MJs Hogwarts Journal Chapter 7

Friday 6^th September

I wasn’t as tired as I thought I would be, when I woke up this morning. Jed and I decided that it probably wouldn’t kick in until part way through the day – I guess I’m going to bed early tonight then. Our first lesson of the day was double Potions. I was quite looking forward to it. Although everything seemed odd at first, I had been reading through the potion over and over again, so I hope that today I could prove to Professor Snape that I could do it – or at least that I had remembered the instructions that he had given to us in our previous lesson. Sitting at the table for breakfast though, something struck me: double Potions was with Gryffindor. Yesterday morning we had all sworn that we would get even with them, for Potter getting praised for his flying stunt in Wednesday’s Flying lesson. Now I really had to be on the ball. We all did. I just hoped that everyone wasn’t as tired as I thought that I would have been.

Once everyone had taken their seats, and Professor Snape had taken the register, Blondie suggested that the professor started the lesson with a quiz. Running a hand across my forehead, I groaned. This was not what I had in mind. I couldn’t impress Professor Snape with random factual knowledge. This was going to be impossible.

“Thank you, Mister Malfoy,” said Professor Snape with a small smile. “Ten points to Slytherin for such a remarkable idea.” Well, at least Blondie was winning us points.

I had found out, in lessons earlier in the week, how House Points worked. Teachers gave them out to students who worked well and took them away from those who did not – it worked a little like it did in my old school. You could get extra points if your house won at Quidditch (which I still haven’t figured out what it is yet), but you could get deducted points for failing to hand in your homework, blatantly not listening to the teacher or for getting detention. The main difference between how the House Points worked here and at my old school, is that it seems at Hogwarts they are taken dead seriously. Whichever house has the most amount of points at the end of the year gets a special trophy and the end-of-year feast is in their honour. Apparently, the whole school is really peeved that Slytherin has won six years in a row. This got me kind of excited.

I’m sure that sweat was dripping from my brow whilst I was worrying that Professor Snape would pick on me for the first question and I wouldn’t know the answer. Luckily though, as the professor’s stone-grey eyes stared directly at me, he shouted, “Potter!” Spinning his head towards the Gryffindor, Professor Snape barked, “What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?” I had absolutely no idea. I was glad Potter got that question and not me. The boy shrugged.

“I don’t know, Sir,” he muttered. The girl with bushy brown hair shot her hand into the air. Professor Snape ignored her.

“Ten points from Gryffindor,” sneered Snape as he strode towards the boy. “Let’s try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?” This question was even more bizarre than the last.

Again, Potter shrugged, mumbling, “I don’t know, Sir,” as his friend shot her hand into the air once more.

“Another ten points from Gryffindor,” said the professor.

Along with the other Slytherins, I sat sniggering behind my hand. How Professor Snape never caught us laughing, I’ll never know. And why the professor was only asking Potter was a mystery too. Maybe he was annoyed with Professor McGonagall’s favouritism too. Either that or Malfoy convinced him to – no Blondie’s not that clever.

Having circled around Potter’s table several times, Professor Snape stood in front of the boy and glared down at him with a snarled expression. “What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?” he demanded. Again, Potter shrugged.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I think Hermione does, though,” he said as his friend raised her hand again. “Why don’t you try her?” That did it. I had to clasp both hands to my mouth this time to hide my sniggering. Even some of the Gryffindors were laughing.

Professor Snape’s face reddened. He strode to the front of the classroom, picked up his copy of our ‘Magical Drafts and Potions’ book and slammed it down on the table. The room fell silent. “Better,” he muttered. Striding back to Potter, Professor Snape snapped, “Fifteen points from Gryffindor for your lack of respect from my subject, Potter. And a further twenty-five for your insubordination.” Sidestepping until he was stood in front of the girl who kept raising her hand, he spat, “As for you Miss Granger, a further fifteen points deducted from Gryffindor.” All of the Gryffindors groaned. As the Granger girl began to object, Professor Snape added, “That’s what you get for being a Know-It-All. And as for the rest of you, if you don’t like it, there’s more where that came from – a lot more.” Turning back to the front of the classroom, I caught the professor smile at Blondie before he continued with the rest of his lesson.

The lesson turned out to be even better than I had thought. First of all, we did get to try and make a potion. Okay, so it wasn’t the one that we had looked at already. This one was a potion to cure boils, which although sounds absolutely disgusting, it actually seems more likely to be needed and useful than the last one. Some of the ingredients were a little strange: snake fangs, Pungous Onions, Flobberworm Mucus, horned slugs and porcupine quills – it also used some stuff that I know of, like powdered ginger and dried nettles though. We had to work in pairs, so I got to work with Jed, which was good. I was a little nervous at the thought of mixing a full potion by myself.

Professor Snape seemed to get angry at most students during our practical, but especially the Gryffindors. He praised Blondie and Pansy’s work the most – no surprise there; but he did give Jed and I a firm nod and muttered a, “Well done,” as he passed us right before one of the Gryffindor’s cauldrons flooded over with green ooze. Professor Snape was howling at the two boys who had caused this, demanding us all to stand on our stools whilst he tried to figure out what on Earth they had done and fix it. One of the Gryffindor boys was that poor guy, Neville, who fell of his broom during our Flying lesson. He didn’t clamber on top of his stool in time and the spooky green froth burnt holes in the sole of his shoes. “Idiot boy!” barked Snape. “That’ll be another fifteen points from Gryffindor.” The professor’s voice must have startled the little lump, because instead of climbing up onto his stool, he slipped backwards and fell into the oozing concoction. Stumbling to his feet, Neville howled out in pain as his skin broke out in blistering red boils. “That’s it!” Professor Snape roared. “Take him to the Hospital Wing,” he spat at Seamus. “And ten points from Gryffindor for being a bumbling buffoon.”

Then to add insult to injury for Gryffindor, Professor Snape started ranting at Potter and his red-haired partner for not telling Neville how to do the potion properly. “Thought he’d make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That’s five more points you’ve lost for Gryffindor,” sneered the professor.

*

Nothing could ever top that Potions class. It was too funny. The word soon spread over lunch about what had occurred during our morning’s lesson. Slytherins from higher years all crowded around our little group; eager to hear how Professor Snape had treated the famous Potter boy and his Gryffindor Goonies.

*

Defence Against the Dark Arts wasn’t too bad today. Professor Quirrell taught us a defence spell: Clupious. It is supposed to shield simple dark art spells. I believe it’s pronounced clup-ee-us, ‘clup’ which rhymes with cup, the ‘ee’ is as you pronounce a lowercase letter ‘e’ and the ‘us’ is exactly how the word is pronounced in the English language. The only problem was, was that we never got to actually test it out. For some strange reason Professor Quirrell decided that it would be much too dangerous and preferred us to write about it instead. The writing did help – don’t get me wrong, it’s just that you’ll never know if you can do the spell if you are never allowed to practise it.

*

As predicted, we got given a lot of homework in Charms. It wasn’t too bad though. Part of it was to practise the spell that Professor Flitwick had been teaching us in class: Wingardium Leviosa. I’m looking forward to this part of the homework the most. I’m sure that I’ll be able to do it, if I just put my mind to it. The other part was to read our textbooks and write a three-parchment essay – just like with Transfiguration. It’s doable… I think.

*

Goodness. I’m almost glad that this first week is over. What with all the new things that I’ve had to learn and take in, and the new people and the spells that I’ve learnt – well trying to learn. It’s been exhausting. That’s without all of the homework. I guess I really am going to be busy over the weekend, but it will be worth it, every single second of it. Why? Because I’m a witch! I never get tired of saying that.

- Josie -

MJs Hogwarts Journal Chapter 6

Thursday 5^th September

I don’t know how I managed to concentrate throughout today. Everything was just a blur. I’m still a little shaken up from yesterday’s flying incident, but I’ve made it through okay.

This morning during breakfast, there was a massive row at the table. Almost everyone was red faced and yelling at one another, as Jed and I came in. It wasn’t just our year either. Other Slytherins were joining in too. Professor McGonagall was stood in the centre of all of the shouting. She glanced around from student to student with a faint smile on her face. She waved a hand in air and shouted, “That’s enough!” Everyone closed their mouths, but their fowl expressions still remained. “Now I don’t want to hear another word out of you,” she barked. “My decision is final. Any more complaints and House Points will be deducted.” Professor McGonagall poked her hands out in front of her, to part the crowd, and marched off to the teacher table.

With everyone sulking off to get some breakfast, Jed and I slid into a seat beside Malfoy and the girls. Jed swiped a triangle of toast from the racking and plonked himself down beside Scarlett. “What was all of that about?” he asked as he ripped the corner off his toast.

“Haven’t you heard?” said Scarlett.

“Potter’s been made seeker on the Gryffindor Quidditch team,” Malfoy grumbled. Snarling his nose Blondie turned to face the tables behind him. As he turned back, he slumped his head in the palm of his hand and prodded the spoon in his bowl. “Everyone knows First-Years aren’t allowed on the Quidditch team, but it seems McGonagall favours her little scar-bearing hero. He didn’t even get into trouble for his stupid stunt either.”

Blondie here’s lucky that he didn’t get into trouble either, but seriously? Professor McGonagall praised Potter’s dangerous going-against-Madam-Hooch’s-orders thing? And rewarded him? I’m not exactly sure what Quidditch is, but by the sounds of all of the whining and complaining, it sounds like this Potter guy’s been given some sort of reward.

“Oh well,” I heard Malfoy mutter. “If they want to play dirty, then we’ll play dirty too,” he said with a smug grin. “In double Potions class, tomorrow morning, we’ll see who gets the special treatment.”

After that, all I can say is: let Operation ‘Slytherin Rules’ commence!

*

Nothing much interesting happened this morning, after breakfast. On our way to our second Defence Against the Dark Arks class, I actually managed to escape the illusion stairs. After last time, Jed gave me a tip of keeping to the right-hand side of the staircase. Well I have to say, it worked. Most of the illusion steps were either to the left or in the centre of the step. Seeing Priscilla stumble again, I grabbed her by the elbow and whispered Jed’s little secret to her. After not falling through another, she was so thrilled that she sat in class beaming from ear to ear. I was so happy to have helped her out – especially after how upset she got last time, when she fell through almost every single fake step.

I felt like the lesson itself though was a little pointless. It started off fine, Professor Quirrell was set on teaching us a shielding spell that was supposed to reflect a handful of dark art spells – which after all of the warnings of dark magic and curses and hexes that I’ve heard so far, since I’ve been here, seemed like a really good idea. The only problem was, after about ten minutes in, Blaise asked Professor Quirrell about his turban and that was it. He was gone. Completely gone. The professor spent the rest of the lesson muttering on about how they were still after him and that they would catch him if they could. Whoever ‘they’ are though, I’ll never know. Professor Snape would make a better Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher than this cry baby. I’m sure I heard someone mutter on the first day that Professor Snape had been after the job. Well no offence to the Headmaster, but Professor Dumbledore must be a fruitcake if he gave the job to quivering Quirrell. He must have lost a bet.

*

In our next class, Professor Binns just droned on and on in his deadly monotone voice. All he did today was pretty much recite from the textbook. There wasn’t anything that he said that we couldn’t have figured out for ourselves. I realise that Professor Binns is probably so old that he can recite all of his cases, but that doesn’t mean that he has to read the whole book to us as well. I thought the whole point of teaching us was to tell us something that we couldn’t find out from the book. I am so glad History of Magic is only twice a week. I guess I did learn something about Elfric the Eager’s revolt – I learnt he was a goblin! But even after all that tortuous rambling, Professor Binns only went and gave us two parchments of homework to do. Jed told me that the trick is to write really big and leave lots of space between the lines – I think I might just have to borrow that idea!

*

Next, we had lunch, which was a relief after such a frustrating morning. On our way to the Great Hall, someone tugged on my elbow. I gasped, spinning around. It was Josie. I smiled at her. “How was your flying lesson yesterday?” she asked. “I heard about what happened with Harry and Draco.”

“It’s probably not as bad as it sounds,” I told her with a weak smile. “You know how rumours spread.” Well at least I hoped she did. “Come and sit with us,” I told her. Looking from me to the Slytherin table Josie shook her head.

“No thanks,” she muttered, before walking around me to get to her house’s table.

“Wait,” called Jed as he grabbed her elbow. Josie pulled away from him, but spun around to face us. “Why don’t we go on a picnic?” Jed suggested. “We could take some food and sit outside in the sun. Kids do it all the time. What d’ya say, José?” Pinching in her lips, Josie looked from Jed to me and back again.

“If that’s okay with you two,” she said with a shrug. I could not stop beaming. This was an excellent idea. And we had Herbology afterwards, so the three of us could spend even more time together.

We grabbed some sandwiches and some drinks and headed outside. Jed led the way and took us to a grassy area on top of a hill. The view looked down onto a little hut, with what appeared to be a vegetable patch. “That there’s Hagrid’s hut,” Jed told us pointing to the small building. “Hagrid’s the grounds keeper and he also helps Professor Kettleburn (who teaches Care of Magical Creatures) to look after all the animals that are kept on the school grounds.”

“So, does he grow the food for the animals himself?” asked Josie admiring the vegetable patch.

“I dunno,” said Jed with a shrug. “You can ask him yerself when I introduce ya on Sunday – if ya wanna tag along that is.” Josie’s cheeks reddened as she looked down at the grass and shrugged. “But I do know he’s rumoured to grow the largest pumpkins in Britain,” Jed exclaimed.

Jed sat to my left with his feet planted on the ground, his knees bent. He leant his elbows against his knees as he tore apart his sandwich with his fingers. Josie sat to my right with her legs curled underneath her. It was nice to just sit and enjoy the scenery. Looking further away you could see a huge forested area. It bordered the outside of the castle. Without having to ask, I knew straight away that this was the Forbidden Forest.

“Melanie…” Josie sang out. I shook my head realising that I obviously hadn’t been listening – I was too busy staring at the view. “You never did answer my question: how was your first flying lesson?”

“Thankfully Potter and Malfoy ended it before I could leave the ground,” I told her. Josie’s eyes widened as she stared at me.

“Come on MJ,” said Jed as he nudged me. “It wasn’t that bad.”

“I know, but-” I began to protest.

“An’ you got your broomstick to come to you, didn’t you?” he said with a smile.

“Yes but-”

“And you weren’t the last one to do it either,” he added.

“I know that,” I sighed. “But-”

“But what?” he huffed.

I felt my cheeks tingle as both my friends stared at me. My insides twisted and twirled, forming thousands of knots in my stomach. “Well?” Jed asked. I closed my eyes and inhaled a deep breath.

“She doesn’t have to tell us if she doesn’t want to,” I heard Josie say. This made me smile – even if it was only on the inside. However, I could still feel my hands balling into fists.

“We’re not exactly gonna tell anyone though, are we?” Jed retorted.

The sounds around me deepened. My mind fuzzed. Pulse rapped in my ears. It rattled through my limbs and drummed in my chest. Licking my lips, I inhaled deep. “I’m scared of heights, okay?” I blurted out. As I said this, my shoulders relaxed. My hands uncoiled. I let out a huge breath that I didn’t even realise I had been holding. I guess bottling up my fear really made me feel stressed. Now that it was out in the open, I suddenly felt calmer. My heart stopped racing. My head stopped pounding. My chest stopped shaking.

“Don’t worry, Mellie,” said Josie softly. I turned to her and forced the corner of my mouth to smile a little. “It’s okay to be scared of something.”

“Josie’s right, MJ,” said Jed with a shrug. “Why didn’t you just tell me? I’d have tried to help you… tried to calm your nerves.”

“I was scared,” I confessed staring at the lonesome buttercup that had sprouted amongst the grass. Swallowing a lump in my throat I confessed, “I just thought everyone would laugh at me.” Jed rubbed a hand on my side.

“You’ll get it eventually,” he told me.

“Yeah,” Josie agreed. “Practise makes perfect.”

We went on to talk about other classes. Josie told us that she has been given a huge stack of Transfiguration homework (from her class this morning) too. “It sounds like Professor McGonagall gave you the same work,” I told her, after she had explained to us how her morning’s lessons had been. “We could always study together in the library after lessons – what d’you think?”

“Only if that’s okay with you guys,” Josie said with a nod. I smiled and turned to Jed who shrugged.

“Fine by me,” was his reply.

“Great!” I cheered. “We might even be able to help each other out if we all get stuck on different parts.” Jed didn’t seem too impressed – he just guzzled down his drink, but Josie’s smile brightened as she nodded.

The three of us had quite a bit of fun in Herbology. Professor Sprout picked the three of us to go into the next greenhouse to harvest some purple and red sproutlings, for a demonstration at the end of the lesson. We got to wander up and down all of the – I don’t know what you call them, planters? We got to see loads of different plants that the school grows and without a teacher’s supervision either – again, how cool is it that these teachers actually trust us!

“MJ, José,” Jed called. “Over here, look!” We clambered through the creepy ivy and spindly limbed branches to make our way over to him. He had his face pressed against one of the greenhouse’s windowpanes.

“What are you doing?” I laughed as Jed squished his nose right up against the glass.

“I don’t think that Professor Sprout’s sproutlings are glued to the window,” Josie said with a smile.

“Har, har,” Jed replied flatly, folding his arms and cocking his head in Josie’s direction. “I didn’t find the sproutlings,” he said rather matter-of-factly. “D’you girls remember earlier when you asked if the school makes its own food?” Actually, it was Josie who asked, and it wasn’t about the school’s food, but if Hagrid grew food for the school’s creatures, but I wasn’t about to spoil his fun. “Well I think I answered your question,” he said as he jerked his thumb towards the window.

Grabbing my sleeve, I scrubbed the window’s surface. A thick murky-green smear blurred in front of me. I kept rubbing. Soon, I could see past the blur and into the next room. Jed was right. It was full of food. Huge strawberries clung to towering stems. Rosy, red apples hung from trees. Jed had crouched down towards one of the lower greenhouse panels and had cleared that for us to look through. From there we could see huge carrots, parsnips, swede and potatoes. The food looked so big and tasty. I really wanted to go inside and see it. We wandered up and down several times whilst looking for the sproutlings, but not once did I find a door or passageway that led to the fruit and vegetables.

There were lots of huge multi-coloured flowers. It was so hard not to pick one. I felt like Aladdin in the Cave of Wonders. Just one couldn’t hurt, could it? The only problem was here, it probably could. We raced past massive Venus flytrap-type plants as they snapped their mouths at us. Jed tripped over a really thick vine that swished across the ground as our footsteps vibrated. Josie got tangled up in a beanstalk-like plant. Jed though it would be funny if we ran away and left her, so we did. But I felt bad came back to save her. Jed did too… eventually. Let’s just say Josie wasn’t too happy.

We managed to find Professor Sprout’s sproutlings eventually. They were small little shoots with a sort of mauve and deep-red coloured leaves. Upon seeing us return to class red-faced having run so much, Professor Sprout chuckled to herself. “Just another day in the garden, dears,” she said with a fat smile. Well if that’s what she calls just a regular day, I’d hate to see what the greenhouse looks like on a bad day.

*

Charms was okay, I guess. Professor Flitwick went over the correct way to swish your wand when performing different kinds of charms, which was quite interesting. But he did tell us, at the end of the class, that we would be getting homework tomorrow. I’m kind of looking forward to some of the homework. I mean, it’s going to teach me how to do spells properly. If I practise hard enough, I might even be better than Pansy. Okay, I have nothing against Pansy – she’s nice, but she’s such a show-off. I’d love to be able to do a spell before her. Just one. Then I’ll be happy… well maybe not entirely happy, but I’d be at least content with that.

*

After class thoughts of Astronomy at midnight got me really excited. The room was even further away from our common room that our Defence Against the Dark Arts class, but at least we didn’t have to mount any staircases with tricky steps. Well we might have done, but since Jed told me to keep to the right, I have done so on all of the staircases that we’ve gone up (and I’ve kept to the left going down) and I’ve been okay since.

Having a class in the middle of the night felt strange. I forgot to ask Josie what her Astronomy class was like. I do recall hearing someone say, though, that when you study Astronomy in your First-Year, you always get your next morning’s lesson with your Head-of-House, as they are more likely to be sympathetic towards you, having not had a lot of sleep. That seems like a good idea. We have Potions with Professor Snape in the morning, so I hope that works out okay.

For Astronomy, our teacher was a short lady, who wore a deep, shimmering metallic blue robe and her deep brown hair was clipped back in a bun on her head. Her name is Professor Sinistra. She didn’t actually seem as sinister as her name suggests. We weren’t really there that long. I guess forty-five minutes was enough though, as I started to get a little sleepy. Professor Sinistra had us draw out a chart of the night sky using our telescopes. It kind of just looked like a bunch of dots to me. She told us that we would be doing this for a few weeks in order to learn how Earth travels through space. If you ask me, that sounds a lot like Physics back home. It was really cool to experience it all first-hand though. We never would have done this in a Muggle school. Hogwarts is amazing.

- Josie -