Again, I own nothing except Daisy, Dirk, and Professor Berlin. Oh yeah, and the plot!

Daisy walked off of the train and into a carriage with Neville, Dean, and Seamus, who she sat next to. Only when they had started moving did she realize that there was nothing pulling them towards the castle looming high over them.

For the first time that Daisy had noticed, Neville looked relaxed.

"You know, Daisy, I'm pretty glad you've come," he said as they bounded up to Hogwarts Castle. I'll have another sane person around, besides Hermione."

"But, Neville, you've got me and Dean!"

Dean piped up. "Seamus, he said 'sane,' not 'strange'!"

They all laughed.

Daisy was the first to overcome her fit of giggles. "I'm glad to be here too, Neville. I only hope I'm in Gryffindor with you all. All the Gryffindors I've met are really wonderful. What are the other Houses?"

"Well, there's Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, but no one pays much attention to them except the people in those Houses," said Dean. "Then Gryffindor of course, which is the best, but I may be a little biased on that issue. And then there's Slytherin."

"Every witch or wizard that's been evil has been in Slytherin, including. You-Know-Who," Seamus added.

"He was at Hogwarts?" Daisy was startled by this fact, but she wasn't sure why.

"Yeah, years and years ago," Dean answered. "I just hope the school stays open, even during these times, with You-Know-Who out there again."

Neville shuddered and said, "Can we please talk about something a bit more cheerful?"

Seamus nodded. "So Daisy, how'd you handle the World Cup last year? What with the country you lived in plus your best friend playing against the country you were born in, the country of your parents?"

Daisy grinned at him. "Turned out perfect. My birth country won, but my best friend caught the Snitch. The best of the situation, I think. Were you there?"

"Yeah, me and Dean went." Seamus looked across at Dean, who nodded fervently. "It was amazing!"

"I assume you were in one of the shamrocked tents?" Daisy asked. Seamus nodded in agreement. "I was with the Bulgarians. We had a huge poster of Viktor on the tent, just like all the others."

Dean looked over curiously. "All the Bulgarian tents were plastered with Krum?" Daisy nodded. "The Irishmen were just plain plastered the whole time!"

Daisy, Seamus, and Neville laughed hysterically.

"We never got around to seeing the Bulgarian section," Dean continued as the others ended their chortling. "How'd you get over to see the Irish tents?"

Daisy blushed slightly as she began her answer. "Well, I kinda made Alexander sneak over with me. If that crowd had known we were from Bulgaria, they would have hexed us to no end. So we changed into some Irish Muggle clothes I had, then I charmed our hair to change back and forth from our natural brown hair and green. After that, we just walked over the day before the match to check it out."

Before Seamus, eyes glazed in wonderment, could respond, the carriage jerked to a halt. They were here at last.

*~*~*~*~*

Daisy stood with the first years that were being sorted. She noticed one boy standing the group who didn't look much like a first year. In fact, he looked about 15, the same age as Daisy.

Finally, there was no one left standing except for Daisy and the boy she had noticed. The woman who had identified herself as Professor McGonagall spoke out to all the students, seated at four long tables according to House.

"As I'm sure most of you now know, we have two new transfer students, both beginning their fifth year of school," Professor McGonagall said.

Daisy looked at the Gryffindors. Everyone but Ron, Harry, and Hermione looked as confused as she was to hear of another transfer student.

"As this has never happened before, the staff has decided not to use the Sorting Hat in this instance. Instead, each of the students will create an illusion of an animal of their choice. Could we please have Miss Daisy Keane come up here?"

Daisy walked, shaking, up to Professor McGonagall. She took out her wand, then politely asked, "Any animal at all?" When Professor McGonagall nodded, Daisy took a deep breath and looked out to the Gryffindors, hoping for a sign of what to make. All she saw was Seamus wink at her.

Inspiration suddenly struck.

Daisy waved her wand and muttered a few words, conjuring up the form of a lion. The only thing was, it wasn't colored like a lion, but it sure roared like one. The lion's fur had different patches of color on it; Daisy thought they all looked somewhat familiar. Only when she waved her wand to make the illusion vanish did she realize that the patches of color were each in the pattern of the flag of one of six countries: England, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Norway, Germany, and, biggest of all, Ireland.

As she stepped away, Daisy flashed Seamus a huge smile; he grinned back and clapped with the rest of the students in the Great Hall.

Once the applause died down, Professor McGonagall spoke again. "Miss Keane, please take a seat with the Gryffindors, if you would."

The Great Hall roared with applause again, although none were cheering more than Hermione, Fred, George, Neville, and Seamus. Each of them was more thankful for Daisy's arrival than the rest of the students, in their different ways.

Professor McGonagall quieted the students again. "Now, our other new student, Mr. Dirk Sivonen."

As the boy walked up to Professor McGonagall, Daisy sat in the seat Hermione and Ron had made between them. They all looked up to watch Dirk, who was frantically searching his mind.

"We were in a carriage with him," Ron whispered to Daisy. "He's from some little town in Finland and if you ask me, he's a little on the shifty side. I'd bet anything he'll be in Slytherin."

Hermione opened her mouth to comment, but was hushed by Harry, who pointed up at Dirk. He had conjured a snake that had scales with a shining silvery green color.

"See?" Ron hissed. "The symbol off Slytherin is a snake, and their colors are green and silver. Just watch!"

"Sure enough, once the snake vanished, Professor McGonagall stepped up and said, "Mr. Sivonen, would you please join the Slytherins at their table?"

The Slytherin table broke into applause; everyone else just clapped politely. Dirk walked over and sat down across from Malfoy at the Slytherin table, but not before he leered and shot a wink at Hermione. She shot something a little more obscene back at him. (A/N: I know, out of character for Hermione, but I like that phrasing!)

"Hermione!" Ron said, shocked. "What'd you do that for?"

"He had no right to do that! Ugh! The sheer audacity! I just can't believe he had the nerve to do such a thing!"

Daisy patted Hermione on the shoulder. "It's all right, Hermione. I understand where you're coming from."

Hermione looked at her with relief. "Thank you! I'm glad to have a girl around, someone who understands how wrong it is for guys to do that!"

"They just can't keep their damn hormones under control!" Daisy added.

Without warning, both girls suddenly burst into giggles, leaving all the boys very confused.

Up at the teachers' table, a tall, very old-looking man stood up and began to speak. "Now that we have all our students in place, I would like to introduce a new staff member. Professor Joseph Berlin will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts this year."

The old man gestured to a tall, tanned man with short dark brown hair and glasses. Professor Berlin stood up, gave the students a modest wave and smile, and sat back down.

"Look at Snape!" Harry whispered to Ron and Hermione. Hermione then whispered to Daisy.

"See that teacher up there with the long, oily hair? That's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but it's common knowledge that he's wanted the Defense Against the Dark Arts position for years."

The old man then said, "I believe that is all I have to say. Let us now eat."

With a wave of his hand, food appeared on the golden plates in front of them.

During the rest of the mean, Hermione proceeded to point out all of the other teachers, telling Daisy the subjects they taught as well. Hermione identified the tall old man as Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster, and she also told Daisy to steer clears of the skeletal school caretaker, Mr. Filch, and his cat, Mrs. Norris.

Daisy noticed Dirk Sivonen looking at her often, and pointed this out to Hermione.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, he'll soon be taught by Malfoy not to associate with Gryffindors, especially those that are Muggle-born or half-blood."

"Yeah," Daisy smiled. "Until then, he'll just have to watch those raging hormones of his!"

Hermione laughed. This was inconvenient, as she was taking a large sip of pumpkin juice at the time, which she almost spit across the table and all over Harry. This just made her and Daisy laugh even harder.

"Mental, those two," Ron said to Harry. "Good thing Daisy's come, she can put up with it. and probably add to it!"

Harry rolled his eyes in agreement. "Girls," he muttered.

You know, Daisy thought as she helped herself to a treacle tart, I could get to like it here.

I know, the whole carriage ride was too long for reality, and this was an insanely long chapter, but hey, this is my story and I can do what I want!!! *sticks her tongue out at everyone* So, um, please review, even if you think my story sucks so far.