Chapter 3
"First day of classes," Sirius said tiredly. "What joy."
James grinned. "Well don't sound so enthusiastic. What's on the menu?" The two boys were seated at the Gryffindor breakfast table talking about their newly received schedules.
"Herbology, Flying, and Defense Against the Dark Arts," Sirius read his voice sounding bored.
"There's nothing wrong with Flying," James argued. Sirius shrugged.
"But look who we have these classes with. Defense Against the Dark Arts, Slytherin, Herbology, Hufflepuff, Flying, Slytherin. We have to see Malfoy twice in one day! Once is too many!"
James laughed. "Well, he's going to think twice about doing anything funny after what happened on the train." James looked around. "Where's Remus? I haven't seen him all morning."
"He mumbled something about having to see Dippit this morning," Sirius said monotonously as he poked mercilessly at the fruit on his plate.
"We should get to class," James said somewhat anxiously.
Sirius gave him a weird look. "We've got at least twenty minutes. What's the hurry?"
James rolled his eyes. "Well, we'll have to find the place. Meanwhile, we can explore a little."
"Ah," Sirius said with a twinkle of mischief as he stood up from the table. James and Sirius walked down the large stone corridor, heading for the front door. They nevertheless stopped before reaching the door because of Sirius's sudden interest in a nearby statue. Its stature was nothing special compared to that of them many other statues that occupied spots in Hogwarts corridors. It had the head of a lion and the body of what looked like to be some sort of lizard. It was poised in an attack position.
"I've heard that Hogwarts is filled with secret passages and rooms," Sirius said as he searched the statue as if expecting to find a button that said "secret passageway."
"Oh come off it!" James said rolling his eyes. "The statue isn't going to just spring open, that is, if it really is a secret passageway. You have to say 'abracadabra' or something."
Sirius smiled. "Okay then." Sirius put his wand on the statue and said, "Abracadabra." Nothing happened and Sirius looked disappointed.
James took his wand and pointed it at the statue. "Alohomora!" The statue let out a low roar and began to disappear. In front of them stood a long dark passage. James and Sirius's face lit up with anticipation.
"Come on James, let's check it out!" Sirius said trying to pull James inside, but James would not move. He looked longingly at the tunnel.
"We don't have time!" James said. "We've got to be in Herbology in five minutes!" Sirius looked back and forth between James and the tunnel and hung his head.
"All right, but I want to come back here," Sirius warned.
"Fine, we'll just seal it up," James pointed his wand at where the statue had previously stood and muttered a sealing charm. "Better?"
Sirius nodded, and the two of them headed to Herbology just seconds from the time when they would be announced as late. The Gryffindors assembled on one side of the long table, and Hufflepuff was on the other. Sirius and James found places next to Remus and across the table from Hagrid who waved upon their entry. Each person in the long line of witches and wizards had a small cauldron in front of them. The cauldrons in front of them however, were not empty. Inside was a sort of green bubbly goo.
"Good Morning First Years!" Professor Portello said, tapping his wand on the table in front of him. He gave the group a dazzling smile as his bright orange robes glimmered in the sun that shown down from the top of the green house. "Welcome to your first school day at Hogwarts, and your first Herbology lesson with me. Now, since it is the first day, I thought that it would be nice to start out with something fun."
Sirius looked down as the concoction in front of him formed a large bubble only to pop and sink back into the rest of the sticky green slime.
"Can anyone tell me what is in the cauldrons?" Professor Portello asked.
A girl from the Hufflepuff house raised her hand, but before Professor Portello could call on her, James had blurted out the answer. "It's an herb called paniferia, that is only found near waterbeds in Africa. It heals minor wounds and scrapes to prevent scars." Professor Portello nodded and was about to congratulate James, when James continued to speak.
"It is not often used in daily medical treatment because of its previous over use has caused a major shortage of the plant itself," James finished.
Professor Portello gave James a somewhat irritated look at the continuous explanation but nonetheless smiled when James had finished. "Very good, Mr. Potter. I would appreciate however, if you'd give your classmates who raise their hands a turn."
James shrugged. "Sure. Whatever you say, Professor."
Professor Portello nodded. "Now then. Does anyone have any cuts or scrapes they'd like to heal?" Not surprisingly no one raised their hand. No matter how much Professor Portello wanted to convince them that the substance in front of them would heal them, the bubbling green sludge spoke as its own objection.
"Very well. I have some of my own, that I will use to show you the benefits of this substance." Professor Portello raised the sleeves of his robes and revealed a small cut on his arm that was probably the result of working with the flesh-eating tulips, or the thorn throwing roses that attacked when they felt threatened.
Professor Portello took out a spoon and scooped out some of the green substance from the cauldron in front of him and dropped it onto his arm. Instantly the planiferia began to spread until it wrapped itself fully around the length of the cut and had wrapped it around the part of the arm under the cut. For a few minutes it stayed like that and bubbled just as it had in the cauldron before it began to turn beautiful colors of pink and orange that separated into tiny individual petals and floated to the floor. When all the planiferia had fallen in petal form to the floor, there was no evidence left of either a wound or a scar.
"Voila, and that is how you use planiferia," Professor Portello said with a smile as he pulled down the sleeve of his robes. "Can anyone tell me why the planiferia fell to the ground as petals?"
James raised his hand but without waiting to be called on, he began speaking. "Well, since the planiferia is a type of plant, it needs someway to re-grow. So not only do the petals turn colors to blend in with the rest of Africa's native flowers, but the petals dry out and are planted to grow more planiferia."
"Correct, Mr. Potter," Professor Portello said with a slight edge to his voice. "But I didn't call on you."
James pretended to look confused. "Call on me? You never said that you had to call on me. Only that I needed to raise my hand." Laughter filled the room at this comment and Professor Portello looked about ready to explode.
"Settle down, Mr. Potter, or I will start deducting points from your house! You don't want to lose points on the first day, do you?" Professor Portello asked. James was grudgingly silent. "Alright, now that you've seen how it's done. I want all of you to try out the planiferia. If you don't have any scrape to test, please find someone who does."
While everyone else was crowding together and making annoying exclamations over the weird feeling that overtook whoever was wearing the planiferia, Remus, James, and Sirius grouped together to talk.
"Good one," Sirius said smiling at James.
James shrugged. "It was until Portello sucked all the fun out of it."
"He's a teacher," Sirius scoffed. "It's his job to suck the fun out of things."
"Yeah," Remus agreed.
James gave Remus a look of sudden thought. "Hey, what did you have to see Headmaster Dippit for?"
Remus all of a sudden looked nervous. "Nothing really. He just wanted to talk to me about my schedule."
"Right," James said, but his eyebrow remained raised in disbelief.
"Alright class, we're done for the day," there was some slight cheering as people began to make their way to the door as petals filtered around them. "Bur before you go, your assignment will be to tell me the stages of the healing process from when it's first placed on a cut to the point when it becomes petals. A six-hundred word minimum due next class." The students filed out of the classroom, groaning about the idea of homework in their first class on their first day.
"You'd think teachers could wait a day before they drop a load of homework into your lap," Sirius complained.
"Yeah, but think about it. Now we have flying!" James enthused.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Okay, relax. We'll get there soon enough." Remus, Sirius, and James walked across the grounds heading towards their outdoor flying lesson. "Hey, look over there," Sirius said, looking at a regular sized tree that was surrounded by fresh dirt. It may have been about the size of a regular tree, but to say it was a regular tree was a little far-fetched.
It had brown bark, but no leaves at all, and at the end of each branch was a sort of large round knob that resembled a club a cave man in cartoons may carry. "I've never seen a tree like that before," Sirius said in amazement as he started to walk towards it.
'Sirius, come back," both Remus and James called at the same time.
"Why?" Sirius asked glancing back at them.
"It's a whomping willow. If you go near it, it will pommel you," James explained.
Sirius looked at the tree with interest. "I wonder why they decided to plant one on school grounds. It must be protecting something."
"Protecting something?" Remus asked with a somewhat forced laugh. "You've been reading way to much into the whole secret passage thing."
"Why else would they plant a dangerous tree at Hogwarts?" Sirius argued.
"I don't know," Remus said slightly flustered. "But either way, there's no way you can go near it without getting hurt, so it would be mindful not to try."
Sirius glared at Remus. "Remus is right, Sirius," James intervened. "For whatever reason that willow was planted there, we were not meant to know."
Sirius sighed. "Fine, have it your way then." The three friends continued onto their lesson in silence past the willow tree, which in fact was marked with a sign warning no one to go near it. They proceeded to the courtyard to where their lesson was to commence. When they arrived they found two long rows of brooms lying on the ground. One row was filling with occupants from the Slytherin house, the other, Gryffindor. Unfortunately, Malfoy was already there, accompanied of course by Crabbe and Goyle.
"Think you have what it takes to fly, Potter?" Malfoy asked snidely once Remus, Sirius, and James had taken a place next to a broom in the row of Gryffindors.
James glared at Malfoy. "I know I have what it takes to fly."
"Graces me, confident are we?" Lucius commented.
"More than I can say for you, Lucius," James snickered.
Malfoy's self absorbed smile disappeared. "Are you calling me a coward, Potter?"
James stood back and crossed his arms in front of his chest, grinning. "Can you prove me otherwise?"
Malfoy was about to reply when Professor Frecha appeared. She had shinning blue eyes, golden blond hair, and was dressed in beautiful pure white robes. "Good morning, class!" She said all too cheerily. "Welcome to your first flying lesson. Today we will begin the basics. Now, if everyone will step onto the left side of their brooms, we'll get started.
"Every one place your right hand over your broom and say the word 'up' with love and feeling." James heard Sirius snicker and the word love, and couldn't help but smile himself. James performed the task quite easily and found that his other friends had too. "Very good. Now everyone please straddle their brooms, like so," Professor Frecha said placing one leg on either side of the broom.
"Good, now when I say 'go' you will push off from the ground, suspend in the air for a few moments, and place your feet gently back on the ground. Ready?" She asked as she looked around the group to verify that everyone was indeed ready. "Go!"
Every student attempted to kick-off from the ground, but only a few managed to do so successfully. A lot of students fell over when the attempt to kick-off was made, and Professor Frecha went around to help those students accordingly. James managed lift off with no trouble, while Remus and Sirius had to make several attempts before they lifted off the ground.
Meanwhile, Malfoy was glaring at James from the spot where he hovered. Malfoy glanced over to see where Professor Frecha was and then called, "A race around the tower, Potter?" James glanced up to see where Malfoy was pointing. A single tower was leveled off in the sky. "Go up and around the tower, and the first one back wins. What do you say?"
James glanced at Professor Frecha who was helping Peter Pettigrew stay on his broom. "Alright, Malfoy, you're on."
"Count down Crabbe?" Malfoy requested coolly.
"No way, am I having one of your cheat friends countdown. Sirius will do it," James protested.
"Fine, have it your way," Malfoy said. "Sirius if you please."
"Okay, when I say 'go,'" Sirius said looking back and forth between the two. "Three, two, one—Malfoy!" Before Sirius could say "go" Malfoy had kicked off and was now zooming towards the tower. James kicked off angrily behind him and caught up with Malfoy quickly.
The two of them were neck and neck until they approached the tower. The minute they attempted to go around the it Malfoy shoved James. James hit the tower with a loud smack while he nearly fell off his broom. He could hear Malfoy laughing in front of him, but James was determined not to lose. He completed his round around the tower and again caught up with Malfoy; he was just inches away from touching down in front of Sirius, but James managed to fly right under Malfoy as he landed just seconds before Malfoy did.
"And the winner is—" Sirius began.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy! What did you think that you are doing?" Professor Frecha asked approaching the two boys angrily.
"Potter challenged me to a broom race," Lucius explained before James could break in. James glowered at Malfoy.
"I'm very disappointed, Mr. Potter," Professor Frecha said disapprovingly. "Three day's detention for the both of you."
"But, Professor—" James attempted.
"Not another word, Mr. Potter," Professor Frecha said. "Now," she said replacing her angry face with a calm and cheery countenance, "we will learn steering. When you want to turn right, lean towards the right, but not too far. You don't want to fall off," she said giggling.
"Detention? Malfoy started it!" James whispered angrily to his friends.
"Touch luck, my friend," Remus said. "Malfoy shouldn't have set you up like that."
"Don't worry, James, we won't let Malfoy get away with this," Sirius said.
"Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, will you please pay attention!" Professor Frecha ordered.
"Sorry, Professor," the boys murmured. Professor Frecha continued on with the instructions and they were able to practice turning for the remainder of the class. When the lesson ended, James was happy about getting the chance to fly despite the fact that he had gotten in trouble.
"Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Potter, detention here at five o'clock," Professor Frecha called as they walked away.
"See you then, Potter," Malfoy said as he brushed past James, but as soon as Malfoy walked away, another boy replaced him.
"That was incredible!" Peter Pettigrew exclaimed in awe. "Where did you learn to do that?"
James felt a surge of pride. "Well, I have actually only read about flying in books and today I was finally able to put those moves to use."
"They were amazing!" Peter rambled on. "You're sure to make the Quidditch team! You're going to try out aren't you?"
"Well I—"
"Imagine if you made it! A first-year on the house team!" Peter said.
"I'm not going to imagine making it, I am going to make it!" James said with determination.
"Of course," Peter agreed. "Well, see you later James."
"Hey, Diamond Weaver," Sirius called to James in reference to one of the most famous Quidditch players of the age. "Let's get your head down from the clouds and get to lunch. I'm starved."
"Alright, alright, keep your robes on," James said, as he, Lupin, and Sirius continued their path to the Great Hall. They ate lunch at the Gryffindor table talking about plots to get even with Malfoy among other things, by the start of their next class, everyone had heard about the race against Malfoy and were congratulating him on his win.
"Very impressive," Jason Creevy said congratulating James.
"No one messes with, James Potter," Sirius said grinning.
"Shut up, Sirius," James said with a smile.
"Take your seats class," Professor Ulaseur ordered. Her black robes seemed to shimmer and her hair was long and curled outwards slightly at the ends. "Welcome to your first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. Here you will learn how to be witches and wizards. You will face unimaginable creature where in the end, it comes down to whether or not you're afraid of the unknown or of fear itself. Defending yourself against the Dark Arts is not an easy task, and if you don't pay attention, you may find yourself dead in Algeria."
James coughed to hide his laughter. This teacher was being way too dramatic. He shifted his eyes around the room. Sirius was regarding Ulaseur with the same sort of boredom that James himself felt, while Remus seemed to be following along, but still did not seem overly worried. In fact, the only person who seemed completely enthralled was a certain greasy haired boy whose quill was scratching loudly on the parchment in front of him. James thought hard trying to recall the boy's name. Simon? No. Sam? No. Snape? Yes, but what's his first name? Oh, right. Snivellius. Snivellius Snape.
James looked mischievously at his wand and then back at Snivellius. He picked up his wand and when Professor Ulaseur turned around to write about jackers (a creature that kind of resembled a rabbit but whose fur was protected by poisonous oils and was a carnivore) James whispered, "Purpillus!" and a purple gooey looking ball began to form. Moments later, it hit Snivellius right on the head and his hair began to turn purple.
Snape heard the laughter at the same time he felt the ball hit his head. He looked up abruptly in the direction that the ball had come and his eyes rested on James Potter. James's wand was resting innocently on his desk, but James's eyes told Snape everything he needed to know.
"For goodness sakes, children, stop laughing!" Professor Ulaseur ordered as she placed her hands and perfectly black painted nails on her hips. The laughter quieted down. "Who is responsible for this?" she asked.
"Potter," Snape growled.
Ulaseur raised an eyebrow at James. "Is this true, Mr. Potter?"
"No, ma'am," James protested with fake innocence. "I've been listening to your lesson on the carnivorous jackers."
"Very well," Professor Ulaseur said with doubt. "Mr. Snape, if you will report to Madame Walkers she'll fix you right up." Snape closed his books soundlessly and headed for the door, but as he walked past James's desk, Snape could have sworn he heard James whisper, "Goodbye, Snivellius."
The rest of the lesson went by slowly, ending with the announcement that a five- hundred-word essay was due next class on the habitation and feeding habits of jackers.
"First day done!" Sirius said with relief.
"I know I was eager to begin with, but I'm exhausted now," James agreed.
"And your day isn't over," Remus informed James. "You still have detention to go through."
James groaned. "Don't remind me."
Sirius shrugged. "You're doing detention for a flying class. How can that possibly be bad for little James?"
"It's not the fact that I'm doing this for flying that's bothering me. What's bothering me is that I'm doing it with Malfoy," James explained.
"You're right. That hurts as much as being in the same room as a howling banshee," Sirius agreed.
"We'll see you in the common room later though. Bye!" Remus called. James dropped his homework off in his room and then proceeded down to the flying field. Malfoy was already there when James arrived.
"Nice of you to get us in trouble, Potter," Malfoy said sourly. No doubt he had heard the news that was floating around the school about James beating him.
"Number one, the challenge was your idea. Number two, even if we still have detention, the fact remains that I beat you," James said calmly.
"Good evening boys," Professor Frecha interrupted, preventing Malfoy from replying. "For your detention this evening, I would appreciate if you cleaned off all the brooms and place them neatly in the broom shed," she said smiling as she headed to the broom shed itself.
"Here are your cleaning cloths," Professor Frecha said as she waved her wand and a rag and cleaning solution appeared. "I'll give you boys one hour. Have fun!" She started to turn around when she did a quick about face. "Almost forgot! Wands please!" James and Malfoy reluctantly gave up their wands and Professor Frecha once again headed for the castle.
Malfoy looked at the rag in disdain. "This is elves work, not work for wizards."
"Shove it, Malfoy," James said grabbing a broom.
"I'm not taking orders from you, Potter," Malfoy argued.
"I'm not giving you orders. I'm simply reinstating what has already been said by Frecha," James reminded him. Malfoy stared at James angrily before he finally relented and grabbed a broom. They worked in silence and finished ten minutes before the allotted time.
On one side, neatly placed in their racks against the shed were the brooms that James had cleaned, on the other were the brooms that had been done by Malfoy as a half asked job. "Malfoy, if you knew how to clean as well as you cheat you'd be in business," James spat.
"As I said, cleaning is for elves. For those less fortunate people who can't afford to do work any other way than by their own hands I would expect nothing but satisfactory results," Malfoy replied.
"One day, Malfoy, you're going to fall off your high horse and I'm going to be there to sell tickets," James said with narrow eyes. Neither of them spoke after that. Five minutes later, Professor Frecha released them. James headed to the Great Hall and grabbed a bite to eat with some other students who were eating late and then preceded up to the dorm.
When he reached his room he found Remus and Sirius playing a game of Exploding Snap. James debated whether or not to work on his homework, but decided against it, thinking that he could do it tomorrow. Exhausted from the day's events, he said goodnight to his friends and got ready for bed.