Harry shrugged and surreptitiously pulled some of the happiness from the pink woman towards himself. She cleared her throat and hurried to the front of the room quickly. The dementor hid a smirk behind his hand and enjoyed his impromptu snack tremendously.
"That wasn't the smartest idea," Hermione sighed as they walked out of the classroom and towards the dungeons.
"I tried, Hermione. I really did," Harry told her sadly. "Can you honestly say you would have done better? I saw you biting your tongue when you realized she wasn't actually going to teach us anything. You wanted to tell her off just as much as I did."
"I know," his friend draped an arm around his shoulders. "She's going to cause you trouble though."
"Well…she's a DADA professor," Ron added in as if that explained everything. When his friends looked at him questioningly, he expanded. "When haven't we had a DADA instructor that hasn't tried to kill or seriously harm Harry? Even Lupin almost killed us, even if it wasn't intentional."
"That's actually very true," Harry mused as they neared Potions. "And, surprisingly, Snape has only ever saved my life even though he's the obvious one to try to kill me."
"Huh…" Ron stopped and thought about that as Hermione pushed him towards class again.
"I have a feeling if Snape wanted you dead, you'd already be dead and no one would ever find the body," Hermione remarked unhelpfully, but also very truthfully.
"I'm a little harder to kill than people give me credit for," Harry grinned at her mischievously as they entered the Potions classroom and found empty seats. There weren't very many books on dementors. The only mentions of them he'd found so far (in the library at Grimmauld since he'd been more focused on warding during his one trip to the Hogwarts library) had remarked that there basically was no way to kill them completely, only chase them off. It was an interesting thought…but Jamie was much more fragile, so that was his main concern at the moment.
"Be seated and quiet!" Snape billowed into the classroom in a wave of intimidation. Harry stared at him impressed. However, he made his aura do the power/intimidation thing he was making it do, Harry wanted to know. He hadn't been able to feel and distinguish auras before his change, but now he was very in-tune, and Snape seemed to have an excellent handle and control over his own aura.
The Potions Master didn't seem to notice the impressed and interested look he was getting from his least favorite student as he went into his overly dramatic lecture on OWLs and how this would be the last time he would have many of them in his Potions class. Harry rolled his eyes as Snape glared directly at Neville when he said that. Neville shifted nervously in his seat but definitely looked more than a little happy that this would be his last year in Potions.
"Cauldrons out!" Snape snapped at them all as he waved his wand and caused copious notes to appear on the chalkboard at the front of the room.
Harry had just shoved a large bite of his dinner in his mouth when a whirlwind of blonde hair with a rainbow jumper sat beside him. "How was your first day?" Luna asked as she took the roll off of Harry's plate to eat.
"Hey, Luna," Hermione smiled at the Ravenclaw with a surprised look on her face, not sure why she was joining them at the Gryffindor table.
"Umbridge," Harry grimaced as he put another roll on his plate to replace the stolen one.
"He's already gotten a detention," Ron snitched on him as Harry gave him a glare.
Luna sighed and shook her head. "It was probably inevitable," she remarked airily. "So…you coming with me to the forest tonight?" She changed the subject like Harry knew exactly what she was talking about.
It took him a minute to think about why Luna would want him to go to the Forbidden Forest with her before he remembered their discussion by the carriages the night before. "Oh, the thestrals! Yeah, I'd love to come. Just give me a few more bites," he said happily and shoved another bite of tasteless chicken in his mouth.
"No hurry," Luna shrugged as she continued to pick at her pilfered roll. "The fourth year Ravens had Umbridge today too. They want to start some kind of study group since it seems like we aren't actually going to learn anything this year."
"That's a great idea, Luna!" Hermione jumped at the suggestion. "Who's going to lead it?"
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