Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters you may recognise from the book. All of them belong to that wonderful writer J.K Rowlings.
Dom, Nicolas, J.P and Anita are all real people that are really enjoying being in my story.
I have created any creature and person you don't recognise from the books.
This story takes place after the publishing of The Prisoner of Azkaban, and the release of the second Harry Potter movie.
Harry is in his fourth year at Hogwarts.
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Chapter seven: Rude awakenings.
"Shhh...don't wake him up..."
"Are you sure it won't blow his face off? I don't fancy detention the first day."
"Nah.. it will just make a lot of noise... right between the lips... now run!"
Those were the whispers that broke trough the deep sleep of J.P, he didn't even feel when the placed a small Filibuster no-heat firecracker between his lips.
All he knew was that all of a sudden the world exploded and there was a acrid smell of powder in the room. He opened his eyes and blinked twice, the crystals of his glasses seeming to be more dirty than usual. He took them off and wiped them clean on his robe before placing them back on his nose. Fred and George came suddenly into view, both of them looking quite amazed at J.P, that despite having a firecracker explode mere inches from his face didn't seem at all worried. In fact he still seemed to be half asleep as he slowly got out of the chair and stumbled toward the bathroom, his face black with sot.
"Just what kind of muggle did he used to be Fred? Even Dumbledore would have reacted to that."
"I don't know George. Maybe it has something to do with his friends... if so.. we better be careful."
Soon after, he returned with his face clean, moving up to the boy's dormitory to change into some clean clothes. He looked toward Fred and George and grinned slightly.
"You'll both have to do something better to scare me you know...Try getting ideas from Anita, or Dom."
The twins laughed and gor a sreange look from Ron, Hermione and Harry that were all coming down to the common room. J.P decided to walk along with the twin to the great hall, since Harry, Hermione and Ron seemed to be discussing certain important matters. The rest of the students were already having breakfast, each house settled at their own table. J.P sat down along with the twins after asking for a copy of the schedule of the day from Harry. So herbology with the Hufflepuffs, that would mean he would see Nicolas. And after that Care of Magical Creatures with Slytherin, where he would see Dom. Then there was lunch. He saw something was different from the schedule he had received from McGonagall and the one Harry had. After the dinner break, every day they had double classes of something, transfiguration, potions, defence against dark arts. He looked slightly overwhelmed at the thought of all those extra classes. But then he realised. He would have those classes alone along with his friends. He smiled slightly at this thought, well then it wouldn't be all bad. He sat down close to the twins and started eating, his eyes darting around the great hall in search for his friends.
Dom's awakening was quite different. He opened his eyes and smirked as he realised her was still in one piece and sleeping in his own bed. That must mean that his little demonstration of hexing powers last night had been enough to keep the rest of the snakes a bay. He got into his school clothes, placed Oddball on his shoulder and started walking down toward the common room. Not before had he reached the end of the stairs before his vision was obscured by a giant fist flying toward his face and hitting him square on the nose.
Goyle, one of the faithful goons of Draco, had been told to take matters in own hands. And he saw nothing better than to simply smash the face of Dom in The fact that Dom seemed quite thin and scrawny despite his tall figure only encouraged the big boy to attack Dom once more, it just seemed so easy. While all these thoughts were moving with the speed of a snail stampede trough a field of peanut butter trough the head of Goyle, Dom had managed to recuperate from the blow and moved a few steps back. His wand out and pointing directly at Goyle.
"Do that again, you big block of fat, and I´ll hex you so many times that your grandchildren will be born with pig snouts and horse tails. Just dare to come close you killer whale."
The dark eyes of Dom, and the fact that the lower half of his face was covered with blood coming from his nose, gave him such a menacing aspect that Goyle decided to move back, Draco and Crabe were not in the common room to help him out, and he had already seen what Dom could do despite his lack of studies. Besides, the teen was laughing almost maniacally as blood ran down from his nose, spotting his chin. The big ham-like fists hung by his sides, clenching and unclenching as his brain struggled to process the information needed to make him bustle out of the room.
Dom cleaned some of the blood off with the sleeve of his robe and sighed. His perfect looks were spoiled for the day. He should have hexed Goyle, but he doubted he could possibly look worse than he usually did. He shrugged slightly and started making his way toward the great hall
The morning sun shone trough the window and right on Devlin, the small crup opened his eyes and looked around, pondering where he was. Then he remembered. He was no longer in that small cage in the Magic Menagerie anymore, he had a new owner. The thought made his forked tail whip from side to side. And speaking of her, she had to wake up soon. Devlin jumped up on Anita's bed and started licking her face, struggling to mage her wake up.
Anita was having a rather pleasant dream when suddenly her face was covered with something warm and wet. She opened her eyes only to gaze up into the maw of Devlin, the small crup doing its best to lick her clean.
"UAAAAGH!!!"
The cry woke up the three girls in the beds close to Anita, but instead of being annoyed the girls laughed in amusement at the small crup that was doing its best to cover Anita with its saliva.
In the end one of them had mercy and got up, coaxing Devlin off his owner with a offering of a stale chocolate frog. The crup jumped down from the bed and gobbled up the chocolate, his forked tail wagging wildly as he pleadingly looked at the girl who had given him chocolate, hoping for more of the delicious tasting treat.
In the meanwhile Anita had recuperated from the love attack and got out of bed. She was getting dressed as she turned towards the girl that had got Devlin off her.
"Thanks for helping me out there. I was seriously fearing he was planning on eating my nose.
My name is Anita Salinas, a pleasure to meet you."
The girl smiled and nodded, throwing another stale chocolate frog at the dog. Anita easily noticed the mouse brown hair and the soft blue eye of the girl as she returned the greeting. In over all she looked to be around eleven years old and had a pleasant and friendly smile.
"Don't worry, Mum has a crup too and I know how effusive they can be. I am Orla Quirke. I was sorted into Ravenclaw yesterday so I am a first year student."
The other two girls had finished dressing and each turned to Anita to introduce themselves. One was a tall ash blonde girl with grey eyes, the other was a cheerful looking red-haird girl with hazel eyes. Both of them just as friendly as Orla had been, their demeanour in all quite better than that of both Cho and Padma
"A pleasure, I am Fionella Sykes. Second year student. Just call me Fiona"
"And I am Katherine Malone. Third year student, and the pleasure is all mine. Call me Kathy, or Kat"
Anita smiled at the three girls, happy to discover that not all Ravenclaw girls were snotty and spoke behind her back like Padma and Cho had. The loud barks of Devlin reminded the girls that the crup was still hungry. Laughing and exchanging jokes they made their way down from the Ravenclaw tower towards the great hall, Devlin in the lead.
Nicolas turned around in the bed, not really wanting to wake up but knowing he had to. Growling slightly he slowly managed to drag himself out of bed and towards the bathroom, bumping his head into the top of no less than three doors. Muttering he returned to the common room, rubbing his head. He was met by the smiling Cedric that apparently was waiting for Nicolas to make his appearance. The two year older boy seemed to like Nicolas for some reason.
"Well, you ready for breakfast now? I am starving to death.
The truth is I was thinking to myself. –Self- I said. – Since both me and Nicolas are such healthy eaters we should maybe organise a eating contest or two.- So I decided to come here and ask if you would be up to such a challenge."
Nicolas couldn't help but smiling. Who would have known that the good looking Hufflepuff could have such a good sense of humour. And even less that he would befriend a muggle/wizard such as Nicolas.
The tall teen nodded and grinned back.
"Well, you better be prepared to lose then. Even J.P can't eat as much as I can. I may not know too well how to use my magic yet, but I sure as hell know how to eat."
Both teens laughed and started heading down to the Great hall, laughing and joking around, as if they had been friends for many years. Once they reached the first floor Nicolas was glad to see Anita walking down the stairs with three girls with Ravenclaw patches on their robes. She saw him and smiled, walking over to give him a good morning hug.
Nicolas shortly explained to Anita his intention to have a eating match with Cedric, something that made the young woman smirk at Cedric.
"You know you are going to lose don't you? There is no way in Hell that you can out-eat Nicolas."
This caused a burst of laughter from Orla, Kat and Fiona. All of them having already seen Cedric eat, it wasn't humanly possible for someone to actually eat more than he did. They pointed this out to Anita. The teen smirked even wider and turned to wink at Nicolas who returned the wink. She then turned toward her new friends.
"Alright, I bet four sickles on Nicolas that he will eat more than Cedric... Do you dare to bet against me?"
All three girls nodded enthusiastically and picked four silver pieces out of the pockets of their robes and showed them to Anita who had pulled twelve sickles out of her own pocket. Cedric looked confident that he would win, Nicolas simply smiled to the two girls.
They made their way to the Hufflepuff table, picking up J.P on the way. The plump ten chuckled a the bet and decided to add his own four sickles to Anita's, both of them betting for Nicolas.
Soon all three friends were at the Hufflepuff table, along with the three Ravenclaw girls, some people from both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were crowding around the table, anxious to see what would happen. Neville even dared to bet on Cedric, as did Cho and Padma.
Expectation was rising as the food was piled up in front of the two teens that were just grinning at each other. pumpkin pies, toasts, pancakes, fried eggs, bacon, those were some of the things that were placed in front of the teens. As soon as both had the exact same amount of food in front of them Kat lifted her wand.
"Clepsyra!"
A hour glass shape filled with a silvery looking liquid appeared in front of the two contestants. As the first drop fell from the top to the bottom the two started eating. Food was disappearing so fast that it seemed like magic, both boys chewing and swallowing at an amazing speed. Cheers both for Cedric and Nicolas rose from the surrounding crowd, the rhythm slowly started diminishing as both boys were starting to feel quite full. The hour glass was almost completely empty when Cedric lifted one of his arms.
"I can't more... no more. You win Nicolas."
Nicolas didn't stop eating. He was halfway trough a stack of pancakes when the last silvery drop fell into the bottom part of the hour glass, making it disappear in thin air, but he didn't seem to notice. He simply plowed trough the stack of pancakes before putting down his fork and smiling at Cedric.
Anita smirked at her three friends as they shrugged and handed her the sickles, that she promptly shared with J.P, George and Fred, the only ones to actually bet on Nicolas.
The three teens were so happy about their little victory that they didn't notice Dom as he walked over to the table. In fact his presence wasn't noted until he spoke. Most of the other students recoiled and moved away from Dom, after all he was a Slytherin. But his three friends didn't move away, in fact both J.P and Anita moved closer to Dom, almost as if they were examining him.
The first one to speak was Anita.
"Dom, is there something wrong with your nose? It seem redder than it was yesterday."
Dom shrugged and lifted a hand to touch his nose, making a small grimace as he ran his fingers over it. J.P moved closer to his friend, frowning slightly.
"I do believe someone used your nose as a target. That thing looks like someone slammed something heavy into it. Or did you walk into a door?"
The tall and slightly gangly Dom smirked and nodded.
"Big, heavy and covered with fat. It was Goyle's fist. My first welcome greeting to the Slytherin house I believe. I do hope you all got a warmer welcome than me"
J.P frowned, his hands balling into fists as he glared over to the Slytherin table, his usually calm brown eyes were filled with a expression of rage. Anita noticed this and placed a hand on J.P's shoulder, whispering words into his ear. A few instants passed and a wide grin appeared on J.P's face as he nodded to Anita. The two were plotting something. Dom sighed and placed his hand to his forehead. Nicolas simply chuckled.
The four couldn't plot more since a bell announced the start of the classes. Nodding to eachother J.P and Anita moved separate ways, each to their classes.
J.P moved over to his fellow Gryffindors and Dom reluctantly moved over to the Slytherin table, his hand clutching his wand so hard that his knuckles were white. If anyone of the snakes tried anything funny he would hex them into the next century. Nicolas took a look at his schedule and realised he had his first class with the Gryffindors. Swiftly he got out of his chair and trotted after J.P.
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"That was disgusting Nicolas. How could you manage to do that?!"
'That' was actually squeezing the pus out of the disgusting looking bubotuber. Most of the class had complained slightly but Nicolas didn't have any qualms when it came to extracting the oily smelling pus, the only problem was that he didn't hear professor Sprout's warning about the gloves. In consequence his hands were now covered with painful looking boils.
Now he was being escorted to the infirmary by J.P, that cringed every time he looked at Nicolas' hands. Nicolas could only shake his head and mutter about his Dark Destiny striking again. He could really not understand how it was that he had so much bad luck.
Madame Pomfrey simply shooed Nicolas into the infirmary and sent J.P back to classes. The loud booming bell already told him it was time for his next class, care of magical creatures. And if his memory didn't fail him he was having that class with the Slytherins.
Remembering how his friend had looked in the great hall he started trotting down towards Hagrid's hut to see if he looked any worse for wear. And if he did... well Draco and his cohorts will soon find out that Dom had friends, and some of them quite dangerous too.
Fortunately for Draco, he had decided to let Dom be for the day, besides he was preparing his bile filled comments to Hagrid as they moved down toward the rustic hut. J.P arrived after they had been explained about the blast-ended screwt and given the task to feed them several disgusting looking items. J.P fumed as he saw Draco exchange some words with Goyle, pointing at Dom, whose nose had swollen quite a bit.
J.P fumed in anger but realised that he couldn't do anything rash since Hagrid was there, he was a teacher after all. He looked into the crate in front of him, the blast-ended screwts clawing at the sides of the crate, seemingly struggling to get free. A plan dawned in his mind after he heard Hagrid explaining about the stinging, exploding and blood sucking creatures. Clenching his teeth together he placed his hand just within reach of one of the screwts, it reacted immediately by latching onto his hand with the sucker. J.P winced and let out a fake scream of pain as he straightened up and ran towards Hagrid, the screwt still attached to his hand. But as he moved past the crate where Draco was standing he 'accidentally' bumped into the blonde boy, making him fall headfirst into the crate filled with screwts. There were several small explosions and a smell of burnt hair rose from the wooden box. Draco didn't realise what happened before he felt a singing pain in his face. He scrambled himself to his feet, managing to get out of the crate without any major damages, the only thing really noticeable about him was the fact that he had no eyebrows anymore. The enraged Slytherin glared at J.P, but couldn't claim he had done it intentionally, as the screwt had to be removed with brutal force, causing his hand to bleed. No one could do that on purpose, could they?
Dom was trying to hide the wide smirk that was threatening to split is face in half. That J.P, he always managed to get revenge one way or another. That boy was way too lucky for his won good.
The booming sound of the bell indicated the end of the class and the start of lunch hour.
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In the meanwhile Anita had her first potion class in the dark and damp dungeons.
The Ravenclaws were taking seat as silently as they could when Professor Snape moved in the door, his black robes flowing behind him as he walked to stand behind the desk.
Anita had seen both movies about Harry Potter, she had also read the three books that were on market so she had managed to make herself a mental image of Snape. This image, to her joy, was quite accurate. The teacher's long, black hair shined with grease. His nose looked like it had been broken a good three times. His eyes were dark and quite strict as he glared at the students, as if searching for a pretext to take points away from Ravenclaw. The students were quiet as mice as they waited for the teacher to start the class.
"Well then.. Today we'll prepare a simple boil curing potion, Madame Pomfrey asked us to make more. It seems that one of our muggle students didn't have enough wit to listen to her instructions and is now suffering the concecuences. Personally I don't understand why Dumbledore could have allowed those useless muggles into our school. As if we didn't have enough with Potter."
Anita could feel as her temper started rising. After all, she was one of the 'useless muggles' Snape was speaking about. She bit her lower lip and cleared her throat as she tried to control the surge of anger that washed trough her. Snape turned his gaze toward the source of the sound that had interrupted his ranting about the four muggle students. His lips parted in a smirk as he spotted Anita.
"Ah, Miss Salinas... One of the failed experiments of the Ministry. As I was saying, you and your friends do not belong here. You probably don't have the slightest idea of anything we are teaching, making us waste our precious time on you. I am quite sure you couldn't even tell me what use armadillo bile has."
Snape looked down at Anita. She looked like she was about to burst into tears, her hands balled into tight fists. He relished in her despair, his smirk growing wider. But suddenly he froze, because from the girl came a low and calm voice, answering his question with great politeness.
"Armadillo bile is used in the wit-sharpening potion, Sir. Along with ginger roots and scarab beetles."
For the first time in many years Snape was actually impressed. Not only had this girl, a former muggle, been able to answer his question more precicely than the Granger girl, but she had also given the rest of the ingredients to the potion. He knew he had not yet taught that particular potion to anyone in her year. So the only way she could know about it was if she had read about it.
But impressed as he was he had absolutely no plans of showing it. He wouldn't give her the pleasure to know she had actually suprised him.
"Well, well, well... A competitor has appeared to Miss Granger. Very well then, since you know so well how to make the potion you shall prepare it right now. I have all ingredients in my cabinet.
The rest of you! Prepare the boil curing potion... NOW!"
He turned to his cabinet and retrieved the ingredients for the wit- sharpening potion and placed them in front of Anita, who was still biting her lower lip, yet her hands were no longer balled into fists, actually one could say she seemed eager to start preparing the potion itself.
Snape gave her no instructions and took a seat behind the desk, staring at her as she closed her eyes for a moment. Then she opened them, pushed her glasses up on her nose and pulled the mortar close to her and started crushing the scarab beetles. Snape watched in silence... he wanted to see what the muggle girl could do.
The hour passed quickly and soon he was walking around the classroom checking the potions of the rest of the Ravenclaw students.
"Too thick...
Its the wrong colour... its supposed to be green, not violet!
That happened because you added the dried nettles after you removed it from the fire.
Be careful! You want to kill us all? Only TWO porcupine quills!!!
Not bad."
He continued his round until he reached Anita, staring into her cauldron. The potion had the right colour and texture, the smell was right. He dipped the stirrer into the cauldron. It didn't melt. His frown became deeper as he realised she had actually managed to make a perfect potion on the first try. Even he had troubles when making a potion for the first time. He turned to her and spoke in a deep, threatening voice.
"How can you explain this Miss Salinas? Where do your talents for making potions come from?"
Anita swallowed several times, a crimson blush coming to her cheeks as she writhed in her chair. Finally she lifted her head and looked at Snape, her green eyes meeting his own dark ones.
"I... like to cook."
Snape felt like someone had just poured liquid lead over his body. Each pore seemed overfilled with a warm and strange feeling of anger and suprise. Cook! She liked to COOK! She was comparing the noble art of making potions to that homely duty. Cooking! Is that what she thought potions to be?!
Before he could actually wrench himself from his suprise the bell rang and announced the end of the class.
Anita scurried out of the classroom, leaving Snape staring at her cauldron filled with absolutely perfect wit-sharpening potion.
The potion teacher couldn't believe what had just happened. He stirred the cauldron once, watching the potion swirl slightly.
"She must be one hell of a cook."
That was all he managed to say.
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End chapter seven.
Clepsyra = taken from latin. A water clock as used to measure time.
Next chapter will be up soon... maybe.
Any suggestions and ideas are accepted.
As for the Dom/Ginny pairing.. we will see.
Working on the excitement.
The story of the four will veer away from the Harry Potter story at times.. explanations will be given later in the fanfic.. trust me.
Ah... the quartet has a name.. Thanks to Khi. The name will be revealed in next chapter probably.
Thanks for reading and reviewing.