Ravenstar: Chapter Four

[eaivalefay]

Chapter 4: Classes

Nalian woke instantly as Draco threw open the curtains around his bed.

"Wake up or you’ll miss breakfast." Draco smiled pleasantly.

"Don’t care." Nalian buried his head under his pillow as yesterday’s events came back to him. He scrunched up his face as Draco yanked the pillow away. "You’re a damned morning person, aren’t you?"

The blond smirked, "yes, yes I am."

"Curse you." He dragged himself out of the bed. "I despise mornings, they never treat me well. What’s our first class?" Nalian pulled an outfit from his trunk, he really needed to put his clothes in the wardrobe next to his bed.

"Potions, you’ll get to meet Severus." Draco made his way to another bed with closed curtains and yanked them open.

"Proof that mornings hate me." Nalian muttered under his breath as Draco literally pulled a fighting Blaise out of bed.

After Blaise, Draco went to a third curtained bed. He pulled the covers off the person and waved Nalian over to them. "This is Theodore Nott, we call him Theo. We tried to call him Dore, but Theo didn’t take that nickname well."

"And where’s Greg?" Nalian asked, noticing Theo had fallen back asleep, curled into a ball for warmth.

"He’s gone to breakfast, where I would be if I didn’t have to baby-sit you three." Draco said, grabbing hold of Theo’s wrist and dragging him onto the floor.

"Well, I know I didn’t ask you to be my nanny." Nalian glared, "I like sleeping in, even if I miss breakfast." How could Draco be so awake? It was annoying.

Draco smirked, as if he knew what Nalian was thinking. "Someone has to do it. Think, if you overslept breakfast you’d probably oversleep classes." He made sure Theo and Blaise were getting dressed before pulling Nalian out of the room. "Do you play Quidditch? Tryouts will be this Saturday, and we need a second beater and two chasers."

"I don’t play," Nalian informed him. "I can fly alright, but Quidditch dislikes me almost as much as mornings do." He hadn’t the faintest idea what the rules to Quidditch were, after all he only learned to fly on a broom, a broom, last week. Whoever heard of flying on a broom?

"You better be good at classes I need help in or I’ll be doing all the work around here." Draco teased. "I’m the captain for the Slytherin team and play chaser."

"You really are disgustingly cheerful in the mornings," Nalian said morosely. "Breakfast does include coffee, doesn’t it?"

"No, just pumpkin juice and orange juice. The teachers’ table has coffee, so perhaps you can get the house elves to bring it to you as well." Pansy said before Draco could. "Professor Snape dropped off our schedules a few minutes ago." She passed them their schedules.

"Draco, how did you know we’d have potions first if you didn’t have your schedule yet?" Nalian frowned.

"You forget, two of the teachers are family of mine." Draco smirked, filling his plate with food. "Aren’t you going to eat anything? We only have fifteen minutes left before classes."

Nalian looked down at the muffin he had shredded on his plate. "I told you, I don’t care about breakfast. All I need is coffee."

"Eat something anyway." Draco ordered. "I won’t have you passing out in class and embarrassing our house."

Nalian sniffed and pointedly ate nothing. As they left the great hall Draco shoved a fresh muffin into his hands. Nalian sighed and ate it, Draco watching to make sure he did.

They entered a classroom in the dungeons that was filled with two rows of ten desks. Nalian sat at the front next to Draco as other students filed into the room.

"Who are they?" He nodded towards the students he didn’t recognize, sitting on the other side of the room.

"Gryffindors." Draco said. "We have potions with them. The redheaded git is Ronald Weasley, the idiotic blond on his right is Seamus Finnigan and the moron on his left is Dean Thomas."

"I can feel the love." Nalian said drily. Blaise snorted. "I don’t suppose this would be a good time to mention I’m not all that good at potions?"

"What do you mean ‘not all that good’?" Draco asked.

"I’m lucky if my skills can be called average." Nalian said.

"Well, you’ll only make it out of this classroom in seven pieces then." Blaise smiled. "After all, Professor Snape favors his house. You are aware he’s Slytherin’s head of house?"

"I am now." Nalian grimaced. "He’s going to hate me, isn’t he?"

Draco patted his back. "If he does hate you he’ll only show it privately. He’s fiercely proud of Slytherin and won’t disparage our house or its students in public unless he absolutely has to."

"Was that supposed to comfort me?" Nalian inquired.

"Not really."

The class quieted as Snape stormed into the room, his robes billowing out behind him. "Open your books to page 476." He spoke softly, barely above a whisper, yet everyone heard him and quickly obeyed.

Nalian could feel the teacher’s eyes on him as he flipped open his book.

"Morthen, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Snape demanded.

Nalian looked up from his book reluctantly. "Asphodel and wormwood make an extremely powerful sleeping potion. I don’t know it’s namethough."

Snape sneered, "what is valerian root used for?"

"Valerian root is a tranquilizer, used in potions to relieve tension, headaches, and milder cases of insomnia."

"Liliaceae?" The man inquired.

"Liliaceae, Garlic being it’s common name, helps with most health issues, including many infections. It also reduces cholesterol, and helps with high blood pressure and lower blood sugar levels, which makes it useful for late-onset diabetes. You can add it to potions that aren’t volatile to enhance the potion’s effects." Nalian silently thanked Farra, a healer and one of his elven teachers, for beating plants’ uses into his head.

"And what is gentian used for?"

"Gentian potions help with minor and major digestive problems, mostly used to strengthen a weak digestive system." Nalian said.

"Ten points to Slytherin." Snape looked around the room, "why aren’t you writing this down?" He strode to the board behind his desk. "Today you lot are making a potion for stomach ailments, with an infusion of garlic." He wrote the instructions out on the board. "Get to work."

Draco nudged him. "I thought you were useless in potions?"

Nalian smiled, "useless in practical assignments. I’m better with theory and memorization."

"Well, he hasn’t dissected you yet." Blaise smiled cheerfully. "Just don’t explode the cauldron and you’ll live through this session."

Nalian took Blaise’s words to heart. "Draco, you tell me what to do."

Draco smirked, "I can do that."

And Draco did, and would all day long. ‘But at least I survived my first potions class.’ Nalian thought as they headed towards the charms classroom.

Charms and History of Magic went by uneventfully, if one didn’t count Nalian falling asleep in history. Really, Professor Binns could make the most interesting topics boring.

The Slytherins filed into the transfiguration classroom. Draco made a beeline for the table at the back of the room, Nalian following in his wake.

"Try not to talk in this class." Draco ordered. "McGonagall doesn’t much like Slytherins, especially me."

"Why?" Nalian asked curiously.

"Why she doesn’t like our house, I don’t know. Why she doesn’t like me, because she thinks I once dyed her hair Slytherin green the night before a big Slytherin verus Gryffindor Quidditch match."

"Did you?"

"No." Draco huffed. "My father did."

Professor McGonagall, an older woman with her graying black hair pulled into a severe bun, walked into the room, dropping a load of books that floated into the room behind her onto her desk with a flick of her wand. "Today we will be discussing how to turn these books," she waved at her desk, "into stone. You’ll be trying to turn the books to stone at a later date."

A student raised her hand, "but professor, we can already turn objects to stone."

McGonagall smiled thinly, "this is a more controlled transfiguration, Miss Greengrass. This time, you will learn how to turn the book to stone, while still keeping it a readable, usable, heavier book."

"Why would you want to use a book made of stone?" Pansy asked incredulously.

"It’s not a matter of merely turning books to stone for the pleasure of it, Miss Parkinson." McGonagall said. "Can anyone tell me why you would want to turn a book to stone?"

A hand raised in the front. "Because you can perform certain spells on rock easier than on ink and paper." A curly-haired Hufflepuff said.

"Five points to Hufflepuff. When someone is casting a certain type spell on a book they’re writing, or just a book they own, the spell will stick better on stone. There are also some books and spells you can only read if the book is turned to stone."

"So why not just leave the book as stone if that’s the only way it can be read?" Another Hufflepuff asked.

"Secrecy, such as a journal or diary, or a clever trick, or perhaps a riddle for someone to solve." Blaise gave his ideas.

"Five points to Slytherin." McGonagall nodded. "A way to hide things that most people wouldn’t consider checking. In fact, such stone magic is a very old form of magic, last used almost three centuries ago, and a form of magic that most people have forgotten today."

As the bell rang the teacher told them, "I want you to write a five foot essay on this form of magic, including a thorough description of how it is done."

"Assignments on the first day," Draco snorted in disgust.

Nalian raised an eyebrow. "Snape gave us a four foot essay on, of all things, garlic. I’m not sure I can write about garlic for so long."

"Potions is much more interesting than Transfiguration, and the assignment is shorter." Draco replied. "What do you have next? I’ve got Care of Magical Creatures."

"Ancient Runes." Nalian told him. "I don’t suppose you could direct me to the classroom?"

"One floor up, and on the left. That’s all I know." Draco told him. "And I have to go if I’m going to get to class on time."

Nalian started up the steps, and then they moved. ‘What insane person decided moving staircases would be a good idea?’ He thought in irritation. If the stairway didn’t move back he would be completely lost. Nalian looked around furtively and, kneeling down as if he were tying a shoelace, placed his hand on the floor. A minute later the staircase shifted back to where it was when Nalian had gotten on it. Nalian sighed and pulled himself up. He couldn’t keep using elven magic like that; someone would notice sooner or later. ‘That’ll be the last time.’ Nalian promised himself. ‘I just need to learn my way around Hogwarts and I’ll be fine.’

Getting off the stairs, he noticed a girl at the other end of the corridor. "Excuse me!" Nalian called.

The girl stopped to wait for him. "Can I help you?" She was polite, but her shoulders were tense as if she expected an attack.

"I need to get to the ancient runes classroom and I don’t have the faintest idea where it is." He said.

The bushy-haired girl frowned curiously at him. "You’re the exchange student, aren’t you? Though I don’t understand why anyone would want to change schools to attend one so deeply submerged in war."

"It was my uncle’s idea and I didn’t really know how bad things were here." He explained. "I’m Nalian Morthen. Please just call me Nalian."

She gave him a skeptical look, "Hermione Granger, you can call me Hermione. Come on, we’re going to be late."

"So you take Ancient Runes as well?" He followed her down the hall and to the right.

Hermione nodded, "it’s a fascinating subject."

He grinned. "You can read texts you otherwise wouldn’t be able to read."

She beamed, "yes! Do you know how many old wizarding spells are written in Ancient Runes? And the Ancient Runes symbols were and still are used worldwide, unlike Latin and other languages. When I graduate, really after the war, I plan on going into translation of old texts. France has a lot of runes texts that aren’t translated, and Bill Weasley promised he would teach me to read ancient Egyptian as well."

"Bill reads ancient Egyptian?" Nalian asked in surprise.

She sat at the front of the classroom and patted the seat next to her. "Of course. He was a curse-breaker for Gringotts, working in pyramids before he came back for the war. He specializes in Egyptian magic, particularly curses."

"So I don’t suppose we can study together, at least for this class." Nalian said.

"I don’t know." Hermione looked at him. "You’re in Slytherin."

"That doesn’t make me a bad person." He frowned at her.

"No! That’s not what meant." She gave him an annoyed look. "Slytherins don’t like muggleborns. Namely me."

"So? I like you." He said

Hermione sighed "You’ll get harassed for befriending me."

"Life wouldn’t be much fun if I went around doing what everyone wanted me to do." Nalian shrugged. "I don’t really know anyone from Slytherin who I could study ancient runes with, so the others will just have to get used to the idea."

She smiled at him. "All right, but don’t expect me to like your other friends."

"As long as you don’t expect them to like you either, agreed?" He said solemnly, but his mischievous eyes betrayed him.

"Agreed." Hermione grinned.

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