The train screetched to a stop and the students exited talking amongst themselves about the new school year. Leva and her friends, including Harry and Ron, followed the other first years to a half giant who Harry introduced as Hagrid. They followed him into a fleet of boats which sailed on their own across the lake toward the castle. Below the surface of the dark water, Leva caught a miniscule movement which was followed by several large bubbles. They broke the surface, sending ripples to beat against the sides of the boats. Up ahead Hagrid had stopped them to look down into the water as Leva was now. She stared into the very center of the ripples. Slowly, as the last ripple faded, a scene played itself out on the still waters. She watched as a black figure lifted its arms toward her. The figure's eyes opened to glowing yellow slits and a series of runes lit up around its body. Leva leaned in for a closer look and then felt arms clasp her waist.

She looked up from the water scene and realized that she had almost fallen out of the boat before Luna (who had been sitting next to her) stopped her and was now pulling her back up. "What the hell were you doing?" Luna asked when they had both sat down and the boats continued moving. "I saw something in the water." Leva said in excitement. Nox and Arma leaned in to listen, their eyes bright with expectation. Leva told them of what she saw in great detail. Nox's brow furrowed and her eyes stared into space as she thought over Leva's explantion. Leva questioned her about it but was only answered with a muttered "Dejavue". The girls grew quiet and withdrew into private thoughts.

The boats docked and the first years were ushered into a high ceilinged hall where they were told to wait. During this time, they were introduced to a few of the castle ghosts including a poltergiest by the name of Peeves. Eventually, a long nosed, tight lipped, witch escorted them into the great hall where they would be sorted into their houses. The great hall was so large it could hold to inner city houses with more than enough room to breath. There didn't even seem to be a ceiling, it simply opened into the sky. As the stars blinked down at her, Nox wondered what would happen if it were to rain. Behind them, a girl bragged loudly about reading something from " Hogwarts A History" about this ceiling, which was enchanted to mimic the real sky. Nox was vaguely aware that it was Hermione, the girl from earlier who was talking. Names of students were called up to the three legged stool on which stood a moldy old hat. The first student who was called up sat on the stool and the woman, Professor McGonnagall was her name, placed the hat on her head. After a minute or so, the hat opened a hidden mouth disguised as a rip and shouted "HUFFLEPUFF". Professor McGonnagall then proceeded to announce the students and one-by-one they all sat on the stool and were sorted into their houses. With each new student, the house that was called would clap encuragingly and invite the small first year to join them at their house table.

By the end of the sorting, Nox had joined the Slytherin table, Luna the Ravenclaws, Arma the Gryffendors, and Leva the Hufflepuffs. Arma was laughing with Harry and Ron who had been sorted into the same house. Next to them were Ron's brothers, the twins Fred and George who were talking excitedly with their friend Lee Jordon.

Luna sat at the Ravenclaw table talking avaidely to another girl over proofs and other things that were much too old for them to be discussing.

Leva had found a friend by the name of Fidel Jones and they sat discussing different cat breeds and their favorite animals, which were cats.

Nox was stuck at the Slytherin table where she completely ignored Malfoy, still being angry with him from earlier, and contented herself with talking to a girl named Tempest Kilokov and a boy named Ryan Doolb about how stupid people could be.

After the food had been eaten and the plates magically cleared, Dumbledore gave a speach concerning rules, old ones reanstated and new ones that were the result of some student's mischief from last year. Arma got the feeling that most of those were directed at the Weasely twins. To the four girls' interest, the third floor corridor was pronounced out of bounds and they made a mental note to inform Garb during their first report.

The students were then sent to bed and the prefects led their house first years to the dormitories. Luna was led to a large wooden door with no handle and no keyhole, just a knocker in the shape of an Eagle. A voice was heard reciting a riddle which Luna guessed you had to answer correctly in order to enter. One of the prefects answered the question in no time and soon the first years were filing into a large room that was furnished with soft chairs, tables, and a fireplace. Not to mention a tall statue of a woman wearing an odd hat. There were two doors that she guessed led to the different dormitories. She watched as a prefect motioned first to the left door and then the right telling which one was which. The right was where the boys' dormitories were held and the left was the girls.

Up in one of the school's many towers, Arma was being directed toward a life sized painting of a lady in a large pink dress. As they approuched, she turned to them and asked for the password. "Caput Dragconis." Said one of the prefects. Arma saw that it was Percey, another one of Ron's brothers, she had met him at the feast and descided that she did not like very much, infact not at all.

Meanwhile, Nox was pulled down into the dark dungeons in front of a large expanse of blank wall. A prefect, who happened to be standing next to her, shouted what seemed to be a password, and the bricks on the wall rolled themselves out of the way. They opened into a high ceilinged room lined with stone walls that were covered by bookshelves. The furniture included a matching set of black cushioned seats and couches that circled around a fire. The room was lit by green lamps hanging from the ceiling. At the far end of the room were two staircases that led to the dormitories. Boys on the right and girls on the left.

Off somewhere in the vast castle, Leva was being led somewhere by her prefects as she talked excitedly with her new friend Fidel. She came to a door that was somehow concealed and was somehow opened either by a password or some complicated yet special way. Inside, Leva settled down on her bed with Fidel on hers and they entertained themselves by beating out the song "Eye of the Tiger" with great accuracy. Down in the dungeons, Nox had pulled out her Lyre and was plucking a "House of Wolves" out while her friend Tempest sang it and Ryan attempted to scream it out. Arma, up in her tower, was fiddling a folk song while watching the twins trying to out jig eachother.

Luna was twiddling her fingers on a piano that just happened to be in her dormitory as a decoration. Her roomates were sitting on the closest bed and were singing along (they were playing songs from random Disney movies).

Far off from where the girls resided, a figure walked, alone, in the Black Forest of Germany. The figure was a woman, if you were to lay eyes on her, you would say she reminded you of a sparrow. Her hair was light brown speckled with dark brown. Her nose stuck out like a small beak with a feminine touch. Her eyes were beetle black and her ears were pointed to a tip. She scanned the clearing she had just fought her way through, debating on wether to walk through or around it. She could feel a melevolent aura emiting from the very earth in that clearing, And in the center sat a large boulder, carved into it were thirteen different symbols. Seven of the symbols were scortched and part of the rock below them was darker than the rest of the boulder. The symbols, she knew, were of alchemic importance. They were transmutation circles, used in alchemy experiments. However, she also knew that before alchemy was invented, these symbols were used as sacrificial markings. There was an ancient evil buried here and the markings were there to ward off those who would awaken it.

Her eyes leaped away from the stone when she heard a rustle in the brush behind her. She turned just in time to avoid a black mass throw itself at her to tackle her to the ground.

Deep underneath the earth, a woman sat in a high backed seat. She rested one of her legs over the arm of the chair and leaned her back against the other. In her hands, she held a glass orb. She stared into it and watched as one of her puppets attacked the intruder. She knew that the woman was sent by the Immortals. They had believed she was dead long ago after they had dispelled her from their precious circle of elders. She had fallen in love with a demon and made love to him. Her child was born half a demon, and no matter how human he looked, he was considered an abomination. They had ordered her to kill her own child, but she refused. When they had expelled her, she had fled with her child into the slums of london.

After finding someone who somewhat resembled her, she had altered the girl's appearance and DNA into an exact copy of herself. Then, she had left her mark on the girl so that the only smell was the smell of london and, knowing that when a person died, so did their aura,she erased it. Using her powers, she enslaved the girl as a puppet and staged her own suicide by jumping off a building. The body that had landed was splattered enough that there were no questions raised when the muggles had proclaimed it to be her. Her and her child came here, where she had adopted the name, puppet alchemist, from the local villagers surrounding the forest. And here she was now, her childsent off to school not wanting him to go uneducated, and her watching the demise of one of her traitor students.

She had been the one to murder all those people, or rather her puppets, which were simply bodies of the victims she had salvaged from one of the murders. She had cleaned him, patched him back up, and enslaved his body. Once a week she fed him two drops of her own blood mixed with a glass of gin in order to keep him alive. Occasionally, she kept another body for a new puppet.

In the orb, the immortal girl was being over come by her puppet. He had forced her to the ground and was now using his own hands to tear open her skin and rip out her still beating heart. She rythed in agony until the last heart string had been broken. Her blood had gushed from her open chest into the thick tangles of grass on the forest floor. Her eyes stared blankley throught the forest roof into the sky. Above, the stars twinkled and searched for their lost child.

The puppet stood with the heart in his hands and brought it to the large stone. He placed it on a small ledge jutting from the stones side beneath one of the unscorched transmutation circles. Deep in the earth below that stone was sealed an evil power. The Puppet Alchemist wanted that power, and was using the hearts she stole as a sacrifice in order to awaken it. Her puppet pulled a hidden knife out of his coat and held it above his head in his bloody hands. He swung it down and pierced the heart dead in its center. Blood gushed onto the stone and sizzled to a vapor before it could touch the ground. The transmutation circle burst into flames and the immortal's cries could be heard on the wind for anyone who would listen. When the gush of the blood weakened, the heart's flesh began to melt into the stone. It sizzled and steamed until you could see nothing but a dark patch of miscoloration. A light shone through the other symbols like a ripple. Silently, the ledge was absorbed into the stone and jutted back out beneath the closest untainted symbol.

Above and below and all around the hogwarts castle, the immortal's cry resonated through the walls echoing from stone to stone; but it only peirced the ears of six people. In unision, they all tried to block the sound from their ears and automatically turned south east, where the sound had come from. In his office, Dumbledore sat at his desk, covering his ears with his wrinkled hands. Finally, the cry faded away into the howl of the wind and those who heard, stopped a moment, ignoring the concerned faces of their friends, and touched their hand to their heart.

Nox stood up and absentmindedly announced that she would be retiring for the night. Leva, Arma, and Luna did the same and soon all four had fallen into a deep but troubled sleep. They looked up to their teacher, Carmender. She returned their gaze of wonder to them individually as they sat indian style among the wild flowers. Nox noticed the bright colours of the flowers surrounding them; but stared intently at the black rose bud directly behind Carmender. She looked back up into her teacher's black eyes. Her beack like nose was just below them. Nox turned to her other classmates. There was Leva, Luna, and Arma as usual; but a few others were joining them today aswell. Sitting next to her was Raine, he had a medium sized button nose just as she did, but his eyes were golden instead of red. On his shoulder, Nox could see four black dots resembling a paw and one line each branching off from them. This was the mark of the wolf. She bore one similar to it, however, there were two dark curved lines beneath it. She was a wolf as well, only different, her three best friends were just the same. Raine noticed her staring at him and gave her a smile. She returned it willingly and directed her attention to the child on his left.

The bed creeked loudly as Nox sprang bolt upright. She was drentched in a cold sweat and was breathing heavily. The other girls in the room were still fast asleep as if nothing had happened. But nothing had. Nox told herself it was just a dream. She gasped when without warning, a burning sensation flashed across her stomach where the mark of the wolf could be seen. Garb was calling her to report with others. Grudgingly, Nox dragged herself from the covers and enfolded herself in her night robe. Slipping her bare feet into her favorite pair of slippers, she made her way down to the common room and out into the cold corridors of the dungeons. Up in Gryffendor tower, Arma had felt the same burning sensatio on her ankle. Imprinted there, was a pair of red reptilian wings engulfed in flames. This was the mark of the dragon, but different just as Nox's was. The same event awoke Leva. Her mark, which was on her left shoulder, was the mark of the tiger. It consisted of a horizontal oval surrounding a smaller, vertical one. Beneath it were four bold dots of which had a line branching off from each of them. Begind the thick wooden door of the Ravenclaws, Luna awakened much the same way. On her back was the mark of the griffen. It was two large gold feathered wings. Thin curved lines blew away from them, giving the illusion that the wings were flapping.

Meanwhile, back in the Slytherin dormitories, Malfoy woke in his bed with the burning urg to use the toilet. Groggily, he got out of bed and headed down to the common room. Surprisingly, he was met with the back of Nox as she left the common room in the middle of the night. Now what is she doing? He asked himself. Out of curiosity, he followed her out, keeping his distance so as not to attract her attention. He followed her down the dungeons to the stairs and up into the entrance hall. She didn't stop there but continued on to the moving stair case. Some how he managed to occupy the same set of stairs as they moved with them as passengers without her notice. (he did not know, but her mind was still focused on the dream she had woken from) They let off at the second floor where she unknowingly led him into the library. Finally, seeming to rouse from a reverie, Nox heard the second set off footsteps behind her. Just in time, Malfoy darted behind a nearby book shelf and when she had been satisfied, continued to follow her keeping at least one bookshelf between them. She stopped at the very back of the library, so close that Malfoy feared he would have to follow her into the restricted section. Not that I'm afraid. He thought to himself. I've just heard that Filtch makes most of his rounds in there. He watched as Nox removed three seemingly identical books, rearanged them, and placed them back on the shelf. There was a low rumble as the entire bookshelf shook and then swung outward opening into a dark flight of winding stairs. With out even the slightest bit of hesitation, she desended the stairs and disapeared into the blackness. The bookshelf swung back to it's usual resting place, hiding Nox from view. Malfoy snuck out from behind his hiding place and made his way toward the shelf Nox had just disappeared behind. However, he stopped when he saw that the books she had removed and replaced flew out of their positions and reshuffled themselves, and then rested back into their original positions.

Cautiosly, Malfoy approached the books, not sure if Nox would return shortly or not. He stared for a long while at the books and suddenly noticed that, if rearanged, the markings on them made a picture. He moved them around just as Nox had. The three books, now in the proper order, depicted a flying pheonix encircled with a ring a fire. Malfoy noticed the intricate details of the pheonix, and was so entranced by it, that he jumped in surprise when the shelf swung open again. He peered into the blackness and, taking a deep breath, began the decent of the stairs. He stopped near the top where he had full view of Nox, Leva, Luna, and Arma sitting in a circle on the floor around a low table supporting a single crystal ball.

Nox sat between Leva and Luna crossing her legs indian style. The girls avoided eachothers' eyes which told Nox that they had all had similar, if not the same, dreams. In the center of the table, the crystal ball began to glow and the girls looked deep into it. They watched as an image of Darnen, one of their teachers, instead of Garb wavered into view. "Hello" said Darnen. "I have sad news." The girls looked around at eachother. They already knew what had happened but didn't wish to hear it. For hearing it would make it final. "Your teacher Carmender is dead. We don't know how yet, but her aura has been exstinguished and you all know what that means." Nodding, the girls lowered their eyes to the table. Darnen noticed this and inquired as to what had happened. "Well..." Leva started. "I had this... dream..." Luna spoke up over her. "Actually sir, it started with her having this vision in the lake." Darnen narrowed his eyes to Leva. "Tell me what you saw." He said in a soothing, but comanding voice.

"I saw... a figure..."She strained to remember exactly what she had seen. "It was a woman... no the shadow of a woman... she was holding her arms out like this." Leva demonstrated by stretching her arms and fingures out, as if she were controling a marionette. "Then I saw her eyes open. They were glowing... yellow. And then I saw runes... norse I think. They started glowing over her entire body." Leva traced her fingure down her arms and legs and up her neck to her cheecks. "They ended at the corner of her eyes." Leva fell silent and the other girls waited for Darnen to say something. "Interesting." Was his only response. "I think," said Arma. "That we all had the same dream. About Carmender." Darnen looked up at her from the crystal ball. "What happened in this dream?" Nox answered this question. She explained the dream in full detail, and when she had finished the other three confirmed that they had had the same dream as well.

Darnen fell silent for a long period of time. The room was completely silent save for the breathing of the enhabitants. Finally, Luna spoke up. "What is it Darnen? What does this mean?" He took a deep breath, as if making a final descision of what he should tell them. "A while ago, around the same time you were born, there was an elder that went horribly rotten. She tainted herself in the worst possible way." The girls held their breath and focused entirly on their teacher. He continued. "She fell in love with a demon, an innocent love at first. The other elders tried to save her from this relationship, but she wouldn't listen to them. They had a child, an abomination. It was hideous and gave off a vile aura. The elders worried that when it grew up, we would not be able to control it and it's true demon would break free. If that happened, then we could be in grave danger. They ordered her to despose of it, somehow, but again she wouldn't listen. The demon had disappeared and so she fled into the london slums. There she commited suicide by jumping off of a building. For all we know, the child is still alive. We believe that they are in your school somewhere." He stopped and turned to Leva. "Your vision, being a shadow, must have meant that it was her child that killed Carmender, or that her child will rise from hiding and attempt revenge on the immortals. We must be careful." Nox rubbed her chin in thought. "Is the child a boy or a girl?"

"We do not know, we never saw the child." Arma glansed at Nox, who returned it, and then looked back at Darnen in confusion. "But then, how do you know that there was a baby?" Darnen shrugged. "I do not know, Arma. You would have to ask Martek, he told me of this, and I heartily believe him." Martek was one of the oldest elders. He was considered the wisest and most trusted. Darnen was not an elder. He was meerly a teacher like Carmender and Leva and Arma's parents. Luna and Nox no longer had parents. They had left on one of their missions six years ago and never returned. Since then, Nox and Luna had been looked after by Ermma, one of the elders.

"What about our dream?" Luna asked, pulling everyone out of their thoughts. "I beleive that your dream was a sight. Sights are dreams that show what has, is, or will happen. In your case, it showed what had happened a few ours ago. Basically all it was telling you is that Carmender died. Nothing else really, just that solid fact." The girls nodded in understanding. In the crystal ball, Darnen turned to speek to someone who the girls could not see. He nodded and turned back to them. "I am sorry girls, but I will have to cut off our meeting here." The crystal ball clouded over and the room fell silent again.

"He's not telling us something." Said Luna. Arma looked up confused. "What do you mean?" She asked. "Well," Luna began. "How they actually be sure that the... ex-elder, is dead. I mean, if she was an elder, it would be easy for her to fool them." "How is she supposed to do that?" Arma asked disbelievingly.

"Well, there are a number of ways. She could've staged her death."

"But what about her arua? The elders have senteries on everyone's aura's."

"Do you even know what those senteries are?"

"No."

"That's what I thought. The senteries aren't people, the elders have this special orb, they can search for anyone's aura, and if it's gone, that means that they are dead."

"How do you know?"

"I've seen it."

"Well either way, if she were still alive, so would her aura."

"Not if she found some way to erase it."

"And how are you supposed to do that?"

"I don't know! She was an elder, so obviously, she's smart enough to find away."

"But she wasn't smart enough to stay away from that demon!"

"Yeah well, those are different smarts!"

Arma opened her mouth and took a breath to say something but Nox stopped her. "I agree with Luna." She said. Arma gaped at her, not finding this fair at all. "There is no garenty that she's dead, unless the elders found her body, confirmed that it was 100, with out question, hers and then burnded it." Arma saw their point and the room fell silent once again. "There's something else." Leva said, she was staring off into space and seemed more like she was talking to herself rather than the others. "The child. They seemed so sure that she had one, but, if they never saw it, how would they know that it was hideous? And how would they know that it's here?" "And how would they be able to kill Carmender if it's here?" Nox added. "There is something they are deffinitely not telling us." The girls decided that it was time for them to head back to bed and started up the winding staricase.

A few minutes later, Nox reached the Slytherin common room. It was still dark in there and no one seemed to have woken from their slumber. Her foot lifted and touched the first step that led to her dorm when some one grabbed her wrist. She twisted around to face Malfoy. "What do you want?" She growled. She yanked her wrist from his grip and he gave her a smile. "I know your secret." He whispered. "What secret?" Nox was sure she knew, but was carefull to not say tell him anything that he didn't already know. "Don't play dumb, I'm talking about your little band of good wizards, the immortals. Your one of them, a long with your three friends. You know just how much my father hates the immortals, he could disown you." Nox returned his smile. "I couldn't give a rat's ass about what your father thinks Draco, or about being in your stupid family." Malfoy's smile grew wider. "Well I wonder what would happen of Dumbledore found out that you were out after hours." "Dumbledore already knows, but I'm sure he will be glad to know what you were doing up Draco, I'll be sure to tell him." Malfoy's smile disappeared so fast Nox hardly saw the transformation. "If you do I'll make your life hell." Nox only smiled wider and wished him a good night. She knew that he couldn't do much of anything to make her life hell, since so much of it happended outside of school. She unfolded the covers on her bed, layed down, and quickly fell asleep.

Rorrim sat with his hands folded against his mouth. His black hair stood on end in spikes in the back of his head. Nox and the others often teased him for that, calling him names like "kockatoo" or "chicken butt" because that's what it reminded them of. Ironically, his animal was the pheonix. The pheonix also happened to be the crest of the immortals, because it symbolized rebirth. On his hand was an etching of a pair of flaming wings. In the sunlight they flashed oranges and reds, the other children would often entertain themselves with it, if the lessons got too boring.

Rorrim seemed absorbed in what Carmender was telling them, so he did not notice Nox's staring. On his left sat Leva, she was making faces at Arma from behind Carmender's back. Leva let the corners of her mouth rest from her fingers stretching it in odd directions. Her electric blue eyes met Nox's and she gave her a cheesey smile. In response, Nox pulled down her lower eye lid and stuck her tongue out at her, knowing that Carmender wouldn't see. On the other side of Leva sat Coro, he and Leva were usually together.

Coro, like always was eating a juicy red apple. The sun was reflected in his goggles that he wore over his short black hair. Coro's mark was that of the Raven. It was a black swirl with thick lines branching away from it to represent feathers. Over his shoulder hung a brown leather bag, which was his hiding place for his apples. Nox watched as Leva casually leaned back and reached into his bag, silently retrieving one of them. She only caught his attention when she took a loud crunchy chump out of the apple and, with bits still in her mouth, she gave him a bright smile and returned her attention to Carmender. This sort of thing would happen during all of their lessons with Carmender and wether she simply didn't notice, or chose to let them be, none of the children ever knew.

Rose was the next student in the circle. She was a rabbit. No one had seen her mark, so the others guessed that it was in an emberassing place and soon tired of asking to see it. Her hair was completely white and her eyes were beetle black rimmed with red. She was the sweetest, most innocent of the students and so did the least amount of chores. Her body was week and she often got sick, so the other students had unofficially named it their duty to do their best to protect her. Usually in cases like bundling up when it was cold and keeping her away from snapping plants or snakes or other such natural things. However, May, her best friend was the one who was most likely doing the saving.

May was a fox. Her mark could be seen under her left ear. It was a small silver dot enshrouded in two thick white curved lines. This, Nox was told, represented the fox's stealth. And boy was May stealthy. The others entrusted her with the sneaking and pinching of Ice-cream, popsicles, or other such sweet treats. Arma sat next Luna and the circle ended again with Nox. Slowly enough that it took a moment for Nox to notice, shadows gathered over head of them. Carmender stopped speaking and looked up at the sky. The students stood up wearily and turned to their teacher for advice.

Rose screamed and collapsed. May caught her just in time before she hit the ground. Nox stared at her teacher and friend with wide frightened eyes. She stared straight into Carmender's blank unseeing eyes and felt as if she were lost in a deep black abiss. After seconds that felt to her an eternity, her eyes lowered to the bloody hole that had been carved into her chest. Nox could see through the hole to the other side of the circle where the black rose had been growing and was now a full flower. The blood continued to flow from Carmender as Nox stood enranced by the rose. She felt as if she couldn't move, even though she wanted to, needed to. She needed to run, to get away from it. What it? Nox wasn't sure, but she was sure that she could feel it coming closer and closer every second she stood there...