Friday 6th
September
I wasn’t as tired as I thought I would be, when I woke up
this morning. Jed and I decided that it probably wouldn’t kick in until part
way through the day – I guess I’m going to bed early tonight then. Our first
lesson of the day was double Potions. I was quite looking forward to it.
Although everything seemed odd at first, I had been reading through the potion
over and over again, so I hope that today I could prove to Professor Snape that
I could do it – or at least that I had remembered the instructions that he had
given to us in our previous lesson. Sitting at the table for breakfast though,
something struck me: double Potions was with Gryffindor. Yesterday morning we
had all sworn that we would get even with them, for Potter getting praised for
his flying stunt in Wednesday’s Flying lesson. Now I really had to be on the
ball. We all did. I just hoped that everyone wasn’t as tired as I thought that
I would have been.
Once everyone had
taken their seats, and Professor Snape had taken the register, Blondie
suggested that the professor started the lesson with a quiz. Running a hand
across my forehead, I groaned. This was not what I had in mind. I couldn’t
impress Professor Snape with random factual knowledge. This was going to be
impossible.
“Thank you, Mister
Malfoy,” said Professor Snape with a small smile. “Ten points to Slytherin for
such a remarkable idea.” Well, at least Blondie was winning us points.
I had found out, in
lessons earlier in the week, how House Points worked. Teachers gave them out to
students who worked well and took them away from those who did not – it worked
a little like it did in my old school. You could get extra points if your house
won at Quidditch (which I still haven’t figured out what it is yet), but you
could get deducted points for failing to hand in your homework, blatantly not
listening to the teacher or for getting detention. The main difference between
how the House Points worked here and at my old school, is that it seems at
Hogwarts they are taken dead seriously. Whichever house has the most amount of
points at the end of the year gets a special trophy and the end-of-year feast
is in their honour. Apparently, the whole school is really peeved that
Slytherin has won six years in a row. This got me kind of excited.
I’m sure that sweat
was dripping from my brow whilst I was worrying that Professor Snape would pick
on me for the first question and I wouldn’t know the answer. Luckily though, as
the professor’s stone-grey eyes stared directly at me, he shouted, “Potter!”
Spinning his head towards the Gryffindor, Professor Snape barked, “What would I
get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?” I had
absolutely no idea. I was glad Potter got that question and not me. The boy
shrugged.
“I don’t know, Sir,” he muttered. The
girl with bushy brown hair shot her hand into the air. Professor Snape ignored
her.
“Ten points from Gryffindor,” sneered
Snape as he strode towards the boy. “Let’s try again. Potter, where would you
look if I told you to find me a bezoar?” This question was even more bizarre
than the last.
Again, Potter shrugged, mumbling, “I
don’t know, Sir,” as his friend shot her hand into the air once more.
“Another ten points from Gryffindor,”
said the professor.
Along with the other
Slytherins, I sat sniggering behind my hand. How Professor Snape never caught
us laughing, I’ll never know. And why the professor was only asking Potter was
a mystery too. Maybe he was annoyed with Professor McGonagall’s favouritism
too. Either that or Malfoy convinced him to – no Blondie’s not that clever.
Having circled around
Potter’s table several times, Professor Snape stood in front of the boy and
glared down at him with a snarled expression. “What is the difference, Potter,
between monkshood and wolfsbane?” he demanded. Again, Potter shrugged.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I think
Hermione does, though,” he said as his friend raised her hand again. “Why don’t
you try her?” That did it. I had to clasp both hands to my mouth this time to
hide my sniggering. Even some of the Gryffindors were laughing.
Professor Snape’s face
reddened. He strode to the front of the classroom, picked up his copy of our ‘Magical Drafts and Potions’ book
and slammed it down on the table. The room fell silent. “Better,” he muttered.
Striding back to Potter, Professor Snape snapped, “Fifteen points from
Gryffindor for your lack of respect from my subject, Potter. And a further twenty-five for your
insubordination.” Sidestepping until he was stood in front of the girl who kept
raising her hand, he spat, “As for you Miss Granger, a further fifteen points
deducted from Gryffindor.” All of the Gryffindors groaned. As the Granger girl
began to object, Professor Snape added, “That’s what you get for being a
Know-It-All. And as for the rest of you, if you don’t like it, there’s more
where that came from – a lot more.” Turning back to the front of the classroom,
I caught the professor smile at Blondie before he continued with the rest of
his lesson.
The lesson turned out to be even
better than I had thought. First of all, we did get to try and make a potion.
Okay, so it wasn’t the one that we had looked at already. This one was a potion
to cure boils, which although sounds absolutely disgusting, it actually seems
more likely to be needed and useful than the last one. Some of the ingredients
were a little strange: snake fangs, Pungous Onions, Flobberworm Mucus, horned
slugs and porcupine quills – it also used some stuff that I know of, like
powdered ginger and dried nettles though. We had to work in pairs, so I got to
work with Jed, which was good. I was a little nervous at the thought of mixing
a full potion by myself.
Professor Snape seemed to get angry
at most students during our practical, but especially the Gryffindors. He
praised Blondie and Pansy’s work the most – no surprise there; but he did give
Jed and I a firm nod and muttered a, “Well done,” as he passed us right before
one of the Gryffindor’s cauldrons flooded over with green ooze. Professor Snape
was howling at the two boys who had caused this, demanding us all to stand on
our stools whilst he tried to figure out what on Earth they had done and fix
it. One of the Gryffindor boys was that poor guy, Neville, who fell of his
broom during our Flying lesson. He didn’t clamber on top of his stool in time
and the spooky green froth burnt holes in the sole of his shoes. “Idiot boy!”
barked Snape. “That’ll be another fifteen points from Gryffindor.” The
professor’s voice must have startled the little lump, because instead of
climbing up onto his stool, he slipped backwards and fell into the oozing concoction.
Stumbling to his feet, Neville howled out in pain as his skin broke out in
blistering red boils. “That’s it!” Professor Snape roared. “Take him to the
Hospital Wing,” he spat at Seamus. “And ten points from Gryffindor for being a
bumbling buffoon.”
Then to add insult to injury for
Gryffindor, Professor Snape started ranting at Potter and his red-haired
partner for not telling Neville how to do the potion properly. “Thought he’d
make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That’s five more points you’ve
lost for Gryffindor,” sneered the professor.
*
Nothing
could ever top that Potions class. It was too funny. The word soon spread over
lunch about what had occurred during our morning’s lesson. Slytherins from
higher years all crowded around our little group; eager to hear how Professor
Snape had treated the famous Potter boy and his Gryffindor Goonies.
*
Defence
Against the Dark Arts wasn’t too bad today. Professor Quirrell taught us a
defence spell: Clupious. It is supposed to shield
simple dark art spells. I believe it’s pronounced clup-ee-us, ‘clup’ which
rhymes with cup, the ‘ee’ is as you pronounce a lowercase letter ‘e’ and the
‘us’ is exactly how the word is pronounced in the English language. The only problem was,
was that we never got to actually test it out. For some strange reason
Professor Quirrell decided that it would be much too dangerous and preferred us
to write about it instead. The writing did help – don’t get me wrong, it’s just
that you’ll never know if you can do
the spell if you are never allowed to practise it.
*
As predicted, we got given a lot of homework in Charms. It
wasn’t too bad though. Part of it was to practise the spell that Professor
Flitwick had been teaching us in class: Wingardium Leviosa. I’m looking forward
to this part of the homework the most. I’m sure that I’ll be able to do it, if
I just put my mind to it. The other part was to read our textbooks and write a
three-parchment essay – just like with Transfiguration. It’s doable… I think.
*
Goodness. I’m almost glad that this first week is over. What
with all the new things that I’ve had to learn and take in, and the new people
and the spells that I’ve learnt – well trying to learn. It’s been exhausting.
That’s without all of the homework. I guess I really am going to be busy over
the weekend, but it will be worth it, every single second of it. Why? Because
I’m a witch! I never get tired of saying that.
- Josie -
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