The Sun, Moon & Stars

11. Severus Snape

Ophelia woke up early the next morning in anticipation. She wasn't entirely surprised to find that Hermione was also awake; sitting cross-legged in her bed, fully dressed already, with her nose in a transfiguration textbook.

'Morning.' Ophelia whispered, as she slipped out of bed; opened her chest and pulled out everything required for her uniform.

'Did I wake you? Oh, I was trying to be quiet.' Hermione frowned, and looked up when she heard Ophelia's voice.

'No, don't worry, wasn't you. Besides, we all need to get going soon anyway.' Ophelia added, as she slipped into the bathroom to change and came back moments later dressed in the uniform.

Within the next half hour, the four of them made their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. It took a little longer than expected, Pavarti was having trouble with her tie; and it took Lavender at least ten minutes to roll out of bed and get ready.

The Great Hall was pretty much full when they arrived. You could feel the exctiment buzzing throughout the grand room. Each of the tables looking equally excited as the next. Breakfast had already been served; the silver dishes filled to the brim with any type of breakfast food you could possibly imagine.

Ophelia sat next to Hermione, and across from Harry, Neville and Ron. Pavarti and Lavender made their way down to the other end of the table to sit with Dean and Seamus, who were currently shoving their mouths full with scrambled eggs and bacon.

They mumbled greetings of good morning, and Ophelia grabbed two pieces of toast, and the jar of raspberry jam to lather over it. It didn't taste nearly as good as Ginger's jam, but it was a close-second.

After a quiet breakfast, where everybody was pretty much too tired to interact with each other, they made their way to their first class; History of Magic. The Gryffindors entered the classroom to find it was being split with the Ravenclaws; much to Ophelia's delight. The class seemed to go on for hours, though it wasn't actually that long. It was taught by Professor Binns, another ghost, whose voice was monochromatic and who seemed utterly disinterested in teaching to begin with. They spent half of the period listening to him talk on and on, and the other half was textbook reading; which was easy enough but was no less boring.

Then came Charms, which was taught by the shorter man Ophelia saw the previous night. His name turned out to be Professor Flitwick, and he was very kind. They did some light reading, but spent most of the time discussing how their days were going so far with Proffesor Flitwick.

After a quick lunch, was transfiguration. Harry and Ron were late, which led to a bit of a delay in the lesson. Professor McGonagall had been in her animagus form when they came into the classroom and the two of them, blatantly unaware it was her, were talking on and on about how lucky it was she wasn't here yet when they took their seats. Otherwise, Transfiguration went well. The majority of it was reading, but unlike History of Magic, they got to see some demonstrations and Professor McGonagall was good at teaching.

Then came Potions. The walk to the dungeons was treacherous. The staircases kept moving, making it take much longer for the first year Gryffindors to get to the desired destination. On top of that, the dungeons were cold; ice cold, despite it being September and their thin robes did nothing to provide them any warmth. The dungeon corridors were dimly lit, with a couple lanterns hanging from the walls, but that was the extent of it.

When they entered the classroom, the Slytherin's were already there. Professor Snape was at the front of the room, back to the students, and his arms firmly crossed. Ophelia could see the outline of his defined face, and his sharp hooked nose. He looked intimidating. There were two empty tables, so they split up and got seated. Dean, Seamus, Parvati and Lavender at one; and Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville and Ophelia at the other.