The First Day
1991-First Year
The sun shone into the room through the large arched windows. Elizabeth blinked her eyes and smacked her lips together; her mouth feeling dry. She turned over to grab her watch to see the time when a loud thud sounded.
Cho and Padma both shot up from there beds and shrieked.
“What was that?” they both said.
Elizabeth looked down and lo and behold, her charms book on the floor.
“Sorry, I was reading last night,” she yawned. “Forgot it was on my bed.
She looked at the time. It was only 6 am. No need to really get up, but she needed to go to the bathroom. The girls went back to sleep grumpily.
She padded over to sink and splashed her face. She had rings under her eyes revealing a bad night’s sleep. She could already feel her neck stiffening. She went to the loo and walked back to the room to grab her things for the day. She showered and changed. She didn’t shower the night before and she could feel the dried sweat. When she was done, she walked down the stairs back to the common room.
There was no one in sight. It would be long before any of them woke up. They were probably still in the summertime time zone where you go to bed late and wake up late.
She sat down on one of the couches, surprised by how soft it was and opened her book. It was peaceful here. It was much too high for birds to perch on happily, but low enough, that it wasn’t all wind. Just perfect quiet.
However, the quiet didn’t last that long. An hour later, people were filing down, chatting about the day ahead. Erin found Elizabeth and told her that they should probably head down for breakfast with the older kids. So, they wouldn’t get lost.
Breakfast was not much different than the night before, but people were much more in and out seeing that there was no set time for breakfast. They did have croissants which she was thankful for. One of her favourite pastries that she knew she wouldn’t be able to go without. They didn’t necessarily have the same fresh from a café smell, but it was close enough.
Luna had joined them and the three chatted about the day ahead. Luna seemed to be excited for herbology and astronomy which was on Wednesday night.
Erin just seemed excited and petrified for any of the classes. She mostly just wanted the day to be over as quickly as possible. For Elizabeth, she was excited for potions, but the man who was teaching it, Professor Snape, seemed like a grumpy man. So, she hopes he won’t make it terrible on the first day. That would really ruin any love she had for the subject.
The three of them had finished eating and decided to get to the class somewhat early, making sure they’ll be on time even if they got lost.
The map they were given wasn’t terrible, but not great either. Timing the changing stairs kept throwing them off and Luna kept running to a random and started yelling at the Nargles. Elizabeth still wasn’t entirely sure what they were, but Luna was very adamant about their existence.
They finally made it to the room with a bit of time to spare. They were sharing the class with Hufflepuff. When they found seats, Erin made sure to put her bag on one next to her to save it for Olivia.
Soon enough the witch came in pulling a boy behind her.
“Hey guys! This is Josh. Is it okay if he sits with us?” Olivia asked.
The boy was rubbing his neck in embarrassment. The girls told them it was completely fine and the pair sat next to them.
“I found him outside scared to go in because he didn’t have any friends. I couldn’t have that now. So, I told him we were friends and he could sit with my friends.”
Professor Flitwick cleared his throat and addressed the class.
“Good morning new students. I am your Charms teacher and the head of Ravenclaw House.” He looked over at Elizabeth (it was more in that general direction, but she felt like he looked at her specifically.) “We will be diving in head first with the Levitation Spell. Wingardium Leviosa.”
He spoke the spell and waved his wand and the feather in front of him started floating.
“Now, does everyone have their feather?” There was a murmur around the room. “Beautiful! Now all you have to do is a swish and flick while saying the words Wingardium Leviosa. Go ahead. If you have any questions, feel free to raise your hand.”
Olivia went for it and was getting it to move slightly from side to side. Erin was muttering the spell so nothing was happening and Luna seemed to be off in a daydream.
Elizabeth tried her hand at it. She remembered reading about the spell and the importance of intonation. An emphasis on the “o” as it were. She tried it once and it lifted a few centimeters off the desk before falling again.
She did it again and it went much higher, much faster before gliding back down.
“With a little less gusto Ms. Blanchet,” Professor Flitwick called out.
“Why did he single me out? Oh, I’m doing things wrong,” the girl thought.
She tried again and she was able to control it more, but it was choppy. It would raise and lower with her wand, but it had a staggered effect. She stopped the spell and looked around. Most people were still struggling with getting the feather to lift even a little bit. She felt a bit better seeing others’ progress.
Everyone was having a hard time.
She tried again and it was much more fluid this time.
“Beautiful Ms. Blanchet! Look over here students.”
“Oh! people are looking,” she thought. She lost control over the feather and it shot across the room with enough force that it punctured the wood of the professor’s seat.
“Still quite incredible progress, Ms. Blanchet,” praised the professor.
She didn’t cast the spell again, but helped Erin and Olivia with their pronunciation and wand work.
The bell rang and the group of five walked out of the room. They were chatting about the spell. Luna was talking to Isaac about her father’s magazine and Erin and Olivia were discussing their respective common rooms. Elizabeth held onto the map and helped direct the group down to the dungeons where the potions classroom was.
They all got there and took their seats. They were still chatting when Professor Snape entered the room. The bell rang and the room silenced.
“Welcome to Potions. I doubt any of you will appreciate the art of potion making, but here we are. Today we will go over basic potion ingredients and I will be assigning a one-page essay on one of the ones we will speaking about today for next class. I will not accept any less or any more so do not try,” Professor Snape started lecturing.
He continued on to talk about Wormwood, Flobberworm Mucus and Aconite, outlining their properties and uses.
Elizabeth was taking notes with her quill, but she kept getting ink splotches everywhere. She would not be able to read anything she wrote down. Instead, she went back into her bag and pulled out a pen. She knew she packed this for a reason.
Class ended after an hour of notetaking and lecturing.
“Oh merlin! That was so boring,” Olivia said with an exasperated sigh. “At least it’s lunchtime now.”
“I’m just going to go to the loo quickly, but I’ll meet you there,” Elizabeth said as they reached the Great Hall. “I got ink all over my hands.”
They nodded and left her. She went to the girl’s lavatories that were nearby and washed her hands.
As she pushed the door open, she walked into someone.
“Watch were you’re going half-breed!”
Of course, the person she ran into was Pansy Parkinson. The short witch flipped her hair and scoffed.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there,” Elizabeth apologised hoping that would be the end of it and she could just leave. Her uncle warned about the blood purity thing, but never thought kids would actually bully them because of it.
“You actually think you can talk to me. I am on a much higher level than you. Do you even know who my family?!”
Elizabeth did not know who her family was, but from context clues, she gathered she was from a pureblood family. She just looked at the girl confused.
“Have you already found a new victim, Pansy?”
Parkinson looked behind her and Elizabeth could see it was the blond boy, Draco Malfoy. That name she knew. Her uncle explained the blood purity thing using the Malfoys as an example. They were the epitome of blood purists.
“Oh Drakey, this… fat hussy thought she could talk to me.” Parkinson ran and perched herself on the boy.
Malfoy gave her a once over. Feeling extremely self-conscious under the scrutinizing gaze, she started pulling at the sleeves of her robes.
“I was just leaving,” Elizabeth said. Under her breath, she muttered, “Je sortais juste de la toilette et elle était devant la porte. ” (I was just leaving the bathroom and she was in front of the door)
There was a bit of a chuckle from behind her, but she didn’t chance looking back as she left.
She entered the Great Hall and went to find her friends. Olivia and Isaac had joined them at the Ravenclaw table. She sat down and grabbed a couple of things. She had a pit in her stomach and the sight of food was making her feel sick.
She was quiet for most of the lunch break.
…
The group was splitting off at this point. The Ravenclaws had Herbology in the greenhouse whereas the Hufflepuffs had History of Magic. They said their goodbyes and went off.
The greenhouse was absolutely beautiful. It was big with a white frame and vaulted ceiling. Different pots with various plants were scattered about. Some looked extraterrestrial. Nothing like what she had seen in some of the gardens Elizabeth had visited.
First year students were gathering around a large table with pots on top. Professor Sprout was directing them to grab a pair of earmuffs and gloves. They would be repotting baby mandrakes.
They were sharing the class with the Slytherins and Parkinson was giving her some mean looks.
Erin had noticed and asked about it.
“Oh! it’s nothing. They just don’t like people like us.”
“What do you mean like us?”
“Those who have muggle heritage. You’re muggleborn and my father was muggleborn. So, our blood is not ‘pure’. It’s stupid and makes no sense.”
“Oh…”
“Don’t take it to heart. You deserve to be here.”
“Thanks Liz.”
They didn’t have another class for the rest of the day. Once the class ended, the three of them, Luna, Erin and Elizabeth, decided it would be a good time to explore the castle. They walked around, finding their next classrooms, library and hospital wing.
The castle was a maze and they often found themselves asking a student or the portraits where something was.
The day passed and Elizabeth felt more comfortable than before. After dinner, she got changed and started working on the potions’ homework. It was a bit rough to assign homework on the first day, but it wasn’t a particularly difficult essay. Nothing that she didn’t already know. The only hard part was working with the quill.
The paper had to be given in on parchment and written with a quill. So, she kept practicing her calligraphy till most of the girls turned in for the night.
The first day wasn’t as bad as what she thought it would be. Elizabeth was content with the day, but in the silence of the night, her mind drifted to her encounter with Malfoy and Parkinson. The chuckle she heard when she left. It didn’t come from Pansy, but then why did he laugh. Not a malicious one, but a genuine laugh. Was it genuine? But did he laugh at her or something someone said? Did she have something on her skirt that he saw and laughed at? Did Parkinson say something funny?
“Why did he laugh?” she asked the darkness.