The next morning Sagittarius was awoken by the sound of the shower in their dorm, rolling over he grabbed his wand and cast a quick Tempus to check the time, “5:45? Didn’t know he was that much of an early riser.” Sagittarius groans and waits, about fifteen minutes later, Harry walks out of the bathroom with a towel on his head and spells himself dry once he grabs his wand and glasses. “Good morning, sorry I didn’t mean to wake you up.” Harry says a bit sheepishly, grabbing some books out and sitting on his bed. “It’s fine, please just warn me next time. I definitely get up early but this is a bit much even for me.” Sagittarius laughs and gets ready to shower himself. Harry nods. “Duly noted.” He says.
Sagittarius walks into the bathroom. Ten minutes later he comes out and dries off. Harry is practising some incantations out of the Charms and DADA textbook. “Starting off early?” Sagittarius asked while getting his own wand. Harry shrugs. “I’ve already taken a look and mostly memorised everything in the DADA book for this year, but I need some Charms practice.” He says flippantly. “Really? I didn’t know you’d be so studious, definitely a good thing though because I plan on doing my best as well. Any particular interests? I happen to have some friends that I know are quite good at certain subjects, maybe we could start a study group.” Sagittarius chuckles, grabbing his bag as they both get ready to head out for an early breakfast. “Definitely DADA, from the tutoring I’ve had it’s one of my best subjects, Charms, and Transfiguration was both my mother and fathers best subjects respectively so I have a bit of natural talent in those, Potions is something I haven’t had much actual experience, I shouldn’t expect too much here, according to Sirius. He told me Professor Snape might have a grudge against me for issues with my father.” Harry frowns slightly and sighs as he says this. Sagittarius looks almost appalled, “Why would he have issues with you for things your father did? That’s incredibly petty, especially for a teacher.”
They both head into the Great Hall and sit down at the Gryffindor table, the only people in the hall currently are Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore who sit at the main table. Harry and Sagittarius both pull out their respective books to review before classes today, Professor McGonagall heads down to them and smiles. “Good morning to you both, here are your schedules.” Sagittarius takes his first, quickly scans it, and sighs. Once she leaves he turns to Harry who has a neutral face on, “Double Transfiguration, DADA then Charms after lunch, on the first day.” Sagittarius slightly leans against the table, “I’m more worried about double Potions with Slytherin tomorrow.” As he says that the Great Hall opens up again, Aurora and Orion both walk into the hall, green and blue robes respectively.
Once they spot Harry and Sagittarius they both head over and sit down at Gryffindor, Orion stops right before he sits down and turns to the head table. “Headmaster, are others houses aloud at other tables?” Dumbledore smiles with a twinkle in his eyes, “Yes Mr. Black it is definitely aloud just slightly uncommon, it may be wise to change to your house when breakfast starts but do not worry about teacher repercussions.” Orion nods at him and sits down next to his sister, she looks the most tired out of everyone but is still coherent enough to call her brother a nerd. Said brother rolls his eyes and they all sit in respective silence. Aurora flips her wand through her fingers, Orion reading a History of Magic book, Sagittarius reading a Potions book, Harry silently practising incantations.
More and more people start to flood into the hall as it gets closer to time, some give confused looks at the group of four, some Slytherins give cold neutral looks at Aurora who stare back at them heatedly in return. The only person who actually nodded at her was a girl with striking blonde hair, who Sagittarius immediately recognized as Daphne Greengrass Heir presumptive of House Greengrass. Aurora turns back to the group and sees Sagittarius’ look. She rolls her eyes, “Yeah she’s my roommate, seems to be a networking scheme or something but she doesn’t seem malicious.” Aurora shrugs and gets up to head over to her table, Orion does the same with a nod and a smile at the Gryffindors, they both head off in time for Professor Flitwick and Professor Snape to hand them their class schedules.
Breakfast happens the same as the sorting feast last night by food magically appearing, it proceeds quickly. Once it disappears everyone gets up to head to the first class of the day. Not entirely sure where to go, Sagittarius and Harry just follow the crowd. Sagittarius grabs his head as an onslaught of emotions and random feelings flood through his head, almost overwhelming them before he clamps down on his Legilimency and tries to focus on a single person to drown out the others, shoving the tiny bit of guilt aside he focuses on the prefect leading the way. “Nervous about doing a good job, pride at being given this position, anxiety about his OWLS, typical stuff but this guy is a very open book. Alright 1, 2, 3, breathe in and out. Just like mom and mother taught me. Speaking of, I should owl them my sorting tonight.”
Sagittarius calms himself down as they continue walking to Transfiguration, as they all head into the classroom the only thing in there besides the desks is a tabby cat sitting on Professor McGonagall’s desk, Harry smiles at it when he walks in, they both sit down together. Class starts in five minutes so Sagittarius takes out his Transfiguration book and quickly reviews it. Harry sits down next to him and just relaxes scoping out the classroom. Two Gryffindor students rush in at the last second with a quick, “Oh my Merlin we made it on time.” Coming from the red-headed one, that looked a lot like the prefect, “I think it was Ron Weasley and Seamus Finnigan” Sagittarius thought, they both quickly took a seat, as the cat jumped off the desk. In midair, it turns into Professor McGonagall. “Welcome class, to your first lesson at Hogwarts. Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn here,” she said. “Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned.” She then turned around and changed her desk into a pig, then back again. Everyone was suitably impressed, after the demonstration, McGonagall started a very long lecture, with everyone doing their best to write down notes.
In the last thirty minutes of class, everyone was given a matchstick and told to transfigure it into a needle. Sagittarius turned to Harry to watch him first before attempting it himself, Harry stared at the matchstick for a moment, incredibly focused before saying the incantation with a wave of his wand and turning it into a needle on his first try. Sagittarius raised an eyebrow at the impressive display, “Any tips before I try this?” He whispers quietly to Harry, who looks back and says equally as quiet.” Imagine it as a needle in your head before you say it, fully visualize it and be confident in your words. Magic is about intent.” Sagittarius focuses quietly, using his Legilimency to focus his hardest on the image of a needle, before saying the spell, the matchstick turns into a 3/4th of a needle, and then trying again it turns fully into one. He turns to Harry who smiles and gives him a thumbs-up, he gets up to grab two more matchsticks and transfigures both of them into needles as well. At the end of the lesson, Harry and Sagittarius are the only ones with fully completed transfigures, Each is awarded 5 points for their efforts.
After this lesson the day passed by relatively quickly, DADA being a subject Sagittarius was glad he was good at, to begin with, because Professor Quirrell is almost impossible to understand with his stuttering, and Harry kept wincing every time they made eye contact, weirdly so did Quirrell. Charms were quick too, Professor Flitwick being a very fun teacher, dulled slightly from only doing a lecture this period, the day passed by relatively quickly. The next day Herbology was a slightly interesting affair only because the shy kid Neville Longbottom was a certified prodigy in this class, easily earning house points and answering questions from the most likely 4th-year curriculum. Sagittarius wondered how good he would be if he had that confidence in all the other classes. “Something to consider if the opportunity arises I suppose, might be worth trying to establish a relationship with him.” Sagittarius thought to himself with a shrug.
Finally the most dreaded first class this week came creeping up. “Potions.” Harry said simply with a small grimace, He breathed in and out slowly as the first years all walked to the classroom together. Sagittarius puts a slight hand on his shoulder to steady him as they are both walking in, finding a desk, both of them sat down and waited, the Slytherins on the other side of the room keeping to themselves, almost an invisible divider between the two Houses. Sagittarius did spot Draco, attempting to make conversation with one Aurora Black. The girl in question looked the most bored Sagittarius has ever seen her, leaning back in her chair and waiting for anything interesting to happen. She catches his eye and smirks with a little wave.
The door abruptly opened, and he walked in with a flourish and cape blowing behind him was Professor Severus Snape. He commanded quiet and obedience by stance and aura alone “You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making. 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 the human veins, bewitching the minds, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper to death — if you aren’t as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.”
Silence followed his declarations as he scoped the classroom with an annoyed gaze. Sagittarius’ fears came true when the Professor turned abruptly from his silent pacing towards their desk. “Potter! What would I get if I added a powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?” Professor Snape suddenly snapped, glaring at Harry. He impassively looked back, “The first step to the Draught of Living Death sir.” He stoically said not even surprised at the targeting. “Well, it seems there are some brains to go along with the fame.” Snape sneered, the class stayed silent around them. “Once again, where would you look if I said to find a bezoar?” Harry responds, “Either in your emergency kit, or if we were in the wild in the pit of a goat’s stomach…Sir” He added as almost an afterthought, still answering impassively. Professor Snape narrows his eyes, dropping the sneer but still looking decidedly annoyed.
Sagittarius tilts his head slightly with a flash of insight as the cog turns in his head, “He looks surprised, with the tiniest hint of guilt, but not guilt at what he’s doing now. Guilt for what has been done.” With the subtleness of a battering ram all insights that could have been afforded to Sagittarius immediately stop as Professor Snape turns to look at him and a headache works into his brain, Sagittarius winces slightly but stands firm, “LeFay! What’s the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?” He says with force behind his voice. Sagittarius almost panics before he remembers after a half-beat of hesitation. “Nothing sir, they are the same plant which also goes by the name aconite.” Sagittarius says with confidence. Professor Snape nods with a grunt, “Passable. Both of you will see me after class.” The Gryffindors both nod impassively.
Sagittarius breathes out slowly as Professor Snape turns around to write the instructions for the cure to boils on the board, as he says begin, everyone who was in pairs has one of them walk up to the potion cabinet to get all the necessary ingredients, while the other stays back to get the instruments and cauldron prepared, as Harry got up to walk to the cabinet Sagittarius puts a hand on his arm. “Wait a minute, we don’t need to get those I have my own.” He pulls a potioneers kit out of his bag full of ingredients and all the items needed for potion-making. Harry raises an eyebrow and sits back down to get the cauldron ready, “So why do you have all of this?” Harry asked inquisitively, “My parents are both incredibly accomplished potioneers who both have masteries in their respective fields, as well as some others. I’ve learned how to safely brew most potions by myself with their tutelage, we should be fine.” Sagittarius responded already getting to work, instructing Harry to start crushing the snake fangs.
Their process was definitely faster than everyone else’s, getting off to an early start both of them moving with speed and confidence, about half an hour went by before being interrupted, Harry twitched his wand into his hand and snapped “Accio porcupine quills!” The quills that almost fell into Neville’s and Seamus Finnigan’s cauldron came into his hand with a relieved sigh, Professor Snape stalked over from his desk, “Potter! What are you doing?” “Stopping an explosion from happening sir, they almost added the quills before taking the cauldron off the fire.” Harry said with slight trepidation for the first time. Snape narrowed his eyes then looked away, turning to Neville, “Boy! Next time you won’t be so lucky, be more careful.” He said imperiously before taking his post again. Neville shakily nods and turns to Harry, “Thank you so much, that would’ve been awful.” Harry nods at him and continues working on their potion, at the end of it with a soft wave of his wand Sagittarius bottles the pink potion, rose and heads towards the headdesk.
Handing it over Professor Snape who takes it silently and pops the cork off, sniffing it slightly, nods with a near-silent “One point to Gryffindor.” Knowing that potion was perfect and done with twenty minutes to spare Sagittarius stoically accepts the unfairness and heads back to his seat, on the way he notices some of the Slytherins notably Draco and his cronies giving him glares, but the one partnered with Aurora gives him an appraising look, that almost looks impressed, while Aurora herself gives him a definitive thumbs up and a smirk. She and her roommate both stand up and present theirs next, Professor Snape only looks at Daphne when he says. “5 points to Slytherin.” Draco presents next, being given 5 points as well. His smugness radiating, distracts from his lacklustre potion, obviously going for speed over quality.
The rest of the class passed by quickly Sagittarius just zones out not wanting to get caught practising any other subjects. The first years quickly filed out of the room, Harry and Sagittarius stayed back as instructed, once everyone left they both walked up to the front desk. Professor Snape stood imperiously, once they closed the distance standing about five feet away from his desk he looked up from his papers, “Well, I know that Mr.LeFay knows why he’s here, but do you, Mr. Potter?” Professor Snape said, not sneering as he did before but still with a tenseness to his voice. Harry considered this for a moment and took a quick glance at Sagittarius, seeming to not want to say in his presence, at Snape’s continued look he spoke, “Yes sir, from what the Headmaster has told me, we have a conflict to resolve before the semester continues, but since I am the student and you’re the teacher I left it to your discretion.” Harry said reluctantly. Snape in a lapse of composure snorted at that. “Conflict is an understatement Potter, your father terrorized and bullied me in my school days, and you are almost an identical copy of him. That is something I cannot ignore without resolve and Dumbledore knows this.” Snape said derisively. “Unfortunately this is something that most likely cannot be resolved because the person I have this conflict with is not here to settle it, so I will make this quick, I will ignore your very existence in every facet as long as you ignore that part of you that makes up your father while in my presence then we shall agree to disagree and move on. Is that agreeable for you Mr. Potter?” He continued. Harry stood there for just a couple of seconds, Sagittarius could feel the conflict and suppressed anger, none of this showed in his next few words. “Perfectly agreeable Professor, I hope to change your opinion of me through actions rather than words. May we leave?” He quietly said with steel and control in his voice.
Sagittarius who has been standing quietly for this back and forth straightens when Professor Snape looks at him. “Not yet, I want you to know LeFay that I know what you did and what you tried to continue to do. If you attempt to do so again unintentionally or otherwise I will give you detention for the rest of the year. Do you understand me?” Snape snapped off. “Yes sir, I understand very well, it won’t happen again.” Sagittarius responded with a slight shaking in his voice. “Good, you both may leave.” Snape ushered them both out, as they stepped out together and started walking to the library, Harry let out a sigh of restrained anger. “That went over better and ultimately way worse than I thought. I can’t believe he still holds a grudge.” Harry muttered, “What issues does he have with you?” He questioned inquisitively, Sagittarius fidgets slightly, he looks around as they walk wondering if he should dodge the question. “Uh, I don’t know if I should say, let’s just say for now I’m really really good at reading people.” Sagittarius responds quietly, Harry nods.
They both continue to walk in silence for a moment, “Harry, I wanted to ask about the spell you used to save Neville from the explosion?” Sagittarius asked, “Oh yea it’s called Accio the summoning charm, typically taught in the fourth year but it’s pretty easy to learn early, just circle and flick slightly up at the object you want to summon while saying the spell and object you want to be summoned, I can show you later if you want.” Harry explained and then offered. Sagittarius agreed readily.
Later that night they have their first Astronomy class, it passes over smoothly with no issues but a lot of confusing terminologies. As everyone starts walking back to Gryffindor tower, Sagittarius walks to the Owl Emporium, to find his familiar that he got special permission for, “Hello Jade! How’ve you been darling?” The raven flies down and perches on his hand taking the offered treat and pecking their hand nuzzling into his shoulder. “I need you to send a letter to my parents, do you mind?” The raven caws an affirmative in response, Sagittarius hands the pre-drafted letter, that has his sorting, friends he’s made, favourite classes, the usual first-year Hogwarts student stuff.
As the raven flies off into the night Sagittarius turns around and heads toward Gryffindor tower to end his night excited but nervous about how their parents will react to his sorting, as he walks through the Fat Lady’s portrait into the common room, he spots Harry talking to Neville in quiet whispers by the fireplace. Harry waves him over, as Sagittarius approaches he says. “Do we need privacy for this? Also Mr. Longbottom we haven’t had much opportunity to talk yet but may I ask why you’re so nervous?. And why do I need to be a part of this conversation?” Sagittarius asked. Harry chuckles as Neville blushes slightly and looks down, “He wants to know if I could give him some pointers, I was trying to reassure him that it’s only been a couple of days and he shouldn’t worry.” Harry responded with amusement in his voice, “Still doesn’t answer my question, why am I here?” Sagittarius returned with an eyebrow raise. Harry smirks at him for just a brief moment, yet Sagittarius notices it and feels the cog turn in his brain once again, “He’s testing me, he’s putting me in a scenario where I have to read someone and potentially shift their view with words alone. And here I thought we were Gryffindors, not Slytherins Potter.”
Sagittarius narrows his eyes for just a moment considering his options, before shrugging, “Mr. Longbottom, don’t worry it’s only the second day here, you have plenty of time to improve if you feel you aren’t up to calibre. If you still feel this way by midterms feel free to ask us the question once again. For now, just do your best.” He said with almost a melodic quality to his voice, Neville stands up slightly straighter, a faux glow coming to his eyes as he blinks rapidly for a moment. “Thank you Mr. LeFay for the advice, I shall take it to heart, I will improve.” He smiles and nods to them both, as he walks off Sagittarius notices two things, one that Neville almost seems to be two inches taller, and two that Harry is side-eyeing Sagittarius with a speculative look on while slightly smiling. “I have to say, Lord Potter, I didn’t expect you to be so underhanded.” Sagittarius says not even looking in his direction yet, Harry chuckles, “Whatever do you mean good sir, you definitely should’ve and most likely did expect this from the moment I told you my first two sortings.”