SuperPotterLock- The Philosopher's Stone

The Potions Master

Whispers followed Harry everywhere as soon as he left his dormitory. Whispers about how his parents died and how he'd defeated Lord Voldemort. Whispers about where he'd been for the last ten years. Whispers that annoyed Sherlock so much that he got a detention on his second day for breaking a third-year Hufflepuff's nose.

'What did you do that for?' John had exclaimed.

'She was gossiping mindlessly, I mean, honestly, did she really think that Harry could breathe fire?'

Although it didn't annoy him as much as it did Sherlock, he still kept to his dormitory as much as possible, that is after he and Ron got lost countless times.

There were so many doorways and staircases which would have been hard enough to remember without all of the trick ones. Some doors pretended to be walls, some walls pretended to be doors and they all loved to move around, and then there were the trick stairs. It was second-nature to most of the older students to skip these steps but the first-years spent a lot of their first week being pulled out from being stuck in a step up to their knees (Neville got stuck in the same step three times in one day). The ghosts weren't much of a help either, especially when they glided through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick, of course, was always willing to point you in the right direction, but Peeves took any opportunity to cause chaos, especially if you were late to class. He would knock over suits of armour, pelt pieces of chalk and balled up paper at you and sneak up to you, invisible, grab your nose and screech, 'GOT YOUR CONK!'

Worse than Peeves, if it were possible, was Argus Filch the caretaker and his dust coloured cat with lamp-like eyes, Mrs Norris. Harry and Ron managed to get on their wrong side on their very first day. Mrs Norris had caught them trying to shove their way through a door, which had unfortunately turned out to be the forbidden third floor, and Filch was there in a flash, trying to give them a detention ('I did tell you it wasn't that way,' John said... 'Well we know that now'). His knowledge of the secret shortcuts and passageways rivalled that of even the Weasley twins. Everyone hated Filch and the feeling was mutual. Filch would have loved nothing better than to find an excuse to string you up in chains in the dungeons.

While finding them was hard enough, the actual lessons themselves were extremely complicated and exhausting. There was a lot more to magic than simply waving your wand and saying a few funny words.

Every Wednesday night they had Astronomy and had to learn the names of all the stars and the movements of the planets, much to the annoyance of Sherlock, who found this knowledge completely useless and was deaf to Castiel's coaxing, earning himself several detentions in the process.

Then there was History of Magic. Easily the most boring subject, John was relieved to find that he wasn't the only one to have drifted off at some point, nor that he was the only one to have mixed up a few of the goblin rebels' names. Professor Binns, who taught History of Magic, was the only teacher in the school who was a ghost. He had been very old indeed and it was rumoured that one day he had simply fallen asleep by the fire in the staff room and had got up to teach the next day, leaving his body behind.

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk, he was also head of Ravenclaw house. When he came to Harry's name on the register, he uttered a small, excited squeak and tumbled out of sight.

Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry didn't think he had ever met someone as strict as her and was right in thinking that she wasn't someone to cross. She gave them all a talking-to the moment they had sat down in her class.