The next day, Harry woke up early so he decided to go down into the common room until Ron and Hermione woke up. He was glad that he and Ron weren't fighting anymore. Ron was one of the only real friends that he had. Harry sat down in a chair and looked at the fire. He could remember Sirius's face in that fire... why'd he have to die? Him of all people! He never did anything to deserve that. If he was here everything would be easier, Harry thought. He stared at the fire, the memory of what happened in the ministry was playing over and over again in his head...
"Harry?" Ginny said from behind him. Harry jumped and looked behind him. "Oops, sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." She sat down in the chair next to him and looked at the fire. "What you looking at?"
"The fire."
"Oh... Why are you up so early?" Harry shrugged.
"Guess I couldn't sleep."
"Guess?" Ginny said. She turned around and looked at the stairs that led up to the dormitories. "Uh oh. Lover 1 and lover 2 at twelve o'clock. I should get going before Ron finds another reason to yell at me." She got up and ran past Ron and Hermione and to her dormitory.
"Geeze she's jumpy." Hermione said. The two of them sat in the same chair Ginny had been in. Harry just kept staring at the fire. Now he was thinking about what could have been if Sirius wouldn't have died... maybe the Order could have let him stay at Grimmauld Place all summer, instead of being dragged to a weird place where he got attacked by demons. Why had Lupin made him stay there? And where the heck had he been since then? Well, you could ask him, he told himself. Good idea. Harry got up and went toward the portrait hole.
"Where are you going?" Ron asked.
"Gotta write a letter." Harry said as he was stepping out into the hallway. The halls were completely empty; not many people were up yet, especially on the first day of classes. He walked as quickly as he could to the owlery and found Hedwig. "Come here. I've got a letter for you to take." Hedwig flew onto his shoulder, and Harry set her on the window seal while he wrote a quick letter to Remus. He tied it to her leg. "Hurry back." he said as she flew away. Then he turned and walked back to the common room. Now there were a lot of students in the hallways, most of them walking toward the Great Hall for breakfast. Harry had to push over a few first years to get back into the common room. He grabbed his books and followed Ron and Hermione to breakfast.
"You know what?" Ron said as he was looking at their schedule. "You think they'd give us a break. We have a double period with Snape for our first class. Then Trelawney. (sp?) Geeze it's like they want us to have the worst first day ever."
"Well I have Arythmancy second." Hermione said. "I'm so glad I dropped out of that class."
"I think I might drop out of it too." Harry said. "I'd rather have Snape for the whole day than have to sit through one class of her predicting how I'm going to die."
"You're going to talk to Dumbledore about the DA anyway, so why don't you just drop out then? You can take Arythmancy with me." Hermione said
"I wouldn't take Arythmancy, but I will get out of that class. Maybe I could ask McGonnagal. I have to take with her about quidditch."
"What's to talk about?" Ron asked. "Umbridge is gone so you're on the team. Too bad Fred and George graduated though. Our new beaters suck."
"Yeah but I should still talk with her. We have her before dinner, so I'll do it after class." The bell rang and all of the Gryffindor and Slytherin 6th years headed for the donjon. (sp? - lol I can't spell anything.) Harry and Ron stood against the wall, and Harry looked over at Malfoy. "He hasn't said anything to me yet." Harry thought out loud.
"Who?" Ron asked,
"Malfoy. He hasn't said one thing to me yet."
"He's probably just waiting for a good chance to really tick you off." The door opened and the students filed into Snape's classroom. Harry, Ron, and Hermione took the same table they always had. "Where's Snape?" Ron asked. "You don't think he really did get the DADA job?"
"He didn't because whoever would have ended up teaching this class wouldn't want to be in a donjon." Hermione said. Snape's office door opened and he stepped into the classroom. "See." Hermione said.
"Yeah yeah enough." Ron said. Snape started talking about some kind of potion that did something, but Harry wasn't really listening. Maybe I can drop out of this class too, Harry thought. Eventually, after two very long periods, the students got up and walked to their next class.
"He didn't say anything either." Harry pointed out. Ron shrugged and kissed Hermione as she went into the Arythmancy classroom. Harry turned and walked toward Dumbledore's office.
"Where are you going?" Ron asked
"I said I wasn't going to sit through that class, and I'm not going to."
"Well then I'm getting out of it too." They walked up to the entrance of Dumbledore's office, which was guarded by a statue.
"Sherbet lemon." Harry tried, but it didn't move. "Fizzing whisbees? Bumblebee?"
"Move out of our way." Ron said
"Socks?" Harry tried again, and the statue moved.
"Socks?" Ron asked. Harry shrugged and they went up the stairs. Harry knocked on the office door.
"Come in Mr. Potter." they heard from inside.
"How's he know it was you?" Ron asked.
"Dunno." Harry pushed open the door and walked in.
"I thought you would want to get out of Professor Trelawney's class, and I understand why. Do you want to get out of it too, Mr. Weasley?" Ron nodded. "Which classes would you like to take in place of it?"
"Arythmancy." Ron said. Harry laughed. "What? I actually might be interested in it."
"Yeah sure." Harry said.
"Very well." Dumbledore said. He handed Ron a note. "Go there now and take this to the professor."
"That's it?" Ron asked.
"Yes that's it. For other classes I wouldn't let students change so easily, but in this case you can defiantly change." Ron turned and left. "Will you be going to Arythmancy too, Harry?"
"Umm... no, but I don't know where else I could go."
"Well there is Arythmancy... and Muggle Studies... or you could go to the study period in the library. You'd be with the 5th and 4th years though."
"Yeah I'll go there." Harry said, and he took the note from Dumbledore and headed for the library.

Harry handed his note to the librarian. "Very well. Sit down and be quiet." Harry turned and looked for a seat.
"Harry. Harry. Over here." Ginny whispered. He sat down across from her. "Why're you here?"
"I got out of Divinations."
"Lucky." She stood up and pulled his arm. "Come over here." Harry followed her all the way to the back of the library. "She can't hear us back here. Why'd you come here? Aren't there any other classes to take?"
"Yeah there are, but none of them sound very interesting."
"You're so lucky that you got out of there. I think I'm going to die this year if I have to sit through her class." She started looking for a book.
"Ron got out too."
"Where did he go?"
"Arythmancy."
Ginny laughed. "Figures. He'll probably be completely lost in that class, and then he'll beg Hermione for help, and of course she'll let him copy. Not like she could help anyone else. I asked her how hard the OWLS were, and she told me to stop being a whiney brat and go away."
"She said that?"
"Yeah, but I think she's taken Ron's side on this whole ignore Ginny thing, so maybe that's why. Where is it?" She said as she continued to dig through the shelf.
"What are you looking for?" she handed him a piece of paper that said 'Everything You Need to Know About Transfiguration' and the place where it was at.
"I figured it could help me a little. I'm horrible in Transfigurations, and it's not going to get any easier this year. I had it first thing today."
Harry stepped back and looked at the shelf. "Here it is." He pulled it off and handed it to her.
"Thanks. We better get back up there before the librarian starts looking for us." They walked back to their table, and Harry helped Ginny with her Transfiguration work the rest of the period.

Later that day, after Transfigurations was over, Harry went up to Professor McGonagall's desk. Ron and Hermione waited for him outside. "Yes Mr. Potter?" McGonagall said.
"I was wondering if I'll be allowed to play quidditch this year."
"Of course. Which reminds me... Mr. Weasley please come back in here." Ron walked into the classroom and to the desk.
"Yes?"
"What would be a good night for us to have a meeting?" she asked them.
"You're asking us?" Ron asked.
"Well one of you has to be the captain. We'll be voting to make it democratic and all that of course. So which night would be okay?"
Harry looked at Ron. "Umm... I guess Saturday would be okay." Ron nodded.
"Alright, Saturday evening it is. You can go now boys." They turned and walked out into the hallway and toward the Great Hall.
"So how'd it go?" Hermione asked.
"Harry you better be the captain because I can't." Ron said.
"Oh come on Ron, why not?" Hermione asked.
"Because... well... I dunno, but I can't. I can't handle all of that."
Harry nodded. He had wanted to be the captain, but between the DA meetings and Occulmency... Harry sighed. He had forgotten to ask Dumbledore about that. And did he really need Occulmency anymore? He hadn't had a bad dream all summer. They sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"So are you going to be the captain?" Ron asked.
"No."
"But -"
"Ron, I have enough to do already. I don't need to be making up plays too."
"But-"
"Ron, drop it." Hermione said. "He does have enough to do. Besides, you always wanted to be the captain, so why don't you take it?"
"Yeah I did but... now that I have the chance I really don't want to." Ron explained.
"We'll figure something out." Harry said.