Ed watched as Joce joined him and he knew instantly that something was wrong as she wasn't smiling like she usually was. That sullen expression was typical for him, but not for her. He regarded her and didn't know what had happened. He wanted to help her at all cost. He regarded her with sadness in his eyes as she asked him how he was not how his summer had been.<br/><br/>"My summer wasn't bad, pretty much same old same old. I'm doing alright, though I can tell you are not, Joce what happened?" He asked, even though by the way she was avoiding telling him right off the bat he was pretty sure they wouldn't be discussing it here. It wasn't as if that was anything unusual, she would tell him when she was ready, he was cool with that. Instead they passed most of the trip silently sharing mindless stories. He felt rather concerned by then, but reluctantly let her get away with it.<br/><br/>As she took her seat at the Ravenclaw table he took his at Gryffindor table and looked up at his least favorite teacher ever, Severus Snape.<br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/>The meal wasn't anything special. Dumbledore did his special as always. The food was amazing as always. There was plenty of chatter, plenty of action and soon the meal was over without any incident and the students off to bed. The start of term feast was always a big deal with the Sorting and the many speeches of which there was one made announcing Severus as Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher and Slughorn as the new Potions Teacher. Nothing unusual.<br/><br/><div><hr style="height:2px; width:100%; border:0; color: white;background:white;"/></div><br/><br/>Severus arrived early for the first lesson of term and took out his books laying them down upon the table. He regarded the posters upon the wall and smiled slightly at their quite disgusting displays. It was evident he took a lot of pleasure from this as he stood watching the class file in.<br/><br/>--<br/><br/>Ed wasn't interested in going to DADA after having found out it would be taught by Severus and so he was amongst the last of the students to arrive, but he was not late.