Covering a couple more classes and the holidays in this chapter, it will end after exams/train ride home. I'm trying to build my character a little bit BEFORE the war and romance, so I'm sorry if you lose patience. I'm going to try to have the years 1-5 done ASAP. This Chapter is a bit shorter than the last one, but about the same length as Chapter 1. Sorry if it seems stupid. :p
WitchWolf6470
Chapter 3 First Year
The school year started out slow. Lily always insisted we do our extra work right after class so that we could find other things to do, but I found it hard to preoccupy myself with all of the free time. Our work load as first years was extremely small, so I started to teach myself smaller charms in beginner's books in the library when Lily was with Severus, and I would sit with her in the common room or on the grounds talking about anything and everything. She told me about her family, and I tried to explain as much about mine without giving away that we were elves that lived in a forest.
It wasn't until early October that we were informed that we would be taking lessons on flying twice a week until Halloween. I was very interested in this because we had no way of flying that I knew of back home. Lily seemed nervous, and peeved at how we would be learning something so dangerous with the boys in our year being so reckless.
The day of our first lesson we met in the Entrance Hall before heading down after Potions, which was usually our last class that day. I liked the class, but Severus and Lily seemed to have much more of a passion for it. When everyone arrived, I stood beside a broom with Lily to my left and Peter Pettigrew to my right. The witch that was walking down the middle of the two lines of students directed toward eachother had the most striking grey eyes I had ever seen and spiky black hair, and she introduced herself as Madam Hooch.
"Place your dominant hand over the broom and say 'Up!'" I looked around at everyone else before commanding my broom, it flew up easily, and I smiled across at Sirius and James, who were high fiving at accomplishing the simple feat. It was a moment before Lily's broom answered her, but she smiled over at me triumphantly, and we mounted our brooms together.
The second part was a little trickier, and as I pushed up I gripped the broom a little too hard, and it almost threw me backward off of it, but I quickly adjusted my grip and waved my feet in the air before landing softly on the ground. Lily seemed to get the hang of it just as quickly, but Peter fell sideways mid-air and hit the ground with a 'thud!' I helped him up as Madam Hooch scolded him, and James and Sirius were falling off of their own brooms as they laughed at him.
By the end of class most of the class could do a full circle about ten feet off of the ground, and James and Sirius had to be warned several time not to go any higher or faster, but I found I rather liked flying and wished I could go higher myself. On the way back up to the castle Lily reminded me that we had Astronomy later that night, and we went up to finish up the Potions essay that we had been assigned in class before dinner.
Astronomy class passed quickly. I took notes for Remus when I realized it was a full moon, because it was clear that Peter was the only one trying to fill in his chart. I was exhausted when we finally crawled into bed.
The following morning was the only day Lily woke before me, and during Herbology I struggled to focus on the Professors lecture. She was a new teacher and it was clear she didn't trust first years with the plants, so we only took notes and listened. Unfortunately, as easy as it was to just sit there and stay out of harm's way, Sirius Black managed to get a fungus in Peter's eye, and it began to swell and a thick blue puss leaked down his cheek. Class was quickly dismissed as Professor Sprout hurried him off to the Hospital wing. I laid a piece of blank parchment by my notes and quickly used a charm I had learned in my free time to copy the notes for the werewolf that was still absent.
During lunch I decided I wasn't hungry, and wandered around until I found the hospital wing. The first person I seen was Peter, his eye was slightly less swollen but the puss was still coming out, at a slightly slower flow, and it had turned to a darker shade of blue. I kept my distance but greeted him.
"Hello Peter. How's your eye?" He smiled at me and said it actually didn't hurt at all, but that the nurse told him it just had to run its course.
"Remus is here too- he wasn't feeling well yesterday- James and Sirius came to visit us but went down to lunch." I looked around and seen the hangings that must have been keeping Remus from view.
"That's why I'm here, I made notes for him in the classes he missed- I noticed er- you all seemed preoccupied." I smiled at him fondly, and walked over to the hangings, hold my finger up to my lips to show to stay quiet. I pulled them apart slightly and peeked in. Remus was laid back and asleep, so I slipped in and left the notes on the table by his bed.
"What's your name again?" Peter asked me as I walked back to the end of her bed, adjusting the straps of my backpack.
"I'm Vermilliah. I really should go now though… would you like me to bring you anything up from the dining hall? I'm going to fetch Lily." He shook his head and told me that Sirius promised to bring him something, so I bid him farewell.
Through October the flying lessons continued and we even started throwing balls back and forth to each other as practice for a game they called 'Quidditch'. I wasn't sure what this was and I thought the red ball- a 'quaffle'- was rather oddly shaped, but I liked throwing the ball. Lily seemed okay with just hovering with both hands still gripping the broom. The Halloween feast marked the end of our lessons though, and I was pleased to know that we would be able to bring our own brooms the following year. Though I figured I wouldn't be playing this Quidditch game, I liked the idea of flying around the grounds.
The seating arrangement had settled to the first year boys sitting across from the girls, and Lily began to befriend the girl Mary, so she always sat between us. I would always listen in to the boys or chat with Lily during meals, but this meal I was too interested in the decorations to care about any of that. Pumpkins with carved faces in them hovered everywhere to replace the normal candles, dark drapes covered the walls and the sky reflected in the ceiling was cloudy and dark. Dessert was a large selection of candies and cakes, all purple, orange and/or black. I licked at a lollipop, reaching up to touch one of the pumpkins.
"What is Halloween anyway?" I asked no one in particular, and when I looked back down I seen shocked faces across the table. Apparently I was supposed to know this sort of thing. "What? My family doesn't really celebrate… anything like this."
"How- Why-!?" James outburst, and Lily glared over at him.
"It's okay that her family doesn't celebrate Halloween Potter." She spat his name out like it left a bad taste in her mouth. "In the muggle world, we go house to house collecting candy." She directed this at me.
"Well that's great- but how do you not know what it is?" James dismissed her and turned back to me. "Halloween is like as big as Christmas!" I stared at his with a blank expression, and he gasped loudly and jumped up. "YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT CHIRSTMAS IS!?"
I must have looked a little frightened, because he sat back down and apologized. Maybe I should have lied and said that of course I knew what these holidays were- but there was no getting around me just not knowing what in the heck it was. Or when for that matter.
"There's a whole break for Christmas where everyone goes home for a couple of weeks in December." Sirius offered, and a dark expression came over his face thinking about it.
"AND you get presents- that's the best part!" Peter piped up, and I enjoyed the rest of our time in the hall listening to everyone's versions of these two holidays. How wonderful Christmas sounded, but I felt saddened knowing I would probably be the only student staying over the break.
Come first snow fall I ran outside and danced in it, twirling and collapsing into its cold softness. I had never seen snow before. Other people were throwing balls of it at each other, and I decided to team up with a Hufflepuff girl and get Sirius and James back for a few 'stray' snow balls that hit us a little too perfectly. Peter was trying but seemed to have extremely bad aim, and Remus sat under a tree on one of its roots, flipping through a book. I took the opportunity while everyone else was reloading to toss the ball at him, and it landed right on his book. I ducked down behind our half wall so he wouldn't see it was me. What a beautiful day for mischief.
I was right about the Christmas break, I was the only one from our year to stay, and I mostly wandered the halls in search of new passages to find while the castle was empty. The only other students that stayed were older or staying with a friend, and mostly they just studied and I only seen anyone else in the Great Hall at meal times. Occasionally a pair of seventh year girls could be found huddled in the Gryffindor common room around the fire, sipping from steaming mugs and studying for their N.E.W.T level exams.
I found myself at Dumbledore's office just days before the students were due back, and he offered me some toffees from a bowl on his desk. He made small conversation about how my classes were, and asked me if I had been staying out of trouble (like he didn't know!).
"A matter that has come to my attention is that we aren't sure where you will be staying for your summer break, I wanted to ask you if you would like to see your parents, because as of right now it can still be arranged." He popped a toffee into his mouth and I rubbed my hands together. Of course I wanted to see them.
"By the sound of it that won't always be possible?" I asked.
"No my dear, I'm afraid not. I fear that it is dangerous the more powerful that Lord Voldemort grows, and at a point he might follow me to your parents… I cannot lead you back to them every year, and leave you vulnerable. They would agree, I am sure, that your safety is of the utmost importance." I nodded at this and watched his Phoenix, pulling at a lock of hair that fell over my cheek as I thought his words over for a few moments.
"I would like to see them then…" We decided I would spend my summer in a cottage in the same village he lived, and that he would enchant it to keep anyone from snooping. He also explained that I would be able to practice magic at this cottage, unlike others my age. Because I wasn't a real witch, I did not have 'The Trace' on me. It seemed I would be very lonely this summer.
When Lily returned, she told me about everything she had gotten over Christmas, and even handed me a small box in which a bracelet sat with a single charm on it. She put it on my wrist and promised that every year we were friends she was going to buy me a charm for it, and this warmed my insides because I realized she planned on being my friend for a long time.
I was in two more snow ball fights before the snow stopped coming, and everything went back into a routine. Lily always made sure we did our homework before having any down time, James and Sirius always disrupted class, and Remus disappeared a day or two every month or so. I would always take him notes, but he was never awake when left them, and I wasn't even sure he knew it was me that was leaving them.
During the spring break when all of the fifth years and up were studying for their important finals, the younger students took to the warming air. I was among them, laying back by the lake to watch the clouds roll by, even when Lily couldn't join me because she was busy catching up with Severus. The last day of the break was like this, and I had closed my eyes and stretched my legs out as I soaked up the heat from the sun, when I heard a rustling beside me as someone sat down. I peeked over to see Remus Lupin had sat just a few feet away, and was looking over at me as he cracked open a book, his bag laid beside him on the ground between us.
"Hello" I greeted him with a quick smile and closed my eyes again, crossing my legs at the ankle and readjusting my position.
"Hey" His voice was still boyish, and I heard him flipping through the pages of his book, taking his time before he said anything else. "It's… Vermilliah? Right?"
"Mhm." I hummed, giving a slight nod of my head but keeping my eyes closed.
"Thank you. For the notes you've been leaving. I don't even know you, which makes you an even kinder person for going out of your way." He didn't seem nervous, but I could tell he felt he needed to say this, and after the short interaction we just sat together and enjoyed the sun in each other's company. This would happen several more times before our exams. He insisted I didn't need to take notes for him, but that never stopped me.
A week before our exams it seemed to hit us all- none of the first years seemed to realize we would be leaving in only a month- and everyone was cramming last minute. We were often forced into a back corner of the library, and me and Lily quizzed each other during meals, making a habit of high-fives after a particularly long streak of correct answers. Even James and Sirius were studying, and I helped Peter as much in class as I could.
When exam week was upon us, a girl had an emotional breakdown halfway through the written Potions exam, and a boy ran full speed from the charms classroom towards a bathroom, but threw up all over the hallway. Lily and I were confident, and we had a right to be, we both even managed to turn mice into intricate snuffboxes.
The few weeks after our exams were slow and quick at the same time- with nothing to do but review in classes and the end of school nearing, I was impatient and bored, but dreading how lonely I felt just thinking about a summer in a cottage by myself. I had never been alone for such a long period of time, and I decided to figure a way out to communicate while I was gone.
The morning we woke to go home I put on a yellow dress instead of my uniform, and Lily left her robes in her neatly packed trunk but wore he school skirt and shirt. We still had the train ride, and she seemed excited to go home but said she would go out of her mind with only her sister at home and that she would miss me.
"I wish I could just replace her with you. I love her but she's just so mean sometimes."
The train ride seemed shorter than before, and I managed to say goodbye to James and Remus as well as Lily, hugging her back hesitantly as she latched onto me. I met with Dumbledore at a café across the street from the station, and he apparated us to a town called Godrics Hollow. When I was inside of the one roomed cottage I laid on a couch by an empty fire place and reflected on my school year. I already missed Hogwarts.