A/N: Thank you for reading this story so far! The beginning is a bit slow as the journey starts but will pick up soon enough. I would love to know any thoughts you have.
Thank you to SB- Potterhead Budgie Lover and GhostDoor for taking the time to review!
Chapter 2
Introductory classes
Elena awoke with a gasp, sitting bolt upright as she surveyed her surroundings. Soft snores sounded the room as the light of dawn trickled in, making paths across the floor.
With a shaky sigh, Elena pushed her hair out of her sweaty face and pulled herself up, gathering her things for a shower. A little bathroom was connected to the room with three shower cubicles in a row, three toilet cubicles and three sinks. Hopefully they wouldn't all need to go at the same time.
As Elena scrubbed herself clean and got ready for her day she marvelled at the oddity of it all. In her memory she had only shared a living space for long periods with her clumsy father. Changing into her new uniform quickly, she caught sight of herself in the mirror and smirked at the bold red of her tie. Really was there ever any question she would be a Gryffindor?
She pulled at the skirt moodily and glared at it. She was always a tomboy despite her father's best efforts so this really was going to be a pain. A quick blast with a drying charm and she was ready to go… several hours too early.
With a sigh she sauntered back over to collapse on her bed, pausing to open the window for her dear Penna who seemed just as disconcerted having to share an owlery with all the other birds. Despite being used to her father's owls, Penna had never been in a building full of them making a racket.
The grey owl hopped onto Elena's bed beside her and observed her quizzically.
"Yeah, I know," Elena sighed and shot a sharp look at Lily's playful ginger cat now that Penna was out of her cage. A smile twitched at her lips when Penna nibbled at her cheek. "Big first day for both of us, huh?"
The owl responded with a soft coo.
"Should we go explore?"
The owl blinked at her and Elena frowned.
"Well, I wouldn't have minded your company but if you want to stay here, don't terrorise the cat and don't poo on my bed."
Elena stretched lethargically as she trotted down the stairs from the girl's dormitory, debating what to do to pass the time. She could have a good nose around her common room; no one was likely to be up yet. Her dad had said that Ravenclaw's and Slytherin's were usually the early risers (he completely missed that Ravenclaw stereotype, how he wasn't in Hufflepuff she honestly couldn't fathom).
Sneaking across the room quickly she peered at the notice board for the general information; quidditch try-outs, house cup, choir, homework club, OWL meet-ups, Hogsmeade visits. Dismissing it all as unimportant, she looked at the paintings lining the walls, the impersonations all asleep, the thick red curtains lining the wall-to-floor windows and the roaring fire with plush red sofas and chairs dotted around. A rather ugly and beaten rug lay under her feet and she was pleasantly surprised how homely the tower was considering its walls of grey stone.
"O-oh…"
The soft voice spooked her and she spun around ready to defend herself (although she really wasn't doing anything wrong) and saw a frail looking boy who looked as though he wanted nothing else than to shrink into the wall and hide.
"Didn't expect anyone else to be up," Elena said taken aback by his shy demeanour.
"C-couldn't sleep," the boy said quietly, squeaking when she strolled over for a closer look.
"First year?" Elena asked and he gulped then nodded. Deciding that she should start the year off positively and make as many friends as possible before she set into her usual anti-social state, she thrust out her hand.
"I'm Elena Harper, nice to meet you," she offered.
"Not Selena?" the boy asked softly and her lip quirked at his cheeky joke, unable to take offence at the softness of his tone. "I'm Remus, Remus Lupin." He clasped her hand, his fingers taking a moment to find their bravery before they tightened in a solid shake.
She beckoned him over to sit in front of the fire, he looked pale and peaky and she truly believed he hadn't slept a wink.
"What are the other Gryffindor boys in our year like?" she asked, plopping down next to him. He looked rather startled at her proximity (should she have taken the arm chair?) and blushed; his cheeks and ears turning pink. A boy this shy in Gryffindor? This should be interesting.
"They seem nice enough, from what I could tell in so short a time," he said and she narrowed her eyes in suspicion.
"I guess it's hard to judge at first glance," she admitted and he nodded, his pale face shining pure white in the fire's light. "I like you though, you seem pretty nice."
His whole face suddenly resembled a beetroot at that remark.
"Am I making you uncomfortable?" she asked sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry, I'm not great at making friends."
"Me either," Remus whispered, face cooling and a small smile appearing.
"Lily and Alice seem pretty cool so far," Elena explained and he nodded, listening politely. "The other two I haven't had a chance to talk to much."
"Um, the two boys Sirius and James already seem like good friends. The other boy, Peter, I haven't spoken to yet."
"Well it seems to be the start of something interesting if nothing else," Elena mused. "Are you always an early riser?"
"Sometimes, not always," Remus said and she nodded in agreement.
"I'll either be up at the crack of dawn or out until noon, I don't have much in-between," she admitted and he chuckled. The silence followed them as they were still new to each other and didn't have much to say yet. It was comfortable however and Remus's body language relaxed making Elena feel soothed in return.
"Elena!"
Having started to doze, Elena woke with a jump, startling Remus. She jumped to her feet and spun around to see Lily, her face flushed in her fluster but her uniform looking clean and neat.
"Mornin'," Elena offered as Lily strolled over with far too much energy for a Thursday morning. The 1st of September was a Wednesday so Elena had thought they would get a few days to explore and adjust but no such luck.
"I wondered where you'd gone! Are you always an early riser?" Lily asked energetically.
"Nah, hit and miss," Elena said simply. "Been chatting to another first year, this guy's Remus."
Remus looked like she'd thrown him into a sea of piranha as his eyes widened in horror at the sudden introduction.
"Hi, I'm Lily, nice to meet you!" Lily said kindly and again Remus blushed shyly, murmuring his name and returning the gesture politely. "The girls are still sleeping, should we go for breakfast together?"
Remus spluttered as he tried to find the right affirmative so Elena hooked arms with him and yanked him after them, giving him a pat on the back when he'd fallen into stride, head down in embarrassment.
"We have Transfiguration first," Lily said excitedly. "Our head of house, Professor McGonagall, is teaching us."
"That strict old bat?" Elena asked and immediately held her hand up in surrender at Lily's scandalised expression. "What? I just mean she's going to have me in detention for something or other within the week, I'm telling you."
"Why?" Remus piped up and Elena let out a long-suffering sigh.
"I'm too hot-tempered and use my mouth before my head," Elena admitted. "And I don't follow instructions or take critique well. I'm too stubborn so I can see us clashing."
Remus chuckled but found it wise to hold his tongue. He caught her elbow as she went to turn the wrong way and Lily snatched Elena's arm, her two new friends guiding her back to The Great Hall.
"Oh the sky has changed!" Lily said excitedly, gesturing to the cloudy ceiling where stars had shone the night before. Elena shrugged uninterested while Remus looked curious. "Really? It doesn't amaze you both?"
"Eh," Elena offered. "It is pretty cool. But if it rains on my food I'm gonna curse it."
"You can't curse the ceiling," Remus chided and Lily agreed adamantly.
Of course, Elena had made friends with the rule-abiding ones. She just hoped they were nice enough not to sell her out if she did attempt to curse the ceiling.
-O-
Elena sighed to herself as she leaned her face in her hand, waiting impatiently for her professor to get to their point. The start had been slow in classes with introductions and the odd demonstration but mostly they hadn't really done anything fun. Having always been a more practical sort, Elena's attention to the finer points had dwindled very quickly. Did she care about how and why she should turn a match into a needle? Nope, she'd rather just get on with it.
To her delight however, Lily was absolutely enamoured with every class of every subject. The redhead would be excited at absolutely everything and when they were told they were going to be turning matchsticks into needles she gasped with glee while Elena rolled her eyes. Being a muggleborn sounded so much more fun, she wished she could share just a smidgeon of Lily's enthusiasm.
True to her initial thoughts, Remus was a bit of a bookworm. He worked hard and knew a lot but he was very humble, which she really liked. Lily was easily brilliant despite not having the background knowledge but her genuine excitement and eagerness to learn made Elena feel warm rather than annoyed. They also helped her out when she was struggling with anything (due to her not paying attention, so really it was her own fault).
Elena stared at her match sceptically, as though expecting it to just turn into a needle by sheer willpower. But unfortunately, the match remained infuriatingly wooden.
Maybe McGonnagall was right, this was damn complex.
Glancing discreetly at Remus next to her, her mouth fell open seeing that the match (of course) was distinctly thinner and smoother than before, starting to look like a toothpick.
"How did you do that?!" she gasped, staring at his match then back at hers and then to him. He blushed, as he did whenever she praised him or was impressed by him, his cheeks and ears turning pink.
"Well, you need to think about changing the inside too, not just the appearance?"
Concentrating hard, Elena was pleased when her match seemed to become a little thinner.
"Thanks!"
"Chatting in class?" Mcgonagall stated coldly, sauntering over to scrutinise their work (and in Elena's opinion, looking for a reason to give her a detention).
"Sharing knowledge, Professor!" Elena said immediately as Remus paled in horror at the thought of being scolded.
"Perhaps you should apply that knowledge more diligently, Miss Harper."
"Right!" Elena saluted and prodded the match with her wand. She was pleased when the tip became noticeably more pointed and grinned at her professor. "See? I'm getting better."
"Slowly," Mcgonagall admitted grudgingly. "But don't distract Mr. Lupin."
"Won't do Professor!"
As McGongall turned away to assess the others Elena glanced around the rest of the room. Most people weren't doing very well with their transfiguration work although Lily was coming along splendidly, chatting to a Ravenclaw as she worked. Marlene seemed to have made no progress whatsoever and was complaining to Emmeline who wasn't much further. Alice had already set fire to her match twice. The boys towards the back of the room however, had already managed to perfectly transform their matches.
Sirius Black and James Potter had quickly established themselves as smug little geniuses. They performed things with ease that hinted at a magical background and were mocking of those who couldn't immediately follow. They were always joking and gossiping but always knew the answer to any question thrown.
She honestly didn't know how Remus dealt with them, they annoyed her and she had barely spoken to them. The other Gryffindor boy, a fat and sweaty lump, annoyed her just by being in the room though she hadn't quite decided why.
Two angelic geniuses and two insufferable know-it-all's leading their class, it was a year of intelligent students and Elena of course was stuck next to one or the other in each class.
Unfortunately, she wasn't particularly gifted when it came to thoughts and theories, having always been a more trial and error person.
This was especially noticeable in Potions when she had to put up with Snape on the other side of Lily. Merlin, it was like he was a dog and she was trying to attack his owner. Slughorn had spent most of their first lessons talking about himself and she was fed up of him already. The three of them were working on a cauldron together and Lily tried to alternate between placating them, scolding them and preparing the potion.
Snape shot a disgusted look at her everytime Lily turned her back and Elena scowled at him in return.
Lily Evans was her friend too and if he had a problem-
"NO!" Lily and Snape shouted simultaneously as Elena dumped the entire gooey substance into her cauldron.
BANG!
Elena blinked as the class erupted into laughter as she re-appeared from the cloud of smoke. Her face was blackened as though she had been hiding up a chimney, their potion a dark grey instead of the clear blue it was supposed to be.
"That, Miss Harper is why you should be careful about the specific amounts of ingredients," Professor Slughorn chuckled as she blushed under the sooty substance coating her face. However, there was a distinctly mischievous smile that hinted she was rather happy with the explosion.
"Really, Elena," Lily said, dark green eyes twinkling with humour. The smaller girl just looked so funny with a blackened face and huge light green eyes.
"Oh," Elena said, eyes widening in surprise. Rummaging around in her bag she pulled out a handkerchief. "You got some on you." Lily blushed when her cheek was scrubbed clean.
"Shouldn't you be cleaning yourself?" Lily asked with a chuckle and Elena shrugged. The redhead was rather touched how her dorm-mate was more concerned for her then herself, she really was a nice girl.
"Miss Harper, I think you should go and wash your face," Professor Slughorn said pointedly. Elena smiled and nodded and happily strolled out the room to clean up.
-O-
Classes continued to pass by in a bit of a blur and homework started to become the bane of Elena's life. Academic writing was not her thing and writing about things she did not understand or care for was the equivalent to torture for her eleven year old brain. As Flitwick eagerly began to explain an essay they had to do on the levitating charm (really, she'd been levitating biscuits down from wherever her father tried to hide them since she was a toddler, why did she have to worry about the inner workings), she noticed someone talking about her in the row behind.
"Hey Remus, you hang out with that Harper girl a lot right?"
"Er, yeah, we're good friends," Remus provided.
"What's she actually like? She seems a bit weird."
Well, excuse me.
"Oh no, she's really nice!"
Remus was lovely but that didn't sound very convincing.
"She does seem pretty cool, doesn't seem to care what teachers say."
"She's just… very strong minded," Remus provided and she chuckled at him trying to defend behaviour he didn't agree with.
"I still think she's weird."
"I can hear you," Elena snapped, turning to glare at Black who scoffed at her.
"Miss Harper! Please refrain from talking when I am, unless you want detention," Flitwick squeaked and she groaned.
"They were talking first!"
"Five points for arguing!"
Lily shot her a scolding look and Elena reluctantly bit her tongue. Stupid points.
-O-
"Where's Remus?" Elena demanded, seeing the boy missing from Transfiguration the next day.
"Well, hello to you too," Sirius scoffed and Elena pulled a face at him. The boy with glasses grinned at the dislike while the small fat one just fidgeted and stared at her.
"He was out all night in the hospital wing, said he didn't feel well," James provided.
"What's wrong with him?" Elena demanded, worried for her friend. Remus was always a bit pale and peaky; she hoped it wasn't anything serious.
"Why should we tell you?" Sirius scoffed and yelped when she shot a small hex at him, giving him a sharp static shock.
"He's my friend and I want to know if he's alright," Elena said stubbornly and James continued to grin at how his best friend seemed to have found a new rival.
"You bitch, that hurt," Sirius hissed.
"What you call me?"
"You heard," he sneered but James came between them keeping the peace.
"Mate, is that any way to talk to a lady? She's going to hex you down the corridor," he said simply as Sirius lowered his wand petulantly.
"That isn't a lady, James."
"Can't argue with that," Elena said simply.
"We need partners for this session so I'll help you out if you want," James offered and Sirius looked scandalised.
"You just want to laugh when I suck, I'll pass," Elena said simply, spotting Alice and Lily and heading back over to them.
"Why are you talking to that troll?" Sirius said irritably and James laughed.
"Because you hate it and it's funny to wind you up," James said with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes. "She's really not that bad, I quite like her."
"She's ugly and rude," Sirius sneered.
"Yeah, she's not that pretty," Peter admitted, speaking up for the first time.
"She's straightforward and simple," James said with a shrug.
"She's like a bloke… No, she's like a troll," Sirius said in distaste and James shrugged, delighted with a way to annoy his friend.
-O-
"I need to go see Remus, can I take his work for him?" Elena said as McGonagall swept into the room.
"Mr Lupin is fine, you can deliver it at the end of class," McGonagall said sternly. "I've had a note about his absence already Miss Harper, as much as I can appreciate you valuing your friends you can see him after class."
Elena deflated, annoyed.
The professor turned to the board and began detailing their tasks for today while Elena sighed and tuned her out. She really hoped Remus was okay, he had looked a bit off when she saw him yesterday but he had just said that he had a headache and that his stomach hurt. What if it was serious, what if he-
Her thought process was interrupted when she felt a light thunk on the back of her head.
Seeing a ball of crumpled parchment on the floor by her foot her temper sparked and gripping the paper tightly she turned to throw it straight back at their stupid faces.
"MISS HARPER," McGonagall barked and Elena jumped, dropping the paper ball that had caught fire from her magic. "Detention! And you Potter! And you Black! There will be no throwing across my classroom!"
"I didn't throw it!" Elena snapped.
"You were about to throw it back and set fire to it," McGonagall seethed. "Now sit down before that detention is extended to the rest of the week."
Elena sat down grumpily, still hearing the boys giggling at the back.
