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"We're in the second category, of course," Fred said brightly. |
"Don't worry if he takes points off you," George said. "It usually means you're doing something right." |
"Unless you were trying not to get caught, of course," Fred said. |
"Too true, brother," George said. |
When his first class with Snape rolled around, it went about as well as Harry had feared. Snape targeted him from the get-go, singling him out during roll call and then giving him a verbal pop quiz immediately. |
"Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" |
What? Next to him, Hermione's hand had shot up, but Snape ignored her. |
"I don't know, sir," Harry said. |
"Tut, tut—fame clearly isn't everything. Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find a bezoar?" |
This one Harry remembered from the textbook's introductory chapter on brewing safety. "They come from the stomach of a goat, sir, and neutralize most poisons." |
"And when Granger here starts foaming at the mouth because you exposed her to something toxic, are you going to look for a goat?" Snape sneered. "Each of you should have a bezoar in the top left compartment of your brewing kit. Every time you sit down to brew, you should check that it's there, before you begin." |
Harry fumed internally. He felt sure that had been a trick question, and if he'd answered with his potions kit, Snape would have called it cheek. |
"Perhaps, Potter, you can give us a more useful explanation of the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" |
Harry racked his brain trying to remember. Did Snape expect him to have memorized One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi? Finally, he said, "I don't know, sir." |
"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, Potter? For your information, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death, and monkshood and wolfsbane are the same plant. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down? |
As everyone searched through their bags for quill and parchment, Snape said, "Two non-answers and one useless one. A point will be taken from Gryffindor for your ill-preparedness, Potter." |
They soon began brewing, but that didn't seem to soften Snape's mood. He swept through the dungeon, praising the Slytherins and brutally critiquing the Gryffindors. Snape was just crowing about Malfoy's preparation process when Neville yelled in pain—Seamus's cauldron had somehow melted into a misshapen blob, and a cau... |
Snape stalked toward the boil-covered Neville, his face twisting into a snarl. Neville saw him and seemed to fold in on himself. Harry saw what Snape was about to do— |
You can get help from people who need help. |
—and he "tripped" over his own feet, landing on his side in the acidic potion. |
Harry couldn't help it—he cried out in pain. The potion felt like fire on his skin, and when he lifted himself off the floor by his elbow, the sensation of needles being driven into his flesh was added to the mix. |
Snape whirled around. "Clumsy fool!" he snapped at Harry. "Do you lean against the walls when you walk to class, too?" |
The Slytherins laughed, and Harry gritted his teeth against the pain. |
"Granger, take Potter up to the Hospital Wing. Finnigan, you take Longbottom too." |
Hermione held her tongue until the four of them were climbing the stairs to the next floor. "I know that was deliberate, Harry. Why did you do it?" |
Seamus and Neville stopped at the question. The truth, Harry realized, would be embarrassing to Neville, but he could shade it slightly... |
"Snape already hates me," Harry said. "I reckoned he might as well yell at me instead of Neville." |
Neville looked surprised. "Thanks, Harry." |
"Anytime, Neville." |
They continued on together, but only one of them knew that Snape had made an enemy that day. |
The school nurse clucked her tongue when she saw Harry and Neville's burns. |
"What happened?" |
"First Potions class," Hermione said. "Neville's cauldron sort of melted and spilled a caustic mixture on the floor..." |
"The Cure for Boils?" she said, directing Harry and Neville to side-by-side hospital beds. |
"Yes," Hermione said. |
"You probably added the porcupine quills while the cauldron was still on the fire," the nurse told Neville. "That releases the magic in the quills too quickly; it melts through the cauldron, and since you haven't added the horned slugs to neutralize the acidity, the brew hurts much more than it helps. It's an easy mist... |
She walked to a store cupboard and pulled out two bottles. |
"Why Professor Snape starts with that potion I'll never understand—there are potions just as easy to brew that don't do half the damage. Here," she said, handing a bottle each to Harry and Neville, "drink it down. Bottoms up." |
Harry drank his dose, and immediately wished he hadn't. The potion tasted like incredibly thick snot, yet he felt like it was stinging his throat on the way down. He gagged and reached for a glass of water the nurse offered him. After a moment, though, the pain in his side faded, and he watched as the boils on his arm ... |
"That should do it for both of you," she said once a particularly stubborn bump on Neville's cheek had finally disappeared. |
"Thank you, Madam—" Neville started. |
"Pomfrey," she said. |
"Thanks, Madam Pomfrey," Harry added. |
Hermione checked her watch. "I suppose we should go back to class..." |
"Oh, no you don't," Madam Pomfrey said. "I'm holding these two for observation for a little while longer, and I haven't given any of you four a physical yet..." |
Hermione's planning obsession, Harry had discovered during the last week, was worse than he'd feared. That would have to change. |
Harry had needed to cajole her mightily, but Hermione had finally agreed to put off their Transfiguration essay until Saturday morning. He'd used the twin weapons of obligation (he'd promised to take tea with Hagrid, and invited Hermione along) and reward (he had a trunk full of books he hadn't even glanced at from his... |
"It's a little messy," she said as she looked around Harry's dormitory. |
"Ron Weasley doesn't really watch where he puts things," Harry replied, fishing through his pockets for his keyring, "and Seamus doesn't seem to be familiar with the concept of a "hamper'." |
Hermione giggled, then picked up the photo propped against Harry's bedside lamp. "Are these—" |
"My parents," Harry said as he turned the key. "Be careful—it's the only one I have." The trunk popped open, and Hermione set the picture down carefully before joining him. |
The titles ranged from the mundane (Charm Your Own Cheese) to the interesting (Travels with Trolls) to the pompous (Nature's Nobility: A Wizarding Genealogy) to the intriguing (Secrets and Lies). They were nearly done when Harry checked the time and realized it was getting towards three o'clock. |
Harry locked up the trunk and the two of them headed down to Hagrid's house. The visit was pleasant, but only three things stood out. The first was the expression on Hermione's face when Harry introduced her as his friend. The second was the way Hagrid evaded Harry's questions about why Snape hated him. The third was a... |
Harry didn't tell Hermione about this until they were on their way back to the castle. |
"I don't know," she said, biting her lip. "It does seem like an unlikely coincidence, but it could just be a coincidence. Besides, where would they have moved it? Gringotts is supposed to be the safest place in Britain, isn't it?" |
"Hagrid said..." Harry's brow furrowed as he tried to remember. "He said that the only place safer than Gringotts was Hogwarts. And he said that he was emptying it on Hogwarts business. What if it's...what if it's inside the castle?" |
Hermione scoffed. "Honestly, Harry. If the item in that vault was so valuable that dark wizards powerful enough to break into Gringotts were after it, why would the teachers hide it in a school? They'd be putting the students in terrible danger!" |
Harry sighed. "You're right—it doesn't sound like a very good plan." |
But he couldn't help but think that, if Dumbledore was as mad as some people said, maybe it didn't have to be a good plan. |
Hermione was so nervous after dinner that she dropped Notable Magical Names of Our Time three times while they sat together in the common room. Harry finally took pity on her and suggested they start on their Transfiguration essay a little early. |
Still, he thought, it was a start. |
Harry finished his essay that night, but Hermione wanted to look up a few references to expand hers, so they split up the next morning. Hermione headed to the library, while Harry headed towards Gryffindor Tower to test a theory. |
Though Hogwarts's layout changed constantly, there were a few common patterns. One was that each classroom was off a short corridor with two other doors. He'd seen students waiting outside one of the doors, which he guessed led to the teacher's office; the other he assumed was a storeroom. |
Once, though, when he and Hermione got lost on their way back from Charms class, Harry had noticed one of these corridors that looked disused—though the floor was still being swept, the silver doorknobs had tarnished, and there were a few cobwebs in the corners. He'd never seen a student in that corridor, either, and h... |
Now he stepped into the disused corridor, grasped the tarnished handle he assumed led to the classroom, and stepped through the door. |
The desks and chairs in this classroom had been pushed to the side walls and piled up; a life-sized model of a human skeleton stood in a corner, and yellowed, curling posters attached to the walls showed the layouts of organs and arteries and veins. The chalk board at the front of the room was blank. Everything was cov... |
Just in case, he knocked on the door to the office before entering, but there was nobody there—only a desk, a few chairs, an empty filing cabinet, and a bookcase with a few volumes that were incomprehensible to a boy with only a week of magical education (and, in one case, because he couldn't read Latin). He'd been cor... |
An hour later, the classroom was, if not up to Aunt Petunia's standards, at least not likely to make him sneeze every time he set foot inside it. Harry then reached into his rucksack. He pulled out his dartboard and a package of Velcro strips he'd brought to Hogwarts for just this purpose, and stuck the dartboard to th... |
Finally, he walked to the middle of the room and started practicing. He'd never thrown the collapsible knife from the Diagon Alley curio store, after all—best learn its balance before he needed to use it. |
"Finish your essay?" Harry asked as he grabbed a corned beef sandwich and some chips at lunch. |
"Yes," Hermione said. "I'm glad I took the time to chase down those references—Switch's explanation of the clockwise rotation turned out to gloss over some important details. What did you do?" |
Harry shrugged. "Explored the castle, mostly." |
"Did you find anything good?" |
"I think so," Harry said. "We'll have to see." |
The Gryffindors" first attempt at learning to fly had not gone well. They'd been grouped with the Slytherins and given rickety old brooms to ride on. The teachers would soon regret both of those decisions. |
Poor, hapless Neville had accidentally caused the whole incident. He took off too early and lost control of his rather dubious-looking broom. A moment later, he had returned to the ground without it—and with a nasty crack. |
"Broken wrist," the flying instructor, Madam Hooch, had said. She helped Neville to his feet, ordered them all to stay on the ground or else, and took Neville to the Hospital Wing. |
The trouble really started, though, when Malfoy found the Remembrall that Neville had received at breakfast that morning. Harry had demanded he give it back. A hush had fallen over the crowd of students, and Malfoy had smiled nastily. |
"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find—how about—up a tree?" Then he hopped onto his broomstick and flew towards a tall oak. |
Hermione grabbed at Harry's arm, trying to stop him from following, but he had no intention of doing that. Instead, he concentrated on the ground under Malfoy's flight path and wanted. |
A pebble, barely a speck at this distance, shot up, flying straight toward Malfoy, hitting the broomstick just as Malfoy was pulling up to ascend to the topmost branches. The broomstick snapped in half with a loud crack. Malfoy tumbled off the back of the broom, still clutching the handle as he screamed, and fell into ... |
"DRACO MALFOY!" |
Professor McGonagall had arrived. |
It was a close thing. If his father hadn't heard about it, Malfoy might have been expelled. Instead, the blond man strode into the Great Hall that afternoon, cloaked in fine silk and elegant malice, and met Dumbledore. The two of them headed to the Hospital Wing, and then to the Headmaster's office. |
When all was said and done, Malfoy lost twenty-five points for Slytherin, received two weeks" detention, and was banned from flying for the year. Much to his embarrassment, he was told he could take lessons with next year's firsties. Malfoy's insistence that Harry must have done it somehow was ignored in light of a sto... |
And so it was that Harry's second flying lesson was held without Draco Malfoy, but with twenty brand-new Cleansweep Threes and the captains of the two houses" Quidditch teams on hand to supervise if Madam Hooch had to leave. |
The new brooms made a world of difference. Even Neville, who had earned Harry's respect when he stood trembling over another broomstick only a week after his previous fall, got the broom to leap into his hand immediately. |
"Now, let's try this again. When I blow my whistle, kick off from the ground, hard. Hold steady, rise a few feet, and lean forward to come straight back down. Three—two—one!" She blew her whistle. |
Harry's feet left the ground, and he laughed joyously as his robes billowed behind him. This was wonderful! |
Half an hour into the class, Harry was fifty feet in the air and turning hard when he saw a metallic glint below him. His keys had slipped out of his pocket and were falling to the ground. Without the slightest thought, he converted the turn into a corkscrew descent, catching the keys and dropping them into an inside p... |
He didn't notice Oliver Wood gaping from twenty feet above him. The next morning, Professor McGonagall asked him to stop by her office after lunch. |
"You're joking." |
In Harry's absence, Hermione and Neville had joined Harry's other roommates for a game of Exploding Snap. It was Ron Weasley who'd spoken. |
"There hasn't been a first year on a House team since 1905!" Hermione said. |
"He was a midseason replacement, though," Harry said. "Wood said the last time a player was as young as me was in 1892." |
Neville offered his congratulations, and Seamus, Dean and Hermione echoed it. Ron sat there and gaped. |
"Wood saw me diving to catch my keys during our lesson. Said he'd never seen anything like it. He's going to teach me the rules tomorrow." |
"You don't even know the rules of Quidditch?" Ron asked, astonished. |
"I grew up in the Muggle world. I'd never even flown before our lesson." |
"Merlin, you're going to need a lot of training!" Ron said. |
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