Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
Lavender Brown sat opposite the Headmistress once again, looking totally disinterested. Sure that there was no logical reason that she should be called here and just bored with the whole day already and it had barely even started. She hated Tuesdays and Thursdays with a passion.
She hated History, all they did was talk about dead people she had no interest in to begin with. Learning dates and events that meant nothing to her and Professor Lupin seemed to be stuck on teaching them about muggles and their stupid, ignorant, boring, witch hunts that never managed to catch a real witch in any of them any way. Why were they studying muggles anyway, wasn’t this a wizarding school, so shouldn’t they be studying about Witches and Wizards. She simply hated the class and ignored everything that was said there, she had no clue how everyone else could even stand to listen to the tripe that was discussed there, she had a good mind to tell her father and have him deal with it.
Then there was Herbology, she hated dirt, she hated getting dirty, she hated the feel of dirt under her nails and she hated the smell of fertilizer. Basically, she hated that class with a passion. They didn’t believe she was allergic to being in there, but she honestly felt like she had things crawling all over her skin every time she left there until she spent several minutes scrubbing her hands and nails clean. They actually had worms living in their dirt, and were happy about it. Then all their talk about good bugs, no bugs were good, none of them, all bugs are horrid. Every disgusting little creepy, crawly one of them. Bugs…EEW!
Then there was Care of Magical Creatures, again a class outside where there were bugs, and dirt and smelly animals and no redeeming qualities at all. She didn’t know why she was jealous of those ugly Darcorns anyway all they did was sweat, smelled bad and defecate on themselves. And if you were their ‘chosen’ rider you had to clean up after them. Well she wanted no part in that. Even if she had been chosen, she would never had cleaned up after them, hired someone to do it maybe, but not do it herself, never. Since there was no desks to sit at out there people just sit on the ground or stand for that class, and since she didn’t want to stand and she would never sit on the dirty ground she was always miserable in that class. She finally began to take a blanket with her to glass, and sat on that. It was still on the ground but at least she wasn’t touching the ground, she was touching the blanket, which was barely better. When it was muddy down there she just stood and waited for the class to be over, checking her watch every few minutes, until she could leave, not paying one bit of attention to what the class was about…half the time she had to ask someone else what the assignment for those days were.
So Tuesdays and Thursdays were pretty much a wash for her, while everyone else was enjoying a free period after Care of Magical Creatures she was upstairs in her dorm in the showers scrubbing the smell and dirt of the day off of herself, just so she could go to dinner and not lose her appetite. Everyone else seemed content to take a shower after dinner but she honestly didn’t see how, the smell of the animals, the dirt, the bugs, the…everything…sometimes just thinking about it made her lose her appetite anyway. And most of them that took a shower before coming down to dinner took like a ten minute shower, and got dressed for dinner, it takes her at least an hour in the shower and an hour to get ready. So her free time is gone right there. They always look so fresh and pink though when they come down to dinner, like they have taken a nice hot shower and have spent a lot longer getting ready. Especially that Lovegood and Patil. They always look so perfect, no matter what. Right off the back of a sweaty Darcorn and they have this glow about them, not sweaty and nasty, but healthy, with only the hairs out of place they want to be out of place. Laughing and giggling along with Longbottom and Black as they walk back up to Hogwarts together in a little huddle, talking about things that only they would understand.
Just about then the door to the outer office opened and Professor Longbottom walked into the room to join them.
“Oh great, now the gang’s all here.” Lavender thought.
“Miss Brown, I am sure you are wondering why you have been brought to my office again, and so soon into the semester once again.” The Headmistress stated.
“No really…” Lavender commented rolling her eyes.
“Can the attitude young lady or we can end this meeting right now, and I will simply go directly to your father with my concerns.” McGonagall glared at the young woman in front of her whom she was quickly loosing patience with.
At hearing that Lavender sat up a little straighter and shook her head, “No Ma’am. I apologize.”
“Very well. Miss Brown it has been brought to my attention that your attitude in all of your classes has gotten no better than it was previously. Except that now you seem to focus your main dislike on the teachers, although your dislike for certain peers has definitely not diminished in the least. You appear to have an almost resentment of your teachers for one perceived wrong or another in many of your classes. Your attitude towards them is making it difficult for them to teach you anything productive. Your lack of class participation is also been mentioned as has your barely acceptable levels of homework. You do exactly what is required, but not even one line more, you rarely if ever look for outside resources or references or if you are using them you are not notating them in your reports properly.”
“One teacher described your work as dry and fact riddled, no supposition, no ideas, no perception, no thoughts, just dry, boring facts from the book reworded in a way that will allow you to finish the assignment but not one quarter of an inch more.” The Headmistress stated.
“Must have been Lupin.” Lavender mumbled underneath her breath.
“The fact that you can assume that, tells me that you are doing exactly that for Professor Lupin’s class. But I will have you know that he was just one of four teachers that said basically the same thing. Other teachers state that your obvious dislike of their class or the material being taught is so blatant it is distracting to the other students. Since your grades are barely Acceptable and your attitude it definitely not acceptable I am going to give you one final warning, I expect to see marked improvement in the very near future or else my next contact with you will be with your father present. You are not ignorant, you are not lazy you are just very, very bitter and upset about not getting your way and being allowed to go home. Don’t you want to make your parents proud of you? Don’t you want to go home this summer and let them know that yes you would like to go to a day school, where you could live at home? Don’t you want them to know you tried your hardest and made every effort to make it work and it just didn’t work out?” The Headmistress asked.
“Of course I do, but it is impossible. I hate dirt, I hate bugs, I hate fertilizer, I hate smelly animals, I hate studying about muggle history, I hate smelly ingredients, I hate slimy, messy ingredients, I hate smelly potions, I hate staying up till midnight, I hate it all.” Lavender huffed.
“So let me get this straight, you hate Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, History of Magic, Potions, and Astrology that only leaves, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms and Transfigurations. But from what I have been told you are performing the same in all your classes, what do you dislike about those three,” McGonagall asked.
“You can’t tell me you enjoy having spells cast at you when you barely know how to put up a shield to begin with? I get hit constantly with tripping hexes, stinging hexes, jelly legs curse, or what ever else that man has though would be funny to teach to a bunch of kids to use against each other.” Lavender scowled.
“That ‘man’ as you refer to him, is called Professor Longbottom. And it is his job to teach you those things, and teach you how to defend against them. It is your responsibility to learn how to defend yourself from those type of first year spells, if you can’t handle a first year tripping hex how are you going to manage a cutting hex out in the real world someday?” Mcgonagall asked. “What about Charms?”
“Charms are alright, I guess, but honestly when am I ever going to need to lift a feather? Or create a blue light? Or make something sound proof? Half of the charms he teaches we will never use. Why not teach something useful, like something to keep the mud off my shoes. Or keep my nails from chipping. Or me from getting soot in my hair when I floo travel. Why not teach us those things?” Lavender asked.
“You are in year one, you have to start somewhere, you start with learning the basics. You learned Lumos then you learned how to create a colored Lumos. You learn to sound proof an area in case you want to study and people are being too noisy for you to focus. You may never need to lift a feather again, but it is the lightest weight item you can start with and like any muscle your magic must be built up, so you start small and work your way up to heavier items. Perhaps if you work diligently at it you could be up to a book or even your book bag by the end of the year. By the end of next year you could be up to using it on your trunk. As to the other charms, they are all cosmetic, and could easily be found in books associated with that area of study. And why do we not teach it to everyone in first year, because they are not first year spells, they are more advanced spells, spells that are fourth year or above spells.” The Headmistress explained. “What is wrong with your Transfigurations class?”
“Professor Black is always saying use your imagination, use your imagination. Well I don’t have one. I know what is real, not imaginary. I deal with facts not imagination. And telling me to use my imagination is like telling a dog to speak and all it can do is bark. It will do something just never quite what you want. It will make a noise, but it will never actually ‘speak’ per say. I hate that everyone else in the class is getting all this praise for things they create on the fly, when I can’t think of a single thing to make. I try and nothing comes to mind. He says he wants a snow globe, ok so I create a glass globe with snow in it, and he frowns. What else did he expect to see, if he doesn’t tell me what to make, why does he get upset when I don’t do it the way he thinks I should? If he told me to make a fish in a fish-tank that is exactly what I would do, make ‘a’ fish in a fish-tank, one little gold fish by itself in a standard little fish-tank. Not a salt water aquarium with lion fish and angel fish and sea horses and grabs or oysters and coral and eels or baby sharks or anything. One little goldfish, nothing more, nothing less.”
Lavender sighed.
“You realize that transfiguration is about seventy percent imagination don’t you? Twenty percent spell knowledge and ten percent wand movement. But seventy percent imagination and focus.” McGonagall asked. “Also does he not give several examples of what would be interesting pieces to see?”
“That is what he said. He said with a good imagination you can do anything in the world of transfiguration. Well that and a few spells under your belt. I believe is exactly how he phrased it. And yes he does, but that isn’t what he asks for. I do what he asks for.”
McGonagall raised her eyebrow at that. “Nothing more, nothing less. I think that is your mantra for this semester is it not? Do enough to pass the day without a Zero, but no more? You say you have no imagination, but that is a bold faced lie young lady. I have heard you talk about fashion and hairstyles, and things that interest you and you have an amazing imagination. But school doesn’t interest you, so you want to spend no time on it, you want to scape by with the lowest grade you can so your father won’t come in here and insert his opinion of your performance, isn’t that the truth? How do you think all those French designers that you are always talking about learned to do the tricks of their trade if they didn’t go to school and get good grades. They had to learn how to put charms and spells on their outfits before they sell from somewhere, they learned them in school. But in upper years. Ignoring the foundation of your education because you ‘hate’ it well you are never going to work with the dyes and fabrics they have to work with before they are treated to make them presentable to you now are you. You think those fur muffs and fur collars come pre-sewn? Those were once nasty old ratty hides that had to be treated and then cut and sewn into shape. Silk only comes in one color, off white. It has to be dyed other colors so that means mixing colors and yes some of them smell, some of it is messy and some of it gets under your nails if you don’t wear gloves. That is why you do wear gloves. All those charms they put on those clothes, self repairing, temperature control, self sizing, enlarging, shrinking, color changing, color matching, lightweight charms are all charms you learn in your upper years. But at the rate you are going right now you will never make it to that upper level. Wingardium Leviosa is the first step in learning the lightweight charm you will need to know when working with ball gowns and such. Those plants you hate so much, where do you think the dyes that you will be using for the fabric is going to come from, the air?”
“Maybe I can just be the designer who creates the clothes and have someone else actually make them. They do that all the time.” Lavender looked down at her hands.
“You mean maybe you could be the sketch artist, because your name would not be on the design if all you did was draw a picture and didn’t see the piece through to the end. There are some famous people that have done that, but no where near as famous as say India North in Australia, Madam De Le Faunte in Paris, or Sebastian Emmanuel in France. And yes I know the name of a few designers here and there. I even have a couple of their pieces myself.” The Headmistress stated.
“A simple evening gown can have as many as twenty to twenty five charms on it, and you are scoffing at charms class? What if you lose a button, and you needed to transfigure something to match the one that was missing, you would first have to transfigure something into the button of choice, then color match it to your outfit, then attach it to your outfit. All those things are Transfigurations and Charms.” Professor Lovegood spoke up for the first time during this meeting.
“The bottom line is this Miss Brown. Your attitude stinks. And is disruptive to the Professors and their classes. Your attitude towards the Professors themselves is horrid and will improve immediately or your father will ensure that it does. I will not have an eleven year old child with a grudge abusing my staff. Your attitude will change or the teachers have the right to ask you to leave the class. And I have several teachers that are on the verge of doing so right now.” The Headmistress stated quite bluntly.
“They can’t do that. I show up for classes, I do the work they ask for, and I hand it in on time. That is exactly what I was told to do. And I’m doing it. They can’t kick me out of class when I am doing what they want me to do.” She glared at the Headmistress.
“Again with the attitude young lady. And yes they can. You come into the classroom with such an attitude and I don’t blame them for wanting to remove you from their classroom. When I was Transfigurations Professor here I never would have allowed a student such as you dictate to me what I could or couldn’t do.”
“Well it’s a good thing you aren’t my Transfigurations Professor now then isn’t it?” Lavender spoke before she could stop herself.
McGonagall had had enough of this young girl’s attitude, and slammed her hands down flat on her desk. “That will be enough! I tried to work with you and resolve the issue here but apparently that is of no use. I am contacting your father immediately and bringing him here for a chat. Let’s see if he enjoys your attitude as much as I do?”
“NO! Don’t do that!” Lavender shouted at the Headmistress. “I mean, I am sorry Ma’am I apologize. You’re right my attitude is really bad. I will fix it.”
“Too late, you had your chance. Several I might add. We tried talking to you like an adult, we tried working with you, we tried helping you any way we could, and you seem hell bent on throwing our efforts in our face. Now you will be held responsible for your choices.” The Headmistress went over to the fireplace and flooed Mr Brown and began to chat with him. A few minutes later the tall, greying man walked through the floo and into the Headmistress’ office.
“What trouble have you gotten yourself into now young lady?” Mr. Brown practically growled.
“Nothing, I am going to classes, doing the homework, handing it in on time and making the grades you wanted. I am doing everything you asked for.” Lavender stated teary eyed.
Alice went over to the Dict-A-Quill that had been set up before the meeting and turned the quill off and took the parchment out from underneath the quill and handed it to Mr. Brown. As he read through the parchment his face got redder and redder until he got close to the end. When he lowered the parchment. “You did not just speak to your Headmistress like that did you?”
“…”
“I asked you a question young lady and I expect an answer. One… two…” Mr Brown began to count.
“YES! Yes. Alright I did, but I apologized for it and everything.” Lavender stated in tears now.
Mr Brown looked over to the Headmistress and asked. “Do you happen to have someplace quiet I can have a word with my daughter?”
The Headmistress nodded and pointed into a small dinning room off of her office and Mr. Brown escorted Lavender into that room and put up a silencing ward.
Minerva looked over to Alice and shook her head, “I hated for it to get to this level but what else could I do, it was very evident that words have no effect on that child and our choice in punishments do nothing for her attitude or her behaviors.”
Alice nodded. “I know, if it would have, it would have worked the first time through, and we would never have gotten to this level to begin with. But lines, detention, and points taken mean nothing to her. At least something does. But honestly I hate corporal punishment. I have never used corporal punishment, and I pray I never have to.”
“With those two you have raised, a loud word or a cross word is the worse you will ever have to do to those boys and you will have them in tears and begging for forgiveness.” Minerva chuckled softly. Alice had Neville and Harry practically eating out of the palm of her hand. Even a disapproving glance and they were taken aback and wondering what they had done wrong immediately. Those two were such mummy’s boys, it was adorable. They would move the moon if Alice asked them too and it was in their power to do. And if it wasn’t they would find a way to do it still. Just to make her happy.
“What can I say, they’re my boys.” She smiled, unconsciously reaching up to caress the pendant they had gotten her for Christmas.
It was maybe ten minutes later when a very red faced, teary eyed Lavender Brown came back into the office followed by her father who looked a little red in the face himself.
“Headmistress McGonagall, my daughter has something she wishes to say to you, could you start up that quill again, I want this noted down for all of us please.” Mr. Brown asked.
“Of course.” And nodded to Alice who set the quill back into place to begin taking dictation once again.
“You had something you wanted to say,” Mr Brown nudged Lavender.
“Yes Sir. I apologize Headmistress McGonagall, for being rude and having a smart mouth and an attitude. You didn’t deserve any of it. As of today that is at an end. I am going to make sure that my attitude in classes is better and more productive. I won’t disturb the class with my attitude any longer. I will make sure I do my best in all my classes, even the classes that I don’t enjoy.” Lavender stated, although McGonagall had to force herself not to roll her eyes.
“And what about your mantra. Exactly what is asked of me, no more no less?” The Headmistress asked, wanting clarification on this point mainly.
“I am going to do my best in all my classes. Why the lowest grade level I can get is an ‘A’, I am going to try and make my parents proud of me and do my best, not barely skate by. That goes for in class and homework both.” She said as a tear fell dow her cheek.
“What about your hatred about bugs, dirt, fertilizer, etcetera?” McGonagall asked.
“It is all just me trying to be difficult. I couldn’t get out of the class one way, so I had to hate everything about the class as a whole. I don’t like being dirty, that’s true…but dirt washes off and the two classes that are… well… messy are both on the same day one right after the other then there is a two hour break before dinner. I could easily clean up and change and it wouldn’t be a problem, or learn a spell to keep the dirt off of me, like people do for soot when they go through the floo system. Something, anything, I don’t know. But there has to be a solution.”Lavender looked pitiful.
“There are gardening robes they make that you can get that are lightweight and are brown in color, so you wouldn’t notice if they got dirt on them, you just slip it on over your uniform when you go into class and nothing will get on your clothes. I use them in my green houses all the time. I can get you my catalogue.” Alice volunteered.
Lavender perked up at that idea. “Gardening robes, do they have to be brown though, maybe a tan or even black to go along with my uniform.”
“See there is the designer I was talking about, you do so have an imagination when you wish to use it. I am sure that Professor Flitwick would teach you the color match charm if you asked him politely Miss Brown.” The Headmistress smiled at the young girl.
————————————————————————
Pavarti and Luna were going through their trunk putting away all their transfigured items and sorting their items accordingly.
“Flosfurca.” Luna stated as she lined up all her forks in a row on one of her shelves.
“Flosfurca.” Pavarti replied doing the same.
“Acusignis.” Pavarti called out as she placed her latest needle on the shelf next to the others.
“Acusignis.” Luna responded straightening her little boxes of needles.
“Cimexboto.” Luna called out next as she put the little silver and pearl button she had worked on earlier.
“Cimexboto.” Pavarti put the scarab shaped button she had just made on the shelf with the others.
“Taleapenna.” Luna noted as she laid down her beautiful fairy feather.
“Taleapenna.” Pavarti put her cat feather down with the others she had made.
“Compana-Globus-Nivalis.” Luna whispered as she shook her little snow globe of Ventus, then placed it with the others.
“Compana-Globus-Nivalis.” Pavarti held her breath as she did the same with Tonitru’s globe, then put it on the shelf with her other creations.
“Poculumcatillus.” Luna smiled as she place her Hogwarts teakettle on the shelf with her other two.
“Poculumcatillus.” Pavarti nodded as she placed her star chart teakettle next to her Gryffindor lion one.
“Bocispetasus.” Pavarti put the pretty spring hat on and tilted it cockily to the side and looked over to Luna and giggled.
“Bocispetasus.” Luna replied and put her latest hat creation on and grinned over to Pavarti and they both just laughed at their silliness and then put their creations on the shelf and continued packing.
“Testocompano.” Luna smiled at her delicate little crystal dinner bell that she had made, and then put it on the shelf the others.
“Testocompano.” Pavarti nodded as she put her old time school matron’s bell she had made on the shelf with the other two bells she had made for her Mata’s collection. Her Mata collected bells, now she could make her Mata bells of anything she wanted, anytime she wanted, and she knew the spell to make the transfiguration permanent now too. So she could make her Mata anything she ever wanted, just a handful of shells and the worlds the limit, Pavarti smiled.
“Figura-Saginati-Dragonis.” Luna hugged her little green dragon with purple spots she had created, and then added it to the other four fuzzies she had already waiting on her shelf.
“Figura-Saginati-Dragonis.” Pavarti gently held her own Purple dragon with pink stars racing across its hide. She almost put it on the shelf then decided to put it back in her bag, at least that one she wanted close to her…why she didn’t quite understand but that was just how she felt right now.
They continued that way through each and every transfiguration they had covered during the year and had taken care of each and every transfiguration that year. Putting each one on their shelves accordingly. They were really amazed by the creativity in some of their work. They really couldn’t imagine how some people could make just a plain brown or white feather and be happy with that, or just a white teapot and do nothing with it. The world really was the limit when it came to transfiguration. Your only limits was truly your own imagination, as long as you knew the incantation, and wand movement you could do anything. Finally everything was shelved and organized. They were certain they could do any transfiguration they had done during the year. So they moved on to Defense.
———————————————————————
Neville’s father had permitted them this time to use the Defense Against the Dark Arts targets to work on their spells and see if they could practice some of their spells before finals, so Harry, Neville, Luna and Pavarti were all in the DADA classroom trading spells with the training dummies working on accuracy and to see how fast they could work through a series of three or four spells or curses. Professor Longbottom had called it a spell chain and something they should all work towards.
Luna started with a basic groin shot Aculeo, followed by an Expelliarmus and Accio, just a simple three spell take down but it works.
Pavarti started with Aguamenti, then Glacius, Expelliarmus and finally Accio. It was a four spell, spell chain but two of them really work together. Aguamenti and Glacius really go together most of the time anyway.
Harry started with Locomotor Wibbly, Rictusempra and Expelliarmus and Accio. He liked the effect of the whole idea that someone is wobbling around and giggling hysterically then they loose the fight and can’t figure out how.
Neville worked on his Mimblewimble, then Confundus, followed by Expelliarmus and Accio. First tongue tying spell then confuse the opponent, disarm then grab their wand. Game over.
Then Pavarti went for the same chain as before but added tarantellegra to it, the dancing curse, think of being on a thin sheet of ice trying to stay upright and fighting to keep from falling down but being forced to dance in Irish jig, no way your not going to be distracted, ha ha ha.
Luna decided she wanted to try a different spell chain so she used Flipindo, then Locomotor Mortis, followed by Expelliarmus and Accio.
Harry wanted to explore some with Colloshoo, and Locomotor Wibbly but that seemed like a big bust, basically the dummy just fell to the ground and lay wiggling on the ground for a while. Useful, but not exactly the effect he was looking for.
Neville tried Colloshoo and Locomotor Mortis and they both liked the effects much better, of course followed up by Expelliarmus and Accio. He liked the fact that his opponent was stuck in one place and couldn’t pursue him unless he took his shoes off and even if he did, his legs were locked in stiff so they couldn’t walk anyway.
They all played around with their combinations until they felt they had covered all the different ones they had gone over in class and had them all down pat, each set up in a four or five spell chain they liked best and stuck with it as their primary.
———————————————————
For astrology Harry ordered one of those telescopes just like the one the four of them had bought for Professor Sinistra and they all took turns with it. It took a while to get it since they had to have it mailed to a friend of Sirius’ and then forwarded to Hogwarts but when it got there it was amazing. Just like her’s was, they all four loved it. In fact they decided that they would probably each get one over the summer months. Just so they could each have one as well; but for now they were happy to share the one. And the one they got had a special attachment on it that allowed them to take pictures of anything they wanted, so Harry bought the whole camera set up as well. It was pretty pricey but Harry didn’t care it was worth it. Harry couldn’t believe some of the pictures he got, they were just beautiful, and they helped with their homework too.
————————————————————
Care of Magical Creatures was fairly easy to study for, they just went down to Xenophilius and ask to see all the different creatures that he had showed them during the year, which he could show them. Well all but the kinsunes, they had only been able to stay the week and their owner had to take them back. But that was alright they had taken a lot of notes on them when they were here, and drawn pictures and everything.
Neville bought a new camera and they took several pictures of everything. Then did little booklets of all the creatures, with photographs, drawings and write ups on each creature in it. They showed their booklets to Professor Lovegood and got extra credit for each one, it may have only been five point per booklet but considering it was twelve creatures that was almost one whole letter grade right there. They told Susan, Hannah, Padma and Hermione about it and let them borrow the camera and they did the same thing. They had all thought the booklet idea what a huge success. They could hardly wait until next year when they got into some more advance creatures.
—————————————————————
For History of Magic they all decided to do a compare and contrast report, Harry did a comparison of the German Witch Hunts and their trials in comparison to those of American. How bloody and vicious the German methods of torture they were in comparison to those of American, made the torture of America seem like a picnic.
Neville compared the life and times of Agnes Waterhouse, as compared to Bridgett Bishop. He felt their life ended the same basic way but how they were treated before their death was what was important. One was sentence to death by four village children, the other was betrayed by her own child (Joan), who claimed her mother was a witch in order to save her own life.
Luna chose to do a contrast between the French and English Inquisition. Who the major players where and how much of it was political and how much of it was based on the church. She was really surprised at how much of the English Inquisition was purely politically based. If you didn’t support the crown then apparently you supported the devil and you were either hung for witchcraft or for heresy and the crown got rid of a lot of free thinkers that way.
Pavarti did a paper that compared Mathew Hopkins, the most famous English Witch hunter, and Heinrich Kraemer, the famous German demonologist turned Witch hunter. Heinrich Kraemer wrote the Malleus Maleficarum in fourteen-eighty-seven, better known as the Hammer of Witches, it was used by the Catholic Church as a means of finding a Witch, and the means of their death. It was the first to label Witchcraft as Heresy so the church, then felt it proper to burn a Witch at the stake instead of just hanging them. It was also because of this book that most accused Witches did not face a trial or tribunal and went straight to torture and finally death.
Each one handed their report in and got forty extra credit points for them. And considering they had already handed in two extra credit reports for the year, they were looking good for History of Magic too. They told Susan, Hannah, Padma and Hermione about their little project for History and they are pretty sure that the girls also followed in their footsteps and did the same thing.
——————————————————————
Charms was a little more difficult to work with, each one picked a specific charm then did a write up on the charm, who invented it, what they knew about the person, if anything. How the charm came to be, any improvements or alterations made on the charm…basically the charms general history and byline and any charms that stemmed off from and any improvements that have been made to it over the years. Each one of them picked out a different charm and wrote up about a thirty inch review of the charm with a diagram of the wand movements if their were any listed with it. The research into the charms took a little work but the end results were well worth it.
Their little charms professor was thrilled with their extra effort but he stood by his guns, he doesn’t give extra credit for first year, although he did give them ten points each for their imagination and effort. They all smiled and accepted that. Hey ten points is ten points right?
———————————————————————
For Transfiguration they did a little messing around and Harry actually came up with something that shocked them all he turned a plain crystal flower vase into a wine goblet. He created his own spell using ‘Vasumcalix’, then they all tried it and it worked for them all. They spent a couple of hours designing goblets then took a few vases down to Professor Black and showed him their new spell and he was thrilled.
Harry walked into the Transfiguration classroom with a little box in his hand followed by Neville, Luna and Pavarti. At first Professor Black was surprised to see them then he was curious to see what brought the kids down to see him on a Sunday.
“Professor Black, we have something we need you to see,” Harry started and he took one of the vases out of the box he was carrying and placed it on the desk in front of Sirius.
“Okay what have you got there, Harry?” Professor Black asked.
“Watch, Vasumcalix” He said and pointed his wand at the vase and a lovely wine glass appeared complete with a grape pattern on the side of it. “Well what do you think?”
“Vasumcalix?” Sirius said as he picked up the wine class and examined it. “You invented a whole new transfiguration? How….what… Vasumcalix you said…?
“Yeah we were just messing around and we were trying some different things and this one worked. Vasumcalix, it is simple and you can be as eloquent as you want to be or as simple as you please.” Neville nodded.
“I can’t believe you guys invented a new transfiguration, sixty points for each of you. Now let’s see what you can do with them. I want to see each of you do this before I will award you the points mind you.”
And they did, each one took one of the little vases and turned them into wine glasses.
Luna’s did an eloquent glass with the stem and base was blue but the goblet part was clear with dozens of tiny etched stars on the goblet.
Neville did one that the base looked like a vine and it was climbing up the goblet and wrapping around it, it was beautiful.
Pavarti did one to match her daffodil silverware she had created, where the stem of the wineglass was the stem of the flower and the base of the goblet was growing out of the flower part of the daffodil. It was so delicate and beautiful you were almost afraid to touch it.
Harry did one that had a picture of a herd of six Darcorns running on it, etched into the side of it with the stem and base of the goblet black that bled into the goblet portion of the wine glass. Harry knew immediately he wanted a whole set of them when he had a chance to make them just like this one.
“Sweet Merlin, this is amazing. Wait till I tell the Headmistress. She is just going to love this. Alright you all get your sixty points. Keep this up and I will be out of a job you know.” He laughed. “Hey why don’t you all come with me and bring with you your creations, I know that the Headmistress would love to see these in person. She should be available and dinner isn’t for another hour yet.”
Harry looked a little unsure but nodded, so he and the others followed Sirius to the Headmistress’ office and when they got there she was quite surprised to see them.
“To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit. Don’t try and tell me these children have caused any trouble, because I won’t believe you.” She laughed.
“No Ma’am it’s nothing like that at all. In fact it is something that I think you are going to love. Harry if you would…” And with that Sirius waved his hand for Harry to step forward and he moved out of the way.
Harry nodded and then he stepped forward and reached into his box and removed another one of the little vases and sat it down on the Headmistress’ desk. “Vasumcalix” He said, pointing his wand at the vase and it became a nice little wine goblet with little black paw prints all over it.
“My word,” The Headmistress reached over and picked up the goblet and turned it around in her hand, “Vasumcalix, you said?”
Harry nodded, “Yes Ma’am”
“I’ve never heard of that one, where did you find it?” She asked admiring the delicate glass in her hand.
“Um, I made it up. We were working on Transfiguration and we were trying different ones we knew then we got joking around and I came up with Vasumcalix, and it worked. This is some that we have created,” with that Harry took out several of the goblets that they had created, some intricate, some rather plane, but all perfect and functional.
“You created it? You just designed your own Transfiguration, just like that? At the age of eleven? My word…” Mcgonagall looked at the beautiful goblets, taking each one in and picked up one now and then as if to make sure they were all real and sturdy as they appeared.
“All right young man, I want a complete work up on this spell. I want you to take pictures of your goblets, a notification of any wand movements, a note on any assistance you had, who all helped you if anyone. I want all your research or documentation you did on this transfiguration, and I want it done neat and pristine. I am going to send this into Transfiguration Monthly and Transfigurations Quarterly. I want you published on this. I will back you one hundred percent on this. If you want to put down it was all four of you that is fine or just you Mr. Black that is fine too. What ever your comfortable with. But this will noted for posterity sake and one if not all of you will get credit for it. Now I am sure you gave them points, how many?”
“Sixty points Ma’am” Professor Black stated, he knew she would go nuts once she saw Harry’s work, but he didn’t know it was that big of a deal, getting his work published was a huge deal, especially for someone as young as Harry.
“Sixty points? Very well, add another forty points to each of their scores when they hand in that report, and I want pictures, yes pictures…of all your goblets and the vases you originally started with as well. Let the magazines choose what they want to publish. But send them pictures of all your goblets. Can you have it done by say… Wednesday? If so we may be early enough to get into this months printing of Transfiguration Monthly. Oh my word they are never going to believe that you are just eleven years old. Oh I want you to include a picture of all of you together, if you are going to do a group presentation which I am assuming you will. This is so brilliant, I can hardly wait to read your article. Don’t forget to mention you are students here, and it wouldn’t do any harm to mention Professor Black’s name in there either. Sirius I want you to help them on their article and make sure they get any major points across, without it being too long or drawn out. But hit all the peak points, also if they are going to do a group article make sure they do a small bio on each one of them. They deserve the credit for this.” The poor Headmistress was practically beside herself with glee as she placed the last goblet down on her desk, she smiled at all four of the children. “Oh yes forty points, as soon as I see that article.” She stated.
Harry grinned and nodded. Wow, the possibility of being published had never even occurred to him, and now it was a very real possibility. “We will definitely be doing it as a group Ma’am. We were all working on our transfigurations together and this one just happened to work. Just because I was the one that come up with it doesn’t change the fact that we were all involved.” Harry was happy to share the credit and allow everyone to get the points too.
“Very good. Just remember lots of pictures, and those short bios. They only have to be a paragraph or two on each of you but you need to include them as well.” She suggested.
With that they packed up their goblets and headed out of the Headmistresses office and back down to the Gryffindor dorms, everyone just grabbed their trunk, shrunk them and headed over to the transfiguration class room and started to get to work on writing that article after enlarging their trunks again. It was easier than trying to figure out where to go since the boys couldn’t go to the girls room. And they needed more privacy and quiet than the boys room allowed right now, so the transfiguration class room it was, besides Sirius could help them there.
Harry had Luna taking the pictures, because she just seemed to have an eye for those things. She seemed to notice the little details that the others missed, like how the light hit something, and the back ground and the angle of the shot, things like that. So she was busy taking pictures, while the others were writing out the article. Sirius was going through and checking what they wrote and making suggestions here and there, like having them note the pronunciation and putting in the proper inflections.
By the end of the night they had the article finished and were just waiting for Xenophilius to develop the pictures. And they turned out beautiful, if Harry did say so himself. They even had Sirius take a picture of them and then they took a picture of Sirius leaning on his desk in the Transfigurations classroom. They made sure that Sirius did a short bio for the article as well. They actually had the article finished by that night and the pictures ready by Monday night. They gathered it all up and took it to the Headmistress in an almost book style report, but it wasn’t as long as an actual book report. It was only one page long, thanks to some well done editing by Pavarti. What took up most of the space was the photographs. And there was four pages of photographs with four photographs per page, in the end it looked quite impressive, and the Headmistress was quite thrilled.
“This work is well worth the forty points I am giving you four. And you have it finished in just one day, brilliant! Oh look at these pictures, who took them, they are impressive. I love these pictures.” McGonagall commented.
“Luna is our photographer, she just has an eye for that stuff where none of the rest of us can even try to match her.” Neville stated proudly.
“Yeah, she has a gift with a camera that we can’t hope to match.” Harry agreed.
“I think you four should be able to get published with this quite easily. Let’s hope that they believe it is genuine and not some hoax or something though. Four eleven year old transfiguration genius’ inventing something this brilliant is a little hard to imagine. But if necessary they can come and test you themselves.
“We could always show them our other transfiguration work if they wanted to see it too. I mean that would prove we know what we are doing wouldn’t it?” Pavarti asked.
“You would think it would.” Sirius added nodding.
The lunch bell rang and everyone headed down to eat, the kids were thrilled with the Headmistress’ over all impression of their work on the article and with Professor Black’s opinion of their latest achievement. At lunch they couldn’t help but think of all the other cool things they could try, but they had been warned not to try to transfigure any thing else unless they were where a trained Professor was present, there could be an accident and they didn’t want that, now did they. So the kids agreed to not play around with transfigurations unless Sirius or she was around. And that seemed to satisfy them both.
———————————————————————
It was the last week of the term and everyone was fretting over finals coming up, some more than others. Harry, Neville, Luna, and Pavarti had been steadily studying in the Library since the month had started and were well prepared for their finals in fact they were actually looking forward to the challenge of it, believe it or not. They had practiced every Transfiguration, every Potion (in their seven compartment trunks mind you), every hex, spell and charm or curse they had been introduced to and a few they had not. Their Dittany plants looked brilliant and were blooming away.
They had completed extra credit reports or work in all the classes that allowed it. And each one had gotten full marks on them, some of them had even gotten bonus points here and there. The Transfigurations Monthly magazine was going to publish their article with eight of their pictures, although they didn’t know which ones yet. Eight was a huge number for any article, so that was really, really impressive.
Pavarti had told Padma about her getting published and she was a little jealous at first then she was just excited for her sister. They wrote their parents, who swore they would buy ten copies of the magazine as soon as it came out just to get copies to hand out to people they knew.
Frank and Alice were almost as bad, Alice was a little worse than Frank, wanting to send Frank’s mother a copy of the magazine just to smack her in the face with the idea that her son was a squib. Ha, and here he is getting a article printed for a spell he helped create, squib indeed. Eat that you old bitty.
Sirius already sent the same article into Transfigurations Quarterly and they were just waiting to hear back from them. Sirius sent in the same pictures so everyone was wondering if they get accepted for an article if they would end up picking the same pictures or not. Well they would have to use the same shots of them as a group and the one of Sirius but the other pictures…who knows.
They got their testing schedule the week of finals and to say their days were going to be packed was an understatement.
Monday from 9:00a to 12:00p Transfiguration
Monday from 1:00p to 4:00p Charms
Tuesday from 9:00a to 12:00p History of Magic
Tuesday from 1:00p to 4:00p Herbology
Wenday from 9:00a to 12:00p Potions
Wenday from 1:00p to 4:00p Defense Against the Dark Arts
Thurday from 9:00a to 12:00p Care of Magical Creatures
Thurday from 1:00p to 2:30p Astrology part 1
Thurday from 9:00p to 10:30p Astrology part 2
“Thursday is going to be a long day,” Neville noticed.
“To say the least, but we have a six hour break in there to take a nap, and I for one am going to take one. I won’t show up for that class half asleep and no clue what I am doing.” Pavarti said.
“Same here. Oh I will study for part of the time, but I intend to take at least a two hour nap in-between times there. That way I can be refreshed by the time the test comes up.” Harry nodded.
Luna looked at their testing schedule and nodded. At least we have three hours per test and only two tests per day. We should be able to do most of those test in half that time, although you have to remember most of those test have a written and then a practical test. So who knows. Remember the test for Potions is a timed potion to complete within an hour, and I think we only have like four potions that we can all do within that timeframe at this point. And we are some of the fastest ones in the class too. And from what Professor Lovegood said in our review it was going to be from memory only. That is the only test I am a little skeptical about to tell you the truth. I think I need to study it some more.”
“Same here.” The other three called out.
“It is either going to be the Burn Cream, the Bruise Cream, the Headache Potion, or the Forgetfulness Potion.” Luna stated.
“Watch it be the Forgetfulness Potion just as someone’s sick sense of humor.” Harry stated.
“I know that I am going to study that one harder than the others that is for sure,” Stated Neville, “That is just too good a jab to pass up.”
“Yeah, sick and twisted humor, sounds about right.” Pavarti agreed.
“Okay guys our first test is transfiguration and it is tomorrow at nine o’clock so we know that one is aced. Then comes charms, anyone have any doubts there?” Everyone shook their heads on that one. “Okay then lets grab our trunks and find a quiet room and do our potions in it. Meet you boys in the common rooms in thirty minutes.” Then Pavarti and Luna headed back to their dorm room to get their trunk which they shrunk and put in their book bags and then met Neville and Harry at the appointed time. Half way to a classroom they decided to see if Padma. Hermione, Susan and Hannah wanted to join them so they went back to the dinning hall and luckily still found them there. After letting them know what they were doing they all agreed to join in the impromptu study session on Potions.
The eight kids stayed up till almost curfew studying, taking breaks only to eat meals and then returning to their room, they went through all the potions from memory that they had covered this semester and especially the forgetfulness potion. Everyone agreed that one was the obvious choice for the testers, so they picked it as their primary focus. Most of them had it’s time down to between forty-eight minutes and fifty-three minutes so it was a clear choice by far. The only one that needed help was Hermione, she kept second guessing herself and then it caused her problems. So they pretended it was the real test, timed it and all. One hour on the mark and go…. She managed to do it and did it right, thankfully when she stopped worrying about it and started just doing it, she managed all right.
“I am so going to need to restock my potions lab when I get back home.” Harry looked through his stock of supplies.
“Same here, I am almost out of over a dozen ingredients. But hey, we have a good stock of medicinal potions for the next year or so.” Neville laughed.
“I don’t think I would use that much Boil Cream in a lifetime, let alone a year.” Harry joked around, but seriously he really didn’t see how anyone could use six tubs of Boil Cream, that was a little much for anyone.
“I was referring more to the stomach soother, headache potion and burn creams actually.” Harry stated. “Of course this summer I intend to make up a few of the more advanced potions we have covered already as well. Might as well, we all have already finished our summer homework anyway.”
“I will as well, I may see if Mata and Papa will let me visit and we can all work on it together.” Pavarti suggested, she loved working with these four and she knew that she would miss them during the long summer break, and writing would only do so much.
“That would be great, we can talk to our parents and see what they say…but I am sure it will be fine. Maybe have a house elf pop the Darcorns over so they can be together for a couple of days as well. I know that Storm and Thunder will go nuts with out all their girls to prance around and show off in front of.” Neville stated.
“That’s brilliant! I am sure that Tonitru and Fulgura will be desperate to see their big strong stallions after a couple of weeks without them. We need to plan for some kind of a play date for the Darcorns a couple of times through out the summer. With Procella already staying with you all, then we should all meet up at your place.” Pavarti stated.
Both boys nodded and everyone finished cleaning up and put their trunks away, then headed back to their common rooms managing to get back right before the bell tolled.
—————————————————————————
The tests weren’t brutal but they were definitely mind numbing, but thankfully it was Friday and it was over. Everyone was gathered out by the Black Lake just relaxing, enjoying the fact that they had made it through their first year tests unscathed.
Yes, the potion of choice was indeed the Forgetfulness Potion, big surprise there. But since they had studied that one inside and out they all aced it. And they are pretty sure they aced their written test as well.
The Transfigurations test had been a breeze, it was a bell to a snow globe, but since they all loved that one, they aced it too. They did really well on their written tests for transfigurations too.
Charms was easy, it was just a list of things you had to write down the right charm to and then perform Alohamora on a box then turn around and lock it with Colloportus.
Care of Magical Creatures was simple too, it was a Bowtruckle. All you had to do was distract the Bowtruckle long enough to get a clipping from the tree it was guarding. The test itself was multiple choice and relatively simple.
The History test seemed to be the most complex since most of it was just a name and a date and you had to write a short para graph about what happened associated with that person on that date. The problem was editing down to fit the page you were given to write it on. If you went over who knew if that would count against you for not following instructions.
Defense Against the Dark Arts it was basically Protego and Expelliarmus for the practical then for the test you had a list of curses, jinxes, hexes, and charms and you had to tell what they did and their counters if there was one.
Herbology was to do a diagram and label the different parts of both the Dittany and the Mandrake plants. For a practical they had them harvest the flowers from the Dittany plant and prepare them to make them into the Essence of Dittany.
Astrology was the hardest of all the tests, since it was so late at night, and even though it was the hardest test it wasn’t that bad at all. They just had to find the Scorpio Constellation and name all the stars within it.
Hermione was the only one of them that was worried about her grades, everyone else was pretty sure they had gotten solid O’s across the board. But then again Hermione was always worried about her grades, even if she knew the subject by heart she worried about it. It was one of the things that drove Harry crazy about her, she was a perfectionist to an extreme when it came to schoolwork. Where everyone else was happy just getting an O in a class she wanted to get top slot. Which wasn’t going to happen, not with these six in the same level as her. Neville would always beat them in Herbology; Harry would always beat them in Defense; and it was a toss up who was better for Charms, Harry or Luna. Transfigurations was a tossup too, between Luna and Pavarti. History hadn’t been claimed yet but everyone seemed to enjoy it equally. Potions seemed to be claimed by Luna although Harry was a close second. Astrology was Padma all the way, it was her favorite subject and with her memory she knew it all by heart.
They all just leaned back in the grass and enjoyed the sunshine and the warmth of the day, and let Hermione worry herself into a frenzy if she wanted to, they were going to enjoy the day.
“Hey Nev you going to try out for the purple belt in Karate when we get home?” Harry asked out of the blue.
“Not right away, I am more focused on retrying for that black belt in Taekwondo first then I will go for the purple. But I plan to get both of them during the summer some time.” Neville said not opening his eyes, kind of wondering what brought this line of thought to Harry’s head. “What brought that question up?”
“Just thinking about what I wanted to do for the summer and getting that purple belt is one thing I wanted to do. I want to be working towards the blue belt by the time semester starts next year, if possible that is. I want to work on the big boomers, (which is what he and Neville were calling their large colored orbs now,) and I want to see if I can make them faster than what we could down in the chamber.” Harry stated.
“Yeah we do need to practice that up a bit. We have only done those that one time.” Neville agreed.
“I wish you could teach us too make those.” Pavarti sighed.
“I wouldn’t even know where to start, it is just something we have always been able to do. We can see about it, though. Maybe we can figure out how we do it, and then teach you guys how. We were making them when we not even two years old. I just saw the lights come out of a wand and that the lights could hurt you, and I wanted to hurt Bad Kitty but I didn’t have a wand and so I made the light without a wand. It seemed completely logical for a sixteen month old at least. Neville watched me do it and did it too, no one told him he couldn’t do it, so he did it. And that is how we have always done things. When one can do it, for some reason the other one just naturally can do it too. Sirius used to tell us stories about floating toys around the room all the time, simply because no one told us that we couldn’t do it, so we did it. No one said that the cat shouldn’t be pink so we turned it pink, that was Neville’s fault by the way.” Harry stated.
“No way that was you, you were mad at Salem because he tore up your block fort again and you stomped your foot and the next thing you know the cat it squalling through the house pink and fluffy. Running to Mum for help.” Neville opened his eyes and glared at Harry.
“What difference does it make, it was years ago now. And he deserved it any way.” Harry grumbled.
“What difference it makes is that I didn’t do anything and still had to stand in the corner with you when it was your fault. You should have said something.” Neville stated.
“You two really are as close as brothers, twins even.” Pavarti giggled. “You two sound like some of the trouble that Padma and I got into when we were younger.”
“Ha ha ha, it’s funny now, then it was anything but funny. When you are four it’s traumatizing.” Neville pouted.
“Four? Oh Neville… give it a rest. After all these years and that is the worst he has done to you is made you stand in the corner with him? Padma turned my skin green once because she got mad at me and she didn’t want to look like me any more. I ended up having to go to St. Mungos to have it reversed. Now that was traumatizing. It took almost an hour for them to fix it too. And green is definitely not my color, that is the reason I refuse to wear green to this day. Traumatized me that much. I still have nightmares where they were unable to reverse it and she didn’t know how she did it so she couldn’t undo it. So I spend the rest of my life green. I hate green for that reason.” Pavarti shivered at the memory.
Neville remembered her Red Sari at Christmas and how Padma had wore a Green Sari. He never thought about the incident with Salem being pink unless Harry brings it up, so he guessed he wasn’t so traumatized after all.
——————————————————————————
It was the following Thursday when hey got their grades back finally and they were each excited to see what they had made. So they all sat around the table and stared at the envelope for a minute or two then ripped into them.
Harry Black - Straight O’s with Honors in Transfigurations, Charms, Potions, and Care of Magical Creatures and with Distinctions in Defense. Number one in his year.
“With Distinction? What does that mean?” Harry asked Alice who had just handed out their envelopes.
“That means you got the highest score on the test of anyone in this year.” Alice smiled proudly at him.
Neville ripped open his envelope “Straight O’s with Honors in Transfigurations, Defense, Care of Magical Creatures and with Distinction in Herbology. Number two in my year.” Neville looked up to his mother and grinned. Who grinned back at him and nodded.
“You two have definitely earned it. You worked hard to get those grades don’t let anyone fool you. It was no picnic.” She smiled down at her boys.
Luna was next, “All O’s with Honors in Transfigurations, Charms, and Care of Magical Creatures and with Distinction in Potions. Number three in my year. Oh I can hardly wait to show my Mummy, she will love this. Can I go show her please?” Luna asked with her big dreamy eyes.
Alice couldn’t help but laugh and nod. “Of course, Persephone will be so proud of you, and so will Xenophilius.”
Luna got up and raced across the Dining hall to where her mother sat and showed Persephone her grade card only to have her gasp at what she saw. “With Distinctions in Potions? Oh heavens, I am so proud of you and look at the rest of these scores. Look at this Xeno, look…” And she passed the card over to Xenophilius with a smile. He took one look at it and grinned from ear to ear. “Well my little moon drop has earned herself some Death by Chocolate Ice Cream for sure this time wouldn’t you say love?” Grinning over to his wife. “Definitely.” She smiled back at him. Luna just did a little jig and danced around in a circle giggling.
Both Harry and Neville deadpanned at the same time when they saw her dance “Death by Chocolate Ice Cream.” Then laughed at each other.
Pavarti was a little more hesitant to tear into her letter but she took a deep breath and tore it open, “All O’s” Sigh. “Honors in Transfigurations, Care of Magical Creatures, Astrology, and History. Fourth in my year. Oh Mata and Papa are going to be so proud! This is wonderful, I did better than Padma, I did better than Padma and her perfect memory.” Pavarti sniffed, for the first time in her life she had beat Padma academically. She had no idea what she should be feeling because she was feeling about ten different things all at once right now and none of it made sense…
Neville reached over and put an arm around her shoulder and said. “You worked very hard for those grades, you should be proud of yourself. I sure am, I know your parents will be as well. Honors in four subjects, that is amazing. On top of all O’s. It may not be Death By Chocolate Ice Cream but hey it’s nothing to sneeze at either.” He joked with her, getting her to smile.
“What is Death By Chocolate Ice Cream?” Pavarti asked.
“It’s Luna’s favorite treat, she can only have it when she has done something really, really good…since she goes a little… well… bonkers, after she eats it. It is chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips, and chocolate chunks, in it, with chocolate fudge syrup and little bits of chocolate brownies in there too. Hence the name, Death By Chocolate… Then you get it covered in hot fudge with a dollop of whipped cream and chocolate shavings and wallah instant cardiac arrest or instant hyper Luna… either way same thing.” Alice explained with a smile. “Oh and just for you guys information here is the first years top ten…” And she passes Neville a card that had ten names listed on it. Who read it and handed the list to Pavarti.
Top Ten Slots At Hogwarts First Years
1.) Harry James Potter Black
2.) Neville Franklin Longbottom
3.) Luna Selene Lovegood
4.) Pavarti Patil
5.) Susan Amelia Bones
6.) Hannah Racheal Abbot
7.) Hermione Jean Granger
8.) Padma Patil
9.) Draco Lucian Malfoy
10.) Justin Finch-Fletchly
“Padma is after Hermione, oh boy, that has got to hurt. Her ego must be bruised over that one. She can handle not getting a better slot to you guys. But loosing it to me or Hermione will be a shot to her ego. I hope she is doing okay. I mean at least she beat Malfoy. I think I am going to go find her and see how she is doing.” And with that she headed out to find Padma, Neville joining her just to make sure nothing happens to her.
Lavender sat over by herself looking at her grades, and blinking as her eyes teared up, she couldn’t believe it. She had gotten all A’s but what she couldn’t believe was she had gotten an EE in History of Magic. She had studied so hard for that test, she had even done the extra credit work for that class trying to bring her grade up because she was worried it was going to be too low. And here she got and EE for the class. She must have made an EE or maybe even an O for the final to bring her grade up that high. She was smiling so hard her cheeks were hurting and she could only imagine what her father would say when she saw him. He would be so proud of her.
“Miss Brown?” The Headmistress walked up to her without her noticing her, but Lavender looked up from her card when her name was called. “I want you to know that I am very proud of your results this year, I knew you had it in you and I know that you can do anything when you set your mind to it. Oh by the way you have guests.” And with that she pointed towards the door to the dining room.
Lavender looked over to the door and there stood her parents, both her mother and her father. “Daddy! Mummy!” She called out and she got up and raced over to where they stood and gave both of them a huge hug.
“Did you see? Did you see!” She shouted.
“We most certainly did, that is why we are here today, we are so proud of you.” Her father hugged her and said “I knew you could do it if you just put your heart into it. You can do anything if you really want to.”
“Your daddy’s right my brilliant baby. You are so smart you can do anything if you set your mind to it. We came by today, we are going to take you to Madam LeClairs and let you pick out one thing for that EE you got, next year we will do the same thing for each EE you get. Soon you will have a whole closet full of designer clothes if you keep this up baby.”
“Madam LeClairs…really… you mean it? You’re serious! Oh Mummy!” Lavender wrapped her arms around her mother and held on tight, there were several upper level girls throughout the school that looked on jealously as they heard Madam LeClairs. Madam LeClairs is a high end designer shop in Diagon Alley, they sale Paris Originals, some of their clothes cost as much as a person’s salary in a month, but if you can catch them on a sale day you can get some great things a reasonable prices. So that was the reason they were taking Lavender home the day before the train left, they always had a sale on this year’s clothes right before the kids got out of school and usually the best stuff was gone before the train arrived unfortunately. But they had made arrangements with Headmistress McGonagall previously if she got even one EE on her finals she could be taken out ahead of the train as an award.
“Well let’s go then, the elves already have your things packed and waiting in the Headmistress’ office, we can use her floo to go right through.” Annette Brown stated, smiling at her excited daughter who was practically dancing in one spot.
Lavender grabbed her parent’s and started pulling them towards the Headmistress’ office, for the first time she was happy she knew the way there.
Minerva couldn’t help but smile as she watched her most troublesome student this year skip down the corridor pulling her parents towards her office. The child had been a handful, but you would never have guessed it if you saw her today. It was like two different individuals, ‘Hmm I guess she just needed to find herself, Minerva thought’ as she hurried after them.
“Madam LeClairs?” Harry looked over to Neville. Who shook his head.
“Never heard of it.” Neville stated still staring off at the space that the Brown’s had just vacated, shaking his head. “I’m so glad you guys are into style and not fashion, I don’t know what I would do if you suddenly turned into someone like Lavender.” Neville mumbled.
Pavarti elbowed Neville in the ribs. “Bite your tongue! I could never be that shallow. And thank you for differentiating the difference between style and fashion, not many boys know that there is a difference.” She stated.
“Well yeah, style is what you guys were wearing for Christmas, that had style, and class, it was beautiful and brought out your own beauty to boot. Fashion… is Madam LeClair. Expensive things, with someone’s name on it, whether it looks good on you or not, as long as it has a name on it then it is all right.” Neville smiled down at his friend. Causing Pavarti to smile and turn her head to hide her blush.
“You know it is all about how you say it Nev. And I think you just said a mouthful. But you’re right. The girls did look amazing for Christmas, but then again they look amazing most of the time, the only difference is they didn’t have to wear their school uniforms and could wear what they chose to wear, which only goes to prove that our girls have excellent taste.” Harry stated.
“Your girls?” Luna asked as she looked at him with a quirked eyebrow.
“Ah… um… I just remembered I have some packing I need to do… bye.” With that Harry got up and ran from the Dining Hall like a shot.
Both Luna and Pavarti looked over to Neville, who just stated “Me too.” And raced after Harry.
The girls got up and stomped after the boys “Come back here you cowards!” Luna shouted after them as she followed the boys back up to the Gryffindor common room. Oddly enough they were nowhere to be seen. When the girls got to the common room they couldn’t hold it in any longer, they broke down in giggles and then headed to their room to finish up their last minute packing they themselves had to do.
—————————————————————————
The train ride back home was fun, Harry, Neville, Luna, Pavarti, Padma, and Hermione all crammed into one compartment and spent most of the ride playing poker for Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans, Luna won of course. You could never tell when she was bluffing, dammit.
They did get a visit from Susan and Hannah though; unfortunately, there was no where for them to sit so it was just a visit. Everyone discussed what they were going to do over the summer, and decided to get together at least a couple of times to visit through the summer if possible.
Malfoy made his obligatory appearance, although why was anyone’s guess. He opened the compartment door, looked at everyone, huffed real big and then closed the door. Which seemed totally useless, no one but Malfoy seemed to understand anything Malfoy did lately anyway. He was pretty much a pariah in his own house, only a few first years would have anything to do with him, mainly Parkinson, Crabbe, and Goyle. Not the pick of the litter as it were. Most of the other houses first years were pretty much ignoring him also, so for now he was a little out in the cold. Hopefully that would change with time, but we shall see.
As they neared the station they all exchanged contact information and made promises as of writing and staying in contact with each other. Once the train stopped everyone waited until they weren’t going to be trampled by the mass herd exiting the train to leave the compartment then they left their compartment. Since they all had shrunk their trunks and placed them in their bottomless bags they just had to pick up their animal carriers and walk out onto the platform. Well those with owls had sent their owls ahead of them and had shrunk their owl cages and stands and put them in their trunks so it was only Hannah that had a cat carrier for Star, but then again she didn’t have a seven compartment trunk or a bottomless bag either…yet. Hermione was talking about getting a familiar over the summer but she wasn’t sure her parents would allow her to have one, with Procella and all. They might consider her to be more than enough responsibility for now, and they would be right, if they did.
“Dad!” Harry spotted Sirius and rushed over to his side as soon as they exited the train, kinda hard to miss the man when he was standing there waiving his arms about like that. Neville followed knowing that Frank and Alice had to be near by, or had sent Sirius there to pick them both up. As they got closer they realized it was both Sirius and Remus standing with Persephone and Xenophilius, so Luna rushed over to them and hugged them.
“You would think we hadn’t seen each other in days, if not weeks.” Persephone smiled.
“Hush you, it’s been hours and hours. Missed you.” Luna smiled at her Mummy.
“Well, can’t have that now. We have Misty watching Sebastian and Astraea so we need to get home soon.” Persephone stated, encouraging Luna to say her goodbyes to everyone else. Which Luna did and then Xenophilius side alone apparated her home, and Persephone followed.
“Which reminds me, we left Lillian at home with Jeeves so we need to head out at well.” Alice stated and so Neville and Harry said their good byes to Pavarti, Padma and Hermione and then they all headed home.
Padma and Pavarti found their own parents and then walked thought the platform nine-and three-quarters to make sure the Grangers were waiting on the other side, which they were, before they left. With that they all headed out, the Grangers by car and the Patils back through the platform to apparate out and head home.
————————————————————————