Fanfic
The Marauders – Book One
Disclaimer: All main characters and settings belong to J K Rowling
N/A: So you all get to meet the teachers that I have invented. I am afraid that none of them are particularly interesting; I didn't have many ideas. If anyone has any idea's they'd like so share, I am always willing to read them even if I don't use them. Thank you to all reviewers.
Chapter Seven – LessonsLily woke a few minutes before the bell rung the next morning. She got out of bed and ran into the bathroom to wash before anyone else was up. After dressing into her school uniform, she sat on her bed brushing her hair, watching the lump in the covers of the bed opposite her.
Once she felt presentable, Lily headed over to Nicky's bed. The girl hadn't yet showed any sign of life, despite the noisy grumbling of the inhabitants of the dorm. Lily poked the lump under the covers. It didn't move. She poked harder, receiving a groan. She fought to pull the duvet down, but Nicky had grabbed the top and was holding it.
Lily gave in and strode into the bathroom. She filled one of the mugs on the side and took it back into the room. Then she emptied it on the small patch of head she could see. The reaction was electric at the cold water woke Nicky up. The girl leapt out of bed and chased Lily, screaming, from the room.
Twenty minutes later, Nicky came down to the common room to find Lily sitting on an armchair and spacing out of the window. She crept up behind Lily and then grabbed her shoulders, making the girl jump.
'C'mon.' Said Nicky brightly, as if she hadn't been refusing to get out of bed just twenty minutes ago. 'Everyone's already left for breakfast; we'd better go.'
They climbed out of the portrait hole and started heading down to breakfast. Hey had only walked a number of paces when they realised that neither of them could remember which way to go. No one was around, so they settled on walking down every flight of stairs they could see, because they both remembered walking up stairs the night before.
After about ten minutes and several flights of stairs, the two girls were hopelessly lost. Lily suggested back tracking to the common room; until Nicky pointed out that neither of them could remember which way they had come. They looked at each other nervously, not sure what to do next.
A portrait on the wall to the right came to the rescue. A fairly young witch with frizzy brown hair was flying on a broomstick in her picture. She was hovering, listening to them curiously. When she realised how lost they were she laughed loudly, gaining their attention.
'New students, I'm guessing.' She giggled. Lily and Nicky nodded mutely. 'Looking for the Great Hall?'
'Yes, but we're lost.' Lily replied.
'Not to worry,' said the witch, 'Just follow me.'
She turned her broom and flew out of the side of the frame. Once Lily had got over her surprise that she could leave the frame at all, the two girls set off after her. They had to run with their robes streaming out behind them to keep up with the broomstick.
After five minutes following the witch as she flew between portraits, they could hear the noise from the great hall. The witch stopped at the top of a huge flight of marble stairs.
'Just go down these stairs. The great hall is along to the right. And mind the seventh step down, it's a trick one.'
The girls thanked her and started down the stairs, taking care to jump the seventh step. The noise from the hall was loud as they walked towards the open door. They hurried in and walked over to the table where they had sat yesterday. The other girls were already there, so Lily and Nicky went to sit by them.
While they were eating their breakfast, Professor McGonagall walked down the table handing out timetables. Lily looked down at hers. They had Transfiguration first, followed by charms. Lily glanced down the Monday column and was pleased to see that they would also be having History of magic, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Herbology today.
'Lots of new subjects today.' She commented to Nicky.
Nicky was frowning. 'What's Proper Use of Magic?' She asked, pointing to last lesson on a Tuesday, then first on a Thursday.
'I don't know.' Lily said. 'I don't think we have a school book for it.'
Nicky shrugged. 'I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Oh look, we have History of Magic today with the Hufflepuff.'
'What's wrong with that?' Asked Lily, who had always like History.
'Professor Binns is apparently the most boring teacher ever, and he's ancient. He taught my parents! They said that he could make anything sound dull.'
'I'm looking forwards to Charms; I've tried a few spells and they've worked and I really want to learn more.'
'We've got Transfiguration first though. That's the hardest subject. Great way to start a Monday morning.'
They continued discussing their timetable as they finished their food and headed back to the common room. Eager not to get lost again, they asked several portraits the way and made note of it. Once they had picked up their bags they started heading for transfiguration.
They arrived, by some miracle, just before the bell went, and were sitting in their placed by the time Professor McGonagall walked in. The class, a mixture of Gryffindors and Slytherins, fell silent. Professor McGonagall looked at them with her piercing gaze. James and Sirius, sitting at the back with Peter beside them, looked up from their notes. Once she was sure she had everyone's attention, the Professor started talking.
'As I am sure you are aware, Transfiguration is one of the most difficult magical subjects. I will not have messing wound while you are in my lesson, because the consequences could be very dangerous.'
Then she took out her wand and transfigured Lydia's pencil case into a rabbit. Everyone laughed at Lydia's expression, and they were all eager to get to work. However, they first had to copy complicated notes of the textbook on how to transfigure things.
Eventually, Professor McGonagall handed everyone a matchstick and told them to try and transfigure it into a needle. There were many muttered words as everyone struggled to change their matchstick. Sirius poked his doubtfully with his wand, causing it to unexpectedly turn purple and grow to twice its size. Professor McGonagall frowned at him severely as she replaced it with a new one.
James was frowning at his matchstick. He sensed that there was a sparkling solution to this all just around the corner. He concentrated; knowing that if he could just work it out he wouldn't have to go through the long way like everyone else. The solution was frustratingly just out of reach beyond some corner in his mind. He frowned deeper, struggling to reach it.
The bell rang, startling his concentration just as he felt he was going to solve it. He looked down at his matchstick, woefully woody still. Sirius' looked slightly metallic, almost bronzy, and Professor McGonagall awarded him five points for Gryffindor. When she got around to Lily she actually awarded a rare smile, as well as ten points, because it had defiantly turned to metal and had gone pointy.
'How'd you do that?' Nicky asked Lily as they headed off to the Charms classroom. 'It was impossible.'
Lily laughed at Nicky's comic expression. 'I dunno. It wasn't easy.'
They were let into the Charms classroom by an extremely short wizard. They all sat down and he went over to his desk and stood on a tall pile of books. After taking the register he introduced himself as Professor Flitwick. Then they all opened their books near the front and started work on a charm that was supposed to make an object jump once. After practicing the wand action for a few minutes, Flitwick got them to say the word along with him without their wands.
'Sautin.' The class chorused.
'That's correct.' Squeaked the Professor. 'Make sure you pronounce it properly; of you never know what might happen. And remember, Raise and Sweep.' He said, demonstrating the movement with his wand as he did so.
The class set to work. Lily watched Nicky attempting the spell on the small rubber ball they had been presented with.
'Sautin.' She said, concentrating on moving her wand as they had been shown. The ball twitched, but otherwise stayed still.
'Oh you have a try Lily.' Nicky muttered, shoving the ball over.
Lily withdrew her wand and waved it carefully at the ball, saying the incantation carefully.
The ball leapt into the air and hit the ceiling immediately, plummeting back down and landing on James's head. Sirius, Lily and Nicky burst out laughing, and Professor Flitwick praised Lily for the excellent spell.
As they wondered the corridors during break, Nicky shook her head at Lily. 'I see I've befriended a very powerful witch.' She said, obviously trying to sound light-hearted. 'That's two lessons where you've come out top, and you've won fifteen house points already.
After break they had History of Magic. It was taught by Professor Binns; an ancient, grey-haired man with a monotone voice. No one had any idea how long he had been teaching at Hogwarts, just that it was a long time. Lily and Nicky were bored soon after he started lecturing them on goblin rebellions. The two girls took it in turns to take notes while the other went into a stupor.
After the longest hour they had ever sat through, the Gryffindor first years hurried to Defence Against the Dark Arts. When they arrived they saw that the Slytherin's were already lined up outside. Sirius scowled when he saw Severus talking to the blond-haired boy. James saw his look and noticed them as well.
'Typical, we have to have the best lesson with them.' He muttered, scowling as well.
The door opened and Amy stepped out. James and Sirius exchanged smiled, suddenly thinking that Defence Against the Dark Arts had got a lot better. Amy smiled at them, short dark hair glinting in the light.
Everyone filed in. Lily smiled at Amy, and received a happy greeting in return. As the girls sat down near the front, Nicky questions Lily as to how she knew the teacher.
'Oh, I forgot to say. She was the teacher who took me to Diagon Alley. She's really nice.'
Further talk was forestalled as Amy closed the door and walked to the front of the airy classroom.
'Welcome to Defence Against the Dark Arts.' She said brightly. 'I am Professor Lerta.' Her eyes were scanning the class piercingly, taking in everyone's faces.
She took the register efficiently, and then addressed them again. 'In this classroom it is my job to teach you to defend yourselves against dark creatures, hexes and curses. What I am teaching you is important, and I don't want people messing around in this room because it could be dangerous.' Her black eyes fixed in James and Sirius, who looked up guiltily from the notes they were writing.
'Accio Parchment.' Said Amy, pointing her wand at them. The boys recoiled at the wand, but then lunged forwards to try and grab the parchment as it rose off the desk and started flying towards Professor Lerta. However, it slipped out of their fingers and Amy caught it.
She glanced down, scanning their writing. The class held it's collective breath, waiting to see what would happen. Suddenly the teacher laughed, and looked at the two red-faced boys at the back of the room. 'I thank you both for the compliment, but ask you in future not to write notes. This time I'll just give you a warning, but next time you will both loose house points or gain a detention.'
Lily looked back at James and Sirius and giggled to Nicky. 'I wish I could see what they had written on that note. They look like they wish they could disappear.'
They spent the rest of the lesson being questions about various creatures, such as Grindylows and Red Kapps, to see what they knew already. They left the lesson in high spirits, confident that they were going to enjoy Defence Against the Dark Arts.
'What do we have now?' Lily asked her friend eagerly. Nicky fished her timetable out of her pocket.
'Lunch.' She replied with a smile.
They ate their lunch in the Great Hall, which was easy to locate because that was where everyone else was heading. After eating they headed outside to see the grounds. They could see the figure of the large man who had met them last night moving around near a hut by the forest. The lake that they had sailed over was huge, and this was where the two girls headed. Many other students were outside as well, making the most of the last summer sunshine.
It was relaxing to sit outside on the lakeshore. Lily played her fingers over the surface of the water and looked up at the sky. It was still warm, although Lily knew that before long autumn would start to set in.
Conveniently, their next lesson was outside on the grounds too. They had Herbology, which was taken in one of the outdoor greenhouses. The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff first years started to group outside the greenhouses, and the teacher turned up just after the bell went. He was a tall, broad man with a kindly face and, strangely enough, green hair. He had a long twisted beard, also green in colour, which somewhat resembled a tangled vine.
'Afternoon all.' He said pleasantly. 'I'm Professor Grant, and I'm your Herbology teacher.' He paused and looked around at everyone. 'No, in Herbology you'll be handling some fairly dangerous plants. 'Cos of this I expect everyone to pay full attention to what I'm saying. No, please go into greenhouse one, and mind the strangling vine as you go in.'
James and Sirius were nearest to the door, so they headed in first. Everyone shuffled around the large surface down the middle of the house. There were trays with various plants on them, and Professor Grant called out that there were three people to a tray. The boys ended up with Peter, the Gryffindor sharing their dorm. Lily and Nicky were joined by a shy looking girl called Stephanie.
'The plant on your tray is called the Mistucular Coltar. It was discovered by Mr Coltar in South East Asia in 1874. Originally he harvested it because he though it was the very rare and valuable Mistucular plant. The Mistucular is valuable because it can only be found in three places in the world, and it only flowers on midsummer's night for one hour. It can be used to counteract almost any poison, but is not commonly known due to its rarity. However, the Mistucular Coltar is not an antidote, merely very effective for clearing up colds.'
They spent the rest of the double lesson learning to care for the plants. These ones were only young, and it would be their task to look after the plants. Re-potting proved difficult, because the roots appeared to have a life of their own and wrapped around anything they could. Lily at last managed to extract hers from her pot when it wrapped itself firmly around her hand, and it took the efforts of both her and Nicky to remove it.
Sirius and James managed to pot theirs quite successfully, and spent the next ten minutes trying to persuade the Peter's plant to detach itself from its face where it had stuck. Once he was free Peter was ridiculously grateful, thanking them profusely for their help.
The double was spent watering, feeding and pruning the innocent looking plants, and the class at last trouped out filthy and covered in soil. The girls headed up to the common room for showers, and then set about doing their homework.
As Lily flicked through her copy of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, she considered how much work for magic there really was. She hadn't expected to be set much homework, let alone something for every subject. For Herbology they had to write a short essay on the properties of the Mistucular Coltar and the Mistucular and how to tell them apart. For transfiguration they had to practise transfiguring the needles, and in Charms they had to write a long paragraph on the Sautin charm. Professor Binns had set them an essay on the Giant laws and they had to research Boggarts.
Lily dropped her quill thankfully when the bell for supper rang. She only had her History of Magic homework left, and that wasn't in until Wednesday. After eating supper the girls decided they couldn't bother to do any more homework, and Lily asked what wizards did in their free time. In this was Nicky introduced her to wizard's chess, which Lily was not very good at as she always felt so sorry for the players that she took. They both went to bed in god spirits, tired after their first day.
N/B: So, What do you all think? Not much happened plot-wise in this chapter, but that is all coming. I just enjoyed lessons. What do you think of the plants I invented? I couldn't think of any names.
All that remains it to thank my reviewers for the last chapter (note I had two). And I'm glad you liked the names, I was having problems of thinking of original ones.
Please REVIEW!