted excitedly and happily when they realized that the Daniel Potter was in their class (they knew he would be, why the excitement?), he had a feeling that Snape wouldn't be quite so joyful.

"Ah, Daniel Potter… Our new celebrity." He said softly and dangerously, at the same time! 'Don't even pretend you didn't know I was here, you bat,' Daniel thought as he met Snapes' gaze. Then, he finished calling role. He seemed to size them all up for a minute before rounding on Daniel.

"Potter!" Snape said suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Wait what? Powdered what? The beaver seemed to know, though. Her hand shot up in the air, quick as lightning.

"I don't know." He supposed he might have said that a bit snottily, because Snape looked really mad, now.

"Manners Potter!" he snapped. "Fame clearly hasn't helped you learn to respect your superiors." He paused so the Slytherins could try and stop their snickers and giggles. "Let's try again. Where would you look if I told you to find a bezoar?" Beaver stretched her hand as high as it could go, which was actually pretty high. The Slytherins were still snickering and giggling, even though Daniel knew half of them didn't know the answer.

Daniel was getting mad. "I don't know."

Snape actually looked happy that he was getting a rise out of him! Merlin, that man needed a life! "Control your anger, Potter. Maybe you would know the answer if you had bothered opening a book before you came here." Daniel really couldn't fault Snivellus on that one. Daniel hadn't looked through his school book, and he hadn't had any tutors in Potions like Harry had. Snape was still ignoring the curly-haired girls' hand.

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" The girl had actually stood up from her chair. Daniel was about to bash his head on the table. Remus had mentioned this bunch of times, but he couldn't remember! His frustration with himself had finally tipped the scale on his anger, and he lashed out at the smirking teacher.

"Granger knows! Why don't you call on her?!"

The class went dead silent for a moment. The Slytherins stopped laughing at his humiliation. Daniel swore he could see his impending doom in the cold black eyes of the Potions Professor, but finally he turned and snapped on the Beaver to sit down. Then he rattled off the answers to the class. He snapped again afterwards, but this time on the whole class so they would write down what he had said.

"I will take ten points for your disrespect, Potter." Daniel looked up into his Professors eyes and knew he had just made a very dangerous enemy.

Chapter Seven Ends

Hello, people! Sorry for the kind-of late update, but this took me awhile to write and I kept getting distracted. I'm convinced my puppy is a demon in disguise, he won't stop trying to eat me. So, anyway, next chapter will be Flying Lessons and maybe Halloween if that one is too short.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: There is a little thing on the document manager page that says 'life' and it keeps counting down. Stupid question here, when that runs out will my story be taken down? And if so, how do I stop it? Thanks in advance!

PS: Sorry for those of you who read it the first time I posted, it was a repeat.