Jamie clapped with all the other Gryffindors at the sorting, welcomed their new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, Professor Jane Feral, and ate her supper in silence. She didn't want anything else giving her away. After all, she had only been Harry for a couple days.
"Harry, are you okay? You're kind of quiet," said Hermione.
"What?" Jamie jumped. "Oh, yea, I'm a little tired, that's all," she murmured.
"Well then, go to bed early! You don't want to go to class tired tomorrow!" Hermione ordered.
"Okay, Mom, I'm sure Harry can take care of himself," Ron said, reaching for another chicken breast. Hermione glared at him.
"I know you're going to want to stay up, Ronald! If you want to stay up, fine, but I think it's best not to keep Harry up!"
Jamie felt like she was going to burst trying not to laugh. She didn't know any sixteen-year-old girls who were that bossy to her friends. If someone told her they were tired, she might suggest going to bed early, but not order them to.
After supper, in the common room, Hermione was knitting and Ron and Jamie were playing chess.
"You've gotten a lot better, Harry," Ron said. They were playing the same game for a half hour and Jamie was doing better than Ron was, but they were nowhere near finished.
"Thanks," Jamie said. She had won chess competitions in the past, but she wouldn't tell Ron that. She was sure Harry hadn't. After another half hour of playing, Jamie won the game.
"You beat me!" Ron gasped. "You've never beaten me!"
Jamie smiled. "There's a first time for everything, I suppose."
"Are you two going to bed anytime soon?" Hermione said, coming down from her staircase to get Crookshanks. "I knew you'd keep him up, Ron," she added, glaring.
"I beat Ron at chess," Jamie said proudly.
"That's nice," Hermione said, rolling her eyes and going back upstairs.
"I wasn't concentrating, that's all…" Ron mumbled.
"Sure. I'm going to bed. You coming?" Jamie asked.
"Yea, I guess," Ron replied grumpily.
They went upstairs, Jamie trailing behind on purpose to let Ron lead the way, and got changed behind their curtains and went to bed. Jamie took off Harry's glasses and lay down. She ran her hand through her very short hair miserably. She loved her long hair – this short hair didn't suit her. She sighed to herself and drifted off into sleep.
"Harry! Wake up! We're going to be late!" Ron shook Jamie awake. She wasn't ever a morning person. She groaned, turned over and ignored him.
"Harry!" Ron threw a book at the sleeping figure in Harry's bed.
"Fine! I'm up, jeez!" Jamie exclaimed, rubbing her shoulder where The Standard Book of Spells Grade 6 hit her. "What time is it?"
"It's ten to eight! We have ten minutes to get to potions!" Ron yelled.
"Great," she said sarcastically, getting changed behind her curtains. Within two minutes, they were both changed into their robes.
They ran all-out from their dormitory on the seventh floor to the potions classroom in the dungeons. They arrived without a minute to spare. Literally. The bell rang just as the descended the last staircase to the dungeons.
"Where have you two been?" Hermione reprimanded them.
"Harry slept in," Ron blamed.
"I slept in? I was expecting a wake-up call a little earlier, mind you," Jamie said.
"You were obviously up, why didn't you come get us?" Ron turned to Hermione. Jamie supposed he wasn't much of a morning person either.
"As if I knew you weren't up! I did get up rather early to breakfast and I didn't expect you to be up at six thirty. So, I went to eat and I thought you would get up on time. Honestly, can't you take care of yourselves?"
"You got up at six thirty? Are you completely insane?" Jamie exclaimed. Before Hermione had a chance to retort, Professor Snape came in.
"The headmaster has asked me to make certain acceptations in my class. He insisted I kept certain students, even if they hadn't gotten an O in their OWLs." He stared at 'Harry' and Ron.
They both needed Potions to be Aurors, which they wanted to be. Jamie even wanted to be one.
"Now. Instructions are on the board," he flicked his wand toward the blackboard, which now had numbered steps on it, "begin now."
Jamie took her new potions kit from her backpack and started on the potion. Potions was her best subject, but Professor Snape kept looking at her potion as if expecting something wrong with it. There wasn't, of course.
"I wish he'd stop it," she said, after his fifth time observing her potion.
"Well, he hasn't a reason to get rid of your potion – you're doing really well," Hermione said encouragingly.
"Yea, he usually gets rid of it by the second time 'round," Ron sniggered. Jamie laughed. She didn't know Harry was bad at potions.
At the end of the class, Jamie gave in her vial. It 'accidentally' slipped at the end of class to many laughs from the Slytherins. She scowled at the bunch, refilled another vial and reinforced it will a spell. She smirked at Snape and went off.
"Did you see the look on Malfoy's face when you gave in the second vial?" Ron said.
"Who?" Jamie asked without thinking.
"What do you mean 'who'?" Ron asked unbelievingly. Jamie froze.
"I-I-I didn't hear properly, is all," she stuttered.
"I said Malfoy. Did you see Malfoy's face?" Ron said, as if nothing happened.
"Sure," Jamie said, relieved.
"I've never seen you make such a flawless potion, Harry. Nor have I seen you beat Ron at chess, come to think of it," Hermione said.
"It wasn't really a hard potion, nobody messed it up, not that there are many people taking potions, and chess… well I guess I was just lucky. Seriously, it's no big deal!" she raised her voice. "Stop bugging me so much!"
"Harry, sorry I didn't mean to-"
"Save it!" Jamie snarled, walking off to Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was going to begin in five minutes.
She was already getting tired of being a boy. She was one of the flirtiest girls in her school – and one of the most attractive. She was used to comments on how nice she was from boys, she enjoyed flirting and she enjoyed having a boyfriend. She wanted to be a girl again.
She took a seat between the wall and another person, whom she hadn't noticed.
"What are you doing Potter?" she had taken a seat next to Malfoy.
Jamie jumped, knocking her knees on her desk. "S-Sorry," she muttered, taking a seat in front of the empty class instead. She thought him rather attractive. Had she been a girl, she would be flirting. But, when her hand was going up to her hair – one of her flirty moves – she remembered she wasn't herself.
"Who are you?" Jamie asked. Harry hadn't told her how to activate the Marauder's Map yet. She would ask in her first letter.
Malfoy looked at her, eyebrow raised. "Whatever," he said, rolling his eyes.
"No, really, who are you? I don't remember you," she said, trying to make it seem nonchalant. Harry hadn't mentioned him, so she supposed they didn't really know each other.
"Draco!" a girl called. Just then, a gaggle of Slytherins came in. Malfoy just looked away from Jamie. After the Slytherins, Neville, Seamus and Dean came in.
"Hey! Over here, there are a lot of seats here," Jamie called to the three boys. They came over and sat there, side by side. Jamie smiled. She really didn't want to sit beside Ron or Hermione, and this would make sure of that.
"I hope this teacher's better than Umbridge," Seamus said in disgust. "If she isn't, though, you could always start the DA again, eh Harry?"
"Sure," Jamie said, hoping it wouldn't come to that. DADA wasn't her best subject, but she did okay. Ron and Hermione came then and sat directly behind the Gryffindor boys. Jamie sighed. She got up to change seats.
"Take your seats," Professor Feral had just walked in, in synchronization with the bell. Jamie sat down away from everybody and Hermione and Ron sat back down. Jamie smiled to herself.
"I am Professor Feral. I understand that you are a very talented class, so I will not tolerate any nonsense. We will start with dueling, spells and such to incapacitate your opponent. We can start with disarming, stunning and shielding. Can anyone tell me the incantations for those three spells?"
All the Gryffindors raised their hands. They had all been in the DA.
"Yes, Mister…?"
"Weasley, Professor," Ron started, "Expelliarmus, Stupefy and Protego."
"Very good. Five points to Gryffindor. Pair up and practice, please. Go on," Professor Feral said. Jamie went to Neville and offered to be his partner. Ron was then partnered with Hermione.
Jamie was nervous that she might give herself away, being bad at DADA. She had a feeling this would be her longest class.