Bill's POV:
Having a free period first thing the next morning, I first headed up to the Owlery. After staying up late and working on it, I had finally figured out what to tell my Mom. I started out telling her a little about my first day of classes and that Charlie was already planning his Quidditch strategy. I left out the fact that he was shirking Prefect duties. As for Percy, I told her he was fine though having trouble adjusting. I told her about the detention and getting lost last night as I wasn't sure if Professor McGonagall would tell her or not but I wasn't taking that chance. I assured her though that I'd keep a close eye on him
Having tied the letter to Lighting's foot and sent him on his way, I headed back downstairs. I headed out to the courtyard. Madam Hooch was out in the front yard with the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years. Most of the broomsticks were still on the ground.
I was curious as to see how the first years would do but it wasn't only that. Percy hadn't seemed to eat much again at breakfast. Despite trying to sound upbeat to my mother, I was concerned about him.
"They're not having much luck out there, huh?" I commented as I took a seat on the wall next to Charlie. My brother looked over at me.
"I don't have class right now," he told me instantly, even though that thought hadn't crossed my mind. Charlie had a tendency to run late but he wasn't one to purposefully skip his classes."As for the class, no - they're not having much luck."
I could tell he wasn't happy with me about getting on him about taking his Prefect duties more seriously yesterday. I didn't regret it though. I wasn't going to let him shirk things just because he felt the Quidditch was more important. Nor was I going to let him put that game before our little brother.
We watched the first years in silence. Slowly, the kids started getting the brooms in their hands. I saw the Slytherin that had tripped Percy up there and was silently glad he was one of the last kids to manage to get their brooms up off the ground. The last one though was Percy. Madam Hooch stood there watching him for about five minutes after everyone else had gotten their brooms off the ground. Other then the broom shooting up quickly, and Percy dodging it, the broom simply refused to come off the ground
"He got hit with it before you showed up," Charlie commented. I looked over, half expecting to see a grin on his face. It wasn't there though. He seemed to be just stating what had happened. I looked back to the class.
Mrs. Hooch seemed to have tired of waiting for Percy as I saw her point to his broom on the ground and then Percy bent down to pick it up. The next part didn't go well at all. Everyone else had their brooms hovering before Percy and then when Percy finally did get the broom to hover he fell off.
"STOP IT."
Madam Hooch's voice carried over to where we sat. The only thing I could think of was that his classmates had been laughing at my brother. The rest of the class didn't go any better for Percy. Though most of the first years seemed to be starting to get the hang of it, Percy wasn't. He fell off the broom twice more.
The bell rang and the first years started back toward the castle. I stood up myself, having Ancient Runes to get to. Not only that, for some reason, I didn't want Percy to know I had been watching. Charlie started walking beside me.
"Think he'll ever get the hang of it?" Charlie asked.
"I sure hope so," I answered as we reached the castle doors. The corridors were crowded with students switching classes. Saying good-bye to Charlie, I headed toward Professor Sprigget's classroom.
I knew this morning class wasn't going to help with Percy wanting to stay. If anything, it was going to make him want to go home more.
The common room was crowded. It might have only been the first days of classes but that didn't matter to our professors. All of us had homework. That didn't mean however, that all of us were doing it.
I was sitting at a table with Rob and Angelica. Rob and I were trying to decipher the pages of runes that Sprigget had asked us to decipher. Angelica, who didn't have Ancient Runes, was practicing Transfiguration. She had a sunflower sitting in front of her. We were supposed to transfigure the sunflower into a white rabbit but she wasn't having much luck. I had managed to turn the sunflower into a yellow rabbit during the class period and as the next Transfiguration was on Friday, I was more concerned with getting Ancient Runes homework out of the way.
To my right, third-year girls were whispering and pointing at various places. After watching them a little I deduced that they were talking about which of their fellow male Gryffindors they thought were cute. I saw various points in Charlie's direction which didn't surprise me any. Even the girl's in my class thought Charlie was good looking. I had been getting requests for me to introduce them to him for the last couple of years and had gotten good at politely declining. Becoming the Gryffindor Seeker had only increased his popularity with the girls at the school.
By the fireplace, a group of second-years had been reading their History of Great Magical Duels book and taking notes. Now they seemed to be switching notes between each other and copying them. More than likely they had all decided to read part of what had been covered in class today and then share notes of the part they read. Not too many people were able to listen to Professor Binns without falling asleep. Even I had taken a nap in his class from time to time. I had dropped the course as soon as I could.
Other students were avoiding school work by playing games. The exploding snaps games were a challenge to tune out as the tiny explosions from the game made it hard to concentrate sometimes. The few games of chess were a bit quieter. Other students sat by themselves, studying or practicing spells.
Percy was at a table across the room, with Emily and Oliver. There were feathers on the table which they were trying to get to levitate. After watching them a little while I realized that only two of them were trying to get the feathers to levitate. Percy could easily accomplish the feat and was actually trying to help the other two. Having been a witness to various flying objects sent through the air at home when the twins had pushed Percy a little too far, the fact that levitating the feather was easy for him came as no surprise. Another first-year Gryffindor, who if I remembered correctly his name was Jason, kept shooting them looks from where he sat. As he wasn't actually doing anything to them, I didn't feel right about doing anything about it but decided to keep an eye on him.
I looked back down at my book. I had only gotten through a half of the page so far. Professor Sprigget had said it took experts two years to translate the three hundred page work we were working on and if the rest of it was anything like the first two pages we had been given I could see why. This was the first real challenge I had run into with the class as the other years I had found the course work for Ancient Runes easy. Rob, who did just as well as I in the class, was also having difficulty. Several spots we had ended up working on together or helping one another out.
"Hey!" Rob called out, making me look up from the page I was trying to translate. He was trying to pull his parchment with his Runes homework on it from the mouth of Angelica's sunflower, which she had manage to give not only a mouth with vicious looking teeth but eyes too.
Angelicas was busy saying spells, trying to turn the sunflower back. Taking my wand out, I said a reversal spell, and the teeth and eyes disappeared. Rob held the mutilated parchment in his hand.
"Sorry, "Angelica said looking abashed as she glanced over at Rob.
"And it would have to eat the part I had written on too," he said looking at the parchment. "Do you know how hard this stuff is?" he asked Angelica.
"I said I was sorry. I didn't purposefully give the sunflower teeth so it could eat your homework."
"How did you get this far in Transfiguration anyway?" Rob asked, pulling out a new piece of parchment.
"I'm starting to wonder that myself," Angelica said, resting her chin on her left hand and gazing at the sunflower.
"Here," I told Rob, pushing my parchment toward him. "Copy what I've got. I'm not much further than you were anyway. I need a break from it anyway as the lines are starting to run together."
"Thanks," Rob said, placing my piece of parchment next to his new one. He set about copying what I had so far.
I looked down at my bag. Several books and their titles were visible. My transfiguration book sat there. Potions. Defense Against the Dark Arts. Legilimency the Power and Responsibility. I pulled the last book out. I'd be lying to say the subject didn't scare me. The thought that I could read people minds was overwhelming. I instantly realized how easy it would be to use it for evil purposes.
There were only three other kids in my class that were in the class, two Ravenclaw girls, and a boy from Hufflepuff from Charlie's year. Dumbledore approached us at the beginning of last year. He had told us he had been watching us since we started at Hogwarts and could see we had the gift. Dumbledore felt it was his responsibility to not only teach us how to use and control the ability but also the great responsibility that having the skill of Legilimency was.
It didn't take me long to realize that I had been using Legilimency unaware for years. There had been times when I knew the twins were up to no good and caught them before they started doing something or just as they started. They often thought I spied on them but I hadn't. Somehow, I just knew. Then there were the flashes of events that I knew about but the memories just didn't seem like my own somehow. Once I got to Hogwarts, I found I had the uncanny ability to know what a teacher was going to ask before they asked it. Of course last year, I realized now that it was because I was reading it from their head beforehand as they were thinking about asking it.
I pulled the Legilimency book from my bag. Our first class was on Friday but Dumbledore had sent us a reading assignment with our letters. I planned on making sure it was completed by our class and right now. The subject seemed the most appealing.
I hadn't read very far though when Emily's cry interrupted me. "Percy!"
I looked up to see Oliver lowering my brother to the floor. Even as those near him started gathering around, I was on my feet and heading across the room. I saw Charlie making his way in that direction too.
"Let me through," I kept telling the Gryffindors that had gathered around Oliver, Emily and Percy. Oliver had eased him to the floor and was kneeling on one side of him. "Percy, can you hear me?" I asked as I knelt down next to my brother.
"What happened?" I heard Charlie ask from above me.
"We were just working on our homework, and he got quiet and pale. Then his eyes were closed and he was falling out of the chair," Emily said.
"Percy!"Looking at him, I saw his eyelids flutter. "Percy!" I tried again. He opened his eyes looking around. I reached out and turned his head so I could look right into his eyes.
"Bill?" he asked softly looking confused. "What happened?"
"I think you fainted," I told him. "How are you feeling?"
"Tired," he told me, a confused look still on his face.
"Let's have Madam Pomfrey take a look at you," I told him picking him up. As I stood up, I glanced at Jolyn Monks, Jennifer and Charlie, the three Prefects that were in the common room. "How about restoring some order in here," I told them.
"But I want . . . " Charlie started saying.
"How about doing your job for once," I told him, instantly regretting the words. I knew Charlie wanted to come, because he was worried about Percy too. Still I didn't think that both of us needed to be down in the hospital wing especially when our two fifth-year Prefects were busy with patrol duty.
Deciding I could apologize later. I headed out of Gryffindor Tower.
An hour later, I headed back to Gryffindor Tower alone. Madame Pomfrey wanted to keep Percy overnight to keep an eye on him. I had told her about noticing that he hadn't been eating that much and she already knew about some of the troubles he had been having adjusting to Hogwarts. She seemed sure that his fainting spell had been brought on by those factors especially after Percy admitted to not eating at dinner, which I hadn't known about due to the fact that I had eaten quickly and then gone to meet with Arnold Jargon, a Hufflepuff, who I had been teamed with to do a presentation within Muggle Studies. I planned on not missing any other meals until I was sure that Percy had adjusted to being here.
Though it took some convincing, we had managed to get Percy to eat a bowl of soup. I had tried to get him to talk to me about how he was feeling, positive that him being troubled about things was why he wasn't eating. Though he had always been a picky eater, he never not ate before and Hogwarts had enough variation of food that there were plenty of things offered that he would eat.
I had stayed with him, until he had fallen asleep. Because of this, the corridors were not well lit, and were deserted as I made my way back to Gryffindor Tower as it was after curfew. The Fat Lady was snoring in her frame.
"Ahem," I said, waking her up. She glared at me, clearly not happy that I had disturbed her slumber.
"The password," she said sleepily.
"Tessera si placet," I replied. The wall swung open. I walked through as she muttered under her breath something about giving students badges and they thought they could get away with anything.
Charlie, Oliver and Rob were the only three still awake when I walked in. All of them looked toward me as I entered.
"How is he?" Charlie asked. The apology that I had been ready to give when I was leaving was now completely forgotten. I had asked Charlie to make sure that Percy ate something during dinner. He obviously hadn't done that.
"He'll be fine. Madame Pomfrey is just keeping him overnight to keep an eye on him," I told him, refraining from getting on his case in front of the other two.
Charlie looked relieved as did the others.
"Okay, Oliver off to bed," Rob told his younger brother. With a nod, Oliver disappeared to the first-year's dormitory as Rob headed toward ours. This left me and Charlie alone.
"I thought I asked you to make sure Percy ate during dinner," I told him.
"I got distracted. Finnigan was trying to tell me how to go about conducting try outs Friday. What's the big deal anyway?"
"The big deal is that Percy didn't eat which is probably why he fainted. I told you he hadn't eaten much at breakfast or lunch."
"I'm sorry, okay. It won't happen again."
"You got that right, because I know not to count on you now," I told him walking past him and heading up the steps that Rob had just taken.
