Song for this chapter: A Decade Under The Influence by Taking Back Sunday
I probably waited a good thirty minutes for the dorm advisor to arrive, and I found myself wondering if it would be out of place for me to just take my guitar out and play it while I waited. It had been worth it to pay for the extra baggage, but now that I had it here I wasn't sure if it would bother the other people for me to play it.
When she finally did arrive I saw that she was one of the prettiest women I had ever met. She looked to be about twenty-five but I opted not to ask. She had jet-black hair that fell to her waist, and warm tan skin. I thought she might be an Indian, but again opted not to ask. Her eyes were a strange yet beautiful jade green and she had clear skin. It did appear that American girls dressed a bit racier than British girls, but I simply averted my eyes from her low cut top and stood to introduce myself.
"Hello, I'm Bianca Potter," I said as I offered my hand for a handshake.
"They said we were getting a Potter this summer," she said in a soft almost ethereal voice. "I'm Sara Locklear. I'll be your dorm advisor during your stay. I would advise you to refrain from giving our your last name whilst here. You're obviously a bit of a celebrity and it could make your stay a bit… shall we say, busy, if the other girls were to know who was among them."
"Oh… ok," I said. "I didn't really think people outside of England knew who I was."
"Oh sweetie, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was known over in the states as well," she chuckled. "So of course your family story is quite famous over here. Yours is more in vogue at the moment since the world only recently found out that you didn't die after all."
"Oh… I guess that makes sense," I said dumbly.
"I would just say your first name, and if someone actually asks for your last name just make one up," she suggested. "But I should show you where you will be sleeping. You're one of the only girls who won't have to have a roommate this summer."
She led me into one of the small rooms at the back, and I saw that it was set up to accommodate two people, but only one of the beds had any linins on it. There was also a desk and a small bookshelf as well as a closet that I discovered had a chest of drawers inside when I opened it. I leant my bags against the linen-less bed and put my jacket on the back of the desk chair as Sara left the room.
I unzipped my suitcase and started pulling out my clothes and putting them away in the drawers. When everything was in its rightful place I took out my books as well as the few trinkets I had brought with me and set them up on the bookshelf. I put my parchment, quills, and inkwells on the desk and walked back out into the common area.
There still weren't any other girls around, so I went over to one of the shelves in the common room and started looking at what was on them. There were a few books but they looked like they were for entertainment, and then there were exploding snap cards, a gobstones set, and several chess games. I wondered to myself if these games were still here during the year when adults attended the school. I was lost in thought, imagining what the school was like then, when the door popped open and several girls came inside. They all looked to be in their late teens, and didn't pay me much attention. I turned to say hello and one of the older looking girls gave me a quelling look and muttered something to her friend about how she couldn't believe they were letting such young students attend this summer. It made me decided I might not want to introduce myself after all.
I chose instead to go back to my room and listen to the wizarding wireless radio had I had brought along with me, and started working on a letter to Cedric. I wrote about the flight, and the interesting customs for enter a new country, as well as all of the people I had met so far. I told how weird it was to think people in America had heard of me, and just how weird it still felt to be a person that people heard about in the first place. I thought about writing about how the other girls didn't seem very nice, but thought better of it, and said instead that I hadn't gotten to know people very well yet, but hoped I would make friends soon. When I had signed the letter it occurred to me that I would have to figure out how post worked here, but I simply set the letter aside and began penning a similar one for Albus.
When I was done I climbed into bed and fell asleep quickly. My dreams were plagued with a cheesecake that kept chasing me and trying to smother me. When I woke up I only felt slightly more rested. It felt like it should only now be nighttime, but it was morning so I drug myself out of bed. I hurried through my morning routine, opting for a pair of khaki capris and a light sweatshirt so I could be covered for warm or cool weather. I threw my hair into a ponytail and stepped out into the common area.
It looked like all of the girls were gathered in the common area, so I joined the group listening to the conversations to see if anyone else knew what was going on. I gathered that today would start with an orientation event, and we would get our class schedules before brunch, and start into our lessons after.
Sara bound into the room with a beaming smile and told us all to follow her to the auditorium. We went back to the same entrance hall I had flood in to yesterday, and went through a set of large wooden doors that had been painted black and somehow looked much more modern than the doors at Hogwarts despite appearing to be the same basic door shape. The room beyond looked like a huge theatre with comfortable seats. We followed Sara and set in a group next to a group of girls that must be from a different dorm.
After everyone was seated April came on stage, and talked about what a privilege it was for everyone to be here. I twisted guiltily in my seat when I realized that these other students had applied and had to compete against students from all over the globe to get into this program when I had gotten in from a letter written by my adoptive father. I supposed that meant he had more clout than I knew, and focused back on what she was saying. The courses would be rigorous and we would be challenged to out full extent. The six-week course would teach us as much as a full year of school could, but we would have to do the required work to get the proper benefits.
We would be broken into teams of specific study groups. Apparently each student had applied with a specific group in mind, but I was at a complete loss myself. There would be a team for transfiguration, potions, charms, arithmancy, runes, astronomy, herbology, and one team would be working on all subjects. She informed us that our teams would be listed at the top of our schedules and that would be the group of students we would be working with all summer. She also informed us that we would be taught this summer by the leading experts in each field and that the proper respect should be shown to the faculty in residence this summer. I immediately began to wonder who each person would be, but I really knew nothing of the academic wizarding world, or the muggle one to be fair.
When we were dismissed, Sara took our group on a tour of the school, which was quite confusing, and I was glad that she gave us each a map of the campus. The school, while modern in appearance, seemed to have more trick hallways and staircases than Hogwarts. It was as if the building had a mind of its own, but the map was like a cheat sheet to get through all the magical madness. After we had our maps she led us to the dining hall, which was near the theatre, she gave us our class schedules, and told us to enjoy our meal. I tucked my schedule under my arm as I went through the food line, grabbing a fruit bowl and finding a small table in the corner.
Once I was seated I pulled out my schedule to look at it and saw that I had been placed in the last team that had the somewhat boring title of general magics. That was the perfect team for me, as I had missed all of my classes while I was petrified, but it did make me feel as if I did not have a subject in which I excelled. For the first time in my life I began to wonder what my wizardry calling was. I saw that I would have two hours of transfiguration this afternoon, and then the next day I would have three more lessons of the same length.
I ate a few pieces of fruit from my bowl, but then I decided to toss the rest. I hurried back to my dorm so I could grab my bag, and when I saw that I had half an hour left before I needed to head to class I decided to get a few crunches and lunges in. After I had done 200 of each I freshened myself up and grabbed my bag. I followed the map as closely as I could, and wandered about the hallways for a bit until I found the room I was looking for. There were only three other students in the room when I got there, and they gave me small smiles but didn't make much conversation with me.
Through eavesdropping, I discovered that two of the girls were friends, and had been amazed to both make it into the program this summer after two unsuccessful attempts. It sounded like they felt honored to be allowed to study multiple topics, and that made me curious about how the system here worked. I started to think I might be in over my head and need to really buckle down to live up to the honor that was apparently being given to me. I didn't have long to think about it before the transfiguration professor entered and I had to stifle a gasp under a cough. It was actually McGonagall. I had no idea she taught somewhere else during the summer!
"Good afternoon. I understand that you are the general magics team," she said with a slight nod. "My name is Professor McGonagall, and though others might give you special status for being admitted into such a team, I will not. I expect nothing from the best from all of you. Is that clear?"
There were murmurs of assent from all of us before she continued.
"This summer we will be covering advanced transfiguration for young witches, and I expect you to seek me out if you are falling behind. I will not pity any student who waits until sixth week to let me know they are confused." She said sternly. "When the last week rolls around you will be tested on what you have learned, and if you do not pass, you will not receive your certificate of completion from this school. Even if you pass all of your other exams."
I heard a grumble from the other girls about the sternness of the British teachers, but I felt more at home knowing that I was going to be in the company of one of my old teachers.
After she had finished her lecture, she set us to work on transfiguring our desks into dogs. She went over the finer points of imagining how the dog would look, and the proper pronunciation of metemorcanis. But then we were essentially on our own. By the end of the two-hour session none of us had been successful. One girl had succeeded in giving her table a mouth that could bark, another had fur growing in patches on her table which had shrunken in size, and the third's had shrunken to the size of a Pekinese and had sprouted a wooden tail. I had managed to get my table to grow fur and a tail, and it was moving like a lethargic dog, but it was still mostly table.
She gave us homework to perfect the spell before our next meeting on Friday and then she sent us on our way. I went back to the dorm and put my things away before changing into a pair of running shorts and a sports bra. I could hear the students talking about how it was dinnertime, so I threw on a sweatshirt over my sports bra and went down to join everyone else. I made myself a cob salad and grabbed a bottle of water before heading over to the same corner table I had sat at during breakfast. I had been sitting for a few minutes mostly picking at my salad when a girl sat down at my table. I looked up at her, and saw that she had brown hair and brown eyes, she was very skinny with pale white skin and seemed sort of shy.
"Hello," I said softly. "My name is Bianca, who are you?"
"Hi," she said with a sweet smile. "My name is Betsy. I'm from Washington. Where are you from?"
"I'm from London," I answered quickly. "Washington is on the other side of the States right?"
"Yeah," she nodded. "It's on the other coast, but I don't much care for the ocean. I live in the middle of the state, where it's rainy."
"I can relate to that," I laughed. "It rains quite a lot in London too."
"Isn't it nice to be in the sunshine here?" she chuckled. "I'm just glad to be at a school for a bit. I'm homeschooled back home, and it's odd to only see other magical people when I go out shopping."
"I think this might be smaller than my school in terms of attendance, but I really like the campus a lot," I admitted while still pondering the idea of homeschooling. "Plus it's an opportunity to leave England which is pretty exciting."
Betsy and I enjoyed pleasant conversation while we ate. I discovered that she was sixteen, and that she thought the other girls were a bit pretentious as well. I invited her to come running with me after our meal out of politeness, but she was surprisingly eager to accept the invitation. She needed to change, so she went back to her dorm, which was on the other side of the courtyard from mine. She came out with a tiny little wizarding wireless radio and headphones to show me. She told me we should get one from me as soon as we could so that I could use it while running before taking it back to her room so she wouldn't feel like she was ignoring me.
We decided to make two laps around the campus to equal a five-mile run while we were stretching. We took off, and I quickly discovered that Betsy was much more fit than me, and I really had to push myself to keep up with her. I kept my gaze on her as I ran behind her, and it dawned on me that she was much thinner than me as well. I wondered if she would let me know her secret to staying thin, because I distinctly remembered seeing her an entire BLT at dinner complete with chips and a soda.
Betsy and I quickly fell into a routine that week. We didn't have any classes together since she was on the Runes team, but we had all of our meals together. We worked out together early each morning and after dinner before separating for the night to complete all of our homework. By the second week, I had caught on to how Betsy was staying so thin, and I wasn't so sure I wanted to follow in her footsteps. It seemed she was regurgitating what food she was eating and I thought I might rather just keep counting my calories and lowering my intake. It seemed much healthier to me. Betsy and I became close as the weeks went on, and we began to depend on each other when it came to our diet and exercise routines. It was my job to reminder he to color code her binges, and he job to slap my hand if I reached for chips instead of celery at the dinning hall.
Classes were almost as challenging as trying to drop the stubborn weight. Especially with the discover that another one of my professors was teaching here, and while I was proud to know that two of the leading experts in magical fields taught at my school, I was not entirely pleased to spend six weeks of my summer taking even more grueling potions lessons than usual. Professor Snape seemed to hate me even more here, though luckily he seemed to be restraining his vicious tongue to a certain extent. One of the American girls thought he was attractive despite his firm demeanor and frankly I thought she was insane. I was actually momentarily amused to realize that his opening speech was the very same one he had used to intimidate all of us as first years at Hogwarts. Except that he removed any name-calling, and somehow it seemed impressive rather than scary.
Perhaps part of that was simply my age. I did have to admit that his own age was impressive actually, I hadn't really thought about it, but I heard the other girls talking about how he was the youngest master in his field, by more than 40 years. For him to be that much younger than everyone else and be the leading intellect was insanely impressive… but it was Snape so he would just verbally abuse me if I were to compliment him on it… which I wouldn't, because… Snape.
The classes flew by, and before I knew it I could transfigure anything into a dog, button, cauldron or chair. I could brew seven different antidotes as well as a mild sleeping potions and calming draught. I learned to decipher several different ancient Rune tablets. Though I had to admit that it was the subject I struggled most with. I learned a cheering charm, a bubblehead charm, a summoning charm, and a charm that allowed me to make books fly like birds, though I couldn't remember the technical name for it to save my life. I wasn't sure exactly what I had learned in arithmancy, and I decided that if I had a choice to never take the class again I would take it. I had learned a much more extensive lunar charting method in astronomy, but I had a feeling the Hogwarts program was more advanced than the one here. I probably had the most fun in my herbology classes. I learned about the rest of caring for mandrakes, how to care for the vampire lotus, proper gnome removal techniques, and extensive magical wood properties which I found most fascinating.
After the six weeks of the course, I had also managed to lose twenty pounds. I was now five feet five inches weighing 105 pounds, and while I was happy to have hit the goal I set at the end of the school year, I recognized that I still had some work to do.
There was a sort of graduation ceremony for all of us after we had all taken our exams. There was one girl from my dorm who had not passed one of her tests, and she was red eyed and grumpy while everyone else received their certificates. It was actually an interesting little diploma. It could be hung on the wall, and configured to set itself up on a desk, or even rolled up and hidden for those who wished to be a bit more discreet about where they had spent their summer.
I accepted my certificate, exchanged mailing addresses with Betsy, packed my things, and I was on my way to the airport once more. The flight back was much less exciting, and I didn't feel guilty about falling asleep on all of my flights. I stumbled groggily off the place and went to claim my baggage. I had barely pulled my suitcase off the conveyor belt when I heard Albus calling my name. I spun around and I was greeted with one of his sparkling smiles. I really couldn't help myself, no matter how tired I felt, I ran over to hug him.
"How was your summer?" he asked jovially, but I thought I noticed a shadow cross his features as he was pulling away from the hug.
"It was amazing!" I gushed. "Did you know they have a holiday call the Forth of July, or Independence Day? I probably shouldn't have liked it since it was all about getting liberate from England, but it was so cool. They had fireworks, and all sorts of things. I even sort of wrote a song about it. Do you want to hear it when we get home?"
"I would love that," he said sincerely as he led me outside.
Rather than taking public transit again he led me sneakily into a sort of alley outside of the terminal, shrunk my luggage down so it would fit in my pockets, and then offered me his hand. We did slide-along apparition into our home. He returned my luggage to regular size for me, and I had him re-enlarge the trunk I had purchased in a wizarding shop near the school since I could no longer do magic until school started again.
Then I put off unpacking, and pulled out my guitar and followed Albus into the living room where he was sitting by the fire holding some pamphlets. I asked him what they were, but he assured me he would tell me as soon as he heard my new song. I sat down and hurried through retuning my guitar and started to play.
.
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(the lyrics for Firework by Katy Perry can be found on google)
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Albus clapped enthusiastically at the end like he always did, but then he asked me if I had given any real though or consideration to singing for performance. I told him I hadn't thought about it much, and we moved on to the pamphlets he was holding. It was time for me to choose what classes I would be taking when school started. Apparently the other students had picked theirs during the school year, but I clearly hadn't been able to do that. I thumbed through the many career pamphlets, and voiced that I was interested in becoming a wand maker. So Albus helped me pick the classes best suited for that outcome. In the end I would be taking potions, transfiguration, charms, herbology, care of magical creates, arithmancy, ancient runes, and astronomy. Personally I thought I should be able to drop arithmancy and astronomy from the list, as I didn't see how they related to wand making, but Albus was insistent. We filled the form out with those classes checked, and sent it off via owl to Hogwarts where McGonagall would end up filing it.