Better Be Slytherin!

'Madam Pomfrey,' Harry admitted with a shrug, figuring a lie was pointless, and if he could act casually enough about it, Teddy wouldn't see how upset the whole thing made him. 'She thinks I need extra nutrition or something. I had to go see her the other day, remember?'

Teddy nodded. 'Looks disgusting.'

'It is,' Harry agreed fervently. 'I'm trying to figure if I can mix it with something to improve the taste.'

'Not potions, you don't want to mess about with that. You could ask our Head. He's the Potions Master, after all.'

Harry wasn't going to be asking him anything. Ever, if he could help it. 'Nah, that's okay. I'll choke it down. It'll just take me a minute.'

'Good luck,' Teddy said with a smirk.

'Gee, thanks.'

Teddy laughed quietly, and Harry plugged his nose again before taking up the bottle. He didn't even want to smell the awful odor of it first this time. The potion was just as bad as the one last night, and again, Harry had to try and keep it down by force of will. He hurriedly drank a whole glass of pumpkin juice right after, to wash away some of the taste. Blech.

Millicent was giving him a concerned look as he put his glass down. 'Don't choke or nothin,'' she said. 'Who'll help me in study group, else?'

'Aww, you just want me for my Charms, then?' he teased.

She laughed. 'Got it in one.'

Across the table, Draco snorted through a mouthful of juice, making the rest of them laugh as he mopped his face. 'Thanks, I didn't know you cared,' he groused.

From the other end of the table, several Prefects growled at them to mind their manners, making Harry and the others sit straighter and school their laughter and expressions to something less raucous. Harry chanced a look at the Head Table, and was disconcerted to find Snape watching him. Again.

Hadn't he done enough already?

He glared back at Snape, then cocked his head toward the empty bottle, so the interfering git could see he'd already drunk the nasty gunk down, before he turned back to his toast.

The mail arrived soon after, and Harry was glad that no owl swooped down to him, for once, to give him detention or infirmary directives. Draco, though, got a big package of sweets from home. After a minute's cajoling, he handed some of them out to the other first years. Harry got treacle fudge and munched happily on it; it did wonders for driving the taste of Blue Yuck from his mouth. After they finished breakfast, Draco brought the rest of his sweets back to the dorms, with Crabbe and Goyle alongside him as always, and the rest of the first years made their way to Transfigurations.

Draco and his two 'body guards,' looking flushed, got there just before the door closed.

'Long trip?' Harry asked as Draco slid into the seat beside him.

'Something like that. I'll show you later.' He smirked and took out his quill as McGonagall got started with her lecture.

At 3:30 in the afternoon, the Slytherins traipsed out of the castle, down to a broad expanse of flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the Forbidden Forest, where they were to have their first flying lesson.

Harry eyed the brooms uneasily. None of the Gryffindors had arrived yet, but Madam Hooch, their instructor, was laying the brooms out in a precise line, with about a meter between each one and the next. Teddy, beside him, was looking them over, too, then jerked his head a little at Harry as he strode over to get a closer look.

'School brooms,' Teddy said with a sigh, as he gestured to a couple of brooms nearby. 'See how some of them have bent or missing bristles? You want to avoid those. That one there, though, it's had some replaced, but the new bristles are at the wrong angle. Not much, but enough it'll tell in the air, make you drift left.'

Harry looked at the brooms again, and saw what Teddy meant. 'Okay, so that would be a good one, then?' He pointed at the broom three over from where they stood. The brush portion was all the same color, had few straws missing, and they were all in the same direction, with nothing sticking out oddly.

Teddy nodded, with his little smile. 'Good eye, Harry. Why don't you claim that one.'

Harry did so, and Teddy took a place two farther down. As the Slytherins finished selecting brooms -- Pansy ending up on Harry's left, and Millicent on his right -- the Gryffindors arrived.

It was the first chance Harry had really had to see them, spread out like this. In Herbology, they were crowded around tables in the damp and hot greenhouse, and no one had a chance for socializing. Not that he really wanted to, but he was still hurt by Ron's rejection and somehow hoped they could be friends regardless of House. His Mum had been nice to him, helping him through the barrier at King's Cross, and he thought the twins might be fun to be around, too.

As he watched them, he realized Ron was one of the only Gryffindors who didn't look terribly anxious about this lesson. With all his talk about Quidditch on the train, Harry supposed that made sense. Some of the others, though, looked positively nauseated with fear.

Madam Hooch, who had short gray hair and yellow eyes like a hawk, suddenly barked, 'Well, what are you waiting for?' at the milling Gryffindors. 'Everyone stand by a broom. Come on, hurry up.'

They scrambled to obey, and Ron took a broom almost directly across from Harry. He straightened his robes as Madam Hooch started to speak.

'Stick out your right hand over your broom,' she called, walking past the line, 'and say 'Up!''

'Up!' everyone shouted.

Harry's broom shot into his hand at once, and so did Teddy's, but they were about the only ones whom it worked for on the first try. Some of the brooms were just rolling over, all pathetic, and some were shuddering, but not going upwards even a little. After a few more tries, everyone had a broom in hand, and Madam Hooch was telling them how to mount and then kick off, when one of the Gryffindors – Longbottom? Harry couldn't remember