Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter
Dahlia Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Chapter Eleven
Dear Anne Elizabeth,
I'm sorry I did not answer your last letter sooner. Here at Hogwarts, it was chaos during the weekend. Do you remember the Quidditch, the wizards' sport explained in the introduction books we bought in Diagon Alley? The first match of the season was played last Saturday in the Quidditch pitch. There was a huge accident and some stands broke and fell on the ground. We were at least a dozen feet in the air. A hundred students were injured, including myself. I assure you, I'm perfectly fine now. The Healers are very quick to heal injuries like cuts and broken bones. Do you realize? I had a broken leg and it was repaired in a single night. I know someone who broke his lower back. In the Muggle world, he would have been incapable of walking again and would have probably been stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. In fact, every non-magical injury is healed very quickly. That's why we had the impression that wizards are very careless about their lives.
On a brighter note, I made new friends at the hospital. Leah Sidley, Aaron Douglas and Cedric Diggory. They are in third-year and they're all very nice. They gave us tips about what electives we should take at the end of our second year. I think I'll try Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes. They seem the most logic choices for me because the others are Muggle Studies, Divination and Arithmancy. I know enough about Muggles and Aaron told me that the Divination teacher is a fraud and her classes are rubbish. As for Arithmancy, it's about the magical properties of numbers and you know how I hate Maths.
That's all for today. I'll await your next letter with impatience.
Love,
Dahlia
That was the letter Dahlia gave to Hedwig on Monday morning. The snowy owl made the trip from Hogwarts to London almost daily, even if she was just carrying an I miss you. Every time she landed in the Great Hall, she was given slices of bacon and sips of pumpkin juice. No need to say that she was extremely spoiled by Dahlia.
"I swear to you, she's getting fat," stated Susan as they were eating breakfast. "Keep feeding her like that and she won't be able to fly all the way to London."
Hedwig hooted indignantly and ruffled her feathers. She had moments where she almost seems to understand them.
"Don't listen to Susan, you're not fat at all," cooed Dahlia. "Here, take this letter. You know the way."
Hedwig nipped her fingers gently and snatched a last slice of bacon from Susan's plate before taking flight. All of them chuckled at her defeated face. The group had expended over the night. This morning, Eileen Byrne and Simon King had returned from St. Mungo. They introduced themselves to the first-years.
Eileen Byrne spoke with a distinguished Irish accent and had the cliché look of an aristocrat. She was tall, rather curvy for a thirteen years-old, and had very symmetrical face, highlighted by bright green eyes and high cheekbones. Her long copper hair was elegantly styled into retro waves. Her family owned very large lands just outside Londonderry. Her parents, Bridget and Oscar Byrne, bred Abraxans, a type of winged horses. As Heiress of the Byrne family, she was expected to take over the family business. However, Eileen wanted to work with more dangerous or exotic species.
Simon King was the son of Xavier and Rosemary King, one Half-blood, one Muggle. His father worked at Flourish and Blotts and his mother was a primary school teacher. They had divorced after she learned about magic and Hogwarts, at her son's eleventh birthday. He had chosen Arithmancy and Muggle Studies as electives. He didn't exactly know what he wanted to do after school, but he didn't want a nine-to-five job behind a desk.
"It's amazing how she understands your commands," remarked Cedric. "My parents' owl Maple doesn't seem magical at all except for the fact that he can post a letter without an address. Pretty much average magical owl."
"Mother's owl Ashes doesn't like Father at all," said Eileen. "And Father's owl Farewell hates Mother as well. They're reflecting my parents' relationship."
"Your mother and father hate each other?" Dahlia was bewildered. "How did they ended up married?"
"It was a political match. They were both last heir of an immense fortune and large lands. Their family wedded them to unite it all under a single name. There was no love between them then and it hasn't changed in all these years." She spoke with detachment, like she was not bothered that her parents were not in love. "Father is extremely disappointed with Mother because I should have at least three siblings, but she miscarried them all."
"I'm so sorry." Susan, Neville and Ernie expressed their sympathies as well.
"Don't be. I got over it a long time ago." The third-year waved her hand dismissively. "They live in different estates now, so I'm not hearing their constant quarrelling anymore."
"Are arranged marriages still common in the Wizarding world?" asked Dahlia. "I really don't want to be married to someone I don't love."
"You won't," answered Cedric. "Even for our parents' generation, arranged marriages were only between conservative Pure-bloods. I don't see James and Lily Potter arrange a betrothal between their new born daughter and an Heir like Malfoy."
"Thanks Merlin! At least wizards are not that backward," she breathed in relief.
"Backward is a little exaggerated," grumbled Ernie. "There's new spells and potions discovered every year."
"Are you seriously telling me that wizard fashion has evolved since the Middle Age?" snickered Leah. "For Morgana's love, Cedric nearly fainted the first time he saw my mother in trousers."
"So not true!" Cedric blushed a little. "I was merely surprised."
"Keep telling you that! He was so white that I thought he was having an attack. 'It's a pleasure to meet you Mrs Sidley,'" she imitated him in a high-pitch voice.
They all burst out laughing at Cedric's crestfallen face. Finally, he gave up trying to look miserable and laughed with them. A movement at the High Table attracted their attention. Nearly all the teachers had rose and left the Great Hall.
"We should go," stated Simon. "Classes are starting in fifteen minutes. Third-years have Care of Magical Creatures or a free period. What about you?"
"I have double Potions with the Ravenclaws," answered Eileen. "Without Maisie and Neil, it will be a living hell. Let's just hope that Professor Snape is in a good mood today."
"We have Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws as well," replied Susan. "Justin and Hannah are still not here, so Ernie and Neville, you're together?"
"I guess." Beside him, Neville nodded in agreement.
"Okay! See you at dinner!"
The large group left the Hufflepuff table and divided into small teams. Aaron, Simon and Eileen descended the marble staircase towards the Common Room, two for their free period and the other for the secret passage to the dungeons. Cedric and Leah left the castle and went outside for the Care of Magical Creatures class. The four first-years departed for the Transfiguration classroom, at the other side of Hogwarts.
When they arrived in the Transfiguration classroom, Professor McGonagall was already there, like most of the Ravenclaws. The only Hufflepuff present was Wayne Hopkins. Megan, Leanne, Hannah and Justin were still absent. It was a pitiful class. Only seven Ravenclaws and five Hufflepuffs. Professor McGonagall didn't even bother to do the roll call. She just took one look at the class and sighed loudly.
"Since we're not complete today, I won't cover new material. I wouldn't be fair for your absent comrades. We're going to revise old lessons from the beginning, including turning matches into needles. Let's make it a little bit more fun," she said in front of their pouts. "For each correct transformation, I will award five points to your House."
Instantly, the Ravenclaws became more interested in the class. Of the four Houses, they were the more competitive, especially about the House Cup. They would earn points on every possible occasions.
Dahlia sighed under her breath. Transfiguration was by far her worst subject. All the theory about bodyweight, viciousness, wand power, concentration and unknown variable went over her head, mostly because it mixes maths and magic. Professor McGonagall had explained the curriculum during the first class. In First and Second years, they would see Transformation and Untransfiguration. In Third and Fourth years, they would start Switching. In Fifth year, the only new material they would touch was Vanishment. Finally, for the N.E.W.T. students, she would teach Conjuration. Dahlia doubted she would have a score high enough at the O.W.L. exam to reach the N.E.W.T. class.
Professor McGonagall flickered her wand and several boxes floated between the rows to distributed small items: a match, a beetle, a flower, a feather, a wooden goblet, a rubber band, a rock, a watch, a pair of glasses and a box full of sand. They were supposed to be transfigured respectively into a needle, a button, a vegetable, a fork, a crystal goblet, a rope, a small statue, a bracelet and a telescope. For the box of sand, they had to combine Charms and Transfiguration. Charms to give the sand a form and Transfiguration to turn it into glass. Ten objects, one per week since the beginning of the year. Dahlia was really nervous. The last time she had achieved the transformation, she took the five days of the week before she had a reasonable result. Now, she had one hour for ten objects.
The incantations were still well anchored in her mind, but her magic refused to comply. It was really frustrating. The match bent to her wishes easily enough. After only a couple of tries, it became a small, silvery needle. Same thing for the beetle. She had seen enough buttons in her life to represent it in her mind. The real difficulty began after. The flower she was given was a red rose stripped of its thorns, stem cut short and with only two leaves left. By colour association, she decided to transfigure it into a tomato. Her plan had obvious flaws. First, the tomato was a fruit, not a vegetable. Second, the mass of the tomato outweighs the mass of the rose by far, which means she would have to transfigure air into material and for her, it was a recipe for disaster. Really, she should have chosen something like a bean or lettuce leaf. After fifteen minutes of intense concentration, she was left with something resembling more or less to a tomato. However, she was sure that if someone open it, they would find red petals, not juice, pulp and seeds.
Dahlia glanced around her to see how far along the others were. Beside her, Susan had already five objects transfigured and she was working on her sixth. Her needle and her button were faultless. She didn't know the original flower, but now laid on the table a big orange carrot. The fork was beautiful, all curvy and shiny, and could have passed for silver if she didn't know Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration. Instead, is was surely very polished steel. The crystal goblet was even more beautiful. Dahlia recognized Hufflepuff's Cup at the first glance. The immense inanimate portrait of Helga Hufflepuff in the Common Room displayed it rather obviously. Originally, it was a small golden cup with two finely wrought handles and a badger engraved on one side. The emplacements for the jewels were left empty but the object was nonetheless splendid. Behind them, only Neville was behind her in his transformations. He didn't have a problem with imagination like her, but more with the coordination of his mind, wand movement and incantation. Beside Neville, Ernie had four objects transfigured. He was good in this class but not that good. Professor McGonagall would say that he was between Acceptable and Exceeds Expectations. Of the six of them, Susan and Justin were clearly the best in this class.
A third of the period had passed. Dahlia decided to try her luck on the rock and transfigure it into a turtle. Technically, it was the least difficult because she only had to change the form of the rock, not its composition. She decided to do small steps. First, she smoothed to rock to make it look like an oval. Then, she added five small bulges to create the paws and the head. After that, she stretched to paws into long fins. A sea turtle was easier to do because it did not have fingers and claws. She was halfway through carving very ugly eyes when a small cough interrupted her. Professor McGonagall had finally come, having walked up and down the rows since the beginning of the class, dispensing advices to the students.
"And you, Miss Potter, what do you have for me?"
Dahlia gestured helplessly to her three transfigured objects. Professor McGonagall picked them on at the time, examining them closely.
"This seem adequate. Fifteen points to Hufflepuff. What are you trying to do?"
"I – euh… It's supposed to be a turtle," she said, lifting the rock at eye level. "I'm not very good and it looks more like a… Well, I don't know but definitely not a turtle."
"Let's see." Professor McGonagall took the stone from her hand. "A shell, four fins, a head… I don't see why anyone could confuse this with anything else than a turtle."
"It looks like a rock with five bumps," she grumbled. "I have no artistic talent."
"You don't need artistic talent to do well in Transfiguration," lectured the witch. "A mental image only helps in the beginning. If you know your subject from the inside and the outside, you're going to have no problem to let your magic do the rest. At my age, you don't need complicated incantations, fancy wand movements or a picture in your mind. Only will and magic."
"Well, I'm not in my fifties yet." Dahlia realized what she just said and blushed beet red. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to imply that you're old," she said quickly.
Professor McGonagall sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Well, I supposed I have been teaching for almost thirty-five years." She put back the rock on the desk. "Continue your work, Miss Potter. Your father was a genius in Transfiguration and your mother was great too. I'm sure it's in your blood."
Dahlia felt a tiny hint of annoyance but squashed it down soon enough. Professor McGonagall hadn't meant to insult her. She should really work on her parents' issues. The slightest mention of James and Lily made her blood boil. Her fixation on differentiating them from her was becoming unhealthy. She needed to let go of her anger. Easier said than done.
She regained her wits just in time to hear: "Forty points to Hufflepuff!" She glanced at Susan's part of the table. Of the ten objects they were given at the beginning of the period, only the glasses and the box of sand were untouched. And there was still fifteen minutes before the end of the class.
Dahlia closed her eyes to concentrate.
Will and magic. Will and magic. Will and magic. A sea turtle.
She said the incantation loud and clear, still not looking at the rock. The wand movement was a half clockwise circle with a sharp jab towards the object. A good warm-up for Transfiguration and Charms was to work the wrists in all directions. No matter what spell you wanted to cast, flexible wrists were always a plus. In a duel, of course, you move all your body, not just the arm. But with the decline of the sport, wizards had nearly abandoned all kind of physical activity, with the exception of the Quidditch players. She cracked an eye open to judge her work. It definitely looked more like a turtle than before, that was indisputable. It was not a realistic statue, she was sure of that. It was closer to an illustration in a children's book: not quite right but a simplified version. She put it aside to pick the eagle feather. A fork was easy, right? More than a crystal goblet, a rope, glasses or a telescope. She sees forks everyday, she uses forks everyday.
Ten minutes to the period. Again, Dahlia closed her eyes and repeated her mantra. One time, two times, three times. She concentrated on her breathing and tried to shut down all the surrounding noises. Since All Hallows' Eve, she had begun little exercises of meditation before going to bed. She had chosen the breathing meditation and the concentration on a mental image. Since the beginning, she had pictured in her mind a cliff with a lone, giant fir. Below the escarpment, you could see a large forest bathed by the sunlight. For Dahlia, dawn and dusk were always synonyms of peacefulness and serenity. It switched between the two, depending her mood. And it wasn't that different, honestly. Just more pink or more orange.
A loud clap interrupted her precious concentration. Her eyes snapped open to see Professor McGonagall standing in front of her desk. Quickly, Dahlia casted her spell before she could talk. The eagle feather transformed into a weird-looking fork. It would do. At least it was in metal.
"The period will end in two or three minutes. I'm going to grade your work so everybody stops doing magic. Wait quietly."
Dahlia turned towards Susan.
"How did it went?"
"Good," she whispered back. "You?"
"Not so bad, considering the time I had. Yours are beautiful."
Her rope was long and thick, the kind used in climbing. She had transfigured the rock into a marble statue representing a woman dancing, her dress floating around her and her feathered wings fully spread. And the bracelet… well, when Professor McGonagall had said bracelet, the little girl had imagined a wristlet made of braided thread, the kind they could afford at the orphanage. But Susan had made a golden bracelet with pearls and topaz-looking stones. If it was real, it would have cost a fortune, both in the Muggle world and the Wizarding world. The telescope was a perfect replica of the ones they used in Astronomy. For the glass statue, Susan had made a mermaid. Not the horrible merpeople living in the Black Lake, no, the Muggle representation of a beautiful woman with the lower body of a fish. She was sitting on a rock, her tail coiled around it elegantly, brushing her long, wavy hair with her hands.
"Thank you. I put a lot of efforts in the statues."
"I'm sure Professor McGonagall will love them."
"Indeed I do." The voice made the two little girls jumped. "This is truly marvellous, Miss Bones, your aunt will be very proud of your grades, herself was very good in Transfiguration. This is without a doubt another Outstanding and an additional ten points to Hufflepuff."
Professor McGonagall turned to inspect Dahlia's work. She cringed when her teacher's lips thinned to the point of forming a straight line.
"Five out of ten. This will give you an Acceptable or a Poor, depending on the kindness of your examiner. For now, it's an Acceptable but you'll have to put more efforts in your work if you want the succeed in your final exams, never mind your O.W.L.s and your N.E.W.T.s. Ten more points to Hufflepuff."
Dahlia had the distinct impression that she disappointed Professor McGonagall. She passed behind them to grade Ernie and Neville. They had an Exceeds Expectations and an Acceptable. It was overall a good period. She had to practice regularly her spells in order not to become rusty before the exams in June.
Professor McGonagall returned to her desk, having finished compiling the grades. The class took it as a signal that the period was over and started packing. It was something that annoyed Dahlia to no end. Hogwarts didn't have any bells or something to indicate the beginnings and the end of each period. The length of the classes could vary depending the whims of the teachers.
Fortunately, they had a break of thirty minutes.
Unfortunately, most of that time was used to travel between the classrooms.
That was something else that annoyed Dahlia. The layout of the classroom was completely unpredictable and she was struggling to find the logic behind. Some classrooms had a number, some had a number with a letter or others were simply referred by their subject. Charms, Transfiguration and DADA were taught on nearly all the floors but Potions were confined in the dungeons and Herbology in the greenhouses. Divination had only one classroom, accessible by a ladder at the top of the North Tower. Even with the precious map, it was easy to get lost in the enormous castle. So easy that the fifth-year prefects were tasked to make the first-years visit the school during the first weekend.
"We've got Charms, right?" asked Ernie once they were in the corridor.
"Yeah," groaned Dahlia. "I'm so not ready for my daily dose of Malfoy."
"Almost daily," corrected Susan absently, while searching into her bag. "Guys, I can't find my homework. Does one of you have it?"
"Err, nope." They shook their head after checking their bag. "Did you passed it to Justin or Hannah?"
Susan stopped dead in her tracks. She ran her fingers through her hair, her mind far away and her eyes unfocused.
"Yeah, I… I gave it to Justin Friday night. I have to get it. Continue without me." She turned her back on them and started running towards the Common Room.
"She's gonna be late," stated Neville worryingly. "Professor Flitwick won't like it."
"Professor Flitwick is lenient on us," assured Ernie. "At worse, she will lose points. And it's not like it was a daily occurrence."
"You're right," agreed Dahlia. "Come on, let's go."
The Charms classroom was located on the third floor, at the complete opposite of the Transfiguration classroom. Simply walking in Hogwarts was a workout in itself and, in Dahlia's opinion, the only reason why they were all thin and in good shape. The Grand Staircase was also a real annoyance and more often than not the reason why some students would arrive late.
"I hope Rowena Ravenclaw winces every time a student trips on these damn stairs," grumbled Neville as he fell on his knees. "Someday they're gonna kill me and you'll only find a bloody pulp on the ground floor."
"Don't be so silly, Neville," said Dahlia as she offered him her hand. "The more you take them, the less you're surprised when they move."
"I've never seen any seventh-years fell on a tricky step," added Ernie. "At the end of our schooling, it will be a second nature to jump over them."
"What's the point to do moving staircases anyway? It's not like they are actually useful."
"To impress, I suppose," he shrugged. "Or to clearly indicate that this is a magical school. Cedric said it, wizards loves decorum. You were pretty gobsmacked to first time you and Justin saw it, I remember."
"Yes, we were," nodded Dahlia. "I felt dizzy just by standing on the ground floor and looking up."
They were thrown on the stair railing when it decided to move again. Fortunately, it was the bottom that moved and the stair was still oriented towards where they wanted to go. They hurried up to reach the floor before it could change direction.
Professor Flitwick was always perched on his pile of books behind his desk, enchanted to stick together. They separated and took their respective places beside their Slytherin partners. He had liked the idea of inter-Houses duos and now they were stuck with them for the rest of the year. But working closely with them had opened Dahlia's mind. Not all of the Snakes were like Malfoy, bragging about their wealth and their blood. Her own partner, Theodore Nott, was a cold and quiet boy, much like Daphne Greengrass, the Ice Queen and Neville's partner. Dahlia and him avoided to talk much, preferring to concentrate on their work. Both didn't have major difficulties in Charms, so Professor Flitwick couldn't use the excuse of helping each other to force them to socialize. Dahlia learned more about Theodore by his unspoken gestures than by the ten words they said to each other, two of them being "Good morning" or "Good afternoon". The polite boredom in front of Professor Flitwick's speech, the quiet disdain for the honest Hufflepuffs, the tiny sneer whenever they hear Malfoy screaming "My father will hear about this!", the cold acknowledgement for their teacher's praise, the hidden respect he had for the former Duellist champion. And his unconditional fear of fire.
She had remarked it the first time they practised the Incendio. At the beginning, it was only a strange paleness on his face. But when they actually tried to cast the spell, he froze and refused to comply. It had taken much persuasion and pressure from Professor Flitwick for him to pass over his fear. It had been a disaster. Black flames had sprouted from the tip of his wand and had formed a cloud of fire. He'd had a panic attack and had thrown his wand on the desk. Professor Flitwick hadn't insisted. After having extinguished the fire with a well-place Aguamenti, he had sent Theodore to the Hospital Wing to get a calming draught. As his desk partner, Dahlia was tasked to accompany him and make sure he didn't skip classes.
It had been incredibly awkward. He had looked at her defiantly, as if daring her to laugh like Malfoy and call him weak. But she didn't. She had simply stated that everyone had fears and the fear of fire was no less understandable than others. A sort of truce was installed between from that day on. He had stopped considering her as a stupid Hufflepuff and she had stopped viewing him as a slimy Slytherin.
This experience had her reconsider her views on the Houses. For centuries, the world had categorized the students coming from Hogwarts by their House. Gryffindors were short-tempered, Hufflepuff were leftovers, Ravenclaws were know-it-all and Slytherins were liars. It was so easy to follow the common thought that Dahlia had applied the stereotypes without thinking. In her defence, the only Slytherin she really knew was Draco Malfoy and he wasn't the best example.
Dahlia gave a tiny nod to Theodore as she sat down and received an equally stiff acknowledgement. She took out her homework and laid it on the shared desk as Professor Flitwick started to collect them.
"Well, you're a small class today!" he exclaimed in his squeaky voice. "Where are the others? Miss Bones? Mr Flinch-Fletchley? Miss Laughland?"
"Still at St. Mungo," answered Ernie. "Susan is in the Common Room because she forgot her homework."
"Oh, I see," he frowned. "It's inconvenient, today is a rather important class. Your comrades will have to do a lot of exercises without me to help them."
"Why bother?" snickered Malfoy in the background. "They're Hufflepuffs. It's not like they're going to pass anyway."
"Mr Malfoy! This is not the way to talk to your classmates."
"Sorry Professor," he said, more to get him off his back than anything else.
It was something that always bothered Dahlia. Professor Flitwick was kind and fair, but he avoided to punish anyone too harshly, except for grave offences. Malfoy could get away with a scarhead or a filthy Half-Blood, but no more. At first, she was angry but Ernie and Susan had explained to her that his position of Charms Master was very precarious, especially with his goblin ancestry. Giving detentions to the son of Lucius Malfoy for a simple mudblood was not good enough for the Board of Governors, who were all stuck-up Pure-bloods.
"Today we're going to work on your control of your magic. To measure your power, you will cast a simple Lumos. The standard spell will simply produce a white light. An overpowered spell will produce an explosion but in between, you have the whole colour palette. Remember, it's from warm to cold colours, just like fire. The hotter it is, the bluer is the flame. In the same way, the more power you add, the bluer your light will be. Begin!"
A chorus of Lumos resounded in the room, accompanied by a couple of explosions. Feeling your magic was very hard. Dahlia could put more or less power in her spells, but she didn't succeed at dosing it precisely. She had four categories: white for the simple spell, red for the weak spell, blue for the strong spell and an explosion for the overpowered spell. It was very unpleasant and most of the class had black spots dancing in their vision. Dahlia was worried that it would cause eye problems. She was repeating these four for a time when Professor Flitwick approached her.
"Already four different colours, Miss Potter? This is very good, I didn't expect much for a first time. But then, you are a rather gifted year, a new generation of promising witches and wizards. Well, most of you," he murmured with a side glance to Crabbe and Goyle. They had only a white light coming from their wand and were constantly throwing helpless looks towards Malfoy. "What do you feel when you cast the spell?"
"When I pay no mind I feel nothing. It doesn't even require attention anymore. But when I want it to be red or blue, a feel a light tingling in my wand arm."
"The tingling can be attributed to your magic flowing into your veins. A poetic image but there's a theory that says that magic is a sense, as well as smell and view. As our body doesn't genetically diverge that of a Muggle and there's no organ for magic, the majority of the population think it's a very flawed theory because it doesn't explain Squibs and Muggle-borns. Over the centuries, scholars had debated where the magic does come from. Some says it's from the mind, some says it's from the soul and some dubbed it magical core, as abstract as this concept is."
"How do wizards know so much about the human body but can't comprehend the basic concept of electricity?" frowned Dahlia. "They didn't seem to follow the evolution of Humanity."
"In a sense, yes," admitted Professor Flitwick. "After the instauration of the International Statute of Secrecy in 1689, the wizards left the big cities and scattered into little groups to found a lot of little wizarding villages all over the world. At the same time, old, pure-blood Houses retired from the life at Court and abandoned most of their privileges as noble. We formed our own little country in Great-Britain. Just after the Statute, there was a strong movement anti-Muggle that we still sense these days. That's why we missed most of the technological advances during the industrial Revolution."
"You seem pretty well-informed, unlike most of the wizards I met."
"The reason is that my parents raised me to be more open-minded than the average wizard. They knew that because of my height and my blood, I would always be judged harsher than the others and that I should always be above the 'ignorant lot'. Their words, not mine."
At this moment, Susan bursted into the classroom, panting and clutching her bag like her life depended on it.
"Ah! Miss Bones, how kind for you to join us in this fine day!" exclaimed Professor Flitwick, just a tad sarcastic.
"Sorry Professor Flitwick." Susan flushed beet red. "I forgot my homework in the Common Room."
"Yes, your friends informed me about this," he said dryly. "Take your place Miss Bones. Miss Parkinson will explain the work to you."
Susan lowered her head in shame and joined Pansy at their shared desk. The pug-faced girl laugh not so discreetly at the Hufflepuff's rebuff. She turned up her nose at her and continued to try to attract Malfoy's attention by batting her eyelashes and praising him every time he cast a spell.
"Honestly, I'm disappointed," muttered Dahlia to Theodore. "I expected this attitude from Professor Snape, not Professor Flitwick. At least he didn't take points."
She received a low hum of acknowledgement but nothing more. Still better than a grunt.
Once again, she cast the Lumos with a little bit too much power. Once again, she was blinded by the strong white light.
Dinner was a well-merited break after two hours of intense magic. The Hufflepuffs reunited in the Great Hall and quickly claimed the spot of the table the closest to the High Table. Sometimes, when the noises were low, they could grasp the discussions of the teachers, though not often. Most of the time, Professor McGonagall would discuss of administration matters with Professor Dumbledore, but occasionally, such as today, he would talk about the latest gossips of the Ministry.
"… incredible that the bill for the earlier integration of the Muggle-borns to our society was rejected. The youth should be aware of the Wizarding world as soon as their name is written in The Book of Admittance! It could suppress a lot of fear and rejection from the parents. It is widely known that some of them abuse their children to 'beat out the Devil'!"
"My dear Minerva, you know well that it's the Dark faction that controls the Wizengamot in these days. With Lucius Malfoy whispering in the ear of Cornelius Fudge, no laws favouring the Muggle-borns will be sanctioned."
"It's scandalous!" she hit the table with her hand, startling the children listening to her. "The prejudices come from ignorance and fear of the unknown, from both sides. If we integrate the children from a young age, we will reduce half of the problem."
"Some might argue that it is for us to try to integrate Muggle culture in our lifestyle," disagreed Professor Dumbledore. "The Wizarding world is stagnating since the beginning of the century. The last great mingle between the wizards and the Muggles was the construction of the Hogwarts Express in 1830."
"I still think we should do the first step. More and more Muggle-borns are leaving our world because of the bigotry and the downright racism. We have less than four hundred students this year and less than two third decide to stay and work in Great-Britain after their graduation."
"The real problem is the government," he corrected gently. "The Wizengamot seats are hereditary, and the election of our Minister is a simulacra of democracy. The old pure-blood families have the real power, not the common people, and the Muggle-borns understand it quickly. For a nation that has a say, small but nonetheless there, in the government since the 13th century, being brought back to the Middle Age is not pleasant."
"We're not in the Middle Age," grumbled Professor McGonagall, but she dropped the matter and returned to her meal.
"I don't understand," said Dahlia to her friend. "Professor Dumbledore seems well aware of the political problems in our country but he refuses to do anything. Isn't he the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards?
"It's not that simple," objected Cedric. "The Chief Warlock presides over the Wizengamot, but he does not have more power than any other member. He's just there to say things like 'I declare this meeting over'.
"As for the ICW, they're more concern about the maintenance of the Statute of Secrecy than by the integration of Muggle-borns," added Eileen. "They didn't lift a finger to help the United Kingdom during the First Wizarding war because You-Know-Who wasn't attacking Muggles left and right. He was mostly targeting Muggle-borns, of course, but also a lot of Pure-bloods 'blood-traitors'. In his mind, you were either with him or against him. There was no such thing as neutral."
"He wiped out House Prewett and the McKinnon family for opposing him. House Black was resumed to two women, and one is disowned. Every branches of House Rosier died out except the principal because they mostly refused to joined him. He thought it would be easy to bring them on his side because the Rosiers are traditionally Dark and Vinda Rosier was Grindelwald's most loyal lieutenant, but the Head of the House was Dark Grey. He agreed on his beliefs, but was not willing to participate in any way in the war and forbade his family to do so. Only one rogue cousin became a Death Eater and he was killed in 1980."
"It's just me and Auntie Amelia for House Bones," said Susan emotionlessly. It was kind of sad, though. Some many of Dahlia's friends were last Heir of their House that nobody would say sorry anymore when they'd talk about the subject. In truth, only Justin and Simon had close relatives, even if they were Muggles. "I'll have to find a husband willing to take my name to continue my House. We're one of the last in the Light faction and it would be a huge blow to lose us."
"Every faction was diminished after the war," countered Cedric. "The one who lost the least were the Light Grey. Dark are in Azkaban, Dark Grey were killed for being 'blood-traitors' and Light for fighting against You-Know-Who. In his very twisted logic, he left the Light Grey alone for not fighting him, but attacked the Dark Grey because they agreed with him but didn't want to fight the Aurors."
"That's not true," disagreed Eileen. "My parents and most of their friends are Dark Grey and almost none of them died."
"Your parents and most of their friends live in Ireland," pointed out Leah. "It's kinda weird. We can apparate from Scotland to London, but the Death Eaters barely raided Ireland."
"It's because of the Irish Sea," explained Simon. "Sea water affects a lot Apparition. No one, not even Professor Dumbledore, would risk the travel between Dover and Calais, the closest cities of the Continent and Great Britain. To go to Ireland, they would have to purchase a Portkey, and even them are not that stupid."
"Are Portkeys that difficult to make?" wondered Neville. "Gran always uses them when she travels between our estates."
"No, it's not difficult, any average wizards can do them. But like the Improper Use of Magic Office, the Portkeys Office can trace any Charms used to do one. Only the Fidelius can overpower the Ministry."
"The more I hear about the Fidelius, the more I think my parents were stupid to use someone else as Secret Keeper," complained Dahlia. "It sounds like the best Charm ever."
"Yeah, it was weird," agreed Ernie. "And it's not like Black was an Hufflepuff, loyal to death. Just coming from that family should have made the Potters suspicious."
"You don't need to be an Hufflepuff to be loyal," reprimanded Cedric. "Black and Potter have been friends since the first time they sat together in the Hogwarts Express before their first year."
"How do you know so much about them?" asked Dahlia, surprised. "I understand my family became famous after October 31, 1980, but these are intimate details."
"After All Hallows' Eve," began Susan slowly, "a series of book called The Wonderful Adventures of Dahlia Potter came out. Most of them are rubbish, of course, but some in the collective of authors knew Potter and Black when they were in school and wrote about their relationship."
"Books… about me?"
"Yeah," she cringed. "Stories about how you absorbed You-Know-Who's powers to grow up instantly and you use them to fight evil all over the world."
"Oh, really?" Dahlia threw her hands in the air, exasperated by the wizards' stupidity.
"Nobody thinks it really happened," tried to temper Cedric. "It's just bedtime stories for young children."
"Don't be so sure. Hannah's mum bought all the books and read them to us when I was sleeping at her house."
"Did it happened often?" questioned Leah.
"Once or twice a week," shrugged Susan. "Auntie Amelia often works late and Hannah is just a Floo call away."
"Hey, guys!" Simon tapped on the table impatiently, looking at his watch. "Classes are starting soon and I don't want to be late. We have Transfiguration on the sixth floor, then Charms on the fourth floor."
"It's strange," pondered Ernie. "We had these two classes this morning."
"Hurray, we have DADA," said Dahlia sarcastically.
"Hurray, we have Herbology," corrected Neville. "What better way to end the day?"
DADA was very, very, very long. The classroom was hot, dark and reeking garlic, as always. Professor Quirrell was alternating between being boring and pathetic. But it was not a reason to relax and do nothing. Dahlia's grades varied between Exceed Expectations and Outstanding. Learning strengths and weaknesses of beasts was easy and they didn't do any magic in class. Hogwarts' grading system was very peculiar. Instead of having exams scattered all over the year, the teachers would grade every homework and the final exams in June would count for fifty percent of the final note.
Herbology passed way quicker. Neville was always leaving this class with a huge smile and a moral boosted. Professor Sprout loved all her students, but she was particularly affectionate towards him. She would visit the Common Room almost everyday to spend time with her badgers and get to know them. Dahlia had opened herself about her insecurities about her parents. Talking to the Herbology teacher had helped her a lot to get over her anger, but she still had work to do. At least she was completely honest about James and Lily, telling her the good and the bad of their school years. It changed from Professor McGonagall's praises and Professor Snape's hate for her father and idolization for her mother. Most of her notes were Exceed Expectations because it was just rewriting the paragraphs of the textbooks in her own words. She lacked of Neville's enthusiasm and love for the plants, but she would do her best nonetheless.
The real highlight of the day was when Hannah and Justin came back for supper, completely worn out but still smiling and cheerful. Their injuries were worse than the others and the Healers of St. Mungo kept them under observation one more day just to be sure. Hannah's ribs had pierced her lungs and had missed her heart by an inch. Her brain had lacked oxygen for a few minutes before the Healers freed her from the debris. Justin had had a piece of wood piercing his stomach, making difficult the consumption of Blood-Replenishing Potion, and of course, eating. He devoured all the food he could put on his plate and took a second portion of everything.
They all got along very well. Maybe it was a Hufflepuff thing to be friends with everyone. Even those who weren't part of their group, such as Wayne, Megan and Leanne, were very friendly. The only missing persons were Maisie and Neil, the Scottish twins she hadn't met yet. According to Hannah, only Maisie was still bedridden and Neil just wanted to be with his sister. They met in the tearoom, where the Hogwarts students were a minority now that most of them had returned to school. The gaps in the Hufflepuff Table had almost closed, they were just missing a couple of people. Dahlia's worries calmed and for the first time since Saturday's match, she fell asleep easily.
In, out, in, out, in, out.
The dormitory was quiet. After supper, they all went to bed quickly, wanting to be full of energy the next morning. Dahlia was deep in her meditation, concentrating on her breath.
In, out, in, out, in, out.
The Ravenclaws had complained during supper that there was a storm raging outside. But below the Earth, surrounded by the promontory, they heard nothing and slept peacefully.
In, out, in, out, in, out.
A sudden movement on her left startled her. Megan or Leanne, by the position of their bed. The five girls were once again reunited in their little yellow and black room.
In, out, in, out, in, out.
The fire in the chimney was crackling constantly. The winters in Scotland were way colder than in London. Even inside the castle, there was cold air flows creeping in the cracks of the walls.
In, out, in, out, in, out.
A bright dawn. The lone fir moving gently with the wind. The morning mist retreating back in the black of the forest. And the solitary bird, his cry echoing in the valley protected by the mountains.
In, out, in, out, in, out.
Thursday was officially the Worst. Day. Ever. History, Transfiguration, double Potions and Astronomy. Well, History was not so bad for Dahlia, but everyone else disagreed with her, with the sole exception of Aaron. And he didn't even like it, he was just good at memorizing dates and names. Transfiguration had resumed to its former difficulty now that everyone was here.
Maisie and Neil O'Connor were not like Dahlia was expecting. For starter, they were extremely shy, not really comfortable with younger children adding themselves to the group. Eileen had explained that they were considered as oddities in their family. First by their look, two fraternal twins sharing wild orange locks and green eyes, whereas the rest of their relatives had brown hair and brown eyes. That led to very nasty rumours concerning their parentage. Second by their magic, being the only ones in five children to go to Hogwarts. They had one older brother and two younger sisters, all jealous of their gifts. And finally, by their financial situation. They were the only ones you could call poor. Both mother and father were struggling with three jobs at the same time and their brother had left secondary school to help them with the finances. Their tight budget had forced them to buy second-hand furniture and uniforms. Their parents had nearly taken all of their savings to get them in a plane for London. The combination of all this had made them very recluse, trailing after Eileen and the third-years for the security they brought in this strange new world.
Maisie told them the Sorting Hat put them in Hufflepuff to give them the love and acceptance they never had in their family. It was a huge confession to make to new people and it immediately broke the ice between them. Dahlia was very grateful for this and everyone shared their own history to make sure there wasn't any misunderstandings that could harm their new relationship.
History was funnier than before. Maybe it was because the class was full, leading to a general party just under the nose of Professor Binns. Dahlia herself decided to not work for once, joining a match of Exploding Snap. Only Hermione persisted to work, pestering everyone with her obsession with the respect of the teacher and the importance of working hard in school. Nobody paid her much attention because they were too absorbed in their respective games. Anyone who joined the mini Chess tourney would be beaten by Ron Weasley. It was, in Dahlia's eyes, his only skill, apart from eating a lot and very quickly. Gobstones were banned after the first match led to everyone being doused with putrid liquid. The Exploding Snap was more popular than ever, with students betting on when Professor Binns would finally hear the explosions. It was overall a very good class.
Professor McGonagall was always on Dahlia's back, pushing her to be a prodigy in Transfiguration like her parents. It was really annoying because she would always say something like 'He was one of the best student I've ever had' or 'Your parents would be so disappointed if you'd fail in my class'. Dahlia just wanted to scream 'THEY'RE DEAD! It's not like their opinion matters!'. But in the end, she would shut her mouth and nod politely. What reassure her was that she was like that with everybody, especially orphans. Even Neville had the same treatment. The Girl-Who-Lived guessed it was an integral part of her personality.
Dinner was very morose. Every first-year was preparing for double Potions. Around them, their friends were very sympathetic, most of all Leah and Aaron who had a free period at the fourth.
"Come on, it can't be that bad," argued Simon. "Yes, Professor Snape is very biased, yes he's a horrible teacher and yes, he likes to take points for nothing, but why would he be worst in your class than in ours?"
"Because he can't see past my father's blood," replied Dahlia somberly. "Which is completely ridiculous, of course. It's not like I actually remember him."
"Professor Snape doesn't have the profile of a good guy," scowled Ernie. "Anyway, why does he still teaches at Hogwarts? It's obvious that he doesn't like children."
"Dad was present at his trial," said Cedric. "He told me that Professor Dumbledore walked in, declared that he was not a Death Eater and everyone believed him. But, think of it, why would anyone doubt Albus Dumbledore, the leader of the Light?"
"He doesn't need to be a Death Eater to be a bad teacher," refuted Aaron. "Professor Snape just lacks the patience and pedagogy to teach young children."
"Nora Creston, in seventh-year, told me that he applied for the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts since his arrival in 1981. He's the most loyal teacher, yet Professor Dumbledore always refused him."
"Maybe that's why he stays here?" ventured Neil. "Professor Dumbledore's protection is not something to be taken lightly. He's the most powerful wizard in Great Britain, after all."
"Probably," acknowledged Eileen. "Not many people like him outside and inside these walls, especially those who had him as a teacher, the youth, the future."
"It's safe to say that only Lucius Malfoy and Albus Dumbledore genuinely like him," assured Hannah. "The others tolerate him at best and loathe him at worst."
"I hate him," decreed Maisie. "On our first class with him last year, he said 'Red hair and hand-me-down robes. I could have take you for Weasleys if you didn't have this undignified attitude specific to Muggle-borns. Merlin knows we don't need another set of Weasley twins'."
"Typical pure-blood answer," muttered Justin. "No offence, guys."
"None taken," replied Eileen automatically. "And Snape isn't even a Pure-Blood. His father was a Muggle."
"No, really?"
"I know, right?" she lowered her voice so to teachers couldn't hear them. "His mother has the same name as me, Eileen Prince. She was disowned by her family when she married a Muggle, Tobias Snape, in 1956. I wasn't born, of course, but my parents were still in Hogwarts. It was the talk of the year."
"Please tell me you weren't named after her," pleaded Justin.
"Ha-ha! No." She gave a short laugh. "My parents wanted something very Irish and very old."
"Flower name for me," exclaimed Dahlia. "Although, I heard that my parents wanted to call me Harry if I had been a boy. For Henry, my… great-grand-father? I think?"
"Count yourself lucky," grumbled Ernie. "You're not the one who's call Ernest. It's so… outdated."
"My parents lacked of inspiration. My brother's name is Jared and mine's Justin." He rolled his eyes. "They sometimes confuse us with our dog, so two sons with names beginning by a J?"
"Leah means lion. Apparently, I was a fighter when I was still in my mother's womb. Such a pity that I didn't go to Gryffindor."
"Guys," interrupted Hannah, "as much as I love hearing the stories about your names, Professor Snape just left the High Table. I don't want to give him more reasons to take points."
"So soon?" murmured Susan as she checked her watch. "It's just 12h40."
"12h40?" Simon jumped on his siege. "We have Herbology. We should totally go."
"See you at supper!"
"Wish us luck!"
The dungeons were even more dreadful today, as if it was possible. The air was cold and damp, making the students shudder as they were waiting for the door to open. The Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs were always very solidary in Potions, whereas the Eagles were individualists in every other classes. Professor Snape had only this positive effect on the children: unite them against him.
Since Dahlia's outburst during the first class of the year, people had taken to insult him in different languages so he didn't understand what they were saying. Well, nobody really thought he was dupe, but it was a nice way to stand against him. And it was not like he could complain to Dumbledore 'Oh, my students are so mean to me, they insult me but I can't understand what they're saying'.
Lisa Turpin was half French by her father and often gossiped with Dahlia about the latest news in the Ravenclaw Tower. Anthony Goldstein could be heard swearing in Hebrew almost every class because he was abysmal in Potions. Padma Patil was more fluent in Hindi than in English and she would switch between the two when she was stressed. Even the shy Sue Li returned to her native Mandarin once in a while. For Dahlia's close friends, Ernie had a couple of notions of Scottish Gaelic, thanks to his heritage. Susan and Neville had the basics of Latin, but Justin and Hannah were entirely English.
Professor Snape opened the door at exactly one o'clock. He too looked paler than usual. His sallow skin had a white complexion, making his hair appeared even more black and greasy under the yellow light of the torches.
"Enter!" he barked. He turned around, his cloak billowing dramatically behind him as he took his place in front of his desk. They all hurried to comply to his wish.
"Today you will make the Tolipan Blemish Blitzer, a cure for common acne. Since we have a double period, no one will be allowed to leave this classroom until everyone is finished. And if I catch anyone trying to steal the potion, it's detention for the rest of the year."
Nobody react at the threat. Stealing from him right under his nose? Totally suicidal. They teased him, yes, but nothing worth to earn a year of detention. Oddly enough, he didn't punish them for talking behind his back in other languages. He seemed… preoccupied lately, like he didn't have the time to put up his grumpy facade.
Professor Snape and Dahlia were tiptoeing every time they were around each other. They had a sort of a mutual pact. She would stop reminding him his failure with her mother and he would stop antagonizing her personally. In fact, he would treat her normally, which means no more or no less than everyone else.
"Or perhaps," he sneered, "I'll let you take it and it will be up to you to deal with the consequences of your failed potion. As if you bunch of dunderheads are capable to produce anything else than a highly toxic poison."
He tapped the board with his wand and the instructions appeared in his tight scribbles. Dahlia read it as quickly as possible because once they would start, the fumes emanating from the cauldrons would make the board very difficult to see.
"Well," he barked, "what are you waiting for?"
Everyone rushed to take out their cauldrons and ingredients. The major difficulty in this potion was the grinding of the dragon claws. The failure or the success depended almost only on the fineness of the powder. Too thick and the concoction would burn the skin and leave scars. Too fine and it would make the pimples explode and emit a strong acid that will ruin your face anyway. Of course, you had to take into account the other variables, like the heat of the cauldron and the direction of your stirring. Overall, it was a difficult potion to make for eleven years-old who started Hogwarts two and a half months ago.
Each of their teams were well-balanced, the weakness of one was the strength of the other. Susan had difficulties with memorizing the characteristics of the ingredients, making her homework a bit sloppy, but she was good with the manual work such as chopping and cutting. Dahlia was the opposite. Their combined grades varied between Acceptable and Poor, with an occasional Dreadful when Professor Snape was in a bad mood, which was every other day. Ernie was the only one truly talented in Potions, so he helped a lot Justin who always had Troll or Dreadful in his essays. Hannah was average, enhancing Neville's Dreadful written productions. He was terrified of Professor Snape and he would often be clumsy around him.
"… et Michael a défié Padma d'embrasser Terry, " whispered Lisa, "et elle était très choquée, mais…"
A loud crashed interrupted Lisa and Dahlia's quiet conversation and they turned to see Neville looking terrorized as a sea of leeches escaped the shattered jar he'd just dropped.
"Idiot boy!" roared Professor Snape. "Are you so incompetent that you can't hold a jar properly? Evanesco!"
All the disgusting worms vanished along the clean water that maintained them alive, leaving behind only fragments of glass. Neville cowered under the murderous gaze of the teacher.
"Detention!" he snapped. "Saturday morning, seven o'clock in this classroom. Don't bother to bring anything."
The pudgy boy nodded, still looking at his feet. It wasn't the first time he had a detention due to his clumsiness.
"Clean that up!" He bent down to collect the broken glass. Professor Snape realized that everyone had stopped to look at them and he barked: "What are you looking at? Don't stand here with your mouth open like a fish!"
Dahlia turned around to concentrate on her own leeches. They had to be wash and cut, all without letting their suckers touch your skin. Putting human blood in the Tolipan Blemish Blitzer would lead to a catastrophe, which was totally unfair since they added iguana blood at some point. After ruining several leeches, Dahlia passed them to Susan, who automatically gave her the tangled horsehair. She took the comb and ran it in through the knots forcefully, without any of the delicacy she showed to her own hair. The filaments had to be weighted precisely before being add one at the time in the potion.
"What's after the horsehair?" asked Susan. "It's leeches, three time clockwise, horsehair, five minutes simmer…"
"Don't know, I can't read a thing on the board." Dahlia tried to squint her eyes to see through the fumes. "Wait here."
She stepped out from behind her desk and walked up the rows to get a good look to the instructions.
"Five minutes simmer, rat's tail, two counter clockwise, thirty seconds boil, dragon claws…"
"What are you doing here, Potter?" said a soft voice behind her. She whirled around to find Professor Snape looking down at her.
"Just reading the instructions a second time," she replied tensely.
"A second time, sir."
"Sir," she repeated. Stay calm. It's just elementary politeness. Choose the right battles.
"You'll read them from your place, just like everyone else," he sneered. "The Girl-Who-Lived won't get any special treatment, not in my class. Five points from Hufflepuff for disrupting the classroom's order."
She looked around and saw that nobody had raised their eyes from their potion. With a last quick glance at the board, she scurried away to her work station.
"So?"
"Add the rat's tail and stir twice counter clockwise, raise the heat to let boil for thirty seconds, add the grounded dragon claws and take the cauldron off the heat after one minute. Let cool down for fifteen minutes then bottle it."
"Okay. It's been three minutes since we put the last horsehair, so we should prepare the dragons claws. How many?"
"Two ounces. Give me the scale."
"The bowl weights five and a half ounces. What do you think? Three claws? Four claws?"
"We can always grind them one by one," suggested Dahlia. "This way we won't make any losses."
"No," disagreed Susan. "It will do more damages if the powder is not uniform."
"Okay!" She scratched her chin absently, looking at her friend's watch. Twenty minutes. "We'll care about precision later. What's closer, three of four?"
"Uh – three's not enough but four is way too much," she answered after weighting them. "So, four, obviously."
"Okay, put them here." Dahlia handed her the mortar and the pestle. "I'll take care of the rat's tail and the boiling."
Touching a rat's tail was one of the most disgusting thing Dahlia has ever done. It was like a worm, slimy and flabby, but dead. She dropped it in the cauldron without care, stepping back in haste as it started to bubble like crazy. She cast an Incendio to keep the flame hot enough.
"Susan? Ten second," she said worryingly.
"Almost there," the girl muttered. She added a little more powder in the bowl, watching tensely has the scale swayed.
"Five second," she urged her.
"I know, I know!"
"Susan NOW!"
The Hufflepuff dumped all the bowl's contents in the cauldron, not caring anymore about the weight of the dragon's claws. The two girl looked at each other, cringing. The potion was supposed to be pearly white and have the consistency of a pastry cream. Their concoction was yellow, sticky and lumpy. They watched it intensely, hopping that the fifteen minutes of cooling would affect its colour and its texture. Unfortunately, it stayed the way it was. They bottled it with a sigh, expecting a Troll.
A clear failure, by the expression of Professor Snape has he looked down at it. What reassure Dahlia is that no one had the correct result. She saw vials containing potions of all sorts of colours, green, red, blue. Even Ernie, the best in the class, had a grey potion.
"Well, it looks like it's a Troll for everyone," said Professor Snape with an horrible smirk showing his crooked teeth. "Unfortunately, some of you failed slightly less than others, so I'm obliged to give a Dreadful for a few of you." He seemed very unhappy with the idea.
With a wave of his wand, all the little samples of potion flew to his desk and aligned themselves in a neat row. When he turned his back on them, the class took it as a signal that the period was over and everyone started packing their things. Susan went to clean the cauldron at the back of the classroom as Dahlia put the remaining ingredients in the cupboard.
When they were finished, the group practically ran out of the dungeons and into the warmth of the Common Room. Dahlia slipped out of her uniform to put on some comfortable trousers and wool jumper. The Hufflepuff Basement might be warm, but the same could not be said about the hallways of the school. Even the Great Hall, with its four enormous chimneys, could be cold when a storm was raging outside.
Dahlia crashed in a couch by the fire, immediately surrounded by Hannah and Neville. It had been a stressful period for all of them and no one moved a toe when Leah and Aaron came to see them.
"Bad day, firsties?" he teased them. "You are a beautiful mess."
"Shut up," mumbled Justin. "What's worse than double Potions with Professor Snape?"
"Double Potions with Professor Snape and the Gryffindors," replied Leah without missing a beat. "You're lucky, you're with the Ravenclaws. They are calm and they concentrate on the work. But the Gryffindors? They're a ruddy bunch. Always complaining, and whining, and joking. Having the Weasley twins in the same classroom? A nightmare."
"They always experiment with ingredients to create their own prank potions. More often than not, it ends in a disaster and we have to evacuate the room before being intoxicated. They're always pushing and pushing to see when Professor Snape will finally loose his mind and curse them." Aaron sighed. "Sometimes I wish the twins would be given more than detentions."
"What do you mean?" asked Ernie. "Detention is pretty bad on its own. Not that I know," he added quickly.
"In three years here," he explained, "they have already proven that detentions don't affect them. I'm not talking about expulsion or snapping their wand, just take some of their privileges. Their places on the Quidditch team, the weekends at Hogsmeade, these kind of things."
"They're funny," defended Leah. "Life at Hogwarts would be dull without them."
Just as she said those words, Cedric and Simon dropped on the floor beside them.
"Life would be dull without who?"
"The Weasley twins," answered Susan. "Aaron thinks they should have more than detention."
"I totally agree," declared Simon. "Yes, they're funny, but the teachers do more discipline than teaching and it gets boring in the long run."
"More work?" Hannah was dubious. "We're already doing a lot and you want to do more?"
"I know it sounds like the end of the world at eleven years-old, but I want to pass my O.W.L.s and my N.E.W.T.s in seven years, not eight, not nine, not more."
"Speaking of work," Cedric changed the subject," you guys don't have anything to do?"
"One roll of parchment on the Nebulus Charm," groaned Leah. "But it's for Wednesday, so I'm not doing it today. Probably Monday or Tuesday."
"Technically, we have a biography on a famous Animagus to be given before Christmas," said Susan. "But it's Thursday, and we never do anything on Thursday."
"What? Why?"
"We have Astronomy tonight," replied Justin. "Working all the day isn't good."
"Maybe," admitted Aaron, "but you won't have that luxury to do that when you'll start third years. With two more classes, we're crumbling under the tons of homework we have."
"In fact, you have the same amount of free periods for nine classes instead of seven," added Leah. "Ten if you pick three electives like Simon."
"Three electives?" Neville gasped, looking horrified. "Why would anyone want that?"
"Masochistic," coughed Cedric. Said masochistic gave him a playful nudge and he fell from the couch with an indignant yelp.
"Well," an Irish voice drawled behind them, "what did Cedric do to find himself on the ground like that?"
The Celtic trio sat beside the fire, left wet and shivering by the snowstorm raging outside. Fortunately, all the carpets and the couches were charmed to stay dry and clean no matter what was brought into the Common Room. Every students coming from Care of Magical Creature or Herbology didn't have to take off their shoes and their cloaks before entering.
"He called me masochistic," whined Simon. "Just because I chose to take three electives. Eileen, tell them they're wrong."
"So?" She raised a high-arched eyebrow. "I too will take three electives. Care of Magical Creatures, Divination and Ancient Runes."
"You work too hard Eileen." Leah stretched her arms over her head as she leaned on Hannah's legs.
"Family expectations." The Irish witch grimaced. "Divination is nonsense, everyone knows that. Anyway, I'm gonna get changed, I don't want to stay in this stupid uniform for supper. Maisie, Neil?
"Yeah, I'm coming." The young wizard picked his cloak and his gloves from where he had left them by the fire. His sister, still wrapped up in the enormous yellow and black scarf, followed the Pure-blood without a word.
"Do you think Professor Sinistra will be offend if I show up in Astronomy in pyjamas with my cloak?" asked Justin, his eyes closed as he laid his head on Susan's shoulder. As she was taller than him, he barely reached her chin, but he didn't seem to mind.
"I'd rather not. She might be the second youngest teacher, after Professor Snape, but that doesn't mean she'll be more sympathetic to your misbehaviour."
"Third youngest," corrected Leah. "I'm pretty sure Professor Quirrell is younger than her. He must be… mid-thirty? And she's in her forties, unless she has spectacularly unlucky genes."
"Professor Quirrell is in his mid-thirties?" Dahlia was really surprised. "I always thought he was older, he always looks tired and morose."
"He wasn't always like that. Two years ago, he was the Muggle Studies teacher. The fifth-years and upper had him and they say that he was a lively young man," said Simon. "He took a sabbatical year and came back like that, scared of his own shadow."
"Geez, what did he do to in that year?"
"He said that he met vampires in Albania," shrugged Aaron. "Which is totally stupid, since everybody knows that there's no vampires in Albania. They prefer the mountains of the countries in Eastern Europe, like Romania or Bulgaria."
"That's not true," objected Cedric. "Mount Korab still hosts some vampire clans. Dad told me that the Ministries of Albania and Macedonia always quarrel on the vampires' cases."
"They both want them?"
"No, they both don't want them. Dealing with vampires is very hard because they're a very old and very proud specie. Worse than wizards, actually."
"Worse than Malfoy?" snickered Hannah. "I don't believe you."
"It's true," insisted Cedric. "They're the oldest people alive, older than the earliest ghosts. Or undead, if you insist. They think it gives them the right to look down at us."
"Well, if I had thousands of years of knowledge, I would look down at wizards, even someone like Professor Dumbledore," said Justin, still half-asleep.
"If only," sighed the third-year. "These days, all they're doing is fight over territories and food. Sure, there's surely a couple of odd individuals that seek the 'secrets of the world', but as a whole, the vampire specie isn't as advanced as the human race. I guess you could say that they stayed at a level were all that matter to them is blood and gold."
"Wow!"
"Guess they don't have the Ravenclaw vibe."
"Believe it or not, my dad taught me more than Professor Quirrell and that's saying something because half of our classes are on vampires."
"Homework, homework, homework. The bane of my existence." Neil dropped a heavy bag beside the guys. Several textbooks fell on the ground, some so big that Dahlia wondered how the skinny little boy could have carried them all. His twin did the same thing, but only with her, Eileen's and Leah's stuff. "The teachers want to kill us."
"Wait until your fifth year," sniggered Aaron. "Nine O.W.L.s. I pity the prefects."
"Who would want to be prefect, honestly? It's more work, entire evenings wasted on patrolling the hallways, the other students hate you because you're a 'teacher's pet' and if they mess up, you take the blame because you can't maintain discipline. So not the dream job."
"Weasley likes it, I suppose," Cedric shrugged. "It gave him a simulacra of power over the common man."
"Yeah, whatever."
For a long time, all you could hear was the scratching of a quill on a parchment or the light tinkle of the bottles of ink. Dahlia picked up a copy of A History of Magic to try to keep up with the class she missed this morning when she chose to play to Exploding Snap with the others. The Goblin Rebellion of 1752 was a peculiarly hard subject because it occurred during the year when the British Empire adopted the Gregorian calendar and ditched the Julian calendar. Most of the textbooks were dated in Gregorian calendar, but, as wizards are very conservative, a good number of them could be found in Julian calendar. And of course, none of the authors had the idea of indicating what calendar they used. Fortunately, Professor Binns made no difference between the two, as long as she stayed coherent through one assignment.
The supper passed without any disturbances, aside for a half-engaged food fight at the Gryffindor table. The first-years took a collective nap before their Astronomy class. They made a funny sight, walking in the corridors half-awake and dressed in a mismatched uniform, mostly composed of heavy sweater concealed under the black winter cloak.
Dahlia was an absolute mess in Astronomy. For her, all stars in the sky looked the same and she couldn't spot any constellations aside from the Ursa Major. Even Orion's belt and the W of Cassiopeia were invisible to her. She could spend the entire hour searching Sirius, the brightest star of the sky after the Sun. Every time she had to complete a star map, she had a big T on top of the paper.
"Good evening," said Professor Sinistra quietly. "Tonight, we're going to observe Lyra, and more particularly Vega and its place in the Summer Triangle. Take your telescope and aim at the constellation."
She began to distribute blank star charts, moving between the students with elegance and lightness. In fact, everything about her elegant and graceful. Her voice, her look, her demeanour, even her touch reflected the ethereal domain she taught. Her skin was dark like the night sky and her many jewels glittered like the stars.
Dahlia muttered under her breath as she did what she was told. The Astronomy Tower had Warming Charms forming a dome above them, but that didn't mean that they were totally comfortable with taking off their gloves. Her numb fingers struggled to open the bottle of ink, spilling half of it in the process. She kept throwing side glances to the others to see where they had pointed their telescope to imitate them.
"Find the parallelogram in the sky. Vega is just above the highest point. You can't miss her, she's one of the brightest star in the northern hemisphere. From there, trace a diagonal line with your eyes until you find another bright star. This is Deneb or Altair, depending on the direction you took. I want you to map the three constellations, with the name of each principal stars who compose it. Draw the Summer Triangle in a clear, thick line to demonstrate to me that you understood the exercise. You have the hour."
Thirty minutes passed and Dahlia was desperate. All around her, the children were noting feverishly the position of the stars on their map whereas she didn't even find the constellation. At some point, she had thought that she had the right angle and had started to complete her map, only to find out that what she had taken for Vega was in reality Saturn. She didn't even really find out, it was Hannah that pointed it out for her. Her only consolation was that Susan and Ernie also struggled a lot in this class. Astonishing, considering that Pure-bloods usually receive many classes on the subject. In truth, none of her friends could boast a great talent in Astronomy, with perhaps the exception of Simon. Dahlia thanked every deity she knew that talking was not allowed in this class and that Malfoy and his friends could not pick out at her. She wasn't sure if he knew that she was horrible in Astronomy because Professor Sinistra avoided making comments on homework publicly. Another thing she liked was that she didn't meet her parents, as she left school a couple of years before they entered. This way, she never talked to them and did not make any comment on James and Lily Potter.
Dahlia handed her star chart with a grimace. She was sure she would get another T, as she didn't bother to correct her mistake and continued with Saturn as starting point. Too bad. She had higher notes in the homework because learning the characteristics of planets, stars and satellites was easy. All of this could be found in books available in the library.
The group went back to the Common Room, shivering when they left the comfort of the Astronomy Tower and entered the cold hallways. Nobody talked much on the way back, all drained by the long period. Thursday was really the worse day of the week, and they were stuck with this schedule for the rest of the year.
Dahlia got out of her clothes and into her pyjamas as soon as she reached her dormitory. She crashed on her bed, too tired to even try to do her meditation exercises and drifted off to sleep.
Hello everyone!
I wanted to thank you all for your favourite, follow and reviews.
À LambdaOfTheDead : Je n'ai pas vraiment de fréquence de publication particulière, avec l'école et les aléas de la vie. Quand j'ai le temps d'écrire, je n'ai pas l'inspiration, et quand j'ai l'inspiration, je manque de temps avec tous les devoirs que j'ai à faire. Donc, oui, les chapitres devraient sortir aux trois/quatre mois. Merci de ton soutien.
It seems that I can't do a small chapter anymore. Almost 13K word in this one, but writing about the teachers, the other students, magic in general is really fun. I hope you like all the OC I invented, even if they are not that developed. I hesitated for a long time before making an Irish and two Scottish characters, as I know next to nothing of their culture. At some point, you could say that I don't know much about English culture as well, but Canada's culture resembles it a little bit because we are an ancient British colony.
On another topic, I went to see The Crimes of Grinderwald last week. Small reference to Vinda Rosier, she's an interesting character even if she didn't have much screen time. Let's just say that I didn't expect the ending at all. I can't wait to see the next movie, even though it won't come out until 2020.
Next time will be another train ride and Christmas at Wool's Orphanage.
Lady Midnight 10205
