Chapter 6

Hogwarts Hall

Harriet had always wanted to go to school because she loved to learn. The morning of her first day, she picked a pretty sky blue dress with little white flowers dotting the skirt, black Mary Janes for shoes with white ankle socks, and a navy blue hair ribbon for her wavy black hair. She thought she looked quite smart. Satisfied with her first-day look, Harriet headed outside toward the car where her father was waiting.

As her father drove, Harriet tried to imagine what her new school would look like. She pictured a lovely brightly-colored building surrounded by trees, flowers, a playground, and children playing. When they arrived, Mr. Dursley dropped her off, and she headed toward her new school.

However, it wasn't all that Harriet had expected. There wasn't a playground, or any flowers surrounding the dull colored building. But it was a building with children playing. So regardless of what Hogwarts Hall looked like, she was still happy to be there. After all, any school was better than no school at all. Or so it seemed...

Suddenly, a loud bang! caused Harriet and the rest of the children to snap their attention to the front of the school. The front doors had opened. Other kids near the front screamed in fear and ran toward the crowd. Clearly they did not want to be near the towering figure in the doorway.

Then, the figure stepped out of the shadows, revealing a tall, broad-shouldered woman in a dark blue uniform and a thick, brown belt with a large metal buckle around her waist. She carried a brown riding crop as she walked through the crowd of children. One look from her could send a full grown man running for the hills.

The woman stopped suddenly and looked at an older girl named Angelina, who was whispering to her friend, Oliver.

"You. Detention. Out of my way."

The dark-skinned girl said nothing, only did as she was told, and looked at the ground in shame.

Then the woman turned to a scruffy little blonde-haired boy named Colin.

"You're too small. Grow up quicker!"

Harriet wasn't sure who this grownup was supposed to be, but she didn't want to stick around to find out. She hid in a small gap in between two parts of the building nearby. But Harriet wasn't alone. A girl with bushy brown hair and slightly big front teeth had also chosen this spot as her hiding place.

"Hey, careful!", she whispered as Harriet peeked out of her spot. "You don't want to be seen by anyone. You'll give us away!"

Harriet moved back from the gap. "Oh, sorry."

"That's okay. After all, it's much better than going out there."

Harriet could still hear the woman yelling. "Heads up! Stand straight! Stomachs in, shoulders back! Pansy Parkinson, change those socks! They're too pink!"

"Do you know who that is?", Harriet asked the wild-haired brunette.

"Yes. That's the headmistress of Hogwarts Hall, Ms. Lestrange."

"Blimey! You've gotta be kidding!"

"Nope."

At that moment, three red headed boys came by. Two were taller than the third and looked to be twins. All three of them were skinny (though the third boy was slightly stockier) with freckles dotting their faces. They spotted the two girls and quickly went over. When the twin boys spoke, they seemed to be finishing each other's sentences.

"You two firsties..."

"Better get out of there..."

"We're not kidding!"

The shorter boy spoke up. "You should listen to my brothers. I heard from Dean Thomas that Ms. Lestrange snaps a horse whip in there to find any first years that are hiding."

That was enough to get both girls moving. Harriet thought it would be best to introduce herself now. She turned and held her hand out to the other girl. "Hi. I'm Harriet Dursley."

The girl smiled and shook her hand. "Hermione Granger."

Then the boy held out his own hand to both of them. "I'm Ronald Weasley. You can call me Ron." The two girls each shook Ron's hand. He turned to the twins. "These are two of my brothers, Fred & George."

"Hey, there.", they said in unison.

Harriet smiled, but then heard Ms. Lestrange shouting again, this time at a chubby round-faced boy named Neville, whose clothes looked "too sloppy" for her liking.

"The headmistress looks pretty...strict.", Harriet observed. Then she turned to Fred and George. "But does she actually hit students with that riding crop if they misbehave?"

The twins spoke. "No..."

"It's mostly for scaring them..."

"But what she does..."

"Is a lot worse."

"Like yesterday, in our Year Three class.", Fred (or was it George?) stated. "Lestrange does weekly checks on every classroom. Says it's to "show teachers a thing or two about children". And Lee Jordan tried to be rebellious by sneaking half a Mars Bar during her lesson."

Harriet was pretty sure what happened next. "And she caught him?"

"Yup", George (or maybe Fred?) told her. "Didn't even get a chance to swallow the first bite."

"Was Lee okay?"

"Not after being thrown out the window, he wasn't. Well, he lived, if that's what you meant."

At that moment Hermione spoke up. "I heard from Parvati Patil that Ms. Lestrange used to be in the Olympics. Shot put, javelin, and hammer throw."

"That's right.", Ron said. "But the hammer throw is her specialty."

"So she does this stuff all the time?", Harriet asked.

"Better than being put in the Chokey.", said Fred.

"Chokey?"

"Yep, Chokey", said George. "It's like this tiny room - well it's not really a room, more like a tall, narrow hole in the wall behind a door in her office. When she locks you in, you have to stand under a dripping pipe with jagged edges, the walls have broken glass stuck to them, and huge nails are sticking through the door!"

"Woah.", said Harriet. "And she puts students in there?"

"Yeah. We've been locked in there twice."

"The second time, we were both put in there, and it can only hold one person.", Fred added, "Sometimes, if she sees it fit to do so, she leaves you in there all day."

"But...But didn't you tell your parents?", Harriet questioned.

"Oh, we did,' said George. 'But they couldn't do anything about it. This is the only school our family could get us into, and Ms. Lestrange knows it. Pardon our language, but if our family complained even once, she'd make our life a living hell. Of course, it's not like she doesn't already."

"Besides', Fred added once more, 'Would your parents be able to do anything about someone like her?"

Harriet glanced at the headmistress again. She was now sneering at a boy named Seamus. "Sixty lines after school: I Must Obey Ms. Lestrange! Out of my way!"

"I don't think so," Harriet confessed to the twins. Then she saw Ms. Lestrange coming their way. "Here she comes."

Ms. Lestrange pushed her way through the crowd of children. For a moment, it seemed like she was looking directly at Harriet as she exclaimed, "Ahah! Fresh meat!" But instead, she walked past her and towered above another girl about Harriet's age wearing a pretty pinkish-purple dress and pink sneakers. Her long, curly golden-brown hair was braided into two pigtails, each tied with a lavender colored ribbon.

"Lavender Brown!"

Lavender trembled like a leaf. Her voice shook a little as she spoke. "Y...Yes, Ms. L-Lestrange?"

"What are those...things?"

"Wh-What things, Ms. Lestrange?"

"Hanging down from your head!"

Lavender instinctively touched her left braid. "You mean my pigtails?"

Ms. Lestrange stopped circling the young girl. "Are you a pig, Lavender?"

"Um...no, Ms. Lestrange. But my mum likes my pigtails. She thinks I look pretty."

"Your mother', Ms. Lestrange snarled, 'Is a twit! And you'll get rid of those pigtails before class tomorrow, or-"

Without thinking, Lavender started to protest. "But I-"

"Enough!"

At that moment, Harriet heard the twins whisper to each other.

"Hammer Throw."

"Definitely."

Ms. Lestrange grabbed hold of poor Lavender's pigtails. "I'll give you 'but'!", she yelled as she started swinging the girl around in a circle, as if she was back in the Olympics preparing to throw her hammer.

Faster and faster Ms. Lestrange swung Lavender as the frightened girl screamed in pain. Then, with a loud yell, the headmistress let go of Lavender's pigtails, sending her up in the air. Everyone could only watch as she went soaring past the school like a rocket. As Lavender came dangerously close to the sharp spiked fence surrounding the border, the students knew it was going to be a close one. Thankfully, Lavender missed the dangerous fence, and landed in the field beyond the border, sliding through the grass. As she slid to a stop, she scooped up a bunch of flowers. Then, she stood up, shook herself to rid her of her dizziness, and turned back to the other students, smiling. Everyone cheered, knowing she was all right.

"Quiet!" shouted Ms. Lestrange. "All of you, get to class before I throw you ALL in the Chokey!"

As Harriet headed in with everyone else, she had one thought going through her head: If this is how the headmistress is around students, then what's my teacher like?