Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction created sorely to satisfy my imagination. Harry Potter and anything/everything related to the novels belongs to J.K. Rowling. I own nothing in this fanfic that might be recognizable as belonging to the canon of HP.

Chapter 5: Mornings

The Great Hall buzzed with activity during breakfast.

All the tables were filled with lively students talking and eating. Sitting in the Slytherin table at the edge that was closer to the door, I had a book open next to my plate of food. I was among first years that, like me, were sitting at the end for fear of being too close to the teachers. Other school years students tended to sit by the middle, a trend that I really didn't understood.

Some days I felt like an idiot eating in the mist of little kids, but I rather have that than all the eyes of the teachers table on me. As impartial as they claimed to be, the novelty of my attendance to school had yet to wear off them. The professors tended to hover over me, whenever I asked them something they would insist I go to their office so to help me better and were too considerate with the assignments I handed in. Not once had they made a negative comment about my presence in their NEWT classes without the prior five year school experience. Only McGonagall had said something about me hindering the flow for her intensive class, but my OWL marks had her waving them off.

I didn't understand the calcification system as of yet, but I was left to understand that I had managed well. Headmaster Dumbledore had me study every day since the day he met me so that I could pass the OWLs. His pestering worked off.

Speaking of which, I could feel his particular twinkling eyes on me all the way back from the teachers table.

Barely a week had passed since my full moon adventure with the pack, and I had no intention of having Dumbledore find out about it. I hated it how that wizard could just stand across from me and know all my secrets.

"Ah, good morning Miss Nolan."

I took me ten seconds to remember that that was my last name. I twisted to the side to the man that was standing behind the kid next to me.

"Good morning, Professor Slughorn."

"How do you do in this fine day?" Under his walrus moustache stretched a friendly smile, as he regarded me.

"I'm good, sir. And you?"

"Top of the morning for me." He did seem positively pleased, even so early in the morning. "I've got a surprise for our first club meeting. Only the best for my promising young witches and wizards" His eyes beamed as he looked at me, probably ecstatic about the fact that a few days earlier I had agreed to join his Slug Club. "How's the lesson remembering going?"

In the state he was in, I was surprised he remembered my useful skill. "I'm just trying not to go crazy with it."

"The headaches are not too much for you, are they? We'll talk to Madam Pomfrey if needed be."

His words made me smile, as I waved his concern away. "No professor, I can manage them. Though, it gets annoying most times, I'll admit."

"Blood knowledge tends to be like that," Slughorn said.

I found it strangely liberating how the professor just brushed off my ability like it was nothing. Sure, he was deeply interested in me and my inheritance to the point that I already had a place in his little club even when I was still horrid in his Potions class. He waved it off like it was something I had complete control off, which I didn't. And I liked that. He wasn't like McGonagall or Flitwick or the Headmaster who insisted on me learning how to control it, to keep it in check and prevent it from driving me mad. No, Slughorn wanted me to use it, so I could step into my power and he could harvest the praise of being my teacher. The thought that I was painting my Head of House as a massive selfish cow crossed my mind, but I didn't feel bad about it. I liked it.

"I just wished there wasn't so much for me to catch up to. And that I wasn't taking NEWTs."

"Dumbledore deemed you prepared for Sixth year. It'd be best if we trust his judgement. Hard work is necessary, regardless." He smiled as he bent forward as if to tell me a secret. "You're a tenacious girl. Four months have passed since you started remembering and you've yet to give up. And already you're so close! Just think that soon you'll be done with the re-leaning. You'll be free of having to catch up."

His laugh was infectious.

"Thank you, Professor."

He seemed pleased with himself as he stood there. "What is that smell, anyhow?"

I resisted the urge to smell myself again for the hundredth time since I left the dungeons. "Someone dropped a bag of dungbombs in the common room." I explained, trying to force away the memories of a couple of hours ago. It had been a clever prank, and the Slytherins had it very clear as to who had done it.

The man looked over the Slytherin table, surveying.

The whole table was tittering with anger, and just waiting for the perpetrators to walk in. I didn't think the problem was what the prank did. No, my house mates were worried over how the Marauders had gotten inside our common room to prepare said prank.

And I do think that's justified. I myself was still wondering how they got such a heavy bag of dungbombs to hang from the ceiling. A powerful charm must have been used for it.

"A bath in goat milk will remedy that." The words Slughorn uttered were more to himself than to me. He was thoughtful for a moment longer, but then he brushed if off with a smile. "Don't forget about the meeting on Friday." He said as a form of parting, walking away to the professors table.

The girl sitting next to me stirred in a way that brought me back from watching Slughorn go, and I looked down to my book to learn the next lesson. Her interruption had come in handy. Looking at the professors' table always entailed crossing stared with the Headmaster.

"The professor is gone now. Try it, try it." The girl said moving impatiently in a way that made her goblet of pumpkin juice threaten to tip over.

"Alright." Said a shy little boy that sat on the other side of the table. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

"Try it again." Another boy said.

They all sighed when their encouragement failed.

"Graham." I called out, massaging my head as I looked up at the boy across from me. Suddenly, I had the eyes of all the kids around me that were trying to help the boy with his Charm's homework. "Its le-vi-O-sa, not le-vi-o-SA."

Turning back to my own business, I tried not to feel weird by what I said. It was hard not to. I ignored those feelings. They made me feel more out of place than I already was.

…

AN: One more thing I forgot to mention last post is that the chapters won't always be consecutive in their time line. So far chapters 1 to 4 have been one after the other, Faraday was in the woods, she came back to the school, she entered her house and she snuck into her dorm. That was consecutive. This one is not necessarily the same morning from chapter 4, though it could be. I'm not too sure about this one.