The Making of a Peacock

Chapter 5

The Making of a Peacock

Year One - 1969

Quirinus sucked in a breath of excitement, "You're M-muggle-born?!" He looked like it was Christmas and his birthday all at the same time. "T-tell me all about it! How is it d-different from being in a W-wizarding family?"

"Well, I don't really know because I don't know what Wizards do. My mum wakes me up in the morning and gets me breakfast, then sends me off to school..."

"M-Mine does too!" Exclaimed Quirrell, "except that I l-learned my lessons at home. Hogwarts is the first time I've g-gone away for school. Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

"Nope, there's just me."

"Just m-me t-too! M-maybe we could be like b-brothers then."

"Yeah, okay," Gilderoy smiled.

Quirrell fished in his pockets for a moment, eventually producing a deck of cards. "Th-this game is called exploding s-snap. It's really fun, b-but you have to be quick... ow!" He licked his fingers as one of the cards exploded under his hand.

The boys huddled together playing the game and enjoying their newfound friendship.

The next morning after breakfast, Gilderoy and Quirinus headed to their first class, Herbology. The had to cross through the courtyard, and it was a bit damp and windy out. A group of third year Slytherins passed in front of them, and Gilderoy noticed Narcissa at the back of the group. She was constantly swiping at her flyaway hairs around her face. Such a vision of loveliness - although even such visions can use some help at times.

He ran over to her and said, "I couldn't help but notice that your hair keeps frizzing up and flying away." The other girls around Narcissa looked surprised, but then laughed and kept moving across the courtyard. Narcissa blushed with embarrassment and anger.

"Why, that's not a very nice thing to say at all!" Narcissa said.

"Oh, I didn't mean it like that. I just wanted to share with you what I use to control the frizz and flyaways. It's a shampoo that my friend, Charlotte, tipped me on about last year. Just look how beautiful my hair is. I couldn't go a day without it." He started rifling through his bag in search of the shampoo bottle.

"And you just happen to be carrying shampoo with your school books?" she sneered, looking into his sack.

"Of course! Along with my facial cleanser and cream, buffing block, nail file, pumice stone, body lotion, and translucent powder. I wish I could have fit my curlers in here," he sighed, "but there just isn't enough room. Maybe if I take out one of my textbooks..." He found the bottle and showed it to her with a smile.

"But that's a Muggle product." She sniffed her nose up in repulsion.

He looked at her questioningly. "Why would you argue about something that works?"

"Well, you do have nice hair...," she continued fussing with her unmanageable locks for a moment and then acquiesced, "All right, I'll give it a go. Can you bring some to dinner tonight?" She looked around quickly making sure no one was watching. Just the other little Ravenclaw boy. She supposed he didn't matter.

"Yes, I'll bring some to you then," Gilderoy called after her as she ran to catch up with her classmates.

"What was th-that about?" asked Quirinus when they started toward the greenhouse again.

"Oh, you know, just sharing beauty secrets," Gilderoy chuckled.

Later that day, during potions class, Gilderoy nicked an extra bottle and stopper and slid it into his bag. When he got back to his room, he carefully poured out a week's worth of uses of his beloved shampoo into the beaker. It just looked like another potion this way - no way to tell that it was a Muggle product.

At dinner, Gilderoy rushed over to the Slytherin table. Most of the students stopped their eating and conversations to look up and watch him. Slytherins didn't usually fraternize with other houses. Gilderoy slowed his walk as he felt all the eyes on him. He approached Narcissa and produced the bottle. She looked nervous, and her face was pink again, but he could see her visibly relax when she saw that it was a non-descript potion bottle. He was glad he had thought of that.

Lucius sat at the table across from Narcissa. He stood up quickly and slammed his hands on the table as he leaned menacingly toward Gilderoy. "Have you been playing 'make-up and dress-up' with your sister, ickle First-year?" Lucius snorted.

Gilderoy looked confused and glanced down at Narcissa who lowered her eyes. He met Lucius' gaze again and said, "Well, I don't have a sister, if that's what you're asking, but I could probably give you a bit of advice on making the best of your features." Gilderoy cupped his chin as he studied Lucius for a moment. "Hmmm, your hair is very damaged and limp. You definitely could use a trim - so many unsightly split-ends," he shuddered, "and maybe a light dusting of translucent powder across your forehead and nose to cut down on the shine a bit."

Narcissa started giggling, and Lucius' face started to turn red. Just as he opened his mouth for a retort, Narcissa's older sister, Andromeda, stood up and placed her hand on Lucius' arm. "Thank you for your advice, Gilderoy. I'm sure we can all glean some benefits from it.

"Not at all," Gilderoy smiled and strode back to the Ravenclaw table. It felt good knowing that he was able to help people.

That evening, in the Ravenclaw common room, Quirinus began lugging out One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi and unrolled a piece of parchment.

"Let's play some more exploding snap," suggested Gilderoy as he took the seat opposite Quirinus.

"Y-you can't be serious," yawned Quirinus," not with the m-mountain of homework we have. "We n-need to write an essay on the care of the d-dittany plant and its properties for Herbology, and then S-Slughorn wants us to list five separate potions using d-dittany - FIVE - with all their ingredients listed, instructions f-for blending, and examples of s-situations each p-potion would be useful. R-rather insightful of Slughorn and Pomona to collaborate on their s-subject matter today..."

"You just said, 'Pomona'," said Gilderoy.

"Wha?" said Quirinus, rubbing his forehead.

"Pomona," he repeated. "Isn't that Professor Sprout's first name?"

"Oh!" Quirinus' cheeks turned bright pink. "Oh, I... um... w-wouldn't know..."

"Welcome to the first meeting of Pumpkin Juice!" Rita exclaimed as she clasped her hands together. She looked excitedly around the room at the attendees. Gilderoy looked around too, a bit confused. It was just him and Xenophilius. "Right then, now I envision big changes this year for our paper."

Xenophilius cleared his throat, "Um, Rita... this is the first year of our paper."

"Precisely why I think we should have a clearer set of goals in mind. Now I want it to be edgy, modern, and above all, interesting to read. I want the students reading our newsletters cover-to-cover each month."

"All right," Xenophilius said, "This is what I propose: The students here really enjoy two things - that is Quidditch and gossip. Now, I really would like the students to have a dose of Wizarding news interjected into our newsletters as well, you know, to keep our publication respectable."

"That sounds great," said Rita. "I'll take gossip. Xen, you take news. Gilderoy, that means you've got Quidditch."

Gilderoy looked sheepishly from Rita to Xenophilius. "Ummm... what's Quidditch?"

"Oh you'll l-love it!" said Quirinus as they followed the crowd of students to the Quidditch pitch. "It's the best Wizarding sport!"

Gilderoy sighed as he thought gloomily to himself, I'm to write the sports section...

"G-Gryffindor and Slytherin are p-playing today. It'll be g-great!" Quirinus said. He continued chatting about the rules of the game and who the players were on each team. Gilderoy knew he should be paying attention - this was all information he would need for his Pumpkin Juice article, but he just wasn't interested.

After getting to the pitch, they found seats in the Ravenclaw stands and Gilderoy prepared to watch his first Quidditch game. The excitement of the crowd reached a fever pitch as the teams kicked off from the ground and flew into the air on their broomsticks.

Quirinus tried to explain the game and each play as they watched, but the crowd drowned out his timid voice. Gilderoy settled for enjoying the sunshine and listening to the commotion of the crowd while watching the Quidditch players fly. He hadn't been able to fly yet. He had had a handful of flying lessons so far, but as yet had been unable to lift above the ground. He wondered what it would feel like to fly that high in the air, turning loops and diving dangerously toward the ground.

Back in the common room, after the game, Gilderoy wrote his article on the Quidditch match for Pumpkin Juice.

The Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin was very exciting. Gryffindor's colours of red and gold are very complimentary and shown well to all spectators. Although the Slytherin colours of green and silver are also complimentary, it was very hard to distinguish the Slytherin players from the mainly green backdrop of lush grass. I didn't really understand the game, but it was nice to see other people enjoying it.

"Here, Quirinus. Can you read this over and tell me what you think?" Gilderoy handed the parchment to his friend.

Quirinus scanned the page and lifted his eyes back to Gilderoy. "Ummm, yeah it's n-not bad for your f-first attempt. M-maybe you should m-mention the score though."

Quirinus handed the parchment back, and Gilderoy added:

My friend, Quirinus said the score was 150-70 to Slytherin.

When he turned his article into Rita the next day, she scanned it over and looked back at Gilderoy. "It's not very good, Gilderoy. I'll tell you that right now. People want to be able to sink their teeth into Quidditch, and you've hardly given them a morsel."

Gilderoy sighed, "I'm sorry, I just... I don't really like Quidditch..."

"Hmmm," said Rita, tapping her glasses, "I'll re-assign you to another subject then. How about health and beauty care?"

"I think that would be just fine," Gilderoy beamed.