❃ ☆ Chapter Two ☆ ❃
FIRST DAY STRUGGLES
"ARE YOU TWO REALLY THAT STUPID?"
The Start-of-Term feast had just finished and instead of going to bed like prefect, Percy Weasley told the younger Gryffindors to do, the children and Kit sat in the common room, waiting for the two boys who had somehow flew - that's right, flew - a car right into the Whomping Willow at school.
After a hour of waiting, which seem like an eternity for Kit and a couple of the other students who all had their hands rested on their hands and their eyes blinking rapidly for sleep from the heaviness they felt from the feast, the two boys, Harry and Ron, entered into the common room with a red-faced Hermione following behind them. Shouts and cheers erupted around them. The Gryffindors were all trying to grab onto Harry and Ron to drag them into the room which made Hermione scramble in after them.
"Brilliant! Inspired! What an entrance! Flying a car right into the Whomping Willow, people'll be talking about that one for years!"
"Good on you."
"Why couldn't you've called us back, eh?"
Kit elbowed her way through towards the front of the large crowd that formed around the boys. "Are you two really that stupid? Well, I know you guys always do stupid stuff. But flying a car! I mean that sounds awesome, like invite me next time guys but still, very, very stupid."
Kit continued to ramble on but Ron didn't notice, instead, his eyes were directed behind Kit towards a very pissed off brother who was trying to ram his way through the crowd, his prefect badge reflecting off the light in the room.
"Yeah, yeah next time. Um... got to get upstairs - a bit tired," he said, then both him and Harry headed off towards the door on the other side of the room which led to the upstairs dormitories.
"Night," Harry called back to Hermione, who was standing behind of Kit and next to Percy Weasley. A scowl is worn on both of their faces.
After the two "celebrities" left the room, everyone started to head off to bed. The second-year boys ran off first and soon the common room went silent with the faint sound of fire crackling in the fireplace. Kit was upstairs in the second year girl's dormitories setting up her bed. Most of the girls were in the bathroom getting ready for bed. Hermione was already fast asleep with her nightstand candle off. Kit sits down on her bed and picks up her copy of Quidditch Through the Ages that was placed next to her. She opens the book to a random page in the middle but something sticking out from the inside of the back of the book caught her attention.
Kit pulls it out to reveal a moving picture of her family. Her parents found out that the wizarding world has moving pictures after Ivrin brought home a camera that a friend of his gave to him for his birthday fourth year and taught him how to make the pictures move using a special potion. The picture has Kit and Ivrin placed in the front of their parents smiling at the camera with their arms over each other's shoulders. Their parents were laughing in the back because of a joke Henry Meverlane had made seconds before the picture was taken.
Kit smiles down at the picture and puts it back her book. She lays down in her bed and places the book next to her on her nightstand. She closes her eyes and her thoughts get taken over by dreams of flying and her family cheering for her in the crowd.
⋆ ⋆ ⋆
It was the next morning and all of the Hogwarts students were seated in the Great Hall eating breakfast. Kit and Ivrin were both eating porridge across from each other with Ginny, who was writing in a small journal, seated left of Kit in the middle of the Gryffindor table alone in a comfortable silence when suddenly a loud cough came from behind Kit.
She turns to see Ron and Harry standing behind him, Hermione stood across from them next to Ivrin. They all wore a grimace on their face. Kit waits for them to say something with one of her eyebrows raised but the trio continued to keep their mouths shut and instead they all took their seats, Ron sits next to her. She looks over at her brother who had looked up from a muggle book with the words Matilda on the front cover in his hand to give her a confused look and Ginny only rolled her eyes at Ron and went back to writing. Kit looks down at her bowl of food and the small group sat awkwardly in silence.
The silence lasted for a couple of minutes when loud screeches came from above them. Owls were flying over the Great Hall with some of the students' mail in their beaks. Flying in their direction was Bugs and what looks to be an old great grey owl behind him. As they got closer the two owls didn't slow down in which causes them to crash into each other and plummet onto the table, right in front of Kit and Ron.
"Bugs!"
"Errol!"
The two owls laid on their backs with Kit's porridge splattered all over them. Bugs was holding onto a letter that was addressed from Kit's parents and the great grey owl held a bright scarlet envelope.
"Oh no," said Ron.
"It's all right, he's still alive," replied Hermione.
"It's not that - it's that."
Ron pointed down at the red envelope. Kit looked down at it with curiosity but the looks of Ron and the nervous boy seated next to him, Neville Longbottom told her that it wasn't something good. Their expression made it look like the envelope was going to explode in front of them.
"What's the matter?" questioned Harry.
"She's - she's sent me a Howler."
"Oh, not one of those, please. I don't want a headache this early in the morning," groaned out Ivrin, his hands covering his ears.
"A headache? How would an envelope give you a headache?" asked Kit, her gaze going to Ivrin then back to the envelope that was smoking out of its corners in Ron's shaking hands.
Neville began to whisper, "You'd better open it, Ron. It'll be worse if you don't. My gran sent me one once, and I ignored it and-" he gulped, "it was horrible."
"And mum being mum, you're dead Ron," Ginny said.
"What's a Howler?" Harry asked.
A Howler, that sounded familiar to Kit but she couldn't remember what it was. Maybe, her brother mentioned it to her once when he first started school.
"Open it," Neville urged. "It'll all be over in a few minutes..."
Neville stuffed his fingers in his ears. Kit quickly followed suit and in a split second, she can see why her brother mentioned the headache. It sounded like an explosion erupted in the Great Hall.
"...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 HAD GONE..."
Ron's mother's yells echoed all around the hall. Everyone turned their head towards the noise. Kit kept her hands covering her ears but nothing could block out the angry shouts of Mrs Weasley.
"...LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE 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..."
Kit looked over at Harry after his name was mentioned, his face turning a bright, cherry red and his shoulders up to his ears.
"...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 loud silence filled the Great Hall. The red envelope fell from Ron's hand, burst into flames and turned to ash, laughter started to form in the background and soon the Great Hall went back with small talk. Kit patted Ron's arm.
"Well, I'm happy my family are muggles."
⋆ ⋆ ⋆
After the Howler incident, the Hogwarts' students all headed to their first class of the new year. The second-year Gryffindors headed off with the Hufflepuffs to the greenhouses that held magical plants outside for double Herbology. The class all waited outside for Professor Sprout, Kit was seated on an old wooden bench with her quidditch book in hand. She looks up when she hears rustling up ahead, Professor Sprout came striding in with no other than Gilderoy Lockhart.
"Oh, hello there!" Lockhart called with a dashing smile that could blind almost anyone who stood a mile away. "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..."
Kit rolled her eyes as the disgruntled Professor Sprout quickly shouted out where their class would be held, Greenhouse Three. The class were all whispering to each other with excitement, during their first year they were only allowed to work in Greenhouse One because of the fact that the other greenhouses held an assortment of dangerous plants that were too advance for their younger selves. Kit was quick to hop off from the bench she was seated on, putting her book inside of her school bag.
The students all rushed inside and entered underneath a large glass ceiling with gigantic flowers that had the heavy scent of perfume dangling from it. There was a large table placed in the centre of the room with about twenty multi-coloured earmuffs placed in front of where Professor Sprout stood at the end of the table. Everyone stood around the table and Kit stood between a talkative girl named Lavender Brown and a quite Hufflepuff boy. Standing across from her was Hermione and Ron. Harry walked in about a minute later with a scowl on his face and takes his place in between his two friends. Kit's eyes wander all around the room, looking over at an assortment of interesting plants as Professor Sprout spoke, "We'll be repotting Mandrakes today. Now, who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake?"
To no surprise, Hermione's hand was first into the air.
"Mandrake, or Mandragora, is a powerful restorative," she said, her voice sounding like she swallowed a textbook for breakfast. "It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed, to their original state."
"Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor," said their professor, Kit smiles for the points her house received. "The Mandrake forms an essential part of most antidotes. It is also, however, dangerous. Who can tell me why?"
The same hand shot up into the air.
"The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it," Hermione said promptly.
"Precisely. Take another ten points," Professor Sprout said proudly. "Now, the Mandrakes we have here are still very young."
She pointed to a row of deep trays as she spoke and Kit shuffled forwards with the rest of the class for a better look. Weird purplish green plants were growing in rows. Kit looks down at it in confusion. She didn't have the slightest idea how the small plant' cry could be dangerous.
"Everyone take a pair of earmuffs."
Kit quickly grabbed a pair of earmuffs that weren't pink and fluffy. "When I tell you to put them on, make sure your ears are completely covered. When it is safe to remove them, I will give you a thumbs-up. Right - earmuffs on."
Kit and the rest of the students snapped their earmuffs over their ears. All of the sounds went completely silent. With pink fluffy earmuffs over her ears, Professor Sprout rolled up the sleeves of her robes, grasped one of the plants firmly, and pulled hard. Kit's eyes widen in shock.
What came out of the earth was an ugly baby with the leaves growing out from the top of its head. Its mouth was wide open as it was clearly bawling at the top of its lungs. Professor Sprout grabbed a large plant pot and plunged the Mandrake in. The green baby gets buried into the dirt until only its leaves were visible. Professor Sprout gave them all a thumbs-up and everyone removed their earmuffs.
"As our Mandrakes are only seedlings, their cries won't kill yet," she said calmly. "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 Venomous Tentacula, it's teething."
After the battle of trying to shove a fat Mandrake into a pot and listening to Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil chatting on and on before she slammed her earmuffs back on to block out their voice, Kit came out of the greenhouse sweaty and covered in dirt. Wishing that she could go back to her dorm to relax but instead followed the rest of her classmates to the castle for a quick wash and followed the Gryffindors for Transfiguration.
The class went by a lot quicker than her fight with Mandrakes during Herbology. She walked out of there with two buttons that beetles were transfigured into and a grin on her face from laughing at how Ron was struggling to transfigure his beetle and instead accidentally squashed it with his elbow.
"Here you go brother, one button for you and one button for me." Kit was walking with Ivrin to the outside courtyard after they both finished their silent lunch with the trio, waiting for their next class to start.
Ivrin takes one of the buttons from her and smiles down at it. "Hey, these are pretty good, Kit. I remember when I did mine my button still had its legs... Nice job."
"Thanks, Iv," she said.
They both continue to walk and talk, passing by a boy that was taking pictures of his surroundings with what looks to be a muggle camera. They reached to an opening on a wall, giving them a full view of the black lake and the mountains in the background. They stood in silence to enjoy the scenery, breathing in the cold, fresh air.
"I'm going to miss this place."
Kit turns to look at her brother who was facing the outside with a small smile on his face. Kit looks down at her shoes, "Yeah..."
She didn't want to think about how her next five years of school would be like without him. She knew that he was still going to be around the house during the summer, but it wasn't going to be the same at Hogwarts.
"You know what you should do?" Irvin said and Kit looks up at him. "You should talk to the Gryffindor's quidditch captain, Oliver Woods."
"Why? There are no tryouts this year," Kit said.
"No... But, maybe if you start to talk to him this year and give him some of the amazing tips that you've been writing down in your journal... Maybe, that could help you stand out from the other people trying out next year. You could be like his assistant."
"And maybe with my ideas, Gryffindor can win the Quidditch Cup!"
Ivrin pats her back, "That's the spirit! You might not get to play this year but you could still be part of the team."
Kit stands there in silence as she thinks over everything. She's been researching the whole summer, reading and writing down ideas about different quidditch tips and maybe if Woods accepts her deal, this could be her next step to becoming a professional quidditch player.
Ivrin grabs Kit's attention, "Let's head back, you don't want to be late for Lockhart's class on the first day and trust me, his class was... interesting."
"Great..."
⋆ ⋆ ⋆
Carrying a whole stack of Lockhart's books, Kit finally makes it to her Defence Against the Dark Arts class breathless. The classroom was covered with beaming photos of Lockhart which made Kit want to slam her head against a wall. She looks around the room and spots an empty seat in the middle next to a Ravenclaw boy. Reaching to the desk Kit drops her books with a loud groan and plops down into her seat.
"I think I got bruises on my arms from carrying those things."
Kit turns in her seat to look at the boy seated next to her, he was rubbing one of his arms and was giving a glare to his books in front of him. Kit lets out a small laugh, "Yeah, I think I coughed out one of my lungs on my walk here."
He lets out a loud chuckle while he sticks out his hand, "Bade Braxton."
They both shake each other's hand, "Kit Meverlane."
"What do you think we're going to do today?"
Kit looks around the classroom at the photos and one gives her a wink, "Seeing how there are about twenty photos of Lockhart grinning at me and no actual stuff for Defence Against the Dark Arts... Probably something stupid."
"He does seem pretty full of himself does he?" Bade questioned.
"Tell me about it," Kit said.
"Why do you think Dumbledore gave him the post?"
Kit shrugs, "Beats me. Probably because no one wanted the post after what happened last year."
"Hopefully, this year our professor might actually stay for longer than a year... Wait, scratch that. This is Gilderoy Lockhart we're talking about. So, hopefully, he'll leave-"
Someone clears their throat loudly and silence fell. Gilderoy Lockhart picked up a copy of Travels with Trolls from Neville Longbottom's desk and held it up to show the whole class. His portrait winking on the front.
"Me," he said, pointing at it and winking as well. "Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defence League and five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award - but I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!"
There was an uncomfortable silence in the air. A few people smiled weekly at him while Kit and Bade both rolled their eyes at each other.
"I see you've all bought a complete set of my books - well done. I thought we start today with a little quiz. Nothing to worry about - just to check how well you've read them, how much you've took in..."
"We were supposed to read them?" Kit whispered.
Lockhart hands out the test papers and returned to the front of the class, "You have thirty minutes. Start - now!"
Kit looks down at the first question and immediately felt the urge to stab her own eyes out. What the hell was Dumbledore thinking of hiring him?
1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart's favourite colour?
Is he serious?
Half an hour later, Lockhart was seated on his desk reading through all of the tests.
"Tut, tut - hardly any of you remembered that my favourite colour is lilac. I say so in Year with a Yeti. And a few of you need to read Wanderings with Werewolves more carefully - I clearly state in chapter twelve that my ideal birthday gift would be harmony between all magic and non-magic peoples - though I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey!"
"Merlin's Beard... Our professor is an idiot," said Kit, she hears laughter come from behind her and turns to see Ron laughing in his seat and failing to hold it in. He catches her eye, his face turns the same shade of his hair and lets out a small cough to cover it up. Kit gives him a small grin which causes him to freeze up, Kit looks back towards the front, not noticing the small smile Ron gave in return.
"Excellent! Quite excellent! Take ten points for Gryffindor! And so, to business..."
Professor Lockhart brings out a large, covered cage from behind his desk which catches Kit's attention.
"Now - be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm."
This got Kit's full attention, she leaned forwards over her stack of books on her desk to get a better view. All the students were holding their breaths in anticipation, excited to see the mysterious beast.
"I must ask you not to scream," said Lockhart in a low voice. "It might provoke them."
Kit's breath of excitement escaped her and turned into a scoff of disbelief once Lockhart whipped off the cover.
"Yes," he said dramatically. "Freshly caught Cornish Pixies."
The pixies were small and electric blue with pointed faces and had a high, annoying voice. Kit looked at the jabbering pixies that were rattling around in their cage with one eyebrow raised. There was loud laughter that came from a desk near the front.
"Yes?" Lockhart smiled down at the student, Seamus Finnigan.
"Well, they're not-" Seamus choked with his own laughter, "they're not very - dangerous, are they?"
"Don't be so sure! Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!" Lockhart wiggled his finger annoyingly at Seamus.
The pixies continued to rattle the bars of the cage, pulling bizarre faces at the people nearest to them. Kit starts to laugh with Bade, both of them grabbing onto each other to try to hold their laughter in as Lockhart continued to talk, not believing in anything he was saying.
"Right then," Lockhart said loudly. "Let's see what you make of them!"
Kit's laughter was cut short once Lockhart opened the cage.
Chaos erupted around the classroom as the pixies shot in every direction. Kit dropped down to hide under her desk and pulled Bade down with her. The students' yells and the pixies destruction were the only sounds that she could her as everyone ran around in a panic, trying to dodge away from the books and broken glass that the pixies were throwing at them. Kit peaked her head from behind her desk and caught sight of Neville Longbottom swinging from the candelabrum in the ceiling.
"What do we do?" Bade yelled next to her, ducking down right as a book flew towards his face.
"Does it look like I know?" Kit shouted back.
Lockhart shouted from the front, "Come on now, round them up, round them up, they're only pixies..."
Kit looks up to see Lockhart pull out his wand and bellowed, "Peskipiksi Pesternomi!"
Nothing happened except for a pixie to yanked Lockhart's wand from his hand and threw it out the open window. The bell rang and everyone madly rushed towards the exit. Kit was about to reach the door with Bade before Lockhart called out from behind them, "Well, I'll ask you five to just nip the rest of them back into their cage." He swept past Kit and shut the door quickly behind him in Kit's face.
"Can you believe him?"
Kit turns to see Ron and his two friends. Hermione was using a clever Freezing Charm to immobilize a couple of the pixies in the air while Ron and Harry both were trying to smack them with Lockhart's books.
Kit and Bade both turn to look at each other and let out a sigh, "Well, this is going to be fun."
[ A U T H O R ' S N O T E ]
Here's chapter two! Sorry, it took so long to update but I finally did it.
Things are slowly starting to get more interesting and you guys finally met Bade Braxton, he's a character that I'm going to create a story for sometime in the future so I hope you guys will be excited for that.
I hope you enjoy