Charms
Chapter Four
Phaedra
"Wake UP, Lil!" Lily groaned, and turned over. The next thing she knew, she was having all sorts of items thrown at her, including books, pillows, a small figurine, two gobstones, and last but not least, a vomit-green Bertie Botts Every Flavor Bean. Ria was standing at the foot of her bed, hands on her hips, staring at Lily. Beside her was another girl, slightly taller than Ria, with vivid purple hair and eyes that were dull with worry and sleep deprivation.
"That's it, I think Lily's really a rock." Ria flung all of Lily's sheets off the bed and dragged her off the mattress as Lily hung onto a pillow.
"No, no, I du'wan'go!" Lily muttered. Ria proceeded to grab a pitcher of water and dump it on Lily's head. "Hey, whazzat for? I'm- unnh -hungry. When's breakfast?"
"Breakfast is right NOW, you ninny! Hurry up, or you won't be able to eat, you'll have to go to class!" Ria took out Lily's schedule. "And, by the looks of it, you've got Defence Against the Dark Arts first. If you hurry, we'll have time to take you there."
"Really, she wants a glance at the new teacher. No one knows who it is yet," the other girl spoke up at last, with a wry smile.
"And you don't think I can't be a good little guide, Phae? Lil, Phaedra Banks. Phae, Lily Evans." Ria rushed them down to the Great Hall for breakfast after making sure Lily had the books she needed for the day. Once Ria sat down, she immediately got a glass of pumpkin juice and a pancake, and wolfed them down. Phae didn't touch a thing, and when asked about it, she said she wasn't hungry. Lily helped herself to a banana and a bagel with some sort of unrecogniseable berry jam, and tried to keep up with Ria.
Soon, she felt a tap on her shoulder. There was Katie and Val, standing behind them. Val yawned, but Katie was already as awake as Ria was. "Good morning, girls!" Katie said in a sing song voice. "Ready for a wonderful day of class? Double potions with the Slytherins, come and get it!" Val and Phae both groaned.
"Lil, you're lucky. You don't have potions until... Let's see... Friday." Ria commented, looking at Lily's schedule.
"What a way to ruin a Friday," muttered Lily, almost inaudibly, but Ria, Phae, Katie, and Val all heard and chuckled.
"Classtime!" shouted Katie, as she grabbed Lily's arm and rushed her down the hall towards the correct classroom. The other girls followed, at a slightly slower pace, since they would have to backtrack a little if they were to get all the way to Lily's first class, and then the Dungeons.
"Welcome to your first class at Hogwarts. I expect everyone has their books, wand, parchment, quill, and ink?" The class nodded. "Good. I am Professor Banks, and I will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year."
At that, Lily wondered if Professor Banks and Phaedra were related, but they looked nothing alike, so she quickly squealched that idea. She took out parchment for notes, and waited.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts is fast becoming one of the most important classes you will ever have at Hogwarts. Can anyone tell me why?"
One boy raised his hand slowly. He was sitting in the middle row, by the window. Professor Banks nodded to him. "You-Know-Who," the boy said shakily.
"And what if I do not know who, Termont?" Professor Banks looked expectantly at the boy that had raised his hand.
"Um... Um... L-L-Lord V-v-vol-vol-de-dem-mort." The boy, Gregory Termont, looked even worse. His hands were white with terror, and he had such a grip on his quill it snapped in half.
"Correct, Termont. Five points to Hufflepuff. Can anyone tell me who this is?" The professor tapped his fingers expectantly on his desk. He was standing, which, if anything, made him even more frightening, seeing as he was somewhere near 6'5", with a muscular build. Termont just seemed thrilled that Banks was no longer asking him anything.
No one else raised their hand.
"Come on, anyone? Nobody knows who this is? Nobody?" Professor Banks kept the fury out of his voice, trying to be as calming as possible. Lily felt like she should raise her hand and say something, but she wasn't sure what to say, being muggle-born and not knowing anything about this Lord Voldemort before class started. She expected that was why the professor was so mad. But, that's not helping him, Lily thought, it's making those who DO know too terrified to say!
Banks muttered something that sounded like 'First Years' darkly, eyes squinted downward. And then, he began to speak again, after a few minutes of total silence besides the drumming of his fingers on the desk. "Voldemort is responsible for fear and terror. He is responsible for the murder of innocent witches and wizards. He and his followers have been lurking around for about two years now, biding their time, gaining followers, teaching them more Dark Magic than anyone could hope to learn from anyone else. It is MY responsibility to teach you how to defend yourselves from him, and anyone who follows, God forbid we even HAVE one with his power ever again!"
At this, he turned to stare at each first-year in turn. As he turned to stare at Lily, she shivered, like a cold wind had come over the entire room and decided to wrap around her innards and squeeze hard. If she were to have looked around, most of the others had the same reaction, but every single eye in the class was trained on Professor Banks.
"Now. You may be wondering what you will learn this year in my class. You will learn basic counter-jinxes, hexes, and defensive spells from now until February. If you are ready, at that time, we will start learning about Dark creatures until the end of the school year. Your first assignment in this class is to research a past Dark wizard and write 3 meters about what they did, why they did it, and their downfall. I expect them to be done by next Monday at the start of class. Start now. There are books (as he said this, he pointed to a bookshelf in the back corner) here, and if anyone needs an extra quill, come get one from my desk."
The class rose and piled into the back corner. Lily grabbed the first book she could, which was a voluminous leather-bound book, with no title or author. The outside was completely black. She sat back at her desk and let the book fall open, hoping she could pick at random who she would write about. She picked up her quill and started furiously writing notes down on parchment, and got lost in her work.
Ten minutes later, the professor quietly said class was dismissed, but Lily was reluctant to go. She knew she couldn't be late for class, however, and quickly packed her bag and hurried off to her next scheduled class, which happened to be Charms.
On the way there, she bumped into an anorexic-looking Slytherin. "Watch where you're going, freak!" the girl snarled as she pulled out her wand, presumeably to hex Lily.
"Don't you dare, Narcissa." It was Ria, taking a fighting stance beside Lily. Narcissa, looking taken aback, replied with utter loathing, "Aww, poor ikkle firstie can't handle anything, has to be taken care of?" But, with that, Narcissa slipped away.
"You okay, Lil? She didn't try anything, did she?" Ria took Lily's shoulders and spun her around to look her in the eye searchingly.
"No no, I'm fine. Really. I have to get to class." Lily responded, slightly humiliated, but still relieved that Ria had come.
Ria raised one eyebrow. "Oh? Charms, I presume, by the way you're headed. I'm on to Transfiguration, myself. Took a detour, though, can't find Phae." She wrinkled up her nose, and was off. "See ya, Lil!"
"Yeah, bye, Ria!" Lily replied, before rushing off to class.