Chapter 5 - A Grim Beginning
The next morning and feeling a little battered, Barney woke for his first day of lessons. After getting dressed he went along to the Slytherin common room to check the noticeboard to see his new timetable. He had double Dark Arts that morning and double Herbology in the afternoon. After a quick breakfast he headed up to the third floor to face Professor Grim for the first time, a prospect he wasn't looking forward to.
When he got to the classroom he saw Thomas at one of the desks and took a seat next to him.
"Hey, Tabitha not with you?" Barney asked as he started to get his things out of his bag.
"Oh hey, no she was having breakfast with Hamish so I left them to it."
Barney should have guessed.
As the rest of the students filed in eventually Tabitha arrived, looking a bit flushed and took a seat next to Thomas.
"Thought I was going to be late," she said as she slumped in the seat.
"Couldn't pull yourself away from Hamish's tonsils?" Barney quipped but Tabitha didn't hear as her attention was drawn to Professor Grim who had just left her office in the corner of the room and was descending the stairs.
Everyone in the class went quiet. The only sound was that of Professor Grim's footsteps as she walked. Just like on the train she was once again dressed all in black as she moved towards her desk and then placed her dragon leather bag down behind it. She scanned the classroom with an almost suspicious stare, like she was trying to size everyone up before she quickly turned on her heels and moved over to the blackboard. With an excruciating screeching of the chalk against the blackboard, which caused some students to cover their ears, she wrote the word 'Lycanthropy' before turning back to the class.
"Today we will be studying werewolves. We will learn what causes this condition, the effects this condition has and most importantly how to kill the vicious creatures."
Gwen raised her hand and Professor Grim looked annoyed by the inconvenience of having to deal with a question. "Yes?" she huffed.
"Miss we touched on werewolves in our fourth year with Professor Winters and he said werewolves were often misunderstood creatures and with treatment most would not do any harm to anyone."
"Let me ask you this," Professor Grim said as she slowly walked towards Gwen. "If you find yourself face to face with a blood thirsty werewolf that's snarling, teeth bared and hungry for flesh what will you be more grateful for? Professor Winters for teaching you to show compassion? Or me for teaching you how to save yourself from certain death?"
By now Grim was right up in Gwen's face and she could see the student quaking a little as she tried to intimidate her. Gwen couldn't muster any words as she slunk a little in her chair.
"Very well then. Lets continue with the lesson as planned unless anyone else thinks they know better?"
No one dared speak.
Usually Defence Against the Dark Arts was one of Barney's favourite subjects, even if the teaching had been a little sporadic with a different teacher every year. But Professor Grim had to be the worst teacher he had ever had. She had them spend the whole lesson reading a very outdated book that taught that all werewolves were dangerous and should be hunted and destroyed, which Barney just didn't believe to be true. He'd even heard that a werewolf had taught at Hogwarts at one time. Professor Grim made them then write two parchments worth about how werewolves are a 'menace to the world' while they were made to sit in silence. And if anyone dared ask a question she scolded them.
As the lesson neared the end all the students were beyond bored, even more so than in a History of Magic lesson with Professor Binns, which was quite some achievement. To relieve the boredom someone had decided to secretly jink Professor Grim's chair whilst she was stood at the blackboard writing. When she went to sit back down the chair moved out of the way. Professor Grim managed to catch herself on her desk and stopped herself from falling down as the class erupted in a fit of laughter but Grim was furious.
"Who did that?!" she hollered with a seething face. "Which one of you did it?"
Everyone stopped laughing and once more the class was silent as Professor Grim started to walk amongst them, staring at each student individually to look for any signs of guilt on their faces. "If no one owns up to it then you'll all be in detention!"
Still the class remained silent. Barney didn't think it was fair that everyone should get a detention even if everyone had laughed but he knew no one was going to own up. No one wanted to face Grim's wrath.
"I did it," Barney said for some inexplicable reason even though in fact he had not done it and he stood up.
Grim came storming back down the classroom and faced Barney.
"You?!" she fumed.
"No I did it," Tabitha said as she also stood.
Grim turned to Tabitha not looking very amused.
"You both did it?"
"No I did it," Silvanna said as she stood too at the back of the classroom.
"No it was me," Marek called out and stood up also.
"It was me," Gwen said as more and more students began to stand and confessed to something they hadn't done.
Tabitha started to nudge Thomas who was still firmly seated but he refused to stand up.
By now nearly all the class were standing and Grim was incensed as another student joined in the fake confession.
"Enough!" Grim snapped and once more there was silence. "You'll all have detention then."
When it was time to leave the lesson Thomas was livid. "I can't believe I've got a detention," he moaned as they exited the classroom.
"I can't believe you've been friends with us for all these years and this is your first detention," Tabitha retorted. "What lesson have you got now Barney?"
"I've got a free period."
"Us too. Shall we go hang out by the lake? It's a nice day out and I need cheering up after that lesson."
"Sure but don't you need to be with Hamish before you start getting withdrawal symptoms?" Barney joked and even Thomas had to laugh a little.
"Very funny. He's got lessons all day."
They headed out to the lake and as Tabitha had said it was a glorious day with not a cloud in the sky. There were a couple of other students about as they laid down on the shore and Barney was glad the three of them were finally hanging out together.
"So what's Velyan like?" Tabitha asked as she played with her wand and enlarged some daisies.
"He's alright actually, surprisingly not as big headed as I was expecting despite the rest of Slytherin treating him like a celebrity. Is his family really all that?"
"Will Witch Weekly named him as the most up and coming eligible bachelor in the wizarding world recently," Tabitha replied. "I mean he's not really my type though."
"Yeah we all know your type. Blond curly hair and brown eyes," Barney mocked as he described Hamish.
"His family are very prominent in American Wizarding politics and his dad is close friends with the muggle president," Tabitha continued, ignoring Barney's last comment.
"And did you see him on his broom yesterday. Never seen someone make a catch like that before from that dive," Thomas added but immediately regretted his words when he saw Barney's face suddenly drop. "Oh I mean I'm sure it was just a fluke. You'll smash it at try outs if he does go for Seeker too."
Barney didn't reply. He laid back against the grass and looked up at a bird in the sky and watched as it hovered above the lake and then suddenly swooped down effortlessly to strike it's prey and rose again with a small fish in it's beak. Barney thought that if ever he learnt how to transfigure himself into an animal he'd want to be a bird.
"That Viola is alright," Tabitha added as she picked one of the daisies she had enlarged and stuck it in her messy hair. "Seems a bit quieter than her brother but haven't really had much chance to talk to her yet. Not sure what to make of the other two but we've got Herbology with Ravenclaws after lunch so might get chance to talk to that Ottomaya. What lesson have you got this afternoon?"
"Er Charms with Gryffindor," Barney replied, still slightly in his own little world admiring the sky.
"With Professor Pomper... Pompermousse?" Tabitha struggled.
"Pomperduke," Thomas said, correcting her.
"Yeah that's the one. Looks a little young to be a teacher don't you think?" she noted.
"Well he can't be any worse than Professor Grim," Barney retorted, finally bringing himself fully back into the conversation. "Her name is definitely apt."
"You do know what a Grim is?" Thomas asked sounding a little frightened. "We learnt about it in Divination."
"What is it?" Tabitha asked, not sounding that interested.
"It's an omen of death."
All three of them remained silent for a moment as Thomas' bleak words sunk in and Barney thought back to the Sorting Hat's warning. Were dark times really coming?
After lunch Barney headed up to the third floor for his Charms class. The class was a little rowdy as the teacher wasn't there yet and he took a seat next to Marek.
"Is anyone sitting here?" a voice asked and Barney turned to see Velyan.
"No feel free," he replied, moving his bag out the way. "How did you find Dark Arts this morning? It's not usually that boring but I get the feeling that is going to be Professor Grim's style."
"Yeah it wasn't great. Hopefully Professor Night will take the next one. He's a great teacher. I'm glad he came over with us."
As Barney and Velyan continued to chat, Professor Pomperduke entered the classroom carrying a pile of books. He was wearing light blue trousers and a and a dark purple jacket and even though he was very tall the jacket looked too long in the sleeves for him. As he made he was to the front of the class he dropped one of the books. In his haste to pick it up he ended up dropping more and seemed to get himself into a mess. Daisy from Gryffindor offered to help him and he was very relieved as she picked up the dropped books and carried them to his desk.
As Pomperduke stood at the front of the class he looked even more nervous than the first years had when they stood waiting in the Great Hall to be sorted into their houses. He fumbled through one of the textbooks before patting down his jacket, presumably looking for something in one of the pockets before brushing his long fringe out of his eyes so he could see the class properly.
"Good morning class, I mean afternoon. It is afternoon right? Oh dear," Pomperduke said rather mumbled, his voice very high and squeaky. "Right if you could all turn to page... er... page..." he continued as he flicked furiously through the textbook on his desk trying to find the right page.
Students began to talk amongst themselves as Pomperduke still scoured the book looking for the right spell he was planning on teaching today. By the time he had found the right page it was too late. He'd already lost control of the class.
"OK settle down now and turn to page seventy seven," he said but a lot of the students didn't listen and continued to talk to their friends. "Today we will be learning the Titillatio Pluma charm so if you could get into pairs and come and collect a feather between you."
Some students made their way up to the front to collect their feathers but had to point out to Pomperduke that there weren't any.
"Oh dear. Yes of course one second," he said rather flustered and started to search through cupboards. "I know I've seen them around here somewhere."
Arlo eventfully had to help him and retrieved a pot of feathers from one of the cupboards.
Barney went up and collected his feather and sat back next to Velyan who had asked him if they could work together as they waited for the professor's next instructions.
"Now Titillatio is also known as the feather tickling charm," Pomperduke said to the class but there was still a lot of chatter from some students who weren't paying attention, but he seemed to ignore these and carried on regardless. "This charm requires a spiral motion with your wand when cast," he said as he demonstrated the movement before retrieving a feather himself. "Simply do this movement over your feather whilst reciting the charm and then flick your wand in the direction of the person that you want to tickle."
Those in the class who were interested started to practice the movement in their pairs.
"The incantation is titi-la-tio," Pomperduke said as he did the movements with his wand over his feather but he was too busy keeping an eye on his students and wasn't focusing on what he was doing and continued to do spirals with his wand hand.
His feather started to spin around and around as if mimicking his wand movements before it flew up into the air and came straight back down again and started to tickle him. The professor was taken by surprise and dropped his wand before bursting into a fit of giggles as his feather tickled him under the armpits. He hopelessly tried to bend down to retrieve his wand but by now he was laughing so hard as the feather continued to energetically tickle him. And by now the whole class were laughing at him too as he rolled around the floor with tears in his eyes when eventually the spell wore off and the feather stopped and floated down to the ground where it lay motionless.
Pomperduke picked himself up, brushed down the dust from the floor off his trousers and straightened out his jacket. "Right... OK... Yes... erm... right," he said very flustered and red in the face as he tried to compose himself. "Now it's your turn."
As Pomperduke fell into his chair rather exhausted the class began reciting the spell and making the feather tickle their partner. It seemed a very easy spell for sixth years to be casting and no one had any problem doing it but at least they were having a fun as the sound of laughter filled the classroom. Barney was glad of the light relief after this morning's lesson with Professor Grim.
"Usually we do much more advance stuff with Professor Flitwick," Barney told Velyan, worried he might think Hogwarts was soft on magic teaching.
"Yeah we actually did this spell in our first year at Ilvermorny but it's OK, at least it's fun."
After everyone was all tickled out Professor Pomperduke had tried to get the class to do some theory work and read a chapter from their textbook on spells regarding object manipulation but the class had other ideas and instead decided to put the theory to use and made all manner of objects move around the room. Students had textbooks flapping through the air like birds, parchment folding itself into animal shapes like dragons and unicorns and then making them fight each other and quills flying through the air like darks and piercing any paper dragons that got too out of hand and had tried to fly away.
As the lesson ended everyone packed away their things and headed to the Great Hall for dinner. Professor Pomperduke looked very relieved that his first day of lessons were over. He looked very haggard and tired as he watched everyone leave before he too headed to dinner.
"I think I've forgotten my quill," Barney said as he searched through his bag as they walked along the corridor. "I'll meet you in the hall."
He turned and headed back to his classroom and found his quill stuck inside a paper dragon that lay on the floor and once again made his way to the Great Hall. As he was walking along the third floor corridor he heard a strange noise. Almost like a high pitched whining noise. He turned trying to figure out where it was coming from and followed in down another corridor where now he heard laughter. He looked up to see Peeves in the air laugh to himself as he peered around a corner.
"What have you done now Peeves?" Barney asked and Peeves turned to look at him.
"Oh look it's the hero of Hogwarts. Wait can I still call you that? It's been many years since you've actually done anything heroic. Maybe I should call you the Slytherin reserve?" Peeves said before he burst out laughing and held his belly as he rolled around in the air.
The insult to his lack of progress on the Slytherin Quidditch team touched a nerve in Barney and he was tempted to use a ghost zapping spell a fellow student had taught him in his fourth year but he rose above the poltergeist's taunt. As Peeves continued to laugh Barney could still hear the strange whining sound. He moved forward and looked around the corner of the corridor and saw something floating along the corridor. As he looked closer he saw it was a huge bubble and inside the bubble with Mrs Norris, Filch's cat who looked very distressed.
"Peeves that's cruel!" Barney fumed but Peeves didn't seem to care in the slightest.
"That mangy cat deserved it and I can't wait to see Filch's face when he finds it," Peeves said before roaring with more laughter.
"Well he's not going to see it because I'm getting her down."
As Barney stormed off down the corridor towards the floating Mrs Norris, Peeves swooped through the air and followed him.
"Don't spoil my fun Slytherin reserve!"
Barney ignored him as he tried to reach up to the bubble but it seemed to float higher as he neared it. Mrs Norris continued to whine with worry as she was tossed and turned about in the bubble.
"What's that noise? What's going on here?"
Barney turned to see Filch heading down the corridor and saw his usual grumpy expression change to a fuming frown when he saw his precious cat stuck in a bubble with Barney standing right underneath it, reaching up to it.
"What have you down to Mrs Norris? You'll pay for this boy!" Filch fumed.
"Wait no it's wasn't me," Barney hastily said, realising what it must look like. "It was Peeves."
Barney turned to where Peeves had been but the poltergeist was gone and he was left there standing alone looking like the guilt party.
"Likely story. I've caught you red handed!"
"Honestly it wasn't me. I was trying to get her down."
"Save your lies I'm not interested. Detention!"
Barney thought to protest but knew it would be futile against Filch, a man who was known for being stubborn. Only his first day of lessons and he'd managed to get two detentions. That must have been some sort of record.