Chapter Rating: PG
Completion Date:080303
----------------------------
Clang! Bang! "Hmmphh.." Fay mumbled as she opened her eyes. The sun was barely up, but there was a lot of noise downstairs. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She got out of bed and headed towards the kitchen. She was yawning when she entered the kitchen, "G--mOARn--nig Aunttrishh.."
Aunt Trish quickly turned around with a startled look and grabbed onto the counter. "Oh did I wake you up? I'm terribly sorry!"
"No, it's," Fay yawned, "Okay.Is something wrong?"
"To be honest, I can't find any syrup! I was so sure I bought some a couple of days ago."
"Syrup for what?" Fay's eyes where closed as she spoke.
"For the waffles, of course. They're right there on the table."
Fay didn't notice them when she entered the room, but now that Aunt Trish had pointed at them, she didn't know how she COULD NOT see them. The waffles where stacked up on top of one another, and Fay swore that the tower of waffles was AT LEAST two feet high. She blinked again to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her.
"Um, Aunt Trish, what time is it?"
Aunt Trish was looking into the bottom cabinets. She paused and looked at her wristwatch. "6:20. Why?"
"...And what time did you begin making waffles?"
She took her head out of the cabinet and said, "Probably around 4:30...using the Muggle method...from scratch (by scratch she meant mixing water with the batter and pouring it into the waffle maker, which took about an hour to figure out.)...." Her eyes moved towards the cabinet again.
"Aunt Trish, is there something bothering you?"
She stood up. "No, no, of course there's nothing wrong with me. Why would there be?" She laughed a kind of nervous laugh and she kept twisting her apron.
"Aunt Trish," Fay's eyebrows rose.
"Oh, okay. I'm nervous." With a defeated look, Aunt Trish took a chair and sat down.
Fay smiled. "You? Nervous? Impossible." She laughed, and Aunt Trish began to smile. "Why would you be nervous?"
"Well, I know I have all those books, but I've never actually TAUGHT. You'll be my first student." She was still twisting her apron underneath the table.
Fay walked next to Aunt Trish's chair and squatted next to her. She put her hand on top of Aunt Trish's shaky, calloused, and wrinkled hand, and looked up. Aunt Trish looked at Fay directly into her brown eyes. Fay smiled back and said, "You'll be a great teacher. Besides, I'm the only student you're going to have, right? I promise I won't pass nasty notes about you in class."
Aunt Trish looked scared again.
"I was kidding! Who am I going to pass the notes to?"
"Heh, heh. Right... Right you are."
"You need to relax. I'm sure your first lesson will be very good." Fay stood up and gently touched Aunt Trish's upper back. That's when she felt some thing pass through her fingers. It slowly pervaded the rest of her body. It was like an electric wave that was altering everything inside of her to suit their needs. All of a sudden, she felt awake and nervous at the same time. A big cloud of some future doom seemed to be above her, so she thought.
Aunt Trish, however, straighten up in her chair and said, "You know what? You're right. I shouldn't worry about anything, right?" She turned around to look at Fay. "Fay, is something wrong?"
Fay's eyes were wider and she was breathing deeply.
"What? Oh, yes. I'm fine. So I guess we're just going to have to eat these waffles just as the are, huh?" She spoke with a smile and Aunt Trish didn't suspect anything. In fact, she laughed at the little joke.
"I suppose we will. Oh wait! I have jam! Maybe we can make sandwiches out of them!"
"It sounds delicious already."
Aunt Trish started looking at the upper cabinets this time, and Fay sat down at the table. "What was that?" she thought. "It was so sudden, and I feel so terrible now. I'm restless yet tired, and I'm scared but excited. Could this be what Aunt Trish was feeling??? Did I transfer all of her negative emotions into me? Well, she is looking a lot better. She's back to her happy and (almost) carefree self. What am I going on about? How can that happen? Right. It's just my imagination. That's all."
"A-ha! I found it. Would you like strawberry, blueberry, or grape?"
"I think strawberry will do."
"Right, then. Strawberry it is."
They ate their breakfast while the sun rose. While taking her fourth helping (there was still a whole lot more to go), an owl tapped at the kitchen window. Aunt Trish quickly stood up and opened the window. Fay followed her. The owl stood on the windowsill while Aunt Trish took the letter off its leg. She sat down at the table again and read. Fay still stayed near the window observing the owl very carefully.
"My, my you look like a wonderful owl. Your feathers are so sleek and shiny. I supposed your owner must take very good care of you." She stroked the owl with one of her fingers. The owl cooed in appreciation.
"He's a school owl, dear."
"What?"
"The letters from Dumbledore. He says that the Ministry's approved his request. He also sent us a copy. This is good. Now, we can start lessons on all the subjects you need to know today. Oh, I have to write a reply." She looked at the owl. "Could you please wait for me while I go make one?"
The owl cooed once again, and Aunt Trish dashed upstairs to write her letter.
"Would you like some waffles?" Fay asked the owl. It cooed once again. She laughed. "I thought so." She took another plate from the cupboard and placed a waffle on it. She laid the plate on the counter. The owl began tearing up the waffle and eating the pieces.
"Oh water!" Fay then ran off and got a bowl of water for the owl to drink. When she was satisfied that she did the best she could to show hospitality, she leaned on the counter.
"I wonder if you have a name...how about I name you!?" The owl was still eating. "Hmm.What do you think of Mordecai?"
It stopped eating and looked at Fay, but it quickly went back to eating again.
"I guess that means you like it."
Just then, Aunt Trish came into the kitchen. "Okay I'm done," said Aunt Trish and tied the note securely to the owl's leg.
"Bye, Mordecai." The owl looked at Fay and flew away.
"You gave it a name?" Aunt Trish laughed.
"Yes, why?"
Aunt Trish was still laughing a little. "Oh nothing. I just think it's cute." Fay gave her a confused look, which made Aunt Trish stop laughing. "Never mind. Let's put these dishes away. I do believe we've had more than enough for breakfast. Don't you think?"
Fay laughed. "Yes. More than enough."
They cleared the table and headed towards the living room. Fay sat down on the love seat, while Aunt Trish stood in front of the fireplace.
"Okay. We'll spend the next two weeks on the basics for Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, and Herbology. We'll try to get the boring stuff out of the way as soon as possible so today we'll start with History of Magic. Then, we'll take a look at Defense Against the Dark Arts, and finish the day off with Potions. I realized that we have a lot to cover and that is why we'll start lessons at seven o'clock in the morning and end at eight o'clock at night. That means each lesson will take four hours. We'll have an hour break at twelve for lunch, of course. Oh, and Saturdays will be spent on extra lessons that you didn't do too well in during the week."
"Wow," Fay said in amazement, "You're not nervous anymore are you?"
"Actually, no I'm not. It's odd, really. After that whole thing in the kitchen, I feel much better. I guess those feelings weren't as strong as I thought they were." Fay nodded her head. "Okay, let's begin. Your "History of Magic" book is beside the coffee table, and you'll find your parchment and quill there, too.
Aunt Trish began her lesson and Fay realized she wasn't kidding about the History of Magic being boring. No, Fay didn't think it was boring. It was TORTURE. Aunt Trish tried to make the lesson go by quickly, but there were so many names and dates to remember Fay lost interest.
"This is just the FIRST lesson," Fay thought, "Ugh, I wonder how many lessons I'm going to have to take of this. Wait! She just mentioned a name. What was it? Emeric the Evil." She scribbled down his name and tried again to listen to Aunt Trish.
Lunch passed by so fast, Fay wondered if she really had any lunch at all. Before she knew it, she was back in the living room. This time she hoped for something more exciting. Today's lesson was on creatures that loved the dark like Dugbogs, Ghouls, Imps, Lethifolds, Boggarts, and Mooncalves. Aunt Trish explained all the facts she could about these creatures while Fay happily took notes. Fay was a little frightened when she heard about Lethifolds (creatures that eat humans after smothering them, and leaving no trace behind). However, she was greatly relieved after she found out they only live in the tropics.
"Umm--," Aunt Trish said in a questioning tone.
Fay looked up. It was the first time today Aunt Trish sounded like she didn't know what to say.
"Well, I'm done with my lesson for this class."
"Already?!" Fay shouted in her head.
"But I think you should do homework."
"Oh okay. No problem."
"Okay!" Aunt Trish cheered up a bit. "Tomorrow I'm expecting to see an essay about the connections you see among the creatures of the dark. I'm expecting it to be at least two feet."
"Um.okay, Aunt Trish," Fay was scared. "Two feet?" she asked herself, "My first assignment is a two feet long essay? That's so long! Can I do this? No, I shouldn't be asking myself if I can or cannot. I should just do it. I have to, and I will!! Ugh, but why did it have to be two feet...?"
"Okay, let's go to the kitchen. We should start on our Potions lesson. It's already 3:50."
Aunt Trish took out her cauldron and various ingredients. She talked about the effects of roots. What type of plants are good for what, and which ones are more powerful than the others. They made a shrinking potion with chopped up daisy roots and had fun shrinking some things that weren't needed in the house. They shrunk some of Aunt Trish's old clothes and put it on one of her old dolls.
"Fay, I want you to write up a foot and a half essay about the importance of roots, okay?"
"Okay." She put another drop of the shrinking potion on a banana. She laughed as it became the size of a peanut. Then, she peeled and ate the banana.
"Oh, that's right! Dinner!" Aunt Trish ran and started fixing up dinner (baked chicken, more waffles, and pumpkin juice). Aunt Trish and Fay finally went to their bedrooms, but unlike Aunt Trish, Fay had homework to do.
She sat down at her study desk with her books, quill, and parchment in front of her. She took a deep breath and opened "The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection". She started to read up on her creatures and when she was done, she found out that writing the essay wasn't too hard. In fact, it only took her about forty-five minutes to write. It was only nine fifty- three when she finished so she decided to read the book some more. It was only until eleven o'clock that she decided to stop reading her books (apparently, she was a fast reader because she finished "The Dark Forces" and was about halfway through with "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi").
She turned off the lights and hopped into bed. She looked at her desk. She didn't get to finish her Potions homework, and she felt bad. Then again, she could always finish it up tomorrow. Even though she told herself these things, she couldn't fall asleep.
She got out of bed and finished her homework in thirty minutes flat. With a feeling of satisfaction, she went to bed.
....To Be Continued....
---------------------------
A/N: Ah yes..another chapter done, and corrected by Miss Marz my new beta reader! Thank you!! Her pen name is fenix and you'll find her on my favorite authors list. Go and check her story out. I'm sure you won't regret it.
Completion Date:080303
----------------------------
Clang! Bang! "Hmmphh.." Fay mumbled as she opened her eyes. The sun was barely up, but there was a lot of noise downstairs. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She got out of bed and headed towards the kitchen. She was yawning when she entered the kitchen, "G--mOARn--nig Aunttrishh.."
Aunt Trish quickly turned around with a startled look and grabbed onto the counter. "Oh did I wake you up? I'm terribly sorry!"
"No, it's," Fay yawned, "Okay.Is something wrong?"
"To be honest, I can't find any syrup! I was so sure I bought some a couple of days ago."
"Syrup for what?" Fay's eyes where closed as she spoke.
"For the waffles, of course. They're right there on the table."
Fay didn't notice them when she entered the room, but now that Aunt Trish had pointed at them, she didn't know how she COULD NOT see them. The waffles where stacked up on top of one another, and Fay swore that the tower of waffles was AT LEAST two feet high. She blinked again to make sure her eyes weren't deceiving her.
"Um, Aunt Trish, what time is it?"
Aunt Trish was looking into the bottom cabinets. She paused and looked at her wristwatch. "6:20. Why?"
"...And what time did you begin making waffles?"
She took her head out of the cabinet and said, "Probably around 4:30...using the Muggle method...from scratch (by scratch she meant mixing water with the batter and pouring it into the waffle maker, which took about an hour to figure out.)...." Her eyes moved towards the cabinet again.
"Aunt Trish, is there something bothering you?"
She stood up. "No, no, of course there's nothing wrong with me. Why would there be?" She laughed a kind of nervous laugh and she kept twisting her apron.
"Aunt Trish," Fay's eyebrows rose.
"Oh, okay. I'm nervous." With a defeated look, Aunt Trish took a chair and sat down.
Fay smiled. "You? Nervous? Impossible." She laughed, and Aunt Trish began to smile. "Why would you be nervous?"
"Well, I know I have all those books, but I've never actually TAUGHT. You'll be my first student." She was still twisting her apron underneath the table.
Fay walked next to Aunt Trish's chair and squatted next to her. She put her hand on top of Aunt Trish's shaky, calloused, and wrinkled hand, and looked up. Aunt Trish looked at Fay directly into her brown eyes. Fay smiled back and said, "You'll be a great teacher. Besides, I'm the only student you're going to have, right? I promise I won't pass nasty notes about you in class."
Aunt Trish looked scared again.
"I was kidding! Who am I going to pass the notes to?"
"Heh, heh. Right... Right you are."
"You need to relax. I'm sure your first lesson will be very good." Fay stood up and gently touched Aunt Trish's upper back. That's when she felt some thing pass through her fingers. It slowly pervaded the rest of her body. It was like an electric wave that was altering everything inside of her to suit their needs. All of a sudden, she felt awake and nervous at the same time. A big cloud of some future doom seemed to be above her, so she thought.
Aunt Trish, however, straighten up in her chair and said, "You know what? You're right. I shouldn't worry about anything, right?" She turned around to look at Fay. "Fay, is something wrong?"
Fay's eyes were wider and she was breathing deeply.
"What? Oh, yes. I'm fine. So I guess we're just going to have to eat these waffles just as the are, huh?" She spoke with a smile and Aunt Trish didn't suspect anything. In fact, she laughed at the little joke.
"I suppose we will. Oh wait! I have jam! Maybe we can make sandwiches out of them!"
"It sounds delicious already."
Aunt Trish started looking at the upper cabinets this time, and Fay sat down at the table. "What was that?" she thought. "It was so sudden, and I feel so terrible now. I'm restless yet tired, and I'm scared but excited. Could this be what Aunt Trish was feeling??? Did I transfer all of her negative emotions into me? Well, she is looking a lot better. She's back to her happy and (almost) carefree self. What am I going on about? How can that happen? Right. It's just my imagination. That's all."
"A-ha! I found it. Would you like strawberry, blueberry, or grape?"
"I think strawberry will do."
"Right, then. Strawberry it is."
They ate their breakfast while the sun rose. While taking her fourth helping (there was still a whole lot more to go), an owl tapped at the kitchen window. Aunt Trish quickly stood up and opened the window. Fay followed her. The owl stood on the windowsill while Aunt Trish took the letter off its leg. She sat down at the table again and read. Fay still stayed near the window observing the owl very carefully.
"My, my you look like a wonderful owl. Your feathers are so sleek and shiny. I supposed your owner must take very good care of you." She stroked the owl with one of her fingers. The owl cooed in appreciation.
"He's a school owl, dear."
"What?"
"The letters from Dumbledore. He says that the Ministry's approved his request. He also sent us a copy. This is good. Now, we can start lessons on all the subjects you need to know today. Oh, I have to write a reply." She looked at the owl. "Could you please wait for me while I go make one?"
The owl cooed once again, and Aunt Trish dashed upstairs to write her letter.
"Would you like some waffles?" Fay asked the owl. It cooed once again. She laughed. "I thought so." She took another plate from the cupboard and placed a waffle on it. She laid the plate on the counter. The owl began tearing up the waffle and eating the pieces.
"Oh water!" Fay then ran off and got a bowl of water for the owl to drink. When she was satisfied that she did the best she could to show hospitality, she leaned on the counter.
"I wonder if you have a name...how about I name you!?" The owl was still eating. "Hmm.What do you think of Mordecai?"
It stopped eating and looked at Fay, but it quickly went back to eating again.
"I guess that means you like it."
Just then, Aunt Trish came into the kitchen. "Okay I'm done," said Aunt Trish and tied the note securely to the owl's leg.
"Bye, Mordecai." The owl looked at Fay and flew away.
"You gave it a name?" Aunt Trish laughed.
"Yes, why?"
Aunt Trish was still laughing a little. "Oh nothing. I just think it's cute." Fay gave her a confused look, which made Aunt Trish stop laughing. "Never mind. Let's put these dishes away. I do believe we've had more than enough for breakfast. Don't you think?"
Fay laughed. "Yes. More than enough."
They cleared the table and headed towards the living room. Fay sat down on the love seat, while Aunt Trish stood in front of the fireplace.
"Okay. We'll spend the next two weeks on the basics for Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic, and Herbology. We'll try to get the boring stuff out of the way as soon as possible so today we'll start with History of Magic. Then, we'll take a look at Defense Against the Dark Arts, and finish the day off with Potions. I realized that we have a lot to cover and that is why we'll start lessons at seven o'clock in the morning and end at eight o'clock at night. That means each lesson will take four hours. We'll have an hour break at twelve for lunch, of course. Oh, and Saturdays will be spent on extra lessons that you didn't do too well in during the week."
"Wow," Fay said in amazement, "You're not nervous anymore are you?"
"Actually, no I'm not. It's odd, really. After that whole thing in the kitchen, I feel much better. I guess those feelings weren't as strong as I thought they were." Fay nodded her head. "Okay, let's begin. Your "History of Magic" book is beside the coffee table, and you'll find your parchment and quill there, too.
Aunt Trish began her lesson and Fay realized she wasn't kidding about the History of Magic being boring. No, Fay didn't think it was boring. It was TORTURE. Aunt Trish tried to make the lesson go by quickly, but there were so many names and dates to remember Fay lost interest.
"This is just the FIRST lesson," Fay thought, "Ugh, I wonder how many lessons I'm going to have to take of this. Wait! She just mentioned a name. What was it? Emeric the Evil." She scribbled down his name and tried again to listen to Aunt Trish.
Lunch passed by so fast, Fay wondered if she really had any lunch at all. Before she knew it, she was back in the living room. This time she hoped for something more exciting. Today's lesson was on creatures that loved the dark like Dugbogs, Ghouls, Imps, Lethifolds, Boggarts, and Mooncalves. Aunt Trish explained all the facts she could about these creatures while Fay happily took notes. Fay was a little frightened when she heard about Lethifolds (creatures that eat humans after smothering them, and leaving no trace behind). However, she was greatly relieved after she found out they only live in the tropics.
"Umm--," Aunt Trish said in a questioning tone.
Fay looked up. It was the first time today Aunt Trish sounded like she didn't know what to say.
"Well, I'm done with my lesson for this class."
"Already?!" Fay shouted in her head.
"But I think you should do homework."
"Oh okay. No problem."
"Okay!" Aunt Trish cheered up a bit. "Tomorrow I'm expecting to see an essay about the connections you see among the creatures of the dark. I'm expecting it to be at least two feet."
"Um.okay, Aunt Trish," Fay was scared. "Two feet?" she asked herself, "My first assignment is a two feet long essay? That's so long! Can I do this? No, I shouldn't be asking myself if I can or cannot. I should just do it. I have to, and I will!! Ugh, but why did it have to be two feet...?"
"Okay, let's go to the kitchen. We should start on our Potions lesson. It's already 3:50."
Aunt Trish took out her cauldron and various ingredients. She talked about the effects of roots. What type of plants are good for what, and which ones are more powerful than the others. They made a shrinking potion with chopped up daisy roots and had fun shrinking some things that weren't needed in the house. They shrunk some of Aunt Trish's old clothes and put it on one of her old dolls.
"Fay, I want you to write up a foot and a half essay about the importance of roots, okay?"
"Okay." She put another drop of the shrinking potion on a banana. She laughed as it became the size of a peanut. Then, she peeled and ate the banana.
"Oh, that's right! Dinner!" Aunt Trish ran and started fixing up dinner (baked chicken, more waffles, and pumpkin juice). Aunt Trish and Fay finally went to their bedrooms, but unlike Aunt Trish, Fay had homework to do.
She sat down at her study desk with her books, quill, and parchment in front of her. She took a deep breath and opened "The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection". She started to read up on her creatures and when she was done, she found out that writing the essay wasn't too hard. In fact, it only took her about forty-five minutes to write. It was only nine fifty- three when she finished so she decided to read the book some more. It was only until eleven o'clock that she decided to stop reading her books (apparently, she was a fast reader because she finished "The Dark Forces" and was about halfway through with "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi").
She turned off the lights and hopped into bed. She looked at her desk. She didn't get to finish her Potions homework, and she felt bad. Then again, she could always finish it up tomorrow. Even though she told herself these things, she couldn't fall asleep.
She got out of bed and finished her homework in thirty minutes flat. With a feeling of satisfaction, she went to bed.
....To Be Continued....
---------------------------
A/N: Ah yes..another chapter done, and corrected by Miss Marz my new beta reader! Thank you!! Her pen name is fenix and you'll find her on my favorite authors list. Go and check her story out. I'm sure you won't regret it.
