Donna awoke the next morning feeling refreshed, which was a pleasant surprise. Normally her first night in an unknown bed was not nearly this restful. It helped that her mattress felt just right, not too soft but not too hard either. She suspected magic.

It was still fairly early, but she wasn't even the first one awake. That honor went to Hermione, who was sitting up in bed, reading a book. She'd even changed into her school uniform already, although her bushy hair hardly looked as if it had seen a brush.

"Good morning, Hermione."

The only answer she received was a vague hand wave and a turning page. Well, that wouldn't do, now would it? First she took care of her morning ablutions and jumped into her clothes. Then she plopped herself down next to Hermione and plucked the book from her hand.

"I said, good morning, Hermione."

The girl looked up, blinking a bit from refocusing. "Oh, sorry, Donna. I was just rereading Hogwarts: a History. It's just such a fascinating book, don't you think?"

"Not nearly fascinating enough to be reading it at seven in the morning, and certainly not if it's your second read-through."

"Fourth," Hermione corrected her.

"... Really? And you don't know it by heart yet? No, what we need to do something about is your hair."

Hermione's hand lifted up to touch the wild curls. "What's wrong with my hair? It always looks like this, I can't really do much with it."

"There's nothing wrong with it, as such, but... look, being a woman is a fine balancing act. You are beautiful and smart, but you are also so much more than just your looks or your intelligence. All that doesn't mean you can't take some pride in your appearance. Besides, we have magic now."

She looked up when one of their roommates emerged from her bed. "Oh, hi! Parvati, right?" she asked.

"Oh, good morning. Yes, I'm Parvati. Sorry, I don't think I quite caught your name yesterday."

"I'm Donna Noble, this is Hermione Granger. Listen, Parvati. You look like a knowledgeable person. Would you happen to know some kind of charm to tame Goldilocks here?"

Hermione glanced at her. "My hair is brown."

Donna waved the objection away and looked expectantly at Parvati.

Before the girl could answer, another head popped out from between red hangings. "Did someone say hair charms? Hold on, I'm coming over!"

And then there were four girls sitting on Hermione's bed, as Lavender Brown had joined them eagerly. Hermione looked a bit taken aback at the sudden attention. "I... I don't usually put a lot of time into my hair, to be honest."

"It's ok, Hermione. You don't have to turn into some kind of wizarding fashionista, just a couple of judiciously applied charms should do the trick. It'll do wonders for your self-esteem, you'll see."

"Ok then, I guess." The response was less than enthusiastic, but it was good enough for Donna, who turned to the other girls.

"Ladies?"

Lavender and Parvati conferred quickly, but they soon agreed on the right charm, which they taught the other two. Once the charm was applied, Donna braided Hermione's hair. She'd leave her own loose for now, as the charm would make sure it didn't tangle for most of the day.

Snapping a butterfly hairband in place, she regarded her work critically, then nodded in satisfaction. "There, that should hold for a while. Now who's up for some breakfast?"

"Sure," replied Lavender, "but let us get ready first. We only just woke up."

Donna noticed that Hermione walked towards the Great Hall as confidently as she herself did. Somehow, she doubted that the girl had learned to navigate places quite in the same manner, so she was curious how she did it.

She was spared asking the question, since Parvati beat her to it. "We're in the Entrance Hall! How did you do that? We'd've gotten lost for sure."

Hermione shrugged a little awkwardly. "I just sort of remember things easily. That includes the way I've gone before."

So, sort of like an eidetic memory then, although it could just be an unconscious magic thing. "I just paid attention yesterday," she said, to take the attention off Hermione, who seemed a little self-conscious about her good memory. Donna wondered if she was ashamed of it, or if it was just something else that set her apart from her peers.

"Cor, I couldn't have done that, even if I'd paid attention," said Lavender. "The whole way looked different from yesterday."

Donna nodded. "It usually does. I can teach you what to pay attention to, if you want. It's a skill like any other, and this castle is a good place to practice."

The Great Hall, when they entered it, was a lot emptier than last night, although more people were coming in by the minute. Donna spotted Susan and Hannah at the Hufflepuff table, but they were surrounded by people already, so she contented herself with another quick wave. She'd have to catch up with them some time today.

While they were eating, professor McGonagall came around with their schedules. After liberally spreading butter and jam on her toast – real butter too, she noticed, none of that margarine crap that had been marketed as 'healthier' at one point, until it was proven otherwise – she studied the schedule.

Then she looked up at the head table, where most of the staff were present. With a bit of a frown, she looked back down, doing a quick calculation in her head (courtesy of the DoctorDonna, calculations went quite a bit faster than they used to). She found herself wondering how the school managed to run with just one teacher per subject for all seven years. Seemed like there shouldn't be enough hours in a week to make it work. Then she shrugged mentally and decided to chalk it up to magic. They were grown people, they could fight their own battles. She had other things to worry about.

"Hey, Hermione," she said.

The bushy-haired witch looked up from her perusal of the schedule. "Hmm?"

"Didn't you have something to do?"

Hermione looked confused for a moment, until Donna nodded her head towards the place at the Gryffindor table where Harry Potter had sat down, next to the Weasley boy whose name she couldn't remember right now.

"Oh, right." The girl took a deep breath.

"I'll be right next to you. You can even hold my hand if you want."

Hermione laughed. "No thanks, but it's nice of you to offer. Just... don't let my mouth run away with me?"

Donna nodded with a grin. "You got it. Now go apologise."

With another breath, Hermione stood up and walked purposefully over to the two boys. The Weasley was the first one to notice her, and he nudged his friend.

"Hi, Harry. I... uhm... I wanted to say sorry... about yesterday? On the train? Someone pointed out to me that I was being rather insensitive, so... sorry about that."

She hesitated for a moment, as if debating whether to continue, but then she pressed her lips together and nodded once.

Harry looked at her with wide green eyes behind his glasses. Donna thought he looked a bit like a deer caught in headlights, unable to decide which was the safer option, staying or fleeing.

"That... that's alright. Er. Hermione, right?"

The girl nodded, but before she could say anything, a voice drawled behind them.

"Fraternising with the enemy, Potter? I already knew you preferred the company of blood-traitors, but I didn't realise you'd sunk that low."

Donna turned around to coolly observe the blond boy with the pointy face who had addressed Harry. She had a temper on her when she got riled up, but the sight that met her was too pathetic to get worked up about. Chest puffed up self-importantly, silver-and-green tie proudly on display, hair immaculately in place. A lot of wind, but she doubted there'd be much substance there. He was flanked by two boys whose aim in life seemed to be to become gorillas.

From the corner of her eye she could see Harry get ready to reply – heatedly, if his clenched jaw was anything to go by. She was first though.

"Did we ask for your opinion? Run along now."

The boy spluttered impressively. Eventually he took a deep breath and glared at her. "Do you know who I am?" he asked.

"No, and I don't particularly care."

"My father will hear about this!"

She raised her eyebrows. "By all means, go tell your father you need his help besting an 11-year-old girl on the first day of school, see how that goes over. Now shoo."

She turned back to the others, ignoring the blond peacock. Harry and the Weasley – she had to find out his name at some point, she knew Fred and George had said it, but it had gotten lost in all the other information she'd had to process yesterday – were openly laughing, while Hermione hid her smile behind her hand. Donna wasn't sure if the restraint came from a lifetime of being bullied (she hadn't said it, but her comment about fitting in yesterday was an indicator) or a lifetime of being told to keep her emotions in check – because Ladies don't do this or that or whatever, there was always something. Donna knew them all, Silvia had spouted that nonsense for any occasion until Donna had said 'Screw that, I'm not a lady' and went on to do her own thing, which had made her a lot happier.

"Ha! That was brill!" the Weasley exclaimed.

Donna shrugged. "He'll be back. I know the type. I don't think he has much experience with being dismissed. Who was he, anyway?"

"His name is Draco Malfoy," answered Harry. "I'm not sure what that means exactly, except rich and snooty."

"Hmm. Still not impressed. Now, where were we?" she asked, dismissing Draco from her thoughts.