Rose Petals and Shining Armour - A Harry Potter fanfiction
I do not own Harry Potter or anything associated with it, J. does in case you were starting to confuse me with her.
Chapter 3
"Phew, what a long day" Leigh thought as she closed the curtains around her bed. In the darkness she started recalling the day's events.
The last day of the second week at Hogwarts had started just like the other ones. She started the day early by training in the practice duel arena. The old man in the painting, Lord Edward Chipes, was used to her coming in early and often greeted her. Chipes, as he liked to be called, was an excellent instructor and she had enjoyed the latest sessions with him immensely. George was there every morning as well but he never even looked in her direction, let alone talked to her. He was there for one reason, to practice. That suited her just fine though it did get a little quite until Clipes started tutoring her. She left before the morning bell announcing breakfast so she could shower and get changed.
Breakfast was never dull at her part of the table especially with the new friends she had made. Mary, officially Lady Mary Whiteflower, she had met on the second day during flying lessons with Professor Milvus. They had been paired to help each other mount their brooms. It had taken them both almost the full lesson to mount the broom properly since neither had ever even been near a broom before. Mary had flowing red hair that went all the way down to her mid-riff. Anne, Lady Annibel Philigando, on the other hand was a natural golden-blonde with bright blue eyes and a soft smile. Meeting her had made the first Etiquette lesson bearable. For all the duelling skills Leigh possessed she had enormous difficulty doing a simple curtsy. Professor Graicefield kept telling her that her back was not straight enough, she did not go low enough, she was off balance, and on and on it went. Anne did not even need a second attempt; she looked so graceful that Leigh was a little jealous until Anne came over and offered to help her. Half an hour later she could manage a passable curtsy and was so happy that she spontaneously gave Anne a hug. As the bell rung announcing the end of breakfast all three girls headed to the same class since they all belonged to the same house, Gryffindor.
Potions first think in the morning was never a good thing, no matter century it happens to be. Professor Nightlok, despite his name was a patient, elderly, gentleman. But no matter how much he explained and reexplained someone would do it wrong. Today they had been trying to make a temporary beauty potion that when finished would have a glowing silver colour. The person who could make the best potion would win the recipe to the Exhalatio potion; this potion made the drinker like vapour such that any physical object would pass straight through them, like a ghost. Though if made incorrectly it could have a permanent effect. The potion was beyond most seventh year students abilities in potion making so giving the recipe to a first year would be harmless. At the end of the allotted two hours everyone brought a vile of their potion forward and Professor Nightlok started examining and sorting them. After several minutes he announced "Lady Mary Whiteflower come forward and claim your prize". As she came forward he said "Very nicely done, near perfect I would think" in a slightly hushed tone. Leigh's potion had been a shade of iron coloured dark-grey which was not bad considering some of the potions were green, purple, and even bright pink. As they left for Transfiguration class Mary decided to go by the Gryffindor tower to deposit the little scroll she had received.
Just as Professor Mutare, the elderly lady who gave Leigh her schedule on the first day, was about to start class Mary rushed in and quickly found her way to where Leigh and Anne had reserved a seat for her. "Just in the nick of time, dear. Let us begin class for today" Professor Mutare said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Today we are going to be practice our newfound transfiguration skills on the bar of soap in front of you. Just use the spell we practiced saying last time and the accompanying wand motion." the elderly Professor said as she placed a bar of soap in front of her. "1, ... 2, ... 3, Petramine" and with that the bar of soap quivered, shrank, and finally became rock solid. "Now your turn" she said with a twinkle in her eyes. These spells were very different from what she was used to. Leigh had spent many hours training duelling with her father or other instructors because her parents had felt that she had to be able to defend herself. The rest of her magical education they had left over to Hogwarts where she was now struggling to transform a bar of soap into a rock. By the end of the lesson the only one who had come close to transforming her bar of soap had been Anne and even then it only had a small sandy crust. "Your homework, is to practice this spell and demonstrate a successful transfiguration at the next lesson." At this the whole class groaned a little since they would be busy with this for a good part of the weekend.
After a long lunch break, the Gryffindors had one final class and then the rest of the afternoon off. Charms with the young, impatient, yet wildly enthusiastic Professor Leporem was nice way to finish the week. He had a flair for showmanship, claiming that in his younger years he had been a travelling performer and as such most of the charms lessons to date had been about making bubbles and coloured lights spurt from the tips of their wands. Today however, he would be demonstrating the levitation charm, Wingardium Leviosa. The class was one of the two classes the Gryffindors and Slytherins had together and luckily neither Professor showed any favouritism. Leigh sat on the front row not wanting to miss anything. Professor Leporem strode forward from the back of the room and shut the doors with a flick of his wand. He stopped next to a table in the front of the room that had several coloured flowers on it. "Today I will be demonstrating how make an object fly" he said with a wide grin. Obviously he enjoyed giving this particular lesson very much. He made a swish and flick motion while casting the spell "Wingardium Leviosa". A red flower slowly drifted upwards, followed by a yellow one, and the rest followed suit. He waved his wand slightly and they started drifting together and formed a multicoloured flower drifting in mid-air. All the girls were oohing and aahing when suddenly one flower left formation and zoomed straight at the Professor's face. With no time to react the flower hit Professor Leporem in his left eye. Luckily, the flower had slowed down quiet a bit so the Professor was only a little teary eyed. "Well, well.", he said blinking wildly, "One of you already knows this spell and was not amused with my flying flower." He silently flicked his wand and instantly all the desks in the class room jumped a meter of the floor. "Better?" he asked as the class applauded. Then he noticed an empty desk that was still on the ground. His look darkened as he realised that someone was playing games with him. He slowly put down all the desks and announced "That will be all for today, during the next lesson you will get the chance to try the Levitation charm for yourselves. In the mean time enjoy the weekend" he said abruptly and walked off to his office. The class had not even lasted half an hour and the extra free time was welcomed by all. Leigh, Mary, and Anne quickly made their way out of the castle and to the shore of the Black Lake.
It was a particularly nice day out, one of the summer's last days. They sat down in the shade of a large tree at the edge of the lake. "What was that all about?" Mary asked. "I thought he was doing wonderfully, even despite the fact he managed to poke himself in the eye with one of his flowers" Anne answered. "He did not do that to himself, he said that one of us already knew that spell. Granted it probably is not such a hard spell to learn but still how many first years could do that?" Mary retorted. Leigh thought back to her early morning duel with George almost two weeks ago. It could have been him but she had not seen him anywhere in the classroom and his snow-white hair usually stuck out like a sore thumb. "I do not know", she said, "but I am grateful for this extra time outside". With that she lay down not caring about her dress or the smudges that the grass would make. She would just have to change before going to dinner. They had had a wonderful nap in the shade of the tree until the bell rang out for dinner.
Feeling a little sleepy after dinner the three of them had decided to retire early. Leigh slowly drifted to sleep as the light patter of rain on the roof could be heard.
End Chapter 3
I hope you enjoy this third chapter and I really appreciate your reviews! Thanks, ryutana