Crazy Wizard
Chapter 2: Stupid Whomping Willow
NOTE: Hi! How are you? Welcome to the second chapter! Did you know that the last chapter was like…*counts on fingers* 11 words!? Wait…if I counted 11 on my hands…*counts fingers* Ah!! *faints* *wakes up* Wait, never mind, those were my toes that I counted 11…wait…o_o. So…ANYWAY…It was more like 14160 words. I know it says less on ff.net, but it always does that. Okay, so I see you liked the first chapter! Or well, three people did! YAY! Wooo! Go long chapters. Anyway, I'm really proud of my first chapter, and less proud of this one. Now, I would delete the first part if it wasn't 600-something words. Heh, go me! Trashing my own story! That doesn't mean you can do it though *glares* Grrrrr. Beware of the cracker that attacks me. It CAN attack you. So anyway, Sirius is just now sneaking out! Yay!
DISCLAIMER: Um…most of the characters aren't mine so…yeah.
On to the second chapter! ^_^
* * *
Sirius ran to a set of medieval suits of armor and hid behind them. The footsteps came closer and Sirius saw who was coming. Filch.
But Filch walked right on past him, muttering to himself about how he had to put through another year of idiotic pranksters and how he would love to do some…things to them. He used some rather colorful words that I'd rather not mention and I'm sure you'd rather not hear them.
Sirius was rather happy that soon Filch would be muttering about him.
After Filch had gone, he got out of his hiding place and went the opposite way that Filch had come, towards the stairs.
Sirius had no clue where the Hospital Wing was, but he'd be sure to find it. As he reached the landing of the next floor down, he heard a meow come from behind him. He looked up in time to see a cat run around the corner. Sirius had a feeling that this wasn't the best thing.
He was right, in a few minutes that Sirius had been wandering around, he heard faster footsteps. Running footsteps. His eyes widened as he saw the cat run around the corner and hiss at him.
Sirius ran around the corner and stood against the wall, listening intently. He realized that he had not made a good decision; he had run into a corridor. It would harder to get a hiding place. As he saw the cat run around the corner, he started running down the corridor.
He heard from behind him, "Hey! You! STOP!" Sirius ran around the corner into a shorter hall, slightly slipping and almost falling. He ran into the room at the end of the hall and turned around to see the old man. His eyes widened, and he opened the door again and ran as fast as he could.
The part of his brain that wasn't thinking about how fun this was, or how his career was just starting, registered that Filch must've taken a shortcut; a secret passage-way.
He ran down the stairs and when he didn't hear the footsteps anymore, he ran back up the stairs and hid in the shadows right before the stairs. He saw filch come out from behind a painting and look around puzzled.
Sirius had caught on. When you didn't hear his footsteps, back track. He didn't know how long it was going to take this old guy to catch on to what he had caught onto, but he wasn't going to take chances.
When he had seen Filch turn the corner, he ran down the stairs and right in front of where Filch had turned. Filch, like Sirius had wanted him to, saw and pursued him. Sirius guessed once he went into his little passageway things, he'd turn out in front of Sirius.
Right before Sirius planned Filch would jump out at him, he turned and ran into a room. Amazingly he turned, once again, into Filch. Sirius let out an annoyed breath and once again opened the door and ran. But unlike the other time, the man's cat was outside the door.
Sirius grinned, even though it wasn't really a good thing, as he tripped over the cat, rolling forward and going into action-movie time. He jumped up and ran around the corner, and just like they did in action movies when the guy was running from where a bomb was about to go off, skid around the corner.
Sirius ran forward, and then turned, then into a room, then out of it, turned back the other way, down the stairs, and so on. Sirius didn't know where he was going, or how he was going to get back to the common room, or where the guy was, but soon he had found the Hospital Wing.
It was cleaner than the rest of the halls. Sirius went into the only door on the corridor, silently, and looked around. There were three beds that had the curtains pulled. He slid back the curtains on the first bed and closed them. Lily. Not the person he was looking for.
The next bed held Essence. Wrong again. He slid back the curtains on the third bed and let out a very annoyed breath. Empty. He heard footsteps coming and slid under the bed. It was James and the nurse.
"But Madam Pinfry! -"
"Pomfrey-"
"I didn't have anything to eat! How am I supposed to go on without eating?!" James exclaimed.
"Be quiet boy! You are not going to eat at midnight! Back to bed!" After guiding him to bed, she went back to the small little office and despite telling James to be quiet, slammed the door closed.
"Hey! Jamsie!" Sirius whispered, rolling out from under the bed.
"Sirius!" James whispered leaning out the side of his bed. Sirius was grinning.
"Up for a midnight snack?" James grinned and climbed out of bed. They walked almost silently to the door until they were stopped by another voice.
"You two are sneaking out? You could get in so much trouble for that! You could get into detention!" Lily was whispering while walking over two them being careful to duck outside of the office window.
"That was probably the point Lily." Essence whispered, also getting out of bed.
"Oh great, now we have to get you two to the Kitchens also!"
"I don't want to come." Lily said indignantly.
"Well ok then. You two can just-"
"I never said I didn't want to come! Personally I'm starving!"
"But Essence! You could get detention-"
"I don't care; at least I wouldn't be starving." Essence said as she opened the door. Sirius closed it for her.
"No! You are not going either."
"Why not?"
"Because, your not criminal masterminds like us!" James answered.
"If criminal masterminds you mean criminally challenged idiots-" Lily started.
"Well fine, you lead us to the Kitchens!" James said heatedly.
"Ok, sure. But when we get caught on the way back when you two are leading us, I'm going to say you two kidnapped me." She said, opening the door and striding out. James glared at her.
"I'd warn you that this guy is-"
"Well of course someone is patrolling the halls! He must be the caretaker. Hey, what floor is this?" Lily said, looking around.
"I don't know, I was to busy running from that guy and his cat to count." Sirius said. Lily rolled her eyes and led them down the stairs.
They didn't explore, just went down the stairs. Sirius warned them of the step on the flight of stairs and they all skipped it.
When they got on the floor, Lily led them down, away from the two great doors that led to the Great Hall.
After walking a few minutes, they heard footsteps and slipped into a passageway. But the person seemed to be coming toward the passageway.
"Sending me out to look for missing kids that are hungry. Stupid Kitchens." He went off muttering a few worse words. Lily smiled and she looked around where they had gone. Nothing but a picture of a bowl of fruit. She pulled at the picture and-It opened!
They all scrambled in behind the bowl of fruit and out the other side, in a big room. Then the painting opened and they guessed the man peered in. They heard it slam closed, and they all started breathing again.
"Welcome, to the Kitchen." Lily said.
House-elves bustled all around them, and offered them everything and many things of this sort and that.
After they were full, they left, saying goodbye to the little elves. Lily, in turn, didn't lead them this time. Leaving it to the 'criminal masterminds'. As they made their way back the way they had come, and they went up to the second floor, Essence stopped them.
"Listen." She whispered. They stopped and spun around. There was nothing. They all turned back around and all screamed. A pearly white figure on front of them was floating three feet above the ground.
Then their hearts sank as they saw the person that was walking toward them, through the ghost.
"Oh no…" Lily said as she tried to gulp; her mouth was to dry. They were all terrified of both the ghost in front of them (except Sirius for he had seen them at the Sorting) and the person walking toward them. They began to walk backwards.
"Oh now don't be so afraid. I'm just a ghost! I-" But the ghost with rather girly clothes on was interrupted.
"Well, I see we have a few students out of bed."
"Dumbledore! How are you? Oh, yes they are. Dead terrified too. Just look at their faces! Almost as white as mine I'd say." The ghost said.
The man Dumbledore didn't look at all mean and exactly what Lily thought a wizard was supposed to look like. Long white beard and a sparkle in his eye. He looked just like that one wizard from that movie…
"Ah, Professor! Yes, ah, we are out of bed. You see, uh, we were hungry; we hadn't had anything to eat! So…Uh, we went out to get some! Um…Yes." Sirius tried hopefully.
"You had a well fine chance to eat though! You did not have to go to the hospital wing if I'm not mistaken." Dumbledore said.
"Ah, yes, but I was to…worried for my friend to eat! I had to see how he was doing, and since we were both hungry…" Dumbledore smiled gently.
"I believe students are not allowed to be wondering the school at night. You all will be getting a detention that will be tomorrow night. I will send you more information by owl tomorrow. Mr. Potter, Ms. Evans, and Ms. Kindle, you three will be sorted in the morning. I believe you feel well enough to go through your classes tomorrow?" He sent them back up to the hospital wing, where Madam Pomfrey would be waiting for them.
"Yeah, totally criminal masterminds." Lily muttered.
Madam Pomfrey sent Sirius up to his common room, giving him directions.
Sirius followed the directions, taking a few minutes to explore.
Turns out that the old man, Filch, was still patrolling the halls.
"YOU!" Sirius spun around and groaned. Caught twice in the same night. How bad at sneaking could he be?
Filch grabbed him by the arm and led him down flights of stairs, and finally into a small little place with a filing cabinet and desk. Sirius took in what was on the desk and what was in the filing cabinet.
Sirius leaned against the wall, bored. He barely listened to Filch. Threatening him with detention, disembowelment, and so forth.
Sirius looked over at the filing cabinet and silently read the things written on tape.
'Toys' 'Prank plans' 'Confiscated' 'Dangerous' 'Confiscated and Highly Dangerous'.
Sirius grinned. Filch had grabbed his arm again, and started to walk forward. Sirius, even though he knew he'd get a month's worth of detention, at the most, tripped Filch, sending him out the door, and closed and locked it after him.
He heard Filch fall, get up, and start screaming at the door. Sirius suppressed his laughter, barely, and crossed the room to the filing cabinet. He opened it, and grabbed the first thing his hand came across. He stuffed it in his pocket and swung open the door.
Filch's face was red, and he threw Sirius out the door and closed it after him.
Sirius lost his ability to suppress his laughter, and started laughing hard.
It was a while until he got to his dormitory, and he almost knocked down his friend, Remus. "Where were you?" Remus hissed. They slipped of the room and closed the door.
"I snuck out to see our dear friend. After dodging the caretaker person, Filch, I got to the Hospital Wing, and we snuck out with Lily and Essence, and on out way back from the Kitchens, we got caught by Dumbledore and got a detention, then I came back but got caught by Filch and then went to an office and tripped him and locked myself in there and then stole this from a cabinet that said Confiscated and Highly Dangerous." He pulled out and showed Remus what he had gotten.
Remus took it. "'Ways to Make Something That Will Get Into The Confiscated and Highly Dangerous Cabinet'? Okay…so how many detentions did you get?"
"Well, counting on the look on Filch's face lets just say I've probably already broken the detention record." They both laughed and slipped back into the door and into bed.
* * *
Essence, Lily, and James were all awoken at 6:30 the next morning. Lily got up when the nurse came in and told them they needed to get ready to be sorted. After shaking her three times, Essence yawned and got up.
James, on the other hand, had to have Lily finally just push him out of the bed. After trying to be awoken by Essence, Lily, and the both of them, Lily just got tired of it and pushed him.
"Ow! Why'd you have to do that?" James said, after landing on the hard floor.
"So you'd get up. Now that you are, we're about to get sorted." Lily said rolling her eyes as James got up off the floor and mumbled. Essence laughed but said nothing.
It was only a few minutes before a stern looking woman came in, holding a chair and a hat. She sat the stool down.
"Now, you will be sorted by putting this hat on. You will either be sorted into Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. The other first years in your house, and the others in the upper years, will be like your family for your whole seven years at Hogwarts. I encourage you to be friends with people from other houses though. You will be spending time in your house Common Room. These will be in secret place throughout Hogwarts, so do not tell them to anyone in other houses. You will also have passwords to your Common Rooms. Do not tell these either. You will be sleeping in dormitories.
"We only have 30 first year students this year, we usually have 40. This means you will only be sleeping with either three or four others. Now, just put the hat on and it will sort you." Lily came up first.
She sat on the stool and pulled the hat on. It fell well over her eyes, but not to her shoulders. She sat quiet and was surprised when she heard a small voice.
"So, I see you've plenty of courage. Plenty of smarts too, though. Hmm…RAVENCLAW!" It said the last part so that everyone could hear. She pulled the hat off and gave it to Essence.
It took less time for the hat to sort Essence. "RAVENCLAW!" Essence and Lily were beaming, and Essence gave the hat to James.
"Well, plenty of courage. Plenty of arrogance though."
"Just as long as I'm not in Slytherin."
"Ah, not Slytherin? Well, I see that you shouldn't be in Slytherin after all. GRYFFINDOR!" James took the hat off, grinning. Gryffindor, just as he had wanted.
"It will be time for breakfast. I believe you remember the way to the Great Hall from your adventure last night?" The woman left with the stool and hat. They all left and made their way to the Great Hall.
"I wonder what House Catty got into." Lily said as they were walking.
"Well, I don't think she's gotten into Ravenclaw. I think she'd either get into Gryffindor or Hufflepuff."
"I hope she hasn't gotten into Gryffindor. Me and Sirius would be tortured by her. And plus, that would mean she'd let you two in to the Common Room and that would mean we'd be tortured for the rest of our time at Hogwarts."
"Actually, it's Sirius and I, not me and Sirius. I figure that's why you couldn't get into Ravenclaw. Don't even know your Basic English. And what makes you think we'd spend our time torturing you?" Lily said.
"I don't know. What makes you think I'd want to be in Ravenclaw?"
"How do you know Sirius got into Gryffindor?" Essence asked.
"Why wouldn't he get into Gryffindor? He's not inept enough to get into Hufflepuff, not smart enough to get in Ravenclaw, or, well, not arrogant enough anyway, and him getting into Slytherin would just be plain funny!" James finished, almost laughing at the thought.
"Haven't you ever met his family? If they were at Hogwarts, they'd definitely be in Slytherin. I hate his little brother too. I swear. He is the creepiest thing I've ever seen! 'Yes Mum. Yes Mum. Sure Mum. I agree Mum' All the time! He's like her little drone!"
James seemed taken aback. The truth was he hadn't ever met his best friend's family. He didn't even know Sirius had a brother!
"Well how do you know so much about him? What are you, his stalker?"
"No, my stepmum and his dad work as 1st and 2nd to your father. My stepmum invited them over once, when I was like eight or something. Eck, coldest people I've ever seen. They were as bad as the Malfoys even. Well, okay. So Sirius wasn't, but his brother, mum, and dad were. But, my dad didn't like them, so I haven't seen them since then." She finished. By now, they had stopped walking and were all in a circle.
"Sirius doesn't mention his family that much. He didn't mention he had met you either."
"Why is it so important that he's met me before?"
"I don't know. It just seems you know a lot about him and what he's thinking."
"How did you get that I know what he's thinking?"
"Because, you just happen to 'guess' what we're going to do, or want or what happened. Like on the train for example. And last night, you knew that the only reason Sirius snuck out was to get detention."
"If you're accusing me of having weird, freaky mind-reading powers, I don't. I wouldn't know what color you were thinking of if you thought one. I can't guess the right number, or anything. I'm just smart."
"I didn't say me. I said Sirius. You don't know a lot about me. Only Sirius."
"So? Maybe he's easier to read."
"So you read people? So am I a hardback book? Or is Sirius just paperback?"
"No. I don't read people like books. I-"
"Well then how do you know everything?"
"Well how do you know I know everything!? Maybe I'm just smarter than you!" Essence finished yelling, and stormed off, down the stairs. Lily and James looked after he in surprise.
"Um…Okay then! Off to breakfast!" Lily said, running to catch up with Essence. James looked after them with narrowed eyes. If she had weird, freaky mind-reading powers, she was not going to read Sirius' mind.
"James! Over here!" Sirius yelled, waving his arms. James ran over to him, and sat next to him, in front of Remus.
"'Lo James." Remus said.
"'Lo Remus, Sirius."
"'Lo James. So, obviously you got into Gryffindor."
"Yup."
"That's great! 'Course I knew you were going to anyway. You are Gryffindor's descendant so of course you'd get into Gryffindor!"
"Hey Sirius, you never mention your family to us." Sirius looked at James with a blank look.
"Yeah…So?"
"I never knew you had a brother. I just wondered why you never told us anything."
"How do you know I have a brother?"
"Essence."
"Essence? Oh, yeah, Ravenclaw. How would she know?"
"'Cause, you went over to her house when you were eight or whatever, and your family came. She said they were really cold and dark."
"Well who said she wasn't lying?" James looked at his best friend who had his arms crossed.
"Well obviously you. You won't tell us anything! And you got mad when I started telling you, so obviously it's true!"
"Who said it was any of your business if my family is dark or not?" Sirius said, indignantly.
"Well, let's see! Maybe being your best friend would give me a right to know about your life!"
"Well you don't have to know everything!" At this point they had both jumped up and were almost yelling.
"Well I at least have to know something! I'd rather not have a total stranger tell me about my bets friend!" James was yelling by now and most of the students had turned to look at the two. Professor Wech was running towards them.
"Well you never told me you wanted to know everything about me! I'm sorry, maybe I should just get mind-reading powers so I can know what you're thinking!" Over at the Ravenclaw table, Essence had been biting her lip. She didn't mean to get two best friends yelling at each other.
"Oh that's funny! Why don't you just use Essence over there! Oh, wait! She can't read my mind, only yours!"
"What does that have to do with anything!? And what are you talking about!?"
"Boys! Boys! Settle down!" Professor Wech had finally reached them and was looking at them sternly. They both sat down, glaring at each other. "Right. Now I'd rather not have to pull you two from another yelling match!" He now waddled back over to the other Professors.
"Oh no! I did not mean to do that!" Essence said, looking over at Lily.
"Hey! Essence! Lily! Hi!" Catty had walked over from the Gryffindor table and now sat down beside Essence. "You didn't mean to do what?" She said, grabbing a piece of bacon.
"I didn't mean to get James and Sirius yelling at each other!"
"Oh don't worry, it'll blow over. Anyway, I unfortunately got into Gryffindor. Arable got into Hufflepuff. The other two in your house, the girls, are Shanty and Erin. The-"
"Actually, it's Shaleint. You know, like 'shal', then 'e', then 'ent'. Kind of sounds like talent. Oh, yes, and this is Erin."
"Riiight. Shalent. Got it. I'm Catty. This is Essence, the fighter-starter. And this is Lily, the arguing-lover."
"Catty!" Essence and Lily said at the same time. Catty just shrugged.
"Anyway, hello." Lily said. The other sat down in front of them and they began talking about things.
Soon their schedules were passed out and breakfast was over.
"Hey look! Double Charms, Transfiguration, then lunch, History of Magic, and then double Potions. You have Charms and Transfiguration with us, then Potions with Hufflepuff. They can give us double stuff? Really? How long is one class? Thirty minutes right? Okay, well that's three hours of school! I used to have to go to school for seven hours!"
"Well really, you're in school all the time. See, the castle is the school. And I think they're an hour each. That'd be six hours."
"Well you guys, look at the times of the classes." Lily and Catty looked blankly at Essence, then to their schedules.
"Oh…Yeah. Right. So they're…45 minutes then. Right. So…that's…Uh…" Catty finished looking up and waving her finger around the room.
"That's four hours and thirty minutes. Oh my gosh! Did I get it right? Did I? I always failed in math. Well and English. Okay so maybe Social Studies too. Oh, wow. I really was a bad student. Huh." Catty finished shrugging her shoulders and looking around. Lily, Essence, Erin, and Shaleint were all laughing.
But soon enough it was time to go to Charms.
"Right, well now how do we get there Lily?"
"How would I know?"
"Okay, fine. How do we get there Essence." Essence looked over at Catty.
"How would I know?"
"You were the ones who snuck out last night right? That means you must of past the room!"
"Actually, we didn't explore. We went straight down the stairs and into the kitchen. They really should put a password on that thing though. It would be so easy for someone to poison the whole school!" Essence finished waving her arms around and they all laughed.
"Okay, so -"
"Soooo, Kindle. Planning on poisoning the whole school?" Essence turned around and found herself looking at Malfoy.
"I don't get it Malfoy. I'm, what, three years younger than you and you have to pick on me? What is it? Scared of the bigger people? Or am I just special. Oh, and to your question, no. I'm not. But I suppose I won't be able to eat anymore. I'm sure your planning on how to poison me right now." Essence rolled her eyes and walked away.
"How can you be...uh...special, was it?, if you hang out with filthy Mudbloods?"
"Hey, Malfoy! At least pick on someone who's not a girl!"
"Oh great. Locomotor Idiots." Lily muttered.
Malfoy looked behind him and then turned. "Seems you've lost your mate Black." It was true. Sirius was standing there, no James by his side. Oh well, no James by his side yet.
Just after Malfoy finished talking, James jumped out from behind the girls. But then he slipped, or tripped on his own feet (maybe a combination of the two), and flew into Sirius.
"Ack! James!" James rolled off Sirius and jumped up. He grabbed Sirius' hand and pulled him up too.
"And you tell me that I'm inept to walk on two feet." Sirius muttered.
"I wasn't walking though. I jumped. Get your verbs right mate! Oh, right. Malfoy. Wait, where'd he go?" At the question, Catty let out a laugh.
"He practically ran away. I think James here scared him. Probably thought James would jump on him next."
"I didn't jump on Sirius! I tripped on Sirius! See, jumping on Sirius would be like-"
"No! No way are you jumping on me James! Come on, we'll be late to class."
"Right then." The girls looked at each other, shrugged, and decided to follow them.
Essence, though, ran ahead to Sirius. James was talking to Lily and Catty about Quidditch…Okay, Quidditch and Brooms.
"You know, I can do as much damage to Malfoy as you can." Sirius looked over at her.
"What?"
"You said, and I quote, 'At least pick on someone who's not a girl'."
"Awww, I'm so touched that you take to heart what I say!"
"Mmhm, anyway I've got to ask you something. Okay, do you stalk Malfoy or me? Because whenever he gets close to me and Lily and them you and James happen to show up." Sirius got a thoughtful look on his face.
"Hmmm. Well, I happen to have special mind-reading powers so I can tell when Malfoy is going to…attack." She laughed and looked over at Sirius.
"Oh really, special mind-reading powers? Then what color am I thinking of right now?"
"But that would not be fair! You have to read my mind too!"
"Sorry but I don't…embrace my special mind-reading powers." Sirius laughed and shook his head.
"Well why don't you just have a try at it! Okay, one…two…-"
"I need time to focus though! Okay, let's see. Three!"
"Green!" They said it at the exact same time and stopped walking. They both looked surprised and disturbed.
"Oh…Well yeah. I was thinking green." Sirius said, starting to walk again.
"Me too."
"Well…My special mind-reading powers are better than yours." Essence let out a hurtful gasp.
"How…I…It…Oh my gosh. I just am so hurt." She said in a fake hurt voice.
"Oh, well," Sirius sniffed, as though he was crying. "Don't ever do the overly dramatic thing. That's mine." He said and walked into a room.
"Hmph, better special mind-reading powers than me. Please." Essence muttered, following him.
It turned out that they had been the first ones there. Others came in over the next 5 minutes, but some didn't get there until the class had been going on for about 20 minutes.
"Now. Charms is a class where you will learn many things! Incantations, spells. You will learn to levitate things, unlock things, and many more! But before we learn those, we need to learn the correct wrist movements for spells! Swish and Flick! Swish and Flick! Now, will everyone please practice themselves?" Their Professor, Xylem, said.
Lily, Essence, and Catty had all been sitting together and amazingly in front of James, Sirius, and Remus. I don't believe I have to tell you this was bad.
"Okay, so swishing and flicking. Let's see…" Sirius swished his wand, and then flicked James. "So am I done?"
"Sirius!" James flicked him back, and then hit him while he was supposedly 'flicking his wand'.
Soon Sirius and James were using the wands as swords, and battling in a sword fight fuelled by the little guy in the painting behind them. Supposedly his name was 'Sir Cadogan'.
Of course, worst was to come of it if it was Sirius and James. And it did! When ever Sirius and James wands collided, a sparks flew. But…
"Mwahaha! I'm winning Sirius!"
"No you aren't Jamsie!" Clash.
"Sure I," Clash, "am!"
"No," Clash. "I don't think" Clash, "so!" Clash, scream.
A shot of light had come out of Sirius' wand and hat cut off half of Essence's waist-length hair. It now only fell to a little past her shoulders.
"Ahh! You idiots! That took me 11 years to grow! And look, my robes!" Professor Xylem hurried over.
"What happened here?" He asked looking from the hair in Essence's chair, Essence, Sirius, and James.
"Uh…Well Professor, you see-"
"They were using their wands as swords and had a sword fight because of this idiotic little knight right there and for some reason this spell came out of Sirius' wand and ruined my hair! And robes! And I think I have a cut on my back…" It was true. Red was starting to appear through the white shirt under her robes.
"Ah, Essence. So sorry! Really, I-" But her hand shot out, grabbed his wrist, and twisted it. Consequently they heard a sickening crack that told them Essence had definitely hurt Sirius' wrist.
"Next time don't use your wands as swords!" She said coldly.
Xylem sent both Essence and Sirius to the Hospital Wing.
Once they were out of the classroom… "Why the hell did you have to break my wrist!" Sirius said, stopping her.
"Because! You cut my back, cut my robes and my shirt, and ruined my hair!"
"And why is your hair so important!?"
"Because! I took me 11 years to grow it that long! I've never cut it! Once! And plus, I promised to my mum that I'd have long hair, just like hers. Really that's the only thing I remember about her. Come on, my back's starting to sting."
Why are you two back again? You just left this morning!" The nurse said as they entered.
"I accidentally cut her and she broke my wrist…or sprained it or something. Anyway, it really hurts." The nurse fixed Essence's cuts, including her robes and all, and Sirius' sprained wrist.
"Okay, so is that all?" The two nodded and sent them off to their next class.
"Why didn't you get her to make your hair longer?" Sirius asked, as they were trying to find the Transfiguration room.
"That doesn't count as growing it yourself. Ah, I think this is the room…" She said but as she opened the door, and she and Sirius peered in, Sirius shook his head and closed the door.
"Nope, Defense Against the Dark Arts. Oh, let's see…if it's supposed to be there that means if we just go right there then over there…Okay, I know where it is."
As Essence followed his, she took a band from her pocket and put her hair up. It was rather messy, and it was short.
"Professor! Sorry we're late. We went to the hospital wing, here's the note from Madam Pomfrey…" Professor Katshil read over the note.
"Well, your seats will be right there. Get out your books and read from pages 1 to 17; the introductory chapter."
"Right then." Sirius said and sat down at the very front of the room, next to James and Essence.
"See," Sirius whispered to James, pointing behind him. "Remus has got the right idea. Keep in the back of the classes."
"No, Remus hasn't got the right idea. If you sit in the back, you can't see or here anything, therefore you get a bad grade." Essence whispered.
"But that's better than having points taken from your house."
"Yeah, but the only reason the teacher would take points from your house was because you're talking. And, like in Potions, they might take off points if it isn't right. And that would be because you were sitting in the back and couldn't follow directions right even if you wanted to." Essence interjected. Both James and Sirius looked over at her.
"Well then maybe the Professor should write the directions on the board bigger eh?" Sirius raised his eyebrows, smiled, and opened his book. Essence rolled her eyes and started reading.
"Or, they'll take off points for the student being annoying."
"Please tell me you are going to be annoying so house points will be taken off." There was no hint of sarcasm in Essence's voice.
"Mr. Black! Mr. Potter! Ms. Kindle! Would you be so kind enough to be quiet?"
"Oh, yes, of course Professor. I was just asking him a question about the reading." James looked over at Sirius.
"But I didn't know what the answer to his question was so we were discussing it."
"Well I'd rather you not discuss things anymore in my class."
Silence.
"Well we still didn't come up with an answer." James finally said.
"Yes, we were debating over which answer was right, and then realized that none of our answers could be correct."
"Well what is the question?"
"Well really it was two."
"Right, first it was this one question that we couldn't get, then that question led onto this other question and we still haven't come up with an answer for the first question!"
"Yes we did, it was my answer. You remember don't you?" James looked over at Sirius.
"I'd remember if you weren't so conceited. Now getting back-"
"Yes, getting back to it Professor. We still haven't come up with an answer! To question one, two, three, or four!"
"I thought we had seven Sirius."
"Right! We still haven't come up with an answer to question one, two, three, four, five, six, or seven!"
"Then what were the questions?" Their Professor said sternly.
"Well the first question was," He cleared his throat, "What is the dictionary definition of Transformation?" James said.
"Then, if you look at Chapter Two, you'll see that it's only a page long! Why?"
"And then, here, on page 176-"
"Please! We do not need to know the definition of Transformation, nor why chapters are short, nor anything on page 1-7-6! Ten points will be taken off because of the two of you! Now please, back to your reading! And on the right pages if you will!" The two boys nodded and actually started reading this time.
"Thank you. That puts Ravenclaw in the lead. Good work you two!" Essence whispered happily and patted Sirius on the back.
"Sure, as long as you don't go psycho and break my wrist again." Essence just smiled and went back to her reading. 'Okay, so page two...'
Much before Sirius or Essence or even James was done reading, it was time to go to lunch. Well, really, a few other people didn't finish as well. The print was tiny, and because it being so small, it seemed like they were reading a book! James got to page seven, Sirius to page eleven, Essence to the last sentence of page eleven, Catty to page fourteen, same as Remus, and Lily to page 23.
At lunch, Catty came over to sit with Essence and Lily. So did Erin and Shaleint. Shaleint, though, did not get to eat all that much for she was trying to get Catty to say her name right. Finally she just gave up and let catty call her 'Shally'.
"Right then! I can't believe Sirius and James made us lose ten points!" Catty exclaimed.
"You shouldn't care about the house Cup and all. That would just separate us further. If the teams that are first and second are Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, then we will start fighting and our friendship will dissipate." Sirius, who had just walked over, along with James, finished.
"See, I told you my S.M.R.P. are better than yours." Catty looked at Sirius who had sat down next to her, in front of Essence.
"But you don't have any friends in Ravenclaw Sirius." Essence said dryly. Sirius just waved it off.
"S.M .R.P? What's that?" Catty asked, already confused.
"Special mind-reading powers I would guess." Essence said between bites of food.
"See, you were going to say that stuff about the houses, but I read-"
"Hi Essence, Lily, Catty, Sirius, James, and you other two." Arabella said as she flopped down in a seat next to Catty.
"Hi Arabella! Which classes did you have?" Lily asked.
"Eck. We had Double Transfiguration and Charms. And we had them with Slytherin. I swear. They are the worst. Which classes do you have next? We have…held on…" she took out her schedules and looked at it happily. "We have History of Magic with Gryffindor, then Double Defense Against the Dark Arts with Ravenclaw."
Sirius groaned. "Look James! We have Potions with Slytherin! Everyone says that Professor Wech favors them. And then Defense Against the dark Arts with them! Great! The only class I wouldn't skip I have to spend it with grease-ball boy."
"No, we have History of Magic and then Double Potions. I hate doing potions anyway; maybe we can just skip class. You know, say we got lost."
"I like making potions." Essence said, finally getting into the conversation.
"You're the only one." James said. Essence got up.
"I'm going to go to the Library. 'Bye!" She said happily, and walked out of the Great Hall.
"Guess talking about schedules isn't her cup of tea." James said, shrugging.
"No, she would rather spend time in a place that's quiet." Sirius said, nodding. "It's my special mind-reading powers." James pushed him and he fell to the floor.
James shrugged. "Huh. Guess you don't have mind-reading powers after all."
"Special mind-reading powers! Special!!" Sirius called after him as he walked to the Gryffindor table.
So after going through about two more hours of classes, and getting assigned a pile of homework, James, Sirius, and Remus reached the Great Hall.
"So I'm thinking, if we-" But Remus stopped short when he saw two owls flying towards them. They stopped in front of James and Sirius. Remus could see that two owls had also flown to Essence and Lily.
Your detention will take place at midnight tonight. Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.
Professor M. Katshil
"Midnight? How are we supposed to get enough sleep?" Sirius said. Remus just shrugged.
"Do you know what this means though? We aren't going to have a regular detention, I'll tell you."
"Why do you think that?" Sirius asked, between and only looking half-interested.
"Because, if we meet at the entrance hall that means we're going outside!" He looked back at the note and snorted. "Mr. Filch."
Over at the Ravenclaw table, Lily was looking at the note she had gotten from the owl.
"Midnight. Midnight! I'm not going to get any sleep then!"
"Then you better go up right now. Hey, where is Essence? Did she ever come back from Defense Against the Dark Arts?"
But right then Essence ran in and fell into a seat next to Lily. "Hi!" She said, breathless.
"Where were you?"
"Doing some things." They looked at her suspiciously.
"Well, we're having detention tonight. Midnight."
"Oh, good."
"Good?" Lily said incredulously.
"Uh…I mean great. Or bad. Or whatever." Essence shrugged it off and began eating.
At midnight, Lily and Essence walked down to the entrance hall. Filch was there, but there was no sign of the boys.
After a few minutes, Filch said, "Well obviously-" But he stopped for he heard a great crash. James and Sirius suddenly walked around the corner, whistling.
"Oh come on, stop trying to get detention!" Essence said and opened the door and stepped into the night air.
They made their way over to a small hut on the edge of a forest. The giant that had greeted them when they had first arrived was waiting there for them.
"You'll be spending you detention with Hagrid. In the Forest." He was grinning.
"I wonder how many people get to go into a forest with evil things for detention." James said happily.
"Oh, I just wish there's a lot more." Filch said.
"Righ' then. The Willow Dumbledore planted needs some things tha' have to be found in the wild. The plant is a shimmering purple. Don' touch it; it'll melt your hands. A bi' acidic it is."
He handed them what looked liked gloves and a heavy bag.
Filch grinned nastily and went away, back up to the castle.
"I like detention!" Sirius said happily. Hagrid let out a sort of a disbelieving snort.
When they entered the forest, it was pitch black except for Hagrid's lantern. James and Sirius lit their wands, then Essence and Lily. They decided to split up. Sirius and James, then Essence and Lily, and Hagrid by himself.
James and Sirius looked for the plant, vigorously, for a maximum of two minutes before exploring.
Lily was looking warily about the ground for the purple plant. Essence was sitting on a tree stump and looked around.
"Look!" Lily said, pulling Essence up from her seat and pointing out what seemed to be black shaped moving.
"Maybe they're evil swarms of butterflies that want to eat the giant squid but are angered because they can't because they can't get to close to the water without drowning." Lily looked at her, confused. Essence shrugged and dragged Lily over to the black shapes.
"Oh evil butterflies!" Essence yelled. The two shapes looked up. "Okay, let me read their minds and see if they're evil. Wait, hold on. They don't have brains. Must be Sirius and James."
They reached the shapes and they did in fact turn out to be James and Sirius.
"Evil butterflies?" James asked. Essence just nodded.
"Anyway, have you two found any purple plants?" Lily asked, looking around.
"No, but we found this green one!" Sirius said. Lily rolled her eyes and brushed a few leaves that were on some shimmering plant with her grab-thing.
"Oh…" James shrugged as Lily picked it up with the grabber and put it in her bag. "Okay, but how do we get back to Hagerd?"
"It's Hagrid. And I have no clue." Lily said, looking around.
"Well you have special mind-reading powers Sirius, why don't you just read his mind and find out where he is." Essence said.
"Ok, will I ever go through a day without listening to someone talking about special mind-reading powers?" Lily said, annoyed. "Now come on."
They followed Lily through the forest. After about thirty minutes of searching, James got annoyed.
"Oh come on. Can we just leave the forest? You know, leave him to come back when he finds another little plant thing."
"One problem. Which way is where we came in?" Sirius said and looked around. Lily pointed one way, while the two boys insisted on going another.
"Oh come off it!" Essence finally said and let out an ear-splitting scream. The other three put their hands over their ears and looked at her when she was done.
"What was-?"
"What's wrong!? Why're ya screamin'?" Hagrid said suddenly, and angrily. James, Sirius, and Lily looked up, surprised.
"We got one." She said, and handed the bag to Hagrid as the other three watched her incredulously.
"So can we leave yet?" Lily said. The forest was giving her the creeps; she felt like she was being watched.
"Uh…" Hagrid looked around the dark forest and suddenly he looked nervous.
"Um…You…You do now how to get out…right?" Hagrid looked at Lily and, again, around.
"Well, I only know the part of the forest by the trees." He said.
"And I'm guessing this isn't the part of the forest by the trees?" Sirius said, groaning."
"But Sirius! This will give us time to explore-"
"I'd rather explore and then get out alive!" Sirius snapped.
"Why don't we just use a compass or something?"
"Well that's an easy question. It wouldn't work! The magic around Hogwarts would mess it up by far. And, there is dark magic, also, that would mess the reading up." Essence said.
"And what are you? Knower-of-everything?" Sirius said, annoyed.
"No, but I have at least half a brain." Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Of course you do. How else could I read it? And what an old comeback."
"Will you please stop talking about those idiotic mind-reading powers? Neither of you have them, and neither of you ever will!" Obviously Lily had gotten fed up with the talk of the special mind-reading powers.
"Right. So how do we get out of this forest?"
"Well…we could-" But Sirius stopped abruptly, at the sound of howling.
"There are were-wolves in this forest? And we are allowed to do detention in here? Oh my God!"
"Oh pipe down Evans! We're trying to find a way to get out!"
"Well…we could ask the animals and things." Essence suggested. Even as she said it, it seemed that glowing yellow eyes seemed to peek down from the trees and watch them.
"If we ask them, they'll just point us in the opposite direction." Hagrid said dryly.
"Then we just take the opposite direction they give us."
"Well, you see-" But the distinct sound of hooves cut Hagrid off. Lily, James, and Sirius' eyes widened out of fear and Essence's out of curiosity. But before they saw what the hooves brought with them, or before Hagrid could tell them it was a centaur, they screamed (save Essence) and were all running away (Lily dragging Essence behind her).
But as they ran, they knew that where they were going was worse than with Hagrid. Hagrid had lost them, and it was getting steadily darker.
"Oh-just-STOP!" Essence yelled, finally being able to wrench her hand from Lily's grasp. "We're going the wrong way!"
"Yeah well it's better than with whatever that thing was!"
"No it wasn't! We're farther away, and we don't know any magic, save that stupid shrinking spell, and- What are you doing?" James was climbing up the nearest tree, or at least attempting to.
"If I can see over the tops, I'll know which direction we need to go." He finally stumbled up the branches out of their sight. But within a few seconds he came crashing down. Before he hit the ground, he grabbed a tree branch with groaned and almost broke. He let go and fell to the ground lightly, on his two feet.
"I think I stepped in a nest or something…A bird attacked me and I lost balance. But we do need to go that way." He pointed to his left. They all shrugged and decided to go ahead and give it a try.
After what had seemed many minutes, it became less dark and they could even see golden rays peeking out from the leaves. They soon stepped away from the forest's trees and onto the patch of grass behind Hagrid's hut. He was there, pacing back and forth and his face immediately lit up when he saw them.
"You're alive!" The four looked at each other.
"Did you believe that we were dead?" Hagrid looked uncomfortable.
"Well…I jus' didn' know where ya were." He let them go back to the school, and they found out, startled, that it was 5:30 in the morning. They also found out how tired they were, and groaned thinking about the day ahead them.
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Hi! How did you like it? I apologize for the length of this chapter. It was only about 8k words, but that makes it 22k words and that means as long as I can make it 11k words, it…uh…will be good. o_0 Yeah. Anyway, That also means that by chapter 9 my story will be 100k words! ^_^ YAY! Anyway, I think I liked the last chapter better…Anyway, soon Essence will go bye-bye and then I can focus on other people! No, she won't die. She's going to…take a break from being such a spotlight. Also, did you know how hard to describe the little pictures in my head? Yea…Okay, yay! I'm at the end of chapter 2! Wooo! Well…um…please review!
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Number of words: 8,325
Number of pages: 17