What Voldemort Left Behind

Chapter 8 - Al and Lily

Albus was early to History of Magic as always and Professor Binns had begun the lecture on goblin wars. Albus found it fascinating, both he and Scorpius loved History of Magic and Albus couldn't understand what the rest of his family disliked so much. His younger sister was interested in history but she was more interested in family history, learning stories of their dead relatives which Albus often found boring and repetitive but he knew he could not say that, he didn't know how his family would react but he had a feeling his dad especially would be very upset and Albus didn't like to disappoint him. They already sensed that he was less interested than his siblings, James would always enjoy stories of the Marauders pranks even after the story had been retold fifteen times. Lily liked to hear everything from the pranks to the brave acts and even just stories about mundane everyday life. Albus was more of a fan of ancient history, GENERAL history with no mention of Potters, Weasleys, or any of the families he knew he was vaguely related to. He supposed that was why he loved the goblin wars, he was hearing names he'd never heard before, people who weren't famous but were only known by wizards who studied history. He couldn't wait to do it for NEWT and suspected that he'd be the first in his family to do so. Properly anyway, James's year had been forced to take it in 6th year due to Professor Binns taking a year out and so they had to complete their OWL a year late. Albus smiled at the memory of when his brother had realized that the subject was still compulsory for OWL if your teacher takes a year studying modern history as he was so ancient that McGonagall decided he needed a refresher. Albus however, was taking it by choice no matter how much his family tried to dissuade him. Oh well, add that to the list of "first in the family", he thought that NEWT History of Magic would not make as much of an impression as being sorted into Slytherin had already. Sadly that meant no help over school breaks with essays, but that was just more of an excuse to owl Scorp more often and arrange to meet up. That was an advantage to having a rich family, Albus had his own owl that spent more of the time at his best friend's house than at his own. Albus could also amuse himself with books, he had his own private library as he loved to immerse himself in other people's worlds, a love that his siblings definitely did NOT share. While at Hogwarts he was frequently gifted books by his Aunt Hermione, she was delighted that at least one of the kids shared her passion for reading and would owl him the most out of her nephews and nieces with books from both the wizarding and muggle worlds. Whenever he finished a book, a note would appear with a review his aunt had written and he liked these even more than the books themselves, it was nice having someone in his family who shared his interests as he often felt like the odd one out. The class arrived slowly, it seemed like the more popular you were, the slower you could be to arrive to classes at Hogwarts. Of course, Albus and Scorpius weren't, but they observed the social hierarchy as outsiders. Quite a few Ravenclaws arrived first, with some ambitious Slytherins and hardworking Hufflepuffs. Before it got too late however, all the Slytherins were seated and Binns was left waiting for most Hufflepuffs and all Gryffindors, who didn't mind making a big late entrance. Or he would have been waiting if he hadn't started the lesson five minutes before any students arrived. Albus noticed that Binns seemed a little strange today, he looked like he was groggy from a long nap, apart from the fact that ghosts can't actually be tired. Albus tried to ignore that and listened to the lecture attentively, while some of his classmates raced enchanted paper airplanes across the ceiling. He couldn't understand how they got so bored so quickly, he'd only been there for eight minutes and they'd arrived about thirty seconds ago. They jumped with a start as someone knocked on the classroom door, a bright blue paper plane began to fall and unfold itself into undone homework, while a neon green one ripped itself to shreds, showering them all with confetti.

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Lily and Hugo arrived to Muggle Studies, compulsory for first and second years, just in time as they were down visiting Hagrid since Herbology ended half an hour earlier than usual. Professor Longbottom had received an owl and explained to the class that they would have an extra break today as he had an urgent matter to attend to and the whole class were ecstatic and so was Lily but she was also confused. This didn't usually happen so she went to the place where mysteries were most easily solved. Hagrid was usually easy to wheedle information out of and he had a particular soft spot for Lily and her brothers and cousins. Sadly today Hagrid didn't give any indication that today was in any way a special or unique day so Lily was forced to conclude that maybe the plants in Greenhouse 5 needed urgent watering. Until Professor Creevey who was always early, was more than five minutes late which again raised her suspicions that something was up. Lily enjoyed Muggle Studies, she was quite good at it because her dad had grown up living with Muggles and would always explain to her how things worked and tell her of the importance of knowing about the Muggle world, although his knowledge was sometimes slightly out of date, unlike Aunt Hermione.
Lily had been to the Muggle World quite a few times, particularly with her Aunt and cousins. Her favorite thing about the Muggle world was the TV, they had one at Aunt Hermione's and it was great fun, she particularly liked Disney films and begged her parents to take her to Disneyland. When James found out about rollercoasters, he was fascinated and joined her persuading. Albus wasn't too fussed but had realized that if the four of them went away, he could stay with the Malfoys, so he was always keen to drop a few Disney hints. Lily enjoyed Muggle Studies.
The teacher Professor Creevey, Dennis she thought his name was, Lily knew had spoken out against her father and Albus Dumbledore after the war, claiming that they had worked too much for the greater good and could have saved more lives, particularly those of underage students. His older brother had been killed in the final battle and Lily had heard that some family members of those who had died resented her father and she felt so bad for him, it was obvious to her that he felt guilty and responsible for all of the deaths or injuries in the war, which she knew he shouldn't because it was all Voldemort's fault. Professor Creevey had previously worked in the Ministry with Amos Diggory, another opposer of her father, who was also the father of Cedric Diggory.
Lily was nervous when she heard he would be her teacher but she didn't share her fears with anyone, she was conscious of the fact that she knew more information about adults in the Wizarding world than her parents would like. She knew that she was much more perceptive than most children her age, throughout her life she had listened closely to stories from anyone who would tell her. Luckily, she had nothing to be worried about, Professor Creevey was a kind teacher who didn't share his political beliefs with his students and if anything, favoured Lily for her knowledge of his subject.
Hugo nudged her.
"Listen" he hissed, "Creevey's asking for you!" She glanced up and while she was in her daydream, their professor had entered the room. "Lily, would you mind talking to me outside for a second? Class, while I'm gone could you turn to page sixty in the textbook and work in pairs to write any information you already know about electricity?"

Lily followed her teacher outside, trying to remember if she'd pulled any pranks recently and which ones she'd get in the worst trouble for.