A/N: Re-postage of chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Stripping of Freedoms

Kill the messenger

I swear it's not me

It's just someone I used to know

–Jacks Mannequin

Remus Lupin woke up to a patch of sunlight strategically placed across his eyes. He looked over to the other three beds in his dorm. Sirius and Peter both had their curtains closed, but James' were wide open and his bed was empty. Remus furrowed his brow and shook his head. He climbed out of his bed and walked to the bathroom door and knocked to make sure James wasn't in there. Suddenly the dormitory door flew open and James came barging in, already showered and dressed.

"Oh, finally, somebody is up with me. I've been awake for ages," said James.

"Shhh Sirius and Peter are still asleep. What time is it anyway?" asked Remus.

"7:00 a.m. I've been up since 5:00," replied James.

Remus looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm going to take a shower."

"Take a quick one, I'm bored," grumbled James.

Remus just rolled his eyes and entered the bathroom. He walked over to the shower and turned it on. By the time he was soaping up his hair, he heard a shout.

"BLOODY HELL! POTTER I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!"

Remus just chucked to himself and finished washing up.

Over in the girls dormitory Kayleigh was the first to arise. She looked at her clock, which read 7:00 a.m. She walked over to the window and looked out to the lake, a grin formed across her face and she bounced over to Lily's bed.

"Hey wake up its 7:00," she said while nudging her.

"Ugh, I don't wanna," Lily mumbled.

"Well I'm going to go hop in the shower and when I get out you better be ready to get in after me."

"Yes mum," said Lily sarcastically.

"Good, you need to wake the other girls up by the way," Kayleigh said before bouncing off to the bathroom.

"Sure leave me with the spazzes," mumbled Lily.

She stood up and stretched her arms above her head and stared at the other two beds AJ had one of her legs hanging off the bed and Michelle had some how managed to completely flip around sometime during the night so that her head was now at the foot of her bed. Lily grinned at her new friends and started nudging Michelle first.

"Hey, we need to start getting ready for classes."

Michelle opened her eyes almost immediately.

"When I rule the world, I'm banning mornings," she said before yanking the covers back over her head.

"Of course you are," muttered Lily as she pulled the covered back off Michelle's head.

"Lilyyyyy," whined Michelle.

"Michelleeeeeee," Lily replied back.

Michelle pouted, "you hate me."

"Yup, you're the bane of my existence, now up you go I have to try and wake up AJ."

"Well this is going to be interesting," said Michelle through a yawn.

"No kidding...do you have any ideas on how we should do this?" asked Lily.

"Not a clue, only child remember," Michelle replied from her upright position.

"Okay here goes nothing," muttered Lily as she walked over to AJ's bed, "Hey AJ wake up its time for breakfast."

AJ didn't stir.

"What now?"" Lily asked Michelle.

Michelle shrugged her shoulders. Lily was trying to figure out another way to wake AJ up when they heard a knock on the door. Lily looked at Michelle with questioning eyes, Michelle returned the look and made a hand motion to Lily to answer the door. The darker red head of the two opened the door to a girl with curly black hair who was wearing a pair of flannel plaid pajama bottoms and a snug white t-shirt.

"Jason wants to know if you were able to wake his sister up yet?" said the girl in a tied yet slightly aggravated voice.

"Who's Jason?" asked Lily.

"A fifth year, he said his sisters name was AJ," replied the girl trying not to snap at the red head in front of her, knowing that it wasn't her fault she was rudely awaked this morning.

"Oh! Yeah, um I mean no we weren't able to wake her up yet," Lily said while fidgeting with her night gown.

"Well Jason said to call her by her full name. I think he said it was Alyssa Jean, he also said it might make her a bit pissy.

"Alright thanks," said Lily.

The girl nodded and walked back to her room.

"What was that all about?" asked Kayleigh, her dark brown hair still wet.

"A girl came and told us how to wake up AJ," answered Lily.

"How would she know?" Kayleigh asked again.

"She said Jason told her," Lily replied.

"Well how do we do it?"

"By calling her Alyssa Jean."

"Okay then," said Kayleigh looking skeptical.

Lily walked over to AJ's bed, "Alyssa Jean wake up!" she yelled.

AJ's eyes snapped open and glared at Lily.

"Well that was rude," and AJ walked into the bathroom and locked the door.

"Did she just take the bathroom before us?" asked Lily annoyed.

"Why yes, yes she did," was Michelle's reply.

Around 30 minutes later the girls were walking down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"I can't believe Jason told you to wake me up like that," grumbled AJ.

"Technically it was a girl with black hair who told us how to do it," said Lily.

"Yeah but Jason told her to, and that's just mean."

The other three girls just rolled their eyes at AJ, they were slowly learning that ranting was part of her daily routine. It was the middle of breakfast when Professor McGonagall passed out their timetables. Kayleigh and Lily were both looking excited about this, whereas AJ wrinkled her nose at it.

"Oh look we've got transfiguration with the Ravenclaws first this morning, ooo then Charms with the Hufflepuffs and after that we've got--"

"Lily, dearest I know you're excited about classes starting, but I'd really rather not hear about my freedom being slowly stripped away," said AJ.

"Oh AJ quit being such a drama queen," said Michelle with a mouthful of toast.

"Oh that's attractive," muttered Kayleigh disdainfully.

"Wasn't trying to be," said Michelle as if Kayleigh hadn't just said something slightly rude.

"AJ look at tomorrow's schedule," Lily said suddenly with a large smile on her face.

"I just said how I didn't want to listen about my freedom being stripped away, why would reading about it be any different?"AJ asked.

"Just trust me," laughed Lily.

AJ narrowed her eyes, but picked up her timetable none the less.

'Alright lets see here,' thought AJ, 'Potions with the Slytherins, double history of Magic with the Hufflepuffs. Can you say boring.' Then what AJ read next made her eyes go wide and a huge smile formed on her face.

"YES!"

Kayleigh jumped and looked at AJ incredulously but AJ either didn't notice or didn't care. Then AJ started doing a jig in her seat. Lily and Michelle giggled at her while Kayleigh looked at her as if she were a zoo attraction.

"What on earth is she doing?" Kayleigh asked Lily.

"What do you mean? She's just excited."

"That's what she does when she's excited?"

"Well yeah, what do you do when you're excited?" Lily asked turning her attention from AJ, who was still dancing, to Kayleigh.

"Well usually I just say I'm excited," answered Kayleigh.

"You don't jump around or yell or anything?" Lily asked.

"Of course not, that not the way a proper Lady conducts herself," replied Kayleigh.

"Conducts herself," Lily repeated, "You do realize that your only eleven right?"

"Whats your point?"

"Nothing, its just a little odd that an eleven year old girl sees herself as a lady."

"I am not odd," replied Kayleigh defensively, " Besides, Mother and Father both say I'm mature for my age."

But before Lily could reply a boy with the same color hair as AJ and hazel eyes walked up to them.

"Let me guess, she just figured out when her first flying lesson is," said the boy.

Lily nodded.

"Figures," he muttered," I'm Hayden by the way, AJ's older brother."

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Lily and this is Kayleigh and Michelle."

"Nice to meet you girls too."

Hayden gave AJ a light swipe across the back of her head.

"What the-" muttered AJ as she flipped around.

"Oh hey Hayden! Guess what? Guess what?"

"You have you first official flying lesson coming up?"

"Yup! Could I borrow your broom please, please, pretty please?"

"Why don't you ask Jason, he has a better broom."

"I'm not talking to that traitor, and besides even if I was, his royal prat-ness would never let me borrow it. Even if I am a thousand times better at flying that he is." replied AJ.

"This is true," agreed Hayden.

"So can I?" AJ asked agin hopefully.

"Of course baby sister, just tell me when you need it."

"I'm not a baby," argued AJ.

"Eh you'll always be my baby sister, just accept it and move on," snickered Hayden.

AJ stuck her tongue out and continued eating her breakfast.

"That was you're brother?" asked Kayleigh after Hayden walked away.

"One out of four, why?"

"Well he was, um kinda, well..."

"Cute?" said Michelle helpfully and Kayleigh nodded.

"That's disgusting," said AJ while wrinkling her nose.

"Nah, Michelle and Kayleigh are right, he's a dish," agreed Lily.

AJ looked at them as if they had horns growing out of their heads.

"You guys are disturbed."

"Whose disturbed?" asked James as he and the rest of his friends sat around the girls.

"No one," said Kayleigh quickly while giving AJ a look.

"So do you guys know what classes are today?" asked Remus as he put some eggs on his plate.

"Oh, here are your timetables. McGonagall asked me to give them to you when you guys made it down for breakfast," said Lily while handing them to the boys.

"Awww, we don't have flying until tomorrow," whined James.

"I know! Its so not fair," grumbled AJ.

After breakfast, the group of eight walked to transfiguration together (after getting instructions from Hayden on how to get there.) Kayleigh and Lilt sat down in the first row while AJ and Michelle sat in the middle, the boys were walking toward the back of the room until AJ grabbed Sirius' arm.

"I'd sit in the middle if I were you."

"Why?"

"Trust me."

Sirius looked at James who shrugged and sat down behind Michelle. The rest of the boys followed suit.

It wasn't long until the classroom filled up completely. Chatter filled the room and Kayleigh already started reading her transfiguration text book.

It was in the middle of AJ trying to explain Quidditch to Michelle (With James adding in his own commentary) that Professor McGonagall entered the room, and the students fell silent. Her robes were emerald green and her hair was in the same tight bun it was last night during the feast.

She stood in the font of the room, her sharp eyes scanning over her new batch of students.

"Welcome to level one transfiguration."