The First Day of Classes

            At roughly eight o'clock the student body filtered into the grand hall for breakfast.  Gen was there an hour before the rest, and was gone before she saw a single student enter the hall.  After leaving the grand hall she wandered about, somewhat aimlessly, trying to find something to occupy herself with.  She didn't want to work on the machine; her sadness was still on her mind.  Before long she found herself at the entrance of the library.  This would most certainly do.  Gen wandered about for a time before selecting a book entitled "Hogwarts, A History," and plopping down in at an uninhabited table.  She began to read it intently, and within a half hour she was halfway through the four-inch thick book.  It was at this point that Gen looked up, and noticed two eyes on her. 

            At one point, in the middle of Gen's power reading session Hermione Granger had come in, and was now sitting directly across from Gen.  "He-hello?" Gen asked an awestruck Hermione.

            "Did you just do what I think you did?"

            "Uh…" Gen didn't know what to say, "What did I do?"

            "Did you just read all that?"

            "Yeah…" Gen looked at Hermione confused.

            "It took me all day to read that far!"

            Gen suddenly noticed that Hermione was holding the exact same book.  She laughed, "It's called power reading.  Good for cramming, but not so great for novels."

            Hermione blinked, "oh… right," Hermione said trying to sound not so dumbfounded as she was, "So, I never caught your name."

            "Oh, then you remember me from the train," Gen smiled, sticking out her hand for Hermione to shake, "Genevere Bangle, but you can call me Gen, or Genna."  Hermione took Gen's hand, and shook it.

            "So, what house did you get sorted into?"

            Gen wondered if Hermione was oblivious to the Ravenclaw crest on Gen's robes, or if she just wanted to make conversation, "Ravenclaw.  I see you've been put into Gryffindor."

            "I'm pleased with it," Hermione said, glad at the change of subject, "I was expecting Ravenclaw, but Gryffindor is good, just as well.  I see you've decided to skip breakfast as well.  The excitement is intense for me too," Gen decided not to say that she had eaten already, "I can't wait for classes to start.  What do you have first?"

            "Charms," Gen said off-handedly, "or maybe its transfigurations… You know one of the two.  I don't really have an agenda, but I'm sure whatever class I have first I'll get to fairly easily, and on time too."

            "Eh…" Hermione began to question this strange answer, but Gen didn't want to explain.

            "Anyway," Gen cut in, "I've met almost all the teachers.  The only ones I haven't are Binns, and uh… Trelawney."

            "Who's Trelawney?"

            "Heh, that's in the third book, I mean year, sorry disregard that," Gen laughed nervously.

            "Okay…?" Hermione looked up, to where there was a clock on the wall, "rats!  I have to get to class.  Maybe I'll see you there.  In any event, I'll see you at one point." Hermione smiled as she gathered her things to go.  A few minutes after she was gone Gen decided she might as well start for class.  She once again wandered out into the hall, and moved about aimlessly.  It wasn't a minute before she realized she was no longer walking, but sitting in a desk in the front of a classroom.  The teacher, she was pleased to note was McGonagall, therefore the class must be Transfigurations.  Gen sat there quietly for a moment, and after a time Hermione walked into the class as well.  She saw Gen sitting there, and did a double take.  After she decided that Gen was really sitting there she walked over to her, and set her things on the desk beside Gen.

            "This seat taken?" She asked with a smile.  Gen couldn't believe it, she had actually, for the first time in her life made a friend at school who actually didn't think she was a total psychopath.  It probably had something to do with the whole school teaching witchcraft, but Gen overlooked that.

            "It is now," Hermione sat down, and in an instant she was quickly joined by Neville who sat on her other side.  Gen felt strange.  For the first time in her life, when she had a class without an assigned seating chart people were actually sitting next to her.  She pretended like this was no big deal, and after a few minutes of aimless socializing the class started.  McGonagall started off by explaining to the class the difficulties of transfiguration, after which she explained the importance of it to each witch, or wizard, then she demonstrated its coolness by transforming herself into a cat on top of her desk.  It was at about that time that Harry and Ron came running into class late.

            "Fewwww!" Harry said, "we made it!"

            "Can you imagine the look on McGonagall's face if we were late?!?" Ron was just saying when suddenly McGonagall leapt off her desk, and transformed in mid air into a human again, "that was bloody brilliant!"

            "Why thank you Mr. Weasley, for that assessment!" McGonagall proceeded to scold the two, which Hermione shook her head at, but Neville and Gen laughed at.  After their scolding Ron and Harry sat down behind Gen and Hermione.  "Now," McGonagall said, "Today we'll be attempting to turn these matches," she said holding up a large matchbox, "into needles.  Before you get your match open your books to page four of your 'A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration' and read the lab instructions, and than do the pre-lab write up.  After you finish with that bring me your write up, and I'll give you your match to get started."

            Gen read the lab instructions in ten seconds flat, and wrote her pre-lab hastily in her tidy, but slanted scrawl.  She was the first person to walk to the front of the room, and ask for a match.

            "Finished already are we Miss Bangle?" McGonagall smiled over the rims of her glasses, "perhaps I was wrong about you."  McGonagall initialed Gen's paper, and handed her a match, as Gen wondered what she had meant.  Did McGonagall think that Gen was an idiot?  How could an idiot build a machine like Gen's?  Gen walked to her desk with the match, and sat down, at which point Hermione was finished with her pre-lab.  Gen got out her wand, and began attempting to follow the directions from the book.

            Hermione returned to her desk, and started doing the same as Gen. Neither of them were successful.  For a long time they focused on the matches, trying to make some strand of magic come out of their wands.  Eventually the other students had their own matches, and their wands out.  Seamus Finnigan eventually lost his patience, and began waving his wand about wildly, before McGonagall warned him that if he didn't stop she would transfigure him into a needle.  He quickly subsided to pretending to pay attention to his match, while daydreaming.  By the end of class no one had managed a needle, but Hermione's match was sort of silver, and pointy.  McGonagall commended her.

            The second class of Gen's day turned out to be Potions.  Gen had been dreading this class, as she never really liked the character of Snape in the books.  Somehow Gen ended up in the front of the classroom.  She seemed to have potions with Hufflepuff.  When the class started Snape didn't seem too happy to be teaching.  It was almost as if because Slytherin wasn't there he didn't want to be teaching at all.  Like he only enjoyed teaching his own students.  Gen decided then that she liked him even less.  He started to tell them all exactly why they were idiots, and they were probably a waste of his time.  Gen was becoming seriously irritated.  They spent the rest of the class reading the section on a potion they would be making the next day.  Their homework would be doing the section review for the section.  Gen, being as fast a reader as she was, finished the assignment.  Fifteen minutes before the end of class she took her assignment up to Snape, asking for him to take it early, and if she might be able to do something constructive for the last quarter of the class period.  He took her paper from her irritated, and scanned it with his quill an inch from the page, looking for errors.  He found none.  After a bewildered moment he marked her perfect score into his grade book, and told her she could sit quietly in her desk, and do what she would.  She chose to read from her potions book.  This seemed to bewilder him even more, as if no student outside of his house had ever shown that kind of initiative.  At the end of class he awarded Ravenclaw five points, and Gen wondered if she was right to dislike him as a teacher.  He seemed fair enough.

            After potions was Defence Against the Dark Arts.  Gen decided to boycott doing her work, or even paying attention in this class, as the irony of it was way to amazing for her, and she simply couldn't respect a man who taught her what she knew he didn't follow.  She decided to take her right to not study magic, and completely ignore Quirrell.  This class she had with Slytherin, and she found it most amusing that she was sitting next to Malfoy.  She noticed right away that he was paying no attention to the lesson either.  They spent the period making fun of Quirrell, and making up "you know you've been in DADA too long when" jokes.  Some of them were funny; most of them were only mildly amusing.

            The fourth class of the day was Charms, which was with Gryffindor.  She found herself sitting next to Ron, who was next to Hermione.  Gen herself was partnered with Neville.  On their first day of class they simply listened to a rather squeaky lecture from Flitwick on the importance of charms.  He demonstrated the importance of charms to the class by showing them several that they would learn later in the year, and some they would learn later in their time at Hogwarts.  Gen recognized most of them from the books, and decided the Flitwick was right, they would definitely use them later on.  In fact they would use them quite a lot.  By the time his lecture was over there were only five minutes left in class, so they packed up their things, and sat quietly.

            "Genevere Bangle."

            "Ron Weasely," the two shook hands, "Where are you from?"

            "Wales," Gen said offhandedly, "me mum and dad own an old castle overlooking a lake in the southernmost parts of the countryside."

            "Oh," Ron didn't seem to like this much, and he didn't continue to speak.

            "Sometimes I wish they didn't," Gen said honestly, "if my family wasn't so rich maybe they'd care about me, or at least notice that I'm alive."  She hadn't said this to make Ron feel better, it was the honest truth.  She did wish her family wasn't quite so rich, though she didn't know if this would really solve her problem or not.  Either way this made Ron seem more at ease.  "Where do you live?" she asked, though she knew the answer.

            Ron shrugged, "in a little house in the middle of nowhere.  Mostly to keep the muggles away, but we're not really rich." He frowned.

            "Trust me," Gen said with a smile, "you're better off.  I could run away from home, and my family wouldn't no the difference.  They probably wouldn't think anything was wrong until a maid asked them why I hadn't been messing my room up lately."  Gen frowned at the thought.  How long would it take them to realize she was gone?  Did they already know?  What if traveling across dimensions was like traveling at the speed of light, and when she came back they would all be a hundred years older.  What if when she went back there was no Morg.  What if she never saw him ever again?

            "What's the matter?" Ron asked as Gen's eyes filled with tears.

            "Nothing," Gen lied, and wiped a tear from her eye, "I just miss them."

            "Your parents?" Ron asked.

            "No, not really," Gen sighed, "I feel just about the same toward them as they feel to me.  I don't really care what happens to them.  Goodness that's cold hearted of me.  I hope you don't think me cruel.  I guess I'm just turned against them because I've had to live with them for so long." A tear streaked down her cheek, and Ron reached out to wipe it away.  Gen smiled at him, and he smiled back.  Something in that smile reminded Gen of Morg…

            After Charms was lunch.  It became quickly apparent that no one in Gen's own house really liked her.  They hadn't gotten the much-needed time to bond with her at all the prior night, and thus they were led to wonder whom she was, and why she wasn't at the feast.  Gen was instantly glad that every waking moment of the next several months would be completely occupied with her work.  Lunch was only semi enjoyable, as Gen had no one to talk to, so she finished up quickly, and headed to her next class wherever it might be.  As it turned out the next class was History of Magic, the third, and final class the Ravenclaws shared with the Gryffindors.  Professor Binns, who Hermione listened to eagerly, and took a great number of notes from, taught it.  Gen, like everyone else in the class realized right away that she could learn a great deal more history, a great deal faster from just reading the book, and like everyone else, chose not to act on the fact, and sat with her mind a complete blank for a half hour.

            "What?" there came a loud whisper from somewhere behind Gen. She didn't turn around, though she didn't recognize the voice.  She simply turned all her attention to her ears, and strove to listen.

            "Not so loud Harry," a voice Gen did recognize answered back.

            "Who are you talking about Ron?" Harry asked again, now in a voice barely audible, that he must have been sure Gen didn't hear him.

            "That girl up there," Ron said in an even fainter whisper, "I'm telling you, she's going to be head girl someday!"

            "Who cares?"

            "We were taking bets, and that's mine," Ron said annoyed.

            "What's her name?" Harry asked, "and how much do you bet?"

            "Hermione something," Ron said, "You know, the one from the train."

            "Oh, well who's that one next to her?"

            "Er… on which side?"

            "Left."

            "Genevere Bangle," Ron answered back, "met her today in charms."

            "She's the one McGonagall likes right?"

            "Yeah"

            "Okay, I bet on her."

            "Okay," Ron said with a smile Gen could hear reflect on his words, "ten sickles!"

            "Deal." They shook hands, though Gen couldn't see it.

            "Hah!"

            "What are you laughing at?"

            "Genevere Bangle might look like a focused student, but in Charms she didn't seem like the head girl type to me.  Not bad looking though.  That probably why you bet on 'er. I bet you think she's just the cutest little thing you've ever seen.  I bet you're madly in love with her!"  At this point Gen turned around, and looked at them.  Harry was wide-eyed with embarrassment, Ron was laughing.  Ron proceeded to point to Harry, and mouth the words "HE LOVES YOU," and "HE WANT TO MARRY YOU," while writing little hearts in the air with his fingers.  Gen giggled, and shook her head at the two of them.  Harry attempted to stop Ron by grabbing his hands, and stopping him from writing his little hearts.  Harry was just mouthing "DON'T LISTEN TO HIM!" when Ron's hands broke free, and he started flailing them about wildly.  At this point about half the class was watching eagerly to see the outcome of the strange misadventure.  Professor Binns hadn't noticed a problem yet, he was reading straight from his lesson plan.  Harry stood up, and jumped over his desk to get to the isle when Ron sat.  Ron looked up at his friend who towered over him with mock fear just before Harry pulled him up from his seat.  They started pushing each other back and forth, in what at first was a joking fight, but ended up in real pushes.  It wasn't until Harry pushed Ron to the ground that Professor Binns looked up, and noticed the fight that was already halfway over.  He did little more than reprimand the two, who subsided to their seats, and then resumed teaching, as the class resumed snoring.  Ron wrote a note quickly in an untidy scrawl before crumpling it up, and throwing it at Gen's desk.  It landed right before her, and she was quickly pulled out of her torpor, un-crumpling the note, and reading it.

            Harry is madly in love with you.  He'd like to take you away to a desert island and do obscene things with you behind a palm tree.

            Gen laughed, and dipped her quill, quickly writing back.

            Well, you can tell him the feeling is mutual.  Oh baby, oh baby, all night long!

            She tossed the note back to him.  Ron opened the note, and laughed hysterically.  Harry quickly snatched it up from Ron's desk, reading it quickly, blushing, and throwing it back.  Ron took his quill, and began writing back to her.  He finished his reply, and tossed the note back to Gen.

            He thinks you've eyes like pools of green (are your eyes green?) and lips like red roses in the wintertime when all else is dead.

            Actually my eyes are brown.

            Oh, well in that case, he thinks you've eyes like creamy chocolate, and cherry lips.  He cannot live a day without smelling your sweet sent, and seeing your perfect face.  He wants to hold you in his arms and never let you go.  Oh the agony he is in without you!

            Tell him I'm sorry, but my heart belongs to another.

            Who would that be?

            YOU!

            By the end of the class Ron, and Gen had filled a whole roll of parchment with completely random, and nonsensical conversation.  Gen had a feeling that she would be having a great year, whether or not it profited her in anyway.  History was their last class of the day.  Harry, and Ron walked together to the grand hall.  Gen and Hermione were abreast with them the whole time, though they didn't exchange a single word.  When they got to the grand hall they divided off, and went to their separate house tables.  Gen was sad to leave these new friends of hers.  She ate dinner quickly, and left before all the others, heading for her secret dungeon.

            The first order of business was to go over the machine, and make sure nothing was broken, missing, or detached.  As she went through her mental checklist she subconsciously went over the events of the day, planning a head for the journal entry she would soon make.  She had been quite surprised at the events of the day.  She had made instant friends, gained Snape's approval, made jokes with Draco Malfoy, gotten to know Ronald Weasley, and started uproar.  All in a days work she thought with a laugh before closing the engine compartment back up, surprised there was nothing wrong there.  It sickened Gen to think that she was treating people the age of her kid brother as her peers, and even more sickening to think that she had been joking about being madly in love with them.  When Gen thought of her brother and his friends all she saw was rudeness.  Maybe it was because they were British, maybe it was because they were wizards, or maybe it was a little bit of both.  The difference in maturity between Gen and the other first years was apparent; though Gen was more mature than most people her own age anyways.  Size wise there was hardly any difference.  Gen was more small than she was big, and though she had finished developing, she wasn't very developed.  To put it bluntly she was a flat girl.  No one would be able to tell she wasn't what she appeared, except by her maturity level, and she had just shown that she was childishly easy to amuse.  Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to lie as Gen had expected.  She finished her mental check list, and picked up her composition book, writing a complete journal entry on the day before, and then got to work, planning, and preparing for some experiments she had in mind.  She was so enthralled in her work she hardly noticed the time.  Eventually she realized that she had been there for quite a long time, and got up to leave to her room.  She left the cold, dark dungeons only to find that the sun was already up, and she had worked through the night.  That was the third night she went with absolutely no sleep what so ever.  She began to wonder what was wrong with her, but quickly found herself standing at the portal of her first class of the day, right on time for the lesson…

Seventh chapter, So whadayatink?  This one is pretty long.  It makes up for Chapter five.  I hope you have as much fun reading this as I am writing, and getting reviewsJ this is my first HP fan fic published really.  Anywho, I thought of another tree house gang.  Spongebob, Sandy, and Patrick.  ^_^ Well, please R and R, and sit tight for some more fun with your favorite tree house gang!  PS: I added a majority of that fun with Ron for Piper, I know how much you luv 'im!