The first morning of classes was mostly normal, because nothing is ever normal for me; have I said that before? A quick breakfast in the Great Hall, minus the celebratory nature of the previous evening, started everything off. The morning brought Charms first and then Transfiguration for both Ron and I. I had seen Ginny at breakfast, she had seemed so sad to look at her, and she only managed a little smile for me, but at least she was making eye contact. Maybe she was embarrassed at her reactions, maybe she had just spent the night crying and her current state was all her exhausted body could manage? She was surrounded by the other girls her age; who were mostly oblivious to her distress, but dragged her along anyways to join in their excitement over their new courses and new robes. She waved a little wave at me, as she turned right down the hallways where I turned left. I wanted to find some comfort in the gesture, but I didn't.
There wasn't much to Charms class, just review and a whole pile of chapters to read. Transfiguration was much the same, except for the presence of Draco Malfoy, the only Slytherin student to take the NEWT level. He sat at the back, but not directly behind me, which had been his usual perch every other year; so he could torment me. He kind of folded himself into a corner, staring more at his scrolls and quill than anything else, bent over the paper every time I chanced to look back. He was quiet, hidden behind his hair again, and he reminded me a lot of how Snape had looked. I tried to watch Minerva's face as she spoke and scanned the room, to get any clues as her eyes made it over to where he was sitting. It wasn't hard to see the pinched corners of her mouth, and the look of concern that flitted across her lips, at least not for me, not after seven years, not after watching her with the Order.
When that class ended, Ron and I met up with Neville for lunch. We took the time to discuss what lessons we wanted to start with for our first DADA class, and what we might need to do it. We had the feeling that it might be a popular tutorial, and not because of our egos. Neville had Herbology after lunch so he had to run but our next class was supposed to be Potions, so since that wouldn't be starting for another month Ron and I took the opportunity to make our way to the DADA classroom to scope out what we had to work with.
The classroom seemed smaller than I remembered it, or maybe it was just that I was bigger; or my experiences took some of the fiery memories out of the place. All the desks and chairs were still pushed over to the right side wall, and stacked, likely by Filch as he had cleaned up after last year. No new professor had given him orders to restore or rearrange things yet, so I guessed he had just left them be. Likewise, the Professor's lectern at the front of the room had been pushed back against the blackboard; which was still shiny from its spring wash down. I didn't figure we'd be pretentious enough to actually start writing things down on the board for people to copy. Nope, we were here to run dueling practice, that's what everyone was going to want anyways, the chance to challenge and hopefully outwit and outplay their mates. Accio, Alohomora, Expelliarmus, Confundo and of course, Expecto Patronum. We thought we would start with those ones and then see where it got us. We had a month, and by the end I expected that most of the students would certainly be up to speed on how to protect themselves. We were going to leave the more offensive spells to the new professor; whoever that was going to be. I have to admit having a real curiosity about that. I couldn't see why it was going to take a month to get these new professors to Hogwarts, unless they were coming from out of the country, or currently held other positions they couldn't just leave. I also didn't understand why it had to be such a big secret, what was the harm in telling us the names? Unless, of course, they hadn't actually hired anyone, and Minerva was too proud to admit that she hadn't been able to attract qualified applicants in her first official year as Headmistress. Selfishly I was a little worried that whoever was coming wasn't going to be qualified enough to get us to NEWT levels. Ron and I absolutely had to have them to get on with the Aurors. And even our experience in the wars wouldn't hold extra credit when it came to the Ministry tests. I wondered about sending a quick owl to Kingsley to ask if he knew anything, but decided against it. I didn't want to look desperate, or look as if I was going behind Minerva's back. That wouldn't hold me in good stead either when it came to my application. An Auror had to be forthright and honest and trustworthy for his colleagues. I really was starting to think way too much like Hermione.
Having seen Draco in the Transfiguration class I began to wonder if he was going to show up for DADA practice. I had no idea where he planned on going after school, or what profession he planned on pursuing. We'd had our share of scraps in dueling practice before. I wondered if there was any fire left in him at all.
Ron and I wasted what was left of our Potions class time in the DADA classroom, checking out what might have been left in the cupboards, which was virtually nothing, and quite understandable. The Ministry had probably completely sanitized the place after the Death Eaters had been defeated, afraid of what they might have left behind to avenge themselves. That done I headed off to Astronomy class in the tower, and Ron went back to the dorm.
The Astronomy tower was one of the oldest in the Castle complex that was Hogwarts. Getting up to the classroom, which occupied the penultimate floor of the edifice was a grueling walk of some one hundred steps, arranged in a helix form which meant that one shoulder was always brushing against the ancient, well worn rock walls, and the other hanging out over an ever increasing drop to the ground. As so many things seemed to do at Hogwarts, the size of the staircase gave no hint at the expanse of the rooms above. As I have said, at the first landing you reached the circular classroom, filled with the standard assortment of desks, benches, lecterns and blackboards, and walls covered in mystical charts of the signs of the zodiac, and the planets and stars, lines interconnecting them to draw attention to their importance. If one continued upwards you reached an open-air roof or sorts, I guess I should best call it a battlement. There were benches up there for students to lie out upon at night during the lab portion of the class, so they could stare up at the real night sky, and make their charts and track the trends in motion and synchrony. It was roughly protected from the winds by walls of open, arched windows, which allowed a spectacular view of the grounds, and even to Hogsmeade on clear days. And which, could be covered over and made fast by heavy curtains and spells to create a type of upward rising tunnel. On fair days, or rather nights, it was a wonderful place to go and sit, and contemplate the world.
I'm not sure what drew me to Astronomy, maybe all those days in that blasted tent, looking up at the sky, seeing the stars, and waiting for something horrible to descend on us. Maybe if I could have understood more about what those stars and their positions were trying to tell me, I would have been able to avoid some of the trouble I'd gotten into. Maybe I was just looking for some kind of message about what was going to happen to me now. I had found I didn't like 'not' being in control of my own destiny. In fact, it really sucked. Prophecy, more than destiny had controlled my life up until that point, and the way certain people chose to interpret it, to my dismay. Any leg up, even a vague one, had to be better than flying blind. So, here I was in a NEWT level Astronomy class, auditing it though, no assignments, no tests, just listen in and learn whatever would stick. I wished all my classes could have been that relaxed.
At least I thought it was going to be relaxing, until a last set of footsteps could be heard coming up the winding stone staircase. Not loud, or even purposeful in their cadence, they seemed resigned, if a footfall could be called such. And I wasn't half surprised when Draco entered the room and took another seat in the back, along the same row I was in. I don't think he had even looked up or I doubt he would have sat that close to me.
Now why I thought that back then I can't say. I guess I just assumed that he'd still hate me for every imagined slight I had given him and his family and blame me for the misery that had befallen them in the aftermath of the dark times. Since he hadn't said two words to me it really wasn't a fair judgment on my part. Just before Professor Sinistra entered; strange, I hadn't heard her footsteps; Draco actually took a moment to scan the room, and his eyes lit on me, as I was, completely less than tactfully, staring at him. He pursed a sad little smile on his face, nodded just slightly, and turned back to the front of the room where Aurora was using her wand to darken the ceiling of the classroom into an artificial sky-scape. Draco's reaction to me left me feeing vaguely uneasy and I tried not to think about it as I tipped my head, slouching back in my chair to follow the pointer of light that was drawing our attention to certain constellations.
Draco slipped out of class before I had my supplies all put back together and I didn't see him for the rest of the day. But that didn't stop me from wondering about what the hell was going on around me again. Paranoid? Well, you're only really paranoid if they aren't actually out to get you. Think about that one for a while.