❀ 1.4 ❀
❀ Protection, Prevention, and Compassion ❀
IT WAS THE FIRST proper day at Hogwarts, and Isla-Mae was already hungry. Her dad often called her his ' Niño hambriento ' when she asked what dinner was 20 minutes after lunch. She got up out of bed, put on her clothes, and waited for someone to come down - so she could walk with them to the great hall - in the common room. Iris came down around 10 minutes later and accompanied Isla-Mae to the Great hall.
Isla-Mae's breakfast went off without a hitch, she was one of the first people in the hall - there were some seventh year Gryffindors and Slytherins sitting together, and some Fifth year Ravenclaws revising early and eating - which meant she got (almost) first pick of food. She chose some weetabix and a couple pieces of toast with marmalade and butter.
When she finished, Iris had been chatting away with her for a while, when Isla-Mae interjected in a quiet voice, " Hey, um, could you, um, take me to the Library? Please? "
"Of course I can! No need to feel shy, I need to revise a few things anyway, " Iris replied with a smile.
So Isla-Mae and Iris spent some time in the Library; Isla-Mae reading up on Victorian flower language, and Iris reading Befuddlement and Bewitching: an advanced guide to transfiguration. But, all good things must come to an end, because as the gong sounded for first lesson, Isla-Mae started to shake and feel very scared. Until, Iris wrapped her hands around Isla-Mae and hugged her, " I told your dad that I would look after you, I don't break my promises. Now, what lesson do you have? Me too, I will walk with you if you want? Ok, "
And with that, they set off down the corridors to find the right room.
It was Potions. Isla-Mae's first lesson in magic was potions with the Gryffindors. Now, that wouldn't seem bad at first glance, but this class had the four who were harassing Snape the day before - and they were a special breed of chaotic.
Isla-Mae saw Sammy waving her over to partner up with him, and she complied. Two of the four Gryffindor boys that she had seen on the train sat on the same table; their two other friends had sat next to a pretty ginger girl & her classmate. It was the dark-haired boy & the one with scars, Sirius & Remus.
The first lesson went as well as it could have gone with Professor Slughorn teaching the basics, & then it was on to the next one. Transfiguration with Prof. Mcgonagall, Break, Defence against the dark arts with Professor Tenebris (a 90 something year old witch who used to be a Vampire hunter for the ministry), Herbology with Professor sprout, then Lunch.
Lunch was when things got pretty interesting; after Isla-Mae & Iris had finished, they walked over to the Gryffindor table & sat next to the twins (who were scarfing down roast potatoes & gravy like it was their last meal on Earth) to wait till they finished at top speed. The then showed Isla-Mae around the castle - telling her the patterns of the stairs, which teachers she should try to get to favour her (Slughorn, Mcgonagall, etc), funny anecdotes about where the best pranks they had pulled happened - until the bell for the last lesson went.
So, Isla-Mae trudged her way along to History of Magic with Professor Binns, ready to keel over and fall asleep when he started droning on about the goblin wars & Battleaxe the unworthy and Golrick the Greedy or something to that likeness.
When the day finally finished and she could go to relax, she realised that she had Astronomy in a turret at midnight. So, she set a clock alarm for a few hours, went to sleep, got back up again, and hurried over to the turret. She was sat next to Sirius, in a corner, and was looking through her telescope, when suddenly a drowsiness came upon her & she fell asleep. A few minutes later, the professor called on her to answer his question, and when she didn't respond he started walking over.
Sirius nudged her and whispered the answer in her ear just as the professor arrived at their table. " As I asked before, Miss García, what is Jupiter's biggest moon? "
" Um, er, Ganymede? Sir, " Isla-Mae responded, stuttering & sleepy. She smiled as the Professor nodded & walked off, talking about moons & Jupiter's rotational cycles. She then looked over at Sirius - ready to thank him - but he was looking over at her & motioning to look at something he wrote.
The note read as such: take notes so I can copy off of you, please? - Sirius
Isla-Mae looked at him in utter disbelief but wrote some notes anyway. They ended up with homework to write a foot-long essay on the rotation of Jupiter & the moons of Jupiter.
As she was walking back to the Hufflepuff common room without Sammy - he ran off to meet up with his sister in the Ravenclaw common room - she was cornered by a tall, Slytherin prefect with really long platinum blonde hair. He was about to give her a detention when an absolute goddess-looking girl came barrelling after him. Her name was Venus Akina-Zabini and she was a Hufflepuff prefect.
" Lucius, what the fuck do you think you're doing? " she said, voice steady & strong.
" Handing a detention to the first year. Out of bed at such a late hour, tsk tsk" Lucius made disapproving noises.
"Yeah? You do realise she just had an Astronomy lesson, right?"
"I, well, that is to say, um... I don't care," he said with the obvious fake worriedness in his voice leaving. " She was out of bed, and I want to hand out some detentions today"
"Not happening Lucius, you are going to turn around and leave - otherwise there will be consequences, understand?" Venus said, a dangerous air around her words - like she was threatening him.
Lucius left without another word, & Venus and Isla-Mae walked down to the common room. " Hey kid, if mean ol'e Luci starts giving you a hard time again - just call for me. Ok? " Venus said.
"Thank you, so much, " Isla-Mae gratefully exclaimed.
"No problem kiddo, just doing my job, " Venus replied, before she ruffled Isla-Mae's hair and walked out of the Common room to finish her patrolling.