NOTE: Bold = Anastasia's written response Slanted = Anastasia's mind-link response
Thankfully, Hermione and I made it to class before the final bell rang. Walking into the classroom, I quickly notice that there are only two seats left in the very front. Hermione drags me to the desk before pushing me into one of the seats. Slightly chuckling at her behavior, I straighten myself while grabbing my supplies out of my satchel. Right as I finish putting my books onto the desk, I hear the door to Goldilocks office open and I quickly look up.
Mr. Lockhart steps out of his office, and a blush instantly appears on my face. Looking around, I quickly notice that every girl has either a dreamy look or a blush, like me. Quickly, I turn back to the teacher as I hear him starting to speak. Unfortunately, I can't hear anything coming out of his mouth as I continue to just admire him. This man is basically a hero! He has multiple books of his heroism and it is nearly impossible to not form a crush on such a hero!
Snapping out of my day dream, I notice that Goldilocks is handing out what looks like a test and I immediately start to worry. Why is he giving us a test on the first day of class? Is it a test to see what we remember from last year? Or is it on his books? As I continue to squirm in my seat, Hermione finally hands me the test and a sigh of relief escapes me as I read over the paper. Confusion slightly fills me as I read over the questions, which are all about him. None of these questions have anything to do with Defense Against the Dark Arts, but he must have a reason for this test. Maybe, he is using this test to see if any of the students have read the books that were on the list. Nodding, I quickly answer all of the questions that I remember from the books, and I stand up before handing him my test. Sitting back down, I start to relive my terrible morning. I don't mean to be an attention seeker! Sure, I always got to my friends when I'm having problems without trying to solve them on my own, but that doesn't mean I'm an attention seeker. It just simply means that I crave comfort and want someone to, lack of better words, be the leader. Honestly, I think it is because Harry and I had to take care of the Dursleys without ever being given a single hug.
Hermione moving from her seat brings me out of my sorrow, and I watch as she hands her test to the teacher before sitting next to me again. She gives me a look that let's me know that she hasn't forgotten about our earlier incident. Sighing, I shake my head and try to look away from her, but she grabs my arm, which makes me look at her in surprise. My friend grabs a quill and paper before shoving them at me. Tears starts to fill my eyes while I shake my head again. I DON'T WANT TO BE AN ATTENTION SEEKER!!!
Thank Salazar for Mr. Lockhart, because he starts to speak to the class which makes Hermione turn her attention to him. Sighing, I turn to listen to him as he chastises the class about their lack of correct answers. I laugh slightly as he talks about how only two of us knew that his favorite color is Lilac. Sighing, he congratulates me and Hermione for knowing every single question on the test. Smiling bashfully, I turn my face towards the desk, so he doesn't see my blush.
He walks over to his desk that has a large covered object on top of it. Goldilocks takes out his wand before looking at us with the most serious look that he can give.
"Now, I must warn you that my job is to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizard kind," he says and taps the object that is shaped like an owl's cage with his wand. The object starts to shake and the sound of something hitting metal becomes prominent. Goldilocks takes no notice of the noise and continues his speech. "You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Just know that no harm will befall you whilst I am here." He grabs the top of the cover and gives us one finally warning, "I must ask that you don't scream, because it might provoke them."
The teacher throws the cover off the cage, and I instantly gasp as I recognize the creatures that are inside the cage. Blue creatures that are eight inches long are banging on the bars, and my mind goes back to a creatures book that I have read. They are Cornish Pixies! I don't think that having them in a school is a good idea even if they are in a cage. Cornish Pixies are known for being little pranksters that love to hang people up by their ears.
"Cornish Pixies?" a Gryffindor asks Goldilocks and his response is to mention that they are freshly caught. Yeah, I'm starting to become afraid for my life, but at the same time I trust that Mr. Lockhart can protect us from danger. For some reason that went over my head, half of the class starts to laugh, and I just scrunch my face up in confusion. Why are they laughing at the fact that it is Cornish Pixies? Turning around, I look at my brother who is sitting behind me and he notices my confusion as he laughs. He motions that he will tell me later and I nod my head before turning around.
Unfortunately, as soon as I turn around, I catch a glimpse of Lockhart letting the Cornish Pixies out of their cage while basically telling us to put the pixies back in the cage ourselves. I quickly jump out of my seat and quickly hide underneath the desk. I do not want to get hung up in the air by my ears. From my hiding place, I watch as the pixies destroy the classroom and other students are running around or trying to hide under their desks like me. A boy's yelling makes me look over to see the Cornish Pixies grabbing a Gryffindor by his ears and lifting him up into the air. My breath catches in my throat as I watch them hang the Gryffindor on the chandelier by the back of his robes. I think his name is Neville, but I've never spoken to him personally. Quickly, I turn to Goldilocks because he is the teacher and a hero! He should know that now would be a good time to put the Cornish Pixies back into their cage.
"Peskipiksi Pesternomi!" Mr. Lockhart says with a smile at the end, but it quickly disappears as one of the pixies takes his wand from his hand. A look of confusion appears on my face as I try to remember that spell, and from my nearly perfect memories, I can honestly say that I've never read anything that had that spell in it. A loud snap comes from above me and I glance around the desk to see the large skeleton of a giant bird falling down towards me with pixies on it. Gasping, I quickly get back underneath the desk, and I hear a loud bang as the skeleton lands on my desk before dropping onto the ground. Looking around the chaos, I see Big Brother Draco running out of the room with Crabbe and Goyle following him. Big Brother is helping Hermione get a pixie out of her hair and Ron is hiding underneath a desk as well. Hearing movement behind me, I watch as Goldilocks runs up the stairs to his office before looking down at us.
"I'll ask you all to just nip the rest of them back into their cage," with those words, he rushes back into his office with the door shutting behind him. Big Brother and I look at each other with disbelief before I start to think about all of the spells that I read and ones that I learned as well. One spell immediately comes to mind and I hurry out from underneath the desk. With my wand raised up towards the pixies, I yell the word "Immobulus" inside my head and watch as blue light escapes my wand. The light surrounds all of the Cornish Pixies and makes them freeze in the air. The classroom goes instantly silent as the pixies just float around in the air without moving. A sigh of relief escapes me, but a wave of drowsiness takes ahold of me. Shaking my head, I look up at Neville before using the spell levitation spell to get him back onto the ground.
"I don't know why this stuff always happens to me, but thank you Anastasia for getting me down," the boy, Neville, says to me and I nod my head before grabbing my stuff that is scattered around the room. I would have been politer if it isn't for the fact that I am immensely tired from using the freezing charm and the levitation charm. After a minute of gathering my things, I put them back in my satchel before hurrying out of the classroom.
There are two reasons why I am hurrying back to my dorms even though there are more classes. The main one is that I feel ready to collapse into a heap on the ground, but the other reason is also pretty important. This reason being that I simply don't want to end up explaining about what happened to the bathroom to Hermione. I just know that even after this event, she is still going to remember that incident. I'm not an attention seeker! Back to the Cornish Pixies event, I wonder why Mr. Lockhart didn't put the pixies back into the cage and just ran back into his office. Maybe, his teaching technique is to have us do it ourselves. Yeah, that has to be it because he is a man that has helped so many people and wouldn't just let us kids get into reckless danger. Goldilocks was probably going to come out if it got too dangerous.
With those thoughts cemented into my mind, I slowly continue my way down the dungeons and stumble into the walls every once and awhile. As I make my through the dungeons, I just past the door that leads to the potions classroom when the bell rings. A large group of sixth years quickly exit the classroom and push me out of the way. Sadly, I land on the cold hard ground while more students rush past me and some of them hit me with their legs. Thankfully, no one steps on me and it only lasts five minutes before everyone is finally gone. A groan escapes my lips as I try to lift myself up from the ground. My strength gives out halfway and I fall back to the ground with my face hitting it first this time.
Heavy, yet smooth, footsteps make their way towards me from somewhere in the dungeons, but I can't tell where they are coming from because I am more focused on not falling asleep. After what feels like a million years, the footsteps stop right in front of me and deep voice comes next.
"What are you doing, silly girl? Get off the ground," Professor Snape drawls, and I slowly try to get off the ground again. The best I can do by myself is get myself to a sitting position and slowly look up to meet the professor's face. His eyes widen briefly before he quickly grabs my arms and quickly drags me into the potions classroom.
"Professor? What's wrong?" I ask him, but he doesn't say anything instead he pushes me into his office. Professor Snape pushes me into a chair while grabbing a cloth and shoving it into my hands. As I sit in the chair, I feel warm liquid slowly trailing down the lower half of my face. Touching it, I groan when I recognize it as blood. This is why the professor is rushing around the place: I got a bloody nose from hitting my face against the ground. Shaking my head, I put the cloth against my nose and lean my head back slightly.
"Here, silly girl, drink this," he says while passing me a potion that will painfully get rid of my pain and bloody nose. Without a second thought, I swallow the potion and have to stop myself from gagging it back up.
"Do you want to explain why you were on the ground, Ms. Potter?" he asks me with an eyebrow raised. Nodding my head, I explain about what happened in Defense Against the Dark Arts to what just happened with the hallway. Shaking his head, he moves over to sit at his desk while grumbling to himself about how 'of course, this would happen to me'. Smiling, I continue to hold the cloth to my nose and lean back against the chair. Another wave of drowsiness comes over me, and I yawn as I wait for the potion to take effect.
"Now, why did you leave lunch so quickly?" the dreaded question comes up, and I quickly shake my head no. I can not tell him or anyone about my problems. A sigh of annoyance fills the room before he talks with slight anger in his voice, "Usually, I wouldn't care about students leaving early, but you are godson's best friend and you look like you were close to tears. Explain why you left early, silly girl, before I give you detention."
Tears stream down my face while my hand finally comes down from my nose with the cloth. I weigh the pros and cons of telling him before I hear him becoming more annoyed. Right before he gives me detention, I whisper "Do you think I am an attention seeker? Should I have been placed in another house? Am I just a mute orphan that no one will miss?" Professor Snape's hand slamming against his desk makes me flinch as curl up into my chair. Honestly, I don't want to know his answers, but at the same time I don't want to get detention.
"Ms. Potter, why do you ask such ridiculous questions?" his words make me look up at him, I notice that he has an intense look in his eyes. I cock my head to the side before he sighs for what seems like the hundredth time today. "If you were not meant to be in Slytherin then the Sorting Hat would not have put you here. Yes, you run to people a lot more then you try to fix problems yourself, but you don't intentionally seek out dangerous situations. You don't try to act as the victim either, you know when you do something wrong and you change. From these observations, I can say with certainty that you are not an 'attention seeker'. Finally, you have many people that would miss you if anything happened to you. Like my godson and those Devil Twins. Your own brother would miss you terribly, so get those silly thoughts out of your head."
The tears that are falling down my face change from sad ones to happy ones. A small smile appears on my face as I take in his knowledgeable words. Nodding my head again, I quickly hurry over to him and give him another hug like I did when I found out about my illness. Just like the other time, his body becomes stiff like a board but at this point I don't care. Hugging another person makes my emotions calm down and I gradually stop crying, but now my other problem has returned with more force. I almost faint in Professor Snape's arms, but I have enough energy to keep myself up for a few minutes.
"Professor, I'm about to collapse in exhaustion. Can you help me back to the dormitories or a place that I can rest, please?" I ask the teacher, I hear him take a deep breath before he stands up. Walking me over to a couch in his office, he informs me that I can rest there until dinner. Nodding my head, I watch as he leaves his office to start the next potions class in a few minutes. With a smile, I slowly fall asleep with my mind and heart at ease.
Author's Note: Hey, everybody! I'm glad I could give y'all one more chapter before school starts again. I've been having a lot of problems lately like family health drama and my USB drive that holds all of my fan-fictions was corrupting a few of my stories! Oh my Gosh! I cannot explain how I felt when I saw that this book and my Once Upon A Time fan fiction got corrupted with a few other stories. Thankfully, I published this book so all I had to do was rewrite this chapter. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for my Once Upon A Time fan fiction.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please comment down below because I love reading them. All of my readers are amazing and I want to thank you all for taking time out of your days to read these stories! My life right now is not that great but I hope to make your day a little bit better by giving you this chapter. Just know I am super grateful for having all of you people that love this fan fiction. Please, comment below what you think will happen, if you have suggestions for anything, if you have any constructive criticism, or you just simply want to say 'Hi'! I love to read every comment that I get and it brightens my day. :-)