Chapter Eight: The Little Boy Who Could
Note from the author: Sorry the last update was cut short. The editor and I got into a knife fight as to how it should end, and I lost. This update is not as long as I try to supply; there was a personal incident that consumed the bulk of my free time this week. Without further stalling for coffee breaks…
AN from SonofLuffy: Still Monday on the west coast. Sorry for the lateness on updating since it is almost Tuesday. Like he said, this update is shorter then the last. There is a lot of humor in this update though that I like. I hope you guys enjoy.
Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter or anything relevant or recognisable.
Harry sat in the common room. Everyone else had already gone to bed. Hedwig as he had chosen to rename the owl, sat next to him. What a wondrous place, he thought. It was warm, but not muggy like summer days in the basement. He did not have to wake up early to make breakfast for anyone. No one was going to hit him without reason. At last, he was truly home. When he was about to fall asleep in the chair, one of the older boys was descending a staircase. Seeing Harry sitting there, eyes drooping, he walked over and helped Harry up, and led him to the first year dormitory.
"Better get some rest, Harry. Tomorrow is a big day."
The next morning, Harry was the last one awake. A note sat on his sidetable, he perused it while getting out of bed.
Harry, waited for you for a bit
You did not wake up
We went to breakfast without you
Hurry or you will not get any sausage.
-R
Sausage? I get breakfast meats? Not just bran and grains? Things just kept looking up.
Harry quickly robed for the day, grabbed his books and satchel and ran down for the great hall. He ran in, sat at his table, by his friends, and started to grab for foodstuffs. Piece of toast. Jam. Egg. Sausage? "Guys, are there any sausage left?"
One of them piped up "Sorry, no, you were late." And Harry's smile turned upside-down.
One of the older boys walked behind him, and reaching around, placed a plate before Harry with two fat blood sausage links. "Here you go, Harry. When I saw y'were late, I knew you could not have the true Hogwarts experience without Flitwick's famous recipe. So I nicked this f'you." And right back around went Harry's new frown.
He turned around to thank the Boy, but when he turned, the boy had already gone.
Another of his house-mates, Rococo Rockwell whom he had just met last night, turned to him "He lies, dun' have him. I was taking them to save f'you too, but he nabbed them last-secondly. But that is me kin, you would ne'er guess't." They sounded a bit like Hagrid, but the accent was nowhere near as thick.
When breakfast was over, Harry and friends scampered off to their first ever Hogwarts class.
"There will be no foolish wand waving or silly incantations in this class… as such I do not expect many, if any, of you to appreciate… the subtle science… and exact art that is… potion making. However for those who possess the predisposition… I can teach you how to enrich the mind and ensnare the senses… bottle fame… brew glory… and even… put a stopper in death." Professor Snape spoke in a somber, almost hushed, tone, which was still rich and bold in presentation and execution. The potions room was a smaller-sized room on the south eastern corner of the castle, with only one window, so it was kept alight by candle fire, which made for quite a dark, yet grim atmosphere. The walls themselves were very dark, from the lack of light, but also due to the appearance of coal residue likely used for heat during the winter. To Harry's right sat the curly-haired brunette from the train, who had stormed past him, who he knew now to be go by the confusing name of "Hermione Granger." On the other side of her sat a girl he did not recognize.
Snape however, saw Harry daydreaming, and, getting that ghost in his eye, fumed, "Potter! Our new celebrity. Tell me; what would I get if I added a Dragoneye grapevine stem to a herbolic cardiopowdered mixture of honeydew oil and asperdrell?"
Words seemed to carve themselves in Harry's mind. "Graveyarn's Draught of fireblood?"
Snapes eyes shot open wide. "Very good. Where would I look if I wanted a bezoar?"
Again, Harry's mind focus to a sharp point, and he replied "There is one in your desk, but they are commonly found in the stomachs of rooksgrass-eating ungulates like highland goats."
Snape's face began to flush red as a vein protruded in his forehead. "What is the difference between monksbane and wolfroot?"
Immediately, as if he already known the question, Harry shoots back "There is none."
Snape was glaring at him. "Maybe your fame is not just hype, and you are truly your prodigious mother's son, after all. If you cut a bezoar in half, powder the monksbane into a flashpowder, add them together in Graveyarn's serum, mix for eight hours under low heat, strain through haggis, and filter through the digestive tract of a brizzelby boar-bear, what are you left with, assuming this was not done during a snowfall?"
Harry's eyes lost focus. He was astounded to have had answered the first three correctly, and now he had no clue what the professor was even saying. "I do not well know, sir."
Snape smirked, a look of satisfaction overtaking him. "Practice makes perfect. By the time each of you leaves my care; you will be brewing the most powerful potions known to the ministry."
Harry's face was overtaken by a stupidly-wide grin at this. Power? That was exactly what he wanted. Draco Malfoy was sitting in the closest seat of the table next to him, and, sneering ever-so-slightly, shot him a knowing wink.
Snape thundered in his morbid voice, "Produce your cauldrons, students. You are going to be learning your first potion today. Open your books to page Thirty-Four. Elixir of Dillydrum Warding. A successful Dillydrum ward can be poured on the ground and create a barrier in which Dillydrums cannot cross. It is remarkably useful if you find yourself in the woods and wish to keep your food safe from these little vermin." Snape seemed to lose himself in a dream for a moment, his usual ailing countenance almost warming into a smile. But in the same instant he snapped from his illusion, shouting "Well?! What are you all waiting for? Do I need to ring a bell!?" Now frantic and terrified, the children began to produce their cauldrons, books, and reagents.
Harry took his time and studied the book carefully, but the words seemed to make no sense to him. He had always struggled processing written words, particularly ones he was so unfamiliar with. Snape was sitting aloof at his desk, which resembled more of throne, while he puffed ever-so-fondly from long wooden pipe. Now and again, a student would look up to see him blowing smoke in shapes that looked almost to be flowers. After a quarter hour had passed, however, he noticed Harry's distress, and rifled through his desk drawers. When Harry looked up, Severus was standing beside him, and snatched the book away from him.
"Go figure, Harry. We seem to have found you the wrong book," he grinned, flipping through the tome, "this one was a bad print. Take mine until I can locate you a proper one." Snape stowed the 'faulty' book in his sleeve, and handed Harry a new one, that had clearly seen better days. When he opened it, it had been annotated to the point it was practically a different book entirely. Whole sections were crossed out, numbers and reagent names had been altered, and in every blank margin, notes pertaining to the potion could be found, along with new potions entirely. When he opened to page thirty four, he found that half the steps were removed, reagents were simplified, and every word he had struggled over had been replaced with words that were easier to read.
"Thank you, professor!" Harry almost cheered, and was greeted with a slight smirk.
"Just be careful with it. It is very old- the binding is fragile." Snape turned to return to his throne.
Hermione Granger, seeing this, shot up her hand. "Professor, could my book have also been a misprint? I would not want to learn anything improperly!" A bright look in her eye, a stroke of brilliance, almost. Harry was unsure if she was genuine in inquiry, or simply a toady.
Without turning around, Severus merely replied "Your tome is fine, Miss Granger, but you are in academia and must learn to not speak out of turn. Five points from Gryffindor."
Eyes bolting open, Harry was shocked. All of Gryffindor was made to suffer because this girl talked out of turn? How was that fair? He decided the best idea was simply to work hard and do what was asked of him.
After herbology, Harry and the others went to lunch. When they sat down, owls began to fly in, dropping mail everywhere. Harry ducked, and covered his head, and one of the boys laughed, saying "No worries, Harry, they have good aim."
When they were all done, they flew out as quickly as they had come. Another boy shouted "Blimey, Neville has got a remembrall!" which was followed by Hermione, in a know-it-all tone, "I've heard of those! It turns red when you forget something."
Remind me not to waste money on something as superfluous as that, Harry thought. Such an odd bit of magic, to let you know you have forgotten something, when there is only so much to remember.
Later that day, all of the first years reported to the grounds. Harry was unsure why, as were Hermione and the other muggle-borns. Everyone else was absolutely giddy with excitement. They approached a section of field, in which there was nearly two score of brooms laid out. Harry worried that they had to sweep the grass, as Petunia would often make him do.
A rather odd looking witch walked up to them, crazy white hair, a three-quarter leather coat, thick boots, a faded blouse, and possibly the most normal pair of pants he had seen a wizard wear yet. She kept her hair restrained from her eyes with a large pair of pilots' goggles. As she passed through them, she greeted a few of them, and getting to the end of the line, turned and shouted boldly. "Welcome to your first flying lesson! I am Madam Hooch. What are you all waiting for? Everyone step up to the left side of a broom! Raise your right hand, and clearly say 'Up!'" Following her orders, Harry and Draco both clearly voiced the words, and the brooms sprang up into their hands, as if alive. Other students like Rococo, and the Weasley boy, whom Harry had learned was named Ron, were all struggling, the brooms poorly responding, and in the aforementioned cases, nearly struck their handlers.
After everyone had finally tamed their mounts, Madam Hooch again barked, "Good. Now place your right leg over the broom to mount it. Grip the shaft firmly, and pull up to raise a few inches into the air; hover for a moment, then lean forward, and set back down." The students complied, and everyone seemed to have no issue. Except Neville Longbottom. He began to float higher and higher, screaming as he lost control of his broom. "Longbottom, get back down here!" Hooch shouted after him, but within an instant, his broom took off. The broom rocketed him around the grounds, and he did his absolute best to hold on. He finally could no longer manage, however, and slipped from his seat, catching himself on a tower roof-edge. A glint of light dropped from his robes, and he shouted, "My remembraaaaaaaaaaaaal!" as he shouted, he lost his grip again, and fell, five stories. Fortunately, his fall was broken, almost halfway, when his robe caught a torch brazier, unlit, and when that ripped, he fell and bounced off of a protrusion from the tower into the mound of thestral excrement.
Madam Hooch ran over to him, followed by the children. She pulled him from the pile, to find his shoulder dislocated, several breaks in his arm, and wrist shattered. "Out of my way, out of my way!" She thundered, walking him towards the castle, "I have to take mister Longbottom to the infirmary at once. Until I get back, you will all stay firmly on the ground!" And she stormed off, carrying the poor injured boy.
Hermione looked back up to the ledge on which the remembrall had fallen, and mounted her broom.
"Where are you going, Hermione?" squeaked Ron, in his usual timid voice.
She lifted off the ground, with a shaky start, "Neville's remembrall is on that ledge, I am going to pop up there and go get it for him."
Several of the children cheered her, as she rose up to the ledge, but when she reached out to grab it, she had one finger on it, when the broom began to twist. The little glass ball rolled off the ledge, which was no longer of any concern to Hermione, who was now hanging upside down from her broom, both hands having slipped from the shaft, and now barely hanging on with her legs. She shrieked, and the children began to shriek in turn, some of them running away. Draco yelled to Harry, "Come on, she needs our help!" and the two mounted their brooms and flew towards her. Harry was clearly the superior, as he was almost to her, when she slipped entirely. Now, with Draco being closer, he took a sharp turn down, and intercepted her, catching her falling body almost 5 meters from the ground. Harry, seeing this, also saw the falling remembrall, and sped down to catch it before it shattered, on the walkway below.
Harry, and Draco with Hermione in his arms, gracefully descended back to the roaring children below, and, when firmly back on solid ground, Hermione, blushing, leaned over and kissed Draco on the cheek.
Draco, fell backwards, in shock. "How dare you touch a pureblooded wizard!?" Blaise and Harry helped him back to feet, and he continued, "Halfbreeds should know their place."
Blaise tried to interject, "Actually I think she is a-" but Draco was already trying to storm away, to hide his beet-red face. Harry snickered slightly under his breath, until a teacher emerged from the crowd before him.
"M-m-madam Hooch, we were just-!" Harry tried to spit out, but she was absolutely furious.
"A week's detention and fifty points. From all three of you." Draco stopped in his tracks; Hermione was nearly crying. Harry was about to argue, but he knew better, and nodded.
-end-of-chapter-
What do you think of Draco's and Hermione's short interaction? What house do you think Harry is in? Please leave a review with questions, comments, concerns, etc in the review box below. Thanks for reading!
