The rest of the week was very similar to the first day, the lessons went well, in some subjects I kept up well, in others I had to do some extra work after school but on the whole it went well.
I still had a few lessons with the blond boy and his friends but I didn't hear any more stupid comments.
At least not about me, because it seemed to be their entire topic of conversation was making fun of other people.
At dinner in the great hall I always sat alone and read a book.
Min said I should start reading the newspaper, if I had to read while eating, at least I would get something of the world.
Whether I wanted to or not was another matter entirely.
I continued to read books anyway and ignored her daily comments on it.
Everything was normal. Until now it was going perfectly fine and I would have liked to continue like that.
Friday, however, as normal as it had started, promised nothing but trouble.
After breakfast I had history of magic, actually a super exciting subject but the professor was so soporific that even the most exciting things became incredibly boring.
At Ilvermorny there was also a ghost who taught, like Professor Binns, but it had never been so boring there.
So my thoughts drifted away from the subject to the next lesson that had been making my stomach ache since last night.
Potions.
We would be brewing Felix Felicis and although I had worked through my notes really carefully over and over again, the sinking feeling wouldn't go away.
After lunch I still had herbology, that's what I'd be looking forward to in potions and the upcoming weekend.
But for that I first had to not die of boredom here and I still have to get through potions too. The former, as difficult as it sounded, was nothing compared to what potions had in store for me.
"As discussed in the last lesson, we will start brewing Felix Felicis today.
Due to the larger number of students than in previous years, you will be working together with a partner."
Murmurs erupted from all sides.
I sighed.
Hopefully someone who has a clue, then I'd have a chance at a good grade.
"Quiet. I will divide the partners and make it dependent on your abilities. A high achieving student with a weaker one."
He began to call two names each to work together. None of them were really familiar to me.
Some I had heard before as we had several subjects in common, others I heard consciously for the first time today.
"Ms Harper and ..." I raised my head.
"Mr Malfoy."
Malfoy, the name sounded familiar, we must have some subjects in common, I just couldn't place it.
"Yes Mr Malfoy, is there a problem?" the professor interrupted naming the partners.
I turned to the rest of the class to see who Malfoy was and it couldn't have hit me any worse. The blond broom boy.
Herbology and the weekend were receding into the distance.
How much bad luck could I actually have?
There were so many other students in this class and all of them would have been much better than the one who hated my guts and for no reason at all, simply because he found me annoying.
I closed my eyes and sighed.
"Yes professor," spoke the called one "I will not work with her. If I'm going to share my skills with someone else to get them a good grade, at least it should be with a worthy wizard and not some mud..."
He didn't get any further because Professor Slughorn interrupted him, visibly upset.
"Mr Malfoy I resent such a tone in my lessons! If I hear such a statement from you again I will deduct points from your house and you will get detention.
Ms Harper has as much right to be here as you do. She is entitled to a work partner to help her find her way in this class and as much as I hate to say it, the most talented student here is you Mr Malfoy."
Malfoy snorted but said nothing back.
"Very well," Professor Slughorn continued to read out the pairs and I braced myself for something I didn't yet know how bad it was going to be.
"Good, so now all the couples get together in front of one of the cauldrons, hopefully you all have the list of ingredients and the preparation with you from the last lesson.
The ingredients are in the cupboard and if you have any questions please just come to me."
Professor Slughorn clapped his hands and the students began to scurry around the classroom.
Malfoy had sat down in front of a cauldron in the back row when I placed my books on the table next to him.
"Hey," I began shyly. "I'm Daisy." and sat down in the seat next to him.
He didn't introduce himself.
I knew his surname was Malfoy and I'd heard his first name before too, the Monday I'd first seen him.
Something with D, Daniel? David? Damian? I don't know, I couldn't think of it any more, so I guess I'd have to keep calling him Malfoy.
"Are you finally going to get the bloody ingredients so we can start or are you stuck here Harper?"
Completely irritated, I stood up and walked over to the cupboard with the ingredients.
That was really stupid Daisy. You should have let him get the stuff himself.
I may have seemed shy, always hiding behind a book and not talking to anyone but I was no slouch. I never was, if something didn't suit me I said so, because keeping trouble to myself could become a problem in the long run.
That cupboards always had to be so high, I fretted, reaching for an ingredient on the top shelf but couldn't reach it and my wand was stuck in my jacket in my place.
I sighed.
"Wait I'll help you, these cupboards are really high though," a boy with brown hair and a round face smiled at me.
"Thank you," I replied and smiled back.
I guess there were obliging boys here too.
With the smile on my face and the ingredients in the cauldron, I strode back to my seat and, unfortunately Malfoy.
Without a word he dumped the ingredients on the table, magically filled the cauldron with water and lit a fire under it.
Peeling the ingredients, chopinh them, mashing them, we did it all in silence.
To my amazement, I didn't had to do everything alone, Malfoy also worked on some of the ingredients.
Little by little, the ingredients went into the cauldron.
"Add everything except the fairy root, stirring steadily in a clockwise direction.
Simmer for 3 minutes and then change direction for another 5 minutes."
That's what my notes said.
I did as written but suddenly Malfoy stood up and snatched the spoon from my hand.
"Salazar, you are stirring the ingredients to death, slowly you ..."
It was clear to me what word he was stifling.
"Mountain troll," he finished his sentence. I snorted.
I had expected many things but not this.
Before I would start laughing I sat down and added the word "slowly" to my notes.
At the end of the lesson, we had a potion to show for it, and judging by the colour, it was a success.
Professor Slughorn seemed to be convinced as well and jotted down a few things on his parchment.
"I will examine all your potions in peace and all those who have produced a successful Felix Felicis will be given it in the next hour," the professor declared when he had looked into each cauldron.
"Have a good weekend, see you next Monday," he ended the lesson.
I had survived it, I had really survived this horror lesson and now only herbology stood between me and my weekend.
Which one is greenhouse 3? I should have taken this stupid map with me.
My timetable said I had herbology in greenhouse 3 but there were no numbers on the houses.
One was small, the other was big and there was a really unpleasant smell coming from one.
I must have looked pretty distressed looking from my timetable to the greenhouses and back to my timetable.
"It's the small one," I heard a quiet voice behind me and an arm came into my field of vision pointing to the small greenhouse.
I turned around. The friendly boy from Potions was standing behind me, smiling again.
"I used to get lost all the time too, I still do sometimes," he laughed sheepishly. "I'm Neville, by the way," he added.
"Daisy," I replied and was glad when he escorted me to the greenhouse.
"Malfoy as a partner has been really mean of Slughorn. Had to put you right in a group with the worst Slytherin.
You must have a bad impression of Hogwarts now. Actually, we're all quite nice, Malfoy being the only exception," he gushed.
"I don't have a bad impression of Hogwarts, just an opinion about Malfoy and it would definitely get me detention if I spoke it," I laughed and so did he.
The greenhouse looked much smaller from the outside than it actually was.
Unlike what I had expected, there were desks in the middle, as if it was a normal classroom.
Plants of all colours, shapes and sizes were standing and hanging everywhere.
It smelled of many things, I could only really identify a few smells, but it didn't smell bad.
Here too, the students preferred to sit in the last row instead of the first, so my place was there again, which didn't bothered me.
I had already spread out my books on the table and was about to put my bag on the empty chair next to me when a round face grinned at me.
"Is that chair still empty or does your bag need the space?"
"Er, no of course not. Go ahead and take it, my bag can sit on the floor too."
"Great," the brown-haired boy said and sat down, sliding my books to my side of the table and grabbing his out of his bag.
"I thought you just wanted the chair, I didn't expect you to sit with me," I looked at him sheepishly.
"So the seat isn't free after all?"
"No, er yes." I stammered "The seat is still free, you're welcome to sit here if you like."
I turned around, just to see if there were other seats available and he had just sat down in the last free seat, but no, there were still a few free chairs.
Before I could ask him why he hadn't taken one of the other seats, a small woman with frizzy hair and a funny looking hat stood in front of the class and introduced herself as Professor Sprout.
I too was to introduce myself again, although all the students probably already knew me from some other class.
For the next few weeks we would be studying plagentinia, a plant whose magical qualities could appear in any form.
It had to be picked in winter by moonlight to develop these qualities.
They were still small seedlings that we would take care of for the next few months and pick just before christmas.
I had never heard of Plagentinia before but so seemed the rest of the class except for one witch with bushy brown hair who addressed Professor Sprout as Ms Granger.
Her identification of the plant could have come out of a book and earned her 5 points for her house.
I heard a snort behind me and a "Nerd" and felt transported back to the care of magical creatures lesson.
Clever witches didn't seem to be high on the list here.
After class, Professor Sprout gave me a list of plants and asked which ones I knew. Some I knew, others I had never heard of.
"Mr Longbottom," she called after a student who was heading for the exit.
"Ms Harper needs a bit of tuition on the native plants here. Would you be so kind as to assist?"
"Yes of course I can do that, it's no problem. Of course only if Ms Harper wants my help at all."
Actually I should have just said no and just borrowed a book on native plants from the library like I usually would but he was so nice and he really didn't seem to mind helping me out.
So I nodded cautiously and smiled at him.
"Good, you two will have to sort out everything else. Have a nice weekend," and with that she disappeared from my sight.
"You really don't have to do this, I can just read up on it," I began when I was sure the professor couldn't hear us anymore.
"I want to help you though. After all, I need to keep Hogwarts' good impression before Malfoy ruins it completely.
And I promised Professor Sprout to check on the plants in the greenhouses anyway, you can just come with me and I'll explain everything", he replied, looking at me out of deep brown eyes.
I nodded again.
"Tomorrow afternoon, around 2pm in front of the Great Hall, I'll pick you up.
Bring gloves and your own wellies, you don't want to use the ones for all the students.
I have to go now though, I'll see you tomorrow".
And before I could say anything back, he sprinted off towards the castle and left me standing in the greenhouse.
It was only when I laied in my bed at night and stared at the ceiling that I realised what had happened today.
I had been called a mountain troll by a boy who had certainly never seen a troll up close, had possibly brewed an effective Felix Felicis with him and had met the exact opposite of this boy, friendly obliging with a sense of humour and he would tutor me tomorrow.
So much I had hoped everything would stay the same as the rest of the week.
I would have studied in peace, read a lot and been invisible to everyone.
But now I was glad that someone saw me and I would go to tutoring with Neville tomorrow and be as I was.
Either he threw my whole plan for this school year out of whack or we went our separate ways after that and I carried on as I had planned.
"You can't lose sweatheart, every experience is a gain and you can learn something from everything, especially things that scare you."
That's what Grandma had always said and then given me a kiss on the hair.
I would make her proud and face my fear. Fear of change.
