Chapter 11 – The First Day
Harry directed the boys down to the dungeons, where they found their fellow Ravenclaw's and the Hufflepuff's queuing up outside. They joined Katy and spoke briefly to her before the walrus-like form of Professor Slughorn opened the dungeon door.
"Welcome!" he greeted them jovially, "Please come in." There was a desperate scrabble for the two back desks in the dungeon and Aaron and Adam were able to join little Nadia Rahman at one while three Hufflepuff girls took the other one. Slughorn appeared not to have noticed and stood at the front of the room smiling at them.
"This lesson will be a brief introduction to potions. The brewing of potions is one of the most complicated forms of magic, and therefore we will spend the first few lessons learning the basics and learning how to identify ingredients. Could you all please take out your copies of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and we'll begin." The lesson proceeded thoroughly uneventfully for the first hour, with the students taking some brief notes on the herbs that Slughorn talked to them about before he invited them to the front of the classroom. Everybody was giving the area closest to the desk quite a wide berth.
"Now then, we have a selection of stones here. One of these is a bezoar, a special stone taken from the stomach of a goat which can be used as an antidote to poisons. Can any of you tell me which one is the bezoar?" The class edged closer to the desk and examined the collection or rocks. Before he could help himself, Adam pointed out a particularly bumpy rock and exclaimed,
"That one." The whole class turned their heads to him. Slughorn looked surprised someone had worked it out so quickly.
"How did you know?"
"Well, you said that bezoars are made from hair or plant fibre, and that one has a tiny hair in it." Slughorn picked it up and examined the bezoar more closely.
"Very good, Black wasn't it? Ten points to Ravenclaw."
Adam was still blushing as they left the classroom fifteen minutes later. Aaron seemed particularly amused.
"You're gonna be a right teacher's pet aren't you?" Adam ignored him as they walked outside to the greenhouses, where they were to have their herbology lesson. This lesson they were to have with the Slytherin's. As they queued outside, Adam saw with a lurch of dislike Matthew White, who he still had not spoken to. White caught sight of Adam with his bright blue hair and smiled widely, making no effort to hide it. Before he could speak however, Professor Sprout emerged from the greenhouse and took them inside.
Herbology was very similar to Potions. This lesson, they were just learning about some of the more basic plants from the same textbook while being told about the more dangerous plant's they would be looking at later in the year. As they had entered, Adam had managed to drag Aaron in the opposite direction to White, who was being followed by a large crowd of Slytherin's. However, when Professor Sprout asked them to each grab a plant pot, Adam had to head to the back of the greenhouse, where they were standing.
"You're Black, right?" White asked in a surprisingly deep voice.
"Yes." Adam answered simply, but White grabbed the plant pot that he was holding, keeping him in place.
"I saw you in Diagon Alley."
"I know." Adam yanked the plant pot, but White wasn't letting go.
"I see you've uh, made a friend." White was looking past Adam at Aaron who was waiting for him. He was wearing a very disdainful look, looking at Aaron's untucked shirt and wild hair.
"Yes, I have."
"You should have spoken to me in Diagon Alley, you could have been my friend instead."
"Yes, I could have. I'm glad I didn't though." With a strong tug, Adam dislodged the plant pot from White's grip and walked back over to where Aaron stood waiting.
"Just ignore him." Aaron said for the fourth time as they headed back to the castle, White looking over his shoulder at them both, whispering and prompting roars of laughter from the other Slytherin's.
"Why should I? He's an arrogant little…" Adam tailed off, unable to find a word bad enough to describe Matthew White, "Who's he to question my choice in friends?"
"Exactly," Since he had told him what White had said about him, Aaron had been quite quiet and there was a distinct blush on his face, "You've just got to try and stay away from him. At least we only have Herbology with the Slytherin's." They trekked back up to the castle for lunch.
After a thoroughly tasty lunch of sausages and mashed potatoes, the two boys went off to Charms. Professor Flitwick provided the most fun lesson for them so far. To start off, he made it quite clear that he expected great things from his Ravenclaw students, much to their concern. After introducing them to the basic concepts behind charms and telling them all to relax, being the only teacher thus far to notice their nerves, he told them that they would be practicing their first spell, much to everyone's excitement. For the whole lesson, the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students began to practice the Wand-Lighting Charm. Adam and Aaron found the spell quite easily and spent the lesson making their wand tips light up ever brighter and by the end of the lesson, they were two of the few who had succeeded.
Their final lesson of the day was Defence Against the Dark Arts. Having been introduced to Harry that morning and succeeded in casting the Wand-Lighting Charm, Adam and Aaron felt considerably more confident and sat down the front of the class, where they were joined by a very nervous looking Alice Norton. Despite the high expectations people had of the lesson based on its name, the lesson proved to be highly similar to the first two. After casting a highly impressive spell which produced a silver stag, galloping round the room, Harry's lesson revolved around taking notes on curses, jinxes and hexes as well as their counter-spells. At the end of the lesson, Harry told them that next week they wouldn't be having a lesson as the students would begin flying lessons during the second week, much to everyones excitement. As they were packing up to leave, Harry held Adam and Aaron back.
"How's the first day been then?" Adam replied with an "OK", much less enthusiastic than Aaron's "Good". Harry turned to him, "What brought your day down?" Adam then proceeded to explain about the encounter in herbology with Matthew White and what he had said. Harry simply smiled.
"There's always someone like that. There was someone just like that in my year at the school. You just have to learn to ignore them. Besides, I think it's nice that you'd stick up for your friend like that." Adam went down to dinner feeling significantly better.
Having received absolutely no homework, Adam and Aaron spent that evening chatting to the other Ravenclaw's about what had happened on their eventful first day. Adam was pleased to find that the others had taken the same view as him about Matthew White. The ten of them all grouped around one of the tables and Adam and Aaron began helping the others to practice with the Wand-Lighting Charm, most of whom had received homework as they had struggled with it. It was a loud and fun-loving night and by the end of the evening even Aaron, who had been very quiet around the girls because of his initial shyness was laughing and joking with the rest of them.