Loved By You. (A Severus Snape Love Story)

Chapter Nine: The New Term

September 2nd 1995

When I woke up the next morning I realised I hadn't actually looked at my timetable and had no idea what my schedule was but it was only 6:30 and I was the first one up so I would have plenty of time to do that later.

When I emerged from the shower, my hair and body were still soaking wet but wrapped up in towels, I was greeted by a darker haired girl just rising from her bed.
She approached me sleepily but she seemed friendly enough.
"I'm Pansy Parkinson." She smiled. "I don't know if you noticed but I was sitting with Draco last night and at dinner."
"No I didn't, sorry."
"That's fine, I mostly just blend into the background here, but you seem pretty outgoing and Draco definitely seems to like you." She smirked, heading into the bathroom.
"Thanks?" I said warily, not quite sure how to take her comment.

One by one the girls got out of bed and went to get dressed by the time the last one was just getting into the shower I was fully dressed and ready to leave but I realised it was only 8:00 and I didn't have anyone to lead me to the Great Hall. I decided to go and sit in the common room to see who was there.
Just my luck Draco was already dressed with his two henchmen.
He rose when he saw me coming.
"Aria. We were waiting for you, are you ready for breakfast?"
"Sure." I shrugged.
Without even thinking about Pansy, Draco took off with me.
When we arrived at the Great Hall it seemed to be fairly empty. Most of the eager first years were seated and ready for their first day and a few groups from other years were settling down for their meal but it was still over an hour until classes and taking into account that friends would have been catching up into the small hours last night many of the students would probably be sleeping in and running late for their classes.
Draco took a seat at his usual spot at the end of the table and the three of us followed.
Most teachers were already seated, I tried over and over again to catch Snape's eye but he was deliberately staying away from my direction eventually I gave up and as the hall filled my grandfather wished us all luck on our first day.
The Slytherin table was packed now and once again Draco's fans had gathered. I spent the next 15 minutes being introduced  to everyone and having boring 1 minute conversations with them all.
Finally I was left alone and had a chance to go over my timetable, sadly it wasn't long until Draco stuck his nose in again and started comparing our classes.
It wasn't until last period that I would be having my first class with Snape and I wouldn't be sharing it with Draco who had it first.
Even though Draco had been getting potion lessons with Snape since first year he was still working up to his OWL's whereas my old school worked at a more advanced level and I was currently at a Newt level, I would still have to sit my OWL's with the rest of the year but obviously I was in the more advanced class.

After breakfast Draco headed off to Potions and I made my way to probably the most boring class there was, History of Magic. When I arrived I was joined by half of the Slytherins in my year along with half of the Hufflepuffs. Already I could tell they were just as enthusiastic as me about this class. I was shocked five minutes later after the class was seated when a transparent apparition glided through a wall and into the class room. Obviously I had seen ghosts before, most recently at the Great Feast the previous night, but I had never imagined that a school would permit one to teach a class. But then again it is History of Magic and I suppose he's lived through the history.
After re-introducing himself to the 5th years he instantly went into a long, droning voice as he read notes from the pages he had in front of him, not once did I notice him look up again at the class until the end of the lesson. 
Assuming he wouldn't even hear me, no less bother if I spoke I turned to the Hufflepuff boy sitting next to me. "What's his story then, did he teach here before he died or something and just couldn't resist giving the job up?" I asked. Looking rather peeved off at my interruption he eventually turned to talk to me.
"Apparently he had taught her practically all his life and eventually he had gotten so old that he passed in his sleep in front of the staffroom fire, the next morning he woke up and got on with his life -well, death- he hadn't even noticed he had died until he found his body again." The boy turned back to face the professor but I wasn't letting him get away that easily.
"You'd think since he's been teaching so long he wouldn't need to read the notes, he must know them by heart by now."
"Probably." The boy shrugged, barely even looking at me now.
I wasn't sure if the boy took his house trait too seriously and he was determine to be hard-working in even the easiest of classes, or he was just repelled by the fact I was a Slytherin. Either way he had put me in a bad mood for my next class and I wasn't sure there was anyone in this school that could cheer me up.