First Day Back and Already Problems
- "Well I don't need a freak of a wolf telling me this." -
“Okay, textbooks… quills… ink… all over my bed, oops… well I have it anyway… homework… That’s it, I think.”
It was the final day of Rachael’s summer holiday and she was sitting on the floor of her room, gathering the remainders of her school supplies. She folded up her last pair of robes and tucked them neatly in her trunk before lifting up her trunk and placing it at the end of her bed.
“All packed to leave?” said Becky, just coming in from dinner.
Rachael wasn’t very hungry so she had spent dinnertime in her room packing and feeding Emerald some owl treats to keep her from hooting too loudly. “Yep,” she said, pulling a few more owl treats out of her pocket and stuffing them in Emerald’s cage. “Train leaves tomorrow and so will I.”
Rachael sat in an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express the next day, waiting for one of her friends to come and join her. But, as she looked out the window, they were nowhere in sight. Of course that made perfect sense; it would be a little odd for her friends to come to the platform an hour and a half early like she did. But she had to. Ms. Marshall was to be doing some important business at the orphanage and had to drop Rachael off early in order to get back on time.
She leaned back in her seat and absentmindedly stroked Emerald, whom she had let out of her cage before the train started to move to allow her to stretch out her wings before the long ride. She couldn’t wait to see Lily. She hadn’t talked to her all summer. Lily went on vacation to America and she told Rachael not to owl her because she didn’t want Emerald to get tired on the way there. So she refrained from owling Lily about anything during the summer.
She hadn’t talked to James either, since her owl didn’t know where he lived and neither did she, but, then again, James didn’t owl her either. She knew it was pointless in even attempting to owl Remus after the first owl she sent him. She had only spoken to Sirius, even though it was just for one day. She felt bad for him to have a mother like that. She was so creepy looking and didn’t even let Sirius introduce her to her, Rachael; it was just ‘it's time for you to leave!’
People like that just made Rachael’s blood boil. It was no wonder that Sirius never spoke about his family, and when he did it was in a bitter, cold voice. Just from listening to his mother speak a few words to him; she knew that she couldn’t blame him for speaking like that about them. Then again, she could really relate with that, having Mrs. Lupin for a mother had everything but upsides. But at least she had a kind father. She could only imagine that if Sirius’s mother was like that, then his father must be ten times worse.
She stared out the window and saw groups of students and their parents slowly coming through the barrier and onto the platform. She pressed her face up against the screen to see if she recognised any of them. So far all she saw were some older kids who looked to be sixth or seventh years. She spotted her fellow second year Alex Anderson, and coming out of the barrier behind him and stopping him to talk was her fellow Gryffindor, Frank Longbottom.
She watched as the two drifted off towards the back of the train and turned her attention back to the students who were now coming in alarming rates. She spotted a few Hufflepuffs that she knew were second years but she couldn’t remember their names. She saw her friend Alice Gordon coming onto the platform. Rachael knocked on the window, catching her friend’s attention and waved to her. She watched Alice disappear to her left and saw Remus walking onto the platform with their mother. She unlatched the window of her compartment and pulled it down to listen.
“Have a good term,” her mother said, giving Remus a hug.
“Right, Mum,” he said, hugging her back halfheartedly.
“Remember, Remus-”
“Yes, yes I know, ‘steer clear of your sister’.”
“That’s right! Now I’ll be leaving.”
“Yeah bye… like I’m going to listen to her.”
Rachael quickly closed the window and threw herself back in her seat as though she hadn’t listened to a word of the conversation. She was sitting for only a minute before she heard her compartment door slide open and Remus came staggering in. Rachael hadn’t noticed when she was looking down on the platform, but her brother looked terrible. His eyes were red, he had several scratches on his face, a nice bite on both of his hands and it looked like it were causing him a great effort just to remain standing.
“Sit, Remus!” she said.
Remus was only too glad to oblige his sister’s order. He stumbled over into the seat across from her and dropped himself in it. “Hi,” he mumbled.
“Hi,” she said, watching him a bit nervously. “You okay?”
“Yeah I’m fine… just a bit tired I guess,” he said, holding back a yawn.
“It was a full moon last night?”
“Yeah, it was really bad.”
Rachael decided not to question him further. He really looked like he needed sleep. They spent a few minutes talking about their summers while they waited for James, Sirius and Peter. But before they even arrived Remus was fast asleep. Rachael just looked out the window, breaking her gaze to give her owl some treats so she didn’t wake Remus up with her excessive hooting.
“Hullo!” said a bright voice from the compartment door.
Rachael turned to see James and Sirius standing at the compartment doorway. Apparently it was James who had spoken. “Hi,” she said in a hushed voice.
“Mind if we sit here?”
“Do you guys really need to ask?”
The boys laughed and James took the seat next to a sleeping Remus and Sirius took the seat next to Rachael.
“What’s up with Remus?” asked James, poking Remus in the back.
“James, leave him alone,” said Sirius, already knowing what was wrong. “Full moon was last night, wasn’t it?”
Rachael nodded. They talked for a little in whispers that were barely audible over Remus’s loud snores. “So,” she said slowly. “How were your summers?”
“Okay,” said James. “Nothing great, just spent a week at my grandmother’s before I came here, kind of like spending it in the Muggle military. My grandfather had me up at dawn doing pushups.”
“Pushups?” laughed Sirius.
“Don’t ask.”
Sirius and Rachael laughed at the thought of James, who was such a morning person, up at the crack of dawn and doing pushups. James and Sirius started telling Rachael about their stay at her old house and telling her about the home movies they found up in the attic. Rachael, like Remus, didn’t remember ever having home videos, let alone knowing what they were.
“Very interesting,” James said. “Remus actually thought he was you in one of them.”
“I dunno if I should take that as an insult or not,” said Rachael thoughtfully.
As the day wore on several students visited them from their year, along with Peter Pettigrew who stayed with them once he arrived at the compartment. Rachael’s best friend Lily Evans came to their compartment for a good twenty minutes. After that she left because James was bothering her, as she put it. Alice Gordon and Frank Longbottom paid them a visit a little while after the lunch trolley appeared and they shared a few chocolate frogs with him.
“Should we wake him up?” asked Peter, jerking his head towards Remus, who was still huddled up in the corner of his seat, fast asleep.
Rachael shook her head. “Nah, let him sleep,” she said, ripping open a pack of Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans.
They passed the time trading wizard cards and playing a few matches of Exploding Snap, taking advantage of the fact that Remus was sleeping and couldn’t massacre them like he usually would.
After a few matches, in which Sirius won two games and James won the other, and Rachael and Peter’s faces were covered in soot, the compartment door slid opened and in stalked the last person any of them wanted to see.
“Hullo,” sneered Severus Snape.
“Oh goody!” said Rachael in a mock gleeful voice.
“Just the person we wanted to see,” said Sirius, pulling a fake smile.
Snape smirked at Sirius and sat down next to Peter, who quickly jumped out of his place next to James and jumped on the other side of Sirius. James, who didn’t want to be sitting next to his least favourite person, leapt out of his seat and took the empty space next to Peter, leaving Snape sitting next to a still slumbering Remus.
“What’s up with him?” Snape asked, poking Remus, hard, in the back. Remus didn’t wake up, but shifted slightly in his seat.
“None of your business, Snape!” Rachael snapped.
“Looks like he’s been hit by a truck,” said Snape viciously, poking Remus even harder. Rachael, James, Sirius and Peter looked at each other. Snape wasn’t going to give up.
“Snape, just leave him alone,” James muttered menacingly.
Snape just smiled his disturbing smile and continued poking Remus. After a couple of hard pokes in between the shoulder blades Remus’s eyelids flickered open and he turned his head slightly to see, much to his horror, Snape sitting next to him. Remus slid off his seat and scrambled backwards next to his sister, who moved over to make room for him.
“What’s he doing in here?” Remus hissed.
“The usual,” answered Sirius bitterly, “bugging us.”
Without another word Snape exited the compartment. The five eyed him strangely as his robes whipped out of sight.
“That was fascinating,” Sirius said, giving a long whistle.
“Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts,” said Dumbledore over the Great Hall. “Now I feel that after a long train ride, I can make you wait a few minutes longer to eat.” Professor Dumbledore smiled as he listened to the annoyed groans from his students. “Or we can eat right now!” With the wave of the hand the golden platters on the four house tables filled with food.
Immediately all the students began loading their plates up with every type of food within reach.
“Finally!” said Peter, happily putting some roast potatoes on his plate. “I’m starving.” James and Sirius caught each other’s eye, but avoided laughing.
“Hey,” said Remus suddenly. “Where’s Dad?”
The others turned to see Remus was sitting on his knees to see over to the staff table where it was clear that their dad wasn’t there.
“That’s weird,” Rachael muttered. “Wonder where he is?”
Not even a second after she said that the Great Hall doors opened and her father came rushing in. There were a few turns of the head to see who had come in. But mostly every student was too immersed in the feast to give the newcomer in the hall a second thought. Professor Lupin came rushing up the hall, stopping at the Gryffindor table to give Remus and Rachael a hug hullo and then up to the staff table where he apologised to Dumbledore for being late.
“That’s strange,” said Remus, who was watching his father settle himself in the empty seat between Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick. Remus shrugged and returned back to his dinner, knowing that his father would eventually tell them the reason for his lateness.
They spent the rest of the feast talking about the upcoming year, about each other’s summers, just the usual things to pass the time.
“Sirius, do you have to talk about the house elf while we’re eating?” asked Rachael exasperatedly, breaking off her conversation with Lily as Sirius went into deep detail about the beheading of the house elf Leechy. Sirius shrugged and continued his conversation about the elf, making it less gruesome then it was. Rachael nodded and turned back to Lily.
Rachael was listening to Lily’s tale about how during the summer she and her sister got into a big arguement because her older sister, Petunia, was calling her a freak every second she could get and Lily had had enough of it. So, as a little revenge, Lily took her pet owl, Rosey, and let her loose in her sister’s room when her sister was out on a date with a boy that Lily described as an elephant that has been taught to walk on his hind legs. All she knew about the boy, other than what he looked like, was that his name was Vernon.
When Petunia returned from her date she discovered Rosey had left her several presents in several well-hidden places. Petunia took one horrified look at her room, let out a terrible shriek of, “FREAK!” and ran out of the room at full speed.
“Music to my ears.”
“Right so we’ve got Transfiguration first… Can you believe how much work she gave us over the break?” Sirius whined as he read the schedule Professor McGonagall had just handed him. When Sirius said this, Rachael could swear she saw Professor McGonagall stop and smile triumphantly, but maybe she had just imagined it. “After that we have Charms, Flitwick gave us a lot of work too… Why do the teachers torture us like this?”
“Please finish reading this today,” said Remus sarcastically.
“You read it then!”
“I will. After Charms, double Potions with the Ravenclaws, then Herbology, lunch and History of Magic. There said simply and without whining.”
Sirius shoved Remus in the shoulder and they returned to their breakfast. Rachael set her fork down and looked up at the staff table. Her dad was sitting in between Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, not talking to either one of them. As a matter of fact, he wasn’t even eating. She wondered what could be wrong… Why had he been late for the feast? And, according to Remus, her father had actually been talking to their mother. What was going on?
Her dad looked up from his plate, caught his daughter’s eye and smiled. Rachael returned the smile, though it was uneasy. She shrugged it off. He would probably talk to her about it eventually… at least she hoped he would. Rachael looked towards the front door to see Lily walking in, followed closely by James, who seemed to be talking at a very swift pace and was jogging behind Lily. Rachael looked around the table; she hadn’t even noticed James was missing.
She, Remus, Sirius and Peter watched this rather amusing scene. Lily was walking at almost a run while James was doing his best to keep up with her. At first they weren’t able to hear what James was saying. But as they drew nearer to the table they could catch phrases of what he was saying.
“Please, Lily!” he said in a desperate tone.
“No, Potter!” Lily huffed, trying to shake James off.
“Please!”
“Do you understand the word no?”
James stopped talking and walking to just stand there with his mouth hanging open. He shook his head and retreated to the empty seat beside Peter. Remus and Sirius exchanged quick glances at each other, clearly communicating the word “pathetic” with each other.
James looked up at them. “She knows she likes me,” he said confidently.
His friends found it best not to answer that question. They really couldn’t break it to him that she despised everything about him from the tip of his untidy hair down to the very point of his biggest toe. Rachael could hardly believe James hadn’t gotten the idea that Lily hated him. Lily had told Rachael countless times that she did. But of course Rachael couldn’t tell James that, it would crush him. So she would just let James figure it out himself.
She ate one last forkful of eggs and gathered up her books.
“Going to class already?” Sirius asked, looking up from his own breakfast.
“Yeah,” Rachael answered airily. “Figure, get there early and finish my Transfiguration assignment, just have to add one more sentence.” Rachael gathered up her books and trudged out of the Great Hall and up towards the third floor to the Transfiguration classroom. As she climbed up the steps leading towards the second floor she heard the petrified shriek of a female… one who was unmistakable. Walking a little further, in the direction towards the girls’ bathroom she saw none other than Moaning Myrtle shrieking and floating towards the first floor. She only stopped right as she was about to float through Rachael, who bent over backwards to avoid it.
“What’s going on?” Rachael answered, standing up straight.
“It’s Peeves!” Myrtle shrieked. “He’s destroying the girls’ bathroom!”
“Pity…” said Rachael in a false concerned voice. No one even went in that bathroom anyway due to Myrtle’s consistent sobbing, making it a pain to go to the bathroom. “Oh well! Transfiguration class awaits!” And she began to set off at a run down towards the next stairwell, only to be stopped by the cackling poltergeist, Peeves. Rachael hadn’t realised she had taken a wrong turn and discovered herself standing in front of a flooded girls’ bathroom. So there was the destruction…
Peeves was laughing madly as he observed his work. “Oh such a beeeuteeful sight!” he howled, as he swirled back into the bathroom to turn on a few more taps on the sink and watched adoringly as waterfalls of water spilled down onto the floor.
Rachael jumped backwards and picked up the hem of her robes so they didn’t get wet. Peeves did a back flip out of the bathroom. As he was twirling back the right way he stopped right in front of Rachael, who was watching this whole scene with slight amusement. “Why lookie!” he cried gleefully. “’Tis Missy Lupy! Looney Loopy Lupin!” he sang, doing several cartwheels.
Rachael smirked. “Yes that’s me,” she said, playing along. “Looney Loopy Lupin. Least I’m not Pitiful Pathetic Peeves.”
Peeves stopped right in the middle of his cartwheel. “Pitiful Pathetic Peeves?” he said in a highly dramatic voice. “That’s not very nice! For a Loopy Lupin you’re not very nice.”
“Shame, isn’t it?”
“Oh yes! ‘Tis a shame… shame for you. Have fun swimming!”
“Swimming? Wha-?” but before she could do anything else, the rug she was standing on was pulled out from under her and she slid into the bathroom and into the flood of water. She landed face first into the river and listened angrily as Peeves floated away, cackling at the top of his voice.
“Idiot poltergeist,” she muttered in an off voice, as she was talking under water. She picked herself up, slipping on the hem of her robes and falling backwards into the water again. Cursing under her breath, she carefully picked herself up. Drenched from head to foot, she trudged slowly out of the bathroom, making sure to shut the taps off before the flood got any worse.
“Late, Miss Lupin,” said Professor McGonagall sternly, as Rachael walked into the Transfiguration classroom ten minutes after class had already started. After taking an unwilling swim in the flooded bathroom, Rachael had dashed up to the Gryffindor common room. On the way, she was slipping and sliding across the stone floor and occasionally crashing into a suit of armor. She changed into a clean pair of robes and ran at full speed back down to Transfiguration.
“Sorry,” she said apologetically, taking the vacant seat next to Lily. “Had a bit of a run in with Peeves.”
“And what is our poltergeist up to now?”
“Flooding the girls’ bathroom on the second floor.”
Professor McGonagall clicked her tongue and sent Alice Gordon to find Mr. Filch and bring him to the flooded bathroom. James and Sirius sniggered at the thought of a flooded bathroom.
“Was Myrtle freaking out?” Sirius hissed to Rachael.
Rachael nodded, feeling a bit agitated that she had just gone swimming against her will. Myrtle got upset over the smallest things, so Sirius shouldn’t have even bothered to ask. Professor McGonagall tapped her wand against the blackboard at the head of the classroom and the day’s notes appeared as though an invisible hand was scrawling them on.
“Copy down these notes please,” said Professor McGonagall, tapping her wand at the board yet again. “Tomorrow we will be learning how to transfigure an animal into a water goblet.”
The class muttered approvingly and began writing down the day’s notes.
“So you went swimming in Peeves’s mess?” Remus asked as he wrote down the incantation.
Rachael looked up at her brother and saw him struggling not to laugh. “Yes, I did,” she said coolly. “Why don’t you go down there and take a dip yourself?”
“I just might,” he mocked, setting his quill down and cracking his knuckles.
“Want some help then?” said Lily, looking up from her work.
Remus just gave a smile that said ‘no thank you’ and returned to his work. As Rachael copied down her notes she listened as James and Sirius discussed in hushed voices about how they were going to humiliate Snape in the coming year. They were thinking of using Wingardium Leviosa on him a couple of times; maybe letting his knickers see daylight. They snickered at the very thought, though earning nothing except an order to be quiet from their professor.
“Least she didn’t hear what we were saying,” whispered James in a relieved voice. The notes took them all class to copy so once the last student put his quill down the bell rang and the Gryffindors packed up their books to go to Charms class. They walked down the crowded corridor, suddenly smelling something… a Dung Bomb.
“Eww,” said Lily in a chocked voice as she covered her nose with her hand. As they ran down the corridor and sped down the steps they discovered the Dung Bombs were the result of yet another gag of Peeves.
“Peeves is on a roll today,” Remus muttered as they took their seats in the back of Professor Flitwick’s Charms classroom. “Flooding the bathroom… setting off Dung Bombs…” Just then there was a loud explosion heard in the corridor just outside the classroom, followed by the high pitched cackling of the poltergeist. The class rushed to the door to discover pink and blue smoke filling the hall and saw sparks of light coming out of the smoke. “Setting off fireworks in the hallway…”
They spent a rather uneventful period in Charms class, listening lazily as Professor Flitwick explained to them, in his high pitched voice, the correct wand movements for the teeth growing charm, Densaugeo. Though the class was disrupted every once and a while as a firework whizzed its way into the classroom, only to be followed by a raging Mr. Filch who was trying to find them all.
After the tenth time Mr. Filch came into the classroom, distracting the entire class, Professor Flitwick gave up altogether on trying to teach his class and let them have the rest of the period to talk amongst themselves.
“So… do anything else over the summer Sirius?” Rachael asked, turning her chair towards Sirius. “Besides watching your house elf’s head getting chopped off.”
“Well you know we went to your house,” he said, finishing the last of the notes Professor Flitwick had given them. “You’re right, your mother is a (he said something that made James clap his hand over Sirius’s mouth). Nasty piece of work.”
“No need to tell me that,” said Rachael, glaring at the mention of her mother.
“Are you referring to when you told my mum off?” asked Remus, looking up from his notes. Sirius nodded, unable to keep a small smile off his face at the thought.
Rachael looked at Sirius questioningly. “And what did you tell her off about?” she asked, quite keen on hearing the answer.
Sirius shook his head, clearly not wanting to talk about it. Remus shoved Sirius in the shoulder as a way of telling him to tell her what he argued with their mother about. Remus rolled his eyes.
“If you don’t say I will,” he threatened. Remus smiled, but Sirius didn’t look deterred by that. Instead he hissed in his friend’s ear, “I’ll tell her later,” and he jerked his head towards Lily, who luckily didn’t notice as she was flipping through the pages of her Charms textbook. Remus understood at once.
“Why does Binstom hate us so much?” James whined as they took their seats at the Gryffindor table during lunch. They had just gotten out of Herbology class and were incredibly sore from potting some Mandrakes for Professor Sprout.
“Because he came from Slytherin,” Sirius answered as he eased down into a seat beside James. Binstom had taken it upon himself to spend the entire double period of Potions giving the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws incredibly ridiculous notes to copy for a simple Shrinking Solution. They knew it couldn’t be as hard as their professor made it. He just liked giving them hard work without any mercy. After the notes he made them start concocting the solution, all the while breathing down their necks.
“Be grateful your potion didn’t almost eat you,” Remus muttered as he poked the sausage on his plate. Remus, who was good at many things, wasn’t much of a potion brewer. His potion went horribly wrong and started bubbling up crazily. Professor Binstom had to Vanish the entire cauldron before it caused any serious damage.
Sirius snorted at the thought. “I pity that Ravenclaw who was working at the table next to yours,” he said in a voice of mock pity. “Didn’t that stuff splatter all over her robes?”
“Yes,” said Remus miserably as the very same Ravenclaw walked past him and flicked him in the back of the head. “What was that for?” he snapped at her. The Ravenclaw said nothing, just gave him a look and stalked off to her table.
“Maybe because that potion burnt a hole right through her robes,” said James thoughtfully. “What class do we have next?”
“History of Magic,” Sirius answered, taking a glance at his schedule.
James moaned. Everyone hated History of Magic, as Binns was the most boring professor in the entire school. They thought that the fact that Professor Binns was their only teacher who was a ghost that he might make class interesting. But no! It was just as dull and humdrum as every other class.
“I hate that class!” he whined. “They should put in the requirements ‘MUST BRING PILLOW,’ honestly, Binns is that boring.”
“Ah suck it up and take it like a man!” said Remus.
“I’d rather be a woman then!”
Remus and Sirius looked at each and back at James.
“Unneeded info.”
Needless to say, History of Magic was as boring as boring can get. The boys spent the entire period trying to keep themselves awake by slapping each other on the face if one of them got too close to falling asleep. Rachael and Lily were also struggling to remain focused. Their minds kept drifting away, however, when they tried.
Once classes let out, Rachael and Lily headed up to the Gryffindor common room where they deposited their book bags in the dormitory and went back down into the common room where they found the boys sitting around the table in front of the fire. As they were heading over Lily suddenly muttered something about wanting to start her Potions essay and scurried back up to the dormitory. Rachael smiled; she knew Lily just didn’t want to be around James. Actually that’s not a bad idea, and she ran after Lily back up to the dormitory.
“I don’t get it,” said James miserably as he watched Lily run back upstairs. “Why does she hate me so much?” Remus and Sirius shrugged. “Oh come on! You guys can honestly say that you don’t know?” Again they shrugged. “Just tell me the truth!”
Remus and Sirius exchanged glances.
“The truth?” said Remus uneasily. James nodded impatiently. Remus looked as though he wished James had never asked the question. But he answered anyway. “Well she thinks your conceited, big headed, annoying, a brat…” Remus took one look at James’s expression and knew immediately he had made a mistake. James face had turned unnaturally red and his face was contorted into a mean frown.
“Is that so?” he stammered. Remus didn’t say anything. “Really? Did she really say that or did you just make it up yourself?”
“James, what?”
“Well I don’t need a freak of a wolf telling me this.”
“James!” Sirius was on his feet now, positively fuming. “You asked a question and Remus answered it! It’s not his fault that’s what Lily thinks you are. It’s your own fault!”
But James didn’t listen. Instead he got up and stormed out of the common room. Sirius looked down at Remus, who was watching with a blank expression as James left the room.
Sirius whipped around when he heard footsteps running down from the direction of the dormitories. Rachael had just appeared at the foot of the stairs and was looking around curiously.
“What was all the yelling about?” she asked, having spotted Sirius.
“James,” Sirius said shortly.
“What’s he going on about?”
“James asked us why Lily hates him, Remus answered, and James called him a freak of a wolf.”
“Did he now?” said Rachael, a swift feeling of rage overcoming her. Sirius nodded. “Excuse me I need to have a word with James!” Rachael rushed past Sirius and out through the common room where she caught James just as he was descending the staircase. She grabbed his shoulder and wheeled him around.
“What the heck did you say that for?” she yelled at him, catching the attention of a few third years passing by them.
“Say what?” James asked, gesturing for the third years to leave.
“Why did you call Remus a ‘freak of a wolf’?”
“Because he called me big headed and conceited and a brat!”
“He was only saying what Lily thinks you are. It’s not his fault!”
“He could have not told me.”
“You asked for God’s sake!” James still wouldn’t give in and say he was wrong. “Why did you have to call him that?”
“He is what he is,” and with that James shook out of Rachael’s grip on his shoulder and continued down the stairs leaving Rachael glaring angrily after him.