The following morning passed in a blur of strange, staring faces and loud whispers as she went down to the Great Hall with Harry and Ron. Apparently Hermione hadn't forgiven them for the flying car stunt yet.
She was wide awake and would have liked to spend several hours examining all the paintings of Hogwarts. The fact that they could talk and move around the castle was enough to make her head spin. She was officially introduced to everyone they met along the way by Harry.
Harry honestly couldn't be happier on the first day of his second year at Hogwarts. He had missed Jasmine so much last year and now she was here as well and it seemed as though life couldn't get any better. He changed his mind pretty quickly when the Howler exploded and Mrs. Weasley's voice broke into the Great Hall. Jasmine the traitor was smirking but was soon distracted by her timetable which was handed out by Professor McGonagall. Hermione was talking a mile a minute about all the subjects, the teachers and tips for each one. Jasmine was listening earnestly, Harry could tell that she was nervous and he remembered how scared he had been on his first day.
"You'll be fine," he assured her, "we'll see you at lunch."
Jasmine looked around for Luna and spotted her eating alone at one end of the Ravenclaw table. She got up and brought her toast with her to sit down opposite Luna.
"Morning Luna."
Luna looked up and smiled brightly to see her friend there, she hadn't had much luck befriending the other girls in Ravenclaw.
"Did you see that we have Potions together this morning?" Jasmine asked, she was so happy that she had a lot of her classes with Luna.
They asked a passing prefect for directions to the potions classroom and managed to find it without getting lost. Jasmine had been worried that Luna might treat her differently now that she had found out about Harry being her cousin but Luna hadn't even mentioned it beyond pointing out that Harry had an infinity for attracting Two-Tailed Bog Spirits. Jasmine had grinned and agreed. She hadn't told anyone but she was worried about Potions, what if Snape was out to make her life hell because she was related to Harry.
Her fears were quickly assuaged as he ignored her completely. The first class was an introduction to the subject, the classroom rules: which were basically "Do as I say, or suffer detention", and basic potion ingredients. She left the lesson feeling dazed and with a pile of homework. Luna's face was also blank and it took her several attempts to fit her books and supplies into her book bag.
"That was intense," she said as they walked out and Jasmine could only nod in agreement.
Their next class after morning break was Herbology and Jasmine couldn't wait to spend some time outside.
They weren't actually outside but in Greenhouse 1 and Professor Sprout showed them around, then they were allowed to repot Fluxweed plants. They also learned that Fluxweed had many uses in Potions.
The lesson flew by and Professor Sprout didn't give them any homework on the first day. The two girls had break together, Jasmine had looked for Ginny to ask her to join them but she had disappeared.
After lunch Jasmine was on her way to Charms, this time Gryffindor would be sharing the class with Hufflepuff.
Charms was uneventful but Jasmine loved it from the very first second. There was something so playful and fun about it and Professor Flitwick was so nice.
In Transfiguration they were meant to change a match into a needle which was easier said than done. Nobody managed to do it, some managed to turn it silver and others managed that it had a light glint of silver, Jasmine was among those. They were meant to practise the spell for homework and Professor McGonagall said she wanted to see progress.
Then the first day was already over and Jasmine met with Harry for dinner in the Great Hall. Her mind was swimming from all the new information and she told Harry, Ron and Hermione all about her day. Hermione was listening with rapt attention, she loved talking about lessons and she rarely got to with Harry and Ron because they didn't share that passion.
Once dinner was eaten Luna and Jasmine met up in the Entrance Hall because they wanted to go to the library to get started on their homework. Ginny had disappeared again.
"Can I get your picture too?"
Jasmine spun around and was blinded by a flash. One of the boys in her class had just taken a picture of her.
"Ehm, what?" she asked.
"I'm Colin Creevey, I'm a first year Gryffindor too," Colin introduced himself helpfully.
"I know who you are, why do you want picture?" Jasmine was still confused. Colin beamed when she had said she knew who he was.
"You're Harry Potter's cousin aren't you? I know all about Harry and I want to send moving photographs home to my family. My dad's a milkman, you know?"
Jasmine had listened with a bemused smile and now she looked up in relief when Luna appeared.
"My dad sells drills," she said for lack of anything else to say.
Colin nodded enthusiastically, gave her a thumbs up and scurried off.
On their way to the library the girls stopped to chat with several paintings because duh moving paintings. The paintings were rather flattered by their attention as mostly students became immune to them and went about their daily lives.
They also got lost on the moving staircases, coming across a dreadful grumpy friar painting several times who ignored their delighted giggles. After almost an hour of wandering around they caught their first glimpse of Mrs. Norris who eyed them distrustfully. She ignored their, "here kitty kitty," and just walked away.
"She's probably just really misunderstood by everyone here," Luna said sagely and Jasmine couldn't help but agree.
"Maybe we should get cat treats and befriend her?" she suggested and Luna nodded eagerly.
"I'll write to my friend Sarah to send us some," Jasmine said.
"And I'll ask dad to send me some. We have some at home for the strays we feed."
By the time they reached the library they only had an hour left before they had to return to their common rooms before curfew. However in that hour of practise, Jasmine had managed to make her match silver and slightly thinner.
Her plan to write to Sarah was delayed when she ran into Neville in the common room. He was sitting alone at one of the tables with his books spread around him.
"Hi Neville, do you mind if I sit here?" Jasmine gestured at one of the empty spots and Neville immediately pushed some of his books aside and gave her a watery smile.
"Are you alright?" Jasmine asked worried. It was only the first day and he looked so defeated.
Neville then told her all about the incident with the pixies and Jasmine listened intently. She managed to cheer him up by telling him how she had gotten her leg stuck in a staircase on the way to the library and it had taken Luna and a passing fifth year to pull her out.
"I know which one you mean, I got my leg stuck in it at least once a week for the first term," he said knowingly.
"If you like I can show you the quickest and safest routes to the common areas, Luna can come too," he offered and Jasmine was quick to accept. Then he turned back to his homework with a sigh and Jasmine went up to her dorm to retrieve her Muggle writing supplies because Sarah would die laughing if she sent her parchment or if she could see Jasmine writing with a quill.
Dear Sarah,
How are you? I'm good but I miss you so much. It's so weird being so far away from home. I'm sitting in the common room and have survived my first day. The lessons are all really difficult and I know I'll have to work hard to keep up. Most of the teachers so far have been really nice though, so there's that. How was the first day of secondary school? What are the teachers like? Have you made any new friends? I actually met a really nice girl on the train on the way to school. Her name is Luna and she's so funny and she loves animal just as much as I do. She even said she wants to try some ballet so this weekend I'm going to try to teach her some moves. Anyway, other than that I don't have much news. I actually have a huge favour to ask you: could you please send us some cat treats because the caretaker here owns a cat and Luna and I want to befriend it. You know how mum gets about animals.
Wish I could just call over and hang out with you.
Missing you loads.
Love Jaz xx
Then while she still had the nerve she started another letter.
Dear Mum, Dad and Dudley,
How are you all doing? I hope that you are well. I arrived yesterday and had my first day of lessons today. Everything is going well so far. I'm missing you all very much.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Love Jasmine xx
She put both of them into envelopes and addressed them before slipping them into her book bag. With a sigh she took out her potions homework and started on the homework Snape had given them. It wasn't so bad. They had to write out the first fifteen of the most common ingredients with their properties from the list he had given them and learn them off by heart. They were also supposed to learn the ingredients and methods for a the potion they would be brewing on Friday; a cure for boils. She genuinely enjoyed studying and learning new things therefore it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Once she was done with Potions she felt utterly exhausted and with a glance at the clock she realised it was already half-past ten and the common room had emptied considerably.
"I'm going to bed," she said to Neville who was still hunched over his books, "good night."
"Good night," he replied and this time his smile was more genuine. She yawned and looked around for Harry. She spotted him sitting by the fire with Ron and Hermione, she caught his eye and gave him a quick wave and put her hand up to her ear, tilting her head. He grinned and gave her a thumbs up. For the second evening in a row Jasmine got ready in the dark among her sleeping classmates and fell into bed.
"Hermione, how do you send letters to your parents? Do you use an owl or is there a way for letters to be sent to the Muggle world?" Jasmine asked the next morning, as she buttered a slice of toast.
"I send them by owl but there is Muggle postage system," Hermione explained, "it's actually quite simple. Just put their address on the envelope and then put it in the post box by the Owlery and it will get sorted and delivered to whoever it is.
"That's wicked." Jasmine was very relieved. She knew her parents would have a heart attack if an owl arrived at breakfast. "What about if my Muggle friend wants to reply to me, can she send it by regular post?"
"Yeah, there's a generic postal code that gets scanned by the post and it gets automatically delivered to Hogwarts," Lee Jordan chimed in, "that's how Alicia does it!" He added at their questioning looks.
"Well that makes everything very easy," Jasmine said satisfied. She pulled out her letter to Sarah and added in the return address and then excused herself from the table. She and Luna had decided to leave for their classes as early as possible so that they could get lost on the way and still get there on time.
The first class that morning was Defence Against the Dark Arts and after hearing Neville's story yesterday evening and Harry and Ron's scathing account at lunch she didn't have high hopes.
