It was the third day of school and she had already landed herself in Filch's office. She stood in front of his desk as he scowled filling out a form for her punishment, occasionally he would look up at her with a nasty grin. She looked up to the ceiling, the office was illuminated by a single oil lamp, swaying slightly from the ceiling. Suddenly the lamp hopped on the rope it hung from.
Filch's face instantly turned beat red. "Peeves!" He bellowed storming out of the room.
A large gray cat jumped onto the desk, looking at her with cold calculating eyes.
She had heard stories of the cat and his master but to her the cat didn't seem to have the same sinister appearance her older classmates had claimed. Her thoughts drifted to her parents cat back home, she wondered how they were doing and if her parents were worried sending her to a school they had never even heard of until her letter for hogwarts arrived. As far as she knew she was the first witch to ever come from her family. She looked to the desk, an envelope sat on the desk and leaning over she could see that it was called kwickspells, she bit her lip recalling seeing an envelope with the same name in her parents mail. The events that lead her to standing in Filch's office hadn't been her fault she ended up being the person Filch directed his anger at. Two older classmates had set off firecrackers in a hallway and by the time Filch had reached the hall, she was the only person in sight and no amount of protesting would convince Filch she wasn't to blame. Apprehensively she reached out holding her hand in front of the cats face. Mister Norris sniffed it then leaned into her hand.
She pet the cat for a moment before gently picking him up, stroking the long fur.
Mister Norris purred and closed her eyes content.
Filch entered the office again grumbling to himself. Seeing her holding his cat his face twisted into another scowl as he opened his mouth to yell at her, only to stop when he heard the cat purring. His eyebrows raised and he bit his lip, looking somewhat confused. "Have you bewitched my cat?" He asked accusingly.
"N-no sir," she stammered. "I don't even know any magic yet.
Filch said nothing though his expression showed surprise, rounding his desk to resume filling out the punishment form. "Name."
"Esme Lagan," she replied softly still petting the purring cat. "He's an awfully old cat isn't he?" Esme smiled looking at her and scratched his chin with a fully white muzzle. "He's handsome."
Filch looked up at her, his expression only softening slightly as he realized that she had genuinely meant it.
Esme lifted her eyes to meet his, smiling despite the fact that he was in the middle of fililng out her punishment. Her eyes were yellow shining the color of pale gold, mirroring the cats. Gently she set mister Norris on the desk.
With a sigh Filch crumpled the paper and slid it into a bin. "Go on get to class," he grumbled.
Esme tilted her head. "You're not punishing me?"
"Not this time," he mumbled.
Esme started toward the door then looked back at the man still hunched over the desk and frowned slightly. "Could I come back and visit mister Norris sometime?" She asked hesitantly. "I don't have a cat of my own," she added quickly hoping it might convince him.
Filch looked bewildered but nodded and waved his hand dismissing her.
Smiling Esme ran out the door hearing the bell that signaled the end of her break and dismissed her to potions class she walked briskly down the hallways and stepped into the room breathlessly. Taking her place next to a lanky boy with a sour face she offered a small smile, to which he rolled his eyes looking ahead at the scowling potions master. After a brief lecture they were turned loose to replicate the potion.
"Ethan," the dark haired lanky boy said finally.
Esme looked up. "What?"
"My name you twit. What's yours," he growled.
"Esme," she murmured watching as the contents of her cauldron turned vivid purple, much to her surprise.
Ethan looked over to her cauldron, his own staying deep green. "What did you do?" He grumbled.
"You add the spider legs after the unicorn hair," she replied watching him do it in reverse order then the potion in his cauldron solidified and started smoking.
The boy groaned watching the potions professor walk around the room peering into each cauldron. He stopped looking into Ethan's cauldron with a bewildered expression at the potion that now resembled smoldering gray cement. Shaking his head he looked into Esme's cauldron.
"Awarding ten points," he said loudly for the class to hear, "miss Lagan is the only one to successfully brew the potion."
The remainder of class passed quickly after that, despite feeling she knew nothing Esme was doing surprisingly well picking up magic quickly though she found that potions and charms were by far her favorite classes. Walking back to the common room with Ethan to do their potions homework Esme couldn't help her mind drifting back to the envelope on filches desk. She knew she had seen the envelope before but couldn't remember what it had been.
"Ethan?" She asked hesitantly.
Ethan grunted to show he was listening, still staring down at his potions book trying to figure out where he went wrong in the potion.
"What is kwickspells?"
Ethan looked up at at her, cold gray eyes scanning her. "It's a basically lessons teaching simple spells so witches or wizards can look like they know a bit of magic when they're horrible. Why?"
"I saw it sitting on Filchs desk."
He raised an eyebrow. "The squib is trying to learn magic from a kwickspells lesson?" He laughed, his smile widening to show pearly white teeth.
Esme shrugged biting her lip. She had no idea what a squib is but from the way Ethan said it she doubted it was a good thing.
Seeing her confusion Ethan groaned as they reached the entrance to their common room. "Mandrake," he said opening the passage in. "A squib is someone that is born to wizard parents but doesn't have the wizard gene. They're basically the opposite of a muggleborns."
Esme frowned slightly. "So Filch can't use magic?"
"No, I doubt he has any in him at all," Ethan laughed again ducking into the common room followed by Esme.
"That's kinda sad really."
"Down right pathetic," he replied
"No I mean to grow up knowing about all of this then never being able to learn to do it. It must be horrible," she whispered.
Ethan snorted shaking his head. "Don't feel to sorry for him. That cat of his has been watching me since we got sorted. I'm sure he has it out for me."
"Mister Norris is a sweet cat. Maybe if you hadn't stepped on his tail on while we were waiting to be sorted he wouldn't think you're up to no good," she retorted her face flushing as red as her hair.
Ethan rolled his eyes. "Yea we'll see you tomorrow. We have herbology first things"
Esme started inching towards the first year girls room. "Yea see you in the morning."