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Chapter 02 - The First Day

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===== 5th Year Girls' Dormitory =====

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHH!"

A scream was the first sound Hermione heard the next morning on the first day of classes at Hogwarts. It sounded like Sakura. No doubt it was.

She quickly got out of bed to look. As much as she disliked Sakura, there was no way a Hogwarts Student, much less a Gryffindor 5th Year, who sleeps in HER dormitory, was going to die right under her nose. When she stepped around the corner of Sakura's bed, she was greatly relieved and greatly annoyed.

Sakura had been rudely awakened by being splashed with a bucket of what apparently looked like ice cold water judging by the strands of icicles that were beginning to form in her hair. And the person responsible for this 'terrible misfortune?'

Shoaron.

"WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR SHOARAN?" yelled Sakura angrily. "YOU-"

She then evidently began to yell out a long string of Japanese profanities, effectively waking up the rest of the girls, and effectively making Shoaron's face turn a bright shade of red.

Hermione gave a huff and promptly left poor Shoaran to deal with the situation all by himself.

===== GREAT HALL =====

"What is this stuff?" asked Sakura, pointing to an orange colored liquid.

She received an answer from most the boys at the table. "Pumpkin Juice."

"Oh."

Hermione showed up later on and took a seat between Harry and Ron, right across from Sakura.

"Well, well, well." Came a sudden, unfriendly voice.

A majority of the Gryffindor table turned to see whom it was. It was a boy with pale blonde hair, pale white skin, and a rather pointy chin.

"What would such a charming young girl be doing with a bunch of." He paused, glancing around the table as if proving his point. "Shall we say, less than desirable audiences?"

Sakura smiled and said quite simply and smoothly. "They're my friends."

He frowned. Clearly, this answer was too simple and was not the answer he expected.

"Well then." He said. And swiftly departed.

After he left, there was a slight stop in discussion. Until Sakura asked "Who was he?"

It was as if a mini bomb of conversation had been set off. Harry, Ron, Seamus, Neville, and Dean burst into a flow of less-than-flattering words describing the silver haired boy. The two cardcaptors only managed to catch his name, Draco Malfoy. Then there were much more information. Words like:

"Stupid Git . . . Idiot . . . Bloody snob . . . Dumbass ("RON!") . . . Stick - up - his - " Words of that sort. Along with warnings to stay away from Draco Malfoy because he was no good and that his father worked for the Dark Lord and that sooner or later he would work for Voldemort ("HARRY!") too.

But after they finished degrading Draco Malfoy, they lost an interesting topic of conversation. That is, until Ron piped up.

"Did you know that there's going to be a Halloween Ball coming up? Rumor has it that Dumbledore wants to keep as many students at Hogwarts as possible, now that You-Know-Who is back." (AN: I know that they don't go home for Halloween. Just humor me. Ok?)

Sakura looked a bit uncomfortable. "Who's You-Know-Who?" she asked tentatively.

"The dark lord." mumbled Harry through a mouthful of pumpkin pasties.

"Oh, you mean Voldemort?" she asked. Everyone who could hear her choked.

"You said his name!" Ron acted impressed. "You actually said his name."

Hermione could feel her anger flaring. If Ron was this impressed by a girl who just said HIS name, then she would say it 100 times just to prove to Ron that she could too.

"Back to the Halloween Ball." Said Harry. "Dumbledore said it's open to the whole school."

"It's time to go to class." Interrupted Hermione. "First Class is Transfiguration."

They -Ron and Harry- groaned and whined. But eventually got up and followed Hermione to the Transfiguration classroom.

===== TRANSFIGURATION =====

"Very impressive." Professor McGonagall said to Sakura. "You managed to do something that most 7th Years can't do."

Sakura had transfigured her desk into a Grand piano and back again. Hermione felt her control slipping.

"And I must say," continued McGonagall, "That is a very unusual wand. Where did you get it? Ollivandars?"

Sakura flushed. In truth, she just used her Wand. Shoaron had been the more sensible of the two, and actually gone and purchased a wizard wand, while she had just stuck with her Star Key.

"It's the Sealing wand of the Star Cards" she said, feeling rather stupid. "I got it about 3 years ago."

She looked around the room and realized that everyone had been listening. Shoaran was smiling a little smile, but other than him, everyone, even the Professor, were shocked. First was the fact that she didn't actually use a wooden wand. Second was that her 'wand' was nothing less than the Sealing Wand. And thirdly . . . she had received her wand when she was 10 years old.

10 YEARS OLD!!!

Even for McGonagall, who had expected these new students to be prodigious, had not anticipated THAT.

Luckily for Sakura, the bell rang at that very moment, allowing Sakura to avoid the barrage of questions that were sure to come from students and teacher alike.

Well. Almost.

"That was GREAT Sakura!" said Ron. "That was really truly awesomely -"

"Oh SHUT UP RON!" said Hermione furiously. "You don't need to gush over her like that!"

Ron turned pink. "You're just mad cause she managed to get a black Grand Piano that was perfectly in tune, and all you managed to do was get a brown miniature one that didn't even work."

He realized that he shouldn't had said that a moment too late. Hermione's entire face flushed a dark red. She whirled and slapped Ron angrily across his right cheek, making one side of Ron's face the same color as hers.

But what Hermione had not counted on, was to feel a sudden stinging pain in her left cheek.

Sakura had slapped her. Hard.

"You can hate me as much as you want, Hermione." She said coldly. "But that is no reason to bitch to Ron about it. And it's even lower to hurt a friend just over jealousy." She turned to leave.

"Come on guys." She said. "Potions is next."

===== DEFENSE AGAINST THE DARK ARTS =====

"That was great Sakura, Shoaran" gushed Ron happily. "You really showed Snape who was boss."

Sakura smirked a very un-Sakura like smirk and Shoaran grinned evilly. When Snape's head turned pink and when Draco's itching potion accidentally tipped over and spilled its contents on him, could they be blamed? NU-UH. You can't be guilty for writing in your 'Little Create Book' and you can't be guilty for writing the Chinese kanji for 'wind' on a yellow parchment.

"Even if it's 30 points off Gryffindor, it was still worth it!" squeaked Neville.

The room hushed as it's new professor, Professor Hiiragiizawa came in. Shoaron sat next to Sakura, while Harry sat next to Ron, therefore forcing Hermione to sit next to Neville.

"Good day, my name is Eriol Hiragiizawa. But please, just call me Professor Eriol. Hiragiizawa is too long a name for most people to remember." The class smiled, relieved that it wouldn't take them 5 minutes just saying a greeting to their new teacher.

"I am sure," continued Eriol, "that Professor Moody-the-imposter has taught you the unforgivable curses and how to block the imperious one." The class nodded in unison. "Very good. In this year, I will be teaching you a new unit. It teaches you the basic curses and counterspells. Those are the ones that you can use that won't get you expelled or worse, sent to Azkaban."

The class cheered happily, already planning to execute the curses on a certain Slytherin boy.

===== AFTER CLASS =====

"ERIOL! That was AMAZING!" squealed Sakura happily.

Shoaran scowled and said. "It wasn't that good."

"Are you sure my cute little descendant? Would you like me to perform it again?"

Shoaron shuddered and shook his head quickly. //That, // he thought, //is the last time I let him perform a curse of any kind on me. //

Eriol had demonstrated a Choking Curse on him.

===== Flashback =====

"The incantation-excuse me- words to the Choking Curse is "CHZEK INCANTARTO". Mr. Li, would you like to help me with a demonstration?"

He had foolishly agreed only to find in the next 3 seconds that he couldn't breath. Then he had embarrassed himself by blacking out. Then came the best part. When he woke up, Sakura was giving him CPR.

===== End flashback =====

He shuddered slightly again. But reminded himself that it was Sakura who gave him CPR. Not anyone else . . .

===== GREAT HALL =====

"Oh wow."

The ceiling of the Great Hall was black as night and Jack-O-Lanterns hung ominously around the room.

"The Halloween Ball's not for weeks and it's already been decorated?" asked Ron incredulously. "Dumbledore's really going overboard on this, eh Harry?"

"Yea." The latter agreed promptly as they sat down before a large platter of ham. Ron looked around him.

"Where's Hermione?"

Hermione had had the sense not to join them. And with good reason too. She had sort of . . . disappeared between the beginning of Potions and had not reappeared yet.

Secretly, the two boys felt guilty about excluding her. Especially after the scene of the 'slapping'. But what could they do about it? They could not find her. And yet even though she was the one who started it . . . why did it make them feel so at fault? It was Harry who voiced his concerns to the young Cardcaptor.

"Sakura . . ." he started. "I don't think that you should have slapped Hermione. Even if it was in Ron's defense." Thus, making Ron's face match his hair.

"Well." She said. "I know that. But I don't understand why she hates me so much! It's like, I did something wrong and I don't even know what."

"If ya ask me." Said Ron through a mouth of mashed potatoes, "She's jealous of you. She's been the smartest girl in the whole 5th year before you came, and there's also the fact that you skipped a year and got your wand early."

"I guess."

There was a period of uncomfortable silence after this.

Finally, someone brought up the topic of the Halloween ball again, and talk resumed with unquestionable uneasiness.

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A/N Note: Even though this is the Revised Version, it sucked. I know. I'm sorry. REALLY SORRY! But one year ago (when I started this), I didn't know how to write all that well and I don't really have anything to stand on. I'm sorry.

Kawai-chan