Chapter 9: Astrology and Astronomy
Dear Phedra,
I found these on sale while shopping with Maeve. She insisted that I buy them because your school “has cold floors” and she didn’t want your feet to be cold. Don’t forget to wear them! Study hard, and we will see you at Christmas!
Love,
Mum
The letter was written on floral stationary, and someone had accidentally put a stamp on the envelope, even though owl post didn’t use stamps. The accompanying package had not been delivered with the greatest accuracy on the owl’s part. Phedra picked it up out of Michelle’s toast.
“I had hoped that, now that we’re second-years, other people’s mail wouldn’t get dropped off on our plates anymore,” Michelle remarked as she reached for some new toast. Phedra had possessed similar hopes about returning to Hogwarts as a seasoned second-year, but it was now mid-September and everything was the same as it had been the year before. After an uneventful summer at home, even Hogwarts’ ghosts startled her all over again.
“Sorry,” she apologised to Michelle.
“No respect for twelve-year-olds, I’m afraid,” joked Frank. “NEWT students, however…”
“I have half a mind to mail a package directly to your cereal tomorrow,” replied Alice in a dry tone. Meanwhile, Phedra was carefully unwrapping her parcel. She was rather excited; she had never received a package at breakfast before. Her mum usually just handed over necessities at holidays, unfamiliar with owl post as she was.
“Can you actually mail something to ‘Frank’s cereal’? Would you write that on the address?” Ailis asked Lily.
“We’ve got to try that sometime!” said Sirius to his friends. “Mail Dungbombs directly to Snivellus’ bacon!”
“Don’t tell the world, idiot!” James hushed him.
The package contained a pair of pink slippers. Phedra pulled them out and looked at them.
“I bet teachers would trace the mail and catch you,” Ailis said, leaning across Lily to warn James.
“Is mail traceable?” Peter asked Remus in alarm.
Lily saw Phedra holding the slippers, and leaned across the table to look at the gift.
“Are those from your mum?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
“They look too big,” she said, almost apologetically. And they were.
“Y’know, James, it just might be worth a shot,” said Sirius, shooting a glance at the Slytherin table.
“Will you all stop spilling on a potential surprise? Now we really will get caught!” yelled James.
“Bell’s about to ring,” commented Michelle.
***
The mail that Phedra received at breakfast the next day was considerably different. She came down to the Great Hall that morning at the back of a pack of Gryffindor girls, walking alongside Lily. They plopped down on a bench and had started dishing up eggs when the mail made its regular appearance. A brown owl dropped a newspaper on Michelle’s plate.
“Here, Phedra. It’s on my plate, so it must be for you.”
“But I don’t subscribe to the Daily Prophet.”
“Take it!”
Phedra grabbed the paper gingerly and shook it out, genuinely uninterested in reading anything informative.
“Do wizard papers have horoscopes?” she asked the table in general.
“Ha, I don’t know, let’s look!” Lily leaned over to get a better view of the paper. “I think I’m a Gemini.”
They skipped to the back, scanning for anything that looked promising.
“Here it is!” Lily cried. “Gemini, Gemini, where are you…here I am! ‘With the moon in your sign opposing the sun, you are likely to find someone making too many demands on your time.’ Probably McGonagall. I’ve never had so much homework in my life!” she joked. “ ‘This is likely to make you more hemmed-in than usual but by taking a humorous yet flexible approach, you’ll be able to make your point without upsetting the applecart.’ Uh, oh. I better start stretching or else we’re gonna have some very angry applecarts!”
Phedra chuckled appreciatively, but didn’t bother to inspect her own horoscope. The bell was about to ring, and she was still rather hungry.
First period that day was Charms, which Phedra usually enjoyed. Professor Flitwick was a reasonably good teacher, and funny in an endearing sort of way. Also, as Frank had predicted last year, it had come to be rather fun. That day, however, happened to be a lecture day, which was usually never any fun at all. Professor Flitwick went on and on, reading from his notes and interspersing the facts with his own little jokes (which only he found funny, but everyone indulged him) while the second-years furiously copied down everything they could. Phedra, who had never quite gotten used to writing with a quill, always had ink splattered on the end of her nose after class. Fortunately, that day’s lecture was not as long as usual, and the students had a few minutes to mill around after class. The Gryffindor girls stood together in a clump, hitching bags onto shoulders and fiddling with their hair.
“D’you know, I think that gamekeeper, Hagrid, is kind of crazy,” Michelle commented casually to the group. “I saw him wandering across the grounds carrying some dead animal by the tail…and singing! And he’s so big!” She laughed. “What if he just went bezerk-o on us one day?”
“Ha, I’m sure Dumbledore isn’t too worried,” Ailis responded wryly, freeing her blonde hair from the floppy bun that she had tied it into at the beginning of class, and trying to fluff it up enough to cover her protruding ears.
“Hey! Are you insulting Hagrid, Morgan?” Sirius butted into the conversation, raising an eyebrow at Michelle. “He’s the coolest guy alive! Who else do you know who carries a crossbow?”
James jumped in as well: “Wow, Evans, your friends are pretty judgemental.” Lily raised an eyebrow to rival Sirius’. Phedra would have raised an eyebrow if she could. She didn’t see what the conversation had to do with Lily.
“By the way, Bagley, you’ve got ink on your nose, or something. It looks kinda weird,” he paused, wrinkling his own nose, “Kinda like Evans’ face...”
“Woah… What?” Lily said in a dangerous voice, pulling her wand out of her pocket threateningly. Phedra shrunk back. Lily was a good friend, but she could take care of herself. Not to mention that Phedra had no intention of crossing James and his friends. They were very popular for second-years, and Phedra didn’t want them to think badly of her.
“Well I simply meant that…” James’ bravado knew no bounds.
“Watch it, Potter, I’m about to upset the applecart,” Lily threatened. Phedra barely contained her laughter, while James just looked confused.
“Wow! How about that weather?” Peter cut in nervously. Now, all the Gryffindors -except Remus, who was reading over his notes (he was a bit odd like that) - were involved.
“Perfect conditions for Astronomy tomorrow night, eh?” Peter continued. “As long as those clouds clear up!” Everyone rolled their eyes, except for Lily, who narrowed hers at a triumphant James before stowing her wand back in her pocket.
“Don’t even talk about Astronomy near me,” sighed Ailis gloomily. “That class is pure evil! Who wants to be up that late on a cold night to look at some bloody stars, anyway?”
“But there’s a full moon that night!” Sirius replied in an enticing tone of voice. “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore!” His attempt at a deep bass voice was rather weak, but funny nonetheless.
“There’s no amore here!” countered Ailis.
“Remus is excited, aren’t you, Remus?” Sirius asked his friend, who, Phedra suddenly realised, had put away his notes and joined the group quietly. “Remus is intellectual like that,” Sirius added sagely, clearly proud of using such a big word. This time everyone rolled their eyes, including Lily.
“I already told you I’m not gonna be there,” Remus muttered to Sirius. “My mum is ill, ‘member?”
“Oh, right.” Sirius shrugged his shoulders, but James was biting his lip, looking thoughtful. Phedra was thoughtful as well. Remus certainly visited his mom a lot. He visited her every month, actually.
The clouds that Peter had mentioned did not clear up. In fact, by that evening they had started releasing torrential sheets of rain, which continued on into the next day. Trudging to the greenhouses for Herbology was a miserably soggy experience, made worse by the fact that James, who now seemed to be trying to be nice to Lily, bobbed around the girls the whole way out there, trying to offer her an umbrella, which she refused to take. Ailis then tried to take the umbrella instead, “Since he clearly doesn’t want it”, and James’ refusal to give it to her led to further anger on Lily’s part and bickering all the way down to Professor Sprout’s class. Phedra, meanwhile, was trying not to become involved, although she did give James a sympathetic smile when he was “accidentally” bashed in the face with the umbrella handle.
After Herbology was Transfiguration. They were supposed to be transfiguring live sea slugs into Jelly Slugs, a process which Phedra found to be both soggy and disgusting. Her clothes were damp from the rain (Michelle had offered everyone a drying charm, but after blasting a burn-hole in Ailis’ sleeve, she didn’t get any more takers) and her desk was wet and slimy from the slug. To top things off, James and Sirius had transformed their slugs without trouble and were now, to nearly everyone’s disgust (and while Professor McGonagall had her back turned) eating the results. Peter was giggling in the seat behind them; Remus was not there.
Lily rolled her eyes as James tried to attract her attention with half of a lemon-flavored Slug hanging out of his mouth, but Phedra was fascinated, in a gruesome sort of way. Everything came so easy to James and Sirius. Transfiguration, flying, making friends, cracking jokes “ it all seemed quite natural to them. They also both came from fabulously wealthy, pure-blood families. Phedra wondered if that had something to do with it. After all, Lily was smart, but Phedra knew that she worked very hard to earn the grades that she got, unlike James and Sirius who rarely invested an extensive amount of effort. Maybe Muggle-borns just had it harder. Phedra’s musings were interrupted by the sound of McGonagall yelling at the boys for eating their slugs. James and Sirius were trying very hard to look guiltless. Slightly cheered by the fact that the two were to suffer the wrath of McGonagall, despite their exceptional talents, Phedra went back to poking her slug disconsolately with her wand.
That evening there was a notice in the common room, addressed to all the second years. The girls dumped their bags as close as they could get to the roaring common room fire, and, still soggy, walked over to read the notice. It was simply informing them that Astronomy had been cancelled due to the rain, and that they would have to shift their study of the properties of a full moon until the next month. Ailis gave a sigh of relief.
“Now we can get some proper rest tonight. I’m exhausted.”
“Awww…the amore will just have to be postponed,” said Sirius’ voice from behind, before bursting into another round of song.
“I thought you and James were being carted off to detention?” Michelle asked, turning to look at a grinning Sirius.
“Not anymore!” declared James triumphantly.
“We very simply convinced McGonagall that she didn’t really want to punish us today,” Sirius added.
Phedra sighed silently. Those two seemed to be exempt from the law on top of everything else!
“I’m gonna hit the sack early,” Ailis said to the girls after James and Sirius had sauntered off to greet a cheering Peter. They all thought that to be an excellent idea, and sprinted directly from the notice boards to hot showers, before falling into their warm beds.
***
Phedra woke up in pitch blackness, the only light in the room coming from a few glowing coals in the little stove in the middle of the dormitory. Rain was thundering on the roof and windowpanes. She rolled over onto her side and tried to fall back asleep. The rain kept thundering. Her eyes stayed open. She checked the clock on her bedside table. It was only 11:30. Phedra rolled over onto her other side and tried, unsuccessfully to fall back asleep. The rain kept thundering on the roof. She checked her clock again. Midnight.
Phedra sat up in bed and reached for her wand. If she was going to be awake, she might as well be doing something. Drawing would be relaxing, and quiet, but her sketchbook was in her bag, and she had left her bag in the common room. That was easily solved.
“Lumos,” she whispered and her want tip ignited faintly. She swung her feet to the floor and suppressed a squeak as its coldness shocked her poor toes. Socks would be nice. She swung her feet back onto the bed and climbed to the end so she could lean out over her trunk, which sat at the foot. Rummaging in the semidarkness for socks, Phedra grabbed something fluffy - the slippers. They were oversized, but they would do as long as she was careful not to trip over her own feet. She pulled them on and began her solitary trip down the steps to the common room. She shuffled to the book bag, grabbed the sketchbook and a drawing pencil in the light of the dying common room fire, and was shuffling back to the stairs when…thump!
Phedra froze as three figures tumbled through the portrait hole into the common room. Her heart was racing. One of the figures swore loudly.
“Bagley!”
It was Sirius…with James and Peter. Phedra took a moment to calm down, and noticed that all three boys were soaking wet.
“Were you outside after curfew?” she asked.
“That’s none of your business!”
“Sorry…just wondering.” There was an awkward pause as Phedra lingered at the foot of the steps and the boys stood near the portrait hole. “I’m going upstairs now,” Phedra continued, turning to leave, still a bit jittery.
“Thanks,” said James. “Hey, wait, Bagley!”
Phedra turned to look at him, expecting some sort of greater appreciation for not raising a fuss. But instead, James was squinting at her oddly and wiping rainwater off his glasses.
“What’s on your feet?”
Phedra looked down at her pink and fuzzy feet before replying, “They’re slippers.”
“They’re hideous!” said James. Peter and Sirius chuckled.
Glad they couldn’t see her red face in the dark, Phedra fled the scene with what she hoped was an air of silent dignity, although she almost tripped on her oversized footwear. Once back inside the girls’ dorm, she threw her sketchbook onto the nightstand and jumped into bed, but not before flinging the slippers violently into the very bottom of her trunk, where she wouldn’t have to look at them again.
The rain was still thundering.
***
a/n: The thank-yous continue! On top of being grateful to Scabbyfish, I would also like to send some love out to Bre, because I really can't submit anything without her reading it, both online and in school, because I probably would have died in Astronomy without her (Ailis and I are of similar opinion concerning that class), and because she's the bestest best friend ever! Huzzah!