Don't be a silent reader...do send your comments
"There, look."
"Where?"
"Next to the tall kid with the red hair."
"Wearing the glasses?"
"Did you see his face?"
"Did you see his scar?" Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day. People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoes to get a look at him or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring. Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to classes.
There were a 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 some doors wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also tough to remember where anything was because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept visiting each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armour could walk. The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Fat Friar was always happy to point new Hufflepuff in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!". He tried to prank percy which backfired and made him scared of the woman.
Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry and Ron 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 his mom, who was passing by to head to DADA.
Filch owned a cat called Mrs Norris, a scrawny, dust-coloured creature with bulging, lamp-like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Weasley twins) and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him and Mrs. Norris although she feared his mom and ran off when she was near for some reason.
And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words. They had to study the night skies through 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, handled by Professor Sprout his house head, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.
Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up the next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up, Percy wondered why he was not yet replaced when Harry told her about the ghost.
Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class, he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight. Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger and Harry Potter had made any difference to their match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy, in Harry's case it was blue and decorated with shells, and gave them a rare smile.
The class everyone had been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban with a funny garlic smell, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but no one believed him. Percy almost took over the whole classes of the upper years most of the time and was quite good. Some students could believe the way she teaches is like she had gone through it all. She even gave simple muggle fighting styles they can use.
"When you lose your wand, use your fists to get you out of danger fast," She said as she taught them how to punch fatal points.
🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮
"What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as they walked down the hallway to the great hall. "Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favours them " Harry wondered as he headed to the Hufflepuff table then Hedwig came down and dropped a note onto Harry's plate, she had rested after a long trip to the USA to send a letter to the rest of the family, and he wondered why his mom was tossing a coin bag in the air happy when Hedwig came back, which he tore it open at once.
Dear Harry, I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig. Do invite your mum too. I heard her cookies are famous
Hagrid
Harry responded to the note and sent Hedwig off again before heading to potions hopeful it would be good, boy he was wrong. Potion lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls. He stood next to Draco who smiled at him and smiled seeing his mother there in a sleeves shirt and pants with gloves on, her wand on her side strap and hair up in a ponytail
Snape started the class by taking the roll call, he paused at Harry's name. "Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new -- celebrity." Draco Malfoy sighed and his 'companions' Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands as a dark-haired boy named Kris Puecy whispered to them sniggering, Percy glared at them which made them stop laughing. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking," he began. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will 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, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
"Geez Snape, they are kids go easy man," Percy said shocking the kids and Harry smiled knowing his mom would make this class a bit enjoyable not only for him but for everyone. Snape grumbled before turning to Harry
"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Powdered root of what to an infusion of what? Percy frowned hearing that for she knows it's a fourth-year potion "I don't know, sir," said Harry.
Snape's lips curled into a sneer. "Tut, tut -- fame isn't everything." He ignored Hermione's hand which was in the air. "Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?" Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, "Um Stomach of a goat?" Harry said remembering when his uncle Regulus was making a potion "So you did open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"
Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes as his hand shook as he tried not to break down "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
"Oh that is fucking enough, they are the same flowers but why are questioning a first-year boy a 4-year question" Percy spoke up getting pissed off. All the students gulped seeing her eyes glowing darkly even Snape flattered seeing the eyes. Harry was calm for he knew this was level one of his mom's anger and he had seen level 3.
" To all of you, asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Write it down kids " Percy said to them sweetly as they all quickly wrote it down not to make her more mad " As for you...I know you care for her but that doesn't mean you belittle her little boy like a big bully. Believe me, you don't want me to show you how I handle bullies, Grow up Severus, and be an actual teacher. We will talk more after dinner"
He nods as they get the kids to create a potion for curing boils. Percy gently guides the students having difficulty and also notices how naturally skilled Malfoy is in the subject. She managed to stop Neville from adding the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire. The lesson went smoothly and Harry made an acceptable potion for his first try.
🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮
Soon Percy, Harry, and Ron who want to come too for tea head to the small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. Ron was eager to try Percy's cookies though he wondered why they were blue
When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang-- back." Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open. "Hang on," he said. "Back, Fang." He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound. There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it. Percy smiled at the simple hut
"Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was not as fierce as he looked. "This is Ron," Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate as percy placed the plate of cookies next to it.
"Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles. I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest." The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry and Ron pretended to be enjoying them while percy suggested how Hargid could make them better for they are good but skills can always be improved. The cookies are the defined favorite that percy had to stop Harry and Ron from fighting over the last blue cookie which made Hargid boom with laughter.
Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes as the boys told him about their lessons. Harry and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Fitch "that old git. At alas the cat has someone to be scared of. What you did do to scare her?" "I just stared at her," Percy said smirking as she drank the tea.
Harry tells Hagrid about Snape's lesson and how his mom was sassy and scary which percy flicks his head and jokingly pouts, Harry just smiles and hugs his mom making all of them laugh. "How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot -great with animals.". While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Percy picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cosy and looked at the report worried as she put on her glasses, which she had in her pocket, to read it more clearly.
GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST
Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 1st August, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had been emptied the same day. "But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.
"Mum, Hagrid," said Harry reading it as well, "that Gringotts break-in happened on the day we went to Diagon Alley! It has been happening while we were there!" There was no doubt about it, Hagrid didn't meet Harry's and Percy's eyes this time. He grunted and offered him another rock cake.
Percy read the story again. The vault that was searched had been emptied earlier that same day. Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, the grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for? she wondered. Soon she took the boys back for dinner with rock cakes in a box.
Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? What is in it that is worth breaking in?
🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮
Percy was in her office reading a letter from Heacte to be ready and get that package before the year ends for it will be valuable soon. Percy sighed as heacte did not tell her what was in it. She burned the letter with a wave of her hand.
She put on her glasses to easily read English with any jumble of words as she marked the first assignments of the year. She heard a knock on her door and she said to the person to come in without looking up.
Snape entered the room and looked surprised seeing how it was beautifully decorated with stars on the ceiling with a type of a summer camp or beach home look and feel. One of the walls is enchanted to look like they were at the beach and it is nighttime
"Ahh Snape, looked like you remember," Percy said putting her pen down and heading to him "Do sit, we get a nice breeze at night by the window. It smells great and the view is amazing if I do say so myself"
"I am not here for a relaxing jackson" Snape said
"Sevy everyone needs a relaxing moment, especially you grumpy bat. When was the last time you took a self-care day man? If my friendy Piper was here....she would have forced a spa day for you" she said pushing him to the couch and with a whip of her wand two hot chocolates and a plate of cookies were placed in front of them.
"I ought to let Dumbledore fire you for the way you behaved today. " Snape said "Lost count no of times I got kicked out of muggle school before studying at Livermore. So this is not my first rodeo. " Percy said sipping her drink
" Look Snape I know she was your best friend and it hurt to see her fall in love with a man who hates you your whole life." Percy said as Snape growls " I don't see why after so many years she dates him? he was a bully to me cause of my house and people I befriended to stay alive. It's not easy being a half-blood in Slytherin."
"He had reasons but it was no excuse to bully I agree, but to be honest he started to only prank and stopped the bullying as he grew up. You can say he matured not just for Lily but for himself"
" he thought I loved Lily...I do like her...I think" Snape said sounding a bit confused. Percy immediately understood. She had noticed a strange aura from the food in Hogwarts. She checked with a house elf about it and learned what was happening.
Being Hogwarts royalty she stopped them from putting potions into the food indefinitely. This is the effect of not having the potion for a while and people get confused.
"You like her as a friend right? You never what people thought were actually in love with her?" Percy said. Snape was unsure how to respond did he love lily or he loved her like a friend?
Percy whispered to him " Snape there is something strange going on in Hogwarts and I have been slowly stopping it. But I need you to get a full check-up by the goblins and if there is anything get a cleansing ritual done. I can help you sneak out by pretending to help me tomorrow. Is that a deal?"
Snape thinks deeply about what she said and said
"Deal"