I don't have a writing schedule and write when inspiration hits. Wait time between chapters could range from a few days to several months or even over a year. I didn't think this chapter would take me this long. At this moment, I have every intention to complete the story. I don't have a chapter limit in mind yet, but I know roughly where I'm going with it. I also have other stories I've been working on, just as slowly as this one, but haven't posted anything yet. At this stage I don't intend on posting anything for my other stories, one-shots excluded, until I have a fair amount of progress, so there shouldn't be long periods between chapters like this one. I've decided to drop my goal of a minimum of 5000-word chapters, as I'm sure that's affecting my motivation to write more.
I also don't own Harry Potter. Unfortunately.
Breakfast the next day was interesting, to say the least. The breakfast itself wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Becky helped herself to some sausages, eggs, bacon and toast. It was what happened when the owls flooded the hall to deliver the post that made things interesting.
A howler was delivered to the Gryffindor table. It was so loud, it sounded like the sender had found a way to cast a sonorus charm on top of another sonorus charm. Ronald Weasley, the unfortunate recipient of the howler, was getting screamed at for stealing his father's car, of all things.
The rumours floating around said he and Harry Potter had flown the car to school instead of catching the train and this morning's events confirmed those rumours. Why in Merlin's name they would do that was anyone's guess. Becky assumed it was possibly some sort of publicity stunt.
Soon after, Professor Flitwick walked by handing out class schedules. Their first class of the year was Herbology, which would be shared with the Slytherins straight after breakfast. They would also have Charms with the Gryffindors later in the morning and History of Magic with Slytherin in the afternoon. Becky groaned when she saw the class she was least looking forward to would be tomorrow, straight after lunch.
"What's wrong," Zoe asked as she looked up from her schedule, "The schedule isn't that bad, is it? I have an older cousin in secondary school, and from the way he talks about it he has way less free time than this."
There were eight periods for classes a day, and each day they only had three or four classes. It was rather odd for a muggle-born to see such an empty schedule. As far as Zoe knew, her cousin had five classes a day and never had a free period. She couldn't see anything wrong with their schedules. All that free time could be used for self-study, and Hogwarts has a massive library to help with that.
"We have Lockhart tomorrow," Becky groaned again, not even trying to hide her dislike of the pompous idiot.
"Wait. Isn't he supposed to be really good?" Zoe asked. "He's written half of our books for the year. How could it be bad for the author of those books himself to teach us?"
Becky shook her head with a quiet "No," in answer to the first question.
She had decided to read the garbage - she would never consider those things worthy to be called books - that Lockhart had written. She did so for a few reasons, her main one being to find as many inconsistencies as possible because it would be fun to point those out in class.
Becky also noted that if you were to gather all of the relevant information about Defence Against the Dark Arts and put it all together, you would have something about half the size of Gadding with Ghouls, the shortest of the seven wastes of parchment students were required to buy for his class.
Becky told her friends about Mr Naregian and explained how her family had known Lockhart was a fraud ever since he released Wanderings with Werewolves, where he claimed credit for Mr Naregian's achievements. Unfortunately, their friend had no memory of the events, so they couldn't prove it. Becky then added in her more recent findings, as well as her conversation with Professor Flitwick from the night before.
Becky's first interaction with her Slytherin year-mates served only to increase her preference for Ravenclaw. Stella Rosier could not be any more annoying if she tried - and Becky wouldn't be surprised if Stella was indeed trying to be annoying. Despite being in the same year, Stella and her brother Oliver were not twins. She would be twelve next month, while Oliver wouldn't be twelve until next August. By the time they reached the greenhouses, all the Ravenclaw and Slytherin first years were aware of the fact.
"Good morning, class," Professor Sprout greeted the students before leading them into Greenhouse One and taking the register.
The grey-haired Professor had her arms covered in bandages, though didn't seem to care at all about getting them covered in soil.
As it would be unwise to have untrained first years handling anything dangerous, their first class was caring for non-magical plants that were often used by witches and wizards for one purpose or another.
"Professor?" Zoe called and raised her hand to ask a question.
"Yes, Miss...?" Sprout prompted. Names didn't come quickly to her and it would take more than one lesson to memorize all the new students' names.
"Fraiser, ma'am," Zoe continued on to her question after the Professor's nod, "I was wondering if there's any difference between these plants and the plants muggles grow and use?"
"A good question, Miss Fraiser. The only difference is the soil and fertiliser we use have a magical quality to them. However, that difference is important. For example, the enchantments on sweets like Peppermint Toads and Toothflossing Stringmints wouldn't last as long if the peppermint used was grown with muggle soil and fertiliser."
Zoe nodded in understanding. She'd never heard of either of those sweets, but the explanation was good enough. She could ask Becky and Luna about magical confectionery later.
Becky noticed the look of contempt the Rosier girl sent towards her friend upon realising Zoe was a muggle-born. It made Becky dislike the girl even more than her incessant bragging about being older before the lesson began.
Once their Herbology lesson was over, Becky convinced her two friends to explore the castle a little to learn how to get to all their classes and - of equal importance - the library. They invited their other Ravenclaw classmates to join them, though Ralph Jenkins and Thomas Manford were the only two to do so.
Becky learned her idle thoughts about Jenkins during the sorting had been correct. Joey Jenkins - a beater for the Chudley Canons - was Ralph's cousin. Ralph had explained how he felt obligated to support the Cannons because of that, even though the team was infamous for their lack of wins in recent times. Thomas Manford supported Pride of Portree like Becky, and Luna supported the Holyhead Harpies. Zoe had no idea what any of them were talking about and could only contribute to that part of the conversation with questions.
By the time the group arrived at their charms class two hours after Herbology ended, Zoe knew a lot more about quidditch than she had when she woke up that morning. That is to say just the basic rules and some of the professional team names.
"Hey, guys! Have you had any classes yet?" A cheery brunette greeted them outside the classroom.
"Hi, Emma." The Ravenclaws who knew the girl responded and Zoe answered the question. "We had Herbology straight after breakfast, then spent the rest of the morning working out where all our classes are. The library too."
"Lucky. We had History straight after breakfast where most of us fell asleep. Then we had a free period before Transfiguration and now Charms. The Slytherins aren't as bad as I thought they would be. Except for Rosier."
Becky snorted. "Let me guess," she said before doing an overly exaggerated snobby impression of Stella Rosier, "Just so you know, I'm older than my brother by ten months!"
It was nowhere near an accurate impression of the girl, but it was funny enough in the minds of eleven-year-olds to have everyone who heard laughing about it. One of those not laughing was a red-headed Gryffindor girl, who stood quietly trying to work out what she was seeing. Lestrange was joking and laughing with half-bloods and muggle-borns like blood purity meant nothing to her.
Normally, Ginny Weasley may have made a comment. She kept quiet though. A suggestion from her latest friend, Tom, made her decide it would be best to remain as unnoticed as possible. She wouldn't start a fight with Lestrange, but she wouldn't let the girl get away with anything if Lestrange tried to start a fight.
At that moment, the door opened and the class was ushered into the room by Professor Flitwick.
Their first Charms lesson went well. Professor Flitwick taught them one of the most basic yet incredibly useful spells. Technically it was two spells. The first was the wand-lighting charm.
"Lumos. The wand-lighting charm is one of the easiest charms a witch or wizard can learn," Flitwick explained, "As it requires no concentration. As such, it is one of the few charms that does not fade over time and can not be dispelled by simply dropping one's concentration. To end it, the wand-extinguishing charm is required. Nox."
The professor's wand reacted as he spoke the incantations, showing the class an example before he asked them to attempt the charm.
For homework, Professor Flitwick assigned a six-inch essay comparing the wand-lighting charm with lanterns, due at the start of their lesson on Friday. An example of a situation where each would be better than the other was to be included in the essay.
Becky found out that afternoon that History of Magic class really was as boring as she'd been told. Daphne had said so during the Summer and Emma said so just before Charms. Most of the Ravenclaws, Becky included, used the time to read. Most of the Slytherins used the time to sleep, though not before yet another repeated comment from Rosier.
Thursday started off with a class where the professor was quite unpleasant. That was the kindest word to accurately describe the Potions Professor. Professor Snape sported a perpetual sneer and had a tendency to be quite dramatic in his words and actions.
Luna lost house points and received detention for asking about the use of crumple-horned snorkack hairs as a substitute for other hairs in potions. Zoe got herself detention too for questioning why Luna got detention. The two would be spending Saturday evening scrubbing cauldrons clean. Becky wisely kept her mouth shut, ignoring the look Snape gave her that was all but daring her to speak up as well.
Becky wished she'd thought to warn Zoe about what Professor Snape was rumoured to be like, but was surprised Luna hadn't known. Or perhaps Luna had known and chose to goad him anyway.
"So, what was wrong with what Luna asked at the start of class?" Zoe grumbled as they made their way to their common room.
"Some people think the crumple-horned snorkack doesn't exist. I suppose Professor Snape is one of them." Luna stated airily. "A shame, really." She didn't seem to care at all about the points loss or detention.
"It's... yet to be proven without a doubt, but there have been rumoured sightings in northern Europe," Becky added, referencing the many mentions of the creature featured in the Quibber over the years.
She had her own uncertainties about the creature's existence, but after getting to know Luna on the train, she decided she'd be keeping any doubts to herself. The blonde had spoken of many creatures she hoped to one day prove to exist and having someone not immediately express doubt had the girl wearing quite the infectious smile that Becky hoped to see more often. That same smile appeared on Luna's face now, with the reference to her father's tabloid.
The afternoon came much too quickly for Becky's liking. As she entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, Becky immediately noticed the many portraits lining the walls. Far too many copies of Lockhart beamed at the students as they entered the classroom. 'Creepy' was the most accurate word to describe it.
Honestly, she didn't know who was more dramatic between Lockhart and Snape. They had very different ways of acting, but they were still just as bad as each other.
The three Ravenclaw girls went straight to the back of the classroom, where they were joined by Emma and another Gryffindor named Ash. When the last student took their seat, Lockhart began the theatrics. The lesson consisted solely of Lockhart rambling about his many supposed achievements and a quiz that Lockhart claimed was to see how knowledgeable the class was about Defense Against the Dark Arts prior to any teaching, despite all 54 questions being about Lockhart himself.
Not a single student among the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw first years received full marks. Becky intentionally answered half the questions wrong, like answering 'gold' on the question about Lockhart's favourite colour. When it came to the question about Lockharts greatest achievement, Becky very much wanted to write about him successfully fooling the wizarding world into believing he actually did all those things. Self-preservation won out, however, and Becky simply put 'Order of Merlin' as her answer.
Fortunately, there was no repeat of what she'd heard happened in yesterday afternoon's Defence Against the Dark Arts class. Ironically enough, the homework assigned was an essay on why releasing a bunch of Cornish pixies in an enclosed area was a bad idea. There was no specified length for the essay.
The last class of her day was another History of Magic lesson, where she simply zoned the professor out as she started working on the more important pieces of homework she had to complete. Flitwick's essay was completed last night so that left Lockhart's stupid essay and the one Snape wanted. They had to copy down the recipe for the cure for boils they brewed in class and write a short paragraph about each stage of brewing and what could go wrong. That one was the obvious choice to work on.
At the end of the day, Becky firmly believed she would absolutely hate Thursdays this school year. That was before realising they had Astronomy Thursday nights. Becky was thankful that she could sleep in on Fridays.
One of the stupid things about Hogwarts employing only one professor for each subject is the limited teaching time the staff had available. Especially staff teaching the core subjects. With the exception of Astronomy, all first through fifth years core subject classes were split into two houses per class. Sixth and seventh years were placed into one class as fewer students were taking those classes. That meant a professor for a core subject had 12 different class groups to split their time between.
For first-year students who took only core subjects, this meant even though they had each class three times a week - again, with the exception of Astronomy - for every period they had a class in, they had one period free. Flying lessons wouldn't start until the following week. Thanks to this, the first years had almost the entirety of Friday morning in their first week free, with only one class before lunch.
For the Ravenclaws, it would be their second time venturing to the greenhouses for Herbology with Slytherin. They continued caring for non-magical herbs and other small plants often used in the wizarding world. Their first class next week would see them moving onto magical plants that presented no danger. Their homework was to read up on the care and uses of dittany by Tuesday's lesson.
After lunch, they had their first transfiguration class. Becky knew - thanks to Daphne - the cat sitting on the desk was Professor McGonagall. That didn't make it any less startling when she leapt forward and morphed back into human form as the last students entered the room. McGonagall demonstrated some quite impressive transfiguration work before leaving each of the students with a match and instructions on how to turn that match into a needle. By the end of that class, while many had a match that was either pointy or silver in colour, only two students had successfully transfigured their match into a needle. Becky and Zoe each earned Ravenclaw five points.
After another couple of free periods, their final class for the week was Charms again with the Gryffindors. Flitwick collected their homework and then set about teaching the class the colour-changing charm, Colovaria. Homework was simply practising the charm by changing a quill to various colours and being prepared to demonstrate it in their next class.
With the exception of Thursday, Becky thought it was a pretty fun first few days of classes.