Chapter 3

Over the next week, Chilli worked very hard in her classes. In her home there was very little to do, besides reading her mother's endless supply of books. They were interesting, but Chilli found it impossible to do nothing but read for an entire day. So she was glad of such interesting things to do, even if Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts were less enjoyable.

Professor Snape, the teacher of Potions, was a bastard. He always had a snide remark ready on the tongue, and it was all Chilli could do to not yell a reply, for she had never been spoken to in such a manner before. She had been told off before, of course, when it was due, when she had done something wrong and deserved her punishment, but Snape was so unfair and biased that Chilli had quite a bit of trouble seeing what she had done wrong most of the time, and the Slytherins were just as bad at Potions as the Gryffindors, but Snape never seemed to notice.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was not much better, but for a different reason. Chilli had only had a few lessons so far, but each had been as dull as the one before. All of the lessons had consisted of Professor Quirrel reading passages from a textbook Chilli had already read, stuttering so badly that he was barely comprehensible anyway. The rest of the class spent the lesson talking to their friends, rather than making the effort to translate Professor Quirrel's eternal stuttering into actual words. But Chilli hadn't managed to make any friends yet, so she spent the lessons reading other textbooks, the result of which being she was ahead of the other students in most classes, though she was still surpassed by a girl with frizzy, curly hair, who seemed to be exceptionally talented at magic, for a Muggle-born.

On her first Saturday at Hogwarts, Chilli woke up later than usual, having stayed up late on Friday night to get her homework done. She changed to her robes, grabbed a book and made her way down to the common room, sitting down in front of the fire to warm her feet. There were several other students in the common room, but Chilli noted that Harry Potter wasn't there, and wasn't interested in anyone else. Seamus was there, though, playing a game of wizard's chess with Dean, who obviously wasn't adjusted to the pieces calling jeers to the opposition across the game board, and criticising him when he made a bad move. Chilli started reading her book, but stopped after she realised she'd been staring at the same sentence for the last few minutes. She returned her attention to the chess game. Seamus was easily the more experienced player, and had Dean in checkmate less than ten minutes later. Once it became obvious that they weren't going to play another game, Chilli got up and made her way down to the Great Hall.

She helped herself to several slices of toast, a glass of milk, and then went out into the grounds, with nothing better to do. She glanced around at the huge expanse of land that made up the ground, considering her options. She could go to the lake, watching the giant squid swimming around in the water. She could go to the greenhouse, if she got Professor Sprout's permission; she'd enjoyed her Herbology lessons, as her affinity with the plants made up for her having to get her hand dirty, and the odd small scratch on her arm. Then Chilli spotted a small hut on the fringes of the Forbidden Forest, and her curiosity sparked immediately. She started towards it, but then hesitated. What if they weren't allowed o go there? After all, they were forbidden from the Forbidden Forest, evidently, and the hut was just outside. There was also the strong possibility that someone actually lived there, maybe even the hated Argus Filch. She certainly did not like the idea of walking into his house unannounced. Then she remembered the giant of a man that had led her and the other first-years to Hogwarts, who had announced himself as "Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of keys and grounds at Hogwarts," and immediately knew that this was where he lived. For some reason, she liked the idea of visiting him, and so made off across the grounds towards the shabby hut. She knocked on the door and heard barking from the other side of the door in reply. Hagrid opened the door, his great girth blocking the inside of the house from view.

"Oh, 'ello," he said gruffly, clearly surprised to see her there. And not without reason, Chilli reminded herself.

"Well, I – er, didn't have anything to do so I – I thought I might come visit you . . ." Chilli was stuttering almost as bad as Professor Quirrel.

"Oh, sure, come in. I was jus' making tea."

Hagrid stood aside to let her in, and Chilli saw with horror someone else inside. And not just any someone else. Harry Potter. What was he doing here? Chilli thought.

"Uh, hi," she muttered, looking down at her feet. Then she walked in, and sat down on one of the seats.

It was cosy in Hagrid's hut. A bed on the farthest side, a kitchen on the right, a fireplace on the left, and a dining table and several chairs in the middle. It was too cosy, really; tiny. Even the smallest of Chilli's bathrooms was larger than this. Hagrid turned his back to them as he made the promised tea, leaving Chilli no choice but to make conversation with Harry Potter. Harry Potter!

"Hi," she said again, and in her shyness she gave a great smile. "Um, thankyou, uh . . . for killing He Who Must Not Be – You-Know-Who . . ." Idiot! Chilli's mind screamed at her. Of all the things to say you managed to choose the worst!

Luckily, Hagrid saved her at least some embarrassment by intervening at that point, turning back to them again to put three mugs of tea on the table, while saying, "Oh, no. He ent dead. Some people might think so, but it's not true."

"Yes it is," Chilli said in genuine confusion. "Else he'd still be in control, and killing everybody and stuff."
"I'm sure he would if her were able," was Hagrid's reply, handing the mugs to Harry and Chilli. "But even though he wasn't killed tha' night, he was weakened, a lo', he's in no state to be causin' anyone any trouble, bu' he won' stay tha' way forever, he's biding his time, even as we speak, until 'e gets strong enough to strike."

Chilli felt a chill of cold run down her spine. "That- that can't happen, can it? You-Know-Who can't return; how could he? If he was going to – to come back, it wouldn't take ten years to do it." Chilli turned to Harry. "Would it?"

"I don't know," he said. "I don't remember anything from that night." He looked closer at Chilli. "I'm sorry, what's your name?"

Chilli flushed. "I'm Lily, but everyone calls me Chilli. I'm in Gryffindor, all your classes and you sat next to me after the Sorting."

Chilli realised a moment too late that the last comment was a bit too much detail, and made her sound a little stalker-ish.

"Right," Harry said. "I never noticed. Sorry."

"It doesn't matter," Chilli said reservedly. "You'd be surprised how many people don't seem to notice me."

Hagrid cleared his throat suddenly, and it was only then that Chilli realised that she had momentarily forgotten his presence.

"Um, so what do you do, Hagrid? Like, around Hogwarts," Chilli turned the conversation to Hagrid, which was clearly what the cough had been for.

"I jus' look af'er the grounds, the animals, like my Threstral herd. I grow fir trees for Christmas, and pumpkins for Halloween. Just little things when they need doing; not much really."

"Cool," Chilli said without too much enthusiasm. She was fairly certain that Threstrals were quite dangerous. "Um, well, I'd better go; I forgot to feed my bat today, and I have some homework to do." The homework bit was a lie, but Chilli was suddenly filled with the want to leave; she hadn't wanted or suspected Harry's appearance, and that awkward silence had started to press again.

"Yeah, I'll go too," Harry said, clearly not getting the message. He got up. "Bye, Hagrid."

"Yeah, bye," Chilli echoed.

Hagrid grunted in reply, and Harry and Chilli left.

The awkward silence went with them, and Chilli realised with dismay that they would be walking together all the way back up to Gryffindor Tower.

"You have a pet bat?" Harry asked, ripping through the awkward silence, and Chilli took the chance of conservation gratefully.

"Yeah," Chilli said. "Well, a flying fox, technically. But it's still got wings and fur, so . . ."

"Yeah," said Harry. Chilli grinned, getting a little more confident.

"He's really cool. But I've had him for a fortnight now and I still haven't got a name for him. I can't help it. I would rather him have no name then one that wasn't perfect."

"I guess so," Harry agreed. "If it's any help, I named my owl 'Hedwig' by choosing a random name from one of my books."

"What's it like, being famous but living with Muggles?" Chilli asked, changing the subject abruptly.

"Hmm? I didn't even know I was famous until my letter for Hogwarts came, and even then my Uncle Vernon didn't want me to find out. He made us move to a shack and in the end Hagrid knocked the door down and told me everything."

"You didn't know anything about magic at all?" Chilli cried incredulously. "But didn't you use any magic accidently or something?"

"Yeah, but every time something odd happens there was nothing to explain it so I just stopped thinking about it. Once we went to a zoo and I accidently trapped my cousin, Dudley, in an enclosure."

"What's a zoo?" Chilli asked. They'd reached Gryffindor Tower now. Harry told the portrait the password and ducked through the concealed entrance behind before continuing on with the conversation.

"You've really never heard of a zoo before? Well, it's like a – what's happening over there?"

Chilli turned her attention to the small commotion in the common room. There was a small gathering by the message board, and Chilli and Harry made their way toward it to see what was pinned up there.

ATTENTION FIRST YEARS

FLYING LESSONS WILL NOW BE HELD EACH THURSDAY UNTIL THE END OF TERM

MEET IN THE ENTRANCE HALL 3:30

MADAM HOOCH