Chapter 13: Day 1 – Harry

The morning dawned clear and bright and the first thing Harry did was look around at his room-mates. Besides he and Ron, there were three other boys in their dormitory, but two were hidden by brilliant, dark-blue curtains. The one that was visible was rather plump, with sandy-coloured hair, sleeping on top of the covers with a hand covering his face. Harry turned to look out the window next to his bed. It must have been facing to the east, because Harry saw the sun rising behind the Forbidden Forest, lighting it up as much as was possible. Silver squawked to get Harry's attention, and he turned to her. He let her out of her cage and she immediately swooped out, transforming to Dusk and fell on top of Harry's chest, knocking him back onto his soft bed. Harry examined the creature happily. He ran a finger along its beautiful, charcoal-black fur, frowning a little at her unnatural thinness. He wondered if it was supposed to like that. His fingers reached its wing joints, and they stuck out horribly, and the webbing between each elongated finger seemed too thin to be able to hold up the horse-like creature. "Are you eating okay?" he asked in a worried tone. Dusk shook her head roughly, backing out of Harry's arm reach, jumping easily the distance from there to the end of the bed. She seemed healthy enough, but Harry decided to take her to Hagrid after his lessons had finished. Yawning, Harry but Dusk back into her cage, and she promptly became Silver again. She doesn't look skinny in this form Harry thought, leaning over to Ron's bed to wake him up.

"Wassup?" Ron slurred sleepily, sitting up and yawning loudly.

"I'm not too sure what we should be doing," Harry said.
"Didn't you hear the Prefect last night?" Ron asked. "We're supposed to go to the Great Hall, and we'll get our timetables and stuff there."

"Um, okay," said Harry, who had heard no such thing. "Let's go."

They walked out of their dormitory and down the stairs to the common room. Though Harry hadn't noticed last night, the common room was lavishly furnished, with a rich rug underfoot, with the darkest shade of blue, with veins of silver string sewn into the lovely fabric. The ceiling was domed and, like the Great Hall last night, was painted with a beautiful picture of the night sky. There were several comfy-looking lounge chairs, a few of which were occupied with other Ravenclaw students, and one wall was lined with bookcases and next to the stairs Harry and Ron had just descended was a tall statue made from marble of who could be none other than Rowena Ravenclaw.

They crossed the common room and went through the portrait, which opened smoothly at their approach. As they exited Harry turned back to admire the beauty of the phoenix in the painting. It cooed to him softly before disappearing from view as they went down the spiral staircase down Ravenclaw Tower. Harry looked out the windows they passed as they descended. They were really high up, and a fog prevented Harry from seeing the grounds in too much detail. But he did see a giant lake on one side, bordered by what must have been the Forbidden Forest, which seemed to stretch around most of the grounds.

They reached the base of the tower and continued towards the Great Hall, not talking much, being more contented to just look around as they went through the castle. They were greeted by several paintings as they passed through corridors, always heading down, but they never did more than smile in reply. The way to the Great Hall seemed to be taking a lot longer than it had taken to get to Ravenclaw Tower last night . . .

"You do know where we're going, don't you?" Harry asked cautiously. Ron turned to stare at him.

"What? I was following you!" Ron cried, with a slight undertone of panic.

"Uh oh . . ." Harry muttered. "Well . . . the Great Hall is on the ground floor, right next to the entrance. I think the only way to go further down than that is that corridor opposite the Great Hall. So we should just keep going down, and forwards, and we should get there, right?"

Ron looked uncertain, gnawing his lip anxiously. "Uh . . . sure . . ."

They continued down, getting increasingly worried as the minutes ticked by. But, fortunately, after what must've been at least ten minutes, they reached the wonderfully familiar sight of the Entrance Hall. They crossed over to the Great Hall to find it already crowded with the rest of the students. Harry and Ron found a place on the Ravenclaw table next to a group of older students, who promptly turned to stare at Harry.

"Hello," the closest said, sticking out a hand in Harry's direction (completely ignoring Ron, causing him to frown indignantly). "I'm Vanessa Tarner. Pleased to meet you, Harry Potter."

"Um, hi," Harry said, shaking the girl's hand, and suddenly remembering he was famous. "This is my friend, Ron." He'd noticed Ron's irritation.

"Hi there," Vanessa turned to him. Ron's ears turned red, mumbled something and gave his attention to his porridge. They were momentarily distracted by Professor Flitwick, as he introduced himself - with a high-pitched voice when he turned to Harry – when he came around, giving out timetables. Ron looked at it and read the timetable aloud.

"Charms first – oh, we've got Flitwick for that. Then Transfiguration, then lunch, then Potions. Bit of spare time . . . dinner . . . more spare time and sleep. Doesn't sound too bad, hey Harry?"

"Guess not," Harry said, engrossed by his own timetable. Over the week, they seemed to have the same seven subjects. Charms, Transfigurations, Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, Astronomy, and Herbology. He put the timetable into his bag, after memorising where Charms and Transfiguration were. People started to leave, and Harry quickly finished his toast.

"C'mon," he said, pulling Ron to his feet. "We should probably go."

"Nah, wait for Professor Flitwick; we can follow him to our class. Lemme finish my porridge." He sat back down and dug into his bowl. Harry kept standing, scanning the crowd for the tiny Professor Flitwick. Harry found him on the other side of the table, a couple of Slytherins ghost walking him.

"'Kay, we can go now," Ron said, getting to his feet and shovelling the last of his porridge into his mouth at the same time. He took several steps back, then lead the way to Professor Flitwick, who had by now reached the door, and was catching on to what the Slytherins were doing behind them. Flitwick was just telling off the Slytherins in question when Ron and Harry caught up to him. When Professor Flitwick moved on they followed him surreptitiously up several flights of stairs, drifting always to the east side of the castle. Finally they reached the classroom, and filtered in with the rest of the class. Harry and Ron chose seats near the front, the former eager to see as much magic as possible. Harry was, however, disappointed. The class started by Professor Flitwick calling the role. During this time, Harry took note of his fellow Ravenclaws' names;

Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Terry Boot, Luna Lovegood, Padma Patill, Lisa Turpin and Mandy Brocklehurst .

And then the lesson commenced, made up of merely a theoretic introduction into Charms, where the liveliest thing that happened was Professor Flitwick had levitated a toad over to a plump boy at the back of the class, when the toad had hopped up onto the book Professor Flitwick had been reading from. Harry sank vaguely into a miasma of boredom, listening with half an ear to what the Professor was saying.

Finally, the lesson finished. The class clambered to the exit, eager to get to their next class, hopeful that it would be better than this. Harry and Ron were with them, shoving their way through the crowd, which was steadily increasing in volume as other classes entered the hallway too.

It took them around five minutes to reach their next class; a silent triumph for both of them, considering the trouble they'd had already, and only capable by temporarily ignoring pride and asking other students and portraits whenever they could.

Professor McGonagall, the teacher for Transfiguration, clicked her tongue slightly in annoyance as they walked in, their first thought being how everyone else had managed to get there so quickly. But she merely gestured at a desk for them to sit, and started her class.

This one started off rather more interesting, McGonagall transfiguring several objects into several animals, and back again, but after that it followed along the lines of Professor Flitwick's class. The class finished with Ron and Harry uttering a great sigh of relief.

"I can't believe she gave us homework on the first day," Ron complained, as they sat down to lunch. "How could she have expected us to be paying attention? Pretty disappointing for a first day, too. I thought there'd be more magic involved, but no, why would they do that?"

Harry nodded vaguely. He was already exhausted from the previous two classes had been exhausting, and his brain felt stretched to its greatest capacity. He was not looking forward to his next class, unless it turned out to be something fun, which Harry doubted, if it was going to be anything like Charms and Transfiguration. As it turned out, it was much worse.

The Potions class was deep down in the dungeons which, Harry thought, was probably not a good omen. He had also noticed that they were sharing the class with the Slytherins, which, though Ron had been bitterly complaining about it after he'd finished complaining about the miserable classes they'd had earlier, meant Harry could talk to Draco for the first time since the Hogwarts train.

Harry spotted Draco waiting outside the class, talking to two other guys who looked like they'd spent the majority of their lives beforehand eating, bench-pressing 200 and mugging old ladies at dusk.

Harry approached Draco with slight caution; he didn't like the idea of being on the bad side of the two thugs of either side of him. "Hey," he said casually, smiling at Draco.

And then Draco recoiled, his eyes wide with panic, and warning. The other guys stepped in front of him, flexing their fingers threateningly. "What do you want?" the taller of the two growled, in a voice so low Harry could barely hear it.

Draco stepped forward, looking as uncertain as it was possible to be. "Harry," he acknowledged curtly. "This is Crabbe–" he gestured to the tall one. "-and Goyle. They're in Slytherin . . . with me." His eyes seemed to be trying to tell him something, but Harry didn't know what it was. Harry opened his mouth to continue talking, but at that moment the teacher arrived. Professor Snape. Harry turned as the Professor took out his keys to unlock the classroom, and as he did, he caught Snape's eye, and his own widened in shock. What had been in his eyes . . . that Harry could understand.

Pure, undefined, inexplicable, loathing.

Harry took a small step back in shock. Ron stepped into place by his side, and they entered the cold, mouldy classroom along with the rest of the Slytherins and Ravenclaws. They took a seat in the middle of the classroom, in front of a rusty cauldron, and started taking out their Potion ingredients.

Like Flitwick, Snape started the lesson by calling the role.

"Anthony Goldstein?"

"Yep."

"Harry Potter? . . . Oh yes, the one famous for living to the age of ten."

Harry felt his face flush with indignation. One, he was eleven; get it right. Two, why would Snape make fun of him being famous? Being famous was good, wasn't it?

"I'm sorry, sir, for getting rid of the one who caused everyone to live in fear for ten years."

At these words, Snape abandoned the role and loped right up the table where Harry and Ron were sitting, spreading his hands out on the table so that he could put his face right up close to Harry's.

"Arrogant and snide, as well, it seems," he spat. "That comment will cost you ten points from Ravenclaw, Potter."

What? Harry failed to see the fairness in this, but Ron stomped his foot under the desk and he kept quiet.

Unfortunately, the rest of the lesson continued in this manner; Snape hovering over the side of the class that the Ravenclaws had instinctively gathered, making angry comments whenever one of them made a mistake, when over on the Slytherin side one of their cauldrons was producing a large quantity of bright purple smoke, while at the same time emitting a loud hissing sound.

They were more grateful then ever when the bell went and they were dismissed from class. The group went immediately to dinner, and then continued to the common room.

Harry went immediately to his dorm and flung himself on his bed, despite the time and the fact that Snape and McGonagall had given homework for them to do. He glanced at Silver and vaguely remembered that he had meant to go to Hagrid's about her. Whatever, Harry thought, turning on his side. I'll do it later.

Harry tried getting to sleep, but it was simply too early for him to be able to. So, as the sun started slowly to set, Harry contemplated the events of the day.

It had been nothing like he had expected, and that wasn't a good thing. He had thought that being in a wizard's school would be endless fun, learning how to cast awesome sparks from the ends of their wands, but there was a lot more to it than that, and Harry wasn't sure if he was looking forward to the next day or not. It ought to be better, Harry thought, in an attempt to assure himself. If not, it might even be better at Uncle Vernon's – actually no; nothing could be that bad.

And then there was Draco. What had made him act that way?

The more Harry thought about it, the angrier he got. Harry had done nothing to Draco but try to be friends, and it had been Draco who wanted to be friends in the first place, so what right had he to suddenly act like that?

Harry took a deep breath and forced himself to make his mind blank, and closed his eyes, and slept.