09.07.1971 – Marlene McKinnon
I was right. Father sent a Howler, telling me how I'm a disgrace and how I should be ashamed of myself. Matt sent a letter as well, telling me how proud of me he was and to not let our parents get me down.
Sirius got a Howler too, from his mother. It basically said the same thing as mine.
We started classes Monday. My schedule is:
Monday: Transfiguration (with Ravenclaw), Defense Against Dark Arts (with Slytherin), History of Magic (All Houses), Herbology (with Hufflepuff)
Tuesday: Potions (with Slytherin), Herbology (with Hufflepuff), Charms (with Slytherin), Transfiguration (with Ravenclaw)
Wednesday: Transfiguration (with Ravenclaw), DADA (with Slytherin), History of Magic (All Houses), Charms (with Slytherin)
Thursday: Potions (with Slytherin) Herbology (with Hufflepuff), Charms (with Slytherin), DADA (with Slytherin)
Friday: History of Magic (All Houses), Potions (with Slytherin)
We've had a week of classes so far, and I can already tell Defense is going to be my favorite class. Professor Moore is kind enough, and seems to really know what he's talking about.
Transfiguration is… interesting, I suppose. When we first got there, I sat by Lily Evans. We've become pretty good of friends over the week, even if she is friends with that weird Slytherin boy, Snape. Then McGonagall announced that she was going to be assigning us seats for the next seven years in her class. She let most people stay where they were, but then she got to James and Sirius, who were already causing trouble. She made Sirius switch with Lily, to both her dismay and mine.
Sirius and James, on the other hand, were both grinning widely. I scowled at Sirius as he sat down next to me and flung and arm around my shoulder. I shrugged it off.
It wasn't that I didn't like Sirius, but I would much rather have sat by Lily or James. Besides, we were going to be stuck in these seats for all of the seven years we would at Hogwarts and even though we got along well enough right now, this whole arranged marriage thing could easily ruin things between them.
Lily, of course, was horrified. Though we'd only been at Hogwarts a week, Lily had already made her dislike of James clear. It was a bit of a sore point between us, given that James was my cousin and my best mate, but we've simply avoided the topic; we've done the same with her Slytherin friend. I avoid telling her what I think of her best mate being a Slytherin, and she avoids telling me what she thinks of my best mate being James.
I haven't told her about my betrothal to Sirius yet, as she doesn't particularly like him either, and I fully intend to have this situation resolved before I need to tell her. Though Sirius actually seems to be a pretty good guy, I don't relish the idea of my freedom being taken away. I mean, married by my 20th birthday, and a kid by my 21st? No way.
I've already written a letter to my parents, detailing just what an uneducated, disrespectful, ill-behaved git Sirius is (not that I actually think that about him) and how much better off I'd be breaking the betrothal and choosing a suitable husband on my own. I'll send it after they've had time to recover from the news of my sorting.