The next day we had flying with Gryffindor, which finally gave me the chance to speak to Charlie again. I was a little early for my first lesson and took advantage of that. 'Hi Charlie! Nice to have you in Gryffindor.'
'Hey Bell! Yes, I'm so happy. And you Slytherin, is it not too bad?'
'I don't know, I've only been there one day. Ask me that question again later', I concluded. Charlie was very good at flying. You could tell he was going to be on the Quidditch team one day. I was somewhere near average, although flying was one of the most enjoyable things I'd ever done. After flying we had potions from Professor Snape with Hufflepuff. At the beginning of the lesson Snape gave a whole sermon, no idea what it was for. But when we started it turned out that potions were going to be anything but my strongest subject. When Professor Snape approached my cauldron, I was so afraid that he was going to scold me like the poor Hufflepuff students. Because my potion was far from what it should be. Luckily for me, he was more lenient with the Slytherins. As he passed my cauldron, he frowned and gave a short "no" nod. 

During the afternoon when my plate was empty, I took another look at the potion we had to brew the previous hour. I couldn't disappoint the head of my department. But this made me rush to the next lesson: charms. This was on the 3rd floor, which I had never been to. "Couldn't they at Hogwarts, like in all high schools, give the freshmen a tour on their first day? And install an electrical network?" I thought. But Hogwarts wouldn't have been Hogwarts with those things. I also couldn't get up earlier to have more time, like in my previous classes, or just follow the rest of the Slytherins. A few minutes late, I entered charms. Luckily Professor Flitwick didn't mind my delay. Especially when it became clear that charms was a subject in which I radiated.
I was also top of the class in Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was taught by a new teacher: Professor Montgomery. He was a muggle-born, so envied by all of Slytherin. I was almost the only one in my house who found his classes interesting. He taught us about the four main elements of nature, which were not really dark arts. But yeah. He taught us different spells like: incendio, aguamenti and arresto momentum. Also he tried to learn us easy spells like lumos nonverbal (without speaking). When it turned out that that was far above our level, he gave up. Flying and herbology were the only subjects I had with Charlie, which I used to maintain our friendship. Other than that, I didn't have that many friends. I tried to talk to Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. But the downside of being in Slytherin is that everyone has a preconceived notion about you. As if it were a fact: "Everyone in Slytherin is bad." I spent my evenings in the library reading books of occlumency. If there's one thing I hate, it's mind reading. I was pretty hard on my privacy, so I decided to become a good occlusens (or however you say it). At the beginning of the school year, the teachers didn't give much homework, except for Snape, so I had plenty of time. But as the school year progressed, I had to look further for free time.