The Chariot DRARRY

The Chariot- Chapter 1

Chapter One - The Readings

The pressure of course work to be handed in, was weighing heavily on the minds of many of the sixth year students in the Gryffindor common room, one evening in January. Harry and Ron were slowly wading through their essay piles for the NEWTs they had decided to take on in their sixth year. They had received a list of subjects in the summer, along with their OWL results. Harry had miraculously managed eight OWLs and had been more than stunned to see he had in fact received and Outstanding for Potions. Ron had also done well, and had excitedly ''Fellytoned'' Harry with his results. He had gone on to say how it would be great if they both took the same subjects for their NEWTs, as both of them had shown some interest in becoming Aurors after school. Harry had listened to Ron's voice with a slightly detached mind. He wasn't sure if he would even be alive ''after school'', but concluded that he needed to learn as much as he could. The subjects Ron had been suggesting would provide very useful to him - hopefully.

He snapped out of his reverie, as Ron waved a bit of parchment in front of his face. He was holding a small list of credit options, that held a five percent mark towards their NEWTs. It was to be a class that was unrelated to their existing subjects and the students could decide which class they wanted to take for it. Harry hunched over and browsed through them. Hermione had chosen to do an Ancient Runes class, as it was not one of her chosen NEWT subjects. Ron raised his eyebrows and was obviously looking for the easiest option from the list.

'Divination Harry and it's going to be taken by Trelawney. We could make up a lot of crap and she would never know.'

Harry shrugged, 'you don't know what she is going to set us Ron. It could be anything. Palmistry, Numerology, I dunno.'

Ron shook his head, ' nah, has to be easier than all these other so-called options. I don't think much of them, tell you that for nothing.'

Hermione sighed, looking up from her the book she was reading. ' You two honestly', she shook her head and Ron grinned at her.

'Yeah? What?' he gave her a cheeky grin and bent forward over her chair, placing a light kiss on her lips.

Hermione smiled softly and returned his kiss. Harry took the parchment out of Ron's hands and went back to looking at the list. Ron and Hermione had got together during the first term. Ron had given her a box of chocolates for her birthday and then come the Halloween feast - he had decided to seize the day and told Hermione that he ''sort of liked her''. Harry recalled Ron telling him, that Hermione had looked at Ron suspiciously and asked what he had exactly meant by that. Ron, surprising himself, had kissed Hermione in answer. Harry had quickly cut the conversation off, saying he could gather what had come next.

It had been strange at first seeing them together as a couple, but they looked very happy and Harry was glad for his two best friends.

'You're right Ron,' Harry finally looked up from the list.' Lets do Divination. What's the worst thing she can ask us to do?'

A week later Ron and Harry were sitting in the North Tower, in the stifling hot room that was still Professor Trelawney's teaching abode. There were a large mixture of students from all the four houses, and Harry and Ron had not had a class with a few of them before.

' Looks like we weren't the only ones who thought Divination would be a piece of cake,' Ron muttered.

Harry looked around. He had never seen this room so packed, and it still had more people filtering in. He looked up as Malfoy came in with Blaise Zabini and took a seat near the window.

Ron gave Malfoy a look of loathing as he passed by, but it seemed to go unnoticed by the Slytherin. In fact Harry suddenly realised, he hadn't had much contact with Malfoy at all since the new year had started.