Chapter 9: First Day of Term

Bella awoke before the rest of her house mates at ten after six and was washed and dressed by the time anyone else was even awake. When she was allowed out of the common room just over an hour later, she went straight to the great hall with her book bag and began reading while she waited for the rest of the students to awaken and arrive for breakfast. About fifteen minutes later, Jared and Hermione showed up in the great hall, along with most of the Ravenclaws.

"Hey," Bella said as she met them at the door.

"Hey yourself," Jared replied teasingly while Hermione just mumbled a distracted hello as her nose was in the potions book again.

"Hermione, haven't you read that one twice?" Bella asked when none of them moved to their respective tables.

"Hm? Oh, yah. I just wanted to be prepared; it's the first class today," Hermione answered as she continued to read the inch thick book.

Bella shrugged her shoulders at Jared. "Did you know the food appears even when you're the only one at the table?" she asked him as Hermione moved to sit at the nearly empty Gryffindor table.

Jared nodded, "Yah, Mother told me that when she was giving me advice." Jared suddenly looked very downcast. "I still have to tell her I'm in Ravenclaw..."

Jared sulked away leaving Bella alone at the door as more students came into the hall. Bella left the great hall just before her class mates from her house arrived.

Bella wondered around the school for the next hour. She memorized where all her classes were and even managed to find a short cut to Transfiguration. At fifteen minutes to the bell, Bella found herself waiting patiently outside the potions classroom.

No one else had arrived yet and the dungeon corridor was quiet. Bella pulled out the only one of her books she had read more than once: Hairy Snout, Human Heart.

Suddenly, there was an ominous shadow looming over Bella. She looked up to see none other than her head of house.

"Professor Snape!" she squeaked as she scooted a bit away from him.

"What are you doing out here?" he demanded of Bella.

"I-I-I was waiting for class to start," Bella answered quietly, wondering if there was a rule to sitting outside of a teacher's classroom.

Abruptly, Snape turned away and headed inside his classroom. "Then you should be in here, Miss Darling, not in the freezing corridor."

Bella scrambled after Professor Snape, nearly forgetting her book in her haste. As Bella came into the classroom, she noticed many bottled potions along the walls, but no potions on the tables.

As Bella moved to sit down, she remembered what certain places meant in Muggle schools: you sit in the back, you thought you were cool while the teachers thought you were lazy; you sit in the front, the teacher knew you were hard working while the other students thought you were a teacher's pet. Bella chose to sit in the front.

As she sat down, Bella took out her book again and began reading it.

"What are you reading?" Snape snapped from his desk.

Bella looked at him wondering why he would care what she read. "It's a book about a werewolf. It's quite interesting, Sir," Bella answered.

"You should be going over your potions book for class," he replied.

Bella looked away. Of course he would want me to be reading that, she berated herself. Bella obediently pulled out her potions book and put away her favorite book. She began mindlessly thumbing through the text, already knowing what she was reading.

"Why aren't you reading it?" Professor Snape demanded.

Bella looked up again. The Muggle teachers never realized she wasn't reading the subject when she did this at home. "Sorry sir, it's just I've already read it you see and, well..." she trailed off as she looked at her teacher shyly.

"You've read it?" he said in a tone that suggested he thought otherwise.

Bella nodded. "Yes sir."

The teacher pondered this for a moment. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" he asked out of the blue.

Bella started at the quizzing but she immediately knew the answer. "The Draught of Death," she answered quietly.

"Where would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?" he asked as soon as she had the answer out of her mouth.

Bella closed her eyes as she remembered the answer from her textbook. "The belly of a goat, Sir."

"And what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Bella opened her eyes. "They're the same plant sir. And they're used to make a wolfsbane potion to help werewolves retain their human thoughts during full moons," she added as she remembered the passage from Hairy Snout, Human Heart.

Professor Snape nodded his head. "Very good, Miss Darling," he said as he looked towards the door. "Your classmates should be arriving soon and I suggest you prepare to be teased for being here before you had to be," he finished in a tone that wasn't quite as bored as he had used the night before.

"Yes sir," Bella replied as she pulled out her quill and some parchment. She bit her lip as she tried to remember how to hold her quill before anyone else came in and saw her struggling.

"What are you doing Miss Darling?" Snape inquired from her side.

Bella let out a gasp as he scared her. "I-I-I'm trying to remember how to hold my quill sir," she responded as she tried not to jump from her seat. "It's... difficult."

The professor sighed. "Come by my classroom after lunch today and I will help you," he turned towards the door without another word as the sounds of incoming students could be heard. Bella sighed in relief.

Soon the classroom was full of the other Slytherin first years and the Gryffindor first years. Hermione sat next to Bella while Harry sat next to her with Ron beside him.

Snape started the class with a lecture that essentially told everyone that he would take no nonsense in his classroom. Immediately after his lecture he began attacking Harry with the same questions he had asked Bella before class started. Only Hermione raised her hand to answer the question while Harry answered that he knew none of the answers. By the end of the class, Gryffindor had lost ten points and Professor Snape had assigned an essay a foot long on all the potions ingredients that he had named off to Harry due the next time they had potions, which happened to be in two days.

After Potions ended, everyone hurried to Defence Against the Dark Arts. No incidents happened in that class except for Harry constantly rubbing his forehead whenever Professor Quirrel turned his back on the class. After class finished, everyone went to lunch with the rest of their houses. After lunch, most of Bella's potions classmates began working on their potions while she headed down to the dungeons classroom.

Bella knocked on the door as she pushed it open slowly. "Professor?" she greeted while she walked in and sat where she had been in class.

"Ah, glad to see you came, Miss Darling," Snape said as he walked out from a closet with a jar of herbs in his hand. "Just take out a quill, ink, and parchment."

Bella nodded as she took out what he asked. She began to unstopper her ink well but stopped when Snape sat in the seat next to her.

"No ink yet. First you must be able to hold your quill so that it doesn't smear or make your ink run," he insisted.

He gently took Bella's hand and moved her fingers so that she was holding her quill perfectly for writing but not uncomfortably. After practicing picking up and putting down her quill with minimal corrections from her teacher, Bella began using ink and practicing her writing with the quill. Bella ended up writing her whole essay under the watchful gaze of Professor Snape.

While Bella continued to practice, even after she had written her essay, Snape began tending to his few brewing potions. After a while, the sound of scratching on parchment was replaced by silence. Snape turned around to see Bella watching him intensely. When Bella noticed her teacher had noticed her observing his actions, she hurriedly began writing again.

"Miss Darling, come here a moment," he told her in an even tone. Bella silently moved to stand next to him in front of his potion. He returned to tending his potion but made sure Bella could see exactly what he was doing the whole time.

The rest of the afternoon passed with Bella watching, and even helping, Professor Snape prepare his potion. When it was nearing the time for dinner, he dismissed her to go clean up and then not be late for dinner.

As Bella left the classroom, she smiled at Snape and even received the tiniest hint of a smile in return. Professor Snape was definitely her favorite teacher at Hogwarts.

A/N: So there's Bella's first encounters with her father. Please tell me if I'm writing Snape too out of character. That's one of the things I'm really afraid of in this story. Until next Saturday (I promise, cross my heart and hope to die) my readers and reviewers. And thanks to everyone that has reviewed so far. It really awesome to see alerts for reviews in your e-mail.

And Mel, I'm sorry but you reviewed after I was supposed to publish and you weren't logged in for your review so I couldn't send you the preview. To anyone that reviews before Saturday, I will give you a short sneak peak at the next chapter as long as you sign in. Night everyone!