Sasha Liliana Jackson & The Secrets of Hogwarts

Chapter Six: A Day At Hogwarts

Sasha had been hearing whisperings and comments from almost every hallway she had passed through with Rowan by her side as soon as they had exited the dormitory. Their staring and whisperings as Sasha passed through the hallway had made her feel more and more uncomfortable by the minute.
Sasha was trying to find her way around the school without getting lost, but it wasn't going too well. She had to be escorted by some of the sympathetic professors, Head Boys or Girls, or Perfects to find the classrooms. Rowan decided to stay by Sasha's side to help find her way around the school.
There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot.
The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Sasha was sure the coats of armor could walk. The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new students in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class.
He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"
Once you had managed to find the classrooms, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Sasha quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few odd words that's probably Latin.
They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for. Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.
Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk.
At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Sasha's name he gave her a reassuring smile before he started class.
Professor McGonagall was again different. Sasha had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."
Then she changed her cat into a cauldron and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time.
After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Rowan had made any difference to her match; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Rowan a rare smile.
The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Rakepick's lessons turned out to be very exciting. Her classroom smelled strongly of lilac, which everyone said was to say her first scent from her time at Romania and she likes the scent. She had taught them how to fight against mischievous critters and do defensive spells. Professor Rakepick had told them her curse-breaking adventures and watched as everyone took on the mischievous pixies. Professor Rakepick showed the class how it do the spells and gave Sasha a rare smile after she had stunned a pixie.
Sasha was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from pure-blood families and, like her, they hadn't have any idea of how to perform magic. There was so much to learn that even people like Sasha didn't have much of a head start.
Friday was an important day for Sasha and Rowan. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once.
"What have we got today?" Sasha asked Rowan as she picked up her toast and scrambled eggs.
"Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Rowan with a worried frown. "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favors them — we'll be able to see if it's true."
Professor Flitwick was Head of Ravenclaw House, but it hadn't stopped him from giving them some homework the day before.
Just then, the mail arrived. Sasha had gotten used to this by now, but it had given her a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.
Hamish had brought a few letters and sweets from Sasha's parents. He sometimes flew in to nibble her ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlry with the other school owls before returning to Sasha's dorm.
At the start-of-term banquet, Sasha had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked her. By the end of the first Potions lesson, she knew she'd been wrong. Snape didn't dislike Sasha — she just have slight claustrophobia and the dungeons were a bit smaller than the rest of the castle. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.
Snape started the class by taking the roll call, and he paused at Sasha's name. He glanced at her with a hidden expression before he looked away all too quickly.
Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were dark and lacked some warmth. They were cold and made you think of the darkness in the night sky.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its 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 — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
Things didn't improve for the Ravenclaws as the Potions lesson continued. Sasha felt lucky for being partnered with her best friend, Rowan. Rowan helped Sasha with the instructions and Sasha helped Rowan with the ingredients. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh ingredients and measuring cups, criticizing almost everyone except Merula, whom he seemed to like.
"That's should be about it." Rowan double checked the instructions and looked down into their shared cauldron.
The potion was how to make burn-healing paste. Sasha had a few mishaps when it comes to potions back at home. She had quickly learned not to trust Jacob when it comes to making potions.
"I hope so." Sasha looked down at the potion. She raised a skeptical eyebrow and looked at Rowan with a uncertain look. "Umm... Is our potion supposed to be in this shade of orange?"
"It matches the book's description," insisted Rowan.
"If you say so." Sasha shrugged uncertainly and sat back down on her seat, looking both worried and uncertain. The two girls glanced at each other as Professor Snape had walked towards them.
He stood in front of the potion for a while, looking closely at it. Every so often, he would glance up at Sasha and back down at the potion.
"Well done..." Professor Snape murmured and whispered something under his breath.
"What was that?" Sasha asked curiously and tilted her head at him.
He looked at Sasha, for the first time, right into her eyes. For a moment, Sasha saw something more than just his dark eyes. He looked depressed, grieving even. His eyes were filled with sadness and his expression dropped. He normally looked so angry, but something changed when their eyes met. Sasha just didn't understand what, but she somehow understood it and a wave of empathy had washed over her.
"Nothing..." he whispered and slowly walked over to the next table, looking lost in thought.
When everyone's potion had been graded, Professor Snape took his place in front of the room once again.
"You all did...dreadful," Professor Snape said as he paced through the front of the class. "Only two of you managed to complete the potion without a single error: Rowan Khanna and...L-Sasha Jackson. Considering that the rest of you do not understand the proper way to create this potion, I expect you all to write an essay explaining what you did wrong and how you should actually make this potion without having it explode." He glared at Ben and Tonks. Ben flinched back in wide eyed fear and Tonks rolled her eyes at Ben's fear, Sasha admires Tonks' mischievous streak and boldness. "However, the two people that made this potion correctly are exempt from this assignment."
As everyone began writing their essays, Sasha and Rowan were both gathering their potions by Professor Snape's request and they had delivered it to Madam Pomfrey for her injured patients.
"So, what else should I know about you?" Rowan asked Sasha curiously as they both walked back to the dungeons and back into the potion classroom.
"Well... Um..." Sasha was very unsure to this whole new friendship thing, but Rowan is very patient and considerate to her. "I never really played any games before."
"Really?" Rowan looked at Sasha with wide eyes, but she shook it off before she talking to her again. "Then, what do you like to do for free time?"
"I like being in a forest," admitted Sasha quietly. "I've always been shunned by my neighbors, so I go into the nearby forest for some free time and play with the animals there."
"Me too!" Rowan's exclamation made everybody looked at the two girls before she waved them off. Rowan started speaking a bit more softly to Sasha, "When I take a break from reading, I usually go into the forest to check out the flora and fauna there."
Sasha cracked a small smile as they two girls caught each other's eyes. The two of them had finally found something they both like to do outside of school: being surrounded by the wildlife and nature itself.
Sasha and Rowan both jumped in place when they suddenly heard a loud explosion coming from the Slytherin side of the classroom (the classroom is split up into four sections for each House). Professor Snape looked up from the book he was reading and everyone turned to see Merula's face was black with soot. It took all of Sasha's willpower not to laugh at Merula's confounded expression. Sasha snook a sidelong glance to see Rowan and the rest of their classmates were trying to keep themselves from laughing at Merula's misfortune.
"Merula," growled Professor Snape. "I will have to talk to you later after class."
Some of the Slytherins, Liz Tuttle and Ismelda Murk, had bursted out laughing. One by one, hesitant laughter had rose from all of the four tables. Professor Snape didn't try to stop their laughter, but he cracked a small smile as he looked at Sasha. Merula's expression darkened, clearly humiliated by everybody's laughter. Merula scowled and looked down, Sasha managed to calm down her laughter into silent chuckling.
Everybody soon calmed down their laughter as soon as Sasha had heard silent footsteps coming from the hallway. Sasha looked towards the doorway as the others had went back to work, but shrugged it off and started reading a book about potions.
"Professor Snape?"
A voice Sasha never heard, husky and like honey, strangely close to her. She looked up from barely hearing the footsteps that came from him. A Ravenclaw boy stands next to their table, only inches from Sasha. His straight hair was in a stunning shade of dark brown. The dark tan of his skin, his slender fingers were holding tightly to a rolled up scroll. Sasha noticed the silent tension in him, as if he was nervous about coming into the classroom. Sasha was also curious of how she barely heard him enter the classroom. Is he like Professor McGonagall? Is he an Animagus too?
"This is from Professor McGonagall, sir," he said so quietly that Sasha barely heard him. "She said to deliver it to you."
Professor Snape takes the scroll, barely even looking at the Ravenclaw boy before he waves he waves him out of the classroom. The boy wasted no time, and Sasha watched as he gets out of the classroom. That's when he stared back at Sasha.
Unique, almost amber-brown eyes, resembling those of a hawk, stared at Sasha, meeting her gaze, and he doesn't let go until he's outside of the classroom, away from Sasha's line of sight.
When Sasha looked back at Rowan, she caught her best friend looking at her with an amused smile and a raised eyebrow. Sasha lowered her head and struggled to hide her sudden flush of heat on her face. Rowan smiled at Sasha as she started reading her potion book.
New feelings had begun to grow, but it has yet to be revealed. Rowan started chuckling and looked at her flustered best friend. Sasha gave Rowan a playful glare, who'd returned it with an innocent look.