Crack.

Tina's quill tip snapped again and everyone in the Transfiguration class turned around and stared. Her friend Maya turn to her and whispered in a sarcastic tone, "Nice going."

Tina laughed weakly and pulled out another quill. She assumed that she had been adding a little too much pressure as she was writing down notes.

She should've been concentrating more on her notes – after all, she had been going to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for five years, so she shouldn't start losing her good grade streak now.

Tina had been attending with her friends that she met on the Hogwarts Express five years ago and had been friends with them since. She was currently sitting next to Maya, her friend who was in the Ravenclaw house and so was Meredith. It wasn't a huge problem that Tina was in Slytherin and that Maya was in a different house – after all, her other friend Liz was in Gryffindor and the rivalry between the two houses was legendary. Tina still spent most of her time with her friends – maybe even more often than her Slytherin peers. Of course, there was always that Slytherin boy who'd she'd like to spend a lot more time with…

While Tina was rummaging through her bag for another quill, Maya yawned as Professor McGonagall was droning on about God knows what. Maya doodled her favorite bands while trying her best to drown out the boring voice of the professor. She hadn't been paying attention to the class for a while until a cat sat right on top of her parchment.

She blinked.

The cat stared angrily at her for a few moments while it flicked its tail and flexed it claws.

"I expected better from a Ravenclaw student, Miss Lane," the cat spoke, "See me after class."

Maya sighed, "Yes, Professor McGonagall." As the cat leapt from her desk, she turned around and rolled her eyes to her other Slytherin friend, Adam. He snickered and went back to his notes. Adam had been friends with Maya before their years at Hogwarts and lucky for them, they shared most of their classes with each other. Adam often found himself wishing (oddly enough) that the Slytherins would spend more of their classes with the Gryffindors regardless of the rivalry.

Although it would probably distract him from the class lessons and fail him in the long run, he wished he could spend more time observing Ginny Weasley or Hermione Granger. It was a straight draw – he fancied them both at a straight draw. Then again, it wouldn't be so terrible if he could have them both. He smirked as he wrote their names on a piece of parchment. Adam then crumpled up the paper and threw it in his bag. No one really needed to see it anyway but him.

After class, Tina and Mere waited outside of the classroom for Maya. She was probably just being lectured to pay attention during class than doodle. Maya finally emerged from the classroom and rolled her eyes.

"Same old, same old," she muttered, "What do you have next?"

"Herbology with Gryffindors," Tina asked her, "Do you want me to tell Liz anything?"

"Besides the fact she owes me 5 knuts, tell her I say hey." Maya grumbled, "I miss my iPod. That's about the only thing I miss when I'm at Hogwarts."

"That's it? I miss a ton of stuff from the muggle world."

Maya laughed. Tina Knox was the only pure-blood that Maya knew who didn't absorb the pride and snobbiness of most pure-bloods that she had met.

"I'll see you after Potions," Maya said, "I hope Snape doesn't take more than twenty points from me alone again. Come on Mere let's go."

Tina laughed as she walked with Adam to their next class. As they arrived at the Greenhouse, Liz Parke greeted them at the door.

"It took Odysseus a shorter time to get home to Ithaca than it did for you guys to get here," Liz remarked. Tina rolled her eyes, but as soon as they entered the classroom, she scanned the seats. Draco Malfoy had two empty seats next to him while on his other side sat Crabbe and Goyle. Tina grabbed Liz's wrist and quickly sat next to Draco.

"Ow!" Liz complained, "Why are you…" but she trailed off, realizing who Tina wanted to sit next to. She smirked and whispered, "New crush?"

"Shut up!" Tina hissed and kicked Liz's shin with her heel. Liz winced, then realizing that someone had chosen a seat next to her.

Harry Potter was busily talking to Ron and Hermione, who sat on the other side of him. In Liz's history, she never had really sat this close to him. He was famous and happened to be in her house. How did she manage to go through six years of Hogwarts and never even sit next to him?

"Hey, scar head," Malfoy scathingly spoke past Tina and Liz, "I thought that over the summer you'd learn to stop hanging around filth and mud. That Mudblood might rub off on you."

Harry glared at Malfoy and shot back, "Shove off, Malfoy."

Oh. Real witty.

"He's charming too," Liz murmured under her breath. Tina giggled, but the insult Draco had just thrown wasn't all that mean. It was forgivable. Besides, the cruel effect of "Mudblood" had gone down as all curses do, when over used.

As the class began to take its course, Tina found herself bumping elbows with Draco more than often and couldn't help but notice that she blushed every time they made any simple contact.

Liz, on the other hand, wasn't having nearly as much trouble in Herbology as her friend was. She was doing fine until when she and Harry simultaneously reached for a gardening spade.

Their hands touched.

"Oh, sorry!" Harry and Liz both pulled their hands away quickly. Did his face tinge?

"No, you can use it, I'll just use Tina's."

"No, really, you can use it, I could use Ron's."

"Oh," Liz sighed, "This is ridiculous. If you insist, I'll just take it!"

And she did. Tina gave her a look.

"What? He said he could use Ron's!"

"Liz, you should be nice and give it to him. He was reaching for it first."

"Oh, shut up!"