The Perfect Opportunity.

Chapter 4: Timetables and Life classes

Ginny awoke with a jolt and looked around hurriedly. 'Where am I?' she thought, not recognising her new dorm. She heard a gentle snoring sound and looked down to see Harry asleep in the bed next to her. Suddenly, all of her memories of last night came rushing back to her and she gasped.

'Harry, wake up!' she whispered, poking him.

'Mnnuh,' Harry mumbled attempting to roll over. 

'Harry Potter, you wake the hell up. It is the first day of classes and we can't be late.' Ginny snapped, hitting him harder.

'Gin? What are you doing here?' He grunted.

'This is my room too, idiot. Now up!' 

5 minutes later, Ginny had managed to get Harry up and dressed and was waiting for Hermione and Ron to come down so they could go for breakfast. Just as she was reaching the brink of boredom, she heard a clattering and looked up to see Hermione levitating Ron down the spiral staircase that lead to their room, knocking his head or other body parts against the wall accidentally on purpose a few times.

'Right, shall we go then?' Hermione said breezily, and proceeded to march out of the room, an unconscious Ron drifting behind her. Ginny looked at Harry, shrugged and followed Hermione.

They were all seated at the Gryffindor table and Ron had woken up and was, as per usual, stuffing his face, when Professor McGonagall got up from the staff table and was making her way to the podium when their timetables materialised in front of them. 'I trust that there will be no problems with the time tables.' the professor said. 'And by the way, 7th years, you will have a new class: Life Class. This class is required by every one because of the new law, so don't think that you can get out of this. Now, off to lessons with you.'

Inspecting their timetables, the four teens rose from the table and proceeded to swap notes of their time tables. It turned out that, by chance, they were in all of the same classes. 

'It says here that we have Life Class first thing.' Ron says.

Ginny winces and says 'Oh well, at least we get the gossip first, right?'

' That's my girl. Always being positive!' Harry says.

'YOUR WHAT???' Ron bellows.

'His girl. God, Ron. They are soul mates after all. You can't object.' Hermione snaps.

'Sorry.' Ron mutters sheepishly, looking again at his timetable to find out what room they were in. 'Hey, look! This says that the class is in the west tower. We don't have a west tower!' Ron exclaimed.

'Oh, Ronald. Don't you know anything? After the war, whilst they were restoring the castle they built one. Honestly. If you read something occasionally then maybe you wouldn't ask all of these stupid questions all of the time.'  Hermione said shortly.

Ginny and Harry look at one another and smirk. 'Now, Hermione, where is the entrance to the tower?' Harry inquired.

' Don't you read either? It's behind the portrait of the snake charmer on the 6th floor. The password's Soul-Mates.'  And with that, Hermione stalks off down the corridor, senses that the others aren't following her and turns around.

'Are you lot coming or not?' she snaps.

10 minutes, a long walk and lots of grumbling from Ron later, they finally reached the entrance to their new classroom. Hermione had now gotten over the previous 'argument' and was talking loudly to Ginny about what the new class could be about as she walked through the portrait hole. Suddenly she stopped, and had to be pushed through by Harry and Ron. Ginny was doing the same thing. Ron was about to comment when he realised that they had come into one of the best classrooms they had ever been into.

The room was large and had a high ceiling, not unlike the Great Hall. The walls were white and had lots of little tips and quotations about adult life as a wizard or witch written on parchment stuck to them. There was a fluffy black carpet on the floor. The classroom was divided into different, smaller rooms. Each one had two sofas and a coffee table in them, with a bookshelf and tv as well. On each back wall, there was a panel of buttons, all of them having different uses.

They were greeted by Professor McGonagall. 'Hello, students.' she said. 'If you, your soul mate and another couple could take a seat in each room then we can begin.'

The students proceeded to do this and sat waiting for an explanation as to why they were in a classroom such as this. 'Now, I am aware that many of you are confused for two reasons. The first being the need for this new class. I'm sure that most of you are thinking that you can already take care of your selves, but at the moment, you have next to no responsibilities, no bills to pay, no house or children to take care of. However, seeing as the goal of this law is to increase the population of the wizarding world, we decided to give you a little crash course on everyday life. The second reason I think you are confused is because you are in a classroom that is definitely unusual. we decided that in order to help you more efficiently, you should learn in an environment like the one you will be exposed to as fully grown wizards and witches. Now, I'm sure that you have seen the panels on the walls. These buttons change the rooms, perhaps from living room to kitchen, or from bathroom to bedroom to nursery. They also change the condition of the room. You might have a completely undecorated room that you need to decorate, or a messy room that you need to clean. Now, your first task will be to plan out and decorate a nursery. You will find the buttons on the wall. Please press 'nursery' then 'undecorated'. You will all be given a quill and parchment, and once you have written what you need on it, just tap it with your wand and the items will appear. Begin.'

With that, the students scrambled for the parchment and began chattering excitedly, clearly enjoying the task.

Instantly, Hermione and Ginny took charge. 'We'll definitely need a crib, and possibly a rocking chair.' Hermione mused.

'And don't forget a chest of drawers with baby supplies like nappies, baby grows and dummies.' Ginny added.

'Harry, Ron, why don't you help think of things?' Hermione asked. 15 minutes later, they had thought of everything under the sun that a baby could need and written it all down on the parchment. Hermione tapped it with her wand and suddenly a mound of baby items appeared. They jumped back in shock and then looked around at other couples, only to find that they had about three times more stuff than the rest of the class. 'Professor, is there a way to get rid of some of this stuff? We seem to have gone a bit over board...' Hermione asked.

'Yes there is. All you have to do is tap the item you wand to disappear and say evanescet. Then the item should disappear.' the Professor said.

'Thank you, Professor.' Hermione said and then proceeded to tap her wand against several items and muttered the word under her breath. They vanished with a pop. 'That's better.' she said, dusting off her wand.

'Now, Harry and Ron, you start painting the walls and Hermione and I will start putting the cot together.' Ginny instructed.

An hour and a half later, the room was finished, the room has been checked over by McGonagall and they were leaving the classroom. 'Well, that was interesting.' said Hermione.

'It certainly was, for some more than others...' Ron grumbled. He had spent the entire time grumbling about how in the real world, he wouldn't have to do anything because Hermione would do it all for him. This prompted an argument between him and Hermione, who 'refused to be his dog', and they weren't currently on speaking terms.

Soon afterwards, they split up, the girls going to charms and the boys going to potions, agreeing to meet at lunch.