A/N: Sorry for the long time between updating! Anyways, when I describe the Charms classroom in this chapter, I'm describing it from the films. I also would like to dedicate this chapter to Megan, who is part of this story :) and also to my faithful reader Shaggy37. Thanks for reading!
First Day of Classes
I woke up the next day to the sound of another girl's alarm clock. Turning over, I saw Ginger lying in bed with Mudge sitting on her face, the cat's backside resting on her nose. How she could breathe was beyond me. I got up to see Megan already getting dressed.
"Hurry up, we best get down to breakfast," she said, pulling yellow and black stockings on.
I yawned and pulled my clothes on. Ginger, after waking up with a disgusted squeak, got up as well and put her clothes on. We walked down to the common room, which was filled with older students.
"Let's go up to breakfast. Then we'll get a good seat," I suggested, climbing the stairs to the tapestry.
When we got to the Great Hall, it was still as magnificent as the night before, even though the sky outside was a dull and drab gray.
Sitting down, Ginger grabbed the carafe containing coffee and pulled it toward her. She was definitely not a morning person. Spooning some fruit salad onto my plate, I noticed more and more people were coming in.
Megan, who was next to me, said, "I believe the owls should be coming in at any moment. At least that's what my cousin told me." She looked up at the ceiling, waiting for the owls to rush in. As if on cue, they came through and flew high above us. I looked for Midge and spotted her, carrying a small parcel. She dropped it in front of my plate and I noticed the writing on it to be my mum's.
Ripping open the box, a piece of paper fell out. It read:
Hope you have a great day at school. Midge came to the house and I thought I would send a present. Hope you enjoy.
Mum
I looked inside to find a butterfly charm bracelet. I had always liked butterflies since I was a little girl and I absolutely loved it. The bracelet itself was silver and where it clasped at was a butterfly that looked realistic. The only difference was that it was smaller. I clasped it on and admired it.
"Wow, what a beautiful bracelet!" Ginger exclaimed, grabbing my wrist from across the table.
I smiled and glanced up to see a handsome older student. He walked past us and then turned around. He looked at Ginger curiously and sat down. Megan sat with her mouth slightly opened, staring at the boy. I reached over to lift her jaw and she blushed furiously.
"Is your last name Christ?" he asked Ginger.
"Y-yeah, it is. How did you know?"
"I thought so. I saw you at the Sorting last night and thought you looked awfully familiar. My mum's mum was a Christ. I knew you had to be one because you have the eyes. Anyways, I'm Cedric Diggory, pleasure to meet you," he said, sticking out his hand. Ginger accepted it and shook it. "Well, I best be getting to my friends. If you ever need anything just ask," he finished.
He walked away and Megan's jaw dropped again. "All I have to say is one word," she said. "Yum."
Ginger and I giggled. After finishing breakfast, a plump witch came down from the staff table. She had a patched hat and gray hair.
"Name?" she asked. Her voice was very pleasant.
"Drea Brotherton."
She flipped through pieces of parchment and handed me the schedule. "There you go," she smiled. She handed Ginger and Megan their schedules as well.
"Fairly easy day today," Ginger remarked. "Double History of Magic, then a break. After that we have lunch. Then Charms in the afternoon. And look!
We have Fridays off. That will be a relief. A three day weekend."
I glanced at my watch. "We better get going. Class is going to start soon and we have no idea where the History of Magic classroom is."
"It's on the first floor," a girl said. She had blond hair and a pink face.
"Thanks, err…" I said.
"Hannah, Hannah Abbot. I'm a second year. And you are?"
"Drea Brotherton."
"Ginger Christ."
"Megan Shafur."
"Nice to meet you. Well, you better go and get your things. The first bell will be ringing soon."
We got up and walked out of the hall with many of the other students. We walked to our dormitory and picked up our History of Magic books. The books were particularly heavy and very thick. Shoving it into my bag, I left the room with Ginger and Megan with me in front. I was almost to the bottom of the stairs
when I heard a squeak behind me. I looked back to see Megan trip and fall onto Ginger, who in turn fell into me. I fell backwards down the last few steps and felt someone catch me.
"Are you okay?" Justin asked.
Gaining my balance back, I stood up. My face was red with embarrassment and I mumbled, "Yeah, I'm fine." I grabbed my bag and headed out of the common room, my face down as not to endure stares from my fellow Hufflepuffs.
Once out of the tapestry, Ginger turned me around and said, "Did you see that?"
"What? Me falling on my arse?"
"No!" said Megan. "Justin. He was smiling at you. I think he fancies you."
"You think?" I asked, starting to walk to class.
"Either that or he likes it when girls fall into him," Ginger laughed.
We walked up the stairs to the first floor and saw there was a small group outside the room waiting for class to start. We didn't have to wait long before the door swung open. Walking in, we looked to see who had opened the door, but found no one. I sat down next to Ginger and Megan sat in front of us. Luna sat next to her and we could hear Megan groan slightly.
The whole class seemed eager to start and we all gasped when our teacher turned out to be a ghost. He wore glasses and there was a bald patch on top of his head. He seemed very old, but then again he was dead.
"Good morning. I am Professor Binns. As many of you may or may not have noticed, I am a ghost. The only ghost teacher at Hogwarts. I died quite some time ago in a staff room fire, but I continue to teach the subject I love so dearly. Now, I will call the roll."
I quickly found out that the most interesting thing that happened in our History of Magic class was the Professor floating through the blackboard. I was really looking forward to this class to find out a lot about the history, which was my favorite subject back in grade school. This was not what I had in mind.
"As many of you may know, the school was founded by four powerful witches and wizards around 993 A.D. Before this time, there was a witch in Ireland named Queen Maeve who used to teach young people who showed a certain magical ability. A few years before the school opened, she died a tragic death when one of her students, who got upset by her criticisms, performed a spell that has rarely been used since this time known as the Suffocating Curse. Now, the names of the witches and wizards who started Hogwarts gave their names to the four houses. There was Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin…"
I leaned over to Ginger and muttered, "I actually think my brain is seeping out of my ears."
She let out a loud snort and everyone turned around to look at her. Turning red, she glanced up at Professor Binns who still continued talking.
After what seemed like forever, the bell rang. As we were all packing up our things and leaving, Professor Binns was still talking about the Ministry of Magic's approval to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts in 1013.
"I thought learning the history of magic would be interesting," I said. "I think now I know which class I can catch up on sleep in."
"Well, you better take some notes for our tests," Ginger said.
"Why take notes when I can copy you," I laughed.
We made our way to the courtyard with the rest of our class. We found a bench and sat down and started talking about what Charms might be like. The courtyard started to fill up quickly with students who were also leaving other classes. I glanced up to see Justin making a beeline for me.
"Dammit," I muttered. I quickly opened my History of Magic book and acted like I was studying.
"Hey, how was your first class?" Justin asked.
"Fine," I replied, still looking in my book. Ginger and Megan were both stifling giggles.
"That's great," he replied, still looking at me.
That didn't last long until a voice said, "Signed photos? You're giving out signed photos, Potter?"
The boy yelling was way shorter than the two goons that were on either side of him. He had white-blond hair and a very pointed face.
"Who is that?" I muttered to Justin. His face seemed to light up at the fact that I asked him a question.
"Well, the short one is Draco Malfoy. He's in Slytherin, as are the two giants next to him. Their names are Crabbe and Goyle and they are all second years. They aren't a friendly lot."
"Everyone line up!" Draco yelled. "Harry Potter's giving out signed photos!"
"What an arse," I muttered.
"I wouldn't mind a signed photograph," Justin said. I rolled my eyes.
"No, I'm not," Harry said. His face was getting red. "Shut up, Malfoy."
"You're just jealous," a small boy behind Harry squeaked.
"Jealous? Of what?" Draco said. "I don't want a foul scar right across my head, thanks. I don't think getting your head cut open makes you that special, myself."
"Lets get out of here," Ginger said. "We'll drop our books off and head to lunch. Then we'll get a good seat."
"Sounds good," I replied, as Ginger, Megan, and I walked back into the castle.
After we had lunch, we left the Great Hall a bit early to find the Charms classroom. Like the History of Magic classroom, it was locked. We waited outside until the rest of the class showed up. Once it seemed like everyone was there, the door magically opened.
This room was far different than the History of Magic classroom. Instead of desks, there were bleacher type seating on both sides of the wall. A long table sat in front of each seat and there was writing on all four walls. The writing looked to be Latin.
"Please take your seats!" came a squeaky voice. I looked around for the source of the voice and found a small man who looked very much like the goblin I met at Gringotts. We all took our seats and prepared ourselves for class.
"Welcome to Charms class everyone! I am Professor Flitwick. Charms is such an expansive and interesting field of study, so we will not cover every single charm. Today, as it is our first class, we will start off simple. We will be doing the Lighting Charm. Now, the incantation is very simple. Without wands, repeat after me. Lumos!"
"Lumos!" we all said.
"Good! Also, as it is our first day of class I will let you off early after you practiced the spell and have it down. After you learn Lumos, you will have to put
your wand out. The incantation for this is Nox!"
"Nox!" we all repeated.
"Excellent! Now, after I show you the spell, I want you to practice for thirty minutes. After that I will call you up to my desk one by one to perform the charm. Also, after you are done here, I would like you to read chapter one of your books, Standard Book of Spells. I think that's it! Now, start practicing."
Most everyone got their wand to light on the first try. Luna, who evidently found the assignment to be boring, had her head in her hand and was looking up at the ceiling. There were bubbles coming out of the tip of her wand and they flew high above us and never popped.
"Miss Lovegood?" Flitwick asked, walking to her seat.
"Yes, Professor?" she replied, not taking her eyes off her bubbles.
"I'm afraid I'll have to take five points from Ravenclaw for not doing the in-class assignment. Then again, I'll have to award you ten points for your excellent Impenetrable Bubble Charm. We aren't set to learn that until later this term. Congratulations."
Luna smiled at him and continued what she was doing. After about twenty-five minutes, Flitwick began to call us up.
"Miss Brotherton!" he squeaked. I nervously walked up to his desk and had my wand at the ready.
"Go on," he said, his quill in his hand.
"Lumos!" I said nervously. A bright light came out the end of my wand, causing Professor Flitwick to shield his eyes.
"Excellent! Now, extinguish the light."
"Nox!"
"Very good! Five points for Hufflepuff for the excellent Lighting Charm!" he said, writing down my score on the piece of parchment in front of him.
I smiled and left the room. I had earned my first points for a class. I didn't have to wait long before Ginger and Megan came out, both smiling.
"Well?" I asked.
"We did great!" Ginger replied. "There was only one person who didn't do as well, but I think it was because he was nervous. Do you think Flitwick's
eyebrow will grow back?"
"With magic, anything is possible," Megan replied, smiling at a boy who had just came out of the class with his hair a vibrant pink color.