Chapter 5: - Howlers, Owls and Whomping Willows

The next day Lily woke to hear a banging on the their dormitory door,

"Come on, get up its Seven o'clock" Lily recognised the voice that called from out in the hallway, it was Amanda Hugh-Genghis',

"She's a manic" Lily heard Alice groan from the bed on her right

"You've got an hour to get washed, changed into your robes and be in the common room me and Gideon are walking you to breakfast" Amanda called again,

"She's more then a manic" Miriam said pulling her drapes open "She sounds exactly like my bloody room guard" Lily didn't really know what a room guard was but she could easily guess what a room guards job was. By eight o'clock the first year girls where immaculately dressed, washed, teeth brushed and hair combed, Miriam was following Lily's example and decided to have her hair down. They where standing in the common room waiting with Amanda her face was bright red, she had returned back to the girls dormitory to find that Miriam and Amy had both fell asleep again and she wasn't very pleased and gave them all a very long lecture about the qualities of a Gryffindor one of which was supposedly punctuality,

"I've never heard of that described as any of the houses qualities!" Alice had whispered to Lily when Amanda had started on her rant.

"We're gong to be late" Amanda was saying more to herself has she looked at the doorway leading to the boys dormitories, "I told Gideon to have the boys down here for five to eight, he's probably let them all lie in of course!"

"Wish we could have" Lily heard Dymphna grumble from behind her. At ten past eight Gideon and the first year boys came down the stairs from the boys' dormitories and he and Amanda lead the first years down to the great hall with Amanda chastising Gideon on the finer points of her speech about punctuality. The boys looked as tired as the girls felt, James, Sirius and Frank looked half a sleep and little Peter Pettigrew's hair looked like he didn't even know what a comb was for. Remus Lupin was the only boy that looked fully awake and Lily was glad to see that he no longer looked ill. Dymphna groaned has they entered the Great Hall they were the first students there, Amanda lead them up to the very top of the Gryffindor table, and Lily settled herself down next to Miriam and Alice and they all started to help themselves to food, after a few minutes the great hall started to slowly fill with other students.

"Hi" said a voice from behind Lily all the first years turned to look, it was a third year Gryffindor boy with ginger hair and he settled himself down next to Lily leaning low down on the table

"Look I just wanted to introduce myself," he said in a very hushed voice "I'm Fletcher and I wanted to say that if you need any type of...err... Special goods such as Dungbombs or quick quote-"

"DUNG!!!" Amanda called has she spotted the boy "leave the first years alone, their not interested in any thing you've got to offer them!" at Amanda's shout Dung had nearly fell off the bench he scrambled to his feet

"Remember if you need anything, anything at all just ask!" has the first years exchanged confused looks Dung practically ran out of the hall and disappeared up the marble stairs.

Eventually the four huge house tables where all filled with students and the noise in the great hall was steadily increasing as the students discussed what lesson they thought they would have first,

"I hope its flying" Miriam said excitedly looking up at the ceiling which was showing a beautiful clear blue sky "Today's just the perfect weather for it!"

"Personally I hope we've got Transfiguration" Alice said "It sounds really interesting and really useful"

"Yeah I really want to learn how to transfigure you into a Toad" James told her smiling,

"Not before I transfigure you into a Slug!" Alice retorted,

"Yeah well -" James continued but any other argument that he may have been willing to have continued with was suddenly broken off by a Whooshing sound, looking up Lily saw hundreds of Owls flying into the great hall from the barely visible rafters,

"That's the morning post" Miriam told Lily "Oh no!" Lily saw that Miriam's eyes where following a large eagle owl has it swept low over the hall clutched in it's beak was a red envelope which it dropped in front of Miriam and took off.

"Open it quickly!" Peter squeaked ducking under the table, even James, Alice, Dymphna, Sirius, Remus and Frank pushed away from the table, in fact it was only Lily and Amy who hadn't acted strangely to the arrival of the letter.

Miriam sighed and picked the letter up as though she was expecting it to have arrived even though she hadn't mentioned anything about expecting any post.

"Quickly!!!" Peter squeaked again has the envelope started to smoke, sighing again Miriam tore the envelope open and Lily whished she hadn't, a screeching voice sounded from it, Lily recognised it instantly as that of the stern woman that she had seen on platform nine and three-quarters, Miriam's mother, but the voice was magnified ten times and it echoed through the hall,

"HOW COULD YOU NOT HAVE TOLD US!"

All conversation in the hall immediately stopped and everyone's heads turned to look in the direction of the noise

"SORTED INTO GRYFFINDOR!

I'M ASHAMED TO CALL YOU MY DAUGHTER!!! HOW CAN I EVER LIVE THIS DOWN!!! NOT ONLY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME OR YOU'RE FATHER BUT WE HAD TO HEAR ABOUT IT FROM MRS BLACK!!! I NOTICE BELLATRIX WAS SORTED INTO SLYTHERIN!!!

YOU'RE A DISGRACE TO THIS FAMILY YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO CALL YOURSELF AN ARTEMIS!!!"

Finally finished the letter burst into flames and Miriam dropped it onto the table, the great hall was filled with a dead silence and everyone's eyes where on Miriam, Lily notice that even some of the teachers up at the top table where staring at Miriam and that at the Slytherin table both of Miriam's brothers, Thaddeus and Jedidiah looked slightly unnerved by the menacing voice of their mother. Lily also noticed that Bellatrix Black was smiling very smugly.

"What was that?" Amy asked tentatively,

"An Howler" Remus replied in a low voice has he still looked at Miriam,

"Well I'm glad I'm not in Slytherin, I wouldn't want to have shared a dormitory with Bellatrix Black for all the money in Gringotts" Miriam said looking down at the remains of the still burning Howler, her blue eyes slightly moist.

"And what's so wrong with my cousin?" Sirius asked angrily

"What's right with your cousin more like?"

"My cousin, you can hardly talk just take a look at yours!" he nodded his head to the Slytherin table and the girl sitting next to Bellatrix: Eloise Rookwood,

"Eloise is a Pratt I'll admit it," Miriam said equalling Sirius' anger "she can barely tell the difference from a toad stool and a foot stool but at least she isn't plain evil like Bella", Miriam paused but only to take a breath before she carried on "I heard one summer she once used a full body bind on your little brother and tried to burn him with a magnify glass, apparently he's still got the burns!!!",

Miriam must have struck a nerve, still angry Sirius leaped up from his seat, his hands balled into fists on the table top, Miriam didn't even flinch.

"Sit down Mr Black" It was Professor McGonagall head of Gryffindor house, but still Sirius didn't sit down he was glaring at Miriam as though he'd like nothing more then to curse her with every jinx and curse he knew,

"I said sit down Mr Black," McGonagall said her voice stern, "unless you would like to find yourself in detention on your very first day?" Much to Lily's relief Sirius slowly sat down has Professor McGonagall handed out their timetables, and other students huddled together to discuss what they had all just seen and heard.

If Lily had thought that after the Howler the rest of the day couldn't have got any worse she was very wrong, Miriam although insisting that she was fine was in a foul mood all day, every time they walked through the corridors students would huddle together pointing and sniggering at her. And even though the entire school had been at breakfast that morning by the end of the day Lily had heard several different versions of what the Howler had actually said her favourite was that the howler had come from the Minister of Magic himself and that Miriam had been working as an undercover supporter for dark wizards. But even though Miriam admitted that it was quite amusing her bad mood was worsened by their last lesson of the day: Defence against the dark arts.

For some reason their teacher Professor Vindictus Viridian head of Slytherin house had taken an instant dislike to the Gryffindors.

"You will be quiet" he hissed has he strode towards them as they lined up outside the class, then spotting Miriam he stopped

"Well Miss Artemis" he said the corner of his mouth turning into a malicious smile, "you certainly do like to make an exhibition of yourself don't you?" Miriam just stared at him blankly has though she hadn't even heard him, "Your brothers think a lot of themselves as well, Thaddeus believes he is exceptional at this subject, shall we see if his arrogance runs in the family?" grinning even broader he let the class enter the room.

The lesson was the worst that Lily had ever been too, Professor Viridian made them all sit in alphabetical order which meant that Miriam was sitting next to Sirius, neither one seemed very happy about these arrangements and they both sat as far apart as was possible on the small wooden desks. Alice and James weren't happy about the seating arrangements either because they had to sit with each other. Throughout the entire lesson Viridian picked on both Miriam and Sirius to answer the most complicated questions that he could possibly think of, but fortunately they both knew all the answers and after a while he gave up trying the find anything wrong in the answers that they gave and he turned his attention to the rest of the class sneering at them when they got a question wrong or if they said that they didn't know the answer. After an hour and a half Lily was certainly glad when the bell rang to signal the end of the lesson.

"That was just awful" Amy said as they headed down the corridor towards the Great hall for dinner

"I know!" Dymphna said turning to look at Miriam "He seemed to really hate you and Sirius!" Miriam said nothing as she strode in front of the Gryffindors, leading them to the entrance hall.

"Well at least we didn't get any homework" Lily said has happily has she could, she really liked Miriam but her bad mood was really infectious and it was making the rest of the Gryffindor first years unhappy and depressed. They all sat at the Gryffindor table in silence and helped themselves to food,

"Hungry?" Lily asked James and Sirius has they shovelled mounds of food onto their plates.

"Mo!" James said through a mouthful of chips

"He always eats like that" Alice said eyeing her brother with an expression of repulsion on her face "It's quite disgusting actually!"

"Vots he vont!" James said spraying Alice with bits of half eaten chips has he looked past her, turning around Lily saw Severus Snape walking over to them from the Slytherin table he was holding a peace of parchment, and Lily saw Miriam get to her feet next to her and head over to Severus smiling,

"How does she know him?" James asked accusingly to Alice managing to swallow his food,

"I don't know they just do, so drop it!" she said the last part in an undertone that had a sort of finality about it. Miriam quickly returned back her seat smiling,

"Severus gave me a letter form my Grandfather" she said showing Lily the parchment that Severus had been holding, "Tad and Jed wrote to him last night and he sent this to them this afternoon, he's really pleased that I'm in Gryffindor. I don't know why I let that Howler get to me really; After all I should have really expected it, especially if I had been sorted into Hufflepuff!"

Lily was pleased that Miriam's bad mood seemed to have been lifted and by the looks on everyone else's faces so were they, the only two that didn't seem happy was Sirius and James,

"How do you know that greasy haired creep" James burst out, Lily sighed as Miriam retaliated, her bad mood instantly back

"Severus isn't a creep! And why should it matter how I know him!"

"It matters because his parents are dark wizards" James said angrily, Lily noticed that Miriam's eyes darted across to Sirius and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat

"Really" she said her mouth curling into a smile as evil as Bellatrix's "so because someone's parents might be dark wizards it automatically makes the child one does it?" Alice snorted her face cracking into a smile

"She's got you there little brother"

"Shut up" James hissed has he turned his attention back to his food.

'All in all' Lily thought as she stabbed her Chicken leg with her fork 'today has been a really lousy day!'

After dinner Lily, Miriam and Alice headed up to the schools Owlery, as the others headed back to the common room.

"I promised my mother that I'd write to her" Lily told Miriam and Alice as they headed up the Owlery stairs, it was true that Lily had promised to write to her parents every day but she didn't really know what she would tell them.

"You can use Tad's owl he'll not mind" Miriam said as she pushed the Owlery door open, it was a large circular tower room and the floor was covered with straw, the walls had lots of wooden tiers that rose up to the ceiling and every single tier was covered in a feathery mass of different coloured owls.

"That's Tad's owl up there" Miriam said pointing at a very large dark brown owl on the top tier "he's called Ichabod, grandfather got him from America"

As Miriam and Alice set about trying to persuade Ichabod to come down Lily set about writing her letter,

Dear Mum and Dad (It sounded a bit formal Lily thought But she didn't know any other way of starting it off)

They use owls to send letters in the magical world this one belongs to a friends brother it's called Ichabod, I met the girl (Miriam Artemis) on the train and she's really nice, We've even been put into the same house with another girl that she introduced to me called Alice Potter, Alice is lovely as well and she has a twin brother called James, he's in our house too. The house is called Gryffindor and everyone is really nice especially the other two girls we share a dormitory with, one of them is even Muggle born like me, that means we have none magical parents. The classes are really good I've got lots to learn and tomorrow we've got Transfiguration which means we change things into other things, but Alice says we'll only start by changing matches into pins first.

Hope your all are well and give my love to Petunia Lily

'That should do' Lily thought has she folded the parchment up and put her quill and ink bottle back into her bag.

"I've done" Lily called to Miriam and Alice and they walked over to her, Ichabod sitting on Miriam's shoulder, up close he was even bigger then Lily had thought, his amber eyes looked menacing and his huge feet ended in inch long talons that gripped Miriam's shoulder. If he wanted to Lily thought he could probably have carried Miriam away,

"Beautiful isn't he" Alice said stroking Ichabod's tufted head "Miriam says he's a Great Horned Owl, we've only got a screech at home!" Miriam took Lily's letter reading Ichabod the address and tied it to one of his huge taloned feet,

"Your parents are going to get one hell of a shock in the morning when they wake to find him outside their window" Alice said has they stood next to the glassless window and watched Ichabod fly off into the dark night. Lily laughed.

"What's that?" Miriam said pointing across the grounds at a large and ugly willow tree, squinting, Lily could just make out three figures crossing under the willow's branches, two of the figures were much more taller then the third, and as Lily, Miriam and Alice watched, one by one the figures disappeared down into the base of the tree.

"That's weird!" Lily heard Miriam say,

"It's got absolutely nothing to do with us Mi" Lily said moving away from the glassless window "Come on our curfew starts soon we've got to be back in the common room before it starts!" But Lily already knew what Miriam was going to say next,

"No let's wait" she said leaning against the stone window frame "I want to see what's going on" Sighing Lily settled herself next to Miriam and Alice and waited. The grounds gradually began to darken even more and the owls around them started to wake and fly out of the tower for a night of hunting. Finally after what felt like hours two of the three figures reappeared at the base of the willow tree and they headed across the grounds towards the entrance hall, leaning slightly out of the glassless window as the two figures came into the light cast by the open oak front doors Lily, Alice and Miriam could see exactly who they where,

"That's Dumbledore" Alice whispered to the others voicing what they all could see, "And that woman who's with him is Madam Pomfrey the school nurse!"

"I wonder what they've been doing" Miriam said frowning "And what happened to the other person that was out there with them?" Lily looked out of the window again, the tree was standing solitary in the now dark grounds it's branches softly swaying in the breeze

"More to the point" Lily said thinking out loud "who was the third person?"