Hearth II James Potter

Chapter 5-A Cat as a Teacher and Flying Cleaning Supplies

Y/N woke up bright and early the next day to Lily's panicked voice. It must have been just five in the morning and Lily was already scrambling around the room to collect her books. Y/N attempted to cover her eyes with her blanket but Lily decided that everyone had to suffer through her first day nerves. Dorcas was already up and out of bed, doing some type of stretching exercise. It didn't look very comfortable from what Y/N could gather; being bent into a humanoid pretzel wasn't her idea of 'morning exercise'. Mary was snoring away, unbothered by the noise surrounding her. Y/N was envious that she had that ability - Y/N being a light sleeper. If Y/N hadn't known better it seemed that Mary was not in the least bit nervous. Marlene was in the bathroom, probably already getting dressed. Y/N heard her moving around earlier in the morning, even earlier than Lily, but she couldn't be bothered to interrogate her.

The noise didn't settle down at all and Y/N decided to just get out of bed. It wasn't like she was going to sleep through the chaos anyway. She stood up and quickly made her bed the best she could, although it still looked quite messy compared to Mary's neatly made bed. Y/N then waited, a little impatiently, outside the bathroom door. She really needed to shower and brush her teeth as soon as she could, Y/N felt absolutely disgusting that morning. Marlene was taking her time in there and Y/N felt tempted to kick the door down - she didn't of course, that would technically be vandalism. Instead, Y/N rapped on the door asking Marlene to hurry a bit.

When Marlene exited Y/N all but ran inside. She brushed her teeth and then stepped into the shower, hoping to wash quickly enough not to get interrupted. Of course, that wasn't an option that morning. Mary walked into the bathroom, not even bothering to knock. Y/N cursed herself for not locking the door. When she asked Mary to leave with a strained voice, she just looked at her in confusion.

"I don't mind," Mary shrugged, "we've all got the same parts." With that, she grabbed a hairbrush and sped outside. Y/N never had her privacy invaded like that and she much doubted that she would ever forget to close the doors again. Y/N had never finished a shower so quickly that time and slipped into her robes. She didn't tie her tie just yet, hoping to get Lily to do it during breakfast. The socks were uncomfortable and itchy and Y/n had half a mind to just rip them off and use one of her own, but she did not want to get any points taken away from her house so early in the year. It would have been incredibly embarrassing.

Y/N grabbed her books and watched as Lily frantically started reading the first few chapters of her charms book. Y/N doubted that their professors would expect a lot out of them the first day but she didn't voice her opinion; it seemed to calm Lily down a lot by the looks of it. Y/N spent her time playing with her wand. It was nothing spectacular. 11 ½ inches made it a rather stunted wand compared to other wands she saw and the wood was pretty common. There were a few ridges to create a holding point but other than that it was plain. Lily's wand was very pretty, with intricate designs and 10 ¼ inches. It was made of willow, which she remembered reading was quite rare. It was a very good wand for healing and Y/N wondered if maybe there was some type of profession for those types of people. On the other hand, Y/N's Maplewood was made for travelers - mostly people that would not be able to stay in one place for a long time. It was made for high-achievers, which is the opposite of what Y/N felt like. Y/N was competitive but never saw herself as going far in life. Honestly, she would be lucky if she even landed a simple retail job.

Y/N was pondering over the wand, trying to balance it on the flattened end. It was not the most exciting activity but it certainly kept her busy. It took her several tries before it stood up for more than ten seconds.

When Dorcas finally finished dressing the girls all got ready to head for breakfast. Y/N put her wand behind her ear, making sure to tie her hair up so that it wouldn't get in the way. She must have looked funny because Marlene gave her multiple quizzical looks.