A/N: This chapter is one of the boring-er chapters, but the next one will be much more interesting!
"First, you two tell me what you were doing," Draco demanded, crossing his arms as he looked down at them. The two girls grinned with guilty expressions on their faces.
"Well... um, sorry, Hermione, but we kind of found your diary and, well, couldn't resist reading it..." Brianna said, trying not to giggle. Hermione's face turned scarlet and she looked down at the ground as the two girls grinned, trying not to laugh.
"Could I have that back? Please?" Hermione mumbled. Brianna reluctantly handed her the diary back, even though you could tell both girls were dying to read more of whatever it was they were reading.
Then their attention turned to Draco. "So... explain?" Samantha asked. Draco gulped. By the time he told them, the whole Slytherin house would know. And knowing them, they'd make it sound a lot different than he had actually said it.
Draco sighed. "Alright, well... Hermione and I are dating," their eyes widened, "but, it's not what you're thinking. Dumbledore [i]asked[/i] us to do this. And no, we don't know why, but knowing Dumbledore, it's for a pretty important reason. You got me?" Both girls nodded, though they didn't completely believe him. After all, who would actually believe a story like that? Not many.
"Well... congratulations then!" Samantha said, smiling at them both. Hermione looked up, her face still relatively red.
"Thanks... you won't, like, make a big deal out of this, will you?" Hermione asked. Samantha shook her head, still smiling. Brianna was smiling as well. Did they know something Draco didn't?
"Uh-oh. Looks like we're all late for class!" Brianna said. Hermione looked alarmed; she was rarely late for class, except for those unforgettable times in their third year, that it.
She started running out of the room. "I gotta go!" The other three followed her out of the room, passing classrooms full of other students as they breathlessly ran through the halls.
* * *
The four students ran to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room, which was the next class the Gryffindors and Slytherins had together. They had no idea what the new professor was like, but hopefully she'd be nice and let them off easy just this one time for being a few minutes late.
They opened the door and entered the classroom. Everyone turned to stare at them as they walked in.
"Ah, so you must be Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Brianna Dershin, and Samantha Baracudan? We've been waiting for you. I'm Professor Elaine, by the way," she said. They nodded.
"Sorry we're late... we kind of lost track of time," Hermione said. Elaine smiled at her.
"I understand. But, I'm only letting you off easy because I know you're Head Girl and you're Head Boy," she said, winking at Draco and Hermione. Draco then took a seat next to Brianna, Hermione next to Harry, and Samantha next to Rachel.
"Alright, so... as you already know, I'm the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Dumbledore told me everything you've learned so far, and I thought it would be fun to start off the year with something new," Everyone looked rather excited. After an intensely boring day of review, a new lesson was what they'd all been hoping for.
She pulled out a box from under her desk. Inside it was an interesting looking creature with dark brown fur in some places, while it was black in others. It looked kind of like an owl mixed with a bat, since it's wings were light and sleek while it's body was covered in feathers. None of them had ever seen anything like it.
"Class, this is a Buhobate. Now, I know that seems like a very amusing name, but, none of you should be laughing at it. Does anyone know why?" Elaine asked. Hermione's hand instantly shot up into the air.
"Yes, Miss Granger," she said.
"Well, the Buhobate's ears are very sensitive to laughter, and laughing at it will make it angry and it might even attack someone," Hermione replied.
Professor Elaine smiled. "That is correct. Five points to Gryffindor. Now... what we're going to do next is a little... experiment. I have with me a box that produces laughter, and I will put that and the Buhobate in this very safe glass enclosure. I want you all to watch very carefully to see what it does." Everyone leaned forward slightly, interested to see what would happen.
"Everyone, please step back a little bit," Elaine said. The class did as they were told, taking a few steps backward from the front of the classroom. She then put the Buhobate in the class enclosure. Then, very carefully, she turned a little knob on the side of the box that would produce laughter from it, and gently set it down inside.
Once the laughter rang out, the Buhobate started flying around like crazy, revealing that it had extremely sharp teeth and talons. It crashed into each side of the box multiple times, screeching loudly as it did so. Everyone was staring at it, and some of the girls even gasped at the sight of it.
The laughter ended, and so did the Buhobate's rampage. The girls heaved sighs of relief as everyone took their seats.
"Now... can anyone tell me any observations they made? Any at all?" Elaine asked. Hermione's hand, once again, shot up into the air.
"Miss Granger, once again?" she said, nodding at Hermione.
"Well... I noticed that right after the laughter stopped, the Buhobate stopped what it was doing," Hermione said.
"Excellent. Another five points for Gryffindor! Anyone know why?" Elaine asked.
This time, to Draco's surprise, it was Samantha who raised her hand. And here he thought she was unintelligent.
"Yes, Miss Baracudan?" Elaine said, looking at Samantha.
"Well, the Buhobate's mind works differently from a lot of other magical creatures' minds do, so then when the laughter stopped, it's brain stopped processing what was happening to it, and then it's hearing stops completely afterwards," Samantha said. Elaine looked deeply impressed, as did Hermione.
"Excellent job. Five points for Slytherin!" Elaine said. Just then, the bell rang, signaling the end of the class.
Everyone grabbed their book bags and stood up, leaving for their next class. "No homework tonight!" Elaine shouted as they walked out the door to their next class.