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Chapter 4: Classes

The first lesson they had that term was transfiguration with McGonagall. Hermione was no where to be found after breakfast, and harry suspected that she was already in class.

Harry and Ron proceeded to the transfiguration classroom together, speaking of the great feast the night before.

As they entered the all to familiar classroom, they spotted Hermione chatting with Angie, they seemed rather serious. Jason was speaking to Neville, who surprisingly managed to be able to take transfiguration. They seated themselves behind Lishia, Angie and Jacky. Hermione's bag was already in that row.

Before they could lean forward to hear what the girls were saying, professor McGonagall entered the classroom. Hermione hurriedly returned to her seat.

"Good morning class," said the professor." As you all know, you will be taking your NEWT at the end of next year, so expect all of you to work."

Harry had experienced these kind of talks before, maybe a little bit too much. His eyes wandered. Ron was doodling on a spare bit of parchment. Now that all the houses were taking lessons together, he could see Slytherins in the classroom too. Draco was there, sitting next to Pansy Parkinson, and was busy listening to her chatter in a small voce with a bored look on his face.

".important as it will affect."

Right in front of harry, Jacky was staring into space, but it was evident that she was listening. Angie was looking at McGonagall with utmost attention. This reminded Harry of someone. He turned his head, as saw Hermione with the same expression, both were drinking in every word. Lishia, however, was looking around. She had a bored expression and looked as if she wanted to slap McGonagall in the face and make her do some serious stuff.

Harry smiled to himself.

He looked at Lishia again. She was now looking behind, with a blank expression on her face. Their eyes met, and she seemed to jerk out of a daze. She smiled and Harry smiled back. They exchanged looks as if to say how boring the speech was.

" .and now done with the official things, we shall now proceed to change the colour of ink from blue to black. It may be an easy task but rest assured that there will be some of you who will change the ink into the wrong colour" said McGonagall, and Harry suddenly found interest again. Please take a droplet of the blue ink that I am passing around, and drop it onto a spare bit of parchment. Does anyone know the wand movement?"

Hermione's hand shot up immediately which was pretty usual. But what surprised Harry the most was that Draco Malfoy had his hand raised too. Harry had no idea he participated in class at all. Jason had his hand up, and so did Lishia and Angie. Professor McGonagall picked Jason.

"erm. " said Jason, clearly nervous "It is actually a.a.erm" there was a pause, at which he seemed to gain more confidence. " draw a cross in the air in quick, swift movements, starting from the top left, proceeding to the bottom right, then the top right to the bottom left. " he drew a breath" and then flick. "

" Excellent," said professor McGonagall. " Twenty points. Now is there anyone who can give me the incantation?"

Hermione's hand shot up so fast that everyone turned to face her. McGonagall naturally chose her.

"The incantation" said Hermione professionally," is simply a reflection of the colour that the spell caster wishes to change his item into. In this case, it is black, therefore, the incantation is simply colorus black. " she sat down again, confidently.

"Very, very, good," beamed McGonagall. " Twenty points. Now, could everyone please try it?"

Everywhere in the classroom people began to shout the incantation. In front of him, Lishia was whispering something to Jacky, who giggled, and whispered something to Angie.

Harry tried his spell. "colorus black!" nothing happened. " colorus." black? Sirius? No. Harry tried to take his mind off it. He looked at Hermione's ink. Vapour was coming out of it, and the colour slowly changed to become black. Harry went back to his ink, this time he succeeded. Ron had done so long ago.

When McGonagall saw that everyone had finished, she said" ok, now please vanish your ink. I expect this to be quite simple. "

Harry did this with ease. So did everyone in the class.

McGonagall watched them with distinct pride. " alright, very good. Now for a bit of homework, a three feet essay on the uses of colour changing spells, their properties, and their history. Wait, I find that too short. Make that four feet then. Class dismissed."

Harry heard Hermione say that she looked forward to writing the essay. She found it quite enjoyable.

Ron rolled his eyes. " Did you hear that? She's crazy. "

"Well" retorted Hermione "that's because some people are too lazy to write."

Harry foresaw and argument. And sure enough, Hermione refused to speak to Ron for at least an hour.

Charms was next. The three girls followed Harry, Ron and Hermione and trudged to class. As usual, Flitwick was standing on his usual stack of books and started his lesson with a short speech, in his high squeaky voice.

"The holidays have ended, your OWLs are over, and welcome to the NEWT class for charms." A few people sighed and others straightened up in their seat, looking excited.

Flitwick continued, "For today, we shall be learning how to seal and unseal pieces of paper. They can prove to be very useful at times when you need to keep a letter secret. When the letter is sealed, not only is it impossible for someone who does not know the seal charm to unseal it, but it is also impossible for even people who know the seal charm to unseal it. Only the person the letter is addressed to may have the right to open the sealed letter." Harry suddenly thought of the day, last year, when Umbridge sealed a note, and made Harry pass it to McGonagall.

"Now, this is a complicated charm and it'll take a while to master it. To seal a piece of paper, point your wand to your head and pronounce the word in your head. The word is sealosus. Then wave your wand over the length of the place of the paper you want to seal. To unseal, do the same thing, except pronounce the word unsealio in your head. Now everyone, try it."

The three girls were once again seated in front of Harry, Ron and Hermione. The three girls nudged each other and giggled. Harry watched them as Angie counted to 3 and all of them pointed their wands to their heads and promptly sealed their pieces of paper. They looked at one another and giggled again.

"Well done! Well done!" Flitwick said, clapping his hands enthusiastically. "I see that the three girls in the front row have mastered it! What are your names, Ms?"

"Lishia Yeo, Angie Yang and Jacky Yan." Lishia replied, equally enthusiastic.

"Outstanding performance, Miss Yeo, Miss Yang and Miss Yan. Outstanding, I'd say! Take twenty points each!" Flitwick clapped his hands enthusiastically again. The three girls beamed at one another and continued doing the spell, this time, unsealing the papers.

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione and said, "Well, it can't be as hard as Flitwick says it is, if they can do it so easily." Then the three of them started to do the spell. Ron's piece of paper refused to completely seal itself, so that part of it was still unsealed. Harry's paper sealed itself momentarily only to unseal itself once again, and Hermione could only do it on her third try, very rare, for someone like Hermione. They all looked at one another, astonished, and then turned to look at the girls, awed.

At the end of the lesson the girls were sealing and unsealing their papers, looking a little bored, while Hermione was practicing furiously, but her spell didn't work every time. It could seal itself at times, but it just would not stay sealed other times. Harry and Ron were, less successful, Ron's paper went a bit crazy and tried to bite him, and Harry's paper didn't seem to want to stay sealed. They all sighed in resignation and turned to look at the girls.

"You know what? I wonder why I never thought of asking them this, but now when I think about it, I'm surprised I didn't ask them earlier. I really should have asked them this a long time ago." Hermione remarked.

"Ask what?" Harry asked, curious.

"What they got for their OWLs, don't you wonder?" Hermione replied, looking thoughtful.

Ron and Harry both looked at Hermione and then turned back. They both nodded their heads and said, "Yeah, I do."

************

After charms, they had their lunch break. Almost immediately after they had settled down for lunch, Hermione opened her mouth and asked curiously,

"How many OWLs did you three get?" All three girls looked a little surprised at Hermione's sudden outburst. Lishia and Jacky had just begun to take their first bite of chicken pie and Angie, who was on a diet, had just begun sipping on her green tea.

"Oh, all 3 of us got 12 OWLs," Lishia answered casually and continued eating.

Harry took an all-too-big a bite of his chicken drumstick and choked. Ron had been eating his turkey pie, and turned to stare at them, spoon still poised in mid-air, halfway to his mouth. Hermione had been drinking her smoothie and started to splutter profusely.

"Are you alright?" Jacky asked the 3 of them, looking concerned.

"T..t..welve OWLs?!" stammered Ron disbelievingly.

"Yeah," replied Lishia, nonchalantly.

"Oh my gosh! That is like so.unbelievable! You three are just way too clever!" Hermione said in awe.

"Nah," they all said modestly.

"So what did you three get for each subject?" Hermione asked again, a little apprehensively this time.

"Erm, we got outstanding for all, actually," said Angie.

Hermione raised her eyebrows in surprise and her eyes widened in shock. Harry turned to stare at them, unblinkingly. Ron's jaw dropped wide open and gaped at them, obviously, all three of them were at a loss for words.

"Well.it wasn't much.." commented Lishia.

"Nothing much!!" exclaimed Harry incredulously. "Hermione got 10 OWLs, I got 6 and Ron got 4!"

"Oh.." said the 3 girls. "But that's okay too," they added, as an afterthought.

"Er, yeah, I guess." Harry said, apparently unconvinced. Ron and Hermione nodded their heads, feeling a little inferior.

"Oh, we better finish eating lunch soon, or we're going to be late for potions!" exclaimed Angie, checking her watch.

And so, they continued to eat their lunch, chatting amiably after the topic of conversation had been diverted away from OWLs. Ron, Harry and Hermione tried to overcome their shock and talk normally to the girls, but when the girls weren't looking, they exchanged looks of surprise, shock, and awe.

*************

It was potions after that. Ron went back to the Gryffindor common room while the rest of them went for class. Lishia, Angie and Jacky had requested that Harry,and Hermione lead them towards the dungeons. It was partly because they were new, and partly because they were afraid.

"In our old school, we had nice airy classrooms that were floating on the water. There were no such things as dungeons for classrooms," Angie said and her friends nodded in absolute agreement.

Anyway, Harry was determined to go with them. He really wanted to know more about them. As Hermione said, they were probably what she called "good influence". Hermione and him therefore led them down into the dungeons.

Jacky was just describing a device known as a handphone when they hear a noise. Harry turned around, but there was no one. He looked at the statue of a gargoyle that they were standing next to, but it did not appear to have moved. Everyone dismissed it as the wind, and Jacky continued.

"It's an electronic device. It's like a telephone, but you can carry it around. Really useful, actually."

"Oh so it works exactly like the telephone doesn't it?" Lishia asked excitedly.

Ron rolled his eyes. Harry already knew what a handphone was. Dudley had got one of them for his birthday. It was one of his forty-nine presents that year.

Just then, there was another sound behind them, and they turned around at once. Fred and George were standing there, grinning.

"Hey, Harry and Hermione," said George. "Nice to see you. We wondered why you couldn't hear us just now.anyway, just checking on you."

Harry was astonished. "What are you doing here? I thought you had a shop."

"hey, you must understand, that now all of you are in school, we have no business. That's why we have to promote our goods here. "said Fred with a wink. Hermione looked angry. Then, suddenly, he noticed Lishia, Jacky and Angie. "What."

Harry finally realised that they had never met each other before. He nudged Hermione.

"Ow! Oh. Ok.Fred and George, this is Lishia, Angie and Jacky. You three, these are my brothers, Fred and George." she continued explaining the backgrounds of each.

But harry noticed that none of those being introduced were taking in a word of what Ron was saying. Lihsia and Fred were stealing looks at each other, and Jacky was carefully avoiding George's eyes. They both looked embarrassed. Angie, however, was studying her friends closely, with excitement in her eyes.

Harry recalled a similar incident between Cho Chang and himself, but trying to please her did not seem a priority anymore.

Hermione's voice died down when she found out that no one was listening.

"Bye then Harry," said Fred. "Try and promote for us ok?" with that, he vanished behind the gargoyle. But harry noticed that he stole a look at Lishia before he left. Lishia was looking at her feet. She looked more different than he had ever seen her before. George left after Fred, but he stole a look at Jacky too, who blushed and turned away. Angie was eyeing them suspiciously, but said nothing.

Hermione was impatient. "Hurry up, or we'll be late. And she started forward. But the twins reappeared again, with goods in their hands, and made for Jacky and Lishia. They started advertising. The rest of them slipped away, for they had no intention to buy anything. Angie looked torn for a moment, but followed Hermione instead.

They three of them continued down the corridor. Soon, Lishia and Jacky caught up. Lishia had a note in her hand, and Jacky a pile of goods, apparently bought from Fred and George.

Angie whispered to Jacky, who immediately began protesting and threatening in the adorable way. Lishia merely smiled and continued. Harry and a very solid idea of what happened.

The five of them reached the all too familiar dungeon. They were a bit early so the dungeon was still quite empty. Harry and Hermione made for the back automatically but the three girls insisted on sitting at the front to pay better attention in class.

"Don't say we didn't warn you. You'll regret it." Harry warned. Hermione nodded her head in agreement.

"Thoroughly" Harry added after thoughts.

Jacky looked puzzled, but followed Lishia to the front row. Angie was already there, reading her favourite potions book. The rest of the class soon filled in.

Harry was certain that the three girls in the front row were going to be picked on Hermione made no comment.

Three rows down, two seats to the right, Malfoy was looking at Angie like Harry had never seen him look at anyone before. He was reminded of how Fred and George had looked at Lishia and Jacky a while ago. Angie took no notice. Pansy was looking at both of them with jealousy filled in her eyes and wasted no time in slapping Malfoy in the face. Malfoy put his hand on his cheek and looked meekly at Pansy. Harry sniggered. Too bad Ron wasn't here, only students with outstanding for Potions were allowed into the Potions class for NEWTs and Ron did not get one for his OWLs.

Snape burst in dramatically, muttering under his breath in a low voice till he reached the front.

"I will stand no nonsense from any of you this year. It is very important as you will need to lay your foundations."

Harry looked around for something to ease his boredom. Hermione was sitting up straight, looking intently at Snape, listening with rapt attention. Four seats down and four to the left, Adrian was yawning. His two friends were playing with their quills. They, however, seemed to be listening.

Malfoy was still staring at Angie, or at least in her direction. Harry seriously wished Ron was here to see all this. He made a mental note to tell him later.

The speech went on.. "..nonsense and you will be sent out of my class immediately!"

Harry looked around again. Some Ravenclaws looked as if they were about to fall asleep. His three fellow Griffindors in front, he noticed, were all paying attention. In fact, Angie was staring dreamily up at Snape. LIshia was fumbling with her quill, and Jacky was staring into space.

"Potter! May I ask you why you are here?" Snape suddenly asked, making Harry jump. Hope that you didn't get into this class just because of your." he paused in mockery,".fame. In case you didn't hear, any student found not up to scratch will get out of my class immediately. I'm sure you wouldn't want to be the first. Tell me, Potter, what is the main ingredient for strong veritaserum?" Snape smirked.

"Err.." replied Harry, "..erm.." he looked at Hermione, who shook her head slightly. I front the three girls had turned around. So had the whole entire class. He saw Malfoy whisper to Pansy who smirked and grinned.

"You don't know?" asked Snape, smirking.

"No..wait.." Harry had spotted Lishia and Jacky mouthing something to him. Angie seemed disturbed.

"eerr.. no-made-no juice??" suggested Harry, having difficulty lip reading. The class burst into laughter, Draco was practically rolling on the floor and Snape's mouth twitched slightly.

"10 points from Gryffindor."

Harry's hatred for Snape intensified in that very moment. Then, Snape walked to the front again.

"And 20 points from you two." He said to Jacky and Lishia who seemed as if they would very much like to chop him up into a million pieces.

"Wwwwhhhaaattttt???!!!" Jacky exclaimed incredulously.

Snape turned to Harry "Each. If I see any of you trying to do nonsense in my class again, off you will go to the headmaster. Have I made myself clear Potter? And you two, don't think that you can outsmart me with your filthy little tricks. You try to do that again and it'll be 50 points from each of you. Understand?" Snape demanded.

Lishia rolled her eyes and Jacky glared at Snape. Angie stared at them and said nothing.

"I've asked a question and I expect an answer. Don't tell me that you don't even know how to answer a question? Now, that's another 40 points from Gryffindor. I really wonder what your schools taught you. I see that you don't even know how to answer a simple question. What a disgrace you are to your schools!" Snape critised in his casually cold voice.

"Disgrace to our schools?" Lishia questioned. "Excuse me! I think we have a very different idea of disgrace, Professor Snape. If not being a disgrace to our schools, means that we have to comply to such an arrogant, mean..." Lishia looked at Angie for more insults, but Angie merely shook her head.

"horrible, and biased, irritating, smelly, slimy, oily teacher." Lishia added, "I wonder if we're going to take potions any longer! Did you know? Potions was one of my favourite subjects! But now thanks to you, I HATE IT!" she gave Snape the dirtiest look he had ever seen before placing herself firmly on the chair. Snape seemed as if he was trying to reason with himself. Jacky was looking at her parchment without a word. Harry felt that Snape certainly deserved that treatment. If only everyone had the guts.

Hermione looked at Lishia and Jacky, horrified. Nobody dared to speak to Snape like that unless they were not afraid of being expelled from Hogwarts. Harry knew perfectly what was going to come. Detention and more deduction of points.

"I will not be spoken to like that! I shall talk to Professor McGonagall about this. I repeat this one more time, if you do not behave yourselves in my class. Off to the headmaster you go! Clear?" Snape snarled.

Harry sighed. He should have told them about Snape's character. Snape was one of the last whom you would want to mess with. Why didn't they listen to him and sit at the back?

"Ms Yeo and Ms Yan, you two shall see me at 8 o'clock on Friday night, at my office, for detention. Any excuses for lateness shall not be tolerated and will result in a terrible loss of more points. Have I made myself clear?" Snape questioned demandingly.

"Yes, Professor Snape." Chorused Lishia and Jacky, scowling.

"Now let's begin. We should have started this class a long time ago if it weren't because of some... attitude problems with certain people.." his eyes darted from Harry to Lishia, then to Jacky, and continued,

"Who knows what we will be touching on today?" Snape asked.

As usual, Hermione's hand shot up into the air. Angie raised her hand too and to their surprise, Snape said,

"Ms Granger."

"I think it's the Maysia potion." Hermione answered, a little timidly.

"Correct, 20 points from Griffindor. Let's talk abut the characteristics of the Maysia potion." Snape said casually. Hermione was flabbergasted and Malfoy smirked wider than ever.

For the next half an hour, the class went by with Snape deducting points from Gryffindor whenever he had a chance. It ended with a five feet essay on the Maysia potion and its uses. Grumbling, they left the dungeon.

"That is so unfair. Why did he have to deduct points from Gryffindor just because Hermione answered the question correctly?" Jacky grumbled.

"Yeah! And a five feet essay! I've never done anything as long as that before. That slimy cursed git!" Lishia cursed.

"Stop grumbling you two! How could we get good results without doing homework?" Angie lectured.

"Fine, fine, whatever." Lishia said.

"Is he always like that?" Jacky asked Harry.

"No - " and before Harry could finish, Lishia cut in.

"Phew! If not, I'm so dead."

"I haven't finished yet! NO, he's not always like that.he's worse than that." Harry sighed.

"Oh no!" Angie, Jacky and Lishia chorused.

A/N: Lol. This chapter is really enjoyable to write. Especially the potions part. We're at chapter 7 now. I think. Haha. You could expect some romance coming up. Haha. Just in case some of you are wondering, english isn't my first language although it should be. So forgive me if I have any grammatical mistakes.