With great difficulty, after getting lost several times, Susanna and Lilly managed to find their way to the great hall for breakfast. Lily glanced up at a large grandfather clock that stood in one corner behind the staff table, grumbling slightly, as due to the very tricky to navigate maze of corridors and un-predictable moving staircases it had taken them a grand total of fifty-five minutes to make their way down to breakfast, giving them five minutes before their first lesson of Hogwarts was due to start,
"Toast!" Susi nudged Lily as they took a seat at the table,
Lily looked at her, somewhat confused and slightly vacant,
"Toast," Susi repeated, "we can put a couple of slices in our pockets and take them with us," she began enthusiastically slathering her toast with marmalade, sticking the condiment covered sides together and stuffing them into the pockets of her robes, Lily began to do the same but let out a squeak of excitement when Fiona bounded over with two pieces of parchment that turned put to be their time tables.
Susi thanked Fiona and began studying her timetable. She grimaced when she spotted that she would be confined to history of magic for a double lesson on a Thursday afternoon, she was bound to fall asleep during that...
"We have potions in the dungeons, you coming?" Lily was on her feet, the pockets of her robes bulging from the sliced of toast she had hurriedly stuffed there.
Susi nodded and leapt to her feet, she followed Lily through the entrance hall, past the marble staircase and down a dingy, rickety staircase that presumably lead to the dungeons. Susanna had no idea how on earth Lily was able to remember where she was going in this vast and variable castle, which in a way made Susanna long for the wide and airy corridors and beautiful frescos of Bella Strega Scuola. As they descended to the dungeons, the air was noticeably colder, causing Susi (who was already feeling the cold in great contrast to the sultry Italian weather she was used to) to shiver and pull her robes tightly around herself.
The two girls pushed open the heavy oak door of the potions classroom. As if the dungeons weren't creepy enough, the walls of the room were lined with jars of various sinister looking objects suspended in brightly coloured liquids, pickling away. Lily chose a spot for the two of them at the front of the classroom. On every desk in front of every chair rested a stand for each of their cauldrons with a small dish underneath which Susanna presumed would contain fire when the time came for brewing. At the front of the classroom, behind the teachers desk sat a rather portly looking fellow how did not look unlike a walrus.
"Alright, settle down, settle down. Now, lets see whom I have here... Ah, yes, Gryffindors, welcome to the dungeons! Slytherins, I presume you will get quite accustomed to life down here over the course of your academic career here at Hogwarts," the professor stood and waddled out from behind his desk, "I am Professor Slughorn, head of Slytherin house and Potions master here at Hogwarts. Over the course of your first year, I will be introducing you all to the basic foundations of the delicate art of potion making. Now, take out your copies Magical Draughts and Potions and we shall begin!"
The double lesson passed rather slowly, with copious amounts of note taking while Slughorn talked aloud, when finally, the class was divided into pairs and set the task of concocting a simple boil curing potion. As Susanna had deduced, Lily was incredibly bright, with an almost competitive edge, something that stood the pair in good stead, as they managed to brew their potion perfectly, completing the work before any of the other pairs- a feat which earned them ten points each for Gryffindor.
Susi's luck ran out, however, when after lunch Susi followed her fellow first year Gryffindors up the marble staircase to the first floor, and along the corridor to the history of magic classroom. As the group entered the stuffy classroom, Susi could already feel her spirits sinking and her mind switching off. The Gryffindors took their seats along with the first year Ravenclaws (a fact which irritated Susanna even further, not only would she have to endure copious note taking on a subject she had great disdain for, but her lack of aptitude in the subject would be further highlighted by the brilliance of the famously clever Ravenclaws.
The most exciting thing that happened during the hour was when Professor Binns first appeared by floating through the blackboard and giving the entire class quite a scare. That was where the thrill of having a ghost as a teacher ended, and the class spent the next hour being lulled to sleep by his droning monotonous voice as is begun to describe the events that lead up to the first Goblin Rebellion.
The rest of that week passed in a flurry of note taking and the foundations of practical magic. While Susanna began to fairly quickly detest those subjects in which large amounts of note taking was a staple, she began to excel in the more practical subjects, like potions (Susi and Lily made a formidable team and were fast becoming Slughorn's favourites) herbology and charms. Lily, of course, was brilliant in everything, particularly charms, where right from the start she performed perfectly on her first try. A fact that greatly shocked the snobbish pureblood Slytherins with whom the Gryffindors shared their charms lessons with. Other event of notable excitement to Susanna was the prospect of Flying lessons, which- according to the Gryffindor notice board- would be starting the following Thursday at half past three on the lawns in front of the school. Susi had always loved flying, having ridden on a broom before she even learned to walk (something which had given her mother a great deal of fright over the years, and had resulted in copious amounts of Skelegrow in order to fix Susi's numerous broken bones).
Much to the distaste of the female Gryffindor first years, a tight allegiance had begun to form within a fairly mischievous foursome of Gryffindor boys. James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and their little hanger on, Peter Pettigrew had begun calling themselves The Marauders. Their chief aim being to cause as much mischief and mayhem around the school without managing to get caught; the latter being a feat which, at first, they had some trouble pulling off thus resulting in many of the points earned for Gryffindor by the likes of Lily and Susanna being deducted, and the four of them being thrown into detention what seemed like every other night. Lily was less than impressed, but Susi couldn't help but find some of the jokes amusing, though she was rather irked that due to the boys setting off an entire crate of dungbombs in the potions dungeon, that potions class had been relocated to a dark corner of the library and had been stripped of the practical element until the vile stench dispersed. Though, it was rather hilarious when a Slytherin walked by causing people to gag; the dung bombs had permeated the Slytherin common room and dormitories, causing every single member of Slytherin to be doused in a rather unfavourable odour.
For this misdemeanour, the four boys had earned a weeks worth of detentions, a matter that would have had no impact on Susanna if she hadn't been caught sneaking up to the owlery after hours by Filch and his vile feline, Mrs Norris. Susanna had been dragged in her pyjamas, rather reluctantly, to McGonagall's office, and subsequently given a detention (though Susi had suspicions that McGonagall would have let the matter slide if only she hadn't been woken up at such an unholy hour of the night).
Which brings us to the Tuesday night of their second week at Hogwarts. Since Susanna's detention coincided with the detentions of the four Gryffindor boys, she had been sent along to the hospital wing with them. Sirius Black and James Potter lagged behind, messing around and shooting sparks at each other from their wands. Peter Pettigrew joked along with them, though seemed unable to actually produce the sparks himself. Susi and Remus walked ahead, both eager to get the detention over and done with,
"I don't see why you hang around with those idiots, Remus," Susi commented darkly as Black shot purple sparks her way, singeing the cuff of her robes,
"They're not so bad once you get to know them. They're a laugh really. And James isn't quite as arrogant as he comes across, and Sirius is really just trying to work the whole 'misunderstood bad-boy' image. I've been told the ladies love it," Remus laughed, smiling at Susi who cocked one eyebrow at his last comment,
"Hmpf, well someone might want to inform black that he's not as irresistible as he thinks, in fact, every girl I've spoken to thinks he's a complete prat!" Susi sniffed and held her head high.
When they reached the hospital wing, they were greeted by a stern looking and rather un-amused matron who set them all to work on stripping and making beds, scrubbing floors and (much to Susanna's horror) emptying bedpans... The muggle way.
Susanna was crouched on the floor, scrubbing brush in hand, when she felt something cold and slimy ooze into her hair. Then the smell (along with the overwhelming urge to vomit) hit her. She whipped around, wand raised, and before Sirius Black knew what had hit him, his bogies had flown out of his nostrils and were violently attacking his face.
"Bloody hell! Get 'em off!" Black began screaming like a little girl.
James Potter was bent double, unable to contain his laughter, Pettigrew looked rather scared and Remus was enjoying a good smirk. Susi continued to glare at Sirius, however when he had been reduced to curling into a ball on the floor, she began to soften and enjoy the hilarity of the situation.
The rest of the detention passed relatively drama free, with few words being exchanged after Susanna had called off Sirius' bogies. When the matron finally released them, they trudged back up to the Gryffindor tower. Once again, Remus walked with Susi,
"Thanks for giving me a clean, by the way," Susi smiled at Remus, who had done an excellent (if not completely effective) job of cleaning off what Sirius had flung at her,
"It was nothing," Remus smiled, blushing, "that hex you did was amazing you know, you'd never have guessed this was only your second week of school,"
Susanna shrugged,
"I have an older sister," she hated feeling like she was showing off, "could you teach me that cleaning charm sometime?"
Remus nodded, flashing her a smile once again. He really was very sweet, yet somehow that only made Susanna feel slightly uncomfortable; she couldn't help feeling like a misfit. She blinked and tried to push those sort of thoughts out of her head, It's because he's a boy, she thought, all those years of all girl schooling, you're not used to boys.
"So what was a teachers' pet like you doing in detention, HM?" James turned and began walking backwards as he spoke,
Susi narrowed her eyes at the rather fowl form of her surname he had used,
"Teachers' pet? Just because I actually want an education, Potter. Not all of us have to spend our time showing off pulling elaborate jokes,"
James grinned. His ego really was far too big for it's own good.
"Still doesn't explain why you were in detention."
"I got caught out of the common room after hours," She stated simply,
"Oooh! Sneaking around the castle in the dark! What were you up to?" now Black had joined in.
"I was on my way back from posting a letter, if you must know."
"Was it a lurve letter," Sirius teased, grey eyes a-sparkle.
Susanna blushed deep crimson. It most certainly was not a love letter, and she really didn't appreciate boys like Sirius mocking her.
"She's blushing Jamesy!" Sirius nudged his bespectacled friend, "hard luck mate, she's obviously not as easy as we assumed."
Susanna's jaw dropped and she flushed a deep scarlet; she was mortified. Sirius began to laugh, but judging by the looks of the faces of the other three boys, they were almost as shocked as Susi at Sirius' harsh words. Tears began to prick at Susanna's eyes as she pushed past the boys and sprinted for the safety of her dormitory.
Tears were rolling down her cheeks by the time she let herself into her dormitory and collapsed onto her bed. The other girls had gone to bed, but Lily stirred and rolled over to face her friend, unprepared for the emotion that was written plainly on Susanna's face,
"Susi? What's wrong?" Lily sat bolt upright, concern radiating from her eyes,
"Non mi piace Sirius Black. Lo odio! E 'rude, dannosa e media!" Susanna gabled in Italian,
"Um, could you slow down? And maybe speak English; What about Sirius Black?" Lily clambered out of bed and perched on the edge of Susi's, laying a comforting hand on her friend's shoulder,
"I hate him," she muttered, this time in English.
Lily sighed,
"What did he do?"
Susanna sniffed and wiped her eyes angrily on the cuff of her robes before answering,
"For starters he threw the contents of a bedpan into my hair, then… On the way up to the common room just now he was… very rude," tears of anger stung her eyes once again, "he called me a… He implied I was a mondana."
Lily looked questioningly back at her,
"You know, a…um… He called me 'easy'."
Lily narrowed her eyes: if she didn't hate that gang of boys before, she certainly did now.
"Sirius Black and his pathetic gang of followers are nothing but immature, arrogant prats, who wouldn't know class if it crawled up their arseholes. Ignore him, Susi."
Susanna mustered up a chuckle at her friend's rather vicious reaction. She smiled at Lily and gave her hand a squeeze,
"Grazie, Lily. Goodnight."
The two girls embraced, before Lily climbed back into her own bed and both girls drew the hangings on their beds. One thing was for sure; Sirius Black had better not get on the wrong side of either one of those girls ever again.