A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out, but I just started university in Edinburgh and it takes forever for them to let you on the internet. And then, of course, ff.net went down...
Chapter 5: Class Notes
They arrived on time for breakfast, but only through Mena's stubborn insistence. Uric sat down and was immediately engrossed in planning a foray of his soldiers against the evil bacon king. Unfortunately for the war effort, others sought Uric's attention.
"Hey, Uric," said Jasper. "Where were you this morning? Al tells me you've been up since three. Haven't you ever heard of a little thing called sleep?" He had an amused grin on his face, but Al was glaring darkly at Uric.
Uric regretfully ate one of his soldiers, and adopted his usual perplexed expression. "I was asleep," he said. Mena groaned.
"He means the whole night Uric. Most sane people try to get more than four hours of sleep," she explained.
"Well that explains it. Uric's not really sane, now is he?" said Neil McGowan. The red-headed boy's bed was next to Uric's and he had already heard his roommate's reputation. Many of the students at the table nodded in agreement; well aware that Uric's breakfast bore an uncanny resemblance to a map of Europe with opposing armies advancing upon it.
"I don't need to sleep that much. Mum says it's because I used up all my sleeping time when I was a baby, so now I have to ration it if I want to sleep at all when I'm older." Uric cocked his head thinking. "Of course, the house elves said I've never slept a full night in my life. That's why they had to play with me whenever I woke up."
"Your poor parents," said a rather tired looking Eustace. Prefects were required to patrol the halls on certain nights, and last night had obviously been his. "No wonder they let the house elves take care of you." Uric shrugged.
"I like house elves. I would have played with them earlier today, but I couldn't find them." He neglected to mention that he had never really been looking for them. Eustace grimaced.
"Yes, well, that is the other thing I must mention. You can't just go wandering around at night Uric. We could loose a bunch of house points. You got off lucky this morning," he said.
"But if I don't go out, how will I find the badgers?"
"The badgers?" Eustace looked flummoxed. Dealing with Uric on no sleep was not a good idea.
"Yes. The badgers. They live in the walls," said Uric. Eustace buried his head in his hands then spoke in a muffled voice.
"Look, Uric. I don't care if you need one hour of sleep or ten. If you get caught wandering around again you will be in big trouble, with me and Mrs. Kurze." Xanos, who was sitting next to him, winced.
"That's harsh, Eustace..." He began, but stopped as he noticed his friend's head drooping slowly to his chest. All the first-year's eyes were now on him. Well, everyone except Uric, who had gone back to his war. The toast was attempting to negotiate a peace, but it was on limited time because Uric was hungry.
"Uric." Xanos waited. "Uric." The boy looked up, toast poised. "Don't get into anymore trouble. Eustace is tired now, but he will make sure you regret it. Though hopefully he won't involve that harpie." He inclined his head slightly towards where the Headmistress sat straight and proud, eating her eggs with the grace of a well-bred lady. "It would be as much a punishment for him, as for you." Their schedules arrived then, and everyone was busy looking to see which classes they had first.
Uric opened his, read it once, and then folded it into a hat he would give Simon later. He would have gone back to his battle, but Mena poked him in the ribs.
"What do you have first, Uric? Can I see your schedule?" she asked. Justine spoke up from beside her.
"He should have what we all have Mena. Why do you want to know anyway?" Justine was just curious, but Mena took it the wrong way.
"I was hopping I didn't have classes with him, that's all. You should mind your own business!" Justine was taken aback.
"Alright," she said quietly, than went back to her eggs. Mena stared at her for a moment, realizing she had hurt the girl, but not sure how to make things right. Then she got angry at herself for worrying about it. Who cared what Justine thought? She looked down at her schedule again. History of Magic. She made a face. It even sounded boring.
She got up from the table, intending to get her books and head for class. Half way to the door, she stopped and turned back. Uric was drawing pictures with his leftover egg yolk. She sighed, walked over to him, grabbed his collar and pulled him off the bench. Maybe he wouldn't lose them too many house points if she kept an eye on him.
*****
All the first-year Hufflepuffs went to History of Magic together, mostly so they wouldn't get lost. Unfortunately, this meant that they all got lost together, were attacked by Peeves the Poltergeist, and made it to History of Magic ten minutes late, their robes covered in glitter from Peeves sparkle bombs.
Professor Bear sat at his desk, his large body looking absurd in the small chair he was using. He looked up when they entered and smiled at their glitter bedecked bodies. The professor cast a simple spell to remove the glitter and asked them to take their seats. Mena tried not to giggle when he first spoke. Eustace had been right. His voice was so deep it made her stomach rumble.
Professor Bear read off the register and even Uric responded when his name was called. Mena wondered if the professor knew just how rare it was to get Uric's full attention. One of the Slytherin girls, Seraph Cazher, was missing, however, and when Professor Bear asked for her, it was a pale, blonde haired girl who answered.
"Professor Thacher is lecturing her right now and she's been given detention." The girl did not sound very upset by the information, even though Slytherin must have lost a load of points. Professor Bear looked shocked at such an early infraction of the rules.
"Thank you, Alexis. I think that was a little more information than we needed though," he chided gently.
"I'm sorry, Sir." Alexis was the picture of submissiveness and Mena snorted softly to herself at the act. Her mother would have seen through that ploy in seconds, but Professor Bear seemed to take the girl at face value.
"It's okay, Alexis. Everyone please take out a quill and some parchment. We have a prodigious amount of history to cover and only seven years to do it." His face sported a huge grin, though all his students were stifling groans.
Over an hour later they were still bent over their parchments, quills scribbling furiously in an attempt to keep up with Professor Bear and his animated lecture style. He would write a sentence on the board with his wand, then remember a funny anecdote from that time period and launch off on a story about Chester the Confused or Stub-toothed Tovar. Then, he would suddenly remember the sentence he had written on the board and expound upon it in great length and at twice the speed. Some of the slower students were nearing tears trying to keep up with the professor's strange pacing. Not to mention his use of words that Mena was sure weren't in any dictionary, muggle or wizard.
Abruptly Professor Bear stopped talking and stared at them all. Most of the students were still scribbling his last words. Mena wrote the date of the great Egyptian wizard, Amhotep the Wise's death and looked up to see that big smile she remembered from the beginning of the class plastered across Professor Bear's face.
"Everybody put your writing implements down," he said. The students looked up at him in shock but did what they were ordered (once they realized what implements were that is). "Did anybody read your textbooks before coming to this class?" Several students raised their hands. "Then why were you taking notes?" Everyone stared at him blankly, sure that there was some logic lurking behind his question, but being unable to discern it.
Professor Bear focused on a Uric who was, unfortunately, sitting next to her. She looked at him as well, and saw to her shock that he hadn't been taking notes. In fact, there was nothing on his desk except for his wand.
"Uric. Right?" asked Professor Bear. Mena kicked Uric under the table, and he nodded, though she was sure he had no idea what the question had been. "Well, Uric was the only one of you who read the textbook, since he obviously found the sentence on page 678 telling you not to take notes on the premiere day of class, since class notes would be provided for you. Ten points to Hufflepuff." Uric was shaking his head 'no', so Mena kicked him under the table again. He gave her a hurt look.
"Leave it alone," she hissed at him. He looked at her for a moment, than shrugged. Professor Bear handed out the class notes, which were considerably neater than any the students had taken, and dismissed them for their next class.
"Let's go find the first year Ravenclaws and see what they'll pay us to know about the class notes." Mena heard Alexis say as she left the class. Meanwhile, the Hufflepuffs were congratulating Uric on his studious efforts. Mena decided to put a stop to that.
"Did you actually read the textbook Uric?"
"Yes," he said. That took her aback. Why had he been shaking his head 'no' then? Uric continued. "I read it a couple of years ago. I don't remember a sentence like that."
"Well, they wouldn't have bespelled the book pages a couple of years ago, would they?" said Al. His disgust with Uric was rather evident, but Justine was puzzled.
"Why didn't you take notes then Uric?" she said in her soft foreign accent.
"I don't believe in ink."
"What?!" said the rest of them simultaneously.
"Really, if you think about it, ink is a very dangerous medium. Anything you write down could come back and destroy you." Somebody had to ask the inevitable question.
"So what do you write with Uric?" said Neil. Uric looked at Neil curiously.
"Ink of course. What else would I write with?" he said. Neil's mouth dropped open.
"But you just said..." he protested. Mena decided to insert a note of reality into the proceedings.
"We're all going to be late for Charms if we don't get moving," she said. The Hufflepuffs took off for their next class, while deep within their textbooks the letters and words breathed a sigh of relief. Their secret was safe for a little longer.
Meanwhile, Uric, the future Oddball, debated to himself whether plaid could be considered a proper skin colour...
*****
Well, this chapter was going to be a bit longer, but I decided to end it here and actually post something. I'll definitely try to make the next chapter longer. Big thanks to Em, Spitgurl, Anne, and PEZ.
Next Chapter: Charms, then everyone's favourite class - Potions.