A schedule was passed to me as I took my seat at the Slytherin table for breakfast the next morning.

"McGonagall first," I muttered to myself. The first year who had just passed me the parchment gave me a look like I was mad. Oh, c'mon! Who doesn't talk to themselves on occasion? Mail arrived as I nibbled on my toast. An eagle owl flitted down by a boy with slicked back light blonde hair carrying a parcel. Draco Mafloy opened it, drawing attention to the great quantity of sweets presented to him as he tore open the brown paper wrappings. Even the desserts at the feast unsatisfactory to him? I violently spread jam on another piece of toast at the thought.

Fifteen minutes later, I took a seat in the back of the Trasfiguation classroom.

"Hello, now, I see fit to bring up the examination, that I'm sure all of you have already started studying for, taking place at the end of this year." Professor McGonagall said, briskly, walking up to the front of the class. Most of the class exchanged guilty looks, they hadn't studied. "There is no reason that with application, hard work, and much time put into practise and study that each and every one of you shouldn't achieve at least an 'Acceptable' in Transfiguration. An N.E.W.T. in my class may be required for those of you hoping to get a job at the Ministry. At N.E.W.T level, you will work on Conjuring Spells. Today, we will work on something very similar, but somewhat simpler: Vanishing Spells. Now," -she waved her wand, and a toad or a raven appeared on every desk- "we will work on vanishing small vertebrae." I turned to the raven perched on my desk, and copied the spell Professor McGonagall was demonstrating. The bird let out a caw of indigence, and much croaking and crowing harmonised with it. I quickly quieted the cawing creature with a Silencing Charm, so that its beak kept moving, soundlessly. It took me about a half-hour to successfully vanish my raven, and I was one of the few who did not have to practise the spell for homework. Not that that meant I had free time. By the end of Double Charms, Herbology, Ancient Runes and Divination, I had two rolls of parchment on ways to tell if a person is under the influence of a charm or potion, a diagram of a strange slimy plant that likes to strangle its victims, which I hope never to come across in the rest of my life, a chart of ruins, and where and when they were first used, and a Dream Log for the months of September and October. *Sigh* This is gonna be a very long year.

----

The next day was, fortunately for my workload, Saturday. I was under a beech tree by the pond, trying to enjoy the remnants of warm weather, whilst filling out the Ancient Runes chart. I was scribbling down the last location and date (Egypt, 1402 B.C.) when my concentration was broken by laughter five feet away. I instinctively shot a glare at the first years, and one said, ignoring my look,

"Why are you all alone?" a girl with a sharp, clear voice asked. It wasn't pitying, or even friendly. She wore a red and gold sweater. A Gryffindor. Of course, she had to be! To be brave enough to talk to a Slytherin fifth year. Well, not necessarily. That was another, perhaps not always true, house stereotype. And I hate house stereotypes.

"Why are you talking to me?" I shot back. Since her tone didn't suggest friendliness, she was probably here to gloat that she, a first year, had friends and I didn't. I didn't really feel in the mood to hear it.

"Have it your own way," she said, cooly, turning to leave. Here I was, not wanting to be like the stereotypical Slytherin, acting just like the stereotypical Slytherin.

"No, I--Stop!" I stood up. She turned around and looked at me expectantly.

"I'll pretend you just apologised," she said after a moment. "It's not a problem. I'm Sofia." She held out her hand.

"Remy," I said. Then, having no other option, took her hand. "I'm Remy," I repeated to the two girls behind Sofia, and nodded to them. One, who had looked rather disgusted said,

"You're a Slytherin." She sounded accusatory.

"Excellent observation," I said, sarcastically. "I was trying to hint at asking what your names were, not what my own house was." The girl on the other side of Sofia snorted with laughter. Her friend turned to change the target of her glare.

"Oh, drop it, Lyd!" the other girl said. "No wonder she's rude if that's how most people treat her. I'm Allison. This is Lydia." She motioned to the state-the-obvious champion.

"Pleasure," I said to Allison, and not saying anything to Lydia, who was ignoring me. I was silent. My communication skills were a bit rusty. What are you supposed to say? Small talk seems boring and pointless. I suppose I should make an effort, since they did decide to come talk to me. Well, Sofia and Allison did, anyway.

"You...er...enjoying school?" I asked finally, breaking the silence.

"Yeah, it's fun!" Allison said, quickly.

"Hey, you're a fifth year!" exclaimed Lydia, suddenly.

"Yes. Another great observation!" I said, without thinking. Lydia rolled her eyes like it was obvious.

"Owl year!" she said. I frowned. "Like the test, O.W.L.s," she clarified.

"Oh, yeah!" I nodded. "We got too much homework."

"On the first day?" Lydia looked incredulous.

"No, the forty-sixth," I said, sarcastically. I'm not the best at being nice, either. "Sorry, yeah, first day. You've got much to look forward to!"

She snorted, skeptically, "Yeah, sure." I grinned.

"Maybe not that, but you do! Quidditch, pranks (hopefully not played on you), new spells and potions and stuff... Oh! And the food! At the Hallowe'en feast! And Christmas!" I stopped my food tangent. Lydia looked at me strangely. "What? The food is really good!" We all laughed. It was strange. They were some of the last people I would think would be some of my first acquaintences at Hogwarts.

"What's Quidditch, or whatever it was?" Allison piped up. We stopped laughing. The three of us stared at her in disbelief.

"You--you don't know what Quidditch is?"