Rebecca, Hermione, Harry and Ron had a nice and easy start to the day in Herbology inside one of the greenhouses. It was entirely uneventful compared to Rebecca's morning. The class was only told that they were going to be working with rather dangerous plants this term. Professor Sprout, their Herbology teacher, continued to explain in detail what type of plants they would be undertaking and how they were going to be working. After a slow, easy hour, the bell was heard from the castle to signal the start of their next lesson.

Next they had Defence Against the Darks Arts, with Snape. No one could actually believe Snape had received this position this year, as he had been after it since the sixth years began at Hogwarts.

The four of them trudged from the greenhouse back up to the castle. They reached their assigned classroom to find the entire class lined up outside the classroom door waiting for Snape. It appeared the Gryffindors shared this class with the Slytherins. Rebecca noticed Draco talking amongst his 'minions', as Ron had started calling them some time ago. They included Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle and Pansy Parkinson. However, Draco was far more interested in engaging with Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott, who were also equal purebloods. Rebecca noticed Draco had changed his uniform, and that Draco glanced at her warily more than once. She thought he might still be embarrassed.

Then suddenly Snape slammed open the classroom door and everyone fell quiet immediately.

"File in silently and stand at the back of the room." He said quite bluntly. Everyone did exactly what he said, not making a sound. Snape marched to the front of the room, turned around and said,

"You will be placed in a seat, alphabetical order." Snape continued to tell everyone where to sit. Rebecca looked around, taking note as to where everyone else was seated. Very fortunately she was seated next to Ron. The two of them sat second from the back on the right side of the room. There were three more rows in front of them. Blaise Zabini and another boy were behind them in the back row. Directly across the aisle from Rebecca on the left side of the room sat Draco Malfoy.

For the first half of the lesson, Snape gave a very long and boring lecture about Dark Arts, the best spells ever used in triumph, and summed up what the class were going to be learning throughout the term. Rebecca wasn't really paying that much attention, at all, and she knew she was going to regret it later. She just couldn't wake up and then stay awake. She thought she was just about to fall asleep, her head rested in her hand, when something small hit her in the face.

She gasped suddenly, sitting up straight, rubbing one of her eyes.

"Miss Whyte?" Snape queried her as she apparently interrupted his ongoing lecture. She looked up at him,

"Sorry." She mumbled.

"Sorry what?" He snapped.

"Sir!" She added quickly.

"What?" He glared at her.

"Sorry, Sir!" She said quickly. He glared at her a short moment longer before turning back to the class.

Rebecca looked down at her desk to see something that looked like a small origami bird. She looked at it for a minute, frowning as she finally concluded that that was what had hit her in the face.

She then noticed tiny writing on one of its wings. She picked it up and quietly opened it. Ron was oblivious to her secrecy, nearly drooling on the desk in his boredom. Sometimes she thought he could sleep with his eyes open.

The neat, tiny writing read 'Wake up!', and wasn't signed, which didn't help as she hadn't seen where it had come from. She quickly scrawled 'Awake.' underneath the tiny writing and folded it back up again into its previous form. She expected it was enchanted as it held together perfectly and flapped its small paper wings once. She delicately placed it on one of her hands and lifted it up to her face.

"Miss Whyte!" She looked up to see Snape glaring at her again. She didn't know if he heard her or saw her first.

"Are you asking for a detention?"

"No, Sir, sorry, Sir!" She said quickly. He again continued with his long lecture. Rebecca then leaned down closer to her desk, hiding her hand behind her books, and blew on the small paper bird gently to cause it to become airborne. She watched it fly elegantly across the classroom, expecting it to return to its creator. It landed directly in front of Draco.

Rebecca's eyes widened, and hoped that the paper bird actually would return to its creator, otherwise it was her turn to become embarrassed. She watched with wide eyes as Draco unfolded the bird, and she heard him snigger quietly. Draco picked up his quill and wrote on it. She expected it was something rude and embarrassing, so she looked away. After a few seconds the bird landed in front of her again. She opened it. It said 'Look's like you're in Snape's bad books already.' It appeared Draco was the bird's creator, which brought Rebecca great relief. She wrote back 'So I'm guessing you're not then?' and blew it back. Next thing she heard was Snape's voice break from the boring lecture for the third time that lesson,

"Mr Malfoy!" Rebecca looked up, startled, as did Draco.

"Where did that come from?" He snapped. Draco and Rebecca looked at each other.

"Nowhere, Professor, sorry." Rebecca thought that was the end of the bird, but before she knew it, it had landed in front of her again, saying 'I guess not.' She shielded her eyes as she read it, like it would block out her quiet laughter from reaching Snape as well.

"Whyte!" Snape shouted sounding extremely irritated this time. He finally woke up Ron. Rebecca looked up at him again.

"Please stop interrupting my class or I will be sure to punish you!" Rebecca looked down at her desk without saying anything, feeling his eyes penetrating her face until he started speaking again. She quickly wrote on the note 'I think I'm going to end up with a detention already on my first day.', though she hardly ever received any. She blew the bird back. She watched Malfoy read it and he smirked. He quickly scribbled something on it and blew it back over once more.

"Mr Malfoy!" Snape yelled, loudest yet. Rebecca quickly snatched the fluttering bird out of the air, and was sure she had crumpled it.

"And Miss Whyte! If you would rather be a bit closer?" Snape yelled, casting a spell neither of them had ever heard before. All of a sudden Rebecca was thrown out of her seat and ended up harshly colliding with Draco in the middle of the room, as he was flung out of his seat as well. The two of them sat mangled on the floor, groaning in pain for a quick moment before picking themselves up. They both made to go back to their own seats. As soon as they were about arms' length away from each other, they both felt a strange tugging sensation on the back of their hands and couldn't go any further to reach their seats.

Rebecca turned around and looked at Draco quite puzzled and he wore the same confused expression. They flicked their eyes to their hands and then both yelled with surprise. They quickly turned to Snape, panic written all over their faces as the class erupted into a fit of giggles.

The backs of Draco's and Rebecca's hands were stuck together.

"I wouldn't like to think I'd have such good students on detention so early in the term. I'll punish you instead; this will not go down on your reports." Snape said surprisingly calmly, satisfied with what he had done.

"Please take your seats." Snape gestured with his hands. Rebecca looked at Draco, and he gestured with his free hand over to her seat.

Rebecca sat down and shuffled over, so Malfoy could share the small seat. She noticed Ron eagerly shuffle his entire seat away from them, horrified to be in such close proximity to Draco.

Draco had his free arm, elbow propped on his knee and his head rested in his hand. Rebecca just sat there and stared at their hands.

"Are you left handed or right?" She asked him.

"Right." He mumbled unhappily, turning to look at their hands again.

"You?" He asked.

"Right." Fortunately for Rebecca it was her right hand that was free. Unlucky for Draco, it was his right hand that was stuck to Rebecca's left.

After another silent moment Malfoy whispered,

"Let's pull our hands away from each other really quickly, alright?"

"What? Why? Won't it hurt?" Rebecca asked quickly, not liking the sound of his idea.

"I don't know. I've never heard of this spell before, have you?"

"No," She replied, giving in.

"Okay, on the count of three. One, two, three!" On three they pulled their hands in opposite directions with all the force they could muster in those three seconds. Rebecca screamed with agony and Malfoy yelled, ducking his head. Everyone turned to look, even Snape, with puzzled expressions.

It was definitely one of the most painful thing Rebecca had ever experienced to date. To her it felt as though stiff wire had been threaded under their skin, stitching their hands together. Rebecca sniffed as her eyes watered with the pain. She looked down to Draco to see his eyes watering too. The pain was fading much too slowly.

"Great idea!" She hissed at Draco through gritted teeth.

"What did you just do?" Snape asked, also through gritted teeth.

"Tried to pull our hands apart!" Malfoy snarled angrily.

"It's not going to work. It lasts for two days."

"What?" Draco shouted in total disbelief.

"What about classes?" Rebecca asked, panicking.

"And night time?" Draco added.

"I'll leave you two to figure it out as part of your punishment." Snape said, having not thought the punishment all the way through in such hasty annoyance. Rebecca slouched on the seat as Draco let his head fall back into his hand, rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. Rebecca heard him curse violently under his breath.

"Class dismissed." Snape finally announced, and the two struggled with their books, being the last out of the classroom. At least there was now a short break for Rebecca and Draco to figure something out.