That night I collapsed into bed barely remembering to brush my teeth. In fact, I woke up in the middle of the night remembering that I hadn't yet cleaned them. Disgusted with myself I lugged my body out of bed and headed for the girls' room. I paused in front of the sink and realized that the next day I would find out what grade level my classes were.
Wait a minute!
Something was missing from my class tests. What about Defense Against the Dark Arts? I couldn't imagine why I hadn't taken that test. I had heard nasty things about the new teacher; perhaps McGonagall didn't want me to… ruin things?
I scrubbed out my mouth with my purple toothbrush and Squeaky Clean paste that squeaked when one was done cleaning their mouth. I decided that I would worry about… stuff in the morning.
I returned into the common room where a fire was still crackling. It was such a nice room, though some of the furniture had stuffing coming out.
My eyelids were so heavy….
"Hey, Favian... Favian!"
I jerked to life from the common room floor. My eyes snapped open and I found identical faces peering at me. Fred and George were standing over me looking concerned.
"What… Oh my God, I fell asleep." I said groggily. My toothbrush was still in hand though I had dropped my toothpaste during the night. "What time is it?"
"Five. You're lucky that no one else is up yet." George said.
"People would trample you." Fred grinned. He and his brother assisted me to my feet. I felt a bruise on my buttocks from when I had landed and, miraculously, slept through.
"What are you two doing up so early?"
"Working." They said simultaneously.
"Speaking of which… how would you fancy helping us?" George asked.
"Nothing too terrible, of course, as we respect you as a human being."
"Unlike ickle firsties."
"Who are not yet humans."
"Nice." I said, stretching. "But I'm not sure how you treat humans."
"Kindly."
"With care." Concluded Fred with a grin.
"Sure." I eyed them warily. "You didn't… you know… hurt me when you found me asleep, did you?"
Fred and George looked mockingly astounded and hurt.
"How dare you, madam!"
"You think of us as… cruel and unusual?"
"I never know with you two." I shook my head.
"You know, you have about an hour before everyone gets up." George said, looking at his watch.
"If I were you, I'd get some more sleep." Said Fred. "After all, there's nothing better for you to do, if you refuse to assist us."
"I have to take a shower."
"I only shower when it rains." George joked.
"Ah, thus the smell." Fred said, looking disgustedly at his twin.
"I'll be back in a few moments."
"Not if one of us comes with you." Fred winked.
I laughed and ran up to my dormitory to grab some shampoo and clothing. When I returned I found Fred and George bending over some books and writing down the information that they found necessary. They didn't look up as I crept into the bathrooms. I took delight in having the bathroom all to myself. After I was done I used the spell that Hermione had taught me to dry myself.
"Aridisio!" I put on my robes and pocketed my wand. I didn't know what books I would need the next day so I grabbed my Defense Against the Dark Arts book and started where I had finished. So far I had found it incredibly boring and long-winded.
It'd probably be better just to be blasted to bits by some dark wizard. I thought grimly to myself. I couldn't believe how incredibly annoying this book was.
"You're reading that, out of class?" Fred gawped.
"Yeah…." I looked up and raised an eyebrow.
"What the hell for?" George frowned.
"Um… I think it'd be good to know what I'm about to be taught by Professor Umbrella."
Both George and Fred broke into hysterical laughter.
"What?"
"Umbridge, not Umbrella." Fred said between peals of laughter.
"Oh whatever." I rolled my eyes at him.
"You'd better not forget in front of her. She's already given Potter a week's worth of detentions." George said grimly. "Rather touchy."
"That's right! I heard about that."
"That's no surprise. I thought you would've met Umbridge, what with your tests. How did that go, by the way?"
"All right." I shrugged. "But I didn't take Umbridge's test."
"Probably because she's an incompetent dingbat." Fred shook his head dramatically.
"Really?" I felt my heart sinking.
"Yeah. All we do is read in class." George stuck his tongue out in disgust.
I looked at my book. I only had half a chapter left. I chewed on my lip. If that was, indeed, all we did, did I want to be done with the book?
"Favian… are you in lalala land?" Fred asked, waving a hand in front of my eyes.
"What? Oh, yeah… no…. Just tired." I finished lamely.
"Hm. You've got about twenty minutes to sleep."
"That's hardly worth it." I grinned.
"I quite agree." Fred nodded sagely.
Twenty minutes later I had finished the book and everyone was coming, yawning and rubbing their eyes, into the common room. Hermione was the only one who looked alert. Ginny yawned widely and smiled at me. I went down to breakfast with Ginny and Eloise. Seamus and Dean caught up to us and took seats next to us at the table.
"Ms. Fynn!" Professor McGonagall called to me after I had finished eating. "Please accompany to my office, if you would."
I felt my stomach clench and my heart sink into my hips. I didn't even say anything. I just got up and followed. I felt like everyone was watching me and thinking "poor stupid muggle-born Favian should just be shot and put out of her misery!"
Deep down, I agreed.
"Favian-." McGonagall walked into her office. "Have a biscuit." She offered me a cookie. I didn't think my stomach would hold it so I politely refused.
"I'm not feeling so well, ma'am." I admitted.
"Understandable." She looked down at her parchment for a moment and then returned her gaze to mine. "I have here, your results from yesterday."
I swallowed hard.
"No need to be… well… I can't really say that. It's going to be difficult for you, I'm afraid."
I felt as though I was about to cry. It sounded like first grade was starting all over and I didn't want to stay in school longer. I buried my fingers in my hair despairingly.
"Fifth year is a very difficult time… and I hope you can do well." My jaw dropped. "Your work is quite remarkable, Ms. Fynn. Even Professor Snape spoke… highly of your skills."
"What… how?"
"Miss Granger is quite a good teacher, it would seem."
"What about Defense Against…."
McGonagall stiffened. "Professor Umbridge is not to know that you are muggle-born. She has been told that you are from the American school Red and White Roses and yesterday you were being… filled in."
I nodded, not asking why.
"Now, I don't know how this will work for you, but here are some extra classes you can choose from for next year." McGonagall handed me a list. My eyes were drawn to Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Study of Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy, though I had no Godly idea what the last one was. "Two would be sufficient. And if you're doing well enough in your classes, I may be able to sneak you into them this year."
"I'll work my hardest, ma'am." I looked again at the list. "What classes would you recommend?"
"All of them, well, for you? Not Muggle Studies, of course, but I don't think Divination is that good of a course. Arithmancy is extremely difficult, though I don't doubt you could do it. Ancient Runes are interesting but also complicated. Care of Magical Creatures can be useful, depending on what you plan to do."
"I don't even know what there is to do…. I think Runes and Magical Creatures and Arithmancy sound the most interesting. I guess I can't take all three, but… I'll ask Hermione what she thinks, if I can."
"She takes all three of those." McGonagall smiled slightly. "You can learn Arithmancy out of Hogwarts later in life, if you find a job that seems to require that. It's very complicated. If you had come to Hogwarts earlier then I would probably say that you would be fine with all three. Here is your present course schedule. Charms first today. Good luck." I took the parchment from her and pushed away from her desk. I walked half-blindly to Gryffindor House. I mumbled the password to the Fat Lady and headed up to the girls' dorm.
After I had collected my books I went to my first ever Charms lesson.
"Ah! Come in Miss Fynn!" I poked my head hesitantly around the door. He beamed at me. "I was just talking about the importance of O.W.L.s." I took a seat next to Ron and put my bag under my desk. After an hour we moved onto Summoning Charms, which would undoubtedly show on the exams. In the end we were all assigned an essay on the levitation spell. Not too bad.
Transfiguration was very similar except that we practiced Vanishing Spells. I watched Hermione attempt twice before finally vanishing her snail on the third try. It took me about six attempts to get it. Still, that was better than anyone else (besides Hermione, I mean.) Lavender Brown shot me a dirty look and whispered something to Parvati, who shrugged and continued her efforts.
Hermione didn't receive any homework. My homework was to learn Conjuring Spells and to be able to show McGonagall the next day. Hermione promised to help me during her lunch period. She sniffed at Ron, who apparently had made a crack at her knitting. I told her that knitting was difficult and that she should hardly feel badly about this.
Conjuring was difficult. I was very frustrated after my eleventh try. Hermione showed me her notes on the subject and I took a deep breath and managed to succeed. My head was buzzing with the effort. I had a free period next, Hermione recommended that I come and watch a Magical Creatures lesson. I agreed. Bowtruckles weren't really that interesting to me, but I was startled at first. There was some talk about Hagrid from Malfoy, Harry and Ron. Malfoy gave me a cruel glare before whispering something to his large friends.
I walked to Herbology, apart from Hermione, Ron and Harry, who were deep in discussion about something that I figured didn't concern me. Dean and Seamus didn't want me to walk alone.
"Hey, Favian." Said Dean jovially.
"Hi." I smiled. I felt my stomach somersault when he spoke to me. Seamus was looking at the ground as he walked with his eyebrows close together.
"How were your first lessons for you? Good, I expect." Dean grinned.
I blushed. "They were all right, though I've got some homework from Flitwick, but it's just an essay."
"Two feet of essay." Dean reminded me.
"That's too bizarre." I said, shaking my head. "I mean, why measure the length of an essay by that? Isn't what you put into it? And what if some people's handwriting is larger than someone else's? What then?"
Dean laughed but was cut off abruptly by Malfoy.
"So, the American whore is all you can get, is she, Thomas?"
"Take that back." Dean growled.
"Potty won't like that you're stealing his skank."
"Shut up." Dean and Seamus said together.
"Interesting." I looked coolly over at Malfoy but continued to Herbology.
"What's interesting?" Malfoy asked.
"How retarded someone can be. I always wondered, and then I met you."