Chapter Three:
Welcome to Hogwarts
As the year progressed, Lily found that she fit in nicely
with the wizard world. Back at her old
school, she had been in the top of her classes, and easily she had regained
that position at Hogwarts. She excelled
especially in Transfiguration and Charms, for the teachers were by far her
favorite. The school year was passing
quickly, and October was soon upon them.
"Lily! Move your
bum, we've got to get down to breakfast. We've got fig first." Babs ran out of the girls' room and down the
iron staircase.
"Why does she call it 'fig'?" asked Lindsay while forming
her hair into three small buns at the top of her head, another unusual idea for
a hairstyle she had concocted the night before. "She can't just say 'Transfiguration'?"
"Hey, Babs forgot her glasses. I'm going to run down and give them to her before she bangs into
any walls. We'll meet you guys in 'fig'." Lily left the room. At the bottom of the iron stairs in the
common room, she could see Babs sitting on one of the big chairs, rubbing her
ankle. When Lily approached, Babs
looked up at her, squinting her eyes.
"I fell," she said.
Lily gave Babs her glasses, and they walked down to the Great Hall
together. Inside, they saw everyone at
the Ravenclaw table huddled together.
The girls walked over to see what was the matter. As they came close, Marty Patil, a tall
handsome third year boy with deep brown eyes, whispered something to Babs. She gave him a solemn look, and turned back
to Lily.
"Uh, Lily, maybe we should just grab something and go
straight to class. I think we're going
to be late anyway." Babs grabbed two
muffins and began to usher her out of the hall. As they passed the Slytherin table, a boy with long greasy brown
hair muttered, "mudblood." Lily looked
at him confused. She noticed that many
other people at the table were saying it as well, glaring at her and giving her
dirty looks.
When they left the Hall, Babs hurried Lily into their
classroom and handed her a muffin.
"What was that all about?" asked Lily.
"What? Oh,
nothing, nothing at all. Did you finish
your fig homework? I did but I don't
think I did it right. Why don't you
read everything I wrote and tell me what I did wrong." Babs gave her a big fake smile.
"Babs…"
Babs gave a deep sigh.
"Thomas Hobs was found this morning in the corridors beaten up with
'mudblood' written all over his face in blue ink."
"Oh my goodness!
That really nice boy from Hufflepuff?
Why would somebody do something like that?"
"It's because he was not 'wizard-born,' because he has
Muggle parents. This is bad, this is
very bad." She began pacing the
room. "There are followers in the
school. Lily, you have to be careful
you could be next. Promise me you wont
go anywhere alone."
"Alright, I promise."
At that moment, the other students started filing into the room. Everyone was talking very loudly, and
running amuck around the classroom. One
particular boy was writing, "Josie smells like cheese" over and over on the
board. Professor McGonagall walked into
the room.
"Class, settle down please." The tall woman got little response from the class. She had brown hair speckled with gray tied
into a tight bun. From what she had
told Lily and Babs, who had spent much time in the room after class, this was
McGonagall's first year as a teacher.
She had left her job as a developer of new spells for the ministry of
magic to 'spread her knowledge to those less knowledgeable.' So far, she hadn't had much success.
"Ladies, gentlemen.
Do I have to ask you again?"
"YES!" said a loud voice from the back of the class. Several other students snickered.
"I do not appreciate that, Mr. Wallace. Please open your books to page
fifty-three. Today, we will be changing
oranges into apples. From the notes
that I gave you yesterday, you should understand how every single piece must
change in order to make the fruit edible.
A half fruit can be poisonous, do not attempt to eat any
half-transfigured food. Mr. Connors,
where is your transfiguration book?"
A boy looked up from his peaceful slumber on the
desk. He had a small pool of spit on
his sleeve. "Books are in the library…"
He fell asleep again. McGonagall was
getting very upset with herself. She
handed out several oranges. Lily and Babs
began trying to transfigure them, with little results. The rest of the class continued chatting,
one girl between bites of her orange.
Soon enough, McGonagall had given up on making them behave, and helped
the two girls learn the lesson.
Later that day, Babs and Lily were back in the common
room, doing homework with Lindsay, Trinity, and Hope. They had completed their Defense Against the Dark Arts essay on
the ways of identifying a vampire, and now Lily was attempting to teach all of
them how to transfigure fruits.
"I don't know why I even bother with you non-listening
type. I'm just wasting my time and
energy, " said Lily jokingly. She put a
hand up to her forehead and did a dramatic swoon onto the couch.
"Hey I was listening!
I just… well… think this is utterly unfathomable," said Babs as she
poked her wand at her half-orange-half-apple.
"Of course she uses big words now," Trinity said as she
rolled her eyes. "But Hope and I were
making very good uses of our class time.
We were discussing the Oktoberfest with Dennis and Charlie." At that moment both Dennis Meadows and
Charlie Riggs walked over with the sound of their names. Dennis was rather short for his age, with a
very cute round face and eager brown eyes that clashed terribly with his deep
red hair. Charlie, on the other hand,
was very tall and very good-looking. He
had brown hair that fell perfectly on his face and big blue eyes.
"What about Dennis and Charlie?" asked Charlie.
"We were talking about the Oktoberfest."
"What's the Oktoberfest?" asked Babs. She pushed her small glasses higher up on
the ridge of her nose.
"It's a dance.
First and second years aren't allowed to go unless someone else asks
them. It's an annual thing. I hope I get asked to go," said Hope.
"Why would you want to go?" asked Babs. "Sounds like a great excuse to have some guy
step on your feet and drool all over you.
And if you wanted that, you could just ask Charlie here. It's a specialty of his." Suddenly, Trinity started giggling, which
soon turned into laughing, and the next thing they knew she was rolling on the
floor with tears coming out of her eyes.
"And what do you think is so funny?" asked Babs.
"Ch…Ch... Charlie's already been asked to go," she said in
between breaths. Babs turned to him
with a shocked expression on her face.
"Who would ask you?!" said Babs.
Charlie's face turned beet red. "Mmle hmmtn," he muttered.
"What?" screamed Babs.
"Emily Hamilton!
Okay! Emily Hamilton!" yelled
Charlie.
Babs began to giggle.
"The fifth year with the big nose and huge teeth? The one in our Charms class because she got
held back? She asked you? Well, have a great time. I hope I'm invited to the wedding." Charlie threw a pillow from the chair he was
sitting on at her, which just grazed the top of Babs' head, leaving her blonde
plaits in disarray. She glared at him
before performing the full body bind and strolling off, singing merrily.
For the next few weeks, the castle was humming. Much to Babs' distress, the Oktoberfest was
the topic of conversation for the entire time.
The night of the event, Lily and Babs sat in the common room and watched
as the girls and boys began appearing, ready for the dance.
"Look at them," Babs whispered to Lily. "Looking all spiffed up. I just don't understand it. Who would want to go to this anyway?" The girls looked up to the top of the first
year's iron staircase, and saw Charlie strutting down the stairs. He had slicked his hair back on his head and
was wearing brand new maroon dress robes.
He looked very handsome, and Lily couldn't help but blush a bit.
"Hey worm breath, you've got snot in your hair!" yelled
Babs.
"Bite me, Brinkman!"
The room slowly dispersed of all older students. The small group of second years had gone to
the library to study for a test that was coming up, and only the first years
were remaining in the common room.
"Let's sneak down to the Great Hall and see if we can peek
in!" said Lindsay.
"Eww, why?" said Babs disgustedly.
"I bet that Emily's going to try and kiss Charlie," said
Trinity.
"I hope she barfs in his mouth."
"She would not!"
"Why not? Who
would want to kiss a boy anyway?"
"Not me!" said Thomas Dredge unexpectedly. Thomas was rather quiet, and did not like to
talk very often.
"I don't think it would be that bad…" said Hope
blushing. Lily thought about it for a
moment. She had to agree with Babs, if
a guy had tried to kiss her she would probably barf in his mouth.
***********
The Quidditch season started with a tremendous loss of
Hufflepuff to Slytherin. Although this
was expected, it was still thrilling for Lily to see such a tremendous
match. Most of the time, Babs was
screaming rules and instructions in her ear but on occasion she actually heard
the commentary.
When the date for the second match was posted, Lily was
more than excited to see it. Gryffindor
was playing Ravenclaw, the first game of the Ravenclaw house.
The girls awoke early the next morning and bundled in
their warmest clothes in preparation for the match. They walked out onto the stands and found seats next to Charlie,
Dennis, and Calvin Hansen. The boys
were having a very heated discussion about the match.
"Parker's good.
He'll definitely catch the snitch," said Dennis.
"No, no, no.
Parker's quick but he's not smart.
I bet that Wolford'll throw him off somehow and get the snitch himself,"
said Calvin.
"Either way, Gryffindor's going to win. We have to face the facts, our team is
weak. I've seen them play. Madam Hooch has had me watching practices
since our first day in flying classes."
Charlie blushed.
"And why would she do that?" Babs asked.
"She…she said that I had talent. She said I would be a really good beater if I learned the
game." Babs glared at him.
"Anyway," Dennis interrupted, "I heard that the new
Gryffindor chaser is phenomenal.
'Pottery', or something like that.
This is his first season, but people say that he's a natural on a
broom," Charlie added.
"It's not 'Pottery,' stupid, it's 'Potter,'" said
Babs. "James Potter, the kid who set
the dungbombs off in McGonagall's office to give her a scare in the first week
of school."
"That was James Potter?
I thought it was that Sirius Black kid," said Lily.
"Nope. Black was
the one who put a charm on her blackboard so that it erased everything she
wrote."
"I've met James Potter before. On the first day of school, I accidentally bumped into him and
dropped all of my books. He was nice
about it though, helped me clean them up."
"Smooth move, Lil.
Smooth move." At that moment,
the players started walking out on the field.
Babs' brother Evan was doing the commentary under the supervision of
Professor Apollo, and was announcing their names. Lily looked down at the Gryffindor team and saw James Potter in
his scarlet robes next to the rest of the players. Soon enough, the game had begun and the players were speeding
above the crowd.
The Gryffindor team was much better than the Ravenclaw
team, and within minutes they were far ahead of them. The game continued, Gryffindors slaughtering the Ravenclaws.
"Potter's got the Quaffle! He's going for the points, look at that boy fly! Ouch, just barely missed him there. There he goes, just two more feet and- I
don't believe it! Parker's got the
Snitch (a little early there boy!) and Gryffindor wins 300-190!" The crowd roared, the other Ravenclaws
booing the Gryffindors along with the Hufflepuffs. The players returned to the ground, and were bombarded by
teachers and friends. Three boys
sitting several seats away from Lily ran down onto the field and jumped all
over James. One, a tall boy with dark
black hair, Lily recognized immediately as the infamous troublemaker Sirius
Black. The other two, a small frail
looking boy with dirty blonde hair and a rather chunky quiet looking boy, Lily
had never seen before.
They walked back up to their common room slowly, Lily and
Babs discussing the outcome of the match.
They stayed in their room until mealtime, when they went down to the
Great Hall. Most of the students were eating
at this time, for it was a Saturday and homework could be done during the day
rather than rushed through at night.
Lily sat down with her friends and began to eat her meal.
"Who's up for a game of chess?" said Lindsay when the
plates had ceremoniously cleared.
"Why do we even bother?
Lily wins every time anyway," whined Trinity. The five girls left the Great Hall and began walking back up to
their room.
"I'll tell you why we bother," Babs began as they walked
up the marble staircase. "We bother
because even though we get our rumps whipped every time, we know that one day
we will wear her down—she'll never know what hit her." The girls passed by the room of doors, and
went through the familiar door decorated beautifully to look like the woods. Soon enough, they had reached the common
room and entered to find the familiar boys and girls chatting aimlessly and
playing games.
"I'll go get my set.
Be right back," said Lily as she ran up one of the iron staircases. When she reached the top, she could have
sworn that something or someone had brushed by her, but seeing nothing she
continued into her room. When she got
there, she noticed that many drawers had been opened, and many belongings had
been moved around. She ran back down
the stairs and got her friends.
"Whoa, what happened here?" Babs said quizzically when she
entered the room. "Looks like we missed
an earthquake."
"Go through your stuff and see what's missing. Whoever it was seemed to be looking for
something, lets just hope they didn't find it." After all of the girls had thoroughly examined the mess, they
looked back up at each other.
"Nothing.
Everything of mine is here."
"Yeah me too."
"Nope, I'm missing three quills, two bottles of ink, a red
sock, a blue sock, my charms textbook, and my cauldron."
"Lindsay, you were missing that before this even
happened."
"I know, but they're still missing."
"This whole situation is so peculiar," said Lily. "I mean, whoever it was tore apart our room,
and yet left everything here. It's so
odd…" Within the next half hour, they had cleaned up the mess and decided to go
to bed.
A/N: next…. Chapter
4
