CHAPTER: 6 - Down, Down, Down

The five girls (minus Sky, who was still sleeping) entered the Great Hall for breakfast, sitting down at the table and helping themselves to the large selection of food.

"Mmm, this Hogwarts food is really good!" said Amber as she scooped some cereal into her mouth.

"Yeh." agreed Issy and Lily.

"Wonder what class we have first..." said Joanna thoughtfully as she chewed on a croissant.

"Dunno, but we'll probably be getting timetables or something soon." said Lily.

"Yeh."

"So...." Amber said in a very sad attempt to start conversation.

"So." repeated Issy.

Lily was talking with Miranda and trying to help her English, when suddenly about a hundred owls came soaring into the Great Hall. Miranda looked up and jumped, falling off her seat in the process.

"Anyone would think your muggle-born the way your acting!" Lily laughed at her friends silly behaviour.

"Just so many, I is no' use' to so many..." Miranda said in her strong french accent, as she picked herself up off the floor and dusted herself off. "And I is no' muggle-born, I is pure." she held her head high in the air as if to prove her point.

"Thought so." said Lily as she nodded her head.

She watched as the owls flew to their owners or recipients, dropping letters or parcels into their laps. Lily was quite Surprised when her owl, Hazel, dropped a letter in her lap and began to nibble her toast. Lily opened the letter eagerly;

Dear Lily,

Hope all is well at this school and your journey was safe! Your father and I miss you dearly, and hope you will return for Christmas. Chloe Campbell called yesterday, letting you know that she has gained a scholarship place at Beladin, and Andrea and Sophie are missing you as well. Petunia has a new boyfriend, Gareth, he is very 'interesting'. Your father got a raise at work, so we treated ourselves to a new COLOUR television. Hope to here from you soon!

Mum

"Tel-vison?" repeated Joanna, blankly.

Lily shook her head, "Don't worry." She folded the letter and put it in her pocket, and continued with her breakfast.

"Timetables!" said the female prefect, as she handed out the timetables.

Joanna groaned, "History of Magic, double Potions with Slytherin, Charms with Ravenclaw and double Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"So? It will be interesting! We haven't even had our first class yet! You might really like one of those subjects!" objected Lily.

"In general, school sucks. I mean we only got here last night, and they're giving us lessons today!"

"So...?"

"So, that sucks." said Jo, rather harshly in Lily's opinion.

"Which teacher do we have?" asked Issy, breaking the slightly awkward silence.

"Professor Binns -"Joanna began reading off the timetable.

"Daniel -my brother- said that he's a ghost!" interrupted Amber, astonished.

"... Professor Drea," continued Joanna, "Professor Wrather and Professor Tanagy."

"Professor Drea is head of Slytherin and everyone says she favours her own students." Amber informed them.

"Well we'll just have to see now, won't we?" said Joanna.

"Mmm, yeh." Amber said.

"'oo are ze 'eads of ze uzzer 'ouses?" Miranda asked, her accent more noticeable than ever.

"Er ... pardon?" Amber said, confused and apologetically.

"She said, who are the heads of the other houses?" Jo said, scooping fruit onto her plate.

"Oh," said Amber, "sorry, well, Gryffindor'sis McGonagall who teaches Tranfiguration, Hufflepuff's is Krumpleywho teaches Herbology, but my brother says that she's retiring next year, so they'll probably have a new head of house. And then Ravenclaw's is Professor Radcliffe, who teaches Muggle Studies." Amber explained to the four girls (Sky was STILL sleeping), who were listening intently, and she was rather enjoying the attention.

"They have a whole subject devoted to teaching us about muggles?!" said Lily astounded.

"Yeh, but it's for all us pure bloods, who know literally nothing about muggles." Sky informed Lily.

"Yeh... but it's still insulting to my intelligence!" Lily complained, half jokingly.

"Well, I think your intelligence can cope." said Jo, ignoring Lily's gaping.

"Anyway ..." Amber went on to tell her friends about all the other subjects, teachers and when she had nearly finished explaining about third year electives, Sky came into the Great Hall.

"Good morning." She said cheerfully.

"Morning." chorused the others.

"Why didn't you wake me?" She frowned.

Jo rolled her eyes, "Trust me, we tried."

A loud bell rang out through the castle, indicating the end of breakfast and the start of their first class. Lily and the others walked around aimlessly, asking directions from everyone, until they finally found their class ... ten minutes later. The six girls opened the door quietly and snuck into some seat at the back.

"As I was saying, the Goblin Revolution took place in ..." Their history teacher drawled on and on, driving everyone into a sort of stupor, everyone, except Lily. Lily was hanging onto his every word, she had promised herself she was going to study twice as hard as everyone else.

"Isabelle!" whispered Lily urgently, as she prodded the snoring blonde.

Isabelle suddenly sat bolt upright, "Huh? Wha'?" she said, startled, as her eyes darted around the classroom. The class burst into laughter, but the Professor, it seemed, was not pleased, which was probably why he gave them an essay on their first day.

The bell rang out through the corridors, waking the Gryffindor first-years from the stupor they had sank into. Lily collected her bag, and in her eagerness to get to the next class, she tripped over a tall, black-haired, brown eyed someone.

"Oi!" he yelped, as he fell to the ground in the process.

"Sorry!" Lily said, on the verge of tears, not because she was in any pain.

"Watch it next time, redhead." James said as he lifted himself off the ground and joined his friends.

"D'accord?" asked a concerned Miranda.

Lily wiped away the tears that had escaped, "er... Yeh, I'm fine."

Sky held out her hand to help Lily up, which she took gratefully.

"So, where to next?" asked Issy, as she untangled her hair.

"Dungeons for Potions, how delightful." Jo said, in a tone that implied a feeling, very far from delight.

"Come on, we better hurry, don't want a repeat of this morning." Lily said.

"Yeh, at least we know that we just have to go down and down and down." Amber said, nodding her head every time she said 'down'.

"Yeh." agreed the others, as they followed Amber down the stairs to the dungeons.

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