Chapter 5: Dreams and Stars
She was sitting under a tree, laughing. She could feel his hand in hers as he sat next to her. They looked across the lake and watched as a few owls drifted over the surface, catching unseen bugs. The sun was setting, and the last light of it through the trees glinted into her eyes. There was movement, a sound of cloth against skin, and the feeling of his cool lips against hers. She returned the kiss, only seeing pale skin before her eyes closed and she fell into his arms…
Rose awoke, sitting up all at once. Her face was flushed, and she was very confused. Never in her life had she kissed anyone, so this dream was startling. She shook her head and ran her hands through her tangled red hair. As she looked around, she could see through her open bed curtains that her roommates were still asleep. The little wind up clock shaped like an owl with open wings, given to her by her mother as an 11th birthday present, showed that it was about half after 6 in the morning. She was wide awake, so she decided to continue on her homework in bed and wait for her friends to wake up. Anyway, she was too startled by her vivid dream to attempt sleep again.
After a hearty breakfast, the five girls walked through the halls to their first Transfiguration class. They were excited, because they had heard that their professor was Henri Lefuret, who was a French wizard. They had also heard rumors that he was an animagus as well, like Headmistress McGonagall and the late Sirius Black. The girls entered the classroom and sat down in the middle, next to a few Hufflepuffs that were there early.
“I hear that he is very handsome,” Lucy said dreamily. “Foreign wizards always are.”
“Ugh, not always,” Jasmeen retorted. “I have been to India and met other wizards there. Trust me, not even most of them were handsome. Granted, the ones I met were all of the old people in my grandfather’s village.
“There are other communities of just wizards? Like Godric’s Hollow?” Amanda asked.
“Of course,” Linda said. “My family lives in a village just outside of Rothbury. Everyone there is a witch or a wizard. The village is very well protected too, or so I suspect, as there are never any muggles anywhere near there.
“Wow! I live in Morpeth! We are neighbors!” Amanda exclaimed. “We can visit during holidays!” The two of them then decided to make plans about their Christmas holidays in excited voices while the other divulged where they were from.
“So, while they are busy,” Rose said with a laugh, “Are you actually from India, Jasmeeen?”
“Oh, no,” Jasmeen replied. “We live just outside of Lewes, near Brighton. It’s just my father’s family that lives in India. Where do you live Rose?”
“Well, you know us Weasely’s. Family is everything,” she said with a laugh. “Myself, my mom, my dad, and little brother Hugo live in Devon. It’s near Ottery St. Catchpole, where grandma and grandpa Weasely live. Xeno lives near there too, while James and his family live in Godric’s Hollow. Uncle Harry restored the house his parents lived in. What about you Lucy?” Lucy had been leafing through her transfiguration text, only half listening to the conversation.
“I, uh, I –, “Lucy was looking down at the table as she said this, her voice not travelling far. “Well, I told you my parents own half of a potions distributor, but they haven’t exactly had the time or funds to move. They have been building the company with the money they make. So, we live in Cokeworth.” She looked embarrassed.
“That is nothing to be ashamed of Lucy,” Rose said, putting her hand on Lucy’s shoulder.
“No, but…being related to the Prince’s is,” she replied.
“Who?” Both Rose and Jasmeen asked, confused.
“The Prince’s,” Lucy said with a sigh. “Eileen Prince and Miranda Prince were sisters. Miranda married Roland Pucey, also a wizard, and they had a son named Adrian. Adrian Pucey is my father, and he married my mother, Gwennyth.”
“Um, so?” Jasmeen and Rose exchanged confused looks.
“So? Eileen Prince was Professor Severus Snape’s mother!” Lucy said still staring at the table, shaking a bit.
“But, wouldn’t that be a good thing? Severus Snape was integral to the war and he saved my uncle’s life,” Rose said.
“It is the things he did to achieve that…that is why I am ashamed,” Lucy said. “I was afraid you would hate me for being related to him.”
“Lucy, I could never hate you for something like that. I am proud to be friends with a relative of his. And you should be proud too.” Lucy looked up at Rose and gave her a small smile.
“Okay, I will try,” Lucy said in a small voice. This whole time, other first year Slytherin and Hufflepuff students had been wandering in and finding seats, and just then, a door at the front of the room opened. A man of about medium height entered. He had very dark skin, but on his head, there was a shock of pure white hair. He really was quite handsome.
“Bonjour classe, et bienvenue. That means hello, and welcome,” the professor said with a smile. “My name is Professor Lefuret, and yes, I am from France, the rumors are true. I have also briefly taught at Beauxbatons, but have been here for about six years. Now, let us get started. We will first start with transfiguring small objects, and today is turning beetles into buttons! Your beetles are in this bucket on the table. Instructions are on page 2 of your text. Begin.” The girls spent the next hour or so attempting to transfigure beetles. Rose was able to do the allotted five, but the only other one who was able to manage even one full button was Linda. Even so, Professor Lefuret was kind and encouraging, and was fine if the students talked. Before the end of class, they were tasked to return, if they hadn’t done so already, with five transfigured buttons. The bell rang, and it was off to the dreaded History of Magic class for Rose, Lucy, and Amanda, while Jasmeen and Linda happily went off to Herbology.
As soon as the bell had rung to start class, Professor Binns had started droning on about the first known beginning of wizarding culture, the story of the Peverell Brothers. Rose and Amanda already knew this story, and Lucy didn’t care, so they spent the class period passing notes. Rose was finding herself to be content with how things were turning out so far, and she had forgotten her dream from this morning.
Albus and Xeno met the girls at the Slytherin table for lunch, as promised. They recounted their days, and told stories. The subject came up again of where people were from.
“So Xeno,” Jasmeen piped up. “Rose tells us that you and she both live near Ottery St. Catchpole?”
“Indeed, we do,” Xeno replied. “I live in the same house my mother grew up in, which is really close to Rose’s grandparent’s house, The Burrow. We spent many days chasing the gnomes around with everyone while the parents fussed,” Xeno laughed. “Teddy and Victoire were supposed to watch us, but they were always snogging in the shed!”
“Who’re they?” Lucy asked.
“Oh, Teddy is the son of the late Nymphadora Tonks and the late Professor Remus Lupin,” Rose answered. “They fought in the war, and died. Victoire Weasely is my cousin, daughter of my uncle Bill and aunt Fleur. Victoire’s brother and sister are in Ravenclaw. Louis is a fifth year, and Dominique is a third year. They all live by the sea in a home called Shell Cottage.”
“How many relatives do you have?” asked Linda. “My family is small, I can’t even imagine what yours is like.”
“Well…there are a lot. I guess I will just tell you the younger ones. There is me and my brother Hugo, who will be here next year; James of course; Victoire, Louis, and Dominique; I also have a cousin named Lucy, who is in fifth year with Louis and also a Ravenclaw, and her sister Molly who is in James’ year; Roxanne, who is a sixth year in Gryffindor, and her little brother, Fred, who is a Gryffindor in fourth year; and Al’s sister, Lilly, will ALSO be here next year.
“So,” Amanda started. “In order of age, there is Teddy, Victoire, Roxanne, Lucy, Louis, Fred, Dominique, James, Molly, you, Al, Hugo, and Lilly. Am I right?
“You kept up with that?” Lucy asked.
“I know, it’s hard,” Albus said. “I sometimes can’t keep it straight. But, now that I think of it, none of them have come to talk to us yet.”
“Give it time,” Xeno said, heaping food onto his plate. “Roxxy is probably busy, Lucy and Louis are taking a million classes, I’d rather NOT have a welcome prank from Fred, and I am not sure about Dom. She’s probably the one who has spent the most time with us over the years.”
“Well, we better hurry up and eat, we all have the best class ever coming up!” Rose said with excitement.
“Defence Against the Dark Arts!” They all said happily.
The seven students took up two tables in the front of the room. Rose, Xeno, Al, and Lucy were on the right, and Jasmeen, Linda, and Amanda on the left. They were chatting excitedly amongst themselves and their fellow classmates. Some of the wary students, all stuck up pure blood Slytherins, watched with some incredulity from the back. Soon, their professor entered the room.
“Hello class, my name is Professor Dean Thomas. I too was once a Hogwarts student, like you all, worrying more about that to do with my free time and playing Quidditch than homework.” That received a few giggles from the class. “Eventually, I did become a serious student, because I had no other choice. I became a member of the famed Dumbledore’s Army. I helped to protect this school in the war, as did many of your parents or relatives. I was welcomed into the ranks of aurours, but I decided that teaching the future witches and wizards here at Hogwarts was more important. Many question having a DADA class still, but I, along with all of the teachers at this school, know that there will always be dangers out there. Most of us also know, first hand, that students are important and can do great things. That being said, let us begin.” The class had been held in rapture. Knowing that they would be taught by someone like Professor Thomas was amazing. “Class, open your books to page five. We will begin with the Curse of the Bogies. It repels these small, demonic creatures. But before we begin with the curse, I would like you all to begin research on both the creature AND the curse! Whatever is not finished will be due next class.” The friends helped themselves, as Professor Thomas went about the room helping others. It was a little disappointing that they didn’t get to do anything that was actually defensive spells the first class, but it was still interesting.
For dinner, they all sat at the Gryffindor table, and talked about how they were surprised about Professor Thomas, and how blunt he was. They also were complaining that they all had Astronomy that evening. There were four high towers after the rebuilding of Hogwarts, and expansive grounds, so all of the first years had Astronomy one night out of the week. While they were talking about this, a girl came up to the table.
“Hey Rosie, hey Albie!” The girls said cheerfully. She was of medium height, tanned skin and auburn hair. Rose and Albus looked up, startled.
“Roxxy!” They exclaimed, and they got up to hug her.
“Are those, Slytherin robes I see on you Rose?” she asked in surprise.
“Uh yeah…,” Rose said timidly.
“Well congrats on being first in the family. Have you told your dad yet? I’ll bet he’s thrilled. He seems to be a bit more opposed to Slytherins than normal people.”
“No, I haven’t had the time to write home yet,” Rose said anxiously.
“Uh…,” Albus started backing away. Rose turned to him.
“What did you do?” Roxanne and Rose said to him simultaneously.
“I may have already told my mum and dad about it…,” He said sheepishly.
“Well, maybe they haven’t told my parents yet,” Rose said hopefully. “How are you Roxxy?”
“I have been fine. We visited grandma and grandpa a few times this summer. Freddie is very excited for next year. When we went to get my books, he tried to get mom to buy him a wand!”
“Ah ha, nice try Freddie!” Albus laughed.
“Well, I haven’t eaten yet, so I will catch up with you both later,” Roxanne said as she turned to leave.
“Wait, you haven’t met our new friends yet!” Rose exclaimed.
“Oh! Right! How rude of me, I’m sorry!” She turned to the other girls. “I’m Roxanne Weasely, or Roxxy for short.”
“This is Lucy, Jasmeen, Amanda, and Linda,” Rose said, gesturing to each in turn. “And you know Xeno.”
“Of course! Xeno is practically family! Anyway, I need to be going; I look forward to getting to know you all better later!” With that, Roxanne walked hurriedly to the Ravenclaw table.
“She seems really nice,” Amanda said. “Very polite.”
“She is,” Rose assured her. “Her mother made sure of it. She’s also a great Quidditch player. She’s a chaser on the Ravenclaw team. She takes after her mother in that way too.”
“Let’s finish eating. I want to start on this pile of work I have before Astronomy. I am SO glad that it is only once a week!” Xeno said between bites of food.
“I’m looking forward to the meteor shower in December, right before Christmas break,” Linda said dreamily. “I’ve been told that all of the Astronomy classes observe it, but even students who aren’t in a class watch it. They say that it’s possible to meet your true love under the meteor shower.”
“I didn’t know you were such a romantic Linda!” Rose laughed.
“Hey, a girl can dream!” Linda said, coming out of her daydream. They all laughed as they finished up and grabbed their things.
Since they all couldn’t meet up in a common room, they all studied in the library together. After the renovations, there were rooms put aside for students to use a half hour at a time for spell practice for classes. They had dragged a few tables in there and were writing papers as well as practicing for Transfiguration.
“Can’t I just bring in buttons and say I did it?” Lucy complained. “I’m terrible at this!”
“Just envision a button in your mind,” Rose prompted. “And try again.” Lucy took a breath and tried again. This time, the beetle quivered and turned into a small black button.
“I did it!” Lucy yelled and jumped around the room.
“Nice job,” Linda said. “Okay, I think I finished everything. A write up of the boil-cure potion, a scroll on the three myths of the beginning of the wizarding world, a paragraph on the mending charm, a write up on proper pruning, all five buttons, and research on bogies.”
“You finished it ALL?” Albus asked, stunned. “How!?”
“I like book work and studying. Rose is done too,” Linda replied.
“I don’t even think I have half of it done,” Amanda said, with her head on her pile of textbooks.
“Me either,” Jasmeen said with a yawn. “I got stuck on the scroll for History of Magic. And by stuck, I mean I was nodding off.”
“Well, our half hour is up, and it’s almost time for Astronomy, so we better get going,” Xeno said. “Al, I’ll help you catch up later in our dormitory.”
“Linda, can I copy your scroll?” Lucy asked with a frown.
“No, but I can help you with it later as well,” she said with a small smile. “Let’s get going before the librarian notices all the scorched beetles.”
The Slytherins headed up to the tower closest to the dungeon entrance, while Al and Xeno headed up the old Astronomy Tower near their dormitory. The Slytherin first year professor was Professor Robards, who tasked them with finding three constellations. Their homework was to sketch these constellations including the names of all the stars in them. While interesting, it gave Rose a crick in the neck to be looking up for that long. She was glad when class was over, as she was looking forward to a hot bath and bed. The five girls headed down the stairs to the dungeons, and Rose checked her bag to make sure she didn’t forget her constellation chart, and found that she was missing her paragraph for Charms.
“I’ll catch up with you all in a bit, I need to go look for my paper in the library,” she said as she ran off down the hall. She checked with the librarian, who did have it, and told her to tell her friends to be more careful about burning tables in the library. Rose heaved a sigh of relief that they didn’t get detention, and that she didn’t have to re-write that paper. She walked slowly back to the dungeons, re-reading her work to check for mistakes. Rose wasn’t really paying attention, and the next thing she knew, she had ran in to something. She looked up, and saw a tall boy in Slytherin robes in front of the entrance to the common room. He had platinum blonde hair, and fair skin. He didn’t look too happy with her. Then she realized; this was Scorpius Malfoy!
“I’m so sorry!” she exclaimed, getting up and retrieving her dropped piece of parchment. “I wasn’t looking. Are you okay?”
“Yes, I am fine,” Scorpius looked down his nose at Rose. “Pay more attention to where you are going. Not everyone would take so kindly as to being slammed into.” He turned to walk into the common room, and Rose followed.
“Wait!” Rose said. “Are you, Scorpius Malfoy?”
“Yes, why?” Scorpius snapped at her.
“Well, um, because, I don’t know. I have heard about you,” Rose said timidly.
“Of course you have,” Scorpius took a breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, I am NOT possessed by a dark wizard, no, I do NOT have a Dark Mark, no, my father is NOT the next Voldemort. He works for the Ministry. Stop listening to rumors.”
“No! I haven’t heard any of those things! Why would anyone say that about you? You come from a good family. Your father was never evil.”
“What do you know about my father?” he asked, small lines creasing his brow.
“He saved my uncle. He did everything he did so his family would live. That he was misunderstood…” Rose said in a small voice.
“Who are you?” Scorpius asked, moving closer to her.
“I’m Rose. Rose Weasely.” He stared blankly at her for a moment.
“A Weasely? In Slytherin? Never thought Hogwarts would see the day,” He chuckled, it was a warm sound. “Thank you Rose, everyone always assumes…well, thank you, for not being like them. Have a good night. Oh, and welcome to Slytherin House. I hope more turn out to be like you.” With that, he put his hand on her shoulder, squeezed, and walked up the stairs to the boy’s dormitory.
