Chapter 11
Emrys was lead into a classroom full of eight year olds. Everyone was a lot bigger than him and he suddenly felt extremely shy. The teacher told him to take a seat, and to Emrys surprise, pulled out a wand and magically amplified her voice, "Take a seat everyone!" as the kids all took seats, Emrys felt very left out, everyone else already had friends and were giving him weird looks. The teacher, Mrs. Laswir, began handing out timetables. Emrys took a look at his as it was given to him.
Day 1:
9am-Homeroom
9:15-10:15- History
10:15-10:45- Recess
10:45-11:45- Mathematics
11:45-12:45- Lunch
12:45-1:45- English
1:45-2:15- Recess
2:15-2:45- Physical Education
Day 2:
9am-Homeroom
9:15-10:15- Geography
10:15-10:45- Recess
10:45-11:45- Arts
11:45-12:45- Lunch
12:45-1:45- Science
1:45-2:15- Recess
2:15-2:45- Latin
It seemed as though they were on a 2-day schedule, Emrys however, didn't know which day they were on right now, looked around, hoping the teacher would say something. The national anthem started and they all were required to stand up, afterwards the teacher went through some announcements. Emrys listened intently, really excited to be at a new school, a fresh start.
Mrs. Laswir began, "Now then, tryouts for this years Track and Field team will begin tommorow after school, if you'd like to tryout then please be on the field at 3:00 dressed and ready to go. As well we will be starting interschool Quidditch intramurals, no experience is necessary and you can learn more about that from Mr. Badro in your physical education class. Now we have a new member to Sir Knight today, I'd like everyone to please welcome Emrys Snape now are their any volunteers to show Mr.Snape around?" A tall boy, sitting across from Emrys raised his hand. "Well then Simon I trust you'll see that Emrys makes it to his classes, thank you." The bell rang just then and Simon smiled at Emrys, "Hey, we all have the same timetable, so you can just follow me around for the next few days, I remember what it's like being the new kid." So with that Emrys gave a shy nod and followed Simon to Geography.
Their geography teacher appeared to be a short balding man named Mr. Turin. He seemed slightly boring to Emrys, and they spent the class making notes. At the end of class he handed out an assignment, they had to write an essay about the natural resources found in the Sahara Dessert.
Simon showed Emrys out to the yard, mentioning that at recess they could hang out in the yard or the library and Simon introduced Emrys to his friends Scott and Mikalo. He pointed out the different 'cliques' of the yard. On the field were the jocks, athletic kids who looked to be kicking around a football. By the playground the pretty much 'average' kids could be found along with the bullies. Emrys saw that Sean was hanging around with the bullies and looked to be laughing at some girl with pigtails. This scared him a bit, hoping Sean wasn't like Dudley. Simon and his friends seemed to be the 'nerds'. They spent recess talking about some new computer game Simon had gotten and Emrys basically stood their and listened to their conversation.
The bell rang and Emrys followed Simon to Math, their teacher Mr. Kilorn seemed estatic with the ease Emrys had with the problems and called on him throughout the class to answer questions, Emrys being very shy did not like this much, but what could he say?
Lunchtime came and went. Emrys sat by himself this time as Simon was being somewhat distant after Emrys showed his talent in Math. Emrys really didn't eat anything and spent most of his time looking at the other kids. Sean it seemed was one of the resident bullies, which scared Emrys as he watched him go around and take other kids lunches. Emrys took refuge in the library for the rest of the lunch period. In English Emrys watched as different groups of kids came up to the front of the class and did presentations on poems. At rescess Emrys decided to go and check out the library and spent his time reading a book on Magical Theory he found. Finally Physical Education came, the last class of the day. Their teacher, Mr. Badro started the class by telling the kids to go run the track four times. Emrys, after being chased by Dudley's gang for years was a great runner and was the first to finish, being promptly cornered by Mr. Badro into joining the track and field team the next day. They spent the class playing football and Emrys proved to be an excellent striker.
Before long Sean was unlocking the door and Emrys followed him into the house.
Sean turned to Emrys, "Hey buddy do you want a snack?" As he grabbed a tub of ice cream out of the cupboard and unloaded a handful of candy from his pocket that he'd taken of other kids. Emrys whispered, "No thanks, but didn't Dad say to have fruit?" to his brother, Sean just shook his head already shoveling food into his mouth. Sean just answered, "It's fine Emrys, he wont mind, I'm gonna go play video games, entertain yourself.".
Emrys headed upstairs to work on the homework he'd gotten at school. And never heard his Dad come home until the door opened. Severus walked in, "Emrys how was school?"
Emrys smiled to his dad, "It was good, is it alright if I join the track team because Mr. Badro really wanted me too for some reason…" he said as though he doubted he'd be good at it.
"That's great Emrys, I'll pick you up at 4:30 it shouldn't go longer then that, dinner will be ready in about 10 minutes so go wash your hands and come on down."
Severus had thrown together lasagna and some bread for dinner. He served up the plates and set them on the table, calling Sean away from the video games. Sean wolfed his down, Severus constantly telling him to 'slow down, or he'd choke to death'. Emrys ate about a quarter of it and Severus didn't push it, after all the kid wasn't used to eating enough. He gave the boys some strawberry cake for dessert and asked if they'd finished their homework, they both nodded. Sean telling a lie and Emrys didn't want to tattle. Severus then asked if they wanted to play some street hockey to which Emrys answered "sure Dad" and Sean just wanted to play video games. The two had an enjoyable evening and as Severus tucked Emrys and Sean into bed that night he smiled, he had both his boys home together. He settled down to do some marking of third year essays.
The month flew by, Emrys seemed to be settling in well at school, he was on the track and field team and had become a seeker in the schools intramurals, playing for the Dragons. He hadn't made many friends, he was very much a loner, and was pulling off amazing grades that made his father very proud. He was one of the top scorers on the Surrey United football squad and was quite talented on the hocky rink, he was kept busy and was settling into life very well. Sean on the other hand was becoming more and more a bully to those around him, even Emrys, he took kids lunches, pigged out constantly and was becoming very lazy, barely scraping 50's and the rare 60. Severus was at his wits end with Sean, this had started before Emrys had come home, so he had no idea why Sean was acting this way.
It came time for the month's checkup with the school healer, all the students were measured and checked over for any sorts of illnesses or physical problems. Emrys came in and was very shy when asked to take off his clothes leaving him sitting on the counter in his undergarments. His ribs still stuck out, he was obviously still very much underweight. He had grown an inch however, measuring 3'5 and 24lbs still severely underweight. He was asked to bend over and touch his toes to walk in a straight line etc. During the eyesight test however, the healer did notice some problems and added that to the note home to Severus.
Seans checkup was the same sort of thing, when he took off his outer clothing, it was obvious that the large shirts he wore hid a lot, he'd put on a lot of weight. His stomach was hanging about three inches below his pants, with fat poring over the sides, he'd developed a chubby chest and his thighs pressed together as he stood. He measured 4'10 and 156lbs, no longer chubby but diffidently overweight. He was not able to bend over very easily, something that troubled the healer and he had developed a distinct waddle. His eyesight was fine and she sent him home with a note to Severus.
Afterschool that day, Emrys had the regional track meet, so Severus came to watch that, Emrys was participating in the 100m, 400m and 1600m, and placed 1st in the 100m and 1600m and 2nd in the 400m, he would be able to attend the city-wide meet in two weeks. When they arrived home Severus got the reports from the boys, now becoming very worried about Sean. It was time for him and Sean to have another little chat.