The Fifth House
by Lylian
Those familiar with Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry know that the school is divided into four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. These are the original houses of the traditional school. There is no fifth house.
- - -
Zacharias Smith reluctantly joined the D.A. only because Susan Bones asked him to accompany her. He never could refuse his best friend. However, it was a regret from the beginning.
Much to his annoyance, Susan completely forgot about him at the mere mention of Terry Boot. During meetings, she always paired up with the Ravenclaw, and finally Zacharias realised why he was asked to attend. He was there for moral support, and Zacharias was never good at that.
Consequently, he was left alone in the hostile environment with pompous bigots who relentlessly pushed him around. By the end of the session, he had an aching bum thanks to the Weasley twins and a burnt hand (they weren't even practicing Flame Hexes!) courtesy of his new partner Dean Thomas.
Zacharias' last partner, Anthony Goldstein, refused to pair up with him again because he thought that Zacharias was a 'sore loser.' Zacharias didn't care much for Ravenclaws anyway.
As the D.A. members filed out of the Room of Requirement by threes and fours, Susan hurriedly joined him.
"How was today's session?" she asked, knowing full well that he hated every one.
"Bloody wonderful, as always."
"That's great!" said Susan, either choosing to ignore him or missing his sarcasm. She shifted around to glance at Boot, who was waiting patiently for her. "I think I'll walk with Terry back to the commons. You don't mind, do you?"
"Do I ever?" Zacharias muttered.
At that moment, she did something unexpected—she grabbed hold of his arm affectionately, pulled him closer and whispered, "I know you don't like being here Zacharias, but thank you."
At Harry's cue, Susan then walked off with Terry and his two other friends.
Grumbling less, Zacharias turned to see who was left for him to exit with. His Hufflepuff friends had departed right before Susan had. Those left were the Golden Trio, the Weasley twins, Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, Dean Thomas and Luna Lovegood. It was a given that he would be exiting with Dean and Luna. The others he preferred not to interact with unless absolutely necessary (But if he had a choice, he wouldn't be near any of them).
After Harry checked that strange map of his, he told the next group to leave. Zacharias waited to be sure that he wouldn't be leaving with those arrogant Weasley twins before taking off.
The three of them were walking quietly until Luna spoke up.
"I believe that Cho was trying to hang back in order to talk to Harry today," said Luna out of the blue. "She always does that, and yet, Harry doesn't notice. She probably feels awful."
"Yeah, I noticed," said Dean, amused.
"I would," said Luna pointedly. After a few moments, she abruptly called, "Zacharias Smith."
"Yes?" he answered languidly.
"I don't know what shampoo you use, but it attracts nargles."
"Why do you say that?" Zacharias said with a sneer.
"Because you have one in your hair."
"What?"
Zacharias ran off to the nearest lavatory. He didn't like that Loony Lovegood one bit, but if there was something in this hair, it needed to be removed. Turning in front of the bathroom mirror, Zacharias came to the conclusion that there was nothing there, especially not nargles, whatever those were.
"Stupid Loony," he grumbled, "I don't have anything in my hair."
When he went out again, the two weren't there, not that Zacharias even expected them to wait. He just didn't enjoy walking alone in the corridors when it was past curfew. If he was caught, he had no one to blame.
The seventh floor of Hogwarts was unfamiliar to Zacharias. He had been there only for D.A. meetings. But there was one thing that was for sure; the Gryffindor common room was near the tower, opposite of where he was at. He had seen Gryffindors walk towards the east side whenever they got out of the Room of Requirement. What threw him off was that as he walked through the west wing, there were voices coming from a half-opened portrait.
The floor length portrait of a horse was unremarkable save for two things; it was flanked by two rather large windows on either side, and, where there should have been a wall behind it, there was an opening. Because of the two windows, the opening should have led to the empty space outside instead of a darkened hallway, but then again, Hogwarts was full of surprises.
Zacharias neared and listened to the voices.
"Are you ready to start?" asked a female voice he didn't recognize.
"Give me a moment," said a voice he knew as Dean Thomas. "We only just arrived."
Another girl spoke up. "I find it fascinating when you two go at it." This was clearly Luna Lovegood.
"You would," an unfamiliar male retorted.
By now, Zacharias was beyond interested. There were students inside and outside of the D.A. who also went against Umbridge's objectionable decree.
But what were they up to?
Zacharias took quiet steps into the hallway where he couldn't be seen by anyone yet. He sped up to the other end, where he disappeared into the shadows.
"Did you feel that breeze? Luna, you didn't leave the portrait open again, did you?" The voice was undoubtedly Pansy Parkinson's.
"Well, the latest infestation of nargles is finally reaching Hogwarts and—"
"Luna, just close the portrait. And don't do it again," Pansy commanded. She sounded exasperated. "Now, are we going to start or not?"
From his hiding spot behind a suit of armour, Zacharias tried to inch into the darkness as Luna passed. With a click the portrait was closed. As Luna made her way back, Zacharias could have sworn she glanced straight at him, but perhaps it was just his imagination. She passed without a word.
More curious now than ever, Zacharias moved so that he could see what was going on. The room at the end of the hallway was richly decorated in hues of rich, warm colours. Violet was predominant, but the room was strangely void of furniture. However, this was brushed off, for in the centre was the most interesting assortment of people that immediately caught his eye.
Dean Thomas, Luna Lovegood, Pansy Parkinson, that quiet boy from Slytherin, and Lisa something-or-other of Ravenclaw. What irked him most was that they were acting civil. Zacharias had never seen members of different houses together acting so respectfully. He also knew that Slytherins and Gryffindors hated each other on principle, so it surprised him when Dean and Pansy spoke.
"You might want to remove that sweater Thomas," said Pansy. "Last time you ruined it."
Dean raised his eyebrows at her and took it off. "If you want."
"Why do you care?" asked the Slytherin boy to Pansy.
Instead of answering, she walked off to the other end of the room to lounge chairs that Zacharias didn't remember being there. Luna and the unnamed Slytherin followed to sit down as spectators to Dean and Lisa, who still stood in the centre of the room. Dean backed up to one side of the long room, while Lisa moved to the other, mirroring him.
They moved into stances that Zacharias had only seen in his History of Magic text, on the pages where battles were depicted. Zacharias realised that they were in a duel stance, but the biggest difference was their lack of wands. Neither held one in their hands, and he wondered when they would pull it out.
From where she sat, Pansy called, "Ready, begin!"
What happened next shocked him to the core. Dean Thomas burst into flames right before his eyes. Yet, as his tall, flaming body moved, Zacharias saw that Dean didn't crumple onto the floor or cry out in agony; Dean was alive beneath those embers.
At the same time, Lisa arched her back and cried an animal-like howl of pain. The back of her school shirt ripped open to reveal white, feathery wings, as large as a hippogriff's. When she looked back up at her opponent, Zacharias found it hard to look her in the eye. She was giving off an aura of light, but it wasn't quite visible.
Immediately, they began to fight.
With a swiftness not unknown to Zacharias, Dean's flaming body instantaneously conjured fireballs in his palm, used to throw at Lisa, who flew three meters above the floor to avoid it.
Closing her eyes to concentrate, Lisa's hands quickly clasped together and apart to create a glowing phenomenon between them. Zacharias had never seen anything like it. Not anywhere in his textbooks or in his experiences with magic did he see it before. The gleaming ball of either energy or light was flung from her hands, forcefully hitting Dean near his legs. He was pushed back five meters with a growl. The two duelers stood mockingly still, waiting for the next move.
Then once again, he struck. Lisa was thrown backwards into the wall behind her, but she got up after a moment with barely a scratch. Concentrating, Lisa created more energy and hurled it towards Dean. He only just caught the blast between his enflamed hands, and headed it her way powerfully. Lisa flew just in time and missed his attack for the second time. Dean's fires grew more enraged.
When Zacharias had just forgotten about the other audience, they made themselves known.
"He's really upset now," said Luna freely.
"Who do you think will win this round?" asked the stringy boy. "Turpin?"
"My money's on Thomas," Pansy answered.
"He barely made it out the last time."
"That's because he just finished duelling you. You can't expect him to be at his prime."
"Well, that means he's not at his best now either. He just came from Potter's little duelling club."
Zacharias' ears immediately perked up at this. How did they know about that?
"Oh look, they're moving," Luna interrupted. Zacharias turned from his thoughts.
The blazing creature enflamed the rest of the ground floor with one flick of his hand. Strangely enough, the side of the room where the spectators sat was untouched by the flames. They didn't even appear to be flushed from the heat. But Zacharias on the other hand quickly moved backwards to avoid burns.
In enflaming the flooring, the Ravenclaw was trapped up in the air, where the fumes of the fire burned in her lungs. Dean was unrecognizable with the blaze all around. He was virtually invisible and couldn't be distinguished from the rest. It hurt Zacharias' eyes to see, but he was so enthralled with the battle that he couldn't make himself mind much.
Lisa flew from one end of the large room to the other, to avoid being stagnant as an easy prey. The wildfire grew, pushing her higher, and from right underneath her, a fireball was thrown. She expertly and quickly created a force field to block him. But other fireballs were thrown immediately after. Another force field was conjured and this time, Lisa strained to keep it. The look of concentration on her face was apparent.
The flying comets stopped abruptly, as her opponent waited for the next move. With frenzied movements, Lisa threw energy through all parts of the fire, trying to capture Dean and figure out where his exact location was. She hit something solid and began her slaughter.
One after another, never ending, Lisa hurled energy to that single point until she had run out. She was wearing out and, with deep breaths, stopped throwing her light.
"Ha, Dean! Give up yet?" said Lisa breathlessly, speaking for the first time throughout their fight.
And from behind her came this: "No, not yet."
Lisa turned around with fright in her eyes, watching as the tall, flaming body jumped from the fire to where she was hovering. The weak force field she had managed to create in time did not stop Dean from pushing her into the wall. The fiery body engulfed her, so that Zacharias didn't know what exactly happened behind that orange curtain.
"Sanctuary!" she called out in a muffled voice.
In an instant, Dean dropped onto the ground, and the fire on him and the ground gathered to the spot in which he stood, collecting until he was completely flame-free, save for the small fire in his palm. He extinguished it by closing his fist and saying gladly, "10 – Dean, 9 – Lisa."
"Bravo!" exclaimed Luna, who was applauding energetically.
With her wings still intact, Lisa dropped gracefully onto the flooring as well, looking dejected. "The fire on the ground was new. It threw me off."
"But I still won," said Dean with a slight smirk on his face. "How long did that take, ten minutes?"
"You may be one point ahead of me now, Dean, but not for long." She said this with a smile.
"That was a new trick Thomas," interrupted Pansy, as the two joined them on the mauve, velvety chairs. "Where'd you learn that?"
"Something I picked up while practicing with Theodore one day," he replied, indicating the Slytherin boy. "I didn't know I could do it until I tried."
"You went practicing without us?" asked Lisa.
"Turpin, you can't expect us to always meet as a group," Theodore said.
"Well, that's not very fair, is it? You're getting in more practice than us."
"No, I don't think that's fair at all." Pansy added with faux spite, "I think we should meet on our own then, girls."
"Oh yes, but we can't meet this Friday because it's a waning moon," said Luna.
The group looked at one another, as if picking who was to answer her awkward statement, so Lisa decided to speak up. "But it's a waning moon tonight as well."
"You know what they say about Fridays and waning moons."
"No, I don't think I'm familiar with that saying."
"Oh."
When Luna didn't go on, the rest of them continued with conversation as if it were a normal occurrence.
At the other end of the room, Zacharias was still dormant in his hidden corner. He didn't know quite what to do but he knew that he had to escape. What he had just witnessed blew him away, but how was he to cope? What was he to do?
Susan would be the first to know about this, then perhaps the headmaster.
The two fighters were completely fine and acting normal. But what was normal now? Zacharias wasn't exactly sure. Normal used to mean using wands to throw hexes and curses, not sprout wings spontaneously and start conjuring fireballs from the palm of your hand.
From behind the suit of armour, he rushed towards the exit. But to his great surprise, there was no exit. The wall where the back of the portrait used to be was gone, as if it had never been there in the first place. He pushed and pushed, but the solid wall didn't budge. Just as he began to panic, the voices in the other room grew louder.
"We had a visitor today," Luna said randomly.
With a sharp tone, Pansy said, "What?"
"We had a visitor."
"What do you mean Luna?" asked Lisa gently.
"I mean, someone has been watching us."
"What! Why didn't you say anything?" cried Pansy.
"Who?" said Theodore.
"He's in the hallway."
"How did you know he was there?" Dean asked.
"I smelled him," Luna answered. "He's still here, in the Gryffindor entrance."
The hurried footfalls of the others running made Zacharias' heartbeat speed up. He raced to his former hiding place behind the suit of armour and disappeared into the darkness, hoping that he wouldn't be found by the extraordinarily frightening wizards.
- - -
Author's Note: I've been struck by another idea and hope beyond hope that I can make it go places. I already have the basics of the plot figured out, and I'm in the process of completing Chapter Three. Two is finished, but I think I'll wait a week or so before posting another one. I hope you enjoyed this first tidbit. It's a little vague, and it keeps you mostly in the dark, but I hope that doesn't hinder you from enjoying the first installment. Please review! (And thanks to those who have put this story on their faves or their alerts!)