The morning after the feast found Charlie and the rest of his dorm mates slumbering pleasantly until midmorning when the noise from the common-room downstairs made even the snoring Fergus Finnegan wake up.
'What time is it?' asked a sleepy Buck Cooper, Charlie checked the clock on his bedside.
'Half ten,' he grumbled, 'we should get up and get breakfast. It's probably going to end up as lunch now. That prefect said breakfast was until eleven.'
'What? No food?' complained Fergus.
'Well I don't know about you guys but I'm getting breakfast right now!' said Reg Cattermole as he jumped out of bed and started rooting around in his trunk.
A moment later they all followed suit and within ten minutes they were descending the spiral staircase in Gryffindor Tower and heading down to breakfast in the Great Hall.
The enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall was grey and overcast when the four boys stepped through the huge double doors. After rescuing Reg from a vanishing step and accidentally ending up stranded on the fifth floor for fifteen minutes before the Grand Staircase decided to move back, the smell of roast beef and Yorkshire puddings was like the smell of heaven to their grumbling stomachs.
'Hey Charlie!' Bill called over to him, 'over here!'
Charlie led the guys over to Bill, Myron and Kirley. Charlie introduced his friends to his brother.
'Have you guys just got up?' Bill asked, digging into his Sunday Lunch. The first years pulled some of the golden plates over to them and started piling on the food. 'Do you want us to give you a tour of the castle,' he asked, 'have you got your timetables yet?'
'Yeah, I've got mine here,' Charlie rooted around in the pockets of his jeans and produced a small square piece of parchment that had been placed on top of the new Gryffindor robes on his trunk. He handed it over to Bill.
'Ooh, rough day tomorrow – Snape, McGonagall, Sprout and the new Professor Kelly. We've got Kelly third; I hope he's better than Waring was.' Bill, Myron and Kirley shared a look. 'But anyway, when we're done eating we can show you around the grounds and where your lessons are.'
They ate rather quickly after that, eager to tour the castle and see their new home.
Charlie spotted Tonks and Don at the Hufflepuff table and went over to chat.
'What's going on with that name Tonks? Nympho- what was it?' He couldn't keep his voice steady as he saw the tips of her hair flare red.
'Nymphadora,' she muttered through gritted teeth.
'That's the one!' Charlie said brightly, 'anyway, I just popped over to see what subjects we have together tomorrow.' Tonks fished out her timetable from her pocket.
'I've got Defence, History of Magic, Herbology and Flying,' she said, reading off her subjects. Charlie checked his as she read them out.
'Cool! So we've got Herbology together, but not Potions or Transfiguration,' he thought for a moment, 'what about Charms? I've got it fifth on Tuesday.'
'Yes, we've got that! What about Astronomy, midnight on Thursday?' Don asked, reading over Tonks' shoulder.
'No, I've got that Tuesday,' Charlie said. 'Hey, when you're done do you want to come on a tour around the castle? My brother Bill's taking me and the boys around.'
'Sounds great,' they said before Charlie headed back to the Gryffindor Table.
For the next few hours Bill and his friends showed Charlie and the little gang of first years around the castle and grounds.
First, they went out to the greenhouses where they saw Professor Sprout, a short, dumpy woman pottering about with a number of strange plants. They then moved past the Black Lake, where they saw the Giant Squid basking in the few rays of sunlight on the water, over to the Quidditch pitch. Charlie and Fergus couldn't believe it when Don said he'd never heard of Quidditch, so they launched into explaining the rules of the game and the balls used. That discussion took them all the way over to Hagrid's hut on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Bill knocked on Hagrid's door but there was no answer so they moved on, past a gnarled looking willow, back to the castle.
Bill showed them down to the chilly dungeons, past the portrait of a witch in a ruff and a dark dress who told them that they'd 'better not be mudbloods', so Tonks told her to get lost. Down the end of the dungeon corridor Bill stopped and showed them where the potions classroom was. Professor Snape, the greasy-haired potions master emerged from his office and threatened to take 10 points from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff if they didn't get out.
'Try not to give Snape and excuse to take points away from you,' Bill advised as they climbed the spiral staircase back up to the Entrance Hall. 'He hates any house that isn't Slytherin.'
They mounted the Grand Staircase and Bill pointed out the vanishing steps as they went. They saw the Transfiguration and History of Magic classrooms on the first floor, the Charms classroom on the third (including a long conversation with the tiny Professor Flitwick who encouraged them to join Charms club). They passed the ghost of the Grey Lady on the way to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom, also on the third floor.
Before long it was time for dinner and bed, ready for a long day of magical learning the next morning.
The Gryffindor first years managed to find their way down to the Great Hall in time for breakfast the following morning, much to their delight. Dressed in his new Gryffindor robes and tie, armed with copies of One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration, The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 1, Magical Theory, and Dark Forces: A Guide to Self Protection, Charlie was ready to begin his magical education and destroy his back.
As Charlie dug into a plate of beans, bacon, egg and toast at the Gryffindor table, there was a gust of wind and hundreds of owls streamed into the Great Hall locating owners and dropping packages. Charlie absently looked up to see if the Weasley family owl, Errol, was in the feathery crowd.
'Oh no,' Charlie spotted the Great Grey Owl as it swooped unsteadily towards the Gryffindor table. Charlie started to rise from his seat, ready to catch the bird if it failed to land as it usually did. Further down the table Bill followed Errol with his eyes and hands ready. Errol glided towards them, lower and lower, about to crash land into a precarious stack of pancakes when Charlie plucked him out of the air, just before he hit the deck.
'Bloody bird,' Charlie muttered, sitting back down at the table, an unconscious Errol in his arms. 'He's fainted again.' He called down the table to Bill, who shrugged. Charlie laid Errol down in his lap and untied the letter attached to his leg.
'Is that your owl Charlie?' Reg asked, 'I wish I had an owl, my parents wouldn't let me.'
'You wouldn't want this owl, trust me. The stupid bird can't even land properly.' As soon as the letter was detached, Errol's eyes snapped open. Charlie fed the bird a strip of bacon, and in a ruffle of feathers Errol was back on his unsteady wings flying out of the Hall.
There were two letters in the envelope Charlie opened, one for him, one for Bill. He passed Bill's letter down the table and read his own. It was from his mother.
Dear Charlie,
I hope Errol got to you okay, he's been looking a bit peaky lately.
Congratulations on making Gryffindor, your father and I are so proud! Has Bill showed you around yet? He said he would. Perce misses you, he keeps asking me when you're coming home. Fred and George are being even more of a handful now that you're not around but settle down if I put Ginny near them, and Ron has finally stopped screaming every time he sees a spider. Dad sends his love. Work hard and have fun!
Owl us when you can to tell us all about your first week,
Lots of love,
Mum and Dad
xxx
Charlie smiled as he imagined what was going on at home but felt a little home-sick as he wouldn't see them until next summer. It had only been a year ago that little Ron had accidentally broken Fred's toy broomstick causing five year old Fred to turn Ron's favourite teddy bear into a spider in a fit of rage. Ever since, Ron had screamed his head off every time he saw a spider.
Charlie folded the letter up and put it in the inside pocket of his robes.
Double Potions with Professor Snape and the Slytherin first years was his first lesson. What Bill had said about Snape the previous day turned out to be true. From the moment Snape entered the classroom, billowing black cape and all, until the moment he dismissed the class, he picked on the Gryffindors and praised the Slytherins exclusively.
'Finnegan, are you making a Boil Cure Potion or a Bulgeye Potion? Five points from Gryffindor. Next time take care to remove your cauldron from the fire before adding quills.' Fergus stared incredulously as Snape waved his wand and his potion disappeared, leaving an empty cauldron.
'Weasley! What are you looking at? The instructions clearly say "stir 5 times, clockwise" you are stirring anticlockwise. Are you incapable or just illiterate?'
But of course it was all praise for the other side of the room, 'Well done, Rowle, you will make a fine potioneer one day. You've got the exact shade of turquoise as is indicated in the textbook. Cooper, you should take tips from Rowle here, his natural talents in this subject far surpass your own.'
By the end of the lesson the Gryffindors couldn't wait to get out of the class. Charlie met up with Tonks and Don at break time. They listened incredulously to his account of the lesson and told him how amazing their Defence lesson was.
'It was so cool!' Tonks grinned as she supported Don's weight, 'we're learning the Jelly-Legs Jinx and Professor Kelly said that I'm a natural! Then he said that at the end of the year he'll teach us the Bat-Bogey Hex!' Don smiled in agreement as his legs wobbled under his weight – the effects of Tonks' jinx hadn't quite worn off yet.
The next lesson was Transfiguration, and Charlie was eager to see whether Professor McGonagall, as Head of Gryffindor, would show them any preferential treatment like Snape did to the Slytherins. In this he was disappointed, but not with the rest of the lesson.
When he, Buck, Reg and Fergus sat down in their seats Professor McGonagall stood sternly beside her desk. Her square glasses made her seem even more formidable than she already appeared.
'Welcome to Transfiguration. These lessons will teach you some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn while at Hogwarts. Anyone who dares to mess around in my class will leave and never come back. You have been warned,' she gravely informed the class. 'Turn to chapter one of Emeric Switch's Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration.'
She turned to her desk and tapped it twice with her wand, turning it into a cow and back. The class applauded and eagerly flipped to the correct page in their books. But it seemed that they wouldn't be transfiguring desks into animals quite so soon. Instead they made notes from the board and then attempted to transfigure a match into a needle.
By the end of the lesson Charlie's brain felt like mush and only Martin Amerinus, a brown haired Ravenclaw boy with high cheekbones, had managed to make a noticeable difference to his match – McGonagall pointed out how it was thin and pointy like a toothpick. Charlie personally thought his match was looking thinner than it had started. Fergus was on his fifth match as they had kept lighting up every time his wand touched it; there were scorch marks all over his desk.
After lunch, Charlie and the other Gryffindors headed to Greenhouse One with the Hufflepuffs. Both groups were refreshed after their filling lunch. Before lunch the Hufflepuffs had had History of Magic, which they thought would be cool seeing as the teacher was a ghost. But no, it was by far the most boring subject on earth, Tonks complained to Charlie as they walked across the bridge.
'The best bit of the lesson was when he walked into the room through the blackboard. Then he just started going on about goblins and stuff!' All in all, they couldn't wait to get their hands dirty in Herbology.
'Right class!' Professor Sprout called as she let them into the warm and sweet smelling greenhouse. 'Today we will be learning the correct way to prune aconite, now, can anyone tell me what other names this plant goes by?' A Hufflepuff and a Gryffindor raised their hands. 'Elkins?' Sprout addressed the Gryffindor girl.
'Wolfsbane and Monkshood,' she answered.
The class continued like a question and answer session with some gardening thrown in, but it was still Charlie's favourite lesson of the day.
After break they had Defence Against the Dark Arts with the new Professor Kelly. After Tonks' excited review of the class Charlie wasn't sure what to expect. The class filed into the long classroom and took their seats. Professor Kelly with his black and white hair stood at the front of the class. He wasn't dressed in robes like the other teachers, but rather in a very Muggle style: trousers and shirt with rolled up sleeves.
Charlie found himself sitting behind Scabior, a black haired Slytherin.
'This class is here to help you combat the effects of Dark Magic,' Professor Kelly began, 'and we'll be starting with some pretty simple distraction. There is a lot of practical work in my lessons and the theory will be for your homework, without which you can't cast the next lesson's spells. So I expect you all to do what I ask for homework. Understood?' The class murmured that they did, 'So, let's start with some common sense, shall we? It's very hard to curse someone if you can't walk, isn't it?' He called a thin Slytherin boy up to the front of the class.
'Name?'
'Robert Gibbon, sir,' replied the boy.
'Okay Gibbon, I want you to walk towards me with your wand up. I don't expect you to cast any spells; this is just for demonstration. Okay?'
Gibbon nodded and walked away.
'Begin,' Kelly ordered. Gibbon walked towards him, wand raised. 'Locomotor Wibbly!' Professor Kelly said. A flash of purple flew from the end of his wand and hit Gibbon on the knees. He immediately wobbled on his legs as he tried to take another step forward but promptly fell over.
The class laughed. Kelly walked over to Gibbon, muttered the counter curse and helped the red-faced boy back to his feet.
'Now, you heard the spell and have seen what it can do. I'll write the pronunciation on the board. Find a partner and try to cast this on each other. Remember this: P.I.C. – pronunciation, imagination and conviction!'
When the lesson ended the entire class was grinning despite the fact that they couldn't walk without support. Professor Kelly went around casting counter curses and advising them not to go running for a few hours.
After dinner Charlie and the boys headed straight to their dorm to work on their unexpected pile of homework, tired out by the day's lessons and excited for the next.
