Hello once again!
Right I want to make a few time line pointers... right originally Harry potter + crew went to Hogwarts first year in 1991 and seventh year was ended in 1998 and light Yagami picked up the death note in November of 2003, and the BB murder cases occurred in July 2002... Harry potter was 17 at the end of the last book, light was 17-18 pre-time skip, L was 24-25, Near was 13 pre-time skip, Mello was 14 pre-time skip... I wanted Amity to skip redoing her seventh year and then get involved with the Kira case... so the harry potter timeline is being moved up four years so she starts Hogwarts in 1995... Amity first meets L third year she's obviously 13 (in 1998) but L would be 19... I don't know when L started to be a detective but I'm guessing at around 6-7, this is based off Near being 8 in 'L: change the world' and he was working cases... feel free to ignore all of this stuff... this is more to remind me than anything else...
From after this chapter the story line will pick up much quicker... and quite a couple of inconsequential things will get skipped... I want to cover the first and second years in just a couple of chapters because nothing really related to the death note will happen so its pretty pointless to include it... Third year and onwards will be more detailed like the past couple of chapters...
thanks for all the reviews, favs, and follows! XD
Chapter 4- Summers end, Hogwarts beginning
Ao flew through the barren landscape of the Shinigami realm at top speed, ignoring the gamblers and sleeping Shinigami he disturbed.
Unbeknownst to Amity the moment she had picked up the holly and phoenix wand he could sense more than one presence with her... he could faintly see another name above her head with a very messed up number; that almost appeared to be frozen and broken.
Ordinarily a god of death that has brought a Death Note into the human world is only allowed to return to the realm of gods of death: When the god of death has seen the end of the first owner of the Death Note and has written that human's name on his/her own Death Note, or when the Death Note is destroyed and cannot be used by humans anymore, or if nobody claims ownership of the Death Note, and it is unnecessary to haunt anyone, or if for any reason the god of death possessing the Death Note has been replaced by another god of death or when the god of death loses track of the Death Note which he/she possesses, or they cannot identify which human is owning the Death Note, or cannot locate where the owner is, and therefore needs to find such information through the hole in gods of death realm which allows them to view the human world.
However he was concerned enough that he needed to speak to the Shinigami king. Hence the reason he was breaking quite a few rules and returning to the Shinigami realm.
He might have lied and told Amity he had accidentally dropped his Death Note but in-fact he had bribed the Shinigami king with 2 dozen apples to acquire a second Death Note and then he dropped it in England after writing down all of the rules he knew in English. He knew a lot more about the death note than most Shinigami as he was the third most ranked Shinigami out of all of them.
He was soaring swiftly through the dull skies as he strove to reach the king and return to Amity's side before she rose in the morning and noticed he was missing.
He flew down into a dive and levelled out as he neared the ground, landing in a crouch, he then swiftly walked to where the Shinigami king was.
He had always wondered if the Shinigami king actually had a proper name, but he always made people refer to him as the Shinigami king... even though a lot of people call him 'Old man' if he's not around.
"King!" Ao called as he got nearer.
"Ah, Ao, it has been a while hasn't it?... the last I heard you had dropped a Death Note in the human Realm and were following a human around... didn't die already did they?" The Shinigami king was has a large, globe-like body mass which is suspended in the air with chains. He has four arms which hang from his body, each with only three claws on each of his "hands."
"Not exactly..." Ao replied vaguely, "Something has come up... and I have come to seek your council..."
"Well this is more than a little unorthodox... but I doubt you would be here on a whim... so what has come up? as you put it"
"The person who picked up the Death Note I dropped was a girl called Amity Potter, she has magic and is quite famous in the magical realm because a 'dark wizard' tried to kill her and failed... however I noticed something today that left me a little unsettled... there was another name above her head, as well as her own, and the number was... well... broken is probably the best word..."
"What other name did you see?" The King asked intrigued.
"Tom Marvolo Riddle"
The skull face of the King did not change however Ao could feel the Kings anger radiating all around them, it could probably be felt by Shinigami from miles away.
"Tom Riddle..." The king began angrily, "That is the name of an abomination! he split his soul to deceive death and anchor his soul to earth! he was supposed to die on Halloween 11 years ago but he cheated us! He perished, yet the shreds that is left of his soul remained in the human realm!"
"B-but how would his name be over the head of a little girl?"
"Tom Marvolo Riddle also goes by Voldemort... Amity Potter was supposed to be his demise, I wrote it in my Death Note; that the Avada Kedavra curse rebounded off her due to her mothers sacrifice and that he died by it... yet he did not truly die! he cheated me!... if Potter has his name over her head as well as her own then that means that one of the shreds of his soul is stuck to her... Riddle cannot die as long as his 'Horcruxes' (as they call them) exist... Ao, you have opened a can of worms on this one, as the saying goes... well since you're already tailing Potter you can handle Riddle, I'm tasking you with getting rid of him or better yet get Potter to get rid of him for us..."
"But what about the soul shred with her?" Ao asked, "If he can't die if these soul parts exist then how do we kill him without her dying first?"
"We will get rid of the soul piece... we will need to bring her here... it would be simple to get a soul piece out of an object as we could just destroy it but a person is another matter it involves a complicated ritual and it cannot be done in the human realm."
"But how would I bring her here... she wouldn't survive the trip never mind being able to breathe here..."
"I will give you a necklace that you will give to her, it will allow her to live... she mustn't know about it though, in three days I will have the ritual ready... when she falls asleep bring her here, do not wake her! we will perform the ritual, remove the soul shard, and then you will take her back as if nothing happened."
Ao nodded, ignoring the fact he felt guilty just agreeing to this plan.
"Very good, thank you for bringing this to my attention... now take this" The King said.
He turned around and Ao couldn't see what he was doing but when he turned back around to face him, in one of his hands there was a necklace, it had a strong, but quite short, silver chain and it had a small, yet detailed, silver skull charm hanging from it that had sapphire's in its eyes.
Ao took the necklace from the Kings hand and looked at it closer, the chain and the skull itself had lots of tiny engravings in it, writings in their own language but to him it was gobbledegook and made no sense, perhaps this was how its power worked... although he seriously wondered where the king had gotten this thing... but then again the Kings secrets had secrets, so it was no surprise really, what he thought odd was that the skull was missing the bottom jaw but he couldn't tell if it was supposed to be like that or if it had fallen off.
"Thank you, King" he said, and he turned around to leave.
"Remember, three days!" the King called as he left.
"Yeah..." Ao said as he flapped his wings and shot of the ground.
He was back in the Human realm just before dawn and flew silently into Amity's room at Number 4 Privet Drive, she woke up an hour or two later and found he was floating upside down and chewing on one of his long thumb nail, in the middle of her room.
"Ao?" Amity said blearily, as she rubbed sleep from her eyes. "What are you doing up so early? usually you don't wake up until around lunch time... is something up?"
Eru who had been napping on the bed beside her woke up disgruntled as his sleep was disturbed and he jumped onto the desk in front of the window to continue sleeping.
"No. Nothing's wrong... I got up early to get you a birthday present... I forgot yesterday after all" Ao lied.
Amity blinked her large green eyes at him, "You didn't have to get me a present..."
"No. I didn't, but I chose to... here you go" He said and he handed her the necklace the Shinigami King had given him.
She took it from him and looked at it. To her it looked expensive, and it wasn't really to her taste... but she appreciated the sentiment.
"Thanks!" she said genuinely, smiling at him. "Where did you get it?"
"Its one of my old necklaces from home... I don't know how others who can't see Shinigami would react to something from our realm, so it would probably be better if you didn't take it off... just in case." he lied yet again.
She smiled even wider up at him as she said: " 'Kay" and fastened it around her neck. Ao ignored the guilty feeling in his gut and smirked back at her.
Three nights later, he was looking over her sleeping form, snug in her Garfield pyjamas, and whispered "Sorry Amity... maybe one day you'll thank me for this..."
He gently picked her up from her bed and leapt smoothly from the window, he flapped his wings and carried the both of them up into the night sky. Her eyes fluttered but she didn't wake.
Ao placed her back into her bad at four in the morning and pulled the duvet up to cover her, he hadn't been allowed to see the so called 'ritual' in case he messed something up as Armonia Justin Beyondormason and Nu had told him.
Armonia Justin Beyondormason was the Kings right hand man, where as Nu is the second most powerful Shinigami, with only the Shinigami King's powers eclipsing hers. Nu's body is covered from head to toe with eyes. She is incredibly intelligent however Armonia ranks above her because she likes to feel others regret and can be quite cruel even by their standards.
Ao is ranked just beneath the two of them so he couldn't say anything on the contrary when they basically told him to get lost and he'd be called when they were done.
So he had no idea what had gone on, but when he'd been called back Amity was lying in some kind of runic circle written in the Death language as they called their own words, her scar was bleeding but otherwise she seemed unharmed. The Shinigami King had told him to remember to get rid of Riddle and then he'd basically been dismissed.
Ao gently wiped the blood from her forehead but he felt the back of his neck prickle like he was being watched and turned around.
Eru was staring at him accusingly with his big purple eyes, Ao narrowed his eyes at the cat, he couldn't tell if the demon actually could see him or if it just knew he was there.
"It's not like I had any choice!" he hissed quietly; but he was telling himself that as much he was justifying it to Amity's demon cat.
He knew it was the right thing to do (getting rid of Riddle's soul shard) but he felt incredibly guilty; lying to her when she trusted him so much.
He sighed and settled down of the floor to sleep.
Amity never noticed anything was different, the only thing she noticed was that her scar was red the next morning. Ao tried to act like nothing had happened and he must of been successful as she never asked him if anything was wrong. Eru would often stare at the Shinigami though and it unnerved him quite a bit.
She spent the rest of the school holidays training at her clubs, occasionally hanging out with her friends and her cousin and reading through all of her books, Ao spent a lot of time reading her books (and in fact he read them more than she did as he didn't have to sleep).
Dudley wasn't very happy about having to go to smeltings whilst she went to Hogwarts, but Amity pointed out they wouldn't have been going to the same school regardless as she had been down for some all girls school in Dumfries and Galloway.
He had said, "Still... I wish I was going to learn magic..."
"Trust me from what I've read in those books on Wizarding law they are incredibly judgemental people who look down on people without magic, people that they class as creatures and basically anyone else they feel like... it doesn't sound like a very nice place."
"Still... its Magic though..."
"I'd share it with you if I could..." Amity said with a sigh.
Finally the first of September arrived, Ao dressed in blue skinny jeans with a simple turquoise button up shirt, she wore the necklace that Ao had given her as usual and she put on her knee high, black and white converse. She had already had her trunk packed and was glad for the extension charm Snape had placed upon it otherwise all of the books she intended to take with her would not fit with everything else she was taking. Eru was packed into his travelling case after breakfast and at at 9:00 AM the family of three got into their car.
Aunt Petunia drove them all to kings cross and Dudley got her trunk out of the boot. Amity, herself, was carrying Eru's case, and her usual bag.
They walked into the station and were soon stood between platforms nine and ten.
"This is where we have to leave you... Dudley has a dentist appointment" her Aunt said, "To get onto the platform you have to walk into the pillar between platforms nine and ten... have a good term... and make sure you send letters with some of the school owls"
Her Aunt gave her a hug, and Dudley said a moody good-bye and punched her lightly on the arm.
They waved at her over their shoulders as they walked out of the station.
As soon as they were gone Amity sighed, "Walk into the pillar between the platforms... this is ridiculous..."
"I think ludicrous would be a much better word for it..."
Amity looked at her watch, it was 10:30... she only had half an hour to find the train and get on it.
"Ao," She said quietly, "can you look ahead for me?"
"Sure, no problem" He smirked at her.
Without another word he flew off towards the pillar, Amity was briefly distracted from staring after him when she heard some one say from behind her: "Packed with muggles of course"
She watched with interest as a red headed family seemed to be organizing who would run into the pillar first, so she nearly jumped out of her skin when Ao tapped her on the shoulder.
"You really do just have to walk into the pillar its some sort of portal to Platform 9 and 3/4... I told you things get confusing when magic's involved."
"Right..." she muttered.
The person who had spoken before was a plump woman who was now talking to four boys, all with (what most people would call) flaming red hair; she however called it ginger or orange. Each of them was pushing a trunk like hers in front of him and they had an owl.
She followed them discreetly, and stopped when they stopped; at a distance but close enough to hear.
"Now, what's the platform number?" said the boy's mother.
"Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also brightly orange haired, "Mum, can't I go?... "
"You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. All right, Percy, you go first."
What looked like the oldest boy marched toward platforms nine and ten. Amity watched and he vanished into the wall, it looked so much weirder when it wasn't Ao disappearing into walls.
"Fred, you next," the plump woman said.
"I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy, "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you tell I'm George?"
"Sorry, George, dear."
"Only joking, I am Fred," said the boy, and off he went. The twin followed and soon they were both gone.
Amity sighed and made her way over to them; with difficulty as she had a large satchel crossed over her shoulder, a cat carrier in one hand and was dragging her trunk by its handle.
"Excuse me, ma'am" She said to the plump woman. Her most innocent and confused look on her face.
"Hello, dear," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too." She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose. She was dwarfed by him and in fact she was a bit shorter than the only girl of the family as well.
"Yes," Amity said. "The thing is... well, the thing is, I don't know how to..."
"How to get onto the platform, dear?" she said kindly, and Amity nodded, her large eyes looking as sad as possible.
"Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it, that's very important. Best do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."
"Er... okay... Thank you." Amity muttered.
She turned around to face the Barrier, it looked extremely solid... she had been hoping there was some sort of trick to getting through the barrier but evidently you did just walk at it. She shifted her bag strap further up her shoulder and began moving towards the barrier.
Ao had his hands on her shoulders and was pushing her forwards.
She broke into a sprint, the barrier was coming nearer and nearer, Ao's presence behind her fighting off any fears she had. She shut her eyes just as she was about to run into it.
When she opened her eyes again a scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven O'clock. Amity looked behind her and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it.
"Well at least that's over with..."
Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks.
The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats. She dragged her stuff behind her and went to look for an empty compartment, she would rather sit by herself than with anyone else.
She bumped into someone in the crowd and if Ao hadn't wrapped his tail around her waist she would have fallen on her butt, as it was, she appeared to get her balance back and went to apologize when she saw a familiar face.
"Draco!"
"Amity!" he exclaimed, "Nice to see you again."
"And you"
"Have you thought about what house you'll be in yet?" He asked her curiously, not letting her know how much he hoped it was Slytherin.
"I haven't the foggiest to be honest... you'll still be my friend anyway won't you?"
"Of course," He said, he looked ready to say more, but someone called his name from the crowd and he had to say good-bye.
Amity, renewed her search for an empty compartment and pressed on through the crowd until she found an empty compartment near the end of the train. She put Eru inside first, with her bag, instructing the cat to guard it and then started to heave her trunk up the steps, she grabbed the handle and pulled on it, she got it 3 inches of the ground before she dropped it. Even though she was a lot stronger than she looked all of the activities she liked to do were not upper body strength orientated, so she was struggling.
"Want a hand?" It was one of the orange-haired twins she'd followed through the barrier. He didn't wait for a reply and said, "Oi, Fred! C'mere and help!"
"I'd rather struggle and save my pride thank you." She told them.
She was stood at the top of the train steps and braced her left foot against the wall of the train as leverage and yanked the trunk up the stairs.
The twins looked impressed, and if Ao had actually done the majority of the work... well... she wasn't saying anything.
"Thanks for the offer anyway," She said blowing her fringe out of her eyes, and brushing her hip length hair over her shoulders.
"What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at her lightning scar.
"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you-
"She is," said the first twin, "Aren't you?" he added to Amity.
"What?" She asked, bewildered.
"Amity Potter, "chorused the twins.
"Yeah... I am" she muttered.
The two boys gawked at her, and she felt herself get a bit angry.
"Finished staring yet... because if you don't pack it in, I might decide to kick you in the face."
Then, to her relief, a voice came floating in through the train's open door, "Fred? George? Are you there?"
"Coming, Mum."
With a last look at her, the twins hopped off the train.
Amity sat down next to the window where (Unfortunately) she could see the orange-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying. Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.
"Ron, you've got something on your nose."
The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose,"Mum. geroff," He wriggled free.
"Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.
"Shut up," Ron said.
"Where's Percy?" said their mother.
"He's coming now."
The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his black Hogwarts uniform, and Harry noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter P on it. "Can't stay long, Mother," he said, "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves-"
"Oh, are you a prefect, Percy?" said one of the twins, with an air of great surprise, "You should have said something, we had no idea."
"Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin, "Once-"
"Or twice-"
"A minute-"
"All summer-"
"Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.
"How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins.
"Because he's a prefect," said their mother fondly. "All right, dear, well, have a good term and send me an owl when you get there."
She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.
"Now, you two... this year, you behave yourselves. If I get one more owl telling me you've- you've blown up a toilet or-"
"Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."
"Great idea though, thanks, Mum."
"It's not funny. And look after Ron."
"Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."
"Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.
"Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"
Amity narrowed her eyes.
"You know that tiny, little girl with the really long black hair; who was near us in the station? Know who she is?"
"Who?"
"Amity Potter!"
They looked right at the compartment and Amity glared at the twins, her green eyes flashing. The twins visibly gulped slightly.
Amity heard the little girl's voice as she leant back in her seat; ignoring Ao laughing at her irritation, "Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see her, Mum, please..."
"You've already seen her, Ginny, and the poor girl isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Is she really, Fred? How do you know?"
"Asked her. Saw her scar. It's really there... like lightning."
"Poor dear... no wonder she was alone, I wondered. She was ever so polite when he asked how to get onto the platform."
"Never mind that, do you think she remembers what You-Know-Who looks like?"
Their mother suddenly became very stern, "I forbid you to ask her, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though she needs reminding of that on her first day at school."
"All right, keep your hair on."
A whistle sounded.
"Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, and their younger sister began to cry.
"Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."
"We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."
"George!"
"Only joking, Mum."
The train began to move. Amity saw the boy's mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back and waved.
Amity watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. Amity sighed deeply... right now she really wished she was heading to that all girls school in Scotland, where she wouldn't be known at all... being famous would make the Death Note even harder to hide. Ao settled down next to her and lay across the other seat, Eru was purring in her lap as she gently stoked his fur.
The door of the compartment slid open and the youngest orange headed boy came in. "Anyone sitting there?" he asked, pointing at the seat opposite her. "Everywhere else is full."
Amity shook his head and the boy sat down. He glanced at her and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked. Amity saw he still had a black mark on his nose.
"Hey, Ron," The twins were back, to her ire, "Listen, we're going down the middle of the train; Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."
"Right," mumbled Ron.
"Amity," said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."
Ron said bye but she merely glared at them.
"Are you really Amity Potter?" Ron blurted out, as soon as the compartment door shut again, "And have you really got... you know..." He pointed at her forehead.
"Are you really asking if you can see the scar I got the night my parents were murdered?" She asked coldly.
Ron closed his mouth uncomfortably and they sat in an awkward silence for quite a while, Ao was snoring next to her and Ron kept sneaking glances at her to probably see if she was still angry, she glared back to say she was.
The train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.
Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"
Ron's ears went pink and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches. Amity went out into the corridor, Ao; who had just woken up, followed eagerly.
What the women had were 'Bettie Bott's Every Flavour Beans', 'Drooble's Best Blowing Gum', 'Chocolate Frogs', 'Pumpkin Pasties', 'Cauldron Cakes', 'Licorice Wands', and a number of other strange things she had never seen in her life.
"Is there anything with just normal chocolate... I'm out of my depth here"
"The chocolate frogs are just chocolate... but they will jump and escape if you let them though... they each have a collectable card with a famous witch or wizard on it as well." the women explained.
Amity consequently bought every single chocolate frog and dumped them on the seat next to her, Ao sat on the other side of the chocolate, she'd also bought some Cauldron cakes because Ao had wanted them.
Ron stared as Amity brought it all back in.
"Hungry, are you?"
"Not really I just like chocolate..." Amity said, as she opened her first chocolate frog, easily snatching it out of the air as it tired to escape.
Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and mumbled, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."
Amity sighed, and silently cursing her good heart (well good if you ignore the four names written in her Death Note for all eternity) and said, "You can have some of this lot if you want... I won't be able to eat all of it"
Ron went red, "No... its fine..."
"Suit yourself... but the offer stands anyway," Amity said, and Ron soon caved and helped her eat their through the massive amount of chocolate she'd bought, It was amusing though whenever Ao ate something right in front of Ron and the dense boy didn't notice.
The countryside was now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills. Ao was snoozing again but this time his head was on her shoulder, she didn't really mind but he was quite heavy.
There was a knock on the door of their compartment and a round-faced boy came in. He looked tearful.
"Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?" When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"
"He can't have gotten far," Amity said logically as she leaned on her fist carefully so she didn't wake the sleeping Shinigami.
"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him..."
He left. But was soon back again with a bossy girl with bushy hair, said bossy girl gushed over Famous Amity Potter before she left abruptly. Amity chatted to Ron for a while after and began to ask about Quidditch.
Ron was just talking her through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't the toad-less boy, or Granger this time.
It was Draco and two big hulking boys she didn't know.
She smiled at him, "Hello Draco..." but she trailed off, looking at the other two.
"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," Draco asked, noticing where she was looking.
Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Causing everyone else to look at him. Amity nudged Ao to wake him up and he floated up to the ceiling just as Draco sat down glaring at Ron. Amity shot the Shinigami an apologetic look.
"No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford..." Draco said sneering.
He turned back to her, "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Amity."
"I always think that family has very little to do with who you are... and I pick my friends regardless..." he said casually, "So are these two the friends your mother mentioned?"
"Yeah... did you actually read all those books you made me carry?" he said quickly changing the subject.
"Of course I did, I wouldn't have bought them otherwise..."
Crabbe and Goyle stood around awkwardly, and Ron looked resolutely out the window. She and Draco chatted for a while longer before he waved goodbye and the bigger boys slouched off after him.
"You've met Malfoy before?" Ron asked, as soon as he'd gone.
Amity explained about their meeting in Diagon Alley and how they made friends in Madam Malkins.
"I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched. My dad doesn't believe it. He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."
"Well that's got nothing to do with Draco he would have only been 1 at the time... and like I said to him peoples family's have nothing to do with who I make friends with... and the Dark side? seriously? that's what its called? did you rip it off Star Wars?"
"what's star wars?"
She opened her mouth to lecture him not knowing something so important when a voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in ten minute's time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."
"Right, Ron... get out while I change" and so she picked him up by the collar and chucked him out the door.
She didn't show it but the announcement had worried her, she quickly threw her uniform on whilst she worried about the death note, if they were taking her luggage separately she would be separated from the death note, if anyone looked through her bag she was done. She shoved her converse back on over her leggings and shrugged the outer robe on, then she swiftly went to the 'secret' compartment of her bag and pulled out the death note. Since her trip to Diagon alley she had cut a rectangular hole in a lot of pages of a sketch book creating a pouch in the book that the Death Note could fit into; it was in the middle of the book and she had also used a handy little spell called a disillusionment charm so it was practically invisible now, not only that but this sketch book had a padlock that she'd placed locking charms on. She took the disillusioned Note out of the sketch book and used a belt from her trunk to belt it to her stomach; underneath her clothes and was very glad for her baggy shirt and jumper now, as Ao confirmed he couldn't see it at all. She shoved the (now empty) sketch book back in her bag before making the compartment look exactly as it did before Ron left.
Then she walked out casually as if nothing had happened and let Ron go get changed.
When the train stopped, she said good-bye to Eru and pushed her way off the train. Her and Ron looked around confused on the platform as at first there was no indication of where they were supposed to be.
"Firs' years! Firs' Years over here!" A familiar voice echoed.
Ao; who was soaring over them, pointed her in the direction of Hagrid; in the near pitch black she couldn't see him.
They wove their way through crowd and over to Hagrid.
"All righ' there, Amity?" Hagrid's big hairy face beamed over the sea of heads. "C'mon, follow me... any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"
Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. Amity seemed to be the only one who could keep her footing and had to pull Ron up a couple of times.
"Ye' all get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."
There was a loud "Oooooh!"
The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black take. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers. Amity wasn't that impressed... she had been expecting something more like the description of Minas Tirith from lord of the rings, when she had heard Hogwarts was a castle, she should know by now not to be optimistic.
"No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore. Amity and Ron were followed into their boat by Neville and Hermione. "Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself. "Right then... FORWARD!"
And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake.
"Heads down!" yelled Hagrid as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face. They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles. Amity leapt catlike from her boat and landed gracefully.
Then they clambered up a passageway in the rock after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.
They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, Oak front door.
"Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?" Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.
A very stern faced witch opened the door.
"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here." She said as she pulled the door wide.
Amity and the others followed her across the hall and into a small ante-chamber.
"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said, "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room. The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours. The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak, which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose. "I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."
She left the chamber. Amity sighed... 'all this secrecy is so annoying...'
"Is it even necessary to even make us wait here?..." Ao asked exasperated. Amity shrugged in response.
"How exactly do they sort us into houses?" Hermione asked Ron, "It wasn't mentioned in Hogwarts a history..."
"Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."
Amity tutted as Hermione instantly began reciting all the spells she'd heard off.
"As if they'd make you do a magic test, when you're not supposed to being doing magic yet..."
Then something happened that made her jump about a foot in the air... several people behind him screamed.
"What the absolute f-?" She began.
Then she gasped. So did the people around her. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall. Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance-"
"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves? He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost- I say, what are you all doing here?"
A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.
"Ao... Can they see you?" She whispered to him at the back of the room.
"No... they are just imprints of humans left behind by their magic... not in this world and their not in mine either... I'm as invisible to them as I am to everyone else"
"Good..."
"New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them, "About to be Sorted, I suppose?" A few people nodded mutely, "Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar, "My old house, you know."
"Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start," Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.
"Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."
Amity got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Ron behind her, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.
The great hall was an impressive place, the ceiling was bewitched to look like outside and there were candles floating above four large tables and the smaller table for the teachers.
Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years and then put a grubby, patched and frayed hat on top of it.
Everyone was staring at the hat, then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth and the hat began to sing.
Amity stared gob-smacked as it sang awfully out of tune
"that's awful... terrible... ugly hats should not sing!"
The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song, causing Amity to look around incredulously. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.
"So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to Amity, "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."
She rolled her eyes at him.
Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment. "When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"
A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause...
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat.
The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Amity saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.
"Bones, Susan!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.
More names were called and Amity was seriously starting to get bored when-
"Potter, Amity!"
As she stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.
"Potter, did she say?"
"The Amity Potter?"
"That little girl?!"
Amity glared at the hall full of people craning to get a good look at her. When the hat was placed on her head she was dismayed to find it dropped down to her chin.
Next second she was looking at the black inside of the hat. She waited as patiently as she possibly could when Ao was hopping around her and telling her to hurry up so she could get him some food.
"Hmm," said a small voice in her ear, "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, my goodness, yes... and a nice thirst to prove yourself... Oh... what's this? Shinigami? well that Death Note certainly is interesting..." She swore her heart stopped. "Do not be concerned I cannot share any information I find in the sorting your secret is safe with me; I can't even tell anyone about the four murders I now know about, even if I wanted to... but with this level of cunning there is really only one place to put you-"
She cut him off, 'Do not put me in Slytherin! I get enough attention as it is and people will be suspicious if I'm put in the house known dark wizards.'
"Not Slytherin, then eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that... well I cannot fault your logic even if that shows the most cunning I've ever seen from an 11 year old... then it better be GRYFFINDOR!"
And that is it for another chapter!
thanks for reading!
