Fragments of Yesterday

Lily awoke at barely past dawn to wild giggles. Looking up drowsily, she beheld three of the other four girls in her room crowded onto one bed. Lottie was apparently occupied tickling Velvet awake. Candy was laughing uncontrollably at the tortured look on her friend´s face as she turned this way and that to escape. The curtains around Abigail´s bed were drawn on Lily´s other side, and she realized quickly that she was next in line. Seeing that, she jumped up as though burned just as Velvet began to whine, muttering groggily for her mum to let her sleep five more minutes.

"Are we to be subjected to this every morning?" Lily asked curiously. "Just wondering if I should get Abigail to teach me to charm the curtains closed."

"She´s awake!" Lottie cried. "I don´t get to tickle her now."

"What a tragedy," Lily grimaced.

"You could still tickle her anyway," Candy suggested.

"You´re loonies, all of you," Lily glared. "I could have slept in."

"No you couldn´t," Lottie said. "You´ve only an hour before you have to be in detention with that nasty Potions professor. At least, I think the prefect I asked told me he was the Potions professor. I could be wrong." Lottie smiled angelically. "So, you see, I actually did you a huge favor by waking you up. You´d have missed detention otherwise."

"Lovely," Lily sighed. "I have detention on my first day of school."

Lottie pouted. "Yes, lucky you."

Candy shuddered. "I still don´t agree with you on that. Detention, ugh."

Lily was already belting her dressing gown, looking forward to a warm shower to wake herself up. "Well, at least I´m not the only sane one."

"Sure," Lottie said cheerfully. "Abby´s afflicted with sanity, just like you."

"The name is Abigail," came the voice from behind the curtains, muffled by the thick velvet, "and you´re a nutter."

To Candy´s giggles and Lottie´s frank "thank you," Lily locked herself in the bathroom.

She emerged ten minutes later with her wet hair bound into two thick braids and scowl on her face. "Why is my soap glowing? I don´t remember my soap glowing."

"You didn´t use it?" Lottie asked. "Bugger. I´ll have to see if I can slip it to one of the boys. That would probably be better anyway. You might try and kill me in my sleep."

Lily raised an eyebrow. "You owe me a new bar of soap."

Lottie sighed. "All right, all right, I´ll send away for one by owl."

"Before you ask, you can´t use my owl." Abigail was now awake, pristine in a white nightgown, and an amused expression on her face.

Lottie grimaced. "You know I don´t have one."

Abigail grinned fit to match her. "Yes," she agreed, "I do know. You´ll buy something cursed from Zonko´s if you have your way. Something that wasn´t made by a schoolgirl, and therefore doesn´t glow." She turned to Lily. "I have a spare bar until you find time to send Athena for one."

Lottie patted Abigail on the head. "You know, of course, you can´t always interrupt my schemes." With that, she disappeared into the bathroom.

"Yes," Abigail sighed, "I know."

***

Twenty minutes later, the five girls trooped out of the portrait hole and down the stairs for breakfast. Velvet was whining, which Lily was coming to realize was to be a common occurrence. "I was having such a nice dream! I was playing on the Quidditch team, and all the boys liked me, and Sirius Black gave me flowers and told me he thought my nose was lovely! And then-"

Lily sighed and skillfully tuned her out. She had done it often enough with Petunia, anyway.

"I wonder what classes we´ll have today?" wondered Abigail.

"I wonder what kind of ghastly things you´ll have to do in detention?" Lottie mused cheerfully.

"I wonder if I´ll survive the year in a room with you people," Lily grinned.

Lottie feigned hurt. "Oh come on, Lily! After all... there´s always next year."

They had just reached the Great Hall and entered looking up at the ceiling which was brilliantly blue with autumn sunshine. "I believe you just threatened my life, but since I´m hungry, I don´t care," Lily announced, piling her plate with food and digging in with gusto.

"Careful, Carrots. You´ll get fat."

Lily raised her eyes and glared venomously at James, who was settling down across from her. Her mouth being full of food, she couldn´t retaliate, causing him to look exceedingly smug.

"Now, children," Remus said, sitting to James´ right, "don´t fight. The big nasty Potions master will give you detention... oh wait. You already have one."

"So do you," James smirked.

"And it´s all my fault," Sirius announced cheerfully, coming over, tailed by Peter, who appeared not to have taken a brush to his curly hair that morning.

Everyone turned to Sirius and simultaneously came out with, "Yes, it is."

Peter giggled in a high pitched voice that made him seem younger than eleven. "Look, Siri, they love you."

Sirius grinned, winked unabashedly at the girls, and then took to his food, eating so quickly it was a wonder the hand holding his fork wasn´t a blur. Lily nearly choked on her glass of milk at the pink tinge in Lottie´s cheeks.

Just then, Professor McGonagall came around with sheets of parchment which contained the class schedules. She stopped at their end of the table, glaring for a moment as she handed them out. "I trust those of you who have detention in the Potions dungeon this morning haven´t forgotten and are thoroughly ashamed."

James smiled his most charming smile at her. "Of course we haven´t forgotten."

Peter grinned. "I wrote it down."

"As a tally," Remus added.

The professor looked helpless, and finally settled on an expression of disapproval. "You boys are looking forward to this?"

"Oh, wildly," Sirius replied, grinning.

Professor McGonagall made a strange sort of noise, threw her arms up in the air, and walked away.

"I´m not!" Lily called after her, face red.

"Spoilsport," Sirius said.

"Wet blanket," Remus laughed.

"Um... party pooper!" Peter finally managed.

James shrugged and settled for a simple "Idiot."

Lily was hard pressed not to throw her plate at him again.

Abigail patted her back. "Relax, Lily. The professor wasn´t talking about you anyway."

"Unless she´s a boy in disguise," Lottie pointed out cheerfully.

"Are you?" Velvet wanted to know, eyes wide.

"I´ll bet she is," James said, grin a mile wide. "A scrawny boy. Look at her." He reached out and fingered the sleeve of her robes.

"Don´t look at me," Lily growled as levelly as she could manage. "Don´t touch me, and don´t call me a boy!"

"Gee, she´s got a temper, huh Jamie?" Peter grinned guilelessly.

"Like a brushfire," James replied promptly. "It matches her hair." Then he got up, tweaked one of her braids and, seeing that she was voiceless with rage, took the last word. "See you in detention, Carrots." The other boys followed him out of the room as he left.

"Score one, the beautiful James Potter," Candy remarked, making as if to write it down.

"Now Lily," Lottie said, placing a hand carefully on her arm, "don´t get upset. Because if you get a second detention before I´ve got my first one, I might have to never speak to you again, and that would be a shame."

Lily shook her head. "I don´t understand you."

Lottie grinned widely. "I know. Isn´t it fun?"

***

Some time later, Lily found herself looking for the right dungeon alone. The others didn´t have class for another hour and had had more time to eat, so Lily had the opportunity to wander around the dark, dank corridors, pretending she wasn´t frightened.

Naturally, the blame for this rested squarely on James Potter´s head.

Hearing voices, she turned a corner and entered a big room, where James, Sirius and Remus were lounging, obviously waiting for the Potions master to arrive. Just as Lily was looking around, another door opened and the man that had given the majority of the detentions yesterday appeared, looking surly and not completely awake.

"Creature of the night," a grinning Sirius whispered to Remus. Remus didn´t smile.

"I see we are to be tormented with students with no respect for authority this year," the professor spoke, surveying the room. "Hopefully, our... time together shall discourage your ridiculous antics. I am Professor Macnair, and the next time one of you misbehaves, the punishment will not be so light." He waved a wand and muttered "Accio!" pointing at two big rags folded on his desk. "Black, Potter, you are to wash the three cauldrons in there-" he pointed at a door and it creaked open. Only one cauldron was visible, but that was nearly the size of James himself. The children gaped.

"Professor, we´ve only got an hour!" James protested.

Professor Macnair shrugged. "Then you shall come back after classes and finish. Lupin, Evans, I´ve got a task for you in the supply room." He sent a withering glance at James and Sirius. "Well? Get going!"

The venom in his voice was such that they grabbed the rags and scrambled.

Lily had a hard time not laughing at the outraged expressions on their faces while they did so. In a feat of tremendous will, she kept her face perfectly serious and watched the professor with unwavering attention. He scowled at them. "Now, as you two seem to me to be slightly less likely to cause a disaster with my ingredients, you can come with me." The two of them followed Professor Macnair through a door behind the gargantuan teacher´s desk and into a room with shelves reaching up so high, they had to strain to see the top levels. There was one little iron staircase that would probably allow a full-grown adult to reach halfway up the shelves. "You two are to work in here... Evans, there are supplies for the first year students on the other side. Make sure to separate the Wolfsbane from the Mandrake leaves carefully..."

Remus turned as white as a sheet.

"We wouldn´t want anyone getting hurt," Professor Macnair finished, not looking at Remus at all. "It can be dangerous, after all. You´ll know the difference because Wolfsbane leaves are narrower with shaper edges."

Lily nodded. "Yes, professor."

"Now, Mister Lupin, on the tenth shelf, there are jars of fireflower pollen. I was going to do it myself, but since you´re here, you can take some of the work. Here is a small sifter-there may be seeds in the jars, as they are freshly harvested. Professor Mizuhara brought them back from Japan this summer, and no one has had a chance to go through them yet. Put any seeds you do get into this empty jar, and label it."

Remus nodded, unspeakably relieved. "Yes, sir."

"Get going, then, if you understand," the potions master advised. "I´ll come and get you before the start of your class." He left, and the two of them got to work.

"You got the hard task because I´m a girl," Lily said, carefully sorting the leaves as Remus tottered on the little ladder. "I´m sorry."

Remus gave a half-laugh. "Oh no, really, it´s quite all right. I... rather like fireflowers. I´m sure it´s not because you´re a girl at all."

They worked in companionable silence before Remus chuckled softly. "My elder sister would give me a tongue-lashing if she knew I was in detention on my first day of school."

Lily laughed. "You´ve got a sister? So have I. Do you like her?"

Remus shrugged awkwardly as he came down the ladder with several large jars. "Sometimes," he answered at length. "Mostly Antonia thinks she´s above me and doesn´t talk to me much."

"I despise mine," Lily said promptly.

"Do you really?" Remus asked, grinning as he began on his task.

"Intensely," Lily nodded. Then, she proceeded to describe Petunia to Remus. By the end of the hour, she felt she had made a friend.

***

Potions class served to make at least three people fervently wish to go back to primary school. One of these was Peter Pettigrew, who was rather desolate to begin with at having missed detention with his best friends. True, James and Sirius winced whenever they had to touch anything and their hands were scrubbed raw, but in Peter´s opinion, at least, he hadn´t really proven that he belonged with them yet. All he had really done was begun keeping a tally of detentions. He was very aware that the space under his name was the only blank one.

In Peter´s experience, this was much like the rest of his life. People outshone him at everything. Just once, he would have liked to be good at something. Instead, had it not been for James´ quick thinking, he probably would have blown up the room. Sirius had said it was a shame he didn´t, and Professor Macnair with it, the malicious bastard.

Severus Snape had proven himself to be a worthy adversary for James´ talent in Potions. The cauldron he shared with Lucius Malfoy had been ready far before anyone else´s, and Professor Macnair had awarded ten points to Slytherin. James had, naturally, been outraged. Peter couldn´t help but think that this was his fault for nearly killing them all.

The coolly aloof Desdemona Muldoon had smirked and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "squib" under her breath as she worked at his other side.

"Feel like a lark before Charms, Peter?" Sirius asked good-naturedly. "We have half an hour. Let´s see if we can scare some Slytherins."

Peter grinned. "Will we get in trouble?"

Sirius laughed. "Most likely."

"Lead the way." Peter wanted to belong. If detention would help that, so be it.

***

Lottie was having the best day of her life. She had made it through Potions somehow, with Abigail to her right and Lily to her left. She was probably very lucky to get two good friends who worked so hard. It meant that she didn´t have to strive for the top grades, as decent ones would come to her naturally. Listening to Lily and Abigail talk would probably be enough for that.

It was funny. Lottie had a tremendous ability to learn, as she was told again and again by those who wanted to motivate her. She sent her mother into fits because she would be the top of her class, and simply chose not to. It was hard to explain to a mother that expected so much that school simply was not fascinating. Well, Lottie conceded, Hogwarts was. She would probably make decent marks just by doing the things she thought would be interesting to try.

Lottie liked something else much better than school and studying, though. She liked the spotlight. She had thought in childhood that she wanted to play professional Quidditch. Due, however, to an incurable fear of heights which she refused to admit to, that idea had been trashed. Instead, Lottie was looking at some sort of public relations post, one that preferably didn´t require too much politics. Lottie was sure she´d find her niche eventually, unless her luck deserted her, which wasn´t likely. She knew she was "the luckiest sodding little witch" there ever was, at least according to Severus, who she had grown up with but never befriended. And throughout their childhood, he had been blamed for every single one of her pranks.

It helped looking angelic, but really, Lottie was aware that her good luck was rather astounding.

On her first day of school, she wasn´t yet aware that the laws of irony reigned over the castle. So, luck or no, she was likely to end up in the deep end before the end of the week. Not that she would have minded precisely, but she was still rather surprised when her pet charm decided to go so horribly wrong on her.

The Gryffindors shared Charms class with the Ravenclaws. Abigail was sitting next to Lily, and Lottie was left with a nondescript Ravenclaw boy who was looking off into space. He had rather lovely eyes so deeply blue that they appeared almost violet, but his overly long hair hid them most of the time and he really was unremarkable except for that.

"We shall be practicing the wrist movement that will help you learn to charm objects today," the diminutive professor stated. "Everyone take out your wands."

There was a sound of rustling papers and people rifling through bags as the wands were produced. Lottie spun her ebony and phoenix wand between her fingers and prepared to be bored. Next to her, the Ravenclaw boy dropped his wand on the floor. She rolled her eyes a little but, as it had rolled under her side of the desk, leaned over and picked it up, grinning at him. He took it, looking rather bewildered. "Slippery little buggers," Lottie said quietly. "They run away altogether if you don´t keep an eye on them, you know."

He looked rather startled, but the Professor Flitwick began to speak and he began to pay attention. Lottie began pretending to pay attention, a skill she had perfected years ago so that she could ignore her mother´s incessant nagging.

"Swish and flick," Flitwick said. The students complied, some of them getting it quite wrong, others, James, Sirius, Lottie and Abigail among these, looking as though they had been doing this for years. "Come on, then, again," the professor said merrily. Lottie sighed and looked around for something innocent to play with. There didn´t seem to be any objects which would be much fun to charm, however.

The boy dropped his wand again and scrambled under the table to get it. Lottie grinned.

The next time Flitwick asked them to swish and flick, she pointed her wand at the Ravenclaw and whispered "Capillus mutare russus," when prompted to perform the movement. This changed hair to red, orange, or even pink, according to the caster´s will and the capriciousness of the wand.

Therefore Lottie was as shocked as the rest of the class when the boy squeaked slightly and his hair turned a pure, silver white. As Lottie had certainly not misspoken, especially because "russus" and "nix" sounded nothing alike, she blinked at him, purely bewildered as he took a strand and brought it before his eyes, nearly crossing them in an attempt to see better.

The professor, who had not been looking at them until just that moment, sighed. "Who did it?" he enquired.

Lottie, deciding to take credit for her crimes, mostly because Severus wasn´t around to blame, raised her hand and said, "I did, Professor."

At the same moment, the boy raised his hand and echoed, "I did, Professor."

There was a silence. "Miss Christianson? Mister Gwyn?"

The two of them stared at each other and Lottie cocked a brow. The boy probably couldn´t have cast the charm if he tried, but even so, it was rather nice to have someone stand up for her, whether she needed it or not. The boy blushed and shrugged. He nearly dropped his wand again.

"Right then, does either of you know the counter-charm?" Professor Flitwick prompted.

"I do, Professor," Lottie said quickly before the boy could try it and cause all his hair to fall out.

"Carry on then, Miss Christianson. I´m sure Mister Gwyn would love to have his natural color back, whoever did it."

Lottie shrugged and waved her wand again. "Capillus archetypus," she said clearly.

The boy´s hair stayed white.

Flitwick raised an eyebrow. "Five points to Gryffindor, Miss Christianson, for knowing the correct charm." He looked at her shrewdly for a moment. "Ten points from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw both for hiding the true culprit, and detention next Monday night. Mister Gwyn, you may go to Madam Pomfrey after class and see if she can return you to normal."

Lottie shrugged. Detention wasn´t so bad.

The boy dropped his wand again. She rolled her eyes quite visibly this time and made a show of giving it back to him. "Listen, I´m sorry about what happened," she hissed as the class resumed, "but you really didn´t have to stand up for me, you know."

He only grinned. "I´m Madoc," he said, the Welsh apparent in his voice. "What´s your name?"

"Why, so you can write to your parents about the girl who maimed you? Honestly." Seeing as he wasn´t responding, she shrugged. "Lottie," she said.

"Thanks, Lottie," he said with all seriousness, and returned to his lesson, not dropping his wand again for the remainder of the hour.

Lottie couldn´t decide quite what to make of him.

***

Lunch came directly after Charms and the Gryffindor table was a noisy, boisterous one as always. James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter seemed to be doing imitations ad nauseum of Desdemona Muldoon, the Slytherin who was nowhere to be seen, although Lily had heard from Abigail that she had been taken to the Infirmary in hysterics, convinced that there were spiders crawling underneath her robes.

Lily, meanwhile, had propped Abigail´s copy of Hogwarts, a History between her plate and a pitcher of juice, and was reading as she steadily ate her meat pie. Next to her, Velvet and Lottie were discussing Quidditch. On her other side, Abigail seemed entranced with a conversation with a fourth year about the properties of Polyjuice Potion.

"I wonder if it´s true?" Lily mused. "About the secret passages, I mean? There can´t be over a hundred, can there?"

Across the table from her, a Prefect she had learned was named Robin Southwood smiled. "Well, we´ve stumbled upon a few in our day... there´s one in the fourth floor boys´ toilets that lets out in the Restricted section of the library. Only thing is, the door screams when you open it, so we don´t really use that one."

"Really?" Lily asked, fascinated.

"Then there´s the one that goes from the Charms corridor into the girl´s toilet on the second floor. No one ever uses that one either; that toilet is haunted and the ghost is awfully annoying. Gina Deacon found that last year, and came out of the toilets crying, saying she was never, ever going in there again, because Moaning Myrtle had managed to depress her. Then again, Gina cries at the drop of a hat."

Lily shook her head and laughed.

At the other end of the table, James was laying out an elaborate plot. "Now, I figure if we time it right, we can probably set it to explode right about during Defense Against the Dark Arts. That´s supposed to be the easy class anyway, so I figure we won´t miss much if the classroom gets flooded."

"I´m rather interested in the lesson, actually," Remus said reasonably. "There are many things about the subject that fascinate me. I´d really rather listen in class."

"But what about-" Sirius began.

"Herbology, then," James said decisively. "Of course, we won´t ruin anything that way, so the teacher might actually thank us, but you never know."

"Peter, did you mark your detention?" Sirius asked.

Peter grinned and nodded. He would never admit that he hadn´t wanted it-that he had simply tripped on the hem of his robes and not been able to hide fast enough when Desdemona shrieked for help. But the others did look rather proud of him. "Next Monday," he said, preening. "And I´m not stuck with the Potions master, either."

James grinned and ruffled his hair. "Well see if you´re lucky or not after we meet the Defense teacher."

***

The first thing they noticed about the large classroom where Defense Against the Dark Arts was to be taught was the tang of spicy incense in the air. Shortly thereafter, their teacher entered, and Sirius sniggered. "It´s Professor Miss-Thingy," he told James with a grin.

The teacher glared in their general direction, even though Sirius had spoken far too softly to be heard.

"Poor Peter," James whispered. "Poor, poor Peter."

"Now, I know I have in my class many troublemaker," she began, sending a piercing glare at the boys. "And my English is not yet perfect, but if you think this means I will not understand you when you say cruel things, you are making very big mistake. You remember, and I never mention again." She slapped her hand on the desk and looked them over sharply. Then, her face transformed and she smiled brightly before bowing in a very formal fashion. "Now I start. Good afternoon, class. I am Professor Mizuhara, and I shall teach you this year how to defend yourself against Dark witch and wizard who think it is entertaining to attack you. You teach them and they walk away with broken bones, yes?"

Most of the class laughed. "Despite her English, I rather think I like her," Remus whispered.

James had already started taking notes. "Indeed," he said.

She pointed to the small, slightly glowing but transparent jar on her desk. "Now, first lesson. Jar looks normal, like it can not hurt you, right?"

There was a murmur of agreement through the class.

"Now, who can tell me why it is not safe to open?"

Abigail´s hand shot straight in the air. The teacher smiled. "Gordon?"

"Look at the desk under it, professor," Abigail said. "It looks like the wood is about ready to catch fire. And it´s making a faint humming noise. Which means it isn´t just an empty jar."

"Very good," the professor nodded. "A point to Gryffindor. Jar contains oni, vengeful ogre spirit common in Japan, where I come from. Most oni will not cause serious harm, but if released, will possess human nearest them and make trouble. You know, play prank, break things, draw on walls with purple ink." Most of the class giggled. "When I was child, I blamed most mischief on oni or little sister. Sometimes both."

She waited for the laughter to die down before she spoke again. "Lesson is easy. Do not touch, or even think about touching item that might be magical. If you cannot tell, do not touch. Is easy at young age to think you can do anything, but if I release oni in this room, maybe only one of you can fight it, if you are lucky. If not lucky, wander around and spend rest of life bewildered and in detention. Die in St. Mungo´s for insanity. Is not much fun. So, you listen hard and work hard, and I make sure you wake up in the morning without crazy urge to set other student on fire." She glanced at Sirius. "Except him. For him, it comes natural."

"Why thank you," Sirius said loudly.

"Teacher´s pet," Peter sniggered.

***

No one was sure how it had happened, but professor Mizuhara was a class favorite despite the fact that she was obviously going to be one to hand out detentions at the drop of a pin. After all, it was she who walked the students to Herbology and informed Professor Beechwood that if anything strange were to go on in her classroom, to send the ones who looked the most innocent to her.

Nothing blew up in Herbology that day.

In fact, there was a week of relative peace. The only real sensation was the fact that Madoc Gwyn was apparently to have silver hair for the rest of his natural life, for nothing anyone could do would change it. It was whispered that he had Mermish blood and thus did not respond properly to magic. No one was really sure what had happened, only that Madoc, who had been rather nondescript, now stood out above and beyond every other member of the first year student body. Furthermore, he seemed to have developed quite the fixation on Lottie. Some of the boys said it was because he was looking to get her alone in a dark corridor to kill her. Most of the girls held the opinion that he did indeed want to get her alone in a dark corridor, but for entirely different reasons.

Lottie thought this was all rubbish and instead concentrated on conning Abigail into studying Potions with her and attempting (and failing time and again) to beat Remus at chess.

"Do you know," she mused one day while contemplating where to move her rook, "you´re rather too sane for the rest of them." She set the rook down and moved a pawn instead.

Remus laughed and made a clever move with his knight. "Check," he warned her. "I´m not too sane for the rest of them. I just know how not to get caught."

Lottie used a castle to cover her king and glanced over to the spot by the fire where the other three boys were boisterously playing Exploding Snap. "They know," she disagreed. "At least, Sirius and James do. I´m not so sure about Peter."

"Check," Remus said, taking the castle with his queen. "All right, true enough. They know. They just don´t care."

Lottie laughed and made a last ditch attempt to protect her king with her one remaining knight. "True enough," she conceded. "You win."

Remus smiled. "Indeed. Checkmate."

"I should turn you into a beetle," Lottie proclaimed. "Then you wouldn´t beat me at chess all the time."

"Then he would bite you instead," Sirius called from over by the fire. "Incessantly."

"Lottie, come over here and look at this Astronomy homework," Lily´s disgruntled voice called from the other end of the room. "Does it make any sense to you?"

"It´s peaceful," Davey Gudgeon remarked to Abigail as she explained his Transfiguration homework to him for the fourth time. "It´s far too peaceful."

"Bit scary, isn´t it?" Abigail said. "Don´t worry. I´m sure they´ll blow something up in no time."

"That´s what I´m afraid of," Davey winced. "That something might be me."

Acknowledging the truth of this statement with a nod of her lovely head, Abigail started again on the finer points of turning toothpicks into needles. Davey sighed and listened, trying to pay attention to the complex assignment.

The Exploding Snap exploded and loud, rollicking laughter, along with a "Siri, you idiot, that´s the rug you´ve set on fire!"

All in all, life in Gryffindor was tranquil.