Potterbook | *Started*

Alice Potter | Sorting Ceremony, Great Hall

Alice bit her lip. Why on earth was it taking this long to call out her name? Visions of standing all alone in the hall, and then returning to the Dursleys, living off scraps of food, wearing those ugly grey bits Aunt Petunia had sewn together from Dudley's old things and fending off bullies at Stonewall High came to mind. It didn't take very long for her visions to become partially true, as she found herself the only person out of the entire gaggle of first years standing in the middle of the hallway, strangely alone. She almost turned towards the Gryffindor table, hoping to see Allen's reassuring grin, when her name was called out. "Potter, Alice!"

Alice almost laughed in relief; inwardly of course. Outwardly, she was as composed as ever, and simply strode over to the stool and picked up the large hat, placing it around around her head. It slipped down over her eyes. What is this I see? A Potter? It has been long since I last sorted one of your family. You've made it far. A friend in Gryffindor? No, that will not do, not do at all.

Please sort me in with Allen. Please. Alice had been surprised when the hat had first started talking, but she knew she had to do something, before it decided to sort her into some other house. Allen was the first real friend she'd ever made; she was scared that being sorted into another house would separate them. I'll do anything.

Anything? But no. You do have a measure of bravery, yes. A good store of it, in fact. But you are not the chivalrous sort, or even hardworking. I can see that you have ambition, and an amount of mischief that would serve you better elsewhere.

But--!

I proclaim you a student of... "SLYTHERIN!"

Alice internally teetered, putting down the hat and stepping down the stairs in a daze. She looked back at Allen, who looked even more disappointed, and made her way towards the Slytherin table, feeling humbled for once in her life. Hogwarts was a first for her in many ways; and not being able to get her way was a different experience. She looked at the staff table; most of them looked disappointed, except for the man in black who had been staring at her earlier. The Headmaster got to his feet.

"Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin
our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit!
Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" Alice stared down at her plate. She wondered if staying at the Dursleys was better after all.

Well, she'd find out soon, wouldn't she?

Owen | Gryffindor Table

"Nice to meet you again," said Owen. "Remember -- everyone loves a good duellist!"

He winked at another fragile-looking first year and moved on down the table. It wasn't good manners to shuffle about the table like that, switching seats and changing places, but Owen didn't care. He was on a recruitment drive.

"Hello newbie," he said to the white-haired boy at the end of the row. The little first year was staring dejectedly at his empty plate. As Owen got closer he noted a familiar smell: pond weed. Had this one managed to fall in the lake on the way over?

The kid took one look at Owen and returned to a staring competition with his cutlery. Owen went for the nice approach.

"It's Allen, isn't it?" he asked.

The boy just nodded.

"Well, Allen," he continued. "You look like a fighting-type to me -- bold and strong and courageous, like a good Gryffindor should be!"

Rather than the beam of pride Owen expected, Allen appeared to choke on his last morsel of food.

"Hey -- are you alright?"

The kid just motioned for him to carry on.

"Anyway, I thought you might be interested in the Duelling Club that I'm running this year." Owen handed Allen a card with the date and time of their first meeting. "You should come along and we'll show the Slytherin team how it's done."

Allen momentarily perked up at the mention of Slytherin. That was good -- he was definitely a fighter if he'd already learned to hate Gryffindor's true rivals. But it was time to wrap this conversation up -- Owen still had plenty more invitations to hand out.

"All the best, Allen," he said as he shuffled back along the bench. "And congratulations on being sorted into the best house in Hogwarts!"

One look at the boy's face would have explained everything. It spoke of uncertainty, helplessness, dashed hopes and sunken dreams. Allen opened his mouth to try and articulate this, but Owen was already charming some first years a bit further along the table.

Allen closed his mouth and turned back to his plate just in time to see the next course materialise. Even the magic didn't cheer him up.

Allen Selwyn | Gryffindor Table

After what seemed like a long time, the headmaster had finally finished droning on and on, and all the students stood up--well, everyone except the first-years, that was. Allen listlessly looked around the Hall, feeling drained to the point of sleep. And then the singing began.

Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,
Teach us something please,
Whether we be old and bald,
Or young with scabby knees
Our heads could do with filling,
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot!

Allen clamped his hands over his sensitive ears, almost terrified. Not far away from him, the Rockharrows were doing a funeral march to the song, and someone was keening like a banshee. Everyone was doing their own version of it, and it was all Allen could do to not bang his head into unconsciousness. He looked across the Hall and caught Alice's eye--the half-amused, half-annoyed glance he'd gotten used to seeing since morning.

"Ah, music," The headmaster said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

The Gryffindor prefect--one of the Rockharrows, actually-- ushered the entire house up and began barking orders in a loud voice. Allen looked around at the Slytherin house, which was already formed into a line; he couldn't see Alice, however. He turned his head back to the front unwillingly, and prayed to whoever was up there laughing at him to let him have at least a good night's sleep.

Fiona O’Connell | Walking to the Slytherin Common Room/The Slytherin Common Room


“I’m so glad that is over.” Fiona sighed, “so, so glad.” Her friend Maggie ran a hand through her curls.

“Yeah, but you were wrong.” She said, “the Potter girl was sorted into Slytherin.”

“Thank you for the recap. It’s not like I wasn’t there or anything.” Fiona said, “Anyway. I’m thinking. Tomorrow at lunch. Fireworks over the great hall. Ring in the New Year with a bang?” She tossed her hair over her shoulder, excepting her friends to say yes.

They passed the various paintings on the wall. No pranks, not now, Fee. She could almost heard her sister say. She rolled her eyes, wondering for a brief moment what her siblings would say once they heard they set off fireworks in the Great Hall. She quickly shoved away the warning. She smirked. This would probably be her best prank yet. Her friends kept talking as they walked, going on about the boys. Fiona kept silent, only whispering the password to the door when they came to the common room. Students ran up to their respective dormitories, eager to wake up to a new school day. Fiona and her friends sat out in front of the fire.

“So. Planning.” Fiona said, seated in the largest and most comfortable chair. She kicked off her shoes and crossed her legs.

“Wait!” One of her friends protested, “you never told us who you think is cute this year.”

“That’s because I’m not boy crazy.” Fiona replied condescendingly, “Now. Planning.’ She repeated herself again, starting to talk bout what she had already dubbed ‘The Prank of The Year.’

Spoiler

This is a bit short and I *am* skipping ahead as I'm not sure where to go right now)

Matt | Waddling to his dorm

After Merlin-knows-how-many slices of treacle-tart and gallons of pumpkin juice, I waddled to the Ravenclaw common room with Sae.

"It feels lovely being back at Hogwarts, doesn't it?" said Sae.

"It does. Food is as..." I slowly stepped onto the next step, and exhaled once I'd reached it. "...good as ever." I started again. It was a Herculean task. Clever of me to stuff myself with food. Now I could hardly walk.

I found myself slowly drifting off to sleep as I walked up the stairs, but eventually we made it to the common room. After Sae answered the question, we walked in. I hurried up the stairs to my dorm and collapsed on the bed.

*

"Expelliarmus! ... Protego! ... Rictumsempra!"

We were at breakfast and I watched Owen waving his finger at the pumpkin juice on his table, almost-shouting these spells. Presumably, he was practising duelling. Maybe I'd join that... and try and become better at practical things.

Then our timetables arrived. "Oh no," I muttered. "Oh no, oh no, oh no."

Ben Fletcher | Sorting Ceremony, Great Hall

Ben took his eyes off Chaucer to watch Samara make her way to the stool and put on the ratty-looking Sorting Hat. The whole process seemed a bit wonk to him, wearing a magical headpiece just to find out what color your uniform trim would have and from the crests on the older students' robes it appeared to come with the bonus of a house mascot. Magic School was a lot more showy than he was expecting, though the billowing robes were a nice touch. Maybe he could save up for a nice set of spiked shoulder pad armor.

"SLYTHERIN!" His gaze fell back on Samara, who didn't seem all that happy with her sorting. Maybe she was nervous being the first to go and was worried none of her friends would be with her. He smirked, tucking Chaucer into an inner pocket of his robes and cupping his hands around his mouth for better projection.

"Don't worry Samara," he yelled, "I'm definitely evil enough to get Slytherin too! Congratulations!"

Ben shifted his eyes away right after his declaration, he didn't want to become immune to her withering glares too soon, not with seven years ahead of him. Professor Polygonal was doing a rather fine impression of trying to kill him with her eyes so he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose from where they had slipped and gave her a toothy grin. That Allen boy from earlier was next on the list, though he quickly tuned him out. He made sure to clap whenever the hat shouted something, otherwise he was glued to the enchanted ceiling where the stars were shining and candles floated above the tables. Hopefully wax didn't fall from them. That would be a horrible safety violation.

"Fletcher, Benjamin!"

He gave an involuntary twitch at the use of his full name. Well, this was it, the moment he was graded on the attributes of his barely lived life of eleven years and shuffled off into a color-coded dorm for seven years, after which none of this sorting would really even matter. Ben strolled up to the stool and scooped the hat out of Professor Polygamy's hands with a cheeky grin. Taking a seat and lowering it on his head, he waited for something to happen.

Oh, this is quite interesting. You have a quick mind about you, but you pretend to be insane. Or are you pretending to be sane in your mind by pretending to be insane outwardly? I should put you in Ravenclaw, I'm sure the eagle knocker would just love you...

"No! I forbid you," Ben grunted out for those around to hear, "there's no way I'd go there. As the mostly benevolent future dictator of the magical world I order you to put me in Slytherin! That snakefaced jerk You Know Who brought shame to the honorable profession of Dark Lordship, I have to raise the house to greater heights!"

What? Uhh, no. Just no. You need to be in 'RAVENCLAW!'

Ben tugged off the hat and half-shoved it into Professor Pumpernickel's waiting hands, ignoring the strange stare she was giving him while he thought unkind thoughts about the hat. He stomped his way to the Ravenclaw house table and all but fell randomly onto the empty portion of the bench delegated to first years. He didn't even retrieve Chaucer from his pocket, that's how pissed he was at the moment. It was during a string of rather torturous ideas swimming in his mind that Ben noticed a another first year sit down near him. Wasn't she from the station early?

"Hey," he sighed, "I'm Ben. Let's be friends or something."

Leopoldina Rockharrow | Leaving the Great Hall

"First Years, follow me! Leo, you alright?" Lavinia put an arm protectively over her youngest sister's shoulders. "Congratulations. I didn't doubt for a second you'd be here with us."

Leopoldina grinned. "Thanks. I don't know how well I'll get on with some of the others."

"Everybody in Gryffindor gets on. I mean, apart from that kid Cormac, but he's a little weird. He'll straighten out, so many of the younger boys are cocky little gits. But it'll be great. Oh- this is my fellow Fifth Year Prefect, Greg."

Lavinia started introducing Leopoldina to all the Fifth and Sixth and even a few Seventh Years, and Leopoldina knew she wouldn't remember any of their names and doubted she would ever talk to them again. She looked back to where her fellow First Years were tagging nervously onto the end of the group. Valentina Esparza looked about as haughty as an eleven year old could, while Allen Selwyn looked on the verge of tears.

Served him right.

"This is the entrance to Gryffindor Tower," Lavinia said, stopping smartly by a painting of a large woman in an even larger pink dress. "The password for the next few weeks will be 'Dragonsblood' but it will change. Do not share the password with anyone from any other houses."

The Gryffindor Common Room was exactly like Leopoldina had imagined, tapestries and the fireplace and tables and armchairs. There were a lot of older students already hanging around. Lavinia and Greg explained to the First Year girls and boys respectively their sleeping arrangements.

Leopoldina was about to go discover her room when she saw Quin and Ara approaching someone with a rather purposeful look in their eye.

"You. Selwyn."

Allen turned, terrified, to see the two older- and taller by more than a head and a half- girls approaching him.

"We heard you said some rather unsavoury things about our family," Araminta said.

"And we just want you to know," Quintinia picked up in an entirely pleasant voice, "that we 'blood traitors' look after our own."

"So if you say anything or do anything to Leo, we will know." Araminta's voice became decidedly less civil.

"And you will know that we know," Quintinia finished. "Clear?"

"I- I- I didn't mean to-"

"Good! We know you didn't!" Araminta said, pretending as if nothing had happened. That didn't seem to convince Allen however, who still looked like he was about to cry. Leopoldina almost wanted to comfort him. But of course she wouldn't, not after what he had said.

"What are the Rockharrows doing now," came a tired voice, and Leopoldina turned around to see the boy who had been identified as Owen Pepperidge at the table approaching. "Quin, Ara, I sincerely hope you're not terrorising one of my new members!"

"Members?" Leopoldina inquired.

"This is our little sister Leo," Quin said, "who I'm about to show upstairs."

Leopoldina frowned, and her expression was mirrored by Owen. "Alright. But I take it the two of you are still interested in signing up?"

"In signing up to what?" Leopoldina asked curiously.

Owen grinned slowly. "To my duelling club, of course! You'll join as well, won't you? I bet you love a challenge. Allen here is going to join, aren't you, Allen?"

But Leopoldina wasn't paying attention to Allen. She was staring at her sisters. "Duelling?" she asked, outraged.

Ara rolled her eyes at Owen. "Did you have to do that?"

"But we're not allowed to duel-"

"It's not real duelling. It's just practice," said Quin.

"Dad always said that was just as bad! It means you're planning on having duels!" The girls had had practically weekly lectures ever since their father had suffered irreparable damage from a miscast spell during a duel. It was strictly forbidden in the Rockharrow household.

"Ssh," Ara hissed. "Do you want Lavinia to hear you? She'll never let us live it down! She'll tell Dad!"

"Maybe I'll tell Dad."

"You can't," Quin said, outraged. "Please."

"You can always join, Leo," said Owen, his eyes glinting. "Haven't you ever considered living a little outside your parents' confines? Allen's up for it, why not you?"

Leo cast a glance at Allen. "I can do anything he does," she said nastily. "Doesn't mean I want to."

And she went to find her bed.

OOC: Everyone, could you sort of look at the last post I made in the DT? Thank yew.


Alice Potter | Slytherin common room

It was in high dudgeon that Alice entered the Slytherin common room, not noticing what she was doing or who she was bumping into; one of whom just happened to be an over-sized fifth year with buck teeth and a cloud on his brow. Just as a silver glint from the snake-depicting banners caught her eye, she suddenly felt a heavy hand on her left shoulder. "Potter."

"That's me." Alice looked around at the fifth-year who had grabbed her. "What do you want with me?"

"Watch where you're going, or I might just hex your pretty little face into oblivion." He sneered. "Wouldn't want those freckles sprouting all over your face now, would we?"

"Is that so, Morris?"

Just as Alice opened her mouth to give the lumbering idiot a barbed lash with her tongue, the teacher she had seen at the feast staring at her made an appearance behind them, looking...very...annoyed. The fifth-year immediately released Alice's shoulder and grinned, trying to look innocent. "Hello Professor!"

"Detention for the entire week, Morris."

Morris gawped, unable to believe his ears. "But--but, sir!"

The professor glared. "I believe I have told you to stop bullying your housemates before, Morris, or are you simply too deaf to listen?" He glanced at Alice, who felt as though she was being scrutinized very thoroughly. "So this is Miss Potter."

"Good evening, professor." Alice replied smoothly, feeling as though she was in her own element. "Thank you for helping me." He briefly nodded and looked away, towards the common room at large. Noticing nothing out of the ordinary, he turned around on his heels and walked off, robes billowing behind him. Billowing. Alice stared. That is so cool. One of the prefects cleared her throat.

"The night is late, and I'm sure all of you are very tired. First years, follow me!"

It wasn't long before Alice found herself in what was going to be her bedroom for the rest of the year, and she literally fell onto the bed at the far side of the room, Hedwig hooting at her. "Oh, alright, I'll let you out for a bit." She sat up and turned towards the snowy owl, unlocking her cage and beckoning the owl out onto her own arm. She petted Hedwig very gently before opening one of the windows and letting her fly off. "Be back soon, you hear me?" Alice called, and then turned, hearing commotion in the room.

Three of the beds had already been taken by three other girls from Slytherin; the bed closest to her was the only one that lay empty. Last of all followed the girl from the train--Samara?--and she looked at Alice, and then the last bed. "So you're my dormmate now."

"Mmhmm. That I am." Alice looked at her; for some reason, Samara looked tired. "Are you going to be alright?"

"I'm fine, thanks." Samara replied bluntly, making Alice rub her forehead in exasperation. This was turning into a nightmare, fast; she had a feeling that she'd need someone to back her up, or she wouldn't have a very good year in the house.

She had no idea how right she was.

***

Allen Selwyn | Great Hall, morning

Allen had black circles around his eyes; he could literally feel his eyelids repeatedly trying to sew themselves shut. He hadn't really had a good start to the term, and being sorted into Gryffindor was more than he could bear. Rubbing his scar, which was sore from all the thinking and the tossing and the turning and the itching he had done to it while sleeping last night, he was almost ready to think it was going to drive him crazy.

"Allen!"

He looked around, and Alice plonked down bag at the Gryffindor table, ignoring the incredulous stares she had garnered from the other students. Allen gawped at her. "But--you're not supposed to--"

"Not supposed to what, exactly?" Alice glared. "I think I have the right to sit pretty much anywhere I want. It's not like I'm breaking the rules, am I?"

"But--!"

"Oh relax." Alice sat down beside him. "So how'd your first night go?"

He stared at her.

Sae Carrow I Great Hall, Morning

Sae slid gracefully onto the bench across from Owen and Matt at one of the tables in the Great Hall. Matt flicked through a deck of cards as he ate, while Owen was focused on repeating dueling spells to himself.

"I see morning has greeted you well," she said as she plucked a piece of toast from a platter and spread out the mornings Quibbler.

"You're reading that rubbish?" Owen asked, leaning over the table to stare - his face twisted in a strange, inquisitive expression that nearly made Sae right in his face - at a particular article written in runes.

"Oh, thank you," she said, turning the newspaper around. "You're right, this ought to be read this way."

He glanced at Matt, who stared back at him in complete bewilderment before glancing back down at his course schedule, obviously distressed. "Sae, what courses do you have this term?"

She took the folded paper that was her course schedule from the pocket of her robes and examined it. "It appears that I have all the same classes as you, considering we are in the same year," she said. "Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, Potions, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, et cetera, et cetera." She glanced up at Matt, worry still wrought across his face. "You look like you've got a Crumple-Horned Snokack problem," she said. "Why the look?"

Spoiler

It's late and it's all I've got xD

Samara | Great Hall - Morning:

Samara had not had a good night. She was Slytherin now, and she hated it. But she was glad she knew someone in the same house as her. Sure, it was Alice Potter and they shared a dorm room, and she wasn't sure if she liked Potter yet, but at least she knew someone. Tired, she stumbled to a stop in the doorway to the Great Hall. She didn't remember the walk up from the dungeons, let alone the password for the common room. Samara scowled, hesitating for a moment as she took in Potter sitting at the Gryffindor table.

"Miss Devereux," said a voice to her left, making Samara jump. She looked over to see the Professor dressed in black (that she had seen in the Slytherin common room the night before) standing beside her. "Is there a problem?"

Samara straightened up and pulled her mask back on. The professor frowned. "I'm fine, Professor...?" She gazed up at him with a faint frown. He merely stared back at her for a moment.

"Snape," he finally said. "Professor Snape. I trust you will remember that?" Samara nodded slowly. "Good. I shall see you in Potions class. Do not be late, and do tell me you are decent at potions." He turned away and stalked off towards the table at the far end of the hall, robes billowing out behind him.

Samara stared after him. How...odd, she thought and shook her head. Again, she frowned at Alice sitting at the Gryffindor table, then at the Slytherin table. She could go and be lonely with the rest of her house and feel like an outsider, or she could join Alice and Allen at the Gryffindor table and only feel slightly lonely and even more like an outsider. She sighed and made her way towards the Slytherin table. Maybe tomorrow she would join Alice Potter and the Selwyn boy.

She sat down beside a red-haired girl, also a first year, and looked at what was on offer for breakfast. Samara gave the girl a curious glance and looked away. She wasn't very interesting, really. Samara turned back to all the food laid out for breakfast, and sighed. She picked up some toast and a goblet of pumpkin juice and dug in--very restrained, of course. She had pureblood manners after all.

Bonnie – The Great Hall, morning

“Omnomnomnomnom.”

Bonnie positively shovelled cereal into her mouth, talking all the while. This was earning her quite a few looks of disgust around the Ravenclaw table, but either
she didn’t notice or she didn’t care.

When she’d finished, Bonnie looked with regret down at her empty bowl, then
jerked her head up upon seeing Professor Flitwick passing out the timetables.

“Ooh, goodie! I wanna learn to turn people into FROGS!”

As soon as her timetable was on her desk, Bonnie snatched it up.

“TRANSFIGURATION! Yippee!”

That was the exact lesson Bonnie had wanted- turning things into other things! Like turning people into FROGS!

Glancing at her watch, Bonnie realised that she had five minutes until lessons started. Figuring she’s better get started, she reached down to get her bag... and found herself groping the air for a bag that wasn’t there. Bonnie groaned. She must have left it in the common room!

“See-you-later,-be-right-back!” She yelled at Ben, and sprinted as fast as her
legs could carry her back up the stairs.

Of course, she only got halfway up before running out of breath. After that she plodded until she had enough energy to sprint again, then ran to Ravenclaw Tower.

“Let...me...in...please?” She panted at the Eagle Knocker.

“If the wand chooses the wizard, are wands alive?”

“YES!”

“How do you figure that?”

“Well, you have to be alive to choose, don’t you?”

“Not necessarily.”

“What? Of COURSE you do!”

“Ghosts can choose, can’t they?”

“Um, yes, but... they aren’t bits of wood.”

“It’s the same principle.”

“Is not!”

“Is too.”

“Is not!”

“Is too.”

Several minutes of debate later, Bonnie was allowed into the common room. She grabbed her bag, and ran out again, this time making for the Transfiguration classroom. Bonnie glanced at her watch again, and swore. She was over five minutes late. McGonagall wasn’t going to happy...

Spoiler

That was long...and rambly. Sorry.

Ben Fletcher | Transfiguration

Ben trudged into the Transfiguration classroom, letting his shoes scuff the stone floor as often as possible. He didn't like Ravenclaw. Sure, it was the house for all the smart people and that bloated his ego a bit, but the common room was all the way at the top of the castle in a freaking tower. Everyone he met yesterday on the train were in different houses. Now the only person he could really talk to was Bonnie. She was nice in a weird sort of way.

He slumped into a chair appropriately between the front and back of the room, dropping his bag beside him on the ground so it propped up against the leg of his desk. Reaching down he fished out his Transfiguration book then pulled his wand from inside his robes. He set his book down on the desk surface and placed his wand carefully on the right side. Transfiguration wasn't really something exciting to learn from his browsing of their first year textbook. It was simple and concise, without any flare like Charms. Turn this into that, woohoo. Maybe if it was something cool like straight up Alchemy he would care.

Ben noticed other students starting to shuffle into the room. He crossed his arms over the book below him and lowered his face until his chin rested on the arms. This class needed to end soon. He wanted to create diabolical weapons in Charms or a brew that would make people grow tentacles in Potions. He didn't want some snooty teachers holding his hand for seven years barely teaching any practical magic only to land some stupid desk job at the Ministry.

"Stupid Transfiguration," he muttered, letting out a deep sigh.

Alice Potter | Great Hall

It took a while before Allen had stopped shoveling food into his mouth, but if he was surprised that Alice had kept up with his pace, he had shown no indication of it. The redhead in question whipped out a handkerchief out of nowhere and used it to wipe the crumbs that had settled on her cheeks. "That was good food! I'm not sure how long it's been since I've eaten like that. Probably never. You looked pretty hungry, too."

"Oh, um...I'm always like that." He grinned amiably. "Let's go, I think our first class is about to start soon."

"What is it?"

"Transfiguration, I think..."

On the way out, Alice spotted Samara, nose deep in a book and decidedly ignoring the world around her. Alice called. "Hey, Samara! You're going to Transfiguration too, right?" Samara looked up from her book and over at Alice, with a questioning expression. Alice grinned broadly. "Do you mind if we come with you?"

"...I suppose not." Samara's nose disappeared into the book again, prompting Alice to take a good look at it. It was 'A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration' by Emeric Switch, and Alice's eyebrows rose higher. "You're studying already?"

Samara looked at Alice over her book. "Is that wrong?"

"I never said anything like that." Alice hummed. Today had gotten off to a brilliant start. "Do you like Hogwarts?"

"Do you like bothering people when they're studying?" The question came. Alice shrugged and grinned.

"Maybe I do." Before she could say anything else, however, someone knocked into Alice quite hard, sending her to the side. Alice glanced up to see the baby-blue eyes and brown hair of Leopoldina Rockharrow. Allen immediately started hissing. "Oh look. It's Rockharrow."

"Hello, Potter," Rockharrow snarled. "I see you're out with your two groupies. Having fun following in the Dark Lord's footsteps?"

"Now look here--" Allen started, but Alice quickly put a hand on his shoulder. She turned back to Rockharrow, who seemed to be busy sizing her up. Tilting her head to one side, she spoke.

"Is that what you call your friends, Leo? Your groupies?" Leopoldina looked as though she had a response for that, and would probably have said something had not Samara hadn't quickly brushed past her. Alice and Allen followed the Slytherin girl at a smart trot, leaving the Rockharrow girl fuming at their backs. Alice was the first to break the silence. "That was a waste of time."

"I agree."

"Same here." Alice and Allen stared at Samara. "What?"

"You actually agreed with Allen." Alice grinned. "You should be shocked."

Samara glanced over to Allen, who was rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, and turned back to her book, burying herself in it. It wasn't until they reached Transfiguration that the other two got anything out of her. She slammed the book shut, and strode in with her head held high, the other two following her at a distance. McGonagall glared at them.

"The three of you are late."

Samara | Transfiguration Class:

Samara chose to ignore the two behind her and took a seat at the only remaining empty table, which just happened to be near the back of the room. And jsut happened to be the only place for her two 'companions' to sit. Unfortunately, Samara sat in the middle of the desk, and the other two decided to plonk themselves down on either side of her.

"If you are quite ready now," McGonagall snapped and turned back to teaching, falling right back into where she left off--with a lecture about how not to transfigure something and how to do it right. Samara listened intently, but she knew she might not get it anyway. She hadn't been the best at practising Transfiguration back at home.

Meanwhile, though, her two companions were whispering behind her back--quite literally. She scowled at her book as she put it aside. She was already several chapters ahead of the rest of the class--except for a few students she could see who had also been reading ahead like her. Samara tried very hard to ignore the whispering going on behind her back, but it was getting incredibly hard. She was trying to concentrate on the twig that McGonagall wanted them to transfigure into a rock and already half the lesson had been wasted by their with their whispering!

"--Aquit saying that, Allen!" That was Alice, hissing at the boy on Samara's left. She rolled her eyes, keeping an eye on the teacher as she walked throughout the room. "She's not that bad."

"But--"

"No, Allen!" Alice hissed, trying to keep her voice down. Allen was protesting and, well, frankly both of the girls were sick of his complaining. Samara rolled her eyes, again and leaned back, making the others move out of the way.

"I can hear you, you know," she hissed, and leaned forward again as she got one end of the twig to turn into rock, while the other end did nothing. She scowled at it. "And I would advise you two to shut up now and try to transfigure the twig before the Professor notices that you're not concentrating on the lesson."

The pair fell silent after that and focused (or tried to, anyway) on the lesson. And for the next twenty minutes or so, the lesson was spent mostly in silence, except for the sudden and mostly random outbursts from the blond girl named Bonnie. Samara found her..odd. And somewhat annoying. She didn't know how anyone could stand the girl for more than a few minutes at a time.

Spoiler

You don't have to skip ahead yet. I just don't know what else to do, really. Either way, enjoy the lesson. By the way, someone's twig should blow up in their face or something. lol

Ben Fletcher | Transfiguration

Ben let out a growl laced with as much of his pent-up frustration as he could. No matter how many times he said the stupid spell or the miniscule changes to his way he moved his wand, the stupid twig just wouldn't turn into a stone. It has taken nearly half the allotted class time to produce a twig that had the general color of a rock, but still very twig-ish. This is stupid. I don't need to know this rubbish. It'd be more productive to just summon a rock. This became the chant he repeated to himself until even Bonnie's words were drowned out.

Lifting his wand once more, he thought the incantation for transfiguring wood to stone, but somewhere after the signal left his brain his mouth and hand conspired against him. The words he spoke were instead 'Incendio', which quickly set his twig ablaze along with most of his section of desk. After a moment of stunned paralysis, he swept his book off to the floor and cast a hasty 'Depulso' on his flaming twig sending it toward the back of the class in a wide arc ending in the area of one Alice Potter.

"Oh bugger." Ben spent a second feeling sorry for her before turning back on his desk to see it smoking, but lacking the fire from moments ago. On the other side stood one Professor Monacle looking as sour as ever.

"A week's detention, I should think Mr. Fletcher, and a foot of parchment on the proper safety procedures while practicing magic. And watch that mouth of yours."

With that and a rather furrowy brow, she moved swiftly to where Potter was dealing with her predicament.