The next morning, Santana found herself the first one awake in her dorm. She wasn't sure if it was even morning yet, since the only light they got in their dorm was from the lake, which she suspected would cast the same green hue over everything whether it was morning or night.
She lay in bed for a few minutes, reliving the previous day's events. She couldn't stop thinking about how anxious she'd been with the sorting hat on her head. Afraid beyond measure that it would put her in Gryffindor. But it hadn't. She was in Slytherin, with Quinn and Leon.
Accepting that she wasn't going to fall back asleep, Santana kicked off her covers, changed into her school robes, grabbed her wand from the table by her bed and left the dorm.
The clock on the common room wall said 5:45. Way too early for anything. She spent a few minutes really studying the common room. She sat in each chair, on each couch, deciding which were the most comfortable so she could make sure to always sit there. She looked at the portraits, talking to the few she found awake, and then went to the window and looked out into the lake. It was relaxing. She could see the weeds in the water, looking almost like a forest.
When the clock chimed six, Santana decided to try find the owlery so she could tell her parents which house she was in. She turned to head back to her dorm for some parchment when the pearly white ghost they'd seen the night before came drifting through the wall.
Santana jumped, raising her wand.
"And what might you do with that?" he said, in a hoarse whisper.
Breathing hard, Santana glanced at her wand. Truthfully, she had no idea what kind of spell to use against a ghost, but it made her feel better to have it raised, so she didn't lower it.
The Bloody Baron sneered at her, floating closer. Santana backed up, pressing up against the glass.
"You mean to attack me little girl?"
Swallowing thickly, Santana shook her head.
"You startled me."
The ghost stopped feet from her, taking in her full appearance.
"You are small."
Forgetting her fear for a moment, Santana frowned.
"You're dead."
The cold, terrifying eyes that had been eyeing her met her eyes. She thought she saw amusement, but it seemed unlikely, given the frowning eyebrows.
"That I am." He said slowly.
He stared at her for a long moment. It was only when she had to tilt her head up to keep looking at him that Santana realised he was floating away. She lowered her wand when he disappeared through the ceiling.
She was going to need to learn a spell to keep that thing away from her.
****
She got back to the common room at a quarter to eight. It took her an entire hour to find her way to the owlery, even though her brother showed it to her the night before. It didn't help that the stair cases kept moving, taking her to different parts of the castle and confusing her. Even trying to come back to the common room was harder than she thought it should be. It didn't make sense to have staircases that changed randomly and of their own will. Especially when the castle was hard enough to manoeuvre as it was.
Nobody was in the common room or in her dorm, so she assumed they'd all gone up for breakfast. Sure enough, when she walked through the large doors of the great hall, Quinn was sitting with the other first years, looking half asleep. She made her way over.
"Where have you been?" Quinn asked harshly when Santana sat down beside her.
"I went to the owlery." Santana shrugged.
"And you didn't wake me because?"
"Why would I wake you?" Santana frowned.
A piece of parchment was shoved in front of her face before Quinn could answer. She took it slowly, looking up at the person handing it to her.
"Time tables" A soft, contained voice said above her.
"Thanks Professor" Santana said.
Professor Snape nodded at her, sticking his hand out with another time table for Quinn.
"You should all know that I expect much from my students." He said, as he continued to hand the time tables out. "I will be keeping my eye closely on all of you." His eyes swept over all the first years, before resting on Santana. She nodded.
"Yes sir."
Then he was walking away, his long black cloak flowing behind him.
"Oh man." Lauren said. Santana turned to see her looking uneasily after Snape. "He's…"
"Scary?" Sugar suggested.
"I heard he's brilliant at potions." Rachel said.
"I guess the scary teachers are the best wizards." The tall boy with perfect hair said. "Look at McGonagall."
Santana turned to the professor's table. She could see what the others saw in Snape. He definitely didn't seem like the kind of professor that you could joke around with, but she liked the sense of power that he exuded. She was suddenly very excited for potions.
As quickly as she could, without ripping the parchment, she unrolled her time table.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Quinn asked
"In a second-YES" She said happily.
"What?" Quinn leaned closer to read her time table. "Oh…potions?"
"Yup" Santana smiled. "First class of the day."
"Oh man" Lauren said nervously.
"Relax. I heard Snape favours Slytherins." Sebastian said.
"Bad luck" Quinn groaned. "No defence against the dark arts today."
Santana shrugged, finally serving some sausages and eggs onto her plate.
"Hey butthead" Leon called from the end of the Slytherin table as he made his way to Santana. Santana looked up, frowning as the other first years laughed.
"What?" She asked, trying not to get irritated.
"Did you send mum and dad an owl?"
"Yeah, first thing in the morning"
"Oh yeah?" Leon asked throwing his hands up.
"What?" Santana asked now angry.
"You sent Toffet!" Leon yelled.
"SO!" Santana yelled back.
"I wanted to send them a letter too Santana. And Toffet is my owl!"
"Just send one of the school ones."
"You send one of the school ones."
"Don't need to. My letter's already on its way." Santana smirked. "Guess you'll have to wait for him to come back."
Leon growled as Santana went back to her breakfast. She had a spoonful of eggs halfway to her mouth when suddenly there was wind blowing her hair wildly around, tipping over her goblet and pushing the eggs from her spoon. She had to quickly spread her legs to keep the eggs from falling on her thighs.
"LEON"
"That's what you get." Leon laughed, jogging away from her.
"Git" she mumbled, as she tried to fix her hair, pretending not to hear her house mates' laughter.
****
The door was closed when they got to the potions classroom. Santana guessed that Professor Snape didn't want them messing around with ingredients when he wasn't there.
She dropped her bag at her feet and leaned against one of the walls, content to wait for him.
"Santana! Quinn!"
Santana closed her eyes against Sam's over enthusiastic greeting, trying not to role her eyes.
"Well, well." A boy in Gryffindor said. "It's the Slytherins."
"Hello" Rachel said cheerfully, extending her hand for him to shake. He didn't. "I'm Rachel Berry."
The boy frowned at Rachel's hand, then tilted his head to look behind her.
"I'm surprised you're still here."
"What do you mean?" Lauren asked, looking around as if to make sure the boy was talking to her.
"If I was sorted into Slytherin I would have taken the train back home last night."
Santana frowned, looking at the boy for the first time.
Now Lauren looked nervous.
"W-why?"
"Oh you don't know?" The boy took a few steps forward. "No wonder you're so calm. Slytherin's the house of pure blood supremacy."
Santana pushed off the wall she was leaning against, glancing at Sam. He was frowning at the boy who'd spoken, but not like he was angry. More like he was confused.
"What?" Rachel squeaked in a high pitched voice. "That's not true."
"No? Then how come Lauren over there is the first muggle born in Slytherin for centuries?"
So Lauren was a muggle born. Santana tried to remember if that had been mentioned last night. From the way Rachel and Sugar had both looked at Lauren, Santana assumed not.
"How do you know that?" The tall Slytherin boy Santana had yet to learn the name of said, stepping in front of Lauren.
"I have a better question." Quinn said. "Who cares?"
"Oh don't pretend." The boy sneered.
"Azimio what are you doing?" Sam asked quietly, his eyes flicking between Santana, Quinn and Lauren.
"We all know what Salazar Slytherin thought. We all know what he did with the chamber of secrets. He had a giant freaking basilisk hidden just to kill muggle borns."
"R-really?" Lauren looked slightly panicked as she eyed her fellow Slytherins. Santana felt anger bubble inside her. She knew Lauren probably didn't know what a basilisk was, but hearing something giant was once killing people like you wasn't good, whatever the animal.
"That was over a hundred years ago" Rachel said, still in an annoyingly high voice. She wrung her fingers nervously in front of her and shook her head. "Slytherin hasn't been that way in a long time."
"Oh, so you're not a pure blood?"
Rachel glanced around at the other students.
"I-I…My great grandmother was a muggle."
The Gryffindor boy rolled his eyes.
"We don't even need to ask about those two." He pointed at Santana and Quinn. "They might be one of the only families not tainted by muggle blood, no surprise they're in Slytherin."
Santana narrowed her eyes. Today was her first day at Hogwarts. She really shouldn't start it off with detention.
"Then there's Motta, she wouldn't shut up about her daddy on the train. Daddy's a pure blood isn't he Motta" He mocked.
"What exactly is your problem?" The tall boy asked, now getting right up to the Gryffindor boy.
"My problem, is that they still allow Slytherin to exist. In my opinion anyone sorted into Slytherin should be carted straight off to Azkaban. The whole lot of you are just dark witches and wizards in training. Waiting for the next dark lord to rise so you can finally stop putting up with muggle borns like me and Lauren. Waiting for a chance to use all the dark spells your parents have been teaching you." He shoved the Slytherin boy in the chest.
Santana's wand was out and pressed up against the Gryffindor's neck before the Slytherin boy had even found his footing.
"SANTANA" Sam yelled, appearing somewhere next to her. She was vaguely aware of Quinn pushing him away, but Santana's eyes remained fixed with the Gryffindor boy's now wide and terrified ones.
"Say that again." She said slowly. The boy was breathing hard, his eyes darting between both of hers. "Say that again I dare you."
After a moment, he shook his head.
"Believe me, I don't need any dark spells to make you regret ever speaking about me or my parents. I know plenty of legal spells that will have you begging for your mummy."
They heard the sound of a door slamming somewhere down the corridor. Glancing quickly in the direction, Santana pressed her wand harder into the boy's neck.
"Apologise."
"What?"
"Apologise!" She pressed harder.
"Sorry" The boy squeaked.
Santana glanced again at the dark corridor, making sure it wasn't Snape coming. As she did, she found herself falling backwards. Quinn caught her before she hit the ground.
"15 points from Gryffindor" A voice called from the shadows.
Professor Snape came storming up to them, his cloak bustling behind him.
"Sir!" the Gryffindor boy yelled. "She had her-"
"Yell…..at me again….and it will be thir-ty."
The boy clamped his mouth shut, glaring at Snape. Santana found the pauses Snape took between words to be highly effectual. The tense, slightly charged energy of all the students was now replaced by silent fear. In the case of some of the Gryffindor's based on their faces, silent fury.
"Everybody into the class."
He waved his wand and the door banged open, making them all jump.
"You okay?" Quinn asked, letting go of Santana.
"Yeah."
The potions class was dark. There were a few candles on the walls but their light seemed to disappear into the darkness. There were long benches for them to sit at, with dividers after every three seats, and a door at the back of the class that Santana couldn't see into.
Quinn pulled her to sit on the same row as Sugar and Lauren.
"Are you okay Lauren?" Santana asked.
"Fine."
"You know we don't care right?"
"I went to a muggle school." Sugar said, shrugging.
"What was tha-"
"You can't sit here" Santana put her bag onto the seat Sam was just about to occupy, forcing him to stumble back to his feet. He frowned at her.
"Why not?"
"Because we're the Slytherins" Quinn sneered.
"You guys know I don't care-"
"He's sitting here."
Santana grabbed the arm of the boy walking past them and shoved him into the seat.
"Santana…" Sam pouted at her, she shrugged and turned back to the front.
"I guess I'm sitting here." The boy said once Sam had walked away.
"What is your name?" Santana asked abruptly.
"Sebastian Smythe."
"Santana Lopez." She said, watching Sam join the Azimio boy at a bench.
"So what's your deal? Don't like Gryffindors?"
"Nope."
"How come?"
Santana turned to frown at him. "You saw what just happened. Do I really need a reason?"
"Nope." Sebastian glared at the closest Gryffindor. "A bunch of arrogant twats if you ask me."
Santana chuckled.
"Silence"
Almost at once all the conversation died, despite the fact that Snape hadn't even raised his voice. The entire class was watching him with rapt attention.
"Potions, unlike charms or defence against the dark arts, is not a subject that lends itself to showmanship. It requires skill, patience and hard work, none of which I can teach in this classroom." He paused to look around the room, and Santana swore his eyes stopped on her before he was turning to pace in front of them. "As such, not many choose to take positions all the way to the NEWT level, and….I must confess….I don't accept just anyone."
Santana glanced at Quinn, who though she didn't take her eyes off Snape, bumped her shoulder into Santana's and nodded. They were both planning on taking positions all the way to seventh year. If nothing else it had been drilled into them by their mothers that it was an important skill to have.
"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 stopper death" Santana was hanging on to every word Snape said, drawn in by his words. "— If you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
She snorted.
"Before I allow any of you to make any potions, you will first have to learn to handle the ingredients."
Out of a crate in the corner of the room he pulled out what to Santana looked like a root.
"Who knows what this is?"
After a pause, in which Santana thought nobody was going to answer, Quinn slowly raised her hand, looking unsure.
"Yes…What is your name?"
"Quinn Fabray sir."
"And what is this Fabray?"
"Um…asphodel?"
"Asphodel that's right. Five points to Slytherin."
Quinn beamed proudly as Santana turned to grin at her.
"How do you know that?" she whispered.
"Mum grows it in the garden."
"Ah" Santana nodded. "Good on you for recognising it."
"Everyone will come up and take one. Open your text book to page 253, and prepare your asphodel stem as instructed."
As everyone hurried to the front, Santana spotted Brittany, sitting in the opposite corner of the room staring at the wall. She was staring at the wall to her left, as if she was talking to someone, but Santana couldn't see anything. She stood up, craning her head to try and see what Brittany was looking at.
"Santana!"
Santana jumped, spinning around to face the front of the class. Quinn was waving her over.
"Hurry up."
"Oh yeah…"
With one more glance at Brittany, who was now looking straight at her, Santana made her way to Quinn.
****
After picking their asphodel plant, Snape led them all through the door in the back of the room into a larger room. Instead of rows, this room had tables, with three working stations each. Santana, Quinn and Sebastian chose one closest to the wall to the left to occupy.
There were several ingredients needed to make the potion, most of which Santana had never heard of. Beside every ingredient was a drawing of what it should look like. Santana studied them all carefully, wanting to be able to identify them if Snape ever asked. From the ingredients list she already knew that half of the asphodel was going to be diced, the other used as a whole strip.
By the time she was done reading, Quinn and Sebastian had both already started preparing their asphodel. She quickly picked hers up and held the knife to it, ready to split it in half and began reading the directions.
1. Place your asphodel as close as possible to the base of your cauldron, without it touching the fire.
2. Add salamander blood until the potion turns red.
3. Stir until the potion turns orange.
4. Add more salamander blood, this time until it turns yellow.
5. Peel skin from asphodel stem and then cut in half down the middle.
6. Insert one half into cold water immediately.
7. Dice other half of the stem into pieces 1 cm in diameter and add to potion.
8. Stir clockwise until the potion turns green.
9. Add more salamander blood, until the potion turns turquoise.
10. Heat until it turns indigo.
11. Add five more lionfish spines.
12. Add flobberworm mucus, until the potion turns purple.
13. Stir anti-clockwise with the asphodel stem until it turns red.
14. Add Honey water until it turns back to a turquoise colour.
15. Remove potion from heat.
16. Add the asphodel skin
17. Let it cool. Once cool, it will be ready for use.
Santana raised her hand.
"Santana" Snape called.
"May I turn on my fire sir?"
Santana heard Azimio chuckle. Well she heard someone laugh from Azimio's table, but she assumed it was Azimio since he's the one that next spoke.
"You know we're not actually making the potion right Lopez?"
She glared at him.
"Silence" Snape snapped. "Did anyone ask you to talk Adams?"
With a flick of Snape's wand, Santana's fire roared to life.
"Thank you sir." He nodded at her, and went back to whatever he was looking at on his desk.
"What are you doing?" Quinn whispered, her knife hovering over one half of her asphodel, having just cut one piece off.
"I figure it's supposed to be by the fire for a reason" Santana shrugged. She estimated it would take her about five minutes to run through the other steps of the potion so that was how long she left the root by the fire. Sebastian had stopped now too, curious to see what would happen.
"You read the instructions?" Quinn asked.
"You didn't?" Santana frowned at her.
"I thought that since we're not actually doing the potion we only need to prepare it like it says in the ingredients."
"I don't think so."
With wide eyes, Quinn lifted her book and began reading the instructions. Santana watched her in amusement.
"Woah…"
Sebastian breathed as he bent to look at Santana's asphodel stem. It looked almost like it was shedding it's skin. Santana picked it up and tried to peel it, finding the skin slipping right off.
"Woah!" Sebastian said, louder this time. Santana's asphodel had taken on a pink tinge, while Quinn's and Sebastian's was still white. Sebastian hurriedly shoved his two halves close to his fire. "Professor" he called, raising his hand. His fire lit up instantly, without Snape even looking up. Quinn's went on next, just as she opened her mouth.
"Can he read minds?" Quinn whispered.
Ignoring her, Santana continued preparing her asphodel, making sure to read the other instructions as well in case, like the fire, there was something else important hidden there.
After a few minutes, Snape stood up and began pacing the tables. He stopped at every station, peering over everyone's work and either nodding or shaking his head. When he got to Azimio's table, Santana was in the middle of measuring one centimetre with her ruler so she could cut precisely. She paused and looked up.
"What…is…this?"
"M-My asphodel professor."
"For what?"
"What?"
"What do you intend to do with this?"
Azimio looked around at the other two boys at his table, one of whom was Sam. Sam shrugged.
"You said you wanted us to prepare it for-"
Snape lifted one of Azimio's one centimetre pieces up to his face and sneered.
"This is useless."
"What? Why? I measured it with my ruler."
"Because…." Snape flicked the piece back at Azimio. He flinched away. "It still has its skin."
"How are we supposed to peel them when they're that small sir?" the third boy at the table asked.
"You're supposed to peel them before you dice them."
Turning his back on them, Snape made his way to Santana, Quinn and Sebastian. He stopped first at Quinn, assessing her work. He was silent as he nodded, picked up one of her pieces and then placed it back down.
"Peeled at least." He said. "But I can see the asphodel is slightly burned. It is essential to warm it with the skin on to protect the insides."
Quinn nodded frantically.
"Yes sir."
"You are lucky Santana is at your table."
As he spoke he looked at Santana.
"This" he said loudly, picking up the part of her stems that she hadn't finished cutting. "Is the colour all of your plants are supposed to be. If you had bothered to read the instructions before charging head-first into your preparations, all of you wouldn't have diced your stem before peeling it, and you would know, that placing it near the fire causes the skin to loosen, allowing you to easily pull it off."
He slowly looked at each student as he held up Santana's stem, looking both annoyed and disgusted. It was hard for Santana not to smirk. She only kept it in because Quinn hadn't read the instructions either.
"Secondly" Snape said suddenly, placing Santana's stem back down and picking up her bowl of water that contained the other half of her asphodel. "You would all have known to put your longer piece in water, to preserve its state. All of you that didn't do this as soon as it was cut have completely wasted my time and resources."
He put down her bowl and walked back to Azimio's table. When he got there he brushed his hand over the smaller pieces, pushing some to the ground, then he picked up the other half.
"So who can tell me what this is?"
Sam rose a shaky hand. Snape raised an eyebrow.
"Asphodel"
"Do not smart mouth me boy." Snape sneered. "Or you will regret it." Sam took a step back, his eyes wide as he shook his head.
"I-I wasn't."
Santana raised her hand.
"Santana." Snape called, still glaring at Sam.
"Rubbish."
"Louder" he said, turning to her.
"Rubbish professor."
"5 points to Slytherin"
Santana swore she saw Snape's lips curl upwards before he was turning and throwing Azimio's asphodel down on the table.
"This is useless. All of it. Fit only for the bin." He said angrily. "And you will therefore be cleaning up everyone's stations as punishment for wasting my ingredients.
Azimio's mouth dropped open, but unlike before, he didn't yell.
"The rest of you finish up and make your way to the front with your preparations."
Santana quickly finished cutting up her pieces and piled them neatly on the corner of her board. She then gathered the skin and put it next to the cut up pieces, and joined the line to Snape's desk.
As each person handed Snape their boards, he either put the pieces of asphodel and skin in a jar, covering the ones who had put the asphodel in water on time and put them all in crate by his desk.
Those who like Azimio had neither put the one piece in water, nor skinned them, he simply threw out, glaring at the student to blame.
When Santana stepped up he paused, inspecting her work again.
"Well done Santana." He said, looking up into her eyes.
"Thank you professor."
"It's always nice when my entire class isn't completely useless."
"Thank you professor" she smiled.
Snape nodded and Santana understood herself to be dismissed. She quickly got out of the way and made her way back to her station.
"Great job."
Santana turned to see Brittany standing next to her, holding her board.
"What is that?" she asked, looking at the weird shapes Brittany had cut her stem into.
"I got bored of just doing squares."
"You got bored." Santana repeated, frowning.
"Yeah. There were so many instructions so I decided to make it more interesting and see what shapes I can do. See."
She picked one up and held it out for Santana to see.
"It's a star."
"Yeah I see that." Santana narrowed her eyes. "You can't just do that in potions though. The shape and size of things matter, otherwise you could blow it all up."
"Really?" Brittany's eyes widened. "So this is…?"
"Rubbish" Santana said, using the same word on purpose. "He's gonna throw it out. It's useless."
Brittany pouted down at her board.
"Oh no. Is he going to be mad?"
Santana shrugged, taking a step back. She didn't know why she felt so weird when Brittany looked sad like that, but it needed to stop. Whatever friendship they could have had was over the second Brittany got put in Gryffindor.
"What do I do?" Brittany asked, looking up at Santana, pleading.
Santana shook her head.
"Nothing to do." She shrugged. "Just follow the instructions next time."
She turned away just as Quinn took her seat. She didn't even turn back when Quinn glared at Brittany.
"What do you want?" Quinn asked harshly.
Santana assumed Brittany left after that, because Quinn turned to her and let out a heavy sigh.
"You saved me."
Santana smiled.
"Yeah I did."
"Thank you" Quinn said seriously. "How did I mess that up? Not reading the instructions before I started? Stupid!"
Santana nodded. "Yeah"
"That's embarrassing" Sebastian said as he took his seat. "Imagine getting your whole board thrown out." He pointed at the front where Snape was tossing Brittany's entire board in the bin and yelling about air headed fools. Sebastian laughed as he suggested they tie her to a broom so she can see what it's actually like in the clouds. Santana shook her head. She felt a little bad, but really what did Brittany expect?
"I wonder what she did." Sebastian said as he calmed down.
"Cut them into shapes."
"Sorry?" Quinn asked, confused.
"Like…" Sebastian asked, trying to see into the bin though it was impossible.
"Like a star."
Sebastian howled with laughter, nearly falling off his stool.
Quinn shook her head, rolling her eyes.
"Was she trying to be funny?"
Santana shrugged.
"Beats me."
*****
Once everyone had handed in their work, Snape led them back to the other classroom to pack up their books.
"I want everyone who got their preparations thrown out to write a fifteen inch essay on the importance of following brewing instruction and the dangers of not doing so. To be handed in next lesson."
There were a couple of groans at this, but luckily they were drowned out by the clock chiming.
"Ouch" Sebastian said as they filed out of the room.
"Yeah glad I'm not them." Quinn agreed. "Homework on the first day is brutal."
Santana cleared her throat, making them both look at her. She held her arms up, palms facing up.
"Thank you" they said together. Santana nodded happily.
Just as they were about to climb the stairs, Azimio and the other boy that had been at his table pushed passed them, shoving Quinn into the wall. Sam trailed after them, looking apologetically at Quinn. She narrowed her eyes.
"Hey Azimio" Santana called. He turned to her with a scowl. "Make sure you put 'dangers include revealing what a brainless git you are' in your essay will you?"
Sebastian, Sugar, Lauren and a few Gryffindors, like the boy Santana remembered refusing to go into the lake the night before laughed.
"A massive brainless git, you mean." Quinn said. "Though he does that pretty well on his own."
Fuming, Azimio stormed up the rest of the stairs, leaving behind the combined laughter of Slytherins and Gryffindors.
Santana and Quinn smirked at each other as they made their way up the stairs.