Chapter 6: The New History of Magic Teacher Scares Me

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

As I was walking into the castle, I felt as if it got a bit smaller. Then again, I did grow over the summer and I wasn't nearly as small as I was the year prior. The castle was still an amazing piece of architecture. I didn't understand any architectural terms, but I knew that muggle architects would have a field day with this castle.

I could tell that the teachers obviously cared for this school, because as soon as we got into the castle, it was decked out. I obviously didn't see any of this last year because I was nervous. As I walked into the Great Hall, it was even more impressive since I could actually appreciate the castle in its entire beauty. The sky was ceiling still showed how it looked outside, dark, but clear skies. The talking got pretty loud until the doors banged open with McGonagall bringing the first years over. Professor McGonagall placed the hat on its stool and it opened its mouth to say:

'Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,

But don't judge on what you see,

I'll eat myself if you can find

A smarter hat than me.

You can keep your bowlers black,

Your top hats, sleek and tall,

For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat,

And I can cap them all.

There's nothing hidden in your head

The Sorting Hat can't see,

So try me on and I will tell you

Where you ought to be.

You might belong to Gryffindor.

Where brave dwell at heart, T

heir daring, nerve, and chivalry

Set Gryffindors apart;

You may belong in Hufflepuff,

Where they are just and loyal,

Those patient Hufflepuffs are true

And unafraid of toil;

Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,

If you've a ready mind,

Where those of wit and learning,

Will always find their kind;

Or perhaps in Slytherin

You'll make your real friends,

Their cunning folk use any means

To achieve their ends.

So put me on!

Don't be afraid!

And don't get in a flap!

You're in safe hands (though I have none)

For I'm a Thinking Cap!'

The entire place exploded into applause after the Hat's last word and Grover whispered in my ear, "That was very impressive." And I agreed with him. I definitely paid more attention to the song this year than I did last year. I zoned out for a while until I heard McGonagall yell out "Harry Potter!" The entire hall exploded into excited whispers. I heard people say "Is it actually him?" or "If that's actually Harry Potter, I'll be a rabbit for a magicians show."

Harry saw me while he walked up to the staff table and I gave him an encouraging thumbs up, and his nervousness seemed to dissipate after a bit. While he had the hat on, I saw that he was muttering something, and I wondered what he was saying to the hat. After a long, and I do mean a long time (it was like a minute) the Hat made a decision.

"Gryffindor!" the Hat yelled out, and the Gryffindor table exploded into cheers. I yelled to Grover because of how loud it was "I told you Harry would be in Gryffindor!"

He replied with "What?" I decided that I would tell him later. Once the Sorting was all said and done, that 'annoying' girl Hermione Granger (I didn't think she was annoying, I just thought she had a thirst for knowledge) was also in Gryffindor as well as Ron. Everyone continued to stay loud until Professor Dumbledore clinked his Goblet with his fork and said "Dig in."

I needed no other directions to eat. I absolutely demolished my meal. I looked at Grover and saw him do the same, except he had no meat. After I swallowed, I asked "Vegetarian?" He nodded because of how full his mouth was and I continued to eat with the same gusto. Pretty soon, the food vanished and Professor Dumbledore had his usual announcements. At the Forbidden Forest announcement, he looked at me, Fred, and George. I remembered how much the three of us sneaked into the Forest and nearly gave Hagrid a heart attack because of it.

"And I am here to introduce three new teachers. Your Astronomy teacher is Professor Brunner, your History of Magic teacher is Professor Dodds, and your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is Professor Quirrel. And with that, go to your dorms. You have a hard day of classes ahead of you." And with that, we all exited the Hall sleepily, tired from all of the food that we had just eaten.

The Gryffindor common room was still the same. Same plush chairs by the fireplace and the window, the table that people would play wizard's chess on the whole time, the same Fat Lady portrait that led out into the rest of the castle, and the amazing stairs that sent guys down when they tried to get into the girls dorms. It turns out that one of my dormmates was Grover, which I was happy about. I told Grover that I would meet him after I talked to Harry and Ron.

"So, how do you guys feel about you being sorted into the best house in the entire school?" I asked the two of them. Harry was indifferent to the situation, but Ron was pissed.

"God, I just can't believe that I have to be in the same house as her," he spat venomously.

"Well, in my opinion-" I started to say before I was cut off before Ron.

"I don't give a shit about your opinion. She's just incredibly annoying and bossy." Ron said angrily.

"Well maybe it's because she's in a new place and she wants to feel comfortable. Maybe it's because she acts that way so she can get people to be more used to people. I doubt that's how she actually is." I said, trying to make Ron understand.

"Whatever. Harry, I'll see you when you go up to our dorm." Ron said tiredly. Harry and I sat for a few minutes in silence.

"What were you muttering to the Sorting Hat?" I finally asked Harry.

"I was muttering 'Not Slytherin'. I did that because I'd heard bad things about Slytherin and I didn't want to become like the people in that house. And because I said that, that's probably why I'm in Gryffindor and not in Slytherin." Harry said.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, I was almost in Slytherin. Actually, I was closer to being in Ravenclaw than I was to being in Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat doesn't dictate what house you're placed into. You are, Harry. The only reason why I'm in Gryffindor is because of my mother. She told me all about the stories she and her friends had while she was in this house, and I guess I wanted that to happen to me too. I didn't want to be in a place where I wasn't familiar with. I knew where I wanted to be, so I told the Hat where I wanted to be, and it placed me there. And honestly, I'm glad I did that, because I'd probably be stuck in either Slytherin or Hufflepuff. This is my advice to you Harry: take initiative in yourself. By doing that, you dictate what you want to do, not other people dictating what they want you to do." I said.

He smiled at me and said, "Thanks, Percy. That's actually pretty smart."

I deadpanned and said, "Why do you think they call me Percy the Philosopher?"

"No they don't. Stop lying to yourself Percy." Harry said while laughing.

I sighed and said, "One day it will happen, trust me. Go to bed. It's pretty late." And to be fair, it was. It was about 12 AM, so Harry and I both parted ways and headed to bed. I got dressed, and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep.

…

The next day as I was walking into the Great Hall with Harry and Ron, there was a ton of whispering about Harry's scar. And to be fair, I couldn't really blame them, because, honestly, when are you going to ever meet a celebrity? I immediately saw Grover and sat down with him. We chatted for a bit while we were eating, and McGonagall passed out the schedules, and I swore.

"Course we got the two newbies today," I said. "Grover, we got History of Magic right after breakfast and DADA after lunch."

"I mean, at least we only have two classes," Grover reasoned with me.

"Yeah, yeah, I guess you're right." And right as I said that, the bell rang, and Grover and I headed to History of Magic.

…

As soon as I got to the classroom, I could tell that Professor Dodds already hated me. Because as soon as I sat down, she yelled at me to get out of my seat and placed me right in front of her desk. Of fucking course. I thought. The most boring class in the entire school, and I can't even catch up on sleep in it because I have to sit in front of the teacher. I groaned, knowing that this would be one of the worst years ever because History of Magic was boring. It was easily the worst class to ever exist, magical or not.

Not to mention, she not only looked, but she also acted like the spawn of hell. She had on what I think was the wizard equivalent of a leather jacket. She also had some strange accent that I think was from Georgia. Not the country in Europe, but the state in America, which was a bit weird because I knew there was a school in America. I didn't go to that school because your family actually had to go to that school to get in, and since none of my family went to that school, I was forced to go to Hogwarts.

Dodds started to tell the class her expectations for the year, and I tried to pay attention, I really did, but I zoned out after 20 minutes. Which in my opinion, was pretty good considering how that boring ass talk was about half an hour. I looked at Grover who mimicked banging his head on his desk and I had to stifle a snicker at that because I was in the same position.

Once her talk was done, she started to

drone on and on about how the Goblin Revolution of 1717 was incredibly violent or some dumb shit like that. And get this, this class was three hours long. That's right. Three excruciating hours of boring wizard history. I actually used to like history. And now after this, I knew I could never enjoy history again. After what felt like an eternity, the bell rang, and guess what? The demonic bitch gave us an essay due next Monday. It was the first day of school, and we already had an essay to do. Even Binns wasn't this psychotic. He at least waited till the second class to assign any homework, much less an essay. As we were walking out of the classroom, Grover said to me, "Dude, she hates you."

"Tell me about it," I said frustratingly.

"Now I can't stay up to the asscrack of dawn anymore."

"Why would you willingly do that?" Grover asked. I shrugged.

"Why do you crave enchiladas? Because I enjoy it."

"Touche." And for the rest of the way to the Great Hall, we remained in silence.

…

Grover and I both started to eat with gusto when I saw Harry and Ron walk in, looking exhausted.

"Whoa. What the hell happened to you two?" Grover asked.

"Snape." Ron said.

"He already hates me," Harry moaned.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, Dodds is probably worse because she literally made me sit in front of her desk while she taught. Also, I forgot to mention, we already have an essay due next Monday. So, we both have had pretty shitty days."

"That sucks," Ron said.

"Tell me about it," I said, annoyed.

…

DADA wasn't really as bad as I thought it would be, because it was awful last year. But then again, it also could be due to how much of a blithering idiot that Quirrel was. I mean, the poor guy literally quivered at his own image. Not to mention, his room reeked of garlic. He claimed it was because of 'an incident that he had with vampires back in Romania'. I was incredibly glad to be out of the class as soon as it ended.

"How was DADA?" Ron asked.

"Quirrel's a fucking idiot man," I said tiredly. "He can't even look at his own reflection without looking terrified. His room also reeks of garlic."

"Sounds terrible," Harry mused.

"C'mon," I said. "I'm starving." My stomach growled in response to my words, and everybody laughed.

… That night, I had my first nightmare. It started out like this. I was walking around in Hogwarts, and I saw a young blonde girl with deeply tanned skin and startling gray eyes ask me, 'What will happen on the summer solstice?'

I managed to croak out, 'What?'

She looked around, afraid as if someone would overhear. 'What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!'

'I'm sorry,' I mumbled. 'I don't know what…' Someone opened the door and she shoved a golden pudding in my mouth, and the dream shifted.

…

It was dark. I heard a voice whisper faintly, 'Perseus. Perseus, look behind you.' I looked behind me and saw someone who looked like a splitting image of me, except older. 'I need your help. I am being blamed for something that I didn't do. Please, Perseus. Help me.' He sounded very desperate.

'I-who are you?' I demanded. 'What are you being blamed for? How can I help?' and just like that, the man was gone.

…

I shot up out of bed, drenched in sweat. I looked outside and saw that it was sunny outside.

Grover saw me and asked,

"You good?" "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I asked. But truthfully, I was terrified. Well, that chapter sucked to write, so I hope you all enjoyed it. Leave a review if you have any questions or concerns or criticism or just wanna leave a positive review. Trust me, reviews help out more than you can ever imagine. I'm telling you guys this so I don't magically disappear off the Earth, but no updates next week. I'll be back on the 12th. Until next time.