Chapter 5: First Day
Phoebes POVThe next morning I woke up before almost everyone else. I was used to getting up at nearly the crack of dawn and now was no exception. I changed into one of my school robes and then headed down to the common room, where a few people had already congregated, but not many. I figured breakfast wouldn't be starting for a while, although I was pretty confident at the time that I'd be able to find the Great Hall on my own. I really didn't feel like waiting for Hermione or one of the boys, so I just headed for the portrait of the fat lady, ignoring the weird stares I received from those in the Common Room.
"Hey, first year," someone called out to me.
I spun around and raised an eyebrow. "Me?" I said curiously.
"Yeah, what's your name?" the boy said. He was sitting in one of the chairs close to where I was now standing. He had flaming red hair similar to Ron's looked identical to the other boy he was sitting next to.
"Phoebe, you two?"
"I'm Fred and this is George," he answered smiling.
"Nice to meet you," I said smiling back. I knew instantly that they were twins and tried to find some way to tell them apart. I was usually very good at this, but it was nearly impossible to tell these two apart. I figured if I got to know them, then I'd be able to tell them apart quite easily.
"You're a first year, right. You were hanging around with Ron and Harry?"
"Yeah, that's me," I said starting to turn back around toward the portrait of the fat lady.
"Hey, where ya going?" George asked curiously.
"Great Hall, I'll find it," I said as I turned back around to face them, adding I hope under my breath.
"We'll go with you," Fred said hopping up out of his chair.
"Yeah, we were bout to head down there anyway," George added.
I shrugged. "Fine with me, no laws against it," I said as I spun around and continued on to the portrait, Fred and George falling in step beside me, one on each side. The portrait swung open as we got to it and we headed out.
"So, how are the classes here," I said trying to find some kind of conversation that we could have.
Fred and George shrugged slightly. "Guess they're ok, the homework bites though," George said through his shrug.
"I'd have to say the best part of this school is our pranks," Fred finished.
"Pranks?" I asked raising an eyebrow.
They both exchanged mischievous looks and smiled wide at each other. The grins plastered on their faces made me wonder why it was they had talked to me in the first place.
"We are by far…"Fred started.
"The best pranksters…"
"In this school."
I smiled slightly. "Cool," I said looking between the two of them. I looked around the hallway we were walking in and didn't recognize anything. A look of slight worry crossed my face. Fred and George smiled warmly at me when they saw it, giving me a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry…" George said.
"You'll be able to find your way around…"
"In no time."
I sighed slightly. "Yea I guess. I just like knowing where I'm going and how I'm going to get there."
"We'll help you in that department if you want," Fred said cheerfully. "We were first years at one point, we know what it feels like," Fred said throwing an arm around my shoulder.
"It sucks for the most part, until you become a second year and realize you had it easy first year," George added shrugging slightly.
I laughed slightly and smiled at them. "Thanks, I think I will definitely take you up on that offer," I said through my laughter as we came up on the Great Hall. "By the way, you are Ron's brothers, aren't you?"
"Yep," Fred replied.
I nodded. "Well, it was nice to meet you. Thanks for taking me to the Great Hall."
"The pleasure was all ours," George said.
I smiled at them as they went over to the Gryffindor table and sat down, almost instantly getting caught up in a conversation about only god knows what, with a boy who had already been sitting at the table I guessed they were good friends but I paid him almost no attention. I went to the general area I had been sitting in the night before and plopped down in a seat. I looked around the Hall to see how many people were actually there and was surprised to see as many as I did. About four or five people per house. None of them looked familiar from the group of first years I had been with the other night, although I hadn't gotten a good look at a lot of them, so I could have been wrong. There were also a couple of professors at the staff table, but never having been in a class at this school before, I didn't know who any of them were except for Professor McGonagall.
The food had already been placed, or summoned, onto the table, and it was much different than the night before when it had appeared right in front of our eyes. I turned back to the table and started to pile up some of the food onto my plate. I didn't usually eat as much as I piled onto it but it all looked so good that I couldn't resist. Luckily there wasn't really anyone there to notice how much I was eating.
Most people started to file in when I was about halfway through my breakfast. I spotted Hermione and Neville walking in together with a couple other first years, and I also saw Ron and Harry walk in together. I didn't wave either over, I just sat there eating while I waited for one of them to notice me and sit down. I wasn't really sure which group I really wanted to hang out with, although I was sure I was pretty good friends with Harry already. I sat there quietly until Harry and Ron noticed me and came over.
"Hey," Harry said smiling and sitting down next to me, while Ron took the seat on the other side of Harry. "You must have gotten here early."
"Yea, I usually get up pretty early. I came down with Fred and George, I probably would have gotten lost otherwise, although I can't be completely sure."
"Yea, Percy was pretty mad, he said all the first years were supposed to come down with him," Ron said smiling. "It was quite funny actually."
I shrugged slightly. "Oh well. I think I got up before he did, or at least I was down there before he was, how was I supposed to know?"
"That's true, but Fred and George should have known," Harry said stealing a glance over at them.
"Yea, well something tells me they really don't care."
"That's for sure," Ron muttered under his breath.
"So do either of you know when we get our schedules?"
"Yep, Professor McGonagall is passing them our right now," Ron said looking at the opposite end of the table.
I followed his gaze and saw her passing papers out to each of the Gryffindor students. I glanced at the other tables and saw a teacher passing them out at the other three tables as well. We conversed some more until Professor McGonagall reached us.
"Here you three are," she said handing us the schedules. "You can ask one of the older students to help you find your classes if you need to, but you are still expected to be on time."
She walked away and we exchanged glances. "Well she's a nice head of house," Ron said sarcastically.
I shrugged. "She's got a lot to pass out, I don't really care anyway," I said subconsciously as I glanced over the schedule.
Ron and Harry followed suite, looking over their schedules. Today we had double potions with Slytherins first, whatever that meant, followed by Transfigurations, which was taught by Professor McGonagall, and then last was History of Magic, which caused me to groan slightly because I had never really liked history. I was hoping that I wouldn't have history anymore.
"Well this looks fun," Harry said sighing.
"What's the deal on double potions with Slytherin?"
"Well first off it's like a double period, twice the length, and second, we're having it with Slytherins. Snape teaches that subject, he loathes Gryffindors and favors Slytherins, not to mention the fact that Slytherins pretty much hate our guts."
"Sounds like fun," I said sighing heavily, "loads and load o' fun."
Grams Pov"Girls, lets get going, you've got school remember?" I screamed up the stairs.
Prue came running down the stairs and stopped at the foot of them where I stood.
"Piper's coming in a minute. How do you think Phoebe's doing?"
I sighed slightly. "I'm sure she's doing fine and making plenty of friends." However, I felt anything but confident that Phoebe was fine. I still didn't like the fact that she was attending this school and it was really starting to get to me. I kept telling myself that I should have never let her go.
"Grams, are you ever going to tell her, or Piper for that matter, or is this just something that only I will ever know. I know I had to pry it out of you, but I think you really need to tell them both, now that Phoebe's part of this world makes the fact even more true."
"Maybe some day I'll tell them Prue, but not today, and probably not anytime soon. I agree that Phoebe deserves to know, maybe I'll tell her when she visits. I just don't know Prue."
"Maybe I'll tell her than, if you're so intent on her not finding out from you," Prue said slightly annoyed and angered.
"Please don't tell either of them. I'll tell them in my own time and my own way," I replied sighing heavily. These conversations where starting to veer more and more towards revealing it to Phoebe, and sometimes Piper as well. I'd need to tell Phoebe soon, but I wasn't sure if I'd be able to, and I wasn't sure I'd know how either.
"Come on Piper, hurry up!" I screamed up the stairs for the second time that day.
"Coming," she screamed down as she ran down the stairs. She passed us and ran straight into the kitchen, stopping only once she reached the table.
"Come on Prue, I'll take you both to school after breakfast. No more talk about this anymore, at least not now."
"Ok, Grams," Prue said sighing and then heading into the kitchen. I sighed heavily out loud to myself once she had entered the kitchen and then followed her in.
Phoebes POVBreakfast had finished and it was time to go to our first class, which for Gryffindor's was a double potion lesson with the Slytherin.
"So, do either of you know where the potions classroom is?" I asked Harry and Ron.
"No clue," Harry said, and the look on Ron's face made it clear that he didn't know either.
"Great," I said as I looked around for someone to ask. I spotted Fred and George starting to head away in the opposite direction and decided they were as good a person to ask as anyone. "Fred! George!" I screamed so they could hear me over the loud noise level.
They spun around and raised an eyebrow. I waved slightly to them and they smiled at me, walking over. They spotted Harry and Ron by me and came to a halt in front of us.
"Ron," George said coming up to us. "Harry," he said nodding slightly and brightly.
"Hey, Phoebe, what's up?" Fred said smiling brightly.
"Can you take us, or at least tell us where the Potions class is?"
"Yeah, sure, come on…"
"Follow us," George finished.
I glanced over at Ron and saw an annoyed look on his face. I shrugged it off and started to follow the twins down the corridors. After a bit I turned around to glance at Harry and Ron and saw them following slightly behind me. I rolled my eyes as I turned back toward the twins and sped up slgihtly to catch up with them.
"Thanks for showin us," I said looking straight-ahead smiling.
"Of course, it's no prob, we'll show you anytime," Fred replied shrugging.
"Sorry you have potions first though, not the best class to start your day, or year, off with," George said apologetically.
"So I've heard," I muttered unhappily under my breath.
We talked some more as we entered the dungeons, Fred and George leaving almost as soon as we reached the potions classroom to get to their class on time, or just fashionably late, whichever one it happened to be. I turned to Ron and saw that he still carried an annoyed look on his face.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked raising an eyebrow and putting all of my weight on one foot.
"Why did you have to ask my brothers for help?" Ron asked angrily.
"Well it's not like we were going to be able to find this place and I really did not feel like getting on the Professors nerves, especially since everyone says he hates Gryffindors, while he loves and favors Slytherins, not to mention not wanting to get lost. And since this is a double potions with Slytherins I figured it best to not get on his nerves by being late, even if it was because we got lost," I said smugly.
"Sounds good to me," Harry said, obviously trying to avoid an argument, which was obviously about to break out between Ron and me.
Ron was about to retort when the potions classroom door burst open, revealing a very annoyed looking Professor Snape. He stepped back inside and walked to the front of the class as everyone filed in, keeping a dead silence. I gulped slightly as I filed in and prepared myself mentally for my first class.
A/N: Chapter Five is finished, hope you liked it, potions class will be in the next chapter, and I think I'll add in the other two classes as well, or at least one of them, I'm not sure about the history of magic class. After that chapter there probably won't be many more class scenes, although I'm not 100 percentcertain, I may change my mind. Well, hope you liked this chapter, Pease Review, and have a nice day, or night, depending on when you're reading this.