"So Harry's late again?" I ask Hermione, passing her the plate of Yorkshire puddings.

"Spying on Draco Malfoy." she answers. "Thinks he's a Death Eater."

"A Death Eater? He's 16"

"But he's quote 'acting suspicious'. Can you believe him?"

I shrug. "For once, I'd love a year where nothing happens. I have my OWLs this year. I'm not smart enough to take them while Harry duels you-know-who on the Astronomy Tower."

"Fear of a-"

"I know!" I start eating, rolling my eyes at her. Sure, I should probably call him Voldemort but it's not safe and I wouldn't particularly like to be almost killed by him again. I stab my fork into my food so hard that the table shakes. "It's Harry!" Ron exclaims.

I look over to the doors and Harry walks in, dressed in muggle clothes with blood all over his broken nose. He looks like I imagined him, before I went to Hogwarts. Champion of the muggleborns, looking like he just defeated a troll, or a basilisk. It was like he was unapproachable, so bright no one could go near him. I guess I was more terrified then everything else.

"Hey, guys." He says awkwardly, sitting down. Normal Harry now, a Harry that I don't feel the need to hide from.

"Hey Harry," Ron says. "The Sorting went pretty normal. Lot of kids in Gryffindor. Maybe they've been inspired by you. Pity the poor souls who ended up in Slytherin."

I continued eating my Yorkshire pudding, trying to act like I totally didn't have friends in Slytherin.

"Yeah, with Snape as the head of house and Draco as a prefect. If they weren't going to be evil alre-"

"How about we talk about the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher? You said you met him. Dumbledore hasn't announced it yet."

"Oh, yeah. Well he's pretty old and Voldemort-" Harry sighs. "You-know-who is after him."

"Any more information, Harry." I ask, gritting my teeth. I really don't want to talk about Slytherin right now.

"Well he's a Slytherin."

Well, great.

"But he's seems pretty good. He said he liked my mum and that he was surprised she was muggle-born" desert appears on the plates and Harry takes a big bite of apple crumble. "But I don't think he's a blood supremist. He's probably the only good thing to come out of Slytherin."

I start eating some of the chocolate moose. It tastes pretty good, much better than listening to Harry and Ron blather on about how Slytherin sucks.

"Like no one we know who's a Slytherin ever turned out good. Especially Draco. He's up to something."

I groan and slam my head against the table. "What did I do to deserve this?" Hermione pats my shoulder while Harry goes on and on about how Draco's evil and should be stopped and never be left alone. Finally we're saved by Dumbledore's announcement.

"Good Evening Students." he says. "I have one more announcement to make. We are joined by a new teacher, Horace Slughorn, our new potions professor." We look over at Harry who looks as shocked as we are, I swear he'll make it Draco's fault.

"And our beloved Professor Snape has been given the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts position."

There's a flurry of voices, most of them talking about how beloved Snape actually was (not very much).

"And with that I will have to ask you all to go to bed."

I walk over to the Ravenclaw table where Luna sits, head in the Quibbler. "Hey, Luna." I say pulling it down. "Hey Ginny." she says, smiling up at me. "Do you want to study for OWLs tomorrow?"

"That's actually what I came here to ask you. So tomorrow. After class. Near the lake. See you then."

Luna folded up her magazine. "Wait, can you ask Cassie and Robyn to come. Someone on the train took my trunk and I have to go look for it so I won't have much time to talk to them." I clench my fists. I wish that Luna didn't have to put up with this. I wish that she would let me do something. Luna puts an arm on my shoulder.

"All it means is that things are going according to plan. People steal my stuff, we study together, you play quidditch and Harry's so suspicious of Draco he shouts about it to the whole school. This is just proving that it's going to be a normal year."

A normal year, why is that such a luxury.