Chapter 40: Did the Sorting Hat Drink Fake Alcohol?
The next day, Kyle joined the new Gryffindor students on their way to the second floor of the castle for History of Magic. To say the class was dull would be an understatement, and Kyle spent most of the time dozing off. He couldn't believe a lesson could be this boring.
Professor Cuthbert Binns, the ghost who taught the class, didn't seem to care much about keeping the students engaged. There were no quizzes or discussions. After gliding through the wall, his milky-white form began reading monotonously from a textbook in a single, droning tone.
Ten minutes in, Kyle had had enough. It felt like a swarm of bees was buzzing relentlessly in his ears, making it impossible to focus on what Professor Binns was saying. He glanced around to see how everyone else was holding up.
The Gryffindors had completely surrendered. They were slumped over their desks, drooling, grinding their teeth, and even muttering in their sleep. The Hufflepuffs, on the other hand, were doing slightly better. Some, driven by a sense of duty (likely instilled by Mikel), tried valiantly to stay awake and take notes on every name and date mentioned. But soon, even they succumbed to the sheer boredom of the class. One by one, they rolled up their parchments and joined the rest in slumber.
...
If there was a class more dreaded by the students than History of Magic, it was Potions.
In the afternoon, Kyle and his classmates faced the torturous Potions lesson, notorious for being ruled by the severe and biased Professor Snape. While History of Magic might have been excruciatingly boring, at least the students could nap without consequence. Potions, however, was an entirely different beast.
Snape's blatant favoritism toward Slytherin made the class unbearable for everyone else. Gryffindor, in particular, bore the brunt of his unfairness. While other Houses were merely overlooked when it came to earning points, Gryffindor students had points deducted for the smallest infractions—whether it was taking notes too slowly, failing to read during class, or even reading the wrong book. It was no wonder that Gryffindor always had the lowest House points by the end of each year, a fact that had fueled Fred and George's desire to send Snape to the hospital wing.
That afternoon, Hufflepuff had their first Potions class, paired with Slytherin. After repeated warnings from the prefects, the young Hufflepuffs made sure to leave their common room early and arrived at the underground Potions classroom a full ten minutes ahead of time. Well, all of them except for Kyle.