Hello, lovelies! I'm SOSOSOSOSOOSOSOOSSOSOSOO sorry that it took so long for me to upload this. I had tons of testing this week, and on top of that, I wasn't even sure whether I should continue this series. Please read and review (:
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in here except for my own character… I wish I did though.
Chapter 4: Defense Against the Dark Arts
I awoke the next morning feeling a lot more refreshed than the night before. A single ray of sunlight was peeking through the window, illuminating the dark blue and bronze curtains hanging on my four-poster. Slowly, making sure not to awaken anyone else, I crept out of my bed and carefully opened my trunk to grab my school robes, and walked into the bathroom to change into them.
I made my way down stairs to the common room. Today was the first day of classes, so I decided I should cram some extra information into my head to start the day. When I entered the cast, airy room, I saw that I was to only student to be up besides Luna Lovegood. She was sitting in the corner, wearing a ridiculous pair of glasses that looked like hands, and reading a magazine upside down.
"Good morning, Andrea." She greeted in her whimsical voice, not looking up from her book.
"Morning. What are you reading?" I asked.
"It's this month's copy of The Quibbler. It came with free spectrospecs. Want a pair? They detect wrackspurts."
"No thanks. I'm just going to get a bit of studying in before classes start." I informed her, and I grabbed The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 6 and began reading. I scanned spell after spell as more students began shuffling into the common room. Just as I was packing my bag to leave for prefect duties, Lisa and Mandy prodded into the room.
"There you are!" Mandy smiled and greeted me.
"Hi. Sorry! I'd stay behind with you guys, but I need to get to prefect duties! I'll see you at breakfast!" I smiled, and walked out of the room and down the stairs to the Prefect's lounge.
Feeling in a particularly cheery mood, I entered the room grinning.
"Good morning, Andrea." Roger Davies greeted. "Please take a seat and we'll begin."
I took a seat, and looking around, notice I was the last person. Oops. Even Draco Malfoy arrived before me, and was sneering at me in the corner. I raised my eyebrows at him, and then turned my attention back to Roger.
"So, for now your duties are to wake up early and guard the halls, and stay 30 minutes later than curfew. The other prefect in your House and Year will be your partner. That means you will fulfill all duties together." Katie Bell, the Head Girl began. I tuned out the rest of the speech. So Anthony and I are working together… This should be interesting. Finally, 30 minutes later, we were released and I made my way to the Great Hall for breakfast. As I entered a main corridor, I saw Mandy and Lisa walking together about ten feet in front of me. I was in such a hurry to get to them; I didn't even notice the group of prefects in talking in the middle of the hall. I sped up to tag along with Lisa and Mandy, and suddenly CRASH!
My books flew everywhere. I looked up, and saw that I had walked straight into none other than Anthony Goldstein. "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry; I wasn't watching where I was going!" I began rambling.
"It's okay, don't worry about it!" He chuckled coolly. "I'll see you later." He winked at me, handed me my books, and then walked away.
When I looked back in Mandy's direction, I saw that she and Lisa were staring right at me, huge grins spread across their faces. I walked up to them, and it wasn't even five seconds until Mandy squealed "You so like him!"
"No, I don't!" I defended myself, my face flushing.
"Oh please, Andie. We saw your whole face turn red! Admit it, you dig him." Lisa teased with her odd muggle language.
"Fine, maybe a little…" I blushed, and they squealed even louder. "But don't tell anyone." I demanded.
We ate our breakfast in a hurry, and then excitedly scuttled to the next class. I had Defense Against the Dark Arts first with Lisa. It took a good five minutes to navigate our way through the crowded halls, full of confused first years, and twice I had to direct a group where to find the Potions room. Finally, we climbed the last staircase and stood at the door of the Defense Against the Dark Arts room. I raised my hand to knock, but there was no need. Professor Snape swung the door open, stepped aside, and made a gesture with his head towards the inside of the room.
As I stepped into the room, I noticed the completely different atmosphere. Each of my years at Hogwarts, I have had a different DADA teacher, but NEVER had any of them had as hideous and dark decorations (If you can call the drawn curtains that.) as Snape. Lisa and I took a seat towards the middle of the classroom, right behind Draco Malfoy and his groupies. I knew almost immediately this was a huge mistake, because Malfoy couldn't stop complaining about how "dumpy" Hogwarts was getting. That was total rubbish. Within the next two minutes, almost everyone had filed into the room and found seats, when the last people were Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
"Inside." I heard Snape command. They obeyed, and took their seats. Soon after, Snape stood at the front of the class and announced in his low voice with each word dangling in the air.
"I have not asked you to take out your books." with that, I reluctantly threw my Confronting the Faceless textbook back into my bag.
"You have had five teachers in this subject so far, I believe." he paused. Yeah. We have. And we'll have another ten more by the time I graduate. I thought to myself. Then, he began ridiculing us on how surprised he is we even passed on to the N.E.W.T class.
"The Dark Arts are many, varied, ever-changing, and eternal." he began a speech that I only half listened to. I was still thinking about my encounter with Michael, and how dreamy his smile was... Suddenly, everyone had sprung out of their seats, and I followed, confused as to what was going on.
"What are we doing?" I murmured timidly to Lisa, who was leading me to a far corner in the room.
"Non-verbal spells. We have to try to- err- jinx each other, and try using Protego without speaking..."
Easy enough. I thought to myself. I was dead wrong.
To make things short and sweet and a lot less painful, Lisa and I took turns using Flipendo on each other while the other scrunched up our faces, trying our best not to say the spell aloud, and as a result we were flipped backwards and sent sprawled across the ground.
"Maybe if you clear you mind of other utter nonsense, Ms. Gattuso..." came the drooling voice of Professor Snape. Turning around, I saw that he was standing behind me. I turned back to Lisa, cleared my mind of all things except protection (after all, I may need it if I ever choose to return home.), and gave her a curt nod, indicating I was ready.
"Flipendo!" she sent the spell straight to me, and with the swift swipe of my wand, I was completely safe.
When I proudly turned back to Snape, however, he had a sly smirk on his face and sneered, "Great, now you have just about as much skill as a fourth year." I was really going to miss Dumbledore's Army.
...
"I really don't see why he's such a jerk. You did great, Andie." Lisa complained loudly on our way to potions. "I swear, I am going to shove my wand so far up his-"
"Okay! I get it, Leece." I chuckled. "He's just jealous because none of his Slytherins got it first." We descended yet another staircase, and finally bumped into Mandy. We told her all about our interesting lesson. Four flights of stairs later, we came to the entrance of the potions room, where Professor Slughorn was standing, greeting everyone.
"Aha! Ms. Gattuso! Please come in." he winked at me.
We entered the room, and only a handful of students were there. As I took my seat towards the front of the room, I noticed three cauldrons placed across a long table, and the room smelled a little like books and fresh linen.
"Wow that smells great…" Lisa said dreamily. "Just like fruit salad."
"Must be Amorentia, then," I stated, "because I smell my laundry soap and books." She giggled. "But what are the other two?" I asked.
"It looks like we are about to find out." Lisa said, pointing to the front of the room, where Professor Slughorn had appeared and was instructing us to take out our scales and books.
He indicated to the three potions, and asked what the one nearest the Slytherins was. Of course, the first hand up was that of Hermione Granger's.
"It's Veritaserum, a colorless, odorless potion that forces the drinker to tell the truth." She announced.
"Very good, very good. Now, this potion is pretty well-known," He pointed to the cauldron closest to my table. Lisa, Mandy, and I all leaned over to see what was in it, and I noticed a gray, muddy, and thick substance. It looked extremely unappetizing. "…Who can - ?" He began to ask, but once again, Hermione's hand shot straight up.
"It's polyjuice potion, sir." She answered.
It ends up I was right, the last potion was Amorentia. Professor Slughorn assigned to us a Draught of Living Death, and whoever made the most perfect one would swap it for a bottle of Felix Felicis. Sadly, potions wasn't my calling. I ended up giving up in the middle of brewing, and when we were finally dismissed, I couldn't help letting out a few swears in the hallways on our way to the dormitories.
Sorry about the terrible ending guys. I got a little bit distracted and completely lost my train of thought. I'm not sure if I should continue this… Can you help me decide? Please tell me what you think I should do in a review!