Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter NOR any of his friends NEITHER any of his enemies. It's hard to admit, but when I'm done with them all, I have to return them to Joanne K. Rowling in an original wrapping and unharmed. I make no money, I mean no harm.

Patchwork
Feminine Charm

Elizabeth thought she would be the first one to get up that morning - the sun was just peeking above the horizon when she quietly descended the stairs to the common room - but there was someone already sitting before the darkened fireplace. A boy with short sandy hair, pale complexion and abnormally large eyes - his name was Brocks, Elizabeth remembered - was reading a book. The book must have been quite a something, because he didn't realise anyone had entered the room until Elizabeth sat down on the same couch he was sitting on.

"Good morning," Elizabeth said, trying to sound pleasant. She wished she could remember the boy's first name, too, but all that sounded in her head was "Mr. Brocks" in that unpleasant voice Snape used, sounding just like "leave me all alone" would. She had felt sorry for the boy then, and she noticed the book he was holding was their Potions textbook.

"Morning," Brocks mumbled. He sat a little more upright and turned a bit away from her. But Elizabeth felt lonely after the last night, and decided to put away her own book - a detective story - and try to draw Brocks into a conversation.

She could find out what his name was, for one, and tell him her own. No doubt he didn't remember her, either - no-one did.

"I thought you finished your essay yesterday, and it's not even due till Thursday," she said with a nod towards his textbook. It was a wild guess, but she believed Brocks to be an eager student, and she was right.

"I'm just trying to learn a bit about the next lesson in advance. Did you know the essence of belladonna could make some poisons just bothersome, not venomous?" Elizabeth hadn't known it.

"I'd like to know which ones," she said and peeked over Brock's shoulder. She couldn't find anything about belladonna at first - then her eye fell on a small paragraph that mentioned the posibility.

"I'd like to know why," Brocks sighed longingly. "I mean, it's a poison itself," he added and blushed a little.

"It's like in Maths - two negatives make a positive," Elizabeth offered.

"But it doesn't work like that - I mean, not always - it says in chapter thirteen the poisons can be mixed to achieve more complicated poisons."

"I haven't somehow skipped two or three months of school, have I?" Elizabeth blurted out in surprise. "We were on chapter one yesterday. What I mean is, I don't have any presents for Christmas yet - I don't even know how to get any here!" She pulled a face and Brocks burst out laughing.

"Look, let's go to breakfast together," he suggested. "I know it's early, but I still have hard time finding the Great Hall, so unless you have a map of this place, we may be just in time."

"A map! Oh, I'd like to see a map of Hogwarts - that would have to be a magical map, of course, and I doubt it would be easy to use, anyway. The castle seems moving half the time."

"Not completely - I think I found a way of navigation. Just look out of the windows, and when you're against that big building, you're at the right stairs that lead all the way down."

"You sure?"

"Absolutely. And if we still get lost, at least we'll find a fine view!" It was Elizabeth's turn to laugh, and she only stopped giggling to get her schoolbag from the dormitory.

Miraculously, they only took a wrong turn once, and realised it pretty soon, so they were the first ones to reach the Great Hall that morning. The sky was promising a fine day, with a lot of sunshine, and they cheered to their good luck.

"We should go to meals together more often," Brocks said happilly when they sat down at the table they had proclaimed Gryffindor and their plates and goblets filled. "It's been nice, being with you." Elizabeth only nodded, for her mouth was full, but Brocks seemed to miss that.

"Eh... erm... uh..."

"Elizabeth," she made a second wild guess of the day. She was surprised to see it was the right answer again. "My name is Elizabeth."

"I'm Robert," Brocks introduced himself and offered her a hand. "I think I've never spent so much time with anyone without knowing their name," he added shyly and blushed again.

About ten minutes later, the first of professors arrived. It was a tall lady with bright eyes. They both remembered her from the first night, since she was new to the staff. Robert could supply she taught Muggle Studies, and Elizabeth knew her name was Laetitia Malfoy - she remembered the name because she liked it. Professor Malfoy spotted them at once, and greeted them amicably. Before she sat down, she surveyed the room.

"Aren't the two of you Gryffindors?" she called. They confirmed that. "I'm sure the Gryffindor table is the one on the other side. Yes, this is the Slytherin table - you may want to move to your own before the Slytherins come. They can be quite possesive." They both blushed and, mumbling apologies, moved their plates and goblets to their own table.

They made it just in time.

Minerva woke up later that she had planned - had she planned on waking up early? must have, as every morning, only she couldn't remember setting her alarm-clock - and felt better than in months. She had slept peacefully and awoke refreshed, and she didn't want to spoil the beautiful morning with paperwork. At least not before the first period - or at least before breakfast.

The Great Hall was already buzzing with students. Funny thing, that, because there were only a dozen of them, but they managed to make enough noise to wake up a mountain, really. The staff table was occupied only by Tisha and the two women exchanged a few friendly words before concentrating on their respective plates.

Minerva had very vague memories about the last night, about how she had got in bed and when. It troubled her a bit. She didn't usually forget and holes in memory might mean having been hexed. But hexes left a sour trace of something out-of-place for a woman with feline insticts, and she couldn't find anything of the sort on herself. She decided to ask Moody to check her afterwards, anyway. And not trouble herself with nonsenses in the beautiful morning. There.

While the soft breeze never roused Hermione and the first touch of sunshine merely made her turn over, the sound of two boys coming back from the bathroom woke her up. She spent full five minutes sitting on her bed in the dumps, longing for everything lost and gone. But the day didn't turn any worse for her bad mood, and when something heavy hit the door to her dormitory, she decided to check up on the boys.

She chose a wrong moment to join them. The second she opened the door, a jet of cold water hit her in the face.

"Hermione!" two horrified voices chorused and before she could take out her own wand, both Neville and Draco were utilising the best drying charms they knew.

"Now that lady is decent," Draco said finally, "would she care for a breakfast?" Neville turned away, trying to suppress laughter.

"Lady would, only she is not decent," Hermione replied gravely. "I'll just change - we're not late, are we?" she asked, the terrible thought of being late clearly shown in her eyes.

"Hurry up, our first lesson starts at five - that's less than twelve hours from now!" Draco teased and Hermione dearly wished she had something to hit him with.

"Actually, I promised Professor Sprout I'd help her with the afternoon lessons," Neville commented while Hermione was rummaging through her trunk. "Hey, what's at five? I only have Astronomy at nine."

"So have I," Hermione cried from within her room. "But Draco and I also have Potions."

"Ah - I've been meaning to ask... Never mind," Neville mumbled and bit his lower lip.

"All ready?" Hermione asked after reemerging. "I'm starving."

"Lead the way then!"

"Hey, Ginny! Wake up! You'll be late for breakfast!" Ginny held her pillow over her head. She had returned at two in the morning, and although she had slept well, she didn't think she had slept enough yet.

"I'm not hungry - I'll come straight to the lessons," she cried to get rid of her roommates. She was sincerely planning on sleeping through the first period - it was History, anyway, so she would be sleeping anyway - but she was, in fact, hungry and her empty stomach wouldn't let her fall asleep again. She got up ten minutes after the rest of the girls left and grudgingly trotted to the old mirror in the corner of their dormitory. It wasn't a magical one - Ginny's Muggleborn roommate Tina brought it in their third year to "liven up" their room. Right now Ginny was deeply grateful the thing couldn't comment on her appearance, because she had dark bags under the eyes and thin, almost bloodless lips.

She didn't want to go all the way to the bathroom yet, so she took an old basin - another Tina's improvement - and filled it with cold water from the tip of her wand.

And to think she had believed the spell completely useless last year!

The cold water refreshed her and Ginny quickly applied a little make-up. Her mother would be mortified to see her wearing make-up - but her mother was a pureblood witch and couldn't identify a small flask of Muggle origin as something she only knew as a "bottled charm". It was useful to hang out with Muggleborns, Ginny thought.

There. Now she could face a magical mirror. She put the basin back under the table and got dressed - she should really learn to dress first, make herself up later. She managed not to smear the powder everywhere, and happy with the result, she finally remembered why she hadn't slept enough.

The smile that lit her face was the last touch needed. Now she could face a sarcastical magical mirror, and still leave a winner.

She never realised the mirror would have to be an unperceptive one, for the smile may have reached her eyes, but not their depths, and not the deepest corner of her heart.

No matter how pretty the day was, it never seemed so in the dungeon, Snape thought on his way to breakfast, and immeadiately scolded himself. He liked living down there - it kept all sorts of trouble out of his way. Like the tax collector he had once happened to find nearly starved to death far under the Slytherin common room. The poor man had forgotten the fee he had come to collect - good for him, Snape thought and his upper lip curled. Good for him, since the tax for keeping fire beetles had been lifted in the meantime and being made to pay a non-existent tax would have made Snape less than agreeable.

He had got up as usual, but had been kept behind by a pair of quarrelling first-years, who he had to put in detention with Filch, remembering the three extra students he was expecting at five. The prospect of seeing Granger, Longbottom and Malfoy at the same time - let's not forget the Friday lesson - didn't exactly lift Snape's spirit, although he could at least hope they would be respectful and maybe even pay attention.

Who was he kidding? They would be cheeky, as usual, and no doubt Draco had learnt the worst from the two Gryffindors - but they wouldn't be hostile, as some of the older students who hadn't exactly fought in the war were.

Snape dropped into his chair behind the staff table heavily, without uttering a word. He greeted whoever was foolish enough to look at him with a deadly stare and reached for his plate. It filled with his usual breakfast, but his goblet remained empty, and Snape gritted his teeth - the last running joke of Albus Dumbledore, who had asked the house elves not to fill Snape's goblet until he calmed down. He wasn't going to calm down during breakfast, but he couldn't just whisk out a wand at the table. First, it would look bad before the students.

Second, it would offend the house elves, and the blasted creatures would refuse to fill his plate as well.

A rustling of robes reminded him there was another blasted creature sitting next to him. Tisha, who didn't know about Dumbledore's deal with the elves, tipped her own goblet over his, sharing her juice. The movement was so easy and natural it didn't even attract any eyes. Snape stared at his half-full goblet.

How the hell did she notice?

"I am under the impression I offended you last night, though I don't know how," she said after a while. Snape didn't answer and sipped at his juice. "I don't think you're going to tell me," she added in a hinting tone. Snape wasn't, indeed. "It's very hard to be friendly to you, you know. You keep being unfriedly," she continued.

"You can always stop trying," Snape said bitterly.

"I'm very determined."

"You mean stubborn."

"I mean determined," Tisha insisted with a small smile. "I'm sorry if I hurt you. I didn't mean to." Unused to receiving apologies - sincere apologies - Snape didn't know what to answer.

"You really are stubborn," he muttered embarassedly, suddenly grateful Tisha had chosen to lead the conversation while not looking at each other. He didn't have to put up a perfect mask to cover his feelings, and Tisha could rouse the most curious feelings in him.

The blasted creature.

"I hope these two Gryffindors won't get a third one to complete my nightmare," he observed, eyes fixed upon Brocks and Jorkins who were chattering away at the further end of the Gryffindor table.

"Which ones? Oh. They were the first ones to be there, even before me. Do you think they got lost in the evening and just managed to return here before dawning?" Tisha fantasised.

"Of course not. They have both too clean and tidy robes for that." Tisha sat back in her chair and looked at him reproachfully.

"What kind of jokes do you like?" she asked in an accusing voice. Snape smiled - and if any of the school gossips could see the smile, they would have a topic for a month. Luckily for all the gabs and jibes of the school, Snape hid his face behind his goblet before he managed to get his expression under control.

"Those no-one else understands," he replied and drained his goblet. Tisha shook her head, but felt as if she had just passed an extremely difficult test.

When Snape put the goblet back on the table, it refilled immediately.

A/N: I made up the belladonna part. But as for any possible outright mistakes, remember they're only first years and it's their first week at Hogwarts! ;)
If you like this one, please review. If you dislike it, review anyway. Please.