Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Rewritten - A Harry Potter Fanfiction

Chapter 10: An Introduction to Magic

Harry and Ron reached their fifth floor Charms classroom two minutes after the bell. Both boys were panting and out of breath.

After they'd left the breakfast Hall at half past seven, they'd rushed to the Gryffindor common room, losing their way only once. Harry had not expected putting on his uniform to take time but they'd lost precious minutes struggling with their neck ties while Malfoy's Gryffindor pal, Anthony Goldstein, put on his with practiced ease. When they'd finally finished with the ties, Harry had spent another few minutes trying to do something about his unruly hair before giving it up as a lost cause. Then he'd haphazardly thrown his textbooks for the day, a few sheets of parchment paper, a bottle of ink and a quill into a book bag with the result that his parchment had become crumpled. Seamus had then shown Harry the trick of placing the sheets between the pages of their largest textbook; A History of Magic Volume 1 by Bathilda Bagshot. By the time Harry had added new, uncrumpled sheets and checked that his ink bottle was tightly stoppered, it was ten minutes to eight and Seamus, Dean and Anthony had already left.

Harry and Ron had then rushed through the East Wing, trying to find the arched pathway that led onto the viaduct. They'd been waylaid first by Peeves, the resident Poltergeist of the castle whose sole purpose for existence was causing chaos. Peeves had zoomed around them in mid-air, pelting them with bits of chalk and worse, ink bottles, while cackling madly. In an attempt to evade him, they'd been forced to go deeper into the east wing where they'd been waylaid by Filch who wasted their time demanding to know what they were doing in that part of the east wing when first years didn't even have classes in the east wing. He refused to believe that they were running away from Peeves and it had taken a re-appearance by Peeves to convince him. While Filch had a heated exchange with Peeves about splattering the walls with ink, Harry and Ron had slipped away.

They'd lost ten minutes though and the eight o'clock bell had rung as they'd dashed across the viaduct. Fortunately, there had been a staircase right next to the viaduct exit and on climbing it to reach the fifth floor, they'd found their charms classroom right next to it.

Harry stepped into the classroom, trying to catch his breath, thinking that the castle was a like a maze, one whose doors and staircases and corridors moved around from time to time. Next to him Ron wiped away the sweat that was sliding down his brow.

"Settle down, boys" a squeaky voice instructed them.

Tiny Professor Flitwick was standing on top of a pile of cushions stacked on the teacher's chair so that he was clearly visible to the class.

Harry considered where to sit. The wide, rectangular classroom had about fifty desks and chairs, organized in five rows of ten desks. The first row was full. Hermione and Irene were seated at the two desks right in the middle of the first row. The second row had two empty places right behind them. The third row had been taken up by nine of the ten Hufflepuffs and the fourth row had been taken up by Malfoy and what seemed to be his large gang of rich, entitled friends. Harry spotted four other Slytherins, a trio of Ravenclaw girls and Anthony and Lisa from Gryffindor. Malfoy was right in the middle of them. The last row had three empty places on either side of three Slytherin students who hadn't made Malfoy's friend group.

"Back row'll make a poor impression and I want to impress Flitwick; I want to do well in Charms" Ron muttered to Harry. He made for the spots behind Hermione and Irene but there was reluctance in his steps. Harry knew that it was because of Irene. What was the story there?

When Harry and Ron had seated themselves and pulled out parchment and ink and the Standard Book of Spells Grade 1 by Miranda Goshawk, Flitwick began the roll call. Each student responded with a dull "present, sir". When roll call was finished, Flitwick cleared his throat. The low muttering among the students ceased at once. Many students leaned forward eagerly.