Willow || Cedric Diggory

On the Sidelines

Scratch that, Rey did not know anything about the British Wizarding World. One thing he didn't understand was Harry. People talked and whispered all the time about Harry and he couldn't figured out why. Even the kid himself also looked bewildered with the amount of stares he got everytime he came out of his dormitory. Rey indeed should ask one or two things to Hermione.

"Hey, Hermione."

"Hello Rey." She greeted him back, without lifting her head from her homework.

"Uhm, so I figured you're more knowledgeable than your fellow first years." This sentence made Hermione finally looking at him.

"I couldn't figure out why people talked about Harry all the time." Hermione looked at him, confused.

"Honestly? Where have you been? He's kinda big here, being the boy who lived."

"Uhm... Never stayed here longer than a month every summer?" Rey lifted his shoulder.

"Ok, sit then. I'll try to explain it as briefly as possible." 

Hermione then continued to explain everything as brief as possible. Even after she finished, Rey still couldn't grasp anything quite firmly. It goes along like a dark and evil wizard guy killing lots of people during a war, went to Harry's home, killed his parents, tried to kill him, was the one to die instead, hence the boy-who-lived nickname. He wanted to ask Hermione to explain them to him again, but from the look of it he would only got yelled at. So Rey thanked Hermione and left the library.

By Friday, most of the first years managed to get to the great hall for breakfast without being lost. Rey was one of them, but not poor Neville. He showed up at the great hall 10 minutes before 9, looking drained and miserable. Which, only gave the boy around 10 minutes top for breakfast. 

Rey felt pitty towards Neville. But when he heard that they would have double potions that day, he almost felt like fainting.

Till that day, they had tried most of the classes. His most favourites so far was transfiguration, followed by Charms, and Astronomy (He liked it because they just had to memorize constelations). Herbology didn't interest him that much, History of magic was boring, and Quirrell's Defence Against the Dark Arts was just a joke (too many stories and not that many spells). But potions? Hoped that Professor Snape won't be as bad as the others mentioned.

As soon as the bell rang, all of the Gryffindors first years rushed to the potions class down in the dungeon. They've heard how nasty Snape could be towards their house, so they somehow collectively decided to came in early. The class were darker, colder, and somehow a little damp in certain spots. But none of them were dare to complain.

Before he started the class, Professor Snape took a roll call. When he stopped at Harry's name, Rey could already see nothing good would came for the boy. The professor then said (more like murmured) something before finishing the roll call. With the class' silence, Rey almost conviced that Professor Snape could heard his heartbeat, or even every random thoughts that were passing in his head.

Professor Snape then decided to ask Harry a few questions regarding potions. To which, he could answer non of them. Even somehow before they received any materials, the boy managed to lost the Gryffindors a house point. 

Later in the class, All of the students were paired into twos and were ordered them to make a potions to cure boils. Rey was paired with one of his roommates, Bem. During the practicum, Professor Snape inspected every groups to make sure they did everything perfectly. When he passed through Rey's table, he gave an empty look without any critics, which was felt like a feat for him. He then went over to Malfoy's table and verbally praised him. At that point, Rey finally believed that the professor was totally biassed against the Gryffindors.