Looking around the near empty library while waiting for his friend Padma to arrive, Harry took the opportunity to sink into his codex and began to file away the events of the day by sorting his mories.
He couldn't help but reflect on his day, which had been interesting on a number of levels. First, was Padma's embarrassnt, which plagued most of the morning classes. Harry didn't notice it too much at first, due to both of them being too focused on their lessons. Therefore, they did not partake in small talk, unlike most of their classmates.
However, outside their lessons it was becoming increasingly annoying. Especially the awkward monts whenever he asked a question, or the fact that the Padma would leave an extra bit of space between them. Harry had decided to leave it be and just get along with his day, the last thing he wanted to do was make the situation worse than it was by saying sothing stupid.
As he expected, the rest of the first year Ravens had chosen to give him the silent treatnt and tried to ignore him, while at the sa ti glaring at him whenever he answered a question or earned points.
This didn't affect him much, since the Dursleys had a similar policy. If the Ravens thought it would break him, they were mistaken; ten years with the Dursleys had made him immune to the silent treatnt and pointed looks.
Padma herself was not immune sadly, and she indirectly ca under fire due to their friendship and she didn't fail to notice the looks she received from her housemates.
It also forced Padma to get over her embarrassnt after getting upset at receiving the cold shoulder from a couple of Ravens whom she had befriended the first night. Harry had explained it was not because of her, but due to him and they were just jealous of Harry helping her and that they would get over it in a couple days.
However, Potions class had turned out just as the older Ravens had warned them on their first evening, and had resulted in them losing points.
Harry had answered several questions correctly, but he could not make up for his fellow housemates lack of preparation for the class. He also couldn't do anything about the hostile nature of the teacher in general towards the students, with Harry himself being a pri target.
It gave Harry the impression that the man would rather be sowhere else instead of teaching them how to brew potions.
But, to a point, he could understand the teacher's strict teaching style. His mother's notes had explained potion brewing was a dangerous profession and mixing unstable ingredients could have hazardous results to both the brewer and the surrounding individuals as well.
Simply put, a potion intended to heal could very well beco toxic if brewed incorrectly, therefore a high standard was necessary for everyone's safety.
This point was proven when several of his Hufflepuff classmates had to be taken to the hospital wing for treatnt, after the boil-cure potion they had been brewing blew up in their faces, effectively covering them in mixture of boils and minor burns.
Harry and Padma had both received five points from Professor Snape for being the only ones who were able to successfully brew the potion to an acceptable standard. The potion itself looked exactly like the one described in the book, with the sa colouring and texture.
Harry expected the Professor just didn't want them to get cocky from their first attempt, hence only giving them an acceptable marking for the potion.
The class that he been looking forward to most that day was Defence Against the Dark Arts, which taught students the proper way to deal with dark creatures, how to handle dangerous situations and spells used in combat, like shield charms.
But Quirrell's lessons quickly turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom slled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd t in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days.
Many of the students couldn't even understand what he was saying. It was clear by end of the lesson that many of his fellow classmates were disappointed and personally, Harry thought that the man should be replaced.
Because of his own reasoning that being able to defend oneself against dark elents was critical skill, and it needed to be taught correctly. Also, his father had been a hit-wizard and he had noted the importance of the subject and how seriously it should be taken by all parties.
He had asked several older Ravens about it, who all said the Defence against the Dark Arts position was cursed, and that most teachers only lasted a year before they left for one reason or another. The longest had been two years, but that professor had been found dead in his office. When his death was investigated, nobody could discover a cause of death and it was finally ruled an accident. Hence the curse was confird in the Hogwarts rumour mill.
This kept any well respected wizards or witches from taking the position anymore, and most students had to rely on being self taught to get a passing grade. The upper year students said the books would be good enough for an acceptable grade. However, the final lesson of the day more than made up for the lack of teaching ability by Professor Quirrell.
Transfiguration was taught by Professor McGonagall, who was sitting on her desk in her animagus form when they arrived. Most of students just thought it was common cat, mainly because cats were allowed in Hogwarts due to many witches having them as familiars or pets.
However, Harry knew differently because her animagus transformation had triggered his father's own interest in the skill, which resulted in his father achieving his own form of a stag.
After shocking the class into silence with her transformation from a cat, the Professor started giving her opening speech. As Harry wondered what his own form would be, several possibilities crossed his mind. However, he wouldn't be able to find out until his core personality settled. Even then he would have to find the potion, which was ministry controlled, before he could try.
Having finished her opening speech and giving a strict warning to the class, Professor McGonagall changed her desk into a pig, before quickly changing it back. To say that the class was excited was an understatent, but they quickly realized they wouldn't be changing the furniture into animals for a long ti.
After making a series of notes on the Universal Laws of Transfiguration, they were tasked with changing a match into a needle.
Harry thought back on process described by a number of books he read, along with his father's notes on process, it all was about visualizing the change itself. The more you knew about the item, the easier it was due to there being less magic required to force the change. He had read the theory, but hadn't practised since parents had warned how dangerous it was to try without supervision.
Thinking of a match changing from wood to steel, changing its' length, its' thickness, recalling its' texture from when he used needles to repair his clothes and repeating the images in his mind, wood to steal again and again, he said the incantation.
Before Harry's eyes the match changed to a needle, a prefect copy of the needle he pictured.
"Well done Mr. Potter, most impressive. It seems you have inherited your father's talent," Professor McGonagall said with a small smile directed towards him. Before she could continue, out corner of her eye she saw the Boy-who-lived change his own match into needle.
"Well done Mr Longbottom, it seems I've been graced with two naturally talented students this year," she said with smile. She then rewarded them with ten points each, before setting both to the task of transforming multiple matches.
Harry took the ti to help explain the process to Padma and assist her with the task. Under his guidance, she was the third in the class to master the transfiguration.
He saw Neville trying to help his friends, including a ginger haired boy, who Harry recalled from welcoming feast, was called Ron, short for Ronald. He was only partly successful, but then again he was trying to assist three of his year mates whilst Harry was just helping Padma.
Eventually he got around to trying multiple transfigurations. It took awhile to learn, but as he practiced he got faster after each consecutive attempt. By the end of class, he was able to change ten matchsticks at ti into needles and back again without too much difficulty, earning him an additional ten points for Ravenclaw.
Several more students had achieved the transfiguration by end of the lesson. Harry and Padma received heated stares from their fellow Ravens who had not managed to complete the task. From the lion's den, the Boy-who-lived and his friend Dean were able to transfigure the match along with the lioness Hermione, who seed to take it as a personal challenge to keep up with Harry and Padma.
After class, Padma rushed off to catch up with her sister Parvarti, since they been unable to talk since being sorted, after telling him she would et him in the library later.
His reflections ended when Padma sat down at his table in the library without a greeting and took a book out of her bag and start reading. Padma showed signs of distress and on closer inspection had dried tear marks on her cheeks.
Harry couldn't decide what to do about it. 'Should I comfort her? Should I even get involved? After all, it may not be any of my concern, but even if it is what do I say? Shouldn't I at least ask? After all, isn't that what friends are ant to do for one another?' Coming to decision, he decided to a least try to show so concern.
Putting his book down and levelling his gaze on Padma he asked, "Are you ok?"
Padma didn't even look up, just said, "I'm fine," however her voice said otherwise. Now Harry faced another decision on what to do next. How many tis had he seen soone say they were fine, but burst out crying as soon as they were alone. He knew he did that a lot during his first year at primary school, and being alone often made him feel worse.
Looking at Padma and making sure his tone contained both concern and seriousness Harry said, "If you sure, but if you want to talk about whatever has upset you, I will be here to listen. Otherwise, let know if I can help with anything." He then went back to his book about charms.
"Thank you," was the soft reply, to which Harry just nodded.
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