The next morning, Avalon and her friends experienced their first Hogwarts class apart from each other. After breakfast, just before nine o' clock, Theo and Daphne headed off to Divination, and Avalon followed Blaise and Draco to Arithmancy.

Arithmancy took place on the seventh floor. Professor Vector was waiting for the students to trail in and organizing papers.

By the time the students began filing into the room, Professor Vector flicked her wand and placecards flew from her desk to the tables filling the room. "Find your name on your card, please, and have a seat. Take out Numerology and Grammatica. Class will begin in a few moments."

With an eye roll in Blaise's direction, Avalon read the name cards until she found hers, next to Terry Boot. They hadn't spoken since the boat ride over to the castle at the beginning of first year, but somehow she didn't think that sharing a desk in Arithmancy would make them suddenly best friends. However, when Professor Vector began teaching, Terry nodded his head cordially at her in greeting, and she did the same. The seating could have been worse, of course. She could have been next to—

"Hermione Granger?"

The Gryffindor girl stopped in her tracks. She was clutching her textbooks and trying to stuff Unfogging the Future into her bag while sneaking into the classroom late. The book slipped from her hands and clattered to the ground. "How did you know?"

Professor Vector sighed. "I took a wild guess. Seeing as your classmates saw it fit to come to class on time, you were the only student marked absent. I certainly didn't use tea leaves or palm readings to figure it out." She looked at Unfogging the Future on the floor with a look of pure disdain. "Do you have an excuse for showing up late to my class?"

The girl opened her mouth to respond, but quickly shut it after a moment of hesitation. She stared at the ground. "No, Professor."

"Well, let this serve as a warning to you and your classmates. The next lateness will be met with a detention with me after classes. I need someone to help polish my abacus collection." The professor chuckled, but she was the only one who saw humor in the situation. "Now, find your seat, Ms. Granger."

With a slightly red face, Granger slipped into the seat in front of Terry, next to Susan Bones. Draco didn't bother to hide his laughter from across the room.

"Something funny, Mr. Malfoy?"

"No, Professor. I was clearing my throat."

"Moving on," Professor Vector flicked her wand again, and the chalk began to copy down notes from her lecture onto the board. "Welcome to Arithmancy. For those of you who don't know, arithmancy is a method of divination by numbers first used by the Ancient Greeks to figure out the outcome of their battles. It is a very precise and measureable method of predicting the future. In this year, we will focus on one of the most basic forms of arithmancy. We will learn what different numbers mean and study character numbers, heart numbers, and social numbers. More importantly, we will derive them. Some of you might consider this to be fun, but this class will be a lot of work. Now, open your books to page four and silently read the first chapter to yourself before a quick assessment on it at the end of class."

A few students groaned, but she didn't react to their dissent.

Despite Avalon's attempts to focus on the words in front of her, her mind was elsewhere. The sentences all swam together.

The word arithmancy (also known as numerology) comes from two Greek words, which put together mean "Divinations by Numbers," which is exactly what Arithmancy is. The two primary Arithmancy systems are the Agrippan Method & the Chaldeon Method. The primary difference between the two is that the Agrippan Method uses nine numbers in its calculations and the Chaldeon uses only eight.

The class itself wasn't boring to Avalon. It seemed interesting, especially when she had classes like History of Magic to compare it to. However, she had woken up thirteen times in the middle of the night, with the same nightmare again and again. She was rooted to the spot while her father yelled at her, and just when he prepared to strike her, he turned into the horrifying form of a basilisk. It was chilling. Avalon decided to just wait for dawn instead of sleeping again, and spent the last two hours staring at the ceiling, alone with her thoughts. It had been fine at the time, but now she was trying to stay awake in class. Professor Vector seemed strict and probably wouldn't take kindly to Avalon snoring loudly into her textbook.

Just stay awake.

Just stay… awake.

Just… stay… awake.

Just… stay…

"Ms. Steele!"

"I'm awake!" Avalon cried. She quickly sat up and tried to wipe the small puddle of drool away from the center of Numerology and Grammatica without any of her classmates seeing. Terry quickly averted his eyes, and she silently thanked him for that.

She could tell that not only had she slept through the assigned reading, but she had also missed the majority of the class discussion about the text. Her face probably sported the imprint of the boring words from being stuck to the book for so long. What a great first impression to leave with her new teacher.

Professor Vector wrote Avalon's name on the board. "I'm sure you were awake. The snoring is what alerted me to just how awake you really were." She wrote another word above it before setting the chalk down.

"Detention?"

"That's what it says," said Professor Vector. "It's nice to see that even if you can't read your textbook as instructed, you do have the ability to read. That will make my job so much easier over the course of this year, wouldn't you agree?" Without waiting for Avalon's sullen nod, the woman continued, "I'll see you tomorrow night."

"Yes, professor," came the response.

"Five points from Slytherin as well."

Avalon avoided the dirty looks that Blaise, Draco, and Pansy were shooting her from various points around the classroom. If looks could kill, she might have ended up spending another seven months in the Hospital Wing this school year.

After they left Arithmancy it was time for the first History of Magic lesson of the year. Draco commented how much his brain was going to hurt having those two classes back to back, until Blaise reminded him that he at least had a break for lunch and Care of Magical Creatures. That only served to upset the blond boy more. He completely ignored his plate of food in favor of his favorite activity—ranting.

"It's going to be horrible," Draco whined. "What does that oaf know about teaching a class? Our first year, he kept an illegal dragon in his hut! Last year he was removed from his post as Keeper of the Keys because of the attacks."

"And he was cleared," Daphne remarked.

Draco shrugged. "I'll probably end up dropping the class next year. It's going to be horrible."

Daphne couldn't hide her smile at Draco's annoyance. "We were smart to not take it. You made fun of us for it, too. I'm not the biggest fan of large creatures, and I definitely wouldn't want to care for them. Of course Blaise hates being outside longer than he has to. Quidditch is the exception."

"I thought it would be an easy class! No dates to memorize, charms to practice, or difficult numerology to worry about. Apparently the only hard part about it will be getting out in one piece," Draco said. Content with his complaints, he picked up his chicken sandwich and started to eat it.

Theo stood up. "No time for food, mate. You spent all your eating time talking." To prove his point, he shoveled the last bite into his mouth.

"Disgusting," said the girls in unison.

Avalon, Blaise, and Daphne watched the two leave. Since Care of Magical Creatures was outside, they needed to get down to Hagrid's hut, and the other three simply needed to dash to Study of Ancient Runes in a fraction of that time. They finished their lunches without any problem.

Unfortunately for all of the Slytherins in their year, Draco "wounded" himself in Care of Magical Creatures that day. Avalon had to get the story from Neville later on because Draco was too hysterical to explain what happened, and no one could understand what Theo was saynig through his laughter. According to Neville, Draco had disregarded Hagrid's instructions about encountering hippogriffs, and insulted a proud one called 'Buckbeak.' The end result was Malfoy getting slashed by the beast, and having to go to the Hospital Wing. Although Pansy—the only coherent Slytherin who could give her version of the events—swore it was Hagrid's fault for letting a dangerous animal near thirteen-year-olds, Potter had approached the hippogriff and even ridden it, and the other students also approached them without problem. Of course Avalon would stand by Draco in his time of need, but she began wondered if maybe he was putting on an act because of his dislike for Hagrid.

A/N: Wow, update? I've never met her. Just kidding (mostly). Anyway, I don't own Harry Potter, this is not for profit, alsoreview/follow/favorite, etc. Blah, blah, blah. You know the drill.