[This book takes place in the school year of 2001-2002. Therefore, Harry would have defeated Voldemort four years ago, but only the first four books would have been published. Fae doesn't know about thestrels, since they are first mentioned in the fifth book.
The deviation from the canon is a bit more obvious in this chapter. Hagrid, of course, should still be alive, but I hadn't even read Book 6 when I first wrote this, and I was sure that he would die after Book 5.
A voice called throughout the train, "We will be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes. Please leave your luggage on the train."
I itched with nervousness. Would they really let us in? My kind of wizard, a shape-shifter, a Jedi? Well, we're here, I thought. This can't be a mistake. Besides, I'm not the only "new witch" here. I'm not alone.
I couldn't help but think, what will the normal wizards think of us?
I glanced at Dawna. She was staring out the window and appeared unconcerned.
"Do you think we should change into our robes?" I asked.
"Yes." She did not move.
"Are you going to?"
"No. Are you?"
"I guess I should," I replied cautiously.
"Then do it."
I put on my robes and then sat down, half considering making myself invisible, half scolding myself for being a coward.
You can face the Lone One, the creator of all evil, alone, but you can't stand in front of a few hundred teenagers when you have thirty or forty behind you, I berated myself. What's wrong, afraid of being put in Hufflepuff?
"What are you worried about?" asked Dawna.
"Nothing."
"Yes, you are. Sorting is easy; you just have to wait for the hat to tell you which house you belong in. It's not like you have to do anything. Is that it?"
"Everyone will be watching me."
"So?"
I sighed. "I've never been to school with a lot of kids."
"This isn't exactly a lot of kids. Only a select few attend."
"I didn't mean that. I mean that I've been home schooled since I was eight. Also, the school I went to before that was very small."
"Oh, so now you're people shy?"
"Sort of," I said, embarrassed. "I have friends, though. It's not like I don't know any other children." We were the last out of the train. I almost fell over from the wind. I glanced up and saw that the sky was still fairly clear, despite the stormy feeling.
Someone shouted, "First years over here." The man who was calling us was tall, strong and dark haired, but definitely not Hagrid. I was not surprised – I hadn't thought that Hagrid was going to survive the Harry Potter stories – but I was disappointed.
The first years fought the stiff wind to get to the man. He shouted, "We will not cross the lake in boats as we have in previous years –" his cloak flew off and he chased it, to our amusement, "– for obvious reasons. Rather, we will cross in the carriages that most students use. They are safer in hard wind than boats." He wrapped his cloak tightly around his body. Everyone else was doing the same, except Dawna, who was not wearing a cloak. I could see she was the smart one. "I'm Kevin Cameron. Come with me and you will see your first glimpse of Hogwarts," the man continued. Then, "Ferns are not allowed as pets!"
"Oops, sorry," said Dawna, turning her fern back into a wand.
"Where are your robes, anyway?" someone asked. Dawna didn't answer.
Then, we saw Hogwarts.
The sight was breathtaking. An ancient castle towered over the lake, silhouetted against the light of the stars and a full moon. Clouds kept blowing across the sky behind it, making it feel foreboding and frightening. It could have easily been Saruman's fortress from Lord of the Rings, or even Sauron's – no, that is going a bit far, I laughed at myself.
Then, I saw the coaches we were to ride in. Well, more importantly, I saw what was pulling them. It was by far the ugliest thing I had ever seen. They were like black winged horses, but ones that had never eaten in their lives. They had white eyes without pupils and strange heads that were a bit like a dragon's. They looked like zombies to me, but they would not pull the coaches if they were dangerous, and whoever heard of horse zombies, anyway?
"What in the world is that?" I asked.
"What?" asked Dawna.
"Those things."
"What things?"
"There! Pulling the coaches."
"Nothing's pulling the coaches."
"What? You don't see them? Is it something to do with being a wizard or something?"
"You're a wizard?" asked a voice. I turned around. There was Evan, looking curious. "You didn't tell me that. I guessed you were unusual, but a wizard? Wizards don't need to go to school."
"I am eleven years old. Of course I need to go to school," I replied.
"Yes, but normal school, not ones like Hogwarts. I thought there was some rule about wizards not mixing with, um, I guess witchcraft and the other kind of wizardry…" He frowned, realizing the problem we would have with words. "This could get confusing."
"A rule made by whom?" I asked.
"Why would other kinds of magical people need to go to school, but not wizards?" asked Dawna.
"Well, wizards are supposed to learn from experience, and from their manuals. Other kinds of magicians are supposed to learn from other people. It's because wizards were created by the Powers that Be at the beginning of mortal intelligence so the Powers wouldn't have to be everywhere at once. Other kinds of magicians just came along. I guess we could call the two kinds of wizards school wizards and manual wizards," Evan explained.
"I thought that the One created wizards," I said. His explanation made some sort of sense, but I didn't know what.
"Well, I don't really know. You're the wizard."
"Slow down," Dawna said. "I know the One created the universe. Who are the Powers that Be?"
"The One created the Powers that Be to help It. They created most of the universe," I explained as we got into a coach. "Then the most powerful of the Powers that Be decided to make something different from what the others were making and created death and change. This lead to chaos and pain, which It hadn't meant to create, and war when the other Powers that Be were angry and began to fight It. The Lone One, as we call It, gained many foolish, power-hungry, or greedy followers. Still, It is never quite as strong as the rest of Its brothers and sisters."
"Oh, I remember now," Dawna said. It was a bit of a relief that she had at least heard these stories before, so I wouldn't have to tell everything, even if she needed reminding.
"And good wins over evil," added Evan. "Like the Jedi and the Sith."
The coach lifted off the ground suddenly. I felt like my mind had left my body far below, but it only took a moment before I stopped feeling like I was going to throw up.
"Do you see the skeleton horses?" I asked Evan in frustration, remembering what had started the conversation. I knew I wasn't crazy!
"No, I see nothing pulling the coach, but there is something alive there, not just magic. I feel it," he replied. "So you're not imagining things."
I stuck my head out the window. I enjoyed the feeling of the wind in my face, strange as that seems, though it tied my hair in knots. I saw that most of the carriages were far ahead of us. I remembered that the first years arrived after the rest of the school.
"Thestrels," Dawna said suddenly. "Of course. They have to be thestrels."
"What?" I asked.
"Skeleton horses, you said. I couldn't see them and Evan couldn't see them. I bet you are the only first year who can. It must be thestrels. Have you ever seen anyone die?"
"What are you talking about?" I glanced at Evan and saw to my relief he appeared to be just as confused as I was.
"Thestrels are flying horses that are supposed to be very ugly and even have been known to cause death at sight – I guess from fear. They are invisible until you have seen someone die. Have you ever seen anyone die?"
"I have seen the Lone Power," I said tensely. "The creator of death. Seeing It is worse than actually seeing someone die."
"Isn't it odd to come to Hogwarts, the best school of witchcraft and wizardry on Earth, on a stormy night when the moon is full?" Evan asked, sensing my discomfort on the subject of death.
I agreed with him and silently looked out the window. I wished it was calm enough to take the boats. I would have enjoyed seeing the lake close up.
"The werewolves are out tonight," said Dawna softly.
I turned around to see Evan giving her an odd look. "Yes?" he said in a tone that indicated that he would like to know where that thought had come from.
"Thestrels and werewolves."
"What are you talking about?" asked Evan.
"Interesting things should happen tonight. An interesting night to start an interesting year."
"Don't try to understand her," I suggested quietly in Evan's ear. "She seems to be a little mad."
"I heard that," Dawna said in an unusually friendly voice.
"Can you turn into werewolves and thestrels?" Evan asked her.
"If I feel like it. I was debating doing it to scare you, but I decided that if anyone falls into the lake, I don't want to be responsible."
"How kind," I replied. "I am considering throwing you out the window and bringing you back up just before you hit the water, or maybe after, to scare you."
Evan's rabbit poked its head out of his robes. Mean wizard, it said. You need to be nice to the shape-shifter, young wizard. She could eat you if she felt like it.
"I don't think your rabbit likes me," I told Evan.
"Don't feel bad. She's like that. She just likes Dawna because she can turn into a rabbit, and me because I am her 'mother'. I found her before her eyes were even open. She'll grow to like you, as long as you don't threaten to hurt anyone."
I stuck my head out the window again, staring at the Forbidden Forest. Suddenly, there was nothing beneath me, and I began to fall. Strange things flashed before my eyes, I saw a centaur staring at the sky and I saw the stars. Then there was a flash of light, and I saw a Jedi fighting a Sith lord with its face covered by a hood. It became a being in a ragged black cloak that must have been a dementor, reaching for me with scabbed hands, but then grew and grew until it was the Nazgûl that Éowyn fights in The Return of the King. I saw a flash of lightning, and the Nazgûl had in its hands a ball with lightning in it, which became the moon reflected in the water, and I hit the water, but I somehow bounced a few times rather than hitting hard, and I kept moving forwards, slower and slower…
"Fae!" It was Dawna's voice. She said something else, but it was obscured by a huge roll of thunder.
I opened my eyes. I saw that I was on the floor of the coach with Dawna and Evan by my sides.
"The Forbidden Forest," I whispered.
"Are you all right?" asked Evan, looking shaken.
"The Forbidden Forest. What's in the Forbidden Forest?" I asked, sitting up.
"You know. Werewolves, centaurs, unicorns, giant spiders, intelligent trees –" began Dawna.
"All trees are intelligent," I interrupted irritably. "But how do we know something darker is not in there?"
"What, though? Voldemort is dead," Evan said seriously. "So are most of the Malfoys and almost everyone else who supported him. There might be a few left, but the war was over almost four and a half years ago. Voldemort's servants wouldn't have had time to become strong again. Besides, whatever made you faint is gone now. Are you really all right?"
"Aye. But something is wrong about the Forbidden Forest."
"Full moon," Dawna said as if that explained everything. "It does strange things."
"Come on out!" someone shouted to us.
"Don't tell anyone I fainted," I said to Dawna and Evan. "Or else."
"What are you going to do to us?" challenged Dawna.
"I won't be your friend anymore."
"We won't tell any students," Evan said. "But we should tell a teacher."
"No!"
"You're just being like Harry. You're just afraid that someone will think you're weak. Well, we know you aren't. Wizards cannot survive their ordeal if they are weak," Evan told me.
"I was not thinking about that," I told him. It came out sounding ruder than I had meant it to. "I just don't think we should talk about it."
"Okay," said Evan. "And don't worry, I felt it too." But I could tell from the look on his face that he was not going to forget what had happened. Not that I blamed him, but I didn't feel like having him watch over me all the time.
"Ordeal?" asked Dawna.
"We have to pass a very difficult test to become a wizard. Many who fail it die," I explained. Then I said to Evan, "Don't worry. It must have just been the full moon."
"Uh-huh," replied Evan suspiciously.
As we were getting out of the coach, the clouds were gathering and the moon was obscured most of the time. The man knocked on the door of the castle. As it opened, we saw another flash of lightning, and rain suddenly poured down as if Peeves had dumped a bucket of water on us. I looked up to make sure that there was no bucket floating around and got rewarded with a water balloon.
"What a nice Hogwarts welcome, Peeves," said Cameron.
"It's not just Peeves; it's really raining." Evan pointed at the lake as a water balloon fell on his head. It looked like it was boiling with so many raindrops falling at once. "Peeves is just adding to the confusion. Very nice, Dawna." She had turned her clothes into a raincoat.
We entered Hogwarts.
Happy February 29! It only comes once every four years!
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