Disclaimer: I do not own. Sadly.

Harry POV

"I still don't understand why we have to wake up this early." Ron grumbled beside me, rubbing his eyes. I noticed that he put his shoes on the wrong feet, but I didn't mention it.

"Ron, Dumbledore must have a good reason for making us gather in the great hall at four in the morning." Hermione said.

"But it's our second day back!"

Hermione just rolled her eyes and sat down at our usual place at the Gryffindor table. Ron and I sat down beside her, and I was surprised to see another table beside ours. Usually our table was beside the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables, but today there was another table between ours and Hufflepuff, making it in the middle of the Great Hall.

"What's that?"

Hermione and Ron followed my gaze. Ron shrugged, but Hermione was staring closely at it, her eyes narrowing.

"I don't know, maybe another house? But Dumbledore didn't say anything yesterday, and nobody was sorted into another house, so it can't be that…"

"Hermione, shut up. I think Dumbledore's going to say something, and I need to know why we're up this early." Ron whispered, and I looked around.

The sky outside was still dark as night, the only lights I could see out the windows were reflections of the candles inside. Everyone was sitting down at their tables now, but nobody was at the middle table. A lot of people were looking curiously at it, but most were slumped over in their seat snoring. All the teachers were sitting at the Head Table and they looked fully awake. I guess they had experience with waking up this early.

"Students. I'm sorry for waking you up from your well-deserved sleep." Dumbledore's voice was loud, and several students awoke with a start. Groggily, through my half-lidded eyes, I could see he was using the Sonorus charm. Several students snorted, but most were still fast asleep.

"I wish I could have told you this yesterday, when everybody was well rested, but they could only make it today, at this hour, because of the different continent they are from." Beside me, Hermione was staring at Dumbledore suspiciously, and I knew her brain was whirring. What did he mean?

"You may not know, but Voldemort is back."

His words echoed in the Great Hall and suddenly everyone was awake and wide eyed. Suddenly, I felt a shiver run down my spine as I remembered a few months ago, when I met face to face with Voldemort and he took my blood.

Whispers erupted everywhere, and everyone's eyes were frightened and scared.

"He is back, and sources tell me that he might aim to attack Hogwarts." The whispers got even more frantic and hushed. A few first year girls fainted, and the entire first, second and third years looked sick. The rest of us just stared shocked at Dumbledore. A third year burst into tears.

"That is why I have called upon another school in America to teach us a different art of Defense Against the Dark Arts- hand to hand combat. Their students may be only a few years older than you, or maybe younger than you. The oldest is seventeen. Students fourth year and above will be taking their Hand-to-Hand Combat Defense Against the Dark Arts classes, while third years and below will take advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts with spells two years above their usual grade, also taught by their students. We will lessen homework from all other classes,"

At this McGonagall frowned, but kept silent.

"And new security measures will be installed into the castle. Their students will not be sorted into a house. Instead, we will make a new house, named Olympus. They will sit at the empty table in the middle."

Automatically, all heads turned to the empty table.

"Their school is in America, and the only available time to come is now, but the time difference between America and Britain forces us to wake up this early."

Everyone grumbled, but our eyes stayed glued to Dumbledore.

"They should be coming any second. Come, we shall welcome them outside." Dumbledore strode down the length of the Great Hall and out the door.

The Hufflepuffs jumped up and followed Dumbledore out the door, and the Ravenclaws got up too. Reluctuantly, the Slytherins groaned and gasped, but followed still the same, curious about the other school like everyone else. This left the Gryffindors in the Great Hall by themselves, and Professor McGonagall.

"Bloody hell." Ron moaned. "I'm not getting up."

Everyone seemed to agree, until they met McGonagall's furious glare. We hurried outside and gathered by the lake where everyone else was.

"Did you see anything?" I asked Ernie Macmillian. He shook his head.

"No, but I swear I saw something from the lake, I'm not sure."

I thanked Ernie and hurried back to Hermione and Ron. I repeated what Ernie had told me.

"They're probably not going to be coming from the lake, Durmstrang did that. Remember said that wizards like to show off? They probably don't want to do the same thing." Hermione said.

Ron scowled a bit at the mention of Durmstrang.

"No, probably not. But Durmstrang wasn't even that impressive. I mean, it was just a boat."

I rolled my eyes. Obviously Ron was talking about Viktor Krum, who he used to worship.

"Do you think they'll be like Beauxbatons?"

"Maybe- " Hermione stopped. "What is that?"