I'm trying to make it most like each character thinking as I tell it, We're back in the eccentric and erratic mind of Riley Collins.
Disclaimer : I own nothing but the two transfer girls and plot.
Part Six – First Day
"Time to wake up Twitch!" I groaned as I heard Melody's overly cheerful voice so early in the morning. I grumbled something even I didn't understand and snuggled further into my pillow.
"Now!" I cringed as she flung open the bed hangings and the sun shone right in my eyes.
"Five more minutes." I mumbled into my pillow.
"Nope. Oh and no body is too happy about the damn cat last night." She smiled at me before heading back to her own bed and starting to put on her make up.
She was far too chipper for so early in the morning. This was one thing I had always strongly disliked about my friend. No matter what time of night she went to sleep at, she would always wake up the next morning at exactly 7:30, and be perfectly refreshed. But seeing as Batman had kept waking us up all night long, I didn't see how that was possible. Meanwhile, I could sleep twelve hours straight and still wake up tired. I decided that ignoring her would be the best option. However, this wasn't the easiest thing to do, as ever minute, she would yell at me or throw something in my general direction to get me up.
"Riley! You promised your mother that you would do well this year! Now get up. Breakfast starts in ten minutes."
"I am gonna do well this year!" I muttered while dragging myself out of bed. Obviously, I wasn't gonna get back to sleep this morning. "Where is everyone?" None of the other Gryffindor girls were in the room with us, and by now Melody was sitting, completely ready, on her bed waiting for me.
"They went to breakfast. Now please get dressed." She rolled her eyes and I stuck my tongue out at her as I noticed that she had already pulled out my uniform for the day. I changed quickly and absentmindedly ran a comb through my hair. Grabbing a hair tie, my favorite necklace and my book bag, I was ready to leave the room only five minutes after I had finally dragged myself out of bed.
I walked in a half dead state as Melody talked about how excited she was the entire way down to the great hall. We entered the massive room and I slid into an open seat beside James before putting my head down on the table in exhaustion.
"She okay?" I heard someone whisper over my head to Melody.
"She's good. Riley get up." She smacked me on the back of the head before continuing, "She's like this every morning." I couldn't really get angry at her though. I'll admit it, I was like this every morning of my life, and we both realized that this was more of a routine than anything else.
I lifted my head up and pulled my hair back into a pony tail before reaching for a bagel. I didn't really pay much attention to the conversation through breakfast, but I did start to observe some of the people I knew I would be spending the next school year with.
Though it had been blatantly obvious last night, it was clear even now that James had a huge crush on Lily. He was hopelessly smitten with her and could barely keep his eyes off of her. She appeared to be either entirely too used to this or overly oblivious, for she barely looked at him all meal.
I let my eyes moved over to Peter and Alyssa who had been quite close all morning. It looked as though they were dating and Amber was busy flirting with Sirius. Now that was odd. Hadn't Lily told me after I had come back upstairs last night that they had gone out once? Well it was clear that he did not reciprocate the feelings, for he spent most of the meal talking to James about Quidditch and trying to get me to join the discussion. Melody had struck up a conversation with Remus and they seemed to be having quite the jolly old time. I could definitely see the constant blushes and shy smiles, just as I am sure everyone else in the whole bloody hall could.
"Here you go ladies and gentlemen. Oh and Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, we are off to a good start so far, yes? Let us try and keep it that way." Professor Nice Lady had come by and handed out our schedules for the first day.
"Oh Professor, you wound me so." Sirius sighed dramatically and she merely waggled her finger at him and walked away. I opened my schedule and read it.
Monday
8:00 – 9:00 - Breakfast
9:15 – 10:45 – Herbology
11:00 – 12:30 – Care of Magical Creatures
12:30 – 1:30 – Lunch
1:45 – 3:15 – Defense Against the Dark Arts
3:30 – 5:00 – Charms
5:00 – 6:00 – Dinner
9:00 – Curfew
Melody snatched my schedule and started to read it. "Well we have half the day together." She grinned and I glanced over her shoulder at her schedule.
She was right. We had D.A.D.A together, as well as Care of Magical Creatures, but in place Herbology, Melody had Arithmancy and instead of Charms, Divination. I had wormed my way out of that class as soon as I possibly could. While I knew that the art of divination was real, and that some people truly did have the gift, I quickly learned in my first year, that it was not a trait I possessed. Melody seemed to be rather gifted in the class however, and so had elected to take it at a higher level.
I however, was far more gifted with Charms and needed the class at N.E.W.T level if I were to continue on to work as a Medi-Witch after school. That was one of the biggest reasons I had pushed to come to England actually. St. Mungos was the best wizarding hospital in the world, and my goal was to work there one day. For that, I needed to get at least and 'Exceeds Expectations' in N.E.W.T level Potions, Charms, Herbology and Transfiguration.
Melody was close to in the same boat as she was hoping to become a Ministry official some day. For this she needed and 'Exceeds Expectations' in Muggle Studies, History of Magic, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. So, beyond the basic requirements this year, we would both have a full course load. This seemed to be true for most of the sixth years, for as I looked up, the only people who did not seem to be worried or upset about their schedules were Amber and Remus.
As we passed schedules around, it became apparent that Sirius, James and Peter had all taken on the same course load, and would be joining me for all of our first day. Lily groaned as she noticed this, for she would be joining us all day as well. Remus would be taking Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, and D.A.D.A with me, but was taking Arithmancy with Melody instead of Herbology. Amber and Alyssa both had a free period at 3:30.
"Well," I grinned as I reached for an apple, suddenly much more awake, "Lets get going!" I tossed my apple up into the air as I walked off, not waiting for anyone to follow.
"See you later Riley!" I heard Melody yell behind me, and I waved over my head without looking back at her, and took a big bite of my apple. It was just then that James came up behind me and thumped me on the back and I was left choking.
"Shoot...I'm sorry Rile's!" He patted me on the back looking concerned while Sirius and Peter just laughed. I shuddered at the nickname and reminded myself to smack him if he ever called me it again.
When I finally could speak again, I turned to him and asked "There's only going to be pain between us isn't there?"
He looked confused as we exited the castle. "What do you mean?"
"Well, we met because I slammed into you off the stair rail at Gringotts. Then you knock me over with your trolley, and now you slap me and leave me choking. What did I do to deserve this?" I stated with a small smile.
"You know that's true. You're pretty violent yourself though. And we can lump Sirius in that boat too can't we?" I nodded, remembering slapping him on the train, and he grinned wildly.
"What do you mean by that?" Lily added in thoughtfully. Obviously she had been listening to our conversation.
"Well my little flower," James' nicknames were already grating on my nerves and I had only been hearing them for one day. I looked at Lily and rolled my eyes as she just glared at him. "On our way here, Riley had the pleasure of slapping Sirius for his insufferable notions." Now Sirius was glaring at James as well.
I grinned as Lily's jaw dropped and she said "You go girl!"
Herbology wasn't a horrible class and conversation flitted back and forth all period. Lily and I had partnered up to tackle the Fanged Geranium that Professor Drawly had assigned us. It was a rather small class, with a mix of students from every house, and I shuddered when I saw that boy who had been chatting up Melody on the train yesterday, Rudolfus, leering at Amber. Did all the Slytherins have to be lecherous old men?
' Well, not all of them are.' I noted as I looked over and caught Severus' eye. I smiled at him as he waved at me. Unfortunately, this got him bitten quite badly by the plant, and I struggled to cover a small grin. All in all, it wasn't a bad class and I was only bit three times. By the end of the class, I was one of the ones better off.
"Stupid bloody flowers." Sirius muttered as sat through a boring lecture about what never to do in Care of Magical Creatures. He was wiping the blood away from a particularly deep bite mark on his forearm and I crawled over to him when the teacher had his back turned. Grabbing the arm and waving my wand over it, I muttered 'pupillus vigoratus' and watched as the bit mark started to heal and disappear. Sirius just watched in shock as I winked and crawled back to Melody and Lily.
During lunch, Sirius plopped down beside me and held out his hands. "Any way you can get the rest of them?" He asked as I grinned.
"Nah, you're fine. It builds character." I saw Melody rub her fingers over her lips to hide a smile. That was what my father had always told us whenever we got nicks and scraps growing up. I already missed my family and decided to write them a letter when I had some down time tonight.
The rest of the day went by rather quickly and without incident. That is of course if you exclude Peter almost blowing his own foot off in D.A.D.A. and the poor first year running by screaming because he was being chased by the poltergeist, who was throwing chalk at her and singing, and James chasing after Lily all day to the point where she actually threw the banana we were supposed to be making weigh ten times heavier at him, then yes, it had been a very normal day.
As we were heading back up to the common room after dinner, I was just about ready to fall into my bed and pass out from exhaustion when all of a sudden Lily exclaimed loudly, causing me to jump in shock.
"You forgot the milk!" She stared at me in shock as the girls jaws dropped, including mine. We all remembered how hard it had been to sleep last night with Batman pestering each and every one of us for hours.
"Shoot...Um." Seeing as the great hall tables had emptied after we left, there was nothing left for us to give my cat. I once again cursed my father for spoiling my pet so much over the last two years. "James, can you take me to the kitchens?"
"Sure thing. We'll catch up with you guys." As we walked away, he waved back at everyone and smiled down at me. Once we were out of earshot I poked him sharply between the ribs.
"What is it with you?" I glared at him.
"Ow! What do you mean?"
Gosh he was clueless. "With Lily! She obviously hates the way you treat her. It's no wonder she won't go out with you." I scoffed, while folding my arms.
"Hey," he protested, stopping and turning towards me. "I'm a good guy."
"Which is clearly why she hasn't killed you yet. But you do actually like her don't you?" Through the course of the day I started to wonder. Did he actually like her, or was Lily just fun to mess with?
"Of course I like her!" He answered, rather affronted that I had asked. His eyes softened, "I always have."
"Then give her some respect. Call her by her name, and stop asking her out. Trust me," I grinned and started walking again as he looked shocked at this. "She'll notice you more when you stop asking her out, then when you are."
"How does that even work?" James asked in disbelief as he sped to catch up with me.
"It's called reverse psychology. My father used it on me to try and convince me not to come to Hogwarts." I grinned at the memory.
"But...you did come. So once again, how is this gonna work?" He turned down another corridor as I realized that it maybe hadn't been the best example to give.
"Not the point. It's worked other times." I sighed as we came to a stop in front of a picture of a giant bowl of fruit. "Trust me. She'll be a lot happier when you treat her like a normal human being anyway."
"Hmm...but it's part of the Potter charm!" He grinned at me wildly as he reached out to the bowl of fruit and started to tickle the pear of all things.
"What in the world are you doing?" I stared at him like his ears had just turned purple.
"Getting into the kitchens." He had the audacity to roll his eyes at me. As if I knew that molesting a piece of fruit would get us into the kitchen. Sure enough however, the pear giggled manically and the portrait swung open to reveal the magnificent kitchens. I followed James as we walked past hundreds of house elves, all of whom bowed and acknowledged James as if this were nothing new to them.
"Hello Master Potter. Might we be able to assist you and the lovely lady," at this the pretty little female elf speaking addressed me and curtsied in her over sized Hogwarts uniform, "with finding anything tonight?"
"Yes please Tipsy." He smiled fondly down at the small elf, and I had to smile as she returned his smile with a grin so large that it almost consumed her face entirely. "My friend Riley has a cat that is in desperate need of a saucer of milk. Could you by chance get us some to take to the poor fellow?"
"Oh yes!" She squeaked, while another male house elf raced off to find the milk James had asked for. "The lovable little wonder in the Gryffindor tower. Such a sweet fellow. Shame about his ears though." Apparently the house elves had already met Batman, for as I looked around the kitchen, several of the gathered elves smiled fondly.
"Oh yes," I smiled as they all turned to look at me, "He was abandoned actually. We found him and he had severe frostbite and the doctors had to remove the ears." The gathered elves were shocked to hear this and several of the younger elves actually had tears in there eyes.
"But he is such a loving creature!" Tipsy exclaimed in sadness as I merely nodded. "Well, we shall gladly be able to give him milk every night if that is what you wish mam'"
"That would be wonderful," I smiled as I saw James grin at me out of the corner of my eye. "And you may call me Riley." At this, Tipsy courtesied and smiled as the male elf returned with the milk.
"Here you are mam'!" He smiled so broadly that almost all I saw was teeth, and I had to smile in return as I took the offered milk.
"Thank you very much." With this, James and I made our way to the door as the house elves offered us all sorts of treats and sweets. With gentle refusals, we climbed out of the portrait hole and I was left grinning madly "Thank you James."
"Not a problem, Rile's!" He smiled as I winced at the nick name.
"Can you not call me that?" I grimaced
"Oh, but it suits you Rile's" He grinned wickedly as I aimed a kick at him.
"But Jamesy-Poo, " I whined, with just as evil a grin. "I don't like the name!" He shuddered, but, to my surprise, laughed.
"I see how this is going to be Riley-kins." Damn. My plan backfired.
"You know what Jamesy-bear," I smiled thoughtfully, "This is going to be an interesting school year."
He merely nodded and laughed, as we made our way back up to Gryffindor Tower.
Okay, so I have no idea if people actually like this story or not, so a review would be nice. Tell me if it's worth the while to keep going, or should I work on something else?
