By: CNJ
PG-13
5: First Day
Lily:
"Almost zero hour," Zara announced dramatically as we gathered our books and supplies for our first day of classes. Amelia combed her bangs one last time and I looked around to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. I hadn't.
It's a good thing the three of us found each other before school started. Now if any of us got lost or did something foolish, we'd all look stupid together as a group, which would be much better than being alone and doing something idiotic and looking ridiculous alone.
"Ready?" I asked. My friends nodded and we headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. We were actually early, so we were among the first to arrive. My stomach was quivering and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to eat a thing.
Breakfast was magicked onto the table once more students arrived. Professors Vector and Pierce had the usual first-day-of-school announcements, then most of us dug in.
I mostly ate a toast with butter on it and some orange juice and tea. Amelia also ate lightly while Zara ate more.
The prefects came around and handed out our schedules. Most of the first years had classes together, thank Merlin. In some of the classes, two houses shared the same class.
"Ohhh, shit, we have a three classes with the Slytherins," I heard someone groan diagonally from us. It was a tall boy with rather longish black hair and large blue eyes.
"I have the feeling that bunch is going to show up right where we don't want them, especially that greasehead, what's his name, Devesk Snake or something?" Another boy added. He had black hair too, but it was shorter, neater, parted on one side, and rather wavy. I vaguely recalled that his name was James.
"Severus Snape," a girl supplied from the other side.
"Hey, I remember from last night," Amelia told us. "The one who made that sarcastic remark about eating frogs." The three of us peered over and sure enough, Severus was among the Slytherins.
His hair did look greasy, but maybe he was going through early puberty or something. I know oil glands start acting up in puberty big time. I turned to my own food then and managed to force down my orange juice.
"You three have Potions first thing, right?" Another girl asked us. We nodded.
"Good, maybe we can head down there together," the girl smiled. "I'm Ravera McLelland, by the way."
"Lily Evans..." "Amelia Kovacs..." "Zara Vinn..." We introduced ourselves. It was just about time for class, so we headed there. The Potions room was near the front of the school and it was a long, long narrow hallway.
The room was huge and sunny in places, dark in others. The door to what I took to be the office swung open and a tall woman with greenish-black hair strode in and plopped her books and notes onto her desk.
"Good morning, class; I'm your Potions professor; I'm Professor Laris; this year, we will be learning about wormwood..." she rattled off a whole list of things, most of which I'd never heard of.
One glance around the room told me that most of my classmates were just as bewildered. As she spoke in her rapid wandfire voice, she spun around and began writing notes on the board.
Just to be on the safe side, I copied them and so did several others. Laris was like a windup doll, rattling away of things we'd be expected to learn this year.
"Aaaand so, that is a beginning of what we'll be covering this year." Finally, she paused for breath. A note was pitched onto my desk. I wondered how long it'll be before she needed to breathe, Amelia had penned. I grinned at her and Zara mock-panted.
"So, for your first assignment tonight..." she began again. Someone in the back groaned and another person giggled. Professor Laris ignored it and went on to tell us to read chapters one and two and take the short quiz at the end of those two chapters.
"Not baaad, not baaaad..." Zara mused as we headed to our next class, Defense Against the Dark Arts. The room for that class was near the back in the dungeon area. It was also another class with the Slytherins.
"The Slytherin dorms are close by there, in face almost down the hall from this room," Zara told us as we entered the rather damp, darkish room. The teacher was a rather cool, logical man with slicked-back light brown hair and pale blue eyes. He was Professor Norris. He started the class by taking attendance, then looked up and down the aisles.
"All right, class, let's go over some basic rules here...punctuality is expected at all times, the only exception being an extreme emergency. And I do mean extreme, like your own death or something." His pale blue eyes looked around piercingly.
"Secondly, if I catch anyone passing notes, I will possibly read it out loud, so avoid that embarrassment and don't take a chance...third, if I see anyone not paying attention, it will be ten points off your house; three times in a semester of inattentiveness and it will be twenty points and a detention. Am I making myself clear?" he demanded.
"Yes..." we all nodded.
"Yes..." He cocked his head. "I can hardly hear you...yes and...?"
"Yes, Professor Norris..." We chorused. We sounded like computers responding to a spoken command.
"That's better..." He went on about other rules.
As he was finishing, the door creaked and three late students tried to sneak their way in. "Like I said before when I was going over the rules that apparently, Misters Robert Culin and John Parkinson and Ms. Narcissa Banes missed...punctuality is very much appreciated in this class; in fact, tardiness is not appreciated." He peered at them sternly.
"Sorry, these hallways are sooo long and confusing..." Narcissa smiled at him charmingly. Apparently he wasn't charmed because he ordered then to sit and deducted ten points each from them.
So that made a thirty-point loss for Slytherin. Several of the other Slytherins gave them dirty looks as they sat.
"That's why all of you are giving maps of the school," he told them and went on with what we'd be learning.
"I don't think I'm going to enjoy the wand-battling part," I told my friends on the way to lunch a bit later once we'd been through Arithmacy.
"Me either," Zara added.
After lunch came Transfigurations. When we came in, all we saw was a cat on the desk. This class we had with Ravenclaws.
Once we sat however, the cat suddenly enlarged and became a thin, sort of tall woman with dark hair tied back in a bun. She wore round small glasses and had a no-nonsense air about her.
"Wow..." Amelia gasped along with several other students. My own mouth hung open. I was impressed!
"Good afternoon, class, I am Professor McGonagall and I will be your Transformation teacher this year," she smiled at us.
"Good afternoon..." we greeted.
"Sooo, that began your first lesson with my demonstration..." Professor McGonagall went on with what we'd be learning.
Even though she seemed rather strict, I sensed a warmth about her and I could tell that she looked out for each of her students. I had the feeling I was going to like Transfigurations class as well. I wondered if maybe I could perhaps eventually learn to transform into an animal.
"...as for becoming an amigi, it is highly advanced and not recommended until fifth year and over. So this year, we will be beginning with changing small objects, then graduating to changing small animals next year," Professor McGonagall continued. "Bit by bit, as you all gain confidence, you will be able to grasp larger objects and more complex spells. Don't be discouraged if your first attempts are botched; it takes a few tries for the mind to learn these new spells."
By the end of the class, McGonagall had a rapport with all of us and I felt like I'd been in her class for a long time instead of just over an hour on my first day. She reminded me of an aunt figure. I was rather sorry that the time went by so quickly and the class ended.
Next was Charms, then our last class was History of Magic. The Charms teacher was a tiny bloke by the name of Professor Flitwick. He had grayish thin hair and a sprightly way about him. I liked him also.
The History of Magic teacher was Professor Pierce. She also was rather strict, but warm like McGonagall. She was more dramatic and made a lot of grand gestures as she went over what we'd learn and gave us our homework for the night. I think she and McGonagall are friends since I've seen them sit next to each other at mealtimes and talk quite a bit.
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"...So...turn this water...into wine..." a girl down the table from us chanted as we worked on our homework that night after dinner. We glanced up, but nothing happened. The water bubbled a little, but stayed water.
I was working on the quiz at the end of the two chapters for Potions. The first day had been a bit scary, but we survived it in one piece. From them on, maybe it should be less scary.
The girl, Amanda Bones, re-chanted the spell several more times, then eventually heaved a gusty sigh and did the spell again. Only this time, her wand tipped over her goblet and the water not only bubbled but splatted over several of her tablemates. It turned dark and fizzy. Some kids giggled.
A boy, in fact, the boy with the longish black hair that I'd seen at breakfast, reached over and tasted the liquid with a finger. I'd learned his name was Sirius Black.
"Not bad, Amanda...coke," he grinned. His friend who'd also been with him was there also and I knew now he was James Potter.
"Well, close..." Amanda reached for a wad of napkins and wiped coke out of her hair and off the table.
"Good try," I called encouragingly. I only hoped I could come close when it was my turn. Beside me, Amelia and Zara clapped softly.
"Champions for the underdogs, I can tell..." someone muttered from the end where the Slytherins were gathered. There was snickering and I could tell it was from that threesome who'd been late to DADA this morning.
"Gross..." Narcissa giggled. "Nerds like that we don't need."
"Hey, Underdog nurses, whose disaster are you going to champion next?" John called over to us.
"Who're you going to snicker at next or are you going to get a life next?" Zara shot back. Woooo... some of the Slytherin blokes whooped. John glared at us and so did his two cronies. We tried to ignore them and continued with our homework.
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Later we were headed upstairs, the three of us when we heard whispering behind us. No one was there, so we continued onward to our dorms and entered.
"Hey, I'm still a bit hungry," Amelia told us. "Anyone up to sneaking down to the kitchens for a snack?" We nodded.
"Just as long as none of the prefects catch us," I stood.
"Or Filch," Zara added. We made our way stealthily out and wound our way silently around several corridors. We heard Filch crooning once down the hall.
"Shit..." I hissed. "Back here..." I pulled my friends into a huge chest and we hid until Filch and his scrawny cat had passed. Once Mrs. Norris sniffed the chest, but she screeched a little, then went on, I guess not finding anything behind the chest. We waited a minute, then climbed out, a bit shaky. We continued onward.
"It this map is right, the kitchen is this way," Zara whispered. We eventually made it to the kitchens and in there were several tiny creatures with enormous eyes and skinny green little bodies. They were sooo cute! "House elves," Zara told us.
"Hellooo, may Swinny be of assistance to you?" One elf with huge blue eyes peered up at us. She wore a little blue tea cloth.
"Can you show us where the
cheese and cookies are kept?" Zara asked. The elf showed us and we
helped ourselves.
"Thanks..." we told the
elves and headed back upstairs with our loot.
"Taking food to the latest underdog?" Someone drawled and we looked up to see John, Narcissa, and Robert sneering at us.
"Oh, shit..." all three of us muttered.
"My, my, my what language..." Narcissa jeered.
"But then again, what can you expect from mere Gryffindors?" Robert snickered. They moved closer to us.
"Sod off," I told them.
"Come on, let's get away from company like this," Amelia added. We started the other way, but one of them grabbed one of our bags. Whirling around, Zara pulled out her wand. So did Amelia and I. Unfortunately, so did the Slytherin threesome.
"Touch our stuff and you'll regret it," Zara growled. John started forward, but we trained our wands to push him back and if he tried again, maybe turn him into a half-duck, so he'd have to waddle back.
Robert pulled out his wand and somehow what happened is hard to explain, but I guess our spells overloaded our wand circuits. All of us being inexperienced witches and wizards, spells were mixed, so Robert was given a dog's tail; Narcissa wound up with her blond hair turning purple to her horror and my friends and I winding up on the ceiling.
The three of them took off and by the force of gravity, we were walking along the high ceiling upside-down. We started toward the nearest wall and tried to climb down, but gravity pulled as back to the ceiling as if the ceiling had become the floor for us.
"God, this is like one of those books where the characters see the world upside-down," Amelia muttered.
"Hey, this reminds me of when my sisters and I played astronauts in space," Zara quipped.
"Yeah...only this time, we're under this spell and I wonder how in bloody hell we're going to get out of this mess," I worried. We thought a minute. I know we made quite a sight wandering along the ceiling, our hair hanging down. Everything looked weird and a little eerie upside down. Our bags of food were sitting on the floor below us.
"If we could just get to..." Zara closed her eyes, seeming to think.
"Too bad we don't have brooms," Amelia told us.
"But brooms would just...we'd get off and wind up back up here again," Zara shook her head. "I'm thinking of something my older sisters used to do to rescue animals from trees...they used a spell and chanted...it was something like Wingardium Leviosa, but a variant of that and they'd lift it with their wands, so the animal wouldn't fall, then levitate it to the ground and get the gravity back up on the ground." She held up her wand.
"So, shifting the gravity force?" I asked.
"Yes, that's it..." Zara confirmed.
"Let's do it," Amelia told us. "I'm getting dizzy from being upside down. The three of us held out our wands and chanted the spell. It worked slowly. We then floated in mid-air a minute, then clunked to the ground on our arses.
Whsssshhh... Zara gasped and we let out our breaths in relief. My own heart was banging and we grabbed our things and ran the rest of the way to our dorms.
Funny, but along one hallway, torches automatically lit as if sensing our presence. Once we got inside, we had a little snack in the common room with some of our dormmates.
"God, the nerve of those three," Nadine Hooch rolled her eyes. We all knew now that Gryffindor and Slytherin were huge rivals.
"I heard that Lucius Malfoy has his eyes on Narcissa," Melissa Patil put in.
"Who's Lucius?" several of us first-years asked. Melissa was a second year.
"Lucius is from one of the filthiest richest families around here," Melissa supplied. "He's a fourth year and struts around here like he owns the place. Tall, very blond slick kind of hair, walks with his nose so far in the air it's a miracle he doesn't trip over anything.
"Narcissa's family's wealthy too," she went on after finishing a cracker. " They consider themselves purebloods since their families are all wizard and witch. Anyone who comes from muggle roots, they consider beneath them. Mudblood is their favorite word for muggle-born witches and wizards." Yuck, Lucius did sound disgusting from what Melissa was describing.
"It would serve him right if he did trip," a third year added and we laughed.
"Clever spell you used for getting yourselves down," Nadine told us. She pulled out her notebook and we gave her the spell. "It could come in handy one day."
It was getting late, so we
headed upstairs to turn in for the night. My friends and I lay awake
a while whispering little things back and forth before we drifted off to
sleep. So, it had been quite a first day here at Hogwarts.
I had the feeling this was going to be one adventuresome year.
More coming soon! Later will be a sort of plot twist involving something Lily and her friends find out about the four founders of Hogwarts!