The next morning, Ben woke up much earlier than the rest of his housemates. It wasn't only because he was a morning person, which he was, but because he had a mission. Calling it a mission was perhaps a bit too dramatic, but it was something he needed to do to find out how bad his current situation was.

He had decided to go search for Audrey before classes started, and he'd ask her about it. He didn't know exactly what he was going to say yet, but he assumed that, if she was truly angry, he wouldn't need to speak to find out.

So he changed into his Hogwarts robes, took his school stuff and walked out of the Gryffindor tower quietly. He tried to remember the route the Weasley prefect, Percy, had led them through the night before, but he soon realised the stairs moved whenever they wanted to.

And, to put the cherry on top, some of them had steps that vanished in the middle of the staircase, so you had to be extremely careful to avoid them and not end up falling. After getting lost and panicking for a while, he saw a tall, brunette boy walking down a corridor near him, so he ran after him as though his life depended on it.

"Steve!"

Steve stopped on the spot, and turned to face him with a grin. "Hello Ben, what do you need?"

But Ben was too shocked to speak. His eyes were fixed on Steve's robes. On his black and bright yellow robes, to be exact. "You're... a Hufflepuff?"

The boy frowned, and glanced down at his uniform. "Yeah!"

Ben observed his face again, just to check he hadn't confused him for the Steve he and Audrey had been with the day before. But no, it was him. That was his sister's boyfriend. A Hufflepuff.

Now that was odd... Steve Robinson wasn't the Slytherin prefect Audrey had told her family about. He was a Hufflepuff. Wow.

"Is there anything wrong?" asked Steve.

"I'm trying to find Audrey."

"She's probably still in the Slytherin Common Room," said Steve. "I was actually going to go see her, so you can come with me."

"Oh, yes, please."

Steve guided the boy to the dungeons, which was where the Slytherins slept. The atmosphere was excessively humid, due to it being under the Great Lake, and Steve's hair was slightly ruined.

"I'm glad I'm not a Slytherin," mumbled Steve. "I wouldn't be able to stand this humidity."

Ben couldn't agree more. However, he didn't have time to laugh at Steve's comment, because Audrey walked out of the Slytherin common room and stopped when she saw both boys standing a few metres away from the door.

"Good morning love." Steve greeted her with a smile, but Audrey ignored him completely. She angrily stared at Ben.

"What are you doing here?" she snapped, her dark blue eyes piercing into his lighter ones.

"I came to talk to yo-"

"Then leave," she interrupted him, clutching her books tightly. "I don't want to see you."

She began walking away, so Ben hurried after her. Steve didn't follow them.

"Why not?"

"You're such a prick," she murmured angrily.

"So are you!"

Audrey spun around, red in the face. "Oh, I'm the prick?" she shouted. Ben took a step back, surprised by the sudden change of intensity in her voice. "I'm not the one who keeps ruining everything!"

"I'm sorry, what did I do now?"

She widened her eyes. "Are you really asking that?"

"Yeah!"

"You've ruined our legacy just because you wanted to be different and special," she hissed. "Perhaps you think you're better than me by being a rebellious little shit, but you're not! You're just an idiotic Gryffindor, and I don't want you to talk to me in front of people ever again, do you hear me?"

"It's not like I ever liked talking to you, anyway!" he shouted, feeling a prickling in his eyes.

"Good!" she shouted back. "I'm glad you don't, because you're not my brother anymore, you're just a disgrace to our family."

And she walked away furiously. Ben wanted to run after her to shout at her and tell her how much she hated her for being such an awful sister to him and Alycia. But he didn't. Audrey's last words didn't want to leave his mind.

You're not my brother, you're just a disgrace to our family.

She had hit right where it hurt the most.

Feeling like the castle roof collapsed against him, he bit his lip as hard as he could until it started bleeding, and then he stopped.

"Hey, are you okay?" said a voice. He turned around to see a taller boy with light brown hair and a Hufflepuff uniform.

"Yes," he replied instantly, and wiped his eyes so there was no sign of the tears that had almost escaped him.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm perfectly fine."

Ben could tell that the boy didn't trust his words, and wondered how much of the conversation he'd heard, so he tried to change the subject. "My name's Ben."

He understood what he was trying to do, and held out his hand. "Nice to meet you, I'm Cedric Diggory. You're new here, aren't you?"

Ben nodded. "What year are you in? Fourth?"

"Third," he corrected him. "Have you had breakfast yet? Classes are starting soon."

"No, but it's fine, I'm not hungry."

He nodded. "Alright, what's your first class today?"

"Uh... Transfiguration."

"Oh, I like that one," commented Cedric. "Do you need help to get to your class?"

"Yes, please, if you're not busy," he accepted the offer. "This castle is huge..."

"Oof I remember my first year, it was horrible!" the older boy laughed. "I didn't have any friends yet, so I had to go all over the school trying to find the potions classroom, and Snape got incredibly mad at me."

"He seems creepy..." Ben muttered, while following the Hufflepuff.

"He is creepy, but I don't want to frighten you, so I'm not giving you details."

Ben chuckled, happy to have found someone who was nice to him. Cedric seemed like a very kind and sweet guy, someone he could finally trust. For the whole time they walked together to his Transfigurations class, he felt like everything that happened before was just a bad dream, one of the nightmares he usually got at home. He hadn't experienced a calmness like that since many years ago, back when he was around five, and he was way too young to understand the world that surrounded him, back when Audrey and him spent almost every spare moment together.

———————————————

They arrived at the Transfiguration class when there were still ten minutes left until it was time to start. Cedric left soon, as he had to go to his History of Magic classes, and he promised Ben they would talk again soon.

Almost everyone was already there too, including Malfoy, who gave him a disgusted look after glancing at the Gryffindor badge on his robes.

But Weasley and Harry were nowhere to be seen. Hermione had told Ben she hadn't seen them in the Great Hall for dinner, and she assured him they would arrive on time.

However, Neville said they were still asleep when he left. Ben guessed they probably didn't wake up, and decided to run back to the common room, as Professor McGonagall wasn't at class yet.

"Ben! Are you crazy? You're going to be late too!" screamed Hermione when she saw him dash out of the room, though the boy ignored her.

She was probably right, and he knew it. He was going to be late, on his first day, just to help two people who thought he was a bad person.

Well, Ben wasn't sure about what Harry thought about him. After all, he didn't even know who the Walkers were and what they did during the Wizarding War. But he had spent a lot of time with Weasley, who did think he was like his parents, so he probably had been told a lot about it after Ben stormed off in the train.

No matter what they thought about him, he didn't want them to get into trouble. After all, they were his new classmates, and people are supposed to be nice to their classmates, right?

So, when he arrived at the corridor in which the entrance to the common room was, and saw Harry and Weasley getting out of the hole in the wall, he ran towards them.

"Why aren't you at class?" inquired the redhead.

"Why aren't you at class?"

"We overslept," said Harry.

"That's what I thought," Ben answered. "That's why I came here to help you find the class."

"Oh- Thanks"

Ben ran down the corridor, followed closely by them.

"How do you know the way?"

"An older boy called Cedric helped me." He turned around a corner, and almost flew down the staircase that was missing a step at the beginning, as the Hufflepuff had told him.

He then rushed up another corridor, and turned to the left when he saw a broken torch. There was a portrait of an old couple at the end of the corridor, so Ben knew he wasn't lost.

"Okay, we're almost there." They ran until the end of the corridor, and stopped in front of a closed door.

"Is it here?" Harry asked as Ben nodded. "Brilliant!"

"Do you think we're late?" asked Weasley, placing his hand on the doorknob.

"For sure," affirmed Harry.

"I can't believe I'm actually going to be late for our first class just to help you two," groaned Ben, pushing the door open.

"Well, it was your choice," said the redhead.

The class was filled with students who were already reading their books and taking notes. As soon as they walked in, many of them turned their heads to look at them.

Hermione rolled her eyes as Malfoy laughed at them with Crabbe and Goyle. At the front of the classroom, on a desk, a small striped grey cat sat too straight to look like a normal cat.

"Amazing!" said Ronald happily. "Can you imagine the look on McGonagall's face if we were late?"

"I think we're going to find out very soon..." muttered Ben, eyeing the cat suspiciously.

It moved from its place, jumped off the desk and, less than a second later, Professor McGonagall stood in front of the boys, giving them a very stern look.

"You are right, Mr. Walker."

"That was bloody brilliant, Professor!" Weasley blurted out

"Well, thank you for that assessment, Mr. Weasley," the woman said sarcastically. "Perhaps it would be more useful if I transfigured Mr. Potter, Mr. Walker or yourself into a pocket watch. That way at least two of you would be on time."

"We... We got lost," lied Harry. The other boys nodded to add credibility.

"Then maybe a map?" She looked at the three of them for a couple of seconds. "I trust you won't need one to find your seats."

McGonagall walked back to her desk as many students giggled. Ben saw Neville was sitting alone, so he went to sit with him while Harry and Weasley sat in the seats in front of them.

"Hi," smiled Neville.

"Hi," Ben grinned back.

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

She showed the students a quick demonstration by transforming her desk into a pig, which oinked very loudly, causing them all to erupt in laughter until she transformed it back into the desk.

However, the rest of the class wasn't as interesting and entertaining as transforming furniture into animals. McGonagall made them take a lot of confusing notes, which Neville ended up ruining when he dropped all his ink over his piece of parchment.

Ben told him he'd let him borrow his that afternoon, and they got back to listening to McGonagall. After a while, they were all given a match, and were told to transform it into a needle.

Nobody managed to do it, except Hermione, whose match turned silver and slightly pointy. Ben's match ended up getting yeeted across the room, and McGonagall used a spell to make it float back to his hands, which Ben found very cool.

The next class was the Potions one, taught by Severus Snape, the Head of Slytherin House. While they walked to the classroom, Ben heard steps running after him, and he was soon joined by Weasley and Harry.

"Hey, er- We wanted to say thank you for helping us before," said Harry.

"Right... It was kind of you."

Ben felt quite surprised by them thanking him for something. Perhaps trying to help them changed the way they saw him? That was what he honestly wished, though he didn't want to admit it.

"Don't worry, I just didn't want you to get in trouble. But it's not like it worked, did it?" He laughed.

"Not really, but it could've been worse," admitted Harry with a grin.

The three boys walked into the Potions classroom, coughing from the smoke coming from the potions. The tables were long enough for at least five or six people to sit together, so Ronald, Harry and Ben sat together, and they were soon joined by Hermione and Neville.

"Isn't it a bit cold in here?" asked Ronald.

"It's because we're in the dungeons," explained Ben, eyes fixed on the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.

"Yeah, oddly enough, I managed to notice that when we walked down to the dungeons,"

The doors burst open, and an extremely thin, sallow-skinned man with a hooked nose walked in, giving big, loud steps. His cape billowed as he went to the front of the class, giving him a very dramatic look.

"That's what I like to call a dramatic entrance," Ben whispered to Ronald and Harry, who tried to hold back their laughter.

The man started the class by taking the big roll. When he reached Harry's name, he made a pause. "Ah, yes, Harry Potter, our new..." He stopped to find the most appropriate word, "celebrity."

Draco and his friends sniggered behind their hands, though it didn't muffle the sound. However, Snape didn't notice, or simply didn't care about it, and continued talking.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he said. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but it was easy to catch every word. "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 stop death- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

There was a silence following the man's speech. Harry and Ronald exchanged looks, and Ben was shocked by his capacity of making every word sound dramatic.

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

Hermione's hand was shot into the air, as Harry looked at Ben and Ronald with a horrified look in his face. Ben remembered reading something about it a long time ago, in one of Audrey's Potions books.

You'd get a sleeping potion, he suddenly remembered. He clasped his hands together and very discreetly directed them towards his shoulder, turning his head as though he was sleeping. Harry looked at him, confused for a second, but then realisation became clear in his face.

"A sleeping potion," he said, looking at the professor's dark, cold eyes. Hermione's hand fell.

"Walker," called Snape. "If I asked Potter, it's because I expected him to tell me the answer by himself."

"But how can you expect him to know the answer to something you never taught us, taking into account it's our first Potions class, and knowing he didn't have the chance to learn anything about it at home?"

"He thought he wouldn't need to open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" He sneered after giving Ben a nasty look. "I can assure you the answer to that question can be found in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi."

"Right, along with hundreds of other complex stuff."

Snape's eyes drifted to Ben's. "If you're so intelligent you think you can talk back to me, I suppose you won't have a problem answering a couple of questions, will you?"

"Go ahead, sir."

"What is a bezoar, and where would you look if I told you to find me one?"

Hermione raised her hand as high as she could without leaving her seat, but Snape ignored her.

"A bezoar is a kind of stone that can save you from many poisons, and it's extracted from the stomach of a goat."

"What is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?" He asked, and Hermione almost jumped off her chair.

"Er- They're the same thing, and they are used to create a potion called Wolfsbane, which cures lycanthropy, I think."

"Wrong," snapped Snape. "There isn't any cure for lycanthropy, the Wolfsbane potion only reduces and relieves the symptoms of it."

Draco laughed, not even trying to hide it anymore.

"Sit down," Snape snapped at Hermione, walking back to his desk. "Two points will be taken from the Gryffindor House. One for your lack of interest in my subject, Potter. And another for Walker's insolence."

However, that wasn't the worst part of the class. Snape made them mix up a simple potion to cure boils. He spent the whole time walking around, insulting and criticising almost everyone, except Malfoy, of course.

When he was telling everyone to look at how marvellously Malfoy had stewed his stupid horned slugs, clouds of acid green smoke filled the dungeon. Apparently, Neville had melted Seamus's cauldron, and their potion was all over the stone floor, burning holes in everyone's shoes, so they had to stand on their stools.

However, Neville had fallen into the potion, which caused angry red boils to sprang up all over his arms and legs. After insulting Neville and making Seamus take him to the hospital wing, Snape decided to blame Harry for Neville's mistake.

"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."

That was the most ridiculous excuse to punish someone Ben had ever heard in his entire life, and that was saying a lot.

Ronald had to kick them both behind their cauldrons to stop them from talking back. "Don't push it, you've seen what happened before, you'll get into trouble."

When the three boys left the dungeon, they were all red in anger, not believing how someone could be so unfair. It was clear Snape hated Harry, and Ben too.

They came to the conclusion that the best thing they could do was to be careful with him and to not test him any further. Though they knew it would be hard, they didn't want to lose any more points for their house, so they promised they would try their best.