A/N: Thanks again for all your wonderful reviews! First a quick note to something my Beta said. I know I said I'm going to keep in cannon with what JKR said however I think I'm going to have to change a little bit. For this chapter you will notice that Bellatrix Narcissa Malfoy and Snape are all in the same year, even though Malfoy and Narcissa are meant to be older, also Andromeda being a Slytherin was questionable, as was her age. So please just bear with me on this slight invention because its part of my story and it's only a little change. If it bothers anyone greatly I can do something about it, it's just easier for my story to have them together.
Disclaimer: All recognizable stuff belongs to JKR
Tekvah Ariel - Hey again! You are now my most faithful reviewer. Glad you liked the chapter, I'm trying to make them longer as I go along. I know what you mean about Peter, personally I thought he would have been a Hufflepuff but according to most sources he is a Gryffindor, and he has to get friends with James and that lot so that he can be made their secret keeper. I'll try to make him do something loyal/noble somewhere so that he is a bit more Gryffindor worthy.
Soleil Luna - Hee hee, well credits have to go to you as well my wonderful Beta
Chapter 4 - Howlers and Potions Masters
The next morning found the first year Gryffindors up early and eating breakfast in the Great Hall, eager to start their lessons. Mia, Lily, and Jessica were still refusing to speak to the boys, even though Mia secretly liked Remus and Jessica thought James and Sirius were completely gorgeous, they were doing this for Lily's benefit. She had decided they were stupid and immature and her friends had decided it was a bad idea to get on the wrong side of Lily Evans; therefore, they were going along with her.
The boys however thought that it had been a great start to the year, and soon fell in love with the castle. This morning they had already planned some more pranks with the aid of their spell books and Sirius' little black book.
Remus had read through his books and decided that Defense against the Dark Arts sounded the best; James had decided that he would be good at everything but that Transfiguration sounded most exiting, and Sirius had come to the decision that he loved the Hogwarts food more than anything else. So at the moment they were eating breakfast with the other boy in their dorm, who was, as Remus said, Peter Pettigrew.
Peter was shyer than the other boys, being quite short with blonde hair and watery blue eyes. He tended to stick quiet or mutter incoherently rather than adding to the conversation but none the less, he was a Gryffindor and so he was their friend.
As soon as they had sat down, James, Sirius, and Remus had each gotten a slip from Professor McGonagall stating that they should meet Mr. Filch, the caretaker, outside the trophy room at 7 o'clock to serve the detention they had earned the previous evening.
By now most of the school had come down, not wanting to be late on their first day, and the prefects were just handing out the class schedules.
"Right," Remus started, looking down a his timetable, "First we have double transfiguration with the Ravenclaws, then double potions with the Slytherins, which should be interesting, lunch, then double herbology with the Hufflepuffs, and double charms to finish."
"That's not too bad," James continued (Sirius was still stuffing his face at this point), "McGonagall probably doesn't like us right now but she'll come around once she's seen how great we are, potions sounds like hell, the teacher is head of Slytherin so he's bound to favor his students, I think an older student said the herbology teacher was new this year so she'll be easy, and Flitwick is supposed to be pretty nice."
Further down the table the girls were also discussing their lessons. Lily had decided charms was by far the best and said that would be good to finish the day, Mia had liked the sound of potions and was likely to be good at it because she had helped her mother make them all her life, and Jessica said she'd wait and see what she was good at but was not looking forward to history of magic as her brother said that it was the most boring thing on the earth.
The post owls had arrived about 10 minutes ago, bringing quite a shock to Lily along with the rest of the muggle borns, everyone's attention therefore was turned o the large eagle owl that had just entered, swooping over the tables to look for its owner.
"Hey Sirius," James nudged him to get him to stop eating, "Isn't that the owl you had in Diagon Alley?"
James was right; the owl flew down in front of Sirius, dropping a red letter onto his plate before taking off again. Sirius nearly choked on his food as he looked at the letter in front of him.
"Sirius open it, it'll be worse if you don't." Remus said quietly, aware that the whole hall had turned to see whose owl it was.
"What's that?" Lily whispered to Mia, who was sitting next to her,
"A howler." Mia whispered back, eyes still on Sirius,
"What's a how-" Lily was cut of by a voice magnified to a hundred times its normal volume. James recognized the voice from Diagon Alley, the voice of Mrs. Black.
"BLOOD TRAITOR!" It screamed for the hall to hear, "GENERATIONS OF SLYTHERINS AND THEN YOU GO AND LAND YOUSELF IN GRYFFINDOR?! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO YOUR NAME! YOUR FATHER AND I ARE ASHAMED TO CALL YOU OUR SON. YOU ARE A BLACK SO IT'S TIME YOU STARTED ACTING LIKE ONE! Bellatrix, Narcissa dears," the hall turned to face the Slytherin table; "Your mother sends her congratulations and asks you talk to some sense into your STUPID COUSIN!"
The hall sat stunned. The Slytherin first years (that had all become friends overnight and knew of Sirius' relation to Bellatrix and Narcissa) were smirking smugly at the Gryffindor boys, none more so than Bellatrix and Narcissa themselves. Sirius was deathly pale and looked like he was going to be sick, with everyone watching him, wondering what the hell that was about. At that moment the bell rung, signaling the start of lessons and the normal chatter resumed as people made their way to their first class.
Their first class however did nothing to raise Sirius' spirits. He was getting questioning looks from everyone in the corridor, itching to know what the howler was about, while he himself was still in shock. He had been so happy to get into Gryffindor he hadn't counted on the fact that his cousins would run off and tell his mother that evening. He didn't have time to continue his thoughts because at that moment Professor McGonagall steered them out of the corridor and into her classroom.
The classroom was quite big, with a high ceiling and large windows running down the furthest side of the classroom. To the left were two rows of desks, each to seat two people, with four desks to a row. To the far left corner was another door to what was presumably their teacher's office, in front of the desks sat a larger desk, obviously belonging to McGonagall, and to their immediate left stretching along the wall were shelves upon shelves of books and silenced animals in cages. She led the students over to the desks and drew a piece of parchment out of her pocket.
"As I call your name you will take the seat I indicate. Abbott and Baradell, take the far left in the back row," the two girls (Chloe and Samantha) moved to their desk, "Black and Evans, the next along," Lily moved to her desk, glaring at the teacher for sitting next to one of 'the boys', but Sirius was still standing in his original position, his eyes glazed over as if he was deep in thought. "Black!" She repeated. Remus nudged Sirius.
"Huh?" Sirius asked, snapping back to attention.
The professor surveyed the young boy before her, her anger ebbing away as she looked at him. He had, after all, just been humiliated by his family in front of the whole school on his second day here. He looked up at her, pity shining in her eyes.
"Please go sit with Miss Evans, Mr. Black." She continued, pointing to where Lily had just sat down. He nodded, slightly annoyed he wasn't next to one of his mates but was next to a person who hated him, but was too busy thinking about the howler to do much about it. Instead he went to sit down without a word. McGonagall continued down her list seating the students. Remus and Mia were sitting two desks down from Sirius after Finch-Fletchey and Kepalski had taken the next seat. The final pair on their row was Zach Morris and Olivia Narren from Ravenclaw. On the next row, (starting from the left) Morgan was horrified to be seated next to Peter, who in her eyes was no better than a garden slug. James was sitting next to Jessica and felt very pleased with himself, he was directly in front of Sirius and Jessica was pretty cute. Morgan's friend Helen was sitting next to a Ravenclaw girl on the next desk and Lee Turpin and Adam Waite from Ravenclaw took the final desk.
Once everyone was seated, McGonagall took her seat at the front of the class and began the speech she had said many times, and would say many more times in the future,
"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." The class then proceeded to try and turn matches into needles, and by the end of the class only James and Lily had achieved it, earning them 10 points for Gryffindor and making them the only ones not to receive homework.
There was a short break before the next lessons and the friends were planning to ask Sirius about this morning when someone beat them to it,
"Sirius!" A voice shouted through the crowds, "Sirius wait!" Sirius turned to see who was shouting and saw a girl he had never met in his life, who looked several years older and was, a Slytherin. Thinking she was a friend of his cousin's coming to have a go at him he sped up, which was difficult in the crowd. "Sirius!" The voice continued, catching up with the boy, "Could you wait!?" The girl caught up and pulled Sirius to the side of the crowd.
"What are you doing?" He half-shouted as he was dragged into an empty classroom.
"Just listen to me. OK?" He nodded and sat on an empty desk, "Right. I'm Andromeda Black, I'm your cousin."
"You gonna have another go at me for not being a Slytherin?"
"No" Andromeda replied calmly, "I'm going to congratulate you." She smiled at the look on Sirius' face.
"Congratulate me? What about the family tradition of Slytherins and acting like a Black should?"
"Yeah I'm not too fond of the family either; I'm only in Slytherin because I didn't have enough courage to stand up to the family. I'm Bellatrix and Narcissa's sister, unfortunately, but I don't agree with their whole 'purebloods are the only people who should be allowed to live' philosophy."
"So if you're family how come I've never met you?"
"I missed the sorting yesterday with unavoidable prefect's duties and I manage to avoid family gatherings. They found out I'm dating a muggle and I'm not allowed in the house till I get rid of him. We're gonna get married when I'm out of school so that ones out of the window."
Sirius grinned at finally finding a relative he liked, "Wow, I'll have to meet him sometime. So are we the only ones in the family who don't think like morons?"
"There's your uncle Alphard who doesn't think like them but otherwise that's it. The bell's about to go and I've got to get to Charms but don't worry about the family, they'll get over it." She gave him a reassuring smile and swept out of the door.
Sirius went to Potions feeling a lot happier now that he had at least one relative who he could talk to. Sirius arrived just as everyone was collecting around the entrance hall.
"What did she want?" Remus asked.
"Yeah you seem a bit happier now" James added in.
"I'll explain later," Sirius replied, going down the steps to the dungeons. James and Remus looked at each other, unsure if they should accept his reply but followed him anyway.
The atmosphere as the Gryffindors approached the dungeons where the lessons were held was very tense. There was a natural rivalry between the two houses; the teachers were amazed that any work was done in lessons when they were put together. There was extra tension of course after this morning and Sirius had forgotten he would have to see his cousins until he heard their voice ring through the silence of the dungeon corridor.
"Hello again dear cousin," Bellatrix sneered in a sickly sweet voice, "I believe we have to," She paused, "now how did your mother put it?"
"Talk some sense into our stupid cousin," Narcissa supplied, "was what she said."
"Ahh yes," Bellatrix continued, trying to get Sirius to snap, "Wasn't very happy with her little blood traitor was she?"
Sirius looked up from his conversation and turned to face the two girls, his good mood fading rapidly to be replaced by anger as he tried to keep himself calm. "They'll get over it." He stated, echoing Andromeda's words.
They looked shocked for a second to receive such a calm reply, and were about to make a good comeback when the door opened and they were ushered inside by their Potions Master. The girls took instead to glaring at Sirius from across the classroom.
The dungeon itself was drafty and cold, set with two long benches running the width of the classroom. They weren't told where to sit but the Gryffindors immediately filled the back bench and the Slytherins immediately filled the front bench. Sirius sat at the end, distancing himself as much as possible from him cousins; James took the seat next to him, followed by Remus, and then Peter. Morgan and Helen took the next seats, upset that Sirius had sat on the end and doing their best to edge towards the boys, leaving Mia, Lily, and Jessica to take the last three seats.
On the row in front Bellatrix took the seat at the end, directly in front of Jessica, with Narcissa next to her, Malfoy, and then Snape, followed by the rest of the Slytherins. The teacher closed the door with a bang and the students were immediately silent, waiting to see what he was like.
"I'm am Professor Atrox, and there will be no nonsense in my class. It is likely that some of you will fail," He looked along the back row, "But that is to be expected. Take out your quills and make notes on today's lesson."
They spent the rest of the lesson making notes on the basics of potion making and potion ingredients. Professor Atrox kept shooting random questions at the Gryffindors which they had no hope of answering and consequently they left with minus 15 house points and more homework than the Slytherins. It seemed he did favor his own house and had a particular hate for Sirius and James. As soon as the bell had gone they rushed out thankful that it was lunch after the morning they had had.
"So what was with that girl after transfiguration?" James asked as they sat down.
"O her, yeah she's my cousin." Sirius replied like it was no big deal.
"You have another one!? What's she like?" Remus responded.
"She's actually nice, she's a Slytherin prefect but the family hates her because she's dating a muggle and they're planning on getting married after she's finished school. She said that me, her, and my uncle Alphard are the only ones who disagree with the pureblood policy, but it's a start." He smiled.
They ate quickly and made their way to Herbology which was in the greenhouses near the end of the grounds of the school. The herbology teacher was indeed new this year. She was called Professor Sprout and was a short dumpy witch with flyaway hair and a patched hat. She was nice, letting the students work in groups of three or four and chat while they worked, and soon the bell had gone and it was time for Charms.
Charms went quickly for the Gryffindors. They could sit where they liked, the teacher was nice, they didn't get too much, and Lily, James, and Sirius got 5 points each for successfully levitating their feathers. After dinner there wasn't much time to relax. The Gryffindors went back upstairs and had to start the homework they had been given.
Aside from Lily and James, the rest of the first years had to write a three foot essay for Transfiguration, everyone had to write about how to prune a Flutterby Bush, they all had a complicated essay on how to correctly brew a shrinking solution which they would be testing next lesson so it had to be done right, plus practicing the 'wingardium leviosa' spell for levitation if you hadn't done it in class.
In all, it was a lot for people who had come from muggle schools where you got two pieces of homework a week. The common room was full of people from all years doing their homework; it seemed it didn't get easier as you got older. Lily had finished hers quickly and was currently helping Mia and Jessica with their Transfiguration, and the boys were collectively working on their Potions, with Remus doing most of the work and the others copying it.
At around ten most people started making their way upstairs, praying that their homework load would decrease, and fell asleep instantly so they could be up and alert for the next day.
A/N: I'll work on Lily and the girls more next chapter, it's harder than I thought to follow both groups.
Silver Lily x x