Chaos Magic

by Pineapple Sherbert

Chapter 1:Rain

The weather was never exceptionally good the first night of a new year... However, the persistent pound of the thunder and lightening, and the rain which made everyone suspect for the first time ever that Hogwarts might suffer a flood warning was a bit out of the ordinary.

Harry stared up at the enchanted ceiling that mimicked the tempest outside, but unlike the rest of the students he was unperturbed by the weather. He would rather be at Hogwarts, terrible weather and all, then back on Privet drive in beautiful sunshine suffering the Dursleys.

He was brought back to attention with a slight start by a low rumble to his right, jumping slightly he scowled at the offending noise.

"sorry..." Ron grumbled. "But I swear the damn sorting ceremony gets longer every year ... and I haven't eaten since we left home."

"Honestly, Ronald" Hermione snapped, "it's not as though you couldn't have bought something on the train, and it's impossible to hear over your stomach." Ron opened his mouth to retort to this and Harry decided he would just rather not listen to them go at it for the eight hundredth time today. They had known each other for six years now, and while he knew their bickering was only masking an underlying affection for each other ... it nonetheless wore him out.

Their fighting finally came to a halt as the sorting finished and the three looked expectantly towards the head table. Harry counted the seats and noticed that an extra one had been added towards the end of the table.

A new teacher...?

Having a new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher every year was something the students of Hogwarts had grown used to ... but introducing what looked like a new subject all together...? And whoever it was was not even present at the feast. This was odd... even by the standards of this school. But even when the speeches were over the seat was still empty ... had there maybe been a mistake...? The empty seat was nearly forgotten in leu of the feast, and would have been dismissed entirely if the doors at the back of the hall had not so violently banged open as Harry was halfway into a bite of pumpkin tart.

A silence fell on the entire room as every student turned slowly to face the disturbance.

Standing in the doorway, shilouted for a moment by a flash of lightening was tall man with dark hair and almost cat like green eyes in his late twenties-early thirties. He had a tattoo in a deep navy blue color on the right side of his neck in Celtic knot of protection and he was dressed entirely in black.He was, as most of the female student body was now confirming, very handsome. Next to this man was a girl of roughly Harry's age, greatly smaller then the man next to her. Harry had almost not seen her at first, as she had nearly blended in against the background of the stone and rain. She was small, thin, and pale with hair so light it was basically a light silver. Her dark eyes, slightly too large for her face, were cast down at her feet. She was not dressed in the Hogwarts uniform, but nonetheless appeared to be wearing one of another school with a dark blue jacket and green and blue plaid skirt.

"Ah ... Orpheus, I had thought with the storm you would not arrive until tomorrow at the earliest." Dumbledore said jovially to the dark man. The girl jumped slightly as the man named Orpheus gripped her shoulder.

"We only just got here ... it is difficult to travel by boat in this weather." he said walking towards the front of the room and steering the girl in front of him as well in the process.

Orpheus took the abandoned seat at the end of the table with girl hovering next to it still looking as uncomfortable as the moment she had walked in.

"This is Professor Orpheus Mordred." Dumbledore explained motioning towards the now filled seat."This year we have introduced the new subject of Evocation, of which Professor Mordred is a master. All sixth years, please look forward to this in addition to your other classes this year. Now you may resume the feast." he finished and dropped unceremoniously back into his seat and began attacking his food once more.

Harry, however, was more distracted by the pale girl in the foreign uniform.

"Rathlin Academy" Hermione said, once more bringing Harry back to reality.

"... I'm sorry, What?"

"The girl you're staring at, that uniform is from Rathlin Academy." Harry stared at Hermione like she had just asked him about the migration patterns of the African bees. "HONESTLY Harry, it's the most prestigious all female witching school in Ireland. It was founded by Rowena Ravenclaw's sister in law and if you would ever read Hogwarts: A History you would know that by now" she said with a scowl.

"But what's she doing here then, is THAT in the book?" Ron asked, partially muffled by the tart he had stuffed in his mouth.

"No..." Hermione said bristling slightly. As Harry knew that this would only deteriorate into another pointless squabble he was relieved when the feast was over and they were told to follow their heads of house back to the dorms. But all the same he found he could not help trying to watch the pale girl for as long as possible as he left the room.

By the next morning the rain was still persisting just as heavily. And aside from the usual antagonism of Professor Snape it had been much like any other normal day at Hogwarts. Harry trailed slightly behind Ron and Hermione as they walked to their next class.

"Let's see, Evocation is next" Hermione said reading off her already fairly well used looking schedule.

"What IS that even?" Ron asked, and promptly silenced himself and held his hands up in the wake of the glare Hermione had shot him as means of a response to his question. They entered the class room and seated themselves, Ron and Hermione in the row in front of Harry, leaving him to sit by himself, wondering only half heartedly why neither of them had even asked to sit next to him. The writing was on the wall about that, as he well knew, they fought a ton, but it was painfully obvious how the two actually felt about each other. He sighed and began rummaging in his bag for a quill and parchment. There was light touch on his shoulder and he jumped slightly.

"I'm sorry ... but was anyone sitting here?" said a quiet voice that was nearly a whisper. Harry glanced up into a pair of large dark eyes and felt his stomach turn over.

The pale girl from the day before was standing over him, now wearing the Hogwarts uniform and the blue and silver colors of Ravenclaw. She brushed her silvery hair away from her face and made a weak attempt to smile, failed, and stood looking expectantly at him.

"N-no ... please..." he said motioning at the chair next to him and watching in awe as she sat next to him. "I'm Harry P-"

"Potter, I know." she said quietly, glancing at this forehead and he could detect the slight Irish lilt in her voice. He opened his mouth to ask her another question when the dark man swept into the room and moved almost like a panther to the front of it.

"I am Professor Mordred, your Evocation teacher ... as you were not informed until yesterday that this class was required of all sixth years I am sure you have not been able to obtain a book, you will be relieved to know that there is no book for this class-" there was collective sigh of relief from nearly all the students with the exception of Hermione who looked dissapointed, and the girl to Harry's right who looked as un-phased as if Professor Mordred had said that it was, in fact, still raining outside.

The rest of the lesson progressed with what could be considered normalcy ... or even tedium. Professor Mordred spent the better part of an hour and half explaining the process evocation, its various forms, and its origins in different countries. Harry spent more time trying to look to his right without looking obvious then actually paying much attention to Mordred at all. The girl to his left however never once took her eyes off of professor Mordred.

"You may all go, I expect you to carefully review your notes as there will be a test on origins and variations at the beginning of next week." Professor Mordred told them as he waved his wand at the black board eraser and enchanted it into cleaning.

The pale girl slowly got to her feet, and looked at Harry with what could almost be a smile.

"I suppose I'll see you tomorrow then Harry Potter." she said.

"Yeah I gu-"

"Miss. Moore?" The girl started slightly and looked up at Professor Mordred who had silently walked over to the pair and was now practically looming behind her. "If you could please stay behind, I would like a word with you apart from your classmates." Her eyes grew even wider for a moment, before nodding wordlessly and giving Harry a small wave as he blinked and then followed Ron and Hermione in exited the class room.

"Did she even SAY anything? How could she possibly have gotten in trouble already?" Ron asked as they were leaving.

"He's probably just concerned about her adapting to a new school, don't you think so Harry?"

Harry was looking behind him. The girl was standing in the middle of the classroom with her back to him still as professor Mordred glided forward and shut the door, Harry could hear the distinct "click" of a lock being pushed into place.

"I don't know... it strikes me as a little odd..." he said under his breath. Trying to shake the feeling that something about this was just a little ... wrong.

"What did you think you were DOING?!?!"

"I'm sorry..."

"You're sorry? You're SORRY???? Why don't you just run up a giant flag outside your bedroom and scream "HERE I AM!!!!!' at the top of your lungs?? Do you have ANY idea what kind of a situation you're in? Do you??? DAMMIT LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!!"

Harry put his glasses on and squinted around his bedroom in the Gryfindor tower at the clock. 3 AM.

The voices were coming from what sounded like the Hallway outside the common room. The louder voice was that of an older male, while the quieter one was distinctly female.

"I said I'm sorry ... I don't know what else to say to yo-" the girl's voice was cut off by the sound of flesh hitting flesh as Harry drew closer to the back of the Fat Lady's portrait and pressed his ear against it to better hear the disturbance in the Hall. There was the distinct sound of muffled crying now.

"You think you can handle this by yourself? You think you can do it?"

"I don't know!!!" the girl sobbed.

"You're a stupid little girl, do you know that?"

"... you're hurting me..."

"I'M hurting you? What exactly do you think he's going to do if he finds you? Offer you Lemon drops and hugs and apologize for missing your last eleven birthdays? Is that what you think?"

"... I don't know.." she whimpered more quietly so that Harry had to strain to hear her.

"Why do I even waste my time with you? Huh? You think you're such a little princess, you aren't worth half the time it takes to keep you from getting yourself killed."

"Please don't say that ... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't be mad at me. I won't do it again."

"Whatever .. I can't even LOOK at you right now!"

"Wait .. please don't go!!!!!!" the girl cried after the man's echoing foot steps. Harry heard the quiet sound of something sliding down the wall he was pressed against and then landing with a soft "thump" followed by soft hiccuping sobs.

He waited a few minutes, pondering whether or not it would really be a better idea for him to just go to bed or not before finally squeezing out the portal and into the Hallway.

The Hallway was illuminated by the moonlight, and curled in a patch of it was a girl in a nightgown. Her knees were drawn up to her chest and she was shaking slightly as she sobbed.

"Hey ..." Harry said quietly approaching her. The girl almost faded in the moonlight, he had thought she must have been one of Hogwarts' many ghosts for a moment, before she lifted her head and looked at him with large dark eyes that were now swimming with tears.

"Oh ..." she said in almost a whisper, hastily drawing her hand across her eyes to wipe away her tears. "Should you be out this late Harry Potter? Won't you get in trouble?" Harry ignored both the statement and the fact that she kept using his full name.

"Just call me Harry ... why are you out here ... and why are you crying ... and who was that with you?" He stopped, the girl had actually smiled genuinely this time.

"That ... is a lot of questions Harry." He smiled too, despite himself and ran a hand through his hair, seating himself next to her. He noticed, now sitting next to her, the dark red coloration on her right cheek as well as the fresh cut in the corner of her mouth and remembered the violent noises he had heard along with the verbal argument.

"Hey ..." Harry said again leaning towards the girl who flinched for a moment as he raised his hand " Whoever that was ... did they hurt you...?" She shrugged and dabbed away the small amount of blood that had formed from the gash on her lower lip.

"It's not so bad really... it's my own fault. He was right after all."

"Who was right?"

"It doesn't matter." she said, pulling her knees tight against her chest, then looking skeptically at the boy to her right. "Why are you being so nice to me anyway?" Harry blinked.

"Is there a reason I shouldn't be...?" She smiled for the second time and Harry felt his stomach flip again as she leaned towards him slightly. "So I guess all the things I heard about you are true... you are sweet." she said softly, her hair fell forward and brushed against his arm. He swallowed hard, she really was quite pretty, he was having trouble breathing normally, and she really smelled very good.

"W-who told you that?" He stammered. She laughed a little, and that dropping feeling came back.

"It's a secret" she said getting to her feet. "I don't want to get you in trouble on the first day of a new year Harry, you ought to go back to bed .. I'll see you in Evocations later." she said turning to head towards Ravenclaw.

"WAIT!!" Harry called after her as he scrambled to his feet. "WHAT'S YOUR NAME?"

She turned back for a split second and raised her finger to her lips.

"You'll wake the whole school Harry." she said with a smile, before turning the corridor and dissapearing into the dark of the school.

end ch.1