At about 7:00 the next morning, all the girls' alarm clocks went off

simultaneously. Equally simultaneously, they were all slapped off. They

all got dressed and trudged down to breakfast, all groggy and yawning.

That sat in the only group of empty seats left which, coincidentally,

were right next to Malfoy and his group.

"Oh, is Amy-wamy tired?" he taunted. Amy just glared and retorted, "Why

are you wearing makeup, dear cousin? Don't tell me that a son of the ever-

perfect Narcissa Stephens has something to hide!" This caused the whole

Slytherin table to crack up, plus some from the other three tables. Draco

blushed. "Fair enough," he muttered.

Amy and Claudia were able to eat the rest of their breakfast in peace,

but left as soon as they received their schedules. As they walked toward

their first class, which was Potions, Claudia asked Amy: "Is Malfoy

really wearing makeup, or were you just trying at a comeback?"

Amy sighed. "Draco's dad beats him, okay? Don't tell anyone, though;

*I'm* not even supposed to know about it. But he uses makeup to cover up

his bruises." Just then, they reached the classroom. "Well, we're the

first ones here. Where do you want to sit?"

"Oh, near the front, I guess."

"Okay," Amy replied, walking toward the front two seats. Just as the two

girls sat down, a tall man with long, black hair walked in. Seeing the

girls, he frowned and asked, "Why are you here so early? Have you

finished your breakfast already?"

"Yes, sir," the two replied in unison. The dark-haired man smiled,

looking at Claude. "And who might you be? I know who you are, Miss Blake,

but I'm afraid I don't know your friend quite as well."

Claudia blushed. "Oh, I'm just Claudia. Do you know each other?" Snape

smiled once again. "Her father and I are close friends." He paused and

looked at his watch. "Oh dear. I have something to do really fast.

Amelia, if people start arriving between now and when I get back, would

you please tell them that I'll be a little late? I should only be a

moment." Not waiting for an answer, Snape hurried out the door.

A few seconds later, some frizzy haired girl with weird teeth walked in.

"Where's Professor Snape," she asked? "He'll be back in a minute," the

other two replied in unison. As the other girl stood there blinking, Amy

whispered something to Claudia then asked, "Hey, do you want to sit with

us? I know you're from Gryffindor, but I promise, we're not prejudiced."

She smiled as the brown-haired girl stood and blinked some more. "I'm

Amy, and this is Claudia." "I'm Hermione," the girl muttered, walking

toward the chair next to Amy.

Just then, Professor Snape got back and the room started filling with

students. Throughout the rest of the class, the three girls had fun

watching Snape giving Potter a hard time. Claudia even dared Hermione to

raise her hand as Harry was being asked questions.

Since they had almost all their classes together, the three had fun like

that for the rest of the day, only being separated because Hermione had

to sit at her own House table at lunch and dinner. After dinner, they

went to the library to finish their homework.

As they separated one last time to go to bed, Hermione asked, "Why are

you so nice to me? Most of the time, I'm known as the know-it-all."

Claudia smiled. "So are we." She cocked her head. "Same thing tomorrow

sound good?" Hermione smiled. "Sure." As she walked the opposite

direction of the two blondes, she thought, 'It's hard to believe they're

Slytherin. Are they leading me on?'

It went much the same for a couple of months, until Halloween, the day

Ron hurt Hermione's feelings so horribly. As soon as they could, Amy and

Claudia went to the restroom to try and coax her into coming out. After

about an hour, they gave up. Giving her a couple of sandwiches that

they'd picked up at lunch, Claudia asked her: "Do you know that picture

of the dark-haired man near Snape's classroom in the dungeons?"

"Yeah," Hermoine replied.

"Well, if you want to talk, the password's 'Monty Python', okay?"

"Okay."

Amy and Claudia bid Hermione good-bye, then went to their class, hoping

their friend would be alright by the time of the feast.