POV of Cat-Lee Miller
I hurried from the History classroom to the room where we had Defense Against the Dark Arts according to the schedule. Because I had let myself fall behind, there was only one seat left in the second row, all the way to the right, next to Parvati. Actually, our little group occupied the entire second row: to the left of Parvati were James and Oliver, and to the left of them were Padma, Ginn, Ariana, and Hermione. I sat down next to Parvati, who smiled at me: 'Hey Cat-Lee! Where were you for so long? I just talked to Hermione for a moment, and then you were suddenly gone...' 'Yeah... I was looking for the bathrooms...' I replied. 'Well, at least I saved the seat next to me for you...' Parvati said, but I didn't get a chance to thank her because at that moment, Professor Quirrell entered the room and greeted us with a stutter. I wasn't sure whether to feel sorry for him or be annoyed. The man could hardly say a word without stuttering! It was said that he had traveled a lot around the world before this school year. Perhaps he had encountered or experienced something that had disturbed him so much? I had already heard the wildest rumors that he had encountered vampires in Albania, which was why he supposedly smelled of garlic. However, I didn't particularly plan on smelling my teacher, so I tried to follow the words of the professor, who appeared almost frightened. In any case, he managed to say very little and eventually had us read the first two chapters of our textbook. Of all subjects, I had gambled on the fact that we wouldn't need the book in the first lesson of this particular class. I had hoped the subject would be a bit more... practice-oriented. Learning disarming spells or something like that.
When Parvati took out her book, she glanced at me. She understood my hint when I stared at her book and placed it in the middle of the table so we could share it. After the lesson, I was genuinely unsure if this class was even more boring than History. At least during that, I could draw without anyone minding. Here, I didn't dare to do that, and we had to read as well.
We went out to explore the Hogwarts grounds before it was time for dinner. Hermione, Ginn, and Padma had parted ways with us to look for the library and start on the homework. Together with Parvati, Ariana, James, and Oliver, I headed towards the lake. 'Is it true that a giant squid lives here?' I asked, genuinely interested. 'Yes, Parvati was even greeted by it,' came the answer from a grinning James, which made Parvati and Oliver grin as well. Only Ariana and I were left puzzled by this answer. 'Isn't it also said that merpeople live in there?' Ariana now asked the group. 'Well, even if they do, you probably wouldn't see such creatures. Unless you plan on visiting the bottom of the lake,' said Oliver. We had sat down under a tree at the edge of the lake and looked at it thoughtfully. At that moment, Hogwarts seemed incredibly mysterious to me. There were still so many corners to discover, both in the castle and on the grounds. But you couldn't do that all in one day. I don't know why, but even though I had only known the people around me since yesterday, I felt surprisingly comfortable as we sat together by the lake and just chatted a bit. The number one topic among the Gryffindors seemed to be the first flying lesson tomorrow. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, on the other hand, wouldn't get to fly for the first time until Friday. While James and Oliver said they already had some experience flying, Ariana seemed almost scared of it. I had no idea why, but she seemed to be convinced that someone would get hurt. 'Hey, it will all be fine, that's why we're learning it from Madam Hooch. She'll make sure nothing happens,' I tried to reassure her. 'And even if something does happen, Madam Pomfrey is supposed to be a damn good healer, I've heard,' Parvati added. However, that didn't quite have the desired effect, because Ariana was hardly responsive after that. She was too absorbed in muttering to herself that someone would definitely get hurt tomorrow. After a while, she seemed to have calmed down a bit, which was a real relief because none of us had any idea how to help her. Now we could finally head to dinner without worry.
