Chapter 7 - Lessons Begin

The rest of the Sunday had been pretty uneventful. Barney, Thomas and Tabitha never did solve any more clues on the scavenger hunt as not long after the Ravenclaw and Slytherin teams claimed first and second places, a team of Hufflepuffs took third so there didn't seem much point in continuing. Barney had lunch at the Hufflepuff table with Thomas and Tabitha and then joined them playing games outside with some other students from their house. It didn't take Barney long to see why several of the Hufflepuffs had taken a disliking to Tabitha. She had a unique way of winding people up and managed to turn a simple game of Wand Tag it to a full blown argument when she insisted she had never been caught. Thomas was forced to play peace keeper to stop the game being abandoned.

As the afternoon drew to a close and the sun started to fade Barney once again ate alone at the Slytherin table when it was dinner time. He had wanted to return to his friends afterwards but unfortunately students were not allowed in each others common rooms so he went back down to the dungeons to the Slytherin common room. The two boys from his dorm, Maximille and Everard and the girl who Barney now remembered was called Silvanna, were still making the most of their second place in the hunt and were gloating to the other Slytherins about winning points for their house. Barney headed straight to his dormitory where he laid on his bed and gazed out the window at the starry sky until he was tired enough to go to bed.

The next morning Barney was once again up before the rest of his dormitory. He showered and got dressed in his robes and then went to head to breakfast. In the Slytherin common room a lot of students were crowed around the noticeboard and talking all over each other as they read the notices. When Barney heard them mention 'potions', 'herbology', 'transfiguration' and other subjects he realised they must be looking at their timetables and he realised he hadn't known what he was meant to be doing today. He headed other to the noticeboard and managed to squeeze himself in and found the first years time table. He had Charms, Transfiguration and History of Magic in the morning then double Potions after lunch.

After breakfast alone at the Slytherin table, Barney used the map from the scavenger hunt to find the History of Magic classroom and took a seat by the window on his own. All the Slytherin first years had arrived and there was much commotion in the classroom as the teacher had not arrived yet. Student were laughing and shouting and throwing balls of paper at each other. One student had gone up to the blackboard to write some rude words on it but she got the fright of her life when a white spectral figure came right through the blackboard where she was about to write. The figure, who turned out to be their teacher Professor Binns, hadn't even seemed to notice the girl and went straight on with the start of his lesson, which turned out to be the most boring lesson any of the students had ever had.

Next was Charms, which was with Professor Flitwick who had been the tiny wizard that had led them to the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony a couple of days ago. Here Professor Flitwick started them off with a levitating charm and told them that the key to performing the perfect charm was wand movement and pronunciation. Though by the end of the lesson no one had yet to make their feathers levitate.

After Charms was Transfiguration with Professor Featherstone, who Barney had met at Kings Cross Station. Featherstone demonstrated his abilities by turning a cup into a hat and a book into a small tree to the amazement of the class. He then tasked the students with turning a tennis ball into a a balloon. By the end of the class no one had managed anything that resembled a balloon but one student had managed to make their tennis ball pop, which Professor Featherstone thought was good for a first try.

After another lunch Barney grudgingly headed back down to the dungeons for double Potions but his mood brightened when he got there as he realised the class was with Hufflepuff. Tabitha and Thomas invited him over to sit with them and Gwen and Elio. It was the first time that day he'd actually sat next to someone who'd wanted him next to them. They talked about their morning lessons as the rest of the class chatted but then three Slytherins who Barney recognised as the ones who had come second in the scavenger hunt approached his table.

"They should have sorted you into Hufflepuff," the silver haired Slytherin girl said to Barney. "You would have fitted right in their being a pathetic loser."

"Hey watch what you're say!" Tabitha declared as she stood up and faced the girl.

"Getting a girl to fight your battles? How pathetic."

"I'll show you who's pathetic."

"Leave it Tabitha, they're not worth it," Barney said trying to defuse the situation.

"And you must be Enid's grandson? I heard a rumour you were here," one of the boys who had dark skin and cropped black hair said to Thomas. "He's the one who's not worth anything."

Thomas looked up at the boy who was now laughing along with his friends and realised he must be Maximille Locke.

"And to think we're related," Maximille said with disgust.

"You better watch your mouth too!" Tabitha vented as Barney stood up ready to hold his friend back as she looked ready to throttle them both but before anything could happen silence suddenly fell on the classroom as the door slammed shut.

The three Slytherins looked around then quickly moved to their own desk and sat down as Professor Strange slowly walked the length of the classroom to his desk at the front. His footsteps echoing through the stone room. As he reached his desk he slowly turned to face his students. Professor Strange was very tall and well built and his mere physical presence was enough to command respect in a room. His face as always remained expressionless.

"Open Magic Drafts and Potions to page twelve," he said, his voice deep and emotionless with a hint of an accent that Barney couldn't quite place.

Everyone quickly turned over the pages of their text book till they found the right one. The heading at the top read 'Growth Potion'.

"Now who can tell me the three key elements to making the perfect potion?"

The room was silent as Professor Strange's beady eyes slowly worked their way around the classroom.

"Can any one give me one?"

A red haired girl from Hufflepuff with glasses slowly raised her hand and Professor Strange looked directly at her. His eyes were so piercing, his stare almost made her put her hand down again.

"Your name is?" he asked.

"Er... Nora... Nora Quinn."

"Are you sure?"

There was some sniggers around the room, but one glance around from Professor Strange and everyone was silent again.

"So Miss Quinn what is one important element of potion making?"

Nora remained hushed as she reconsidered her answer, not wanting to say the wrong thing. But as Professor Strange continued to stare at her and he began to look impatient she eventually caved in and gave her answer.

"Er... being precise?" her voiced squeaked.

"Good."

The whole class let out a sigh of relief as Strange returned to the front of the class and picked up a piece of chalk and began to write on the blackboard.

"Being precise, measuring carefully and using the correct ingredients. Just a few grams too much of mandrake root can make the drinker of Pepperup violently sick for days. And using wortle sprigs instead of valerian sprigs, which look very similar, can make a sleeping draught fatal to its drinker."

Barney was beginning to think potions was already his least favourite subject. The worst that had happened in Charms was someone's feather caught fire. But in Potions get something wrong and you could actually die.

"Now who can tell me another one?"

There was a long pause before someone was brave enough to raise their hand. This time it was a Slytherin girl who had dark skin and short black hair.

"Name?"

"Uma Crowe," she replied more confidently than the Hufflepuff girl had.

"And your answer Miss Crowe?"

"Always follow the instructions."

"Good," Professor Strange replied as he turned and wrote some more on the blackboard. "Always following the instructions to the detail. Stirring Wideye potion anti clockwise instead of clockwise will not wake the drinker up but will make their nose fall off. Now who can tell me the last point to potion making?"

He turned to face the room again but was met with silence. His stares at individual students was not enough to elicit a response from them. Most of the students stared directly down at their desks and avoided eye contact with their teacher, who they all found intimidating.

"No one?" Professor Strange asked with an air of disappointment. "Very well then."

He turned and wrote on the blackboard and wrote one word. 'Trust'.

"You need to trust in yourself and your own abilities. If you don't have confidence in your skills you will never make it as a potioneer. With so many things that can go wrong in making a potion, you need to know within yourself that you've done it right. Now everyone try and brew a growth potion. Any additional ingredients you require can be found in the cupboards at the back of the room."

There was a distinct lack of enthusiasm to make the potion from everyone in the class. Nobody rushed to the cupboards to collect their ingredients. Barney re read the potion instructions three times to himself. It looked simple enough and only required six ingredients -

Grondella leaves

Crushed lavender

Ginger root

Powered dragon bone

Rock salt

Troll tears

But he was sure there would be many ways it could be messed up and have disastrous consequences.

"Well..." Tabitha said as she stood up defiantly, "If we don't try we'll never learn."

She was the first to start collecting her ingredients together and slowly other students got up and joined her at the cupboards collecting any additional items they needed that weren't part of the standard ingredients all students had to have stocks of. Everyone was anxiously reading the labels on jars to make sure they didn't pick up the wrong thing. Though nearly everyone struggled to identify grondella leaves from the various other leaves in the cupboard and most had to carefully consult the text book to make sure they got the right ones. Barney and Thomas were two of the last students to collect their ingredients, and Thomas only went because Barney dragged him along with him. They meticulously selected what they needed from the many jars and vials in the cupboard and took everything back to their desk where Tabitha already had her cauldron bubbling away with a concoction inside it as she was adding the powered dragon bone.

Barney started by putting some water in his cauldron and lit the flame underneath to start boiling the water. He chopped the grondella leaves finely as it stated in the text book and added them to the simmering water along with the rock salt and troll tears. Then he stirred it three times clockwise and waited for the mixture to change to a pink colour as said in the instructions. Thomas was struggling to get his flame to light so Barney stopped to help him.

"You need to watch your potion or you'll over cook it," Tabitha noted as she was busily crushing the lavender and adding it to her mixture.

Barney got Thomas' flame to light and helped him chop his grondella leaves before returning to his own mixture, which was now bright red. Barney look worried as he slowly stirred his mixture to see it would make any difference. Tabitha peered into Barney's cauldron.

"See I told you."

"I'm sure it will be fine," Barney replied, though his voice did not sound confident in the slightest.

Professor Strange walked around the room inspecting students' progress as he went.

"Your mixture is too hot," he noted to a boy from Hufflepuff. "That's not nearly enough troll tears," he told a girl from Slytherin.

Barney was hoping the professor did not make it to his desk before he had time to fix his potion. He quickly weighed the powered dragon bone and then added it and left it to boil before adding the crushed lavender then stirring counter-clockwise three times and finally adding the ginger root before leaving to simmer. Tabitha was already taking her cauldron off the flame and leaving it to cool and Thomas was struggling with weighing out his rock salt and troll tears as Professor Strange came over to their desk. He looked into Tabitha's cauldron.

"The colour is off."

Tabitha who had been quietly confident suddenly looked crestfallen as Professor Strange moved on to Thomas' attempts.

"You're not stirring it thoroughly enough."

Thomas looked dejected and stirred harder but then realised he'd now stirred it more that three times clockwise and his mixture started to turn an awful brown colour.

Finally Professor Strange turned his attention to Barney's cauldron and glanced inside.

"Did you even read the instructions?" Strange sneered.

"Erm… yes sir."

Professor Strange immediately moved on to the next desk and students as Barney was left looking at his murky mixture and felt useless.

"Well at least we're all failing miserably together," Tabitha noted trying to lighten their mood.

During the class Barney had noticed Elio had an odd piece of parchment in front of him on his desk that words kept appearing on and disappearing again. Gwen saw him looking at it as another sentence magically appeared.

"It's bewitched," she said.

"Huh?" Barney asked not realising she'd seen him looking.

"It's bewitched. Elio can lip read but it doesn't help much if the teacher isn't facing him all the time. The parchment writes don't what is being said so he can read along."

"That's amazing. Has he always been deaf?"

"What don't you ask him yourself? He really doesn't mind people taking an interest."

Barney left his potion to simmer, thinking there wasn't much he could do to improve it and sat down next to Elio facing him.

"Can I ask you about your deafness?" Barney said instinctively pointing to his ear as he spoke as if Elio's lip reading wasn't enough to understand what he was saying.

Elio moved his parchment in front of Barney and started to sign and the words appeared on it.

'What do you want to know?'

"Have you always been deaf?" Barney asked and realised he was speaking overly loudly and slowly, a habit he needed to get out of when speaking to Elio as he seemed to understand him fine.

Again Elio signed and words appeared on the parchment.

'Yes I was born deaf.'

"Isn't there a cure?" Barney asked. "I know I'm only just getting use to the magic world but seems like there might be a magic way to fix it?"

'Cure what? What needs fixing? There's nothing wrong with me.'

Barney stopped and thought before he replied. He knew Elio hadn't been offended by his question but it certainly made him think.

Elio went on to explain that his mother was a muggle and his father a wizard. They had spent one brief summer together when they were teens and then his father had left, not knowing his mother was pregnant. His mum decided to keep the baby but had no way of getting in touch with his father as annoyingly wizards don't have phones (plus he never actually told her he was a wizard!). Elio had been born deaf and his mother raised him alone and he had learnt to live with his condition and having always been deaf he never knew any different. When he was nine his father had come back and met up again with his mother and found out he had a son. His father had told his mother that he was a wizard and could help Elio. Even though Elio was only nine at the time, when his parents had told him they could make him hear he had refused the help. He had managed perfectly fine for nine years with no hearing and his other senses had compensated. The only problem he ever had was when he met people that didn't know sign language but he realised this wasn't his problem, it was theirs.

Barney was grateful to have had this chat with Elio and to better understand his life and learnt not just presume things about someone you don't fully know. And Elio even taught him how to say 'thank you' in sign language.

As everyone finished their attempt at the growth potion Professor Strange addressed the class. "Now who is confident enough to try their potion?"

Again there was silence around the room. Barney once more looked at his potion. The colour of it alone made him not want to drink it, let alone what it might do to him knowing he hadn't got the potion perfect.

"No one trusts their ability enough?" Professor Strange asked as he stared intently around the classroom.

"I'll try mine," a smug Silvanna announced.

Professor Strange walked over to Silvanna's desk and examined her potion.

"Your name?" he asked monotonously.

"Silvanna Silvas."

"Very well Miss Silvas, sample your potion. Just one teaspoon full though."

Everyone in the class seemed to hold their breath as Silvanna momentarily hesitated before plunging her teaspoon into the potion and then gulping down the viscous mixture in one go. It seemed to burn her throat as it went down and left a bitter after taste. Everyone watched her intently to see what happened next. Professor Strange remained emotionless. Silvanna began to feel a bizarre sensation inside her. She felt a pain in her arms and legs and cramps in her stomach which made her crumple over in agony. Everyone in the class was scared and Barney was about to call out to the professor to do something to help when Silvanna stood up straight again and held out her arms as she noticed them getting longer. She looked down at her legs and they too were extending. Everyone in the class watched on in shock as Silvanna grew by nearly a foot.

"Very good Miss Silvas, ten points to Slytherin."

Maximille and Everard, who were at the desk with Silvanna were quick to congratulate her as she now towered over them both.

"Is anyone else prepared to try theirs?" Professor Strange once again asked.

There was a pause before a boy from Hufflepuff raised his hand.

"Your name?"

"Roblin McGregor," the boy replied in a strong Scottish accent.

Professor Strange walked over to Roblin's desk and looked at his potion.

"Are you sure Mr McGregor?"

"Erm… well… yes… I think so."

Professor Strange took another long look at Roblin's potion.

"Very well. One teaspoon. No more."

Roblin's hand was shaking as he picked up his teaspoon and carefully scooped up enough of his potion. As he brought the spoon up to his mouth he was in two minds about whether to drink it. But he could feel everyone's eyes on his including Professor Strange so he closed his eyes, wished for the best and swallowed the potion down. The taste was not nice and he immediately wanted to throw up but he managed to contain himself. He felt weird pains all over his body and then felt a throbbing ache inside his head. Everyone was watching on nervously as Roblin noticed his vision start to go blurry. The was a unison gasp of shock around the room as Roblin struggled to see at all. His eyes were now the tenth of their original size. All of the class looked extremely worried but Professor Strange did not seem to care at all as he made his way back to his desk.

"A common occurrence with incorrectly brewed growth potion. Most probably used too much crushed dragon bone."

Roblin brought his hands up to his eyes and could feel they were tiny as he rubbed them.

"Not to worry Mr McGregor. This ill-effect is easily treated. I had the foresight to let Madame Pomfrey know we would be attempting growth potions in class today so she has prepared the relevant antidote. In a couple of hours you'll be back to normal."

Roblin did not seem relived by the professor's words and wanted to cry, but his tiny eyes seemed unable to produce tears so he couldn't

"Also Miss Silvas your own growth spurt is temporary so make the most of it as you'll be back to your normal size by tomorrow morning. Now would someone please escort Mr McGregor to the hospital wing." Professor Strange announced. "I doubt he will manage on his own."

Another Hufflepuff boy led Roblin from the classroom, guiding him so he didn't knock into anything.

"Would anyone else care to sample their potion?"

Nobody raised their hands and everyone remained silent. No one wanted to risk part of their face shrinking like Roblin's.

"Very well then for the rest of the lesson please turn to page twenty of your textbooks and read up on common ways to see if your potion is brewed incorrectly and ways to correct this."

For the rest of the class everyone was silent and studied their textbooks hard. Though Barney struggled to take a lot of it in and had to re-read it twice before it started to make sense. He was glad this was his last lesson of the day. His first day of lessons at Hogwarts had been nothing short of a challenge.