another love; harry potter

seven

\ wherein things go horribly wrong /

THE NEXT TWO DAYS PASSED without great incident, unless you counted Neville melting his sixth cauldron in Potions. Professor Severus Snape gave Neville detention without hesitation, and Neville returned from it in a state of nervous collapse, having been made to disembowel a barrel full of horned toads.

"You know why Snape's in such a foul mood, don't you?" said Ron as we watched Hermione teaching Neville a Scouring Charm to remove the frog guts from under his fingernails.

"Yeah," I said, pursing my lips. "Moody."

"I reckon Snape's a bit scared of him, you know," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Imagine if Moody turned Snape into a horned toad," said Ron, his eyes misting over, "and bounced him all around his dungeon. . . "

"It's kind of unnerving you think about Snape becoming a toad," I muttered, grimacing. "I mean...to each their own, but if those are the fantasies that keep you up at n-"

"Shut up."

Everyone was looking forward to Moody's first lesson so much that they all queued up outside his classroom before the bell had even rung. The only person missing was Hermione, who turned up just in time for the lesson.

"Been in the -"

"Library. " I finished, rolling my eyes. "C'mon, quick."

Ron, Hermione, and Harry hurried into three chairs right in front of the teacher's desk, waiting for me to join them as they took out their copies of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection, but I frowned, not wanting to be near the crazy lunatic who would soon appear, and took a seat at the back of the classroom beside a boy with messy dirty blonde hair, who was leaning back in his chair with his legs crossed. 

"Hi," I whispered, barely breaking the silence that the whole class had attained. 

"Hello," He said casually in a low voice, waving slightly and outstretching a hand. "I'm James, James McCoy."

"I'm Pheobe."

"I should tell you something," he nodded, "now that we're friends and all."

"Wh-"

"I'm actually in fifth year." I blinked. 

"What?"

"Just came here to see how this class'd be. I don't have it 'til next week, figured might as well show up to see how it is."

"Wait, this isn't- you're not in the class?" he nodded lightly. 

"Thanks for telling me I look like a fourth year, though," he wrinkled his nose as he surveyed his robes, his blue and bronze tie undone and his robes way too big for him. I frowned and opened my mouth to say something just when we heard Moody's distinctive clunking footsteps coming down the corridor. He entered the room, looking as strange and frightening as ever. We could just see his clawed, wooden foot protruding from underneath his robes.

.✫ * ﾟ ･ ﾟ ｡. ★. *｡ ･ ﾟ ✫ *.

"Balderdash. "

The Fat Lady swung forward to reveal the entrance hole, and me, Harry, and Ron climbed into the Gryffindor common room after dinner in which Hermione had abandoned us for the library once more, which was crowded and noisy. 

"Shall we get our Divination stuff, then?" I said finally, surveying the room. Ron groaned loudly. 

"I s'pose," Harry said, a twinkle of amusement in his eye upon surveying his ginger friend before him.

I headed to the girls dormitory to fetch my books and charts and returned to the warm common room minutes later, finding an empty table and opening up my copy of Unfogging the Future. Harry and Ron returned a few minutes later, and the three of us set to work on our predictions for the coming month.