Jane Fizzle and the Philosophers Stone

Chapter 9

    "Wait, can you tell me who's all in the MMMM's?" Jane asks when she pulls her robe on, her Slytherin badge newly sewn into it.

    "Yeah," Scarlett nods. "It's confusing to those who are new or don't know them. The Marrow family has Jade, Flynn, and Issac. Jade is in Ravenclaw and is in his fourth year here. He has black long hair, green eyes, and nerd glasses. I'll point him out when we see him.

    "Then the Miller family has Edwin and Irine, the two twins, both in Gryffindor. They both have red hair and blue eyes, but Irine's hair is crazy. They're in their third year. Then they have Mason, who is in fifth year and is in Slytherin. He has brown hair above his ears, and brown eyes. We might see him at breakfast, I don't know. The youngest in the Miller family is Randy, who you already met. He's in second year if you're wondering.

    "Azrael Minerva is the only child in his whole family, which is kinda sad. He almost died at birth though, so that's cool. Then the last two are the Munich's, which are James and Mickey, which you both met yesterday. James is in fifth year and Mickey is in his third."

    "Why are they called the MMMM's?" Rachel asks.

    "There's four M names within their family, so when talking about more than two or all of them, people say the MMMM's. It's just easier. Oh, and they also have an older son in the Munich family named Noah, but he graduated two years ago," Scarlett shrugs.

    "None of them are in Hufflepuff?" Avery asks, brushing her hair.

    "No, but he was in Gryffindor."

    "I was thinking about being in Hufflepuff, but I wanted to have real friends," Rachel explains, shuffling her shoes on.

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    "There, look."

    "Where?"

    "Next to the tall kid with the dark hair."

    "The one next to the one wearing glasses?"

    "No, that's Randy Miller and William Cipher, I'm talking about the ones a little behind them."

    "Did you see her neck?"

    "Did you see her scar?"

    Whispers follow Jane from the moment she leaves her dormitory. People lining up outside classrooms stand on tiptoes to get a look at her, or take a double look at her when they pass her in the corridors, just staring. Jane wishes they wouldn't, because she's trying to concentrate on finding her way to classes.

    There are a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump. Then there are doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot. The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Jane is 70% sure that the coats of armor can walk.

    The ghosts don't help, either. It's always a nasty shock when one of them gildes suddenly through a door you were trying to open. Nearly Headless Nick is always happy to point new students in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist is worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He drops wastepaper baskets on your head, pulls rugs from under your feet, pelts you with bits of chalk, or sneaks up behind you, invisible, grabs your nose, and screeches, "GOT YOUR CONK!" He did that to Scarlett on the way to breakfast, and let's say that's the last time he would do so in a while.