Santana woke to her roommates quiet chattering. She groaned and searched for her shrunken trunk in her pockets.

After she got ready, she left with Hermione for the great hall to have breakfast. She got the impression that the other girls didn't get along with her. Perhaps that was just her imagination though. At the Gryffindor table, their Head of house handed out timetables to all her students. Santana quickly put her head together with Hermiones to compare if they had the same lessons. As it turned out, all the Gryffindor first years did have the same schedule. Their first lesson was potions with the Slytherins and their head of house.

Professor Snape looked very strict and dark. They hoped his class wouldn't be too bad.

They navigated together through the labyrinth of corridors to find their classroom for potions. Quickly Hermione guided them to one of the tables in the first row. Santana noticed that Slytherins kept to themselves as did the Gryffindors. There was a clear line that separated them and thickened the air like an invisible wall.

When Professor Snape strode in and held his speech, she was optimistic that the potions lessons would be great. However in the next few seconds it turned out to be the other way around as he humiliated the black haired boy – Harry Potter – for, well, nothing really.

During the rest of the lesson she learned that Snape hated Gryffindors, know it alls and that he absolutely despised Harry Potter. And all that for no apparent reason.

She was stumped and disappointed. This was supposed to be a magical place of friendship and equality. Yet Snape made sure to favour Slytherin in every way.

"That's absolutely outrageous!", Santana ranted to Hermione after they left the dark classroom in the dungeon. "Such bullying behaviour from a teacher! They should fire him!"

"You shouldn't say that about a Professor!", Hermione whispered.

"Why not? He's the one at fault!", Santana continued.

"Maybe Neville did something wrong.", she tried to calm Santana down. "Potions is a dangerous subject, he said so. It's bad when you make mistakes."

"In that case he should probably do more than say 'the instructions are on the board, begin'!"

Hermione only sighed and Santana continued to silently glare at the ground.

She hoped transfiguration would be better. It probably would since their teacher, Professor McGonagall was their own head of house.

After the lesson she was a lot calmer if a tiny bit envious of Hermione who was able to change her matchstick into a needle already.

Her own little peace of wood didn't change a single bit but the Professor assured them it took a little practice.

Hermione had tried to help guide her through the spell but it didn't help at all. Professor McGonagall assured her it was normal to struggle in the beginning. Yet she felt disenheartened. The only positive thing about the lesson was that their Professor was strict but very fair. If she ever needed a teacher, she would go to her before she went to Professor Snape. Hell, she would probably consider going to Albus Dumbledore before she knocked on the slimy dungeon door of their potions Professor.

At lunch, they exchanged their gossip at the long table in the great hall. Other than a lot of complaints about Snape and the difficulty of their transfiguration lesson, there was nothing new. The girls got off on a tangent about how Snape would probably not let them brew potions for their hair or to make the skin look nicer.

Santana turned to the boys who completely changed the topic and went on about their families and then about quidditch.

"I think I want to visit the library after lunch.", Hermione started. "Do you want to come along?"

Relieved, she answeared: "Sure, we could get a headstart in our essays."

Hermione smiled at her and she knew that was the right thing to say. She seemed to be a very responsible girl.

The others didn't seem to notice them leaving the great hall. The way to the library was significantly easier after they discovered the portraits were very helpful to point them in the right direction in return for some gossip. Something to keep an eye on in the future, for sure.

In the quiet labyrinth of shelves, surrounded by the smell of books, Santana and Hermione moved to a table and got out their homework. They worked quietly until Santana finished the last lines of her essay for Snape. She looked up to see Hermione still writing feverently in tiny script.

"You already have eanough, you know?"

"Yes, but this is important additional information.", Hermione insisted.

Santana got the felling that 'additional information' might not be appreciated by their surly Professor but decidid against voicing her thoughts.

When two older students sat at the neighbouring table and whispered about the charms theory Professor Flitwick had explained to them, Hermione started glaring at them every now and again.

Santana grinned quietly to herself and took out a new piece of parchment. Ink wasn't as durable for runes but would suffice for a few hours.

When she finished the array and powered it with her fingers gliding over the parchment, careful not to smear the ink, the sounds of their surroundings broke off.

Hermione looked up, but couldn't see anything. Santana pointed to the parchment on the table.

"It works as a barrier to keep out the noise and keep our conversation and other sounds we make inside."

Hermione gaped at her.

"How did you do that?"

"These are just some runes.", Santana said quietly.

"That's great! Can you teach me how to do that!", she exclaimed, looked around fearfully only to remember the barrier and grin at Santana instead.

"Sure, but you have to learn the basics first. Runes can be dangerous if you make mistakes. Many have died because they experimented with unstable arrays.", Santana warned.

Hermione nodded and promised to learn everything.

Santana only smiled in response and pointed out that they had to do an essay for transfiguration as well and she preferred to get that out if the way first.

Hermione readily agreed and moved to take out another scroll of parchment.

They only left the library to eat lunch and after that to go to te tower before curfew.