Hogwarts: A History [Harry Potter Fanfiction]

Chapter 8 - Confessions of a Teenage Witch

Dedicated to NamelessOne because she is so talented and yet humble. Seriously sweet girl :) 

Lily Evans was not having a good day. She was late for her morning class, there was a test that she had only been able to study for the previous night, her hair had decided to abandon all reasoning and to make matters even worse: it was Valentine’s Day. From the eyes of any old witch or wizard on the street, one would not be inclined to classify Lily as the type to despise any day, especially not a day that is centered on love or merriment. But being vry true to her personality, it wasn’t necessarily the fault of this “St. Valentine”, but more so the doing of one James Potter.

For every year since James had known Lily, he had made it a point to harass, embarrass, pester, and otherwise drive Lily to the point of insanity all in an attempt to get her to be his Valentine. She supposed, as she continued on her way for class, that being late might have been a blessing in disguise. If she were not in class on time, then she would not have to field off James’s Valentine’s invitations before the Professor arrived and by the time she was near the Great Hall, she had decided that this was a marvelous opportunity; a Godsend.

She had inadvertently slowed her pace down to a trot as she passed by the Great Hall. The four house hourglasses were standing proudly at the entrance to the school. When she looked up at them she saw, to her horror, around twenty red rubies from the Gryffindor hourglass rise up and into the top half of it. Her jaw dropped slightly into a look of both disbelief and agitation. ‘Two guesses as to who’s responsible for that’ she thought to herself before continuing on in a slightly faster and more determined pace.

When she arrived at the classroom, she was actually surprised to see that it was, for the most part a typical Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. The room had been divided into groups of four and pairs from each group were taking turns trying to perform non-verbal spells. It seemed as though both James and Sirius were using their innate magical abilities to pick on those who were not up to par. They had abandoned their group which also included Remus and Peter in favor of silently sending spells in the direction of various groups across the classroom. Remus had graciously remained with Peter, who was struggling with conjuring up his whims via brainwaves only.

At the moment, Peter’s face was scrunched up almost beyond recognition and Remus was patiently instructing him once again on the method behind non-verbal spells. “Pete, you’ve got to remember to really put yourself behind the spell. You have to feel it with your whole being and imagine the spell coming forth from within yourself.” He guided Peter along in front of him to demonstrate once again. “Watch,” he said as he focused his wand towards Peter. He paused for a second before he waved his wand and sprouted a length of vine from the tip. The vine quickly weaved over to Peter and wrapped itself along his arms and legs. Peter squirmed for a moment until Remus flicked his wand and banished the vines.

“It’s really quite simple when you get the hang of it.” Remus knelt down to retrieve the wand that Peter had dropped and gently rapped him on the shoulder with it, reminding him of the importance of never losing his wand. Peter muttered slightly under his breath, his face flushed a light pink before turning his gaze towards James and Sirius, who were now silently sending leg locking jinxes and bat bogey hexes towards their classmates and causing quite a commotion.

Professor Dalkwin stormed over to the two boys, grabbing them both by the ears. He was much shorter than them; however he made up for the vertical difference with the girth that exuded from his abdomen. He pulled them along the length of the classroom and threw them out of the door. “You seem to be able to conjure well enough; I doubt you need to stay in this classroom if that is the attitude you wish to take. Another twenty-five points from Gryffindor. I’ll see you both in detention!”