In Another Life

Lyssa just sat there for a moment longer, then she put her hand on the bench next to her and pushed herself back. As she exited the carriage, she said to Amara, who was waiting for her, "If that makes a bruise she's in for it."

Cassie sighed. "Claudia just drop it. Ok?" Claudia frowned but did so and the two girls entered the great hall taking a seat at the Gryffindor table. Cassie grumbled all through the sorting and was very glad once it was done. As she was hungry.

Lyssa and Amara made it to the castle just in time to walk in before the sorting started. The two split then, Amara going to the Ravenclaw table and Lyssa to Slytherin. There she located Draco, Blaise, and unfortunately Draco's annoying friends. She sat down and looked around boredly during the sorting, clapping when it was appropriate. Then it was over. She ate some dinner, and then her and the group made their way down to the common room.

The two girls made ther way to the common roomonce the sortng was over. They talked for a lttle bit until the others in their dorm told them to stop talking and to go to sleep. Cassie slept considerably well and woke up the next morning feeling a little hyped.

The Slytherins spent some time in the common room, catching up with each other, or in the case of Lyssa and Blaise, some cuddling and kissing with the talking. Then the whole group all went to their respective dorms to sleep before classes the next day. Lyssa slept ok, and woke up feeling ok as well, at least until one of the girls said, "What happened to your face? It has a bruise." That made Lyssa frown.

"Morning Claudie," Cassie said as she woke up the next morning, seing Claudia already awake and dresses and waiting for Cassie to get up. Claudia was an early riser and Cassie really did wondering how she could get up to early. "Morning Cassie," The two girls walked down to breakfast in silence. Cassie still half asleep.

Lyssa frowned as she got a hold of a mirror and looked along her jaw to see a bruise had formed there over night. She covered it up alomst completely, but not all the way. Then she got ready for the day and made her way up to breakfast, hand in hand with Blaise who had been waiting for her in the common room.

Cassie helped herself to toast while Claudia opted for cereal. The both of them talked little as they ate, and their discussion turned to classes when McGonagall came down and gave them their timestables. Cassie could not believe that Snape was going to be the Defence teacher. Sure she knew Dumbledore was mad but really?

Lyssa ate breakfast with Blaise, and Draco who showed up later, ignoring those annoying people she couldn't stand that insisted on throwing themselves over her brother. As they were talking, Snape came around handed out schedules.

Cassie sighed. "Defence against the Dark arts. Fun!" "I thought you liked that class." Claudie said as the two girls finished off their breakfast and set off. "It's alright, though we havn't had a decent teacher cept Lupin. I prefer Potions even though Snape taught that. Wonder what the new Professor is like." They got to the classroom and the girls took seats at the back.

"Oh," Lyssa noted as she looked over her schedule, "Defense if first today." The group got up a bit later to go the class, so they wouldn't be late. They walked in the room and sat in desks on the left side of the room near the middle.

Cassie sighed and leant back in her chair as Professor came back in.She glanced around the room and frowned at the various poster like things on the walls. Claudia also had a frown on her face.

Professor Snape walked to the head of the classroom, and looked out at his students for the first class of the year. He pulled a piece of parchment of of the desk behind him and looked it over, looking over the top of it every so often as he checked that a student was present. Once he was done going over role he put the parchment back down and said, "Take out your books and turn them to page 34."

Cassie took her book out, nearly dropping it on her foot in the process but caught it just before it could. She flicked to the said page wondering what Snape was going to be teaching them. As undoubtfully it was going to be different then what theother Defence Teachers had.

Snape looked around the room, noting that every student had their books out and opened before he spoke again. "I'm aware that your education in this subject has been sporatic at best, and it will be my job to fill in the holes. You are at NEWT level now and I expect nothing less than near perfection from all of you. Read over pages 34 to 46 in silence. When you are finished I want you to write a 12 inch essay over the information. This type of lesson will continue on until we've completed magical creatures."

Cassie could hear her classmates grumbling about how much that was to read and write. She started reading through the chapter, it wasn't that boring but it could have been jazzed up a little bit.

Lyssa frowned as she looked down as her book. The least the stupid author could have done was include diagrams to take up space on the page. She read over the information, head resting on her palm. When that was done with she pulled out parchment and a her quill and ink from her bag, setting out to scribble out her essay, as it was probably due at the end of the class. She was just thankful her handwriting was sort of drawn out and took up a good amount of space.

Cassie started on the writing bit of the assignment. It wasn't that hard though they did have to write a lot. She tried to keep her writing neater then usaul as Snape usaully made her redo her work if it was a complete untidy scrawl.

The class drew to an end, and Snape flicked his wand, causing the essays completed or not to pile neatly on his desk. "For homework," he said, "I want you to read pages 47 to 71 and write two essays of the same length as today's over the two creatures within those pages, due next class." Then the bell rang to dismiss them.

Cassie grumbled under her breath and jotted that down in her diary before starting to gather her books up. She sighed as she and Claudie maed their way to their next class which was Transfiguration.

Lyssa frowned. That was a crazy amount of homework to assign the first lesson of the year. She pulled out her schedule to see when the next lesson was, eyes widening as she noted that it was the next afternoon directly after lunch. Grumbling slightly under her breath that the night would be spent on homework, Lyssa got up and walked out of the room with Draco and Blaise on their way to Transfiguration. Thankfully, Pansy had failed that OWL and was not with them.

Cassie and Claudia went off to transfiguration after Claudie telling Cassie that she really did need to learn her timetable and not just rely on her. Cassie complained that there was no point doing the work if Claudia could do it for her. The two of them continued to bicker until they got to the classroom and waited outside it for Professor McGonagall to come and let them in. Cassie thinking about the bucketload of homework Snape had given them.

Lyssa and Co. walked to Transfiguration, getting there just in time to catch McGonagall letting everyone in. A minute later and they would have been late. They filed in at the back of the students, sitting in the same area of the room that they had in Defense.

McGonagall set them their classwork which was really just revising spells that they had learnt the previous years so they could grasp the next lessons work without too much trouble. Cassie remembered the spells pretty well and those she didn't shegot help from Claudia.

The lesson was easy enough for Lyssa. She'd always done well in Transfiguration. She was almost bored as she went through her spells. The class began to come near the end, so McGonagall told them to stop what they were doing. "For homework," she then said, causing the sixth years to groan, "I want each of you to pick the spell you have the most trouble with, read about it, and then write me an 8 inch essay over it. Then you are to practice the spell for next class."