Chapter 3: A Long First Day

Lily woke up the next morning, full of excitement about her first day of classes. She looked around and saw that Desdamona's and Kaylie's beds were empty, but both Amelia and Alice were still sleeping. When she had returned from brushing her teeth, both girls were awake, though neither one could be described as resembling anything remotely "bright-eyed or bushy-tailed". "The worst thing about morning," Alice was saying to Amelia as she rubbed her eyes, "is having to wake up."

Amelia yawned and stretched, then looked appraisingly at Lily. "I see that you don't share our reluctance to climb out of these surprisingly comfortable beds," Amelia commented.

"I'm just too excited," Lily responded. "I can't wait to see what our classes are going to be like! I've looked through my course books, and it all just looks ever so exciting. I think I'll like Charms best, though. That old wizard that sold me my wand—Ollivander—told me that it would be especially good for charm work."

Alice groaned and threw a pillow at Lily, who laughed and ducked out of the way. "Please make her stop talking about classes this early in the morning!" she whined at Amelia, who had finally managed to haul herself out of bed.

"I won't!" responded Amelia, who was now looking rather excited at the prospect of classes. "She's quite right, Alice! Today is our first day of classes. I can't wait until I get to start using my wand. Mum wouldn't let me practice any spells before I came to school." She began to dress quickly as Lily packed her bag. "Do you suppose we'll get to use our wands on the first day of classes?"

When Amelia and Alice were ready, the three girls began to descend the stairs. Just as they reached the first landing, there was a loud clanging sound, like a fire alarm, and the stairs converted into a huge slide, causing the three girls to go zooming down. As they slid out into the common room, they collided with James Potter and Sirius Black, who had just gotten up and were brushing themselves off. The two boys toppled back onto the girls, and there was a lot of yelling and confusion before they'd untangled themselves and stood up. Remus Lupin and another boy with a pointy nose and watery eyes that Lily recognized from the sorting ceremony to be Peter Pettigrew, were standing there watching the confusion in amusement. "I told you not to do it, James," Lupin was saying with a laugh.

Potter and Black looked sheepishly at the three girls, who were looking at the boys in confusion. "What just happened," Lily asked Potter, who happened to be standing nearest to her. He shrugged as if to say he didn't know.

At that moment, Andromeda Black came sliding down the step-turned-slide. "Who tried to get into the girls' dormitory?" she demanded, looking around at the circle of students that had now formed around the foot of the stairs. Lily noticed Potter attempt to straighten out his cloak, which had become unhooked in the collision, and Black unsuccessfully try to hide something that he was holding in his hand. Before anyone could explain what had happened, a look of comprehension dawned on Andromeda's face. "Hand it over, Sirius," she said, holding out her hand.

"What? Oh, this," Black responded, trying to look casual. "I was just coming to show you my new tarantula, Andy," he said, holding out a jar containing a large and hairy tarantula. A few of the girls watching the proceedings screamed and backed away. "I didn't know that boys weren't allowed in the girls' dormitories." Black shrugged innocently, as if anyone could make the same mistake.

Andromeda took the jar from him and peered at it closely. "That's an interesting story, Sirius" she replied, "especially considering my Dad is the one who gave you the tarantula in the first place, and you know I've already seen it a hundred times!"

Potter looked at Black as though this was the most shocking news that he had ever heard. "What? You didn't tell me that Andy's dad gave it to you!" He turned to Andromeda with a reasonably convincing look of innocence upon his face. "Honest Andy, I didn't know you'd already seen it!"

Andromeda tried to look stern, but her eyes were sparkling with amusement. "And I find that rather hard to believe, Potter, considering that you were with Sirius when my Dad gave it to him." She looked back to Black. "So what was your plan? You were going to sneak this into one of the girls' beds, think it'd be funny to scare them?"

Black seemed to realize that at this point there was no need to feign innocence. "Well, we thought it might be funny," he confessed with a laugh. Andromeda's eyes flashed warningly. "But we realize now how very wrong we were," he added quickly, elbowing Potter in the side.

Potter looked at him, surprised, and then catching on, added, "Yes, we were very wrong to think it was funny. Very wrong, indeed. And we'll consider ourselves warned." He looked up at Andromeda hopefully.

She looked from one pleading face to the other, shaking her head in disbelief. "If that's all, then," Black said, trying to edge his way around her toward the portrait hole.

"Sirius Black! That most certainly is not all. Surely you don't think that just because I'm your cousin, you and Potter are going to escape detention for this stunt?" Andromeda yelled.

Black was again looking sheepish. "Well, yeah… We did kind of hope that." He looked again at Potter, who nodded, and they both turned wide, pleading eyes to Andy.

"Well you were both mistaken, then. I'd lose my prefect badge if McGonagall found out that I'd caught two boys trying to sneak into the girls dorm and didn't give them detention for it! I'll notify Professor McGonagall at breakfast, and she'll give you the details of your detention when you see her in class." Potter and Black looked crestfallen at the news, but Andromeda had already turned toward the door.

"And to think you used to be my favorite cousin," Black grumped toward Andromeda's retreating back as he and Potter began to pick up their things that had been sent flying in the collision. "They might have warned us last night that this would happen if we tried to get up there!"

At this point, Lupin turned to Pettigrew with his hand outstretched. "I won the bet, then," he was saying. "First day, and they both ended up getting detention together."

Pettigrew wasn't looking very happy as he pulled out a silver sickle and handed it over to Lupin. "I thought they'd at least get through the first day!" he said.

Lily, Alice and Amelia, who had stood watching the scene unfold with a mixture of annoyance and bewilderment, bent down to begin picking up their supplies as well, and Lupin came over to help them. "I'm sorry about those two," he was saying to Amelia. "They really aren't so bad once you get to know them!"

"Lupin!" Black yelled at that moment, "Are you coming with us to breakfast, or are you too busy making eyes at Bones?" Lupin scrambled to his feet, his cheeks the same shade of red as Amelia's, and headed toward the portrait hole. "I'll see you in class," he called back over his shoulder.

"Hey Evans!" Potter called, pausing as he was climbing out of the common room.

Lily, who was just hoisting her book bag over her shoulder, looked up. "Yeah, Potter?" she said, her voice as icy as she could make it.

Potter smiled at her, looking very amused. "That tarantula was headed for your bed, so I'd be extra careful tonight!" He waved, and disappeared into the hall.

Lily looked at Alice and Amelia with disgust. Alice shrugged, but she didn't look annoyed. "Well you can't say it won't be an interesting year," she said with a smile. "Not with those two around!"

"I'd say it's all four of them," Lily replied, irritated that she would now have to rush through breakfast because of the delay. "I didn't see Lupin and Pettigrew trying very hard to stop the two of them going into the dormitory! I do think that they'd want to make a better impression, too. Imagine getting detention on the first day!"

"Lupin seemed nice," Amelia said, staring a little dreamily at the portrait hole. "After all, Lil, he said he told them not to go up there. And he did help me pick up my books!"

Lily snorted and headed toward the door. "If you're finished defending those gits, Amelia, I think we'd better get down to breakfast. We'll be lucky if we're not late for our first class as it is!" Amelia looked like she wanted to say something further, but she seemed to realize that Lily was right, and the three girls hurried quickly out of the common room, heading in the direction of the Great Hall.

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As it turned out, the girls made it to their first class with time to spare, even after getting lost four times on the way. When they finally arrived at the Transfiguration classroom, Potter, Black, Lupin and Pettigrew were already there. To Lily's surprise, they were sitting near the front. As the girls didn't want to sit in back, they reluctantly took the desks behind the boys. "What took you girls so long?" Potter asked with a grin. "Did you guys get lost or something?"

"We just took our time at—" Lily began, not wanting to admit that they'd had some problems finding the classroom, but Alice interrupted her.

"Yeah, four times! Someone should make a map of this place!" she said with exasperation.

Potter looked at Alice thoughtfully. "You know, Parker, that's not a bad idea. I don't know how you'd ever find all of the hidden passages, mystery rooms and secret chambers though."

"Sounds a bit like a challenge to me," Black said with a smile.

"It would give us a chance to use my cloak," Potter said slowly.

"What cloak? What are you two talking about?" Pettigrew piped in. Black and Potter looked over at him in surprise, as though just noticing that he was there.

"We'll fill you in later, Petey," he said with a glance at the three girls, who were still watching them.

"You two are unbelievable!" Lily said, unable to contain herself. "You haven't even served the detention that you got this morning—"

"Don't even know what it is yet, actually," Potter interjected.

Lily ignored him. "And you're already thinking of more ways to lose Gryffindor points!"

"Well technically, Evans, we didn't actually lose Gryffindor any points this morning, as prefects can't take points," Black corrected her.

"Well I should still think that your time would be better spent preparing for your lessons, like your friend Lupin, there." Lily motioned toward Lupin, who looked up from the book that he was reading.

"Leave me out of this, if you will," he said mildly. "I think these two are quite capable of taking care of themselves."

Lily looked between the four boys, annoyed to discover that Lupin, Black and Potter were looking at her as though they found her quite amusing. Pettigrew's expression was awed, as if he found it hard to believe that someone was actually telling off Black and Potter. Unable to think of anything else to say (and fairly certain that even if she could, it would just further amuse the boys, anyway), she pulled her own transfiguration book out of her bag. Alice leaned over and whispered, "You're wasting your time, Lily. It's just the way boys are."

"I didn't see Pettigrew and Lupin acting like idiots!" she said quietly.

"I didn't see Black and Potter acting like idiots, either, Lily. They were just discussing the idea of a map. What is it about them that bothers you so much?" Alice replied.

"I don't know," Lily admitted with a sigh. "It's like they don't think about anyone else. They just don't seem to realize that if they get into trouble, it's all of Gryffindor that suffers. Lupin and Pettigrew don't seem so bad, though," she added grudgingly.

"Oh, so now Lupin's a good boy, is he?" Amelia asked with a laugh. "I thought you called him a git this morning!" She blushed as Alice and Lily looked at her with surprise, but was saved from answering any questions about Lupin by the entrance of Severus Snape, the boy who had shared their boat the previous night, and three other Slytherins.

"Slytherins," Lily heard Potter and Black say together. She noticed that they were both wearing identical expressions of loathing. Lupin and Pettigrew were also watching the Slytherins wearily.

"What have they got against the Slytherins?" Lily asked. She knew that Alice hadn't had a very high opinion of Slytherin house on the train, but still wasn't sure why. She didn't much like the idea of being in a house where the defining feature was slyness, but she also didn't think it quite right to dislike someone just because of which house they were in.

"Everyone knows that the Slytherins are nasty, Lily. If they haven't done something to them already that's earned their hatred, they will soon enough." She motioned toward Snape. "My dad works with his dad at the ministry. He hates our family. Says my dad's a disgrace for marrying a muggle. I told you on the train that you didn't want to be in Slytherin."

"Yes, but you can't blame Snape because his father's a git," Lily whispered.

"She's got a point there, Parker," Sirius said, looking at Lily with a glimmer of respect. "My father's a git, with all of his pure-blood nonsense too, and you don't hold that against me." The girls looked up in surprise, not realizing that their conversation had been overheard. "Besides, there are so many other reasons to hate Snape, why use his father as an excuse?" Sirius turned back around and whispered something to Pettigrew that Lily didn't hear.

"What does he mean, 'pure-blood nonsense'?" Lily asked in confusion, but before either Alice or Amelia could answer, Professor McGonagall had entered the room and was striding briskly toward the front of the classroom. The girls quickly pulled out their quills and parchment, Lily barely able to contain her excitement that she was going to be using her wand at long last!

"Welcome, everyone to transfiguration. During your time with me, you will be learning the very difficult science of transfiguration. As transfiguration can be very dangerous if not done correctly, you will find that I hold my students to the highest level of behavior. If you decide that it is your desire to misbehave in this room, you will find yourself out of my class before you can say Quidditch," she looked sternly around the room, her eyes moving from student to student. Lily noticed that her gaze lingered on Potter and Black, and then she clapped her hands together briskly. "All right, then. Wands out! Today you will be attempting a very basic piece of transfiguration, turning pieces of straw into needles. Pettigrew, please pass these out!" Pettigrew looked startled to have been singled out, and scurried to the front of the classroom as McGonagall demonstrated the correct wand movement and incantation.

The three girls set to work attempting to transfigure their pieces of straw, but despite their best efforts, were still unsuccessful when the class was already half over. Alice had done the best, her piece of straw was at least shiny and hard, but it remained stubbornly flat. Amelia had managed to get her piece of straw to go pointy, but it continued to have the same texture as before, and when she tried to pick it up to inspect, she had accidentally snapped it in two and had had to get another piece. Lily's piece of straw had a split at one end, and although Alice said that she thought it looked like it might be the eye of the needle, Lily was fairly certain that her wand had caused the split when she had jabbed the straw in frustration.

Alice poked Lily in the side, and motioned toward Potter and Black when Lily looked up from her straw piece. "Look at that!" she said enviously, pointing at the pile of shiny, pointy, perfectly formed needles now sitting in front of Black, Potter and Lupin. Only Pettigrew had been unsuccessful, and Lily saw that Lupin was now assisting Pettigrew. As they watched, Pettigrew finally succeeded in forming a needle, and he let out a small squeak of excitement.

"I don't get it!" Lily whispered, chewing on her nails in frustration. "How come they aren't having any trouble? They weren't even paying attention when McGonagall was showing us how to do it!"

At that moment, McGonagall, who had been walking around the classroom and observing the students, walked over to the three girls with a look of disapproval. "I see that you three have still not managed the transformation. Let's see where you're going wrong. You first Miss Parker."

Alice performed the spell, her voice shaking slightly. "No, you're pronouncing it wrong. It's a long e, not an eh sound. Now you, Miss Bones." McGonagall watched Amelia perform the spell and told her that she needed to make sure that her wand was aimed directly at the piece of straw and that she was concentrating when she said the incantation.

Finally, it was Lily's turn to go. She again performed the spell, and again nothing happened. "No, no, no, Miss Evans. Your wand movement is all wrong. Potter!" she barked suddenly. He turned around in surprise.

"Yes Professor?" he inquired.

"You seem to have the hang of this. Help Miss Evans with her wand movement!"

Potter looked at Lily, smirking. "Absolutely, Professor," he replied.

"Thank you, Potter," she said, "5 points for Gryffindor," and McGonagall strode away, leaving Lily blushing furiously and wishing that McGonagall had asked anyone but James Potter to assist her with the spell.

By the end of transfiguration, all three girls had successfully transformed their pieces of straw into needles, but Lily took no pleasure in the accomplishment. She had had to work with Potter the remainder of the lesson, and he had wasted no time in teasing her about the difficulty she was having. "Having trouble with the assignment, Evans?" he had asked, as soon as McGonagall was out of ear shot. "Maybe you should have prepared more for class."

Lily felt her temper flare and took a deep breath before responding. "McGonagall said that I wasn't doing the wand movement right. Can you please demonstrate the proper way to do it for me?" she said, unable to believe that she had to ask James Potter for help with anything.

"Only if you apologize for insinuating that I don't take my studies seriously, Evans," he said, folding his arms and leaning against the desk with a smile. "Go on, apologize. I'm waiting."

Lily took another deep breath, still attempting to calm herself. "I hardly think that's necessary," she began, but Potter interrupted her.

"But I do," he said as Black watched them, laughing. "And if you don't apologize to me, I won't show you how to do it, and you'll end up with extra homework from McGonagall."

Lily glanced over at Alice and Amelia, hoping that one of them would come to her rescue, but Lupin was now helping both of them with their spells and they didn't seem to notice Potter giving her a hard time. "Fine!" Lily snapped. "I'm sorry that I insinuated you don't take your studies seriously, Potter. It would have been more accurate for me to say that you are an annoying little prat!" At this point, both Lupin and Pettigrew turned to look at them as well, the same awe that Lily had noticed earlier clearly evident again in Pettigrew's face.

"She's got you there, Jamesy," Black said with a bark-like laugh. "You can be an annoying little prat sometimes."

Potter stared at her for a moment with something like approval in his eyes, and then laughed. "You have nerve, Evans. I'll give you that," and with that, he demonstrated the proper wand movement. After several unsuccessful attempts, with Potter correcting her as she went, Lily was finally successful at transforming her piece of straw just as the bell rang to signal the end of class. Her feeling of accomplishment was short-lived, however, because as she was walking out of class, Potter, who was standing at McGonagall's desk, no doubt waiting for his detention assignment, had called out "Try to be more prepared next time Evans. I have better things to do with my time than helping you all class!"

The three girls glared at him as he turned toward McGonagall. "You may just have been right about him, Lily," Alice conceded. "I don't know if I've ever met anyone more arrogant that Potter and Black."

"The worst part is, we have every class with them," Amelia added. "At least we only have to put up with the Slytherins for Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"At this point," Lily said, turning around and heading toward the door, "I'd rather every class were a double period with the Slytherins than to have to deal with those four every day!" If she were truthful, Lily still didn't see what was so bad about the Slytherins, but as no one seemed about to explain, she decided not to bring it up.

"I still think Lupin is nice," Amelia said defensively. "He helped me get my spell right, anyway. And Alice, too."

"You're right," Lily agreed. "Lupin seems like a nice enough boy, though he could at least say something when he doesn't agree with them. And I almost feel sorry for Pettigrew. It seems like they're just as horrible to him as they are to me."

The rest of the day had gone much better for Lily than their first class had. After transfiguration, they had had their first Herbology class with the Hufflepuffs. They were set to work watering mandrakes, which had just been replanted by the second-year Slytherins and Ravenclaws the previous period. Alice had earned five points for Gryffindor for knowing that Mandrakes could only be watered using rainwater caught with the leaves of a mangrove tree. After Herbology was lunch, and then they'd had charms. Lily was quite pleased with herself. She had been the only one in class who had managed to get her feather to float on the first try, and Professor Flitwick, a tiny, excitable young man, had awarded her five points as well. Even Lupin and Black had complimented her.

All in all, the day had gone fairly well, and Lily was in a much better mood as she, Alice and Amelia sat down beside Kaylie and Desdamona at the Gryffindor table for supper. Kaylie was complaining about Transfiguration—she had been given extra homework because like much of the class, her piece of straw still looked decidedly like a piece of straw by the end of class—and Desdamona was attempting to cheer her up by telling her it could have been worse.

"She's right," Lily agreed, "McGonagall could have told Potter to help you with it."

Kaylie giggled. "Do you know, I don't think I would have minded that one bit, Lily," she confessed with a smile. "I think he's adorable!"

"That's because you haven't talked to him yet. One conversation and that impression will go out the window! 'Next time try to be prepared for class, Evans!'" she said, embarrassed again at the memory.

"That's good advice," a voice from behind her said, and she turned around to look into the smiling faces of none other than Black and Potter. She looked across the table, and saw Lupin and Pettigrew standing on the opposite side.

"Can't you find somewhere else to sit?" she said testily. "There's a whole table here!"

They looked up and down the table, as if just noticing the other seats. "You are right about that, Evans. At least you're prepared for supper, if not for class. But I'm afraid you made the mistake of sitting next to our good friend, Frank here, so either you'll have to move, or you'll have to put up with us," Potter said, and sat down next to a tall, blond haired boy that Lily recognized as the one who had nearly fallen into the lake the previous night. Taking their cue from Potter, the other three boys sat down as well, and immediately became engrossed in a conversation about Quidditch with Frank.

Lily decided that the best way to deal with this unpleasant turn of events was simply to ignore it. "Have any of you ever flown before?" she asked the other four girls. They had their first flying lesson the next morning, and Lily was quite nervous about it.

"I'm a muggle-born, mate," Kaylie said with a smile. "The most I've ever done with a broom is sweep the kitchen floor!"

Amelia looked amazed. "Really—you mean you actually use a broom to sweep floors?" she asked.

Alice laughed. "Careful, Amelia. You're starting to sound a bit too much like my dad! 'Really? You put the dirty clothes in the washer, turn it on—what do you mean, on?'" she said in a bad impression of her father.

The girls laughed, and then Desdamona said, "My brother let me ride his broom when he was home from school. It's not that difficult, Lily," she said in a reassuring tone.

"Evans!" Potter called out suddenly. None of the girls had noticed that he had stopped discussing Quidditch, and was now listening to their conversation.

"What?" Lily snapped impatiently, thinking to herself that she was reaching a point where she was getting sick of the sound of her own last name.

"You don't have anything to worry about," he said, and Lily looked at him, surprised. "The most important thing is to just relax, and let your broom become an extension of you. That's what my dad told me, anyway, and I feel more comfortable on a broomstick than I do on my own two feet."

Lily stared at Potter in disbelief. "What, no crack about how I'd better figure out what I'm doing, because you don't want to have to catch me when I fall off my broom?" she said sarcastically, the mistrust evident in her voice.

"I'm hurt, Evans." Potter said, genuinely looking hurt. "Sirius, do you see this? Pete? Remmy? I try to reassure her, and this is the thanks I get?" He glared at her. Lily didn't know what to say. She had become so accustomed to Potter teasing her every chance he got that she didn't quite know what to make of this. She half-suspected that he had known she would react this way, and had set her up to embarrass her, and the thought made her temper flare again.

"I see it, mate," Black said, shaking his head. "And after you helped her in transfiguration and everything.

Lupin was smiling, "Doesn't seem right, does it?" he agreed.

Not wanting to apologize, but not knowing what else to say, she simply glared back at Potter, and stood up quickly to leave the table. Amelia and Alice stood up and followed her.

"What is it with her?" she heard Potter ask his friends as they walked out.

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Lily had been dreading facing Potter and his friends after dinner, but by the time she saw them again, they had taken over one corner of the common room for a noisy game of wizard's chess between Lupin and Black. She, Alice and Amelia, along with Frank Longbottom who, despite his apparent friendship with Potter, turned out to be a nice, intelligent boy, decided to work on their essays for Herbology, and sat in a group of chairs by the fireplace. As it turned out, Alice knew a great deal about the subject, and by 8 o'clock, her essay lay completed on the table. She went back and forth between the other three, pointing out corrections, looking up facts, and making them laugh occasionally with her jokes. By 9 o'clock, all of the older students had filtered in, and the noise in the common room had risen so high that it became clear that it was no use continuing to work on homework. Frank decided to join the group watching Potter trounce Pettigrew at chess. Black's and Lupin's game had ended when Lupin, who had begun to look very ill as the evening had worn on, had gone up to bed half an hour earlier. Lily decided to go upstairs and write a letter to Petunia, so feigning a yawn, she said good night to Alice and Amelia. As she began to walk toward the stairs she heard the by now familiar voice of James Potter call out, "Hey, Evans!"

Not wishing for Potter to embarrass her in front of all of Gryffindor House, Lily ignored him, and started up the stairs. She was apparently mistaken in her belief that a tiny little detail like being ignored was going to stop James Potter, however. "Do you want to borrow the book my mum gave me on flying techniques?" he asked. Lily couldn't tell from his voice if he was serious, as he apparently had been at dinner, or if it was another one of his jokes, so she turned, hoping she could tell from his expression.

Except for a sparkle in his eyes that could very well have been caused by the reflection from the fire roaring in the fireplace, his face gave away no sign of his intentions. Lily decided to answer civilly, rather than risk looking like an idiot in front of him again. "No, thank you, Potter. I think I'll be fine."

"Are you sure, Evans?" he asked, now grinning devilishly, "I wouldn't want to have to catch you when you fall off of your broom because you didn't prepare properly for class." The circle standing around Potter laughed, but Lily was heartened when she noticed that Alice and Amelia were now glaring in his direction.

"I wouldn't worry about that if I were you, Potter," Lily said icily. "If the only thing standing between me and plummeting fifty feet to my certain death was you, I would choose death."

"You know mate," Lily heard Black say as she stormed up the stairs, "If I didn't know any better, I would say she didn't like you."

"What makes you think Lily likes James?" she heard Pettigrew ask in confusion before she climbed out of earshot.

When she arrived in her room, Lily pulled out her stationary to write a letter to Petunia, but she was still too angry about the incident with James. Instead of lying on her bed to write, she paced around the dormitory restlessly, getting ready for bed. Her disapproval of Potter had now grown into a full-fledged feeling of dislike that was bordering on hatred. What was more, she couldn't even figure out what it was that she had done to provoke Potter in the first place. Before she'd even spoken to him he had tried to sneak into her room and hide a tarantula in her bed, for pity's sake! What had she done to deserve that? Lily went to sit down on the bed, but stopped as she remembered Potter's warning to her that morning. At the time, she had thought he was joking, but after the experiences she'd had with him today, she was no longer certain. Deciding that she wouldn't put it past him to pay an older girl to sneak up here and hide the tarantula, she pulled back her covers and inspected her bed carefully. After she had reassured herself that it was safe to lie down, she collapsed into bed with a sigh. Her first day hadn't gone the way she had hoped, that was for sure. With any luck at all, she had embarrassed Potter in the common room tonight, and he would leave her alone tomorrow. Trying to put the thought of falling off of her broom in front of Potter out of her head, she pulled the curtains of her four-poster shut, and was asleep before the other girls came upstairs.