AN: Please check out my Yahoo! group (link on my user lookup page) and sorry for the delay in updating!
As I sit here writing this I know that it'll be an extra long chapter! I might just make another chapter…
Chapter 6 – Classes and Alessandria Alston
Harry blearily rubbed the sleep from his eyes and slowly sat up in his bed. He pulled back the warm burgundy velvet bed curtains from around him and grinned boyishly. He was finally back home.
"Hey Harry, good to see you awake." Dean said cheerfully as he came out from the bathroom with a big red towel wrapped firmly around his slim waist.
"Your up this early?" Harry asked incredulously, Dean nodded.
"I'm meeting Ginny. I've managed to avoid Ron's temper so far, I want my luck to last." He stated with a grin, Harry laughed.
"Yeah, I get you." He replied, "I hope Charlene hasn't got any brothers."
"What's with you and her anyway?" Dean asked as he pulled on his trousers over his red snitch boxers, Harry jumped out of bed and went over to his trunk to pull out some of his clothes for the day. His main uniform was already hung over the chair in the corner so he just placed some of his new black boxers and socks on his bed and grabbed a towel.
"We met in the holidays at Sara's parents summer party. We just hit it off."
"I bet y-y-you did." Came Seamus' voice from his bed, punctuated with a huge yawn. Harry smirked.
"What about you? Anyone special?" He asked his half-asleep roommate, who shook his head blearily, either for the question or to wake up Harry wasn't so sure.
"Not yet." Seamus replied. "I heard Neville met someone in the holidays, not sure who though."
"I dint meet anyone in the holidays." Neville said wide awake as he rolled over to face them, king Harry wonder if he had been awake the whole time. "I met her before school finished." Neville corrected with a small smile.
"Who?" Dean asked curiously, he was now tying his red and gold Gryffindor tie up.
"Why would I tell you?" Neville asked incredulously as he raised himself onto his elbow.
"C'mon Nev mate, tell us. We've been your roommates for the past five years." Seamus said pleadingly, Harry snorted.
"If he'll tell anybody he'll tell me. Right Neville." Harry asked, Neville clambered out of bed and to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. "Neville?"
"Where the fire?" Ron asked, shooting up in his bed quickly and he started looking around. He had his wand in hand, as if ready to hex somebody.
"Neville just slammed the door." Dean filled in for the redhead.
"Think he's annoyed with us?" Seamus asked with a malicious grin.
"Us? Nah." Harry said offhandedly, "You maybe." Seamus gaped and was about to say something but Dean cut him off before he could start speaking.
"So is there anyone special in your life at the moment Ron?" He asked as his last roommate stumbled out of his warm red bed.
"No." Ron grumbled with the cursed Weasley blush staining his cheeks.
"I can think of somebody." Harry said impishly. "She has long brown curly hair, she's one of the bossiest people I know, she has nice brown eyes, her name begins with a 'H' and ends in an 'E'. Guess who she could be." Ron just threw a pillow at him in response whilst Dean and Seamus laughed at how red Ron had gone.
"Bugger off." He grumbled at his best friend.
"It's true mate." Dean stated.
"You're whipped." Seamus added. Ron mumbled something incoherently and grabbed his towel before heading to the bathroom.
Harry, Seamus and Dean made sounds like a whip cracking behind Ron's back as he left and they received the finger and another slammed door in response. The three broke down into laughter in response.
"He's not going to be talking to us either now." Dean stated, Harry nodded.
"I'd better get washed up." He replied.
"Me too." Seamus stated. They left for the bathroom as Dean went downstairs to meet Ginny.
Harry walked Charlene down to breakfast and the pair settled down on the table with Dean, Seamus, Ginny and Neville.
"Where's my brother?" Ginny asked curiously as she placed hers and Dean's inter-locked hands onto the bench comfortably whilst she picked at her breakfast with a fork.
"He's just coming with Hermione." Harry said with a manic grin, which Dean and Seamus mirrored as soon as Ron came into the room talking with Hermione.
The duo came over and as Ron sat down, the three boys made a sound like a whip cracking again, Ron glared at them as they smiled innocently.
"Just bugger off already why don't you?" Ron said evilly, Harry cracked up slightly.
"Hey, it's the truth." He stated with an innocent shrug.
"What are you on about?" Hermione asked with a no nonsense tone to her voice.
"Nothing." Ron said quickly, with another glare at his roommates saying 'Don't even think about it'. He went to reach for the milk when the three guys made the whipping sound again. Ron glared again before actually grabbing the handle of the milk jug and poured some of the white liquid into his cereal.
"I doubt he'll be talking to us for a while." Dean said nonchalantly, Harry and Seamus snorted in agreement.
"Hey!" A perky voice said from behind them, Harry grinned and moved over a little so that the girl could sit down.
"Like your first night then Sara?" He asked, Sara nodded.
"It was cool. This morning, I forgot where I was." She replied exuberantly, they all laughed a bit.
"Where's Lauryn?" Ginny asked worriedly.
"She was asleep when I left, but I got lost so…" Sara drifted off.
"She's probably still asleep." Ron, Hermione and Ginny all replied simultaneously causing them all to laugh again.
"Good morning, I hope you slept well." McGonnagal said as she approached them with the timetables. She glanced at them all and her eyes rested on Sara. "And I'm assuming that you must be Sara White?" She asked, the young raven-haired girl nodded hesitantly. "Well, make sure you arrive to my class on time. I'd hate to take points from my own house." McGonnagal stated and gave one of her rare smiles to Sara as she handed out the timetables. "See you this afternoon Mr Potter." She continued with a nod before going to the next group along the table.
"Hey, she didn't say anything to me and I have her this morning." Ron commented as he looked over his timetable, which was promptly snatched from his hands by Hermione who had taken Harry's and Charlene's timetables too.
"Me, Harry and Charlene are in potions together," She observed as she read through each, "We all take Care of Magical Creatures together, Ron and Charlene are in the same DADA class and Charms class, We all are in the same Astronomy class, Me and Harry are in the same ADADA class, Harry and Charlene share Transfiguration together, and Harry, Ron and Charlene are in the same Herbology class." Hermione finished with a deep breath. "That's it I think."
"Wow, we are a little more spread out this year." Harry stated, Hermione nodded.
"Of course, we chose different things for our options." She said matter-of-factly.
"Ron has a lot of classes on his own." Harry informed the small group, looking over Ron's shoulder at the redhead's timetable.
"He'll most probably be in those classes with someone else from Gryffindor." Hermione told them.
"Yeah, that'll be good enough." Ron said unenthusiastically, now wishing he had taken ADADA to be with Harry and Hermione.
"Don't look so glum, it may never happen." Charlene said cheerfully from in front of him, Ron looked up and smiled slightly.
"Yeah." He muttered.
"We better finish up and head up to our classes." Hermione said, glancing at her watch.
"But we only just got down here!" Ron complained.
"And that's your fault for making us all late." Hermione stated with a pointed look at him, "Had you not been doing whatever you were up to in your dorm then we'd've been here on time. And anyway, we can always visit the kitchens later."
"Oh we should do that actually." Harry said thoughtfully as he stood up, "I need to visit Dobby, I haven't seen him in a while and he must be getting worried."
"That's a great idea Harry!" Hermione exclaimed excitedly, "Then I could ask him a few questions for my new campaign!" Harry and Ron rolled their eyes and Charlene looked particularly interested.
"Campaign?" She inquired in a curious voice.
"Curiosity killed the cat." Harry whispered in Charlene's ear, Ron sniggered but Hermione either ignored it or didn't hear.
"My campaign for the better treatment of House-elves. The Society of the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. My new campaign for it is top secret though." She explained.
"Wow, you're really interested in that?" Charlene asked, Hermione nodded, "Mind if I join you then? It seems interesting."
"Really?" Hermione asked, now it was Charlene's turn to nod. "Thanks, that'll be great."
"She'll never get out of it now." Ron whispered to Harry as the two girls walked a little ahead, talking about all sorts of things.
"I'm curious." Charlene said with an impish grin at Hermione.
"What do you want to know?" The other young woman asked, oblivious to her companions grin.
"You and Ron." Charlene said, "Are you a couple or not? You're all cuddly and you'd be sweet together." She turned back to her new friend and was happy to see the soft blush that graced Hermione's face.
"It would never work out." Hermione stated, she glanced back at Ron and turned around abruptly when she caught him staring at her. Charlene glanced back and her grin grew when she saw where Ron's stare was aimed.
"Why not? You obviously both like each other." Charlene said to Hermione confidently.
"It… just wouldn't." Hermione muttered. "I like him… a lot, but we are always arguing and… and he would never feel that way about me." She looked down at the floor to avoid Charlene's gaze.
"Why wouldn't he feel that way about you?" Charlene asked incredulously. "Your funny, smart, pretty and great conversation. That tells me some things already." Hermione's blush increased.
"He wouldn't." She stated, "Fiddlesticks." She said loudly to the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"You may enter." The woman in the portrait replied. Hermione dashed up the stairs to her dorm the moment the portrait had opened fully, Charlene went up a little more sophisticatedly and when she reached her dorm, she heard the water in the bathroom running. Hermione came out a moment later towel-drying her now peach coloured face.
"What was that for?" Charlene asked her new friend.
"I'm trying to cool down my face, I was hot." Hermione made up, Charlene gave her a look that said 'Yeah right.' And giggled as she went to her trunk to get her things for the day. Hermione copied the procedure and put all of the equipment she needed that day into her dark blue demin shoulder bag, Charlene had a dark red rucksack that was made of corduroy.
"Wow, I like your bag Charlene." Hermione said as they got up to leave the room.
"Thanks, it took me forever to make." Charlene replied.
"You made it." Hermione asked, Charlene nodded.
"Yeah, it's about the only thing I can make too." She stated, Hermione and her laughed a tiny bit and they reached the bottom of the stairs to see the boys waiting for them.
"Are we going then?" Harry asked, the girls nodded and left the common room with the boys.
"I'm so glad I dropped potions." Ron said blissfully, Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Don't remind me." Harry said with a groan.
"What do you have first period then Ron?" Charlene asked as she took Harry's hand into her own.
"Period?" Ron asked.
"Lesson." Hermione told him, "Means the same."
"Oh." Ron muttered. "I have transfiguration then charms."
"And we get potions." Harry grumbled.
"I have to go this way now, see you all later." Ron said with a wave as he walked off into a different corridor.
The other three carried on walking at a slow pace to the dungeons where their dreaded lesson would be.
They entered the classroom to find not that many people already in there, just a few from each house, one of those few from Slytherin being Malfoy, without his cronies who were too dumb to be in a NEWT level potions class.
Hermione and Charlene sat together and Harry took the seat behind them next to an extremely nervous Neville.
"Hey, I didn't know you got into this class." Harry said to Neville quietly.
"I didn't think I would, but the examiners were much nicer than Snape." The pudgy teen replied, Harry smiled and nodded in agreement.
"Quiet now." Snape sneered at them all as he stormed into the room; Harry glared at him with a burning hatred. The class fell into a short silence. "This is NEWT level Potions and the arts you shall learn here make your first five years seem incredibly easy. Concentrate!" He snapped at one of the Ravenclaw's at the front who had been caught day-dreaming. "Get to work on this potion." He further instructed as he wrote up the ingredients and method on the board.
"Hey Neville, reckon we'll fail?" Harry asked with an impish grin, trying to calm his friend's frayed nerves.
"Yes." Neville muttered, his face paling.
"No you won't. I'll help if you need me." Hermione said from in front of them, glaring at Harry for scaring the other Gryffindor.
"We can easily do this potion! Right Neville?" Harry said enthusiastically, he turned to his friend, "Neville?"
"No." Neville muttered as he got the correct ingredients from his bag with slightly shaking hands.
"Neville? Listen to me for a moment." Charlene said in a soft tone with a tad of demanding in it, "You listening?" She asked, Neville nodded, "Just try your hardest and when Snape comes over, just keep telling yourself that he can't scare you and be confident in yourself." She instructed, "And also, I heard you are good at Herbology?" Neville nodded silently again, "Well just connect the two and you'll find potions much easier."
"Connect the two?" Harry asked for his friend, Charlene nodded.
"If you're good at Herbology and know the properties of magical plants it helps, that's how I got through my potions OWLs." She explained.
"Stop nattering and get to work!" Snape shouted at them, making Hermione jump slightly as she had been listening intently to what Charlene had been advising Neville to do.
"Let's get on with this potion then." Harry muttered to the slightly more confident Neville.
"Argh! I thought it'd never end!" Harry exclaimed as he left the potions room with Hermione, Neville and Charlene.
"I ditto that." Charlene stated.
"Ditto?" Hermione asked, "What in the world does that mean?"
"Same here." Charlene filled in thoughtfully. "What do I have now?"
"Charms with Ron whilst me and Harry have ADADA." Hermione said, they other three looked at her incredulously. "What?"
"You remembered that?" Neville asked, Hermione nodded.
"Of course." She stated indignantly, "Who else would?" Harry and Neville rolled their eyes.
"Well I have Charms with Charlene and Ron next." Neville stated.
"That's good, then you can show Charlene the way to your classroom." Hermione said happily.
"I don't mind that, I'd like to get to know Harry's friends better." Charlene said happily with a cheery smile to Harry.
"Oh, that's alright then." Neville said a little uncertainly. "We have to go down this corridor now." He added, Charlene nodded and pecked Harry on the lips.
"See you later." She said to Harry and Hermione with a small wave, leaving the pair of old friends to walk to class.
"She's nice." Hermione commented with a sideward glance at Harry, who looked down on her with a small smile.
"I know." He replied.
"You really like her don't you?" Hermione asked as they carried on walking to ADADA.
"Of course I do." Harry replied, "I'm so glad that she's a witch. I met her at the barbeque and I kept saying that there could be no way in the world that the wizarding world would accept me being with a muggle girl. And the fact that I wouldn't see her until the summer put me off…" Harry trailed off.
"And now she's here." Hermione finished, Harry nodded.
"I didn't realise that she was famous." He said quietly.
"Well she is a top model in this world." Hermione told him. "Ginny showed me the latest issue of 'Teen Witch' and it has some interesting things in it."
"Hermione, I don't really want to know about what sort of things girls talk about." Harry stated, Hermione rolled her eyes and lightly hit his arm.
"If you'd've let me finish, you would have heard me tell you that there was an interview with her that was taken on August the twentieth." Hermione stated, Harry frowned.
"Point being?" He asked, Hermione rolled her eyes.
"It has some very interesting things in it, namely some mention of you." She told him, Harry stopped walking for a moment.
"Me?" He asked, Hermione nodded.
"I'll show you the article later." She told him as they approached the ADADA classroom.
Harry held the door open for Hermione as he entered and was shocked at the changes of the room. The wood rafters that decorated the ceiling had all been painted an extremely dark burgundy and all of the desks had been altered to be made a nice rosewood that shone red as the bright light filtered through the high windows.
The Professor's rosewood desk had a few books and papers littered on it and a small pot of spare quills.
"She likes red." Hermione observed unnecessarily, Harry snorted and sat down near the back of the classroom with her. They chatted quietly to each other about Hermione's summer and what she had overheard in Order HQ; then the new Professor entered calmly. She set her briefcase by her desk and perched herself on the edge of it.
Flashing a smile across the classroom at her NEWT level students she started.
"Morning, I'm Professor Alston and I hope you had a good time in potions those of you who just had it." She said jovially, Harry and some of the others groaned and she giggled slightly, Harry looked strait at her and realised she was looking into the eyes of every student in the classroom –as if reading their minds through them- though another thing Harry realised was that when she got to Hermione, she completely skipped him and looked at the Hufflepuff girl sitting next to him. He frowned slightly but listened to what she had to say.
"Today we shall be just getting to know each other and I'll run you over what we shall be covering in this exclusive new course." Alston stated. "So, any of you have any questions to ask me first?" A few hesitant hands rose. "You." She nodded, "What's your name first."
"Lisa Turpin, Professor." The girl told the teacher, who nodded for her to continue. "Did you come to Hogwarts?"
"Yes I did." Alston said with the faintest smile on her face, like she was reminiscing. "I was friends with the biggest pranksters ever."
"I doubt." Hermione whispered to Harry, who snorted slightly.
"What house were you in?" Malfoy called out, Alston looked at him and smirked.
"Let me guess, your Draco." She stated, Malfoy looked a little smug. "Your fathers a bad man, I sincerely hope you don't end up like him." She stated with pity towards the shocked blond. "I'm not going to tell you what house I was in, I don't want unfair prejudices now do I?" Hermione contemplated what the teacher had said and smiled at Harry.
"She's smart." She whispered to him, Harry nodded absentmindedly, still wondering why she refused to look at him. Every time her gaze went in his direction, she'd look at the spot behind him or look away.
"Anything else you want to know?" She asked, another student put their hand up. "Yes Miss…"
"Blaise Zabini." The naturally beautiful Slytherin with long silky black hair that was in a high ponytail tied with a green and silver ribbon replied, "You have children don't you? I heard Professor Snape say something about it." Alston's eyes lit up with mirth.
"Oh, he was a little annoyed that I made him baby-sit my son." Alston informed with a laugh.
"Why would Snape look after your children?" Malfoy sneered.
"One, It's Professor Snape and two… because he's my elder brother." Alston replied, the class looked shocked.
"But- but your not a Snape!" One of the small class exclaimed, Alston nodded.
"I know that, I took my mothers name, whilst Sev took our fathers." She replied intelligently, "So if he speaks of his incorrigible nephew, that'll be my son Jake." She said with another laugh. "Any more questions?" No hands went up, "Okay, then I'll explain what these next two years shall be like for you poor suffering souls." She said cheerfully. "The first module we shall be studying is…."
The rest of the lesson went pretty quickly after that and Alston let them ask her some questions on some various modules and she briefly quizzed the class as a whole before the bell rang for lunch.
"Mr Potter, could you stay behind please?" Alston requested, Harry shrugged at Hermione's questioning glance and indicate for her to go ahead.
As the last few students filtered from the room, Harry slowly approached Alston's desk.
"Mr Potter… Harry…" Alston's voice cracked a bit and she still refused to look him in the eye, "Maybe you could come to my office tonight at eight? Only briefly, I just… need to… speak to you about something." She stated, still not looking Harry in the eye, he nodded slightly.
"Okay Professor." He replied hesitantly, and then left. He hurried from the classroom to get down to lunch and Hermione followed him from where she was trying to 'listen in' on the conversation.
"What did she want?" Hermione asked after a moment of silence.
"Eavesdropper." Harry accused, Hermione smiled a tiny bit.
"Eavesdropper is such a strong word." She stated innocently, Harry snorted. "What did she want?" Hermione repeated.
"She wants me to go to her office at eight tonight to tell me something." Harry replied thoughtfully.
"Tell you something? Like what?" Hermione asked, Harry shrugged and let her ramble her suggestions of what Alston wanted at him on their way to the Great Hall.
"Hey guys." Harry greeted as he sat down next to Charlene, he pecked her on the lips and started filling his plate with cheese sandwiches.
"How were your classes?" Ron asked after swallowing a mouthful of food.
"The were alright, though Professor Alston is extremely weird." Harry stated, "She wants me to go to her office at eight tonight, and she won't look me in the eye!"
"That's strange, maybe your just paranoid though Harry?" Ginny suggested, Harry shook his head.
"I know what I saw." Hermione, Ron and Ginny shared un-easy looks at that.
"Well what have you got this afternoon?" Charlene asked perkily, not noticing the exchanged looks.
"Charms, Transfiguration and Herbology." Harry told her.
"I'm in Transfiguration and Herbology with you, Ron is in Herbology with us too." Charlene stated, "We compared timetables in Charms." She added hyperly.
"What are you extremely hyper about?" Harry asked, Ron grinned sheepishly.
"We were revising charms, and I accidentally said the cheering charm wrong, so it has made her very happy." Ron stated apologetically, "It'll die down soon." He reassured, "I hope." Harry shot his friend a glare.
"Didn't you try 'Finite Incantatem'?" Hermione asked, Ron nodded.
"Didn't work." He informed.
"It doesn't matter though!" Charlene exclaimed, "I hardly feel any different!" Harry pulled her back down as she tried to stand on the table.
"Let's get you out of here." He said calmly, Hermione grabbed some sandwiches and Ron grabbed Hermione's bag and the three left with one very hyper Charlene.
"Lets go down to the kitchens and ask Dobby if he has any coffee." Hermione suggested.
"Coffee?" Ron asked, "Why coffee?"
"Because that's what you're meant to give a person when their drunk so that they sober up, she might feel a little more normal after some coffee." Hermione explained impatiently.
"She's not drunk though." Ron pointed out, Hermione rolled her eyes but said nothing as she grabbed Charlene's wrist and dragged her down to the kitchens as the Colourmorphus kept babbling about something or another.
Hermione tickled the pear on the picture and entered the kitchens, the house-elves all crowded around her and Charlene quickly.
"Please can I just get a coffee maybe? For Charlene?" Hermione asked the house-elves.
"Of course!" One exclaimed and it hurried around the kitchen preparing the drink.
Hermione sat Charlene down and took a seat for herself.
"…and another time when I was drunk I jumped into the hotel pool from my room on the third floor and-and-and it hurt when I landed but I didn't care…" Harry covered Charlene's mouth and sat down next to her.
"Calm down." He told her softly, "We're just grabbing a coffee for you." He told her, Charlene nodded and pretended to zip her mouth shut. That solution didn't work for very long though.
The house-elf came back with the coffee and handed it to the still hyper Charlene, Ron was getting lots of sandwiches from the house-elves and Hermione was talking to Winky.
"Mr Harry Potter Sir!" Came an extremely high-pitched voice, Harry grinned at his magical friend.
"Hiya Dobby!" He said, "How did you like your holidays?" He asked.
"Oh Dobby thought it were great Mr Harry Potter Sir!" Dobby exclaimed, "Dobby and Winky went travelling we did Mr Harry Potter Sir!"
"Just call me Harry, Dobby." Harry said to his friend, Charlene was quickly sobering up with her strong coffee.
"Of course Harry Sir." Dobby replied, Charlene giggled.
"That sounds so sweet." She stated, "Hi, I'm Charlene." She held out her hand to Dobby who proudly shook it.
"I'm Dobby, Harry Potter freed Dobby from the Malfoy's he did." Dobby stated, "Now Dobby works for Mr Dumbledore and Fred and George Wheezy." Hermione turned around at the mention of Fred and George, as did Ron.
"What was that Dobby?" Hermione asked demandingly.
"Dobby has a job with Fred and George Wheezy." Dobby repeated a little uncertainly.
"Do they pay you?" Hermione asked, Dobby nodded enthusiastically.
"Oh yes Miss Hermy, they pay Dobby a knut every hour!" He replied, Hermione looked furious.
"A knut?" She inquired.
"Yes yes Miss Hermy, they wanted Dobby to have galleon every hour but Dobby didn't want that." Dobby stated, "Dobby likes work and is saving to buy more socks!"
"That's great Dobby." Ron stated, "But we had better get going to class."
"See you later Dobby." Harry said, "And thanks for the coffee."
"Bye Mr Harry Potter Sir and his Miss!" Dobby exclaimed, both Harry and Charlene blushed at that as they closed the door. Ron and Hermione were stifling their laughter.
"Oh har de har." Harry muttered as he lightly held Charlene's hand when they started walking.
"We had better head to our classes." Hermione stated, the others nodded and they spilt up at various times. Ron and Charlene to DADA, Hermione to Arithmancy and Harry wandered to Charms.
Like Ron, Harry practiced the cheering charm over and over again on Seamus Finnegan; they were both mending their friendship slowly and it pleased Harry that his mother was now a member of the Order of the Phoenix, like so many other's who were turning to Dumbledore.
After Charms Harry headed towards his Transfiguration lesson which he shared with Hermione and Charlene.
He walked solemnly to the classroom thinking about the events of the past five years. How Quirrel had fooled them all; how Tom Riddle had trapped Ginny in his wicked ways; how Barty Crouch had played impostor of Moody and finally, how Sirius Black, his God-Father, had died to the hands of Bellatrix Lestrange.
"Hiya Harry!" Someone called up ahead; Harry looked up and saw Charlene and Hermione lining up outside of the Transfiguration classroom.
"Hey." Harry replied with a little smile. Hermione looked a bit concerned but Harry just ignored it and pecked Charlene on the lips and stood beside them waiting for class.
"Oh look, Potter's got himself a girlfriend." Sneered a cold voice, Harry turned and glared at the white blond haired teen in front of him. He was about to retort but someone else beat him to it.
"What? Are you jealous?" Hermione tormented, Malfoy snorted.
"As if." He replied with a glare at Hermione, who laughed sarcastically.
"I thought so," She continued as if he hadn't spoken, "I mean, who wouldn't be jealous of the super-model girlfriend?" She asked mocking, Malfoy seethed.
"Shut it Mudblood." He said lowly, Hermione glared at him, as did most of the others there.
"You want me to scrub your mouth out with soap Malfoy?" Charlene asked rhetorically with an incredible fire of hate burning in her eyes, she hardly knew of him and she hated him already.
"You wouldn't know the spell, you're just a little Play-Wiz model with an overly large head." Malfoy reposted. Harry now looked livid.
"Take that back." He snarled angrily, Malfoy smirked.
"Have I now angered Precious Potter?" He retaliated, "You and you Mudblood friend and Play-Wiz model girlfri-"
"Scourify!" Charlene exclaimed, pointing her wand to Malfoy's mouth. Foam and bubbles appeared and dribbled down his chin as he coughed up more bubbles, Charlene stopped her spell soon afterwards. "Apologise." She demanded. "If not to me then to Hermione." Malfoy glared and spat the rest of the bubbles at her feet. "Apologise or I'll make more embarrassing things happen Malfoy." She stated, "I have not once modelled for Play-Wiz and I shall not hear that foul word come out of your dirty mouth ever again." She stated. "Understood?"
"What's going on here?" McGonnagal demanded, seeing the bubbles on the floor and the front of Malfoy's robes.
"I'm teaching him a lesson." Charlene stated angrily, and with that she spun on her heel and entered the Transfiguration classroom, leaving the class and McGonnagal speechless.
"Ten points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin. Now enter the classroom." The aging woman demanded. The class obliged and all took seats around the class. "I want to see Mr Malfoy, Miss Therney, Mr Potter and Miss Granger after class.
"Now today I shall be explaining the course among other optional classes that can be taken to improve on your Transfiguration." McGonnagal told them. "Now, for the first term up until Halloween we shall be studying animal to animal transfiguration. Now this process is extremely hard and requires the casters ultimate attention…" McGonnagal carried on to explain the rest of that year's tasks and also explained some new optional classes that were to be offered, in Transfiguration and other subjects.
The class started to file out and as promised, Harry, Charlene, Hermione and Malfoy were kept back. McGonnagal scrutinized the four with lowered glasses, making her even more imposing.
"Now," She started, "I have all afternoon to do this, I want the whole truth of what was happening before my class." The four all started talking at once. "Quiet!" She exclaimed, "Mr Malfoy, your opinion first please."
"Professor, I was merely lining up for your class when these three attacked me-"
"Bull-"
"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed, stopping him finishing his word.
"He's lying!" Harry shouted.
"Then what did happen Mr Potter?" McGonnagal asked.
"He was trying to provoke me." Harry stated confidently, "Hermione and Charlene stuck up for me so he started on them too. Charlene…" Harry nervously glanced at Charlene who stood proud, an excellent mask of indifference covering her face.
"What did Miss Therney do?" McGonnagal asked with a glance at both Harry and Charlene.
"I washed his foul mouth out." Charlene stated, defiantly staring McGonnagal in the eye.
"She cast a common house-elf spell on me!" Malfoy shouted angrily, McGonnagal looked slightly curious.
"Oh?" She inquired.
"I cast a Scouring Charm on him Professor. I was teaching him a lesson." Charlene said, Harry swore he saw a flicker of a smile on McGonnagal's face.
"I see." She muttered, "Well, Mr Malfoy, please proceed to your next class whilst I deal with these three." Malfoy smirked contentedly as he left. The door shut behind him and McGonnagal turned back to the other three. "A further five points from Gryffindor Miss Therney. You may go." Harry looked amazed and let Charlene pull him out. "Oh, and Miss Therney." Charlene turned back to McGonnagal. "Welcome to Gryffindor.
"Thank you Professor." Charlene said with a smile, she once again had to pull Harry from the classroom as he seemed in shock.
"Well, you two have Herbology, so I'll see you later." Hermione stated as she walked off.
"We had better go because we're already late." Charlene stated, Harry merely nodded and they rushed to Herbology.
They slipped into the class and sat in the seats saved for them by Ron and Neville.
"Where were you?" Ron asked, "Neville said that McGonnagal kept you back.
"Yeah, she did." Harry affirmed with a small nod. "I'll tell you later." He added as he noticed Professor Sprout's glare.
"Don't worry, I told her why you'd be late." Neville stated, Harry nodded and got to work on the strange looking plant they had been given to do something too.
They trudged out of Herbology less than an hour later.
"Man that was bad." Harry muttered, the others nodded in agreement.
"Talk about meanie." Charlene added. "What was that thing anyways?"
"Morfor's Angel." Neville stated.
"More like Devil." Ron muttered, the others smiled slightly.
"Was it meant to bite?" Harry asked, Neville nodded.
"We're lucky that was a seedling." The chubby boy replied, the other three stopped short.
"Seedling?" They simultaneously asked, Neville nodded again. "Then how big is an older plant?"
"Well, that was three foot, so the adult would be…" Neville counted on his fingers, "Ten to twelve foot." Harry, Ron and Charlene went wide-eyed.
"Man that must hurt getting bitten by one of those." She muttered.
"Not really." Neville stated, "Their teeth fall out before they reach five foot and they become really subdued." He informed them.
"Wow, you really do know your plants." Charlene muttered, causing Neville to blush brighter than a Weasley.
"Let's all just hit the showers before dinner please?" Harry asked tiredly, "I still have that meeting with Professor Alston."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Charlene muttered. The four made their way up to the Gryffindor Tower.
"Hi Hermione." They greeted as they stepped into the Common Room. "How was… um…"
"Charms was great Ron, thanks for asking." Hermione said with a slight smile at him, a smile that the others hadn't missed, especially with the lop-sided grin that Ron returned to the smile.
"I'm going to hit the showers and so is Hermione." Charlene stated, she walked off and grabbed Hermione's arm on the way past towards the girls dorms.
"Hey! I don't need a shower!" Hermione exclaimed as Charlene pulled her up the stairs.
Ron shook his head. "Girls." He muttered.
"Can never understand them." Neville added, to which the other two agreed.
"We should head for the showers ourselves." Harry stated, "We stink of dragon poo." He added as he sniffed at his robes with a disgusted look.
"Yeah." Ron agreed. The three headed for their dorm room.
A hyper Charlene pulled Hermione unwillingly into her dorm. Ginny had met them on the stairs and followed them up. Luckily for them, Lavender and Parvati weren't in their dorms at that time.
Charlene sat Hermione down on her bed and plonked down next to her after pulling off her robe. Ginny sat on the floor in front of them.
"So tell." Charlene said demandingly, giving Hermione a piercing stare, Ginny looked confused.
"What is that meant to mean?" Hermione asked, Charlene rolled her eyes.
"Please, I've known you for a day and I can still see what's going on between you and Ron." She replied, at to which Ginny giggled and Hermione blushed bright red. "Well?"
"There's nothing to tell." Hermione stated, looking down to hide her blush.
"Hermione. He's my brother, I can tell these things and something's going on." Ginny said. "The same something that was happening all summer." She added, causing Hermione to blush even more.
"All summer?" Charlene asked.
"Yeah, I stayed at Ginny's house." Hermione covered, Charlene nodded in recognition.
"Oh." She muttered. "Anything happen then?"
"No!" Hermione exclaimed, blushing a deeper red that beat that of the Weasley's hair. "We just comforted each other and talked a lot. He's one of my best friends, I'm allowed to talk to him!"
"Hermione he seriously likes you, that's so obvious." Charlene stated, "And what's more obvious is that you like him too!"
"I don't!" Hermione exclaimed, "Wait, he likes me?" Ginny and Charlene smirked; they'd hit the nerve.
"Yep, and it's so obvious, it could be miles away and we'd still see." Ginny stated.
"And the only problem is that you two don't see it." Charlene said.
"It would be great, he needs a girlfriend." Ginny said.
"And you seem like the perfect candidate, I mean, we all saw how you two were on the train yesterday." Charlene added. "I know that we've only just met each other, but even as an outsider to your group I can tell that you both like each other."
"One, me and Ron were being friendly on the train yesterday and two, you're not an outsider, and you fit right in our little group that's rapidly expanding." Hermione said to her new friend.
"One, you and Ron would make a cute couple and two, can I fit in the group somewhere too?" Someone said from the door, they turned and saw Sara who looked a little shy.
"Sure, come sit down with us." Hermione said with a smile to the younger girl, who came in with a brilliant smile, her messy black hair pulled up into a ponytail with a dark red band.
"Did you want anything in particular or did you just happen to walk by and eavesdrop on our conversation?" Ginny asked with a grin, Sara smiled mischievously.
"Eavesdrop is such a strong word." She said with innocence, Hermione giggled a bit.
"I said that to Harry earlier." She explained briefly.
"So back to our original topic." Charlene stated with a grin.
"Look, me and Ron aren't getting together anytime soon." Hermione stated a little sadly, "We always argue and it wouldn't work out."
"Why wouldn't it?" Sara asked, "You argue because you're both really wanting to be more than friends."
"Listen to the eleven year old who's much more mature than us." Ginny stated, they burst into more giggles.
"Seriously though, you and Ron would make a good couple." Charlene told Hermione, who looked apprehensive.
"Well…"
"If you need help getting together with him, we're here to help!" Sara exclaimed.
"Thanks." Hermione said with a smile, "We better finish here because Charlene needs a shower." She added impishly.
"Hey!" Charlene exclaimed, lightly pushing Hermione as she got up and grabbed her shower things. "I may smell but it's not my fault, I had to carry around dragon dung."
"Ooh, bad luck." Ginny muttered. "I had better get going, I have summer work to finish."
"I thought you had done it all?" Hermione asked the redhead, who shook her head slightly.
"Nope, that's just what I told you." Ginny stated and she quickly evaded Hermione's wrath by leaving the room.
"I'm going to find Lauryn." Sara said as she left the room, "See you later!"
"Bye Sara." Hermione said softly as the door closed. "She is a lot like Harry was at first." She murmured to herself. "Lets hope she doesn't have to go through what he went through."
Dinner had to have been a little interesting on the first day back. It seemed that Malfoy took up his time glaring at Harry and the Gang who just ignored him and had a great time talking about their days, especially Sara who was already complaining about Snape.
Several DA members had approached Harry during the meal to ask about whether or not the club was to reform; Harry had told them all that if they wanted he could arrange something, as long as it stayed the secret society it was before, with only loyal members.
A few hours later, Harry found himself heading towards the DADA office to see Professor Alston.
He didn't really know how he could be in trouble for doing nothing, though she hadn't said that she was in trouble so he had some hope.
He knocked on the door of the office and heard laughter from inside of the office; Alston opened the door and looked shocked to see Harry there.
"Mr Potter, I didn't expect you until eight." She said, and then looked down at her watch, "Oh, we seem to have lost track of time Remus." She stated as she let Harry into the room, Harry looked a little shocked as he saw the last living Marauder sitting on a settee with a young boy of around three with his hair a shade darker than Alston's light brown nearly blond hair and a tiny wizarding robe on that was dark green with a pattern of a dragon sewn on in gold up the whole of the left side. He had light blue eyes, which made him look like a little angel.
"Remus? What're you doing here?" Harry asked incredulously.
"I brought Jake here to see Lessi." Remus replied with a smile, "How was your first day of classes?"
"Err, great." Harry replied and then looked confusedly between Remus and Alston.
"Harry, Alessandria needs to tell you something." Remus stated seriously, Alston was still refusing to look Harry in the eye and stared at a point to the left of his head.
"Harry I- I was a friend of your mothers." She stated, finally she glanced into his eyes and tears leaked from her eyes. "Actually, she was my best friend and- and I'm so sorry I didn't take you in like I was meant too." She turned away from his eyes again and small sobs escaped her throat. Jake was looking at Harry confusedly with his head tilted to one side whilst Remus stared longingly at Alston; as if he wanted to embrace her and never let go.
"My Mother's best friend?" Harry repeated, Alston nodded. "That wasn't what I expected."
"Did you think you had detention for no reason then?" Alston asked with a sniffle and slight giggle.
"Well…"
"You thought I'd give you detention on your first day back?" She repeated incredulously.
"Don't blame me! Your Snape's sister and he hates me!" Harry exclaimed, Alston rolled her eyes and wiped her remaining tears away.
"Just ignore him Harry." She advised, "He's just a big bully who doesn't like us Gryffindor's."
"You're a Gryffindor?" Harry asked, Alston nodded.
"Why else would most of my classroom be red?" She asked, "Well, actually, that was just to annoy Sev but would a Slytherin colour their room Gryffindor red and have red furniture?"
"You make a point." Harry muttered. They were silent for a moment.
"How are you Harry?" Remus asked hesitantly.
"I'm good." Harry replied, "You?"
"The same as you I expect." Remus stated, eying Harry disbelievingly. "You know that I'm always here if you need anything, right?"
"Yeah, I know." Harry muttered.
"Hey, I'll be here also." Alston stated with an intense sense of honesty in her voice. "And I'm sure that Jake would be too." She added with a small smile as the confused little boy hid behind Remus' legs with a reproachful look at Harry.
"You should bring him to class." Harry said, smiling slightly at Jake. "You'd get thousands of girls wanting to baby-sit." Remus and Alston both chuckled.
"I doubt he'd enter a room full of students." Remus stated, "He's really shy. As you can probably tell." Remus picked Jake up and walked over to where Alston and Harry were standing.
"Jake, this is Harry." Alston said softly to the little angel, "Are you gonna say hi to him?" Jake looked at Harry shyly.
"Hi." He said quietly, Harry smiled.
"Hiya Jake." He replied with a smile, which the boy returned.
Harry spent another hour or two in Alston's office talking with his professor, her son and Remus. They told him a few stories of their school days and as he left due to curfew, he was invited back so he could get to know them properly.
He walked back to his house tower in the best mood he had been in since Sirius' untimely death.
AN: So I've had to make another chapter and am now rethinking this storyline and making it more detailed AND adding new ideas. This story is jam-packed full of random ideas though I doubt that I will use all of them in this story or I'll have nothing left for the sequel!
Review, Flame and Give me Advice on writing, whatever! Just make sure that if you flame you give me a decent reason and not just 'This story sucks', then I can at least IMPROVE on my mistakes. Thankies as Sammy would say!