Sakura kept her eyes trained on the extremely short Professor Flitwick who now was standing on his pile of books with a wide smile on his face. He didn't seem at all like Professor Snape that she had seen during the start-of-term feast yesterday or Filch for that matter, and she was thankful for that.

"Now that you're all finally back in Hogwarts, you'll have to continue with your syllabus, as you have to take your O.W.Ls this year. I assume that all of you have already started revising your past years' work for this year's major exam?" Flitwick spoke, looking around expectantly. Only Hermione was nodding away happily in her seat there; the others seemed to stare back at him blankly as if they had no idea what he was talking about.

"What are O.W.Ls?" Sakura whispered to Harry who sat just beside Li. "Owls?"

Ron practically choked; drawing a few curious stares from his fellow Gryffindors as he quickly turned it into a loud coughing fit. Sakura blinked, looking confusedly at Ron, who was trying his best to stifle his own laughter, then at Hermione, who had a hint of a smile playing on her lips.

"O.W.Ls stand for Ordinary Wizarding Levels, Sakura-san (Hermione had decided to add a little formality to Sakura's name). It's the major exam that we have to take this year, and mind you, it's really difficult," Hermione explained, half listening to Flitwick as she spoke. "Trust me. I've done some of the trial papers, so I do know their format (Sakura was sure that she heard Ron snort)."

"…This year, we will be starting of on a slightly faster pace," Flitwick was saying in front of the classroom. "Close your books now. I just want to do a little revision with you today; we'll just practice the charms that we learned last year- The Summoning Charm, Banishing Charm and others. Sakura, Syaoran, Meilin, do come up here with your wands. I'll show you how it's done. Yue, could you please fetch some of those cushions from that cupboard for me?"

Yue complied without uttering a word. This seemed strange, and Sakura shot him a curious look. She knew that it wasn't polite to say this, but Yue seldom listened to other people, much less follow anyone's orders except hers or Clow's.

Still, it was his job, she thought before dismissing it with a shrug. Come to think of it, she wondered how Eriol, Tomoyo, Nakuru and oniichan were enjoying their new classes?

-------

Tomoyo frowned as she stood in front of a weird looking plant, while Eriol, who was standing beside her, looked positively relaxed as they watched Professor Sprout stride into the greenhouse. They were having Herbology for their first lesson, yet Tomoyo doubted that she had ever seen this plant that had been placed in front of her ever before.

It had small, short white wings at its side, its leaves streaked with a light aquamarine colour that made it looks as if this bush itself had been painted with blue and green stripes by someone who hadn't the faintest idea of how plants were supposed to look like.

On the other hand, the colour coordination didn't seem so bad, she thought as she studied the plant again. If she were to make a costume for Sakura mixing these two colours so that they blended in, it didn't seem so bad after all…

Beside her, Eriol chuckled softly to himself. Being able to read her mind, he could see a design slowly taking shape in her mind, each stitch painstakingly imagined. At last, she tucked it away in her mind, hoping that she would remember this design until lunch, when she could finally get her hands on some parchment and draw it all out.

Tapping her lightly on her shoulder, he shot her his famous smile, bringing her back to reality as he pointed silently to Professor Sprout who was standing up front. She blushed for a split second, ashamed to be caught unaware and not paying attention in class before turning her attention to the Herbology teacher who was speaking out in the front.

"What you see in front of you is a Hollywing Bush," Professor Sprout was saying as she looked down at her own Hollywing Bush that seemed to be hovering (with a flutter of its wings here and there) in mid air, as if suspended there. "You will have to pluck the feathers from its wings; not a very easy task, I warn you. Hollywing Bushes are one of the fastest plants known, and to catch them requires great speed. Strength is also mandatory as it is rather difficult to hold it down."

"However," she continued, completely unaware of Tomoyo's mouth that was hanging open. "Spells have been cast on these Hollywing Bushes, to slow them down. All the same, you will have to catch them to pluck their feathers. Do be careful not to step on any of the feathers though, for Hollywing Bush feathers are valuable, they can come in handy for quite a few remedies."

Tomoyo gazed down at he own bush, scrutinizing it with a raised eyebrow. All of a sudden, it flew up, throwing her off balance. It was by pure luck that Eriol caught her deftly, giving her a smile as he watched her bush zoom around the greenhouse with such speed.

"If this is slow, these bushes must be hard to catch," Tomoyo muttered as she watched a group of girls duck as the bush flew low, almost brushing against their heads.

It was then that a most unpleasant, yet familiar voice rang out, its insult being directed to the both of them.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the first year babies. Having trouble with your bushes, babies?"

Tomoyo whirled around, not knowing who it was, but Eriol, who was quite acquainted with this particular speaker as they had met before, simply smiled and closed his eyes.

"I take it that you want another flying lesson without a broom, Malfoy?" he spoke calmly, acting as if the Slytherin hadn't even spoken. "You didn't do very well the last time; would you like another try?"

The Clow circle appeared around Eriol, and Malfoy retreated a few steps, only to bump into Crabbe and Goyle who were exchanging anxious looks of panic at each other, evidently recalling what had happened to Malfoy yesterday on the train.

It was now that Eriol opened his mysterious dark blue eyes and gazed at the three of them. "Or perhaps your friends might like to have a go too?"

Malfoy, apparently sensing a warning in Eriol's tone, turned and walked away, a huge sneer upon his face. Apparently, his first run in with Eriol brew enough reminders and reasons why he shouldn't go near that Hiiragizawa boy. Crabbe and Goyle scurried after him, not wanting to rouse Eriol's anger either (despite the very fact that Eriol seldom got angry- who knows what he would do if provoked?).

Tomoyo's eyebrows shot up to her hairline as she watched the three Slytherins walk off, each of them shooting nasty glares at Eriol who seemed to smile back at them. Now, the smiling sorcerer turned back to her, and with a wave of his wand, halted her fleeing Hollywing Bush in mid air. With much less of a sweep of his arm, it landed quite smoothly back in front of her, and he raised an eyebrow when he noticed that she was still staring at him.

"I suggest that you should hold that bush down, Tomoyo-chan. I can't restrain that bush with my magic forever," Eriol remarked, his smile now widening into a grin. She blushed once more, her face glowing a much brighter red, making her previous blush look pale in comparison.

Then, with all her strength, she held down the struggling bush just when he released his magic from the plant. It immediately began to flap its white wings in a most panicked manner, making it totally impossible for her to even get a hold on its violently flapping wings.

She gritted her teeth, now realizing the truth in Professor Sprout's words as she kept an iron-like grip on the Hollywing Bush that seemed desperate to escape from her clutches. This plant possessed such strength, she reflected as she bit her lip, restraining the urge to sneeze as a ticklish branch of leaves brushed on her nose. How could anyone possibly even extract a feather from its wings?

Eriol sighed, watching as Tomoyo held down the bush in the most comical way he had ever seen. Reaching into his bag, he brought out his old wand (the one that Clow had used when he was still in Hogwarts) and pointed it at the bush that seemed to be striving to release itself from Tomoyo and to fly free once more.

"Stand back, Tomoyo-chan. You won't want this to hit you, believe me."

She blinked, taking a step back just in time as he waved his wand and shouted, "Stupefy!". Her eyes widened as the plant suddenly froze and dropped listlessly into an astonished Tomoyo's hands. She stared at it, her eyes wide with surprise.

"What did you do?" she spoke up at last, finding her voice as she stared at it, awed. Daring herself to step closer to the motionless plant, she gingerly extracted a feather from its now unmoving wings before looking up at him again.

He smiled comfortingly at her, realizing her shock as he caught his own Hollywing Bush with such ease. "Don't worry, Tomoyo-chan," he replied, his voice gentle as he Stunned it before plucking some feathers off his own bush. "I've just Stunned it. It won't harm the plant in any way, I promise. Don't worry; it'll be back in its normal state when you finish, as good as new. Daijobu?"

"Daijobu," she replied, now happily plucking the feathers off her Hollywing Bush. She did so wish that she could learn these spells, she thought as she removed yet another feather from the bush's wings. They seemed ever so fascinating, and besides, they were the reason why she decided to come here to Hogwarts; she wanted to cast spells just like Li, Sakura and Eriol…

-------

Touya snorted irritably as he tried to push Nakuru away. Apparently, since she couldn't glomp him (much to his relief) as the teacher was watching, she had resorted to hanging on to his arm and not letting go of it. This made writing difficult for him, as he was forced to write with his left hand (Nakuru was hanging on to his right unfortunately).

To tell the truth, he was very tempted to change places with someone in front, just as long as he had a chance to escape from the clutches of Nakuru Akizuki. He couldn't possibly imagine how Eriol could tolerate such behaviour from his moon guardian without going crazy. That Hiiragizawa boy must know something that he didn't he thought as he tried, for the millionth time to shake her off.

"Nakuru, let go of my hand," he hissed. "I can't write with my left hand, especially if I'm holding a quill. Now, LET GO."

The persistent moon guardian didn't show any signs of letting go, though, as she stuck out her tongue at him and latched herself onto his hand even tighter and grinned.

"You can copy my notes later, Touya-kun!"

He sighed, wondering how accurate and neat Nakuru's notes could possibly be. He had seen her writing once (he had been forced to sit close to her for a few moments of pure torture before while he was at school), and the first thing that came to his mind when he had seen it wasn't tidy. The words 'unreadable' and 'terrible' were one of the things that he thought at that very moment, though.

"Nakuru Akizuki, for the fourth and last time, I repeat: you're disrupting the class! Now will you please release Touya Kinomoto's hand and concentrate?"

The both of them jumped at the sudden boom of the angry voice, and Nakuru looked up with a slight pout on the face of the furious teacher that stood beside them. This only infuriated the already angered teacher even more, as the entire class watched the drama that stood unfolding in front of them.

"Five points from Hufflepuff!" he exclaimed with cold fury as he pointed to an empty seat at the far end. "Nakuru, move to that seat over there at the corner; Kinomoto, you stay here. I don't want anymore disruptions, is that clear?"

Their classmates scowled at them, as if giving them a warning not to anger the teacher anymore; they didn't want any more points taken away. Nakuru shrunk back, a pout on her face as she sighed in defeat.

"Yes, Professor."

Gathering her things from her desk, she trudged slowly to the seat at the right hand corner of the class, her pout slowly deepening into a frown. Just when the teacher's back was turned, she stuck out her tongue at it, wanting to throw her pile of textbooks at him.

It wasn't fair, she thought as she slammed her books down (another sharp glare from the Muggle Studies teacher) on the table; all she wanted was to collect a little power from Touya. Was it wrong? As far as he was concerned, she didn't think so.

Touya however, seemed to think differently about this.

He breathed a sigh of relief, massaging his right arm before switching his quill from his left hand to his right hand. He hated how Nakuru gripped his hand; she always made it cramp and it usually did take him a long time to actually feel the blood flowing into his veins once more.

Besides, he had a whole list of notes to rewrite (it was practically impossible the read what he had written earlier- his writing seemed totally illegible), and wasn't looking forward to that at all. It looked as if he had to spend his entire evening in the library; he needed to decipher this terrible writing by tonight.

Nakuru didn't seem to taking her punishment willingly; her frown was still etched on her face as she glared daggers at the teacher, her high spirits now slightly dampened by the sudden punishment. She had taken (and partially forced Touya) Muggle Studies because of the rumours that she had heard which said that the Muggle Studies teacher wasn't very strict at all.

Apparently, it wasn't true, she reflected bitterly. It was true that he was slightly better than Snape (she didn't want to think about that either), but all the same, he was as harsh and rule abiding as Professor McGonagall, the head of the Gryffindor house.

Was it her imagination or was Spinel who was sitting in front smirking at her? Why, when she'd get her hands on that sun guardian…! Suppi was going to regret that silly smirk when she wiped it clean off his face!

Eriol was going to hear about this too, she realized as she glared at her fellow guardian. With Spinel being the teaching assistant here, he was sure to (and was definitely going to) inform their master about this misfortunate incident in her first class of the year.

Still, it was only the first class, she thought, shrugging. One class that went like this didn't mean that it would stay this way throughout the entire year, did it?

Smiling, she started to imagine stuffing a whole chunk of chocolate down Suppi's throat. That would surely be sweet revenge…

-------

Sakura inhaled, gazing at her wand that she held in her hand. She couldn't understand why she was so behind in performing the spells that Flitwick was teaching them; the others were already learning the Summoning Charm while she was still stuck trying to make her Disarming Charm work.

It seemed hopeless; no matter how loud she uttered the words or how fancily she waved her wand, Professor Flitwick's wand stayed where it originally was: in his hand. It was so infuriating, and her patience was running out.

Li, who was stood beside her, paused from his practice of the Summoning Charm as he watched her try again to perform the Disarming Charm. Sakura's forehead now wrinkled up in concentration as she stared at Flitwick's wand, concentrating on the long piece of wood that the teacher was holding in his hand.

"Expelliarmus!" she cried as she held her breath, only to be disappointed when Flitwick's wand didn't even move. This Charm seemed to test her patience; she had managed to perform the Levitating Charm (Wingardium Leviosa!), the Leg Locker Charm and others from the first and second years. It was until she arrived at the Disarming Charm that she was stuck.

There was something wrong with the way she was performing the Charm, Li reflected as he watched her try again. He couldn't quite put a finger on it, but something did seem wrong. Still, what was wrong?

"Syaoran? Is there anything wrong?" Professor Flitwick asked, noticing that he had stopped practicing the Summoning Charm. "Is there something that you don't understand? Come, let me have a look at how you do the Summoning Charm. Excuse me for a minute, Sakura."

Sakura nodded obediently, her leaf green eyes meeting Li's amber ones for a split second, making him turn away with a bright red blush on his face. Fortunately, Flitwick didn't catch this sudden exchange of emotions.

Li raised his wand, and pointing it towards a cushion that had been placed at the other end of the room, cried out, "Accio!". Obediently, it zoomed to him, landing neatly in front of him on the table, as Flitwick nodded approvingly.

"Well done, Syaoran. Now, what about you, Meilin?"

Sakura wiped the perspiration that beaded her temples as she stared at her wand, frustrated. What had she possible done wrong? She had been careful to observe that she said the correct words, and that she flicked her wand in the correct way. So what was wrong? Why couldn't she Disarm Professor Flitwick?

She was so wrapped up in her own thoughts that she didn't notice that Li was gazing at her, his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to pinpoint the fault in her Disarming Charm. Finally, he had a theory, but he had to test it out first.

"Sakura-chan, practice that Charm on me," Li spoke up at last to a most astonished Sakura. She stared at him and blinked, only succeeding to make his face turn red as he looked away. "As long as the teacher's not teaching anything yet, as well make the best of it, ne?"

"Honto ni?" Sakura spoke as she stared at him, now acknowledging the bright crimson colour that had spread all over Li's face, making him look as bright red as a tomato. "You'll let me practice on you?"

"Yes. No, you're holding your wand in the wrong way, Sakura-chan. You shouldn't hold it by your fingertips, you should grip it just like this. Yes, like that," he pointed out, correcting her grip, which he noticed was slightly off par.

"Then, lift your wand, and point it at me. No, not at my wand, you might not get a direct hit anyway. Concentrate; don't let your attention waver…"

Sakura followed his instructions, her concentration so intense that Li could have sworn that her stare itself could have shattered a window. She wasn't going to fail this time, she promised herself silently.

"Expelliarmus!"

This time, Li's wand flew out of his hand, and landed a few feet away from him, much to her very surprise. She had done it! After all her failed attempts, she had finally been able to perform the Disarming Charm!

Professor Flitwick had apparently been watching, and now had a wide smile upon his face as he watched his student, after making sure that Meilin understood thoroughly how to perform her Summoning Charm properly.

"Nice work, Sakura. Can you show me how your performed that charm again?" he asked.

Sakura swallowed, unsure if she could repeat her previous feat. All the same, it couldn't hurt to try, could it? Raising her wand so that it pointed at Flitwick's wand, she inhaled, her muscles tense. She could do it, she reassured herself as she closed her eyes.

Opening those leaf green eyes again, she held her breath, and-

"Expelliarmus!"

The long wand flew out of Professor Flitwick's hand, and landed neatly in front of Sakura as she jumped up in joy. She had managed to perform to Disarming Charm at last!

A few of the Gryffindors who had been quietly practicing their Charms at the back of the class looked slightly stunned at the sudden commotion up front. There were a few whispers, and Sakura turned red, managing a smile when she realized what she was doing.

Li himself was shaking his head and sighing while Meilin could only raise her eyebrows and sigh.

Author's Note:

Konnichiwa! Tadaima!!

*ducks as millions of red tomatoes are thrown at her* I know this chapter's been very late! I know, I know! You can stop throwing those tomatoes already! *sighs* As I've written in my profile, I've been quite busy with school lately. They're just so many activities to join…

Anyway…! Chapter 5 is out at last, and I hoped you enjoyed it! Tomoyo is slightly off character here, and I promise that I'll get back to her real character soon, ok? This is just temporary, so don't freak out yet, Tomoyo fans! I'll try to post my next chapter as soon as possible (but that would take some time as I have my exams coming up -_-;;), so keep our fingers crossed, minna! Er….the 7 reviews rule doesn't seem quite right to ask from all of you now, so…5 reviews at least? Onegai!!!! I still have to survive as a fanfic writer ne? All right then, until next time, ja ne~! Domo arigato!

*runs out amid the shower of tomatoes* ^o^

Japanese words:

Daijobu - If it's a question, like "Daijobu?", it means 'Are you all right?". If it's an answer, like 'Daijobu yo', it means 'Yes, I'm all right.'

Ne - Has two meanings: one which when is put at the beginning of a sentence means "Hey!". For example, "Ne, Sakura!". However, when it is placed at the end of the sentence, it means "Right?". For example, "It is difficult, ne?"

Honto ni - Really?

Konnichiwa - Hello, or good afternoon…it depends

Tadaima - I'm back

Minna - Everyone

Onegai - Please

Ja ne - Goodbye, or Sayonara

Domo arigato - This is again, an informal version of the phrases "Domo Arigato Gozaimasu" and "Domo Arigato Gozaimashita", which nevertheless, mean "Thank you".

-chan - Honorific for someone of status lower to yourself, and term of endearment for family and friends. Used mostly for females and is very informal. Is to be added at the end of the name

-kun - Mr. (junior), master, boy. Similar to chan, but mostly applied to males. Is to be added at the end of the name.