Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. All rights reserved, inc. copyright goes to J.K. Rowling. No copyright infringement intended, no money is being made. (I do not own the cover picture, I got it off Google Images)

Warnings: language, slight violence, AU, OOC, highly non-canon (I think)

Notes: This isn't Beta'd so sorry for any mistakes and errors. I don't own the cover picture, or any pictures that I may use. Please review, favorite, and follow! Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and follows last chapter! Sorry if I get any names or spells wrong. I haven't read the HP series in a while! I also noticed that I left out Astronomy in the time table but every Friday, at midnight to two in the morning, they have Astronomy class.

Chapter Three

Sunday rolled past with a flurry of reading the course books, practicing with quills, and getting to know one another better. Classes had started and so did their Apprenticeship Work, and all of the apprentices were excited and slightly nervous for what it would entail.

At around 7:30 in the morning, the other boys climbed downstairs with their bags and uniforms on, and they were all met with an overenthusiastic Hermione, who was practically jumping on her toes in excitement.

"Come on, come on!" She squealed. (Though, she'd deny it strenuously)

She grabbed Harry's and Draco's wrist, pulling them out of the Loft's entrance and down the halls, with Ron and Neville scrambling after. They were one of the first people to make it to the Great Hall for breakfast. It was only the Ravenclaw table that had students littering it, those who were fanatic about studies even in the House of the Bookworms.

Even after Hermione started to pile multiple breakfast foods over her plate, she continuously checked her shoulder bag to make sure that she had left nothing behind for the day.

"I can't wait until 1:05!" She said breathlessly.

Ron blinked at her, still half-asleep. "Did you memorize our entire schedule?" He asked her.

Hermione looked offended at the thought of doing the exact opposite. "Of course I memorized it!" She replied.

Ron blinked again, and shook his head before turning his attention towards his bacon. Neville was eating an omelet, Draco had made himself a breakfast sandwich complete with eggs, bacon, sausage, and apple slices. Harry just had a simple serving of bacon and eggs. He stared at Draco's sandwich.

"What?" Draco asked him.

"Apple slices…?" Harry said.

Draco responded, "It tastes quite fine, Harry!"

"Oh, hurry up!" Hermione told them, frizzy hair jumping all over the place as she moved her head. "I don't want to get lost to our first lesson!"

"We won't get lost," Harry told her. "We can just ask an older student where it is ‒ Hey, Ron," He looked over at the redhead who was sitting at his left. "Do you think we could ask one of your brothers about where the Transfiguration classroom is?"

Ron chomped away at his breakfast, and swallowed to say, "Ask Percy ‒ the twins'll probably send you to an empty classroom or something."

"Percy's a prefect, right?" Hermione asked him; Ron nodded before turning back to his food.

"I'm full." Neville said as he put his fork down.

Harry looked down at his own plate ‒ it was hardly empty. Though, he truly hoped no one would call him out on it, or assume he had eating problems ‒ which he did not; he just had a hard time digesting the normal amount of food one required to function on a daily basis. One of the downsides of being malnourished.

"Are you feeling alright, Harry?" Draco noticed his plate and his expression. Harry tried to give him a smile though it came out as a grimace.

"I'm fine." Harry said. Draco looked doubtful but turned to Hermione, who was rattling on and on about Transfiguration History to Neville, who seemed to be getting more stressed by the second.

"It's 8:15." Harry told them over the roar of the Great Hall. "I suggest we leave now so that we can get a head start." The others agreed, and it was a group effort to haul Ron away from the table (who was pleading, "Please just let me eat one more thing ‒ one more thing, please!") and out of the hall.

"Wait!" Draco stopped them. "Weren't we going to ask P―"

"Hey, you lot!" A voice from behind yelled. They all turned to see the Hufflepuff First Years stumbling towards them. "Wait for us!" Susan Bones yelled.

They waited until they were surrounded by a sea of black and yellow. The five greeted Susan, Hannah, and Sally-Anne, and introduced themselves to the male Hufflepuffs.

"I'm Ernie," One friendly looking Puff said. "Ernie Macmillan."

"Zacharias Smith," One pompous looking Puff said.

"Justin Finch-Fletchley," Another friendly Puff introduced.

The group of eleven made their way through the halls, pleasantly speaking to one another as they built the bridges of friendship.

"Do you know where the classroom is?" Harry asked Susan, who nodded.

"We asked a third year," She said. "And he told us the way."

"He was a nice fellow," Hannah butted. "His name's Cedric Diggory."

"He sounds nice," Neville said as they entered the Transfiguration classroom. Professor McGonagall wasn't in the room yet, there was only a tabby cat with strange markings around its' eyes, staring them all down as they bustled to find their seats.

The bell rang right as the last of the Gryffindors scrambled inside to the last few seats, huffing and puffing.

"Where's the teach?" said Gryffindor First-Year, Seamus Finnigan.

Ron peered at the tabby cat before leaning next to Neville and whispering, "That's not a normal cat."

The other overheard him and simultaneously whispered, "You see it, too?"

The tabby cat then lunged, as if hearing their conversation, and transformed into Professor McGonagall midair. The first years gaped at their Transfiguration teacher in awe and shock. There was a tiny amused smirk on the woman's face before it was wiped away, and a stern expression replaced it.

She gave them a strict talking-to after she took roll call. "Transfiguration is one of the most difficult and dangerous magic you will learn here at Hogwarts," She explained. "Anyone messing about will leave and not come back."

Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. Everyone was awed and immediately wanted to get started but soon realized that they wouldn't be changing furniture into animals anytime soon. In a flurry of taking complicated notes, they were all given a match and told to try and turn it into a needle.

Even though Professor McGonagall was walking around the classroom to observe the students' progress, she seemed to be keeping an eye on the five apprentices to see how well they'd get the task.

Only a minute or two had past, really, and to everyone's surprise, it was Ron who had gotten it first. He blinked in shock, dimly aware of the praise McGonagall was giving him. Since Ron had gotten it, the others in the class had been pressed to complete it as well.

Harry was second, in tie with Hermione, then came Draco and then Neville, who's beaming smile was enough to make anyone's day.

By the end of the class, everyone except Seamus Finnigan ‒ who, for some reason, kept setting his on fire ‒ and Sally-Anne Perks ‒ who looked afraid of the needle ‒ had transfigured the matchstick either fully or somewhat. Their homework for that class was to write a 6inch essay on the main points that they'd learnt today.

The next class they shuffled off to was History of Magic with the Ravens and Snakes. Draco's face was paler than usual as they walked the winding hallways, right behind Su Li, fellow Ravenclaw firstie, to the classroom. The other apprentices gave him as much comfort and confidence as they could, though it didn't do much except make his face gain a green tint to it instead of a ghostly white.

The Apprentices sat in the back of the class with their books opened, quills and parchment out, all surrounding Draco, who was in the middle, protectively. Ron and Neville (who was slightly taller than Harry but shorter than Ron) sat on both sides of Draco while Harry sat behind and Hermione in front with "Patil, Padma". Harry didn't have anyone next to him and that was alright.

And then "Entwhistle, Kevin" sat on his left, giving him a bashful smile.

"Hi." Kevin said, shyly.

Harry turned to him and smiled. "Hello. Kevin's the name, right?"

Kevin nodded. "So, I hear this class is being taught by a ghost."

"Yeah, I heard about it too," Harry responded. "I hope it's going to be interesting ‒ I mean, it's a ghost!"

"Some of the older Ravens told us that Binns is a bore." Kevin said.

"That's too bad," Harry frowned but before he or Kevin could say anymore, the bell rang and Professor Binns floated through the wall.

Only three minutes into the classroom, and Harry's eyes were drooping tiredly. This was a Professor? He made even the most exciting battles of Wizarding History sound as boring as bat droppings. Binns droned in his monotone voice as they scribbled down notes, dates, and got Emeric the Evil and Uric the Oddball confused. Harry gave up when the ghost Professor stopped mid-lecture on the Great Battle of 1243 and turned his attention to the devious Goblin King who tried to cheat many wizards in the 1600s.

He threw his quill down with a scowl, and then he pouted as he crossed his arms over his chest. Kevin glanced at him, having given up a while ago after Uric the Oddball. Kevin was revising the notes that he had from his class in Defense.

Ron was snoring lightly, drool pooling out of his opened mouth, Neville was doodling plants on his parchment, Hermione was like a robot as she scribbled notes down on her parchment, Padma was doing the same, only stopping to ask Hermione a question, and Draco was half-heartedly writing notes as his eyes darted to the Slytherin side of the classroom and back to the back of Hermione's head.

"Hey, you alright?" hissed Harry as he leaned forward to speak in Draco's ear.

Draco hesitated before turning his head to whisper, "I'll be alright. It's just ‒ never mind, Harry. It's nothing."

Harry didn't think that it was nothing but he didn't say so aloud. Maybe he was worried that his old friends would turn on him because he wasn't in Slytherin, Harry concluded with a nod, yes, that's probably it.

"How's being an Apprentice?" asked Kevin.

Harry looked at him and shrugged his shoulders. "We haven't done anything as of yet. We're starting today at 1."

"Cool." Kevin murmured. "You're so lucky."

Harry shrugged again before looking down at his schedule, realizing that next hour was lunch.

When the bell rung, everyone sprung to their feet and flooded out of the classroom towards the Great Hall for lunch.

Ron rushed to stuff his things in his bag, the other Apprentices went at a much slower, neater pace than he, and once he managed to zip his bag closed, the first year Slytherins stepped in front of him.

He blinked. Harry looked up briefly before going back to organizing his bag by class order. Hermione had a hardened look in her eyes, remembering the incident yesterday, as she and Neville shuffled closer to Draco, whose eyes had widened significantly.

He gulped. "H-Hello,"

"Hi, Draco," the first year with the cold, aloft expression on her face and the goddess quality looks and blonde hair greeted.

"Greengrass, Daphne", Harry's mind supplied.

There was another girl, this one with a pug-like face, who had two stocky, large boys glued to her side in a bodyguard manner. "Parkinson, Pansy" and "Crabbe, Vincent" and "Goyle, Gregory", Harry thought. They looked like the wrong sort, like the fifth-year they'd ran into.

The seconds were ticking by. They were missing lunch.

"What do you lot want now?" Ron exclaimed. "We're missing lunch, here!"

"Oh, you can leave." Pansy said. "We just want to speak to Draco."

"Like hell we're leaving you alone with him." Ron cursed, and glared. "Not after that fifth-year tried to curse us in the hallway."

"Oh, so it was you who hexed Flint?" Pansy sneered.

There were two other girls, Harry noted. One with dainty features ("Davis, Tracey") and one with a square face and a scowl ("Bulstrode, Millicent"), and the other boys, "Zabini, Blaise," and "Nott, Theodore" weren't there.

"I didn't do anything!" Ron burst with anger. "He tried to hex us ‒ for no reason!"

"There was a reason." Pansy said, smiling nastily. "Draco Malfoy was supposed to be in Slytherin ‒ his entire family has been apart of that house ‒ and he dared to ignore us in favor of being with you," Pansy ended with a sneer that made her look even uglier.

Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle got out their wands, and the other three girls looked at them.

"What are you doing?!" Daphne screeched.

"You can't curse them," Tracey agreed. "Have you gone mad, Parkinson?"

"Why are we here, anyways?" Millicent piped in. "I just wanted to say hi, not land us al in possible detentions."

"Leave Draco alone," Harry said forcefully.

"You stay out of it, orphan!" Pansy shot at him.

Harry stepped back, blinking. Sure, he'd been called that many times by his Aunt, his cousin too, but it still hurt. It hurt a lot because he was always reminded of what could've been, would've been if his parents survived that night.

"Leave Harry alone," Neville saw the hurt look and grew protective over the tiniest Apprentice. "He did nothing to you!"

"What the devil is going on in here?" A voice interrupted the showdown. "Parkinson, Crabbe, Goyle ‒ five points from Slytherin each for turning your wand on a fellow student."

The First-Years whipped around to stare, wide-eyed, at Professor McGonagall, who, in turn, stared hard at them all. "Get to lunch, all of you," She told them. "Now,"

They wasted no time scrambling out of the classroom after the reprimand.

"This isn't over, Malfoy." Parkinson hissed at them before making her way towards the Slytherin table.

The Apprentices made their way to their own table, and started to hungrily eat their food.

Hermione was a bundle of excitement while the others were bundles of nerves. "I can't wait!" Hermione squealed. "I wonder what we're going to be learning. We only have one more class to go!"

"Well, since it's Professor Sprout," Neville said, "We might be learning more about Herbology or the Healing Arts."

Both Draco and Harry were silent throughout lunch, and on the way to the Defense classroom, only because Draco was still shaken up over the encounter as any other eleven-year-old would be, and Harry was still hurting from the "orphan" remark. Call him a softie, but words did hurt like knives.

Neville walked beside him as Hermione was rambling in both Draco's and Ron's ears again, and asked, "You okay, Harry."

"I'm alright." Harry mumbled.

It was clear Harry didn't want to speak and so Neville and the others left him alone. Since it was only the Gryffindors in this class, there were few students. Seamus and "Thomas, Dean" sat next to one another. "Patil, Parvati" and "Brown, Lavender" were huddled close as they whispered and gossiped, though what gossip there was on only the second day, Harry didn't know.

Professor Quirrell might've been a good Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher but he stuttered over the simplest of words, jumped often, and overall turned the lesson into a joke. They could barely understand what said when he started his lecture over the difference between a hex, jinx, and a curse. The classroom smelled strongly of garlic, and it was giving Harry a pounding migraine.

When class was dismissed, just like in History of Magic, everyone made haste to leave.

"I can't believe someone like him is allowed to teach." Draco complained. He had bounced back to his normal uppity self during the first few minutes of the lesson after Seamus Finnigan had asked the Professor how he'd gotten rid of that "troublesome zombie" and Quirrell had turned pink and started to talk about the weather.

"He's a joke," Ron added. He too was disappointed in the Professor, and he was looking forward to learning all sorts of spells to defend himself, especially against those nasty Slytherins who were all for the "Let's-Kill-Draco-Cause-He-Wasn't-In-Slytherin" campaign.

"Pandas," Neville muttered the password to the Loft softly, and they all huddled inside. Harry was still quiet, and Hermione was looking through her Defense notes with a frustrated look on her face.

"Good morning, my little kits!" Professor Sprout beamed at them as they entered their Common Room.

They all chorused their greetings to the cheerful Professor, and looked around the room in awe. The Common Room had been transformed completely. The chairs, sofa, and tables had been pushed back against the walls, and there were five lilac colored bean bags surrounding Professor Sprout, who had on a Gardeners' hat and gloves.

She told them to put their books and bags on one of the tables, which they did, and to take a seat. Harry sat between Neville and Hermione, who sat on Ron's left. Draco sat on Ron's right. They all looked up at the Professor, quills and parchment in hand and waited.

"Alright, since this is the first time I've ever done this," She said, "I'm going to take it slow and see how everything turns out. I've decided to let you lot learn about Healing first."

The Professor waved her arm and a chalkboard appeared out of thin air. She looked at their questioning gazes, and chuckled, "Conjuration, my dears."

"Anyway," She continued as the chalk wrote THE HEALING ARTS in neat, readable cursive. "There are many spells that can be used to heal small wounds, like episkey or ferula, which creates bandages ‒" the spells and their definition was written on the chalkboard as the Apprentices dutifully took notes. "‒ now, healing spells cannot be used in malice. You can only properly work a healing spell or charm with the intention of healing someone or thing. Write that down, it's important."

She waited for them to scribble down the information, and continued, "There's also many potions that are mostly for healing, like the Blood-Replenishing Potion, or, even, the Dreamless Sleep or the Calming Draught ‒ however, you must be careful with the last two I mentioned for if you use it too frequently, you can become addicted…"

The next two hours were spent taking notes and listening to Professor Sprout as she lectured. She demonstrated each healing spell she told them, on a dummy she had borrowed from Professor Quirrell. When it was 2:30 P.M., she gave them their own dummy with cuts in various places and instructed them to use the spells she gave them.

"Remember," She'd said, "You have to want to heal the person in order for it to work."

Harry looked over his dummy. It had cuts over his arms, a large scrape on his right leg, and a gash on his torso that didn't look life-threatening, to his unschooled eye.

"Episkey ‒ episkey ‒ episkey ‒ episkey," Harry chanted to the tiny cuts and scrapes, which healed instantly. Once they were all gone, he focused on the larger cuts and gashes. "Episkey," he said, trying to see if the cut would reduce. When it didn't, Harry said, "Ferula," and a wad of bandages appeared at his feet.

He blinked, then shrugged, and picked up some of the gauze before shuffling towards the dummy.

"Wonderful, all of you!"

Professor Sprout's voice caused Harry to jump. Everyone was holding bandages and were about to apply it carefully to the pretend injured person. "You don't need to apply them." Professor Sprout said. "We'll do that next time we meet. However, absolutely wonderful progress, all of you,"

She looked over at the Grandfather clock and said, "Well, I suppose you should get your things ready for Double Charms since Flying Class isn't until the third week of the month."

She then announced their homework; a one foot essay on the many ways you could use regular, everyday spells to heal someone, including potions, curses, etc. it was due the next time they met, which was on Wednesday.

"What Houses are we with?" Harry asked Hermione as they all shuffled to get their things and help Professor Sprout in returning their Common Room to normal.

"Oh, you don't need to help," She told them, before saying a few spells that they didn't know. The spells moved the furniture back into their original place, and the Professor banished the dummy's and the chalkboard. She put back on her gardeners hat.

"I'm off to my sixth-year class!" She said as she bounced out of the Loft. "See you lot at dinner!"

"We're with the Ravenclaws," Hermione said.

As the bell rang, signifying the end of class, the five first-years made their way to the Charms' classroom. Professor Flitwick was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books just to see over his desk ‒ which was an advantage and a disadvantage ‒ and at the start of class, he took roll. Flitwick's height didn't make Harry feel so miserable over his lack thereof.

Throughout Double Charms, they took notes over the dangers of not using charms properly could cause. Professor Flitwick was unusually stern when he told them that messing about in his classroom would lead to detentions year-round, not to mention loss of points each time it happened.

Harry sat next to Kevin again, who introduced him to "Boot, Terry.". Neville sat on Terry's left, Harry's right. Ron and Draco were on both sides' of Hermione, who wasn't tolerating their note passing when they got bored of the lesson.

When class was dismissed for the day, and the Apprentices were safely ensconced in the Loft, Hermione took out her notes and textbooks and announced, "I suggest we get our homework done now so that we don't have to worry about it later."

The only ones who groaned in protest were Draco and Ron. Harry didn't care and Neville was used to this from his Gran and his tutors.

They started on the easy subjects first, Transfiguration. They didn't have any homework for Defense, except to read the next two chapters, and Charms was only a 6inch essay on a short summary of what had been lectured. The only big homework they had was their Apprenticeship work from Sprout.

It was a hassle to get Hermione to see that going overboard on her homework (i.e. extra inches or irrelevant information) was not a good idea, and when Harry said, "They might take off points or give you a low grade because of it," she saw through her stubbornness and admitted defeat with a pout on her face.

"Blimey!" Ron yelped. "We'll be late for dinner!"

It was currently 5:55 P.M.

"Calm down, Ron." Draco drawled. He'd stopped calling the others by their last name when he saw how they defended him, even though he did act like a spoilt brat most of the time.

They made their way into the Great Hall around five minutes after the feast started. They settled themselves at their table and started to pile food on their plates. After they had all gotten what they'd wanted, some of their classmates had started to make their way towards them, causing the silence in the hall.

Padma, Kevin, and Su Li (who was friends with Neville) settled themselves at the Apprentice table, all of the Hufflepuff First Years, except for Zacharias who was in the hospital wing for a sprained ankle, came to their table, chattering about the classes they had.

For Gryffindor, it was Fred & George, and their friend Lee Jordan, who was the Quidditch Announcer, and they sat themselves across from Ron, and next to Harry. The only one from Slytherin who dared to come sit next to Draco was "Nott, Theodore", who then gave Draco a talking-to over ignoring him the previous days just cause he wasn't with the Snakes.

It's good to know that Draco still has at least one of his friends, Hermione thought to herself as she was immersed into a conversation on the benefits of Defense Against the Dark Arts with Padma and the other Hufflepuff girls.

"So, how's Ravenclaw treating you?" Harry asked Kevin as he started to cut into his chicken.

Kevin chewed on his potato for a moment before swallowing, and responded, "It's…uh…great…" Kevin tried to pull off a smile but it came out as a grimace. Harry took note of it and stored it in the back of his mind for later use.

"So, Ron, how was the first day of classes?" Fred ‒ or was it George? ‒ asked him once he'd eaten only a quarter of his food.

Ron responded, "It was alright. Defense is a joke, though."

Fred & George nodded. "We have Defense tomorrow, and we figured it'd be a joke."

Dinner passed and five sated, warm, and tired Apprentices stumbled their way into the Loft. They all collapsed in the Common Room. Harry sprawled on his armchair, Hermione curled on hers with the Herbology textbook, and Ron, Draco, and Neville made themselves comfortable on the couch.

The warm fire made them fall asleep in their respective places, even though curfew wasn't for another two or so hours, and that was how Professor Sprout and McGonagall found them when they went through Bella's portrait to check up on them.

McGonagall roused Harry and Hermione while Sprout shook the other three boys awake. "Up you get," McGonagall told them. The five first years moaned and protested over being awoken.

"Up to your rooms, kits," smiled Sprout as she ushered them to their dorms.

As Ron was the last to stumble to bed, McGonagall looked over at her colleague and said, "This is going to be an interesting seven years at Hogwarts."

Sprout nodded her head. "I suppose even if they weren't Apprentices, these next seven years would still be something."

"I couldn't agree more with you Pomona," McGonagall said before exiting the Loft with Sprout at her heels.