The House of Snakes: Book One

The Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor

Harry had put the events of his first Potions class out of his mind in favor of deciding what he wanted to eat for lunch much like everyone else. As he listened to the other children chatter around him about their classes, Harry was stuck choosing between a mixed seasoned ham sandwich and a turkey sandwich with tomato and lettuce. Just as he decided to reach for the ham sandwich, an ear-shattered explosion erupted from the Gryffindor table. When the smoke cleared he could see the boys who were late for Transfiguration covered in suet, various objects around them smoking. Harry could see that Ronald Weasley was holding a ham sandwich up to his face that was burnt to a crisp, much like the Scottish boy's robes next to him. Harry gulped, and taking it as a sign, grabbed the turkey sandwich instead.

After lunch was Charms with Professor Flitwick, a strikingly short man who reminded Harry slightly of the Gringotts' goblins. This resemblance seemed to be either ignored or lost on the others so Harry took his seat between Millicent and Blaise without saying anything. As the teacher enchanted a piece of chalk to write on the board for him, Professor Flitwick began climbing a set of stairs up to the large podium in the front of the classroom. Harry swallowed a chuckle to see that despite the stairs the professor still had to stand on a couple of books to be seen over the top of the podium. He suddenly thought of what the man would look like next to Hagrid and had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. Opening his book to the correct page, Harry found he needn't have read ahead for this class at all. During his free time before lunch, Harry and his classmates had decided to read ahead a bit in their textbooks, just in case. No one wanted to be subjected to questioning similar to what Harry had gone through in Potion's, a subject that Harry was glad no one brought up.

After 45 minutes of reading silently, Harry felt his eyes crossing as he tried to stay awake. Apparently the class after lunch was no easier in the magical world than it had been in the muggle. Jerking awake as the bell tolled, Harry gathered his book and made his way to History of Magic with the Ravenclaws, whom he had both classes with. Little did Harry know that he would fair no better in this class than in Charms. He was able to stay awake only 10 minutes into the class, falling asleep after the shock of having a ghost for a teacher had worn off, Professor Binns' voice knocking Harry out like a warm glass of milk. At the end of the class, it wasn't the bell that woke Harry, but rather Goyle knocking into Harry's chair as he tried to squeeze past through the stadium-esq seating. Harry groaned and shook Pansy awake before Goyle could knock into her as well. Harry wasn't sure if anyone had been able to stay awake, Harry could see a few Ravenclaws yawn as well on their way out of the classroom.

Harry's last class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts with Gryffindor. Harry was excited that he had so many classes with his friends. As Harry walked, he thought about the people he had met so far. He considered Hermione and Neville his friends, his very first friends that Dudley couldn't bully away from him, but would they remain friends now that they were in different Houses? Harry sure hoped so. He knew Anna had said the House intermingle for parties sometimes, so surely people from different Houses were friends. Harry stared ahead and his Housemates as he walked behind them. Were these Slytherins his friends? They hadn't given him any reason to believe they weren't, yet they did little things like leave Harry trailing behind as they walked, and they didn't include Harry in conversation unless he entered them himself. He wasn't sure what to think of this, the others had known each other their entire lives, perhaps it was too late for Harry to be welcome amongst them.

Harry was pulled from his thoughts at the sudden sharp smell of garlic. As they continued down the corridor, the smell only got stronger, making Harry slightly queasy. The group of Gryffindors standing outside of a classroom confirmed that they were indeed in the correct place, and Harry blanched to think about what could possibly be in the classroom that smelled so strongly. Harry left the group of Slytherins, missing the questioning looks from Blaise and Draco to go talk to Hermione and Neville. The latter of the two was pinching his nose against the smell, something Harry was beginning to consider doing himself. The closer he got, the more his head began to hurt.