Disclaimer: all the Harry Potter stuff belongs to J.K Rowling. I have also taken a few bits directly out of the Philosophers Stone book as well as the film. Details at the end.

VVVVVVV

Mat walked away from the Sorting Hat, towards the Ravenclaw table. He noticed that all the kids at the table were clapping and smiling at him also, he smiled back and nodded to them all then sat next to a grinning and clapping Cho Chang. He leaned to her and whispered, "how long was I talking to the Hat?"

"About 2 minutes, everyone was getting a bit worried, some of the older years say that it never takes that long." Mat felt his cheeks redden and turned to look at Dumbledore who was looking at Mat as if trying to figure out a puzzle.

"My plan to stay under the radar is going swimmingly" he mumbled to himself.

"What?" Cho asked.

"I don't really like attention" he replied, turning to Cho.

She shivered, "yeah I get what you mean, it felt really weird sat on that stool in front of all those people."

Mat agreed "it did, but this is the only time we have to do that, hopefully." He gave a reassuring nudge to her with his elbow and looked back to the teachers.

His attention was then brought to the next kid walking towards the stool. He didn't hear his name being called out. After nearly 20 seconds the Hat shouted "Ravenclaw!" Mat clapped with the rest of the school and the kid sat next to him.

He held his hand out to him "Mat" introducing himself.

"Rand" the kid said, he was a small boy with long, wavy, bright red hair that would put a Weasley to shame, kind of looked like a girl, he would probably grow out of that. He had bright green eyes with a few freckles on his face, fair skin, and a straight nose. He had an obvious, yet soft London accent, they shook hands and watched the rest of the ceremony.

The final one to be sorted into Ravenclaw was Craig McGinnis. He was of middling height, quite stocky for an 11-year-old and had skin which was slightly tanned that made him appear to prefer being outdoors. His hair was messily spiked, like Mat's, and had intense grey/blue eyes. He introduced himself with a Glaswegian accent which gave away where he was from. He sat next to Rand.

There were seven sorted into Ravenclaw this year; Mat, Rand, Craig, Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, Milly Jackson and Eddie Carmichael. Marietta was seated across from Cho, had reddish-blonde, curly hair with dark eyebrows and dark blue soft eyes. She was slim of figure and pale skin with freckles on her forehead and cheeks. Mat couldn't place where she was from with her accent. Milly had extremely dark skin and hair to match, pouty lips, short curly hair, tomboyish in appearance with playful dark brown eyes. She has a charming smile and sat next to Marietta, she had a Brummy accent. Eddie was sat next to Cho, he was tall, slim, acne on his forehead and a long nose. His short brown hair was gelled forward with the front flicked up and had a look about him that made it seem that he had a joke that only he knew. All of the kids in Mat's year were dressed primly in their Hogwarts uniforms with the ties tied right up to their necks and didn't have an item of clothing out of place. This didn't last long as they started copying the older kids in their Houses.

The three girls who were in Mat's boat, Pomona, Ariana and Olympe, were all sorted into Slytherin, Olympe was the last to be sorted from the first years. The rest of Mat's yearmates were split equally between the other houses. After the sorting was finished, there was a couple of minutes to chat, which the school did with a vigour. The sound died down when the 'tink tink tink' of a metal spoon hitting glass echoed unnaturally around the hall.

All heads turned to Dumbledore who was standing and placed the goblet he was tapping down gently on the table. He gave them all a smile, his eyes appearing to look at everyone in the room at the same time "can I have your attention please?" he nodded to himself when all the noise all but vanished. "I have a few start of term notices I wish to announce. The first years please note that the Dark Forest is strictly forbidden to all students."

"Well," thought Mat, "that going to stop everyone from going there isn't it?"

"Also our caretaker" he pointed to him "Mr Filch has asked me to remind you that the list of banned items are on the board next to his office. I would like to welcome out new Defence Against the Dark Art's teacher, Professor Quirrell." He turned and gestured to the man who bowed gracefully in his chair. "All in all, I wish to welcome everyone, new and old, to Hogwarts!" He opened his arms wide with his hands toward the ceiling and then the food appeared, and the feast began.

There were gasps from all the students in the hall, and immediately people dug into the food served. It was a buffet style feast in which people grabbed what they wanted. It was a roast style dinner which including three types of meat, beef, chicken and pork. There were vegetables such as carrots, potatoes (mashed and roast), peas and broccoli and a plethora of other vegetables. Also in the mix was deserts, like chocolate cake, cheesecake and jelly, some people ate that instead of the real food. Luckily roast dinner was Mat's favourite food, hopefully they had more variety in future though, he didn't think he could live with roasts every day for next 7 years. The worst thing about the feast is that the only drink they had was pumpkin juice. "Pumpkin Juice? Who the fuck drinks pumpkin juice? I refuse to be here and drink pumpkin juice with every meal, its bloody vile!" Mat exclaimed, more to himself than to anyone in particular. There were a few sniggers here and there and some first years looking into their goblets, but nothing more got said.

The feast ended and all the older years left to go to their dorm rooms. Mat's year were told to wait at the entrance so the prefects could take them to Ravenclaw tower. A sixth year named Robert Hilliard came to greet them, he had a black mop of hair with a strong brow, deep-set eyes and narrow chin. Unlike his peers, he was dressed as immaculately as the first years, possibly due to him being a prefect. His voice was like scratching nails on a blackboard with the way he spoke. "OK first years to me hurry up now we don't have all day!" he screeched.

"I'm going to blow my top if every fucker keeps telling me to hurry up when we don't even have a bloody chance to even react" Mat swore under his breath, Cho snorted next to him and hid her mouth, trying to not laugh.

"Hurry! Hurry! Right, now that you are all finally here," he huffed like a peacock, full of self-importance, Mat hated him, "follow me and I will take you to the Tower." He turned and walked at a brisk pace making them all nearly jog to keep up. He started talking away from them, expecting them all to listen, only the people immediately next to him or behind him could hear properly. Mat was tensing to set off a flashbang next to his head, but sheer amount of willpower and discipline stopped him from doing so. He could vaguely hear that Robert was drawling about the greatness of Ravenclaw, what is expected of them, what they would and wouldn't abide by. The usual drivel. Mat was barely listening, he was looking around at the sights.

The castle was as beautiful within as without. The stonework was lined to perfection and were so flush it looked like someone had drawn the edges of the stones on with a pencil. The tapestries dotted around had no dust or any kind of fraying. The paintings moved and spoke to them. That was eerier than he expected. They bypassed the staircases and travelled to the base of a tower which they went up a spiral staircase to a large corridor 4 floors up. It surprisingly wasn't that much of a trip, at least he didn't feel like he had climbed four floors.

There was a magnificent door made from wood with eagle motifs carved on the face and a great bronze knocker, also in the shape of an eagle. There were two spiral columns on the side which arched up into Byzantine arch. As the group came closer, the eagle shifted and spread its wings, opened its mouth and said a riddle.

In a soothing female voice the eagle asked, "What is the leading cause for dry skin?"

All the students looked around, even the prefect, Mat barked a laugh. They all turned to him. "What's so funny?" Robert asked.

"It's a joke! I used to tell my friends it all the time."

He crossed his arms and looked down at him "tell us then" he said imperiously.

"It's a towel" Mat half sniggered.

Without saying a word, the eagle curled into itself again and the door opened. The prefect just huffed, his nose in the clouds and walked through the door. A couple of the students laughed, but most rolled their eyes. Mat thought it was hilarious. They walked into a sort of common room, more like a waiting room with long seats pushed against the walls. Robert turned to them.

"This is the antechamber to the tower. There are four more floors, with the top one being the common room. The tower is split in two, the boy's side is through the left side," he pointed to his right, all eyes turned to the left, "the girls to the right" all eyes followed his hand when he gestured to the door. "Your floor is the sixth, the closest to the bottom, the further up you go, the higher the year is. All the rooms have individual bedrooms with a small communal area for your dorm and an adjacent bathroom. If the girls will wait here, a head girl will be down soon to show you to your room. Boys follow me". With that he turned and walked through the door.

They followed him up some rather spacious spiral stairs and they came to plane looking door with a bronze handle which he opened and walked through. The stairs carried on upwards to the other dorms and the common room. Mat could just make out another door a bit further up around the curve of the stairs. As they entered Robert turned "right, these are your dorms, the bathroom is the big door to the right, and the doors to the left of me are your rooms. In Ravenclaw there are no curfews within the dorms, we trust that you will behave while here and study hard. Goodnight". With that he left.

Mat observed his surroundings. It was oval in shape, had white plaster walls, with a royal blue and bronze colour scheme and looked quite regal yet spartan at the same time. The main feature was a fireplace which had 2 plain pillars on each side and a plain mantle piece. Mat could feel the heat it radiated, there appeared to be no fuel for it, probably enchanted. There weren't any unneeded things adorning the walls or clutter around the room. There was a sofa with two chairs that had blue adorning and brass furnishing which could easily fit four people. Blue tapestries adorned the wall and there were two desks that were half circle shape which can have two people sat at the same time. The floor was black tile with thin strips of bronze at the edges. The curtains were again blue with bronze coloured tiebacks and hooks to keep them open. All in all, it was pleasant.

Mat announced that he was going to unpack his stuff. The luggage was next to each door on the floor to the right. Mat picked up the trunk and took it inside. His bedroom was a simple affair, had a four-poster bed probably made from oak, if the colour was anything to go by, two shelves and a wardrobe. It was about 3x2m and was spacious enough for him to rest comfortably. It had a window at the side of the bed which would have had a wonderful view of the quidditch pitch if it wasn't night time. It had the same colour scheme as the common room, white walls, blue material and bronze furnishing. Mat placed the trunk next to the wardrobe and unpacked his things. Half an hour later he had finished and went to the dorm common room. Rand, Craig and Eddie were chilling in front of the fireplace. Mat joined them.

"What do you think?" He asked as he sat in the spare chair.

They all gave responses like, "I like it," or "its comfy". They chatted for a few more hours and went to bed.

VVVVVVV

Mat woke up from his sleep at about 5am. It was pitch black outside and so Mat decided to scout out the common room. But first he did his usual business and got ready for the day. He planned on doing his exercise at 6 in the morning every day by running around the lake a couple of times, three if he was feeling particularly energetic. He got dressed in his uniform, trousers, shirt, jumper, tie and robe and left.

He climbed the stairs and as he turned the final turn and the common room opened up to him. It was amazing. It had the same colour scheme as his dorm room but had a more warm and friendly atmosphere. The white plaster walls looked to have gold inlay to make it seem like marble. The furniture was blue and bronze with wooden areas showing on the arms and legs. It had a rich blue carpet and a grand fireplace on one side. This had spiral columns and a mantelpiece with a flower motif made from marble. Above that was a painting of Rowena Ravenclaw, it wasn't like the others and didn't move. The marble patterned walls ended about 3 metres up and was separated by some white stone, from then on, the ceiling was midnight blue with stars and the moon which appeared to move on their own accord. In the windows were study seas which would have been able to sit 6 people, 2 on each wall and 2 at the window. The windows were tall enough to let a large amount of light through, the people sitting at the desks wouldn't block any light what so ever. The windows themselves had lead diamond window panes that ended in an arch. The pillars which separated the little study zones at the windows each had a book shelf stacked with books. In the centre of the room, floating in the air, was a bronze, moving model of the solar system with the sun giving a smooth natural daylight to the entire room. There were other little tid bits like small coffee tables, lecterns, small piles of books lent against the wall, globes and other items that Mat didn't know the meaning of. Overall, it looked a very comfortable study space which Mat thought he would be spending a lot of time in.

Mats eyes were drawn to the only person in the room, a girl with very pale, porcelain skin, platinum blonde hair as well with a narrow chin and straight nose. Her eyes were a light grey, almost white, which matched her appearance and had an intensity to them. Despite her description she looked extremely healthy, had a petite yet full figure, even stretched out on the couch as she was. Her eyes locked on Mat's as he came through, she nodded to him in greeting and he responded in kind.

Mat walked around the bookshelves to find some material he wasn't familiar with. He found one on ancient runes and started reading it a fair distance away from her in an empty seat. "You a first year? I've not seen you before." She had a soft voice with an accent Mat couldn't quite place.

"Yeah I am, first official day here" he replied looking over his book at her, she had lowered it page up on her lap.

"Aren't you a bit young to be studying runes?" She glanced to the book Mat had and back up to Mat.

"I know, I found them while raiding the book shop on Diagon Alley, they seem to call to me, you know?" Mat blushed a bit and shrugged nonchalantly.

"You understand them?" She asked tilting her head, it was cute.

"Yeah, it's easy, why?" he asked, hoping she wouldn't pry too much.

"That's rare," Mat shrugged again, not really knowing how else to respond."How long have you been doing that?"

"Dunno, been about reading them for about 4 months now I think." He watched her place the book down gently on the table next to the sofa she was laid on and get up to walk over to him. She walked like a cat. Mat closed the book as she came closer, she had a parchment and quill in her hand.

She held her hand out to him "Tiana" she stated.

"Mat, nice to meet you" he replied, shaking her hand.

"You too" she sat next to Mat and drew a rune on the paper "What's that?" She asked.

It was shaped like a triangle but with one line missing "either fire or knowledge" Mat answered.

She nodded at that, "what happens if you pair with this?" She drew what looked to be a basket with rocks on the top which Mat recognised as a kiln.

"It will heat the object up, but keep heating it until it shatters or explodes, it needs a stabilising rune like this" he drew the rune for protection which was shaped like the letter Y with a line in the top middle. "The protection rune will stop it from exploding or whatever, but you also need to set a number for it to heat too. Adding a harmony rune could increase its longevity as well." Tiana smiled at first then the smile turned into a beam when he continued and finished.

"We need to go and see Professor Babbling. Do you want to go in an hour? I know she'll be awake that early." Mat could only nod, "mind if we do some more tests to see how good you are?" Mat agreed and they spent the next 10 minutes or so going over different rune clusters. She gave him a beaming smile, "you're a prodigy, I found it really hard to understand these and get my mind around them, it takes a good few minutes to work out what each cluster does, I think you're a prodigy." She stated.

Mat smiled up at her and blushed, thanking her, he was never very good with praise. He also wanted to see Professor Babbling to get a better understanding of runes, but he didn't expect to be seeing her on the first day though. He was reading the book while they waited, and it was while reading this that the author spoke about how different styles of runes and hieroglyphs can be used for similar purposes. The most popular ones are in the Norse rune and Cursive hieroglyphs and these have stayed popular to this day. The more advanced and complicated rune clusters combine older scripts and runic style languages together to create something powerful and unique. It also turns out by adding runes and languages together, they create more powerful clusters. For example, using Norse runes, Cursive hieroglyphs and Roman numerals are more powerful and stable than two runes etched onto an item and activated. This was a revelation to Mat, he now had extra stuff to research over the summer and new languages to learn.

The hour must have gone rather fast because the next time Mat looked up there were people in the room that he was not aware of. Tiana, he noticed, was talking to some friends who just walked in. She gestured over to him and Mat gave them an awkward smile when they turned to look at him. Mat placed the book back in its home and waited for Tiana, she came and off they went.

The two of them walked down the halls making small talk, Tiana leading the way. She stopped in front of a door. It looked like any normal door, but on a plaque next to it, it had the name Professor Babbling. She gave it a knock. A moment later it was opened by who Mat assumed was Babbling. She had long black hair that was loose, going past her shoulders, aquamarine, friendly eyes, slightly pasty, yet smooth skin and a round face. She had a Roman nose, a small underbite, was a short woman and wearing plain, non-descript black robes with purple inlay. "Yes, what is it?" she asked, eyeing the two students.

"Miss, I got talking to this first year this morning and I think you need to speak to him about ancient runes." Tiana said.

"Oh really? What about?" She asked, narrowing her eyes, curious.

"Its nothing bad miss, I just saw him reading up on it in the common room and he told me that he understood them when he found some books in Diagon Alley. I quizzed him and he could tell me what each one did within seconds, he's really good!" Tiana exclaimed.

She raised her eyes at Mat then she gave her nose a little rub, "well, come in then, let's see what you can do" she held the door open for them both to come in.

Mat saw that the room had stacks of papers and books everywhere, the only clear space was the floor around the desk, the three chairs in the room and the floor leading to two other doors on either side, presumably to her living quarters and a storage room. The books and papers on the shelves around the room were stacked in such a way that it seemed like a slight breeze would knock them off, but they stayed firm. The chairs and desk were a simple affair, the stereotypical dark wooden teacher's office equipment. There was a large window being the main chair which gave the room plenty of light, and a cast iron chandelier on the ceiling. She had a quill, a paper holder and a writing mat on the desk, she closed the door, walked around them both and sat down.

She did some other tests similar to what Tiana had. He answered them as best he could, then she asked him to draw a heating cluster and a protection rune. He did so, with the heating rune he drew what he explained to Tiana an hour ago. Then he drew the protection rune. They were fairly basic and he found it easy to do. Two hours they spent in there with Mat drawing runes and being quizzed about what pictures of what runes did what. They then went for breakfast with a beaming Professor, walking off to speak to Dumbledore and other teachers about Mat's skills.

The breakfast was a non-eventful affair, he ate with Tiana and her friends. He discovered that she and her family were from Russia, they moved here when she was young. Tiana's friends, Saskia and Jennifer were both rather pretty. In fact, he hasn't seen an unattractive witch or wizard since he got here.

Jennifer had long black locks of hair and a straight face with an equally straight nose and was friendly enough to speak too, but she didn't say too much, she was a pureblood so that was probably why. She told him to call her Jen, which he did. Saskia was a halfblood, also had black hair but with a hint of brown in a pony tail and had a tanned complexion. They made small talk while eating.

It was a typical full English, Mat just had toast. Toward the end, at about ten to nine, Professor Flitwick came to hand out the timetables for the year. He gave them out to people as he made his way down the table. He approached Mat, Tiana, Saskia and Jennifer gave the girls their timetables and dismissed them and off they went, Tiana saying goodbye to Mat.

"Professor Babbling told me that you might be the next prodigy in runes! Well done, you've not even started lessons yet and your already making waves!" He said excitedly, bouncing on his feet, gesturing wildly with his arms. He was everything Mat expected him to look like, with a long bushy beard that covered most of his face, a bulbous but not too big nose and a smile that you couldn't help but smile back at. He was wearing green robes which reached the floor so you couldn't see his feet and had a pointed wizard's hat that was bent at the tip, Mat thought it was done on purpose. "Here is your timetable, you have charms with me at 9:15, there's a map on the back." He gave the paper to Mat. "Don't be late!" and with that he tootled off and gave the timetables to the rest of the students. Mat didn't even have chance to thank him as he left.

Mat turned the paper in his hand over to look at his timetable they were each 1 hour 30 minute classes which he was fine with. He had charms in the morning and transfiguration immediately afterward. After dinner he had double herbology. This was the same for Wednesday but swapped around. Tuesday was defence against the dark arts with history of magic afterward, then double potions in the afternoon. On Thursday they had double potions again in the morning and flying in the afternoon with astrology at midnight. They had Friday morning off which was good but history of magic and defence against the dark arts in the afternoon.

He made his way to his dorm mates. "Where were you this morning Mat?" Rand asked.

"I had to go and see Professor Babbling." He replied.

"What for?" Enquired Craig.

Mat tried to trivialise it by giving a half smile "turns out I might be a runes prodigy."

"What? How? You've only been here a day!" Rand blurted out, his whites showing in his eyes.

"Ha!" Boomed Mat, "that's what I said! Come on, let's get to class."

The four of them made their way to the first charms class of the term, they were all excited. They entered the classroom, it was much like what is in the movies, with wooden pew-desks arranged on either side of the classroom and Professor Flitwick stood waiting for them on a plinth. Mat sat down on the wooden seat, it was extremely uncomfortable. There were books in shelves behind the professor which framed a massive window and was the only source of natural light. There were iron chandeliers, four all together in the room and a plain, stone fireplace which radiated heat. Mat couldn't help but smile as he saw the huge white feathers arranged on the tables. He took a seat in between Rand and Craig, with Eddie next to Craig. They were seated on the back pew, there were a couple of the other kids, and by the colour of their ties, they were Gryffindors. The Ravenclaw girls came in and sat in front of Mat and the boys. The rest of the Gryffindors trickled in after this and then the lesson started.

The professor gave them an introduction lecture, telling them of the history behind charms and what they can do. He completed his speech and then immediately got the class to do some magic. It was the Levitation Charm they were practicing. "Now, copy what I do, swish and flick and say the words, 'Wingardium Leviosa', try it now please." He tapped his wand in his hand while watching his class. Mat got his almost white, pear wood wand out and pointed it at the feather. He channelled his magic like he would do when casting his wandless magic and cast it.

"Wingardium Leviosa" he said with a purpose, giving the wand a swish and a flick like he saw the professor do. Immediately the feather flew in the air, Mat controlled it with his wand.

"Well done Matthew! Well done indeed, 10 points to Ravenclaw!" Professor Flitwick clapped his hands in jubilation as he cast the spell on the first turn.

Mat gave it another few goes and then helped everyone else in the room, including the Gryffindor's. The lesson flew by after that and everyone had mastered the charm.

Transfiguration was fun. The classroom was similar to the charms room but had individual school desks instead of pews. They were with Slytherin this time. Professor McGonagall was stood in front of her desk eyeing her pupils as they came in. She gave another beginning of year speech, describing the seven schools of transfiguration; Transformation, Human Transfiguration, Untransfiguration, Trans-Species Transformation, Switching, Vanishment and Conjuration. She gave an example of all of the sub classes, with Human Transfiguration she turned into a cat and back. Then she said they would start off with the easiest branch of transfiguration, Transformation.

Their first task was to transform a match into a needle. Professor McGonagall told everyone to visualise a needle with their mind and tap the matchstick with it, focussing magic through the wand. Before Mat did anything, he spent a minute or two getting the image of a match in his mind, he focused his magic and then pushed it down the wand while tapping the matchstick at the same time, he saw a shimmer of magic travel down the wand into the matchstick. The transformation was visible but not slow as he saw it change into a perfect needle. He smiled to himself.

"An excellent first try Mr Lawson, 10 points to Ravenclaw." Professor McGonagall told Mat in her stern voice. He thanked her and repeated the process a number of times before offering his help to the other kids, the Ravenclaws all agreed, the Slytherins shrugged him off. He had made some enemies that day apparently.

They all left after the class, Mat felt happy about himself and all of Ravenclaw had managed to transfigure the match into a needle, only half the Slytherins were able to do that. As he walked through the door and heading towards the main hall, someone pushed him to the floor.

Mat spun to land on his back so he could see who did it. There was a boy who he recognised from the transfiguration lesson stood there with a scowl on his face. "Who are you, Mudblood, to ask someone like me if I needed help?" he basically shouted, pointing his wand at Mat. A few of the boy's goons were eyeing Rand, Craig and Eddie with smiles on their faces, all had their wands out too.

"Fucking purebloods" Mat thought. He analysed the situation, he had no access to his wand, the boy was about the same height to him, but was weedy. He had slick brown hair pulled back, and had hazel eyes that were burning into Mat with disgust. He inched closer to Mat, his right knee got close enough to Mats right foot. The boy was pointing his wand at Mat with his right hand and was completely off balance. So, Mat acted.

As quick as a snake, Mat hooked his foot around the back of the boy's knee and pulled, he twisted on the floor, shot up and grabbed the startled, unbalanced boy's arm then pulled it to him, turning to his right, twisting the boy's wrist as he did, forcing him to drop his wand and further unbalancing him. He turned again to the left and elbowed the boy in the nose. He screamed like a cat in the night, defending its territory. His head snapped back in a fountain of blood. Mat then hooked his leg around the back of the boy's legs and pushed him onto the floor. Not giving him a chance to recover, he straddled him, pointing his wand in the boy's face, close to his eye. His left hand was around his throat, he lent down and whispered in his ear, "don't you fucking touch me again you little inbred cunt!" He lent back "Understand?!" He growled at him.

The boy nodded in pure fear, eyes watering and was turning pale, it contrasted with the blood coming out of his nose, which was quite obviously broken. "I didn't hear you" Mat growled again, leaning closer.

"Yes, Yes! I understand" he said in pained gasps.

"Good" Mat stated, he got up and walked away, leaving a shocked crowd behind. He was in a foul mood now. He proper couldn't be arsed with fighting on the first day of school, it started so well.

He stormed into the great hall for some food, he didn't feel like eating due to the adrenaline, but he knew he'd regret it later if he went without. He managed to get a few mouthfuls before feeling too full to carry on. Cho Chang came and sat next to Mat at the table "wow Mat, are you ok?" She asked

"Yeah I'm fine thanks." He replied sullenly.

"You really gave him a beating; do you know who that was?" Marietta asked who suddenly appeared at his other side.

"No, why? Should I? The little shit deserved what he got"

"That was Adrian Carrow!" Cho exclaimed, staring at Mat, eyes wide.

"Oh" was all that Mat said, looking at the chicken in front of him. This was when Snape in all his wisdom grabbed Mat by his collar, lifting him up from his seat. Mat swung his arm out and hit Snape's arm making him let go. Mat jumped up out of his seat and faced the teacher who was scowling at him like he had just scraped him from the bottom of his shoe. "The fuck you think you're doing?" Mat all but shouted. Making the whole hall quieten. Mat analysed him, making sure he wasn't going to be attacked again. He saw the now identified Adrien Carrow smiling at Mat behind Snape.

"Who do you think you are to attack one of my students?" He drawled out in his annoying tone. His hair was greasy, his skin pale, had dark eyes and gaunt features. His clothing was equally gaunt with faded black robes and what appeared to be potions stains down the front.

"He attacked me first, I just defended myself" Mat shot back, his fists clenching in barely controlled anger.

"I should have you expelled for striking another student, boy." He drawled again.

Mat flinched in shock "are you serious? Did he tell you what it was all about? How he pulled his wand on me while I was on the floor? Or is he a liar as well as a little pussy who was nearly crying when I took him down?" Mat's voice was raising into a full-on shout, his anger getting to boiling point.

Little did Mat know that the room started shaking, the cutlery, plates and goblets vibrating on the tables and windows rattling. Professor Vector, the only other teacher in the room came running over to attempt to diffuse the situation. She stood between teacher and student holding her arms out, palms flat, separating them both.

"Calm down, the both of you!" She all but shouted at them. "Severus, you should be ashamed of yourself! Grabbing onto a boy like that after he's just had a fight! Leave now before I lose my patience!" She turned to Mat, basically dismissing Snape, not making sure that he had actually left. "Breathe, boy, breathe. That's it look into my eyes" she placed her hands on Mat's shoulders, got onto his level, which was not that far down for her. "Breathe in and out, with me now." She instructed.

In Mat's tunnel vision all he could really see was her big brown eyes. He followed her instructions and the room came back into focus. He blinked a few times, shaking his head. He noticed all of the school who were in the great hall were staring at him, some nervously, some with grinning, some with shock. Others, like some of the Slytherins, were leering at him in contempt.

His attention was taken away when the Professor turned his face around with her hand, so he was looking at her, "come with me, let's talk about it ok?" Mat nodded numbly and they both left to go to her office.

He followed her into her office. He didn't take in many of the details, he was staring at the floor. She guided him to a chair. He had never felt so much like an 11-year-old till then. She sat on the edge of her desk "now, what's your name?"

"Mat" he said simply.

"OK Mat, can you tell me what happened?" she asked, with concern in her eyes.

Mat looked up and took her in for the first time. She was about middle aged, had an oval face, rosy, light skin, big brown, friendly eyes, jet black hair tied into a bun and pouty, red lips. She had simple red robes with a little decoration at the front. He sighed and then decided to tell her, now he'd calmed down. He also told her of the witnesses and what he did in class. Her response was to nod in contemplation, then she cast a non-verbal Patronus that whisked off in search for its target.

"I've just sent for Professor Flitwick, he'll know what to do. Everything is fine, I'll make sure that you won't get in trouble."

Mat beamed up at her "thank you, I can't tell how much that means to me."

"Don't worry about it, you do want a cuppa while we wait?" she asked.

"Definitely" he replied.

It was about 10 minutes later when Flitwick arrived. He had a serious expression. "I just spoke with Professor Snape and he told me that you'd attacked a boy, completely unprovoked" he stated staring directly at Mat "Then a few of your classmates popped up from nowhere and defended you. It seemed that Professor Snape didn't know the full story himself, and Septima's Patronus told me to come up here to speak with you." He chirped up after that and placed a hand on Mat's arm. "That boy will have detentions for a month for lying to a teacher and starting a fight. So! All in all, everything's worked out fine now hasn't it?" He said with a huge smile.

"Yeah not really," Mat stated, "I have Snape for 2 periods in 30 minutes." Mat said soulfully.

Flitwick's face fell, "well, that's enough to put a downer on anyone's day" he said mournfully.

Mat laughed and together, they left. Mat seeking his classmates and the teachers to do their teacherly duties.

Mat eventually found everyone in his year in Ravenclaw and told them about what happened. They all made their way to potions, who they shard with Hufflepuff. The classroom was empty when they arrived, so they took their places. Mat was sat in the middle right of the classroom, next to Cho, who seemed to stick like glue to him after the fight. He took in the scenes of this odd classroom while they were waiting.

It was a dull, soul sucking room and it smelt funny. There was barely any natural light, and what little there was, was from some portholes at the front. Everything else was lit with the classical iron chandeliers with some candles in holders in each corner. There were jars of things, like foetuses, eggs, animal parts and other stuff that Mat didn't recognise all floating in some sort of fluid. The walls and ceiling were black and looked to have never been scrubbed clean. There was a fire in the room as well, it seemed more like an open oven than a fireplace, it emitted no heat whatsoever. He took his books out of his bag and placed them on the table, as soon as he did that the door banged open making everyone jump.

"There will be no foolish wand waving or silly incantations in this class" he announced as he swooped through the room, robes billowing behind him like a wraith. He turned to look at the class when he reached the front and lent on a lectern. "As such I don't expect any of you to appreciate the subtle science that is potions making." He took a breath in, closed his robes around himself like Dracula and continued his speech "I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory and even put a stopper in death."

He took a deep breath and looked at each of the students of the class in the eye. They landed on Mat and he felt a blinding headache, Mat stared into his eyes and realised that Snape was trying to get into his mind, so he withdrew into it. His world went dark.

VVVVVVV

Thanks for reading!

The potions speech was taken from the film. Dumbledore's speech at the beginning was partially from the books and film