Chapter 4 Laelia Sayre
Bonjour! So, we're finally getting into the story! Yay! Well, we've finally gotten to the first academic day for Laelia, which means a ton of work as she has a lot of catching up to do. She's even taking an extra Charms/Transfiguration class in year 5 to get more practice time. Oh and once-in-awhile after school or weekend potions classes. Fun, fun! I dunno I may change that. Hmm. But I suppose I'll just keep the rest to myself and let you find out what's coming up.
Thanks to SnoopyGirl77 for reviewing! Yeah, I love Garth Nix's stuff. I even read Shade's Children which was weird but good at the same time…heh…but anyway, I'm glad you like the story, it's the encouragement to update that I need.
Oh, and by the way, like half this chapter was written right after Ch. 3, but then I got stuck, and well, I'm just trying to move past the chapter and on to the next, so I'm sorry if it's weird. Actually, it would be really nice if you guys gave suggestions about stuff so I know what I'm doing right, if anything. Thanks.
On to the story!
Chapter 4 Bloody Baron
"Huh? Wha…eew! Disgusting!" Laelia closed her mouth just in time before her wake-up call slobbered over her face again. It seemed that the Dog decided it was time to show up. Laelia grimaced. She started to sit up, but she immediately had to squint against the bright light coming from the windows.
"Why is it so bright in here?" She wondered more to herself than to the Dog. But the mutt decided to answer her anyway.
"Probably because you're downstairs in the common room instead of in your bed behind the curtains." At first Laelia laughed tiredly, but when she didn't get a response, she frowned. She couldn't see because of the blinding light in her eyes. Oh, the early morning confusion.
"What? How did I get down here?" Finally, the sun was covered by a mass of clouds and she could properly look at her surroundings. She gasped.
"Oh no! I must have fallen asleep doing my homework! Oh, this is awful - not even started on my first day and already more behind than I should be!" She started scrambling around gathering her work that was spread out over the nearby table, pushing her hair behind her ear. The Dog grinned and sat, completely amused at her disarray.
"You know, you'd better put that stuff away before anyone comes down to go to breakfast as you probably don't want them to be getting suspicious about you being behind the rest of your year. And you may want to head upstairs too for a shower. You look a mess." Laelia rolled her eyes.
"And you might try to be nice to me 'cause I bookmarked every page you'll be needing for your homework." Laelia stopped mid-reach for the last of her papers. It was her turn to grin. She looked over at her savior.
"Now I'm starting to be glad that you're such a nosey creature. And that you like reading books. Gee, you do know a lot of tricks, what a smart little doggie!" For a second, the Disreputable Dog took a brief moment to look indignant, but then the next she was threatening to pounce on Laelia and to give her a lethal slobber attack. Laelia giggled as she grabbed her stuff and just barely made an escape up the stairs to her dorm room.
By the time she got to the room, everyone was up and were now getting ready. Hermione, Lavender and Parvati glanced at her as she rushed in the room, but then went back to their morning routines. Laelia took the chance and ran at the bathroom doorway just as Parvati looked to claim it herself. The latter scowled as the former slammed the door in her face in her hurry.
The shower was more like those in Ancelstierre, for which Laelia was grateful. She wouldn't be smelling any sort of sulfur for awhile. Once she had had a quick, cold shower, which successfully woke her up, she went to get dressed and noticed a bottle on the counter. It was Sleekeasy's Hair Potion. For some reason she felt a compelling need to try it. Unnecessarily, she glanced around, not that any of the girls could see her at the moment, and grabbed the bottle. After reading the label, she added a little to her hair and started combing it through her long black hair. After a few good minutes of brushing it evenly through her hair, it began to sparkle and left a shiny sheen in her hair that made her forget how messy it had looked not too long ago. She stood entranced by the shininess for a full minute before (presumably Parvati) started banging on the door, knocking her out of her reverie. She frowned for a second before throwing her clothes and robes on and took one last look at her hair before rushing out the door.
Laelia walked to her bed and sat down for a second. She caught Hermione's eye and smiled at her. Hermione came over and looked at her knowingly.
"Ha! I see you also have succumbed to the call of the Sleekeasy potion? Parvati will kill you when she realizes that you used hers. We'll have to get you one of your own soon, won't we? Your hair looks gorgeous by the way." Laelia suddenly felt ashamed about using the potion. Hermione noticed.
"Oh, don't worry, I did it too. That's how I found out about it. I have my own now, though, of course." She shuddered reminiscently as she thought of the confrontation with Parvati, and laughed.
"Well, you should hurry up and finish. You of all people would probably want to get down there on time." She noticed the new girl's sudden nervousness. Her usual serious, professional manner quickly replaced the relaxed one of a moment before.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine. I expect Professor Dumbledore will only be spending a minute or two on your introduction. You'll love it here, what happens in a few minutes won't mess up the rest of your time here. You'll probably only have everyone staring at you for half the time, the rest will be used up complaining of hunger." Laelia smiled at her new friend. At least she hoped that's what she was.
Her idea seemed to be right all the way down to breakfast. She was invited to sit by Hermione and her friends, mainly Ron Weasley, his sister Ginny, and Harry Potter. She still caught her breath whenever she saw him. It was stupid, she knew, but somehow she felt he was connected to her mother. She shook the thought out of her head and tried to focus on something else.
Laelia watched as the rest of the school filed in to the Great Hall to sit at their respective tables. Then she noticed Professor Dumbledore, who winked at her before returning to his lively conversation with…who was it? Maybe the Herbology teacher? She tried to remember her name, but to no avail.
The time after that and before the announcements went by as if Laelia wasn't there. She thought she had been talking to Ginny, but now she wasn't sure. All she knew was that it was time, and somehow she had this foreboding sense that some of the students knew why she was really there. She pushed that idea away. No, she thought, that doesn't make sense at all. She instinctively pulled on the shrunken version of her bells (in their brown leather pouches on the leather sash) which she was now wearing as a choker to keep it close by. But there was no reason to be using them, right?
Everyone turned to look as Professor Dumbledore rose from his seat to speak. They had been thinking more along the lines of going right to the eating, but the obviously special announcement had their interests peaked as well. Laelia sighed. She wouldn't mind eating now either.
"Good morning, Hogwarts! I would like to take a few moments time before we eat our wonderful feast to introduce the newest member to our 6th year class, whom you may or may not have noticed this morning. Laelia Sayre, if you would please stand up a moment so we know whom I am talking about – she has been sorted into Gryffindor already, so you will not have the pleasure of seeing a sorting but rather the pleasure of greeting her and making her feel at home." Laelia felt as if she had been standing for too long, but she looked at the students, pretending she was just looking out at a crowd in Belisaere as she stood by her family, being as regal yet amicable as possible at the moment. She noticed that some faces were less interested to see her, and her polite smile faltered when she noticed someone who looked maybe a little too interested in her. She tried to quickly regain her composure and stared the individual down for a moment before moving on. Hopefully he found the look she gave him a threat. Suddenly she realized that Dumbledore was closing and she could sit down.
"Thank you, Laelia. Alright then! Let's eat!" With a flourish, the headmaster sat down as food filled serving plates on all the tables. Laelia sank down into her seat, contemplating that look the boy had had on his face. Hermione gave her a questioning gaze, but a quick glance and a shake of her head was all that was needed to avoid the topic.
The Gryffindors started on their meals, discussing the coming academic day. Laelia had three classes with the 6th years and one with Ginny in Charms. But first she had Potions, Transfiguration, and then History of Magic after lunch. Hermione was giving her pointers on how classes were run by each teacher and giving tips on how to make a class a successful one, with Ron constantly interrupting with his own opinions, mostly sarcastic. Laelia noticed during all her listening that Harry was quieter than the other two, and she noticed that Ginny recognized it too and shot concerned glances in his direction once in awhile. Maybe she would ask her about it later.
"Geez, guys, thanks, but I can only handle so much info at once!" She finally had to stop the lecturing when she noticed the Hall was noticeably less crowded than the last time she had looked around. "Anyway, maybe we should head down to class now…I don't want any chance of being late to Professor Snape's class."
"No you probably won't." Hermione agreed. They all grabbed their stuff and headed out through the doorway on their way to the dungeons, saying good-bye to Ginny, who was off to Divination. Not too long after however, she heard a whistle somewhere not too far behind her. She froze, recognizing the pitch as that of Kibeth, the Walker. Harry almost ran into her, not expecting her to stop all of a sudden. Laelia didn't notice. She breathed a sigh of relief when nothing happened, realizing that the whistle hadn't been infused with the magic needed to make that pitch hold the power of the third bell. Laelia turned when she heard a voice coming from somewhere close to her on her left. It turned out to be the one boy she had noticed earlier.
"Did you recognize the tune or something? I'm surprised. I don't have much of a singing voice, or a whistling voice, for that matter." All Laelia could do was stand and stare at the boy as she recovered from her shock. She didn't like the nonchalant air about the way he said that paired with the look on his pale face. But then again, after the look during breakfast, he wouldn't be hinting at anything so soon if he knew anything, right? That course of action just didn't seem to fit in whatever evil plot she was included in this time.
It felt like she had been staring at him for a few minutes, but really had not even been a single minute. This was good, considering she probably had just enough time to get to class now. Laelia turned on her heel, her confused fellow Griffindors glad to be moving away from the conversation.
"Let's just get to class. I'm not in the mood for some random argument." Hermione smiled a little nervously at that.
"See, Ron? Maybe you should learn from Laelia and control yourself once in awhile. It would do us all a lot of good." She looked pointedly at the redhead, who was glaring back at her. Harry noticed his friend's intake of breath.
"Maybe you should start now, eh, Ron?" He sighed in relief as Ron closed his mouth, ears starting to return to their usual color.
When the group entered the room, Laelia's friends led the way, while she took in her surroundings. With all the deformed specimen, she could tell the potions professor really had a passion for the craft. She was glad she was used to seeing rather deformed specimen otherwise she didn't think she would ever eat too much breakfast on mornings with potions first. At least for the first few classes anyway.
She looked back to the desks and spotted an empty one next to Ron, who was sitting behind Harry and Hermione. Since Professor Snape had yet to arrive, she decided to sit down for a moment before having to go ask what he wanted her to do. She didn't have long to wait at all before he swept into the classroom in a somewhat sour mood. She saw Harry and Ron exchange glances. She stood up and started to walk over to Snape's desk where he was extracting a pile of parchment from his bag hurriedly.
"Um, Professor, as this is my first day in your class I was wondering if there was anything you wanted me to do to get situated or-" Snape suddenly scowled at her, wiping the polite smile off her face.
"Miss…what was it?"
"Er, Sayre, sir?"
"Right, whatever, Miss Sayre. Do you honestly think that just because you're new I have to treat you all special?" Laelia's eyes widened, confused. Huh? Did i miss something?
"What? No! I meant that if you did anything a certain way that I-"
"Because honestly I see no reason to do anything of the sort…"
"-that I would need to know about so I can-"
"You know what you can do, Miss Sayre, is kindly shut your mouth, turn around and sit back down." Laelia stood frozen for a second. What in the Charter is going on? "Now, if you really don't mind!" It was then that she became aware of the quiet snickering and saw, as she turned around, that it was a group of Slytherins before noticing the silence of the Gryffindors. She slowly made her way back to her seat and noticed that it was occupied. What now! The girl smirked at her, and Laelia quickly caught Hermione's eye for a second, who just slightly shrugged and bit her lip. She closed her eyes momentarily before doing anything else.
"Um, hello…" She didn't really know what to say, she was still so bewildered about the slight animosity radiating from the teacher at the front of the room whom she didn't even know.
"Yeah? What do you want?" The girl didn't even try to hide her amusement.
"Well, you see, I was kind of sitting here before I went to talk to the professor…"
"Whoops, my mistake - sorry." Contrary to her words, she made no indication of moving. The pale boy from before decided to speak.
"Hey, Pansy. I think the new girl wants you to get out of the seat." Laelia hated how she couldn't get control of the situation like she usually could, but she just wanted so badly for the day to go well. She also hated the way he said that like some big kid bullying an 8 year old. She was an easy target. If it were any other day, she could have, no – would have done something. But no, things were just not going her way.
"Oh, but I didn't know, Draco. It wouldn't be fair to just kick me out. I don't have anywhere to go." Laelia sighed. Then, resignedly, she slowly turned around to face the professor, who seemed to be purposely ignoring the obvious problem as he graded the last few essays he was about to hand out.
"Er…Professor. Are there any more desks that we can use?" Snape waited a moment before looking up.
"And why would you be asking me this?" Ugh, she wanted to scream at the ridiculousness of this stupid game.
"Well, it seems that er, Pansy here came late to class and chose my seat when I left it to talk to you."
"How is it your seat? You left it didn't you?" Aha, she had some proof!
"But, look! I left my stuff next…" She whirled around, only to see her bag strewn across one of the seatless lab tables. "What?"
"I don't know what you see, Sayre, but it looks like you felt like making a mess of my tables. I suggest you clean it up."
"But – fine. So where would you like me to sit?"
"By your things of course, you saved the spot." Laelia kept a blank expression on her face and walked to the back of the room. She was prepared to boost herself up on the table to sit there when she heard the professor's voice again.
"Oh, and don't even think of sitting on the tables either. Well, look at the time, itseems thatyou managed to waste a good chunk of my time- 20 points from Gryffindor." Laelia clenched her fists thinking about how this whole thing had been drawn out by everyone but her, and now she, the victim, was the nasty culprit. Well, at least he couldn't see the faces she made sitting on the floor behind everyone else. The only plus in an insanely negative situation. She sighed and took out some parchment with her quill and began to write down the notes that had appeared on the board. Whatever…
Wow, the craziness. I decided to stop there and finish off the day with Chapter 5. Partly because I should be sleeping now. Partly because it seemed like an ending of sorts. Didn't think adding anything else on was necessary here. So yeah, I finally finished this stupid chapter. Tell me what you think and help me make future chapters better. Any suggestions, whatever, just review. I want to know from at least several of you to get several points of view. Er. Okay. I'll stop here for now. Maybe I'll get started on the next chapter tomorrow. Crap, spring break is almost over. Darn.
