That morning, Brandon Dursely was the first to wake up. It was dawn still, and Sebastian awoke as soon as he did. He stretched and yawned, then quietly made his way to his trunk and got his robes, set his clothes for the day as neatly as he could and set them on his bed. He took his towel, robe and toiletries and padded barefooted inside the spacious shower room. The tap and the shower had heaters on them and for that, Brandon was thankful.
He took his bath steadiously and as cleanly as he could. Petunia always made sure they were clean and cool at the end of the bath. As soon as he finished, he got himself ready and dried himself thoroughly. As soon as he felt satisfied, He grabbed a booklet and began to read with Sebastian sleeping on his lap.
The others awoke a few moments later and he waited for them to finish their things and they all went down to head to the Common Room.
---
The first subject they had that day after breakfast was Transfiguration, then Charms, Arithmancy, History of Magic, Muggle Studies and the last was Potions. The Prefects made them all que in as they were hearded off to the Great Hall for breakfast, unlike the others.
"Brandon." Hermione lightened up as she saw him. She grabbed his hand and Brandon followed her to the Transfigurations classroom.
"Oh hey, we're one of the firsts." A black boy said.
"Oh, Zabini. We are the first." Lancelot replied.
Then they settled at the best seats. Of course, Hermione still sat beside him.
In fact, she sat beside him in every subject.
----
The Potions classroom was dank, but it smelled like a good mixture of the things back at the Apothecary and old parchment and books. For Brandon, it was good.
They are now seated inside the Potions' Classroom, waiting quietly for Professor Snape. The Griffyndors were nowhere to be found as of the moment. Sounds of book pages turned, scratching quills on parchment and whispers were heard. A few minutes later, the Griffyndors came in like there was 'actually a herd of Griffins', as Lancelot said.
"Where's my quill and parchment?!" Somebody demanded from across Brandon, and he knew who it was; Ronald Weasely.
Brandon looked at his first ever friend (or so he thought). Ron had his tie misplaced and his robe full of wrinkles. Brandon knew no Mum would ever allow her child to be so... untidy.
"That Weasely's so loud!" He heard Theodore Nott mutter beside Lancel. Theodore had his face stuck in a book with a quill in his right hand.
"I heard that, Slimy!" Ron was red faced as he turned to Theodore. As he was about to approach him, the classroom door swung with a loud bang.
"Silence!" Brandon would know who owned that voice anywhere.
"Go back to your seat, Weasely." The man was as black as night and the cloak was billowing as intimidating as ever. Brandon wondered if some kind of magic was needed for a cloak to billow the way his Head of House's did, "and pocket your wand, boy!"
Ronald's face went redder and he did as he was told. The man continued to stride towards the front.
"There will be no foolish wand waving in my class!" Snape's eyes was still fixed on Ron. At that point, Brandon pitied him. Snape looked so darn scary when he's crossed.
"Here, you will learn the art of subtle, delicate brewing. Potions is a useful subject. It can put a stopper to death..."
"And put an end to misery." Brandon grumbled under his breath. He knew the words. He read it many times before from the pamphlets that were given to him by Mr. Flankers. Brandon was determined to do well in this class, not to mention that Snape was their Head of House. He didn't want Snape's attention, or his approval in anything. Brandon was just so interested that he could highly contain his curiosity. Potions just seemed so wonderful!
"Did you say something, Mr. Dursely? Obviously, you fancy yourself well above this class and your teacher, hmm?" Brandon blinked at the sudden mention of his name. He can sense the poison in Snape's words that he can't stop himself from shaking a little. He didn't knew that Snape would hear it! He grumbled the words, for crying out loud!
"Dursely! Stand up." Brandkn felt his hand turn sweaty now. His yearmates' eyes were all on him. God, he hated attention!
"Dursely, since you seem to be so much of a genius, why don't you tell me the difference between Monkswood and Wolfsbane?"
Brandon knew the answer, of course he did! The journals spoke of it. It was one of the latest innovations in potions! But seeing the look on Snape's eyes made him feel like throwing up. The man gets to his guts! The black orbs were flaying him alive and they were burning. They were burning too much that Brandon can't take to look straight at them. He doesn't know if he had to answer or not since Snape looked so angry at him.
"We are waiting for, you idiot!" Ron blurted out and several others snickered. Brandon felt himself go small. This is not good...
"Quit your bickering! Now, Dursely! Do you know the answer?"
Brandon nodded, still not meeting Snape's eyes.
"Then why don't you tell us the answer, Mister Dursely?"
"The answer is there is none, sir. There is no difference at all." His voice was so small that he almost couldn't hear it himself.
"Oh, you don't seem to be as clueless as I first thought you were, Mr. Dursely. Now, what would I get if I had an asphodel and lavender?"
Brandon can't see the point of the questions. Is this some kind of first day pop-up quiz like back in Muggle school?
Wherever it will go, Brandon have no choice but to answer.
"The Draught of Living Dead."
Silence.
Brandon hated silence. That either mean that he was in trouble or that something massive was going to happen after the silence.
Before he knew it, Snape was in front of him, eyeing him like he was a prey.
"How did you know. About. Those. Dursely?!"
It was a command rathsr than a question.
"I... I..."
"You have something you used to cheat, didn't you?" Did Professor Snape actually accused him of being a cheater? Snape's eyes were now fixated on him only, and Brandon felt himself flush of embarassment.
"No! I'm not a cheater! I read about them." Brandon defended himself as he looked up to meet the Potions' Master's gaze.
"Really?" Snape raised an eyebrow, "Those Potions can only be learned two years, even five years from now, if you will. They are highly advanced for you! Do really expect me to believe that lame excuse?!"
"What?" Bran was totally bewildered. He has a look of confusion clearly written on his face.
"Detention at 7, Dursely. Do not ever count yourself as special!" With that, Snape went back in front of the class and presented the lesson for the day.
Brandon looked at Snape thorughly. There were tears that start to form in his eyes, but he blinked them away.
What was wrong with the man?! It was just his first day! What did he ever do?
"It's okay, Bran." Lancelot whispered from behind him, "everyone gets detention once or twice."
"Yeah." Brandon replied glumly. Hermione only eyed him and they both proceeded to work, with Brandon still in deep thoughts and Hermione worrying over her friend.
-----
After Potions, Brandon still seemed to be out of sorts. He was so quiet, and although the little group of Lancelot, Hermione, Theodore and Draco (a little surprise there, Lancel thought. He thought Draco was a big snob, and they were even surprised that the blonde was the one, the only one, who approached them) only knew the boy yesterday, they something was just wrong. They knew that having detention can be... disturbing, but not eating dinner and just bejng plain silent?
The four Slytherins decided to meet up after dinner to discuss what could be wrong about Brandon. Brandon didn't come with them and he headed off to his room, saying that he needed a little rest before he 'faced Snape's wrath'. So they let him be.
The four eleven year olds met up in the courtyard, where there were only a few students that belonged to the other Houses and they can be assured that no one would care what in hells they were talking about.
"He had it on Snape's wrong side of the bed, eh?" Lancel started, "I mean, he's just so silent. Last night, he bursted out on Malfoy here. Not that Malfoy didn't deserve any of it, but..."
"What do think's wrong with him? Brandon seems to be lost to himself." Theodore added quietly.
"I think he's just upset that Snape's biting him."
"The Professor seemed to be out of sorts himself when it comes to Bran. Last night, he called him while he was giving instructions, you see. If I hadn't known that the Professor hadn't know Bran before, I could say that he's... well, he's angry at Bran. You know, annoyed? Or just plain angry. I don't know." Hermione explained with a far away look in her eyes.
"Well, that's stupid! Snape never knew any of us, except Malfoy here." Lancel dismissed the idea.
"Malfoy? What do you know?" Theodore asked.
"Nothing."
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked, "I mean..."
"You know what, why don't we just let it drop now? We have an assignment due on Wednesday!"
"Really, Brockenhurst?! Are you even sure that you deserved to be called a friend?" Malfoy had his arms crossed over his chest.
"Really, and what's with the frie d questions? Are you implying that I am not a real friend?!" Lancel copied the look on Draco's face.
"I am saying, that you would rather pick assignments over Brandon?!"
"Oh, so you're saying that you are willing to comfort him? Wasn't it you whi hated him?!"
"What?! I don't hate him, you ugly cherub! I was--"
"Whatever," Hermione stood, cutting the immensing quarrel of the two, "I'm going back to the dorm. Maybe I'll catch Brandon before he goes for his detention, and maybe I get to be a good friend, not some nitwit trying to say who's better than whom." She huffed and went on her way.
The boys looked at each other one more time and proceeded to follow Granger, her bushy hair bouncing after her.