Me: Yes yes I know it's short, so please bear with me. You see, people have been pointing out that it is impossible to apparate within the school grounds. And yet, this is true, but only during the school year. The students do not know this but I know it's true. I mean, c'mon, do you really think that the teachers who live at Hogwarts all year walk through that large of a castle? No? So yeah, Snape could apparate because it wasn't officially the school year.

Friend: Did you have fun?

Me: Yes . . .yes I did


Raise your hand if you think it was a brilliant idea to go to a magical school with moving portraits and random ghosts flying around. . . .

Yeah didn't think so.

All the same it was amusing. Getting up in the morning had been fun. Especially considering that I was the only one up. After two years of getting up at the god-forsaken hour I was still forced to get up at, I just couldn't shake it. I was up a good hour after sunrise before I decided to walk down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Assuming that was where we ate breakfast.

There weren't that many students there, in fact, there were more teachers there then students. Then again, this could be a good thing, I could eat and still have enough time to do some exercises outside. I felt jumpy enough already knowing I had to go back to the Demon Kingdom in three days. I was still a little unsure as to if I would land in the Demon Kingdom this time. Murata had tried to assure me otherwise but I still wasn't convinced.

I looked over at the Gryffindor table to see Hermione already sitting there, reading a book while eating breakfast. At least she's eating again, I thought as I walked over to the table to greet her. "Good Morning, Hermione." I said as I took a seat. She glanced up at her book and beamed at me. It made me a little uncomfortable. "Good morning, Yuri. OH!" She looked slightly embarrassed as she said my name, "Is it alright if I call you that? By your first name I mean. I read somewhere that the Japanese tend to use their last names first as a-"

"Sign of respect toward their ancestors?" I interrupted her but smiled sincerely, "Don't worry, Hermione. I am here to learn a new culture, not the other way around, besides," I laughed a bit before finishing, "We're already friends, right? No need to be formal!"

This seemed to keep her quiet as I was faced with the challenge of deciding what I should have for breakfast. I almost died of happiness when I saw toast and eggs over easy. There wasn't any salad but there was milk. I grabbed two pieces of toast, one egg (I remembered mom's comment of only having one egg a day) and a small glass of milk. I knew I would grab seconds, but I wanted to wait for people to get here. I almost jumped out of my seat when Hermione addressed me again, "I remember now! Yuri, I have your schedule here. I just saw it there and I thought that . . ." She trailed off in embarrassment as she held out a piece of parchment. I smiled and took it to see which classes I had:

Herbology

Care of Magical Creatures

Arithmancy/Divination

Arithmancy/Divination (YOU MUST CHOOSE EITHER DIVINATION OF ARITHMANCY)

I tilted my head a bit as I looked it over. Such strange classes, I thought as I looked through them. Hm, a choice huh? Arithmancy . . .if I remembered correctly that would be something like calculus right? I never really was good at math, but the whole thought of being able to see the future through the stars sounded kind of cool.

What to choose, what to choose . . . I trailed off in my mind, "I wouldn't go with Divination if I were you." I blinked myself out of my thoughts as I turned to face Ron behind me. "Why not?" I asked, I thought that it would be useful to know the future. "Well, the class is easy, but the teachers a bit off if you ask me." I watched as Ron took a seat, followed by Harry whom I didn't notice until now. "Ronald, isn't is a bit rude to be reading over someone's shoulder?" asked Hermione as she stabbed her food. "Yeah like you haven't done it." He threw back.

There was an odd silence but it didn't last long as Ron filled it in, "You're eating again, I notice." I froze and then turned to my new bushy-haired friend, who was currently buttering her toast. "I've decided there are better ways of making a stand about elf rights." She answered. "Yeah . . .and you were hungry." Ron said with a grin. Who did they remind me of? I paused as I went through all the people I knew in my head. Then it clicked, Gunter and Gwendal. Ron being a much less clingy Gunter and Hermione being a much less frowny Gwendal. Harry was the Conrad in-between them.

I yawned and stretched as the other three got into some sort of conversation about the Triwizard Tournament. I honestly, could care less about eternal glory. Maybe I was just passive like that.

Just then, there was a giant rustling noise coming from the ceiling as owls of every shade of gray came bursting through. I looked up and watched as Al came swooping down and onto a patch of empty table in front of me. I looked at him curiously as he nipped my finger a bit and held out his leg. I blinked and unwrapped the piece of parchment and gave him some bacon before he flew off again.

It was an odd envelop. It was heavier than usual but it was unusually small. I could hide it in my fist without bending the paper. The wax seal itself, was shaped like a snake. I narrowed my eyes at it before opening it, slowly. It seemed like an ordinary letter, but I was a bit freaked out by it for some reason. I unfolded the message and read the English words:

Your Majesty,

Soon your power will be mine.

I read the short message over and over again. There was no name. "Yuri?" I heard Hermione in the distance but I kept staring at the paper. Whoever it was, knew who I was. Whoever it was, was after the Demon King's power. Nothing else was said as the paper lit itself on fire and disappeared in smoke. I stood up so suddenly that I could feel people's eyes on me. "I'm going to run a bit." I said as I raced outside. I needed something to get my mind off this whole magic deal.


Me: I don't like italics . . .

Friend: Shut up and write!

Me: But it's 3:40 AM!

Friend: WHO CARES? WORK SLAVE!