Mary Smith and The Three-Headed Dog

11. I Won't Be Kissing Cedric Diggory

"The eye?...The information you are looking for resides in the restricted where you are not welcomed nor allowed, girl. Now leave my library!"

--Madame Irma Pince

Chapter 11: I Won't Be Kissing Cedric Diggory

Hannah Abbott

Susan Bones

Justin Finch-Fletchley

Meagan Jones

Ernest Macmillan

Leanne Merrymount

Mary McGowen-Smith

Zacharias Smith

These were my housemates- NOT club members- who's names we were all forced to memorize. Professor Sprout said housemate bonding was very important.

But then they all went up to their dorms and I, deemed unfit to share a room with the other girls, was put on a cot in Professor Sprout's room. She snores.

It's been a month since I've been here at my new school and things were...different, than what I expected they would be. We took most of our classes with Ravenclaw but when Gryffindor had Transfiguration, Herbology, and Divination with us, Dean would sit with me. He sat next to me. Seamus would come too. They had become friends and I guess my only friend and my only family being friends wasn't so bad. The only thing is it seemed Seamus didn't like school very much. Or he was like me and just couldn't pay attention because he was always talking during lessons and making things explode by mistake.

I tried really hard in class. I mean, I was no Hermmy Granger- she's the really smart girl in all my Gryffndor classes. Smarter than all those snotty Ravenclaws I think. But I was really paying very close attention. Still, Professor Snape seemed to notice. I don't know how. He kept me after class and offered me witch medicine. It was a bottle of a clear syrup-like potion he said would help me focus. I think he really might be nicer than people think. He reminds me of what I always thought a real witch would look like. Dressed in all black and ill tempered. We even use cauldrons in his class! Still, I didn't want to use the potion. If it's anything like the time Mama gave me Ritalin, then I didn't want it. It helped with my focus for sure, but I couldn't really...think. I couldn't draw anything! I didn't even dream anymore. So, I only pretended to take them long enough for her to think they didn't do me any good and the medicine stopped. I accepted Professor Snape's potion and thanked him because he didn't have to get me anything at all. But I was determined to do this on my own. And if Dean or anyone found out that I needed to take medicine because I wasn't smart enough, they would laugh at me about more than my accent. So I stayed up later. Using the super cool Lumos night light spell, I could read in the dark after Professor Sprout fell asleep.

Every day, I tried hard to pay attention to all my lessons. It was definitely easier than math class- paying attention I mean- but sometimes I would catch myself thinking about home. About how jealous they would be if they found out I was here learning to turn mice into teacups. Who would need that stupid broken tea set if I could grab a rat out of the wheat field and- And then I would snap myself back and dig my nose into my book.

Every day, after class, the Hufflepuff first years would all get together and Professor Sprout would show us some new weird plant or a new spell and we couldn't leave until we got it right, We were forced to do our homework together in one of those little rooms down that hall our prefect led us down our first day. I didn't want to seem like I couldn't keep up. Ernie and Hannah caught onto things pretty quick. Ernie was especially kind. He helped me with any questions I had about potions things or witch things. He, Justin, and Hannah seemed to get along really well. Not that we didn't all get along. They were all pretty nice. I got along with the boys just as well as any of the girls did. But the girls all seemed so...close. They giggled and had inside jokes. They all slept in the same room. I slept with Professor Sprout.