POTIONS MASTERS SURPRISE
In the next morning after the sorting, Natasha woke up early. All the other girls were sleeping peacefully in their beds. She was really excited for her first day of classes. She ran into the bathroom and got ready as fast as she could. All the other girls had woken up by that time. "Good morning!",she said addressing all the girls. The girls just nodded. "They all must still be half asleep", she thought. Natasha combed her hair and put in a small amount of make-up. She then went out of her dormitory to the common room. None of the boys of her year had woken. She noticed only a handful of people had woken up. "Hey percy ,good morning.", she called out to Percy. "Good morning to you too Natasha, i see you are also an early bird.", Percy said. "Why don't we go to breakfast?",he asked. "Okay.", Natasha said ,and both of them went out of the portrait hole and went to the great hall. On the way she could hear others whispering ,"There, look.".
"Where?".
"Next to the tall prefect with the red hair."
"Red hair and green eyes. Did you see her face? Did you see her scar?". The people who were already awake came to her, to just have a look at her. She was very uncomfortable with all the staring she got. She did not have any relief even after she entered the great hall. "You are feeling uncomfortable aren't you?", Percy asked while having breakfast. "I hate it when people stare at me.", Natasha said. "You really should get used to this. This is going to happen a lot.",Percy said. Natasha simply just nodded. It was going to be really frustrating for her. Natasha found Ron coming for breakfast , when she was returning to the common room." I waited in the common room for sometime you know, but Lee told me that you already went with Percy. Wait for me , we will go to class together.",Ron said. She went to the common room and started taking books for her first class, and read them.
Natasha and Ron always went to their classes together. There was only one problem, they did not know where the class was. They wandered through the corridors for the right class. They tried to ask the portraits ,but they were as helpful as a baboon monkey. Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing. Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Even though Natasha liked cats, she knew it was very tough not to hate the cat. Filch was very good at his work , as he knew all the passageways in the school,and he patrolled all of them like a hawk. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick. But Natasha knew that he was doing this only for the safety of the students, and knew that only his methods had its flaws.
The classed always had Natasha's attention. She was excited for all the classes for which she was going to attend. They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for. Her work in then Dursley's Garden payed off, and she was one of the best in the class after Neville. Natasha always liked History, but the History of Magic lessons were relatively boring at Hogwarts as it was taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.
Professor Flitwick was a very small teacher, he taught Charms, and stood on a pile of books while teaching. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Natasha's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight. Professor McGonagall was again different. She was a teacher with a very serious mannerism. Unfortunately Natasha and Ron were late to her class thanks to Peeves the Poltergeist. She had given them an angry look but did not say anything. She started the class with a speech. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned.". Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. Natasha was disappointed. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle.
The students were struggling to change the matchstick. Some people managed to make the matchstick pointy. Ron was not even able to make the matchstick pointy. Natasha was able to change her matchstick perfectly into a needle. The only other student who managed to do it was Hermione Granger. When the Professor came to her and looked at her needle, she gave a small smile to Natasha and showed her needle to the whole class. She even awarded 5 points to Gryffindor for her work. She did the same thing with Hermione Granger. The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went. The other thing she really noticed was that her scar had hurt on her first defense class ,and realized that the scar hurting on the welcoming feast may not have been not due to the long nosed professor. Natasha finished all her Homework on the same day as it was given ,and spent a lot of time in the library in her free time. Ron always gave her looks when she went to the library. Ron was a person who always looked for an adventure, and even tried to go into the third floor corridor, he would have gone if not for Natasha scolding him.
Then came Friday, the day Natasha was waiting for because that day was going to be her first Potions class. "What have we got today?" Ron asked Natasha,as he poured sugar on his porridge. "Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors them - we'll be able to see if it's true.", Ron said. Natasha nodded but was still looking forward for the lesson. Just then, the mail arrived. Natasha had gotten used to this by now, but it had given her a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps. Hedwig hadn't brought Natasha anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble her ear, and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the Owlery with the other school owls. This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Natasha's plate. She tore it open at once. It was from hagrid, the man who received them from Hogsmeade. It was written in an untidy scrawl.
Dear Natasha,
I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. I live in the hut near the foebidden forest. I Send us an answer back with your owl.
Hagrid
Natasha borrowed Ron's quill, scribbled Yes, please, see you later on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again. Then they went to the dungeons to their potions calls, and it turned out to be a weird one. Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder 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. Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Natasha's name. "Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Natasha Potter. Our new - ", Professor Snape stopped in the middle and looked at her with the same shocked expression as the first time. His expression changed immediately to a sad one and continued his role call. "Weird!",Natasha thought, why was the Professor looking st her with such an expression. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels. "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.
"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 human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.", he continued. More silence followed this little speech. Natasha and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead. "Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?", he asked. Hermione's hand shot straight up. "Oh ,he is testing us.", Natasha thought, but she knew the answer. "We will get The Draught of living death sir, the most powerful sleeping potion", Natasha told politely and confidently. Snape looked shell shocked, as though he never expected to get an answer. "That's thats the right answer", he stuttered.
" OK, Lets see if you can answer more. Where here would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?", he asked. "In the stomach of a goat sir,its used as an antidote to other potions sir.", Natasha answered again. Snape looked speechless again. "Correct", he muttered. The whole class was staring at her, impressed. Only Hermione looked disappointed ,as she did not have the opportunity to answer and impress her teacher. "One more question miss Potter", in a slightly impressed tone. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and Wolfsbane?". "Ok , tricky question.", Natasha thought. "There is no difference sir, they are from the same plant ,also known as aconite. ", Natasha said. Professor snape looked positively impressed now , but only said," Well. Why aren't you all copying that down?". There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Even Natasha noted them down. "How did you know all this?", Ron who was sitting next to her muttered. "Well, unlike you Ron i read my books", Natasha said. Snape set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. They had to prepare the potion alone. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy and Natasha. He ignored Natasha completely but could tell that he was impressed by, how she was preparing the potion.
He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs. "Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?". Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose."Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded up on Ron, who had been working next to Neville. "You - Weasley - why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? One point from Gryffindor.",he shouted. Ron turned red, in his cheeks. Natasha was angry and wanted to argue with the professor, but argued against it. She saw Draco and his goons laughing in the corner of her eye. Just after the potion making was over, only Natasha's Potion was Perfect. Hermione's was near perfect ,except for the smell. Snape went and checked everyone's potion and sneered at most of them with an angry expression. When he came to Natasha's place he took a look at her potion , and looked amazed and said, "I am impressed. There is at least one student who managed the potion perfectly. Congratulation Ms. Potter, and FIVE POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR"