Chapter 7: Meeting the Potions Master
Why was it so cold? Opening her eyes she realized she was on the floor. Remembering the incident from last night, Liana turned around to see Rose, still sleeping on the floor and snoring loudly. Suddenly, the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open and a few of her fellow Gryffindor classmates filed out, armed with books and wands. To her relief, one of them was Hermione, who stopped and looked at them with a questionability odd look. "What are you two doing out here?" She stared at Rose who was still snoring, fast asleep.
"We slept out here," Liana yawned, getting on her feet to stretch. Sleeping on that stone floor had made her muscles entirely too stiff.
Hermione still looked at them dumbfounded, so Liana decided to explain. "We sort of got shut out. Could you tell us the password?" Rose was finally sitting upright and looking very disoriented. Hermione looked at them a bit disapprovingly, but than replaced it with an amused smile. "Chocolate Frogs. You might want to hurry, classes start in five minutes." Hermione left, and Liana and Roses returned horrified looks.
"Five minutes?" They yelled in unison.
Remembering something Hermione turned around and shouted after them. "Tell Ron and Harry to hurry up! Oh, and the girl's dorm is on the right!"
"Thanks!" Liana yelled back and almost immediately after, "Chocolate frogs!" The Fat Lady frowned at them.
"No need to be so pushy!" She complained.
"Just let us in!" Rose demanded. The portrait swung open and the two leapt inside, ignoring the complaints that followed as they collided into a group of first years. Seeing the Gryffindor common room for the first time, Liana was delighted with its cozy appearance. Red armchairs and a sofa circled around the hearth, while some wooden chairs and tables were set up in different areas across the room. The notice board, however, caught her eye. One of the notices read: Gryffindor Quidditch Team: tryouts 4:00 p.m. Thurs. September 2nd in the stadium.
"That's today!" Liana said startled, as Rose began to yank her through the door and up the stairs.
"Come on!" Rose scowled. "If we get detention for being late you won't have to worry about the damn tryouts!" They ran the rest of the way, until they finally reached their dorm. Quickly, they changed their robes and gathered up all their books rushing to shove them in their bags.
Still looking a little unkempt, but better than before the two girls sprang back down the stairs and into the common room. Coincidently, they ran into Ron and Harry, who also looked liked they had woken up on the middle of a stone floor.
"You guys running a little late too, huh?" Ron asked the four of them sprinted for the passageway.
"Are you kidding?" Rose laughed as they left the portrait of the Fat Lady behind. "We just woke up. We got locked out last night, no one told as the password." Ron slightly blushed at the last comment.
"So what's our first class?" Liana asked while trying to retrieve her schedule from her bag.
"Potions," Harry said distastefully. "I doubt we'll get by without a least a days worth of detention, and if that's the case I'll have to re-schedule tryouts."
"You're Quidditch Captain?" Liana asked, wondering why he hadn't mentioned it before.
"Well-eh-no… Ron is," Harry said, almost reproachfully. "I'm co-captain and team manager."
Ron practically beamed, but when he looked at Harry his face almost looked guilty. "Look I'm sorry mate. I didn't ask to be the bloody Quidditch Captain. Everyone knows you'd be better for it."
"Yeah, well saying it doesn't change anything," he muttered angrily. Ron and Harry stopped talking to each other for a while after that. Liana couldn't understand it; Her brother had even said Harry was one of the best Quidditch players he had ever seen. She just couldn't picture Ron as a leader; it seemed that wherever Harry went Ron followed, but apparently that wasn't the case with everything.
"Really?" Rose fluttered her eyelashes and Liana had to suppress her oncoming giggles. "What position do you play?" Ron's face was turning bright red, and Rose looked over at Liana giving a satisfactory smile.
"Um- err- Keeper," Ron replied not looking directly at her. Liana looked behind her realizing that they had already reached the bottom of the main staircase and were now heading off towards the dungeons.
"So who's the Potions Master?" Liana asked Harry, trying to include him in their conversation.
"Snape, I mean Professor Snape," Harry said mockingly.
Ron didn't take long to jump in. "He absolutely hates us Gryffindor, Harry in particular." He cast a side-ways glance at Harry.
Snape bashing seemed to put Harry into a better mood. "You could oil a door with all that grease in his hair…" He trailed off as he saw a tall dark figure looming in front of them. His greasy dark and his rather large nose were the features that Liana took note of first. This must be Snape… Liana concluded, debating whether or not she should turn and walk the other way, or come up with a good excuse as to why they were so late.
"Is that so Mr. Potter? Well, would you and your entourage please step inside so that I may begin my class?" He barely paused before adding; "And 20 points from Gryffindor… each." He made sure to emphasize the last word, just daring anyone to object.
Snape headed to the front of the class and Liana stared at him believingly. This class was going to be hell. She had had some strict teachers before, but Snape was just plain right unpleasant if you put it mildly. Ron and Harry took seats to the left of Hermione who looked at them with one of those I-can't-believe-you-were-late kind of looks.
Noticing that not all the students in classroom were in Gryffindor, Liana assumed that they must have combined classes, and it appeared for this class they would be stuck with Slytherin. Even better… Liana thought remembering what her brother had said about the house. Snape looked impatiently at the two girls who had yet to take a seat. "30 points from Gryffindor if you don't seat yourselves immediately."
A blonde- haired Slytherin snickered, a smug expression on his face. "Apparently all you're girlfriends aren't all as smart as Granger, Potter."
"Shove it, Malfoy!" Ron said, shaking his fist in the boy's direction. Harry and Hermione had to restrain from leaving his seat.
"He not worth it, Ron." Hermione muttered to him softly, finally Ron sat down, his face burning red.
"That will be all, Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Weasley," Snape said icily.
Rose nudged Liana in the direction of Tim Smith, who still had empty seats to either side of him. They both sat down, and only then did Professor Snape take his eyes off of them. Tim grinned as he recognized them, but didn't dare speak to say hello. Ok, so maybe not all Slytherins were bad…