A/N: Hi, I'm back. Looks like I'll be updating this nearly every week. I'm not sure about how good this chapter is. Still not J.K. Rowling, and I don't profit. If I did, I'd be updating this every day.

"Hey Laurel."

I looked up from my newspaper and toast to see Harry standing over me.

"Oh, hey Harry!" I said excitedly. The Sorting hadn't completely ripped us apart. It was the morning before the first day of lessons, and I was worried that, being in different houses would stop us from seeing each other. "How are you?"

"Tired. Could be better," he responded, "And you?"

"Okay. I slept like a rock last night," I said. That was true. I very nearly slept through my alarm that morning.

"Hey, at least you slept. Listen, I was wondering if you wanted to meet me at the beech tree at the lake later and do our homework?" Harry asked.

"Oh, yeah, that would be great! See you then!" I said giddily, before stopping and turning serious, "It's okay if Blaise comes too, right?" I could see Harry wince a bit in nervousness.

"Well, he's a Slytherin, right?" Harry responded. I rolled my eyes and face palmed.

"Not all Slytherins are evil," I said in desperation, "It's just pent up prejudice, and Blaise is really nice. We talked on the train." Harry considered this, and, too his credit, did look a little ashamed of himself. He consented, finally. Harry isn't a complete idiot and can at least recognize logic when he hears it.

"See you," Harry said waving goodbye.

As he walked away, I noticed the stares of the other kids. I looked away blushing. Just then Auran came up holding a piece of paper. How, I have no clue.

"Hey, here's your schedule," he said sullenly.

"Thanks," I responded taking the paper from him.

"The class numbers are all mixed up this year," Auran said rolling his eyes, "I heard Flitwick complaining about it."

"I never knew you to be a gossip," I said teasingly.

"Oh, shut up," Auran rolled his eyes, "I'm just reporting the news. Anyways, some classes have thirteen students and others have thirty. It's really hard to make lesson plans around that." I furrowed my brow in confusion.

"Why is it like that?" I asked, "Why can't there be an even number of people in each class?" Auran sighed and sort of sat down on the seat next to me. It was more of a hover.

"Barely any students were sorted into Hufflepuff, but about fifteen were sorted into Slytherin. They try to give all of the classes time with each house, and there are two houses per lesson. Not to mention that there have been less then five Ravenclaws for the last few years," Auran explained.I looked at my schedule and saw that my first class was Charms. Realizing that it would take about 15 minutes to get there, I gathered my things and walked out of the still whispering Great Hall, saying a quick goodbye to a staring off into the distance Auran.

...

"Hey Blaise?" I asked over our shared cauldron. He looked over and nodded. "Would you want to study with Harry and I by the beech tree today?" Blaise considered the offer before shrugging and adding essence of rue to our potion. I grinned at the agreement and went back to chopping daisy root. It would be a pretty cool evening.

...

"Hey," I said to Harry as I flopped down onto the grass next to him. Blaise was already there, and he and Harry appeared to be talking about meatloaf or something. It was good to see two people from different houses... now my thoughts are sounding like a self-help book.

"Hey," Harry responded, "Day good?"

"I suppose so. Nothing was overly terrible," I said, picking at a blade of grass.

"I'm going to have to disagree with you on that," sighed Harry.

"What happened?" I asked, confused at what could put Harry in such a dejected mood.

"Snape," he responded bitterly.

"What's wrong with Professor Snape? Today, he said that Blaise and my Cure for Boils potion looked perfect! He even said that he would think about moving us up a year in potions if we kept it up," I said giddily. From what I'd heard from other students, Professor Snape was really mean.

"He took points away from me for nothing."

"I highly doubt it was for nothing," Blaise said said warily.

"It was because I didn't memorize the entire potions textbook over the summer," Harry replied in a voice sounding as though hit had bit into something rotten.

"Weren't you supposed to?" I asked jokingly. Blaise nodded sympathetically.

"He was always cruel to my brother. He's a seventh year now," Blaise agreed.

Harry nodded and said, "Let's begin to make a dent in this mountain."I retrieved the piece of parchment on which I wrote down my homework for the day, It was barely anything compared to Muggle school. Auran came up to me and sat down beside me. By sit down, I mean float cross legged in mid-air.

"You must be Potter and Zabin. I'm Auran," Auran said, holding his hand out to Harry and then Blaise, before uncomfortably pulled it back, realizing that nobody could grip it. "Anyways, I wanted to tell you, Laurel, that there is an inter house circle talk in an hour for 1st years. It's in Flitwick's classroom. Of course, Potter and Zabini also welcome."

"I'd prefer if you could call me Harry," Harry said uncomfortably.

"I'll call you what I call you, Potter," said Auran oily. With that, he floated away. I tried very hard to hide my grin. I liked that about Auran. He could make anybody uncomfortable.

"What's his problem?" Harry wondered. I rolled my eyes. If he had died at seventeen by falling off the Astronomy tower, Harry would have some serious problems, too.

"He is very lonely and awkward," I replied matter-of-factually, opening my binder, "Are you going to this circle thing?"

"If you are. I would feel awkward if I went alone. Ugh, imagine if I had to sit next to Malfoy!" He made such a face that I burst out laughing. Blaise snickered, but tried to cover it behind his hand. Harry then looked awkward for some weird boy reason that I could not begin to comprehend. But Blaise appeared to.

"Just because I'm in his house doesn't mean I have to like him. I do find Draco insufferable," Blaise explained, causing Harry to relax from his tensed up state of being.

"Well," I said, still recovering from my giggling fit, "I'm not, so I guess you're going to have to deal with it alone! I'm too awkward!" I then broke down again.

Harry and Blasie shared a smile, opened their binders, and Harry responded, "Let's start that Tranfiguration essay."