Disclaimer: I don't own 'Harry Potter' and I'm not making any profit out of this story.
-Gravity-
Summary: When you fall you can't blame gravity. You can't fight it either. The first time we fell, we were 11 and didn't realize it. Carefree and proud. We never imagined that a catastrophe would happen in our time. But it did. In reality you can't get angry when you keep on falling, because some things are meant to be that way, you just have to do the best of the worst. Gravity don't mean too much to me, I 'm who I've got to be. Follow the story of the other side of Harry Potter and Wizard War II and you'll se that we all hurt, laugh, live, died and love.
Rating: T for language, may become M for gore, use of alcohol and/or sexual content.
Gender: Drama – Romance – Hurt/Comfort – Adventure – Family – Friendship
Pairings: inclues DMHG, HPGW, RLNT and more.
Warning: OC's and non-canon, almost AU. Use of French, Spanish, English, Italian, German and Welsh. May contain homosexual couples or insinuations.
Note: I was planning to upload this chapter last Sunday, or if time was short on Monday but I got caught up with a lot of stuff. so, I give you chapter three. thanks to everyone that has read this story and thank you for the ones that followed it.
merry chistmas, happy holidays, a good hanukkah, a blessed yule or a nice day... whatever you celebrate or do.
First year: Chapter III. Double Herbology with Ravenclaw, double Potions with Gryffindor
"No limits just epiphanies"
American Authors – Best Day Of My Life
The classes began next day. Professor Severus Snape, head of Slytherin, handing out the schedules on the table that morning, quick and free of nonsense.
Their first class had been a double class of History of Magic. Five minutes listening to the ghost of Professor Binns and everyone on the class was almost asleep. Except for Victoria, who after ten minutes of the origins of magic in Antique Egypt, had started to ask question. Are the staffs carried by the god in the frescos (1) considered predecessor of the short wands we use now? Were the processes to make them similar in any way? Is really Antique Egypt the only origin of magic? What about Sumeria?(Sumer) (2) The professor had looked up from his notes amazed and confused. Never had someone made a question, much less a debate one. He had asked for her name and answered the questions. The rest of the lecture he kept glancing at her with curious ghostly eyes. Victoria took notes of everything he said carefully and even added some drawings to them.
They had Herbology with the Ravenclaws under the teachings Professor Sprout, a short energetic witch with a lot of earth in her clothes and hands, had come and pass without incident, nothing particular aside from plants and soil, too much soil for Pansy and Daphne actually. The professor hadn't been pleased with them complaining. Victoria and Hermione were together, the brunette whispering excited about the plants she saw around her. Blaise and Theo were next to them, including themselves in the conversation. Draco, Vincet and Gregory were near them, busy with their own conversations. Nobody questioned a Ravenclaw between the Slytherings, even if some people looked at them curiously and even disapprovingly. Victoria narrowed her eyes and continued listening to Hermione talk. The brunette was looking bright and happy next to her, but she eyed the rest of her house with distrust.
Tuesday they had Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. She began her class with a speech of what to expect from her subject and person. Strict and clever. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts. Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." And then she proceeded to turn furniture into animals. Even if they were eager to star, after taking complicate notes they began with something simple. Turning a match into a needle. No one made much progress except Blaise who manage to make it silver. Professor McGonagall nodded at him in acknowledgment and awarded their house with one point. For the head of the house of Gryffindor she was pretty fair with the other houses.
Thursday on the morning they had double Charms with professor Flitwick. The professor was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call. Rumour was that when in class with the Gryffindors he had fallen down when calling Potter's name. Later that day they had Defence Against the Dark Arts that turned out as a joke. The class smelled strongly to garlic and Professor Quirrell was afraid of everything, even his own shadow.
Friday morning came too fast for the first years Slytherins. Tuesday at midnight they had had Astronomy, gazing at the sky full of stars, moons and planets, and the hours of sleep weren't enough.
Victoria sat between Blaise and Theo in breakfast; the three of them more sleep than awake. Theo yawed quietly and the smirked, eyeing something over the sea of heads.
"Have you noticed that today we have Potions?" He said. Blaise looked at him over his cup.
"So?" asked Victoria before returning to her plate of fruit.
"So, we have double Potions with the Gryffindors." He said before biting his toast. "And professor Snape likes to make Gryffindors miserable early on the morning." Victoria laughed quietly.
"And I'll assume that he likes to favour Slytherins early on the morning." Blaise added, looking over to the lions' table with a smirk in his lips. Theo raised his cup for an answer. Victoria giggled again.
"It sounds like fun." She said with a small glint of amusement and mischief in her eyes.
The owls came in that moment, startling Pansy and Daphne some places up the table. Victoria sneered at them and munched on an apple slice. A golden-brown barn owl landed in front of Blaise. A grey owl had delivered a letter for Theo, who was busy reading it. A huge black owl landed in front of Victoria. She sighed and took the letter from his leg, pocketing without reading it. She petted the owl in the head. The rest of the owls near were scared away by the new one and flew back quickly. Victoria munched another piece of apple and fed the huge owl, still on the table, a piece of bacon from Blaise's plate. Theo folded his letter and leaned on his hand.
"That owl glared at the others, making them fly away?" He asked to Victoria, who nodded. "and you pet him, her for it?"
"Si. (Yes) And fed him with Blaise's bacon. I'm proud of him." She said. Theo laughed, shaking his head amused. The owl hooted and scoped closer to her, snuggling in her hair. She laughed and petted him again. Blaise smiled at her.
"Cute piccola (little one), but please don't steal my food. I was planning to eat that bacon." Victoria, and the owl, glared at him. Theo laughed again.
"Don't call me that!" She said narrowing her eyes. The owl hooted and puffed his feathers menacingly. Theo laughed again.
That owl is so amazing!" Victoria smiled at the English boy. The Italian laughed with them. Finally the laugher stopped. The owl was still in the table, drinking from Victoria's water.
"And piccola (little one)" Blaise ignored the glares, human and bird alike. "what's the name of the owl?" She swallowed a strawberry before answering, petting the feathers of her owl again.
"First, he's a 'bu' a Spanish gigantic owl (3), obviously magic." The girl didn't elaborate in what kind of magic. "And his name is Alatriste. (4)" Theo looked at the far away look that the violet eyes of Victoria had acquired and Blaise frown. The English boy narrowed his eyes. He quickly changed the subject.
"Any way, breakfast is almost over and we don't want to be late to Potions and fun, don't we?" The others laughed and looked over to the lion's table. Blaise could make the heads of Potter and Weasley, red and black, huddle together reading something, the paper probably. Victoria petted 'Alatriste' again, gave him another piece of bacon and the owl hooted softly before flying away. The three of them stood up and walked down towards the dungeons.
Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. Victoria looked apprehensible at something that looked like a baby crocodile with two heads floating in a jar. Theo poked her. The girl glared at him before sitting on a desk, dropping her bag next to her. Theo sat next to her and Blaise on the other side.
Professor Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the register, and like Flitwick, he paused at Potter's name.
"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new… celebrity."
Draco, Vincent and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Theo and Blaise smirked between them and Victoria sat there with a mocking smile in her lips. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black, but they had no ounce of warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels. The lions shifted uncomfortable under his stare. So much for Gryffindor bravery.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word, Professor 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 to really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep thought human veins, bewitching the min, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stop death, if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
More silence followed after his speech. Victoria smiled mockingly again. The Gryffindors looked awkwardly at each other, except a girl with smooth dark brown hair and amber eyes. She was on the edge of her seat with an angry expression on her face, determined to prove she (and possible some of her house-mates) were not dunderheads.
"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. 'What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?' Potter glanced at the redhead next to him, who looked as stumped as he was; The girl's hand had raised into the air slowly, hesitating a bit.
"I don't know, sir," said Potter. Snape's lips curled into a sneer.
"Tut, tut… fame clearly isn't everything." He ignored the other Gryffindor's hand.
"Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" The Gryffindor girl lowered her hand her brow furrowed in concentration, but Potter didn't look as he had the faintest idea what a bezoar was. Draco, Vincent and Goyle were shaking with laughter. Blaise was stretched back in his seat, and Theo and Victoria were leaning in their desk looking over the lion's struggles.
"I don't know, sir."
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Potter face clearly said that he had opened the books but how did Snape expect him to remember everything in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi? Professor Snape was still ignoring the hand in the air. "What's the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?" At this, the girl shooted her hand in the air, desperate to be seen and to answer.
"I don't know." Said Potter quietly. "I think Lisa does, though, why don't you try her?" A few people laughed. Victoria smiled again, darting her violet eyes to the professor. He was not pleased at all.
"Lower your hand." He snapped to the Turpin girl. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is know as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken form the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which is also know by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" Over the sound of rummaged for quills and parchment the Slytherins hear Professor Snape said, "And a point will be taken form Gryffindor House for your check, Potter".
After that, things got more amusing for the Slytherins and worse form the Gryffindors. Professor Snape had all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except some Slytherins, like Victoria, Theo and Blaise (who asked to work in trio, saying that there were an uneven* number and mumbling that they didn't want to work with a Gryffindor). He praised Draco, whom he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Draco had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Longbottom had somehow managed to melt Finnegans's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, turning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.
"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" Longbottom whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose. "Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at his partner. Then he rounded on Potter and Weasley, who had been working next to Neville.
"You, Potter… why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor." Draco sneered and watched with amusement as Potter opened his mouth to argue closing it almost immediately. Victoria and the boys noted that Weasley had kicked Potter to stay quiet. The boy did know what was convenient. The group continued snickering at the wounded pride of the lions the rest of the lesson.
As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, heading for lunch the group was basking in good mood. The first week had been memorable, and they were waiting forward for the rest of their time here.
1. Fresco: is a mural technique where the painting itself becomes part of the wall. The process consist of painting over a freshly added lime plaster (made with sand, water and cal - Ca(OH)2).
In Antique Egypt the fresco is found in the walls of tombs. The paintings were made with a secco work. This means that first the general and rough painting was made on the wet plaster, allowed to dry (often accelerating the process by rubbing it with sand) and then painted over the day plaster as if on a canvas or paper. Painting in wet plaster allows the murals to last longer, contrary to dry techniques.
2. Sumeria: Ancient civilization and historical region in southern Mesopotamia, modern Iraq, during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. Recognized for being the first (therefor oldest) civilization to leave bibliographic material, in form of a large number of tablets written in cuneiform. Among magic references, we found the divinity Enlil, lord of the ghost-land. His gifts to mankind were said to be the spells and incantations that the spirits of good or evil were compelled to obey.
Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer asserts, "No people has contributed more to the culture of mankind than the Sumerians"
3. Bú: A gigantic owl (buhó) form the iberic folklore, derived probably from Celtic mythology. It's black and enormous in size and wings, with big (often as big as soup bowls) red eyes that can paralyze it's victims with fear and sharp beak and talons. It's said to capture little kids and take them away, never to be seen again. Its natural habitats are oak forests (a sacred tree for the Celtics).
4. Alatriste: It's the surname of the main fictional character of the Spanish writer Arturo Pérez-Reverte series of novels named "Capitan Alatrsite". Witch deals with the life of the Captain Diego Alatriste y Tenorio, a Spanish soldier and man of fortune living in the 17th century.
The novels are set on the Spanish Golden Age (17th Century), a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain, coinciding with the political rise and decline of the Spanish Habsburg (of an Austrian dynasty) dynasty. Witters such as Lope de Vega (famous for "Fuenteovejuna") and Miguel de Cervantes (author of "El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha") are form this time, as well as the painter Diego Velázquez ("Las Meninas").
*Uneven number: They are not an uneven number. As I said on the last chapter's footnotes, I'm going with the idea that every house has five boys and three girls, making eight students per house in Harry's year. In Gryffindor and Slytherin double potions class that will make sixteen students, perfectly even. But, somehow I got the impression that Snape will allow Slytherins to be a trio… if just to stop them from working with a Gryffindor.