At breakfast the next day, owls flew around, dropping off schedules. Grace picked hers up immediately. She wanted to see what classes she had with Rowan.
Each square on the schedule was colored either red, blue, or yellow, which Grace assumed was to show which house they shared the class with. The squares for Astronomy, however, were white.
"You have Astronomy with all of the classes," Felix told her when she asked him. She nodded and resumed looking over her schedule.
The Slytherins shared Transfiguration and History of Magic with the Ravenclaws, but unfortunately they only had double Charms and double Potions today. Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts were shared with the Gryffindors, and Potions and Herbology were with the Hufflepuffs. That meant that Grace would be seeing everyone but Rowan in her classes that day.
When breakfast was over, Grace followed the other Slytherin first-years to the Charms classroom. Merula had decided she was to be the group's unofficial leader and insisted on walking in front. Grace didn't care. At least if they all got lost, she wouldn't be the one who was blamed.
The Charms classroom was spacious and brightly lit. A wide aisle in the center led to a desk, behind which Professor Flitwick was perched on a large stack of books, just as he had been before the Sorting Ceremony. On either side of the aisle were two long tables, with the one in the back raised above the one in the front. The Slytherins sat down on one side. As the Gryffindors trickled in, they sat down on the other side, away from the Slytherins. Across from Grace was a pale boy with blond hair that kept falling in his face. She tried to recall his name from the Sorting. Logan? Lewis? Levi?
When the last of the Gryffindors had found their seat- the nervous boy, Ben- Professor Flitwick started the lesson.
"Today you are going to learn the Wand-Lighting Charm. It is a useful charm to know if you are ever alone in a dark forest at night, or simply searching for a scroll that rolled under your bed. Watch closely as I demonstrate." Professor Flitwick waved his wand in a circle. A bright light appeared at the tip.
"The color and strength of the light you summon depends on how much concentration you use. Too little concentration and the light will be white. Too much concentration and the light will turn red. Of course, different situations will call for different amounts of light, but in general you should aim for a nice yellow color like this," Professor Flitwick explained. He waved his wand. "I'll go down the rows, and I want each of you to cast Lumos for me one by one."
He started on the other side of the room, with the Gryffindors. Next to Grace, Merula grumbled, "Typical".
The boy across from Grace struggled to hold the light at the end of his wand steady. It kept flickering between yellow and white, but it clearly wasn't because of a lack of concentration on his part. His face turned red with effort, and then frustration. When Professor Flitwick told him he could stop, he glared at his wand, looking like he was on the verge of tears from his failure to cast the simplest of spells.
"Don't worry. You'll get better at it the more you practice. What wood is your wand made from?" Professor Flitwick asked.
"Blackthorn," Levi whispered, looking down at the table in front of him as if he wanted to sink into it.
"Blackthorn wands are notoriously difficult to bond with. It will give you problems for a time, but eventually it will bond fully with you," Professor Flitwick reassured Levi before moving on to the next student.
Merula snorted. "Pathetic.I have a blackthorn wand, and I bet I could do better than that."
Professor Flitwick turned sharply to give Merula a surprisingly stern glare. "Do you have something you wish to tell the class, Miss Snyde?"
"N-no, professor," Merula faltered.
Professor Flitwick turned his back on the Slytherins and asked the girl next to Levi, Skye Parkin if Grace remembered correctly, to cast Lumos. Skye's wand flashed a brilliant red, but with some coaching from Flitwick she soon managed to get it to settle into a steady yellow glow.
When Professor Flitwick had finished with the Gryffindors, he crossed the aisle and started helping the Slytherins. He started on the opposite end from Grace, which meant that she would be the last to go. She shifted impatiently.
Finally, Merula cast Lumos. As she had boasted earlier, she had a much easier time with the spell than Levi had. When the light from her wand went out, she directed a smug expression at Levi. He looked away from her.
"Miss Prickle?" Professor Flitwick asked.
Grace looked away from Levi. "Lumos," she said, repeating the incantation she had already heard all of her classmates say. The end of her wand turned a deep, angry red. She fought to put less effort into the spell. The light wavered. Slowly it settled to a calmer yellow shade.
After Grace had cast her spell, Professor Flitwick set them their homework- a short reading about the history of the Wand-Lighting Charm- and gave them the rest of class to work on it. There wasn't much to read, so Grace easily finished it.
Their next, and last, class of the day was double Potions, and then they had the rest of the day off. Grace hadn't had time to compare schedules with Rowan, so she could only hope the Ravenclaws shared the break with them.
Potions were in the dungeons, taught by Professor Slughorn, the head of Slytherin House. The classroom was cold. Shelves were filled with a variety of ingredients, some as mundane as plants, while others were stranger. One jar was filled with tiny eyeballs. Grace shivered and found a seat where her back was to the ingredients.
As in Charms, the Slytherins grouped together, separate from the Hufflepuffs. Grace was joined at her table by the other Slytherin girls.
"Now then, now then, now then," Professor Slughorn said. "Take out your scales, and your copies of Brewing for Beginners, and any ingredients you need, and don't forget your cauldrons!" He laughed as if he had just made a very funny joke. No one joined in.
He didn't say anything after that. Grace frowned. Was that all the instruction they were going to get?
She found the recipe for Cure for Boils in her textbook. Since it was a simple potion, it was at the front of the book. She found the ingredients she needed and started brewing.
By the time class ended, Grace had finished brewing her potion. She collected a flask of it and left it on Professor Slughorn's desk.
She followed the other Slytherins upstairs to the Great Hall. Before sitting down, she hurried to the Ravenclaw table and looked for Rowan.
"Do you have any classes after lunch?" she asked.
"No. Meet me in the library," Rowan said.
"Okay," Grace said, and then she returned to the Slytherin table.
Lunch was over quickly. Grace found Rowan and followed her to the library. "How do you know where the library is already?" she asked.
"I asked one of our prefects yesterday," Rowan answered.
Grace laughed. "Of course you did."
They reached the entrance to the library. "Be quiet. I've heard the librarian hates noise," Rowan said.
Grace had hoped to catch up with her friend and discuss the classes they had had that day. The library wasn't the best place to have a conversation.
Rowan found them a table at the back of the library, away from Madam Pince's sharp eyes. The librarian watched them mistrustfully as they walked by, as if she expected them to do something terrible at any second. Grace glared back at her.
"I thought we could find some books and then go to the courtyard," Rowan whispered. "You know... to help with your search."
"What do you suggest we look for?" Grace whispered back.
"I'll check the section on myths and legends. You should look at the history of the castle to see if there's any evidence of hidden chambers," Rowan instructed.
Grace walked towards the history section, but then hesitated. Surely if anything had been written about hidden chambers at Hogwarts, Rowan would have read it by now? Perhaps she should try a different approach.
She searched through a shelf until she found a book titled The Ever-Changing Castle; Alterations Made to the Structure of Hogwarts. It was a thick book with small print that looked even more tedious than Hogwarts; A History, but Grace vowed to struggle through every last word. If it would help her find Jacob, then she had to.
She met up with Rowan by the door to the library. Rowan must have chosen the biggest book she could find about magical mythology; it had a large cover and was at least five hundred pages.
The two girls carried their books to the courtyard. It was a chilly day, but the sun was shining. The courtyard was empty except for two older boys playing a game of Gobstones off to one side. Grace and Rowan sat down on the fountain, placing their books next to them.
"What classes did you have today?" Grace asked. "I had Charms and Potions."
"I had Potions, and then Herbology," Rowan said. She described the plant they had learned about in Herbology, something called macaw flowers. They had worked in pairs, watering and feeding the flowers.
"Feeding them?" Grace asked incredulously.
Rowan nodded. "Lots of magical plants are sort of hybrids between plants and animals. Oftentimes plants with the ability to contain magic will take it from their environment, and over time they develop some of the characteristics of other life in the area," she explained. "The macaw flowers only eat insects, and small bits of fruit, but there are some plants that can digest something as big as a cow. There are these really cool vines, they got their magic from vampires, that are covered in thorns. They wrap around any animal that comes near them and drain their blood."
"You have a strange idea of 'cool'," Grace laughed. She hoped she had Herbology soon. She and her mother had grown a garden together, and Grace loved working with plants.
Since both of them had had Potions, they didn't spend too much time talking about that class. Grace described what they had done in Charms. She thought about what Professor Flitwick had said to Levi and pulled out her wand. "How much do you know about wandlore?"
"A lot," Rowan answered. "Do you remember the characteristics of your wand?"
"Ash, twelve inches, dragon heartstring core," Grace recited.
"Flexibility?" Rowan asked.
Grace tried to bend her wand. "It's not flexible, but it's not completely rigid, either."
"Hmmm..." Rowan frowned as she tried to remember everything she knew. "Ash wands bond very strongly with their first owner and often refuse to work for anyone else. They seek out people who are stubborn, but not arrogant. Dragon heartstring cores are accident-prone and the easiest core to turn to the Dark Arts, but they're also capable of the most powerful magic. Longer wands are drawn to those with bigger personalities, and the flexibility of your wand would indicate that you are resistant to change, but it is possible to change your beliefs with enough work."
Grace looked at her wand. "How do you remember all of this stuff?"
"I grew up on a tree farm," Rowan reminded her. "I've been learning about wandlore ever since I can remember. Maybe if I don't become a professor, I'll make wands."
"I miss the farm already," Rowan continued, her voice suddenly wistful. "Is that silly? I mean, I was so excited about coming, and we've only been here a few days, but..."
"Of course it's not silly. I'm sure lots of people miss their families," Grace reassured her. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to tell Rowan that she was one of those people. "Maybe you should write them a letter."
"Good idea!" Rowan pulled a piece of parchment and a quill from her pocket. "I'll do it right now."
They continued talking while Rowan worked. Rowan shared happy memories with her family. "When Finch was old enough to start looking forward to going to Hogwarts, we started playing a game where we'd pretend we were already students," she said.
Grace had done the same thing with Jacob. She couldn't bring herself to talk about any of her own memories. Talking about Jacob hurt too much.
When Rowan finished her letter, she stood up. "I have to go to the common room to get an envelope," she said.
"I have to go back to my common room," Grace remembered. "We're doing some sort of Slytherin bonding thing." Felix had told the first-years about it at breakfast.
The two parted after they left the courtyard. Rowan climbed the stairs to return to the Ravenclaw tower, while Grace descended into the dungeon.
She found the other first-years gathered in a circle around Felix. She sat down in the empty place in the circle.
"Look who's finally here," Merula sneered. "Now we can get this over with."
Felix looked at Grace disapprovingly. "Where were you? We've been waiting for you."
"Sorry," Grace said. "I was talking to Rowan."
"Khanna? A Ravenclaw?" Merula asked. Grace couldn't figure out why she sounded so annoyed.
"Be polite, Merula," Felix warned. "It's good that Grace has a friend in another house." He gave Grace a skeptical look. Thinking back to their conversation at the feast, she was pretty sure he was thinking, And how long will that last, I wonder?
"As I'm sure you've all picked up on by now, the other houses don't like us much," Felix began.
Merula snorted. "That's putting it lightly. More like, they all hate us."
Felix gave her an exasperated look before continuing, "This is why it's so important that you all try to get along. Slytherins have enough problems without having to worry about making enemies in our house." He looked at Merula. "Do you all understand?"
The first-years all nodded. Felix dismissed them.
As Grace was walking away, Merula grabbed her arm. She pulled it free and turned to glare at the other witch.
"You need to stay away from Khanna," Merula warned.
Grace crossed her arms. "You can't choose my friends."
"I'm just trying to help. The Slytherins may have promised to stick together, but the other houses don't have the same loyalty. If Khanna associates with a Slytherin too much, she'll become an outcast," Merula said.
"You don't know that," Grace snapped.
Merula huffed. "Fine. Just remember, when you ruin your friend's life, I warned you."
Grace stormed off, angry at Merula. She was determined to prove her wrong, to show that Rowan would suffer no negative consequences as a result of her friendship with Grace.
A traitorous thought in the back of her mind whispered; But what if Merula's right, and you are going to ruin Rowan's life?