Everyone's head turned toward the four boys who had just bursted into the classroom, all still breathing heavily from running. As it turned out, James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had gone for a detour around the castle last night and had lost track of time, returning back to their dorm hours after midnight. All this caused them to sleep in this morning, making them late for their first class of the day.
"Sorry — we're — late — Professor," said Remus, panting.
"Oh, It's all right. But that would be four points from Gryffindor. Make sure it doesn't happen again," said Professor Flitwick.
"It won't, sir," said James, though the grin across his face wasn't too reassuring.
"Okay, take your seats, boys," said the Professor as the four Gryffindors walked into the classroom. "We were just beginning the lesson."
Remus and Peter paired up together, meanwhile James and Sirius took two of the empty seats, which were near where Jenna was sitting with Alice.
As Professor Flitwick repeated the lesson for the newcomers, Jenna leaned toward James who was sitting on the row in front of her, whispering, "Where have you been?"
"Slept in," James said back quietly, shrugging.
Jenna knew that her brother never lied to her, but she could tell that there was more to that story. So without questioning him any further, she leaned back in her seat moodily and decided to stay quiet. Although she felt too distracted to actually listen to what Professor Flitwick was saying from then on.
"Now, about the wrist movement," the tiny Professor went on. "Please take out your wands, and then wordlessly follow me. The wand movement is quite simple; just swish and flick. Like so," he said, moving his wand gently.
The rest of the class followed his wrist movement, practicing for long minutes until Professor Flitwick finally asked them to use the incantation as well.
"Windardium Leviosa!" Jenna swished and flicked her wand while it was pointed at the feather before her, but nothing happened.
Not a minute had passed that James exclaimed in happiness when his feather was first to float upward.
"Oh, well done, Mr. potter!" Professor Flitwick cheered, clapping his hands together. "Well done!"
Shortly after, Sirius followed, managing to successfully make his feather fly. After long minutes, one by one the students got better at performing the charm, and the class was filled with floating feathers.
Everyone was enjoying the class, excited chatters filling up the classroom. At the end of the lesson, only Peter Pettigrew and Marlene McKinnon hadn't been able to perform the charm. Jenna smirked at the blonde girl's direction smugly as she floated her feather higher, and Marlene glared back at her in return.
Peter had gone red in the face while Remus tried to help him with the spell and correcting his wrist movements, but nothing worked and his feather remained still.
The air of excitement remained among the first years even after they had left the Charms class and made their way toward the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. They couldn't stop talking about how they had managed to make a feather fly, which counted as their first real spell. Although they also had another class to look forward to that night, which was Astronomy.
One of the only people who didn't seem excited about their first upcoming Astronomy class was Remus, who was looking rather tired and somehow paler than usual. The other three boys assumed that it was because of the lack of sleep they had due to their previous night's adventure.
Little did they know that Remus was actually hiding a dark secret from them all.
***
Later that night, the first years got ready and put on their Hogwarts robes again at around midnight, so they could go to the Astronomy tower.
"Ugh, stupid class!" Marlene groaned, putting her books and quill in her bag grumpily. "Whose stupid idea was it to have a class at midnight!"
"What's wrong with midnight?" Lily asked, trying to smile at her sympathetically.
"Yeah, what's wrong with midnight?" Jenna asked with a teasing grin. "Do you turn into a pumpkin or something after twelve o'clock?"
Marlene decided to ignore that remark and only glare at Jenna before turning to face Lily again.
"What's wrong with midnight is that it's midnight!" Marlene reasoned moodily. "Its too late! It takes away from the hours we get to sleep! My brain doesn't work after six p.m.!"
"Does it ever work?" Jenna smirked.
"Okay, listen here, you —!" Marlene was saying, but Lily quickly got a hold of her hand, trying to drag her out of the room.
"C'mon, let's go," Lily said quickly. "We don't want to be late."
Jenna giggled to herself once the two girls left the room, saying, "I like her."
"Do you really have tease her so much?" said Alice, picking up her bag and throwing it over her shoulder.
"Why not? It's so easy to annoy her. It's fun!" Jenna chuckled before leaving the dormitory along with Alice.
Once they went down to the common room, Jenna stopped to look around. "You go on without me, Alice. I'll wait for my brother."
"Oh... are you sure?" Alice asked, smiling warmly.
"Yes, of course." Jenna nodded at her confidently.
"Okay, then," said Alice. "I'll see you in class." And so with a small wave at her, Alice left the common room along with the other first years.
Sighing lightly, Jenna sat down in a corner as she waited for James to come down the boys' dormitory. But fifteen minutes passed and there was still no sign of him.
Growing frustrated, Jenna checked her watch. When she saw that she only had ten minutes to go all the way to the Astronomy tower, she finally gave up waiting for him and left the common room, not wanting to be late for class.
Jenna had to run all the way across the castle, losing her way twice until she finally found the Astronomy tower right on time.
Although she stopped in her tracks when she walked up to the class, only to see that James was already there, talking and laughing with Sirius, Remus, and Peter.