"Good morning class, I hope that you all had a nice summer" Professor Vector smiled widely at her students. "As you can see our class is a little larger this year when compared to previous years. For some reason, there isn't a very high demand or Arithmancy among most of your classmates. I have no idea why" she grinned wryly at her class "But since the numbers were slow, Headmaster Dumbledore had decided to combine all the houses together to have their Arithmancy lesson at the same time"
Hermione sat at the front table smiling at Professor Vector, next to her sat Dean Thomas, they had worked together for the last two years. For the first time, Hermione actually noticed that the class was larger than it had been before, not much larger though. Dean and her were the only fifth year Gryffindors taking Arithmancy, they'd had it last year and the year before with Ravenclaws while Hufflepuff and Slytherin were together on a separate day. But now that she looked around the classroom, she was surprised to see Hannah Abbot and Justin Finch-Fletchy, two Hufflepuffs. She could also see Blaise Zabini, a Slytherin, out of the corner of her eye. Hermione has to admit that it was still a small class. She turned her attention back to the Professor who was still talking.
"I believe that you have all fallen into a rut of conformity and tradition. You all sit together, ready to work with the exact same people, your books are out and prepared, you even sit in the same seats as last year. You are young! You must seize life, you must experience new things, and I'm about to help you do it" She smiled at them again, ignoring their shocked faces.
Hermione turned to Dean with an eyebrow raised; this wasn't the Professor Vector she knew. This wasn't the same quiet; shy Professor they'd had in previous years. What Hermione didn't know was that over the summer, Professor Vector had experienced a little unpleasantness with a banshee. She returned it Hogwarts a changes woman longing for adventure, and she had decided to help her students experience life to its fullest, wether they wanted or not.
"With this being said, I've decided to change some things around here. First off, all of your work will be done in pairs. We won't be using the books nearly as much as we have before. Arithmancy is a delightful and complicated magic, but you need to put it to use. So we will be having a more hands on year. I'm sure that we will all have fun" Professor Vector grinned triumphantly at their doubting faces.
"Oh yes, one more thing, I'm assigning you new partners" Hannah and Justin look petrified around the room, they were the only Hufflepuffs there, and they also happened to be a couple. Professor Vector saw their distraught faces and laughed.
"Now, now Justin, Hannah, It won't harm either of you to spend a few hours apart." But from the looks on their faces, Hermione could tell that they greatly doubted this. "I've already broken you up into pairs that I believe will suit you all nicely." And with this, the Professor pulled a list out of her book and started to read the new groupings.
"Ms. Abbot and Mr. Boot"
"Mr. Finch-Fletchy and Ms. Perks"
"Mr. Thomas and Ms. Broklehurst"
Hermione sighed at Dean stood up and collected his things. He smiled at her before waking over to where Mandy Broklehurst, a Ravenclaw, was sitting. Hermione was sad to see him go, Dean was surprisingly good at Arithmancy, and they had worked very well together. She suddenly realized that almost everyone else had been paired up, had she missed her names?
"Oh yes, Ms, Granger and Mr. Malfoy." Professor Vector folded up her list and turned to put it away.
Hermione choked, Malfoy? "But Malfoy isn't even in this class, is he?" She wondered to herself. A sickening feeling was rising up inside of her, "He's not in this class, I heard wrong, he not in this class," She repeated to herself. Slowly she turned around in her seat and sure enough, sitting in the last row was Draco Malfoy, glaring at her.
