Chapter Five
The First Day of Term
Terry awoke the next morning happier than he had felt in a long time. He opened his eyes. Midnight's green ones stared back.
"Hello," he said to her. She blinked.
He sat up in bed and looked around. Davis and Jim had already gone to breakfast but Travis and Benjamin still were sawing logs.
Terry pushed the heavy comforter off of him and got out of bed. He shuffled sleepily toward his trunk and unlatched it. He pulled out his robes and pulled them on.
Travis stirred in his sleep.
Terry walked over to the window. It was a beautiful day. He looked down and saw that he was seven floors higher than the ground; the top floor.
There was a gentle knock at the door to the dormitory. Alia peeked her head it with her eyes closed.
"Is everyone decent?" she asked.
"Yeah. You can look," replied Terry.
She opened her eyes.
"Oh, yours looks just like the girls' dormitory," she said walking in. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, I did," said Terry. "You?"
"No, not at all," Alia said, stretching. "Hope Livecombe snored all night. And Michelle Bulkstrand speaks in her sleep."
"I'm sorry," said Terry. He walked toward her. "Let's go downstairs. I'm hungry."
They left the boys' dormitory and into the common room. Midnight followed them and raced ahead of them when they got to the bottom of the stairs to sit on a cerulean chintz armchair. She stared at them, her tongue sticking out.
"I know I've said this before," said Terry, "but that is the weirdest cat I've ever seen."
She started to purr.
They went out of the secret passageway to the common room and the owl swooped back to its perch.
Down the spiral staircase they went and into the entrance hall and down the Marble Staircase. They were just about to go into the Great Hall but were distracted.
"Hey, you!" sounded a loud, drawling, feminine voice.
Alia and Terry wheeled around to see Ethilina Malfoy, two fat, ugly boys, and a pale girl with long shiny black hair.
"Who're you?" asked Alia.
"What?" said Ethilina. "You've never heard of the infamous Malfoy family? Pity," she said with a smirk.
"I'm not from around here, so I wouldn't know the," she started to mock Ethilina with a squeaky malicious voice, "the infamous Malfoy family."
It was a stare off.
"Where are you from?" Ethilina spat. "I don't recognize your accent."
"Georgia," replied Alia. "And by your accent, I can tell you're from down under."
Ethilina looked confused. "I am not from Australia."
Alia gave a horrible, malicious grin. "Oh, you misunderstand my usage of under."
Ethilina took a little while to understand this. When she did, she turned red.
"How dare you!" Ethilina pulled out her wand. So did the other girl, one of the ugly boys with a pudding bowl hair cut, Alia, and Terry.
"What's going on here!"
Everyone looked toward the marble staircase. Professor Granger was standing there, her hands full of books.
No one spoke.
"You know that magic is not allowed between classes," she said forcefully. "I will let you off with a warning, but not again. Now go off to breakfast!" Everyone walked toward the big doors. "Except you, Mr Ollivander," she said more calmly.
What had he done? He had only been here twelve hours. He couldn't have done anything, could he?
Terry stayed behind.
"What is it, Professor?" he asked, trying to sound innocent.
"It is about Quidditch," she said. "I don't have your permission form. Do you have it with you, per chance?"
Terry was confused. "I thought I had to hand it in during class or something."
"Oh no, Terry," she said. "The letter said to send it by post. We didn't receive yours."
"It's up in my bag. Shall I go get it?" he asked.
"No, that won't be necessary." She whipped out her wand. "Accio Permission Slip!"
A whizzing noise followed and out of the staircase he and Alia had came out of shot a tiny slip of paper. Professor Granger caught it.
"Whoa! I want to learn how to do that!" said Terry excitedly.
"Its fourth Year magic. I don't think you'll be able to do it." She turned to the slip. "Ah, yes! I see your father signed it. Good. Well that's all I needed to know. You may go." She ushered him to the door with a grin.
He opened it and went into the Great Hall. It was even more stunning in the daytime. Gentle rays of light entered through stained glass windows Terry hadn't seen the night before. The ceiling illuminated the entire room with sunlight.
He saw Alia and Gary and went to sit down with his fellow Ravenclaws.
"Good morning," said Gary optimistically.
"'Morning," said Terry. He looked at his plate. Two strips of bacon, two sausage links, two pancakes, two eggs, and a large pile of hash browns were there. It looked delicious.
He grabbed his fork and began eating. He dropped his fork with a clatter when he was startled by at least a hundred owls swooping in through one of the higher windows.
A barn owl plunged out of the air at Terry and landed elegantly near his goblet of pumpkin juice.
"It's a letter from my mum," he said noticing the handwriting on the envelope.
Dear Terry,
It' your mother writing. Your father and I wanted to see if you got to school okay. Right after you left on the train, your father and I went to your room to see if you had forgotten anything. I don't know why I did but I decided to read your Quidditch letter again. It said that we had to send the form by post. I hope there wasn't much confusion when you found out. Sorry about that. Your father is doing fine. He did get a shock when he discovered an angry bowtruckle had snuck into his new wood order. He's writing to the Ministry right now. Hope you're doing well. I have to shorten the letter here because Mr Eeylops is lending me one of his good owls.
Lots of love,
Mum
P.S. Happy early birthday! Love you!
"A little late now, mum," said Terry with a chuckle.
The doors to the Great Hall opened and a disheveled Travis walked lazily in.
"'Morning," he yawned. He plopped down in his seat and noticed the food. He didn't eat with the same gusto as the night before, but he did seem to be hungry.
"That was a good breakfast," he said, fully awake now. "What time does class start?"
"Nine," said Alia. She pulled into her tiny pink handbag with a daisy print on it and pulled out two tiny, three-paged booklets and handed them to Travis and Terry. They were schedules.
"First we have Transfiguration," stated Travis looking at his schedule.
"Then Charms," added Terry.
"Then Lunch," said Travis with eagerness.
"Then Potions and Herbology," finished Alia. She popped a bit of hash browns and ketchup into her mouth.
Gary stood up and brushed his robes off even though there was nothing on them. He told them he had to go to History of Magic and headed off.
They ate in silence. Terry plowed through all his food and then helped himself to more. After that helping, he glanced up at the staff table. Professors Granger and Potter were conversing. Snape was observing all the students with his over-sized noise cringed. The woman Gary told them was Madam Soan was talking to a woman (who didn't seem to care much for conversation) with black-gray hair pulled into a loose bun.
Travis looked down at his watch.
"Ah! It's eight-thirty now? Right, now!" he said in amazement. "I really slept in. I think we should head out to Transfiguration! We don't know where it is.'
"Point taken," said Alia. She ate one more mouthful of eggs, sipped her pumpkin juice, and grabbed her bag.
"Coming, Terry?" she asked.
"Yeah." He stood up and followed the two of them out of the hall.
Once in the Entrance Hall, they began to decide where to go.
"I think we need to ask someone," said Alia.
"No we don't," said Travis indignantly. "We go to that big staircase and look for the other Ravenclaws first Years and follow them."
"Alright," said Alia. "But if we get lost, we're asking someone."
They agreed. They went up the marble staircase and made a right. They opened the door and found themselves at the larger staircase. They noticed a tall boy with auburn hair. Terry recognized him as Jim Lunomen, one of this fellow Ravenclaws, at the landing of the first floor.
"Oy! Jim!" shouted Terry from the bottom of the stairs. Jim looked around.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Where's the Transfiguration classroom?" asked Alia politely.
"Right through here on the first floor," said Jim.
"Oh! See? I told you we needed to ask someone," said Alia with triumph, but was ignored by Travis.
They began to climb the stairs. About half way up, Alia (wearing such expensive shoes) tripped. Terry, Travis, and Jim went to help her up.
"Thanks," she said.
The stairs gave an almighty lurch and started floating upward. All four of them looked horrified.
"What's happening?" asked Alia. Her face turned an almost milky white.
"Gary told me about this," said Travis. "The stairs change from time to time."
The stairs took them up, higher and higher, passed the second floor. The third whizzed by. The fourth and fifth glided passed. and the sixth passed in a blur, but Terry could make out Mrs Irriate The stairs only halted at the very top; the seventh floor.
"Now where are we?" asked Terry.
"Dunno," said Jim. They looked around. There was a door on the landing. They hopped off the stairs and tried to open it. Locked.
"Well, maybe we can convince the stairs to take us back down," said Travis. But no luck. As Travis said this, it descended again and a stone railing replaced it.
"Now how do we get down?" Alia looked worried.
They sat and thought. Five minutes went by. They still were thinking. Then, like a bolt of lightning, an idea struck Jim.
"I know one charm that could us get in the door. I can't say how well it will work, though. But, it's worth a shot." He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the doorknob. "Alohomora!" he said. There was a tiny click heard and the door sung open. It opened into a large room (very much like the one with the Ravenclaw common room) piled high books in shelves and doors in the wall. They walked down it. They saw some portraits. One of a lady in a blue dress and her hair in a bun, another of a man with a greenish rue to his skin, a large portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress, a picture of a woman draped in shawls and wearing glasses that magnified her eyes (who reminded Terry of his Aunt Sibyll), and finally a picture of a house-elf, cringing at the sight of a sock being out stretched by a hand in a sixteenth century hand.
"I wonder where we are now," said Terry. The entire passage way seemed deserted. No sound came from behind the many doors. All that could be heard were the portraits stirring.
"Why would an entire floor be without people?" asked Alia. "Certainly there are class rooms or offices up here."
They decided to examine the doors. Some were ornate and had intricate designed carved into them while some looked like a block of wood placed into a hole in the wall. Some had big locks, and some of the doorknobs were minuscule. One or two had chains. The ones with the locks and chains Jim tried the Unlocking Charm, with no luck. The chains merely rattled and the locks tried to bite him. They were at a loss.
Just as they were going to try another door, they hear the clicks of high-heels on stone. It was footsteps. They were quickened, fast steps. Around a corner came a woman with short blonde almost spiky hair and wearing black robes. Her face was stern and she was holding out her wand.
"What are you four doing here," she asked in mild surprise.
"The staircase brought us here," said Travis.
"We were trying to go to the first floor but the stair case moved us up here," added Jim.
"Are we not supposed to be here?" asked Alia.
The woman frowned at them. "This floor is closed temporarily for cleaning. Believe me; you don't want to get hit with a Scouring Charm. I can get you to the first floor easily." She went to the portrait of the cowering house-elf.
"Limitless attire!" she said to it. The portrait swung forward on hinges and revealed a tiny crawl space.
"This will take you directly to the first floor, right outside Professor Dannersham's classroom. If she gives you a hard time, tell her to come see me. I'm your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Ferrotte."
Professor Ferrotte swept away and went through the door the four Ravenclaws had just come from. Travis crawled into the minuscule space first.
"It's alright," he hollered back, "it opens into a larger room!"
Next went Jim. Then Alia followed suit and was followed by Terry.
Terry squeezed through the tiny passage. He had pulled himself along into a grungy and dingy stone room. Alia, Jim, and Travis were already there waiting for him. Alia was patting the dust and dirt off her robes. Jim must have landed on his wrist because he was rubbing it and clenching his teeth.
"There you are," said Travis. "I think we just go down these stairs." He pointed to some brown stone steps.
The four of them went down. The narrow stairwell amplified the sound made by their footsteps. Alia's were by far the loudest, being in her expensive shoes. At least sixty stairs they went down. Twice Jim ran headlong into cobwebs and did a sort of spastic dance trying to free his face. Not paying attention where she was going, she thought there was an extra step at what was probably the forth floor landing, and screamed as though she were falling.
They finally made it down. Jim and Alia were relieved. They were in a room most like the once they had just descended from with another crawlspace in the wall. Terry crawled in first this time and pushed against the back of what felt like canvas and the tiny hole opened into a large corridor.
They crawled through and landed in a corridor with suits of armor and portraits. On one door, there was a plague reading the heading diana dannersham, transfiguration.
"This is the place," said Travis. He opened the door.
The room had three long rows of small writing desks, with students sitting in them. At the front sat a woman with long red hair and crescent glasses.
"You're all late," she said, disapprovingly.
"Sorry, we got lost," said Alia. "Professor Ferrotte helped us." She sat down behind Benjamin Strifle. Jim found Davis Byrdman and sat down next to him while Terry and Travis sat on either side of Alia.
The class went on. They were doing a simple spell to turn a button into an insect. Travis's merely twitched and he hit it with his wand; it exploded. Alia made hers sprout wings and antennae. Terry, on the other hand, made an almost perfect beetle (it still had four holes in it). Professor Dannersham awarded five house points to Ravenclaw for that.
"Lucky duck," said Travis to Terry after class was over. His face was still black from his exploding button. "You got an entire beetle. Mine just blew up in my face."
They went outside the classroom and into the corridor.
"What do we have next?" asked Travis. He stretched.
"Charms," said Alia. "On the third floor. I asked Dannersham."
And so they went. Back out into the Grand Staircase and up two flights of stairs (which, to their relief, made no movement what so ever.)
They were the first ones there. Professor Granger was by a blackboard, writing that day's lesson.
Soon, Ravenclaws and Gryffindors piled into the room and took their seats.
Once around twenty of them were there, Professor Granger started the lesson.
"Good morning, class," she said merrily. The class mumbled a low "Good morning, Professor" back.
"I thought we should start small. Today, we'll be learning the Aviary Conjuring charm. If you'll all pull out your wands and say 'Avis'"
The class did so obediently. They all did reasonably well. Alia made a small kestrel burst from her wand and circle the room. James Potter was able to get a falcon. Poor Travis only got a sparrow. Terry was able to conjure an owl. Everyone got a different bird. Some had exotic birds Terry (and sometimes the caster) had never seen before. Some got very ordinary birds. Only a few were not able to make any type of bird appear. Daria Boler, a small Gryffindor girl, came close though when her wand spat out brightly colored florescent feathers.
Professor Granger helped her and demonstrated the spell herself. A large eagle owl swooped around the room. It landed on poor Davis Byrdman and started to peck at him. He managed to get the bird off him but got a deep cut in his finger in the process.
All in all, it was a fun class. Near the end, almost everyone had gotten a bird to at least poke its head out of the tip of the wand.
"I started out with a sparrow but it eventually turned into a swallow," said Travis, very proud of himself for making his bird grow in size. He looked at his wristwatch. "It's noon! Lunch! I'm starved!"
"We couldn't guess," said Alia in Terry's ear. He gave a small scoff to acknowledge he got the joke and he and Alia followed Travis to the Great Hall.
Travis ate with his usual gusto and Alia with her usual polite and dainty ways. Around one o'clock, they asked Gary where the dungeons were.
"Go straight across the Entrance Hall," he had told them, "the door to the left. Snape's class room is the first classroom on the left once you're down there."
They thanked him and headed to the dungeons.
"You know, they say that Snape doesn't really like other students besides his own," said Travis. "Gary told me."
"Well, you can't have a teacher who is too biased," said Alia. "He could get fired."
This however was not the case. Snape was head of Slytherin house and was completely biased. If a Gryffindor were to so much as simply wonder under his oversized nose, he would wrinkle it in disgust. So Gryffindors (along with Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws) often tried to avoid Snape outside of his classroom.
They descended stone steps with one left turn. Tiny queues of students were waiting outside the door. Jim and Davis were already there. Soon, Benjamin Strifle joined them. It appeared they were having the class with the Hufflepuffs (the Ravenclaws suspected since they looked very unfamiliar).
They waited five minutes and then Logan Renfield, the boy who had asked Professor Granger about her and Professor Potter, came down the steps.
"I've just spoken to Professor Snape," said Logan breathlessly. He must have run there. "He says for us all to get in our seats before he gets here. He's running late."
They all filed in the classroom. It smelled musty. You could see the dust in the air. No windows were on the walls. The only light was a fireplace with a large cauldron bubbling and boiling on top of it.
Terry had just put his cauldron and copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi on his desk when the door behind them opened suddenly with a bang. The entire class quieted down but the man who entered said "Quiet down! Quiet down!" anyway. He had greasy black hair with streaks of silvery gray, a large hooked nose, and sallow, sickly looking skin.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," Snape began in a loud, but whispery voice. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here "many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the sensesI can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death—if you're not as bunch a pillocks as I usually have to teach."
Terry, Travis, and Alia exchanged side glances. They had never been called pillocks by an adult before. Terry could already tell that he didn't like Snape much.
"I thought we would start with something simple," Snape continued.
They were divided into pairs and started to add the ingredients to a boil-curing potion. Terry and Travis were put together and Alia was put with Ellistris Kanteroff, a girl in her dormitory.
Terry thought he did reasonably well. He put a good amount of snake fangs. Travis did well with the dried nettles. And after the horned slugs and taking the cauldron off the fire, they added porcupine quills. It was a light brown color. Snape said it was a little too lumpy but gave them a good mark.
Alia and Ellistris' potion had turned a gray and it was smoking slightly. Snape rushed over.
"You were supposed to only let it on the fire for five minutes. That's a point from Ravenclaw for each minute of your stupidity!"
Snape assigned an essay on how to do the potion correctly (and reminded Alia that hers had to be a full page instead of half).
Alia left the dungeon vexed. She was cursing under her breathe and calling Snape names.
Travis and Terry only caught snippets of her ranting like: "That hooked nosed pile of cow dung" or "Grease headed nincompoop!"
She stormed up the dark stairs with Terry and Travis flanking her. They walked out the great oak doors and onto the lawns. It was nice and sunny. The warm air felt good especially when a light cool breeze would blow through.
Alia had abandoned her attempts to dirty up Snape's name when she made it outside. The weather was too delightful to by too angry. They found a nice oak tree and sat under it.
"So, Terry," began Alia, "what's your Quidditch team?"
"National or local," asked Terry.
"Local."
Terry thought. "I guess the Appleby Arrows. My family likes them. My younger cousin Valizzia is in love with the Seeker, Pursin Graps. Quite unrealistic if you ask me. I think she's starting next Year. And my older brother wants to meet the Beaters, Pepulla and Battuo Stipes."
"You have a brother?" asked Travis. Terry nodded. "Where was he the day I went to buy my wand?"
"Fraton graduated five Years ago. He lives in Devon. He works as a Healer at St. Mungo's. I've seen his house. It's alright. But I really like the house next to it!" Terry replied. "It's about four stories high and kind of lopsided. There's a bunch of gnomes in the garden. It's owned by a man with red hair and his wife."
"Cool!" said Travis. "How about you, Alia? You have any siblings?"
"One," she said. "A younger sister. She's a Year younger than me. She'll be here next Year too along with your cousin."
Travis looked down at his watch. "Almost three o'clock. We should go to the greenhouses for Herbology."
The group made their way to the Herbology greenhouses. They would be having Herbology with the Slytherins. This wasn't going to be enjoyable.
They weren't far from the greenhouses when they heard a familiar drawling voice.
"Yes, well, I'm rooting for the Wigtown Wanderers this Year. They clobbered the Montrose Magpies 200-30! As for the Appleby Arrows"
It was Ethilina Malfoy and her other three Slytherin friends.
"Oh, great!" Alia exclaimed. "An hour of Ethilina Malfoy! What a day!"
They moved closer to the horde of Slytherins.
"My father says that if I'm not chosen to be Seeker, he'll write Potter and demand that I be made Seeker. I play a little back home and—" she noticed Alia. "Oy! Clavereaux!" she hollered. "We never finished that duel, did we?"
"Just ignore her, Alia," said Terry.
"What? Is Little-Ms.-Nose-In-The-Air scared?"
"Ignore her," Terry reminded her.
Ethilina began to mock her more. "Boo-hoo! I'm so scared! Clavereaux is going to ignore me to death! What ever shall I do?" She pressed the back of her hand to her forehead and put a fake look of worried panic on her face.
"Hey, Clavereaux! What happened? Do Georgians have a thing against their superiors?"
Alia snapped. She pulled out her wand.
"Alia don't!" shouted Travis. Alia didn't move.
"Oh help! Help! I'm being attacked! Help!" screamed Ethilina. "Clavereaux is going to kill me!" Ethilina's gang doubled up with laughter.
Alia put her wand away with the word "Scum."
They heard footsteps and Terry was sure Ethilina had caused too much attention toward herself. But he was wrong.
A woman with tattered green robes and dirt on her hands came toward them. Her hair was pulled back out of her face, but loose strands came loose and hung in front of her face.
"Move along!" she said to the class. "We're in greenhouse 1!"
The class moved head and the woman went behind them.
They went into the greenhouse with a "1" over the door. All sorts of plants were in here. Plants with spikes, plants with pods, plants with petals, plants with teeth, plants with tentacles, plants with big leaves, plants with tiny leaves, plants that were blue or red or yellow, plants in pots, plants that grew from the ceiling (or any combination of those) were in the tiny greenhouse.
They filed in and made two lines around a long rectangular table.
"Good morning!" said the woman. "I am your teacher, Professor Budman. Today we will be planting Love-in-idleness seeds. A plant that the juices are used in a wide variety of love potions. There should be a packet of seeds, a pot, some rich dirt and Mooncalf fertilizer." She explained how to plant them.
It was actually fun. The students would entertain themselves by talking to their friends and Professor Budman didn't mind.
"I never asked," said Terry to Alia, making sure he was filling the fertilizer to half the pot, "What's your Quidditch team?"
"The Sweetwater All-Stars," replied Alia. "They're from Texas." She placed a dazzling pink and violet bulb into small hole in the top into her pot.
"I don't get Quidditch at all," said Travis. Alia and Terry explained all about the four balls and the players.
"There's a red ball called a Quaffle used for scoring. Three Chasers use it and get it in to one of the three hoops guarded by the Keeper. Ten points for each goal," Alia told him.
"Two Beaters will hit these big iron balls called Bludgers at other players and keep them away from their teammates. And the Seekers chase the Golden Snitch, a tiny, golden, winged, fast, hard to see ball, and try and catch it. When it is caught, the game is over and the Seeker's team gets an extra One-hundred and fifty points for their team," Terry added. "Fun game."
Professor Budman told them to take the seedlings back to their dormitories and take care of it for a week for homework.
They put the pots in their bags and exited the greenhouse.
Alia and Travis were talking about the more specific details of Quidditch. Terry was looking at his course schedule. Dinner wasn't for another hour.
"What do you all want to do?" asked Terry.
Travis shrugged. Alia looked thoughtful. Then she suggested:
"We could go to the common room and drop off our books and Love-in-idlenesses before dinner."
They agreed on that. They walked back up to the castle and into the Entrance Hall. Some students, they noticed, were going into the Great Hall for an early dinner.
They went up the stairs to the corridor where the statue of the owl was. They walked to it and Terry said, "Feather flap!"
The owl sprang to life and flew to the top of the bookshelf. They walked through the opening and heard the bricks rearranging themselves back to where they used to be.
Terry, Travis, and Alia entered the blue room and went up to their dormitories. Terry put his Love-in-idleness on the windowsill and put his textbooks on his cerulean bed.
Travis and Terry met Alia at the bottom of the stairs to the dormitories. They went through the statue passageway and down the corridor. Once downstairs they headed toward the Great Hall.
They sat down at the Ravenclaw Table next to Gary and Davis Byrdman. Gary was reading A Standard Book of Spells: Grade 2 and Davis was playing Wizard Chess with Jim Lunomen.
Terry helped himself to a bit of everything and Travis carried on in the usual manner. Alia was speaking to her new friend Ellistris Kanteroff about Georgia.
Terry was about to bite into a fried chicken leg when a tiny barn owl swooped though the window and dropped a letter on his mashed potatoes. Terry pulled the letter out, wiped off the potatoes, and noticed the envelope was a yellowing parchment with a seal of the Hogwarts school crest. It was addressed to him in emerald ink.
He opened it and read:
Hogwarts School
of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Dear Mr Ollivander,
I was thinking about this morning when you said you wanted to do a branch of higher level magic. You might want to try some books in the library. When I was in school, that's what I did and it worked very well. The Standard Book of Spells grades one-seven could be of help. Also test Charming Charms for the Charmed. The librarian, Mr Fulton, would also be glad to help. The library is opened from breakfast until nine o'clock, which is the earliest curfew. Anytime between that should be a fine time to check out a book.
If you ever need a place to practice the spells in private, my room is open between breaks and during dinner. Don't misuse the privilege of using my room. Don't mess with anything on my desk. It's classified.
I hope I was of some help.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Hermione Granger-Potter
"It's from Professor Granger," said Terry. "This morning I told her I wanted to do harder magic and she sent me this letter." He shot a glance at the staff table. Professor Granger was speaking to Professor Ferrotte. She returned the glance and winked. She went back to her conversation.
"What did she say?" asked Alia. Alia was now alone. Ellistris had gone to see the matron about a cut she got from a plant near the greenhouses. It had swollen up and had grown large purple pus packed pustules.
"She told me to look in the library," Terry told her. "She gave me some book names."
"Want to go now?" asked Travis. He had taken a break from his food. "We have time."
"No," said Terry after a while of thinking. "I'll just browse A Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1 tonight. It'll probably be easier for us to do." They spent the next thirty minutes just chatting away and having a good time. They each played Jim Lunomen in Wizard Chess (Alia was remarkably good). Around seven, the six of them (Alia, Davis, Gary, Jim, Terry, and Travis) went up to the dormitory.
As soon as Terry got there, he ran up to his bed and grabbed his spell book.
He showed them how he could perform the Levitation Charm fairly well. They browsed the book. Alia tried the Locomotion Charm. She made her eraser run around the room, closely pursued by Midnight. Travis tried the Avis spell they had learned in class. He wanted to improve his bird.
He tried and tried. Swallows fluttered out each time. Eventually, he go so sick of it, he conjured them one more time and then enjoyed having target practice by sending sparks out of his wand. One got mad and dove at him. Travis was surprised and dropped his wand. A large blue jay issued from the wand. Travis smiled triumphantly.
Nine o'clock came round and Terry found himself very tired. He told Alia goodnight and he and Travis went up to the dormitory as Alia continued to entertain Midnight.
They slipped off their robes and got into their pajamas.
They told each other goodnight and pulled the hangings around their beds. Terry went to sleep very fast.
He had a funny dream. He was underground and alone in a dug out circular room. There were seven square holes in the wall. In each something round was in each one. He went to the one in front of him. There was a large round black jewel in the middle of the glass sphere. He reached for it and it changed into a dark red weasel. It bit him. He woke up with a flash and tried to go to sleep again.
Just a nightmare, he told himself. Just a nightmare.