As it happened, the rest of the week was so-so-so-so-so, as John had rather eloquently phrased it when they all arrived back at the common rooms on Friday.
Everybody had formed their opinion of the caretaker, Argus Filch, rather quickly. He was a small old man who loved finding excuses to punish the students, especially if they were out at night. He did get along with the Prefects, though, as they shared a common hatred for Peeves. Somehow, Rory Williams had succeeded in gaining the friendship of Slytherin's ghost, the Bloody Baron, who was the only one able to control the poltergeist. This gave Rory some degree of protection.
Thankfully, there was only one History of Magic class per week, which saved everybody a large amount of sanity. DADA (Defence Against the Dark Arts) was held on Tuesday, after Herbology. Everybody was, for some reason or other, looking forward to this class, bar Neville, but it turned out to be a bit of a joke.
Quirrell had explained that his purple turban had been given to him by an African prince after he had gotten rid of a zombie during his year-long voyage around the world, though this explanation puzzled John, who murmured quietly to himself "What is a zombie doing in Africa?". The rest of the class had trouble believing that story too. The classroom reeked of garlic, which was allegedly due to a vampire in Romania. The turban smelled funny, and the Weasley twins said it was probably stuffed with garlic as well.
At midnight on Wednesdays, Astronomy was held. Mr Baker grinned a toothy grin as everybody walked into the classroom. This first class was relatively simple, just spot the planets and identify them. "The first three students to find all the planets and Pluto each get a bag of jelly babies," he then proclaimed, and needless to say, John and Hermione were among the three students, as was Oakdown.
There were three Herbology classes per week. They were taught by Professor Sprout, Head of Hufflepuff House. Transfiguration was held twice a week; one class on Wednesday, the other on Thursday. Professor McGonagall was this class's Professor, and demonstrated her ability to terrify students without even trying to do so within seconds of everybody sitting down.
"Transfiguration is some of the most dangerous and complex magic any of you will learn at Hogwarts. Anybody messing in my class will leave and not come back. You have all been warned."
After taking notes, she gave everybody a match, saying they were to turn it into a needle. By the end of it, John had, at least, managed to turn it from a wood match to silver, with Hermione actually getting it right.
Flying lessons usually took place on a Thursday at 3.30pm, but the class had to wait. Everyone looked forward to flying, though. "I once flew from The Giant's Causeway to the Black Forest on a broom," said John to Ron when they walked out of Transfiguration. "It was supposed to be to Jersey." This caused several of the other students to laugh, and Clara shook her head. She found John more and more weird and interesting by the day.
There was only one subject on Friday, and it was a double class of Potions, taught by Severus Snape. Every First Year in Gryffindor was dreading this class, and the fear intensified when they were told the Slytherins were also going to be in it. Snape, it seemed, hated Gryffindor House and favoured the Slytherins, which he was Head of.
John, not unlike Amy and Clara, noticed Harry's owl, Hedwig, fly in that morning with a letter, which she rarely did. John thought of walking off and asking him what it was, but decided against it.
"Anybody else feel the evil in the room?" Amy had asked loudly when everybody was in the dungeon the class was taught in, prompting snickering from the Gryffindors and sneers from the Slytherins. John just smiled to himself and sat down next to Clara.
Severus Snape walked into the classroom. He was thin, with a sallow face and long greasy black hair. As usual, he was dressed in black robes and clothing, though underneath he had a dirty white shirt with dark purple cravat. He sat down at the desk and immediately began taking the register, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry Potter's name.
"Ah, Mr. Potter," he murmured, "our new….celebrity." He then finished the names and closed the register before standing up and slowly patrolling the classroom, every student's gaze fixed upon him.
"There will be NO foolish wand-waving or incantation-shouting in this class. As such, many of you will hardly believe that this, the subtle art and exact science that is Potion-making, is magic. I do not expect many of you to 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."
He paused for a quick moment, glancing for a moment at Malfoy before continuing: "I can teach you how to brew glory, bottle fame-even put a stopper on Death…that is, unless you are all as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually teach." Professor Snape stopped both walking and his speech in front of Harry's desk, and stared at the Boy-Who-Lived.
"Mister Potter." The deep voice emanated from Snape's thin mouth, and Harry looked up immediately. Snape's cold face greeted his eyes. John looked around and saw Malfoy smile. John remembered that he had convinced the twins to switch their targets to Slytherin House and at dinner on Friday, to grant time to plan an even better joke. He told himself inside to say nothing.
"Mr. Potter, do tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion, of wormwood?" Snape asked, confident in his belief that Potter would not know the answer. Hermione shot her hand up, but Snape ignored her. Malfoy continued to smile, and his two gorilla henchmen were smiling too.
"I…I don't know, sir," answered Harry. Snape's lips turned into a sneer. "A pity. Clearly, Mr. Potter, fame isn't everything." John frowned, his face showing irritation. Snape surely knew that Harry was raised by Muggles and was humiliating him here on purpose.
"Let us try again. Potter, where would you find a bezoar if I told you to go look for one?" Snape's sneer was less pronounced, and John could see Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle hold in their laughter. He decided to use his old 'mind trick', as Rory had christened his rather advanced Legilimency methods, to help Harry now that he had answered another "I don't know."
Hermione's hand was still up in the air. Snape continued to ignore her, and it looked like it would drive her mad.
"What is the difference, Mr. Potter, between wolfsbane and monkshood?"
John finally used his skill and gave Harry the answer. Two days ago, he'd done it with Harry by accident, and told him to expect it to be used again.
Truth be told, Harry answered correctly. "Wolfsbane and monkshood, sir, are the same plant, aconite." Snape's eyes widened at this, but then returned to their usual narrowness. "Well done, Mr. Potter. I thought you'd probably decided not to look into your Potions textbook. As for the first two questions though…..a bezoar is a stone taken from a goat's stomach and will save you from most poisons. And powdered root of asphodel and wormwood create a sleeping potion that is so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death." He looked around. "Well? Why are none of you copying that down?" John smiled to himself.
The class went downhill from that point. The students were paired off, Amy going with Clara and John with Hermione. Snape had told them to make a simple potion to cure boils. He walked around the room, seeing snake fangs being crushed and criticising everybody except Malfoy, who he seemed to like. John had good reason to suspect nepotism.
"Everyone, look here. Mr. Malfoy is stewing the horned slugs correctly and perfectly…" Snape said, but was interrupted by a loud hissing sound and clouds of acid green smoke filling the dungeon. Neville, paired with Seamus Finnegan, had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron and was drenched in their potion, which was now seeping across the floor. Within a matter of seconds, everybody was standing on their stools to prevent the potion from burning holes in their shoes.
"Idiot boy," snarled Snape angrily as he cleared the potion away with a wave of his wand. Telling Seamus to bring a boil-covered Neville to the hospital wing, he then rounded on the two students working next to Seamus and Neville-Harry and Ron. Within a minute, he had taken a point from Gryffindor.
"I think he likes you, Harry," said John with a hint of sarcasm in his voice an hour later, as they all walked up to the common rooms. Harry sighed, his spirit low. In one day, his first week, he'd lost a point for Gryffindor and was heading the least favourite list for at least one teacher.
"You needn't worry Harry. He does that to the Masters of Antics (Fred and George) all the time. Though be careful if you're in the corridor and Filch runs into you at night. He will show no mercy," explained Amy. John raised an eyebrow curiously. "And how would you know about Filch?"
"Um…well, last night….Got to go, bye!" And with that, she was off. Clara was confused. "Why did she run off?" John's face went pink slightly. "Well, she thought for quite a while that Rory was gay. And she found out the opposite was true over the summer. And that he's had a huge crush on her since we were around five. Rory told me that he'd like me to give them room as they try-well, he tries- to be a couple."
Clara tried to hold in her laughter. Then she turned to Harry and asked, in a not-completely-polite form, what his letter said. "Oh, that was just Hagrid. He invited me to his hut around three. Do you two want to come?" John nodded on behalf of himself and Clara, saying, "Yes please, Harry."
At around five to three, they went down to Hagrid's hut, which was near the Forbidden Forest. Harry was in jeans and a red sweater, Ron in a t-shirt, Clara in a dark blue sleeveless cardigan and paisley skirt, and John wearing a navy bowtie, suspenders, socks and a dress shirt with navy blue stripes. His shoes were dark burgundy lace-up Jodhpurs, and he had a dark green moleskin overcoat on instead of a tweed jacket.
They could hear Hagrid shouting and a dog barking inside the hut as they walked towards it, and the Keeper of Keys then opened the door and stuck his head out of it. "Hang on a minute-Back, Fang!" He opened the door and let the foursome in, struggling to keep a hold of Fang, an enormous black boarhound.
Hagrid's hut had only one room, with a giant bed covered by a patchwork quilt sitting in the corner, hams and pheasants hanging from the ceiling and a kettle made of copper hanging over an open fire. "This is Ron, that's Clara, and this is John," Harry said, gesturing to all of them. John had taken off his overcoat and put it on a stand, revealing that there was nothing in between his shirt and the overcoat.
Hagrid turned from where he was pouring boiling water into a teapot and serving rock cakes on a plate, looked the redhead. "Another Weasley, eh?" he said, glancing at the freckles and hair. "You should know I've spent half me life tryin' to chase yer Twin brothers from the Forbidden Forest. And your family members before ya have been triple the trouble of them and the Marauders put together, Lungbarrow! Anyway, how's the family?"
John frowned, then closed his eyes, thinking to himself for a moment before asking everyone, "How about we tell you about our first week?"
Hagrid acted like he didn't notice John changing the topic. "Okay then, tell me how it went for ye!"
Harry, Ron and Clara told them about their first week whilst eating Hagrid's rock cakes (they were terrible, but they pretended to like them), and John told what Christina had said about her classmates, causing the other four to laugh out loud.
"I feel sorry for yer experiences with that old git, Filch," Hagrid said, delighting the four first years. "I'd like ter introduce that cat, Mrs. Norris, to Fang some time."
Like Ron, Hagrid told Harry to not worry about Snape, Clara agreeing. "Snape barely likes any of the students, even from his own House."
"Yes, but he seemed to really hate me, Hagrid."
"That's nonsense. Why exactly would he?" Harry couldn't help but think that Hagrid didn't fully meet his eyes when he said that. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see John holding a newspaper cut-out.
"Harry, were you at Gringotts on the 31st of July?" he asked, showing him the article contained in the cut-out. "Yes, I was," said Harry, amazed. "That break-in Ron was talking about happened the day me and Hagrid went to Gringotts to get money for my wizarding equipment."
"Okay, just needed to know."
"Hagrid, that break-in at Gringotts happened the day we went there. Maybe it happened while we were there!"
Hagrid definitely didn't look in in the eyes this time, merely grunting and handing both him and John another rock cake. The four students then walked back to the castle with pockets filled with rock cakes they were too polite to refuse.
Harry had questions on his mind. Why did Hagrid change the subject about Snape? And say nothing about the break-in at Gringotts?
For Clara, the questions were different. John deliberately changed the subject when Hagrid asked about his family. Does he have one? Is he ashamed of them? Why did he avoid the question?
One thing the two agreed on, however, was that they had had more time to think than any of their classes over the past week.
AN: Apologies for the wait. The next chapter should be up by the end of next week hopefully. And apologies for this being the second-longest chapter so far.
Also, John's extra-curricular costume in this chapter is what he wore for most of Series 6.
