White Smoke
Chapter One
The moment the bell rang the hallways flooded with students who were all leaving their classes for lunch. The warm sun's rays lit up the grounds of Hogwarts brightly and warmed the castle through its many windows. Several students were milling outside through the doors, their chatter rising to the air.
"So what did you guys think of today's class?" asked Claire as she tried to manage the several textbooks in her arm.
The four tired and rumpled looking girls Clair Marie, Lily Evans, Natalie Maple, and Lynda Becker were just leaving from their Transfiguration class. For today's lesson they had to transform an object into an animal. The objects they used could be anything found in the classroom. Claire decided to transform her book into a butterfly, Lily decided to transform her quill into a lily, Natalie transformed her shoe into an owl, and Lynda turned her bag into a frog.
McGonagall had made her demonstration seem simple. If only it was that… For the last hour and a half all the students had tried to transform their objects, but everyone failed so badly that Professor McGonagall had been the maddest anyone had ever seen her. Everyone reckoned she would have been angrier if it hadn't been for the one student who was able to transform their object correctly.
"It was horrible," Natalie groaned, trying to flatten her unkempt hair. "I can't even transform a bloody shoe. A shoe! Do you have any idea how hard it is to transform a shoe?"
"A shoe? That's nothing. I just can't believe how fast James transformed that wardrobe," grumbled Lily, staring straight ahead with angry eyes. Her feet slammed against the ground with every step she took. "I swear he didn't even do it himself! He must have paid McGonagall off to do it for him."
No one replied, not that anyone needed to. Everyone knew very well that there was no way a student could have paid off McGonagall.
The only person who actually completed the lesson was James Potter. Professor McGonagall told him to be the first to transfigure something and he immediately pointed his wand at the large wardrobe sitting behind her desk, gave it a wave, and immediately the wardrobe transformed into hundreds of golden Snitches that flew around the classroom.
It was without a doubt that James was the best student in the whole school, particularly in Transfiguration and Defence Against the Dark Arts. He had transformed the largest object out of all his classmates at which appeared effortless and he managed to do it non-verbally. At the end of the class the only person who didn't seem to have a five page essay to write and three chapters to read was James. As usual…
Unexpectedly Lily's bag ripped and the contents inside fell to the floor. The other girls tried their best to jump over the items to avoid damaging anything and to avoid getting any ink on their shoes from the broken bottles spilling out in front of them.
"Oh crap," Lily muttered. People passing by went around them as she bent down to pick her stuff up when a loud voice called from behind them.
"Hey mudblood! Oh, are you sad your itsy, bity, bag broke!? Don't worry we can make you feel better, mudblood!"
She inwardly groaned. She didn't have to look up to know that the voice belonged to Malfoy. She wished he would just walk by without a word like everyone else was doing, but even she knew that would be like asking God for snow in the middle of July.
The girls looked towards the sound of his voice and as usual he was flocked on both sides. His girlfriend Narcissa sauntered at his side with his 'friends' Crabbe, Goyal, Flint, and Bellatrix following closely behind.
"Go away Malfoy!" said Lily, angrily as she stood up with a few books in her arms. The other girls were also holding a few of her items as they too turned to the oncoming troop.
"Umm... no... no, I don't think so," Malfoy smirked as he glanced at his gang with looks passing between them.
"Come on Lily," whispered Lynda, tugging on Lily's sleeve. "Let's go."
Before they could even take a step Bellatrix's high pitched voice rang out. "Are you scared?" she taunted.
"Come on hurry up, this is boring!" Flint complained behind Malfoy. People in the hallway stopped and watched wide eyed at what was happening in front of them and yet not one of them spoke out. They all knew that if they did, they too would be attacked.
Malfoy chuckled with a smirk. "We should start then. Someone needs to teach these mudbloods and mudblood lovers whose world they're really living in."