First Years

He looked at his alarm clock, then looked up at her.

"That's really cool," he said, astonished, "I'm better at Transfiguration, anyway, which is why I didn't take charms this year..."

He glanced back at his alarm clock, and poked it. "I've never actually seen the charm work before..."

He pocketed the clock. "D'you think the professor will notice me - what's he name, anyway?" He added, curious, but trying to not sound mean.

Mary nodded softly and smiled. "I'm better at Charms, honestly... They're easier to read up at. Besides, in transfiguration you have to be very concentrated on that specific theme. And I'm too impatient for that," she said and added a mischievous smile.

"Really? You've never seen charm work before?" she said, rather astonished. "Surely you've heard of the levitating spell, Wingardium Leviosa," she asked softly, although didn't press the matter any further. "She's professor Finch. Her full name is Elizabeth Bracknel Finch. You might have heard of her? And her husband?" she asked, wondering if there were others in this world who'd cared enough to read the entire "Famous names of our century" book.

"Oh, I've seen charm work before, just not reparo, it never worked for me," he replied sheepishly, looking at that ground.

He looked up again at his Care of Magical Creatures Professor with curious eyes. "Professor Finch, huh? I've actually never heard of her but I think I know her husband... Although I can't remember properly..."

He frowned in concentration, something he's done way too much since he'd met Mary - not that it was bad. He liked how his best friend made him think.

A cold breeze made its way around their area, so he found himself tightening his Gryffindor scarf around him, and rubbing his hands together, regretting that he forgot to bring his gloves with him this morning.

Mary giggled softly, although shook her head. "Practice. A good charm will eventually be of great help," she adviced, knowing that she'd already used the leviosa charm several times to rescue her ink bottle from dropping onto the floor, to make sure her items didn't fall off objects when she didn't want them to.

"She's in some of the books where they've noted famous wizards of our century. I believe she's a good professor," she said softly, not really wanting professor Finch to hear her comment. She hated being noticed when speaking nicely of someone, especially when it was the person she was speaking about who came around. It usually made her face flush with embarrassment.

Without pushing the matter of how fairly known Professor Finch was, Mary noticed that Sam was clutching his scarf tighter around his neck and smiled softly as she noticed how his hands were bare in the cold wind. "You should have brought gloves. Here," she paused and removed her own gloves, coloured in the Ravenclaw colours. "They may not be in the right colour, although I think they'll serve the same purpose," she said with a hint of amusement twinkling in her eyes. She'd used them for a long time right now, and she honestly wasn't very cold any longer. Sure, she wore a Ravenclaw scarf and a slightly ticker cloak, but her hands hadn't frozen to ice just yet.

Sam nodded in reply when he heard Mary tell him about the Professor, but he also heard the softness in her voice.

"Are you afraid someone'll hear you complimenting them?" He asked in amusement, "It's not bad or anything..."

When Mary offered her own Ravenclaw gloves to him, he was about to say no, and insist that she should wear them. But then he saw that she really did want to give them to him, and that she wouldn't take no for an answer, his ears redden slightly as he took them.

"Thank you," he said sincerely, "I'll give the back to you after the lesson."

Mary looked at Sam and nudged him gently with her hand. "Hey! You think I'm afraid of that?!" she exclaimed, although stopped and looked at her feet. "Yeah... You're quite right. I am. If they do hear, you'll have to explain to them. I'm not too good with words. I can do spells, and short sentences, but my tongue stumbles slightly when I speak with people I hardly know," she explained, and sighed.

She was quite glad when he took her gloves, and had the idea that he had actually thought about saying no, and that he'd be saying it was fine. "No problem," she said and smiled softly, tucking her hands into the pockets of her cloak, glancing at Professor Finch for a moment to see if she'd decided they'd head off to their proper lesson soon.

Sam smiled softly at her explanation. "Ah don't worry, some people have the same fear," He took a brave step towards best friendship and swung a friendly arm around her shoulders. Now don't get any wrong ideas, it was a friendly thing. Nothing more. They were too young - way too young - for that stuff anyway! "And I'll tell people that you're really shy..."

He frowned in concentration, remembering their first meeting, "Tell me if my memory is wrong, but I seem to remember that you were the one to talk to me first... So maybe you can over come your fear."

But I'm a hypocrite, he scolded himself, I was planning to not make friends unless they asked me to, because I'm afraid of people.

He glanced back at Mary, and wondered if she knew he was afraid of people, as he knew he came off as quite obviously scared of her at the beginning. He bit back a chuckle but was unable to hide a smile when he remembered their first encounter.

*flashback*

"Wow. You've got a talent for transfiguration, it seems," she commented, and gave a gentle smile before turning back to her beetle.

"Th-thank you," he said softly, "I don't get many compliments around here. It's mainly 'oi kid, move!' or something..."

"I'm Mary. Mary Swale," she said and held out her hand politely, glad to meet someone at her age.

He looked up at her properly and allowed himself a soft smile. Taking her hand and shaking it, he stated, "I'm Samuel Potter, but Samuel's too long, so just call me Sam, please."

*end flashback*

Mary gave a smirk and allowed him to swing his arm over her shoulders, glad she'd finally found herself a friend. "Shy, modest... You name it," she said with a chuckle, her eyes twinkling happily. Finally I'm not as lonesome as I used to be, she thought with a pleased glimmer in her eyes. She'd have to send a letter home and tell about how school were, and she would definitly tell about Samuel.

She kept a sly smrik over her face as he mentioned that she had indeed been first to speak when they encountered each other in the Transfiguration lesson. "Ach, seems I managed to take one step over that border. You aren't the most scary person I've ever met, anyway," she said and poked him with her bare hand, before tucking it back into her pockets.

((Sorry for the shortness...))

"You aren't the most scary person I've ever met, anyway," she said and poked him with her bare hand, before tucking it back into her pockets.

Sam let out a fake huff and crosses his arms in mock-pout. "I can be plenty scary," he assured her, then he screwed up his face in a mock-scary shape, "ROAR! Scared??"

Mary put on a highly amused face and laughed, not like her usual chuckle or giggle, but more like a proper laughter. "Ooh, I'm so scared!" she faked and leaned slightly away from him for a moment, faking an expression of fear before she leaned back to sit upright, laughing at his attempt to sound scary. "Really. You're as harmless as a lamb," she said with a wide grin.

"I'm not harmless... I-I'm tough! I'm as tough as a werewolf!" He winced at the last word he used, before gaining his composure again and growling a very realistic growl, worthy of the wolf version of Sam. "I'm scary! I can EAT a lamb if I wanted to!"

Truer words were never spoken, he thought to himself, if only she knew... I wish I could tell her, but I'm sure she'd reject me.

Mary raised an eyebrow at him. "Really? I'm hoping you won't though. They're sweet," she commented and smiled softly. "You do have a very convincing growl though, mr. Wolf," she teased and jumped off the log, brushing off some of the dust that had caught on her cloak. "What do you think we're going to learn about?" she asked, figuring she'd ask someone else about something related to the subject.

"You do have a very convincing growl though, mr. Wolf," she teased him, making him flinch. He didn't know if he managed to pull it off as a shiver from the cold or not.

"Er... well, we're supposed to be learning about how to take care of magical creatures and the precautions and stuff," he said, trying to change the subject, "But I'm not sure when that'll happen."

Mary looked quite concerned at his flinch, although managed to convince herself that it was probably the cold weather. I have a feeling he's hiding something important from me though, she thought and almost ended up flinching herself. "I'm hoping it'll start soon... And that we'll have an interesting theme," she murmured, realising she'd probably said something wrong she fell into her silent, shy state again.

Sam frowned when Mary went back into her shy state. "Hey, don't be shy now, i'm not hiding anything," he nudged her with his elbow. Lies, an annoying voice in the back of his head snarled at him. He ignored it though. "And I'm not really sure if it's gonna be interesting, I hope so, though; I've always liked Magical creatures, they're really interesting."

That was mostly due to the fact he needed to know how other creatures' bites effected a werewolf, but he wasn't gonna tell her that any time soon.

Mary gave a soft smile at his nudge and shrugged softly. I've got a secret of my own. how can I blame him from hiding things from me? Truth was, she actually had a deep secret. In which she'd always been terrified to speak of. Most people saw it as supernatural, and many viewed it as being the skill of a Dark wizard. Thereby, she'd had strict messages from home telling her to not talk about it in open. Obviously sickened by the thought of having to admit this secret to Sam frightened her, as she believed he'd instantly reject her.

Trying to cheer up, she released her darker thoughts and managed to put on a much more convincing smile. "Don't you worry. I have a very good feeling this lesson will be great. Just you wait and see," she said and winked softly, relaxing once again before turning her gaze to Professor Finch.

When she put on her convincing smile, he almost believed she was alright. But he knew that the smile she put on wasn't her real one, but he didn't call her out for it, as he had a secret of his own.

"an interesting lesson, huh? We haven't even learned anything yet!" he exclaimed. He drummed his fingers on some icicles, bored.

(sorry it's so short...)