TURNED OUT I had a very unexpected talent in potions. I never really saw potions as something of too much interest, but I certainly did enjoy it. But I did much prefer Defence Against the Dark Arts, it was the lesson I wanted to excel at the most and the one I was looking forward to the most.

Professor Slughorn was very kind and a good teacher, which surprised me since he was from Slytherin. It changed the perception I had on them, maybe not all wizards or witches from Slytherin turn bad.

I was learning more and discovering that things weren't what they seemed. I found out muggle-borns aren't evil or bad whatsoever, Lily was a prime example of that. I also found out not all Slytherin were terrible people and being in Gryffindor wasn't the end of the world.

Everything my family and parents ever taught me slowly started to seem like myths and nonsense to me. I understood why Sirius defied them so much, and I was starting to follow his footsteps.

After my Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, I finally went to have lunch at the Great Hall.

I saw Alice, who I hadn't seen since breakfast that morning and sat next to her. She smiled and asked in a cheery tone, "Hello, how's your first day been so far?"

I smiled back and said, "It's actually been pretty good so far. I made a new friend, sort of."

Alice exclaimed, "Really? Who is it?!"

I explained, "This boy in my potions class, his name is Remus. He's actually really nice, although he's a bit quiet."

Alice asked cheekily, "Is he cute? Is he single?"

Rolling my eyes, I said sarcastically, "Yeah, totally. Merlin's beard, I barley know him. Besides.. I'm not really into the whole 'crush' stuff."

She raised her eyebrows and asked, "Really? Why not? Come on, you've got to find someone cute."

I simply said, "Restricted childhood, if you've forgotten."

She made an 'o' on her face and said nothing else. I decided to have a bit of fun and asked, "Do you find anyone appealing?"

She immediately going slightly red and became quite fidgety. This was very unlike Alice, meaning she did like someone.

I quickly exclaimed, "Come on, you've got to tell me now! Who is it? I won't say anything, I promise."

Nervously, she tucked a bit of her straight brown hair. I noticed at her glancing at a boy with shaggy brown hair and brown eyes, she looked at him lovingly and in such admiration.

It was both cute and cringy as hell.

I nearly shouted, "You like Frank?!"

She immediately panicked and whispered, "Shhh! Yes, I do!"

I immediately joked, "Awww, that's so cute. I think you'd be good together."

She looked at me with a glimmer of hope and asked, "Do you think so? I mean, we both like nature and stuff."

I nodded at her and assured, "Yeah, I wouldn't say go after him now. But if you get to know him and get close, I definitely see you two together."

As I said this, I saw Lily and Marlene come down towards us and asked in excitement, "What are you two talking about?"

I looked at them and immediately commented, "Just talking about how Alice has a massive crush on Longbottom."

Alice immediately exclaimed, "Uhh, what about the whole 'I'm not going tell anyone' promise?"

I smoothly said, "Best friends don't count, they know everything."

All of us couldn't help but laugh. Marlene sat next to me while Lily sat next to Alice, all happy that we were back together again.

Marlene turned towards me and smirked. I gave her a confused look and asked, "What?"

She raised her eyebrows while still smiling and joked, "You never told me you were good at the DADA."

I furrowed my eyebrows at her. She explained as she leaned closer towards me, "A little owl told me that you were the first person in the class to successfully perform the Knockback Jinx. I'm very impressed, Black."

Lily exclaimed, "Oh my god, really? That's impressive, I've read in my books that it's quite a complex spell for the first year."

They all looked at me in delight, I felt a little bit embarrassed since I don't know how to take compliments. Mostly because I never receive any, I just get tons of criticism from my family.

I smiled and mumbled, "It's nothing really, but thanks guys."

But as I was starting to eat my lunch, James said out loud, "Come on, everyone in that class knew how to do it."

All of us immediately looked at him disgust and hatred. He smirked once again, which just made me want to perform a jinx on him.

"I mean, every wizard knows that spell. I know that spell, and I'm pretty damn good at it."

I rolled my eyes and spat, "Hey Potter, why don't you shut your irreverent gob and pretend you don't exist? That would certainly be a blessing to everyone here."

Everyone cheered and made noises as James for a split second looked embarrassed that I managed to hit him hard.

But unfortunately, a show off and egotistical git like him is hard to put down.

He looked around and saw Snape sitting at the table. Quickly, he pulled out his wand and mumbled as he waved, "Wingardium Leviosa."

As I looked, I saw Snape's books starting to levitate from his space. He didn't notice until everyone started sniggering and laughing at him.

Lily immediately shouted, "Stop it right now! It's not funny, stop it!"

But he didn't stop, James isn't like that. He kept it just inches away from Snape's reach as everyone around him was laughing. Including Sirius.

I finally had enough, I pulled out my wand and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

In a span of a second, his wand went flying out of his hand. The levitation spell stopped working and caused the books to fall directly onto Snape's head and he collapsed.

I couldn't believe what I had just done. I didn't believe that the spell ever worked, no one in the first year should even know what the spell is yet, never mind casting it.

I had seen my family perform that spell dozens of times along with... others. But I still couldn't believe what I did.

The whole hall was silent as James stared at me in shock. Sirius couldn't believe it either and neither could anyone else. I stared down at my wand as I started to question my power, scared of what other spells I could cast by accident.

Professor McGonagall came marching down the hall until she finally came to where me and James were standing. I could tell she was absolutely furious with us, and I couldn't help but gulp slightly.

"James Potter and Penelope Black. Into my office this instant."