The next morning the Great Hall was buzzing with students looking over their new class schedules, already making wagers on upcoming Quidditch matches and what house would win the cup come June.

Tirza smiled at McGonagall as she passed out the schedules to Gryffindor's table. McGonagall winked secretly at her and continued on her way. "Let's see what we have first," Ginny piped up over the dull roar of all the students.

All three friends looked over their schedules for the year ahead of them:

Monday--

Transfigurations

double Herbology

Tuesday--

Transfigurations

DADA

Potions

Wednesday--

double History of Magic

Herbology

Astronomy (Midnight)

Thursday--

DADA

double Potions

Friday--

Transfigurations

double Charms

"Not too bad," Ginny decided after carefully studying the parchment. "Everything seems to be nice and spread out, even though a lot of classes are double times. At least we get plenty of homework time, huh?"

Tirza nodded. "Yeah, we'll need that for any classes we have problems with. Time to study for tests and work on long parchment essays too."

"We have nearly everything with Ravenclaw too! That way we can be with Luna! DADA, History of Magic, Astronomy and Charms are with her!" Maddie grinned excitedly.

"Herbology with Slytherin, Astronomy is everyone," Tirza added. "Potions with Slytherin too."

"Hufflepuff is with us for Transfigurations," Ginny replied. "I'm glad we won't be stuck with one house ALL the time, like Slytherin or Hufflepuff. Hufflepuff is nice, but they don't really give us a good challenge, you know?"

Tirza and Maddie's heads bobbed in agreement.

"Astronomy at midnight is really neat," Hermione called down from where she sat on the other side of Harry. "You can see all the stars and planets so clearly! You'll love it."

Ron rolled his eyes. "Hermione, you love all classes, so maybe astronomy wasn't as good as you say."

"That's because you slept through most of it," she retorted matter-of-factly.

The youngest Weasley boy blushed to the roots of his hair. "Err, yeah, that might have had something to do with it," he admitted.

Harry laughed and shook his head. "It's a good class girls, as long as you are awake for it. If you can stay awake, you won't be bored I swear."

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"Welcome back to Transfigurations," McGonagall greeted her class. "As I am sure you remember from last year, I will take roll each meeting time and I will know if you are gone and whether or not your absence is excused. Excessive 'skipping' of class will reflect negatively on your grade. I am sure there won't be a problem though. Tardiness is also unacceptable, and three tardies will earn a detention."

The class listened politely, their wands resting and waiting on their desks. Tirza was excited to begin learning new skills, especially since her grade was normally a B average in this class. She wanted good grades, and with hard work they weren't usually too hard to obtain.

"Now that we are all familiar with things again, I'd like you all to have your wands out please. I will be passing out beetles that we will learn to transform into buttons this week."

"Ewwwww!" Seventy-five percent of the class gave McGonagall a look of horror at this idea.

"The beetles are expired and will not move around or bother you in that way," she assured them. "This is an important lesson so please try your best despite it being a beetle."

The Ravenclaws and Gryffindors nodded in response, but most still looked decidedly grossed out.

"If my bug explodes, the stars will weep for his soul," Luna whispered to Maddie.

"If my bug explodes, and I get bug guts on me, I'll puke," Ginny added.

Tirza shivered as McGonagall placed the beetle in front of her. "As long as I don't have to touch it, I'll be alright I think."

McGonagall gave her a wink for encouragement, making sure other students didn't see it of course.

"Alright everyone; one… two… three…" On the professor's word, the class said the proper words while pointing their wand at their beetles.

Maddie closed her eyes as she did. "Aw man!" When she looked, all she had succeeded in doing was squishing the beetle onto the desktop.

"Oh, poor beetle!" Luna cried out. Tirza and Maddie looked at her, and saw her a button on her desk.

"Luna you did it!" Tirza said happily. "Why are you upset?"

"The beetle has been desecrated," Luna sniffled. "The poor thing has been denied its right to exist as it wishes to be and must now be… a random button that nobody will ever want." She gave a sad sigh.

"Well done Miss Lovegood," McGonagall congratulated her. Luna hardly paid attention.

As Maddie received a new bug, Tirza made a second attempt on her own. The first had done nothing, but at least she hadn't squished hers. "I did it!" she squealed. "Wow, I didn't think I would!"

"I got half way there," Ginny admitted, showing them her beetle that now had a single large hole in the center of its body.

"Another soul wasted," Luna whispered, shaking her head.

"EWWWWWWWWW" Someone across the room shouted as five bugs blew up at once, scattering bug guts all over the nearby people.

McGonagall couldn't help bur roll her eyes slightly as she hurried over to help. Every year that she taught Transfigurations, there was always at least one bug that exploded and spewed it's insides all over one or more students.

"Now it's a button with legs!" Ginny exclaimed.

Maddie giggled. "That would make a good joke on somebody, try to keep it!"

When Ginny frowned, Maddie took it upon herself to pick up the bug and put it safely in a pocket of her bag, wrapped in a spare tissue. Her intended targets were the kings of pranks themselves of course!

"Alright alright! That's enough for today! Everyone please read the next eleven pages in your text, those who did not have success with their beetles may try again next class."

With McGonagall's dismissal, the kids scurried from the room with a large number of girls heading for the lavatories to wash away bug guts.

"Double Herbology next," Ginny read off their schedule. "In Greenhouse three."

"Hermione said they got to work on all sorts of interesting things in her second year, like mandrakes," Tirza commented. "They squeal really loud and have little faces!"

"A plant with a face?" Maddie shook her head in disbelief. "That seems creepy, what do you think Luna?"

Luna, mostly still lost in sad contemplation of the souls of the beetles that had been lost, looked up and at her friends. "All creatures are wonderful as they are, and have their own souls and beings. We should live at harmony with them, the stars look most favorably on that."

Her three friends nodded solemnly; as much as they though Luna was a little strange, she was still their friend and they tried hard to never laugh at things that she took so very seriously.

"We only have four hours of classes today, that's awesome! Then lunch and the whole afternoon free! I think I'm going to like Mondays," Tirza decided.

"Me too, as long as we don't have anymore bug lessons!" Ginny giggled.

"Luna, what class are you off too?" It was just outside the Great Hall that the girls would go separate paths.

"Down to the dungeons for potions. Not many of them are acceptable to the stars, but I do like making them even if they are wrong," Luna grinned. "Hufflepuff is with me, you

three get Slytherin. Let the stars guide you!"

Tirza and her friends watched and Luna skipped towards the stairs and bounded down them two at a time. "I never knew she liked potions."

"Us either. She must have just decided to go against the stars or something."

Maddie smiled. "If she's really good, she can help us a bit, maybe!"

"Come on, let's run so we aren't late," Ginny grabbed their hands and pulled, nearly pulling them off their feet. They ran after her of course, and it became a race to Greenhouse Three…

Where they found Fanged Geraniums!

"Flowers with fangs?" Tirza said softly to herself. "I've seen everything!"

"Our world has many plants and even more uses for all plants, then the muggle world does, Miss Snape," Professor Sprout greeted her. "You seem excited to start your work."

Tirza nodded. "I like Herbology, it's really interesting and even important. Plus, we can be outside with our classes sometimes and get to study the neatest plants, like these."

"That's the enthusiasm I like to hear." Sprout grinned at the young girl that the staff had all seemed to claim, each in their own way, celebrating her triumphs as she grew before their eyes. It wasn't often that the staff of Hogwarts was able to have such great influence on the life of a student, or in fact have a part of raising a student either.

"Will it bite us?" Ginny asked, carefully putting on the dragon hide gloves before picking a pot with a tiny flower.

"It might try, if you vex it," Sprout answered. "However, its teeth are much too soft at this stage of life to inflict any kind of harm. We use the gloves as precaution, better safe then sorry you know."

Tirza and Maddie each followed her example and put on their gloves before picking a pot. Each pot was marked with the last name of the student who it belonged to.

"We will be nurturing our geraniums for several weeks as they grow up; their maturity will be reached by Christmas break. Everyone will be responsible for his or her own plant; fertilizer, water, seeing it is placed in the sun for appropriate amounts of time. Even if you don't have class a day, I suggest you come and visit them anyway. If you don't, they may become angry with you and bite you the next time you have class."

Tirza listened to the lecture on the biting flowers while watering her own. It wriggled, and seemed to almost shake the water off its leaves like a dog would, but it squeaked and made appreciative noises all the same.

"I want to try out for quidditch!" Tirza exclaimed as she bounded into Severus' office late that afternoon.

Her father raised an eyebrow at her. "And hello to you as well young lady," Severus teased with a slight twinkle in the endless depth of his eyes.

Tirza giggled and sat down in a chair with a grin. "Hi dad! I want to try out for quidditch! They are having tryouts on Friday for the team and I really really want to play dad!"

While he admired her daring when it came to flying, and he knew she was skilled, Severus couldn't help but worry about her safety. As silly as it may seem, even to himself, he could only picture her falling from unknown heights off her broom…

A/N: Will Snape let her try out? What will Tirza do if he says no? You'll have to wait and see, hee hee! More chapters coming soon; expect some visits from Sirius this school year too. You can also expect some fighting between Severus and… Remus? More adventures heading your way soon!