CHAPTER 4
Lucy sat in the courtyard one sunny Saturday afternoon, having finished her homework she decided to write to her parents.
Dear Mum and Dad,
How are you, I miss you but Dad was right. I am starting
to really enjoy my lessons now. Well most of them anyway.
Mum you wouldn't believe our History teacher, he's a
GHOST!! It's really creepy he floats about the class all
see through and drones on and on. But the subject is
pretty easy so I don't have to pay too much attention to
him. Then there's the Potions master, on the first day he
stormed into the class so suddenly that I dropped my
Quill under the table, and when I had picked it up. He
was standing over me, asking me questions about the
"Magical herbs" book. But instead of being pleased that I
knew the right answers he just turned to some one else
and fired questions at them! Anyway you were right about
Professor McGonagall, I like her a lot and she is very
nice to me. So is Professor Flitwick, though it was hard
to take him seriously at first he is so tiny and always
so posh! Miss Smith he calls me! Anyway we have our first
flying lessons next week but I don't think I'm looking
forward to that, I mean how can a skinny little
broomstick hold a persons weight? The defence against the
dark arts teacher is a grumpy old wizard called Professor
Hunt; he gave me into trouble for reading too quickly! As
though it matters what speed I read at! All the girls I
share with are good fun, so I'll write to you soon.
Bye love from
Lucy
Several of the students had also noticed how quickly Lucy read and how she seemed to remember everything she read. Her friends now asked her to check their homework and some of the older students tried to find out if she had cast a spell on her memory somehow.
At Lucy's old school this had made her very unpopular, she had been teased and called lots of unkind names, but at Hogwarts people seemed ready to accept the unusual, so much about the students and the teachers was unusual or even down right bizarre!
Lucy's favourite class was transfigurations, unlike some of her fellow students she liked Professor McGonagall (and had even heard that she could turn into a cat!)
The class had now started to transform things and Lucy was very excited when the piece of straw she had, changed into a sharp silver needle, the Professor had been so pleased with her she had given Ravenclaw 5 points.
As the lessons proceeded Lucy began to show a natural talent for transfigurations and was advancing quickly ahead of the rest of her class. After one particularly difficult lesson when she had been the only one in the class to transform a piece of wood into a small trinket box, the carved lid being so pretty that the Professor had called the classes attention to it, she called for Lucy to stay behind.
"You know, you really have a natural ability for this class Miss Smith, I was wondering if anyone else in your family had been to Hogwarts?"
"Well actually my father came hear when he was my age, but I only just found out about it when I got my letter, I didn't even know he was a wizard." Lucy answered embarrassed.
"You didn't know he was a wizard?" Professor McGonagall looked puzzled.
"Yes, he told me that he decided to leave this world and never use magic again after his family was murdered by an evil wizard twenty years ago."
Professor McGonagall suddenly looked intrigued as she asked "What is your father's name?"
"Diogenes Hipworth."
"Des Hipworth is still alive.oh my word, but this is excellent news we thought him dead. Wait until Professor Dumbledore hears he will be thrilled."
Lucy wasn't sure how to answer this, she didn't know if her father was ready to tell the world of his deception all those years ago.
"My goodness, of course I can see the resemblance now, I don't know how I could have missed it and he was also a very gifted student," the Professor carried on, almost ignoring the fact that Lucy was still in the room, then it seemed she remembered and added briskly sounding more like her usual self "You should hurry along to dinner now Miss Smith, I wouldn't want you to miss it."
When Lucy arrived down in the great hall for dinner, she noticed Professor McGonagall deep in conversation with Professors Flitwick, Sprout and Dumbledore, Dumbledore seemed to be the only one not glancing at her excitedly and Lucy had the feeling that the wise old wizard had already worked out her secret.
After dinner that night she went with Andrea back to the library. While Andrea struggled with her homework Lucy looked through the shelves for some books on what had actually happened all those years ago.
As soon as she began to read she knew why her father had not told her the details of what had happened. Lucy knew it was useless to hope she would forget the details, and even more hopeless to wish she would not see those ghastly pictures of Lord Voldemort in her dreams for a long time to come.
Lucy stared for a long time at the picture of the house in Godric's hollow, where a few years ago, he had finally met his match in the boy called Harry Potter.
The next night Lucy started to look up defence spells and charms in the library some of them were very complex and she wasn't so sure she would have been able to master them even if she wanted to. But it fast became an obsession, as though knowing the spells would somehow relieve her nightmares.
She came to understand why her father had given up magic and left his world to protect his new wife then later their baby.
Life in the castle bustled along and it seemed as though time was flying past. Suddenly autumn fell into winter and the corridors of the school were so cold that the students had to run between lessons. During one particularly boring potions lesson, when yet again Lucy was told off for giggling with Andrea, Snape had given them both detentions.
Complaining of the unfairness of it all the girls made their way back to Ravenclaw tower, when half way up the stairs the heard a blood curdling scream behind them.
Turning instinctively they ran together back down the stairs pausing at the bottom, "which way now?" gasped Lucy.
Andrea was staring over the banister to try and find the source of the scream. "Don't know, I can't see anything" Andrea relied.
A few seconds later they saw a 7th year Slytherin appear from a corridor to their right.
"Did you hear that?" Lucy demanded.
"What? That stupid poltergeist Peeves?" said the boy coldly.
"Oh is that what it was?" answered Lucy.
Without another word he continued down the stairs. Lucy and Andrea looked at each other smiling slightly; "I guess it was a false alarm" laughed Andrea. "Yes" smiled Lucy, not totally convinced, "What's down that corridor anyway?" she added. Andrea shrugged turning to go back up the stairs, when Lucy grabbed her arm and pulled her off down the unknown corridor.
"Where are we going? We're going to miss dinner!"
"Just two minutes, I want to see what down here." Lucy replied.
They continued down the dark passage until they realised that no-one else was about and the only light seemed to be coming from a room up ahead of them. They stopped outside a door slightly ajar and peered first at each other then as they were about to look to see what was inside they heard a loud voice.
"Oi you two don't belong down here, get on with you now." Filch the caretaker was standing at the far end of the corridor looking as mean as ever.
The girls quickly ran back up the passage and passed the caretaker who muttered "Bloody students always up to no good." He shuffled off and left them perplexed.
"Why are we not supposed to go down that passage?" Lucy wondered aloud, "I mean no-one ever told us about it did they?"
"Don't know" answered Andrea, "But if we're not allowed what was that boy doing down there in the first place, and did Peeves really make that horrible sound?"
Still thinking about this they put their book bags in the tower then headed down to dinner.
Lucy sat in the courtyard one sunny Saturday afternoon, having finished her homework she decided to write to her parents.
Dear Mum and Dad,
How are you, I miss you but Dad was right. I am starting
to really enjoy my lessons now. Well most of them anyway.
Mum you wouldn't believe our History teacher, he's a
GHOST!! It's really creepy he floats about the class all
see through and drones on and on. But the subject is
pretty easy so I don't have to pay too much attention to
him. Then there's the Potions master, on the first day he
stormed into the class so suddenly that I dropped my
Quill under the table, and when I had picked it up. He
was standing over me, asking me questions about the
"Magical herbs" book. But instead of being pleased that I
knew the right answers he just turned to some one else
and fired questions at them! Anyway you were right about
Professor McGonagall, I like her a lot and she is very
nice to me. So is Professor Flitwick, though it was hard
to take him seriously at first he is so tiny and always
so posh! Miss Smith he calls me! Anyway we have our first
flying lessons next week but I don't think I'm looking
forward to that, I mean how can a skinny little
broomstick hold a persons weight? The defence against the
dark arts teacher is a grumpy old wizard called Professor
Hunt; he gave me into trouble for reading too quickly! As
though it matters what speed I read at! All the girls I
share with are good fun, so I'll write to you soon.
Bye love from
Lucy
Several of the students had also noticed how quickly Lucy read and how she seemed to remember everything she read. Her friends now asked her to check their homework and some of the older students tried to find out if she had cast a spell on her memory somehow.
At Lucy's old school this had made her very unpopular, she had been teased and called lots of unkind names, but at Hogwarts people seemed ready to accept the unusual, so much about the students and the teachers was unusual or even down right bizarre!
Lucy's favourite class was transfigurations, unlike some of her fellow students she liked Professor McGonagall (and had even heard that she could turn into a cat!)
The class had now started to transform things and Lucy was very excited when the piece of straw she had, changed into a sharp silver needle, the Professor had been so pleased with her she had given Ravenclaw 5 points.
As the lessons proceeded Lucy began to show a natural talent for transfigurations and was advancing quickly ahead of the rest of her class. After one particularly difficult lesson when she had been the only one in the class to transform a piece of wood into a small trinket box, the carved lid being so pretty that the Professor had called the classes attention to it, she called for Lucy to stay behind.
"You know, you really have a natural ability for this class Miss Smith, I was wondering if anyone else in your family had been to Hogwarts?"
"Well actually my father came hear when he was my age, but I only just found out about it when I got my letter, I didn't even know he was a wizard." Lucy answered embarrassed.
"You didn't know he was a wizard?" Professor McGonagall looked puzzled.
"Yes, he told me that he decided to leave this world and never use magic again after his family was murdered by an evil wizard twenty years ago."
Professor McGonagall suddenly looked intrigued as she asked "What is your father's name?"
"Diogenes Hipworth."
"Des Hipworth is still alive.oh my word, but this is excellent news we thought him dead. Wait until Professor Dumbledore hears he will be thrilled."
Lucy wasn't sure how to answer this, she didn't know if her father was ready to tell the world of his deception all those years ago.
"My goodness, of course I can see the resemblance now, I don't know how I could have missed it and he was also a very gifted student," the Professor carried on, almost ignoring the fact that Lucy was still in the room, then it seemed she remembered and added briskly sounding more like her usual self "You should hurry along to dinner now Miss Smith, I wouldn't want you to miss it."
When Lucy arrived down in the great hall for dinner, she noticed Professor McGonagall deep in conversation with Professors Flitwick, Sprout and Dumbledore, Dumbledore seemed to be the only one not glancing at her excitedly and Lucy had the feeling that the wise old wizard had already worked out her secret.
After dinner that night she went with Andrea back to the library. While Andrea struggled with her homework Lucy looked through the shelves for some books on what had actually happened all those years ago.
As soon as she began to read she knew why her father had not told her the details of what had happened. Lucy knew it was useless to hope she would forget the details, and even more hopeless to wish she would not see those ghastly pictures of Lord Voldemort in her dreams for a long time to come.
Lucy stared for a long time at the picture of the house in Godric's hollow, where a few years ago, he had finally met his match in the boy called Harry Potter.
The next night Lucy started to look up defence spells and charms in the library some of them were very complex and she wasn't so sure she would have been able to master them even if she wanted to. But it fast became an obsession, as though knowing the spells would somehow relieve her nightmares.
She came to understand why her father had given up magic and left his world to protect his new wife then later their baby.
Life in the castle bustled along and it seemed as though time was flying past. Suddenly autumn fell into winter and the corridors of the school were so cold that the students had to run between lessons. During one particularly boring potions lesson, when yet again Lucy was told off for giggling with Andrea, Snape had given them both detentions.
Complaining of the unfairness of it all the girls made their way back to Ravenclaw tower, when half way up the stairs the heard a blood curdling scream behind them.
Turning instinctively they ran together back down the stairs pausing at the bottom, "which way now?" gasped Lucy.
Andrea was staring over the banister to try and find the source of the scream. "Don't know, I can't see anything" Andrea relied.
A few seconds later they saw a 7th year Slytherin appear from a corridor to their right.
"Did you hear that?" Lucy demanded.
"What? That stupid poltergeist Peeves?" said the boy coldly.
"Oh is that what it was?" answered Lucy.
Without another word he continued down the stairs. Lucy and Andrea looked at each other smiling slightly; "I guess it was a false alarm" laughed Andrea. "Yes" smiled Lucy, not totally convinced, "What's down that corridor anyway?" she added. Andrea shrugged turning to go back up the stairs, when Lucy grabbed her arm and pulled her off down the unknown corridor.
"Where are we going? We're going to miss dinner!"
"Just two minutes, I want to see what down here." Lucy replied.
They continued down the dark passage until they realised that no-one else was about and the only light seemed to be coming from a room up ahead of them. They stopped outside a door slightly ajar and peered first at each other then as they were about to look to see what was inside they heard a loud voice.
"Oi you two don't belong down here, get on with you now." Filch the caretaker was standing at the far end of the corridor looking as mean as ever.
The girls quickly ran back up the passage and passed the caretaker who muttered "Bloody students always up to no good." He shuffled off and left them perplexed.
"Why are we not supposed to go down that passage?" Lucy wondered aloud, "I mean no-one ever told us about it did they?"
"Don't know" answered Andrea, "But if we're not allowed what was that boy doing down there in the first place, and did Peeves really make that horrible sound?"
Still thinking about this they put their book bags in the tower then headed down to dinner.