Effervescence | h.p.

i | xvi. potions

With their timetables in hand, the two girls and two boys left the Great Hall for their first ever class at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The Howler fiasco had shaken Harry and Lyra a bit, but now that the ginormous amount of attention had been drawn away from them, their departure from the hall was pleasant. Ron and Hermione hadn't really known how they felt about the situation.

Ron initially thought that the meaning behind the screaming envelope was, as he said, "Bloody brilliant!" On the other hand, he didn't like the amount of eyes that followed their group and their every move.

Hermione was mortified. She had never had any experience like that and she was thankful she had never needed to up until this point. She handled the eyes quite well, having gotten used to glaring, judgmental stares from peers throughout her time in primary school. Her lack of acquaintances and abundance of books earned her knowledge beyond compare, but also gave her nasty comments from ugly classmates.

Harry and Ron broke off from the group upon their arrival in the corridor outside of the Great Hall, saying that they needed to grab their texts from their dormitory. They left them there, forgotten until thus far, and would be needing them in their classes. This left the two girls in the corridor, rolling their eyes at the boys' idiocy.

The girls walked through the school and towards their first double-lesson of the week; double Potions with Slytherin. Usually, all the first-year students would have the same classes, but a few of the double-lessons needed to have smaller class sizes, such as double-Potions.

Hermione had said something about Potions most likely being similar to muggle chemistry, where you mix chemicals and learn about different elements and how they react with each other. Lyra found it absolutely fascinating and she thought that maybe she would ask the professor for extra help when he would be available; she wanted to know everything she could about the subject.

When they got into the freezing dungeons where the class would be taking place, both girls were practically shivering at the temperature drop. Who knew it could be so cold somewhere during the warm summer.

The classroom's door was open, waiting for the students to enter. Class would be beginning in about ten minutes.

Lyra and Hermione walked in and found some seats towards the front of class, deciding Harry and Ron could either sit with them or find their own seats. Sitting down, the girls spoke in more hushed tones due to their rampant nerves and the quiet atmosphere around them, no one seemed to be speaking at a normal volume. Well, no one in Gryffindor, at least.

When there was about three minutes before the bell to start class would ring, most of the students came rushing in. In this abundance of students, Lyra noticed a bit of red hair and the unkempt raven hair of her friends; Ron and Harry. She waved over to them and pointed to some seats that were in close proximity to Hermione.

Harry sat directly on Hermione's right side, the seat to her left was occupied by an excited, nervous Lyra. Next to Harry, a boy named Neville sat while Ron had been forced to sit right behind Harry, for there were no more open seats in their row. Ron didn't mind sitting back a bit — he did want to sit with his friends, but he had also heard from his brothers that Snape, the Potions teacher, was a right git.

Less than one minute until class started, a few stragglers came, quite literally, running into the room, terrified of being late on their first day of Potions. The Slytherins kept their chatter at a normal volume while the Gryffindor students had been warned of Snape and his fury. He would take points off of the other Houses for students practically breathing while he would award his House with points for just about the same.