2.
Getting to know you…
"Do you know where the timetables are?"
"Errrr… maybe?"
"That's not a straight answer, Sirius."
"Remus, you yawn too much."
"Has anyone seen our timetables?"
"I don't think a Comet One Eighty is any good."
"Did anyone hear me before?"
"Two Ten, on the other hand…"
"I do know that we have Herbology first."
"First you try and get me to talk to you…"
"Who teaches it?"
"What?"
"Herbology."
"Dunno."
"…Then you completely ignore me."
"James, pass the Pumpkin juice, would you? Thanks."
"I'm listening to you, Mana. No I haven't seen the timetables."
"But when it all comes down to it, I'd go for the Nimbus series."
"Do you ever not talk about broomsticks?"
"I'm just saying. The 1000's are the top-line model."
"No they're not; the Twigger Seventeen came out in spring."
"Did someone say I yawn too much or was I daydreaming again?"
"It might be the latest model, but no broom matches up to the Nimbus series, I hear there's a new model planned for this November."
"You have the timetables? I thought you were laughing at something. Give it here, Sirius."
"Are you gonna eat that, or play with it?"
The morning conversations were so erratic they had no idea who was talking about what. James seemed to have started talking to himself because no one was listening to him go on about what broomsticks were decent in his opinion. Remus was chipping in here and there, pushing a lump of porridge around his bowl with a spoon and looking like he was about to fall asleep in it. Sirius relinquished the hidden timetables to his friends, and Mana was paying attention to Sirius and Remus as they spoke. James continued to rattle on, completely oblivious to the fact that no one was listening to him.
"I hear that we get our first broomstick lesson in the second or third week. I'd like to learn on a Swiftstick or a Tinderblast, but we'll probably just have some old Cleansweep Threes or something like that."
"Uh-huh," Sirius nodded blankly, paying more attention to his timetable than to James. He went to eat a spoonful of porridge to find that the spoon had vanished from his hand. Not only did he not see the same spoon hovering ominously a few inches over his head, but also he didn't see Mana's wand furtively being flicked under the table. James had since leaned his chin on his hand and was staring off into space as he kept going, oblivious to Sirius' rather comic confusion.
"I bet we get a bunch of old brooms that won't even 'up' when you tell them to. Or that go weird when you're flying them. Silver Arrows or something ancient like that. A museum wouldn't even want the brooms I bet they have."
"If you say so James," Remus murmured, swirling his porridge in the opposite direction. Mana was watching him queerly. Sirius saw her wand and looked up…
"Or we'll get a teacher who'll say we can't fly so high or so fast. We learn with another house, right? Maybe Hufflepuff. I'd like to show those wimps something on a broomstick."
…And the spoon fell, contents and all, smacking him in the forehead…
"Hey Remus… you're making me dizzy."
…And he fell backwards off the chair. James finally looked at him, utterly vexed.
"I think I've just come to a startling conclusion."
"What's that, James?" Remus asked blankly.
"No one's listening to me."
"What was that?" Sirius asked innocently, dragging himself back into his chair and rubbing a red mark on his head. His subsequent glare made Mana laugh more. James pointed, an example having presented itself.
"See?"
Remus smirked.
"That's nice of No one," Mana replied. "Well I'm sure No one is very interested in what you have to say."
"Oh the sweet little thing is so cute," James answered back as Sirius stood up, tugging Remus' robes to encourage him to do so too.
"Come on Remus, you're obviously not interested in your breakfast. I need to sort out some things before class starts. What about you two?"
"I suppose," James agreed, standing up. Mana slowly did the same, quietly following them out of the hall. At the door however, she paused to look a boy in the face as they met. His button nose and watery eyes she had seen quivering along with the rest of him the night before. He stared back, and then shakily introduced himself.
"P-P-Peter Pettigrew. I'm in Gryffindor."
"Manevitrae Elmerfean. Gryffindor."
There was something she didn't like about those mousey features.
"Herbology first with the Ravenclaws, ey?"
"Yeah."
"Oh w-well, nice to meet you."
He trotted off as a group of loudly chattering second-years went through the door. Mana waited for them to leave, and then walked over to the stairs where Sirius Black stood waiting against the banister.
"You waiting for me?"
"Yep. Come on," taking hold of her arm, he led her up the stairs.
"That Peter Pettigrew boy spoke to me before," she told him as they passed up their third set of stairs.
"Yeah, me too, as I was coming down to the Great Hall this morning. Quiet kid."
"I think he wants to be friends."
"Probably. He looks like the sort of kid who'd cuddle up to the biggest person who'll have him."
"But Sirius," Mana smirked, "I think you're the biggest person in our year."
"Heheheheheh. Doesn't mean I'll have him."
Mana had to trot to keep up with him. Eventually in the corridor ahead they caught up with a rather slow-moving James and Remus. In fact, they had completely stopped walking. As soon as they saw Sirius though, Remus laughed.
"See? I told you we were going the right way. Turn left at the headless knight tapestry indeed!"
"You thought you were lost?" Sirius asked as they walked up to them. "Next you'll be forgetting the password."
"Nah, password's easy. Alpha Centuri. I remember that one."
Laughing, the four of them continued up and up until they found themselves in a lonely corridor, facing a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress. Pacing up, Sirius stepped forward and said boldly:
"Alpha Centuri."
"Most certainly dears," the Fat Lady replied and swung aside. The Gryffindor common room lay beyond. It was adorned in red and gold, with a great many cushy armchairs and sofas. A noticeboard was on the far wall, and a fireplace burned across from the door. Two sets of spiralling staircases led up towards the dormitories.
Mana left them there, hurrying up the stairs to the girl's dormitories. Sirius, Remus and James all walked up their own flight into their own dormitory. Remus was straight over to his bag, putting the books he would need into it. Sirius followed a little more slowly, and James sauntered around the room for a while before descending upon his own trunk. The room contained six beds, each belonging to a different first-year. They shared their dormitory with three other boys: Frank Longbottom, Peter Pettigrew and Marcus Bellator. They were likely still down at breakfast. Sirius swung his bag over one arm and stood up.
"I'll see you down in the common room."
"Sure," James agreed, head buried in his trunk. Remus was sitting absently on the end of his bed, one bag strap hanging from his hand. Straightening up, James dumped his books into his bag, followed by a quill, a bottle of ink and a few rolls of parchment. Closing the bag, he looked up at Remus and, seeing that he was staring off into space again, rolled up a scrap piece of parchment and pegged it at his head. Remus looked up, now slow for an act. James shook his head with a laugh.
"Wake up, Lupin."
Remus stood up and hoisted his bag after him, grinning.
"Let's go plant stuff."
"Before you plant your head back in that pillow? Sure."
By the time they wandered down into the common room, Sirius and Mana were waiting for them. They'd been talking idly, but stopped when they appeared and Sirius hailed them with a grin.
"Ready to go?"
"Sure am," James replied, and looked up as the portrait door swung open. Peter Pettigrew came bumbling in, panting. "In a hurry, Pettigrew? We have class now."
"I know," he said as he tottered past, up the stairs. "I forgot my bag."
"Let's wait for him," Remus sighed. "It's not like we're gonna be late."
"He's a bit dotty, that Peter Pettigrew," Mana said in answer. Noting the look that particularly James had given her, she added, "I know I'm not one to talk, but he is, you know."
"So where exactly do we go?" James asked Sirius, changing the subject.
"Greenhouses. Out on the grounds."
"Clever boy," Remus smirked. He was about to add when Peter came rumbling back down the stairs. He looked around at them as he stopped mid-step and stared.
"W-what are you doing here?"
"Waiting for you," James replied. "Come on Pettigrew. Let's go to Herbology."
"You were waiting for me?" the watery-eyed boy asked as they stepped out of the common room and into the corridor. "Why were you waiting for me?"
"Felt like it," Sirius replied, not taking his eyes off the corridor ahead. "After all, Gryffindors of a feather must stick together."
Mana twittered. They turned a corner and continued on down a flight of stairs, passing other students on their way to class. The first bell of the morning rang through the corridors.
"Ten minutes to get to class," Remus murmured to them. "Plenty of time."
Tall Marcus Bellator passed them, dragging behind him a Hufflepuff boy in their year who seemed to have got lost: he was heading upstairs to his Potions lesson.
"…Just remember, Theo, Potions is in the dungeon. Now think back to your understanding of the layout of a castle, exactly where are the dungeons…"
James and Sirius both laughed, and Peter sighed.
"That's me… getting lost. I can see it now. A Ravenclaw grabbing my collar and saying 'Peter, the outside of the castle isn't upstairs Peter…'"
"I'd rather a Ravenclaw drag me around by the collar…" James began, but as he said it, a group of Ravenclaw second-years walked past. He thought he could recognise a sand and silver lock of hair amongst them. "…But then again… even some Ravenclaws…"
"What, you're talking about that kid in the train?"
"Yeah. I think that was him back there."
"Are you talking about a second-year boy who looks like he got silver spray paint in his hair?" Peter asked, looking meekly past Remus to James. He nodded. Peter seemed to shake something off his shoulders. "Oh I know him. He teased me on the train."
"What did he do?" Mana asked, not having met the Ravenclaw they were talking about. Remus was just as curious. Peter's face screwed up.
"I was walking after the lunch trolley lady because I'd forgotten to ask for something. He was hanging out his door."
"Like he owned half of Britain," Sirius added sourly and got a nod of agreement from Peter and James.
"And he stops me all nice like. Then he asks if I know much about Muggle music. Now I know a little, see my next-door neighbour, a weird fellow named Arbutus Whelk, was into it. So I said yes."
James and Sirius glanced at each other.
"And?" they pressed in unison.
"He said 'well, me and my friends want to have a little go at rock and roll. We have a rock… and you look like you could roll pretty well.'"
"That's not very nice," Mana replied, looking over her shoulder as if to see if a Ravenclaw second-year was coming down the corridor so she could rouse on them. James and Sirius glanced at each other again.
"Oh and it just went on like that."
"Cocky prat," Remus mumbled. "The Ravenclaws think they're good because they're smart."
"I'm sure they're not all like that," Mana said. Sirius snorted.
"No, just maize-haired troglodytes."
"Whoa!" James laughed at his choice of words, but Mana and Peter looked confused.
"What's a troglodyte?" Mana asked innocently as they came down the sweeping marble staircase out into the Entrance Hall and crossed it to the castle doors. James snorted all too much like Sirius and grinned cheekily.
"He doesn't know."
"I do too!"
"Then just what is a drogmedite?"
"It's troglodyte," he corrected matter-of-factly. "And I don't have to tell you what it means."
"He doesn't know," Remus murmured with a grin in Mana's ear. She laughed again at Sirius' indignant, but otherwise hopeless expression.
"Big word not in Mana vocabulary."
"It's not in Sirius' either by the sounds of it," James grinned. Embarrassed, Sirius said nothing. They crossed the grounds laughing. In front of the first greenhouse were the rest of their house and the Ravenclaws they were having the lesson with. James rolled his eyes.
"Snooty Ravenclaws."
"Better than Slytherins," Remus sighed as they sidled up. Being the last to show, they got a few looks from the rest of their class. Their teacher was nowhere to be seen. Mana stepped away from the four boys and turned to a red-headed Gryffindor girl.
"Lily, where's the teacher?"
She turned her green eyes to her. "Don't know. I hear though that his name's Professor Twiggy. Isn't it the cutest name?"
The black-haired, curly-locked girl who had her back turned spun around at Lily's words. She laughed a high laugh and fixed them both with twinkling eyes that had heavy eyelashes.
"A twiggy is something Muggles eat," she chirped brightly, finally attracting the attentions of the boys who wandered up behind Mana. "It's a little cabanossi!"
"Wonder where he is though?" Peter looked around. Sirius leaned over Mana's shoulder, taller than her as he was.
"Introduce us to your friends, Mana."
"Oh, guys, this is Lily Evans and Midgeon Gidget."
"Everyone usually calls me Midgie though," Midgeon chirruped.
"Girls, this is Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter and Peter Pettigrew."
James made to sweep an imaginary hat from his head that made Midgeon simply explode with loud laughter.
"Ladies."
"Oh what a charmer," Midgeon laughed again. Lily managed a smile at him.
"Okay, okay, okay kids, line up!"
A short little wizard with a pointy hat that had leaves and vines tangled around it had stepped out of the greenhouse. His wiry hair was a strange greenish-grey colour, and his brown robes had a dirty apron that may once have been white tied in front of them. He had a rather large nose and ears that stuck out from under his hat as if they were what was holding it up. He had a beaming smile as he took them in with little black eyes.
"Ahhh, Ravenclaw and Gryffindor first-years. Wonderful! Now. Please head into the greenhouse, today I'll tell you about what you'll be doing in Herbology classes."
They followed the short professor into the greenhouse, and he led them up to the very end of a long trestle table.
"First of all, in Herbology class we'll be working in groups of six. I do like a mixed group, so boys, work with the girls, and Ravenclaws work with the Gryffindors! It does help build friendships outside your own houses. Before we start, please find your group of six and stand along the table. Good, good, remember you'll be working in these groups all this year."
The six Gryffindor boys looked at each other and laughed to themselves, staying where they were standing across from their female counterparts of whom there were five. Lily gave them a hard stare and turned to Midgeon.
"We need one more."
A mismatched Ravenclaw girl wandered past them and turned to Lily.
"Are you only five?"
"Yeah."
"There were seven of us. I'm left out."
"Come on then sweetheart," Midgeon invited in her loud, cheery voice.
"What's your name?" Mana asked. The red-haired girl smiled.
"Louise Ebercroft. I was Sorted just before you were."
"Well I'm Midgie (Midgeon), this is Lily, that's Mane-can't remember her full name – we just call her Mana – this is Alice and that's Figgy (short for Figwelda, of course)."
Louise laughed. "Well hello."
"And I'm Jiggy, he's PeteyP, SB, RU Loopy, Marco and of course Franko," James joked loudly over the table at the girls. Midgeon rolled her eyes gaudily. She had gum in her mouth.
"And them's the boys," she chuckled, tossing her thick, bouncy hair over one shoulder. "Bozo, Whats-iz-name, Beanpole, Snoozy, Big and Midget."
Louise was trying not to laugh too loudly as Professor Twiggy called for quiet.
"All right now that we have our groups," he clapped his hands together and looked around at the class, "I'll tell you what we'll be covering."
They fell silent and turned to face him. Professor Twiggy pulled a grubby-looking book out from under the trestle table.
"Now. You should all have a pair of dragon hide gloves and a copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. Anyone not have these? No? Good. Well, seeing as today is only our first lesson, we'll use the time to go over some things you'll be needing to know, so next lesson we can get right into some practical. Now. If you'll keep those books in your bags but pay attention here," he said, pulling on his pair of gloves, "You'll see some of the things we use in Herbology class. Here we have a standard plant pot, nothing special about it at all, even Muggles use them."
There was a mass 'ooohhhh' through the class as the terracotta pot was put down on the table. Next Professor Twiggy dragged over a large Hessian sack.
"This is the fertilizer we use at Hogwarts, dragon dung, now I know how it sounds but magical plants will have trouble growing in normal soil. As for the soil, we only use the best we can find. Dragon dung is good but mooncalf dung is the best available. Unfortunately the difficulty with acquiring it makes it a little expensive, so we don't use it in classes. Alright, standard trowels and shovels, if I have to explain what these are for… well… let's hope I don't have to explain.
"Now usually this morning's double lesson is devoted entirely to practical work, and we have our theory lesson on Wednesday afternoon in the single. So you won't have to bring your books to this double lesson unless I ask you in advance. But that's most all you'll need to know for now. What I would like you to do, in your groups, take out your books and go for a wander around the greenhouse. Use your books to identify the different plants. At the end of this hour, we'll all meet back here and discuss what you saw and how you think they should be tended. Feel free to play with the plants, there's more than enough to pop and pluck at, but not too much please! Enjoy yourselves!"
They wandered off into the reaches of the greenhouse, their textbooks out. The girls were standing under a spreading Alihosty tree about a quarter of an hour later. Midgeon was popping her gum as Lily flipped through her book. Mana and Louise were looking up into the branches of the spindly tree.
"Ahhh, here. Alihosty. It says eating the leaves causes hysteria."
"Cool," Midgeon crooned, pulling off a leaf and turning it over in her hands. "Hey I got an idea, let's grind one up and stick it in Bozo's drink tonight."
"Do you have a Calming Draught handy?" Mana asked. "James suffering hysteria? He's bad enough as it is anyway and I've only known him two days."
Lily seemed to laugh. "Why don't we find a Venomous Tentacula and put some of that in his drink? See if he turns purple."
"Purple?" Figgy, a bespectacled brunette asked. Louise nodded as she looked at some fat pink pods near the Alihosty.
"Didn't you ever hear of Derwent Shimpling? He's on the Chocolate Frog cards. He ate a whole Tentacula and he survived."
"But he's still purple as grape Bertie Botts," Midgeon laughed. "Ma was a huge fan of his."
"Eating a Venomous Tentacula is dangerous. They don't say it's venomous for no reason."
"Puffapod," Mana declared, appearing at Louise's shoulder with her book. She laughed. "Let's drop one!"
"Why?" Figgy asked, looking up. Mana picked one of the fat little pods up and held it out over the ground.
"Watch."
She dropped it, and as soon as it hit the ground a huge bloom of flowers erupted from it with a loud pop! The girls laughed. Lily flipped through her book.
"So it's the seeds inside. If they're dropped, they burst into flower. Drop the whole pod, lots of flowers."
"I guess if you wanted to grow them, you'd put them somewhere where they wouldn't be bumped or anything, right?" Louise said, and turned to look at Midgeon, who was sniffing the Alihosty leaf. Figgy giggled.
"If you wanted to grow Alihosty, keep it away from Midgie and her harebrained ideas."
They were giggling over this and considering moving on when…
CRACK!
The noise from behind Mana made them all jump a mile, even more for poor Mana who copped it right in the ear. The Gryffindor boys were standing not far behind them, roaring with laughter, and James and Sirius were standing right behind her with what looked like the remains of a fuzzy bon-bon in their hands. James was on the floor in a fit of laughter. Sirius waved the remains of the plant at her.
"Irish Peapod. They're filled with gas that explodes when it hits air. Haha, you should've seen your faces."
Vindictively, the raven-haired girl picked up another Puffapod and lobbed it at him. It exploded so hard that he fell backwards, face blank in surprise. James sat up and the boys stopped laughing. Then the girls started. The faint flicker of a grin was touching Mana's red face, and slowly she too began to laugh. Sirius stared at nothing for a moment and then looked up quite vacantly at her. He too started to laugh, his lap full of bright flowers. Their laughter must have attracted attention, as Professor Twiggy wound his way over to them.
"And what's going on here, kids?"
"Oh nothing much, Professor," Midgeon laughed. "We're just helping each other a bit with these plants. Irish Peapod and Puffapod. The boys were showing us how the former worked, and we showed them the latter."
Obviously Professor Twiggy knew what had gone on, but his beady eyes twinkled with mirth and he laughed.
"Good to see you're working together. Five points to the Gryffindor," he smiled at Louise, "and five to Ravenclaw as well. Carry on!"
He toddled off into another part of the greenhouse. As soon as he was gone, the twelve of them burst into laughter again.
