A/N: Zee, as usual, I really appreciate your reviews. I swear I totally do
the same thing for your story! I totally love it! Nothing makes me
happier than getting an author alert from you! It's like Christmas on my
computer! I'm glad you like it though, like I said in the first chapter, I
didn't know if this was going to be a load of crap or not! Bombshell, I
think this is the most I've ever seen you write in your reviews! LOL, I'm
glad you liked the reproducing rabbits analogy! I rather thought it was
funny myself. To my other reviewers thank you too! I love getting the
reviews. OK, I think I've kept you all long enough.
~Chapter 11~
Emily woke the next morning feeling quite rested. She dressed quickly so that she could meet with her brother to head back to the dinning hall. She was afraid that if he tried it himself he'd end up lost for weeks in the castle. As she headed out to the common room she noticed that her brother was already dressed and waiting with Tyler and Coop. When he noticed her, he quickly headed in her direction. Tyler noticed what Franklin was about to do and tried to stop him.
"No Franklin, not up the stairs!" Emily and Tyler said at the same time but it was too late. Franklin had made it half way up before the stairs smoothed out and he slid back down with Emily sliding down after him. Tyler helped Franklin to his feet while a laughing Coop picked up Emily.
"What happened?" Franklin asked looking as the stairs went back to their original form.
Emily rubbed her backside, 'That's going to hurt later.' To her brother she said, "Boys aren't allowed in the girls dormitories."
"But I'm your brother!" Franklin said indignantly.
"Brother's aren't allowed in the girls dormitories either," Coop said ruffling Franklin's hair.
"Cut that out Coop!" he said flattening out his hair.
"Come on guys, let's get down to breakfast," Emily said and led the way out of the common room. They took their time on their way to the dinning hall so that Franklin could look around at his leisure. The night before they had been rushed and didn't have time to properly look around. Franklin was amazed by the moving pictures and giggled in delight as the stairs they were on changed while they were climbing.
When they finally reached the hall Franklin ran ahead to sit with his new friends. Tyler gave a fake sniffle and whipped an imaginary tear from his eye; "They leave the nest so soon!"
Emily laughed as the three sat at the table. She was glad that her brother had made some new friends already; at least he wouldn't feel self-conscious in class. She was famished and when the food appeared on the table she served herself a hearty serving of eggs and bacon.
"So what do you think of this new teaching situation?" Emily said casting a glance at the head table where the teachers were sitting eating their own breakfast.
Tyler briefly spared a glance in their direction before turning back to his own food, "It'll be interesting to be sure."
"Who cares about class? I just hope that Weasley and Potter can turn the Gryffindor Quidditch team around," Coop said with his mouth full. "I think the last time Gryffindor won the cup was the year after they left," he pointed at Harry and Ron.
"That's a good point, Coop. I hope they do too," Tyler agreed. Tyler and Coop were both beaters on the house Quidditch team while Emily was a keeper. It wasn't that the team was bad; it's just that they weren't good.
"Come on guys, there's more than Quidditch."
"Not really Em," Coop said looking at her over his bacon strip, "nothing that really matters anyway."
Emily sighed, there really was no convincing him otherwise. After breakfast Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco walked down their house tables and handed out schedules.
"Didn't know that Collin had a sister or another brother for that matter," Harry said to Emily as he handed over her schedule.
"No, I suppose he spent more time talking to you about you than much anything else."
Harry laughed, "He did do that a lot!" He turned to look at Tyler and Coop, "The three of you are on the Quidditch team right?" The three of them nodded their heads, "We'll be having a meeting tonight. Just to give Ron, er, that is Professor Weasley and myself and opportunity to see what you guys got. We'll see you on the pitch at 5:00 sharp."
Coop smiled as Harry continued down the table, "Alright! We're getting a jump on Quidditch already!"
"Yeah well we have a long time until 5, just listen to our schedules! Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfigurations, AND double Potions today?" Tyler said his mouth falling open. "What exactly did we let you talk us into here Em?"
Emily sighed and looked at her friends, "You guys agreed last year that we needed to do what we could to make sure we were ready for our O.W.L.S next year! Don't try to turn this on me now!"
Coop looked up from his schedule at Emily, "Super! Just think of ALL that extra homework we can look forward to! And if we're really lucky, we won't even have time for Quidditch!"
"I don't need your sarcasm, Philip Anthony Cooper, Jr.!"
"Uh oh, mate, she said your full name WITH the Jr.," Tyler cut in trying to avoid the argument he knew would come if he didn't calm them down. "I'd back off, while you still had the chance. Besides, in all fairness, we did agree with her last year."
Coop was spared having to back down on his own because Franklin came bounding over to sit next to his sister. "He talked to me! Harry Potter talked to me! He talked to you too! I saw him!"
With one last glare at Coop, Emily turned to her brother and smiled. "Of course he talked to us, he's going to be our teacher silly." She reached over and took the schedule out of Franklin's hands. "I see you have Charms first. Come on, I'll show you the way to your class, everyone's leaving anyway."
"OK, let me go and get my friends, they said we could all go to class together."
Emily smiled at her brother, "All right, I'll wait for you here." Franklin returned with his new friends a moment later and did the introductions. The group headed out of the dinning hall and toward the charms classroom.
Coop returned to talk of Quidditch figuring that it would be a safe topic. As they turned down the corridor toward the charms classroom, he filled in Franklin and the triplets with predictions of a Gryffindor victory that year. "Really not even Slytherin is going to stop us this year!" He had been walking backwards and turned around as they neared the Charms room. "We'll slaughter th—Ah!" he said tripping over something and falling to the floor, his fall broken by a body. To his immense horror the body that broke his fall was the one of his new potions teacher. The others could only watch the events in shock.
Ginny had seen the boy run into Draco and hurried over to them. "Everyone OK?" she asked as Coop quickly got off of Draco.
"I'm sorry sir!"
Ginny knelt next to Draco and helped him into sitting position before he shook her hands off him. He looked fiercely at Coop his gray eyes nearly black in anger, "What's your name?"
"Uh, Philip Cooper, but my friends call me Coop."
"Well Mr. Cooper, do I look like I'm here to be your friend." Coop swallowed hard. "I heard you talking about Quidditch," Coop nodded weakly; "Just remember it'll be hard for you to play Quidditch if you spend every day of the next school year in detention with me!" Draco stood and headed down the hall.
"I'm sorry sir!" Coop called out again as Draco rounded the corner.
As soon as Draco was out of sight the first one to burst out laughing was none other than Professor Weasley herself as she stood up off the floor. As she laughed the others who had stood watching like statues started laughing too.
"Way to handle the situation," Tyler chocked out in the middle of his laughter.
"Shut up!" Coop said his face bright red.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about Professor Malfoy. He'll be all right." She looked at Coop, "Are you all right? You didn't hurt yourself did you?"
Coop blushed even more, "No ma'am. I'm not hurt."
She turned her attention to first years. "Ah, Franklin and the Abbott triplets. You guys already for class?" she asked them. They all nodded their heads eagerly. "Great! Well go head on in then. Make sure you grab a good seat!" The four boys quickly said goodbye and headed toward the classroom.
She turned back to the others, "So you're Coop and you are?" she asked looking at Tyler and Emily.
"I'm Tyler McLean and this is Emily Creevey."
Ginny looked at Emily with mild surprise, "Creevey? How is your brother Collin? He and I were in the same year here."
"He's doing well. He and Dennis opted to go to Muggle universities after Hogwarts. They said the wanted a bigger variety of things to choose from," she said feeling slightly embarrassed that her brothers didn't want to pursue magical options.
Ginny noticed Emily's tone, "I'm sure they'll find something they like." Emily nodded her head. "You three had better head off too," Ginny said to them, "class will be beginning soon."
"Yes Professor Weasley," they said heading off toward their own classroom.
They entered the DADA classroom and took a seat. Harry was already there and waiting for the rest of the class to arrive. The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs who were already in class were just sitting quietly in their seats looking at Harry.
"Well then, I think we're all here," he said after a few more minutes and stood up. He walked around to the other side of his desk and sat on the edge while the students watched his every move. "All my life, every time someone met me for the first time they'd always be full of questions and curiosity." Harry paused and looked out at the faces of his students. They were all looking at him with identical looks of awe except for Emily Creevey, which made him smile. 'Well, I guess I can't instantly impress all the Creevey children,' he thought to himself.
"And seeing as how you are all looking at me like I'm a three headed troll, I'm glad to see that's not the case here." The students laughed and some looked away in embarrassment. "However, I think that I'll just cover the most common questions and we'll be able to move on. Sound good?"
Heads nodded eagerly and Harry continued. "Alright then, here we go. Yes, I'm THAT Harry Potter. Yes, the one who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be- Named." He reached up his hand and uncovered his forehead revealing his scar, "Sure, if you really want to see it," he put his hand down again. "No, we will not spend class time talking about the war." A hand shot up in the air, "No we won't be talking about it before or after class either," he said pointing to the student who had his hand up. The boy put his hand back down disappointed. "And finally yes I do know how to produce a Patronus and maybe, one day I'll show you how to do it too."
Harry clapped his hands together; "I'd say that covers it then. Now as for any questions that I haven't answered that you're still wondering about we can cover them at the end of class."
Harry turned on the desk and picked up his textbook. "I know you all ran out and bought this book as part of the curriculum. I don't know about you guys, but I always preferred the hands on approach to learning so we're going to be using this book as little as possible."
The faces before him broke out in relieved smiles. "Today happens to be a no textbook day. Harry jumped off his desk, "You can all leave your books here. We'll be back before the change of class. Just bring your wands please."
"What's all this about?" Emily wondered as she followed her classmates out the door.
"I don't know, but any time we don't have to sit in class is a good time," Tyler said next to her.
They all walked out the front door of the castle and across the grounds. Near the lake Harry stopped them near a table with earmuffs on it. "Everyone gather around," Harry said. The students gathered around the table near him. "Who knows what Sirens are?" Harry looked around no one raised their hand. "No one?"
"Mythical creatures," Tyler said, "It was said that their song could force the listener to do anything."
"Very good Tyler, ten points to Gryffindor." Tyler straightened up and looked around superiorly. "However, these creatures are not mythical. In fact their song is very powerful. Witches and Wizards who work near bodies of water need to know how to defend themselves against the call of these beings. I want you all to grab a pair of earmuffs. Make sure you can't hear anything." The students and Harry put on the earmuffs and headed toward the lake.
As they neared it ripples started to form under the surface and a moment later something was coming up through the water. A creature that looked like a mermaid sat perched on top of a rock. She seemed to glow as she sat there, her blonde hair billowing in the wind. Emily could just make out the Siren's mouth moving and figured that she must be singing.
As she stood there watching, Tyler took a step forward. She was wondering where he was going when she noticed that he had taken off the earmuffs. He took another step and Emily grabbed onto his arm. She couldn't hold him though and Tyler kept heading toward the water.
Harry noticed him walking and lifted his wand. Pointing his wand at the Siren he called out "Silencio!" Tyler stopped walking and shook his head as if to clear it. He turned and walked back to the group.
Harry motioned for the group to take off the earmuffs. "What happened to the Siren? Kimberly Jones, a Hufflepuff, asked.
"I've 'muted' her," Harry explained. Sure enough when Emily looked she could see the Siren's mouth still moving but no noise was reaching them.
"Do you mean to tell me that a Siren is living in our lake?" asked Patricia Cowley, another Hufflepuff.
"No," Harry answered, "I transported this one here for class and rest assured she'll be sent back to where she came from right after class.
"What did you hear?" Benjamin Houser, a fellow Gryffindor, asked Tyler.
Tyler shook his head again, "I can't really describe it but it was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard."
Harry came up next to him, "I'm sure it was and as soon as you got near enough to her she would have snatched you up and taken you to her underwater lair where things would have been a lot less beautiful. With enough practice a witch or wizard can resist the call of the Siren and silence her with the spell I just cast. However, none of you have had any practice and need to make sure you wear your earmuffs," he said glancing meaningfully in Tyler's direction.
"Now, we're going to put our earmuffs back on, I'm going to unsilence her and we'll try the silencing spell one by one." The others were quick to comply and they spent the rest of class at the lake silencing the Siren.
~~~
"That class was awesome!" Tyler said as they made their way toward Transfigurations, "Professor Potter is so cool! I can't wait to see him on the Quidditch field tonight!"
Emily laughed, "You're starting to sound like one of my brothers!"
Tyler laughed too, "Well, it is pretty cool that he's here. Did you ever think that you'd get to meet him in your lifetime?"
"No, but I figured I'd seen enough of him in all the pictures that Collin sent home."
They walked into Transfigurations and took seats near the front of the class. Hermione walked into class a few minutes later and headed to her desk. "Good morning class!" she said cheerfully. "Welcome to Transfigurations." Putting her stuff down on her desk she looked out at her class. "Today we're just going to go over some basic stuff about class and then we're going to do some small Transfigurations." She sat at her desk and looked out at her class. "I know that next year you all have your O.W.L.S and I think that it's important to be as prepared as possible. We're going to start to cover some of the information that you'll find in the written and practical parts of the exam. There is nothing you will learn here that isn't going to be relevant for you at sometime in the future."
Coop leaned over to Tyler, "I feel a lot of homework coming from this class."
"Shh!" Emily said elbowing Coop in the side. She leaned forward even more in her seat to pay closer attention. Tyler gave Coop a questioning look. She hadn't shown the least bit of interest in Harry Potter and now she was looking at Professor Granger as if she were the most interesting thing in the world. Coop shrugged his shoulders at Tyler's unasked question and looked forward again.
Hermione spent some more time going over the course objectives and taking time to answer any questions that the students may have had. "OK, everyone up! Out of your seats, make sure you have your wands." The students all looked at each other quizzically, but stood up. When everyone was standing Hermione waved her wand and the desks disappeared. "Clear a space in the center here please." Everyone cleared the space and Hermione stepped into it. She waved her wand again and a baby elephant appeared in the room.
Everyone took another step back at the new occupant. "I thought you said we'd be doing some 'small' Transfiguring!" someone called out.
Hermione looked up and smiled. "We are. We're going to turn this guy into a mouse. This may not be on your test, but I think it's important that we have a little fun as well. Who wants to go first?"
Emily quickly raised her hand and stepped forward. "I will, Professor."
Hermione smiled at her, "Great, Emily. Come on over here." Emily took a breath and steeped forward. Why did she volunteer anyway? "Don't be nervous, you'll do fine. Just concentrate on what you want to change it into."
Emily stepped up to the elephant and cleared her mind. She closed her eyes and thought of the mouse she wanted the elephant to turn into. She opened her eyes and tapped the elephant with her wand. Almost instantly the animal started to shrink and a moment later a small gray mouse was running around the floor.
"Very good, Emily! That was amazing!" Hermione said.
No one was more shocked than Emily herself, "Thank you, Professor!" She walked back to her friends satisfied with herself.
"Who wants to be next?" More hands shot up this time. None of the other students had been able to change the elephant into a mouse. The closest any of them had gotten was Tyler who shrunk the Elephants ears into small mouse ears. Emily however was able to change the elephant another two times before class ended.
The class ended and Hermione waved her wand making the elephant disappear and the desks reappear. Hermione watched as Emily walked out. She had been very impressed with her skill. Transfiguring something so large was quite a challenge and she had been able to do it on her first try. She'd have to think of how to challenge Emily's mind since she would probably pick up quickly on the basic Transfigurations that they would be doing in class.
~~~
"We're late!" Coop said as they ran down to the dungeons. Franklin, who insisted on giving them every detail of his first two classes, had sidetracked them. Finally Emily had to tell him that she'd hear all about it at dinner and they were able to leave.
They ran into the potions class interrupting Draco. He looked up as the three of them took the first seats they came to in the back of the class. "I'm sorry, but is my class time inconveniencing you three? If so, please let me know and I'll be sure to change it to suit your needs." Bryce snickered at them from where he sat in the front.
Coop resisted the urge to do Bryce bodily harm, "We're sorry sir, it won't happen again."
"'Coop,' was it? You seem to be in an apologetic mood today," Draco said walking to where they sat. "I, however, prefer my apologies in writing. Three feet of parchment on the uses of phoenix feathers in potion making." He looked at Emily and Tyler, "Each!" he added.
"Yes Professor," they said as Draco moved back to the front of class. "Now where was I?" Draco started his lecture again and then put the ingredients of a shrinking potion on the board. "You have until the end of class to complete this."
The three of them pulled out their cauldrons and headed to the cupboard to retrieve their ingredients. "Aww, poor little Coop, off to a bad start in class already," Bryce said reaching into the cupboard.
Coop turned to Bryce and grabbed him by the front of his robes. "Mr. Cooper! Unhand Mr. Davis this instant!" Coop let Bryce go shoving him back away from him. "That will be five feet of parchment from you." He turned to Emily and Tyler, "It will be five feet from you two as well unless you can control your friend."
They grabbed their ingredients and headed back to their desk to begin their potions. Coop was so angry that he couldn't concentrate on his potion but somehow he managed to come up with the same green potion that everyone else was bottling up at the end of class. The three of them turned in their potions and cleared their cauldrons before heading out of class.
"Ugh! I could kill that Davis! I don't care how much parchment he would have asked for, it would be worth it!" Coop said as soon as they were far enough away from the classroom.
"Three feet of parchment?" Emily sighed. "We'll be in the library all night!"
"No time to worry about that now though," Tyler said, "We've got that Quidditch practice tonight. We'll have to start it after dinner."
At the mention of Quidditch Coop's mood improved dramatically. "That's right! At least we get to have a bit of fun there."
"Today certainly was a weird first day wasn't it." Emily said as they headed off to their common room.
Tyler shook his head in agreement, "Yeah it was. With the exception of Malfoy's class, it wasn't bad though."
They entered the Gryffindor common room and headed off toward their rooms. They'd just have enough time to drop off their bags and change before grabbing their brooms and heading to the pitch for practice.
A/N:OK, so I figured that the best way to cover the first days of class would be to follow Emily and her friends through their classes. I figured that that would work better than having the others sitting around and talk about their classes especially since Draco would rather poke an eye out than have friendly banter with the others. I know that we've deviated from the relationship thing, but we'll get back to it I promise. I just need to write some filler chapters to tell how they're all getting along with classes beginning and all. Be patient little ones!!! Oh! I had a problem! The Sorting Hat song was originally in paragraphs with one line under the other (like in the books). However, when I put it on ff.net it didn't show up that way. Does anyone know how I can put the text into the story the same way as it is on Word? The same goes with making things bold or italicized and all that good stuff? If you do please e-mail me and let me know. I'm at snapish79@yahoo.com (only one p!) and please write like you're explaining it to a four year old! I swear; I'm not good at the computer stuff. Hell, if you could include a fully illustrated guide that would just be super duper! Thanks for your help and review if you have time!
~Chapter 11~
Emily woke the next morning feeling quite rested. She dressed quickly so that she could meet with her brother to head back to the dinning hall. She was afraid that if he tried it himself he'd end up lost for weeks in the castle. As she headed out to the common room she noticed that her brother was already dressed and waiting with Tyler and Coop. When he noticed her, he quickly headed in her direction. Tyler noticed what Franklin was about to do and tried to stop him.
"No Franklin, not up the stairs!" Emily and Tyler said at the same time but it was too late. Franklin had made it half way up before the stairs smoothed out and he slid back down with Emily sliding down after him. Tyler helped Franklin to his feet while a laughing Coop picked up Emily.
"What happened?" Franklin asked looking as the stairs went back to their original form.
Emily rubbed her backside, 'That's going to hurt later.' To her brother she said, "Boys aren't allowed in the girls dormitories."
"But I'm your brother!" Franklin said indignantly.
"Brother's aren't allowed in the girls dormitories either," Coop said ruffling Franklin's hair.
"Cut that out Coop!" he said flattening out his hair.
"Come on guys, let's get down to breakfast," Emily said and led the way out of the common room. They took their time on their way to the dinning hall so that Franklin could look around at his leisure. The night before they had been rushed and didn't have time to properly look around. Franklin was amazed by the moving pictures and giggled in delight as the stairs they were on changed while they were climbing.
When they finally reached the hall Franklin ran ahead to sit with his new friends. Tyler gave a fake sniffle and whipped an imaginary tear from his eye; "They leave the nest so soon!"
Emily laughed as the three sat at the table. She was glad that her brother had made some new friends already; at least he wouldn't feel self-conscious in class. She was famished and when the food appeared on the table she served herself a hearty serving of eggs and bacon.
"So what do you think of this new teaching situation?" Emily said casting a glance at the head table where the teachers were sitting eating their own breakfast.
Tyler briefly spared a glance in their direction before turning back to his own food, "It'll be interesting to be sure."
"Who cares about class? I just hope that Weasley and Potter can turn the Gryffindor Quidditch team around," Coop said with his mouth full. "I think the last time Gryffindor won the cup was the year after they left," he pointed at Harry and Ron.
"That's a good point, Coop. I hope they do too," Tyler agreed. Tyler and Coop were both beaters on the house Quidditch team while Emily was a keeper. It wasn't that the team was bad; it's just that they weren't good.
"Come on guys, there's more than Quidditch."
"Not really Em," Coop said looking at her over his bacon strip, "nothing that really matters anyway."
Emily sighed, there really was no convincing him otherwise. After breakfast Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Draco walked down their house tables and handed out schedules.
"Didn't know that Collin had a sister or another brother for that matter," Harry said to Emily as he handed over her schedule.
"No, I suppose he spent more time talking to you about you than much anything else."
Harry laughed, "He did do that a lot!" He turned to look at Tyler and Coop, "The three of you are on the Quidditch team right?" The three of them nodded their heads, "We'll be having a meeting tonight. Just to give Ron, er, that is Professor Weasley and myself and opportunity to see what you guys got. We'll see you on the pitch at 5:00 sharp."
Coop smiled as Harry continued down the table, "Alright! We're getting a jump on Quidditch already!"
"Yeah well we have a long time until 5, just listen to our schedules! Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfigurations, AND double Potions today?" Tyler said his mouth falling open. "What exactly did we let you talk us into here Em?"
Emily sighed and looked at her friends, "You guys agreed last year that we needed to do what we could to make sure we were ready for our O.W.L.S next year! Don't try to turn this on me now!"
Coop looked up from his schedule at Emily, "Super! Just think of ALL that extra homework we can look forward to! And if we're really lucky, we won't even have time for Quidditch!"
"I don't need your sarcasm, Philip Anthony Cooper, Jr.!"
"Uh oh, mate, she said your full name WITH the Jr.," Tyler cut in trying to avoid the argument he knew would come if he didn't calm them down. "I'd back off, while you still had the chance. Besides, in all fairness, we did agree with her last year."
Coop was spared having to back down on his own because Franklin came bounding over to sit next to his sister. "He talked to me! Harry Potter talked to me! He talked to you too! I saw him!"
With one last glare at Coop, Emily turned to her brother and smiled. "Of course he talked to us, he's going to be our teacher silly." She reached over and took the schedule out of Franklin's hands. "I see you have Charms first. Come on, I'll show you the way to your class, everyone's leaving anyway."
"OK, let me go and get my friends, they said we could all go to class together."
Emily smiled at her brother, "All right, I'll wait for you here." Franklin returned with his new friends a moment later and did the introductions. The group headed out of the dinning hall and toward the charms classroom.
Coop returned to talk of Quidditch figuring that it would be a safe topic. As they turned down the corridor toward the charms classroom, he filled in Franklin and the triplets with predictions of a Gryffindor victory that year. "Really not even Slytherin is going to stop us this year!" He had been walking backwards and turned around as they neared the Charms room. "We'll slaughter th—Ah!" he said tripping over something and falling to the floor, his fall broken by a body. To his immense horror the body that broke his fall was the one of his new potions teacher. The others could only watch the events in shock.
Ginny had seen the boy run into Draco and hurried over to them. "Everyone OK?" she asked as Coop quickly got off of Draco.
"I'm sorry sir!"
Ginny knelt next to Draco and helped him into sitting position before he shook her hands off him. He looked fiercely at Coop his gray eyes nearly black in anger, "What's your name?"
"Uh, Philip Cooper, but my friends call me Coop."
"Well Mr. Cooper, do I look like I'm here to be your friend." Coop swallowed hard. "I heard you talking about Quidditch," Coop nodded weakly; "Just remember it'll be hard for you to play Quidditch if you spend every day of the next school year in detention with me!" Draco stood and headed down the hall.
"I'm sorry sir!" Coop called out again as Draco rounded the corner.
As soon as Draco was out of sight the first one to burst out laughing was none other than Professor Weasley herself as she stood up off the floor. As she laughed the others who had stood watching like statues started laughing too.
"Way to handle the situation," Tyler chocked out in the middle of his laughter.
"Shut up!" Coop said his face bright red.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about Professor Malfoy. He'll be all right." She looked at Coop, "Are you all right? You didn't hurt yourself did you?"
Coop blushed even more, "No ma'am. I'm not hurt."
She turned her attention to first years. "Ah, Franklin and the Abbott triplets. You guys already for class?" she asked them. They all nodded their heads eagerly. "Great! Well go head on in then. Make sure you grab a good seat!" The four boys quickly said goodbye and headed toward the classroom.
She turned back to the others, "So you're Coop and you are?" she asked looking at Tyler and Emily.
"I'm Tyler McLean and this is Emily Creevey."
Ginny looked at Emily with mild surprise, "Creevey? How is your brother Collin? He and I were in the same year here."
"He's doing well. He and Dennis opted to go to Muggle universities after Hogwarts. They said the wanted a bigger variety of things to choose from," she said feeling slightly embarrassed that her brothers didn't want to pursue magical options.
Ginny noticed Emily's tone, "I'm sure they'll find something they like." Emily nodded her head. "You three had better head off too," Ginny said to them, "class will be beginning soon."
"Yes Professor Weasley," they said heading off toward their own classroom.
They entered the DADA classroom and took a seat. Harry was already there and waiting for the rest of the class to arrive. The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs who were already in class were just sitting quietly in their seats looking at Harry.
"Well then, I think we're all here," he said after a few more minutes and stood up. He walked around to the other side of his desk and sat on the edge while the students watched his every move. "All my life, every time someone met me for the first time they'd always be full of questions and curiosity." Harry paused and looked out at the faces of his students. They were all looking at him with identical looks of awe except for Emily Creevey, which made him smile. 'Well, I guess I can't instantly impress all the Creevey children,' he thought to himself.
"And seeing as how you are all looking at me like I'm a three headed troll, I'm glad to see that's not the case here." The students laughed and some looked away in embarrassment. "However, I think that I'll just cover the most common questions and we'll be able to move on. Sound good?"
Heads nodded eagerly and Harry continued. "Alright then, here we go. Yes, I'm THAT Harry Potter. Yes, the one who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be- Named." He reached up his hand and uncovered his forehead revealing his scar, "Sure, if you really want to see it," he put his hand down again. "No, we will not spend class time talking about the war." A hand shot up in the air, "No we won't be talking about it before or after class either," he said pointing to the student who had his hand up. The boy put his hand back down disappointed. "And finally yes I do know how to produce a Patronus and maybe, one day I'll show you how to do it too."
Harry clapped his hands together; "I'd say that covers it then. Now as for any questions that I haven't answered that you're still wondering about we can cover them at the end of class."
Harry turned on the desk and picked up his textbook. "I know you all ran out and bought this book as part of the curriculum. I don't know about you guys, but I always preferred the hands on approach to learning so we're going to be using this book as little as possible."
The faces before him broke out in relieved smiles. "Today happens to be a no textbook day. Harry jumped off his desk, "You can all leave your books here. We'll be back before the change of class. Just bring your wands please."
"What's all this about?" Emily wondered as she followed her classmates out the door.
"I don't know, but any time we don't have to sit in class is a good time," Tyler said next to her.
They all walked out the front door of the castle and across the grounds. Near the lake Harry stopped them near a table with earmuffs on it. "Everyone gather around," Harry said. The students gathered around the table near him. "Who knows what Sirens are?" Harry looked around no one raised their hand. "No one?"
"Mythical creatures," Tyler said, "It was said that their song could force the listener to do anything."
"Very good Tyler, ten points to Gryffindor." Tyler straightened up and looked around superiorly. "However, these creatures are not mythical. In fact their song is very powerful. Witches and Wizards who work near bodies of water need to know how to defend themselves against the call of these beings. I want you all to grab a pair of earmuffs. Make sure you can't hear anything." The students and Harry put on the earmuffs and headed toward the lake.
As they neared it ripples started to form under the surface and a moment later something was coming up through the water. A creature that looked like a mermaid sat perched on top of a rock. She seemed to glow as she sat there, her blonde hair billowing in the wind. Emily could just make out the Siren's mouth moving and figured that she must be singing.
As she stood there watching, Tyler took a step forward. She was wondering where he was going when she noticed that he had taken off the earmuffs. He took another step and Emily grabbed onto his arm. She couldn't hold him though and Tyler kept heading toward the water.
Harry noticed him walking and lifted his wand. Pointing his wand at the Siren he called out "Silencio!" Tyler stopped walking and shook his head as if to clear it. He turned and walked back to the group.
Harry motioned for the group to take off the earmuffs. "What happened to the Siren? Kimberly Jones, a Hufflepuff, asked.
"I've 'muted' her," Harry explained. Sure enough when Emily looked she could see the Siren's mouth still moving but no noise was reaching them.
"Do you mean to tell me that a Siren is living in our lake?" asked Patricia Cowley, another Hufflepuff.
"No," Harry answered, "I transported this one here for class and rest assured she'll be sent back to where she came from right after class.
"What did you hear?" Benjamin Houser, a fellow Gryffindor, asked Tyler.
Tyler shook his head again, "I can't really describe it but it was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard."
Harry came up next to him, "I'm sure it was and as soon as you got near enough to her she would have snatched you up and taken you to her underwater lair where things would have been a lot less beautiful. With enough practice a witch or wizard can resist the call of the Siren and silence her with the spell I just cast. However, none of you have had any practice and need to make sure you wear your earmuffs," he said glancing meaningfully in Tyler's direction.
"Now, we're going to put our earmuffs back on, I'm going to unsilence her and we'll try the silencing spell one by one." The others were quick to comply and they spent the rest of class at the lake silencing the Siren.
~~~
"That class was awesome!" Tyler said as they made their way toward Transfigurations, "Professor Potter is so cool! I can't wait to see him on the Quidditch field tonight!"
Emily laughed, "You're starting to sound like one of my brothers!"
Tyler laughed too, "Well, it is pretty cool that he's here. Did you ever think that you'd get to meet him in your lifetime?"
"No, but I figured I'd seen enough of him in all the pictures that Collin sent home."
They walked into Transfigurations and took seats near the front of the class. Hermione walked into class a few minutes later and headed to her desk. "Good morning class!" she said cheerfully. "Welcome to Transfigurations." Putting her stuff down on her desk she looked out at her class. "Today we're just going to go over some basic stuff about class and then we're going to do some small Transfigurations." She sat at her desk and looked out at her class. "I know that next year you all have your O.W.L.S and I think that it's important to be as prepared as possible. We're going to start to cover some of the information that you'll find in the written and practical parts of the exam. There is nothing you will learn here that isn't going to be relevant for you at sometime in the future."
Coop leaned over to Tyler, "I feel a lot of homework coming from this class."
"Shh!" Emily said elbowing Coop in the side. She leaned forward even more in her seat to pay closer attention. Tyler gave Coop a questioning look. She hadn't shown the least bit of interest in Harry Potter and now she was looking at Professor Granger as if she were the most interesting thing in the world. Coop shrugged his shoulders at Tyler's unasked question and looked forward again.
Hermione spent some more time going over the course objectives and taking time to answer any questions that the students may have had. "OK, everyone up! Out of your seats, make sure you have your wands." The students all looked at each other quizzically, but stood up. When everyone was standing Hermione waved her wand and the desks disappeared. "Clear a space in the center here please." Everyone cleared the space and Hermione stepped into it. She waved her wand again and a baby elephant appeared in the room.
Everyone took another step back at the new occupant. "I thought you said we'd be doing some 'small' Transfiguring!" someone called out.
Hermione looked up and smiled. "We are. We're going to turn this guy into a mouse. This may not be on your test, but I think it's important that we have a little fun as well. Who wants to go first?"
Emily quickly raised her hand and stepped forward. "I will, Professor."
Hermione smiled at her, "Great, Emily. Come on over here." Emily took a breath and steeped forward. Why did she volunteer anyway? "Don't be nervous, you'll do fine. Just concentrate on what you want to change it into."
Emily stepped up to the elephant and cleared her mind. She closed her eyes and thought of the mouse she wanted the elephant to turn into. She opened her eyes and tapped the elephant with her wand. Almost instantly the animal started to shrink and a moment later a small gray mouse was running around the floor.
"Very good, Emily! That was amazing!" Hermione said.
No one was more shocked than Emily herself, "Thank you, Professor!" She walked back to her friends satisfied with herself.
"Who wants to be next?" More hands shot up this time. None of the other students had been able to change the elephant into a mouse. The closest any of them had gotten was Tyler who shrunk the Elephants ears into small mouse ears. Emily however was able to change the elephant another two times before class ended.
The class ended and Hermione waved her wand making the elephant disappear and the desks reappear. Hermione watched as Emily walked out. She had been very impressed with her skill. Transfiguring something so large was quite a challenge and she had been able to do it on her first try. She'd have to think of how to challenge Emily's mind since she would probably pick up quickly on the basic Transfigurations that they would be doing in class.
~~~
"We're late!" Coop said as they ran down to the dungeons. Franklin, who insisted on giving them every detail of his first two classes, had sidetracked them. Finally Emily had to tell him that she'd hear all about it at dinner and they were able to leave.
They ran into the potions class interrupting Draco. He looked up as the three of them took the first seats they came to in the back of the class. "I'm sorry, but is my class time inconveniencing you three? If so, please let me know and I'll be sure to change it to suit your needs." Bryce snickered at them from where he sat in the front.
Coop resisted the urge to do Bryce bodily harm, "We're sorry sir, it won't happen again."
"'Coop,' was it? You seem to be in an apologetic mood today," Draco said walking to where they sat. "I, however, prefer my apologies in writing. Three feet of parchment on the uses of phoenix feathers in potion making." He looked at Emily and Tyler, "Each!" he added.
"Yes Professor," they said as Draco moved back to the front of class. "Now where was I?" Draco started his lecture again and then put the ingredients of a shrinking potion on the board. "You have until the end of class to complete this."
The three of them pulled out their cauldrons and headed to the cupboard to retrieve their ingredients. "Aww, poor little Coop, off to a bad start in class already," Bryce said reaching into the cupboard.
Coop turned to Bryce and grabbed him by the front of his robes. "Mr. Cooper! Unhand Mr. Davis this instant!" Coop let Bryce go shoving him back away from him. "That will be five feet of parchment from you." He turned to Emily and Tyler, "It will be five feet from you two as well unless you can control your friend."
They grabbed their ingredients and headed back to their desk to begin their potions. Coop was so angry that he couldn't concentrate on his potion but somehow he managed to come up with the same green potion that everyone else was bottling up at the end of class. The three of them turned in their potions and cleared their cauldrons before heading out of class.
"Ugh! I could kill that Davis! I don't care how much parchment he would have asked for, it would be worth it!" Coop said as soon as they were far enough away from the classroom.
"Three feet of parchment?" Emily sighed. "We'll be in the library all night!"
"No time to worry about that now though," Tyler said, "We've got that Quidditch practice tonight. We'll have to start it after dinner."
At the mention of Quidditch Coop's mood improved dramatically. "That's right! At least we get to have a bit of fun there."
"Today certainly was a weird first day wasn't it." Emily said as they headed off to their common room.
Tyler shook his head in agreement, "Yeah it was. With the exception of Malfoy's class, it wasn't bad though."
They entered the Gryffindor common room and headed off toward their rooms. They'd just have enough time to drop off their bags and change before grabbing their brooms and heading to the pitch for practice.
A/N:OK, so I figured that the best way to cover the first days of class would be to follow Emily and her friends through their classes. I figured that that would work better than having the others sitting around and talk about their classes especially since Draco would rather poke an eye out than have friendly banter with the others. I know that we've deviated from the relationship thing, but we'll get back to it I promise. I just need to write some filler chapters to tell how they're all getting along with classes beginning and all. Be patient little ones!!! Oh! I had a problem! The Sorting Hat song was originally in paragraphs with one line under the other (like in the books). However, when I put it on ff.net it didn't show up that way. Does anyone know how I can put the text into the story the same way as it is on Word? The same goes with making things bold or italicized and all that good stuff? If you do please e-mail me and let me know. I'm at snapish79@yahoo.com (only one p!) and please write like you're explaining it to a four year old! I swear; I'm not good at the computer stuff. Hell, if you could include a fully illustrated guide that would just be super duper! Thanks for your help and review if you have time!