Chapter Ten: The First Day

I had determined many days in advance that if there was one class I was not to be late to, then it was Potions. I remember my first day of classes more clearly than any of the others thanks to the episode that occurred whilst in the dungeons. It would not necessarily be fair to the story itself should I not explain all of what happened that day. Therefore, allow me to begin from the start of the day.

My first class of the day was Charms, a class that I had heard not to be too entirely difficult. After waking up early, trying to repress all of the first-day-of-school nerves through putting on my new Gryffindor robes and brushing out my hair, I strolled down the staircase alongside two of the other girls that were my age.

Casual conversation was another nice solution to the anxiety rolling about in my stomach. We spoke nearly for the entire length of the stairs, all carrying our Charms and Potions books with us (for those were the first two classes). One of the girls who I spoke with; however, did not have Charms first hour; therefore, after breakfast she took a different route entirely from my new companion, Holly Peddleton and myself.

Holly was a rather soft-spoken girl and appeared to be rather studious from the exterior. I enjoyed her company for she was not overpowering in any way. Conversation was very natural with her and even though she may have tended to be shy around most, she knew how to answer questions and in return carry on a conversation.

We confided in one another over what we supposed Potions would be like. It made me laugh slightly at how stuck we were on Potions when we hadn't even gotten through Charms yet! It was not surprising though, for all of the rumors that we had been told were true of Charms; it was quite dull.

Professor Flitwick was nice enough, but the first day of school obviously meant that it was time to lecture. Many times, I found myself dosing into slumber only to be hit rather hard by Benjamin, who had arrived just behind Holly and myself.

"It's not that bad," Benjamin mumbled to me, as he leaned forward, enthralled in the droning of the short, white haired little man.

Not paying much attention to my friend's nagging, I turned my head to try and listen to at least the last few minutes of his speech.

"And tomorrow, we will be learning our first spell! Be sure to bring along your wands, as I'm sure you all will. Just a little preview for tomorrow's lesson…" The short professor placed a single white feather at the edge of his desk and with a flick of his wand, said with crisp, clean tone," Windgardium Leviosa"

A simple spell, yes, but to a batch of first year students who, until currently, could not do any sort of magic…this was slightly impressive. In my head, I was excited for the first Charms lesson simply to get it over and move to the next Charms lesson.

Poor Holly realized half-way to the dungeon that she had, in fact, grabbed the wrong textbook instead of her Potions book. There was not much time between morning classes and she insisted that I go on while she scurried back to the common room as quickly as she could. I started to argue, but selfishly knew that I could not afford to be late to Professor Snape's class.

Little did I know, that it hardly mattered what I did in order to be on time to the dungeons. Something, or someone rather, was going to prevent me from being on time.

It was just as I was turning the corner to cross the courtyard, carefully trying to remember the path that I had done in my head the night before in order to keep me on track. Suddenly, it seemed as though the books in my hands flew instantly out of them and straight into the sky above.

My jaw nearly fell to the ground in complete shock before I shot my eyes around to see just who the culprit could be. I cleared my throat, trying to sound as intimidating as a first year, scrawny, auburn-haired girl could be," Whoever's doing this, it's not funny."

I crossed my arms over my chest as I continued to scour my surroundings. Despite the stoic appearance that I desired, my heart was beating nearly out of my chest as the other students in the distance were disappearing to their classes.

There was literally nothing that I could do to get my books down from their levitating position above my head. I simply stared at them, pretending that maybe they would miraculously fall.

"I have to get to my next class and this isn't funny," I said, anger growing inside of me as I heard snickers from behind the corner.

Immediately, I trotted over to the corner to find three boys, one keeping careful eye contact with my books as he directed his wand at them. I stomped over to the lot of them, looking the one boy, tall and slender, straight in the eye," Stop it."

He laughed heartily to his buddies before turning back to me," Or else what?"

"Or else I'll be sure that Professor McGonagall knows that you're up to no good again this year. You all know what she threatened last year boys and I would truly hate to see some of my best players kicked off the team for something petty as this," A deeper voice said from behind, his arms crossed over his chest with a look of stone on his face. I may not have known many upperclassmen at Hogwarts, but this was undoubtedly Charlie.

Seemingly instantly, the three boys scampered away as Charlie yelled after them," Unless you want longer practices, don't let me catch you doing this again!"

It was at this moment, that I noticed the third boy amongst them was rather shorter than them. A younger boy, who looked familiar. A boy who had been popping up in my life rather frequently, as of late. It was the Scottish boy, set on becoming a Quidditch player. He looked back directly at me before turning his head and running to his next class. I couldn't help but feel pity that he was so desperate to become one of the team members.

With a loud thud, my books dropped to the ground and Charlie, acting as an older brother, went and picked them up before placing them back into my hands. He smiled at me, reassuringly before saying," Oi, don't let them get you bothered, Lana. They're just some of the Quidditch team. They don't mean you any harm. Now, if it were Slytherin, then that would be different, but considering they're from our own house; I know they're harmless."

I smiled at him, appreciatively," Thank you, Charlie. I really ought to be getting to Potions now."

Charlie made a strange face before saying," Potions, eh? I'm sorry this happened at the most inopportune class. You can try explaining the situation to Snape, but I can always stop by later-"

"Don't worry about it," I answered, cutting him off. Finding the last thing I needed was the situation to be any bigger than it already was.

"Alright, well if you're sure, then-"

"I am," I said to him before nodding to him and turning on my heels. There was; however, one last question that I wished to ask," Charlie? The youngest boy with the other two-who was he?"

Charlie scrutinized my face for a long moment before replying," That's Oliver Wood, I reckon. Why do you-"

But it was far too late, I had received the information needed and upon hearing this I called to him," Goodbye!" before running to the dungeons, where I knew I would, more than likely, not be welcomed.

Opening the door to the Potions classroom was quite possibly one of the most embarrassing moments of my entire life. And the worst part of it, was that no one had even spoken a word to me yet. All I had to do was push the door open, hear the thick silence, to feel the tension sitting in the air. Slowly, and as non-conspicuously as I could, I slid into the classroom. To my horror, the only open chair was at the front of the classroom. Trying to avoid all eye contact, I kept my eyes on the ground as I walked down the center aisle to the only vacant spot.

Unfortunately, it would not be that easy, for standing directly in my path was no other than Professor Snape himself.

"Well. Well. Well," He said, very slowly, careful to put emphasis on just at the end of each word. "It appears as though Miss Stockholm has finally decided to join us."

"A group of boys prevented me from being here on time professor-" I tried to quickly explain, but he obviously had no interest in my story.

"Miss Stockholm, the other teachers at this school have informed me that it would be unfair to give any punishment for violations in class today, especially for first-year students, but you may just be the exception to that," Right then, she looked up and met his black eyes. "Walking in ten minutes late is not tolerable. Do you understand?"

Silently, I nodded my head and before I knew it, he stepped out of my path, allowing me to finally take a seat. While piling my books under my desk, I very well knew that any arguments that were coming to my head would only further fuel his flame to wanting to punish me. I also noticed that there were cauldrons set out in front of us as well as a list of supplies and what appeared to be a recipe.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking," he began, moving right along with his beginning of the year speech." 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."

"Another theory that many of the other professors believe is that the first day is simply for the lot of you to get yourself acquainted with your classrooms," Just after saying this, he smirked. "I happen to disagree with this, as well."

He paused, looking over the lot of us, allowing the fear and silence to settle in the air before continuing to explain his logic," School is a place of learning. From the first day, that is what you shall do…at least…in this class."

Pacing about the front of the room, very slowly with his hands together behind his back," You see a recipe in front of you. I expect you to follow the directions as stated and make a burn-healing paste. Be comforted in the fact that no one has ever made a satisfactory paste and that all of the ingredients are anodyne, or harmless."

If the sound of jaws hitting the floor could be audible, then our class would have broken through the sound barrier. We all looked around to each other, confused as to just what we were exactly suppose to do as Professor Snape moved to his desk before perching himself there soundly. Moments after hearing no commotion, he looked up, surprised we were all still perched just as we were before," Did I not make myself clear?"

Instantly, the class moved their chairs closer to their partner, whom it appeared the directions said to work with. I looked to see that my partner was none other than Holly, who was smiling at me," Tisk, tisk being late to class," She muttered to me before examining a label on a clear bottle in front of us.

I felt a ping of guilt for not even recognizing her," What-I've been sitting next to you this whole time and you've said nothing?"

She smirked at me before saying under her breath," Do you honestly believe that I, or anyone rather, would dare even whisper while Snape was talking?"

I shrugged my shoulders, understanding her point of view, but also feeling the heat of Snape's gaze settling, unsatisfied on Holly and I. Everyone else had already added at least one ingredient while Holly and I were simply socializing. I took this as an invitation to begin.

After nearly twenty minutes of mixing, deciphering instructions and blurry labels on ingredients, Holly and I put in the last ingredient before I handed the mixture to her, allowing her to crush and mix all of the ingredients together, rather than risking ruining the entire operation. I never realized that mixing something could have specific directions, but low and behold, they do. At least, for a burn-healing paste there is.

"You've five minutes remaining," Professor Snape said in a rather droning voice (that I noticed he nearly always spoke in) without even looking up from his book on his desk.

From the table behind us, I heard a string of swear words. In the side of my eye, I watched as a boy from Slytherin simply dumped all of the remaining ingredients into the bowl before beating them profusely while his lab partner laid with his head down, nearly falling asleep, or rather, he was asleep.

I shifted my gaze back to Holly, who was carefully finishing the paste. While she finished, I noticed a description of the final product at the bottom of the page:

When finished the burn-healing paste should be of thick consistency and a bright, rather obnoxious shade of orange.

I shot my eyes over to the finished product to find that it was indeed a bright, "obnoxious" shade of orange. The thickness of the paste was also up to par. Could it be possible that we actually accomplished this recipe as intended?

I turned my head to observe the other pastes around the room. Ours did happen to look quite a deal better than the boy behind us, who's paste was, strangely, smoking and a dark green color. I found him to not necessarily be reliable; therefore, I turned my eyes over to Anna, who was sitting next to a fellow Ravenclaw student. Their potion was more of a burnt orange than a bright orange and seemed to be a liquid. Anna's face appeared to be rather frustrated as they feverously began adding more and more ingredients to, presumably thicken up the paste.

It was at this moment, that I heard Holly say," We are finished."

Professor Snape happened to overhear this and slowly put his gaze on our table. Swiftly, he rose from his seat and moved over to our table, where he immediately picked up the substance in our cauldron. He furrowed his brow before taking a stirring rod on our table and taking a dollop of the paste from the cache. He sat there for nearly a minute, scrutinizing the substance before looking directly at the both of us.

"You are to stay after class," He chipped at us before dropping the cauldron back onto our desk.

We'd no idea on how we were to interpret this.

"Do you mind explaining to me how you managed to concoct a perfect burn-healing paste?" Snape shot at us, just after the last of the students exited the classroom, nearly five minutes later.

Holly and I simply looked at one another, flabbergasted at the words that just came out of his mouth. We looked to each other, then back to him, then back to each other before Holly finally tried to stutter an answer," Sir, all we did was-"

I saw that she was struggling greatly with her answer; therefore, I finished her thought," Sir, we simply followed the instructions. It must have been pure luck that-"

"Pure luck, you say?" Professor Snape raised an eyebrow, interested in my choice of words." Or rather, did you have some assistance?"

We looked at each other once again, insulted greatly at what he was insinuating.

"If you are accusing us of cheating, t-then you're wrong. We received no help on this," Holly shot back at him, I was rather surprised at her boldness, but then again her schoolwork was something she took seriously. She wanted to take credit for her work.

"Ah, that is the answer I suspected from you," He said, hardly believing us at all before he turned away from us and began heading toward the exit. "Come with me."

Author's Note: Alright, so there you have it! Charms class and Potions class! Please let me know what you all think, as you have been doing, and I hope that you all have a wonderful New Year J Thank you to those who have reviewed/favored/alerted this story thus far; I appreciate it.