Freaks: Year One

Herbology

Harry was getting worried. It had been about 20 minutes since class had started, and Jasper still hadn't come to Herbology yet. He hoped he hadn't gotten lost. He decided that if he didn't come in 10 minutes he would ask the teacher if he could go find him.

They were working on Snargaluff Pods. They were in groups of three, but since Jasper wasn't here yet, him, and Lily were working together. She was very determined, and focused on the task at hand, while Harry was still worrying about Jasper.

"I can't do this alone, Harry." Lily said. She was trying to find the Snargaluff Pods in the soil, and their job was to extract the pods, as the pods could be used for other things like medicines. "Harry?" She repeated, a little louder this time.

Harry shook out of his thoughts. "Sorry." He went to help her.

All of a sudden Jonathan screamed, making the whole class look up. The Venomous Tentacula had snuck up behind him, and grabbed him, and was swinging him in the air.

"LET ME DOWN!" He screamed. Professor Virindi quickly started to help him. The three Gryffindor boys, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew were laughing. Lily turned to them.

"Oh be quiet, the poor boy just got attacked!"

"He's laughing." James pointed to Gifford who was laughing hysterically.

Lily rolled her eyes. "That's his brother."

"So?"

Lily rolled her eyes again. "Stop being a prat Potter." She went back to her Herbology work. "OH!" She squealed.

"Sorry!" Jasper said. Harry turned to see Jasper had come in, and started to work beside them both. He looked at Virindi. "Sorry, I got lost."

"It's alright Mr. Odair." She replied, staring at his hair for several moments. "Do you think you can catch him up?" She asked Harry, and Lily. They both nodded.

Harry explained to him what they were doing, and they continued to work. Harry whispered. "You alright, you took a long time."

Jasper quickly nodded. "Yeah, everything is fine."

Harry wanted to believe it was, but something in Jasper's eyes told him otherwise, he would ask him later when they weren't in the middle of digging through dirt.

Jasper picked up a pod. "These are interesting." He said inspecting them.

"They are." Lily said. "It is so odd how they move around."

Jasper nodded. "It is! A lot of things seem to move in the Wizarding World that don't usually move at home."

Lily looked at him. "You're muggleborn?" She asked.

"Um...yeah." He said hesitantly.

"I am too!" She said. She smiled, and went back to work. Lily noticed the Gryiffindor boys were staring at Jasper, and whispering. "Is there a problem?"

The three boys turned to her. "No." Sirius started. "It is just..." He looked at Jasper. "You do realise your hair is pink right?"

Jasper looked at the soil. He was already nervous about it because of Mulciber, he didn't want another person making more comments about it too.

Harry noticed this, and said "So what if his hair is pink? Maryrose's hair is pink." He signalled to Maryrose who was back to having the same hair colour as Jasper, and brown eyes.

Sirius shrugged, and turned back to James.

Jasper looked from his Snargaluff Pods, and his eyes widened. "Wait a minute!" The three Gryffindors turned to him. "You're James Potter!"

"The one, and only." James said.

"Is it true you caught a gumball while flying?"

"Pfftttt." James said. "Yeah, it was nothing."

"No, it was everything!" Jasper exclaimed, jumping up. "Like I wish I could have seen it, I wish I could be that good at quidditch too!"

James was clearly enjoying the attention he was getting. Lily rolled her eyes. "I saw it, it wasn't that impressive."

"Oh, but it must have been." Said Marty from her station. "The quidditch captain wants to see it, and I would too!"

Jasper nodded. "How did you do it?" Majority of the class came toward James, Marty, and Jasper both in front to hear how he had caught the gumball. The only two that stayed back were Harry, and Lily. Harry, not interested in flying or quidditch, and Lily, not interested in giving James the attention.

"Well, it was quite a rush, you see." James started. "I saw it, it was red, and I shot toward it as quickly as I could, and then dove toward the gumball that was falling, down, down, down, and I reached out my hand." James reached out as far as he could have. "And I thought to myself, this is only the warmup, I can do this any day, and BAM!!" James clapped his hands together. "I caught it, easy as pie."

Jasper, and Marty were both staring at James with admiration. "I wish I could do that." Jasper whispered.

"Well." James said, walking closer to Jasper. "If you ever need any tips, you know who to call." He patted Jasper's head, and gave a crooked smile.

Lily scoffed at this. "He is such an egotistical toerag."

Harry said "That does sound pretty cool though. I am not a big fan of flying, but for someone his age catching something that small, it is pretty amazing." He shrugged, and went back to hunting for Puff Pods.

Professor Virindi came up to the group. "Alright everyone, you had your break, get back to work!"

Jasper went back to his station with Harry, and Lily in a much better mood then he had been from that run in with Mulciber.

They said goodbye to the Gryffindors, and went to dinner, and then Jasper told Harry he needed to write back to his parents, so he was going to head up to the owlery. Harry didn't want him to go alone, so he came with. Jasper wrote his letter, and sent it off, and they headed down back to the common room. "So." Harry started. "Did anything happen today or-"

"Well we had classes!" Jasper said. "They were so fun." He smiled.

Harry scratched the back of his head. "Well, I mean when you had to get your Herbology book, it just seemed like-"

"I just got lost, I told you."

"Are you sure-"

"Yeah, I am." Jasper said. He went to the barrels, and did the password, and they both went in. "You know." Jasper said changing the subject. "I am surprised we don't have homework yet."

"Well usually," Harry started knowing Jasper was changing the subject, "The teachers are pretty easy the first week, the homework starts in the second week."

They sat on the couches playing a game called Gobblestones. Jasper was very intrigued by this wizard game. You had to throw these marbles that exploded with either good, or bad scents depending on the move you did. Harry was still concerned about what may have happened when Jasper got "lost", even though Jasper kept denying it, there was just something there that made Harry worry, but before he could ask one more time he realised that Jasper had fallen asleep.

Harry sighed, and went over to him, and put a blanket over him. The fire was slowly dying out, and Harry sat on the chair watching the embers spark, getting flashbacks from the time he had tried to fly. He shook his head, not wanting to remember it, closed his eyes, and soon he too, was asleep.