Lucy Jones 1: The beginning of a tale (HP fanfiction)

10 First Lessons

To get to the common room, they take moving stairs. If you want to enter the room, you must say a password. Which is now Caput Draconis. The painting will move and reveal an opening through the wall. It's the portrait of the fat lady.

The prefects show the first years where they'll sleep. Lucy, Hermione and the other girls walk into their room. Five four-poster beds are covered in red beddings with red curtains and a nightstand beside them. Their school trunks stand at the foot of their bed. A yellow banner hangs from the top of the bed with a Gryffindor symbol.

Lavender Brown, Parvati Patil, Fay Dunbar and Hermione Granger are the other girls in her year. Lucy puts her sleepwear on and lays her uniform on the wooden chair. She goes to lie in her bed and closes the curtains. She falls asleep immediately.

Lucy turns a lot in her sleep; she clenches her fist. She has a nightmare. She stands in a dark room and looks around. She usually isn't scared of the dark, but this room makes her uncomfortable. She starts walking around, but there is no end to the room. She feels no walls around her, and when she looks up, there is only darkness. She cannot see any stars, which makes her think she is in a room. Looking down, she realizes she doesn't stand on any flooring.

She turns around and sees a pair of eyes. They give her the chills. Someone is watching her, and they judge her. What did she do wrong?

Another pair of eyes appear. She cannot see who these eyes belong to, but more and more appear around her. They are just eyes, brown eyes, blue eyes, green eyes, ... And when she wakes up, she can still feel the guilt they caused. The anger was visible in the way they looked at her.

Lucy wakes up before the other girls, and when she leaves the room for breakfast, they are getting ready.

She starts eating a bowl of cereal, and she is almost done when Hermione arrives. 'Good morning.'

'Hey, do you want some orange juice?' Lucy asks Hermione, and when she nods, she fills a glass. The tables fill up while Lucy and Hermione chat and eat breakfast. Lucy takes another orange juice for herself when Harry and Ron arrive at the table.

'Hey.' Harry says: 'I'm so glad we're here; we got lost on the way.'

'McGonagall just started to hand out our schedule. We'll find out when we'll have which lessons.' Lucy tells him.

Harry nods and takes the cereal. Ron is already chewing on a sandwich: 'You sound way too happy about that.' He says between bites.

Magic turns out to be different than Lucy thought. She finds transfiguration really confusing. When they have their first defence against the dark arts class from Professor Quirrell, she finds it difficult to take him seriously. Charms is given by a professor who needs to stand on books to look over his desk. A ghost teaches them the history of magic. Most people fall asleep during this class, and paying attention is challenging. Lucy takes notes and predicts people will ask her if they can copy what she writes. There is also one lesson during the night, Astronomy. Herbology is given by Professor Sprout a few times a week and then the class that she enjoys the most. This is also the one that she is good at immediately. Most of her fellow students don't like potions, but she loves the class. Professor Snape seems to be a rigorous teacher. He is hard on most of his students, especially Harry. Snape treats her differently for some reason. He doesn't say anything to her except when she asks a direct question. She doesn't get criticized, but unlike Malfoy, she doesn't get praised either. She doesn't know if he is actually good at potions or if Snape favours him.

The first two weeks go by fast. Lucy learns a lot in the different classes and enjoys her time in the castle. She spends most of her time with Hermione. She does sit with Harry sometimes, and that means Ron as well. They're always together.

The nightmare didn't come back, but it stuck in her head. How could she forget all those eyes or the feeling it gave her? She knows it's a dream, but everything felt so real.

And then after their first flying class. Lucy learns she has no flying talent, but more importantly, she is still a coward. She hoped that she would have had more confidence by now. Malfoy was trying to ridicule Neville, and Harry stood up for him. At that moment, she thought she should have tried to do something. She knew she wouldn't have done anything back at the orphanage because she knew who would laugh at her, but here? She has friends.