Chapter Five
First Day of School

Light spilled through the windows the next morning, and Sarah ignored it turning on her side. Hermione, however, was already up and about, stuffing books into her bag and throwing on her school robes. Lavender and Parvati were up too, though not quite as awake as Hermione was.
"Get up, Sarah," Hermione shook Sarah awake, "you don't want to be late to class on your first day, do you?"
"Relax, Hermione," Sarah mumbled as she sat up. Getting up groggily she rubbed the sleep away from her eyes. Din slept on, curled up in the same spot she was in the night before. Sarah walked over to the end of her four poster bed, opened her trunk and pulled out a fresh set of blue casual robes.
"How come you didn't get school robes?" asked Hermione.
"Didn't have the time to go to Diagon Alley and get some," answered Sarah simply as she threw on her robes. She took the brush to her hair, and started stroking quickly, her dirty blondish-brownish hair straightening down to her shoulders.
"How'd you get your books then?" asked Hermione, extracting her wand from her trunk.
"I didn't. I'm getting them today in class," said Sarah. "Don't worry so much. I know what I'm doing, and I should be getting my school robes in by Sunday."
"I'm not worried," said Hermione defensively, and then watched as Sarah started to throw her own stuff in her bag. "Are you ready yet?"
"Almost," she said, pulling out her wand, gripping it fondly, and then pocketing it. "Now I'm ready," she proclaimed. Din looked up, and was about to spring when Sarah turned around. "Not this time, Din."
The white kitten stared up at her looking offended, and then sat down on the bed again, watching as Sarah and Hermione left the dormitory.
Harry and Ron were waiting for them when they entered the Great Hall. As Sarah walked across, she noticed that Malfoy and a group of Slytherins were all sniggering and looking over at Harry and then at Sarah. Too focused on breakfast to think about what they laughing at, she took a seat next to Ron.
"What took you so long?" Ron asked Hermione.
"Professor McGonagall's already been around to pass out the schedules. Here," said Harry, giving them their schedules. Sarah put hers aside, not even glancing at it, and tipped some bacon and eggs onto her plate. Ron seized her schedule and glanced at it.
"She's got a free study period while we have Care of Magical creatures, and Study of Ancient Runes when we've got Divination," Ron grunted indignantly.
"Really? Sweet! A whole period to myself," Sarah took back her schedule. "I asked for Arithmacy, though. Not that much of a loss anyways."
"Arithmacy is a great class!" Hermione was aghast. Ron rolled his eyes.
"Why's that? You get more sleep?" Sarah grinned as Hermione glared at her. "Just joking."
"If I get another death omen from Professor Trelawny, I swear I'll scream," Harry told Ron.
"Ah, Harry, your inner eye is closed, for you are not seeing what I'm seeing. Professor Trelawny won't announce another death omen until the Quidditch game," Ron held up his hands to his head as if he were in meditation.
Without warning, a rush of owls flew through the windows above and delivered their mail to the students. She spotted two of them, Mike's barn owl, Aries, and Kelly Anne's tiny screech owl, Iris, as they passed over her head, and stopped to rest in front of Sarah's plate, looking very worn out. Taking the letters from their claws, Sarah opened them and read to herself, Kelly Anne's first.

Dear Sarah,
What's up? How was your trip there? Nothing's going on over here, though
someone did set some firecrackers AND dungbumbs off in Mrs.Waltzerhackit's
classroom yesterday. You should have seen it! Mrs.Waltzerhackit was really p.o.ed!
Anyway, I hope you'll write back and tell us about the new friends you've
met so far, and what's classes are like. I heard you have to wear uniforms there,
so tell me what those are like. Oh, and one more thing, ask if it's ok if Mike and I
can visit for Christmas break! We wanna see Hogwarts too!
Your best bud, and tee-peeing partner-
Kelly Anne

Sarah smiled at the letter, laughing quietly and rereading it over again. Then remembered to read the other one Mike had written, she flicked his opened and read to herself:

Dear Sarah,
Hey, how's it going? Kelly Anne told me she already wrote to you, but
I'm writing anyway. Our first day of school started yesterday, and already we
have homework! Especially from Mrs.Waltzerhackit, and Dr.Damour. I don't
know if Kelly Anne wrote this to you or not, but Sam set off some firecrackers
and dungbombs in the Charms classroom yesterday. Mrs.Waltzerhackit was so
mad, she led Sam off to the principals office by the ear. We couldn't stop
laughing about it till noon. That's about it. Write back soon!
Mike
P.S. So is there any Quidditch teams there?

Stuffing both letters into her pocket, and finishing her last piece of bacon, she got up and swung her bag onto her shoulder. Aries had already left when she looked down at Iris, nibbling at the scraps remaining on her plate. She gave the tiny owl a thoughtful look and leaned toward it.
"Why don't you go visit Din in the Gryffindor tower, Iris? I'll need to use you if I wanna my letters sent to Kelly Anne and Mike."
Iris hooted happily, and flew off, quickly out the window above. Excited probably, Sarah thought, for the thought of seeing the little kitten.
"Who'd you get a letter from?" asked Harry.
"Some friends," she shrugged. "A student back at the Academy set off a bunch of fireworks and dungbombs in this one teacher's classroom yesterday and they wanted to tell me about it."
"That's awful!" Hermione said, appalled that they could do such a thing to a teacher. Sarah shook her head.
"I don't know how else to put it but this teacher was a nightmare with a big uh- butt," explained Sarah, and cocked her head thoughtfully, "she was a- very wrathful, watchful, mean, opinionitive, out of her mind, angry teacher," she tried to explain, picking all the words she had used to describe this teacher before.
"Sounds a lot like a professor we know," muttered Ron. "Come on, we've got Charms first."
They left the Great Hall, and headed down the corridors to the Charms classroom. Sarah followed close to Harry, Ron and Hermione through concern of getting lost on her way there. They reached the classroom, and took their seats, Sarah sitting next to Hermione. A tiny little professor walked in, and looked around the classroom.
"Sarah Maxwell? Oh good, there you are," he said, checking off something off a piece of paper that looked like the roll call. Sarah looked down at her schedule; this had to be Professor Flitwick. He passed her the textbook which she would need for the rest of the year, and started the lesson.
They were to practice Counterpart Charms on a partner, so Harry and Ron paired off, and Sarah partnered with Hermione, which was good for her because Hermione was the smartest person Sarah had ever met. She had a lot of help, and was able to do her Counterpart Charm really well by the end of class, making almost exact illusions of Hermione, though still not as good as Hermione could do herself.

When they had History of Magic afterwards, Sarah's chance came of being able to go to sleep during class. Even though the ghost, Professor Bins, taught the class it was easily the dullest, boring class Sarah could endure. She fell asleep after the first five minutes when he droned on about a war that she didn't heed the name of. After a while she woke up with a start, and saw that nothing had changed, except for the fact that everyone else was asleep now too. She tapped Harry's arm lightly, hoping he was still awake and ripped out a scratch piece of paper and scribbled a note to him:
I dreamt I flew to the moon and played a Quidditch game there with aliens…
Weird, I think I dreamt the same thing. He scribbled and passed the note back at the same time Ron woke up. He saw the note, and added something to it.
I bet you'll learn a lot more from Hermione talking in her sleep, than you will in this class... he wrote, and pushed the paper towards Sarah. She lifted her head and looked at it, suppressing a laugh, and picked up her own quill.
It seems like it. The only things we're studying are the insides of our eyelids. She wrote.
With more scraps of paper, she drew characters of Harry, Ron and Hermione, while Harry and Ron themselves were playing games of hangman. When she was done, she had drawn Harry with huge round dinner plate sized glasses, Ron with exaggerated freckles and a mischievous grin, and Hermione with overly bushy hair, and a hand full of books that were too big for her to carry. Harry had to admit to her, as he laughed at his own, Ron's and Hermione's characters, that she was pretty good artist.
"So, Hermione, what do you think?" asked Sarah, when she had showed it to her after class.
"You should have been paying attention instead of drawing ridiculous characters like that," muttered Hermione, as Harry and Ron snorted at the way Hermione was looking at her own character. "And I don't carry that many books."
Then Hermione smiled and asked if she could have the drawing anyways. Sarah gave her an amused laugh as she handed the drawing over, and stuffed away the other doodles into her bag. "So what do we have next?"
"Double Potions," Harry's said gloomily.
"Do you think Professor Snape will still be there?" asked Ron.
"I hope not, I wonder-" but Hermione cleared her throat before Harry could finish that thought.
"It's not that bad, is it?" Sarah ignored the interruption.
"You haven't met Snape," said Harry.
"You know the teacher you were talking about his morning? Well, she's nothing compared to this teacher," Ron enlightened her. Sarah let out laugh and shook her head. She doubted anyone could be as bad as Mrs. Waltzerhackit, or worse. But her doubts disappeared when they had taken their seats at the back of the dungeon.
Professor Snape's face was drawn as if he had just come back from Azkaban, Sarah thought. His black eyes followed Harry till he sat down in a seat next to Ron. It was amazing how pale and exhausted he looked, though he was able to give Harry such a loathsome expression. Only until Sarah sat down next to Harry, was it that Snape took his eyes off him.
"New student, Maxwell," he muttered looking down at what Sarah recognized as the role call that Professor Flitwick had earlier. "Where's your school robes, Maxwell?" he said, eyeing her casual blue robes with distaste.
"I don't have them yet," said Sarah. Malfoy snickered loudly in front of her, and she was tempted to kick his seat.
"And why not?" Snape continued.
"I get my school robes in by Sunday," she answered, her dislike for the teacher growing more and more. Now she could see why the others didn't like him that much. Professor Snape turned on his heel and walked back towards the front of the dungeon.
"Well, then, Maxwell, why don't we see how caught up with this class you are. Show us the last potion you learned about last year," he said over his shoulder.
"Oh no," Sarah's heart sank. She had made a Dilution Potion, at the end of the year, a potion supposed to make the drinker stronger and agile than they normally were. Only it was so complex, and it took her the whole period to make, with an additional thousand of times of asking Mike and Kelly Anne if they were sure that they were giving her the right measurements.
"Can I make something else?" she asked hopefully. Snape glared at her, and she took that as a no. Shaking her head, she took out the ingredients she would need, and started. It took her ten minutes to get all the right measurements, and then to combine everything, one step at a time. Everyone in the class was watching her, so she never looked up, though her hands were shaking slightly. The way people's eyes stared at her undisturbed and silent, was the one thing that made her most anxious.
Finally when she was done, a watery- whitish colored potion was swirling around in her cauldron. Hermione was peering into the cauldron slightly, and nodded, indicating that Sarah had done everything right, and she let out a half breath of relief. Then Professor Snape gazed into it and ladled some out to look at more closely, then poured it back in. "It's still watery, you should have boiled it longer," said Snape, and walked back to the front of the class. "Five points from Gryffindor."
Sarah sat back down, and looked at her potion. It wasn't that watery, she thought. She wouldn't have minded the criticism though. It was the five points taken away for it.
"You're just a bit ahead of the class, so I expect you to know everything that were going to do today," Snape added. She sighed and sank down in her seat, doubting whether she could even remember anything besides the Dilution potion.
"What do you think of Professor Snape now?" whispered Harry. Sarah scratched her head.
"I think that Snape and Waltzerhackit should go drinking together," whispered back Sarah, still staring at her potion, but smiling as Harry shook with silent laughter.
They were to make Idiosyncratic Potions, that made people's personalities and characteristics really come out. Snape kept criticizing the Gryffindor's potions, especially Harry's, while nodding favorably at the Slytherins. Sarah expressed her opinion about this injustice at one point, bothered by Malfoy's constant mockings, and then Snape took two more points from Gryffindor.
"Well, she's got a point," Harry muttered, and then caught himself.
"Add another five points to that too, Potter," Snape's leered.
As soon as Snape's back was turned again, Malfoy turned around with a smirk on his face.
"Why, Maxwell, how wonderful it is to meet you again-"
"You shouldn't drink that potion Malfoy, being that much ugly and senseless isn't good for your health," Sarah grunted not daring to look up. Harry and Ron chortled into their cauldrons. Malfoy stared at her, face reddening.
"Keep on laughing, Weasley, it's all you can afford to do," Malfoy sneered. Ron jumped out of his seat. Harry and Hermione both reached up and pulled him back down, and Malfoy left them alone after that, satisfied.
Finally, lunch came around, and Sarah sprinted upstairs to Gryffindor Tower after she had eaten, and then straight up to her dormitory, where she found Din trying to paw up at a happy flying Iris. Sarah smiled and let Iris land on her arm. She took out a piece of paper, and wrote a letter to both Kelly Anne and Mike, thinking it pointless to send them separate letters.

Dear Kelly Anne, and Mike,
Tell Sam I always thought he was a brave, brave man, but what he did
to Mrs. Waltzerhackit was the stupidest, yet the most hilarious thing I have
ever heard of, and I admire his courage. The trip to Hogwarts was great by
the way! I made a few new friends, one of whom is a Seeker for our house
team. And yes, Mike, there is Quidditch teams, four of them. Though my house
team only has an opening for the Keeper position, and I think you already know
what I have to say to that. I don't know if you guys can come over during the
winter break, but I can ask, and if that doesn't work, I'll beg.
I've gotta go; lunch will end pretty soon, but I'll write to you guys again. I
think we should only send letters once a week because your owls were worn out
when they got here. Hope to hear from you guys then! Miss you already!
Sarah

Sarah reread it, and then stuck it in an envelope and addressed it to Kelly Anne and Mike, and gave it to Iris, hoping up and down on her arm. Iris nipped her on the finger affectionately, and flew away with the letter. Staring absentmindedly after the tiny screech owl, she suddenly realized that the bell was going to ring any moment, and grabbed her bag, dashing out of the room.
She met Harry and Ron halfway down the hallway.
"Where's the fire, Sarah?" Ron asked.
"What? The bell's going to ring, isn't it?" Sarah pointed at her watch. The two friends took a look at it, eyebrows rising.
"Your watch is fifteen minutes fast," Harry looked up at her.
"Eh?" Sarah compared her watch to theirs, and pursed her lips, embarrassed. She set her watch straight and then looked around, expecting to find Hermione. "Where'd Hermione go?"
"Library. It's her time to study," answered Ron.
"Study? There's nothing to study for yet though!" A worry line creased Sarah's forehead. "Is there?"
Ron laughed and shook his head. "It's just the way Hermione is. Don't worry about it. In another few weeks she'll be making study schedules, so think nothing of it."
Sarah let out a second sigh of relief. "That's good. So, what're you two up to?"
"We're just going up to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom to see Mad Eye Moody," Harry shrugged. "Want to come?"
"Mad Eye Moody, the professor with that weird thingy going on with his eye?" the edges of Sarah's lips twitched downward, and she shook her head "I think I'll just wait until Friday to meet him. The guy creeps me out."
"Suit yourself. We'll see you at Transfiguration," Ron and Harry left her as they walked down the hallway.
For the rest of the fifteen minutes left to her, Sarah wandered the halls and examined all the paintings and tapestries hanging along the walls. Once she thought one of the suits of armor had moved, and after that she was more wary of them. She found herself wishing again that Kelly Anne and Mike could be at Hogwarts with her, but that kind of thinking made her sad and she quickly discarded the thought.
The bell rang signaling the end of lunch. She realized she had no idea where she was.
Luck favored her that time; right after the second bell had rung, out of breath, and robes in disarray, she had found the Transfiguration classroom.
Professor McGonagall, the teacher she had met when she put on the sorting hat, taught Transfiguration. Sarah took a seat next to Harry, Ron and Hermione, feeling kind of like a third wheel because she didn't know anyone else to go sit with. She stared up at the front of the class, watching Professor McGonagall start the lesson when everyone had taken their seats.
They were to turn a toad into a rabbit, and Sarah couldn't have had more fun; Transfiguration was her favorite subject. Though, her rabbit still was catching flies with it's tongue, Hermione helped her around that easily before McGonagall came to examine. Neville Longbottom, who Harry had told her about during Potions, was known to be extremely forgetful, and clumsy, and was shaking in the seat before them.
"What's up, Neville?" asked Harry.
"I've lost my toad," Neville looked like he was going to go to pieces.
"What, already?" said Ron in disbelief.
"Here, you can have mine, I'm done," Sarah turned her rabbit back into a frog with a "POOF", and handed it to Neville, who looked extremely grateful. "Thanks," said Neville. A few minutes later, he had turned his frog into a green rabbit, and Hermione went over to help him.
"I'm surprised his pet frog is still alive," Ron muttered into Harry's ear.

The free period she had that day was spent as she watched Harry, Ron and Hermione attend their Care of Magical Creatures class. The teacher, who was also the gamekeeper, was a lot bigger, than she had imagined when Harry, Ron and Hermione had told her about Hagrid on the train. She was expecting to see someone just a bit bigger than her dad. Those thoughts were erased when she saw a huge man with a tangled beard, towering above the students.
She hugged her knees and watched mystified at the creatures Hagrid had introduced to the class called Sygers. They looked like the wild cats she would sometimes see in the mountains at home. Except for the fact that they were much smaller, had blue and gray fur, and their eye's glowed red every time they looked the slightest bit annoyed.
Everyone, including even Hermione, was looking apprehensively at the cat-like creatures with hesitation when Hagrid told the class their lessons for the next few weeks would be about them. They would have to take care of them like pets.
It turned out that not only were they very small, bust also, extremely fast. So fast, that when Hagrid had handed Harry the leash to one of them, it took off running almost instantly, diving into the lake, and dragging Harry with it. Sarah and Ron then came helping him out of the lake, wet and soaking completely and still holding the leash, which the Syger had broken away from.
"Er- tha'll happen sometimes, so yeh migh' want ter hold on tigh' ter their leashes," said Hagrid, as Harry, Ron and Sarah walked towards the class. Sarah was struggling hard not to laugh, as Harry frowned at her. "They're mighty fast, and like ter go fishin'. Here," he said, and walked passed them towards the lake. He stuck his hand in, and a moment later returned with Harry's Syger, a fish clasped in its mouth.
Sarah had to turn and laugh then, Ron joining her, not able to contain themselves any longer.
For the rest of the period, Sarah found herself helping Harry try and walk his Syger, which was extremely hard, not only for him, but for the rest of the class too. The Sygers didn't seem to want to be "walked" but rather "runned", and made desperate attempts, just like Harry's had, to make off towards the lake. It was the simple charm that slowed the Sygers down Hermione had shown to everyone, that was a total relief and soon the whole class was using it.
When Sarah caught sight of Malfoy, Crabb and Goyle, she was wondering the same thing as Ron was and he leaned towards her.
"Maybe we should just let the Sygers do their stuff, and set them on Malfoy," he whispered to her, making her nod and smile, but Hermione had overheard him and shook her head in disapproval.

Finally, classes ended for the day, and Sarah was able to take Din outside to enjoy the fresh air. She watched as the tiny white kitten clawed at the fish in the lake for a moment, and then started to draw sketches of the school and it's grounds for Kelly Anne and Mike. When the sun started to sink in the horizon, turning the clouds pink and orange she set down her sketchbook and stared at her knees, wondering what her two friends were doing right now, then noticed that Hermione was walking towards her.
"Is it dinner time already?" Sarah asked.
"Pretty soon," Hermione shrugged. "How was your first day?"
"Ok," said Sarah, depression hitting her stomach again as she wished again that Kelly Anne and Mike could've been here to experience Hogwarts. Sarah glanced at the lake, and then gave a short laugh, "I think that lesson with the Sygers just topped it off. I was literally dying trying not to laugh. Harry- you should have seen his face when he came out of the water."
Hermione allowed herself a small laugh too. "It was kind of funny, wasn't it?" she said, smiling. "He came up all wet and still holding the leash."
"The way McGonagall looked at him when we walked in through the hallways with him still soaking," grinned Sarah. "What was it that he said to her? 'I just had a bit of a bath in the lake'?" They both broke into laughter.
They were silent for a time then. It seemed as if Hermione wanted to tell her something else, as if she hadn't really come out here to tell Sarah that it as dinnertime. Sarah watched as she stood silently looking out across the lake, her face somewhat troubled. "We'd better go inside and get ready," she said, breaking the silence.
Din had finished her own dinner, and was licking her paws when Sarah went to get her. A fish lay half eaten next to the tiny white kitten. "Uck. Din, it's cat chow from now on," Sarah let out an annoyed sigh, as Din purred happily.
Harry and Ron saved seats for Hermione and Sarah when they walked in. They kept staring over at the Slytherin table where Malfoy and the same group of Slytherins were all snickering stupidly and glancing over at Harry and Ron. Sarah couldn't help but make a revolted look at Malfoy who had suddenly spotted her.
"Too bad McGonagall didn't teach us how to turn something that looks like a frog into a rabbit," said Sarah to Harry, making him look up for the first time.
"Or a ferret," said Ron, sniggering, and making Harry laugh as well. They explained to Sarah, who gave them puzzled glance. Apparently there had been a teacher last year that had turned Malfoy into a bouncing ferret when he almost put a curse on Harry.
"I'd love to see that," said Sarah. "Malfoy a bouncing ferret. Must've been real entertaining."
"It was," said Ron, closing his eyes and smiling as though he were reliving the moment again.
"I wonder what the real Professor Moody will be like for Defense Against the Darks Arts anyways," said Hermione thoughtfully.
"The real Professor Moody?" said Sarah. Harry, Ron and Hermione all exchanged glances, and then Hermione shrugged and told her.
"Last year the Professor Moody we had was a fraud," she explained. "We've never have been able to have a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for more than a year."
"Never?" asked Sarah skeptically.
"We've gotten a different teacher every year," said Ron, "they think the job is jinxed. Snape wants the job, though he's stuck as the Potions teacher."
Sarah turned her head and glanced curiously up at the staff table where Snape was sitting, looking even more ashen faced than he had been this morning.
"Why does he look so pale?" asked Sarah. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other, but didn't say anything. "What?"
They looked down at there plates, not able to say anything to Sarah. She decided to drop the subject, and asked for the plate of potatoes. After dinner, she left the Great Hall with Harry Ron and Hermione, tired and full. Fred and George were already in the common room when they climbed through the portrait hole. They were making Quidditch strategies, which Sarah couldn't help but add her bit of knowledge of her own.
"Was the Keeper the team captain too?" asked Sarah, coming over to where Fred and Geoge were prodding little figures around a model of a Quidditch field. Fred and George grimaced.
"Yeah," said Fred. "And we've got to start practice pretty soon if we want to win our first match."
Sarah shrugged and decided to stay up and help Fred and George, relating to them a few of her own strategies she had used. Harry stayed too, listening to something that a Seeker had done on her old team.
"He fell off his broom, caught the Snitch, and used the Summoning Charm on his broom before he hit the ground. He didn't break a single bone, though his arm was pretty sore for a while."
"Why don't you try out for our Quidditch team, Sarah?" said Fred, as though the idea had just popped in his head. "Because I suck at being a Keeper," said Sarah flatly, and then gave them a half smile. "I'm sure you'll find a better person for the job." She said good night to them, and headed for the stairs up to the girls dormitories. Halfway up, she heard George's voice.
"I wonder if she's that bad of a Keeper, as she say's she is."