Chapter Three
Although the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher was half Veela and did have a strange sensation on Harry and Ron, it didn't seem to affect anyone else. On Monday, they all went to class as if it were the same school year. There were more than 10 people, as Cho had said before at the Opening Banquet. There, actually, was about 100. Usually there are around 500, so it was a bit quieter.
Ron was still dazed by his encounter with Acandra. They didn't even know her name! Hermione found this out for them, though, on Monday. Hermione had decided to take Defense Against the Dark Arts, and soon forced Ron and Harry to join it too. Her name was Acandra Darinsta. Every time Harry heard that name, it sent shivers down his back.
In Harry and Ron's first Defense Against the Dark Arts class, they decided to sit by Hermione at the back. This did not stop Darinsta, however, for she decided to make them answer all her questions, and if they answered incorrectly, they would lose 10 points for their house. Since she was friends with Snape, it seems she favored the Slytherin as well. Malfoy and Goyle, seeing that Crabbe was not in their group anymore, were quite smug with themselves. They sat in the corner, getting everything wrong, and at the end of the class losing only 2 Slytherin points, when Gryffindor had lost 30.
Harry and Ron left to go to the Quidditch field in a very sulky mood.
"Cheer up, Harry! It's Quidditch time! I can't wait to see you beat Slytherin, again! Too bad we couldn't have Quidditch last year, with the Triwizard Tournament." Hermione tried to put them in a good mood, but it was no use. Darinsta's incantation seemed to affect anyone she chose.
Since there were some missing players, Ron decided to try out for Quidditch. What the team hadn't thought of was there was no more Keeper. Oliver Wood had left when they entered 4th year, and they hadn't played since. Ron had a very old broom, and he didn't do very well on it. Harry let him use his Firebolt, and Ron looked as if he was receiving the best present in the world.
With the Firebolt, Ron was an orange blur with his hair sticking up on end. He dodged, swerved, turned, and blocked until he won their practice game. He was as good a Keeper as Wood! With Ron on the team, Harry thought, they could beat every game!
After their little game, Ron was in such a jolly mood than before, he was happy to talk to Hermione. She seemed overjoyed with his wanting to talk to her, for he had been quite sulky the whole weekend.
"Hermione! Love the hair." Ron was passing compliments to everyone he saw. Harry and Hermione exchanged looks and shrugged.
"Err..Thanks Ron..I think.." Hermione replied, not knowing what to say, for no body had ever complimented her hair before, except at the Yule Ball. Thinking back, Ron wondered why he was so angry that night. Maybe it was because he was with Padma, she was very sulky too.
"Weasley, what happened, did your parents win the lottery?" Malfoy seemed to be in the same mood, tossing insults at anyone he saw. He was walking through the hallways next to Goyle, and Crabbe was, amazingly, off with Cho and Alexander. Hermione and Harry noticed this at the same time, and exchanged glances.
"No, Malfoy, I realized that you're no more than a mere Malfoy, who couldn't hurt a fly." Ron retorted, and Harry looked at him in amazement. He wasn't even blushing red. Malfoy, who looked amazed that Ron would actually throw and insult at him, gave Goyle a strange look.
Suddenly, Parvati Patil walked by Harry. Harry looked at her, and she was stunning with her hair up in 2 braids and then spiraled together. She smiled at Ron and gave Harry a wink. She seemed to ignore Hermione.
"Hi Harry! Hullo Ron.." She didn't like either Ron nor Hermione, which made them go off to see what Seamus and Dean were doing. Most everyone had come to the summer program that were in Gryffindor, but very few Slytherins turned up. Cho was still there, but today she looked quite sulky.
Harry wandered off to where Cho was standing. They had become friends over the course of last year's events. Even though last year was so much fun, it was devastating as well. Cedric Diggory, a happy Hufflepuff in his 7th year, died after Harry and him had been transported by a portkey to where Voldemort stood, his wand poised, and killed Cedric on the spot with the spell that had also killed Harry's parents.
Cho was looking at a moving picture of Cedric, who was waving exceedingly at her. She was silently letting tears flow down her face, and when Harry came, Cedric waved more vastly.
"Hey Cho, how are you?" Harry said, trying to make casual conversation. He noticed she was looking off towards where Alexander was walking.
"Err..Nothing Harry. I got to..go..eat..something." She wandered off, following Alexander. Harry sighed and wandered around looking for Ron and Hermione. He found them talking to Prof. Dumbledore on the stairs leading up to Charms Class.
"Why, hello Mr. Potter. We were just discussing you. Why so sulky?" Dumbledore seemed quite concerned about Harry most of the time, and it gave Harry the shivers.
"Err..Nothing's wrong, Professor. I was just sulky because.." Harry began, but decided not to tell anyone about his feelings for Cho. Hermione, however, seemed she already knew. She motioned for him to follow her and walked down the stairs.
"Harry...Did you see Cho with Alexander earlier?" She questioned him, a strange look in her eyes he had never seen before.
"Yeah, I did. I guess she found someone after.." He was about to say something about Cedric, but it seemed inappropriate at the time. Harry decided to skip Charms class, which made Hermione nearly faint.
"Skip Charms? Are you serious?!" She asked, rather scared by the thought. She had to sit down on the steps to catch her breath.
"Hermione, I'll just catch up on it later when we're actually 5th years. We don't even have to be here. Tell Professor Flitwick I'm sick, okay? Won't y-" Harry was cut off by the most annoying voice he could think of. Apparently Colin Creevey had signed up for the program too.
"Harry! You're here! This is weird! I didn't know you were here!" Colin was Harry's biggest 'fan.'
"Yes, Colin, I'm here. What do you want?" Harry replied in a monotonous, dragged out voice. But before Colin replied, he eyed Hermione and Harry suspiciously, gasped, and then ran down the steps at a very fast pace.
"What's into him?" Hermione and Harry exchanged glances, and then went back up to Dumbledore and Ron. Apparently they were discussing yet another picture on the wall. It had a lost Pharaoh in it. Harry recognized it was the same Pharaoh from the picture he saw on Opening Night! The Pharaoh caught site of him, and decided to pelt Harry with Scarabs. Fortunately, they bounced off the picture again, and scuttled back to the Pharaoh and the original picture characters, who were actually farmers.
"Ron, I'm going to go out to the lake, want to come?" Harry talked to Ron after Dumbldore had left, for if he knew Harry and Ron were actually planning to skip class, he would not allow it. Ron agreed, and they started walking down the stairs. But, in their path, was the one and only Acandra Darinsta.
