Boredom, Failure and Success

Caly discovered that History of Magic was just as boring as they had all said and Caly was pretty sure she would have fallen asleep had her mind not been so busy thinking over breakfast. The main thing going through her brain was what the hell? Why the hell had Fawkes decided that she would be his next owner? She knew he had been ownerless for 20 years after Professor Dumbledore, head master of Hogwarts, had died. She had seen 20 years of loneliness and lament. She had seen a bird mourning the loss of someone so close to them. But she had also seen his previous owners. Some had been kind others cruel but Albus Dumbledore was Fawkes' favourite. Albus, she glanced at Al. Was he named after the Professor?

She had found it bad enough that people had stared at her because she had been attacked on the first day. Or because she was with the descendants of famous and infamous people so they stared at that too, but now everyone knew that a phoenix had bonded with her. She fiddled with the feather she had tied around her wrist. She wasn't really sure why she'd tied to tail feather to her wrist, it had just seemed to be the right thing to do at the time. She didn't understand.

The rest of history of magic passed slowly. Rose was the only person who was taking notes, the rest of the class was staring at Binns in a far away way or fast asleep. Scorpius and Al were playing hangman on a scrap of parchment. From what she could gleam from Rose's notes Professor Binns was talking about goblin revolts in the 11th century. Caly shifted in her seat and tried to keep her eyes open. She didn't think she had ever been this bored in her life. She had never thought she could be this bored. Surely the teacher had noticed he had only one person in his class listening to him.

It was a huge relief to leave his class and go to break. Caly was getting as many stares as her friends. They eventually managed to get Rose to copy her notes onto three other pieces of paper. It had taken a lot of begging but they had somehow managed it. Rose tutted that they would never learn but they just told her it would only be for history of magic. She was reassured that defence against the dark arts would be taught by Professor Longbottom, her head of house she'd met on Sunday who had seemed very kindly. Scorpius wasn't so thrilled when he found out Professor Longbottom was a good friend of Al and Rose's parents and they'd been in the same year in school.

They lined up outside the classroom and were joined by the Hufflepuffs. Caly groaned as she saw Atticus McMillan and his group of friends. She shot him a glare and then turned her back on him.

"How many lessons do we have with the Hufflepuffs?"

"Quite a few; Herbology, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Potions."

"Great."

"What? Oh, Atticus."

"Yeah. I've been here four days and I already have an enemy."

"I think we all do." They turned round and saw Atticus glaring at them.

"Wonder why he hates us all?" Scorpius said. "I got the impression he wanted to impress you and Rose.""Yes but then he showed up by you and Caly."

"Do you think he deliberately coughed to sabotage you?" Al wondered.

"Yes." Caly said darkly. "I definitely think he would sink so low."

"Well we had better best him in every test." When Scorpius said this Al and Rose burst into uncontrollable laughter. Scorpius raised an eyebrow at Caly who just shrugged, she couldn't see what was so funny.

The door of the classroom opened and Professor Longbottom walked out, Al and Rose immediately fought their laughter and to a certain extent won. Professor Longbottom frowned at them and then beckoned them inside. They sat down at the very back of the class, Rose wanted to sit at the front but seeing as McMillan was there Caly refused. Professor Longbottom closed the door and strode across to the front of the class to face them. He surveyed them all once then began talking.

"As you heard before the feast I taught Herbology here for five years but Professor Sprout wanted to come out of retirement and Professor Dakton wanted to go into it so I took up this post. The first thing I want to tell you is that the dark arts are not as clear cut as one would think. The first thing I want you to understand is that every person has the potential to be a dark wizard. Anyone could turn to the dark arts. But the same time anyone can turn against the dark arts. As you get older your actions may become less clear cut. There is no line that divides good from evil." He let these words sink into the class. Caly glanced at Scorpius with a raised eyebrow. He mirrored her look back. "The second thing I want to tell you is that I am a hands on teacher. Maybe that's because Herbology is a hands on subject but also it is probably the best way to learn defence. This year I will some basic practical defence and also some creatures you wouldn't like to cross."

A general mutter of excitement rippled through the class. Al looked really excited. He was grinning like a two year old on Christmas and it was clear he was really looking forward to this lesson. Caly, too, felt excited. They were learning magic that had a proper use. If she could learn this she might be better prepared if she was ever attacked again.

"Alright class." Professor Longbottom had let them mutter for a minute then had decided to come back into control. "I will randomly partner you up." He began reading names of a list. Eventually there was "Miss Weasley and Mr Malfoy." They grinned at each other. "Mr Potter and Mr McMillan." Al scowled and grabbed his bag and dumped himself next to Atticus. "Miss Hautly and Mr Finch-Fletchly." A small Hufflepuff boy came and sat down in Scorpius' old seat. He gave her a smile and she smiled back.

"Right now I am going to teach you the disarming spell. Everyone say after me 'Expelliarmus'."

"Expelliarmus." chorused the class.

"Good now I want the person on my right so your left to go first." Finch-Fletchly turned and pointed his wand at her. "On the count of three. Watch out for flying wands. 1..2..3!"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" half the class shouted. Caly felt her wand twitch in her hand but nothing else. Scorpius' wand had hit Atticus square in the jaw when Rose had disarmed him which the whole class found really funny. The fact that Atticus had been unable to disarm Al made it even funnier.

"Okay." said Professor Longbottom loudly. "I want those who lost their wands to come collect them." He waved his wand and four wands appeared on his desk. Scorpius quickly went to pick his up and then went back to Rose.

"Right well done those four. Now can the other half please try." Caly gripped her wand and faced the Finch-Fletchly boy. "1..2..3!"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" she yell along with the other half of the class. Finch-Fletchly's wand did nothing. Atticus' wand, however, spun out of the open window. Everyone cracked up, again.

"Oops." Professor Longbottom said crossing to the window. "I forgot to close it." He magiced Atticus' wand back and handed it to him. "All right we go again."

The rest of the class proceeded in the same way. On the couple of goes after that only Rose, Scorpius, Al and three people Caly didn't know managed to disarm their partners. In fact Professor Longbottoms method of teaching was so good that, by the end of the lesson, everyone apart from Caly could disarm their partner. Caly felt very dejected by this and it didn't help that Atticus was laughing at her.

"Don't mind him." Caly glanced at her partner as they were packing away at the end of the lesson. "He's just sore after yesterday. He coughed to try and get you hand ripped up but instead you just do something even better and you made him look like a fool. He's got a little bunch of admirers but the rest of us first years just want his head deflated, quickly."

"Er, thanks…"

"Peter."

"Caly."

"I know who you are. You're quite famous round the school."

"Oh, anyway, thanks Peter."

"No problem. See you in Potions." He waved and walked out with some other Hufflepuffs.

"God I hate McMillan." It was the first thing that was said when the four got together. Al was furious and he was glaring daggers at Atticus who was accompanied by another boy who looked just as stuck up.

"Yeah apparently most of the Hufflepuffs don't like him." Al, Rose and Scorpius looked at her.

"How do you know that?"

"I was talking to Peter."

"Whose Peter?"

"The boy I was paired with, anyway, he said Atticus has a little bunch of admirers but apart from that the rest of the first years think he's really stuck up."

"Well they're not wrong there."

"Yeah he definitely needs to be taken down a notch."

"How?" asked Caly.

"Easy." Al said glancing at Rose who groaned.

"Oh no Al, please, it's only our second day."

"Yeah which is why we need to do something." Caly glanced at Scorpius who just shrugged.

"Er, someone care to fill us in."

"Oh well there's sort of a pranking tradition in our family."

"Of course the Weasley twins." said Scorpius.

"Yeah and the Marauders."

"I haven't heard of them."

"Yeah they're kinda old."

"Wait what? I still don't understand."

"Okay this is kind of complicated but still. Erm. Okay, the first set of great pranksters were the Marauders- Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. They're all dead, now. They're Hogwarts legends. What most people don't know is who they were. Moony was Remus Lupin, Wormtail Peter Pettigrew, Padfoot was Sirius Black and Prongs was James Potter."

"So you're related."

"Yeah James Potter was my grandfather. So like I was saying my family has this whole pranking thing. Teddy, you saw him on the platform, Moony was his dad and he's practically family. Sirius was my dads godfather and obviously Prongs was my grandfather. Then a generation later came the Weasley twins. Well actually there's only one now. Fred died in the war."

"War?"

"Er, later. Anyway they were just as successful, they actually set up a jokeshop so you can pull pranks on people. It's so cool."

"And this generation?"

"There's Fred II and his three friends Nick, Maise and Kay and James and his friend Colin."

"So you want to prank Atticus?" Caly asked uncertainly. Scorpius, on the other hand, burst out laughing.

"That's brilliant. We need to do that."

"I don't know it could get us into loads of trouble."

"Oh lighten up." said Al as they sat at the Gryffindor table. "We may get caught but it'll give everyone a good laugh."

"Speaking of laughing." Scorpius interjected "What was so funny about what I said earlier."

"What?"

"I said we had to beat Atticus in everything and then you two went into hysterics."

"Oh." Al and Rose shared a glance.

"Well when we were on the platform my dad told me to do exactly the same thing….to you." Rose looked uncertainly at Scorpius, whilst Caly snorted into her food. After a moment he grinned and said

"I'd like to see you try Miss Weasley."

"Is that a challenge?"

"I believe it is."

"Very well challenge accepted." They shook hands over the table whilst Al and Caly rolled their eyes at each other.

Professor Slughorn was the their potions master, which they unfortunately had to take with the Hufflepuffs, and he was another old professor. However unlike Flitwick Slughorn did not look the least bit frail. Quite the contrary he was so fat Caly reckoned he was borderline on obese. According to all her friends parents Slughorn was one to pick favourites and play them. He even had a club for exceptional and/or well connected students.

Once again the foursome sat at the back of the class, as far away from McMillan as possible. They'd set up their cauldrons and were eagerly awaiting Slughorns instructions. However Slughorn seemed more intent on studying the class. Occasionally he would nod at student or give them a small cheery smile. He passed over them relatively quickly until he reached their back bench. Word had got round that the Malfoy boy was friends with the latest Potter-Weasley children but here it was in flesh. He sat next to Al and Caly in stark contrast to where his father would have sat.

He stared at their bench for a good three minutes until he seemingly wrenched himself out of a trance.

"Now I could give you a lecture on the usefulness of potions but I think it's pretty obvious, besides that would be no fun." A few small smiles were coming onto their faces as they saw where this was going. "Therefore this lesson will be solely practical. Now because of your new timetables your lessons are much longer so I'll set something slightly harder. I think the simple burn cure on page 20 will do. Well what are you waiting for? Off you go."

Caly flipped to page 20 and read the instructions briefly, it didn't look too bad. Scorpius dumped the ingredients on their desk.

"I got you some, too."

"Cheers."

Caly then realised she couldn't start a fire, she didn't know how. Time to improvise. She took a quill and stuck the end in Scorpius' flames."What the-" Scorpius stared as she transferred the flame to the bottom of her cauldron and the blew out the smoking end of the quill.

"Sorry."

"No problem."

Making the potion was ridiculously easy. She looked around saw that no one, not even Rose or Scorpius, had got as far as her. This made her feel much better. She stirred it once more and then tipped in the final ingredients. A couple more stirs and it was ready. She scooped some into a phial, labelled it and walked up to Slughorn. She looked at the clock as she walked to the front of the classroom. It had taken her 25 minutes to complete a potion that some people were only on the second step of.

"Professor?"

"Yes my dear."

"I've finished." Slughorn dropped the paper he was holding and stared at her amazed. He looked at a wrist watch that was nearly buried in fat, then back at her in amazement.

"My dear, are you sure?"

"Yes, sir."

"And does it work?"

"Only one way to find out." She stuck her finger into the flame before Slughorn could stop her. The class, which had been half watching her, were now gawping at her. She counted to ten and then pulled it out. Sure enough there was a small burn. She put a couple of drops on and felt her eyes go wide as the burn disappeared instantly. Then she heard the dungeon started to applaud, Slughorn joined them and gave Caly 10 points for Gryffindor. Caly walked back to her seat as everyone carried on. She chewed her lip wondering what to do next. Since Slughorn had a phial of her potion for marking she emptied her cauldron and then sat there staring at the text.

The more Caly stared at the method the more she had a niggling feeling there was something wrong. She bit her lip wondering whether to act on this…instinct. Deciding she'd rather do that then sit around for over an hour, besides what harm could it do? She grabbed parchment, ink and her burnt 'potions' quill. She copied out the method and carefully amended the ingredients. She was going to get the juice out another, more effective way which meant you'd need less, in theory.

Caly had just finished copying out a legible version of her method when Slughorn came to her cauldron. Caly had spent the rest of the lesson, slowly and methodically working out the 'kinks' she could see in the method. Slughorn frowned at her when he saw that she had re-made her perfect solution.

"Why did you redo it?"

"I did it my way."

"Your way?"

"I felt there were some problems so I re-wrote the method." She handed him the two pieces of paper.

"Well we had better test it, but you won't be the subject Miss Hautly. Gather round everyone." Everyone crowded around and watched as Horace first transfigured as piece of left over ingredient into a live finger. Several Hufflepuff girls squealed but Slughorn ignored them. He burnt the finger to the same extent that Caly had and then added the same amount of potion. The effect was instantaneous, again. Once again the dungeon rang with applause. Slughorn awarded her 25 points copied her notes and said she was a great potioneer. Caly felt relieved that there were two things she could actually do at Hogwarts.