Frozen Lily

Chapter 4 - Freakin' wand sheaths

The first day of lessons is a Tuesday. I woke up only three minutes ago due to Mia shaking me awake to a crappy chorus of some muggle song about rain. Having showered and dressed, I stood around waiting for Mia to finish plaiting her fringe (or what she calls a fringe, I call it a few locks of hair pushed behind her ear for convenience's sake. Yet she still looks like a freaking model, it's so unfair).

Eventually Mia pins her fringe into place and checks her watch. "8:23, record time. I've been trying to get that plait right for ages and luckily now we have enough time to leave our bags here, get to breakfast, get our timetables and come back for our bags later." I say nothing but straighten my skirt, suddenly worrying what people - namely a certain drool-worthy blonde Slytherin - would think. I should've done my hair up somehow, like Mia. I pull a pocket hairbrush from one of my robe pockets and hurriedly brush my hair as Mia pulls me out of the common room and down the stairs to the Great Hall. I stow away my brush just outside the doors, to Mia's impatient sighs. "You look fine Lily, come on..." I nod and follow her confident strides to our usual seats at the Gryffindor table and take a seat. "Morning Sir Nicholas!" I say brightly as he comes floating along near us.
"Good morning, Miss Monroe!" He replies, continuing to pass by. I pull the dish of scrambled eggs closer and spoon some onto my plate. "Mia, when do you think the next- "

My sentence is cut off by a loud squeal coming from somewhere in front of me. I crane my neck ever-so-slightly (benefits of being taller than most people in my year) and see Meredith giggling manically with an open brown package on the Slytherin table in front of her. I almost forgot that the mail was coming, and I immediately looked up to see if the plump chestnut family owl, Ibbins, was anywhere in sight. She wasn't, so instead (like many others) I turned back to Meredith.

It becomes clear almost seconds after when her friends, Vera and Tori, say almost in perfect unison "A goblin-made wand sheath, wow Mer!"
I bet she made them say that. "Rehearsed much?" I mutter to Mia out of the corner of my mouth.

"Who even uses a wand sheath, probably only the oldest, poshest wizard blokes who can't be bothered to put their wands in their pockets like normal people," Mia agreed.

When Professor Longbottom, our Head of House, came down the table to us, he checked over our list of NEWT subjects and gave us our timetables. I nodded in thanks once he gave me my timetable, and Mia craned her neck to look over my shoulder at mine. "Why on earth you are taking Care of Magical Creatures I will never know... Oooh I wish I was taking Herbology this year, you've got Longbottom..." She said wistfully, sighing at his retreating figure. I glanced at her timetable.
"Not bad, we've got pretty much the same subjects except you've got Charms and Defence against the Dark Arts instead of Care of Magical Creatures and Herbology,"

I was taking Transfiguration, Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology and Potions. Everything I needed for when I left school and got a job at St Mungos as a Healer. I'd wanted to be a Healer since I was 5, after Miley and Riley ripped the head off of my favourite red stuffed dragon which they were fighting over. They were only a few months old at the time but they had the strength of a freaking chimpanzee or something. I tried (and failed for the most part) to keep my stuff away from them after that.  They did make me a card to say sorry though, a crumpled piece of paper with 'sorry' written on it in my mum's swirly handwriting and two different coloured scribbles beneath and on top of it. Anyway, since then I'd always wanted to heal things, after I'd seen my mother miraculously stick the head back on my beloved Teef.

We'd had time to get our bags from our dorm, just like Mia had predicted and we both went to our first lesson of Transfiguration, with the Slytherins and Professor Selwyn. Mia and I take the only seats near the back, on a desk with Lana Arboin and Ammi Kaur, an Indian Hufflepuff I worked with in Herbology last year. She smiles at me and Mia as we take out our quills etc. Lana sniffs at our lateness but nods at us anyway.
"As you all should know, you will be sitting your NEWT examinations at the end of next year..." Professor Selwyn begins his usual spiel as to how he expects the best from us. I notice a mole in the fold of his big nose and giggle quietly at Mia, who mimes counting hairs in it.
As we're sat in the row just in front of the back row, I become aware of the whisperings of a group of Slytherins behind us. Pretending to sweep my hair over my shoulder, I peek behind me at who it is, and lo and behold it's Meredith with her usual gang. I look further down the row and see Alec leaning back in his chair confidently, sitting with a few of his friends.