Author's Note: The characters that belong to JK Rowling belong to JK Rowling
Thanks to SilverWind for the help proofreading, and my brother for miscellaneous stuff.
Chapter 3: The Whomping Willow
James grunted, eyes shut tight.
"Get up, Jimmy!" James shot his eyes open to see Remus shaking him to wake him up.
"Do not call me Jimmy, Remus." Remus gulped.
"Sorry. Well, get up!" James sat up, looking at his clock.
"Remus, its seven o'clock! Our first class isn't for two hours!"
"I know, but I figure since its our first day, we should get up and be prepared!" James nodded. Suddenly his eyes widened.
"Is Sirius up?" Remus shook his head.
"I think Allyn's going to-" James shot out of bed and grabbed Allyn by the shoulders as he reached for the curtains around Sirius's bed.
"No! Sirius is not a morning person. I think I'm the only one who can wake him up early and get away with my life, considering how long I've known him. I will." So Allyn woke Peter up, and James woke Sirius, though he wouldn't stop whacking James grumpily on the shoulder until they reached the common room. The prefect who led them to bed last night was standing there, grinning at them.
"Hello, there!" He said cheerily. "M' name's Evus, Evus McQuent. I'm one of th' prefects of Gryffindor. So, you lot're new, eh?"
"Yeah, we're first years." Said James.
"Great! Would you like a briefing on yer classes?" James shrugged, and they all nodded.
"Great! Now, let's see your schedule..." Evus grabbed the schedule Remus held out.
"Hmmm....Herbology. Easy class, really, not many test or assignments, mostly interactive stuff.... The Professor is Friar Arus, head of Hufflepuff. Really nice guy.... Charms. Well, you've heard, it's Professor Flitwick, I had him for Arithmancy last year, he's a good guy too, Charms is a very fun class, you're not missing much now that Vanic's gone. Let's see, oh, Transfig'ration...that's McGonagall, she's sorta strict, but she's ok. She's pretty new, and'll probably be head of Gryffindor once that old codga', Marus, retires. Astronomy, yep, that's Marus, he's the worst teacher easily. M' friend, Jack, fell asleep during Astro' at midnight once, he never forgave 'im." James gulped.
"Potions, that's always fun. Scuro's the teacher o' that, he's head of Slytherin, too, but he's not a bad guy. Dark Arts, that's Eric. Er, to you, Professor Longbottom. He gets ter know ya real well, and vice versa. He tells us he's got two kids, Mary 'n Frank. Wife, Marcy. Brother Algie. In fact, now that I think o' vit...Mary's in yer classes, she's a first-year here as well....I wonder if he'll be teachin' 'er...well I'd ask 'im, but I don't have him this year. I'm taking Advanced Defense, and Dumbledore teaches that." Remus suddenly looked at his watch.
"Hey! We've only got an hour until Herbology!" Remus yelled.
"Ach, sorry t' keep ya! G'head, g' eat breakfast." Evus turned to a group of first year girls who had just come down. James was quick to notice Lily wasn't one of them.
James led the guys down to the Great Hall, where he saw Lily eating, a book propped open in front of her.
"Hullo, Lily." He said sitting down across from her, while Peter and Allyn sat on each side of her, Remus and Sirius on his sides.
"Hello boys." She said sweetly. "How're you doing this morning?"
"Excellent." Said Sirius quite grumpily and sarcastically.
"Herbology first, eh? Evus tells me it's taught by Friar Arus." Lily said, stuffing a sausage into her mouth.
"You met Evus?" Sirius said, stuffing an equal amount of sausage into his own.
"Yes. He said he was going to talk to all the Gryffindor first-years about their classes. Awfully nice of him."
"Oh. Wew, whuddya fink uff Pwofefer Wongbo'om? Wiff his dau'er in Gwiffiner?" Everyone stared at Sirius silently.
"Oh!" He swallowed his food. "What do you think of Professor Longbottom? You think he'll be our teacher, with his daughter in Gryffindor?"
"The school policy is that no teacher can teach a relation. So we won't have him." Lily said in a sure, know-it-all voice.
"Where'd you get that?" James said.
"It was in a book my mum got for me, A Handbook for Students and Teachers so I didn't accidentally break any rules here. I read the teacher's section too."
"I heard Professor Vanic's going to teach Defense!" A girl only Lily knew said, sitting down next to Allyn. A flurry of owls came in, though none to anyone sitting near Sirius and the rest.
"Oh, hi Mary. Guys, this is Mary Longbottom." They all waved.
"Oh, yeah, my dad told me that he won't be teaching us, so it might be Professor Vanic, that guy that retired! What do you think?" She said, looking to Peter.
"Oh...er, I agree with James." He said quickly, putting his head down.
"I didn't say anything, Peter."
"Oh, yeah, well...I think it'll be Vanic, yeah." He blushed and put his head down lower, nearly into his porridge. At that moment the bell rang loudly and everyone got up to go to the greenhouse on the grounds where Herbology was taught. As they walked to the Entrance Hall to leave the castle, they spotted the other three Gryffindor girls running into the Great Hall, then running out, each stuffing a biscuit into there mouths.
"Heh. Looks like some people decided not to get up early." James said as they walked onto the dew-covered grass and towards five large greenhouses.
"Which one are we in?" Asked Lily.
"Well, we'll probably be in Greenhouse 1, since Hogwarts, A History says the number indicates level of advancement." He smiled at Lily, who looked quite sore at not knowing something.
Friar Arus was right outside Greenhouse 1, and all Gryffindor first-years gathered around him. A few moments later the Hufflepuffs arrived.
"Why are they here?" Asked Peter nervously.
"Because, we've got class with them." He said, pointing to his schedule. Friar Arus counted heads then clapped his hands together cheerily.
"Well! Welcome to Herbology, the study of magical plant-life. My name is Friar Arus, and I'll be your instructor!" He was quite round, and his belly shook jovially as he spoke. Peter instantly saw Santa Claus in him.
"There are those who call me the Fat Friar, but I don't mind!" He said laughing, then he shook his belly. "Now, we'll be introducing magical plant-life to you today. Step inside the greenhouse!" They followed the Fat Friar into the large glass house, and everyone's eyes darted in several directions as soon as they entered.
Plants of different kinds and shapes were all over the place, some of them moving about. The air was filled with odors of all kinds, and even what sounded like faint crying. After that, the class seemed to go by quickly, the Fat Friar showed them all sorts of plants, and previewed their classes for the whole year, just going around the one greenhouse, and there were even plants left that they didn't go over.
After class there were a few minutes that Friar Arus let them just walk around, or sit down and talk. While inspecting an African Gwabble-Quob, which looked like a pile of sand, but really was a camel-eating plant, the Gryffindor boys, Lily, and Mary got into discussing their next class, Charms.
"He's pretty new, eh? Short, too...Think it'll be easy to pull stuff on him?" Sirius asked mischievously.
"Oh, Sirius, I think it'll be fun, new teacher, new students, a learning experience for everyone!" Lily said.
"Well, I have to agree with both of you, though Charms don't much interest me." James said, teasing the Gwabble-Quob with a stick.
"Dad tells me Charms is loads of fun, does anyone know any?" Mary asked squeakily.
"Win-gar-dium levi-o-sa!" Said James, swishing his wand and the stick lifted up a few feet, then dropped. "I just learned it on the train. It should be higher...."
"And he says he says Charms is his worst!" Sirius said.
"Well, I'm looking forward to it. I saw Wingardium in the book on the train, but I couldn't quite get it...." Said Lily.
"You've got to stress the 'gar' and 'o' in the incantation. Make sure your swish and flick are accurate too." James said as they exited the greenhouse, when the bell had rung.
"Thanks, James." She smiled sweetly at him, and he quickly his head down and book up, to guard her from seeing the massive blush that just came over James's face.
No one must have been watching James with his book in face, because he walked right into something quite hard. He fell, and looked up to see a quite angry looking boy. He sat up and faced the boy, who was flanked by two others, one of whom he noticed was Severus Snape, the boy who was arguing with Remus on the train. The lead boy was tall, pale, with blond hair. The other boy had smooth black hair and quite a sneer on his face, like Snape's.
"What do you think you're doing? Get out of my way!" He stepped on James's leg, then pushed it away. James yelled.
"Ouch! It was an accident!" He pulled back and stood up. All of a sudden, Sirius and Remus had appeared on both sides, shoved Snape and the sneering boy out of the way, and turned their wands on the boy who had stepped on James.
"What do you think you're doing?" Said the boy, raising his wand as well. Sirius and Remus both just stared at the boy, as his friends started to get up.
"Snape! Nott! Let's go..." The three boys went around James, Sirius, and Remus, and down towards the greenhouse.
"Charms! We have to get to class! The three of them shot up the grounds, to their dormitories to get their Charms books, and back towards the Charms corridor. Remus and Sirius ran ahead of James into the class on time, but just as the James was about to enter the bell rang. James put one foot forward and dove headfirst into the class, crossing through the open door and landing in the classroom before the bell stopped ringing. As he gathered his books James looked up at Professor Flitwick.
He was so tiny, it was hard to take his serious look very seriously. James bared an embarrassed grin from the floor, noticing how Professor Flitwick stood on a stack books.
"Sorry, Professor...got held up...." But Professor Flitwick held his hand up. His serious face became a grin.
"Quite alright, son. You did make it in after all." He smiled wider and the whole class laughed. James sat in the back between Sirius and Remus, behind Peter. James noticed Lily and Allyn had gotten to class quicker and had seated themselves at the front next to each other. Professor Flitwick had started the name call, and James's attention turned from Lily to the professor.
"Black, Sirius." Professor Flitwick squeaked. Sirius raised his hand.
"Brown, Dhelia." A brown haired, tanned girl in the second row raised her hand.
"Evans, Lily." Lily raised her hand politely and said 'Here'.
"Flately, Fannie." A blonde girl next to Brandy Brown rose her hand.
"Hannet, Sandra." A Black girl on Brandy's right rose her hand, whispered something to Fannie, and giggled.
"Longbottom, Mary." Professor Flitwick smiled at Mary as she rose her hand.
"Lupin, Remus." Remus raised his hand.
"Pettigrew, Peter." Peter looked around as if to ask if Professor Flitwick was talking to him. After a moment, he finally mustered the power to lift his hand up.
"Potter, James." James raised his hand, and Professor Flitwick chuckled.
"Synwyd, Allyn." Allyn raised his hand and said 'Here' as Lily had.
"Alright, class. Everyone get their books out. You'll need Standard Book of Spells, and Magical Theory for
Charms. My name is Professor Flitwick, I'll be your Professor for this class, hopefully until you graduate." Professor Flitwick muttered a few words, then pointed his wand at Lily's pointed black hat. It shot up, spun around the room, then landed on Flitwick's desk and started dancing.
The whole class applauded. Professor Flitwick returned the hat to Lily's head, and quieted the class. Lily was absolutely about to fall off her chair with excitement, since Charms were what she was looking forward to most.
"Charms, to the muggle are simply spells. But in the magical world, they have a much more specific definition. Charms are spells that alter the properties or behavior of a person or thing. People, animals, objects, even buildings are subject to charms, though I do believe it will be a while until you can make Big Ben levitate 5 feet in the air." He smiled and the class laughed. "Since I doubt you have had History of Magic so far," the class nodded, "I will tell you that Charm comes from Latin Carminem, a word that is part of an extremely complicated charm itself. You will learn the beginning stages of this Charm in your 7th year." Lily looked as if she wanted to know it now.
After quite a fun class of Professor Flitwick showing them charms and lecturing, on which they all took careful notes, Professor Flitwick began to teach them the Occus charm, a spell which changed eye color. James already knew this, but paid good attention, as he only knew how to turn them green. However, much to everyone's dismay, the bell rang and interrupted the lesson.
"See you all tomorrow, no homework tonight!" He squeaked to the departing class.
Next was lunch, and the Gryffindors all went hungrily to the Great Hall without even dropping off their Charms things.
"Transfig's next!" James said excitedly, as he grabbed a ham sandwich off a platter.
"Transfig'? Charms has still got me thinking!" Lily immediately started talking rapidly to Allyn and Mary, as the other girls looked on as if to wish they were that smart.
"Erm...yeah, I want to learn that Carminem spell...er...." But Lily wasn't listening to James, but rather to Allyn, who was going on about how he could get a feather to lift up at least 7 feet.
James, Sirius, and Remus's minds immediately all went to James's feeble levitation of the stick with which he had poked a Gwabble-Quob. James went red.
"Er, James, what happened with you and those three Slytherins?" Remus said loud enough to gather the attention of the other 7 Gryffindors first-years, as well as a few older students.
"Oh. Er, yeah. I ran right into this tall blonde Slytherin. He had two kids by him, Snape, that kid from the train," He said, pointing to Remus. "and some other kid, Nott."
"Lestrange." Said Dhelia Brown. "That must've been Nero Lestrange. The third." Everyone looked at her.
"My mum went to school with Nero the second. Big head, Slytherin prefect, everything. Must be his son. I remember the name from the sorting."
"Huh." James seemed disinterested. He noticed the clock ticking closer to Transfiguration class.
"Whaddya think Transfiguration will be like?" He asked.
"Evus said McGonagall's strict." Lily said slightly scared-sounding.
"Good. I don't want any idiots messing up Transfiguration for the rest of us." James said sharply.
"Come on guys, lets get going, the walk to Transfig' might take a bit." Remus said, gulping the last of his pumpkin juice. The Gryffindors got up and walked back to their dormitories very full.
"Seriously, guys, like I said yesterday, I'm really looking forward to learning about Animagi." James said as they left the commons with their Transfiguration things.
"I-I don't know if you'd w-want to be an Animagus, to turn into another animal, James." Remus said shakily.
"Why not, Remus?" Remus went extremely white.
"Er...well, my, um, uncle, he's an Animagus...says it's not all it's cracked up to be."
"Huh." Said Sirius, though he still wondered why Remus was so pale. He looked around, and no one else seemed to notice.
When they reached the Transfiguration classroom, the woman who they all decided was Professor McGonagall stood at her desk, lips together tightly. James made sure to sit in the front and make room for Lily next to him. She sat down there, Sirius on his other side. Allyn sat on Lily's left, before James could instruct Peter to do so. Remus sat next to Sirius, looking slightly hurt at not sitting next to James, though Sirius informed Remus of why and he chuckled and accepted his seat. Peter sat in the second row, leaning forward as much as possible to catch anything anyone else said.
"Welcome to Transfiguration, my name is Professor McGonagall." She said, pacing the room. "Transfiguration, as its name implies, is the changing of one thing into another, by use of magic. A Transfigure is a spell that does so. Now, this is a very serious class. No horseplay will be tolerated. If I feel your behavior makes you unsuitable for this class you will be asked to leave." She said turning sharply to face the class.
"Do you all understand?" She said, sounding more like a statement than a question. "Good." She pointed her wand at her desk, and it suddenly popped, and was a pig. The class applauded, she turned it back, and faced the class. James was on the edge of his seat, as Lily had been in Charms. She swished her wand, and a piece of chalk shot up to the board.
"Transfiguration requires the understanding and mastery of three basic principles." The chalk instantly wrote:
Transfiguration: Three Basic Principles
James copied this down exactly on his parchment, and Lily and Sirius saw him and did likewise. Professor McGonagall surveyed the class.
"I see only Misters Potter and Black, and Miss Evans have begun taking notes. 5 points apiece for you three. Others; begin taking notes!" The other students suddenly got out their parchments and quills and copied the notes down quickly. James beamed.
By the end of the day only James had successfully turned his match into a pin. Lily had done so as well, though hers still lit on fire upon striking, and Sirius and Remus had only been able to make theirs look silvery.
Happy to earn Gryffindor 25 points, 15 because of the notes, and 10 for James's pin, they headed back to the dormitory.
"Ah, nothing until History of Magic, and that's not for an hour, right?" James asked Lily.
"Yep. Do you know who's teaching it?" She asked.
"Not a clue." She said, sitting down in a chair in front of the fire.
"Hey, James!" Sirius said, sitting down next to him. "Want a game of Quidditch?" He said. James had forgotten about Quidditch. The wonderful game played on broomsticks with the Quaffle, the Bludgers, the Golden Snitch, Chasers, Keepers, Beaters and Seekers. James smiled.
"Speaking of which," Lily protruded. "I hear they're going to start banning broomsticks from first-years." Sirius jumped.
"Ban broomsticks?" Sirius shrieked.
"Well, first-years can't be on the Quidditch team, they're generally less mature than everyone else, I think it's understandable. Why should we have broomsticks?"
"Because it's fun!" Remus interrupted.
"True." Lily said, shrugging.
"C'mon, then, James. Let's play. You too, Remus."
"You've only got an hour." Lily said.
"I think we can play a bit. I've just got a new broom, too. The Nimbus Thunderbolt. Apparently it's a startup broom company. Thunderbolt's just a copy of the latest Shooting Star, but its got some extra charms added, so it's the market leader." Sirius said.
"Ah, I've got one too! Thunderbolt's an excellent broom." James's mind shot to his own broom.
"Ah, I've just got the Comet 190. Came out five years ago." James frowned.
"Well," said Lily. "If there's one thing about owning a Comet or a Cleansweep, or even a Shooting Star, is that it's a well known company and they're reliable." Sirius and Remus nodded.
"You play Quidditch, Lily?" James turned to her, surprised at her knowledge.
"Well, I'm more of a spectator." She blushed.
"What about you, Allyn, Peter?" Peter went white.
"Er, yeah, I play Quidditch...um, but I can't play, because...of...I forgot my broom!"
"Aw, too bad, Pete." Said Allyn with a slap on his back. "I play, fancy myself a keeper. I've got a Swiftstick 2, descendant of the old Tinderblast. Good for keepers, though they don't go as fast as you'd like."
"I'll go get our brooms, then." Mary and Remus ran up the stairs to the dormitories. Sirius thought for a moment.
Should I tell them about Remus? Maybe they have an idea about why he's so afraid of Animagi. It's probably nothing, though...Nah, I won't bother them.
Remus and Mary came back down, with a frown on their faces, no brooms in their hands.
"What's up, Mary?"
"Someone's already on the pitch. Looks like a bunch of 7th-years."
"Dang." Sirius spat into the fire.
"Well, we could study up on History of Magic, or-"
"Evus!" James interrupted Lily. Evus had just walked into the room.
"Ah!" He said. "How're m' fav'rite firs'-years?"
"And how's our favorite...er, what year are you in Evus?" Sirius asked, scratching his shoulder.
"Eh'm en m' fourth year." He said smiling and sitting down. "Done with classes fer today?"
"No we've got History of Magic left, in 40 minutes or so."
"Ah. Professor Binns. Very old man, he is. Wonder when ee'll retire." Evus said, stroking his chin as if he had a beard.
"What's he like Evus?" Asked Lily.
"Ach, he's quite borin', drones on and on. I doubt yeh'll like 'im. Even the smartest bookworm gets bored by 'im." Lily narrowed her eyes.
"Is that so?" She said, as if challenged. They sat and talked about Hogwarts for 10 minutes or so, when they decided to go and get their books. James grabbed his History book, and started to walk out, glancing at the window.
"Wait, what's that?" James said, pointing out the window. The boys crowed around the window and peered out.
"Look at that tree! Its branches are whipping around, like arms! That tree wasn't there yesterday."
"Oh, that's the Whomping Willow." Remus said.
"How do you know?" Sirius asked quickly.
"Oh, er...Friar Arus told me, after Herbology."
Do they suspect something? No one saw me after Herbology...they can't prove I wasn't talking to Friar Arus. Remus thought.
What is up with Remus? Thought Sirius. He gets pale talking about Animagi, and now he knows all about this tree? I suspect something.
Evus seems odd to me. A fourth-year, taking Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts? Something's up. Thought Allyn.
I'm really hungry; I wonder when dinner is. Thought James.
"Let's go check the tree out. We've got time." James led them down, bag of History of Magic things in hand.
"Check it out, guys!" Sirius said, pointing to the Willow's branches, swinging back and forth furiously. Peter backed up nearly 10 feet, and Allyn came so close he could have hugged it.
"Wow! Look at it!" He said, touching its bark.
"Watch out! It's dangerous!" Remus held out his hand, but he was too late. One of the thick branches came by and grabbed Allyn, gripping him tightly and smashing him into its own trunk.
"Ahh!" James raised his wand and shot sparks at the tree. Peter ran back to the castle, and Sirius stood frozen.
"It's got him!" Sirius yelled. Remus jumped forward, pocketing his wand, and grabbing a large, long stick at the base of the tree. He poked furiously at the base.
"Remus! What do you think you're doing? Get away from that tree and get out your wand like the rest of us!" Sirius said, shooting sparks at the tree as well.
"What're we going to do?" James said, turning to Sirius. This was the first time Sirius had ever seen anything close to a panicked look on his face. But then, suddenly, the tree stopped, and it released Allyn. He fell limply to the base of the tree.
"How'd you do that?" Sirius said to Remus, sounding angrier than surprised.
"Er, I...jus freaked out, and grabbed the stick...I don't know how it stopped...really...." Sirius raised his finger and started to talk, but James turned and stared in the opposite direction. Sirius turned around.
Professor Dumbledore, Friar Arus, Evus McQuent, and two people none of them knew were approaching the tree quickly, with Peter Pettigrew following in near shock.
"What's going on here?" Shouted a tall lightly red-haired, stone-faced wizard.
"We, er-wanted to...Allyn-came too close, and er-"
"What happened to him?" Said a shorter, kinder faced wizard, leaning over Allyn.
"He got caught, and...um-"
"Professor Longbottom, take Allyn to Madam Ora." Professor Dumbledore said. "Friar Arus, please inspect the Willow. Evus, Professor Marus, please escort these boys back to their dormitories. I assure you, they did nothing wrong. Remus, I would like to have a word with you." Professor Marus and Evus took the 3 frightened boys back up the grounds. Professor Marus looked at them as if he wanted to punish them, but couldn't. Evus looked at them with pure admiration.
"Remus, what happened here?" Professor Dumbledore asked sternly.
"Well, we came down for a look, and Allyn got too close, it grabbed him, and I poked it with the stick, like you said-"
"Thank you Remus. Please try to stay away from here except for your scheduled monthly visits."
Remus nodded and gulped and followed Professor Dumbledore up to the castle.