After breakfast, the prefects escorted them to Charms. He was looking forward to the class, though slightly less so once he saw all of the green-trimmed robes outside the classroom and realised who would make up the other half of the class.

"Hey, Potter," Malfoy shouted, "do you—"

"For Merlin's sake!" said a blonde girl with impeccable hair, diamond earrings, and what appeared to be some kind of custom-tailored silk robe. "Won't someone rid us of this turbulent Firstie before he costs our House even more points?"

Malfoy's jaw clamped shut as most of the rest of the Slytherin class turned to glare at him. Crabbe and Goyle shuffled closer to him, though whether that was to protect him or seek his protection was not immediately obvious.

"Was that a Henry II reference?" Hermione asked with an awe in her tone that was usually reserved for the better sort of teacher.

"Of course," the girl said. "He's a distant great-grandfather of mine, so it would be an absolute shame not to quote him when the opportunity presents itself."

"Really?" Finch-Fletchley asked her. "Through which child? I descend from King John."

"Matilda, Duchess of Saxony," she replied. "A magical cadet line of the House of Welf married into the Greengrass family just three hundred years ago. But where are my manners?" She marched up to Justin and held out her hand.

Justin bowed deeply over it and didn't quite kiss her knuckles. "Justin Finch-Fletchley, the Baron Cornwallis. My father is the Marquess Cornwallis. Please, call me Justin."

"Well met." She curtseyed. "My name is Daphne Greengrass, eldest daughter of the Lord Greengrass, but you simply must call me Daphne."

A skinny, weedy-looking boy scoffed. "It's a shame his magical blood doesn't match his muggle pedigree."

Daphne rolled her eyes and didn't even turn around as she said, "Sois silencieux, Nott, les personnes ayant de véritables titres de noblesse parlent."

Malfoy, Nott, Hermione, Susan, and several other Slytherins turned bright red either from rage (Malfoy, Nott, and a pug-nosed girl Harry thought was named Parkinson) or amusement (the rest of them).

Justin chuckled. "Quelle mauvaise éducation que d'interrompre une dame!"

(Hermione later explained to him that Daphne had said, "Hush, Nott, the people with actual titles of nobility are talking," and that Justin had added, "What poor breeding to interrupt a lady!")

"C'est vrai!" Daphne said. "Nott, despite what some of your father's friends think, the fact that your grandfather inserted your old bourgeois family into his little genealogical treatise doesn't automatically make you some kind of expert on this sort of thing. Now, why don't you run along and plant your lips back on Malfoy's derrière where they belong?"

"You…you…" Nott sputtered.

Smith sidled up to Daphne and Justin. "My father's a Lord of the Wizengamot, as well," he said. "We descend directly from Helga Hufflepuff."

"Lovely," Daphne drawled. "Do be sure to come back later and regale us with tales of your Tenth Century shepherdess great-grandmother. Anyway, you were saying, Justin?"

Before he could respond, Professor Flitwick unlocked the door and motioned for them all to enter the classroom. As they filed in, Harry noticed Hermione had a huge smile on her face. "I thought you didn't like the nobility on principle," he whispered.

"I'm on Finch-Fletchley's side here," she whispered back. "The worst thing he'll do to me is snub me for tea."

"Huh," Harry said. "Good point."

They once again took seats near the front of the Hufflepuff side of the classroom and pulled out their copies of the Standard Book of Spells while Flitwick made his way to the front of the room. Bookcases stuffed to overflowing lined the back wall, and some of the books had been stacked atop a chair so the small man could see over his podium. Harry was curious how he'd get himself on top of the stack of books. Climbing seemed a bit undignified.

Flitwick didn't climb or try to float himself up. Instead, he waved his wand in front of him and thin discs appeared in the air in front of him, each falling for about three inches before it froze in place mid-air. The diminutive professor then ascended those discs like a staircase and took his place on top of the stack of books. Another wave of his wand Vanished the discs as if they'd never existed in the first place. He proceeded to call the roll in a squeaky voice until he came to Harry, at which point he exclaimed, "Wonderful! Your mother was one of my top students!"

Harry shot him a smile and he continued with the roll. He didn't like the extra attention, but it was nice to see his mother remembered so fondly.

Class was fairly basic that day, just a basic introduction to Charms theory and the Lumos Charm. Harry and Hermione were careful to only show basic capabilities in the class, but not quite so basic that they each didn't walk away with two points each for Hufflepuff for being the first in class to cast it and modulate its brightness. As far as Harry was concerned, subtlety and caution were all well and good, but points were points.

Hermione just wanted to be first to cast every spell, which Harry could also understand.

After Charms, Harry and his yearmates followed the prefects down to the Quidditch pitch for flying lessons. Since this was their last class of the day, they were on their own recognizance to get back to the castle. Fortunately, with it being the largest thing in the vicinity, Harry wasn't too worried about getting lost. Flying Class was with the Ravenclaws, some of whom still seemed annoyed about Slughorn's attention to Harry and Hermione during Potions, so the two groups of students ended up staying well-separated.

The flying instructor was an elderly witch named Rolanda Hooch, a trim woman with spiky grey hair and piercing, disconcerting yellow eyes. She put old broomsticks out for all of them and spaced them evenly around the Quidditch pitch, then used the Sonorous Charm to ensure they would all hear her instructions.

"Alright, everyone, let's get started," she said. "Hold your dominant hand out over your broom and say, 'Up.'"

Harry did so and the broom leapt into his hand. "Wicked!" he said. "Hermione, how are you—"

"Up. Up. Up. Up," she chanted, glaring at the broom as if she wanted to assign it detention."

Neville stared at his dejectedly. "I don't think mine likes me."

Smith had his broom in his hand and looked quite smug about it, as did Sophie Roper and a few of the other Ravenclaws.

"You can't just say the word!" Hooch said. "Magic is about intent, and the broom responds to your magic. Order that broom to get in your hands right fu—I mean, right this instant!"

"Up!" Hermione shouted at her broom, to no avail.

"Up!" Neville said sternly, and the broom shot into his hand…and kept going. It nearly pulled him off the ground before he got it under control again.

"Hermione?" Harry said. "Pretend that broom is me and you're telling it to get started on revisions."

She glared at him. "That," she said with obvious frustration in her tone, "is the silliest thing I have ever…heard…you…" she trailed off, then looked down the broom. "Up," she ordered, and it leapt into her hand.

She gave Harry a sheepish look. "You were right."

He just grinned, which made her simultaneously blush and glare at him.

Hooch blew her whistle. "Good job, everyone…except for you, Perks. We'll work on you in a moment."

Sally-Anne looked down, dejected. Harry resolved to give her some extra tutoring at basic magic later.

"The rest of you," Hooch continued, "place your other hand on the shaft of the broom about three-fourths of the way up, then shift your dominant hand to grip it about six inches from the top. Once you've done so, mount your broom but do not move. You'll kick off when I blow my whis—"

Neville, who had just mounted his broom, screamed as it spiralled into the sky.

"Get back here, Longbottom!" Hooch roared.

"Bloody hell!" Harry kicked off his broom and rocketed after Neville. It bucked a little at first, but settled down as he directed his intent into it and forced it into level flight. Meanwhile, Neville's broom was spinning out of control and, even with his upper body strength, the poor boy just couldn't hang on for more than a few seconds.

Harry was still about twenty yards away from him when Neville fell, and his scream made Harry's stomach tie itself into some unholy knot. Harry took his broom into a dive, but he had trouble changing direction so quickly and he knew he'd never catch the falling boy in time. Hooch was firing a stream of silent spells in Neville's direction, but she couldn't seem to hit him from that distance. Hermione, though, was running flat out across the field and was an incredible shot, and she managed to tag Neville with only the second Impediment Jinx she cast.

The few seconds the spell slowed Neville's fall was just enough time for Harry to snag him out of the air before he started to fall normally again. Harry immediately tried to level out their flight, but the combined weight of the two boys was too much for Harry's broom and Harry could only manage to slow their descent a little. Still, he was able to reduce the broom's angle of descent to only about twenty degrees off the horizontal and its speed to below twenty miles an hour or so.

"Hit and roll, Nev!" Harry shouted, and let go when Neville's feet were just inches above the ground.

"Wha—augh!" Neville said as he hit the ground.

Harry winced, but he didn't have much time to worry. The ground was coming up to meet him shockingly quickly and the broom still wasn't pulling up, so he rolled off when it was only a couple of feet off the ground. He tried to do a proper Hapkido forward roll, but he'd never tried one of those while being launched at the ground at nearly fifteen miles an hour and he hit his shoulder hard enough on the ground to make him cry out in pain. He still completed his roll properly, though, and came back up on his feet.

Staggering, but on his feet. So definitely not the worst sort of landing. He'd call that a win. Neville was still lying on the ground, groaning, with his left knee tucked against his chest and holding his left shin in his hands.

Hermione charged up to them with Madam Hooch hot on her heels. She left the instructor to check on Neville and threw her arms around Harry. "Are you alright?" she asked. "I was so scared! Why couldn't you pull up? Did you—"

"Shoulder. Hurts," Harry said through gritted teeth.

"Oh!" She released him immediately. "I'm sorry!"

"It's. OK." Harry didn't want her to feel bad, but he didn't want to feel bad, either.

Hooch levitated Neville three feet into the air. "I think your ankle is broken. I'll get you to the Medical Wing. Potter, are you alright? That was some exceptional flying."

"I'm fi—"

"He may have a minor fracture." Hermione glared at Harry as she spoke. "He'll go to the Hospital Wing with you."

"Alright, come along, Potter," Hooch said. "The rest of you stay here and don't touch your brooms till I get back."

Hermione shot him a torn look, since she'd technically just been ordered to stay there. Harry waved at her with his right hand (since that shoulder was fine) and mouthed, "Don't worry."

She sighed and nodded.

As Hermione trudged back to her classmates, Zacharias Smith reached down and plucked something out of the grass. "It looks like Longbottom forgot something," he said, then chuckled at his own joke. "Anyone need a Remembrall?"

"I know exactly what to do with it!" Sophie Roper said from the Ravenclaw side of the pitch.

"Then have fun!" Smith shouted as he tossed her the sphere.

Hitting a falling Neville without hitting Harry had been hard enough, and hitting a small glass sphere flying away from her was just not going to happen. However, Sophie had to stay still to catch the sphere, which meant Hermione knew exactly where her target was going to be.

A moment after Sophie caught the sphere in her hands, she caught a Disarming Charm straight in the chest. Hermione's Disarming Charms were nowhere near as effective as Harry's and the girl didn't move at all, but the Remembrall did fly from her hands and back toward Hermione. The anaemic nature of her spell meant the sphere hit the ground about ten yards from Hermione and rolled for another few feet before stopping.

Roper screamed, "You piece of trash!" and drew her wand, but hesitated to cast when she saw Hermione's wand levelled directly at her chest.

Several of the other Ravenclaws gasped. Mandy Brocklehurst, Lisa Turpin, Stephen Cornfoot, and Michael Corner stepped up next to Roper and drew their own wands.

"You're going to pay for that, Granger," Roper said.

This was not the sort of situation Hermione was comfortable in, so she decided to channel someone who would handle it with aplomb: Harry. "Pop quiz, Roper: what year is the Disarming Charm taught?"

"Um…Second. What's your point? You just read ahead a bit."

"My point is that if I can cast a Second Year spell, have you asked yourself what other spells I can cast?" Hermione shrugged. "It doesn't matter, I suppose. You'll find out soon enough if you start casting at me. Or you can walk away and we can end this right now. I didn't hurt you with that spell, Roper."

"Big talk from someone outnumbered five to one," Roper said.

Susan drew her wand. "Five to two, though I've seen her cast and she outnumbered you lot by herself."

Hannah stepped up next to Susan and drew her wand, but it was wavering.

Brocklehurst smirked. "Oh, is little Hannah sca—hey!"

"Five to four, Roper," Padma said as she jammed her wand into Brocklehurst's side.

Corner snorted. "You don't have the stones, Patil."

"She and Harry saved my sister's life," Padma replied calmly. "Cast and find out how I'll repay them."

From behind Hermione, Smith growled, "Get out of my way, Entwhistle."

"Nah," Kevin said. "I'm good."

"Do you think you can stop me?" he asked, reminding Hermione not to leave a potential hostile behind her.

"Nope," Kevin said, "but I don't think I'd be much of a Hufflepuff if I let you hex another one in the back."

"I wasn't—"

"Pull the other one, Smith," Kevin said. "It's got bells on. Now, why don't you put that wand away before you get hurt?"

"Are you threatening me, Entwhistle? You can barely cast a spell."

"Nope," Kevin said again, popping the 'p.' "That'd be Megan threatening you."

"Urk!" Smith said. Hermione didn't dare turn around, no matter how amusing that sounded.

"Be a good little boy and drop the wand," Megan said. "Or don't. I didn't like you, anyway." She paused. "Oh, fine, be like that."

"I've got his wand," Kevin said.

Hermione started walking slowly toward the Remembrall, never taking her eyes off the Ravenclaws. "What's it going to be, Roper?" she asked. "I just want my friend's Remembrall back. Do I need to fight you for it?"

Roper put her wand down. "Fine, just take the stupid thing. Longbottom probably needs it to remember which end of his wand is the front."

A few of the Ravenclaws with her laughed.

"And you, Patil," she said. "You made a mistake today." As she spoke, Hermione grabbed the Remembrall.

"I don't think I did," Padma said as she put her wand back in her robes. "If you decide to come after me because of this, Harry bloody Potter is going to find you and curse you so far into the ground that they'll be using your arse as a tulip planter."

Roper paled a little, but hid it well. Brocklehurst and Corner weren't as subtle with their concern. "I thought that article said the books were all made-up," Brocklehurst said. "And…I mean, Potter's in Hufflepuff."

"The books were made-up," Padma said. "You see, the Harry in the books is nice."

"Wait, what?" Roper asked.

"I thought you said he was your friend," Cornfoot added.

"Harry Potter is a fundamentally good person, has nerves of mithril, a horrifying pain tolerance, spellcasting power that would scare a Second Year, spent the last few months being trained by Sirius Black, and he's not nice," Padma said. "He's bloody terrifying." She smiled. "And after all of that, the Hat still thought he was such a good, loyal friend that it put him in Hufflepuff." Her smile turned vicious. "So, go ahead and curse me. I'm curious what a boy like that will do to you for hurting one of his friends. I'll probably learn something new…and I'll bet Madam Pomfrey will, too."

With that, Padma turned her back on the five of them and walked away, and not a soul hexed her.

They all kept an uneasy eye on each other until Madam Hooch returned alone. "Mr. Longbottom is being kept in the infirmary for observation," she said, "and Mr. Potter has opted to remain there to keep an eye on him. You're all dismissed for the day while I run some Diagnostic Charms on all of these useless fu—brooms and try to figure out if any more are going to behave badly."

"Thank you," Hermione said while the rest of the class still looked confused. "I'm going to go check on the boys." She shouldered Harry and Neville's bags and strode off back toward the castle, only slowing down when Hannah called out to her to wait.

Hermione turned around and found all of the other Hufflepuff girls rushing after her, along with Kevin and Padma.

"Where do you think you're going, young lady?" Hannah asked, pretending to be stern. "You're a Hufflepuff now, which means you're not going to check on your friends by yourself."

"Oh, thank you," Hermione said. "I didn't want to assume—"

"You're not assuming anything," Susan told her. "We're your friends, so we're going with you."

"I'll help with the bags, too," Kevin said, holding out a hand. She passed him Neville's bag with a grateful smile.

Megan cocked her head in Padma's direction. "I take it from earlier that she's with you?"

Padma's face dropped, but Hermione said, "She's with me."

"Thank you," Padma said as they all started walking again. "I didn't want to be presumptive about claiming to be Potter's friend, but I didn't want to get hexed, either."

"You're absolutely our friend," Hermione said, "even if you're hiding from us."

"Hiding?" Sally-Anne asked. "Why?"

"Because they're terrifying," Padma said.

Kevin furrowed his brows. "Why do people keep saying that about Harry? He's always been really nice to me and I've never seen him do anything scary besides mess with Malfoy."

The rest of them stared at him.

"What did I say?" he asked.

Hermione sighed. "Those boys. They didn't tell you anything at all about Harry, did they?"

"Well, he mentioned he was a half-blood who grew up with muggles, but that he's going to be the Lord Potter," Kevin replied.

"That's all true," Hermione said, "but he's also a celebrity."

"What."

They all took turns filling Kevin in on Harry's history as they walked. By the time they made it to the castle, his eyes were as wide as saucers. "So you're telling me the boy I thumb-wrestled for bed choice is rich, famous, heroic, and alleged to have killed a Dark Lord when was a baby?"

"Yes," Hermione said, "but that last one was his parents. Neither he nor I have the foggiest idea why people think it was him."

"Well…um…everyone says it was him," Hannah said.

Hermione shrugged. "Facts don't care how many people know about them. The entire world could say Harry defeated Old Mouldy by throwing a dirty diaper at him, but that wouldn't make it true."

All of the wizarding children stopped walking and stared at her.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"Did you," Susan said, "just call He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named 'Old Mouldy'?"

"Yes, I did," Hermione said. "Why not? I'm a muggleborn. If he comes back, I'll be at the top of his hit list, anyway. There's no sense kowtowing to his made-up name just so he'll kill me a week or two later."

Susan blanched, but said nothing.

"They want to kill Kevin and me?" Sally-Anne asked. "But…why? I can barely figure this magic stuff out. I'm no threat to them."

"You are, though," Hermione said as she continued walking. "Fundamentally, you're every bit as good as they are, and every breath you take gives the lie to their claims of blood superiority. That's why they have to kill you. Your mere existence proves how stupid their idea of social hierarchy is."

"That's a good point," Hannah said. "I'm still not sure I'm brave enough to call He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named names, though."

"Me, neither," Padma said.

Sally-Anne shrank back a little. "I'm never going to be as good as you are. Do you think I should give up magic and hide? I don't want to die."

"Definitely not," Hermione said. "You can get every bit as good as I am with some work, and you can't really hide. My parents asked about that and Sirius said the people who gave up magic and tried to hide from the magical world were the first who died last time."

"That's true," Susan said. "The Death Eaters had a source in the Ministry office that handles that sort of thing."

"That's horrifying!" Sally-Anne said. "I…I had no idea."

"They were a nasty bunch," Megan said. "They claimed to promote Pureblood culture, but all they really did was murder us. At the end of the day, they were just a bunch of thugs."

Hermione thought she was going to need some help to open the huge Hogwarts doors when she got there, but something about the school's magic must have recognized her because they swung open with barely any effort on her part. Magic really was amazing, even if some small-minded people forgot that in their focus on hatred.

"I think I remember the prefects saying the Hospital Wing was just up the Grand Staircase from the Entrance Hall," Hermione said. "Let's try up there."

"I trust your memory," Hannah said. "And envy it."

"Same here," Sally-Anne said. Megan nodded.

Padma grinned. "To me, it just makes her a worthy opponent."

"Ravenclaws," Megan said with a chuckle.

Hermione laughed as they climbed the Grand Staircase. Just to the right of the top of the staircase was a copper fountain of a unicorn spewing water from its horn into a stone basin below it, and beyond that a pair of large wooden doors with "Hospital" carved into the lintel above them.

These doors required more effort to push open than the main doors had, but it still wasn't too bad and Hermione was able to push one open herself. The hospital wing turned out to comprise mostly one long room, with white-curtained beds spaced evenly on both sides. Only two seemed to be occupied, both on the right as she faced them and most of the way down the hall.

A grey-haired matron in a reassuringly clean white apron and crimson dress rushed up to them as they made their way into the hall. "Good morning," she said. "I'm Madam Pomfrey, the Hogwarts Matron. Are you here to see Mr. Potter and Mr. Longbottom?"

They all nodded.

"Very well, but you're not to disturb their healing, especially Mr. Longbottom!" she said. "So stay away from his legs and Mr. Potter's shoulder."

"We will," Hermione said, and the others either said some variant of that or nodded again.

"Good, then follow me," Pomfrey said, and led them down the hall.

Harry waved as Madam Pomfrey led most of his yearmates over. Neville waved, too, but he was still flat on his back and couldn't see them yet.

Hermione made it until the group was about five yards away before sprinting over and wrapping her left arm around Harry. She held out her other hand to Neville, who reached over and gave her hand a squeeze.

Madam Pomfrey glared at her. "You need to be more careful in the Hospital Wing, Miss. You could injure a patient hugging them that hard."

"Oh!" Hermione released her hug immediately. "Are you alright, Harry? I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"I'm perfectly fine," he said. "I was just keeping poor Nev company."

"Don't mind me," Neville said. "I'm just laying here waiting for the Skelegro to kick in."

Hermione blushed, but before she could say anything, Neville continued. "I'm just kidding. Thank you for helping Harry save me back there. I could have been really hurt or killed."

"I'm just glad you're safe…that you're both safe," Hermione said. "I didn't know you'd ever been on a broom, Harry. Your flying terrified me."

"I haven't," Harry said. "I just tried to make it work."

All of the Wizarding children stared at him.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Can he be on our Quidditch team?" Hannah asked.

"I think there's a rule that Firsties can't be," Susan said.

"Oh, thank Merlin," Padma said. "I'd like Ravenclaw to be in contention for a year before Harry takes over Quidditch."

"I'll worry about Quidditch later," Harry said. "I have plenty of other things to keep busy with right now, like Defence Practice and playing catch with Neville."

"I am not a quaffle," Neville said.

"Hmmm…" Megan furrowed her brows in thought, "you could theoretically practice both Defence and Quidditch if you used Longbottom as a bludger."

"I am really not a bludger," Neville added.

"No one is going to use Neville as sporting equipment," Hermione said firmly.

"Moving on," Susan said, "how are you feeling, Longbottom?"

"Like I have splinters all through my lower leg and ankle," he said, "but at least it hurts less now than it did then. Also, I can't get the taste of the Skele-Gro out of my mouth."

Pomfrey sighed. "It will fade in time, like I said. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. Mr. Potter is free to go on his own recognizance, but Mr. Longbottom will need to stay till supper while the potion works."

Hermione looked at Harry and they nodded to one another. "May I," she said, "have one of these spare beds, then? We'd like to stay here."

Pomfrey shrugged. "If you'd like, I don't see any harm in it. There's not likely to be much call for the beds this early in the year."

"Thank you," Harry said as the matron walked away. She nodded politely.

"We'll need a plan for lunch, then," Susan said.

"You don't have to stay," Hermione said.

"Of course we do," Susan said. "We need to stick together. That could have been any of us on that broom."

"Oh," Hannah said, "and don't forget to give him his Remembrall back."

"Right!" Hermione fished it out of her pack and handed it to him. The ball briefly filled with red smoke as she handed it to him.

"Thank you!" Neville said. "Gran would be upset with me if I lost it. What did you forget, though? You never forget anything."

She shrugged. "I've no idea."

Padma smirked. "It was probably the fact that she nearly duelled half of my House to get it."

"And Smith, too," Kevin added.

"What?" Harry asked, trying to keep the concern out of his voice. Everyone except Hermione and Neville flinched from his tone, so he probably failed that one.

"Harry!" Hermione said sharply.

"I'm sorry," he said to them.

"I told you he was terrifying," Padma whispered to Kevin.

Harry wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"Everything's fine," Susan said soothingly, then provided a quick summary of what had happened after Hooch had left with Harry and Neville.

"So," Harry said after she finished, "who do I need to harm?"

"Harry!" Hermione said again.

"Oh, right, sorry," he said. "Whom do I need to harm?"

"That's not what I…I mean, yes, it is 'whom', but…argh!" She pulled at her bushy hair in frustration. "No harming anyone!"

"Are you sure?" he asked. "I don't want them hurting you, either."

"They're not Death Eaters," Hermione replied. "They're just bullies. You can't go taking someone's head off because they hex me, even if I end up with a broken bone or two. Remember what Sirius said."

"I know, I know," Harry said. "I just don't want to see you get hurt. What if it's worse?"

"Do you think I like seeing you here?" she asked. "My heart stopped out there on the pitch! But I'm not going to go hex Madam Hooch into next week just because she didn't take good enough care of her brooms."

"Hermione's right," Susan said. "If anyone attacks you, respond proportionately and no more. If anything serious happens, we reach out to the Aurors and let them handle it."

"You're right," Harry said. "It's just…what about Smith? We have to live with him and he was going to hex Hermione in the back."

Megan nodded. "That's definitely not fair play."

"Hmmm…" Padma screwed up her brows in thought, then smiled. "I have an idea. Abbott, I'm going to need your help."

"Gladly!" Hannah said. "What do you want to do?"

"Well, someone needs to bring lunch here once lunch period starts," Padma said. "We're just going to make a stop on the way."

"I'll help," Kevin said. "You'll probably need more hands to carry everything."

"I will, too," Susan said.

"Thank you!" Hermione said. "Would you like help?"

"No, no, you stay here," Padma said. "We'll handle this. Till then, though…" she gestured expansively at the empty Hospital Wing. "We have a huge, quiet, empty room to ourselves. It's a perfect place to study."

Megan snorted. "Ravenclaws." Hannah, Susan, Kevin, and Harry laughed.

Sally-Anne shrugged. "We don't have anything else to do, do we?"

Everyone else jumped a little. Susan put her hand on her heart and said, "I'm sorry, I forgot you were there."

"I didn't know Perks was there at all," Neville said. "I'm sorry I missed you, Perks."

"It's OK," she said. "I tend to fade into the wall."

"No," Hermione said, "it's not OK. You're our friend and we don't want to forget you."

"I'm just glad you let me hang out with you," Sally-Anne said. "Everyone in public school thought I was strange because weird things happened around me."

"I understand," Kevin said.

"Just stick with us," Harry added. "You can be the 'normal' one in our group."

She blinked. "Really? I've never been the normal one."

Megan clapped her on the back, startling her. "There's a first time for everything!"