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 – Yes, I'm late again, but I had to visit family in upper Austria last week and it turned out to be a little hard to finish and post the chapter without a computer.
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Chapter 7: Pepper Soup and Spaghetti
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Gangolf stared at Billy's levitating match in fascination. Could one do the same with hair curlers, perhaps? That would be so very practical! If he didn't have to hold his curlers with his hands he could place them much more precisely, because he wouldn't have to twist around all the time. All he needed was a set of self twisting curlers just like his mother had and he'd have the nicest curls ever.
"Mr. Bartering!" McGonagall's voice drew him from his daydream. "Did you change your match, yet?"
Gangolf turned away from Billy's once again rising match and looked at his match. How very useless!
"Why would I ever need to turn a match into a pin?" he mumbled.
"Well, maybe you'd want to pin a picture of yourself to the wall, but don't have any pins with you." Pank suggested.
Yes, pinning up pictures was an activity that made sense and required pins. "But why would I be carrying a match with me?"
"To light candles." Anny suggested.
"To light your pipe." Aterus said.
"I've got my wand for that and smoking is bad for your looks. It makes you sick and you age faster." Gangolf declared. "I'll never smoke."
"But you still might want to light a candle when there are Muggles around." McGonagall interfered. "Or maybe you found the match on the table when you arrived. That often happens at Muggle hotels. Now please, at least try to change your match."
"You could try changing it into a hairpin." Danny said with a slight sneer. "Maybe that's easier for you."
Yes indeed, a hairpin was much better than an ordinary pin. Gangolf concentrated on what a hairpin looked like for about two seconds, then focused all his attention on the match and pictured it turning into the hairpin.
For a few minutes nothing happened, but then there was a slight 'plop' and the head disappeared. Gangolf beamed and concentrated harder. Slowly the wood turned thinner and into metal. Still not a hairpin, but the teacher seemed to be happy. She even awarded him five points for showing so much talent for Transfigurations.
Gangolf preened. Yes, of course he was the best! He should have expected this. After all he was the best looking, most gifted boy in all of Hogwarts.
"Great going, Gangolf!" Billy slapped him hard on the back and then the rest of the boys fell on him as well.
What a horde of brutes! His shoulder actually hurt for several seconds and his hair was probably all mussed up!
Gangolf hastened to the next bathroom before anyone could see him like that. Just lucky that he always carried a comb with him for emergencies.
The first bathroom turned out to be a girls' bathroom! Gangolf blushed and quickly closed the door again.
There had to be a boys' bathroom somewhere close, though. Bathrooms always came in pairs, didn't they? Ah, there it was.
Its mirror was filthy, though. Someone had apparently splashed water on it when washing his hands and not dried it off properly. Barbarians!
Gangolf wetted a towel and started to meticulously clean the mirror. He had to climb onto the sink to reach the top, but that couldn't be helped. He just couldn't leave a half cleaned mirror behind.
Yuck, there was dust on top of the mirror! Unfortunately Gangolf didn't have a feather duster handy and he couldn't use his freshly platted handkerchief to clean away such filth.
The door opened and an older boy walked in. Gangolf didn't pay him any attention as he was much too busy rubbing the mirror dry with another towel.
"What in the name of Merlin are you doing up there?" the boy had stopped to stare at Gangolf.
"Isn't that obvious?" Gangolf asked without stopping his delicate work. If the mirror dried before he was finished it would be dotted with water stains wherever he hadn't dried it yet. "I'm cleaning the mirror."
"There are house elves for that." another voice sneered. Apparently the older boy had brought company.
"But I need to use the mirror now." Gangolf explained patiently. "I need to straighten out my hair."
Some snorting and laughing behind them, then: "The girls' bathroom is that way."
Gangolf didn't bother to look. "Boys can't go in there."
"Yes, but you're obviously not a boy." the sneering voice continued.
"And this bathroom is for boys only." the other one said.
"Then we'll obviously have to kick the little sissy out. It's our duty in order to protect the rightful users of this bathroom."
"Huh?" was all Gangolf got out before two pairs of strong arms plucked him off he sink.
He struggled and tried to kick, but somehow he never managed to hit his attackers right. They only laughed and dragged him along until they finally dropped him into the bin outside. It took him over a minute to pull himself out under the laughter of all the witnesses.
Gangolf glared at them, but they only laughed harder. Most of them were Gryffindors, he realised and quite a bit taller than him. And he probably looked even worse than before he'd gone to the bathroom to straighten out his hair.
"Don't you have a class to be in?" a teacher Gangolf hadn't seen before suddenly turned around a corner and the older students quickly disappeared in the direction of the Transfigurations classroom leaving only Gangolf and the messed up dustbin.
The teacher looked him up and down, then demanded: "What happened here?"
"I was just going to use the mirror in the bathroom, but it was dirty. I started to clean it, but then two older boys came in. They picked me up and threw me in there." Gangolf regarded the items that had fallen out in his struggle with the bin. "I was going to pick it up, I swear, but I was stuck in there and couldn't get out without making a mess. I only just managed."
"Who were those two boys?" the teacher demanded sternly.
Gangolf shrugged. "I don't know. I've never seen them before. It's only my first day. How should I know all those people?"
In fact he'd never even gotten a clear look at their faces.
"What's your next class?" the teacher asked more gently.
"Seventh lesson DADA." Gangolf sniffled a little against his will. "I've got time."
The teacher nodded. "Alright then. Clean it up and next time someone bothers you, tell a teacher or prefect."
Gangolf suppressed another sniffle and nodded. "Thank you, Sir."
It took only moments to clean up once he was alone. The worst part was actually having to touch things other people had thrown away and he was already covered in them anyway.
He wished he could repair the slightly bent out of shape bin as well, but he didn't know that spell, yet. Hopefully a house elf would see to it.
The corridor was empty now that class had started again, but Gangolf still felt horribly afraid that someone would see him like this as he snuck down the next smaller staircase and went to look for an out of the way bathroom where he didn't run such a big risk of meeting anybody.
The one he finally found was small and dirty. Obviously it hadn't been renovated recently. Still it was just what Gangolf had been looking for. He decided to remember its location in case he should need it again.
By the time he'd finished straightening himself out it was almost time to go to class and he realised with a jolt of fear that he didn't know where his classmates were. Why, oh why had he just walked out without telling them he needed to visit the bathroom? They'd probably have waited, if he'd asked them to.
Could he find his way back into the dungeons on his own?
It turned out he didn't have to. He reached the ground floor at almost the same time as a large group of older students and simply followed the Slytherins among them to the common room.
"There you are!" Pank was beside himself with worry. "Where were you?"
"I just went to the bathroom to freshen up a bit." Gangolf didn't feel like telling the group about his embarrassing adventure. "When I got out you'd left and I didn't know where you'd gone so I thought I'd just meet you back here before class."
The boys tried to tell him some nonsense about the library. Gangolf wished there were enough time to change into fresh robes, but all he could do, if he didn't want to get lost again, was grab his DADA book and follow the crowd.
The DADA teacher turned out to be an incredibly fat wizard who was dozing in his chair when they arrived. They apparently shared this class with the same group of students as Potions. Gangolf didn't remember what house that was, nor did he care. His neighbour from Potions refused to sit next to him again claiming that he was unbearably annoying.
Gangolf pressed his lips tightly together and pretended not to have heard him.
There was a parchment going around that every student was to write his name on. It seemed he'd ended up next to one Salvatore Donelly. Hadn't Professor Snape made some funny remark about that one in Potions? Gangolf didn't remember, but it didn't matter anyway.
He got out his ink, parchment and flamingo feather quill not forgetting to check whether the parchment was indeed nice and unwrinkled from the bag. He used a specially enspelled protective case for them, but you never could be too careful.
Salvatore blinked at the sight of the long pink quill.
"Isn't that a little girlish?" he asked.
Gangolf frowned at him. Salvatore's robe was wrinkled and he had an odd accent.
"I think it's pretty." he declared. "I like pink."
"Girly." Salvatore insisted.
When the last student put the list back on his desk the ugly teacher stretched a little and opened his eyes. "Hello class. Everybody here?"
They nodded expectantly.
"Fine. Then lets start. I'm Professor Hermes Hugge. Please open your books on page one."
Gangolf obediently opened his book. There stood the title and nothing else.
"Sir, that's the title page." that girl form Potions reported right away. The one that had lost so many points. Gangolf didn't remember her name either.
"Then move on to the first page." Hermes Hugge ordered. "You, start reading." He pointed at the girl by the window in the first row. Another one whose name Gangolf didn't remember.
"Introduction." she started reading. "The dark arts are hard to define subject matter. Most wizards think the term refers to spells and other magic used deliberately to harm others. This, though to an extent correct, is however a very unclear definition. Is it then dark arts to use Avada Kedavra to put a suffering animal out of its misery? Does a dark creature that doesn't have the intelligence to understand the difference between good and evil truly have harmful intent against its prey? ..."
How boring! Gangolf spelled the surface of his desk into a mirror. When the Professor didn't move to object he got out his comb and started arranging his hair. He could still listen while combing himself and that way it was a lot less boring.
"... This book does not intend to give a scholarly definition of what is to be considered dark and what isn't. Instead it is an attempt to help the average wizard and witch to protect themselves against all the dangers of the wizarding world, be they truly dark or not."
When the girl stopped reading Professor Hugge's eyes opened once again. He pointed at her neighbour: "Continue."
"Chapter one: Playful Little Traps, an introduction into trick steps, trap doors and other jokes our homes play on us. Throughout wizarding history it has been the custom ..."
"This is boring." Salvatore commented. "Say, Gangolf, what's your favourite Quidditch team?"
"Huh? ... Oh, I don't care about Quidditch. It causes such nasty scars."
"Gee, now I understand why nobody wants to sit next to you." Salvatore decided. "You really are dead boring."
So was DADA class. Gangolf wondered what his classmates had all been so excited for. At least it was the last class of the day. He really needed his beauty sleep so he didn't develop black rings under his eyes.
Dinner was probably going to contain way too much fat and sugar again, but if he remembered to stick to only salad and perhaps half an apple for dessert, he should be okay. And afterwards straight to bed to catch up on the sleep he'd lost because of the late end of the welcoming feast.
The others looked at him oddly when he went straight to bed after the meal and requested silence.
"Don't you want to play exploding snap with us?" Rupert asked.
"There are chess sets in the common room." Aterus added. "Or we could sing something."
"Yes, one of the prefects has a guitar. Dad says she always plays in the evenings." Billy confirmed.
"Or we could compare our Latin homework." Pank suggested. "Even if it was easy one of us might have an error."
"I need to sleep." Gangolf insisted. "I didn't even get my midday nap."
"Midday nap?" Billy repeated incredulously. "Those are for babies. Just how old are you?"
"Old enough to understand the importance of sleep for my looks." Gangolf declared almost as haughtily as Colleen.
"Your looks, your looks!" Billy yelled. "Is that all you ever talk about? Don't you have any other hobbies? You are seriously beginning to get on my nerves!"
Pank quickly grabbed him by the arm. "Calm down, Billy. Gangolf's just grumpy because he's obviously tired. We should really let him sleep. Lets go down to the common room and play. Rupert bring the cards. They're on my bedside table."
Gangolf pulled the blanket over his head until they were finally all gone. Stupid Billy. He could have lost a tooth, if the boy had hit him! Why did he have to share a dorm with such an aggressive lout?
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Their first class on Wednesday morning was History of Magic with the Gryffindors. Dinah felt disappointed when she found out. She'd hoped for Hufflepuff where she already had friends, that she wanted to introduce to Anny, or Ravenclaw.
The Ravenclaws had seemed really nice, at least. From what she'd seen of them so far, she thought she and Anny could make great friends with Arnika and Shannon. The Gryffindors however were a much too unfriendly and boisterous group. Hadn't anyone ever told them to be nice to strangers?
Laura Warthay sneered at Dinah as she walked past her on her way in.
"Stupid wart face." Dinah growled under her breath, but Anny heard her anyway.
"It's not her fault what she looks like." she reminded her friend.
"No, but it is her fault that she isn't even trying to be polite." Dinah returned. "I'm really beginning to hate Gryffindors. Everybody keeps saying how perfect they are and that Harry Potter was a Gryffindor, and how Slytherins are so mean, but they're the ones that started sneering at us and all the Slytherins have been really friendly so far."
"Except for Colleen." Anny reminded her.
"Yes, she'd really fit in with the Gryffindors." Dinah grinned.
"I wonder what they'd do, if she went around telling them that they're icky." Anny giggled.
Professor Binns walked in through the wall only seconds later. He unfolded a piece of parchment and read out: "Corny, Wanda?"
"That's Carmey, Wendy." Wendy corrected.
"Nonsense." Professor Binns declared blinking closely at the parchment. "It clearly states Corny. Fouler, Charly."
"Oh great," Danny giggled. "A short sighted ghost!"
Dinah burst out laughing along with the rest of the class even though a small voice that sounded suspiciously like her grandmother was mumbling something about it not being nice to laugh about people who needed glasses.
"Halber, Alletta?" Binns continued. "Kay, Donald? Potter-Handers, Sonja- Mariah ..."
"Um ... Professor, could it be that you have the wrong list?" Sophie- Marleen asked. "I'm unfortunately not related to Harry Potter in any way."
"Nonsense." Binns insisted. "This is the list Professor McGonagall gave me. She wouldn't make a mistake like that. Now quit stalling. Qualling Timothy? Souder Olivia?"
"That's Sanger, Oliver, Professor." Oliver Sanger protested. "Trust me, I'd know, if I were a girl."
"The list says your name is Olivia and the list is never wrong. Maybe your parents made a mistake in your birth certificate." Binns graciously allowed. "Tants Colinus? Walley Eileen?"
"Well, at least for Warthay it's a compliment." Colleen sneered.
Several Gryffindors jumped up in outrage.
"Please children, sit back down. We aren't done, yet." Binns said mildly. "Xavier, Barthemia?"
The Gryffindors blinked at him in disbelief and apparently forgot their anger in their surprise. One by one they sat back down while Binns continued inventing his students list.
"Aitebertt, Patricius?"
Pank just sighed and raised his hand. "Whatever."
"Boulers, Christoph?"
"That's Gangolf, Sir, not Christoph." Gangolf almost pleaded. This was the first time Binns hadn't even gotten the first letter right.
"It clearly says Christoph on my list." Binns insisted. "Larder, Dorah?"
"Here." Dinah confirmed agreeably. It was probably the best strategy to humour ones teachers and if Binns ever sent a letter of complaint home to the parents of Dorah Larder, that was no concern of Dinah Laxter's, right?
Most of her classmates followed her and Pank's example and accepted whatever Binns named them.
With one noteworthy exception:
"Naketer Cordelia?" yelled back at Binns for almost five minutes and only stopped when she realised that the teacher was simply ignoring her and continuing to read out his list.
History of Magic, Dinah soon realised, was the most boring subject ever. The Gryffindors soon took to blowing spit balls at the Slytherins, though, and the resulting exchange of projectiles and insults served to keep the class awake. Gryffindors really were scum, Dinah decided. The little voice in her head that tried to remind her that Danny and Tullia sticking their tongues out at Laura and Sophie-Marleen might have had something to do with it was so weak that she easily ignored it.
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A seventh year prefect led them out to the glasshouses for Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. Dinah beamed when she saw that they were early enough to give them a little time to talk to the Hufflepuffs before class.
"Hi Hermy, Corinna!" she called out to the two girls she'd known almost her entire life. "How are you doing? How's life in Hufflepuff?"
"Oh, it's absolutely fabulous!" Hermelindis Berring answered. "Our common room is so cool. There's an art corner and a needleworks corner and ..."
"What's wrong with you, though?" Corinna Zander demanded in a much more serious tone.
"Yeah, Dinah, Slytherin?" Nigel Rouen added. "How could you?"
"It's not Dinah's fault." Hermy defended her.
"Yes, the hat might have made a mistake." Carmelitta Weasley agreed. Maybe the poor girl would have preferred Gryffindor after all?
"I don't think so. It said I had a better chance to realise my potential in Slytherin." Dinah said. "I guess it meant that I have the talent to be cunning, if I try."
"But the Slytherins are all so mean and scary." Corinna looked around nervously. "How will you get by all alone in the snakes' nest?"
"Alone? Scary? What are you talking about? Slytherin is wonderful. Only Nocturne's a little bitch. Here, meet my friend Anny. She's really cool."
Cam Weasley looked doubtful. "She's a Slytherin. Probably some pureblood fanatic."
"Are you Hufflepuffs or prejudiced Gryffindors?" Dinah demanded angrily. "She's Muggle born and Tullia's part mermaid for crying out loud. I thought you were raised to know better than to judge people by the house they're in." She glared at her old friends.
Cam blushed. "Uh ... well, I ... I was raised by Gryffindors, you know. I didn't mean to offend anyone."
"Well, next time think before you say things that might hurt someone." Dinah blushed as well when she realised how much she sounded like her mother.
"Sorry," Cam said again, then held out her hand to Anny. "Friends?"
Anny accepted the hand after only a second of hesitation. "Friends."
"Ah excellent, I see you're already getting acquainted." a woman Dinah assumed had to be Professor Sprout smiled at them. "In order to give you a chance to get to know each other better I want you to work in groups of four today."
Dinah immediately stepped closer to Anny, Danny and Tullia.
"Oh, no no no. Not that way." Professor Sprout laughed. "I want each group to consist of one girl and boy from each house."
For a moment everybody stood staring at each other, then the Hufflepuffs reacted. Mel Eagle and Jonathan Yeel were the first two that stepped forward.
"Hi, do you want to work with us?" Mel asked Tullia probably picking her at random.
"Sure." Tullia smiled a little uncertainly, but Pank pushed Rupert forward towards the group.
After one last longing look at Anny, Dinah walked over to Hermy who had already paired up with Jorge, the Spanish boy. The poor kid looked a little confused at being separated from Jonathan.
She heard Anny introduce Billy and Cam to each other and Cam in turn say that their fourth was called Jean-Louis. If she didn't want to be settled with Mirrorboy, Dinah had to act fast.
"Hey Aterus!" she called out. "Want to work with us?"
Aterus beamed. He seemed a little shy, or at least unsure how to talk to people sometimes and was probably glad of the help. Pank certainly knew how to fend for himself.
Indeed the next time she looked up she saw Pank and Danny talking to her old friend Nigel and Laurissa. Poor Corinna and a boy whose name Dinah didn't remember had been left to deal with both Colleen and Gangolf. That wasn't likely to improve Corinna's opinion of Slytherins, but it couldn't be helped. Somebody had to work with them.
"Jorge's father works for the Spanish ministry of magic." Hermy told them while they potted a sleeping forget-me-not. "He's been sent here as some sort of envoy, or something like that and brought his entire family."
"Two sister." Jorge nodded eagerly.
"He means he has two younger siblings." Hermy translated. "He showed us a picture. One sister. One brother." The last she enunciated very clearly at Jorge.
Jorge nodded again. "Juanita et Alfredo. Little." He demonstrated the size of his siblings with his hand. "Two sister little."
"No Jorge, it's: One little sister and one little brother." Hermy corrected.
"What brother?" Jorge asked.
"Alfredo." Dinah tried to explain. "Alfredo brother. Juanita sister."
"No, Alfredo et Juanita sister." Jorge insisted.
"Oh dear," Aterus sighed. "I think he mistook sister to mean sibling."
"Aterus sister?" Jorge asked. He definitely fit well into Hufflepuff already trying to socialise when he couldn't even say a single sentence, yet.
"No, no sister, no brother." Aterus answered. "I'm an only child."
"No sister?" Jorge looked a little sad, then patted Aterus on the shoulder. "Friend. Jorge Aterus friend."
Yes, Dinah definitely liked Jorge.
"Did you have to leave all your friends in Spain?" she asked.
Jorge looked at her quizzically.
"Your friends in Espania?" Hermy simplified the questions.
Jorge nodded. "Many friend." Then he mimicked writing and fluttered with his arms attempting to make hooting noises.
"Owl." Dinah translated fluttering as well. "You're going to owl your friends."
"Jorge owl friends in Espania." Hermy explained.
"Si, Jorge owl friend." Jorge beamed at his accomplishment of learning another word.
"Gee, at this rate he'll graduate before he learns proper English." Colleen sneered at them as she walked by holding an empty watering can between two fingers. "At least make him talk in real sentences."
"Water bad?" Jorge asked innocently.
"No, the water's just fine." Dinah assured him. "Colleen's just an idiot."
Jorge looked questioningly to Hermy.
"Colleen arrogant." Hermy promptly translated pointing at Colleen, then sticking her nose arrogantly in the air pretending to look down at the rest of the group.
Jorge looked at Colleen thoughtfully. "Arrogant." he repeated. "Colleen arrogant. Colleen no friend?"
"No, Colleen doesn't have any friends." Aterus confirmed. "Nobody likes her."
"Maybe Jorge Colleen friend, Colleen no arrogant?" Jorge wondered.
Dinah shook her head decisively. "Colleen bad. Death eater."
"Death eater." Hermy repeated drawing a little circle on her forearm with her finger. "Voldemort." she whispered.
Jorge paled and nodded. "Jorge no like Colleen."
They went back to work, but Dinah noted that Hermy kept shooting covert glances at Colleen.
"Are you sure about her?" she asked after a while. "I mean, she was only a child when the war ended. She probably can't even remember him."
"The Nocturnes just barely got away back then." Dinah whispered back. "And you should hear the way she talks. Trust me, Colleen is bad news. She can't get along with anyone."
"She hasn't actually hurt anyone, though." Aterus reminded her.
"She tried to hex Danny." Dinah shot back. "She'd have hurt her, if the spell had worked."
Aterus lowered his eyes and continued to work in silence. He never said much, Dinah noticed. She wondered whether that had anything to do with his not having had contact with other children before. Such a life must be horrible, she thought. Children needed other children her mother had always told her, even if they didn't always get along.
Despite the nice company Herbology was rather boring, though. Dinah didn't understand why it had been her mother's favourite subject. So far she certainly preferred Potions and Charms. At least there she got to do some real magic.
"What's next?" Tullia asked as they left the glasshouse.
"Lunch." Pank answered right away. "And afterwards we could go to the library again and do homework."
"We've got all day for that." Danny returned with a frown. "We should do something fun instead."
"We could come back out here and explore the grounds." Dinah suggested. "I bet there are wonderful places to play around here."
"Yes, I'd really like to meet the merpeople in the lake." Tullia agreed.
"You're not planning to go swimming in this weather, are you?" Rupert shuddered.
The weather wasn't actually bad, but the wind was a little chilly. It was already September after all.
"Of course not." Tullia confirmed. "I'll just stick my head in."
"Into the cold lake?" Dinah asked in disbelief. "What would your mother say?"
Tullia shrugged. "Nothing. Why would she say anything?"
"Because you're going to catch cold, if you run around with wet hair in autumn." Dinah informed her.
"Nonsense." Tullia shook her head. "Back at home Dad and I talk to the merpeople all year round and I never get sick."
"You stick your heads into the lake in the middle of winter?" Anny gasped.
"Of course you have to cut a hole into the ice first." Tullia explained. "And then you need an anti freezing charm for the way back or your hair turns into icicles. Dad says they take your hair with them when they break off."
Dinah suddenly felt very cold and quickened her pace towards the huge doors. A nice warm meal would be just the thing right now.
Soon they arrived in the crowded hall and sat down in their usual seats.
"What did the house elves do to the soup today?" Dinah heard a second year complain. "Throw in a whole pack of pepper?"
Dinah regarded her soup a little doubtfully. A lot of people at the Slytherin table had pushed theirs aside. None of the other houses seemed to have any complaints about it, though.
"It's probably another Gryffindor prank." another second year commented.
The first years exchanged a look and unanimously decided to bypass the soup and go straight for the main course.
"It's noodles!" Colleen shouted loud enough to draw stares despite the noise level caused by over a hundred students chatting over their meals. "Common, stupid noodles with some weird sauce. There isn't even any meat in it!"
"It's called spaghetti and the sauce looks like it's cheese." Billy stated rather unimpressed.
"Yep," confirmed Anny who'd already tried a bite. "Spaghetti in cheese sauce. Delicious."
"And that's supposed to be edible?" Colleen sneered.
"Of course it's edible." Danny snorted. "You just have to roll them around your fork like this and then you put them in your mouth, chew and swallow."
"It's Italian." Gangolf tried to be helpful. "You know, foreign food?"
"It looks hopelessly common." Colleen declared haughtily. "I'd much prefer something French."
"I'd give you a French kiss, but you're not my type." one of the second year girls glared at her. "Now either eat or starve, but shut up. I'd like to enjoy my meal."
"Why you rude ..." Colleen started fumbling for her wand.
"Ms Nocturne!" Professor Snape had once again appeared out of nowhere. Hadn't he been sitting at the staff table last time Dinah had looked up? "Please refrain from cursing your housemates or I will have to give you another detention. Is there something wrong with your soup?"
"The Gryffindors put something in it." the second year reported right away. "Tastes like pepper."
"Did you see them do it, Claire?" Snape asked calmly.
"No, but it must have been them." Claire insisted.
"Must have won't suffice for the headmaster." Snape answered. "We'll get back at them in the Quidditch game. Just leave the soup. The rest of the food is fine, I trust?"
"Delicious." Danny confirmed.
"Icky." Colleen insisted.
Snape raised an eyebrow at her.
"It's common. Not even any meat in it."
"Then eat your salad and pudding." Snape declared. "It's no reason to curse people."
Colleen glared after him as he left. "They are not feeding us properly." she complained softly enough to be sure that he couldn't hear her.
"To be honest, Colleen, I think the problem is that you're too picky." Dinah confided. "You haven't even tried your spaghetti. Maybe if you do, you'll find that they aren't all that bad after all. Look, everybody else loves them."
"They're for common Mudbloods and Hufflepuffs like you." Colleen declared. "I'm used to higher standards. And who gave you permission to call me Colleen anyway? It's Ms Nocturne to rabble like you."
Dinah closed her eyes and silently counted to ten. One should not hit or curse ones classmates.
"You know something?" she hissed out between clenched teeth once she felt she had herself sufficiently under control. "You're just not worth the effort. Why don't you just leave and go back where you came from? Nobody here likes you anyway."
"You just don't know how to appreciate class." Colleen returned coolly.
"In that case the entire school doesn't." Danny stated. "Get lost, Nocturne. You just don't fit in."
"But first give me back my hair band." Anny suddenly spoke up to Dinah's surprise. "It's a Muggle item anyway so I don't see why you're wearing it in the first place."
"You lent her your hair band?" Dinah asked incredulously.
"No, she stole it. I just didn't want to make a big fuss over it, because it isn't really worth much. It's part of a pair, though, so I'd really like it back." Anny stated and went back to eating her spaghetti.
The other girls all glared at Colleen who took refuge in picking at her salad.
"Well, I for one like the spaghetti." Aterus said into the sudden silence. "They may be difficult to eat, but they're very tasty."
"You mean you've never had spaghetti before either?" Billy asked incredulously.
Aterus had stuffed a forkful of the noodles into his mouth after his comment so he just shook his head while continuing to chew.
It certainly looked like it was true, Dinah thought. Aterus was fighting quite a battle with his noodles always either accidentally dropping them from the fork on the way to his mouth or picking up too many at once and having problems stuffing them in.
"Don't wizards eat spaghetti normally?" Anny asked.
"My Mum makes them with tomato sauce at least once a month, but we have a lot of Muggle friends." Dinah admitted. "Maybe she learned the recipe from one of them."
"We eat them at home as well, but we live very much like Muggles." Billy explained. "There are a lot of squibs in our neighbourhood and everyone in my family went to Muggle university. Dad could have learned the recipe anywhere."
"Professor Snape?" Gangolf stared at him open mouthed. "He cooks?"
"We all do." Billy confirmed. "It's not that different from brewing. Dad is the one who makes spaghetti the most often, though. Usually with vegetables."
"Our oldest house elf makes them with little meat balls." Pank added. "She came from Italy with my great grandmother, though, so it's not surprising she'd cook Italian food."
"You're lucky, then. Italian food's the best." Rupert commented. "We usually only have it when we go out for dinner or Mum doesn't have time to cook and calls the Muggle pizza delivery."
"My Mum makes them with fish and water plants." Tullia reported. "But then my Mum makes almost everything with fish."
"I had no idea there are that many ways to make spaghetti." Dinah said. "That's enough variations to have them for lunch every day in a week without getting bored."
Colleen shuddered and turned away from the conversation, but Dinah and the others hardly noticed. They were much too busy eating and discussing the different spaghetti recipes.
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Ezmerelda – Yes, that's the end. This is the sequel. ... The soccer really wasn't that important. I just needed a hobby for the Rakers and it was something a bunch of poor British kids is likely to play. ... Ah, but you saw him at Hogwarts before his suspension. He wasn't really that different afterwards. (Only the teachers did feel a little different about teaching Draco Snape.) I just couldn't continue the story into infinity. There's too much else I need to write (just ask Greenie).
ERMonkey, Queen of Insanity – I'm trying to, I'm trying to. Unfortunately I have to write the chapters before I can post them, though. (Wouldn't it be nice, if chapters wrote themselves telepathically? I could sit in some boring meeting listening to people drone on about some boring project or other, while upstairs in my office my computer would be typing away happily ...)
Colibi – Well, you try to explain that to Colleen. (The taste is not her point. It's simply too common and a Nocturne definitely doesn't eat leftovers.) ... Billy is getting weird results when trying to transfigure something. Snapes just do that.
holly – Colleen doesn't really mind being led in particular. She simply minds everything.
jasara – Pank hasn't quite figured out that he's a student, not a teacher, I guess. He feels responsible for the entire group. (He'll probably make a good prefect in a few years.)
Pam Briggs – Why would they have the same time table as Harry's year had? Slytherin/Ravenclaw is Sevi's favourite combination, by the way. Gryffindor/Slytherin is the most explosive and Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff is often difficult to teach, because Hufflepuff tends to have a few weaker students every year while Ravenclaw usually has the brightest. Sevi can either bore most of the Ravenclaws, or leave his weakest student hopelessly behind.
b7-kerravon – Thanks! Not everybody liked that epilogue, but I just couldn't leave it out.
lkj – Thanks!
Romulus – Billy will cause several different unexpected effects in Transfigurations, but I think colour changes will not be among them. He has a tendency towards kinetic magic.
Midnight Tiger – Don't worry, Anny will be okay in a little while. She's already figured out the pictures and won't be surprised by them again and she knows she can ask Dinah whenever she doesn't understand something. It just takes some time to get used to it all. ... Why? Is there something wrong with daydreaming? Does that mean I have to give it up?! ... Nice ideas about Jorge, but as you just saw, the answer is just a wizard who couldn't bare the thought of his family being so far away. The Spanish schools would never refuse to take any magical child any more than West Hogsmeade would.
Immortal Fire – Oh, there are several possibilities what might be wrong. I tried to make it a challenge on ff.net, but nobody answered it and I just don't have the time to dig into it (and can't decide for one of the possibilities). Thus I left it as it is, just a glimpse of a moment without a past or future. It's up to the readers to make up their minds.
Lizard Pie – I've never written slash (though I've got nothing against a good slashfic). I'm just no good at romance of any kind. I love stories about friendship, though, and that's what I set out to write there.
Emily M. Hanson – Believe me, one can never have too many reviews (unless they're flames). I love and treasure every one of them and it's wonderful to see that people still read the very first fic I ever posted!
Iremione – Yes, but luckily the shops offer them already dead, for those of us who have problems with plant murder. ... Hufflepuff lead their first years around out of kindness and because they think it's a wonderful chance to get to know them and make new friends. The Ravenclaws tend to forget to do it, but their first years realise that it is the most logical thing to do to stick together in a group and ask people to help them. The Slytherins lead their first years to class, because it would be embarrassing, if they were seen stumbling helplessly through the castle and Slytherin might lose points for them being late. It's a matter of the proper image. The Gryffindors simply never thought that far. They're too busy with themselves to think about what their first years might need. They don't mean to be unkind, of course, they're just not thinking. And anyway, one of those first years might be a valuable connection someday. ... I haven't gotten around to reading Roman Holiday, yet, but have you read Hearts and Hourgasses? I just loved that interpretation of Sal and of course there's the background JLM gave him. That just got me thinking and I decided not to portray him as a monster. ... And yes, history is written by the winners. I already learned that in school and it's quite logical. You can see it in politics all the time. ... Pank is the leader. Rupert is his faithful follower and assistant. We don't have an actual prankster in this group. (I bet Gryffindor has one or two to make up for it and there are always the other years.) ... I thought Ravenclaw was the best place to have the know- it-all. They just belong there. ... No, like his father he'll be fine in Charms. It's just Transfigurations. ... In the long run, yes, but that's from Sevi's perspective. Sarah doesn't really understand Voldemort. She's never met him and sees politics as something like a natural disaster: It kills innocent people, but there's nothing she can do to stop it as it's cause by powers far beyond her control or even influence. ... Sarah is right as far as the fact that Sevi wasn't mentally up to it at the time and Albus should have given him a break to let him recover from Azkaban before making him teach and spy. However Albus didn't have that chance. He only managed to get Sevi out of Azkaban by telling the ministry that he desperately needed a Potions teacher and Sevi was the only one available. They'd have locked him right back in, if he hadn't started teaching right away. ... Sarah was an old friend, Sevi's lab partner at Muggle university. It seemed to him that she just wanted to talk and catch up on old times at first, but Sarah soon noticed how badly hurt he was and how much he needed help. She's also too much Hufflepuff not to feel when somebody is not ready to openly accept help, so she snuck up on him gently. It's definitely worth reading. Zebee is an excellent writer. Reminds me a little of Sphinx sometimes. ... My Sarah may have some squibs among her ancestors, but there are no Muggles among the family members she's actually met (= perhaps a great grandparent, but that's ancient history). ... Who said Harry's wife was a silly girl? Beauxbattons has quite brilliant students as well as completely normal ones. Harry at least is quite happy with his wife and still friends with both Hermione and Ginny. He's come to the conclusion that neither of them was right for him and moved on. ... Nah, Rupert was custom made for Pank. He's docile enough to let his best friend decide everything for him. Billy would probably have objected quite strongly and Aterus is too socially insecure to hold such a high position. ... I think they'll just give the West Hogsmeade students detentions to be served at their own school. They don't deduct points there either. ... Well, if Jose ever finds out, we'll just tell him the truth: I love the sound of his name, but I needed something more unusual and I've read only one story that has a character named Jorge (Umberto Ecco's 'Der Name der Rose'). I wouldn't have known for sure that it was Spanish until you told me you had a teacher by that name. ... Grin! Well, maybe Bill didn't know about Cam at first either. She might have been an accident and being the decent guy he is Bill married her mother when he found out and officially gave Cam his name. ... I thought you'd like that one. ... I wouldn't have recommended The Seer's Truth after the third chapter either. It seemed like an early practise story of a talented young writer who hadn't quite learned how to make a truly original plot, yet. It wasn't until the chapter in the Chamber of Secrets that the story started to show more than just the promise of excellent fiction sometime in the future. Please keep at it and take a look at the wonderful imagination with which LL describes the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw common rooms as well. I think you'll love the way she writes now. ... The first part has a lot of prophecies and attempts at interpretation (and the characters aren't always right. In fact we don't know the solutions to most of it, yet.) In the second part that LL is writing right now there's more action and you really see the death eaters at work and play. (There's Voldemort POVs in there for example.)
Sugaricing – Thanks! I can't not write, but what IO write depends very much on what plot hedgehogs Greenie brings me. Right now most of them talk about a certain bunch of Slytherin first years, though others are about sweet cute huge cats ...
BlackFireDragonK – Thanks, I love MNS as well. It's the first thing I ever posted. ... Well, actually I think that was me. I needed some things Sevi was bad at for MNS and chose Transfigurations for the potential of conflict. Albus Dumbledore was Transfigurations teacher and head of Gryffindor, then became headmaster and the current Transfigurations teacher is vice headmistress and head of Gryffindor as well. In other words for at least 50 years the subject has been dominated by Slytherin's rival house. Therefore it's only logical that the Slytherins would have a dislike for it from the start. Accordingly Sevi's problem is psychological. He could have been at least okay at it, but deep down he doesn't want to be. McGonagall herself tries to be fair, but is subconsciously prejudiced against Slytherins (after all those years of rivalry it would be hard for her not to), which serves only to enforce the Slytherins' dislike for her and through her her subject. You'll find that none of my Slytherins is a Transfigurations genius. It's just not their subject. Too Gryffindor.
silverrowan – Thanks!
Emily M. Hanson – Thank you! Hope you like the sequel as well.
,00, - Erm ... I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Should I not write the review responses anymore? Or the author notes? The teaser questions at the end of the chapter? Or maybe the next chapter preview? ... Or perhaps all of them? ... Why? What do you see wrong with them?
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- A/N: Will Jorge learn to speak in proper sentences? Will Colleen ever approve of any of the food at Hogwarts? And will Gangolf learn how to avoid being picked on by the older students?
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In the next chapter: Tullia is trying to adapt to life away from home. Rupert is worried about his secret and Gangolf keeps getting on Billy's nerves!
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 – Yes, I'm late again, but I had to visit family in upper Austria last week and it turned out to be a little hard to finish and post the chapter without a computer.
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Chapter 7: Pepper Soup and Spaghetti
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Gangolf stared at Billy's levitating match in fascination. Could one do the same with hair curlers, perhaps? That would be so very practical! If he didn't have to hold his curlers with his hands he could place them much more precisely, because he wouldn't have to twist around all the time. All he needed was a set of self twisting curlers just like his mother had and he'd have the nicest curls ever.
"Mr. Bartering!" McGonagall's voice drew him from his daydream. "Did you change your match, yet?"
Gangolf turned away from Billy's once again rising match and looked at his match. How very useless!
"Why would I ever need to turn a match into a pin?" he mumbled.
"Well, maybe you'd want to pin a picture of yourself to the wall, but don't have any pins with you." Pank suggested.
Yes, pinning up pictures was an activity that made sense and required pins. "But why would I be carrying a match with me?"
"To light candles." Anny suggested.
"To light your pipe." Aterus said.
"I've got my wand for that and smoking is bad for your looks. It makes you sick and you age faster." Gangolf declared. "I'll never smoke."
"But you still might want to light a candle when there are Muggles around." McGonagall interfered. "Or maybe you found the match on the table when you arrived. That often happens at Muggle hotels. Now please, at least try to change your match."
"You could try changing it into a hairpin." Danny said with a slight sneer. "Maybe that's easier for you."
Yes indeed, a hairpin was much better than an ordinary pin. Gangolf concentrated on what a hairpin looked like for about two seconds, then focused all his attention on the match and pictured it turning into the hairpin.
For a few minutes nothing happened, but then there was a slight 'plop' and the head disappeared. Gangolf beamed and concentrated harder. Slowly the wood turned thinner and into metal. Still not a hairpin, but the teacher seemed to be happy. She even awarded him five points for showing so much talent for Transfigurations.
Gangolf preened. Yes, of course he was the best! He should have expected this. After all he was the best looking, most gifted boy in all of Hogwarts.
"Great going, Gangolf!" Billy slapped him hard on the back and then the rest of the boys fell on him as well.
What a horde of brutes! His shoulder actually hurt for several seconds and his hair was probably all mussed up!
Gangolf hastened to the next bathroom before anyone could see him like that. Just lucky that he always carried a comb with him for emergencies.
The first bathroom turned out to be a girls' bathroom! Gangolf blushed and quickly closed the door again.
There had to be a boys' bathroom somewhere close, though. Bathrooms always came in pairs, didn't they? Ah, there it was.
Its mirror was filthy, though. Someone had apparently splashed water on it when washing his hands and not dried it off properly. Barbarians!
Gangolf wetted a towel and started to meticulously clean the mirror. He had to climb onto the sink to reach the top, but that couldn't be helped. He just couldn't leave a half cleaned mirror behind.
Yuck, there was dust on top of the mirror! Unfortunately Gangolf didn't have a feather duster handy and he couldn't use his freshly platted handkerchief to clean away such filth.
The door opened and an older boy walked in. Gangolf didn't pay him any attention as he was much too busy rubbing the mirror dry with another towel.
"What in the name of Merlin are you doing up there?" the boy had stopped to stare at Gangolf.
"Isn't that obvious?" Gangolf asked without stopping his delicate work. If the mirror dried before he was finished it would be dotted with water stains wherever he hadn't dried it yet. "I'm cleaning the mirror."
"There are house elves for that." another voice sneered. Apparently the older boy had brought company.
"But I need to use the mirror now." Gangolf explained patiently. "I need to straighten out my hair."
Some snorting and laughing behind them, then: "The girls' bathroom is that way."
Gangolf didn't bother to look. "Boys can't go in there."
"Yes, but you're obviously not a boy." the sneering voice continued.
"And this bathroom is for boys only." the other one said.
"Then we'll obviously have to kick the little sissy out. It's our duty in order to protect the rightful users of this bathroom."
"Huh?" was all Gangolf got out before two pairs of strong arms plucked him off he sink.
He struggled and tried to kick, but somehow he never managed to hit his attackers right. They only laughed and dragged him along until they finally dropped him into the bin outside. It took him over a minute to pull himself out under the laughter of all the witnesses.
Gangolf glared at them, but they only laughed harder. Most of them were Gryffindors, he realised and quite a bit taller than him. And he probably looked even worse than before he'd gone to the bathroom to straighten out his hair.
"Don't you have a class to be in?" a teacher Gangolf hadn't seen before suddenly turned around a corner and the older students quickly disappeared in the direction of the Transfigurations classroom leaving only Gangolf and the messed up dustbin.
The teacher looked him up and down, then demanded: "What happened here?"
"I was just going to use the mirror in the bathroom, but it was dirty. I started to clean it, but then two older boys came in. They picked me up and threw me in there." Gangolf regarded the items that had fallen out in his struggle with the bin. "I was going to pick it up, I swear, but I was stuck in there and couldn't get out without making a mess. I only just managed."
"Who were those two boys?" the teacher demanded sternly.
Gangolf shrugged. "I don't know. I've never seen them before. It's only my first day. How should I know all those people?"
In fact he'd never even gotten a clear look at their faces.
"What's your next class?" the teacher asked more gently.
"Seventh lesson DADA." Gangolf sniffled a little against his will. "I've got time."
The teacher nodded. "Alright then. Clean it up and next time someone bothers you, tell a teacher or prefect."
Gangolf suppressed another sniffle and nodded. "Thank you, Sir."
It took only moments to clean up once he was alone. The worst part was actually having to touch things other people had thrown away and he was already covered in them anyway.
He wished he could repair the slightly bent out of shape bin as well, but he didn't know that spell, yet. Hopefully a house elf would see to it.
The corridor was empty now that class had started again, but Gangolf still felt horribly afraid that someone would see him like this as he snuck down the next smaller staircase and went to look for an out of the way bathroom where he didn't run such a big risk of meeting anybody.
The one he finally found was small and dirty. Obviously it hadn't been renovated recently. Still it was just what Gangolf had been looking for. He decided to remember its location in case he should need it again.
By the time he'd finished straightening himself out it was almost time to go to class and he realised with a jolt of fear that he didn't know where his classmates were. Why, oh why had he just walked out without telling them he needed to visit the bathroom? They'd probably have waited, if he'd asked them to.
Could he find his way back into the dungeons on his own?
It turned out he didn't have to. He reached the ground floor at almost the same time as a large group of older students and simply followed the Slytherins among them to the common room.
"There you are!" Pank was beside himself with worry. "Where were you?"
"I just went to the bathroom to freshen up a bit." Gangolf didn't feel like telling the group about his embarrassing adventure. "When I got out you'd left and I didn't know where you'd gone so I thought I'd just meet you back here before class."
The boys tried to tell him some nonsense about the library. Gangolf wished there were enough time to change into fresh robes, but all he could do, if he didn't want to get lost again, was grab his DADA book and follow the crowd.
The DADA teacher turned out to be an incredibly fat wizard who was dozing in his chair when they arrived. They apparently shared this class with the same group of students as Potions. Gangolf didn't remember what house that was, nor did he care. His neighbour from Potions refused to sit next to him again claiming that he was unbearably annoying.
Gangolf pressed his lips tightly together and pretended not to have heard him.
There was a parchment going around that every student was to write his name on. It seemed he'd ended up next to one Salvatore Donelly. Hadn't Professor Snape made some funny remark about that one in Potions? Gangolf didn't remember, but it didn't matter anyway.
He got out his ink, parchment and flamingo feather quill not forgetting to check whether the parchment was indeed nice and unwrinkled from the bag. He used a specially enspelled protective case for them, but you never could be too careful.
Salvatore blinked at the sight of the long pink quill.
"Isn't that a little girlish?" he asked.
Gangolf frowned at him. Salvatore's robe was wrinkled and he had an odd accent.
"I think it's pretty." he declared. "I like pink."
"Girly." Salvatore insisted.
When the last student put the list back on his desk the ugly teacher stretched a little and opened his eyes. "Hello class. Everybody here?"
They nodded expectantly.
"Fine. Then lets start. I'm Professor Hermes Hugge. Please open your books on page one."
Gangolf obediently opened his book. There stood the title and nothing else.
"Sir, that's the title page." that girl form Potions reported right away. The one that had lost so many points. Gangolf didn't remember her name either.
"Then move on to the first page." Hermes Hugge ordered. "You, start reading." He pointed at the girl by the window in the first row. Another one whose name Gangolf didn't remember.
"Introduction." she started reading. "The dark arts are hard to define subject matter. Most wizards think the term refers to spells and other magic used deliberately to harm others. This, though to an extent correct, is however a very unclear definition. Is it then dark arts to use Avada Kedavra to put a suffering animal out of its misery? Does a dark creature that doesn't have the intelligence to understand the difference between good and evil truly have harmful intent against its prey? ..."
How boring! Gangolf spelled the surface of his desk into a mirror. When the Professor didn't move to object he got out his comb and started arranging his hair. He could still listen while combing himself and that way it was a lot less boring.
"... This book does not intend to give a scholarly definition of what is to be considered dark and what isn't. Instead it is an attempt to help the average wizard and witch to protect themselves against all the dangers of the wizarding world, be they truly dark or not."
When the girl stopped reading Professor Hugge's eyes opened once again. He pointed at her neighbour: "Continue."
"Chapter one: Playful Little Traps, an introduction into trick steps, trap doors and other jokes our homes play on us. Throughout wizarding history it has been the custom ..."
"This is boring." Salvatore commented. "Say, Gangolf, what's your favourite Quidditch team?"
"Huh? ... Oh, I don't care about Quidditch. It causes such nasty scars."
"Gee, now I understand why nobody wants to sit next to you." Salvatore decided. "You really are dead boring."
So was DADA class. Gangolf wondered what his classmates had all been so excited for. At least it was the last class of the day. He really needed his beauty sleep so he didn't develop black rings under his eyes.
Dinner was probably going to contain way too much fat and sugar again, but if he remembered to stick to only salad and perhaps half an apple for dessert, he should be okay. And afterwards straight to bed to catch up on the sleep he'd lost because of the late end of the welcoming feast.
The others looked at him oddly when he went straight to bed after the meal and requested silence.
"Don't you want to play exploding snap with us?" Rupert asked.
"There are chess sets in the common room." Aterus added. "Or we could sing something."
"Yes, one of the prefects has a guitar. Dad says she always plays in the evenings." Billy confirmed.
"Or we could compare our Latin homework." Pank suggested. "Even if it was easy one of us might have an error."
"I need to sleep." Gangolf insisted. "I didn't even get my midday nap."
"Midday nap?" Billy repeated incredulously. "Those are for babies. Just how old are you?"
"Old enough to understand the importance of sleep for my looks." Gangolf declared almost as haughtily as Colleen.
"Your looks, your looks!" Billy yelled. "Is that all you ever talk about? Don't you have any other hobbies? You are seriously beginning to get on my nerves!"
Pank quickly grabbed him by the arm. "Calm down, Billy. Gangolf's just grumpy because he's obviously tired. We should really let him sleep. Lets go down to the common room and play. Rupert bring the cards. They're on my bedside table."
Gangolf pulled the blanket over his head until they were finally all gone. Stupid Billy. He could have lost a tooth, if the boy had hit him! Why did he have to share a dorm with such an aggressive lout?
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Their first class on Wednesday morning was History of Magic with the Gryffindors. Dinah felt disappointed when she found out. She'd hoped for Hufflepuff where she already had friends, that she wanted to introduce to Anny, or Ravenclaw.
The Ravenclaws had seemed really nice, at least. From what she'd seen of them so far, she thought she and Anny could make great friends with Arnika and Shannon. The Gryffindors however were a much too unfriendly and boisterous group. Hadn't anyone ever told them to be nice to strangers?
Laura Warthay sneered at Dinah as she walked past her on her way in.
"Stupid wart face." Dinah growled under her breath, but Anny heard her anyway.
"It's not her fault what she looks like." she reminded her friend.
"No, but it is her fault that she isn't even trying to be polite." Dinah returned. "I'm really beginning to hate Gryffindors. Everybody keeps saying how perfect they are and that Harry Potter was a Gryffindor, and how Slytherins are so mean, but they're the ones that started sneering at us and all the Slytherins have been really friendly so far."
"Except for Colleen." Anny reminded her.
"Yes, she'd really fit in with the Gryffindors." Dinah grinned.
"I wonder what they'd do, if she went around telling them that they're icky." Anny giggled.
Professor Binns walked in through the wall only seconds later. He unfolded a piece of parchment and read out: "Corny, Wanda?"
"That's Carmey, Wendy." Wendy corrected.
"Nonsense." Professor Binns declared blinking closely at the parchment. "It clearly states Corny. Fouler, Charly."
"Oh great," Danny giggled. "A short sighted ghost!"
Dinah burst out laughing along with the rest of the class even though a small voice that sounded suspiciously like her grandmother was mumbling something about it not being nice to laugh about people who needed glasses.
"Halber, Alletta?" Binns continued. "Kay, Donald? Potter-Handers, Sonja- Mariah ..."
"Um ... Professor, could it be that you have the wrong list?" Sophie- Marleen asked. "I'm unfortunately not related to Harry Potter in any way."
"Nonsense." Binns insisted. "This is the list Professor McGonagall gave me. She wouldn't make a mistake like that. Now quit stalling. Qualling Timothy? Souder Olivia?"
"That's Sanger, Oliver, Professor." Oliver Sanger protested. "Trust me, I'd know, if I were a girl."
"The list says your name is Olivia and the list is never wrong. Maybe your parents made a mistake in your birth certificate." Binns graciously allowed. "Tants Colinus? Walley Eileen?"
"Well, at least for Warthay it's a compliment." Colleen sneered.
Several Gryffindors jumped up in outrage.
"Please children, sit back down. We aren't done, yet." Binns said mildly. "Xavier, Barthemia?"
The Gryffindors blinked at him in disbelief and apparently forgot their anger in their surprise. One by one they sat back down while Binns continued inventing his students list.
"Aitebertt, Patricius?"
Pank just sighed and raised his hand. "Whatever."
"Boulers, Christoph?"
"That's Gangolf, Sir, not Christoph." Gangolf almost pleaded. This was the first time Binns hadn't even gotten the first letter right.
"It clearly says Christoph on my list." Binns insisted. "Larder, Dorah?"
"Here." Dinah confirmed agreeably. It was probably the best strategy to humour ones teachers and if Binns ever sent a letter of complaint home to the parents of Dorah Larder, that was no concern of Dinah Laxter's, right?
Most of her classmates followed her and Pank's example and accepted whatever Binns named them.
With one noteworthy exception:
"Naketer Cordelia?" yelled back at Binns for almost five minutes and only stopped when she realised that the teacher was simply ignoring her and continuing to read out his list.
History of Magic, Dinah soon realised, was the most boring subject ever. The Gryffindors soon took to blowing spit balls at the Slytherins, though, and the resulting exchange of projectiles and insults served to keep the class awake. Gryffindors really were scum, Dinah decided. The little voice in her head that tried to remind her that Danny and Tullia sticking their tongues out at Laura and Sophie-Marleen might have had something to do with it was so weak that she easily ignored it.
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A seventh year prefect led them out to the glasshouses for Herbology with the Hufflepuffs. Dinah beamed when she saw that they were early enough to give them a little time to talk to the Hufflepuffs before class.
"Hi Hermy, Corinna!" she called out to the two girls she'd known almost her entire life. "How are you doing? How's life in Hufflepuff?"
"Oh, it's absolutely fabulous!" Hermelindis Berring answered. "Our common room is so cool. There's an art corner and a needleworks corner and ..."
"What's wrong with you, though?" Corinna Zander demanded in a much more serious tone.
"Yeah, Dinah, Slytherin?" Nigel Rouen added. "How could you?"
"It's not Dinah's fault." Hermy defended her.
"Yes, the hat might have made a mistake." Carmelitta Weasley agreed. Maybe the poor girl would have preferred Gryffindor after all?
"I don't think so. It said I had a better chance to realise my potential in Slytherin." Dinah said. "I guess it meant that I have the talent to be cunning, if I try."
"But the Slytherins are all so mean and scary." Corinna looked around nervously. "How will you get by all alone in the snakes' nest?"
"Alone? Scary? What are you talking about? Slytherin is wonderful. Only Nocturne's a little bitch. Here, meet my friend Anny. She's really cool."
Cam Weasley looked doubtful. "She's a Slytherin. Probably some pureblood fanatic."
"Are you Hufflepuffs or prejudiced Gryffindors?" Dinah demanded angrily. "She's Muggle born and Tullia's part mermaid for crying out loud. I thought you were raised to know better than to judge people by the house they're in." She glared at her old friends.
Cam blushed. "Uh ... well, I ... I was raised by Gryffindors, you know. I didn't mean to offend anyone."
"Well, next time think before you say things that might hurt someone." Dinah blushed as well when she realised how much she sounded like her mother.
"Sorry," Cam said again, then held out her hand to Anny. "Friends?"
Anny accepted the hand after only a second of hesitation. "Friends."
"Ah excellent, I see you're already getting acquainted." a woman Dinah assumed had to be Professor Sprout smiled at them. "In order to give you a chance to get to know each other better I want you to work in groups of four today."
Dinah immediately stepped closer to Anny, Danny and Tullia.
"Oh, no no no. Not that way." Professor Sprout laughed. "I want each group to consist of one girl and boy from each house."
For a moment everybody stood staring at each other, then the Hufflepuffs reacted. Mel Eagle and Jonathan Yeel were the first two that stepped forward.
"Hi, do you want to work with us?" Mel asked Tullia probably picking her at random.
"Sure." Tullia smiled a little uncertainly, but Pank pushed Rupert forward towards the group.
After one last longing look at Anny, Dinah walked over to Hermy who had already paired up with Jorge, the Spanish boy. The poor kid looked a little confused at being separated from Jonathan.
She heard Anny introduce Billy and Cam to each other and Cam in turn say that their fourth was called Jean-Louis. If she didn't want to be settled with Mirrorboy, Dinah had to act fast.
"Hey Aterus!" she called out. "Want to work with us?"
Aterus beamed. He seemed a little shy, or at least unsure how to talk to people sometimes and was probably glad of the help. Pank certainly knew how to fend for himself.
Indeed the next time she looked up she saw Pank and Danny talking to her old friend Nigel and Laurissa. Poor Corinna and a boy whose name Dinah didn't remember had been left to deal with both Colleen and Gangolf. That wasn't likely to improve Corinna's opinion of Slytherins, but it couldn't be helped. Somebody had to work with them.
"Jorge's father works for the Spanish ministry of magic." Hermy told them while they potted a sleeping forget-me-not. "He's been sent here as some sort of envoy, or something like that and brought his entire family."
"Two sister." Jorge nodded eagerly.
"He means he has two younger siblings." Hermy translated. "He showed us a picture. One sister. One brother." The last she enunciated very clearly at Jorge.
Jorge nodded again. "Juanita et Alfredo. Little." He demonstrated the size of his siblings with his hand. "Two sister little."
"No Jorge, it's: One little sister and one little brother." Hermy corrected.
"What brother?" Jorge asked.
"Alfredo." Dinah tried to explain. "Alfredo brother. Juanita sister."
"No, Alfredo et Juanita sister." Jorge insisted.
"Oh dear," Aterus sighed. "I think he mistook sister to mean sibling."
"Aterus sister?" Jorge asked. He definitely fit well into Hufflepuff already trying to socialise when he couldn't even say a single sentence, yet.
"No, no sister, no brother." Aterus answered. "I'm an only child."
"No sister?" Jorge looked a little sad, then patted Aterus on the shoulder. "Friend. Jorge Aterus friend."
Yes, Dinah definitely liked Jorge.
"Did you have to leave all your friends in Spain?" she asked.
Jorge looked at her quizzically.
"Your friends in Espania?" Hermy simplified the questions.
Jorge nodded. "Many friend." Then he mimicked writing and fluttered with his arms attempting to make hooting noises.
"Owl." Dinah translated fluttering as well. "You're going to owl your friends."
"Jorge owl friends in Espania." Hermy explained.
"Si, Jorge owl friend." Jorge beamed at his accomplishment of learning another word.
"Gee, at this rate he'll graduate before he learns proper English." Colleen sneered at them as she walked by holding an empty watering can between two fingers. "At least make him talk in real sentences."
"Water bad?" Jorge asked innocently.
"No, the water's just fine." Dinah assured him. "Colleen's just an idiot."
Jorge looked questioningly to Hermy.
"Colleen arrogant." Hermy promptly translated pointing at Colleen, then sticking her nose arrogantly in the air pretending to look down at the rest of the group.
Jorge looked at Colleen thoughtfully. "Arrogant." he repeated. "Colleen arrogant. Colleen no friend?"
"No, Colleen doesn't have any friends." Aterus confirmed. "Nobody likes her."
"Maybe Jorge Colleen friend, Colleen no arrogant?" Jorge wondered.
Dinah shook her head decisively. "Colleen bad. Death eater."
"Death eater." Hermy repeated drawing a little circle on her forearm with her finger. "Voldemort." she whispered.
Jorge paled and nodded. "Jorge no like Colleen."
They went back to work, but Dinah noted that Hermy kept shooting covert glances at Colleen.
"Are you sure about her?" she asked after a while. "I mean, she was only a child when the war ended. She probably can't even remember him."
"The Nocturnes just barely got away back then." Dinah whispered back. "And you should hear the way she talks. Trust me, Colleen is bad news. She can't get along with anyone."
"She hasn't actually hurt anyone, though." Aterus reminded her.
"She tried to hex Danny." Dinah shot back. "She'd have hurt her, if the spell had worked."
Aterus lowered his eyes and continued to work in silence. He never said much, Dinah noticed. She wondered whether that had anything to do with his not having had contact with other children before. Such a life must be horrible, she thought. Children needed other children her mother had always told her, even if they didn't always get along.
Despite the nice company Herbology was rather boring, though. Dinah didn't understand why it had been her mother's favourite subject. So far she certainly preferred Potions and Charms. At least there she got to do some real magic.
"What's next?" Tullia asked as they left the glasshouse.
"Lunch." Pank answered right away. "And afterwards we could go to the library again and do homework."
"We've got all day for that." Danny returned with a frown. "We should do something fun instead."
"We could come back out here and explore the grounds." Dinah suggested. "I bet there are wonderful places to play around here."
"Yes, I'd really like to meet the merpeople in the lake." Tullia agreed.
"You're not planning to go swimming in this weather, are you?" Rupert shuddered.
The weather wasn't actually bad, but the wind was a little chilly. It was already September after all.
"Of course not." Tullia confirmed. "I'll just stick my head in."
"Into the cold lake?" Dinah asked in disbelief. "What would your mother say?"
Tullia shrugged. "Nothing. Why would she say anything?"
"Because you're going to catch cold, if you run around with wet hair in autumn." Dinah informed her.
"Nonsense." Tullia shook her head. "Back at home Dad and I talk to the merpeople all year round and I never get sick."
"You stick your heads into the lake in the middle of winter?" Anny gasped.
"Of course you have to cut a hole into the ice first." Tullia explained. "And then you need an anti freezing charm for the way back or your hair turns into icicles. Dad says they take your hair with them when they break off."
Dinah suddenly felt very cold and quickened her pace towards the huge doors. A nice warm meal would be just the thing right now.
Soon they arrived in the crowded hall and sat down in their usual seats.
"What did the house elves do to the soup today?" Dinah heard a second year complain. "Throw in a whole pack of pepper?"
Dinah regarded her soup a little doubtfully. A lot of people at the Slytherin table had pushed theirs aside. None of the other houses seemed to have any complaints about it, though.
"It's probably another Gryffindor prank." another second year commented.
The first years exchanged a look and unanimously decided to bypass the soup and go straight for the main course.
"It's noodles!" Colleen shouted loud enough to draw stares despite the noise level caused by over a hundred students chatting over their meals. "Common, stupid noodles with some weird sauce. There isn't even any meat in it!"
"It's called spaghetti and the sauce looks like it's cheese." Billy stated rather unimpressed.
"Yep," confirmed Anny who'd already tried a bite. "Spaghetti in cheese sauce. Delicious."
"And that's supposed to be edible?" Colleen sneered.
"Of course it's edible." Danny snorted. "You just have to roll them around your fork like this and then you put them in your mouth, chew and swallow."
"It's Italian." Gangolf tried to be helpful. "You know, foreign food?"
"It looks hopelessly common." Colleen declared haughtily. "I'd much prefer something French."
"I'd give you a French kiss, but you're not my type." one of the second year girls glared at her. "Now either eat or starve, but shut up. I'd like to enjoy my meal."
"Why you rude ..." Colleen started fumbling for her wand.
"Ms Nocturne!" Professor Snape had once again appeared out of nowhere. Hadn't he been sitting at the staff table last time Dinah had looked up? "Please refrain from cursing your housemates or I will have to give you another detention. Is there something wrong with your soup?"
"The Gryffindors put something in it." the second year reported right away. "Tastes like pepper."
"Did you see them do it, Claire?" Snape asked calmly.
"No, but it must have been them." Claire insisted.
"Must have won't suffice for the headmaster." Snape answered. "We'll get back at them in the Quidditch game. Just leave the soup. The rest of the food is fine, I trust?"
"Delicious." Danny confirmed.
"Icky." Colleen insisted.
Snape raised an eyebrow at her.
"It's common. Not even any meat in it."
"Then eat your salad and pudding." Snape declared. "It's no reason to curse people."
Colleen glared after him as he left. "They are not feeding us properly." she complained softly enough to be sure that he couldn't hear her.
"To be honest, Colleen, I think the problem is that you're too picky." Dinah confided. "You haven't even tried your spaghetti. Maybe if you do, you'll find that they aren't all that bad after all. Look, everybody else loves them."
"They're for common Mudbloods and Hufflepuffs like you." Colleen declared. "I'm used to higher standards. And who gave you permission to call me Colleen anyway? It's Ms Nocturne to rabble like you."
Dinah closed her eyes and silently counted to ten. One should not hit or curse ones classmates.
"You know something?" she hissed out between clenched teeth once she felt she had herself sufficiently under control. "You're just not worth the effort. Why don't you just leave and go back where you came from? Nobody here likes you anyway."
"You just don't know how to appreciate class." Colleen returned coolly.
"In that case the entire school doesn't." Danny stated. "Get lost, Nocturne. You just don't fit in."
"But first give me back my hair band." Anny suddenly spoke up to Dinah's surprise. "It's a Muggle item anyway so I don't see why you're wearing it in the first place."
"You lent her your hair band?" Dinah asked incredulously.
"No, she stole it. I just didn't want to make a big fuss over it, because it isn't really worth much. It's part of a pair, though, so I'd really like it back." Anny stated and went back to eating her spaghetti.
The other girls all glared at Colleen who took refuge in picking at her salad.
"Well, I for one like the spaghetti." Aterus said into the sudden silence. "They may be difficult to eat, but they're very tasty."
"You mean you've never had spaghetti before either?" Billy asked incredulously.
Aterus had stuffed a forkful of the noodles into his mouth after his comment so he just shook his head while continuing to chew.
It certainly looked like it was true, Dinah thought. Aterus was fighting quite a battle with his noodles always either accidentally dropping them from the fork on the way to his mouth or picking up too many at once and having problems stuffing them in.
"Don't wizards eat spaghetti normally?" Anny asked.
"My Mum makes them with tomato sauce at least once a month, but we have a lot of Muggle friends." Dinah admitted. "Maybe she learned the recipe from one of them."
"We eat them at home as well, but we live very much like Muggles." Billy explained. "There are a lot of squibs in our neighbourhood and everyone in my family went to Muggle university. Dad could have learned the recipe anywhere."
"Professor Snape?" Gangolf stared at him open mouthed. "He cooks?"
"We all do." Billy confirmed. "It's not that different from brewing. Dad is the one who makes spaghetti the most often, though. Usually with vegetables."
"Our oldest house elf makes them with little meat balls." Pank added. "She came from Italy with my great grandmother, though, so it's not surprising she'd cook Italian food."
"You're lucky, then. Italian food's the best." Rupert commented. "We usually only have it when we go out for dinner or Mum doesn't have time to cook and calls the Muggle pizza delivery."
"My Mum makes them with fish and water plants." Tullia reported. "But then my Mum makes almost everything with fish."
"I had no idea there are that many ways to make spaghetti." Dinah said. "That's enough variations to have them for lunch every day in a week without getting bored."
Colleen shuddered and turned away from the conversation, but Dinah and the others hardly noticed. They were much too busy eating and discussing the different spaghetti recipes.
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Ezmerelda – Yes, that's the end. This is the sequel. ... The soccer really wasn't that important. I just needed a hobby for the Rakers and it was something a bunch of poor British kids is likely to play. ... Ah, but you saw him at Hogwarts before his suspension. He wasn't really that different afterwards. (Only the teachers did feel a little different about teaching Draco Snape.) I just couldn't continue the story into infinity. There's too much else I need to write (just ask Greenie).
ERMonkey, Queen of Insanity – I'm trying to, I'm trying to. Unfortunately I have to write the chapters before I can post them, though. (Wouldn't it be nice, if chapters wrote themselves telepathically? I could sit in some boring meeting listening to people drone on about some boring project or other, while upstairs in my office my computer would be typing away happily ...)
Colibi – Well, you try to explain that to Colleen. (The taste is not her point. It's simply too common and a Nocturne definitely doesn't eat leftovers.) ... Billy is getting weird results when trying to transfigure something. Snapes just do that.
holly – Colleen doesn't really mind being led in particular. She simply minds everything.
jasara – Pank hasn't quite figured out that he's a student, not a teacher, I guess. He feels responsible for the entire group. (He'll probably make a good prefect in a few years.)
Pam Briggs – Why would they have the same time table as Harry's year had? Slytherin/Ravenclaw is Sevi's favourite combination, by the way. Gryffindor/Slytherin is the most explosive and Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff is often difficult to teach, because Hufflepuff tends to have a few weaker students every year while Ravenclaw usually has the brightest. Sevi can either bore most of the Ravenclaws, or leave his weakest student hopelessly behind.
b7-kerravon – Thanks! Not everybody liked that epilogue, but I just couldn't leave it out.
lkj – Thanks!
Romulus – Billy will cause several different unexpected effects in Transfigurations, but I think colour changes will not be among them. He has a tendency towards kinetic magic.
Midnight Tiger – Don't worry, Anny will be okay in a little while. She's already figured out the pictures and won't be surprised by them again and she knows she can ask Dinah whenever she doesn't understand something. It just takes some time to get used to it all. ... Why? Is there something wrong with daydreaming? Does that mean I have to give it up?! ... Nice ideas about Jorge, but as you just saw, the answer is just a wizard who couldn't bare the thought of his family being so far away. The Spanish schools would never refuse to take any magical child any more than West Hogsmeade would.
Immortal Fire – Oh, there are several possibilities what might be wrong. I tried to make it a challenge on ff.net, but nobody answered it and I just don't have the time to dig into it (and can't decide for one of the possibilities). Thus I left it as it is, just a glimpse of a moment without a past or future. It's up to the readers to make up their minds.
Lizard Pie – I've never written slash (though I've got nothing against a good slashfic). I'm just no good at romance of any kind. I love stories about friendship, though, and that's what I set out to write there.
Emily M. Hanson – Believe me, one can never have too many reviews (unless they're flames). I love and treasure every one of them and it's wonderful to see that people still read the very first fic I ever posted!
Iremione – Yes, but luckily the shops offer them already dead, for those of us who have problems with plant murder. ... Hufflepuff lead their first years around out of kindness and because they think it's a wonderful chance to get to know them and make new friends. The Ravenclaws tend to forget to do it, but their first years realise that it is the most logical thing to do to stick together in a group and ask people to help them. The Slytherins lead their first years to class, because it would be embarrassing, if they were seen stumbling helplessly through the castle and Slytherin might lose points for them being late. It's a matter of the proper image. The Gryffindors simply never thought that far. They're too busy with themselves to think about what their first years might need. They don't mean to be unkind, of course, they're just not thinking. And anyway, one of those first years might be a valuable connection someday. ... I haven't gotten around to reading Roman Holiday, yet, but have you read Hearts and Hourgasses? I just loved that interpretation of Sal and of course there's the background JLM gave him. That just got me thinking and I decided not to portray him as a monster. ... And yes, history is written by the winners. I already learned that in school and it's quite logical. You can see it in politics all the time. ... Pank is the leader. Rupert is his faithful follower and assistant. We don't have an actual prankster in this group. (I bet Gryffindor has one or two to make up for it and there are always the other years.) ... I thought Ravenclaw was the best place to have the know- it-all. They just belong there. ... No, like his father he'll be fine in Charms. It's just Transfigurations. ... In the long run, yes, but that's from Sevi's perspective. Sarah doesn't really understand Voldemort. She's never met him and sees politics as something like a natural disaster: It kills innocent people, but there's nothing she can do to stop it as it's cause by powers far beyond her control or even influence. ... Sarah is right as far as the fact that Sevi wasn't mentally up to it at the time and Albus should have given him a break to let him recover from Azkaban before making him teach and spy. However Albus didn't have that chance. He only managed to get Sevi out of Azkaban by telling the ministry that he desperately needed a Potions teacher and Sevi was the only one available. They'd have locked him right back in, if he hadn't started teaching right away. ... Sarah was an old friend, Sevi's lab partner at Muggle university. It seemed to him that she just wanted to talk and catch up on old times at first, but Sarah soon noticed how badly hurt he was and how much he needed help. She's also too much Hufflepuff not to feel when somebody is not ready to openly accept help, so she snuck up on him gently. It's definitely worth reading. Zebee is an excellent writer. Reminds me a little of Sphinx sometimes. ... My Sarah may have some squibs among her ancestors, but there are no Muggles among the family members she's actually met (= perhaps a great grandparent, but that's ancient history). ... Who said Harry's wife was a silly girl? Beauxbattons has quite brilliant students as well as completely normal ones. Harry at least is quite happy with his wife and still friends with both Hermione and Ginny. He's come to the conclusion that neither of them was right for him and moved on. ... Nah, Rupert was custom made for Pank. He's docile enough to let his best friend decide everything for him. Billy would probably have objected quite strongly and Aterus is too socially insecure to hold such a high position. ... I think they'll just give the West Hogsmeade students detentions to be served at their own school. They don't deduct points there either. ... Well, if Jose ever finds out, we'll just tell him the truth: I love the sound of his name, but I needed something more unusual and I've read only one story that has a character named Jorge (Umberto Ecco's 'Der Name der Rose'). I wouldn't have known for sure that it was Spanish until you told me you had a teacher by that name. ... Grin! Well, maybe Bill didn't know about Cam at first either. She might have been an accident and being the decent guy he is Bill married her mother when he found out and officially gave Cam his name. ... I thought you'd like that one. ... I wouldn't have recommended The Seer's Truth after the third chapter either. It seemed like an early practise story of a talented young writer who hadn't quite learned how to make a truly original plot, yet. It wasn't until the chapter in the Chamber of Secrets that the story started to show more than just the promise of excellent fiction sometime in the future. Please keep at it and take a look at the wonderful imagination with which LL describes the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw common rooms as well. I think you'll love the way she writes now. ... The first part has a lot of prophecies and attempts at interpretation (and the characters aren't always right. In fact we don't know the solutions to most of it, yet.) In the second part that LL is writing right now there's more action and you really see the death eaters at work and play. (There's Voldemort POVs in there for example.)
Sugaricing – Thanks! I can't not write, but what IO write depends very much on what plot hedgehogs Greenie brings me. Right now most of them talk about a certain bunch of Slytherin first years, though others are about sweet cute huge cats ...
BlackFireDragonK – Thanks, I love MNS as well. It's the first thing I ever posted. ... Well, actually I think that was me. I needed some things Sevi was bad at for MNS and chose Transfigurations for the potential of conflict. Albus Dumbledore was Transfigurations teacher and head of Gryffindor, then became headmaster and the current Transfigurations teacher is vice headmistress and head of Gryffindor as well. In other words for at least 50 years the subject has been dominated by Slytherin's rival house. Therefore it's only logical that the Slytherins would have a dislike for it from the start. Accordingly Sevi's problem is psychological. He could have been at least okay at it, but deep down he doesn't want to be. McGonagall herself tries to be fair, but is subconsciously prejudiced against Slytherins (after all those years of rivalry it would be hard for her not to), which serves only to enforce the Slytherins' dislike for her and through her her subject. You'll find that none of my Slytherins is a Transfigurations genius. It's just not their subject. Too Gryffindor.
silverrowan – Thanks!
Emily M. Hanson – Thank you! Hope you like the sequel as well.
,00, - Erm ... I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure what you mean. Should I not write the review responses anymore? Or the author notes? The teaser questions at the end of the chapter? Or maybe the next chapter preview? ... Or perhaps all of them? ... Why? What do you see wrong with them?
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- A/N: Will Jorge learn to speak in proper sentences? Will Colleen ever approve of any of the food at Hogwarts? And will Gangolf learn how to avoid being picked on by the older students?
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In the next chapter: Tullia is trying to adapt to life away from home. Rupert is worried about his secret and Gangolf keeps getting on Billy's nerves!
