Would He?

First Lessons

“What do you think our first subject will be today?” asked Draco at the Slytherin table.
“Potions,” said Blaise, yawning.
“You sound very sure,” said Theodore.
“Every year first year Slytherins have Potions,” he replied, “It happened with my mum, my brother, friends in upper years…”.
“I wonder why that is,” said Harry.
“I don’t know,” everyone said.
Professor McGonagall walked by them, handing each of them a timetable. Sure enough, it was Potions. With the Gryffindors.
Bloody hell, thought Harry. He didn’t want to face Hermione and Ron just yet. He remained quiet and studied the rest of it. Transfiguration was after Potions, then Herbology. The last lesson was Charms, and each was a double session lasting two hours.
I thought students were only allowed to work for 7 hours a day? Maybe that’s just the Muggle world, Harry was thinking.
When they had just finished eating, a bell rang loudly throughout the hall.
“Come on,” said Draco, “We’d better run if we want a good seat,”.
Everyone ran, following him, except for Crabbe and Goyle who’s body weight wouldn’t allow them to run. It was more like a walk. No one else was in the classroom.
“Where shall we sit?” asked Harry.
“Don’t know about you guys,” said Draco, “But I’m sitting at the front. I like Potions,”. He walked to the closest desk to the teacher’s and dumped his books.
“Hey, Harry, you want to sit here?” Draco said, motioning to the seat next to him. Wow, Harry thought, He really wants to sit next to me?
“Okay, then,” said Harry, grinning in his head. Crabbe and Goyle glared at him, before moving to the back. Blaise and Theodore took the desk to Draco’s right.
“Is Potions fun?” asked Harry.
“Yeah!” said everyone. By everyone, I mean everyone except Malfoy’s minions at the back. They hardly ever spoke.
“It’s amazing!” said Draco, “I just-“. He was interrupted by two girls from Gryffindor walking in. They stared at Harry.
“Why are they staring at me?” he whispered. Harry stared back. The girls still staring, they walked to a desk in the middle of the room.
“I think that’s Parvati Patil,” Draco whispered. “My parents know hers.”
Soon, everyone else from Gryffindor and the girls from Slytherin walked in, sitting down in twos. Harry looked at the clock on the left classroom wall. The lesson started in two minutes.
The two minutes were up and Professor Snape walked in. Everyone fell silent at once. He crossed his arms over his chest and sneered them all. Snape uncrossed his arms and picked up the register.
“Brown!”
“Um… here, sir.”
“Bulstrode!”.
“Yes, sir.”
Everyone answered and Snape dropped the register on his desk.
"You are here,” Snape began, “to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.”
Harry could here gulping around the class, mainly from the Gryffindors.
“Weasley!” Snape snapped suddenly, making Harry jump, “What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?”.
Hermione’s hand shot up at once.
“I-er, don’t know, sir,” said Ron.
“Well, maybe you’d know if you opened your textbook to study. Where-“
“How can you expect me to memorise the textbook?” Ron interrupted.
“5 points from Gryffindor,” Snape said, with a sneer, “For answering back.” For the rest of the lesson, Snape bullied Ron and some of the other Gryffindors.
I don’t really think that’s fair, thought Harry. He kept quiet, though. They had to make a Cure for Boils, or something, Harry didn’t really know. His and Draco’s was mostly successful and they earned ten points for Slytherin.
“Good lesson, right?” Harry said, slinging his bag over his shoulder when Snape had dismissed the class.
“Told you it was fun,” Draco replied. As they made their way to Transfiguration, they ended up talking about homework. No one was quite sure why.
“When do we get our first piece?” asked Harry.
“Maybe next week, I’m not sure,” answered Theodore, “I don’t think they give us homework on our first week.”
Transfiguration was also fun, with Professor McGonagall being ever so slightly fairer than Professor Snape. In fact, all the other lessons that day were fun. Harry earned another ten points for Slytherin himself, by mastering a few spells quite quickly and answering questions.
Dinner that night was sausages and chips, which Harry thought was wonderful. He’d never had it before and today he had thirds. He couldn’t even eat his treacle tart for dessert.
“You must have been hungry,” said Blaise.
“It must have been all the lessons,” Harry answered, grinning.
They hung out in the common room for a few hours after dinner, reading or chatting.
“When’s our first Flying lesson?” asked Harry. “I think I lost my timetable…”.
“It’s tomorrow, I think,” replied Draco, “And you can always ask one of the older students to summon it for you.”
“I suppose,” said Harry. “Oh, and thanks,”. He gave a massive yawn.

“I think I’ll go up to the dorm,” Harry said, standing up. “I’m tired and I want some sleep.”
The others followed him, spread across the next hour. None of them wanted to fall off their brooms tomorrow, and they all wanted to have a chance to join the team. That wouldn’t happen if they embarrassed themselves.
Harry lay awake before the others came up. He’d just remembered: he hadn’t seen Hedwig in a while. Maybe she was at the Owlery? Hagrid might have mentioned something about the school having one; he couldn’t remember. Oh, well. He’d find her in the morning.