She then stood in front of a mirror beside the girl who she believed her name was Susie Mackinson and pulled her long black hair up in a pony tail.
"I can't wait until we can do this with magic." Pansy complained as she managed to get bumps in her hair.
"Yes I know." Susie said. "I've seen my mother do brilliant hair styles. Here I can fix your hair."
Pansy stood still as the girl took her brush and brushed Pansy's long hair out. She then put it up into a bun and added a pretty pink butterfly clip to her hair. Pansy stood admiring herself in the mirror as Susie started doing her own hair now. Pansy watched fascinated; the girl had very blond hair and pale blue eyes. She was a very pretty girl and Pansy felt plain standing next to her.
"So what lessons do you think we will have first?" Pansy asked as they turned to leave the dormitory with the other three girls.
"Hopefully Charms I hear that you do really neat things in that class." Susie said. "Conjuring ribbons or water or-"
"We don't do that in our first year." Pansy interrupted her. "We learn how to levitate feathers or something. You know simple stuff."
"How do you know?" Susie asked looking indignant that Pansy had interrupted her.
"I have a brother in the seventh year and a sister in the third year." Pansy answered rolling her eyes. "So obviously I would know a lot more than you four."
"Right, well what are we doing in Potions then. Come to think of it what will our first class be today Pansy?" A girl behind her asked.
Pansy looked over her shoulder to a tall girl with short brown hair who was staring at her with dislike. Pansy shrugged her shoulders and continued down the steps until the reached the Common Room where several students stood around chatting before heading to breakfast. Pansy realized at that moment that she no idea where the Great Hall was. She hoped that one of the girls she was with had remembered the way the night before.
"So Pansy," The girl said as they left the Common Room. "Where is the Great Hall if you know so much more than us?"
"All right, all right." Pansy said angrily. "I'm sorry I said that. I just meant that I knew some things. I am not a seer so I do not know what we are doing in potions or what our first class is . . . and well I don't remember where the Great Hall is."
"Good, as long as you don't think so highly of yourself." The girl said.
Pansy sighed and wished that she would think before she spoke. She looked at the girls all around her. All of them looked familiar but she seemed to only know Susie's name. Yet she knew that she had once hung around the really large girl that was walking beside her. She was terrible when it came to remembering girls names. She had always only paid attention to the boys.
"So what are everyone's names?" She finally asked.
"We've hung out and yet you don't know our names?" The girl asked.
"I'm not exactly good with names, so no." Pansy answered.
"I'm Tracy Davis." She said. "Our parents use to get together every Saturday night four or five years ago."
"Oh right. I remember now." Pansy said even though she didn't.
"Millicent Bulstode. You always ignore me when I go to your house. You're always trying to hang off Draco Malfoy." The large girl answered.
The rest of the girls around her giggled and Pansy blushed. The last girl with light brown hair and green eyes called herself Daphne Greengrass. Pansy knew the last name Greengrass was familiar but she had no idea who Daphne was. She scolded herself in not trying to figure out who would be in her year when she started Hogwarts. She only cared that Draco would be in her year and no one else.
The girls walked through the dark and cold corridors until they came to a set of stairs. They looked at each other before climbing up the steps and the next moment they were in the Entrance Hall. Pansy felt rather proud of herself for finding the Great Hall without getting lost. They headed to the doors of the Great Hall where older students stood.
"Ickle firsties." Someone said laughing.
"That one isn't so ickle." A boy said pointing at Millicent.
"Shut up." Pansy snapped looking at the hurt look on Millicent's face. "Your feet are too big for your scrawny body."
The girls giggled as they continued into the Great Hall. Millicent was staring at Pansy now with gratitude instead of hatred. They made their way up the Slytherin table until they found the five Slytherin first year boys sitting together. Pansy knew who all five of them were right away. The two large boys were Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle and the dark haired sullen faced one was Blaise Zabini.
"Made your way to the Great Hall ok boys?" Pansy said is a soft voice.
"Uh huh. Hey look we have potions with the Gryffindors. Let's see if famous Potter is as great as they say he is." Draco said with a smirk. "I highly doubt it though."
"Weren't you just saying last night-" Pansy began.
"Yes, but if he refuses to be my friend then he must not be that great. Picking a Weasley over me? He'll soon learn his mistakes." Draco interrupted.
Pansy grew to enjoy classes at Hogwarts. She usually tried to stick with the girls around her so that she couldn't get lost even though several times a Poltergiest names Peeves gave them the wrong directions. Pansy kept finding herself stuck in a certain step that the others always remembered to jump over. Tracy seemed to find this amusing and told the girls to leave Pansy after the fourth time it happened. She was soon rescued by an older student who had taken pity on her.
She found she really didn't like Transfiguration or History of magic. Transfiguration seemed complicated and was taught by Professor McGonagall. In their first class they had spent the time taking difficult notes before they could try and turn a match into a pin. Nobody in her class was able to do it. Pansy heard that some girl from Gryffindor name Hermione Granger had been able to do it.
History of Magic was the most boring class she had ever had to sit through. A ghost teacher taught the class and he talked in a steady boring voice that could put anyone to sleep. Pansy and Millicent (who had taken to following her around every where) spent the lesson whispering about Tracy Davis who was sitting with Daphne and Susie. Pansy had decided that she didn't like Daphne after she had left her in the middle of the step.
"If I had been there, I wouldn't have left you." Millicent said. "Although you should learn to jump that step, everyone else has."
"Yea, yea, yea." Pansy muttered looking over at Draco who was watching Professor Binns with glazed eyes.
She realized she didn't like Defense Against the Dark Arts either when the teacher Professor Quirrell turned out to be a joke. She had heard he was a great teacher but all he did was stutter and the class smelled like garlic. She hated the smell of garlic and she didn't understand how a person like Quirrel was made to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
The rest of the classes, Charms, Astronomy and Herbology interested her. Pansy was a little nervous while being inthe Green house when she learned that there were biting plants but she was also interested in plants. She could hear a pair of Ravenclaw girls' calling Herbology a useless subject. Pansy ignored them, Ravenclaws were only happy if they had hard work in front of them.
The class Pansy looked forward to the most was Potions. She had heard Draco whispering to Vincent and Greg that he was planning on doing something to Potter in the class. She looked forward to it all week and was excited Friday morning when they had Double potions together. Pansy made sure that she sat at the table beside Draco so she could see exactly what he was going to do to Potter.
As Pansy watched Draco she didn't hear Professor Snape call her name when he was doing roll call and said an embarrassed 'here' before focusing her attention back to Draco who was staring at Snape. She focused her attention back to Snape when Draco looked over at her after he had laughed at a snide comment that Snape had made about Potter.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," Professor Snape began and Pansy seemed to be drawn to his voice and forgot Draco for a moment. He had seemed to have a way of making a class pay attention.
"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic," he continued. "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 senses . . . "
"Well of course there is no wand waving." Pansy whispered. "It's potions"
Draco glared at her again and Pansy shut her mouth. He seemed to be hanging off the Professors words. She knew that Draco liked to brew potions at his manor though. Perhaps he would be the best in the class if the annoying Hermione Granger she seemed to hear about a lot didn't try to beat him. She had no idea who the girl was but she knew that the girl was in her class since she was a Gryffindor.
"Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of Asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Professor Snape said interrupting her thoughts. Pansy whirled around to look at Potter who was sitting beside the poor blood traitor Weasley.
A girl sitting near Potter shot her hand up and Pansy remembered her as the bushy brown haired girl with the large front teeth from the sorting. Pansy knew that this was Hermione Granger. She had a know-it-all expression on her face. Pansy hated her already, anyone smart with the exception of Draco Pansy disliked. She had met her fair share amount of smart people and they all acted like they were better than everyone.
Pansy began to giggle as the teacher continued to interrogate Potter who clearly had no idea what Professor Snape was talking about.
"Do you know the answer Pansy?" Tracy asked her as she looked over at her sternly.
"As a matter of fact I do." Pansy answered even though she didn't. "But I'm not about to tell you, now am I?"
She focused on Hermione Granger who was now standing up with her hand stretched to the ceiling. Pansy was snapped back to attention when Professor Snape told Hermione to sit down and told them all to write what he was saying down. Pansy turned away from Tracy's smirk and began copying down her notes cursing Tracy's name under her breath. She really disliked the girl and wished she would stay away from Daphne and Susie.
They had the afternoon off on Friday so after lunch Pansy and Millicent decided to explore the grounds and to her surprise Draco, Greg and Vincent joined them. Happily Pansy spent the time insulting Potter because he didn't know the answer to Professor Snape's questions as they headed to the lake.
"But you didn't know the answers either, did you Pansy?" Draco asked.
Pansy looked at him thinking he was making fun of her but instead he was grinning. He sat down under a tree by the lake and Pansy sat beside him smiling herself. He patted the top of her head and winked. Pansy felt her face warm up while Millicent hid her smile by looking down at the grass.
"I'm surprised that you two aren't with the other three pixies." Draco said pulling at blades of grass.
"Pixies?" Pansy asked confused.
"When you laugh, you sound like a bunch of pixies." He answered still smiling.
"Tracy doesn't seem to like me. She thinks I am full of myself so she makes fun of me and seems to have turned Susie and Daphne against me." Pansy answered.
"Well you do have a big mouth you know." Draco answered. "Stop trying to impress people."
Pansy felt stunned. How did he know? She looked around at Millicent but she was deep in conversation with Greg and Vincent. They were laughing about something that had to do with ink and quills. Pansy stared at them before looking back at Draco who shrugged his shoulders looking just as confused about why quills and ink should be so funny.
"I just want friends." Pansy said.
"Well you're going the wrong way at it. You've insulted me every day this week, you have a sense of humour, use it on someone who isn't a friend. Potter for instance, or that know-it-all mud blood Granger."
"But you don't hate me right?" Pansy asked.
Draco shrugged. "I don't know you well enough to make real judgement. Stop insulting me and we'll be fine. And yourcomment in potions' class wasn't funny either."
"You haven't had enough time to hate Potter and yet you do." Pansy remarked.
"He turned down my friendship to hang around with Weasley and that giant Hagrid. The muggle's contaminated him." Draco answered. "That's all right though. I over heard him telling Weasley that the muggles he lived with neglected him."
"Well I don't find that funny." Pansy answered indignantly. "My parents are never around for me or my brother and sister. The house elves basically raised us."
"Hey, it's Potter so it's funny." Draco answered. Pansy thought she saw a flash of pity on his face but it was gone quickly.
"You don't even have a good reason to hate him." Pansy said.
"Neither do you." Draco answered shrugging.
"I don't hate him exactly. It's just everyone makes too big of a deal about him. He has done nothing special. I can bet you a hundred galleons that he isn't even proud of what he is famous for. Why would he be?" Pansy said. "I'm sick of people calling him a powerful wizard when he is probably just average."
"Well he must have something to him" Draco said slowly. "Why else would he have survived the killing curse when no one else has?"
"I don't know, but I am sick of talking about Harry Potter. Let's try and figure out why ink and quills are so funny." Pansy sighed.
Vincent, Greg and Millicent looked up with embarrassed looks on their faces. Greg still seemed to be laughing at the quill and ink joke while his face went red. Draco smirked at his two friends and shook his head.
"Your slowness continues to amaze me." He said.
"Actually it's an inside joke if you must know." Millicent answered. "It was something that happened at Vince's house."
"Care to fill us in?" Pansy asked.
"Not really." Greg answered. "It's hard to explain."
"For a normal human being it's probably easy." Draco said to Pansy who giggled. "Actually, we have to go anyway. Talk to you later."
Pansy watched the boys as they got up, Vince and Greg waving at Millicent as they headed away. Pansy stared after them thinking over what Draco had said. Instead of hating Tracy she decided she wanted to be friends with her, she just needed a plan. She decided that after all it was her own fault that Tracy was so smug around her. She looked at Millicent who was staring at a group of seventh years sitting near the lake.
"I've thought about it." Pansy said. "We need to become friends with Tracy. After all we are going to be sharing a dorm with her for seven years."
"Why does Tracy dislike me?" Millicent asked. "I mean I can understand why she doesn't like you too much but what have I done?"
"I don't know." Pansy answered irritated. "Who cares? Look I have a plan-"
They put their heads together and Pansy began whispering about what she thought she should do about getting Tracy to be her friend. It would turn out it a few day's time that Pansy wouldn't even have to go through with her plan.