-1Sorry for the long wait. I had to play with my Christmas presents for awhile. R&R please. And this is going to be in first person for this chapter. Tell me if you prefer this way.

Chapter Three

"Now that we are well fed and rested, let's get the announcements out of the way," Professor Weasley said to the now silent crowd. I noticed that he never looked like I though he would. His hair was short (so unlike Dumbledore's) and you could totally see some of the red in it, which kind of surprised me because he was probably in his eighties or something.

"First years are reminded that the Forbidden Forest is strictly off-limits. I need not remind some of the older students that they should follow this advice as well." He shot a particularly meaningful look at the third year who had thrown the mashed potatoes at me and Reba. I bet he'd be real friendly with some of the centaurs over there.

"Also, those who are wanting to try out for their house Quidditch team can turn their name into their head of house. The rule that first years can not play has been lifted due to some first year showing…er… incredible talent."

At this I grinned remembering who he was talking about.

He continued, " Club Rush will start tomorrow morning. Students wanting to participate in the various clubs, teams, etc. are reminded that there will be an incredible strain with the emphasis of schoolwork and having too many after-hours projects will probably hurt you. Miss Wellpoint1 does not need any more students coming into the Hospital Wing because you had a mental breakdown.

" And now before we go, let's end this day with the school song! Pick a tune and off we go!"

I froze. Singing? I can't sing to save my life. I don't even know the words to the song because I never really paid attention to it before.

Everyone else, however, started singing:

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something, please,
Whether we be old and bald
Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot.

Everybody finished at different times. Finally, Reba and me were singing some sort of opera duet. I had decided to just imitate her, because I can't sing to save my life. Professor Weasley smiled warmly when we finish.

"Besides laughter, music is probably the best medicine in the world. Off you go!"

We all stood up and I looked around to see if anybody knew where to go. Hey, I know the books like the back of my hand, and except for the singing part, I had it practically memorized. But Reba just grabbed my hand and said, "Come on."

We followed the small group of people heading out into the entrance hall and headed up the staircase. We ran into the Gryffindor prefect who was leading the other Gryffindors to the common room. I started to feel tired and wondered how long it would be before I could go get some sleep.

We finally reached a portrait, but it wasn't the Fat Lady. Instead, there was a young woman in a white ball gown, a tiara in her hair. I nudged Reba in the ribs.

"What happened to the Fat Lady?" I asked.

"I heard that she decided to retire and now she resides next to her friend Violet," she whispered back.

I raised my eyebrows. "I didn't know they could retire," I told her.

"Oh yeah," she said. "After a few hundred or so years, portraits can decide whether or not they want to stay as the portrait hole guard."

We watched the prefect. She had to rap hard on the edge of the portrait's frame, because the woman was giggling at the boys and batting her eyelashes. She finally turned to the prefect, who was a girl.

"What?" she asked.

"Password's Oracle Bell," the prefect said.

The woman bowed and swung open to let us in. We all clamored in (I needed a little help). My mouth fell open. The common room was so big. It was like how J.K. Rowling described in the book. Only it was… different. I couldn't put my finger on it, but it was different somehow. I was looking around trying to figure out what was different, and I didn't hear what the prefect was saying. It was only when Reba nudged me, did I pay any attention.

"You will find that your stuff is already up there," she concluded. "Any questions?" No one did, so she let us go.

We went up the spiral staircases to a room with a brass plate that said : FIRST YEARS. I found my stuff-even my duffle bag was there- by a window overlooking the school grounds. Three girls soon came in with us. We all introduced ourselves and then we got ready for bed.

As I snuggled into my bed, I wondered how my family was taking it. I'd have to send an owl in the morning. It worried me for about two whole minutes and then I turned over and fell asleep.

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In the morning, after I had gotten dress and sent my letter with a tawny owl, I headed down to the Great Hall. Reba was already there, eating French toast. She nodded to me in greeting because her mouth was full of food. I sat across from her and immediately reached for the oatmeal.

At nine, our head of house, ironically enough Professor Neville Longbottom, handed out schedules. He didn't even look at me. It kind of made me mad, especially since he smiled at Reba and let her give him a kiss on the cheek.

I knew that he didn't think he'd ever see me, but at least he could show some sort of recognition. I ignored this obvious factor and looked down at my schedule. First was History of Magic. Then I had Double Charms before lunch.

"Excellent!" Reba said, taking my schedule. "We've got the same classes!" She didn't seem to have noticed my dark mood after our grandfather passed us up.

"C'mon," I said, picking up my bag and heading towards the double doors.

Once in the History classroom, we took seats near the front. A man with white short white hair and beard was in the corner, drinking hot chocolate. When everybody came in, he started the lesson.

"Greetings," he placed the mug down on his desk and tipped his hat, revealing a shiny bald spot. "Welcome to First Year History of Magic. I am your professor, Mr. Dervish. You may call me Professor Dervish, Mr. Dervish, Mr. D... but never 'Hey mister!'. Comprende? Yes? Good."
I stifled a laugh. He looked in my direction before continuing.

"Your textbook is 'A History of Magic,' by Bathilda Bagshott. For a little extra light reading, I can recommend 'The Encyclopedia of Wizardry', by Lex E. Conners."

I saw out of the corner of my eye, Reba scribbling this down. I made a note to ask her for the list later.

"This being your first year, it seems only sensible to begin with something nice and simple... something that has a lot to do with your world. For that reason, the curriculum requests that you begin with learning the history of your school. Our first lesson is to study our school motto, and it's relevance to us."

I looked at him. Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus meant 'Never tickle a sleeping dragon'. Mr. D pointed to a Ravenclaw boy who prompted in answering the question.

"Jolly good. Thank you very much. Now, never tickle a sleeping dragon. Very good motto. Beware students, because if you leave the doors of Hogwarts and go tickling any sleeping dragons... if you are so insensible as to do that..."

A kid in the back said something about it eating us up. I laughed that time. Even Mr. D laughed before continuing.

"Aye, aye... laugh while you can - you're not afraid. Why should you be? After all, dragons are hardly plentiful in this day and age; certainly, there are none around Hogwarts. Why, they aren't even native to this area! So why on earth would we have such a silly and irrelevant motto? How about you?" he said to me.

"Um," I said, a little taken aback. I usually didn't get called upon in class. "It's because the motto is a metaphor - something which says one thing, but actually has a hidden meaning to be something else. The dragon symbolizes terrible danger. It quite clearly could consume you, burn you, destroy you, if it were awake. However, it isn't. It's sleeping, and quite harmless. But if it woke - the very least that could happen is that it might remain sleeping, but sneeze out a wave of fire to destroy you instead. "

"Correct." He addressed the class again. "Tickling, taunting, teasing - how utterly idiotic. 'Why hello, Mr. Dragon. You, dangerous? Pshaw. I'm not afraid. TICKLE!' And what happens? The dragon wakes up. The danger is very much present, and all hell breaks loose.

""So what our motto in fact means is 'Don't perform any boastful or meaningless action that could get you killed.' Would anybody like to take a small crack at guessing what sort of actions might be included?" He asked the class at large.

I raised my hand. "Yes?" he asked, looking surprised.

"Would it be along the lines of death eaters?" I asked in a small voice.

He peered down at me from behind his glasses. "And what do you know about death eaters, Miss…. Nevaeh?"

I gulped. "Um, well… death eaters are, or were, the servants of the Dark Lord. They do the bidding of him and claim to be the closest to him, although Voldemort never was really close to anybody. After his first downfall, most were put into Azkaban while some evaded capture, claiming they were put under the Imperius curse."

Everybody just stared at me. I looked around cautiously. "I've read about them," I said, faintly.

"Well, you are correct again in any case. Ten points to Gryffindor." Mr. D addressed the rest of the class again. "Death eaters! That pack of rats seem to consider it amusing to attack us every so often, and it might shock some of you to know that in recent years, young students... students who haven't even completed a year of Defense Against the Dark Arts... decide to go running out to find the death eaters BY THEMSELVES! Gripping their cherry wood wands, determined that their ickle knockback jinx shall ruin the helpless death eater. How absolutely LUDICROUS!"

We all jumped. He seemed to calm down some before he continued.

""I cannot stress to you how ridiculous that sort of action is - how powerful the dragon is that those children were attempting to tickle. Even a powerful man like Professor Dumbledore might in fact be miniscule next to an unknown quantity... ah, and there my friends, there we come to what History can grant you.
"An unknown quantity is when you simply do not know what to expect, or what the effects of your action will be. Say, for example, that a group of aurors are about to bust into a shop that stocks implements of the Dark Arts. Now, a silly auror would simply rush in there, knowing nothing about what to expect, but simply wanting to get it over with as soon as possible, with as much credit to themselves. The smart auror would examine records from the shop trading, question people about what they have seen - yes, they need to hurry with the bust, but not so much that they neglect to do their homework. Not so fast that they don't know twenty men were seen heading into the shop in the past hour, their faces twisted into scowls. Certainly, just a tiny scrap of short-term history like that could be an advantage.

"Now, take that into a larger perspective. Say you want to know more about death eaters specifically. You'd want to know their abilities, obviously. What they are likely to use against you. You might study past wars, study known death eaters such as Tom Riddle. You might study their friends, where they were schooled, where they traveled. Know to the best of your ability what it would take to overcome such an evil force. The greater scheme of History is to teach information from the past to help us with our future.
"Of course, if you want to study things like that," he shrugged, "You'll have to go and visit the library. For this year, what we study is the lives of the four founders, and how to take pride in your own house. To learn what binds you together. You are here to prepare yourself for the future by understanding. Understand the past, understand the future, understand the people. It's as simple as that."

He took a swig from his mug before concluding. "Since I am so kind, I will not give you homework this week. Now go gather your things, and go off to chase death eaters, or whatever it is you like to do with your spare time."

Everybody gathered their stuff. I was about to leave when Mr. D said over the crowd. "Miss Nevaeh a word please."

I shot a glance at Reba who shrugged and pointed to her watch. "Go on," I said.

" I'm very pleased," Mr. D told me at his desk. "Not all of my first years could have answered that question. Either they're too scared or just lazy, I don't know. But keep up the good work."

"Thank you sir," I said. "But all I did was read the series by J.K. Rowling about Harry Potter."

"Ah, yes," he nodded understandingly. " The one set of books that proves to muggles that we exist and they still don't know. That's all Miss Nevaeh. Let me write you a pass."

Ten minutes later, I was sitting in Charms learning about levitation charms. After letting us practice for a good par of the lesson, Professor McAmis assigned us to practice the charm for homework before dismissing us to lunch.

At flying, we didn't touch a broom. The teacher, by the name Rachel Moscivitz, asked us to tell about ourselves and to tell of our previous flying experience. After that, we were dismissed.

At half past three, I was glad class was over. I was exhausted and we still had homework to do. After that, I laid in front of the fire in the common room, close enough to heat but not to get burned.

Overall, it had been a good day.

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And now I shall get me some sleep from writing all of this at three in the morning. Adios Amigos!

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