Chapter 5: Believe It or Not, It was a Normal First Day
Words: 4,4385
Recap: Never had I been so desperate to go to school that I had to summon a Pegasus (Correction: The Pegasus) and fought off a nasty flying serpent. Luckily I managed to slip in with no problem, which leaves to the mercy one a pair of worried friends who left without knowing how I've been.
This should be good.
My back was harshly pushed against the stone walls. Sev and Lily pinning me on the side with blazing eyes that demanded me to spill my guts, I had to take a moment to realize they weren't being literal. So I explained to them how after luring out a bunch of dog-heads called Cylo-whatever. I was too caught up with them to be back in time for the train but was lucky enough to spot a stray pegasus to hitch a ride. Fighting another monster on the way before finally touching down on school. I didn't tell them about how a mortal, or a muggle, in this case, spotted me fighting what obviously couldn't be human. Don't need to raise more worries about having non-wizard wary of us running around. After all, wizards, in general, are all so paranoid with their secrecy.
"So you're saying-" Sev started said with his arm crossed "-that you just "happened" to come across a wild winged horse that you managed to talk him out to bring you to school? Got in a fight with an Occamy if your description is right when they're local in India before managing to win against a beast that could rival a dragon and arrive at Hogwarts in time, is that correct?"
"You don't believe me?" I asked.
"Oh, I do. Which makes me question my sanity more times when I'm with you."
"Regardless," Lily moved forward and pulled me into a tight hug, "I'm glad you're alright." Then she pulled away and slap my sidearm hard, "But try not to make us worry so much, understood?"
"Sorry, no promises, but I'll try," I winced as I rubbed my arm. Her work out must be coming along if her slap was any sign of her strength.
Satisfied with my answer, we went back to the great hall later on. The banquet already started, tables filled with the usual mouth-watering foods being dished out.
I sat between Gwen and Doc, they didn't say anything for a while but gave side glances at me. "So, any chances you're willing to talk to us?"
"Really it was nothing guys, I just missed the train and had to find an alternative way to get here. It was no sweat, so stop with the third degree. I had enough of that from Lily and Sev."
"What's the third degree?"
"American expression." I shrugged him off, "Anyway, did I miss anything while I was away?"
"Oh, just the new first years sorting, the new DADA professor, Professor Dumbledore's newest death threat. Other than that, not much." Gwen answered as she popped open her mouth for some fries.
I decided to ignore her last part and started digging into the foods I haven't touch. Scruffing them down and only just realized how hungry I was since I skipped lunch due to flying for hours. When the feast ended, the new prefects from different Houses called us to rise and led to our respective dorms.
Doc and I headed past the door that led to the boy's dormitories. We entered the familiar, circular room, with its five four-posters hung with yellow velvet and its high. Their trunks had been brought up for them and stood at the ends of their beds. Sophia was rattling the cage, demanding to be released and finding food for herself, I bet.
"Blimey Percy, you should try teaching your bird some manners." The familiar voice of my roommate said. Cross, Edgar, and Jean came striding in the room. "Though I can't expect much coming from you. You barely have enough manner of your own," Cross laughed hard at his own joke. The rest were all silent at his poor sense of humor.
"Come now, Cross," chastised Jean, "No need to say that. I seem to be reminded of you being peeved over how your owl always ignores you?"
Cross glared at him, but Jean didn't look perturbed and kept his smile all the same. We each unpacked our trunks and went fast asleep. Well...they did. I waited for a bit more until I could only hear their soft breathing. I woke up and took out the few foods I sneaked in my robes and went to the Common Room. The hearth was still burning and light the darkroom dimly. Making it easier for me to find my way toward it. Putting the side dishes to the fire as I whispered: "For Hecate."
The food burned, and I smelled the hint of roast chicken, toast, and gravy. It had become a habit I started in the middle of my first year since it felt out of place, not offering anything for at least Hecate. I couldn't really give an offering to my dad without alerting him that he has a son he hadn't conceived yet. That will bring out a lot of questions and problems.
Once that was done, I finally sneaked back room and fell to a night of deep sleep like the rest of my roommates.
The next morning. The four long house tables were laden with tureens of porridge, plates of kippers, mountains of toast, and dishes of eggs and bacon, beneath the enchanted ceiling (today, a sunny, cloudless sky).
Professor Sprout was moving along the Hufflepuff table, handing out course schedules. I took mine and found that I had double Herbology with the Ravenclaw first. Gwen, Doc, and I left the castle together, crossed the vegetable patch, and made for the greenhouses, where the magical plants were kept.
Nearing the greenhouses, we saw the rest of the class standing outside while murmuring of interest with one another, waiting for Professor Sprout.
Professor Sprout took a large key out from her belt and unlocked the door of the greenhouse tree. I caught a whiff of damp earth and fertilizer mingling with the heavy perfume of some giant, umbrella-sized flowers dangling from the ceiling. Professor Sprout stood behind a trestle bench in the center of the greenhouse. A line of plants was encased in glass. "We'll be reporting Venomous Tentacula today. Now, who can tell me the properties of them?"
More than half of the Ravenclaws shot their hands up immediately, and the professor chose a familiar face.
"Venomous Tentacula. They are more notable for their seeds used in magical items for transfiguration and ointments served to heal burns and their leaves used in potions that extend from the Stretch Potion to the Voice Changing Potion," said May. She looked proud at answering them before anyone else and has that I'm-better-and-smarter-than-you-look.
"Correct. Five points for Ravenclaw. Now, all of you will learn how to take the seeds from a fully grown Tentacula. However, be warm it is a dangerous attempt, can anybody tell me why?"
I looked at Doc who looked hesitant at shooting his hands up and I have full confidence he knew the answer with his photographic memories. So I grabbed his wrist and pulled his hands up. Ignoring his protest squawk at me handling him.
"Yes, Mr. Dearborn. What is it?"
"Eh...Uhm...they are mobile vines that try to grab living prey. Venomous Tentacula also expels the venom from its shoots, and its spikes are deadly. Its bite is highly venomous and can prove fatal."
"Excellent Dearborn, five points for Hufflepuff."
"Wait... and we're supposed to handle these things?!" Cried one of the students, most likely muggle-born from how surprised he sounded.
"Which is why it is important that you work in pairs and have one of you to hold your wand on hand in case you need to use the Severing Charm. Make sure you wear your gloves and neck brace so it wouldn't latch on your neck and strangle you." She said cheerfully in contrast to her deathly warning while pointing out the white neck brace that was lined up along the table.
The students nervously put on their neck brace before Professor Sprout continued her instruction, "Now when you pull up the glass dome, then as quickly and precise as you can, wrapped and pulled the branches up with one hand. Then began picking the small seeds on the corner between the bark and branches."
"Ready... begin!"
They pulled up the glass, and the plants began its attack on us. Some kids began to duck and screaming in fright, some wrestled back with the plants, others somehow got them writhing on the floor laughing while a few Tentacula got to sneak under their clothes and tickle them.
It was a chore trying to take hold of each of the branches that try to overwhelm you. I had to either dodge or catch the slippery plants. Sometimes it would catch both my hands and Doc had to cut it, but not until after he fumbled a few spells. The screams of the kids were deafening and I could almost make out Professor Sprout trying to calm them down, even going so far as sighing and mouthing the word "Every single year."
By the end of the class, l was sweaty, aching, and covered in earth like the rest of the class. Everyone traipsed back to the castle for a quick wash and then the Hufflepuffs hurried off to Transfiguration. Again, this year we had it with Gryffindor. The glare McGonagall sent me told me that she was determined to keep an eye on me. Figured, she wasn't too keen on believing mine and Hagrid's story. As much as I wished I wouldn't make any more problems, I knew it was nothing more but wishful thinking.
"Today, we're going to learn how to transfigure fluids. You all should have a cup of water on each of your tables and I want each and every one of you to turn it into a living being. Observe." She went to her desk where she has her own transparent glass that was filled with water. Pulling her wand and pointing at it. Twirl the wand around while saying, "Mutatio liquidum."
The water jolted before shifting around the glass. I felt the water itself changing and a strange tug churned my stomach that makes me uncomfortable. I knew then it wasn't going to be one of my best spells used when turning something as free will as water into something else entirely. In this case, she changed it to gleaming milk-colored pearl filled glass.
"Now, who here likes to volunteer for a small demonstration?"
A tap from behind made me turned to face James. There was the familiar quirky smile he always had when he's planning something. "I bet you 20 knuts that you messed up again by the end of it."
Sirius snorted, "That's a sucker bet and you know it, James."
I glared at those two with my best Death Glare, looking unamused, "Why would you think I even want to make a bet with you?" and they both knew better I was never good with transfiguration and its sciency spell.
"Scared you'll lose Prissy? Figures. I guess we have some in common, we both agree you're as lousy as we think you are."
I knew it was just a petty bet, but I huffed, glared, and straighten my arm out in the end. I was never one to back down from a challenge, and I didn't want to give any reason for the prick, James, to be right about anything on me. However, I barely raise my hand halfway up before the whole class coursed together with the single word, "NO!"
It made me miffed, and James and his gang had to muffle their hysteric laughter. I guess they taught the whole second year not to encourage me to do magic. Professor McGonagall kept her straight face and gave a long hard look at me before (begrudgingly?) letting me get on with the spell. I didn't miss how most of them duck or shield themselves with whatever they have on hand.
I took a deep breath. Pointing my wand at the cup of water I had and imagined the water following my will and becoming something else entirely while chanting the spell. The water began to bubble out, jumping up and down, and swirling around. I kept my focus on the image like I was taught, and popping sounds began emerging, changing the water slowly into pink pearls. There was still water left in the cup, but most was filled by the pearls.
After a few beat seconds with nothing happening, they all began peeking at my work, their jaw dropped at my success. I couldn't help the smug grin on my face. Lily, who sat in front of me, turned and gave me a thumbs up.
"Well, it would seem Mr. Jackson learned well from last year to control his magic. Well done." There was a hint of proud tone in her voice, and I was about to say my thanks.
Pop.
Then I heard the popping noise I almost misheard and would have ignored it if I hadn't spotted the mass pearls slightly shifted. I look pointedly at it before another pop sound was heard and I saw the pearls had jumped a bit and- is it just me or was there slightly more pearls than before. The third pop was then heard by McGonagall, her spectacles eyes pointedly look at my work before widening in realization and saying, "Oh dear."
Like a switch, those words caused cascades of popping noises, followed by the excess of flowing pearls off the cup. I panicked and tried to cover it with my hand, but that didn't help much. Gwen and Lily tried helping to round up the pearls while some tried to get close ended up like Doc and slipped from the pearl-covered floor.
You would it was just that, but the next scene made this ruckus looked tame.
One by one, cups of water began to sprout more pearls like a fountain. Everyone cried in panic alongside me as we tried to put out the waves of pearl covering the class.
The only one who stayed her cool was Professor McGonagall. Looking left and right at the scene, sighing heavily while she readied her wand, "I spoke too soon."
…
"What do we have next?" Gwen asked as we reached the multi moving maze of staircases.
I pulled out my schedule and read through it, "Defense Against the Dark Arts," I answered, "Which reminds me, I never got to know who the new professor this year. What was he like at the feast?"
Doc and Gwen looked at one another, uneased was evident at their face, like they weren't sure how to answer me. Making me feel unsettled by their act.
"His name is Professor Jeff Heckler, and he is...Doc a little help?"
"Uhh... unique," Doc muttered.
"Unique?" I repeated.
"En...thusiastic?" Gwen added unsurely. "Yeah, and he's also-
"Ugly," Doc finally blurted out.
"Very ugly," Gwen agreed.
"Absolutely ugly."
"Definitely has a horrifying fa-"
"Okay, okay. I get it. He's not good looking. Why the hostility?" I asked them, "Is he that bad?"
"We're not saying that because we don't like him or anything."
"Just that...he's really, really ugly," Gwen instead even though her face showed she was uncomfortable in admitting it.
"To the point that just looking at him makes us nauseated."
"Oh come on guys, how bad can he be?"
The answer came when we set foot for our class. I caught a glimpse of Professor Heckler for the first time and couldn't blame them for their reaction because he is, in a word, ugly. And I'm not saying this to insult him. I'm saying this as a fact. The guy had a giant wart covering his left cheek, his right cheek had freckles and zits, he has thinning gray hair, thick brown lips, round eyes with one of his pupil looking sideways, his lower jaw was sharp and looked like it was pulled forward, but most horrifyingly was his teeth which were giants. Okay, maybe not giants but still abnormally larger than normal teeth. It was yellow and disorganized. Never have I felt dread in seeing someone smiling at me.
"Good affternoon classh. Iff you had pay attention during the feasst then you would have already known me assh Professhor Jeff Heckler."
I was convinced that everyone in the class wasn't paying much attention to what he said. I know it's rude to watch other people's faces and ignore what they said, but frankly, it feels like watching a train wreck. It's so horrifying that you can't look away, and that was the case of the face of Professor Jeff Heckler. I didn't think someone could be that humanely ugly.
Still, I put aside my thoughts. It's bad to be biased because of someone else's look. Who knows? Maybe the professor isn't half-bad.
"In your sshecond year, you will tackle the many dark creatures looming in the wizarding world. From imps to trolls, banshee, and vampire. I'm sure you would recognize mossh of the material would be revisshion of your firssh year, but know that there'll be more in-depth material on certain topics." Professor Heckler said in hisses while fiddling with his charm bracelet. Why a grown old man would wear some things as silly as a charm bracelet? I don't know. But that would be the pot calling the kettle black when I'm wearing a bead necklace myself.
"Firssssht, I would like to expresssh how happy I am to be teaching you, children, in this magnificent school, created by our great Founders! Godric Gryffindor, Ssshaalazar Sssslytherin, Helga Hufflepuff, and Rowena Ravenclaw. Oh, how their epic crusade had led to this magnificent school as their legacy that sshtood for almosssht a thousand years. It had been their life's work. The lassh of their made effort together. A compilation of talent, minds, persshonality, and their own ssshecrets melded together—many, many ssshecrets. Even now sshtill hidden, waiting to be uncovered. What a wonderful school Hogwarts is. You all should praisssshe for itssh exisshtence!"
Scratch what I said about him not being half-bad. This guy is a total different nutjob!
"Dear me, I apologize. It's my firsssh day, and already I'm so worked up."
The class ended early for that day with skimmed topics of what we'd be learning, nothing much happened since we didn't learn any spell for the first day.
"Do you think he might be related to a hag?" Gwen commented.
Doc shrugged, "I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if he is."
"And what's with him spending more than half the lecture teaching us History instead? You would think he has a crush on the school."
"If Binns wasn't so persistent with his post, he might have gotten that job instead."
We reached the Great Hall, immediately I was greeted by a bundle of red hair tackling me that almost knocked me down. "Lily, what's wrong?"
"It's Sev, Severus, he's not here. I ask around through the Slytherin Table, and no one seemed to find him."
My eyes widened. Both of us together went out in search of him, abandoning my other two friends. I couldn't blame how worried she was for him after what happened last year. I just hope we're just paranoid since it's only been the first day.
Not knowing where to start, we've been asking around paintings and ghosts if they spotted a greasy-haired second-year kid and randomly opened up rooms.
"Where the bloody hell is he? It's not like him to disappear like that."
"Do you think he might have gone to the Great Hall by now Lily? For all we know, he might only get stalled or something."
"You're maybe right, but that doesn't make it any less worrisome."
I was about to reassure her more when the sound of crying got our attention. We looked around in question before spotting the crying girl.
Or more accurately, the crying ghost girl.
We looked at each other, silently questioning one another's thought if we should approach her and decided our conscience wouldn't let us walk away from a distraught girl. Hesitatingly, we walked up close enough that we got a good look at her white pearly features. She wore a big round glasses, long pigtails flowing down her shoulder, she was wearing a Hogwarts robe, looking like she was on her fifth or fourth year when she died.
She noticed us approaching and whipped her heads toward us with scathing yet teary-eyed look, "What do you want? Come to make fun of little ol' Myrtle, are you? Now that throwing her away from her own bathroom wasn't enough."
Her outburst surprised us, and it was Lily who took a step forward first so she could face her, "We're not here to do that, may we ask why are you crying all alone here?"
Myrtle sniffled a bit, "Oh-It's horrible. I've been just doing my own business, hanging around my haunt when those kids came and locked that poor kid in my bathroom. I understood his plight and wanted to lend him an ear, but he told me to shove off and booted out from my own toilet. What a rude kid. Though it should be expected, no one wants Moaning Myrtle around." Then Myrtle began crying once more, making true of her nickname.
Suspicion grew who that kid from her story might be, and Lily must have thought the same thing because she then asked, "Can you tell us where your haunt is Myrtle? Maybe we could help the kid, and you could have your bathroom back."
Myrtle sniffled again, "I supposed. Come."
We followed her until we reach the familiar abandon girls bathroom Lily had used last year to release Jack o'Lantern from his seal and help rescue the school together from Will o'Wisp.
We expected that maybe to find Sev being locked in one of the stalls, and we both were ready to rescue him. But we didn't expect to find Sev already rescued by another pair of Slytherin boys. We said our thanks to Myrtle before walking over to them.
"Thanks, I didn't know what to do being locked up like that for who knows how long." We heard Sev said to the two boys. They were a pair of big gangly boys, making Sev looking small, standing i between them.
"Sev!" both Lily and me called out.
He turned and grinned at us with a wave, "You found me!"
"A second a bit late, though," I said then glanced at his savior, "Who are they?"
"Oh, yeah. Percy, this is my classmates Johan Avery and Dorian Mulciber. Guys, these are my friends, Percy Jackson, and Lily Evans."
Lily grinned and waved with a bright smile, "Hello, nice to meet you, thanks so much for helping Sev."
Instead of sharing her sentiment, the two ignored Lily and addressed Sev as if she wasn't even there, "It's too bad you miss lunch Severus, we have some spare snacks to share the hope that would be enough," said the short kid with a bucktooth who was Avery. The other kid, Mulciber, grunted along behind him but had a dopey look on his face. If Dopey were on steroid and obese.
"See you on the next class?" he asked, "Then we could discuss which idiots would dare mess with a Slytherin."
He said all that with a smirk, but it looked twisted and a hint of childlike cruelness that made me uncomfortable. I turn to Sev and saw he doesn't seem to feel the same when he seemed genuinely happy and excited, the same expression he used when we discussed pranking James and Sirius last year, and gave them a thumbs-up, "Yeah, see ya then."
"Later, Snape, Jackson." They left with an attitude that rubs me the wrong way. Leaving an awkward-looking Lily who felt purposely left out and wasn't missed by me, which put them in the list of "Instant Dislike" but Sev didn't seem to notice that and just waved them off like old friends.
"I don't like them," I said bluntly.
Severus looked scandalous at me, "Why? They just helped to get me out from the girl's bathroom, otherwise, who knows how long I stayed there."
"Speaking of which," Lily cut in, "Why were you trapped inside there? You even shooed poor Myrtle when she could have called for help."
"You mean that annoying ghost girl? She doesn't look reliable enough for that, always moaning all day long." Lily scowled and crossed her arm in disapproval at his attitude, but Sev missed it completely, "And if you're wondering who was immature enough to put me there then you don't have to search hard from your own house Lily."
"James?"
"Who else?"
I sighed, should have known they were back with their old trick, and it's only been the first day. "They just can't stay away from us, can't they?"
"Percy, I know that face," Lily pointed disapprovingly.
"What face?" I asked with my utmost innocent look.
"Your Don't-Mess-With-Me-or-You'll-Pay-Face."
"You're just making that up, I don't have that face."
"Actually, you do," Sev defended her, "Your mouth would smirk, but your eyes would be glaring like you're promising a cold dish of revenge cooking up in that head of yours."
"I certainly don't do that... do I?"
Sev and Lily exchanged looks before bursting out laughing.