Bitten

Six

Harry woke to the sound of his alarm. He silenced it quickly, groaning as he sat up. His body was still sore from the transformation, even if he knew that he didn't hurt nearly as much as Remus did. He stood up, moving over to the full-length mirror to examine himself. Romulus had gotten him a few new scratches, from falling over a tree branch or two, but they would be easily remedied.

He picked up a jar of ointment, rubbing it over the new scratches. The scratches started fading instantly, until they looked at least three days old. Satisfied, he started to get ready for the day. Even if he didn't have class until after break, he needed to show at breakfast. He got dressed slowly, still tired. That wasn't surprising considering how much running Romulus had done the night before, on top of the fact that he had only managed an hour and a half of sleep before his alarm went off.

He headed to breakfast, knowing his friends would already be down there. He had glamoured the bags under his eyes and tried to act like he normally did. He couldn't do anything to tip his friends off about his condition.

Ginny, Neville, Ron and Hermione were already sitting at the Gryffindor table, along with Luna. He sat down next to Neville, immediately helping himself to food.

"Aren't you meant to sit at your own house table, Luna?" he asked as a lull in the conversation occurred.

"Oh no. The only rule about house tables is that you sit with your house for the feasts, such as the Halloween, start of year or end of year feast," Luna replied.

"Really? I never knew that." That was, of course, Hermione.

"Well, it makes sense. Normally the house rivalry stopped anyone from making many friends in different houses," Ron said, looking up from his food. Neville nodded his agreement.

"It's a good thing Fred and George didn't know. Can you imagine the chaos they would cause if they sat at all the house tables?" Ginny asked. Harry shuddered slightly, that was not a fun thing to imagine. But he also noticed the butterflies in his stomach when he thought about the twins.

Breakfast finished soon and the group stood up, heading back to the common room to grab their books. Hermione, Ron and Neville all headed up to their room to grab their books for Care of Magical Creatures or Ancient Runes. Harry dropped into an armchair near the fire, while Ginny sat down in the chair next to him as they both had free periods before break.

Hermione came back down to the common room with her bag, heading straight out the portrait hole. Ron and Neville came down not long later, heading down to the grounds to meet Luna before heading to class.

"How are you enjoying classes so far?" Harry asked Ginny when it was just them in the common room. Anyone with a free period was either in the library or in their dorm.

"Oh, they're fine. I mean, I'm learning heaps and I'm on top of my homework, which is surprising. What about you?" Harry leaned back in his chair, debating how much he should say.

"They're good. I already know most of what weve learnt in DADA. I researched a lot about werewolves after learning about Remus."

"That makes sense. Are you ready for the debate?" Ginny asked.

"Eh." He shrugged. "I understand why we are debating about werewolf laws, it's a great way to learn. But, why should we be debating over laws that don't affect us?" he sighed.

"Well, I know I'll learn a lot. Seeing things from other people's perspectives enables us to se how we can improve the laws and change things to benefit everyone." Harry didn't know how to reply to that, so he didn't.

They sat there for a while, a comfortable silence growing around them. Harry heard Ginny shift slightly in her chair and knew she would probably break the silence soon.