Disclaimer: I know I do not own anything Harry Potter or anything that has to do with Hogwarts. I did make up my own characters and the storyline is also made by me. A couple of these character's names I liked from the sorting in the fourth book so they are placed in here as characters of which I own personality but not the name.
A/N: I want to thank Penny P for her review as well as cherryplum11 (lol, I am sure you're not on people's hit lists! I hope nobody is that obsessed with this site to go to those lengths!) I'm glad that my story is interesting to everyone. Keep reading!
Chapter Six: Friends and Foes
The next morning, Isabella woke Lena up. She opened the curtains on Lena's four-poster bed and let the sun shine through. Lena groaned and rolled over onto her back. She expected to see her white ceiling and be in her room at home. Instead, she saw a red drapery with golden stars on it that continued down the sides of the bed. She turned to where the light was coming from.
"Rise and shine!" Isabella was staring at Lena, the sun blaring around her making it difficult for Lena to see Isabella's face at all. "It's time to get up and changed to go to our first classes!" Isabella left Lena's bedside and walked away to the dorm bathroom to get ready. Lena rolled over once more towards the window and fell off her bed. Isabella poked her head out of the doorway and looked out to see that Lena was all right. Lena looked over to her smiled and waved. Isabella went back in the bathroom with her friends to continue getting ready.
Lena headed down the staircase to the common room where all of her friends were chatting. They were used to waking up early and were waiting for Lena to come down. They decided to show Owen and Lena to their first class and hope that they could just follow their classmates from there on. The six of them traveled quickly to the very bottom floor and down to the dungeons. This hallway was very dark, as it had no windows. There were only torches hung on the walls to keep light in the hall. They came to the end where there was a door. The four older kids of the group went off to their own class while Owen and Lena stared at the door. Lena reached for the large handle and swung the door open. Several students were already in the classroom. The desks were a bit longer and could seat two. Lena and Owen sat together and placed their book, Magical Drafts and Potions on their desks. Lena looked around as more students came in. Finally, a tall, skinny, greasy man walked in with his cloak flying behind him. The man had a very long nose and everything he wore was black, as was his hair.
"Welcome to your Potions class." The room fell silent as the man spoke. "I am Professor Snape your Potions teacher. Let me tell you now that there will be no fooling around in my classroom. When I tell you how to make a concoction, you will follow the steps exactly as they are written on this board." Professor Snape pointed to a plain blackboard. Then the greasy Professor Snape walked back behind his desk and looked at whatever it was he had placed on there. The room was completely silent; nothing was heard while Snape looked at his lesson plans. When he was finished, he looked up at the class and stood. Lena did not like the looks of this teacher at all. He was not only scary looking but he had this look and feel about him that did not seem good at all.
Professor Snape went through various different things one might use in a potion. The entire class was spent doing this and taking notes on them. Lena was having trouble writing with a quill. She tried her best and most of what she wrote was half on her page and other places had too much ink and it was difficult to tell what word she had written. Lena tried to write 'Wiggenweld' and her quill just scratched the parchment. Lena went back over her letter again but she pressed harder. Still, nothing was on her page. She dipped her quill in the ink well and tried again. This time there was too much ink and it dripped all over the entire sentence. Lena, forgetting that she was in class, slammed her fist down on the desk in frustration. The room went silent again.
"Do you have a problem with the Wiggenweld potion, Miss Rose?" Professor Snape asked as he walked over to Lena and Owen's desk. He looked down noticing the large spill of ink on Lena's page. He lifted the page with two of his fingers and watched as it poured onto the stone floor. Lena was so embarrassed and felt horrible. She had never acted up in school before, especially on the first day. Snape pointed his wand at the spill on the floor and swished his wand. Lena watched it disappear. Then Snape pointed his wand at the parchment and burned it
"I would like to see you today after supper, Miss Rose. You will learn how to write with a quill and rewrite the entire set of notes I have given out today." Lena nodded and Snape looked to the clock. "That's the end of class, I hope you will all study for our quiz on these next class before we use them in an actual potion." Lena grabbed her books and followed Owen out the door.
"That's tough." Owen said, trying to do something to make Lena feel better in anyway as they followed the group of their classmates up a few staircases. "My sister says that he's always in a fretful mood. Quite terrible to her as well, she says." Lena looked up at him. He had never said so much at one time and so normally. He was not whispering or mumbling but he was just…talking.
"Well, I hope Professor Snape can help me. You don't think he'll let me use a pen, do you?" knew it was unlikely that Snape would allow that. Owen smiled and shook his head and looked to Lena as they reached their next class.
"I wouldn't get your hopes up."
"Everyone settle down, please!" a short skinny woman walked into the classroom. She was almost as short as the students. "My name is Professor Hexildra. I hope to teach you many useful ways to protect yourselves from the Dark Arts." Her eyes were large. Lena thought they looked much larger than her own body. "I would like to see you all outline the first chapter of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection to be handed in next class. I want it silent in here!" Professor Hexildra went to sit behind her desk. She pushed her large glasses onto her tiny nose. This only made her eyes look larger.
Lena turned to Owen and tried to signal to him that she wanted to share books. She had forgot hers in the dormitory. He nodded and smiled. Once again, they were sitting in a large two-person desk, sharing a book was not an issue. Owen was writing furiously and Lena could not get anything on her paper. She even tried to write with her left hand to see if it was any better than her right. Owen stopped writing and looked over to Lena who was moving her quill up and down in the same spot on her parchment while reading the book. The quill began to scratch away through the parchment.
Owen reached over the book and grabbed Lena's hand to stop her. Lena looked over to him and he began to mover her arm to the ink well. He made her place the quill gently into the inkbottle and slowly take it back out. To stop the dripping, Owen moved Lena's arm so she would lightly tap the quill on the rim of the ink well. Lena couldn't help but smile. Owen brought her hand back to the parchment and mouthed the word 'lightly' to her. He let go of her arm and watched her as she began to write.
Chapter One: Simple Knock-back Jinxes
Lena wished she could have taken a picture of Owen's face when she looked at him in delight. He was so proud that his eyes seemed so shimmer more than usual. Lena stared at the grin on Owen's face as he looked from the parchment to Lena and back again. Then Lena quickly snapped out of her trance and began to write again. I think I could get used to this quill thing Lena thought to herself. She would never forget this day.
Lena was about to go back to her dormitory when she remembered her detention with Snape. She was walking with Owen and was sad to leave his side. She was actually getting to know him. She didn't want to go back down the stairs alone to the dungeons. She was not looking forward to seeing Snape, even if she had just met him. Owen offered to go with her, but Lena told him that he didn't have to. Owen went anyway. Lena was glad that he came along when they ran into some of the Slytherins from their classes.
"What's the matter, Rose? Can't write with a quill, eh?" A large boy taunted.
"Dave, she's from America, you shouldn't expect much!" Lena recognized this boy as Frederick Randal from the sorting. The other Slytherin boys laughed and tried to speak with an American accent but failed horribly. They however, thought it sounded good. Owen stepped forward and looked Frederick in the eyes.
"I don't think that anyone should be expecting anything from you!" Lena was worried that something bad was going to happen. A couple of these boys were much older and could probably turn Owen to mush. Owen just kept staring at them.
"I'm not going to take this from these little gits!" the first boy said as they all laughed and walked away.
"Owen! You didn't have to do that, but," Lena looked into Owens eyes. "Thanks" she smiled.
"Hey, nobody picks on my friends," Owen told her wearing his proud grin as they began to walk towards Snape's dungeon again. They finally made it there and Owen said he'd wait for her to come out. Lena told him it wasn't necessary. She walked inside and saw Snape at his desk.
"Ah yes, Miss Rose. I believe you need help with a quill?" Snape looked down his long nose at Lena.
"Actually Professor, I think I know how to write now. I just need to copy the notes. I can get them from a friend back in the-"
"You interrupted my class, Miss Rose. You need to stay here and copy the notes. I do not wish to recite them to you, for the second time today." He pointed to the desk in front of his and they both sat down. Lena saw that there was a rather long parchment on the desk telling her to look the book to find the properties of many of the liquids and other things that were mentioned. Somehow, Snape found a way to make things difficult for his students. Lena opened her book and pulled out a blank piece of parchment from her bag as well as her quill. She slowly dipped her quill into the ink and pulled it out, tapping it lightly on the rim. Snape watched without making it obvious and then turned back to his desk after seeing that she was able to write one complete sentence.
Lena was there for what seemed like a lifetime before she said that she was finished. She brought her notes up to Professor Snape who glanced at them quickly. And then he looked to Lena.
"You have learned to write so I do not expect any more irregular disturbances. Do I make myself clear?" Lena nodded and left the room with all of her things. She walked down the dark, silent hallway and onto the spiral staircase. She got to the top and went to the moving staircases. She needed to get to the seventh floor. Lena began to climb the stairs as fast as she could go without dropping any of her things. She finally made it to the common room without the stairs moving with her on them. When she cam in, the fire was going and there was someone laying in the large couch facing the fireplace. Lena slowly walked over there placing her things on a small table along the way. She got closer and saw that it was Owen, asleep on the couch. He actually waited for me here? Lena was very surprised and flattered that he would actually wait for her to come back.
Lena sat on the floor facing his sleeping face. She reached her hand out and plugged his nose. He immediately gasped and Lena giggled.
"Wow! You scared me there!" Owen said fully awake now and sitting up. Lena stood and thanked him for everything he had done for her. He told her it was no problem at all and they both went off to their dormitories.
Lena went back up to bed quietly and got in her pajamas. She climbed onto her bed, closed the curtains and began writing in her journal. She wrote about her arrival at Hogwarts and then went straight into her first day. The main focus of her entry was Owen. He was the best friend Lena ever had and she hadn't even known him for very long. She felt bad thinking this because she had friends back in America. She didn't want think about them for more than a few seconds. They probably moved on to other things by now and have probably made new friends. Lena went back to her journal and finished up her entry by saying, I've never had a friend like Owen who keeps his every promise and actually sticks up for you because he really cares. I can't wait to see him tomorrow! I wonder what he'll do next?
