The Stone

Chapter Nine

"Okay, I seriously can not walk anymore" Bella sighs and plonks herself onto the ground as they walked along the bridge towards Potions. "Somone drag me!"

Hermione huffed, checked her watch and quickly walked away from Bella, Harry, and Ron making Bella frown. Their friendship hasn't been great since Bella had befriended the boys and Bella were starting to wonder what was up with her. 

Harry chuckled. "Come on Bella, we're nearly there"

"I don't care. I can't walk no further so either you drag me or I miss lesson" An idea popped in her mind. "Hey, actually that doesn't sound too bad! You guys can leave me and go to the lesson and I'll head back up to the common room!"

"As much as I agree with that idea, I don't think McGonagall would approve of that" Ron says making Bella sigh. 

"Fine. But one of you is still dragging me"

She held her hands up and Harry and Ron shared a look deciding who's going to drag her along the bridge and all the way down to Potions. After a few moments, Ron grinned as Harry reached down and grabbed Bella's hand ignoring the jolt of electricity that shot through their hands when they touched. Bella smirked as Harry dragged her along the bridge towards the building where Potions lesson was, she was getting a lot of funny looks as she sat on her bottom being dragged by Harry but she didn't care. Her legs were tired and could quite possibly fall off if she walked anymore. 

They reached the steps that lead into the building and Bella stood up to walk up them before sitting down and let Harry drag her again. Since Potions took place in one of the school's many dungeons, they had to walk (or in Bella's case, being dragged) towards the colder section of the building and down a spiral staircase with the walls lined up with pickled animals floating in glass jars  and when Bella touched one of the jars, one of the animal's head turned to face her making her scream. That was creepy!

The class shivered as the classroom was colder than all the others and it was a lot darker giving it the creepy feeling. Bella noticed more of the animals in Jars in the classroom making her frown. Yep, she was defiantly going to get nightmares!

Everyone checked to see if there was a seating plan and when there wasn't, they sat next to who they wanted. Ron sat at the end of one of the tables next to Harry, Bella sat next to Harry and Hermione sat at the other end of the table next to Bella. 

Professor Snape, like Flitwick, started the class after swooping in like he owned the place, by taking the register, and like Flitwick, he paused on Harry's name making Bella quietly groan. 'So Harry's name is pretty popular because he defeated the Dark Lord as a baby! Get over it and start the lesson!' She thought. 

"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter, our new- celebrity"

'Ah, yes. The greasy haired freak, our new - professor' Bella thought with a small smile. 

Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands but soon stopped at Bella's glare. Snape finished calling the names after pausing at Bella's name and Bella swore she saw a small smile and a little twinkle in his eye before the smile and the twinkle vanished as quickly as it came. He looked up and his eyes reminded Bella of Hagrid's except they didn't have Hagrid's warmth inside. His eyes were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels making Bella wonder if she had just seen the twinkle that was there before.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making" he began and Bella fought the urge to close her eyes and sleep, his voice could lure anyone to sleep! He spoke barely more than a whisper, but they had caught every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring senses...I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach"