"What's up with you two? You look so tired," Harry asked Kelly and Hermione. Indeed, they looked as though they'd been up all night.
"We were up talking most of the night," Kelly confirmed, trying to stifle a yawn.
"What could take that long to talk about?" Ron asked, perplexed.
"Lots of stuff, Ron," Hermione said sleepily. "Now be quiet."
Ron rolled his eyes at her and started piling food onto his plate. He'd barely started on his hash browns when the owls arrived with the morning mail. It took Hermione a full minute to realize she had mail.
"Oh…" she said and yawned. "I forgot. I order the Daily Prophet." She paid the annoyed delivery owl a knut and unfolded the newspaper. She hid behind her newspaper for a couple minutes and when she looked up, the sleepiness had gone and a triumphant smile was present.
"What are you so happy about?" Kelly asked dully. She, it seemed, had not yet found a motivation to be anything but tired.
"Oh, I never told you!" Hermione exclaimed as though this was the best thing she'd ever said. She lowered her voice to a whisper that Harry, Ron, and Kelly had to lean in to hear. "I found out something about Rita Skeeter."
Kelly suddenly looked wide-awake. "The ex-Daily Prophet reporter? The one who did that article about Harry and the night Voldemort returned?"
Ron, luckily, didn't have anything in his mouth at the time. "Be quiet!" he hissed.
Hermione ignored him, though Kelly looked a little concerned at him.
"Anyway, I found out," Hermione put on an air of triumph as she continued, "that Rita Skeeter is really an unregistered Animagus!"
Kelly, unfortunately, wasn't so lucky. Having just taken a sip of pumpkin juice, it came flying out of her mouth in disbelief and landed all over Ron.
"Oh, Ron, I'm so sorry!" Kelly apologized. "Scourgify!" She continued to Hermione. "Rita Skeeter is an Animagi?"
"Yes! She can turn into a cockroach. I found out and told her that if she wrote anything for a year unless I asked her to, I'd spill the beans on her! And here's her first article back at the paper, and she hasn't made anything bad about them!"
"Lemme see," Harry asked. Hermione gave him the paper and he unfolded it.
MINISTRY'S PROTECTION GUIDE
Late yesterday evening, the Ministry of Magic produced its first guide to self-protection, writes Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter. Nicknamed M.P.G., it is available at the Ministry of Magic and other magical locations (St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, etc.).
"This guide will be a great help to everyone who reads it," says Rob Derveys of the department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. "The Ministry's been working on it for months. It's a very big packet and should help the modern witch or wizard in defense."
"Looks like they're not letting her do much," Harry said, staring at the short article.
"No, not yet. Soon, she'll writing big, nasty articles about people, and I'll tell on her. Mind you, I'm not too keen on relinquishing that weapon. It can come in handy, like it did with that article for The Quibbler," said Hermione.
At that moment, McGonagall came over with their schedules for the day and handed them around, forcing them to drop the conversation. "Miss Damen, I'm sure someone can show you to your classes."
"Oh, we can!" said Hermione with delight.
"Thanks," Kelly said, smiling.
They took their schedules and Hermione scanned hers with glee while Ron groaned as he looked at his.
"Transfiguration already! Ooh, this is excellent!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Double Potions? That's excellent?" Ron asked her.
"One dark cloud on a day full of sunshine!" Hermione said.
Ron looked up at the sky, then looked at Hermione with raised eyebrows. The sky couldn't have looked grayer unless it was black.
"Come on. We've got Transfiguration first, and McGonagall will kill us if we're late," Harry said, standing up and leaving his bacon behind.
"We don't have Transfiguration for another fifteen minutes!" Ron groaned. "Don't put me in classes before I need to be in them."
"We have to show Kelly around," Harry said. "What's your schedule say, Kelly?"
"Er…" Kelly looked her schedule over. "Transfiguration, double Potions, lunch, then double Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"You're taking all the same classes I am!" Ron said. He snatched her schedule from her and read down through her entire week's schedule. "Harry, she's got the same schedule we have for the whole week!"
"Okay," Harry said, taking Kelly's schedule and handing it back to her. "Fantastic. Now, c'mon. We've got ten minutes left, and if we're lucky, we can show her Defense Against the Dark Arts and see who the new teacher is."
"Have you heard anything at all about the new teacher?" Hermione asked as she stood, scanning the staff table. There was definitely no new face. "Dumbledore didn't mention it last night during the announcements."
"I haven't," Harry said, beckoning her to follow them out of the Great Hall.
"We'll find out after lunch, if we can't get by there," Ron said, shrugging as they left.
They walked up the flights of stairs, pointing out classrooms as they went. They stopped to chit chat with Professor Flitwick with whom they had such a long chat that they only had three minutes to get to Transfiguration.
"Bye, Professor!" they called as they hurried out of the Charms classroom.
They arrived in Transfiguration just before the bell rang. They took their seats and looked up at McGonagall, who was watching Dean and Seamus duel with their wands like swords. A moment later, however, Dean's tip became a rubber duck and Seamus' entire wand became furry.
"Accio! Accio!" McGonagall summoned the two fake wands into her hand. "A creation you bought from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, no doubt," she said, examining them. "Truly ingenious…"
Ron grinned at Harry, and Harry leaned in towards Ron. "I didn't hear anything about Fred and George's competition this summer," he whispered. "Did you?"
Ron grinned. "Dr. Filibuster is out of business, so I know they're okay."
Harry nodded and returned to McGonagall, who was now talking about what they would be doing today. "…I think you're ready. Now, transforming your desks into swans is not an easy task. Those who just scraped it into my N.E.W.T. class will have great difficulty with this, I'm sure."
Harry saw Neville—who had apparently just scraped it into the N.E.W.T. Transfiguration—gulp nervously. Harry returned his attention to McGonagall.
"…two circles with your wand going clockwise, then say 'Martier Dramit', and make sure to roll the 'r' in 'Dramit'. First, I'd like you all to show me the wand movement…."
Harry picked up his wand and made two circles going clockwise as McGonagall walked about the room.
"No, no, Finnigan, not that big… no, not that small… there. Longbottom, clockwise. That means going to the right…." McGonagall reproved. "All right, Miss Granger, show me…."
Hermione did two perfect clockwise circles.
"Excellent!" McGonagall approved. "Mr. Weasley?"
Ron's circles were too big twice, and then in aggravation he made them microscopic. After correcting his, McGonagall turned to Harry. "Potter?"
Harry did two clockwise circles that were too small. After spending several moments correcting his, McGonagall went on to Kelly. After looking around, it seemed Hermione was the only person McGonagall hadn't corrected. The circles had to be precise, as it seemed.
"Perfect!" McGonagall exclaimed. "Excellent, Miss Damen."
Harry and Ron goggled at her, but Hermione just gave her an encouraging smile. "I knew you could do it!" she exclaimed.
"Great," Ron muttered so that only Harry could hear. "Another Hermione…"
The bell rang half an hour later and Hermione, predictably, and Kelly were the only people to have made decent progress. Both of their desks were now white, though Hermione's had grown wings and Kelly's had grown a beak that made an awful racket. The rest of them had managed very little. Neville did make his grow webbed feet, though his desk walked off, so McGonagall didn't give him much credit.
"Homework is to practice this spell. I want sufficient progress made by Wednesday!" McGonagall ordered, dismissing the class.
"And now, Kelly, you are about to experience our favorite subject in the world," Ron said with marked sarcasm. "Potions."
Kelly smiled. Harry packed his things, and he and Ron walked out ahead of Hermione and Kelly, who were discussing the Transfiguration assignment behind them. They reached the dungeons too soon for Harry's liking. The Slytherins were there, and all were eyeing Kelly. She was new, and for all they knew was nearly put in Slytherin.
Malfoy wasn't among the present Slytherins, but in moments they heard his drawling voice echoing off the walls.
"…yes, so that's what he said. Of course, mother didn't know too much about the subject… for the better I guess…"
Malfoy spotted Kelly and eyed her with interest. He walked up to her and held out his hand, just as he had done to Harry. "Hello, you are…?"
"Kelly Damen," Kelly said before anyone could answer for her.
"Hello, Kelly, my name's--"
"Draco Malfoy," Kelly cut in. "I know."
Malfoy stared at her, his hand still outstretched.
"I know your father," Kelly explained.
Several people stirred as they heard this statement. Everyone now knew that Lucius Malfoy was Death Eater, and several whispers started.
"Know?" Malfoy asked, and a slight smirk spread across his face.
Kelly smirked back. "Know."
"Inside, all of you!" someone barked behind them, making everyone jump.
Snape had just opened the doors into his classroom and was looking white, yet livid. "It's time for class to begin!"
A/N:
BUM BUM BUM…. Yeah. So suspiciousness! Meh, I needed to edit this thing. I got all sad because I just saw the newest episode of Teen Titans with Terra stoned, and I'm all… sad, I think. I mean, she really made me mad (-STABS TERRA-), but then at the end there… and now I dunno what to think…. And you're probably thinking I'm lame to even WATCH Teen Titans. Well I DON'T CARE! Teen Titans is the best show ever. Then comes Boy Meets World. I am SO buying the seasons when they come out.
Next chapter, what've we got going on? -checks- -gasp- So we finish Potions (bah), then Ron pushes the "knowing" thing and we get Kel's response on that. Then… -BUM BUM BUM, SUSPENSFUL MUSIC- … the new DADA teacher! And she's satanic, lemme tell ya. (-stabs new DADA teacher more than she stabs Terra-) I was kinda villainless and DADA-teacherless, so I came up with this mad idea (which really isn't so mad by the end of the Fic). It's lame, it's psycho, and it's so INFURIATING! -stabs DADA teach- -again- Don't stone me like Terra, just imagine it as another complication in Harry's life. Even though you don't see the DADA teach very much. But she's there, and she's… actually, she puts more stress on Kel's life than anyone else's… especially since.... I'M GIVING AWAY PLOT! -silences self-
A silent thankx,
A silent Riles