Professor McGonagall came to center of the stage and Harry saw that the first years were lined up behind her. She had brought out a stool and the sorting hat and Harry saw that the first years looked nervous. He looked around at the teachers and noticed that Professor Dumbledore was nowhere to be seen. Harry wondered where he could be.
The Sorting Hat sang a sone but Harry was too intent on the Missing Dumbledore to notice. He was scanning the students, looking for Kelly and the other exchange students and didn't see them either. He wondered if they were meeting with Dumbledore and wondered if they'd even get sorted.
The first years were all sorted and Gryffindor had gained three new students. They sat down and Professor McGonagall went to sit with the teachers. From a door that was behind the teachers, Professor Dumbledore emerged along with the exchange students. They lined up behind him and didn't look nervous like the first years had done.
"As you all must be wondering," said Professor Dumbledore, "this year we have four new students. They are, Charles Pug, Edmond Thor, Cynthia Meara and Kelly Long. They're from Salem America and were hand chosen to come to our school. They've had as much schooling as our seventh years but because they are new, they too must go through the sorting. Because of this, I've decided to sort them myself. So, without further ado, I will begin. Charles?"
Charles came forward and sat down on the seat. Professor Dumbledore placed the Sorting Hat on his head and Charles closed his eyes. Suddenly, the Sorting Hat yelled, "Hufflepuff," and Charles smiled. He got up, shook Dumbledore's hand and went to the Hufflepuff table.
"Edmond?" Said Dumbledore.
Edmond came forward and sat down too. He had auburn hair and Harry saw that he looked pretty tough. He didn't want to start a fight with him, he decided.
Edmond too closed his eyes and the hat yelled out Slytherin. Edmond thanked Dumbledore and went and sat near Malfoy. Harry decided that he and Edmond wouldn't get along.
Then Dumbledore called Cynthia forward. She was a slender woman with dark hair and dark eyes. She sat on the stool and had the hat placed on her head. She closed her eyes and the sorting hat yelled out, "Ravenclaw!"
Cynthia smiled, shook hands with Dumbledore and made her way to their table where they were making room for her. Then it was Kelly's turn.
Harry watched intently, sure she would get Gryffindor, but not quite sure. He hoped she would for two reasons. One, he wanted to keep an eye on her as he didn't fully trust her and two, he was attracted to her.
Dumbledore watched as she sat down and then placed the Hat on her head. Kelly closed her brown eyes and it took awhile for the Sorting Hat to yell out a house. Harry wondered what was taking so long and noticed Kelly frowning. Dumbledore took off the hat and placed it on his own head and seemed to be listening to it. Everyone in the Great Hall watched and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Edmond, Charles and Cynthia watching with worry. What could be wrong with the Sorting Hat? Why didn't it call out a House.
Suddenly, Dumbledore spoke. "This is most irregular. It seems the Hat cannot seem to find the appropriate house for our new student. So it is left up to me and to her. Tell me Miss Long, what House would be suited to your talents?"
Kelly looked around and Harry tried to catch her eye. She turned her head and looked at him and Harry smiled at her. Kelly giggled and said, "Gryffindor, sir."
Dumbledore looked at the Gryffindor table and saw Harry smiling. Heads turned in his direction and he quickly wiped his smile of his face. He felt his face redden and knew that people thought he liked the new girl. He turned around and pretended to be interested in his silverware and didn't notice that Kelly had managed to find a seat near him.
"Hello," she said.
"Oh, hi," he said. "Congratulations and welcome to Gryffindor."
"Thank you," she said.
Harry looked towards the teachers and then watched as Dumbledore gave a wave of his hands and said, "Let the feast begin."
Enormous quantities of food suddenly appeared on the table and Kelly looked at it with what to Harry thought was disgust.
"I can't eat this," she said.
"What?" Asked Harry.
"Harry, do you think Professor Dumbledore would be insulted if I didn't eat?"
"He might. Why don't you want to eat?"
"It's British."
"What else did you expect?"
'I know but, pardon me for say so, it doesn't look appetizing."
Harry looked at her as if she were insane. "Why don't you try it before judging."
"Bleah!" She said.
Harry laughed. "Here, try some chicken."
He reached over and picked up a plate of chicken. Kelly looked at it dubiously but decided she might as well try, so she took some chicken and put it on her plate.
"You can eat corn, can't you?" Asked Harry.
"I guess so." She said.
"Then try some," and he handed over the corn and Kelly took a few ears and put them beside the chicken. "I think that's enough," she said.
"Nope, one more thing," said Harry. "Mushy pea."
"Bleah!" She said.
Harry smiled but he handed it over anyway. "Just to watch you make funny faces, try it anyway."
"I can't."
Harry took the spoon and put some on her plate. She looked at him, her eyes flashing and Harry just smiled at her.
Harry watched her as she ate and saw she seemed to like the chicken and corn but avoided the Mushy Peas.
"Try the peas," he said.
She did so and seemed surprised. "Wow!" She exclaimed.
"Told you," he said. He gave her a grin and happened to look past her. His grin fell off his face and he looked horrified. Ginny was giving both of them daggers. The phrase, "If looks could kill," ran through his mind and he decided Ginny was probably in a killing mood.
He decided to ignore Kelly and concentrated on eating and Ginny finally looked away. Kelly ate too and soon the dessets showed up. Kelly tried these too but didn't eat much. Harry felt if she continued to eat that way, she'd be skin and bones by the time the term ended.
The Prefect showed up, a sixth year that Harry didn't know too well and he gave them password to get past the Pink Lady. It was Lux.
Dumbledore stood up and announced that feast was over and everyone got up and headed for their Houses. Kelly left Harry and Harry watched her go and she went over to Cynthia. They were whispering together and Harry saw Charles and Edmond go over to them and start talking too. They stayed together awhile and finally broke up. Kelly went with the other Gryffindors to the stairs and Harry felt he should get a move on. He looked for Ron and Hermione and started for the stairs with them.
They made it all the way up to the Tower and Hermione gave the Pink Lady the password. "Lux," she said and the Pink Lady opened up for them.
Harry was tired for it had been a long day and as he remembered he had not had much sleep lately. He was in a bit of quandary about whether he wanted Kelly to visit him or not. He sort of did but felt guilty. He decided to push his guilt feelings aside and just head upstairs. After all, it's wasn't that she visited every night.
He got ready for bed and bid the other boys good night. He waited awhile, but, no Kelly. Finally drifting off, he sleepily opened his eyes. Nope, still no Kelly. Damn! Maybe tomorrow night but he really wanted to have a word with her. Finally giving up, Harry fell asleep and slept the night throughwithout a visit from his devil. He dreamed of her though. Sometimes he was chasing her and sometimes she was chasing him. Both were scary.
In the morning, he got up and followed Ron downstairs for breakfast. Hermione was already there and so was Ginny. She smiled at him and Harry reddened. "Oh, hello Ginny," he said.
"How are you Harry?" She asked.
"Oh, fine. Slept well, I think, um, and you?"
"Fine. Thank you for asking."
"Oh, well, you're welcome." And Harry feeling decidedly uncomfortable with this conversation hurried down the table to get away from Ginny and concentrate on breakfast.
The Prefect and Professor McGonagall went down the table and handed out schedules. Harry looked at his and groaned. Double Potions with the Slytherins. He's have to endure Malfoy's jibes for two whole hours. He wasn't taking Divination anymore, that was a waste of time. He had transfiguration and herbology and Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid. He was a little scared as last year, they had been introduced to Fawkes and learned that they bite and have venom. It was quite scary and Dumbledore had shown up to show them how to get close to Fawkes without getting bit.
Ron came over and compared schedules. "It looks like we have Herbology with Ravenclaw and Potions with the Slytherins."
"Why do we always get the Slytherins?"
"Because it's tradition. They hate us, we hate them and Potions is the only class where we can duke it out."
"I think I'll stick something in Malfoy's potion."
"What?"
"I don't know, help me think of something."
Harry ate his cornflakes and then looked up as something went fluttering past. It was Hedwig, and she had a letter.
"Who'd be writing to you now?" Asked Ron.
"I dunno." Harry opened it and saw it was from the Dursley's.
Dear Harry,
We've noticed you're all packed and not a thing left in your room. Here's your allowance, a total of 50 pence. That's what we owe you for the chores your've done. Don't come back and don't allow those 'people' to come with you. We won't be seeing you anymore.
Sincerely,
Vernon Dursley
Harry read it once through, then read it again. It filled him with anger and hatred. He tore up the letter and Ron gave him a look sympathy. "Sorry," he said.
'It's alright. It's what I should have expected from them. I'm glad I'm rid of them."
Harry was feeling downhearted, feeling like he had nowhere to go and no place to turn to. Suddenly, he had an idea. What if when he graduated he stayed on and taught. Hogwarts was his home, more than any other place had been. He'd love to spend all his time here. He'd talk to Dumbledore and maybe some of the other Professors and find out what he thought. He didn't really know what his niche might be and it was getting on in the term. He had to find out soon.
As Harry was eating, he noticed the Slytherins come into the Great Hall. Malfoy was in conversation with Edward. He noticed that Edward was tall and had auburn hair and looked very sure of himself. He didn't know how he had gotten placed in Slytherin. He might be someone he wanted to watch out for. He looked nice enough, but looks could be misleading.
Some Ravenclaw girls came in, Cynthia with them and she went over to Edward and talked to him. Harry got the feeling they knew each other very well and wondered if they were going out. Malfoy looked at Cynthia with disdain and Cynthia did something that made Malfoy's eyes go wide. She carefully looked at him and made a motion with her hands. Malfoy must have felt something hit him, for he stepped back and looked frightened.
What had she done? What kind of magic was it? Were these students going to teach them? He definitely wanted to know.
Kelly came in with Lavendar and Parvati. She had her books and already had her schedule. She sat near him and they were talking about Divination. Harry snickered. He knew that most of that stuff was rubbish and made up and wasn't real magic at all.
"How do you know so much about Divination?" Asked Lavendar. "We never learned this from Professor Trelawney."
"I've been studying it ever since I was a little kid. What you have to remember is that it's not set in stone. It's all about Probability. It's kind of like math. If the numbers keep adding up, you've built yourself a statistical universe."
"What does that mean?"
"Random chance. Someone is playing dice with you."
"Where did you learn that?"
"Oh here and there. You could say I've been to lots of places ever since I was really little and learned many things from all kinds of different people."
"Wow and you're so young."
Kelly coughed. "Yeah. I guess so."
Harry finished his cornflakes and petted Hedwig and sent her off. He left the table with Ron and they climbed the stairs. They had Charms under Professor Flitwick first and they didn't want to be late.
Throughout the day he kept thinking of what he had seen the exchange students do. He knew it was a form of magic he was unfamiliar with and wanted to learn more about it. He'd have to ask one of the students and with his current problem with Kelly, he'd have to ask someone other than her.
In Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall cornered him and told him that now that was Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, it was up to him to start tryouts and get his team together. The first match was against Ravenclaw in October. Harry started to worry. He wanted Ron on his team and he wanted to try out the exchange students. He didn't know if they knew much about Quidditch but he was going to try anyway. He decided he'd set tryouts for this weekend and he'd get the former team members to help him. Since Wood was gone, he needed a new Keeper and he was really hoping it would be Ron. He'd make a great team mate. But, since he was the Captain, he'd have to keep it fair and not show favouritism.
Harry went through his day, glad to be back at Hogwarts and glad to see some of his friends. He was eyeing people for Quidditch and picked out people who had played before. He told them of his plans for tryouts come the weekend and they got excited. He was glad, because he knew he needed help in picking out people.
At lunch, he ate with Ron and they pored over their new books. After lunch, they had care of Magical Creatures and Harry wasn't too sure of what they would see. He saw the exchange students and Kelly was picking at her food. He laughed and knew that if this kept up, she'd be losing weight.
After lunch, she followed him to Hagrid's hut and the other Gryffindors followed too. She came up to him and said, "Harry, I heard about the tryouts for the Quidditch team and I wanted you to consider me."
Harry appeared to think about it. "I don't know if exchange students should be considered."
"Why not. I'm sure Professor McGonagall wouldn't mind."
"I'll have to ask," he said.
"Fine, but keep me in mind."
They made it to Hagrid's hut and Hagrid appeared, ebullient as ever.
"Got a surprise for ye," he said. "Come on around to the pumpkin patch. Thought you'd never study these fella's would ye now."
Harry and the other students went around to the pumpkin patch and Harry was surprised to see owls down around the pumpkins and generally fluttering about.
"What's this?" Shouted Malfoy. "Owls? Why? They're not magical."
"Now, I wouldn' be thinkin' that Draco. Owls are very magical and mos' people don' know how they know to deliver messages."
