Hogwarts Herald

As this chapter opens we find Harry struggling to find his classes while everyone at the school is trying their best to get a gander at him. The poor little guy just trying to get to his classes on time and rather than being helpful everyone’s trying to take a peek at the famous kid. His first week is spent just figuring out the staircases and doorways. Hogwarts, it seems, is a difficult place to get around. Unless you’ve been there a while that is. Especially when you’ve got a poltergeist wandering the halls doing his best to misdirect or irritate you. And then there’s Filch, and his cat Mrs. Norris. For some strange reason Argus Filch seems to have it in for the students at Hogwarts and he has his cat trained to spy on and snitch out said students. Harry and Ron had the unfortunate experience of being “caught” by them trying to get into a locked door. They thought they were on their way to class, turns out, they were trying to get into the forbidden corridor on the third floor. Luckily ‘professor Quirrel happened by and stopped Filch from locking the lost first years in the dungeons.

“I don’t expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with it’s 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…”

And the classes, the difficulty of learning “1000 Herbs and Fungi” with Professor Sprout, and the task of keeping awake in History of Magic with Professor Binns. The ghostly instructor died by the fire one night and got up the next morning to teach class, with or without his body. Then there’s Professor Flitwick, the Charms instructor, who stands on a pile of books behind his desk, and fell out of sight with an excited squeak when he came to Harrys name in the roll ledger.

Professor McGonagall, the head of Gryffindor House, teaches what looks to be the most difficult of all the classes. Transfiguration consists of magically transforming one thing to another. Professor McGonagall demonstrates with an impressive maneuver, transfiguring her desk to a pig and back. The students, however, start much smaller. Attempting to change a match into a needle. Nobody but Hermione made any realy progress though. It’s much more difficult than it seems. After Transfiguration they headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Quirrell’s class. While all the students were very excited about it, the class was uneventful, leaving them all talking more about the Professors affinity for garlic, and the odd smell coming out of his turban.

All in all, Harry is very happy that he wasn’t too far behind the other students. After all, a bunch of kids also came from muggle families, and even those from wizarding families are having a hard time keeping up with all that they have to learn. So by the end of the first week, on Friday, Harry is already having a hard time with all that they have to learn. Between classes and studying, and staring at the late into Wednesday nights, this has probably been one of the most taxing weeks of his short life. He is eating breakfast with Ron when the mail call comes in, and for the first time since coming to Hogwarts he gets mail. Of the dozens of owls swooping through the Great Hall, Hedwig comes through and finds Harry. She drops a note, from Hagrid, asking Harry to tea after his classes that afternoon. Harry replies that he will be there, and then they’re off to class. Potions, a class together with the Slytherin students. The teacher is Professor Snape, the same hook nosed greasy haired professor that was talking to Professor Quirrell when Harry got the sharp pain in his scar. He is the head of Slytherin House, and everyone says that he plays favorites with the Slytherin students.

Harry & Ron make their way down into the dungeons where Potions is held. Professor Snape, like Professor Flitwick, pauses when reading Harry’s name. Commenting that Harry is “our new celebrity” in what sounds more like an insult than a compliment. He then peppers Harry with questions about herbs and their uses reacting with disgust when Harry doesn’t know the answer, and docking Gryffindor points both for his lask of knowledge, and his attitude when he points out that Hermione clearly does know the answers to his questions. Then, in their very first class, they are set to prepare a potion. Which turns out to be a total disaster when Neville messes his up completely. Snape snaps at Harry for not stopping Neville, accusing him of letting him do it so he would look better. Poor Harry doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about and wants to say something, but thinks better of it when advised that Snape can get very nasty.

Finally they make their way out of class and up to Hagrid’s Hut. What they find there is a small one room hut complete with hams and pheasants hanging from the ceilings and a large slobbery dog named fang. Hagrid sits them down for rock cakes and tea. He took the name rock cakes a bit too literally though, as they nearly broke Harry’s tooth. They have a nice chat about everything from how much Snape hates Harry to Ron’s brothers. Then Harry notices the newspaper clipping on Hagrid’s table. It’s a clipping from the Daily Prophet about the Gringotts break in. Noting that the vault that was broken into had been emptied the same day the break in happened, which incidentally was Harry’s birthday, and the day that Hagrid and Harry had gone to Gringotts and emptied the vault for Dumbledore. Vault Seven Hundred Thirteen. It was strange, but Harry didn’t really have time to think about it on the way back to the castle for dinner.