Chapter 8 - Classes
When the girls made it to their dorms after the feast, Holly was greeted by a smug looking Hedwig sitting on a small owl perch by her bedside. Too tired to investigate where Hedwig had gotten a perch from, Holly just flopped onto her bed.
The feast had been great, she'd talked a lot with her new roommates, Hermione, Lavender and Parvati who she knew from the train ride of course.
In Hermione she'd found a kindred spirit for untamable hair and love of books. While Lavender and Parvati were the typical beauty queen type girls that Holly usually tried to avoid, they were very nice and tried to teach her about all things girly. Though, Hermione seemed to still hold a grudge and scoffed at them whenever they pulled Holly into their conversation.
Turning her head to look out the window, she was greeted by the sight of the sparkling lake, the forbidden forest and Lavender changing into her pyjamas.
Red cheeked, Holly quickly buried her head in the pillow. This would take some getting used to. She didn't know when she'd started noticing pretty girls, but it had been way after her classmates started calling her a deviant. Maybe they could see things about her that Holly herself couldn't.
Quickly getting up, getting her own pyjamas out of her trunk at the foot of the bed, she made her way to the adjacent bathroom. All the while keeping her eyes glued to the floor in front of her.
Holly changed quickly, afraid of someone coming in. She was still too ashamed of her scar for others to see. Especially someone she barely knew.
She brushed her teeth, gave Hedwig some scratches and then fell back into the soft mattress of her 4 poster bed. The moment Holly's head hit the pillow, she was out like a light.
"Miss Potter, this is your timetable. Look it over carefully and don't be late to your classes."
Holly gave a quick nod, the toast that was hanging out of her mouth bouncing up and down. Professor McGonagall glanced down at the toast, before turning to Hermione and handing her another timetable.
They were the only Gryffindor first years at breakfast. Parvati and Lavender had actually woken up before them, but their morning routine with their lotions and hour long hair brushing took ages. It felt as if they started their day with the entirety of one of aunt Petunia's spa days.
Holly couldn't get a brush through her hair, no matter how hard she tried. Even if she shaved off all her hair, she was sure it'd still find a way to get tangled in the brush.
She was going off topic though. Reading her schedule it seemed like she wouldn't be as busy the first year as she knew she would be once the electives and exams came into play. Unless they got an ungodly amount of homework to complete that is.
Having a bit of time before she'd have to be at Transfiguration, Holly decided to let Hermione finish her breakfast in peace and go explore a little. They'd gotten a vague description of where the classroom was located the previous evening when the prefect had shown them to the dorm.
Walking up the grand staircase Holly was once again reminded of how massive Hogwarts was. Just getting up these stairs had her almost out of breath and she was very fit. How did the wizard raised children who always had the convenience of magic at their parent's wand tips deal with so much physical activity?
It wasn't the stairs that took her breath away once she finally reached the top, but the frankly ridiculously sized mural that awaited her. Holly hadn't seen it on their way to the dorms since they'd taken a roundabout way using some side stairs.
The mural was intricately carved and depicted an epic battle scene. A lion thrice her size was roaring at the sky, seemingly making fire rain down onto his enemies.
Holly couldn't make out who they were actually fighting. But given what she'd learned about the time of the founders from her mum's books it could be anything from goblins to viking raiders to witch hunters. Not like it really mattered though.
There wasn't only a lion though, but each founder was represented with their own heraldic animal.
They were arranged in a semi circle. To the left of the lion was a badger the size of a car, making the earth quake, splitting it open and making it swallow their opponents in its depths.
The eagle of Ravenclaw was flying up and behind the rest, almost in the corner of the mural. It was blowing gusts of wind with its wings and summoning lighting bolts.
None of them even came close to the snake representing Slytherin though. It actually dwarfed the lion with its size, even if it wasn't the centrepiece of the mural. It was spewing a noxious gas out of its many teethed maw, melting whoever it hit alive.
Its eyes almost seemed to twinkle when the light hit it in a specific way. Taking a step closer, Holly was surprised at how detailed and life-like the snake's scales were. If she wasn't so sure that it was just a mural, she might've been afraid the snake would drop out of the wall and swallow her whole.
Another step, Holly reached up her hand to feel the mural. She must have been staring for too long, the scales almost seemed to shift and ripple like water. It was fascinating how they looked like weird runes from this angle.
It was almost… hypnotising.
When Holly opened the door to the transfiguration classroom she was surprised to find it almost full. Hermione was giving her a questioning look as if to ask where she'd been but she just waved her off.
The lesson felt slow, Holly had the theory mostly down, but she still paid attention and took her own notes. All the later years built on this theory heavy one, so the better her grasp of the basics, the better she'd do later in the advanced lessons.
Not to mention, Professor McGonagall's demonstrations were magnificent and a great help for the visualisation part that would come later. They were tasked with writing out the basics of some law of transfiguration and when Holly looked up from her work, the professor was gone. Only a grey tabby cat with peculiar eyes remained sitting on the desk. Had professor McGonagall conjured it up to keep an eye on them?
Holly was about to return to her work when the door flew open with a bang and Longbottom along with, probably a Weasley with how similar he looked to their prefect, ran in.
"See, I told you we wouldn't be late!"
She could see Hermione roll her eyes and when Holly glanced at the clock to note they'd been a whole half hour late, she had to stifle a giggle. Yes, not late at all, were they.
When they got to the front of the classroom where the only open seats remained, the cat leaped off the table. Holly was gaping when the cat transformed into professor McGonagall mid leap.
And so was the rest of the class. The process of the transformation gave Holly a sense of Déjà Vu. Like she'd seen it all years ago, just… different.
Weasley broke her out of her thoughts with a loud "Wicked!" that made even professor McGonagall raise a singular eyebrow.
"Mr. Weasley, I hope you will apply that kind of enthusiasm in the classroom as well. And be on time in the future. The same goes for you Mr. Longbottom."
At the end of class, they got a week to write another 3 page essay on the fundamentals of Transfiguration. Longbottom and Weasley would have to write 4. Besides that, they got off scot free.
"Hey Holly, what held you up for so long?" Hermione approached her after class.
"I wasn't ready yet." Where had that come from?
"What are you talking about?" It seemed like Hermione was just as confused.
"I… I'm going to go take a nap. See you later."
The rest of the week progressed in a similar manner to transfiguration. Theory lessons with long homework essays to build up everyone's understanding of magic.
Holly had developed a decent friendship with Lavender and Parvati where they introduced her to things like makeup and body lotions that she'd probably never be able to afford. Though, it was still very nice. With Hermione she had a kind of friendly rivalry. Holly had a better grasp of theory than her, but Hermione's enthusiasm about answering in class outstripped her own. In the end they earned a similar amount of points, more than all the other students combined.
Astronomy was the first class to break the pattern of just boring theory and long essays. The view from the top of the astronomy tower was brilliant, not to mention how clear the night sky was so far from civilization. Holly had never seen so many stars before, she could just lay there on top of the tower and stargaze for hours.
They had important learning to do though. Astronomy was necessary for many a potion that relied on ingredients being harvested under specific moonlight. Or to be brewed in sight of certain stars or planets.
Astronomy was mostly busywork of filling out star charts, learning names and then the occasional prediction of a certain type of celestial event.
Holly didn't mind it too much, it was nice to have variety. But if she ever had to brew potions with the need for a star chart, she'd rather hire someone competent to make one for her than do it herself and risk making mistakes. It was nice to learn though, especially for the people who would want to go into this kind of work later. After all, if no one learned, then who would she later hire to do it for her.
That her mum learned anything at all in History of Magic must have been magic. Professor Binn's dry and boring voice had almost put her to sleep before she started to ignore him to work on her runes some more.
It hadn't helped, that by the time she entered the room he was mid lecture talking about one goblin war or another. Had he started the lesson before anyone was here? Hermione had already been scribbling away, but even she had realised quickly that self study would probably lead to better results.
Lavender and Parvati had gossiped the whole time, Weasley was asleep and many of the Slytherins hadn't even shown up. What was up with them sharing so many classes with Slytherin anyways?
Besides Astronomy, that they had with Ravenclaw, and Charms with Hufflepuff, everything was with Slytherin. She had noticed the rivalry between her own house and Slytherin, but forcing them together was more likely to result in more resentment than them actually getting along.
Today was going to be even more interesting. Potions with Slytherin and their head of house as teacher. Holly was still eating breakfast when Hedwig swooped down from above to land on her shoulder.
Bound to her leg was a small note, but when Holly didn't unbind it fast enough, she got a wing to the back of the head. Cheeky bugger, if she started berating Hedwig during breakfast people would think her crazy.
Hedwig had gotten bolder recently, someone must be feeding her treats. Most likely the person who had sent her the note. And Holly knew only one person who Hedwig knew enough to let him use her to send Holly mail.
Lo and behold, it really was from Hagrid. It simply said "Tea? -Hagrid" in a very untidy scrawl. Giggling, Holly turned to the high table, where he was giving her a cheery wave.
Well spoken as she was, she just replied "when?" and sent Hedwig off again. Said bird seemed to realise what they'd been doing after the 5th one word answer, nipped Holly's ear and then took off out the high windows.
Her quiet giggling turned into full blown laughter at that. That's what Hedwig got for being so sassy in public. She didn't mind the weird looks some people seemed to send her way. She was happy and having a grand old time.
She was even happier when they were finally sitting in the potions classroom. Most of the other Gryffindors didn't share her enthusiasm, but just recognising all the ingredients and pickled animals stacked along the walls was so exciting.
When the door of the adjacent office flew open and Snape came gliding out, Holly could instantly see why he'd been called the dungeon bat in all those used potion books. He made quite the entrance with the black billowing robes and hard gaze.
Professor Snape talked just as quietly as she remembered from their run in at St. Mungo's. While he was taking register, he called out Longbottom, their "new celebrity" before going into a riveting speech about the subtle science of potion making.
"I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death." When Snape ended his speech on a sentence like that, just to call them all dunderheads right after, Holly had to stifle her giggle.
She got an annoyed look from the professor in return - or was it supposed to be scalding? But she just couldn't take him too seriously after he'd told her a couple of his childhood stories involving her mum.
He did look very threatening in the low light, especially when asking Longbottom almost impossible to know questions for a first year. Just not impossible to her and apparently Hermione.
"It seems like fame isn't everything, is it, Mr. Longbottom. Now Potter, tell me what are the answers I'm looking for?" Longbottom hadn't known of course.
Hermione, who had had her hand raised the whole time, desperate to answer, sent her a betrayed look when Holly told the class that:
1. Asphodel and wormwood were used in the Draught of Living Dead
2. A bezoar could be found in the stomach of a goat and
3. Monkshood and wolfsbane were the same plant.
They started on a boil curing potion right after having to write down her answers. Holly was paired with Hermione, and together they were making good progress.
Professor Snape was busy terrorising the Gryffindor students all the while praising Malfoy for his perfect technique.
When Holly took their cauldron off the fire to add the last ingredient the potion looked a little off from the colour it was supposed to have. And as she added the quills the potion exploded in her face, drenching her to the bones.
Boils immediately broke out all over her face and skin and Holly had to wince from the pain.
"Granger!" Snape bellowed out. "Take Potter to the hospital wing and let Madame Pomfrey have a look." Then he vanished the potion that was threatening to melt peoples shoes. "It seems like someone forgot to take the potion off the fire before adding the porcupine quills."
"But Sir, I saw her do just that before it exploded. We followed the instructions to the letter, something must be wrong with them!" Insulting Hermione's work was a sure fire way to make her mad apparently.
"That is 5 points from Gryffindor for your cheek and blatant lies. And Potter, detention tomorrow for ruining Ms. Granger's cauldron! Now off with you."
When they were finally outside and the door closed Holly burst into tears. Not because of the pain, but because professor Snape's words had finally registered.
Holly was blubbering out messy apologies for melting Hermione's brand new cauldron that she would now have to replace somehow. It must have cost a lot of money.
"Shh, Holly. It's fine. I can just get a new one. They're not that expensive anyways." She gave Holly a careful hug in comfort.
"Come on, let's get you to the hospital."
The bright and white hospital wing was a stark contrast to the dim dungeons they had just come from.
"Thank you for your assistance in bringing her here Miss…?" The matron, an older lady in white clothes, smiled at them warmly.
"Granger, Madame."
"Miss Granger then, you may return to your lessons. I'll handle it from here."
Hermione waved her goodbye with a comment not to worry about the cauldron. Madame Pomfrey set her up in the private room in the back of the wing. Apparently she'd have to take a bath in the same potion she had just failed to make. Holly was still stumped about what had gone wrong. The colour was off a little yes, but they had done every step with meticulous care.
"Miss Potter, please undress so I can inspect the boils." At Holly's panicked look she quickly added "Don't worry, I've been informed about your scar by St. Mungo's, I just have to make sure the potions magic didn't cause an adverse effect."
Holly peeled off her clothes slowly, one by one. Robe, cardigan, gloves, skirt, shoes and then her underwear. When she saw her reflection in a mirror by the wall she almost wanted to puke. She was covered in boils from head to toe, some already burst open, some still on the verge.
Worst of all were the boils on her scar. They had turned black and spewed a vicious green liquid when they burst. Holly pinched her eyes shut.
"Oh dear." Madam Pomfrey must have cast some spell on her because she felt a wave of warmth envelop her.
"Good news, it's just a discoloration. We'll get you fixed up in a jiffy!" With that Holly was led over to a bathtub. She still had her eyes closed so the matron had taken her by the arm.
Holly let out a sigh of relief the instant she sank into the potion. The pain hadn't been too bad, but the feeling of the boils bursting under her clothes made her skin crawl.
"Take your time, Miss Potter. I'll ask one of the house elves to bring you a change of clothes."
Being finally alone, Holly took a deep breath and dunked her head in the potion