The bell rang. The Gryffindors walked off to Charms, the Slytherins going to Herbology. Amy noticed Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown pointing at her and whispering behind their hands. She paid no heed, walking silently, staring at the ground. Her anger started to seep away and she began to notice how foolish she had been. She back-talked to a teacher. And now she was going to have detention, most likely with Snape, and he would think up the worst punishment for her outburst in class. She shook her head in disgust at herself.

But then another thought crept into her mind. How did Snape know about her father, or his death? She'd never met Snape before, and as far as she knew, neither had her father. She came out of her musings with a jolt and found herself outside the Charms classroom. She entered and took a seat next to Ron. Seamus sat on her other side.

Charms was very boring, as all they did was review all they learned last year, the year before that, the year before that.and the year before that. The class immediately lost interest. Ron and Amy amused themselves by playing tic-tac-toe under the desk. Amy kept winning, but she had a feeling that Ron wasn't losing on accident.

"Ripley, Weasley! Can you please pay attention?" Flitwick's sharp squeak caught them both off guard. They looked up, laughing over some joke or another. Flitwick nodded, continuing the lecture on levitating. "Now, we practiced levitating in the first year, but have you remebered? Can someone show me the correct way to levitate this book?" He asked, holding up a heavy volume. Amy slowly lifted her hand, along with Hermione. "Ah, Miss Ripley. Could you be so kind as to show us?" Hermione lowered her hand, looking disappointed.

Amy rose and walked to the front of the class. She lifted her wand and stood before the book. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she said (doing the famous "swish and flick"), and the book rose without any trouble at all. Hermione smiled grudgingly when Amy returned to her seat.

"Good way to get on his good side," she whispered. "You did that charm very well."

"Thanks Hermione," she said, smiling at her.

"Yeah, good job," said Seamus, grinning.

"Thanks."

Once again, the bell rang and the class gladly made their way to lunch.



Seamus pulled Amy away from the others.

"I need to talk to you," he said.

"Seamus please, can't we talk later?" Amy asked. "I'm starving."

He opened his mouth, closed it again, and nodded his head. "Sure. First thing after dinner, okay?"

"Yeah, sure."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Amy was just in the middle of a giant pudding when Professor Dumbledore rose. All quieted down immediately and looked expectantly towards him.

"Yes, thank you," he said nodding. "I have a few announcements before your next classes. First, Quidditch Tryouts are coming up for those houses with a lack of players. These will take place on Saturday, and students 4th year and up will be able to tryout. Also, those houses without captains need to pick one quickly in time for tryouts. Second, students 3rd year and up, the Hogsmeade trip will be next Saturday. That is all."

Whispers filled the hall excitingly at the mention of Quidditch tryouts. Amy brightened up considerably, as she just [I]loved[/I] Quidditch, and was a good player herself. She leaned over to Harry.

"I'm gonna tryout," she said. "What positions are open?"

"Um.keeper," he said, looking surprised when a broad smile appeared on her face.

"That's great!" she said, grinning at him. "I played keeper at my old school! I was one of the best!"

"Oh. Well, you have a good chance then, since you have experience."

She went back to her food, smiling to herself.