Journey To Hogwarts, old - thread closed Options

[agrippa]

But James and Philip had little time to investigate Profs. Jacobson and Wiles in the following weeks. As if they knew that the students were on to them, the homework for both Transfiguration and Astronomy seemed to increase exponentially. James would have been more suspicious if it weren’t for the fact that their homework in Potions, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Herbology was become equally daunting. Charms continued to be a bit of a joke, September flew by, leaving a blustering October in its wake.

But even if they had the time to ask Charlie more about Alison Wiles, he was difficult to catch. The first Quidditch match of the season – Gryffindor against Ravenclaw – was schedule for the second Saturday of October.

On the Sunday before that first match, the whole first year of Gryffindor could be found at breakfast with their noses buried in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi. Prof. Longbottom had set their first major exam for the next day, which required them to know the names and properties of over two hundred plants. That afternoon, Prof. Longbottom had promised to open the Greenhouse One so that the students could make sure they were able to recognize all the different plants at sight. Hardly anyone looked up when the owls swept in with the mail.

Elisa Fontaine managed to tear herself away from her book to glance up at the owls. Serena, who was sitting next to her, looked up, too.

“Are you expecting a package?” she asked.

“Yes,” said Elisa. “Mum’s promised to send a batch of her butterscotch fudge. Hey! Look at that beautiful old snowy!”

“James.” Serena elbowed him in the ribs, breaking his concentration. “It’s Hedwig.”

“Wha – oh.” The majestic owl landed in front of James, holding out his right leg. James untied the letter and pushed some bacon and toast to the side of his plate for Hedwig to eat.

Dear James –

Hope you’re well. I hear through the family grapevine that you and the rest of the first years are ploughed with homework. I know it’s rough going, but hang in there.

I’m writing to tell you that I’ve been asked to be the commentator for the first Quidditch match at Hogwarts this year. So I’ll be dropping in next weekend with Mum and Albie. We’ll come in Friday night. Your mum wanted to stay in the castle, but I convinced her to stay at a nice little bed and breakfast in Hogsmeade. I thought you’d probably want your space.

I’m really looking forward to taking you and your friends to the Cup qualifier at the end of the month. We’ll take the Knight Bus, so you might want to prepare your friend Philip for the bumpy ride. Anyway, I’ll see you next weekend!

Love,
Dad

James smiled to himself as he pocketed the note. Hedwig was looking at him as if she expected a quick reply. “You can go up to the owlry, Heddy. I’ll send a reply after our greenhouse session tonight. But if you need to go back home, I can send my reply with Prometheus.”

Hedwig blinked her understanding and flew out the doors of the Great Hall. James returned his attention to the entry on belladonna he had been reading in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi.

[McGonagall's Cat]

James barely noticed Phillip lean back and stretch his arms until one of his hands gently tapped James' arm. Without more than a slight head nod, Phillip indicated "Look at Sean", who was studying across the table from them. Or rather he was sitting with his face pointing at One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, with eyes as big as galleons, surreptitiously watching Allen.

Allen's eating habits had become legend in the Gryffindor tower. Shy skinny Allen ate like three starving lumberjacks, though he never seemed to put on weight. He also tended to combine foods uniquely; cherry tarts with mustard, ham and salmon sandwiches. Sometime during their second week at Hogwarts, Carson had mentioned seeing Allen eat Jammy Dodgers with catsup. He regularly ate pancakes with corn relish and applesauce piled on them.

Studying, as all the others were today, Allen had his book propped agenst a pitcher of juice on the far side of his plate. He almost inhailed a dozen small sausages, first dipping each into something disgustingly green and drippy, while he quietly recited the properties and uses of various plants. Alternately, he would take bites of a chocolate eclair that he was dipping into a bright red vinegary sauce.

Sean began to go pale. "I think I'll go study in the Common Room for a while," he said standing up.

Sean's departure left a gap across the table that allowed a clear view of the Slytherin table.

"Look at them," James mumbled to Phillip. "They don't seem to be studying anywhere near as hard as the rest of us."

"I have enough to worry about passing this myself, if they want to be idiots, let 'em, " Phillip mumbled back. "Hey, does wormwood have oval or reticulated leaves?"

[agrippa]

The herbology exam was every bit as difficult as the first-year Gryffindors had been expecting. There were 200 different plants, herbs, and fungi that had to be identified as the students milled around greenhouse from pot to pot, scribbling down the names of the plants, describing how to care for them and listing their properties. They had only an hour to complete the exam, and students were nearly elbowing each other out of the way to get to the pots they needed to see.

James was looking at what he desperately hoped was some kind of shrivelfig bush – what kind exactly, he wasn’t so sure – when Professor Longbottom yelled, “Accio parchment!” James nearly jumped out of his shoes, and the parchment flew by his ear on the way to the teacher’s desk.

The whole class was staring at the professor. “Mr. Dursley!”

Duke did not look up. He appeared to be concentrating very hard on a bag of potting soil.

“What,” asked the professor, “is this?”

“Just a spare bit of parchment,” replied Duke.

“Mr. Dursley, this parchment is not exactly scrap. I’m going to have to ask you to leave the greenhouse now.”

“But I’m not finished with my exam!” Duke’s voice was now at least two steps higher than it had been a moment ago.

“On the contrary, Mr. Dursley, you are finished. We’ll take this up with your head of house.”

“But…”

“Now, Mr. Dusley. Leave the green house now. We will discuss this later.”

Duke slouched out the greenhouse door, casting a dirty look in Professor Longbottom’s direction as he left.

“Does in one else want to confess that they, too, have some scraps of parchment they shouldn’t have brought to the exam today?”

No one spoke.

“This is your last chance. If you bring up these sheets to me now, your punishment will be much less severe.”

Again, the room was silent.

Professor Longbottom pointed his want at Duke’s parchment. “Duplices ardentes!”

James heard screams from the back of the room. He turned around to see Claude, Pollux, Castor, and Athol – along with several other Slytherins he did not know – waving their hands in the air or sticking them into pitchers of water. On the floor, flames were swiftly eating up pieces of parchment that James assumed must have been the copies of Duke’s cheat sheet.

“If you have a bit of a hot hand right now,” said Professor Longbottom, “you also need to leave the greenhouse now.”

He watched sternly as the Slytherins filed out, hands in their pockets.

“Sorry about that interruption. I will give an extra five minutes to compensate you honest students for the disruption.”

******

At lunch that day, the incident in the herbology exam was the only topic of conversation. The Duke and the rest of the Slytherins who had been thrown out of class were conspicuously absent.

“So what do you think will happen to them?” James asked Lily.

“I don’t know,” said Lily thoughtfully. I don’t know that anyone’s ever been caught cheating like that before.”

“I do,” said Finley from across the table. “In my first year, a Darcy Hooper had the answers to a potions exam written on the side of her wand. Or at least we think she did. Her wand burned up in a flash of purple flame. As everyone knows, if you put ink on your wand, the results can be catastrophic.”

“But I’ve never heard of anyone cheating on this scale,” declared Fiona. “I mean, there were – how many of them with the same parchment?”

“Seven,” said Philip.

“Wow,” said Fiona. “I mean, why do that? You’ve got to know all this stuff. Otherwise, you’ll never be a proper wizard or witch. And in the first year! If you can’t hand first year herbology – well, I can’t imagine how difficult N.E.W.T.-level potions is.”

“And to put dear Professor Longbottom in such a bad position,” said Lily. “And Professor Jacobson-”

“What does Professor Jacobson have to do with this?” Philip said sharply.

“Well, he’s the new head of Slytherin house, isn’t he,” replied Lily. She shook her head. “And just his first year here, too.”

“I just had a horrible thought,” Serena said, suddenly looking up from her roast beef. “What if the Slytherins have been cheating for ages, but nobody was stupid enough to get caught until this crew?”

“I wouldn’t put it past them,” Philip said thoughtfully. “And if they’re cheating and not getting caught, and the rest of us are surviving only on our wits – well, it’s not a level playing field, is it?”

“If that’s true,” declared Freddy solemnly, “then it is our absolute duty to defend the honor of Gryffindor by cheating ourselves!”

Fiona and Findley shot him such a dirty look that James, sitting next to him, could almost feel the heat of their stares.

“I’m just kidding,” said Freddy. “I bet the professors catch nearly all the cheaters.”

“And besides,” said Fiona, looking less menacing now, “on the only exams that matter – the O.W.Ls and the N.E.W.Ts – there are so many anti-cheating charms that no one could possibly…”

She trailed off, apparently lost in a world of her own. The Gryffindors had just enough time to finish their lunch before the tower bell announced the beginning of afternoon classes.

[McGonagall's Cat]

Lily and Freddy had returned to the Great Hall just before the bell sounded.

"Why didn't you tell me you'd already owled Dad about Duke?" Lily grumbled as she stood behind her brother, annoyed beyond reason.

James swallowed the last bite of his sandwich, then turned toward her looking confused, and asked, "What?"

"I just went up to the Owlery to send a note about what our dear cousin did in Herbology this morning, but it appears you already have..." her voice carried a tone that, when perfected, would send chills down the backs of her future children. Lily, as oldest, was used to being the star, the first to share the juiciest tidbits of news with her parents. The thought that James had beaten her to the punch had obviously slammed her sibling-rivalry gene into overdrive.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, Lily. Ask Phillip or Sean or any of us... We had Charms right after Herbology, and since Professor Longbottom gave us extra time to finish the test, we had to run to get to Charms on time."

Phillip, while nodding, quietly added, "As though he'd even notice if we were late... or there at all."

"And then we were all starving, on account of cramming through breakfast for the test, and came straight here after class," Allen confirmed as he dipped a final bite of chicken into the little bowl of tapioca pudding beside his plate.

Still looking miffed, she challenged, "Then where's Prometius?"

"Huh?"

"You know, your owl... the one it took you forever to bother naming," she snapped. "He usually sits beside Cassandra. She was perched where I always keep her, but he was nowhere to be seen."

The boys echanged concerned looks.

"He's not there again?" James asked, obviously worried.

She glared, "Right, like you don't know."

"No really," James retored. "He wasn't there the last time I tried to send something."

Freddy snorted under his breath, "Ten minutes ago..."

James glared at Freddy, but continued undaunted. "When he wasn't there then, I promised I'd spend more time with him. But this test has kept me busy. I thought he was feeling neglected, or didn't really know me well enough, or something."

Carson looked puzzled. "That was a couple days ago...."

[AnimeEyeshime]

But Prometheus was forgotten again as the tower bell declared the end of lunch, and everyone hurried to class. Potions passed by without incident, although towards the end of class Professor Krum did make a comment on the morning?s events.

"I vish to make very clear to all my students that cheating iz simply unacceptable. I assure you that all ze professors vill be closely monitoring the situation to make sure diz duz not occur again."

"I thought Freddy said the professors catch nearly all the cheaters," Philip said to James as they left the classroom.

"It's probably just so they can say they lectured everybody. If they just lectured one House, it wouldn't look as fair, would it?" James replied.

They had nearly reached the common room when Lily intercepted them. "You two aren't busy, right?" As James and Philip shook their heads, she smiled. 'Good. Freddy and I just got new information on Jacobsen. Come meet us by the statue of Uric the Oddball on the fourth floor," she whispered conspiratorially, then disappeared into a passing crowd of Hufflepuffs.

"That was...strange," James said. "Normally she stays mad at me for at least a few more hours." And, come to think of it, does something to get even...

"Maybe the rules change when it comes to Jacobsen," Philip said, shrugging.

James and Philip found Lily, Freddy, and another girl leaning against the statue, talking in quiet voices. When Freddy spotted the first years, he waved them over.

"James, Philip, this is Seliani. She's a third year, Ravenclaw," Freddy said, gesturing to the girl. Her gray eyes surveyed the them coolly, but she smiled.

"It's nice to meet you," she said pleasantly. "You must be the ones who keep finding such interesting things."

James nodded, and assumed that Freddy and Lily must have told her most of the major discoveries they'd found out so far. After all, if she had new information... "We don't know what Jacobsen and his wife up to. Do you?"

Seliani sighed. "Unfortunately, no. I've had the somewhat questionable good fortune to overhear some suspicious comments and behavior, but not enough that an adult would agree there?s something wrong."

"Jacobsen and Wiles seem to be good at covering their tracks," Philip offered.

"Yeah, but there?s no such thing as a 'perfect crime,'" Freddy put in. Lily gave him a look, and Freddy added, "Unless it's the Marauders doing it, of course..."

"Of course," Seliani agreed, still smiling.

"Lily, you said something about new information..." James said when the silence had gone on too long.

"That would be mine," Seliani said, raising her hand lightly. "I think Jacobsen is up to something Dark, though I doubt it has to do anything with the former Dark Lord. Wiles I don't know too well, but Jacobsen's visited my family a few times, and that in itself is suspicious."

"Huh?" Philip said perplexedly, voicing James' thoughts. His confusion must have showed on his face, for Lily sighed deeply.

"Honestly, James, you do have eyes. She's a Malfoy, of course!"

James stared with wide eyes at Seliani. She did have the face, though it was less sharp than the pictures he'd seen of the infamous Lucius Malfoy. And the white-blond hair was hard to mistake...

"The only child and the last of the line," Seliani said smiling. "I do so enjoy the irony."

"But why-"

"James, she's in Ravenclaw. She wants to be an Auror and fight Dark wizards," Freddy volunteered, answering the unspoken question.

"Put gits like my father in Azkaban," Seliani said, eyes twinkling happily. "Mother nearly disowned me when I was Sorted into Ravenclaw, but I suppose she thought the Malfoy influence would win out in the end. Father thinks I?m in Slytherin; Mother never told him the truth."

James blinked. After hearing some of Dad's stories about Draco Malfoy, it was hard to think of anyone in that family as having decency...but she did seem sincere, and there was no doubt that having a Malfoy to help investigate Jacobsen might prove useful.

"So he's visited your family?" Philip began. James noticed he didn?t seem to have a problem with Seliani. Of course, he probably had never heard of the notorious Malfoy family.

"Yes, as recently as about two weeks before the term started," Seliani said. "I couldn't hear much--Mother closeted him away in one of the back rooms, the ones with the heavy shielding--but, hearing what you all have discovered, he might have gotten something from the Manor." Seliani shrugged. "Even I'm not sure what all we have laying around, but it's probably Dark, ancient, and powerful. If we could just figure out more about it, then I could probably write and ask Father...He's quite keen for me to carry on the family tradition, you know."

"You could tell him you?re using whatever it is on the Potter and Weasley kids," Lily suggested with a barely straight face.

"But then he'd have a heart attack of euphoria, and I want him to live long enough for me to disown him..." Seliani said with an angelic voice.

"I just realized," James said slowly, "that we saw a place Jacobsen might be hiding this thing, if it is a thing. Remember the wardrobe? We never went back and looked at it."

Philip nodded. "That ought to be our first priority."

"Anyone doing anything tonight?" Lily asked grinning mischievously.


***************************************************
((When reading through, I noticed nobody ever followed up on the room...^^ And how do you all like Draco's daughter? It's tradition in the pureblood fanatic families...Sirius was the last of his (practically) and look how he turned out, the little rebel I suppose Draco married Pansy, though it is open to interpretation. The wife's obviously a Slytherin. And many thanks to Cat for the beta!))

[agrippa]

James glanced at his watch. It was midnight. Where was she? He shot a nervous look at his sister.

"Are you sure she –"

"Don't be a git, James," snapped Lily. "Seliani will be here any minute."

"I'm here," said a voice behind him, as Seliani stepped out of the shadows. "So which way to this mysterious wardrobe?"

"It's on the way to the owlery," whispered Philip. "So we just need to –"

Philip froze as loud footsteps sounded below. Several people were coming up the stairs. The group scrambled into a nearby closet and pulled the door shut.

"Really, Mr. Dursley!" Prof. McGonagall's voice cut through the silence. "You can't just barge in here demanding a midnight meeting!"

"Hrumph!" said a voice that could only have belonged to Dudley Dursley. He was panting a little from climbing so many flights of stairs. "Well. I was intending – to be here – in time for dinner – but you – people – don't make it so easy – to find this place – do you?"

"If you had simply sent us an owl," responded the headmistress, "we would have been glad to accommodate you."

"An owl?" Dudley howled. "As if I even owned – as if I would want – ridiculous!"

"Step in here, Mr. Dursley," sighed Prof. McGonagall. "The heads of house have already been summoned."

Hearing the heavy clink of a door-bolt, Freddy cautiously opened the closet door. He peered around the door. "All clear," he whispered.

They stepped out of the closet. Down the hall, a shaft of light crept out from below a heavy door.

"What do you think Dad's cousin is doing here?" James whispered to Lily.

"Dunno," Lily said. "But we're going to find out."

She pulled what looked like a pink wad of bubble-gum out of he robe pocket. With a well-practiced flick of the wrist, she unrolled the mass into long strands.

"Extendable ears," James whispered to Philip, noticing his look of curiosity.

"New and improved extendable ears," said Freddy proudly. "Just one listener, but multiple ear-pieces."

"So," said Seliani, "back in the closet?"

Lily nodded and rolled out one fleshy pink strand towards the room where the meeting was taking place. It slipped itself under the small crack at the bottom of the door. She handed an ear-piece to each one of them as the stuffed themselves back into the closet.

The first voice they heard was Dudley's. "So, as you can clearly see, my son had nothing to do with this whole thing, and so I'm sure you'll want to take him off – er – disciplinary probation immediately."

"Mr. Dursley," said Prof. McGonagall in her kindest tone, "your son had a copy of the cheat-sheet in his hand during the test. I would think that you'd be glad the consequences were not much more severe."

"If he had been in my house," said a voice that James recognized right away as Prof. Jacobson's, "he would have been expelled immediately."

"What house is he head of?" whispered James.

"Hufflepuff, if you can believe it," muttered Seliani.

"As it iz," said Prof. Krum, "Young Mr. Dursley iz in Slytherin, and therefore iz my responsibility. I, too, was inclined to expel him. But Prof. Longbottom –"

"I thought he deserved a second chance," said Prof. Longbottom. "It's clear to me that Dudley cheated mostly because he's finding the coursework here at Hogwarts very difficult, as he came from a mug – ah – as he doesn't come from a wizarding family."

"Not from a wizarding family!" thundered Dudley. "He's related to the biggest blasted freaksh – er – wizard in the whole world. You do know who my cousin is, don't you?"

James stifled a laugh, and he could tell from the shaking beside him that Lily was doing the same.

"Be that as it may," said Prof. McGonagall icily, "young Mr. Dursley's marks thus far are quite low. We're very concerned –"

"MY SON IS NOT AN IDIOT!" yelled Dudley. Everyone in the closet moved their extendables a few inches from their ears to avoid permanent hearing loss.

"We're not saying that, Mr. Dursley," said Prof. Longbottom. "We're just saying that we're concerned. We'd like him to get a little extra help. We would set him up with an older student to tutor him."

"Tutor him? One of your kind?" Dudley's voice was low and menacing. "Over my dead body."

"I see," said Prof. McGonagall. "Then you leave us no choice. I'll just send Prof. Krum to fetch your son from the Slytherin dormitory and you two can return home together."

A long silence followed. When Dudley spoke again, he was much more conciliatory. "Th-there's no need for that. Being here really means a lot to Duke. He'd be absolutely furious with me if he had to leave."

"Very well," said Prof. McGonagall briskly. "Prof. Krum will find a suitable tutor for your son, and he will be allowed to stay, provided that there is no further academic dishonesty on his part. Would it be all right, Mr. Dursley, if we all returned to our beds? I'll be happy to have a guest room made up for you."

"Th-thank you," stuttered Dudley.

Lily slipped briefly out of the closet and retracted the extendable ears. She closed the door until all the footsteps had died away.

"Well!" she giggled. "Our little cousin's in deep, isn't he?"

"Who do you suppose Krum will get to tutor him?" chortled James.

"Dunno," said Seliani, "but they'll have their work cut out for them."

[StarWalker]

“Let’s check that wardrobe,” Seliani urged, “before someone finds us.”

Those in the closet were quiet for a few seconds. “Maybe we better forget it for tonight,” Philip cautioned. “Too many teachers are up now.”

No one required much urging; caught out of bed and out of bounds, because Dudley arrived in the middle of the night, was not in their plans. The thought of the punishment they would receive was enough to send them scurrying back to their dormitories, though when Philip and James entered the Gryffindor common room, no one was behind them.

James looked around, puzzled, and then poked his head back into the hallway to see if the others were coming. “Where’d they go?” he muttered, shaking his head.

“I don’t know,” Philip got out around a yawn, “but they can take care of themselves, and I’m sure we’ll hear what they did in the morning.”

Stumbling up the stairs, James stifled his own yawn. “Suppose you’re right,” he mumbled as the two tumbled into their beds. The even breathing and soft snoring of the others drowned his next question, even as it trailed off. “You don’t – yawn – think they’re doing something to Dudley do…”

Sean, Carson, and Allan were already gone when Philip woke James. After hurriedly dressing, they headed down for breakfast, anxious to see where Lily, Freddy, and Seliani had gone last night. Even though it was after 7:30, the passages seemed strangely empty to the two, as they rushed to the Great Hall. As they drew closer, however, a boisterous murmur ebbed and swelled, becoming deafeningly loud as they opened the doors and entered.

“I’ve never seen this many people here for breakfast, this late,” James said to Philip, frowning, as they slipped into two empty spots at the Gryffindor table, and filled their plates.

“James! Look!” Lily yelled from a dozen seats away, though her voice was almost lost in the background clamor of the room.

Philip elbowed him in the ribs, and pointed to the head table. “Who’s that up there next to Professor McGonagall?”

After stuffing a sausage in his mouth, James turned to look at his schoolmates, and saw that they, too, were all staring at the head table. Indeed, whatever was there appeared to be keeping everyone here, talking. Excited now, James turned to the front, anxious to see for himself the source of entertainment.

His initial glance revealed that the professors all looked as if they had swallowed something bitter, though a closer look showed many twinkling eyes, despite the set of their face. Professor Jacobson looked furious, staring intently at his plate, and eating as though each bite was arguing with him. James stifled a giggle as that thought struck him. Professor Wiles, on the other hand, was studiously ignoring her husband, and was calmly clearing her plate, a half smile on her lips. Hagrid was as large as always, laughing as he emptied his plate and reached for more. When he picked up a platter of ham, he drew attention to the man sitting next to him.

“Oh! No!” James shrank within himself, as he saw Professor McGonagall, sitting stiffly and drinking a mug of pumpkin juice, while between her and Hagrid sat a man who could only be Dudley Dursley. Though his father had spoken of Dudley many times, and described him as he had looked twenty years ago, the reality was something else entirely. “That’s Duke’s father, my Dad’s cousin Dudley,” he told Philip.

While he might have trimmed his weight and boxed during his time at Smeltings, the intervening years had left their toll. Dudley had succeeded in eclipsing his father in both weight and girth, and had grown a great, drooping, walrus mustache that bested Harry’s descriptions of his Uncle Vernon’s. Balding, he was vain enough to attempt to conceal it by letting his hair grow longer, and brushing it over to try to cover the vast, shiny expanse of skin.

Dudley looked as though he had slept in his clothes, if, indeed, he had slept at all. Disheveled, he sat on the edge of his seat, and between mouthfuls, he looked around wild-eyed. A caricature of gluttony, his plate piled with food, he was eating as if he were starving. Clearly, sitting next to the man who had given him a pig’s tail so many years before did not affect his appetite.

James glanced at Lily, who surreptitiously pointed back to the head table, then pointed up, grinning hugely. Freddy sat next to her, trying to look nonchalant, but failing miserably. High above Dudley, James could see what everyone was staying to watch. Visible only to the students, because of where they sat in relation to Dudley, were letters 6 feet tall, flashing silver and green, proclaiming to all:

DUDLEY DURSLEY
DUKE’S DAD
SO SAD

Philip nudged him and pointed to the Slytherin table. “Look at Duke!”

James turned to see Duke, surrounded by McMagnus, Jugson, and Travers, staring at the sight of his father sitting beneath the scintillating sign, stuffing his face in front of the entire school. His face was flushed, his cheeks damp, as he turned to leave with his friends. Turning back to Philip, James motioned to the door, and headed for class.

Serena caught up with them as they approached the Defense against the Dark Arts classroom. “Guess what - Lily had to go see Professor McGonagall – Professor Longbottom told her – did you see that sign above – hey, was that was your cousin – he went with her to see – no not your cousin, Professor Longbottom –“

James tuned out her chatter. Intent on watching the Slytherin crowd ahead, he didn’t see Professor Krum approaching until he had already stopped Duke. Unable to slow, and listen, he only caught a fragment as he and Philip entered the classroom. “…see the Head Mistress with…”

The door closed behind James. As he, Philip, and Serena sat, and waited for Professor Lovegood to arrive, he watched Duke’s friends enter; Duke, however, was conspicuously absent as class began, and Serena finally quieted. James thoughtfully considered the look on Duke’s face as Professor Krum stopped him, and he wondered why Lily had to go to see Professor McGonagall. James sighed, and he reached for parchment and quill.