Disclaimer: I can't remember exactly what characters I do own and
which I don't, so I'll say this: All copyrighted, trademarked or otherwise
owned property is property of it's respective owner and no ownership is
implied on the author's part. Enjoy!
~~Chapter Two: New Friends ~~
Kevin got up early the next morning, as he usually did, not feeling the slightest bit tired. His mind wandered to the adventures of last night. Who had those students been? And what were they looking for in the library? They had obviously been prepared to take risks for it. Also, it was obvious that it wasn't there anymore, whatever it was. Did that mean other people were after it?
Kevin figured the first thing to do was to find what the students had been looking for. But if he could not find the students, he had no ways of knowing that.
Is it really any of your business? Kevin thought. Of course it is. If it is a secret, it's by business... and it certainly is if other students are after it.
The breakfast tables were full the next morning, and almost everyone around was talking about the Triwizard tournament. Kevin was not particularly interested himself; he was too young by far to compete, although it would be interesting to watch. He ate his food moodily, in somewhat of a bad mood. His laptop computer, his pride and joy, had failed to work; Hogwarts grounds somehow messed up 'technology'.
At Ashallan, there had been no restrictions in that area. Ashallan had been more... practical. They had not made one write with quills, not use muggle technology, and best of all, they had looked down on muggles very little. There was a class there that Kevin had taken; Study of Wizarding/Muggle Cultural Differences, and it had been very informative on the practicality of magic, and advanced technology.
Kevin had a good look around the Ravenclaw table. There were plenty of faces, and a good amount of them would easily fit into the silhouettes he had seen. However, there was nobody who he thought would match the tall boy he had seen leading them; nobody who was that height seemed to have the long, sweeping hair that Kevin had noticed.
After about twenty minutes of eating, owls began soaring in the windows. There were hundreds; several dropped packages onto the laps or cupped hands of other Ravenclaw students, but Kevin had no mail. He hadn't been expecting any. The only thing that surprised him about the morning was that Dumbledore hadn't talked to him about. his business here. Nobody had. He was being treated like a normal student.
After breakfast was over, and the students got up to go to their classes, Kevin decided to look around for a match to the mysterious, rule- breaking teamleader he had seen. He headed towards the Gryffondor table, and started following a bunch of students that seemed to be headed out the main door. Kevin kept on catching a glimpse of black, ruffled hair- could that be the famous Harry Potter? Kevin quickened his pace, but a large amount of Hufflepuff students heading for the marble staircase cut across his path.
Kevin muttered a curse at Hufflepuff house in general and ran towards the back of the stream of students, but by the time they were out of his way the Gryffondor students were out the door, heading to Herbology class. Kevin cursed again, stamping on the floor and spinning around on one foot. Most of the students had gone by now; however there were a good amount of teachers around, and one of them, a frowning, black-haired teacher, was looking right at him. Kevin gulped and hurried off up the staircase.
Kevin had absolutely no idea where he was going. His first class, divination, was a subject Kevin had all but mastered already. He had heard an amount of rumors about the Hogwarts divination teacher; that she was a fraud, an idiot, and other more rude things, and he felt that he wasn't missing much. Supposedly the air in her classroom was so foggy that she wouldn't notice if a student was missing. She seemed just as bad as all that to him, leaving him feeling a bit odd after the class. and he had gotten lost, again.
Kevin actually had a talent for crystal-ball gazing. Almost every time he looked into one, he would see something that had no resemblance to a white fog; he was also practiced in reading tea leaves (not his favorite subject, and he rarely drank tea) and palmistry (which he found was not as interesting as gazing by far; after all, a large amount of wizards had scarred hands.).
He was walking down a long corridor when he heard footsteps ahead of him. Kevin frowned; if it was a teacher, he might want to turn around, he wasn't supposed to be out of class. Then again, divination might be over by now. But was he heading the wrong way to his next class? Kevin made an about-face, but he heard a sharp voice behind him.
"Turn around."
Kevin did, reluctantly. He knew he was in trouble by the sound of that voice. Right down the corridor from him was Prof. McGonagall, the head of Gryffondor house.
"Who are you, now? I don't recognize-" McGonagall broke off, and her eyes widened slightly. "Oh- Rashall. Kevin Rashall?"
"Yes. Yes- Ma'am."
McGonagall nodded her head the slightest bit, like she was assuring herself of something. Kevin wondered what was going on. Did McGonagall know about why he was here also? He had been told that only Dumbledore knew that. Did Dumbledore trust McGonagall that much?
"I believe you should be heading towards Potions, Rashall. The dungeons are this way." She pointed down a separate corridor. Kevin started in that direction.
"Just down the marble staircase and then down the smaller ones to it's right. You can find the dungeon." Kevin nodded, and hurried off.
Potions was somewhat grim; although Kevin admired Snape, the potions teacher, for his knowledge of potions, it was rather unpleasant working with him. Snape was the kind of teacher that Kevin usually liked working with. He was smart, his potions were affective, and his lessons were to the point. However, something about the Prof. Snape's rude attitude towards both the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs who they were taking the class double with, and the cold of the dungeon, ruined the experience for Kevin.
After Potions, Kevin had Arithmancy, double with the Slytherins. He headed up the dungeon steps, thinking over a lesson Snape had given him, and then turned and started up the marble staircase. After passing several portraits and statues he entered the classroom. The Slytherins were seated at one end of the neat, practical classroom, and the Ravenclaws at the other. Kevin saw several students look at him as he came in. Was it just his nerves, or was there something about him that everyone was staring at?
Kevin barely paid any attention throughout the class. He already had all of the stuff he was practicing down. The thing he was concentrating on was a Slytherin girl. Her hair and form seemed to perfectly fit the image of the girl in the shadows that he remembered. She was, Kevin guessed, about five feet tall, with black hair that went down almost to her shoulders. She was hunching over her desk, writing rapidly, trying to keep up with the teacher's lesson.
Finally, the lesson ended. Kevin was nudged by another Ravenclaw who he did not recognize. "What are you looking at?"
Kevin shrugged and turned back to his book. The student beside him shifted slightly in his seat.
"Oh my god, that is something to stare at... I can't believe you saw her before I did!"
Kevin rolled his eyes and turned around. The student beside him was a young, handsome boy with black hair. He saw him staring right over Kevin's head at the Slytherin girl. The girl seemed to have noticed, however, and turned her head towards the boy next to Kevin.
"Hey, just looking," The boy muttered, and turned back to his seat. Kevin thought that the eleven-year-old was more interested in gaining a reputation as being cool at the school than girls at his age.
The Slytherin girl raised her eyebrows angrily and mouthed something rude at the boy. He smiled, and hunched lower in his seat.
Finally, the lesson ended. Kevin learned that the Ravenclaw boy's name was Jonathan Courier, and that he was a half muggle, half wizard. Jonathan had been very talkative and had gotten both Kevin and him in trouble, losing Ravenclaw five points. Kevin had tried to follow the Slytherin girl after the class, but Jonathan got in way.
"Hey, what do you think of her?"
"Shuttup" Kevin snapped angrily, pushing past the boy. He had taken about all he could handle from the boy at class.
"No seriously, what do you think of her?" Jonathan asked, prancing into Kevin's way again. Kevin knew he would lose his chance to talk to the Slytherin girl if she sat down at her table before he intercepted her. He shoved past Jonathan again.
"Hey, come on! I'm sorry I'm so chattery at class but I'm a talkative person! Now where are you going?"
Kevin cursed mentally and turned around. "I'm going to lunch, where I believe everybody else is going. Now stop following me."
He spun around and began sprinting down the steps three at a time, muttering a quick apology whenever he knocked into somebody. Unfortunately for him, three at a time down the steps led him right into the trick step on the marble staircase. Kevin's foot sunk firmly into the step. By the time it was loose, almost everybody was seated at lunch, and his chance was gone.
After a rather boring lunch, being pestered by Jonathan about god knew what (Kevin didn't listen) all through it, Kevin finally managed to get away from Jonathan for a few seconds to overview his work. It seemed to be all in order; some papers he had to make could easily be magically copied from some of his Ashallan reports (he had learned the spell Magical Duplicate in a class at Ashallan.)
After arranging his papers in his bag, Kevin moved out of his dormitory, wondering where the Slytherins were going. He supposed he was obsessing too much about the Slytherin girl. There were others that looked like her. Maybe it was the way she held herself that matched the image in his mind so well?
Kevin forced himself to stop following up on what had happened last night and to pay attention to his classes. He paid attention in the next two classes before dinner; Jonathan seemed to have finally gotten the message from Kevin and left him alone.
Kevin finally ran down with the rest of the Ravenclaw first years from his last class of the day to dinner. The food was noticeably better than the Ashallan stock. Kevin wondered who made it; at Ashallan the food was magically prepared by djinns; they worked hard but were not prime cooks.
"Hi there. What's your name?"
Kevin turned his head to see a pretty black-haired girl sitting on his right side. She was watching him while spreading butter on a piece of toast.
"Uh- Kevin. Kevin Rashall. Pleased to meet you." He stuck out his left hand and awkwardly shook hers.
"You too. Are you from around here? 'Cause you have a strange accent."
"Uh... well I... moved here a year ago, and got my letter just... well, you know."
"Were you surprised? My mum and dad are muggles, but not all the way, sorta. They are both authors, and love fantasy books and all that. They didn't believe the letter until I met another kid who had gotten one. I'm not sure where he is though. I think he might have been sorted into Gryffondor, but I'm not sure because I so nervous..."
Kevin almost replied that he hadn't been very nervous, but then decided to be fair and recalled his first time at Ashallan. "I was terrified. I'm glad I was sorted into K- Ravenclaw."
Krysten took a bite off of a chicken leg. "Neat," she said, still swallowing her food. "I was kinda hoping for Gryffondor-well, you know, Harry Potter, it's got a really, really good rep after he came in. But I guess I'm glad I was put into a house that was prized for cleverness."
"Me too." Kevin grinned. "Back at-" he stopped dead. How hard was this going to be, keeping all of the events of the last two years of his life away from his friends? And acting as an eleven-year old when he was going on thirteen?
"Back at what?" Krysten raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, nothing. Really." Kevin smiled, hoping it looked convincing, and turned his head away.
Dinner ended not too long after that. Kevin met Stewart Ackerley again up in the common room, and challenged him to a game of wizard chess. It was interesting, because Kevin hadn't seen before how all the pieces looked when they 'died'. He got a course on that when Stewart destroyed each one of his pieces, until his king was left alone on the field to be checkmated. Kevin had conquered a grand total of three pawns and a knight.
After the chess game Stewart retired to his dorm, and Kevin stayed down to chat with Krysten and her new friend Lyra.
After talking for about half an hour, Lyra went up to bed and Krysten followed after clearing up a couple of astrology papers. Krysten liked astrology as a hobby, but not as a class.
Kevin dreamed again that night.
He was standing on hard rock. All around him, the land jutted downwards hundreds of feet into roiling black fog. There were only a couple of feet to walk on.
Kevin looked up. There was another of him, a duplicate, standing on the other side of the land. He was frowning.
"What do you want?" Kevin asked, his voice shaking.
"Don't do it, Kevin. It will kill you. Don't do it." The other him widened his eyes slightly. The real Kevin's vision blurred...
Voices echoed inside of Kevin's head... someone screamed, and reached out and touched his hand.
Julianne? Kevin thought desperately. You're dead... you're not alive anymore...
Shaking his head, Kevin looked up again. His duplicate was wearing the same grim expression. "It almost killed you before. There is a greater danger here. You are closer to your worst enemy."
"I don't have an enemy!" Kevin yelled.
The duplicate raised his hand slowly. Black mist began slowly creeping up the edges of the cliffs. The hand raised, slowly, and finally stopped, pointing right at Kevin. "Your worst enemy... don't do it."
Kevin shook his head. "If my enemy is myself, than you are my enemy. Go away!"
"I am not you, Kevin," his duplicate said grimly. He began shaking his head from side to side. His face changed, slowly, growing scars and bruises. Finally it stopped. Kevin was left staring at a bloody, mauled face, clearly his own. Opening his bloodstained mouth, his duplicate spoke one last time. "You must go now." And with a wave of one hand, he pushed Kevin backwards, to far, off of the cliff, down into the fog....
"Don't take the throne."
~~Chapter Two: New Friends ~~
Kevin got up early the next morning, as he usually did, not feeling the slightest bit tired. His mind wandered to the adventures of last night. Who had those students been? And what were they looking for in the library? They had obviously been prepared to take risks for it. Also, it was obvious that it wasn't there anymore, whatever it was. Did that mean other people were after it?
Kevin figured the first thing to do was to find what the students had been looking for. But if he could not find the students, he had no ways of knowing that.
Is it really any of your business? Kevin thought. Of course it is. If it is a secret, it's by business... and it certainly is if other students are after it.
The breakfast tables were full the next morning, and almost everyone around was talking about the Triwizard tournament. Kevin was not particularly interested himself; he was too young by far to compete, although it would be interesting to watch. He ate his food moodily, in somewhat of a bad mood. His laptop computer, his pride and joy, had failed to work; Hogwarts grounds somehow messed up 'technology'.
At Ashallan, there had been no restrictions in that area. Ashallan had been more... practical. They had not made one write with quills, not use muggle technology, and best of all, they had looked down on muggles very little. There was a class there that Kevin had taken; Study of Wizarding/Muggle Cultural Differences, and it had been very informative on the practicality of magic, and advanced technology.
Kevin had a good look around the Ravenclaw table. There were plenty of faces, and a good amount of them would easily fit into the silhouettes he had seen. However, there was nobody who he thought would match the tall boy he had seen leading them; nobody who was that height seemed to have the long, sweeping hair that Kevin had noticed.
After about twenty minutes of eating, owls began soaring in the windows. There were hundreds; several dropped packages onto the laps or cupped hands of other Ravenclaw students, but Kevin had no mail. He hadn't been expecting any. The only thing that surprised him about the morning was that Dumbledore hadn't talked to him about. his business here. Nobody had. He was being treated like a normal student.
After breakfast was over, and the students got up to go to their classes, Kevin decided to look around for a match to the mysterious, rule- breaking teamleader he had seen. He headed towards the Gryffondor table, and started following a bunch of students that seemed to be headed out the main door. Kevin kept on catching a glimpse of black, ruffled hair- could that be the famous Harry Potter? Kevin quickened his pace, but a large amount of Hufflepuff students heading for the marble staircase cut across his path.
Kevin muttered a curse at Hufflepuff house in general and ran towards the back of the stream of students, but by the time they were out of his way the Gryffondor students were out the door, heading to Herbology class. Kevin cursed again, stamping on the floor and spinning around on one foot. Most of the students had gone by now; however there were a good amount of teachers around, and one of them, a frowning, black-haired teacher, was looking right at him. Kevin gulped and hurried off up the staircase.
Kevin had absolutely no idea where he was going. His first class, divination, was a subject Kevin had all but mastered already. He had heard an amount of rumors about the Hogwarts divination teacher; that she was a fraud, an idiot, and other more rude things, and he felt that he wasn't missing much. Supposedly the air in her classroom was so foggy that she wouldn't notice if a student was missing. She seemed just as bad as all that to him, leaving him feeling a bit odd after the class. and he had gotten lost, again.
Kevin actually had a talent for crystal-ball gazing. Almost every time he looked into one, he would see something that had no resemblance to a white fog; he was also practiced in reading tea leaves (not his favorite subject, and he rarely drank tea) and palmistry (which he found was not as interesting as gazing by far; after all, a large amount of wizards had scarred hands.).
He was walking down a long corridor when he heard footsteps ahead of him. Kevin frowned; if it was a teacher, he might want to turn around, he wasn't supposed to be out of class. Then again, divination might be over by now. But was he heading the wrong way to his next class? Kevin made an about-face, but he heard a sharp voice behind him.
"Turn around."
Kevin did, reluctantly. He knew he was in trouble by the sound of that voice. Right down the corridor from him was Prof. McGonagall, the head of Gryffondor house.
"Who are you, now? I don't recognize-" McGonagall broke off, and her eyes widened slightly. "Oh- Rashall. Kevin Rashall?"
"Yes. Yes- Ma'am."
McGonagall nodded her head the slightest bit, like she was assuring herself of something. Kevin wondered what was going on. Did McGonagall know about why he was here also? He had been told that only Dumbledore knew that. Did Dumbledore trust McGonagall that much?
"I believe you should be heading towards Potions, Rashall. The dungeons are this way." She pointed down a separate corridor. Kevin started in that direction.
"Just down the marble staircase and then down the smaller ones to it's right. You can find the dungeon." Kevin nodded, and hurried off.
Potions was somewhat grim; although Kevin admired Snape, the potions teacher, for his knowledge of potions, it was rather unpleasant working with him. Snape was the kind of teacher that Kevin usually liked working with. He was smart, his potions were affective, and his lessons were to the point. However, something about the Prof. Snape's rude attitude towards both the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs who they were taking the class double with, and the cold of the dungeon, ruined the experience for Kevin.
After Potions, Kevin had Arithmancy, double with the Slytherins. He headed up the dungeon steps, thinking over a lesson Snape had given him, and then turned and started up the marble staircase. After passing several portraits and statues he entered the classroom. The Slytherins were seated at one end of the neat, practical classroom, and the Ravenclaws at the other. Kevin saw several students look at him as he came in. Was it just his nerves, or was there something about him that everyone was staring at?
Kevin barely paid any attention throughout the class. He already had all of the stuff he was practicing down. The thing he was concentrating on was a Slytherin girl. Her hair and form seemed to perfectly fit the image of the girl in the shadows that he remembered. She was, Kevin guessed, about five feet tall, with black hair that went down almost to her shoulders. She was hunching over her desk, writing rapidly, trying to keep up with the teacher's lesson.
Finally, the lesson ended. Kevin was nudged by another Ravenclaw who he did not recognize. "What are you looking at?"
Kevin shrugged and turned back to his book. The student beside him shifted slightly in his seat.
"Oh my god, that is something to stare at... I can't believe you saw her before I did!"
Kevin rolled his eyes and turned around. The student beside him was a young, handsome boy with black hair. He saw him staring right over Kevin's head at the Slytherin girl. The girl seemed to have noticed, however, and turned her head towards the boy next to Kevin.
"Hey, just looking," The boy muttered, and turned back to his seat. Kevin thought that the eleven-year-old was more interested in gaining a reputation as being cool at the school than girls at his age.
The Slytherin girl raised her eyebrows angrily and mouthed something rude at the boy. He smiled, and hunched lower in his seat.
Finally, the lesson ended. Kevin learned that the Ravenclaw boy's name was Jonathan Courier, and that he was a half muggle, half wizard. Jonathan had been very talkative and had gotten both Kevin and him in trouble, losing Ravenclaw five points. Kevin had tried to follow the Slytherin girl after the class, but Jonathan got in way.
"Hey, what do you think of her?"
"Shuttup" Kevin snapped angrily, pushing past the boy. He had taken about all he could handle from the boy at class.
"No seriously, what do you think of her?" Jonathan asked, prancing into Kevin's way again. Kevin knew he would lose his chance to talk to the Slytherin girl if she sat down at her table before he intercepted her. He shoved past Jonathan again.
"Hey, come on! I'm sorry I'm so chattery at class but I'm a talkative person! Now where are you going?"
Kevin cursed mentally and turned around. "I'm going to lunch, where I believe everybody else is going. Now stop following me."
He spun around and began sprinting down the steps three at a time, muttering a quick apology whenever he knocked into somebody. Unfortunately for him, three at a time down the steps led him right into the trick step on the marble staircase. Kevin's foot sunk firmly into the step. By the time it was loose, almost everybody was seated at lunch, and his chance was gone.
After a rather boring lunch, being pestered by Jonathan about god knew what (Kevin didn't listen) all through it, Kevin finally managed to get away from Jonathan for a few seconds to overview his work. It seemed to be all in order; some papers he had to make could easily be magically copied from some of his Ashallan reports (he had learned the spell Magical Duplicate in a class at Ashallan.)
After arranging his papers in his bag, Kevin moved out of his dormitory, wondering where the Slytherins were going. He supposed he was obsessing too much about the Slytherin girl. There were others that looked like her. Maybe it was the way she held herself that matched the image in his mind so well?
Kevin forced himself to stop following up on what had happened last night and to pay attention to his classes. He paid attention in the next two classes before dinner; Jonathan seemed to have finally gotten the message from Kevin and left him alone.
Kevin finally ran down with the rest of the Ravenclaw first years from his last class of the day to dinner. The food was noticeably better than the Ashallan stock. Kevin wondered who made it; at Ashallan the food was magically prepared by djinns; they worked hard but were not prime cooks.
"Hi there. What's your name?"
Kevin turned his head to see a pretty black-haired girl sitting on his right side. She was watching him while spreading butter on a piece of toast.
"Uh- Kevin. Kevin Rashall. Pleased to meet you." He stuck out his left hand and awkwardly shook hers.
"You too. Are you from around here? 'Cause you have a strange accent."
"Uh... well I... moved here a year ago, and got my letter just... well, you know."
"Were you surprised? My mum and dad are muggles, but not all the way, sorta. They are both authors, and love fantasy books and all that. They didn't believe the letter until I met another kid who had gotten one. I'm not sure where he is though. I think he might have been sorted into Gryffondor, but I'm not sure because I so nervous..."
Kevin almost replied that he hadn't been very nervous, but then decided to be fair and recalled his first time at Ashallan. "I was terrified. I'm glad I was sorted into K- Ravenclaw."
Krysten took a bite off of a chicken leg. "Neat," she said, still swallowing her food. "I was kinda hoping for Gryffondor-well, you know, Harry Potter, it's got a really, really good rep after he came in. But I guess I'm glad I was put into a house that was prized for cleverness."
"Me too." Kevin grinned. "Back at-" he stopped dead. How hard was this going to be, keeping all of the events of the last two years of his life away from his friends? And acting as an eleven-year old when he was going on thirteen?
"Back at what?" Krysten raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, nothing. Really." Kevin smiled, hoping it looked convincing, and turned his head away.
Dinner ended not too long after that. Kevin met Stewart Ackerley again up in the common room, and challenged him to a game of wizard chess. It was interesting, because Kevin hadn't seen before how all the pieces looked when they 'died'. He got a course on that when Stewart destroyed each one of his pieces, until his king was left alone on the field to be checkmated. Kevin had conquered a grand total of three pawns and a knight.
After the chess game Stewart retired to his dorm, and Kevin stayed down to chat with Krysten and her new friend Lyra.
After talking for about half an hour, Lyra went up to bed and Krysten followed after clearing up a couple of astrology papers. Krysten liked astrology as a hobby, but not as a class.
Kevin dreamed again that night.
He was standing on hard rock. All around him, the land jutted downwards hundreds of feet into roiling black fog. There were only a couple of feet to walk on.
Kevin looked up. There was another of him, a duplicate, standing on the other side of the land. He was frowning.
"What do you want?" Kevin asked, his voice shaking.
"Don't do it, Kevin. It will kill you. Don't do it." The other him widened his eyes slightly. The real Kevin's vision blurred...
Voices echoed inside of Kevin's head... someone screamed, and reached out and touched his hand.
Julianne? Kevin thought desperately. You're dead... you're not alive anymore...
Shaking his head, Kevin looked up again. His duplicate was wearing the same grim expression. "It almost killed you before. There is a greater danger here. You are closer to your worst enemy."
"I don't have an enemy!" Kevin yelled.
The duplicate raised his hand slowly. Black mist began slowly creeping up the edges of the cliffs. The hand raised, slowly, and finally stopped, pointing right at Kevin. "Your worst enemy... don't do it."
Kevin shook his head. "If my enemy is myself, than you are my enemy. Go away!"
"I am not you, Kevin," his duplicate said grimly. He began shaking his head from side to side. His face changed, slowly, growing scars and bruises. Finally it stopped. Kevin was left staring at a bloody, mauled face, clearly his own. Opening his bloodstained mouth, his duplicate spoke one last time. "You must go now." And with a wave of one hand, he pushed Kevin backwards, to far, off of the cliff, down into the fog....
"Don't take the throne."