Chapter 10
James POV
James sat with Fred while he plotted how he could get back at Al for ratting him out. Fred and he had come up with several options, but all of them Albus had a counter spell for. They were waiting for Headmistress McGonagall. She had already reviewed the usually rules and they were going to make a special announcement. "James, where is Rose?" His sister, who sat across from, asked him. "Don't know, don't care." he said as he returned to his plans. The doors opened, and in walked Rose and Albus, who were in a deep conversation. As they neared the tables, they went their separate ways, each going to their own table.
"Attention everyone, attention." James turned to the podium where the Headmistress stood. McGonagall had her hair tied back in a bun and was wearing emerald robes. "Attention. Thank you, and welcome back to Hogwarts." Cheers erupted from all around the Great Hall, as McGonagall motioned for silence. "Now before we have our welcome back feast, I have an announcement to make. The rest of the year we will have special guests. Hogwarts is participating in a sort of exchange program. We have invited twenty students from advanced school in America to come to Hogwarts."
Murmurs broke out throughout the Great Hall. "Exchange students?" One kid thought aloud. "America?" Questioned another. The hall dissolved into almost complete chaos. "James, what does she mean by exchange students?" Lily asked. Just as James was about to respond, the Headmistress yelled "SILENCE!", her voice ringing through the hall. "If you would all quiet down, I could answer your questions. As I was saying, these transfer students are from a advanced school in America. They specialize in various forms of wand-less magic. They have come here to learn about the magic we do and to advance their own magic. They will not be sorted, since at their school, they are not sorted. They shall remain as one house all together in the East Wing. They will be not joining us for dinner tonight, but if you see them, I expect you to be hospitable towards them." James smiled at Fred and said, "Yeah, hospitable…" with a laugh. "Now let the feast begin!"
Food appeared before them. Ham, roast, turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, bread, and many other foods appeared before them, and all thoughts about exchange students was lost. "Rose, where were you?" Lily asked as she served herself some pizza. "Well, McGonagall asked me and Al to show the exchange students to the Great Hall, where Professor Longbottom took them to their rooms in the East Wing." Rose looked up to find all her friends staring at her.
"What?" She asked, her mouth full of food. "You showed around exchange students, and you forgot to mention it?" James asked her accusingly, "And why you and Al?" Rose looked down at her food, taking another bite. "Well James unlike you, people think me responsible and fantastic. Well who can blame them for knowing the truth. Anyways, me and Al are prefects and like I said I'm fantastic…" Rose looked up again, to find them all looking at her. "The letters got lost." They all continued to gap at her. "'The letters got lost?'" James mocked. "So what were they like?" Lily asked, her mouth full of bread. "They were, um, students that were exchangy?" Rose said with a shrug. "Exchangy? Really Rose, the exchange students were exchangy?" Fred asked. "What, I'm tired?" James glared at Rose. "Fine. They seemed mostly nice. A lot of them are older, like 6th and 7th years. There are a few younger ones, but I think the youngest is Molly and Roxanne's age. Also they met Teddy." James was confused by that last part. "They met Tedddy? But Teddy doesn't go here anymore." Rose rolled her eyes. "I told you, Teddy is visiting Hogwarts for a week."
"Rose, no you didn't."
"I am pretty sure I did, you just weren't listening."
"Rose, you didn't tell us Teddy was here." Llily said, her face bursting with excitement
"Really? Well, okay. Teddy is visiting Hogwarts foe a week and while we were showing the exchange students around, we ran into him." Rose continued to eat her meal. Lily bounced up and down with excitement. "Wait, you listen to Lily, but not to me?" James asked. Rose shrugged and continued on with her meal.
After the feast, they all headed back to the common room for the welcome back party that James and Fred always threw. While Fred went to go get the candy and speaker they smuggled in, James went to go get the butterbeer. He had hidden it behind the cleaning supplies in an old broom closet in the east wing. As he was walking, he made sure to avoid prefects and teachers. Finally he arrived at the broom closet. Moving the cleaning supplies away, he picked up the crates of butterbeer. Just as he was about to leave, he heard shuffling outside the door. So James gently set the crates down, and looked through the crack in the door. He was expecting to see either a prefect, teacher, or some poor lost first year. ?Instead he saw two girls he didn't recognize.
The first one had choppy brown hair and tan sin. But what was weird about her was her eyes. They seemed to keep changing color. One moment they're brown, the next green. The other one was taller, had long black hair, olive skin, and dark brown eyes. She wore a simple t-shirt and jeans. As the passed the broom closet, James caught part of their conversation. "-they can't hear. I know the teacher said that they put up a spell, but we don't want to draw more attention to ourselves." The dark haired girl questioned. "Professor Longbottom said that nobody could hear from outside the room." The kaleidoscope eyes girl responded. "Are you-" James tried to listen to more, but the two had gotten too far away. Why wouldn't they want to be heard? Why don't they want attention drawn to themselves? James thought about this as he picked up the crate of butterbeer and headed back to the Gryffindor common room.