academic curiosity

Lily found it a little ironic had to ask for directions to Muggle Studies.

"What?!" snapped the first person Lily happened upon in the front hall after breakfast. As she turned so her face was in the light Lily saw that she couldn´t have asked a more wrong person. A prefect (like Lily herself now), a seventh year Slytherin and a beater on that house´s Quidditch team, Sonia Otto was in Lily´s opinion just another Bellatrix. A less alluring and less pro-active version maybe, but still just as steeped in pure blood `values.´

"Yeah, never mind," Lily replied quickly.

"What are you looking for?" a tall Ravenclaw boy standing with Sonia leaned over and smiled. He then began staring at Lily´s feet.

"Muggle Studies class..." She repeated slowly and couldn´t resist giving Sonia a smiling sidelong glance.

"I think that´s below us on the first floor! One of me mates took that class last year!" he continued, still examining her shoes. He finally looked up and grinned again. "Do you need help finding it? Those books look pretty heavy... How many classes do you take anyway?"

"No, no... I can manage, thank you... Thanks!" Lily began halfway through his speech and stumbled away at the threat of them accompanying her, Sonia Otto glaring away.

Laughing quietly to herself she found that the boy´s directions weren´t too off the money.

Unlike most of her classes from last year, Muggle Studies had no queue waiting outside the door. It was propped open with a rusty car jack (which is what tipped her off that this was the right room) and inside people were milling around, chatting.

She had decided to add on an extra class to her workload last summer. Even though she had requested it before she had got the letter with the prefect badge in it, she still felt that it would be an important class to take, if for anything to gauge how the magical world viewed Muggles. This had become a top priority since the explosion last Spring that brought to light the obvious war that was being fought. She just hoped that she wouldn´t live to regret taking the added school work, what with this being O.W.L. year and all...

A slender woman with a delicate heart shaped face was seated at the front of the room next to a open window, her feet kicked up on desk, reading a Ayrshire Times.

Remus Lupin bumped into Lily as she came in.

"Oh, hi again," she said. "You take this class too?"

"Yeah, this is my first year at it, you?"

"Me too... Say, want to sit with me? That nice round table by the window is free!" she said, without waiting for him to reply she headed over and set her bag on it, so no one else would claim it.

Remus set his bag on the floor and sat opposite her. "No that one is taken!" he said apologetically to a couple of fifth year boys who had started to sit at a small table next to them.

Lily was going to ask who he was saving the table for but then the slender witch had sat up and started speaking in a surprisingly robust voice.

"Hi all... I´m the Professor of this class. My name´s Tonks. We were going to start off with telephones, but Hagrid got busy and forgot to turn off the enchantments to allow them to work in here, so instead..."

As the witch went on, Lily leaned over to Remus and whispered, "Am I bonkers, or isn´t that Andromeda Black, the Quidditch player?!"

"You know..." he whispered back. "I think it is!"

They stared at her, a bit star struck. "She must have gotten hitched since she´s graduated Hogwarts!" Lily said softly.

"Well, she did graduate a while back," Lupin replied softly, squinting at their Professor, maybe trying to find the resemblance to his best friend, Sirius, who was Andromeda´s cousin.

"Oh, I see that James Potter and Sirius Black have decided to grace us with their presences!" Professor Tonks suddenly said loudly to the door. Lily turned along with the rest of the class and saw that the two Gryffindor boys were in the doorway looking like Christmas had come early.

"You didn´t tell us you were teaching!!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Must of slipped my mind little cousin. Why don´t you two great fools take a seat already? Some people actually came here to learn about Muggle life, can you imagine it, so if you don´t mind keeping your traps shut after you do sit..." she said impatiently, but with a ghost of a smile.

Lily then discovered who Lupin had been saving the table for.

Tonks made Potter set on each table a muggle toolbox, filled with things that Lily had seen her parents use.

"We´ll spend today then, going over a common sight in any Muggle home. The common toolbox generally contains various metal objects that each serve one or two functions apiece. You got a question Sir, what´s your name now?"

"Antonio Dram, professor. Uh, so you mean, this big, heavy thing was made to do only one thing?" Dram asked, holding a huge spanner in his hand with a look of polite bewilderment.

The class seemed to be disappointed in the trappings of Muggle life. Lily had to admit that the tool box was a rather boring subject.

Potter and Black however seemed to be in seventh heaven. Spinning a old ratchet, Potter said, "I couldn´t imagine what one would do with this thing... But I think I like it anyhow!"

"I myself enjoy this device," Black held up a level. "I´ve decided that it´s a device. I think I´ll call it a Spliget."

"They already have names, Padfoot, look on the board," Remus said as he wrote down the many uses of a socket.

Black turned and gazed at the board for half a minute then said, "No. I´m afraid those names don´t please me at all. You, Prongs?"

"I like some of them. And two or three appeal to me a great deal. However I must concur. Especially the word, `pliers´ puts me in a cynical mood. Evans?" Potter suddenly turned to her as she started writing her notes from the board. "Why are YOU taking notes? You must already know all this."

"Actually-"

"What on EARTH?" Sirius interrupted boisterously as he pulled up a C Clamp. At the sight of it both boys broke into laughter. Finally Remus started laughing too.

"Oy, PROFESSOR! Can I have this?" Potter called out loud and gestured to the Clamp Sirius held out.

Lily had a hard time paying attention to the lesson with the three boys carrying on.

At the end of the class she hurried out of the room, unhappiness setting in. She had been looking forward to taking Muggle Studies...

She had to go back when she found that Potter had charmed the C Clamp (that Tonks had in no way shape or form given him) on to the face of a Hufflepuff boy so he couldn´t open his mouth, his girlfriend trying to wrench it off unsuccessfully. She sighed as she hitched her bag on her shoulder and went to sort out the mess. She had been looking forward to being a prefect too...

*    *    *

"You know... This day looked pretty simple on my schedule sheet," Lily muttered to Alia Bashir as they walked into the Entrance Hall on their way to the evening feast.

"First days blow," Alia offered poetically.

"Do you know how many stupid morons I´ve had to sort out today? I think fourteen. All boys of course, they must have some gene that prevents them from behaving themselves!"

"Boys like to showoff," Alia said wisely.

Lily saw a large, sallow faced boy stalk towards them. It took her a second or two to notice that he had his wand out. In the third second she saw him raise it and then all she could see of it was the very tip.

"Hey, Alia- Duck!" Lily shouted.

"Where?" Alia demanded, looking around.

Lily felt something strike her face and putting her hand under her eye, felt warm blood.

Everyone in the crowded Entrance Hall froze and turned to stare.

"What the hell was that?!" Lily exclaimed taking out her wand and looking at the boy, whom she recognized as Evan Rosier. He had hexed her!

"You picked the wrong girl to mess with CLOWN!" Alia screeched indignantly. "Who do you think you are hexing people without any warning?"Lily blocked her from diving at the Slytherin. He had to be three times Alia´s size.

"PUT THAT AWAY." Lily said to Rosier in a low, loud voice, aiming her wand at him.

Rosier´s wand went flying out of his hand immediately. Lily would have thought he had dropped it, if it weren´t for the fact that it began to float towards the stairs. Everyone turned to watch it go, including a extremely disgruntled Rosier.

James Potter caught it and smiled merrily, though his eyes were narrowed as if he were looking at an oversized bug.

"Rosier! Didn´t your ma'am ever teach to be nice to ladies?"

He twirled Rosier´s wand dangerously, a few crackling sparks shot out.

"Very doubtful, mate. We´d better step in and correct this situation ourselves!" Sirius said delightfully.

"You know, Sirius?" Potter said with a evil smile. "I do believe you have a good point there."

Potter snapped the wand in two.

Lily, dumbfounded, watched along with the rest of the crowded hall in shocked silence.

Rosier made a sort of dog-like whimper as he watched his wand break and stared at the pieces in disbelief. Lily watched his facial expression change into inevitable anger and here she took aim at Rosier´s knees.

"Take one step and you´ll be doing a country line dance over there!" Lily warned.

Alia leaned over and said helpfully, "And she doesn´t know the counter-spell for that one either so I´d just stay where you are if I were you, John Wayne!!"

Rosier glared at Lily and began to speak, one of the first words out of his mouth starting with the word "mud", but he hadn´t a chance to finish as he was knocked flat by a hex coming from the stairs.

The room broke into applause. Lily looked around in confusion.

"Here here!" Frank Longbottom cried, waltzing up to Rosier´s body on the floor. "He´s out cold! The git..."

As Potter and Black made their way down through the Entrance Hall Lily heard a girl cry to them, "Why weren´t you two made Prefects?"

Lily turned and saw Black shrug indifferently. "That´s not our thing."

"Yeah, we've got a prerogative in misbehaving as much as possible..." Potter explained.

Lily, looking at the floor where Rosier had collapsed and was now reviving and then to Alia Bashir, said, "What was that? Did that creep just attack me?"

Alia, scanning Lily´s face replied, "It´s bleeding still. You´re lucky he didn´t hit you an inch higher..."

"Are you okay?" Potter called and it took Lily a moment to realize that he was addressing herself. His hair was all over the place, as if he had been outside on his broom.

She decided not to answer the question and seeing the head of Slytherin house approach the crowd of students surrounding Rosier, headed for him so she could report the incident as she had been taught in the prefect carriage on the Hogwarts Express yesterday.

"What is this?!" Professor Glint said angrily, gesturing to the fallen Slytherin. "Would someone be so kind as to EXPLAIN THIS?!?"

"I will Professor!" Lily chimed, holding a hand over her cheek, where she had been cut.

He eyed her and the blood on her hands suspiciously. Seeing her prefect badge shine on her shoulder he said, "What´s this that´s happened on you´re watch?"

Rosier mumbled and began sitting up, looking dazed but Glint ignored him.

"He attacked me just now, with a wand-"

"Do we have witnesses who can verify this?" Glint asked snootily and in Lily´s opinion rather densely as the Hall was now packed front to back with hungry witnesses trying to get to the Great Hall.

"I saw him do it Professor," Frank Longbottom said. "Looked like an out right offensive curse to me."

"How very clever of you, Longbottom. And why is it that a curse has been applied but the only one seriously injured here is Rosier? Can you please explain that to me?"

Longbottom apparently didn´t want to take the liberty of giving that explanation.

"I did it," Sirius said in a bored voice.

"I see," Professor Glint hissed angrily. "Fifty points from Gryffindor. You´ll have detention with me every night this week, Black."

"What about me?" Potter called as if Glint was handing out trophies. "I broke the stupid gits wand."

*    *    *

Lily groaned as she watched another one hundred points taken from their hour glass. It was now completely emptied. Rosier hadn´t even been in bad enough shape to be sent to the infirmary. In fact, he sat at the Slytherin table for the feast, occasionally giving Lily the evil eye.

"Rosier wasn´t even given a detention or anything!" Lily sighed.

"That yobbo psychopath is looking over here again," Debra Skitter said with distaste as they all ate.

"Who does he think he is hexing someone like that out of the blue?" Marva Sequim demanded for what must have been the fourth time.

"Lily, did you do something to tick off the Slytherins again?" Alia asked.

"What, like having parents who aren´t wizards you mean?" Lily replied sarcastically. She turned and looked over her shoulder at the far end of the room where the Slytherin table and Rosier were located. He had a huddle of friends, all of them unsavory in appearance. Severus Snape and Sonia Otto were among them.

When she caught Rosier´s eye she waved jovially. "Why hullo there you big giant prat!" she said. Of course he was much too far away to hear but her friends laughed. "Oooh..." Lily hissed as he grimaced at her and revealed his front teeth. "You should really get that spinach out of your teeth there-" The girls sitting around her cracked up.

"Do you suppose Otto´s going to take that oaf to the Winter Ball? Maybe we should let her know that he should be given a thorough cleaning beforehand?" Alia said, also smiling and waving at Rosier.

"I´m just happy James took care of the guerilla´s wand!" Debra said. "I swear, I thought he´d get the boot for that..."

Alia snorted. "James Potter? No way they´d ever kick HIM out. McGonagall would have a hairball. He´s the best thing to happen to our Quidditch team in ages!"

*    *    *

Lily decided the best way to end the new worst day of her life was to listen to the wizarding wireless and write a letter for Dale.

Although he had decided to finish up his education at a Muggle school, he had kept his owl to keep up with what he called the "real world." Lily couldn´t understand his decision to abandon Hogwarts and herself, so that he could learn to be a regular upstanding citizen. But Dale was not impulsive nor did he often make silly choices. She would just have to trust him.

She spent the rest of the evening doing the Potions essay that they had already been set. Lily could plainly see that their work load would stack up nearly as fast as their House´s hour glass would empty. She had no intention of letting that part of her life escalate out of control at least.

Alia sat by the fire, a group of boys sitting around her trying to vie for her attention.

Lily went to bed.

And a two weeks later she woke up when she heard from some dear and much-missed friends.

Professor Tonks smiled and waited for the class to settle themselves and fall silent. Usually she walked around and told them to shut up. Today she carried the air of a individual who had very good news.

Still having not spoken a word, she nodded to the silent and curiously attentive class and then went to a cardboard box by her desk.

From it Tonks pulled out a flat object with a electrical cord hanging off it like a forked tail.

To Lily it was the most familiar thing in the world. Her father had showed her how to use it before she had learned to read or write.

But to everyone else except for Lupin, it was a question mark. And not a particularly attractive one either. The model Tonks held out to them like a sacrificial offering was nowhere near as nice as the model her parents owned, though that was due partly to the fact that her father had worked as assistant manager at a pawn shop for a number of years. They had a wide variety of electrical gadgets that they would never been able to afford normally. Petunia had a very nice chemistry set in which she could detect traces of dirt with her microscope. Lily had a number of interesting things, her favorite being a clunky 8-Track Audio player because it was battery operable and portable.

"Evans, would you mind telling us what I got here?" Tonks asked with a wry grin.

Lily sat up and smiled. "It´s a Turntable!"

A few people blinked.

Lily, looking around at the rest of class added, "It plays records!"

"Like a gramophone?" Frank Longbottom asked. Lily couldn´t imagine a life without electrical gadgets.

"Er, yeah. You play records with it," Lily said again. She held out an invisible LP in her hand, "Plastic things, they got music pressed into them and you put them on the turntable and the needle-"

"Why don´t you show them?" Tonks asked kindly.

Lily made her way over and the Professor set the player on a table in front of two sixth year girls, who frowned at it or maybe the dust it was covered in. Tonks attached thin wires from two large dented speakers into the back of the turntable then waved her wand at the plug.

Standing over the table Lily began to ask, "Do you have a-"

The Professor, smiling widely handed her a L.P.

Feeling the skeptical and suspicious gaze of the class, she read the label on the record and her heart skipped a beat.

She turned and looked at the Professor. Tonks raised her eyebrows and waved for her to continue.

Lily set the record so side B was faced up and carefully placed the needle to the first band. As the needle crackled into the speakers, Lily stood back and hoped Tonks had turned up the volume to a decent level.

The sound of a guitar suddenly blared loudly and half the class leapt in their seats and stared in confusion at the two old speaker boxes.

After a few seconds the class showed some signs of recognition.

The song played through and when it ended, Tonks took the needle off the record.

There was perfect silence in the room.

"That," Tonks said with a satisfied smile, "Was Led Zeppelin. We´ve put a powerful bubble charm on this electrical gadget so that it would work inside Hogwarts... As you can see this is just one example of how Muggles get by without magic."

The girls in front of Lily were gawking at the turntable then at the old speakers. The whole back of the room was in an uproar of hushed conversation.

A few seventh year boys were sliding their tables forward to get a closer look-see

"Zeppelin are wizards though!" Robert Jones pointed out.

"Yes, they make records for Muggles though and are quite popular. It´s actually the record that today's lesson will be focused on. While they don´t have magic, Muggles have perfected the art of making art a product. Muggle shops sell hundreds of copies of the same big black disc for a good sum of money. In order to entice people to buy them, they play songs that are called `singles´ on their radios, which are a bit like our wireless network. The singles play on airwaves like a commercial for weeks and if the song becomes a hit, muggles race out and buy the record!"

"I have this record at home," Lily offered. "It´s Led Zeppelin I. My favourite song is `Communication Breakdown´. My dad bought it for me because I heard it on the radio!"

The room was still alive with excited, buzzing conversation.

Sirius cleared his throat and turned to Potter. They both looked to Lupin and then the three boys stared at Tonks in a businesslike manner.

"We´ll need you to play more of that, Professor," Potter said.