Hey guys :)
New chapter. Enjoy
Harry Norwood
Chapter 5
The next day started much like the day before. Harry was again the first one up. He and Neville met Hannah and Susan in the common room and together they went to the great hall. Their first class of the day was defence of the dark arts. Grant and Ron were late once again with the excuse that Grant doesn't need defence since he defeated you-know-who. Harry once again had a terrible headache that only went away once he was far away from the classroom. After that they had their first lesson in Magical Theory together with the Slytherins. Harry enjoyed this class. He enjoyed learning about the history of magic and how it all began and how spells work. Some Slytherins, like Malfoy and his friends, told anyone who listened that they already know everything about magic because they come from purely magical families. After lunch they had Herbology and History. Before and after each class Harry talked to some of the other houses and explained his idea of a study group. Some liked the idea like most of the Ravenclaws some were a bit more hesitant like the Gryffindors. Harry avoided talking to Grant and Ron. The Slytherins just laughed at him. Harry and his friends made their way to the study area of the library and sat down at one of the big tabled by the window. Soon some Ravenclaws and Gryffindors showed up.
"So Harry how are we going to do this?" Sue, a girl from Ravenclaw asked. Harry stood up and looked at her and then everyone else. He never talked in front of a big group like this.
"Well...I...I thought that maybe for now we could just all study together and help each other when needed...But I thought that once we get to know each other better a...a...and once we know which our good subjects and bad subjects are we could all tutor each other or something like that." Harry said unsure. Everyone looked at him.
"Sounds like a good idea" Seamus, a Gryffindor, said. Everyone nodded in agreement. A now relived Harry sat back down. They all opened their books and started on their Homework. It took them good two and a half hours to get all their homework done. Harry and Neville got along great with Seamus and Dean, the later Harry found out is also from London. Hannah spend a lot talking Potions with Terry Boot from Ravenclaw and Susan talked to the Patil twins most of the time. Overall it went pretty great. Together the big group went to dinner. The next morning went pretty much like the day before. During breakfast Harry got a letter from his Family saying that they are very happy for him and that they miss him. It also contained a drawn picture from Bella. Their first lesson was double potions with Ravenclaw. Harry was both nervous and excited. Hannah was skipping all the way to the dungeons. Once there they had to wait outside the door. All the Ravenclaws were already there as usual. One minute before the class started Professor Snape opened the door.
"Why are you all standing around. Get inside and sit down" he said with a sneer. They all rushed inside and sat down. There were 4 big tables around the room a desk in a far corner. Each table could hold up to 8 people. It was colder in here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. Everyone got their books, caldron and ingredients out. Harry was at a table with Neville, Hannah, Susan, Padma, Terry, Sue and Anthony Goldstein. Professor Snape stood in the middle of the room.
"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through the human veins, bewitching the minds, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." Snape said in a deep serious tone.
Harry looked around nervously. Neville's face was white and Hannah was still smiling.
" Your first potion is a Cure for Boils. Now start. " Snape said and with a wave of his wand writing appeared on the board but only Harry seems to notice. Harry was confused. 'No Safety instruction?' He looked around. Everyone opened their books so Harry did the same. Harry found the potion and began to read.
Part 1
Add 6 snake fangs to the mortar.
Crush into a fine powder using the pestle.
Add 4 measures of the crushed fangs to your cauldron.
Heat the mixture to 250 for 10 seconds.
Wave your wand.
Leave to brew and return in 33-45 minutes.
Part 2
Add 4 horned slugs to your cauldron.
Take the cauldron off the fire before adding the next ingredient.
Add 2 porcupine quills to your cauldron.
Stir 5 times, clockwise.
Wave your wand to complete the potion.
Harry thought that it looked easy enough. He looked at the board. The recipe looked different.
Add crushed snake fangs to your cauldron and stir.
Slice your Pungous Onions finely and place in cauldron, then heat the mixture to 250.
Add dried nettles.
Add a dash of Flobberworm mucus and stir vigourously.
Add a sprinkle of powdered ginger root and stir vigourously again.
Add pickled Shrake spines.
Stir gently counterclockwise 5 times, so as not to overexcite the Shrake spines.
Add a glug of stewed horned slugs.
Take the caldron of the fire.
Add porcupine quills.
Finally, wave your wand over the cauldron to finish the potion.
Harry was confused. There were ingredients on the board that the book didn't mentioned. Harry looked around his table. Hannah was looking at him.
"Why haven't you started?" she whispered confused.
"The board shows a different recipe. I don't know what to do?" Harry whispered back. Hannah looked at the board.
"Of course" he heard her say quietly. She turned back to him. "Snape is a brilliant potion master. The best in Britain but he isn't the nicest. Figures he would put a different recipe on the board than in the book. He probably uses a different book. Maybe a better book. My Mum complains a lot about potion books. She says most of them a rubbish." she told him quietly.
"Lets try it out then. You already started on the book recipe so i'll do the board recipe. Okay?" Harry asked in a hushed tone. She nodded and Harry started to work.
Harry worked fast but precise. Harry just finished stirring and was just about the add the glug of stewed horned slug when he saw that Neville was about to add the porcupine quills while the caldron was still on the fire.
"Neville stop. You have to remove the caldron from the fire first" Harry whispered to his best friend. Neville let the quills drop back to the table and quickly but carefully removed the caldron from the fire.
"Thanks Harry" he said and went back to work. Harry did the same. They were both the last ones to finish. Pink smoke was rising from Harrys caldron. Neville's was smoke was a tad bit darker and Hannah's was slightly fainter like most of the smokes coming from the other students caldrons. Only one caldron had a bright red smoke. Zacharias caldron. One Ravenclaw girl, Hermione Harry thought, was starring at Harrys cauldron in slight shock. Snape was walking around the room inspecting each caldron. He mostly grunted or made snarky comments on how they could have done it better. When he reached Zacharias he vanished the entire potion and marked him a zero for the day. Zacharias made the mistake of stirring to much which made the potion dangerous to use. When he reached Harrys table was shocked to see Harrys potion. That shocked look only lasted for a millisecond though and he continued.
"put a sample on my desk. Your homework is to write a 3 foot essay on cure for boils and the ingredients." he said and sat down behind his desk. They all filled a phial with their potions, put it on the desk and left.
"Your potion looked better than mine. I'll write to my mum and ask her what she thinks" Hannah said as they walked up to the great hall for lunch.
"What are you talking about?" Susan asked them.
"Snape wrote a different recipe on the board then the one in the book. With different ingredients. I used the on in the book and Harry the one on the board. We wanted to see which would be better" Hannah explained. "You copied down the recipe right Harry?" she turned to him. Harry nodded. "Good then i'll write her this afternoon" Hannah said determent. After Lunch they had double Transfiguration with the Slytherins. Harry, Neville, Hannah and Susan were the first ones to arrive. They sat down in the front row. Surprised they starred at the cat that was sitting on the front desk. The room was big and had a high celling with big celling windows or rather openings as they didn't have glass. They let in a lot of light. There were also some openings in the wall right next to the big double door. The classroom was located on the ground floor right by a courtyard. All in all it was very bright and airy. The rest of the class arrived a few minutes later. Once they were all seated the cat suddenly leaped from the desk and turned itself into Professor McGonagall. There were gasp all around.
"Who here can tell me what kind of Transfiguration I just used?" she asked. Susan was the only one who raised her hand. McGonagall nodded in her direction.
"An Animagus transfiguration" she said.
"Correct. 5 points for Hufflepuff Ms. Bones. An Animagus is a wizard who elects to turn into an animal. But be warned it is a highly dangerous type of transfiguration. Not everyone can do it. It is usually taught in seventh year. You will begin with the basics. First you have to learn the Transfiguration Alphabet. It is the first chapter in your books." She said and sat down at her desk. Everyone took that as the cue to open their books and start reading. Harry found the Alphabet quite interesting. Right after class finished they again made their way to the study area in the library. Hannah immediately took to writing her Mum about the potion while the other started on their homework. Soon the Ravenclaws and Gryffindors arrived and joined them. After two hours they decided to call it a day and head to dinner. Hannah however asked Harry if she could borrow his owl to sent her letter. She rushed off and joined them 15min later at dinner.
After dinner they decided to have a little rest since they had Astronomy at midnight. Harry set his alarm clock to 11pm. Tired they woke with a start as the alarm went of. They got dressed once more and made their way up to the Astronomy tower, which is the highest tower at Hogwarts. On their way they met some of the Gryffindors who were equally tired. When the they reached the top Professor Sinistra told them to set up their telescopes. Harry set his up between Neville and Dean. Next to dean was Seamus. One after one the rest of the class arrived. The Professor looked around.
"Can someone tell me where Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley are?" she asked the Gryffindor boys in particular. They shrugged.
"We tried to wake them but they only told us to bugger of. Phillip you were the last of us in there. Did they get up?" Dean asked the dark skinned boy.
"Yeah they were up...well they were sitting in their beds but they told me to leave and I didn't want to be late so I left" he said.
"Very well. If they don't turn up soon i'll have to mark them as not present." she said and started the lesson. They had to study the night skies through their telescopes and learn the names of difficult stars and the movement of planets. After an hour the class was finally over and they made their way back to bed. The next two days went pretty much the same. It was now Friday after school and the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws are having their first flying lesson. They were standing on the training grounds. Everyone was standing next to an old broom.
"Good afternoon first years" the instructor Madam Hooch said. Please raise your wand arm over the broom and say up. They all raised their hands over the broom. Harrys broom flew straight into his hand. He saw a few others that succeeded on first try as well. Neville had a few problems but after the fourth try he managed. Hannah and Susan both managed at second try. Only one needed eight tries. "Alright. Now...when I blow my whistle you will mount your broom and hover JUST HOVER slightly over the ground for a minute and then touch back down" she said. Everyone nodded and she blew her whistle. They all mounted their brooms and started hovering Neville however seemed to have problems keeping his broom under control. He rose higher and higher. He screamed. Everyone else was back down and Madam Hooch started yelling at Neville to come back down. 'Why doesn't she just get on a broom to help him?' Harry wondered. Neville's broom suddenly shoot forward and crashed right into a wall. Neville fell down hard. They all rushed to him. Madam Hooch was checking on him. Luckily he was awake. "Oh thats a broken wrist. You need to go to the hospital wing. Everyone else...class dismissed." she said and led Neville away. The rest all put the brooms right next to the wall and the Hufflepuffs all rushed after them. Once in the hospital wing it turned out that Neville's wrist was indeed broken but Madam Pomfrey fixed him up quite quick. After that everything went quite smooth.
On Saturday Hannah finally got an answer from her Mum. She wrote that the recipe that Snape wrote down is from a book called The book of Potion. It is quite an expensive one and sadly not on the book list because of that. It is much more accurate than Magical Drafts and Potions the book they use. Luckily Hannahs Mum owned one and send it with the letter. Since there was only one book at their disposal they decided that everyone should copy the recipes down on some parchments. They would also make sure that everyone else from their study group gets them. The next few weeks after that went quite uneventful. They went to their classes, hung out and had their study group, which grew a little bit as some Slytherins decided to join like Daphne, Tracy and Blaize. It was now Halloween and they were just coming out of their first class that morning. Harry still got headaches ever time he was close to Professor Quirrell. That man and his classroom both reek of garlic. They were now heading to Charms class. Today they were learning the levitation charm. Its the second charm they are learning. Wingardium Leviosa is quite a difficult charm to master since if you don't get the wand movement or the pronunciation right it could go wrong. On their way to Lunch Hermione wouldn't stop talking about how easy it was to get the charm right and that she was surprised that she was the only one to get it right. They were just arriving on the ground floor when they saw Grant and Ron in front of the great hall. They apparently must have heard Hermione talking.
"Merlin will you ever shut up. It's no wonder you don't have friends. No one likes a know-it-all" Ron said and Grant nodded. Together they walked off. The rest of the Ravenclaws and all the Hufflepuffs stopped and looked at Hermione. She looked like she was holding back tears. Then she ran of. A few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuff wanted to run after her but were stopped by Megan stating that she probably needs some time alone right now and that they could talk to her later. They all agreed and went to lunch. After lunch they sadly had Herbology with the Gryffindors. When they arrived they saw a few of them waiting inside the greenhouse. Luckily it were Dean, Seamus and Phillip.
"Hey i have a question. Do Grant and Ron have any other friends beside themselves?" Hannah asked them.
"Yeah sort of. Fay and Joanne are always with them but I think they may have a crush on Grant or something like that. Why?" Phillip said.
"They were pretty mean to Hermione before lunch. They told her that no one likes her and that she is a know-it-all" Susan explained. The boys looked at each other.
"Yeah they can't stand her for whatever reason. But they always act like that. Grant thinks we should worship the ground he walks on and always commands everyone around" Dean said.
"That sounds like him" Hannah said. Neville and Susan nodded. A few moments later the rest arrived and the class started. After Herbology they had a free lesson which they spend in the common room. Once everyone else finished their last class they went to the library. The others were already there waiting. They smiled when they saw Hermione sitting there with the other Ravenclaws.
"Nice of you to join us Hermione" Hannah said as they sat down.
"Thanks for having me. I wasn't so sure of this at first but once Padma explained it to me it sounded pretty good" she said with a shy smile. Hannah smiled back. They studied for good two hours as usual. Hermione was a bit overbearing at first but calmed down once she knew that others knew the subjects as well if not better than her. In this group everyone was good at something and helped those who aren't as good. Like Neville. He is the best at Herbolgoy in this group. Hannah and Harry were the potion experts since they figured out that Snape uses a much better book. Of course everyone in the group had their own copy by now. Harry was also good at Transfiguration. Susan and Terry were good at History. They explained it much much better than Binns. Hermione was good at lots but her best subject was Charms just like Sue. Magical Theory was the Slytherin subjects. They are all pureblood's and raised with that knowledge. Finishing homework was much easier and faster. After studying they made their way to the Halloween feast in the great hall. Harry was a bit sad that the wizarding world celebrated Halloween differently than the muggles. He liked Halloween. It was fun dressing up as scary monsters, scaring people and eating lots of sweets. Once he arrived at the great hall he couldn't stop starring. It looked amazing. 'I love magic' Harry thought. They sat down and waited.
Dumbledore gave a short speech about the importance of this holiday. Ron interrupted him stating that we should celebrate Grant instead since he defeated you-know-who 10 years ago. Snape took 10 points from Gryffindor for that. After the speech the food appeared on the table. Harry was once again in awe. The food looked amazing. There was chicken, turkey, potatoes, mash, all kinds of vegetables and salads and lots of gravy. Harry took a little bit of everything. Pudding was even better. There were candy-filled pumpkins, apples, caramel and candied apples, black cauldrons of big lollipops, carrot cake, bats, orange streamers, goblets of coloured sweets, chocolate, possibly pumpkin juice and much more than Harry could count. Harry was just reaching for his second slice of cake when the door burst open and Professor Quirrell cam in running.
"Troll! In the dungeons! Troll! In the dungeons!..." He started panicked. "Thought you ought to know." he added and fainted. Everyone started screaming.
"Silence" Dumbledores voice boomed though the hall. Everyone stopped. "Prefects will lead their houses back to their common rooms. The Professors and I will go to the dungeons" he added. As on cue the prefects started ordering everyone around. Harry stopped and thought.
"Gabriel we can't go to our common room. It's too close to the dungeons and Slytherins is in the dungeons" Harry stated. Gabriel looked shocked. He quickly made his way to the oldest prefect. He as well looked shocked.
"Professor Sprout. Professor Sprout. It's to dangerous to go to our common room its to close to the dungeons just like Slytherin" He screamed though the hall hoping that she would hear him. Luckily she did as did McGonagall. She took her wand and held it against her throat.
"Listen" she said loudly. Everyone again stopped. "Everyone will remain in the great hall. Two of the common rooms are too close to the troll right now and we don't know if it has already moved. We will seal the door close. Prefects please make sure that order remains" she said. The prefects nodded and everyone sat back down. What everyone failed to notice was that Grant and Ron were no longer with them. They all sat there quietly. Some were eating, some taking and a few even fell asleep. It was very quiet. Everyone was worried.
"How did a Troll even get in? Hogwarts is supposed to be the safest place" Susan wondered out loud.
"Don't know. Trolls are pretty stupid. Maybe someone let it in as a joke" Neville said with a shrug. After about an hour the doors opened again and the head of houses led their students to their houses. That night sleep didn't come easy.
I hope you liked it.
Let me know what you think.
I wish you a Happy Christmas or what ever you celebrate.
