Amethyst Rosewood and The Joys of Independence by Melissa Nichols (bill gates books recommendations .TXT) 📖

Fifty minutes ended quickly. Amy had just finished with the chapter when the alarm sounded. With sighs of relief, the group put away their textbooks and started to talk about what they had learned. While they did, Amy moved her Charms notes to the green folder and turned back to a fresh page. At the same time, Mary re-set the timer for their ten-minute break. At the end of it, the group selected a new subject and resumed their studying. Amy selected her Fourth Period, Defense Against the Dark Arts, turned to the first chapter and titled her notes to match.

Defense Against the Dark Arts seemed to be mostly about defending oneself against various magical creatures as well as other wizards. This book, being the first of seven, focused on magical creatures that were common and easy to deal with. The first chapter focused on one particular monster, Cornish Pixies. These tiny creatures were winged, blue-skinned with large eyeballs, sharp teeth and were particularly mischievous. They were found in nearly every wizarding attic or dark space and were easily removed when frozen with any sort of immobilizing jinx such as Immobulus or Patrificus Totalus.

The chapter about pixies was short, so Amy decided to trace in the picture offered. She had just finished bolding the outline of the pixie with a pen when the timer sounded its cry. Satisfied with her work for now, Amy put the page into a folder. But she paused when she realized she had opened the folder she had put the Charms notes in. Deciding on a quick course of action, she placed the Defense Against the Dark Arts notes into the light blue folder and turned the binder to the front, once more baring a fresh page of paper. This time she didn't discuss her learnings with her friends, she wrote out the titles of her classes in a large size cursive font and adjusted it look better. She then removed that paper, traced the outline of the letters in a bold black pen, erased the inner space and placed the sheet under a fresh one. She then re-traced the titles twice, carefully spacing them apart. Next, she selected eight markers and colored the titles in with the color that corresponds to the notebook and folder. Now done, she borrowed Mary's scissors and cut the papers into rectangular pieces. Borrowing Albus' packing tape - which everyone thought was an odd choice to bring to school - Amy carefully covered one title in a strip of tape, cut the tape at the end, and lined it up on the proper folder before securing it onto the surface. Admiring her handiwork, Amy nodded and repeated the steps until she had eight matching pairs of folders and notebooks.

Checking her work carefully, she made sure the colors were correct. She had placed a Charms label on a light blue folder and on the light blue notebook, Defense Against the Dark Arts had been placed on the yellow pair, Potions was red, History of Magic was pink, Transfiguration was purple, Herbology was green, Astronomy was white, and Flying was black.

Now organized, she resumed her studying. Since she had used most of the third session on the labels, she didn't start a new subject. Instead, she brought out her pixie notes and kept working on the diagram until the third hour was up. They had only one more hour before dinner was served, so Amy used the fourth session for Potions.

Potions, as it turned out, was exactly as it sounded. She would learn how to use magical ingredients - which varied from plants and herbs to parts of creatures both magical and not - to brew a potion which would carry out its unique purpose. She then would need to stir the concoction correctly, at the proper time of day and for the proper length before letting it sit for the given amount of time. Each potion was unique, Amy saw as she flipped forward, but thankfully not very difficult. The first chapter detailed how to procure each ingredient she would need this year as if she were finding the ingredient without the aid of a store, not learning a particular potion. Amy supposed she was happy with that. There was little doubt her studies in years to come would begin to teach her how to create new potions, and she would certainly need to know how to collect every ingredient she could need.

At the end of the fifty minutes, with dinner looming, the group packed their belongings and made their way back to their respective dormitories to put away their things before returning to the Great Hall for dinner.

As Amy, Scorpius and Albus made their way into the dungeons, Amy was glad to neither see nor hear a sign of Peeves, allowing the Hufflepuff and Slytherins to enter their common rooms in peace.

Dinner was a simple affair. Steak was on the menu tonight; various cuts were cooked in the best way for that cut, though without any seasonings. Sauces, seasoning salts, and other toppings were placed in individual bowls and labelled. To make themselves available to all of the students, the bowls floated in a line. Searching first for her entree on the tabletop, Amy found a small piece of beef wrapped in bacon on a plate among others of its kind, selected the juiciest one and moved it onto her plate. She carefully removed the stake from the bacon and cut into the meat. After a deliberating chew, she sighed and relaxed in her seat as she closed her eyes. Juicy and soft, the meat brought a new taste while the bacon was crispy and familiar. She opened her eyes, prepared to take another bite, but spotted a bowl of caramelized onions floating past. She quickly spooned some onto the steak, replaced the spoon to the bowl, and gathered some onion on the piece of meat she had on her fork. She took another bite and moaned, but something was still missing. She looked up once more, reading the labels on the bowls floating past, and found what she had been searching for. A few students to Amy's right flew a shaker of seasoning salt. She smiled and waited patiently, then snatched it out of the air when it came close enough. She gently sprinkled the steak and onions with it before putting it back in the line and letting go. Her third bite was perfection, and she ate greedily.

When the meat was gone, she cleaned her plate of the seasoned onions and emptied her goblet of orange juice. She watched everything float past for a few moments, giving her stomach time to settle, then she decided she was still hungry. She selected another piece of the bacon-wrapped meat, dressed it in seasoning salt and onions, and quickly ate the whole thing.

After a second goblet of orange juice, she pushed her plate and utensils away from her and realized some students had already left the table. She turned to Mary, who was sitting to her left, and told her she was going to bed. Mary stood to join her into the Great Hall, then they parted ways. As Amy descended the stone steps into the dungeons, she heard Arcane mewl and stopped. Her kitten came padding after her, looking quite exhausted. Amy smiled and bent to pick up the tiny kitten, placing her on her shoulder, before resuming her trek to dormitory.

She didn't get far, however, when someone stepped out from behind a corner. Amy froze in her tracks at the sight of black hair and hazel eyes. Her throat went dry and an ice-cold arrow of terror washed down her spine.

"Well, well, well. Look who we have here." Emmaline crooned. "A little Mudblood come to make something of herself. Too bad she's going to fail before the week is out." She walked toward Amy until she stood within two feet of Amy. Emmaline's taller stature forcing Amy to look up to see her eyes. Amy dully heard Arcane start to growl.

"S-So this is w-w-where you've been." Amy stuttered, taking a step back towards the Great Hall. "M-Moving was just a cover."

"Actually, no. We did move - to London, actually - to be closer to King's Cross. I thought I was finally rid of you. Yet here we are. Fate has thrown us together once again. Oh well, I suppose it's for the best. Too bad it's not gonna last. You'll be running home to Staithes before Friday. You're not cut out for this place and you'll flunk out."

"You can't tell me what to do anymore."

"Oh? And why is that?" Amy had just opened her mouth to retort, but Emmaline cut her off. "Because of your friends? You think you're better than me because you're running around with a Potter, a Granger-Weasley, and a Malfoy? Guess what, darling, they're just humoring you. You're not actually friends with them. Who'd want to be friends with you? Honestly. You're nothing but a wannabe and you've never been good enough to deserve anything."

"I deserve-"

"You deserve nothing. And I'm going to give you the chance to prove it. I think you'll be so overwhelmed of Hogwarts and so scared of me that you'll run back home to your Mummy before Friday. But, if you don't, it won't help you. You may have toughed out a week, but it's just one week out of seven years, You'll break before the semester is out, and then you'll know I was right all along - you don't deserve anything you've been given."

"The one who decides that -"

"Is me. Did you forget how well I know you, Rosewood? Remember how we used to play together, until I saw how stupid you are? Your one and only friend, turned against you? I know you better than you know yourself, and I say you'll be packing your bags in five days time."

"You're saying a lot of stuff about blood status, but I don't see how you think you're better than everyone else. From what I can see, you're a Muggleborn, too. A Muggleborn who's bullying another Muggleborn for no reason."

"Don't presume to know me! You don't know anything about me. You don't know what I've been through. And I'm more of a pureblood than you think - both of my parents are half-bloods and they just didn't tell me about Hogwarts until I got my letter so I could live like a normal child. After all, it doesn't matter how you grew up, it matters who your parents are. And you, Rosewood, don't even have any parents. You're an orphan."

"Say what you want. You can't hurt me anymore. You - "

Amy hadn't seen it coming. She had finally found her voice again, ready to finally deal her own verbal abuse at her tormentor, when suddenly she was looking at the wall and a sound rang through the air. The sensations came slowly, and the shock was more painful than the sting on her cheek Emmaline's blow had created.

"I can hurt you whenever I want. I can do anything to you that I want. And don't you forget it." Emmaline hissed. A moment later, she was gone, leaving Amy alone in the darkness once more.

Sunday dawned quickly for Amy. A paw