"Did Care of Magical Creatures go better?" Sirius asked.

Okay, that was a bit unfair. It wasn't like Ancient Runes went badly. Just the before class bit.

"Ancient Runes wasn't bad," I replied. "They're interesting and Professor Babbling took no nonsense despite coming across as quite sweet and a pushover."

"So, you didn't have to listen to any nonsense from anyone?" Sirius checked.

"Thankfully no. But Care of Magical Creatures was. More fun."

Because, come on, practical classes were always going to be more fun than any paper-based subject. Especially one that barely uses a wand. That, and animals were cute.

"Did you still have Professor Kettleburn?" Remus asked. "I know Hagrid took over when I taught at Hogwarts."

"Oh yeah, he did. He's good fun."

"And how many of his original limbs did he have left with you?"

"Oh, two? Sort of? I think most of his fingers were fingers were fake though."

Tonks couldn't help but roll her eyes. Had she mentioned that her friends were ridiculous? Because they were. Extremely so. Infinitely so. Universally so. Wait, maybe that should have gone before infinitely but you got her point. Her friends were ridiculous. In particular, the boy ones. Because boys really were stupid sometimes. Or all of the time. Yeah, she was going with all of the time. Because you couldn't blame this on girls hitting puberty earlier than them. You really couldn't.

Now that the general idea of boys being ridiculous had been made clear, it was time to get down to specifics. Like what was currently happening.

One Charlie Weasley had his arms cross and was stomping instead of walking like a normal person. He also had a peeved off expression on his face, you know, just to complete the whole look.

"Did you honestly expect us to be allowed near dragons?" Tonks asked in exasperation.

Because, yes, this is what his whole ridiculous mood was about. The fact that schoolchildren weren't going to be allowed to go near dragons. For some reason, Charlie was surprised by this. Then disappointed and now annoyed. He was basically going through the stages of grief.

Charlie huffed at her and crossed his arms even tighter, if that was possible.

"Well, it is Care of Magical Creatures. Dragons are magical creatures!"

"We're also only thirteen or fourteen."

Not that Charlie appreciated that being pointed out.

"I don't want to touch them, though that would be pretty cool" he protested. "I just want to see one. Or a few. Or a whole lot. I'm not picky."

"Of course, you're not," Tonks made sure to throw in an eye roll for good measure. "There's tonnes of pictures and photos of them. Go look at some of those. That way there's no risk of getting put on fire."

"That's not the real thing!"

"Exactly."

For some reason this didn't convince him. Now Charlie was the one giving her an exasperated sigh like she was the one being ridiculous. Which she certainly was not!

Davey came up to them slightly out of breath from jogging over.

"What's going on?"

Charlie pouted even more, making Tonks roll her eyes again. She really should have been keeping count because she had been doing a lot of that today.

"Charlie here is upset that we're never going to see dragons up close."

Davey shuddered. "Oh, thank Merlin. I don't think I'd be able to stand that."

"Stand what?" James asked, suddenly appearing.

"Didn't you go on ahead?" Tonks asked suspiciously.

His other friends had called him over and he had run off.

"Forgot my textbook," he replied, patting his bag. "So, what can't Davey stand?"

"The idea of seeing dragons up close."

James' eyes widened in excitement. "Oh, that would be so cool! Imagine seeing g that! It would be amazing!"

Davey threw his hands in the air in exasperation. "Crazy! You are all crazy!"

Charlie glared at him. "You're the crazy one for not thinking dragons are cool."

"You do realise that they are massive, can breathe fire and would quite happily eat all of us without filling themselves up?"

"Don't be so dramatic."

That was not the best thing to say to Davey. Especially when he was all worked up like this.

"I am not being dramatic! If anything, I'm being under dramatic!"

"Is that even a word?" Tonks wondered out loud. "That doesn't sound like a word."

Of course, she was ignored in favouring of witnessing the hilarious event of Davey's mini mental breakdown over his friends' idiocy.

"These are dragons! Big, scary, fire breathing, scary, man-eating, scary dragons! That can fly at you! Did I mention they were scary?"

"You might have," James said, his lips twitching.

"Why on earth would you want to be anywhere near a real one?"

"Because they're cool!" Charlie insisted.

Davey let out this unholy shriek noise that both startled the birds that were on the ground nearby - they flew off in a panic - and the other students that were also walking back to the castle. Not that he noticed this as he flung his arms in the air and stomped off, muttering things about "idiotic Gryffindors" and "dragons? Why dragons?"

"Is he okay?" Samantha asked, drifting over from a few of her friends from Gryffindor.

She had missed the whole event. Pity, she would have found it hilarious.

"Davey doesn't like dragons," Tonks filled her in.

"Which is just ridiculous," James added.

"All I wanted to do was be close to one," Charlie said morosely, kicking at the ground.

Samantha eyes them all with more than a little amusement.

"I really miss out on the good conversations, don't I?"

"What did make Charlie so obsessed over dragons anyway?" Sirius asked.

I shrugged. "Hell, if I know. I'm convinced he came out of the womb obsessed."

"Something to ask Molly at the next Order meeting," Remus said with a twinkle in his eye.

"When is that, anyway?"

"Tomorrow evening."

"That soon?"

I could have sworn it was next week. This summer was flying in so fast.

"That reminds me," Remus turned to Sirius. "I won't be able to help you set up. I'm guarding Harry tomorrow."

Sirius gave him a dismissive shrug of the shoulder even though I knew how bothered he was that he couldn't help. Heck, even I didn't see why he couldn't help. A dog would just blend right in! Actually, hmm. Maybe not. It was probably a sure-fire way of him ending up in an Animal Shelter or something. And as amusing as that would be, I didn't think Dumbledore would be too impressed by it.

"Don't worry, I can help," I volunteered.

Remus gave me a suspicious look. What, couldn't a girl who wasn't usually interested in cleaning volunteer to clean?