A/N: We're back with the next chapter. We hope you enjoy! Why write another disclaimer when we already said it doesn't belong to us? Just read on!!
Chapter 2-New Faces At Hogwarts
Harry woke up to a loud rapping noise on his window. He sat up slowly, reaching for his glasses. Once his glasses were on he stood up and opened the window. A tall man with dark brown hair was floating in the air staring at Harry intently.
"Mr. Potter, I presume?" The man asked.
Harry nodded, unable to find words to speak.
"Dumbledore sent me to get you, it's all in this letter," The man said, handing Harry a piece of parchment with the Hogwart's seal stamped on it.
Harry,
I have sent someone along to get you. You can trust this man, I would trust him with my life. Do as he says and he will get you safely to Sirius' home.
Professor A. Dumbledore
"You might want to pack your things and get dressed," The man said, stepping inside Harry's room.
"Yes, but may I know your name?" Harry asked.
"Oh, yes, I completely forgot. How rude of me. I'm Michael Wallace. Call me Mike," Mike replied. "Now you best hurry, they are expecting you by midnight."
Harry looked at the clock in his room. It read 10:30. Harry quickly went for his trunk, packing his school supplies and some fresh changes of clothing. He grabbed Hedwig's cage, which was empty. Hedwig had flown out into the night sky hours ago.
~*~
The Knight Bus lurched to a stop at the dark haired boys destination. Harry walked dizzily to the front of the bus and stepped off, trying to ignore the pangs of nausea in his stomach. The bus driver grinned toothily at Harry and shoved his trunk off after him. Mike stuck his head out of the Knight bus.
"This is where I leave you," Mike said.
"Thanks for your help," Harry replied, feeling a fresh wave of nausea come over him.
"You may be seeing more of me then you think," Mike replied and with that the bus took off, a large tree jumping out of its way.
Harry looked around the bus depot. He gazed around the station, marveling at how much it looked like Platform 9 ¾. Sighing, Harry seized the end of his trunk and tugged it towards a bench. He wasn't sure where he was, so he decided to wait on the bench for a familiar face.
Just as Harry was about to drift off to sleep he heard a bark from behind him. Harry turned around and found Remus Lupin wandering over towards him with Sirius on his heels. Harry smiled at his old Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher, and bent down to pet his Godfather.
"You must be tired Harry, it's not that far to the house," Remus said.
Harry nodded, as Remus took his trunk and led the way to his small brick house.
~*~
Much to Harry's surprise, Ron and Hermione were waiting for him at Lupin's house. Harry smiled hello, but went up to his room and fell right to sleep.
Harry spent the rest of his summer vacation with Ron, Hermione, Lupin, and Sirius at Lupin's house, in a small town near London. The house was small but comfortably furnished, seeming to be warm during the week of straight rain that followed Harry's arrival. Harry was extremely quiet around his friends. He was still feeling guilty about Cedric.
"Harry, it wasn't your fault about Diggory," Sirius said to him one morning as Harry picked at his eggs. They looked more yellow then what was safe, but Ron and Hermione seemed to be enjoying them, so he ate a forkful. They tasted of cheese, which explained the bright color. Harry smiled slightly at the warm taste it left in his mouth, and then darted for his cup of orange juice as the spicy flavor of a pepper burst in his mouth. Remus smiled slightly.
"You got a jalapeno, didn't you?"
"Yes," Harry sputtered, swallowing his juice in a gulp and then reaching for the pitcher.
At the end of August, about a week before the start of school, Harry, Ron, and Hermione (accompanied by Lupin and Sirius) went to Diagon Alley to pick up their school supplies. Harry saw a few people that he recognized from the previous years, including Ginny and Charlie Weasley.
"Mum was beside herself," Charlie said.
"She wanted you at the house, but Dumbledore wrote and said that it wouldn't be wise. I wonder why?" Ginny said, slightly confused. Harry knew perfectly well why, but didn't see the need to worry them any further.
On September 1st, all three went to the train station and boarded the train without any problems. The station, though still packed, seemed quieter then usual, and the normal hustle and bustle of the Muggles wasn't even as pronounced. When the whistle of the Hogwarts Express finally blew, Harry leaned out of his window and waved to Lupin and Sirius. When the train rounded a bend and they were no longer in sight, Harry ducked back inside.
"I need to go to the front of the train," Hermione said.
"Why's that?" Ron asked. Hermione pointed to her Prefect badge, which she had pinned to her robes when they crossed through the barrier between the Muggle station and platform 9 ¾.
"Oh, yeah," Harry said, opening his trunk and rummaging around for the pin. He finally found it and put it on his robes. Ron made a face.
"I'll see you guys later," he said as they left through the compartment door.
"How come you never told us that you were made Prefect too?" Hermione asked as they walked down the corridor.
"It never came up," Harry answered.
As it turned out, there was nothing much to do in the front compartment where the prefects sat. The head boy was a Slytherin (much to Harry's dismay), but the head girl was a kind Hufflepuff who disliked her co-head of school with a passion. Harry grinned at one point when she told him off for scaring one of the first years.
"Honestly," she said with the shake of her head. "You'd think that a seventh year would know better, but no, this seventh year happens to be a Slytherin!" Once the boring meeting was over, Harry and Hermione practically ran back to their compartment at the end of the train, and no sooner had they sat down when a soft knock on the door made all three of them jump.
"Who knocks on doors nowadays?" Ron wondered aloud as Hermione reached for the handle of the door.
"Dunno," Harry said. A short, slim girl of about fifteen or sixteen years old stood in the door, her dark red curly hair swirling around her shoulders. She brushed her bangs out of her green eyes and stared at them with curiosity. Harry looked at her strangely, remembering a picture he saw once of his Mum.
"Um…hey. Do ya mind if I sit in here? I'm new to Hogwarts, and I don't know anybody yet except for the jerk back there with the blond hair. Do ya know him? He appears to have been jinxed lately." The group grinned at her after trying to understand what she had said. She had the weirdest accent, one that Harry was sure he had heard once before on a Muggle movie that Dudley had been watching. It was about The Mob in America.
"Sure. Where are you from?"
"I'm a foster house brat," she said, rolling her eyes at the title. "I've been orphanage hopping since I've been able to talk. My name's Audry, by the way."
"'Fosta house brat'?" asked Hermione as the two boys looked at her for an explanation.
"Yeah. I'm an orphan. I said that I've been in orphanages," Audry said, slightly annoyed. Hermione sniffed derisively.
"You're not from England or Scotland, are you?"
"Well, I was born in England, but when my parents died I was sent by a friend of the family to Hawaii. I've been traveling the states since I could talk. I moved from New York to here from the worst wizarding orphanage in the world, I swear!" She laughed lightly. Hermione gave her a cold look as Ron grinned.
"Have a seat." Audry smiled at him and then looked at Harry. Her eyes widened slightly as they rested on his scar.
"You're Harry Potter, aren't ya!" She said, sitting down between Ron and Hermione. Harry sighed and nodded. "I've read about ya in books, of course, but I never imagined that I would actually get to meet ya! My friends always said that I looked a bit like ya." She pointed to her eyes. "My eyes are green and my hair's really messy and all, but as you can see it's red." She rolled her eyes again.
"'Books? Oh! Books…yeah, Hermione said something about being in several Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts books."
"'Several'? More like three bookshelves full!"
"Really?" Ron said, slightly interested. "And how would you know?"
"Mmm…aside from reading the entire school library at least once, I've been to nearly every wizarding library across New York State," she exaggerated, much to Hermione's disapproval. She huffed, pulled out her Transfiguration book, and began to read on the chapter about transfiguring body parts. Harry and Ron grinned at each other.
"So…do you like Quidditch?" Ron asked with a grin
Audry cocked her head. "Well I've never played it before. How do you play?"
Ron nearly exploded. "You've never played! Who would have never played Quidditch?"
"Mudbloods and Muggles, of course!" A drawling voice said from the door. Audry turned, sniffing the air.
"Do you boys smell something? I just all of a sudden…oh, that's why! It's a pureblood with a rotten attitude towards people he doesn't even know!" She stood up and energetically shook his hand. "Nice to meet ya again…" she fished around for his name, and when he failed in shock to give it to her, she supplied one. "Dumb! Dumb Jerk! That's what it was. So sorry, Dumb, I completely forgot your name!" Malfoy had never looked more furious.
Dumb Jerk? Harry mouthed to Ron behind Audry's back. He shrugged.
"You'll pay for that, Mudblood," he growled menacingly. Harry noticed his ears were a bright pink, when he looked at Ron. Crabbe and Goyle stood there, too stupid to do anything but stare at the strange girl from New York. "My father will most definitely hear about this."
"And what would your father say if you told him what you'd been calling me? Huh?"
"He wouldn't care," Malfoy shrugged. Audry raised an eyebrow.
"Some parent. You know, I've just been reading up on some jinxes, and I found plenty of them that aren't removable. Now just let me look for my wand…" Audry said rummaging through her bag. When she had finally found her wand, Malfoy was gone.
"I have never seen Malfoy scared like that in my life!" Ron said, slapping his knee. "Well, except after the ABF incident."
"ABF?" Audry asked, putting her wand back in her purse and sitting down again.
"Amazing Bouncing Ferret!" Harry and Ron yelled in unison. Another door slammed shut and the tinkling of breaking glass could be heard again. Then Malfoy began to scream at Crabbe and Goyle for not standing up for him. Audry rolled her eyes and pulled out her wand to repair the window. The shards sprang up into the windowpane, repairing them. Ron muttered an indistinguishable word under his breath.
"Pardon?" Hermione asked, looking up from her Transfiguration book she had picked up once more.
"Huh, I didn't say anything," Ron said, turning red.
"Yes you did, you said Malfoy was your cousin! Some family member!" Audry exclaimed.
"What?" Harry and Hermione yelled in unison.
Ron's face was redder then his hair and he was staring at the ground.
"How is this possible?" Hermione asked.
"My Mum and his Dad are brother and sister. They never liked each other, and look how his family turned out," Ron said.
"Why didn't you ever tell us?" Hermione asked.
"It never came up," Ron said with a shrug.
"Ron, that's just horrible," Harry said. "I thought it was bad enough to have Dudley as my cousin."
"Tell me about it," Ron replied, turning to stare out the window.
~*~
"We will be arriving at Hogwarts in five minutes time," proclaimed a nasal voice on the train's intercom. "Please be dressed in your robes by that time." Audry stood up and grabbed a pair of her robes out of a small travel suitcase by her feet. Audry and Hermione left to go find a compartment full of girls so they could change into their Hogwarts uniforms and left Ron with Harry.
"What do you think of her?" Harry said to Ron as he rummaged around in his trunk for his tie.
"She's amazing," he said, starting to blush. Harry looked up.
"She looks familiar to me for some reason," Harry remarked.
"You mean you think you've seen her before?"
"Well…yes and no," he said, scratching his head. He moved a book and discovered his lost tie wedged between his Herbology Dictionary of Plants and his new DADA book.
Ron groaned. "Don't tell me that you're going all Trelawny on me!"
"No, it's not that; I just…she…I don't know!" He threw his hands up in the air.
"'I just…she…' what?" Audry said, coming back in. Harry blushed and continued to rummage in his trunk. Hermione was scowling at the way Audry had rolled up her skirt. It was hanging barley a quarter of the way down her thighs.
"Er…" Ron sputtered.
When the train finally clanked to a stop, Audry had never looked more excited.
"I haven't been sorted yet," she said eagerly. "What's it like?"
"Well, you have to duel with a dra—" Ron started with a sly grin.
"Don't be stupid," Hermione said, snapping her book shut and putting it back in her trunk. She then proceeded to open the door and jumped out onto the platform. "You have to put on the Sorting Hat and then it will sort you into the house it feels you would fit in most." She stalked off towards a mob of students preparing to board the horseless carriages that were currently rattling towards Hogsmeade Station.
"Don't let it push you around," Harry added, trying to pull his cloak out from under a stack of papers and quills. He managed it, but not without severely scratching his hand twice on the point of the quill. "What house do you want to be in?"
"Well, I've heard all sorts of good things about Gryffindor," she began, twirling one of her curls around a finger and following them down the platform for a ways. They stopped as a mass of students got in their way. "Ravenclaw sounds nice, but Hufflepuff just sounds like it's for a bunch of do-gooders. Slytherin doesn't sound very nice at all. Yes, Gryffindor, I think."
"Good choice!" Ron said, slapping her jovially on the back. She choked and swallowed her gum. "We're in Gryffindor. Well, see you at the feast!" He said as she was pushed by a group of first years towards the boats.
"Wait!" She cried out, trying to move back towards them. "How do I get there?"
"Follow the first years!" Harry yelled back. Audry was swept out of sight.
"Good riddance," Hermione said grumpily as they caught up with her.
"You don't like her?" Ron asked, confused.
"I don't trust her, and she's a show off," she corrected. Harry looked at Ron as they reached the horseless carriages and then clambered into one after Hermione as the first few carriages rolled away into the darkness.
Harry peered out the window, gazing at the lake and the twinkling lights of the lamps on each boat. He could barely make out Audry's figure on a boat of three very small first years. He couldn't see the expression on her face, but he bet it was one of embarrassment. He would be, if he had to be the only fifteen-year-old being sorted among a group of eleven-year-olds.
They reached the castle and Harry hopped out, happy to be back at the only place he had ever called home. Peeves was nowhere to be seen, which made everyone happy, since the previous year he had bombarded them with water balloons after they had already been soaked by torrential rains.
The Great Hall was lit only by the slightly overcast sky and thousands upon thousands of flickering candles, so the shadows made the room slightly eerie. Harry shivered under his cloak. It sure was cold for September. Harry quickly found the Gryffindor table, minus last year's seventh years, and rushed over to it to seat himself, as if the sorting would go faster just because he moved faster. Ron and Hermione followed, obviously just as hungry as he.
"Snape's still here," Ron said, sounding disappointed. The greasy haired professor was talking to a short man with wiry white hair, whom Harry realized was Professor Flitwick."
"Flitwick's lost some hair," he noted, nodding in his direction.
"Oh, look, there's the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor!" Hermione said, pointing. Harry looked too. For one wild moment, he thought that it was Sirius at the top table, laughing at whatever joke Dumbledore had just told. After closer inspection, he discovered he was wrong. The man was much too dark to be Sirius, and he had more muscles then his godfather had.
"He looks familiar," Ron said, squinting.
"I thought he looked like Snuffles," Harry told him. Ron nodded.
"I can see the resemblance, but you're right; it's not him. Here come the first years and Audry," he added as a silence fell over the room.
Ron was partially wrong. It wasn't only Audry and the first years. A bunch of new students, ranging from twelve to seventeen, also filed in. Harry was surprised to see that some of them were wearing the same kind of robes that the Beauxbatons students had been wearing the year before.
Audry looked extremely annoyed as she entered the room. Professor McGonagall brought out the stool and placed the hat on it. Harry stared at it and waited for it to sing. After about twenty seconds and still nothing had happened, Harry turned to Ron and Hermione. The looked confused.
"What do you think is wrong with it?" he asked.
"Maybe it ran out of songs," Ron suggested with a shrug. A strange buzzing filled the room as the students began their conversations again. Harry looked up at Audry. She no longer looked annoyed; she was severely nervous now, shifting from foot to foot as she raked the crowded hall with her eyes. When she spotted Harry, he gave her a comforting smile. She smiled weakly. Professor McGonagall ran up to the Sorting Hat, a frown on her lips, and picked it up. After placing it on her head and listening for a few moments, nodding all the while, she placed it back down on the stool and ran over to the top table, right to Dumbledore's seat. She whispered in his ear for a few moments before he nodded and stood up.
"I'm sorry to say that we won't be using the Sorting Hat this year to sort the new students, due to the fact that the Hat refuses to sort anyone over a first year," he said with a quick glance to Audry and the other older students. Audry looked guiltily at the crowd. Harry's mouth fell open.
"It won't sort them?" he gasped. Ron looked surprised. Uproar came from some of the students.
"I wanted to hear its song!" A second year said shrilly. Dumbledore smiled.
"This does not mean that we won't be able to sort them, of course," he said, holding up a hand for silence. It was quickly gained, and he continued. "I will call the students up to the top table. They will be requested to place their wands tip to tip with mine. The burst of light that comes from the wand will determine what house they are to go in." The first years looked terrified, and Audry's look of annoyance was back. Harry thought he heard a faint whispering in his head, which startled him, but when he tried to listen to it, it stopped, so he thought nothing of it.
Professor McGonagall picked up the sorting hat and tucked it under her arm. As she passed the top table, she handed a list of the new students to Dumbledore and walked out of the room to put the Sorting Hat back in Dumbledore's office where it belonged. Dumbledore cleared his throat.
"Acridge, Aaron." One of the first years stumbled out of line and walked shakily up to Dumbledore. He placed his wand tip to tip with Dumbledore's, trying not to tremble as he did so. A flash of yellow light burst from the wand tips and soared up into the air, taking the shape of a badger. The Hufflepuffs began to applaud heartily, welcoming Aaron to their table and house.
"Arando, Katrine." A fourteen-year-old girl with deep blue eyes and silky brown hair nearly floated up to the front table, her head held up high. She didn't seem the least bit frightened as she placed her wand tip to tip with Dumbledore's. The Ravenclaws warmly welcomed her as the deep blue shape of an eagle soared towards the enchanted ceiling.
"Atins, Kyle." Frightened and looking quite intimidated by the giant sixth years on either side of him, a boy with hair so black that it appeared to have blue highlights in it walked towards Dumbledore. He trembled as he placed it tip to tip against Dumbledore's. A badger scuttled out, and the Hufflepuffs applauded again.
"Audry," he said without announcing her last name. Harry supposed this was because she was an orphan and didn't have one. She walked carefully up to the top table and placed her wand against Dumbledore's. The students gasped in awe as the magnificent burgundy shape of a lion padded out, tossing its mighty head and roaring. Recovering from his shock, Harry began to cheer with the rest of the students. Audry tossed her head as well and smiled at the students as she walked over.
"Well, I made it!" She said. "I'm lucky that I got the one I wanted. I was worried, since I thought the wand would sort me into the house it thought me most fit to join. If the Sorting Hat weren't being such a choosy prick it wouldn't have mattered. Um…right?"
"Probably," Harry agreed. He remembered how the Hat had wanted to sort him into Slytherin and not Gryffindor.
"Why does this always have to move so slow?" Ron moaned, massaging his stomach as if it hurt him. "Come on! I'm starving!"
"Why are there so many different aged students being sorted?" Audry asked, applauding for Backlin, Jordana as she was sorted into Gryffindor. The girl was small enough, and her long thick hair didn't help make her seem taller.
"I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with Voldemort's rebirth." Hermione's mouth drew into a thin line and Ron flinched slightly, as Harry knew they would, but he was completely unprepared for Audry's reaction to his saying Voldemort's name. She slapped him hard in the back of the head, knocking his glasses off, after her face had finished paling.
"Don't you joke about things like that!" She nearly yelled at him. Harry blinked.
"I hate to break the news, if you didn't hear about it in the states, but Voldemort was brought back last school year." Audry slapped him again.
"Don't say his name!" She hissed in unison with Ron. Harry shrugged and turned his eyes back to the Sorting, and to Dumbledore, whose wand had just declared Dracoan, Tiana, a Slytherin. "Hey, Ron, isn't that your cousin?"
"Shh!" Ron yelled, holding down her finger that was pointed towards Draco Malfoy. "I don't want anyone to know he's my cousin."
"You told them!" Ginny whispered from across the table.
Ron blushed once more, but turned to stare at the students being sorted.
~*~
"Zwu, Chan Lo." Dumbledore read the last name off the list. The Asian boy walked quickly up to Dumbledore and was placed in Slytherin. Harry felt like cheering. There had never been so many students sorted that he could remember. All the tables seemed more crowded then usual, and Harry felt that even if he'd tried, he wouldn't be able to see over all the black hats in the hall.
Dumbledore rolled up the parchment and handed it to Professor McGonagall as he faced the students.
"As you can see, we have welcomed students from different schools all across the continent," he said. Harry snorted slightly.
You would have to be blind not to see, he thought. He saw Audry grin slightly.
"They will be staying for the remainder of their schooling at Hogwarts, and I expect to gain more students over the course of this year." Harry felt his jaw drop. More students?
"We're packed enough as it is!" Hermione yelled, outraged. Most of the other Gryffindor's were displeased as well, and they voiced that displeasure rather loudly and obscenely.
"Other than that, there is nothing new to say. Dig in!" He waved his hands out in front of him and the golden plates and platters filled with food. Harry grinned eagerly and laughed when Audry jumped at seeing all the food appear.
"I swear this wasn't here five minutes ago," she said, eyeing a bowl of mashed potatoes near her elbow.
"The house-elves send it up," Ron said through a mouthful of garlic bread. Using his free hand to spoon spaghetti onto his plate, Ron continued to munch on the bread and managed to get crumbs in everything. Harry smiled and bit into his chicken breast, hungrily devouring it.
~*~
"I couldn't eat another bite if someone threatened to use the Cruciatus Curse on me!" Ron moaned, patting his full stomach. Audry polished off the last of her green beans and leaned back in her chair.
"It should be time for bed soon," she said, looking at her watch. She frowned at it for a moment, and then shook her wrist and held it up to her ear. "This can't be right!" She murmured, looking at it again. "It says that it's 10:30! The teachers can't be that lax!"
"What?" Hermione said, startled, looking at her own watch. Her face contorted with annoyance. "It's a quarter till!"
"Hmm…musta set it wrong," Audry said, frowning at her watch again. Dumbledore stood up, causing the hall to go quiet.
"Now that we've fed you," he said, fixing a steely eye on the Slytherins, who were becoming a bit too rowdy for safety. They didn't immediately quiet down, but after a few seconds it became considerably less noisy. Harry ignored their jeers and looked back to Dumbledore. "It's time for bed. Off with you, now! Don't forget that you don't have classes till Monday!" Harry stood up and nearly ran into the teen with the sneering face behind him.-
"How does he always appear when you least expect him to?" Audry asked, rolling her eyes. She then turned to Malfoy with a sneer on her face to match his. "So, Dumb, you still want me to cast that wonderful hex that I spoke of earlier?"
"You'd be smart not to speak to me in that fashion, Mudblood," he sneered back. Audry rolled her eyes.
"That had better not be the worst word that you know."
"Oh, like you would know anything better?" he shot back, an irritated look on his face. Audry smiled sweetly and whispered that he and Ron were cousins into his ear. He went pale.
"Where did you find out about that?" he gasped. She smiled again.
"That's for me to know and for you not to find out!" And with that, she swept around, her hips swishing seductively, and walked up the stairs. Harry chanced a glance at Malfoy to see his expression. It was one of anger, but one of longing as well. Harry shook his head and turned away. For some reason, Audry's movements weren't affecting him as much as they were for every other male in the hall. Ron was practically drooling, and Hermione glanced hotly at the two of them.
"Boys," she muttered and headed up after Audry. Harry followed, his prefect badge shining brightly on his robes as Draco went to take his jobs as a prefect.
~*~
"Blimey, I'm tired!" Ron said with an exaggerated yawn. Harry glanced over at the girls and saw Audry blink sleepily.
"I'm exhausted," she murmured. "You try taking an eight hour flight, then driving straight to a train station and boarding a five hour trip to a castle in the middle of nowhere."
"You must be tired!" Harry said. He ignored his own sleepiness and instead paid attention to where he was going. It was the new prefects duty (as it had been explained on the train) to lead the new first years, and since they had new students who didn't know where the dormitories were, it was his and Hermione's responsibility to lead the new Gryffindor's to the common rooms. Ron was just coming with them since he had nothing better to do.
Peeves suddenly bounced into the corridor they were in, startling everyone and scaring several first year girls into hysterics.
"Ickle firsties!" He cackled as he had in Harry's first year. He rolled his eyes.
"Sod off, Peeves!" He said to the poltergeist. Peeves stuck his tongue out and made a rude gesture with one of his fingers.
"Too bad Peeves isn't in a house," Ron whispered to him, regarding Audry's expression. It was one of curiosity and amusement as he dropped a couple of water balloons on the group.
"Peeves!" Someone roared from a doorway nearby. Harry looked over and dodged another balloon. It was the new DADA teacher. He was walking towards them now, a furious expression on his face. Harry was slightly surprised as he skidded to a stop and pulled his wand out.
"Professor-"
"Peeves, you were strictly told to keep yourself and your balloons absent for the night!" He yelled. Peeves grinned fiendishly.
"I know something you don't know!" He sang. The poltergeist spun around and repeated it. "I know something you don't know!" The man frowned.
"Peeves, I'm giving you to the count of three to skive off!" Peeves stuck out his tongue again and zoomed off, causing several of the torches to sputter and die as he blew hard on them. Harry shook his head.
"That was Peeves, the resident poltergeist. He's always trying to get the students into trouble, and always pestering the teachers. My advice is to stay away from him for the first couple of weeks, if you can. And this," he continued, turning to the professor, who still had an angry look on his face, "is the Defense Against the Dark Arts, or DADA as we like to call it, teacher. Professor…" he looked at the teacher, suddenly realizing that he didn't know his name.
"Professor Edward Sirs," he said, holding out a hand to shake Harry's. "And you're the famous Harry Potter, of course." Harry rolled his eyes again. Some of the first years began to whisper among themselves.
"Anyway, we need to continue to the common room," Harry said, beginning to walk again. "We'll see you in class, Professor."
"Good-bye, Harry," he said with a wave. A smile had crawled across his face; one that Harry felt was too familiar. He turned back to the professor.
"Do I know you from somewhere?" Harry asked. Sirs, who had already started back to his office, turned in surprise.
"Not unless you've seen me in one of the shops," he said. A strange look came over his face. Hermione cleared her throat.
"Down here is the charms corridor. If you're wondering why this is taking so long, it's for several reasons. First of all, we're trying to show you all your new classes, with the exception of Potions, which will be down in the dungeons. And for you older students, your electives will be around and about, and I'm not even going to try to name all the classes you might take. The second reason is because Mr. High-and-mighty here is being-"
"The slow poke of the century! Come on, Harry!" Audry interrupted. Harry smiled and took his place at the front of the line, letting Hermione talk for a while. He felt his heart flutter at the sound of Hermione's voice, but he didn't understand what that meant.
By the time they got to Gryffindor tower, all of the students were sleepy eyed and most of them looked ready to sink into the floor from lack of energy. Hermione was struggling to keep a smile on her face, and Harry knew that his glasses were in danger of slipping off of his nose, but everyone was grateful to climb through the Fat Lady's portrait after giving the password. ("Bludgeon!") Harry pointed out the vacated seventh years dormitory to the first years and lead each new male up to his dormitory. Harry was startled to find that they even had a new fifth year boy, who promptly seized the bed nearest to the door. He proceeded to stick his nose into a book, ending any chance of conversation. Harry exchanged a look with Dean Thomas, who was putting up a new poster of the West Ham soccer team. Harry had finished showing the boys where to go, so he rummaged around in his trunk for a blanket. The cold night air was slipping through some crack in a wall nearby and was making the room downright drafty. After securing the thin wool blanket around him, Harry headed down to the common room to have a well-earned talk with Ron, Hermione, and Audry. As he stepped into the room, he saw that only Hermione was there, her nose jammed into a book as usual.
"Hullo," he said, plopping down on the couch.
"Harry, do you know where my dress robes from last year are?" Ron said, bursting into the room. Harry jumped.
"Why do you ask?"
"I wanted to use them to plug the galleon sized hole in the dormitory window so the decent people could get some sleep. It's like ice in there!"
"It's not only there," Hermione said, rising to get closer to the fire. "It's all over the school. Even down by the fire here, it seems really cold. The windows just won't close. I'll have a chat with McGonagall about it tomorrow."
"We'd be better oft to just bundle up tonight," a new voice said from the girls' dormitories. Harry looked over the top of the couch and saw Audry wrapped in a light purple fleece blanket. The bottoms of a pair of blue plaid pajama pants were visible beneath the hem. "Isn't it about time for bed?"
"I just thought I'd get in some last minute studying before classes on Monday."
"Don't you mean tomorrow?" Harry said, stifling a yawn.
"Today is Friday, you prat," Ron said, whacking him in the back of the head. "Besides, what do you still need to study, Hermione?"
"Well, you two don't have Arithmancy," she snapped, closing the book she was reading. Harry saw the gold lettering and library placement card flash briefly in the firelight before something dropped out of the book. It dinged as it hit the ground, and bounced out of sight.
"What was that?" Harry asked, getting up to look for it.
"Dunno." Ron said, squatting down to look under the couch. "Nothing here."
"I would have said that it was a ring or something." Audry placed a delicate finger on her chin and thought for a few moments. "I've never heard such an unusual sound come from a ring before, though."
"We can look for it in the morning." Harry said with a yawn. He then shivered again. "I'm going to bed. It's bound to be a lot warmer in there then it is in here!"
A/N: So what do you think? Aren't we evil? Don't you worry, there is plenty more fluff to come. You just have to wait a few more chapters, but we'll be putting in tiny bits of fluff as we go along!! Please leave us a review and tell us what you think!
Kittluver87 and Cricket AKA: Sugar High