The Foul Professor Snape
Maria awoke the next morning feeling refreshed and content. She looked over at Faye, who was staring at the ceiling with her eyes open.
"Good morning." Faye whispered, so as not to wake the others.
"Morning!" Maria replied.
"KLEENEX!" A girl with flaming red hair that could rival Ginny's bolted upright, a look of terror on her face.
"What's wrong?" Faye asked, alarmed.
"Oh." The girl seemed to realize she was dreaming. "Nothing, nothing, just a dream. I'm kind of scared of Kleenex.
She blushed sheepishly.
Maria and Faye burst out laughing. The girl's scream and the laughter ringing through the dormitory caused the other two girls to awake.
"S'time to get up already?" Asked a very pretty looking black girl.
Maria recognized the last girl. She was once again the girl who joined Faye and herself on the boat to cross the lake; because of the Sorting Hat, Maria could now identify her as Gabrielle LaQuinta.
"So, I guess we didn't really have time to introduce ourselves last night, did we?" The red-haired girl asked, recovering from the scare of the frightening Kleenexes.
"I was so pooped!" Faye exclaimed.
"Pooped?" the red-haired girl asked.
"It means tired." Now it was Faye's turn to look sheepish.
"Well, my name is Maria Thompson."
"And I'm Faye Matthias."
"My name is Jacie Verrill." The redheaded girl declared.
"And I'm Madison Bedros." The black girl said.
All four of the girls looked over at Gabrielle. She was quietly dressing in her school robes, and acting as though she had not been listening to the conversation at all.
"What about you?" Madison asked her.
"Pardon?" Gabrielle said, as though she was coming out of a trance. Perhaps she wasn't listening.
"What's your name?" Jacie asked, friendly.
"Oh, my name is Gabrielle LaQuinta."
Maria and Faye stared at her. They could not understand how someone's hair could look so straight and shiny after just waking up.
"Well, now that introductions are over, shall we all head down to breakfast? I'm starving." Jacie proposed.
"Yes, let's do that." Madison replied in a very fake, formal voice.
Everyone giggled except for Gabrielle.
"Gabrielle, are you coming?" Maria asked.
"No, no, you go ahead." Gabrielle said dreamily.
"Well, she's a bit, uh, lightheaded." Jacie commented.
"She does seem odd, doesn't she?" Madison replied.
"Did you see her eyes?" Faye observed. "Almost yellow, like a cat."
"Oh, I didn't see!" Jacie cried, making to go back to the dormitory and see Gabrielle's eyes.
"Jacie!" Madison said, giggling.
"What are you gonna say?" Maria asked. "Um, Gabrielle, can I see your weird eyes?"
Faye started laughing.
Jacie's face fell. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. Oh well, I'll see them at breakfast."
Maria, Faye, Jacie and Madison entered the Great Hall together and found seats at the Gryffindor Table.
"Morning, sis!" Hermione called, a few seats along the bench.
"Hey!" Maria replied, smiling.
Professor McGonagall began circling the Hall, providing students with their timetable.
"First years!" called Ron, passing their timetables to them.
"Charms and Transfiguration this morning, then Potions after lunch." Madison observed.
Maria made a disgusted noise. "I heard Professor Snape was a really unfair, really mean teacher."
"Yeah, that's what I've heard too." Jacie stated.
"And he favors his house." Faye said.
"Great, so little miss Drucilla will get extra special treatment while we get to be the dogs." Maria sulked.
She glanced over at the Slytherin table. Draco Malfoy and his younger cousin Dru were sitting together, and for once, Malfoy was not drawing attention to himself. He seemed to be having a serious conversation with Dru. Dru had an annoyed expression on her face, but Malfoy's was dead serious.
"Hey, guys!" A voice said. "Maria?"
Maria tore her eyes away from Dru and Malfoy's conversation, and instead focused on the person speaking to her.
Shelly stood there, smiling broadly.
"Hey, Shelly!" Maria smiled. "What have you got first?"
"Charms with Flitwick." Shelly said.
"Oh, us too!" Faye declared. "Cool!"
"Yeah." Shelly agreed. "I'm going to go finish breakfast at my table then we can all head up to Charms together."
"Sounds great." Jacie said. "Oh, hello, I'm Jacie."
Shelly laughed. "My name is Shelly."
"And I'm Madison!" Madison piped up from the corner.
Shelly grinned, said hello to Madison and a final farewell to everyone else, and then took off for her table.
"It's too bad she's in Hufflepuff." Faye said.
"Yeah, she's cool." Maria agreed. She glanced over at the Slytherin table once more, and to her surprise Dru and Malfoy disappeared.
Once the girls finished eating breakfast, they met up with Shelly and headed towards Charms.
"Did you guys even see Gabrielle during breakfast?" Jacie asked as the class filed into the Charms classroom.
"Hmm, come to think about it, I didn't see her." Faye said. "That's odd."
Gabrielle turned up in the class with one second to spare before she would have been declared tardy. Her robes were strangely black; that was the color of the Hogwarts robes, but Gabrielle's black robes stood out rather darker than all the others, and they made her hair look almost gray. She was wearing a lot of black makeup, which the girls all thought was her way to show off, since she was only eleven and already wearing more makeup than most of the seventh years at Hogwarts. Her cat-like, yellow eyes stood out vibrantly from her black appearance.
"Miss LaQuinta, please take a seat, we're about to begin." Professor Flitwick ordered kindly.
The only free seat was next to Maria, so Gabrielle took it and began unloading her quill and a fresh piece of parchment.
Charms was an interesting class; Maria could not believe how much more there was to magic than it showed in the movies. Transfiguration was more difficult than Charms, as Maria realized that it would take years before she could begin to transfigure larger objects. By the time lunch rolled around, the girls were starving and tired by the two intricate lessons.
Gabrielle was seen at lunch. Maria, Faye, Jacie and Madison all watched her as she ate her lunch by herself at the end of the table.
"Why doesn't she come and sit with us?" Jacie asked, looking almost insulted.
"Maybe we're not good enough for her." Madison said with a trace of sarcasm in her voice.
"Come on, we'd better get going to Potions." Maria interrupted. "I expect it's best if we're not late for Snape's lesson."
"Agreed." Faye nodded.
So, the girls took off for Potions, leaving Gabrielle in her stupor.
They entered into the dungeon of Snape's classroom, looking disgusted.
"What a sad looking classroom." Madison observed.
"Yeah." Agreed Jacie. "It almost makes me depressed."
"Might I ask that you not lurk in the doorway and make rude comments about my classroom?" Came Snape's voice from the shadows.
"Sorry, sir." Maria apologized.
"Take your seats." Snape ordered. He walked to the front of the classroom and began writing notes on the chalkboard. The girls took seats as far away from Snape as possible.
Once everyone had filed into the classroom, Snape began speaking. He made a short speech about how he would not accept and silliness in his class, and how Potions was a very amazing class that few seemed to realize.
"Now, take out your cauldron and we shall begin. This will not be on your exams, for it is far beyond your level, but I shall still ask what the key ingredient for a Polyjuice Potion. So, is everyone useless or can anyone tell me the answer?"
Maria remembered a conversation that she had with Hermione about this potion; it was used to make the drinker transform into a person. Hermione had illegal created this potion in only her second year, much to Maria's astonishment. So, Maria raised her hand.
Snape raised an eyebrow at her.
"Two important ingredients are powdered horn of Bicorn and Shredded skin of Boomslang, but the key ingredient would be a bit of something from the person who you want to transform into." Maria said carefully, remembering exactly what Hermione had told her and being grateful that she had such a brilliant sister.
"What is your name?" Snape demanded.
"Maria Thompson, sir." Maria replied.
Snape smirked. "Ah, you must be Miss Granger's younger sister."
"How did you-"
"We teachers have our ways. If you are as bad of a know-it-all as Miss Granger is, than I expect we'll have a very interesting year, won't we?" Snape sneered.
"Excuse me?" Maria asked, looking affronted. Maria was not exactly aware of the rules at Hogwarts; when she went to the tiny school that her orphanage offered, respect towards teachers was very lenient. "My sister is very smart, and I am very proud to say that I am now related towards her. You shouldn't be badmouthing her, sir." She said with a hint of sarcasm on that last word.
"Ten points from Gryffindor!" Snape snapped, looking murderous. "You have a worse mouth than she does, Miss Thompson, and if I don't see improvement than next time the consequences will be far worse than an insignificant ten points!"
Maria glared at him.
"Everyone, begin working on the potion written up on the board, now!" Snape barked.
"Oh, my gosh." Faye said, openmouthed. "You can't speak like that to a Hogwarts teacher!"
"He was badmouthing my sister!" Maria argued. "I'm not going to just let him."
"You have some guts, I'll tell you that." Jacie praised.
"Five points from Gryffindor for talking, Miss Thompson." Snape sneered.
Luckily, he turned at that precise moment, so he did not see the obscene hand gesture that Maria had given him.