eccedentesiast || severitus

chapter two | rough start

August 3, 1991

Harry woke up the next morning, and he should have known by the pure chaos of said morning that something was bound to go wrong.

Which was, unsurprising, in Harry's case.

He had slept straight through the alarm that the prefects had taught them how to set using their wands.

It was now 8:45 am and Harry was still dead to the world.

He should have expected it really, with how late he went to bed.

Sitting up til 4:00 am and pondering on the past, present, and future, does that to a person.

Nevertheless, breakfast in the Great Hall ends at 9:00 and Harry's first class, Transfigurations, starts at 9:15.

Well, 9:10 came and Harry was still sleeping.

Thank god Neville had forgotten his books, for he was the one who had come and woken him, as well as Ron who had also still been asleep, up or else they'd be late for the day.

Harry had had a mini panic attack at first, being woken up by shouting and slaps across his face, but he quickly realized where he was, and, realizing how late he was; on his very first day of wizarding school;, promptly threw up.

All over his new bed.

After calling a house elf down to clean the sheets, and apologizing about 100 times, him and Ron left the dormitory and then wound up getting lost.

They had spent about 15 minutes just wandering because, in their rush, they had both left their maps of the school they were given by their Head of House, Professor Mcgonagall.

They were late to her class.

And they had forgotten the maps they had been given to prevent this very situation.

Harry figured by that point, that the Gods had it out for him.

They had just gotten past the statue to the Headmasters office, when he himself came bounding down the stairs, eyes twinkling madly.

"Ah, Harry, my boy, and young Mister Weasley! I'm afraid I may be a bit remiss in my old age, but I'm fairly certain you two should be in class as of now?"

Harry and Ron looked at each other nervously before Harry spoke up,

"Er, yes sir, but um, you see the problem is that we both slept through our alarms and, erm, and well we don't really know how to actually find Professor Mcgonagall's classroom," Harry said, not meeting the Headmaster's eyes.

"Ah, I see, and, do correct me if I'm wrong wrong, my boys, but hasn't your Head of House given you a map of the school?"

Ron spoke up this time, seeing as Harry was quite frankly shaking from nerves. He just knew he'd be sent 'home' now, surely after they were so stupid to forget their maps.

"Um, sir, we actually forgot them in our dormitory, we had a bit of a rough start," Ron said, side eyeing Harry before continuing.

"Neville had forgotten his books as well, and he saw that me and Harry were still sleeping, so he tried to wake us up. Well, he gave Harry here quite a fright, and he threw up, so we had to call elves to come help. We're terribly sorry, sir," he finished, once again looking nervously at Harry.

Harry, on the other hand, was now as white as snow, and was shaking like a leaf in a tornado.

Surely, surely, he would be sent home now, he had ruined his brand new set of sheets because he was a wuss who got scared of a little yelling, and had now caused not only himself but Ron to be late as well, all because he was a freak who was good for nothing and never did anything right and he ruined nice things and-

"Oh, no worries, young lads! First years get lost all the time, and you most definitely cannot help sickness. Harry, dear boy, do you feel as if you are still sick? Should we take you to the hospital wing?"

Harry's head snapped up so fast, he thought he might need to go to the hospital wing for whiplash instead of a sore stomach.

Dumbledore was more worried about him? Rather than the fact that he ruined perfectly good sheets? and caused another classmate to be late? He must be playing a game or something. To be fair, Harry most likely threw up because he had eaten too much the night before, and, after being exposed to the Dursley's favorite form of punishment—withholding food—for ten years, he figured he should watch his eating from now on.

Not that he would ever reveal such a thing, most certainly not to the Headmaster.

Harry realized that Professor Dumbledore and Ron were both still waiting for an answer. "Oh, uh, no sir, I feel fine now, I don't need to go to the hospital wing. Er, what do we do now? I mean, don't we get suspended or something?"

Dumbledore had the audacity to chuckle at Harry, which made him blush and duck his head.

"My boy, there is no need for a suspension! You're only a first year, happens all the time," he smiled kindly, eyes once again twinkling like a galaxy of stars had found a home there, "Come, i'll escort you both to Professor Mcgonagall's class, and explain the whole situation myself, no need to worry boys."

Dumbledore put a hand on both of their backs, Harry barely hiding his flinch, and lead them away from his office.

It took only five minutes to arrive, and Harry and Ron felt pretty stupid they weren't able to find it themselves.

"Go on in boys, I'll call Professor Mcgonagall out and explain, it'll be alright," Dumbledore said, giving them one more smile before gently pushing them inside.

They were both blushing like mad, Ron's face was nearly the color of his hair, as they found their way to the only open desk. The pair watched as the Headmaster called for Professor Mcgonagall.

She stared sternly at the both of them, raising her eyebrows, before striding off to Dumbledore with instructions to "Read through pages 5-7 in your textbooks."

They watched as she left, and immediately, Hermione, who was sitting right behind them, was on the two of them.

"Honestly! Late on the first day of classes! What were you two thinking? I'd gather you two are pretty lucky it was the Headmaster who found you, and not somebody like Professor Snape," she said, arms crossed over her chest.

"Oh yeah? Well, I'd gather that you're pretty lucky you even made it here what with all the hair on your head," Ron said, scowling at the girl behind them, who blushed and looked down.

"I think Harry and I would both appreciate if you would stop acting like our mother," he said, before turning around and pulling out his textbook.

The conversation stopped there.

Just as Harry was about to tell Ron off for being just a little rude, Professor Mcgonagall was stalking back into the classroom, eyes immediately on the both of them.

She walked up to their desk, leaned down, and whispered, "You two had better not let this become a habit, or i'll have Professor Snape escort you to all of your classes, and believe me, he'll make sure you're quite punctual."

Harry, who had never even meet Snape yet, was already paranoid of him from last night's dinner. He didn't fancy aggravating the man on top of that.

They both nodded, and Professor Mcgonagall stared at the two of them for a few seconds longer, before nodding herself and walking to the front of the classroom to resume the lesson.

Harry rather hoped that the rest of his classes went better than this.

* * *
Next chapter will be meeting Snape! Should be up hopefully sometime next week :)

Also just a warning, Harry will definitely be a bit out of character in this story, as will Snape in later chapters. This is an AU, so things will not be the same.

updated a/n: these first few chapters are so cringey PLS 🤸