Disclaimer: Anything you recognise as JK Rowlings, is obviously hers. Anything that you do not, is my creation.
Authors Note: Thank you ever so much to moliosi, DreamReal, The Spectre of Sanity, Vooda Tribal, Ayla and SweetStar. Erwin Weasley is Arthur Weasley's little brother. I'm so sorry for stealing your wood Speccie! I didn't mean to! Thank you for reading the story so far! Bye.
J
Sweet Lily
Chapter Three: A Day to Remember
"Lily! Lily! Wake up!"
Lily opened her eyes regretfully. She was dozing happily and was not pleased that she had been disturbed. But one thought about where she actually was woke Lily up completely.
"What is it?" she said hurriedly, throwing back the covers and rising to her feet.
Tamara looked awfully excited. All the girls were up, but the sunlight hadn't even begun pouring through the window.
"It's our first day!" Pepper squealed, burying through her trunk. "Isn't that exciting!?"
"Yes," Lily said truthfully. "But classes don't start in another two hours!"
"She's been like that since three in the morning," Idalee said drowsily, stifling a yawn. "You were one of the lucky ones. I've been up for hours trying to shut her up."
Lily giggled and shook her head. School had certainly begun on a wild note, not to mention rather sleepily too.
"Where's Cassidy?" Tamara said, running a brush through her curly hair.
"In the shower," Pepper answered, draping her black school robes over her shoulder. "Which is where I'm off to!"
Both Pepper and Idalee disappeared into the bathroom where the sounds of water pounding on the tiled ground could be heard. A whole hour later, every single first year Gryffindor girl was showered, dressed and groomed, all looking spectacular for their first day at Hogwarts.
"Breakfast time!" Tamara shrieked, flipping one of her tidily plaited pigtails over her shoulder. "And boy, I am hungry!"
"Didn't last night's feast fill you up?" Lily exclaimed, swinging her book bag over her shoulder.
"Oh, it did," Tamara said as they descended down to the Common Room. "But my tummy was emptied during the night."
"Hey, Tamara! What you got on your head!"
Tamara yelped loudly as her beanie was yanked off her head as she exited the portrait hole. She swivelled round to face a gloating Sirius with a teasing smile on his face. He jumped out of the portrait hole, James, Remus and a small boy from the Sorting called Peter.
"I want my hat back!" Tamara pouted, beginning to walk backwards as Sirius advanced, waggling her beanie around in the air so she couldn't reach.
"Nuh-uh-uh," Sirius mocked, prancing around on tiptoes with Tamara's beanie. "Manners, young lady."
"Uh!" Tamara grunted, punching the air. "You can be so annoying!"
"And you've only just learnt that?" James laughed from behind Sirius.
"Hey, Tamara!" Sirius yelled, flashing a charming grin. "Come catch your hat!"
He sprinted down the hall, zigzagging his way. Tamara leaped after Sirius, bounding her way at him. Lily, James, Remus and Peter watched from afar as the two energetic children chased after each other. Sirius dove behind a tall suit of armour and Tamara followed. But she didn't quite get her aim correct. She crashed into the heavy metal suit, tumbling to the ground with Sirius and getting showered with shiny pieces of metal with a deafening smash.
Lily, James and Remus snorted with endless laughter and Peter sniggered slightly.
"What'd you do that for, you klutz!" Sirius screamed hurling a helmet across the passage.
Tamara jumped up with some effort, grasping her beanie triumphantly.
"I got it!"
"You guys better get out of here quick," Remus advised, smiling. "The caretaker is not a happy fellow, I hear."
The six first years left the passage, wiping tears of mirth from their eyes. They wandered endlessly, looking for the Great Hall after the incident with the suit of armour, but no avail.
"Where in the world is the Great Hall!" Sirius cried out in dismay, clutching his chest. "I'm starved!"
"You're always starved," James scoffed, earning himself a soft punch in the shoulder. "Hey, look! Follow them!"
Five minutes after trailing after a tall brunette and a shorter boy with blonde hair, they found the Great Hall.
"Mm… Food!"
"You two are such pigs!" Tamara insulted, watching James and Sirius practically inhale every edible thing within their sight.
"Ank oo," Sirius replied, his mouth so full with syrup-drenched pancakes that his words were all muddled up.
Tamara rolled her eyes as she swallowed a spoonful of porridge.
"Do you two ever plan on growing up?" she asked, sipping some pumpkin juice.
James and Sirius exchanged glances, then faced Lily and Tamara with straight faces.
"Nope."
"First Year schedules!" Erwin called out, beginning to hand out large pieces of parchment to all the First Years.
Lily read hers eagerly, neglecting her plate of scrambled eggs.
"We've got Herbology first… Then Charms with the Hufflepuffs," Lily read out. "Then lunch." (Sirius smacked his lips at that.) "After lunch we have Transfiguration then History of Magic. And tonight we have Astronomy!"
"We'd better get going if we don't want to get lost," Pepper said from across the table. "It took you seven long enough to get here. I just asked Flora to show me the way."
"Herbology is outside in the greenhouses," Remus said. "I know that much."
So the Gryffindor First Years set off outside, the cool summer wind blowing onto their faces.
Finding themselves five minutes early, they seated themselves on the plush grass beside the row of greenhouses. Another ten minutes later, the teacher, Professor Quimberly, arrived.
The professor was only a few inches taller than Lily and rather thin and frail. She was old, no doubt, as it showed. Her hair was light grey and braided back and held together by a plain black elastic band. Her skin sagged like an elephant's, cheeks brushed with pink and lips painted a shocking red. Her deep green robes were on backwards, as was her hat.
"Hello, dears," Professor Quimberly croaked, her voice kind. "I do like a class that is early!"
Lily smiled at the lady.
"We'll be working outside today by the garden beds just over there," Quimberly said, pointing to a place in between two of the greenhouses.
Lily and Tamara exchanged glances before making their way to the small area.
Between the two greenhouses was a beautiful little garden. There was a small, greenish pond surrounded by brightly coloured flowers and giant, leafy plants towering over the fishpond. The pond spilled into a narrow, trickling stream that led into another small body of water and so on. It was peaceful place.
Professor Quimberly gestured for the class to seat themselves on a small patch of grass beside a huge purple and blue spotted flower that was actually breathing.
"Now, today we will be… Oh, yes! We will be simply feeding and watering the pants in this garden, aswell as tending to the water features and fish."
Lily eyed the breathing plant cautiously, terrified that it would attack after a sharp movement.
"I will put you in pairs and assign you all a plant or task," Quimberly said, adjusting some thick-rimmed glasses and studying a sheet of parchment. "Mr Black and Mr Collett will be together. Miss Evans and Miss Geddes are working together. Mr Hawkins and Mr Lupin. Miss McCaffrey and Mr Pettigrew. Mr Potter and Miss Scott. Miss Tresilian and Miss Walton. Please go over to your partner and I'll assign your task."
Lily went over to Cinnamon and Tamara wandered over to where James was perched upon and damp log next to Sirius and Vance Collett.
"I really hope we don't have to feed that thing," Lily whispered, pointing to the breathing plant. "It looks lethal."
"Or those over there," Cinnamon said, speaking of five or six fluttering flowers with glittering silver teeth.
"Miss Geddes and Miss Evans?"
Lily and Cinnamon turned their faces towards Quimberly.
"You will be preparing the fish food. Here's the recipe. Shouldn't be too hard," Professor Quimberly said warmly, handing them a piece of parchment.
Lily skimmed the recipe over Cinnamon's shoulder. It actually was quite simple, except for the two ingredients she didn't know.
"Aw, we can do this!" Cinnamon exclaimed, tugging at a tuft of grass that was the first ingredient.
"And here's the daffodil," Lily said, gently plucking the bright yellow flower from the garden beside her.
A mortar and pestle was placed at her feet by the professor. Lily tore off the petals of the flower and dropped them into the mortar, on top of the grass Cinnamon had placed into the stone basin already.
"I'll just fetch the basil and mint from the herb garden," Cinnamon said, rising to her feet.
Lily nodded as she sprinkled a handful of wheat into the mortar. She scanned the list of ingredients, looking for one she could get. There were only three items left. Two she had no idea what they were, and the last was seaweed. Grimacing, Lily eyed the pond about a foot away. Green moss and slime grew along the rocky sides, swishing softly to the small ripples on the surface. Long tendrils of dark green seaweed dance in the water. Several large gold fish, flecked with coloured scales darted between the plants and rocks, not noticing the redhead watching them closely.
"Don't fall in!"
Lily glanced up from staring absently into the pond. Sirius and Vance Collett were standing on the other side, next to where the stream began, holding a fish net and a large bucket.
"What are you supposed to be doing?" Lily asked incredulously, eyeing their equipment.
"Well, once you get out of the way, we're going to clean the pond," Sirius explained pointedly, waving the fish net around, almost knocking Lily's head off her shoulders.
"Hey! Watch it!"
"Well, what are you doing there anyway?"
"Seaweed," Lily scowled, dipping her finger in the murky water, quickly withdrawing it.
Sirius and Vance sniggered.
"Well, go on," Sirius said, grinning. "Go get your seaweed."
"Can't you just empty the pond then I can get it?" Lily said, looking up at Sirius with pleading eyes.
"Nope!"
Lily groaned as she pulled back the sleeve of her robe and lowered her arm into the freezing water, causing goose bumps to erupt all over her skin. Clutching a seaweed tendril, Lily tugged hard, finally uprooting the whole plant and dragging it from the water.
"You can stop laughing now," Lily frowned, glaring at Sirius and Vance.
Her sleeve had slipped down into the water while she fetched the seaweed and came out soaking wet.
"But I don't feel like it!" Sirius gasped, letting the fish net drop into the water with a splash.
Lily jumped back as droplets of dirty water landed on her already wet robes. Deciding that the only way she was going to be safe and dry, Lily backed away from the pond and returned to the mortar and pestle where Cinnamon was adding mint and basil to the mixture.
"You need to dice that into little tiny pieces," Cinnamon said, crushing the ingredients together. "The Professor gave me this for it."
She handed her a penknife.
"I'm just going to get the amanita muscaria and oxalis acetosella," Cinnamon said, putting down the mortar and pestle as she stood up. "They're all the way over there."
She pointed to the other side of the garden.
"Right."
Lily diced the rubbery seaweed into tiny squares and added them to the fish food in the making. Picking up the pestle, she began pounding the plants together, gritting her teeth as she did.
"Having fun?" Cinnamon laughed, seating herself on the grass and dropping in a leafy stem with a white flower on the end and a reddish mushroom thing into the mortar as Lily crushed the items mercilessly.
"Oh, yes," she answered, gagging at the poisonous green mush that was now in the bottom of the stone mortar.
"It's done," Cinnamon announced, looking up from the instructions. "You can stop killing it now."
Lily placed the mortar and pestle on the grass and looked up.
"What now?" she inquired, glancing around at the class. "Sirius and Vance are still cleaning the pond."
It was a rather funny sight to watch Sirius and Vance empty the pond of the grimy water. They had already scooped the poor fish from the water and plunged them into the bucket filled with fresh water. They had begun to use a second bucket, a larger one, to empty the pond of the dirty water. They then had to poor the water onto the grass, making sure it went on evenly. So quite naturally, with Sirius there, they were both soaked with the mucky water.
Sirius glimpsed over at the girls, an impish spark in his grey-blue eyes. With perfect aim, he threw a wave of icy water at Cinnamon and Lily, much to their utter disgust.
"Sirius!" Lily hissed spitefully, glowering angrily at Sirius, who was laughing openly and loudly.
Cinnamon stood beside the pond, sulkily wringing out the saturated folds of the black robes.
"What in Merlin's name has happened!"
Lily and Cinnamon swivelled round, facing their teacher with pink faces. Quimberly watched them with a stern eye, hands on her hips.
"Ah…"
Lily wasn't really sure what to say. It wasn't like she wanted to dob Sirius in for what had done.
"Professor," he said from behind the girls. "I was clearing out the pond and my hands slipped, wetting the girls from head to toe." Sirius put hid head down in mock shame. Lily and Cinnamon had to conceal their sniggers. "I'm sorry, Professor."
Professor Quimberly seemed to believe the story without question, returning to her normal bemused state. Her face relaxed and she lowered her arms.
"Very well," she said calmly, smiling a little. "Accidents happen. But I shall have to dry you two up won't I?"
Quimberly withdrew her wand from up her sleeve and pointed it at the girls with a smile. After she muttered a couple of words that Lily couldn't make out, the girls' robes instantaneously dried up, the creases made by the wringing vanished.
"Thank you, Professor," Lily and Cinnamon said in unison, sighing with relief.
"Now, I suggest you both run along to the Hospital Wing," Quimberly said, slipping her wand back where it came from. "You'll need a little draught of that Anti-Flu Potion stuff. It's nasty, but it works, dears."
"Um… Alright."
"Take your things, children. I won't need you back today. You both did a wonderful job on the fish food! It looks perfect! Now off you go!"
Lily and Cinnamon were ushered away from the class, listening to the protests of Vance and Sirius who were complaining that they needed to go get the Anti-Flu Potion. But Quimberly was powerfully pointing out that they hadn't completed their task.
"Hey, Tamara!" Lily called out to her friend, waving as she departed. "Meet you in Charms!"
Tamara, paired with James, waved energetically as Lily walked away, her book bag slung over her shoulders. James put on a cheesy grin and jiggled his hand frantically too, imitating Tamara rather badly. His punishment was a well aimed slap on the cheek.
"So, are you liking Hogwarts?" Lily said as they entered the castle by the front entrance.
"Oh, very much!" Cinnamon replied enthusiastically. "Are you?"
"It's fantastic!" Lily exclaimed just as eagerly, grinning. "Much better than a normal boarding school!"
"And it isn't even the end of day one!"
Cinnamon and Lily wandered the halls, vaguely keeping track of their path. Neither of them had any idea where the Hospital Wing was found, except for that it wasn't on the ground floor. In a time period of ten minutes, they had covered the first floor and were headed for the second once they located a staircase. But before the stairs were found, possible help ran into them. Literally.
"You should have seen my parents faces when I got the letter!" Cinnamon cried, brushing her long hair back. "They were so shocked!"
"I was lucky," Lily admitted. "I had Tamara and her mum to explain."
"So, does Tam- Ack!"
"Ouch!"
"What the-!!"
Lily looked up from her place on the marble floor. She and Cinnamon were just turning a corner when a large, solid something collided with them both, knocking them to the ground gracelessly.
"I think I bruised my bum…" Lily moaned absently, rubbing her lower back.
Cinnamon snorted gawkily from beside Lily.
"Look, um… Sorry about that."
Lily and Cinnamon rose their eyes to look at the very tall figure standing before them. A boy, about Sixth Year, had offered his hands to heave the girls up. He was chubby, with a mop of flyaway black hair and beady blue eyes. Lily and Cinnamon accepted the hands and pulled themselves to their feet, trying their best to look polite and ladylike.
"It's okay, really," Cinnamon said hurriedly, trying to fix her muddled hair.
"What are you doing in the halls during class?" the boy said casually, adjusting a silver 'Prefect' badge.
"We can't find the Hospital Wing," Lily said quietly, tilting her head.
"Could you tell us where it is?" Cinnamon added.
"It's on the third floor. Go up the stairs round the corner until you get to the second landing, go down the corridor on the left, turn right, and it should be over there."
"Thank you."
Lily and Cinnamon followed the boy's directions as correctly as they could remember. At the end, the two girls stood facing a glossy white door, a golden plaque engraved:
Hospital Wing
Madame Poppy Pomfrey Office
Lily knocked her knuckles neatly on the door. Before long, three seconds later in fact, the door was swung open. A fairly young matron stood in the doorway. She had a kind face of fair skin, free of any signs of aging. Her eyes were a light brown, and her hair the same colour. Her stature was willowy and small.
"May I help you?" the lady, Poppy Pomfrey, asked gently, inviting them in.
The room inside was long and thin. There were ten beds lined up along two opposite walls, made with clean, white linen. Only one bed was occupied with a sleeping somebody. At the other end of the room, there was a marked door, the writing in which Lily could not read from so far away.
"Professor Quimberly told us we needed to take some Anti-Flu Potion," Cinnamon informed, scanning the room with her brown eyes.
"The first day and I have to fetch it out," Madame Pomfrey mumbled, most likely to herself.
She bustled down the aisle between the rows of beds and into the door at the other end. Lily and Cinnamon hurried after her and waited patiently in silence outside the door. Madame Pomfrey came out a few minutes later, two goblets in hand. She handed one each to the girls.
"How come we've got different amounts?" Lily said curiously, sniffing the clear mixture, slightly tinted with green. It smelt innocent enough. Whether it tasted that way though, was another story.
"The amount you are given depends on the size of your body," Madame Pomfrey thoughtfully clarified. "Now gulp it down, dears."
Lily closed her eyes and practically threw the potion into her open mouth. As Professor Quimberly had said, it was nasty. To Lily, it was downright foul. It tasted of strong pepper sauce and garbage with a medicine kick. Well, she had never tasted pepper sauce and garbage, but if she ever did taste it, she was sure it would have a flavour like that. Not wanting to, Lily swallowed it all, feeling it tickle her throat.
"Ugh! That is horrible!" Cinnamon screeched, wiping her eyes.
"Keep it down, dears," Madame Pomfrey warned. "Is that all you came for?"
"Yes," Lily said, handing back the goblet. "Thank you. We'll be off now."
Cinnamon and Lily were shown to the door by the matron. Before they left, they asked for directions to the Charms corridor.
"That stuff was truly the most disgusting, awful, terrible stuff in the whole wide world!" Cinnamon howled, making spitting sounds. "Sirius will have to pay for that!"
"I know!" Lily agreed stoutly, purposely swallowing to get rid of the biting taste in her mouth. "What are we going to do?"
"Have absolutely no idea!" Cinnamon piped, giggling. "Oh, look! We're here."
They had reached their Charms classroom without getting lost. As a bonus, they were early. Nobody was there yet, except for them. Another seven minutes and twenty-three seconds later, timed by Lily's watch, they were joined by two Hufflepuffs, Jennifer Bristow and Constance Cadwallader.
"Hi."
Jennifer Bristow stuck out a hand. She had thick, dark honey coloured hair and fairly bad acne across her long nose. Constance Cadwallader stood alongside her. Her dark face was framed by extremely curly hair, shortened as far as her pierced ears.
"Hi," Cinnamon replied, shaking Jennifer's hand violently, grinning. "I'm Cinnamon and this is Lily."
Lily smiled at the two girls.
"My name's Jenny, (Jennifer really), and this is my friend Constance. Call her Connie."
"Hi, Jenny, Connie," Lily greeted in a friendly manner, shaking both their hands in turn politely.
"Hey, guess who?"
Lily squeaked as her vision went black and warm hands covered the top half of her face. She knew exactly who it was.
"Er… The Tooth Fairy?"
"That answer is… Incorrect," said the voice, belonging to a certain Tamara Scott. "The correct answer is Mrs Claus."
The hands came away from Lily's eyes and Tamara emerged from behind her.
"Did you get lost?" Tamara asked cheerfully, humming the tune of 'Jingle Bells' to herself.
"Nope. We had directions from Madame Pomfrey."
"Pomfrey, Pomfrey, Pomfrey," Tamara chanted, twisting her mouth into a mangled frown. "Who's that?"
"The nurse," Cinnamon replied, twirling a lock of hair around her long finger. "She fed us revolting stuff!"
"I thought all medicines were yucky," Tamara stated, scratching her left eyebrow.
"Yes," Lily granted hastily. "But this stuff was extra yuck."
"Oh…"
Lily, Tamara and Cinnamon stepped back swiftly as the door to the class opened slowly, squealing on its hinges a little. Lily had to hold back a gasp of surprise when she spotted the professor. Tamara didn't bother though. She gaped openly until Cinnamon nudged her in the ribs.
"Come in, come in, class!" the petite man in the door squeaked, his voice high-pitched.
Lily respectfully tried not to stare at the man. He was about as tall as Lily's stomach, or a little bigger, but not by much. The professor was young, perhaps in his early to mid twenties. His hair was a dark, peanut brown and his eyes, dark green. His robes were a baby blue and the hems embroidered with bright, yellow ducks. It was suspected that, because he was so short, the professor was only big enough to purchase robes that young children, as they were the only one's that would fit him without the sleeves hanging down to the floor.
Lily took a seat next to Tamara. Cinnamon went over to join Pepper at the front of the class. The professor waddled to the giant desk in front of the blackboard. He sat on a chair, piled with books so he could see over the desk.
"Now, I am Professor Flitwick!" the man peeped. "Welcome to Charms class. I will take the role call, as I will every class this year."
Lily, who was very much hoping for an exciting lesson of turning someone's ears pink or making things fly, was rather disappointed when Professor Flitwick instructed them to read through Chapter One: To Swish of 'A First Year's Guide to Charms' and then practising swishing and flicking their wands, performing no magic at all.
"Maybe we'll learn to make people's feet grow gorilla hair next lesson," Tamara said optimistically, acting out a complicated twirl and powerful flick with her wand.
"You'll knock someone's head clean off their shoulders doing that!" Lily exclaimed, laughing giddily as Sirius got nicked on the arm with Tamara's wand. "And I don't think making people's feet grow gorilla hair is in the First Year curriculum."
"What a pity."
Punctually at noon, the end of class bell rang. The students hurriedly shoved books and wands into their bags, slinging them over their shoulders and stampeding through the door, which was in need of widening to fit the amount of bodies that went through it at once. Tamara and Lily, in a rush to reach the Great Hall in time, but not so desperate to viciously join the crowd in the halls, power walked together down the corridors, avoiding serious collisions.
"I think it will be easy finding the Great Hall this time!" Tamara said loudly, following a pair of boys that were laughing and jeering in front of them.
"Lunch must be a big thing here," Lily replied.
Lunch was divine. Whoever prepared the meals, Lily was more than willing to dish out awards to them. Sirius though, nearly ruined her appetite by constructing a sandwich consisting of pickles, sardines, mustard and shredded lettuce. He had pretended to love the taste of the purely ludicrous combination of ingredients, but after two bites, spat out the remnants of chewed up sardine tails and soggy bread onto his plate and gulped down two goblets of pumpkin juice while all the First Years and a few other students looked on in distaste.
"Your breath smells gross," Tamara openly confessed, speaking to Sirius in revulsion.
"Oh, really?" he said calmly.
Deliberately, he walked right up to her and breathed long and slow in her face. Tamara was engulfed in his putrid breath instantly. Immediately, she backed away, coughing and spitting.
"Ergh!! You are horrible and disgusting, Sirius! How does your family put up with you!"
"What do you mean? I'm a perfect angel," Sirius replied in a saccharine voice.
Tamara would have answered sourly, but Professor McGonagall was waiting for them at the Transfiguration classroom. She stood to her full height, which was rather tall. She was the portrait of organisation, rules, obedience and strictness. Her robes, a poisonous green colour and made from velvet, were devoid of creases and crinkles and weakly scented with some sort of laundry detergent. Her hat was brand new by the look of it, a fresh, tidy black and still neatly pointed at the top. McGonagall's glasses sat comfortably on her perfectly shaped nose.
"Please enter orderly and quietly and take a seat," she said briskly, nodding to every student as they passed her into the classroom.
Lily bit her lips nervously as she passed the formidable teacher. All the seats in the back row were taken already when she entered. It seemed that no one was game enough to risk sitting in the front row, right in front of the teacher's large oak desk, where papers and quills had proper places of their own. The centre row was nearly full. Lily, followed by Tamara, took the last two chairs left in the line of desks, leaving everyone else the front.
Like robots, every student present dove for their bags, taking out necessary equipment: a quill, ink, parchment, their wand and Transfiguration books. In a muted and tense quietness, they waited for McGonagall to finish roll call, then her complicated introduction to Transfiguration, in which began the scratching and scribbling of quills upon parchment, noting down everything the commanding professor dictated.
"Our very first assignment of the year will be the changing of a match into a needle," McGonagall said dauntingly, her beady eyes sweeping over the class like a hawk's. "Upon the board I shall write out the essential rules of Beginner's Transfiguration. You will copy these notes down. With these and the information provided by your books and research if you choose to do, you will each construct an essay on how you expect to complete the first assignment. You will have until Wednesday to do so. On Thursday, we will attempt the assignment."
Quickly and stealthily, McGonagall picked up a piece of white chalk from her desk and began writing in a slanted handwriting the vital rules of Beginner's Transfiguration. Lily, unused to using a quill as yet, wrote slowly and tidily. She often smudged what she had just written, much to her frustration, as she had to write the same thing above the smudges in smaller letters. It was after twenty-eight minutes, behind everyone else, that she finally finished. After that, Lily wiped her inky hands on her black robes and began reading the first chapter of the text book, which proved to be actually interesting.
It was lucky that they had History of Magic after Transfiguration on that Monday. They were all late out of class with no clue of which way to go. The History of Magic teacher, lucky for them, was one who had no sense of time and punctuality. He was a ghost that had been dead for around three decades now and usually popped into class ten minutes late.
The Gryffindor First Year's arrived, twelve minutes after they were suppose to, but there wasn't a professor in sight. Awkwardly, they seated themselves at various desks in the dusty class and waited, listening to Sirius and James tell odd stories about what they did as young children. Three minutes later, just after Cinnamon had opened up a window to let a bit of fresh air to blow the dust away, the professor flew into the classroom, startling them all.
Most of the girls shrieked and the boys flew backwards with their chairs. It was a funny sight, but Professor Binns seemed not to notice at all. In a bored, dull drone, he began talking.
"I am Professor Binns, your teacher. Take out writing equipment please. You will be writing down notes on my speeches. Our first will be about the Goblin Rebellion of 1202."
History of Magic was utterly dreary and tedious. The hour seemed to drag on forever, going slower than it had ever gone before. Binns spoke in drear manner with an expressionless ghostly face. Only three of the twelve Gryffindors had enough will power to stay sane and conscious, Remus, Lily and Cinnamon. They were occasionally jotting down notes as they rested their heads on the desk like everyone else.
As Lily's watch struck 4:00, the school bell promptly rang loudly. Without Binns needing to dismiss them, the class packed up their things in a flurry, then whizzed out through the door like there was no tomorrow. There was now two and a half hours of free time before dinner. Casually, Tamara, Cassidy, Cinnamon and Lily ventured in the direction they belived to be the Gryffindor Common Room, while everyone else rushed ahead.
"This is going to be so fun!" Cinnamon exclaimed, grinning. "No maths!"
Lily, Tamara and Cassidy laughed giddily.
"It must have been very boring living as a Muggle before you came here," Cassidy said, wrinkling her nose as she swiped some hair out of her face.
"Oh, but it can interesting too!" Tamara burst in happily. "Like the books they write! They can be so funny! They write about witches and magic and stuff and they get it so wrong!"
They're friendly chat continued while they walked where their feet took them. Twenty five minutes later, however, they had the common sense to take in their surroundings. It was then they realised they were well and truly lost, having broken apart from everyone else.
Lily, boiling with excitement and anticipation, looked around the passage they were in. There were large arch windows along the right side of the hall, spilling in the afternoon sun that lighted up the corridor a little. All the walls were bare, there was not a single hanging portrait, or even brackets to hold candles to brighten the evening darkness. There was little warmth. Only the sun that would be soon gone.
As the four girls discussed what way they were to take as they admired the view of the black lake below, four pairs of eyes watched them.