Chapter 7
A Relatively Normal Day

Soon, much to the difference of his original opinion, Harry no longer was able to think of N.E.X.T. as Hogwarts, no matter how hard he tried. It was just too difficult, what with things slowly adding up on top of each other; the two hour long lessons, the super heavy homework load, the extra time in the library, and so much more.

Harry was quite positive that there was no way possible that the homework load could increase anymore. Ron insisted he was dead sure that the teachers were trying to suffocate them with the library, books, practicing, and homework. Hermione thought she was in paradise, for she thought that it was a bigger chance to prove she was a good student (at least, that was what Harry gathered from the short few minutes he and Ron could snatch away and talk to her.)

From the huge amount of homework to lessons to extra studying (there was no Quiditch and Harry felt that his schedule was a bit empty without it, so he was still looking for some sort of club or activity to join) a month went by quite quickly. It almost seemed to fly by, and before he knew it, Harry had already entered October. Everything had been relatively normal so far in the year and Harry felt no reason that the particular month in question would be any different.

One fresh and crispy Thursday morning seemed no different, except being a little warmer than the past few days. Harry dressed and headed down to breakfast with Ron.

"Cumon, etum-ov e afls 'arry, eir um 'ngeat," mumbled Ron with his mouth completely full.

"Er, eh, can you repeat that? Without your mouth full, that is," Harry added hastily as Ron opened his mouth again to repeat what he said.

Ron quickly gulped down his enormous mouthful and said, "You should eat some of the waffles, Harry, their great."

"Ron, hurry up and eat or else you won't have time to finish your breakfast or your delicious waffles before you have to head off to lessons," said Hermione, finally raising her head from the Daily Prophet, in which she had been burying her head in throughout the past few minutes.

"Blimey Hermione, you should relax sometime and learn not to nag," said Ron in a rather not pleased voice.

Breakfast passed quickly and Hermione went her own separate way as they headed off to lessons. Magical Creatures (the old Care of Magical Creatures back in Hogwarts) was their first lesson, as their teacher said Aurors should be able to tell apart different animals and learn their uses. Harry's Magical Creature lessons made him miss Hogwarts even more, especially Hagrid, the gamekeeper (he still exchanged letters with both Hagrid and Ginny) although he had to admit he didn't really miss Hagrid's love of dangerous creatures (especially ones that could kill with fangs and stings or other things.) Professor Taky taught them Magical Creatures and despite his old age, he was still very enthusiastic in teaching. Harry and Ron arrived not a minute too soon.

"Potter, Weasley, choose a seat please and make it quick, we shall be studying the dangers of a serpent's venom today, I found one washed up on the beach as I took a hike yesterday," said Professor Taky when he spotted them.

Harry and Ron hurried into a empty spot. Magical Creatures passed with nothing strange besides the fact that Pansy Parkingson, who was planning to be a potions teacher (probably to bully the kids she taught) had gotten poisoned from not being careful when touching the sac where poison resided.

Transfiguration came after that and then Disguises (as its name said, they learned disguises there.) Harry, feeling ravenous, wolfed down his lunch. It was not until late that afternoon, during the last lesson of the day (potions,) that anything eventful even happened at all, in fact.

"Oi, think we'll see Hermione today?" asked Ron the moment the Potions classroom came into sight (they no longer had Potions in the dungeons, as they had in Hogwarts.)

"Of course we will, today's Thursday. On Monday's we have Potions but Hermione doesn't have hers until Tuesday, and then our second Potions lesson of the week would be on Thursdays, and Hermione has Potions on Thursdays too. So since today is Thursday, Hermione either will or should be there," replied Harry.

"Oh..." said Ron as they continued to near the door.

"Hey Ron, hey Harry!" said Hermione cheerily as she spotted them.

"Don't talk so loudly in the corridors and please enter the classroom quietly and in an orderly fashion," said Professor Emeraldz (their new Potions master) in his best high and mighty voice that commanded little authority. The class broke out laughing and Professor Emeraldz joined in, for he liked to joke around a lot (Ron said he reminded him of Fred) and never took anything offensively.

Still, the class quieted down and entered the classroom in a single-file line.

"Today we will be learning an antidote to common poisons, such as poisons from the most spiders," announced Professor Emeraldz in an even faker full-of-authority voice.

They began by opening their books to page forty-five and reading about antidotes. It was about half an hour before they actually began to make an antidote. Halfway through the lesson, the most interesting part of anyone's day in the entire classroom happened.