The Half-Blood Prince
For disclaimer and summary, see chapters one and two.
Author's Note: I put that little speech of Nott's in for a reason. Yes, there is going to be much fighting in this fanfiction…. evil smile
Chapter Four: The First Day
When Severus woke up, he didn't open his eyes right away. It was completely silent and dark, just like his room at home was. How could he be sure that it wasn't all a dream, and he was back in his room with his books?
Only one way to find out. He opened his eyes, and smiled as he saw green velvet. The hangings around his bed had been closed, and he had fallen asleep listening to the laughter of the other first year boys.
Suddenly his hangings were opened, and Severus looked up and saw Lucius, still in his emerald green pyjamas. "Time to get up!" With a groan, Severus sat up.
"It's only six, Lucius. Breakfast doesn't end until eight," muttered Severus. But he still got out of bed, hissing slightly as his feet hit the cold stones of the floor.
"Andrew and Emily are going to show us where all of our classes are so we don't get lost today," Lucius explained.
"Oh," answered Severus. He rubbed one of his eyes, and started towards the bathroom door.
"Where're you going?" asked Lucius.
"Shower," yawned Severus. He wasn't used to getting up before eight o' clock, since he never had to go anywhere or see anyone.
Fifteen minutes later, Severus was dressed in his uniform, and with the other first years, being led by the two prefects to their classes.
"We can't go up to the Astronomy Tower today, since it's locked when there are no classes in session," Andrew told them.
"Why?" asked a brown-haired girl named Marie Anderson.
"A few years ago, a student jumped," said Emily. Severus sighed with relief—he wasn't keen on the idea of passing out from fear in front of his fellow Slytherins.
"Did they die?" asked Goyle. He was a big, muscled boy that was also rather fat.
"Not from that. Professor Dumbledore saved them. That was before he was headmaster, and the Transfiguration professor," explained Andrew. "But he poisoned himself a few months later."
"Oh."
"Now, to the Great Hall," said Emily. Goyle smiled at the thought of food, forgetting about the suicidal student. Severus was still happy knowing that they weren't going to be up there until they had Astronomy.
He hoped that wouldn't be for a long time.
They entered the Great Hall, and sat down at the Slytherin table. They were some of the first people in the hall, but soon others started appearing. The house tables were soon filled with students.
Not long after the start of breakfast, McGonagall began walking down the rows of tables, handing out class schedules.
The first thing Severus looked for was Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was their first class after lunch. He was pleased to see that they didn't have Astronomy until next Tuesday.
Their first class was History of Magic, with the Hufflepuffs. Severus thought they looked like a bunch of cowards, though they were quite friendly (except with Slytherins—Severus's house scared them witless, as did many other things).
There were people falling asleep all over the place in History of Magic. Their teacher was a ghost named Professor Binns, and he was a dreadful lecturer. Lucius decided that he had better things to do than listen to a ghost rant about the Giant Rebellion of 1455, and lay his head down on his desk. Severus wrote down the topic (so he could research it later if there was homework) and spent the class period revising his useless spells, hoping to make them work.
Their next class was McGonagall's class, Transfiguration, also with the Hufflepuffs. She greeted them quickly, and then launched right into the lesson. They soon realized that there would be no sleeping in this class as they tried to turn their toothpicks into needles.
Only Severus and Lucius succeeded.
Then it was time for their last class before lunch. It was Potions, one of Severus's best subjects. Lucius was miserable at it—his best were Transfiguration and anything to do with the Dark Arts.
Professor Slughorn, their teacher, lectured them for most of the class period, and then had them identify potion ingredients. Severus found it rather dull, but got all of his answers correct. Slughorn seemed to like him after the end of the class period.
Severus was too excited to eat at lunch, so he went to the library. Lucius went with him. They sat talking in low voices about the Dark Arts, and wondering why you would defend yourself from them. Some of the most brilliant spells they'd ever seen were classified as "Dark Magic".
Finally it was time for Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was just his luck that they had it with the Gryffindors.
They walked into the classroom, and saw a blonde witch probably in her twenties sitting on the edge of the desk at the front of the room.
"Come in, come in!" called the woman. "Take a seat, anywhere you like. That's it." They sat, looking at her. "My name is Andrea Golden. You can either call me Andrea, or Ms. Golden. I don't care, truthfully. I never understood why teachers made you call them Mr. or Mrs., instead of their first name.
"Right now. I'm going to be learning all your names as best I can, but there are a lot of students in this school, so please bear with me. I'll take role, which will help me remember who's who," Golden said. "Black, Sirius?" Black raised his hand. "Good, good… Lupin, Remus?" A boy Severus hadn't noticed before raised his hand a bit. He was sitting in the back row, with his face down, staring at the desk. His brown hair covered his face.
Golden called a few more names, and then reached the end of the Gryffindors with Potter's name. "Now for the Slytherins." She started with Crabbe, and was finished rather quickly.
"Now then, today we're just going to talk about what we'll be going over this year, why we're going over it, and what importance it will have to you once you leave Hogwarts," said Golden. She stood up, and turned towards the blackboard. "For the first half of this year, we will be studying Dark Creatures. The second half will be spent on spells, curses, and things like that. Let's see here…"
She launched into a speech far more interesting than Binns's had been. By the end of the lesson, they couldn't wait to come back the next day.
Severus was running on autopilot for their last classes of the day (Charms and Herbology), thinking about the spell books tucked away in his trunk. He hadn't had time to show them to Lucius the day before, since they'd been so tired after the feast and the sorting, but tonight…
Severus smiled. Perhaps Hogwarts would be everything he'd hoped.
With that thought, he began the long trek up the school from the greenhouses, to the awaiting common room.