Chapter Two--The Shock

Still somewhere in England

Jake walked to his first magic lesson, Care of Magical Creatures, with Rachel (well Care of Magical Creatures isn't really magic, but oh well).

"Who would know we would be learning magic when we came over here?" Jake said to Rachel.

Rachel's response was, "well, I don't think the teachers here were expecting us to come here and learn magic also. But I personally would rather kick some Yeerk butt."

About that time they reached the Great Hall's front doors. They pushed them open and went outside towards the Greenhouses.

* * * * *

Harry, Ron, and Hermione and the rest of the sixth years in Gryffindor had Care of Magical Creatures first thing.

So, they (Harry, Ron, and Hermione) were just a little behind Jake and his friends when Jake said, "Who would know we would be learning magic when we came over here?"

Rachel's response was, "Well I don't think the teachers here were expecting us to come here and learn magic also."

Rachel said something else after that but the words were lost in the gust of air that came from the Great Hall's doors.

"That was strange," Ron said when they were out of earshot from them.

"Yea," Harry agreed.

* * * * *

That day at lunch Harry, Ron, and Hermione asked them about what had happened that day before the first lesson.

"What? Oh, well we didn't think that we would be coming here to Hogwarts. We thought we'd be sent to some smaller less known school." Jake said with a slight laugh.

"What do we have in the afternoon, Lita?" Serena asked.

"Defense against the Dark Arts," Lita automatically responded glancing down at her schedule.

"This should be interesting" Rachel said with a slight trace of a smile.

"Oh, it's with the Slytherin, again." Ron complained for he has had enough of the Slytherins in Care of Magical Creatures.

"Well I'll be able to show Malfoy that I'm better than him in Defense against the Dark Arts." Harry said grinning.

"We better get going," Lita said. "We have five minutes until it starts."

They all stood up and headed to Defense against the Dark Arts.

They were the first people to get there. Next to arrive was Raye and Nita Jones, another Slytherin sixth year.

"Hi, Serena and Lita!" Raye said excitedly.

"Hi, Raye!" Lita said happily to Raye in response.

"Who's your friend, Raye?" Serena asked.

"This is Nita Jones," Raye said pointing to her friend. "Nita this is Serena and Lita. Who are they?"

She obviously hasn't noticed my scar or she is Muggle-born, Harry thought suppressing a grin.

She introduced all of them. Nita did double takes when they saw Harry. "Really? You're Harry Potter? Seriously?" Nita said.

"Yep," Harry said thinking, wizarding.

Draco Malfoy came next closely followed by (duh) Crabbe and Goyle.

"Well, isn't it Potty, Weasel, and the Mudblood." He said sneering.

"Shut up Malfoy." Ron snapped.

They couldn't continue their argument because then Professor Conner came and told them to take their seats for class. Malfoy and Ron kept glaring at each other from across the room.

"All right class, open your books to page 438, we'll be starting the unit on Cave Trolls."

Hermione opened her book, sat up straighter, held her quill ready to take notes and her hand poised to come up to answer a question.

And so the lesson continued, Hermione knowing all the answers and taking extensive notes.

* * * * *

Professor Dumbledor passed his office uneasily.

Something about the new students disturbed him. He knew they all acted normal enough, but that was acted.

He decided to consult the sorting hat about this. He walked around the desk and taking the sorting hat down from its shelf and setting it on his desk, he took off his own hat and put the Sorting Hat on.

He had done this many times before when he had need to figuring out some-student-or-another or one of the teachers that they themselves had attended Hogwarts for their wizardry training. He had discovered that the Sorting Hat remembered everyone's mind that it had ever sorted.

Soon Dumbledor soon heard the hat's voice speak; "Well, Albus Dumbledor again. Which student do you need to figure out this time? Wait--let me guess...the newest batch of students, am I correct?" Without waiting for an answer he continued, because he knew he was right. "What do you want to know about them?"

"I want to know if you noticed anything unusual in their minds? I know they're different but I can't put my finger on it. What did you see in their minds?"

The Sorting Hat paused to search his vast memory for he remembered of the present first years. "Ah yes...there were nine that startled me. All placed in various houses. But there was one in particular that astonished me the most: Amy Anderson of Ravenclaw. He seemed to have two minds. One I thought belonged in Slytherin and the other one Ravenclaw. The Slytherin mind was more prominent so I searched it first. I cannot easily describe what I saw in that mind. It seemed that the memories of dozens were contained in it. I saw some disturbing stuff in it, which I don't want to repeat or think of.

"Then the one that belongs in Ravenclaw had all the qualities of that house but was suppressed and the original one from what I could tell. So I placed them in Ravenclaw, biased on the original mind. In four of the minds I learned that the Slytherin mind is an alien race called a Yeerk. This alien and Amy combined is called a 'controller'.

"Interesting," Dumbledor thought. "What are all of them doing here?"

"Well, of the other eight, Jake Berenson, Rachel ________, Marco ________, and Cassie ________ are here to stop the yeerks from taking everyone here and turning them into Controllers. Then Serena Tsukino, Raye Hino, Mina Anio, and Lita Kino are here because Amy said that their enemy was supposedly out here, so they came."

"Hmm..." Dumbledor said out loud and thanking the Sorting Hat, he took it off and put back on his own hat, putting the sorting hat in the rightful place on the shelf. He then started to pace again and come up with a strategy to over through the forces that wished to take over the school.

* * * * *

Cassie sat at the Hufflepuff table talking to her new-found friend, Mina Anio, about their care of Magical Creatures class.

"Second time this week, still with the Gryffindor." Cassie commented looking up from her schedule. "Starts in ten minutes better get going." She said putting down her fork and picking up her bag. Mina did the same thing, and headed out to Hagrid's lesson. Still talking about it and wondering if they were going to actually go into the forest like Hagrid said they might.

A few weeks ago they had started studying the creatures in the forest and Hagrid said that they might get to go into the forest today to see if they could see any of the creatures that live there and identify them.

They reached Hagrid's Hut and saw to their surprise that there was a man there.

He had wavy blond hair, blue eyes, about average height, and good looking.

Cassie and Mina each saw they're own friends and seeing that they were talking together decided to go over and join both of them.

"Hey guys. Would you happen to know who the man in turquoise is?" Mina asked the group in general.

Ron, who had been standing close by, interjected his answer before anyone else could respond. "That's Gilderoy Lockhart. In our second year he was the DADA teacher. But he tried to use a memory charm on Harry and I with my broken wand and it backfired. He has been in a sort of a rehab facility so our best guess is that he's here to get use to teens, again." He commented with a hint of loathing in his voice.

"Why do you hate him so much?" Serena asked who had also been listening in.

Harry responded because Ron was fuming at the memories of Lockhart from four years ago. "He was one of the worst teachers we've ever had. One, he was completely self absorbed. Two, we learned one thing in his class: never let pixies loose, after being cooped up in a cage for a while. After he did that, of course, he hid under his desk while they terrorized the classroom and the class. Then at the end of the period he told Ron, Hermione and I to put them up and ran from the room."

"That's a good reason to dislike him." Jake said.

At that moment Hagrid came around his hut and started the class by introducing Lockhart. "You may remember Gilderoy Lockhart here." He spoke to the class then turning to Lockhart, he said; "you thought these students four years ago." Lockhart nodded mutely. Hagrid turned back to the class and continued, "he's here studying to become a substitute teacher, so the other teachers don't have to do double duty if someone gets ill. You are to call him Professor Lockhart."

Ron and Harry along with most of the other students looked unhappy with this but Cassie noticed that even Hagrid looked slightly uncomfortable with this arrangement.

"Well I've decided that today since Professor Lockhart is here he can watch you while I take people into the forest. Anyone want to volunteer to go first? I can take in three."

Nobody immediately raised their hands to volunteer but finally Harry, Cassie, and Mina raised their hands all at once.

"Good! Come on then."

They followed him into the forest and started to look for creatures to identify. They had been doing this for fifteen minutes when all of a sudden, Mina said; "Look there's a centaur!"

They all looked where she was pointing and when Cassie saw the centaur, she gasped. For it wasn't a centaur but it was an Andalite! But Ax wouldn't be so stupid to get seen nether the Visser. She looked around at the rest of them and saw that they by their straining to look at the spot that the Andalite was that they couldn't see him all that clearly--she was the only one that had a clear view. So they might not fully see him, so to test that out she scooted over behind them and saw that they couldn't see anything that was unique to Andalites. She gave a small sigh of relief.

"What's that?" Hagrid asked starting to walk towards the Andalite.

The Andalite realized that someone was heading towards him, off the path and bolted.

* * * * *

For the rest of the trip through the forest Cassie was insanely nervous and the moment she got back she headed strait for Jake and Rachel and told them what had happened.

Rachel gasped. "Really, you sure it was an Andalite and that you were the only one that saw it clearly?"

"Yes, I'm positive."

"We need to tell Marco." Jake said in a whisper, looking around.

"I'll tell him. He's in my next class." Cassie said also in a whisper.

"Okay."

* * * * *

Cassie went to her next class, transfiguration in silence, which Mina noticed.

"What's up Cassie? You've been unusually quiet since we saw the centaur in the forest."

"Nothing, I'm just thinking." Cassie responded vaguely.

"Uh huh." Mina said uncertainly.

She might've tried to get out more information from Cassie but they reached Professor McGonagall's classroom. Cassie saw Marco ahead and told Mina that she'd be back in a moment. She then walked quickly over.

"Hi Marco," Cassie said pleasantly trying to act casual.

"Hi Cassie, what's up?" Marco said seeing through her disguise in a moment but also decided to act natural.

"Not much, we went into the forest last period."

"Oh did you see anything interesting?"

"As a matter of fact, yes." Cassie said lowering her voice, and looking around. "We saw an Andalite."

"You did? Did anyone else see it?" Marco asked urgently.

"Yes, but they all thought it was a centaur."

"Who was it?"

"My friend, Mina Anio, Harry Potter and Hagrid."

Marco sighed in exasperation. "As long as they didn't realize it was anything other than a centaur it's all right I guess."

"Yea," Cassie agreed.

At that moment Professor McGonagall appeared and they went in and took their seats.

* * * * *

Sub Visser Twenty had been talking to Mina a few steps away when he heard Cassie and Marco's conversation. Before she could double check who she thought it was Professor McGonagall came and told them to take their seats. He hardly paid attention to what she was saying that day—she was more focused on what she had heard in the hall.