Disclaimer: I don't own HP, I only own Evan and Iris Potter.
21-4-2023
Read, review and enjoy!
Entry 3:
September 6th
Dear Aimee,
Professor Snape HATES me! I can't believe-why would he-I didn't ask-
Okay, okay. Let me start over.
Classes have been okay, so far. It's a bit tough, much more intensive than the lessons Mum and Dad taught me at home, but it's alright. It's a bit frustrating that Ron won't stop moaning whenever I try and do my homework though. He always wants to put it off until last minute, that's becoming pretty clear already, but Mum and Dad have always browbeat into me to start assignments as soon as possible so they don't pile up on top of each other. I want to do well. I want to make Mum and Dad and Iris proud of me.
I want to make you proud of me.
Anyway, I'm doing okay with the practical work, even if the theory is a bit difficult. I'm not the best though, that's for sure. Aludra is definitely the best in both theory and practical in our House and year group, maybe even the best in the year judging by the classes we've had with the other Houses. She gets the spell right on practically her first try every time. I guess we won't know the rankings for sure for a while yet, all of that notwithstanding. It's only the first week, after all. Transfiguration is really easy though. I was the third to change my matchstick into a needle. Susan and Aludra both managed it at roughly the same time.
I swear Ron scowled when I did it, but maybe I was just imagining things. Or maybe he was just frustrated. He's still hadn't managed to do by the end of the period and got extra homework from McGonagall because of it. He wasn't the only one, but he was still annoyed that it meant less time for chess. He loves playing chess.
Anyway, I'm okay at Herbology and Astronomy, and Muggle Studies is really easy, seeing as Mum has always been careful to make sure Iris and I can blend into the Muggle world and because it was the only place we could go out in public without being mobbed. DADA is pretty disappointing. Quirrell, our teacher, has this terrible stutter that makes it impossible to understand what he's saying, and the smell of garlic makes it hard to concentrate and gave me an awful headache. It's pretty disappointing, because I was really looking forward to DADA. I know how important it is for me to be good at Defence, in case Voldemort ever comes back. I have to be prepared, and I definitely won't be with Quirrell as my teacher.
Oh! Professor McGonagall is our Transfiguration teacher, as well as Deputy Headmistress and Head of Gryffindor House. She doesn't favour us at all though. She's also Aludra's adoptive grandmother, apparently, and the Headmaster is her grandfather. That's why Aludra knows the castle so well already. She's been coming here for years to visit them. Ron thinks Aludra has it easy because of that, but honestly McGonagall seems to be even tougher on her than the rest of us.
Professor Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw, teaches Charms of course, but I knew him already before coming here. He was Mum's Master during her Charms apprenticeship, and still comes to the Manor for tea every Sunday. I like him a lot, and he's really helpful to everyone. Plus he explains everything really clearly, and doesn't act condescending when he does so.
Professor Sprout is Head of Hufflepuff and teaches Herbology. She's pretty nice, but the topic is kind of boring. Neville Longbottom is definitely going to be top of the class in that subject. He seems more confident just by stepping into a greenhouse.
History of Magic is taught by a woman named Ursula Burke. She's very strict, but she lectures like she's telling a story, and makes it really interesting to listen to. Well. I found it interesting. Ron moaned for ages after class about how dull it was and how, when his brothers Bill and Charlie first started, it was taught by a really boring and inattentive ghost and you could spend the period having a nap or catching up on homework. Professor Burke definitely wouldn't let anyone get away with that.
Professor Sinistra teaches Astronomy and Professor Burbage teaches Muggle Studies. They're both pretty easy going and nice, and the classes are definitely going to be easy to follow. Ron claimed he knew a lot about muggles already because his dad is head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office, but I can tell he really doesn't because he kept mispronouncing different words and not knowing what things Burbage showed us did. I didn't say anything, though, because I didn't want to upset him. He's my first friend. My only friend, really. Seamus and Dean have bonded, and the girls are all split into pairs. And Neville hangs out with Aludra and Susan all the time, and Aludra generally ignores my existence. Everyone else just points and stares and whispers about me.
I hope it stops soon. Ron says it will once everyone gets used to me being around.
Anyway, back to what happened today. We had our first Potions class, with Professor Snape, Head of Slytherin. Ron said beforehand that his brothers told him that Snape hates Gryffindors and favours the Slytherins a lot, but he seems to really hate me. First, he singled me out and called me the 'new celebrity' during roll call. I mean, all the teachers except McGonagall have reacted to my name, but the way he sneered at me was really intimidating. It was like he hates me. No, I'm sure he hates me. What did I do? Is it just because I'm famous? Like I want to be a celebrity because of the event that killed my grandparents and doomed my twin sister to a slow death.
He asked me a bunch of questions that I couldn't answer and basically made fun of me for not knowing them. But here's the thing. Aludra told me afterwards that the questions were from 2nd and 3rd year! It was our first class EVER! And he was asking me questions that he KNEW I couldn't answer, clearly just to humiliate me!
And Aludra said something about him taking his resentment at Dad out on me? Why does Snape hate Dad? And how come Aludra Black knows about it and I don't? If Dad and Snape didn't get along in school, (Snape looks about Dad's age, though Dad tends to look older than he is. Has ever since losing you) why wouldn't Dad and Mum warn me? Maybe I should do what Aludra suggested and ask Mum and Dad to file a complaint, but on the other hand, I'm Heir Potter and the Boy-Who-Lived! What would people think of a hero who can't handle a bitter bully of a professor?
I wish I didn't have to worry about stuff like that, but as Mum and Dad say, I'm never going to get rid of my fame, so I ought to put it to good use instead.
Maybe I should ask Aludra for help with Potions. She was the only one in class to make a perfect potion, and she was giving Neville tips at the same time. On the other hand, she doesn't seem to like me, so maybe she'll refuse. Maybe I should send a letter to Mum and Dad, just telling them about Snape and asking for advice on what to do.
I bet you'd know what I should do. You were always so much wiser than I was, even when we were toddlers.
I wish you were here to help me.
All my love,
Evan
Entry 4:
31st October, 1991
Dear Aimee,
I can't believe Ron could be so cruel! I know he dislikes Aludra for some reason, and he's been making comments about her and her family since the start of term, but this time he actually made her lock herself in one of the bathrooms to cry! All she was doing was trying to help and he lashed out at her for no reason! He said that her birth parents were right to abandon her and he'd have done the same thing in their position. She ran off in tears. I was so horrified that I didn't say anything and I'm very disappointed in myself.
I know you must be too, and the rest of the family will feel the same way if they find out. Mum and Dad taught Iris and I to stand up for what we believe in, even if it means speaking out friends. If they don't accept your opinion when it differs from theirs, then they're not real friends and not worth it anyway.
At least Susan and Neville weren't tongue-tied. I've never seen either of them act like that. They've always been kind and polite, if a little aloof towards me and Ron. Right then, though, they were furious. They yelled at him, and the rest of the Gryffindors supported them. Neville told his brothers what he said, and Percy sent the twins to help Neville and Susan and Cedric Diggory from Hufflepuff find her while he scolded Ron for being such a prat. He lost points for bullying and Percy said he'd be writing to their grandfather, who's Head of House Weasley, about Ron's attitude towards the Heiress Black. If Lord Weasley is angry enough at the insult to their liege lord's daughter (it turns out that House Weasley are vassals of House Black due to Cedrella Weasley's marriage to Lord Weasley, which is why Aludra's father is paying for Ron and his siblings to attend Hogwarts. Without Lord Black, they probably wouldn't be able to afford the tuition, and definitely wouldn't be able to pay for their robes and books and stuff), he might even pull Ron out of school. I hope that doesn't happen. I know he's been cruel to Aludra, but he's my only friend.
I wonder what you'd think of this. I bet you'd be on Aludra's side. After all, her father is paying for Ron and his siblings to attend Hogwarts (and boy does Ron hate that he has to maintain an E average in at least half of his classes to keep attending). What does he do in return? Drives Aludra, who definitely seems pretty tough, to tears with his comments about her and her family. I know he's in the wrong, but I don't want to be on my own until Iris comes to school when I'm in third year.
Anyway, that's not the worst part. Someone let a troll into the school! That's right, an actual twelve-foot-tall mountain troll! We were in the middle of the Feast, Percy was lecturing Ron on not being a git (although according to Ron Percy is quite the git himself. I don't really know. I haven't talked to Percy much and he's been nice enough. On the other hand, Ron would know him better seeing as they're brothers and everything.) when Professor Quirrell came running in screaming that a troll was in the dungeons. Then our valiant Defence Against the Dark Arts professor keeled over in a faint. Dumbledore sent us all to our common rooms while the professors went to find the troll, and then Lavender ran up to Professor McGonagall to tell her that Aludra, Susan and Neville weren't at the Feast. I've never seen her so pale. She was running out of the Hall before anyone could tell her about the Weasley twins and Cedric Diggory not being there either.
Just to make matters worse, it turns out that the troll had left the dungeons by the time the teachers got there, and had found the six of them! Thank Lady Magic, they weren't hurt. Diggory disarmed it and Aludra knocked it out with the levitation spell. But they nearly died. Professor McGonagall was furious with Ron. She yelled at him in front of the entire Gryffindor Common Room about how he'd nearly gotten six people killed with his stupid, cruel words. That's her exact phrasing.
Ron was really shaken up. He was stark white and shaking when he heard what happened and didn't even complain that he lost ten points and got a week of detention with Filch for bullying another student. After she left and we went upstairs to our room he actually threw up in the bathroom. He kept saying "they nearly died and it's all my fault". It's after hitting him real hard. I hope that means he regrets what he said. He seems to. We're going to apologize to them tomorrow. Ron's going to apologize for being a git, and I'm going to apologize for not standing up to him and defending her. I owe Aludra that much at least. Maybe we can be friends with Aludra, Neville and Susan now, but I wouldn't blame them if they just ignored us.
I wish you were here.
All my love,
Evan