Lessons

Harry loved Hogwarts, even if he hated stairs. There were one hundred and forty-two staircases and most of them charmed in one way or another. Some of them moved randomly, some moved depending on factors like the day of the week and some simply had fake steps that you had to memorize. But the stairs were not the only thing charmed in Hogwarts, with all those doors being walls and walls being door and other such nonsense it felt like you could hide everywhere if you just knew your surroundings better than the person searching for you.
The only problem he had with this. He, and every other first year for that matter, never knew where to go. Prefect Percy was so nice to show them the way to the great hall on their second day in Hogwarts, but ever since they had to find their way on their own. They had been given their time tables at dinner the first day, and while the location of the rooms they were supposed to have classes in was on it, did this only little to help them find it.

The classes themselves were a little weird at first, because they had to learn the theory behind how magic worked first and were told that while children were able to do some minor magic called wish magic were you just wished very hard for what you wanted to happen, this sadly had little to do with how real spells worked. In transfiguration, which was taught by the Gryffindor head of house professor McGonagall, they were told that they would not even attempt to do any spells before they had proven that they understood the basics of what they were doing, because accidentally transfiguring something into a gas and inhaling it could be fatal even with a healer present because of how weak their magical cores were at the moment, which meant that it would most likely turn back into a solid before the Hogwarts mediwitch madam Pomfrey would do anything more than pulling out her wand.

Consequently, astronomy and herbology were the student' favourite subjects at first, because while looking at the stars and identifying plants were not very interesting things to do for your average eleven year old it was still better than writing down stuff the teacher wrote in the black board.
While Defence against the dark arts should have been the most interesting subject, the fact that professor Quirrell was unable to more than five words without stuttering ruined this experience for all of them.
History of magic was another one of those subjects that could have been great but was ruined by the teacher. While professor Quirrell was just weird and kept staring at Neville from time to time, professor Binns was straight up dead. A ghost teaching could have been exiting if he weren't so dull that most people fell asleep in their first class.

When Friday came around Harry was excited for their first potions class because he thought this might be the first class where they would finally be able to do something in class that would not be copying down text or looking at stuff. They would have a double potions class with the Slytherins and while he was told that professor Snape was famous for favouring the Slytherins he was determined to not let this ruin his mood. There was also the fact that this professor Snape was the one who was giving Harry a stink eye every time they locked eyes.

Professor Snape began his class like most of the teachers with reading the name list, but instead of pausing of Neville's name like a few of the other professors had done, he paused on Harry's, which struck the non-dense students as odd, but what surprised Hermione more than the professor's behaviour was how happy Harry seemed to be. He had mentioned that he was looking forward to potions because he liked cooking as long as no one was throwing a frying pan at him. That statement had been weird, but it also did not explain the reason why Harry was so visibly happy about the obvious dislike the professor was showing him. Then the professor began "You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," 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."

More silence followed that little speech.
"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Hermione's hand shot up like a rocket, she was eager to prove that she was not a dunderhead, even if she thought it was a little unfair to ask about a potion that was only mentioned in passing in the 6th chapter of the book.
But when Harry answered that he did not know with a slightly frustrated voice, she was disappointed that the professor instead of giving the question to the class continued his onslaught of Harry.
"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
Her hand rose a few more inches, when she noticed some slight recognition in Harry's eyes.
"Isn't that some kind of stone that can cure poisoning?" Harry answered in an unsure voice.
"Is that a question?" the professor asked in a slightly malicious voice. "And I asked you were to find it."

"One last try what is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
Hermione was almost ready to jump off her chair, because of how unfair this all was. That was not even in the potions book, but the herbology one instead, but before she could do anything Harry surprised her by answering.
"Aren't they the same plant, sir?"
"Again with this questioning. While you are correct for once you would do better to open your books next time. For your information, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons, but not all. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are indeed the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

The remainder of the class was spend making a very simple potion. Hermione still had to constantly tell Harry what Neville was doing wrong so he in turn could tell Ron who was working with Neville, who for some reason seamed hellbent on melting his cauldron for some reason.
After about fifteen minutes the professor docked a point from Gryffindor because Harry had to stand up to help Neville and Ron. Later when Neville finally succeeded in melting his cauldron he docked another point because Harry did not help him.

When they left the classroom Hermione was seething, but what was worst was how happy Harry seemed to be.
"Why are you so happy Harry" She finally asked with an exasperate sigh.
"Huh, oh. Is potions not great?" he asked with a smile, that did nothing to placate Hermione at all.
"Why would you like it, I get that you like cooking, but Snape hates you for some reason and Neville got hurt."
"Well, I am sorry for Neville and the reason Professor Snape hates me is still a mystery to me, but except for those minor inconveniences it is by far my favourite subject yet."

When they arrived at dinner her worries got blown out of the water by the newspaper.
Someone had successfully broken into Gringotts. She had been told by professor McGonagall herself that is was impossible to do so, and she felt betrayed by her professor's words being proven wrong so much she forgot to ask Harry why he was only upset about not knowing why professor Snape hated him but not about the fact that he hated him in the first place.

Sunday was a big day for the Gryffindor first years, because they had magical theory and would supposedly finally be able to start using spells after that. This class would be in a small room inside the restricted area of the library which was why every house had this class separately, the room was according to Fred and George locked the rest of the year and they had never been able to enter it again after their one class in first year.

The room was circular and the walls where covered in bookshelves.
The books in them all had a greyish red cover that seemed to glow slightly, which gave the room an ominous look.
Other than bookshelves there was only one table and one chair inside the room, but what surprised most of them was that professor McGonagall was sitting behind the table while the headmaster stood beside her. What surprised most of them about that was that they had been told that it would be professor Sprout and professor Dumbledore who would be in here, because they had only asked the Hufflepuff's who had been in here yesterday morning. Had they asked the Ravenclaw's who had been in here that same evening they may have realized that it was always the head of house who would assist the headmaster, but only one of them had bothered to do so.

"Welcome students" the headmaster greeted them with a benevolent smile on his lips.
"As you may or may not have been told already you will get your spellbook today."
"The spellbook is after your wand the second most important thing you will need to use magic efficiently, that is not to say that using spells without it are impossible, but they take a lot longer and are a lot harder to perform." He paused to let the meaning of his words sink in, before he continued.
"The spellbook gives you a list of spells you can cast quickly and without having to concentrate to hard. How long that list of spells is depends on the witch and wizard who use the book. You will have the option to make your own spellbook in fifth grade, but until then you will get one from Hogwarts. For those of you who decide against making an own spellbook, who will be able to keep the one you will have used for the previous four years.
While the books serve some other purposes as well, those only get important if the ministry is involved, so you may read up on the matter if you will, but I won't go into detail here."

After that the headmaster gave professor McGonagall a look which prompted her to stand up and moved towards the class. "I will call out your names in order and you will do as follows. You will walk in a circle around the room without touching any of the books, once you have done so you will go into the middle of the room and then go to towards a book. For what reasons you choose the book matters little, but it is likely that you will be able to feel the urge to pick one specific book. You will take the book out of the shelf without touching any of the other books, then you will take a step back open the book and tell us which of these symbols you see."
With that she produced a list of symbols and put it on the table, before sitting down again.
"If you feel a very urgent need to take a book, before you have completed your round feel free to take it immediately, but please be careful not to touch any of the other books while you do." Added the headmaster with another benevolent smile on his lips.

"Brown, Lavender." Professor McGonagall called, and the girl did as instructed.
Once she touched the book it turned a slight blue. She went over to the list and said it was the second symbol and the professor wrote that down into a normal book in front of her.

While Seamus was starting his round, Hermione told Harry that the symbols reminded her of runes, that were somehow linked to numbers, but she knew only that the first three likely corresponded to the numbers zero to two in ascending order.

Hermione's book became the colour of parchment with a slight golden touch at corners.
She told the professor that she had the forth symbol and Harry could see a slight smile on the professor's lips as she noted that down as well.

Neville should have been next, but the professor told him that he would go last, after all the others had left, so it was Harrys turn to make his way around the room.
At this he panicked for a moment but got himself under control again just as fast.
When he started walking he felt a very strange pull from across the room, but withstood the need to run straight towards it. When he had crossed half the distance he could no longer hold onto himself and rushed to the book, he could just barely hold himself from plunging towards the book and when he had finally touched the book he felt reminded of the moment when he had touched his wand for the first time. The book turned a fiery red with a green circle around a black dot in the middle, the dot was about one and a half inch in diameter and the green circle was another inch thick.
He went over to the list and studied the symbols.
"I have the forth one" he said with obvious relieve.

Once everyone but Neville was done Dumbledore told them not to go around telling or showing people which symbols they had, because it was considered a faux pas to do so, and that their symbols would likely change in the near future anyway.

After that they left, and Ron, Hermione and Harry waited for Neville to come out.
After he did he told them that he had gotten the third symbol and was on par with Ron, because as he said, it was unfair that he had gotten to know theirs and they had not been told his.

AN

Sorry that this took so long, I do have the first ten chapters ready, but I had a lot going on latly and I could give about a dozen reasons why this took so long, from me moving, to applying for a job, but to be honest it was mostly me being a lazy piece of shit. In addition this was a chapter I had to change a lot of times.

As anyone who read this chapter will have noticed I changed a bit how magic works. JKR's magic system is a very soft one (for anyone who knows Brandon Sandorson's view on the matter), which basically means that the reader has little knowlage about how magic works, what it's limitations are and what if anything it costs. While I don't plan to make it a hard magic system I will make it a lot harder that it was originally. The change I started to describe in this chapter will be outlined more clearly in a later chapter (which is already done and which I only need to review a couple more times until I think it will be good enough to publish).

I would like some opinions on the matter. The chapter were the magic system gets explained more detailed is chapter 8 in case anyone wants to know.

Lastly I hope this chapter was intriguing and I would be really happy about any reviews.