Up the stairs and a few doors to the right was an open door. Zoey peeked her head in. "Hey, Isabelle, your roommate is here!"

A dark haired girl with a red crescent moon on her forehead glanced at us. "Oh, hi, Professor Zoey. Good timing, I was about to head down."

"I know," Zoey said, beaming. "Anyway, this is Mirabelle Bellbrook. She seemed like a good match for you. Maybe you could take her down with you in a moment? She sings."

Cass, beside me, was breathing heavily, her eyes wide. I nudged her. "Cass, snap out of it!" I hissed below my breath, before turning to Isabelle. "Uh, hi! I'm Miri, and this is my mom and my friend Cass."

Cass waved a little. "Hi," she squealed.

Isabelle smiled warmly. "Pleasure to meet you."

Mom nodded to Cass. "Zoey said we could visit tomorrow, but today we'd better get to the hotel and hit the hay."

Cass followed her. "Bye, Miri!" she yelled.

"Bye," I said, already missing my best friend, even though I knew I'd see her again soon enough.

Isabelle looked at me. "Mirabelle Bellbrook, age fifteen, formerly of Bellbrook, Ohio. Am I right?"

"Yeah," I said, amazed. "How did you know?"

"It's my affinity," Isabelle said simply. "I know a lot of stuff."

"You have an affinity for knowing stuff?"

She twirled a strand of hair around her finger. "Yeah."

We walked down the stairs quietly, neither of us speaking until we reached the dormitory door. "You know, I kind of thought they'd room me with another red fledgling."

"What's the difference?" I asked.

Isabelle laughed. "I forgot. They don't tell the new kids until, like, their first month is up. But then again, you came here in one piece, you must be pretty strong. The main difference is, I'm dead."

"Dead," I snorted. "You're standing right in front of me! How can you be dead?"

"I rejected the Change. Some evil person had this whole formula figured out to bring them back, and even after she was defeated, that stayed. Honestly though, it's a good thing she came way before my time. I heard the early Red Fledglings had absolutely NO sense about them." Isabelle continued to twist black hair around a pale finger lazily as she spoke. "Although after Stevie Rae became High Priestess, things got better. And she chose me to be her High Priestess in Training. It's a big honor; I get to be a leader in the Dark Daughters now, and someday I will be one of the most powerful vampyres known. Count on it."

Isabelle had an air of confidence to her that I didn't think I could ever match. She moved like she was dancing through the dark, empty grounds of the school. "I'm sure you will too, though," she continued. "After all, Zoey obviously favors you already. Hmm. I wonder why. It took me a bit to get on her good side."

"She's my mom's best friend," I explained. "I was named for her when I was human."

"Oh, that makes sense. Everyone enjoys flattery." Isabelle winked at me. "So, you sing. What?"

I bit my lip. "Musical stuff."

"Don't tell me- you wanna be like Elaine Paige or somebody like that."

"Susan Egan, actually."

She raised her eyebrows. "Megara from Hercules?"

"I usually think of her as the stage version of Belle, from Beauty and the Beast." I was sure I was blushing. Here was a girl I had met not five minutes earlier, and I was already sharing my deep dark secrets with her.

"Oh. You know, we have a bunch of Disney karaoke CDs. I bet you could find something from Beauty and the Beast."

"We'll see. I've never seen a karaoke CD from the musical version."

I followed her into a larger room, full of laughing fledglings. A Chinese girl with a mark that matched mine stood on a makeshift stage, singing a bad rendition of "My Heart Will Go On." Isabelle waved to her enthusiastically.

"That's my friend Dresden," she told me. "I'll introduce you guys when she's done."

"You are safe in my heart," the girl- Dresden- wailed. "And my heart will go on and on!"

She climbed off the stage and ran over to us. "Remind me again, Izzy: why did I agree to do that?"

Isabelle shrugged. "Just don't say I didn't warn you."

"Fine, you warned me," Dresden said, laughing.

Isabelle turned to me. "Dress, this is my new roomie, Mirabelle Bellbrook."

I waved awkwardly. "Just Miri."

The girl smiled. "I'm Dresden Kai-Lan McCurdy. Just call me Dresden. Like the city in the state of Saxony, Germany. Almost completely destroyed in World War Two, rebuilt years later."

Isabelle laughed. "If you can't tell, Dress is our resident genius. She's in the gifted program. Professor Damien is even her mentor, and she can even understand him! In a few weeks, you'll understand just how smart that makes her."

"I'm not that smart!" Dress said, shuffling her feet. "I mean, I got rejected from Harvard."

"Only 'cause they're totally anti-vampyre," Isabelle said, hugging her. "I mean, do you see Professor Damien with an Ivy League degree? Nope!"

"Hey, you HAVE to be smarter than me. I'll be in here forever, trying to pass freshman math year after year," I smiled and interjected.

Isabelle smiled. "First off; it's not freshman- we call it third former. Second, we don't take math here."

I could feel my eyes widening. "Did I just die and go to heaven?"

"Die, maybe. Heaven, no. In heaven, there would be zero homework." Isabelle laughed.

An adult vampyre with rough stubble and disheveled hair picked up the mike. "Last call for karaoke- anyone?"

"Go on," Isabelle urged me. "I'm sure we'll find something you know."

"I don't perform," I blurted. "Really, really bad stage fright. You can't get me up there."

"I'll do it with you. It'll be fun," my roommate promised. "Professor Damien, we'll do it!"

He smiled. "Okay. Isabelle and… Mirabelle, right?"

"Yeah," Isabelle said, obviously pumped. "Come on, Miri, let's go."

"Okay, fine, whatever, " I said, following her. "But don't say I didn't warn you."

Professor Damien ushered us over to the karaoke machine. "It's great to meet you, Mirabelle," he grinned. "I hope you find us congenial. I'm Professor Damien Maslin, instructor in the Gifted and Talented Fledglings program; but let's save introductions for a school day. For now, choose your song. We've got a plethora of karaoke CDs to choose from, so there should be something…"

"Uh, show me the musical stuff."

"What musical?" he prompted, running his hands through his hair.

Isabelle looked at me. "Beauty and the Beast?"

"If I'm gonna have to do it, I guess it WOULD be best," I sighed.

Isabelle offered up a tentative smile. "Alrighty, then. How about this one?"

The classic "Home," from the scene where Belle chooses to stay in the castle. "Rings a bell," I joked. "Let's do it."

The words flashed on the screen, not that I needed them. Closing my eyes, hoping I wouldn't think of the people watching me, I sang the song that so described how I felt.

"Is this home? Is this where I should learn to be happy?

Never dreamed that a home could be dark and cold.

I was told everyday in my childhood, even when we grow old

Home would be where the heart is; never were words so true.

My heart's far, far away. Home is too."