First Day

Caly was late. She had her schedule, it had been delivered to her in the Hospital wing where Madame Pomfrey had insisted on keeping her till five minutes after the bell had gone. She was late for Transfiguration, which was taught by a Professor Hardingly. She was sure she would have been later but most of the portraits were helpful and then she had run into Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost and he was kindly guiding her. He kept drifting through walls and then remembering she couldn't follow would pop back. She had heard the story of his botched beheading and how he was still not allowed to join the headless hunt because of one stupid tendon, or something like that.

She bade him goodbye outside the classroom and dashed into the classroom. Professor was in the middle of a speech and everyone was taking notes. She hurried to the spare desk next to Scorpius and took out her parchment and quill and was about to start making notes when he finished his speech. Professor was quite tall and sharp looking, his eyes seemed to try to drill into you and find out what you were thinking. He was using this gaze on Caly but she didn't shrink or show weakness, she had learnt this from the older boys at the home. On contrary she sat forward and stared equally hard back at him. The students were looking curiously back and forth from the Professor and the new student who had been attacked as they carried out their staring match.

However it was more than a staring match, she could feel something forcing her memories of her childhood to the surface. She pushed the down and pushed the force back and back until she was seeing things that weren't hers, they involved a young man crying whilst holding a ring. She jumped, physically, in shock and pulled back gazing at her Professor in horror. Had she just seen his memories? The Professor looked away and busied himself in his desk and brought out matchsticks. He gave each child a matchstick and wrote the words on the board and told them to try and turn them into needles. It was hard. They spent an hour attempting it. In the end the people who came closest were Rose and Scorpius, both had semi-changed their matchsticks. Roses looked like a matchstick needle, meaning it was pointy, thin and had the hole at the end but was still wood and had the red bit at the end. Scorpius on the other hand had turned his into the right metal but it still had the shape of a matchstick. Professor Hardingly, however, was very pleased and gave them both 5 points for Gryffindor.

The four of them went to break together. There wasn't much to do except sit in the courtyard. They hadn't been given any homework so Rose and Scorpius discussed the lesson, whilst Caly copied Al's notes. They started off talking about nothing but by the end Caly was explaining football to Al. Caly was quite a big football fan and Al was a big Quidditch fan so they went back up to the castle arguing good naturedly about the pros of their preferred sport.

Professor Flitwick was the Charms teacher. Caly recognised him as the man who had brought in the hat and stool for her sorting. He started the class by taking the register and when he reached Caly's name he stopped to inquire how she was. He frowned at how Scorpius Malfoy was sitting next to Albus Potter when he called Scorpius' name. He positively beamed when he called Albus Potter and got quite excited again when he called out Rose Weasley.

Professor Flitwick gave them a lecture on the importance of Chrams and how it differs from other branches of magic. He then explained about the importance of pronunciation and how it could seriously effect your spell. He had quite a few funny anecdotes to tell them about this including one about how, in 5th year, his friend in his O.W.L. had 'ahh' instead of 'ahn' and had turned his and Professor Fitwick's examiners blue. Flitwick then said he had an O before starting the exam because he had been the one to change them back.

He then began explaining the spell that made things levitate. He told them all to put their wands away and repeat the words 'wingardium leviosa' for half an hour the rest of the lesson was spent practising the hand movement for the spell. Flitwick called it 'swish and flick.' Everyone felt rather foolish swishing and flicking their hands without their wands. Flitwick told them that if everyone still had perfect pronunciation and hand movement they could start with wands next lesson. Unfortunately Flitwick set them homework. It was a foot and a half on the practical uses of the levitating spell.

At lunch Rose and Scorpius and Al and Caly resumed their previous conversations. Albus couldn't understand the point of a game with one ball and you ran up and down a pitch. Caly thought Qudditch sounded very dangerous and it wasn't very good if you suffered from vertigo.

"But that's so boring." Albus said for the sixth time. Caly rolled her eyes.

"Trust me it's fun. I used to play it all the time and I watched it on the T.V.. Of course I never saw a live game but it was still good. It's much better than something like tennis or golf."

"Tennis? Golf?" Caly sighed again.

"You really don't want to know." Al shook his head and returned to his potatoes. After several minutes he ate and then asked.

"So what are the positions?"

"There's the goalie, they are the only player that can touch the ball with their hands/arms but they can only do that in their penalty area."

"Penalty area?"

"It's a box and the goals in it, I'll explain it later. Then there are the defenders, there are normally four."

"Okay and their job?"

"Defend the goal, duh, they're called defenders."

"Oh."

"Then there's midfielders and strikers."

"Midfield and strikers, how many?"

"It depends. There are 11 players per team. So you could play 4,4,2 or 4,5,1."

"That makes 10."

"You can only have one goalie so you don't count them in that."

"I still don't get it. What are cards?"

"There are red and yellow. If you get a yellow you get booked and if you get red you get sent off."

"Sent off?"

"You're sent off the pitch and you can't play anymore."

"And booking."

"The ref writes your name down."

"That's not so bad."

"Two yellows equals a red."

"Oh."

The bell went again and the four of them walked off to the front doors and towards the green houses. Al and Rose had explained that Professor Sprout was a very old Professor and had actually taught their parents. She had been in the same post as then and she was on good terms with the family. Scorpius went paler when he heard of another Professor who knew of his fathers school days.

They were sharing the lesson with the Hufflepuff's who they hadn't met before, Charms and Transfiguration was shared with the Ravenclaws. When they arrived there was an explosion of muttering. A tall blonde boy who held himself like a Lord walked forward.

"Atticus McMillan." He held his hand out to both Albus and Rose. "My father was in your parents year, they were friends."

"Oh." Albus didn't have much to say but he shook Atticus' hand, as did Rose. Atticus looked at Scorpius and Caly. He sniffed at Scorpius and said.

"You're the Malfoy boy, right."

"It's Scorpius."

"Right, how did you end up in Gryffindor."

"Umm, there was this hat and it was placed on my head and it had a little silent conversation with me and then it shouted out GRYFFINDOR!" Most of the people laughed.

"And what conversation did it have?"

"Is that really any of your business?"

"Well we are all curious about how a death eater ended up in Gryffindor." Scorpius went paler still. He looked like a ghost. His hand twitched as if to move towards his pocket but Al grabbed it and shook his head.

"You know I only found out about the houses on Saturday but one of the things said about Hufflepuffs was that they were kind, or supposed to be anyway. Maybe you are the one in the wrong house. I heard being malicious was a trait worthy of Slytherin." Everyone looked at Caly and then Atticus. Atticus' cheeks had gone very red and he did pull out his wand.

"What is going on here?" Professor Sprout had come out of the greenhouse and was surveying the scene. "Mr McMillan this is not a good way to start your Hogwarts career. 5 points from Hufflepuff, we do not point our wands at our classmates." Atticus stuffed it back inside his robes and glared at Caly who, along with Al, Rose and Scorpius, was glaring back. When they did not move Professor Sprout sighed and said "In the Greenhouses now."

They filed inside and found seats as far away from Atticus as they could find. Professor Sprout came in and faced the class.

"I have always been proud of Hufflepuff and Gryffindor. They have always been friendly, along with Ravenclaw. What I have seen is highly disappointing. I don't want to know what happened but I will tell you that unity is more important than division. If I see anyone damaging the relationship of our houses they will be in severe trouble.

Now Herbology. In these Greenhouses you will find many different plants. There are 7 different greenhouses and we work our way through them year by year. Occasionally we may step into other greenhouses but I don't tend to. None of the plants in here can cause mortal harm in their plant form but many can create poisons as potions. If you are good at Herbology it can help your potions extremely. To know the properties of the plants and how to care for them is just as important.

I have a few things I wish to show you. Does anyone have a steady hand." A couple people raised their hands and, to the surprise of her friends, Caly. "Ah Miss Hautly, recovered from Saturday."

"Yes Professor."

"Then come." She beckoned and Caly got off her stool and waked to the front. Atticus lowered his hand glowering at her. "Here." The Professor took two pods off a tray and motioned Caly to put her hand out. Caly put out her hand palm up. She placed them in her palm and told her she must guide them through the mothering plant to the soil behind.

Caly gazed at it for a moment then realised it was like a steady hand game but instead of a loop of metal she had seeds, instead of wire she had plant stems and instead of an irritating buzzing noise there were snapping jaws. She started off carefully, guiding it over the stems and through the tangle of leaves. Then Atticus coughed. It wasn't particularly loud but it startled her and she touched the pod against the stem.

A jaw clamped over Caly's hand. She saw everyone gasp and begin to panic. Professor Sprout was ushering Atticus out of the greenhouse. Caly kept quite still, not moving her hand. She looked up at the class and the approaching Professor Sprout. She had her wand out. Caly put out her other hand to stop her. She then made shushing gestures towards the rest of the class. They fell silent. Caly's left hand found the central bulb of the plant. Very gently she stroked it. The plant shivered and its jaws' grip softened. She kept on doing this until it released her hand. It's tendrils snaked around her and squeezed her and then let her go. She easily took the seeds and planted them.

The greenhouse burst into applause. Professor Sprout shook her hand several times and then told her to sit down. She then went onto explain how Caly had done what few people had done and soothed the Mortius Brigar. Caly was very pleased with herself and when a plant with curly tendrils began to snake around her she just stroked them and let them stay around her. Professor Sprout was ecstatic about it and she soon had them all trying to plant the Mortius Brigar seeds but no one else who got caught managed to get free until Caly walked over and freed them. She took extreme pleasure doing this to Atticus and by the end of the lesson she had earned fifty points for Gryffindor for her way with plants.

They spent dinner talking about Herbology.

"How did you do it?" Scorpius asked the moment they sat down.

"It was obvious."

"But I didn't know and I read the textbook cover to cover." said Rose, distressed.

"Ah, ickle Rosie found something she couldn't do." They looked up to see James. "Hey." he said sitting next to Caly on the bench. The two twins he'd been walking with sat down opposite. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. Why didn't you tell McGonagall?"

"She doesn't know about the map."

"But if you know-"

"Don't worry I'll tell my dad, he's the head auror, a dark wizard catcher, he'll know what to do."

"Okay." She looked at the twins, they both had dirty blonde hair and a far away look in their brown eyes.

"Oh, this is Lorcan and Lysander Scarmander. They're my friends, we know their mum. So what didn't Rose know."

"I got my hand caught in the Mortius Brigar but I released myself by stroking its central bulb."

"What? You can get free from it by stroking the bulb?"

"Yea, anyway Rose, what was I gonna say. Oh yeah, you need to let the plant know you're gonna do it any harm. Most people panicked when it happened then tried to free themselves. Once you struggle it doesn't believe you're harmless."

"How do you know that?" Caly went very serious.

"I've seen it with people. The younger children at my care home, some came from abusive backgrounds. They may lash out at you because you scare them but as long as you do nothing back and you soothe them they calm down. I've had plenty of practise." She stared bitterly down at her plate. There was a pause when no one could think of anything to say. Then James asked.

"What's a care home?"

"It's a place run by the council for people without family or have been taken away from their families by social services."

"Why are they taken away from their families?""'cause their parents aren't fit to take care of them, 'cause they're on drugs or they're in jail or they abuse them." There was a pause. "Physically or sexually." There was a very grim silence after these words. Then everyone busied themselves with their dinner.

They went back to common room and began the essay the Flitwick had set them. It wasn't particularly long compared to what the older students were doing. They were lucky Sprout hadn't set them any work because Flitwick's homework took ages. There weren't that many practical uses and many were similar so they had grouped them together. Caly re-wrote the essay six times before she had got it to the right length. After that they talked for a little while and then decided that they were going to head to bed. Rose told Caly that they were the only girls to be sorted into Gryffindor. Their dormitory was spacious and as Caly lay down in her four poster with the hangings drawn she felt quite content and at home at Hogwarts after just one day.