Meanwhile back Roswell…
Maria studied Max as he sat at the counter of the Crashdown Café, fidgeting with his straw for his "Blood of Alien Smoothie." He seemed dejected as he checked his watch again. He periodically glanced towards the employee break room. She knew who he was looking for. She walked over to put him out of his misery.
He sighed heavily as she approached. He barely glanced up as he asked, "Maria, is Liz avoiding me? I've been by here at least 20 times the last few days. I have yet to see her. When is her next shift?"
"Max, Liz isn't working here this summer. She left town three days ago," she answered gently.
"Left town?!" he nearly screamed. "What do you mean, left town?"
"She's gone to her aunt's," she said, thinking eventually.
"Why didn't she tell me?" he questioned, as he squeezed the glass.
"I don't know, Max. You need to calm down though," she demanded pointing to the now cracked glass.
"Oh. Sorry. Where is her aunt?" he asked quietly, while he repaired the glass.
"Florida," Maria answered.
"Who goes to Florida for the summer?" he questioned, with total disbelief etched on his face.
"Apparently Liz does," Maria answered in a slightly sarcastic tone, then walked away from the counter.
Sheriff Valenti walked in and sat at the other end of the counter. Maria brought him a menu and asked, "Dining alone tonight?"
"Tonight and every night for a while. Kyle is out of town for the summer, football camp. He'll be back just in time for school," he volunteered.
Maria took his order. "I'll tell Mom to bring you some pie to cheer you up," she said winking as she left.
The sheriff blushed slightly as he tried not to laugh.
Max overheard their conversation and thought, How nice that everybody else is leaving town this summer. As he got up to pay the bill, he noticed a group of football players sitting in the rear booths. He frowned and began to wonder why they weren't at football camp too.
By the time Liz had showered and changed into her pajamas she was exhausted. Her early morning conflict with Kyle, plus the long train ride had drained her to begin with. The full stomach from the delicious meal had only added to that. After climbing the many long staircases to Gryffindor Tower she had only enough energy to shower and collapse into her bed.
After a very restful and (thankfully) dreamless night's sleep, she rose early. She prepared herself mentally for the new challenges that would face her for the first day of classes.
Liz dressed quietly and packed her backpack. Fortunately, Hermione had given them their schedules the night before, so she only had to pack the books for the three classes she had during the day, Potions, History and Transfiguration. They also had Astronomy at midnight but she saw no reason to lug that book around all day too.
She packed her quill, ink, parchment rolls and schedules all in the front pocket of the backpack. Then she put the books into the back. She grabbed her wand, a summer weight robe, and the bag as she left the dorm.
After a quick stop in the bathroom to brush her teeth and pull her hair into a ponytail, she went down to the common room and began reading the first chapters from her texts.
An hour later the others joined her and they headed down for breakfast. Liz forced herself to eat some oatmeal, hoping it would settle her nervous stomach. While she was eating, she took down the directions to the Potions dungeon from George. As soon as Kyle was done eating they headed quickly down the stairs.
Kyle followed Liz as she led the way down to the dungeons. Upon reaching the classroom, he was amazed by the damp chill that permeated the air. Of course, it is held in a dungeon, he thought. But, still, it is summer. What will this classroom feel like when we spend a winter here? He shuddered at the thought. Of course British summers were hardly the same as those in Roswell. Their differences only served to highlight to Kyle exactly how much his world had changed in less than 2 months. He was still reflecting on this as the dungeon door slammed and the potion master strode menacingly to the front of the room.
Professor Snape glared down at them for a full minute before he spoke. "So, you two are the 'oddities' that I must give up my summer holiday to teach. Am I correct in supposing that you haven't even a basic knowledge of anything to do with potions? Well at least we are starting from the beginning."
He strode to the space in front of their worktable. He looked pointedly down his nose at them as he emphasized, "You are both going to have to work exceptionally hard to catch up with the rest of the students your age. I do not think you will have enough time to complete the training that will be necessary for you to pass your O.W.L.s, much less your N.E.W.T.s. Nevertheless, I have committed my time to your training and I expect you to do the same."
His look suggested that his efforts would be wasted as he returned to his desk. He continued, "I will be covering the lessons quickly and I expect you to keep up. We will have tests on Fridays. Essays will be assigned on Mondays and will be due the following Monday. We will be covering approximately six regular lessons a week. I will be lecturing you while you are mixing potions. I suggest you learn a basic Stenography charm for your quills so that your hands will be free to follow the instructions. You must be very careful and follow the instructions precisely or You. Will. Fail." The disdain seemed to drip from his voice.
"Today's lesson is the practical preparations lesson. You must be able to prepare your ingredients properly. First the difference in dicing and cubing…" He began lecturing, never losing his scowl.
As they left Potions class, Liz sighed with relief. She thought, Potions class is exactly what Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer meant when she said, 'It's chemistry, only with more newt.' And I can do chemistry. Only there are a lot more ingredients than there are elements.
At Hermione's suggestion she'd bought three extra books on just various ingredients and their properties. Another two were actual potion recipes. She could already tell she'd be buying more.
Suddenly she remembered she needed to be getting to class, but she couldn't remember how. "Um, Kyle? Do you remember which way George said to go to get to the History classroom?" she asked.
"Take the second staircase on your left and climb up three levels. On the third floor turn right and go to the next staircase on your left. Climb the staircase up one more level and the History of Magic classroom will be on your left as you enter the corridor."
Liz was startled when the portrait of an old woman to her left answered. From the corner of her eye she saw Kyle clutch his chest. "Thank you," Liz told the portrait as soon as she recovered her wits.
"You are most welcome, dearie. Now you'd better hurry along," the woman advised.
Kyle and Liz exchanged looks of "Why not," then took off running for the staircase stifling nervous giggles.
After a long, dry lecture in History of Magic, Liz and Kyle returned to the Great Hall for lunch. The Weasley twins were already there.
After hearing about their first two classes, Fred explained how they had spent their morning. "The rest of us met with Professor McGonagall after breakfast. We divided up exactly which subjects we'd each be helping you with. She assigned Herbiology and Transfiguration to Hermione. The Defense Against the Dark Arts coach will be Harry. Ginny is for History of Magic and Charms. Ron has Astronomy. And finally George and I will be assisting with Flying and Potions.
"Of course that doesn't mean that we can't help each other out when we need help, but overall those are our assignments. Also in the meantime we get ahead in out studies for the N.E.W.T.s, which you take at the end of seventh year. And Ron, Harry and Hermione will be preparing for their O.W.L.s which are taken at the end of fifth year," George explained.
"Wow," Liz exclaimed. "That sounds like a lot of work. Oh, speaking of Ron and the rest, here they come now. I was afraid they were going to miss lunch."
Fred leaned in and joked, "Bet you a knut that when you ask where they've been, Hermione says the library."
Liz rolled her eyes and said, laughing, "I've been here less than 24 hours and I could have told you that. That's too easy. But, just in case you're wrong, you're on."
As the group reached the table, Kyle piped up, "Hey guys. Where've you been?"
"Oh just checking something in the library," Hermione answered.
Fred snorted with laughter as she answered and Liz searched her robe pocket for a knut. She handed it over and smiled, just shaking her head.
"So, you have Transfiguration next," Hermione stated. "You'll enjoy that and I'll be helping you both with it."
"That's what Fred was just saying. When do you think we should start working on this? Tonight or should we wait until the morning when we are more refreshed, since tomorrow is Saturday?" Liz asked.
"Let's wait until the morning," she answered.
The Roswell two left the Great Hall a little while later in search of their Transfiguration class. The boys and Ginny headed out to the Quidditch pitch for an impromptu game and Hermione returned to the library.
Hermione headed to the Muggle studies section of the library and pulled several books on America. The conversation she'd overheard the night morning before was haunting her. She searched for articles that mentioned Roswell, New Mexico. After several hours of research she was no closer to finding answers than before. Aside from the occasional humidity spell, New Mexico for the most part wasn't mentioned.
She was almost ready to give up for the day until she ran across a book entitled Unexplained Phenomena in the Western United States. The book included an article called the "Great UFO Crash of 1947." As she read the article she came across one sentence that made her blood run cold. While most believe that the crash never happened, others claim to have been attacked by "little green men"…