Chapter 4

Lily woke up at 6 o'clock the next morning and couldn't get back to sleep. She got up, dressed and then went down the spiral staircase and out of the portrait hole, heading down for an early breakfast. She was so excited about the day ahead she didn't see were she was walking and went straight into a suit of armour, which crashed to the floor with a loud bang. She picked the metal up and tried to put it back together but failed. She gave up after five minutes and set off for the Great Hall.

After many wrong turnings, and even going straight through a stair on a staircase, Lily got to the Great Hall, which was quite full by this time, and went over to were Chloe, Vicky, Lauren, Luke and Albus were sitting. She sat down next to Vicky and started gulping down Pumpkin Juice and biting through four slices of buttered toast.
"I was going to walk down with you, but when I went to your dormitory, Georgia said you had already left." Vicky laughed as her sister stared at the massive pile of pancakes. Suddenly a hooting sound filled the air.
"Yes mails here!" Albus said staring at the enchanted ceiling, which was a light blue. Owls started soaring down to their owners with bundles attached to their legs. A tawny owl came fluttering down to the Gryffindor table and landed on Vicky's shoulder. It had a large envelope attached to its leg.
"Hi, Loop." Vicky said to the owl before untying the envelope. Loop the owl jumped down onto the table, drank a bit of the Pumpkin Juice in Lily's goblet and then took off again, heading back home. Vicky opened the envelope in her hand and found 5 smaller envelopes inside. She took them out and handed them out to her family, James had joined them. All of them opened their letters and read them. When they had all finished, they swapped information but then had to stop talking because Professor McGonagall had come up the table to them, to give them their timetables. Chloe, James, Albus, Luke and Lily got theirs straight away and went straight to their first lesson, but because Lauren and Vicky were in sixth year, Professor McGonagall had to check what lessons they could do. Thankfully, both of them had passed all of their O.W.L's with all the right marks so they could do all of the subjects they needed.
Ring Ring
The bell sounded for first lesson so both girls ran off to History of Magic.

Lily entered the classroom and sat next to Georgia and Clara. She could see Holly, sitting on her own, at a desk by the window and felt a feeling of pity wash over her. Lily wondered why Holly didn't have any friends but couldn't think about it for long because Professor Flitwick had started speaking. Lily could hardly see the charms teacher, even though he was standing on a very unstable looking mountain of books, but she could here him clearly.
“Good morning everyone!” Professor Flitwick started, “Welcome to Hogwarts and the subject of Charms. Today we are going to learn how to make objects fly. We are going to be practising the wand movement. You do this,” He took out his wand and did a swift movement with it, “together with the incantation: Wingardiam Leviosa to make an object fly upwards.” He demonstrated the movement and incantation together and made Georgia's book fly up to the ceiling and then fall back onto the desk. Everyone was stunned. Professor Flitwick set them all the task of making a pencil fly and they were off, everyone trying their hardest to move their pencil. After 5 minutes no one had succeeded in making their pencil fly but Lily, Georgia and Clara had all made theirs twitch and roll away from them. Lily looked at the room mate she hadn't talked to. Holly, her face screwed up with concentration, was staring at her pencil as if sheer will would move it. Lily found that she was wondering, yet again, why the girl seemed so lonely and friendless but her thoughts were disrupted, yet again, by Professor Flitwick, who was now moving ,from desk to desk, observing everyone’s attempts. Georgia had another go and this time made the pencil fly up about an inch, hover for a second and then fall back down on top of her book. She looked at Professor Flitwick and he clapped loudly.
“Oh yes! Miss Hall has made her pencil fly. Oh I cant believe it!” He squeaked with obvious excitement.
Georgia blushed with pleasure and didn't speak until the bell went for the end of the lesson.

The three friends stood in a corner of the courtyard, underneath a tree. They started talking about the lesson before and the lessons further in the day. The Gryffindor's had Transfiguration, Herbolagy and double Potions that day and the girls couldn't wait for Herbolagy. Georgia and Clara agreed with Lily that it would be fun. Lily also told her friends her worries about Holly. Georgia seemed to think she wasn't worth worrying about but Clara sympathised.
"I totally understand. She's probably just nervous, like I was." Clara said.
"Yeah, I was thinking that. But wouldn't she just ask for some help, like you? We're her room mates. We should help." Lily said, firmly, as the bell for second lesson rang.

Once everyone was sat down, Professor McGonagall started her speech. She welcomed them all to Transfiguration and told them a few rules. She also told them what they would be learning and set them off with a task straight away. They had to transfigure a pencil into a pen. Lily found this quite easy and had succeeded in turning the pencil into a pen in 7 minutes. She noticed that Clara was struggling a bit, so she gave her a little help and looked around the classroom. As this class was just Gryffindors, it was a lot smaller than the charms class. She could see Holly, alone, at the end of the middle row. She seemed to be having a lot of difficulty with this task.
"Yes!" Lily turned around to see Clara's pencil turn into a pen and back again.
"Well done! I knew you could do it!" Lily congratulated her friend. Professor McGonagall came by and congratulated Clara as well. From the corner of her eye, Lily could see jealousy grow on Holly’s face, but she didn't say anything; she wasn't going to ruin this moment for Clara.

5 minutes before the end of the lesson, Professor McGonagall called for silence and explained their homework. They had to read chapters 1and 2 of Transfiguration for Beginners and practice turning a pencil into a pen.
"Potter, can I have a word please?" Professor McGonagall asked as the bell rang for third lesson and everyone collected their stuff and rushed outside for Herbolagy.
"Could you tell your sister that I need a date for the Quidditch trials?"
"Yeah, sure." Lily said and rushed out of the classroom to find Clara and Georgia, waiting for her.
"Did you see Holly’s face when McGonagall was praising you?" Lily turned to her friends as they walked through the vegetable patch. When both of them looked confused, Lily carried on.
"She looked really jealous. Nearly everyone in the class could do it, except her." Lily ended abruptly.
"Its probably just practice she needs." Clara said, as they entered the greenhouse.
"Yeah, that's probably it. You worry too much Lily." Georgia put in, as they crowded around a table in the middle of the room.
"Hello everyone and welcome to Herbolagy. Today we are going to be feeding and re-potting Hardep plants. It is important that you wear your dragon hide gloves all the time during this task. You must work in groups of four and work safely. If you need any help just ask. Off you go!" Professor Longbottom said, setting everyone off with a difficult task. A Ravenclaw boy came over to their desk.
"Hi, I'm Tom. Can I work with you please?" The boy asked politely.
"Of course you can." Georgia said and pushed a plant pot towards him.
They worked for 5 minutes in silence but then something happened. Lily screamed because she had just found the mouth of the plant and it was now sucking on her finger.
"Don't worry. It is perfectly natural. Just give him some food and he'll let go." Professor Sprout instructed. It took Lily, Georgia, Clara and Tom to loosen the plants grip and when they had succeeded, there was tiny teeth marks on Lily’s glove were the plant had bitten into it.

The rest of the lesson passed without any other distraction. Lily and her friends had a lot of fun feeding and re-potting the Hardep plants. When they heard the bell ring from the castle, they collect their things and walked up to the castle, for lunch, together. Once they had got to the Great Hall, Tom said goodbye to the girls and went over to the Ravenclaw table. The three friends went over to the Gryffindor table, were Vicky was waving to her sister.
"How has your morning been?" She asked as Lily, Georgia and Clara sat down and started piling their plates with sandwiches.
"Great!" Lily told her sister, "Herbolagy was so cool! We got homework from McGonagall, though. Oh, yeah, she wanted me to tell you that she needs the Quidditch trial date." She finished and took a big bit of a jam sandwich.
"Oh, right. I'll go and see her tonight. What do you have next?"
"Double Potions. I can't wait!"
"Slughorns quite nice. You do really cool stuff." Vicky told her, taking a gulp of Pumpkin Juice.
"Cool!" Lily said, excited. They ate their large lunch as quickly as they could. When they had finished, Georgia spoke,
"Vicky?"
"Yes?" The older girl asked.
"Do you have to be good at potions to get job?"
"Well," Vicky started, "it depends on what job you want to do. If you want to be an Auror or anything to do with medicine then, yes, I suppose you do. But if you just want to be part of the Ministry or have a normal job like that, then it shouldn't matter." Vicky finished.
"OK." Was all Georgia said for the rest of lunch.

The Gryffindors and Slytherins were all lined up outside the dungeon classroom were their Potions class was. The door opened and a large, old looking man walked out and invited everyone in. Once everyone was sat down, Professor Slughorn introduced himself and his subject. He told them what they would be learning that day and showed them how to set up their cauldrons. He then told them to make a colour change solution and set them off quickly. Lily and Clara set off straight away, cutting up rats’ tails and squeezing newts’ eyes, but Georgia just stood there, frozen.
"What's the matter, Georgia?" Lily asked, noticing that her friend wasn't doing anything. Georgia hesitated for a moment then,
"I don't know what to do." She whispered, looking down at her feet.
"Its OK. I'll help you." Lily walked around the table and talked Georgia through the task.

After 10 minutes, all three of them had completed their solutions and had tested them on themselves. Lily had a yellow eye, Clara had indigo hair and Georgia had light blue lips. They started laughed loudly when they saw themselves and couldn't stop until Professor Slughorn came over to see what the fuss was about.

In the second half of the lesson they were expected to make a growth potion. Georgia felt a lot more confidant about this one and finished before Lily and Clara. Once all three had succeeded in growing their glass phials, Lily looked around the dungeon for the first time. It was quite large and bare with only a few shelves on the walls. There were 5 tables with four spaces around them. The Slytherin boy's and girl's were all on different tables and the Gryffindor boys were together but Holly was on the table near the door, on her own. Again, Lily felt a surge of pity for the girl and felt she had to do something about. She had resolved to tell Vicky her worries the next day and not to dwell on it to much before hand. She tore her eyes away from the girl in the corner when Professor Slughorn came round to check the potions and phials.
"Well done girls! I'm very pleased with your work today. Let see... Well, there are three of you and you've done two tasks so let's say 60 points to Gryffindor!" Slughorn said, evidently pleased.
"Thank you sir!" The girls gushed, overwhelmed. They smiled at each other and Lily knew that they were going to be best friends.