From Hogwarts To Centurria Part 2
They shoved the six trunks into the luggage racks in an empty compartment near the back of the train, then Fred and George dashed off to find Lee Jordan and the rest of their friends and Ginny left muttering something about going to look for someone.
Harry looked around the compartment, Hermione was reading an extremely thick book called "The Hidden Secrets Of Widarding Structures", he noticed that she was almost halfway through it. Ron was at the other side of the compartment looking out the window. Harry tried to get up enough courage to ask Hermione about the golden bird. It was stupid he reasoned with himself, to be afraid to ask them, after all these were his friends.
"Hermione…," he began but at that moment the door of their compartment jerked open. A tall boy, stepped in. He had dark brown hair and dark blue eyes, Harry recognised him as a Hufflepuff from the year below them. He was fidgeting and looked extremely nervous. He turned to Ron.
"I'm, ah, looking, er, for your sister Ginny, do uh… you know where she is?" He said all this very quickly in a breathless voice.
"No, she left about half an hour ago, she said she was going to look for someone," Ron told him. He looked as though he trying hard not to laugh.
The boy nodded, muttered something that sounded like thanks, turned and almost ran out, pulling the door shut behind him.
Ron did start laughing then and was soon joined by Harry and Hermione.
"He looked so nervous didn't? He must been who Ginny was going to look for! Wait till I tell Fred and George this!"
As they began to talk about the summer, Hogwarts and their classes, the golden bird was driven from Harry's mind.
Soon it began to get dark and the lamps came on and then it wasn't long before they heard the familiar voice telling them to leave their luggage on the train as the Hogwarts Express pulled in to Hogsmeade station.
Harry, Ron and Hermione climbed out of the train and headed towards the carriages. On the way they pasted Hagrid who was herding the first years into boats for their journey across the lake, he grinned at them and waved, they waved back before climbing into a carriage. There was already a boy inside. He smiled at them as they entered.
"Hello I'm Calum Leroy."
He stood up as he said this, he was taller than both Harry and Hermione but not Ron, He had black hair and dark brown eyes. They told him their names and he shook their hands, he held Hermione's hand longer than longer than the others and smiled at her when he let go.
Harry sat beside Calum and Ron and Hermione sat opposite them. Harry and Ron both looked at Calum who was staring at Hermione, exchanged a look and turned to Hermione grinning. She turned a violent shade of red, kicked Ron and gave Harry a look, which plainly told him that she would have kicked him too, if she could reach.
The carriage started moving and they sat in silence for a few moments before Ron said, "What year are you going into Calum?"
"Fifth," he replied.
"That's the same as us," said Hermione, "why are you starting Hogwarts now?"
"Well," Calum began, "I was born here in England but when I was five my parents and I moved to New Zealand because of my father's job. He works for Logesfers."
"Oh, I've heard of them!" Hermione interrupted excitedly, "they're an organisation which searches for old magical items, of value."
Calum nodded. "Yes, that's right. My father was given an important job out there so he and my mother decided that we would move to Now Zealand. After he completed that job, we stayed there and Dad worked on different projects. But when I was eleven I received my Hogwarts letter. Mum and Dad were keen for me to Hogwarts, they went there themselves when they were kids. But my dad had just started work on a really important job and they didn't want me to go to school so faraway, so we agreed that when my father finished this project we would move back to England and in the meantime, I would attend a wizard school in New Zealand. My father completed his project last June, so we moved here during the summer."
"It took a while to finish the project!" said Ron.
"Yes, it took a long time to track the artefact down."
"Do you have any idea which house you want to be in?" asked Harry.
"Well, my father was in Ravenclaw and my mother was a Hufflepuff, so one of those probably but I don't really mind. Which houses are you in?"
"We're all in Gryffindor," Hermione told him.
Calum nodded, "Ah, the house for the brave."
The carriage slowed down and came to a stop.
"We're here," said Harry, his face breaking into a wide grin, "come on!"
They all clambered out and walked through the castle doors into the Entrance Hall. The room was filled with students heading toward the Great Hall, where the feast and the sorting would be held. Harry stared around looking for friends that he had not seen on the train.
"Do you know where the Deputy Headmistress's office is?" asked Calum, breaking Harry's train of thought, "I was told to go there to get sorted into one of the houses."
He headed off in the direction they pointed, calling over his shoulder, "See you at the feast!"
"He seems nice enough, I wonder what house he'll get into," Harry said as he, Hermione and Ron entered the Great Hall and made their way toward the Gryffindor table.
"Well he'd better not be in Gryffindor or we'll never be able to keep him away from Hermione!" said Ron as they sat down at the table.
"Ron, what are you talking about?" Hermione said, turning slightly red.
"Oh come on Hermione! It's obvious! Calum hardly stopped looking at you the whole time we were in the carriage!"
"Ron, shut up! Just shut up!"
Ron opened his mouth to say something else but Harry nudged him.
"Look there's Calum now."
Hermione and Ron turned to look in the direction Harry was pointing, Calum had entered the hall and was walking toward them.
"Hello!" he said, "I was sorted into Ravenclaw, so I'm not with you lot. Can you tell which is the Ravenclaw table?"
"That one over there," Hermione said pointing to it, "second on the right."
"Thanks," he said as he began walking toward it, "see you guys later. Bye Hermione!" he said smiling at her.
"Didn't I tell you?" Ron said beaming truimphfully.
"Ron…" Hermione began but at that moment the Sorting Hat began to sing which Harry thought was probably a good thing.
The Sorting Hat finished it's song and Professor McGonagall began calling the new students forward to be sorted. A few of them looked eager, most looked nervous and a couple looked as though they were about to be sick. After the Sorting finished, Dumbledore stood up to make his annual welcome speech.
"Welcome!" he said, "welcome to another year at Hogwarts! Now, before we began our feast I have an important announcement for you all, this year, for the first time in our history, Hogwarts will be partaking in an exchange programme. Sixteen students from each year, two boys and two girls from each house, shall spend the first term of this school year at Cennturria School For Amateur Witches and Wizards. Sixteen of their students from each year shall come and stay with us until just after Christmas. It is a wonderful opportunity to experience life at another school and any students interested should sign their name on the list posted in your common rooms. After dinner tomorrow I will announce the names of the students who will be going on the exchange."
Dumbledore stopped speaking for a moment and smile around the hall, then he began again, "This is our new Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher," he motioned to the man sitting to his left, "Professor Conswinkle."
The students clapped politely.
" And now, with all that out of the way, let us begin our excellent feast!" Dumbledore sat down and food began appearing on the plates around the room. Soon the room was filled with chatter and the chink of forks and plates.
"So, should we sign up?" Ron asked as he helped himself to mashed potatoes.
Hermione nodded earnestly, "Yes, definitely. It'd be so interesting to stay at another wizard school!
They both turned to look at Harry who nodded his agreement. "Yeah, we might as well, seeing as there's chance we'll all be chosen."
They began to talk with the other Gryffindors about who was going to sign up.
"I'm going to," said Lavender, "think of all the new boys there'll be at Cennturria!" She and Parvati Patil dissolved into giggles.
"I'm not!" said Neville, "I've enough trouble remembering my way around Hogwarts, never mind another school!" He shivered at the thought.
"We are," said the Weasley twins.
"The teachers at Cennturria, won't suspect us as much," grinned Fred.
Soon everyone had eaten their fill and the food disappeared, leaving sparkly clean plates behind. Dumbledore said a few further things and then dismissed them. As he, Ron and Hermione headed to their common room with the rest of the Gryffindors, Harry noticed Calum Leroy waving to him, as he passed with a group of Ravenclaws. Harry waved back.
"We'd better hurry if we want to sign the list, everybody'll be rushing to put their names on it," said Ron as they reached the portrait hole. As they entered the common room, they saw a group of over fifty people crowded round one wall of the common room, arguing and pushing each other. They walked over to Fred and George who were standing with Lee Jordan in a corner of the common room.
"Well, that's easy enough dealt with," Fred said pointing to the people crowded around the list. He raised his voice, "Ginny, come over here, Ginny!"
His younger sister, who was at the back of the crowd, turned and stared at him for a minute before walking over.
"What do you want Fred? I was trying to sign the list," she said.
"Well, we've got a much quicker way," George said, pulling a Hiburus Fire out of his pocket.
"Watch." He pulled the red string and a ball of red blazing fire began to glow in his hand. He let it go and it shot forward, stopped just before it reached the wall, turned and zoomed in a different direction.
The common room was chaos, people screaming, ducking under tables and behind chairs. Fred, George and Lee calmly walked across the room picked up a quill and signed their names. Ginny went after them and Harry and Ron followed her and Hermione after sighing heavily, as though she couldn't believe she was doing this, did too. The rest of the Gryffindors were becoming slightly supicous, a few of them were crawling cautiously out of their hiding places.
"Quick!" Fred said pressing the quill into Harry's hand. Harry signed, then passed the quill to Ron. Just as Ron was giving Hermione the quill, a second year boy, stretched out his hand towards the ball of fire. His fingers passed right through it. More and more people were resurfacing. Hermione quickly scrawled her name.
A sixth year jumped toward the Hiburus Fire and made a grab for it. It passed right through him.
"It's an illusion!" he yelled angrily.
People started to move toward them
"What if they scribble our names out?" Ginny asked nervously.
"They can't, the quills bewitched," Lee answered.
The last few people came out of their hiding places and the air was soon filled with angry shouts of, "Weasley!" and "Lee!"
"Ah, maybe we'd better go to bed now," George said. "Night," he called as he, his brother and Lee jogged toward the spiral staircase leading to the boy's dormitories.
"Maybe we should go as well," Ron muttered, the rest of the common room was still eyeing them angrily.
He and Harry walked quickly toward their spiral staircase, as Hermione and Ginny retreated to theirs.
"Well the Hiburus Fire works well doesn't it? It looks really realistic," said Ron as they climbed the staircase,
"Yeah," Harry agreed as he opened the door of their room.
The other boys hadn't come up yet so they had the room to themselves.
"Night Harry," said Ron sleepily as he climbed in to his four-poster bed, yawning.
"Goodnight."
Harry climbed into bed and lay down. Soon Ron fell asleep, half an hour later the door creaked open and Neville, Dean and Seamus tip-toed in. Soon they were asleep too and the room was silent except for steady breathing of the four sleeping boys. Harry tossed and turned but he couldn't get to sleep. He glanced over at his watch, 3.43. Harry signed, pulled himself out of bed and walked toward the sink in the corner of the room. He picked up the golden goblet with his name on it, turned on the tap and filled it.
Harry sipped the water and walked toward the window, he pulled back the curtains and stared out. Harry wished now that he'd asked Hermione about the bird. He didn't think he would be able to sleep again until he found out what it was and why it had shown him his mother. He scanned the sky hoping that he would see the bird again but there was nothing except the stars and the bright full moon.
"Harry?" A voice came out from the darkness. Harry turned around, Dean Thomas's head was hanging out of his four-poster bed.
"You all right?" Dean asked sleepily.
"Yeah, I was just getting a drink," said Harry, showing him the goblet.
"Okay, night." Dean's head disappeared through the hangings of his bed.
Harry walked back over to the sink, tipped the remaining water out of his goblet and headed back to bed.
It was past dawn when Harry finally fell asleep. He had a very strange dream. He was standing in the middle of the Great Hall, when dozens of the golden birds came soaring in. They flew out into the Entrance Hall and out the front doors. Harry followed them into the Forbidden Forest, the birds flew up high into the sky. Harry tried to grab one but he couldn't catch it. Then the dream scene changed to his mother singing the lullaby and then to the high, cold, cruel laugh, which Harry knew belonged to Lord Voldemort.
Harry woke up sweating and shaking. "It was just a dream," Harry told himself as he lay down and went back to sleep.
"Just a dream…."
A/N Well that's that part done. Should they trust Calum or not? I'm not even sure myself yet so all suggests are welcome. In the next part we'll find out who's going on the trip and hopefully get to Cennturria itself. Please review.
All Harry Potter characters and settings are the property of J.K Rowling. Not me.
Cennturria, Hiburus Fire, Logesfers, Professor Conswinkle, Calum Leroy and the boy who likes Ginny are mine.