The Attack of the Cornish Pixies
The next morning the Ravenclaws were sat at the breakfast table eagerly waiting for Professor Flitwick to hand out the timetables for the year.
Terry and Michael both had their plates full of sausages and eggs and were eating them hardly pausing to stop to chew properly.
“Honestly!” muttered Mandy. “I just don’t know where you two put all that food!”
“We’re growing boys!” said Terry.
“Yeah we’ve got to keep our strength up!” added Michael spraying Lisa with pieces of sausage.
“You’re disgusting is what you are!” said Lisa.
“Hi, Luna!” greeted Persephone as Luna sat down at the table with the second years.
“Hello Luna, how was your first night?” asked Irwin.
“Hmm?” asked Luna dreamily, “Oh it was alright, I couldn’t find my hairbrush this morning….”
Anne noticed that Luna’s hair was slightly more tangled and messier than normal. “That’s alright Luna, you can borrow mine after breakfast,” said Anne.
Luna didn’t seem to have heard Anne as Luna was stirring her strawberry yoghurt whilst humming.
“Good Morning everyone!” squeaked Professor Flitwick as he started down the table with stacks of timetables. “I hope you are all ready for another year full of learning!”
“Good Morning Sir!” replied Anne.
“Good Morning Sir! When’s our first charms lesson?” asked Irwin.
“Good Morning Anne, Irwin! I’m afraid we won’t have charms class till Monday morning,” said Flitwick.
“Oh, shame! Its only Tuesday, I wanted to go through my essay!” muttered Padma. The other Ravenclaws nodded in agreement.
“What we got today then?” asked Terry still stuffing his face.
“Umm, Transfiguration and Potions and then Defence this afternoon,” replied Anthony checking their schedules.
“We’ve got Astronomy on Thursday nights,” added Lisa scanning the piece of parchment.
“Come on, if you two having finished stuffing your faces,” said Anthony looking at Michael and Terry, “let’s go get our books.”
“Hey, Luna!” called Lisa as they got up from the table. “Did you want to borrow my hairbrush?”
“Huh?” asked Luna distractedly, “oh yeah sure!”
The Ravenclaws ran up to their common room to fetch their books and holiday homework for the lessons for the day. They were about to head downstairs for Transfiguration when they noticed that Luna was still looking confused standing on her own.
“Luna you’ve got Charms first, right?” asked Irwin kindly.
Luna nodded.
“Well that’s next to the Transfiguration classroom!” said Mandy, “we can show you the way.”
“Don’t worry Flitwick’s really nice!” Padma assured her as they came towards the classroom.
“We’ll see you later!” called Irwin as they went to their own classroom.
Transfiguration went well, they handed in their homework and then they went over what they had learnt the previous year.
They then had a Potions class. Professor Snape came sweeping into the classroom in his black robes that swept out behind him like wings.
“Homework!” called Professor Snape before he even reached the front of the room.
The Hufflepuffs groaned, hoping that Snape had forgotten their long holiday essay. Anne and Irwin started scrabbling in their bags for their essays which they handed over eagerly.
They then were asked to prepare a swelling solution in their pairs. Anne and Irwin received several extra points for Ravenclaw for brewing it perfectly.
Anne was just musing over well her first day was going over a ham sandwich at lunch when she was disturbed by her brother sitting down opposite her.
“Hey, there little sis!” greeted Harry cheerily.
“Hi,” she muttered. Why did he always insist on calling her little sister? Just because he was a few minutes older than her!
“It was weird missing the train yesterday!”
“Yeah what did happen there?” asked Irwin.
“Well, I and Ron tried to run at the platform. But we crashed!” Harry explained. “Hedwig went berzerk!”
“I can imagine, the poor thing,” said Padma who had always been fond of Hedwig.
“It was alright though; Sirius and Remus were still on the muggle side of the platform too. We sent an owl to the school and spent a day messing about!” Harry laughed, “It was like an extra day of holiday!”
“It’s alright for some!” said Terry with a hint of jealousy.
“Your sister meanwhile was worrying where you were whilst you and Ron were skylarking!” snapped Mandy.
“Sorry about that sis, we should have rung you earlier,” said Harry.
“Its ok” muttered Anne, “as long as you’re alright!”
“Ok then!” said Harry cheerily, “sorry I’ve got to go me and Ron are going to go explore a secret passageway before Herbology!” he jabbered.
“Honestly that brother of yours!” said Mandy.
“He’s just so full of energy,” agreed Lisa. “I’m surprised he ever stops to sleep!”
“Sometimes he doesn’t” muttered Anne.
The Ravenclaws were still laughing about how stupid and reckless the Gryffindors were when they arrived at double Defence that afternoon.
The Ravenclaws had Defence with the Slytherins this year, and Anne and Irwin settled into their usual desk in the front of the room.
“Have you lot actually read these books?” asked Malfoy when he came in.
“Of course, they are on the reading list,” said Persephone.
“Just because you lot have read them doesn’t mean they are actually any good!” said Pansy with her nose stuck in the air.
“Face it, Pansy, they’re weirdos they’d read rubbish if you put it in front of them!” said Malfoy.
“They actually have read rubbish if they’ve read all those books!” Pansy laughed.
“At least they’re not all freaks like Potter!” said Malfoy sneering.
“Leave her alone!” shouted Irwin pulling out his wand and pointing it at Malfoy.
“Oh, Look Potter! You’ve got yourself a boyfriend!”
“What’s she ever done to you? Apart from top you in every exam!” shouted Irwin. Terry Michael and Anthony all got out their wands and stood next to Irwin.
“Oh yeah! She’s an intelligent freak I’ll give her that but a freak all the same! I mean” Malfoy sniggered, “you didn’t see her in Flourish and Blotts! Almost as bad as she is now!” he cackled.
Irwin looked under the desk and sure enough, there was Anne having another panic attack.
“Malfoy just leave them,” drawled Blaise, “they’re not worth your time.”
Malfoy swaggered to the back of the classroom the Ravenclaws glaring at him.
Terry, Michael, Anthony and Irwin all put their wands away still muttering.
“Count the floor tiles, Anne,” said Irwin gently as he joined her under the desk.
“You alright?” he asked as Anne’s breathing became more regular.
Anne nodded.
“Look just ignore him, he’s a real piece of work!”
Irwin helped Anne out from under the desk as Professor Lockhart came into the room.
“Well Hello there!” he beamed showing his pearly white teeth. “Let me introduce you to your new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor. Me!”
Today Professor Lockhart was wearing fuchsia coloured robes with silver spangles. The Ravenclaws stared at him. It was now clear that the egotistical and vain idiot was not just an exaggerated persona he put into the books.
“I see you have all bought a set of my books. Excellent! I’m going to give you all a quiz to see how well you’ve read them!”
“A test on the first day back?” asked Padma excitedly.
“Brilliant!!” exclaimed Michael and Terry.
The Slytherins sniggered at the Ravenclaws reaction to a test.
Even the Ravenclaws groaned though once they started the paper!
1. What is Gilderoy Lockhart’s favourite colour?
2. What is Gilderoy Lockhart’s secret ambition?
3. What in your opinion is Gilderoy Lockhart’s greatest achievement to date?
4. What is Gilderoy Lockhart’s full name?
5. What schoolhouse was Gilderoy Lockhart in?
6. Who is Gilderoy Lockhart’s favourite person?
7. Who is Gilderoy Lockhart’s biggest fan
8. What is Gilderoy Lockhart’s favourite flower?
There were 57 questions in total!
Anne frantically scrabbled all her answers down. A test was a test! No matter how pointless it was.
After half an hour Lockhart collected their papers. “I’m impressed much better than my last class!”
“A few of you even got full marks! My favourite person is myself, I used to be in Ravenclaw, and my biggest fan is Gladys Gudgeon.”
He checked the papers again for names, “congratulations Anthony Goldstein, Anne Potter and Irwin Scamander, five points each for Ravenclaw!”
Anne stared at her shoes. Just because he had had to read his books does not mean he wasn’t an idiot!
“Right, now, for the practical part of the lesson,” said Lockhart reaching under his desk for a covered cage.
“Now don’t be afraid and don’t scream! It might provoke them!” he beamed pulling off the cover.
The cage was full of electric blue creatures no bigger than fairies.
“Cornish Pixies?” drawled Blaise.
“What’s so frightening about them?” laughed Pansy.
“Oh! You think they’re funny, do you?” said Lockhart. “Let’s see what you make of them now!” he said throwing open the cage with a flourish.
“Merlin’s bloody pants!” yelled Padma ducking under her desk.
“The mans a lunatic!” yelled Anthony hitting some Cornish Pixies with a book.
Lockhart had conveniently run out of the room once the chaos began.
“Don’t worry guys! Grandpa told me how to handle these!” said Irwin getting out his wand.
“The spell in immobulus” he told them.
“Immobulus!” he called pointing his wand at a pixie which then froze.
The room was soon full of Ravenclaws yelling “Immobulus!!” and all the pixies were soon frozen. The Slytherins had done a runner with Lockhart.
“That man is a flipping idiot” moaned Mandy as they left for dinner.
“How did an idiot like him ever make it into Ravenclaw?” wondered Michael.
“There’s a question for the ages!” said Anthony dryly.
That night the Ravenclaw Second Years gathered around the mirror whilst they talked to Remus and Sirius.
“Hiya Remus, Sirius” called Mandy
“Hi Remus, Sirius,” said Anne.
“Hi, Anne” chuckled Sirius “Anne’s entourage!”
“How are you, Remus?” Anne asked nervously knowing that last night had been a full moon.
“Not so good...” he muttered.
“Don’t worry darling I'm fine!” he added seeing the look of anguish on Anne's face. “It’s Greyback!” he admitted. “He’s the werewolf that bit me as a child, he made another attack last night.”
“Oh!” said Padma.
“Are you alright though?” asked Irwin urgently.
“Yes, I’m fine! Its just Greyback is giving us werewolves a lot of bad press at the moment.” Remus was quiet for a moment. “How was your first day then?”
“It was great!” exclaimed Michael.
“We got given three essays!” said Padma.
“We even had a test!” said Persephone.
“A test on the first day back!” said Sirius. “I’ll bet that was Snivillus!”
They all laughed at Sirius’ nickname for Snape.
“No its worse than that!” laughed Terry.
“It was Lockhart!” continued Michael.
“What kind of rubbish did he expect to you know?” asked Sirius.
“Oh you know his star sign, favourite type of tea other stupid stuff” explained Irwin.
“His star sign!” cackled Sirius.
“And then, the stupid man set a cage of Cornish pixies on us!” said Mandy almost breathless with laughter.
They all spent a while making fun of Lockhart and they soon forgot about the attack by Fenrir Greyback.