Chapter 9

Trouble in Hogsmeade

The bell rang again and Harry and Roxanne separated. She had Defence Against the Dark Arts and he had Charms. Inside the classroom the teacher was sitting behind the desk.

"Could you all please sit alphabetically by your first names as I have a really bad short term memory and I would hate to forget all your names. You can change after the first few weeks," she said, smiling. She was very tall and slim and wore a plain; figure hugging black dress and a light blue pointed hat. She looked very young. Her dark blue eyes showed warmth behind her glasses.

Pansy sat on Roxanne's left while a boy sat at her right.

"Thank you! Now, my name is Professor Scota. I used to go to this school when I was younger. I left in my fifth year and moved to Southern Ireland. Anyone in here from Ireland?"

A few people put their hands up, including Roxanne.

Professor Scota beamed at them. She then cleared her throat and looked very serious.

"For the next month or so, Professor Dumbledore as asked me to teach you things to you should have learned in fifth year. I heard the last teacher was somewhat inadequate," she added delicately.

"If you mean inadequate as in crap then yeah, she was!" said Marilee. Everybody laughed, even Professor Scota.

"What house were you in when you were here?" asked Malfoy.

"Ravenclaw. The Sorting Hat took about five minutes to decide between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor," she said, chortling at the embarrassing memory.

"Anyway – as I was saying. We are going to practise duelling for a while, as due to certain events it is the law to know how to duel," she said, frowning. "But lets hope you never have to use such skills."

"Please pair up with someone you think is as educated as you at this."

Malfoy stood next to Roxanne, smirking at her.

"Would you leave me alone?" she hissed.

"Everybody have a partner? Good…"

Professor Scota evidently was a very skilled dueller and the students left the class as they had entered. No burn marks, cuts or bruises – but their heads were full of knowledge they had never known before. Luckily they had changed partners twenty minutes into the class.

Roxanne checked her timetable and nearly squealed with delight as she saw the next lesson. Care of Magical Creatures. Not only did she love learning about animals but also they were with the Gryffindors.

"Hullo Roxanne," said Ron and Hermione as they made their way down to Hagrid's hut.

"I can't believe this oaf is still teaching," said Malfoy loudly.

"What you gonna do? Tell you dad?" sneered Ron.

"Unless you want a red face to match your hair, Weasley, I'd shut up with I were you," he said.

Ron opened his mouth to retort but Hagrid interrupted.

"Follow me!" Hagrid bellowed.

They walked so far around the perimeter of the forest that the castle and the lake were out of sight. The class gasped as they all caught sight of three small creatures spitting fire inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood. Harry recognised it as the place he had seen the Hungarian Horntail in fourth year.

"Oh Hagrid," Hermione moaned softly.

The creatures were dragons, about five feet tall and hissing viciously. There was a silvery blue one with long pointed horns who was simply staring at everyone. A scarlet one with a fringe of glinting gold spikes around its pointy face and a dark green one with a long, spiky tail. They were all harnessed securely to the fence but the class still surged backwards a metre or two.

But unlike the rest of the class, Roxanne found them magical and breathtaking.

"That silver one there is a Swedish Short-Snout, then the red one's a Chinese Fireball and the Emerald Hibernian," said Hagrid, bursting with pride. "All still yunguns, its hard to tame dragons, ye see, but easier if ye start 'em from hatchlings."

"And I thought the Hippogriffs were bad," muttered Malfoy.

"Can I touch one, Hagrid?" pleaded Roxanne.

"If ye know how to," said Hagrid, happy that someone shared his love for dragons.

Hagrid climbed over the fence and walked towards the smallest one, the Swedish Short-Snout. It looked up at him audaciously but didn't squirm as Hagrid picked it up like you would a snake. It was definitely the youngest one, but still rather menacing. He brought it towards Roxanne who was the only pupil near the fence.

"Ye can stroke it. These ones are tame – compared to the wilduns," he added.

Roxanne reached out a shaking hand and stroked the dragons silver head. It growled softly as if purring and grey smoke poured out of its nostrils. Once they saw Roxanne do this, a few more students walked up to the fence. But Malfoy was the first to stroke a dragon, the Emerald Hibernian. He grinned when the dragon nuzzled his hand affectionately but quickly changed his happy expression when he saw his fellow Slytherins gawping at him.

"The Chinese Fireball and the Swedish two are girls and the Hibernian one's a feller."

"They're quite cute really. In a weird sorta way," said Ron as he stroked the Chinese Fireball, who's scales were nearly the same colour as his hair.

"There gonna be the new Hogwarts guards!" said Hagrid, "but Dumbledore said we could study 'em for a bit. They need names though. Roxanne, would ye like to name 'em?"

"Yeah!" said Roxanne ecstatically. She knew what names to call them straight away. It was like when you plan what you're going to call your children. "I think the red one should be called Orinda, the silvery one Kaida and the green one…Varden."

Roxanne's happy mood continued for the rest of the day. In fact, apart from a few nasty remarks from a headstrong Hufflepuff and a younger Slytherin, the week went very smoothly. She was going to Hogsmeade with Harry and the rest that Saturday. She met up with them outside the Fat Lady's portrait. When they reached Hogsmeade they went into Honeydukes first. They came out with bags of sweets and then went into the Three Broomsticks for a Butterbeer.

"Mmm, Chocolate Butterbeer. Seven please," said Roxanne to Madam Rosmerta. Mark helped her carry then back to their table and they sat down.

"So, Roxanne. How have things been in Slytherin?" asked Ginny, saying the thing everybody wanted to ask.

Roxanne didn't answer for a few seconds, she was thinking of a story.

"Its not that bad. I'm a loner – but hey, it's better than hanging out with them." That was far from the truth. She had been talking with the Slytherins quite a lot. She couldn't help it; they didn't seem all that bad. They just had a really bad reputation, which was unfair. Malfoy was usually with his girlfriend.

"Just tell me if they're giving you any crap. I wanna good reason to smash Malfoy to pulp," said Ron, strangling the air.

A sudden breeze blew in, ruffling everybody's hair. Harry glanced over to whom had entered. Oh no' he thought as Cho and two friends walked in.

"You get the drinks, I've got to talk to someone," Cho said to her two friends. Harry felt himself sink deeper into his chair.

"Hi Harry. 'Em…can I speak to you a moment? Alone," she said to him.

"Yeah…sure," he mumbled in reply. He brought his tankard over to a table in the far corner.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry," she said quickly, "I expected more from you because…well because you had survived and Cedric didn't. And when you didn't do certain stuff or talk about certain things I just felt very disappointed and…well I'm sorry." She gazed at Harry with those soft hazel eyes, waiting for a reply.

What Cho had just said didn't sink in; he was still staring at her perfect oriental complexion and black silky hair…

"Oh um…that's ok. I wasn't really ready for a relationship then. I was too immature," he admitted, laughing awkwardly.

"So, I was kinda wondering if maybe…maybe you wanted to try again?" she said, her voice barely audible.

"Well I'm already going out with…'em…Roxanne," he said, forgetting her name for a second.

"Roxanne Winters?" she repeated, shocked.

Harry nodded, fidgeting nervously.

"B-but you do know about her?"

"Yes. But she's not like her family," said Harry.

Cho looked quite angry.

"How long?"

"Nearly two weeks now," he said, raising his eyebrow. Was Cho jealous?

"Oh…ok. Fine," she muttered. She stood up and put her chair under the table. "I still really like you Harry," she said softly. Then she walked back to her friends.

"What was that about?" asked Ron.

"She just wanted to say sorry for last year," replied Harry. He could feel Roxanne staring at him. Out of all the things he had told her, he had never even mentioned Cho.

Hermione gave Harry a knowing look. She had seen Harry look at her.

"Who was she?" Roxanne asked finally.

"She's on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. She was just apologising for…a Quidditch thing," lied Harry.

Ron frowned. What did Harry have to hide? Before they left the Three Broomsticks, Ron and Hermione dragged Harry into a corner and bombarded him with questions.

"Did she ask you out?"

"Do you still like her?"
"Did you tell Roxanne about her?"

"Did she mention Cedric, again?"

"Yes, yes, no, yes," said Harry, sighing deeply.

"She talked about Ced –?"

"You still like her?" interrupted Hermione, thunderstruck.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Its really none of your business."

"Yes it is. We're your friends, Harry. Who else would you ask for advice?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" snapped Harry.

"Oh…I didn't mean it like that. I meant in school," explained Hermione. Don't you dare go into a feeling-sorry-for-yourself mood again, thought Hermione.

"But you do like Roxanne don't you?" asked Ron.

"Yes! A lot."

"You need to tell her that you used to go out with her."

"I will, don't worry," muttered Harry.