Chapter 4
Friends and The Things They Do
Lily woke up early the next morning to look over her schedule, and Dorcas Meadowes was already up, sitting on her four poster bed and rocking back and forth, humming. When Lily sat up in her bed, Dorcas gave a little squeak and almost fell right off her bed.
"Oh, I'm so glad you're awake! I've just been sitting here for ages! I can never sleep before the first day of classes, I was like that back at my Muggle school as well. My parents are both Muggles, so it was a bit of a shock when I got my letter. They didn't want me to come at first, because they're both accountants, and they were hoping I'd be one too, but I persuaded them in the end. What about you? Are you Muggle born too?"
Lily opened her mouth to answer, but it became quite clear that Dorcas wasn't going to stop for an answer, as she just continued talking.
"I've heard that there are quite a few Muggle born students here, so it shouldn't be too hard to adjust, but I'm a bit nervous, because I don't know any magic. Although not even the pure bloods know much, because you're not allowed to do magic before you're old enough, so it shouldn't be so bad…"
Dorcas continued babbling, and Lily was starting to worry that she would never stop, but in the bed behind her, Marlene McKinnon was just waking up, and she had grabbed one of her pillows and thrown it full speed at Dorcas' head. The pillow hit Dorcas square in the face, and Dorcas fell sideways off her bed. Then both girls exploded in fits of giggles.
Between gasps, Marlene managed to say, "That's just what you have to do when she starts talking. But it's best to just not let her get going, because once she starts, it's hard to stop her."
Lily laughed along with the Dorcas and Marlene, but they were so loud that Emmeline was soon awake as well. She sat up in her bed, and glared at the other girls, mumbling about early mornings and stupid girls, which, of course, only made them laugh harder, and before long, all four girls were laughing.
After a while, though, laughing gets a bit tiring, so quite painful if you are laughing hard enough, so they all collapsed onto their respective beds (or in Dorcas' case, the floor), and did some very deep breathing.
In the boys' dormitory, it was a very different story. They weren't having a pillow fight or collapsing with giggles, and they were most definitely not awake. In fact, each boy was sleeping soundly, and snoring loudly. Nothing could wake them… except maybe breakfast.
*
A few hours later, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were loading their plates with anything edible they could get their hands on.
"You know what the best part of Hogwarts is?" Sirius asked between mouthfuls of sausage and egg.
"The food," James and Remus replied immediately. Peter just sat there looking confused before returning to his breakfast.
They sat in silence for a few minutes (they had no choice, as their mouths were stuffed with food), and then Remus asked, "So what's the first class today?"
"Double potions with the Slytherins," Peter replied quickly, happy to finally be asked a question that he knew the answer to.
James and Remus looked at Sirius carefully, knowing what he must be thinking, but Sirius simply sat, showing no emotion whatsoever. So, naturally, they went back to their food.
*
From the moment he walked into the Potions room, Sirius knew there would be trouble. All the Slytherins were staring at him like he was scum under their shoes.
The boys took their seats with the Gryffindors, but Emmeline Vance and Marlene McKinnon were giving Sirius strange looks too. But they at least, unlike the Slytherins, had the common courtesy not to do it while he was looking. Lily and Dorcas, being Muggle born, didn't really understand the peculiarity of a Black in Gryffindor, and so also didn't understand the strange looks Sirius was receiving.
At the moment, though, Sirius just felt like sinking through the floor. He took a seat between James and Remus, who seemed to have made his welfare their personal responsibility. They were glaring at the Slytherins as if daring them to antagonize their friend.
But no action was necessary, because before anyone could say anything, Professor Cortina entered the Potions dungeon. Professor Cortina, a tall woman with white hair who was so old she looked like she could drop dead at any moment, was the potions teacher, and head of Slytherin house. She had a cold voice that sent shivers down their spines, and she made it clear from the first moment that she loathed and detested Gryffindors.
She began the class by taking the register, just like all the other teachers, but when she got to Sirius' name, she stopped. "Ah, Mr. Black," she began, raising her icy blue eyes to look directly into Sirius' black ones. "I must say you have quite disappointed me, and others, no doubt." This was greeted by sniggers from the Slytherins in the room, but she continued, ignoring them. "I have taught generations of your family, and I was quite looking forward to teaching you. I had thought you were to be one of the best in the class, but I see I must have been mistaken."
Sirius could feel himself tensing up, and looking to his right, he could see cold fury in James' features. It shocked him-he hadn't been expecting this to affect his friends like this.
Professor Cortina continued, "You'll be just like any other prissy Gryffindor I've ever taught." She smiled sourly, and continued with what she was doing, leaving Sirius feeling once again like he would like nothing better than to sink right through the floor.
Everything was completely silent when Professor Cortina went back to the register, until James said, in barely more than a whisper, "You're wrong."
She looked up slowly, her eyes meeting James' with a glare like she was trying to burn a hole through his skull. "What did you say?"
"I said, `You're wrong'," he said, louder this time.
If there was anything worse than her glare, it was her smile, as they all discovered then. When Professor Cortina smiled, it was as if her whole face was one big wrinkle, and it was cracking in the middle into a mouth, which had limited teeth inside, and all the ones that were left looked like they had some kind of mold on them. It made the whole class shrink back, and, still smiling dangerously, she said, "Oh, well if it isn't Mr. Black's little girlfriend. Now, if you'll just sit down and be quiet like the rest of the children, I'm sure I might not punish you for contradicting a teacher."
James stayed standing.
Her smile faded.
"Well, that will be detention for you, and why not one for Mr. Black as well?"
"Sirius didn't do anything and you know it."
"Well then, we have a choice, don't we. You and your little friend can serve detention together, or you can serve a double detention alone. And let me warn you, you will be doing hard, manual labor. A double detention would be exhausting." She smiled again.
James sat back down, never breaking eye contact, and said, "I'm sure I'll survive."
Professor Cortina promptly stopped smiling, and wrote something down. She then turned and continued with the lesson, not saying another word to James.
Sirius was shocked. This boy, who he had only known for about 24 hours, had just stuck up for him, offered to serve a double detention with the most evil woman in the whole world for him, and didn't even seem fazed by the whole idea. He looked over at James, who was now taking notes as if all that hadn't even happened. Sirius had never had a friend like that before.
"You didn't have to do that, you know," Sirius said quietly.
"I wanted to," James replied, without looking up from his notes.
"Oh. Well… ok then."
*
Lily was excited, and getting more excited by the minute. In each class, she learned new things that she never thought possible. In potions, she learned how to brew a potion that would cure boils, and had even earned five points to Gryffindor for getting it right. Of course, James Potter had soon gotten tham taken away when he "accidentally" poured a bit of his on Severus Snape's hand, burning off some of his skin.
Then, in Transfiguration, Professor McGonagoll had begun the class by turning her chair into a sheep. The class was amazed, but they soon learned that they wouldn't be doing anything this advanced for quite a long time. Both James and Sirius expressed a great amount of disappointment when asked to turn a match into a needle. However, they had both made almost perfect matches by the end of the class period, earning 10 points each for Gryffindor. Remus' match was silver and very pointy, but Peter hadn't made any change in his match, so when Professor McGonagoll had her back turned, Sirius did it for him, earning Gryffindor another 10 points. Lily was a bit disappointed when her match only went a little bit shiny.
Charms went a lot better for her, though. She discovered quickly that she had a knack for it, and it was by far her favorite class. The boys, however, discovered quickly that they didn't care at all about this particular class, and spent the entire class speaking in whispers in the back of the room.
*
When it was time for James detention with Cortina, he walked toward the dungeons like it was the end of the world. He didn't know what to expect, but he could guess that it wasn't going to be pleasant.
When he got to the potions dungeon, Professor Cortina wasn't there yet, but on a table near the front of the room was a table with about a dozen jars on it. The jars seemed to be filled with large cotton balls, but upon closer inspection, James could see that the large cotton balls had beady black eyes and a mouth full of sharp-looking teeth. They looked calm enough, not moving around much, but they seemed to be eying James warily.
While James was inspecting these strange creatures, Professor Cortina entered the classroom, and walked briskly to where James was standing. "Ah, Mr. Potter. Right on time. Today we, or rather, you, will be gathering warvole droppings." James assumed the cotton balls in the jars were warvoles. "Now, you must do it quickly, because although they look calm, if they get the chance, they will attack."
"Wait, attack?" James gasped.
"Yes, Mr. Potter. They will bite you."
"Oh, right. How nice. So why am I collecting warvole droppings anyway?"
She smiled her smile again. "If you had done your homework, you would know that warvole droppings are very useful in brewing healing potions."
James fell silent and began collecting droppings. As Professor Cortina had told him, the warvoles did bite, and it was actually extremely painful, and by the time he was done, James was sporting some very painful gashes in both hands. In his opinion, this was hardly the sort of thing students should be assigned to do.
When James returned to the common room, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were all waiting up for him. Or rather, Sirius and Remus were waiting up, but Peter had fallen asleep quite some time ago.
"So what did she make you do?" Sirius asked guiltily (but quietly, so as not to wake Peter).
"I had to collect droppings from about a hundred fluffy cotton ball looking things," James replied, flopping down in an armchair.
"Thanks for doing that for me. It was really great of you," Sirius said softly (not because Peter was asleep, but more because he was uncomfortable).
"It's alright, really. She shouldn't have talked to you like that."
"You know what?" Sirius started slowly. "I'm kind of glad I'm in Gryffindor."
***
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