Chapter 7: First Day Part 1
Sarah
Hermione and I had both finished putting away our things. Our dorm was very small—it was really only Lavender, Parvati, Hermione, and me, so our beds had an ample amount of room between. Lucky wasn't with me, but neither were any of the others' pets. Parvati told me he was most likely in the Owlery. Since I knew he could catch his own food and such, day or night, I knew he was fine. Having one eye really didn't affect him one way or the other.
I took up some bathing things and took a quick shower. I dried my hair with a fluffy white towel and deposited it in the clothing bin. It vanished after a minute or two, and reappeared again, clean. Curious, I did the same thing with my clothes from the day, and was that surprised when they appeared back, folded neatly.
"Hey, guys, check this out!" I cried, smiling. Parvati and Lavender just nodded, but Hermione looked at the clean clothes and followed my lead. She grinned at me when she came back with her clothes in the same condition.
"I thought for sure we'd have to do our own laundry," she said. "This is great!"
"Yeah," I said, hanging my robes. "Me, too. Hey, look at this." I held up my tie, which before had been the same gray color as everyone else's. After the first wash, however, it had turned the brilliant scarlet color of a Griffindor.
"So they change color when you wash them," Hermione smiled, holding her own red tie up to the light. "Well, good night, all."
"Night, Hermione," I said.
Lavender and Parvati continued chattering away, oblivious.
I shrugged and lay down to sleep.
The bed was so fluffy and comfortable, and the curtains made it just dark enough, that I fell asleep in moments.
I stood in the forest on the grounds surrounding the castle. A man with grayed skin and red eyes stood beside a unicorn, beckoning to me. I stepped forward, surprised to see Harry standing to my right. He reached out and stopped me.
"Don't. I know him."
"If you know him, then why…?"
"He's evil."
The man beckoned to me again, pulling me forward with just a glance in my eyes. Harry reached out to stop me, but this time, I ignored him. The man smiled as I drew closer and he pointed to the unicorn.
"Slay her. Drink of her blood. You will grow strong, and youthful."
I stared at the unicorn, and shook my head. "No. I don't want to hurt her."
"Kill her!"
The man grabbed my arm and pulled me forward and into the unicorn's flank. It cried out like a frightened horse, and the man reached out and pressed its shoulder. She stopped trying to escape.
"Kill her," he whispered in my ear.
"No!"
"Now!"
I ran back to Harry and stood beside him. "No! You're evil, just like Harry said!"
"Foolish child. You will regret defying my commands."
I woke up, sweating, the heavy blankets trapping my legs. Those dreams again. Was that what the Sorting Hat meant? That my dreams were coming back again? Back then, though, I hadn't known who Harry was, and now I did. I wondered briefly if the dream meant anything, or if my mind was playing tricks on me again. I sighed and shook my head. No way I was getting back to sleep again after that.
I cast aside the blanket and made the bed neatly. The others were still soundly sleeping, but according to my watch it was about six in the morning, anyway. Of course they'd all be sleeping. I took a brush and my school robes into the bathroom to get dressed and ready for the day. When I got out, Hermione was waking up, too.
"Morning," she murmured sleepily.
"Good morning," I whispered. "I'm heading down to see if they're serving breakfast yet. Want to come?"
She nodded. "Give me five minutes."
True to her word, she was dressed in her school robes and had her hair combed out in just five minutes. Her hair was still a little fluffy, but nearly as bad as it had been yesterday. I determined that as soon as I was good enough with a wand, I would help her tame the mass of thick brown hair.
At first, it seemed like we'd never find the right combination of staircases and hallways. Soon enough, however, we found the familiar-looking marble staircase that led town into the Entrance Hall, and finally into the Great Hall. There weren't many other people in there at the moment, but there were enough to warrant some food on the tables.
There were kippers and bacon, eggs and sausage, loafs of toasted bread, cornflakes, porridge, rolls, and canteens of orange juice and water on each of the four long house tables. Hermione and I sat on the end on the bench.
I helped myself to a glass of orange juice and iced water, some sausage, toast, scrambled eggs, and a bowl of cornflakes with milk. I also snitched a banana from a platter farther down the table and cut it up with my spoon in the cornflakes.
Professor McGonagall seemed to be the only teacher already up, although she wasn't eating breakfast. She arrived at our table with a smile.
"Nice to see some of our house up early this morning." Only one other Griffindor was seated at the table, a much older student who looked like he hadn't had much sleep to begin with. He was stirring salt into some porridge. Other than us, there were a smattering of Ravenclaws, and two older Slytherins in the room. She continued and handed us each a sheet of parchment. "These are your schedules. Hopefully, you'll be able to find the rooms all right. I try to make it clear for first years."
The paper looked much like this:
Monday
9am – Herbology
11am – History of Magic
1pm – Lunch Break
2pm – Charms
Tuesday
9am – History of Magic
11am – Transfiguration
1pm – Lunch Break
2pm – Charms
Wednesday
9am – Herbology
11am – Transfiguration
1pm – Lunch Break
2pm – Defense Against the Dark Arts
Midnight – Astronomy
Thursday
9am – Herbology
11am – Transfiguration
1pm – Lunch Break
2pm – Charms
Friday
9am – Potions
I compared schedules with Hermione, but of course they were the same. McGonagall had said before that all our classes would be together. So, eleven Griffindor first years would be learning all together for seven long years. I smiled at the thought. I was surprised to see that the next people who came into the Great Hall were Fred and George Weasley. They hadn't struck me as early birds.
"Fred here couldn't sleep," said George, grumbling. "Woke me up at seven bloody o'clock in the bloody morning."
Fred smiled tiredly. "Sorry, dear brother."
"So…are our schedules going to change?" I asked the boys.
"Not yet," George said, spooning up some porridge.
"You'll get new classes third year. That's when things really get rolling."
"How so?" Hermione asked.
"Third year you get electives," George said.
"Fifth you take the O.W.L.s."
"Then sixth and seventh you start planning for N.E.W.T.s."
"Bloody hard, or so our older brothers say."
"We don't know." They both said this last together, and shrugged as one.
"Well, it's school…it's supposed to be hard," I pointed out.
"Logical," Fred nodded.
"I like her," George smiled. "She makes sense."
I laughed at them.
"So, you guys are in third year, right?" I asked. "What electives are you taking?"
"Divination and Care of Magical Creatures," said Fred. "Probably will drop Divination next year. Might like the creatures, though."
I smiled. "I like animals, too. I'll probably take that one when we get into third year."
"Professor Kettleburn teaches it right now," Fred said. "He's missing an arm from one of the hippogriffs a few years back. Didn't bow low enough or something. Percy dropped that class and gained Muggle Studies."\
"I know enough about Muggles," I shrugged, spooning up some more of my cornflakes and bananas. "I am one."
"It'd be interesting to study them from the wizard perspective, though," Hermione said. I didn't think too much about the statement, because I didn't think so.
Professor McGonagall came back around and handed the twins their timetables. "Don't listen to too much these two have to say. They've barely scraped by in any of their classes."
"Oh, you hurt us, Professor!" Fred cried out, dramatically placing his hand over his heart and tossing his head back.
"You wound us!" George agreed, mirroring his brother.
I laughed, and I swore that I saw a smirk on the professor's face as she started toward a group of Ravenclaw elders who had come in through the door. It was eight o'clock now, and the Great Hall was starting to fill up again. I gulped down what remained of my orange juice and stood to leave.
"Still have to go get our books," I said to Hermione. "Then we can explore a bit and see if we can't at least find our classes for today."
"Right," she nodded and stood up.
"Thanks for the chat, Fred, George," I said as we left.
On the back of our timetables turned out to be a small description of how to get to each of the classrooms. Hermione and I easily found the History of Magic classroom, just up the marble staircase in the Entrance Hall and toward the left. The Charms classroom ended up being on the third floor, just down a corridor. There was a huge window right beside the entrance, looking over the road leading to the school itself.
With that accomplished, Hermione and I went up to gather our school supplies together for the day. I slid my wand into a deep pocket in my robes, and packed up One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, A History of Magic, and The Standard Book of Spells Grade 1. I thought better of it and grabbed Magical Theory, too. I piled a stack of parchment, a bottle of ink, and a handful of quills. I also grabbed my dragon-hide gloves
Once satisfied that I had everything, I walked over to Hermione.
"Do you think we'll need our gloves?" Hermione asked. "Our wands?"
"I don't think it's a good idea to leave our wands anywhere," I said, thoughtful. "I did bring my gloves just in case."
We headed back downstairs, only to see Ron, Harry, Kaz, and Kurama headed down the stairs lickety-split. I laughed at the panicked look on Kurama's face.
"Relax, guys!"
"We're a little late," Ron said.
"I'd suggest grabbing your wands, gloves, and books for Herbology and History of Magic," I said pointedly. The four boys exchanged a look, then bolted back upstairs before reappearing with their bags. Ron's was crammed with parchment and a quill was threatening to fall out.
"Herbology's outside, so go get your schedules and grab something to eat," I said. I smiled at them as they rushed out of the room. Hermione and I took our time as we walked down staircases. I was starting to get a feel for at least how to get downstairs to the Great Hall. We made it into the Entrance Hall, and stepped out through the oak doors onto the lawn. The front of the school was even more magnificent during the day. I spotted the lake off toward the south. To the left was a bunch of vegetable patches, spreading out across more than an acre of land. By those was a set of greenhouses, four in all. Hermione and I made straight for it, as did a few Hufflepuffs. I spotted Lavender and Parvati already seated on the lawn with a picnic of breakfast foods.
"Wish we'd thought of that," Hermione said. "Looks like fun."
"Yeah," I said. "We have Herbology again Wednesday, how about we do that then?"
"Okay! Maybe we can invite those boys. Then they'd get a decent breakfast."
I nodded. "Kurama didn't seem the type to oversleep. Wonder what happened."
She shrugged and sat down on the grass next to Lavender. Neville appeared shortly after we did, and then Seamus and Dean. Harry, Ron, Kurama, and Kaz came last, just as loud bells began to ring throughout the castle, reverberating out to the grounds.
"Good morning, class!"
"Morning," muttered a few. I spoke clearly, but that's just me.
"Let's try that again, shall we? Good morning, class!"
"Good morning," the class intoned. Along with the eleven Griffindors, I counted eight Hufflepuff. That's odd. Why so few? I recognized Hannah Abbott, but the others weren't ringing any bells.
"My name is Professor Sprout. You're lucky enough to be in one of your double courses this morning. Griffindors, meet Hufflepuffs and vice versa." She seemed really cheerful and happy-go-lucky. "Today, our lesson will be about wand woods, since that is probably the only botany you may already be familiar with. Galis, what wood is your wand made of?"
"Eucalyptus," I said, trying to make my voice carry.
"Ah, good. That's a rare wand wood type, because of how thin Eucalyptus grows. In fact, I'm pretty sure—let me see your wand a moment." I took it out of my pocket and handed it to her. "Yes, you can see, class, how the wood was burnt first, and then bound together by its core. This wand was probably made of several Eucalyptus fronds, not just one as is usual of a wand."
She handed me back my wand and I took out parchment and began to take notes.
"Finch-Fletchley, what is yours?"
"Mahogany, Professor," he said, lifting it up.
"Ah, yes. We have several mahogany trees in our forest just behind me, three of which have been harvested for wand wood. Now, let's get down to discussing each of the different types of wand wood and what they are usually good for in magic…"
She continued lecturing on common wand woods—vine, oak, mahogany, cherry—and then led the way to the edge of the forest where we identified several trees by their leaves. It turned out we hadn't needed our gloves after all.
The end-of-class bell rang and Professor Sprout shouted over us. "You have a foot essay assignment on the types of wand wood. Choose two and describe what style of magic they are suited best for. You're dismissed."
I checked my watch. Fifteen minutes to get to the next class. I showed Hermione and the two of us headed back toward the castle quickly. Although we knew where it was, I wanted to be early so I could go over my Herbology notes and make additions if necessary. I noticed that the rest of the Griffindors seemed to be following us, albeit without looking like they were outright.
"Hey, you guys know where the History class is?" I called back, grinning.
"You don't?" Ron asked, looking a little stupid.
"Yeah, just wondering if you did," I said, smiling. I stopped and waited for them to catch up. "I mean, if you don't know, we can show you. We got up early and found all the classrooms first."
"Thank you for the tip this morning," Kurama said, gesturing to his schoolbag. "It prevented a great deal of trouble."
"No problem," I grinned. "No point in losing points if we can help it, right?"
"I suppose not," Kurama nodded.
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