Disclaimer: I have still not managed to obtain ownership of Harry Potter from J K Rowling.

A few reviews would be nice. But as I'm so generous you can have another chapter.

Trying to Live

by Willowcharm

Chapter 4: First Day

The next morning Harry woke up to find himself alone in the dormitory. He saw the five empty beds and realised there must be another first year Slytherin boy who hadn't been present the night before. Glancing at his watch he found he would have to hurry if he were to have time for breakfast before lessons started. He dressed quickly and left the dormitory to find the common room deserted also. Fortunately the route from the Great Hall to the dungeons hadn't been too complicated and Harry found his way back up. As he arrived at his table his housemates pointedly ignored him and talked among themselves, so Harry sat at the end seat and helped himself to a slice of toast which he nibbled at slowly. A minute later Professor Snape strode up to the table with a stack of parchment which turned out to be timetables. Starting at the opposite end of the table he handed them out, pausing every now and then to speak to a girl or boy. finally he arrived at Harry and thrust the final sheet at him.

'Mr Potter, ' he began in a low, threatening tone. 'You would do well to remember that I do not take kindly to members of my house making scenes such as you did last night. If anything of the sort ever occurs again you will find yourself serving detention every night for a month. You belong to a noble house and I expect you to uphold the honour of it. Do I make myself clear?'

'Yes, Professor.' replied Harry quietly, feeling scared. Professor Snape said no more and stalked off. Just then, a whole host of owls flew into the hall, and among those headed for the Slytherin table Harry recognised his fathers. His hands shook as he opened the envelope it dropped on his plate and withdrew the letter. Before he had a chance to read it however, everyone started to move out of the hall, and, not wanting to be late for class, Harry followed. He kept behind the group from his own dormitory, guessing that someone had told them where to go. Suddenly he realised that whenever people passed near him there was whispering and muttering, and the words that he could make out w ere not very encouraging.

' I never thought Harry Potter would be a stinking Slytherin.'

' Best keep out of his way.'

'He might be in our house but I'm not going to be his friend.'

Harry knew then that things looked very dismal for him. Three quarters of the school thought he was bad because he was a Slytherin and the rest probably hated him either because he had defeated Voldemort or because he had complained about the Sorting Hat's decision. Great. Soon they came to a classroom and Harry took a seat on his own at the side of the room and waited quietly for the teacher after checking his timetable and discovering that this lesson was History of Magic. Thanks to his father it was no shock to him when a ghostly Professor Binns drifted through the classroom wall though most of the girls let out small screams. The spirit then began to lecture in a monotone and once Harry ascertained that he had already covered the subject with Remus, he pulled out his father's letter and began to read.

Dear Harry,

Firstly, let me make it clear that I still love you and am not about to disown you. The same goes for Remus and Sirius. I know we've always gone on about how horrible and untrustworthy Slytherins are, but there are exceptions to every rule and I like to think that you are one. After all, Peter Pettigrew was a Gryffindor and look what he did.

Although his father seldom talked about it, Harry knew that Peter Pettigrew was the trusted friend who had betrayed them to Voldemort and brought about his mother's death, condemning Harry to a life in hiding. He continued to read.

Dumbledore wrote last night to tell me about your sorting. I probably shouldn't say this to you, but he seemed to be remarkably happy about the result. If I didn't know it couldn't be done I'd accuse him of influencing the hat. It's a pity you couldn't have restrained yourself from making your little outburst. I have every sympathy with your feeling s of course, but it's not very clever to let your head of house know you're unhappy about your sorting. Not that Snape would love you much anyway, being my son. I hope that you can still manage to enjoy your time at Hogwarts. It may be hard for you to make friends now, but perhaps in time you'll convince people that you're not such a bad chap. I just feel bad that there's nothing much I can do or say to make things better. Write soon to let me know how things are and feel free to complain - you'll end up demented if you have to bottle your emotions up completely.

Your loving Dad.

Harry was relieved to find that his father was standing by him and that he was allowed to unburden himself if things got too bad. At the moment he couldn't imagine anyone wanting to befriend him, but he could always hope. As he thought this the bell rang and the class swarmed out of the classroom and headed towards Professor McGonagal's classroom for transfiguration. Harry felt a thrill of excitement. Although Remus had made him study lots of magical theory, Harry had not been allowed to try any spells at all. Finally he was going to be able to do some real magic. He had of course done the odd thing by accident when he was very young, and there had been the time a couple of years ago when he had thought it had been a good idea to pinch Remus' wand when his back had been turned. Somehow Remus had ended up with his hands glued to the table for three hours before James had returned home. Sizing up the situation immediately James had made a beeline for Harry and in no time had turned him over his lap and spanked him soundly until Remus had begged his friend to stop so that he could free him. After that episode Harry didn't dare touch a wand again.

The first thing Professor McGonagall did was to give a lecture on behaviour in her classroom. Then she gave a talk on the theory of simple transfiguration. Finally she provided matchsticks for everyone and instructed them to try to change them into needles. The fair haired boy tried first, confidently saying the spell and was rewarded by seeing the end of his matchstick go silvery and pointy.

'Not bad at all, Mr Malfoy,' the teacher proclaimed and she awarded him five points for Slytherin. Then everyone else was trying at once but with little success. Harry raised his own wand, said the spell and was astounded to see his matchstick transform into a perfect needle.

'Well, well, Mr Potter. Excellent work! Twenty points for Slytherin.' And the stern teacher favoured Harry with a smile. For the first time since arriving at Hogwarts Harry felt a little bit happy. Judging from the looks the rest of his house gave him they weren't going to be impressed by Harry gaining them points. But Harry decided that he would just have to manage without friends for a while and concentrate on enjoying his classes and learning to be a great wizard. Perhaps one day he would truly be able to live life to the full. He headed off to lunch and finding that sandwiches were on the menu, he grabbed a couple and took them outside to eat.

Harry was wandering down towards a massive lake when he was approached by an immense specimen of a man. He knew at once that this must be Hagrid the gamekeeper, whom his father always spoke of with affection, if not respect.

'Well, well, if it isn't James Potter's little one at last' he said warmly. 'Come along to my hut an' I'll get yeh a cup o' tea or summat.'

Harry followed willingly, pleased to hear a friendly voice. Hagrid led him to his hut and ushered him inside and onto an enormous armchair.

'Yer dad wrote this morning' and asked if I'd keep an eye out for yer.' Hagrid said. 'Seemed ter think yer could do wi a friendly face.'

Harry looked at his feet, embarrassed. Hagrid poured two enormous cups of tea and handed one over.

'Listen,' he went on. 'Yeh've done nothing' wrong. I don' like most Slytherins meself, but I know no son o' James Potter could be bad. But there's a lot o' prejudice about and if yeh're havin' a hard time then yeh need someone ter speak to. So come ter me any time right? Now 'ow about I walk yer back up ter the school an' show yer where yer next class is?'

'Okay.' Harry smiled and got up. It felt great to know that there was one person at least in the school he could count on as a friend even if it wasn't another student. Hagrid led Harry back to school and left him close to the Defence Against Dark Arts classroom. This class turned out to be pretty useless. Professor Quirrell was a nervous man who wore a turban on his head and stuttered his way through a lecture on werewolves. Since his tutor was a werewolf there wasn't much Harry didn't know about them. He listened instead to the whispered conversation Draco Malfoy was having with one of his friends. Apparently someone had broken into a high security vault at Gringotts Bank recently although nothing had been taken.

The final class of that day was Charms, where once again Harry excelled and earned another fifteen house points. He hoped that this would make Professor Snape less hostile towards him. Though if he were anything like his housemates it wouldn't make a lot of difference. After class Harry wandered about on his own for a while before making his way to dinner. He ate quickly and returned to his dormitory, preferring to be alone rather than with those who didn't like him. He completed the homework they'd been given so far, then went to sleep, this time not quite so troubled.

So that's Harry's first day over. If you like it please review. And if you don't, still review.