A/N: Well there is a little hint of Ginny and Draco sub text there. We'll have to see where that goes. And Oh that Hermione! Be nice, girl. The git deserved it though. And poor Harry didn't say much, did he. Oh well there's plenty more to say. Hopefully chapter 2 will be better than chapter 1
Chapter 2
Back to Class
The next day at breakfast was a nervous one. It was loaded with tons of silent treatment and dirty looks. Hermione was once again not speaking to Ron and would occasionally glare across the table at him between a jug of pumpkin juice and a plate of muffins. Harry tried not to laugh but her face look incredible funny with its narrows eyes and pursed lips between these two humble objects. Ginny, Harry assumed, had decided to steer clear of Ron at all possible expenses. He didn't blame her. Even though he knew Ron was genuinely sorry, Harry had never seen him blow up at her like that and thought he would be terrified too if it had happened to him. Ron was staring silently into his eggs and picking at them rather then putting them into his mouth. Harry tried to play peacemaker between Hermione and Ron but with little success. Soon Professor McGonagall was heading briskly up the aisle between the benches to hand out class schedules. Because of NEWT classes Harry and Ron, for once, were not in every single class together. Hermione commented that it would be beneficial for them to be forced to learn for themselves for once. She was answered with a "Who asked you?" from Ron and returned to the silent treatment and glares. Harry had NEWT Defense Against the Dark Arts first and decided to head out just to get away from the tense situation.
"I hope this year's new teacher is better then that troll Umbridge," Ron said as Harry started to get up. " You can't really tell just from looks these days."
Just as they were about to look over at the staff table Draco passed them and blocked their view. Interested in what he could possible be doing at THEIR table and not with his friends, they watched him make his way down the row. They were all surprised (Ron was furious) to see that he stopped where Ginny was sitting. He tapped her on the shoulder then sat down right next to her after she motioned her friends to move, which they did with out her saying anything.
"AH! He is totally flirting with her!" Hermione whispered panicked to the boys "Like I mean really flirting!"
"He is?" The boys asked.
Hermione banged her head on the table. "Ow...What am I going to do with you two. You are absolutely helpless! (A/N: I have no idea why but I am reminded of Mandy. Cheers!) You Ok, let's just hope that they don't go any farther."
"They better not go any farther," Ron fumed. "Oh...look who's talking again."
"What? Oh yeah. Look, I'm sorry I blew up like that. I was just mad. I knew that you didn't mean what you said to her but you know how it is when you feel like someone is attacking your friend, especially someone who normally wouldn't. Can you forgive me?" Hermione asked.
"Yes. I'm sorry too."
They hugged. Harry, feeling slightly awkward, said he was going to go to class rather loudly to get them to stop.
"Thanks, girl," Ron said.
"No problem, but you should probably go and do likewise for Ginny. Um...even if you guys weren't mad at each other, I would still suggest it. Look."
The flirting had progressed drastically.
"Bye!" Ron called walking briskly down the aisle.
Harry and Hermione decided to leave this one to Ron and exited the hall together. They made their way into the Entrance Hall, went up the staircase to the right and headed towards Defense Against the Dark Arts. They walked a little faster than normal because they were curious to see who their new teacher was. They walked into the class and the few people that had already arrived greeted them warmly. Harry sat down on one side of Seamus Finnegan and Hermione on the other. They made small talk while others filed in until the teacher came in then everyone shut up. She was a woman, again, but much better looking, and as far as Harry could tell much better tempered than Umbridge. She certainly was much younger than Umbridge. Actually Harry was surprised to see that she was probably in her mid twenties. She was a very beautiful woman with a light complexion. Her dark brown hair had a soft wave in it, came to the middle of her back and was pulled into a half ponytail. Her attire was another story because she wasn't wearing the traditional robes everyone was so used to. She was wearing a new style of robes that was really more like a dress robe. It was fitted and the sleeves were also so with a slight flare at the end. Their books for this year were also different (again). They had A Practical Book of Defensive Spells by Darby Hammond. Harry was excited by the name because it sounded like the class would be a lot of hands on type of stuff, which is exactly what Harry was hoping for.
The class, who had been whispering, quieted down because she had started to take roll. Once she had finished she waved her hand and her name appeared on the board. "Professor Hammond" There was more chatter due to the relation of her name to the name on the book. (A/N: who would've thunk)
"Good morning people," she began. "My name is Professor Hammond, and no, before any hands start going up, my name is not Darby, I am not a man and I did not write the textbook." The class laughed, "Actually my name is Tara and the man who wrote the textbook is my father. Yes I know you are all thinking I have an accent and as if talking strange isn't bad enough I was also named after a mound 'o dirt in a book." Several people laughed including Hermione and Harry, the rest just looked puzzled. "And if you have no idea what I am talking about it's alright. However, to all you muggle studies students, I highly recommend Gone with the Wind for your next novel study, it's an excellent book. Now on to our lesson." There were several groans from the crowd. " Hold on, I'm not finished explaining yet. I hate diving right into intense notes because I am not a mindless teaching machine. I do have a life and I hated taking notes when I was in school." Little sighs of relief echoed throughout the room. "I always hated when my teachers made us start learning things as soon as we sat down. So we are all going to have a seat..." She waved her hand and all the desks turned into comfy chairs. "And talk about what you all did over summer holidays and what you want to accomplish this year." Hermione's hand had been straining in the air the whole time. "Ah, Miss Granger I have heard good things about you. Yes, what would you like?"
"Um Professor Hammond, shouldn't we start this years studies so we don't fall be- Ow!" Harry had jabbed her very hard in the arm.
"Shut up!" he said through clenched teeth. "For once we aren't going to have to work our butts off on the first day."
"But Harry," Hermione whispered. "We really shou-faud eu faub!" Harry had slammed his hand over Hermione's mouth
"It's nothing Professor, She's just a little over enthusiastic about her studies."
"Oh that's wonderful but for now I think a little relaxation will do."
They all took a seat in one of the many squishy chairs and waited for what other strange things were going to happen. First they got the Professor Hammond biography that turned out to be quite interesting. She was from New Zealand and had finished Dannot Academy for Young Witches and Wizards in Cobar, Australia, eight years ago. Then she had gone to Wizardry Secondary School in London for defense and education for four years and after that had gone home for two years to get practical experience. After that she had come back to England and worked for the Ministry of Magic as a consultant of some sort. After the whole story was over the class received the "class expectations" which were very reasonable and fair (according to Harry.) Finally they did something that Harry couldn't remember any of his teachers doing, they talked about what the class wanted to do for the year. Several people immediately asked if they would be taking notes for a majority of the year. To their relief and to Harry's delight, she said that there would be a lot of practical work and maybe a few field trips, so to speak, if she could squeeze them in. There was an instant buzz of excitement at all the possibilities of what they would do. The whole class was talking excitedly and having a relatively good time considering what class they were in and all the experiences from last year. Then, to everyone's surprise, the bell rang and class ended. They had been having so much fun that they didn't realize what time it was.
Harry and Hermione exited the class where they expected to meet up with Ron at the end of the hall. Ron however was not there and it didn't take Harry and Hermione long to jump to conclusions. They made a left at the bottom of the next stairs instead of their usual right and headed for Professor McGonagall's office. They knocked and weren't surprised when they poked their heads in the door and saw Ron with ice on his knuckles and Draco with more ice on his mouth and a handkerchief to his nose. It took Harry and Hermione about half a second to realize what had happened. McGonagall was nowhere to be seen, so they rushed over to Ron.
"What happened?" Harry insisted.
"Well I..." Ron began.
"Please, spare us the details," Hermione droned rolling her eyes.
"Well," Ron continued through clenched teeth. "This animal was coming on to Ginny, and when I tried to defend her honor the coward tried to walk away."
Draco again became very tense and stared shaking. The others failed to notice.
"When I made it stand up to what it had done, the animal shoved me so I punched it," Ron finished. " The thing didn't have enough guts to be a man."
Ron had barely finished those mortal ten words when Draco flew out of his chair, grabbed Ron by the neck and threw him on the ground, punching him in the stomach. About two seconds later Professors McGonagall, Snape, Dumbledore and Madame Pomfrey walked in the room to find Draco and Ron at each other's throats (again), and Harry and Hermione trying desperately to pry Draco off of Ron without getting killed themselves. After the dust had settled the two boys had been wrenched apart and the punishment had been distributed the losses stood as follows: Draco had a black eye, bloody nose, swollen lip countless bruises, fifty points from Slytherin and two weeks of detention. Ron had bruised ribs, swollen knuckles, a loose tooth, a twisted ankle, fifty points from Gryffindor and also two weeks of detention. Harry and Hermione had five points each from Gryffindor for snooping around where they should not have been and for interfering in a dilemma that was not theirs. Ron and Draco were taken to the hospital wing with a teacher escort (for obvious reason...Madame Pomfrey didn't want to take them herself) for repairs. Harry and Hermione were promptly told to get back to class and to mind their own business from now on by a very frazzled Professor McGonagall.
"But Ron is our business," Harry tried to argue as she slammed the door in their faces.
" I just don't understand why Ron is acting this way?" Hermione puzzled as they exited the castle to make their way to the greenhouses for Herbology. "He's been it such weird moods lately."
They reached Greenhouse Four just in time to see Professor Sprout performing a demonstration dissection on what looked like a rather shriveled up, slimy beet type thing. Harry and Hermione's mind were far from the dissection up in the third lowest tower on the left wing of the castle with Ron who was sitting on a bed in the hospital wing.