Chapter 1
It was another nippy morning at Hogwarts. There were the two newer students who transferred from the American Institution of Wizarding and Witchcraft, high in the Rockies of Colorado. One was Jessie Dowing and the other one is Mya Diego. Each had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Myas hair was redder than Jessie's though, and Jessie's eyes weren't the normal green and brown, but blue and brown. Her father's eyes. Myas were just the ordinary eyes. Yet they were not related. Jessie was also a Californian while Mya was a Mainer. They both had been placed in the Ravenclaw house. For neither was hard enough working for Hufflepuff, courageous enough for Gryffindor, or ambitious enough for Slytherin.
They were now on their way to the dining hall for dinner and Dumbledore's announcements. It had been the same routine for the past two years they had been there. Now in fifth year they knew just about everyone.
"Oi!" shouted the egotistical ass from under the green and silver tapestry of Slytherins table. Mya turned around and faced him.
"Yes?" she questioned. Waiting impatiently taping her foot with her arms crossed.
"You yanks are back?" Malfoy said. "I figured you wouldn't make it another year at Hogwarts."
"Sorry to disappoint you there, Malfoy," Mya said as she started to walk away "remember we won the war."
Jess rolled her eyes, but the corner of her mouth quirked upwards despite herself. They continued their journey towards the Ravenclaw table leaving Malfoy completely dumbfounded. Once they reached the table, they just randomly bursted out laughing at there recent attack.
"Attention," said Dumbledore from the teacher's table to the students. "Please everyone be seated. The sorting will begin."
The hall quieted as everyone waited expectantly for the first years to enter Great Hall. The Sorting Hat sat on a stool as it always had, looking for all the world like any raggedy, patched hat.
After a moment, the door opened and first years crowded in, led by Professor McGonagall. The Sorting Hat suddenly opened the slit in its brim and came to life, singing its annual song. After this there was scattered murmuring – this year the song was different from the ones everyone heard in the past, and seemed to be more advertising the houses, to unlike then, the usual description of what qualities were looked at for each house.
McGonagall cleared her throat loudly, and the sound quickly receded as she read the first on her list.
"Abercrombie, Ebenson." A chubby, dark haired boy scurried under the hat, which barley touched his head before declaring,
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
McGonagall went down the list until she reached,
"Zephyr, Atticus" and the Hat shouted,
"RAVENCLAW!" (Resulting in torrential applause from Jessie and Mya's table) and Dumbledore introduced the teachers, Umbridge and Grabbly-Plank. Inexplicably, when Dumbledore tried to begin the feast, Umbridge interrupted with a long and irritating speech (which Mya practically slept through, but Jessie though was an ominous sign that Umbridge would be a very unpleasant teacher).
Finally, they began the feast.
"I'm starving," muttered Jessie, tearing a leg off the roast turkey.
"Who wouldn't be?" asked Mya reaching for the mashed potatoes. "I wonder if these taters are from Maine…ha"
"Mya don't be absurd" said Jessie in between bites of turkey.
"Well I really do wonder Maine only has some of the best potatoes ever" said Mya looking at her food.
"Maybe back home but remember we are in Hogwarts and Maine probably doesn't ship their potatoes half way around the world, and plus that's muggle talk," said Jessie.
"True," said Mya taking another bite of her squash.
After dinner was over, people scurried to their proper dormitories. First years being led by the prefects. Mya and Jessie were just about to turn and go up the staircase leading to the Ravenclaw room when they heard,
"Mya, Hold Up!" this was Mya's other best friend Neville Longbottom.
"NEVILLE!" shouted Mya as she ran to greet him with one of her 'excited jump up and hug' things. "Oh I'm so glad to see you again." Mya continued as she was in Neville's arms giving him a death hug.
"Yeah I can tell," he said smiling.
"I have excitement issues," Mya said as she let herself down and had a huge grin coming on her face as she looked at him. Neville chuckled a little bit.
"So anyway, I stopped you to give you this…" said Neville holding a green gift bag with white polka-dots. "It's a late birthday present, I hope you like it."
"Oh I'm sure I will," reassured Mya. She took it carefully and started to paw through it. First, she pulled out a little note reading,
Happy Birthday
Neville
Simple and sweet, thought Mya when she continued to dig further into the rolls of tissue paper. She pulled out a little ball. Neville seemed to have seen the confused expression on Myas face as she examined it. He let another chuckle.
"May I?" he asked holding his hand out. Mya handed it to him, he pushed a button and above the ball there was a list of band names. Myas eyes began to widen as it slowly came to her. Neville took her hand and placed it on the ball. Myas face grew with excitement,
"OH MY GOD!" she shouted. "Neville this is so awesome!"
"It's an Orb of Music. I put your favorite bands that you talked about on it." Neville said, pleased with himself. Mya looked up, to look Neville dead in the eyes.
"Neville," she started. "This is probably one of my favorite gifts ever. It's really sweet, thank you." She gave him another big hug.
"W-well it's getting late," said Neville.
"Yeah it is, but I'll see you tomorrow."
"Definitely," said Neville as he headed towards the Gryffindor tower.
"What was that all about?" asked Jessie.
"Look what Neville gave me…" said Mya handing the gift to Jessie. For a couple moments Jessie seemed confused but then…
"AN ORB OF MUSIC!" Jessie shouted, jumping at it. Calming down, she shot Mya a look, "I am so jealous."
"No worries, I'll let you listen to it every now and then," Mya replied, giving Jessie a malicious grin. "If you behave."
Jessie's lip extended and her eyes got big.
"No!" said Mya, throwing her arms up in defense.
"Not the puppy dog eyes!"
Jessie subsided, giving Mya a ready grin and they headed for the Ravenclaw common room.
"Just get me a fuzzy speaker that we can hook to it and we'll listen to it in our dorm," said Mya.
"And we'll put a silencing charm around our room so we can BLAST it and ROCK OUT!" exclaimed Jessie.
"Exactically," said Mya as she ran toward the Ravenclaw eagle, Jessie right behind. They both were so giddy and laughing at absolutely nothing.
The eagle's beak opened,
"If an ash tree falls in the woods, and no one hears it, did it make a sound?"
Jess though about it for a moment before saying,
"The answer is that silence is only defined by the listener."
"Well though, said the eagle, and the stairs appeared. Then Jessie and Mya shot up them eager to try out the Orb of Music. When they reached the room, each was welcomed by a letter from home. Mya opened hers first,
My Dearest Mya,
How was your travel? First day back? Things are just the same at home. Although your ex stopped by, Hunter, he was hoping to catch you before you were gone. He left you a something, I'll send if with Heifer tomorrow. Well have a great year. I'll see you next summer. Oh and would you tell Jess I said hi?
Love you lots,
Mum & Dad
XOXO
Mya chuckled at the thought of her dad writing this, she turned to Jessie, "My mom says hi."
"Hi," Jessie replied as she opened her letter.
Dear Jessie,
We thought this magazine article would interest you. : )
Have a nice year at Hogwarts!
Mom & Dad 3
(And Kris and Amadeus)
"Oh, this'll be good to read tomorrow," said Jessie stuffing the article in her pad of parchment. "I'm heading up to bed, what about you Mya?"
"Yeah the energy level has dropped rapidly," replied Mya. They slipped into bed, and were out. The morning rolled around, Mya was up and about. Jessie was generally a late sleeper. All dressed and ready to go Mya walked up to Jessie, leaned in a little bit to make sure she could her,
"JESSIE, TIME TO GET UP!" yelled Mya. Jessie jumped out of bed in shock.
"Why do you do that?" asked Jessie in her irritated, half-asleep voice.
"You have to wake up somehow," said Mya pulling her hair back into a ponytail.
"UGH," sighed Jessie as she pulled herself back under the blue and bronze bedding.
"Don't you try and go back to sleep," Mya started. "I let you sleep in as late as you could." Jessie pulled the bedding down so her face was visible.
"UGH!" she sighed even louder, as she finally crawled out of bed. Mya was gathering her books and throwing them into her sling bag. Jessie had made it out of bed…finally.
"Now you're going to have to hurry up or we're going to be late for breakfast," said Mya as she now was gathering her bathroom artifacts and replacing them on her bureau.
"Oh fine," said Jessie moping to the bathroom. When Jessie had, at last, finished getting ready, they headed to breakfast. They entered through the great wooden doors. The aroma of blueberry toast filled Mya's nostrils,
"Mmm," said Mya.
Jessie, however, brought her out of her reverie by nudging her with her elbow. Ignoring Mya's puzzled expression; Jessie looked pointedly in the direction of the Gryffindor table.
"Look," she said simply.
"What?"
"Neville, he's not here this morning. I wonder why?"
"He's not?" Mya craned her neck, searching for the round-faced Gryffindor, but could not find him among the other red-edged robed students.
They found no explanation for Neville's absence through the res of breakfast, and were still in the dark on the way to potions class afterwards.
"Go on, Mya, I just remembered I've left the over-summer essay we had to do in the common room," said Jessie, dashing anxiously for the Ravenclaw's entrance.
Mya shook her head and continued on to Potions, which were in the dungeons of Hogwarts. On her way there she couldn't help but worry about Neville. She only came to one idea.
"Malfoy," she murmured under her breath. She quickened her pace to the potions classroom. She knew Malfoy would be on his way, teacher's pet though Mya. As she was getting closer she saw a flash of white blonde hair halfway down the staircase.
"MALFOY!" she shouted. He looked up to see who said his name, as his crew paused and also looked.
"Ah," he said with that smirk on his face. "How may I be of assistance?"
"What the HELL did you do to Neville?" shouted Mya as she sprinted sown the stairs.
"What do you mean?" asked Malfoy sarcastically.
"He wasn't there for breakfast today, and only Slytherins don't like him." continued Mya. "It's not like Neville to miss ANYTHING!"
"OO, sounds like someone's concerned," stated Draco.
"CONCERNED! I'm past CONCERNED!" yelled Mya now in his face. "You tell me where-"
"Where he is, or what?" asked Draco mockingly.
"This," she punched him right in the mouth and he started to bleed.
"What in the BLOODY HELL was that for Diego?" moaned Draco as he started to clutch his damaged face.
"You know damn well," finished Mya. She continued to Potions.
Jessie raced down the passageway to the dungeons, clutching her potions book and other things she needed for class. Halfway down the corridor, she stumbled on her too-long robes and dropped her books. Uncharacteristically swearing, she frantically gathered up her stuff and began running again. Barely five seconds later her essay fluttered from her grasp to the floor, and she had to stop again to grab it. Finally she reached the Potions classroom, and hoping fervently that the professor wouldn't notice, she opened the door and slipped in.
Every one turned to face her except for Snape.
"Running late I see Miss Dowing. And on the first day of classes too," said Snape now facing her, "Fifty points off Ravenclaw." Jessie, cheeks burning, slowly slid into her seat next to Mya and put her books on the table.
"Nice one Jess, already 50 points off," mumbled Mya.
"Ha-ha, figures a half blood would screw it up for her house," said Draco. At the board Snape froze.
"Malfoy, if you want to insult someone about their blood insult me cause I am a muggle born so shove that up your PURE BLOOD ASS!" said Mya. At the board, Snape cleared his throat,
"That will be all," he said. "By the way, Mr. Malfoy, what ever happened to your face?" Malfoy's face turned red and he appeared to be having difficultly shaping the words to speak.
"He fell," Mya said loudly. "Down the stairs, and smashed his face off the wall. I would have helped him, but I was on my way to class." Snape raised his eyebrows,
"It would seem that you need to be more careful on those stairs," he said, before turning back to the board to finish writing the ingredients they needed for the days potion.
"Why do you suppose Snape let you slide?" asked Jessie as they left after class. "He could not have missed that bit you said about Malfoy's-"
"I don't know," said Mya, "but I'm not complaining, we've already lost fifty points from Ravenclaw, JESSIE."
"Hey at least I haven't been beating up on Slytherins," said Jessie mildly. "I can tell that Malfoy didn't smack his face off a wall, for sure."
"You know he deserved it," said Mya darkly. "I think he did something to Neville."
"Be that as it may, it's not going to win you any points with Snape if you get into fights with Malfoy."
They headed for History of Magic, which was almost impossible to pay much attention to, but in any case they had always got enough notes to make through their exams. After class they headed to lunch.
"Only the first day and we've already got homework," said Mya glumly. "Snape has assigned an essay, Binns' assigned an essay…Bet we'll get two more essays the end of the day."
"Wouldn't surprise me," said Jessie. "This is O.W.L. year, after all. They'll be pelting us with homework to get us ready for the examinations."
"Exciting," said Mya sarcastically, rolling her eyes taking another bite of her roll, when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She swung around facing the familiar face of Hermione Granger.
"Neville is in the hospital wing," said Hermione sympathetically.
"Really, what happened?" questioned Mya. Hermione made a gesture toward the Slytherin table where she saw that blonde laughing.
"I knew it," mumbled Mya under her breath.
"Pardon?" asked Hermione.
"I knew Malfoy had something to do with it," said Mya angrily.
"Yes, oh and I heard what you did to him," said Hermione hiding a chuckling grin.
"Oh yeah, ha, well thank you Hermione," said Mya as she stood up, "Jess I'm going to visit Neville in the hospital, okay?"
"Okay," said Jessie.
"You're welcome Mya," said Hermione. Mya smiled as acknowledgement and headed out the hall towards the wing.
I'll get him back…again thought Mya to herself. She was walking at a steady pace, knowing that she was, indeed, on a time limit.
She got there and heaved the bulky doors open. She looked the room over only to find Neville on the third bed on the left. He was hunched over reading a book with his foot wrapped up in a cast resting on a pillow. He took no notice of Mya's presence. She pulled out her wand and whispered a spell to get a bouquet of fire lilies. Neville was still not looking up. Mya crept over to him,
"Hey Neville," said Mya softly so she wouldn't startle him, though she did anyway.
"Mya, hey, what's going on?" asked Neville looking up towards her with a smile.
"Same ol', same ol' but it's not me you should be asking. What happened to you?" asked Mya taking a seat next to him. His face flushed scarlet as looked down,
"Draco," he said under his breath.
"Well yeah, I kind of figured. I'll take care of him, okay?" said Mya.
"Thanks," said Neville now turning his head to face her, for she was on the bed leaning right next to him.
"Oh, and I got these for you," said Mya as she handed him the fire lilies. His eyes grew wide, as a monstrous grin appeared.
"Fire lilies," he stated.
"Yeah, I was hoping you didn't have these yet," said Mya leaning even closer to him, her chin almost on his shoulder.
"Well I do now, thank you Mya," said Neville.
"No prob, though I should be going, but I had to check on you."
"Yeah," agreed Neville. Mya slowly stood up from the bed and started to leave until a though popped in her head,
"When are you going to be released?"
"Tomorrow, sometime," replied Neville.
"Okay, see you later," said Mya.
"Bye," and Mya left the hospital wing and headed for her next class.
She met Jessie at Transfigurations.
"People were talking about Potter at lunch," said Jess. "They were being pretty harsh, I thought."
"Why?"
"They were saying stuff…like the stuff that's been in the Prophet all summer."
"I don't get the Prophet much during vacation."
"Well, about how supposedly he loves being famous and is always angsting all over the place and trying to get attention."
"His parents died didn't they? That isn't something I'd want to be famous for."
"Yeah, I know…and everyone reckons he's making it up about…" Jessie tapped her teacup with her wand making it grow a tail, "You-know-who being back."
"Well we've all be wondering," said Mya, "so much stuff has happened at the end of last year and it was pretty much unexplained." She tapped her own cup making it grow feet and fur. "I can't seem to get this quite get this changed into a rat."
"Me neither," said Jessie. "I think I'm a bit rusty from not doing magic all summer."
"Probably," said Mya jabbing the cup. It squeaked and tried to run of the desk.
"Anyway, I think we'll just have to wait and see if anything else happens or if Harry ends up explaining what happened in the maze," said Jess, "Grab that." Mya snatched the tea cup from the edge of the desk and returned to trying the spell.
By the end of class, Jessie's cup was almost a rat except for that it still had a handle, and Mya's cup had grown a head.
"Not horrible for first class," said Mya when she turned to her cup.
"But we still need to practice the spell for homework," said Jessie pushing her dark hair out of her eyes.
After Care of Magical Creatures with Grubbly-Plank, where they drew a labeled anatomy of bowtruckles, (to be finished for homework). They went to their common room.
"YAWN!" said Jessie. "My classes have worn me out just thinking all that homework we've been assigned."
"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to visit Neville again before I bother with any of it," said Mya.
"You do that," said Jessie taking out her bowtruckle drawing. "I'm almost done with this; I'm going to finish it now."
"I'll do that later," said Mya waving her hand dismissively.