The next morning saw the four members of the fifth year Slytherin girls' dormitory make their way to their first class of the day — Defense Against the Dark Arts. Due to the unstable nature of its teaching position, the first lesson of that particular class was always the most anticipated by the students.
"I heard from Warren that he already assigned the seventh years homework," Lyric said distastefully.
"With any luck he'll be like Lockhart and give an O to anything that praises his own genius." Talia rolled her eyes.
Talia's verbal eviscerations of Lockhart had become legendary among their year, Carina recalled fondly. She would skillfully word her insults in such a way that Lockhart thought she was actually complimenting him. Sadie was always too worried about disrespecting any teacher to participate. Carina herself prefered Lyric's choice to simply observe with muffled laughter; though once Lockhart's ineptness was proven after their third week in class, Carina sometimes couldn't help but join in on Talia's sly taunts, preferring wittier attacks on the teacher.
A particularly memorable lesson had involved Professor McGonagall walking in on their class to see Carina giving a particularly clever pseudo-compliment to distract Lockhart while Talia levitated some pixie droppings into his tea as he was distracted. The girls had frozen upon McGonagall's entrance, expecting detention. Instead, McGonagall had simply paused, assessed the situation and given them a slight nod before handing Lockhart the note she had originally come in to give. Carina was fairly sure she had seen the stern professor give a smirk while Sadie swore she saw her wink. After that incident, Carina had built a silent relationship on mutual respect with the just Transfiguration teacher.
"What are you so happy about?" Sadie asked, giving Carina a gentle nudge.
"I was just thinking about how Talia used to taunt Lockhart. Remember when McGonagall came in?" Carina said fondly.
"Say what you want about her precious Gryffindors, but the woman at least recognizes incompetence. She gave me ten points after that just for 'exquisite handwriting' on my next assignment since she couldn't outright reward us for hating Lockhart." Talia grinned.
"But your handwriting's shit," Lyric observed.
"Watch it!"
The four girls burst out laughing, drawing stares as they made their way to the Defense classroom.
"You can't deny Lockhart wasn't nice to look at though," Sadie teased. "Those blue eyes… that wavy golden hair…"
"I think you just described my dog," Lyric interjected.
Sadie threw her a mock dirty look as Talia and Carina snickered but continued. "Regardless, if this teacher's going to be as useless as the others, I hope he's at least attractive. What did you think about him, Carina?"
"He certainly seemed fairly competent on the train. A bit too shabby-looking for me though." Carina shrugged.
"I just hope he's not a Gryffindor," Talia huffed out. "They always favor their own house and the Gryffindors think they can get away with more in those classes. What'd he seem like?"
"Concerned enough to be a Hufflepuff but too much backbone," Carina said, flicking her eyes in an unconcerned manner towards the group of Hufflepuffs now shooting her glares.
"He's a professor. Doesn't he have to care about his students?" Sadie asked.
"He has to help; that's not the same thing as caring," Lyric corrected, adding with a snort, "Can you see Snape suddenly asking after our wellbeing?"
"Defense is too hands-on to be of interest to a 'Claw, all they do is analyze every textbook to death," Carina continued. Sadie let out a giggle, and Lyric threw a superior look to the Ravenclaw walking by them. The Ravenclaw in turn sent them a scowl and a jinx, which Carina neatly deflected without breaking stride.
"Dumbledore would sooner let a hoard of trolls destroy the castle than let a Slytherin teach the subject. So I'm going with Gryffindor," she finished just as they entered the classroom.
"A rather untraditional analysis of the houses, no?" Professor Lupin came up behind them with a raised eyebrow.
"Was I wrong?" Carina held her head high unabashedly.
"Technically no," Lupin admitted with an incline of his head, conceding her point. "I was a Gryffindor. Though I certainly hope you won't be so dismissive of other houses in the future, Ms. Malfoy."
Carina and Lyric exchanged eye rolls as they all took their seats.
As they left the class an hour later, Carina was quite pleased with how their class was shaping up. Professor Lupin led an exciting class filled with practical applications. Though he indeed assigned them an essay due next class, it served a useful purpose and not mere busy work that Carina hated. He even treated the Slytherins fairly compared to the Gryffindors they shared the lesson with, from what Carina could tell. Best of all, Lupin seemed to actually be teaching them the OWL curriculum, something Carina had been prepared to do on her own with little faith in whatever professor Dumbledore had chosen. Luckily it seemed that she would have more free time this year not having to study for her Defense OWL from scratch.
"That was pretty good!" Sadie said enthusiastically. "I can't wait to see what my Patronus looks like."
The others nodded, excitedly discussing what they thought each other's Patronuses would be.
"If mine's a fish or something, I don't know what I'll do," Lyric declared.
"Don't worry, it won't be a fish," Talia said soothingly. "It's much more likely it'll be a flobberworm."
As Lyric threw her textbook at Talia, Carina and Sadie made their way to their Transfiguration classroom.
"You don't think one of us will actually have a flobberworm, do you?" Sadie asked, looking rather worried.
"If any of us has a flobberworm reflecting our true self, it's not you," Carina said dismissively. "You're probably a bunny."
Many often wondered how Sadie ended up in Slytherin. It was true that her pure blood family had a mostly Slytherin lineage, but her studious and overall non-confrontational nature made some think her a better candidate for Ravenclaw or even Hufflepuff. However, only her close friends knew the intense ambition Sadie had to become a curse breaker, her ultimate goal to be the youngest head curse breaker for the whole North American continent.
No one ever questioned Carina's placement in her house.
"Thanks, I'm glad I'm such a threatening figure," Sadie huffed. "You'll probably be like a lion or something."
Sadie's eyes widened and she quickly amended her statement. "Not like a Gryffindor lion or anything. I just meant like a confident, king of the jungle kind of lion. You know, like maybe Patronus is going to be a tiger."
Carina rolled her eyes. "Let's just go get our seats."
Of their group, Carina and Sadie were the ones who took their classes seriously and put time into their work. Talia and Lyric were intelligent enough to attain good enough grades for their parents' standards with minimal effort and prefered to spend their class time passing notes. As a result, the four tended not to sit together during class, with the first pair sitting in the front row of most classes and the latter two avoiding the gaze of their professors by strategically sitting near the middle. Transfiguration in particular was a challenging class for both Carina and Sadie and so ever since their first year, they had occupied a specific table in the front row to make sure they were able to pay attention with no distractions. No one had ever really challenged them on their seats as a glare from the two girls was usually enough to deter anyone. After their third year, their claim on that table had gone uncontested.
When they began to walk towards their usual seats this year however, Carina had to stop and blink a few times to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Two red-headed Gryffindors were in her and Sadie's seats. The seats that they most certainly knew belonged to them.
The Weasley twins always sat towards the back of the classroom. The near universal respect held for McGonagall by the student population was true for the Weasley twins as well, but that usually just meant small pranks instead of outright attempting to explode the classroom (as they had done on numerous occasions in Potions).
Lee Jordan, who had been watching from several rows away, suddenly looked panicked at the sight of the two Slytherins headed for his best friends. Carina had to imagine that his fear didn't stem from Sadie.
"What are they doing?" Sadie was similarly bewildered at the thought of their usual seats taken. "Don't they know-"
"Of course they know," Carina replied, seeing Fred Weasley catch sight of them and send a happily smug look. "They want a reaction for some reason."
"I guess it is just a table. The one next to them is open and still in the front row so we could sit there if we need to." Sadie didn't sound thrilled at the prospect. "I don't want to give them the satisfaction of asking them to move though…"
"Oh, I wasn't planning on asking." Carina narrowed her eyes back at Fred, letting her hand linger on her wand threateningly.
"Carina, no!" Sadie exclaimed. "Let's just ask them if we can have the table back. If they say no and we argue, we'll let them know we want it. The other table is just as good anyway."
"Fair enough," Carina sighed and pocketed her wand as they approached the twins.
"Can we help you?" George Weasley said cheekily. "Looking lovely as ever, ladies."
"You're in our seats," Carina said bluntly. She had thought about asking nicely like Sadie wanted but George was looking far too comfortable sprawled out on the left side of the table where she usually sat. Didn't they know the unspoken classroom etiquette that the seats you had on the first day were the ones you kept for the rest of the year? Sure, the Weasleys had technically gotten there first this year, but she and Sadie had laid claim to that table years ago.
"I don't see your names on them anywhere." Fred leaned back in his seat with an unaffected air.
"They are actually," Sadie responded, looking as equally unimpressed with the Weasleys' antics as Carina was. "Check underneath the desk."
George ran his hands along the bottom, smiling when his fingers ran across the etchings that Carina knew read 'Property of Sadie Warrington and Carina Malfoy' which Sadie had carefully inscribed with her wand back in their fifth year.
"Hmm, it seems they have actually done it, Fred." George shifted and settled deeper in his - no, her seat, badly hiding an amused look as Carina's shoulders became visibly more tense with each movement he made. "Wonder what they'll actually do about it."
"So move back to wherever you usually sit and give us our table," Sadie commanded, looking put out. Carina would have made the mental note not to get between Sadie and her study essentials except she had realized this their second year when she and Lyric had accidentally used up all of Sadie's favorite ink. It had been a tense week in their dormitory until they bought her a refill of the ink. The Weasleys didn't know what was coming, she thought with some pride.
"Look, Warrington, it's really not personal." Fred leaned back as his brother had done, his arms casually behind his head in the picture of leisure. "How about this, let us have this table for the week— no, the month — and we'll owe you one."
"A month?" Sadie nearly shrieked.
"Trust us on this one. I don't know about Warrington here, but you might actually enjoy this." George shot a charming smile to Carina.
Carina coldly raised an eyebrow, bit the inside of her cheek, and took a step back.
"Come on," she said lowly to Sadie. "Let's just go to the other table."
Sadie pursed her lips but followed her to the table right next to the Weasleys.
"What happened to 'not asking'?" Sadie whispered to her as they sat down.
"What happened to 'not giving them the satisfaction of arguing'?" Carina shot back.
Sadie gave a sheepish grin. "Yeah, sorry about that. He was just so… smug. I couldn't help myself. I know it's just a dumb table but we've been there for four years now!"
"Yeah, I know. But you heard them, it's just for a month. This way we can see what they're up to now anyway." The two girls sent suspicious glances at the twins, who waved and smiled cheerfully back.
The rest of the class filtered in slowly, all reacting with double-takes. Carina didn't know if it was at the Weasley twins sitting in the front row for once or because they were at her and Sadie's table. Regardless, they were treated to worried looks by the other students, as though afraid the two diminutive Slytherin girls would attack the Weasleys. Carina could only sigh internally.
Talia and Lyric's reactions when they came in didn't disappoint either. Lyric shot them an alarmed look while Talia mouthed 'what the hell'. Carina gave a shrug while Sadie grimaced.
Professor McGonagall entered the classroom briskly. "I hope everyone is settled as we're going to start with Vanishing Spells. Just because we're back from summer break does not mean I will take it easy on you. As you know, your OWLS are this year and their importance cannot be stressed enough. Now, Ms. Malfoy, can you tell me the five elements of — "
McGonagall had stopped speaking once her eyes had landed where Carina usually sat, which of course was now occupied by George Weasley.
"I think the person you're looking for is there, Professor," George said with a look of innocence, nodding to where Carina sat at the table next to him.
The look of surprise that crossed McGonagall's face was so great that for a moment Carina was sure the professor was about to pass out. Even the twins seemed to think so as well. Fred, who had a moment before looked pleased at McGonagall's surprise, became worried and George was halfway out of his seat to help the professor before she waved him off.
"For Merlin's sake, Weasley, I'm not an invalid," she snapped irritably. "What exactly are you up to?"
"It's O.W.L. year, Professor," Fred said, with wide eyes. "The exams that determine the rest of our lives."
"New year, new us," George added. An audible laugh came from a group of their Gryffindor friends a few rows back. George adopted a look of offense, even drawing a sniff of disbelief from McGonagall. Sadie and Carina exchanged looks of skepticism.
"Thrilled as I am that you've suddenly taken an interest in your schoolwork after a long history of not doing so," McGonagall addressed them dryly. "I can't help but wonder how far you're willing to take your new-found motivation."
"Oh, we're committed, Professor." Fred nodded seriously.
"Wonderful." The professor gave a thin-lipped smile. "Then I'm sure you'll be excited with your new partners."
"What?" George asked blankly.
"It seems that Ms. Malfoy and Ms. Warrington were generous enough to let you sit in their usual spots. Perhaps, their generosity will extend a bit further." McGonagall raised an eyebrow at Carina and Sadie.
Not bloody likely, Carina thought. Interpreting her expression correctly, Lyric and Talia burst out laughing, trying in vain to muffle the sounds. Beside her, Sadie was nervously chewing her lip.
"Ms. Warrington, kindly exchange seats with Mr. Weasley — no, the other Mr. Weasley. Since you two seem to want to change your study habits, you should learn from the best students in this class. I expect you to work with each other during class for practicing. Do try to refrain from your usual antics, boys."
George opened his mouth to say something presumably brazen as he sat where Sadie had been but the stern look McGonagall shot him made it clear that simply 'trying' would not be enough.
"Malfoy, Warrington, I expect you to help them as you would each other during class. Is that clear?"
Carina and Sadie nodded with similar frowns, though Carina was less shy about hiding the annoyance on her face from the professor. She raised her hand patiently and McGonagall called on her.
"How long are these seat assignments meant to last, Professor?"
"Until the first exam I give you, which should be in about a month. If I see a marked improvement in all of your attitudes, I will let you back to your usual spots."
All of your attitudes? Carina shared a confused look with Sadie.
"Now, Ms. Malfoy, as I meant to ask you originally, what are the five components one must remember when performing a Vanishing Spell?"
As the rest of the class trickled out after the grueling Transfiguration class, Carina and Sadie remained where they were. George left the table without a single glance her way. Once the room had emptied, the girls approached McGonagall.
"Professor," Sadie began slowly. "We were wondering if we could talk to you about our new seating arrangements."
"My decision won't change, Ms. Warrington. Believe me, I understand your trepidation but the Weasleys are quite clever. With your guidance, I'm hoping they'll focus more on their OWLs and disrupt the class less as a whole."
"Yes, but why do we need to be the ones babysitting them?" Carina said impatiently.
"You two are good students in my class with particularly good study habits." McGonagall raised an eyebrow and looked almost impressed. "Not to mention you might be the only ones in this class who they'll be too afraid to target with one of their jokes. Yes, Warrington, you too.
"I also believe it will do you some good to interact with other Houses." Now this, Carina was not expecting. Seeing their surprise, the professor continued.
"Your House as a whole is remarkably insular. You have little to no interaction with others, not to mention respect for them." McGonagall gave a pointed look at Carina.
"I really think that's more of my own personal character trait than one instilled because of my House," Carina drawled. McGonagall was clearly overlooking the fact that there were several members of the Slytherin House itself Carina held little esteem for, she thought.
"One month, Ms. Malfoy. If the Weasleys do not focus and the two of you do not show more than a minimal effort in working with them during class, it will be for the rest of term."