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Last time on The Snitch of Secrets...
James stretched and yarned as he finished his second essay. Sirius finished his own paper a minute or so later. James looked at his watch, 10:26pm. It was past curfew, but not so late that he wanted to go to bed. In fact it was the perfect time to explore the castle.
James wrote on a scrap bit of parchment, fancy a walk?
Sirius replied, are you coming onto me? You know, I'm not into that sort of thing, right? Lol.
I was thinking more along the lines of exploring the castle. Finding secret passageways…
Nice! Except we can't. It's passed curfew. We'll get caught. The prefects are patrolling…
Are you really worried about getting caught, Black?
Er, no of course not…
Besides I have a way of ensuring we don't get caught…
How?
James and Sirius climbed out the portrait hole. The people in the common room found it briefly strange that the portrait had opened yet no one had entered or exited. "Wow, this is so cool!" Sirius said under the cloak.
"Yeah, I know right? Where do we want to explore first?"
"I'm not sure… Hogwarts is huge…"
"Maybe we should start at the bottom and work our way up?"
"You mean start with the dungeons? Cool."
They walked quietly passed Evan Rosier and Elizabeth Burke, the Slytherin sixth year prefects, patrolling the corridors. Soon they were deep within the dungeons, in a place neither one had been before. "Where are we?" Sirius asked.
James merely shook his head. They both caught sight of something ahead of them, two people walking along holding hands. James recognised them as Lucius Malfoy and Narcissa Black, the Slytherin fifth year prefects. "Should we have some fun?" James asked Sirius.
Sirius nodded. They began to follow the couple. James thought back to a book he got off his father for his last birthday, 'Funny Jinx-ing'. He whispered an incantation under his breath "Cantis", pointing his wand at Lucius Malfoy. Malfoy quickly began to sing at the top of his lungs about everything that came to mind, including the fact that he would kill whoever was responsible for his outburst of song.
Sirius and James walked silently passed the singing fifth year and his girlfriend and turned a corner before letting out a bark of laughter; they couldn't hold it in, they were almost doubled over with laughter. They continued to walk down the corridors, searching for another unlucky Slytherin victim. It wasn't long before they stumbled across Snape. James quietly placed the jelly-legs jinx on Snape, catching him completely unawares.
The troublesome Gryffindors began to make their way back towards the Gryffindor castle when they heard a coughing behind them. They turned to see none other than Dumbledore looking directly at them both. "Mr Potter, Mr Black, you may be invisible but I know that you are there."
"How?" James couldn't help but asking.
"Magic…" Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "Show yourselves."
"Yes sir." The boys greatly respected their headmaster.
"Would you care to explain what you are doing out of bed at this time of night?" Dumbledore asked. Harry could see that Professor Dumbledore was entertained by the boys' antics, although he was sure that neither his father or god-father had realised it.
"Er… we were just…" James began.
"Just jinxing my students?" Dumbledore asked.
"Well,.. well yes sir." Sirius replied, his eyes on the floor.
"Very well – please do not repeat tonight's behaviour or I will be forced to reprimand you. Good night boys."
The next day, Sirius and James were sat in their morning potions class waiting for Professor Slughorn to enter. "That was very strange wasn't it? He didn't take points, or give us detention or anything. He didn't even really tell us off." Sirius began.
"I know! He is the coolest headmaster ever!" James replied.
"It was so funny. Snape's face when he fell." Sirius laughed loudly.
He quickly stopped as Snape walked up to their table, "I know it was you!"
"You know what was me?" replied James.
"Jinxing me last night!" Snape replied angrily. The whole class were watching, including Lily Evans, James noticed.
"Someone jinxed you last night? Now that I would have loved to see." James laughed. "Sadly I was in the common room doing my charms essay and then I went to bed. Not that it's any of your business."
"Snivellus, shouldn't you have been in your common room anyway? I'm guessing you do mean after hours?" Sirius asked.
Snape glowered at the use of their new nickname for him, "well, yes. I know it was you two though. I know it was." He pulled out his wand to attack, but James was quicker, performing the knockback jinx, "Flipendo".
Snape flew across the room away from Sirius and James, just as Professor Slughorn walked into the classroom, "Mr Snape, what on earth are you doing on the floor?"
"Nothing, sir. Sorry, sir." He replied as he returned to his seat.
"I see." Slughorn said shaking his head gently at him.
"Right, today we will be writing notes from our textbooks on what would happen if you added powdered root of Asphodel to an Infusion of Wormwood. You will then transform your notes into an a roll and a half essay on the subject." Slughorn said before sitting behind his desk.
When the lesson had ended, Slughorn called several students forward including; James, Sirius, Alice and Marlene as well as a few Slytherins. "I am having a small get together at the weekend. I thought it would be nice to get to know some of my new first year students. You are all invited. Of course you will receive an official invitation by owl tomorrow. Good day."
After lunch, the first years began to make their way towards the glasshouses for their Herbology class with the Ravenclaws. "Slughorn is a strange one, isn't he?" Sirius asked.
"Yeah. I heard that he 'collects' promising students." Peter said.
"Don't be stupid," replied Sirius, "if that were the case, he'd have paid more attention to Evans instead of me and Potter."
"Hey! I'm just as promising as Lily Evans!" James replied, his pride wounded slightly. Remus and Sirius laughed, "don't worry James. She's bound to be rubbish at something."
"How much of your essay did you get done in class today?" Lupin asked.
James replied, "finished it."
"What the whole parchment and a half?" Remus was surprised.
"Yep! So did Sirius." James smiled.
When they reached the greenhouses, Professor Sprout was waiting for them. "Hurry up boys!" The other students were waiting inside greenhouse one. "Welcome to your first Herbology lesson. As many of you will already know – as you will have read your text book – Herbology is the study of magical and mundane plants and fungai. In these greenhouses you will learn how to care for and use plants, learning about their magical properties and uses; whether it be in potion making or medicine."
Professor Sprout pulled out her wand, "today we will be studying a very useful magical plant 'Gillyweed'. Please could you get out quills and parchment and pay attention. Sprout pointed her wand at a black board at the very front of the greenhouse, where neat writing began to appear;
Gillyweed is a magical plant native to the Mediterranean Sea. When it is eaten by a witch or wizard, one grows gills and webbing between the fingers and toes. There is some debate among Herbologists as to the duration of the effects of Gillyweed on fresh water versus salt water, bu the effects of Gillyweed in fresh water seem to last about an hour. Gillyweed is said to resemble a bundle of slimy, grey-green rat tails. Discovered by Elladora Ketteridge although Beaumont Marjoribanks was credited with the discovery.
When the first years had put down their quills, having finished copying from the board, Professor Sprout called in another student, "everyone this is one of my Hufflepuff students, Amos Diggory. He is going to demonstrate what Gillyweed does for you. If you would please follow us to the black lake."
Everyone stood up and followed the plump lady out of the door. When they all gathered around the side of the lake, Diggory swallowed the Gillyweed. James and Harry watched as Diggory began to develop gills and webbed feet. Quickly he jumped into the water and began swimming beneath the cool surface of the water. Every once in a while, the students watched as he jumped into the air before diving back into the depths of the icy water. The Ravenclaw and Gryffindor girls stood huddled together, obviously very impressed by the fifth year Hufflepuff prefects swimming. James rolled his eyes, they were practically swooning.
"Class dismissed." Sprout called over the giggling girls.
The four boys made their way to dinner, Frank was walking with Alice. "I don't get why girls like guys like Diggory." James said coolly.
"Er, he's a Quidditch player, amazing seeker. The favourite for next year's Hufflepuff captian. Do you need more?" Lupin replied.
When they reached the Great Hall, they quickly sat down, eating their dinner as quick as they could. "We've got Astronomy tonight, I think I might have a quick nap beforehand." James said.
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." Sirius said as Remus nodded.
The five Gryffindor boys entered the common room at half eleven. They had each napped for several hours. They waited for the girls to come down from their dormitory. They didn't want the girls to be walking around the corridors so late at night, especially since Lily was a muggle-born. It just wasn't safe. When the girls arrived, they seemed shocked that the guys had waited.
"We didn't want to you to walk alone. We are always stronger when we stand united." James said in response to the questioning looks. Most of the girls just looked more confused by Alice nodded, "You sound more like Charlus every day, Jamie." She said ruffling his hair.
Professor Sinistra smiled at her class of first years. "Get out your telescopes, you will observe the nights sky and record your findings. Make sure you annotate your star maps correctly. I will expect a completed, correctly annotated star map in for homework next week."
The first years set to work, placing dots on the map to denote stars and planets. James decided he would annotate his map over the weekend. A few hours later, Sinistra smiled at her students, "time to go to bed. Don't forget to rush back, it is well after hours. Next week, I want to see your final star charts. Good night." The Gryffindors walked back to the Gryffindor tower together. They were exhausted and barely spoke.
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Next chapter...
Thursday lessons... charms... transfiguration... and flying (guess who is going to be top of that class...)
Potter and Snape organise a little after hours meeting...
Some sad news from outside the wizarding community...