Clara awoke the next morning feeling better than she had since arriving at Hogwarts. It was early, and the other girls were all still asleep, so she stretched and stayed put. Today was going to be fine. She would go to class, be a good student, and that would be that. There didn't need to be any problems, she decided. The woman had been a stranger to her for years, and just because she was now Clara's Professor meant little. She was no different from any of the others; Professor Flitwick had been teaching Clara for 6 years now, but they didn't really acknowledge each other outside of the classroom. If Professor Lisney expected Clara to call her mum or otherwise show her any affection, that was her problem. As far as Clara was concerned, all of the woman's motherly privileges had been forfeited as soon as she had stepped out the door of their home.
The other girls had begun to stir, so Clara quietly got out of bed and dressed. It was a decent walk to the Owlery but if she hurried she could make it back before breakfast. She took the letter from her nightstand and headed out to the Common Room.
"Ah, Rowley," Draco Malfoy was sitting on one of the black leather sofas. Had he stayed there all night?
"Malfoy," Clara nodded towards him.
"Is Pansy up yet?"
"No. If I were you, I'd leave her alone. She will come to you when she wants."
"I don't even know what she's upset about," Draco pouted.
"Well," Clara paused, knowing she shouldn't say anything but still having to resist the urge, "I must be going."
She exited the room quickly and entered the cool dungeon corridor. Very few students were loitering around the castle and it didn't take long for her to reach the West tower. She looked around for a moment, before deciding on a small, tawny owl perched across the room.
"Good morning," she greeted the bird before quickly tying her letter to it's leg.
"Lewis Rowley, in London," she told the owl. It flapped it's wings and took off. After watching fly through one of the open windows, she turned and made her way back down to the Great Hall.
Pansy was waiting for her, along with Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis.
"How early were you up?" Daphne asked through a yawn.
"Not very. I just had to mail a letter," Clara shrugged before loading up her plate with eggs and sausage.
"Glad to see your appetite's back," Pansy noted, "Draco caught me this morning."
Clara looked up at her friend, "I figured he would. He was still waiting up for you when I left this morning."
"That boy is mad… my sister is infatuated with him. Can't imagine why, I've tried telling her all of the horror stories. He makes Slytherins look bad, and we had Voldemort!" remarked Daphne, shaking her head.
"He wanted to talk. I told him I had to use the loo and I'd be back. He's probably still waiting," Pansy said happily as she spread jam on her toast.
Clara laughed and the girls went silent as they ate. Soon the hall was full of the sounds of students preparing for the day's classes. Occasional bangs from the Gryffindor table echoed off the walls.
"Quarter till," Pansy sighed, checking her watch, "Time for Clara's Army to assemble."
They laughed nervously and collected their things.
Pansy took Clara's hand and didn't let go until they were seated. Professor Lisney was writing on the chalkboard and didn't see the girls come in.
"Such a waste of good girl power," Pansy said in mock disappointment.
"It made me feel better," Clara reassured her friend, who smiled and took out her book.
Professor Lisney turned and, after going down her list of students and confirming everyone's attendance, cleared her throat.
"Today we will be learning about the Patronus charm. It is your only defense against Dementors, and I'm sure you all remember how nasty they are from your last lesson."
Clara laid out a small bit of parchment between herself and Pansy for their conversation.
Draco's not here, wrote Pansy in green ink. Clara looked around and noticed the empty seat next to Goyle.
Probably still waiting for you.
"On page 24, you will find all of the information on this spell. What it does is create a visible manifestation of your happiness. As we learned, Dementors feed on unhappiness, misery, and pain. The Patronus, therefore, gives them nothing to go on. Who can tell me what a Patronus looks like?" Professor Lisney paused, waiting, before, "Yes, Miss Granger?"
Pansy immediately wrote, of course.
Clara grinned, but she had to respect the Gryffindor's shameless love of learning.
"It depends on the witch or wizard who casts it."
"Correct. Thank you, Miss Granger."
Mine's probably a sloth, Clara wrote on their parchment. Pansy gave a quiet chuckle. Professor Lisney continued on for an hour, explaining how to cast a Patronus. She ended the lesson with a demonstration of her own.
"Expecto patronum!" she cried, making a ghostly Owl fly from the tip of her wand. It circled the classroom before dissolving into a mist. The class applauded.
"Of course, when you practice casting your own Patronuses next lesson, it won't look quite like that yet. It takes years of practice to achieve a perfectly formed shield. Until we see each other again, consider your homework to be finding the perfect, happiest memory you can think of. It needs to be strong. As an example, I think of the day my darling Clara was born," the Professor gave her daughter a warm smile.
A quiet murmur went through the room.
"Class is dismissed. I look forward to our next meeting."
Students began standing and gathering their things.
"Clara?" Pansy eyed her friend, who was glaring at the Professor, completely transfixed.
"No," Clara whispered.
"Clara, don't let her get to you."
"No," Clara said, much louder this time. Her mother turned.
"No, Professor, you don't get to say that that is your happiest memory. If that was truly your happiest memory, you wouldn't have left dad and me. You are a liar."
"Clara," Pansy whispered.
"No, Pansy," Clara snapped, "This woman thinks she gets to come here and claim me? After all these years of not even knowing if she was still alive? No."
The students were frozen, all of them looking from Clara to Professor Lisney.
"You will not disrespect me in my classroom, Miss Rowley," her mother proclaimed.
Clara scoffed, "I have absolutely no respect for you, bitch."
The students decided this was a good time to evacuate and scrambled out the door.
"Detention, Miss Rowley. Tomorrow evening. You'd best not be late."
"As your best friend, I need to remind you that calling your professor 'bitch' is frowned upon," Pansy was telling Clara as they walked to their next class.
"I shouldn't have lost my temper," Clara sighed.
"Like hell, the woman was egging you on. She had to have been expecting it."
They separated to walk around a couple who were snogging noisily in the middle of the corridor.
"I don't know. I was going to make an effort," she shrugged her shoulders.
"Darling, you might have gone a bit too far, but you're my hero."
After classes, Clara and Pansy walked down to the Black Lake. It was a warm day and they wanted to get some sun before Autumn was in full swing.
"Everyone's talking about it," Pansy grinned.
"Oh, God, don't tell me that," Clara buried her head in her hands. She had gone five years without embarrassing herself. It seemed cruel of the universe to ruin her perfect record so close to her graduation.
"Why not? You even took my mind off of His Royal Dickhead."
Clara snorted. They pulled their assignments out of their bags and went to work. Nearly every Professor had started the year with a bang and wanted a summary of the last year's subjects to prove that they had not forgotten. They swapped parchments, using each others ideas and rewording them to avoid being caught.
"Clara, isn't it?" she looked toward the soft voice.
"Yes, Granger?" Clara asked. The bushy haired girl nodded, "You can call me Hermione. I don't normally approve of disrespecting the Professors like you did, but I just wanted to say that I thought it was justified. My friend Ron is still celebrating."
Clara blushed and laughed, "Well, that's good to hear. I felt sort of bad about it."
"If Professor Lisney did what you said, I don't think you have anything to feel bad about," she looked genuine. Clara had never said more than a few words to her, but she felt like they would have been friends had they not been in rival houses.
Harry Potter walked up behind Hermione and grinned at Clara, "I wanted to thank you. This is the first day in six years that I've heard someone else's name more than my own."
Pansy scoffed.
"Did you want to say something?" he asked the Slytherin.
"No, it's just wonderful how modest you are."
"I wasn't bragging, I'm genuinely happy about it," Harry explained. His green eyes moved up and down Pansy's body, but she never looked away from the lake.
"It's not about you, so…" Pansy trailed off, raising her eyebrows. Harry gave an awkward smile, "Anyway. Clara. Good job, I'm proud of you, I'm leaving."
Hermione sighed as he walked off.
"Yes, Clara. I think most of the school is proud of you. If you need anything, I'm here."
Clara thanked the girl sincerely and watched her walk back to where her friends were sitting. Once the Gryffindors were out of earshot, she turned to her best friend.
"What was that about?"
"What was what about?" the raven haired girl asked innocently.
"That with Harry… he's nice, you don't have to be rude just because he's a Gryffindor."
"It would feel wrong to be nice to him," she could barely hide the disgust on her face.
"Maybe you are spending too much time with Draco."
They resumed their homework silently. Clara was used to Pansy's distrust of Gryffindors; it seemed to be a Slytherin trait. The house politics seemed ridiculous to Clara, and she assumed it came from her Muggle upbringing. Most of the Slytherins probably came from families who thought Harry Potter was horrible for defeating their Dark Lord. Clara, however, had read about the horrors of the war and couldn't understand how anyone could have followed him.
"There you are, darling!" the girls heard the whiny voice of Draco Malfoy behind them.
"Oh, Goddamn it," Pansy slammed her book shut.
Clara was overwhelmed by the sudden urge to jump in the lake, but she couldn't swim. Although, as soon as the boy started talking, she began to wonder if drowning might be favorable.
"Yes, Draco?" Pansy hissed.
"Darling, I've been -""Listen," Pansy interrupted, "Draco, stop with the names. I'm begging you. We can make up, just no more bloody darling, or sweetie, or dear. It makes me want to vomit."
Draco looked taken aback, "I… alright. I'm sorry." Pansy shrugged.
"Please, dar-" he stopped himself, "Pansy, what did I do?"
She rolled her eyes. Clara was braiding strands of grass together.
"You didn't do anything."
"Then why are you avoiding me?"
"Do I look like I'm avoiding you?"
"Yes."
He gestured to the nearly deserted lawn. Pansy considered it before speaking.
"Look, Draco - I don't know. Things have been different since we came back. What happened to the kind, mature gentleman I saw in Italy?"
Clara coughed loudly to disguise the laugh she couldn't hold in. Draco as a gentleman was just unimaginable.
"He's still here," Draco was on his knees next to Pansy. Clara decided that if he started begging, she was going to accept her fate and join the Giant Squid in the lake.
"Oh, is he? Would he really spend a meal ignoring his girlfriend and discussing ways to torture children with his troll servants?"
"His name is Gregory," Draco looked offended.
"It was rhetorical," Pansy said, exasperated, "As soon as we got on the train, all you could talk about was your father, or Saint Potter, or First Years."
An odd expression came over Draco's face, and Clara assumed that he was either trying to force tears or that one of the house elves had tainted his lunch.
"Do you have nothing to say for yourself?" Pansy asked.
"I just… I'm in love with you," Draco replied, his voice strained.
"Yeah, well. You can work on showing it. That's your assignment," Pansy sneered, throwing her things in her bag before standing up, "Come on, Clara. Let's leave him to his thoughts."
Clara jumped up, her bag already packed.
"Well, that was quite a day."
Clara was laying on her bed reading ahead in her Charms book when Pansy entered and sprawled out next to her.
"I want to sleep for a month," Clara sighed, shutting her book and laying it on her nightstand.
"Ah, but what would your fans do without you biting tongue?" Clara groaned and covered her friend's face with her pillow.
"You can't get rid of me that easily, dear," Pansy whacked the girl in the face with the pillow. They settled down and noticed Daphne sitting nervously on the edge of her bed.
"What's up, Daph?" Pansy asked, spreading out on her stomach and resting her head on her fists.
"I think we can all agree that our little… girl time, last night... " she hesitated.
"It was bloody weird," Clara laughed. Daphne's face immediately switched from worry to relief.
"Yes!" she agreed.
"It was pretty weird," Pansy nodded.
"No more of that, agreed?"
"Agreed," the two girls said in unison.