Notes: I'd like to start off by paying my respects to the victims of the grade 8.0 earthquake that took place in northern Chile last week, as well as the victims of the subsequent tidal waves. Yes, there were very few deaths, a lot less that there could have been, but these sort of experiences can still scar others in ways that aren't always very apparent. I'd also like to thank this particular reviewer who PMed me to see if I was alright. Yes, everything is fine since I don't live in that particular region.

Once again, thank you all for your continued support with this fic, and also, thanks to my beta because she's the reason I even started writing this in the first place. As always, comments and critiques are always welcome, don't be shy.

This chapter marks the beginning of the Hogwarts Introduction Arc.

Chapter 10: Mondays from Hell

…

The next morning, Seamus left the dorms before Harry even finished putting his socks on. It was clear that the teen wanted to spend as little time as possible in his proximity. He probably thought that overexposure to him would turn him into a complete nutter, and thus took a leaf out of the Dursely's book and avoided him like the plague.

"What the bloody hell is his problem?" Harry scoffed.

"Seamus is just…" Dean gave a small sigh, but didn't finish what he was about to say, and instead, just left the dormitories as well. Dean and Seamus were close friends, so even if he didn't specifically agree with Seamus, he would not go against him either.

Harry rolled his eyes and when he turned around, Ron and Neville, they both gave him a look that clearly said 'it's his problem and not yours, so don't even go there'. Harry was a bit surprised to see that Neville could actually manage it. He made his way over to grab his bag and place in it the things he would need for class. He was about to head out, too, but he suddenly got the feeling that something was amiss.

"Hey, where is Zidane? Is he still asleep?"

"Probably mate, but at this rate he's gonna be late for breakfast." Ron said.

"Should we wake him up?" Neville asked, a bit uncertain.

Harry and Ron exchanged hesitant looks. Yes, they were all males, so having one of them sleep with nothing on shouldn't really bother them so much, but on the other hand, waking up a naked blonde foreigner was not exactly the best way to start a Monday morning.

Both of them looked back at Neville, their expressions blank.

"Nope."

"But he's going o be late for class!" Neville said, but the two teens had already left. With a sigh, the round-faced boy turned towards the bed whose curtains were still drawn. "Gran always did say to always help my friends."

"Zidane, wake up." Neville said as he gently prodded the figure that was (thankfully) almost fully covered except for the wild mane of blonde hair that was now laying on the fluffy pillows.

Neville saw the figure stir under the bed covers, though it was hard to see since the curtains were still almost completely drawn.

"Zidane you have to wake up now or else we'll be late." Neville said, shaking the boy slightly.

"Hmmm… Dagger. I love you my sweet, sweet Dagger." Zidane sleep-talked right into his pillow, making the teen barely make out the words. Neville blushed profusely.

"E-erm, Zidane we really have to go." Neville tried again, this time shaking him harder.

"Why hurry? We have all the time in the world for ourselves." Zidane once again slurred, only this time it had a suggestive undertone. The blonde suddenly reached out for the arm that shook him and pulled the round-faced boy unto the bed with him. Neville was beet-red and spluttering at this point.

"Z-Zidane!"

…

The blonde cracked an eye open at the loud sound, though his mind was clearly still sluggish from having just woken up. Someone had just woken him up from the most incredible dream. The greenish-blue eye finally focused on the on the blonde hair and round face of a teen, clearly male, and said male stared back, his expression being one of embarrassment. It took a few seconds for Zidane's sleepy mind to process what was going on, and when it did, Zidane furrowed his eyebrows.

"You're not my Dagger." Only after a few more seconds did it all come back to him. He was in Hogwarts, not on Gaia. And this person on his bed right now was Neville and MOST DEFINITELY not his precious Dagger, coming to wake him up with a 'good-morning' kiss before heading off to take care of her royal duties.

"Oh…sorry about that Neville." Zidane said sheepishly, but it did nothing to help the thoroughly embarrassed Gryffindor. At least he didn't move in for a kiss, otherwise he would have really traumatized the teen. Nevile was apparently very faint-hearted.

Good thing he hadn't seen the tail, either. That would have been hell to explain. He supposed he should really start being more careful from now on.

He closed his curtains, got dressed, and re-vanished his tail in record time. He grabbed all his things for class and left with Neville for the Great Hall. Both Gryffindors were greeted by a stern looking McGonagall, who shook her head and handed them their schedules.

"Do try to be on time from now on. Oh, and Mr. Tribal?" McGonagall said, gaining the blonde's attention. "Students are required to use the full uniform, properly. So do straighten your tie and tug-in your shirt."

Zidane rolled his eyes. It was gonna be a looong first day.

….

History of Magic, double Potions, Divination, and double Defense Against the Dark Arts. Binns, Snape, Trelawney, and Umbridge all in one day. Worst. Monday. Ever.

Harry almost slammed his head against the table. Why did stuff like this always happen to him?

"Why do you keep getting the Daily Prophet?" Ron asked Hermione as a small barn owl delivered her a copy.

"It's good to know what the enemy is thinking." She replied and dropped a knut into the small leather pouch attached to the owls leg, before the owl flew away. "Hmmm, nothing. Wait…the Ministry is planning to withdraw the Aurors stationed at Diagon Alley since there hasn't been a reported theft in over a month. The previous investigation regarding the explosion that took out a large section of the street resulted inconclusive. It seems like Diagon's serial thief is no more."

"Bloody hell. I mean, they say the guy must have been pretty powerful to pull off what he did. I mean he stole from so many purebloods, but they didn't even catch the bloke! Do you think he blew up the street as a last stunt?" Ron said.

"It is very odd indeed, but there isn't really enough evidence to conclude anything. It looks like this is going to cause the Order some trouble, though." Hermione concluded in a hushed tone so nobody could hear.

"Why's that?" Harry suddenly asked.

"Well, think about it. That thief was the reason they put up Aurors in the first place, but without those Aurors, Diagon Alley is completely unprotected from anything. So in reality having the thief around was actually beneficial …but, I know there has to more to it as well. I think the Order may know more about this than they are letting on."

"So in other words, the thief was also helping us and the Order just doesn't want to tell. Just like the reason why Hagrid is gone, Order is also behind it." Harry also said in a hushed tone.

After a short conversation about Hagrid's whereabouts, and the new Qudditch Keeper tryouts, Hermione and Ron were now next to him arguing with Fred and George about the whole Skiving Snackboxes thing, well, it was mostly Hermione doing the arguing. Ron knew better than confronting the twins. She kept reprimanding them about putting up ads in the common room notice board. The subject of conversation then switched to the OWLs they would be taking this year, and according to the twins, were usually preceded by intense mental breakdowns usually a few weeks prior to the examinations. The twins themselves had only gotten three each, which was surprising because their inventions, although silly, were works of genius. When asked about where they were getting their funding, Harry gave them a small cautionary glare. Ron and Hermione (especially Hermione) would kill him if they found out he had given the twins the prize money from the Triwizard tournament.

After the twins left to sell some Extendable Ears before class, Harry noticed Neville and Zidane sit at the table with schedules in hand, while Zidane looked quite calm, though a bit sleepy, Neville looked particularly red in the face. Harry wasn't really sure if he wanted to know.

"Hey guys." Zidane said as he grabbed two toasts. Neville just waved before reaching for a muffin.

But before he could even greet the two, he was approached by none other than Cho Chang. The fact that she was alone was bizarre in itself, as the girl was usually accompanied by her 'pack' of friends. He would know since he had spent weeks trying to catch her alone to ask her to the Yule ball last year.

He just couldn't understand it. Cho used to be Cedric's girlfriend, thus he expected her to be angry and upset at the fact that he had made it out of the graveyards alive and not Cedric. But no, if her tone of voice was anything to go by, the girl wasn't angry at him or anything. But it was so strange that she had sought him out, not once, but twice in such little time. By the look she was giving him, she obviously wanted to say something in private. It was almost as if their roles had been reversed.

"It that a Tornado's badge? You don't support the Tornado's do you?" Ron suddenly asked, pointing at the sky-blue and gold badge on her robes.

"Yeah, I do."

"Have you always supported them or only after they started winning the league?" The redhead said with an accusatory tone of voice.

"I have supported them since I was six." Cho said in an indignant tone and then turned to Harry. "Anyways, I'll…see you later Harry."

Harry once again wanted to slam his head against something, but instead settled for glaring at his best friend. He was quite glad that Hermione had joined him as well.

"What? Most so called 'fans' only joined them after they started winning, they only jumped on the band-wagon last minute." Ron said defensively.

"Who cares what Quidditch team she supports, don't you see she wanted to talk to Harry alone? You're so tactless!" Hermione reprimanded her.

"Yeah, now it will be more difficult for Harry here to hook up." Zidane said with a grin, Ron almost choked.

"What on earth made you think that?!" Ron asked with shock.

The blonde foreigner just shrugged. "She looked kind of needy. I don't know the details, but she must have come here for something. Girls don't usually leave their groups unless they have something specific in mind. You'll find most girls go to the bathroom together, as well."

"Well, that's not true. What about Hermione?" The redhead countered.

"She's a special case." The blonde said before turning towards the bushy-haired girl. "No offense, Hermione."

"None taken." Hermione said flatly.

"Anyways, I think she'll return sooner or later." The blonde, giving Harry a slimmer of hope.

"What makes you so sure about that?" Neville asked.

"Well, the thing about girls is that-"

The rest of the conversation was interrupted by the sound of a ringing bell.

"Well, time for class." The bushy-haired girl said, interrupting the blonde with a bit too much enthusiasm. Harry personally couldn't tell if she was just glad because classes were starting, or rather, because it gave her a reason to change the topic. "What classes are you taking Zidane?"

"I have History of Magic now.." Zidane said handing Hermione his schedule for her to see. "Doesn't sound very fun, though."

"Oh, look your schedule is the same as Harry and Ron's!" Hermione said with an excited cry. "That's so great, we get to share so many classes! I have so many questions!"

Harry almost felt sorry for the blonde exchange student right then. And judging by the way he was slowly backing away, it looked like he was carefully weighing his options. In the end he was given no choice as Hermione practically dragged everyone to classroom 4F on the first floor where the subject was taught.

…..

To say that History of Magic was boring was an understatement. Even the fact that the teacher was a ghost didn't seem to help. According to Ron, Professor Binns wasn't even aware of the fact he died. He just got up one day from where he fell asleep in the staff-room, and went to teach, leaving his body behind. Zidane though that the man may have bored himself to death. Indeed, listening to the man drone on and on about some 'giant wars' had nearly the same effect on the class as a widely dispersed Sleep spell. The only one that seemed to be even bothering was Hermione. The genome simply couldn't fathom how or why she would even do that.

Another reason Zidane couldn't really pay attention was mostly because he couldn't see or hear ghosts very well. All he was seeing right now were small flickers of a transparent figure, while all he heard were a couple of words cut short, as if he were hearing them through an old radio. It had happened back in Gaia too, when Vivi, Quina, and Quale (Quina's master) claimed to have seen Quan's (Vivi's adoptive grandpa) ghost. He was standing right there and he didn't see anything. But suddenly all three started talking to the air before them. It wasn't until after Vivi told him what happened that Zidane understood. The blonde still had no idea why he couldn't see them well. Maybe it was just because he was a genome. At least here in Hogwarts he could catch flickers of them and sense them when they moved through the corridors.

Zidane looked at the clock and gave a sigh, there was still at least twenty minutes left of class, and he wasn't sleepy enough to take a nap. Neville sat next to him, but the boy had long since fallen asleep. Compared to this boredom, Hermione's incessant questions were like a blessing. He could at least lie or say he wasn't allowed give out such information. But there simply was no escape from this class. Just having to sit still for long amounts of time was hell, and went against his very nature. He could feel his tail twitching in annoyance, but he couldn't move it around much because of the chair he sat on. He looked around the room to see many students dozing off, or playing around with their quills. With a sigh he looked at his hands, now wearing thin gloves, rather than his thicker thief gloves mostly because these were easier to write with.

He dug into his pockets and when he felt something in them, he stopped and a puzzled frown slid into his face, but soon a grin replaced it as he remembered what it was. He reached for his Tetra Master deck, and proceeded to play with himself while being grateful for having remembered to take it out of his bag earlier.

….

Harry yawned but otherwise was glad that the class was finally over. He looked over to see Ron finally snapping out of his Binns-induced stupor, and Hermione gathering her things to leave. When he looked over at Zidane and Neville, he noticed that Neville was just waking up while Zidane just finished up what looked like a game with Muggle playing cards of some sort.

"Honestly, you should at least try to pay attention." Hermione berated them. "How do you expect to pass your OWLs? I swear, one of these days you'll all have to deal with this on your own."

Harry, Ron, and even Neville panicked. Apparently the only reason they had made it past History of Magic so far was because of Hermione's extensive notes on the subject. But thankfully, in the end Hermione would never abandon her friends when they needed her, so she agreed to help them.

"Well I'm just glad I don't need to do any OWLs." Zidane said with a lighthearted laugh. "Though I could use some help on the assignments, history has never been my thing."

The group slowly made their way to the dungeons where Potions took place. The cold and dampness of the place was enough to bother anyone, and Zidane had to discreetly wrap his tail closer to himself to retain warmth. To make matters worse, he soon found out who exactly taught the subject.

Snape never really rubbed him the right way either. He knew he was pretending to be a spy for Voldemort and he was almost sure he wouldn't betray the Order. But that didn't stop him from thinking that the guy was a prick. Whenever they saw each other, the man would try to catch him off guard and wiggle into his head. Though he occasionally got an image or two, most of the time Zidane would kick him out. That is until he discovered a much more amusing way to irritate the man. Whenever he tried to pry his mind open, Zidane would let him in, but only allow him to see what he chose to show him. The looks of disgust and irritation that followed were always totally worth it.

One time, he had trapped him in his mind for almost half an hour showing him nothing but some of his best romantic encounters. Snape had nearly jinxed him afterwards, but Zidane just assumed that he was jealous. It was his fault for invading his mind, anyways.

The genome noticed that Harry seemed to get steadily angrier the closer they got to the classroom, while Neville just seemed to get steadily paler. In any case, it was obvious that they disliked the man. The group decided to sit at the back of the class they would be sharing with the Slytherins. The moment Snape entered the room, he told everyone to be quiet, which was a bit redundant in Zidane's opinion since the man's presence was already enough to make the room go silent. Before they actually got into the lesson, Snape gave them the announcement that only those that received an Outstanding on their OWL for Potions, would be accepted into next years' NEWT class. Zidane didn't care, he wasn't planning on staying till next year, anyways.

"Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes up at Ordinary Wizarding Level: the Draught of Peace a potion to calm anxiety and sooth agitation. Be warned: if you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients, you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing." Snape drawled. From the next table over. Zidane saw with some amusement how Hermione's back straightened and her eyes took a look of determination. "The ingredients and method are on the blackboard. You will find anything you need in the store cupboard. You have an hour and a half. Start."

With a few quick waves the instruction appeared on the blackboard, while the door to the cupboard opened. Zidane just shrugged as everyone quickly rose from their seats as if they sat on fire and went to get the ingredients. The powdered moonstones were easy enough to find, but Zidane didn't recognize the rest. In the end he just grabbed what he saw Hermione grab and followed the descriptions on the board to figure out what ingredient was what. After that, the potion was easy enough to brew, maybe not the easiest he had ever made, but certainly not the worst. He would have to thank Dr. Tot for this afterwards.

"A light silver vapor should now be rising from your potions." Snape called once there were only ten minutes left of class.

Zidane looked at his potion and noticed that indeed there were short silvery puffs of vapor rising from his potion in short intervals. They weren't really 'gently rising' from his cauldron, but it was close enough to the description, he supposed. Next to him Neville's potion did not issue any smoke, but instead it looked more like a cement mix.

'Probably added to much moonstone.' Zidane mused.

Harry's potion was blowing copious amounts of gray smoke, while Ron's was giving off green sparks. In fact, it looked like the only ones that managed a good enough potion was him and Hermione, which didn't exactly come off as a surprise.

Snape looked over his potion and curled his lip, but otherwise walked away. There was obviously nothing wrong with his potion, as he did the same with Hermione. When he caught sight of the billowing clouds of black smoke, he swooped down to where Harry was like a vulture that just spotted a fresh carcass.

"Potter, what is this supposed to be?" Snape said, getting the attention of all Slytherins nearby. They seemed to know what was coming and were actually looking forward to it.

"The Draught of Peace." Harry replied.

"Tell me Potter, can you read?" Snape asked, making all the Slytherins including Malfoy start laughing.

"Yes I can." Harry replied coldly.

"Then read the third line of the instructions for me, Potter." Snape drawled.

Harry did and froze. When Snape asked if he did everything, he truthfully replied, saying he forgot the Hellevore syrup. While Zidane had to admit that Snape knew his potions, that didn't really sway his opinion of him being a prick. Snape just called his potion a worthless mess and made it disappear with a quick Evanesco. At this point the cyan-eyed teen really wondered what Harry had done to get on Snape's shit -list. A lot of students had done worse than Harry, and yet they would still get grades for their work. Then again, many of those students were Slytherins, Snape's little snakes. The man was clearly showing favoritism to his own house.

When told to fill in a labeled vial of their potion, Zidane had to help Neville get some of his cement mixture out of the cauldron and into the small glass vials. He saw with some amusement as one of Malfoy's goons tried doing the same, only for his robes to somehow burst into flames.

'Absolutely hilarious.' Zidane thought with a very Kuja-like chuckle, before stopping dead in his tracks after realizing it himself. 'Dammit!'

He walked up to Snape's desk and left a vial of his potion. He then grabbed his things and left the dungeons altogether. When he saw that the coast was clear, he reached into his sleeve where a second vial with his potion had been carefully hidden. He looked down at his prize and grinned.

'Draught of Peace, eh? Might prove useful.' Zidane put the vial right between his elixirs and ethers in his small charmed travel bag that was with him always. Seeing as it was time for lunch, he headed over to the Great Hall, whistling a merry tune on the way.

…

"Oh shut up, the pair of you! Can't you give it a rest? You are always having a go at each other, it's driving me mad!" Harry snapped at his friends, much to their shock. He grabbed his things, abandoned his shepherd's pie, and left the Great Hall.

They were just in the middle of lunch when they began talking about Snape's enmity towards Harry. Harry, unlike Hermione, honestly didn't expect his relationship with the potions-master to improve, even if said man was in the Order of the Phoenix. Harry didn't even trust the man enough to believe he was on their side of the war. They all knew Snape was a "former" Death Eater, but as the saying went, tigers just don't change their stripes. The only reason most people hadn't jinxed the man on sight was because Dumbledore trusts him.

That was brought on another heated discussion between Ron and Hermione. Ron, as always, thought that the git still supported Voldemort. Hermione, being more sensible, believed that Dumbledore had a reason to trust the man. Both however, sounded like a bickering married couple, which was really starting to get on his nerves. He just about had enough. He was so sick of it and his temper just couldn't stand it anymore. Hermione was the one that said they should stay together! And yet she was the one having constant rows with Ron.

With that in mind he tried getting as far away as he could. This year had been horrible so far. He constantly felt like he was constantly being pushed against a wall with now way of escape. Almost everyone was against him. Voldemort was back. The Order kept him in the dark. Dumbledore wouldn't even look at him. Hagrid was gone. The Ministry invaded Hogwarts. He kept getting these strange dreams, and felt his scar constantly pain him. And yet, he couldn't help but feel like things would get worse.

He walked up to the Northern Tower and waited underneath the trap door that led to the Divination classroom. He didn't give a damn if he offended Ron or Hermione, not at this point. He was much too angry for that. He just couldn't face his friends right now. He needed a distraction, something to help him get his mind off of things. With that in mind, he faced the window in hopes that maybe looking at the dark, rain clouds outside might help him relax.

"You know, you shouldn't bottle your anger up like that."

Harry was startled by the voice and snapped his head so quickly towards it that his neck gave a painful crick. Zidane was right there, arms crossed and casually leaning against the wall, which was odd since Harry didn't even hear him arrive. For a moment the teen felt a bit of anger for having been apparently followed, or maybe he was just angry at being addressed while he was clearly trying to find some peace and quiet.

"Bottling up your feelings will only make you explode harder later on, as you did during lunch."

"I know! What are you doing here?" Harry said in a tone that came out harsher than he intended, but the blonde just seemed to ignore the anger aimed towards him.

"I wanted to see if you were okay and maybe you wanted to talk about it. It'll make you feel better, anyhow." The cyan-eyed teen said with a shrug.

"It's nothing." Harry said flatly.

"Well, people don't just snap at their friends like that for nothing, as annoying as they their bickering gets." Zidane said with a laugh. "I mean, I can totally picture those two married. There is a bit of a spark, especially when you notice how Ron gets when guys start getting friendly with Hermione. I just don't think he realizes it yet. Has he always been like that?"

Harry blinked, once again, his conversation had seemingly taken another unexpected turn. It seemed to happen a lot when he talked to the blonde. Looking at the dark rain clouds far way, he took in a breath of fresh air and then decided he'd let this conversation take its course.

"Yeah, they have." Harry said, his anger seemingly melting, if just a little bit, with the blonde's light-hearted conversation.

Silence seemed to overtake the two as they watched the sky before Harry spoke once more.

"You should have seen him last year when he found out that Quidditch superstar, Victor Krum asked Hermione out to the Yule Ball."

Zidane just laughed in a good-natured fashion. "Feeling better then?"

Harry nodded a bit. "I shouldn't have snapped at them like that. Even if they were irritating sometimes, I guess I overreacted. It's just been hell lately, and I guess I'm just not good at dealing with this as everyone else seemed to think."

The blonde just shrugged again. "Most people don't have to deal with any of this. This is school! We should be allowed to make mistakes while we can, eh?"

"Right, and like being a student wasn't already hard enough." Harry said.

"Speaking of that. What is up between you and Snape? That guy was totally out for you today." Zidane asked making himself comfortable as he settled next to Harry.

"Git has always hated me." Harry replied and began to tell Zidane of his experiences with the moody potions teacher.

Soon they started talking about teachers in general, and then to Harry's most disliked subjects which included Divination and Trelawney's yearly predictions of his death. Before he even knew it, the bell signaling the end of lunch rung, and both teens were the firsts to enter the classroom through the silvery ladder that hung from a trapdoor.

…

The moment Zidane entered through the trapdoor, it was like he had just been punched in the face. For a moment, he felt like he was going to fall backwards from where he came through, but luckily he managed to regain his balance. The atmosphere in the room was simply unbearable. Curtains and fabrics were drawn, so the air was warm, heavy, and stale. His nose itched uncomfortably like he wanted to sneeze from the strong, almost nauseating, scent of perfume and incense that permeated the air.

For a moment, he actually felt like he would pass out since his brain didn't seem to be getting any oxygen. But luckily he was able to avoid suffocation by making his way over to the nearest window and slamming it open it to get some fresh air. And just in time too, since black spots had started overtaking his vision.

Next to him he could see that Harry seemed uncomfortable, but not as overwhelmed as him. It was at times like these that he really cursed his keener and superior senses. He took a seat on one of the small chairs next to a spindly table with a leather bound book on it, avoiding the colored pouffes that littered the classroom. Those things were a giant literal pain in the ass. Having to sit directly on top of your tail was actually quite painful. Harry took a seat next to him on the overstuffed pouffe that was partially covered by shadows.

Now that he had settled, he finally turned to look at his Divination teacher, Professor Trelawney. The woman was very thin, and covered in beads and shawls. She had frizzled hair and wore thick glasses that greatly magnified her eyes. If Zidane had to take a guess, he'd say that she was the result of a successful mating between a dragonfly and a starved Basilisk, well, if that could be called 'successful'. The woman was currently swopping around the room like an oversized moth, leaving those thick leather bound books on the tables and seemingly paying them no mind.

'Not that Harry seems bothered by that at all.' Zidane thought with amusement. 'Seriously why are witches and wizards so weird?'

Slowly more and more students leaked into the room and settled down in small groups. Zidane saw a pair of girls, Parvati and Lavender, whispering quietly amongst themselves and casting furtive looks at him. He thought about humoring them so he sent a wink and a dashing smile in their direction. The girls both blushed and burst into a fit of giggles which greatly amused him. Ron soon appeared and settled in a pouffe next to Harry.

"Me and Hermione have stopped arguing." Ron said.

"Good." Harry replied.

"But Hermione says she thinks it would be nice if you stopped taking out you temper on us."

Harry sighed and looked at Ron after giving Zidane a quick glance. "I-I'm sorry… bloody pressure is just getting to me and-"

"It's all right mate, I'm sorry for always picking fights with Hermione."

"Friends?" Harry asked.

"Friends." Ron replied.

…

Harry quieted once Professor Trelawney turned to the students and welcomed them back to another year of Divination. She claimed to have been looking over their fortunes in the summer, and just as predicted, they had come back safely.

Harry felt the need to roll his eyes. 'Of course, unless you count that I was attacked by Dementors.'

"Ah, and just as the tea leaves predicted, we have a new addition in our voyage to unfurl the mysteries of the future and beyond." Professor Trelawney said dramatically, like she always did. "Now tell me young voyager, what is your name?"

The 'young voyager' she was referring to currently looked like just being in the room was causing him physical pain. Even when sitting next to the open window he looked like he was going to pass out. Which Harry found odd, sure the amount of perfumes and incense the witch used weren't exactly subtle, and their intensity did make him fell woozy and sleepy, but never to that extent.

"Zidane Tribal." The blonde answered in a sleepy manner while leaning his head on an arm that was currently on the table he shared with him and Ron.

"Ah yes, my child, I had already predicted your arrival." Trelawney said flaring her arms dramatically. She then approached the blonde and took one hand, removing the white glove that covered it and holding it so she could read his palm. The blonde made the motion to protest, but in his current state he simply could do nothing as the woman began tracing lines of his palm. "It's all here in your palm. A wavy heart line; many relationships but none all that serious. A head line separated from the life line; adventure and love for life. Hmmm, not a very risk free life since I see lot's if serious injuries, bad family relationships, and many traumatic experiences. And what's this? You reject fate, since it has caused you much strife. Pity…"

….

Zidane angrily pulled his hand away from the woman's grasp just as the teacher rose and addressed her students once more. He knew most of these future predicting mumble jumbo was complete bull. He had met fortune tellers who revealed to him their 'secrets'. Most of the time, they were vague descriptions that would contradict each other and could be applied to anyone. It followed the principle that if you threw enough darts at a single target some were bound to hit the bull's-eye. But what this woman just said was as annoying as it was truthful.

'Except for the relationships thing, I am with Dagger now, and if marriage doesn't count as 'serious' then nothing else does. Besides, if she knew I was coming then why didn't her 'powers' also tell her my name?'

But anyways, there was no reason to say stuff like that in front of everyone. As soon as she finished, the classroom broke into a wave of whispers, all about him no doubt. The woman made him look like a teen with a hopelessly tragic past. Which now that he thought about it, was not all that inaccurate, but still, he hated getting looks of pity from others. He looked at Harry and noticed the sympathizing look on his face that said 'at least she hasn't predicted your death yet'. Sympathy was a lot better than outright pity. The woman then instructed them to look at the leather bound books with 'The Dream Oracle' on their covers that were sitting on each table.

….

Harry sighed as Trelawney finished her dramatic dissection of the blonde. Judging by the almost ferocious look on Zidane's face, he was pretty angry, which he guessed meant that Trelawney was indeed correct about a few things. Though he would be pissed off too if Trelawney just openly publicized such things about him, correct or not.

'But based on what she said, Zidane had it pretty rough, just like me.'

Harry snapped back to what Professor Trelawney was saying. They would be studying dream interpretation this year. He was not at all surprised when the seer started talking about OWLs, or when she expressed her belief that the sacred art of Divination was above passes or fails. The woman had always behaved in such an eccentric way, almost as if she knew everything and was beyond common mortals, even though her many predictions of his tragic and early death had yet to occur. Heck, she even stayed in her tower instead of eating at the Great Hall, because she said it would cloud her 'inner eye'. Something was definitely clouded, but Harry was sure it wasn't her inner eye.

They were divided into pairs, and were told to read the chapter on dream interpretation and then try to interpret each other's dreams. He was partnered to Ron as usual, while in the next table over, Dean was partnered to Neville. Since class used to be even-numbered until Zidane's arrival, the blonde boy ended up joining him and Ron's group. They could be hardly called a group, since they would also talk to Dean and Neville when Trelawney was busy elsewhere.

The only thing Harry was glad of was that Divination was not a double period. In fact, after reading the chapter, there was only about ten minutes or so until class ended. Harry supposed it was a good thing since Zidane was hardly holding up.

Dean told them about a dream where he was chased by bludgers. Neville began a long winded explanation of a dream he had involving a pair of giant scissors wearing his grandmother's best hat. Ron just passed saying he hardly remembered his dreams. Harry did the same thing, not because he couldn't remember his dreams, but because he already knew what most meant. Especially the ones where he relived what happened in the graveyard. The other dreams he kept having about the dark corridor and a hooded Marcus could easily be passed off as stress. In any case, there was no way he would openly share those. When the group turned to ask Zidane what he dreamt about, the blonde just chuckled.

"You guys DO NOT want to know, trust me." The blonde said, and Harry noticed how Neville's face suddenly looked as red as a ripe tomato.

The bell rang just in time and though Harry was happy to finally leave the retched class, he was dreading all the homework they were assigned. They had two essays due, one about the Giant Wars for History of Magic, while Snape wanted one about the properties and uses of moonstone. And to add to the pile, Trelawney just assigned them to keep a dream journal for the rest of the month. Fred and George were really not joking about OWL year. He could only hope that Umbridge wouldn't be as bad, but somehow he couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding when he thought about the pink-clad woman.

To be continued…

…

A/N: The thing about ghosts is that Zidane actually cannot perceive them as well as others would. In the cutscene mentioned in this chapter, the only one who couldn't see the ghost of Vivi's grandfather was Zidane. Now, this could be because Vivi's grandfather was specifically showing himself to Vivi and because the others were also Qus. In this fic I am attributing this fact to Zidane having a Terran soul and thus really can't perceive foreign souls, or maybe genomes just aren't quite capable of it. He can somewhat perceive Hogwarts ghosts because those ghosts are bond to the mortal plane, and specifically Hogwarts, unlike Vivi's grandfather who was free to move on.

Tetra Master is a card game in FFIX where you use cards portraying different characters, monsters, and items that you can find in the game. Zidane also kept his deck inside his bag, though luckily for him, his game can be passed off as a Muggle card game that as becoming steadily more popular in the U.S.

Basilisks actually do exist in FFIX but they resemble large lizards with huge, crazy-looking eyes.

Not a lot happened in this chapter to be honest, but that's mostly because I wanted to show the teens partaking in usual teen behavior, which is something that's completely new to Zidane. Of course, trying to get used to a student's normal life is going to be another separate battlefield for him.

My question this week is: what was/is your highschool experience like? If you´re not quite there yet, then what would you like it to be like? (For the record, my highschool experience was awful)

See you guys next week!