Harry Potter and His New Standards

* Chapter 5 - Snape's Discontent, Ron's Opinion, And Holly's Ever-Changing Attitude *

(A/N: I only just realized that in the... first chapter I said Holly had hair "all the way down to her shoulders" and I correct myself-ELBOWS. I tell you I can be just ridiculously brain-dead at times... although this isn't really a MAJOR FACTOR in the story I'm sure I've messed some of those up toooooo...)

Holly tapped her fingers on the desk in a drumming pattern with her head rested in her other hand. She gazed in the general direction of the corner of the room, and by the slightly unfocused and wary look in her eyes, Harry figured she was looking at the air versus something solid.

"Er, Holly, I wanted to tell you that-" Harry was cut off as footsteps echoed through the dungeon, reverberating off the walls. That would be taken as the assurance that Professor Snape had just entered the room. There was a still silence.

Snape prowled up to the front of his room and sat behind his desk and it seemed the entire class was watching him with bated breath. It was then when he began to call out the names of the students on the list. He had only gone one name when he came to Holly's. "Holly Black?"

Holly slowly raised her hand in the air, as though she realized he hadn't said the name the same as he said everyone else's. Harry was shocked to see the look of hatred on Snape's face being directed at someone other than himself. Holly put her hand down as her eyes widened timidly. "Ah yes, you would be Sirus' daughter?"

"That's right," she said, her voice staying firm and steady although she looked about ready to run.

"Ah, his only heir, close with that of his best friend... how touching," Snape said. He seemed about to sneer, but he still looked venomous as he had never looked before. He looked from Harry and back to Holly. Harry saw, out of the corner of his eye, Holly's fingers pressing against her palm, one by one, as her hand clenched into a tight fist. He caught her eye and shook his head, seeing that she was fighting the impulse to say something.

Snape stared at the two of them for a few moments before going back to the list. When he was finished he stood up and walked to the front of his desk, speaking quietly in the same voice he always spoke in. "For those of you," he said, glancing at Holly, "whom are not familiar with this school and it's rules," he paused. "I am Professor Snape, and I teach the art of Potions. I seriously doubt that any of you would be unwise enough to cross me and break my rules because I believe that those who wish not to abide know the consequences."

Harry was amazed that Snape could somehow look at both he and his godsister at the same time. It certainly was odd. There was a deadly tense silence that filled the room as Snape ceased to speak. He glared at the children of two of his great past-enemies and then moved silently to the board and began to write ingredients. "Today we will be working on a Quenching Concoction. Could anyone tell me what this is?"

Hermione raised her hand, Holly clenched her fist tighter, and Draco Malfoy drawled the answer out of turn. "A potion made to substitute water when there isn't any accessible," he said, sitting back in his chair.

"Correct, Mr. Malfoy! 10 points to Slytherin," Snape said, smiling icily at Malfoy. He turned back to the blackboard and finished writing the ingredients. "Could you tell me who first created the Quenching Concoction?"

Hermione's hand went into the air again but it seemed Malfoy had no answer for this one. Snape waited nearly 10 seconds for another person to raise their hand or give some show of knowing the answer but there was no sign of recognition except for Hermione's hand in the air.

"Miss Black?" Snape said with cunning enmity.

"Theonick Tenfellow, also known as Theo the Thirsty invented the potion in 1345 when stranded in the Australian Outback with his wand and a backpack," Holly said, leaning back, crossing her arms, and only barely narrowing her eyes.

"Don't act as though you know everything this school has to offer, Black... you are much like your father in that way... ignorant with his cleverness and willing to show it off - and I'm sorry to say that this isn't an admirable quality you have inherited," Snape said. Hermione put down her hand. Harry knew that Holly was right but Snape didn't say so - and there were no points given to Gryffindor.

"I will give you 60 minutes to work on your potion and we will test one out at the end of the hour. Open your textbook by Dimitri Drafting for the directions. Your time starts... now."

Everyone stood up at their desks and started bustling around, starting fires under their cauldrons or finding the correct ingredients in their potion kits. "Holly, do you have an extra cup of gatwarcrocs I could use? I'm out," Harry asked.

"Yeah, sure, take some," Holly mumbled, pointing her wand a bit viciously at her cauldron and filled it to the brim with sand. Harry tapped his wand on her cauldron and the sand level receded to half its size. She looked up at him, showing little virulence, which he took as a 'thank you'.

"What the fuck is his problem?" Holly muttered heatedly as she jabbed her wand vigorously at the base tray her cauldron sat in. With a great flash of light a tower of pink flames that shot straight up to the stone ceiling engulfed her cauldron. "SHIT!" she yelled, but with the sudden roar of the fire no one but Harry and Ron heard her.

Ron put the fire out with an opposite gush of electric blue flames and they all sat in a state of unspoken shock for a couple seconds before they got back to work, Holly rather more cautious than before.

"What was that you conjured there, Black?" Snape questioned as he glided over to them.

"An infestation of pit-less pineapples, Professor," she said, not looking him in the eye and busying herself with running her finger down the directions in her textbook.

"Don't use that sarcasm with me, Miss Black... you're toeing the line," he said sounding presageful. "5 points from Gryffindor - that's your warning."

Holly took the time to look up at Snape, only equaling his look of hatred with her own. Snape strode away and Holly began to cut up her Disrighly stems in fury. "This is the point in my dream where I usually wake up screaming," Holly said.

"He's not this evil all the time-" Ron began.

"And the world joins in on a collective sigh of relief," she mumbled, dropping her slaughtered Disrighly stems into her cauldron one by one.

"He's holding a schoolboy grudge against you, Holly, that's all," Ron said. Holly dropped her last Disrighly stem into her cauldron and looked up at him.

"Who did he hate? My mom or dad?" she asked, half-knowingly.

"Well, your dad for sure... explain, Harry."

Harry launched into the story of Sirus, James, and Remus (he didn't mention Peter) all loathing Snape. "It was a mutual relationship," injected Ron. Harry continued to tell her about the trick Sirus played on Snape, James saving his life, and only grazed the fact that Lupin was a werewolf, for he wasn't sure if she knew or not. But she seemed to overlook that, giving him the impression she already knew what he was. Harry tried hard not to make it sound like his dad was some kind of hero of a sinister scheme cooked up by Sirus... but he soon found out that it truly wouldn't have mattered.

"I have the coolest dad ever..." Holly said, with a small smile. Ron and Harry snickered at her, but Hermione seemed to be keeping herself out of the flow of conversation, concentrating hard on her Quenching Concoction.

"You know," said Ron a bit later, "you should just try and ignore him, Holly. Don't let him get to you."

"Ah... not enough Aspirin in the modernized Muggle countries of the world, Ron, my dear..." Holly said in an air of Einstein's equal only commenting on the weather.

A while later, Snape stopped prowling the classroom and stopped next to Harry, Holly, Ron, and Hermione. "Time's up! You should be done with your potions now..." he said. "And now, to pick two lucky students to test theirs..."

Harry was quite sure he knew who the so-called 'lucky students' would be. He watched as Snape pulled two small beakers out of his robes and dipped one into each Harry and Holly's potions.

"You test each other's... if you have managed to make them correctly, you will each be left, unscathed. If otherwise... we can only guess the results," he said, smiling nastily.

They snatched the beakers out of Snape's hands. The potion was a pearly kind of turquoise and looked very little like water, which it was supposed to readily replace. Holly chanced a half-glance at Harry, and nearly at the same time they began to drink each other's Quenching Concoctions. They shuddered involuntarily - it seemed colder than ice.

After gulping down their drafts, they looked at each other and smiled. "Cold, that was," Harry said, handing Snape back his beaker.

"Yeah..." Holly shivered as she handed Snape the other beaker. Snape looked creepily disappointed. He turned his backs on the pair and strode back up towards his desk as the bell rang. "Homework!" he said. "Compose me a studied report on Quenching Concoctions and related substances. To be handed in to me next lesson. One roll of parchment. You may go."

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Holly cleaned and gathered up their things as fast as they could before proceeding to the door. "Always evil," Ron said, shaking his head.

"At least we didn't have to talk to Malfoy," Harry mumbled.

"At least...ha!" Holly said. Harry now looked at her, and realized he had been waiting for her to absolutely explode as soon as they were out of Snape's hearing range. "That would have nearly made that class more enjoyable! Snape... soul-less bastard as he is... I have not an ounce of liking towards him. NOTHING! I've only known him for a couple hours, in a matter of speaking."

"Well it's nice to see you follow your judgement," Hermione said. Holly fumed.

It was then when Ron voiced something he had been thinking since Holly's last comments. "You're still liking Malfoy...?"

"No I don't like him, Ron. Oh, no. He's just 'Sinisterly Sexy' if you ask me... what's it to you? Am I making you-" she paused, "Never mind."

Ron looked suspicous for a second before replying. "What's it to me? Only the fact that the entire Malfoy family hates mine and we have a fine deep-seated loathing to give back to them! They're nothing but trouble, Holly, you should draw your mind away from Malfoy before he notices you goggling at him and uses his ol' long pale-faced BEAUTY to suck you in..."

"What are you on about? I never said I was interested... besides! Most girls must notice that - well - some kind of quality about him."

"Pampered and spoiled sort of qualities?" inserted Ron.

"No I'm talking looks, Ron, looks. I think you're just jealous," she snapped.

"Me? Jealous of Draco Malfoy? Do we realize who we're talking about here?! I am far from ever feeling the need to be treated like You-Know-Who's future left-hand. I'd rather live my life with you Miss Holly than be foul and evil like pale ickle Malfoy," he replied.

Holly mumbled something and glanced at Ron, looking awkward. She broke off and tightened her grip on her book-bag until her knuckles were white. When they reached the common room and clambered inside it was pretty empty. Being they had a couple days until all their homework was due, everyone took a nice break in armchairs around the fire or ran up to their dormitories. Harry and Ron played chess, and Hermione watched. Holly had run upstairs and came back down with 4 rolls of parchment and her books before plopping down in a wooden chair at one of the round tables and started working, scribbling on the parchment a little haphazardly, now fuming, as Harry supposed, for two reasons.

It wasn't until half an hour passed and everyone got up and left for supper when Holly was bothered. Ginny and Hermione approached her table where she was on her final roll of parchment, furiously scribbling something about Ancient Runes. "Hi, Holly, what are you doing?" Ginny asked cautiously.

"I'm havin' a toga party," she replied, not looking up.

"You're lying," said Ginny with a small smile.

"Damn you're good," Holly replied, sounding pretty monotone. She still didn't look up.

"Our last class was potions - you know how Snape hates her dad. Then she had a little run-in with your brother about, Malfoy. Long story... I'll tell you after supper," Hermione whispered to Ginny. Ginny nodded.

"Look, why don't you come down to supper with us? You're going to be hungry..." Hermione said. Holly glanced up at them before looking back down, rather quickly.

"No, I don't need any..." she said in the same heartless voice.

"We don't have to sit by Harry and Ron," Ginny added, sounding a bit angry. Holly looked up at them briefly as she finished her paragraph.

"Fine, I'll finish this later..." she said, rolling up the parchment and book-marking her page with her quill.

She stood up and followed Hermione and Ginny out of the portrait hole and down to the Great Hall with a few last-minute stragglers. As they made it there they slunk along to the end of the table, far from Harry and Ron, and took their seats.

~ MEANWHILE WHERE HARRY & RON ARE SEATED ~

"Maybe they decided not to come-?" Ron said, awkwardly.

"Maybe Holly's pissed at you?"

"Why?"

"I don't know, she's a girl! They're all like this!" Harry said, shaking his head. It was a long-prevailing unknowingness with Harry, Ron, and the explanation of girls.

"Maybe it's because she's an American?" Ron implied.

"No - well - maybe, but it's probably just because she's a girl," Harry said, nodding as though to agree with himself.

Ron sighed. "Well we don't know she's pissed at me!"

But he only just caught Harry mumbling something like "You might not..." and pretended not to hear him.

It was then that Dumbledore stood up from his golden seat at the Head Table. Silence fell and he looked around at the students. "Now we may, in a matter of speaking, celebrate the first day of school being done and over! Although, for those of you dreading to re-fill your brain with useful information, we just may perceive this as an omen that the facile part is passing." He smiled and some students grimaced knowing that this was fact.

"Too true," Ron said, along with those wincing as though a sharp pain had just shot through them. "Now we're just sliding down the hill with homework whacking us in the face."

"A good way to put it," said Harry smiling and shaking his head before looking back up at Professor Dumbledore.

He smiled around at them all. "Like I said before, this looks like a promising year, and I hope you all live it to the fullest - although, for those of you attempting to writhe your way out of homework with this advice - it's not working." He laughed at their unsmiling faces. "Dig in."

They began eating their food that wasn't nearly as savory as that present at the Welcoming Feast, but delicious all the same.

"Hey, Harry, what do you think of that whole Romirity charm stuff we're going to use in Divination?" Ron asked.

"Looks interesting - probably a bit more reliable than the... er... prodigious stories Professor Trelawney feeds us," he replied. "What do you think?" Ron shrugged.

"I think it sounds scary! What if you see flashes of terrible things happening to you later in life? You might see yourself dying!" Neville said, eyes popping.

"Oh, Neville, don't be a prat! Besides, you only see little things... and if you see yourself dyin' at least you know you're human for the rest of your life! All I care is that I don't die a virgin," Seamus said, looking panicky. They laughed at him.

"Sure, Seamus, you're at a loss there," Dean said, between sniggers. "Anyway, you might see good things in store for yourself too, Neville! Maybe you'll conquer a country at war or something..." Neville grinned as though he seriously doubted this.

~ FURTHER DOWN THE TABLE ~

"Come on, some girl other than me has to think Malfoy is cute!" Holly said in a pleading voice. She had just willingly explained the entire Malfoy-Ron situation to her fellow 6th-year-girls and Ginny.

There was a short pause before Parvati said, "Well, he isn't totally, unfortunate..." with a smirk.

"No, now that you mention it, he is pretty well-favored," said Lavender thoughtfully.

"But, trust me, Holly, once you get to know him he won't be very handsome anymore," Hermione said in a warning voice.

"Probably not," Ginny agreed. Holly sighed.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Oh well, then. May my mind change when he decides it's my turn to be sneered at," she said.

They finished up and made their way back to the common room. Harry and Ron decided to get started on their Transfiguration homework, while Holly finished hers. Hermione had opened her copies of Fantastic Beasts & Where To Find Them, along with The Monster Book of Monsters. Holly was back to humming while she sat by the fire with Parvati, and Lavender, listening to them gossip.

"Where did you find that?" Ron asked Harry as he leaned over his paper, reading what he had written.

"Er... right here. The first Romirity charms were conjured on accident by sorcerer's who wished to See... yeah, right there," Harry replied.

"Thanks," Ron said. A while later as Harry rolled up his parchment and closed his book Ron sighed.

"Bugger, I hardly even have half a page and I've summed up the whole chapter," he grumbled, pushing a hair out of his eyes.

"Go to the library," Hermione suggested as she strode over to them, homework already finished.

"Nah... Harry?"

"Write what you think the charm might show you or something, tell her about how marvelous you think her classes are and how you've been looking forward to doing the Romirity charm ever since you signed up," Harry said, shrugging.

"Good idea!" Ron scribbled a few more sentences in his largest handwriting and said, "Finished."

Meanwhile where Lavender, Parvati, and Holly were sitting, Holly was more interested in humming than listening to the girls who just didn't seem to do anything but blether. "Millicent and Crabbe? Eurgh! Not happening but likely... ew!" Parvati said, blenching in horror.

By now, Holly was at the sorrowful point of singing out loud. "That's what girls do - They keep you guessing the whole day through - Play your emotions, Push all your buttons, its true - That's what - oh lord I'm singing a song from the Powerpuff Girls Movie."

"-Yes, that's right, I heard that Oliver Wood is playing for England now - "

Holly got up and wandered over to Hermione, Ginny, and Dean who were talking a ways away. "-Come on, Dean, Fred asked me to give them to someone and see what they think!" Ginny was protesting.

"Okay, I'll take one bite and if I croak it's your fault," he said, snatching a toffee out of her hand. He unwrapped it warily and bit into it. He chewed for a second then gagged, spitting it back out into his hand. "Wouldn't it just be easier to push a pillow over my face when I sleep?" he exclaimed, glaring at her, "What was that?"

"Um..." Ginny said, unfolding a letter, "They didn't give a name... oh wait... Mothball Munchies. Oh my..."

Holly and Hermione giggled. Seamus wrapped up the two pieces of the candy in its wrapper and left to dispose of it. Harry and Ron came over, and Harry watched as Holly cast a wary eye over in Ron's direction then busy herself with listening to Hermione and Ginny instead.

After about 10 minutes of sitting semi-silent in the group she left for bed. "What's up with her?" Ron asked. Ginny and Hermione glanced at each other.

"You should know," Ginny said.

"Well, I can't decipher the workings of the female mind, she being the hardest to understand thus far," Ron said going slightly red.

"You wouldn't have to be a genius to notice these things," Hermione said, rolling her eyes. Harry looked from Ginny, to Hermione, and back again. He was gaining a fair idea of what was happening. And, for a second, he thought Ron might have seen it too.

~ THE NEXT DAY ~

Holly was perfectly cheerful again as breakfast started the following morning, but she still only spoke to Ron when he had asked her a question, although at times her answers weren't always too straight forward. For example:

"Oi, Holly, what's wrong?!" Ron said angrily as she continued to sit, avoiding his eyes.

"Nothing," she replied quickly.

"Come on..." he urged.

"Fine, I think I'm falling in love with Seamus."

He gasped, "Really?"

"No, I'm lying. Why do you press me on these things?"

He grumbled. "Harry," said Hermione, "what classes do you have other than your core classes today?"

"Um... just Advanced Astronomy with Professor Sinistra," he replied, "And you?"

"Shaveire Studies with Professor Kelldome. I really do hope he's a good professor - it's a fascinating subject to study and I want to make it worthwhile."

"Right. Oh, good, we have Defense Against the Dark Arts first," Harry said, glancing over at Hermione's schedule. "Good thing Dumbledore convinced him to come and teach again... I wonder how many owls they've each gotten from maniac parents proposing he leaves in fear he might eat their kids..."

"Okay, Defense Against the Dark Arts with Lupin, Transfiguration with McGonagall, Charms with Flitwick, Advanced Astronomy with Sinistra... I'll get this down," Holly said before closing her eyes, trying to run it through her mind again. She attempted to keep eating while she repeated it to herself.

"Holly, you just dipped your pancake in your ketchup," Ron said. Her piece of pancake was almost to her mouth when she registered what he said.

"I did? YUCK!" she said, pulling her fork away from her mouth so fast that her pancake piece flung off the end of her fork, flew, and hit Ron in the face. Everyone near them burst out laughing, including Ron.

"Ron! I'm so sorry!" Holly gasped. She leaned across the table and took off the pancake that was stuck to his cheek and handed him a napkin to wipe off the ketchup. "Oh, Ron... you should have just let me eat it!"

Ron just shook his head and laughed. She was considerably warmer towards him after that, probably thinking that now she had flung breakfast food at him and got a big smudge of ketchup on his face, they were even.

As the Gryffindors walked into Professor Lupin's classroom he greeted them with a tired smile that was definitely cheerful all the same. They took their seats and he took attendance, looking up when each person raised their hand and smiling at them. It was definitely much better than Snape's greetings.

"Welcome to your first Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson of the year," he said benevolently. "As you all know, I'm Professor Lupin and I will be your teacher this year, and for all but one, this is the second time. Now, to get started. I'd like you to open your books to Chapter 12. That's on page 147, I believe." There was a rustle of pages being turned as everyone followed Lupin's directions. "Today we'll be doing a brief overlook on certain ways to block jinxes, curses, and hexes. In a second we'll all get in pairs... and I'll ask, hmmm... Lavender to assist me."

There was a great deal of people trying to catch each other's eyes and before even being asked, everyone had a partner. They went through the room, all reading a separate paragraph of their text, and when they had read through the chapter they all doubled up as Lavender walked to the front to stand next to Professor Lupin.

"Now that we're all partnered up, I'll show you the procedure. Lavender, do you know the Footer Hex?" Lupin said. She nodded, although she looked a bit panicky about hexing one of their professors. "Great," he said, smiling warmly down at her. "I want you to use that on me, and at first I'll let it hit me so those of the class who haven't seen it performed will know the affects. On the count of three - one, two, three!"

"Conveynos!" said Lavender.

"Now," said Professor Lupin. He bent his knees as if to spring up off the floor, but as he straightened out, his feet didn't leave the ground. There was a small break of laughter. "As you see," he said, grinning and letting the past-troublemaker look shine through, "my feet are magically attached to the floor. I can't even try and take off my shoes and run for it because the charm works straight through their soles. Could you take this off me, Miss Brown?"

"Oh! Yes, of course - Mobilera!" Lavender said, rushing to take the hex off of Lupin. "Thank you. For all unfriendly spells to do with the feet, knees, legs, and excetra a person must point their wand at whichever they choose to hit, obviously. If the - er - offender chooses to use one of these spells they will obviously be pointing at the lower part of your body. There is one counter to block them all, and it's called the Subjacent Shield. You just point your wand straight down, towards your feet, and say "Soobellenta!" Can you repeat that?"

The class echoed the incantation. Lupin and Lavender did an example, and as Lupin conjured up his Subjacent Shield, Lavender's Footer Hex rebounded off of it and hit her instead. Lupin took the spell off her and turned to the rest of the class.

Lupin cleared the desks away with his wand and had the partners stand a few feet in front of either wall facing each other. "Now, on the count of three I want the people on this side," he motioned to the line on his left, "to perform a jinx to the lower-part of your partner's body, nothing hurtful, to see if they can block it. Dean and Parvati, could you two switch off with Lavender, here? Thank you..."

"On three-" stated Lupin, "one, two, three!" There was a great deal of noise after that. Ron accidentally aimed his Leg-Locker curse at Harry's upper-body and now both of his lower-arms were stuck together and onto the top of his head. Neville said his incantation wrong and instead of creating a shield against Seamus' Knee-Quaking Jinx he made it veer off to the right in an arc, and it hit Ron in the hip causing him to being doing something that resembled the a very uncoordinated hula dance.

Hermione's Subjacent Shield was only partly done forming so when Holly's High-Kick Hex hit the edge of it, it ricocheted off and hit Holly full on in the stomach and flung her violently back at the wall. Dean's Jelly-Leg Curse somehow backfired so both he and Parvati were wobbling around the room. With the chaotic state that resulted from Lupin trying to teach them a simple shielding spell - they felt as like 12-year-old, inapt students all over again.

When Professor Lupin had reversed everything that went wrong, they had another go and it went better that time. After plenty of practice until the entire class had mastered the Subjacent Shield spell, and plenty of spells to muddle others' lower body. They left the classroom having to no homework.

In Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall was teaching them how to transfigure canaries into candles. Hermione made 6 scented candles without a flaw in their shape or size. The closest Harry managed to turning his canary into a candle was a lumpy candlestick that squeaked. Holly's was perfect minus the fact the wax was molded into feathers. Ron's candle still had wings. At the end of the class Professor McGonagall gave them a 2 worksheets to be handed in next Monday.

In the corridor on their way back to the common room for morning break, the candle slipped out of Ron's grasp and they spent 5 minutes running and jumping after it, attempting to recapture it. "You could just use a Summoning Charm, you know," said Hermione, jogging behind Harry, Holly, and Ron.

"Yeah, we could, but what's the fun in that?" said Ron after making a wild snatch at his winged candle. In the end he was the one who caught it, being he had the longest legs and arms. He allowed Hermione to transfigure it into a proper wax candle in the common room before lunch.

In charms Professor Flitwick taught the class Shrinking Charms. "Repeat after me - Diminius Abiate!" The class followed the suit of the incantation. After he taught them the wrist movements, they began.

To their amazement, it wasn't chaos. They all managed to shrink their boxes, as it was asked of them, but not all to the correct size of 2 inches high. Each time Neville's hit 3 inches and he attempted to reduce it just one more inch in size, it would blow up to 4 feet tall. When Lavender tried to show him that he was doing the wrist movement wrong and how to correct himself, he managed to abate her!

She squeaked at him in a high-pitched pixie-like rage for a while before Professor Flitwick managed to make his way over to them and put Lavender back to her normal size.

After Charms they split up to go to their new 3rd electoral class. Ron proceeded to Warlock Literature lessons, Hermione left for Shaveire Studies, and Harry and Holly made their way to Advanced Astronomy accompanied by Neville.

"Do you know who we're having these classes with?" he asked.

Harry pulled his schedule out of his bag and checked. "7th year Gryffindors, 6th and 7th year Ravenclaws," he said, his eyes bulging slightly. "7th year Ravenclaws?" he thought frantically. "What if Cho is in this class?"

"That's different, do we usually have electoral classes with older or younger students?" Holly asked, curiously.

"No... I never have before, anyway..." said Harry, feeling nervous. They found their way to the classroom, which was just to the left of the stairs that led up to the top of the Astronomy Tower. Holly pushed open the door and Harry's stomach did a funny flip, but for no reason, as Cho wasn't in there. Harry and Neville chose to sit down behind to Jackie Demmor, a Gryffindor 7th year, and Head Girl. She flipped her blonde hair behind her shoulder and smiled at them as she allowed Holly to sit down next to her.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Holly asked, sounding concerned. She had obviously noticed how uncomfortable he looked.

"What? Oh - nothing," he said. Neville caught Holly's eye and they both looked as though they felt he wasn't being entirely truthful with them. A few minutes later, when class was about to start, Cho hadn't made an appearance, and Harry wasn't sure that he was disappointed or glad of this. Cho either would have made his 'love-problem' a complete nightmare, or would have helped him decide... he shook the thought out of his head and instead tried to look forward to the upcoming lesson.

(A/N: I'm not sure if it has ever been mentioned whether Professor Sinistra was a witch or a wizard, and I'm not sure if it's in my mind or not, but Sinistra has always been a female in my mind. Correct me if I'm wrong... but I guess that I started this now she'll remain a witch) Professor Sinistra entered and walked to the front of the rather small classroom. They could see the school grounds looking fresh with autumn out a large window that was on the wall behind her desk. "Welcome, class, to Advanced Astronomy," she said. She had only just started her small speech when the she paused, and looked up. "Miss Chang, where were you?"

Harry turned his head to face the doorway, and standing in it was none other than Cho Chang. His stomach did a strange series of flips when he looked at her. "I'm sorry, Professor, I was in the hospital wing picking up a dab of Scrape Solution for my knee," she said, walking forward and sitting on the left side of the classroom with the rest of the Ravenclaws. "Am I late?"

"Only just. To continue-" Professor Sinistra said. She told them about what they would be studying in her class, although it was pretty obvious, her grading scale, and out-of-class activities you had to take place in to earn a decent grade.

"Each of you will be having a partner that you will meet with from at a specified time at night in the Astronomy Tower to do various assignments once a week," she explained after she took attendance. "Your partner and your night of the week to use the tower will be assigned. Being that we have an even number of students in this class we will be able to access the tower on Sunday through Friday with your assignments. Good.

"Will all of the Ravenclaws tear off a small bit of parchment and write their name on it? I will be dropping your names into this container for the Gryffindors to draw out as partners... for a bit of inter-house friendship, let's hope." Each Ravenclaw dropped their folded shred of parchment into the cylindrical container Professor Sinistra was holding out to them as she made her way up and down the rows of desks. The desks were more or less small, rectangular tables with two chairs on one side. She walked up to the head of the first row of Gryffindors, which Harry was in the middle of next to Neville.

He was hardly listening as the students in front of him drew a fragment of parchment from the tin and read the name off of it. When it was finally Harry's turn to draw, he was debating between wishing with all his might that he got Cho's name or hoping against hope that he didn't. He found a bit of parchment blindly and pulled it out. "Terry Boot," he read. A pang of disappointment shot through him.

"Oh my, Neville, there's your name that you dropped back in, lucky Harry pulled it out right away," Professor Sinistra said. Harry handed the parchment in his hand to him.

"Thanks, Harry."

"Not a problem, Nev," Harry said as he reached into the tin, once again. He pulled out a new piece this time, unfolded it, and read the name. "Cho Chang." As soon as the words came out of his mouth his stomach did a more complicated gymnastic move than his previous series of flips.

He looked up at her and she smiled brilliantly, and he could feel the heat rising rapidly in his face and he grinned back. Professor Sinistra continued down the line and Harry just sat there staring at the name written on that bit of parchment, hardly daring to believe it. He could feel eyes on him so he glanced up to see Holly. As soon as she saw him looking back she raised and dropped her eyebrows a couple times quick and gave him a very wide, cheesy smile. As he felt himself going a bit red again Holly raised just one eyebrow and turned around, still grinning, knowing that her thoughts had been confirmed.

After Professor Sinistra gave them a seating chart so the partners would sit next to each other and assigned them their night to use the tower. Cho and Harry would go to the tower from 11:30 at night until half-past midnight on Thursdays and would be starting next week.

When the bell rang Cho and Harry finally got a brief moment to talk. They were exiting the classroom together when she said, "I was really hoping I would get you!"

"Th-thanks," he stammered, glancing down at his feet, not being able to keep eye contact for very long. They said their "good-byes" as they turned down separate corridors, and Holly, who had been partnered with Mandy Brocklehurst, caught up with him.

She cleared her throat to draw his attention to her. "And the plot thickens..." she said, grinning from ear to ear. And Harry couldn't help but internally agree with that statement.