The Wizarding World

Samantha was one of the very first students to make it to the great hall, even before most of the others started filing in. When Max came in she made sure to get him to sit next to her even though her mouth had been full of toast and egg.

After his sister had finished taunting him, she looked over at him, "Ooh, are the two of you twins? That's so cool you know~?" she seemed genuinely impressed by the fact.

----

Jennifer was sitting at the Gryffindor table, having tried to make friends with one of the other girls from her dorm but having not really gotten any particularly good responses. So far she was still shrugging off how others were treating her, but she really needed to find a way to make friends soon. After all, she didn't want to be branded as 'that lonely gryffindor girl'. That would just be terrible.

Despite herself though she couldn't help but make a comment on Will and Maxine's conversation, "Well of course the two of you would be uneducated on the way magic works," then added on to Maxine specifically, "Also, you represent the noble house of Gryffindor now. Fix your hair for goodness' sake,"

Maxwell sighed, "It loses its novelty once said twin gains a bigger head than she already has."

His eyes followed Maxine to her table, only turning back to the food when she was seated. As he finished eating his breakfast, he wondered if there would be a way for him to get access to the kitchens. He'd love to try his hand at cooking himself. And possibly asking the chef for the recipe for some of this food.

---

"What? There's nothing wrong with my hair!" Maxine proclaimed, yet she ran her hands over her hair just in case. Any attempts to flatten it ended in failure, as some of the curlier locks of blonde hair stuck back up. 

She shot a glare at Jennifer, trying to send all her loathing into her eyes. It probably wasn't that effective with the image of her patting her uncooperative hair. "Maybe you should fix your attitude," She added as she placed her hands back down to her side.

---

Maxine walked into the classroom, taking in the interior of it. The eastern look of it was like nothing she had ever seen before. She was never quite well versed in foreign cultures and at first assumed it was a wizard thing. But one glance at her teacher kind of gave away that it wasn't quite what she first assumed.

She had naturally taken a seat next to Will and listened carefully to the teacher. If the name of the class was anything to go by, then this class should prove to be very fun and she didn't want to even miss a bit of it. When Will had called the teacher sensei, she turned to him and gave him a look, raising a questioning eye brow. She had no idea what sensei meant but it seemed to get a reaction from the teacher and some of the students. She'd have to ask him later.

Samantha giggled at Maxwell's comment even though she didn't feel like she was entirely in on the joke. As breakfast ended, she gave a sigh of satisfaction before standing up, "Alright Max, we have the same first class, right? Potions? Lets go~" She proceeded to grab his arm to get him to follow her, and made her way towards where the class was supposed to be.

----

She found the path down to the potions classroom really dreary, and was not really a fan of it. The path lacked the colorful paintings of people and replaced it with dungeon-like stone walls and floors.

The potions classroom, however, seemed a bit better off. At least it seemed to have personality, with a potion sitting on a pedestal in the middle of the room, as well as the various decorations which included images of potions and a variety of small bottles, ingredients, and more.

"Welcome, welcome, first years!" an older gentleman stepped out from a back room and addressed the gathered first year Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, "Now, take your seats, anywhere is fine," he stepped up near the potion at the front of the room, while he waited for them all to take their seats.

Samantha sat down and expected Max to sit with her, looking excited to start class. Her excitement wasn't at the prospect of potential magic potions being made, like it probably was for everyone else, but instead she was hoping that they'd get to make something tasty.

Once everyone had settled down, the teacher at the front of the class spoke up once more, "Alright students, settle down settle down. Allow me to introduce myself! I am professor Slughorn, and I will be teaching you potions. As this is your first year I want you all to just remember to keep calm, potions require patience to work with, not brute force or speed. Although a lot of the potions we'll be making will be timed," he gave a slight chuckle at his own joke, "Ah but, in any case. Before we start I want to know if anyone studied enough already that they may recognize this beauty, the Antidote to Common Poisons? If so, would anyone be able to tell me the key ingredient used?" he waited to see if anyone would be able to tell him.

----

Meanwhile in Defense Against the Dark Arts, Jennifer was rolling her eyes at Will's joke, thoroughly unimpressed with his joke. As she began to explain the differences between jinxes and curses, Jennifer was paying a great deal of attention to any detail she could obtain. She had no intention to use any sort of curse or jinx, those were simply magic's least elegant form of casting, but she also intended to pass any and all classes with flying colors, so that she could have something to be proud of when she goes home.

Acruss hear what Gabriel said when Laura was unfortunate to sit right next to him. Arrogance was one of things Acruss didn't like. "Well if you don't like trash, you might as well stand up and walk riiiight over there!" Acruss said to Gabriel with clear tone that his whining was not welcome. Before turning his gaze back to book.

Gabriel stared at Arcruss; shocked that someone would talk to him like that. For a moment, he was completely silent; unsure of what to say. However, after a moment, he stood up.

"Very well then. If you'd prefer the company of dirt; then I shall sit somewhere else," he said. "But I will make sure you come to regret your decision,"

He then walked to the other end of the table and sat down.

"I hope that's the last we hear of him," said Laura. "Though I doubt that'll be the case. His type tend to hold grudges,"

--

Upon arriving at the DADA classroom; Laura was relieved to see Will and Maxine were in the same class. She'd been hoping for a chance to talk to them; and maybe ask if they were having the same trouble as she was. Considering Jenny was in the same house as them; they most likely were.

She took a seat next to Maxine.

"Um...hi!" she said, not really all that sure what to say.

Before she could get any sort of conversation started, however; class began. Though Laura found the subject matter interesting; she was a bit disappointed that they were learning about spells rather than how to cast them. She hoped that later classes would be more hands-on than this one. 

--

Gabriel, meanwhile, was infuriated that he was being taught such a trivial subject as the classification of spells. It seemed to him that anyone with half a brain ought to be able to tell the difference between a jinx and a hex.

He stood up, and turned towards the teacher. He was certainly not going to be quiet about this outrage.

"Excuse me, sensei," he said, putting emphasis on the word 'sensei'. He wasn't sure what the word meant; but it seemed to annoy the instructor.

"...but shouldn't we be learning to cast spells rather than classify them? Surely any fool can tell you the difference between a hex and a jinx,"

Laura, meanwhile, could not help but put her palm to her face in annoyance. She briefly wondered if it was possible to switch houses.

While at DADA Class Acruss wrote down everything What Professor Yamada was able to explain until Gabriel opened his mouth. Covered his face with both hands while leaning on them. "Damn Rich kid please just shut up...." He though to himself shamed to be in same house. Just that moment he wished that he knew some Jinx to cast. He decided that when classes are over he would read more about jinxes.

"Excuse me, sensei, but shouldn't we blah blah blah," Will mimicked very maturely. He didn't like this Slytherin, he decided. Yamada raised a delicate eyebrow and cast her gaze over to Gabriel.

She then pointed at Will without looking at him. "What are differences between curse and jinx?"

"They're different?" 

"See? Some people did not grow with magic. I thank you for your teaching tips," She commented somewhat dryly. "Fortunately I agree. Open Standard Book of Spells to "Knockback Jinx" and read. When ready, practice." She flicked her wand and a bunch of what looked like stuffed bags flew out to the students. A second flick moved the desks and chairs into a horseshoe with the students facing outwards.

Will rifled through his book and found the spell and wand movement. "Flipendo," he muttered. The wand movement was diagonally down with a wavy flick upwards. Ignoring the rest of the text, Will set off practicing. He got the spell down pretty quickly and decided to have some fun. He spied Jennifer and with natural accuracy aimed the jinx at her, aiming to push her over her chair. "Flipendo! Oops, sorry, my aim is a little off!" He snickered

"Excellent example," The professor commented from behind him. Will paled and wondered when she got there. "Detention." She added. Will pouted. He was doing a service!

Maxine greeted Laura with a smile and a small wave. The greeting was short lived as an idiot decided to run his mouth. All Maxine could do was roll her eyes at the idiocy then giggle at Will's mocking mimicry of him. She, like Will, knew she wasn't going to like that Slytherin boy at all.

When instructions were given and a stuffed bag place on her desk, Maxine pulled out her own book and quickly looked for the spell. She was eager to try out her first spell, possibly too eager. As she concentrated on her wand movement, she said the incantation as clearly as possible, "Flipendo!"

She didn't know what went wrong,did she mess up the movement, did she put too much power into her spell? Was that even possible? Maybe she just didn't say it right. Either way, her bag was sent flying with far more force that she intended and was sent barreling into the back of Gabriel's head.

"Uh... woops?" She smiled nervously at the teacher hoping she woudn't share the same fate as her friend.

---

Maxwell was dragged into the potions class with his newly acquired friend. Not that he minded being dragged around by her. In some ways, it was comforting as his sister had usually been the one to drag him everywhere. When they took their seats together, the boy sat and paid adamant attention to the teacher. Potion making had been one of the classes he had been most curious about, the other being herbology.  

He noticed the teacher had a bit of flamboyant flair to him that seemed to make take an immediate interest into what he was saying. Though, it could more than likely, easily getting overwhelming or even annoying if taken too far. He wasn't sure if the Professor was like that just from this initial class. Either way, Maxwell doubted he would mind much at all. He might even find it fun.

When Slughorn asked his question, he had been one of the first to raise their hands and subsequently called on to answer, "It's bezoar, sir."

Jennifer scoffed at Gabriel. Did he really just mouth off at the teacher about not being taken seriously enough, as if he could teach better than their teacher? He's so full of himself.

As she received instructions, she had started working on trying to figure out this spell. She thought it was kind of a brutish spell for her taste, which made her dislike trying to learn it. However, with a swish of her wand she managed to get her bag to move a bit. She smiled at her clearly amazing work just in time to... "Flipendo!" be sent flying out of her chair.

"Kyah!" she fell completely to her side, and was very confused for one second, then extremely embarrassed the next second, and then all of it combined to create a great deal of anger. She stood up, her face completely red, but she had been shaken up so badly by how unexpected it was that instead of finding the words to shout at him, she sat back down, fuming. There were laughs, even though they quieted down quickly at the teacher giving Will detention. At this point, she gave him a smug grin, and silently mouthed, "serves you right mudblood" before turning back to the bag in front of her. Though, there was no way she'd be able to concentrate on magic right now.

------

"Ahh, very good. Ten points to Hufflepuff," he gave the boy a wink, before continuing, "Ah now, can anyone tell me what it is used for?" his expression seemed serious, and a couple of students kind of giggled though not many, Samantha among them, "Oh come now, last year I got a lot more laughs out of that," he chuckled again as his face brightened back up.

He went on to explain exactly what the potion does (clarifying exactly what 'common poison' is), and about the ingredients used to create it. He then told the students to get their books out, "Now, I want you all to open your books to page 23. You'll find the instructions to make a simple Babbling Beverage! I want you all to be extra careful to follow the directions, and try to make me a vial of it by the end of the class!"

Samantha opened her book to the designated page, and read over the instructions. She gave it a meaningful stare, and indeed seemed like she knew what she was reading. Then she proceeded to start doing things with her cauldron, adding ingredients etc., just like everyone else. It was clear she was doing things a bit more carelessly than the rest, however, and with enough attention to detail it would also be possible to tell that she wasn't doing the same things as most of the others.

Therefore, despite the fact the potion should be a steady yellow right about now, it was not surprising at all that hers was green.

Gabriel sat back down, satisfied that they would be casting spells. After two tries; he successfully managed to cast the knockback jinx on his bag. He then opened the book to see what the next spell was; deciding this one was already mastered.

He thought, perhaps that he had been too brash in calling the teacher out in class. Maybe she just wasn't prepared to teach a student at his level. He looked around the class to see the muggle-born girl attempting to cast the spell; and barely managing to move the bag.

He smirked, and turned back to the book. Clearly he had overreacted to her presence in Slytherin. Someone like her was definitely beneath his notice. He supposed it would be prudent of him to ignore her from now on...

As he thought that; a large bag slammed into the back of his head; knocking his face right into the textbook he'd been reading.

--

Laura stared in awe as Maxine launched her bag directly at the back of Gabriel's head. She felt a bit bad for Gabriel; but even if he did kind of have it coming. She hoped Maxine wouldn't get in too much trouble for it.

The boy turned around, and glared at her for a moment. He then got to his feet, and started walking towards them.

Laura tensed up; ready for another unpleasant confrontation with the boy. However, he walked right past her and Maxine; and headed slammed his hands down on Will's desk.

"What the hell is your problem?" he said. "I could tell you were a violent thug; but I didn't think you were a coward on top of that!"


--

After he'd finished brewing his potion, Hymie turned his attention to Bart. He had met the boy on the train; and had rather spontaneously decided to take the boy under his wing. Cool muggle dudes were always taking people under their wing; and teaching them the ways of coolness.

And if anybody needed to be taught the ways of coolness, it was Bart. The boy reminded Bart of the 'nerds' he'd seen in those muggle movies of his. He even had the glasses! Thus, Hymie felt that it was his duty as the resident cool-kid in the area to teach Bart the complex and often contradictory idealogy of muggle-coolness.

Step one, of course, was to think of a cool nickname. He had been attempting to provide a nickname for the boy all morning, with little success.

"Yo, Bartholomew!" he said. "How about I call you Bro Bart? Can you dig that? No wait, that's lame. Maybe Barts and Crafts? Bart of War? Work with me here, daddio!"

Acruss read carefully through the section about knockback jinx. He wanted to be sure the spell. His head bobbed up from the text when he heard objects hit seeing how some student in a way aimed bags agains each others as "Accident " he gave a short laugh when he saw on of the bags hit back of the Gabriels head. He focused on the bag infront of him raising his wand. He performed a slow motion of the Jinx to get use to movement. 

He performed this twice before reading book to make sure the movement was right. "Flippendo!" the bag slided one feet. "Ngh... Flippendo!" He added more force into movement, causing back to flip back clearly more than on first try.

Will wasn't happy. Despite the fact that he hadn't done anything, the tweenager really didn't like being called a coward and he certainly wasn't going to give his friend up and miss out on violence. Once upon a time he'd have retaliated with a swift punch to the face, but now he had a mystical power flowing at his fingertips - wand tip? - and he was going to use it.

"You're right, I'll do it to your face. Flipendo!" Will's wand moved and he shot a pointblank Knockback Jinx at his Slytherin confronter. 

Before any further action could be taken, Yamada shot two spells at the boys. Will was hit and his wand flew out of his hand. "Huh?" Yamada addressed both of them.

"Hogwarts has strict no fighting policy. Saturday night detention, each." She said. Will idly wondered how long it'd take her to snap.

"Saturday? Really?" Will moaned. He did love his weekends. There was every chance this would ruin his first weekend in the wizarding world.

"You will be assisting Professor Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest at 9pm," she informed them. Suddenly, Will was delighted.

"Oh fiiiiiine," he sighed theatrically before turning to Maxine when Yamada was out of earshot and pumping his fist, "yes!"

Maxine stared wide eyed at the spectacle before her, wondering how she had gotten so easily out of the blame for the bag mishap. She was going to speak up and correct Gabriel's misconception but he was soon sent to the floor by Will's spell. The girl had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing. Though, she completely shut up when the two caught the attention of the teacher.

"What? No fair," Maxine complained in a low voice so the teacher wouldn't overhear, "You get into a fight and sent on some cool adventure into the forest. You weren't even the one who hit him with the bag. That could have been meeeee."

In her head, Maxine ran through all the scenarios in which she could set up events that would get her in the same amount of trouble as Will. She would be sure to enact whatever plan she could cook up by Saturday.

---

Meanwhile, Maxwell was having a much better time of class. He had quickly went to work making his potions, opening his book to look over the instructions. It wasn't that different from cooking, as he had noticed when going over this book before the school year started. 

He went about preparing his ingredients, being careful to follow them for this first class. Everything was going well, working at a steady pace. So concentrated on his preparations was he, that he failed to notice Samantha's total carelessness when preparing her potion.

By time he did, he was already mostly done with his, just having to let it brew. He balked when he saw Samantha's strangely colored potion next to his own more accurate one. "Do you need help?" He asked a tad nervously. 

He really hoped none of these ingredients were particularly volatile.

Jennifer simply gave a sound of indignation, "humph," as she usually does, as Will received his punishment. Gabriel too she supposed, he probably deserved it for being so rude to the teacher anyway.

She finally got back to trying to cast her spell, but as she expected it just isn't working out too well for her. She was probably going to be given homework to figure it out...

----

Samantha gave Max a nervous grin, "N-no, I... I got it..." she was sure she was doing it right. What could possibly have gone wrong with the colors?

At this point of the class Slughorn was going around checking peoples' work, occasionally giving small comments of approval, or tips to try and get the students moving in the right direction. One such person who received a comment of approval was the small Bartholomew. After Slughorn moved on from their table, he responded to Hymie, "No, never, and certainly not. Why do I even need a nickname? Do you have a nickname? What even ARE nicknames but some weird way to refer to someone?" He gave his roommate a serious look, "But, what about you referring to me as Bart, if you have to? I mean I am not particularly inconvenienced by this, comparable with your alternative options," he leaned back and sighed. He had calculated the placement of the ingredients exactly as the book said but he felt like something was off about it. Perhaps, to be sure of its effects, he should test it out on someone? But surely that would result in detention.

Slughorn continued his rounds, until coming around to Samantha's and Maxwell's table, he gave a Maxwell a big pat, "Oh my, I daresay this is the best result currently in the class! We may have a prodigy on our hands!" There was a sound of dissatisfaction from the other side of the room, which Slughorn either did not notice or chose to ignore.

As Slughorn came around to Sam's cauldron, Sam had apparently made up her mind about something and threw in a dash of some sort of ingredient that was not even on the list. Slughorn gave her a raised eyebrow before looking into the pot. As he did, the color quickly changed to a violent red and his eyes opened wide, but he took notice too late... BOOM! He and Sam and Max were all in the blast radius, and each was covered in soot.

"Well-" Slughorn started, but Samantha cut him off.

"I'm so sorry professor! I really didn't know what I was doing. Oh man this is why I'm not allowed to cook either. Aahhhh-" she was very panicked.

Slughorn put his hand on her mouth, "Now now, this happens from time to time..." His expression hardly matched his word, as he looked very disappointed after seeing such a good potion right before this, "You are to stay after class," he said.

Gabriel's eyes widened with shock as he was thrown backwards by a point-blank spell. The sudden attack had taken him completely by surprise; though he probably should have seen it coming.

However; he quickly got to his feet; and pointed his wand at Will. If this dirty commoner wanted a fight; then he was going to give him one.

"DENSA--"

However, his wand was yanked from his hands before he could cast the spell. He glared at the professor for a moment; annoyed that he'd been denied payback. He became even more annoyed when the professor gave him a detention. Couldn't she see that he was simply defending himself?

He turned his attention back towards Will.

"You'd better watch your step," he said. "You wouldn't want to have to be saved by the teacher again,"

He then stormed off, not bothering to look back.

--

Laura stared in awe as the professor effortlessly disarmed both Will and Gabriel. That was the kind of magic she wanted to be able to use! She'd have to learn how to disarm people like that.

She turned to Maxine.

"Hey, Maxine, think we'll be learning to magically disarm people like that?" she asked. "That was so cool..."

--

"Ah, come on homie! I seriously need to hook you up with a chill pill," said Hymie. "A nickname is a sign of affection; as well as a right of passage for cool cats like ourselves,"

He paused for a moment; unsure of how to explain it further than that. The muggle-philosophy of coolness wasn't the easiest thing to explain. He supposed he'd have to find a way to show Bart some muggle movies. Until then, an explanation would have to suffice.

"A nickname is something a cool bro gives to another cool bro to show that they are now cool bros! Can you dig it, home-dog?"

Acruss stared his eyes Widen When teacher disarmed both Gabriel and Will with spell. then staring after Gabriels poor loser act with storming off. He really was acting like spoiled brat. "What are these guys thinking...?!" Acruss said to himself annoyed, getting detention meant less time for spell study and trickery. He was indeed eager to try jinxes on some people as prank but doing them infront teacher was madness.

He continued Practicing his Flippendo spell on the Bag.

"Can't wait," Will replied with a shit eating grin before turning to Maxine and shrugging with his grin still in place. "What can I say, the universe loves me," he said. He'd been looking forward to getting into the forest, mainly because it was forbidden. Gabriel coming along slightly tainted the experience but Will consoled himself with the fact that he'd probably have the opportunity to fight him.

Will picked his wand up and spent the rest of the lesson not winding anyone up. Well, not on purpose. He suspected he would be getting a few dirty looks and he loved it. Not that he demanded attention of course.

After Defence Against the Dark Arts was History of Magic, which Will found incredibly boring, especially considering that it was taught by a ghost and was the History of witches and wizards. "I'm just saying, how can something about magic be that bloody dull?"

After what seemed like forever, the class ended and lunch came around. Will looked forward to getting some food in him.

Bart was startled at the explosion on the other side of the class, "Good grief..." he shook his head as he turned back towards Hymie, "I am not quite sure what I'm "digging"," he said in a rather serious tone of confusion. 

"Hey, why don't we eavesdrop a bit upon this conversation?" he suggested, referring Hymie to the one Slughorn was keeping Sam and Max behind for.

As the class came to a close and most students had provided a satisfactory result (A few had extra homework), Samantha and Maxwell were both asked to stay behind while the rest left, "Now I'm no stranger to students who don't quite understand potions, but since the two of you seem to be getting along well enough, I have a special homework assignment for the both of you," In the end the 'special assignment' was to have Maxwell be a tutor for Samantha, since he knew better than any other in the class what he was doing. 

Samantha sighed as they walked on from their class, "Maaax," She whined, "I don't want to work on potions outside of class..."

Their next class was history of magic, with the Gryffindor students this time. They all seemed a bit... ruffled, didn't they? Samantha only noticed this for a minute though, before the teacher started talking, and it really didn't take her very long at all to fall right to sleep. She was not one to snore luckily, and her sleeping was barely noticeable if you didn't look right at her face. Regardless, this was probably not leaving a good impression on Maxwell or any of her fellow Hufflepuffs.

---------

Jennifer was quite proud to say that she actually knew a large part of what history of magic had to teach, since she listened to stories from her grandparents so much. Sure the details were a bit different, but it was easy to change to what she would now know to be 'the correct' version of the stories. She found the history of wizards to be quite fascinating, though she had to admit that the teacher managed to even make this boring for her during class. Mostly, she just read up on the lessons after class.

Jennifer was not very hungry on her way to lunch, but shrugged as she went regardless. She would probably just eat a little something to keep her mind working for the rest of the day.

"It's a universal truth that History will always be the dullest class," Maxine nodded sagely. She had been really close to passing out in class. Unlucky for her, Maxwell had decided to sit near her with his new Hufflepuff friend. He had spent a majority of the class discretely pinching her. The blonde girl was fairly certain her arm had a number of red flecks on it now, "I'm not sure how I'm going to survive a whole year of it."

She took a seat at the Gryffindor table and quickly reached over for a roll of bread, "I hope our next class involves something less read-y and more hands on." 

---

"Come on, it won't be that bad," Maxwell said with a patient smile just before they entered their next class, "I'll help with the parts you don't understand and we'll be done with it in no time."

After class, which Maxwell had spent a diligent amount of time paying attention. Or at least he tried, it was dreadfully boring and he was constantly distracted by his dosing sister. He couldn't just let her sleep in class, she had a nasty habit of snoring that would sure get her noticed and into trouble. He noticed Samantha had been asleep too, though it wasn't his place to wake her up and she didn't seem like she was going to get caught. He supposed it would be okay for now, though he took note to talk to her during lunch.

Which, brought them to their current topic of conversation as they sat and ate at the Hufflepuff table, "You really shouldn't fall asleep during class," He then sighed, "Though, I don't exactly blame you. I never thought a ghost could be so boring, but I guess it's to be expected of one that teaches the universally most tedious class."

Laura sighed as she sat at the Slytherin table for lunch. That last class had been strange. Gabriel had managed to make an even bigger scene than he had in their last class; and she somehow gotten caught up in the middle of it.

Luckily, she had somehow managed to talk the teacher out of giving her a detention. If this school's idea of detentions involved going into a big, dangerous forest; then she wasn't interested.

She turned to Arcruss.

"If all of our classes go like those first two; I don't think I'll make it a whole year," she said.

--

"Eavesdropping ain't cool bro," said Hymie...before turning around and listening to the conversation.

Apparently the girl who'd caused the explosion was going to be tutored by the guy sitting next to her. He wasn't sure what was so interesting about the conversation that Bart was so intent on eavesdropping. He couldn't think of a single reason Bart would be interested in that conversation.

However, a reason rather suddenly occurred to him: clearly Bart must be crushing hard on that girl over there! That's the only reason he could think of for his sudden desire to change the subject.

Clearly it was his duty as coolkid to give his nerdy friend a chance with that girl over there! He would no doubt have to teach Bart the ways of talking to girls (or talking to people at all for that matter); and how to be cool and charming. This would no doubt be his most difficult task; but he would not rest until he had completed it!

He turned to Bart, and gave him a thumbs up.

"I see how it is. Don't worry bro, I've got it handled!" he said.

He remained quiet for the rest of the class; and spent the next class quietly plotting and scheming.

At lunch, however, he turned to Bart, deciding to put his brilliant plan into action.

"Wait here, bro!" he said. "And watch a cool cat work his smooth magic..."

He then walked towards the Hufflepuff table; and turned to the guy Slughorn had been talking to. It was time to put his brilliant plant into motion!

"Hey, me and my best bro over there heard you were doing some tutoring..." he said. "And since you seem like a cool cat; we were wondering if we could get our study on with you and the lady,"

"I takes getting use to." Arcruss said flipping a page of Defence against dark arts book in Jinx section. He was reading through spell thinking good ways to use them. "Since you're from family which magic is unfamiliar to it's not surprising. As my dad says to me often, use wits and guile to get ahead your enemy." As he said that to Laura he placed the DADA Book back to his bag, picking up his half eaten bread and taking a bite from it. "What's the next class?" He asked mouth one quarter full of bread from Laura.

In accordance with Maxine's wishes, the next lesson for Gryffindor was very practical - flying, alongside the Ravenclaws who they'd not yet had a class with.

Madam Hooch looked a little bit like a bird of prey. She had eyes of a colour than Will thought must have been magical in some way because they were yellow and pierced like swords. The day was very mild, perfect conditions for a first flying lesson, according to the ageing Flying Instructor.

Will had shown up last to see twenty brooms neatly lined up and to find out that the eagle-like teacher was not very patient. "Hurry up, come on now," she barked at him. 

The next five minutes were dedicated to summoning the brooms to their hands with a command of "Up!" It took Will four or five tries, better than average but not the best. Will wondered if these people had learned before they came. Hooch hurried the others along.

The next step was mounting the brooms and then rising a few feet in the air. Will decided to show off and went higher, faster and landed harder than other people. "Oof," he shook his ankle out a bit. Then he observed Maxine.

Bart was incredibly confused at the insinuation of Hymie's, having no idea what he could possibly be implying. He had simply been interested in figuring out how this... hufflepuff had been better than him at something, why HE hadn't been picked for tutoring, and how anyone could possibly be so bad that they'd blow up the potions room. That being said, he'd hate to actually tutor someone who lacked such sense.

Then, at lunch, Hymie had done the unthinkable and actually asked for the two of them to join in on the tutoring. He was far too shy to actually walk over and tell them that he certainly hadn't wanted that, and instead ended up just sitting there while they discussed things without him.

Samantha turned back towards the Ravenclaw with the weird speech pattern, she was pouting a little because the tutoring was brought up yet again, but then sort of brightened when she had an idea of how to make the tutoring more fun, "Hey, that's a great idea! Don't you think so, Max?" She gave him a bright smile that was extremely transparent, as it was clear she was hoping this would mean not having to study at all and instead just goofing off. It being a Ravenclaw asking though, she was certainly risking the chance they actually wanted to study, but it was a risk she was willing to take.

Maxwell turned toward the ravenclaw boy and shrugged. "I don't mind. The more the merrier." He then nodded towards Sam, "Yeah, it's a swell idea."

He wasn't sure what to think of the boy's strange way of talking but he at least seemed nice. Besides, it probably wouldn't hurt to have some Ravenclaw students there too to help him tutor Samantha. She honestly seemed like she could use all the help she could get.

He'd really hate to be on the receiving end on another of her explosions.

---

Out of all the students, Maxine seemed to have had the hardest time with her broom. It took her at least 15 tries at the 'Up!' command to get her broom to rise up. Unfortunately, on that fifteenth try, the broom rose up too quickly and smacked her in the face. She glared at the traitorous broom and silently vowed to get her revenge on it.

Next up, they actually had to use it to rise up in the air. The blonde gulped down her momentary panic. She had never been a fan of the idea of flying. Climbing she could do, climbing was fun. Flying, on the otherhand, seemed like a terrifying experience she wanted nothing to do with. 

No, she couldn't give up here and look like a chicken. She was a Gryffindor! They were known for courage, right? She could totally do this.

Oh. Oh no. Nonononono. She so couldn't do this.

She had only gotten a foot off the ground before her her broom made her whiz forward way too fast. She had went for a yard or so before her loose grip caused her to fall back and knocking the wind out of her. If she wasn't laying there stunned and trying to learn how to breath again, she would notice her broom flying right into the forbidden forest without her.

"Great," said Hymie. "My bro and I will swing by the library around Saturday. Catch you on the flip side..."

He then walked back towards the Ravenclaw table; satisfied that his plan seemed to be working. Bart would not only get a chance to hang out with that girl; but also to impress her with his mad potions skills. The only flaw he saw with this plan was that would have to avoid accidentally attracting the girl with his amazing cool-guy charms.

He stat back down next to Bart, and gave him a thumbs up.

"See? I told you I had your back, homie," he said, still not explaining to Bart what exactly he was planning.

--

"History of magic," said Laura, ignoring Arcruss' bad table-manners. "That sounds interesting!"

Laura had been hoping to learn as much as she could about the Wizarding World. Afterall, she would have to learn all this stuff if she was going to become Minister of Magic. Granted, it didn't seem exciting as some of the other classes on her schedule; she didn't think there was any chance this class could be boring.

As it turned out, she was dead wrong.

"Bye~" Samantha was pretty happy with those results. Maybe the study lesson wouldn't be so bad after all!

Bart literally facepalmed, "What are you attempting to accomplish? In what way does this help me?" He sighed, "Though I supposed a bit of social interacting is not a bad thing..." he figured this could also be a chance for him to potentially figure out what it was exactly that had made Maxwell's potion superior to his own.

The Ravenclaws' next class was, alongside the Gryffindors, flying lessons.

---

Jennifer was the first person to have her broom in her hand, and when she took off from the ground it was with one of the most smug face one could expect as she looked over at the others, the mudbloods, clearly inferior to herself. Instead of disobeying authority and going off into the sky with her broom, as she wanted, she simply glided along elegantly back and forth in a small circle, "Do you see why coming from a family of pure-bloods means I'm superior, now?" she directed her question to the still on-the-ground Maxine.

On the other end of the spectrum, Bart was alongside the ones who had been the last to get their broom to cooperate, and when he was directed to sit upon the broom he hesitated, "Is it really prudent for first year students to be doing thi-" suddenly his broom went mad, and he was several feet higher into the air. Madame Hooch began quickly directing him to come back down immediately, but Bart was close to tears in fear at this point.

Suddenly the broom dashed forward and then backwards and finally stopped with such force that it sent Bart flying backwards and right into Will, sending them both down to the ground and probably in need of medical attention.

Will groaned from the floor. His left shoulder was in quite a lot of pain and it hung somewhat limply as he stood. "Ahh poo," he grunted as he got to his feet. Perhaps this was karma for laughing at Maxine. "Shut up, Jennifer," he said half heartedly, both for the vile racism and to pre-empt any comments she might have had over the collision.

Massaging his shoulder, which he was fairly sure was dislocated due to it having popped out of where it used to be, Will looked over at Bart. "You alright, mate?" Asked Will with a pained grin. Will knew he was tough but this kid didn't seem the type. He had also seemed rather distressed with the whole flying ordeal.

Hooch silently held her head in her hands. Never had she had such a shambles of a first year class; these kids made Longbottom look graceful. The girl who'd lost her broom had no aptitude for flying whatsoever, nor did the Ravenclaw boy. There was a Gryffindor girl who looked to be very talented on a broom -she'd probably be playing for her house rather soon - and the boy who had been crashed into who seemed to be more of a natural athlete than particularly natural broom rider. He was also a showoff.

The blonde gasped, letting the air fill her vacant lungs before glaring contemptuously at her fellow Gryffindor. This racism was getting to be more than she could stand and she was this close to just punching the girl and being done with it. But no, she would behave.

"Go stick your broom where the sun don't shine, Winston," Maxine growled, pushing herself up with her elbows. She sat up completely and looked over into the direction her broom had went to. No where in sight.

She groaned, placing her hand to her face, "Ugh, just my luck."

Arcruss was already nodding off along with most of the students in the History of magic class. I could swear there was something in teachers voice that made him sleepy. The fact that the teacher was a ghost didn't help him to focus. He looked over to Lauras direction how she was faring in the class.