Chapter 8: Keeping Secrets
That evening, I attended detention along with Sirius, James and Peter. Once again, we were assigned to go into the forbidden forest with Hagrid, under the instruction of Professor Sprout to collect Mandrake seedlings. The earmuffs we were forced to wear made hearing impossible. Sirius would taunt us by pretending he'd seen something dangerous to try to make us take off our earmuffs to hear what he was saying. James and I brushed him aside and continued with our work, fully aware that it was his idea of a prank. Peter on the other hand, wasn't so smart. To Sirius' delight, he panicked and yanked off his earmuffs, just as James had pulled a Mandrake from the ground. He ended up spending over a week in the infirmary before he regained hearing. Madam Pomfrey , furious about the incident, scolded Sirius for two hours straight before allowing him to leave. This seemed to dampen his spirits just a bit, but not enough to prevent him from turning Snape's hair pink when we were walking down the corridor behind him.
By the time the rest of our detentions had been served, it had become Sirius and James' constant goal to 'earn' more of them. Only when they were assigned to clean the hospital wing bedpans without magic, did they back down from their detention obsession.
Soon, the Christmas holidays were upon us, and we all returned home that year, though we were permitted to sign up to remain at school if we wished. The holidays passed quickly with a blur of mum's delicious cooking, the savory scent of gingerbread cookies, relatives visiting, Christmas carolers, hot cocoa on snowy nights and piles of presents stacked high under the Christmas tree.
We returned to Hogwarts on a wintry January day. Snow fell rapidly, as we watched with excitement from the train windows. By the time we reached school that night, the ground was blanketed in a sheet of silvery white. It was that night that Sirius discovered how to bewitch snowballs to hit people with miniscule effort. Little did he know that Lily was also experienced with the spell, and he spent that night in the hospital wing.
Our classes grew more and more demanding as the winter went on. It took me all of three weeks to master transfiguring a turtle into a bowl, after both James and Sirius had mastered it in two hours. Of course, after all three of us had spent the best part of a month trying to teach Peter how to do it, his bowl still had feet and a turtle shell pattern.
"He's hopeless," James would mutter under his breath. McGonagal seemed to think so as well. As much as she scolded the rest of us, she was particularly harsh on Peter. I suppose it was because he couldn't transfigure something to save his life, or it could have been because of the one time when he actually did perform a transfiguration. Of course, that one had been accidental. Peter had been attempting to curse Sirius while he was standing in front of class speaking to Professor McGonagall. Peter, hopeless as usual, had his aim off, and the results weren't pleasant. McGonagall's long brown hair, twisted neatly into its usual bun, was transfigured into hundreds of wriggling worms. The class found this hilarious, but Peter served detentions everyday for two months. In any case, whatever the reason, McGonagall never liked Peter.
In Defense Against the Dark Arts, we were each assigned a dark creature on which to give a report in front of the class. I noticed a loathing glint in Professor Lohrfink's eye as he assigned me werewolves. Of course, I could write the entire three rolls of parchment without ever cracking a book, although I had to be careful not to make it sound like I knew too much, or people would start to get suspicious. I got incredibly nervous when presenting to the class, but other than James and Sirius, no one seemed to notice, and by the time class was over that day, they thought nothing of it. Despite instances like that one, and the strong disliking of my teacher, Defense Against the Dark Arts was easily my best subject.
The rest of my classes were going fairly well. Herbology was simple; even Peter was decent at it. History of Magic class was more boring than ever, as we were studying Muggle theories on British history of the thirteenth through fifteenth centuries. Nevertheless, I attempted to take notes, as Peter and Sirius slept, snoring loudly, and James stared at Lily. Charms class wasn't difficult, although both James and Sirius were jealous of Lily's talent with charms, and constantly at competition to try to be better than her. The both of them failed miserably. Sirius found a certain fascination in putting cheering charms on Snape. James argued against in constantly, "Snape should not be that cheerful! It's not right!" Personally, I agreed, but we'd learned not to get in the way of Sirius' pranks, and so we let him carry on.
It was becoming more and more difficult to think up good excuses for leaving at full moon. One month, I said my grandmother died. Another three months, my mum was sick. Then, I reckoned, if she didn't get better soon, she should have died, so I didn't use that excuse anymore. Once my great Aunt Ethel died. Just for the record, I have no great Aunt Ethel. And another time I said that I myself was sick. I was quite relieved when the last full moon of the school year came to pass and Sirius, James and Peter still hadn't figured anything out.
By the end of May, all of our teachers were stressing the importance of doing well on finals. Lily and Erin didn't leave the library for three weeks straight except to eat and sleep. And of course to nag us for not studying. Two days before exams, I reviewed Potions and Transfiguations. Other than that, none of us bothered studying.
Finals came and went. The multiple choice history final felt more like a guessing game than anything. My turtle transfigured into the best bowl I'd ever made, and I suspected McGonagall had given me full marks. My potion was a bit to runny, as Professor Beaker didn't neglect to mention. The Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts and Herbology finals were a breeze. I had no doubt that I didn't do well on them.
After final exams, our first year had come to an end. Later that week, after packing our things and bidding farewell to the castle, we boarded the Hogwarts Express to head back to London. At the station, after saying goodbye to everyone, we headed our separate way, promising to write often over the summer. We were all thoroughly disappointed to find out that underage wizards aren't allowed to use magic over the holidays, however I doubted that that would stop Sirius or James.
I was greeted by my parents with the announcement that I'd received no less than thirty-six owls home that year. And there'd be plenty more to follow in the years to come.