A/N: Sorry for the long time between updating. I've been writing this chapter for about two weeks :-p I just started school, but all my classes are online, so maybe I'll still update a bit more. Also, Matthew Raulston is a friend of mine, as is Nichole. This might be a slightly boring chapter, but oh well. Next chapter will get more interesting with Halloween :)

Herbology, Transfiguration, and Potions

The next day during breakfast, Midge flew down and landed in front of my plate with a small piece of lined paper tied to her leg. After I removed the paper, she took a bit of my toast and flew off. Opening the letter, I knew it was from my childhood friend, Matthew Raulston.

We had been friends since I was three and he was two. His parents had adopted him when he was first born and his own biological parents had died. He and I were always outcasts in school. When my parents split up and I moved to the city, he would try as much as possible to come and visit me.

Then I began to wonder. How did he know I was here? Wouldn't he have freaked out at the sight of an owl showing up at his house?

I began to read the letter with interest:

Drea,

Hey, it's me. Why didn't you tell me that you were going to a school for magic? Your mother came by the house today to see mum and dad and she told me that you were at a school called Hogwarts. I asked her about it, and she said all the weird things that happened (including that incident with your father) was really magic.

After she left, my parents shooed me out of the room so they could talk. Naturally, I didn't leave, but stayed outside the door. Then they began to talk about all the weird stuff I had been doing (including the time I saved the cat from the tree without climbing it) and started to wonder if my biological parents were magical. They searched for my adoption papers, but all it said was that my mother's last name was Prewett and my father was unknown. It said under reason for adoption was that my mother had died and as they didn't know who my father was, they put me up for adoption.

Well, I have to get going. It's getting late. Hope you write back soon!

Matthew

I smiled as I folded up the paper. A familiar face would be here next year.

"Who wrote it?" Ginger asked.

"One of my friends from home. He thinks he might be a wizard."

"Is he?" asked Megan.

"I think he is. I never thought about it before until now, but he just might be."

"Awesome," Ginger said, finishing off her breakfast.

"What classes do we have today?" I asked.

"Let's see," Ginger said, searching through her bag and pulling out her timetable. "First thing we have Herbology, then Tranfiguration, and after lunch it's Double Potions."

"I think I'll like Potions," I commented, finishing off my eggs.

"I hear the professor is an arse," Megan said, lowering her voice slightly. "My cousin said he favors the Slytherins and can't wait to deduct points from the other houses."

"We have it with the Ravenclaws, so I guess there won't much favortism," Ginger said, folding her timetable and putting it into her bag.

"I wouldn't hold my breath," I said, pointing to a hook nosed teacher (who I assumed was the Potions teacher) taking points from a group of Ravenclaws.

"Let's go get our stuff. Class is outside," Megan said, getting up from the table.

We walked up to our dormitories and grabbed our things and headed out the grounds. It was a fairly crisp day outside, but the sun was shining. Just over a small hill, we saw about ten greenhouses, each with a large number on them indicating which greenhouse it was. We didn't know which greenhouse to go into, so we just stood in the middle with other Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors.

"Greenhouse one!" came a familiar voice. We turned to see Professor Sprout coming our way from a large tree that had many bandages wrapped around it.

Odd, I thought.

Professor Sprout unlocked the door to greenhouse one as everyone congregated behind her. She held the door open and many students held their noses as they passed her as she smelled strongly of dung. I actually found the smell enticing; I had always liked gardening.

"Gather round the table! That's it! My name is Professor Sprout and I am the Herbology teacher here at Hogwarts. People may think that Herbology isn't a real important subject, but I beg to differ. Of the course of the next seven years or so, you will see some rare plants that some have never seen before in their lives. Herbology is also very important when it comes to Potions, as many ingredients in potions are herbs, plants, or something that comes from plants in some way or form. Now, for this first semester, and probably into the second, we will be working with some harmless plants. Mainly asphodel, belladonna, aconite, sneezewort, and so on. The main objective is to learn how to grow these plants, as some of them won't grow easily. After the plants have grown to a size in which they are usable, we will dry some of them and will give it to Professor Snape, the Potions teacher, to use in the student-store cupboard. There are pots right there in front of you and there is some dragon dung in the back of the greenhouse as well as some soil. There are also some seeds next to the pots. Everyone got it?" Everyone nodded their heads. "Good. Now get to work."

Throughout the rest of the class period, Professor Sprout came around to each student to see their progress.

"Good job, Miss Brotherton. Most people put too much fertilizer on the belladona when it only needs a thin layer to be happy. Ten points to Hufflepuff."

"Thank you," I replied, not hiding the smile on my face.

"Okay class!" she called after a bit. "The bell is about to ring and if you need to wash yourselves off, go to the sink over in the corner. Also, for anyone that is interested in Herbology, there will be a Herbology Club meeting at the end of this month. Watch your House bulletin boards for more information."

"Are you going to join?" Ginger asked.

"Of course," I replied, rinsing off my gloves.

"Good," came a voice from behind me. We turned around to see Professor Sprout smiling. "I believe Miss Brotherton that you might have a natural knack for Herbology."

I blushed as the bell rang. We gathered our belongings and headed back up to the castle.

"How long until Transfiguration?" Megan asked.

"About twenty minutes. We'll have enough time to go and get our things."

We got our things and headed up to the fifth floor where the Transfiguration classroom was. The door was already open and we walked in to see about half the class already seated. Professor McGonagall was seated at her desk up at the front, peering over her square-rimmed glasses at the class. Once the late bell rang, she got up and stared at the class.

"Welcome to Transfiguration," she started. "I'm Professor McGonagall. Transfiguration is perhaps the most complex magic one can do. For those who don't know, Transfiguration is the art of switching something into a completely different thing. As it is very complex, it is also very dangerous. If anyone thinks it humorous to mess around in my class will be asked to leave," she paused," and never come back. You all have been warned." She turned around and waved her wand over her desk. It instantly turned into a pig and everyone clapped. She gave a hint of a smile at the applause. "Today we will begin small. We will be transfiguring a match into a needle. But first we will take some notes."

After about five pages of notes, she gave us each a match. Ginger, after her third or fourth try, finally turned her match into a needle.

"Good job, Miss Christ. Five points to Hufflepuff," McGonagall said, making notes on her parchment.

I looked down at my needle. It was the shape of a needle, but it was still made out of wood.

"Good effort," McGonagall said, making notes on her parchment again.

Megan's needle, however, had a needle bottom and a match top.

"Good job, Miss Shafur."

As the bell rang, we gathered our stuff and headed to lunch.

"That class sucks," Megan said under breath.

I laughed. "It's okay. She told us it wouldn't be easy. I bet loads of people have trouble with it."

After lunch, we went up to our dormitories and grabbed our things for Potions. I looked in my trunk and noticed my cauldron was gone.

"Hey, where's my cauldron?" I asked the room in general.

"I think that they are already down in the dungeons," Nichole said. Nichole was a first-year Hufflepuff like Ginger, Megan, and I.

"I hate when they take our things without permission," Ginger said jokingly.

We laughed and made our way to the dungeons. It was probably the depressing place that we had seen since arriving at Hogwarts. Water seemed to be leaking from the walls, but yet the floors were dry. Even though the Hufflepuff common room was underground, it had a much more homier feel than here.

We didn't have to wait long before the teacher burst through the door. He was the same teacher who was taking points away from the Ravenclaws earlier that day. He came sweeping through the class, and turned around so quickly, it hurt my neck just to look at it.

"I will begin with roll call," he announced. He called out names and stop to sneer at names he obviously knew.

"You are here to learn the science of potion making," he said, his voice barely audible. "I know many of you think that just because you won't use your wand in this class, that it isn't considered magic. Some won't appreciate the art that is potion making. You probably won't even appreciate the smoke rising from a perfectly brewed Forgetfulness Potion. I can teach you how to brew glory, bottle fame, even put a stopper in death. Then again, I highly doubt any of you will be able to do this," he sneered. He waved his wand and what looked like a recipe appeared on the board in gold letters. "This is your assignment for today. It is a simple Boil-Curing Potion. One of the easiest potions possible. After you are done with your potion," he pointed his wand to a table underneath a cabinet and about twenty glass vials with stoppers appeared, "fill a vial and put your name on it and turn it in. There are dried nettles in the store cupboard. You have one hour. Begin."

I began to take my ingredients out of my bag and picked up the container of stewed horned slugs. I looked closer at it and noticed a crack in the container. Opening it, I noticed my horned slugs were drying up, and fast.

"Oh no," I said. "What am I going to do?" I whispered to Ginger.

"Look in your book and see if there is any possible substitution for it," she whispered back, taking a slug out, her face screwed up in disgust.

I flipped through my book quickly, as not to draw attention to myself. I found a list of possible substitutions and sighed in relief when I saw that you could add a bit of bubotuber pus along with the slugs (according the book, bubotuber pus was mainly used for acne, but when mixed with certain potions could be used to help boils). I looked through my Potions kit and saw no bubotuber pus among any of it.

"I don't have any bubotuber pus," I groaned, counting out porcupine quills.

"Well, when you get the dried nettles, see if he has any in the student store cupboard," Megan said, slicing her slugs.

I went up and glanced through the cupboard quickly. Sure enough, there was bubotuber pus right next to the dried nettles.

I took a small vial of both and headed back to my seat. My cauldron started to simmer and I looked in my book to see when I needed to add the pus, which turned out to be at the end. As I let the cauldron simmer, I looked around the class. Professor Snape was telling Luna Lovegood off because she refused to throw her horned slugs into her cauldron, as she had already named one Sanderford.

"Miss Lovegood," Snape hissed, "please put the slugs into the cauldron."

"No. I rather like them."

The girl sitting next to her seemed to be chopping up a little extra slugs. The girl pushed a bit of slugs to Luna and Professor Snape spat, "Twenty points from Ravenclaw! I do not allow helping in this class."

"Fantastic," Ginger muttered from next to me, her potion, which was supposed to be a bright orange, was a nasty dirt brown color. Professor Snape, on hearing this, flipped around and had us in his sights. With a smirk planted on his face, he slowly strode over to our table.

"Well, Miss Christ, that certainly won't do. It seems to me you put the porcupine quills in before the nettles." Ginger kept her head down and he looked to Megan. "Your potion is mediocre. Not the exact shade of orange a Boil Curing Potion is supposed to be." Then he looked at my cauldron. It was a bright blue, almost white. He sneered. "Miss Brotherton. Your potion is dreadful."

"But I haven't added my last ingredient yet, sir."

"And what would that be?"

"The bubotuber pus," I replied, uncorking the vial.

"That is not part of the potion," he said.

"I know, but my horned slugs didn't have any liquid in the container. In the book, it said I could use bubotuber pus along with the slugs."

"I know what the book says," he spat. "You should follow instructions and not what some book tells you."

I glared at him and held the vial over my cauldron. I tipped the contents into my cauldron and the potion glowed bright purple. A look of triumph crossed over Snape's face before the potion hissed and turned the exact same shade of orange described in the book.

He looked down his nose at the potion and said slowly, "Twenty points from Hufflepuff. You will follow my directions and not the books. Also you will have detention. See me after class," he said, sweeping off to a table full of Ravenclaws.

I sat there with my mouth opened. I just made the potion perfectly, and he took points away! I called him every name in the book as I packed my things up. The bell rang and Ginger and Megan waited outside the door for me. I trudged up to the desk where Snape was sitting, and he finished writing something on a piece of parchment. He took his time writing, and this made me even more impatient. He finally looked up.

"Miss Brotherton, you will serve detention next Thursday. You will replace the bubotuber pus you stole from the cabinet. Meet me in my office at seven in the evening."

"Yes, sir," I mumbled.

"What an arseface," Megan said, making rude hand gestures to the closed classroom door.

"Don't worry about it," I said, making my way up the stairs. "Let's just get out of the dungeons. They creep me out."

We climbed the stairs and went out into the courtyard. It was a beautiful day with a light breeze. Shedding my school robes, I sat there looking around the courtyard. It was bare with the exception of a few students. Then I noticed something awkward.

Luna was sitting in the corner of the courtyard and what looked like an older Slytherin student was holding an open ink bottle above her head. Luna had her legs crossed looking up at the bottle as if this happened everyday. I got up and marched over to her.

"My father has told me about you. You're Loony Lovegood. Your father writes that crackpot magazine The Quibbler." This got a chuckle out of some of the girl's friends who had just joined her.

"Pansy," Luna said airily, "you're just upset because my father found out that your father was bitten by a Flaming Flargon."

"Whatever, Loony," said Pansy, tipping the bottle a bit more until the ink was right near the edge. I walked a bit faster and grabbed Pansy's wrist. She jumped and looked at me, a look of horror plastered on her face.

"Leave her alone," I hissed.

"What are you going to do about it?" Pansy hissed back, her eyes narrowed.

I suddenly saw red. It was like I was wearing red sunglasses. As soon as I saw the red, Pansy jumped back, dropping the ink bottle on the ground. When my vision came back to normal, I saw Pansy clutching her wrist. I saw a burn mark where my hand had gripped her.

"I'm getting Professor Snape," she yelled, running off in the other direction.

"We better get out of here. He'll be here any minute," Ginger whispered in my ear.

As we were leaving, I heard Luna say, "Shame. I really thought I needed a new hair color."