Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters, places, and ideas belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Brothers, not me.
by Auror5
At breakfast, on the first day of school, Lily, Fiona, Remus, Peter, and Samantha looked over their class schedule while finishing their meal. Earlier, Lily was shocked by a swarm of assorted owls invading the Great Hall. The owls were delivering mail to a number of students.
Munching on a piece of toast with plum jam on it, Lily said, "All right, on Mondays and Wednesdays we have Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Care of Magical Creatures. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we have History of Magic, Potions, and Charms, and on Friday we have Flying Lessons and Astronomy with the Slytherins, and Herbology with the Ravenclaws.
"We better leave early so that we aren't late for Transfiguration. Professor McGonagall looks mean. I don't think she'll be very happy if we're late for her class, even if we do get lost."
It took them twenty minutes to find the Great Hall on account of them getting lost. It certainly did not help that the resident poltergeist, Peeves, made matters worse for them until they wizened up and ignored his "help."
They rose from the table, and prepared to leave for their first Hogwarts' lesson.
"Oh, wait! I have an idea," exclaimed Lily while grabbing some parchment, a textbook, and a quill from her bag. "I'll write down the directions as we go. That way we'll know where to go tomorrow."
"Brilliant!" replied Samantha. "The class is in Northeast Tower, third floor."
They walked down the corridor and up a flight of stairs hoping that they were heading in the right direction. Their progress was a little slow due to Lily stopping frequently to take notes.
"This must be it," said Peter.
They were facing a door. Peter opened it, but, alas, there was only a wall behind it!
"Why, the adults must be awfully strange pulling funnies like this on the students!" Lily frowned in indignation.
"Over here!" Fiona shouted. "Here's another door. Perhaps it's real."
Remus tried to open it. "I think it's locked."
"Maybe it needs a password. Oh dear, this is so frustrating!" Lily ran her hand through her hair.
"This is all very odd," remarked Samantha. "Why don't we ask it to open up for us?"
"DOOR, I COMMAND YOU TO OPEN UP!" Remus said.
Nothing happened.
Remus shrugged.
"Let me try." Lily stepped up to the door. "Er, Sir Door, won't you allow us to come through? Please, erm, nice Door?"
The door opened. Incredulous, they gazed at one another. Shaking their heads, they entered and found themselves in another corridor. Ivy, Daisy, Oliver, and a few unfamiliar first years could be seen, up ahead, walking into a classroom.
"That must be our Transfiguration class!" Remus ran ahead.
The rest followed him. They entered the room and quickly found seats.
Professor McGonagall sternly gazed at them, and then proclaimed, "Transfiguration is not to be taken lightly. It is the most complicated and dangerous subject you will study in Hogwarts. Therefore, don't think of this lesson as fun. It isn't. I have no patience for tomfoolery in my class. If you feel compelled to engage in asinine behaviour, I assure you that you will never set foot in my class ever again for as long as you or I live.
"You, boy, what is your name?" she said to a thin, pale-faced boy with dark hair.
"Piers. Piers Nozhayr, ma'am."
James and Sirius sniggered.
Professor McGonagall gave them a look of warning, and then glanced down at a roll of parchment in front of her.
"Hufflepuff, I see. Nozhayr, come to the front of the class. Come, now."
Lily could see, from her peripheral vision, James and Sirius shaking with mirth. She wondered what they found so humorous.
Piers nervously approached Professor McGonagall's desk. The rest of the class glanced at one another wondering what he could possibly have done wrong.
Professor McGonagall took out her wand, pointed it at Piers, and said, "Transporto."
The class gasped in unison while James and Sirius doubled-up with laughter. Nozhayr now had long, frizzy, strawberry-blonde hair and many freckles.
"Oh dear!"
They looked around and saw that the girl who shouted had closely cropped, dark hair, and was feeling around the top of her head.
"Please, please Professor, I would like it back. Not the freckles, though. Nozhayr can keep them," the girl wailed.
Sirius and James fell onto the floor, where they rolled about and guffawed hysterically.
"Potter, Black, get control of yourselves. NOW!"
The boys staggered back into their seats with faces red from laughing so hard. They continued to shake with mirth.
"Honestly, it is not that amusing," said Professor McGonagall in a scolding voice. "I should hope you two would control your behaviour better in the future."
Then with the barest hint of a smile on her lips, Professor McGonagall beckoned the girl with closely cropped hair to come to the front of the room.
"What is your name?"
"Patricia. Patricia Allspice of Hufflepuff, Professor."
Professor McGonagall pointed her wand at Allspice and said, "Remeo."
Allspice and Nozhayr returned to their original states.
"You two may be seated."
Nozhayr and Allspice went to their desks.
"I have just provided you with a taste of what you will learn in Transfiguration. Simply put, in my class you will learn how to change the form or appearance of various objects. In today's lesson, you will learn how to change your quill into a feather."
First, they had to take mind-boggling notes on the particular transfiguration they would attempt to use. During the second half of the class, they were asked to place their quills on their desks and turn them into peacock feathers using what they had learned. The only students who managed to accomplish this feat by the end of the lesson were Lily, James, and Sirius. Lily was immensely proud that she actually transfigured her quill into a beautiful peacock feather. Professor McGonagall displayed their feathers for all the students to see.
"Excellent! You three are the first who have ever accomplished this on the first day of lessons. Fifty points for Gryffindor." Professor McGonagall surprised the entire class by smiling warmly at Lily, James, and Sirius.
Lily beamed, and the rest of the Gryffindors cheered.
"That was great! We earned fifty points on the first day!" Fiona exuberantly stated as they, and the rest of the class, walked down the corridor in search of the location of their next lesson.
The Gryffindors first Care of Magical Creatures lesson was interesting. The first creature they studied was a foal, a snowy white, winged foal. They "oohed" and "ahhed" over it. The Professor even allowed them to pet and feed it. Professor Isabella Sandolini was an exchange professor from Italy. She was teaching at Hogwarts, for the second year, to improve her English. She was also quite beautiful. Lily and Fiona amusingly noticed that throughout the entire lesson, Remus watched Professor Sandolini with a dreamy, and rather comical, expression on his face.
After a tasty and filling lunch, they went to Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons. Remarkably, they managed to arrive to class on time, and without getting lost on the way.
Professor Konrad began the lesson by taking the roll call. Lily blushed when he called her name.
"I believe it is important that you learn the Dark Arts before attempting to learn defence," Professor Konrad announced while strolling around the room and up and down the rows of desks.
"It is illogical, in my humble opinion, to defend yourself against hexes and curses that you know very little about. So! In my class you will learn everything there is to know about the Dark Arts.
"In today's lesson, you will learn about the Blind Hex. First, allow me to give you a demonstration."
He then exited the class, and walked into an adjoining room. The students whispered excitedly amongst themselves. Professor Konrad returned with a white dove in a cage.
"Now, watch closely!" He waved his hand in front of the dove in a sweeping gesture, and said something that sounded like "occaeco" to Lily.
"Pay attention!"
Professor Konrad opened the cage and prodded the bird out. The dove began to fly around the room aimlessly and recklessly. The students ducked as the dove swooped over their heads. It crashed into the window and walls several times. Flapping its wings madly, it ricocheted off one wall and landed heavily on Anders' head.
"Gerroff! Gerroff me!" said Anders waving his arms about his head.
Worried, Lily saw that Anders had been scratched on the face.
The bird fell to the floor and proceeded to walk into chair and desk legs. Lily felt sorry for the dove. It took off again and quickly bashed its head on Professor Konrad's desk. Wondering when Professor Rosier would put a stop to the madness, Lily and James leapt from their seats. One of the bird's wings appeared injured. It flapped around on the floor for a moment, and haphazardly took flight again. It flew straight into the blackboard, and crash-landed. A few of the girls screamed. Lily ran to the front of the room, and before the bird could make another mad flight attempt, she carefully picked it up and gently stroked its feathers.
"It's all right. I have you now," Lily crooned to the injured dove.
"Thank you, Miss Evans, for rescuing the bird before it dashed out it brains." Professor Konrad went to her. "You can hand it over to me now."
He placed the dove into the cage.
"Ah, a victim for Professor Sandolini to mend. Miss Evans, you can take your seat. Now! Who can tell me why that bird was behaving in such a bizarre fashion?"
Samantha's hand shot up.
"Miss Tooksbit?"
"Why, sir, you blinded it!"
"That is obviously correct. Five points to Gryffindor for being so attentive. Now, open your Dark Forces textbook to page one hundred and seventeen."
The rest of the lesson was devoted to learning a defence against the Blind Hex. It was quite terrifying for the students when Professor Konrad put the hex on each of them in order for them to learn the proper defence against it. Their homework assignment was to learn how to carry out the Blind Hex. Professor Konrad told them that the next time they met, they would place the hex on each other, in which they would try to effectively block it.
"Well, we made it through the first day," Lily commented as she, Fiona, Ivy, Samantha, Daisy, Remus, Peter, and Anders entered the common room.
"Which lesson did you like best, so far?" Ivy said.
"Care of Magical Creatures," Remus immediately responded.
Lily laughed. "But, of course! Isa-bellllll-la is teaching it. Remus is in love with Professor Sandolini," she teased.
"No, I'm not!" said Remus, face crimson. "I just think she's, er, pretty. Besides, who is madly in love with Professor Konrad, eh? I saw you in class batting your eyelashes and going all red every time he passed your desk, I did!"
Lily, face beet red, yelled, "I did not!"
"Did too!"
"Not!"
"Did!"
"Oy, cut it out you two!" laughed Virgil as he, Craig, and some other fourth year boys entered.
"How was the billiwig's first day at Hogwarts?" Craig said to Fiona while grabbing her and mussing her hair.
"Gerroff me, Craig, you oversized cow pie!"
***
By far, their most memorable professor was Professor Olancha Chloride, who taught Potions. She was a sight to behold. When Lily first laid eyes on her she thought she looked like a cross between a goat and, well, she really didn't know what.
Professor Chloride wore small spectacles, which she kept at the end of her nose and attached to a silver chain around her neck. She had very large hazel eyes, which were decidedly crossed. Her hair was grey, wavy, and appeared quite wiry. She kept it in a strange style: two long clumps sticking straight into the air like horns atop her head. The back of her head was completely bald. All of her teeth were of various colours: yellow, green, blue, red, and purple. She had tufts of hair growing from her ears, ten long strands of hair dangling from her chin, and a long, hook-like nose on which the end of it were large, flaring nostrils. Around her neck, she wore a heavy gold chain with the stuffed head of a chipmunk that appeared to have died in a very foul temper. Lily didn't know whether she should be entertained or frightened by the Potion professor's appearance.
Throughout the lesson, Professor Chloride would suddenly laugh shrilly and loudly without reason. The first few times she did this, the students jumped about forty centimetres from their chairs. Most laughed nervously with her. The exceptions were James and Sirius who obviously thought Professor Chloride was highly entertaining. As a result, she became fodder for many of their silly jokes. Lily thought that Professor Chloride laughed remarkably like a hyena.
Professor Chloride made a big to-do about the different potions they would learn in her class. Curiously, she referred to cauldrons as "precious" as in "heat your precious, my little monkeys." That was how she referred to her students, as "little monkeys." Lily was not sure she approved of this. James and Sirius used it as an opportunity to emit noises, scratch underneath their arms, and hop around like a monkey.
The students' first assignment was to learn about and write a roll of parchment on the various uses of belladonna.
The most boring lesson was History of Magic taught by the ghostly Professor Binns. He taught the lesson in a dreadful monotone while James and Sirius occasionally manufactured fake and exaggerated snores. At one point in class, Lily whispered to Fiona, "Does he know that he's dead?"
In Professor Sprout's class, they were grouped into fours and told that for the rest of the term they would stick with the same group as most of the lessons involved teamwork. Lily was paired with Fiona, Daisy, and a Ravenclaw girl named Catherine Indigo. A number of times, Professor Sprout had to yell at James and Sirius to pay attention. At the end of the lesson, she subtracted twenty points from Gryffindor for Potter and Black's "outrageously idiotic behaviour," which made the rest of the first year Gryffindors angry with Sirius and James for losing their house points.
At the end of her first week at Hogwarts, Lily wrote a letter to her parents as promised. She told them about her lessons, how she was able to turn her quill into a peacock feather, and about the baby winged horse. She also described Professor Chloride, the Great Hall, the food, and Gryffindor House. Lily ended her letter by describing the friends she had made. When she was done, she asked Fiona if she could borrow Capricorn, of which Fiona obliged.
Time passed smoothly, and before Lily knew it, it was mid-October. Already, it seemed as though she had been in Hogwarts for years. She had already settled into a comfortable routine. Fiona finally got over her disappointment at not being selected for Gryffindor's Quidditch Team.
***
One fine, but brisk, October day found Lily, Fiona, and Daisy in the library, poring over books. A book entitled, The Witches of The Mississippi Delta was opened in front of Lily.
"Listen to this," whispered Lily. "Did you know that the witches of Mississippi have this custom where, on each night of the new moon, they shave their heads bald, dance non-stop to Muggle music called 'Rhythm and Blues,' and afterwards fly on their brooms, in great mass, into the direction of the rising sun?"
"Oh, why are we doing this? Why are we in the library on a Saturday?" groaned Fiona.
"Fiona! We are trying to learn everything there is know about the history of magic so we won't have to pay attention in class," replied Lily exasperated.
"Binns is so, so incredibly boring! I can't concentrate in his class. I don't want to fail History of Magic."
"But Lily, you're making the highest score in our class!" remarked Daisy.
"Yes, but, Binns is so awfully dull. And he keeps calling me 'Miss Eggplant' or…" She grimaced. "'Miss Error.'"
Fiona and Daisy laughed.
Madam Pince appeared and gave them the evil eye. "If you cannot keep quiet, you will have to leave," she said.
When she left, Lily whispered, "I just don't think I can listen to Binns anymore. I'm afraid I'll fall asleep in class one day."
"Why not? We always do," suggested Fiona.
"Nah, I would feel guilty if I did. I never fell asleep in my Muggle school. If I learn all of the history now, I can study other stuff in class. Binns wouldn't notice."
"Sure, Lily, you just want to write on a roll of parchment over and over, 'I love Wilhelm Konrad,'" teased Daisy.
"I do not!" hissed Lily blushing.
"I saw you in Binns class writing it on a parchment, 'Lily loves Wilhelm,' so I did."
"Shhh!" Fiona, grabbing their attention, pointed to the bookcase behind them.
They heard a boy saying, "…aren't telling anyone about it."
"They ought to! After all, Professor Munchausen was killed. On Hogwarts property, she was," replied a girl.
"Are you sure about this, Gwen?"
"Yes! I'm sure of it, Lyle. I overheard Professor Sinistra talking to Professor Flitwick about it. Remember how she disappeared before the end of last term? They found her body outside one of the dungeons. It was mangled. Professor Flitwick said that it looked as though her hands and feet were chewed off. Flitwick even began to cry when he told Professor Sinistra about it."
"I don't understand. Why is the headmaster keeping this from the students? Don't we have a right to know? Gwen, what if, what if this was the work of the Dark Lord?"
"Shhh! Lyle, don't invoke his name! I'm frightened. Come, we should go now."
A sixth year boy and girl walked out from the other side of the bookcase, and exited the library.
Lily, Fiona, and Daisy looked at one another with identical stricken expressions on their faces.
Finally, Lily broke the silence, "That professor Headmaster Dumbledore talked about at the start-of-term banquet was killed? Here? Who did it? Why, you think it was one of the professors?" She glanced around fearfully as if an axe-bearing professor was going to appear at any moment.
"That Gwen girl is right. I think everyone should know about this. Hogwarts isn't safe! The killer could be here now," Fiona exclaimed fearfully with huge eyes.
"I've heard of this Dark Lord before. Once, I heard my parents talking about him, but they shut up when they saw that I was listening. They wouldn't tell me more, though. They told me I was too young to hear about it," spoke up Daisy.
"What part of it did you hear?" inquired Lily.
"Oh dear, it isn't so clear now. It was about a year ago. I only remember them saying that the Dark Lord was an evil wizard and that he was looking for followers. That's all I remember."
"Perhaps he has killed people," murmured Lily.
"I have an idea," Fiona piped up. "Judith, the Head Girl, was here. She'll probably know what happened to Professor Munchausen. Let's ask her."
"Are you sure she'll tell us?" Lily said, sceptically.
"It wouldn't hurt to ask, would it?"
"No, I guess not."
"Let's go then."
They grabbed their belongings and prepared to leave the library.
"Wait!" exclaimed Lily. "I must check this book out for Remus. He's visiting his ill mother again. I told him I would help him keep up with his assignments."
Awhile later, they were sitting outside the room where the prefects held their meetings, and impatiently waiting for Judith to show up. An hour later, the door swung open and the prefects noisily entered the corridor. Fiona leapt to her feet, beckoning Lily, Daisy, and Samantha, who had been filled in on the story, to follow. They spotted Judith Owlsbuckle and went up to her.
"Judith, may we ask you a question in private?"
"All right. McKinnon, is it?" said Owlsbuckle.
Fiona nodded her head.
Judith briefly scrutinised Fiona with a slightly puzzled expression on her face. "Er, why don't we go inside?"
They entered the room in which the prefects had left, and Owlsbuckle closed the door behind them.
"Erm, Judith, we would like to know what happened to Professor Munchausen. We heard that she was, er, killed."
Judith started and then narrowed her hooded eyes while gazing at Fiona suspiciously. In a low and threatening tone, she said, "McKinnon, where did you get this information?"
Fiona took a step back. Lily and the others girls were alarmed by the Head Girl's reaction.
"We, we heard some sixth years talking about it in the library."
"McKinnon, who did you hear talking about Professor Munchausen?" Owlsbuckle requested in a cold voice.
Lily was not so sure she liked the Head Girl.
"I, I don't know...just a sixth year boy and girl. I don't know who they are."
"What did they look like, McKinnon?"
"I, I, don't remember, Judith. Really."
"You are a lousy little liar, McKinnon. What about the rest of you? Can any of you tell me who they are or what they look like?"
Lily, Daisy, and Samantha quietly stared at their feet.
"Very well then. I will only say this once: Don't any of you mention Sally Munchausen again. Stay out of affairs that do not concern you. Understand?
"I SAID, DO YOU UNDERSTAND?"
"Yes," they quietly replied.
"Twenty-five points from Gryffindor for the four of you being such liars and cowards." She then left the room, and slammed the door behind her.
"What's with her?" remarked Fiona astounded.
---------
Note: No, I was not trying to turn Professor Chloride into a Gollum, for those of you who have read J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings. She does have that one little trait Gollum possesses, doesn't she? Gollum refers to the ring "to bring them all in the darkness and bind them (Tolkien)" as precious. Professor Chloride refers to cauldrons as precious. Hmm, if Gollum had ... oops can not say more. If you have not read The Lord of The Rings, what are you waiting for?