Author's Note: The first chapter mainly focuses on my OCs but I promise you that soon enough Queen Rowling's characters will be joining in the fun. I hope you hang on to this story. And also, review.
Disclaimer: Queen Rowling owns all except the OC's and plot. Well, we all know that. Also, some phrases have been taken from the book. Not mine!
Chapter 1: She Arrives
Dementors stopping the Hogwarts Express in search of Sirius Black, what could be stranger? How about Dumbledore holding the Sorting Hat at the breakfast table the second morning after the Sorting? Yes? Well, indeed he was, with a brunette girl standing beside him looking at the Hogwarts students filing in with curious dark brown eyes. Some students, like Harry Potter, noticed immediately. After all, it was his habit to look at Dumbledore's place during meals. Others, like Ron Weasley, merely noticed the current lack of food on the usually full breakfast tables. Murmurs scattered as the students noticed the new girl one by one.
"Hogwarts!" Dumbledore called out. "Due to certain circumstances, we have here Miss Isabelle Van Doren. She will be studying here from now on." With that, he set the Sorting Hat on Isabelle's head.
It stayed there for a few moments before clearly calling out, 'RAVENCLAW!'
Dumbledore smiled and nodded as the Ravenclaw house cheered and welcomed their newcomer. "Miss Van Doren will be in the third year class."
Silence. Everyone in the Great Hall have never encountered a transferee before, the other professors included, and now they contemplated how someone who just got sorted belonged to a couple of years higher than the usual.
"Now, let us enjoy breakfast." The headmaster said, and with those words, the food appeared on the tables and everyone dug in heartily, quickly forgetting what they were just pondering upon as the scent of food wafted through the air.
Isabelle sighed in relief. At least no one was talking to her... yet. "Hi, Isabelle, right?" a girl who sat across her greeted.
She nodded. "Yes." Isabelle replied, trying not to sound wary.
"I'm Cyrene. Cyrene Yelena de Noir. We're in the same year." Isabelle looked at her. She looked different from the other Ravenclaws. For one, she had strawberry-blonde hair and gray-eyes, which weren't really common in the midst of the mostly dark-haired and dark-eyed students of Ravenclaw.
"Pleasure to meet you." Isabelle finally said, giving the girl a small smile.
"So where are you from?"
Isabelle swallowed her pumpkin juice before replying. "Romania."
"Where'd you study before here?"
"I was home schooled."
"Oh… well, that's… peculiar. I mean, not in a bad way of course, it's just that I've never met anybody who was homeschooled before."
"It's quite alright." Isabelle smiled and sipped her pumpkin juice once again.
"Anyways, wait 'til you meet my friend Antoinette. I'm sure you'll like her. She's from Hufflepuff." Yelena chattered on.
"I'm sure I'll be thrilled." Came the not so enthusiastic but still enough response. "Oh, and Cyrene, do you mind showing me around?" Isabelle requested, remembering she was in unfamiliar territory.
Cyrene smiled. "It would be my pleasure."
By the time breakfast was finished, Isabelle had already met most of the Ravenclaw house, courtesy of Cyrene, of course. The person who caught most of her attention was Luna Lovegood, who was a year below them. Luna was another fair-haired person in the midst of the Ravenclaws. And she kept on reading this funny paper called the Quibbler.
"Well, we must be going then." Cyrene urged, standing up and heading over back to the Ravenclaw Tower to grab their things for their first class. Isabelle followed suit.
"What's our first class again?"
"New schedule says we have Divination with Professor Trelawney on the North Tower with the Hufflepuffs."
"Have you been to that class yet?"
Cyrene shook her head. "Gryffindors and Slytherins had it together yesterday. I have heard something interesting about it though."
Isabelle's interest was piqued. "What is it?"
"I overheard Professor McGonagall mentioning it yesterday to Professor Sprout. Says Sybill Trelawney's at it again. She said Professor Trelawney has greeted her new batch of students with the same old spook about one student dying. No need to worry then, I guess. She's already pointed out who it is."
"And who might the unfortunate bloke be?"
"Harry Potter."
Isabelle Van Doren may have been home-schooled up to that point by a pure-blood family in Romania, but she couldn't deny the fact that Harry Potter wasn't famous. Even there in their family manor, news has reached two years ago when Harry Potter finally resurfaces after living with his muggle aunt, uncle and cousin. "The boy-who-lived."
"The very same. But of course, his life has probably been in danger ever since You-Know-Who was defeated by him. Not that I'm saying he'll come back, you know. But he's got his followers."
Isabelle nodded and their conversation was interrupted as they reached the Ravenclaw tower and answered the bronze eagle's knocker's riddle to enter the tower and gather their things. Isabelle's possessions have been set-up in one of the girl's dorms and as fate may have it, in Cyrene's.
After they had gathered their books and bags, they then went back and headed to the North Tower.
"In first year he had this episode with Professor Quirrell in the dungeons. I didn't get much data, but I heard Professor Quirrell was used by You-Know-Who to get back at Harry Potter and get his body back using the Sorcerer's Stone. Then last year the chamber of secrets was opened. They say it was the heir of Slytherin's doing. Many people thought at first that it was Harry, after that time when the whole school heard him speak in Parseltongue, one of Salazar Slytherin's rare talents, during Professor Lockhart's little dueling club's first and if I reckon correctly, last night."
"Sounds to me like Mr. Potter's troubles didn't end that night thirteen years ago."
"Definitely. Now I heard Sirius Black's after him. Not so sure about that though. But after the past two years, anyone could be after Harry Potter."
"What class do we have after Divination?"
Before Cyrene had the chance to reply, they had reached their destination. "It doesn't look like a classroom at all." Cyrene mumbled, looking around.
Isabelle shrugged, not having much of a concrete idea about how classrooms are supposed to look like. Other third year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs shuffled into the tower behind them. "Cyrene, as expected. You've already befriended the new girl." came a voice behind the two of them.
Cyrene was the first to turn and beamed as she tugged Isabelle to face the same way. "Isabelle, this is Antoinette Montesquieu, she's the Hufflepuff I told you about earlier." Isabelle came face to face with a girl with shoulder length mocha brown hair permed at ends and emerald green eyes. "Anne, this is Isabelle Van Doren."
Isabelle smiled politely at Antoinette. "A pleasure to meet you."
"Pleasure's mine." Antoinette blushed, shaking Isabelle's hand.
"Now, you must pardon Anne. She's a tad bit uneasy around most people. It makes her blush like mad when people have their attention on her." Cyrene explained.
Antoinette laughed. "Yes, that's true. Unlike Cyrene here who isn't ashamed to talk to anyone within a 12-foot radius."
Isabelle and Cyrene laughed at that as well. The three of them continued to survey the whole room. "Looks like my great grandma's attic." Cyrene commented, looking at the closed windows and dusty shelves along the walls. "Plus the smell." She added, indicating the heavy, sickly sort of perfume that was wafting from the large copper kettle on the fire under the mantelpiece. "And the light! Oh dear me." Everything was lit with a dim, crimson light and the many lamps were draped with dark red scarves.
"Feels like we ended up in a tea shop to me. An old-fashioned one at that." Antoinette supplied, pointing at the round tables surrounded by chintz armchairs and fat little poufs. And the huge array of teacups on the shelves.
"This temperature is suffocating." Isabelle added.
Their criticism was cut short when a soft misty voice spoke. "Welcome," it said. "How nice to see you in the physical world at last."
Isabelle suppressed a cough given the room's circumstances. She squinted in the light to see Professor Trelawney moving from the shadows and into the light. Her eyes looked enormous due to the magnification of her glasses, and several accessories were on her neck, arms and fingers. She also had this tacky shawl around her.
"Sit, my children, sit." And everyone awkwardly clambered to find a seat. Isabelle, Cyrene and Antoinette sank into three huddled poufs. "Welcome to Divination," said Professor Trelawney, who had seated herself in a winged armchair in front of the fire. "My name is professor Trelawney. You may not have seen me before. I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye."
Nobody spoke a word. Professor Trelawney delicately rearranged her shawl and continued, "So you have chosen to study Divination, the most difficult of all magical arts. I must warn you at the outset that if you do not have the Sight, there is very little I will be able to teach you. Books can take you only so far in this field..."
Isabelle remained silent, her eyes focused on the fire. "Many witches and wizards, talented though they are in the area of loud bangs and smells and sudden disappearings, are yet unable to penetrate the veiled mysteries of the future," Professor Trelawney went on, her enormous, gleaming eyes moving from face to nervous face. "It is a Gift granted to few. You girl," she pointed to a Hufflepuff who in surprise had jumped up so suddenly. "Beware of traitors." The girl suddenly looked distrusting at her companion who squirmed at her glare uncomfortably.
"We will be covering the basic methods of Divination this year. The first term will be devoted to reading the tea leaves. Next term we shall progress to palmistry." Then she suddenly pounced on a boy, from Ravenclaw this time, muttering something about an accident that's bound to happen to him regarding some stairs.
"In the second term," Professor Trelawney went on, "we shall progress to the crystal ball - if we have finished with fire omens, that is. Unfortunately, classes will be disrupted in February by a nasty bout of flu. I myself will lose my voice."
Cyrene raised her brow at that proclamation. Antoinette gave a shrug.
"Who would be kind enough to hand me the largest silver teapot?" Professor Trelawney whispered.
Isabelle looked around. None of the others seemed to want to go near the strange professor and were sinking into their seats. She cleared her throat and stood up, took the teapot from the shelf and handed it to Professor Trelawney.
"Thank you, my dear." Sybill Trelawney said, and her eyes turned even bigger and opened her mouth as if to speak when she glanced at Isabelle. Isabelle felt like she was about to spout out one of her foresights again and stiffened. But the professor simply smiled at her and told her to sit down.
"Now, I want you all to divide into pairs. Collect a teacup from the shelf, come to me, and I will fill it. Then sit down and drink, drink until only the dregs remain. Swill these around the cup three times with the left hand, then turn the cup upside down on its saucer, wait for the last of the tea to drain away, then give your cup to your partner to read. You will interpret the patterns using pages five and six of Unfogging the Future. I shall move among you, helping and instructing."
Cyrene and Antoinette looked at each other, then at Isabelle. "You partner with her. I'll just be with Madge Miller over there." Cyrene volunteered, moving to another table with another girl from Ravenclaw.
"Isabelle?" Antoinette asked in concern, touching Isabelle's shoulder to catch her attention. Since she gave the teapot to Professor Trelawney, her eyes had turned blank and haven't been diverted from the crackling fire.
Isabelle jumped in surprise. "Yeah?"
"Let's get started with this tea leaves reading bogus." Antoinette whispered the last bit out because Trelawney was fluttering about near them. Isabelle chuckled at that and began to follow the instructions that have been given.
Before they knew it, Divination was over. Isabelle and Antoinette were the objects of Professor Trelawney's praises, saying they showed potential to have The Eye. They looked at each other and rolled their eyes at that.
"Madge and I had a little trouble with our tea leaves. Who sees distinct shapes in all that random swirl of leaves anyway?" Cyrene complained to Isabelle as they rushed to their next class. The Hufflepuffs have long departed to rush into another direction.
Isabelle shrugged, "Antoinette and I saw several, we weren't so sure. But Professor seemed to be pleased with all the made up things we made up when she went to our table. I mean, there wasn't even a one eyed bunny mentioned in the book and that was what I saw."
Cyrene laughed. "How's your day so far then?"
"Going smoother than expected." Isabelle grinned. "Although I'd probably need your help catching up with the classes I missed yesterday."
"Oh sure. I'm pretty sure you'll get it fast. After all, you're a Ravenclaw." Cyrene winked as they arrived at Charms with Professor Flitwick.