Chương 15: First Lesson

Blue trimming had been added to our school robes by the time we awoke. Even the robes we wore yesterday—which had been cleaned, dried, and hung up—had it. There was a note waiting for us as well, saying our schedules would be handed out during breakfast.

"Why couldn't they just hand it to us here? I mean all the Ravenclaws are taking their lessons together, right?"

"Maybe they wanted to confirm we could find our way back to the Great Hall without trouble?" Riley replied, reading the note over my shoulder.

"Want to go together?" I blinked at her. Was she offering out of concern I'd collapse again? Did I care? She was reaching out, and that counted for something. I should probably make an effort to return the gesture.

"Sure!" She smiled brightly at me.

"Okay, I'll go get ready and we can head out!" She took forever. The other four headed out as a group leaving me practicing my charms while waiting patiently in the dorm. Breakfast started at 8: 00, and we weren't going to make the start of it. Once she finished, I had to admit that her hair was outstanding. It wasn't just styled with skill far beyond what I'd expect from a preteen, it had that natural-looking quality that impressed me yesterday during the feast.

I had assumed then that one of her parents had done it magically, since the trip across the lake hadn't disturbed it. Maybe it was the result of some product? My witch's hat might not look as good, but it did take only a single second to put it on. The fact that it was an official part of our uniform meant I could wear it more or less everywhere in the castle. We set out together, backtracking the route from yesterday.

We took it slow, carefully taking in our surroundings and discussing what classes we were most looking forward to; charms and transfiguration for both of us. Unfortunately, we ran into problems right before reaching breakfast. Not because of my fitness, but because I tried to take a pre-emptive staircase down to avoid crossing Myrtle's bathroom. The staircase decided to teleport to the other end of the castle. While we were on it.

At least I thought of it as 'teleportation' since it didn't feel like the time I Apparated with McGonagall. Needless to say, we got lost immediately. The games and movies entirely failed to capture the scale of Hogwarts, and the vague sense of direction I'd had from them didn't help with navigating the real thing. Hogwarts was a labyrinth. Hogwarts, A History, as well as my memories of the book series did describe this reality, but there was a stark difference in reading something and experiencing it firsthand.

There were 142 known staircases in Hogwarts, and many spanned multiple floors or pulled double-duty by moving around in the castle. To put that number in perspective, Buckingham Palace has less than 50 and contains nearly 800 sizable rooms fit for royalty. This meant that Hogwarts was around three times larger than the 17th biggest palace in the world. Well, the known world, since hidden castles are a thing in this one. We eventually came across the Hospital Wing.

That did mean I had the chance to stock up on the potions Sierra had recommended. Madam Pomfrey then politely gave us directions. Then, we ran into Peeves. Riley made the mistake of asking him for directions to the Great Hall. It was an understandable mistake. For all the guiding Penelope had done, we hadn't encountered him; and as such, she hadn't warned the first-years about him. Peeves answered her question with information that matched what Madam Pomfrey had just given to us.

Pointing out a door that would get us to breakfast in short order. We then spent at least five minutes trying to open it as he kept forcing it shut and laughing at us. Eventually, we decided to find another way; only to get lost again. The trio was still getting lost in this place during their third year. I reminded myself. It wasn't even some random secret place they were looking for at the time. They couldn't find the Divination classroom.

By the time we ran into a Hufflepuff fourth-year who was willing to guide us to the Great Hall, breakfast was already wrapping up. We barely managed to eat anything before the food disappeared. Professor McGonagall came by with our class schedules, and we quickly reviewed them. Today was Potions with the Hufflepuffs, and Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Gryffindors.

Looking ahead: Charms and Transfiguration were with Slytherin; History of Magic was with Hufflepuff; Herbology and Flying lessons were with Gryffindor; Astronomy was held with all four houses together. Mildly interesting that we didn't pair with the same houses as what Harry's year did. I wondered how they made those decisions. Astronomy was obvious—seven years full of students and seven nights in a week—but the rest of it seemed all over the place. Inefficient, but I guess it did allow for more variety.

I paused, looking at Friday. There was a singular evening lesson simply labeled 'Mandatory Attendance'. Did the Hat lie? Did Dumbledore figure out my secrets? Reviewing the others' lists revealed Riley also had the class, but Mathis didn't. So maybe not. I didn't have much time to think about it. We had Potions, and if this morning proved anything, it was how easy it was to get lost. Snape, I knew, wouldn't accept excuses. The Ravenclaws, grouped entirely together this time, asked for directions and set off.

v^v^V^v^v We arrived with plenty of time; the classroom wasn't too far from the Great Hall. The dungeon classroom smelled like damp stone, stale smoke, and something sharp and medicinal that burned faintly in the back of my throat. The ceiling was low, the walls lined with shelves of glass jars holding various pickled organisms. I wasn't sure the purpose of those jars other than to disgust and creep out the students. Some of them still twitched. The Ravenclaws took half the class and began to settle in.

I chose to sit near the back and slightly to the side. Good sightlines, while not being obvious about hiding from Snape's view. Riley sat next to me, looking around nervously.

"Not fond of Potions?" I asked.

"Or is it just the atmosphere?" Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Potions." She looked around once again.

"Well, both I guess…" She trailed off as Snape entered from the supply room and glared around at the students.

"This should be fun!" Ben said from in front of us.

"My old chemistry teacher had the same kind of jars in his classroom. I was in an enrichment program." I noticed Snape turn his attention towards Ben at those words with a sneer. The last of the Hufflepuffs trickled in and took their seats. The distant sound of the bell ringing reached us. A moment later the doors to the classroom slammed shut, cutting off the murmured conversations.

"You are here," Snape began softly, "to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic." A bit misleading; there was wand-waving in many of the recipes in our Potions' book.

'Foolish' wand-waving was incredibly vague.

"I do not expect you to really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron," he continued. It was distinctly off-putting just how close Snape's speech was to what I could remember from the books. It was probably just the kind of routine that a teacher falls into after welcoming so many first-years. Still, the whole scenario gave me the chills. I really needed to read up on Divination.

"Carter. What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Ben froze. His mouth opened. Closed. His eyes looked down at his book fearfully.

"I—I'm not sure, sir." Snape's eyes gleamed.

"Then tell me, boy, what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"They're… the same plant, sir," Ben said, voice shaking, "but–""—but?" Snape prompted dangerously.

"But they're prepared differently depending on the potion." Snape stared at him for a long moment. Then sneered.

"Wrong." Ben's face fell.

"They are the same plant," Snape said silkily.

"And the same ingredient. The distinction is linguistic, not functional. Two points from Ravenclaw for two wrong answers. Perhaps you should open your Potions' book instead of that muggle nonsense, Carter." I narrowed my eyes. I wasn't directly looking at Snape—Legilimency—but this was bullying. Plain and simple. Had he called out Ben because he didn't appreciate Potions being compared to Chemistry? Was it just because Ben had revealed himself as muggle-born?

"But, sir–" Ben started.

"Silence. Unless you want to embarrass your house further."

"They aren't the exact same plant," Luna suddenly said dreamily, completely ignoring the atmosphere of the room.

"Daddy always said wolfsbane is grown wild. You get monkshood if you plant it in a garden."

"Two more points from Ravenclaw for speaking out of turn and repeating false information, Lovegood," Snape said without even looking at Luna. He did get her name right though. He straightened and addressed the class as a whole.

"Open your books to page ten. Today, we will be brewing one of the simplest potions there are. Anyone, with any magical skill–" He turned his sneer very obviously back to Ben.

"Should be more than capable of creating something acceptable by the end of the period. Instructions–" He waved his wand.

"Are on the blackboard. Begin." I frowned at the directions. They weren't the same as the ones in the book. His version was probably better—Harry's sixth-year text basically proved that—but was Snape really not going to explain anything? Anything at all? I hurried over to the supplies. Quickly picking out the better ingredients mixed in among inferior ones. A test? Some of the nettles were overgrown, making them tough and leathery. A few snake fangs were noticeably damaged. The slugs were different sizes too.

"Are you going to stare at the ingredients all class, Parish?"

"No, sir." He wasn't going to explain any of this, was he? The 'lesson' continued. Snape continued to insult and deride everyone; abusing his position and finding excuses to take another few points from seemingly random students. This Snape was not Alan Rickman. I probably should've expected that after all the other things that didn't match the movies, but again; living through something is far more visceral than reading it.

Snape's redemption arc had stood out due to the emotional impact, and had slightly warped my perception of him towards being kinder than he really was. Near the end of the double period Snape circled his way back to Ben.

"Well, well," he said as he looked into the boy's cauldron.

"What is this? Swamp water?"

"I—I followed the instructions, sir."

"Clearly you didn't," Snape said.

"Or perhaps reading comprehension is another casualty of a non-magical education." He reached out and jabbed the potion with his wand. The cauldron hissed violently.

"Everyone," Snape announced, "observe what happens when basic directions are ignored." He vanished the potion with a flick.

"Zero for the assignment." It struck me suddenly—more than it ever had when reviewing my notes—that Snape had joined the Death Eaters wholly of his own volition. He was active enough that he was counted in their inner circle and given a Dark Mark before becoming Dumbledore's spy. Snape had happily tortured and murdered muggles before switching sides. He'd only joined Dumbledore after his actions resulted in threatening his own interests. He had never shown any regrets beyond what had happened to Lily Potter.

And now he was using his second chance to be a childish prick to actual children. I removed him from my list of people to keep safe. I wouldn't try to get him killed; but after looking at Ben's valiant attempt to hold in tears after having been so excited at the beginning of this class, I decided he'd dug his own grave. I wanted to do more—to either defend Ben or push back against Snape—but I couldn't think of a smart way to go about it.

If I took the moral, rules-based approach, Snape would just start targeting me for persecution as well. If I followed through on some of my more crueler prank ideas, Snape would be able to figure out I was involved through Legilimency and punish me far harsher than I could do to him. I really needed to learn Occlumency before picking a fight with the man. Even then, I would have to find a way to attack him without my classmates knowing so their thoughts wouldn't give me away.

Sure, he might not be able to use that as proof of my actions, but he also had no compunctions about bending rules for his personal gain or vengeance. He'd only given the barest of pretenses for his role as a teacher before going after Harry and Ben. The lesson wrapped up, and a very subdued group of first-years headed back to the Great Hall for lunch. I'd been right; he hadn't actually taught anything. All we got out of the lesson was practical experience, a small mountain of homework, and insults.

Snape was an actively horrible teacher, and Dumbledore had left him in the role for more than a decade. Dumbledore. Going to Dumbledore would be useless. He'd appointed Snape while fully aware of his history. Turned a blind eye to the constant low-level abuses of power Snape had been committing for over that decade. There was no magical solution. Revealing Snape's crimes to an authority figure—like I'd accidentally did with Father John—was pointless. Dumbledore knew more about Snape's past than I did by far.

He wasn't going to do anything if some random kid complained about a mean teacher. There might've been tactical reasoning behind Dumbledore's decision.

'Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer' was a straightforward enough saying, and I was all for giving a known criminal a short leash; but not when that leash ties him to a school. No one in their right mind puts a felon— a known murderer and terrorist —in charge of impressionable kids. Come to think of it, Dumbledore had made a lot of questionable decisions. In Harry's first year, it was revealed that Dumbledore had suspected Quirrell the entire time and had set Snape to watch him.

Snape had personally fought against Quirrell both on Halloween and when Quirrell tried to kill Harry in the boy's first ever quidditch match. And yet, Dumbledore didn't do anything about the situation. No– he had given a speech about how mysterious and dangerous the third-floor corridor was, ensured that all the defenses of the Philosopher's Stone were passable by first-years, and then sat back while Harry walked into danger. In the second book—this year—Dumbledore knew the Chamber was related to Tom Riddle.

He had more magical knowledge than Hermione, and far more examples to pull from to conclude that the creature was a basilisk as well. And what did he do to stop it? Tell Harry that 'I'll help you if you are loyal to me.' while in Hagrid's hut. He already knows about the basilisk. He had to have, given everything else. He knew, and he did nothing. I guess the attacks on the muggle-borns didn't matter to him so long as the damage was curable and Harry got experience in fighting Voldemort. Then the third book.

Sirius Black. Sent to Azkaban without a trial. Without even a conversation… While Snape walked free. Then later, he'd encouraged his loyal follower to live in a cave, begging for scrapes out of Hogsmeade in order to eat. My stomach roiled at the injustice. … Or maybe it was the lunchtime crowd. I really needed to find the kitchens and work something out. The fourth year, intentionally walking Harry into the most obvious trap and leaving it to him. The examples just kept coming.

Did I really want to trust Dumbledore with what I knew? How much would he even adjust his actions if he knew they led to Voldemort's true death? Would he justify all the deaths I knew about in the name of 'The Greater Good'? It was Dumbledore though. He was THE good in the series. Going to him would still be for the best… right? My thoughts kept circling as we ate. Most of the Ravenclaws were withdrawn after such a lesson, so my quiet didn't stand out much. The first attack wasn't until Halloween.

The first attack on a human happened right after the season's opening quidditch match. Colin. I had time to consider things more before going to Dumbledore. He'd be even more receptive if the Chamber was already open.