Mione and I made our way to the Great Hall, where everyone was already seated. I scanned the room, looking for Ron and Harry. Where were they?
Suddenly, I saw the doors to the Great Hall come open and Ron and Harry were rushing in. They sat down nowhere near us and a moment later I completely understood why.
I looked up.
Innumerable candles were hovering in midair over four long, crowded tables, making the golden plates and goblets sparkle. Overhead, the bewitched ceiling, which always mirrored the sky outside, sparkled with stars.
Through the forest of pointed black Hogwarts hats, the first years were coming through the doors. Ginny was among them, easily visible because of her vivid Weasley hair. Meanwhile, Professor McGonagall, a bespectacled witch with her hair in a tight bun, was placing the famous Hogwarts Sorting Hat on a stool before the newcomers.
Every year, this aged old hat, patched, frayed, and dirty, sorted new students into the four Hogwarts houses (Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin). I well remembered putting it on, exactly one year ago, and waiting, petrified, for its decision as it muttered aloud in my ear. I had ended up in Gryffindor, along with Ron, Hermione, and the rest of the Weasleys. Last term, we had helped Gryffindor win the House Championship, beating Slytherin for the first time in seven years.
A very small, mousy-haired boy had been called forward to place the hat on his head. my eyes wandered past him to where Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster, sat watching the Sorting from the staff table, his long silver beard and half-moon glasses shining brightly in the candlelight. Several seats along, I saw Gilderoy Lockhart, dressed in robes of aquamarine. And there at the end was Hagrid, huge and hairy, drinking deeply from his goblet.
I sighed at Lockhart. How could one person be so handsome? I never understood how even Ron and Harry didn't find him attractive.
***
After the feast, Hermione and I couldn't find Harry and Ron, so we decided to go looking for them.
We looked in the corridors for a while, when I finally saw them.
I ran to them and they turned to see me and Hermione running towards them.
"There you are! Where have you been? The most ridiculous rumors - someone said you'd been expelled for crashing a flying car" Hermione said, exasperated.
"Well, we haven't been expelled," Harry assured us.
"You're not telling me you did fly here?!" I said, excited.
"That is not the tone you should use with them" Hermione said to me sharply.
"Skip the lecture," said Ron impatiently, "and tell us the new password."
"It's 'wattlebird,"' said Hermione impatiently, "but that's not the point - "
Her words were cut short, however, as the portrait of the fat lady swung open and there was a sudden storm of clapping. It looked as though the whole of Gryffindor House was still awake, packed into the circular common room, standing on the lopsided tables and squashy armchairs, waiting for them to arrive. Arms reached through the portrait hole to pull Harry and Ron inside, leaving Hermione and me to scramble in after them.
Once Hermione and I got in, I saw many things.
Ron was scarlet in the face, grinning embarrassedly,probably from all the attention he was getting, but I could see one person who didn't look happy at all.
Percy was visible over the heads of some excited first years, and he seemed to be trying to get near enough to start telling them off.
"Got to get upstairs - bit tired," he said, and the two of them started pushing their way toward the door on the other side of the room, which led to a spiral staircase and the dormitories.
"'Night," Harry called back to me and Hermione, who was wearing a scowl just like Percy's.
"Night!" I called back, but I wasn't going to sleep. This party looked like fun. "Hello Evangeline, not mad like your sis' here are ya?" asked a deep voice behind me. "No Handsomeest Man Alive, I'm not, I'm actually thinking why they didn't let me come with them." "So you admit that I'm handsome?" Fred asked, wiggling his eyebrows.
But before I could answer, I had an interruption "come on Em," Hermione said, pulling my arm. She dragged me to the dorms, where it was the exact same as last year. And let me say. it was the best sleep I've had in a while.
-=•••=-
The next morning in the Great Hall, Hermione and I were reading Voyages with Vampires again when Harry and Ron came in. "Morning" we said at the same time. But Hermione said it in a different tone. One was stiff, and the other one was welcoming.
Neville sat next to us and was a cheerful and forgetful as last year."Mail's due any minute - I think Gran's sending a few things I forgot."
I had almost finished the book when, sure enough, there was a rushing sound overhead and a hundred or so owls streamed in, circling the hall and dropping letters and packages into the chattering crowd. A big, lumpy package bounced off Neville's head and, a second later, something large and gray fell into my jug, spraying us all with milk and feathers.
"Errol!" said Ron, pulling the bedraggled owl out by the feet. Errol slumped, unconscious, onto the table, his legs in the air and a damp red envelope in his beak. Errol looked at me and chirped, like he recognized me.
"Oh, no -" Ron gasped."It's all right, he's still alive," said Hermione, prodding Errol gently with the tip of her finger
"It's not that - it's that."Ron was pointing at the red envelope.I glared at it, knowing exactly what it was
"What's the matter?" said Harry"She's - she's sent me a Howler," said Ron faintly."You'd better open it, Ron," said Neville in a timid whisper. "It'll be worse if you don't My gran sent me one once, and I ignored it and" - he gulped - "it was horrible."
Harry looked from their petrified faces to the red envelope."What's a Howler?" he said.But Ron's whole attention was fixed on the letter, which had begun to smoke at the corners.
"I got a Howler over the summer Ron, it's not so bad, it will all be over in a few minutes." I whispered to him.
Ron stretched out a shaking hand, eased the envelope from Errol's beak, and slit it open. Neville stuffed his fingers in his ears. A split second later, I knew why. I thought for a moment it had exploded; a roar of sound fiIled the huge hall, shaking dust from the ceiling. His was much worse than mine.
"STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE -"
Mrs. Weasley's yells, a hundred times louder than usual, made the plates and spoons rattle on the table, and echoed deafeningly off the stone walls. People throughout the hall were swiveling around to see who had received the Howler, and Ron sank so low in his chair that only his crimson forehead could be seen.
"- LETTER FROM LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS, YOU AND HARRY COULD BOTH HAVE DIED
"-ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED - YOUR FATHER'S FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT ANOTHER TOE OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME."
A ringing silence fell. The red envelope, which had dropped from Ron's hand, burst into flames and curled into ashes. Harry and Ron sat stunned, as though a tidal wave had just passed over them. A few people laughed and, gradually, a babble of talk broke out again.
Hermione closed Voyages with Vampires and looked down at the top of Ron's head.
"Well, I don't know what you expected, Ron, but you -"
"Don't tell me I deserved it," snapped Ron.
Professor McGonagall was moving along the table, handing out course schedules. I took mine and saw that we had double Herbology with the Hufepuffs first. I think Neville liked that.
Harry, Ron, me, and Hermione left the castle together, crossed the vegetable patch, and made for the greenhouses, where the magical plants were kept. At least the Howler had done one good thing: Hermione seemed to think Harry and Ron had now been punished enough and was being perfectly friendly again. I don't think it was the best way to change her, but it was efficient.
As we neared the greenhouses we saw the rest of the class standing outside, waiting for Professor Sprout. Harry, Ron, me, and Hermione had only just joined them when she came striding into view across the lawn, accompanied by Gilderoy Lockhart. Professor Sprout's arms were full of bandages, I spotted the Whomping Willow in the distance, several of its branches now in slings. I glanced at Harry knowingly and he smiled.
Professor Sprout was a squat little witch who wore a patched hat over her flyaway hair; there was usually a large amount of earth on her clothes and her fingernails. Gilderoy Lockhart, however, was immaculate in sweeping robes of turquoise, his golden hair shining under a perfectly positioned turquoise hat with gold trimming.
"Oh, hello there!" he called, beaming around at the assembled students. "Just been showing Professor Sprout the right way to doctor a Whomping Willow! But I don't want you running away with the idea that I'm better at Herbology than she is! I just happen to have met several of these exotic plants on my travels . . ."
"Greenhouse three today, chaps!" said Professor Sprout, who was looking distinctly disgruntled, not at all her usual cheerful self.
There was a murmur of interest. We had only ever worked in greenhouse one before - greenhouse three housed far more interesting and dangerous plants. Professor Sprout took a large key from her belt and unlocked the door. I caught a whiff of damp earth and fertilizer mingling with the heavy perfume of some giant, umbrella- sized flowers dangling from the ceiling. I was about to follow inside when Lockhart's hand shot out.
"Harry! I've been wanting a word - you don't mind if he's a couple of minutes late, do you, Professor Sprout?"
Judging by Professor Sprout's scowl, she did mind, but Lockhart said, "That's the ticket," and closed the greenhouse door in her face.
"What do you think he wanted to talk about?" I asked Hermione while we were walking to Greenhouse 3. "No idea" she said, and no one mentioned it.
After a while, Harry did come in, and stand between me and Hermione.
Professor Sprout was standing behind a trestle bench in the center of the greenhouse. About twenty pairs of different-colored ear muffs were lying on the bench.
She said, "We'll be repotting Mandrakes today. Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?" To nobody's surprise apparently, Hermione and me were the first hands into the air.
We smiled at each other and chanted:
"Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative," we said "It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their original state."
"Excellent. Twenty points to Gryffindor," said Professor Sprout. "The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?"
Hermione and I shot our hands up again."The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it," we said promptly.
"Precisely. Take another twenty points," said Professor Sprout. "Now, the Mandrakes we have here are still very young."She pointed to a row of deep trays as she spoke, and everyone shuffled forward for a better look. A hundred or so tufty little plants, purplish green in color, were growing there in rows.
'"Everyone take a pair of earmuffs," said Professor Sprout.There was a scramble as everyone tried to seize a pair that wasn't pink and fluffy. I had to get a pink and fluffy one.
"When I tell you to put them on, make sure your ears are completely covered," said Professor Sprout. "When it is safe to remove them, I will give you the thumbs-up. Right - earmuffs on."
I snapped the earmuffs over my ears. They shut out sound completely. Professor Sprout put the pink, fluffy pair over her own ears, rolled up the sleeves of her robes, grasped one of the tufty plants firmly, and pulled hard.
Instead of roots, a small, muddy, and extremely ugly baby popped out of the earth. The leaves were growing right out of his head. He had pale green, mottled skin, and was clearly bawling at the top of his lungs.
Professor Sprout took a large plant pot from under the table and plunged the Mandrake into it, burying him in dark, damp compost until only the tufted leaves were visible. Professor Sprout dusted off her hands, gave them all the thumbs-up, and removed her own earmuffs.
"As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries won't kill yet," she said calmly as though she'd just done nothing more exciting than water a begonia. "However, they will knock you out for several hours, and as I'm sure none of you want to miss your first day back, make sure your earmuffs are securely in place while you work. I will attract your attention when it is time to pack up.
"Four to a tray - there is a large supply of pots here - compost in the sacks over there - and be careful of the Venemous Tentacula, it's teething."
She gave a sharp slap to a spiky, dark red plant as she spoke, making it draw in the long feelers that had been inching sneakily over her shoulder.
Harry, Ron, Hermione, and I were joined at our tray by a curly-haired Hufflepuff boy I knew by sight but had never spoken to.
"Justin Finch-Fletchley," he said brightly, shaking Harry by the hand. "Know who you are, of course, the famous Harry Potter... And you're - always top in everything," Hermione smiled at this "You're the one who's the top of class and in 2 houses" he said, gesturing to me, I smiled at him, it felt good to get validation. "- and Ron Weasley. Wasn't that your flying car?"
Ron didn't smile. The Howler was obviously still on his mind.
"That Lockhart's something, isn't he?" said Justin happily as we began fiIling their plant pots with dragon dung compost. "Awfully brave chap. Have you read his books? Id have died of fear if Id been cornered in a telephone booth by a werewolf, but he stayed cool and - zap - just fantastic."
"My name was down for Eton, you know. I can't tell you how glad I am I came here instead. Of course, Mother was slightly disappointed, but since I made her read Lockhart's books I think she's begun to see how useful it'll be to have a fully trained wizard in the family . . . ."
After that we didn't have much chance to talk. Our earmuffs were back on and we needed to concentrate on the Mandrakes. Professor Sprout had made it look extremely easy, but it wasn't. The Mandrakes didn't like coming out of the earth, but didn't seem to want to go back into it either. They squirmed, kicked, flailed their sharp little fists, and gnashed their teeth; I spent ten whole minutes trying to squash a particularly fat one into a pot.
By the end of the class, I, like everyone else, was sweaty, aching, and covered in earth. Everyone traipsed back to the castle for a quick wash and then the Gryffindors hurried off to Transfiguration.
~
Hey there! Here's another chapter. Sorry for the delay, summer is busy though. Please:
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