Another very short chapter, I know. The canon chapter (or at least scene) was a lot shorter than I remember, and even then this chapter has bits added. Hope you enjoy!
Nicole had only been in Hogwarts for a few days and she had no idea what to think. The people were growing on her, but the lessons were either boring or had very strict teachers.
"What have we got today?" she asked that morning.
"Double potions with the Gryffindors," Lily said. "It's with Professor Snape, the head of the house."
"Best teacher in this school, I've heard," Pansy said.
"Well, I've heard that he's always favoured Slytherins," said Lily.
"So?" said Pansy. "When it's your own house, you have to have at least a little bias. Even you, Lily. You don't notice it, but you do."
"I don't have any biases!" exclaimed Lily. "In fact so far, I'm not a big fan of this house itself, so if anything I'm biased against Slytherins."
"As I said, you're not noticing it," said Pansy. "But you will soon enough. Anyway, I'm quite excited for this lesson for once. Will be interesting to see a teacher who isn't biased against Slytherins."
Just then, Nicole left the room without them noticing. Nicole was just happy she got to see Harry. And she herself was intrigued by this Snape guy. How would he act towards her brother if he favoured Slytherins? It's hard to say. She really wondered how this lesson would be.
Eventually, the potions lesson came. Snape began by doing a roll call. He paused at Harry's name.
"Ah, yes," he said softly. "Our new celebrity."
He then continued. "Nicole Potter," he said fast, as he stared at her for a bit, looking like he'd seen a ghost.
"Present," Nicole said.
When Snape finished calling out the names, he looked up at the class. "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making. As there is little foolish hand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will 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 how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death – if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads I usually have to teach."
The room stayed silent through Snape's lecture. Entirely silent.
"Mr. Potter!" Snape said suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Harry looked stumped, Nicole didn't know what the answer was either. Hermione Granger put her hand up though.
"I don't know, sir," said Harry.
Snape started to sneer. He was asking ridiculously hard questions to a first year. "Tut tut, fame clearly isn't everything." He ignored Hermione's hand. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find a bezoar?"
Hermione stretched her hand up in the air high, being the know-it-all Nicole remembered from the train. Nicole noticed Draco, Crabbe and Goyle laughing. Nicole groaned and was also a little confused.
"Which Potter are you talking to, sir?" she asked, politely.
"What?"
"You said 'Potter'", said Nicole. "Without stating which one you were talking to. Were you talking to me and Harry, sir?"
Everyone looked at her, even though she was stating this politely.
"Very well then," he continued to say. "Mr. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find a bezoar?"
"I don't know, sir," Harry quickly said.
"Thought you would open a book before coming eh, Mr. Potter," Snape said, making sure this time. "Mr. Potter, what is the question between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
Hermione raised her hand higher and higher.
"I don't know," Harry said quietly. "I think Hermione does though, why don't you ask her?"
A few people laughed at that, including Nicole a little bit, but Professor Snape did not look happy.
"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "For your information, Mr. Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is called the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you copying that down?"
There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Mr. Potter."
The rest of the potions lesson continued just as weird. Snape put them into pairs and sent them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs. He criticized a lot of people, but seemed to like most of the Slytherins. Draco had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon.
"See, this is how you do it, everyone!" Snape said. "You can all learn a lot from this boy."
"Thank you, Professor Snape," Draco said, politely.
Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad on the train, melted Seamus Finnigan's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Draco laughed and Nicole frowned. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools, while Neville moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.
"Idiot boy!" Snape rightfully said, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"
Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.
"Take him up to the hospital wing," said Snape. He then turned to Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.
"You – Potter – why didn't you tell him to add the quills?" he said. "Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."
Why was Snape being so mean to Harry? Is he jealous of his fame or something? Nicole heard that he preferred Slytherins, but enormously mean to other houses? What? Harry was about to argue back, but Ron stopped him before he could do it. This was a weird class.
They started to walk down the corridor later that day.
"Best lesson so far I think," Draco said. "It was as perfect as I expected."
"It was terrible," Nicole said, truthfully. "Snape treated Harry like Uncle Vernon did."
"He treated you fine though, didn't he?" Draco asked. "Might've been a different story if you were a Gryffindor."
"He still was unnecessarily mean," said Nicole.
"Well, Harry deserved it," Pansy said. "He was being cheeky when Snape asked him a few hard questions. And he should've told Neville not to do that. He was being fair."
"Fair?" Nicole shouted. "You call that fair?! It's not Harry's fault that Neville's such an idiot and Hermione's such a know-it-all! If anything, they should've lost the points."
"I enjoyed the lesson," said Sophie Roper, surprising everyone. Sophie was a weird person. She rarely spoke, just nodded a lot, she seemed to be good at the lessons though. "It was different. Snape was strict, but not the worst. I had fun. It was interesting to see other sides."
"I think the lesson was rubbish," Lily said. "Exactly what I was expecting. Nice to us, mean to everyone else."
"You're all being so grumpy," said Draco. "Come on, Crabbe, Goyle, let's get out of this place."
The boys walked out as the girls continued going. Nicole was always confused as Draco seemed the leader of a small gang with Crabbe and Goyle, as they only spoke when Draco was speaking to them. It was the same with Millicent Bulstrode and Tracy Davis for Pansy, who left shortly after. Some students here seem to have a lot of power, she thought.
"You OK?" Lily asked Nicole, when Draco and Pansy had gone.
"Why is this school so divided?" Nicole asked. "All the other houses hate Slytherin, Slytherin hates all the others houses, and everyone in them and doesn't give any of them the chance."
"Well, I obviously don't feel like that," Lily said. "I have siblings and cousins in other houses. I'm the daughter of a Hufflepuff and a Ravenclaw."
Judging by what she had just seen, a family of inter-house people like Lily's sounds impossible. Like, will her parents actually accept her as a Slytherin? What if Harry eventually grows to hate Slytherins? What will happen then?
"Houses are different, make different people," said Sophie. "Depends on the circumstance. Who you are."
Nicole's time at Hogwarts was ten times better than it was at the Dursleys, but it was still not the best. But this was only the beginning. It could get better or it could get worse. She'd just have to wait and see.
Thanks for reading! I don't know if I did a really good job with this chapter, because I might not be good at writing Snape. What do you think?