Lessons and a Staff Meeting
Transfiguration had been... interesting.
While Charms had seen professor Flitwick covering wand movements, the exact motion each term a spellbook mentioned when covering how to cast a spell, Transfiguration had seen professor McGonagall merely give a brief lecture on the dangers of her subject, and assign them the task of turning a matchstick into a needle, without going into the details of what wand motion or incantation they had to use.
A portion of the class, including Hermione, had gone straight to following the teachers vague direction, no two exactly the same.
For the most part the students who went straight to casting were purebloods.
The other students dug out their books on transfiguration, flipping through them to find more detail on the exact spell.
Harry tried to recall what the book said, but hadn't found the time to go through all his books while trying to learn the routes through the school.
Giving in to inevitability he dug through his things to find the transfiguration textbook, and flipped through to the beginner exercises.
The first few pages came down to the main wand movements in Transfiguration spells, so he kept going.
It took an entire chapter before he came to the first actual spell, which fortunately was indeed the matchstick into needle one they had been assigned.
Comparing the spellbooks instructions to McGonagalls directions, he realised she had left out a few details, which was likely part of why everyone was taking a slightly different approach.
He sat back to consider what else might have been left out.
He didn't worry about why, often people assumed that everyone knew the basics of their own specialities and it was hardly unknown for his teachers to assume he had a lot more knowledge or skill than he did.
"What seems to be the problem, mister Namikaze."
He started at the professors voice.
"I was comparing the instructions in the book with your directions," he told her. "After your explanation of the dangers of Transfiguration I wanted to be sure about how to cast the spell properly."
"The spell is simple," McGonagall assured him. "Just give it a try."
Harry frowned. Something didn't seem quite right here...
He made a token attempt at casting the spell, following the spellbook explanation rather than McGonagalls.
The matchstick took on a silver colouration.
The feeling of casting the spell was similar to using a jutsu, particularly the transformation jutsu.
"Impressive for a first try," McGonagall commented, before moving on to the next student.
Harry glanced around the rest of the room, to see how everyone else was doing.
Hermione was concentrating on her matchstick, which was starting to take on the shape of a needle, as well as its colour. Neville, on the other hand, was at the other end of the class, understandable as he didn't seem to be putting any real effort into his efforts.
It looked as though Neville didn't believe he was going to be able to make the spell work, and Harry made a note once more to help him with his confidence.
Having determined that nobody in the class seemed to have made as much progress as him, Harry turned back to his matchstick.
The spell, even without him putting in as much effort as everyone else clearly was, had done more than the rest of the class.
Unsure of how the spell would interact with a partial transition he switched the matchstick out for a new one, and cast the spell with all the effort he had put into jutsu when trying to use them for the first time.
The matchstick splintered.
He blinked.
"That... shouldn't have happened."
Over the rest of the class he kept trying to figure out how to get the spell to work, resulting in a large number of splintered matchsticks. Even by the end of the class he hadn't managed to do any better than his first attempt.
The only upside was that only Hermione seemed to make any real progress in getting the spell to work.
[|]
He still hadn't got around to dealing with Nevilles confidence issues when it was time for their first Defence lesson, which, as chance would have it, came directly after their first History of Magic lesson.
"I can't believe you fell asleep and doodled all lesson."
Somehow he still had Hermione hanging around.
He had looked at the parchment in front of him when she had woken him up at the end of the hour, and realised he had been using his ninja training (or at least a portion of the extra teaching from his godfather) to write a transcript of the lecture even as he lost consciousness.
A quick glance through the transcript had raised the question of how he had fallen asleep, as the subject was fascinating, not to forget exciting.
"And I already told you, those are notes," he reminded her. "As a side note, have you read anything about ghosts having a supernatural ability to put people to sleep?"
He had quickly learnt that, although he wanted to learn what he could from the books when he had the chance, asking Hermione often worked as a quick shorthand, even if it was not always the most balanced account as she still had a tendency to believe the first relevant piece of information she encountered rather than comparing it with any further sources she encountered.
"That doesn't look like any kind of writing to me. As for ghosts... I haven't read anything about that."
Which didn't confirm things one way or another, as even if the research had been done there was no guarantee Hermione would have read about it.
"It might be nothing," Harry shrugged, "but the lessons should have been interesting enough to keep everyones attention. In any case, I wonder what the Defence class will be like."
After all, chances were the Defence class would prove most useful for his ninja career.
"Everyone whose already had the class seem to have different opinions."
"Well, we'll find out soon. Now, this way I think."
"That can't be right," Hermione disagreed. "I mean, we aren't even on the right floor yet, and the stairs are this way."
"You go your way, I'll go mine. Let's see who gets there first."
Fitting action to speech he started on the shortcut he had found earlier in the week.
Behind him Hermione made the decision to go the known route.
[|]
Harry was, of course, first to the classroom, not counting professor Lupin.
"Going to trust me next time," he asked Hermione when she showed up.
It was always fun to prove someone who thought they knew everyone wrong, something he had set up from time to time with his pranks (until people learned not to believe everything they read).
"How did you find that route?"
Harry shrugged. "Mostly I wandered along random passageways, and doing my best to keep track of notable rooms."
Whatever response Hermione might have made was interrupted by the door to the classroom opening, and so they entered and took their seats.
The professor, still wearing poorly maintained robes, waited until everyone was present and seated.
"Good afternoon class," he began. "My subject is called Defence Against the Dark Arts, as you all know."
There was a smattering of uncertain laughter, the class not yet comfortable enough with the teacher to be sure if it was a joke.
"While many assume that this means it focuses on defending yourself, and in many cases others, from dark magic and its users, this class also covers protection against dangerous magical creatures. I will be dedicating the first half of the year to the basics of protecting yourself from such creatures, and once you are more comfortable with using your magic I will make a start on the methods for dealing with dark witches and wizards. The first creature we will cover will be..."
Harry let his attention fade somewhat.
It was unlikely that much of what Lupin was planning to teach, or at least his teachings for the first half of the year, was going to be particularly useful.
[|]
Soon enough it was Friday morning, and time for their last 'first class' in a subject. Potions.
The Gryffindors and Slytherins made their way to the dungeons, Harry one of the few happy to follow the Slytherin students.
Once the class was settled professor Snape swept in, his presence enough to silence any students brave enough to talk to each other while waiting for him.
When he had taken his place at the head of the class Snape proved himself one of the two teachers who bothered to take the register for the class.
When he reached Harrys name, Harry noticed the slightest of pauses. Could it mean Snape was the professor who had known his parents?
When he finished with the register and set it aside, he started his introduction to the class, talking about a series of unlikely sounding uses for potionmaking. How could you bottle fame? What use was it?
Not all of the class was encouraged by the description of what they could expect from Snapes lessons.
Seeing how badly Neville was affected, thanks to the lack of confidence that Harry still hadn't got around to fixing, he decided to say a few words to reassure him.
"Hey, you can trust us to help if you need it."
Unfortunately Snape was close enough to hear that someone dared to speak in his class without permission, and even identify who it was.
"Namikaze," he began. "What would I get if I told you to add powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
"I wouldn't, sir," Harry immediately answered.
The class managed a deeper level of silence, nobody able to believe that someone would dare respond to Snape in such a manner.
Snape drew himself up.
"And why would that be," he asked in a sinister whisper.
"What type of infusion of wormwood, sir," Harry responded, "what temperature is it at? And what material is the cauldron made of?"
"One point," Snape began, "to Gryffindor."
The shocked silence of the class grew deeper once again.
"The answer I was expecting," Snape continued, "was the draught of living death. However your answer is more than satisfactory. Tell me, why did you give it?"
"The potions book makes it clear that various potions require specific temperatures at certain stages, and require a certain material for the cauldron to prevent a catastrophic reaction. Without knowing what the temperature is, or the type of cauldron or infusion for that matter, there is no way to know for sure that the procedure is safe."
"A commendable respect for basic safety," Snape allowed. "All too many students, even those in higher years who should know better, would be all too happy to throw the ingredients together without making sure it was safe first. In any case, to make sure this wasn't a fluke, where would you look if I asked you to find a bezoar?"
"In my pocket if it was an emergency," Harry responded immediately. "Otherwise the stomach of a goat."
"To keep a bezoar in your pocket at all times... many might call you paranoid. If you hadn't given two satisfactory answers have no doubt that I would be taking points off for your immediate answer. It was not an emergency, and your personal supplies are not relevant to a teachers questions in class. A final question, what is the difference between [aconite] and [aconite]?"
Harry hesitated. "Sorry sir, but this is not my native language, and all I heard was aconite. I think the translation charm may have made a mistake."
Snape gave him a long look, before finally nodding. "Headmaster Dumbledore mentioned the charm, but it was easy to forget. For the rest of you, [aconite] and [aconite] are other terms for the plant also known as aconite."
He glanced around the room.
"Well? Why aren't you all writing this down?"
While the class dug out their parchment and quills Snape returned to his place at the head of the classroom.
"Divide yourselves into pairs," he commanded them once they had finished writing down the answers to the questions he had asked, "instructions," he waved his wand (which Harry hadn't even noticed him draw), "are on the board."
The recipe Snape had produced even had its name, which Harry recognised from the potions book.
He hesitated, then started to copy the recipe Snape had provided to parchment.
"I guess you're stuck with me," Nevilles voice said next to him, and Harry glanced around to find that everyone else in the class had indeed found partners, all sticking to their own house.
"Shouldn't be a problem," Harry commented, finishing copying the recipe for the boil cure potion. There were a few key differences between this recipe and the one in the book.
"What's the first step," Neville muttered, lighting the fire beneath the cauldron Snape had provided.
"Don't worry about that yet," Harry told him. "First things first, prepare the ingredients. There are time sensitive sections of the recipe, and pausing to prepare ingredients would cause problems."
"If you're sure," Neville hedged.
As the class progressed it became clear to Harry that Neville had picked up a worrying habit of second-guessing himself or forgetting that he hadn't completed a certain step. Thanks to Harry, however, these incidents didn't result in a ruined potion.
Finally the potion was finished, one of the last potions to finish brewing in fact, shortly before the sound of a bell marked the end of the lesson, something Harry suspected Snape had implemented specially for the potion labs.
Looking around the class, Harry determined that his and Nevilles potion was one of the two potions that matched the recipe most, with the potion produced by Hermione and another Gryffindor girl being the other.
Before the class could disperse Snape spoke up from in front of them all.
"Namikaze, your potion was barely finished brewing by the end of the class. What reasons do you have for this?"
There was a certain level of cheer from the Slytherin half of the class, and a level dread from the Gryffindors, from Snapes question.
"I delayed starting the potion until I had copied down the recipe and prepared the ingredients sir," Harry responded, refusing to allow himself to be cowed.
"One point," Snape replied, "to Gryffindor for actually getting the point of the class. And for following the correct order of steps in potionmaking. I expect you all to have six inches of parchment on the purpose of my lesson on my desk next lesson."
The class had been unable to recover from their stunned silence before Snape swept out of the room once more.
[|]
"Are there any problems you can foresee going forward?"
It was the usual question for the headmaster to use to open the first staff meeting of the year, occurring at the end of the first week.
"There is a student who seems to have problems controlling their magic properly," McGonagall answered reluctantly.
"What makes you say that?"
The headmaster had adopted his full 'kindly grandfather' persona for the meeting.
It always helped him create a mental 'split' between his role in the school and the other positions he hadn't dare turn down.
"His first attempt at 'matchstick to needle' was the best first attempt I've ever seen," she answered, "but later attempts merely saw the matchstick reduced to splinters."
"Better than some possible results of transfiguration accidents. I've always felt that you should take some time before starting them using spells."
"There isn't enough time in lessons," McGonagall countered, using the same argument she did every time it came up. "As it is I have the lower years covering the theory in homework. If we could have someone to cover the lower years, maybe in their mastery apprenticeship..."
"I don't have time to track someone down and those who respond to the advertisements for such positions are unsuitable," the headmaster told her once more. "As it is, I fear we will soon have a year without the Defence position being filled. In any case, I have never heard of a spell going quite so badly wrong before."
"What are you talking about, spells go wrong all the time."
"But transfigurations merely change the target into the wrong thing when they go wrong, they don't just explode them. Would this student be young Harry by any chance?"
McGonagall nodded reluctantly. "How did you know?"
"I suspect he may have encountered a different type of magic. Might you suggest he... relax his magic, for lack of a better word."
"I'll try that, thank you headmaster."
"I must confess myself surprised, however. Severus, I was expecting you to complain about him like you've been doing since you realised you would have to teach him."
"Harry is the first student I can recall with any sense of safety in potionmaking," Snape defended himself. "At least, since I leant my apprentice to the Defence position."
"Why would that make so much of a difference? You seem to hate my Gryffindors regardless of how well they do in potion exams."
Snape was clearly making an effort to suppress his anger. "Too many of them cut corners to make their potions, I can assure you that I would assign marks based on more than just the quality of the completed potion. But no, that sense of caution cannot be taught, merely learnt. Something James never managed."
"Must you bring James into-"
"After his class I cannot consider him James' son. Merely Lillys," and Snapes tone took on a feeling of melancholy.
"Is there anything else that needs to be said," the headmaster asked hastily, not wanting anyone to question what Snape meant, just in case he was needed as a spy, or one of the other staff members turned out to be a spy.
He had learned long ago not to extend too much trust to anyone.
AN: And here we have a far better first meeting between Harry and Snape, resulting in Harry becoming a school legend.
And a certain amount of worldbuilding-each subject has a single teacher for all seven years in canon, which doesn't precisely hold up. Granted they are all masters in their field, but that does not mean they'll be able to teach the basics to new students. In fact, Snapes disdain for 'dunderheads' could well fit a teacher being forced to teach those too far beneath his level.
And why is there a single teacher?
The lower years teachers in otther subjects being subbed in for Defence (having at least a passing familiarity with their colleagues work) when the headmaster couldn't find another teacher, and his endless search for a new Defence professor (not to mention his three full-time jobs) taking up too much time to find a replacement.
When you think about it, it all fits together.
Also, I've decided to switch to a Thursday release date for my stories.
