Harry Potter and Claire Smith's Adventures: Book Four

First Day

Chapter 9: First Day

When the students woke up the next morning, they found that there had been no evidence that it rained the night before. The sky was a bright blue and birds tweeted happily. Claire, Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way to the Great Hall for breakfast that morning. As they sat down at the Gryffindor table, Professor McGonagall passed out their new course schedules.

"Today's not bad...outside all morning," Ron said, who was running his finger down the Monday column of his schedule. "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and Care of Magical Creatures...damn it, we're still with the Slytherins..."

"Double Divination this afternoon," Harry groaned, looking down.

"Ugh, why did summer have to end?" Claire laid her head on the table.

"You should have given it up like me, shouldn't you?" Hermione briskly, buttering herself some toast. "Then you'd be doing something sensible like Arithmancy."

"No thank you," Claire said. "I'd rather stare at a crystal ball all day than look at a series of numbers."

"You're eating again, I notice," Ron said, watching Hermione adding liberal amounts of jam to her toast too.

"I've decided there are better ways of making a stand about elf rights," Hermione said haughtily.

"Yeah...and you were hungry," Ron said, grinning.

Hermione glared at Ron.

"So, nice weather outside, isn't it?" Claire said, trying to prevent a fight between the two of them. "You can hardly tell that it was storming last night. Right, Harry?"

"Huh —ow! (Claire had kicked him in the shin.) —I mean, yeah, sure." Harry said, rubbing his shin and glaring at Claire.

"So, Claire, are you starting any of your higher level classes today?" Hermione asked.

Claire looked at her schedule. "Yep, I have Transfiguration first period with the sixth years, then Care of Magical Creatures with you three, and Double Divination with Harry and Ron."

"I wonder what you'll be learning in sixth year Transfiguration. Won't you be lost since you've skipped several years?" Hermione questioned.

Claire shrugged. "I don't know. When I talked to Professor McGonagall she said if I felt like I couldn't do it she'd put me back in fourth year classes. I should be fine though. I had Fred go over the work Professor McGonagall assigned to me over the summer that would catch me up to sixth year."

"Fred went over your work?" Hermione said in shock.

"Yeah, Professor McGonagall told him to. He had one of the highest scores on the O.W.L. exam." Claire said. "You know, just because Fred and George act like they're stupid doesn't mean they are. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head to class. See you all in Care of Magical Creatures."

Claire soon arrived in the Transfiguration classroom. She noticed Fred and George talking about how they were going to enter the Triwizard Tournament.

"Maybe we could get one of the other students to put our names in." George whispered.

"They wouldn't do that willingly. We'd have to pay them or something." Fred said.

"Well, we need to figure out a way to get in as soon as possible." George said.

Claire rolled her eyes. "Are you still trying to enter the tournament?"

Both of them jumped, startled by her presence.

"Oh, it's just you Claire," Fred said. "We thought you were Professor McGonagall."

Claire rolled her eyes again. "Well, as you can see I'm not."