September 2nd, 1991
Waking up Harry got out of bed and proceeded to drop to the floor. Starting his morning exercise, he began with 20 push-ups then 20 sit-ups. Deciding he had done enough for now he headed to the bathroom to carry out his morning ablutions. Exiting the bathroom, he looked at his roommate's bed. Terry was stumbling out of bed looking decidedly dishevelled.
Grunting what Harry supposed was a good morning, he shuffled to the bathroom. Harry chuckled and collected his books. Heading down to the common room he waited for the other first years to arrive so they could all head down to the great hall together.
One thing that Harry knew about himself was that he was useless when it came to having a sense of direction. He would; and had actually gotten lost in department stores. He wasn't sure but he doubted he would fare any better in a giant castle that, from what he could remember about the tour last night, didn't have a single sign or directions to anywhere.
After waiting for 15 minutes, students started filtering into the common room and congregated near the door. Joining Terry, they were soon ushered out of the common room by the 5th year prefect Penny. Harry tried to memorize the route they had taken to get to the staircase but was constantly being distracted by the suits of armour saluting them as they walked by, or by the paintings bidding them a good morning. Magic was awesome!
Soon enough they were descending the grand staircase and while only half listening to the prefect describing what was on each floor, Harry spotted the one-eyed witch statue that the headmaster mentioned in his closing speech. Wondering what treasures might be hidden within the forbidden rooms beyond it, he only half registered the warning about a trick step. Too late, his foot sank into the step and with a squawk of surprise he flung his hands out to steady himself. Grabbing onto the first person he could reach; he ended up tumbling down the stairs with a not entirely awake Terry cussing all the way to the landing.
"Merlin's saggy balls Harry. Next time you want to take a short cut down the stairs take someone else would you." "Well, your awake now, aren't you?" Harry said all too cheerily for Terrys liking. "Tea usually does the trick," Terry replied with an eye roll. Getting up, they brushed themselves off and waited for the rest of their now giggling housemates to join them. Penny looked both boys over to make sure they were all right and then continued leading them to the great hall.
After settling down at the Ravenclaw table and eating breakfast, Professor Flitwick started handing out class schedules. Taking a look at his day's schedule he noted that they had transfigurations first followed by charms, lunch and then history and potions to end the day. All in all, it wasn't a bad start. He wasn't sure what to expect from history since he had neglected to even open his history book during his stay at the Leaky Cauldron.
He figured potions would be like cooking and transfiguration would most likely be dry theory for the first bit. The class he was really excited about was charms. He loved charms. There was a charm to tie your shoes, or he supposed someone else's shoes. There was a charm to summon things to you. There was a charm for basically anything. Grinning he thought of all the things he could do to freak the Dursleys out.
Next to him Terry was giving him the side eye as he sat there grinning evilly. "You alright there Harry?" Terry asked with mild concern. "Yeah Terry. I'm just imagining how useful learning charms will be." This answer did not lessen Terry's concern in the least. Getting up the first years headed to the transfiguration classroom on the first floor.
The first years all had common classes. There was only around 30 first years this term. Thanks to the war there weren't that many births during the last year of the conflict. Something about having a child during a civil war didn't appeal to many people. Harry suspected that next year's crop would have to be separated along house lines. There had been a baby boom from what he read about while looking into the aftereffects of the war.
Sharing a class with all the other houses was interesting. A lot of pure bloods knew each other and would group together chatting about each other's common rooms and what they were expecting to learn in classes. Harry observed that, for the most part, the Slytherins kept to themselves. Harry thought that it wouldn't be good if no one knew what or if they were planning something so he decided to join them.
Sitting down next to a blonde girl that looked like a very young Sarah Michelle Gellar, he looked at her and said; "Hi I'm Harry." She looked amused at the faces her fellow Slytherins made at his appearance. She then looked at Harry and said, "hello my name is daphne. You do realize that this is the Slytherin section?" Harry replied, "yeah the green trim is a dead giveaway." She smirked at his answer and asked why he was sitting with them then. "Well, the hat wanted me in Slytherin, but it had just sorted a kid with no eyebrows there and not to be rude, but it was just too creepy to be in the same house as that. I may have even had to share a room with it." Harry shivered dramatically.
Upon hearing what Harry said Malfoy turned beet red and shouted; "you did this to me!" Harry looked surprised and replied, "I did not. I would remember doing something like that. Don't blame other people for your poor grooming habits." Malfoy spluttered "on the train you broke my nose and set me on fire!" Harry looked at him with pity. "Molloy, I remember you walking headfirst into our compartment door and then standing there with a bloody nose. All I did was close the door after you just stood there like a mute. Your non-existent eyebrows are not my fault." Hearing the argument Terry, Padma, and Parvati all broke into giggles and soon relayed what had happened to their friends, which started more giggling to break out throughout the classroom.
Daphne had a smile on her perfect face and looked to be enjoying the look of embarrassment on Malfoy's face. Malfoy snapped at Harry, "it's Malfoy." Clearly Harry wasn't paying attention since he exclaimed "oh look a kitty!" He swept down and picked up a struggling tabby cat and sat it on his lap. Petting the cat who didn't seem impressed. Harry cooed at it. "Who's a pretty kitty? You are, you are."
Daphne looked around wondering where the teacher was, thinking that Harry might be in trouble for touching the professors' cat, but there was no sign of Professor McGonagall. Just then the cat managed to escape Harry's attempts to get the cat to play with his tie and made a break for the front of the room. A shouted protest from Harry quickly died when the cat transformed into their teacher.
Daphne noticed all the colour drain from Harry's face as McGonagall straightened her clothes and gave Harry a gimlet eye. The professor then said, "5 points from Ravenclaw." Harry just sank into his seat a little further mumbling "how the hell was I supposed to know she was a cat… or that the cat was a person. You see a cat and you pet it. That's just what normal people do." Daphne stifled a snicker and turned to the front of the class where the lesson was beginning.
They were each given a matchstick to turn into a needle. To Daphnes surprise Harry had gotten it in only a few tries and then proceeded to keep turning it back and forth, each time getting quieter and quieter until he was doing it silently. She asked him how he was doing it and he just shrugged and replied; "once you get it to work you just replicate the feeling of your magic again and again until you just do it naturally. By that time your magic knows what you want and then you don't need to use the incantation anymore."
Daphne tried it and while not succeeding at the same pace, she was able to do it silently by the end of class. McGonagall had stopped by them and had given them each 5 points for completing the task silently. A bushy haired Gryffindor girl had gotten it done first and had received 10 points for being the first to succeed.
The next class was charms and this time Harry decided to sit beside the bushy haired Gryffindor girl. Looking at her he said, "hi I'm Harry." She looked a little stunned that someone had chosen to sit with her but replied "I'm Hermione." He smiled at her and waited for class to begin.
Today they were learning the Lumos charm Harry was well beyond this lesson since he spent most of the summer learning charms. During the lesson professor Flitwick described how the amount of magic you fed the spell determined the brightness, and with the right intent you could change the colour of the light that it would produce. Harry didn't know you could change the colour of the light and decided that's what he would work on during the practical lesson.
Much to Hermione's chagrin Harry was the first to accomplish the wand lighting charm, even though it glowed a disturbingly sickly green colour. Harry had only beaten her by a minute but what made her eye twitch was how he was dimming and illuminating his light so easily. She was then surprised when he changed his light to blue and then back to green. Hermione was worried though, the number of sparks he was producing was becoming alarming. She had to slap the back of Weasley's head when a spark started to smoulder in his hair, causing Weasley to turn around and give her a dirty look. Wincing she went back to practicing her own spell, shuffling a little farther away from Harry and his undoubtedly wrongly functioning wand.
After lunch they ambled towards the history classroom where Harry decided to sit next to a red headed Hufflepuff named Susan Bones. After introducing himself they discussed how exciting it will be to be taught by a ghost. Unfortunately for Susan within 5 minutes of the lecture beginning Harry was asleep on her shoulder. Not sure what to do and having a boy practically laying against her she looked to her friend Hanna in hopes of getting help. All she got though was a wide grin and a thumbs up. Neither of which did anything to alleviate her problem or her growing blush.
After history of magic the students descended into the dungeons for potions. Not seeing an empty seat next to a Ravenclaw Harry decided to sit next to a slightly overweight Gryffindor boy by the name of Neville Longbottom. They had just gotten past introducing themselves when the door banged closed, and a sallow hooked nose man swept to the front of the classroom. Turning abruptly when he reached the front of the room, the man gazed at each student. His gaze demanded silence, and everyone obeyed.
Speaking quietly Professor Snape started his lecture. Harry almost immediately tuned him out. Harry was trying to see if the teacher was a vampire. It would fit. During lunch Professor Quirrell had walked by him trying to give Professor Snape a wide birth. When he had passed Harry a strong smell of garlic had been left in his wake.
"Pay attention Potter!" Harry looked around trying to locate who had said his name. He spotted the professor staring at him. He quickly averted his eyes and said, "sorry Professor." "Absent minded just like your farther" Snape mumbled.
"Can you tell me the difference, Potter, between monkshood and…" "No, I can't professor" Harry quickly cut in. Not wanting to be berated in front of the class any more than absolutely necessary. "I just learned about magic a month ago and I've been busy trying to catch up with everything I've missed. I haven't had the chance to read anything on potions yet sir." There he thought. That was a perfectly reasonable answer to… "10 points from Ravenclaw for your insolence and for coming to class unprepared." Walking away Snape felt satisfied with being able to take points from the Potter brat.
As Snape walked away, Neville let out the breath he was holding. The rest of potions went by pretty quickly, that is until they got to the stage in the brewing process that required the cauldron to be removed from the heat.
Neville proceeded to throw a few to many porcupine quills in before they removed it from the open flame. The resulting explosion was, in Harry's mind, fantastic. The cauldron shot to the ceiling before turning over and spilling its questionable concoction all over their neighbour's desk. As it would turn out they may have missed a few previous steps as well. The potion covered both Crab and Goyle in boiling hot slime. Purple slime to be exact.
Snape rushed over to them vanishing the mess and looked both boys over. While he managed to vanish the slime, the unfortunate colour remained only slightly altered. Crab and Goyle looked like blueberries.
Snape instructed Malfoy and Parkinson to escort the blueberries to the hospital wing. Telling Malfoy to see to his eyebrow situation as well. Turning Snape stared down both Harry and Neville, one of which was wearing a face of panic while the other a face of angelic innocence. "20 points each for maiming your fellow classmates" Snape snapped. Without missing a beat Harry blurted out; "are you a vampire?" The entire class just stared at him with befuddled looks on their faces. "It's just that." Harry tried to backtrack his impulsive question. "Well, it's just good they turned into blueberries and not garlic, right?"
That night Harry found himself cleaning bed pans in the hospital wing. Not really sure why they were even needed his pondering was interrupted by a conversation madam Pomfrey was having with Malfoy and the twin blueberries. "Your skin should eventually revert back to normal after the affected skin cells are replaced naturally. I would say in a month or two.
As for your eyebrows Mr. Malfoy, since they were burned off with magic there's not much we can do. Once the magic wears off, we can apply a hair growing salve and hope the papilla are not too badly damaged. I could put a glamor on, but it would only last a few hours. Your best bet is to wait the magic out or learn the glamor spell yourself.
Hearing their rather loud declarations of revenge, Harry decided that he had done enough cleaning for tonight and made a break for the exit. He did not want to be anywhere near the Slytherins until they calmed down. Making his way back to Ravenclaw tower he ended up getting lost and found himself in the forbidden hallway. Just as he decided to do a little exploration, he heard footsteps and chose to scamper away. He would try again another night. As he fled, he could have sworn he smelt the pungent Oder of garlic.
After a few more wrong turns he finally found himself at the entrance to the Ravenclaw common room. Trying to find a door handle he was surprised when the knocker spoke up. "A farmer has twenty sheep, ten pigs, and ten cows. If we call the pigs cows, how many cows will he have?"
Harry was confused. "What does it matter? Just open up I'm tired." The eagle knocker just repeated itself; "A farmer has twenty sheep, ten pigs, and ten cows. If we call the pigs cows, how many cows will he have?"
"God damn it! I don't know. Why are you making me do math? It's 10pm." Harry stared at the knocker and when it opened its beak Harry cut it off with the first answer that came to mind. "You still only have 10 cows. You can call things whatever you want but it doesn't change what they are." "Correct" the eagle knocker replied and the door swung open.
"Oh yeah," Harry thought. "I forgot about the whole riddle thing. That won't become annoying." With those thoughts he stumbled to his room. Not even changing into his pyjamas he simply crawled under the covers and was asleep within seconds. His last thought was "this has been a productive day."
