Pansy woke me up just in time for breakfast.
"Jeez who knew muggles needed much sleep." she said as I hurriedly change into my uniform.
"Well, technically, I overslept, my bad." my voice was muffled as I pulled my jumper on. I quickly slipped on my shoes and ran out the room, dragged by Pansy.
We arrived at the Great Hall for breakfast on time. A few Slytherin boys snickered at me. I noticed, with all the rush, I haven't brushed my hair. Curse boarding schools and their early time. I ran my fingers through my hair trying to sort out the tangles and knots.
Today I had quite a number of lessons with Gryffindor including potion making, transfiguration, charms and care of magical creatures which was part of my electives. I buttered a slice of toast as the chatter around me grew louder.
Soon enough, breakfast was over and we had to begin our classes. First class, potion making.
Stepping into the potions classroom, I felt a slight chill. The class was all the way below in the dungeons.
"Today, we are going to practice how to make the Draught of Peace." Snape said smoothly. "Amelie, since you are new, I want you to make a simple potion from the first year. The Cure for Boils potion."
The Slytherin students snickered at such a simple potion but I ignored them. So what if I am a new student? They won't be laughing when I beat them in the examination. I dragged the pages on the textbook to the Cure for Boils potion.
At my table was Pansy, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle. They have already began making their potions. I scanned through the ingredients carefully.
"Snake fangs, pungeous onions, dried nettles, flobberworm mucus?" I whispered to myself. A little weirded out by the sense of ingredients, I quickly got most of them and arranged them on my table. I looked at the instructions again. This was easy! It's just like a cooking recipe.
I added some of the crushed snake fangs into my cauldron and began finely slicing the pungeous onions before heating up the mixture. I then added the dried nettles and flobberworm mucus. The instructions say to stir vigorously so that's what I did, but not too vigorous. I added the powdered ginger root and stirred it again.
"It's alright to make a mistake, because Snape usually favours us more than Gryffindors." Draco whispered as he stirred his potion. I giggled and nodded. I noticed the way he stirred his potion, with gentleness.
I then placed in some Shrake spines and stirred very slowly. I copied the hand movements from Draco next to me, slowly. I dropped in some slugs and was about to toss in the porcupine quills when Draco pushed my hand away.
"Remove the cauldron from heat first before adding the quills otherwise the cauldron will melt and cause boils." Draco instructed.
"Oh." I said as I lifted the cauldron off before dropping the quills in.
"Neville dropped the quills in once before removing the cauldron." Draco laughed at the memory. I glanced over to the Gryffindors tables and saw Neville's cauldron emit green sparks. I giggled at him. He was such a ditz.
Finally I waved my wand over and the potion emit some smoke which left me in surprise. Draco's potion emitted a silvery vapour which he gave a smug smirk at Harry who's potion had a faint silver vapour.
"You seem to have a knack for potions." Snape said from behind me which startled me. I jumped back a little.
"Sorry Professor, I didn't see you behind." I muttered. Snape examined my potion carefully and patted my shoulder.
"With a few tutoring lessons, I believe you can be one of the top in potion making." Snape said. I blushed and smiled.
Transfiguration seemed to be one of the most difficult classes I have ever been in. Professor McGonagall rattled on about the various transfigurations she taught last year but I sat at my seat staring at her blankly, the quill in my hand taking notes blindly.
"Amelie can I see you for a moment." McGonagall said after class. Draco and Pansy went on to our next class first which was care of magical creatures. They said they would wait for me outside of our class.
"Yes professor?"
"I can see you are not doing well with transfiguration." she said reading my mind. I nodded and looked down at my feet. "Has Dumbledore given you your tutors?"
"Yeah, Hermione." I said.
"Well I trust Dumbledore knows best because Hermione is one of the best transfiguration students I have." McGonagall said smilingly. "Now off to your next class, you wouldn't want to keep Hagrid waiting."
I walked outside class hurriedly and scanned the corridors for Draco and Pansy. I couldn't find them anywhere so I walked on. I looked at the schedule I have tucked in my books.
Care for Magical Creatures- Forbidden Forest
Darn it. I had to walk my way to a forest. Suddenly, I felt two strong hands grab me from my waist and lifted me upside down.
"Ahh!" I screamed. From my upside down vision, I could see Pansy laughing on the floor which means.. "Blondie put me down." I yelled hitting his back lightly.
"Blondie? Is that my nickname?" Draco laughed walking towards the exit with Pansy laughing.
"Yes! No. Maybe." I said.
"Alright you can put her down now Malfoy. We're close to the forest." Pansy said in breaths, holding her side. Instead of putting me down, he slowly lowered me before dropping me on the floor.
"Asshat." I muttered as I got up and rubbed my bottom.
"What?" he asked with innocence.
"Muggle language, you wouldn't understand." I stuck my tongue at him as we walked in the direction of the Forbidden Forest.
Reaching the forest, we were already late for our class and got an earful by Hagrid who was halfway teaching others about some weird creature. After the scolding we received, Hagrid took away five points from Slytherin because Pansy was always late.
"He just favours Gryffindors." I muttered soft enough for Draco to hear. He was scowling and leaning against the brick wall. I have to admit, his scowl was scary.
"Teachers from their own houses favour their own house." Draco whispered. "In our case, Snape favours us more than Gryffindors."
Finally, after what seemed like hours of lessons, we had a bit of spare time to ourselves. In my case though, I had tutoring. I checked my schedule.
"Mondays with Harry, Tuesday, today, with Draco and Wednesdays with Hermione." I muttered. I walked up the staircases that seems to be changing every second. Slytherin's house ghost, Bloody Baron seemingly walked past me without acknowledging my presence.
"What was the password again." I muttered scratching my head. Suddenly, without saying anything, the bricks rearranged themselves and standing at the entrance was no other, Blondie.
"Been looking for you." he said flicking his white-blonde hair.
"Being new sure has its perks of being called to the class end of every lesson." I said sarcastically.
"Lighten up, at least you aren't in Ravenclaw or Gryffindor. They pride knowledge too much and if you couldn't understand they would mock you." Draco said in an attempt to lighten my mood.
"I thought mocking was Slytherin's specialty." I said crossing my arms.
"Part of it is due to me. Now, how about we get to the classroom." Draco smirked.
"I thought we weren't allowed in classes after lessons." I pointed out.
"Snape. Head of Slytherin. He can make a few tweaks." Draco shrugged and dragged me down the steps.
We walked to the potion making classroom in silence with the occasional teasing. I ran my fingers through my hair and pulled it into a messy bun so that it was easier for me to make potions without my hair all over the place.
Suddenly, I heard a couple of short heels clicking on the rock. Draco seemed to have noticed it too. I know for one that Professor McGonagall doesn't wear heels like that.
"Umbridge." Draco cursed and he took my hand and dragged me behind a stone statue. I opened my eyes to find myself in a rather awkward and intimate position with Draco with my body pressed against his. My cheeks flushed red and before I can say anything, I felt the collar of my shirt pulled back.
"And what are you two Slytherins doing out here?" Umbridge sneered rather than asked.
"Uhm, we were just going to the potions classroom mam." Draco stammered.
"In that position?" she raised an eyebrow. My cheeks flushed red again. I had no answer for her. "Answer me mudblood!" she screeched in my ears.
I said nothing and avoided her gaze.
"You students aren't supposed to be going to classes at this hour." she said tapping her shoes. "Detention for you two right now!"
She used some sort of spell to make us walk tightly together. I can't say I enjoyed that position being shorter than Draco. I looked up and saw his face practically burning with rage and embarrassment. A few Ravenclaw students walked past us and started giggling.
"So what happens now?" I whispered, barely audible.
"Whatever Umbridge is giving us, it won't be good." he answered back.
"Quiet!" she screeched. My ears were ringing at her voice pitch. She sounded like one of the teachers back in the Muggleworld I had who screamed at every single thing I did. I was tossed from foster home to foster home so there wasn't a solid home until I was eleven. That's when I discovered I had some weird levitating thing I could do with my mind and poured the pitcher of water on my so called least favourite "aunt".
We walked uncomfortably to her office and I almost puked at the sight of her office. It was decorated in a faded pink and a couple, maybe a hundred of cat portraits all meowing. The meowing was horrible, the cats meowed at different times which made them annoying.
"Sit." she commanded smiling. "Cup of tea for both of you?" she asked sweetly.
"After you separate both of us." Draco demanded.
"Mind your manners boy." she hissed and waved her wand which to my relief, separated us. I fell backwards and onto the pink armchairs she had. Draco sat himself down scowling at Umbridge.
"Professor we weren't doing anything-" I began but she waved her wand and my lips seemed to be sewn shut. I tried speaking but my mouth was all tightened up.
"My father will hear about this!" Draco threatened. Umbridge did the same to him.
"Now what to do with troublemakers like you two from Slytherin?" she asked herself. She took out two quills from her drawer and set them on her table. Then, she got up and began making some tea. Instantly, with a wave of her wand, tea was brewed and she poured them into a cup.
From her desk, she pulled out two pieces of parchment and set them in front of me and Draco. She picked up her saucer and teacup and sipped her tea gingerly as she got up.
"How about lines?" she asked sweetly. Thank goodness, I thought she was going to make us do labour or something. We picked up our quills and dipped them in ink and waited for her to say something.
"I will not lie." she said.
"Miss that's hardly fair! We didn't lie!" I exclaimed. I can speak now.
"Quiet mudblood." she said and zipped my mouth shut again. "Now write."
I wrote it slowly, with every word I wrote, a pain and stinging sensation kept happening on my left hand. I was right handed. I placed the full stop on my sentence and was about to begin the next when the pain got unbearable and grimaced in pain. Draco noticed and placed a hand over my right. He gestured to my left hand.
I will not lie.
It was burned onto my hand. Tears of pain dripped from my eyes and onto the scar which made it sting even more. I noticed Draco had the same marks on his left hand.
"Now, will you two lie again?" Umbridge turned around and gave us a sickening smile. I grimaced and shook my head in response. "Good. Ten points from Slytherin."
We walked out of her office and our mouths were opened. I took in a gasp of breath before looking back at the scar.
"Is this even legal?" I asked Draco.
"No. My father will hear about this." he growled. "Are you alright?"
"Other than basically cutting words into my hand I'm fine." I said sarcastically.
"You sure have a sarcastic tongue." he chuckled. I lightly whacked his head. It was getting dark and we had to go for dinner soon.
"And the only comeback you know is your father." I teased back.
"Hey, my father has his ways round this Ministry of Magic. I could get you get you sent back to the muggleworld if I wanted to." he said seriously. I gasped and lightly punched his shoulder.
"You wouldn't."
"Try me." he said but then I jabbed his side and he burst into laughter. "I would miss this feisty mudblood of course."
"Everyone seems to be in love with that word, what does it mean?" I asked playing with a stray end of my hair.
"Not telling." he stuck his tongue out. I whipped my wand out and said the only spell I knew but I forgot the use of it.
"Lumos!" I said and my wand emitted a bright glow. Draco started laughing so hard he clutched his sides.
"You actually thought that light spell would do harm?" he laughed. I stomped my foot childishly and stuffed my wand back.
"I'm learning okay!" I huffed in response.
"Yeah, learning." he wiped tears from his eyes. I whacked his shoulder again. "Hey ouch! Quit hitting! You might as well be a beater for the Slytherin Quidditch team."
"What's Quidditch?" I asked confused.
"I'll explain later." he said and he pushed the doors of the Great Hall open. My stomach was growling and craving for food. I sent a smile to Harry and he returned one. I quickly seated myself at the Slytherin table next to Pansy.
"Gosh, what happened to your hand Amelie?" Pansy asked with concern.
"Umbridge." the name rolled off my tongue like poison.
"Ouch. I swear she's just so urgh I just want to send a dragon nipping at her and burning her precious kitty pictures." Pansy said helping herself to some food.
"I'd like to send the Ministry on her." I muttered as I helped myself to some roast lamb and potatoes.
"Fat chance, she's from the Ministry herself, letting you in. I think you and Malfoy got off pretty lightly with her for detention." Pansy replied.
"Now setting her on fire seems like a great idea." I murmured and Pansy smiled.
"One day Amelie.. One day.." Pansy trailed off and began eating.
That night, I stayed in a far corner in the dormitory not wanting to disturb anyone. I had picked up a book I bought from Diagon Alley and began reading it.
"Lumos." I whispered and a small faint glow appeared at the tip of my wand. I smiled to myself as I hovered the wand over the words. I decided to have a head start at charms and flipped to the first page.
On the first page was a levitation charm. I found a stray feather from my pillow and decided to practice using that. I looked at the words carefully.
Wingardium Leviosa
"Windgardium Levisa." I whispered pointing my wand at the feather but it didn't move. I tried again. "Windgardium Levisa!" I whispered louder but it didn't budge. I looked at the pronounciation of the word. I took a deep breath and said again.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" I whispered and moved my wand. This time, the feather lifted up and I guided it gently around me before setting it down. Two charms successfully performed. Lumos and the levitation charm. I flicked to the next page and it was a mending charm. I reached to my old pair of jeans which had a hole in it and made a face. Last charm I'll practice.
"Repara." I whispered but the threads didn't move. I guess my pronunciation was wrong again. I took a deep breath and said the charm again pointing at the hole.
"Reparo!" I muttered and the threads began moving on it's own. Smiling in the dark, I saw the thread began crossing over each other before mending the hole. This was going to be handy for my never ending holes I will always make in my clothes.
I shut the book tightly and checked the time. It was about one in the morning. I yawned and set my wand by my bedside table. I arranged the book amongst the growing pile and crawled into my bed. I pulled the duvet over me tightly and shutting my eyes slowly.