The next day, we had Defense first, so we'd able to find out if Lupin was a good teacher right away. While I was in the middle of eating, Brenda came over to sit beside me. I was surprised. I figured she'd with her friends but I didn't mind as long as it wouldn't be an everyday thing. I was curious about her sorting after all.
"Feel better from yesterday?" I asked her and she nodded.
"I'm so excited for my classes," she said. "Once we got inside, I felt better. We have Potion's first today. I dunno if I'll like it cause of all the stories you had about Snape."
"Just don't mouth him off and you'll be fine," Philip told her.
"I'd never do that to a teacher!" Brenda said looking scandalized. "You have to respect teachers no matter what!"
Darren snorted while some of the other second years started to laugh. Brenda sent them a glare but she didn't say anything.
"So what happened with your sorting?" I asked her. "It took a long time."
"Well it couldn't decide where to put me," she answered. "I told it Ravenclaw and it said it saw a lot of Ravenclaw in me, but it also said I'd do well in Hufflepuff and I said absolutely not and then it actually brought up Slytherin and I told it I'd take Hufflepuff over Slytherin, but I didn't want either of those houses so it actually brought up Gryffindor!" And she looked annoyed by this. "And I told it, well Hoofers belong in Ravenclaw and I wouldn't be happy anywhere else! I told it could see that in my head and so in the end, it decided Ravenclaw! I can't believe it did that to me! It's just a dumb hat anyway! It tried all four houses!"
"Oh poor you," Gretchen said with a smirk. "It saw all four houses in you! What a tragedy!"
"It should have only saw Ravenclaw in me! Why does everyone act like I shouldn't be upset by this!?"
"Because you shouldn't be," I said noticing the annoying attitude had returned. For once I agreed with Gretchen. "Do you know how rare it is for the hat to see all four houses in you? It doesn't happen often. Most of the time it just sees one for two, it's odd when it it sees three? But all four? You could be in all four houses and you'd be fine! You got to be where you want to be, so I don't know why you're complaining."
"You don't get it," Brenda said annoyed. "None of you do!"
She picked her plate up, and walked over to where the first years were sitting. Some looked annoyed with her, but they all greeted her anyway. Only her friend from the shop looked happy to see her.
"Looks like old Brenda is back," Nick said. "Guess that didn't last long."
"She's always like that?" Samaira asked me.
"She has her moments," I said not wanting to insult her in front of them. I could complain about her to Tasha and Nick, but I didn't want to bad mouth her in front of the others.
I wanted to think that her attitude was down to nervousness. I didn't say anything else until we were done, and then I turned to Tasha and Nick.
"We should get going," I said. "See what this Lupin bloke is all about."
So the three of us stood up and headed to the Defense Against the Dark Arts class. On the way, we talked about him. I wasn't the only one to have noticed his shabby robes. When he entered the classroom, it was to find him sitting behind his desk already. He smiled when we took a seat close to the front and then greeted us.
Once the rest of the class joined us, he stood up and smiled.
"I've heard you lot have some catching up to do," he said still smiling. "So this term, we will be learning some basic hexes and jinxes and some dark creatures as well. I will try to catch you up to your level and then after Christmas, we should be up to second year level. So take out your quills to write down these basic hexes and then we will practice them," he told us.
He pointed his wand at the black board and some hexes appeared on it. A few were like the boil curse, ones we knew from word of mouth and others I'd seen in my book. One was even the shield charm.
I was impressed already and looking around, I noticed my classmates were as well. Once we'd copied them down, he moved all the desks back with a wave of his wand.
"Please only use the hexes I teach you," he told us. "If you know of some that we should learn, let me know and we can practice them. Now, I have an antidote here for the boil hex. First, we are going to learn the shield charm and we'll move from there."
"Will we be learning to duel sir?" Kevin asked excitedly.
"I'll teach you basic duelling," he told him. "Remember these are to only be used in Defense. Today, we will work on the shield charm, the disarming charm and the boil curse. Please do not use anything else besides that. Now break off into pairs."
It was a fun lesson in Defense for once. Not one person disobeyed and used any other curse we weren't supposed to use. Well spent at least ten minutes on each spell. Most people could do the boil hex, but a lot of people had a hard time with the shield charm and the disarming one. Some could from the practice last year with Lockhart, but others hadn't bothered after that first lesson.
By the end of the lesson I could do all three. Our homework was to describe each and to practice the shield and disarming charms.
"Please do not use the boil hex unless you're in my classroom as I have the antidote here," he told us. "I know that seems contradictory to tell you this as we learned it today, but it's not meant to be abused. It's meant to be used in Defense and that's it."
Most people could do that one anyway, but I figured some people wouldn't care about that. They'd use it anyway, and try to blame it on homework or something. I hoped it wouldn't get Lockhart in trouble. I said this to Nick and Tasha on our way to the next class.
"But you could say that about anything we learn," Nick replied. "Not all the potions we make are safe. Someone could slip something in someones drink. That wouldn't be Snape's fault. I could try to Tranfigure something of yours and it wouldn't be McGonagall's fault. It will be the student that gets blamed, not the teacher. He's supposed to be teaching us this stuff."
"That's true," I said. "I like him, so I don't want to see him get canned. We're actually learning for once."
"It was a good lesson," Tasha said. "I can't wait to learn more about dark creatures."
"Me too," I said. "Maybe he'll help us learn how to keep the Dementors away."
"That should be a requirement," Nick said. "I mean, there has to be a spell or something to do it. Do you think there is one in that book you bought?"
"Ah, so now you want to look at my book?" I asked amused. "I thought I was a nerd."
"Next think you know, he is going to want to read my Hogwarts, A History."
"That thing has ten thousand pages!" Nick retorted. "I'll need need the cliff notes. You can write them for me, Tasha."
"No, I don't think so," she said. "And it doesn't have ten thousand pages in it. You know it covers a thousand years."
"How are you going to read the whole thing?" He asked her.
"I will when I can," she said. "It's mainly for me to look things up so that I don't have to ask. You'd have been happy if I had it last year."
"If it has anything about how to pass all the classes without studying I'll be happy," he said.
"Good luck with that one," I said. "You'd have to retain information instantly. You'd have to be Hermione Granger."
"She's cute," he said. "Maybe I'll ask her for help."
"Go ahead but you can't talk to any girl besides me," Tasha said.
"Maybe it's time I learn then," he said with a wink. "And she could teach me enough to get me through second year."
Tasha just snorted and rolled her eyes. I would have liked to see him try and ask for homework help. He wouldn't do it though. He got nervous around girls who weren't in our house. I'd noticed lately that he was getting nervous around Samaira. A lot of the boys seemed a bit odd around the girls since my party, but just that morning when she'd accidentally touched him at breakfast he'd stuttered. I'd considered taking the mickey out of him, but I thought better of it. Lately, my mind had been wandering back to Olivia. I didn't want him bother me if it turned out I actually liked her.
As we got used to being second years, I noticed it wasn't all that different from the year before. The work was a little harder, but that was it. Some of the older students still picked on us though. Things were basically the same though. There was the exception with Brenda being at school too, but she kept her promise and stayed away from me. She hung out with her friend Kendra all the time. She didn't talk to the other first years. I noticed they didn't even sit with the others. It made me think she'd said something that angered them. At least she had one friend though.
That year, Snape to even be in a worse mood. Although, perhaps that had to do with what happened in Lupin's third year class. Apparently one of the Gryffindor boys was terrified of Snape to the point that he was his worst fear. Boggarts were creatures that turned into your worst fear. So when the Boggart confronted the boy, it turned into Snape. In order to get rid of one, you have to make it funny because laughter makes them go away. The boy made Boggart Snape wear some old lady clothes which included a purse. The story got around the school naturally.
So now in classes, he was absolutely horrible. It was very hard for me to not say anything to him. I hated letting someone walk all over me, but he was a teacher and I couldn't lose points. So I just stared back at him with defiance.
"Seems your sister is as much of a show off as you are," he said one day. "I suppose I'll have to deal with that with all the Hoofer's starting here."
I hated it when others said things about Brenda, even if she annoyed me.
"Watch what you say about my sister," I snapped.
"Let me guess, your entire family shows off, don't they?" He asked.
"Being smart doesn't make you a show off!" I retorted. "You wouldn't know that of course."
"Really? Well why don't we discuss it further in detention later? You can come back here and scrub all the tables!" He said to me and made to move off before turning back to me. "Oh and fifteen points from Ravenclaw."
"Barry," Tasha groaned.
"Well he should be allowed to bully a student!" I said furiously. "And I don't like when people say things about my sister! I don't care, I am talked to Flitwick. I am tired of him singling me out! He can't just provoke a student and then give the a detention. If it doesn't work with Flitwick then I'm going to Dumbledore. I'm not letting that man let me lose my chance for that badge!"
So later that day, I waited until the end of Charms to talk to Flitwick. I was still angry, and so I hadn't really joined in conversations with my friends that day.
"Professor Snape gave me detention for later today," I told Flitwick the moment I approached his desk.
"Yes, he sent me a note about it," Flitwick squeaked. "You'll have to do the detention Mr. Hoofer."
"But he provokes people!" I said. "He has always hated me and I've done nothing to him. He shouldn't be insulting my sister! I can usually ignore him but today he went too far. I'll do the detention, but I shouldn't lose my chance at that prefect badge because of him!"
"Detentions aren't the only things we take into consideration Mr. Hoofer," Flitwick said with a small smile. "We watch for many things over the years. It also depends on how you interact with your fellow students, the younger years, your grades and many other things. You do need to make sure you don't give teachers cheek, however, we teachers do know how some Professor Snape can be. I will talk to him if you'd like, but you do still have to serve the detention."
"He shouldn't get away with that!" I said. "All I did was make a good potion!"
For the rest of the day, I dreaded my detention with Snape. I had to go right after dinner. It was going to cut into my homework time. I figured he'd spend the entire time insulting me. However, when I got down there, he informed me I'd be scrubbing all the tables with no magic. He then ignored me while he sat at his desk. Perhaps he'd just been hoping to get me into detention since the day we met. Maybe this satisfied him enough.
Shortly after eight, he came over as I scrubbing the last desk.
"That is enough for tonight, Hoofer," he told me. "I hope from now on, you will think twice before giving me cheek."
"I will sir," I mutttered and then I turned on my heel quickly to leave.
When I left the dungeon room, it was to find Brenda waiting for me right by the door.
"What are you doing down here?" I asked her.
"What are you doing in detention?" She retorted. "Why would you mouth off a teacher!?"
"He insulted you!" I said.
"You should learn to control your temper! You should not be getting yourself in detention," she snapped. "He says things to me sometimes too, but guess what? I don't say a word!"
"Guess what? I went a year without saying a word," I said angrily. "You've been here a few weeks. Wait a bit longer. Who do you think you are lecturing me anyway? I'm the older brother here!"
"And you should be setting a better example for me!" She said.
"Oh shut up," I said. "Just mind your own damn business Brenda."
"Well don't complain when you're not prefect!" She said in a snide tone.
"It won't affect that," I said and I explained what Flitwick had told me.
"Well then you're lucky, but you'd better watch it. I bet you have a strike against you," she said.
"How did you even find out anyway?" I asked her.
"I saw Nick and Tasha without you. I wondered where you were and they told me. So I came straight down here," she told me.
"Yeah well, from now on skip the lectures. You're not mum and dad. I don't plan to get in detention again, but if I do, just stay out of it!" I said angrily.
She just shrugged. "Sorry for being concerned."
"You're not concerned," I told her.
We didn't say anything else as we walked up the steps that would take us to the Entrance Hall. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye. She had that infuriating look of satisfaction she usually wore after lecturing someone. So much for changing.
"I'll show you a shortcut," I told her once we were at the top of the steps from the Entrance Hall. "We found it last year on our first day."
"Is it allowed?" She asked with folded arms.
"Of course it's allowed," I said. "They expect you to use them. They just don't want you using the ones that get you out of the castle. I don't even know where those are anyway."
"Well don't bother trying to find them," she told me.
I gritted my teeth. She was going to drive me mad. It had been too much to ask that she'd leave me alone. She'd left me alone at first, but it hadn't lasted long.
"I notice you only hang out with Kendra," I finally said as I showed her the entrance way to the passage. "You don't talk to the other firsties."
"They're annoying and immature," she answered. "I don't want to talk to them. They're too sensitive too. They hate the truth. Besides, they play wizards tag!"
"So? We played it sometimes last year," I said.
"Then you're immature too, but I guess I can't expect more from you. You're almost thirteen Barry. Grow up."
"Oh shut up!" I said. "You know what? Find the rest of the way back!"
And I hurried up the steps and ignored her calls for me to come back. I didn't think it was possible, but she was worse. I regretted getting into detention for her. I was taller than her and faster, so she wasn't able to catch up and soon enough, I couldn't even hear her anymore. I didn't stop until I reached the door to get into Ravenclaw tower. She asked the question, and I gave the answer then hurried inside. I saw Tasha and Nick sitting by the small library, so I headed over to them.
"Brenda went looking for you," Tasha told me once I sat down.
"I know," I said still feeling bad-tempered and I told them everything.
"Yes, she started lecturing us about letting you," Nick said. "Told her we can't control you and she just glared at me. Then she walked off."
"I don't want to talk about it anymore. She just needs to stay away from me," I said. "Let's just do that Potion's assignment. Don't feel like getting in more trouble from Snape."
About five minutes later, Brenda stormed over to me angrily.
"Thanks for leaving me! Peeves found me and he throw ink at me!" She said angrily and she showed me her right arm which had ink on it. I just shrugged.
"Oh well," I said. "Just stay away from me at school."
"Gladly!" She said and then she stomped over to her only friend.
I noticed when she passed the group of first year girls, they all glared at her.
"Bitch," I muttered.
Normally when we swore, Tasha would scold us but for once she didn't. I think she realized I was too angry at the moment. She just glanced at Nick and then shrugged.
"So what was the main potion ingredient?" Nick asked.
I wasn't sure if Flitwick had actually talked to Snape, or if putting me in detention satisfied him enough, but after that day he kept quiet around me. He just peered into my cauldron in class, sneered and then moved on. I was relieved about this as I'd dreaded the next class after that detention. Apparently he was too busy bullying the boy, Neville Longbottom to care about anyone else anyway. I felt bad for the boy. Supposedly he was already a timid kid as it was.
Brenda also kept her distance from me. Though she did write home to complain about me. I only knew because mum and dad wrote me back. Snape hadn't told them about my detention. I didn't find out until a couple days later when I got a letter back. They told me to watch my temper around him and to just ignore Brenda, and they'd told her to just let me be as well. I wasn't all that surprised that she would write home and complain about me.
One Saturday morning, at the end of September, we went out to visit Hagrid. We hadn't yet that year but Nick was eager to get down there. We'd heard that his teaching wasn't going too well. Apparently a third year Slytherin boy had been attacked by a Hippogriff in his first class. Nick had wanted to go down right away, but we hadn't had the chance until that day.
"I just hate that those idiots in our house are happy about it," Nick muttered as we headed down to his hut. "It's like they want him to fail."
"I think that they want to be right," Tasha replied. "I do hope he is okay though. I'm just glad he wasn't fired."
"Looney Lovegood said he should have been," Nick said angrily. "And you claim she is nice!"
"She's only stating her opinion," I said.
"Well, it's wrong," Nick retorted.
Once we reached his hut, Nick knocked on the door. There was no point in arguing with Nick. Of course we had no idea what had happened and I didn't want Hagrid fired, but if he wasn't a good teacher, he might have been better off as just the Gameskeeper. I wasn't going to say this though. It took a few moments before Hagrid answered the door. He smiled down at us, but I thought it looked fake.
"All righ' yeh three?" He asked. "Come on in. Was wonderin' when I'd see you."
"We've had a bigger homework load this year," Tasha explained. "How are things?"
Hagrid looked as if he were ready to tear up. He walked over to his table and sat down. We followed him in and shut the door behind us.
"Are you drinking?" Tasha asked as she sat beside him.
"What happened with the Hippogriff?" Nick demanded. "We heard what happened. You're not going to be sacked are you?"
"Nah, Dumbledore spoke up fer me," he answered with a sigh.
"Well that's good then," I said as I sat down. "So why do you seem down?"
Hagrid just gave a small shrug and then asked how second year was going instead. He didn't seem as if he wanted to talk about it, but I wanted to know how exactly the student was attacked. Hippogriffs usually didn't attack unless they felt threatened or in someone insulted them. I waited to bring this up after we'd each told him about our classes and everything. He asked me about Brenda who hadn't gone to visit him yet. I didn't expect her to though. She looked down on him, but I wasn't going to tell him that. I just told him she was really busy adjusting.
"So how did that kid get attacked?" I finally asked. "They don't attack unless they feel threatened or if you insult them."
"The Malfoy boy insulted him," Hagrid answered.
"Well that explains it then," Tasha said. "The more I hear about him, the more I dislike him. It wasn't your fault at all then Hagrid."
"Lucius Malfoy isn't please," Hagrid said. "He's fightin' it and I 'spect him to win. He's got money after all. He'd been talkin' to the school governors."
"He's trying to get your fired?" Nick asked indignantly.
Hagrid nodded.
"But Malfoy insulted it," I said. "Even the school governors have to see that."
"Lucius Malfoy will bully 'em I 'spect. It's how Dumbledore got suspended yeh know," Hagrid answered.
"But he got fired," I said. "Dad told me. Surely they won't want to listen."
"When money's talkin' they'll listen," Hagrid replied. "But let's not talk about it no more."
I figured I'd write to my father later. Maybe he'd have some answers. I was hating the Malfoy family more and more however.
