American Witch
A\N: Hello! MARSHMALLOWS ARE GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^_^ Sorry, I don't think the effects of the marshmallows that I ate at lunch have worn off yet MARSHMALLOWS ARE GREAT! ^_^ That's my favorite smiley-face.
Anyway, here's the fifth chapter at last. Sorry it's taken so long, if anyone really cares. I've had a lot of homework. I think this is the mid-year homework load. Hopefully, it'll be over soon. This is the longest chapter so far. 27 KB. Chapter 4 is second longest with 26 KB.
I know that I said that Harry Potter and his friends wouldn't be in this, but it's my story, and I've changed my mind. Some of them might be, just not the way you're used to themso ha!Disclaimer: What belongs to me belongs to me, and what belongs to J.K. Rowling belongs to J.K. Rowling. There. Done. Yip-yip-HOORAY!!!!!!! I made it shorter!
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Chapter 5: The First Classes
9-2-02
Hellllllllllllllllllllo, world! I had a pretty good day of classes so far.Except for Arthur. I just had lunch. I'm taking advantage of the extra time before my next class to write in here.
First of all, when I went to breakfast, I didn't get any mail. Didn't expect any, but too bad anyway. The prefects in our house passed out our schedules. When I was done with breakfast, I went to my first class: Herbology.
I have that on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and today was Monday. Oh, and by the way, Herbology is the earliest class in a day, and I only go on some days. Herbology starts at 9 AM. At my old school, classes started at 7:45 AM. This is paradise!
We have Herbology with Professor Sprout. You know, journal, the lady from the Harry Potter books. Unfortunately, we have it with the Slytherins too. That's how I met Arthur Wong--in Herbology.
I was walking to the greenhouses for Herbology with Elena, just looking around, and I saw him. Arthur Wong. He was talking to another boy, and he saw us when he glanced toward the greenhouses.
"Look!" he said very loudly to the other boy. "It's the new Mudbloods!"
Unfortunately, Elena and I were coming to Herbology rather early, so the field was quite empty besides Arthur and the other boy. No teachers to tell him off. Dang.
However, I was angry, and fully intending to give him a good insult. I was a muggle-born, but Elena wasn't. He had no right to call her that!
Elena obviously felt the same.
"I'm a pure-blood, you freak! Stop calling us Mudbloods!"
Arthur had caught up with us.
"Ah, yes, so sorry. You're the Greenweld one, correct?"
"Yes," Elena said icily. "What does it matter to you?"
"Well, you know, of course, that the Greenwelds are a highly respected wizarding family. I'm so sorry for mistaking you for a Mudblood. But I bet this one's a Mudblood," he said, gesturing toward me.
"Yes, I am, but you know that's not the word for it. Or maybe you might not, since you're obviously a stupid git," I said. I thought afterward that it was a very wimpy insult. I'm not too good with that kind of thing.
"Are you quite sure you're not meaning to call yourself the stupid one, and I'm been mistaken for the victim?" Arthur said. Then, he turned to Elena.
"Any time your family wants to stop hanging around with all of these Mudbloods, you just come to me. I can get you friends of the right kind."
"Shut up, Wong!" Elena shot at him. "I know who my friends are, and you're not one of them."
"As you wish," Arthur said, walking ahead. "Come on, Matt," he said to the other boy.
When we got to the greenhouses, Professor Sprout was there waiting for us. She was short and looked just a tiny bit overweight.
"We'll be at Greenhouse 1 today!" she said.
We followed Professor Sprout, to the greenhouse. All we did was transplant these purply plants called Tor Lettuce into bigger pots. We had to wear gloves, because, if the lettuce touches you, you go mad and think you're a dog for a couple of hours. I think it also makes a dog think it's a human and start talking. Professor Sprout said she once accidentally touched a poodle with the lettuce. It spoke French and said its name was Marie, according to the professor.
Professor Sprout told us that we'd probably be a Greenhouse 3 on Monday next week, and then dismissed us.
I spent the whole time we walked back glaring at Arthur and wishing I knew a knife-throwing spell. I'm not a saint.
Our next class was Transfiguration. It was really hard for us to find the way there. I got stuck on a trick staircase and had to jump off it into the hall, and Elena had water balloons showered on her as a present from Peeves. We had to get directions from various ghosts because we had no idea where to go. We got to the classroom about five minutes before the bell rang.
I chose a seat at the back of the room next to Elena. I like the back, because you're kind of isolated there. As I told you, journal, my friend, I'm a little antisocial. Then, I looked up to the front of the room to see what the famous Professor McGonagall looked like.
She was tall, and aging a bit. She wore glasses and had her black hair, with streaks of gray, knotted up in a bun.
She looked at us all.
"Welcome to Hogwarts to the two new students in this class, and to the rest of you, I hope you haven't forgotten everything I taught you last year. Open your books to page 2"
We took a lot of notes, and then we started trying to turn a ladybug into a button.
I was given a ladybug, and I thought about how I'd never done Transfiguration. I doubted I'd be able to do it.
I raised my wand high enough above the ladybug so that it wouldn't fly away, but low enough so that the spell might take effect. Then, I concentrated and tried to transfigure it.
I nearly jumped out of my chair in shock when the ladybug suddenly started flattening out. I wondered if I'd accidentally done a spell to squash the bug and kill it. However, as it flattened out it also developed four holes in its body, became plastic, and turned completely into a red and black button.
"I did it!" I whispered to Elena.
She looked and her eyes widened. She was so surprised that she lost her concentration, and her wand made a puffing sound and engulfed her in green gas. When it cleared, her eyes were watering.
"Tear gas," she said. Then--
"I can't believe you actually transfigured the ladybug! I'm never going to get mine done." She looked down at her desk and got a sickened expression. She'd squashed her ladybug while trying to clear away the tear gas.
We both raised our hands to ask Professor McGonagall for another ladybug. I wanted to make another button, and Elena wanted to get another ladybug and hopefully not squash it.
The professor came over and praised me for my button, then gave us both another ladybug. Elena pretended to glare daggers at me and laughed. I laughed too, and started trying to transfigure another ladybug.
I had two buttons by the end of the class, and Elena had one. I'd gotten a third ladybug, but the bell rang a minute later and I hadn't had time to transfigure it.
We had an equally hard time getting to Charms class. I had a rug pulled out from under my feet by Peeves, and Elena had some crutches dropped on her head.
Finally when we got there, we were about three minutes before the bell. We got seats at the middle. All the seats at the back were taken. I looked around me. I had Elena on one side, a boy on the other side, Kira in front of me, and a boy behind me.
Our professor was a woman with brown hair at about shoulder length. She also had lines in her forehead that suggested worrying about a million things every day. She introduced herself as Professor Granger.
I whispered to the boy next to me. He looked okay to talk to at the moment. "Is she Hermione Granger?"
"Yes," he said. "Makes since that she'd be a teacher, doesn't it? She gives hard assignments. I'm Ben. You're Kara Ramirez, right?"
"Right," I said.
"Flirting, Ben?" the boy behind me said, grinning. He had brown hair and blue eyes--astonishingly blue. And believe me, I wouldn't say astonishingly blue' unless I meant it.
"No, Alex, shut up."
Alex grinned again and left him alone. I listened to Hermione Granger.
"Okay," she said in a business-like voice. "Today we're going to review our exam question for last year--who wants to try making the apple jump across my desk? Jason, how about you? As I recall, you needed a little reviewing on that, although that may just be my memory."
Jason, a tall boy with messy brown hair, moved up to the front of the classroom. He stood in front of the teacher's desk. The professor cleared everything into its proper place with a sweep of her wand and gave him an apple. He set it down on the desk. Then, he raised his wand.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he said, pointing his wand at the apple. He made it shoot up to the ceiling, where it bounced off and hit Ben's desk, just missing my head. It was looking very bruised. Ben picked it up and tossed it back to Jason. Jason looked at it and winced in anticipation of how long he was going to be trying to make the whole thing work.
"Alright, Jason," Professor Granger said, with a half-smile. "Levitate it a bit lower, please. And make the wand movement sweeping, not jerky. That jerking is what's making it shoot up."
Jason said the spell again, and swept his wand upwards. The apple went in an upwards arc. Then, Jason missed the desk, where he was supposed to land the apple, and the apple went off through the open window and dropped to the ground. The class heard cursing. Andrea and Alex went for the window at the same time and saw a boy clutching his head. They told everybody else, and none of us could stop laughing for several minutes.
The professor put her head in her hands. "Okay, Jason, you can sit down. Can we get someone to demonstrate? James, how about you?"
A boy with brown hair and glasses went up to give a try with the apple. He made it go in two arcs across the desk. Boring, but at least somebody could do it.
Stacey did it fine, except for a little jerking while the apple was in the air, and then the bell rang. Jason took a long time.
Then we had lunch, which was pretty good, and now I'm in the Ravenclaw common room. According to my watch, it'll be time for my next class pretty soon, History of Magic. Hope Binns isn't still teaching
And you know one more thing, journal? Something tells me I'm going to be shyer than most people, but not antisocial anymore.
1:30 PM
Hi, I just got back from History of Magic. Guess who the teacher is? Professor Bradley! Ugh!
When I got to the History of Magic classroom (which took a while), there was Professor Bradley with her white-as-snow smile. I'm already getting sick of that smile. Thankfully, we were on time, because otherwise the professor probably would have given us a detention or something. I've never had a detention. It would be a strange experience for me, especially at Hogwarts.
The professor told us to open our books, and she told us about the subject of the first chapter. Then, she made us take notes on the whole chapter, and if we didn't finish, we had it for homework. Now, thanks to her, I have homework on the first day of school. We also have to write an essay on the good points of what's-its-name. I'm going to have to look up what's-its-name and see what it's actually called
I really hope, over all, that we don't have to take notes in every class. I'm exceptionally slow on that.
I have another class at around 3:30, and it's only 1:45 now, so I'm going to take some free time while I can. I can't figure out what my next class is. It's called "1st Year Special" or something. Maybe it's a class about 1st Year magic.Elena has it too, so that might be it.
Kira just invited me to play wizard chess, so I'm going to try that out now.
3 PM
I lost at wizard chess. My soldiers (Elena lent them to me) wouldn't listen to me half the time. They didn't trust me, and they'd go and rebel. However, I'm not even very good at muggle chess, so I probably wouldn't have won anyway.
It's half an hour to that "1st Year Special" thing. I hope I'll be able to find the classroom. And why didn't we get a book for it? I don't know
Anyway, I'm going to get some parchment and quills and go with Elena to try and get directions to the classroom.
6 PM
I just got back from my first flying lesson. Well, actually I did my homework five minutes ago, so I didn't just get back, butI think about these things too much Anyway, I'm going to start by telling about the First Year Special', because I feel like it.
Elena and I were directed by The Gray Lady to a room on the 3rd floor next to a suit of armor.
When we got there, I saw Amanda and an otherwise empty room. She jumped up and ran over.
"Hi! Do you have any idea what this class is for? And the teacher's late."
"This class is a catch-up class for students that are any number of years late to magical school," said a.disembodied voice. I whipped around. Nobody behind me. The voice seemed to be coming from in front of me.
"Who's that?" I said.
"I'm the professor," said the voice.
"Yes, but who are you?" Amanda said. "Are you wearing an Invisibility Cloak?"
"As a matter of fact, I am," the voice said, and a witch appeared, taking off a long silvery cloak.
"Um, hello," I said. "Why the dramatic entrance?"
"I just felt like it," the witch said. "I'm Professor Chant. I'm going to teach you, in as little time as possible, the important lessons in the 1st year plan."
"When exactly did they start this subject?" Elena asked. "I've never heard of anything like this."
"Oh, the headmaster just thought of it two years ago. We were getting some transfers that year, and he hired me to teach them the basics. I have pretty good skills in all the subjects, so I'll instruct you in all of them," Professor Chant explained.
"Why no books?" I asked.
"Oh, well, I'm just going to be teaching the important lessons, so no need for another set of books," Professor Chant said.
"Oh. Okay then!" I said brightly. No possibility of having to carry around ten more books!
"Let's get started," the professor said. "Sit anywhere you want."
The three of us took seats right next to each other.
"Okay. Today, we're going to just see how good you are already"
We did the easiest lessons in Charms and Transfiguration, and took a small test on the general subject of the magical world's history. Professor Chant also asked us about astronomy, herbology, and various ways of fighting different kinds of dark magic.
Thankfully, none of this was for a grade. I was okay in Charms and Transfiguration, but I was hopeless in history and fighting dark magic, and herbology, since I'd never learned paid attention to that stuff much. None of us had taken a single class in Potions yet, so we didn't do any of that. I knew a few of the constellations in astronomy (like the Big Dipper. I don't know that many at all.).
Apparently, I knew enough Charms to get through a fourth of the things you need to know for the exam. In Transfiguration, I knew about the same amount. In the other things, I needed serious teaching. I don't know how good I am at Potions yet.
Elena knew half of everything except History. She told me later that her parents hadn't wanted to bore her to death with that stuff.
Amanda knew the same amount as me in Charms, Transfiguration, and Astronomy, and she knew the same amount of Defense Against the Dark Arts as Elena. She didn't know any history or herbology either. Strange, that. None of us knew any history at all.
Oh well. We'll have time to be bored with history later.
Then, we went with Professor Chant to our flying lesson, to see about that. Apparently, she teaches that as well.
She taught us how to hold our brooms and stuff, and then we rose about 7 feet in the air and came back down. Amanda's landing wasn't pretty, but she just laughed. I was surprised to find that I didn't have much trouble landing or taking off. Elena, of course, was the best, since she was a pure-blood and she'd learned how to fly already.
The professor was pleased with our flying, and after she talked to Amanda about how to land, she just let us fly around the lawn for a while. I went high and then dived down a bit. It was really fun, so I kept doing it. Another reason I kept doing it was that Professor Chant got really pleased. I just really like pleasing people.
Elena did a couple of loop-the-loops, but I didn't want to, because I didn't really like the idea of going upside down that high above the ground. I don't mind jumping from 4 feet up, but I don't really think falling on my head from a height of about 50 feet sounds too good.
Amanda just spent most of the time trying not to hit the castle, and doing stunts by accident in the process. I laughed at her a couple of times, and then announced that she was too lucky to be a real human being, because of all those stunts she did by accident.
Then, we landed (Amanda had a slight crash) and walked back to the castle.
I wonder what the rest of my classes will be like. I have Defense Against the Dark Arts with the second years and Astronomy with Professor Chant tomorrow. I'll just go to Potions with the second years and Herbology with Professor Chant on Thursday, and I'll have seen it all.
Now, I think I'll go down to the Great Hall to see if there's any prospect of dinner.
9-3-02
I just had Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I thought I'd tell you about it. Yes. You. My scrumpdiddlyumptious journal. Yes, I heard that nonsense word from Amanda. I'm not very good at making those up myself.
First of all, guess who the teacher was. Lupin! Yes. Remus Lupin. I didn't think he'd come back to teaching
Anyway, he introduced himself (and insert the wide-eyed shock from me), and then we did studied some Defense Against the Dark Arts, which I am going to have to review, because I can hardly remember what we did. I have a really bad memory when it comes to some subjects. I think my worst subjects are going to be Defense Against the Dark Arts, and possibly Potions, because I was never that good at science, which is kind of connected to measuring out things for Potions, and I didn't remember a word Professor Lupin said from Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Speaking of Professor Lupin, I'm really surprised I haven't cornered some poor soul who knew Harry Potter and questioned them about his fifth, sixth, and seventh years by now. Maybe it's because I'm afraid I'll ruin the rest of the books for myself I don't know Well, I'm going to play some wizard chess (I'm hooked on it, even though I lost), and then I'll review the Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson
9-4-02
I had my first Astronomy lesson with Professor Chant at midnight yesterday. She pointed out some planets and stars (but not the few constellations I know), and then it was over. Not very exciting, especially as I was suffering from need of sleep.
I've got to get to Herbology now bye, journal
9-5-02
I had Herbology with Professor Chant today. It wasn't that different from regular Herbology, except the plants were a bit simpler. We'll probably be through with it soon, because it seems like such a minor subject. Hopefully, that isI don't really like extra work.
I have to go to History of Magic now, so I'll stop writing for the moment.
2:15 PM
So. My first Potions lesson. I'll tell you all about it, journal.
First of all, we had it with the Hufflepuffs. My first reaction was jumping for joy because Amanda was there.
Second of all, the teacher is horrible. My first reaction was thinking, "I hate this teacher," because I do hate Professor Williams
On my way there, we met Amanda going to Potions too, and, like anyone who knew me well would suspect of me, I jumped and twirled two feet off the ground. It's my favorite way to express myself when I'm supremely ecstatic.It's my signature jump! That's it. My signature jumpThen, I acted like a normal person and just jumped up and down a couple of times.
When we went in, we set our cauldrons by our desks. Heavy things.
Our professor, Professor Williams, was a black man who looked a little threatening. However, I didn't think too much of it at first. Now I hate him. If you make one mistake, he thinks of you as weak and under the standard level.
The whole time I was making my potion, he watched everybody critically, especially the new people (Amanda, Elena, and I). My potion was just a little bit too thick and it was a lighter shade of blue than it was supposed to be, and with just those little things, he wrote something down while giving all three of us a contemptous look. I hate to think what he'd do if I made it orange instead of purple or something
Thankfully for me, Kira noticed and gave me a few tips without the professor noticing, and soon it was exactly the right color and I'd thinned it out a bit. When Professor Williams came around again a few minutes later, he looked at my potion and grudgingly wrote something down.
I think this is the beginning of a beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeautiful friendship between me and Kira
Another thing about him is this: If you're really good at something, he acts shocked, like he didn't expect you do anything more than be a complete dunderhead about it. When Elena got her potion perfect the first time (I congratulated her after the class), the professor just stared at her incredulously.
By the way, I like that word. Dunderhead. It has a funny sound. Dunderhead dunderhead dunderhead dunderhead.okay, I'm going to shut up about dunderhead now
Well, Elena says she's going to drag me to Professor Chant's class if I don't come on, or else she's just going to leave me, because that would be less trouble, so I have to go. Being dragged would be uncomfortable, and I can't find that classroom on my own yet! She can't leave me!
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A\N: So, you like, yes? Ah. No, you say. To be expected. Now, if you said yes..YAY! YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOLANDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (because I feel like it) And then. THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, I'm done expressing my endless gratitude now. Even if you didn't like it and you would like to flame me and tell me what a stupid little dunderhead I am.PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!! Pretty please with a cherry on top? ^_^
Woo-hoo! Dunderhead!
*muffles that part of my personality* Okay! Go, now! Before my crazy side takes over and has me leaning on the computer, typing and laughing my head off!
-Hermione2