Disclaimer: I own nothing! (Well, except Lilian, Mark, Josh, Alex and all the Weasleys children!)

A/N: This chapter and the next talk about 'life at Hogwarts' but then… Anyway I hope you'll like it! Thank you! LOL!

To Angel of the North: thank you for beta-reading my chapters! It's a hard work, I know!

School Hard

Gryffindor had double potions with Slytherin on the first full day of school. Lilian quickly found out that neither Snape nor Slytherin were particularly pleasant individuals.

Snape swept into the classroom.
"For those that are ignorant, my name is Professor Snape, and I am here to teach you the exact science and subtle art that is potion making. For those with aptitude and intelligence, you will find this a class of infinite possibilities, limited only by your imagination. For those who prefer to wave a wand, this will no doubt prove tedious and dull in comparison to lesser subjects. I find that most of my students fall into the latter group, but I live in hope that one year I may find something beyond the insipid dunderheads that pollute these dungeons."

Saying this last sentence he looked hard at Gryffindor.

"Now. Who can tell me where I would find some blue spiders?"

A hand rose in the middle of the class. It was Lilian's hand.

"Miss Smith?" said Snape, coldly, wondering to himself whether the girl would prove to take after her mother.

Lilian cleared her throat. "Blue spiders can be usually found on troll's heads and especially mountains trolls-"

Snape interrupted her "A correct answer, Miss Smith, but marred by your insistence on showing off. Learn to do as you are asked - 5 points from Gryffindor."

All the Gryffindor opened their mouths wide while Slytherin grinned. Lilian was going to cry, but she held back her tears. But it didn't stop Alex and Josh noticing the hurt expression on her face.

As soon as the class was over they went to Lilian.

"I think that Snape must have had a bad day!" Josh whispered trying to cheer her up.

"No, my uncles told me that he was like that with them in school. Not just them either. Any house, as long as it's not Slytherin!" whispered back Alex.

"Anyway, don't worry Lilian! There were no reasons to act like that! He's just a jerk!" said Josh smiling.

Lilian seemed a little bit comforted "Yeah! You're right!" she said.

They all smiled.

Alex looked at his watch, and started to move. "We'd better run, you guys, we'll be late for DADA."

Josh sighed. "Two classes with Slytherin on the same day. Someone up there must hate us."

They sprinted for the classroom, arriving a second before Harry.

He entered with all the girls eyes on him. Even the Slytherin girls were gazing at him with a mixture of awe and interest as Harry entered the classroom.

"Good afternoon." As soon as he spoke, the conversations around the room died down. Conversations about Quidditch, of course.

Lilian was sighing over him, while Josh and Alex looked at her with a disgusted expression. For all they admired his abilities at Quidditch, they didn't understand why all the girls went so silly in his presence.

"I am Professor Potter, and I shall be teaching Defence against the Dark Arts. My job is to give you the skills to combat the Dark in all its forms, but I live in hope that you won't need them in your lifetime." Smiling at the Gryffindors he continued "For those that choose to apply themselves, this class won't be so difficult."

The Slytherins had annoyed faces as he began to call the roll.

Every girl blushed a little when he called her name.

When he arrived at 'Smith' he looked at Lilian for what seemed ages.

'This girl' he thought 'it seems like I already know her, but that's impossible. Maybe I know her parents. Hmmm-, but I don't know anybody called Smith.'

Carrying on, he smiled when he reached 'Weasley.' Alex grinned back, knowing him all too well from the Burrow.

The lesson was very interesting. Especially for Lilian.

'There's something about him, I can't explain it.' she thought with a dreamily look. As the class progressed, she became more and more wrapped up in her thoughts, till Josh waved his hand in front of her.

"Earth to Lilian. Are you actually here? The lesson ended 5 minutes ago, and we're going to miss lunch if you don't move soon."

The dreamy expression faded from her face. The class was empty.

"Uh? The class is over? Oh, gosh! I must have day-dreamed for all the time! Why didn't you give me a nudge?" she almost shouted.

"Why couldn't you take your eyes of Professor Potter?"

"It was an interesting lesson." She blushed. "You could have woken me."

"Hey! You weren't asleep! How would I know that you weren't recording everything in your mind and didn't want to be disturbed?" he answered.

"Oh, but how… Uff! It doesn't matter! I'm sorry! But where 's Alex?"

"He is already at lunch" he laughed "You can't keep a Weasley away from food."

Lilian laughed, too. Her stomach rumbled.

"Well, I think I'm hungry too!" she said turning pink.

"We'd better get down to hall then, or there'll be nothing left."

He said , still laughing.

"Oh, but that's impossible, because at Hogwarts…" and she started telling him all the things she knew about Hogwarts' kitchens.

Josh made a mental note: girl does not understand irony.

"Hey! You two are late." said Alex with his mouth full of turkey when they reached the Gryffindor table.

"Yes, I was day-dreaming in the class, but luckily Alex waited for me and 'woke me'. And he didn't just leave like someone else-"

She looked meaningfully at Alex. Josh blushed.

"Hey! I was hungry!" he answered back.

"Hmmmm" she said.

"Anyway, what do we have next?" asked Josh drinking some pumpkin juice.

"Transfiguration" said Lilian checking her time table.

"Uncle Ron - cool!" Alex grinned as he spoke. "That'll be way cool."

"If we're lucky, we'll get him talking Quidditch. He's got a one track mind when it comes to that game, at least, that's what I've been told." Josh laughed as he spoke.

Alex confirmed what he'd said. "He's always talking brooms, or Quidditch with Uncle Harry."

His voice trailed off as Lilian gesticulated to them, worry in her face.

"Well, well, well!" said a voice beyond them "I don't speak only about Quidditch, I can also talk to your parents, Alex Weasley!"

Alex turned his face and he found himself face to face to Ron.

Josh and Lilian were frozen.

"You know it's true. How often have you talked about transfiguration at home?"

He knew his uncle too well, and the latter grinned, a trace of embarrassment on his face. The nephew pressed home his advantage. "You're always talking about the Cannons."

Ron blushed a little " I know that some first years have to go to transfiguration class then- you shouldn't be so tiresome! Anyway, who are this wonderful Gryffindor who are going to earn lot of points for their house?" Ron smiled at the other two.

"I'm Josh Randall"

"Hmmm, never heard about a Randall family of wizards"

"Well, I'm half and half, you know my dad is a muggle and my mum is a witch."

"What is your mum's name?"

"Alicia. Alicia Spinnet"

"Oh, I know her! Great chaser! She played with Harry!"

"Yeah! She told me about that in one of her long talk!"

Ron smiled then looked properly at Lilian.

He tried to stifle his surprise.

He saw her from the teacher table the day before, but she was too far from him. She looked like someone he knew, but he couldn't remember who.

"And you are…?"

"Lilian Smith, sir!" she answered.

"You look familiar! I don't know why-"

"We have surely never met, sir. Both my mom and my dad are Muggles and then I come from the U.S.A." she said with a charming smile.

"W-well you must be right." he said. But he couldn't take his eyes away from her.

"Uncle... Professor Weasley - are you still with us?" Ron snapped back to the present. "We'd better be getting to class. And no trying to distract me - I don't want to be taking points from my old house."

The trio followed him to transfiguration class. Gryffindor sat in front while Ravenclav sat behind.

"Ok, listen up. I'm Professor Weasley, and this is transfiguration. Foolish wand-waving is down the corridor, and into the dungeons, this class is about wand-waving for a purpose - that is, to turn one object -" he pointed his wand at the desk "into another." The desk turned into a pig, and back again. "I didn't find this class easy - don't expect to get things right on the first try. With patience and practice, I'm sure you'll all manage."

Everybody nodded, relieved that also the professor had some problems with transfiguration.

Well, really he still had some problems, but he couldn't disappoint professor McGonagall.

"Well, I think we can start with something easy."

They gave them a feather. They had to transfigure it into a sheet of paper. Nobody could do that. Nobody but Lilian.

"I want everybody to look at Miss Smith! Was it so difficult?" he asked her.

She shook her head blushing.

"Teacher's pet!" Alex and Josh hissed.

"Hey, Lilian stop reading! Why you don't just relax?" asked her Alex with an annoyed look.

"I am relaxing!" she said stiffly.

"What are you reading?" asked Josh.

" 'Magical Me' by Gilderoy Lockhart" read Alex from the cover "Well, don't trust him, uncle Ron told me that when he was in his 2nd year he found out that Lockhart is a liar!"

He looked at both of them "You know the story about Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron, don't you. In their second year, they closed the chamber of secrets. Lockhart was the Defense teacher, but he was only there because they forced him at wand-point. He never did any of what he claimed to - he used to collect the stories, and then memory charm the actual heroes. He tried it on Uncle Ron and Uncle Harry, only it backfired, and he couldn't remember who he was."

"Well, thank you very much for all this information about Gilderoy Lockhart, Alex. Anyway I already knew that!" said Lilian "I read everything about Lockhart and professor Potter"

"Did you have any doubt about that, Josh?" said Alex grinning.

Josh started to laugh.

She stood up "Anyway I'm going to find the library. I heard it's very big and with a lot of interesting books. Would you come with me?" she said happily.

They looked disgusted.

"W-well, we were just going to- hem to do something, right Josh?"

"Y-yes, we were going to do that thing-"

Lilian looked at them half annoyed and half amused.

"If you don't want to come you have only to say that." she said.

"We don't want to come!" they said together.

"OK! See you later then"

She walked out of the common room, following Mark's directions for the library. Like her mother, it was the place she felt most at home.