A/N: Wow, I didn't think I'd get this chapter done before Saturday, but I've managed! Sorry if nothing exciting happens, but first school days are rarely sensational. Actually, I'm a bit disappointed hat nobody commented on the names of Fleur's room mates; it took me a long time to find them, too.
Chapter 14 First Impressions
When she woke at dawn, it took Fleur a minute or two to remember where she was. The grey light of early morning was seeping in though her bed hangings. Guiltily she remembered her promise to send Gabrielle an owl about her arrival and the sorting.
"And I completely forgot about it!" she reproached herself.
Judging from the light she believed it must be around six o'clock, way too early for the others to get up. As she remembered, classes started at nine, so everyone would probably start getting up no earlier than half past seven.
Careful not to make any noise, she pulled back the hangings; her roommates were still fast asleep, also Orest, Lyra's parrot, was sitting motionless on his perch above her bed. And indeed, the large clock above the door showed five past six.
Deciding she would most likely not be able to go to sleep again, Fleur thought she could just as well get up. So she got out of bed and picked up her toilet bag and the Hogwarts school uniform that the house elves had set out for her on her trunk at the foot of her bed.
At the same moment, a smaller door appeared next to the large entrance door with the clock above it.
"So this seems to work the same way as in Beauxbatons," she said to herself, satisfied. And when she opened the door, she found herself in a small bathroom, just as she had expected.
After a quick shower, she stood in front of the mirror that said a rather sleepy sounding "Good morning" to her.
The unfamiliar plaited skirt was somewhat irritating and rather ugly, and she found herself thinking fondly of the elegant Beauxbatons uniform. But what was downright annoying as it was so difficult to handle was the bronze and blue tie, - in Beauxbatons they had used silken scarves, - and it was only with some helpful advice from the mirror ("The other end, dear, not the thin one!") that she finally managed.
After she had done her hair, she felt finally ready to face her first school day.
"You look gorgeous, dear," the mirror, which seemed to have woken up by now, told her, "have a very nice day!"
"Merci," Fleur replied, not quite sure if it made sense, but wanting to be polite, nevertheless.
Back in the dormitory, she threw the wide robes around her shoulders, grabbed her book bag and quietly left the dormitory to walk down to the common room, intent on writing the letter she had promised her sister.
Finding the room deserted as she had expected at this time of day, she settled down comfortably at one of the tables and got her writing utensils out of her bag.
"So you were the owl in the crystal ball," a soft voice said behind her, in a matter-of-fact way that did not at all fit the curious statement.
Fleur jumped and turned round.
She did not recognize the big-eyed girl with the straggly dirty-blond mane immediately, but then she remembered.
"Luna! What -?"
"When I was practising Divination during the holidays," Luna told her, "I saw a white owl perched on top of Ravenclaw Tower in my crystal ball, - the one that belonged to my mum, you know, - and I wondered what it meant… But it's obvious, isn't it? So you have learned how to do it."
It was not a question, and Fleur did not bother asking WHAT it was she was supposed to have learned.
"Yes," she admitted.
"You-know-who won't like it," Luna continued quietly. "You better be careful."
She stopped, looking at Fleur's quill and parchment as if she only just had discovered them.
"I can show you up to the owlery, if you want," she told her, as if this sudden chance of subject was the most natural thing in the world. "When you are finished, that is."
"Thank you," Fleur said, looking less than intelligent. "There are just a few more lines…"
After another ten minutes or so, during which Luna was staring absent-mindedly at nothing in particular, fiddling with her necklace of bottle-caps, Fleur had completed her letter and stood up from her chair.
"Fine," Luna said at once, snapping out of her trance-like stance. "Let's go."
Their trip to the owlery was uneventful, and afterwards they decided to go down for breakfast right away, which was why they were among the very first students in the great hall. One of these was Cho.
Again, Fleur was horrified to see the desperate hopelessness in her friend's face, but apart from giving her a warm hug, there was nothing she could think of saying or doing.
"I tend to sleep rather badly these days," Cho said with a weak smile. "But I'm glad to be back again; at least I know he is under the same roof with me… Dumbledore says I'll be allowed to see him this evening… but he warns me there won't-"
She broke off unhappily.
Slowly, the hall started to fill with students. Fleur's room mates said good morning to her in a friendly way, and sat down opposite her and Cho, looking surprised at seeing Luna. With some surprise, Fleur noticed that Lyra had her parrot sitting on her shoulder, but as nobody seemed to find this in any way remarkable she did not mention it.
When Harry entered, he went over to Fleur immediately.
"Hi," he said, smiling and putting a hand on her shoulder. "How was your first night as a real Hogwarts student?"
"Great," she replied, giving his hand a squeeze. "Will I see you after breakfast?"
"You bet!"
If Fleur's room mates were astonished at Harry's appearance, they did not show it. Presently the dishes materialised on the tables and he returned to the Gryffindor table.
Naturally, the breakfast was an English Breakfast, with capital letters, as Fleur thought: the full range of bacon and eggs, baked beans, grilled tomatoes, and the particularly loathsome sausages that, in Fleur's opinion tasted like sawdust, - not that she had ever tasted sawdust, of course. She noticed with a slight shudder how greedily most of the students attacked these unwholesome products.
"You don't seem too happy with our house elves' endeavours," Aurora, who was heartily stuffing herself with crispy slices of bacon, said when she watched Fleur nibbling a piece of toast and helping herself to a bowl of yoghurt and cereals. "How will you survive the day if you don't eat properly?"
"I'm sorry," Fleur replied, "I'm just not used to this kind of food, especially not in the morning; just the thought of it…"
After breakfast, the heads of house went round handing out the timetables. It was the first time Fleur saw Professor Flitwick up close, and she was surprised how VERY short he was.
"Ah, Miss Delacour," he said when he reached Fleur. "Welcome to Ravenclaw House, I do hope you will like it here. As your, albeit only temporary, head of house, I assure you that you can always turn to me should you be in need of any assistance whatsoever."
And he handed her the parchment with her lesson schedule.
"Let's see," Cal said, leaning over towards her. "Charms to begin with, that's a nice start, Shall I show you the classroom?"
"Yes, please, but-" she blushed, "I'll have to-"
"Meet up with Harry Potter," Cal finished with a big smile. "I'll wait for you."
In the commotion at the doors, however, with all the students seeing to leave at the same time, it was not so easy to find Harry, and when she did at last, they were stuck in the flow of students moving towards their classrooms; so there was just the opportunity for a quick kiss on his cheek, and a short touch of hands, before they were swept apart.
When the crowds started to disperse, Fleur caught sight of Calliope and Lyra, who apparently had only just now came up to the doors from the Ravenclaw table.
"You'll learn about this soon," Cal said, grinning at her. "Everybody is always trying to get out at the same time; it's the best thing to wait until all the hubbub has slowed down before you even get up from the table. Now let's go to our class."
"What about the others?"
"The three of us are the only ones in NEWT Charms," Lyra told her. "Bella and Aurora have only got four NEWT classes, and Charms isn't one of them. How many are you taking?"
"Six."
"Us, too. Seems we are the brainy ones," Cal said with a chuckle. "But now let's go along, it doesn't look good if we are late for the very first lesson of the school year."
They soon found the classroom, and sat down next to each other. Fleur looked around and noticed to her dismay that Roger Davis was among the other students. Their eyes met for a brief instant, but they both looked away at once, and Fleur put all her will power into keeping from blushing. There were twelve students in all, five Ravenclaws (Fleur and her two room mates, Roger and another boy she did not know), three Gryffindors and Slytherins each, and one Hufflepuff girl.
Only a minute or two after they had taken their seats, Professor Flitwick entered, and walked up to his desk, behind which, as Fleur noticed, there was a kind of platform, so that the tiny professor could look at the class from behind the desk.
"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen," the professor began cheerfully. I am indeed glad there seem to have been no accidents and other untoward events during your holidays and to see you all back in good health… Let me especially welcome you in this class, Miss Delacour; I trust you will find these lessons not only informative but also enjoyable. Should you encounter any difficulties concerning the tasks and topics of this class, please be sure to let me know so we can look for remedies. I am convinced the other members of this course will be prepared to assist you wherever they can."
"Look at those Slytherins," Fleur whispered to Cal. "Am I being paranoid, or are they really grinning and looking at me in that lewd way?"
"Ah, they are Slytherins, what do you expect?"
"Let us start this final year of our course revising the basics about the wide and varied field of Charms," the professor continued, apparently unaware of the Slytherins' behaviour.
"Now, when we talk about charms, what are we actually talking about?"
The Hufflepuff girl's arm shot up.
"Yes, Miss Reed?"
"Charms in the widest sense of the word," the girl rattled off eagerly, obviously reciting some memorised sentence, "are all manipulations of the physical or psychical world by the use of magic."
"That's right," Flitwick said, "and we won't go into the definition of magic here, much as I am convinced we could have a fascinating discussion about it… So, basically, perhaps with the exception of potions, all skills you can learn here in this noble school are charms. For the purposes of this course, however, we use the more specific meaning of the term, which is- yes, Mr. Davis?"
"Causing objects to behave in a way they would not normally, if left in their normal state," Roger Davis said.
I really am getting paranoid, he CAN'T be looking at me now.
"Correct, Mr. Davis. And that does not only apply to things, it also includes people… Now, from this, it follows that the term charms is a euphemism, too positive. Why is that?"
"Obviously because you can use charms for good or evil purposes," Lyra said in what sounded a rather bored voice, without even waiting for the professor to call her. "It's like any tool; a knife, for example, is harmless enough if you use it to cut bread, but we all know what other things you can do with knives… and it's the same with charms, of course."
If Flitwick did not approve of Lyra's behaviour, he did not show it, but went on.
"Excellent; and therefore I cannot repeat it often enough: You have to be very careful with charms, and need to think about all the consequences and side effects. Now, as you all know, the two areas of charms are-"
"The physical world and the human mind," came from a Gryffindor girl.
"Right, Miss Bell. Now, we have covered charms dealing with the physical world practically since your very first year at Hogwarts, - remember Wingardium Leviosa? – as they are by far the easier to learn, just a question of getting the wand movements and the incantation right. Many of these spells even have their counterparts in muggle technology, as you know; muggles can make things fly, too, perhaps even better than we can… The really difficult sort of charms, however, are those concerned with the human mind; and these are going to be the subject of this, your final, year."
He paused for a moment, letting this information sink in. Clearly, some of the students had not expected this.
"But, sir," the Hufflepuff girl meekly raised her hand, "isn't this… I mean…"
She stopped, embarrassed.
Professor Flitwick smiled.
"Isn't this dangerous, you mean, Miss Reed? Yes, it definitely is. It even involves one of the Unforgivable Curses… And if things had not turned out as they did at the end of last year, then perhaps I would not have put this subject matter on the curriculum of my final year NEWTs class-"
There was a commotion among some of the students, especially the Slytherins. Flitwick waited patiently for it to calm down.
"I know what you are thinking," he then told his class. "There are opinions, - and the media have contributed their fair share, - suggesting that the events were just accidents, and therefore nothing to worry about… I cannot even claim that these opinions are downright wrong – things often are different from what they seem… But there is at least a chance that the reports about You-know-who may be correct, and even if that chance was only minimal, this school is obliged to provide each and every piece of education that can help its students to prevail in such a struggle. Therefore, …"
He waved his wand at the blackboard, and writing appeared on it.
"… this is the subject matter which you are going to deal with in this year."
Fascinated, the students stared at the board.
Theory of mental manipulation
The role of feelings as opposed to rational thought
The Subconscious
Manipulation of Moods
Manipulation of Feelings
Manipulation of Behaviour
Legilimency
The Imperius Curse
There was a soft gasp when the students realised the implications of the last line.
"But, sir," said the shy Hufflepuff girl again, "do you really mean to teach us Imperius?"
"I'm quite aware, Miss Reed,
that Imperius is an Unforgivable Curse," Professor Flitwick replied, and it seemed to Fleur that there was an impatient undertone in his voice, "and you will just learn the basic theory behind it. Then, we will have a very thorough screening to determine if any of this class possesses the required stamina and moral fibre to be taught the practical side of it. And of course, there will be no practical testing of Imperius for the NEWTs exams."
An idea had been troubling her for the last few minutes, and so Fleur raised her hand slowly.
"Yes, Miss Delacour?" Flitwick said happily.
"Professor," she began hesitantly, "isn't all this very one-sided? I mean, all this seems to be – how do I say it? – offensive; we do not really expect to use these charms or curses, do we? WE-"
"I know exactly what you mean, Miss Delacour, and five points to Ravenclaw for bringing it up; you are inquiring about the defensive aspect, and I could not agree more that it is the far more important part. And therefore we are going to cooperate very closely with the Defence Against the Dark Arts course. In fact, the subject matter will be sort of a mirror to ours. All of you are also taking DADA for their NEWTs, so there is no problem with regard to the finals, Insteadeither."
He waved his wand at the board again, and a longish paragraph entitled theoretical principles of manipulation appeared.
"Now, before we really begin this year's course, it will be necessary to revise the generalised basics of what you have become acquainted with during the years…"
The rest of the lesson passed with the students copying items from the blackboard and the professor asking the occasional question to make sure each of them was following and understood what was going on. To her relief, fleur found that she was perfectly familiar with all the required subject matter and could follow the course of the lesson easily enough.
Soon enough the lesson was finished, and Flitwick said,
"For a homework-"
He smiled as he saw the faces of his students and went on, correcting his wording:
"Instead of a written homework, I should say, will you please revise the ten charms you have learned through the past six years that you believe are most important or practical use. Be prepared to demonstrate them and also to explain why you think they are especially important. I wish you all a very successful school year."
With these words, the class was dismissed.
"What's your first impression, then?" Lyra asked Fleur, as they walked out of the classroom.
"He seems a nice enough teacher," Fleur said, "of course there isn't much I can say, but he should be easy enough to get on with."
"Wait until you meet old Snape…" Calliope remarked darkly.
A/N: Ok, I'm just going to grab HBP tomorrow morning, and then I'll be on holiday for three weeks, with no computer anywhere near – yes, there are such parts of the world. I wis you all a very great time reading!