Ginny and I walked into the potion's chamber. It was a large, cold dungeon classroom that had shelves upon shelves of bottled substances. There were several workstations with cauldrons and several ingredients already set up. In the front of the room there was a blank blackboard... with Snape standing directly in front of it.
Grimacing slightly as his dark, cold eyes bore into mine, I walked past him quickly and found a seat near the back of the room with Ginny. Carefully setting down my bag, I sat down next to Ginny and looked directly at Snape with my hands clasped neatly in front of me. His eyes narrowing slightly, Snape pulled his gaze away and turned his back on the class to start to write something on the blackboard in front of him.
I turned to Ginny, a small smirk appearing on my face. "Guess I left an even worse impression on him..." I whispered quietly, turning to look at Snape's writing on the board.
"Yeah..." Ginny replied even softer than I had. Her voice was laced with apprehension and anticipation.
I mean she's told me what Ron thinks of Snape... and it's not particularly pleasant...
"Do you know what we're doing?" I asked her, as a minute passed with Snape still staring at the blackboard.
Ginny looked as though she was about to shake her head when Snape suddenly spun around, his cold, black eyes locked on mine.
"Ten points from Gryffindor," he said in a low and sharp voice. "For speaking out of turn."
I raised my eyebrows slightly in a profoundly confused expression. "Yeah... erm... I don't really know what that means," I said with a sheepish expression upon my face.
I watched as Snape's eyes narrowed. He suddenly started walking forward, his cloak billowing behind him as he reached the table I was sitting at. With his hands clutching the side of the surface, his voice echoed around the stone walls of the dungeon. "If you speak out of turn again, you won't only be losing points."
Again, I raised my eyebrows at him as he walked back to the front of the room. I bit my tongue to stop myself from saying something else, but I couldn't help turning back to Ginny and rolling my eyes while shaking my head.
I seriously just asked a question about something no one told me about... I don't think I did anything wrong...
Ginny just shrugged at me and turned her attention to Snape. I was about to do the same when I noticed most people were staring at me, so I gave them a half smile half grimace and looked down at my feet.
"Now that there will be no more interrupts," Snape said coldly, looking directly at me. "We can move on to some questions."
His eyes scanned the room, locking on every student for at least a second before moving on to the next. "Mr Creevey, what is the full name of the potion known as liquid luck?" he spat at a small Gryffindor boy with dusty blonde hair and a friendly, enthusiastic face.
"I don't know, sir, but I'm sure it's got some crazy name that I'd have trouble pronouncing! But that's the fun of it, right? I think-" the boy started to ramble, but Snape cut him off with a cold glare.
"That's enough." he spat coldly, looking at the boy with disgust. He turned away and muttered so quietly that I could barely hear him. "Pathetic... insufferable... idiot..."
I looked towards Creevey to see his reaction, but it didn't look like he'd heard. No one else seemed to have reacted either.
Okay, this Snape guy is really messed up.
Looking back over at Snape, I saw his gaze lock on mine. "Miss Reyner," he started, his voice dripping with contempt. "What is the precise difference in preparation between a proper Dormouse blood infusion and the crude, common tincture used by amateurs?"
Erm... who-the-what now?
Squinting slightly, I brought my hand up as I struggled to formulate a response as frantic thoughts rushed through my head. "Erm..." I started with a grimace, drawing my hand closer to myself as nothing that even resembled an answer appeared in my mind. "I don't know... I mean you haven't taught us anything yet... so..."
Snape's cold eyes narrowed as he looked at me. "Ten more points from Gryffindor..."
I still don't know what that means!
I just let out a silent sigh as Snape continued his questions.
Seriously, he can't actually expect us to know the answers to these questions... but somehow I get the feeling that's the point...
He soon moved on to actually teaching by vaguely explaining some basic potion terminology and telling us to turn to the Cure for Boils potion in our book. Shaking my head slightly I tried my best to follow the directions carefully, squinting carefully at the details to get them right.
Looking over at everyone else, I saw most people were finishing their potions. Seeing I was nearly done, I grinded six snake fangs...
Yeah... I said snake fangs.
...Then, carefully adding the finely crushed powder to my cauldron, I proceeded to heat the cauldron with my wand... and I did heat it...
Okay... this is the first time I've ever used a wand before, so I didn't really know what I was doing!
However, instead of the potion just heating up... I accidentally set the whole thing on fire.
Looking over at Ginny, I found her staring at my cauldron with confusion. "How'd you manage that?" she asked cautiously, looking through the bright flames emitting from my cauldron and then looking back at her own perfect potion.
"Erm..." I started, but never got to finish as Snape had walked over with a look of pleasure on his face that he quickly shifted to disapproval.
"What is this?" he asked in a cold, hard tone. His eyes glared at me through the flickering flames beneath him. Reaching for his wand, he extinguished the flames... revealing the ruined potion underneath.
"Well... you see..." I said slowly. "I've never used a wand before... seeing as this is the first magical class I've ever been to..."
Snape opened his mouth to respond, but a loud, booming bell sounded across the classroom. Everyone around me started to pick up their stuff, making sure their ingredients were away. I began to try to clean my station up, looking at the charred remains that were left of what were once whole ingredients. However, Snape stopped me with a glare. He raised his wand again, waved it around once, and the entire mess was cleared.
He turned away from me, and I started to pick up my bag, looking at Ginny with a confused expression on my face. She shrugged, and I turned back to Snape just as he turned to face me. "I'll see you at detention tomorrow."
I opened my mouth to speak, but Snape continued, interrupting my thoughts. "And that's on top of the detention you've already earned by crashing that car..."
"I'll look forward to it, Professor." I replied as confidently as I could muster, sighing as I turned away.
I started to walk towards the door with Ginny at my heels when I heard a strange sound echoing from behind me. It sounded like... a laugh...
Quickly turning around with a surprised and confused expression upon my face, I found... nothing. Only Snape sneering at Ginny and I as we left... and he definitely wasn't laughing, nor was he reacting to any sort of sound. I quickly fixed my face and turned back around, following Ginny, who also didn't react, out of the room.
Well that was a great first class... Not only did Ilose points, fail to answer an impossible question, and set my potion on fire... I'm also hearing things.
I can already tell it's going to be a great year...