An American at Hogwarts

Yin and Yang

Later that day, we had our first potions class, which we had the severe misfortune of sharing with Slytherin. As we walked in, Marie grabbed my hand tightly.

"That's him." She said grimly, nodding towards the far side of the room. Sitting there was Professor Snape, a tall, pale man with slick black hair and a seemingly permanent scowl. As we sat down, he stood and cleared his throat. He spoke with a flat, unenthusiastic voice, as if he was annoyed by our very presence.

"Welcome to Potions. There will be no foolish wand waving or incantations in my class, so I expect many of you shall not believe that it is even magic. Very few of you will have an appreciation for the exact art of potion making, however, for the few that do, I can teach you how to do great things. Bottle luck, brew fame, and even stopper death itself."

He glanced around the room and seemed to get even more upset when he saw Harry's face.

"POTTER!" He suddenly shouted.

"Y... yes sir?"

"Would you mind telling me what I would get if I mixed Asphodel and Wormwood?"

As he said this, Hermione raised her hand excitedly, and Marie slightly more slowly.

"I... I'm not sure sir."

Snape smirked. "Clearly fame isn't everything. What about where I would find a bezoar?"

I knew this one as well, so my hand joined Hermione and Marie's, the former of which was even higher now.

"I don't know sir."

Snape's smirk grew. "Hm... how about the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

Harry seemed to shrink into his chair, as Hermione all but shot out of her seat. My hand went down.

"I'm not sure sir. Hermione seems to know, why don't you ask her?"

"Sit down miss Granger. For your information, Mr. Potter, powdered root of asphodel and an infusion of wormwood creates a sleeping draught so powerful it is known as the draught of living death, a bezoar can be found in the stomach of a goat, and monkshood and wolfsbane are in fact the same plant, also known as aconite. One point will be deducted from Gryffindor for your cheek."

Marie groaned next to me and muttered under her breath. "He's just as bad as Stanley said..."

The rest of the class was spent attempting to brew a simple cure for boils. Snape seemed to find a flaw with seemingly every potion except for Malfoy's and, for some reason, mine, even though I was almost certain it was the wrong color. He even went as far to give me points for it, which unnerved me a bit. Not that I wasn't happy to get them, mind you, it just seemed... wrong, somehow. Suddenly, Neville's potion began to boil rapidly, and started to overflow.

"POTTER!" Exclaimed Snape. "Thought you would not tell him to stop stirring the potion before adding the porcupine quills, hm? Thought him messing up would make you look good, I suppose. One more point from Gryffindor."

Harry opened his mouth to respond, but was stopped by Ron jabbing him in the side with his elbow, which I reckoned was the smart play. Snape didn't seem the type to take back-talk well.

After we got out of the room, Harry immediately started complaining.

"Dirty rotten... I can't believe he... so unfair..."

I patted him on the shoulder. "From what I hear he picks one student out of every class to be like that to. Don't worry too much about it, he's not going to fail you because of it. Even he isn't that evil."

Hermione and Marie were staring at me.

"What?"

Marie spoke first. "He was favoring you and Malfoy. You saw that, right?"

I frowned. "Yeah. Malfoy I get since he's his house head, they seem like a good pair as well, but I'm not sure about me. Maybe he knows my mom? He looks the right age to have gone here with her."

Marie shrugged. "Maybe. Just seems odd to me is all."

I sighed. "Trust me, same here. Doesn't feel right, you know what I mean?"

Ron groaned. "Complaining that he likes you too much now, are you?"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Not complaining, I'll take what I can get. It just bothers me a bit is all. Doesn't make much sense."

Ron grabbed Harry's arm and walked off. I turned to the girls. "What in the world was that about?"

Hermione shrugged. "Don't know. Good riddance, if you ask me, though."

"Oh come on he's not that bad."

Marie laughed slightly. "You have to admit though, he can be annoying at times."

I sighed. "Aye, fair. I imagine I can too, though, so can't get too upset."

With that, we shared a laugh and walked off to the library for our study period before Charms. An hour or so later, we went off to the Charms room. Charms was taught by Professor Flitwick, a very short and bubbly man, seeming always smiling. The opposite of Snape, you could say. We spent most of the day working on cheering charms, which did as the name implied and induced happiness in the target.  Me and Marie were paired up, as usual. I must admit, Charms was one of my better classes. It was so far the class I enjoyed most, and the one I was best at. I had a knack for it for whatever reason, perhaps because of my previous work attempting to learn the banishing charm. Flitwick beamed at me as I made Marie break out into giddy laughter, his smiled so wide that I was concerned for a moment that I had somehow hit him with my cheering charm as well. At the end of the class, he asked that I stay behind for a moment.

Marie grabbed my arm before she left. "I'll wait outside for you Y/N, don't worry! Hermione will probably head to the library on her own but we can just meet up with her there."

I nodded appreciatively as I nervously turned towards Professor Flitwick, who was organizing some papers on his desk.

"Professor? You asked for me to stay behind a moment?"

He turned and smiled at me. "Ah of course! Take a seat, Mr. L/N!"

I took a deep breath and sat down.

"So I have heard that you are working on some rather advanced spells in your spare time. As complex as the blasting curse, if I am correct?"

I gulped. "Yes, I'm sorry, is that not allowed? I wasn't aware of any restrictions like that, I'd be happy to stop if..."

"No no no, young man! I encourage it, in fact! I simply wanted to offer my assistance should you need it! Your mother was one of my best students, and I was quite the accomplished duelist in my day! I just thought that I ought to offer you some personal assistance should you need it! Let you know the resources you have available and all!"

I smiled, my worries gone. "Thank you sir! I actually have a few questions if you have time now!"

"But of course! Let me grab a quill so I can write everything down for you, I always say notes are important!"

Twenty or so minutes later, I left Professor Flitwick's room, beaming from ear to ear. Marie jumped up from the seat she had taken. "Well?"

"It wasn't bad after all! Somehow he heard about my personal studies and wanted to offer to help!"

Marie smiled at me. "Well you're getting the teachers on your side rather quickly! First Snape, now Flitwick! Snape is a bit more impressive, mind you, but Flitwick is a tough man to impress, I hear!"

I laughed. "Don't go calling me a teacher's pet now! I don't even like Snape, he just seems to like me in spite of that."

Marie giggled and lightly punched my arm. "Come on, Hermione is probably worried out of her mind in the library, she will think Flitwick expelled you or something with how long we've taken!"