Chapter 12 – Classes With Friends

The following morning Lydia's class had Herbology, led by Professor Longbottom and shared with the Slytherins. Lydia liked the greenhouse they were using as their classroom. It was warm and the air was heavy with the smell of soil and the scents of herbs and fruits. All around them there were plants whose leaves were starting to sag but whose fruit was bountiful and ripe.

Most of the students knew who Neville Longbottom was and knew of his part in the Wizarding War. They chattered about how he had led the anti-Voldemort resistance in Hogwarts. They said he had been condemned to execution by the followers of Voldemort who were running the school. Then he had hidden from them until Harry arrived. Then they had led Dumbledore's Army in the Battle of Hogwarts. When Harry appeared to be dead and all seemed lost, Neville had killed Voldemort's dragon. He had revived Harry and had held off Voldemort's army while Harry slew Voldemort and saved the world.

Lydia knew enough of the story of the war from Harry and his friends to know that this version was not entirely correct. But it was near enough and it made a good story. Several of the Slytherin students looked unimpressed. It was quite possible their parents had been on the side of Voldemort during the war.

Someone behind them cleared their throat.

"If you could let me through to the front, please," said Neville, Professor Longbottom. "Then we can start the class. Oh, and it was more of a huge snake than an actual dragon. But you'll learn about it in Modern History, when you get round to that bit."

He winked at Lydia and she smiled back.

Lydia's first class with the Slytherins made her think that their bad reputation was undeserved. There were a couple of boys who were disdainful of the subject of herbology and, in particular, the nitty-gritty of raising plants. Also, there were a couple of girls who were more intent on chattering to each other than on listening to the professor. But, to be honest, not all her own housemates were fully engaged. Oddy, however, surprised Lydia with his interest in herbology. He had, of course, read the text book and probably memorised it. What shocked her was the interest he had in tending to plants, even in handling them, the soil, the fertiliser. She had not expected him to be so practical and hands-on. She thought that perhaps he preferred plants to people, because they were not going to talk to him and try to engage him.

This assumption was put to the test towards the end of the lesson. Professor Longbottom took them on a tour of some of the other greenhouses. Passing through the experimental vegetable gardens they could hear noises, voices even, from one of the walled areas. As the students listened more closely, they heard words like, "Bum" and "Knickers".

"Oh, that's the Purple Shouting Broccoli," Neville explained. "I've only recently managed to get them to moderate their language. You should have heard them before! Well, actually you shouldn't. It wasn't at all suitable. Changing the whisky in their feed to sherry made a big difference. It was… a muggle friend of mine who suggested it."

He winked at Lydia again and she understood what he meant. Uncle Ambrose! How on earth was he spending time with so many of the Hogwarts staff already? Still, if he was seeing McGonagall socially… She shuddered.

After lunch she managed to meet up with Teddy and Freddie and they took a walk down to the loch. They compared views on the Slytherins and on the various professors they had been taught by, so far.

While they were talking there was a scream from a clump of first-year girls who were also walking along the water's edge. Some older boys started laughing at them.

"I wonder what's set them off," Teddy mused.

"The Giant Squid," a passing prefect informed them. "It lives in the loch."

"Ooh! I must bring my swimming costume some time," Lydia chirped. "Maybe after lessons. The water will be warmest this time of year."

Freddie was appalled. "Why would you want to swim in a lake where there's a giant squid?!"

"Harry said it was quite friendly," she replied.

"Harry rode a dragon out of Gringott's Bank, Lydia," Teddy reminded her. "You'd have to be insane to go into a lake with a giant squid."

"They're incredibly rare, and it's been here for decades and nobody's ever been harmed," she protested. "What kind of idiot would I have to be to pass up a chance like this?"

Freddie stared wide-eyed at her. "Er, I don't know. What kind of idiot are you now?"

But Lydia had slipped her shoes off and was in the water, crouching down with the palm of her hand touching the surface. She moved her hand like she was gently patting the surface of the loch. A long grey and pink tentacle surfaced nearby and probed towards her hand. It stopped a few centimetres away. Lydia reached out and stroked the top of the tentacle, away from the side with the suckers. It curled upwards, as if appreciating, enjoying the touch. Another tentacle, this time with a broad, flat end, edged towards her. Again, it stopped short before continuing. It raised out of the water and tentatively stroked the back of her hand.

Teddy and Freddie gasped. The bulk of the squid's body could be seen some metres away, just breaking the surface of the water. Lydia stroked the second tentacle in reply and the squid rose through the wavelets at its leisure until its eyes were in the air for a moment. They were huge eyes with square pupils, quite alien yet intelligent and something else. The 'something else' Lydia decided was 'compassionate'.

As the squid slipped back under the surface Lydia stepped back and smiled.

She re-joined the boys. "I'm going to ask Hagrid if it's all right to swim in the lake. The loch, I mean."

Teddy shook his head in disbelief. "You do know that Hagrid is crazy about monsters, don't you?"

"Oh, all right," she grumbled. "I'll ask McGonagall. Or Draco."

"Harry said there's all sorts of stuff in the lake," Teddy warned. "There are merpeople and grindylows and, well, all sorts of dangerous stuff."

"Oh, whatever. I'm still going to ask," she snapped.

Their next class was Charms, with another of Lydia's friends: Professor Flitwick. The Ravenclaws were sharing the class with the Hufflepuffs. Lydia, Teddy and Freddie walked from the loch all the way up to the Charms corridor on the third floor, chattering together as they went. The boys could not believe how daring Lydia was to want to swim in the loch. Lydia could not believe how timid the boys were. Actually, she was not surprised at Freddie's reluctance but she had expected a little more of a spirit of adventure from Teddy.

Flitwick invited the class into his room while seated atop the pile of books on his chair.

"Good afternoon, dear students," he called out. "I am Professor Flitwick and I am to be your Charms master for the rest of this academic year. You will notice that I cast my voice out into the corridor to ask you to enter. Then I opened the door. I did all these things whilst still seated here at my table. These are some of the things which can be achieved when you gain some proficiency in Charms. Some may think such things mundane. I prefer to think of simple charms as the most useful magic. Charms are the magic you will use most in your day-to-day life. Charms can pick things up, move them about, clean them, control them and place them where you want them.

"And so, it will be apparent to you all that paying attention in Charms lessons will not only gain you exam results but will make your life so much easier. Now I would like to take the register of attendance so that I know all your names, including the young gentleman on the back row who thinks I cannot see him and is attempting to catch up on some sleep."

The class looked around to see Olwen Pritchard poke Tony Parkinson's shoulder. Parkinson jerked upright.

"Nice of you to join us, young sir," Flitwick nodded. "Might I ask your name?"

"Tony, professor," he said looking surprisingly dazed for someone who could have had no more than two or three minutes in which to fall asleep.

Flitwick drummed his fingers on his table. "Do you have any other names?"

"Well, my gran calls me Snugglebumpkin," Parkinson began, then realised his mistake. "Oh, sorry. Yes. Parkinson. Tony Parkinson, professor."

"Thank you, Mr Parkinson," said Flitwick, with a bow of his head. "I trust you will remember to stay awake in lessons, in future. In fact, I am certain you will regret the error of your ways - every time one of your fellow students refers to you as Snugglebumpkin."

Parkinson blushed and looked down.

Flitwick called out their names from the register. He smiled at Lydia and caught her eye when it was her turn to respond. Then he launched into the first lesson, which was basic levitation.

"Can anyone tell me the incantation for levitation?" he asked the class.

Oddy's hand shot up. Lydia's and Shona's both followed. Teddy's and a couple of others' crept into the air.

"Miss Ogden?" Flitwick said.

"Wyngardium Leviosa, professor," Shona ventured.

"Very good, Miss Ogden," Flitwick smiled. "Do you know this from experience, or did you read about it?"

"I read it in the coursebook, professor," Shona admitted.

"Then, very well done," Flitwick nodded. "You pronounced it perfectly. The stress is on the 'gard' and the long 'o'."

Flitwick went on to describe and demonstrate the accompanying wand movement. He then summoned a feather for each student and asked them to practise.

As they practised, he wandered up and down the rows of desks, observing their technique. Oddy, Lydia and Tina of Ravenclaw and Wendy Cattermole of Hufflepuff managed the levitation at their first attempts. Two or three others, including Teddy Lupin, got the hang of it quickly. All the rest, with a little help and encouragement from Flitwick, achieved levitation at least a couple of times before the end of the lesson.

Flitwick passed Lydia at one point and whispered to her, "Don't forget to say the words, Lydia. Don't stand out yet."

Lydia nodded. By this point she and Oddy were both levitating their coursebooks.

Flitwick was pleased with their first class. Everyone had performed a levitation with a decent level of control and several had moved on to heavier objects. Freddie had started slowly but, by the end of the class, he made his feather follow Flitwick around the room. This earned him a wry smile from the professor and Freddie mouthed an apology. Flitwick set the class a simple homework of practising levitation "without annoying anyone".

For the Ravenclaws, levitation set the tone for their afternoon. After saying goodbye to "Snugglebumpkin" and the rest of the Hufflepuffs their next class was Flying Lessons with Madam Hooch. They went out into the courtyard to meet up with the Gryffindors for the lesson.

"I bet the Gryffindors will all be better than us," Dean Twycross grumbled to the other Ravenclaw boys. "They're the sporty types."

Oddy piped up, "The Quidditch scores over the past ten years have shown that, actually, three of the four houses have been quite evenly matched, while Hufflepuff have won the Quidditch Cup seven times."

Most of the Gryffindors looked as unsure of themselves as most of the Ravenclaws. Madam Hooch was waiting by a trolley filled with broomsticks.

"Come and take a broom each," she commanded. "And take a bit of care with them. I don't want to see any tail twigs getting broken off."

They lined up to take their brooms and were then ordered to form a line. Madam Hooch explained the basics of controlling and flying a broom before teaching them how to mount. Within half a dozen attempts, every student was airborne. Only four of them got it first time, two from each house. The Gryffindors were a big boy called Karl Robins and the curly-haired girl who had shared Lydia's boat at the start of term, Sophie Inkwood. The Ravenclaws were Lorcan Flynn and, surprisingly, Oddy Anderson. Lydia took to the air at the third attempt. She had deliberately not tried the first time. The second time she genuinely failed to raise the broom. At her third attempt, she willed the broom to do as she said and it leaped into the air. She mounted and found that she had more success willing it to move than by using the movements Madam Hooch had taught them.

They had races around the courtyard, strictly controlled by their teacher. The boys went first as a group. Oddy won and the Ravenclaws went wild with applause. It was more because it was Oddy, and so unexpected, than the win for Ravenclaw. Dylan Vane, a Gryffindor, came second. Of the girls, Sophie Inkwood won for Gryffindor with Lydia a close second. Madam Hooch was pleased with the overall performance. Even the most reluctant flyers looked at ease by their second or third lap.

There was then a champion's race between first- and second-place flyers of both houses. It was not a fast race because the training brooms were of limited power. It was no coincidence that the four contestants were the smallest and lightest of the class. Over the ten laps, Sophie Inkwood flew a good line and manoeuvred smoothly. This helped her take the lead and win the race decisively. Oddy came second and Lydia narrowly beat Dylan Vane to take third.

Madam Hooch followed Lydia with her eyes after the race finished and as they put their brooms away. She took Lydia's broom from her and checked it over, frowning. Then she shrugged and put the broom with the others. Lydia breathed easily again. She had set off a little too quickly at the start of the race. Madam Hooch must have noticed that Lydia's broom was going faster than it had any right to be going. Lydia had realised her mistake and dropped back gradually to her third place. Madam Hooch must have written off the fast start as a quirk of the broom. Lydia had felt that her broom had not been flying: she had been flying and the broom was solely along for the ride. This was one of those things she would have to tell Draco about. It was a manifestation of her own peculiar powers – and one where she felt she was fully in control.

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