~Chapter 7: Owls and introductions
"Everybody duck!!!" Everyone fell to the ground as dozens of owls came flying into the hospital wing. Three dark colored trunks were carried in by 6 owls each and came hurtling in through a window and slammed into a wall when the owls let go of it before landing. Packages landed in every place. Owl feathers landed everywhere. Soon they all landed on a post or railing somewhere in the room. Slowly everyone crept out.
"Is everyone all right?" Dumbledore asked. One by one they nodded their heads. Harry had feathers in his hair and Ron was sporting a white spot on his back. Hermione, irritably disgusted, used a spell to get it off of him. A few feathers still loomed in the air as the three Americans crawled out from under the table.
"I hope nothing landed in the soup," the girl said. "I don't want to make another batch." They all surveyed the room. The girl grimaced at the feathers and brown packages everywhere. Both of the boys quickly pulled out their wands, and without saying a word, magically cleaned the room. The feathers were all piled up in a bag. The packages and trunks stacked neatly in a corner neared the door and there were no white spots. The girl went off towards the kitchen and brought down a jar of biscuits from a shelf. The owls all flew into a crooked line as the girl handed each one a biscuit. Each owl hooted thanks and flew out of the window.
"We are really sorry." The red-haired boy said. "At home the rooms automatically clean themselves if something like this every happened."
"You are forgiven if you would please give us your names." Dumbledore said as he cleaned off his glasses.
"Actually we were suppose to go directly to the headmaster when we wake up." The bleached-hair boy said humbly. "Does anyone know where we might find him?" Dumbledore smiled gloriously.
"You're looking at him." The three looked laughingly at one another. Grins appeared on their faces as the step up to him and shook hands.
"I'm Paul," the red-haired boy introduced. "But everyone calls me Red because of my hair."
"Good morning, Red." Dumbledore replied humorously.
"How come we don't call you Red, Ron?" Harry whispered mischievously into Ron's ear. Ron kept quiet and didn't answer him as he watched the bleached haired boy stepped up.
"David." The bleached hair boy started to say. "Just call me Dar."
"Dar is an interesting nickname. Where did it come from?"
"From my last name; Darcor."
"Really?"
"Yeah, man. David is such a…a…what's the word I'm looking for?"
"Expected?" Hermione said from behind Dumbledore. Dar looked around to see a brown haired girl smiling at him.
"Yeah." He agreed with her as he caught her eye. Looking back at Dumbledore, he replied, "David is such an expected name, don't you think?" Dumbledore chuckled at the thought.
"And I'm Lorelai, but everyone calls me Lor or Lori. It doesn't matter to me." The girl said with equal pleasure as the boys.
"What does your parents call you?"
"Mostly Lori, but Lorelai when I'm in trouble." She grinned.
"Well, well." Dumbledore began. "Welcome to Hogwarts, Red, Dar and Lori. You are presently in its Hospital Wing."
"Yeah we kinda noticed the beds and all." Red butted in.
"I certainly hoped that you are all very well rested. After you finish your breakfast I want you to meet Professor McGonagall, here," he gestured towards McGonagall, "She will get your classes all taken of. When that's all done I want to talk to you in my office. Professor McGonagall will show you the way. After all that you will have the rest of the day to yourselves to go exploring the castle grounds and come in for lunch and dinner in the Great Hall at the chimed time." He instructed the three. "What is it really?" he said as he pointed at the steaming pot.
"It's soup like I said," Lor replied. "Specialized soup made from the weirdest ingredients. We usually eat it when we land somewhere new. It helps us regain energy."
"What was that liquid you added in the end?" Snape jumped in.
"Who are you?" Lor asked impulsively.
"I'm the Potions Master here," he responded quickly and held out his hand. "Professor Snape." Hesitantly Lor took his hand and dropped it quickly.
"That liquid comes from our phials. We carry it around our necks and drink it if we every fell ill under strange diseases. It was specially made to fit our DNA and stuff. My grandfather's best friend made it when we were young. They found out that nothing could be injected into us without our permission or us knowing. It scared the living daylights out of our moms when they found out that we couldn't get our baby shots." Lor stopped talking and smile sweetly at everyone.
"So what is it properties? What is it made out of?" Snape asked momentarily.
"We don't know its properties." Dar answered. "Mr. Daiquiri only knows that and maybe our guardian, James."
"How would you refill it if you ran out?" Snape snapped hurriedly.
"Hey, keep cool man. There's no rush when you are explaining something to someone." Dar said. Snape instantly looked surly. No one has ever told him to keep cool. "It refills itself. There's a spell that keeps it filled always."
"How did you do magical things without saying a word?" Hermione asked suddenly. The three looked behind Dumbledore to see who was talking. Lor and Red stared suspiciously at her, but Dar gave her a small smile of amusement. Ron's face grew bright red and hot.
"We, at Cranely's," Lor said slowly after a moment, "are not particularly fond of wands. They tend to break and get lost or whatever. But my grandfather suggested that we try as much as we could to be like you peoples. So we just skip the saying the spell or magical word part and just get the thing done."
"Yeah, I don't understand what's up with you peoples in England and wands." Red said interjecting.
"So we just get our wands and stick them in our fingers." Dar finished. "Not the middle finger but the pointer finger. You're going to see that a lot from us since that's where we put our wands when we don't need them."
"So it's almost like finger magic?" Hermione stepped forward and now stood just behind Professor McGonagall.
"You can call it that if you wish." Dar replied.
"Then what about does wands that looked horribly demented the other night when you arrived?" Hermione asked.
"Huh?" The boys said together.
"She means the battle wands." Lor told them.
"Oh," they said together. Lor rolled her eyes and explained, "Sometimes when we journey to new places by apparition we have to go through many spells and enchantments. So just to make sure that our wands don't give out, we transform them into what we call battle wands. They are much stronger than our regular wands. And they can come in handy when we want to hit someone upside the head with it."
"Can you change our wands into battle wands?" Ron asked dumbly. Lor stared at him with a perplex face.
"Why would you want that?"
"Never mind," he said quickly his face glowing very red.
"Whatever," she said quietly. She glanced at her watch. "Hey guys, check it out. We woke up at 6."
"What!?!?!" They exclaimed together. Dar grabbed her wrist and looked at her watch. "It says 10:30," he retorted.
"It's an 8 hours difference here in England, you dumbo." She said as pull her hand sharply away. "Are we excused to eat?"
"Yes, you are. We will leave you now." Dumbledore headed out and motion to Ron, Harry and Hermione to follow. Out in the corridor Dumbledore turned towards them.
"I would really appreciate it if you would help Lor, Dar and Red around Hogwarts whenever you could. I'm counting on you to make a good impression." They all nodded their heads in agreement. "You may return to your common room or have breakfast in the Great Hall. It's quite early still."