Johnny woke up before his dorm mates the next morning. At half past seven, Johnny quietly showered and changed into his green and silver uniform, packed up any books he may need for the day and stuffed his wand in his pocket, before quietly leaving the dorm and making his way out of the entrance to the Common Room.

The halls were relatively empty as the halls were empty at this time of the morning, the sun shining through the windows and onto Johnny's face. Once Johnny found a window ledge he could comfortably sit at, he reflected on the night before in his dorm. Draco, and his friends, Crabbe, Goyle and Theodore Nott tormented him endlessly, calling him Mudblood. Both Crabbe and Goyle even went as far as to give him a punch, resulting in Blaise stepping between the three. Johnny now had a nice black eye that resided on the left side of his face.

Blaise and Pansy were truly his only friend in Slytherin House. Johnny wished he could be in Gryffindor with Hermione, Hell he wish he could've been sharing a dorm with Harry and Ron, but luck was clearly not in his side. When eight thirty finally rolled around, Johnny made his way to the Great Hall for breakfast, hoping he'd least find Hermione there, and to his luck, she was.

She smiled cheerfully at him as he walked through the double doors, motioning for him to sit opposite her at the Gryffindor table. Hermione hadn't noticed the black eye yet, but as he got closer, Hermione saw the nice shiner that Crabbe and Goyle had given him, making her gasp and cover her mouth in shock.

"Are you alright!? What happened!?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"I-I'm fine," Johnny lied, waving her off. "Fell down the stairs, that's all."

Hermione clearly didn't believe him, but she didn't press on, seeing the sad look upon her best friends face.

When the Great Hall started filling up, the Heads of Houses started coming around with the students timetables. McGonagall handed Hermione hers and sent the Slytherin and the Gryffindor a smile, but when Professor Severus Snape, the Head of Slytherin and the Potions teacher handed Johnny his, his eyes swept over the two, before he turned back to Johnny and said: "Friendships with other houses don't often work, Scaletta. Especially Snakes mixing with others," and he swept off back over to the Slytherin table.

"W-we'll still be friends, won't we?" Hermione asked insecurely. She hadn't really clicked with any of her own Gryffindor peers just yet, much like Johnny in that aspect. Johnny was her only friend here, her best and only friend ever.

"Of course," Johnny smiled reassuringly. "I won't let some greasy git say otherwise."

Hermione smiled widely, and took Johnny's timetable in her hand to compare both.

"Look, we practically have everything together! Everything but Charms and Astronomy!" Johnny smiled at her excitement, smiling even wider as Hermione motioned eagerly for them to make their way to Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall fifteen minutes early.

When the bell rung, and the First Year Slytherin and Gryffindor students bustled into the classroom, everyone seemed to notice that Professor McGonagall wasn't here yet, and a tabby cat that was practically sat as still as a bored was watching them from atop of the desk.

"Creepy," Johnny mumbled as he took his seat next to Hermione, also taking notice that Harry and Ron were nowhere to be seen either. Ten minutes into the lesson, and the class was jotting down notes from the board, neither McGonagall, Harry or Ron had turned up yet and the tabby cat still sat still, that was until the two boys came rushing in and that tabby cat turned into Professor McGonagall, making Johnny's mouth open wide as Hermione giggled at his face.

"That was bloody brilliant!" Said Ron, with the same amount of aw as Johnny.

"Well, thank you for that assessment, Mr. Weasley," said Professor McGonagall, glaring slightly at the two late boys. "Perhaps it would be more useful if I were to transfigure Mr. Potter and yourself into a pocket watch. That way, one of you might be on time."

"We got lost," Harry tried to defend them, but McGonagall really wasn't having it today.

"Then perhaps a map? I trust you don't need one to find your seats."

The two took their seats right behind Hermione and Johnny and the lesson properly began.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. The class were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realised they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione and Johnny had made any difference to their matches; Professor McGonagall showed the class how they had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione and Johnny a rare smile, even awarding ten points to both Slytherin and Gryffindor.

The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story. For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; and they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins, Ron[s brothers,  insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.

"What have we got today?" Johnny asked Hermione as he sat down at the Gryffindor table, almost being welcomed by them all as they'd gotten used to him sitting there and that short space of time.

"Double Potions with the Slytherins," Harry answered for him, shocking Ron (who didn't like him).

"Snape's Head of your House. They say he always favors y0u lot -- we'll be able to see if it's true," said Ron snobbishly.

"Wish McGonagall favored us," said Harry.

Just then, the mail arrived. Johnny had gotten used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.

"Trust me, lot warmer in the Slytherin Common Room," Johnny reassured Hermione as they walked.

Snape started the class by taking the roll call and he paused at Harry's name.

"Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new -- celebrity."

Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth. They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potionmaking," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word -- like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "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 human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Johnny, who were sat next to each other, exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.

"Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione and Johnny's hands had shot into the air.

"I don't know, sir," said Harry.

Snape's lips curled into a sneer.

"Tut, tut -- fame clearly isn't everything."

He ignored Hermione's hand, but nodded at Johnny to answer.

"A sleeping potion so powerful it's known as Draught of Living Death," Johnny answered confidently.

"Very good, Mr. Scaletta," Snape almost smiled. "Five points to Slytherin. Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry clearly didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter.

"I don't know, sir."

"Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand. He then turned to Johnny again.

"In the belly of a goat, Sir," Johnny answered, feeling sorry for Hermione and Harry.

"Excellent," Snape drawled out. "Another Five points to Slytherin. What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.

"I don't know," said Harry quietly. "Johnny probably does and I think Hermione does too, why don't you try them?"

A few people laughed; Snape, however, was not pleased.

"Sit down," he snapped at Hermione. "Mr. Scaletta, answer it for him."

"They're the same plant, Sir."

"Another Five points!" Snape said. "For your information, Potter, everything Scaletta said was correct. Asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the Draught of Living Death. A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat and it will save you from most poisons. As for monkshood and wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"

There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Potter."

Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticising almost everyone except Malfoy and Johnny, who he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Johnny had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"

Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.

"Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.

"You -- Potter -- why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."

Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Johnny kicked him behind the table.

"Don't push it," Johnny muttered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty."