-7-

T H E A

I unintentionally burst into my History of Magic class, perhaps too loudly. I realised that I also hadn't brought my books with me so hastily grabbed a piece of parchment from a drawer and a spare quill. Sitting down at an empty desk, and began copying down the Professor's notes from the board.

I was so engrossed in my note taking that I didn't notice somebody nudging me from the side. I look up to see a blonde boy signalling to look at the front of the class, and sure enough, the horse like Professor was standing there with a drawn on eyebrow raised.

"And Miss Thea, who was the inventor of the wingardium leviosa charm?" Seven hands from the class shot up. "I... I don't know" Tapping my fingers onto my parchment nervously, "And why don't you know?" My brows furrowed as my eyes scanned my notes page, I was just getting to the inventor when she interrupted me! I looked upto the board and was not amused when she had wiped it off.

"You erased the board. I was just copying it down" Her eyebrows raised at me, "And why hadn't you finished copying it down sooner?" My face scrunched in confusion, "Because my hand can only move so fast? And my hand-eye coordination could always be better." The Professor glared at me, "One more chance, Black" Why? I hadn't done anything.

As the lesson dragged on, I was getting intensely bored, and so was my entire being. My leg bounced up and down as I fiddled with my hands. I started playing with parts of the feather on the quill, bending and stroking them. I began to crack my knuckles when the Professor abruptly turned around, red faced and her eyes wide.

"You're done, Black." I was so confused.

"What?"

"Ten points from Gryffindor for insolence, now get out" Not again!

"Please can I sta-" She shook her head angrily, "You arrogant child, leave my classroom at once" I got upto leave when I saw a girl smirking at me. "You have something on your-" I pointed at the girl, "Oh wait, it's your face" I snapped before leaving the room.

After standing around for a while, I decided to go and see if Prof. Potter was free. On the way I began thinking of all the things I would say to him. When I got there, luckily his classroom was empty. I knocked on the door, awaiting a response.

"Come in" A familiar voice called. I strolled in and took a seat ontop of a desk. Mr Potter turned around from a book and was surprised to see me. "Thea, I wasn't expecting you. Aren't you supposed to be in a lesson" I scrunched my nose, "The teacher kicked me out." Prof. Potter furrowed his brows, "What for?" I shrugged, "Don't know, one minute I'm fiddling with my hands, the next she's yelling at me to get out"

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "I've heard a lot about you in the last couple of days" I looked at the floor, "No good things" He nodded, "But I'm confused by that, all these Professors seem to have a very different opinion of you than I do." I looked up at him, "They all think I'm stupid and useless" Prof. Potter put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "You are not stupid, Thea Black. You are a strong capable witch, they just don't see it yet" I sighed again, "My class wouldn't agree"

Prof. Potter shook his head, "It doesn't matter what somebody else believes about you, but what you believe about yourself. If you know that they are wrong about you, then they are. Let's take... Madame Weasley for example, when she began playing Quidditch, a lot of people didn't like her because she was a girl, and she was and still is better than all the guys combined, including myself. She believed in who she was, so can you"

I nodded at him, understanding. "What class do you have next?" I pulled out my timetable and a smile found its way onto my face, "Flying" Prof. Potter smiled back at me, "I have a feeling you'll be good at that." I hopped off the desk and sighed, "Maybe, I'll have to be good at something if all else fails, won't I?" Prof. Potter chuckled, "I know you'll be good at this, you never know, maybe you'll make the Gryffindor team" My brows furrowed in confusion, but a small smile played on my lips, "You haven't even seen me play?" He shrugged and motioned for me to leave, "Come on, you have yourself to impress"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flying was the first class I wasn't late to, infact I was a few minutes early.

Madame Weasley was leaning against the castle wall when I arrived. "Thea, its good to see you in good spirits. Ever flown a broom before?"

I think back to all the times that Sirius, Remus, Tonks and I had Quidditch games at Grimmauld Place's Gardens, and how Tonks and I would always win, kicking butt every time.

"Once or twice" I said, smirking slightly. "How are Sirius and the others, good?" I nodded, "Wait-?" I was cut off when the rest of the class arrived. I could see a couple of girls glare at me, however, flying was with Slytherin first years too. I spotted Asena and ran over to her, engulfing her in a hug, sporting a stupidly big smile.

She hugged me back and laughed, "Missed me that much Thea?" I chuckled and pulled her over to the brooms. "Do you like flying Sena?" She smirked at the use of the nickname, "I've flown before, my mum loves quidditch" Out of the corner of my eye I spot a certain someone coming straight for me, pig face from History of Magic.

"You know it was true, what they said about you at lunch. You're just a sad, lonely orphan that-" I clapped my hands in front of her face and gave her an innocent look, "Oh, what did they say? I was too busy thinking about what it would be like to he you. Friendless, ugly, awful and an egotistical entitled princes-" She cut me off, a stinging pain flashing through my cheek.

I looked to her with disbelief, "You just touched me?" She tilted her head, "Are your feelings hurt?" I chuckled and shook my head, "No, but watch out for-" I quickly swung my leg out, taking Pig face's feet from the ground and into the air before she hit the ground once more. "-That" Madame Weasley had seemed to notice what was going on and her piercing gaze snapped to us.

"What am I going to do with you two?"