October

Ashley

After I talked to Ben, I did as he said. I knew, even when I was ignoring him that he was right. I did wallow in self-pity a lot. It was something my sister told me constantly, but for some reason it hurt more when Ben said it. And somehow I knew that Michael and Ellen felt that way as well.

His advice did work, but I still didn't learn as quickly as I would have liked. When learning a new spell, either I didn't get it until after class when I was practicing or not until the next class. Ben started to read over my essays more then before, and showed me where I needed to improve. I hated rewriting them, but after he did this the first few times, my marks did move up. I probably would never be top of the year, but if I kept this up, my mother wouldn't be able to pull me out of school.

October came, and with it the last of the heat went. The days were now a lot colder and I wished Professor Flitwick would teach us a heating charm. Ben told me that his siblings told him that it would only get worse. Potions class would be hard to sit though during the winter. I had to wonder how the Slytherin's lived down there then.

The class I wanted to improve the most in was Potion's. I wanted to be invited to the Slug Club as well. To be honest, I don't think it was going to happen. Not even with Ben's help. I wasn't just going to have to accept that I wouldn't be part of the club, and I was always going to be mediocre in that class.

At least my best class was Charm's though. While I struggled with the spells we learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration, I was getting better at that class.

When we weren't doing homework, whenever Hufflepuff had a Quidditch practice, we went to go watch. I'd only learned recently what it was. And it looked like an exciting game. The matches wouldn't start until November, so I was looking forward to that. Both Ben and Ellen really wanted to join the team, and I guess there would be two openings next year.

"I just wish we could practice now," Ellen complained. "I hate the first year rule."

"Next summer I'm going to ask Breanne to help me out," Ben said. "She would join the Ravenclaw team, but she just wants to be a Chaser and that spot is never open."

I guess the two Chasers on Hufflepuff's team were seventh years, so next year they would be gone.

"I don't know if I'd be good enough to play," Michael said. "Flying seems natural enough, but I don't know if I'd feel confident enough to take my hands off of the broom."

"Don't ever try out for Beater than," Ben warned him.

I did all right in Flying Lessons, but I didn't think I could play too well either. That, and people had to have their own brooms. I doubt the Hogwarts school fund would pay for that. All of my books were second hand. Not that I always wanted to use the fund every time. I was planning to find a job next summer.

Ben taught Michael and me how to play wizards chess. I'd never had any interest in learning chess before, that was until I watched Ellen and Ben play. Witches and Wizards had all the fun, and every time I learned something new, I was more grateful that I was one. The pieces moved around themselves, and fought each other.

The first time I played I wasn't very good at it, but that didn't matter. The game was a lot of fun anyway. The pieces talked as well, and they would be give a player tips. When I sent the wrong player once, they all started to yell at me.

"Well I guess we're going to lose now," one said sarcastically.

"Don't mind me, I could have been useful but now I am going to be slaughtered," the one I'd sent over said.

"Sorry," I said.

"Sorry isn't going to win you the game," he retorted.

Yes, wizarding games were definitely a lot more fun then muggle ones were.

As October went by, my confrontations with Denver didn't seem to lessen. He was determined to make my life miserable, even though I was starting to seriously wonder if he was putting up an act. In the beginning, I was sure that he had bothered all the Muggleborns but I caught him laughing with the Andrew twins, so I wasn't so sure anymore.

One Saturday morning, a couple of weeks into the October, he used a jinx that we'd just learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts on me. The body-bind. I was heading to the library to meet my friends, when suddenly I was stiff and lying on my face on the ground. And I couldn't do anything about it. Luckily he seemed to have a conscious, because he took it off me.

"Prat," I said as I got up.

"Should have blocked it," he said.

"It doesn't work when my back is turned," I said. "Now go away."

"Still scared of me?" He asked. "Oh please Professor Fraymen, don't make me work with Denver… he is going to hurt me."

"Okay, I have never said that," I said. "Mr. I act like I hate Muggleborns, but I really don't!"

I started to walk away from him, but he hurried over to me.

"What?" He hissed.

"The act is getting old. I think you're just pretending to hate Muggleborns. Maybe you're the one who is scared… which is funny. Matt, Howard and Edward aren't cowards, so why are you and Morgan?"

He didn't say anything at first. We walked together down the corridors; actually, I was waiting for him to hex me.

"What makes you say that?" He finally asked.

"I've seen you talking to Muggleborns. At first your little act was believable, but sometimes it seems forced. I'm not the one who noticed that part by the way. Ben was," I answered.

"Our parents would probably kill us if they knew," he said. "We were both surprised to be sorted there, and then the first two people we met were Don and Xavier. Once you start doing something, it's hard to stop. The Andrew twins were the first ones to figure us out," he said.

"Pretending is just as bad," I told him. "A lot of people are still upset by last year, and you're doing something that people fought against. Like your parents for instance."

"That's what the twins said too," he said.

What a coward. Don, Xavier and Maisie were idiots sure, but that was their opinion. Even though the war was over, there was going to be people who still had that opinion. Even if it a wrong opinion. But when you pretend to have that opinion and say things that would really bother people, it was worse. I understood a lot more about the war now, and I thought Denver was just as bad as those who killed people, because if he had to in a war, he would probably kill people as well.

"Coward," I said.

"At least I don't go around setting people on fire," he said angrily.

"It was an accident, and Professor Fraymen put it out right away," I said.

"But what if he hadn't? There are some things that magic can't fix. I could have been badly burnt, and there would have been nothing that a Healer could do," he snarled.

"So you're bothering me for being a Muggleborn because of that?" I asked.

"Yes, because people like you shouldn't be here. Not because of your blood, but because you are dangerous. You should just give up and leave Hogwarts now," he said.

And he turned and walked away. So much for being over it. I figured since he hadn't mentioned that he'd forgiven me, but apparently not.

I felt shaky as I went the rest of the way to the library. I could understand his hatred, but it still bothered me. Maybe it was because he was right. Maybe I didn't belong at Hogwarts. Sure I was improving in my school work, but not by a lot.

Ellen

My teachers were starting to get on my nerves.

"You seem like a smart girl, so you should apply yourself more," Professor Vector once said.

"Ellen, your marks would really be high in Herbology because you are a natural, but your essays are mediocre," Professor Sprout said.

Oh well. I don't care at all. As long as I pass the classes, and I can do the spells, then I don't care. I plan to drop Astronomy after fifth year anyway, so why should I even care. Classes like that one and History of Magic just seemed like a waste of my time. And why did it matter how well I wrote essays in my classes for the ones I could do magic in?

Ben offered to read through my essays like he did with Ashley, but he just didn't get it. I. Don't. Care. If I pass all seven of my classes and get into the second year, that's all I care about. I'm not going to whine and moan just because I didn't get a good mark on an essay that I wouldn't look twice at anyway. When I start my job… whatever it is when I leave Hogwarts, I doubt that they'll care that I only got fifty percent on a first year essay.

It will be OWLs and NEWTs they'll care about.

"You do realize there is a written part to those tests?" Ben asked me when I voiced my opinion. "Not just magic? You could be perfect in your entire spell performing, but fail the whole written part and then you would get a P."

"What is a P?" I asked.

"Poor," he said. "They don't mark in percents when we start fifth year. They mark it in letters. T is for Troll, D is for Dreadful, P is for Poor, A is for Acceptable, E is for-"

"Do you know how much you sound like a primary teacher right now? A is for Apple, B is for Ball…" I retorted.

"You need to take school more seriously," he said.

"They don't seriously mark you with a T do they?" Ashley asked.

"Yes, I saw both Barry and Brenda's OWL results. Not that they got Trolls, but it said on their results what each letter meant. Actually, they got all E's and O's. Well, I think Brenda got an A in History of Magic, but she dropped it anyway," Ben said.

What a way to tell a kid that they failed a class. Yeah, you're as stupid as a Troll, so you might as well give up in life now. Who were the people who wrote these tests? Maybe they had an odd sense of humor. I don't know how I'd feel if I got back my OWL results and I saw that I got a T in a class. I wonder how my parents would react.

They're easy-going as far as my marks are concerned, as long as I am passing and I understand what I'm doing, they don't care. They aren't like Ben's parents who would probably castrate him for failing a class. Not that I know much about them, but something about the whole Hoofer clan makes me think they want nothing but perfection. I'd only met one of his sisters, and that was Brenda. She was one of the most uptight people I've ever met. She's worse than Tara.

"Anyway, the written part of the tests will just be questions and answers," I said. "It won't be asking me to write a three foot long essay about Goblins Wars, which to be honest, that's something I can summarize in one paragraph."

"You can't write the effects that the Goblin wars had on the wizarding world in one paragraph," Ben said. "There were a lot of-"

"The Goblin wars sucked the end." I said.

"You're impossible," he muttered.

"I know," I answered.

At least he was starting to get it, after over a month of friendship. Maybe he would leave me alone about my homework now.

Hogwarts was starting to feel like home, even though I'd only been there for a month. I had three good friends; I got along with the majority of my fellow Hufflepuff's… although I didn't really talk to Anne, Erica and Jessica. Jessica and Erica were empty headed, and Anne hasn't done much to earn my respect since she hit Maisie. Melanie and Sarah were snobs. They were both twelve, so they thought because they were older; they should have authority over anyone who is younger.

Please. The only reason why Sarah is older is because her family had been in hiding the year before. She was supposed to be a second year. And we found out that Melanie's birthday was the sixth of September, so she was a day younger then Ashley. Not that Ashley tried to pull the same stuff as they did. But still, they were not anything special just because they were older. It really wasn't an accomplishment.

I missed Flying Lessons though. It was really the only opportunity that I got on a broomstick.

My mum wrote at least three times a week complaining I didn't write home enough. I wrote home every Sunday morning, what more did she want? Did she want me to write out a detail of each and every one of my days? She seemed to do that. In each of her letters, she would write about something cute that my little brother had done.

Sometimes I did miss him (strangely enough) but that didn't mean I wanted to know everything he did. If I was at home I would avoid that, so why would I want to read about it in a letter?

Ben

Professor Slughorn held meetings for his club at least once a week in October. I have to admit, some of the dinners he had were very good, but it was boring. Mainly he talked to the older students, and he let them drink. He wouldn't let anyone in the third year or younger have anything. So basically I was going to have to spend the next three years enduring the man sober. I only went because I heard that sometimes he had interesting guests in. So far he hadn't.

My friends were jealous, and they were trying hard (except Ellen) to do better in Potions so he could invite them to come. After a few classes, he'd invited Jared and Melanie, so I guess there was a chance they might be invited as well if they improved. Michael was the one who improved the most.

In the past I would say I thought Ashley had potential if she tried, and this is true in any class, but not Potion's. There were just some things that people were not good at.

If Slughorn did talk to me, it was to ask over and over again about why I wasn't in Ravenclaw. The last time he asked I told him to ask the sorting hat. He found that funny and slopped mead onto his protruding belly. By the way, I've never seen anyone as fat as that man. He made Professor Sprout who was probably twenty pounds overweight look skinny. And Ellen looked even smaller when she was near him. One of his arms probably weighed more then she did.

"You know, I have to agree with old Sluggy," Breanne said to me once when she joined me after a club meeting. "I think the hat isn't the same since it was set on fire."

"I would expect the house prejudices from Brenda, not you," I said.

Breanne and Brenda are complete opposites. Brenda is uptight and thinks everything should be perfect, while Breanne is very easy-going.

"Well, I do believe you have Hufflepuff in you," she told me. "You've got the hardworking and loyal traits… but you said it didn't think you belonged anywhere else. It's not only you though. We have this kid in our house in the first year, who is kind of an idiot, and doesn't seem like a Ravenclaw at all. He said that it didn't think he should be in any house but Ravenclaw… and then there is that girl you told me about in Slytherin, Claire? Well, maybe the hat decided to sort people in the wrong houses or maybe the burning messed it up so it was confused at times when it sorted people."

"It didn't even sit on my head for ten seconds," I said. "So it didn't check my personality to see if it should put me in another house. Professor Flitwick dropped it on my head and it said: The only place you belong is Hufflepuff!"

"Well, that's why I think it must be malfunctioning or something then… because that's what the Devon kid said it did to him," she said.

"That might explain it," I said. "I don't mind being in Hufflepuff, it just bothers me that it thought it was the only house I belonged in."

I decided to ask Claire if the hat had just decided that she belonged in Slytherin only, and didn't bother to see if she might belong somewhere else.

"Well, it almost put me in Gryffindor," she told me when I asked. "But my whole family has always been in Slytherin. My father is kind of upset that I don't really have the same views as him. I didn't want him to be even more disappointed in me. Since it thought I had some Slytherin in me, I asked to put me there."

"I don't see how anyone can think of you as a disappointment," I said without thinking about it.

Normally I didn't blurt things like that.

She shrugged.

"Well, Gryffindor to him anyway, is the anti-Slytherin, so he would have been upset if I'd gone there," she said.

I told her Breanne's theory about the sorting hat not functioning properly anymore.

"I doubt it," she said. "Actually, I'd say it's working better since it experienced the war first hand. There was almost no sorting at Hogwarts anymore after all."

I didn't understand what she meant by that, and she didn't explain. What an odd girl.

At the end of October, Professor Slughorn had his Halloween party, and I had to pick one friend to bring along, even though all three wanted to go. I didn't know which one I'd rather take with me. So I had them each write their names on a piece of parchment, and throw their pieces in my hat.

I rifled around and pulled out one.

Ellen.

"Yes!" She exclaimed.

I knew the other two were really upset about this.

"There will be the Christmas one," I reminded them. "Ellen's name won't go in that draw so one of you can come then… unless one of you is in his club by then."

Somehow I doubted it would be Ashley who got in the club.

I felt bad for her though. She'd found out the reason why Denver truly hated her, and he was bothering her without mercy now. I can understand that he was angry about the whole fire thing, but it was an accident. Maybe I had to be on the receiving end up it to really understand it. Anyway, he bothered her any chance he got, and unfortunately she was paired up with him in Defense still.

"I bet there will be guests there," Ellen said excitedly as we headed down to Slughorn's office. "Ooh! I bet Harry Potter will be there."

One thing I didn't mind about hanging around with two girls was the fact that neither one was too girly. Apparently Ellen couldn't hold back that night. She reminded me of Anne, Erica and Jess.

Harry Potter wasn't there. In a way I was grateful, but I also really wanted to meet him. There were other famous people there though. The Halloween party was better then the club meetings, I could see that as soon as we walked into the room. It was decorated in Halloween decorations. People were all standing around in groups, talking, laughing, and drinking.

As a tray went by with some butterbeers, I plucked two off and handed one to Ellen.

"Come meet my sisters and brother," I said.

"I've met one," Ellen told me.

"Barry and Breanne are nothing like Brenda," I informed her.

I walked through a group of people to where my brother and sisters were talking together with some of their friends.

"Hey Ben, and this must be one of your girlfriends," Breanne said.

My face reddened, and so did Ellen's.

"Yeah right," Barry said. "What are you doing, Ben? Baby-sitting?"

He was of course talking about Ellen's height. She really didn't look eleven. Maybe eight, that's how short she was.

"I've learned some good hexes in Defense now," Ellen snapped and pulled out her wand.

"Aw, is the ickle firstiekin going to hex meany Barry?" He asked and laughed.

I forgot how annoying he was.

"Leave it to my brother to hang around a bunch of girls," he said to his best friend Nick.

"Hey, he'll be happy about that soon. Give it a few years," Nick said. "Even if it isn't the girls he hangs out with, other girls will be impressed by it."

"No they won't," Barry said. "They will get jealous because he hangs around two girls all the time."

"Yeah but at first they'll be impressed that he is hanging around two girls all the time," Nick argued. "Later yes they'll probably pull the whole jealousy thing."

"You two are idiots," Brenda said.

"Don't listen to them," Breanne told us. "Neither one has a girlfriend… even though I know that Barry does want Tasha. He'll never get the guts to ask her out though."

Tasha, short for Natasha, is Barry's other best friend. The past year though he has started to like her. It's kind of scary to think about that because honestly I can't picture myself with either Ashley or Ellen. I would never say it to her face, but Ashley wasn't exactly pretty. And Ellen, she was cute but… no. Actually there weren't any girls I'd seen in my year I liked yet. I haven't been looking though.

"Shut up," Barry said.

"Well it's true," Nick said and laughed. "He was going to invite her to this actually, but then he invited me," and then he threw an arm around Barry. "Aw, I appreciate it… but I just don't see you that way."

"Sod off," Barry said and pushed him away.

"Well, these are my siblings," I said to Ellen. "Let's go find Jared and Stan."

"Please," Ellen said.

Michael

I put a lot of my effort into dueling better in October. I was getting a lot better at it, but I think Matt practiced a lot, because he was the best in the class. Howard didn't seem to care, because both of us could take him out with no problem. After we were taught the shield charm, we were taught a few hexes. There was one where it made your whole body stiff, another was a tickling charm and the one we were working on now was the leg locker curse. It was almost like the body-bind, but it just affected your legs.

We had to know how to do those three hexes, but we also had to be able to perform the shield charm to block them. One class, Professor Fraymen decided to use Matt and me as an example.

"These two are starting to actually duel," he told the class. "Most of you are just practicing one spell at a time, but they are using everything I've taught them."

The class stopped practicing to watch us. Matt was quick, but I managed to keep up with him until he put the leg-locker curse on me.

"A total of one minute," Professor Fraymen told everyone. "Very impressive, considering that they weren't dodging curses at all. That is something I am going to be teaching you next year. By your seventh year, all of you should be able to duel with a minimum of at least five minutes. At the final battle last year, where people were fighting for their lives, some of them were dueling the same opponent for ten minutes or more. And some of them didn't have any lessons at all, and they were students from this school up against skilled Death Eaters."

"Some of them were part of the DA," Hank said. "In the DA they practiced that kind of stuff."

"True," Professor Fraymen said. "I'm very impressed with a lot of them. They taught themselves what I am teaching you now. I have a few of them in my classes. Actually, in December I'm going to ask some of them to demonstrate for you so you can see the level you'll eventually reach."

I was looking forward to that.

He had Ashley and Denver go up next in front of the class. The two of them hated each other, so they were actually dueling and I was surprised to see how fast their wands whipped around when neither was very good at it. I suppose that was why they managed to last over a minute. Sometimes the jinxes they used didn't work. Both stared at each other with hatred though. I was surprised when Ashley produced a shield charm that caused a body-bind curse he sent at her to go back and hit him.

"Yes, sometimes that can happen," Professor Fraymen said amused. "Actually, that must have been quite a strong shield charm."

"I've been practicing," Ashley said through clenched teeth.

He'd taught us how to end a spell, it was finite, but she didn't seem to want use it. She hesitated at first and then said the spell.

Denver immediately jumped up and sent a curse at her that I'd never heard of before.

"Furnunculus!"

She was suddenly covered in boils and it looked very painful.

"Hmm, not a hex we've learned yet. I was going to save that for next year," Professor Fraymen said. "I didn't really want you to learn any of the spells that caused pain yet. I'd rather wait until you are older and more mature."

"Finite," I said surprised that he wasn't helping her.

"Unfortunately that doesn't work," he told me. "Someone take her to the Hospital Wing. From now on, let's just use what I am teaching you please," he told the rest of the class.

Ellen was the one to take her.

"Hey Denver, let's have a duel," I said and hurried over to him.

He really was mediocre. I had him down in thirty seconds.

"That's what you get for hexing my friend," I said when I took spell off him.

"She could have done a lot worse to me when she threw that fire at me," he retorted.

"True," I said, "but it was an accident. I'd understand if she'd done it on purpose, but she didn't even know what that spell was."

Actually I think I can understand why he is angry though. She could have done a lot of damage to him.

Shortly after that duel, the Halloween feast came up. For Ashley and I as least. Ben and Ellen went to a Halloween party with the Slug Club. Although I was disappointed, I was impressed by the feast. There were twelve huge pumpkins that were in the Great Hall. They were big enough that my friends and I could sit in them and play a card game if we wanted to, and we'd probably have plenty of room.

Ashley was freaked out by the hundreds of live bats that flew around the Great Hall. I didn't think it could be very hygienic…

Hogwarts dinners were usually more or less the same, but the feast had a lot of delicious food and then a lot of different desserts to choose from. At the end of the feast, there was a performance by skeletons. I was kind of surprised about this. The older students assured that they weren't even real, and they were just charmed to perform. That was good. The wizarding world was great, but real skeletons dancing around just seemed wrong.