Starting School
The next morning, everyone at the breakfast table at the Lupins was very excited. School was starting today, Hope was going to help by looking after Harry, Ron, Ophelia and Ginny whilst Remus and Mrs Weasley taught school. Hope was also sometimes going to be helping Remus teach the children Muggle studies, as she was a Muggle.
Remus was tuning a guitar at the breakfast table, and neither Harry nor Stefan seemed to have the patience to wait for breakfast to be over. Stefan might be starting school again today, but he was also going to be spending everyday with his best friend Percy.
‘Remus,’ sighed Lyall folding his newspaper away.
‘Why are you tuning a guitar at the breakfast table?’
‘Because,’ said Remus, ‘I want to play for music hour with the kids, but this needs tuning first.’
‘Uncle Jamie!’ laughed Ophelia, pointing at Remus.
‘Yes, Daddy does look like James playing a guitar,’ agreed Lyall.
‘Daddy played guitar?’ asked Harry.
‘Yes,’ nodded Remus, ‘he taught me. I can teach you when you’re bigger.’
Harry beamed and got strawberry jam down his face as he missed his mouth with his toast.
‘Ophelia?’ asked Stefan turning to his niece.
‘Es Stefy?’ said Ophelia.
‘Why don’t you talk in front of anyone else?’
Remus looked up at Stefan curiously. Stefan was right, Ophelia was fourteen months old, and could say quite a few words. Yes, no, Daddy, Mummy, Granny, Grandpa, quite a few names including Harry, Stefy, Luna and Ginny. But Ophelia never seemed to talk in front of anyone outside this room, not even to Luna and Ginny.
If they had anyone round, Ophelia wouldn’t even talk to Remus, she would pull his trouser leg to get his attention and then point or nod or shake her head to get her point across.
It was probably nothing to worry about, she was just shy. But Remus would have to keep an eye on it, to make sure she was alright.
‘Remus,’ said Stefan, ‘can Perc and I play Lord of the Rings today?’
‘Only if you pay attention in school when you’re in class,’ said Hope.
‘Yes Aunty Hope,’ said Stefan.
‘And as long as you don’t replace me as Gandalf,’ said Lyall.
‘Yes Uncle Lyall,’ chuckled Stefan.
‘I’ll see you all tonight then,’ said Lyall finishing his coffee, and pulling on his robes.
‘Bye bye Grandpa,’ said Harry waving as Hope wiped the jam off of his face.
‘Bye bye Grandpa,’ beamed Ophelia.
‘Goodbye my little angels,’ said Lyall kissing them both before he left.
Lyall dissaparated outside the house, and the others got ready for the day.
It was also the first day of their nursery. Mrs Fawcett and Mrs Diggory weren’t the only people restarting work today, Alice was also going back to the auror office, so she was leaving Neville here.
As there was five children, Hope and Mrs Weasley were going to take it turns to help Remus with the teaching, and looking after the younger children.
There was a knock on the door as Remus did the washing up.
‘We’re not early are we?’ asked Frank as Remus opened the door with his sleeves rolled up.
Frank and Alice were both looking quite flustered and were in their auror robes, and Alice was carrying Neville and Frank had all of Neville’s things.
‘You’re just on time,’ beamed Remus taking Neville and the things.
‘Hi Nev,’ said Remus, ‘are you going to have a nice time playing with Harry and Ron today?’
‘Yes!’ beamed Neville.
‘Harry’s going to let him try his broomstick,’ said Alice.
‘Well have a lovely day at work,’ said Hope, ‘Neville will be well looked after here.’
‘Bye Mummy and Daddy!’ called Neville waving before running off to play with Harry.
As it was a warm day, Hope was going to be looking after the five little ones outside. If it started to rain, they would move inside to the house.
Soon after this the Diggory’s, and the Fawcett’s came to deliver Cedric and Felicity. Felicity was in another pristine, freshly ironed dress in a little flower print which was bound to get ruined.
‘Hello Felicity, hi Cedric,’ said Stefan greeting his friends.
Stefan had been sitting on the gate to the house waiting for everyone to arrive, so he could greet everyone properly.
‘Now remember Felicity,’ said Mrs Fawcett straightening Felicity’s dress.
‘Don’t get your pretty dress dirty.’
‘But Mummy!’ protested Felicity.
Felicity was four and wanted to be able to play. But she couldn’t play, if she couldn’t get her dress dirty.
‘Wait a moment!’ said Remus running into the school to fetch something.
‘I bought these for art classes,’ said Remus, ‘Felicity could wear one of these at playtime.’
He showed a little plastic apron that would cover Felicity’s dress and mean she could play with the others.
‘Oh, Remus it’s perfect,’ beamed Mrs Fawcett, ‘I buy her nice clothes, and I don’t like them to get ruined.’
‘Well, this way you can join in Felicity and still look pretty,’ said Cedric.
‘Thank you, Cedric,’ blushed Felicity, surprised that Cedric actually thought she was pretty.
‘I’ll have to get some of those aprons,’ muttered Mrs Fawcett as she left to go to work at the Ministry.
Finally, the Weasley’s arrived including Charlie who was rushing down the road holding a letter in the air proudly.
‘Bill sent a letter!’ shouted Charlie as he ran.
‘What house is he in?’ asked Cedric.
‘Has he got any friends yet?’ asked Stefan.
‘He sent me a letter on his first night!’ beamed Charlie.
‘He sent it to everyone,’ pointed out Percy.
‘But my name was on the letter,’ said Charlie proudly.
Bill was Charlie’s best friend, and Bill knew Charlie would miss him, so Bill was taking a special effort to remember Charlie.
‘But what did he say?’ asked Hope.
‘Oh right,’ nodded Charlie.
‘He’s made loads of friends, he thinks Hagrids really cool, but Professor Snapes a git to the Gryffindors already.’
Remus smirked, the idea that Severus was winding up the Gryffindors was hardly surprising.
‘But he’s a Gryffindor!’ exclaimed Charlie.
‘Cool,’ said Stefan.
‘I want to be a Gryffindor!’ shouted Fred.
‘And me!’ yelled George.
‘Me too,’ laughed Percy.
‘Yeah,’ nodded Charlie.
‘I want to be a Hufflepuff,’ said Cedric somewhat lamely, and stopping the celebrations.
‘That’s ok Ced,’ shrugged Percy patting Cedric on the back.
‘Yeah somebodies got to be a Hufflepuff,’ said Charlie.
‘Boys!’ scolded Mrs Weasley.
‘Alright all Hufflepuffs, Gryffindors and Ravenclaws,’ said Remus.
Stefan winked at him, knowing the reason why Remus had included the Ravenclaws.
‘And no Slytherins!’ shouted Fred.
‘Heavens forbid,’ exclaimed Hope.
‘Let’s go do some learning.’
All the children were very excited, and everyone filed into their little desks. Stefan, Percy and Charlie were sitting at the back, and Fred, George, Felicity and Cedric were sitting at the front.
Remus sat at the back of the classroom at the start, and tested Percy and Charlie’s reading levels, and how good they were at maths, so that Remus knew what stage they were both at. He already knew Stefan’s reading and writing levels, as he had taught him last year.
Whilst Remus was doing that, Molly explained to the younger children what they were going to be learning, reading and writing of course, and maths as well as Muggle history.
Then Remus set the older boys some maths problems, and Molly and Remus started to teach Fred, George, Felicity and Cedric how to read. They already knew their alphabets, now they needed to learn how to string the words together.
Then they stopped for break time, and Charlie joined in with Stefan and Percy playing The Lord of the Rings, and the four younger children went to play in the tree fort.
The best part though came after lunch, the nursery group joined them with Hope, and Remus handed around instruments. Fred and George had castanets, and Felicity was given a tambourine, Harry, Neville and Ron had bells to ring, Ginny was also given some bells, but she tried to eat them.
‘Are we ready kids?’ asked Remus sitting down in the circle with his guitar.
‘Yes!’ beamed the children.
‘Ok Mam,’ said Remus, ‘we’re starting with Puff.’
Remus and Hope led the children in Puff the Magic Dragon, and the children and Molly joined in singing during the chorus. They sang for an hour, Remus teaching them all nursery rhymes, and songs by The Seekers and everyone had lots of fun.
After music hour, they did some more work, before story time and then the parents came to pick the children up to take them all home. It was safe to say, that the first day of the Ottery St. Catchpole school was a wide success.