CHAPTER 4
Moons and Mudbloods
The school was filled with the hustle and bustle of the first day. Students ran through the halls, desperately trying to find their classes on time. Sirius and James were leaning up against the wall, comparing their schedules. Peter was trying to catch up with them from behind the crowd that had set itself between him and his newly found friends.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts first, eh?" Sirius said, sighing. "Oh…great. Can't wait."
"Hey, we've got it with the Slytherins. Wonder if we'll see wittle Snivellus there," James chortled.
"Guys! Wait up!"
Sirius turned to see a chubby hand, waving over the heads of passing sixth years. He groaned, "What is with that kid? We give him a place on our boat and all of a sudden he's worshipping us," he mumbled to James as Peter drew nearer. He still had his rat clamped in his clammy hands.
"What's with that thing?" James asked, pointing at it. Peter smiled and said, "It was a present from me mum. I named him Wormtail. 'Cause if you look at his tail, he-"
"Interesting," Sirius said, obviously not engaged in the conversation. "I wonder where the class is."
"Excuse me."
The red streak bumped into Sirius, and continued walking. It was that Lily girl. Today she was sporting plastic bracelets on her wrist (Muggle décor). They jingled whenever she moved. Sirius smiled to himself as he watched the back of her head bounce along with her walk. He had never quite seen a girl like her before.
And neither, it looked like, had James. His mouth was wide open, and his eyes were wider than his mouth. Sirius laughed and patted him on the back, "Hey, James. No such luck. She's a Mudblood."
Peter and James stared at him in horror. All of a sudden, his friends' expressions had turned from amused to disgusted, and Sirius took a step back. He furrowed his brow. What was the matter? Why were they looking at him like that?
"What did you say?" James whispered.
"I said-"
"Don't say it again," James hushed him, and looked around nervously. "Uh, Sirius, mate…you don't say that. It's --- not very right --- to call someone a Mudblood."
"Yeah," Peter muttered.
"What? My father says it all the time ---"
"Well, your father shouldn't," James said, and shifting his bag onto his left shoulder, he took off after Lily. "Now come on," he said, trying to forget the discussion, "we'll follow her to the classroom."
Sirius looked after Peter as he ran to catch up with James, who was now skidding around a corner. What was so wrong with saying 'Mudblood'? Everyone at home used the word freely.
Everyone at home is a Black, he reminded himself. He shook his head and ran after James.
The classroom was dark and surrounded by stone walls. On the ceiling, an old and degraded skeleton of a dragon hung over the class. Cages filled with bones and sometimes real creatures flanked the desks that stood three in a row, seating two behind each. Sirius and James, obviously, shared a desk. Peter occupied the one behind them, sitting next to that white haired boy from the lake. He seemed appalled at something, because his nose was always in the air. Peter doesn't smell that bad, Sirius thought.
Behind them, the two boys could make out the pale face of "Snivellus" sitting next to the quiet Lily Evans. They were exchanging quiet notes back and forth, and Lily seemed to be very nervous for some reason. Finally, behind them sat R. J. Lupin, all by himself, reading over a book entitled Quidditch Through the Ages.
Hey, he can't be that bad, James thought, if he likes Quidditch.
The door at the top of a staircase slammed shut, and the class turned forward in their seats to come eye to eye with the man from the feast. His receding hairline made his forehead look enormous, and his squinty eyes blinked at all of them. They were cold and unfeeling.
"Good morning, class," he said in his low voice.
"Good morning, Professor," they all said in unison.
He nodded and made his way down the stairs and to his desk. "Good, good. I am Professor Klein and I will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor this year. You were lucky enough not to have that idiot last year waste your time and memory space with his Auror tricks. Please put your book away, Mr. Lupin, before I confiscate it. Thank you. Now let's see here. I have the roll call here. Please rise when I call your name. Nar…Nar…Kissay?"
"Narcissa," Narcissa hissed from next to Snape.
"Oh, quite right you are," he said, taking out his glasses and rereading the name. "Narcissa Black? Is that you? Good, good. Next, Sirius Black?"
"Here," Sirius said, raising his hand high in the air.
Narcissa gave a coughing noise. Sirius smiled. She loathed him already. Good.
The roll call went on and on until finally Professor Klein rolled the scroll back up and placed it on his desk. He clasped his hands together and let out a breath.
"Well, it's our first day here, and so I don't want to swamp you with any homework."
There was a loud cheer.
"Of course, that means that we'll have to compensate for the lack thereof tomorrow."
The cheer was followed by a groan.
"This class will take serious concentration and constant vigilance from anyone who wants to exit my room without any sort of injury. We will be discussing the worst sort of Dark Arts creatures, along with the worst sort of wizards. We will begin with hinkypunks, grindylows, Red Caps, and we will finish off the semester with werewolves."
A chair shifted towards the back.
Professor Klein smiled to himself and continued on. "These are a few of the worst sorts of demons that inhabit our world today. You must be aware of the destruction that they can cause. The second semester will be dedicated to wizards, such as hexes, wizard duels, and possibly some research into the profession of Aurors. I, myself, am a retired Auror, and would love to pass my knowledge on to you. I can see many eager faces ready to get started. So let us take out the textbook, The Dark Arts Defensive by Francis Colliers, and open to Chapter One."
Everyone did as they were told…except Sirius. He had heard about werewolves. There had been a man who lived a block away from him in London that had been bitten one night, and by morning had been whisked off to St. Mungo's Hospital. His father had ranted on and on for a good three hours about the disaster the man could bring to Grimmauld Place.
Table of Contents…Werewolves and Where to Find Them. Chapter fourteen. Sirius flipped the pages to chapter fourteen and gasped.
His eyes went wide, and he sat staring at the colorful picture in front of him. James turned toward Sirius, and looked over his shoulder.
"What? What's wrong?"
Sirius pointed at the monster on page 397. "Look at that!"
It was a full grown monster, crouched close to the ground, his tail swishing in the darkness. He thrashed his head about, mutely howling. The moon was above him. Below him, on the ground, there was red.
Blood, Sirius thought.
"Look at the size of those paws!" James said, pointing at one of the outstretched hands.
"Bloody hell," Sirius murmured, trying to take his eyes off of the werewolf. It was captioned underneath: Werewolf – The full moon arrives to meet its prey. Illustration by Jacques Walters.
"Chapter One," Professor Klien continued. "Red Caps. Severus, would you mind reading?"
Snivellus cleared his throat, and leaned over far in his chair. His greasy black hair covered his face, and he began to recite in his dark voice.
Two rows back, another little boy was staring at page 397, eyes wider than Sirius's.
"Hey, guys!"
Peter sat his satchel next to James's and made himself comfortable across the table from Sirius. Sirius didn't acknowledge him, but kept on at reading the Daily Prophet. It was busy work (and a reason not to talk to Peter). Nothing important had happened. No big heists. No Dark Wizards congregating. Nothing. Only a headline that read Gringotts Troll Insurance Policy Running Smoothly.
"Interesting morning, hey?" Peter said, working up the nerve to speak. "That Professor McGonagall is one tough lady, eh?"
"Yeah," James said, his eyes darting to Sirius.
Sirius ignored them both.
His mind was still on that picture. That evil picture of that werewolf. It had been so real.
"Hey, Sirius, look," James said, tapping his side, and pointing down the table at a fluff of red. It was Lily Evans.
Sirius felt his cheeks get red, "Yeah? What about her?"
"You really think she's out of my chances?"
"Huh?" Sirius said stupidly.
"Well," James fidgeted with his robe hems, "I mean, you said this morning I had no chance. You really think that?"
Sirius felt his lip curl. James was really in love with the red head. Not just a little schoolboy crush, but a full fledged over the moon love. He let a laugh escape his mouth. "I really don't see why she's so special."
"Well, just look at her."
"I'm looking, and I don't see anything," Sirius lied, and went back to his paper.
"Hey, Evans!"
Sirius groaned, and he saw James leap up from his seat and make his way to the huddle of giggly girls where the red head was sitting. Good thing for him, Snivellus was no where in sight.
"Evans!" James called again, and the girl turned around in her seat to look at him.
"Are you talking to me?" she asked, her friends all giggling stupidly behind her.
"Yeah, I am," James said so assuring that Sirius felt as if he was going to gag. "I was just --- uh --- wondering --- you know, if --- well, you seem to understand Herbology pretty well, and I got sort of lost."
"That might be because you were too busy hexing the planting pots," she said coolly, and she shot a glare to Sirius.
"Well, I never was good at that gardening stuff anyway," James recovered, and tried to act cool by messing up his hair. "I --- I mean --- if you could just sit down with me sometime and --- you know --- teach me-"
"I don't think I'll waste my time," she said, and returned to her lunch.
"Why?"
"If you don't have the discipline to listen in class, you're not going to listen to me," she said, still looking at her food. "Now, if you will excuse me, I would like to enjoy the rest of my break."
James looked taken aback. It seemed as if no one had ever said no to him before. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to get it to work. Finally, he managed to say, "Fine, Evans. Fine. Let me flunk."
"I will," she said as James made his way back to his seat. He plopped down next to Sirius, muttered something that sounded like women, and went back to eating.
Edna Rossins Gives Birth to Three-Headed Girl, read the next headline in the Daily Prophet. Sirius didn't have the energy to even scan the article. That picture on 397 was chiseled into his retinas, and all that he could see was that thing howling mutely on the page.
"Something wrong?" Peter asked quietly.
"No, I'm fine," Sirius murmured as he tried to look interested in the paper. It was actually the dullest thing he'd ever seen in his life.
"Welcome to Potions," said a large and portly man from the front of the Dungeon. "I am Professor Slughorn, and this," he said holding up a textbook, "is a book. It has words inside it, with pages. It's a magical thing. Let's all try to open a book now. It may be a little difficult for some of you, being that it will be your first time trying. But I think we'll manage, eh?"
They all opened to the first page in Potions for the Beginning Wizard. Remus was, again, sitting alone in the back. He looked at Professor Slughorn with interest. It would be twenty eight days until he would be escorted down through the tunnel that Dumbledore had described. He knew why they had picked Professor Snorks. He was huge and strong. He could keep Remus in order if needed.
Remus shuddered.
Slughorn spotted him, and gave a little winkHe knew, too!
No, don't wink at me! Remus thought. Don't look at me! Just teach your class and let me get out of here!
That red headed girl with the pretty eyes turned backwards in her chair to get a quick glimpse of Remus. Did she know? Did she suspect? After Professor Klein's class, it was almost obvious to everyone what he was hiding.
No, Remus, he thought, you're just being paranoid again. No one knows. No one knows.
Remus wrung his hands together faster.
After Professor Slughorn's class came the one that James had been looking most forward to - flying lessons with Madame Darsing. She was a spirited old lady, with her black hair pulled into a tight bun. There was a rumor floating around the school that she was the only female member of the Chudley Cannons in history, and every student had been so eager to meet this legend in person. But none of them could match the excitement of James Potter.
From the time that Darsing had walked onto the Quidditch field, James had taken in every word that she had uttered. She spoke in a thick, unrecognizable accent, so half of the students had no idea what she was talking about, but they were interested all in the same.
Even Peter was alert and attentive as she spoke about mounting the broom. Of course, there was no way of telling what on Earth she was saying, but her actions were so lively that a deaf person could have gotten along quite well in her class.
"All righ', nah yah gwripe yah handale li' sah," she said, gripping her broom, "An' ahn da coun' o' thrice, push ahf slowlah, ahntil yah lahn' on yah fee' propahlah."
"What?" said a Hufflepuff girl.
"Coun' o' thrice, rahdee?" Darsing said, ignoring the girl's question. She made a lunging movement on her broom, and all of the students understood immediately. They grabbed their sticks and got ready for takeoff.
"Ahn, Hoo, Thrice!"
And they were up off the ground, circling the pitch. Of course, they were all only about three feet in the air, but it was amazing to them all the same. The highest broom was at five feet, and that was James's. He smiled slyly down at Lily Evans. She squinted at him, as if not sure of what the buffoon was trying to do.
"Little better than gardening, huh?" he said, and then in a blink of an eye, was off to ten feet, then twenty feet, then thirty, and forty and…
"Mahs-terr Pah-tah!" Darsing exclaimed. Lily smiled, thinking that that was the end of that stupid boy. Oh, was he in trouble now! Oh, how he was going to get it.
"Ah-mah-zeen, Mahs-terr Pah-tah!" Darsing hooted from the ground. "Ah boot hah fah can ye gah ahp?"
James, of course, was now too high to hear her question, but he filled her with an answer as he soared higher and higher into the sky. One hundred feet, past the stadium bleachers ---
Sirius laughed as he shielded his eyes from the sun to see his friend. "There you go, Potter!" he shouted enthusiastically.
Lily, now on the ground again, walked past Sirius and muttered something that sounded like showoff. Sirius laughed again and landed.
James spent the entire lesson in the air, circling round and round the Quidditch pitch. Darsing forgot about her teaching, and stood in the middle of the field, instructing James on what to do, how to keep his broom steady, what sort of tricks he could manage. The rest of the students landed, looking lost and forlorn. After the first twenty minutes, the class decided to sit on the Gryffindor bleachers, and spent the remainder of the hour working on homework or sleeping. But Sirius and Peter just sat side by side, watching James lap the pitch for the hundredth time. He was walloping and screaming at the top of his lungs, having the greatest time he had ever had.
"Ah, Mahs-terr Pah-tah!" Darsing cheered as James finally landed. "Vah-ree eem-prah-sahve! Fahll mahks fah tahdaeee! Ahs fer thah rahst ahf yah!" She turned towards the dozing children on the bleachers. "Fahve pahnts frahm each of yah! Lahzee laht."
They had no idea what sort of punishment Darsing had bestowed upon them, but it didn't sound very enticing. They were a sad, sorry crowd as they walked back into the Great Hall for dinner.
"That was amazing!" Peter said, clapping gleefully as James rejoined him and Sirius. "You are one of the best flyers I've ever seen!"
"Well, thanks!" James said, mussing his hair again. "I've had a lot of practice. I was on a Quidditch team at home, you know. Played Beater, though. Not my cup of tea. I've always fancied Keeper."
"And you'd be pretty damned good at it, too," Sirius said as they walked into the school and out of the heat. "Peter's right. You should try out for the Quidditch team."
"Can't. They won't let first years play," James said. "But Madame Darsing says to try out when I'm a little older. They'll have to put me on the team!" his eyes gleamed with excitement. "Do you think Evans saw me? Do you think she caught how high I got?"
Behind them, a very sour looking Slytherin made his way into the main hall. Severus Snape was biting his lip, holding his broom, and looking loathingly at Potter's back.