Reading the books- Marauders era

The Potions Master

Bold italic letters are from the book
Italics are the listener's reaction
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Professor Slughorn looked at everyone for confirmation, then read, "The Potions Master,"

"Why is there a chapter on Snape?" Peter asked, disgusted.

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Between the tall kid wih red hair and the short girl with black hair."

"Did you see their face?"

"Did you see their scar?"

Whispers followed the twins the moment they left their respective dormitories the next day. People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at them, or double back to pass them in the corridors again, staring. The twins wished they wouldn't, because they were trying find their way to classes.

There were hundred and forty two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place. All in all, Harry and Hermione were in a desperate need of a map of Hogwarts.

"We will have to resume working on our map," James whispered to his friends. They all nodded in agreement.

The worst of ghosts or anyone was the caretaker, Argus Filch.

"True," Regulus muttered.

The quartet 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.

"Bless his soul," Molly said.

Even worse than Filch (if that could happen) was his cat, Mrs Norris. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her,and she'd whisk off for Filch who'd appear wheezing two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageway of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins)

"We know them too," the Marauders said together.

and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs Norris a good kick.

"That's our dream too," A boy whispered.

The Potter twins soon found out that the classes were more than muttering funny words and wand waving.

They had to study night skies throught their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.

The most boring class was History of Magic, taught by Professor Binns, who was a ghost. Mostly everyone was asleep during his class, except Hermione.