Chapter Nine

                                    

                                          
After a long and terrible Potions lesson, in which Snape bullied Harry about skipping the entire third step of the instructions to the Draught of Peace we were supposed to be making, Harry beat us all to the Great Hall. He'd already started his lunch by the time Ron, Hermione, and I joined him at the Gryffindor table. The only good thing about the situation was that there was shepherd's pie for lunch today.
"That was really unfair," Hermione told Harry consolingly, sitting down next to him and helping herself to shepherd's pie. "Your potion wasn't nearly as bad as Goyle's, when he put it in his flagon the whole thing shattered and set his robes on fire."
"Yeah, well," said Harry, glowering at his plate, "since when has Snape ever been fair to me?"
"Snape's being a big dick again?" asked Luke, who'd appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
"Bloody hell," Ron said, clutching his chest. "Where'd you come from?"
"Training," Luke replied, sitting next to me. "Hey, shepherd's pie. Your favorite, Ash."
I could only nod happily, since my mouth was full. Even with my favorite meal on today's menu, I had better table manners than Ron.
"Snape Vanished Harry's potion because he forgot a step," Ron explained.
"Well, that sucks," Luke replied. "He didn't even try to help you fix it or anything?"
"No," Harry grumbled, stabbing his food with a fork.
"I did think he might be a bit better this year," said Hermione in a disappointed voice. "I mean... you know..." She looked carefully around; there were half a dozen empty seats on either side of them and nobody was passing the table. "... Now he's in the Order and everything."
"Poisonous toadstools don't change their spots," said Ron sagely. "Anyway, I've always thought Dumbledore was cracked trusting Snape, where's the evidence he ever really stopped working for You-Know-Who?"
I would've voiced my agreement with Ron if I hadn't had my mouth stuffed with shepherd's pie, but Hermione snapped, "I think Dumbledore's probably got plenty of evidence, even if he doesn't share it with you, Ron."
"Oh, shut up, the pair of you," said Harry heavily, as Ron opened his mouth to argue back. Hermione and Ron both froze, looking angry and offended. "Can't you give it a rest?" he said. "You're always having a go at each other, it's driving me mad."
And abandoning his shepherd's pie, he swung his schoolbag back over his shoulder and left us sitting there. 
"We're driving him mad?" muttered Ron, looking disgruntled. He started aggressively shoving shepherd's pie into his mouth.
"It would be nice if he stopped taking out his temper on all of us," Hermione grumbled, frowning at her plate. 
"In his defense, you two do bicker a lot," I mused. They both shot me a frown and I backpedaled. "Not that it's any excuse for him to be snapping at you," I added. "He should watch his temper, especially if he wants us to keep defending him when people call him a liar."
"Tell Harry this when you see him in Divination, won't you?" Hermione asked Ron. His mouth was full again, but he managed something like "O hay'll tellem."
After lunch, Hermione and Ron went upstairs for Arithmancy and Divination respectively. Meanwhile, Luke and I joined Sofia and Brion for training, which was held in a room down in the dungeons that used to host the now-disbanded Dueling Club. There were burn marks and dents in the walls, floor, and ceiling, evidence of some pretty intense duels. Two circles on the floor indicated where the duelers would stand, and there was an old chalkboard on the wall, which was probably used to record wins. Propped against the wall were straw dummies similar to the ones we had at Camp Half-Blood.