The three boys waited awkwardly outside the Transfiguration classroom with the rest of the first year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs for only a few seconds after the bell rang before Professor Brachet slowly opened the door to his classroom.
"Inside now, I don't want any talking and nobody is to sit in the back rows" he stated sternly, moving to one side to allow the students inside. Ryan looked around the room, and saw an assortment of odd trinkets, animals in cages and huge bookshelves that lined the walls of the classroom. Ryan located a three seater desk in the second row of the classroom and the three boys sat down and pulled out their textbooks as well as their notepads.
"Welcome to First Year Transfiguration, in this classroom you will learn the noble art of Transfiguration; I will teach you how to turn an animal into a cup, so you have something to drink if you're stuck in the desert and lack the ability to conjure a cup, transfigure a rabbit into flowers to give to your romantic dates or even to give to your mothers. The knowledge you pick up in my class will help you through the rest of your lives, especially if you decided to go further with the subject in sixth years, seventh years and then take it even further. Now, most of the other Professors have stated that my teaching methods are a little unorthodox - but, they all agree with me that they work. Unlike other classes I will not set examinations, except for the end of year examinations and those will just be a total recap of everything that you have learnt since the start of the year." Professor Brachet stated sternly before Andrew's hand shot up like a rocket. "Yes Laft?" He asked, obviously not being shy to answer questions.
"How are you going to mark us if you won't be setting exams?" Andrew asked, Teddy and both Ryan groaned - why did it have to be their friend who asked for an exam.
Professor Brachet smiled, something that looked extremely foreign on his face - he fiddled with the buttons on his vest before he replied. "Ah, I thought this question would be raised as it has been ever since I started teaching at Hogwarts. I will be marking your homework, this way there is actually a real reason to set it as I find that the majority of students who don't hand in their homework; don't hand it in because they believe it has no relevance to how they are marked at the end of the year, you will receive one homework task each term, however each term the homework task is more like an essay."
Andrew looked a little satisfied at the response that there would still be, at least some form of marking scheme for the class. Ryan just thought he wanted to beat Teddy at this class, especially as Teddy had flaunted his success in Charms in Andrew's face.
"Okay, so for today's lesson, there is absolutely no way that we are going to have the time to be able to start the practical work; so we will start practical work at the start of next lesson. Instructions are on the board, please turn to page seventeen of your textbook." He instructed.
The three boys read the chapter, which was on Transfiguration theologies. Ryan found it interesting however the topic wasn't enough to distract him from the impending detention that they would have to do the following night. Ryan sneaked a glance at Professor Brachet, whom was currently rocking on his chair; feet up and reading a book. The lesson didn't fly through like the other classes that they had been it earlier in the day, instead the lesson seemed to have droned on for hours before the bell finally rang. Brachet crossed the room, standing in front of the door to ensure that everyone had attempted the tasks and sending those whom hadn't done the task, or whom hadn't done enough of the task back to their desks to await further instruction. Ryan and the other two boys had been sent back with the others to await Professor Brachet to return too them. Ryan looked around, there was a total of seven other people besides himself including Teddy and Andrew.
"Okay, so I will not tolerate not doing enough of the work in my class, some of you haven't even finished the first question. Tomorrow night all of you will come to this room, and will all be writing lines together. Be here by 6:30pm or you will get another detention." Professor Brachet explained, "you may leave now" he continued sternly.
***
The three boys ran to the dungeons, thankfully Professor Brachet hadn't kept them back too long as when they arrived Slughorn still hadn't invited them into the classroom let alone opened the door. Teddy saw the green collared first years first and groaned as he realised that the class was going to be with the Slytherins. Ryan and the rest of the first year Gryffindor and Slytherin students shifted nervously in the corridor for ten minutes before Slughorn finally opened up the door, his tardiness extremely surprised Ryan as the majority of his teachers with the exception of Professor Binns would have ensured that the class had started by now.
The students filed into the classroom and sat down in groups of four before Slughorn shook his head.
"No, I will be putting you in your potions groups today - these groups will be the groups that you will be working in for the duration of the year, this way inter-house unity will finally be encouraged, I am sick of both the Gryffindors and Slytherins always being at each other's throats, it generates way too much hostility in later life and to ensure that you are all working co-operatively I will be assessing your potions as a group for example if two of your group get the best mark and the other two get the worst mark your mark will be the group's mark averaged out" Professor Slughorn boringly stated to which Teddy replied with an audible groan. "As I call out your name and table number please sit down.
Group One: Lilly Shaun, Andrew Laft, Theodore Lupin and Kelley Eastwood.
Group Two: Kate Hughes, Ashley Wright, Darrell Thein and Ryan O'Shiel." This time it was Ryan's turn to groan loudly, he didn't fancy the group he had been stuck with; especially as they were all of Slytherin house.
Ryan walked over towards the table where a large blue two was located, sitting down he was quite upset as the others walked over they sat down in a little huddle excluding him from the conversation - it didn't really bother him what they were doing, however he did mind the occasional glance of disgust that they gave him. He sighed and looked up to Slughorn, whom had now finally finished organising everyone into their potion groups for the term; stood at the front of the room. He waved his wand and instructions for the Boil Curing Solution appeared on the board. "Okay, lets see where your potion brewing skills lay. You have until the end of this lesson to produce me a solution - the first year with the best solution will win a prize, ingredients are in the store room, you can begin" he shouted, the group of first years all jumped out of the seats, all wanted to win the prize and they were all keen. Ryan even noticed Teddy had more of a flare to him then what he had naturally.
Ryan, unlike the other first years thought they would do this smartly so that unlike the other first years he wouldn't have to be running back and forwards to get ingredients. He quickly wrote down the following items:
Six crushed snake fangs, three Pungeous onions, a couple of dried nettles, a jar of Flobberworm mucus, a whole Ginger root, eight Shrake spines, fifteen porcupine quills and two horned slugs, which needed to be stewed. After writing down the ingredients he would need for the potion he hurried up to the store room and started to grab them all, it took him two trips but he finally had all the ingredients he needed on his desk.
He grabbed a mortar and started to crush the snake fangs quickly, his attempt to ensure that he had all the items that he would needed had already set him about five minutes behind the rest of his class, all of whom had steam beginning to rise from their cauldrons. He set the crushed snake fangs to one side whilst he waited for steam to start rising from his own potion, and moved on to slice his Pungeous onions whilst he waited for the potion to heat up. Finally whilst he was just about finished with the second onion his cauldron started to issue steam, he added the contents of the mortar slowly, ensuring that none of it fell onto the table before going back to chopping up the final onion. He noticed that the potion was going a dark grey - exactly the colour that the potion should be going at this stage of the potion; a wave of excitement washed over him, he was in the zone and he was good at this.
***
Ryan walked out of the Potions classroom with a handful of Honeydukes Chocolate in his arms but also with a rather sour Andrew beside him.
"How are you so good at Potions? It's your first time brewing isn't it? Or did you practice all of these over the Holidays?" Andrew asked quickly, his potion hadn't been the best but it surely hadn't been the worst. Teddy was currently in the hospital wing after his cauldron exploded and covered the entirety of his group but Andrew (whom had been getting more ingredients from the store room) with his terrible boil solution. All the students who were splashed with the potion had started to get large boils wherever the potion had come into contact with the skin, Ryan defiantly thought that Teddy's potion was the worse out of the entire class.
"That was honestly my first time I've ever used a cauldron, my parents never thought they could trust me with a cauldron so I was never allowed to touch one. I don't know how I was good at it, it was really unexpected - just like neither of us expected Teddy to be so good at Potions" Ryan replied quickly, he was hungry and the last thing he wanted to do was argue with Andrew over something so trivial as their first ever Potions classroom. Ryan did have a feeling however that Andrew was going to be end up being unbearable soon, especially if Teddy and Ryan managed to be better than him in another class.
***
Teddy didn't show up until ten minutes into dinner, his arms were all bandaged up and so was the entirety of the left side of his face.
"How you feeling Teddy?" Ryan asked curiously, both Ryan and Andrew were yet to go to dinner as they were waiting for Teddy to rock up to the common room.
"Is hungry a valid option?" he replied, answering my question with another.
"I agree, it has to be a valid answer, Andrew has gone absolutely crazy, I think he has had it with us being better at some classes then he is - I caught him reading a third years Transfiguration book earlier." Ryan replied, gesturing at Andrew who currently had his nose pressed in the Defence textbook.
"I don't know why he is working himself up so much, at least he knows he isn't so bad at Potions that his cauldron exploded fifteen minutes after we started. I never knew boils could be so painful" he laughed, a wince of pain flushed over his face quickly.
"Couldn't Madam Pomfrey fix it?" Ryan asked curiously.
"She tried, the regular Boil Solution wasn't working; said something about me putting the wrong type of snake fangs inside the potion. I have to go back tomorrow morning, that's when she said her stronger version of the Boil Curing Solution would be ready" he sighed. "Anyway, what do you say; lets go and get Andrew and grab a bite to eat? He asked as a grin shot up his bandaged face, as he ruffled some of his signature turquoise hair.
A/N
Hey All, for some reason when my computer was reformated the idiots at the Acer Shop never backed up any of my files so I have lost where I had written up too and a little bit of other stuff so that kind of sucks. On a more postive note I have decided a day where I will upload each week (Thursdays), I may post updates before Thursday's but those are my choice to upload on those days xD.
I also finished planning where the plot was going to go, and I'm not going to lie; I think its pretty badass - then again I thought that the bag of Jalepeno Chips that I bought earlier today was pretty badass... Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the chapter and remember to Like and leave me a comment, also spread the word around about the story with your friends and followers :D.