Contrarietas Chapter 2
When Alice woke the next morning, it was around half seven. She got out of bed to find Daphne and the other girl up and getting ready. Pansy was still fast asleep and didn't appear to be getting up anytime soon.
"Hello, I'm Alice, what's your name?" she asked the other girl,
"Oh, hi Alice, I'm Veronica, Veronica Miles. Are you Harry Potter's sister?" she replied and Alice sighed, "Hello Veronica, you know I was really hoping that when I got here I could live outside of my twin's shadow," Alice said, addressing the last part to Daphne, who just shrugged her shoulders. Pansy was still asleep and so Alice and Daphne went to wake her up. She rolled over and fell off the bed, cursing loudly,
"Language, Pansy," Daphne berated, as Pansy scrabbled through her trunk, coming back up with her potions book. She immediately opened it and started reading as she got ready.
At five to eight all four girls were down in the common room, Pansy still reading the potions book. They were quickly joined by Blaise and Draco, Blaise burst out laughing when he saw Pansy,
"Did you really not read that last night?" he managed to say, and she glared at him as the group of six headed out of the common room, and up to the great hall. They sat at one end of the table, laughing and joking as they ate their breakfast. At eight o'clock on the dot, Snape started to make his way up the Slytherin table, handing out timetables. When he reached them as he gave Pansy her timetable he spoke, "Ah, Miss Parkinson, preparing yourself for my lesson, I see, that might be useful, you have a double lesson today," then he turned to Alice, "Potter, here's your timetable, I'm hoping that you have your mother's flair for potions," he said before moving away, Draco turned to her, "I wonder how he knows your mother," he said before changing the topic.
At about half past eight, the group of Slytherins started to leave the hall, once they were in the entrance hall, their laughing and joking stopped suddenly as Harry and Ron approached them, "What do you want Harry," Alice said harshly,
"I can say good morning to my sister can't I?" he replied as the rest of the group glared at him, "God Alice, you just had to be friends with these… these, Death Eaters in training, you're a disgrace, an embarrassment," he exclaimed and the hall seemed to freeze as Alice's countenance changed.
"How dare you, how dare you insult my friends" she said her voice laden with hate,
"How can you call them friends? You are a disgrace to the name Potter. I'm ashamed that you call yourself my sister, you are such a stupid, ungrateful, girl sometimes," he spat,
"Excuse me, but you shouldn't be so rude, and I'm sure that Alice is a lot smarter than you Potter," Draco sneered, spitting out the last word. Before they turned and walked away, leaving a furious Harry behind.
"Thanks Draco" Alice said as they walked away,
"That's ok, your brother is such an idiot, you should just ignore him," Draco replied and Alice smiled. She was glad that she had such good friends who didn't care for her brother. In fact, she was glad that she had been put in Slytherin, going against her father's wishes for them both to be in Gryffindor, she knew that if she had been put in any other house, she would only have been thought of as Harry's sister, whereas, here, she was thought of as just Alice, and they ignored her family name, just as she had asked when she first met Draco. She felt as though Hogwarts was more like home than where she and her family lived.
Their first class was double potions with the Gryffindors, as they lined up outside the door they automatically split, so that the Gryffindors were on one side, while the Slytherins were on the other. When it was time for the class to begin, the door swung open and they went in, sitting split in their houses, with the Gryffindors on the left and Slytherins on the right. The door slammed shut and they turned to see Professor Snape striding towards the front, his cape billowing out behind him.
"There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those, select few… who possess, the predisposition… I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses, I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death…" Snape said in a low voice, before starting calling the register. When he reached Harry's name he stopped, looking up,
"Ah, Mr Potter, our new celebrity…" he said, "Tell me what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" he asked, and harry just shook his head, "where would you look if I tell you to find me a bezoar?" harry shook his head again, "Fine, then tell me, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" this time Harry looked round at a girl with bushy brown hair, who was desperately trying to be noticed by the professor,
"Why don't you ask Hermione? She seems to know the answer" he replied cheekily.
"Granger, sit back down. Clearly, Mr Potter, fame isn't everything," he said, before turning to Draco, "Malfoy, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" he asked and Draco frowned slightly
"They make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the draught of living death, Sir" Draco answered. Snape nodded.
"Greengrass, where would you look to find a bezoar?" Her eyes widened with shock as she racked her brains for the answer.
"Erm, in the stomach of a goat," she said.
"Miss Potter, perhaps you can make up for your brother's incompetence, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" Snape asked, oh god, thought Alice, she had to get this right, everyone was looking at her now.
"Monkshood and wolfsbane are the same plant, which also goes by the name aconite," she answered.
"Correct Miss Potter, ten points to Slytherin for remembering to picking up a book before entering my classroom, also five points from Gryffindor for sheer incompetence" he said and the Slytherins smirked while the Gryffindors looked around in shock. Alice looked over at her brother who had gone bright red. She smirked, she was going to enjoy potions, it would probably be the only class where she could watch her brother being humiliated.
After potions, their next class was transfiguration, with the strict professor McGonagall, who also happened to be the head of Gryffindor. Alice didn't have high expectations for this class, as she knew that she would be awful. Again they had the lesson with the Gryffindors and Alice had to check her timetable to make sure she didn't share all her classes with her brother. She didn't, however, as the Slytherins had Herbology with the Ravenclaws, charms with the Hufflepuffs, history of magic with Ravenclaws and astronomy with the Ravenclaws as well.
They were immediately given the task of turning a matchstick into a silver needle. It was quite difficult and by the end of the lesson the only person who had successfully transfigured it was the Granger girl who had been so eager in potions. However Alice and Draco's matchsticks were now silvery in colour and had gained sharp points instead of match heads but were still made of wood. They were given more homework of practicing the spell, on top of the potions work that had already been set.
Then at lunch Alice, Draco, Daphne, Blaise and the other girl called Veronica headed up to the library narrowly escaping a muttering Harry and Ron, by ducking down a different corridor. They spent the lunch break doing their work while Alice and Blaise chatted about quidditch and Draco bemoaned the fact that his mother had already sent him a long letter and he had to reply to it before the end of the week.
When the bell rang signalling the end of lunch the group headed off for History of Magic. They had this class with the Ravenclaws and so the seating was more fluid. Whereas with the Gryffindors there was a strong opposition, with the Ravenclaws there was no argument and so the two houses merged in seating rather than the class being separated so that one house was on one side and the other side was the other house. Because of this, Alice ended up seated next to a Ravenclaw girl whose name was Padma Patil. The girl was very nice and they chatted for most of the lesson as Professor Binns, the only ghost teacher, droned on about some topic of magical history, which would have been quite interesting had it not been for the fact that Binns was the teacher. By the end of the lesson they were quite good friends, and waved at each other as they went their separate ways when the bell went.
"Who on earth was that?" Draco asked when he caught up with her,
"Oh, her name is Padma, she's really nice, I was sitting next to her in History of Magic" she replied and he nodded before they made their way to their next class, which was charms with the Hufflepuffs. They sat in a row with Daphne and Blaise and tried to use wingardium leviosa, if they did manage to get the feathers up in the air they would use them to irritate each other. After Blaise got a detention for accidentally knocking over Professor Flitwick they left the class and made their way to the great hall. Halfway there, however, they ran into Harry, Ron and the Granger girl,
"Finally made a friend potter? Oh wait it's just some Muggleborn scum" Draco sneered and Alice elbowed him sharply and he winced as she turned to her brother,
"What do you want Harry?" Alice asked wearily,
"Just to talk to my sister. Alone" he said glaring at all of the others. Alice nodded and they walked off with Draco glaring at Harry as he left.
"Do you have to talk to them? I know that you are a Slytherin, but why do you have to embarrass me further by talking to them?" he asked.
"Harry, if you don't like my friends then don't talk to them, and if you are ashamed of me then don't talk to me either. I would be fine if you just left me alone to get on with my life, so in future maybe just walk away if you see me" she said before turning and walking away,
"Fine, I won't talk to you or your horrible friends, also Dad isn't happy with you, you haven't been replying to his letters, I think you should" he called after her.
Alice caught up with Draco and the others who were waiting at the top of the main staircase,
"What did he want?" Daphne asked,
"Oh nothing, it was just some family things, come on I'm getting hungry now" she said and with that they made their way into the great hall.
A/N: Thanks for reading. Please follow, favourite and review. I will probably update once a week or more.