Chapter 7
Lily's alarm clock went of at six thirty the next day. Lily rubbed her eyes tiredly. How she hated mornings. Then the thought struck her. First morning in Hogwarts…in Slytherin. She still had to write to her parents and tell them, something she was not looking forward too.
"'Morning Venus, 'Morning Nancy" Lily grumbled
"'Morning Lily" came Nancy's soft voice. However, no answer came from Venus.
Lily pushed her self up and squinted over at Venus' bed. It was empty. "Venus is up early" yawned Lily
"Seems so…I wonder where she is?" said Nancy rubbing her eyes "Its too early to be already down at breakfast"
Lily looked at Venus's bed
"Her school robes are left out, so she can't have gone down yet"
"I don't know, maybe she's in the common room"
"Perhaps"
But Venus was not in the common room. When Lily and Nancy headed down to the common room it was empty, fortunately though Octavias had come down from his dormitory the same time as Lily and Nancy.
"Good Morning Octavias have you seen Venus?"
"No but you'll see her soon enough…breakfast is ready and I'm starving" he said brightly
"How can you be hungry this early in the morning its only quarter past seven"
"I'm used to waking up early" he said
"Well why didn't you go straight down to breakfast then? It started quarter of an hour ago"
Octavias smirked his Malfoy smirk and bowed low
"A gentleman always waits for the ladies"
Lily rolled her eyes
"Come on then"
"Lily, Lily" came a call. Lily had been sitting at the Slytherin table talking to Octavias and Nancy when she heard the call. She recognised the voice of that of her cousin, Amelie Delacour Weasley. Lily turned around to see her fourteen year old cousin running towards her. Amelie was an eighth Veela and thus possessed the extreme natural beauty and elegance of her mother. However, she possessed the signature Weasley hair colour, which was so silky looking it could have been made out of liquid.
"Hi Amy" said Lily, the nick name had always annoyed Amelie
"Well well well, Slytherin, I'm surprised"
"Join the club"
"Have owled your parents yet?" she asked seriously
"No, you haven't told my Uncle Bill have you?" asked Lily, worried that Amelie's father might tell her parents
"No, I was supposed to but I forgot, still write them a letter in History of Magic or something."
"In a lesson?"
"Believe me Lily that is all History of Magic is good for…it's a shame you aren't in Ravenclaw like me" she said thoughtfully
"Yeah, I know. Oh Amelie how is Jacques'" Lily enquired after her younger cousin, Amelie's little brother"
"Same as ever, depressed that he has yet another year to wait before he can start Hogwarts"
"Poor thing…oh have you seen Jess?"
"Jessica? Oui I mean yes (Amelie occasionally journeyed to her second language) she's over at the Gryffindor table" Amelie pointed to the other side of the room. Lily recognised the red curly haired girl…with her back to her
"Oh…she's not said hello yet"
"Mmm…well see you later Lil'" the pretty girl flicked her hair behind her and floated off gracefully.
"Who was that?" asked Nancy
"Oh my cousin Amelie…er Octavias are you okay" Lily looked over at her friend. He looked slightly stunned, and slightly punch drunk…on Veela. Lily snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. The boy seemed to suddenly sit up straighter and looked around nervously, then shook his head like a wet dog.
"What was that?" he asked stupidly
"My cousin…her mum's a quarter Veela" said Lily knowingly
"A quarter Veela" said Octavias dreamily
"Who's a quarter Veela" came a familiar voice
"My cous-…Oh hi Venus, where have you been?"
"I was running, then I took a shower but all of you were down here…I must've just missed you"
"Running?" repeated Lily
"Don't ask" answered Octavias, his mouth full of scrambled eggs. He seemed to have got rid of the Veela on the brain. "She does it every single morning"
"Why?" Lily asked Venus who was pouring herself some cereal
"For stamina, also to keep my weight down"
"Huh like you need that" said Lily
"The Ballet companies only take the best" she said in a sing-song voice
"First lesson: Defence against the dark arts" read Nancy
"Oh good, that was my Dad's favourite lesson" said Lily
"Cool" said Octavias
"Nancy, when do we have History of Magic?"
"Lesson 2" Nancy read off her time table "You don't like that lesson do you?"
"No…but I need time to write a letter to my Dad"
"Oh goodness, me too, Daddy will be worried, I was going to write it yesterday but I forgot"
"Fly Trap, where would you be that Father would be worried?" said Octavias shaking his head slowly
"I just mean he wants to hear from us Squid…poor Daddy with only Mother for company"
"What's wrong with your Mother? Perhaps he'd like some time alone with his wife?" said Nancy soothingly
"You don't know our Mother" said Venus "She's a control freak"
"Bossy boots" said Octavias
"Nightmare"
"Pain in the Arse"
"SQUID!"
"Sorry"
"Oh surely she can't be so bad" shocked that someone could speak like that about their mother.
"Oh she is" said Venus
"Yeah…plus Fly Trap is a tad protective of Father and as Mother is the one who bosses him around, she likes to insult her. She still loves her Mother though…don't get her wrong"
"But it is true, she is a pain in the backside" said Venus in a growl
"Hey how come you're allowed to say it?"
"Because I said it with more decorum than octopus"
"Hey!"
Lily, Venus, Nancy and Octavias waited in the line outside the classroom. All of them, excited for their first class with the famous Professor Rivers for a teacher.
"What do you think she will be like?" asked Nancy
"Cool" said Octavias "Seriously cool"
"I have to admit, she's not the average professor is she?" said Nancy
"Neither is Sorax…did you see what she was wearing today. I haven't seen robes that pink since I had a family photo when I was six" said Venus. Suddenly another voice joined them
"You can continue your discussion on Professor Sorax's pink robes after class. In the mean time you are holding up the line"
The four friends looked up to see the tall female professor looking down from her great height. She was pointing to the large gap in the line. Half the students were already making there way into the open class room.
"Sorry Professor" the twins, Nancy and Lily chimed.
"My name is Professor Rivers" the teacher said forcefully, then wrote it on the board with a piece of chalk "I take my subject, Defence Against the Dark Arts, extremely seriously and I expect each and every one of you to do the same" Her green eyes swam over the class and her mouth did not once change into a smile…not even a smirk. "In these dark and difficult times, Defence against the dark arts is one of the most important subject…if not THE most important. I do not tolerate a few things in my class and it is only fair that I tell you now...I do not tolerate late comers, those who feel homework is beneath you, squeamishness, fear, gum chewing in my class Miss Illiad, or talking when I am talking. If you do not listen to every word I say when I teach this class. You may find your self seriously injured or even dead.
Now…I thought perhaps some of you would like to ask me some questions"
Nobody raised there hand. Darrell Rivers lent against her desk "There's no need to be frightened…I don't bite, you know?"
There was some hesitant laughter and a few hands were raised
"Yes Miss…" she looked at the register "Malfoy, of course I should have recognised you" Venus looked slightly confused "You had a question dear?"
"Er yes, out of curiosity…how tall are you?"
There was more hesitant sniggering. Professor Rivers kept a perfectly straight face
"I'm 5ft 10" Yes I know, very tall, your question Miss…Taylor"
"Is it true your brother is the rock star 'Tyger' from the WWN?"
"Yes"
There was a lot of excited chattering from the class
"Are there any questions of relevance or shall we move on…ah Miss Potter?" she did not have to check her register then
"Are you really an auror?"
"Yes, I took time off after an injury, I was put here and I found I liked my new job"
"So you're giving up your career as an auror?"
"No, there will be times when they need me…and I am more than willing to go back"
"Is it hard work being an auror?" shouted out a boy in the front row
"Becoming an auror was possibly the biggest struggle of my life…but it was worth it. The hardest part is what you do every day. Taking an exam just means you need to rise to an occasion. Fulfilling your duties every single day to prove yourself is the difficult part…How many of you are considering becoming an auror?"
There were a few scattered hands raised. Lily kept hers down, she wanted to be a Quidditch player, she had seen her Father, her, Mother, her Auntie and her Uncle all tied down with paper work. Well it was not going to happen to her.
To Lily's surprise Nancy had raised her hand, quiet little Nancy. Who would have thought she would want such an intense job? Even more surprising though, Octavias raised his hand too. The son and Grandson of an ex Death Eater wanted to fight dark wizards. Lily wondered if Draco Malfoy knew this. "Well I'm glad some of you are interested in the law? Now back to Defence Against the Dark Arts. Please open to page 4 and er…Mr Malfoy will you please read paragraph one"
There were a few groans, the sound of opening books, followed by Octavias' bored, drawling voice.
i Dear Mum and Dad
Hogwarts is wonderful, its every bit as fantastic as you said it would be. I have had Defence Against the Dark Arts, with my teacher Professor Darrell Rivers. She's an auror... perhaps you know her? Her brother is 'Tyger' from WWN.
Mum and Dad, brace yourself because I have something to tell you about my sorting…please don't be cross. Yesterday I was sorted into Slytherin. I know what you said about them but I have found some Slytherins who are really rather…well nice.
My new friends are Nancy Wood and a pair of crazy twins called Venus and Octavias i (Lily thought she would save the 'Malfoy' part of their names until another day) i They are all great…Octavias and Nancy want to be aurors like you…Venus wants to be a ballerina. She's really serious about it as well.
Missing you loads
Lil xxx i
Lily hoped that would do for a letter for her parents. She stowed it away in her bag and lay her head down for a snooze. History of Magic had to be the most boring lesson on the Earth. The ghost teacher Professor Binns had the most boring, droning voice Lily had ever heard. Venus and Octavias were having a near silent argument on what to put in their letter
"No that's stupid, I wouldn't write that" said Octavias
"Well you write your bit in a different colour ink so that Daddy knows who's who"
"No you write in a different coloured ink"
"I've already started in this one now get some blue ink Squid before Mr Motivation gets suspicious"
"Why am I always the underdog…why do I always get bossed around by everyone?"
"Because I'm older than you"
"What, by ten friggin' minutes!" Octavias said not as quietly as he had perhaps intended
"Quiet down at the back!" snapped Professor Binns