Chapter 4
"Behind Closed Doors"
Lily was having a nightmare. She dreamed she was being chased by a crowd of people, all yelling at her to leave, telling her she didn’t belong. Leading the pack was Aurora and Ariel, but Sirius was there as well. Lily was running as fast as she could, but she couldn’t outrun the crowd. They were getting closer and closer, and Lily noticed she was running toward the edge of a cliff. Lily skidded to a halt and whipped around to watch the crowd close in on her. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sounds came out. The crowd came closer and closer, now being led by Aurora. Aurora reached out and pushed Lily. She felt herself falling, further and further down …
Lily bolted up from her sleep and began panting heavily. She heard a gasp and looked over to where it had come from.
Ophelia was sitting upright in bed too. Lily had obviously surprised her. Ophelia had her hand placed on her right temple, and Lily’s glance in her direction made Ophelia jump. Lily watched the black satchel Sebastian had given Ophelia on the train fall off her lap and onto the floor.
"Are you alright?" Lily asked Ophelia, starting to feel very groggy, not able to fully assess the situation.
"I’m fine," Ophelia answered back, an obvious anxiety in her voice.
Lily was overcome with tiredness and laid back down, not bothering to ponder what Ophelia was doing up at this hour. In the back of her mind, the black satchel registered familiarity, but Lily was too exhausted to give it proper thought. In no time, Lily had fallen back asleep.
By the next morning, Lily had forgotten the incident with Ophelia the night before. Ophelia chose not to mention it to Lily either.
Instead, they chose to talk about other things over breakfast, first of all being the schedule of classes they had just received. Their first class of the day was Potions with the Ravenclaws, followed by History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs.
As they made their way down into the dungeons, Lily was overcome with a feeling of cold despair, and she soon found herself wishing the class was over, knowing it had yet to begin. They entered the Potions classroom and Lily shivered. It was a small room, lined with shelves containing strange objects floating in glass jars.
"Two to a cauldron please," the instructor said.
Lily and Ophelia decided to share, and Lily was surprised that Gabi and Sirius were sharing the cauldron on her right. Lily was sure Sirius and James would have shared. James, however, was peering into his empty cauldron, with Remus at his side.
"My name is Professor Mortar," the instructor told them, his voice low and drawn-out. "If you will excuse me for a moment, I will go fetch the supplies for today’s lesson."
As soon as he had left the room, James turned to Sirius and said, "You’re not mad at me, are you?"
"Oh no," Sirius responded. "Why should I be mad? I mean it’s not like my best friend in the whole world doesn’t have confidence in my impressive potion-making skills and deserted me for someone he thinks is more qualified. Oh no, wait …"
Sirius smirked and added, "No, James, that’s quite alright. I’m sure I’ll get over this." He took a deep breath and held his hands up to his eyes, pretending to blot away tears. "Besides, Gabi here is much better-looking than you are, anyway."
Lily smiled, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around and saw Aurora standing there.
"Hi!" Lily said warmly. "How are you doing? We’ve been worried about you. I mean, you seemed so out of it last night and we felt so bad about …"
"Yeah," Aurora interrupted, her tone unfriendly and detached. "Look, could you please move your cauldron over to the left a little, because you’re blocking my view of the chalkboard." And with that, Aurora turned and walked back to her cauldron, which she was sharing with Ariel.
Lily turned and looked at Ophelia, who shrugged her shoulders. Both girls lifted the very heavy cauldron and moved it over the left a little. Lily glanced back at Aurora to ask her if she could see now, but Aurora turned away as soon as Lily made eye contact.
"What is going on with her?" Lily whispered to Ophelia.
"It’s Ariel," Ophelia whispered back. "She does this. She likes to recruit followers and train them to be just like her. Funny, but I never thought Aurora would be one of them."
"I guess we didn’t really know her that well, though," Lily observed.
Just then, Professor Mortar reentered the room, carrying a tray of roots. He passed out a bundle to each of the pairs and took his place at the front of the room.
"What you have in front of you is called enca root. Who can tell me what it does?"
No one raised a hand.
"I see," Mortar said as he turned to a copy of the enrollment sheet and started scanning, randomly stopping on the name of his victim. The whole room held their breath.
"Mr. Black," Mortar said. "Where are you?"
Sirius raised his hand slowly and let out a muted sigh. He turned and looked at James, giving him a look that showed he was in trouble.
"Alright, Mr. Black," Mortar said. "What does the enca root do?"
"I’m not entirely sure," Sirius said, adding a "sir" as an afterthought.
"You’re not entirely sure?" Mortar asked, his voice again very low, but now even more drawn-out. "Well, did you read today’s assignment before coming to class?"
Lily panicked. They were supposed to read the assignments before class?! She looked over at Ophelia and was relieved to see Ophelia had the same look of panic in her eyes. As Lily glanced around, she noticed most of the class was sharing a similar expression.
"Um, no sir," Sirius said.
"Really?" Mortar asked, prolonging the word and sounding extremely disinterested. He turned to Gabi. "What is your name?" he asked her, picking up the enrollment list again.
"Gabriela Menendez," she answered him.
"Alright Ms. Menendez," Mortar said. "Why don’t you tell us what the enca root does." Mortar had a devious smirk on his face. Lily could tell he was relishing the fact that he was frightening the class.
"Well," Gabi began, closing her eyes and concentrating. "It allows an individual to reach a state of equilibrium, which will ensure that an identical number of particles per cubic gill of fluid will effortlessly fill both sides of the semipermeable membrane in the human brain, thus allowing the individual to be able to learn through osmosis. Of course, this is assuming you add ostramen to the enca root, because enca root by itself is useless. The potion lasts for 20 minutes and can only be taken once every 72 hours. The making of this potion was banned by the Ministry of Magic in 1754 and can now only be made with special permission by a Department Head."
Gabi opened her eyes and found the entire class open-mouthed and staring at her. Mortar, on the other hand, was glaring at her.
"Page 27 of the textbook," she added. "Five lines down."
"And five points from Gryffindor for showing off, Ms. Menendez," Mortar added.
"Oh, that’s really fair!" Gabi exclaimed. "I’m so sorry if I ruined your moment of egotistical glory there by answering your question."
"Ten points from Gryffindor," Mortar calmly told her. "Anything else to add?"
Gabi glared back at Mortar, refusing to look away. "No," she said.
"Alright then," Mortar said turning back to the enrollment list. "Mr. Marks, could you please tell me where enca root is most commonly found?"
The rest of the class continued on as such, Mortar calling on every person in the room. With the sole exception of Gabi, no one was able to answer a question. Mortar deliberately refrained from calling on her again.
When he finally announced "class dismissed," everyone breathed a sigh of relief and started packing up their things.
"Ms. Menendez, stay after class," Mortar said. "I’d like a word with you."
Gabi turned to Lily and Ophelia. "I guess I’ll meet you in History of Magic," she said.
"But you don’t know where it is," Ophelia said. "We’ll wait for you."
"No," Gabi answered her. "I don’t want you to be late. Just go. I can find it."
"She’s brave," Lily observed as they were leaving the class. "I don’t think I’d attempt to find anything around here by myself, let alone on a time crunch. And to stand up to Mortar like that, never."
"How in the world did she know all that?" Ophelia asked.
Gabi was five minutes late to History of Magic, but the instructor, Professor Binns, didn’t seem to notice, much less care. This might have had something to do with the fact that he was a ghost, but Lily couldn’t be sure.
History of Magic proved to be a very dull and uneventful class, but Lily made herself pay attention, desperately trying to copy down every word Binns was saying. Ophelia was doing the same thing.
Gabi, on the other hand, had put her head down almost as soon as she sat down. She was now sleeping soundly, a look of peaceful contentment on her face. Lily and Ophelia had to gently wake her on their way out the door, the class having ended.
As soon as they were outside the classroom door, Lily and Ophelia barraged Gabi with questions.
"What happened with Mortar?" Lily asked.
"How did you know all that stuff in Potions?" Ophelia wanted to know.
"Did you hear anything Binns said today?" Lily asked.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down," Gabi said. "One thing at a time. Mortar wanted to lecture me on the importance of respect and to warn me not to talk back again. I have what’s called a hyper-photographic memory, which means I remember every little thing that I read. That’s really not such a gift though, because most of the time my mind gets so cluttered with trivial details that I can’t concentrate."
Gabi started walking back toward the Great Hall. "And no," she added. "Did I miss anything important?"
"You really remember everything you read?" Ophelia asked. "So I take it you’ve read all our schoolbooks?"
"Yes," Gabi sighed. "I wish I could just take final exams now and go on holiday for the rest of the year."
"Wait," Lily said, taking her History of Magic book out of her bag and randomly flipping to a page. "Okay, History of Magic, page 409, three lines down."
Gabi gave them a look, but closed her eyes and obliged. "In 1281, Phineus Boshaulk founded the League of Magical Complacency, thus unifying the northern and southern Rolan tribes." She opened her eyes and asked, "Do I pass?"
Lily shut the book. "That is the most amazing thing I have ever seen!" she exclaimed. "You really could take exams right now, couldn’t you?"
Gabi shrugged. "I could probably take N.E.W.T.s right now. But then I’d miss out on the experience, or so my father says."
She walked into the Great Hall, ready to eat lunch. Lily and Ophelia followed shortly after, as soon as Ophelia had explained to Lily what N.E.W.T.s were. Gabi received a standing ovation from both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw first years, and word of the Potions lesson quickly spread to everyone else. All throughout lunch, people from all years and houses came over to the Gryffindor table to congratulate Gabi for standing up to Mortar.
"He’s the most horrible man I’ve ever met," a Hufflepuff fourth year told them. "But no one has ever had the courage to stand up to him before."
Even a handful of Slytherins came over, which was surprising, seeing as how Mortar was the Head of Slytherin House.
The last class of the day was Charms, where they again were to meet up with the Ravenclaws. Gabi had a slight scowl on her face as they entered the Charms classroom, probably due to the fact she was going to have to pay attention in this class. They had been told that charms were not the kind of thing you could learn from a book. Granted, Gabi had all the words you muttered during a charm down cold, but charms required plenty of practice using a wand. One flick of the wrist at the wrong angle could defeat a charm if you weren’t careful.
The three girls walked into the classroom and noticed most of the front row was empty. Sirius and Co. had already staked a claim in the back row, and there weren’t three seats together back there. So the girls filed into the front row, Ophelia in the middle, with Lily on her left and Gabi on her right. Soon after they sat down, the door opened again and several Ravenclaws came pouring in, led by Ariel. Lily panicked as she looked at the empty seat on her left. But luckily Ariel and Aurora took up the last two seats in the back row, and Lily was more than relieved when Trey Marks took the seat next to her. She looked at Ophelia and smiled. This was going to be a good class.
The door opened again and their instructor entered the room. He was very tall and very old, and he looked extremely cross. He also happened to be the Head of Ravenclaw House.
"My name is Professor Oberon," he introduced himself. "Charms work is very difficult, and many students fail to master its delicate intricacies. I expect some of you to fail in your early work. Hopefully you will eventually catch on."
"This is a great introduction," Ophelia leaned over and whispered to Lily. "He should be a motivational speaker."
Not only was Oberon inspirational, but he was also lively. He walked around the room very slowly, speaking in a drawn-out monotone, eyes focused on the floor. Gabi put both her elbows on the table and flopped her head into her hands.
"The first charm we are going to attempt today is the simplest charm known in the wizarding world," Oberon said. "If you haven’t mastered this by the time class lets out today, I dare say there is something wrong with you."
Lily glanced over at Ophelia, who had turned white. Oberon walked over to where they were all sitting and began walking up and down the rows, passing out buttons as he went.
"Place the buttons in front of you," he said. "Now, pull out your wands. That’s right. You are going to make the button move. Seeing as how the button is very small and inanimate, I suspect there should be no difficulty doing this. Now, who knows the words we say?"
Again, no one raised a hand. Lily glanced at Gabi, who shook her head. "I don’t want it to look like I’m showing off or anything," she whispered and kept both her hands in her lap.
Oberon sighed. "Reposa," he said. "We all say ‘reposa.’ Now, it may take you a few tries to get it because you first have to learn the wrist movements. It’s all trial and error, I dare say. Now repeat after me – re-POS-a, re-POS-a."
The class obliged.
"Good, good," Oberon said. "Now it is your turn."
Lily looked down at her button and stared at it for a moment. She heard Ophelia on her right and Trey on her left attempt the charm at the same time. Neither of them got it. Lily practiced flicking her wrist a few times, having no idea what she was really doing. Or supposed to be doing for that matter. She just thought it was fun. She flicked it to the left a little, then flicked it back to the right, until she found a movement that was fluid and comfortable. She looked at the button, raised her wand, flicked her wrist and said "reposa."
And the button moved.
Lily let out a small shriek of delight.
"Lily, you made it move!" Ophelia exclaimed. "And that was your first try too!"
Oberon came over, smiling for the first time all lesson. "Show me," he said. "Do it again."
Lily took a deep breath and stared back at the button. "Reposa," she commanded. Again, the button moved and Lily let another small shriek.
"Again," Oberon said.
Four times he asked Lily to do it again, and four times the button moved.
"Well, well," he said. "This is quite spectacular. What is your name?"
"Lily Evans," she said.
"Alright, Ms. Evans, I want you to come down here to the front of the class."
Lily’s heart dropped. Going in front of the class was the last thing she wanted to do. But seeing as how she very well couldn’t tell Oberon no, she got up and hesitantly walked to the front of the room. Oberon walked over the classroom door and opened it.
"Alright Ms. Evans," he said. "Shut the door."
Lily was a little confused. She reached out and swung the door shut with her arm.
Oberon gave her a look and opened the door back up again. "Might you try using your wand this time?" he asked.
‘Stupid,’ Lily thought to herself as the class started to giggle.
She stared at the door, concentrating. She raised her wand, flicked her wrist and said "resposa." Nothing happened.
"Excellent work, Ms. Evans," Oberon said. He noticed the confused look on Lily’s face and added, "The ‘reposa’ charm only works on very small objects like buttons. For larger objects, you need different charms, and we will conquer those later. Thank you for being my volunteer, Ms. Evans. You may take your seat."
Lily walked slowly back to her seat, feeling very foolish. She ignored the snickering coming from Ariel and Aurora and went back to charming her button. By the end of the lesson, everyone had made their button move except a Ravenclaw girl named Jolie Bean, who left the classroom in tears after Oberon dismissed them.
Lily took her time packing up her things, and she noticed Ariel was deliberately packing up slowly as well. She followed Gabi and Ophelia out of the classroom, but Ariel cut in front of her just before they went out the door. After she had stepped foot out of the room, Ariel whipped around.
"Nice job today, Lily," Ariel said sarcastically. "I truly enjoyed your door-closing skills." Ariel began to laugh.
"Would you like to see them again?" Lily asked as she reached out and slammed the door in Ariel’s face. Lily grinned to herself and started thinking how clever she was. Then it dawned on her that she was still inside the classroom, alone, and everyone else was out in the hall. She let the red drain out of her face for a second, then opened the door again. Ariel was still standing in the same place, smirking a devious smirk, and Ophelia was behind her, giving Lily a weird look.
"Excuse me," Lily said as she brushed past Ariel, bumping her out of the way. "I must be going now." Lily walked over to Ophelia and Gabi, and the three of them started walking down the hallway.
"Well," Gabi said as soon as they had rounded the corner, "I really want to tell you ‘good job,’ but you kinda fell short on the execution of that one."
"I told you," Ophelia added, "patio furniture, she’s not."
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Lily took a lot of flak for her encounter with Ariel. As soon as she walked in the Gryffindor common room after dinner, James and Sirius sprung up off the armchairs they had been sitting in and presented Lily with a dramatic interpretation of the event, acted out through the use of pantomime.
James played Ariel and Sirius was Lily. Sirius began walking toward an imaginary door when James sprung in front of him and turned around, wagging his finger in Sirius’ face. Sirius stepped back and slammed an imaginary door, a big grin on his face. He then looked left, looked right, looked up, looked down, and put his hands out, miming that he was trapped in a box.
"Oh, really funny," Lily interrupted them, heading toward the stairs leading to her room.
"We weren’t done yet," James called after her. "Don’t leave at intermission."
Lily collapsed onto her bed. ‘What a great first day,’ she thought to herself. She sat up, shook her head and started laughing. ‘I guess it was pretty funny,’ she thought.
The door to the dorm opened, and Gabi and Ophelia came in.
"Are you okay?" Ophelia asked.
"I’m fine," Lily said. "I know I’m going to look back on this and laugh one day, so at least I know I’m not going to be permanently scarred. But the next time I try to be witty and clever, I’d appreciate it if one of you stopped me."
________________________________________________________________________
Their first class the next day was Herbology, which they had with the Slytherins.
Gabi, upon waking up, announced to Lily and Ophelia that she wasn’t going to join them. "I’ll meet you in Transfiguration," she told them, turning over to go back to sleep.
"Um, Gabi," Ophelia said softly, "I don’t think that’s the way it works here. I really don’t think the classes are optional."
"Plus," Lily added, "I overheard from the Hufflepuffs, who had it yesterday, that the first class is a practical lesson." Still no stir from Gabi. "You know, not the kind of thing you can read in a book."
That did it. Gabi turned over to face them and sighed loudly. She got out of bed and told them, "You know, I really think this is going to be my least favorite class."
As they were walking out of the Great Hall after eating breakfast, Gabi turned left, while Lily and Ophelia turned right.
"Where are you going?" Gabi asked. "This is the way to the greenhouses."
"Oh," Lily said. "I, uh, think we start out in the classrooms, then go to the greenhouses."
Gabi walked over to them. "Did you lie to me about the whole ‘practical lesson’ thing?"
"I wouldn’t call it ‘lying’ per se," Lily responded. "I would call it something like saving a friend from getting into trouble on the second day of school."
"Whatever," Gabi said as she took off down the corridor toward the Herbology classroom. Lily and Ophelia smiled at each other. They both knew Gabi wasn’t really mad.
They were the last three to enter the room, and Lily was dismayed to find that there weren’t three seats together. The only remaining seats were spread out across the room. Lily took the seat next to a small boy with black hair, who quickly turned away when she sat down.
‘Odd,’ Lily thought.
The instructor entered the room and introduced herself as Professor Sprout. She told them to partner up, and Lily turned to the boy with the black hair and asked him if he’d like to be partners. He agreed, but only because there was no one else close enough to be partners with.
"I’m Lily," she introduced herself.
"Severus," the boy said curtly.
Professor Sprout came around delivering a tray filled with plants and fungi to each of the pairs. "I want you to observe each of these and make notes on them," she told them.
"So," Lily started, trying to make polite conversation, "what’s the Slytherin house like?"
"It’s fine," Severus told her and went back to analyzing a fungus.
"Okay, um," Lily said, trying to think of something else to say, "do you have any brothers or sisters who go here?"
"No."
"Did your parents go here?"
"Yes."
"Would you like me to just stop talking?"
"Please," Severus said.
"Okay," Lily whispered to herself.
They spent the rest of the lesson in total silence, each writing down their own, separate notes about the plants. Lily was more than relieved when Professor Sprout dismissed them.
"So," Gabi said, walking up to her. "That was a great practical lesson."
"It was kinda practical," Lily said as he put her book into her bag.
"There are pictures in the textbook," Gabi said. "I didn’t learn anything here that I didn’t already know, except that I don’t like this class."
Their next class was Transfiguration, taught by Professor McGonagall. Lily thoroughly enjoyed this class, even though she failed to turn her match into a needle. No one managed to do this, though, so Lily wasn’t too upset by it.
After lunch, their final class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts, again with the Slytherins. Lily, Ophelia and Gabi got lost along the way, so they got to the class just as it was supposed to be starting.
Ophelia opened the door and held it for Gabi and Lily, letting them walk in first. Lily led the way and stopped once she got inside. The room was empty.
"Are you sure we’re in the right room?" she asked.
"I thought so," Gabi started, her voice trailing off. "But apparently not."
Lily looked around the room. It was like none of the other Hogwarts classrooms that she had seen so far. To begin with, the room was circular and the walls, floor and ceiling were painted black. There were no windows in the room, and there were no candles or light fixtures either. Given this, the room was eerily light.
"I think we should go," Ophelia said, still standing in the doorway holding the door open.
"Good idea," Gabi said as she left the room. Lily did another quick scan of the room and walked out, Ophelia shutting the door behind her.
The three girls stood with their backs to the door, trying to figure out where they were supposed to be.
"Excuse me," came a voice behind them.
All three girls jumped and turned around.
"Will you be joining us today?"
Lily’s mouth dropped to the floor. Their Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor was standing in the doorway of their classroom, which now stood exactly where the round black room had been. She looked over to Ophelia and Gabi, who were both stunned.
"But …" Gabi started.
"Yes or no?" the instructor asked, a smile on his face.
Lily blinked a few times and peered past him into the room. It was a normal classroom, and all the Gryffindor and Slytherin first years were staring at them.
"Yes," Lily said as she led the way into the room. Lily took a seat next to James, who was giving her an odd look. Lily ignored it and looked straight ahead.
"As I was just saying," the instructor continued. "My name is Professor Keita. This is my first year teaching this class. I myself graduated from Hogwarts only six years ago. I hope you’ll take it easy on me this year." He gave them a smile.
Lily thought it was a refreshing change to have a pleasant teacher, and she smiled back. But for the rest of the lesson, Lily tuned Keita out. She kept looking around the room, trying to make sense of what was going on. She would try to think of logical explanations for the occurrence, but the best she could come up with involved a complicated plot of kidnapping and sleepwalking.
"Do you think we should ask someone?" Lily asked Ophelia after class.
"Like who?" Gabi interrupted. "Professor Keita? Um, excuse me Professor, but my friends and I here seem to be able to magically transport ourselves to other dimensions. Is that going to get in the way of our schoolwork?" Gabi shook her head. "I think this is something we keep to ourselves."
"Do you really think we transported ourselves to …" Lily began to ask, wide-eyed.
"No," Gabi cut her off. "I made that up."
"I know Sebastian was telling me about weird rooms in this place that magically appear and disappear, never to be seen again. I bet that’s what this was," Ophelia said.
Gabi agreed, but Lily wasn’t too sure. She didn’t tell them about her doubts, but deep inside, Lily felt there was something strange about that room. She didn’t think they had seen the last of it, but she cast the thought out of her mind and followed her friends down the hall.