Hello my beautiful readers!
Thank you so much to my two guest reviewers as well as BloodyAvenger21 and Adiba.s101 for their kind words! I can't forget about my four followers either, thank you for your support!
Just to answer Adiba.s101's question, there will new characters added in, but so far none (that haven't yet been introduced) of them are playing a large role.
Thank you once again! I am so surprised at the outcome of chapter one and I am excited to see your reactions to some of the stuff coming up!
Please leave a review down below xx
"The world is full enough of hurts and mischances without wars to multiply them." -J.R.R Tolkien.
The 2nd of September, was just as hectic as the 1st. On the 1st you had to do last minute packing, get to Kings cross, and get on the train by 11am, without breaking the statue of secrecy. September 2nd, well you have to try wake up earlier than you had in three months, get to breakfast, once you are handed your timetable you need to rush back to get your books, then rush to your first class.
Even the 7th years manage to somehow end up late to their first class, and this is the 7th time they're doing it.
Most people generally got to breakfast around 8:15, they then have half an hour to eat, wake up and work on unfinished homework before first class at 9. However, first days never go as planned.
Mary generally was in charge of waking the dorm up as she woke up early to go out for a woke up as normal, the girl has no idea what sleeping in is, however her run went overtime 'to cleanse herself of all the calories she ate last night.' By the time she woke everyone up it was 8:15… For most that is a perfectly normal time to wake up because they can still make it in time to breakfast, however, mix four, seventh year girls, one of whom is a narcissistic pureblood who needs to have different hair colour charms every day and still look perfect, the other is a redhead who hates her brows and lashes so she takes forever fixing them up, one of them was ready about 15 minutes before she woke the others up and the last one just wanted to look presentable. Beds open, spells flying everywhere, yelling, fighting over the mirror, clothes strewn over the floor, trunks open… welcome to the Gryffindor girls dorm.
"Beverley! I'm Head GIRL! I NEED TO LOOK PRESENTABLE!"
"MY EYEBROWS ARE UNEVEN!"
"YOUR EYEBROWS ARE UNEVEN? MY MASCARA LOOKS LIKE A TARANTULARS LEGS!"
"I DON'T KNOW WHAT COLOUR TO CHARM MY HAIR!"
"AND I HAVE A ZIT! YOU DON'T SEE ME COMPLAINING DO YOU!" Elizabeth yelled loudly over the two bickering girls, whilst pointing towards the middle of her forehead. "We have 30minutes until class and we have to somehow eat breakfast, come back, get our books, and then go to class! I don't care if your eyebrows are uneven, they're not twins they're brother and sister! or that your mascaras clumpy, fix it up later" she said running her hands threw her hair in frustration. After 5 minutes of spell casting by Lily they were ready to go.
"Finally" Mary muttered under her breath, clearly frustrated.
By the time they got to the great hall, well there was 10 minutes until breakfast ended and timetables were being handed out. They quickly sat down flushed and panting from their unexpected morning workout.
"Merlin, I think that's the fastest we've ever got down here." Lily gasped out between painful breaths, she took a piece of treacle tart to devour for breakfast, Mary took a bowl of fruit, Beverley did the same and Elizabeth a piece of toast. Mary was lecturing Lily on the benefits of a healthy breakfast and if she joined her on runs she wouldn't be panting so much. Whilst Beverley scanned around the room once again, looking for her flavour of the week most likely.
Beverleys eyes immediately caught that of a fifth year Hufflepuff, he had curly golden hair, green eyes and tanned skin. A smirk immediately lit up his face and we gave her a wink. A seductive smile crossed Beverley's face as she caught his action.
"Well hello there sexy, excuse me ladies, I'll be back soon" Beverley said in a sultry way before walking away whilst slowly swaying her hips in a suggestive manner that turned many heads.
"We won't hold our breaths" Mary sniggered looking at Lily and Elizabeth who cracked up. Lily's smile disappeared as she saw who was approaching, James Potter, lily Evans biggest fan. Elizabeth shut her eyes for a few moments as she felt a headache coming along. Since 3rd year James had taken to asking Lily out, as often as possible, in different ways, and whilst he was at it he'd generally embarrass both himself and Lily. Many insults and pickup lines had been shared between one another and yet neither of them stop, it had become almost a routine now.
It was obvious to everyone but Lily that she was head over heels for James Potter.
"4 times! 4 times since yesterday!" lily groaned, a small grin placed itself on Elizabeth's face as she looked at Mary knowingly.
"Remember 5th year, he asked you out eleven times on the first day!" Elizabeth let out a laugh.
A cough interrupted them, McGonagall, her bun as tight as ever and her robes stiff and prim with their usual tartan, was handing out their timetables.
"Miss Evans, Miss Gilmore, Miss MacDonald… where's, never mind" she muttered as she looked around the table, she shook her head with a disapproving look on her face, "Give Miss Wilkens her timetable will you. I expect all of you to put in tip top effort this year, yes even you Miss MacDonald." She said with a raised eyebrow as she saw Mary's incredulous expression, before stalking off further up the table. Elizabeth sniggered at Mary's expression; she looked down at her timetable before grimacing.
"Yuck" she looked as if she'd swallowed a bogie flavoured Bertie Botts bean, this year was going to be worse than she'd expected.
"Gosh, look at all these beautiful free periods" Mary smiled, obviously anticipating how she'd spend those free periods, a disapproving look spread over Lily's face.
"Mary, if you want to be an auror, you need good grades. It's NEWT year, and if Alice wasn't exaggerating last year, you're going to need those periods for studying." Alice Fortescue was a friend of theirs that graduated last year who was now training at the Auror academy with her boyfriend Frank Longbottom.
Elizabeth looked at her timetable with distaste, she detested double periods with a passion.
She was just grateful she had charms first thing, good, she was rather talented at Charms; it was her 2nd best class after arithmancy which she excelled in.
Whilst Standing outside of charms and chatting with the girls Lily rolled her eyes when she saw all four of the marauders walking to class, before coming to stand in front of them.
She cocked her hip out and leant against the wall with elegance gracing her figure.
"Didn't fail then Potter, I recall your charms results last year, they weren't all that great were they?" Lily commented snidely with an innocent smile. James ran his hand through his hair as a smirk plastered amongst his handsome face, however a light blush did flush across his pale skin.
"How could you ever think that Evans? I'm very charming as you well know. How could I fail?" he said, before turning around with a wink, leaving an enraged Lily fuming. James looked back at her reddening form and gave her a smirk.
"I didn't realise there was a reason for you to be here Evans." He spoke as calmly as he did when he talked about the weather. Lily raised a pristine eyebrow at his words.
"And why is that Potter?"
"Well, you've already charmed me." He laughed and then winced when Remus hit him over the head with their charms textbook, Elizabeth groaned and banged her head at the wall, they were both idiots. His face contorted with pain as he rubbed the back of his head.
She gave him a disgusted look and before the redhead could reply the door opened and Professor Flitwick ushered them in. She gave Potter a dirty look, he was so…infuriating! Thank god that after this year she wont have to so much as deal with him, it'll be over and she could move on with her own life and not deal with his stupid…toe raggy… messy haired…non charming…idiotic presence.
Elizabeth rubbed a hand over her face and let out a large groan, three days in and she was already drowning in homework, yet somehow it seemed that nobody else in her classes did.
"Guess who." A voice whispered in her ear, and she felt her entire body stiffen up, of all the times for the most irritating person in the world to grace her with his presence, why now? She looked down towards her homework,Ah well, at least now she had a reason to procrastinate.
"Severus! I thought we weren't meeting for another ten minutes! And at the broom cupboard too!" She felt Sirius move away from her, he looked at her in horror.
"Snivellus?" he croaked hoarsely, his face pale.
"You have no idea how much I wish I had my camera with me right now, that expression, priceless!" she laughed,
"Snivellus?" he demanded, not sure if she was joking or being serious. Elizabeth rolled her eyes and swung back in her chair, leaning on its hind legs.
"Of course not! I have standards you know."
Sirius sat himself in the unoccupied spot next to her and glared at the Slytherin afew tables down with distaste. "I wouldn't know." Elizabeths eyebrows rose in surprise at the statement. She cleared her throat in response, his head snapped up. "Did you say something?"
"I reckon you like Snape more than Mallows likes you." Victoria Mallows was the official leader of the Sirius Black fanclub, with her straight bleach damaged hair and her cakey face what ch covered her acne covered face. She was the typical popular girl and much to Elizabeths bafflement, she still liked Sirius after shagging him afew times.
Sirius's face went pale, "Please don't insult me."
"Oh no…I wouldn't dare insult the great Sirius Black!" she laughed and nudged him in the side, "Just stating the obvious."
"mmhm sure." He looked over her shoulder to see the charms text she was reading, after a moment of silence he spoke up. "Mallows is nothing but a brainless bimbo."
"She's a Ravenclaw, she cant exactly be brainless." Elizabeth scoffed, however whilst saying this Mallows was definitely not the sharpest crayon in the box.
"She'd be a better Slytherin, she knows how to manipulate people into getting her way."
"Are you speaking from experience?" she questioned leaning closer to him, he scoffed, leaning back in his chair and flicking his long hair out of his face.
"It was hardly getting her way, if a chicks gonna come upto me begging for a shag I'll probably give her said shag, win, win situation." Her nose wrinkled in disgust.
"I don't get how you do that."
His brows furrowed together, "Do what?"
She shrugged her shoulders and leant back in the chair, "Sleep around, have pointless relationships, I don't get it." He let out a bark of laughter causing Madam Prince to look towards them with loathing, they dropped their heads and she picked up the book once more. "Its disgusting, imagine all the diseases you could be carrying!"
"Chill, most of them are virgins anyway and its easy, you just don't think about it." He looked at her with his gray eyes intently, he shook her head she looked down,
"I don't think I could ever do that."
"You're too good for that." He told her, "But if you ever decide to change your mind come to me, I'll even dedicate two pages too you in my Black book." She raised an eyebrow,
"A black book?"
"yup, all the names of everyone I've ever slept with." She nodded slowly and grimace forming on her face,
"That's nice of you." She bit her lip and looked down once more, it would be rude of her to ask, but she was bubbling with curiosity, how many girls had he slept with, were the rumours true, did the things the girls spoke about in the back of class actually happen? A smirk spread across his face as he looked at her, he could pinpoint her train of thought exactly. She opened her mouth but before she could ask…
"Lets just say that I'm going to need to buy a new book soon."
"This is your NEWT year." Professor McGonagall lectured the seventh year Gryffindors at the start of the lesson. "How you perform during your exams at the end of the year, will determine what career paths you take. I expect all of you to be attentive and working very sedulously this year." She looked around the class, as if she was peering into everyone's souls.
"This year is not the year for dawdling or working superficially, Those of you that believe that they can pass through NEWT year without so much as opening a book, will be grossly mistaken." Alll the Gryffindor seventh years shifted uncomfortably in their seats.
Her eyes lingered in James and Sirius's direction, "This year you will have to sacrifice some of your holidays, some of spare time, some of your time with your friends and preferably much of your pranking time." Once again her gaze flickered towards the direction of the marauders, then to the rest of the group, a smile smile crossed her stern face and many in the class began to chuckle lightly. "If any of you are struggling with the workload, are having trouble understanding or have any questions, all the teachers will be open to helping you out."
"You lot are one of the most promising lot of Gryffindors I've had the pleasure of teaching. Even if we've had our…troubles." A soft wave of laughter swept through the room at the truth of the statement and an affectionate smile graced McGonagall's face making her look much younger. " I do not wish for frivolous acts to prevent you from reaching your full potential and hindering your ambitions." After a moment of silence she spoke once more.
"Now, onto transfiguration."
A loud groan was heard from one end of the classroom causing everyone to turn, Elizabeth stifled a laugh as everyone looked at Lily whom was sitting next to her blushed in mortification. She didn't realise she was that loud. McGonagall raised an eyebrow at Lily before turning back towards the board to begin her lesson.
"Professor aren't you going to give her a detention for unnecessarily sighing, isn't that disrespectful." Sirius yelled from the back of the classroom, McGonagall sighed and glared at Sirius, her lips pulled tight together, a thin eyebrow raised.
"Miss Evans is not a third year in need of discipline Mr Black."
"You gave me a detention for the same thing in 5th year!"
"Mr Black!"
"Professor!" The class leant back in their chairs and enjoyed the verbal banter that Sirius seemed to have with even his favourite teacher. They had become accustomed to it after seven years, Even Lily Evans.
"Mr Black, your are on thin ice!" She snapped, pointing her wand at him,
"Then I guess it'd be a bad idea to jump up and down Professor." He retorted causing her to raise a rounded eyebrow,
"Yes Mr Black, Now that we've come to the conclusion not to jump on thin ice shall we continue on with the lesson."
Elizabeth sat in the library glaring at the sheet of parchment in front of her, for the last ten minutes she'd stared at the same problem that nomatter what was not working. Arithmancy was her best subject, her very best subject yet…she kept getting it wrong.
Her left eye twitched in irritation, she was almost a hundred percent sure all the x's and y's were in the same place. She'd never struggled with arithmancy and she was a maths genius before she came to Hogwarts, at home her shelves were full of awards and certificates because of said talent. She jumped in surprise when a book was dropped onto the table. She looked up and was about to throw her quill at whoever frightened her when she looked up at saw who it was.
"Remus." She sighed in relief before gesturing for him to sit down, "You have no clue how close I was to throwing this at your eye!" Elizabeth exclaimed, he rolled his eyes and pulled out his own quill and inkwell.
He gave her a charming grin.
"I have no doubts about that. How come you look so frusturated? You don't usually have issues with arithmancy." she gritted her teeth and looked at him, her annoyance at her homework flaring once more.
"I keep getting this equation wrong, it should equal eleven but I keep getting nine and nothing I do is changing my answer."
"How do you know the answer is eleven." He leant over and took her parchment to examine it, her cheeks flushed and she bit her bottom lip.
"After a while I just checked the answer and thought I could work backwards…" Remus smiled at her and gestured for her to look at the middle portion of her working out.
"I'm no expert but I reckon you're just not paying enough attention to your work, here you've accidentally used a negative number instead of a positive number when there's a negative infront and a-" An exclamation of realisation caused her to cut through.
"Negative and a negative is a positive! Thank you!" she leant over the table and pressed a kiss to his cheek before leaning over her parchment and continuing her equations. Remus watched her a shook his head.
One thing was for sure.
Life with Elizabeth Gilmore around would never be boring.
Soon it was Thursday after lunch and the Gryffindor 7th years were excited about their first defence class with Professor Bradley, from day one the castle had been bustling at the news of the DADA professor and everyone had been speaking admirably of his teaching style.
As they entered the class they halted to admire the interior, the Slytherin's had already arrived and were seated and quietly chatting amongst themselves, professor Bradley was leaning against his desk. Around the classroom were newspaper clippings of the war, pictures of dark creatures, dark magic detectors, sneakescopes, and foe glasses… the eight unnerved Gryffindor's sat down. The Marauders had large grins on their faces and the rest of the class, even the Slytherin's whom detested the 4 Gryffindor's, understood what this meant and were anticipating the Marauders traditional welcome to the job prank.
Elizabeth caught Sirius Blacks eyes and she felt her cheeks heat up, she didn't have a crush on the guy, but merlin he was attractive, with his grey eyes, leather jacket and long hair he gave off a bad boy vibe that just pulled you to him. No, she didn't like Sirius Black; he was just very nice to look at. That was that. Case closed… where's the stamp?
Once everyone was seated Professor Bradley stood up, however the moment he did the lights around the room began to flicker and change colours, muggle rock music began to play as Professor Bradleys outfit changed into an outfit Elvis would wear, the class burst out laughing as they pointed at his getup. A spotlight was placed on Professor Bradley as he begun to dance to Blue Suede Shoes, jazz hands, twirls, he looked like he'd been dancing for years and his voice wasn't all that bad. After 2 minutes the music ended and the outfit changed back. The class held its breaths and tried to hold in their laughter as they awaited Professor Bradley's reaction to the prank.
He laughed. For the first time since the Marauders begun this tradition, a teacher laughed. He lent against his desk and laughed, causing the rest of the class to laugh with him, tears streamed out of the Gryffindors eyes at the fight of a seemingly serious man dancing Elvis style.
"You guys are funny! Merlin I have laughed like that in a long time, 10 points to Gryffindor for excellent spell work." He said exuberantly, clutching his stomach. "The teachers warned me you know!"
Once he'd calmed down, he begun to talk to the class.
"Well after that exciting start to class, we're going to have to calm down, unfortunately, this is not a practical, but it's essential." The students groaned and leant down to grab out their books and parchment. "No! No need for all that junk! Don't even bother writing notes because in all honesty you won't need them." The class looked at one another in anticipation at this, this bloke was already brilliant! He waved them off before walking onto the higher part of the ground where there was a chalkboard; he looked around, paying attention to every student.
"This year, is your NEWT year, you have to pass the biggest exams of your life, ya Di dah Di dah." He rolled his eyes, many in the class turned to Eachother, this man was going to make this year interesting. "Well you know what, stuff them." He said with a smirk on his face, a Scottish brogue lacing into his voice, some of the students eyes widened at his proclamation. "I'm not here to teach you how to pass your NEWTS; I'm here to teach you how to survive this war." He said strongly, hitting his fist on his desk, it was as if a fire had lit up inside him.
"Yes, your headmaster may call it a situation, to make it seem less grating, but the truth is, we are at war." The class fell silent, the news had whispers of war, but only ever whispers, not even Dumbledore had stood up in front of them and called the atrocities happening a war. Stunned they listened to the passionate young man in silence.
" This is a war that is all about prejudice. Prejudice against muggles and muggleborn, prejudice against magic. My question is why?" in capitals he wrote the word magic before circling it.
"There are 2 sides to this war, the good and the bad, light and the dark, right and wrong. But what is the difference" underneath he wrote the words the dark arts underneath. Many of the students frowned, what this man was saying, it sounded very close to treason.
"I'm a defence against a dark arts teacher, the role is in its title, and I have to teach you to defend yourselves against dark arts. But how does one defend themselves from the dark arts if they have no clue what they are? So I ask you, what are the dark arts?"He asked the class waving his hand around the room to emphasise his point. Some students raised their hands, other didn't, what was this man trying to prove?
"Mr…"
"Potter, James Potter Its whatever causes death or pain to someone." He said with a strong edge to his voice, Professor Bradley wrote it down on the board. Before pointing to a Slytherin near the back of class.
"Severus Snape, potions that can be used to kill, torture or maim another and dark creatures such as Dementors, vampires and werewolves are all classified as dark." Snape spoke soothly with his signature sneer, whilst he said the last part he looked at Remus who gritted his teeth together. Professor Bradley nodded as he wrote down.
"Beverley Wilkins, Ummm… anything classified dark by the ministry."
"Avery, unforgivable curses"
"Lily Evans, blood and soul magic's." This continued on for a while until the board was full of suggestions.
"Okay, that's more than enough. So, if this the dark arts, then what's light/pure magic?" after many suggestions professor Bradley stepped away from the board, he looked at it intently for a moment before drawing a large cross through the board. Causing the class to look flabbergasted. Muttering and whispers broke out amongst students. "wrong."
One word, that's all it took, to change the perceptions of an entire group of people.
"Wingardium Leviosa, it's the first spell taught to witches and wizards, simple, light magic, yet it can cause more harm than the killing curse, I could levitate a muggle car on top of you, or levitate someone off a cliff, a painful death, simple, and effective." He looked around at the students who were looking at him intently, some with dawning realisation. "If your mother or father had let's say, cancer, a muggle terminal disease and were dying, every breath was painful and everywhere hurt, you'd want to give them mercy wouldn't you. 2 words and they'd have a quick, painless death." He shrugged as students paled at the realisation of the truth of his words.
"The imperious curse can stop someone committing suicide; a severing charm could separate someone's head from their shoulders. You're using the darkest magic to save someone yet you're using some of the lightest magic to commit the darkest of crimes, does that make it right?" He looked out at the students who couldn't begin to comprehend what they were up against in a years' time.
The man, he spoke with such fire, thought Elizabeth.
It was unlike anything she'd ever seen. His eyes lit up and his face glowed, no matter how gloomy or dark the topic was, he enjoyed it. She'd had many teachers in the past and the difference between Professor Bradley and the others was astounding. Most teachers will be good at what they teach, they will give you good lectures and they will tell you all they know, they will praise you and criticise you, all teachers do. But professor Bradley spoke about defence against the dark arts with such a passion, yes, he was good at the subject and knew his stuff, but he loved the subject and found it fascinating. He spoke about the subject with such difference between a good teacher and a passionate teacher was standing in front of her.
Despite being in Gryffindor she couldn't ever recall feeling brave or courageous. But this man, he made her want to get up and fight, he made her want to prove herself, she wanted to shine. He was the type of person who could lead a revolution. He made her feel like she could do it.
"This year, I'm going to teach you as much as I can, call it an amateur auror academy. Duelling tactics, unforgivables, patronus, disguising one another, healing. I'm not going to give you unnecessary homework, no, you'll get enough of that from other teachers," The students stared the cheer and whispers started to go around the classroom,
"What I will give you will be helpful, don't get excited, half the stuff I'm going to teach you wont be on your NEWTS, no, you need to learn that on your own, have any questions, come to me. In my class, you're going to be pushed to your limits, you need to be strong, you need to be fit, and you need to be prepared. Yeah, you're going to curse my name every time you get pissed at me, but when you're out their fighting death eaters you'll be bloody grateful." Elizabeth could feel the fire burning in her veins, a rush of power and adrenaline, and most of all everyone fighting the war could be as capability as the man standing before them. How could they lose?
Professor Bradley took a step forward and sighed, he leant forward against his desk and looked at every single one of his students.
"Remember what I said about magic, Magic is magic, you ought to remember that, the so called dark side isn't holding back, so why should you? Curiosity isn't a sin; just don't lose yourself whilst you're at it."
And with that the bell went and the 7th year Gryffindor's and Slytherin's walked out of the classroom in a daze. This man, had changed everything, with afew words this man changed their views on magic.
Yet despite this mans words of wisdom, one thing stood out. Everything they learnt this year was important, not only for their future careers or their NEWT results. No.
They were at war.
I love Bradley, his such a cool character to write.
Anyhow, keep and eye out for the next update, it should be out in afew days! Here is a little sneak peek.
"On Halloween, along with the traditional feast, there will be a ball."
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