Remus sat up in his bed with sweat dripping down his forehead. He had the dream again. It was the one that involved his self and Siera in the classroom with Voldemort. It had been three months since Arina's accident. That night they had searched the school for an intruder but none were found. He still could not figure out why he kept having the dream. It had his worst fears in it, silver and Voldemort.
"It must be symbolic," he swung his legs over to the side over the bed. With his feet, he searched for his house shoes. After he found them, he turned on the lamp beside his bed. It took Remus a moment to focus in on his watch. When the numbers finally became clear it read five forty-two A.M.
Remus then decided he should take a shower before all the hot water was taken. Even if it was a magic school they still had the normal plumbing problems. As the hot water ran down his face, he thought about the months before.
The day Arina's broom was jinxed the students were told that she just lost control of the broom. They hadn't a clue that it was Dark forces that made her crash into the school. A few hours after she was taken to the Medical Wing she drifted into a coma. She had yet to come out of it.
Dominique had not been found yet. They seem to have lost all hope for her. She was likely dead by now. Remus could tell that Maria and Siera had not completely lost hope. They of course, were her friends.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been doing well in school. Ron would get behind a little as usual but Hermione would help him out as usual. When Hermione would do Ron's homework it was so obvious Ron had not done it himself. You would swear Snape would snicker when he asked Ron how long it took Hermione to do his homework. Ron would turn red and then Harry would stand up for him.
Maria and Sirius were doing well. They had grown very close in the past months. Sirius would follow her everywhere. It even began to annoy Maria but then Sirius would give her his puppy dog eyes (literally puppy dog eyes) and she would let him follow her around for another week. Sirius had even gotten over his every two weeks a different girl thing. He was now able to tell Maria that he loved her and it actually meant something. Maria's teaching was also doing well. She had only failed one student so far. He exact words to the student were," Honestly if you can't remember when the first curse was used I'm afraid you have no place in my class room!" With most students she was deemed as the harshest teacher in the school. Hermione looked up to her a great deal because of it.
Then there was Remus and Siera. They had become good friends recently. But Siera was likely to drift off somewhere. She would either be at the Medical Wing talking to Arina or in her room going over lesson plans. Remus had yet to tell his new found friends about his condition.
"Oomph," he grunted as the now cold water hit his bare chest. People were defiantly up now.
Gryffindor Common RoomHarry stumbled down the steps to the common room. He saw a girl reading in one of the armchairs by the fire. Without having seen the girls face he knew it was Hermione. She was the only person who could possibly want to read this early in the morning.
"What are you reading Hermione?" mumbled Harry.
She jumped, startled by the sudden sound of Harry's voice. "Harry! You scared me. I'm just reading ahead in our Muggle Studies book. It's amazing what sort of things Muggles have." She looked around for a moment. "Where's Ron?" Harry squinted back toward the stairs. "Honestly Harry! Use your glasses! That's what they are made for!"
Harry shrugged and placed his glasses the bridge of his nose. He looked once more at the stairs. "I guess Ron is still upstairs. He had another one of those spider nightmares."
Ron appeared at the top of the steps, the bags under his eyes were apparent even from the bottom of the steps. Hermione tried to hide a snicker as Ron walked down the stairway.
"Have a nice sleep Ron?" asked Hermione with a laugh.
"Don't start it Hermione," he groaned.
"Hey Ron ready for Christmas break?" asked Harry loudly not wanting a fight to break out between Ron and Hermione especially this early in the morning.
Ron's eyes grew ten times bigger. The key phrase to wake up Ron was Christmas break. "Yea of course Harry! It starts tomorrow! I don't want to get another sweater from mum," he complained.
"I'll be with Sirius this Christmas. I think Professor La Dai is going to be with us too," Harry explained.
"Bloody hell mate. You couldn't pay me enough to be there with a professor! Especially her!"
Hermione jerked her head from her book and glared at Ron. "Just because you have a problem with authority doesn't mean you can go around saying how bad teachers are!"
"Let's go eat!" exclaimed Harry before Ron could argue a bit more with Hermione. His two friends got up and followed Harry to the Great Hall.
When the three arrived at the Great Hall they saw all their friends sitting round the tables. Then they looked at the faculty table. Sirius was waving them over.
"I guess Sirius needs to tell us something," they swerved in and out through passing students to the table.
All the teachers were sitting at the table. Sirius was between Remus and Maria. Next to Remus there was Siera and then Severus. He remained silent though. Sirius was so excited that he could barely stay still.
"Harry! Molly and Arthur think I'm unable to make a proper Christmas dinner so the Weasleys are going to be spending break with us!" he exclaimed.
Hermione smirked at Ron. "I guess you will be spending Christmas with her Ron."
"This is going to be one holiday to remember. Let's see it will be you, me, Maria, Ron, Molly, Arthur, Ginny, Fred, George, Remus, Siera and Hermione if you want to come," Sirius listed excitedly.
"As much as I would love to Sirius, I really miss my mum and dad. Thank you for the offer," Hermione said politely.
"Hey what about Charlie, Bill, and Percy?" Ron asked.
"Molly owled me today saying they already had plans."
Siera looked down the table a coughed to get Sirius's attention. "Sirius, I'm going to stay here for break. Thanks for the offer but I'm really behind on my lesson plans."
Without anyone looking, Maria raised her hands as in asking Siera silently if everything was all right. Siera nodded and continue eating her eggs.
Remus chimed in for the first time today," I'm going to stay here." He left it at that. No one questioned why.
"Ok then. We're still going to have a lot of bloody fun!" Sirius grinned.
"Not thatmuch fun Sirius," stated Maria. "I refuse to spend my first Christmas with you cleaning up your messes."
"Then I advise you not to go Maria," laughed Remus.
Sirius cocked his head as everyone surrounding him laughed. "You two are knocking all the holiday cheer out of me."
"See you later Sirius," waved the trio. They walked to the Gryffindor table.
"Your going to have a splendid time Ron," said Hermione rubbing it in as much as possible.
He looked as if he was going to puke. "You don't think they will be snogging the whole time do you?" asked Ron timidly.
"Ron! That's awful. No more!" yelled Harry trying to block the picture of his godfather and Professor kissing.
"Hurry up and eat Ron. We have Potions first class," said Hermione eating a few bites of egg.
"This day just gets better and better!" Ron said sarcastically.
Neville over heard the three's conversation and thought he should comment. The dark haired boy leaned in, looking straight at Ron. "You should really try chanting things, Ron. If you think about it enough it should happen. Just say "better day better day." Neville got up from the table then tripped over a passing second year.
Ron cocked his eyebrow. "Is he mental or what?"
The three inhailed a couple of bites of food then headed straight for Potions. When they entered the room it felt as if things were crawling all over them. Even if Harry had been there for six years it still bothered him. The cold, damp, dark room had cauldrons at every set of tables. Harry and Ron sat at one table while Hermione shared a table with Neville. The boys chatted for a minute before a black storm strolled through the classroom. Professor Snape might not be fashionable or charming or any other polite word but he was graceful. He sat down at his desk and began to speak.
"Turn to page six hundred and sixty six. We will be going over antidotes," a few girls giggled when Snape told them to turn to page six hundred and sixty six. Ron found it very funny. " Thirty points are deducted from Gryffindor for not being able to suppress their laughter. I also want Potter and Weasley to write a two foot essay on what is an antidote and how to make one."
"Professor! Harry didn't do anything!" yelled Ron.
"Did I ask you Weasley? Due first thing next class!" Snape exclaimed.
That class along with the other classes went slower than usual. It was probably because of holiday break starting tomorrow. Even Defense Against The Dark Arts with Remus was slow. Divination was horrible. Harry's death was predicted at least four times. Then the last class was Muggle Studies. Professor Scarlet had not been in a very good mood for the past weeks. Everyone knew it had to do with Professor Hesaro but they not dare say anything in fear that house points would be deducted.