Ickle Firsties
Chapter Five – The Whomping Willow
AN: Okay, for future reference, updates will usually only be on weekends. Also, I'm going to try and update this one more often! Yay! Lol… this chapter's part songfic, too, which is kinda weird for me. Anyway, without further ado, on to the chapter!
James and Sirius were engulfed in fits of laughter by the time they followed the rest of their year-mates down to the dungeons for their very first Potions class. They had been envisioning Severus Snape as a fluffy purple bunny rabbit- which, according to them, was akin to his personality- bouncing around in Professor Flitwick's large bushy white wig. They had accidentally found out about their Charms professor's hair, or lack thereof, when James had tried another one of incantations that sent a strong Arctic wind prancing around the classroom.
By the time they entered the Potions dungeon, they were still laughing. Then Sirius said something extremely, erm, gross about McGonagall's trousers, and the pair laughed harder still.
The Potions master slammed a baton- why is he holding a baton? Several students wondered- into the palm of his right hand repeatedly. The two dark-haired brats in the second row simply refused to pay attention. Well, he would find out who they were by taking attendance, pure and simple. See if they were humiliated! And once they were good and embarrassed, he would take twenty points from Gryffindor. He smirked.
"Hello, class," he began in the firm tone he always used with new students. "My name is Maurus Nuray. I am going to be your Potions teacher this year.
"I will begin by taking attendance, and then lay down the rules for our classroom. If you are intelligent enough to handle all that, we'll progress to the evaluation quiz, to see how much prior knowledge of potions and potion-making you possess."
Several students groaned. In fact, most of the class groaned, except for those two boys. Professor Nuray smirked again.
"Avellone, Michael!"
"Here…."
"Black, Sirius!"
No answer.
"Black, Sirius!"
Still no answer.
A red-headed girl in sitting near the two class disruptors in the second row reached around one of them and poked the longer-haired one with her quill. "Sirius!"
The quill's victim turned around. "Huh? How do you know my name?"
The girl rolled her eyes. "Unlike the two of you-" noticing the absence of Sirius's laughter, James turned around- "I pay attention when our professors are taking attendance."
For some odd reason, James felt himself blushing.
"Uhhh…" Sirius said. James pointed to their professor, who was looking nothing short of irked, "here!" He smiled good-naturedly.
"Very well, Mr. Black," said Professor Nuray in his well-oiled voice (AN: So he's a Snape clone… so what? :D). "I hope you will pay more attention in the future-"
"Sir, yes, sir!" Sirius said, mock-saluting his professor. This earned titters from the Gryffindors.
"SILENCE!" Professor Nuray shouted. His left eye began to twitch violently as it usually did when he was extremely angry. "Mr. Black! Twenty points from Gryffindor for not paying attention and joking! Mr. Potter! Fifteen points from Gryffindor for helping him and laughing! Miss Evans! You helped him, too! Ten points from Gryffindor! And an additional five points from Gryffindor for the rest of you for laughing!"
"Well, what're we at now, negative five hundred?" James asked Sirius a bit too audibly.
"Mr. Potter!" thundered the Potions master, striding down between the rows to look James square in the face, his eye twitching threateningly. "Your incessant talking has earned you a detention!"
Sirius glanced from Nuray's very red face and twitching eye to the terrified look on James's own face, and burst into uncontrollable peals of laughter. Mentally, Maurus Nuray burst.
"MR. BLACK! YOU WILL JOIN YOUR FRIEND, MR. POTTER, IN DETENTION, HERE IN MY OFFICE, TOMORROW NIGHT!" he held up his leather baton threateningly, and James and Sirius pretended to cower and attempted to hide grins. (AN: This is rather reminding me of silent football… lol… Mr. Opera! Mr. Cheese! Stop laughing this instant! Lol… funfunfun….)
Nuray tried to remember what his guidance counselor had told him: take a deep breath; count to ten… one, two, three, four, five… ah, good enough. He walked back up the aisle and stood at the front of the class once more.
"Now, I will continue to take attendance…."
Hey, schoolgirl in the second row
Teacher's lookin' over so I gotta whisper way down low
James quickly lost interest in the list of names that Professor Nuray was reading off and found himself staring at the red-headed girl. Evans, the professor had called her… Evans, Evans, Lila? No, that wasn't it. But it started with an L. Lucy? Lulu? Lana?
"Evans, Lily," called Professor Nuray. The girl raised her hand.
"Present," she said clearly. Oh, Lily! Well, I was right about part of it… it did start with an L… man, she's pretty….
Then she noticed James. 'What are you looking at?' she mouthed.
Say woobopaloochaba, let's meet
After school at three
James sat there dumbstruck. Then he came to his senses and winked at her.
She tsked and shook her head, plainly thinking, stupid git.
She say, hey baby, there's one thing more
My school is over at a half past four
Maybe when we're older then we can date
Ooh, ooh, let's wait
James sat back on the stone bench, disappointed. His first full day at Hogwarts, and he had already gotten one rejection.
***
It was break time, and the first years were outside. James and Sirius were bragging to Peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, and Davy Gudgeon about their detention. Only that Pettigrew kid looked impressed. All of a sudden, while James was in the middle of describing how frightening it had been to be that close to Nuray's face, Sirius grabbed his arm and pointed to the large willow tree they had noticed the night before.
"James," Sirius whispered. "I know I saw it move this time."
James stopped in the middle of his sentence, Remus's face went slack, Davy Gudgeon looked excited, and Peter looked like he was about to wet himself.
"Well, let's go investigate, shall we?" Peter finally said.
James, Davy, and Peter began running toward the tree, but Remus stayed put.
"Come on, mate," coaxed Davy, half-dragging Remus in the direction of the willow.
"I-I really don't think that's a g-good idea," stuttered Remus. "I m-mean, it's quite n-near the forest, and P-professor Dumbledore told us that w-was off limits…."
"Aw, come on, Remus! Come with us!" urged Sirius.
"Yeah, have a little fun!" added James.
Davy Gudgeon gave an almighty tug, and, at the risk of having his arm dislocated, Remus allowed himself to be pulled over to the tree, vowing to press the knot that would freeze it so no one would get hurt.
"Cooooooool," breathed Sirius, gazing up at the tree. "Let's see if it'll hit me!" he jabbed an arm out in front of the tree, and a huge branch came swinging down from above as just as he pulled it away.
"It hits back," said James in awe.
Remus's eyes skirted the tree frantically. Where was that knot that the headmaster had told him about?
Now a large number of students had gathered. They were all placing various body parts within reach of the tree's branches, then jerking them out of the way as fast as they could. They were making a game out of it! A game! Remus's brow furrowed. Now, where was that knot?
Without warning, someone cried out in pain. Sixteen heads snapped around, sixteen mouths gasped. The seventeenth of their number was writhing horribly on the ground, clutching the side of his face and screaming. Sixteen faces paled.
"Someone go get a professor!" cried a student. The rest muttered their agreement.
A Ravenclaw boy ran off, and moments later, Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore came rushing out of the castle and toward Davy Gudgeon, whose state was no better than before.
"Oh, my," said Professor McGonagall.
Dumbledore bent down to examine the wounded boy, and the rest of the students backed away created a clearing of sorts around him.
"It's alright," he murmured, easing Davy's hand away from his face. Now seventeen people gasped, McGonagall among them. Dumbledore, however, did not seem surprised, though the sight that greeted him was truly one for the ages. Davy's eye was turned sideways in its socket, bleeding like the world was ending. "Beautiful," the headmaster commented. "We'd best have you up to the hospital wing, Mr. Gudgeon."
Professor McGonagall regained her composure and magicked Davy onto a stretcher, floating him slowly toward the castle. She turned around and said loudly, "There's nothing more to see! You have three minutes before classes resume!"
Reluctantly, the students shuffled away. "Mr. Potter and Mr. Black," called Professor Dumbledore. "A word, if you will?"
James and Sirius exchanged glances, wondering what the Headmaster wanted with them.
"My sources tell me that you two helped initiate this," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling.
"But Professor," Sirius interjected, "last night at the feast, you didn't say anything about-"
"A mistake on my part," Dumbledore replied, holding up a hand to silence him. "When one reaches a certain age, one finds that mistakes are inevitable. Although this was a most unfortunate one; one that could have been prevented.
"But I must ask you boys not to go near this tree again. It is on the grounds for one specific purpose, and, unfortunately, that purpose is not student entertainment." The headmaster's eyes twinkled again. "I would advise your fellow students to do the same. And-" he paused here, "don't be too hard on Remus Lupin. He's only trying to help you."
James and Sirius exchanged glances again, but for once in their lives, kept silent. Finally, James spoke. "Yes, sir, we'll do that."
Dumbledore nodded. "Good. Now, if I am not quite mistaken, you are about to be late for Transfiguration." He stood up and left.
Sirius turned to James. "That Lupin kid- he needs some reform."
"Quite," James agreed. "He needs to lighten up."
The boys nodded their heads in mutual agreement, and headed back up to the castle.
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AN: Uh- review please! :D
--Juli