First Year, Halloween and The First Snow
Sunday October 31st 1971
The Gryffindor common room was fully decked out in Halloween decorations, ready for a party. However, the first years weren`t allowed to come. Mary had been fuming at this. All day long she had sat in the window sill of their door room, simmering in her anger, looking out over the misty Hogwarts grounds. If there was something Mary loved it was a good party; music, dancing, dressing up, good food. She didn`t understand why Professor McGonagall had decided she didn`t want the first years to attend. That old biddy didn`t want them to have any fun, she thought bitterly.
Last night, she had even begged Alice, one of the prefects, to let them attend anyway and not say anything to their head of house. But Alice had kept her foot down and told them to have fun on their own. She had said she didn`t want to be responsible for a couple of eleven year-olds being trampled by a bunch of drunken older students. Mary thought this was preposterous, since she and Marlene were already twelve.
`Oh, will you stop sulking.` Marlene said, coming out of the bathroom, her wet hair dripping down her shoulders.
`Lily, you agree with me right?` Mary said, turning to look at Lily, who was reading on top of her bedspread. `We should be allowed to go to the party?`
Lily looked up from her book and shrugged. `I wouldn`t mind a party.`
`See.` Mary said pointedly at Marlene, who was pulling a jumper over her head.
`Yeah, well at least Lil is not being a complete moody arse about it.` Marlene replied.
`Oi!` Mary spat back. `I just want to dress up nicely and dance. What`s wrong with that?`
They fell silent for a while, Lily resuming to her book, Marlene drying her hair while rummaging through her belongings and Mary staring out of the window. The wind roared outside and she saw the naked trees sway back and forth. If she listened closely she could hear the boys in the room next door laughing loudly.
`What are the boys doing for Halloween?` Mary asked, resting her cheek against the glass pane.
`Don`t know and don`t care.` Lily answered.
`Ok, fair.` Mary replied. She wasn`t really jumping at the opportunity to spend the evening with four loud and irritating boys.
`If you want a party so badly.` Marlene suddenly said. `We could always just have one of our own.`
`Really?` Mary looked up surprised, peeling her eyes away from a muddy puddle on the lawn underneath the window.
`Yeah,` Lily said, slamming her book closed a little too excitedly, making the two others jump. `We`ve got music, we can put up decorations, I can run down towards the kitchens for some food. Maybe we can even convince Hagrid to give us some pumpkins we can carve.`
At this Mary snorted. `If you`ll go and plough through the cold towards Hagrid`s hut, be my guest.` She wasn`t really looking forward to having to go outside in this murky weather. Once a week for Flying lessons was more than enough. The past week it had been dire, flying in the pouring rain, she couldn`t understand why Madam Hooch hadn`t blown it off. Marlene hadn`t had any problem with it, saying that it were perfectly fine flying conditions, as if.
`I can go down to Hagrid.` Marlene answered. `Don`t mind the cold.`
Mary sprang up from the window, her chest feeling a lot lighter than it had done before. `So it`s decided? Party tonight?`
The two other girls nodded beaming. This could turn into a fine evening.
They decided to abandon their studies for the entirety of the afternoon and focus on getting their little dorm room ready for the shindig of the evening. Lily made streamers that she hung around the room, dangling down from the wooden beams on the ceiling. To Mary`s great surprise, Lily had even been able to perform some sort of spell on the lights that made them change colour and the room was now bathed in a soft red glow. During lunch, Mary had been able to sneak some of the decorations out of the Great Hall and was putting them up around the room. All the while, they had the little radio on full blast, singing along loudly to Venus by Shocking Blue and Lola by The Kinks.
A little before dinner, Marlene came bursting into the room, hair windswept, cheeks bright red and carrying three huge pumpkins. She plonked them down onto the carpet and started unravelling her many layers of clothing.
The feast in the Great Hall was something to behold. Next to an overflow of food, the thing that drew the most attention was the Headless Hunt being held by the ghosts. The ghost of Gryffindor Tower, Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, better known as Nearly Headless Nick, sat sulking next to Mary all throughout dinner, sighing sadly to himself as the other ghosts galloped along.
After dinner, Mary changed into her prettiest dress and put hoops in her ears, beaming at her reflection in the mirror. With every year passing she could see more of her mother in her face, it pleased her. Lily had put on a lovely blue dress and even though Marlene refused to put on a dress, Mary was allowed to braid her long blonde hair.
When she was trying to apply some glitter to her eyelids in the bathroom, there was scream from out of the other room and Lily called, `Mary! Twist and Shout is on!`
Throwing down the glitter container, Mary spurted out of the bathroom and turned up the music before joining Lily in dancing in the middle of the room. Marlene stood nervously to the side, her arms folded over her chest.
`Oh, come on Marls,` Mary beamed. `Dance with us!`
`Fine.` Marlene rolled her eyes and let herself be pulled into their little circle.
When they got tired, they lay down on the rug, staring up at the ceiling. Lily kept shooting little lights out of her wand and making them dance around the room, it was a charm they had just learned in class and Lily had already mastered it.
Mary turned her head, looking at the pumpkins laying on the floor.
`I`ve got a brilliant idea.` she said smirking and sat herself up right.
It didn`t take long for the three of them were carving pumpkins, that bore a great resemblance to a certain Transfiguration Professor.
`Isn`t this kind of mean?` Lily asked, as she thrust her knife into the orange flesh.
`Nah,` Mary answered. `She was the one who told us we couldn`t join the party.`
Through the doors the hooting laughs and cheers from the older Gryffindors was audible out of the common room. Sometimes a crash was heard, followed by either a bellow or a drunken cheer.
`Look!` Marlene said, holding up her pumpkin and holding it in font of her own head. `Today we will be covering chapters one to three hundred. I expect you to know how to change the entire castle into a giant pumpkin by the end of the hour and write a forty page essay on it.` Marlene imitated in a perfect Scottish lilt.
`Marlene!` Lily spluttered. `Now, that is a bit mean.` But the redheaded girl kept giggling.
The room grew quiet, only the soft hacking of their carving tools audible and the soft singing of The Supremes in the background, coming from the radio.
Mary suddenly got a brainwave and stood up, peering out of the window and looking at the lit up room of their head of house a little below theirs.
`We should levitate one in front of her window!` she said cheekily. `Has one of you managed the Locomotor charm yet?`
`I have.` Lily said, springing up and dusting some pumpkinseeds off her dress.
With some effort, Mary was able to open up the window, making a gush of wind enter the room as she hauled the biggest pumpkin towards the ledge. Marlene and Lily wriggled themselves next to Mary in opening in the window and Lily muttered the incantation, prior to directing the flying object towards the lit up window of Professor McGonagall`s office.
`What if she sees us.` Marlene muttered anxiously.
`Turn off the light in our room.` Lily demanded and Marlene ran away from the window to envelop their room in darkness.
The pumpkin bumped into the window frame and Mary held her breath, waiting for the severe witch to be faced with her own reflection, or at least an attempt at it.
`Oh, oh,` Mary whispered urgently as she saw a shadow move in the room below. `Marlene, quickly!`
Marlene ran back and wrung herself between the two other girls, knocking into Lily, who momentarily lost her concentration and lowered her wand, making the pumpkin soar towards the ground. There was a dull thud and the pumpkin splashed against the side of the castle, leaving a vile looking orange mess on the stones.
`Bullocks.` Marlene muttered and the other two burst out in a peal of laughter, precariously hanging out of their dorm window.
***
Saturday November 20th 1971
It was Hogsmeade weekend and even though first years weren`t allowed to go down to the little village, Marlene, Lily and Mary were going. None of them had even bothered to ask one of the teachers if they would be allowed to head down so Mary would be able to ring her parents from the telephone booth at the edge of the forest. Lily had sweetly asked Alice for the exact location of the phone, saying she was doing a paper on the remnants of muggle technology in and around Hogwarts. Marlene had thought this was genius.
After Mary had told Marlene and Lily that she had been missing her family terribly, they had started plotting their trip. Coming up with excuses for if they would be caught, alibies for if people asked them where they had been or what their weekend plans were. However, thanks to it nearing the Christmas holidays and the work pilling up, everybody was seemingly too busy with their schoolwork to take notice of the three small girls sneaking out during breakfast. Lily had made them work ahead on homework, so they wouldn`t need to worry about that.
Now they were stalking along the edge of the forest, Lily up front holding a map and Mary dawdling next to her, evidently extremely impatient to talk to her family. Marlene was trailing behind them, she had had a headache all morning long and she had even considered not going along with her friends. Yet, she hadn`t wanted to miss out on this adventure and with gritted teeth she plodded on. She had never before seen a telephone and even though Mary and Lily had described it to her, she had a hard time conjuring up an image.
It wouldn`t be too long of a walk, still Marlene felt like every step away from the castle was one too much. She thought this was peculiar, since normally she was the one who liked to be out in the cold. A slight drizzle started coming down and Marlene pulled the hood of her robes further over her head, protecting her hair. Out in front of her she saw the two bobbing heads of Lily and Mary. Never before had she felt left out by the two of them, but somehow today she couldn`t shake the feeling like they were whispering about her. That they secretly thought she was really weird or annoying.
At a cross in the road they had to walk up a hill following a gravel pathway. Up in the distance Marlene could see a little red house looming up out of the mist. Lily and Mary sped up, bending their heads against the biting wind. Marlene tried to keep up with them, but she almost doubled over as a sharp pain shot through her lower abdomen. Tears shot into her eyes, but just as soon as it had started, the pain ebbed away again and Marlene shook her head, continuing on her way.
The three of them pressed themselves into the little red box. It smelled absolutely rank inside of the booth and Marlene felt the bile rise up in her throat.
`Ow, you stepped on my toe.` she spat at Mary, who moved a little back to do something with the weird contraption in front of her.
`Sorry!` Mary yelped. `It`s all so crammed in here.`
Marlene peered over Mary`s shoulder, who spun a wheel, prior to picking up the elongated object and putting it to her ear. Again her stomach cramped, Marlene was scared she might be coming down with the flu or something. It was sweltering hot inside the little box with the thee of them and she felt the need to feel the cold air from outside against her skin.
`Hello, mudda?` Mary said into the object that Lily had explained her to be the receiver.
There was a short pause, in which Mary`s face was adorned by a deep frown, until it dissolved into a big smile rippling across her face.
`Mummy, it`s me. Mary!` Mary said excitedly, Marlene could see tears brimming in the corners of her big brown eyes.
Now it was Lily who stood on her toes and Marlene glared at her, for which she immediately felt sorry. She didn`t understand why she suddenly was feeling so irritated at everything.
`I`m sorry,` Marlene said. `I need to get back.` She opened the door of the booth and squirmed out if it, brazing herself in the wind.
Lily shot her a confused glance though through the glass, raising her eyebrows questioning.
`Headache.` Marlene mouthed back. Although she had a feeling that wasn`t all that was happening.
Without looking back, Marlene practically ran back to the castle, as hard as her body would allow her to. Her lower abdomen kept hurting and she had a rising suspicion that she wasn`t coming down with the flu after all, but actually staring her first period. Her mother had warned her that this might happen sooner or later, yet Marlene had kept shrugging it off.
In the common room the boys were doing homework and Sirius was reading aloud out of his textbook, it was another annoying new habit and Marlene whished she had already mastered the tongue tying curse so she could use it on him.
Back in their door room she practically burst through their bathroom door, locking it securely behind her. She let the shower run, the hot water filling the room with steam and fogging up the mirror. As she looked down she indeed saw a thin red trickle run down her leg and out of pure shock she started crying. She didn`t feel ready for this. Was she supposed to go down to the hospital wing now? She thought her mammy had put some sanitary pads in her trunk at the end of summer, but she wasn`t sure. Why was nobody talking about this? Marlene didn`t even know if Lily and Mary had already had their period, they hadn`t discussed it. Should they have?
Marlene desperately wanted to go home now, she wanted nothing more than to be held by her mother. Why had Hogwarts have to be a boarding school anyway?
The thing that scared her the most was the fact that there was no denying now that she was growing up. Becoming a woman. All her life she had been able to push it to the back of her mind, lug along with her brother. Now she would be expected to behave differently. It terrified her to think about the fact that Danny would maybe see her differently. She was only twelve.
Marlene didn`t have a clue how much time had passed since she had stepped into the shower, but outside of the bathroom she could hear the muffled voices of Lily and Mary. Reluctantly she turned off the running water and quickly dried and dressed herself.
She pushed her way out of the bathroom, a tuft of steam following her and wet hair clinging to her head.
`Marls?` Lily asked, looking at her, green eyes full of concern.
`I just need to, erm-` Marlene stuttered and held her head bent down as she rushed out of their dorm room, down the stairs.
Heaving she stood in front of Professor McGonagall`s office and knocked on the coarse wood in a frenzy. Impatiently she rocked back and forth on her feet, waiting for the door to open.
Slowly the door went open and the stern faced witch appeared in the entryway, looking down at Marlene over the top of her glasses. `Yes?` Professor McGonagall said.
`I need to go home.` Marlene spluttered.
`Please, Miss McKinnon, do come in.` she opened the door further and ushered the panicked girl inside.
`I need to go home.` Marlene repeated, urgently.
`Has one of your family members fallen ill?` the head of house asked, brow furrowed.
`No. I just need to go home.`
`Now, Miss McKinnon. I need you to explain to me why you need to go home. I can`t be sending students home without a proper reason.`
Marlene opened and closed her mouth, spluttering and trying to think of a way to get out of the situation. She hadn`t properly thought about this and acted rashly in her decision to come down here. She stopped in her step when she saw Madam Pomfrey sitting in an armchair in a corner of the small office.
`Oh, I`m sorry.` she muttered. `I- I didn`t realise you had company.` She started to feel more foolish by the second and she now whished she hadn`t come knocking on McGonagall`s office door at all.
`Oh no. Poppy- Madam Pomfrey is just, erm, leaving.` the professor answered and Marlene could have sworn that she saw an uncharacteristic flush flitter across her cheeks.
`Yes, I was.` Madam Pomfrey said hastily and left the room without any further warning.
`Oh, ok.` Marlene said, feeling confused.
Professor McGonagall gestured towards the chair that stood on the other side of her desk and urged Marlene to sit down in it.
`Miss McKinnon, now if you would please enlighten me why I need to sent you home.`
`Oh, no it`s nothing.` Marlene started fidgeting with the cuff of her sleeve. `I was mistaken.`
Professor McGonagall took off her glasses, making her appear milder somehow and she leaned back in her chair, smoothing down her emerald coloured robes.
`Miss McKinnon. If you ever needed to talk to me about something, you can. I am your head of house after all and if there is anything bothering you, I would be more than glad to help you.`
Marlene looked up from her lap, there was a kindness in the professor`s eyes she hadn`t seen before and it almost made her choke up.
`Thank you professor.` she said softly. `However, I really do feel better now.` She stood up from her chair, resolved to go back to Mary and Lily.
`Suit yourself.` Professor McGonagall answered. `Good day, Miss McKinnon.`
`Good day, Professor.` Marlene replied before she shut the door behind her and headed up back to the dorm.
***
Friday December 10th 1971
The days were shortening at an alarming rate and nobody could deny any longer that they had entered the winter season. Thin cotton robes were being swapped for thick woollen ones and it seemed that nobody fancied to go out into the freezing cold anymore, cluttering up the common room with students at all hours of the day.
Lily spent all the spare hours she wasn`t spending on school work, bundled up in front of the fire with a book. She was quickly working her way through Anne of Green Gables, she found herself being able to relate to Anne Shirley in more ways than she thought imaginable. The fierce and spirited redheaded girl was someone whom made her feel less insecure about her fiery mop of hair and made her feel comforted with the fact that she would one day also find her own Gilbert Blithe. Not that she needed a Gilbert Blithe, god no, she was perfectly fine, boys were annoying little pests.
She had almost made her way through the stack of muggle books she had taken with her from home and she was already starting to think about which books she wanted to take with her when she came back from Christmas break. Maybe her parents would be getting her books for Christmas, she thought.
There was only one week of classes left, besides today obviously. Their first class was Transfiguration, she was looking especially forward to it since they would be doing their first practical transformation. She felt resolved to be the first one to do it. Lily was almost top of the class, save for James. This annoyed her. The boy seemed to spend all his time plotting pranks and strutting around, just to receive good marks as well. It was unfair and extremely annoying. James was annoying.
The Great Hall was already looking festive as Mary, Lily and Marlene went down for breakfast. Hagrid had lugged in a giant Christmas tree and Professor Flitwick had charmed at least a thousand golden glittering ornaments to float around. Lily loved Christmas, she loved the smell of pine needles and freshly baked cookies, the sparkly decorations and the general cheer that hung in the air. She hoped it would start snowing soon. Some of her favourite memories had taken place in the snow.
The first year boys were joking around, trying to get some of the floating ornaments out of the air and Lily rolled her eyes at Mary over her warm porridge.
At the beginning of the Transfiguration lesson, Lily sat herself down on the first row, next to Mary and Marlene, their usual place on Lily`s courtesy.
Professor McGonagall stood up from behind her desk. `Now, before we start today`s lesson. To avoid too much disorder, I have made pairs for you to be working in on your first practical transfiguration assignment.`
With a flick of her wand she made a piece of parchment appear on the board. `You need to find your name on the list and find your partner. I expect you to work independently for the entire lesson and I will come by and check your progress.`
Lily hurried towards the board with the rest of the students and searched for her name.
Oh no. Lily groaned inwardly.
`Seems like we`ll be working together.`
Lily slowly spun around and looked in the cheery bespectacled face of James Potter.
`Spectacular.` she answered and started stalking back to her seat to grab her textbook. Bloody Potter, couldn`t McGonagall have place her with someone else.
James followed her like a docile puppy and Lily shot a pleading smile at Mary, who was snickering to herself. She and Marlene had been placed in a pair.
The two of them sought out a seat by the window and Lily slapped open her book, splaying it out in front of them.
`So, I`ve already read the theory. But if you still need to read it, be my guest.` Lily said, already opening the packet of matchsticks that lay on their table and picked one out.
`No, we can start right away.` James nodded, still smiling. `Whatever you want.`
`Brilliant.` Lily said sarcastically and placed the matchstick in front of her.
She didn`t understand why James was being so overly nice to her, it was like he was mocking her or something.
`So you`re going home for the holidays?` James asked, also taking a matchstick.
`Correct.` Lily answered, peering over the text.
`You`re muggle-born right?` the bespectacled boy asked.
`Look,` Lily said, turning to face him. `We don`t need to chitchat. Let`s just work. Understood?`
`Whatever you want.` James replied, shrugging his shoulders, grinning his everlasting annoying grin.
They worked silently for a while. The tip of the matchstick was supposed to turn into the eye of the needle and the woody part needed to turn into the sharp point. Lily kept muttering the incantation and urgently jabbing her wand at the matchstick.
At first nothing happened and to her relieve James` also stayed a matchstick. Finally, something happened, but instead of entirely transforming to a needle, the matchstick stayed the rough papery texture and she hastily grabbed another one out of the box.
James let out an excited yelp and held up a sharp shining metallic needle. Lily scowled and kept her stare fixed on her new matchstick, whispering the incantation through gritted teeth.
`Do you need me to help you?` James asked.
`I`m fine on my own, thanks.` she bit at him.
Lily kept trying, but she only kept making either metallic matchsticks or papery needles. All the while, James kept looking at her, evidently amused. So, after half an hour or so she decided to swallow her pride.
`Ok. Tell me what I`m doing wrong.` Lily sighed.
`Oh, so now you want my help?` James smirked.
`Yes,` Lily replied meekly, looking into James` deep brown eyes. `Please.` she added as she saw the boy wouldn`t budge that easily.
`You`re putting the wrong emphasis on the incantation.` he said. `You`re putting it on the last part, not the one before.`
`Oh.` Lily said, feeling embarrassed.
She picked up another matchstick and clearly now said, `Conmutocus.` Putting the emphasis on the part of the word James had told her to.
Immediately, the matchstick turned into a sharp gleaming silver needle and Lily grinned with glee. She looked at James, scared he would mock her, but he just smiled nodding and picked up her needle to inspect it closely.
`I think yours is better than mine.` James concluded.
Lily smiled smugly and they fell quiet as she gathered up the discarded matches and put the needle on the corner of the desk, ready to be shown to Professor McGonagall. The rest of the students were still busy trying to get their matchsticks to transform. Mary and Marlene were seemingly still not getting anywhere and Lily could hear their exasperated cries all throughout the classroom. She would have to help them this weekend.
`Look,` James nudged her with his elbow and Lily looked up from her textbook. `It has started snowing.`
She looked to the side and indeed, on the other side of the glass window white flakes were floating down out of the sky, covering the Hogwarts grounds in a woolly blanket.
///