Professor Puffapod's Plants
sweaterweather21

Chapter 2: Fairytales and Bad First Impressions
First Year Essays

My Own Personal Fairytale
By Lily Evans, Year One

Hogwarts is amazing! Sorry about that random outburst, it's just that I had to get that thought out of my brain right away. This whole week has just been a whirlwind of amazing events and people and that was the first coherent thought I could manage to put together.

It's just that I can't believe I went the first eleven years of my life not knowing about this!

Okay, wait, I'm getting way too far ahead of myself. I always do this to myself. Let me start from the beginning.

My name is Lily Evans, and I'm a First Year Gryffindor student here at Hogwarts. I first found out I was a witch a couple of weeks ago, and now I'm attending this amazing school for witches and wizards and we're doing spells and making potions and I still can't believe it.

Oh, and I skimmed over the most important fact! I can do magic!

Right now, I'm in Herbology class, writing this essay that Professor Puffapod has assigned us. We're supposed to be writing about our current emotions and feelings. She believes that before dealing with magical plants, you first need to be in control of your own emotions. Apparently, they can pick up on your aura, and it influences their growth patterns. She told us to mention any new people we've met, our impression of the school, our professors, and our favorite classes. Thank Merlin (did you catch that, I'm picking up on some of the strange wizarding sayings already!) it's not going to be turned in.

So far, Hogwarts is absolutely amazing. Don't get me wrong, I love my mum and dad and even Petunia when she's not sulking, but this place just feels right. Scratch that, better than right. Hogwarts feels like my own personal fairytale.

Dad used to read me bedtime stories that seemed to describe this place. Everything is just so amazingly gorgeous here. The ceiling in the entrance hall is out of this world—it's charmed to look like the night sky. One night after dinner I stayed behind to admire it and found that you can actually pick out the individual constellations! The staircases that connect the different floors move to a different landing every time you use them. This makes getting to class on time a difficult task, especially so when the ancient portraits in odd clothing decide to make small talk to you as you pass by.

I enjoy all of the teachers here as well, although they are admittedly quite different than what I am used to back home. However, I have a feeling I'll get along with them just fine. Most have extremely high expectations for all of us, and I'm looking forward to meeting the challenge, as nerdy as that sounds. It's just that I'm new to this whole thing and I feel like giving anything less than my best wouldn't be acceptable.

Our Potions Master, Professor Slughorn, is very nice and jolly, but even just in this first week, I've already noticed his tendency to pick favorites. My first impression of Professor Puffapod is that she is quite knowledgeable about plants and their properties. She does seem to be a bit too concerned with their protection (okay, now I'm really hoping she doesn't decide to read these!). Professor Flitwick, who teaches Charms, definitely knows his stuff and has a good attitude while our Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Rawle, is rather cryptic, which makes for an interesting lesson. It's definitely a different approach to teaching, but it works—everyone pays attention. The History of Magic teacher is Professor Binns. He's a ghost! This shocked me on the first day, but I quickly snapped out of it once I realized how dull he is. Don't tell! But I think my favorite professor is Professor McGonagall, who teaches Transfiguration, coincidentally my worst subject. I like her strictness, while still allowing us to learn. She's also very open for questions, which I appreciate because I always seem to have some.

But the best part is that I've already made a bunch of new friends! The first is Calpurnia Ember—she's what you would call a pureblood, meaning that all of her family members have been magical (I'm still not quite sure on all of these magical terms, but I'm pretty confident that I got the definition right). I met her on the train and she's been a great friend these past few days, teaching me things I wouldn't have known otherwise and just sticking by me in general. Alice Dearborn is another kind dorm mate of mine—I believe she's the sweetest person I've ever met. And I can't forget about Severus Snape! He wasn't sorted into my house, but he's been really nice to me ever since he found out that I have magical ability way back when he first met me in Spinner's End.

To add further to the magic of Hogwarts, just yesterday Remus Lupin told me about the most curious creatures! They're called house elves, and supposedly they do all the work around the castle, cooking and cleaning and keeping it running. The funny thing is that we never see them! I told him that they kind of seem like slaves, but he assured me that they're not.

Overall, Hogwarts seems to be a perfectly magical fairytale. A month ago I could've never imagined that a place like this existed, not even in my wildest dreams! However, every fairytale must have an evil villain, a thorn in the heroine's side. Sadly, my fairytale has its own wicked with.

Okay, I take that back. He's not exactly a wicked witch (ironic, because there actually are plenty of witches here, hahaha), more like a pain in my bum if you know what I mean.

His name is James Potter. I know I shouldn't really judge a person's character prematurely, but I'm pretty sure I've gotten the extent of his personality in our encounter. I positively cannot stand him!

It all started out innocently enough. After breakfast yesterday, I met Sev outside the way out of the Great Hall and we walked to Potions together. In the middle of talking to him, I was hit with an odd curse that made my legs wobble uncontrollably. (Later I looked the exact name up – it's called a Jelly-Legs Jinx). I shrieked, nearly tripping on the steps and spilling all my books to the floor. I looked around in shock, my eyes landing on a messy-haired boy with an arrogant smirk. He barely shrugged in my direction before sauntering away with his friends. I stood in my spot, unable to move partially due to the jinx and partially due to my embarrassment as Sev picked up my books and helped me to my feet. He continued to support me the rest of the way to Potions, where Professor Slughorn kindly murmured the counter-jinx for me.

Quickly, I calmed myself down. Unluckily, I have a hot temper and the last thing I wanted to do was to lose it in front of all my classmates. I'm happy to report despite the incident in the hallway, I managed to brew our first potions (a boil-cure concoction) almost perfectly. Professor Slughorn was quite impressed. Just as I was walking out the door, I caught a glimpse of the same boy wearing the same smirk from before. Judging from Sev's facial expression, he was saying something particularly unpleasant to him.

I was livid. I dropped my book bag on the floor and marched straight over to Potter, clutching my wand tightly. "What in the name of Merlin is your problem? First you jinx me, and then you insult my best friend!"

The boy didn't even bat an eye, running his fingers through that uncontrollable hair of his. "Sorry about this morning. I wasn't aiming for you. It was supposed to hit the sniveling loser you were walking with." Further enraging me, the boy didn't look the least bit sorry as he said this. His mouth was set straight, but I could see a bit of arrogance dancing in his eyes.

He was talking about Severus Snape, my best friend, completely innocent in this whole ordeal. I squared my shoulders to the boy, looked him straight in the eyes, and raised my voice.

"What did he even do to you? You have no right to do that to anyone in the hallway, much less someone who has done absolutely nothing to you. I suggest you apologize right now!"

The boy kept his cool, only further adding to my rage. He merely smirked and held out his hand for a handshake. "Nice to meet you. I'm James Potter. What's your name?"

Without a second though, I whipped out my wand and cast a hex I learned in The Standard Book of Spells, Year One. His hair turned green on the spot.

Needless to say, I didn't return his handshake.

He stared at me for a moment with an unrecognizable expression before he stalked off with his gang of idiots.

We've been enemies ever since. In most fairytales, there's some kind of mystical weapon that will defeat any enemy. Sadly, I think I'm out of luck in this situation. I can barely find my way around the castle as it is! Maybe I should ask Calpurnia. She has plenty of older brothers; she might have some revenge plans up her sleeve…

Unfortunate First Encounters
By James Potter, First Year

You have got to be kidding me right now. An essay on the first day? And to make it worse, it's about your feelings. I'm not writing this.

Okay, Puffapod is making me write. I'm supposed to talk about my experience at Hogwarts so far, my favorite classes, and so on and so forth.

Sounds boring.

I really don't want to do this.

All right, Professor, I'll get to work! Sorry!

Well if I have to do this I might as well make it count.

I'm not going to waste any time telling you about the amazing moving staircases, the powerful Headmaster Dumbledore, and all of the fantastic staff. That's boring.

Instead, I'm going to tell you about the people. My mum used to say I have a talent for picking up unnoticeable stuff about people, and I have a feeling that this is going to come in handy here at Hogwarts, if you know what I mean.

I'll start with my mates. Sirius Black first. We had an interesting first encounter on the train. Let's just say that I misjudged the fact that he was a Black… anyway, we got over that pretty quick, and now he's my best mate. Saying we get along fine is like saying that the Knight Bus barely ever goes over the speed limit. I swear, if I wasn't sure that I'm an only child, I would've thought that we were twins, separated at birth. He shares my love of mischief and pranking, which is great, because we've already planned a major one that's supposed to go off at breakfast tomorrow (I wouldn't drink the pumpkin juice if I were you). Sirius also has a knack of charming people to get what he wants – during the Welcoming Feast he managed to convince Davy Gudgeon to "loan" him his Remembrall.

My next mate is Remus Lupin. Even though I've only known the bloke for a few days, I already have a feeling that there's something different about him. I picked up on it right away, but I can't figure it out and it frustrates me to no end. Anyway, he's a good guy. He's less into pranking than Sirius and I are, but he still helped us work out one of the kinks in our prank last night. He seems pretty level-headed, but he has quite the obsession with chocolate! I glanced into his trunk yesterday morning and half the thing was filled with Honeydukes' finest. Remus is also good with people. On the first night, I saw him calming down a hysterical Peter Pettigrew, who was homesick.

Speaking of Peter Pettigrew, he's the last of my new friends here. I'm not exactly sure why he was sorted into Gryffindor but I think he's a pretty good bloke. Sirius says that we should only keep him around because he has the complete collection of Chocolate Frog Cards, but he was just kidding around. At least I think he was. Clearly there's more to Peter than that though. He seems like a nice guy, loyal and keen on sticking around.

But by far the most interesting person I've met here is Lily Evans. I first got a glimpse of her on the train ride here. She's fairly pale, but she's just got this shocking mane of red hair and I can't stop looking at it. It's so bright. It almost looks like it would be hot if you touched it. I would go up and yank on it a bit, but she's still got her knickers in a twist about this morning.

About that… well needless to say we didn't get off to the best start, exactly. Apparently the greasy Slytherin Severus Snape is her best friend. Who knew? I didn't. I'd rather not go into details if you don't mind. Let's just say there are a couple of green streaks left in my hair.

Evans has been ignoring my past couple of attempts to touch her hair. Maybe one last try?

Well, that could've gone better. Shut up, Sirius. Don't call me a prat! I was only trying to get her attention. Remus is rolling his eyes, saying I blew my chance. At least I tried.

I guess I could try pranking her. That would get her attention, right? I should consult Sirius when he stops laughing. Remus might have a few good ideas too, if I can get him to look away from his textbooks. Maybe I'll ask Peter for help too, he seems eager enough.

I'm getting tired of this. Remus just ignored me in favor of finishing his essay, but Sirius said he'll help me think up a good idea to get back at Evans.

All right, I'm off to manage some mischief. Wish me luck.

a/n: Hey, it's me again! Thanks for reading. This was a pretty quick update (4 days) for me at least, and I'll be trying to keep up with posting about twice a week but we'll see about that haha. Anyway, Chapter 3 is currently finished and beta'd, so at least that one will be on time. Chapter 4 is still in the works and I only have a few parts written out after that.

So, what did you think? Which essay did you like better, Lily's or James's? Who was more at fault for their bad first impression of each other?

And here's a big question: in the upcoming chapters, would you like me to stick to the format of just Lily and James's POVs, or should I include some essays from the other characters, such as Sirius, Remus, Peter, Calpurnia (who I've mentioned a bit, she's Lily's OC friend), and Severus? Let me know :) Thanks again for reading!