The following morning, Seamus quickly got dressed and left the dorm room without speaking or even looking at Alex. "Sorry about that," said Dean apologetically. "It's just that...Anyway, I'll try to talk to Seamus."

Alex sighed and wished he could go back to his childhood, when things had been easier and nothing truly bad had happened, with the exception of Mrs. Lovegood's death when one of her spell experiments had gone wrong. It was more fun to just pretend that there was a villain running amok that he and his friends had discovered and helped defeat, or that they caught thieves that were trying to steal a priceless artifact. Unfortunately, the days of pretending to be like the Secret Seven Society from the Secret Seven book series by Muggle write Enid Blyton were long over.

Alex went down to breakfast, feeling out-of-sorts, and seeing that enchanted ceiling of the Great Hall showed that it was overcast and raining out didn't improve his mood. "I hate this!" he growled, glaring at his bowl of porridge. "I know nobody wants to believe that Tom Riddle is back, but when your own dormmate, who ought to know you well enough, thinks that Dumbledore is deluded and that you're just as deluded...!"

"Unfortunately, Lavender Brown said pretty much the same thing until Hermione and I set her straight," said Beth, shaking her head.

"The Secret Seven never had to deal with nonsense like this!" snapped Alex. "Or the Famous Five, for that matter. They went out on adventures and solved all sorts of cases and weren't hated! Even the stuff we made up when we pretended to be like them never turned out like this."

"Wait, you've read the Secret Seven and Famous Five series?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah," responded Neville. "Back when we were eight, and Ginny, Luna, and David were seven, we read a whole bunch of Enid Blyton's books, passed down from Alex and Beth's parents and aunts and uncles."

Ron smiled at the memory. "We used to secretly stay up past our bedtimes to finish reading whichever one of her books we were reading that day. Then we got the idea to pretend to be the Secret Seven, since there were seven of us, and made up our adventures and mysteries to solve. Alex and Beth were the Peter and Janet of our group, of course. We didn't try to fit ourselves into the other society members, though. For one thing, Ginny and Luna were nothing like Pam and Barbara, and while I could have fit somewhat like Jack, well, Jack's sister Susie wasn't allowed to join the society."

"We stopped pretending to be the Secret Seven after Aunt Pandora, that's Luna's mum, died, though," said Beth. "The day that she died, we were pretending that as the magical version of the Secret Seven, we were explorers finding new magical creatures while on holiday. After that, it was no longer fun."

"I see," said Hermione sympathetically. "But it sounds like you guys had fun while it lasted."

The others nodded. "Though come to think of it, the adventures that we've had since starting Hogwarts are like some of the things we made up," Neville said thoughtfully. "There was the time we imagined that we foiled a plot to steal a priceless artifact. And funnily enough, we did pretend once that we had to fight a monster that was Petrifying people, though the monster we fought in imagination was more like a Gorgon than a basilisk."

"We're not reviving the group," Alex said flatly. "Or rather, since there are five of us now, pretending to be like the Famous Five. Yes, it was fun when we were kids, but things have gotten serious, and no matter how much I wish we could go back the simpler times of our childhood, we can't."

"It's not like we could be the Famous Five anyway," Ron pointed out. "That group had two boys and two girls and the fifth member was their dog, remember? And okay, while neither Beth and Hermione are really girly, they're not tomboys like George was either."

Alex gave his friend a Look. "That's not the point, Ron." He forced himself to eat a few spoonfuls of porridge, then continued, "Well, even if Riddle is back and things are getting bad, we still have school to deal with. We can't forget that it's O. W. L. s year and have to prepare for that."

Ron made a face, because studying for exams was one of his least favorite activities, and he was more of an indifferent student, though he had no problem with learning new things. At that point, the schedules were handed out, and the Gryffindor quintet paused to look theirs over. They had History of Magic, Potions, and Defense Against Dark Arts that day, and on top of that, Alex, Beth, and Hermione had Arithmancy.

"Well, other than History of Magic, today's not bad," Beth remarked. "I wonder what Dad's class will turn out to be like."

"Remember we have to call him 'Professor' or 'sir' in class, though," Alex reminded her.

"I know, you don't have to remind me," Beth replied.

Angelina Johnson then sat down next to the quintet and reported that she was the new Gryffindor Quidditch captain.

"Great for you, Angelina," Alex said, feeling happier now. He suspected that her pep talks wouldn't be as long as Oliver Wood's had been, which could only be a good thing.

"Anyway, since Oliver left, Gryffindor is going to need a new Keeper," Angelina said. "Since you, Ron, were being groomed for the position and was our reserve Keeper, you'll get the spot. And Beth, you'll continue to be our reserve Seeker and Chaser. Practices will start next week, since this week everyone settling back in and there's bound to be tryouts among the other houses for their open Quidditch slots. Okay?"

After that, the quintet didn't speak much for the rest of breakfast and then headed for their first class of the day. In History of Magic, Professor Binns didn't mention anything about it being O.W. L. year, going into his lecture right after the start of class. Professor Vector and Professor Snape did, however, in their classes, emphasizing how important fifth-year was and that they expected their respective classes to achieve at least an 'Acceptable' on the Arithmancy and Potions O. W. L. s. Professor Snape in particular looked very strict and forbidding as he spoke about it. All three teachers assigned homework, with Professor Vector setting two number charts to work on and the other two assigning essays.

When Defense Against Dark Arts started, Stephan, or Professor Romanov, greeted the class and then wrote his course aims on the chalkboard, which consisted mostly of making sure that they passed their Defense O.W. L. and would be able to adequately defend themselves if any of the escaped Death Eaters, or any other evil witch or wizard, tried to attack them. He then had them turn to chapter one of Defensive Magic and Theory and went over the difference between jinxes, hexes, and curses, before having the class practice the Disarming Charm and Stunning Spells on a set of five dummies he'd set up for that purpose. The only homework he assigned was to read over the next chapter in their texts and write a summary of it.

After dinner, the quintet tried to do their homework, but when Fred and George started trying to test out their new products on the students that had volunteered and were being paid to be testers, Hermione stepped in and exercised her powers as a prefect to make them stop. After that, she snapped at Ron for not backing her up in this, and deciding that she couldn't properly concentrate anymore, went upstairs to bed. Alex and Beth were able to focus long enough to get Snape's essay on the properties and uses of moonstone done, and help Ron and Neville with it, but gave up after working out the first number chart. Meanwhile, Ron and Neville started Binns' essay, but couldn't concentrate to get further than that, and the four of them decided they might as well go up to bed too.