Chapter Four: First Day of School

"Hello Hermione," Julie greeted as the bushy haired girl came walking down from the girls' dormitories.

Hermione was obviously shocked, "Why are you up so early?"

"Tea," Julie lifted her mug, "special herbal blend that allows me to keep up with my friends. Gives me the abilities of the speed of a cheetah, strength of a healthy ox, and regenerative abilities as well. As long as my brain and heart are still intact I can heal any wound I suffer. And it boosts my cognitive functions two hundred fifty percent above my normal levels, heightens my senses to that of a Bloodhound's sense of smell, an eagle's eye sight, night sight of a tiger, I can identify things by touch and taste, including all compounds contained in anything I put into my mouth. I have a dog's sense of hearing too. Want some? I made a whole pot."

"No thank you," Hermione moved to the window to greet the bird that was incessantly tapping on the window, deposited a coin into a pouch on its leg and retrieved the newspaper it brought. She then returned to the fireside, took a seat in an armchair, and opened the paper.

"You worried about this Sirius Black bloke?" Hermione asked calmly.

Julie laughed, "Nah, we're used to dealing with much worse…they've foughten and stopped an intergalactic war before so this's no biggie." She drained her cup and proceeded to stare into the fire. Her eyes glazed over and various expressions appeared and disappeared from her face.

Harry soon came down from his dormitory, ready for the day.

"What's wrong with her?" he asked.

Hermione shrugged, "I think she's remembering some nasty experiences; either that or her herbal tea is rerouting everything to allow her superhuman abilities. You wake up Ron?"

"Nope. It's useless to try anyways."

He scooted her over, the armchair was very large and would allow two adults to sit side by side, sat down, and began reading over her shoulder.

"You worried about Black?" Hermione asked her friend.

"Why should I be? One measly Death-Eater won't do me in, even Voldemort can't kill me."

"You're brassy Harry," she laughed, "and you need to get your own subscription."

"Nope."

"What are you two doing?" Gwen asked as she descended from a third dormitory, she too was completely ready for the day.

"Reading the paper."

"Oh…Julie, snap out of it." She lightly bopped the Asian girl on the back of the head. Julie snapped to alertness. A physical change was evident; her muscles became visibly tauter, stronger. Her ears tapered slightly as her face angled out a bit more. Her fingers became longer and slimmer.

"How do you feel?"

"Fine. Nothing different than ever before."

"Okay. Ben awake?"

"No." Harry replied, "I don't know who was worse with snoring, Ben or Ron."

Julie hid her chuckle in her hand, asking instead, "Kevin up?"

"Yeah, he's showering."

"How's he doing?"

The redhead shrugged, "His mind, when I went into it…it was a warzone. He just doesn't want to talk about it though…" her mouth went into a 'O' shape and she spun on Harry, demanding, "When that Dementor attacked what did you remember; you began spasming and became unresponsive…"

"Oh…that…" his eyes darkened, "I heard…I heard a woman screaming…"

"What was she saying Harry?"

"I—I don't know. It was soft, muted, like she was in another room and I was hearing her through a thick wall… I-I don't want to talk about it…"

"Alright Harry."

Distantly the clock-tower tolled; it was time for breakfast.

Forty-five minutes later the group of seven found themselves trekking along to Care of Magical Creatures class.

"Right, stay away from the Forest you four," Harry advised, "Bunch of nasty things in there that love to eat humans."

"So…many…spiders…" Ron was heard to whimper, "Bloody huge ones too. What bright spark would breed those devils?"

"Apparently Hagrid, Ron," Harry rebuked evenly.

"How big?" Gwen gulped, eyeing the forest warily and unconsciously putting Kevin between her and the tree line.

"From normal size to the size of houses," Hermione informed them, "there's thousands in there."

"How do you know Mione?" Ron asked incredulously, "you were a statue when that happened!"

"I do my homework. They're called Acromantula. They're a wizard made species; they didn't just appear out of thin air."

"So Hagrid bred them himself did he? Always knew he was—"

"No he didn't breed them himself, they were created centuries ago! He probably just got an egg or two and…boom! Spiders everywhere!"

They arrived at the class to find forty kids waiting. There was a clear line between the two houses, Gryffindor and Slytherin, included.

"Hope Hagrid's alright," Harry muttered, setting down his stuff.

"He's probably just running late, that's all." Hermione soothed, following his lead.

"Maybe the great oaf can't figure out the door." A nasally voice snarked.

"Ignore him Harry," Hermione counseled, "He just wants to get you humpy—"

"He wants to get Harry horny?" Ben sputtered, wide eyed.

"Heavens no, here 'humpy' means to get angry not…something like that." Harry and Hermione flushed, Julie and Gwen palm-faced, Kevin snickered and Ron was off…doing something. He had a short attention span, that one.

"Stupid Mudbloods." that nasally voice spoke again and Hermione grew pissed, turning to face a blond, grey eyed, Slytherin boy.

"Shut it Malfoy!"

"How dare you speak to me you Mudblood bint."

Harry went for his wand but found his hands tied by the stuff Gwen called 'manna'.

"Harry don't," Julie warned as she held back both Hermione and Ben. The Americans didn't quite understand what was said but it must have been an insult. And so Ben had reacted accordingly, getting ready to defend an innocent girl's honor or some such chauvinistic nonsense like that.

"Kevin you move a muscle you're on the couch," Gwen threatened as her boyfriend made to strangle the little jerk. He went as still as stone.

Thankfully Hagrid appeared in the next couple of minutes

"Who was he?" Julie demanded as they hiked back to the castle.

"He is Draco Malfoy," Hermione spat with disgust, "a pureblooded bigot who's family are big supporters of You-Know-Who—"

"Voldemort," Harry clarified, "most people are afraid of saying his name, even after twelve years…"

"—who think that if you have even just a drop of Muggle blood in your veins you're no better than the dirt they walk on. He's also very spoiled, his family is very rich but he's pretty much harmless."

"That's for us to judge," Kevin grunted, pulling a small device from his pocket. He pressed a button and it turned to green. He typed in something and the device took flight, melting from view, heading after Malfoy.

"It's a surveillance bug," Gwen explained to Harry and Hermione, "alien tech. It transmits directly to Ship who will store it as computer data…"

"Cool."

"So, what's next?" Ben asked.

"Break. We only have three classes a day. One after breakfast, one after break, and one after lunch. They're two hours each. Breakfast, break, and lunch are forty five minutes long." Hermione informed them helpfully.

"Ah, blocks," Ben, Gwen, and Julie nodded.

"We need to go to the library and start our essays on Fwoopers."

"C'mon Mione," Harry groaned, "it's the first day of class and it's Hagrid—"

"Harry James Potter—" her voice became deadly soft.

"Alright, alright, alright. We'll start our homework now."

Kevin snickered and Gwen and Julie gave knowing looks while Ben made whip sounds and gestures. And again, Ron was oblivious; though this time he merely complained that Hermione was nagging them again. They trooped up to the library, second floor, and settled in at a big enough table. Then Gwen made an 'O' face, leaned over to Julie and whispered something in her ear. Julie smiled and nodded and whispered something to Ship, who was still disguised as a bracelet. Ship then de-morphed, slithered to Kevin's spot and morphed into a laptop, powering up and opening a word processing program. He smiled, leaning over to kiss Gwen, and making a hand gesture of some sort that obviously was one thanking Julie. Julie made another hand sign in response.

And so passed break without incident.

It was after break that the horror began in earnest.

The dungeons were clammy and cold, moist and dark; the perfect breeding ground for general fear, claustrophobia, diseases, and fungi. "This's so not gonna be a fun class is it?" Kevin asked nobody in particular though their three charges nodded all the same. You knew something was going to be bad when the place it was held in reminded one of sewers, only without the ankle deep sewage. Or smell of crap.

"Twenty points from Gryffindor for inappropriate behavior," the teacher drawled as the group of seven entered the room. The American girls were pressed to their boyfriends for warmth, unaccustomed to the chilly drafty dungeons. The new students looked about ready to protest but the three others motioned for them not to frantically and herded them to the back tables of the room.

"Today, at the discretion of our esteemed Headmaster," his words dripped sarcasm, "we are going to brew Cheering Elixirs. These are comparable to what muggles call anti-depressants. These are effective against Dementors and Lethifolds as well as the mental disorder known as Depression and work in much the same way as Cheering Charms. As with Cheering Charms Cheering Elixirs can and do become addictive after repetitive use. Improper use of either is a crime punishable by jail time and/or time spent in St. Mungo's as you quote unquote detox and get over your dependence on said Elixirs." He waved his wand and instructions appeared on the board, "you have the rest of this period, failure will be punished by detention. Begin."

"Such a cheery teacher…" Julie muttered, beginning to take down notes.

"Maybe we should shove the potion down his throat…" Ben replied just as lowly.

"It'll take more than one or two…"

"Problem?" a voice asked.

Ben and Julie froze, looking up to find Snape looking down at them.

"Umm…?" They were so dead. The class froze as well, waiting for the punishment.

"No problem Sir," Gwen came to the rescue, "Julie was just reminding Ben that the UK uses the English system and that we need to convert what we'd usually use into that…"

"Was I speaking to you Miss…" he looked to the interrupter, jaw going slack once he saw her. It couldn't be…

"Tennyson," Gwen finished helpfully. He shook himself back into action but gave her an odd look.

"Very well, Miss Tennyson, but please remind them that there are other students working and that they must remain courteous to them…"

"Yes Sir."

"Continue working."

"Yes Sir."

The class went back to work, muttering and shooting the new kids questioning looks.

After lunch, during which Kevin and Ben were given their medications, was Herbology class. It went smoothly enough, except for the fact that a plant stung Julie and somehow it triggered an anaphylactic episode. This earned her an epi-pen jammed into her left bicep. She was only allergic to bee stings and so they were still trying to figure out how it was triggered.

And so the first day passed, the Plumbers dragged themselves up to Gryffindor house as soon as they were allowed to and collapsed into bed. This wasn't going to be the cake walk they had assumed.