The Blessed One

Chapter Twenty~ The Sow

As I walked through the empty corridors of Hogwarts, my mind began to wander to way of which I could prove James wrong. My first thought was to confront him, and demand what the hell his problem was with me, but my mind flashed back to what he had said in the Great hall.
I've waited years to come to Hogwarts, just so I can get away from you!
Had he really thought this? Had our friendship all been a lie? I remembered all of our wonderful childhood memories, memories that I have now learned, are fake. My eyes were watering, blurring my vision as I stumbled up the moving staircases to the Gryffindor tower. I was so thankful that the corridors were empty, I didn't want anyone to see just how bad James' words had effected me.
Once I made it to the fat lady's portrait, I gave a little sniffle, and wiped my tears with the back of my hand, and whispered her the password.
She didn't confront me about where I had been like I expected her to, she just gave me a sad smile, and let me in to the common room.
As I walked past, I noticed a figure sleeping on the couch. Curiously, I went over to see who it was. It was Lily! I wondered what she was doing down here, so, to wake her up I sucked in a breath and blew air directly into her ear. She shot up, and shrieked holding her ear.
"Merlin, Rose! You just about gave me a heart attack!" She scolded. Suddenly her expression changed, and she rounded on me, whispering furiously -so that we wouldn't wake anyone else up this early- demanding where I was, and how I wont ever do it again if I know what's good for me.
"Sorry, Lils." I mumbled, "I was just a bit upset, that's all."
Her face softened, and she pulled me into a tight hug.
"No, I'm sorry for having a go at you." She said sincerely, "I was just worried about you. You're my best friend, so it's my job to be your shoulder to cry on, and to beat up the ones who put you there!" She grinned, and we both burst out laughing. "Merlin, you stink, Rose! What've you been doing all night?" She asked, still grinning.
"Nothing, just thinking." I shrugged it off. I didn't want Lily to know that is taken James' hurtful words to heart.
"Come on then," she said, beginning to usher me up the stairs, "we better start getting ready.

Once I was dressed and washed, Lily and I headed down the stairs to go to breakfast.
The walk to the great hall was... Interesting. As we passed people, we heard a lot of whispers.
"Just ignore it." Lily muttered.
I nodded, and we strode confidently into the great hall.
What happened, was not what I expected.
Remus and Sirius ran over to us, and crushed me in a hug.
"James is a prat." Sirius mumbled in my ear, with Remus nodding in agreement.
"Don't listen to him, Rose." He said. I looked over at the table from where they had come from, and saw James scowling at his toast, whilst Peter was laughing manically, I presumed he was attempting to make James laugh. It clearly wasn't going very well from the look on James' face.
"Thanks guys." I whispered back into the hug. "But, even though he was rude, I don't want him to lose his friends for it. Go and sit with him. Me and Lily we're going to eat with Meda and Sev anyway."
They nodded in understanding. In a sort of thank you, as I knew they weren't particularly fond of the Slytherins, although they didn't openly hate in them like James had. We waved goodbye, and while Sirius and Remus headed back over to James and Peter, we wandered over to the Slytherin table, and sat down with Sev, Meda, Lucius and Narcissa.
"Rose! Lily!" smiled Lucius as we sat down.
They all gave us a welcoming smile.
"How are you this morning?" Asked Narcissa.
"Good thank you, you?" I replied, as Lily gave a thumbs up.
As Lucius and Cissy began talking about all the homework they've been getting, Lily, Sev, Meda and I started comparing our favourite Quidditch teams, and who would most likely win the next match.
"It's soooooo obvious the Cannons are going to win!" Meda said passionately.
"No way!" I laughed, "they have nothing on the Harpies!"
She scoffed loudly, but before she had the chance to retaliate, Lily interrupted her saying, "It's nearly time for charms, Ro."
We grabbed our books, waved goodbye and headed to Professor Flitwick's classroom.

"Good Morning, Class!" He squeaked excitedly, as Lily and I sat down at the spare desk at the back of the classroom. "Today, we are learning the levitation charm!"
The class broke out in mumbles of excitement as the professor began writing the charm on the board.
"Wingardium Leviosa." He said clearly, flourishing his wand, and the feather which he had previously placed on his desk, began to float slowly upwards towards the ceiling. Everyone began to applaud in awe, as the professor bowed bashfully.
He then instructed us to attempt the charm ourselves. "Now class, don't forget the swish and flick!" He chirped.
I had used this charm once before, when James and I were pranking our fathers. Let's just say levitating a barrel of milk is a lot more difficult than it sounds...
"Wingardium Leviosa!" I said, giving my wand a 'swish and flick' as Professor Flitwick had instructed, and I was proud to see that my feather lifted itself off the desk, and floated just as the professors had.
"Well done, Miss Heartweather!" He exclaimed, clapping excitedly.
I smiled as Lily gave me a beaming smile, and attempted the charm herself. I cheered as her heather soared into the air and promptly began to follow mine around the room. We laughed as we began to race our feathers round the room.
"Well done, girls!" Flitwick applauded. "I don't think I've ever seen someone master this charm so quickly!"
I gave Lily a victory high five.
The lesson drew to a close, so we began packing our bags and headed to our next lesson, Transfiguration.
We arrived promptly, and claimed the desk at the front of the classroom where we would have the best view of the lesson. Me and Lily were happily discussing our success in charms when it happened.
James, Sirius and Remus strode into the classroom confidently with little Peter scurrying behind them, and James was loudly declaring his thoughts on my success in the previous lesson. It seemed I wasn't the only one who remembered my struggle with the barrel.
"I don't know how she did it!" He exclaimed, "she's bloody awful at spells. The last time she used that spell she dropped a barrel of milk down the stairs! She's useless! I bet she looked at the lesson plan to make herself seem amazing at spells when she clearly doesn't even have half as much power as me!" He boasted. Peter laughed loudly, agreeing profusely with James, sending a glare in my direction. Remus and Sirius, however cast a concerned glance at me as Lily took my hand and began whispering ways of humiliating James in my ear to cheer me up. The most she got out of me however was a light hearted chuckle.
Minnie then chose that moment to grace us with her presence. The class quickly shut up, as no one wants to get on the bad side of Minnie.
"Today," she announced, "you will be learning how to transfigure beetles into buttons..."
After James ranting at the beginning of the lesson, I want in the best mood to be concentrating on Minnie's lesson, and I began thinking again about what he said in the hall...
I've waited years to come to Hogwarts, just so I can get away from you!
What had I don't to make James hate me so much? Had he always hated me? Had our whole friendship been a complete lie? Maybe he was only friends with me because he had to be...
James and I had grown up in a very remote area of the Scottish countryside in a large castle with a farm that our families shared, and there weren't any villages or towns near us, only single cottages scattered around, and even then they were a good ten miles away. that was the closest thing we had for neighbours, and they were terrible snobby and stuck up. Maybe he was only friends with me because there wasn't anyone to be friends with...
I was snapped out of my thoughts by a scrunched up ball of paper hitting me in the back of my head. I picked it up from where it had landed, and opened it up. Scribbled on the paper was a sketch of me sitting on my broom on the Quidditch pitch getting clonked on the back of my head by a beaters bat and falling offs broom whilst the stands erupted in laughter. I scrunched it back into a ball and shoved it back into my bag, planning to dispose of it later.
By the time I tunes back into the lesson Minnie had already bang handing out the match sticks, and people were beginning to wave their wands at them and shout incantations. I quietly asked Lily for the name of the spell, and she whispered it back softly, so that Minnie wouldn't notice that I hadn't been listening at all.
Whilst I was absent-mindedly muttering the incantation and waving my wand at the matchstick, my mind was still on James's words.nothing happened for my first few attempts, but in my fourth try, I must have don't something differently, because there was a loud bang, and the desk in front of us began to shudder violently. Lily and I leapt from our seats, and stood a considerable distance away from the shuddering and now smoking desk. We had now drawn the attention of the whole class, and the desk transfigured into a winged sow. The whole class was speechless, including Minnie, whose jaw dropped so low it was almost comical.
Almost.
The sow was very still for a few seconds, but as the class took a tentative step towards her, she gave an almighty reet, and began to terrorise the classroom. The students, now seemingly brought out of their shock, began running around screaming along with the sow. I wasn't sure who was more terrified, the students or the sow.
Once the room was fully destroyed, the sow gave a final reet, and dove through the window, effectively shattering the glass with her trotters and was soon flapping her little wings into the distance.