Tina-Marie Bowden in the previous chapter is the 'Unnamed Gryffindor girl' that shares the girl's dorm but is never named. I think that's just cruel.

All of the characters except for my own handful of originals, as well as locations, names, titles etc. are and remain the property of JKR and I hope you like it.

Principles such as Splicing are mine as well as all unique books, histories, titles, traditions and spells. I give users permission to use them, but only if you reference me in your work.

Review please whether you like it or not. Tell me what you do and do not like and why! I do love having my ego stroked with 'Wow, great!' etc. but it's not as useful for my process as having some real examples and effects. If any of you would like to PM me a review or opinions or just talk about my story, please do so.

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Chapter 16: Practice and Potions.

Harry woke in the middle of the night to find that the water was still hot. He washed, wrapped a towel around his waist and scooped Nidhogg's tiny body up on his way to bed.

Between floors on the spiral staircase, Harry saw a glimmer of moonlight reflected off the distant lake through a window. It was a stunning night and Harry looked out over the land that was now his home. Harry lifted the latch on the window and looked out.

From the corner of his eye, he made out movement as he leaned out of the window. A single figure was running toward the forbidden forest, robes flapping behind him.

Frowning and suppressing a yawn, Harry closed the window and carried on to bed.

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'Up, Potter, Thomas, Finnigan, Weasley. Get up!'

Harry's eyes opened and beheld Percy pulling the bedcovers off Ron's bed who was holding onto them with his teeth bared.

'What's going on?' Seamus groaned, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

'It's time to be up, first day of classes!' Percy shouted.

Harry rolled out of bed and Nidhogg slid under the pillows. Outside, the sun was a thin golden line on the horizon. 'What time is it?'

Percy managed to tug the covers away from Ron who curled into a foetal position and clenched his eyes closed. 'About five minutes to six by now.'

'What?' shouted Harry, Dean and Seamus.

'First day of classes!' Percy repeated, 'You need to be up and about: Showered and dressed by seven gives you time to get down to the great hall for a good breakfast. Make sure you sort any post, read the morning edition and check over your class notes for the day before back here to get your equipment for first lesson at nine.'

'Are you mad?' Seamus said. He looked to Harry like he was sizing up his water jug for throwing at Percy's head.

'I am a prefect.' Percy replied, like that answered everything. He threw Ron's sheets down and dragged his brother off the bed, dumping him to the flagstone floor. 'I expect to see you all in the great hall in an hour or you can lose five points for Gryffindor. We will have a good start to this year!'

He walked out, slamming the door behind him.

'You know,' Harry said as he pulled off his pyjama top, 'I think Fred and George might be right about him. He is a git.'

Ron nodded, dragging a sheet around him on the floor.

Harry and Dean picked Ron up and the four walked yawning to the bathrooms.

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They arrived in the great hall fifty minutes later, their teeth gleaming and hair like stone. Percy was there, nibbling a piece of toast and talking animatedly with the prefects from Ravenclaw.

'Happy?' Ron shouted across the tables as they all sat.

Harry picked up a piece of toast and smeared it with chocolate spread while Seamus began constructing an elaborate sausage and bacon sandwich and Dean helped himself to a huge bowl of porridge into which he stirred handfuls of raspberries and apple slices.

They ate in silence until Hermione, Tina-Marie and Parvati arrived. They all looked pristine and ready for the day ahead. Hermione was carrying a massive leather bound book.

'How is it that you're all awake and look… like that?' Ron asked through a mouthful of baked beans.

The girls looked from him, then at each other then back to him and stormed off, noses in the air.

'Smooth.' Harry said.

'Yeah, you really know how to talk to the ladies, Weasley.' Seamus said, flicking a boiled egg at Ron.

Seamus made another Sandwich for Harry and he was mopping up the crumbs when Tonks walked in with a few other older Hufflepuffs. She waved from across the room, narrowly avoided tripping over a cat and walked over to him.

'Wotcher Harry?' She said, smiling. 'Good day for it.'

'Hi Tonks. Guys, this is… what's your first name?' He asked.

Tonk's pulled a face that turned her nose into a huge-eyed, tiny mouthed pixy. 'Nymphadora, but you call me that and I'll hang you from the astronomy tower, you understand?' She said to the four first years.

Ron's eyes went wide, Seamus and Dean grinned and Harry nodded. 'Loud and clear. How're you Tonks?'

'I'm alright,' she said, sitting on the table and taking a piece of toast. She levitated a blob of butter and, wrinkling her nose spread it across the toast. 'I've been working on my fine control.'

'Wow.' Seamus said, genuinely impressed.

'That's good. It's our first day of classes today.'

'Right, good times, I miss first year. This NEWT stuff is a nightmare. What've you got first?'

'Magical Theory with McGonagall then Potions with Snape and the Slytherins. Then after lunch it's Transfiguration with McGonagall followed by… Maths. Great.' Dean said immediately.

Tonks sucked in a breath through clenched teeth. 'Ouch, that's quite a first year, kids!'

'Ouch?' Harry asked.

Tonks leaned in closer, 'Just don't ask to leave after your second class. You only have magic theory for the first month and it's a free period after that, just to make sure you're not going to blow anything up or cruciate anyone. Snape only likes Slytherins and no one else enjoys his class unless they're a born alchemist. He's a real dick to most people, for things most teachers would take ten points, he'll give you a detention and take twenty.'

The first years grimaced.

'What's cruciate?' Harry asked.

'Don't worry about it; just do your best and about… twenty-per cent more on top and you might survive your first class with all your points intact. Catch you later!' She said, getting up and walking back over to the other Hufflepuffs. Harry pretended not to notice when she tripped over her own feet.

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Percy had warned the first years about the caretaker, Argus Filch who was on a one-man campaign against all students. He kept a scrawny dust-coloured cat with huge red eyes that spied on students and ghosts for Filch who reported people for every minor infringement of ancient and long defunct rules.

They returned to their dormitory and gathered their cauldrons, quills, ink and bunches of dried ingredients for potions. They'd been informed that all they needed for magical theory was their wands, ink and parchment. The girls were waiting in the common room as planned and they made their way down to the McGonagall's office together.

Professor McGonagall opened her door a second before Ron knocked. 'Good morning. I trust you're all well fed?' They all nodded.

'Good, follow me.'

She led them downstairs and out into the central courtyard which was filled with mossy, springy grass and trees that could adjust the breadth of their branches depending on how much shade was needed. The morning sun was warm and a light breeze blew Tina-Marie's hair into a black cloud which she tied into pigtails, blushing.

McGonagall conjured a tartan rug out of thin air and sat on it. The first years sat too.

She withdrew her wand; long, pale and dead –flawlessly –straight, just like her.

'Your wands.' She said, nodding to them all.

When they were each holding their wands, she continued. 'A magician's wand is, or has been for the last several centuries, the standard tool for focusing his or her power. Do any of you know why we use wands?'

Hermione's hand shot up, followed by McGonagall's right eyebrow.

'Yes, Miss Granger?'

'A wand taps into its wielder's core, focusing his power into a single outlet instead of letting it rush out of his or her every pore.'

'Exactly right, Miss Granger.' McGonagall favoured Hermione with a small smile. 'Spellcasting or other magic is possible, but exceedingly difficult without staggering levels of self-control.'

'So a wand isn't necessary?' Seamus asked.

'Yes, it is. Wandless magic is an incredibly advanced technique, far beyond the OWL or even NEWT levels. You will be hard-pressed to find more than a hundred people in all of Britain and the Commonwealth that are capable of it with any degree of proficiency. Yes, Potter?'

'What about when we used magic before we had our wands then, Professor?' Harry asked.

McGonagall smiled. 'That is known as instinctual magic, Potter. Everyone who is magically active can use magic, but without a wand it is almost always wildly chaotic and uncontrollable. It is fine for an untrained magician to do this because it can't hurt them; the amount of power is, just like them, very weak and very unlikely to do any lasting harm. It is the fact that instinctual magic is uncontrolled that make it safe: because you're not trying to do anything specific, your body can cope with the strain and just comes up with something out of the depths of your imagination.

'Now, If you were to do something like…' she waved her wand and created a single rose blossom out of thin air, 'wandless, then instead of the spell being achieved by a small amount of magic travelling through a focus,' she indicated her wand, 'the power of the spell would try to escape through your whole body, requiring many hundreds of times the power to reach your goal. The only way to cast wandless with any degree of safety is to use your mind as a focus, something that is – and please don't take this as an insult or slight against any of your abilities – far beyond any of you for at least the next few years.'

'Can you do wandless magic, Professor?' Ron asked. Harry saw that his wand was a tatty, battered thing with a fine thread of unicorn hair visible at the end.

'I can, when pressed.' McGonagall said. 'It is something that I choose not to do unless absolutely necessary and I have no other choice. I'd rather use a completely foreign wand than no wand at all.'

'Professor?' Harry asked, his brain whirring, 'I read that people used to use other things instead of wands as focusses.'

'Foci is the correct pronunciation, Potter, but you are correct. In ancient times, and very rarely today, people used to use other objects to focus their power. That changed when the connection between wand cores, woods and magicians was discovered and people learned that things that certain materials amplified their users power when bonded correctly. Times change and materials fall in and out of popularity, but the two most popular materials for the last several centuries have been phoenix feather and dragon heartstring. The use of unicorn hair was very rare until recently due to the reluctance of the beasts to communicate with wizardkind. Other types of core sometimes used include veela hair, kneazle wiskers, golden acromantula silk, gorgon tendon, Yeth Hound gut… the list goes on.'

McGonagall waved her wand, conjuring a silver decanter filled with clear water which she poured into ten silver goblets. Giving a goblet to each of them, she took a sip and continued talking about the importance of wand maintenance, spellcasting form, correct and clear pronunciation of incantations for almost an hour until it was almost time for their next class.

'It is unlikely that you will require any major wand work in potions over the next few hours and after lunch you will be with me for transfiguration where I can give you any help you need.' She said, getting to her feet and dismissing the rug and standing. 'You are dismissed.'

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Snape's classroom lay deep in the bowels of the castle where breath misted and blazing torches were needed to keep people from shivering despite the last of the summer heat outside.

The Slytherins were already in the classroom when they arrived. Snape was standing next to a huge blackboard and glared at them.

'Find a place to work, set out your things and turn to page six.' He said in his oily voice without looking at them.

Harry and Hermione took an empty bench in the second row and laid out their equipment. The header on page six read: Potions, the Basics - Harry had read the chapter three weeks ago and finished the book three days after that.

He sat and looked around. There were nine Gryffindors including himself and Hermione and eleven Slytherins. Malfoy was at the rearmost table with Goyle while Neville stared ahead from the front table next to the blonde girl Pansy Parkinson.

Snape, apparently engrossed in whatever he was reading, took several minutes to look up at them. He licked his lips with an oddly pale tongue. 'Lavender Brown?'

The girl sat next to Ron bobbed her head, 'Yes Professor.'

Snape continued taking the register until Parvati confirmed her attendance and paused, 'Ah, yes Harry Potter, our new celebrity.' His words practically dripped with disdain.

Several of the Syltherins sniggered and Snape glared at them.

'Yes, Professor.' Harry said as Snape's black eyes bored into his.

'You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art that is potion making. It is the core and origin of the great power that is alchemy.' he said barely above a whisper, 'Those of you looking for great duels, bellowed incantations and wand-waving will be disappointed in this classroom, indeed I don't expect many of you to appreciate the beauty of softly simmering cauldrons or the power of oils and liquids that creep through the veins and arteries, ensnaring the mind and bewitching the senses. I can teach you to brew glory, bottle fame and even put a stopper… in death. If you aren't as grand a selection of morons as I usually teach.'

He paused to walk slowly around the desks, adjusting people's cauldrons or books until he came to rest next to Harry. The torchlight cast flickering shadows off his long nose and obscured his eyes so they looked like twinned black pits.

'Potter. Harry James Potter, what would you get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?' He said Harry's middle name like it tasted foul in his mouth, like milk that has turned.

Hemione's hand shot straight into the air.

Harry thought about it for a moment, reviewing his mental notes from One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. 'I'm not sure by themselves Professor, but if you added the juice of sopophorous beans then you could make the sleeping potion called The Draught of Living Death.'

Snape's lip curled in a sneer. 'Another: Where could you find a bezoar?'

'Is that the stone thing that cures almost all poisons?'

Snape turned in a flurry of black robes and stalked back to the blackboard. Harry couldn't help but smile at the sullen teacher's obvious displeasure. Seamus was grinning at him from the table he shared with Dean.

Waving his wand at the board, a long list of herbs, plants and fungi appeared next to their most common magical properties. 'These are the ingredients you will be using this year; learn them well because I will not give you any information about them again. You should be copying this down.'

They got to work with their quills and parchment. Later, Snape had them follow instructions from their books to make a simple boil curing potion. Harry and Hermione had theirs done in less than twenty minutes and decanted a pale, slightly translucent pink liquid into a vial provided.

Snape criticised everyone except for Malfoy whose work, while efficient and undoubtedly praiseworthy, was no better than Harry and Hermione's effort. Snape praised every positive move Malfoy made, telling the others to watch the blonde-haired boy's precise motion for crushing the snake fangs how the weight of his dried nettle leaves was accurate to five grams. All Harry got for his work was a reluctant nod.

Neville struggled visibly, creating plumes of grey-green smoke that smelled like rotting cabbage and Seamus somehow managed to make his concoction flammable and it exploded, covering his and Dean's faces with soot. Snape deducted three points from Gryffindor for that.

Every question that Harry asked was met with sneering or derision and when he answered a question incorrectly, he was fined a house point and Snape encouraged the others to point and laugh at him. When Crabbe answered a question by shrugging and grunting, Snape nodded and spent the next five minutes explaining the issue.

They left the class and headed toward the great hall for lunch with sunken spirits.

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