Chapter Four

Luci

The next morning at breakfast, Professor Longbottom walked up and down the Gryffindor table, handing out timetables. Being before either Lily or Hugo alphabetically, Mia got her timetable first. She groaned when she saw it.

"Double Duncan first, and then History of Magic," she told the others.

Professor Duncan was their Transfiguration teacher, notorious for being unfair. He'd given the three of them detention last year for a variety of jumped up charges. As for History of Magic, it was universally agreed to be the most boring subject Hogwarts offered, and no one had taken it beyond OWL for over a hundred years.

After breakfast, the three of them met Louis in the Entrance Hall, and headed up to the fifth floor and Transfiguration.

"Why's Duncan even teaching, if he hates kids so much?" Louis asked no one in particular.

"Mmm," Lily agreed. "He's so unfair to everyone – it's not even like he just favours his own house... what house was he even in at Hogwarts?"

"Ravenclaw," Louis said glumly. "But he's as unfair to us as he is to anyone else."

"Sure that means he's equally fair to everyone," James said, suddenly coming up behind them and making them jump.

"Where did you come from?" Lily demanded.

"Did you apparate?" Hugo asked.

"No, little Hugey," James said, with a condescending smile. "Because firstly, as your mother would be reminding us if she were here, you can't apparate inside the Hogwarts grounds. And secondly, even though I come of age next week, we don't start Apparition lessons until October."

"So where did you come from?" Lily persisted.

"Shortcut," James said, nodding at a tapestry halfway back down the corridor. "So, who's so unfair they're actually fair?"

"Duncan," Louis said.

"Ah," James said knowingly. "Git."

They all giggled.

"Anyway, you ought to hurry up, shouldn't you?" James said. "Don't want to be late on your first day."

"Where are you going?" Lily asked her brother.

"Common room," James grinned. "I've got two frees now. Virtue of being a sixth year."

"Lucky," Lily said.

"I bet normally you'll have heaps of work to do then," Hugo said.

"Maybe," James shrugged. "Maybe not. Anyway, see you, kids."

They parted at the foot of a stair case, the four friends turning down the Transfiguration corridor, and James continuing up towards the 7th floor.

"We are going to be late," Mia said, looking at her watch.

The three of them quickened their pace, dodging a lime green paper aeroplane which was careering down the corridor, and tacked onto the end of the file of students which was making its way into the Transfiguration classroom. They were the last ones in, and therefore had to sit in the front row.

"Guess who's going to get picked on today," Lily sighed, rolling her eyes as Professor Duncan sat down behind his desk, directly in front of Lily and Hugo.

Before Professor Duncan could speak, there was a knock at the door, and Professor Longbottom came in, followed by Luci Hamel, the small blonde girl from the train.

"What's she doing here?" Lily hissed, right in Mia's ear.

"I don't know," Mia hissed back, wiping Lily's spit off her earlobe.

They soon found out.

"Professor Duncan, may I have a word with Mia?" he asked.

Professor Duncan nodded his assent, and Professor Longbottom gestured for Luci to sit down in the spare seat beside Mia.

"Mia, this is Luci," Professor Longbottom said. "She's nominally a first year, but she will be taking some classes with the second years. Luci is from Switzerland, and is only here for a year whilst her father works in London. In order for her to keep up with her year at home, she needs to take some classes with you, and some with the first years. So she will be with you for Transfiguration, Potions, Charms and Herbology. I'd like you to look after her."

"Of course, Professor," Mia said, and turned and smiled at Luci, who didn't smile back.

Professor Longbottom left the classroom, and Professor Duncan stood up. "Right," he said. "Interruptions aside, let's begin."

Throughout the double period, Mia tried to look after Luci, to engage her in conversation, but Luci remained stubbornly quiet, answering her questions politely but shortly, and answering any non-essential chatter with a curt,

"I'm trying to work."

"She's impossible!" Lily said emphatically at break, once they had delivered Luci to Ailie Abercrombie. "Why can't she just be with all the first years, like she's supposed to?"

"Because she has to stay in line with the other people in her year back in Switzerland, like Professor Longbottom said," Mia told her.

"Well that's stupid," Lily said. "Why did her dad even have to come to work in England, anyway?"

"Who knows?" Hugo shrugged.

"Well, anyway, she's a nightmare," Lily said. "She doesn't even try to be friendly, so I don't know why we even try."

"It must be hard for her, though," Mia reasoned. "Coming to a new country, speaking a different language – what language do they speak in Switzerland?"

"I think it's French..." Lily said.

"Yeah, but she sounds German," Mia mused.

"Don't they speak Swiss in Switzerland?" Hugo asked.

Louis rolled his eyes. "There's no such language as Swiss," he said.

"Well, anyway," Mia said. "Whatever language she normally speaks, it isn't English. And then instead of one group of people to get to know – the first years – she's got us too, and we already know each other. I don't blame her for being shy."

"She's not shy," Lily said. "Like a block of ice is more like it."

Hugo grinned at the metaphor.

"Shut up," Lily laughed, hitting him playfully. "Well, at least we're rid of her for now."

"Yeah, but Binns..." Louis sighed.

Professor Binns was the only ghost teacher. He spent all their lessons droning on about the long distant past, and hadn't even let his death get in the way of his everlasting lectures.

Slowly, the four of them made their way up to the History of Magic classroom, dragging it out as long as possible. Eventually, however, they had to go in, and claim their usual seats at the back of the classroom, where it was usually fairly safe to carry out a whispered conversation, or a boredom busting game of Noughts and Crosses.

"Binns is late," Louis said, looking at his watch.

"And you're complaining why?" Lily demanded.

"I'm not; I was just stating," Louis said.

Suddenly, Derek Downer, a Ravenclaw boy who was sitting in the front row, screamed. Professor Bins was floating through the blackboard.

"Good morning, class," he said, in his usual monotone.

"Good morning, Professor Binns," they all chanted back, imitating his monotone and aware that the excitement was over. Indeed, Professor Binns' entrance was definitely the high point of the lesson; for the next forty five minutes, he droned on and on about witch burning in the middle ages.

Mia played 43 games of Noughts and Crosses with Lily. Then she stared out of the window and imagined she was flying in and out of the trees in the Forbidden Forrest. Quidditch tryouts were on Saturday. What if she didn't make the team? She'd written to Will to tell him about her new broom and also to share her fears. She'd received his reply the day before she came back to school – he believed in her, and so did Danielle. All she had to do was play her best on Saturday, and hope for the best.

"Come on, Mia."

Mia became aware of Lily tugging on her arm.

"Come on," she said. "The lesson's finished – let's get out of here."

Mia packed up quickly and followed Lily and Hugo downstairs to the dungeons.

"This day's already gone on forever, and it's not even lunchtime," Lily sighed.

"At least we'll be able to actually do something in Potions," Hugo said. "I hate just sitting around doing nothing all lesson."

"Yeah, but we'll have her with us again," Lily sighed. "Luci I-don't-want-to-be-friends-with-anyone Hamel."
"Cut her some slack, Lil," Hugo sighed.

"No, I won't!" Lily said hotly. "Maybe if she even tried to be friendly, but... And it's alright for you – you won't have to sit with her, but I guess me and Mia will have to have her at our table."

They reached the dungeon where Potions was held, and queued up outside with the rest of the class. Hugo wandered away to join Alexander Abercrombie and Kieran Finnigan. Lily glared at him, and then at Luci, and then stalked off to stand with Zoe and Cassie, the two Hufflepuff girls who Lily and Mia always sat with in Potions. Glumly, Mia stuck to Luci's side.

"What lesson did you have just now?" Mia asked.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts," Luci said woodenly.

"What did you think of it?" Mia asked.

"It was alright," Luci said. Mia waited for her to expand, but she didn't.

"Well, I've just had History of Magic," Mia said unperturbed. "I guess you've still got that to look forward to. Professor Binns is the only ghost teacher, but he's sooo boring."

Luci consulted her timetable. "I have History of Magic seventh period," she informed Mia.

"Have fun," Mia grinned.

Professor Cooke opened the dungeon door and beckoned them all inside. Mia led Luci over to their usual table, where Lily, Zoe and Cassie were already sitting down.

"Nick a chair from that table and shove it on the end here," Mia told her.

"Nick?" Luci queried.

"Kinda like steal, borrow," Mia said, sitting down next to Lily, who was rolling her eyes, as Luci did as she was told.

"Cut her some slack, Lily," she muttered. "It's not her fault she doesn't understand some of the weirder points of the English language."

"Well, maybe she shouldn't have come here if she doesn't understand English," Zoe said. Lily had obviously filled her and Cassie in on who Luci was.

"Stop it, all of you!" Cassie said. "I can't believe you're all being so mean about her! Less than six months ago, I couldn't read, and that didn't mean you looked on me as any less. Why should it matter if English isn't her first language? You're acting like Ilonka and her gang, acting like she's less of a person for what language she speaks or where she's from."

"But it's not just that, she-" Lily began, but Cassie cut her off.

"Shut up!" she said. "Just shut up, Lily!"

Luci carried the chair over to the table, and sat down on the end, in between Mia and Cassie.

"Hi Luci," Cassie said. "I'm Cassie."

Luci gave her a curt nod, and Lily nearly fired up again at her cool treatment of an attempt to be friendly, but Zoe wisely engaged her in conversation. When they came out of Potions forty-five minutes later, Lily shot a contemptuous glance at Luci, linked her arm through Hugo's, and sped away to the Great Hall and lunch, so that when Mia reached the Great Hall, Luci in tow, Lily and Hugo were already eating, at the far end of the Gryffindor table.

"I've got Modern History of Magic straight after lunch," Mia told Luci. "So you must have something with the first years."

Mia spotted Ailie Abercrombie sat with her brother, halfway up the table, and walked over, left Luci with them, and then joined Lily and Hugo. The two of them were discussing Quidditch with a vim, and Mia decided not to bring the subject of Luci up, and instead joined in.

By the time they left the Great Hall for Modern History of Magic, Lily was pretty much her usual self. They filed into Professor Nilsson's classroom, Louis joining them in their usual seats in the third row.

"I wonder what we're doing this year," Louis mused as the room filled up around them.

"Well, whatever it is, it's bound to be something more interesting than what Binns teaches," Mia yawned.

"Anything's better than what Binns teaches," Hugo agreed. "Although I expect it's more about the teacher rather than the subject matter – I reckon Binns could make even the Battle of Hogwarts sound boring."

"Probably," Mia agreed.

Professor Nilsson entered the room just then, and the class fell silent. It wasn't a fear-fueled silence, unlike the one which perpetuated Professor Duncan's classroom. In Professor Nilsson's classes, they were quiet because it was the easiest way to hear what he had to say, which tended to be interesting.

"Good afternoon, Second Years," Professor Nilsson said briskly. "Now then, this year we will be focussing on the first Wizarding war, and Voldemort's initial rise to power."

"Yay, grandparents!" Lily said excitedly, a little more loudly than she'd been intending to.

Professor Nilsson laughed. "Yes, Lily – many of your grandparents were growing up during Voldemort's initial rise to power."

Derek Downer, the tall, thin Ravenclaw boy who'd screamed in Binn's class sighed. "It's alright for some people – but some of us are muggle born. My grandparents weren't around during the first war."

"Yes they were," Lily said, turning round in her seat to look at Derek. "Not involved in it, maybe, but they were still alive anyway."

"Well duh, Lily," Louis said, rolling his eyes.

"Anyway," Professor Nilsson said, his voice cutting through the growing chatter. "We'll start with a basic timeline, so prepare to take notes."