Chapter 3

She woke up the next morning as grumpy as ever. She had barley slept at all that night, since Emma was up jotting down notes and scratching her quill on the parchment. Mandy and Padma hadn't gotten any sleep either.

"You guys, I'm so sorry! It's just when it gets to transfiguration, I have to be on top of everything! For the other subjects, I really don't care much, do you forgive me?"

Lisa grunted a grunt that meant 'no!', but Emma said:

"Oh thank you! I knew you'd understand!" and gave her a big hug.

For breakfast, Lisa ate scrambled eggs on toast. Emma only had a peach.

Suddenly, there was a loud screeching noise.

"Owl post!" said Padma. And indeed she was correct. About a thousand owls had flown into the Great Hall, dropping letters and packages in front of people. Lisa got a letter from her parents. It read:

Dear Lisa,

I miss you dearly, even though you have been away for less than 2 days. Your mother misses you too, but we don't want to make you come back for the Christmas holidays if you're really enjoying yourself there. We trust you in getting good grades, and we will write to you soon. We love you.

Love,

Mum and Dad

Lisa smiled and was about to pocket the letter when someone grabbed it out of her hands.

"Hey!"

"Aww," it was the white-blond haired boy, Draco Malfoy. "Has little baby Lisa got a note from mommy and daddy? How sweet!" A few people laughed.

"Give it back!" she said.

"What, are you going to make me?" he smirked.

"Malfoy, give it here." It was Harry.

"Hey look, Potter's got himself a girlfriend!" More people laughed. Lisa stood up.

"He is not my boyfriend, he's my neighbor!" she yelled. Harry snatched the note out of Malfoy's hand. Malfoy sniggered and returned to his table.

Harry handed the letter to Lisa, who was scarlet red from embarrassment. He didn't say anything; he just turned around and left. Lisa sat back down, trying to hide herself from all the people that were still laughing at her.

"Are you ok?" asked Emma.

Lisa nodded. Emma smiled. Lisa grabbed her bag and stood up.

"I'm going to find our transfiguration class. I don't want to be late if I get lost."

"I'd better come too" said Emma, putting her parchment and quill away. They left the Great Hall and set off to find their class.

They finally found it after being yelled at by Filch, scared by Peeves the Poltergeist, and having to go back 5 staircases because of one wrong turn. When class started, everyone grew silent.

"Transfiguration is one of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

She told them to write a bunch of notes, and finally she handed them a match that they were to make into a needle. Emma made hers into one on her first try, and Professor McGonagall awarded Ravenclaw 10 points. They had Potions next, with the teacher that only Slytherins liked, Professor Snape.

"Today, you will be making a simple potion to cure boils. I will partner you up."

They had Potions with Hufflepuff, and Professor Snape partnered them up with someone in the opposite house. Lisa was with Susan Bones, Emma with Justin Finch-Fletchley, Terry with Hannah Abbott, Mandy with Sally-Anne Perks, and Padma with Morag MacDougal.

"You will put one pound of dried nettles into your cauldron, then crush 2 snake fangs and add water also. After exactly, I mean exactly 10 minutes you will take your cauldron off the fire, and add 16 porcupine quills. You will then stir it and let it cool, and tomorrow you will be dividing it into four cups and throwing the extra away, I will freeze the ones in the cups and put in another cauldron, and you will add lemon powder while it melts. Then divide it back into for cups and add potato peels and you are done. Everyone understand?"

No one understood, but everyone nodded.

"Good, you may begin."

"I wrote it all down" said Emma. "Here, you can look at it too."

Potions

1 pound of dry nettles

2 crushed snake fangs and water

Cauldron off the fire after 10 min.

add 16 porcupine quills

stir and let it cool

tomorrow divide into 4 cups and throw the rest away

Snape will freeze and put in another cauldron

add lemon powder while it melts

divide back into 4 cups

add potato peels

Lisa put in all the nettles, while Susan crushed the snake fangs. They left

it on the fire for 11 minutes by accident, and green smoke started to rise from the cauldron, which then became a sort of acid rain, showering the class.

"EXACTLY 10 minutes you fools!" spat Snape. "EXACTLY!"

He turned off Susan and Lisa's fire and glared at them.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he cried, and the cauldron rose off the fireplace and back by Snape's desk.

"You will start over!" he yelled. "5 points from Ravenclaw and 5 points from Hufflepuff! And you have to write me an essay that covers 1 whole parchment on what EXACTLY means! Due tomorrow!"

Susan burst into tears and Lisa went to get more fangs and nettles.

They finished the potion correctly, and ran out of the class.

"I'm sorry, Susan" said Lisa.

"Tha-t's o-kay Li-sa" she sniffled. Then she started crying again and ran to her house dormitory.

"Are you ok? You're having lots of bad luck today." said Emma as they walked back to the dormitory.

"Yeah, I guess I'm fine" said Lisa.

"We've got one hour of free time, what do you wan to do?"

"I'd better get started on that essay Snape wants me to do"

"Oh come off it, will you? It's your first free time at Hogwarts; do something memorable!"

"When will I have time to do the essay? We don't know how much homework we'll have in our other classes."

"None! We don't have any more homework! Our next class is Flying with Madam Hooch; we can't have homework for that! You've got the whole evening."

"But what should we do for free time?"

"I was thinking, maybe we could go out to the gardens. It's really nice out there, at least it seems nice. We could have a little picnic or something; I'll take some food from the Great Hall."

"Okay, I'll meet you outside. I want to put my bag away."

"Bye!"

"Bye."

Lisa walked up two flights of stairs and went to the knight.

"Treacle tart!" she said, and the knight stepped to its left. She ran inside the girls' dormitory, dropped off her bag, and was on her way out when—BANG!

Something had hit the window.

"Oh dear!" Lisa ran and opened the window to find an owl hooting happily on the pane.

"Where did you come from?" she asked. She pulled a letter from his beak (which he had a hard time giving up) and ripped it open.

Dear Lisa,

We knew you could bring an animal, and we knew you wanted one. Consider this as an early Christmas present. We hope you like him.

Love,

Mum and Dad

P.S. His name's Hooty. (We didn't name him)

"Wow, thanks mum and dad!" The little owl hooted delightfully.

"Come on you, you'd better go up to the Owlery where you belong!" Hooty jumped on Lisa's arm and she went outside of the common room.

"Hmm, where could the Owlery be?" she asked herself. She saw a boy walking away.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!" the boy turned around. "Could you tell me where the Owlery is?"

"Up those stairs, to your left" he said plainly.

"Thank you!" she ran up the stairs before they moved and ran to her left. There was a large door that read:

Owlery

Only owls and humans allowed.

She pushed open the door and stepped inside. In there were thousands of owls perched on branches, sleeping.

Hooty flew up and around the whole room, crashing into other owls as he went. They gave him a look of hatred and he hooted happily.

"I'll come visit you tomorrow Hooty! Stay out of trouble!" She closed the door and ran back down the stairs and headed for the castle's front doors.