Chapter Two
Return to Hogwarts
HARRY POTTER LEANED BACK INTO THE SEAT OF THE TRAIN AND SHUT HIS EYES FOR A MOMENT. THE GENTLE RUMBLE UNDER HIS FEET MADE HIM VERY SLEEPY, AS HE HAD BEEN AWAKE FOR MOST OF LAST NIGHT. RON WEASLEY YAWNED NEXT TO HIM AND OPENED UP A PACK OF CARDS HARRY RECOGNIZED AS THE TWIN'S EXPLODING SNAP GAME.
"We're almost there, Ron, we should get changed," suggested Hermione Granger, checking her watch.
Harry opened his eyes with a start. Sure enough, far off in the distance, he could see the tips of the mountains around Hogwarts.
Ron wasn't playing Exploding Snap, he was sitting on the floor opposite of Harry with several Chocolate Frogs in his lap. Harry suddenly realized that he had actually slept through the entire trip to Hogwarts. He pushed his glasses up his nose and yanked black robes out of his trunk.
Hermione hopped around the compartment, the cuff of her jeans caught on a seam of the robes. She suddenly toppled into Ron, who caught her in his arms. Both of them turned an identical shade of red as she bent down and freed her robes. She pinned on the silver "P" she got over the summer - she was a prefect, because of her high scores.
Soon, Hogwarts was seen looming up against the bright blue sky and foreboding mountains. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all grinned at the same time at the sight of it. The scarlet engine came through a gap in the mountains and stopped by a great gate flanked by winged boars. They left their compartment and went into the bright sunlight, surrounded by the familiar students and occasional first-years.
"Firs' years! Firs' years, come on over 'ere, firs' years!" boomed the familiar voice of Hagrid, the gameskeeper. He spotted Harry. "'Ey 'Arry, all righ'? Got a bi' o' a shock this mor'ing -"
But what Hagrid had gotten a shock from, he could not tell, as all the first years were surging around Hagrid. Ron shrugged as Harry looked at him quizzically. Hermione tugged on their arms and pulled them towards the waiting carriages, when Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie MacMillan appeared. "Hey, Harry, Ron, Hermione," called Ernie. "There's a girl I don't know, looking for some Gryffindor fifth years, over there." He pointed to someone sitting on a tree stump apart from the crowd, who looked Harry's age, but wasn't at Hogwarts before.
"Thanks, Ernie," replied Harry. He, Ron, and Hermione fought their way through the crowd to the person.
"Are you Gryffindor fifth years? Do you know where they are?" she asked, in what could only be an American accent.
"We're Gryffindor fifth years," replied Ron.
She breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. "Thank goodness. I've been looking for some since the train got here."
"Who are you?" asked Hermione, a little more demanding than what she meant.
"I'm Llewellyn Euryale," she replied, getting to her feet. "I'm an exchange student from an wizard school called Columbia, in Maine."
"Oh, you're from the States?" asked Harry.
She looked at him, bewildered, for just a moment. "Oh, yeah, I'm from...what did you call it...the States. Well, I'm here for half a year, and I just got sorted. Professor McGonagall said it was a record - that hat took five whole minutes to figure out where I'm supposed to be. So, since I'm fifteen, I'm with the Gryffindor fifth years - you."
Harry looked at Ron and then looked at Hermione. Ron shrugged again and Hermione nodded. "I'm Harry Potter, this is Ron Weasley, and this is Hermione Granger."
"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger," repeated Llewellyn, pointing at each in turn. "Wait a minute, Harry Potter?" He nodded slowly, a sinking feeling coming into his stomach. "Cool," she replied, not even looking at his forehead.
"Ron, Hermione, Harry! Come on, you're going to miss it!" called a red- haired girl, opening the door to the last carriage.
"That's Ginny, my sister," explained Ron, striding towards the opening. Harry, Llewellyn, and Hermione followed him close behind. The old carriage bumped and swayed as Harry explained some basics of Hogwarts to Llewellyn, who was sitting next to him. Ginny, Ron, and Hermione sat across from them.
"We play Quidditch, which I don't think a lot of people do in the States, but we saw some people from Salem at the World Cup last year. I'm the Seeker for Gryffindor, which means I search for a little winged golden ball."
"Good thing you were sorted into Gryffindor," commented Ron. "That's supposed to mean you're brave and chivalrous, or something."
"Better than Slytherin," added Ginny. "The hat says they're cunning and ambitious, but they're just plain mean."
"You've got to watch out for this one Slytherin," cut in Hermione. "His name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. He's really nasty to us. Hagrid himself said all Malfoys were rotten to the core."
"Hagrid, the gameskeeper, who lives in that cabin out on the grounds?" asked Llewellyn, turning slightly pink.
"Yes," replied Harry, looking at her with half a grin on his face. He was starting to figure out what had happened to Hagrid that morning.
"Well, Long-Distance Floo Powder isn't that reliable, I guess, because I suddenly appeared right in his cabin fireplace, right when he was making lunch. Scared his dog out of its wits."
Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Llewellyn all broke into furious laughter. It comforted Llewellyn quite a bit, to already have made these four friends. The carriage suddenly stopped, and everyone filed out and went up the steps up to the lobby and into the Great Hall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"We've missed the sorting hat song!" whispered Hermione as they crept across the back of the hall to the Gryffindor table.
"But we can still see who's being sorted," replied Ron.
"Maelstrom, Carrie!" called McGonagall.
"RAVENCLAW!" said the Sorting Hat.
They passed the Slytherin table. Draco Malfoy was sitting between his friend Vincent Crabbe and an empty chair. Seeing a motion out of the corner of his eye, he turned around, smirking, and looked right at Harry and the others.
"Mandastrom, Trevor!"
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"That's Malfoy. Keep going, keep going." Harry pushed Llewellyn, who was in front of him. Malfoy caught sight of Llewellyn, and his expression changed drastically. Harry couldn't read it in the half-darkness, but he could tell Malfoy seemed to notice that people like Llewellyn just weren't made in England. She caught this too, and looked from Malfoy to Harry.
"Melvin, Jim!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Sorry, Draco," said Llewellyn, slightly higher than a whisper so he could hear her. "But I happen to like the good guys." Suddenly, she hugged Harry.
"Mortin, Laura!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
Harry was so shocked, he hadn't realized that Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had already left for the Gryffindor table. Llewellyn sprinted ahead to the table and firmly sat down between Hermione and Ginny, with her face down, not looking at Harry.
"Lennard, Jennifer!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
Harry sat down, face burning, and looked up at the staff table. There was Hagrid, Flitwick, Snape, Sinistra, Vector, and all the normal professors sitting tall at the table. Then there was another one, a new professor, whom Harry figured was Defense Against the Dark Arts. He wasn't sitting tall at all. In fact, he had his feet up against the side of the table and chair on two legs, with a baseball cap backwards on his head.
"Lubbock, Christopher!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Look at the new teacher," whispered Harry to Hermione, who was sitting next to him. Hermione pursed her lips at his apparent lack of formality but didn't say anything.
"Malfoy, Shirley!"
Harry and Ron almost jumped out of their seats, they were so surprised at that name. They craned to get a better look at her before the hat came down over her head, wondering if Hogwarts could stand two Malfoys at once.
"Did she say Shirley Malfoy?" asked Llewellyn.
"Shhh!" hissed Ginny.
"SLYTHERIN!"
"I knew it," grumbled Ron. Shirley took off the hat, tossed it into McGonagall's hand, and skipped over to the Slytherin table. She was short, with the same whitish-blonde hair as Draco, but it was curly and in pigtails, and her face was cheery and bright.
"Funny, she doesn't look evil," commented Hermione.
Harry watched the rest of the Sorting with only half a mind. He occasionally stole a glance at Llewellyn, but she kept her head down. Did she really mean what she had said? "She happened to like the good guys?" Well, it's not that Harry didn't like her, she was definitely cute, but still....
Professor McGonagall finished the sorting with "Whitehead, Amy", and took away the hat and stool. Albus Dumbledore, the ancient but wise headmaster, stood up, and the general chatter in the hall subsided.
"Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts, returning students, and all greetings to our first years, and our exchange student from the States. I'd like to introduce you to our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."
The professor who was leaning back in his chair jumped up from his seat and stood up, grinning broadly. "This is Professor Matthew Visilio, who is also from the States." Llewellyn picked up her head at these words.
Visilio waved to the students and sat down again.
"I'd also like to remind everyone that the forest on the grounds is out-of- bounds to all students, and the village of Hogsmeade to all students other than third-year and up," continued Dumbledore. "And it is my pleasure to announce that there will be two additional school dances this year, one coming this Saturday."
"Now, before you bite into this delicious feast, I have only three words to say this year: Eat prunes regularly."
Llewellyn stared wildly at Dumbledore as he sat down. The food appeared on the table, as it did last year and every year before that. Harry ate quickly, his stomach still churning with butterflies. Or, he thought to himself, they felt more like screwts than butterflies. The feast was gradually finished, and the food from the plates melted away. He only mumbled the school song, and barely realized where he had gone when, suddenly, he was at his four-poster.
"Did you see what happened?" he asked Ron, when they were just about to shut their hangings.
"No, what?"
Harry sighed. "Llewellyn hugged me, right in front of Malfoy."
Ron's eyes got so big they were in danger of falling out. "What?" he asked, almost screeching.
Harry shrugged and smiled. "She said she likes good guys," he replied, a strange new kind of feeling swelling inside of him. "Think I should ask her to the dance?"
"Only if you think I should ask Hermione," replied Ron with a large grin on his face.
Now it was Harry's turn to jump up in shock. "You are?" he asked, not bothering to suppress a huge smile. "You really are?"
Ron put his hands behind his head and collapsed on to his pillow. "Yup," he replied. "I'm going to ask. I mean, sooner or later. Well, I...I don't know! I mean, what if she says no? It's not like I can't avoid her."
Harry look at Ron. "We have to ask as soon as possible. Or else Llewellyn and Hermione will be going with someone else. Remember last year?
"I'm going to ask by tomorrow. By the time I'm eating dinner, I'll have asked her," responded Ron with determination.
Harry slid into his blankets. "Me, too." He slapped Ron a high five from across the beds and suddenly, fell asleep.
Return to Hogwarts
HARRY POTTER LEANED BACK INTO THE SEAT OF THE TRAIN AND SHUT HIS EYES FOR A MOMENT. THE GENTLE RUMBLE UNDER HIS FEET MADE HIM VERY SLEEPY, AS HE HAD BEEN AWAKE FOR MOST OF LAST NIGHT. RON WEASLEY YAWNED NEXT TO HIM AND OPENED UP A PACK OF CARDS HARRY RECOGNIZED AS THE TWIN'S EXPLODING SNAP GAME.
"We're almost there, Ron, we should get changed," suggested Hermione Granger, checking her watch.
Harry opened his eyes with a start. Sure enough, far off in the distance, he could see the tips of the mountains around Hogwarts.
Ron wasn't playing Exploding Snap, he was sitting on the floor opposite of Harry with several Chocolate Frogs in his lap. Harry suddenly realized that he had actually slept through the entire trip to Hogwarts. He pushed his glasses up his nose and yanked black robes out of his trunk.
Hermione hopped around the compartment, the cuff of her jeans caught on a seam of the robes. She suddenly toppled into Ron, who caught her in his arms. Both of them turned an identical shade of red as she bent down and freed her robes. She pinned on the silver "P" she got over the summer - she was a prefect, because of her high scores.
Soon, Hogwarts was seen looming up against the bright blue sky and foreboding mountains. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all grinned at the same time at the sight of it. The scarlet engine came through a gap in the mountains and stopped by a great gate flanked by winged boars. They left their compartment and went into the bright sunlight, surrounded by the familiar students and occasional first-years.
"Firs' years! Firs' years, come on over 'ere, firs' years!" boomed the familiar voice of Hagrid, the gameskeeper. He spotted Harry. "'Ey 'Arry, all righ'? Got a bi' o' a shock this mor'ing -"
But what Hagrid had gotten a shock from, he could not tell, as all the first years were surging around Hagrid. Ron shrugged as Harry looked at him quizzically. Hermione tugged on their arms and pulled them towards the waiting carriages, when Justin Finch-Fletchley and Ernie MacMillan appeared. "Hey, Harry, Ron, Hermione," called Ernie. "There's a girl I don't know, looking for some Gryffindor fifth years, over there." He pointed to someone sitting on a tree stump apart from the crowd, who looked Harry's age, but wasn't at Hogwarts before.
"Thanks, Ernie," replied Harry. He, Ron, and Hermione fought their way through the crowd to the person.
"Are you Gryffindor fifth years? Do you know where they are?" she asked, in what could only be an American accent.
"We're Gryffindor fifth years," replied Ron.
She breathed a sigh of relief and smiled. "Thank goodness. I've been looking for some since the train got here."
"Who are you?" asked Hermione, a little more demanding than what she meant.
"I'm Llewellyn Euryale," she replied, getting to her feet. "I'm an exchange student from an wizard school called Columbia, in Maine."
"Oh, you're from the States?" asked Harry.
She looked at him, bewildered, for just a moment. "Oh, yeah, I'm from...what did you call it...the States. Well, I'm here for half a year, and I just got sorted. Professor McGonagall said it was a record - that hat took five whole minutes to figure out where I'm supposed to be. So, since I'm fifteen, I'm with the Gryffindor fifth years - you."
Harry looked at Ron and then looked at Hermione. Ron shrugged again and Hermione nodded. "I'm Harry Potter, this is Ron Weasley, and this is Hermione Granger."
"Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger," repeated Llewellyn, pointing at each in turn. "Wait a minute, Harry Potter?" He nodded slowly, a sinking feeling coming into his stomach. "Cool," she replied, not even looking at his forehead.
"Ron, Hermione, Harry! Come on, you're going to miss it!" called a red- haired girl, opening the door to the last carriage.
"That's Ginny, my sister," explained Ron, striding towards the opening. Harry, Llewellyn, and Hermione followed him close behind. The old carriage bumped and swayed as Harry explained some basics of Hogwarts to Llewellyn, who was sitting next to him. Ginny, Ron, and Hermione sat across from them.
"We play Quidditch, which I don't think a lot of people do in the States, but we saw some people from Salem at the World Cup last year. I'm the Seeker for Gryffindor, which means I search for a little winged golden ball."
"Good thing you were sorted into Gryffindor," commented Ron. "That's supposed to mean you're brave and chivalrous, or something."
"Better than Slytherin," added Ginny. "The hat says they're cunning and ambitious, but they're just plain mean."
"You've got to watch out for this one Slytherin," cut in Hermione. "His name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy. He's really nasty to us. Hagrid himself said all Malfoys were rotten to the core."
"Hagrid, the gameskeeper, who lives in that cabin out on the grounds?" asked Llewellyn, turning slightly pink.
"Yes," replied Harry, looking at her with half a grin on his face. He was starting to figure out what had happened to Hagrid that morning.
"Well, Long-Distance Floo Powder isn't that reliable, I guess, because I suddenly appeared right in his cabin fireplace, right when he was making lunch. Scared his dog out of its wits."
Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Harry, and Llewellyn all broke into furious laughter. It comforted Llewellyn quite a bit, to already have made these four friends. The carriage suddenly stopped, and everyone filed out and went up the steps up to the lobby and into the Great Hall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"We've missed the sorting hat song!" whispered Hermione as they crept across the back of the hall to the Gryffindor table.
"But we can still see who's being sorted," replied Ron.
"Maelstrom, Carrie!" called McGonagall.
"RAVENCLAW!" said the Sorting Hat.
They passed the Slytherin table. Draco Malfoy was sitting between his friend Vincent Crabbe and an empty chair. Seeing a motion out of the corner of his eye, he turned around, smirking, and looked right at Harry and the others.
"Mandastrom, Trevor!"
"GRYFFINDOR!"
"That's Malfoy. Keep going, keep going." Harry pushed Llewellyn, who was in front of him. Malfoy caught sight of Llewellyn, and his expression changed drastically. Harry couldn't read it in the half-darkness, but he could tell Malfoy seemed to notice that people like Llewellyn just weren't made in England. She caught this too, and looked from Malfoy to Harry.
"Melvin, Jim!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Sorry, Draco," said Llewellyn, slightly higher than a whisper so he could hear her. "But I happen to like the good guys." Suddenly, she hugged Harry.
"Mortin, Laura!"
"SLYTHERIN!"
Harry was so shocked, he hadn't realized that Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had already left for the Gryffindor table. Llewellyn sprinted ahead to the table and firmly sat down between Hermione and Ginny, with her face down, not looking at Harry.
"Lennard, Jennifer!"
"RAVENCLAW!"
Harry sat down, face burning, and looked up at the staff table. There was Hagrid, Flitwick, Snape, Sinistra, Vector, and all the normal professors sitting tall at the table. Then there was another one, a new professor, whom Harry figured was Defense Against the Dark Arts. He wasn't sitting tall at all. In fact, he had his feet up against the side of the table and chair on two legs, with a baseball cap backwards on his head.
"Lubbock, Christopher!"
"HUFFLEPUFF!"
"Look at the new teacher," whispered Harry to Hermione, who was sitting next to him. Hermione pursed her lips at his apparent lack of formality but didn't say anything.
"Malfoy, Shirley!"
Harry and Ron almost jumped out of their seats, they were so surprised at that name. They craned to get a better look at her before the hat came down over her head, wondering if Hogwarts could stand two Malfoys at once.
"Did she say Shirley Malfoy?" asked Llewellyn.
"Shhh!" hissed Ginny.
"SLYTHERIN!"
"I knew it," grumbled Ron. Shirley took off the hat, tossed it into McGonagall's hand, and skipped over to the Slytherin table. She was short, with the same whitish-blonde hair as Draco, but it was curly and in pigtails, and her face was cheery and bright.
"Funny, she doesn't look evil," commented Hermione.
Harry watched the rest of the Sorting with only half a mind. He occasionally stole a glance at Llewellyn, but she kept her head down. Did she really mean what she had said? "She happened to like the good guys?" Well, it's not that Harry didn't like her, she was definitely cute, but still....
Professor McGonagall finished the sorting with "Whitehead, Amy", and took away the hat and stool. Albus Dumbledore, the ancient but wise headmaster, stood up, and the general chatter in the hall subsided.
"Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts, returning students, and all greetings to our first years, and our exchange student from the States. I'd like to introduce you to our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."
The professor who was leaning back in his chair jumped up from his seat and stood up, grinning broadly. "This is Professor Matthew Visilio, who is also from the States." Llewellyn picked up her head at these words.
Visilio waved to the students and sat down again.
"I'd also like to remind everyone that the forest on the grounds is out-of- bounds to all students, and the village of Hogsmeade to all students other than third-year and up," continued Dumbledore. "And it is my pleasure to announce that there will be two additional school dances this year, one coming this Saturday."
"Now, before you bite into this delicious feast, I have only three words to say this year: Eat prunes regularly."
Llewellyn stared wildly at Dumbledore as he sat down. The food appeared on the table, as it did last year and every year before that. Harry ate quickly, his stomach still churning with butterflies. Or, he thought to himself, they felt more like screwts than butterflies. The feast was gradually finished, and the food from the plates melted away. He only mumbled the school song, and barely realized where he had gone when, suddenly, he was at his four-poster.
"Did you see what happened?" he asked Ron, when they were just about to shut their hangings.
"No, what?"
Harry sighed. "Llewellyn hugged me, right in front of Malfoy."
Ron's eyes got so big they were in danger of falling out. "What?" he asked, almost screeching.
Harry shrugged and smiled. "She said she likes good guys," he replied, a strange new kind of feeling swelling inside of him. "Think I should ask her to the dance?"
"Only if you think I should ask Hermione," replied Ron with a large grin on his face.
Now it was Harry's turn to jump up in shock. "You are?" he asked, not bothering to suppress a huge smile. "You really are?"
Ron put his hands behind his head and collapsed on to his pillow. "Yup," he replied. "I'm going to ask. I mean, sooner or later. Well, I...I don't know! I mean, what if she says no? It's not like I can't avoid her."
Harry look at Ron. "We have to ask as soon as possible. Or else Llewellyn and Hermione will be going with someone else. Remember last year?
"I'm going to ask by tomorrow. By the time I'm eating dinner, I'll have asked her," responded Ron with determination.
Harry slid into his blankets. "Me, too." He slapped Ron a high five from across the beds and suddenly, fell asleep.