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Author: Caitlyn Story: Letters From Home Rating: Young Teens Setting: Pre-OotP Status: WIP Reviews: 0 Words: 59,746
Dear Daddy and Mum, Today was the first day of classes and everything went really well. I like everything okay, especially Herbology. Defense Against the Dark Arts might be interesting, but I'm not sure yet. Professor Lupin was the only professor that didn't hold a real class today. We spent the time with this ‘Getting to know you' type thing, which was nice since it was our first class all together. Meghan and I don't know any of the kids in our year in our house, sometimes I wish Uncle Percy wouldn't make us have private tutors before Hogwarts. Do you suppose Jamesy can go to real school after he finishes nursery school with Mum next year? I guess Professor Lupin did the introduction thing because he also didn't want students to be frightened of him. There were some girls talking about him being a Werewolf just before class, and I suppose it's better for them to know the truth about everything before they get it all wrong. (Which they already had…) Even though it's no one's business, I think he did the best he could. Everyone really seems to like him. I knew he'd be a good teacher! Meghan and I made friends with this boy who sits at the desk next to us in Transfiguration. He's really nice, but he confuses us a lot. Meghan is extremely curious as to how his mother could "Stop being a witch." His name is Finnigan Bell, and none of the other students know him either. I think he's a tad overwhelmed by everything, and maybe he'll get it all sorted out in a week or so. I know I need a week or so to get everything sorted out, and I actually KNEW that Hogwarts existed. I don't think I have any sense of direction anymore…. I found the library three times today when I wasn't looking for it. Three times. Then when I was looking for it, I couldn't find it. I don't think that's very resourceful of it at all… ~*~ Harry grinned as he finished the rest of the letter. Cheery news was what he wanted. That was more like Chloe. There was not a single line in the letter talking about Aidan Malfoy, and he knew that meant Chloe was simply ignoring him. Her account of her first classes was quite amusing, and Harry took particular delight in the line that said, "If anyone had any brains at all, they'd make a map of this school." If she only knew, he thought. He most certainly would not be giving Chloe the Marauder's Map. Chloe and Meghan managed to get themselves into messes without assistance. There was no need to encourage what would inevitably turn out to be mayhem and pandemonium, much less, give them tools to start such things. Harry was all for practical jokes, but quite frankly, he was not all for the wrath of Hermione, who had promised to have his head on a platter if he so much as let any of his children see the map. "What do you think?" Ginny asked holding up a foam letter K. "Does this K make you want to learn your alphabet?" Harry rolled up the parchment. "I suppose so, even though I do know my alphabet…." "Good." "Say, did you ever teach a Finnigan Bell?" Harry asked furrowing his brow, hoping to jumpstart his memory. "Doesn't the name sound familiar?" Ginny paused in her cutting. "Hmm. I don't think so…but yes, Finnigan Bell does sound very familiar." Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thud. Ginny lifted her eyebrows, and she and Harry looked at each other. Several loud thumps and a period of silence when one has small children is never a welcomed thing. Sure enough, a long mournful wail followed. Harry and Ginny got up from their spots on the floor and hurried to the foyer. "I hope that wasn't a house-elf in a bag going down the stairs," Harry muttered. "You know James wouldn't do that!" Ginny sounded horrified, and she quickened her pace. "Well, that's what it sounded it like," Harry said truthfully. Ginny was about to ask him how would he know, when they saw a heap of clothes at the bottom of the stair landing. A wailing heap of clothes. "Oh no," Ginny said running to the clothes and frantically pulling them away. Harry dodged a shoe she threw over her shoulder. "James, James, are you all right?" James unearthed himself from the pile and scooted into Ginny's lap. "I was just playing dress-up!" he said clinging to her as she checked him for bumps and bruises and all his limbs. Harry now took notice of James' attire. The boy had to be wearing at least five sets of robes at once…plus a winter cloak, gloves, scarf, and hat. It seemed that he had been trying to carry the rest of his clothes downstairs when he'd tripped on some of them. "The idea," Harry said patiently, "is to dress up as one thing at a time." Ginny plucked a sock hanging from the railing. "You know the rules about the stairs, James Albus. You could have been hurt." "Chloe's home!" James proclaimed happily, obviously getting over his tumble. Harry looked warily at the pile of clothes. Surely not…. "What have we told you about tel—" "It's not a falsehood!" James interrupted Ginny. "She's right there by Daddy! Makin' faces at him too." That did sound like something Chloe would do, but Harry was positive there was no one standing by him. "James," he began. But Ginny suddenly looked enlightened and hushed Harry. "Why, there she is! Isn't she hungry for supper, James?" James thought this over and unwrapped his scarf. "No. But she says she supposes she could do with some cherry ice cream. With jimmies. Extra ones." "Chloe doesn't like cherry ice cream," Harry said, crossing his arms. "Today she does!" James said smiling at him happily. "She told me." Harry was about to protest this obvious attempt at getting an extra dessert, but Ginny appeared to want to humor James. "Okay, darling. You and Chloe go sit in the kitchen, and Mummy will be right there to get the ice cream." "Yay!" James said scampering off, tripping on the corner of one of his robes and then running off again. "Oh, come on," Harry said when James was out of earshot. "That was the biggest con ever, and you just went along with it." Ginny was collecting articles of clothing on the steps. "No. You're going to go along with it too. It's good for him." "This ought to be a fascinating explanation of how trickery is good for him…." "He's not trying to trick us," Ginny said, folding robes and stacking them in Harry's arms. "He's made an imaginary friend. It's perfectly normal for children his age. His way of dealing with Chloe going away is just to imagine that she never went away. This is a good thing." "Don't tell me we have to pretend Chloe is really there," Harry sighed. "I just know I'm going to sit on her…." "We're going to pretend as long as James pretends she's there. He'll tire of it eventually. But, you know…there is a way to speed up the process." "I'm all ears," Harry said. "We get him a sort of replacement friend." Harry snorted with laughter. "Does this mean we're going to have another baby? I'm not seeing how that's speedy." "Not a baby, Harry," Ginny bopped him playfully on the back of the head. "A companion. Something little boys simply adore." "Dirt?" Harry guessed. "No, wait…." "Would you cut it out?" Ginny laughed. "I'm talking about a four legged friend." "Oh no!" Harry protested loudly. "No, no, and no!" "Harry! There's nothing wrong with owning a small puppy." "No! Wizards don't even have dogs. Why can't we get James a toad or something non-furry, non-biting, and non-stupid." "Harry, you are prejudiced against dogs! Just because you don't like them doesn't mean that James wouldn't love a puppy." "Chloe didn't get one! She doesn't like dogs either!" "James isn't Chloe. And if I remember correctly, Chloe got a pony. You had stables built for that pony and other horses! A dog doesn't need a stable." "Horses are useful! They're very noble creatures, and Chloe learned a lot of responsibility taking care of hers. Not every child knows how to ride a horse…." "Dogs are noble! You know James is scared of the horses right now! He's not old enough to enjoy them!" "Ginny, I despise dogs. They're slobbery yappy little scraps of fur. I still can't even put a finger on why you want a dog. Aren't you a witch? I've never heard of any wizarding family having a dog." "I bet the Dursleys had a dog, and it bit you," Ginny guessed with a smirk. "You're completely biased because of them." "They most certainly did not," Harry retorted. "You just want to get a dog because you never had one. You don't need a dog. We have Sirius." "Then it was your aunt!" Ginny crowed. "Your Aunt Marge!" Harry took a deep impatient breath and let it out in a sigh. "That has nothing to do with me disliking dogs. And besides she's not my AUNT!" "Ah ha!" Ginny pointed a finger at him. "I knew it! All I had to do was dig deep enough! That's why you hate dogs! Just wait until I tell Sirius!" "The answer is still no!" "Fine," Ginny said, still looking at him with a triumphant, smug look. "We'll see how long it takes you to come around." "We're going to be pretending Chloe is there for awhile," Harry concluded stubbornly. He climbed the stairs to James' room to put away the clothes, sour that Ginny had worked out that one of his relatives had had dogs. "Better stock up on the ice cream," Ginny smiled, heading for the kitchen. ~*~ Chloe deposited her book satchel on one of the front double desks. Meghan groaned. "The front, Chlo?" Chloe nodded, took Meghan's bag and set it next to hers. Calixta and Posy were already seated in the row behind them. At least, Chloe thought it was Calixta. She had been so distracted last night, that she barely remembered the girls in her dormitory. She was almost positive that it was Calixta, though, since she vaguely remembered Calixta having the bed across from hers. "Oh, I hope Professor Lupin is nice," Posy said nibbling her thumbnail nervously. "He's that gray haired man that's the head of our house, right? My dumb brothers didn't tell me anything useful about the teachers." The door banged open before any of the girls could reply, and three boys walked in, peering around keenly, shoelaces flapping. "'Lo," said the biggest boy on the way to the seats furthest in the back. The girls nodded as they past by and resumed their conversation. "My cousin told me a bit about him," Calixta said, pushing her coal black hair away from her face. She had the exact hair that Chloe had wished she had millions of times, rather than boring brown. "Gil says he only taught for one year, and left right before he had to go to Hogwarts and have him. Know why?" Posy shook her head, and Meghan and Chloe looked at one another uneasily. Calixta leaned in to share her knowledge in just above a low whisper. "He's a Werewolf." Posy sat back in surprise. "No! He is? He looks so…." "Normal," Chloe finished. She was biting her tongue to withhold the fact that the Professor was her uncle and there was absolutely nothing wrong with him. Divulging information of her relation to Professor Lupin was definitely not a good idea. She and Meghan were very touchy with information regarding family matters and were quite good at keeping their ties to certain family members a secret for a while. "Well, he's human when he wants to be," Calixta shrugged. "So of course he looks normal. My brother told me that Werewolves can transform at will and it sometimes happens whenever they get really mad…." "Well, that isn't true." "How do you know, Meghan?" Calixta was annoyed at being interrupted and her validity questioned. "She knows, because," Chloe spoke up before Meghan could tell Calixta exactly why she knew and how much she did not appreciate her family members insulted thank-you-very-much, "because, well, she just does." "Hmph," said Calixta, casting a suspicious eye on Chloe and Meghan. The door creaked open and the last Gryffindor first year girl, Gloria, poked her head in. Posy waved at her, and Gloria hurried into the room, taking a seat with one of the three boys. "We're missing two," Posy said, after a quick head count. "Does anyone know their names?" "Finnigan," Chloe said immediately. "Finnigan Bell." "And that blonde boy. The one who ate by himself last night," Posy remembered. "I've never met him before. He might be Muggle-born. Do either of you know him?" With Posy's words, Chloe lit upon a solution so simple, she wondered why she hadn't thought of it until now. "Never heard of him in my life," she proclaimed with a meaningful glance in Meghan's direction. Yes, Chloe thought. That was good. They could simply pretend nothing had happened. Of course no one knew who he was. The Malfoys hadn't been in the news for six years. Why would anyone remember anything in the news when they had been five-years old? Aidan had probably attended a private school or had a tutor. Meghan's jaw had dropped but she corrected the problem before Calixta and Posy looked her way. And speaking of… Aidan Malfoy walked—no—slinked quietly into the room, just like a prowling cat. Chloe wouldn't have noticed him enter if she hadn't been waiting for him to enter the classroom. Then much to Chloe's horror, he seated himself in the other double desk at the front of the room and then stared at her, as if waiting for her to voice some sort of objection. Chloe snapped her head in the other direction indignantly after glaring right back at him. "Morning!" Posy said, completely oblivious to the situation. Chloe half expected Aidan to pounce on her for addressing him. But he simply ignored Posy and opened his book satchel. Calixta and Posy shrugged at each other. Panting, Finnigan Bell hauled himself into the room, looking around for an empty seat. He spotted Meghan and Chloe and then the empty seat next to Aidan. Oh no. Chloe wanted to bury her head in her arms in sorrow for poor Finnigan. Anywhere but there. Poor, nice quiet Finnigan they had just only met, stumbling into the lion's den. Aidan would corrupt him. "This taken?" Finnigan asked politely. Aidan, who had been taking items out of his bag and setting them on his desk--Chloe had been waiting for the knife to appear--stopped and looked Finnigan over. "No," he said flatly. Finnigan smiled. "Thanks!" As he sat down, he nearly knocked over Aidan's inkwell, but he righted it just in time and patted the top of it nervously. "Finnigan Bell," he said, looking at Aidan hopefully behind the light brown wisps of fringe over his eyes. Apparently finding a burst of bravery somewhere, he also offered his hand for Aidan to shake. Trouble was, his hand was somewhere under quite a bit of robe. "Aidan." That was all Aidan said to Finnigan, and he turned away from him. Bright embarrassed spots of color appeared on Finnigan's cheeks. "'Lo again," he said hopefully to Meghan and Chloe. Chloe grinned at him. All was not lost. ~*~ After Transfiguration, the Gryffindors seemed considerably more comfortable around each other. Well, everyone except Aidan Malfoy. He hadn't said anything interesting at all when Professor Lupin had called on him to tell a bit about himself and when anyone else tried to talk to him, he simply either ignored them or busied himself with something else. The students had realized who Meghan was when Professor Lupin called the roll. ‘Weasley' appeared in the newspaper far too often for them not to recognize it. Apparently they hadn't been paying much attention to the names at the sorting. They were mildly impressed that her father was Minister of Magic and yet even more impressed that Meghan seemed annoyed about it. They had yet to put two and two together with the Potter in Chloe's name. Chloe suspected it had something to do with Potter being a more popular name than Weasley and the fact that her dad and mum were quite vicious when it came to any news about her and James. "He's a bit odd, that one," Kincaid Gallinatti commented as they all headed out to the greenhouses. He nodded towards Aidan, walking briskly ahead of everyone. Kincaid's friends, Harry Carrington and Alexander Haywood both nodded, glancing at Aidan. Chloe smiled. This was working out better than she could have ever imagined. Why, she didn't have to do anything. Aidan was the one separating himself from everyone. So far, she thought everyone else in her house was pretty nice. Kincaid and Alexander were very funny, and they only directed their teasing at Harry Carrington, the clumsy pal of their group. Harry Carrington seemed extremely trusting, but a bit of a goof. When Professor Lupin had asked them to tell something interesting about themselves, Harry Carrington had proudly announced he was named after Harry Potter. Chloe had to sharply elbow Meghan in the ribs when her giggles became quite loud. They weren't found out, simply by the good graces of Kincaid. Kincaid had guffawed and poked chubby Harry Carrington in the shoulder. "Don't you see the resemblance?" "He's got a scar, even," Alexander had added merrily. "Right on his bum when he fell on a seashell in the ocean. Want to show everyone, Har—" "Thank you, that'll be quite enough, boys," Professor Lupin had interrupted hastily. "So that was your house my family and I toured last Christmas." Calixta was eagerly pumping Meghan for information, hoping for a look at the glamorous life she supposed Meghan had. Meghan rolled her eyes. "Yeah. Dad insists on letting tour groups tromp through the house. We're not allowed to go down into that part of the house during the holidays. He doesn't want us making faces at the people taking pictures." Chloe wanted to add that doing such a thing was great fun, and she and Meghan had been punished repeatedly for it. Especially when they had the idea to dress up baby Camea as a house-elf. Uncle Percy had to pay that tourist off for the film and promise that his Hazardous Apparating ticket would be taken off his record. Meghan and Chloe had spent a great deal of time polishing doorknobs over that one and each had to write an essay about the consequences of bad behavior and how it reflected on the entire family. Finnigan Bell had begun to warm up to Chloe and Meghan, and he had asked Chloe if there really was a Minister of Magic. Chloe doubted he really realized what her Uncle did, but he'd work it out someday. Calixta could probably explain it with more gusto anyway. "I wonder which greenhouse we're supposed to go to," Chloe said squinting at the five greenhouses glinting in the early morning sun. "Is that…that…a bat?" Gloria Applewhite spoke up uncertainly and pointed. "In the middle of the morning?" A gray thing was swooping around the entrance to one of the greenhouses, diving precariously close the ground. "That is one messed up bat," Meghan said. "It's not a bat," Alexander said. "Too big." Everyone ducked and shouted as the thing flew by right on a collision course with their heads. "Ack!" Meghan shouted, crouched on the grass. "Kill that thing!" "It's coming back around," Kincaid called, pulling his thick Transfiguration book from his bag. "I'll get whatever it is." Kincaid wasn't true to his word, because he shouted and took cover with everyone else again. It looped around again, and Calixta squealed and dug her nails into Posy's arm. Chloe pulled out her wand, wondering which of the very few spells she knew would work. She definitely didn't want to use a decorating charm on it, and certainly not a mixing charm…. "It's going to dive bomb!" Harry Carrington shouted. The gray thing did dive sharply, and they all covered their heads, waiting for someone to give a shout of pain. Chloe gasped. "It's on Finnigan!" she exclaimed. Sure enough, Finnigan was quivering from head to toe, looking eye to eye with a gray parrot that was bobbing around on his shoulder. Kincaid and Alexander raised their books at Finnigan. "Just hold still, Finnigan," Alexander was saying. "This will only hurt awhile…." Finnigan gulped and he jumped along with everyone else when the parrot made a very unnatural bang sound. "It's going to peck his eyes out," Harry Carrington predicted. "Close your eyes, Finnigan." "Quit shaking," Kincaid ordered. "We're not aiming for you…" "Now wait a minute," Chloe protested. "I don't think you should smack it." "Aw, you wouldn't be saying that if it was on you," Alexander said, rolling his eyes at Chloe. "Gentleman, if you smack my parrot, I'll feed you to my Vermicious Ficus." Kincaid and Alexander dropped their books and slowly turned to face the Herbology professor along with the rest of the class. A very short witch with long straight gray hair that reached almost to her waist cleared her throat and held her arm out for the parrot to land on. Chloe studied the wrinkled, but rosy face, under a straw Muggle garden hat, tied with red, yellow, and turquoise-blue ribbon. "Good morning," she said chucking the bird fondly under his beak. The bird gave low guttural sounds of pleasure. "I see Whizbang has already introduced himself. I'm sure he just wanted to play a bit. No harm done. I'm Professor Higginbotham, your Herbology teacher. "Follow me into the greenhouse so I can have a good look at you," she ordered. "Whizbang?" Posy whispered curiously. "What sort of a name is that?" The professor looked at Posy over her shoulder. "Whizbang has a rather clever ability to mimic sounds. He prefers them over speech." Whizbang puffed his feathered breast out and made a perfect imitation of a zipper sound. "Show off," Meghan muttered. "Can't he talk?" "He talks, but he's very selective in what he mimics," Professor Higginbotham answered. Chloe noticed the professor looked rather like a parrot herself. Her extremely busy robes looked just like the colors on a parrot or myna bird and…amusingly…she took mincing little steps like a bird. The greenhouse door creaked loudly when she tugged on it, and Whizbang mimicked the creaking as the students filed into the room, sounding like a tiresome haunted house. "Whoa," Meghan murmured, stepping into the greenhouse and turning round and round. Chloe, who was too busy gaping to comment, nodded. It was the closest thing anyone could get to an enclosed rainforest. The air was thick and dewy—almost hard to breathe in— and the place smelled of warm turned earth and a mixture of so many tropical flowers that a person couldn't even begin to sort out which one exactly she was smelling. Chloe knew her father had the arboretum in Havenwood…but that was nothing compared to this. In fact, it was completely opposite. While the arboretum at Havenwood was very regularly trimmed and cropped with flowers and trees in neat rows and beds, this…this was downright wild. Plants were invading the path going through the greenhouse and vines were strung every which way. Chloe thought it was gorgeous. She also spotted at least four parrots swooping through the trees, pecking and tearing at fruit. Whizbang bobbed on the professor's shoulder, acting as if he was responsible for all of it. "Line up then, line up, let me have a good look at you. Yes, even you, the boy that hasn't had any sun… kindly join the crowd." Chloe glanced over and noticed that Professor Higginbotham was talking about Aidan. "Line up! Line up!" Whizbang repeated. "Hush," Professor Higginbotham chided. "This is my class, you nosy bird. Let me see now…." She unrolled her parchment and peered at the students, going down the line, pausing every so often in front of someone to write something. The students swallowed, as they could hear her quill scratching on the parchment. "And you," Professor Higginbotham said stopping in front of Kincaid and leaning so their eyes were inches apart. The scene would have been comical if Kincaid hadn't looked borderline petrified. "You simply have to be Kincaid Gallinatti. I never saw a boy who looked more like a Kincaid in my entire life. Hear me now, sir, you smack my birds, you'll not like what I'll do to you in retaliation. Clear?" "Clear," Kincaid replied quickly. Professor Higginbotham smiled brightly at him and bopped him on the top of the head with her wand. "Wonderful." Chloe watched a pink flamingo appear around the corner of the path and make tracks toward them. A flamingo! How was a flamingo a magical bird? Did flamingos bite? Professor Higginbotham finished her roll and started tossing garden gloves to all of them. She didn't seem upset about the bird incident anymore but very pleased with the looks of her new students. Chloe was sure she'd be an easy teacher. The flamingo was now heading towards Aidan Malfoy. Chloe now hoped flamingos bit. Maybe this particular breed of flamingo was a vicious carnivore. Aidan had noticed it, and was watching it out of the corner of his eye, but still paying attention to Professor Higginbotham's opening lecture on pruning magical plants. Chloe found it very fascinating, but the sideshow was becoming increasingly entertaining. The flamingo had begun nipping at Aidan's robes, and he kept trying to shoo the bird away without taking his attention from Professor Higginbotham. Chloe held in her giggles when the flamingo managed to latch on to the sleeve of Aidan's robes and yank viciously. She couldn't believe she was the only one who had noticed. Then again, Aidan had been standing quite a bit away from everyone else. "And while Magical Plants can often be quite temperamental about pruning, it is often a necessary commodity to further and encourage their growth. They might go through a short period of moodiness, but they'll recover in a few days to maybe a week's time." Aidan was now trying to keep the enormous bird from climbing on him. Chloe wondered why he just didn't call to the Professor for help. "Also, many pl—Pinkerton! Get off that boy immediately!" Professor Higginbotham strode over to Aidan, her multi-color robes flapping and pried the flamingo off of him. The rest of the Gryffindors turned to see what the ruckus was and roared with laughter at the sight of one of their classmates wearing a flamingo. "Quiet down, quiet down," Professor Higginbotham called over the laughter. "This brings me to my next point." They eventually quieted, and Aidan didn't even so much crack a smile to laugh at himself or acknowledge that he didn't mind them laughing at him. "Yes, my greenhouses have hundreds of birds in them…and many don't mind a bit of, ah, interaction, with students, so the best course of action is to bring the situation to my attention. I know how to handle every bird." Chloe then noticed she was holding Pinkerton upside-down by his feet. He was hanging quite placidly, swaying slightly. Unfortunately, Chloe had recently been reading Alice in Wonderland to James and she was so reminded of the Red Queen playing croquet with the Dodo birds that she burst into loud laughter in the silence. Chloe put her hand over her mouth and turned very red. It was a great relief to see that Professor Higgenbotham didn't mind her laughter after all. Author Note: Thanks to Anne for betaing this. Thanks to my history teacher last semester who lectured on the Pinkertons which gave me inspiration for the flamingo. The order of scenes might be a little confusing here, but everything we see Chloe in is what she wrote to Harry. Harry's PoV takes place after he receives the letter, so he's reading that in the evening. Disclaim: Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland still isn't mind. Bother. Title is inspired by biblical reference to ‘Daniel in the Lion's Den' Thank you for all the lovely reviews! Hope your enjoying it so far! I love feedback! Caitlyn
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