DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER

Morning had arrived and it was now 8 'o clock. Abhimanyu, Arthur and Molly were sitting at the Gryffindor table, eating their breakfast.

Arthur asked, "Do you mind if I call you Abhi?"

Abhimanyu replied, "No problem Arthur."

He reached out for a hash brown and some marmalade.

Molly spoke, "I take it you love marmalade."

Abhimanyu replied beaming, "I sure do. I love marmalade."

Arthur pointed out, "You don't seem to enjoy bacon."

Abhimanyu replied, "I'm a vegetarian. The closest I ever get to non-vegetarian is eggs in cakes and cookies, and of course, milk products if you count them."

Arthur nodded saying, "Good for you. I saw you doing push-ups this morning. That's very good."

"Thanks Arthur," Abhimanyu replied.

Just then, they turned and saw Dumbledore handing the students their schedules. He was already nearing the trio.

Soon enough, Dumbledore, handing Abhimanyu and Molly their first year schedules said, "Here are your schedules. Please go through them very carefully."

He then handed Arthur his second year schedule and turning to the two first years, said, "You have transfiguration today as your first period. Professor Minerva McGonagall will be teaching you. I highly suggest you hurry up and find your way as soon as possible. She is particular about punctuality."

"Thank you professor," Abhimanyu and Molly replied.

Soon afterwards, Abhimanyu and Molly found themselves in Minerva McGonagall's classroom, in the front bench, staring at a tabby cat.

Abhimanyu looked around, wondering where the teacher was, but did not see her.

Then, looking at the cat, he uttered in his best cat voice, "Meow."

The cat just stared at him.

Abhimanyu went over to it and started to pet it.

After a minute, he stopped and once again, said "Meow," hoping to get it to meow back.

Suddenly, he found himself meowing at a stern looking woman with glasses, a pointed hat, and emerald green robes.

Startled, he screamed and fell backwards.

Molly rushed over to him and helped him up saying, "Oh no, are you okay?"

He looked up and saw the woman extending her hand to him.

He took it and looked at her in wonder.

The woman let out a laugh saying, "There's no need to be worried. I quite enjoyed that petting, although your meowing isn't what I would call a perfect imitation."

Abhimanyu asked, "Professor? Is it you?"

She replied, "Yes, my name is Minerva McGonagall, Professor McGonagall for you, and I will be teaching you transfiguration. I can turn into a cat, and back into a human, which you just saw."

Abhimanyu excitedly asked, "Can I do that?"

McGonagall replied, "Well, it is a difficult thing to do. You will be learning about animal transformations in your higher years, from third year onwards, but of course, I am very happy to see that you have the enthusiasm for it. Now, please sit down."

With that, she began the class, starting with an introduction to transfiguration, during which, Abhimanyu noticed Molly jotting down points with her quill. Of course, she was taking down lecture notes.

The professor then gave everyone a matchstick and asked them to turn it into a needle after teaching the required spell and giving its explanation.

Abhimanyu excitedly cast the spell, but did not get it the first time. Nothing happened.

Just then, he heard a voice saying, "Come on. Try again."

He breathed and tried a second time, willing that it should work this time, and was very surprised to see an almost perfect needle.

"Very good, see you're improving," the voice said again. Abhimanyu turned around to see McGonagall smiling at him.

He tried again, and this time, it was perfect.

McGonagall clapped her hands and said, "Excellent, good work Mr. Pandey."

Abhimanyu smiled at her and said, "Thank you professor."

McGonagall just patted his head and gave his cheek a little pinch before moving on to inspect the other students. "Quite cute," she thought as she moved along.

Later on, Abhimanyu and Molly had to head down to the dungeons for potions, which was being taught by professor Slughorn, and would be a period shared with Slytherins.

Bellatrix Black was already sitting on the front bench in the potions classroom.

Next to her was another girl, Avril Leverge, a pureblood witch with straight black hair who was quite like Rodolphus and shared negative views on Muggles and Muggleborns. Rodolphus was seated right behind Bellatrix.

As Bellatrix watched the Gryffindor students coming in, she noticed a boy coming and sitting next to her with a smile on his face. She frowned slightly, upon realizing that this was the Indian Muggleborn that had been sorted the previous night.

Abhimanyu who was sitting right there said, "Hello, are you in Slytherin?"

Bellatrix replied proudly, "Yes, I am. You can see my badge on my robes."

She held up her badge and showed it to him.

Abhimanyu smilingly replied, "That's nice, I'm in Gryffindor. What's your name?"

Suddenly, the girl on her right side said sneeringly with a mean expression on her face, "She is Bellatrix Black, from the most Noble and Ancient House of Black. Now look towards the front or go sit somewhere else."

Abhimanyu felt hurt by that and said, "Hey, I didn't do anything. I just asked her for her name. What's yours anyway?"

The girl replied, "I am Avril Leverge, pureblood."

Turning to Bellatrix, he said, "Nice to meet you Bellatrix Black, my name is Abhimanyu Pandey."

Bellatrix said a little sneeringly, moving her head and torso from side to side like she was dancing, "Nice name, Pandey indeed, and Muggleborn, aren't you?"

Abhimanyu smilingly replied, "Yes I am."

Just then, Rodolphus, who was listening to them, said cruelly, "You don't belong here! Who do you think you are? You're not one of us! Go sit…"

But before Rodolphus could continue, the door burst open and a man with grey hair came in.

The man looked at the group and spoke, "Please be quiet, and watch your tone."

Rodolphus gulped and went silent immediately.

The man was none other than Horace Slughorn, the Potions Master of Hogwarts.

He walked up to the teacher's table and stood there in front of it, facing the students.

He spoke, "Well hello everyone, I am Professor Slughorn, and I will be teaching you potions. I'm sure you must all be very excited to know what we will be doing. Well if you have the skills and work hard, you can brew anything, anything from a simple boil cure potion to Veritaserum, anything, even to stop death."

Abhimanyu looked up at him in excitement. This nice teacher was certainly very interesting.

Professor Slughorn finished his introduction of potions and then started to ask a few questions.

He asked, "Now, who can tell me the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

He suddenly saw Abhimanyu raising his hand up. He said, "Ah yes, please stand up. What is your answer?"

Abhimanyu said, "Sir, I remember reading something about no difference between them in my textbook but…"

Slughorn clapped joyfully and announced, "Exactly, yes, there is no difference. Very good! Excellent work my boy."

After a few more questions the students had to prepare a boil cure potion.

Abhimanyu was staring at the board, making sure he had read the step twice, remembering his mother constantly telling him, "Look at the question twice. Always read it properly. Otherwise, you will end up making a mistake."

Having finished most of the steps, he casually looked around and suddenly noticed Avril Leverge about to add porcupine quills when she had not finished the previous step.

He quickly whispered, "No Avril, no, you're not supposed to add them now. You forgot the previous step!"

Avril stopped and glared at him, but took notice of her mistake and performed the previous step which she had forgotten.

Rodolphus just looked darkly at him, but the other one did not notice it.

A few minutes later, Slughorn was examining everyone's potions. He was just in front of Bellatrix's cauldron at the moment.

He called out delightedly, "Excellent, well done Ms. Black."

He then moved over to Abhimanyu's cauldron to inspect his potion.

He analyzed it and found it to be perfectly made.

He exclaimed, "Bravo my boy, excellent. You got it perfectly right."

Abhimanyu looked at him with his mouth open in amazement and spoke, "I did? I was afraid I would mess it up."

Slughorn replied, "You didn't. You did a very good job. I'm proud of you. What's your name young man?"

"Abhimanyu, Abhimanyu Pandey," the student replied.

Slughorn called out, "Pandey, haven't heard of that one. You must be a Muggleborn."

"I am Muggleborn," Abhimanyu replied.

Slughorn smiled and gave him a hug saying, "I'm quite pleased to meet a young intelligent student such as you; same to you Ms. Black."

Bellatrix smiled and said, "Thank you professor."

Later on, Abhimanyu and Molly were walking through a corridor, having just finished their classes for the day.

Molly said, "What did you think of Professor Binns?"

Abhimanyu replied, "He's okay."

Molly commented, "He goes on and on in the same tone. Still, he is a teacher."

Abhimanyu said, "Well, yes."

Just then, they heard running footsteps from behind. They stopped, turned around and saw Rodolphus and Avril stopping just in front of him.

Rodolphus sneered, "Who do you think you are, trying to become the teacher's pet?"

Abhimanyu replied, "What do you mean? I'm just a student, trying to be a good boy."

Avril spoke rudely, "I didn't need your help during potions. I would have gotten it straight if you hadn't distracted me."

Molly spoke angrily, "Shut up. He was trying to help you. And you would have caused an accident. Stop being mean to him."

Rodolphus shouted, "Shut up Prewett!"

Then turning to Abhimanyu, he said, "You're nothing in this world. You don't belong here. You're useless, pathetic. Don't you dare try to associate with us noble purebloods, especially not with Bellatrix Black, you filthy Mudblood."

With that, he punched the other boy in his stomach, causing him to fall down and kicked him viciously.

Molly screamed and slapped Rudolphus yelling, "LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

Avril pulled her back and yelled, "YOU DON"T BELONG WITH US MUDBLOOD, REMEMBER THAT!"

Rodolphus was about to hit Abhimanyu, who was in tears, when suddenly, a red headed boy came running towards them and pushed Rodolphus away shouting, "Hey, don't you dare bully him like that!"

Turning to Avril, he yelled, "You just let her go!"

Arthur Weasley, who had just been trying to find his friends, was furious to see what Rodolphus and Avril were doing.

He pulled Abhimanyu up and asked, "Abhi, are you okay?"

Abhimanyu was trying to breath.

Arthur and Molly held him and the older boy said, "Just breathe deeply, it's okay, we're getting out of here."

He turned to the two Slytherins and said sternly, "You two had better apologize right now. That's no way to treat anyone."

Avril replied arrogantly, "Why should we? He's just a Mudblood."

Molly slapped Avril so hard that she fell down.

The former yelled, "Leave him alone! Go away."

Just then, they all saw Professor McGonagall rushing towards them.

"What in Merlin's name is going on?" McGonagall asked, her voice full of worry.

Molly quickly explained everything.

McGonagall looked at Rodolphus and Avril and accusingly said, "How could you do something like that? First day of Hogwarts and you are already indulging in such violence, bullying others? Shame on you! Ten points from each of you will be taken from Slytherin. If you indulge in this sort of violent behavior again, I'll have you put in detention."

With that, she sent the Slytherins away and asked Abhimanyu, "Are you alright?"

By then, Abhimanyu had calmed down.

McGonagall hugged him and said, "Shhh, there, there, it's alright. They won't be troubling you like that."

Abhimanyu asked, "What if they do?"

McGonagall said, "Just stay away from those two as much as possible. If it gets out of hand, don't ever hesitate to tell me. Okay?"

"Okay," Abhimanyu replied.

After a long hug, McGonagall said, "Miss Prewett, Mr. Weasley, take him to the Great Hall or the lake. Perhaps he'll feel better. But make sure you are all on time for dinner."

The days that went by were mixed. On one hand, there were classes, with most of the teachers approving of his good behavior and of course, his friends Molly and Arthur, but on the other hand, there were still insults from Rodolphus and Avril, although they were not every single day.

During the first flying lesson given by Professor Rolanda Hooch, a woman with short grey spiky hair, Rodolphus got told off for being a braggart while Abhimanyu managed to fly very well. After that, Avril tried to trouble him but Molly and a sandy blonde haired boy named Ginger Hebblethwaite who was a half blood stopped her.

Of course, there was studying to do, which Abhimanyu did with Molly most of the time. Ginger who had also become a good friend would often join them. Sometimes, Arthur would come up and offer tips and tricks.

Abhimanyu would often tell Molly that he was looking forward to their second year, because then they would be allowed to have their own broomsticks. And he wanted to get onto the Gryffindor quidditch team. He wanted to be a seeker, but he wouldn't mind being a keeper. On and off, Arthur would often lend his broom to Abhimanyu and let him fly about over the quidditch pitch whenever there was no practice going on, of course, making sure he'd bring it back safely.

Bellatrix still sneered at him on and off, but for some reason, Abhimanyu didn't seem to mind her as much as he minded Avril and Rodolphus. No one could understand why. Arthur would often have puzzled looks and shrug his shoulders every time he saw Abhimanyu and Bellatrix talking.

But Bellatrix was a good student. Abhimanyu had noted that. And he would sometimes ask her for tips on potions. He often succeeded by appealing to her as a good student and of course, she would find herself giving them to him. He thanked her every time with a smile on his face.

Bellatrix would often sigh afterwards. This Muggleborn, a Mudblood as her family would see him, just would not stop associating with her or asking for tips. And yet, for some reason, she couldn't refuse to give him tips. True, he was a good student, and very polite too unlike Rudolphus, something which her father would approve off had this boy been pureblood.

During the Christmas holidays, Abhimanyu went to stay with his parents, R.K. Pandey and Subhadra Pandey, and Molly and Arthur came along with him. They were sweet people and treated Molly and Arthur like a daughter and son.

As for Bellatrix, she headed back to her home, Black Manor, to be with her sisters, Andromeda and Narcissa.

After the holidays, things were mostly uneventful, except for one day when things got really bad with Rodolphus and Avril. McGonagall called Abhimanyu to her office that day and told him, "You must stand up for yourself. Otherwise, those people will be all over you. While I do not condone violence, that doesn't mean that I do not want my students, my cubs to stand up for themselves."

The end of the year examinations were a bit stressful, but went well. Abhimanyu was happy to get the most marks in defense against the dark arts.

And with that, plus the end of the year feast, the first year came to an end.