CHAPTER FOUR
~Classes~
Severus Snape
They had arrived at the warm and very large Great Hall where the first years stood in a shivering bunch, all looking around, both nervous and excited. Severus especially couldn't wait for the Sorting – he'll show that Potter and his stupid friends that Slytherin really is the best house at Hogwarts. He had heard all about the Sorting of course. There, he saw the patched and really old hat, which people say used to belong to Godric Gryffindor himself. It sat on a three-legged stool, waiting very quietly.
A teacher of about the age of thirty approached the Sorting Hat and called names off a roll of parchment. There came that Paige girl, looking confident and smiled at everyone before she sat on the stool and placed the Hat over her head. A moment's pause, and then, "GRYFFINDOR!" the hat shouted. Felice also went to Gryffindor, who joined her other friend at the table and started talking at once, not even looking back at the Sorting. Then came Lily Evans.
She walked up to the stool gracefully – to Severus – took the Hat and placed it carefully on her pretty head, without even damaging the perfect style of her vivid red hair. Please be in Slytherin, please be in Slytherin, Severus found himself wishing as he watched the Hat. To his very disappointment, she had been placed in Gryffindor. The next following students - which were Sirius, Remus, Peter and James – all went to Gryffindor as well. Severus watched with a mixture of jealousy and anger as James sat down next to Lily, a smile pasted on his face, and engaged her in a conversation. Oh, how Severus felt the urge to walk up there and bash Potter up.
"Snape, Severus!" Professor McGonagall called. It was his turn next. He walked bravely up and shoved the Hat on his greasy head, thinking at once, I'm a Slytherin, I'm a Slytherin, and the Hat replied in his ear, Yes I know you are, and shouted, "SLYTHERIN!" for the whole Hall to hear.
* * *
James Potter
All through the rest of the feast, James didn't stop talking to Lily. He was growing quite fond of her already, though she did seem to be annoyed. James could tell that she was itching to go back to have some girly chat with Felice and Paige but James just didn't shut up. He knew Lily was too nice to stop to talking to him. Or so he thought.
"…and I'm the only child in my family," James said, while scooping a large amount of pie into his mouth. "It's quite good really, because you kind of get spoilt –"
"Um, excuse me, James?" Lily interrupted. "Is it alright if I just have a bit of a chat with my friends?"
"No," answered James in a joking-kind-of-way. Unfortunately, Lily took it the wrong way.
"Excuse me?" she fumed. "And since when were you allowed to tell me what I can and can't do?" With that, she stood up, walked to her friends and sat down with them, not ever looking at James again.
James sighed and turned back to his pie. "Women," Sirius sighed, tut-tutting. "You can never understand them."
* * *
Lily Evans
"I can't believe he told me not to talk to you guys," Lily said, shaking her head, her cheeks red from anger.
"Ah, Lily?" came the soft voice of Felice. "I think he was joking."
"What?" Lily's head turned sharply towards Felice.
"I think he was only joking," she repeated.
"How do you know that?"
"Because we just know," said Paige.
"No," Lily said, "it's because you were eavesdropping."
"Lily!" cried Felice with mock outrage. "We would never do that to you! You know that!" Paige giggled and so did Lily.
"Well, maybe he was only joking … I don't know."
* * *
Remus Lupin
Remus woke up the next morning to the sounds of birds happily chirping outside his window. Today was their first day at school and today, they were starting their classes. He got up, pulled the curtains of his four-poster apart and looked at the other beds around him. All of them seemed asleep to him. Well, everyone except –
"Morning, Remus!" James said, giving Remus a friendly pat on the back. "How about going to breakfast, eh? My stomach's a bit hungry." At these words, James's stomach growled – sounding quite like an angry tiger.
"A bit hungry?" Remus's eyebrows shot up and they both laughed. "Actually, yeah, I think it's a good idea to go down now since we only have a few minutes left before we start our first lesson."
Once they had both reached the Great Hall, the owls swooped in, giving everyone their letters. Not soon after, Sirius and Peter arrived at the Great Hall and started to eat.
Their first lesson was Charms with the Slytherins. Then it was Potions with Slytherin … and after that it was Flying Lessons with Slytherin. Sirius groaned.
"Why does my first day have to wrecked so soon?" he cried, banging his class schedule sheet on the table. Remus privately agreed with him.
* * *
Peter Pettigrew
Everyone else felt mad or otherwise nervous to be starting their first lessons today … and it made them even angrier that they were spending it with the Slytherins. But Peter wasn't mad nor was he nervous. No, he was scared. Very first day and he was going to make an absolute fool of himself. Not only that, but he got to ride a broomstick too! Oh joy, he thought sadly to himself. He never was much of a flyer. And he never wanted to be one either.
Right, first lesson: Charms. He trudged along behind James, Remus and Sirius, keeping his thoughts to himself. Every once in a while, he would nervously look up to check that he hadn't lost them. The four arrived before the Charms door where everyone including the Slytherins were waiting. Three pairs of footsteps stopped behind them and Peter whirled around, facing the three Gryffindor girls.
"Hello, Lily-Pilly-Bum!" came James's teasing voice. Lily's pretty features turned red with sudden anger.
"Lily what did you call me?" she said coldly, looking murderous.
"Er – Lily-Pilly-Bum?" repeated James.
"How dare you!" Lily shrieked, ready to lunge at James. Luckily, at that very moment, a tiny little wizard by the name of Professor Flitwick arrived, breaking up the hysterical laughter that had started.
Charms was hard work, especially when you were paired up with a Slytherin who despised you. Peter was working alongside a skinny-as-a-stick boy names Lucius Malfoy. To Peter, he looked extremely similar to Severus, except that Lucius had blond hair. But both of their hair were greasy. James was paired up with Snape to both boys' disgust. Sirius with a very fat boy who seemed to be good friends with Lucius. His name was Vander Crabbe and his best friend's name being Gaston Goyle was with Remus. Lily Evans was working with a smug girl called Narcissa Serpent who looked like she was always in the mood for a fight. Felice and Paige (unbelieving their luck) got paired up together as a result from their giving puppy-dog eyes to Professor Flitwick who looked terrified and at once gave in.
Learning how to make a feather fly wasn't all that easy either. Peter tried his hardest but his hardest might as well be the size of an ant because it certainly wasn't working. He screamed, prodded and nearly cried in desperation at his feather but it didn't move an inch. Lucius, who was yawning pathetically, pushed Peter aside, pointed his wand at the piece of white fluff and yelled "Wingardium Leviosa!".
Everyone gasped as a whole table shot off the floor and smashed the ceiling, showering the whole class with grey dust and chunks of cement. Lucius panicked at his spell's turn-out, lost control of the table which went rocketing straight back down, ready to flatten whoever was under it. Unfortunately enough, it happened to be Professor Flitwick.
Peter, who was cowering in one of the classroom's corners, ran alongside James (who was crying with laughter) as everyone crowded around the squashed Professor. The excitement wasn't over yet. For a split second, there was a muffled cry and then the whole table exploded with a quick burst of flames which at once vanished once its task was accomplished. As the smoke faded away and the coughing ceased, Professor Flitwick's high squeak was heard.
"Lucius Malfoy … detention for a whole month!"
* * *
"That had to be the best class I have ever been to!" Sirius laughed as the four boys made their way down to the dungeons.
"That was the only class we've ever been to, Sirius!" James corrected.
"Oh, you know what I mean," Sirius waved a careless hand. The four boys all had wide grins pasted on their faces making them look like idiots without them realising it. Even Peter was smiling which was rare.
Arriving at the cold dungeons situated at the very bottom of the castle, they found the class strictly put into two lines, all faces straight and a stern-looking wizard standing before them. Hearing their tip-toeing footsteps, he swivelled around and their eyes met his coal black ones. They seemed to be on fire the way he was looking at them.
"Hurry up!" he snapped through the tense silence, creating an eerie echo down the dark passageways. The four placed themselves at the very back of the line. The class marched in, nobody seeming to be daring enough to even whisper. They sat themselves carefully and quietly, James observing the excited glint in Snape's eyes. What was so exciting about this? He wondered.
Then followed the most boring talk a teacher could ever give. James, Sirius, Peter and Remus's mind all began to wander around freely until the words "Now you shall all demonstrate to me the fine ways of making the Scaring Potion. If you fail, there is a punishment, and if you succeed in formulating the Potion properly … well, you shall receive something very pleasant indeed." It was the voice of Professor Ghassan. James smiled evilly, a plan instantly forming in his mind as he saw Snape looking hopeful. Remus looked ready to chew on his nails. Sirius looked like he was reading James's mind and was agreeing. Peter seemed like he was about to faint.
Without speaking, the class rummaged around their potion ingredients, looking for the right ones and preparing to use it. Severus was way ahead of everyone else, his hands working double the amount that was needed. In short, he was working like an expert.
James nodded to Sirius and Sirius nodded back, both looking like spies on a deadly mission to find out the world's biggest secret. Checking that the evil Professor was busy bullying someone else, James pointed his wand at Severus's bottle of bug juice, levitated it quietly and let it smash into tiny crystal pieces on the dungeon floor.
"SNAPE!" thundered Professor Ghassan.
"S-sir," Severus trembled, creating stifled giggles among the watching Gryffindors. "I'll clean it up, s-sir …"
"NOW!"
"Y-yes, sir …"
With that, he got up, grabbed some wet cloth and started wiping the drenched stone floor, looking like some poor house elf. When the last bit of excitement faded away and the class was busy with their potions again, Sirius did their second part of the plan.
Grabbing the wrong ingredient from his own bag purposely, he sprinkled it carefully over Severus's potion, all the while mixing it. Then he turned back, caught Felice's curious eyes and winked. She blushed, reluctantly winked back and flashed a smile. Lily who was sitting beside her huffed disagreeingly.
The potion spat dangerously, covering the mopping Snape with a greenish-brown liquid which dropped from his oily hair to his hooked nose. A second later, the potion formed huge exploding bubbles. Then it went calm. Professor Ghassan, white in the face with fury, opened his mouth but before the yelling rushed out, Snape's cauldron gave an almighty burst of brightly coloured fireworks. One of the sparkling flames caught the Professor's inky hair, burning it until it was almost gone.
Everyone was yelling and screaming, running around wildly, trying to avoid the hazardous fireworks, some failing. A loud bang sounded and there was a giant shower of cool water, extinguishing the flaming heads.
"Potter, Black, Snape! Go to my office right at this minute!" screamed Professor Ghassan, his face now beet red and half of his hair missing. Snape gave an angry cry and ran out of the classroom. James and Sirius laughed, their faces and hair undamaged.
"STOP LAUGHING YOU TWO AND GET YOURSELVES IN MY OFFICE RIGHT NOW OR GET OUT OF THIS SCHOOL!"
James leaned over to whisper in Sirius's ear. "Get ready for a splitting ear-ache!"