CHAPTER 1:
"Rhiannon! Hurry the thestral's waiting!" a middle aged, raven-haired man called across the dark and deserted stone courtyard.
"Coming Papa!" the young woman stumbled out of the dark doorway at the foot of the tower, heavy trunk in hand. "Why oh why! Do I have to leave in the middle of the night, stupid muggles, I'm cold!" she grumbled shrinking the trunk she carried down and placing it on the withers of the waiting beast, covered from muggle eyes by the dark moonless night.
"I love you Papa, take care. Say goodbye to Keith for me." Rhiannon said hugging her father tightly before mounting.
"I love you to. Have a fun 5th year at school, owl me if anything happens and I'll see you next summer." He replied patting her leg before grinning, "Now get going."
"Bye Papa!" she cried, as the thestral lifted off, she leaned down and whispered in its ear, "Lets go to Hogwarts."
"Athena, that cursed beast has arrived." A deep voice bellowed across the still dark camp.
"Just a minute Da!" Athena cried, pulling her long dark hair back into a tight braid and sheathing her twin daggers. She grabbed her trunk, shrunk it, and ran to where the thestral was waiting.
"Good luck with the attack Da!" Athena said, hugging the dark haired man who'd called; which was quite a feat for her 5 foot 1 frame as he was nearly as tall as the beast beside him, she'd had to jump to hug him properly.
"Och, who needs luck?" he replied with a grin as he watched his daughter mount smoothly, "Have fun at school my bairn."
"I will." she replied before whistling to an eagle owl that landed upon her arm, she whispered "to Hogwarts!" as the beast took off, "See you next summer Da! Leave some muggles for me!" she cried as he father waved her away from outside his tent.
"Thestral a-hoi! Seletha get your buttocks moving!" a cranky voice called across the wharf.
"I'm coming!" the tall girl called, skidding across the slimy stones in the pre-dawn light, towards the waiting beast and her cranky grandmother.
"Remember to honour the blood of your family, Seletha, and do the memory of your parents proud." The woman snapped as the 15 year old girl hoisted herself and her miniaturized trunk onto the beast.
"Yes Cranac, I will." She drawled before ordering the airborne thestral to Hogwarts. "Yeah honour my raping, pillaging father my toosh." She muttered darkly as she flew away, the proposition of another school year away from Cranac snapping life into her cool blue eyes for the first time in months.
"Tristan, collect your things, its time to leave." The tall blonde woman strode into the turret room.
"Yes mother, I'm almost done." The young fair-haired man replied, his hazel eyes lifting to meet with his mothers matching ones as he pulled out his invisibility cloak. He shrunk the trunk beside him and pulled out a broomstick that hovered in the air.
"I don't know why you're going to fly that contraption Tristan." His mother sighed, "You're going to get yourself killed its not very good as far as balance goes, Nimua won't go near it, how is she going to get to Hogwarts?"
"Send her with the Boyden twins tomorrow, she doesn't mind thestrals." He replied kissing her cheek and mounting the broom, "I'll be fine, say good bye to Nehalennia and tell Gilbrid good luck with the training. I see you next summer, be careful."
"Alright. Be good." She replied patting his arm, "Now get going 'tis almost dawn."
"Bye Mam!" he replied, pulling his cloak over him, "See you next summer!" and with that he flew out the arched, gothic and North to Hogwarts.
Rhiannon arrived at the castle just after dawn, watching the sun rise over the Mountains and twinkling the tops of the towers, turning the water of the lake pink and gold, she had to admit that Hogwarts always looked its most beautiful at its first dawn. Only this year she was a day earlier.
She had received an owl from the school asking her, as usual, to purchase certain scrolls and materials for the next school year, but this year her letter had been somewhat heavier. Inside she'd found a silver prefect badge and a notice informing her she would be picked up to arrive at school on the second last day of Coll, rather than the last, so she could meet her fellow prefects and be assigned her duties. Her father had been proud and her best friends...had been killed in an attack over summer. Her heart saddened at the last thought, the Kilana twins, her last friends had been killed by an army wreaking havoc in Wales, her other friends had been killed earlier, she needed new people to spend time with at school.
Looking down as the thestral headed to land she spotted a group of students and their belongings waiting by the lake, the other prefects. As she landed she swiftly dismounted and let the thestral fly off into the forest.
"Hello Rhiannon!" a short blonde haired boy bounced over to her, looking like a two year old who'd been given a whole pot of honey.
"Hello Gareth." She replied cautiously, she wasn't too fond of her somewhat daft year mate, "What are you doing here?"
"I was made Hufflepuff prefect and so were you, obviously, I was hoping I'd get to work with you, not that I mind who I'm working with, I'm just thrilled to be here, this year is going to be fun!" he grinned manically when he paused to recover from one of his long, exited exclamations. Rhiannon managed a half smile.
"Splendid." She replied through a forced smile and she looked around to see who else was there.
Over by the lake the last year's prefects were talking amongst themselves, oblivious to the others. Near them she spotted two year mates. Ronald, a tall mousy haired ravenclaw with dazzling blue eyes, was talking, rather flirting, with a blonde bimbo from gryffindor called Celine.
Just to Rhiannon's right, Seletha, a slytherin 5th year, was leaning against her trunk, green cap pulled down over her blue eyes and brown curls. Just to her left Athena, their Ravenclaw counterpart, was sitting on a small boulder her long dark hair fell into the textbook open in her lap as her green eyes darted across the page. Beyond Athena's head Rhiannon could see a thestral land carrying Jarred, the new slytherin prefect. He had black hair, black eyes and a black heart as she remembered.
Rhiannon just noticed one person was missing, the new male Gryffindor prefect. She turned around to look before...
"WHACK!"
She went flying into the air before tumbling along the grass as an unseen object ran into her. She heard another body rolling near her and recognized the swearing, Tristan. Once her momentum slowed to a stop she hoisted herself off the floor and looked across to where Tristan was, she couldn't help but giggle
His clothes were disheveled and grass-stained and his broom was caught somewhere in the folds of his cloak. His trunk had bad-temperedly returned to normal size, its contents strewn across the dewy grass. A pair of under-garments had landed on his head rather comically and he looked bemused to say the least. "Are you alright Tristan?"
"Peachy." He replied good-humouredly, pulling the underwear off his head and summoning his belongings back into his trunk. "Umm...Rhiannon? Could you help me with this cloak?"
"Ok." She replied with a laugh as she disentangled him from the offending material as the others approached.
"That was amazing! You flew almost ten feet!" Athena cried running up to Rhiannon before turning sharply to Tristan, "And you should be more careful. Someone could have been hurt."
"Yeah you could have actually hit a witch or a wizard instead of this mudblood cow." Drawled Jarred, the rest of the group stiffened.
Athena turned to him and jabbed him in the chest, "Listen up, sir. Pureblood, Half-blood and muggle born are all the same and if you can't get that through your thick skull and accept that then some of us may have to teach you a lesson." She stroked her dagger hilts longingly.
"I'm sorry but I'm here to represent slytherin's views and he may teach you a lesson about blood, Half-caste." He snapped back.
"Only problem is that won't happen because the other founders don't share his view, which is the reason why we all learn here." Rhiannon replied now seething on Athena's behalf.
"And sadly for you that's three quarters of the school's ruling body, and majority rules, so unless you have something else to say I suggest you go and learn some manners when it comes to ladies." Tristan replied coolly stepping protectively between Jarred and the girls, "Or do you only pick fights with women big shot?"
Jarred snarled in response and stalked away, Rhiannon swore she heard him mutter something about what you call women...She turned to Tristan, "You shouldn't make an enemy of him Tristan." She said softly watching Jarred's retreating back, "His views won't change by you snapping at him."
"His views won't change at all. He's a slimy slytherin, they're all rotten." Tristan replied darkly, and was promptly slapped.
"How can you say that? Have you even tried being friends with a slytherin? I have and I must say I valued their friendship higher than many friends in gryffindor and even my own house! My best friend's mother was slytherin's cousin and the nicest person you could ever meet." She snapped before turning to Seletha who was watching the scene with mild amusement. "Are you going to back me up in defending some of your house mates?"
Seletha smiled, "But you were doing such a good job. I thank you; it is true not all of us share slytherin and Jarred's opinion." She turned to Tristan, "I was raised by prejudiced purebloods, my grandmother is forever telling me to honour my blood..." her mouth twitched, "Honour a Viking wizard rapist and a failed town witch, what honour!" she snorted, "The way I figure honour comes from within, from something deeper than blood." The others nodded and Athena was about to reply when 2 witches and 2 wizards strode out from the entrance of the castle.
On the far right strode a broad shouldered, 6 foot 5, ginger haired, slab of muscle also known as Godric Gryffindor. His short curls had silvered by his temples as he passed 40 but his blue eyes still sparked with mischief and the enthusiasm for life he was famous for. He was wearing a yellow tunic, red kilt and a long ruby studded broadsword at his waist.
To his left walked a younger woman in her 30's who still had the auburn and blonde highlighted curls she was born with and soft brown eyes. She was the epitome of motherliness, though she had carried no children in her 5 foot 7 frame, she was a sweet as could be, she was of course Helga Hufflepuff.
Next to Helga was another witch in her thirties who instead had long straight brown hair pulled into a bun and bright blue eyes. Although only 5 foot 2 she was not a woman to annoy, as Rhiannon had found out in second year, brilliant and strict Rowena Ravenclaw was a driving force in the school.
Finally on the left was Salazar Slytherin; Slytherin's long black hair was streaked with grey as he was nearing his fiftieth year and his face was well lined. His dark eyes were cool and reserved to the point of being scary around his waist was a silver serpent belt carrying two wicked looking daggers.
Even though she had been studying at the school for 5 years Rhiannon couldn't help but think, and not for the first time, how such different people could exist so harmoniously and run a school. She guessed that the witches balanced out the wizards' tempers, without them she figured the school would not thrive.
The founders quickly reached the prefects and Rhiannon watched Gryffindor's mouth twitch as he spotted Ronald and Celina snogging rather passionately off to the right of the group. Gryffindor sent a pink love heart to hover over their heads flashing 'Aww' and 'smooch' at random intervals it only stopped when they paid attention to the founders.
"Alright now we have everyone's attention I'd like to welcome you all back to school for another year and hope that you all fulfil your prefect duties to your best of your abilities." Hufflepuff said.
"Your first duty is to assist the new students in settling into your house tomorrow, generate new passwords and distribute timetables." Ravenclaw went on.
"The password for the prefect's bathroom is 'lavender soap' and the meeting room is "gumbledroops." Gryffindor said.
"So if you each follow your house leader to your common rooms new passwords can be organized." Finished Slytherin unpleasantly.
The students nodded and trekked up the sloped lawn into the entrance hall, "See you three at dinner?" Rhiannon called as Hufflepuff led her house off.
"Of course!" the three replied before heading off in different directions.
Helga led the Hufflepuffs quickly through the corridors to the west wing of the castle before descending a flight of stairs toward the kitchens where she turned abruptly to her right, asking how their holidays had been. The students answered their surrogate mother enthusiastically and in no time at all they reached the stone tree statue that guarded their dorm. Helga pushed the knot in the trunk and a face appeared out of the trunk and faced Rhiannon.
"What shall the new password be dear?" she asked, it was most definitely a female voice. Rhiannon looked shocked before Helga gave her a nudge.
"Go on dear."
"Hazelthorn." Rhiannon said without thinking.
"Lovely." the tree replied bending its branches, "Hazelthorn it is, welcome home." The face disappeared and the steps lead up through the ceiling to the warm common room.