Chapter Two
Poltergeist Pandemonium
On the journey northwards, several people popped in to the compartment Mia was sharing with her friends. Around lunchtime, Hugo's girlfriend Rachel showed up and so Mia moved back to sit with Lily and Mac, who were making badges. Last summer Mac had acquired a Muggle badge maker, which he'd altered to run on magic rather than batteries.
As it started to get dark outside, everyone began to gather up their belongings and get ready to leave the train. On the platform, they met up with Emma, Matilda, JJ and Archie, the second year quartet. They insisted on following the fourth years and Mac into a Thestral-drawn carriage, making it quite a squash.
"What do we learn this year?" Matilda was asking. "I can't wait to start trying out third year subjects – I want to do Care of Magical Creatures. All. The. Time."
"You only get to do it every other week," Lily told her.
"Don't you think they might let me do it instead of another subject since I've already decided to take it?" Matilda asked.
"No, I don't," Lily said shortly.
"But I bet if you asked Hagrid, he might let you hang out with him out of class some time," Mia told her.
"Yay!" Matilda said. "So, who wants to go watch the sunrise tomorrow?"
"No one," Louis said. "Don't you like to sleep, Matilda?"
"Sometimes," Matilda shrugged. "But you can sleep any time – the sunrise only happens at sunrise."
"You can't sleep in class..." Ailie reasoned.
"Anyone gonna get out?" Hugo asked; whilst they were talking the carriage had stopped and Hugo and Rachel had already got out.
Mia walked up to the castle with Lily. A feeling of coming home was in the air as all the students gathered for another year of magical education. Louis and Ailie were slightly behind Mia as they entered the Entrance Hall. Louis had his arm, which seemed to be disproportionately long for his body at the moment, draped around Ailie's shoulders and they were somehow managing to kiss whilst walking along.
"Public displays of affection! Public displays of affection!"
Mia looked up to see Peeves floating overhead.
"You kiddies need to cool off!" he chortled, launching a water balloon down at Louis and Ailie. It missed and instead landed on the floor between them and Mia, burst, and liberally splashed about a dozen people who were in the firing line, Mia included. As the contents of Peeves' balloon splashed Mia, she quickly became aware that it wasn't just water; her cheek was rapidly going numb where the potion had hit her and there were frozen icy spots on her robes.
There were several minutes of chaos as people tried to get away from the potion, panicking as their faces and hands went numb. Then the voice of the Muggle Studies teacher, Professor Reuben, boomed out, magically magnified.
"If you haven't been hit by Peeves' potion, please proceed into the Great Hall," she said. "If you have been hit, follow me and Professor Cooke."
Mia, Lily, Louis and Ailie, along with around a dozen other students, followed Professors Cooke and Reuben into a disused ground floor classroom.
"It's not going to kill you," Professor Reuben said unsympathetically to a second year girl who was shrieking.
"It's just a freezing potion," Professor Cooke said, rather more kindly. "It'll only take me a few minutes to get the antidote. You'll all be right as rain in time for the Feast, although I rather think you'll miss the Sorting."
At this, the second year girl howled even louder. "But I wanted to see my cousin sorted," she sobbed.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Your cousin didn't get to see you sorted and I bet they're not wailing about it," she said, not quite loud enough for the girl to hear – at least not over her sobs.
"You mean watching me get sorted wasn't the highlight of your life, cuz?" Louis asked, grinning.
Lily elbowed Louis. Louis elbowed her back.
"Stop it, you two," Professor Reuben said.
"Hey Louis, I wonder what it'd be like to kiss with frozen lips?" Ailie said, with some difficulty. She'd clearly borne the brunt of the potion and her entire face was frozen.
A few minutes later, Professor Cooke returned with a large basin of potion which she and Professor Reuben proceeded to soak sponges in and then daub on people's frozen faces and hands.
"D'you think we could catch the end of the Sorting?" Lily asked Professor Cooke as the two teachers lead the students back toward the Great Hall.
Professor Cooke shook her head. "It would be rude to barge in right in the middle of the Sorting," she explained. "We'll have to wait out here until it's finished."
Whilst they waited, Louis and Ailie resumed their public displays of affection. Lily stood with her ear up against the doors into the Great Hall, straining to hear the Sorting. Mia wandered around aimlessly for a while, until a boy came up to her.
"Hi, it's Mia, right?" he asked. Mia nodded and he continued, "I'm Reuben Goldstein. I'm thinking of trying out for Chaser now that Potter and Weasley have finally left."
"You tried out last year, didn't you?" Mia asked. She vaguely recognised him – not just from seeing him around the school but as one of the prospective Chasers who'd been narrowly defeated by Lily.
"Yeah," Reuben nodded. "I guess it just wasn't my year but hopefully this one is. I'll see you at tryouts, then."
When Professor Reuben finally let them go into the Great Hall, it was clear that the Feast had just started. Lily and Mia walked down the aisle between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables to where Emma and Matilda had saved them seats.
"What happened?" Matilda asked as they sat down. "Why are you so late?"
"Peeves hit us with a water balloon which had a freezing potion in," Mia explained.
"And then once we'd got the antidote, Cooke and Reuben wouldn't let us come in until the Sorting finished," Lily continued. "Pass me the potatoes, Mattie – I'm starving."
Matilda did as she was told and the conversation lulled for a moment as everyone ate.
Matilda, predictably, was the one to break the silence. "What are you doing on Friday evening at seven o'clock?" she asked Lily and Mia.
"How should we know?" Lily retorted. "It's only the first week of term."
"I'll tell you what you're doing," Matilda said excitedly. "You're coming down to Greenhouse One for the first meeting of the HEC."
"What's the HEC?" Mia asked, wondering whether it actually might have been better to just smile and nod and therefore avoid a Matilda-sized explanation.
"It's the Hogwarts Environmental Club," Matilda said, in a voice which suggested Mia really should've known that. "It's the club Professor Longbottom said we should set up. He said we can meet in Greenhouse One and the first meeting's on Friday. You will come, won't you?"
"We..."
"We'll think about it," Lily said firmly.
Matilda sighed. "Okay, well think about it and then say yes," she said.
After dinner, Mia was glad to join the crowd heading up to Gryffindor Yower and bed. On the fourth floor, she and Lily ran into Mac, who was leading a small group of obedient little Hufflepuff first years around.
"Mac, that's mean!" Lily protested. "Hey, kids, the Hufflepuff common room's in the basements – don't listen to him if he tries to take you anywhere else. He's not even a Prefect!"
"Am too!" Mac retorted. "You lot, don't listen to her – she's just a Gryffindor and she doesn't know where our common rooms are."
"He is not a Prefect!" Lily told the first years again.
"How did I get aPprefect badge, then?" Mac demanded, poking the badge on his chest.
"I made it for you on the train!" Lily said, exasperated. "I give up! You'll get tired eventually and then you'll have to take them to the right place."
Lily walked off in the direction of Gryffindor Tower and Mia rolled her eyes at Mac before following her.
As she got into bed fifteen minutes later, Mia wondered if she'd ever be able to fall asleep. Her mind was racing, imagining all the things that could happen this year: Quidditch matches, Hogsmeade visits, walks in the grounds, the general craziness of the Inter-House Common Room... However, before too long, Mia found herself drifting off. Her final thought before she fell asleep was that it was good to be back.