Mary Smith and The Three-Headed Dog

17. The Better Smith

"Leave me alone!"

--Leanne

Chapter 17: The Better Smith

"Ouch!" I yelped when Susan Bones mistakenly stepped on my finger. At least, I would have thought it was a mistake before.

Now I knew better.

"Watch where you're going, your highness," Zach sneered from above me. It was his fault I'd been knocked over. He bumped into me on purpose. Luckily, I hadn't caused too much of a mess. Ernie and Hannah had continued on reluctantly, not wanting to get involved I guess. Leanne stayed back, but refused to make eye contact with me.

"Mary!" Dean shouted catching up to where I was sprawled on the floor. I quickly shuffled to my knees to gather my things, embarrassed to have my friend see me like this. What if Dean saw and didn't want to be friends with me anymore? "Mary are you okay?" He asked, helping me to my feet.

I faked a big smile for him. "I'm fine! Just an accident."

"Yeah right," he frowned, glaring at Zach. "I saw what happened, Smith."

Zacharias just held up open palms. "It was an accident, mate. Honest."

"Accident my foot!" Dean shoved his books into my already full arms. Don't worry, I'm fine over here. Not overloaded at all. He yanked the strap of Zach's bag forcibly off of him and dumped the contents out of the bag. "Try having any more of your accidents with Mary again, yeah?"

"Dean," I gasped, completely shocked. Zacharias stood at almost a head taller than him but Dean didn't seem intimidated at all. Those brave, foolish Gryffindor traits were showing again.

"Go on, Mary. Before we're late to class." He hadn't taken his eyes off Zach who just stood there staring back with a sneer of his own. I waddled past the small group, and Dean followed after me, kicking Zacharias' Divintations text book further out of the taller boy's reach.

"Is he an advisor or a boyfriend?" I heard Meagan giggle, sparking a similar reaction from the rest of the group.

When we arrived at our Friday Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Dean and Daphne settled in beside me. On Fridays, all the houses took DADA together. I remember thinking, when first attending this class, how weird it was for their to be a certain kind of magic more evil when it was all pretty evil. After all, I'm pretty sure PETA wouldn't approve of us turning poor defenseless mice into tea cups. Could the mouse still feel it when you poured hot tea into it? It's all evil magic or a dark art really. We're all going to the same part of hell as the guys that worked for the Dark Lord or He-Who-You-Can't-Say-His-Name. Which in my opinion, just sounds a lot like Satan's favorite children.

"Good afternoon," Professor Quirrell greeted in a distracted tone while he tightened his turban. "Today, we're going to learn the incantation for the 'knock back jinx' we studied last week."

Class went as it usually did. We silently, in groups of three or four, practiced our inflexions of the word Flipendo.

"Something happen between you and your housemates?" Daphne inquired.

Curious, I followed her gaze to the Hufflepuff first years. Hannah had rejoined the group, and they were shooting us looks and giggles. "Not really," I shrugged. It was obvious I was lying. I was going to have to have to get a little better at that.

Dean scowled at me but didn't call me out on it. "I think your housemates aren't too thrilled to see you sitting with us," he mentioned instead. He was right. I'd noticed on several occasions, Pansy glaring right at me. She was always looking at me instead of Daphne and I never even talk to her.