-RISEN-

Disclaimer - Harry Potter and all subsidiary characters and stories belong to the copyright holders... one of which, sadly, I am not... this is all just for fun.

The First Week of Classes

Lia woke to an unusual grunting moan coming from the couches in the middle of the room. Turning over she was caught… mesmerized… by Nymora's sweat glistening pendulums bouncing as Karli moaned beneath her. She must have squeaked, or something, because Nymora looked up at her and said, "Morning, luv. Want to join?"

Lia was utterly confused, simply shaking her head 'no.' Sure she'd read the book… sure she'd heard the two of them the night before… sure she knew all the reasons for it… but… that… she couldn't think of doing that.

"If you plan… to keep… your gifts a… a secret, you should…oh Merlin, Tonks… should prepare… for when Tonks isn't… isn't going to… be here!"

Lia slipped out of her sleeping alcove and realized she'd fallen asleep in just her panties. She must have been really tired last night, she usually had a long-shirt on at night. Shrugging, she started gathering her things to go take a shower, 'not like we can hide anything from each other anyway.'

Nymora stood up, leaving Karli apparently passed out in a boneless heap, and Lia saw something she hadn't expected, "I thought you didn't like the boy bits."

"I don't really… oh… this," she said pointing to herself, "risk-free penetration. It's a variant of something I read about in one of mother's medical texts, 'Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia' or some such." She lifted it up, displaying herself to Lia, "see… pillar but no stones… the dangly boy bits aren't there. This is just hyper-engorgement and a bit of flesh molding. Took a bit to figure out, but I can teach you how to do this too if you like."

"Um… maybe later," Lia muttered as she fled to the washroom.

-RISEN-

Water poured over Lia's neck and back as she absentmindedly fingered the scar over her heart, one of the four scars she couldn't get rid of, letting her left hand slowly rub over her body to wash away the sweat and oil she'd accumulated since her previous shower. She could somewhat understand why she couldn't get rid of this scar, and the corresponding one on her back, that had been made by the steel spike her 'Uncle' had driven through her chest; the odd, lightning bolt shaped one on her forehead refused to go away, but at least she could move that one a bit to hide it in her hairline better, supposedly acquired the night her parents died; but the odd scar on her right hip, sort of shaped like a curvy number seven with a jag in the middle of the downward leg, she had no clue about.

"It's really much more fun if someone else does that for you, you know?"

Lia jumped and turned to see Karli stepping into the shared shower space, suddenly realizing she the de-aged girl meant as her left hand came out from between her legs, "What? I… uh… I wasn't… uh…"

"Don't worry about it," the honeysuckle blonde witch said, waiving off any reply, "I'm sure you'll accept soon enough. No need to push yourself into anything."

Lia hurriedly finished her shower and left to get ready for the first day of classes.

-RISEN-

Lia escaped from the room before Karli finished her shower, and there was no sign of Nymora. Carefully retracing her steps through the house commons and out along the path past the storage rooms and kitchens, she trudged up to the first floor and made her way to the, thankfully nearly deserted, Great Hall for breakfast. Nymora popped up about ten minutes later.

"Wotcher Lia. I see you made it up here alright; though you were supposed to stay in the Den until you got your schedule and a tour from the prefects."

"A tour?"

"Yep! We seventh year prefects handle Mondays and Fridays, Wednesday is done by the fifth years, Thursday is sixth year prefects leaving out of the Den around eight am the first day, with a half hour layover in here for anyone that doesn't enjoy the breakfast stuffs the elves deliver to our house commons in the morning. Tuesdays are a bit different, but you don't need to worry about that. Here's your schedule by the way."

Picking up the parchment the Pink haired prefect laid beside her plate, Lia read:

Monday – Charms 10:00am (HS Flitwick); Transfiguration 1:00pm (HS McGonagall); History 2:30pm (HS Binns)

Tuesday – DADA x2 8:30am (HS Quirrell); Herbology x2 2:30pm (HS Sprout)

Wednesday – Magical Theory 10:00am (HS Flitwick); Astronomy 12:00am (HR Sinistra)

Thursday – Charms 10:00am (HS Flitwick); Transfiguration 1:00pm (HS McGonagall); Flying 4:00pm (HR Hooch)

Friday – Potions x2 1:00pm (HR Snape); Magical Hygiene and You 4:00pm (HS Snape/Sprout)

"Nothing before ten except DADA on Tuesdays… and… no classes with the Gryffindors?"

"Eh…" Nymora shrugged, "probably just works out better that way. If I recall right, I almost never saw a Slytherin in class fourth year… wouldn't have had Jamerson not been in Muggle Studies with me… requirement for the Auror Program, you know?"

"Oh… that's interesting. Um… how do you know what you should take though?"

"That's easy. Other than the career guides in the commons… in the blue zone… Professor Sprout gives an awesome lecture towards the end of second year that goes over it pretty well, and also does several sessions of career counseling each year to help guide us where we need to be; and you can always ask questions of the older students and professors."

"Good to know. Hey… where did you disappear off to this morning?"

"Missing me already and change your mind about joining Karli and me in a bit of morning playtime?"

"What? No!"

"Just joking. Prefect meeting… first and last day of every year and every Monday first thing. You know… setting up our own schedules for various in-house duties, night patrols of the castle, distributing the class schedules throughout the house, that kind of thing."

"I would have thought a house-elf would put out the schedules…"

"You'd think that, wouldn't you? Nope. I think the headmaster just wants to try forcing everyone into the Great Hall for breakfast on the first day; see Professor McGonagall over there passing out the Gryff's schedules?" Lia nodded, "I like Professor Sprout's way much better… even if it has meant a little extra work for me once a year. Unlike what I hear from the other houses, she gives a reason for the position to actually exist."

"What's your schedule like today?"

"Me? I don't have anything until 2:30… Arithmancy… then nothing until tomorrow."

"One class all day?"

"Yep! Would have had two, but I didn't take Divination."

"But isn't that…?"

"Nah… you'll find you need all that extra time for research and homework. I think they've scheduled things to be challenging on some days to give us a taste of what life beyond these halls will be like; but that's just a guess. Come on, let's head back to the Den and I'll show you what's available to the Cete. We've still got nearly two hours to kill before the tour."

"That should be fun."

-RISEN-

Four hours later and three floors up, Lia and Karli joined the twelve other Hufflepuff and Slytherin students in the Charms classroom for their fist class. Agitated from her Ochlophobia, the pair of non-standard girls chose to sit in the last row with a pair of girls from Slytherin who appeared to want to sit as far from their fellow housemates as possible. She knew Karli was doing something to her, but Lia could tell it was only blunting her fear, perhaps in an effort to help her own mind compensate and overcome this issue, but it wasn't enough to allow her to be assertive with the two new girls sitting at their desk.

"Greetings students," a squeaky voice called from behind a stack of books on the teacher's desk, which belonged to a very short man, with obvious goblin ancestry, working his way to stand upon. "Welcome to your first class at Hogwarts." Summoning the register from somewhere behind his desk, the little professor took roll quickly, barely pausing long enough for the students whose name he had just called to indicate their presence.

"Great! Let's begin." The little man said clapping his hands together sharply, "I'll cover this in much more detail in your Magical Theory class this Wednesday, but it's is important to understand the format of this class this year… who can tell me the three classes with required, practical wand work involved? Mr. Hopkins?"

The curly, copper haired boy in the first row looked startled to be called upon, "Um… Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration?"

"Correct! Two points to Hufflepuff. Now which of the three is most difficult to learn? Mr. Malfoy?"

The blond, slick-haired boy two rows up from Lia replied with a verbal sneer, "That is a trick question professor. Transfiguration takes the most power, while Defense requires the most practice."

"Precisely! Two points to Slytherin," the professor returned, completely disregarding the boy's attitude. "Each year you take these three classes, you will have one session of theory and one of practicum. For the first year, you will have no more than two of these sessions in a day and for second year, no more than three. This is to ensure that we are not overtaxing your undeveloped Magical Cores too much, while still imparting the necessary information and usage to help your magic grow to its best potential. For this reason, first year Charms and first and second year Transfiguration have been split onto two days each week, while all other classes are held only once weekly. Questions? No? Shame… Potions and Herbology, the classes taught by the heads of your two houses, also fall into the same pattern of theory and practicum, but as they are much less taxing on your magic, they are always taught in single sessions. Now then, let us begin learning the enlightening charm, Lumos!"

They didn't pull out their wands during that first session, but Lia did find the information interesting as little Professor Flitwick described the flows of magic and used much easier to understand terminology than the book had, practically bringing the material to life right before their eyes.

-RISEN-

Lunch was a chaotic affair, and even with Karli's 'help,' Lia was left trembling in fear by the time the first year Hufflepuffs made it to McGonagall's classroom on the first floor of the South Tower for Transfiguration. Desperately trying to focus on only the desk in front of her, Lia managed to pull out a bound sheaf of parchment for notes and titled the second 'page' as "23 Elul, 5751 Transfiguration Y1S1 Monroe, Lia" while taking deep, shaky breaths; of course only those that could read Aramaic would have been able to understand the odd, blocky squiggles she'd written, but that wasn't her problem.

Professor McGonagall's sudden transformation from a small grey cat with dark, squarish circles around her pale blue eyes, into her normal stern-faced self striding towards the door really didn't help calm Lia down any; quite the opposite in fact. Luckily, Karli had the notes already so Lia could catch up whatever she missed due to the fear induced fog clouding her thoughts.

By the end of class, she had managed to make her matchstick look like a shiny, wooden needle, but had had no luck in getting it to turn silver.

The third, and final, class for her on Mondays was her first session of History with the ghostly Professor Binns. Nymora had told all of the first year 'Puffs that morning to not bother taking notes as all of Binn's lectures had been transcribed word-for-word and were available in the blue-zone of the Den, cross referenced with all the corrections and updated information that almost no one ever finds. Lia and Karli spent most of that class period with Susan Bones, who was much calmer when focused on work, and Hannah Abbot, Susan's 'best friend since birth' as she put it, doing homework for Charms and Transfiguration. Ernie McMillian had at first looked shocked that they would dare not pay attention to a professor, but like most of the class, had fallen into a glazed stupor within the first fifteen minutes and was drooling on his desk well before the halfway point in the hour and a half long lecture time.

Immediately upon their return to their room in the Hufflepuff Den, Karli shucked her uniform and started rubbing herself vigorously. Lia wasn't sure what she should do, physically she had no need to do that, but if she was to blend in with her peers… she shook herself and began undressing slowly. Nymora showed up a couple of minutes later, dropping her Arithmancy book on the table and kneeling before Karli to help the de-aged witch satisfy her needs before turning to Lia and offering the same. The young Metamorph didn't know exactly what was being offered, but decided to take a chance and find out, shyly spreading her legs with a slight nod to the older changeling. What Nymora did to her with her tongue Lia would never forget, the sensations were almost painful but she thoroughly enjoyed it at the same time; this was something she would have to explore further.

Nymora had Red-Zone to lead after dinner and Foreign Magics club on Wednesdays, so Karli decided to set up their Unspeakable training sessions for Tuesday and Thursday evenings, not like they were interested in Ghoul Studies or Music anyway; though Lia did have some interest in the Magical Art class on Friday nights and so chose to attend its' corollary, Muggle Arts, class that evening to see if it would have any appeal for her.

After a somewhat less chaotic supper in the Great Hall, again aided by Karli's unseen spell-work, Lia made her way to the Art class on the Fifth floor. It's kind of hard to tell if you would like something when you are the only one to show up. Not even Professor Burbage, the Muggle Studies and Art instructor bothered to arrive for the club's scheduled meeting time. Lia thought it was a rather sad situation and didn't give her much hope for the Magical Art class on Friday; at least that one had the Runes teacher, Professor Babbling, leading it, so it still help some hope of promise. 'Maybe it's just a first night thing,' Lia thought, and decided she'd ask around some to find out. For tonight however, she gave up and joined Nymora's 'class' in the Red-Zone and started learning a few of the more advanced spells that her fellow Cete-mates were working on.

-RISEN-

Tuesday morning started much the same as Monday had, only this time Karli was leaning back, the small swells on her chest heaving for breath, and all Lia could see of Nymora was her hands and the large bush of spiky pink hair shaking between Karli's legs.

"Surely you don't need to do that this often…" Lia asked halfheartedly.

Karli looked over at her with bliss glazing her eyes, "need to… no… but want to… oh yeah!"

Lia shook her head and headed into the lavatory to get ready for the day.

-RISEN-

At half past eight, the newest members of the Cete tromped into the temporary Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom on the second floor of the North Tower, as the regular classroom was located in the currently forbidden third floor corridor, and were greeted with an overwhelming stench of garlic.

"C-c-c-come in s-s-stu-d-d-dents. P-p-p-please t-t-t-take y-your s-s-s-seats," the pasty-faced professor wearing a very large purple turban said with great difficulty while waving them inside the dimly lit room. Lia supposed it was a good thing this was a double length class as it took the man over half an hour to call roll. Luckily for her, he had written the name and page number of the stinging jinx, Uro, on the board before class, so she could read ahead while waiting for the speech impaired man to catch up.

After another hectic lunch, and a free period in order to calm back down, Karli lead Lia to Greenhouse One where their new Head of House, Professor Sprout, greeted them warmly. Lia was somewhat confused however, when the professor began teaching them how to use the fire making charm, Incendio, to deal with some of the various plants throughout the greenhouses. What puzzled her was that Herbology was supposed to be a non-casting class, so why were they learning spells here? Not that she was complaining.

Like most students, Lia found the Incendio spell was much more fun than the Stinging jinx Q-Q-Q-Quirrell had taught them, though would probably be better classed as a curse and likely much more useful. That evening however, after another round of play between the three girls in which Lia tentatively reciprocated Nymora's attention to her, Karli proved the irritating spell had other uses and would prove to be the better of the two spells for training by setting up a dozen small targets around their room to use for target practice. Lia took Karli's comment of 'If you can't hit the target, what use is fighting?' to heart and really focused on improving her aim. Karli and Nymora both took time during the sessions to work on Occlumency with Lia to further enhance what she'd been taught during her year long day the previous summer.

Wednesday and Thursday passed very quietly, with Professor Sinistra's Astronomy class at midnight in-between. Friday afternoon however brought with it their last two new classes for the week and the surliest man in the castle into their lives, Professor Snape.

There were two dozen work stations in the chilly dungeon chamber the Potions lessons were taught in, half clearly marked as for advanced studies of some kind, so the first year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs moved to the remaining stations, carefully avoiding one that held a half-melted cauldron and a thick greyish-green mess that was likely the results of a failed potion from that morning's class. It shouldn't have surprised her, but it was still interesting to observe, the ten wizards and twelve witches file into the two-person desks separating themselves by house and gender, with only Morag MacDougal and Megan Jones mixing the houses together. Lia had turned to ask Karli where Professor Snape was when the door slammed shut and a man with a large hooked nose came striding through the class with his robes billowing behind him as if a great wind was blowing just on him; yet it didn't affect his lank, greasy, black hair at all. He must have been hiding behind the open door to pull off his dramatic entrance, because Lia knew, from her slightly turned stance when it occurred, the man had not come through the doorway.

Sure, it was kind of cheating to have Karli helping her, since the de-aged witch had taken the classes at least once before, and she had some of Nymora's memories stored away in her head as well, but knowledge was knowledge and Lia didn't care where it came from for the most part, nor what others thought of her having and using it. She winced at some of the random OWL and NEWT level questions the man popped off to various students while taking role, knowing it was just an excuse to remove house points for no reason at all; she even lost five house points for answering his question correctly, while he muttered something about 'bloody insufferable know-it-alls.' Though overly strict about some things, at least his grading of potions appeared fair between her house and the Ravenclaws; which was a minor relief after hearing some of the stories about his Gryffindor classes. The worst thing that happened was the ten-point loss to Ravenclaw when Stephen Cornfoot asked Professor Snape to explain the difference between cutting and slicing as the instructions were clear to use one technique but not the other while brewing their boil-cure potions.

At a quarter to four, all the Ravenclaws and the female Hufflepuffs were released from the chilly dungeon, but Lia felt somewhat bad for the four boys who had to stay behind as Professor Snape also taught their section of the Magical Hygiene and You class that rounded out their classes for the week. The girls however were joined by the girls from Slytherin in classroom 102 of the South Tower for their side of the class with Professor Sprout.

"Good afternoon ladies," Professor Sprout addressed them as she entered the room for the small office behind the teacher's desk, "Hmm, I see ten where there ought to be thirteen… where are Miss Bulstrode, Miss Parkinson, and Miss Runcorn?"

"Millie wasn't feeling well, so she went to the Infirmary," Isobel MacDougal replied, "I don't know about Pansy or Mara though."

"Very well. Five points from Slytherin each for Miss Parkinson and Miss Runcorn, and a Detention for each of them as well if they are not here in the next ten minutes. This class is very important for you ladies, perhaps the most important of all of any taught here at Hogwarts; but the information shared here can never be shared with any wizards. I'll pass around a parchment and I ask that you each sign your willingness to protect what you learn in this class, as wizards would either not understand or seek to abuse what we will talk about here."

As the parchment slowly made its' way around the room, Lia noticed Susan Bones hesitate before signing and Daphne Greengrass giving it the evil eye from the seat on the other side of Karli, no one else seemed to have any issue with it. When it reached the last table with Lia, Karli, Daphne and Daphne's friend Tracey Davis, Karli quickly cast a couple of detection charms on it while Daphne did the same.

"A magical contract?" The icy blue-eyed Slytherin asked in a whisper.

"Yeah, looks like it just prevents anyone signing from speaking about the protected information when prohibited persons are around… but that part's a bit vague," Karli returned, just loud enough for the other three girls at her desk to hear. Having already signed one of these contracts before, she knew quite a bit about it already but had to keep up appearances, "It looks safe enough."

"Problem ladies?" Professor Sprout asked, having noticed that they hadn't signed yet.

"No, Professor. We were just looking over a few of the particulars of this," she deliberately didn't call it a contract as she put quill to parchment and signed it, passing it to Lia and then Daphne who both followed suit.

Once Tracey had signed, and the proscribed ten minutes had passed for Pansy and Mara to arrive, Professor Sprout waved her wand and locked the door, before starting in on a vary interesting, though highly uncomfortable, lecture on Witches' health, menstruation, magical growth, and the need for release after magical exertion, including an overview of a few spells they would be learning to prevent undesirable gestation and a few techniques that could aid or enhance their releases.

Sophie Roper, a muggleborn, had several issues with the information presented, but had no counter argument other than it went against what she was raised to believe. This started a new debate discussing the pros and cons of some religious ideals verses the practicalities of magical traditions and practices and how 'doing it the muggle way' would be detrimental to a witch's magic.

About half way through the debate, Sally turned to Lia and said, "You're Jewish, what do they say about all of this?"

Lia didn't exactly want the classes attention focused on her, but knew she needed to correct a few things, "First, I'm Hebrew, not Jewish… that's like saying all Arabs are Muslims… stereotypical crap and completely wrong… therefore, I have no idea or desire to get into a religious debate between Judaism, Christianity, Catholicism, Paganism, or any other religious beliefs. Second, I prefer practicality… if it works and it helps, why not do it until you find something better. Only an idiot would hurt themselves over something like this. It's not saying you have to do anything with anyone, just release the built up magical tensions."

As the session came to a close, Professor Sprout assigned them to read the hidden section at the back of Growing Up Witch by Vance McGill and think up at least two questions for next week's discussion, reminding them that nothing regarding this class could be written down where a wizard might be able to find it.