Chapter 8: First Week Surprises

The sight which greeted Percy as he walked up to escort the first years to charms was as he had hoped it would be: two rows of first year students behaving themselves with the brooms all put away. Nodding to himself, Percy thought, 'as it should be.' Percy was a young man who valued propriety above all, which more specifically meant working hard, doing one's best, being early to all one's appointments, and taking responsibility for one's successes and failures. Above all, Percy held the rearing and protecting of children at the forefront of his ideals. He hoped one day to be all of the man his father is, and then a little more.

It was little secret that the Weasleys were a poor family, something Percy had grown to resent due to his thinking that his father was just too comfortable where he was. He attributed it to his father's obsession with muggles, something Percy didn't quite understand even if he understood that one should be more aware of the world that exists outside of their own. That was most of the reason Percy was a borderline workaholic when it came to Prefect duties and homework. He was striving to become qualified to work his way up the ministry ranks, unlike his father. Hence, Percy needed to have a good showing in his grades and prefect duties.

"Gryffindors," Percy called out, "on me, time to head off to Charms."

As the first years fell into line behind him, Percy once again thought, 'as it should be' and led them back into the castle and up to the charms classroom.

Charms proved to be quite an interesting class to Holly. Professor Flitwick, who her godfather had told her was a Half-Goblin, was indeed quite the person to observe. Walking into the classroom from his office, the entire class stood for him when they realized the door to his office had opened. He ambled up a stack of books in front of his desk, and took roll for the class. Each student responded with "Present, Sir." when their name was called.

At the conclusion of roll call, Professor Flitwick proceeded with his introduction, "Good Afternoon class, I am Professor Filius Flitwick and I will be your Charms instructor for all of the years at Hogwarts that you take the class. Now, would anyone like to venture a guess as to what makes a spell a charm?"

Holly raised her hand, having read a good portion of the Standard Book of Spells Level 1. Of course, she wasn't the only studious student in the class as the Professor said, "Ah, Miss Granger, your hand went up first. Please, venture your guess."

Hermione smirked at Holly's back from where the mean girls sat in the class, saying, "Charms are spells that either imbue a target, which could be an object, creature or person, with new and unexpected properties or make the target perform certain actions, amongst other things."

"Very good, Miss Granger, 1 point to Gryffindor," Professor Flitwick squeaked excitedly, "That is more or less what differentiates a charm from other kinds of spells. Furthermore, jinxes, hexes, and curses can also be classified as Dark Charms, though the only thing that really makes a spell dark is the intent behind it and its application. Very good indeed. Now then, can anyone tell me what is necessary to cast a charm?"

Holly raised her hand again, only to lose out to Hermione again as the Professor called on her again, "Yes, Miss Granger."

"In order to cast a charm," Hermione answered, "one needs to properly pronounce the spell's verbal components, perform the right wand movements, and have the correct intent willing the magic to do the spell."

"Correct again, take another point to Gryffindor," Professor Flitwick confirmed, "these are the basic components to all spellcasting, though with other branches of magic there are some additional requirements. For Charms, however, these components are sufficient and, due to their simplicity, make charms able to be more customizable and versatile in their casting."

Waving his wand towards the blackboard behind the desk, the chalk began writing down a list of spells, "These will be all of the spells we shall be covering this year. The Levitation charm, Wand-Lighting charm, Wand-Extinguishing charm, Fire-Making Spell, Softening Charm, Unlocking Charm, Locking Spell, Mending Charm, Box Blasting Charm, Severing Charm, Knockback Jinx, and the Ice Jinx. We shall also be making a pineapple dance across a desk. Furthermore, we shall be breaking down all of the components of each of these spells so that each of you understand why the spell. Now, it may seem like we shall be beating to death each charm in an effort to understand but have no fear. I haven't been teaching this subject for over twenty years for nothing. I've picked up a few tricks to keep things entertaining and enlightening at the same time. Now then, let us get started with the Wand-Lighting charm and, conversely, the Wand-Extinguishing charm."

The rest of the class proceeded with a lecture on the history of the charms, their creation, pronunciation of the incantation, proper wand movement, and intent. By the end of the class, everyone was astonished at all of what went into the making of two rather simple spells, with the Professor letting slip that even arithmancy had a role in providing insight to how the spells worked. Finally, the class was over and everyone stood as Professor Flitwick made his exit. Then, the class filed out the door and back into the hallway, each house heading the direction of their common room.

"Good grief," Holly lamented as the boys followed her up the stairs, "I never thought that spellwork could be so intense!"

"We didn't even cast the spell today," Dean commented, rubbing his left temple with his hand.

Seamus, who rubbed his right eye due to having become tired through the absorption of knowledge, said, "I know I'm going to have to take good notes and then study them. Hopefully I'll be able to grasp the spell once we start casting."

"You do seem more like a doer than a thinker," Holly teased with a small smirk at Seamus.

"I can think, if i need to!" Seamus retorted, looking slightly indignant.

"Sure, sure," Holly placated the boy as they reached the picture of the fat lady, "Caput Draconis. Neville, you seem pretty quiet, did you enjoy the class?"

As the quartet walked through the portal, Neville quietly replied, "Oh sure I did. I'm just with Seamus on this one where I learn better if I can get more practical experience with a topic."

"Well, I suppose you lads should be thanking me in advance," Holly said, standing at the foot of the stairs leading to the girls dorm, "I do pretty well when it comes to the academic portion of things."

Seamus, with exaggerated tone and flourish, bowed to Holly, saying, "Why thank you, Heir Potter, for helping us lowly serfs in the attainment of knowledge."

Dean, following suit, picked up where Seamus left off, "whatever would we do without your graceful guidance in our education, My Lady."

"Oh cut that out you guys," Holly said, blushing with embarrassment, "I was only being funny."

"So were we," Dean and Seamus said at the same time, then pointed at each other, "Jinx!"

Neville just watched the whole thing with nervous amusement, not really sure how to act. Holly shook her head, muttering, "Boys." She then walked up the stairs, "I'm going to put my books away for the evening and then we can head down to the great hall for dinner if you'd like."

Seamus and Dean mimed not being able to talk but nodded their heads enthusiastically. Neville spoke up, "I suppose that means yes."

"Good," Holly called from the top of the stairs, "I'll be back shortly."

Holly went down the small hallway to the bedroom for the first year girls, striding inside straight to her bed and tossing her books down. Turning around, Holly was about to call up Kira from her magically expanded inner robe pocket when she noticed she wasn't actually alone in the room as she'd first thought. Standing there in front of the door, bold as brass, bushy hair and all was none other than Hermione Granger.

"Alright there, Heir Potter," Miss Granger asked, smirking with her arms folded across her chest.

"As fine as I could be, Miss Granger," Holly answered cordially, keeping her face neutral, "good job in charms by the way."

Hermione, if possible, smirked even harder, "Well, I read all of the books for the year before the summer was over. In fact, I'm pretty much halfway through them for the second time. So, naturally, it was pretty easy for me to recall the information. I suppose it helps that my memory is eidetic."

'Such a humble bragger,' Holly thought before moving towards the door, saying, "I look forward to all of the points you'll win for Gryffindor then. If you'll excuse me, Miss Granger, I'd like to go down to dinner."

As Holly came into range, Hermione took hold of her forearm in a firm grip, "I'd think twice about trying to take the top spot in the class. It belongs to me and no one else."

Holly made a big show of looking down at Hermione's hand on her arm and then back up to her eyes, "I'm surprised, Miss Granger, surely you don't think it's ever a good idea to put your hands on anyone without their consent, much less myself, do you?"

The bushy haired mean girl rolled her eyes, "What are you going to do? Sic your snake on me? It's not even on the approved list of familiars, I could just report you to Professor McGonnagal and she'll fix you up right quick."

"What makes you think that she doesn't already know?" Holly asked, raising her right eyebrow, "you bookworms are all the same, innate tattlers. I'm surprised you managed to get in with the mean girls right away, as I'm sure you'd been a target of them wherever it was you went to school before coming here. I hope it works out for you and the other two. Now, good day."

The two stared each other down for a few more moments before Hermione begrudgingly let go of Holly's arm, exited the room without bothering to avoid making physical contact with Hermione on the way out. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Holly muttered, "Effing mean girl mind games. Unbelievable."

"What's that about mean girl mind games?" Seamus asked, a little too loudly for Holly's liking.

"Would you keep your voice down?" Holly half whispered as she made her way over to the couch the boys were sitting on in one of the more secluded corners of the common room, "I don't want the whole dorm knowing about it."

"Sorry, Holly," Seamus apologized in a normal tone of voice, "but my question still stands."

"I'll tell you about it on the way to dinner," Holly said, eyeing the mean girls across the room as she watched Hermione rejoin them. They had their heads together, talking in a low tone rather animatedly.

"Let's go then," Dean said, getting up from the couch with Seamus and Neville following suit. The quartet proceeded out of the common room, with Holly describing her encounter to the boys on the way down to the Great Hall. The rest of the evening proceeded pretty peacefully, with Holly going up to the dorm room early while the mean girls were still gossiping in the common room with some of the second year girls. Quickly showering with Kira and getting dressed in her evening wear, Holly went down into the trunk and called Sirius on the mirror, letting him know all about her sorting, first day of classes, and roommate drama.

"I also managed to make friends with Neville Longbottom," Holly reported to her Godfather.

"Oh that's good Holly," Sirius replied, "I had hoped you would do so quickly."

"Yeah," Holly said, her look towards her uncle turning to a leer, "by the way, how come in eleven years you never once mentioned I had a godbrother, not to mention that other thing you mentioned to me before the train departed the station?"

"Well," Sirius hesitated, "the two issues are kind of connected. We were raising you out of the magical world in order to keep you safe from the followers of the Dark Lord you managed to kill when you were a baby, though really it was more your mother's magic protecting you from whatever spell would target you from the man who killed her. Again, I'm currently working on the letter which will explain all of this to you, if you could please be patient for a couple more weeks. There's just a lot of details in regards to all of that which I want to be sure you have, though there will be a couple of things that will have to wait until you're a little older and a little more trained in defending yourself.

"As for why I never told you about Neville, it was solely for the fact that his grandmother was going to raise him in the magical world still and she was very reluctant to let him out of her supervision, especially after her uncle almost killed her grandson because he was trying to force Neville's magic to manifest," Sirius finished.

"You're kidding!" Holly exclaimed, "Why would anyone go to such extremes?"

"You must understand something about the magical world and, more specifically, pureblood families," Sirius prefaced, taking a breath, "producing offspring who cannot wield magic, who don't have enough of a magical core to do even a wand-lighting charm, is seen as a black mark against the family name. Magical Britain even managed to otherize them, calling them squibs. Families like the Longbottoms wouldn't normally go to such extremes but I can guarantee that Dowager Longbottom rests much more easily that she doesn't have to deal with her only living heir not being able to do magic. Dark Families, families like the one that I grew up in, wouldn't hesitate to at the very least disappear the child if they still had love for them. I don't think I have to tell you what the worst families would do."

"They'd kill their own children if they didn't have magic?" Holly asked, aghast.

"Sometimes they would, especially if they already had another magical child who could inherit the family wealth and businesses," the dog animagus admitted frankly, "It's a very old fashioned world, Magical Britain is."

Deciding she no longer wanted to dwell on such a terrible topic, Holly said, "Sounds more like ancient than old fashioned. Anyways, I suppose I should get some sleep. If you see my Aunt and Uncle, can you let them know I'll be calling them tomorrow?"

"I wasn't planning on being in their neck of the woods," Sirius said, "however, I'm sure they're dying to hear from you so I can pop over there for a minute and let them know you'll be calling. Will it be about the same time as you did tonight?"

"Yeah," Holly answered, "though I'm not quite sure how to tell time here."

"Oh, that's easy," Sirius stated, pulling out his wand, "just a quick downward vertical slash and say the word tempus."

Holly took out the basilisk wand and swiped it downwards, remembering to convey her intention to know what time it was, saying, "Tempus." Feeling the magic flow down her arm into her wand, Holly saw numbers projected a short distance from the tip of the wand, reading in red, glowing numbers '10:53'.

"Wicked," Holly said, feeling the wonder of performing magic, "I didn't realize it was that late."

"Maybe ask Professor Flitwick about the variations on the spell," Sirius said, "the more specific you are when projecting your intent, the more customizable the spell is. I've got it down to where I can display the time in twenty-four hour clock if I want to, in changing colors if I really want to be flashy. Anyways, don't let the mean girls get you down, Holly. I'll talk to you later. I love you, prongslet."

Holly blushed at the childhood nickname Sirius rarely used with her these days, "I love you too, Dogfather."

Holly then cut off the flow of her magic to the mirror, ending the call. Looking at the stairs that lead out of her trunk, Holly sighed. Deciding there was nothing for it, she patted Kira's head, who had been draped around her neck since the shower, and trudged up the stairs to go to bed.

The schedule for the first years went as followed:

Hour long blocks, three in the morning three in the afternoon

.

Monday: Double Potions (Slytherin), History of Magic (Ravenclaw), Lunch, Flying (Slytherin), Double Charms (Hufflepuff)

Tues: Double Transfiguration (Ravenclaw), History of Magic (Hufflepuff), Lunch, Double Herbology (Slytherin), Break, Dinner, Double Astronomy. (11p to 1a, Ravenclaw)

Wed: First Hour Blank, Double Charms (Hufflepuff), Lunch, Double Defense (Ravenclaw), History of Magic (Slytherin)

Thurs: Double Herbology (Hufflepuff), History of Magic (Ravenclaw), Lunch, Double Transfiguration (Slytherin), Astronomy (Day Instruction, Hufflepuff)

Friday: Double Defense (Slytherin), Astronomy (Day instruction, Slytherin), Lunch, Double Potions (Ravenclaw), Flying (Hufflepuff)

Saturday and Sunday: Free Days

Clubs meet either on the weekends or weeknights after dinner. CURFEW is 10:00 p.

The rest of the week went pretty well in Holly's opinion. Introductory classes for Transfiguration, Herbology, Astrology, and Defense went into detail about the specific branch of magic, ways it differed from the other branches, and what they would be covering during the year. Transfiguration and Defense had rated at the same level that Charms had, in that it was the most interesting to Holly. Potions came in right behind that, then Herbology and History shared the next tier after that. Ranked at the bottom was astrology, even though that was pretty interesting as well, just not as interesting as the rest of the classes.

Flying, of course, was Holly's most favorite subject, even if the class was only running for the first eight weeks of the term. She was looking forward to what flying club would entail, as well as hoping that she would impress the team captain enough to allow her to try out for the reserve spot on the team. It was one of the ways she was hoping to get a little closer to her dad whom she never got to know.

Much to the quartet's surprise, mostly due to how shy the boy was, Neville seemed to be quite skilled in Herbology. His hand was up almost as much as Hermione's during the class when it came to answering questions and he got called on about as much to boot. Hopefully his skill in Herbology would translate to potions, as both of the subjects tended to overlap.

Holly wasn't sure what to expect from defense. Her godfather had warned her that for some reason the position of Professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts had a curse on it that caused no one to be able to hold the position for more than a year. She had heard about Professor Quirrell, how he used to be the Professor for Muggle Studies and then had decided to take a year to study abroad before coming back and applying for the defense position. Honestly, the man seemed to know his stuff. He took the same approach as all of the other core professors, introduction to the subject, how it differentiated from other branches of magic, spells they would cover, etcetera. As far as dice rolls go, it seemed like this one turned up as seven.

Of course, all of the first years had gotten comfortable with how their education was going until they'd gotten to the last class for each course of the week. Holly didn't know if they'd done it on purpose or not but all of the professors had handed out homework, with Professor Snape having been the only one who'd handed out two assignments that week. If it wasn't for Holly's work ethic and the fact that clubs hadn't started up yet, her and the boys would have been hard pressed to finish all of the work by the following monday.

The weekend was spent outside the castle by most of the student body, as they were enjoying the last weekend before the term really began in earnest. It was pretty well known that the teachers, for the most part, liked to ease the students into their first week back to school. Of course, it wouldn't be the first sunday of term if it weren't for year representative meetings in the towers. Most of the older year's meetings went pretty quick, as the students usually just appointed the person who'd done it the year previously unless they really didn't want to do it. For the fifth years and up it usually came down to rock paper scissors between the prefects.

Of course, the older year's meetings went quickly for another reason. It was kind of tradition to watch the firsties to see how they would deal with electing class rep. This year in Gryffindor tower, it was almost as good as appointment television.

All of the firsties stood off in a corner, awkwardly staring at each other. Finally, Holly had had enough and spoke up, "So who do we think should be rep for our year?"

"I think it should be you, Holly," Ronald had proposed.

"I'll bet you'd love that, wouldn't you, Heir Potter," Miss Patil had sniped from the opposing side of the circle.

Holly shook her head, "Honestly, I couldn't care less who did it but if no one is volunteering then I'll do it."

"I think Hermione should do it," Lavender Brown chimed in from the other side of Parvati, "she's wicked smart and very good at keeping track of things."

"It wouldn't be all that much extra for me to do," Hermione said, crossing her arms across her chest, "What do you think, Heir Potter, any objections?"

"Like I said, couldn't care less," Holly replied, trying to keep her cool.

"Well I think we should vote on it," Ronald supplied, "all in favor of Hermione."

All of the girls' hands went up. "And those in favor of Holly," Ronald continued, raising his hand. The other lads had followed suit.

"What did she promise all of you a date or something?" Parvati accused the boys.

"I did no such thing!" Holly protested, now beginning to be angry at the ridiculousness of this whole affair.

"Yeah, she didn't do anything like that," Neville had quietly added, "She's just nice."

In the background, amongst the older years, coins were exchanging hands as bets on whether or not the firsties would have a tie vote were coming up in favor of those who had betted that it would be the case.

"What would you know about nice, Longbottom," Lavender retorted, "Hermione was nice to you on the train, helping you look for your toad."

"Ha!" Seamus laughed, "yeh call that being nice? Barged right into our compartment, she did."

"I can't believe the four of you are going to side with that snake charmer," Parvati shot back at them.

"So what if we are?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow at the three of them.

"What's this about being a snake charmer, Holly?" Ronald asked warily.

"Oh, Her Majesty didn't see fit to inform you?" Parvati smirked, confident that she'd just won this round, "Heir Potter has a snake for a familiar."

"There's no way she does, it's not on the approved list," Ronald protested, "It's not true, is it Holly?"

"It is true, Mister Weasley," Holly confirmed, "and I have special permission to have Kira. Anyone who doesn't believe me can ask the headmaster if they wish."

Ronald, having to come to grips with this new information, crossed the circle to stand by the mean girls, "What are you doing in Gryffindor then, having a beast like that?"

"I didn't realize one's choice in familiar made one ineligible to be in any house, Mister Weasley," Holly countered, having decided she'd had enough, "lads, just let Hermione be rep, seeing as how it matters so damn much to her and her friends."

"Fine." "Whatever," came the responses from Dean and Seamus, with a silent nod from Neville.

"There," Holly said, turning to leave the meeting, "meeting adjourned, have fun class rep."

The other boys, sans Mister Weasley, followed after Holly. As the four walked away, they noticed all of the upper years gawking at the show. Not wanting to draw anymore attention to themselves, they all silently agreed to turn in for the evening despite it being so early in the evening.

Elsewhere in the castle, a different sort of meeting was taking place. Though, if one looked more closely, it was just one man in his office by himself standing in front of the large blackboard in the room. On the blackboard there was a flow chart of seven boxes, with an arrow leading from the previous box to the next box until the seventh box. Under each box there was a name, the order of which went as follows: Hagrid, Sprout, Flitwick, McGonagall, Quirrel, Snape, Dumbledore. Inside each box there was a question mark except in the first box, which had 'Three Headed Dog' written in it, and the fifth box, which had 'Troll' written inside. From the seventh box there was an arrow which led to the words 'Philosopher's Stone'. The words 'Secondary Objective' were underlined and in the center above the flow chart.

Underneath the flow chart, the words 'Primary Objective' were underlined with a colon at the end. After the colon, 'Observe Holly Potter' was written in all caps.

Getting the philosopher's stone would be nice, however, it was to be considered a bonus if he'd managed to retrieve it for his master. His master was very specific that his primary goal was to observe Holly Potter at all costs and then return to him just before the year completes so as to not fall prey to the curse. After having lost his body to a toddler, his master needed information more than he needed a body. Therefore, it would not do to have his servant be killed before he could return and report.

The irony of the whole situation was that, in all the years that the curse was active, Albus Dumbledore had no one more qualified to teach Defense than he did right now. Dabbling in the Dark Arts, after all, did teach one the best ways to counter such things. At the very least, the students at Hogwarts in the years of 1991-1992 would have a decent education in defense for a change.

Author's Note: Hey all, I just needed to get another chapter out so as to try and keep hold of my ideas and motivation to write. Again, I apologize for being so terrible at updating. I hadn't realized that it had almost been a whole year before I'd updated. Like I said, I'm a better reader than a writer but I'm so tired of seeing fics that are just being used as an excuse to write smut about minors. I can promise that I definitely will not be writing any of that. I can't believe I have to state that but apparently you can't trust a T rating to not have softcore smut in it as I'd recently come to find. Anyways. Thank you thank you thank you to all of you who are reading this story. And if any of you have come back after a year of not having any updates, a very special thank you to you as well.

Also, I apologize for the phantom updates to the chapters. I don't have a beta and don't plan on getting one in order to maintain creative control. As a result, sometimes I need to retcon something. Also as I'm writing a chapter, I'll go back and check something and then be like, shit there's a typo or an error, etc... I promise I'm not doing that to gin up interest or raise the stories views and visitors lol.