CHAPTER 5

First Lessons

Alex walked next to harry and Ron as they headed to class, at first, he wondered why everyone was looking at them but didn't take long to realize that they were staring at Harry, the more people they passed the more whispers they heard. "There, look." "Where?" "Next to the tall kid with the red hair." "Wearing the glasses?" "Did you see his face?" "Did you see his scar?" "that's him, the first year that cast a shield charm." "I hear he turned Peeves into a balloon." Alex did a double take as they realized they were also whispering about him too, talking about the spell he used against Peeves.

Finding your way to class was difficult at first as stairs and doorways were always shifting and leading to different places. The ghosts didn't help, either. Peeves the Poltergeist a long detour if you met him when you were late for class. Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, who Alex absolutely despised was Argus Filch. Harry, Alex and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning. Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.

The lessons themselves were not bad as they served as an introduction to the world of magic and Alex had already mastered the concepts so most lessons were used as aa way for him to focus on other tasks, such as reading books he had taken from the family library back home. They had spells that were either not taught at Hogwarts or were too advanced for the younger students. The most boring class had to be History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns. As Binns droned on and on while the other students scribbled down names and dates, Alex was so bored he found himself falling asleep.

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, the tiny little wizard who Alex had great respect and admiration for, Filius Flitwick had once been a dueling champion in his youth and Alex was one of, if not his biggest fan growing up, he had read everything there was about the man and had dreams of being mentored by the man in order to become a better duelist. At the start of their first class, Alex took down notes and made sure to answer questions with correct answers as a way of getting into the man's good graces, at the end of the lesson he had earned Gryffindor Five points.

Professor McGonagall wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and intelligent, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class, telling them that Transfiguration was complex and required focus, she said that she would not tolerate jokers and anyone that did not take her class serious was going to be kicked out. Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again.

The class, including Alex were very impressed. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. Alex immediately completed his task to perfection, earning a smile from the woman who praised him for completing the task so quickly. By the end of the lesson, only Alex and Hermione had made any difference to their match. Defense Against the Dark Arts was an utter disappointment for Alex as he had hoped that they would have learnt how to combat the dark arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic which Alex found to be nauseating, and the man would jump in fright at the slightest bump or noise.

They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast where Harry received a letter from Hagrid inviting him to his home for tea, Harry decided to invite Alex and Ron to Tag along but Alex told him he had other plans. Alex had planned to use the free time to try to find the room of requirement, which he had read in one of his ancestor's journals back home. He thought that it would make a perfect place for him to practice spells, and brew potions or keep useful plants away from prying eyes. His own base of operations whilst at school.

After-breakfast Alex, Ron and Harry went down into the dungeons for their Potions lesson. Whilst harry and Ron sat together Alex sat with Hermione. They talked for a bit before Professor Snape walked in an began the lesson. After Snape had begun his lecture, he started asking Harry questions, "Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Alex knew the answer as he had already covered this subject with his mother back home. Harry on the other hand did not know this so could not answer. "Tut, tut — fame clearly isn't everything." said Snape. He had ignored both Alex and Hermione's hands. Clearly the Professor disliked Harry though Alex had no idea why. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" Alex and Hermione's hands shot up into the air but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was as he again replied "I don't know, sir."

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" the Professor definitely had it out for Harry and Alex was going to find out why he disliked-no, hated harry with a passion. Snape was still ignoring Alex and Hermione's hands. "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfs bane?" At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling. "I don't know," said Harry quietly. "I think Hermione does, though, why don't you try her?" A few people laughed.

Snape, however, was not pleased. "Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "For your information, Potter, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?" There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter." Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Alex's love for potion making was second only to his love of dueling but right now he hated the potion lesson because of Snape. After dividing everyone into pairs he hovered over everyone and criticized almost everyone's work except Hermione's and Alexs work, because they had followed the instructions, and Malfoy, because he was Snape's favorite, which in its self said a lot. During the lesson Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning 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?" Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose. "Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, 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." Harry Looked like he was about to argue but he wisely kept quiet. Alex smiled at Harry happy that he did not take the bait from snape as this was clearly a childish attempt at goading Harry into taking back so as to punishing him.

At five to three Ron and Harry left the castle for Hagrid's whilst Alex left to go try and find the room of requirement. Alex made his to the seventh floor and made his way to the corridor that had been described in the journal. 'Here goes nothing.' He thought to himself as he began to walking past the stretch of wall opposite a tapestry, featuring Barnabas the Barmy's attempt to train trolls as ballet dancers, three times concentrating hard on what he needed. 'I need a secure place hidden away from everyone else where I can train myself in new spells, brew potions and grow plants' he thought to himself whilst walking past the tapestry for the third time. He opened his eyes and a door had magically appeared in front of him, he opened it and headed inside.

The room had transformed itself to match his needs, everything he had thought of had been conjured by the room. There was a huge raised circular platform in the center of the rom with a training dummy holding a wand, in the furthest corners of the room there was a potion making station with all the equipment Alex would ever need to brew any potion he could think of. On the opposite side of the potions station was what looked like a greenhouse but smaller, he walked up to it and opened the door and entered. Inside the green house was as large as the school greenhouses and had empty pots and even had a section that could be used to grow water plants such as Gilly weed.

Alex was elated, when he read the journal, he thought the room was going to be impressive but this blew his mind. 'I need a place to sleep when I'm working late 'he thought and the room immediately made adjustments and placed a well-furnished bedroom on one end 'nice' Alex thought.

He stepped up onto the platform and faced the training dummy, he was curious to see how good the room was for training. 'Give me a medium to hard training level' Alex thought. The dummy raised its wand and waited for Alex's prompt which he gave by firing a stunning spell at it 'stupefy.' Alex thought and the dummy quickly erected a shield before conjuring flames that encircled Alex, Alex cast Auguamenti dousing the flames and started his casting his spells in rapid succession towards the dummy, 'Reducto, Diffindo, Flipendo, Glacius, Descendo,' the dummy erected a dome shield around it and conjured a flock of birds which it sent to attack Alex then shot four arrows towards Alex before using swift dash to relocate to another area before casting 'Reducto, Bombarda, Expeliumus' Alex was caught off guard and erected a hasty protego, which barely survived the first spell from the dummy and was utterly annihilated leaving Alex disoriented and open to be hit by the disarming spell, thus ending the duel with Alex as the loser.

He was happy that he had lost because it meant that the room could help him improve his magic in a safe environment without harming anyone. He sat on the edge of the platform to catch his breath, then looked at the room, 'my own secret lair' he thought with a huge grin on his face.