by DucksRMagical » Thursday 28 May 2009 9:59:36pm
Thanks hprocks! Yeah, I can't sleep when people snore either.
Chapter 48: Strange Acquaintances
After dinner I returned to my dormitory and pulled the curtains around my bed. All of my roommates were in the common room, but I didn't feel like talking to them if they came up to the dormitory. I wanted to be alone.
I pulled out a roll of parchment and leaned up against my headboard. I found a quill and thought about what I should tell my family about my first day.
Dear Mum, Dad, Matt, and Ellie,
I just finished my first day and it was
kind of insane. It started off bad and
just went down hill.
Last night I couldn't sleep, so I went
down to the common room. I fell asleep
down there, but woke up late. A boy named
Ted Lupin (who has blue hair) woke me up
along with a prefect named Landon Comer.
He told me I can't sleep in the common room.
I was late to my first class, Potions. The
professor didn't mind, though. He seems
nice. He had a brewing contest for the first
day's lesson, which I won. The bloke I was
working next to was not happy. Apparently he
thinks he's the best potion brewer in the
school.
After lunch I had History of Magic, which I am
very behind in. The professor is a ghost and
he's so boring! Half the class was asleep! I
couldn't even take decent notes.
I had Herbology after that and I had to work with
a girl who is possibly the most hyper person in
the entire world. She was practically bouncing
up and down in her seat as she told me about
Hogwarts.
I'm just glad the day is over. It feels like it's
dragged on forever. I can't say that I like it
here. All my roommates are nice, but they all have
friends. Everyone already has friends. The only
person I've met who pays any attention to me and I
actually like is Ted Lupin.
I miss you guys. Write soon.
Love,
Amy
I shoved the letter into an envelope and then wrote similar ones to Olivia and Kenzie. Well, Kenzie's was pretty different since I had to make it sound like I was at a Muggle school.
I left the dormitory and squeezed my way through the crowded common room. All I had to do was find the owlery.
The corridor was much emptier than the common room. I set off for the owlery and only saw a few people on my way there. It took me a while to find it, but I didn't really mind since I had nothing better to do. It was kind of nice to walk the deserted corridors alone.
Once I'd mailed my letters, I returned to the dormitory and spent the remainder of the evening reading my History of Magic book. It only seemed to cover what we were going to learn in class, though. I needed to read about the history that the professor had been teaching the past three years. I'd have to go to the library for that.
I had the curtains pulled shut around my bed before my roommates came in for the night. I huddled under my blankets and listened to their whispered conversations as I tried to go to sleep. Hearing their late night conversations made me miss Olivia even more. I remembered all the nights we stayed up giggling with each other.
I had another very restless night of sleep. Someone was snoring again and I hadn't been able to research a good muffling charm yet. I wanted more than anything to just go sleep in the common room again, but I couldn't risk waking up late and getting yelled at by Landon Comer. I doubted he'd let me off a second time.
Despite the fact that I stayed in my dormitory, I still woke up late. I rushed to the Great Hall and grabbed a couple pieces of toast before attempting to find the Charms classroom. The worst thing about waking up late was that I couldn't follow any of my fellow classmates to the room.
I practically ran all over the entire castle before I finally found the correct room. The worst part was that I walked into a class of seventh years thinking it was the Charms classroom. It was actually the Arithmancy classroom. The professor told me where the Charms room was, but it was incredibly embarrassing.
The Charms professor was a short man with thinning black hair and very bushy eyebrows. He turned away from the class when I walked in five minutes late. He glared at me with such menace that I was taken aback.
"Who are you?" he barked.
"Erm, Amy Eckerton," I muttered, wanting nothing more than to run from the room and skip Charms all together.
"Oh, you're that new girl, right?" the professor glanced at his desk and then looked back at me. "Another Gryffindor. Brilliant," he said flatly, "Sit down. And five points from Gryffindor for being late."
I nodded, knowing not to argue with him. Perfect, I had managed to lose points on my second day at Hogwarts. The only seat left was in the front row. I groaned inwardly and sat down in it.
The professor, whose name I soon learned was Washburn, only got worse as the class progressed. He docked points for every little thing, including staring off into space and not addressing him as 'sir'. I no longer felt as bad about losing five points for being late. Gryffindor had lost nearly thirty points by the time the class was over. We shared that class with the Hufflepuffs and they had lost about twenty-five.
I was the first one out the door when the bell finally rang. I walked with the rest of the Gryffindors (who were all complaining loudly about Washburn) to our next class, which was Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Defense has never been my strong suit. I'm rubbish at dueling and if I was ever in a fight, it would be better for me to just run than try and hex my attacker. I only hoped that Defense wasn't harder at Hogwarts than in Australia.
Much to my dismay, Defense class was with the Slytherins. I didn't mind Slytherins in general. Most of them didn't seem nearly as bad as they were made out to be, but Quinton Willinson drove me mad. I purposely chose a seat as far away from him as possible, even though it meant sitting in the front row.
A tall middle-aged man with rectangular shaped glasses walked in a few moments later. I was very happy to see that he was smiling. I could use with a nice teacher after having to sit through Washburn's class.
"Hello, everyone," he greeted the class, "I hope you all had a pleasant holiday. I'll just run through the attendance.
"All here," he said once he finished calling everyone's names. He had paused briefly on my name, but didn't say anything, "Now, as you all surely remember, last year's curriculum focused on dark creatures."
Last year's curriculum was dark creatures? In Australia, they teach about dark creatures in fourth year. Another thing for me to be behind on. I knew what I'd be doing this weekend. Catching up. At least I already knew a fair bit about dark creatures because of Dad's job, but there was probably some stuff I still needed to learn.
"I think it would be a good idea to review what you learned last year, so I have come up with a class project. I am going to split you up into five groups of four and each group will be assigned a creature we learned about last year. You will prepare a presentation and teach the class about your creature," the professor explained, "You will have today to prepare and the presentations will be on Thursday and next Tuesday if need be.
"I've already chosen the groups and I will not switch them, so don't bother asking. I've chosen the more advanced creatures we learned about towards the end of the year. How you choose to teach is up to you. You may use visual aids and hand-outs, if you like.
"The creatures I've chosen are the chimaera, lethifold, manticore, vampire, and werewolf."
I had been writing the instructions on a piece of parchment, but my head snapped up at the word 'werewolf'. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing that I missed the main instruction about werewolves. I wouldn't have been able to keep my mouth shut if the professor had mentioned anything bad about them. Of course, now I was going to have to listen to my classmates talk about them.
The professor began to read off the names of the groups, which resulted in a lot of groaning from the class.
"The following people will be in the werewolf group. Charisse Kebby, Monica Kramer, Quinton Willinson, and Amy Eckerton."
I stared at the professor. It hadn't even occurred to me that I could be in the werewolf group. The possibility hadn't even crossed my mind. Well, I did know more about werewolves than the other creatures, but it was still going to be very strange. I hoped my group members weren't people who disliked werewolves.
It was just my luck that Quinton Willinson was in my group. Now I was going to have to cooperate with him. But if he said anything that was anti-werewolf, I wouldn't hesitate to yell at him for it.
After the professor finished announcing the groups, everyone got up and sat with their group members. I got up and found Monica, who was sitting in the back. Quinton Willinson was near her and moved to the seat next to mine as soon as I sat down. A bored looking Slytherin girl slid into the chair next to Monica.
"Are you new here or something?" the girl, who I presumed was Charisse Kebby, asked, "I don't think I've seen you before."
"Very observant, Kebby," Monica rolled her eyes, "She moved here over the summer."
"From Australia," Willinson added.
That was odd. I didn't have to say a thing. Everyone else was telling my story for me. I wasn't sure if I liked that or not.
"Now can we just get on with it?" Monica asked impatiently as she pulled out a roll of parchment.
"Fine," Charisse muttered, "But you don't need to be so bossy."
"I don't know about you, but I want a decent grade," Monica replied icily, "So can we cut the small talk and get started?"
Bossy was certainly a good way of describing Monica. I got the feeling that she and Charisse hadn't gotten along very well in the past.
"Werewolves," Monica went on, "Do you two remember anything about them? And Amy, do you know anything about them?"
Did I know anything about werewolves? I could do the entire project myself and it would probably take less time than working together.
"Yeah," I nodded. Willinson and Charisse nodded as well.
"Good," Monica said, "Let's see, werewolves are classified as dangerous beasts by the Ministry of Magic because they pose a serious threat to witches and wizards. They thrive on biting people on every full moon in order to create more werewolves-"
"Wait, what?" I interrupted. I stared at her. Was that what the professor had taught them last year? What a load of dung. "Is that seriously what this professor taught you lot last year?"
"Well, not really," Monica replied, "But I've done a lot of research outside of class. Professor Torro doesn't really agree with all of the books I've read, though."
"What you've read is a load of dung," I said flatly.
Monica gaped at me. "Oh, really? Loads of books have been written about werewolves and a lot of them stress how dangerous werewolves are to wizards because they want to bite as many wizards as possible. Plenty of authors have written about how there needs to be tight restrictions on werewolves."
I let out a loud sigh. I was absolutely disgusted. This girl was like a miniature version of Professor Killigan. "Again, that's completely untrue. Werewolves are just wizards who happen to have a disease that turns them into a raging wolf once a month. It's a disease, just like any other disease."
Monica laughed. "A disease? Is that what they taught you down there? Maybe Australia is chummy with werewolves, but that's not how it works in Britain."
I had to try hard to stifle my laugh at that one. The irony of it! Australia being 'chummy' with werewolves? "Werewolves are treated worse than animals in Australia," I glared at her, "And that's not what they taught us. I've done my own research as well."
"So you think you're the resident werewolf expert?" Monica snapped.
I groaned. I was going to have to be careful or I'd spill Matt's secret before he even entered Hogwarts. "I never said that. All I'm saying is that werewolves aren't as bad as books make them out to be."
"How would you know?" Monica demanded.
"I just do!" I shouted.
"Will you two stop?" Charisse rolled her eyes, "I thought you wanted to do the project, Kramer, and here you are wasting time arguing with the new girl."
"Well, I would do the project except the new girl is arguing with everything I say!"
"Because what you're saying isn't true!" I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. This girl was mental.
"Look, let's just get the project done," Charisse said, "Can't you just compromise? I mean, come on, Kramer. Werewolves are only dangerous on the full moon."
"And isn't there a potion that makes them not dangerous on full moons?" Willinson asked.
"Wolfsbane," I said immediately.
"Right," Willinson said, "So if they take that, they're not as dangerous."
"Wolfsbane causes the person to no longer be dangerous to themselves or others," I explained, "But they still turn into a wolf. They're just a calm, not dangerous wolf."
"But they're still a werewolf!" Monica insisted, "And werewolves are dangerous! I am not going to do a presentation where we talk about how safe werewolves are!"
"And I am not going to do one where all we talk about is how dangerous they are, because they aren't," I folded my arms across my chest.
"Let's vote then," Monica glared at me, "Whoever agrees with me, raise your hand."
Not a single hand went into the air. I smirked at Monica. "Ha. We're doing one about how werewolves are not raging lunatics."
"Then I'm talking to Professor Torro," Monica huffed.
"He won't listen," Charisse said, "He won't switch your group."
"Then I'm doing a separate one," Monica replied.
"Who cares," Charisse muttered.
We spent the rest of the hour working on our project without Monica. I was surprised at how open Charisse and Willinson were to hearing what I had to say. Even Willinson was bearable, which truly shocked me. Both of them actually agreed that I should be the one to do most of the presenting on Thursday, which I was sort of nervous about. I was mostly nervous about what Monica was going to do. She was still in our group even though she refused to work with us, so she'd be presenting something at the same time we would be.
******
"It's just she comes in here thinking she knows everything!" someone said as they stomped loudly into the dormitory.
I had just returned from dinner and was looking through my Charms book for a good muffling charm. I was sitting on my bed with the curtains drawn. Judging by the loud obnoxious voice, Monica had just entered the room. I held my breath and listened to her rant, because I figured it was about me.
"She doesn't seem that bad," someone else with quieter footsteps said. She sounded like Victoire.
"She just totally took over my group!" Monica shouted, "Even Willinson agreed with her!"
"Willinson is a squirmy git and he's going to side with whoever he likes better," Victoire said, "I think he fancies Amy."
I shuddered at the very idea of that. Willinson did not like me that way. He was an irritating git who just happened to side with me instead of Monica.
"He fancies you, Victoire," Monica laughed.
"He can fancy me all he likes, but I'm not going out with the git," Victoire muttered.
"Back to the new girl," Monica groaned, "She just kept preaching to us about how lycanthropy is a disease. I mean, come on!"
"You know what I think about that, Mon," Victoire said in a warning tone, "I think we agreed to disagree about it. You're not going to convince me that werewolves are evil. I'm the wrong person to convince of that. You know about Teddy's dad. Hell, you know about my own dad!"
What did Victoire mean by that? My heart sped up and I strained my ears to hear Monica's response.
"Your dad is not a werewolf, Victoire," Monica sighed, "I have nothing against your dad."
"And what about Teddy's dad?" Victoire asked.
Was Teddy's dad a werewolf? Victoire was certainly hinting at that. Why else would Monica have anything against him?
"Teddy's dad is dead," Monica stated.
"I know that!" Victoire groaned, "But what if he wasn't?"
"Then I could be friends with Teddy without liking his dad," Monica muttered.
Ted's dad was a werewolf. He had to be. I leaned back against my headboard and stared at the curtains. Ted's dad, even though he was dead, had been a werewolf. Ted might actually understand my situation. He wouldn't run screaming if I told him about Matt. But I couldn't. I shook the thought from my head. There was no way I could tell anyone, even if that person's own father had been a werewolf.
Poor Ted, though. I wondered how his dad had died. Had it happened during a transformation? I couldn't imagine going through something like that. Well, I had come close twice, but Matt hadn't actually died.
"Look, I don't want to get into this again," Victoire sighed, "We agreed to disagree last year and I don't want to row about it again."
"I don't either," Monica said quietly, "But that new girl just drives me mad. She got both Willinson and Kebby to work with her instead of me."
"Well, Kebby's always hated you," Victoire pointed out, "But how are you going to do your presentation while they do theirs?"
"You'll find out," Monica said.
"Oh, Merlin," Victoire muttered.
"What?" Monica asked, "It won't be that bad."
"No, not that," Victoire sighed, "Amy's curtains are shut. She's always hanging out in here. I bet she's in there and heard everything you just said."
"I don't care," Monica said and I heard a bed creak.
I held my breath as I heard her footsteps coming over to my bed. The curtains were yanked open and I saw Monica smirking down at me. Victoire was a few feet behind her, looking a bit nervous.
"I'm sorry," Victoire said, "We didn't know you were here."
"I'm not sorry," Monica huffed.
"Good. I wouldn't accept your apology anyway," I glared at her, "And just to let you know, you drive me mad as well."
Monica shot me a dirty look and then stomped away from the bed. Victoire watched her leave and then looked back at me.
"Was Ted's dad a werewolf?" I asked quietly.
"Yes," Victoire told me, "But Ted isn't."
I nodded, even though I kind of figured that. Kendrick said there had only been one werewolf at Hogwarts and that was decades ago.
"Erm, how did he die?" I asked. I had to know if it was from a transformation. I knew there was always the possibility of a werewolf dying during a transformation, but I had only heard of it happening once or twice.
"He was killed in the Final Battle," Victoire told me, "Teddy was only a few months old."
"Final Battle?" I asked curiously. I hadn't ever heard of that before. I had to admit that I was kind of relieved he hadn't died during a transformation.
"You've never heard of the Final Battle?" Victoire looked shocked, "The war against Voldemort? Harry Potter?"
Voldemort and Harry Potter sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't remember where I'd heard them before. I shook my head. "Nope."
"Victoire!" Monica shouted from the doorway, "I thought you were going to help me with my Potions homework! Come on!"
"I'll be right there!" Victoire shouted back and then turned to me, "Go to the library and get the book called 'The Rise and Fall of Lord Voldemort' by Minerva McGonagall. Look for the name Remus Lupin. That's Teddy's dad."
I nodded and Victoire turned and ran out of the room. I sat there completely still for a few minutes. In the span of two days I had already figured out who the other werewolf who had attended Hogwarts was, and I knew his son.
Not only that, but I already had one girl who hated me and I hated her. Then there was Laney Hall, who for some odd reason liked to talk to me constantly. Throw in Quinton Willinson and I had strange acquaintances at Hogwarts. But I hadn't made a single real friend yet.
******
I was extremely nervous by the time Defense class arrived on Thursday. I still had no idea what Monica was planning on doing, but she looked very smug when I walked into class, so I took that as a bad sign.
I barely paid attention during the presentations on vampires, manticores, and lethifolds that were before mine. From what I did get, there was nothing presented that I didn't already know.
"Now we will have the werewolf presentation by Amy Eckerton, Charisse Kebby, Monica Kramer, and Quinton Willinson," Torro announced after the lethifold group sat down.
I swallowed hard and wiped my sweaty palms on my robes as I stood up. I grabbed my notes and walked up to the front of the room. Willinson and Charisse stood on either side of me but Monica stood a few meters away.
"Um, hi," I began, "We're going to talk to you about lycanthropy. Werewolves are often portrayed as monsters, but in reality, they are just like us twenty-seven days out of twenty-eight-"
"But that one day, they are raging monsters who would turn on their best friend," Monica interrupted.
I stared at her and then shuffled through my notes. What was she doing? "Yes, that is true," I went on, "But they have no control over it. Most werewolves would choose not to transform if given the choice."
"But they're not given the choice," Monica said, "So whether they'd choose to or not is not relevant."
"Yes, it is," I said a little louder, "It proves that they are not monsters, but victims of a crippling disease. If they truly were monsters, they would enjoy attacking people."
"If they weren't monsters, we wouldn't study them in this class," Monica smirked. A few people giggled.
Suddenly it hit me. She was going to refute every single thing I said. Two people could play at that game, I thought. We could debate if she wanted.
"We study them because they have the potential to be dangerous when transformed and we need to be careful," I countered.
"Potential?" Monica gaped, "Potential? They've got more than just a potential!"
"The point is, is that they should not be treated like rubbish for what happens one night out of twenty-eight," I said, "They don't choose to become werewolves. They're victims of a disease. Of a curse. Nobody is going to put restrictions on a wizard with dragon pox just because they could transmit it to another wizard. Lycanthropy is the same principle."
Monica rolled her eyes. "Dragon pox is curable. Lycanthropy is not a disease. Lycanthropes are monsters."
I glared at her. "So they should suffer just because nobody's found a cure? It's a chronic disease that can be controlled." I turned to Charisse, who was supposed to explain about Wolfsbane.
"Wolfsbane is a potion that enables a werewolf to transform safely. A werewolf under the influence of Wolfsbane will transform into a calm wolf who will not attack anyone. It enables the person to keep their mind," Charisse explained.
"But you said it doesn't work on all werewolves," Monica pointed out.
I sighed. "Yes, that's true."
"So why don't we just put more restrictions on those werewolves?" Monica smirked.
I shot her a dirty look. I could feel my heart pounding harder in my chest. She was getting worse and worse. "That would be stupid," I seethed, "Werewolves whom Wolfsbane does not work for are suffering even more than other werewolves. They endure a painful, crippling transformation every single month. They get sick every month for a few days before the full moon. After it, it takes days for them to get their strength back up."
"Yeah, it's such a shame that they suffer when they inflict their horrible curse on other people every month," Monica laughed.
She laughed. She actually laughed. Although she didn't know it, she was indirectly laughing at what my brother had to go through every month. She reminded me of Lubar. It was awful.
"You," I seethed, "Are one of the most close minded people I have ever met in my life."
"All right!" Torro announced, "That's enough. Class dismissed. We'll continue with the next group at the beginning of next class. If the werewolf group could please see me before you leave."
I sent the dirtiest look I could muster at Monica as I stomped towards Torro's desk. Willinson and Charisse stood on either side of me. Monica stood a few feet to my left.
"I think you both made your points. That was certainly an unorthodox take on my assignment," Torro said, "However, you did miss the general point of my assignment. The purpose was to present the facts about werewolves. How to identify one, what happens during a transformation, and what the characteristics of an untransformed werewolf are, and perhaps a bit about the Wolfsbane potion. Nowhere in this assignment were you instructed to debate the ethics of how werewolves are to be treated in society.
"Therefore, I am assigning a two foot essay on the characteristics of werewolves to all of you. You will hand it in at the beginning of class on Tuesday. It is not a group essay, either. You should complete it alone. Now you'd best be getting to your next class."
"Thanks a lot, Eckerton," Monica muttered.
"You were just a part of this as she was, Miss Kramer," Torro replied.
I ignored her comment and stomped back to my desk. I threw my notes into my bag and stormed out of the room. I ran all the way to Gryffindor Tower. I didn't want lunch; I wasn't hungry.
I didn't even care that Torro had assigned us an extra essay. It had been worth it. There was no way I could have stood there and let Monica insult werewolves like that. Plus, I could probably write that essay in a half hour.
I climbed the stairs to my dormitory and pulled the curtains around my bed. I laid on my stomach and screamed into my pillow. There were very few people who had gotten me as angry as Monica had. Sure, a lot of people annoyed me and I'd be the first to admit it. Vivien's friends annoyed me. Cinda's rich friends annoyed me. The girls in my year at the Australian School of Sorcery (besides Olivia) annoyed me. Kenzie's sisters annoyed me.
Monica had gone beyond the state of annoyance. She angered me in ways I didn't think possible. The only people who had ever done that were Clarence, Lubar, and Killigan and they were adults, so I didn't really argue with them.
Monica just knew the exact ways to get to me. I doubted she knew it herself and she was definitely clueless as to why, but she seemed to push all of my buttons at once. The worst part was, was that she made me want to spill Matt's secret. I had been so close to just telling the class about him. I told them what went on during his transformations with such detail that everyone was bound to know why I knew so much. I was going to have to be more careful, that was for sure. No matter how hard it was to do, I was just going to have to ignore Monica.