SUMMARY: First of Granger Witch Trials series; A few short days before her 11th birthday, Ophelia Granger recieves a letter and a visit from a teacher from a magical school. This changes everything. Slowburn Sirius/OC; Marauders ERA
YEAR 1, CHAPTER THREE: CLASSES AND OTHER THINGS
Ophelia woke up easily the night after the sorting. She'd always been an early riser and after she'd been chosen to be the unlucky girl to have the closest bed to the large windows, she purposely made sure that the light would hit her face first thing in the morning. Glancing over with a yawn, she saw three other girls either half asleep or completely dead to the world. Alice, who'd been sorted into Gryffindor and NOT Hufflepuff to the girl's dismay, was snoring with slightly opened eyes while Marlene was buried underneath mounds of blankets and Lily snored like a great brown bear amid winter.
Ophelia snickered at the thought and yawned while stumbling towards the bathroom with a cluster of clothes in her arms. She showered quickly and dressed in uniform before sneaking downstairs where, to her surprise, she found Remus Lupin and James Potter.
"Up already, Lia?" James asked cheerfully.
"Too excited," She admitted to him, fingering the apple wand in her sleeve. "What about you?"
"Sirius snores," James scowled.
"Not too terribly," Remus said, glancing from his book to grin, "But enough to wake anyone up."
"Oh, I'm Ophelia by the way," Ophelia said quickly, offering the scarred boy her hand and a smile.
"Remus Lupin," Remus replied with a shy smile. "It's nice to meet you. What classes do you think we'll have today?"
"I'm hoping Charms or maybe Transfiguration," Ophelia said. "Both sound interesting." Remus nodded quickly and went back to his book. He reminded her of her mother, Juliet, who could often go hours of reading without noticing her surroundings.
"Do you know when we get our class schedule?" Ophelia wandered towards James. He shrugged and stretched out his legs before standing.
"I think at breakfast," He said with a yawn. "I was gonna wait for Sirius but he's taking a while."
"Peter too," Remus said half-heartedly, eyes locked onto his book.
"Yeah, all the other girls-" Ophelia started but was abruptly cut off by loud steps on the stairs and two groggy voices.
"We're up," Lily cried out, smoothing down wild red locks. Marlene was right behind her, trying to smooth out her blonde curls and behind her was Alice, yawning and looking exhausted.
"Is you shirt backwards?" James asked Alice. She looked down and sighed.
"I'll meet you guys at the Great Hall," She said grumpily and began marching back up to their dorm room.
"We're gonna wait for Sirius and Peter," James said, squeezing Ophelia's shoulders. "See you at breakfast!"
Ophelia's lips quirked up when she saw Lily's distasteful look as the taller redhead grabbed her by the arm and began to yank her away from James and towards the entrance of the Gryffindor common room. Even as Lily began to mutter angry curses under her breath about James, Ophelia's mind was focused on their walk to the Great Hall. Her eyes widened at the paintings moving about, slipping in and out of frames easily and she held back a squeal (whereas Marlene could not) as a slender ghost slid through a wall and out another. Across the room, she saw the two redheaded boys from before on a moving staircase and saw them running after the school poltergeist that their prefects, Molly Prewitt and Jacob Winsley, had warned them about.
"Are you listening, Phel?" Marlene asked, nudging Ophelia.
"No, sorry," Ophelia said sheepishly, turning her attention back to them. She pushed her glasses up with a finger and batted her eyelashes innocently. "This is all so amazing."
"Isn't it?" Lily sighed dreamily. "I hope we have Charms today, or Potions!"
"Ugh, I hate Potions," Marlene complained loudly. "Mum always makes me help her."
Ophelia blinked and then remembered their half-asleep conversation the night before. Unlike Ophelia and Lily, Marlene was a pureblood from an ancient wizarding family and Alice was a half-blood. Both girls had grown up surrounded by magic so it would make sense that they would know more about it.
"She's a Potion Mistress," Marlene added. "Brilliant, of course, but then again she was a Ravenclaw. She was hoping I'd be a Raven but I took after Dad. He was a Quidditch star when he was in Hogwarts."
"Really?" Ophelia asked, a smile appearing on her face when the topic of Quidditch was brought up.
"Yup," Marlene nodded. "He was the Keeper. I'd like to try out for Beater. They have the most fun."
"Seeker sounds amazing," Ophelia sighed, "But I don't know if I'd be any good at it."
"You never know unless you try," Lily tutted but paused, "But that sport sounds barbaric. I'd never play. Can first-years even try out?"
"Yes, but they're not often chosen," Marlene said with a shrug, grinning as they finally made it to the Great Hall. Ophelia was just glad that they hadn't been trapped on a moving staircase. "It'd still be fun to try out."
"Morning," Molly Prewitt waved, a warm smile on her face as they took seats a few spots away from her. Next to her was her boyfriend, Arthur Weasley, who had an odd fixation on muggle things.
"Good morning," Lily said politely.
"By Magic," Arthur cried out, nose deep into a magazine, "Muggles are fascinating. Have you ever heard of anything called elektricity?"
"No, sweetheart," Molly said patiently. "Eat your bacon."
"Alright," Arthur replied, absentmindedly chewing on bacon while he kept his nose in the muggle magazine.
Ophelia held back a giggle and began to fill up her plate with nearly everything on the table. Bacon, some sausage links, eggs, toast, some fruit, and other strange wizarding foods she was too cautious to try. As she began to coat her toast in a good helping a blackberry jelly, she heard steps behind her until she was handed a piece of paper by Professor McGonagall.
"We'll take Alice's too, professor," Lily said politely.
"Very well," McGonagall said.
"Thank you," They all echoed and began to look over their schedules as she walked away to give out more schedules to the oncoming boys.
"Double Herbology with the Claws," They heard James groan. "Course it's Herbology first."
"What, you don't enjoy getting your hands dirty, Potter?" Lily spat towards him, glowering at him.
Ophelia groaned and secretly thought to herself that she'd have to deal with her two friends fighting until they graduated because of James' blatant hatred of Slytherins. James, sitting two seats away from them, glared just as darkly at Lily.
"Oh, and you do, Evans?" James snorted loudly.
"In fact I do," Lily sniffed. "I love gardening. I have my own flower garden at home, but I'm sure you know nothing about that."
Ophelia grimaced at the hurt look on James' face and cut in before either first year could say anything. "Guys, stop it. Please. We're going to be in the same house for the next seven years, can we try to get along?"
Lily gave an angry huff and before anyone could say anything else, the redhead was on her feet and storming off. Ophelia looked over the Great Hall and caught Severus' eyes. He was sitting with Lucius Malfoy and two other boys that Ophelia couldn't recall. With an unspoken agreement between their eyes, the two stood up and started for Lily.
"What was that about?" Severus asked as he caught up with Ophelia.
"She got in a tiff with James again," Ophelia sighed, pausing at a set of two staircases. "We have Herbology in thirty minutes," She sighed. "Think I've got time to find her?"
"She might be on her way already," Severus mused, "She loves gardening."
"I'll meet her there, I guess," Ophelia shrugged but she nibbled on her lip nervously, unconsciously fiddling with her glasses. "H-How's Slytherin?"
"Amazing," Severus said, a big grin on his face. It was sort of strange to see but inwardly Ophelia was glad that he wasn't taking anything that James had said on the train to heart. "And my dormmates aren't bad either."
"Who are they?" Ophelia asked curiously.
"Lucius Malfoy, Arius Nott, Argus Parkinson and Damien Zabini." Severus said, his shoulders relaxing. "They're alright."
Ophelia gave him a small smile before glancing at the stairs again. "I'd best be off to Herbology then." She sighed. "I'll see you later, alright?" Severus gave a quick nod and stiffly walked back toward the Great Hall.
With a shake of her head, Ophelia made her way to her dorm to grab her bag which held her books, parchment, and quills and then started the long walk towards the Greenhouse. By the time she'd reached it, the only students there were Professor Reye and a skinny Ravenclaw girl.
"Good morning," Professor Reye, a tall and vibrant woman with pinned-up grey hair and wire glasses.
"Good morning, professor." Ophelia said, taking a seat near the other girl. "Hi, I'm Ophelia Granger." She offered her hand to the girl.
The Ravenclaw girl had pitch-black hair that curled around her face and olive green eyes. Her uniform was pressed to perfection and her posture was perfect. "Evelyn Giannotti," Evelyn said shyly. "Muggleborn? I've never heard the name Granger."
"Muggleborn," Ophelia confirmed. "Are you a pureblood?"
"Yes," Evelyn nodded. "But my family is originally from Italy. My Mama is English and insisted on Hogwarts. She was also a Ravenclaw."
"I quite like Hogwarts already," Ophelia said, a small smile on her face. "But then again, magic is very new and interesting to me."
Their conversation halted as more students, including a much calmer-looking Lily, began to fill into the room. Marlene and Lily sat in between her and another girl in blue robes took a seat near Evelyn. The class began and Ophelia was disappointed by the not so magical or interesting. Still, she paid close attention to Professor Reye and her apprentice, a plump girl named Pomona Sprout that had graduated a year before. And the arguing between James and Lily didn't stop. By the time that the class had ended, Ophelia's head was aching.
"Boy, they just don't stop," Marlene groaned as she walked out with Ophelia, arm in arm.
"No, they don't," Ophelia sighed, pressing her fingers against her temples. "I've got a headache now." She grumbled. Marlene held a giggle back as they began to walk back to the school.
And that's how the day passed by. Ophelia threw herself into the magical studies, greedily learning more and more as the minutes turned into hours and trying (without success) to ignore James and Lily's epic fights. In Muggle Studies, they began a stupid fight about whether technology was better than magic. Then in Study Hall, in the Library, they got into a fight about Charms and Transfiguration. Lunch was thankfully quiet but when Potions finally arrived, Ophelia had a feeling that a terrible fight was about to go down.
Potions were in the dungeons and the room it was held in was cold and damp. Ophelia managed to steal a seat by the front of the class and next to her was quickly taken by Sirius, to her displeasure.
"I hate Potions," Sirius grumbled under his breath, but his eyes were locked onto James who was sitting next to Remus near Lily. Lily had the seat next to her saved and her eyes were watching the Slytherin students approach, obviously looking for Severus.
"This is not going to end well," Ophelia muttered under her breath.
"Hmm?" Sirius asked, grey-blue eyes not locked onto her.
Ophelia didn't bother with him, instead of looking at Lily's gleeful smile as Severus finally walked in with two boys. The first she recognized as Lucius Malfoy with his arrogant gate, silky blonde hair, and grey eyes. The second boy was shorter and more rat-like with a long nose, beady green eyes, and short hair. Ophelia felt her shoulders sag as she watched Severus nearly skip over to Lily and James' expression turn dark.
"I don't think this is gonna end well either," Sirius muttered, his eyes watching his friend.
Before anyone could do anything, Ophelia looked up to see a very tall and ancient man storm into the room, his robes aflutter. Long white hair fell around his face, cold green eyes narrowed dangerously. His robes were stylish and formal, the color of deep navy blue.
"Sit down, sit down," The man said grumpily. "My name is Professor Richard Graves. I will be taking over for Professor Slughorn this year while he is abroad. I won't have any foolishness in my class and if I spot one-" He paused, freezing at the sight of James. "Ah, Charlus' boy, are you not?"
"Yes," James said proudly, puffing out his chest.
"Fantastic, so foolishness is guarenteed," Professor Graves spat. "Open your books to page three. We will be starting with something simple."
Ophelia watched James' face turn downcast and watched as he looked to Severus and Lily who were both giggling. His face turned red and he shrunk down in his seat. Ophelia shook her head and tried to focus on the potion. She mostly worked on the potion while Sirius wrote notes, but occasionally he attempted to help. Ophelia just shooed him away after nearly throwing too many dried nettles into the cauldron.
"I'm trying to help," Sirius said sheepishly but went back to writing notes.
Ophelia finally set the cauldron to simmer, feeling pleased with herself, and glanced across the room. Marlene and Alice were working together but their potion was off-color. Lucius and the other boy along with a few others have seemingly good potions but Remus and James' potion was bubbling dangerously.
"You stirred counter clockwise," Severus noted, offering an awkward smile.
"Leave them, Sev," Lily spat, glowering at James. His face turned darker as Lily and Severus turned to each other and began talking quietly.
Ophelia carefully watched James as he looked over his table before stopping the snake's fangs. The smirk he wore made Ophelia uneasy. With an uneasy breath, and in a matter of seconds, James had picked up a set of snake fangs and tossed them into Lily and Severus' cauldron.
"Your potion!" A Slytherin with black hair screamed as the bubbling potion exploded.
Ophelia screamed along with the rest of the students as the spluttering potion hit all sorts of students and boils began to grow on their faces. When the potions finally settled, thanks to Professor Grave's quick wandwork, Ophelia and Sirius both peeked over.
"Oh my-" Ophelia started, eyes widening as she saw Severus. He had pushed Lily out of the way to stop the potion from getting her and was covered head-to-toe in terrible boils. He looked like some monster from a horror movie.
"Settle down, settle down," Professor Graves bellowed. "Anyone who has been hit with Miss Evans and Mister Snape's potion, head to the infirmary. Class is dismissed. And let it be known, I will find out who did this and they will be punished."
The class ended with a flourish and Ophelia found herself helping Marlene, who was covered in boils, towards the infirmary, a wave of cold anger set in her chest.