Chp 31: First Day

Location: Hufflepuff First Year boys Dorm 3

Waking up was almost pleasant, except for the pissant staring down at him as Adam opened his eyes.

'We're all going to breakfast together' said Earnie leaning over him face to face with an uncanny valley smile.

"Eeerrgggg, what ....Now" replied Adam sleepily.

'Yes .. now Professor Pomona Sprout, is waiting to address all the first years so we can go sit at the table together" said Earnie obviously pleased over the small degree of power he had leveraged from Professor Sprout.

Adam got out of bed wincing as his still tender legs assumed his body weight.

Leaning against the cupboard he opened it only to see his ripped vinegar-covered clothes that he had wrecked earlier that morning.

'Thankfully I have another set of robes but I'm going to need to get them fixed somehow'.

Adam put on his robes quickly before wandering down the circular passageway and out into the badger's main common room, bright with light and Lady Hufflepuff smiling down from a portrait set above a fireplace.

Joining the throng of students who were already gorging themselves on cakes and snacks he arrived just as Professor Sprout began to speak.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome my little badgers and hello to a new day, I'm sure you're all very excited to start Hogwarts, in a couple of minutes you'll go get breakfast in the great hall together, but I thought that it'd be best if I hand out your timetables in the common room, with a map of Hogwarts minutes all the secret bits of course, that's for you to discover," said Professor Sprout smiling kindly at all her students. 

Adam was one of the last to receive his timetable. He looked down at looking to see what he had first.

'Potions, transfiguration and then charms with Ravenclaw, hmmm, herbology with Gryffindor, Astronomy with Slytherin and then finally History of magic with Ravenclaw, jeez this day is going to be so long'.

Adam followed the line of puffs meandering out the common room past the kitchens and then up the spiralled staircase, turning right into the great hall to have breakfast.

----

Adam made his own way to potions having managed to slip away from the cult he seemed to have joined after breakfast.

Walking into the potions classroom, its walls were lined with pickled animals hanging suspended in glass jars in one corner stood a basin in which ice-cold water poured from the mouth of a gargoyle whilst the centre of the room was occupied by some ten old-fashioned desks with bubbling cauldrons, there being two stools to a table most of which were already occupied.

Adam slipped into an empty stool at the back of the room next to a tall copper haired girl dressed in Ravenclaw robes, who was sat shyly at the back of the class.

"Thankfully I got here in time" said Adam attempting a smile at the girl.

Bang

His smile turned into a flinch as the door swung open violently next to his head, striking the cobbled walls as the professor swept in like a great bat.

"There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few..." said Snape.

"Who possess, the predisposition ... I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death" continued Snape pausing for dramatic effect looking around for anyone misbehaving only to see all the Puffs and Claws paying attention attentively.

'You think he could put a stopper in his neck after you looped his head off, maybe he'd stop talking' said Calcifer having not said anything all morning.

Ppppfffftttt

Adam strangled a laugh escaping him.

"Pot-ter, our, mystery back from the dead" drawled Snape condescendingly.

"As you find the lesson so amusing you obviously, don't need to study, so you'd be happy to answer a few questions wouldn't you".

"Um I'm fine actually, thank you, Sir, I'll just be quiet," said Adam trying to avoid an electro-corrosive whipping that had been on his mind since the train.

"I wasn't asking permission Potter. Tell me ... what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Thinking back to his intense revision session.

"The draught of living death I believe professor".

"Well Potter it seems you are capable of opening a book not an especially high bar" retorted Snape over the bubbling of cauldrons.

"Where Mr Potter would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?".

"Uh I mean if you didn't have an antidote to hand, well I guess the gastrointestinal system of some kind of mammalia professor" said Adam conjuring up knowledge from a book titled Encyclo Medicae Scholarum he had found in the destroyed Medicae wing of a void ship which had crashed not far from Kaldor and his' camp, near enough on his eighth birthday.

"Barely correct Mr Potter, I see your brain has already been contaminated by muggle biology ... And what is the difference between Monkswood and Wolfsba--".

"They're the same Sir" responded Adam almost before Snape had finished asking the question.

"Mr Potter here thinks he's special, say ... Potter what is the most expensive ingredient in the Felix Felicis potion".

Adam thought hard but couldn't for the life of him remember even though he had memorised the entirety of the Potions textbook from cover to cover.

"I don't know Professor" said Adam subtly hardening his skin to take a beating.

"Pity ... It seems ... you've met your limit Mr Potter," said Snape with the tiniest twitch of his lips as he finally triumphed.

"It's the occamy shell, which if Mr Potter had merely spent more time studying he might have known ... ten points from Hufflepuff for a lack of adequate preparation" said Snape striding away to the blackboard.

"The instructions are on the board, you have thirty minutes to make me a cure for boils, Start" said Snape loudly as he tipped a sand turner over and sat down, furiously scribbling on some thick pieces of vellum.