A/N Hey! I hope you liked the first chapter! I've got loads of ideas planned for this story so I'm very excited to see where it goes! What did you guys think of Kate? First impressions ok? Would love to hear some feedback to you guys as this is my first ever harry potter fan fiction! This chapter is a bit more of a set up for the year, but be patient my friends, all good things to those who wait :) A/N

*disclaimer – all belongs to the wonderful and talented J. :) apart from my OC!

Chapter 2 – 'Hogs and Pottys'

I was woken rather unpleasantly by a bright light burning through my closed eyelids; Lily had obviously decided to draw back the curtains in an effort to wake us all up. She was the only morning person in our dorm…

"Chop chop girls first day back today!" she said cheerfully. I swear that girl is a little devil at heart; I could see her enjoyment as we all groaned and tried to shield ourselves from the glare. "Oh no you don't," she said to Marlene who tried to close her hangings and go back to sleep, "we need extra time at breakfast today to get our timetables!"

At this I leapt up, I'd been in correspondence with McGonagall all summer about the possibility of my subjects this year and today was the day I would find out! I scurried out of bed and practically ran into the bathroom for a quick shower, sufficiently flooding the bathroom to the dismay of Dorcas in my haste,

"Kate did you even shut the door to the shower?! Urghh…" I could see her attempting to vanish the water with her wand in vain… "LILY! Please help me I'm rubbish at vanishing spells"

With a casual wave of her wand Lily managed to de-flood the bathroom floor, I swear that girl is like a sponge when it comes to magic, she just absorbs everything with such ease! From what I gathered last night, Lil had done extraordinarily well in her O. with straight Os except two Es in Transfiguration and Herbology! I hadn't told anyone my O.W.L grades yet but secretly I was so chuffed with how I'd done! I've always been quite lazy when it comes to revision much to the horror of Lily with her timetables and strict schedule; I prefer to work under pressure last minute! But last year I'd managed to obtain 9 O. the majority Exceeds Expectations and above.

My hands were shaking as I took the letter from our family owl, Olive. My parents were both pretending to be nonchalant to not freak me out, but I knew they were dying for me to get on with it…

It read,

Ordinary wizarding level results

Pass Grades

Outstanding ( O )
Exceed Expectations (E)
Acceptable (A)

Fail Grades

Poor (P)

Dreadful (D)

Troll (T)

Kate Andrea Hodgson has achieved:
Transfiguration O

Charms O

Potions E

History of Magic E

Defence against the Dark Arts O

Astronomy E

Herbology A

Arithmancy E

Ancient Runes E

My whole face lit up with a smile and I even felt tears prick at my eyes! I can't believe it I thought! I knew I'd not failed any of them as I felt they'd all gone reasonably well but I had no idea I'd end up with grades like this! My parents were attempting to read over my shoulder as I squealed with happiness!

I smiled at the memory of that morning, my family had been so proud of me! My older brothers even came home from abroad just to congratulate me as soon as they heard! I've got 2 older twin brothers Ethan and Harrison; they're 9 years older than me (yes I was clearly an accident…) and both are full time Quidditch professionals. Ethan is broad and built up and plays beater for the Thundelarra Thunderers in Australia, a hugely successful team so we rarely get to see him between fixtures. His twin Harrison, equally broad but less muscular, we see a bit more as he plays reserve seeker for the Stonewall Stormers, another successful international team but in Canada.

After slapping on some makeup, performing a drying spell on my hair and letting Mary expertly braid a section of my hair to pin around the side, I was ready to go down to breakfast.

Me, Lily and Dorcas chatted on our way down to the Great Hall before sitting ourselves down in the closest seats to the doors. As Dorcas helped herself to eggs and bacon, or "Quidditch fuelling food" as she called it, I found myself too distracted to eat properly. I kept looking around the hall for some sign of Professor McGonagall.

I was so distracted in fact I kept dropping my cereal as it went up to my mouth, a little pile of cerealy, milky destruction was gathering around me.

As Professor McGonagall started approaching I gave up on my cereal altogether and the Marauders all plonked themselves down next to us.

"Morning ladies, hope you're first night sleep was swell, any inappropriate dreams about me to confess to Lily dearest?" James wondered out loud. Dorcas and I shook our heads as this because we knew James was just shooting himself in the foot saying things like this to Lily. As Lily went to bite back at James' comment, McGonagall smoothly arrived so she held her tongue.

"Saved by the bell" I heard Sirius whisper to James who looked slightly frightened as Lily stabbed her fork into her breakfast. No prizes for guessing who she was imagining impaling. She huffed and puffed shooting glares at James as McGonagall moved round the group handing out timetables and discussing subject choices.

"…must say I was very pleased with your marks Miss Meadowes, you may carry on all your desired subjects this year" Dorcas beamed as she received her new timetable.

"Let me see... ah Miss Hodgson! Again, very pleased for you too, your marks were very impressive! Yes you can definitely carry on with Charms, Potions, Defence against the Dark Arts, Arithmancy, Ancient Runes and Transfiguration," she rattled off but these weren't the subjects I was awaiting to hear about, "and I'm very pleased to announce your application to take Alchemy additionally has been accepted, there's sufficient demand this year for the class to be taught, here you are" she said as she passed me my new timetable.

"Thank you Professor eeeek!" I squealed as it sunk in I could finally study Alchemy, I'd heard it was optional at N.E.W.T level and only taught if enough students were interested. Ever since first year I've been dying to study it, since I want to be an unspeakable when I graduate, I thought studying something a bit out of the ordinary would give me an edge in my application to the Department of Mysteries. They only accept one graduate a year so applications were very competitive! Learning an obscure branch of magic like Alchemy will surely improve my chances!

"Did I hear that right Kate, you're studying Alchemy?" Remus inquired from across the table.

"Yeah I can't believe it! They haven't been able to teach it in over a decade as it's not had sufficient demand but there must be enough students taking it this year…" I trailed off considering who my possible fellow classmates could be… hopefully not the Slytherins I thought, that would be a bit awkward turtle...

"Why would you want to study that?" spluttered Peter through a mouthful of bacon, "what use could you have for it?"

"Charming, Peter just cover me in your breakfast why don't you!" Dorcas complained from across the table from him.

"Because I want to take over the world with all my gold and live forever as high sultan of a fabulous exotic country, I'll have servants wearing gold plated thongs bringing me grapes which I couldn't possibly feed myself so they'll dangle it above me like the Greeks did… I'll even bathe my pet tigers in a pool of gold every day so…" I proposed dramatically as Lily butted in,

"Ok Ok we get it, I know that it's not for any of those reasons you want to study it, it's because of the Unspeakables application right?" she pondered as I nodded in response.

"I didn't know you want to be an unspeakable Kate!" Dorcas offered shocked, "I thought you would go into the flying business like your brothers?"

I shot Dorcas a glare as James ears pricked up at this, "your brothers… who are they?" James asked innocently... Urghh I've managed to keep it quiet for years and now you might've let the cat out of the bag Meadowes…

I never told anyone other than Lily or Dorcas about my brothers because I didn't want to get accosted by Quidditch fanatics like James for autographs and all that jazz.

I reluctantly went to answer but Sirius let out a bark like laugh and said "Did someone try to feed you with a catapult Hodgson?" I looked down and to be honest he had a fair point, there was a huge cereal and milk pile on the table and apparently a fair bit had landed all over my skirt which I hadn't noticed before.

I blushed red; I wasn't used to being noticed until yesterday so I was finding all this sudden attention on my embarrassing habits a bit disconcerting.

The previous question about my brothers was all forgotten as everyone was chuckling at the mess I'd made.

"I've been laughing at her table manners, or well lack-of, for years! How have you all only just noticed?" Dorcas exclaimed!

"Yes I believe it was you who suggested on more than one occasion I should eat from a trough rather than a plate wasn't it Meadowes?" I said with a smirk, only realising again that this embarrassing revelation was no longer private within our trio but heard by all the marauders and our dorm-mates, who promptly burst out into even harder laughter at this.

"Keep handing out the banter ammunition don't you Hodgson," laughed Sirius. He was right I really did set myself up for being the butt of jokes, only now more people could get in on it; honestly it's such a hard life being socially inept!

I had to endure piggy snorts from the others all the way to Defence against the Dark Arts, which was our first lesson of the year which all the sixth year Gryffindor's were taking at N.E.W.T level.

When we finally got into the classroom we all went to sit down in the middle two rows, James next to Sirius, Remus next to Peter, Marlene next to Mary, Lily next to Alice and Dorcas and I at the far end.

Every year since we'd been at Hogwarts we'd had a new teacher for Defence, some said the position was jinxed years ago so no teacher could last more than a year.

Other students started filing in around us. We were all chatting amongst ourselves as a tall grey haired wizard walked into the room and cleared his throat loudly.

"Good morning class, my name is Professor Hancock and I am your new…" he got cut off by my loud snort at the "cock" portion of his surname… I'm not sure why but it was the way he pronounced it with emphasis on that last syllable was rather amusing to me.

A hush fell over the class…

No one dared look at me; they all stared up to see how the new professor was going to react to my quite frankly suicidal act.

"Something funny Miss…" and he stared me down "Hogson" and to my intense surprise he beamed at me. "It's err… Hodgson actually professor…" I said confusedly,

"Well dear since you find my name so amusing, I think it's only fair I make yours slightly more don't you think?" he pondered still smiling.

I could hear James snickering to Sirius "Kates got so much pig related banter today, Hog… brilliant"

They both were smirking at each other when suddenly Professor Hancock turned to him and said "Mr Potty isn't it?..."

The class let out the tension they were holding in and the room filled with laughter at this, we couldn't really believe our luck that the seemingly old and greying professor actually had a sense of humor!

The rest of the lesson went on more in this fashion; Professor Hancock jokingly renamed the majority of the class with a humorous slur to their surname. He also discussed with us the importance of this year and next, giving us the N.E.W.T lowdown we were all dreading to endure in every first lesson back!

At the end of the lesson he called out to the class, "don't worry kids only Mr Potty and Miss Hogson will retain their names for their delightful cheek at the beginning of the class…" he trailed off smiling at us all "you're dismissed!"

As we all walked out we were all chattering loudly at how much we liked the new teacher's style,

"Imagine if he'd been like McGonagall," I said in horror to Lily, "I'd be polishing the silverware for weeks!"

"I know I can't believe it, I hope he's serious with teaching though, joking around won't be much use for passing our exams…" she said thoughtfully,

"Oh roll in the hay for once Lily! I think this might be the first Defence teacher who doesn't mind my socially inept instincts!" I smiled brightly.

"Come on gang, wouldn't want to be late for potions, ol'Sluggy won't be impressed!" advised Dorcas over the throng of students spilling into the hall for second period.

I have a feeling Potions will be far less amusing than Defence, I thought wryly with a deep breath as I headed for the dungeons.

Potions wasn't my worst subject but it was definitely the worst one for my embarrassing antics. Pretty much every lesson I drop, spill or set fire to something accidently.

Well here goes nothing, extinguishers at the ready people!