A/N: I'm sorry for taking so long to update this story, but I've been very busy with schoolwork and will continue to be so for the rest of the semester. You shouldn't expect more than one more update of this story before December, if even that, but I hope to have more time to write after then.
Character introduced in this chapter: Internet friend: Forever Endeavor - Tania Rascia
Lazing Around
It didn't take long for Alice to adjust to life at Hogwarts. There had been times when she thought she'd have trouble, having been home schooled her entire life, but her parents had always kept to a schedule, so Alice found no trouble making it to classes on time and only a little trouble finding time to do her homework.
Her easiest class by far was History of Magic. She even sent a request home for her parents to send her favorite history books up to school. She delighted in pouring over her books, a few nice books she'd found in the library, and the assigned text for the class whenever writing papers for Professor Binns. It was a struggle at times to stay awake in his class, especially since she knew so much of the material already, but every time that the monotone ghost spoke a new name or date that she wasn't familiar with, she'd quickly jot it down, committing it to memory.
Two weeks into school, the first years received their first History of Magic paper back, graded. Most of them took back their papers with a groan, but Alice smiled at the top of her paper, which pronounced top marks, before hiding it in her bag. She had no intention of drawing attention to herself and she was not the type to brag. No one paid attention to Alice as she hid her paper away though, many of them doing the same thing with their own papers.
Unfortunately, she wasn't doing as well in any of her other classes. Astronomy was easy enough, the first year being mostly about identifying and telling the difference between stars, planets, asteroids, and comets, but most students agreed that it was nearly as hard to stay awake in astronomy as it was in History of Magic.
Flying remained, for Alice, a pain and a sore. After the first few lessons, Madam Hooch split the class up into four groups: natural flyers, fast but uncontrolled, steady but wary, and unnatural flyers. Alice found herself in the "fast but uncontrolled" group. She had no problem with taking off and could even turn in the right direction, but the angles of her turns were never precise and her speed was never consistent. Landings weren't something Alice thought of much either, the thought being too painful. She had only landed without crashing twice. One of those times, she was certain that her broom just stopped working as she hovered a foot off the ground, so she was able to jump down. The other time was a complete fluke, and even though she landed nicely, she still flinched, waiting for the ground to come up and smack her.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was always exciting, but it was difficult as well. Professor Potter took no time in training the first years in jinxes and their counterjinxes so that they could protect themselves from the older students in the school. No matter how hard she worked though, Alice found that she couldn't do them right. And jinxes weren't exactly things you could practice easily outside of class. The counterjinxes were especially bothersome for her. Half the time nothing would happen and the other half she'd swear that she accidentally made the original jinx worse on whoever she was working on. Hoping that she'd eventually find a friend to practice on, she continued to muddle through the class.
Herbology was hard, but not as hard as it could have been. Both she and Josef were no good at the subject, but they had been lucky to find themselves at the same station as Joseph on the first day. Alice couldn't be too sure yet, but she'd bet that Joseph was on his way to becoming the top of the class in herbology. Every assignment which Professor Sprout gave to the class, Joseph was able to do. Alice did her best to help by looking up facts in this or that book, but it was Joseph who seemed able to take those facts and put them into practice. While Alice was certain that she'd never want a true wizard garden, so was also fairly sure that she wasn't doomed to fail herbology.
If herbology was hard, potions was even harder. Snape loathed the Hufflepuffs, and that was an understatement by far. After his shouting match with Ava on the first day, he didn't confront her again, but the rest of the Hufflepuffs seemed fair game with him. He had gone as far as to pick out his favorite student to terrorize from each table. Keri, at the table in front of Alice's, Josef at the table behind her, and Alice herself. While Alice loved her good luck of being Joseph's partner in herbology, she cursed her luck at picking the table with Ava and Steven in potions. Ava's potions always looked the way that the end description said they should look, and Steven's weren't far off either. Alice's potions, on the other hand, always had some major flaw, whether it be that the color was off, or the texture, or the smell, or thetransparency. It didn't help matters that Steven was constantly cutting up his ingredients to what looked like exact measurements to Alice and then complaining about how he was messing up. But even a confuzzled person would have seen that Alice's work was always off.
Then there was Charms. The classes themselves were quite enjoyable. Even a few weeks into the term, Alice still couldn't get over how adorable Professor Flitwick was. She found herself smiling as she listened to him lecture with his squeaky voice as he stood atop a pile of books. The spells themselves weren't so enjoyable though. Alice was having the same troubles with her Charms spells as she was with her jinxes and counterjinxes in Defense Against the Dark Arts. No matter how perfectly she performed the swish and flick or pronounced "Wingardium leviosa," she could not make the feather before her rise into the air. It was almost as if someone had secured her feather to the tabletop with a permanent sticking charm, but she knew that couldn't be true (she had even checked one day by picking it up and setting it down again). The only thing which cheered Alice up was the fact that she could practice Charms spells outside of the classroom, and she kept telling herself that she'd have to get it sooner or later.
Alice still didn't know what to make of transfiguration. Professor McGonagall was strict and the class had the reputation of being one of the most difficult taught at Hogwarts, but if Alice wasn't ahead in the class, she surely wasn't behind either. The wand movements were simpler than those required in Charms, and the incantations weren't any harder than for any other spells, but the process was much more complicated. At first, the notes had been frightening to Alice, but with a little time studying the text book and listening intently to Professor McGonagall, Alice found that the spells "made sense." Alice still wasn't sure why or how a feather could be made to rise into the air, but she understood the process behind how a match could be transfigured into a needle. She hadn't produced the effect yet (neither had over half the rest of the class), but she was confident that she would. She was determined that transfiguration would not be on her "bad classes" list.
One Friday evening, Alice sat in the common room, ruffling through the pages of her potions book, trying to figure out which step she had messed up to make her latest potion bubble over when it should have actually been evaporating. Snape had stood over her shoulder, sneering at her work as the potion poured onto the table and began soaking into her notes. The notes, though not ruined, still smelled like a mixture of mud and pond water to Alice, but she couldn't do anything about that. Snape's words still rang in her head: three feet on why your potion was such a failure, Bint, by next class.
"What are you working on?" asked a voice over her head. Alice looked up from her work, her quill still poised over her parchment, the ink long dry on its tip. A smiling, freckled face met her eye.
"Hi Elizabeth," said Alice, glad that she was so good at remembering names. She had rarely spoken with this girl since they were in different years, but the second year seemed nice enough. "I'm doing potions."
"Ooo!" said Elizabeth, sitting down next to her. "That's my best subject!" She peered down at Alice's work. Alice looked herself and felt the need to cover it up in shame, but she refrained from doing so. It was titled "What went wrong with my forgetfulness potion" and all she had written so far was what should have happened and what actually had happened with her potion. She had no idea how to finish out the paper though, since she had no idea what ingredient had caused her potion to bubble over or what step she had messed up on. Pulling her eyes away from her paper, she stared into Elizabeth's face. The girl's brown hair was pulled up and out of the way, but it still hung over her shoulder as she leaned over Alice's paper. She nodded as she finished reading what Alice had written. "I know what you did," she pronounced.
Alice felt her heart leap in her chest. "Really? You really know?"
Elizabeth nodded again and pulled Alice's book toward herself. She flipped to the first page of instructions and pointed toward the ingredient list. Alice followed her finger and felt her stomach twist into a knot. One jobberknoll feather (cut off the tip and any portion which has a 'speckle' on it, leaving only the parts which are blue).
"Oh no," Alice said softly. "I forgot all about the tip. I cut off all the speckles and forgot about the tip."
Elizabeth patted Alice comfortingly on the back. "Don't let it get you down. It happens to the best of us. Just make sure, in future, to read all of the directions thoroughly. Sometimes they can be extremely detailed." Alice nodded mutely.
"Oi! Elizabeth! Are you coming?" called a girl from beside the portrait hole. "Or are you going to laze around all day?" She grinned widely as she said this and the boy at her side began laughing.
"Those are my friends, Tania and Sean," whispered Elizabeth to Alice, then, to Tania, she called, "I thought we were going outside to 'laze around' anyway."
"Exactly," pronounced Tania. "And your lazing is putting all of our lazing on hold. Do you want to bring your new friend along?" Tania's dark brown eyes turned expectantly toward Alice.
"Yeah, do you want to come?" asked Elizabeth, already starting to straighten up Alice's notes. "We were going to pick a spot next to the lake to lie down and talk. You're welcome to join us."
"But, um," Alice waved her hand at her unfinished paper.
"Oh, come on!" said Sean, walking up to the table. "Work can wait. It's Friday!"
Alice grinned and, taking her notes and book from Elizabeth, shoved them into her bag. "Just let me take this up to my room," she said hurriedly, running up the stairs.
Moments later, she burst into the room, successfully colliding with Keri. The taller girl began flailing her arms around as she stumbled backwards into her bed, but Alice didn't let her fall. She grabbed one of the girl's arms, steadying her. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I shouldn't have done that! I shouldn't have come in so fast, but I'm in a hurry."
Keri straightened her robes and checked her hair before replying. "It's ok. No harm done." Alice ran to the other end of the room, discarding her bag on her bed, trying to ignore the fact that Bella and Keri were staring at her. "Why are you in such a hurry?" asked Keri curiously.
Alice paused on her way back out the door, huffing from her short run. "Well, this second year, no, these three second years, at least, I think they're all second years, but they're all friends," Alice stopped speaking and covered her face with her hands. "I'm not making any sense," she said through her fingers. Taking her hands away from her face, she sighed deeply and started again. "These three people asked me to come down to the lake with them. And I said yes, so they're waiting down in the common room for me."
"That sounds like it might be fun," said Bella, pushing her notes to the side and getting off her own bed. "Do you think they'd mind if I came along as well?"
"No, I don't think they'd mind," said Alice. "They seemed really nice."
"Good, because I wasn't getting anywhere with this," said Bella, motioning toward her homework. "I think it'd do me more good to wait till tomorrow."
For an awkward moment, no one spoke or moved, but then Alice took a step toward the door and Bella began to follow her. As she reached the door though, Bella turned back around. "Why don't you come too, Keri? You've been in here way too long. The fresh air will be nice."
"Okay," said Keri quickly, and she took no time in following the other girls, closing the dormitory door behind her.
So, it was three Hufflepuff first years that descended the staircase into the common room. Tania began to laugh as soon as she recognized Alice among them. "Brought the whole year, have you?" she asked. Alice blushed. "I'm only kidding," said Tania playfully, and pushing the portrait hole open, she held it for the other five as they exited. Closing it behind her, Tania bid the Nightwatch farewell. "See you later Mr. Cripps! Give Spot a pat for me!" Elizabeth and Sean giggled as the Nightwatch waved them on their way and then knelt down to pat his dog on the head.
The Huffles occupied their walk down to the lake with introductions. Elizabeth lost no time in pointing out that Sean was the same age as the first years, despite the fact that he was a second year. After that, he had no choice but to explain himself.
"I started Hogwarts early," he said. "I got my acceptance letter when I was ten and my parents came up to the school to ask about it. They said that I could start early. I really wasn't expecting it at all. And now my twin sister is here, but she's a first year. She got her acceptance letter at the normal time."
"Ooo, who's your sister?" asked Alice.
"She's not in Hufflepuff," said Sean. "Her name's Alanna. She's a Gryffindor."
"That's weird, that you started at different times," said Bella. "I noticed some twins being sorted into Slythering this year, but they were first years, not a first year and a second year."
"Yeah," said Sean. "Weird." He shifted uncomfortably, obviously not liking all the attention.
"We're here," announced Tania, pointing at the lake just in case the others had forgotten where they were heading.
"Over this way," beckoned Elizabeth, moving toward a tree off to the side. The other five followed her and they all made themselves comfortable under the shade, some of them gazing out over the lake and the others staring back at Hogwarts and the sky behind, which had began to change colors with the coming sunset.
"I love Hogwarts," breathed Keri.
"Hear hear," said Sean, raising his right hand as if in a toast.
"If we only didn't have homework," remarked Bella. "The magic is fine, but all those papers we have to write," she shook her head.
"I heard that Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes just came out with a product that will create an original paper." said Tania thoughtfully. "It's special parchment and ink. Then you just use the correct quill depending on the grade you want. Like, you can use a quill that is the grade you normally get and then upgrade to a better quill over time so that it doesn't look too suspicious for your writing to improve drastically overnight."
"But we're not allowed to have anything from that shop at Hogwarts," said Alice uncertainly.
"Filch can't catch everything," said Elizabeth, "and plenty of people have things from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. Sean, weren't you saying that your sister had a pygmy puff?"
Sean responded with a nod as he took out his wand. Keri leaned forward excitedly. "Are you going to do magic?" she asked. "I've been getting really good at the levitating spell. I can make objects fly on every attempt now."
Sean grinned. "Well, levitating isn't exactly hard. That's why it's taught to first years." He pointed his wand at a stick near the water's edge. "Wingardium leviosa!" The stick rose straight into the air at an alarming speed like an arrow shot from a bow. Sean jerked his wand away and the stick fell, splashing into the lake, sending ripples in all directions. Alice watched the entire show with a blush on her face, grateful for the bad lighting. There has to be something wrong with me, she thought, not for the first time. Why can't I do that spell?
"Personally, I can't wait to learn the summoning spell," said Bella. "I saw some fifth years doing it the other day. They kept fighting over a pillow, snatching it out of the air, back and forth. One of their friends was cheering them on to be the one to actually summon the pillow," a big grin crossed Bella's face, "and then one of them did the banishing spell so that the pillow hit the other guy in the face. It was funny!"
"Yeah, I saw that too," said Elizabeth, then, lifting her wand, she spoke "Lumos." Her wand began to glow like a lighted candle.
In the light of Elizabeth's wand, Bella gazed up at the school. "Hogwarts sure looks different at this time, doesn't it?" she asked.
"I think it's pretty," said Alice. "But I guess we'll have to get back inside soon. The sun's getting low."
"We won't be missed," announced Bella, standing up. She lifted her own wand and, copying Elizabeth, spoke "Lumos!" A faint light could be detected on the tip of her wand before it faded. Speaking the spell once more, she produced an acceptable light though. "I heard there was a tree that hits people to the north of Hogwarts."
"You mean the whomping willow," said Tania. "You don't want to get too close to it, trust me."
"Point me," said Keri.
"What was that?" asked Sean, looking over at the tall girl who had just stood up beside Bella, her wand lying flat on her palm.
"That way's north," proclaimed Keri, pointing in the direction which her wand faced.
"Wait," said Elizabeth, scrambling to her feet. "Was that a spell you just did? When you said 'point me?'"
"Yes," said Keri, affronted. "You should know it too. It's not hard at all."
"What class did you learn it in?" asked Tania, also showing interest.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts," answered Alice from where she still sat, her back against the tree.
"Really?" asked Tania. "That stinks! We didn't learn much of anything from Professor Springbridge last year. I don't think she knew what she was doing. But now Professor Potter is giving us second year material. We've practically missed out on all the first year stuff!"
"That would stink," said Bella, "but why don't we talk about it as we walk that way?" she pointed northward.
"Hehe, you really want to visit the whomping willow, don't you?" asked Tania, glancing at the sun. "I guess we could, but we should be quick." With that, Tania sprang up and began marching away from the lake, not bothering to make sure that the other Hufflepuffs were following her. Alice got up off the ground as Sean did, but she really didn't want to visit the whomping willow. This would surely land them all in detention. As they walked along, Elizabeth fell in step beside her.
"Don't worry," she said. "At least we're not in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. They're the ones who usually get caught after hours, since they have to go up all those flights of stairs. All we have to do is run across the entrance hall and then down our staircase without being seen. Trust me, Filch is rarely down there. Sometimes you'll run into Mrs. Norris, probably because that's where the kitchens are located, but by the time she finds Filch, it's no problem to make your way safely to the common room."
"Alright," said Alice nervously.
"Hey, if I help you with potions, will you teach me what Potter's teaching your class?" asked Elizabeth suddenly.
Alice didn't know what to say at first. How did you say "I can't do any of the spells I'm learning in Defense Against the Dark Arts" without sounding pathetic? But as she glanced into Elizabeth's eager face, she knew she couldn't say that. "Sure," she finally said with a strained grin.
"Yay!" said Elizabeth, throwing an arm around Alice's shoulder.
Alice barely took in the whomping willow as they came up to it. She didn't think much of sneaking back into the common room later either. Her mind was grappling with her unfinished homework and her promise to teach what she was learning in Defense Against the Dark Arts to Elizabeth. That's it, she thought, I have to study more. I can't goof off like I did today. I have to master those jinxes and counterjinxes. I'll ask someone to partner up with me tomorrow. I don't know who, but I'll just have to find someone to practice those spells on.