One must write one's thank you's to one's fanfiction friends if one wants to feel loved! Here's what one has to say:

The Spirit Eternal: HIIII! *waves excitedly* thanks for reading my stories, babe! I loved getting the many reviews for "Their Side of the Story" it made me feel like skipping down the street with a pineapple! Well—okay, no pineapples were involved, but I DID skip through my house! Ask my mother she was quite—um—irritated would be a good word in this instance, at my excitedness. hehehe! Oh, sry if you changed your penname and I put down your old one! My buddy Judge told me you changed it, but I never looked! Haven't been on the site in a while. Anyway, when your email gets up, write me! I'll be so happy I just MIGHT go get that pineapple...^.~ No, I'm not cRaZy! Silly people...

Noodlez: THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME I FORGOT TO CLARIFY THE CLAIRE/BETH THING! I'm not smart sometimes ^^;

Everyone Else: You know I love ya! ^^ Must I remind you CONSTANTLY? Jeez, guys, get on the ball! ^.~

Disclaimer: Harry does not belong to me, but my pet kangaroo Skippy does! Hi, Skippy! *waves*

Chapter Three: A Lot to Learn

"WAKE UP, BETHIE!!!! We have CLASS today!!!"

"Ugh...what? No, Claire, go back to bed! It's way too early!"

Beth was obviously exhausted because she had been up very late with Claire, who had spent half the night convincing her that she was from another world where Harry Potter was a book series, and that she could never remember being at Hogwarts before. But by 3 am, Beth really had no choice but not to believe her. But she said she'd help Claire out as much as she could, which was the important thing. If only she would've just believed her to begin with, she could've gone to bed so much earlier!

Claire rolled her eyes at her sleeping friend. It was her first day of classes and she was not about to go back to bed. Falling asleep was hard enough, after all! She kept wondering what they were going to learn today and if she'd be any good at it. She also couldn't wait to meet all the other people in their class. Just thinking about all the young wizards and witches that hadn't been in the books yet that she had a chance to meet sent shivers down her spine. How could Bethie sleep at a time like this?!

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Claire said promptly, causing Bethany's covers to hover three feet above her.

"Not funny, Claire!" Bethie said, making an attempt to grab them. But the sheets simply formed a fist and punched her hand out of the way.

"FINE!" she shouted, giving in and walking over the water basin to wash her face.

"What's with all the screaming?" said the occupant of the bed next to Claire's. She had long, flaming red hair and rubbed her brown eyes in an attempt to kill the drowsiness she felt. Claire felt her stomach flip over.

"GINNY!!" she squealed happily, running over to her bed and hugging her.

"Um—good morning to you too, Claire," Ginny said confused. Then she suddenly groaned, "We have Transfiguration first, don't we?"

"Yep," Bethany said, pulling her hair out of her face with a rubber band. "Rumor has it McGonagall is giving us a pop quiz today. Something about changing a teacup into a crab."

"There's something we really need to know to succeed in life!" Ginny huffed, pulling her robes over her head. "Might as well go down and get some breakfast now that we're all up."

"What about her?" Claire asked, pointing to the blonde-haired girl who was sleeping soundly in the bed on the other side of Bethany.

"Robin? You don't need to worry about her, she'll get up eventually," Bethie said as she tied her shoelace neatly.

"Why aren't we waiting for her, too?" Claire asked, confused.

Ginny stared at her. Bethany looked worried. Obviously, Claire was supposed to know the answer to that question.

"No one ever talks to her," Bethie replied.

"And she doesn't talk to us," Ginny said back, fastening a silver barrette in her hair and grabbing her bag. "C'mon, if we hurry we can get first dibs on all the food!"

Claire excitedly grabbed her bag and followed Bethany and Ginny out of the room, but not without one last look at their sleeping roommate. She looked nice enough, what was so wrong with eating breakfast with her?

At the bottom of the girl's staircase, Ginny stopped abruptly and made a sound that sounded something like "Eeep!!" Claire looked up to see what it was that made her stop, and noticed that Harry was on his way out the portrait hole with Percy right behind him. She giggled.

"You're so great, Ginny," she muttered to herself.

"Eh?" Ginny asked, still blushing and following a fifth year out the portrait hole.

"Nothing!" Claire responded with a grin.

Once they got down to the Great Hall, they chose seats at the Gryffindor table and began devouring a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes, and pumpkin juice.

"J.K. Rowling always make my mouth water whenever she describes what their eating at the feasts," Claire said to Bethany quietly in between shoveling the eggs in her mouth. "Now I finally get to eat one!"

"You're crazy," Bethany replied, pouring the three of them juice as a cloud of owls soared through the hall making their morning deliveries. Claire was very surprised as the little brown and white owl that had visited her the evening before landed on top of her toast and handed her a note that said:

Be at the quidditch pitch tonight at seven. You'll find something very useful there.

"Sweet!" Claire exclaimed. The quidditch field! How amazing was that?!

"I'll come with you," Bethany said, reading the note over her shoulder. Noticing the owl that was now nibbling on her cornflakes, she asked, "Is that supposed to be your owl then?"

"I don't know, but I like the idea!" Claire said, stroking the bird's feathers lovingly. "Can we go to class now?!"

Bethany chugged down the last of her juice and they left the Hall, Claire practically skipping in ecstasy. Once they found the classroom, Claire chose a seat in the very front row, Bethany behind her, eager to start.

"Take your seats, class!" Professor McGonagall said once the majority of them had arrived. "Today I will be giving you a short examination to see how well you retained the spell we used last class. I will give you five minutes to practice."

McGonagall flipped over a small hour glass and everyone scrambled about the room gathering teacups and nervously practicing transforming them into small crabs. Bethany showed Claire how to hold her wand and how to pronounce the spell, and when Beth preformed the spell herself it worked perfectly. She was obviously one of the smarter students in the second year.

"Time to begin the examination!" Professor McGonagall said sternly over the noise. "Back to your seats! We'll begin with you, Miss Woods."

Claire smiled and stood up, concentrating hard on the teacup. She prodded it with the tip of her wand and said, "Scuttilius!"

It worked pretty well, actually, minus the fact that the crab only had three legs (the other was still attached in the shape of the handle, and completely useless to the poor creature) and was still a hideous shade of turquoise.

"I did it!" Claire shouted happily, dancing a bit in jubilation. The class laughed and Bethany sank down a bit in her chair. Claire took no notice. She had just turned a TEACUP into a LIVE ANIMAL, for heaven's sake!

"That spell needs some serious work, Miss Woods," McGonagall responded, writing something on the parchment she'd magicked into the air to keep track of the student's grades. "Mr. Biggs, step up please."

A short boy with light brown hair stood up, pointed at his target, and preformed the spell with no problem. Everyone applauded.

"Well done, Biggs," McGonagall scribbled something on her parchment. "Miss Gregory, you next please."

Claire was aware of an uncomfortable silence in the room. She turned around in her seat and saw that Miss Gregory happened to be Robin from her dormitory. She was sitting in the very back of class in a desk by herself, and also stood up and preformed the spell without flaw.

Claire was the only person who clapped for her.

"I don't understand why no one likes Robin," Claire muttered to Bethany as the room exploded in laughter as Ginny's crab toppled onto the floor do to the fact that two of its legs were only a centimeter long. "She seems very nice to me."

Bethany shrugged. "She's just the crazy one, I suppose. Kinda like Loony Lovegood in Ravenclaw—"

"I love Luna!!!" Claire said excitedly. "She was hilarious in the fifth book—"

"Miss Woods, would you kindly pay attention? Or do I need to take away five points from Gryffindor for you to be quiet?" the professor threatened.

"Oh no, Professor, I'll be quiet! Do you think maybe I could try my spell again, also? Just for grins?" Claire asked quickly.

McGonagall looked stunned. Take the quiz twice? Most students were uncomfortable doing a spell in front of their class to begin with!

"You can do the spell on your own later, Miss Woods," she said simply, calling the next student.

"Please, Professor?" Claire said, raising her hand without waiting to be called on. "I really want to get it right!"

"Five points from Gryffindor," McGonagall said sternly. "I suggest you be quiet, Miss Woods."

Claire was stunned, yet she still smiled. She loved Professor McGonagall, she was such a hard nut to crack, but she really cared about the students. Like in the fifth book when she got hit by those stunning spells! Claire was so afraid she was done for, because the books just wouldn't be the same without her.

"Is something funny, Miss Woods?" asked McGonagall in an aggravated voice. The entire class looked nervously between the two of them. What was Claire playing at? She was going to loose them all their hard earned points if she wasn't careful.

"Oh no, Professor!" Claire said in a perfectly chipper voice. "I'm just very happy today!"

"You'll be very happy serving detention if you do not give your fellow students the courtesy of your silence while they perform their spells for me."

Bethany kicked her and she stopped smiling.

"Wow!" Claire said after stepping out of the classroom. "She really is that intense! I can see why Ron called her an old bat now!"

"Claire, I know you're excited and everything," Bethany said as they made their down the corridor, "but you need to be more careful. You really don't want to make the teacher's angry. Detention isn't a fun event around here."

"I just wanted to try the spell again!" Claire said, twirling her wand between her fingers. "Is that so wrong? Hey look, it's Harry!"

Harry and Ron were on their way up the marble staircase, closely followed by Percy. Claire whipped The Prisoner of Azkaban out of her bag and begin flipping through the pages.

"What are you doing?!" Bethany asked, trying to grab the book out of her hands. "What if someone sees?!"

"Will you relax?" Claire asked politely. "I don't remember what's going on in the story right now! Let's see...okay, here we go. 'The school talked of nothing but Sirius Black for the next few days.' Looks like nothing important is going on except for Percy following Harry around to make sure no one attacks him. I hate Percy, the stupid little—OH MY GOD!"

"What?!" Bethany asked, trying to read over her shoulder.

"The quidditch match against Hufflepuff! It's this weekend!" she said, pointing to the title of the chapter, Grim Defeat.

"Yeah, I know. Why is that so important?" Bethany asked as they walked out the oak front doors and onto the lawn for Herbology.

"Because, this is a perfect opportunity for me to try and fix something!" Claire said, reading the chapter quickly as she walked.

Sirius was coming to that match. Harry was going to see him in the stands, and then the dementors would come, he'd fall of his broom, and pretty boy Diggory was going to catch the Snitch. Surely she could help Harry out a little so he wouldn't lose, right? Maybe that's why she was supposed to go the quidditch pitch tonight...

As they entered green house three, she looked out across the lawn toward the quidditch stadium. Was Padfoot there now, waiting until the next time he could see his godson? The thought felt like a knot in her chest. Perhaps seeing Harry was the only thing keeping him going now...

I'll figure out how to save you, Sirius, she thought. I promise.

[a/n: DUN DUN DAAAAAAaaaa!!! How will Claire save the quidditch match? What's awaiting her at the quidditch field? What's with the mysterious roomy number 4 of her dormitory? Why is the author of this story so crazy? Well, that one we'll never know...but tune in next chapter for everything else! Thanks for reading! Be nice and drop me a review!]