Hermione Granger rolled her eyes. "Ron, you've had over a week to do that essay! Your not copying mine, I don't care what you say! Professor Flitwick only wanted one roll of parchment, too! Sorry, but that's too easy an assignment. You should've finished it a long time ago!"
Her friend, Ron Weasley, began promtly begging. "Hermione! Please? Come on, I only need one more inch- just one more inch. That's next to nothing!"
Hermione, however, simply said, "If it's next to nothing, why didin't you just finish it?". Her annoying nonchalant tone only angered Ron more. Harry Potter, their friend, ould see trouble brewing.
"Who cares, guys? Come on, if you two don't quit arguing, we'll miss Charms altogether!" he said, taking on his usual role of the peacemaker.
Ron and Hermione shut up at once and gathered their books for Charms. The three of them headed to Charms silently, with Ron throwing dirty looks at Hermione every chance he got.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning, Harry awoke to find that Ron was already up and down in the commonroom. Dressing quickly, he headed downstairs to find Ron beating his brother Fred at chess. Fred's twin brother, George, was trying to shake Crookshanks, Hermione's very intelligent (but very ugly) cat off of him, for Crookshanks seemed to have mistaken poor George for his scratching post, while Hermione pretended to be reading without noticing. But Harry noticed that she kept peering over the top of her enormously thick book with an amused expression, as though she was holding back laughter.
Many of the other Gryffindor's were up and about, entering and exiting the portrait hole; walking about, talking and chatting with friends. Most took no notice of George or Crookshanks, instead, they were all crowded around a notice that had been posted in the commonroom. Harry sat down at a chair by Ron and Fred, who spoke to him without taking their eyes off of their game.
"Sleep late, eh Harry?" Fred said with a grin. He then made what he seemed to think was a very good move, judging by the sarcastic grin he gave Ron.
Ron, though, took no notice. "Hey, Harry," he said, taking the piece Fred had just shifted in one swift move. Fred's face fell; all traces of the smirk were gone, and now Ron wore the triumphant smile.
"Hey," Harry replied sleepily. "What's everybody looking at?" he asked, inplying the notice evryone was crowded around and whispering excitedly about.
Fred, still slightly upset about his recent loss, responded. "Temporary substitute in Potions. Snape's going to be away a lot this year, so they've got another teacher. Unfourtunatly, it's transitory. The other teacher will only be here for this year," he said, taking Ron's bishop proudly. He barely noticed George as he hopped behing Ron on one foot, kicking the other foot in usless attempts to shake off Crookshanks.
"A new Potions teacher? Where'd Snape go? And why?" Harry asked, thinking of Dumbledore's asking Snape to do something last year.
"Don't ask questions Harry," Ron intervined. "As long as we don't have to deal with Snape this year!" He swiftly moved one of his pieces o the left and chekmated Fred, who puts his head in his hands and sighed. "You always win, Ronald. I should have known better."
Ron shrugged as Fred got up and walked away. As Fred sauntered away, he gave Crookshanks one abrupt kick and the poor cat went rolling acroos the room before it regained it senses and ran back to George who tore out of the commonroom screaming at the top of his lungs, followed by a screeching Crookshanks.