Hello. So this chapter is literally just Chris' first day, I was going to try and do an overview of the week or something, but I couldn't break away. Any way, hope you like it and please review!
On Sunday, the group had been moved to their more permanent accommodation on the seventh floor. The space was very impressive, and unexpected as Chris could have sworn the door hadn't been their when they had been exploring yesterday. Unfortunately their new accommodation had thrown Chris's navigation ability into disarray, so on Monday as Wyatt and Callum followed Professor Lawrence and the rest of their year to the classroom they would be using, Chris was left to wonder the corridors alone until he eventually located the transfiguration classroom.
"Sorry I'm late." He mumbled as he slipped into a seat at the back of the room, swiftly taking out the books, parchment and quill which had been provided to all of the visiting students.
"Ahh, you must be Mr Halliwell." Observed the fierce looking Witch Chris recognised from the banquet, "I have been informed that you are one of the brightest witches in your year, so your tardiness may be excused if you can tell the class the correct spell which would transform an animal into a water goblet.
Chris' mind raced. He had spent the whole summer reading the text books to get himself caught up, and he remembered reading the spell in one of the first books he had read. Two rows in front of him, Chris spotted Hermione's hand had shot up into the air which made it even harder for him to concentrate. Swallowing he guessed the only spell he thought it could be. "Vera Verto?" He motioned cautiously, looking up at the fierce professor. A small smile flickered in the corner of her mouth as she gave him a curt nod before turning back to the rest of the class.
"As I was saying," She continued, "This week we will be continuing our work on switching spells. Miss Granger still remains the only student whom I would trust to go anywhere near my owl whilst holding her wand, and until the rest of you reach her level, we are unable to move on to the more interesting subject of Cross-Species Switches. As we are behind, therefore, I will be setting a two page essay on the dangers of Cross-Species Spells to be handed in of Friday." She announced over the moan of the class, "Anyone who fails to complete this assignment may write it in detention." A second groan rose from the class, which Chris shared in. "Now, for today's lesson..." Professor McGonagall waved her wand and before each of them appeared a white rabbit. "...we will be practising turning these rabbits into slippers, now can anybody tell me the spell to use?"
Hermione's hand was up before McGonagall had even finished, but as she glanced around the room, Chris found his own hand rising, albeit far more hesitantly than Hermione's. McGonagall, looking impressed, turned to Chris who, slightly to his own surprise gave the right answer, warranting her to award five points to Gryffindor, the house he was representing. Chris was feeling rather proud of himself therefore, until she requested he demonstrated it to the class.
Nervously, Chris pulled out the wand he had been given from his bag. Magic school had a collection of wands which some students used instead of their powers, and he had been presented with one of those before they had departed Magic School. Chris held the stick awkwardly in his hand, having no real idea of the correct way to use one, but feeling every eye in the room on him, he hurriedly waved the wand, repeating the spell perfectly as he did so. Nothing happened. Ignoring the enthusiastic hand of Hermione who now seemed eager to demonstrate the correct way to cast the spell, he glanced up apologetically to McGonagall.
Sighing at his wand work, she shook her head, "Mr Halliwell, have you ever used a wand before?" She asked, meaning it to be a rhetorical comment of his spell casting, and not at all expecting his answer.
"No Professor." He admitted honestly, trying to ignore the sniggering from the rest of the class. McGonagall turned around and stared at him in horror and confusion.
"What, never?" She asked in disbelief. Chris shook his head, uncertain why it was such a shocking thing. In front the rest of the class were muttering to each other, but as Chris glanced around, he saw Hermione was ignoring the boy he recognised as Harry Potter, and was staring straight at him, an encouraging smile on her face. "But if you've never used a wand, then how are you so skilled in magic?" Questioned McGonagall, pulling Chris' gaze back to her.
"Well, at home, we tend you use a mixture of powers, potions and rhymes if we want to do magic." He explained, having never really realised there was another way to use it. McGonagall frowned, having always looked down on witches that chose to use long and complicated rhymes instead of short concise spells and wands.
"What do you mean by powers?" She asked curiously, "Surely your power comes from your potions and-" She coughed slightly in distain, "-ryhmes."
"Well..." Said Chris, guessing telekinesis and orbing were not the norm in this school, "Some witches don't need to use spells to do everything." He explained slowly, not sure how to explain, "My mum can freeze things and explode things with a flick of her fingers, and I can move things without touching them." He told the class, feeling rather stupid under all the mocking looks he was receiving.
"I see, and would you care to demonstrate this power?" Requested McGonagall, momentarily distracted from the lesson she was supposed to be teaching. Chris shrugged, but obliged, raising his arm, and telekinetically lifting his teachers desk, with the other hand he made all of the quills on the students desk rise into the air as well, circling and dancing in the air, much to the awe of the other students who never imagined such an act was possible without a wand. "Very impressive, Mr Halliwell." Congratulated Professor McGonagall once all of the equipment had been returned, "However, I can't help but notice that your rabbit remains unchanged, and therefore if you wish to continue in this class, might I recommend you seek another students help." She glanced around the room quickly, noticing how the attitude of all the students towards Chris had suddenly changed from mirth to admiration. "It would seem you have the pick of the class." She observed, before returning to the matter in hand, and instructing Hermione to demonstrate the correct way to transfigure the bunny.
By the end of the lesson, Chris had still progressed no further in his wand work, and despite the enthusiastic offers of help from the rest of the class, he remained the only student to have made no change to his rabbit. That wasn't necessarily to say that he performed the worst in the class, however, an Irish boy in the row in front had somehow managed to make his rabbit disappear completely, whilst a particularly round boy handed back to McGonagall a slightly smouldering mouse.
As they were filing out, Chris decided that his best bet at mastering the art of the wand would be by persuading Hermione to help him, so he dawdled until she, and Harry were the last ones in the classroom, before slightly apprehensively approaching her.
"Hey." He greeted slightly nervously as she looked up. She gave him a warm smile as the three of them started to walk out of the room together. A couple of girls were waiting around for Chris, enthusiastically offering to help him find is next class, but Chris just ignored them. "Look, I saw how impressive you are at this whole wand thing, and I was wondering if you might give me a hand." He asked her lamely, rubbing his neck as he talked.
Hermione smiled and nodded her head, "Professor McGonagall already asked if I wouldn't mind." She admitted to him. "She recons you've got great potential if you'd only stop waving your wand around like it's on fire." The pair of them laughed at Chris hopelessness, before agreeing that they would go to the library at lunch to practise.
The next lesson was care of Magical creatures, which Chris found to be the strangest lesson he had ever had. The teacher was an absolute giant, and he was getting them to attempt to attach rather flimsy looking leads to some of the most frightening monsters he had ever seen. The 'Skrewts' as the Hagrid called them were about four foot long, smelled of off-fish and looked rather like giant grey deformed lobsters. The students all put on gloves and attempted to attach the lead to their assigned monster. Harry was talking to Hagrid, so he and Hermione teamed up with her ginger friend, who Chris discovered to be called Ron.
Even after putting on the lead, which was no mean feat, the Skrewts were impossible to control and even with all three of them pulling, the monster easily had control, and to make matters worse, occasionally it's end would explode, propelling the group forward unexpectedly, leaving to fall in a pile behind them.
Eventually they gave up; they fixed the lead to one of the fence posts near Hagrid's pumpkin patch, and sat down together nearby. "Look at them." Mutter Ron disdainfully, looking over to where Harry and Hagrid were standing talking, "He always gets the special treatment doesn't he." Hermione groaned making Chris suspect this was not the first time Ron had mentioned this views, while he decided the best thing to do was not reply. "I mean, just because he's the chosen one, or whatever, it's like everything happens to him, and we're just left to tag along." Hermione shook her head, glaring at her ginger friend.
"It's hardly his fault." She defended, knowing how miserable Harry was about the whole situation, "I mean, you can't seriously think he put his name in there can you?" She pointed out, "and besides it's usually just as much your fault, remember in our first year when we met fluffy- a giant three headed dog." She explained for Chris' benefit, "Whose fault was it that we saw that stupid trap door." She asked, remembering how it had been Ron who had encouraged Harry to engage Malfoy in a duel when Harry had no idea what either of them were talking about.
"It was that git Malfoy's." Objected Ron, pointing over to a blonde haired Slytherin boy who was angrily instructing to significantly larger boys to keep the Skrewt away from him. "And besides, it was him who suggested we go down there." He pointed out. Hermione groaned, hating being caught in the middle of this conflict.
"Look, you know he has a tendency to attract danger, but when that happens, I thought you were always the one to back him up." She implored. Ron just shrugged and turned away. This time, he felt, it was too much, he had been looking forward to watching the tournament with his best friend, and now once again, Harry had to do one better.
"Nobody from my school thinks he did it." stated Chris, deciding to back a desperate looking Hermione, "They all feel really sorry for him, and are trying to find ways for Wyatt to help him you know..." He broke off; remembering the groups determined aim, "...well to not die." He ended lately. Before the group had left, they had decided to investigate previous tournaments, discovering the dangers and deaths that had been in previous games. Most of them agreed the age limit should be in place- although as everyone from the group already believed Wyatt would be selected, none of the younger boys were likely to have entered even if the limit had have been lowered. Hermione gave him an appreciative smile, both for supporting her against Ron, and for what his school were doing.
Ron however didn't care, and simply used it as another piece of evidence of how everyone pays more notice to Harry then they did for anyone else. He didn't speak much after that, leaving the pair of them alone and going to talk to the Irish boy instead.
The pair of them remained sat next to each other for the remainder of the lesson, unable to not laugh at their class mates attempting to restrain their Skrewt. Their own 'little' monster seemed oddly content by Pumpkin patch, and although a few times, it's back end exploded, jetting him forward a couple of paces and at one point setting fire to the post, the pair didn't have to go chasing after it, as it just stayed their contentedly, apparently soothed by the pumpkins. Unfortunately that Skrewt was attacked by its fellows later that week and was killed, but for that one lesson, they didn't have to worry.
Next they had break, but as they had Herbology after that, Harry, who had re-joined them suggested that they stayed outside, so three of them attempted to help Hagrid get all of the Skrewts back into their boxes, before eventually giving up and went strolling through the grounds instead.
Chris greatly enjoyed both Harry and Hermione's company, and the pair of them told him stories of their previous adventures at the school, including a time where a giant snake was attacking all the students in the school who didn't come from magic families- or muggle borns as they called them and the events of the previous year when they had used time travel to save Buckbeak. Harry and Hermione had decided to keep secret the part about also rescuing an escaped criminal, not wanting to risk Chris taking it the wrong way.
Herbology was significantly more successful than transfiguration, and Chris enjoyed seeing first hand all of the plants he had read about over the summer. He couldn't help but notice, that some of the other students were being particularly hostile towards Harry, and guessed this was because of the events of Halloween. A part of Chris wanted to leap in and defend Harry, to force the other students to see how it wasn't the boy's fault, but he guessed this would do little to help, apart from alienate himself from the group. The Hufflepuffs were also accompanied by two students from Magic school, Holly and Juliet informed Chris about their dismal Charms lesson. Neither of them had ever used a wand either and had no idea about many of the spells. Professor Flitwick had given them extra work and practise to do that evening, and Chris had a feeling they were not enjoying the experience as much as him.
As promised, Hermione took Chris up to the library once they finished lunch, and together they worked on basic spells. Hermione started with a simple levitation charm, and was very impressed with Chris's work, until she realised he was just using his telekinesis to lift the book and so she switched to transfiguration instead.
"You're still swishing it wrong." She criticised after a good twenty minutes of Chris trying to change a matchbox into a pin. Despite all of his efforts, Chris was struggling to force his power down the wand, and no matter what Hermione suggested, nothing seemed to work. "Look, let me show you." She said, but instead of getting out her own wand, she wrapped her and helped him with the movement by gently moving his arm. "See?" She asked, looking up into his deep jade eyes. Chris smiled slightly and nodded his thoughts no longer on the matchbox before him.
The moment was broken, however, by someone clearing their throat behind them. Looking around, Chris saw the round face boy standing over them, looking slightly embarrassed. "Sorry." He apologised awkwardly, "It's just it's almost time for potions, and I wasn't sure if you were coming or..."
"Oh yes. Thank you Neville" Replied Hermione quickly, her face slightly red as she jumped up and started to pack away her things. Slightly disappointed, Chris followed her lead, and they proceeded down to the cold dungeons for double potions. "You know." Considered Hermione as they walked, "It might not be entirely your fault. You said you were just given a random wand, and well, that's not how it works. The wand chooses the witch." She quoted, remembering her first visit to Olivander's, "If you're ever in London, you should get your parents to get you a new wand from Diagon Ally." She told him, just as they reached the crowd of students filing into the classroom.
Potions was by far Chris' favourite lesson. All of the potions and ingredients Piper had taught him when he had been growing up were just as important in Britain, and it seemed to be the once lass where his previous education actually surpassed the Hogwarts students. He was able to answer just as many questions as Hermione, much to the disappointment of the greasy haired Professor Snape, and even corrected the answer given by the blonde haired boy he had seen in Care of Magical Creatures, which made him clearly furious. Usually Chris would feel guilty about upsetting someone he barely knew, but in this case for some reason Chris felt actual satisfaction, and he suspected that had something to do with the cruel comments Malfoy had been throwing at Harry and Hermione all day.
As they left, many of the Gryffindors patted him on the back or congratulated him and the Irish boy, Seamus Finnegan informed him it was the first time any of the group could remember that the Gryffindors had emerged with more points than they came in with.
At dinner, Chris sat with his new friends, who now seemed very eager to hear what Magic School was like. Although he couldn't think of that many exciting stories to tell that hadn't been told to him by his aunts, for some reason the small group seemed to hang on his every word, apparently finding his life the height of fascination.
By the end of the meal, Chris was in very high spirits, and had just been invited up to Gryffindor tower by the group, when the figure of the sneering Draco Malfoy blocked their path. "I just though you should know Potter." He smirked, "my father and I have a bet on how badly you'll be injured." Harry tried to ignore him and push past, but Draco's crony's blocked his way. "I told him you'll be paralysed in the hospital wing before the end of the first challenge, but he disagreed." He grinned, looking around at the rest of his friends who all gave sinister chuckles, "He reckons you'll be dead before they can get you on a stretcher."
Hermione hissed at Harry to ignore them, while Seamus, Dean and Neville tried to clear a path for Harry, with no success. Chris, however, took a step towards the Slytherins, wearing the cold expressionless face he reserved only for demons.
"At least he'd have the guts to face the challenge." He taunted, drawing all eyes to him, "I'm guessing if you're name had have been drawn from the Goblet, you'd have insisted on using your 'friends' here as human shields." He accused, making Malfoy glare up at him, with a particularly foul expression, as the Gryffindors around him snickered at Chris' words.
"What would you know about it?" Malfoy snapped back, "I heard you're such a pathetic wizard, you've never even used a wand before today." He sneered, relishing in the Slytherins jeers at Chris.
"And yet somehow I still beat you in potions today." Chris reminded him coolly, a small smirk appearing on his face. "How embarrassing that must be for you, to be worse at a subject than 'such a pathetic wizard'. Still..." He continued in mock compassion, "at least that's not your best subject." Malfoys face flickered at those words, clearly telling Chris Malfoy did indeed view potions as his best subject. "Oh dear. How embarrassing for..." Chris didn't get a chance to finish, however, as the Slytherins, who had clearly decided the verbal battle was lost, chose to resort to violence, and Chris suddenly felt two hands seize his shirt and pull him towards the green crowd.
Chris was not at all fazed by this, having dealt with enough demon attacks to know how to deal with a couple of bullies. Before he had had a chance to react, however, the hands suddenly let go, and Chris heard his brother's familiar tones ring out.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Sneered Wyatt to the boy who had been holding Chris. Next to him, Callum was holding back the other Slytherins simply with a glare, clearly none of them wanted to deal with the Champion of a different school.
"Wyatt, leave it." Hissed Chris, hating Wyatt's over protective need to involve himself in any of Chris' disputes. Wyatt ignored him, however, and turned instead to Malfoy, whom he correctly assumed to be the leader.
"You." Growled Wyatt, "Do you think it's amusing to pick on my little brother?" He asked. Chris groaned as Wyatt successfully undid all of Chris' successful work of proving to the Slytherins that he was not to be messed with, now Wyatt had made him the laughing stock that needed his big brother to rescue him. Draco shook his head quickly, but couldn't resist flashing a satisfied smirk in Chris' direction. Unfortunately for Malfoy, Wyatt saw this and went straight for the throat, using his telekinesis to throttle the unpleasant boy, without anyone seeing.
"Wyatt, stop it!" Insisted Chris a little more forcefully, now actively attempting to force his brother away. Even Callum thought Wyatt's actions were a tad extreme, and he too attempted to loosen Wyatt's tight fist. "Wyatt!" Cried Chris again, losing his temper slightly, and using his own telekinesis to push Wyatt back, breaking his concentration for long enough to give the Slytherins the chance to escape. "What's the matter with you?" He asked, signalling to his friends that they should go on without him. Much to his delight however, Hermione elected to stay. Wyatt shrugged, taking a seat at the table and sizing the nearest plate of food.
"He's not having the best of times with wands." Explained Callum, taking a seat beside his still fuming friend, "I've been trying to help him all afternoon, but it turns out for you active power boys, the little sticks you so enjoy mocking us 'lesser' witches for, are actually pretty difficult to master." Chris did not miss the slight hint of satisfaction in the half manticore's voice.
"Wait you use a wand as well?" Questioned Hermione, who had assumed all the American witches, had no need for wands. Callum nodded, now tucking into the food himself, while Wyatt, who seemed to have calmed down slightly now he had food, elected to explain.
"Oh yeah." He stated, relishing in the chance to mock Callum in the same way Callum had been ridiculing him that day, "Callum here isn't what most people would consider a standard student." He laughed, "I mean if it weren't for the whole tongue thing, he'd have probably gone to a normal mortal school." He informed her, choosing to miss out the fact that more than half the students in their school used wands.
"Tongue thing?" Questioned Hermione curiously. With a small grin, Callum shot out his long forked tongue, expertly picking up a grape from his plate, before returning it to his mouth. Hermione gaped at the boy for a minute before smiling slightly. "Yeah, I see that being a problem." She agreed.
Chris and Hermione stayed in the Hall for another ten minutes, as Wyatt filled them in on their day of desperately trying to make his wand do what he wanted it to do- much to the amusement of Callum and Hermione who couldn't understand why it was so difficult. After that, Hermione decided to show Chris the Gryffindor common room, which was far more impressive than the one they were staying in. It was warm and cosy, and filled with comfy armchairs and heated by a roaring fire.
The pair of them joined the group of fourth years who were sat in the best chairs by the fire, playing a game of exploding snap. Chris had never played any wizard games, but was quickly, and enthusiastically, taught the rules of not only exploding snap, but by the end of the night he also learnt the rules of wizard chess, and even beet Lavender Brown, the common room champion of Gobstones at her own game.
Chris left the common room at half ten, but only arrived back in his own dormitory at eleven fifteen, having got lost in the corridors, which all seemed so different at night. Most of the group had gone to bed, but Wyatt had waited up for him, partly to make sure he returned safely, but mostly because he felt the need to apologise for his behaviour. Begrudgingly, Chris forgave him, although he was looking forwards to the next potions lesson significantly less.
So in the next chapter, I am either going to do another chapter about the boys time at Hogwarts- including a trip to Hogsmede, or I will write the first task then write about Hogsmede later. I can't quite decide, as I want to send Chris ad Hermione on a date, but Harry and Hermione go and see Sirius on that trip to Hogsmede so I'll probably save a detailed account of the village for later.
Any way, thanks for reading, and please do review!