AAAANNND…(drumroll) here's chapter two!!! Special thanks to Nocturna's little brother for helping her write the flying lesson part. All of you reading this, REVIEW!! Or there will be CONSEQUENCES! SEVERE consequences! (Please review. Pretty please.)
Disclaimer: We still don't own it. Soon we'll own the world, but J.K. Rowling still owns this.
Chapter 2: Life at Hogwarts
The next morning, everyone went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. As they sat the owl post came in and gave most students letters and packages that contained items they had forgotten. After everybody had eaten, schedules were passed out, and Stella came over to the Gryffindor table to compare schedules with Cat and Nick.
"Oh no! Double Potions first!" Nick exclaimed. "Wait, at least Ravenclaw and Gryffindor are together."
"Oh hey we have Flying and Herbology together too," said Stella.
"Why did they have to give us double Potions first thing on Monday?" Cat complained.
"Yeah, my dad told me that Professor Snape is kind of…." Nick said.
"Annoying?" Cat supplied.
"Well that's not the exact word that he used, but it'll work," said Nick. After breakfast Nick, Cat and Stella went down to one of the roomier dungeons in the castle. They crept in and got a table at the back, and Violet sat with them. The tables held four people each and with in those tables there were two pairs of partners. Once they were all seated Snape walked in with his jet black robes billowing behind him looking like an old overgrown bat. (A/N ~Not like me. Batty) He began to take roll. After calling a few names he came to James.
"Potter, James. Ah! Our new junior celebrity," he sneered.
"Yup, that's me!" James exclaimed enthusiastically. Snape scowled.
"Riddle, Catherine." He paused and looked up. "Riddle? Catherine would you please stand up." He frowned as she stood, and began muttering to himself, circling around her.
"Why did you want me to stand up? Nobody else had to!" Cat said coldly.
"I find that name…interesting." He sneered at her. "You may sit." She sat, glaring at the old bat.
"Riddle, Stella. Another Riddle? Where is Stella?" He asked. Stella tentatively raised a hand. "Are you two related?"
"Yeah, we're sisters. Why do you want to know?" asked Cat. Snape shook his head as if to clear it and ignored her question. He continued to take roll. Cat and Stella glared at him, and Nick looked confused.
"X-an…uh…Zan…uh…Violet?"
Violet sighed. "Zan-thih-pee. I'm here." Snape looked at her coldly and moved on.
"Weasley, Nicholas. Ah, yes," he said as Nick raised his hand. "I remember your father…and mother…and the rest of your overlarge family." He gave Nick an unpleasant look. Nick joined the glare-at-Snape party. Snape didn't notice. He began to instruct them in a simple potion. After a while he walked back over to the table where Stella, Cat, Violet and Nick sat.
"Miss Riddle!"
"Yes?" two voices responded.
"You!" He pointed to Cat.
"I'm Catherine."
"Don't talk back to me! Are you sure you are making that potion right, Catherine?" Snape loomed over them looking very much like a demon.
"Yes Sir, I'm doing everything you told us to," she said, mockingly innocent. She added a handful of powder and the potion turned green. "See it turned green, just like it is supposed to."
"Miss Riddle you're being pert, to help you gain respect for teachers I shall remove 10 points from Gryffindor." He smirked happily as he doled out the punishment.
"10 points? Isn't that a little extreme?" Cat asked.
"Unless you want me to make it 20 I suggest you keep quiet." He then turned to Stella "Miss Riddle, what is that thing in your hair?"
"It's a quill," Stella whispered, looking terrified. He snarled "Kindly keep quills out of your hair, 5 points from Ravenclaw."
"For having a quill in her hair!" Cat muttered rebelliously.
"Shhhhhh!" whispered Nick. Snape glared and left to go bully another student. Finally the Potions lesson was over and they all headed back to the Great Hall for lunch. Stella sadly waved good-bye and went to the Ravenclaw table and sat next to Violet. Nick and Cat sat at the Gryffindor table as far away from James as they could.
"What was with Snape he really picked on you and Stella. What is wrong with the name Riddle?" asked Nick. Cat shrugged.
"He's Snape, does he need an excuse to be mean?" she asked. Nick grinned. As lunch was drawing to a finish, Stella dug through her bag and pulled out all the quills she owned. One by one she stuck them in her hair, then stood up and walked directly in front of the teachers' table over to where Nick and Cat were sitting. Nick could barely stand up he was laughing so hard. Snape looked furious.
After lunch the Gryffindors went to Transfiguration. The Ravenclaws went to Charms. Nick and Cat sat down together in the Transfiguration classroom. James, laughing loudly at something someone in his fan club said, followed them in and sat down near them. Cat took one look at him, then grabbed her bag and Nick and went to the other side of the room.
"Why did you do that?" Nick asked.
"I'm not going to sit next to James "Junior Celebrity" Potter for the whole class," Cat responded. Just then Professor McGonagall came in. She took the roll quickly and without a fuss, then started lecturing the class on the finer points of beginning Transfiguration. After giving them lots of notes that most of them didn't understand, Professor McGonagall turned her desk into a pig and back, then passed out matches and told the class to turn them into needles. At the end of class the only one who had a needle was Eleanor. Cat managed to light her first match on fire and had to get another one. On her second try, her match turned silver but it still wasn't a needle. Nick somehow managed to produce what looked like a wooden needle. As they left the class, James could be heard complaining loudly about how difficult the class was, and how outrageous it was that he had to do such demanding tasks.
While the Gryffindors struggled in Transfiguration, the Ravenclaws were doing Charms. Violet and Stella chose seats in the front row of the double layered horseshoe of desks. Each desk had a feather on it, as they were examining the feathers a really short wizard stood on a pile of books and began to lecture them on the charm Wingardium Leviosa. This was a levitating spell nobody got on the first try except for Jessica. Stella had managed to singe her feather into a bright purple color, while Violet blew up the feather in a cloud of green smoke and finally got it to levitate a few inches. At the end of the lesson everyone was tired and cranky. They left to go on to Defense Against the Dark Arts.
That night Nick and Cat met Stella on the way to dinner.
"That has got to be the most boring class in the world," Cat groaned.
"What?" Stella asked.
"History of Magic," Nick answered. "All he did was talk about house-elf rebellions that probably never happened."
"Well, Defense Against the Dark Arts was pretty interesting," Stella said. "Your uncle is cool, Nick."
* * *
The next morning, the sleepy students headed into the Great Hall for breakfast. "Where's your sister?" Nick asked Cat, scanning the Ravenclaw table. Just then Stella walked in, looking like her mind was a million miles away. Her blond hair had streaks of red paint in it, and there were black smudges on her face.
"Looks like she was working on a painting," Cat said. "Probably spent all night on it." She waved to her sister, then tapped her cheeks. Stella vigorously rubbed the black paint smears off. Cat gestured to her hair. Stella reached up, looked at the paint, shrugged, and sat down to eat breakfast. Cat took her toast and went over to the Ravenclaw table, ignoring the glares of several Ravenclaws as she sat down. "Were you up all night painting again?" she asked Stella.
"What do you think?" Stella responded.
"What did you paint this time?"
"My deepest feelings about James Potter," Stella said. "That's what all the red paint is about."
* * *
On Thursday afternoon all the first years had flying lessons together. They trooped out to the Quidditch field where Madam Hooch was waiting for them. Each student moved to stand by a broom, but before Madam Hooch could even open her mouth there was a huge BOOM! Everyone jumped, looking around wildly for the source of the noise. It wasn't hard to find. Off on the edge of the field there was a large column of smoke drifting up towards the sky.
"Excuse me, I have to figure out what's going on," Madam Hooch called. "Touch those brooms and you're in deep trouble." She ran off towards the smoke. The students looked at each other. Cassandra took the opportunity to move closer to James.
"Is it true you're an expert on flying?" she giggled.
"Of course I am," James bragged. "Here – watch." He grabbed a broom and prepared to kick off.
"Wait –" Nick protested.
"Something wrong?" James asked him grinning. Nick opened his mouth again, but Cat got there first.
"Nope," she said, and smirked at Nick and Stella. James pushed off from the ground and began showing off how well he could fly.
"Watch this, Cassie!" he called as he swooped by her head. Cassandra squealed. "Bet you can't do this!" he added as he hovered near the Slytherins.
"I bet I can!" Loki Malfoy snarled, and flew up to join James. They began matching each other on the brooms, doing more and more complex tricks. Cat shook her head.
"Boys," she muttered. Stella and Violet nodded.
"Hey!" Nick protested.
"You don't count," Violet told him.
"Oh, thanks a lot."
* * *
Later that afternoon (James and Loki had managed to get down to the ground before Madam Hooch returned, muttering about idiotic pranks, much to Cat's disappointment) Cat decided it was about time she found where her sister lived. Nick was busy talking to some of the boys in his dorm, so she slipped quietly out of the portrait hole. She didn't really know where the Ravenclaw common room was, but she knew the general direction that the Ravenclaws usually went in. She started wandering around the corridors, mostly at random. After a few minutes, though, she spotted a trail of paint drops. It led from a girls' bathroom to a statue. Figuring this was the entrance to the common room, Cat stared at the statue, wondering what the password was. Just then the statue moved aside and a section of wall opened. A tall boy of about fifteen stepped out.
"Oh, hi," he said to Cat. "Did you forget the password?"
"Um…yes," Cat answered.
"Don't worry. Lots of people do. It's 'private joke.'"
"Thanks," Cat said and slipped through the hole in the wall. Once inside she just had to follow the trail of paint to find the right dorm. Stella stood in front of her easel, surveying the painting on it with satisfaction. She had succeeded in washing most of the paint off herself.
"Hi, Star," Cat said as she moved to see the painting.
"Oh hi Cat," Stella answered. "Like the painting?" A small figure of James Potter stood in the middle of the canvas. The background was full of angry swirls of red and black.
"I love it," Cat said. "You should hang it in the Gryffindor common room."
"I'll let you do that," Stella said. "I haven't gotten around to figuring out where it is. Speaking of which, you should probably leave."
"Why?"
"It's Robert – the captain of the Quidditch team. He's a little, well, paranoid. If he knew a Gryffindor was in here, he'd probably have a fit."
"Sounds like fun," Cat grinned. "I'll keep that in mind. If you send the painting up to my dorm, I'll make sure it gets hung where James can appreciate it."
Stella, who knew that her sister wasn't joking, nodded. Suddenly her eyes lit up. "That's it!" she cried. "I just had the most brilliant idea!" She grabbed her sketch pad and began to draw furiously. Cat grinned and left the room. On the way out of the Ravenclaw common room she bumped into a rather unpleasant-looking boy.
"You don't belong here, do you?" he asked her suspiciously.
"You must be Robert," Cat said cheerfully. "Don't worry, I was on my way out."
"How did you know my name?" the boy asked.
"See you later, Bobby," Cat called as she brushed by him, ignoring his indignant splutters behind her.
The next morning Stella wasn't at breakfast. Cat would have gone to look for her, but all the Gryffindors were running a little late due to an incident involving Peeves and several dungbombs. As a result, she didn't see her sister at all that morning. She wasn't worried, though. She suspected that Stella had just been completely absorbed in her artwork. As she was walking to the Great Hall with Nick for lunch, Professor Weasley walked up.
"Hi, Nick. Hello, Catherine," he said. "Are you Stella Riddle's sister?"
"Yes," Cat responded. "Why?"
"Well, she wasn't in class today, and she didn't go to Transfiguration either. I checked with Professor McGonagall."
"Oh, great," Cat sighed. "When she gets absorbed in a painting, she doesn't notice anything around her."
"She paints?" Professor Weasley asked, interested. Just then Stella ran up, panting. There were streaks of blue and green on her face, and purple all over her robes.
"Sorry, Professor," she gasped, panting. "I didn't mean to miss class – I just lost track of time."
"Well, okay," Bill Weasley said, smiling a little. "But make sure you don't miss any more classes."
"You're not going to give me a detention?" Stella asked hopefully.
"No – I think you'll be getting plenty of that from Professor McGonagall."
"Oh, shoot!" Stella raced off in the direction of the Transfiguration classroom. Cat shook her head. Nick just looked amused.
~*End of Chapter Two*~
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