Hogwart's Fifth Years

Chapter 1: Classes

Ouch! said Angel as he lay on the floor. He slowly sat up, rubbing the back of his head, looking around to see if his fall had been noticed. He had been tilting back in his chair, when the chair slipped out from under him and he ended up flat on the wood floor, hitting his head on the desk behind him on his way down.

Looking up, he spotted Ginny Weasley, who at first had looked concerned, but now had her fist in her mouth. She was trying as hard as she could to keep from laughing. He gave Ginny a wink and smiled. Turning his eyes towards the front of the room, he saw that Binns hadn't noticed a thing and was continuing to teach as if nothing had happened.

Angel slowly got to his feet again and, as he began to set his chair upright, a message flew across the classroom and landed on his desk. Angel sat down to look at the message. It was a piece of pink parchment folded to look like a bird. He wasn't so sure he wanted to see what was inside, but he picked it up, squinted his eyes and and slowly unfolded it. "Oh, No!" he whispered. In shiny gold letters were the words "A&S Eternally". And these were surrounded by two entwined hearts! Just below them was written:

Angel hair so Black.
And eyes so gray.
With love from Steph
On your 16th Birthday.

Angel sighed with relief. At least it wasn't a singing card.

A girl giggled nearby and Angel looked up to see a blond curly haired girl staring at him;Stephanie, the card creator.

He started to reply, but before the first word left his lips, the air was full of messages, all flying towards him, all were happy 16th birthday cards.

He gathered all his cards from the floor and nearby desks and piled them in a stack on his desk. He picked up the small lime green card at the top of the stack and began opening it when the class was dismissed. He would have to open them later after classes were over for the day.

Angel quickly stuffed the cards into his robe pockets and hurried off to his next class, potions, Ginny at his side

Potions was Angel's least favorite class, outside of history of magic. Angel was convinced that he was an excellent potions brewer, even better than Snape. Potions had always come easy to him and he loved watching the bubbling liquid change color. But, he loathed the class, because he loathed Snape, and Snape loathed him. According to Ginny, Snape hated Angel almost as much as Snape hated Harry.

Ginny and Angel slowly walked down the stone steps towards potions, Angel dreading every step he took. When they finally arrived at the bottom, a voice called out, "Angel, Ginny, over here!" Looking around they saw a boy peering over the crowd of students. "Happy birthday Angel," said the boy, waving. Angel and Ginny walked up to a tall boy with straight white-blonde hair which came down past his shoulders. This was Liam, Angel's best friend.

Liam was not a Gryffindor; he was a Hufflepuff, but as Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs had potions at the same time this year, Angel and Liam were taking this class together.

Liam's blue eyes twinkled as he said with a wide grin, "Hey Angel, I heard you were sent to McGonagall again last night. I was crossing my fingers, hoping that she hadn't sent you packing this time."

"Honestly Angel," Ginny said with a very concerned look, "Promise me that you won't do any more 'Fred and George' stuff. O.K.?" But Angel just shrugged, smiled and gave her a wink and they walked into the classroom.

The potion for the day was the strengthening solution.

As Angel gathered the ingredients from the store cupboard and assembled them at his table, Ginny looked over her caldron and said, "Honestly Angel, what were you doing out of bed, and in the hallway outside the trophy room?"

Angel shrugged and said, "Must have been sleep walking. "

But he knew that was a lie. He still had told no one, not even Ginny, about the whisper he heard when all was quiet, a whisper that was there, but so quiet that he wondered if he heard anything at all. The whisper that , last night, beckoned him to that hallway. And he was not about to tell Ginny now.

Ginny peered into his eyes and said, "You're gonna stay in your dormitory tonight, Please! I would like to graduate WITH you."

"Miss Weasley!" came a voice from the front of the room. "If you and Mr.Greyson are through with your conversation, I will continue with my class!" "10 points from Gryffindor." Snape was staring down at them. Quickly, they directed their attention to brewing their strengthening solutions

Snape walked over to another student's caldron, Cameron Murray's caldron. Snape rarely criticized Cameron, who, even though a Hufflepuff, Snape seemed not to dislike as much as the rest of the class. He found nothing to complain about and the continued to walk thoughout the room.

After an hour, Angel's potion turned a glistening gold: he was finished. Looking around he could see that he was again finished before anyone else in the class, even before Ginny, who was a good potions brewer.

His eyes lit upon Snape, and to his delight, Snape was facing away from Angel, a few rows ahead and leaning down, criticizing the work of two other Gryffindors.

Angel knew he shouldn't…
He tried not to…..
But …..he was bored and he could not resist.

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a spare bit of parchment and crumpled it up into a ball. He put his hand into his other robe pocket and pulled out his wand.

"Ascendium Verbosum," he said as he passed the wand over the ball.

The ball immediately floated up into the air and across the room, stopping directly behind Snape's head. As Snape moved around the room, looking down his nose at each bubbling potion in the caldrons, the ball of parchment followed him. And that was not all; words were coming from the parchment, words that followed the ball as it traveled. These words formed sentences, which hung in the air and, as they disappeared, were replaced by new words.

"Git!"... "wash you hair" ... "you call this a teacher?" ... and on and on, each message becoming more insulting.

There were sniggers throughout the class, but Ginny looked aghast. "Angel! Be careful!" Yet Angel had never been afraid of Snape, not even in his first year.

As Snape jerked his head around, Angel quickly removed the spell from the parchment and it fell to the floor. Snape let out a short breath, bent down and picked up the parchment. He held the ball in his hand, stared at it, and then peered at Angel.

Snape was tired of this. He would like nothing better than to have lashed out at Angel, putting him in his place, telling him things that would shut him up forever. But he had sworn to Dumbledore that, as he kept Harry's secrets, he would keep Angel's. Instead he just glared at Angel.

"Mr. Greyson, since you seem to have ample time to act like an imbecile, your potion must be ready. Bring it up for marking!"

Angel filled a flask with the potion and brought it up to the front. Snape tested the potion and then sneered at Angel. "Mr. Greyson, as we both know, you couldn't brew a proper potion if your caldron was self stirring and the ingredients self mixing. Who helped you with this?"

Looking across at Ginny he said "Miss Weasley! You know very well that students in my class are not allowed to give assistance to any other student. 20 points from Gryffindor. And if there is any other rule breaking by a Gryffindor in my class today, I will start passing out detentions. Take your seat, Mr. Greyson."

Angel spent the rest of the class longing to be outside on the school grounds; longing for freedom from this class and thinking that in three days winter break would be starting.