First Day

Sounds of whispering girls and pattering feet woke me. As I sat up, all conversation stopped. One girl, Valerie, I remembered, spoke to me first.

"How did you sleep?"

"Fine, thank you."

Aimee stepped forward. "We're just going down to the Great Hall now. Do you want to come?"

"I'll follow you, trying to remember where I am, all the way to the Great Hall. I like that idea." The girls laughed and I got dressed and followed them out the common room and back to the Great Hall. Coming from this direction, it was down stairs, along a corridor, down more stairs, take a left, another left, a right, a left, right, left, up stairs, and down a wide hall to the Great Hall.

"I'm getting dizzy," I moaned, gathering laughter from my companions.

"Don't worry," said a blonde girl whose name I forgot. "You'll get used to it. Sometime." I chuckled as we made our way into the Great Hall.

"Oh!" I had caught sight of Sirius and the others. "I'll be right over. I need to talk to my tutor." The group nodded and I walked over to the Marauders.

"Good morning." It was Sirius.

"Sirius, when am I meeting you?"

"Four o'clock, at the Room of –." He broke off, looking around. "At the Room." Sirius completed.

"Okay. See you." I walked away, pocketing the silver key I had swiped from Sirius without his knowing. Looking back, I saw that the boys continued to stuff their faces. Good. Nobody saw me take that key. I thought.

Back at the Ravenclaw table, the girls giggled.

"Oh, so Sirius is your tutor?" More titters. "Oh, he's gorgeous. And not taken, unlike James."

Oh. So that's what they want. My tutor. It was strange at the time to think that, to wonder why I felt as if they shouldn't want Sirius

"So, think you could introduce me to him?"

"Sure, Aimee. Why don't I just yell over to him 'Hey! You, Sirius! This girl here, Aimee, she likes you! Why don't you ask her out!'"

"No!" she squealed. "Don't!"

"I don't see why not. Hey, is that pudding I see? For breakfast?"

"Well, Dumbledore's a little eccentric."

"I realized." I managed to steer the conversation away from my tutor and his gang, yet all too soon it was time for the other girls to go to their first lesson.

"'Bye," I said, somewhat forlornly. The others waved and disappeared into the crowd. Soon I stood up, wondering exactly where I was supposed to be going. Then I spotted the Grey Lady floating around.

"Hi." I walked up to her. "I was wondering if you could tell me how to reach Gryffindor Tower. Dumbledore gave me permission to go there." She nodded and wafted away, motioning for me to follow. I guess she didn't speak, either.

I followed the Ravenclaw resident ghost up to a picture of the Fat Lady in a tower, said the password, and walked in, thanking the Grey Lady as I went.

Turning a corner, I went up the boys' side of the tower and went into the first door I saw (it did say sixth years on it, I wasn't just entering any random door). There at the end of the first bed was a big, black trunk with the initials S. B. embossed on it. I went to it and inserted the key into the silver keyhole. Suddenly there was a loud BANG and I was thrown back.

"Damn you, Sirius." I muttered, and tried again. This time, to my relief, it worked and the lid popped open. Inside was an odd assortment, ranging from sugar quills to the Marauder's Map. I grabbed the Map and locked the trunk.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good." The Map sprang into life. Good. It works. I scanned the map and soon got a vague idea of where I could go next, and how to get there. I then wiped the map clean. "Mischief managed."

I decided I liked the Gryffindor common room (gold and red are such warm colors), and so helped myself to some of Sirius's spare parchment, ink and quills before going down to the common room. I would have used my materials, but they were in my bag, which happened to be in my dormitory.

"Right," I mumbled to myself. "What have I got to do?" The following list included 'write to Dad', and I decided that was the most important task.

Dear Dad and Mom and Dave,

Hope you're fine. I'm doing great, this is all so interesting. I love school and I'm going to have my first lesson this afternoon. Sirius says he's going to pack in about a week's worth of Charms, if I can handle it.

Mom, Wormtail is just as pathetic as I thought, and all the Marauders hate Snape. I didn't see Lucius Malfoy, so he must be at least two years older than James, Sirius, Lily, and the gang. I'm going to snoop (no to much) around the Slytherins and stuff about Hogwarts. There is so much I don't know! Oh, I forgot, I got into Ravenclaw! Told you, Mom, that I would!

I couldn't tell the boys that I know their secret, because they'd never trust me and I could never really be friends with them. I'd sort of just black-mail them into being nice to me.

I'm sending this over by owl because I don't know if I could get to a Muggle (hahaha) post station soon enough. Dad, I'm fine, thank you for worrying.

Love you all (well, at least I might love you, Davey)

Sanya

"Well, that's done. Now, to find my way to the owlery. I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

POOF The map appeared.

"Right, I go that way once I'm there." I put back the Map, started towards the portrait hole, then remembered that I had promised to write to my best friend as well, and also that I promised my other friends that I would write through her to them. "Oh great. I don't like writing letters." It seemed I was stuck with it. "Might as well," I said, very low-spiritedly, and set to work.

',',',',',',',',',

I made my way back from Professor Dumbledore's office, having dropped off the Harry Potter series after sending my letters. At the entrance hall I paused. Should I go to the Ravenclaw or the Gryffindor common room? My question was answered as I saw Sirius hurrying down the steps.

"There you are, Sanya!" he yelled across the hall. "Grab your bag and meet me in the, er, class-room we're to be in!" He lowered his voice and teased me as he approached me. "Can you find it?"

I flashed him a smile. "I'll try my best. If you don't see me in twenty minutes you'd better start a search party, though."

He chuckled. "See you soon." And he disappeared.

I ran to the common room, having memorized the Map while the others were at lessons. I grabbed my bag and ran out, slowing to a fast walk only when I was in the entrance hall. When I reached the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy I saw Sirius, still outside. He was walking around with a frown on his face.

"What's the matter?"

"I can't get in."

I rolled my eyes. Boys. You're supposed to get in by concentrating. Must be hard for Sirius! I cleared those thoughts, however true they were, from my mind. "Sirius, would you please hold still for me? Thank you." I paced in front of blank bit of wall, thinking hard. Ok, Room, I need a room for learning, a special sort of classroom A tutor room. A classroom.

Suddenly Sirius cried out. "Hey, you got it to work. How'd you do that?"

"One tries one's best, Sirius." I hoisted my bag and motioned him in. "Come on, we don't have all day." I glanced at the room around me after dumping my book, wand, and writing utensils on a table. The room was spacious, well lit with torches, and had a platform at one end. There were a few tables, occupied by some formal chairs and some cozy armchairs.

"Sweet. At least I'll learn in comfort." I rummaged through my schoolbag for wand, quill, ink, paper, and book. Plopping myself in one of the big comfortable chairs, I called Sirius back to reality. "Yo, dude, come on. What's first?"

Sirius shook his head, ridding himself of daydreams. "Er, usually the teachers give a lecture, then start you off with the easiest thing there is. Tonight will be Charms night. Flitwick would give a small lecture about how important hand movements and other little details are to making charms work their best. Then he would give you stuff to copy down, which I have right here to give to you. You have to review them tonight, as well as practice the charm, or charms I teach you."

He handed me a couple of papers. I noticed he had many more to hand out that night. Wonderful. I hope they're written so they're interesting. I can never read boring stuff. It just doesn't work for me.

He continued, "The first charm is Sparks. In the Sparks charm there is the ordinary Spark incantation, then a different incantation for each color Spark. There is a very specific hand movement, a hard flick of the wrist, like this." He demonstrated, the palm of his hand pointing in the direction he wanted the sparks to go, then whipped his hand around so the end of his wand pointed that way. "Now you try."

I practiced the hand movement, with him patiently correcting it, until he deemed me perfect.

"You've got it now. The incantation for just ordinary, light-colored sparks is Candeito. Pronounce it 'can-de-eee-toe', with the 'e' high-pitched."

I complied. "Candeito. Candeito. Candeito!" The last time I added the hard wrist flick, and the air before my wand shimmered.

"Good! Very good. Nobody gets it the first time. Want to try again?"

And so I practiced, and practiced. Soon Sirius taught me about green sparks, then red sparks. No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the green sparks to work. I finally had to skip them and go on to the red sparks. I had the red sparks working in just ten minutes. Then the papers were handed out, and class was dismissed.

Seeing as it was only seven-thirty, I decided to go to the Gryffindor common room. Going through the portrait hole, I saw the Marauders grouped around the fire, with a seat empty for Sirius. I also saw Lily and her friends around one of the low tables. Choices, choices. I thought. I could go over to Lily and her friends, and actually talk, or I could stay with Sirius and the gang. I think I'll go over to the fire. I have to win them over sometime, and better sooner than later.

"Mind if I join you?" I asked the group.

They exchanged surprised looks, but finally James replied, "I suppose that's all right"

"Thanks!" I pulled up a chair as the others started ignoring me and chatting. Once or twice they had to stop talking and change the subject, throwing looks at me. Well, they have to get used to me after a while. Even if this step is not my favorite.

About twenty minutes in, I decided I had to join the conversation. So I started throwing in comments, opinions, and questions.

The group was discussing Slytherins. Well, really they were dissing Slytherins, especially Snape.

"Did you see the slimy git this morning? He and his group of future Death Eaters."

"Um," I interrupted. Most of the boys turned towards me and glared, but Remus put on a face of curiosity. "How do you know that they're going to be Death Eaters?"

"Because they're evil and openly support You-Know-Who." Piped Peter.

"Right . . . Don't you believe in second chances? Dumbledore does, as I'm sure you know." I turned my gaze on Sirius and James in particular. They must have know how many 'second' chances they got for misbehaving.

James started to grin, but quickly smothered it. He hardened his gaze. "How do you know what Dumbledore believes? You've only met him once."

I softened my gaze, remembering all that Dumbledore had done in the books, which lead to remembering the end of the fifth book, and so Sirius's death. I glanced at Sirius, then said, softly, "Only once that you know of."

The Marauders exchanged looks that said clearly "Okay. Sirius, your new friend is a bit mental."

"Sure." Sirius finally voiced. It seemed he was annoyed, if not mad, with me also. "So, what did Snivillus do this morning?"

As you saw, the Marauders ignored me and glared at me at first, but I persisted against all odds. Lily even came over and told me that I'd never get through their barricade. But I continued, and an hour later it paid off.

"Remus, were you assigned any homework?" Remus shook his head, and Sirius continued. "Then why are you doing work? Surely it isn't voluntary."

Aha. An opportunity to converse. "He can work if he wants to. I'm sure it's interesting. What are you doing?"

Remus, always eager to please, mumbled something about a moon chart. The Marauders exchanged significant looks, excluding me completely.

It was tricky, but I always enjoyed a challenge. "What's you're homework usually like?"

"It's horrible. We are assigned loads of work every day. I don't see how we're expected to complete all that!" Sirius raged. "It's easy, of course, but there are some tricky parts near the end of the year and it just takes up time!"

They continued on in this vein for a while. I encouraged them with some snide remarks about some of the more despised teachers, such as Mr. Binns and Mr. Velum, the DADA teacher. I had picked up some background information during my talks with Sirius.

"So, what would I be expecting for work if I was in the normal first year?"

"Well," started James. "Not much for work. Mostly speeches and theory."

Remus was more willing to share information. "You'd be turning matches into needles. She always does that first." And so it went. The first step in becoming accepted, finished in night one.

Finally I sighed and said, "Sirius, can I have those other papers and diagrams you've been saving for me? I know you'd just love to spring them on me, but I want to go through them now. And I'd like the incantations for the other colors."

Sirius sighed. "You ruin all my fun."

"Yes," I said, not sympathetic at all. "I do."