You can hinder me, but you'll never stop me

Well, That Didn't Go As Planned

The day the first lessons began Jay was as usual the one of the first students in the great hall. Looking up to the teacher's table at the head of the hall, she was relieved to see only Professors Flitwick and Snape. Her father and Sirius wouldn't arrive until the second week of school at least, and her mother was apparently not up yet. She was once again an assistant Charms teacher for the upper years, and Jay wouldn't have her in class until her fifth year.

It was also a relieve to see that her Head of House wasn't present, and neither was the Headmaster. There was nothing to worry about now. He knew that they were going to keep an even closer eye on her now, with the entire disappearing act she pulled. Twice.

She inwardly winced. She didn't want to think about it, didn't want to deal with the problems that would soon show their ugly heads. It was going to be a had time the coming weeks. She hated the fact that in a way they were rightfully angry with her. She ran away with only leaving a note behind – but that didn't justify what they pulled on her. If anything, it justified her actions. And this time, she wouldn't back down. Even if it meant hell for her.

She settled at the Gryffindor table, her overflowing backpack in the seat next to her. She pulled out a rather large tomb and put some eggs and toast no her plate. The book was a charms book from Greece, and not in English. She saw professor Flitwick look at her, and gave him a smile and a nod. She pulled her book close to her and took a bite of her toast.

A bit later the table began to fill up with cranky teenagers and the near complete silence in the hall was getting louder the more students filled the room. It wasn't long until Neville joined her at the table as per usual. She knew that Neville wasn't the most talkative person in the morning, yet she still put her book away as Neville ate in silence while listening some more to the thing Jay had learned over the summer holidays.

"Here's your timetables," A boy Jay didn't recognize dropped several pieces of parchment on the table and made his way down to the other students on her right.

Jay and Neville both looked confused. "Who was that? I thought the head boy was supposed to give the time tables out?" Jay nodded, "Yeah. At least, that's what I thought... where is he anyway?" Both Neville and Jay look around, trying to spot the redhead somewhere.

"Isn't he usually one of the first in the great hall?" He asked, "I mean, you're normally the one that's up the first in the morning, have you seen him?"

"No, I haven't seen him since waiting for the train." She looked a bit thoughtful, her brow furrowed while trying to remember if she'd seen him after that.

"Last I saw him was yesterday too, though that was while leading the new first years to the dormitories. Do you think something's wrong?"

"Come on Neville. He probably overslept or got sick or something. It's the first day, what could go wrong?"

"Don't, - you just jinxed it. You know that right?" Nev pressed his lips together, trying to keep from saying more.

"Mate, have a bit of faith, would you? Our luck isn't that bad."

"Last. Famous. Words."

"Don't be so pessimistic! Honestly, you'd think that I would be the one to complain-"

"Miss Potter, if you could follow me." Jay looked behind herself, only to come to face with her Head of House and Percy Weasley. Professor McGonagall was looking at her with pursed lips and a disappointed look on her face. She turns back to face Nev, who comments, "Told you so," And leaves it at that.

"Now Miss Potter." The other students sitting at the table are listening now, the hall's sound level has dropped a noticeable few decibels.

"Certainly. Let me grab my bag first." She pushes her book in her overflowing bag, the contents of which raise the Professor's eyebrows. Jay raises her own eyebrow, and with it telling Percy to mind his own business and daring the Professor to say something about the contents of her bag.