Still in HOM,

Half Asleep (Which is, in fact, good.)

Arghh, Binns is the most boring bloke in the History of Magic (Haha, you get it? Err, no. I thought not. My sarcasm may have been wasted, as it seems to be a gift recognised by few.)

I'm considering bringing some pillows next time – much more comfy than the desk and I'm sure he won't notice or care.
Great, now he's waffling on about what we will do in the year, from 1000000 BM (Before Merlin) or whatever. Yay, I look forward to it.
Not.

Kill. Me. NOW.

Well, earlier would have been nice, but only if I could be resuscitated again for DADA.

I wouldn't want to waste the rest of my life being dead because some (very) old bloke won't shut up.

I really need to find something to do.

For the past half hour, I have been counting people's heads, how many hair colours there are (Lily's the only red) and cleaning out my finger nails.

It's very exciting.
If I keep this up, I may die soon. Brilliant. Just what I always wanted to do on my first day.

Then again, Binns does not seem to even realise we are in here. So I could snooze (Like the others), or chuck stuff.

Actually, I could bully Marlene over where she was this morning.

Now that is a good Idea.

Begin the throwing paper notes war!

...

Hey, Marlene?

What, I'm trying to listen!

Haha, listen my arse... where were you this morning?

I've already told you, down by the lake. Bugger off.

Ohh, snappy. Tell me?

No.

But that proves my point! You won't tell me! Proof!

What the HELL are you two doing?

Bugger, sorry Lily,

I'm trying to listen!

Now that I can believe.

Same. Back to my point, Marl, Where were you?

Where was she when?

This morning when we lost her! Give it to M!

Ohh, sorry.

Fine. I'll tell you later.

Tell me now!

Kat, you have really bad aim. Stop chucking it at my head!

Sorry Evans, it's in the way. Shove it.

No!

Oh for Merlin's sake- NO.

Please?

Pretty please?

Yes Lily! You helpful girl!

Ow!

Brilliant, now look what you've done. Woken Emma. And you moan at me for my bad aim, Lilykins.

Quiet, Armstrong.

Are you trying to get Marly to tell you where she went?

50 points to the blond.

Don't be mean. It's not nice.

Well it's a bit bloody obvious, read the note. Duh.

Language, or I'll report you.

What, to Binns? Harsh, Lily, harsh.

Where were you then?

Oh for Merlin's sake we've already covered this!

Tell me Marlene!

NO.

Temper, temper McKinnon. Control yourself.

*Telepathically glares at Vance*

*Glares back even fiercelyer*

Em, that's not even a word.

Shh, Lily! It's funny!

OWW! That was my head! Watch it Armstrong, or I will shove this up your nose!

Violent child.

Trust me, I get worse.

Please don't.

We've gone off the point here! TELL US NOW.

Fine.

Woo! Go Lily!

I know, I have the magic touch.

Duh, were at Hogwarts. We're all magical.

Sarcasm, my dear Emmeline, sarcasm.

I knew that.

Of course. I went to see Matthew.

OH. On the first day too. You slag!

He's my BROTHER, dimwit.

Oi! That was my head, slut!

Oh.

That's what I thought.

Why? You only saw him yesterday...

Because I did. He's a 7th year Gryffindor, and said he would show me around.

Thanks for inviting us.

Welcome.

So you went to see your brother?

Yes, Em, yes, I did just say that!

Ohh, sorry.

Ohh, little girly meeting here?

Bugger off, Black. Well done, Kat.

Please don't call me that or I will be forced to kill you.

Now, now ladies, purses away, you seem to have a rather interesting chat... thanks for inviting me in.

Welcome.

Is that the only thing you can say, Marl?

Shut it, Armstrong.

Feisty there, McKinnon?

DIE, Black, DIE.

Ignore her, she's hormonal. So is Lily.

No I'm not! Bugger off Katie!

Can you stop aiming this at my head!

Sorry, it's releasing my inner anger. It was meant for her.

Her me, or her Marlene?

Or her Black?

Cheers, McKinnon.

Welcome.

Oh for Merlin's sake, here we go again!

I know, it's bloody irritating.

'Language Katie or I'll report you to Binns'

At least someone knows how to read notes.

Why are you even here?

Because someone chucked this parchment at my head.

Sorry Sirius.

He has a name?

*Sending you telepathic sarcastic clapping * 50 more points to the blond.

Now who's being mean!

See, she's mad.

You said it first.

Hah, I got it again!

Stop intercepting my throws! I can't throw!

Take it you're not a chaser then?

Nah, beater.

Really? You don't look strong enough. They need big muscles, don't they?

Yeah, I thought so.

Why thank you ladies.

?

Beater as well. We could be a pair!

Ohh, bet I'm better than you.

What are you on about?

Quidditch! It's brilliant! Don't say you've never heard of it Lily!

Muggleborn, Em, not a witch.

Yes you are, it's a fact that all muggleborns are descended somewhere from a squib, and therefore not quite un-magical.

Remus!

Brilliant Black, get everyone involved, why don't you?

Sounds like a good plan.

Please don't.

So why did you meet up with him?

Who?

I refuse to tell you anymore now, Armstrong.

Bugger you, Lily.

Why me?

Because you're useless throwing skills got it everywhere, and it's not privet anymore.

Actually, Katie got it to HIM.

That did actually hurt, Armstrong, seriously hurt. And that was harsh, McKinnon, and uncalled for.

Quiet, you.

Tell her what?

A mysterious secret.

Oh, can I know?

No.

That was harsh, Evans. Real harsh.

Is that your catchphrase or something?

Don't get him started on 'Siriusly'

What kind of name is Sirius?

Something to do with dogs.

Dog star, head of Canis Major.

How the hell did you know that?

I have a brain.

Unlike some people.

How nice of you to volunteer yourself, McKinny.

Rich.

Bugger, Binns alert! Binns coming in at twelve o'clock!

What?

Binns is coming.

Oh.

You could have just said that.

Is it actually twelve o'clock yet? I'm pretty hungry.

Same.

It's five minutes to eleven.

Five minutes!

Bugger him, I'm packing up. Bye Armstrong, come on Remus.

Thanks Black.

'Welcome.'

Hah, payback.

Shut it, you.

I'm going to pack up. Do you know how much of that lesson I missed! Half an hour!

Blimey, chill Lily! It's only history!

I have notes, you can borrow them.

Brilliant, thanks.

Remus! Stop factorising with the enemy!

.

And Armstrong.

Thank you.

Bye

Bye.

Good bloody riddance.

Marlene!

What!

Be nice!

Potions next, guys.

Bugger that.

Kill me now.

Oi, that's my catch phrase! Don't copy!

So sorry, Armstrong.

Bells gone, hurry up or we won't get decent seats.

You don't have to talk in a note anymore, you know.

Hush, Lily.

Potions,

Later.

Well, if we do that each lesson I may not die.

Hooray!

Mini miracle in itself right there.

Luckily we didn't get lost this time – just followed the crowd. And it's in the dungeons, so if we kept going down, we would have found it anyway.

Eventually.
Even with Emma leading the way.
She has no sense of direction at all, I mean really, she led us in a circle, tried to make us go UP from the seventh floor this morning (and it's the top floor, too).

So basically:
She is a lunatic.

Its bloody cold down here, I'll tell you that.

Lily is shivering; I can feel her brushing against my arm.

That's what you get for not wearing a jumper under your cloak!
I did because I (as rightfully pointed out earlier) have a brain.

Although extremely bad karma.
Really, really awful karma.

I am stood with my back against a black brick wall, and the entire dungeon is lit by little green flames. Attractive.

Anyway, I am only against this wall because some dear Slytherins are here, due to the minor fact that we share Potions and Defence with them.

Its Potters fault.

They all came in a big bundle of people, dressed in their green. They looked like boulders.

Then James spotted then and glared. "What are you doing down here? Bugger your fat arses off and mess up someone else's day,"

Yea, I didn't understand it either. Maybe he was in a strop.

However, I do agree with the 'fat arses' bit.

They look absobloodylutely massive. It's rather scary, really. I would not like to meet them in a dark corridor. However, I am a Gryffindor (Gryffindor PRIDE!) and would hex the pants off of their meaty back ends right back to Merlin's time, so hahahaaa.

A pair of trolls clicked their knuckles 'menacingly'. It ruined the effect of evilness when a fat girl troll came and stood at the front of the crowd.

"Why don't you make us, pretty boy?" she sneered, then looked at Sirius, "or are you having too much fun with your little traitorous beasts, who haven't got enough backbone to land themselves in the right house,"

Honestly, who comes up with these insults? It's ridiculous.

But, that did it for the dear boys.

The Slytherins had themselves all pressed up against one wall, us Gryffindors against the other in a huge standoff, consisting of shouting, pushing, shoving, scratching and punching.

And that is how I got wedged up here. It's such a lovely, touching tale.

I think the Evil Green Ones' dorms and Common room is down here – you'd expect it to be.

It has a rather evil feel to it. Yuck.

Oww, Lily has elbowed me! In my rib, as well!

"Lily! What was that for?" I ask, very indignantly. (Well, as indignant as you can get whilst being shoved up against a wall by the lads).

She looks rather sorry. Good.

"I didn't mean to, it was his fault!" she points towards a beefy bloke, who had been shoved into us, then away by James and co., then back.

Like a big, fat ball.

...It's quite amusing, actually.

"Oh. Sorry," I reply.

My arms are aching. Really, really throbbing aching, from trying to stop my head from being trapped between Lance and this wall.

Why must this happen on the first day? Surely we could all be happy and in the warmth, because we're only small? Well, I am, but some of this lot aren't. The fat one is almost twice Lily's height.

Thank god they can't hit us.

Unless they are all secretly girls...

Wouldn't put it past the Slytherins to have a few mutations. Most of the pureblood families inbreed (mine haven't, though, I have proof (Phew))

Oh, finally! Into the warmth we go!

Yet another fat bloke has appeared, and has told us off.

Well then.

He looks like an obese walrus. With a blob of silvery blond hair on his head. And some pince-nez glasses thingy.
Are all Slytherins like this?

Ohh, my arms! I can feel them!

I carefully peel myself off of the wall, and wobble through a huge, huge door to another room.

It's not too cold in here, actually.

Probably because it's a POTIONS ROOM and there are FIRES for the cauldrons.

Simple logic for simple people. And myself, of course.

...

Lily is a betrayer!

The tables are all split into groups of four, and she left me!

But then again, so did the others, so I can't complain.

Brilliant.

We went in (duh, I think I already covered this) and immediately Lily latched herself onto the greasy haired one, who had a pair of trolls with him.

Really, big beefy things with fuzzy heads and big meaty arms. They smelt funny, too.

Earghh. Not attractive.

They all got a table together (the trolls didn't seem to like Lily – they sat at the opposite end and ignored her).

"Lily!" I moaned at her.

She looked up from her chat with oh-mighty-grease-ball, and just looked at me.

No, not all Slytherins are huge. The Snape guy looks like a small, stringy, sallow stick of celery. With a greasy thing on its head.

"Yes, Katie?" she asked, playing it all innocent. Huh.

It doesn't work, I have siblings. They put it on all too often.
I am immune!

"Cheers for leaving me alone, really appreciate it," I said sarcastically.

"Oh good, you're not mad, then?" she reply.

Good grief, she's blond. For a redhead, anyway.

I rolled my eyes, and reply back "Eh, I'll live. If I'm not betrayed again!"

"Sorry," she answers, before turning back round to finish her little chat.

Well then.

Bugger, the room is filling up fast!

Marlene, Emma, Mary and a Slytherin boy are sat at a table.

I raise my eyebrows at them (I really need to learn to do one; two doesn't quite look the same).

They looked sympathetically at me, and then scowled at the lad.

Evidently they didn't want him there. At least they're loyal enough to try.

Oh, the table behind them is free! As In empty, free!

I walked (marched really) over and sat down on the bench nearest them.

"Thanks for saving me a seat, Em," I hiss under my breath.

The Professor has come back in; I'm not being grumpy and hissing. I am not a snake.

"It's not my fault- he just sat there and moved my stuff that was trying to guard it for you!" she answers, and then looks up.

My table isn't my table anymore.

Well, at least I'm not a Larry.

Sirius and Remus have just sat opposite me. Hurrah.

Could be worse, I suppose, could be slaggy. She sat with her minion over on the other side, nearest the fire.

Such wimps.

"Alright Armstrong?" Sirius asks.

Remus half smiled at me, then pulled out a book and a cauldron.

I did too. Always good to be prepared.

"Alright Black," I reply, nodding at the pair.

The walrus at the front started waving his arms around like a pigeon.

"Settle, students, Settle," he calls.

Makes us sound like we are pigeons.

The class fell silent, and he beamed around at us.

Crikey, he has a scary smile.

"Okay then. I am Professor Slughorn, and where you are sat now, you will sit for the rest of the term unless I move you."

Noo! As if!

Emma doesn't look amused. Good.

"- You are all here to study the fine art of potions making – and will study it for the next seven years.

"If you would kindly take out you books, scales and cauldrons-"

A big flurry goes around the room. He smiles at our table.
Like I said, be prepared!

"- and we will start to look at the basics of ingredients and preparation, then start a simple potion – the Boil Clearing Solution - at the start of next week. Now then, who can tell me..."

Yadda, Yadda, Yadda. He babbled on for a good half an hour, asking random questions to do with simple potion, and showed us a few ingredients and how to use the scales.
Do we really have to know how to use scales?
Do we seriously look that dumb?
Lily is paying full attention though, and watching intently.

"You boy!" Slughorn suddenly yells.

We all look round trying to figure out who he means.
Ah, the two trolls are holding their hands suspiciously over their mouths.

Obviously not talking.

"I will not stand for people passing notes, talking or nay type of ridiculous behaviour in this room, or I will take points. Yes, off my own house, too." He rumbled.

Yes, rumbled. He sounds like a walrus.
Lily put up her hand.

Slughorn turns around and beams at her. Mood swings!
Dear Merlin, I'm stuck with hormonal friends, moody teachers and on my Larry (girl-wise) in potions.

The other two are watching intently. Scary.

Remus is, anyway. Sirius is watching Prof.'s moustache.
It's quivering rather amusingly with every word he speaks.

Lily asked a question (I'm not sure what, I wasn't listening) and Slughorn laughs.

"Well my dear, it's funny you should ask that, because..." and he raves off again.

Fun.

He really has the most irritating voice ever.
It interrupted me.

Earghh.

"Miss Armstrong?"

Holy cow he knows my name!

"Do you know what we must add to dried nettles and Snake fangs in this particular draught?" he asks.

Err, what?

He points to a diagram of a boil, watching me hopefully.

Oooh! Slugs!

"Horned slugs, isn't it Professor?" I reply.

He beams at me now. Oh dear, I will see that huge red face in my nightmares. It looks like a mutated quaffle.

"Right you are! Horned Slugs are extremely important in this potion, as without it we would have a solution so strong it could burn through your skin. Five points to Gryffindor!"

Ohh, I feel all tingly inside. Lily shot an approving grin at me, and I smirk.
Haha. The boy next to her scowled grumpily.

I looked back round at my table.

Sirius raised an eyebrow at me.

"Horned slugs?" he mouthed.

I have the best way ever of remembering that potion. Jake needed it once.

I grin at him and nodded.

"Horned slugs- Slughorn? If you forget the slugs, your face goes all shiny and red like his." I muttered back.

It's true! Dad even told me that, and he's him!

Sirius burst out laughing, and even Remus chuckles a bit. Ah good, he looks quite pale, sometimes.
Hmm.

Sluggy broke off and looked at us.

"Aha, Mister Black, isn't it? I was surprised I didn't get you in my house, but oh well. I expect your brother when he comes up."

He smiled pleasantly (as pleasant as a walrus goes- which isn't very) and continued talking.

Sirius froze (again, he appears to be rather good at that) and his face fell in to a scowl, with an attractive shade of grey. Several Slytherins snigger. Potter looks quiet amused.

He flinched round, and Remus grabbed his shoulder.

I turn glare at the Slytherins.
They shut up.

Remus whispers something in Sirius' ear, and the boy turns himself around, his back straight and eyes all narrowed. Remus says something else, and he relaxed slightly more. He muttered back, and then started to stare down at the table.

Remus rolls his eyes at me. I roll mine back.

I do believe we have reached an understanding – Sirius + Slytherins + mentioning Family = Bad.

Oh dear. Poor Sirius. Stupid Sluggy. Good for Remus. Stupid Slytherins. And Potter, to, he seems far too happy about Sirius' let down. Git.

I really cannot be bothered with all this hassle, it's ridiculous.

Eventually we were finished – the bell rang out in the middle of Slughorns speech and he broke off, set us some homework and then went to see us out of the door.

I seriously doubt we are that incapable to walk through a door, but ho hum.

Sirius jumped up straight away and left with Remus, stalking silently out of the door.

Moody.

I waited for The Girls to get sorted – notice the capitalised 'T' - (by the time they were finished, the dungeon was empty and Sluggy looked rather impatient) and then we turned and headed for lunch.

Ah, lunch. Love it.

Lily decided to rejoin us, and fell into step besides me.

"That was alright, wasn't it? History was worse," she said.

I looked at her.

"It could have been better, but you left me."

"I'm sorry! Severus insisted because we haven't had chance to see each other yet!"

It's the first day. I'm pretty sure he will survive not speaking to Lily for a night and a few hours. Honestly.

A podgy hand took my shoulder as we went to go through the door.

Errgh, Slug.

"Miss Armstrong, if I'm correct?" he asked, "Paul Armstrong of the Department of Mysteries daughter?"

No, his son. What does it look like?

And how come they all know me? It's scary!

I stopped patiently and smiled (I hope it was a smile, not a grimace, anyway,) and replied,

"Yes, Olivia's sister. Dad says he recommends you as one of the top potioneers of our time,"

Lay it on thick; he may let me move seats!

Slughorn chuckled and clapped my back. Rather hard, too.

"Yes, yes, of course! Always was one of my top students... recognised you the moment you stepped in... who do we have here?" he broke off, looking at Lily.

Lily blushed, then looked around to see who else there was in here.

Just the three of us. The others hadn't bothered waiting.
Hurrah.

"Lily – Lily Evans," She replied rather nervously. I don't blame her.
He's rather intimidating.

Slughorn nodded then asked if she had any wizarding relatives.

"No, I'm a muggleborn. I didn't know I was magical until a few months ago," She replied.

Slughorn looked a bit disappointed.

"Ah well, plenty of hope for you, my dear, plenty of hope. Run along, now to lunch,"

We did.
Very fast, too.
Like I said (many times) he is a rather scary bloke. Dad didn't really say he was nice, either.

He told me the hint with slugs. That is how much he 'respects' old Slughorn. Really old Slughorn.

Anyway, moving on, I and Lily went to lunch – the girls saved us seats and food, bless them – and tried to forget about the fat walrus.

The table was laid with lots of sandwiches, and fruit, and chips and pies and generally smaller portions of the things we had for the feast last night. No pasta, though. I fear it may be an evening-only type treat, and be forced to go into a mini withdrawal through the day. That would be scary.

Very, very scary.

Great hall, finishing lunch.

Waiting to go to

The girls are really slow eaters.

They must have got here, what – 10 minutes before me and Lily? But, I'm finished (and so is Lily) and they are not.

They are ridiculously slow.

"Liillyyy can you come to the Tower with meeeee? Please?" I beg, and lean forward slightly to pull on her arm.

She gave me an annoyed look, and shook me off. "No, go on your own, I'm staying with these guy. See you later?"

"Really? You can read in the common room, it's much warmer up there," I shoot back.

She snorted. "But there is the smell of food, Katie, it helps me concentrate."

No, food makes you want to eat, not think.
Fish is 'brain food'. And I can currently see no fish.
Or pasta. Sigh.

Marlene glanced up at me.

"Don't worry, I'll be done in a minute. I need the loo."

Good to know, made my day. Lovely.

So she finally finishes up, and I nod to the other four, just sitting there like cows chewing grass for ages and ages, with the occasional page turn over by Lily.

Marlene gets up, slowly, then we start up the hall to the girls loos near (I hope, anyway) Defence, with that new guy. I can't seem to remember his name.

How very convenient.

Marly began to waffle on about how much she enjoys being able to use a wand. We haven't used them at all yet, so I'm not quite sure how she knows this. Unless, of course, she is a mad homicidal being trying to escape the body of an eleven year old girl and murder us all.

I zoned out. Again.

"Marlene, how do you know this?" I ask, breaking off her little chant.

She looked a bit smug. "Matt taught me a little on the train, you know – for defence against the Slytherins."

"So you knew you were going to be a Gryffindor then?"

"Duh, my entire family (apart from granddad, he's a squib, and a few cousins in Ravenclaw) were in Gryffindor! So it was pretty obvious. The hat goes 'oh look! McKinnon! Gryffindor to you again!'"

Well, at least the hat likes some people.

"Lucky, the hat and I had a rather interesting talk about whether I should be a experiment. To Hufflepuff."

She burst out laughing, and hit my shoulder. I felt quite offended.

She calmed herself down to normal sanity, and was off again. "But aren't you a pureblood? Surely it wouldn't use you for an experiment?"

"Yes I am, but Mum was an experiment to Hufflepuff as well, Olivia is a Ravenclaw, Dad was a Gryffindor and so am I. The hat seems to enjoy chucking us everywhere. Look at Sirius." I replied wryly.

She pulled the I-get-you-it-kind-of-in-a-way-and-it-does-make-sense face (you know, where they stretch their jaw and close their eyes and look like a constipated loony? Yeah, that one) and nodded.

"Oh"

"Yeah."

"What about everyone else?" she asked, a few minutes after walking in silence.

"Everyone else what?" I shot back. Her mind confuses me – I am NOT psychic. I think that's how you spell it anyway. (Hope, really)

"You know – blood statuses? I know Potter, you, Longbottem and Black are pureblood, what about the others?" she explained.

"Why, got something against them?" I pointedly said back. She look taken back.

"No, just wondering! I like normal people too, not just purity!"

"Oh." It explained a lot. Remembering I don't have much of a direct path from brain to mouth, so it gets a bit confused. Quite often, actually.

Marlene looked at me expectantly. I sighed and explained.

"Lily's muggleborn, Pettigrew's parents are both muggleborns, I think Remus is a True Half blood, and Lance and Dominic's dads are purebloods. Dunno about the others."

She raised another eyebrow at me. "How do you know that?"

Oh dear.

"Obviously I eavesdropped in their conversations at the feast. We weren't covering that topic at all, you know." Oh, sarcasm. It's a true gift granted to few.

"Yes, obviously." She smirked back.

Nope, she didn't understand a word of what I meant. Poor girl.

AN: Hey all :)

Sorry about the reasonably long time taken to update - I've been ill. I fear I have a weakened immune system, because it keeps happening. Doctors say I'm fine, so no worries.

Anyway, thanks to the people that have added this to their favourites and alerts! It made me really happy.
Review? Please, it makes me feel happier, and I would appreciate discovering/having feedback on improving, and just general stuff.

I have motto's, classes, spells, next 10 years planned for this :L I know, it wont be finished anytime soon at this rate. Heh, a girl can dream.

Posts will become a bit irregular too, so sorry in advance - Im starting my options choosing and studying at school. Fun.

~Wolffe41