The Heart Is Not Black or White

Chapter 12

"Seriously?" Pansy exclaimed as she chewed her breakfast. "Astronomy is scheduled for Tuesday at MIDNIGHT?"

"Isn't it exciting though?" Tracey asked. "I mean, what muggle school teaches classes at midnight?"

"None, because they're muggles." Pansy rolled her eyes.

"C'mon," Daphne urged us. "We have to get to Herbology."

As the five of us got up, Pansy countered, "What's even the point of Herbology anyway? I don't even know what that class is about."

"Well," Tracey began. "It has 'herb' in it, so Herbology is probably the study of herbs, or plants."

Pansy rolled her eyes once again as we made our way out of the Great Hall. She was really starting to get on my nerves.

"So how are we supposed to find our classroom?" I asked to ease the tension.

"It says Herbology is in one of the greenhouses, so let's start by going outside," said Daphne.

Getting to every class was like an adventure. There were never-ending floors of moving staircases and tricky doors. I got lost going to almost every class in my first week.

Whenever I passed by the boy whom Ron seemed to have befriended, everyone always whispered about him. I asked Daphne numerous times what the big deal about him was, but she always said, "If you don't know what the deal is, at this point you need to ask your parents or a teacher." Pansy tried to explain to me, but Daphne told her to shut it each time.

So far, I had put two individuals down on my list of people to watch out for: First, Peeves the Poltergeist. He was a nasty little thing, who apparently only the twins could control. Peeves especially liked to pick on first-years. Fortunately George came to my rescue before Peeves could pull out a rug from under my feet.

Second was Filch, the caretaker. He complained and yelled at students if they tracked mud inside, and gave detention to any student who was seen on the third floor corridor. One time Daphne and I got lost on our way to Defense Against the Dark Arts and ended up on the third floor. Of course, we were caught by Filch and given detention for Friday a half-hour after our double Potions class with Gryffindor.

Classes so far were interesting, but much harder than I expected. My favorite by far was Defense Against the Dark Arts, even though our teacher, Professor Quirrell, had somewhat of a stuttering problem. My least favorite was Herbology, as I hated I get my hands dirty. All of the Slytherins whole-heartedly agreed with me, especially Malfoy, who made his opinion known to everyone and made it quite clear that he detested Herbology. At least we agreed on something.

Many of the teachers were nice, but strict. Professor McGonagall was the strictest of all (or so I thought). She gave anyone who was late to class a stern talking-to and at the end of her lecture she would say, "The next time you're late will be detention for the rest of the week."

During our first Transfiguration class with the Ravenclaws, we were assigned to turn a match into a needle. Of course, most of the Ravenclaws were able to get it, but Tracey was probably to only one to get it in Slytherin.

Even though Defense Against the Dark Arts was a fairly good class, Quirrell was an... odd teacher. His classroom smelled like garlic, his turban did too, and he stuttered a lot. He told us a couple stories about his encounters with the "Dark Arts", but never cared to elaborate. Fred said the reason for the garlic smell was so that Quirrell could ward off vampires.

On our way to Potions Friday morning, Daphne asked me, "I hope this teacher isn't as strict as McGonagall. It's Friday, and my brain is turned off."