Chapter 7—Classes
"Mail's here!" said Ben cheerfully. She looked around…then ducked as a swarm of owls swooped overhead, just like the ones that filled Eeyolp's Owl Emporium.
"Owls?" she said hoarsely, "Owls?"
"What'd you expect, peacocks?" said Ben as he ripped open a letter that Horatio had dropped in his lap. Horatio, meanwhile, was eyeing the toast on Ryan's plate. She scooted her plate a few inches away.
"Get your own!" she hissed. Either he didn't understand, or he chose not to. He hopped forward. She moved the plate a little more. Ben, absorbed in his letter, didn't notice the danger his friend's food was in by means of his pet. She rescued her toast and picked up another piece for the hungry owl. Horatio didn't take it.
"What, do you only want it if it's somebody else's? I swear, you're part magpie." Horatio looked distinctly miffed at that, though it was hard to tell on owl. "Ah, so you do understand me. Back off and get your own breakfast!" She waved the spare piece of toast at the bird again. Still, no takers. Sighing, she picked up her knife and began to butter it. Horatio liked this idea better, and waited patiently for her to finish. When she was, she offered it to him and he took it, ate it, and flew off with the rest of the owls. Glad to be unbothered, she went back to her own toast and bowl of porridge.
"Oh, Ryan, nearly forgot: Could you please butter some toast for Horatio? It's his favorite, and he won't leave without it." He looked up from his letter and got a good look at the murder that must have been giving in her face. "What?"
Despite her initial annoyance, she had to eventually band together with Ben once more to find their classroom.
The only thing she found was that neither of them had a sense of direction worth spitting over.
Through trial, error (mostly error) and leaving the Great Hall early enough, however, they arrived in Professor McGonagall's class in the nick of time. They took their seats next to Melina and a friend Melina had made from her house.
"Is everyone present?" asked Professor McGonagall, as she scanned down the attendance sheet. Everyone was. "Welcome to your first magic lesson."
Ryan staggered out of the classroom. That had been a certifiable disaster! Magic was a lot more difficult than others made it look. First, they had been given a strict lecture on what not to do in class, and exactly how they were going to behave. Then, they had taken so many bewildering notes, she thought her hand was like to fall off. When they had actually started using magic, however…she found that she liked note-taking better. They were turning matches into needles. Nothing so complicated about that, right? She wished it were so. Ben somehow managed to set his hat on fire, and Mel was so scared of the little sput of sparks that issued from the wand that she dropped it with a yelp the first time it happened. This caused her wand to go berserk, shooting out sparks like a never-ending Roman candle. Ryan had gotten her match to go slightly pointy, but that was the extent of it. Mel's friend, Robina, had a real knack for this sort of thing, and had a sulfur-tipped but perfectly usable needle by the end of class. McGonagall awarded Hufflepuff ten house points.
"What's next? Please, nothing with wands," she pleaded. Ben checked the schedule.
"Um…Herbology with the Gryffindors. That can't be too dangerous, right?"
Once inside the green house, Ryan turned to Ben with the same expression she had worn at breakfast that morning.
"I hate you."
Ben shrugged helplessly as he eyed the not-so-tame-looking plants.
"How was I to know?" he demanded. Ryan rolled her eyes, exasperated and slightly scared. Plants that looked like five-foot-wide venus fly-traps just shouldn't be allowed, in her opinion.
"Well, you seem to know everything, and I'm the idiotic Muggle-born that needs to be led around by the hand!" she yelled, her voice cracking slightly with barely-restrained hysteria. She wanted to scream, however. Before Ben could say a word in his defense, Colin popped up.
"Hiya, guys! How's your day been so far?" He didn't even pause to breathe, much less allow them to answer, before continuing. Ryan noticed he had a camera dangling from one hand.
"What were you—" A flash cut her off abruptly, and she blinked rapidly to dispel a bright blue afterimage. He whirled around to Ben.
"Smile, Ben!" Ben blinked as the flash went off in his face.
"What are you on about?" he growled, trying to grab the camera. Colin, however, wasn't quite ready to part with it. He dodged behind Ryan and clutched the thing to his chest like it was his first-born son.
"No! I've got important pictures on here!" By the his tone, one would have thought he had caught a murder on film.
"Get off it! What picture could possibly be that important?" A look of awe crept over Colin's face.
"You just missed it! There was a big crowd, and…" the look of awe grew, "I got a picture of Lockhart and Harry Potter. The Harry Potter!" he said reverently. Ryan looked around wildly, as though they would still be here. She was dying to catch a glimpse of this Harry Potter boy!
The Herbology professor was a short witch named, oddly enough, Professor Sprout. She was also the head of Hufflepuff house, just as McGonagall was for Gryffindor, Snape the Potions master for Slytherin, and Professor Flitwick for her house, Ravenclaw. Professor Sprout, however, wouldn't brook faint hearts from anyone, even members of her house, who were too squeamish to feed the freak venus fly-traps, the Venomous Tentacula. Ryan tried not flinch every time she had to pick up frog livers (of all things) to toss into the plants' gaping mouths. Ben, though, and their other partner Finnian McKey, found this to be great fun and began goading the plant. They'd tease it, seeing if they could get it to snap shut without accepting the treat, or see how high they could toss the liver and still have it land in the "mouth." It wasn't until they missed and caused Ginevra Weasley to shriek when it landed in hair, and Professor Sprout took away ten points from Ravenclaw that they stopped and meekly did as they were told. The Weasely girl, though, she heard someone call her Ginny, kept tossing them dirty looks throughout class. Ryan sympathized; if Ben had lobbed frog liver in her hair, Mrs. Coley would have more room at the breakfast table. Other than that, however, the only other disturbance was Professor Sprout yelling at Colin when a Tentacula got tangled in his camera strap and tried to eat it. Colin was yelling equally as loud, for fear of his precious camera. Ryan privately thought that it was just as well Mel wasn't here; she shuddered to think what her jumpy friend would get up to.
But the fun didn't end there. After a hurried lunch in which some fifth years set two dozen purple toads loose in the Great Hall, there was Charms with the Slytherins. Ben had been dreading this, and arriving ten minutes late hadn't improved matters. Ryan thought that here, of all places, teachers would be a touch more open to bogus-sounding excuses. Not only did tiny Professor Flitwick not believe that they had been held up by a persnickety poltergeist, but he took fifteen points away from Ravenclaw, his own house! Ten for being ten minutes late, and another five for lying! The Slytherins snickered lazily until they were silenced by the professor. Ryan wasn't so sure she liked him much, but then, she hadn't made the greatest of first impressions. There really had been a poltergeist, and he refused to let them through, demanding that they answer meaningless riddles and calling them "foul firsties." They might still be there, if Ben hadn't stupidly chucked his wand at the thing. Stupid, but it hit the poltergeist's strange clothing and set it ablaze with cobalt-colored flames. They dodged around the flaming ghost, rescued Ben's wand, and high-tailed it to class.
Ryan could see how feeble the story sounded, but it was true. Even the other Ravenclaws were beginning to eye them askance. Mostly at Ben. Losing 25 points on the first day was a blow. She was so irate that she couldn't concentrate on making her little glass ornament change colors. It stayed obstinately clear. Ben's turned a murky brown, and a Slytherin next to him managed to make it change from clear to red to blue, but it stuck on blue, refusing to change to a different color. A different Slytherin caught on, however, and made hers flash colors so brightly it nearly blinded everyone in the room. With five more house points, the Slytherin had her moment of euphoria…until a classmate didn't aim correctly and blew her ornament up, showering the class with blinking shards of glass. Ryan didn't feel in the least bit guilty as she joined in the laughter.