Staros couldn't have been so far from the truth as to actually round the globe and meet it again as it appeared to be the next day. Long didn't describe the reality of it all. Chaos was a minor footnote in the day as the first year students all got up, or were woken up in varying levels of rudeness by their housemates. Clashes over bathroom time, clothing, gathering of books and familiars, and general hubbub reigned supreme in all four houses, Slytherin's being as bad as the others though they would never admit it. Then they started classes.
The advice to stick together in groups was perhaps one of the wisest things that any Slytherin would remember about Professor Snape, and certainly, the only fond memory most would ever have of the harsh man. Being together helped avoid being too late to classes as one of their number usually always remembered the way. The resident poltergeist, Peeves, generally stayed away from the Slytherins, but they still had to threaten him once or twice with the Baron's presence, disturbing as it was. By far, the worst thing encountered by any student of any house was most assuredly Mr. Filch. The old, cantankerous caretaker of the castle would spring out of nowhere to see if students were misbehaving. While it was a tiny bit amusing to see him hovering like the angel of death over students of other houses, the Slytherins also felt it necessary to help their classmates in a roundabout way by making sure the caretaker could never catch anyone completely alone or without a teacher nearby. Few would ever guess at this 'protection' afforded to them by the suggestions of Professor Snape who despised Filch and his cat, Mrs. Norris.
Staros was pleasantly surprised by several of his classes, and horribly disturbed by others. For some strange reason, it was decided that Astronomy should be taught on Wednesday nights for all first years and students have Thursday mornings completely free so as to recover from the late hours. He felt that Friday would have made more sense for this scheduling.
Herbology was with a sprightly, albeit plump, witch named Pomona Sprout. She knew her gardens well and Staros looked forward to learning more of the magical plants native to Europe. That this class was also taken with the Ravenclaws meant that the amount of information would be as detailed as one could get.
Professor Sprout started the class off with an introduction to the tools they would be using throughout the coming years.
"Proper care of one's tools is fundamental to the proper care of a garden," she started out. "Some of the plants we will be dealing with require certain tools made of particular material to be harvested in a usable manner. Examples include holly which is best cut with a silver sickle, preferably during a full or new moon and mandrakes, requiring the use of sound deadening devices in order to be able to harvest them at all."
The class promised to be quite interesting and possibly fun.
Charms was taught by a short man of not quite human ancestry. Professor Flitwick was a master duelist and held several Charms degrees from a number of prestigious organizations. While his size made him appear rather comical, needing to stand on a stack of books to see over his desk for example, his skill left no doubt as to his ability to teach.
"We won't be covering much actual usage of magic the first couple of weeks, but let me demonstrate what charms can accomplish," the little man said from atop his pile of books. Waving his wand in a careful fashion and without any vocalizations, various things around the room lit up like Christmas ornaments, sprouted birds' wings and flew, produced bubbles, or turned invisible. The awe felt by many of the students was palpable before he called them back to Earth and began lecturing on the reasons for proper wand movements and correct intonations.
History of Magic was, is, and probably always would be the single most useless class of Staros' school career. While some might remind others that history and knowledge of it was important to prevent repeats of the worst cases, a class taught by a ghost was almost as interesting as watching rocks succumb to entropy. Staros barely managed to remain awake and was happy to note that many other students had fallen far short of the attempt, some falling asleep after only twenty minutes.
It had started out pretty much like any other history class, or any class for that matter. The students all filed in, roll was taken, and then Professor Binns started to lecture. That was when things went downhill. During roll it was obvious that he lacked any kind of personality and droned like a dozen bees trapped in a tin can and barely waited for a response, but the lectures were much, much worse.
"Welcome to History of Magic, I am Professor Binns. Today and through the next few weeks we shall be discussing the influences of the Greeks on modern magic. The earliest known records of magical devices started with the Greeks as well as the first known Dark Lord, known as Herpo the Foul, which some muggle-born may recognize as Hades."
At this point, a couple of students had raised their hands, whether to ask a question or to point out that, as a ghost, he could not hold chalk and his pantomimed writing on the blackboard was producing no letters, was unclear since he never acknowledged them. It was obvious to Staros and probably several others that Professor Binns was a very basic ghost, devoid of much actual thought, mainly like a recording of what he did in his life. While possibly useful from an anthropological viewpoint, as an instructor, he was less than useful.
Transfiguration was the first class Slytherin shared with Gryffindor and the first chance Staros had to speak with Harry and Ron since the Sorting. Breakfast was often too rushed for any real chance to exchange more than a few words in greeting, plus Ron's table manners caused more than a few other students to lose their appetites. Everyone except for Blaise, who had developed a fascination with watching Ron devour whole platters of food as if he had never eaten his entire life, much like some who work with crime scenes or the dead become fascinated with the beauty of the setting or the particular way in which nature disposed of remains.
"Hi guys. How's things so far?" Staros asked.
Ron gave him a rather pointed look and asked, "Why are you over here talking to us? You wouldn't want the other snakes to get the wrong idea would you?"
Harry sighed and Staros just looked at Ron. "Ron, leave off will you?" Harry said finally.
Mumbling to himself, Ron made his way over to the desk he would likely share with Harry since it seemed that the houses rarely mixed company.
"I wonder what his deal is," Staros said. "Anyways, how's it been Harry? Classes are pretty different than what we're used to, eh?"
Harry chuckled. "Yeah, primary school didn't exactly prepare me for this. I can write better than most so taking notes isn't so bad, but the topics are a different matter."
"I know. I went to both a mundane elementary school as well as taking tutored magic classes growing up. I might know more magic than you, but the stuff they teach here is so totally wild. Looks like teach is in. Catch you in the library sometime all right?"
"Sure," replied Harry, sitting down next to Ron who had continued to glare at Staros as he made his way over to the table he shared with Draco, not out of preference, but out of necessity, him being the only other lone student without a partner left.
Professor McGonagall was the Transfiguration instructor. As they had already thought, she was a stern woman who tolerated no shenanigans in her presence.
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she started the class with. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."
With this, she turned and transformed her desk into a pig and back again. She seemed pleased at the excitement that display created, but they were definitely not up to that level nor would be any time soon. After a lengthy speech on the mechanics of Transfiguration, a great deal of note taking, and a couple smaller demonstrations, they were each given a matchstick and told to turn it into a needle. Only Hermione made any progress the first day, managing to make her match pointy and silver in color.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was taught by a rather unimpressive, mousy kind of man named Professor Quirrell. To say the class was useless was a kindness. The man had them reading from the textbook, in itself not a bad thing, but he answered no questions completely and never demonstrated anything they were supposed to learn. In all, it was a thoroughly disappointing class.
Staros was also a bit irritated about the content of the classes. Having already skimmed the textbooks and noting some topics missing, he was hoping for more revealing information in classes. So far, he was having no luck at all. Deciding to put that aside for now, it was only the beginning of the year after all; he set his sights on the next Gryffindor-Slytherin class, double potions on Friday.
Having already dealt with some of the rumors and later confirmations of some of those same rumors, Staros already knew that the potions class was going to be rather… stressful. Apparently, according to several Ravenclaws he had encountered in the library, Professor Snape was more than a little biased towards the Slytherins, especially in any class in which both they and Gryffindors were present. Staros had already seen a few examples of this form of unfairness in the halls, primarily Professor Snape coming down harder on Gryffindors and a few Hufflepuffs than anyone else. When he asked the Slytherin prefects about it, he was told that because of the extreme prejudice against their house, Professor Snape felt that the bias was warranted despite the fact that some agreed that it didn't help their image much.
Since the potions class was in the dungeons, which seemed odd for some reason he couldn't quite figure out, the Slytherins were able to get to class with plenty of time to spare. Staros looked around at the layout of the classroom, noting the theatre style of tiers, and decided that a table towards the back of the room was best. This way, he could see everything clearly, including anyone who might be making their potions a little better than himself, or, more importantly, much worse and be a threat. He also made sure his table was closer to the door, allowing more light, air, and an escape route if needed.
While the Slytherins tended to group together, they were spread out far enough, almost all of them taking seats in the upper tiers like Staros that Draco, with attendant cronies, was on the far side of the room from Staros. This was more than acceptable as Draco's constant spiel about his father's importance was already wearing thin and it was only the first week of school. If the boy didn't cool it, Staros was going to have a 'chat' with him soon about what they did with braggarts in L.A., especially braggarts who couldn't back it up on their own.
As Staros was starting to pull out and assemble his alchemy kit, someone tapped him on the shoulder.
"Mind if I sit here with you?" asked Blaise. "And where did you get that potions kit? It's nothing like the one I picked up."
"Yes, tell us about it," said another voice on the other side of Staros. Turning, he saw Daphne and Tracey sitting at the table next to him.
"Sure, Blaise. Take a seat," Staros replied, smiling. "As for the kit, I had most of my basic school stuff bought when I left New York instead of getting it here. At the time, it was more because I already had access to my family's Gringotts accounts in the US and I wasn't sure about the status of our British accounts. This kit is one of the better ones made by the Flamel Brothers on Fifth Avenue. There's a whole line of parallel streets in New York, mundane right next to magical and no one really notices."
"Seems more complete than ours," said Blaise, pulling out his own kit and setting it up, all the while looking back and forth, comparing the two assemblies.
"Well, in the US, we have several cross-cultural inventions. One of the major helps to magicals is the wonderfully exact requirements of science. Chemistry requires things to be so much more exact than magic does that we started using their equipment for a lot of our potions stuff. At least, that's what the store guy told me about it."
Daphne just flipped her hair behind her and said, "We'll see," before setting up her own kit.
About this time, the Gryffindors were marshaling in. Seeing the Slytherins already in their seats, the Gryffindors were forced to take the lower tiers, several grumbling about how that meant they would be closer to the front and therefor Professor Snape. Seeing Harry and Ron walk in, Staros said Hi to them. Harry nodded back, but Ron just glared before taking a seat next to Harry. Frowning, Staros again wondered what that kid's issue was.
Staros also greeted a couple of the other students he had met on the train, namely Neville and Hermione, the two of which decided to sit just below Staros' table. It seemed the center row of tables was unpopular amongst either group as Staros with Blaise and Hermione with Neville were the only students to take them on purpose.
A few minutes after everyone had shuffled into place and most had set up their kits, Professor Snape suddenly burst through the door, stalked rather quickly down the center, turned and waved his hand at the door, which slammed shut causing everyone to jump and silencing what little conversation there was. Everyone made sure to face forward and focus on Professor Snape.
'That's one way to get our attention,' thought Staros. 'Man's got style, give him that.'
Pulling a scroll from his robe pocket, Snape began by taking roll. As he reached Staros' name, he looked up and stared right at him. "Lord Marcus. Please don't think a title means much in here. This is not a subject that favors politics."
"Yes sir," said Staros a little nervously. Similar things had been said by most of the other professors, but Snape was able to just drill it into you with that look. 'Damn, this guy should be in Hollywood!'
As he continued, Snape reached Harry's name and paused, looking at that boy as well.
"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new… celebrity."
A few sniggers could be heard from around the room, mostly Slytherins, while Staros just rolled his eyes. 'Harry's not exactly Halle Berry or Tom Cruise. Barely a celebrity,' he thought.
Professor Snape finished the roll call, placed the scroll onto his desk, and stalked back towards the center of the room.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he began. After his entrance, the silence that reigned made his soft voice carry to every corner. While McGonagall's stern presence kept the class quiet and focused, the dramatic flair and dark looks Snape managed caused the same effect. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect any 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… I can teach you to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death. If you aren't the usual dunderheads I usually have to teach."
Glaring around the room as if in judgment over all, Snape noted which students paid more attention than others during his speech. Disappointingly, barely half the Slytherins gave him the attention he expected, a matter that will be resolved later in a house meeting. Surprisingly, though he was careful not to show it, several of the Gryffindor students had paid quite close attention. It seemed one was even taking notes on a mere introduction. Noting the girl, 'Granger wasn't it?' he wondered how well she would do in the class. But first…