(The next chapter. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for leaving your reviews and adding my story to your favorites and stuff. You all are awesome :) I own nothing but Lucy.)
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"Good Morning!" Hermione quickly set a large worn out book on the table in front of her. Lucy smiled. "Morning! What's that?" She nodded at the book.
Hermione shrugged. "Hogwarts, A History. I thought you said you wanted to read it last night." She pushed the book across the table.
Lucy nodded her head. "I do!...Thanks Hermione!" She looked over the book with glee.
Hermione shrugged. "No problem. I've got loads of other books you could read after you're done with that one." She grabbed a slice of toast and started to butter it.
Lucy started to smile. "Hey Lucy!" Harry slid into the seat next to her. "What's that?" He nodded at her book.
Lucy rolled her eyes. "It's book, Harry. Hermione's letting me borrow it...Hello Ron." She smiled at the other boy who was still rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Huh?...Oh G'Mornin Lucy." He plopped down in a chair next to Harry. "What's for breakfast?" Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Porridge, fried potatoes, egg omlettes, and ham. Hungry?" Lucy smiled and pushed a bowl of the mush towards Ron.
Ron drooled over it. "Mmm!...Oh this looks heavenly!" He dug in noisely. Hermione wrinkled her nose at him. "Disgusting."
Lucy giggled. "Say Hermione!...I've been thinking, do you think that real magic could be anything like it is in the stories? I've thought about it and well-."
"Oh I doubt real magic is anything like say the Grimm Brothers have written about." Hermione interrupted calmly.
"Wait!...Who're the Grimm Brothers?" Ron asked through a mouthful of porridge.
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I think they're a couple of muggle writers. Aunt Petunia has one of their books back at home I think."
Hermione rolled her eyes at the boys as if they were so unintelligent. "They're famous muggle authors actually!..Anyway I've been reading up on our Beginners' Charms and Transfiguration texts over the summer and it's more of an exact art or a science than a swill of tricks. We'll be learning stuff like Potion Making and Defense Against Dark Arts here!...You'll never find that in a muggle storybook." She grinned.
Lucy grinned back. "No..I suppose not." She reached for a piece of toast and dipped it into her porridge.
"Well! I guess I'll be off to get my books then!" Hermione got up from the table grabbing a piece of toast in her hand. "Can't be late on the first day."
Ron quirked an eyebrow after her. "She's seriously mental." He shook his head causing a spot of porridge to drip off his chin.
Lucy shook her head. "I don't think she's mental." She said softly as she finished her porridge and grabbed her book from the table.
Harry glanced after her as she got up. "Where are you going?"
"To the dormitory." Lucy smiled at him. "See you guys in class!"
...
They're late. Lucy thought with chagrin as she stared at the aged old wicker clock at the front of the classroom.
Transfigurations class should have started ten minutes ago, yet Harry and Ron were still missing. Then again..so was their teacher Professor McGonagall.
The only one watching over the class at the moment was a lean grey tabby cat. A cat with strange black markings around its eyes.
"Whoo!..We made it!" Ron gasped as he and Harry burst through the back door doubling over for air. Hermione rolled her eyes. "I mean can you imagine the look on Professor McGonagall's face if she saw us coming in late?"
Lucy snorted at that. You're late. She couldn't help thinking smugly and pointedly to her brother. Harry snorted and wiped the sweat from his brow. Yeah Yeah...
He started to look for an empty desk to slide into when the cat suddenly leaped off the Professor's desk and transformed into Professor McGonagall.
Lucy felt her jaw drop open at the same time Harry and Ron's did.
"That was wicked!" said Ron.
Professor McGonagall smiled wryly at him. "Thank you Mr. Weasley for that assessment. Perhaps for my next trick I should turn one of you into a pocketwatch. That way at least one of you might be on time."
Lucy let out a snort. She bent over her desk to hide her giggles, but Harry could hear her in his thoughts. "Well we got lost." He tried to explain in vain.
"Then perhaps a map!...I trust you don't need one to find your seats?" Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow.
The whole class started to titter at that as Harry and Ron now both considerably red in the face hurried to the last empty desk in the room.
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"There will no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class!" Professor Snape strolled into the room slamming the door after himself.
Lucy gave a little jump as the Professor walked past her, the end of his long billowing black robes grazing the end of her nose. "Freaky!" Ron whispered from next to her. Lucy heartily agreed.
"As such..I don't expect the many of you to appreciate the exact art and the exact science that is potion making." Professor Snape whirled around when he got to the front of the room.
He was wearing the exact same scowl on his face that he was the other night at the welcoming feast. Lucy swallowed. She hoped not do anything on her first day of lessons that might displease Professor Snape.
He was definitely not one to be crossed.
"However...for those select few..who possess the predisposition...I can teach you to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses...I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory and even to put a stopper on death." Professor Snape's cold black eyes roamed the chilly dungeon classroom then.
Lucy saw them pause briefly in front of Draco Malfoy who had the desk next to her and Ron and behind Harry and Hermione. She stifled a sigh.
So Percy's right...Professor Snape is more inclined towards his own students. She thought sadly, knowing Harry would hear her.
"Then again..." Professor Snape's gaze moved through the room. "Maybe some of you have come to Hogwarts in possession of abilities so formiddable that you feel confident enough...to NOT...PAY...ATTENTION!"
Hermione quickly elbowed Harry in the shoulder. Lucy slapped herself mentally on the forehead when she realized that Harry had been copying down every single word Professor Snape had spoken since entering the classroom.
"Mr. Potter..." Professor Snape fixed the boy with his cold calculating gaze as he stepped down from the podium. "Our..new...celebrity." He spoke slowly and carefully as he folded his arms displeasingly over his chest.
Briefly his gaze flickered over to Lucy then back to Harry.
"Tell me Potter what would I get if I added a powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Hermione's hand shot up in the air. Harry started to shake his head.
"You don't know?...Well let's try again. Where Mr. Potter, would you look if I asked you to find me a beasor?" Professor Snape continued, keeping his tone even and cold.
Hermione strained to raise her hand higher.
"I...I don't know Sir." Harry started to turn red as everyone but Hermione stared at him.
Professor Snape tightened his jaw. "And what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Lucy frowned.
"I don't know Sir." Harry was forced to repeat his answer while Hermione started to hop out of her seat.
Professor Snape seemed almost amused. "Clearly...I suppose fame isn't everything then, is it Mr. Potter?" He sneered down at the boy.
Harry glowered at him. "Well clearly Hermione knows!...It would be a pity not to ask her!" He snapped causing several of the people sitting around him to snicker.
"Silence!" Professor Snape cast a severe look back on the class before marching over to Harry's desk. "Put your hand down you silly girl!" He scolded Hermione.
Hermione promptly lowered her hand.
"For your information Potter..." Professor Snape perched himself over Harry's seat. "Asphodel and Wormwood create a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draft of the Living Dead. A besoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for Monkshood and Wolfsbane they are the same plant which also goes by the name of aconite!"
Lucy flinched at the harshness in his tone. The room had become deadly silent by now and Professor Snape realized that everyone was staring at them.
"Well!...Why aren't you all copying this down?" He rose swiftly from the floor, cloak billowing out behind him again as he strolled back to the podium at the front of the room.
Everyone hurried to get out ink and a roll of parchment. Lucy put her ink well between her and Ron so that they could share.
"And Gryffindors..." Professor Snape continued without looking up from a thick roll of parchment he was writing on. "Note that five points will be taken from your house...for your classmate's cheek." Professor Snape looked up to glower at Harry again.
Lucy looked up at him and narrowed her eyes. He can't do that!...Can he do that?
Harry sighed and raked his hand though his hair. I don't know! Stop thinking at me!..I don't want to forget anything he just said! He bent over his parchment.
Lucy bit her lip. Sorry...She started to bend over her own roll of parchment when she caught Professor Snape's gaze.
She was about to avert her eyes when she noticed the look he had on his face. Unlike whenever he looked at Harry before he wasn't scowling at her and instead he seemed...mildly curious...and strangely reminiscent.
Lucy quickly dropped her gaze back to her work. She knew it was best to get her work done quickly and not give Professor Snape another reason to dock points off of Gryffindor house.
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