Psssst!! Hey, you! Yeah, I'm talking to you! It's bunnie again, with
some more author's notes!!
1)Thanks, everyone, for reviewing! *tear* It makes me feel so appreciated.....
2)Don't worry about flaming me....constructive criticism is always welcome!
3)This last chapter is going to change a little bit, so if you read chapter 7 before, this will be a little bit different...
4)For those who are concerned about some minor details that I got wrong: I changed Dudley's age to 15 (I forgot that he and Harry are supposed to be the same age), and Hermione will use that super note-taking quill thing like that Rita Skeeter had instead of the microphone (I forgot that microphones aren't allowed at Hogwarts).
Any problems? Review or email me! Bye for now! Bunnie :P
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Chapter 7
As soon as Ron and Hermione had left for wherever they were going, all the owls, private and school-owned alike, swooped in to deliver new schedules to the students. Harry watched as the owls moved faster, more urgently, as if they had some other business to take care of. Hedwig was one of the only owls to land and stay awhile with their masters before returning to the Owlery. She dropped off her letter, and started nibbling some of the remains of Harry's breakfast.
Harry stroked her feathers, asking her, "Are some of the owls all hyped up from the fire this morning?" Hedwig merely gave a short hoot, grabbed the last half of a piece of bread, and flew back out a window. Harry looked at his schedule, and his face contorted in disgust. "Oh, great. We have all our classes with the Slytherins this year!"
"What's so bad about that?" Cassie asked, her mouth full of Cheerios.
"Do you know who the Slytherins are yet?" Harry asked the naive new girl. Cassie slowly shook her head. Harry then looked over to the Slytherin table, where Malfoy and his cronies were busy laughing at something or other. Cassie followed his lead and looked in that direction. She caught Malfoy's eye, who stared back at her and gave her a wink.
"Disgusting," she said as she turned back to her cereal. "Did you say, all our classes are with them?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Harry sighed. "But it's so strange. It's usually not like this. I mean, it's usually mixed, with some classes with the Hufflepuffs, some with Ravenclaws, and some with Slytherins. Not all the classes with the same houses."
"Oh," Cassie replied nodding her head. Harry saw her eyes widen in surprise as she stared at something behind his head. Harry turned around and saw a tiny object swoop down through a window and zoom around the room. Right away, he knew it was Pigwidgeon, Ron's owl, from its frantic, excited movements. He guessed that the little thing had woken up late. Pig zoomed around the room a couple of times, and Harry got a little worried. He searched the room for Ron, hoping to find him somewhere in the crowd, when he heard some cheering erupt all around him. He whipped around to see Cassie standing on the table and triumphantly waving around her hand.
"Cassie? You caught Pig?" he asked, amazed.
"Huh? What's Pig?" she said, confused. Her question was followed by an immediate, "Ow!" as Pig pecked at her hand from inside it. Cassie got down fromt he table and released the miniscule messenger into Harry's hands, where, it deposited Ron's schedule and rapidly took off for the window. Harry watched as Pig flew towards the wall, banged against it, then fly through the opening.
"That thing's vicious!" Cassie grumbled as she got back in her seat, rubbing her hand.
"Yeah, I reckon Ron's taught him a few bad habits already," Harry said, putting his best friend's schedule with his own. As Cassie shoveled the rest of the cereal into her mouth, Ginny rushed over, waving another schedule.
"Harry! I got Hermione's schedule!" she squealed, running down to where Harry was sitting. Harry felt a little burdened to have three schedules with him, but gladly accepted it when Ginny handed it over. Ginny lingered for a moment, smiling at Harry, when that tell-tale voice came to Harry's ear again.
"Awww. I see the little Weasel has finally won over the Boy Who Lived. What a charming match that will make," sneered Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle laughed stupidly, not even understanding the joke their leader had made. Harry narrowed his eyes towards them, anger growing inside him by the minute, while Ginny became a very dark shade of red. Malfoy turned his glare to Cassie. "And if it isn't the little fire starter herself!"
"She didn't start it!" Harry said defensively. He looked over to Cassie, who was cringing, with a look of impending doom in her eyes. "Hermione got it all down! You blackmailed her!"
"How do you know that, Potter?" Malfoy spat. "How do you know that I wasn't trying to save some lives by taking her out of the picture?"
"What do you mean, 'save some lives'? She wouldn't hurt a fly, would you Cassie?" Ginny said, standing up for her new friend. Cassie shrunk even more in her seat.
"Thanks to her and her evil exploits, I can't be prefect anymore!" Malfoy yelled back at the three Gryffindors. Harry was stunned, but sort of pleased that Malfoy had actually gotten punished for his dastardly deeds. Although he knew he shouldn't have enjoyed it, he watched with relish as Malfoy stomped back to his own table, enraged that he had leaked out news of his own demotion. But, Harry couldn't help thinking how much of what Cassie had told him was the truth, and how much was a lie in concordance with what Malfoy had said. After all, Malfoy was one of the best liars at Hogwarts. But, who knew how good a liar Cassie was? Harry thought this over as he headed over to the library with the girl in question to find Ron and Hermione.
As expected, both were in the library. Harry and Cassie entered, and saw their two friends straight away, sitting at one of the tables. Ron and Hermione were actually getting along, no yelling, no silent treatment, no nothing. They were actually sitting pretty close to each other, talking in low voices. Harry saw straight away what was happening and pulled Cassie behind a bookshelf near the couple.
"Hey! I've had enough abuse for the day, thank you very much!" Cassie complained angrily.
"Shh!" Harry whispered hastily to her. "Look! Don't you see what's happening?" Cassie again shook her head. Geez, Harry thought to himself, This girl really has no clue about anything. Heremoved some of the books and looked through them to see a perfect framed picture of Ron and Hermione being nice to each other. Then, he gestured to Cassie to look through. She rolled her eyes, thinking, This is so stupid, until she looked at her new friends together at last.
"Oh my gosh!" she said jumping up and down and clapping her hands silently. "How cute!" Harry watched her cautiously as she continued to skip up and down their aisle of books until she stopped dead in her tracks. Cassie literally froze in mid skip, then stood still, like normal.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked. Cassie just turned around and had that look of fear on her face again.
"When Ron and Hermione were fighting this morning, I.......did something," she said slowly.
"Cassie, you didn't," Harry said, his green eyes also growing large in terror.
"I did," she said sheepishly, biting at her fingernail. After a few seconds of Cassie fidgeting and Harry worrying, a crash was heard on the other side of their bookcase. Harry and Cassie peeked around the bookshelf to see Hermione all black, staring daggers at Ron, while poor Ron was trying to explain that it wasn't him. While they started their yelling again, Harry pulled Cassie back around the bookcase.
"I'm so sorry! I meant that little bomb to be for Ron, because I thought he was being so despicable towards Mione!" she pleaded.
"Don't worry about it. There's been worse," Harry said, trying to console her. "I pulled you back so you wouldn't get blamed. So, I'll get them their schedules and you stay here, out of trouble, alright?" Cassie nervously nodded her head, still biting her fingernail. Harry, meanwhile, emerged from behind the bookcase to give the schedules to an angry Ron and an even angrier Hermione. Both, surprisingly, stopped their bellyaching and stared at their schedules.
"Bloody hell! We have all our classes with the Slytherins?!" Ron exclaimed.
"Mine's even worse! All my classes have been cut out!" Hermione said, her hands still covered in ash shaking a little bit.
"Let me take a look," Harry said. He hadn't really looked at the other schedules he had brought and was curious. Looking down the list of courses, he squinted his eyes. "Hermione, there's nothing wrong with it! Me and Ron have all the same classes a you, right Ron?" Ron simply nodded.
"No, that's not the point!" Hermione whined. "They took out my Ancient Runes class! And my Muggle Studies! And my Arithmancy class! And they replaced it with, ugh, Divination." She made a face at the mere thought of being with the eccentric Professor Trelawney again. "And what's even worse! We have her first! I might as well wash off now that a certain Weasley had the nerve to set a Dungbomb on me! I hope I don't smell for too long!"
"Hermione, for God's sakes, I didn't do it! Besides, now I'm gonna smell too!" Ron screamed at her as she marched out of the library.
"No kidding," Harry said playfully, holding his nose.
"Oh, bug off Harry. Who knows how that bomb got into Hermione's robes! It was probably Fred or George. They had about a million of those hidden somewhere in this castle," Ron said, now contemplating where his older brothers might have hidden the good stuff. Harry then knew right away that he was the only one who had discovered that Cassie had raided that very hiding place the night before. He looked back to the bookshelf, where he could see a little bit of Cassie peeking around to watch. She saw Harry staring back and quickly slid back around the bookshelf.
"I guess I should find those two before classes start in..." Ron began, glancing at his watch. "Blimey! We only have 10 minutes to get to our classes! See ya there, Harry!" Ron ran out of the library. Harry looked back at Cassie and motioned for her to come out. She nodded, coming out with a vulnerable look on her face.
"Well, I still have Hermione's schedule," she said meekly. "I think she went back to our room."
"Okay, then. Let's go. We have to get our books for the first class of the day anyway," Harry said calmly. As he walked her to their common room, he couldn't help thinking if Cassie was this dangerous on purpose or if by accident. Either way, at least he knew that she was truly sorry for whatever she did wrong.
"Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious," Cassie said quietly when they had reached the Fat Lady.
"What was that? I couldn't hear what you said dear," the Fat Lady replied. Cassie looked down to the floor.
"She said, "Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious" ma'm," Harry said, putting his arm around Cassie's shoulder and leading her inside the common room. Cassie still seemed shaken by recent events and plopped down in one of the armchairs as soon as she got inside. "Relax," Harry said. "Honest mistake, right? You didn't mean to hurt them or anything?"
"Yeah, but I feel so rotten. I actually didn't know what those things would do. I was just looking for more of those Filibuster fireworks that Hermione had given me, and I found that stuff too." Cassie started biting her fingernails again, avoiding Harry's gaze. Harry's suspicions of her dissolved away as he watched the terrified little girl rocking back and forth in her chair nervously. She looks so innocent, how could she be capable of anything evil?, he thought to himself.
"Just calm down, take the schedule to Hermione, and get your books," Harry said, pulling her out of her chair. "Remember," he yelled at her as she went up the stairs, "We have Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall first."
"Okay," she mumbled as she went inside her room. Harry sighed, went to his own room, and retrieved his book from the trunk beside his own four poster bed.
Transfiguration, was as usual, a bit challenging. In class, they were turning normal garden rocks into rock candy.
"Last time I'm eating any of that stuff," Cassie remarked to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. She received a host of giggles which immediately lifted up her spirits. For the rest of the day, she was smiling and giggling like her usual self, at least according to Hermione. Come the end of class, Hermione approached Professor McGonagall's desk. "Professor McGonagall, may I ask you a question?" she rattled out hurriedly. Professor McGonagall, dazed and weary, looked up from some papers she had been reviewing.
"Yes, Ms. Granger," she said, trying to smile.
"Professor, how come all my classes are gone?" Hermione said.
"And how come we have to have all our classes with the Slytherins?" Ron said with disdain in his voice.
"Hmm, I wonder who said that. Must have been the wind!" Hermione snapped. "Well, anyway, about my question, Professor?" Ron went so red, he was almost maroon. Professor McGonagall looked as if she was trying to stifle a chuckle.
"Well, Ms. Granger," she replied with a genuine smile across her face. "It's a simple safety precaution. Everyone will now take the same classes with the same people, so it may be easier for us teachers to keep track of you."
"But, how will that be safer, Professor?" Harry interrupted.
"No questions, Mr. Potter. It just is," Professor McGonagall sternly said. She was now frowning at them. "Off you go. Your next class will start soon," she said, shooing them out of the classroom.
"Safer, or not safer, I don't like it," Ron said as they walked in the hallways to the highest tower.
"Tell me about it," Cassie replied. "I can't stand that little ferret staring at me the whole day."
"Oh, Malfoy?" Hermione said. "It's a funny story, because he really was a ferret for a day." She looped their arms together and led Cassie away from the boys to their next class to tell her about the time a teacher had actually transfigured Malfoy into a ferret and bounced him up and down the halls. Divination was the next class up. Since there usually weren't two houses in the stuffy room at the same time, it was even more crammed than ever. Three or four people sat at a table at a time.
Hermione and Cassie were already sitting at a table near the back when Ron and Harry came in through the trapdoor on the floor. The two teenage wizards took seats next to their friends at the same table. The four were engaging in a lovely conversation about Hogsmeade, when Malfoy and his two thugs entered. Malfoy made his way to the back of the room and took a seat at the table right next to Harry's. Harry and Ron groaned, and positioned their chairs so that they weren't facing the snobby pureblood.
"What's this class about?" Cassie asked cheerfully. Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's a class taught by a quack who thinks she knows how to tell the future," she said sarcastically.
"She's not a quack!" Lavender and Parvati yelled in unison from their table at the front of the room. As soon as they said that, Professor Trelawney entered in her usual, breezy way. The teacher with the appearance of a dragonfly with her too-big glasses swooped in upon her class and started explaining the year's course. Fortunately, it would be the same as the two years before. The poor Divination teacher had always failed to issue new material, and so Harry and Ron definitely knew what would be on every test and quiz. This would be a piece of cake.
As usual, they did the teacups again. And of course, Professor Trelawney had to predict the death of Harry within the first ten minutes of the class. All twenty students already knew how unreliable her predictions were, and ignored whatever she had said about deaths, except, of course, for Lavender and Parvati. When their favorite teacher had pronounced Harry doomed, they looked fearfully at the boy and started weeping.
"Gee, I wonder if they would cry if I were the one dying," Ron complained.
"You just watch," Harry said. He switched cups with Ron, then yelled out, "Professor Trelawney! You've got it all wrong! That was Ron's cup you were looking at, not mine!"
"Oh, dear! That means Mr. Weasley will soon leave us!" Professor Trelawney sai, her spindly hand resting on her chest. Lavender and Parvati stopped their wailing for a moment, looked at Ron, then cried harder than ever.
"I told you so," Harry whispered to Ron.
"Told me what?" Ron answered back.
"I'm not the only girl magnet here!"
"You better hope not, or that would be bloody pathetic," Malfoy said from the other table.
"Bet no one would cry if you had a death sentence!" Cassie retorted.
"Oh really? I though for sure you would, baby," Malfoy said. He blew her a kiss.
"Ugh, don't make me throw up," she said, making a motion as if to swat the kiss away from her.
"You know you want me," Malfoy said with a smile across his face.
"Yeah right," Cassie said, turning back to her cup.
"Miss Takachi! Mr. Malfoy! If I catch you talking in my class again, it's detention for both of you!" Professor Trelawney uttered loudly. Harry was surprised at what the teacher had said. The Divination professor was not usually so quick to give out detentions.
1)Thanks, everyone, for reviewing! *tear* It makes me feel so appreciated.....
2)Don't worry about flaming me....constructive criticism is always welcome!
3)This last chapter is going to change a little bit, so if you read chapter 7 before, this will be a little bit different...
4)For those who are concerned about some minor details that I got wrong: I changed Dudley's age to 15 (I forgot that he and Harry are supposed to be the same age), and Hermione will use that super note-taking quill thing like that Rita Skeeter had instead of the microphone (I forgot that microphones aren't allowed at Hogwarts).
Any problems? Review or email me! Bye for now! Bunnie :P
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Chapter 7
As soon as Ron and Hermione had left for wherever they were going, all the owls, private and school-owned alike, swooped in to deliver new schedules to the students. Harry watched as the owls moved faster, more urgently, as if they had some other business to take care of. Hedwig was one of the only owls to land and stay awhile with their masters before returning to the Owlery. She dropped off her letter, and started nibbling some of the remains of Harry's breakfast.
Harry stroked her feathers, asking her, "Are some of the owls all hyped up from the fire this morning?" Hedwig merely gave a short hoot, grabbed the last half of a piece of bread, and flew back out a window. Harry looked at his schedule, and his face contorted in disgust. "Oh, great. We have all our classes with the Slytherins this year!"
"What's so bad about that?" Cassie asked, her mouth full of Cheerios.
"Do you know who the Slytherins are yet?" Harry asked the naive new girl. Cassie slowly shook her head. Harry then looked over to the Slytherin table, where Malfoy and his cronies were busy laughing at something or other. Cassie followed his lead and looked in that direction. She caught Malfoy's eye, who stared back at her and gave her a wink.
"Disgusting," she said as she turned back to her cereal. "Did you say, all our classes are with them?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Harry sighed. "But it's so strange. It's usually not like this. I mean, it's usually mixed, with some classes with the Hufflepuffs, some with Ravenclaws, and some with Slytherins. Not all the classes with the same houses."
"Oh," Cassie replied nodding her head. Harry saw her eyes widen in surprise as she stared at something behind his head. Harry turned around and saw a tiny object swoop down through a window and zoom around the room. Right away, he knew it was Pigwidgeon, Ron's owl, from its frantic, excited movements. He guessed that the little thing had woken up late. Pig zoomed around the room a couple of times, and Harry got a little worried. He searched the room for Ron, hoping to find him somewhere in the crowd, when he heard some cheering erupt all around him. He whipped around to see Cassie standing on the table and triumphantly waving around her hand.
"Cassie? You caught Pig?" he asked, amazed.
"Huh? What's Pig?" she said, confused. Her question was followed by an immediate, "Ow!" as Pig pecked at her hand from inside it. Cassie got down fromt he table and released the miniscule messenger into Harry's hands, where, it deposited Ron's schedule and rapidly took off for the window. Harry watched as Pig flew towards the wall, banged against it, then fly through the opening.
"That thing's vicious!" Cassie grumbled as she got back in her seat, rubbing her hand.
"Yeah, I reckon Ron's taught him a few bad habits already," Harry said, putting his best friend's schedule with his own. As Cassie shoveled the rest of the cereal into her mouth, Ginny rushed over, waving another schedule.
"Harry! I got Hermione's schedule!" she squealed, running down to where Harry was sitting. Harry felt a little burdened to have three schedules with him, but gladly accepted it when Ginny handed it over. Ginny lingered for a moment, smiling at Harry, when that tell-tale voice came to Harry's ear again.
"Awww. I see the little Weasel has finally won over the Boy Who Lived. What a charming match that will make," sneered Malfoy. Crabbe and Goyle laughed stupidly, not even understanding the joke their leader had made. Harry narrowed his eyes towards them, anger growing inside him by the minute, while Ginny became a very dark shade of red. Malfoy turned his glare to Cassie. "And if it isn't the little fire starter herself!"
"She didn't start it!" Harry said defensively. He looked over to Cassie, who was cringing, with a look of impending doom in her eyes. "Hermione got it all down! You blackmailed her!"
"How do you know that, Potter?" Malfoy spat. "How do you know that I wasn't trying to save some lives by taking her out of the picture?"
"What do you mean, 'save some lives'? She wouldn't hurt a fly, would you Cassie?" Ginny said, standing up for her new friend. Cassie shrunk even more in her seat.
"Thanks to her and her evil exploits, I can't be prefect anymore!" Malfoy yelled back at the three Gryffindors. Harry was stunned, but sort of pleased that Malfoy had actually gotten punished for his dastardly deeds. Although he knew he shouldn't have enjoyed it, he watched with relish as Malfoy stomped back to his own table, enraged that he had leaked out news of his own demotion. But, Harry couldn't help thinking how much of what Cassie had told him was the truth, and how much was a lie in concordance with what Malfoy had said. After all, Malfoy was one of the best liars at Hogwarts. But, who knew how good a liar Cassie was? Harry thought this over as he headed over to the library with the girl in question to find Ron and Hermione.
As expected, both were in the library. Harry and Cassie entered, and saw their two friends straight away, sitting at one of the tables. Ron and Hermione were actually getting along, no yelling, no silent treatment, no nothing. They were actually sitting pretty close to each other, talking in low voices. Harry saw straight away what was happening and pulled Cassie behind a bookshelf near the couple.
"Hey! I've had enough abuse for the day, thank you very much!" Cassie complained angrily.
"Shh!" Harry whispered hastily to her. "Look! Don't you see what's happening?" Cassie again shook her head. Geez, Harry thought to himself, This girl really has no clue about anything. Heremoved some of the books and looked through them to see a perfect framed picture of Ron and Hermione being nice to each other. Then, he gestured to Cassie to look through. She rolled her eyes, thinking, This is so stupid, until she looked at her new friends together at last.
"Oh my gosh!" she said jumping up and down and clapping her hands silently. "How cute!" Harry watched her cautiously as she continued to skip up and down their aisle of books until she stopped dead in her tracks. Cassie literally froze in mid skip, then stood still, like normal.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked. Cassie just turned around and had that look of fear on her face again.
"When Ron and Hermione were fighting this morning, I.......did something," she said slowly.
"Cassie, you didn't," Harry said, his green eyes also growing large in terror.
"I did," she said sheepishly, biting at her fingernail. After a few seconds of Cassie fidgeting and Harry worrying, a crash was heard on the other side of their bookcase. Harry and Cassie peeked around the bookshelf to see Hermione all black, staring daggers at Ron, while poor Ron was trying to explain that it wasn't him. While they started their yelling again, Harry pulled Cassie back around the bookcase.
"I'm so sorry! I meant that little bomb to be for Ron, because I thought he was being so despicable towards Mione!" she pleaded.
"Don't worry about it. There's been worse," Harry said, trying to console her. "I pulled you back so you wouldn't get blamed. So, I'll get them their schedules and you stay here, out of trouble, alright?" Cassie nervously nodded her head, still biting her fingernail. Harry, meanwhile, emerged from behind the bookcase to give the schedules to an angry Ron and an even angrier Hermione. Both, surprisingly, stopped their bellyaching and stared at their schedules.
"Bloody hell! We have all our classes with the Slytherins?!" Ron exclaimed.
"Mine's even worse! All my classes have been cut out!" Hermione said, her hands still covered in ash shaking a little bit.
"Let me take a look," Harry said. He hadn't really looked at the other schedules he had brought and was curious. Looking down the list of courses, he squinted his eyes. "Hermione, there's nothing wrong with it! Me and Ron have all the same classes a you, right Ron?" Ron simply nodded.
"No, that's not the point!" Hermione whined. "They took out my Ancient Runes class! And my Muggle Studies! And my Arithmancy class! And they replaced it with, ugh, Divination." She made a face at the mere thought of being with the eccentric Professor Trelawney again. "And what's even worse! We have her first! I might as well wash off now that a certain Weasley had the nerve to set a Dungbomb on me! I hope I don't smell for too long!"
"Hermione, for God's sakes, I didn't do it! Besides, now I'm gonna smell too!" Ron screamed at her as she marched out of the library.
"No kidding," Harry said playfully, holding his nose.
"Oh, bug off Harry. Who knows how that bomb got into Hermione's robes! It was probably Fred or George. They had about a million of those hidden somewhere in this castle," Ron said, now contemplating where his older brothers might have hidden the good stuff. Harry then knew right away that he was the only one who had discovered that Cassie had raided that very hiding place the night before. He looked back to the bookshelf, where he could see a little bit of Cassie peeking around to watch. She saw Harry staring back and quickly slid back around the bookshelf.
"I guess I should find those two before classes start in..." Ron began, glancing at his watch. "Blimey! We only have 10 minutes to get to our classes! See ya there, Harry!" Ron ran out of the library. Harry looked back at Cassie and motioned for her to come out. She nodded, coming out with a vulnerable look on her face.
"Well, I still have Hermione's schedule," she said meekly. "I think she went back to our room."
"Okay, then. Let's go. We have to get our books for the first class of the day anyway," Harry said calmly. As he walked her to their common room, he couldn't help thinking if Cassie was this dangerous on purpose or if by accident. Either way, at least he knew that she was truly sorry for whatever she did wrong.
"Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious," Cassie said quietly when they had reached the Fat Lady.
"What was that? I couldn't hear what you said dear," the Fat Lady replied. Cassie looked down to the floor.
"She said, "Supercalifragilisticexpealidocious" ma'm," Harry said, putting his arm around Cassie's shoulder and leading her inside the common room. Cassie still seemed shaken by recent events and plopped down in one of the armchairs as soon as she got inside. "Relax," Harry said. "Honest mistake, right? You didn't mean to hurt them or anything?"
"Yeah, but I feel so rotten. I actually didn't know what those things would do. I was just looking for more of those Filibuster fireworks that Hermione had given me, and I found that stuff too." Cassie started biting her fingernails again, avoiding Harry's gaze. Harry's suspicions of her dissolved away as he watched the terrified little girl rocking back and forth in her chair nervously. She looks so innocent, how could she be capable of anything evil?, he thought to himself.
"Just calm down, take the schedule to Hermione, and get your books," Harry said, pulling her out of her chair. "Remember," he yelled at her as she went up the stairs, "We have Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall first."
"Okay," she mumbled as she went inside her room. Harry sighed, went to his own room, and retrieved his book from the trunk beside his own four poster bed.
Transfiguration, was as usual, a bit challenging. In class, they were turning normal garden rocks into rock candy.
"Last time I'm eating any of that stuff," Cassie remarked to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. She received a host of giggles which immediately lifted up her spirits. For the rest of the day, she was smiling and giggling like her usual self, at least according to Hermione. Come the end of class, Hermione approached Professor McGonagall's desk. "Professor McGonagall, may I ask you a question?" she rattled out hurriedly. Professor McGonagall, dazed and weary, looked up from some papers she had been reviewing.
"Yes, Ms. Granger," she said, trying to smile.
"Professor, how come all my classes are gone?" Hermione said.
"And how come we have to have all our classes with the Slytherins?" Ron said with disdain in his voice.
"Hmm, I wonder who said that. Must have been the wind!" Hermione snapped. "Well, anyway, about my question, Professor?" Ron went so red, he was almost maroon. Professor McGonagall looked as if she was trying to stifle a chuckle.
"Well, Ms. Granger," she replied with a genuine smile across her face. "It's a simple safety precaution. Everyone will now take the same classes with the same people, so it may be easier for us teachers to keep track of you."
"But, how will that be safer, Professor?" Harry interrupted.
"No questions, Mr. Potter. It just is," Professor McGonagall sternly said. She was now frowning at them. "Off you go. Your next class will start soon," she said, shooing them out of the classroom.
"Safer, or not safer, I don't like it," Ron said as they walked in the hallways to the highest tower.
"Tell me about it," Cassie replied. "I can't stand that little ferret staring at me the whole day."
"Oh, Malfoy?" Hermione said. "It's a funny story, because he really was a ferret for a day." She looped their arms together and led Cassie away from the boys to their next class to tell her about the time a teacher had actually transfigured Malfoy into a ferret and bounced him up and down the halls. Divination was the next class up. Since there usually weren't two houses in the stuffy room at the same time, it was even more crammed than ever. Three or four people sat at a table at a time.
Hermione and Cassie were already sitting at a table near the back when Ron and Harry came in through the trapdoor on the floor. The two teenage wizards took seats next to their friends at the same table. The four were engaging in a lovely conversation about Hogsmeade, when Malfoy and his two thugs entered. Malfoy made his way to the back of the room and took a seat at the table right next to Harry's. Harry and Ron groaned, and positioned their chairs so that they weren't facing the snobby pureblood.
"What's this class about?" Cassie asked cheerfully. Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's a class taught by a quack who thinks she knows how to tell the future," she said sarcastically.
"She's not a quack!" Lavender and Parvati yelled in unison from their table at the front of the room. As soon as they said that, Professor Trelawney entered in her usual, breezy way. The teacher with the appearance of a dragonfly with her too-big glasses swooped in upon her class and started explaining the year's course. Fortunately, it would be the same as the two years before. The poor Divination teacher had always failed to issue new material, and so Harry and Ron definitely knew what would be on every test and quiz. This would be a piece of cake.
As usual, they did the teacups again. And of course, Professor Trelawney had to predict the death of Harry within the first ten minutes of the class. All twenty students already knew how unreliable her predictions were, and ignored whatever she had said about deaths, except, of course, for Lavender and Parvati. When their favorite teacher had pronounced Harry doomed, they looked fearfully at the boy and started weeping.
"Gee, I wonder if they would cry if I were the one dying," Ron complained.
"You just watch," Harry said. He switched cups with Ron, then yelled out, "Professor Trelawney! You've got it all wrong! That was Ron's cup you were looking at, not mine!"
"Oh, dear! That means Mr. Weasley will soon leave us!" Professor Trelawney sai, her spindly hand resting on her chest. Lavender and Parvati stopped their wailing for a moment, looked at Ron, then cried harder than ever.
"I told you so," Harry whispered to Ron.
"Told me what?" Ron answered back.
"I'm not the only girl magnet here!"
"You better hope not, or that would be bloody pathetic," Malfoy said from the other table.
"Bet no one would cry if you had a death sentence!" Cassie retorted.
"Oh really? I though for sure you would, baby," Malfoy said. He blew her a kiss.
"Ugh, don't make me throw up," she said, making a motion as if to swat the kiss away from her.
"You know you want me," Malfoy said with a smile across his face.
"Yeah right," Cassie said, turning back to her cup.
"Miss Takachi! Mr. Malfoy! If I catch you talking in my class again, it's detention for both of you!" Professor Trelawney uttered loudly. Harry was surprised at what the teacher had said. The Divination professor was not usually so quick to give out detentions.