Harry Potter and the Levitating Ch'iyun

By infinitykat

"So hear me now
I'll scream out loud
Can't figure out how you
Entered into my world and I fall down..
And you crash into me." – Michelle Branch "Fall"

A/N: Believe it or not, the concept for this story came to me in a dream. Seriously. Anywho, I haven't written anything Harry Potter for a long time, so bear with me. While you're at it, if you like Star Wars romances, check me out. Also, if you're wondering, (and don't speak Chinese) "Ch'iyun" means harmony that speaks from the heart to the heart of the listener.

Disclaimer: You know the deal. Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling. (God bless her!) Also, I used an excerpt from book six from J.K.'s site- it's in italics. I interpreted it the way I wanted to. That's what fan fiction is all about, right?

"Gotta be careful now. That ruddy house elf…" Mad-Eye Moody muttered more to himself than anyone else in the traveling party. Ron rolled his eyes, wondering if the madness would ever end.

He, Ginny, and Hermione were being escorted to the train that would take them to their sixth year at Hogwarts and Moody had taken every alleyway and roundabout route he could find in London. Ron was anxious, as was Hermione of course, to see his best friend Harry Potter, who had to stay at his aunt and uncle's for the summer to remain safe (Dumbledore's orders). He had made it to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix for his birthday, but the escape was bittersweet.

Since Harry's godfather's death in June, the Black family house elf, Kreacher, had taken the opportunity to spill all of the Order's secrets and their hideout was ruined. Everyone almost didn't escape the Death Eaters sent to crash Harry's very first birthday party, and Harry had to flee to the safety of the large square house on Privet Drive and obviously wasn't very happy about it. Ron was bracing himself for another explosion similar to that which Harry had during their first visit to Grimmauld Place.

Finally, Moody, Tonks, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione arrived at the barrier between gates nine and ten. Tonks began chattering noiselessly to a listening Hermione and Ginny and they slipped seamlessly through the magical wall. Moody had a different method. He roughly thrust Ron's trunk into its owner's abdomen and similarly shoved him through the barrier, following close behind.

So, Ron's first glimpse of the Hogwarts Express was from the ground until his new dress robes and a twittering Pigwidgeon obscured his vision. Grumbling vaguely about mad ex-Aurors and what he would do if he had the proper training, he got to his feet.

"I missed you," Hermione was saying awkwardly to Harry. He looked slightly angry, but his aura was drenched with sadness. Harry attempted to give her a brusque look, failed, and instead said "hi" and gave her a hug.

"Hey mate," Ron said, shaking his best friend's hand, "Did they treat you rotten?" Harry shoved his hands in his pockets and grinned ironically.

"I would have been highly disappointed and slightly suspicious if they hadn't," he replied. There was an awkward silence and the three looked over at the scarlet-red engine as the whistle blew for last-minute boarding.

"I guess we'd better board," Hermione said, again slightly awkwardly. Ron noticed that she was acting a bit strangely in Harry's presence, an observation he didn't usually make, but it had struck him so powerfully in that moment. She nervously tucked her hair behind her ears and began to drag her trunk onto the train.

Because Harry, Hermione, and Ron had not tried to get on the train sooner, almost all of the compartments were filled. They walked straight to the back of the train, though, in hopes of finding their usual compartment empty. Unfortunately, a strange-looking girl was occupying their favorite traveling haunt reading a newspaper written in Chinese. Harry was about to move on to another compartment when Ron flung out an arm to stop him. Ron's ears had gone red and he had an odd look on his face.

"This one's okay mate. Ask her if we can join her," Ron said strangely.

"Wha?" Harry started to ask, but Hermione just rolled her eyes and reached around him to yank open the compartment door.

"Mind if we join you?" she asked the girl. The girl looked up from her newspaper and smiled.

"Oh sure, come on in," she said in a decidedly American accent. As the three friends entered the compartment, she silently surveyed each one in turn (Ron's ears turned a even more vibrant shade of magenta) and went back to her reading.

"So," Hermione said once they were settled, "Are you…new?"

"Yep," said the girl, looking up momentarily from her reading, "Just got transferred from Salem." Hermione raised her eyebrows slightly.

"Really? Why did you transfer?" The girl shrugged, not looking up from her paper.

"I dunno. The headmaster invited me, I think," she looked up with a slightly mischievous smile, "But my parents didn't want me to come." Hermione gave a little confused laugh.

"I'm Hermione Granger," she said, holding out her hand.

"Lizzy Aurore," the girl replied, shaking Hermione's hand.

"Is that French?" Hermione asked cautiously. Lizzy nodded, tucking her long dark hair behind her ears.

"Yeah. My parents left France for the U.S. because they hated their parents for some reason," Lizzy looked thoughtful for a moment, "They never told me why. It really is amazing that they even let me come here. But, your headmaster-" Lizzy searched the air above her head for the word.

"Dumbledore," Hermione finished for her.

"-Right, Dumbledore insisted," Lizzy said.

"What year are you in?" Hermione said. Ron and Harry glanced at each other, wondering if they were ever going to be introduced. Lizzy look confused.

"Year? Oh right- you mean grade…" Lizzy reached into her back pocket and brought out a crumpled piece of parchment and read it closely for a moment. "Sixth."

"Great- us too," Harry put in. Hermione slapped her forehead.

"Sorry, this is Harry Potter and Ron Weasley," Hermione said apologetically.

"Nice to meet you both," Lizzy said, smiling. She didn't even double take at the sound of Harry's name.

"Do you know house you're in?" Ron asked, finally finding his voice. Lizzy looked down at her paper again. She shook her head.

"Doesn't say…oh!" Lizzy replied, and then ripped off a small note that was attached to the back of the larger paper. She thrust it towards Harry. "It's a note from Dumbledore," she explained, "We're supposed to meet him in his office after the feast." Harry took it and read it.

"He didn't give me a note at all," Harry said irritably. Lizzy shrugged.

"Maybe he knew we were going to meet before we got to school," she suggested.

When Lizzy went back to her newspaper, the door to their compartment slid open boisterously. Malfoy stood in the doorway, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Oy, scar head, made a new friend?" Malfoy asked stupidly, eyeing the Chinese newspaper.

"Bug off, Malfoy," Harry said coolly. His anger level had the tendency to flair immediately around Malfoy now that his father and the other Death Eaters were at large. Now wouldn't be the the time for confrontation, he knew. But, Lizzy looked up, saw Malfoy, and sat silently staring at him. He looked back at her for a moment, looking increasingly disturbed by her gaze.

Malfoy collected himself enough to say, "Well, whoever you are, I see that you will be fitting in perfectly with this riffraff. I'm sure it's your goal to involve yourself with a lunatic, a Mudblood, and a beggar?" Lizzy smiled a little.

"Buddha says, 'Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace,'" she said quietly.

Malfoy scoffed but swept through the door, fleeing for the safety of his own compartment. Hermione jumped up and closed and locked the door behind him.

Ron gazed at Lizzy in awe. "Whoa- you handled Malfoy like a pro! How'd you just make him leave like that?" Lizzy shrugged.

"Zen power," she stated, and went back to her newspaper. Seeing that she wasn't looking, Ron messed up his hair to look as though he had just come off the quidditch pitch.

"You don't need to do that to look cute, you know," Lizzy told him, not looking up from her paper and smiling slightly again.

Ron never did it again.

-

Harry was soon unsure what to think of their new friend. On the train, she had seemed reserved, wise, aloof even. But now that they had arrived at Hogwarts, her personality had taken a drastic swerve to the talkative and what he imagined was American. The experience made him realize he had never met an American before in his life and had no idea what to expect.

"So let me get this straight-" Lizzy said, putting her hands up to stop explanation, "The little first years get up in front of everyone and put on that old grimy hat and it tells them which house they're in? As in speaking?"

"Yep," replied Harry. Lizzy made a face.

"Do I have to put it on?" she asked, apparently appalled. Harry looked thoughtful for a moment.

"You know, I don't think we've ever had a transfer student before, so…" Harry shook his head, "I don't know." They all looked up as Dumbledore stood and clap his hands together.

"Welcome back friends. The sorting will begin now," he announced, and sat back down.

"Wow," Lizzy whispered as the first years filed up the Great Hall, "He's really old. Evil?"

"I had my doubts-" started Ron with a smirk. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Definitely not," corrected Harry. He paused, suddenly fearful. "Do you know…about…the situation here?" Lizzy squinted at him and then comprehension dawned on her face.

"Oh…you mean that evil lord guy that came back. Yeah, the wizard president in the states told the muggle president and put the country on level orange terrorist alert…or was it fuchsia?" Lizzy sighed. "It seems like they're always coming up with new colors. I can't keep up." Her three new friends tried to stifle a laugh. They didn't want to incur the wrath of the sorting hat, which was now singing. Harry sobered after a moment, reflecting on the state of affairs and immediately feeling much gloomier than he had a moment ago. Lizzy squinted up at Dumbledore. "Where have I seen him before?" she mumbled.

As they watched, Ron kept sneaking glances at Lizzy, who was untangling a knot from the ends of her long ebony hair. Ron didn't know what it was about her, but he got an uncomfortable feeling every time Lizzy looked at him. Like his stomach was doing somersaults. It was completely different from the burning, appalling anger he felt whenever Hermione mentioned Viktor Krum. Now, with this experience, Ron realized he must just love Hermione like a sister. Anyway, at the moment, she was obviously fighting the urge to look at Harry. He was okay with that. He trusted Harry. Most of the time.

In their short time together over the summer, something had changed between Harry and Hermione. She seemed to understand the painful memories the old Black manor brought to him and also seemed to be the only one in Harry's company that could make him smile. Some nights, they would talk exclusively to one another at dinner. One night, Hermione hugged Harry longer than the unspoken "friend" length and, according to Ginny, was blushing until she fell asleep. Harry seemed a lot better at hiding his emotions, but he barely got surly with Ron anymore. But, as both were inexperienced in successfully dating someone, Ron wondered if anything would actually happen…

Ron was pulled suddenly from his thoughts with the thunderous burst of applause for the sorting hat's song. As the noise died down, McGonagall walked briskly center stage and unfurled her long parchment list.

"Aurore, Lizzy," McGonagall called out. The first years looked around at each other.

"Ah, shit…" Lizzy hissed. She stood up roughly, sending the bench she was sitting on backwards with a loud screech. Annoyance soon turned into nerves as she walked up the aisle to the old hat. "Excuse me, pardon me," Lizzy said down to the little first years as she muscled her way through the crowd, hoping not to step on one.

"A little big for a first year, don't you think?" Malfoy muttered just a little loudly. Lizzy resisted the urge to show him a very rude hand gesture as she arrived in front of the sorting hat. She picked up the old hat by the very tip of its brim, sat down, and with a look of great apprehension, lightly placed it on top of her head. The moments of silence during the hat's decision-making felt like hours.

Finally, the hat bellowed, "GRYFFINDOR!" Back at the table, Ron let out a sigh of relief as everyone else exploded into applause. Lizzy carefully placed the sorting hat back on the stool and trotted back to her spot next to Hermione. Almost every teenage Gryffindor boy stood up eagerly to shake her hand.

"Welcome!"

"Well done!"

"Call me!"

"I must be the luckiest girl in the world," Lizzy proclaimed, laughing. She glanced at Ron who was gazing at her with a dreamlike expression. Ginny looked over at her brother and rolled her eyes, seeming disgusted.

Finally, the sorting was finished with "Xavier, Ali." Dumbledore stood and the Great Hall went dead silent. Everyone was eager to hear what he had to say this year.

"Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts. I can see the ravenous looks on your faces, so I shall save the speech for later. Tuck in!"

As always, the golden plates that had been gleaming on the tables were abruptly covered in food. Lizzy's jaw dropped.

"Whoa!" she said, looking thoroughly impressed, "Neat trick!" Ron smirked while Hermione scowled.

"So it would seem," Hermione said tartly, "You know- someone had to slave over a hot oven for this-" Ron groaned.

"Please don't start about spew, Hermione. I just started eating," he said with great weariness. Hermione sat glaring at him with her arms crossed, obviously refusing to eat the food she had put her on plate. Ron and Harry were both stuffing their faces, as was the custom.

"Anyway," Lizzy began, anxious to change the subject, "what is that?" She pointed at one of the items on the table. Ron swallowed a large amount of food before answering.

"It's steak and kidney pudding," he said, as if it was obvious, "You've never seen steak and kidney pudding?"

"You guys eat pudding that's not for dessert? And it has kidney in it? That ain't right," Lizzy replied disgustedly. Ron looked worried.

"You do know what chicken is, don't you?" he asked, pointing to the plate of barbeque drumsticks.

"Of course I do," Lizzy replied, but she looked immensely relieved.

About halfway through the meal (Hermione eventually given in to Ron and Lizzy's comedic taunting and had eaten her share of food), Harry looked up and saw someone standing up at the staff table that he hadn't noticed before.

"Who's that?" he asked. Hermione, Lizzy, and Ron all looked up.

"He must be our new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher," Hermione replied immediately, turning to Lizzy, "We haven't had much luck with them. I hope he isn't as horrible as our last." They all resumed watching the man as he stood up and made his way over to Dumbledore.

Unlike their first DADA Professor, Quirrel, the man was not young. He Looked rather like an old lion. There were streaks of gray in his mane of tawny hair and his bushy eyebrows; he had keen yellowish eyes behind a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles and a certain rangy, loping grace even though he walked with a slight limp. He placed a hand on Dumbledore's shoulder and whispered something in his ear. Dumbledore smiled and shook the man's hand. The new teacher then limped slowly back to his seat and tucked in to some newly arrived chocolate pudding.

"I wonder if he's exactly up for job," said Lizzy to the others, "All my teachers at Salem were much younger." The others shrugged and dug in to their own desserts.

Eventually, a lull came to replace the noise in the Great Hall as everyone was completely full and beginning to feel sleepy. The food vanished from the china and they were sparkling once more. Dumbledore stood to make his annual speech.

"We have a new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher this year: Professor Turnpike," Dumbledore began, and held a welcoming arm out to the new Professor. The school gave the man polite applause as he stood.

Turnpike wore a large top hat on top his mass of graying frizzy orange hair. He pushed himself up with a little difficulty when standing. He nudged his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, tipped his hat to the students, and resumed his seat.

"In writing this year's opening speech," Dumbledore continued, smiling, "I found that I was repeating myself from last year. So all I can say to all of you is to strive for excellence educationally and in your friendships. And I hope you all have pleasant dreams tonight." Dumbledore said this last sentence with the old twinkle back in his eye. Hermione gave Harry's hand a squeeze and blushed when she realized what she had done. There was a ruckus of scraping benches and chairs as the students got up and wandered out of the Great Hall. Halfway up the main staircase, Lizzy slapped her forehead.

"I almost forgot," she said to Harry, "We're supposed to go talk to Dumbledore." Harry looked a little downcast and nodded.

"Alright," said Hermione, "I'll wait up in the common room for you Lizzy. And the password is-" she looked around for sneak listeners, "Kawaii-ne. We went to a prefects meeting before the feast." Ron made a face.

"I can't believe Ginny is prefect now," he said. Hermione rolled her eyes heavenward.

"Right," said Harry, "See you later, then." Harry and Lizzy walked off from the crowd of students and took his "back way" to Dumbledore's office.

"Hey Harry-" Lizzy began, after a prolonged silence.

"Yeah?" he replied.

"What's a prefect?"

"It's a student that enforces rules and stuff. And is the first to know the password into our houses," Harry explained.

"And Hermione and Ron are prefects? That's a little hard to believe on Ron's part."

"Yeah, I guess. I kind of thought I was going to be one but…Dumbledore decided that I have enough things on my plate." Lizzy nodded, only half understanding.

"And, I know the sorting hat explained about the houses, but how are the dormitories set up?"

"They are separated by which house you're in. All of the houses are in completely different parts of the school and you need a password to get in. We have a common room and girls and boys dorm rooms, respectively."

"Cool," Lizzy replied, "Salem is a pretty big school but they just threw all the kids together in one dormitory building."

"I see," said Harry, "Well, here we are." They had arrived in front of the gargoyle that guarded the door to Dumbledore's office. "Now we have to figure out the password. It's usually some kind of candy." Lizzy looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Uh…jelly beans?" she tried. The gargoyle remained immobile.

"Lemon drops…cockroach clusters…" Harry suggested. The gargoyle still didn't move.

"Try sugar quill," came a kind voice behind them. They turned to see Professor Dumbledore smiling down at them. He walked through the now-open gap the wall and stepped onto the moving staircase. Harry and Lizzy followed quickly behind him.

Once inside, Dumbledore walked straight to his desk and took a seat. He flicked his wand and a comfortable armchair appeared next to the one that already existed for his guests.

"Please, have a seat," Dumbledore beckoned. Harry and Lizzy plopped down in their respective chairs. Dumbledore waved his wand over an empty tea tray and a steaming teapot and three flowery teacups spun slowly down to rest on it. "Tea?"

"Thanks," said Lizzy politely, and reached for a cup after Dumbledore filled it.

"Harry?" he asked, turning to him with a smile.

"No thank you, I'm stuffed," Harry said, trying his hardest to return the smile, but only pulled off a small grimace.

"Hear, hear," said Dumbledore, eyes twinkling and looking as though he hadn't noticed Harry's downtrodden behavior, "Now. On to business. I daresay you two have no idea why I called you here today." Harry and Lizzy glanced at each other and both shook their heads. "I had guessed as much. Oh, and I should apologize for not getting a note to you about this meeting, Harry. As you may know, McGonagall and I have been a bit busy this summer."

"It's alright," Harry replied, actually smiling now. He felt a little relieved that Dumbledore had not completely forgotten him.

"Now, Miss Aurore, I will get straight to the point," Dumbledore began, surveying her over his half-moon spectacles. "The reason you were transferred here was your exemplary skills in occlumency. Harry, meet your new teacher."

-

"Well, well, the truth comes out," Lizzy said, "He only wanted me for my occlumency skills. It's going to be interesting keeping this a secret."

"I know," Harry replied dolefully, "I usually tell Hermione and Ron everything. But, as usual, Dumbledore insists that it's for their safety and even though the old man gets me mad every once in a while, I still want him to trust me."

"So I guess this Vor-die-mort thing is pretty serious, isn't it?"

"It's Voldemort and yeah," Harry replied. They had arrived in front of the fat lady's painting.

"Oh!" Lizzy suddenly exclaimed, "I know where I've seen Dumbledore before! He had dinner with our principal one night and the next day he told the muggle president about Voldemort. Hmm…It all makes sense now."

"Hello dears," interjected the fat lady sleepily. Harry said the password and she swung open to let them in. Hermione, Ron, and Neville were sitting around the fire, apparently waiting for Harry and Lizzy's return.

"Hi!" called Hermione, "How'd it go?"

"Alright," replied Harry, "You all waited for us all that time?"

"Yep," replied Neville cheerfully.

"Oh, Lizzy- this is Neville. Neville, Lizzy," Hermione said. Lizzy gave Neville a little wave and a smile and he blushed.

"Well," said Ron, standing, "Guess it's time to hit the hay." He yawned and beckoned Harry and Neville to follow him.

"Nice to meet you," Neville said shyly, and shuffled after Harry and Ron up the boy's staircase.

"So, what did Dumbledore want to talk to you about?" Hermione asked Lizzy as they went up their own staircase. Lizzy opened her mouth, thinking of a lie quickly.

"Oh- he wanted Harry to show me the ropes. Because, you know, I have no idea where I'm going in this place." Hermione chuckled, completely believing Lizzy's lie. They entered the sixth year girls' dormitory to a giggle explosion.

"You guys wouldn't believe how lovey-dovey Dean is… when he's not talking about football, of course. Look, he even drew this for me!" Ginny was saying. She pulled out a carefully folded piece of paper from her pocket and showed Lavender and Parvarti a pencil drawing of a very realistic owl carrying an envelope with a pink heart on it. Her audience cooed for the loveliness of it all.

"Hey girls," said Hermione disapprovingly, "Aren't you going to welcome our new room mate?" Lavender and Parvarti made "oops" faces at each other and got up for introductions.

"Hi, I'm Lavender, and this is Parvarti," Lavender said, "And this is Ginny, but she's a fifth year, so she doesn't live in this room."

"I'm Lizzy," Lizzy replied, and sat down on her trunk.

"My brother Ron has a big crush on you," Ginny said without hesitating. Lizzy shot Hermione an incredulous look.

"What?" she asked Ginny.

"It's completely obvious. I think it's hilarious whenever he likes someone because he flips out when I have a boyfriend. And he's always oblivious until I tell him. He can be such a git sometimes." The other girls nodded their heads knowingly.

"Complete idiot," Lavender put in.

"Totally," Parvarti added.

"We get into a lot of fights because he says stupid stuff on a regular basis. I don't think he can help it," Hermione said. Lizzy rested her chin in her hand and gazed off into space.

"But a cute idiot," she said quietly. Hermione rolled her eyes. Ginny yawned and stood up to leave.

"I better go. I might get sick from all this girly chatting. G'night!" She then fled from the room, wanting desperately to avoid more romantic talk involving her brother which she ironically started herself. The other girls said their farewells and went to their respective trunks to unpack. Lizzy reached into her bag and unceremoniously dumped the contents onto her four-poster. Hermione noticed the newspaper Lizzy had been reading on the train.

"Which language is that in?" Hermione asked, pointing. Lizzy glanced at the object of Hermione's question.

"Chinese. The muggles there are communists, so the media is very biased, but the wizard newspaper is very interesting. And it keeps me from forgetting the language," Lizzy replied, picking it up and looking at it thoughtfully.

"You're really into all that Eastern stuff, aren't you?" asked Parvarti. Lizzy frowned.

"How did you know?" she asked incredulously.

"We heard Malfoy going on about your encounter on the train. He thinks you're a complete weirdo," replied Lavender. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry about it," she explained, "It means that you belong in Gryffindor. The Slytherins all hate us and we pretty much hate them back. They especially dislike people that were muggle-born, like me." Lizzy shrugged.

"I'm half, and I really don't care. We all ended up with magic, didn't we? And if you ever need help with Malfoy, let me know. I'm a black belt in karate and I was set to be the valedictorian of my class in Salem," she said with a wink. Hermione grinned.

"Me too! I mean, the top girl bit, not the karate. Although, I have been known to kick some arse," Hermione said mischievously. Lavender laughed.

"If what you mean by kicking arse is slapping Malfoy, then maybe."

-

"So what was that all about?" Ron asked while pulling on his paisley pajamas.

"Huh?" Harry said distractedly. He was thinking about how hard the ensuing task of keeping a big secret from his two best friends was going to be. He understood now just why Hermione cracked in their third year.

"What-did-Dumbledore-say?" Ron reiterated slowly.

"Oh! He just…wants me to help Lizzy out. You know, finding classes and stuff. Showing her the ropes, if you will," Harry improvised badly. Ron seemed disheartened and then looked jealous. He slumped down onto his bed with his head in his hand.

"I can't believe they made Ginny a prefect," Ron moaned. Harry chuckled.

"After what happened last year, I have a feeling she can handle herself, mate," Harry replied. He took off his glasses and lay down on his bed.

"Yeah," said Dean hopefully, "I don't think you should worry so much." Ron pointed a threatening finger at him.

"Don't you talk to me!" Ron said in a surly tone and flopped down on his bed. He roughly turned out his light and yanked the curtains around his four-poster. Harry swore he could hear Ron mutter, "Kill him." Dean shrugged and exchanged "good night" with the rest of the Gryffindor sixth year boys.

When all was dark in the room, Harry wasn't ready to sleep at all. Thoughts kept swirling around in his head all depicting different ways this scheme could go horribly wrong. Ron would become angry and not speak to him and Hermione would look sad and hurt and try to figure out what was going on. Knowing Hermione, she would have had it figured out in a week. Thinking about Hermione brought an image of her bursting into Harry's mind. He was really confused about how he felt about her now. She had been so understanding and supportive during his depressed summer and now there were those…little things. The instinctive touch and then an embarrassed blush.

He liked her. A lot. But he wouldn't be able to tell her for a long time, he knew. On that note, Harry began the nightly ritual of attempting to relax his mind to keep the nightmares at bay.

But he knew they would come anyway.

…to be continued.

Post note: Please review the newly revised first chapter. I don't do too much except change around some awkward things. Let me know what you thought.