Here's Chapter 8!
After stopping at the Slytherin dormitories to pick up my books for Transfiguration and my next few classes, I was glad that Professor Westbrook was the head of Slytherin House, because that meant her classroom was in the dungeons; closest to the Slytherin Common Room. That meant I could take my time getting to her class.
I walked down the dimly lit corridors trying to familiarize myself with the route and stopping to explore a narrow hallway or admire an odd painting once or twice.
Most kids my age would want to get out as quickly as possible when found in such a place as the dim, clammy, and eerie dungeons of Hogwarts. However, I felt oddly safe and "at home" here. For instance, if something dangerous or lethal were to stalk the corridors, I felt confident that the darkness and the labyrinth of corridors would shield me from sight or provide an escape route.
I reached the Transfiguration classroom and Rose was already waiting for me at the door. Once she spotted me, she made a impatient motion with her hands signaling for me to hurry up.
I picked up the pace, though I didn't want to get to class any earlier than needed, but I supposed she wanted to a good seat and to make a good first impression on the first day. As I walked past Rose, she pushed me from behind, saying, "Come on. Hurry up, Al!" wanting me to move faster yet.
Then we ran into yet another issue. Rose wanted to sit front row center, and I wanted to sit in the back row closest to the door. Apparently, to Rose's overly logical mind, the only solution was to sit in the middle row in the very center of the classroom, with me on her right side.
A woman whom I assumed was Professor Westbrook appeared at the front of the classroom. She sent the door slamming shut with a flick of her wand and flicked it again in the direction of the chalkboard. A piece of chalk floated to the top of the board and etched out her name across it, each letter being as perfectly proportioned as the next.
She stalked around to the front of her desk scrutinizing us. She reminded me of a cat stumbling across a group of mice trying to decide which to pounce on first.
Leaning on her desk she spoke, "I'm Professor Westbrook, and I'll be educating you in the art of Transfiguration this year and most likely for the next six years also. In my class, I expect accurate notes to be taken when necessary, participation when appropriate, assignments to be turned in on time with the requirements completed, and for you to pay attention during demonstration and explanation of technique. Daydreaming is unacceptable." She paused and glared threateningly at those of us in green and silver robes. "As is cheating."
'Smart.' I thought. 'Head of Slytherin House, and you accuse them of being cheaters on the first day.'
Austin didn't seem to mind; he just gave Westbrook a false hurt expression and exclaimed, "Professor! I would never do such a thing!" He sniggered afterwards.
The professor clicked her nails on her desk. "Talking out of turn will not be tolerated Mr. King. 5 points will be taken from Slytherin house for your cheek."
The rest of the Slytherins including myself looked at Austin disapprovingly. Although, only Emmett's gaze, the boy who seemed to be out to get Austin because of his muggleborn descent, was much more severe and threatening than the rest of ours.
Professor Westbrook put on a somewhat cheerful face for such a stern woman, "Anyway, if you follow those guidelines, you should pass this course with ease."
The professor began to go over what we would be learning this year, and pointed out which parts of our textbook we were advised to read before we practiced that section in class for smoother teaching and instruction. Rose, as well as most of her Ravenclaw housemates, was swiftly jotting down page numbers, dates and descriptions on a spare piece of parchment.
I nudged her in the side with my elbow, "Rose?"
"What?" She hissed.
"Scorpius seemed…tense at breakfast. Do you know what he was annoyed about?" I asked tentatively.
"Albus." She said with a sigh. "I'm smart, but that doesn't mean I can read minds. You have Potions with him later. Why don't you ask him then?"
"But you have Charms with him first! Can't you ask him?"
"You're perfectly capable of doing this. I'm not your mother, and I'm not going to ask something that you want to know." She stated finally.
Annoyed, I decided not to talk to her the rest of class and began to copy the notes she had taken, onto my own piece of parchment. However, my notes were nowhere as detailed or as neat as hers.
After Austin's outburst, no one else thought it worth the House Points to claim the position as class clown.
Class ended quickly, and as I was walking out the door, I heard Austin complain, "I don't know what's wrong with her. At my old school, the teachers never minded if you joked around with them. They even joked back sometimes."
Ethan, who was usually very calm and collected, rounded on him, "Yes, Austin, but this isn't your old school. This is Hogwarts. Stop acting like you own the place." Ethan stormed off while Austin's mouth hung open.
Kyle walked up next to me, "Wow, the quiet one's got come sass in him, doesn't he?"
I shrugged my shoulders, "At least he's on our side when it comes to Austin, without going as extreme as Emmett."
Kyle and I walked to our next class, Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was on the 3rd floor. Stairs were the tricky thing at Hogwarts. When my family had told Rose and me that the stairs liked to change a lot, they weren't exaggerating.
Twice, the stairs changed unexpectedly, and we had to back track to reach the D.A.D.A. classroom. We ran through the doorway looking slightly frazzled, I'm sure.
Professor Blackwell looked up from the book he was reading, but he set it down before I could catch the title. He checked his pocket watch and addressed Kyle and I. "Well, boys. You've made it just in time. Take your seats, and I trust that in the future you'll try not to run it down to the last possible moment?"
Kyle and I nodded simultaneously. "The stairs," I explained.
"Ah. You'll get used to them. They always seem to be the most temperamental on the first few days. Especially with first years."
"Hopefully." Kyle whispered to me rolling his eyes.
"What was that Mr. Zabini?"
This was the first time I had ever seen Kyle look panicked, and I silently hoped it wouldn't be the last. "Uh, I said that hopefully your right, sir."
"Very well then. Take your seats, boys."
We quickly found two open seats in the front as they were the only places left. As Professor Westbrook did in Transfiguration, Professor Blackwell explained what we would be learning this year in D.A.D.A. and what he expected of us.
However, he delivered it in a slightly less harsh tone and with a neutrally kind expression.
After that, he began to take roll call. Kyle reclined back in his seat as Professor Blackwell began the roll call with the name, Amee Andrews. A girl sitting in the same row as us raised her hand, and said a hushed, "here," and I realized it was one of the girls that had followed Kyle and I to the Great Hall the first day after we had arrived.
"Wake me up when he's almost done with roll call." Kyle said trying to get comfortable.
Not getting it at first, I gave him a questioning look. But then I realized that Kyle's last name started with a Z, and that he'd be waiting for while.
"Glad you got the joke, Al. Took you long enough."
I ignored him as best I could and decided to look for the other Hufflepuff girl who had followed Kyle and I to the Great Hall. More specifically, the one who had been pointing at me and had waved to me at breakfast before the food fight had been started by my crazy family on my first morning at Hogwarts.
Being in the front row, I had to swivel around in my seat acting as though I was stretching to look for her. Finally, I looked to my right in Kyle's direction, and with him reclined back, I saw that she was sitting between Amee and Kyle.
"Alice Longbottom." I heard Blackwell call.
"Here!" The Hufflepuff girl said confidently. Now everything made sense. Like why she was talking about me with her friend. Her dad was Professor Longbottom; also known as Neville outside of school. No doubt she was telling her friend about our dad's adventures when they were at Hogwarts.
I vaguely remembered her and her father visiting us when we were younger, and Lily being thrilled there was another girl around her age to play with. However, with Alice being an only child and not used to younger siblings, she always tried to escape from Lily and play with James and I. James was always a bit mean to her, but her and I had always gotten along fine. That was about five years ago, and she looked way different now. But in a good way…
Professor Blackwell continued down the list, and she caught me looking at her. 'Oh Merlin' I thought as I was about to panic inside, but she just smiled at me and turned to talk to Amee.
"Someone's got a crush!" Kyle whispered.
"Do not!" I hissed back.
"Albus Potter." Blackwell called.
"Uh, here." I answered just loud enough for him to hear me.
"Do too," Kyle whispered again.
Saying nothing, I just shot him a dirty look figuring I wasn't going to change his mind.
The rest of D.A.D.A. was similar to Transfiguration as Professor Blackwell explained what parts of our textbook we should look over before we would go over those lessons in class. However, this time Rose wasn't here for me to copy her notes, so I had to take my own. That didn't stop Kyle from copying mine. Apparently he didn't care if they were total rubbish.
When class ended, Kyle and I and even Ethan went to get a quick bite to eat from the Great Hall. We spent most of the time flicking pieces of food at the Ravenclaws (particularly Rose and her friends) while Ethan expressed how sick he was of Austin and his ego. The food flicking fun only ended when Rose and her friend finally spun around with their wands pointed at each of us, and we had to duck under the table to avoid being hexed.
Next we had a free period before double potions with the Gryffindors. We spent it lounging next to the lake attempting to read a few sections out of our Transfiguration and D.A.D.A. textbooks. However, Kyle seemed to have the attention span of a gerbil.
After Ethan and I had made a dent in our textbooks that we were satisfied with, and Kyle had grown bored, we decided to make a trip to the dormitories and make our way to potions class. It was near Ravenclaw tower and we weren't exactly sure where it was. The only knowledge I had of it was what I remembered from taking the Marauder's Map from James's room and copying it down on my own parchment.
We finally reached the classroom, nearly late as usual. Although, the stairs had proved to be less temperamental this time. I discovered an empty spot near the back next to Scorpius, but the only other open seats were found near the front.
I tapped his shoulder and he turned to me looking just as annoyed as he had at breakfast. "Hey, Scorp. I'm gonna sit with Ethan and Kyle near the front, but you can join us if you want."
"I don't care what you do, Potter," Scorpius hissed. "I saved this seat for Kyle, not you."
I don't know what I was more shocked by. The fact that he called me by my last name, or that he saved a seat for Kyle, someone he hadn't talked to since we arrived at Hogwarts as far as I knew, and didn't save one for me.
Kyle seemed to grow more uncomfortable by the second. His eyes flicked between Scorpius and I trying to decide who to side with. He turned to Scorpius, "Look mate, I'm sorry, but I've got to sit with Albus and Ethan, even if it is in the front." Scorpius's eyes narrowed.
As we took our seats Kyle grinned at me and whispered, "Filthy rich git."
A small smile played across my lips as Austin and Riley walked into the room. At least we hadn't been the last ones this time. Austin made a move to sit next to Scorpius, but he called another Gryffindor to sit next to him before Austin could. If it would've been anyone else, I would've gotten angrier with Scorpius. But Austin kind of deserved it.
Our professor appeared from a back room with a large box levitated in front of her. She lowered the box to the ground, and flourished her wand at the table so the contents of the box were spread out upon it.
"Alright class. For the first hour, I'll have to go over some rules and give you a walkthrough of the textbook and materials we'll be using, and then we can start playing with some ingredients for the second hour. I'm Professor Clearwater, and we'll start off with roll call I believe."
I knew she couldn't be Penelope, because she didn't fit the description my Aunt Ginny gave of her whenever she told us stories about Uncle Percy and his somewhat serious girlfriend to embarrass him. Although, she bore a resemblance to Ethan, so there had to be some relation. She had to be—
"Ethan, is that your mum?" Kyle asked with wide eyes.
"Yes." He said blankly.
"Why didn't you tell us?"
Ethan shrugged his shoulders. "You never asked."
Taking notes was starting to become an easy task from so much repetition, and I silently hoped we wouldn't have to do this for every class. However, I was fairly sure I'd be disappointed.
The first hour of class passed slowly, and the second hour had finally begun. Professor Clearwater went over the basics of Potion making. She went over the safety rules, and made it very clear that she didn't want to escort anyone to the hospital wing because of a potion mishap that could have been avoided by taking proper precautions.
This made the second hour almost as boring as the first, until one Gryffindor got his head stuck in one of the cauldrons.
Professor Clearwater spent a good 15 minutes trying to get his head out of the cauldron without hurting him, before finally sending him to Madam Pomfrey. So much for a hospital wing free term.
By now, class was nearly over with, and with some great stroke of luck, she dismissed us from class early.
I ran ahead to catch up with Scorpius who was walking by himself.
"What do you want?" he spat.
"I want to know why you're avoiding me, and why you've turned into such a foul git all of a sudden."
"It's nothing. Don't concern yourself with it, Potter." With that, he stalked off in the direction of Gryffindor tower.
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