On Monday morning, the first years had their first day of lessons. As Professor McGonagall had told them when they arrived, the students from each house would have their lessons together, joining students from other houses for certain lessons.
"So, we've got Charms with the Gryffindors first thing this morning," Rowan said, over breakfast, pointedly ignoring a group of Ravenclaw students who were whispering as they walked past Artemis. "Then, after that we have Potions with the Slytherins."
Dora Tonks, sitting in the seat next to Rowan, groaned loudly.
"What's wrong with Potions?" Penny Haywood asked her. "It's the thing I'm most looking forward to."
"Have you not heard about Snape?" Dora said. "He's the Potionsmaster and head of Slytherin. Apparently he's foul, and favours his house massively. Just our luck to be put with the Slytherins for his class."
"I'm sure they won't be that bad," Penny breezed. "Even Professor Snape. He's probably just misunderstood."
Artemis and Rowan continued their conversation as Penny and Dora continued to discuss Professor Snape.
"I'm looking forward to Charms," Artemis said.
"I've heard Professor Flitwick is a great teacher," Rowan replied. "Did you know before he became a professor he was a champion dueller?"
"A dueller?" Artemis said, her eyebrows raised. "Like fighting with wands? That sounds pretty cool."
"Unfortunately they don't have a club for it," Rowan grinned at her.
"That's a shame. It's one of the few clubs I'd actually be interested in trying."
Artemis didn't know what she'd expected from a former duelling champion, but it certainly wasn't Professor Flitwick. He had a friendly face, a smart moustache, and was tiny, even compared to Artemis. As the lesson started, he climbed up onto a stack of books in order to teach the class. Artemis took a seat near the front, next to Rowan.
For their first lesson, Professor Flitwick would be teaching them a spell that was both useful and fairly simple, at least, so he told them.
"Lumos," he said, and the tip of his wand glowed brightly. "See? This is the wand-lighting charm."
After a few demonstrations and a brief lecture on wand safety, Flitwick asked the students to practise the spell in pairs.
"Do you want to go first or shall I?" Artemis asked Rowan.
"You go first," Rowan said, opening her copy of The Standard Book Of Spells. "I want to have a quick read up about the proper pronunciation and wand movement, first."
"Okay," Artemis said, raising her wand in the way Professor Flitwick had demonstrated. "Lumos!"
She cast the spell, and the tip of her wand lit up like a Christmas tree, with a bright, unflickering glow. Rowan looked up over the top of her book, clearly impressed. Professor Flitwick witnessed the event, and looked delighted.
"Well, look at that," he squealed, almost toppling off his stack of books. "We have our first successfully lit wand!"
He looked at Artemis' face and his eyes widened slightly. Artemis knew why. She and her brother looked alike, and Flitwick was the head of Ravenclaw house. He'd obviously recognised her as Jacob's sister.
At the end of the class, by which time almost all of the students had managed to light their wands at least once, Professor Flitwick called Artemis over to talk with him.
"You go ahead," Artemis said to Rowan. "If I'm late, do you mind telling Professor Snape why?"
"Don't fret, I won't keep you long," Flitwick giggled. "I just wanted to tell you that I was very impressed by your efforts today, Miss Hexley. I don't recall ever seeing a student master that charm so successfully on their first attempt."
"It was probably just luck," Artemis said, but she found herself smiling regardless.
"Perhaps, although I do remember that your brother had a proficiency for wandwork, too," said Professor Flitwick, and Artemis recognised a look of sadness in his eyes. "I do regret what happened to Jacob. He was an excellent student, when he wasn't causing havoc. I do hope you haven't inherited his talent for trouble."
Artemis hesitated. She had attended no less than six Muggle schools after she, Jacob, and her mother moved to their house in Lovelace Crescent, and had lasted at none of them more than two months. Not that it was her fault, of course. Everyone knew that very young witches and wizards weren't always able to control their magic. But she obviously couldn't explain to the Muggles why her maths book kept catching fire every time she was asked to recite her times tables, or how she kept managing to escape from the classroom and get to the monkey bars so quickly before the teachers even noticed she had gone.
"I hope not, too," Artemis said, eventually. "I suppose we'll find out."
This response made Professor Flitwick giggle even more, and Artemis was dismissed without having to be late for Potions.
When she arrived outside the classroom, she saw Rowan deep in what looked like a rather heated conversation with a girl in Slytherin robes.
"What's going on?" Artemis said, approaching Rowan and the Slytherin girl. Although the other girl was the shorter of the two, Rowan looked very intimidated by her. "Who are you?"
"I'm Merula Snyde," the girl said. She wasn't as short as Artemis - then again, who was? - but she was even skinnier. She a pale pointed face, with violet coloured eyes and spiky bobbed brown hair that had an orange streak through the fringe. "I was just telling Khanna here who she's dealing with."
"And she is dealing with..."
"Me," Merula sneered down at Artemis. "I'm the most powerful witch at Hogwarts."
Artemis and Rowan exchanged glances, and Artemis tried hard not to snigger.
"You disagree, do you?" Merula asked.
"Well, yes," Rowan said. "You're hardly more powerful than Professor McGonagall. You're probably not even as powerful as Artemis - she just managed to cast Lumos perfectly on her first attempt."
"Artemis?" Merula Snyde looked Artemis up and down. "Artemis Hexley?"
"That's me."
"You're the one with the mad brother who got expelled for killing someone then ran off and joined You-Know-Who."
"No," Artemis said, the colour rising in her cheeks. "That's not true."
"Isn't it?" Merula smirked. "I heard that your whole family is either mad, or cursed, or both. Which is it for you?"
"None," Artemis snapped. "You don't know what you're talking about. Come on, Rowan, let's go and find a seat."
"Be careful, Khanna," Merula called after Artemis and Rowan as they entered the Potions classroom. "If I were you, I'd find some other friends. Everyone knows what happens to people who get too close to the Hexleys."
"Ignore her," Rowan said, taking a seat in the far corner of the classroom. Artemis sat down next to her, seething with silent fury. "Let's just keep ourselves to ourselves this lesson."
As bad luck would have it, the empty seat on the other side of Artemis was taken by none other than the would-be most powerful witch at Hogwarts.
"Ergh," Merula sneered. "I hope I don't catch the Hexley curse sitting here."
"I hope I don't catch your stench," Artemis shot back, turning her body so that Merula wouldn't see how angry she was.
Professor Snape was every bit as intimidating as Rowan and Dora Tonks had said he would be. He started the lesson by asking questions about various Potions ingredients, all of which Penny Haywood appeared to know the answers to, as she cheerfully raised her hand for each one, earning five house points for Hufflepuff in the process.
"Were we supposed to read up on this before school even started?" Artemis whispered to Rowan, so quietly that she hoped Merula wouldn't hear her.
"Not that I was aware," Rowan whispered back, "but I always think it's better to read ahead and be prepared."
Snape caught the two of them whispering, and took away the five house points Penny had just earned. Artemis sighed. She already hated this class. She just hoped that nothing would catch fire the way it used to at Muggle school.
Once Professor Snape had finished his lecture, the students set about making their potions, a cure for boils. Actually making potions turned out to not be so bad after all. All Artemis had to do was follow the steps in the instructions, and she'd have the right potion. That, and ignore the comments about her and her brother that Merula Snyde kept hissing under her breath, which was a much more difficult feat.
"Shut up, shut up, shut up," Artemis said, eventually reaching the end of her tether. She wheeled around in her seat to face Merula, and knocked over her mortar full of powdered ginger root.
"How clumsy of you, Hexley," Merula laughed.
Artemis stormed over to the storage cupboard to collect more ginger root, and returned to her seat to grind it up with the pestle all over again. This set her back a little, but she thought that she would probably still be able to finish the potion by the end of the lesson. Or, at least, that's what she thought at first.
"Artemis," Rowan said, sniffing the air. "Do you smell that?"
Artemis sniffed as well. Something definitely smelt off. She looked at Merula, who was smirking into her own cauldron.
"It smells almost like burning," Rowan said. She leaned towards Artemis' cauldron to sniff the potion again.
"No!" Artemis grabbed Rowan and pulled her back from the potion, a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Get down!"
She pulled Rowan under the workbench with her as the cauldron exploded. Her unfinished cure for boils was plastered all over the workbench, the shelves behind her, even the ceiling. The entire class turned around and stared.
Professor Snape swept over to her. He bent over to inspect the mess, and when he stood up straight, Artemis saw that his face was like thunder
"You imbecile, Hexley," he said. "At no point does this recipe call for bulbadox powder. Why would you think it safe as a novice to add ingredients that are not mentioned in the recipe, you arrogant fool?"
"I never added bulbadox powder," Artemis protested. Beside her, Merula was watching the scene gleefully over the top of her cauldron. "Sir, I think Merula Snyde might know how that ended up in my potion, though."
"I didn't add anything to your potion, Hexley!" Merula snapped at her, her smile quickly turning into a scowl.
"Ten house points from Hufflepuff," Snape said. "Five for reckless potioneering, and five for trying to frame another student for your own stupid misjudgement."
He waved his wand a single time, and the mess instantly vanished. Another wave of his wand, and Artemis' cauldron was repaired. With a look of disdain, he stalked away.
"I can't believe you ratted on me," Merula snarled at Artemis, once Snape was out of earshot.
"So it was you, then."
"I'm not going to let you blame me without proof."
"Right," Artemis said. She looked at Rowan and rolled her eyes.
"You're just as loopy as your brother. You know, I might see if anyone wants to place bets on how long it will be before you snap and go mad like he did."
Artemis was furious about the events of her first abysmal Potions lesson. Jane Court, the prefect, was even angrier than she was.
"Artemis Hexley," she said, rounding on Artemis as she and Rowan were doing their homework in the Common Room that evening. "What's this I hear about you losing fifteen house points in a single lesson?"
"That wasn't my fault," Artemis told her. "Well, five of the points were for talking, so I guess those were my fault, but -"
"I should have known you'd cause us problems," Jane said. "I've heard all about you and your brother."
"You know, you shouldn't believe everything you hear," said Artemis, throwing down her quill.
"Well, Jacob Hexley got expelled, and you've managed to lose more house points than all the rest of the first years put together on only your first day. It doesn't take a genius to work out that you're going to be just as much trouble as he was."
"Just as well you're not a genius, then," Artemis stood up and faced the prefect, feeling the anger she'd been trying push down all day rise in her at last. "I'd say if anything, you're far from it."
"You can't talk to me like that, I'm a prefect," Jane snapped at her. "You have to treat me with respect."
"Well, I don't respect you," Artemis said, her voice raised. Several other students were watching the argument from their seats around the common room. "I doubt any of the others do either. Maybe if you got off your high Hippogriff for more than five seconds you could do something to earn our respect."
"I'm going to be telling Professor Sprout about this," Jane told her, her cheeks flushed red.
"Fine, you do that."
Artemis grabbed her homework and stormed out of the common room. As she got to the barrels, she heard Jane Court's voice snap at her again.
"Just my luck, Hexley, that you got sorted into Hufflepuff and I got landed with you!"
Artemis ran down the corridor and up the stairs. She wasn't sure where she was going, but she needed to get away from the common room. She ran until she was outside of the castle, and only stopped as she collided head first into the bearded giant who had taken the first years across the Black Lake just a two nights previously.
"Sorry," she said.
"Tha's alrigh'," Hagrid frowned at her, his black eyes filled with concern under his bushy eyebrows. "Now, wha's the matter with yeh?"
"Nothing," Artemis lied.
"Nothin'," Hagrid nodded. "Righ'."
Artemis sighed, and looked up at the giant. Despite his enormous size, he had an incredibly friendly face.
"Yer Jacob's sister, en't yeh?" Hagrid asked her, kindly. "I knew yer brother. Nice kid, tha' Jacob. Tha' ruddy Skeeter woman printin' all those lies abou' 'im mus' be makin' things hard for yeh."
"Just a bit," Artemis nodded, and she told Hagrid all about the stares and the whispers, the fiasco with Merula Snyde in Potions, and her argument with Jane Court. Hagrid listened patiently, nodding his head in sympathy. As she finished her story, she heard someone call out her name.
"Artemis!"
She turned around and saw Rowan running towards her.
"I've been looking for you," Rowan said. "I told Jane all about what happened in Potions, and how horrible Merula was being about your brother. Jane's still not happy with you about the argument, but she's a bit less annoyed about the house points now."
"Thanks, Rowan," said Artemis, giving Rowan a half-hearted smile.
"Yeh know, it sounds teh me like yeh've jus' had a bad day," Hagrid said.
"You can say that again."
"It wasn't all bad, though," Rowan said. "You did amazingly in Charms, remember? You did the best wand lighting out of anyone."
"Ah, see," Hagrid patted Artemis on the back. "I bet if yeh have a good sleep, yeh'll feel much better in the mornin'. An' tomorrow yeh can star' again."
"Yeah," Artemis said, nodding. "I should probably go and apologise to Jane, too. It wasn't her fault that Merula sabotaged my potion."
"Maybe do that in the morning, too," said Rowan, "when you've both had a chance to calm down."
"Righ'," Hagrid nodded. "The two of yeh had bes' be gettin' back to yer dormitory. But, if yeh ever wan' ter have a chat and a cuppa, yeh can always swing by my hut."
"Thank you, Hagrid."
Hagrid walked toward the grounds. After he'd gone, Rowan put one arm around Artemis' shoulders and the pair of them walked back to their dormitory together.
The next morning, when Artemis arrived in the Great Hall, she saw that Jane Court was already talking to Professor Sprout, the head of Hufflepuff house, near the teachers' table. Artemis made to walk over to them.
"Are you sure you want to do this now?" Rowan asked her. "Shouldn't you plan what you're going to say, or at least wait until she's done talking to Professor Sprout?"
"Waiting will only make it harder."
"Here she is now," Jane said to Professor Sprout as Artemis approached them.
"You must be Artemis," said Professor Sprout. She was a broad lady with a weather beaten face and curly hair. She had dirt under her stubby fingernails, and a warm smile. She seemed much more approachable than the prefect. "Jane here has just been telling me about your little altercation in the common room last night. I expect you've come over to explain your side of the story?"
"Sort of," Artemis said. "I came over to apologise to Jane for shouting at her, actually. I didn't mean to, I just lost my temper. I'm sorry."
Professor Sprout smiled at Artemis, before turning to look expectantly at Jane Court, who sighed.
"Apology accepted," Jane said, shortly. Artemis felt that this wasn't true, but she nodded anyway.
"Very good," said Professor Sprout. "Artemis, you must learn how to control your temper. Your behaviour last night was not acceptable."
"I know," Artemis said. "I'd just had a horrid day with a girl exploding my cauldron in Potions, and Snape blaming me, and then when Jane said that stuff about my brother, I-"
"What did you say about Artemis' brother, Jane?" Professor Sprout was frowning at Jane Court, who looked abashed, and muttered something whilst staring at her feet. "I'm sorry, Miss Court, I didn't quite catch that."
"I said that he was a troublemaker," Jane said, still looking at the ground, "and that I wasn't surprised that Artemis was as well."
"I see," Professor Sprout nodded slowly. "Jane, I am surprised at you. As a prefect you are supposed to be a role model and uphold our house values. In Hufflepuff house we do not judge others by their background, do you understand?"
"Yes, Professor. Sorry, Professor."
"I think you are apologising to the wrong person here, Jane."
Jane sighed, and looked at Artemis, her cheeks pink.
"Sorry, Artemis."
"That's okay, Jane."
"Excellent, girls. Now, Artemis, I understand that what Jane said to you made you angry, and rightly so," said Professor Sprout, "but you from now on when you feel angry about something, I expect you to channel that anger into something that is useful and good. Shouting at your prefect - or anyone, for that matter - is not an appropriate course of action."
"Yes, Professor."
Artemis and Jane were both dismissed, and although Artemis no longer felt resentful towards Jane, she could tell that her perfect was the sort to hold a grudge. She took a seat with Rowan at the breakfast table.
"Where are Penny and Dora?"
"Over there, by the Gryffindor table," Rowan answered her. Artemis turned to look, and saw that Penny Haywood and Dora Tonks were deep into a very animated conversation with a group of Gryffindors who were seated at their own table, along with a couple of Ravenclaw students, who were standing around to listen.
"Looks like they're talking about something interesting," Artemis said, reaching over and picking up a slice of toast. "I wonder-"
She stopped dead mid-sentence, as Dora Tonks screwed up her face, and her features changed into those of Jane Court. Jane-not-Jane held up a finger and waggled it in Penny Haywood's face, before screwing up her face, and suddenly looking just like Artemis.
Artemis watched herself rant and rave as Dora imitated her, changing her appearance back and forth between Jane and Artemis, obviously re-enacting the argument for the other students, who were all listening intently. Most of them were laughing.
"Oh, Artemis," said Rowan, also watching the scene unfold. "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault," Artemis said, sadly, looking down at her toast. "I thought they were going to be our friends."
"Do you want to go and talk to them?"
"No," said Artemis, still thinking about Professor Sprout's advice. "No, I'll only lose my temper and get in trouble again. Let's just forget about them and go to our lessons. Just the two of us."
"Being weird together?"
"Exactly. Being weird together."