First Year
Chapter three: Classes
After the feast the Gryffindors had gone up to the common room to greet the first years and catch up with friends. Everyone had been asking why Zelan had taken so long. She just said that the hat couldn't make up it's mind so she had to choose. They stayed up until Professor McGonagall told them to go to bed. The next day she got up,put on one of her new robes, got her books together, and went down to breakfast. As she was eating she pulled out her schedule. Potions was first. "Good," Zelan thought "The hat said that I would be good in potions. Plus I read the entire magical drafts and potions. It was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. Plus I read that book on magical herbs and fungi so that I would know about most of those ingredients." Her train of thought was suddenly cut off when two packages landed in her lap. One was from her dad. When she opened it she saw that he had sent some more candy. "Oh dad." Then she opened the letter that was with it. It said:
Hey sweetie, I know from experiance that those first few days can be hectic so I thought that these would cheer you up. Don't tell mom though, she thinks that I spoil you enough as it is. Well have fun and tell me about how your first day at Hogwarts went. Love- Dad.
Zelan shook her head in an amused manner. Then she opened the package from her mom. It was a small brown box and on top of it was a letter that said "Open first!" on the envelope. Zelan opened it and took out the letter. This one said:
Hello honey. I hope you're having a good time. Don't tell your father I sent you these. He'll think I'm a hypocrite. Please tell me all about how your first day of school went. Love-Mom.
Zelan opened the box and found a bunch of tiny little sweets of all kinds. There was a note in here it said "Get one of the older kids to enlarge these for you. Shrinking them was the only way I could send them in a box small enough to keep your father from geting suspicious." Zelan laughed. Harry, who was sitting next to her asked "What's so funny?" "My parents. They both sent me a bunch of candy, telling me not to tell my other parent because they'd get in trouble." "So they both sent you candy without the other one knowing?" "Yeah, and I have no idea how I'm gonna eat it all." Ron had heard them talking. "Can I help?" Zelan laughed. "Sure. Hey Hermione, what did you have to do in your first potions class?" "Why?" "I have it first." "Oh, that's too bad." "Actually I'm looking forward to it. I read the book the potions teacher assigned and it was interesting." "Well I remember something about a question on wolfsbane. and we worked on a basic potion pretty early on but I really can't remember it all that well. It was about five years ago today." "True. Oh well." "Wait, you actually read the entire book?" Ron asked, astounded. "Yes. Actually I almost finished most of them but some went slowly because I wasn't very interested in them." "Jeeze, you're as bad as Hermione." "Yeah well, I just didn't want to get in trouble for not knowing an answer if they asked a question." Ron just looked at her as if she were crazy, which he was pretty sure she was.
After breakfast Zelan headed down to the potions room. She was one of the earlier students. She sat down near the middle of the room, hoping that Professor Snape wouldn't recognize her from that one day when she had walked right into him. Luckily he didn't look in her direction while all the other students came in. But once everyone had found a seat Zelan's luck ran out. "You. And in Gryffindor no less. It doesn't surprise me after that little stunt you pulled. I'll bet that you haven't read page one of the book I assigned." "Excuse me if I sound rude but maybe if you asked me a question that had the answer in that book you would know if I studied or not." "Fine. What is the difference between Wolfsbane and Monkshood?" "Nothing but the name. They are the same plant. I believe that it is also called Aconite." "What does a Bezoar stone do?" "It protects you from most poisons, I think." "What happens when you add an infusion of wormwood to powdered root of asphodel?" "Oh, I'm sure of this one. You get a sleeping potion so powerful that it's commonly known as the draught of living death." "Well just because you read a book doesn't mean that you can make a proper potion." "Well we shall have to see, won't we?" Snape was obviously starting to get angry. "Alright you little upstart. One more word and I'll give you detention. I have a class to teach." All of the Slytherins snickered. Most of the Gryffindors gave her approving looks and then glared at the Slytherins. Snape gave his standard speech (bottle fame, put stopper in death, if you aren't the usual lot of dunderheads) and then had the class take notes on different ingredients that would be in the potion they were making next class for the remaining time. Zelan could see him look at her every now and then. She was surprised when she realized that it didn't make her nervous. After some of the stories that she had heard about him she thought that she would have been terrified of him. Then she realized that she had practically talked back to him. "That was stupid" She thought to herself as she finished taking notes. She was one of the first in class finished. In fact the only other who was done was a Slytherin girl. Zelan looked at her and saw that she seemed different from the others. She was smaller than the others, probably Zelan's height, which Zelan thought amazing considering she was pretty short for her age. She also just looked nicer. She had shoulder length brown hair that was kept out of her face by a violet headband with a green ivy pattern. Her eyes were a strange greenish yellow, flecked with gold. Then she noticed Zelan looked at her and she actually grinned. Then, when Snape wasn't looking, she wrote in the air in silvery letters "ttyl". Zelan just nodded. Snape saw her nod. "Is my class so boring that you are falling asleep miss Sands?" "I was not falling asleep." "Well just what were you doing then?" The girl spoke up. "Excuse me Professor Snape but it was really my fault, I was asking her something and she was just answering me." "Why would you be asking her something?" "Well she was the only other one who was finished taking notes." "Alright, but if I catch you again you will get a dention. Both of you." Zelan mouthed the word "thanks" and then took out a spare notebook that she had bought and doodled until it was almost time to leave. "Remember, next class we will be making a simple potion to cure boils. Make sure that you have everything that you'll need." Snape told them before he let them go.
As Zelan pulled out her schedule to see what she had next, the girl walked up to her. "So what's your name?" "Ah! jeeze, you scared me." "Sorry." "It's ok. My names Zelan." "Zelan? That's neat. My name's Selpha." "That's pretty neat to. Hey, I have herbology next, what do you have?" "Let me check. ugh, I have history." "Oh, here, take these, it'll make it less boring." As Zelan pulled two sugar quills out of her pocket she saw her watch. "Oh no, I'm going to be late If I don't get moving. See you at lunch!" Then Zelan ran off in the direction of the doors. Selpha just watched her run for a little. Surprised that a Gryffindor, the traditional enemy of all Slytherins, had just given her two sugar quills to help keep her awake during history. Then some of the other Slytherin girls came over and told her that she'd better get going if she didn't want to be late. Selpha ran for the classroom.
Herbology wasn't particularly interesting that day. First Professor Sprout had given them a short tour of the greenhouse, naming each of the plants and telling them a little about some of the more interesting ones. Then they sat down at the tables and went over the first chapter in One thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. Zelan had already read the entire book so she decided to see what the rest of the week would be like. She muttered to herself as she looked at it. "Way too many history lessons, I'll be out of sugar quills in a week. Hmm flying lessons, that'll be fun. Transfiguration sounds good to. That's mean! I have to get up at midnight for astrology! Wait a second." At this time Zelan noticed something that she had a hard time coming to terms with. "I only have potions on mondays! That's no fair!" "What's not fair, miss Sands?" Zelan had spoken just a little too loudly and now professor Sprout was standing next to her. "Oh, I'm sorry Professor Sprout, It's just that I had already finished that book so I was cheking my schedule and I noticed that I only have potions once a week." "Why do you consider that unfair? I believe most of the people in this class would be happy to not have potions at all." At this many of the students nodded their heads vigorously. "Well I like potions. Plus that hat even said that I would be good at it." "It did?" Sprout sounded very surprised at this. "Yeah, and I wouldn't mind showing professor Snape that I can brew potions just as well as I can answer simple questions." Then a student who had been in Zelan's potions class spoke. "Those questions weren't easy, they were hard! How were we supposed to know about the draught of living death? And I have never heard of a bezoar stone!" Zelan replied "The bezoar stone was in chapter ten and the draught was in chapter thirteen. If you had just read a little extra then you would have known." Professor Sprout was getting annoyed. "Snape asked you about things that you aren't going to be learning for at least five months?" "Five months? That's awful long. I read that book and I would like to try some of those more interesting ones." "What interesting ones?" "Well there was that one that you could put on something, like a trunk, and if anyone besides you touches it, they become paralyzed until you give them the antidote." "I don't think that Snape will be teaching that one." "Oh but it looked so fun. Plus it's pretty advanced so it looked like a challenge." "Well get back to reading over the chapter. I'll have to talk to him later." Zelan was about to ask who "he" was but Sprout had already moved on to another table to help some students who had gotten to close to a particularly touchy plant.
After Herbology was lunch. Zelan ran as fast as she could to go put her stuff away so that she could eat. She was able to make it all the way there without bumping into a single person. "Password?" Zelan, still trying to catch her breath, said the password. "Lionfish spine" Then she put her books on her bed and started down to the great hall for lunch. This time she did run into someone. "Oh, sorry." "It's ok Zelan." "Selpha? I didn't even realize it was you." "Hey, could I talk to you really quickly?" "Sure. What is it?" "Well, ever since the sorting Snape's been watching you and one time some smart-aleck thought that it would be fun to mix some sleeping potion into his drink. When he was asleep he kept muttering things about the sorting hat saying something to him and how dare it say the same thing to a girl. I was just wondering if you knew what that was all about." "Well the hat did say alot. Lets see, it talked about how I could really be in any house I wanted. It went on about that for awhile. And then it said that-" But Zelan was cut off mid-sentance by Professor Snape who had spotted them standing outside the doors when most students were already inside. "What are you doing out here?" "We were just talking Professor." "Yeah. And I have a question. Why have you-" Once again Zelan was stopped. This time by Selpha. She whispered to Zelan "Are you crazy!? He'll give you detention for sure! And take points from your house!" "What do you care about Gryffindor?" "I don't know! it's just a stupid thing to do!" "Fine fine. I won't ask." Then Zelan faced Snape again. "Never mind." Then she walked into the great hall. Snape and Selpha both stood there in shock. Selpha was thinking "How stupid is that girl! She's just asking for trouble. Hmm, maybe she should've been in Slytherin. It would've been fun." Meanwhile Snape was thinking "That insolent girl! How dare she speak to a teacher like that! And especially me, after what that hat said. Why did it even say that to her! it must be going senile or something." After a couple of minutes they were able to move again. Then they went in to eat lunch. All during this Professor Sprout had been talking to Dumbledore. "I can't believe that he would ask a first year student about the draught of living death on the first day of class! She was only able to answer because she had read the entire book. Probably heard some stories about Snape and it scared her into it." "I doubt that. Well here he is now. Why don't you ask him why he asked her those questions." Snape looked like he was in a particularly bad mood. Sprout whispered to Dumbledore "I think I'll wait awhile." "Wise choice. I wonder what's got him so upset."
Well another chapter done and more peices to the puzzle have been revealed. The reason that Snape seems to be so annoyed should be reavealed in the next chapter. But if not then it definitely will in the fifth. Well, as always, Please Review! >^.^
