"Get up, get up! If you don't get your butt out of bed within the next five minutes, then we'll be late for our first day!" Roxie rolled over and looked up. Two brown, anxious eyes looked right back at her.

"All right, I'm up!" Roxie yelled back, throwing the covers off her and, with her arm behind her back, hurrying over to her dresser. She grabbed her wand, waved it, and her outfit was changed. Her roommate handed her a piece of toast, which she shoved in her mouth. She gathered up her bag and books and then the two roommates were running down the stairs. They clambered out of the portrait hole. They sprinted down the corridor outside until they reached a door. Hermione flung the door open and they entered a classroom. Breathing heavily, they made their way to the front of the classroom where Ron and Harry were sitting. Hermione threw her books down and sat down next to Ron. The only seat left was the one next to Harry. Hesitantly, Roxie sank into the chair, convincing herself that she wouldn't talk to him the whole period.

"So what happened to the two of you? You look as if you've just run a marathon!" Ron commented.

"Well someone had a slow start this morning!" Hermione answered pointedly.

"Yeah, my first day was rough too!" Harry chimed in. Roxie gave him one of her famous death glares and he turned away from her. "I'm sorry…" But his apology was cut short because the stern looking teacher that Roxie had met the night before walked in.

"Hello class. Another year, and one of the most important. This year we will begin human Transfiguration. Now I understand that only a select few of you will be able to do this and don't be disappointed if you can't. First though, I would like you to all give a warm welcome to our new student…erm..." McGonagall glanced down at her parchment, "Roxie Barker. Roxie would you please stand up" Roxie stood and when she did she could hear the whispers from behind her. Of course people wondered why a student would transfer into a school with only two years left. Although she had explained her reason to a few Gryffindors last night during dinner, it had not filtered through the whole house. The Hufflepuffs had Transfiguration with the Gryffindors and they had not heard the story either. Quickly, Roxie sat back down and tried to ignore the whispering.

"You'd think that they would have something better to talk about," Ron muttered to Roxie and gave her a reassuring smile. Roxie returned the smile and sat back in her chair, ready for the class.

The rest of the class was spent with students trying to decide which animal they would most like to transfigure into. They were then instructed to draw a picture of the animal, making sure to include details. "The more detailed the drawing, the more you have to work with when we start to transfigure," McGonagall chided. Roxie decided upon a black dog, mysterious and powerful. When she showed her drawing to the rest of the group, they all fell silent. Glancing down at her picture, Roxie realized why. How could she have been so insensitive? Harry's godfather had been known for turning into a black dog. But Roxie shouldn't care how she made Harry feel, after all they weren't friends and they never would be. When the class ended, Roxie ran to McGonagall's desk, threw her paper down on top of the stack, snatched up her things, and ran from the classroom. She really wasn't up to hearing Hermione and Ron trying to comfort Harry. And she didn't want to hear Harry try to reassure them that he was fine when he obviously wasn't.

Roxie was the first to arrive at her next lesson, Potions. She threw her bag onto a table at the middle of the room. One of her books slid out of her bag. With a crash the book fell onto the floor. "I would appreciate it if you were a bit quieter while in my classroom," a silky voice spoke from behind her. Roxie whipped around and saw a man with slick hair and a hooked nose. He was wearing robes of black and eyeing Roxie eerily. "You must be the new girl. Apparently they didn't teach you how to be quiet at your old school."

"I must have missed that lesson, yes," Roxie snapped determinedly. She was convinced that she wouldn't let this man get the better of her.

"You must have missed the lesson on manners too! I expect you to respect me more in the future."

"Oh so you must be Professor Snape. I've heard a lot about you from Ro…people." Roxie almost let slip that her friends had been bad mouthing this teacher. Snape glared at her, but before he could respond the door to the classroom burst open and students flowed in.

"Ten point from Gryffindor Mr. Weasley," Snape snapped the moment he caught sight of Ron. Ron looked hurt and confused. He shot a look at Roxie who avoided eye contact, not wanting to admit that it had been she who had gotten her friend in trouble.

"Turn to page 394 and begin to make the Joke Potion. I expect it done by the end of class," Snape instructed the class, as Hermione, Ron, and Harry threw their bags down at the table next to Roxie.

"You left Transfiguration kind of fast, is something wrong?" Harry asked as he pulled his book out of his bag.

"Nope, nothing at all," Roxie replied as she started to read the instructions of the potion. It was the most complicated potion that she had seen. At her old school they had never had to brew potions by themselves, they were always in partners or groups. Roxie glanced around at the other students and saw them heading toward a cupboard. Assuming that this was the thing to do, Roxie made her way to the cupboard with Hermione right behind her. When she reached the cupboard, she saw that it was full of ingredients. Roxie had already forgotten what she needed, so she watched Hermione and grabbed the same things that she did. She then walked back to the table and began to cut up the daisy roots. After an hour of grueling and confusing work, Roxie had finished her potion. Looking at it though, she was disappointed. The book said that the potion was supposed to be a bright blue color and Roxie's was more of a yellow. Oh well Potions has never been my strongest subject.

"Did you learn anything at that school of yours, like how to read? The instructions clearly state that you are to add the daisy roots after the dragon's breath," Snape sneered down at Roxie's potion which had now started to make a sickly gurgling noise. Roxie's face flushed, she had indeed, as Snape had said, added the daisy roots before she added dragon's breath. As she made her way, embarrassed, to the front of the room with her vial, she whispered with Hermione.

"It's ok he doesn't really like anyone, except the Slytherins maybe," Hermione reassured her. This was easy for her to say though because her potion had turned the perfect shade of blue.

"I think he despises me more than anyone else. I was the first one here and all he did was insult me until the rest of you walked in." The two girls stopped talking then because they had reached Snape's desk. He sneered as he snatched Roxie's vial from her.

"I've decided to count this potion as a test. I'll give you a grade based upon the accuracy of the potion," Snape said as he looked at the abysmal work of Roxie. Hermione beamed, but then wiped the smile from her face as she saw the pitiful look on Roxie's face.

Harry and Ron followed Hermione and Roxie out of the classroom and back up to the common room. The rest of the day was free, so they did whatever they wanted to. Hermione caught up with homework while Roxie and Ron talked and Harry sat staring out the window. When Ginny arrived, Hermione put down her book and joined the conversation. Roxie felt almost guilty as she sat and laughed with the three of them and Harry sat alone in a corner. She had stolen his friends from him and now he was lonely. She was about to ask him to join in the conversation when he got up and announced that he was going down to dinner. The rest of them followed him out of the portrait hole and to the Great Hall. During dinner, it was Roxie's turn to be ignored. As the four others talked, Roxie thought about her conflicted feelings. She didn't know whether to be nice or cruel to Harry. Her mind was still teeming with thoughts as she collapsed onto her bed later that night.

The next day Roxie woke up. It was early in the morning, but Hermione had already left the room. She got dressed and walked to the Great Hall. She plopped down into a seat next to Hermione and grabbed a slice of toast. "Morning," she muttered, but Hermione was engrossed in a book as usual and didn't even acknowledge that Roxie was there. Roxie was glad when Ron and Harry arrived.

"Defense Against the Dark Arts this morning. We'll finally get to see how this teacher is," Ron said as he buttered a piece of toast. Roxie quickly stuffed her toast into her mouth, not wanting to risk making a comment, as she was afraid of what would come out of her mouth.

After an hour of Ron and Harry talking about Quidditch Hermione put her book down and announced that it was time to go to class. The four of them made their way through the corridors to the classroom. As Roxie opened the door, she gasped. The walls were covered with pictures of the darkest things. One depicted a werewolf biting a child. The child looked as if he was screaming from excruciating pain. A picture on the opposite wall was simply captioned "Avada Kedavra" a man was floating in air. A greenish light shone all around him. This man did not appear to be in any pain whatsoever and Roxie knew why. The Avada Kedavra curse killed instantly, the person hardly had enough time to register that they had been shot with the curse before they were lying on the ground, dead. Hermione glanced around nervously as the moved to the front of the room. They sat down at a table and began to unpack their books. The classroom began to fill as other students made their way up from breakfast. Roxie noticed students that she recognized as Slytherins.

"Hello class, I am Ms. Pravus," a woman with a sheet of long black hair spoke dreamily. Most of the class jumped, she had walked in so quietly that none of them had heard her enter. "I will be your teacher this year. It is my job to arm you against curses and to teach you to protect yourselves. This year we will cover Patronuses, shield charms, and some counter-jinxes." The class was instructed to read the introduction in their books, so the period passed by silently. At the end of class Ms. Pravus stood up and announced, "Homework- read pages 10-57 and write a report on the best way to deal with a werewolf bite." Roxie was following Ron out of the classroom when she heard a voice behind her. "Roxie would you come here please," Ms. Pravus called.

"I'll meet you back at the common room," Roxie uttered and then she hurried back to the desk.

Once assuring herself that Ron, Hermione, and Harry had indeed left, Ms. Pravus spoke, "He is not pleased," she yelled harshly all of the dreaminess in her voice lost. "He hasn't heard from you in a long time and he fears that you have failed or worse, deserted him."

"And he sent you here to check up on me?" Roxie spat.

"No, I chose to come here on my own. When your father was transferred, I decided to follow you. I'm going to make sure that you don't screw anything up."

"No! You want to steal my job! You want to have all of the glory for yourself! Well I've got news for you, the task is going great and I'm going to finish it! I'm going to do it better than you ever could and then I will be held high above the others! I will be his favorite!" With this Roxie marched out of the room and shut the door with a snap.

Back up in the common room, Roxie found Harry sitting by the fireplace, a book open on his lap. "Where are Ron, Hermione, and Ginny?" Roxie asked grumpily.

"Ginny has class and Hermione and Ron went down to the library," Harry replied nicely.

"Oh," Roxie said as she pulled her Defense Against the Dark Arts book out of her bag. She opened the book and began reading. After she was finished reading, she pulled out parchment and a quill. She had the quill poised over the paper, ready to write when she realized that she still didn't know what the best way to deal with a werewolf bite was. The look of confusion must have shown on her face, because Harry spoke up.

"I know a werewolf and I've already finished that essay. I could help you with it if you want."

Roxie thought and then decided that her need to finish her homework trumped her need to hate Harry. "Yeah that would be great, thanks." Harry moved over to the couch next to her, she could smell the cologne that he was wearing, she could hear his breathing. She shook her head and tried to ignore the fact that he was sitting so close to her. She spent the next hour talking to Harry about the best way to deal with a werewolf bite. "Wow that went fast! It's a good thing that you know so much about it!" No that sounded too flirty.

"So I'm going to ask you one more time, why do you hate me so much?"

"It's not that I hate you, it's just that… well I'm not exactly supposed to like you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It doesn't matter. But I don't hate you."

"Oh well… you just seem to. I mean with the way you treat me and such."

"Well actually…" Roxie leaned in a little closer, "the truth is…" but at that moment Hermione and Ron burst through the portrait hole, closely followed by Ginny. Roxie sat back a little. The three of them sat down by the fire and started their homework. Harry grinned at Roxie and she returned it. Hermione, seeing the smile, nudged Ron and pointed at them.

"So I see that you two worked everything out and even got a little bit cozy too," Ron told them proudly. Roxie slid to the end of the couch, away from Harry.

"I think I'm going to go to bed," Roxie said. She got up and gave Harry another smile. She walked up the stairs to her room, smiling the whole way. Hermione followed her, she wanted to ask about what had happened downstairs, but Roxie had already collapsed in her bed and closed the curtains around her. Roxie was still smiling as she fell asleep an hour later. She slipped into dreams of her and Harry curled up cozily on the couch. The smile didn't leave her face all night.