OKAY, I WILL NOT BE UPDATING ANYMORE! I WANT TO REWRITE THIS STORY AND PERHAPS CHANGE THE CHARACTERS A BIT COS THIS IS GETTING WEIRD. BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO LISTEN TO MY RAMBLINGS! BELOW IS THE ORIGINAL CHAPPIE.

SORRY! SORRY! SORRY! SORRY! SORRY! SORRY! SORRY! SORRY! SORRY! SORRY!

Thankees:

Michelleywelley: Fanx vewy much!

Ed the Peewee: Hey Em! Don't worry, you will make a reappearance very soon.

Darkboy77: Thanks, but … boob?

LittleGinny15: Thanks for reviewing TWICE! I love it when that happens; it makes my review numbers go up! Yay! Can Anna be older than that? 2nd or 3rd year?

Chapter Nine – Teachers

Charlotte was surrounded by red … blood red … it was the same colour, but it wasn't blood … they were just curtains.

She woke up properly and remembered where she was. Hogwarts. Gryffindor. Vic, Pip, Rachel, Mandie. Magic.

Slowly she rose from her four-poster bed. She yawned and knelt down to get a pair of jeans and a top from her trunk (writing a mental note to put them into the chest of drawers later) then a pair of long, black robes. She put them on (hoping none of the other girls would wake up, if any of them were there), picked up her bag and then headed down the stairs to the common room.

The common room was nearly empty. Charlotte guessed that most people were down at breakfast, preparing for their first lessons of the year. She was very nervous about the said lessons and would rather not think about them.

Hermione was one of the few people in the common room. She seemed to be immersed in the letter she was reading – it was more than a foot long.

She was frowning. She reached the end of the letter, rolled up the parchment it was written on and tucked it in her bag, stretched, and got up from the chair next to the fireplace.

"Hey, Charlotte," she said as she came closer. "You ready for your first lessons?"

Charlotte shrugged. In truth, she didn't know if she would ever be ready for her lessons in magic. She was afraid that she would never be able to cast a spell or do anything with magic and then they would send her home, saying that there was some mistake and she wasn't a witch after all.

"Have you got all your books and things?" Hermione asked. Charlotte lifted her bag. "Wand? Quills? Parchment?"

"Check, check, check," Charlotte replied, grinning. "Come on, I'm starving!"

Hermione let Charlotte lead the way to the Great Hall, and to her delight only made one wrong turn. Good thing, too, Charlotte thought. I only spent an hour learning the way yesterday.

The day before, Harry, Ron and Ginny had taken all the Gryffindor first years on the 'grand tour' of Hogwarts, showing them the classrooms, the library, the Quidditch Pitch (they had attempted to explain the game, but Charlotte was thoroughly confused), the Owlery and had explained all the rules (though Charlotte couldn't remember them all, and hoped she wouldn't have to).

In the Great Hall she met Pip and Vic. She helped herself to eggs, bacon and, of course, sausages while examining the timetable she had just been handed by Professor McGonagall. It looked something like this:

Monday

9:00 a.m. Double Charms

10:30 a.m. BREAK

10:45 a.m. Defence Against the Dark Arts

11:30 a.m. LUNCH

12:00 p.m. Transfiguration

Tuesday

9:00 a.m. Double Potions

10:30 a.m. BREAK

10:45 a.m. History of Magic

11:30 a.m. LUNCH

12:00 p.m. Herbology

Wednesday

9:00 a.m. Defence Against the Dark Arts

9:45 a.m. BREAK

10:00 a.m. Charms

10:45 a.m. LUNCH

12:00 a.m. Double Astronomy

Thursday

9:00 a.m. Double History of Magic

10:30 a.m. BREAK

10:45 a.m. Herbology

11:30 a.m. LUNCH

12:00 p.m. Potions

Friday

9:00 a.m. Defence Against the Dark Arts

9:45 a.m. BREAK

10:00 a.m. Double Transfiguration

11:30 a.m. LUNCH

12:00 p.m. Herbology

Herbology is held with the Ravenclaws

Potions is held with the Hufflepuffs

Hermione looked at her own timetable and moaned. "What a horrible day! Potions AND History of Magic AND Ancient Runes AND Defence Against the Dark Arts! That Roberts man better be decent!"

"Ancient Runes?" asked Charlotte. "I don't have that …"

"It's one of the subjects you can start in third year, if you want to," Hermione replied. "There's quite a few to choose from … it depends which career you want to get into."

Charlotte nodded. "I've got Charms first … is that Professor Flitwick?"

"Yeah, the tiny one up there."

"Where's Charms again?" asked Charlotte, racking her brains.

"Fourth floor, right hand corridor. Don't worry, Flitwick is really cool. I wish I had him first, but no, I had to get Snape …" Hermione wandered off, muttering to herself.

Charlotte was just finishing her breakfast when Rachel rushed in.

"Oh, no! Quarter to nine … must eat … slept in … oh, damnit!"

Charlotte tried to slide across the bench, out of the path of the spilt pumpkin juice, but instead hit Ben rather forcefully.

"Oh! Sorry, Ben! I didn't know you were there!"

"What are you trying to do, decapitate your best friend?" he asked, outraged. Charlotte caught the twinkle in his eye just as she opened her mouth to reply. "Nah, jokes, that's cool, Chars."

Meanwhile, Rachel was mopping up the mess she'd made with her left hand while bolting down some cornflakes with her right.

"Where's Mandie?" asked Vic, frowning. "There's only ten minutes until our first class, she'd better hurry up …"

But as they waited outside the door to the Charms classroom, Mandie still hadn't arrived.

"Maybe I should go and get her," Rachel murmured. "She wouldn't want to miss our first class, after all."

But Pip shook her head no just as tiny Professor Flitwick arrived.

"Welcome, first years! Now please, come inside, come inside …"

Charlotte and Vic found seats next to each other in the middle of the room. Rachel sat at the back and Pip down the front. Ben rushed in and sat on Charlotte's other side.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, young Gryffindors!" Professor Flitwick exclaimed. "I am Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher here at Hogwarts. I'm just going to take the register, so I can put some faces to names! Now, where are we …" He shuffled some papers around on his desk until he found what he was looking for. "Peter Creevey?"

"Here!" he called from the front near Pip.

"Amanda Elcovitz?"

There was silence.

Flitwick did a quick headcount and found only nine in the room.

"Does anyone know where Miss Elcovitz is?"

"Sorry, sir, I think she slept in," Rachel replied. "Would you like me to go and check?"

"When I finish calling the register, you may. Darren Fowler?"

When the register had been called, and Rachel had gone to fetch Mandie, Flitwick straightened the pile of cushions he was sitting on to see over the desk and grinned at the class.

"I am a strong believer in a good mix between fun and work," he squeaked. "Many Charms lessons will be fun and practical. Mr. Creevey, could you distribute these feathers? There should be one for everyone."

Peter eagerly got up and placed a single, white feather on every desk in the room.

"You will all need your wands in a moment, but first I will demonstrate. Your first lesson at Hogwarts will be … levitation!"

An excited wave rippled through the ten students.

"First, we shall practice the wand movement. Wands out, please … very good. Remember that the wand movement is just as important as the incantation! For a levitation spell, a specific wrist movement is required. Swish and flick."

The class repeated his action.

"Very good. Wands down, please, we don't want any accidents while you practice the incantation. Repeat after me – Wingardium Leviosa!"

"Wingardium Leviosa!" the class chanted.

"Pronunciation is very important. In some cases, mispronunciation can have disastrous effects. Now. Again?"

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

"Wand movement? Wands ready?"

"Swish and flick!"

"Well done! Now, put them together! Lets see if we can get those feathers flying!"

An hour and a half later, when the bell rang for break, Charlotte had finally managed to get her feather to float up to the ceiling. Ben had managed to get it a foot off the desk, and Vic had done it quite quickly. Peter Creevey had been the fastest, though.

Vic, Ben and Charlotte spent their break in the courtyard. They found a corner and turned up their collars to the brisk wind.

"That was so fun!" Vic said. "When do we get him again?"

Charlotte checked her timetable. "Wednesday, after break."

"Aw! I was hoping tomorrow!"

"We've got Defence Against the Dark Arts with the new guy now. Professor Roberts. Reckon we should get going?" asked Ben.

They had taken barely three steps when a girl with long black hair stopped them.

"Hello!" she said brightly. "You guys are Gryffindors, huh?"

Charlotte nodded slowly.

"Me too! I'm in second year. Elizabeth Valdez." She stuck out her hand.

Ben shook it warmly. "Ben McLeod. This is Victoria MacDougal and Charlotte Vaughan."

Charlotte forced a smile.

"Well, if you guys ever need anything, gimme a shout, yeah?"

"Sure," replied Vic.

Elizabeth bounced off. Almost immediately, another girl stopped them.

"Don't mind her, she's almost too friendly," the girl grinned. "I'm Sandra Delaney. I think it's the Spanish in her. Party girl, you know? See you!"

Charlotte raised her eyebrows. "Aren't we popular today!"

Sure enough, a third girl stopped them. This one looked a little older than the first two.

"Sorry, do you know who this little guy belongs to? I found him in the Gryffindor Common Room. My kitty was trying to play and he got really scared." In her arms was a turtle shell-patterned kitten.

"That's Gingko!" Ben cried. "You silly boy, how did you get downstairs? Thanks so much!" he said to Gingko's rescuer.

"Any time! I'm Bree Thompson, by the way."

The three finally made it out of the courtyard and up three flights of stairs to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Professor Roberts ushered them inside as the bell rang. Charlotte hadn't noticed before, but he really was a frightfully tall man.

"Good morning, Gryffindors! I am Professor Roberts, your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher! I trust everyone is here?"

Mandie had finally arrived partway through Charms. "Flitwick must have told him," Vic whispered. Charlotte giggled.

Professor Roberts, too, took the register. Then he told them all to stand up.

"I just want to see what you all know. Don't worry if you can't answer a question, it's quite all right. I just want a feel of who knows a bit of magic and who knows nothing. Mr. Fowler, what is a Doxy?"

"Evil fairy-dude," Darren replied.

"Excellent. Miss Ryde, what would happen to me if I was bitten by a werewolf?"

"You'd become a werewolf and transform every full moon."

"Good! Mr. McLeod, what is a good spell for getting rid of pixies?"

"I'm sorry sir, I don't know."

"That's fine, that's fine! Miss Vaughan, why is Harry Potter famous?"

Charlotte gulped. "He got rid of an evil wizard … Voldemort?"

"Well done! Yes, when he was only a year old he defeated Lord Voldemort. He has five times faced him and survived since. Has anyone met him?"

Vic, Ben and Charlotte all raised their hands.

After lunch, the Gryffindors attended a Transfiguration lesson. The teacher, Professor McGonagall, was strict and gave them a lot of homework.

Vic was in a dreadful mood when they arrived back at Gryffindor Tower. "It's only our first day! Who does she think she is, giving us so much work?"

"A teacher?" Ben suggested with a grin.

'K, I'm SO SORRY! I had really bad writers block. I mean, I knew that they would attend three lessons in the chapter, but, I don't know, I guess I just couldn't get it down, you know? Anywho, there are a few reviewer characters here:

Bree Thompson: cat-lvr-92

Elizabeth Valdez: LittleGinny15

Sandra Delaney: Sandra/Sandra S

I hope you like them. Seeyas all, and hopefully the next instalment won't take quite as long. Buhbye!

Pen