Chapter V
It turned out Sophie had in fact not known the way to the Greenhouse. Still, despite first getting lost and then having to take several detours to avoid suits of armour, they still managed to make it to class in time, albeit only barely. The three of them took a seat near the front, the rest of the greenhouse already being filled with their fellow Slytherins and Ravenclaws. Neville was already present and was in the middle of some plants, trimming a rather vicious-looking one with great care.
"Good morning," he cheerfully greeted them, "I'm glad you managed to find the classroom. First years often struggle with that."
"Good morning professor," the three of them echoed, Albus almost stumbling over the unfamiliar address. It'd take a lot of attentiveness on his end to not call Neville 'Neville' when other students were around. After a few more cuts with his scissors, Neville walked up to their bench, stopped in front of Albus and lowered his voice.
"How's your first day been so far Al? Liking it in Slytherin?" he asked.
"I can't complain," Albus responded.
"Good. I must say, I was surprised by your Sorting, but I think you'll have a great time there. Still, if anything's wrong, just let me know" Neville concluded, before walking back to the front of the class.
Albus let out a relieved breath. He was glad Neville hadn't stuck around for too long. While he loved his godfather, people already stared at him enough because of his surname. If teachers started chatting to him a lot as well, he'd draw even more attention. Nonetheless, Albus was glad Neville had checked up on him. He'd always been that kind of godfather, the responsible, caring one. Then again, Albus wondered if Neville would have been equally concerned with his well-being if he'd been sorted in a different house.
"So that's Professor Longbottom. He looks too calm and friendly to be a war hero," Sophie whispered.
"Well, Monday is his day off. He only beheads snakes six days a week," Albus replied, "besides, I's not as if there's any need for him to act all heroic right now."
"Unless one of those plants suddenly decides to eat someone, like me. Father still doesn't get along with the Herbology Professor so maybe the plants have picked up on the mutual dislike," Scorpius muttered.
"Neville's above that," Albus said curtly.
"If you say so, it'd be nice if someone didn't hark on me because of my last name," Scorpius mumbled. Albus shrugged and was glad the conversation was interrupted by the start of the class.
"Good morning everyone! I am Professor Longbottom and I'll be your Herbology teacher for the next seven years. Experience has taught me that people have rather low expectations of this class and would prefer more time doing proper magic. That is a mistake. In this class we will study plants that are more awe-inspiring than magical creatures. We will discuss herbs that can be more impactful than any potion. We will discuss plants capable of feats you cannot mimic with your wand," Neville spoke, waving his arms around wildly, "I can give countless examples but for the sake of brevity I'll limit myself to one, namely Devil's snare. It's a vicious plant by all means but perfect for guarding certain objects, such as the Philosopher's Stone," he said with a genial smile, "of course it will be a while before we tackle that one. Today, we'll start with slightly more innocuous plants."
Two hours later Albus and his friends left the class, each of them tired and covered in dirt. Albus was grinning from head to toe. He had survived his first class of Hogwarts and while it hadn't involved any magic, it had featured a flower that had the unfortunate self-defence mechanism of bursting in flames when touched. Needless to say, there weren't that many Fireflowers left in the wild.
"Okay, Longbottom's one of the good ones," Scorpius admitted, "I wish he thought a class that involved a bit less dirt and potted plants but apart from that, no complaints."
"Yeah, he's good," Sophie agreed, "but isn't it weird to be taught by your godfather Albus?"
"It is yeah, but I'll get used to it. And it helps that he's a rather approachable teacher. If he ruled his classroom with an iron hand, it'd be stranger to take him seriously all of a sudden," Albus replied as they walked through the corridor. In the distance you could hear an explosion.
"Okay, next is History of Magic," Sophie said going over her timetable, "also with the Ravenclaws."
"Great! Then we can just keep following them," Scorpius said with a wave at the group of Ravenclaws walking in front of them.
"I know a shortcut though," Sophie offered.
"No Sophie, you don't," Scorpius said, "Does anyone know what to expect for History of Magic?"
"She's new so in all likelihood she'll have no idea what she's doing. Then again, she can't be worse than Binns," Sophie said.
"It's probably going to be about Goblins. The Ministry heavily encourages that, just to make sure we won't mistakes later that will start another Goblin war," Albus said, "they're prickly and devious creatures. My dad's still peeved that one ran off with Gryffindor's sword once."
"Is that why he destroyed three Founder's Objects? To spite them?"
"Somehow I doubt that, Sophie," Scorpius replied. Albus just shrugged. He was pretty sure Scorpius and Sophie knew more about those things than he did. Dad hated talking about the war.
"Oh look at that, we've found a classroom in less than thirty minutes," Albus remarked as they turned the corner and saw that the Ravenclaws walked in a room, "let's sit in back, just in case Binns suddenly makes an appearance and reclaims his post," he added warily.
The three of them dropped down a bench near the rear next to some Ravenclaws and took in the classroom. Sophie happily waved at her brother Ambroise who was sitting in the front row, quill and parchment at the ready. He waved back and then resumed his conversation with the two girls who sat next to him.
"Typical; Ambroise's been here for a day and he already has a fanclub," Sophie said as she surveyed the room. Albus did the same and was surprised by the amount of things Tanner had dragged with her to Hogwarts.
The walls were covered with photos and newspaper excerpts. A large amount of them dealing with the last two wizarding wars, 'Undesirable Number One spotted at Gringots!' read one of them for instance. However, some were older. One picture showed the duel between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, with a 'Duel of giants shakes wizarding world' headline. The rest of the room was filled with antique objects, going from old wands to old goblets. A model of an old ship even hung from the ceiling.
"If we get bored, we can always start counting the amount of times your dad features in those headlines," Sophie suggested. Albus grimaced. This was just what he needed, a classroom drawing attention to his legacy.
Their conversation was interrupted by Professor Tanner walking into the room. A broad smile was plastered across her face and with a flick of her wand the blackboard was filled with a large timeline.
"Good morning! I am Professor Tanner and I am your new History of Magic teacher. As you are first years, you have not had the pleasure of having been taught by my illustrious predecessor."
"Illustrious? Clearly she never attended one of his lectures," a Ravenclaw next to Albus scoffed, "my brother said he used to catch up on sleep during this class."
"However, I do hope you will nonetheless enjoy this class. First, let us start with a roll call," she continued as she got a piece of parchment out of her pocket and began going over the names. When she reached Albus, she looked up from her parchment. She paused for a few seconds and then called his name.
"Present," Albus said from the rear. Her eyes immediately darted to him.
"Glad to have you here Mister Potter. I'm a big fan of your father. In fact, he'll be one of the main topics of our class," she said in an excited tone. Albus just wished he shared her excitement.
"Yes, we will not be talking about Goblins in this class," she said, her roll call completely forgotten, "not only because I can't tell them apart, but also because there are more fascinating topics, such as the Dark Lord Voldemort. While his fall is still very recent and many wouldn't consider it history, I feel the importance of the topic warrants discussion. You need to know what happened to make sure the same never happens again. It was a dark time," she said as she waved at the newspaper articles.
"It was a time many of your parents will remember. Perhaps you'll already know something from their stories," she said, her gaze still fixed on Albus, "but my intention is to transcend the anecdotal, to look beyond the acts of the few, no matter how heroic. We will start with the beginning of the First Wizarding War which most historians consider to begin in 1970. Of course, Voldemort had already undertaken action before," Tanner said as her students vigorously began to write things down with their quills.
"Hey Potter," a girl behind him whispered. He cast a quick look backwards and saw one of his fellow Slytherins behind him, Holly Vance. He thought it was her at least. As she was leaning over her paper, her curly blond hair was currently obscuring her face
"Yes?"
"Can you stop stealing my thunder? First my Sorting gets overlooked by half of Hogwarts because you got sorted into Slytherin right before me, and now I'm even ignored for the roll call," she grumbled.
"I'm sorry but I don't see what I can do about it. Maybe you should change your surname. How about Anderson?" Albus offered. Vance gave him a dirty look before she focused back on her parchment and continued taking notes
When the bell rang, the room seemed to let out a collective sigh. Most of them were massaging their writing hand and several broken quills covered the floor. For a second, it seemed Tanner would ignore the signal but then she relented.
"Oh, look how the time flies. Well, we'll just have to continue next time in that case. Please read chapters one and two in Recent Wizarding History for next class and enjoy your lunch," Tanner said, speaking for the first time since the begin of her story at a normal pace..
"Do you think she's sponsored by a parchment producer?" Sophie said as she shoved several rolls in her bag, "enthusiasm is nice and I like a good story, but when you cover half the First Wizarding War in one class, something might be wrong."
"Maybe she's undead, that would explain why she doesn't have to breathe," Albus said as they walked out of the classroom and headed for lunch.
"So, how does it feel to have a class about your family?" Sophie asked.
"Simply amazing," Albus muttered, "I love being in the limelight. I can't wait to find out how many of Skeeter's rumours about dad were actually true."
"At least your grandfather doesn't get brought up every time Voldemort killed someone," Scorpius muttered, "I'll be the first to admit granddad Lucius is a bit of a jerk, but I'd prefer not to have to hear it in class. And she hasn't even gotten to the Second Wizarding War where my dad played a pivotal role in getting Dumbledore killed. The five people in Hogwarts who weren't aware of my background are going to get filled in. Just splendid."
"Well yeah, but she doesn't spend half the class staring at you and that's just as annoying, trust me. You'd think I have a scar on my head just like dad."
"Be happy, you're the teacher's pet without any effort whatsoever," Sophie said, "both Longbottom and Tanner are clearly very fond of you, while they've hardly noticed me. I wouldn't know why, I'm amazing," Sophie said as she tossed her brown hair back, or at least tried to.
"You hair's too short for haughty moves like that," Scorpius remarked..
"Yeah, I noticed. Quite unfortunate," Sophie said as they walked into the Great Hall, "at least I got us to the Great Hall without getting lost."
"Sophie, you were just following the group," Albus pointed out, "otherwise I'm sure we'd have gotten lost."
"Please Albus, give me a little bit more credit than that," Sophie huffed.
"I'll give you more credit as soon as you stop getting lost on your way to class," Albus said under his breath.
A/N: I'll be rather busy the next 10 days, so the updates will likely be a lot less frequent. I'll try to get one or two chapters out, but I can't promise anything. Afterwards I should have enough time though, so it's just a temporary lull.