chaos ~ fred weasley

03. skill

The Great Hall is surprisingly empty when I enter the next morning with Lee, and I easily spot Allie waving at me from the Gryffindor table. My brother follows me over to the table but instead sits with his friends, and I take a seat beside Allie. I notice that Julian is here too- he has his arms folded on the table with his head resting on top, and he's fast asleep. Grinning, I take out my wand from my robes.

I murmur a few words, and with a flick of my wand, Julian's sandy locks turn an alarming shade of pink. Allie gasps and claps her hands a little in excitement. Giggling, she pokes Julian's cheek until he wakes up properly. When he opens his eyes and sees my mischievous grin, he furrows his brows. "What is it?" he says suspiciously.

"Nothing at all," I say nonchalantly, grabbing a basket from the table and offering it to him. "Muffin?"

He shakes his head. "I have Quidditch practice now. Eating something before makes me feel sick." Standing up, he rubs his face and yawns. "see you guys later."

"Bye, Jules!" I call out cheerfully.

Allie waves enthusiastically. "Have a peachy day!"

"Don't get pink eye during Quidditch practice!" I add.

Julian turns around, clearly confused, but he keeps walking. Allie and I collapse into fits of laughter at our horrible attempts at puns. When we spot Julian looking disgruntled all the students sniggering at him, we howl. 

I wolf down a few muffins as Allie and I talk. I learn that Quidditch tryouts for Gryffindor are later on today, so I decide to do it. Allie promises me she'll come, and reminds me that Julian won't be allowed to come- apparently the Gryffindor captain is really strict about letting members of other house Quidditch teams watch them.

Finally, Allie and I are ready to go to our first class- Defence Against the Dark Arts. "So, who's our professor?" I ask.

"You didn't here at dinner last night? We have a new professor. I don't know his name, but apparently he's pretty good. Professor L-something, I don't know."

I nod. "Who did you have before that?"

Allie laughs, and I'm a little confused. "I'm surprised you didn't see it in the Daily Prophet. It was Gilderoy Lockhart. Do you know him?"

"Oh, yeah! He's that author, right?"

"That's the one. Only, he doesn't remember that."

"Come again?"

"Okay, so last year, people started getting Petrified."

I remember the owls I received from Lee about it. They were really short and brief, and he had me worried sick for weeks. "Lee told me about that, yeah."

"Well, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley found the Chamber of Secrets- a room Salazar Slytherin built that holds a huge monster, because he wanted to get rid of non pure-bloods at the school- anyway, they killed the thing in the room, stopped Voldemorts return again, blah blah blah, but then Lockhart tried to wipe their memories with Ron's wand, which was broken. It backfired, and now he doesn't remember who he is or anything."

"Jesus Christ. That's hardcore."

"It really is. And before that, we used to have this guy named Professor Quirrell, except Harry Potter found out that Quirell had Voldemort living on the back of his head. So Quirell's dead."

At least I know about that. I heard about it and forced Lee to tell me absolutely everything. "I get the feeling that since Harry arrived, things have gotten a lot more interesting," I tell Allie.