Disclaimer 1: Draco, his parents and teachers all belong to JKR. (As if you
didn't all know that.)
Disclaimer 2: Severus Snape owning a raven belongs to J.L. Matthews. (Go read her story everybody. It's great.)
Disclaimer 3: The gang name Sharks is borrowed from the musical West Side Story of course. I don't remember where I found the name Rakers, but I know I read it somewhere.
Disclaimer 4: The idea for Snape having a family comes from Al's fic Time of Trial.
Disclaimer 5: The Glizzard family and Gringolf Glizzard belong to my friend PegaPony and so do all of Gringolf's songs. Thanks for letting me borrow them!
Disclaimer 6: My friend Edmund owns himself and his horse Apollo.
Disclaimer 7: Old Joe and Tess' Joe belong to Zebee.
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A/N – Well, this chapter's done and the Saber Rider chapter as well and it only took me two weeks. (Yes, that does mean I could have finished this chapter last week, if I hadn't written the Saber Rider one, but I had to ... and I do love both stories.) I also got an account on nfiction.com. So now, if this site is down, you can also find my fics there as well as on skyhawke. (One of them should always be up, right?)
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Chapter 6: Potions Class
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Lunch was the most delicious stew Anny had ever eaten. Despite the strange surroundings that still made her a little nervous she took a second helping.
So far, she thought while watching the boys build a tower out of their empty pumpkin juice glasses, her classmates seemed really nice. Except for that high nosed Colleen, who didn't seem to like anybody, they'd all been very willing to help her find her way through this strange, but fascinating world.
Dinah was definitely the best. She'd even switched beds with Tullia so she had the bed right next to Anny's! Anny had never before had a friend like that.
She'd had friends in primary school and her neighbourhood back in Leeds, of course, but she'd never felt like the preferred friend of any of them. They'd just been a group of children she'd often played with. Dinah actually liked her better than Tullia and Danny, who, in Anny's opinion, were both terribly cool. She wished she could take ghosts and moving pictures in stride like that.
"Great stew, don't you think, girls?" Danny was at it again.
"Oh yes, delicious." Tullia beamed at Colleen.
Nocturne glared back at them and stuck to the salad.
"What is it with you two anyway?" Anny asked her nodding towards Gangolf who once again had barely touched his food. "Are you on a salad diet, or something?"
"Oh, shut up Mudblood." Colleen hissed.
"You shut up, death eater." Dinah returned before Anny could even think of a comeback.
Death eater? That was the weirdest insult Anny had ever heard. At least it made no sense in this situation. She could imagine it as something a vegetarian might say to someone eating meat, but Colleen was the one who was eating only salad. What did salad have in common with death?
"Don't let her get to you, Anny." Dinah declared loudly. "She's just jealous, because you're a better witch than she is."
"We haven't even done any magic, yet." Anny reminded her blushing slightly at the compliment. "How do you know who's the better witch?"
"Easy," Dinah grinned. "You have the better heart."
"Nocturne's probably so inbred she can't even perform a proper spell at all." Tullia threw in.
"That's right." Danny smirked. "Mirrorboy here has already proven he can at least do a charm, but what about you, Nocturne? You're so proud of your magic, so where is it?"
"I bet Mudblood doesn't know any spells at all." Colleen frowned.
Anny bit her lip. No she didn't know any spells. She'd read the names of some in her Charms book, but she'd never performed one. Most likely all the others already had quite a repertoire. How was she ever going to catch up?
"Anny grew up among Muggles." Dinah defended her again. "They didn't know any magic to teach her."
"But you're a big pureblood, aren't you?" Danny grinned evilly. "You grew up on magic. So lets see some."
"Right, show us what you can do!" Dinah demanded.
To Anny's horror Colleen did indeed pull out her wand. She pointed it straight at Danny and shouted some weird word Anny didn't understand.
A tiny spark flew out of her wand but fizzled out long before it reached its target.
Danny's only reaction was loud laughter. "That's the best you can do? A tiny spark?"
A second later Professor Snape was standing behind Colleen as if he had just materialised out of thin air.
"Ms Nocturne, I assume?" he asked in a dangerously soft tone.
"They challenged me to demonstrate my magic." Colleen defended herself before Snape even asked.
Anny could hardly believe how dangerous the friendly Professor from this morning suddenly seemed. He almost scared her even though she hadn't done anything wrong.
"With a dissolving hex aimed at one of your classmates?" Snape asked. "Detention, Ms Nocturne. Report to my office after your last class today."
"Your Dad sure can be scary." Anny commented to Billy as soon as the teacher had left.
"The scariest in all the school." Dinah confirmed before Billy could answer. "He's famous for it in the entire wizarding world."
"Nonsense." Billy snorted. "McGonagall is much worse, especially to Slytherins."
"Because Snape's nicer to Slytherins." Dinah said. "It's only because we're his house."
"And McGonagall is worse to Slytherins." Billy insisted. "Just you wait and see."
"I like Professor Stylus, though." Anny commented. "He was really nice to that Spanish boy."
"My name Jorge?" Danny tried to imitate Jorge's accent. "What a weird kid."
"I'd like to see you in a Spanish school." Billy scolded. "At least he's trying to learn English."
Danny shrugged. "Still sounds funny."
"I wonder what he's doing here in the first place." Aterus said. "Why isn't he in a Spanish school?"
"Maybe they don't have wizarding schools in Spain." Anny suggested.
"And where do all the other Spanish children go?" Pank asked. "Spain is much too big not to have its own school."
"They don't have a boarding school, though." Billy seemed to know what he was talking about. "There are only three wizarding boarding schools in Europe: Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbattons. All the other schools make the students come by floo everyday."
"Flu?" asked Anny.
"No, floo." Dinah stated as if that explained everything.
"That's what we call travelling through the fireplace." Tullia translated.
"Travelling through the fireplace?" Was that even possible?
"Yes, you throw in the floo powder and say where you want to go and it takes you to that place's fireplace. Very simple." Rupert explained.
"But what if there's a fire in the fireplace? Wouldn't you get burned?" Anny remembered the scar her grandmother had from accidentally knocking over a candle as a child. She had told her that it had been very painful.
"Of course not." Aterus frowned. "Why would I get burned?"
"There has to be a fire to travel through floo." Billy added. "You have to throw the floo powder into the fire."
Anny shivered. "I don't think floo travelling is for me."
Colleen laughed out loud at that. "Stupid little Mudblood can't even use the floo!"
"Well, you don't have to once you have your apparition license." Dinah assured Anny.
"Maybe Jorge doesn't like the floo either." Aterus suggested. "I heard some people get sick from all the spinning around. That might be a reason to choose boarding school over a local one that requires daily flooing."
"Or maybe his parents just wanted him out of their hair." Colleen suggested. "If he's in boarding school, they only have to bother with him during the holidays."
"Why would they have children, if they don't want to bother with them?" Dinah sounded confused.
"To have an heir to their name of course." Collen returned as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "If you're lucky your first child is a boy, and you don't have to have another."
The children stared at her.
"Gee, Nocturn doesn't like children. We should have guessed." Danny rolled her eyes.
"What's our next class?" Pank asked laying down his knife and fork.
"Potions." reported Rupert. "Then there's a Sports class, but I don't have that one and after that Transfigurations. And we have DADA in the seventh lesson today."
"At least that gives us an hour off in between." Pank decided. "Check your schedules, everybody. Who has Sports today?"
"Not me." Danny was the first to answer. "Monday fourth lesson."
"Me too, Monday fourth." Tullia confirmed happily. "We've got Sports together!"
Anny quickly pulled her own schedule out of her bookbag. She'd put it into her notebook so it wouldn't get wrinkled, but didn't dare to put the Muggle paper where Colleen could see it. The others probably weren't a problem. She'd seen Billy pack away a very similar notebook after Latin class and Aterus hadn't commented at all.
"Monday as well." she stated once she'd managed to manoeuvre the schedule out while keeping the notebook hidden. "Dinah?"
Dinah seemed to have mislaid her schedule. She dug frantically through her bag until she finally thought to check her pockets. The parchment she finally found turned out to be very wrinkled.
Dinah wrinkled her nose at the wrinkled parchment and pulled out her wand. "Recto!"
The parchment shivered for a moment, then lay still again.
"Recto!" Dinah repeated pointing her wand at it more forcefully.
Very slowly the schedule straightened out a little. Dinah scowled at the incomplete result, then beamed.
"Monday as well!" she shouted and hugged Anny.
"It seems we've all got the Monday lesson anyway." Pank summed up. "That means we have two hours off today."
"We should probably get our Potions things now, though." Rupert remarked.
Anny looked up and discovered to her surprise that they were the only ones still in the great hall. "Do you think we'll find the way back to the common room?"
"Of course." Rupert declared. "Follow me."
Indeed Rupert managed to lead them down into the dungeons, but after the third turn he stopped at a corner and stared at it thoughtfully.
"What's wrong?" Pank asked warily.
"I'm not sure whether to take this corridor or the next one." Rupert frowned. "I was so sure it was the next one, but this one looks so familiar."
Pank regarded the corridor in question for a moment, then walked ahead to check the other one.
"We'll take this one!" he called out. "Come on."
"No way." Colleen declared. "I'm taking this corridor."
Anny stood undecided for a moment. Follow Colleen, or Pank. They both seemed completely convinced that they were right. If the group split up what would happen to the ones on the wrong way? What if she got lost with Colleen? But what if Pank was wrong after all?
"Do whatever you like Nocturne." Danny declared loudly. "Come on girls, we're going with the boys. Good to be rid of the death eater's foul company."
For a moment Anny felt even more confused. Would the girl group break up? But Dinah and Tullia followed Danny without the slightest hesitation.
Anny smiled. Of course! She'd go wherever Dinah went. Dinah wouldn't desert her and, if they got lost, they'd be lost together. Dinah would know what to do.
"Anny!" Pank called from up ahead. "What are you waiting for? We might lose you, if you fall too far behind."
"We just lost Colleen!" Anny yelled back. "She went that way."
Pank hesitated for a moment. "I don't care about Nocturne." he decided then. "She doesn't care about any of us, so we won't care about her. If she never turns up again at least we won't have to listen to her insults anymore."
"Yeah, forget the death eater." Danny confirmed. "Why do you worry about her at all? Everything she's ever said to you was an insult."
Anny wanted to return some explanation for her interest in Colleen's well being, but she didn't really understand it herself. The only answer that came to her mind was so ridiculous, that she didn't dare say it. After all what would the others think, if she told them that Colleen was wearing her hair band?
Instead she just shrugged and ran after the group. Let Colleen be. Somebody would probably find her sooner or later. This was a school, not some deserted maze after all.
They'd gone about halfway down the new corridor when they came upon another of those fascinating moving pictures. This one was of a teacher in green robes sitting at his desk with an old blackboard behind him. Just as Anny was about to pass it a snake suddenly poked its head out of his sleeve and tested the air with its tongue.
Anny stopped. She'd only ever seen snakes in pictures before and none of those had moved. Her mother had often mentioned that 'disgusting snake tongue', but Anny had never before seen one. It looked rather cute, she decided.
The snake noticed her attention and slithered out a little further as her wizard looked on with an amused smile.
"Oh Dinah, look at the pretty snake!" Anny exclaimed when she noticed the perfectly drawn scales on the snake's body. "Have you ever seen one like this before?"
The other first years stopped and returned to where Anny was standing gazing up at the picture in fascination.
The snake preened as nine sets of eyes looked right at it.
"No, never." Dinah said. "I don't know much about snakes, though."
"It's not a common garden snake." Rupert declared. "That much is obvious."
"Maybe it's a foreign species." Tullia suggested. "I mean, it's obviously a pet and people don't usually pick common native animals as pets."
"You're right." Aterus nodded. "Maybe he's in my snake book back at home. I can check when I go home for Christmas."
"Actually, that's a she." Anny jumped in surprise when the wizard in the picture spoke. "And she isn't foreign either. She's an adder."
"Not the usual type, though." Aterus insisted.
The picture teacher looked thoughtful. "They weren't really rare back in my days." he said with a little sigh. "But it's been a very long time. Much has changed since then."
"She is very beautiful." Anny was trying to make amends for her probably impolite reaction to the picture's first words. "I'm sorry they have become so rare."
"Adders are poisonous." Pank pointed out. "It'd be dangerous to have them crawling around under every stone."
The teacher picked his snake up gently and held her out for Anny to see.
"Yes, they are poisonous, but also very intelligent. Sassy doesn't just keep me company, she also is an excellent partner in philosophic discussions." the picture continued. "But you are probably too young to appreciate Philosophy much." he smiled. "You are this year's Slytherin first years, I assume."
They nodded.
"Yes, Sir." said Pank. "And you are the portrait of a former teacher?"
"You can call me Salazar." he smiled. "I consider myself a friend of all members of my house."
Anny smiled as well. "Hi, Salazar. I'm Anny."
The others however were just staring at Salazar open-mouthed.
"Salazar?" Pank finally got out. "You're Salazar Slytherin?"
"Yes, that's my name." The reaction seemed to amuse Salazar. His eyes sparkled and his smile grew a little wider.
"You are the founder of our house." Billy said reverently. "You helped build the castle."
"My original, yes. I am only a picture, myself."
"You don't look scary at all." Dinah declared. "I always thought you'd be tall and dark and imposing."
Salazar laughed. "Ah, they tell so many tales about me. Don't believe everything you hear. Much of my story has been distorted over the centuries."
"Oh, you have to tell us about it someday." Pank decided. "But right now we have to get back to the common room before we're late for Potions."
"Ah, but this isn't the way to the common room." Salazar shook his head. "You took a wrong turn, I'm afraid."
"Oh no, Nocturne was right, after all." Anny realised. "We should have taken the first corridor."
"Great, now she'll gloat about that." Danny groaned.
"But she didn't meet Salazar." Rupert smirked. "I bet that will shut her up."
"Can you tell us how to get back to the common room, Salazar?" Anny asked the picture.
"Of course." Salazar smiled again. He seemed to do that a lot. "This is the corridor you're in." he drew a line on the blackboard. "Here's the one you came from. This is where the stairs are. Now here's the corridor you should have taken. Then you should have walked past these two and turned here and here ... And here's the secret entrance. See? So to get back you have to take this path." He lined it out in a thicker line on the blackboard. If you take a wrong turn here, you should come upon a suit of armour about here. Then you have to turn back again, and the other wrong corridor leads to a storage room. Do you think you'll manage?"
"Oh yes, thank you Salazar!"
They ran off, but just as she reached the corner Anny took one last look back at the picture. She simply had to remember where Salazar hang. She'd never spoken to a picture before, but somehow she knew that Salazar was the most special picture in the castle. She simply had to visit him again when she had some time.
Anny was lagging behind again! Pank stopped to shout for her. Maybe they were going too fast? He simply couldn't lose the Muggle born witch. What if she ran into another magical trinket she didn't know? A simple revolving door might be an unsurpassable obstacle to her.
It was worse because he knew so little about the Muggle world she'd grown up in. Owls were strange to her and she wasn't familiar with ghosts at all, but she apparently knew what secret passwords and blackboards were.
How could he assure that no harm came to her, if he didn't know what might be a danger to her?
Now Anny was catching up, but Aterus and Billy had just disappeared around the corner.
"Aterus! Wait!" Pank yelled after them. "We'll lose Anny!"
"I'm fine." Anny protested and ran past him.
Pank looked back again and the rest of the girls tore past him as well. Rupert had slowed down to stay next to him, but where was ...
"Gangolf! Hurry up!" Pank yelled, but Mirrorboy, as Danny had so aptly called him, was apparently doing the best he could. He was panting heavily and clutching his side as he ran.
Great, just great.
At least the others turned out to be waiting around the corner.
"We have to stop and wait for Gangolf." Pank told them. "He's already out of breath."
Billy stuck his head around the corner to check. "Oh my. Hasn't anybody ever taught him how to breathe properly? He'd never make the Soccer team."
"Soccer team?" Danny snorted. "I doubt he'd even want to join any team. Unless there's a beauty competition team."
"There's a ballet class." Billy said.
"There's a ballet class at Hogwarts?" Dinah asked surprised.
"No, at West Hogsmeade. I know the teacher." Billy explained when Rupert gave him an odd look. She's an ex-Raker. Was in the gang with my brother."
"Gang?" Pank was beginning to worry about Billy.
"Yes, the Rakers are our local gang. Miracle Mely leads them right now." Billy nodded eagerly. "They have a big Soccer match in the park every year, sometimes two. This year they won five to three."
"Against the Hogwarts team?" Anny asked.
Apparently the Muggle born knew what that Soccer was. It had to be some sort of game similar to Quidditch, but Pank had no idea what to do with the five to three numbers Billy had stated.
"No, against the Lions." Billy shook his head. "Hogwarts has never played a real game."
"They play against wild animals?" Rupert sounded very impressed.
"Of course not. Animals can't play Soccer." Billy snorted. "The Lions are another gang. They wear green. The Rakers wear blue."
"Why isn't there a red and a yellow gang as well?" Dinah asked.
Still such a Hufflepuff, thought Pank. He'd have to do something about that before she got in trouble with some of the less friendly Slytherins. He may have decided to forget about Colleen, but he still felt responsible for the rest of the group. They were all still so young and clueless.
"Oh, there are. The red ones are called the Sharks and the yellow ones are the Avengers." Billy explained. "They don't play Soccer, though. The Sharks have a band and I think the Avengers like to draw and do all sorts of individual competitions."
Well, maybe Billy wasn't a problem after all. At least this sounded like he was talking about simple hobby clubs, even if he called them gangs.
Gangolf finally stumbled around the corner and they set off again at a slower pace. Nocturne and a prefect were already waiting.
"Sorry," Pank told the prefect before he could say anything. "We got held up talking to Salazar."
"Salazar?" asked Colleen haughtily.
Pank grinned. "Yes, Salazar Sytherin's portrait. He's such an interesting person that we almost forgot the time."
"Well, get your cauldrons. You don't want to be late for Potions of all classes."
Three minutes later Pank had his entire group assembled in the common room and ready to go. He quickly checked one last time before he followed the prefect outside. There was Rupert right next to him, Gangolf trying to get the prefect's attention, Billy trying to explain Soccer to Aterus who apparently didn't even know the rules of Quidditch, Danny and Tullia were whispering about something and Dinah and Anny were comparing their cauldrons. Oh, and there was Nocturne pouting at Danny as usual. Pank wondered what they'd clashed over this time.
The Potions classroom was in the very next corridor after Salazar's, but of course nobody mentioned that little fact to Colleen. Let her look for him herself, if she wanted to find him.
Professor Snape smiled at them as they entered.
Pank made sure that he and Rupert sat right in front of Gangolf, who was once again left alone. This way the poor boy wouldn't feel entirely friendless. Aterus and Billy were in front of them, Danny and Tullia to their left and Anny and Dinah behind them. Nocturne picked the very last worktable in the empty left row and scowled at them. Stupid snob.
The Ravenclaws were only two minutes late and apologised profusely. Just like the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs they moved about the castle in a group, but apparently they didn't have anybody to show them the way and had taken a wrong turn somewhere. If they had met Salazar, too, they didn't mention it.
They lost ten points for being late.
Professor Snape actually addressed the Slytherins by their nicknames when taking attendance. Then he got to the Ravenclaws.
"Ms. Atlers, Gabriella!" was the only first year whose sorting Pank had missed. She'd been up right after him while he was still looking for a chair at the Slytherin table.
"Mr. Bonk, Connor" blushed terribly when the professor read out his name.
"Well, it's not your fault that you were born with that name, I suppose." Snape stated sounding just a little insincere.
Connor Bonk blushed even more and tried to hide behind his cauldron.
"Ms Domally, Arnika and Mr. Donelly, Salvatore?" Snape sneered.
The two even turned out to be sitting next to each other.
"Well, Domally and Donelly, I hope you both have excellent hearing, because I'll take five points off Ravenclaw whenever the wrong person answers my question." Snape declared.
"But that's not fair!" a tiny, slightly pudgy girl exclaimed. "What difference does it make who answers you, if the answer is correct?"
"The difference that the person I actually asked might not know the answer." Snape answered coldly. "And five points off Ravenclaw for speaking out of turn."
"What?" The girl gasped.
"Another five points." Snape stated. "Care to make it fifteen?" he added when the girl opened her mouth again.
She quickly shook her head and stared down at her Potions book.
"Excellent. Then lets continue. Mr. Gregers, Nonius!"
"Here!" Nonius beamed at the teacher.
Pank wondered what was wrong with that boy. His house had just lost ten points and he looked as happy as a puffskein after five cheering charms.
Snape frowned at him and continued: "Ms. Iterton, Lucinda!"
"Here." answered the small troublemaker softly. Obviously she'd already learned her lesson.
"Mr. Montrey, Randolph!" Snape went on. "A Montrey in Ravenclaw? So you think you are really smart, don't you?"
"Yes, Sir. I mean, yes, I'm a Ravenclaw. I'm not smart at all, Sir. I just ... I ... uh ..."
"You what? Speak up, boy." Snape demanded harshly.
"I asked the hat not to put me into Slytherin, Sir." Randolph admitted. "Not because I don't like the house, I do. I just thought, with my father in Azkaban and all ... Well, I thought I'd better demonstrate that I'm not like him from the start." His voice became softer and softer as he spoke and the last part was almost impossible to hear.
The Potions teacher had apparently heard him, though. "I'll be keeping an eye on you, Montrey." he sneered before continuing with: "O'Malley, Shannon!"
"Here." Shannon was apparently Muggle born. Or else she'd never learned how to dress herself.
"Five points off Ravenclaw for improper dress." Snape snapped promptly.
"Improper? But that is the school uniform, Sir!" Shannon returned obviously confused.
"It is, but it is supposed to be worn with the outside on the outside and properly tied." the teacher stated dryly. "Everybody else in class managed that, so I don't think it's too much to ask."
"I'm sorry." Shannon pleaded. "I didn't know. I've never worn a robe before."
"There are other Muggle borns in class and they managed to dress." Snape said his eyes wandering to Anny.
Pank quickly checked the girl's clothes over as well and concluded that Dinah must have shown her how to straighten out her robes so they fell properly. Anny looked like a proper neat little witch. Even Colleen wouldn't be able to fault the way she dressed.
"Mr. Towerhill, Felix." Snape went on. "If you are going to wear your hat in class, Towerhill, please do try to sit in the back where you aren't obstructing anybody's vision of the blackboard."
Felix Towerhil hastily pulled off his hat.
"And finally Ms. Uberey, Cait." Snape paused for a moment before he launched into a description of what he claimed to be a simple potion against warts.
Pank hastily dove for ink and parchment. It sounded terribly complicated.
Hands shot into the air the moment Snape told them to brew the potion.
"What are porcupine quills?"
"Where am I supposed to put my cauldron?"
"Won't the table catch fire?"
"How do you cut these?"
"Do I really have to participate in this exercise, Dad? You know I can do it. I probably could brew this potion blindfolded."
Pank stared at Billy. He was the son of a Potions Master, yes, but ...
"These are porcupine quills." Snape held up a bundle of long, thin, black and white objects that definitely didn't look anything like Pank's eagle feather quill at all. "The cauldron goes right there. No, there's an anti burning charm on every item of furniture in this room. How stupid do you think I am? No brewing blindfolded, Billy. You could collide with someone or something."
"Does that mean that he thinks Billy really can brew this potion blind?" Rupert whispered impressed.
Pank shrugged.
Five minutes later he would have sworn that Billy could. While he and Rupert were still trying to sort out their ingredients and prepare them Billy was happily stirring his potion.
"You have to slice them more regularly, Aterus." Pank heard him tell his neighbour. "Else your potion will clot."
Meanwhile Gangolf was having a much more serious problem than Aterus.
"I can't touch that!" he shrilled hysterically. "It's slimy!"
"Of course it's slimy." Connor Bonk, who'd ended up next to him, commented reasonably. "It's a snail. Snails use the slime to glide on, since they have no legs to crawl with."
"Eeeww." answered both Gangolf and Colleen.
"You can wash your hands afterwards, Gangolf." Pank tried to convince the boy.
"Do you have any idea what slime does to ones skin?" Gangolf returned and took another step away from the snail on his table.
"Actually snail slime is good for the skin." Lucinda Iterton declared. "That's why it is used in many beauty potions and two centuries ago witches used to let snails crawl over their hands and face to ..."
"Yuck!" Colleen exclaimed with her hands over her ears. "Just shut up, Iterton, shut up!"
"It's good for the skin?" Gangolf asked to Pank's surprise. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely sure." Lucinda confirmed.
Gangolf eagerly grabbed his snail and knife and went to work.
Ah, so that's how you dealt with Gangolf. Pank decided to remember that trick. It might solve a few of his problems. Just lucky that Colleen wasn't his responsibility anymore, because now she was refusing to cut up her snail.
Pank returned his attention to his own potion. His snail was cut a little unevenly, but he supposed it would work anyway.
Now which ingredient was he to throw in first? He quickly consulted his book. Ah, right ...
"You have to light the fire and wait for the water to boil before you can start brewing, Pank." Snape's voice came from somewhere in the back of the room.
"Ups! Sorry about that, Professor." Pank called out and lit the fire.
"I'm done, Dad!" Billy called out a moment later. "May I brew myself some invisible ink now?"
"No, I want you to come over here and help Colleen." Snape returned. "But don't do any of the actual work for her. Just tell her what to do."
"Oh, not Nocturne." Pank heard Billy groan softly, but the boy trudged back into the last row anyway."
"Domally, that's too little water. You're going to burn your potion like this." Snape's voice continued from the other side of the room.
It seemed this teacher was always in control of the situation, Pank thought. He had his eyes on everybody and knew exactly what each student was doing at any time. If only Pank could manage to keep his classmates that well in hand!
Tullia seemed to be daydreaming and Danny had picked a fight with that Muggle born Ravenclaw. Shannon, or something like that.
Pank threw a piece of rolled up parchment at Tullia and went to break up the fight, but Snape already had it under control.
"Mind your cauldron, Pank." the teacher instructed him. "It's about to boil over. Gangolf, you're supposed to stir, not twiddle the stirrer."
Damn! Missed something again!
But there was no time for Gangolf now. The potion really had risen almost to the rim of his cauldron.
Pank was exhausted by the time Potions ended and very glad they had an hour off before Transfigurations. He had just barely managed to finish his potion in time. Danny and Gangolf both had made some mistake and gotten an incorrect result. Rupert's potion had clotted and Dinah's had been a little too weak, but Snape had declared both results as acceptable.
"Okay everybody!" Pank called out. "Wait for me. It's better if we stay together until we know the castle better."
"I want to go to the library." Tullia called out.
Pank nodded while hastily washing his table. "Good idea. We'll go look for the library. We're probably going to need it soon anyway."
When they reached the stairs that led out of the dungeons a whole horde of Hufflepuffs was on their way down. Pank recognised their classmates from Latin and greeted them politely.
"Going to Potions?" Anny asked them as they passed.
"No, Sports. We're supposed to take a portkey from the caretaker's office." Mel Eagle answered. "We've got to run, though. Don't want to be late on the very first day. See you next Latin class!"
She waved at them once more before the group turned around another corner and disappeared.
"A portkey?" Anny asked.
"That's another way to travel." Dinah explained before Pank could. "You touch it and it takes you to where you want to go."
It was good that Dinah was so willing to explain things to the Muggle born. That way Pank didn't have to worry about her so much. If only Dinah weren't such a Hufflepuff!
The library proved quite difficult to find. A passing house elf was more than willing to give them directions, but the moving stairs had apparently decided to play tricks on them and they kept arriving on the wrong floor.
By the time they finally made it to the right floor they already had to go to Transfigurations. A friendly Hufflepuff offered to lead them to the classroom where Professor McGonagall was already waiting along with Sophie- Marleene Patter-Hendriks and Laura Warthay.
A slightly grumpy looking prefect brought in Colleen Nocturne just before the lesson began. The rest of the Gryffindors was once again late as McGonagall noted with an expression that was at least as sour as the prefect's.
Pank remembered Billy's claim that she was the most unpleasant teacher at Hogwarts. She definitely didn't like the fact that the Slytherins had proven to be more punctual than her own house and the stragglers were sternly admonished.
Caesareus Tonks stuck his tongue out at her behind her back. Clearly the Gryffindors didn't respect their head of house nearly as much as the Slytherins did.
She made an effort to make the first lesson interesting, though, demonstrating some impressive advanced transfigurations and telling them that, if they worked hard in her lessons, they too would be able to do that in a few years.
Then she handed each of them a toothpick and asked them to turn it into a pin.
Pank sat and stared at his toothpick. He waved his wand over it and concentrated. He poked it with his wand. Nothing.
He looked up to check on his classmates.
Most of them were staring at their toothpicks or waving their wand about ineffectually. Tullia earned herself another parchment to the head.
"Mr. Anterhill!" McGonagall hissed apparently angry. "Please leave Ms Waterwall alone and transfigure your toothpick. If I ever catch you throwing things in this class again, I will deduct points."
Pank glared at the old hag and poked his toothpick some more. He'd only been trying to help her!
"Uh, Professor McGongall?" Billy asked hesitantly. "I think I'm doing something wrong."
Pank looked up and gaped. Billy's toothpick was hovering about a metre above the desk.
Even McGonagall blinked at the sight.
"Did you perhaps swish and flick your wand instead of just pointing it?" she asked after a moment.
Billy shook his head. "I don't think so."
"Did you say Wingardium Leviosa?"
"No, definitely not." Billy shook his head again.
"Can you make it come back down again?" Now McGonagall sounded nervous.
Billy nodded, concentrated and the toothpick gently sank back onto the desk.
"Do it again." the teacher ordered.
Billy pointed his wand at the toothpick just like McGonagall had shown them and the toothpick once again rose into the air.
"Well," McGonagall sighed deeply. "You are definitely a Snape."
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Canopus – Quite interesting article, but University of Austria? Are they implying that we have only one? As far as I know all of our universities are named after the city they're in, there isn't one named after the country (The others would probably get a little upset.). ... Oh, Colleen hasn't the slightest idea. She's much too busy sneering at Hufflepuffs, Mudbloods, halfbloods, stew, snails and just about everything else to realise the implications of Sports class.
annakas – Ah, but Sevi arranged the battlefield for the fight with good old Albus. ... Well, Albus wanted Billy at any price, even that of a long overdue communication with the school next doors. ... I know, Slytherin wasn't a very original choice, but I just couldn't see Billy in any other house. He isn't quite selfless enough for Hufflepuff, not studious and Gryffindor? Perish the thought!
Weasleylover1 – Yes, I kind of like Julian as well. That's why he made it over here from Double O. Unfortunately his classmates feel a little differently about Gangolf and Colleen. How that will work out for the two? You'll see ...
Pam Briggs – What? Oh no! Colleen is only eleven, after all. She's subconsciously feeling lonely and considering a partnership with equally left over Gangolf deep down, but there are definitely no romantic feelings there, yet. They are much too young for that.
animegirl-mika – Excellent observation of Colleen! Billy isn't the type to make a conscious effort to befriend someone he doesn't like, though, and Colleen wouldn't warm up to a Hufflepuff. She's too prejudiced against them. Dinah would have been the best candidate, but she's already picked Anny as her best friend and Anny is the person Colleen can accept the least at the moment. That leaves Danny and Tullia, who are currently making it a sport to pick on her ... Poor Colleen indeed. ... Sevi will of course make an effort, but will it be enough with so much stacked against her?
l'Ciel – Wow! French name, German addy, English review! Quite international! ... All my work is AU. I don't see why I should be trying to predict exactly what JKR will write in the first place. She'll tell us that story anyway. OOC depends on whether you think JKR's characters have to be exactly as Harry perceives them. Myself I don't consider it OOC, I see it as showing the characters from a different perspective that Harry is in no position to see. With the Slytherins he's always on the outside looking in and they always present a mask for outsiders. ... Headache? No, I didn't intend to actually hurt my poor readers, but Collen is meant to be a prejudiced pureblood from a family that supported Voldemort and hasn't got over it, yet. The way she acts currently reflects the values she's been taught. She's never had the chance to get in contact with a different way of thinking. In that way she's actually similar to Dinah. Both have been taught a set of values that does not fit their surroundings. Unlike Dinah Colleen isn't open to new ideas at this point, though.
kassio – Colleen grew up among dark witches and wizards, but is too young to have clear memories of Voldemort and his fall. Severus was on the winning side in the war, but he is head of Slytherin and Slytherin is the most respectable house according to what Colleen has been taught. She has no loyalties to Voldemort himself, though she shares the prejudices he based his politics on. ... The chances that she will make friends with Babsie are indeed slim. A Slytherin from a different year could perhaps exert some good influence, if she/he took Colleen under his/her wing. Maybe Sevi could get one to do just that ... Sevi helped with the trap that finally destroyed Voldemort. The ministry felt it would lose face by admitting that it had been wrong about him, so it just pouts about the whole affair. Among the people Sevi's role is known, though and it has rehabilitated Slytherin house in the eyes of most of them. ... Right now I can't bring in Trellawney, but maybe I'll find a chance to have some of the teachers talk about it in a later chapter. We'll see.
Alia5 – Not bad, but doesn't fit Rupert. (It's pretty much the story of my own childhood, though. With the only difference that I cried whenever I felt I wasn't meeting my parents' expectations. In other words not only a cry-baby, but crying over exams and grades to top it off!) Rupert is supposed to be popular and easy going, though, so his social skills are fine. I've decided that the problem isn't with Rupert himself, but another family member, something about his father most likely. Now I only need to figure out whether it's something dark, or something more embarrassing ... I love Jorge, too. It has to be scary all alone in boarding school when nobody speaks your language.
Midnight Tiger – Poor little Colleen, nobody likes her and she's only acting the way her Mummy taught her to. ... Interesting ideas, but I don't want to redo Sparks. Billy's group of friends should be different from Draco's. An academical show off would have worked, but I think he'd be in Ravenclaw, if he were that bad about it. I have a first baby plot hedgehog for Rupert, though.
holly – I'm impressed. You should teach Divination. I bet the students' interest in the subject would increase dramatically with a real seer for a teacher. Only with West Hogsmeade did you slip a little too far into the future. Great work!
mUd – Thanks!
firemyrtle – Well, I was doing my best to distract everybody from Ron while at the same time making his betrayal believable. Mystery is definitely difficult to write!
Colibi – Didn't you hear what the other children said? Stew is made from leftovers! The horror! ... Ah, but what will Colleen learn, if she is sent back home where her mother taught her all those prejudices? Hogwarts is her first chance to learn anything else.
crazyperson – Flames to make me continue? My friend, I've seen authors get angry about flames, ignore them, or be discouraged and stop writing, but I've never seen one write more due to them. That said, I haven't got many, yet, so I'm not sure how I'd react myself. I have sworn to myself that I will finish every fic I publish on the net, but you guys will have to accept when I declare one to be finished. They all have a touch of open end, I know, but that's how I like them best. (It inspires my imagination when I read such endings and I need my imagination as much as the air I breathe.)
myrtille – Of course Slytherin has a heart. It's just not something they'll ever show a Gryffindor, so Harry will probably never know.
Romulus – Well, Gryffindors wandered into his classroom at the wrong time. That's pretty much asking to give away free points! Sevi just couldn't resist.
Hannah-N – I'm terribly sorry, Shirley, but I cannot read your fic. I never learned Spanish and my memories of Latin and French classes only take me that far with the language. ... If you're looking for a way to improve your writing, I'd suggest to not write about your own life though. Try to write characters that are different from yourself and perhaps not romance if you feel you don't have enough experience with it. How about writing about friendship? (I like that topic a lot and I suspect many others do too.)
noprobro – Glad to hear that. I love Greenie, too. That little fellow just snuffled into my fic and captured my heart ...
Nii Geni - You know, Holiday Blues is somehow special to me too. It was the only one of the stories I had finished when FictionAlley first launched that I didn't put up there. The reason? I didn't have a place to put it. They claimed they had a house for every fic, but there wasn't one for little sweet 'bedtime' stories. It doesn't seem like anybody else ever felt that lack, but still the story has gotten only positive reactions. Do we all need a little more simple fuzzy sweetness out there perhaps?
fanes – Hi there! ... Also im Dialekt bin ich leider nicht gut. Allerdings kann ich dich prima verstehen (was mir mit den geographisch viel näheren Wienern absolut nicht gelingen will. Bin nämlich Niederösterreicherin. Also viele Grüße an's schöne Tirol!
Iremione – Oh wow! This will take a while to answer! ... No, they didn't forget, but they got used to calling him Mr. Snape and he did change a lot after leaving his original parents, so yes, they do judge Draco Snape differently than Draco Malfoy. ... Oh, the owl is quite correct about that. She just has her own owl terminology. ... And Sevi felt challenged. ... I wouldn't say 'exclusive'. That would imply that no other can use the wand at all. I think the wand is tuned to certain talents and responds better to a which or wizard the more closely his/her own talents correspond to its. And then there's the strength of power required to control the wand. (For example, I think that Sevi's wand contains a healer potential that Sevi never followed up with the required training. Due to that Poppy should be able to use Sevi's wand for healing spells, but she wouldn't be able to contain its power and could seriously burn her fingers in the process.) ... The Gryffindors are much more naive than the Slytherins when they start Hogwarts and tend to remain so until after they finish school. The shock will come, but much later. (Albus isn't naive, is he?) ... Well, at least it was only the Lions and not the Sharks! Minerva has no idea how lucky she was. ... Draco did see the filth, but not as clearly and I didn't describe it that much back then. Minerva looked at it a bit more closely, while Draco had a lot of other things on his mind as well. ... But Cathy wasn't Draco's first love (and they did date other people for a time while he was at university). Remember that scene when Sarah asks him about his former girlfriends? ... At the time Albus made him a teacher Sevi was freshly out of Azkaban and barely able to handle life at all. (Zebee wrote about it, if you want to know what exactly he felt.) Albus would have given him more time to rest, maybe only started him the next year, but then the ministry would have sent him back to Azkaban. He had no choice, but Sarah doesn't see the entire picture. She thinks Albus is powerful enough that he could have prevented Sevi going to Azkabanm in the first place if he'd really wanted to. ... I don't know about your version, but my Sarah is not a halfbreed. She's just a witch from a very poor family. Many of her friends would have been murdered, yes, but again she does not see the entire picture. To her the ministry sends the Aurors who raid homes of decent people and the Aurors have been 'the enemy' all her life. So Voldemort would send Death Eaters to raid homes? What's the difference? And why does Sevi of all people have to sacrifice himself to fight them? Let the Aurors do it. It's their job and then they'll have to leave the decent people alone. Let the ministry and its rich clientele fight their war. The common folk of Merlin Park should be left in peace to live their lives. ... No, though Harry did date both Ginny and Hermione at some time during his youth he finally married a witch that went to Beauxbattons. He met her at work as an adult. Ginny and Hermione are both still free, I think, Hermione not even dating as she's too busy with her work at the moment. Ginny has recently met a Muggle born wizard she likes, but she doesn't know him well enough to consider calling him her boyfriend, yet. Hermione will probably catch the interest of a fellow intellectual that she can discuss her work with sometime. Whether she likes him back will be her decision then. ... One raven went to Draco, the other to headmaster Donalds. ... Good Potions teachers are much harder to find than DADA teachers and poor Remus is still a werewolf and too afraid of accidentally hurting a student. ... Officially Billy is in Hogwarts, but he can still see his old friends and will get proper Muggle Studies teaching. ... Draco wore his cap at Hogwarts occasionally, but not during class hours as he did at West Hogsmeade. ... Billy doesn't remember how hard it was for Draco to adapt to being poor. He only sees his cool big brother that he looks up to. The big age difference makes it hard for him to see that Draco too isn't always in control of the situation. ... That first class assignment means very little at West Hogsmeade and everybody knows it. The children are simply split into four groups of equal size according to grades and alphabet. At the beginning the classes all move at about the same speed as different primary school teachers will grade differently. It's only after the first big tests that the classes move apart and at that time the students get shuffled around a lot until the proper class for each of them is found. ... Cesareus is Tonk's nephew, her older brother's son. ... Hey, I happen to like the name Rupert despite the connection with Ron and whatever gave you the idea he was going to be Billy's best friend? He isn't! I named Billy's best friend Aterus, from ater the Latin word for black. ... The baby did live past that one illness at her first Chrismas, but she was a very sickly child and never had much of a chance. She died somewhere around the age of two. ... No, Rupert is not going to be the leader either. ... Colleen actually is an intelligent girl. She just hasn't been exposed to anything other than prejudiced purebloods until now. Now it's up to whether she can overcome her outcast status or not whether she has a chance to find a better set of values. ... Dinah is a typical Huffleslyth. Most people tend to show Ravenslyths in their fics, but I think Dinah's type isn't that rare either and deserves a little more attention. ... Harry never saw the Slytherins that closely. Colleen is the type he sees as typical Slytherin, by the way, but he never did understand what was going on inside these children. Few Gryffindors ever learn to do that. ... I think they'll just assign detentions, but they could deduct point of West Hogsmeade as a whole ... Have you ever tried to make up 40 preferably British names in under an hour? I just ran out of ideas for a moment there and thought: Why not add a child from a different country? I have a lot of very loyal Spanish speaking readers, so I'll give them a little wave. A Spanish wizard's pretty original, too. Now what nice sounding Spanish first names do I know? Jose! Ah, but that's what everybody calls their Spanish characters. There has to be something less overused. Of course, Jorge's a pretty, very Spanish name! Yes, I like the sound of that name, so why not? ... All the children starting Hogwarts now would have been two when Ron was 15, so he would have been 13 when they were born. I do think we would have heard if Ron had knocked up a poor girl at age 12! Thuth it had to be either a cousin or one of his older brothers. Bill seemed the best choice as there would have been nothing wrong with his having a family in Harry's third year.
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- A/N: Why do you think Jorge is attending Hogwarts? And what do you think of Anny? And Pank's attitude towards his classmates? Any wishes who I should do next?
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In the next chapter: Well, I really hope we'll finally get to finish the first day of school. That means we see the new DADA teacher in action and of course two more first years!
Disclaimer 2: Severus Snape owning a raven belongs to J.L. Matthews. (Go read her story everybody. It's great.)
Disclaimer 3: The gang name Sharks is borrowed from the musical West Side Story of course. I don't remember where I found the name Rakers, but I know I read it somewhere.
Disclaimer 4: The idea for Snape having a family comes from Al's fic Time of Trial.
Disclaimer 5: The Glizzard family and Gringolf Glizzard belong to my friend PegaPony and so do all of Gringolf's songs. Thanks for letting me borrow them!
Disclaimer 6: My friend Edmund owns himself and his horse Apollo.
Disclaimer 7: Old Joe and Tess' Joe belong to Zebee.
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A/N – Well, this chapter's done and the Saber Rider chapter as well and it only took me two weeks. (Yes, that does mean I could have finished this chapter last week, if I hadn't written the Saber Rider one, but I had to ... and I do love both stories.) I also got an account on nfiction.com. So now, if this site is down, you can also find my fics there as well as on skyhawke. (One of them should always be up, right?)
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Chapter 6: Potions Class
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Lunch was the most delicious stew Anny had ever eaten. Despite the strange surroundings that still made her a little nervous she took a second helping.
So far, she thought while watching the boys build a tower out of their empty pumpkin juice glasses, her classmates seemed really nice. Except for that high nosed Colleen, who didn't seem to like anybody, they'd all been very willing to help her find her way through this strange, but fascinating world.
Dinah was definitely the best. She'd even switched beds with Tullia so she had the bed right next to Anny's! Anny had never before had a friend like that.
She'd had friends in primary school and her neighbourhood back in Leeds, of course, but she'd never felt like the preferred friend of any of them. They'd just been a group of children she'd often played with. Dinah actually liked her better than Tullia and Danny, who, in Anny's opinion, were both terribly cool. She wished she could take ghosts and moving pictures in stride like that.
"Great stew, don't you think, girls?" Danny was at it again.
"Oh yes, delicious." Tullia beamed at Colleen.
Nocturne glared back at them and stuck to the salad.
"What is it with you two anyway?" Anny asked her nodding towards Gangolf who once again had barely touched his food. "Are you on a salad diet, or something?"
"Oh, shut up Mudblood." Colleen hissed.
"You shut up, death eater." Dinah returned before Anny could even think of a comeback.
Death eater? That was the weirdest insult Anny had ever heard. At least it made no sense in this situation. She could imagine it as something a vegetarian might say to someone eating meat, but Colleen was the one who was eating only salad. What did salad have in common with death?
"Don't let her get to you, Anny." Dinah declared loudly. "She's just jealous, because you're a better witch than she is."
"We haven't even done any magic, yet." Anny reminded her blushing slightly at the compliment. "How do you know who's the better witch?"
"Easy," Dinah grinned. "You have the better heart."
"Nocturne's probably so inbred she can't even perform a proper spell at all." Tullia threw in.
"That's right." Danny smirked. "Mirrorboy here has already proven he can at least do a charm, but what about you, Nocturne? You're so proud of your magic, so where is it?"
"I bet Mudblood doesn't know any spells at all." Colleen frowned.
Anny bit her lip. No she didn't know any spells. She'd read the names of some in her Charms book, but she'd never performed one. Most likely all the others already had quite a repertoire. How was she ever going to catch up?
"Anny grew up among Muggles." Dinah defended her again. "They didn't know any magic to teach her."
"But you're a big pureblood, aren't you?" Danny grinned evilly. "You grew up on magic. So lets see some."
"Right, show us what you can do!" Dinah demanded.
To Anny's horror Colleen did indeed pull out her wand. She pointed it straight at Danny and shouted some weird word Anny didn't understand.
A tiny spark flew out of her wand but fizzled out long before it reached its target.
Danny's only reaction was loud laughter. "That's the best you can do? A tiny spark?"
A second later Professor Snape was standing behind Colleen as if he had just materialised out of thin air.
"Ms Nocturne, I assume?" he asked in a dangerously soft tone.
"They challenged me to demonstrate my magic." Colleen defended herself before Snape even asked.
Anny could hardly believe how dangerous the friendly Professor from this morning suddenly seemed. He almost scared her even though she hadn't done anything wrong.
"With a dissolving hex aimed at one of your classmates?" Snape asked. "Detention, Ms Nocturne. Report to my office after your last class today."
"Your Dad sure can be scary." Anny commented to Billy as soon as the teacher had left.
"The scariest in all the school." Dinah confirmed before Billy could answer. "He's famous for it in the entire wizarding world."
"Nonsense." Billy snorted. "McGonagall is much worse, especially to Slytherins."
"Because Snape's nicer to Slytherins." Dinah said. "It's only because we're his house."
"And McGonagall is worse to Slytherins." Billy insisted. "Just you wait and see."
"I like Professor Stylus, though." Anny commented. "He was really nice to that Spanish boy."
"My name Jorge?" Danny tried to imitate Jorge's accent. "What a weird kid."
"I'd like to see you in a Spanish school." Billy scolded. "At least he's trying to learn English."
Danny shrugged. "Still sounds funny."
"I wonder what he's doing here in the first place." Aterus said. "Why isn't he in a Spanish school?"
"Maybe they don't have wizarding schools in Spain." Anny suggested.
"And where do all the other Spanish children go?" Pank asked. "Spain is much too big not to have its own school."
"They don't have a boarding school, though." Billy seemed to know what he was talking about. "There are only three wizarding boarding schools in Europe: Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbattons. All the other schools make the students come by floo everyday."
"Flu?" asked Anny.
"No, floo." Dinah stated as if that explained everything.
"That's what we call travelling through the fireplace." Tullia translated.
"Travelling through the fireplace?" Was that even possible?
"Yes, you throw in the floo powder and say where you want to go and it takes you to that place's fireplace. Very simple." Rupert explained.
"But what if there's a fire in the fireplace? Wouldn't you get burned?" Anny remembered the scar her grandmother had from accidentally knocking over a candle as a child. She had told her that it had been very painful.
"Of course not." Aterus frowned. "Why would I get burned?"
"There has to be a fire to travel through floo." Billy added. "You have to throw the floo powder into the fire."
Anny shivered. "I don't think floo travelling is for me."
Colleen laughed out loud at that. "Stupid little Mudblood can't even use the floo!"
"Well, you don't have to once you have your apparition license." Dinah assured Anny.
"Maybe Jorge doesn't like the floo either." Aterus suggested. "I heard some people get sick from all the spinning around. That might be a reason to choose boarding school over a local one that requires daily flooing."
"Or maybe his parents just wanted him out of their hair." Colleen suggested. "If he's in boarding school, they only have to bother with him during the holidays."
"Why would they have children, if they don't want to bother with them?" Dinah sounded confused.
"To have an heir to their name of course." Collen returned as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "If you're lucky your first child is a boy, and you don't have to have another."
The children stared at her.
"Gee, Nocturn doesn't like children. We should have guessed." Danny rolled her eyes.
"What's our next class?" Pank asked laying down his knife and fork.
"Potions." reported Rupert. "Then there's a Sports class, but I don't have that one and after that Transfigurations. And we have DADA in the seventh lesson today."
"At least that gives us an hour off in between." Pank decided. "Check your schedules, everybody. Who has Sports today?"
"Not me." Danny was the first to answer. "Monday fourth lesson."
"Me too, Monday fourth." Tullia confirmed happily. "We've got Sports together!"
Anny quickly pulled her own schedule out of her bookbag. She'd put it into her notebook so it wouldn't get wrinkled, but didn't dare to put the Muggle paper where Colleen could see it. The others probably weren't a problem. She'd seen Billy pack away a very similar notebook after Latin class and Aterus hadn't commented at all.
"Monday as well." she stated once she'd managed to manoeuvre the schedule out while keeping the notebook hidden. "Dinah?"
Dinah seemed to have mislaid her schedule. She dug frantically through her bag until she finally thought to check her pockets. The parchment she finally found turned out to be very wrinkled.
Dinah wrinkled her nose at the wrinkled parchment and pulled out her wand. "Recto!"
The parchment shivered for a moment, then lay still again.
"Recto!" Dinah repeated pointing her wand at it more forcefully.
Very slowly the schedule straightened out a little. Dinah scowled at the incomplete result, then beamed.
"Monday as well!" she shouted and hugged Anny.
"It seems we've all got the Monday lesson anyway." Pank summed up. "That means we have two hours off today."
"We should probably get our Potions things now, though." Rupert remarked.
Anny looked up and discovered to her surprise that they were the only ones still in the great hall. "Do you think we'll find the way back to the common room?"
"Of course." Rupert declared. "Follow me."
Indeed Rupert managed to lead them down into the dungeons, but after the third turn he stopped at a corner and stared at it thoughtfully.
"What's wrong?" Pank asked warily.
"I'm not sure whether to take this corridor or the next one." Rupert frowned. "I was so sure it was the next one, but this one looks so familiar."
Pank regarded the corridor in question for a moment, then walked ahead to check the other one.
"We'll take this one!" he called out. "Come on."
"No way." Colleen declared. "I'm taking this corridor."
Anny stood undecided for a moment. Follow Colleen, or Pank. They both seemed completely convinced that they were right. If the group split up what would happen to the ones on the wrong way? What if she got lost with Colleen? But what if Pank was wrong after all?
"Do whatever you like Nocturne." Danny declared loudly. "Come on girls, we're going with the boys. Good to be rid of the death eater's foul company."
For a moment Anny felt even more confused. Would the girl group break up? But Dinah and Tullia followed Danny without the slightest hesitation.
Anny smiled. Of course! She'd go wherever Dinah went. Dinah wouldn't desert her and, if they got lost, they'd be lost together. Dinah would know what to do.
"Anny!" Pank called from up ahead. "What are you waiting for? We might lose you, if you fall too far behind."
"We just lost Colleen!" Anny yelled back. "She went that way."
Pank hesitated for a moment. "I don't care about Nocturne." he decided then. "She doesn't care about any of us, so we won't care about her. If she never turns up again at least we won't have to listen to her insults anymore."
"Yeah, forget the death eater." Danny confirmed. "Why do you worry about her at all? Everything she's ever said to you was an insult."
Anny wanted to return some explanation for her interest in Colleen's well being, but she didn't really understand it herself. The only answer that came to her mind was so ridiculous, that she didn't dare say it. After all what would the others think, if she told them that Colleen was wearing her hair band?
Instead she just shrugged and ran after the group. Let Colleen be. Somebody would probably find her sooner or later. This was a school, not some deserted maze after all.
They'd gone about halfway down the new corridor when they came upon another of those fascinating moving pictures. This one was of a teacher in green robes sitting at his desk with an old blackboard behind him. Just as Anny was about to pass it a snake suddenly poked its head out of his sleeve and tested the air with its tongue.
Anny stopped. She'd only ever seen snakes in pictures before and none of those had moved. Her mother had often mentioned that 'disgusting snake tongue', but Anny had never before seen one. It looked rather cute, she decided.
The snake noticed her attention and slithered out a little further as her wizard looked on with an amused smile.
"Oh Dinah, look at the pretty snake!" Anny exclaimed when she noticed the perfectly drawn scales on the snake's body. "Have you ever seen one like this before?"
The other first years stopped and returned to where Anny was standing gazing up at the picture in fascination.
The snake preened as nine sets of eyes looked right at it.
"No, never." Dinah said. "I don't know much about snakes, though."
"It's not a common garden snake." Rupert declared. "That much is obvious."
"Maybe it's a foreign species." Tullia suggested. "I mean, it's obviously a pet and people don't usually pick common native animals as pets."
"You're right." Aterus nodded. "Maybe he's in my snake book back at home. I can check when I go home for Christmas."
"Actually, that's a she." Anny jumped in surprise when the wizard in the picture spoke. "And she isn't foreign either. She's an adder."
"Not the usual type, though." Aterus insisted.
The picture teacher looked thoughtful. "They weren't really rare back in my days." he said with a little sigh. "But it's been a very long time. Much has changed since then."
"She is very beautiful." Anny was trying to make amends for her probably impolite reaction to the picture's first words. "I'm sorry they have become so rare."
"Adders are poisonous." Pank pointed out. "It'd be dangerous to have them crawling around under every stone."
The teacher picked his snake up gently and held her out for Anny to see.
"Yes, they are poisonous, but also very intelligent. Sassy doesn't just keep me company, she also is an excellent partner in philosophic discussions." the picture continued. "But you are probably too young to appreciate Philosophy much." he smiled. "You are this year's Slytherin first years, I assume."
They nodded.
"Yes, Sir." said Pank. "And you are the portrait of a former teacher?"
"You can call me Salazar." he smiled. "I consider myself a friend of all members of my house."
Anny smiled as well. "Hi, Salazar. I'm Anny."
The others however were just staring at Salazar open-mouthed.
"Salazar?" Pank finally got out. "You're Salazar Slytherin?"
"Yes, that's my name." The reaction seemed to amuse Salazar. His eyes sparkled and his smile grew a little wider.
"You are the founder of our house." Billy said reverently. "You helped build the castle."
"My original, yes. I am only a picture, myself."
"You don't look scary at all." Dinah declared. "I always thought you'd be tall and dark and imposing."
Salazar laughed. "Ah, they tell so many tales about me. Don't believe everything you hear. Much of my story has been distorted over the centuries."
"Oh, you have to tell us about it someday." Pank decided. "But right now we have to get back to the common room before we're late for Potions."
"Ah, but this isn't the way to the common room." Salazar shook his head. "You took a wrong turn, I'm afraid."
"Oh no, Nocturne was right, after all." Anny realised. "We should have taken the first corridor."
"Great, now she'll gloat about that." Danny groaned.
"But she didn't meet Salazar." Rupert smirked. "I bet that will shut her up."
"Can you tell us how to get back to the common room, Salazar?" Anny asked the picture.
"Of course." Salazar smiled again. He seemed to do that a lot. "This is the corridor you're in." he drew a line on the blackboard. "Here's the one you came from. This is where the stairs are. Now here's the corridor you should have taken. Then you should have walked past these two and turned here and here ... And here's the secret entrance. See? So to get back you have to take this path." He lined it out in a thicker line on the blackboard. If you take a wrong turn here, you should come upon a suit of armour about here. Then you have to turn back again, and the other wrong corridor leads to a storage room. Do you think you'll manage?"
"Oh yes, thank you Salazar!"
They ran off, but just as she reached the corner Anny took one last look back at the picture. She simply had to remember where Salazar hang. She'd never spoken to a picture before, but somehow she knew that Salazar was the most special picture in the castle. She simply had to visit him again when she had some time.
Anny was lagging behind again! Pank stopped to shout for her. Maybe they were going too fast? He simply couldn't lose the Muggle born witch. What if she ran into another magical trinket she didn't know? A simple revolving door might be an unsurpassable obstacle to her.
It was worse because he knew so little about the Muggle world she'd grown up in. Owls were strange to her and she wasn't familiar with ghosts at all, but she apparently knew what secret passwords and blackboards were.
How could he assure that no harm came to her, if he didn't know what might be a danger to her?
Now Anny was catching up, but Aterus and Billy had just disappeared around the corner.
"Aterus! Wait!" Pank yelled after them. "We'll lose Anny!"
"I'm fine." Anny protested and ran past him.
Pank looked back again and the rest of the girls tore past him as well. Rupert had slowed down to stay next to him, but where was ...
"Gangolf! Hurry up!" Pank yelled, but Mirrorboy, as Danny had so aptly called him, was apparently doing the best he could. He was panting heavily and clutching his side as he ran.
Great, just great.
At least the others turned out to be waiting around the corner.
"We have to stop and wait for Gangolf." Pank told them. "He's already out of breath."
Billy stuck his head around the corner to check. "Oh my. Hasn't anybody ever taught him how to breathe properly? He'd never make the Soccer team."
"Soccer team?" Danny snorted. "I doubt he'd even want to join any team. Unless there's a beauty competition team."
"There's a ballet class." Billy said.
"There's a ballet class at Hogwarts?" Dinah asked surprised.
"No, at West Hogsmeade. I know the teacher." Billy explained when Rupert gave him an odd look. She's an ex-Raker. Was in the gang with my brother."
"Gang?" Pank was beginning to worry about Billy.
"Yes, the Rakers are our local gang. Miracle Mely leads them right now." Billy nodded eagerly. "They have a big Soccer match in the park every year, sometimes two. This year they won five to three."
"Against the Hogwarts team?" Anny asked.
Apparently the Muggle born knew what that Soccer was. It had to be some sort of game similar to Quidditch, but Pank had no idea what to do with the five to three numbers Billy had stated.
"No, against the Lions." Billy shook his head. "Hogwarts has never played a real game."
"They play against wild animals?" Rupert sounded very impressed.
"Of course not. Animals can't play Soccer." Billy snorted. "The Lions are another gang. They wear green. The Rakers wear blue."
"Why isn't there a red and a yellow gang as well?" Dinah asked.
Still such a Hufflepuff, thought Pank. He'd have to do something about that before she got in trouble with some of the less friendly Slytherins. He may have decided to forget about Colleen, but he still felt responsible for the rest of the group. They were all still so young and clueless.
"Oh, there are. The red ones are called the Sharks and the yellow ones are the Avengers." Billy explained. "They don't play Soccer, though. The Sharks have a band and I think the Avengers like to draw and do all sorts of individual competitions."
Well, maybe Billy wasn't a problem after all. At least this sounded like he was talking about simple hobby clubs, even if he called them gangs.
Gangolf finally stumbled around the corner and they set off again at a slower pace. Nocturne and a prefect were already waiting.
"Sorry," Pank told the prefect before he could say anything. "We got held up talking to Salazar."
"Salazar?" asked Colleen haughtily.
Pank grinned. "Yes, Salazar Sytherin's portrait. He's such an interesting person that we almost forgot the time."
"Well, get your cauldrons. You don't want to be late for Potions of all classes."
Three minutes later Pank had his entire group assembled in the common room and ready to go. He quickly checked one last time before he followed the prefect outside. There was Rupert right next to him, Gangolf trying to get the prefect's attention, Billy trying to explain Soccer to Aterus who apparently didn't even know the rules of Quidditch, Danny and Tullia were whispering about something and Dinah and Anny were comparing their cauldrons. Oh, and there was Nocturne pouting at Danny as usual. Pank wondered what they'd clashed over this time.
The Potions classroom was in the very next corridor after Salazar's, but of course nobody mentioned that little fact to Colleen. Let her look for him herself, if she wanted to find him.
Professor Snape smiled at them as they entered.
Pank made sure that he and Rupert sat right in front of Gangolf, who was once again left alone. This way the poor boy wouldn't feel entirely friendless. Aterus and Billy were in front of them, Danny and Tullia to their left and Anny and Dinah behind them. Nocturne picked the very last worktable in the empty left row and scowled at them. Stupid snob.
The Ravenclaws were only two minutes late and apologised profusely. Just like the Slytherins and Hufflepuffs they moved about the castle in a group, but apparently they didn't have anybody to show them the way and had taken a wrong turn somewhere. If they had met Salazar, too, they didn't mention it.
They lost ten points for being late.
Professor Snape actually addressed the Slytherins by their nicknames when taking attendance. Then he got to the Ravenclaws.
"Ms. Atlers, Gabriella!" was the only first year whose sorting Pank had missed. She'd been up right after him while he was still looking for a chair at the Slytherin table.
"Mr. Bonk, Connor" blushed terribly when the professor read out his name.
"Well, it's not your fault that you were born with that name, I suppose." Snape stated sounding just a little insincere.
Connor Bonk blushed even more and tried to hide behind his cauldron.
"Ms Domally, Arnika and Mr. Donelly, Salvatore?" Snape sneered.
The two even turned out to be sitting next to each other.
"Well, Domally and Donelly, I hope you both have excellent hearing, because I'll take five points off Ravenclaw whenever the wrong person answers my question." Snape declared.
"But that's not fair!" a tiny, slightly pudgy girl exclaimed. "What difference does it make who answers you, if the answer is correct?"
"The difference that the person I actually asked might not know the answer." Snape answered coldly. "And five points off Ravenclaw for speaking out of turn."
"What?" The girl gasped.
"Another five points." Snape stated. "Care to make it fifteen?" he added when the girl opened her mouth again.
She quickly shook her head and stared down at her Potions book.
"Excellent. Then lets continue. Mr. Gregers, Nonius!"
"Here!" Nonius beamed at the teacher.
Pank wondered what was wrong with that boy. His house had just lost ten points and he looked as happy as a puffskein after five cheering charms.
Snape frowned at him and continued: "Ms. Iterton, Lucinda!"
"Here." answered the small troublemaker softly. Obviously she'd already learned her lesson.
"Mr. Montrey, Randolph!" Snape went on. "A Montrey in Ravenclaw? So you think you are really smart, don't you?"
"Yes, Sir. I mean, yes, I'm a Ravenclaw. I'm not smart at all, Sir. I just ... I ... uh ..."
"You what? Speak up, boy." Snape demanded harshly.
"I asked the hat not to put me into Slytherin, Sir." Randolph admitted. "Not because I don't like the house, I do. I just thought, with my father in Azkaban and all ... Well, I thought I'd better demonstrate that I'm not like him from the start." His voice became softer and softer as he spoke and the last part was almost impossible to hear.
The Potions teacher had apparently heard him, though. "I'll be keeping an eye on you, Montrey." he sneered before continuing with: "O'Malley, Shannon!"
"Here." Shannon was apparently Muggle born. Or else she'd never learned how to dress herself.
"Five points off Ravenclaw for improper dress." Snape snapped promptly.
"Improper? But that is the school uniform, Sir!" Shannon returned obviously confused.
"It is, but it is supposed to be worn with the outside on the outside and properly tied." the teacher stated dryly. "Everybody else in class managed that, so I don't think it's too much to ask."
"I'm sorry." Shannon pleaded. "I didn't know. I've never worn a robe before."
"There are other Muggle borns in class and they managed to dress." Snape said his eyes wandering to Anny.
Pank quickly checked the girl's clothes over as well and concluded that Dinah must have shown her how to straighten out her robes so they fell properly. Anny looked like a proper neat little witch. Even Colleen wouldn't be able to fault the way she dressed.
"Mr. Towerhill, Felix." Snape went on. "If you are going to wear your hat in class, Towerhill, please do try to sit in the back where you aren't obstructing anybody's vision of the blackboard."
Felix Towerhil hastily pulled off his hat.
"And finally Ms. Uberey, Cait." Snape paused for a moment before he launched into a description of what he claimed to be a simple potion against warts.
Pank hastily dove for ink and parchment. It sounded terribly complicated.
Hands shot into the air the moment Snape told them to brew the potion.
"What are porcupine quills?"
"Where am I supposed to put my cauldron?"
"Won't the table catch fire?"
"How do you cut these?"
"Do I really have to participate in this exercise, Dad? You know I can do it. I probably could brew this potion blindfolded."
Pank stared at Billy. He was the son of a Potions Master, yes, but ...
"These are porcupine quills." Snape held up a bundle of long, thin, black and white objects that definitely didn't look anything like Pank's eagle feather quill at all. "The cauldron goes right there. No, there's an anti burning charm on every item of furniture in this room. How stupid do you think I am? No brewing blindfolded, Billy. You could collide with someone or something."
"Does that mean that he thinks Billy really can brew this potion blind?" Rupert whispered impressed.
Pank shrugged.
Five minutes later he would have sworn that Billy could. While he and Rupert were still trying to sort out their ingredients and prepare them Billy was happily stirring his potion.
"You have to slice them more regularly, Aterus." Pank heard him tell his neighbour. "Else your potion will clot."
Meanwhile Gangolf was having a much more serious problem than Aterus.
"I can't touch that!" he shrilled hysterically. "It's slimy!"
"Of course it's slimy." Connor Bonk, who'd ended up next to him, commented reasonably. "It's a snail. Snails use the slime to glide on, since they have no legs to crawl with."
"Eeeww." answered both Gangolf and Colleen.
"You can wash your hands afterwards, Gangolf." Pank tried to convince the boy.
"Do you have any idea what slime does to ones skin?" Gangolf returned and took another step away from the snail on his table.
"Actually snail slime is good for the skin." Lucinda Iterton declared. "That's why it is used in many beauty potions and two centuries ago witches used to let snails crawl over their hands and face to ..."
"Yuck!" Colleen exclaimed with her hands over her ears. "Just shut up, Iterton, shut up!"
"It's good for the skin?" Gangolf asked to Pank's surprise. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely sure." Lucinda confirmed.
Gangolf eagerly grabbed his snail and knife and went to work.
Ah, so that's how you dealt with Gangolf. Pank decided to remember that trick. It might solve a few of his problems. Just lucky that Colleen wasn't his responsibility anymore, because now she was refusing to cut up her snail.
Pank returned his attention to his own potion. His snail was cut a little unevenly, but he supposed it would work anyway.
Now which ingredient was he to throw in first? He quickly consulted his book. Ah, right ...
"You have to light the fire and wait for the water to boil before you can start brewing, Pank." Snape's voice came from somewhere in the back of the room.
"Ups! Sorry about that, Professor." Pank called out and lit the fire.
"I'm done, Dad!" Billy called out a moment later. "May I brew myself some invisible ink now?"
"No, I want you to come over here and help Colleen." Snape returned. "But don't do any of the actual work for her. Just tell her what to do."
"Oh, not Nocturne." Pank heard Billy groan softly, but the boy trudged back into the last row anyway."
"Domally, that's too little water. You're going to burn your potion like this." Snape's voice continued from the other side of the room.
It seemed this teacher was always in control of the situation, Pank thought. He had his eyes on everybody and knew exactly what each student was doing at any time. If only Pank could manage to keep his classmates that well in hand!
Tullia seemed to be daydreaming and Danny had picked a fight with that Muggle born Ravenclaw. Shannon, or something like that.
Pank threw a piece of rolled up parchment at Tullia and went to break up the fight, but Snape already had it under control.
"Mind your cauldron, Pank." the teacher instructed him. "It's about to boil over. Gangolf, you're supposed to stir, not twiddle the stirrer."
Damn! Missed something again!
But there was no time for Gangolf now. The potion really had risen almost to the rim of his cauldron.
Pank was exhausted by the time Potions ended and very glad they had an hour off before Transfigurations. He had just barely managed to finish his potion in time. Danny and Gangolf both had made some mistake and gotten an incorrect result. Rupert's potion had clotted and Dinah's had been a little too weak, but Snape had declared both results as acceptable.
"Okay everybody!" Pank called out. "Wait for me. It's better if we stay together until we know the castle better."
"I want to go to the library." Tullia called out.
Pank nodded while hastily washing his table. "Good idea. We'll go look for the library. We're probably going to need it soon anyway."
When they reached the stairs that led out of the dungeons a whole horde of Hufflepuffs was on their way down. Pank recognised their classmates from Latin and greeted them politely.
"Going to Potions?" Anny asked them as they passed.
"No, Sports. We're supposed to take a portkey from the caretaker's office." Mel Eagle answered. "We've got to run, though. Don't want to be late on the very first day. See you next Latin class!"
She waved at them once more before the group turned around another corner and disappeared.
"A portkey?" Anny asked.
"That's another way to travel." Dinah explained before Pank could. "You touch it and it takes you to where you want to go."
It was good that Dinah was so willing to explain things to the Muggle born. That way Pank didn't have to worry about her so much. If only Dinah weren't such a Hufflepuff!
The library proved quite difficult to find. A passing house elf was more than willing to give them directions, but the moving stairs had apparently decided to play tricks on them and they kept arriving on the wrong floor.
By the time they finally made it to the right floor they already had to go to Transfigurations. A friendly Hufflepuff offered to lead them to the classroom where Professor McGonagall was already waiting along with Sophie- Marleene Patter-Hendriks and Laura Warthay.
A slightly grumpy looking prefect brought in Colleen Nocturne just before the lesson began. The rest of the Gryffindors was once again late as McGonagall noted with an expression that was at least as sour as the prefect's.
Pank remembered Billy's claim that she was the most unpleasant teacher at Hogwarts. She definitely didn't like the fact that the Slytherins had proven to be more punctual than her own house and the stragglers were sternly admonished.
Caesareus Tonks stuck his tongue out at her behind her back. Clearly the Gryffindors didn't respect their head of house nearly as much as the Slytherins did.
She made an effort to make the first lesson interesting, though, demonstrating some impressive advanced transfigurations and telling them that, if they worked hard in her lessons, they too would be able to do that in a few years.
Then she handed each of them a toothpick and asked them to turn it into a pin.
Pank sat and stared at his toothpick. He waved his wand over it and concentrated. He poked it with his wand. Nothing.
He looked up to check on his classmates.
Most of them were staring at their toothpicks or waving their wand about ineffectually. Tullia earned herself another parchment to the head.
"Mr. Anterhill!" McGonagall hissed apparently angry. "Please leave Ms Waterwall alone and transfigure your toothpick. If I ever catch you throwing things in this class again, I will deduct points."
Pank glared at the old hag and poked his toothpick some more. He'd only been trying to help her!
"Uh, Professor McGongall?" Billy asked hesitantly. "I think I'm doing something wrong."
Pank looked up and gaped. Billy's toothpick was hovering about a metre above the desk.
Even McGonagall blinked at the sight.
"Did you perhaps swish and flick your wand instead of just pointing it?" she asked after a moment.
Billy shook his head. "I don't think so."
"Did you say Wingardium Leviosa?"
"No, definitely not." Billy shook his head again.
"Can you make it come back down again?" Now McGonagall sounded nervous.
Billy nodded, concentrated and the toothpick gently sank back onto the desk.
"Do it again." the teacher ordered.
Billy pointed his wand at the toothpick just like McGonagall had shown them and the toothpick once again rose into the air.
"Well," McGonagall sighed deeply. "You are definitely a Snape."
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Canopus – Quite interesting article, but University of Austria? Are they implying that we have only one? As far as I know all of our universities are named after the city they're in, there isn't one named after the country (The others would probably get a little upset.). ... Oh, Colleen hasn't the slightest idea. She's much too busy sneering at Hufflepuffs, Mudbloods, halfbloods, stew, snails and just about everything else to realise the implications of Sports class.
annakas – Ah, but Sevi arranged the battlefield for the fight with good old Albus. ... Well, Albus wanted Billy at any price, even that of a long overdue communication with the school next doors. ... I know, Slytherin wasn't a very original choice, but I just couldn't see Billy in any other house. He isn't quite selfless enough for Hufflepuff, not studious and Gryffindor? Perish the thought!
Weasleylover1 – Yes, I kind of like Julian as well. That's why he made it over here from Double O. Unfortunately his classmates feel a little differently about Gangolf and Colleen. How that will work out for the two? You'll see ...
Pam Briggs – What? Oh no! Colleen is only eleven, after all. She's subconsciously feeling lonely and considering a partnership with equally left over Gangolf deep down, but there are definitely no romantic feelings there, yet. They are much too young for that.
animegirl-mika – Excellent observation of Colleen! Billy isn't the type to make a conscious effort to befriend someone he doesn't like, though, and Colleen wouldn't warm up to a Hufflepuff. She's too prejudiced against them. Dinah would have been the best candidate, but she's already picked Anny as her best friend and Anny is the person Colleen can accept the least at the moment. That leaves Danny and Tullia, who are currently making it a sport to pick on her ... Poor Colleen indeed. ... Sevi will of course make an effort, but will it be enough with so much stacked against her?
l'Ciel – Wow! French name, German addy, English review! Quite international! ... All my work is AU. I don't see why I should be trying to predict exactly what JKR will write in the first place. She'll tell us that story anyway. OOC depends on whether you think JKR's characters have to be exactly as Harry perceives them. Myself I don't consider it OOC, I see it as showing the characters from a different perspective that Harry is in no position to see. With the Slytherins he's always on the outside looking in and they always present a mask for outsiders. ... Headache? No, I didn't intend to actually hurt my poor readers, but Collen is meant to be a prejudiced pureblood from a family that supported Voldemort and hasn't got over it, yet. The way she acts currently reflects the values she's been taught. She's never had the chance to get in contact with a different way of thinking. In that way she's actually similar to Dinah. Both have been taught a set of values that does not fit their surroundings. Unlike Dinah Colleen isn't open to new ideas at this point, though.
kassio – Colleen grew up among dark witches and wizards, but is too young to have clear memories of Voldemort and his fall. Severus was on the winning side in the war, but he is head of Slytherin and Slytherin is the most respectable house according to what Colleen has been taught. She has no loyalties to Voldemort himself, though she shares the prejudices he based his politics on. ... The chances that she will make friends with Babsie are indeed slim. A Slytherin from a different year could perhaps exert some good influence, if she/he took Colleen under his/her wing. Maybe Sevi could get one to do just that ... Sevi helped with the trap that finally destroyed Voldemort. The ministry felt it would lose face by admitting that it had been wrong about him, so it just pouts about the whole affair. Among the people Sevi's role is known, though and it has rehabilitated Slytherin house in the eyes of most of them. ... Right now I can't bring in Trellawney, but maybe I'll find a chance to have some of the teachers talk about it in a later chapter. We'll see.
Alia5 – Not bad, but doesn't fit Rupert. (It's pretty much the story of my own childhood, though. With the only difference that I cried whenever I felt I wasn't meeting my parents' expectations. In other words not only a cry-baby, but crying over exams and grades to top it off!) Rupert is supposed to be popular and easy going, though, so his social skills are fine. I've decided that the problem isn't with Rupert himself, but another family member, something about his father most likely. Now I only need to figure out whether it's something dark, or something more embarrassing ... I love Jorge, too. It has to be scary all alone in boarding school when nobody speaks your language.
Midnight Tiger – Poor little Colleen, nobody likes her and she's only acting the way her Mummy taught her to. ... Interesting ideas, but I don't want to redo Sparks. Billy's group of friends should be different from Draco's. An academical show off would have worked, but I think he'd be in Ravenclaw, if he were that bad about it. I have a first baby plot hedgehog for Rupert, though.
holly – I'm impressed. You should teach Divination. I bet the students' interest in the subject would increase dramatically with a real seer for a teacher. Only with West Hogsmeade did you slip a little too far into the future. Great work!
mUd – Thanks!
firemyrtle – Well, I was doing my best to distract everybody from Ron while at the same time making his betrayal believable. Mystery is definitely difficult to write!
Colibi – Didn't you hear what the other children said? Stew is made from leftovers! The horror! ... Ah, but what will Colleen learn, if she is sent back home where her mother taught her all those prejudices? Hogwarts is her first chance to learn anything else.
crazyperson – Flames to make me continue? My friend, I've seen authors get angry about flames, ignore them, or be discouraged and stop writing, but I've never seen one write more due to them. That said, I haven't got many, yet, so I'm not sure how I'd react myself. I have sworn to myself that I will finish every fic I publish on the net, but you guys will have to accept when I declare one to be finished. They all have a touch of open end, I know, but that's how I like them best. (It inspires my imagination when I read such endings and I need my imagination as much as the air I breathe.)
myrtille – Of course Slytherin has a heart. It's just not something they'll ever show a Gryffindor, so Harry will probably never know.
Romulus – Well, Gryffindors wandered into his classroom at the wrong time. That's pretty much asking to give away free points! Sevi just couldn't resist.
Hannah-N – I'm terribly sorry, Shirley, but I cannot read your fic. I never learned Spanish and my memories of Latin and French classes only take me that far with the language. ... If you're looking for a way to improve your writing, I'd suggest to not write about your own life though. Try to write characters that are different from yourself and perhaps not romance if you feel you don't have enough experience with it. How about writing about friendship? (I like that topic a lot and I suspect many others do too.)
noprobro – Glad to hear that. I love Greenie, too. That little fellow just snuffled into my fic and captured my heart ...
Nii Geni - You know, Holiday Blues is somehow special to me too. It was the only one of the stories I had finished when FictionAlley first launched that I didn't put up there. The reason? I didn't have a place to put it. They claimed they had a house for every fic, but there wasn't one for little sweet 'bedtime' stories. It doesn't seem like anybody else ever felt that lack, but still the story has gotten only positive reactions. Do we all need a little more simple fuzzy sweetness out there perhaps?
fanes – Hi there! ... Also im Dialekt bin ich leider nicht gut. Allerdings kann ich dich prima verstehen (was mir mit den geographisch viel näheren Wienern absolut nicht gelingen will. Bin nämlich Niederösterreicherin. Also viele Grüße an's schöne Tirol!
Iremione – Oh wow! This will take a while to answer! ... No, they didn't forget, but they got used to calling him Mr. Snape and he did change a lot after leaving his original parents, so yes, they do judge Draco Snape differently than Draco Malfoy. ... Oh, the owl is quite correct about that. She just has her own owl terminology. ... And Sevi felt challenged. ... I wouldn't say 'exclusive'. That would imply that no other can use the wand at all. I think the wand is tuned to certain talents and responds better to a which or wizard the more closely his/her own talents correspond to its. And then there's the strength of power required to control the wand. (For example, I think that Sevi's wand contains a healer potential that Sevi never followed up with the required training. Due to that Poppy should be able to use Sevi's wand for healing spells, but she wouldn't be able to contain its power and could seriously burn her fingers in the process.) ... The Gryffindors are much more naive than the Slytherins when they start Hogwarts and tend to remain so until after they finish school. The shock will come, but much later. (Albus isn't naive, is he?) ... Well, at least it was only the Lions and not the Sharks! Minerva has no idea how lucky she was. ... Draco did see the filth, but not as clearly and I didn't describe it that much back then. Minerva looked at it a bit more closely, while Draco had a lot of other things on his mind as well. ... But Cathy wasn't Draco's first love (and they did date other people for a time while he was at university). Remember that scene when Sarah asks him about his former girlfriends? ... At the time Albus made him a teacher Sevi was freshly out of Azkaban and barely able to handle life at all. (Zebee wrote about it, if you want to know what exactly he felt.) Albus would have given him more time to rest, maybe only started him the next year, but then the ministry would have sent him back to Azkaban. He had no choice, but Sarah doesn't see the entire picture. She thinks Albus is powerful enough that he could have prevented Sevi going to Azkabanm in the first place if he'd really wanted to. ... I don't know about your version, but my Sarah is not a halfbreed. She's just a witch from a very poor family. Many of her friends would have been murdered, yes, but again she does not see the entire picture. To her the ministry sends the Aurors who raid homes of decent people and the Aurors have been 'the enemy' all her life. So Voldemort would send Death Eaters to raid homes? What's the difference? And why does Sevi of all people have to sacrifice himself to fight them? Let the Aurors do it. It's their job and then they'll have to leave the decent people alone. Let the ministry and its rich clientele fight their war. The common folk of Merlin Park should be left in peace to live their lives. ... No, though Harry did date both Ginny and Hermione at some time during his youth he finally married a witch that went to Beauxbattons. He met her at work as an adult. Ginny and Hermione are both still free, I think, Hermione not even dating as she's too busy with her work at the moment. Ginny has recently met a Muggle born wizard she likes, but she doesn't know him well enough to consider calling him her boyfriend, yet. Hermione will probably catch the interest of a fellow intellectual that she can discuss her work with sometime. Whether she likes him back will be her decision then. ... One raven went to Draco, the other to headmaster Donalds. ... Good Potions teachers are much harder to find than DADA teachers and poor Remus is still a werewolf and too afraid of accidentally hurting a student. ... Officially Billy is in Hogwarts, but he can still see his old friends and will get proper Muggle Studies teaching. ... Draco wore his cap at Hogwarts occasionally, but not during class hours as he did at West Hogsmeade. ... Billy doesn't remember how hard it was for Draco to adapt to being poor. He only sees his cool big brother that he looks up to. The big age difference makes it hard for him to see that Draco too isn't always in control of the situation. ... That first class assignment means very little at West Hogsmeade and everybody knows it. The children are simply split into four groups of equal size according to grades and alphabet. At the beginning the classes all move at about the same speed as different primary school teachers will grade differently. It's only after the first big tests that the classes move apart and at that time the students get shuffled around a lot until the proper class for each of them is found. ... Cesareus is Tonk's nephew, her older brother's son. ... Hey, I happen to like the name Rupert despite the connection with Ron and whatever gave you the idea he was going to be Billy's best friend? He isn't! I named Billy's best friend Aterus, from ater the Latin word for black. ... The baby did live past that one illness at her first Chrismas, but she was a very sickly child and never had much of a chance. She died somewhere around the age of two. ... No, Rupert is not going to be the leader either. ... Colleen actually is an intelligent girl. She just hasn't been exposed to anything other than prejudiced purebloods until now. Now it's up to whether she can overcome her outcast status or not whether she has a chance to find a better set of values. ... Dinah is a typical Huffleslyth. Most people tend to show Ravenslyths in their fics, but I think Dinah's type isn't that rare either and deserves a little more attention. ... Harry never saw the Slytherins that closely. Colleen is the type he sees as typical Slytherin, by the way, but he never did understand what was going on inside these children. Few Gryffindors ever learn to do that. ... I think they'll just assign detentions, but they could deduct point of West Hogsmeade as a whole ... Have you ever tried to make up 40 preferably British names in under an hour? I just ran out of ideas for a moment there and thought: Why not add a child from a different country? I have a lot of very loyal Spanish speaking readers, so I'll give them a little wave. A Spanish wizard's pretty original, too. Now what nice sounding Spanish first names do I know? Jose! Ah, but that's what everybody calls their Spanish characters. There has to be something less overused. Of course, Jorge's a pretty, very Spanish name! Yes, I like the sound of that name, so why not? ... All the children starting Hogwarts now would have been two when Ron was 15, so he would have been 13 when they were born. I do think we would have heard if Ron had knocked up a poor girl at age 12! Thuth it had to be either a cousin or one of his older brothers. Bill seemed the best choice as there would have been nothing wrong with his having a family in Harry's third year.
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- A/N: Why do you think Jorge is attending Hogwarts? And what do you think of Anny? And Pank's attitude towards his classmates? Any wishes who I should do next?
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In the next chapter: Well, I really hope we'll finally get to finish the first day of school. That means we see the new DADA teacher in action and of course two more first years!
