Disclaimer: *blinks* You want another one? Well it's not mine. This chapstick is though! *holds up grape chapstick* hehehe...
AN: Sorry last chappie was so short, but this is going to be a good long one I hope... keep in your seats! Oh, and now that OOTP has come out... yea, I'm not following the things that go on in there, that person is not going to die (though somebody else might in my version... hmm...) but I'm totally stealing the sorting hat's song because it fits with a very large theme in this fic. *begins to snicker at something that amuses her* I'm also continuing with Haley's speaking of Japanese at points because she studies it. (actually because I use it so often in my own vocabulary that I never even think twice about inserting it) So yea, on with it!
**Blue Raspberry**
Chapter Four: Back to Hogwarts
It was finally time. Finally time for the Hogwarts Express to leave with all the students, old and new, to another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry Potter, despite the slump he had been in for the past few weeks, was ecstatic. Then he remembered something when he saw Hermione with a shiny prefect badge on the chest of her robe.
"Ron, who got prefect of the Gryffindor boys?" The two boys looked at each other. "Okay, if I didn't... and you didn't... what's prefect based on anyway? The least rule-breaking?" Ron shrugged. "Well there's Dean, Seamus, and-" Just then Neville walked up, looking somewhat lost.
"Hermione, where's the prefect car?" he asked nervously, his hands clutching something on the chest of his robe. Hermione looked at him.
"The prefect car?" Harry and Ron both looked at him too. "Neville... did you... are you a prefect?" He chewed on his bottom lip and nodded, opening his hands to show a shiny badge just like Hermione's. The bushy-brown-haired girl looked at him then, the expression in her eyes calculating and a little confused.
"Congrats, Neville!" Ron broke the silence, and clapped the slightly shorter boy on the back. Harry grinned and nodded, then realized he wasn't on eye-level with his clumsy friend anymore. In fact, Harry was considerably shorter. Neville had not only grown, but slimmed out over the summer, his appearance suddenly taking on the feeling of someone not entirely used to his new height.
"Well, the prefect car is right over there... I... uh, I'll come with you. I haven't checked in either." And the two walked off toward the first car of the train, leaving Ron and Harry to find a compartment for later.
Seeing as they were a little early, it wasn't hard to claim their traditional compartment at the end of the train. Just as they were opening the door to it, a commotion appeared at the front end of the car. An irate redhead with her back to Harry and Ron and fists on her hips was yelling at Malfoy.
"My god, Draco, I swear you're smarter than this! You've had that badge for five minutes and you're already picking on a third-year!" Said third-year was standing a little ways behind the redhead and was chewing on her knuckles, wearing a pair of baggy jeans and a t-shirt with a picture of a badger on it.
"Smart? Who's talking about being smart? That third-year is a Slytherin in a badger shirt! Slytherins don't support Hufflepuff! It's being downright... un-Slytherin!"
"Hufflepuff? Just because she's wearing a badger shirt dosen't mean she's supporting Hufflepuff! And even if she was, you're picking on her for a reason that is frankly none of your buisness!"
"None of my...! I'm a prefect, Haley, it's my buisness if there's a Slytherin being... un-Slytherin, and I think you're being so right about now!"
"Un-Slytherin? Draco, you idiot, ninety-five percent of the school wouldn't stand up to you because they're scared out of their freaking wits at the thought, but I'm standing up to you because you're doing something that my moral code says isn't right - literally doing everything in my power to get things the way I want them to be - and you're calling ME un-Slytherin? You need to get your priorities straight." She turned and grabbed the wrist of the third-year Slytherin. "Come on Brenna, let's let him straighten himself out alone."
And she marched off, leaving Malfoy glaring after her. He turned and looked up, spotting Ron and Harry, scowled and muttered, "What?" then turned and left the car. Harry and Ron went into the compartment they were in front of, closed the door, caught each other's eyes, and burst into hysterical laughter.
"I... can't beleive... oh god." Ron tried to gasp out after they had mostly calmed down. "Did you see his FACE?" He laughed a little more.
"And how did you like that phrase he used? 'Un-Slytherin'" he mocked, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, "Lockhart could've come up with something better!" They were still laughing when Hermione reappeared.
"What's so funny?" she asked with an expression that betrayed she thought she'd missed some fun.
"Haley making an absolute idiot of Malfoy after he messed with some third-year." Ron chuckled out. Hermione rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.
"They're the Slytherin prefects, you know." Hermione commented.
"Those two?" Ron said, eyes filling with amusement again. "The Slytherins won't have a moment of peace!"
"And the problem with that is...?" Harry asked wryly. "Really I think that Haley is the only Slytherin I've ever liked." And if he'd been looking at Ron at that particular moment, Harry would have noticed that his friend gave him a sharp, somewhat worried look, and then stared at the ground. "So who are the other prefects for this year?"
"Susan Bones and Justin Flich-Flechety for Hufflepuff, and-" she was cut off as the train began moving. Ron looked up and out the window, suddenly smiling slightly at something in his own mind. Harry looked at him and delicately lifted an eyebrow.
"Something interesting happening that you care to share with us?" he asked. Ron smiled at him and shook his head in an I'm-not-telling-you-now manner.
"Ron." Hermione prompted in her own way.
"Not saying a word." He said, and caught Harry's eye. "Not until we get to school." Harry felt the bottom of his stomach drop as he remembered that he'd promised to tell Ron what was bothering him back at the burrow when they got to school.
Hermione watched this exchange carefully, and finally asked, "Harry? You... er, you alright?"
"Hn." He grunted, and settled back in the corner of the seat. Hermione shot Ron an accusatory glare, and Ron, for once, looked abashed at what he'd done. There was a long silence then as Harry stared moodily out the window, Ron watched Harry worriedly, and Hermione looked from one to the other repeatedly and puzzled over what had just happened.
"Ano... would it be okay if I joined you for a bit?" They all turned to see a very farmiliar copper-haired Slytherin in the doorway.
"By all means, come in." Harry greeted emphatically, glad for a distraction of any sort. Hermione noticed it and tried to suppress a quizzical expression slipping across her features.
"Arigato. I need a place Draco won't think of looking for me." She glanced at the door as she said his name, as if he would come bursting through at any moment.
"Is he not happy with the outcome of your argument?" Ron asked, a wryness in his voice and words that was not usually present. Harry looked at him, startled.
"How do you..."
"You were at the end of this train car. We were just down here. It wasn't exactly... ah... hard to hear you." Haley looked at her fellow redhead and smiled in amusement.
"Fair enough." There followed a long silence, as so often occurs when a new person enters a group of old friends. Hermione proved to be the silence's undoing with her sharp memory.
"Haley, that thing you said earlier... ahree... umm..."
"Arigato?" Haley provided.
"Oh! Yes, that. What is it? I've never encountered that word before."
"It's 'thank you' in japanese." she stated somewhat shyly. Harry likened it to being embarassed, though he couldn't think of why she might be embarassed about knowing japanese.
"Do you speak much?" Hermione continued on, always eager to learn.
"Mm-hm. I've been studying it for about..." she counted on her fingers, "three and a half years, give or take a couple months."
"Where do you study it? I'm right interested, if it won't interfere with my schoolwork."
"Oh, I... ah... I study on my own. Out of books, and... you know... watching animes and such..." her pale cheeks flushed to a pinkish red as she trailed off, looking at the floor at her feet.
"Could you say something for us?" Ron asked, completely oblivious to Haley's mood change. She turned an even darker shade of red and looked at him nervously.
"Well, uh, that is what should I... ah... say?" Ron shrugged.
"Anything." Haley, to Harry's extreme surprise, weakly cowered and brought her knees up to hug against her chest. In Harry's mind, this didn't quite make sense. Here was a girl who referred to Malfoy by his first name, stood up to him to the point of actually yelling in public if need be, was an apparent potions genius, and on top of that knew japanese; and yet when she was asked to demonstrate, she turned a brilliant shade of red and hid behind her own knees.
"I won't say anything at all if you don't tell me what to say." she mumbled, voice slightly muffled from behind her arms. He looked at Ron, who seemed equally puzzled, and then Hermione, who seemed to understand at least a bit.
"Just say..." he glanced at Ron "... and excuse me for being poetic... 'I want you all to myself'." His two closer companions both looked at him oddly, obviously extremely curious as to what had made him think of that. Haley visibly relaxed and smiled.
"Anata hitorijime ga hoshii." she said, the words rolling smoothly off her tounge. At the three's surprised expressions, she colored again but smiled. Her mismatched eyes sought out Harry' green pair and she gave him a look of intense gratitude. He returned with a smile.
"Am I interrupting something?" drawled a silky voice from the doorway. All four occupants of the compartment looked up to see Draco Malfoy, leaning comfortably against the doorframe. "Not that I really care." he fixed a glare-of-painful-death on Haley with cold grey-blue eyes. "This is the second time, Haley. The second time I've caught you in the company of these three Gryffindors." He acknowledged their prescences. "Granger, Potter, Weasley." he turned back to his victim. "You, Haley, are supposed to be a leader of Slytherins. A prefect. Where the hell do you get off associating with these..." he faltered. "...okay, so it's required for you to associate with Granger, but Potter and Weasley..." Harry looked at his new friend, worried for her as she hadn't even recovered from the odd japanese thing when Draco had appeared. He was shocked to find her returning the glare of death to Draco, and she looked furious.
"Draco..." she hissed in a low key. She stood up, black robes falling elegantly to the ground. He advanced a step on her, not breaking eye contact.
"If I find you with them one more time..." he grabbed her by the front of the robes, an act that would have seemed racy if it hadn't been obviously meant as a threat. A dangerous, low growl ripped from Haley's throat and she grabbed Draco's wrist with her fingernails, digging them in. Then all at once Draco was halfway across the apartment from her, having been slammed into the wall.
"NEVER touch me, you arrogant, pompous son of a bitch." the words came out half hiss half growl in an eerily frightening sound that made the hairs on the back of Harry's neck stand on end. She pulled out her wand in a fluid motion and aimed it point-blank at Draco's chest. "I will choose my own friends and walk my own path. If you try to impede upon it, you will be hurt." she stood and walked to the door. Halfway out, she turned her head back. "After all this time, I thought you knew that, though."
And with that, she was gone.
Everybody stared after her for a long time, even Draco, but soon the three Gryffindors looked at him cautiously.
"That kid gets weirder every time I see her." Harry remarked.
"Try having known her since you were three." Draco replied in a detached manner.
"Ano... daijobu?" came a curious voice from the doorway. Haley was poking her head back in. Draco heaved himself up and looked at her.
"I'm fine." he started out the door. "But next time you pull that anguness thing I swear I'll..." his voice trailed away as they got farther away from the compartment. They all stared again, this time for a different reason.
"If I may second that, Harry..." Ron said uncertainly. He looked at Hermione for her to agree as well, but she was already puzzling over something, muttering.
"Anguness ((ayn-joo-ness)), anguness... where have I heard that before?"
"Hermione?" Ron asked cautiously as she opened her trunk and started digging for her new care of magical creatures book. She flipped it open to a page with a picture of what looked like a large cat with angel wings and a unicorn's horn.
"Anguness... short for angel lioness... has a lion's voice box and a snake's tounge." She smiled. "I thought so." she said louder.
"Umm, you though what, Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Draco said something about 'pulling an anguness thing'. Haley sounded like she was both growling and hissing, right? Well and anguness has a lion's voice box and a snake's tounge. So technically it could growl and hiss at the same time, like Haley was doing."
"Oh." was the only reply she got, but she seemed content with it anyway. The rest of the trip to Hogwarts proved to be rather uneventful, barring when Ron almost choked on a jalapino flavored bertie bott's bean. There were no more sightings of farmiliar people (or unfarmiliar ones, for that matter) and they enjoyed an exciting game of exploding snap.
"Firs' years!" called a gruff voice from the Hogwarts platform. "Firs' years over here!" Harry smiled at hearing Hagrid calling out. Evidently he'd managed to make it back to Hogwarts from whatever he'd been doing in the summer. On the hill, Hogwarts loomed, looking friendly and frightening both.
Riding the carraiges up to the castle, Harry caught sight of a very odd-looking girl with long dirty blonde hair and a vacant expression. She seemed to be holding Neville's toad and looked for all the world like she had just wandered up and gotten into the carraige because it was there.
"Oh, I can't wait until classes start..." Hermione was saying. "I've been signed up for arinthmancy master classes, did you know they let me test out of the advanced class? I'm hoping to take the grand master classes next year."
"Hermione." Harry finally interrupted. "It's not like I don't think it's great and all, but I didn't even know Hogwarts HAD master and grand master arinthmancy classes."
"Oh Harry, of course they do, along with..." Harry shook his head and smiled, partially tuning her out. It was good to be home.
The Great Hall was absolutely gorgeous, as usual, with it's floating candles and starry-sky-ceiling. That night a full moon shone down on the feast as well, making Harry think of Professor Lupin, and then of DADA teachers in general.
"Who do you think will be the defense against the dark arts teacher this year?" he asked in the clamor before the new first-years were to be brought out.
"As long as it's not Snape, I don't care." Ron replied, glancing at the potions master.
"Well it's not." Hermione pointed out matter-of-factly. "There's a new person up there, who I've never seen before. She's got to be the new one." Harry squinted at the black-haired woman and turned back to Hermione.
"Are you sure? I've seen her before." He said. Hermione looked confused, but Ron snapped his fingers, remembering.
"Yea, she just graduated! She was a chaser on the Slytherin quidditch team!" He realized what he'd just said. "Oh great. Like we really need to deal with more Slytherins."
"Technically, Ron, she's not a Slytherin anymore if she graduated." Hermione replied. Ron looked to Harry for support on the matter, but the green-eyed boy shrugged.
"Hermione's got a point." Harry said. Ron opened his mouth to argue, but at that moment, the new first-years filed in. Harry was amused to find in the center of the line, four of them had managed to form a tight knot that Snape glared at vehemently.
The sorting hat was already set up and there was a long moment where nothing happened. The first-years mostly looked scared out of their skins. Then suddenly a rip near the brim opened, the hat looked around (well, it seemed like it looked around) and began to sing:
In times of old when I was new
And Hogwarts barely started
The founders of our noble school
Thought never to be parted:
United by a common goal,
They had the selfsame yearning,
To make the world's best magic school
And pass along the learning.
"Together we will build and teach!"
The four good friends decided
And never did they dream that they
Might someday be divided,
For were there such friends anywhere
As Slytherin and Gryffindor? (Harry glanced at Haley across the room)
Unless it was the second pair
Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?
So how could it have gone so wrong?
How could such friendships fail?
Why, I was there and so can tell
The whole sad, sorry tale.
Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those
Whose ancestry is purest."
Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose
Intelligence is surest."
Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach those who
Have brave deeds to their name."
Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot,
And treat them just the same."
These differences caused little strife
When first they came to light,
For each of the four founders had
A House in which they might
Take only those they wanted, so,
For instance, Slytherin
Took only pure-blood wizards
Of great cunning, just like him.
And only those of sharpest mind
Were taught by Ravenclaw
While the bravest and the boldest
Went to daring Gryffindor.
Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest,
And taught them all she knew,
Thus the houses and their founders
Retained friendships firm and true.
So Hogwarts worked in harmony
For several happy years,
But then discord crept among us
Feeding on our faults and fears.
The Houses that, like pillars four,
Had once held up our school,
Now turned upon each other and,
Divided, sought to rule.
And for a while it seemed the school
Must meet an early end,
What with dueling and with fighting
And the clash of friend on friend
And at last there came a morning
When old Slytherin departed
And though the fighting then died out
He left us quite downhearted.
And never since the founders four
Were whittled down to three
Have the Houses been united
As they once were meant to be.
And now the Sorting Hat is here
And you all know the score:
I sort you into Houses
Because that is what I'm for.
But this year I'll go further,
Listen closely to my song:
Though condemned I am to split you
Still I worry that it's wrong,
Though I must fulfill my duty
And must quarter every year
Still I wonder whether sorting
May not bring the end I fear.
Oh, know the perils, read the signs,
The warning history shows,
For our Hogwarts is in danger
From external, deadly foes
And we must unite inside her
Or we'll crumble from within
I have told, you, I have warned you...
Let the sorting now begin.
There was a moment of silence after the hat went still, as the students at the four tables exchanged glances warily, unsure of what to do. Dumbledore began the applause, and when it rang, it rang clear and true, but the feeling was off and everybody knew. ((ahhh!!! no more rhyming!!!)) McGonagall, after getting a nod from Dumbledore, began the sorting, and the Great Hall was more silent than ever before.
"Asafoetida, Opal!" She called. The girl ran forward and set the hat on her head.
"RAVENCLAW!" cried the hat momentarily, and as the sorting began, the occupants of the room visibly relaxed. Harry partially tuned out the sorting, which seemed to go much faster than the previous year's. His ears, however, perked up every time a Gryffindor or Slytherin was sorted.
'Loneking, Apollo' went to the Gryffindor table, directly followed by 'Luna, Taiyou' and 'Luna, Tsuki' to the Slytherin. He noted that they were three of the four of the knot he had noticed earlier. 'Oceanking, Iro' went to Ravenclaw and was the last of those he was remotely interested in.
Soon the sorting was done with and so was the feast, and Hermione and Neville found themselves leading a group of droopy-eyed first years to the Gryffindor common room. Harry was so tired himelf that the moment his head touched the pillow, he was asleep.
AN: I know, I know. I totally skipped the feast. But it's ten pages already and I wanted to get this up and still leave it with a sence of mystery and yet contentment. ... Yea. ^^;;
AN: Sorry last chappie was so short, but this is going to be a good long one I hope... keep in your seats! Oh, and now that OOTP has come out... yea, I'm not following the things that go on in there, that person is not going to die (though somebody else might in my version... hmm...) but I'm totally stealing the sorting hat's song because it fits with a very large theme in this fic. *begins to snicker at something that amuses her* I'm also continuing with Haley's speaking of Japanese at points because she studies it. (actually because I use it so often in my own vocabulary that I never even think twice about inserting it) So yea, on with it!
**Blue Raspberry**
Chapter Four: Back to Hogwarts
It was finally time. Finally time for the Hogwarts Express to leave with all the students, old and new, to another year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry Potter, despite the slump he had been in for the past few weeks, was ecstatic. Then he remembered something when he saw Hermione with a shiny prefect badge on the chest of her robe.
"Ron, who got prefect of the Gryffindor boys?" The two boys looked at each other. "Okay, if I didn't... and you didn't... what's prefect based on anyway? The least rule-breaking?" Ron shrugged. "Well there's Dean, Seamus, and-" Just then Neville walked up, looking somewhat lost.
"Hermione, where's the prefect car?" he asked nervously, his hands clutching something on the chest of his robe. Hermione looked at him.
"The prefect car?" Harry and Ron both looked at him too. "Neville... did you... are you a prefect?" He chewed on his bottom lip and nodded, opening his hands to show a shiny badge just like Hermione's. The bushy-brown-haired girl looked at him then, the expression in her eyes calculating and a little confused.
"Congrats, Neville!" Ron broke the silence, and clapped the slightly shorter boy on the back. Harry grinned and nodded, then realized he wasn't on eye-level with his clumsy friend anymore. In fact, Harry was considerably shorter. Neville had not only grown, but slimmed out over the summer, his appearance suddenly taking on the feeling of someone not entirely used to his new height.
"Well, the prefect car is right over there... I... uh, I'll come with you. I haven't checked in either." And the two walked off toward the first car of the train, leaving Ron and Harry to find a compartment for later.
Seeing as they were a little early, it wasn't hard to claim their traditional compartment at the end of the train. Just as they were opening the door to it, a commotion appeared at the front end of the car. An irate redhead with her back to Harry and Ron and fists on her hips was yelling at Malfoy.
"My god, Draco, I swear you're smarter than this! You've had that badge for five minutes and you're already picking on a third-year!" Said third-year was standing a little ways behind the redhead and was chewing on her knuckles, wearing a pair of baggy jeans and a t-shirt with a picture of a badger on it.
"Smart? Who's talking about being smart? That third-year is a Slytherin in a badger shirt! Slytherins don't support Hufflepuff! It's being downright... un-Slytherin!"
"Hufflepuff? Just because she's wearing a badger shirt dosen't mean she's supporting Hufflepuff! And even if she was, you're picking on her for a reason that is frankly none of your buisness!"
"None of my...! I'm a prefect, Haley, it's my buisness if there's a Slytherin being... un-Slytherin, and I think you're being so right about now!"
"Un-Slytherin? Draco, you idiot, ninety-five percent of the school wouldn't stand up to you because they're scared out of their freaking wits at the thought, but I'm standing up to you because you're doing something that my moral code says isn't right - literally doing everything in my power to get things the way I want them to be - and you're calling ME un-Slytherin? You need to get your priorities straight." She turned and grabbed the wrist of the third-year Slytherin. "Come on Brenna, let's let him straighten himself out alone."
And she marched off, leaving Malfoy glaring after her. He turned and looked up, spotting Ron and Harry, scowled and muttered, "What?" then turned and left the car. Harry and Ron went into the compartment they were in front of, closed the door, caught each other's eyes, and burst into hysterical laughter.
"I... can't beleive... oh god." Ron tried to gasp out after they had mostly calmed down. "Did you see his FACE?" He laughed a little more.
"And how did you like that phrase he used? 'Un-Slytherin'" he mocked, wiping tears of mirth from his eyes, "Lockhart could've come up with something better!" They were still laughing when Hermione reappeared.
"What's so funny?" she asked with an expression that betrayed she thought she'd missed some fun.
"Haley making an absolute idiot of Malfoy after he messed with some third-year." Ron chuckled out. Hermione rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.
"They're the Slytherin prefects, you know." Hermione commented.
"Those two?" Ron said, eyes filling with amusement again. "The Slytherins won't have a moment of peace!"
"And the problem with that is...?" Harry asked wryly. "Really I think that Haley is the only Slytherin I've ever liked." And if he'd been looking at Ron at that particular moment, Harry would have noticed that his friend gave him a sharp, somewhat worried look, and then stared at the ground. "So who are the other prefects for this year?"
"Susan Bones and Justin Flich-Flechety for Hufflepuff, and-" she was cut off as the train began moving. Ron looked up and out the window, suddenly smiling slightly at something in his own mind. Harry looked at him and delicately lifted an eyebrow.
"Something interesting happening that you care to share with us?" he asked. Ron smiled at him and shook his head in an I'm-not-telling-you-now manner.
"Ron." Hermione prompted in her own way.
"Not saying a word." He said, and caught Harry's eye. "Not until we get to school." Harry felt the bottom of his stomach drop as he remembered that he'd promised to tell Ron what was bothering him back at the burrow when they got to school.
Hermione watched this exchange carefully, and finally asked, "Harry? You... er, you alright?"
"Hn." He grunted, and settled back in the corner of the seat. Hermione shot Ron an accusatory glare, and Ron, for once, looked abashed at what he'd done. There was a long silence then as Harry stared moodily out the window, Ron watched Harry worriedly, and Hermione looked from one to the other repeatedly and puzzled over what had just happened.
"Ano... would it be okay if I joined you for a bit?" They all turned to see a very farmiliar copper-haired Slytherin in the doorway.
"By all means, come in." Harry greeted emphatically, glad for a distraction of any sort. Hermione noticed it and tried to suppress a quizzical expression slipping across her features.
"Arigato. I need a place Draco won't think of looking for me." She glanced at the door as she said his name, as if he would come bursting through at any moment.
"Is he not happy with the outcome of your argument?" Ron asked, a wryness in his voice and words that was not usually present. Harry looked at him, startled.
"How do you..."
"You were at the end of this train car. We were just down here. It wasn't exactly... ah... hard to hear you." Haley looked at her fellow redhead and smiled in amusement.
"Fair enough." There followed a long silence, as so often occurs when a new person enters a group of old friends. Hermione proved to be the silence's undoing with her sharp memory.
"Haley, that thing you said earlier... ahree... umm..."
"Arigato?" Haley provided.
"Oh! Yes, that. What is it? I've never encountered that word before."
"It's 'thank you' in japanese." she stated somewhat shyly. Harry likened it to being embarassed, though he couldn't think of why she might be embarassed about knowing japanese.
"Do you speak much?" Hermione continued on, always eager to learn.
"Mm-hm. I've been studying it for about..." she counted on her fingers, "three and a half years, give or take a couple months."
"Where do you study it? I'm right interested, if it won't interfere with my schoolwork."
"Oh, I... ah... I study on my own. Out of books, and... you know... watching animes and such..." her pale cheeks flushed to a pinkish red as she trailed off, looking at the floor at her feet.
"Could you say something for us?" Ron asked, completely oblivious to Haley's mood change. She turned an even darker shade of red and looked at him nervously.
"Well, uh, that is what should I... ah... say?" Ron shrugged.
"Anything." Haley, to Harry's extreme surprise, weakly cowered and brought her knees up to hug against her chest. In Harry's mind, this didn't quite make sense. Here was a girl who referred to Malfoy by his first name, stood up to him to the point of actually yelling in public if need be, was an apparent potions genius, and on top of that knew japanese; and yet when she was asked to demonstrate, she turned a brilliant shade of red and hid behind her own knees.
"I won't say anything at all if you don't tell me what to say." she mumbled, voice slightly muffled from behind her arms. He looked at Ron, who seemed equally puzzled, and then Hermione, who seemed to understand at least a bit.
"Just say..." he glanced at Ron "... and excuse me for being poetic... 'I want you all to myself'." His two closer companions both looked at him oddly, obviously extremely curious as to what had made him think of that. Haley visibly relaxed and smiled.
"Anata hitorijime ga hoshii." she said, the words rolling smoothly off her tounge. At the three's surprised expressions, she colored again but smiled. Her mismatched eyes sought out Harry' green pair and she gave him a look of intense gratitude. He returned with a smile.
"Am I interrupting something?" drawled a silky voice from the doorway. All four occupants of the compartment looked up to see Draco Malfoy, leaning comfortably against the doorframe. "Not that I really care." he fixed a glare-of-painful-death on Haley with cold grey-blue eyes. "This is the second time, Haley. The second time I've caught you in the company of these three Gryffindors." He acknowledged their prescences. "Granger, Potter, Weasley." he turned back to his victim. "You, Haley, are supposed to be a leader of Slytherins. A prefect. Where the hell do you get off associating with these..." he faltered. "...okay, so it's required for you to associate with Granger, but Potter and Weasley..." Harry looked at his new friend, worried for her as she hadn't even recovered from the odd japanese thing when Draco had appeared. He was shocked to find her returning the glare of death to Draco, and she looked furious.
"Draco..." she hissed in a low key. She stood up, black robes falling elegantly to the ground. He advanced a step on her, not breaking eye contact.
"If I find you with them one more time..." he grabbed her by the front of the robes, an act that would have seemed racy if it hadn't been obviously meant as a threat. A dangerous, low growl ripped from Haley's throat and she grabbed Draco's wrist with her fingernails, digging them in. Then all at once Draco was halfway across the apartment from her, having been slammed into the wall.
"NEVER touch me, you arrogant, pompous son of a bitch." the words came out half hiss half growl in an eerily frightening sound that made the hairs on the back of Harry's neck stand on end. She pulled out her wand in a fluid motion and aimed it point-blank at Draco's chest. "I will choose my own friends and walk my own path. If you try to impede upon it, you will be hurt." she stood and walked to the door. Halfway out, she turned her head back. "After all this time, I thought you knew that, though."
And with that, she was gone.
Everybody stared after her for a long time, even Draco, but soon the three Gryffindors looked at him cautiously.
"That kid gets weirder every time I see her." Harry remarked.
"Try having known her since you were three." Draco replied in a detached manner.
"Ano... daijobu?" came a curious voice from the doorway. Haley was poking her head back in. Draco heaved himself up and looked at her.
"I'm fine." he started out the door. "But next time you pull that anguness thing I swear I'll..." his voice trailed away as they got farther away from the compartment. They all stared again, this time for a different reason.
"If I may second that, Harry..." Ron said uncertainly. He looked at Hermione for her to agree as well, but she was already puzzling over something, muttering.
"Anguness ((ayn-joo-ness)), anguness... where have I heard that before?"
"Hermione?" Ron asked cautiously as she opened her trunk and started digging for her new care of magical creatures book. She flipped it open to a page with a picture of what looked like a large cat with angel wings and a unicorn's horn.
"Anguness... short for angel lioness... has a lion's voice box and a snake's tounge." She smiled. "I thought so." she said louder.
"Umm, you though what, Hermione?" Harry asked.
"Draco said something about 'pulling an anguness thing'. Haley sounded like she was both growling and hissing, right? Well and anguness has a lion's voice box and a snake's tounge. So technically it could growl and hiss at the same time, like Haley was doing."
"Oh." was the only reply she got, but she seemed content with it anyway. The rest of the trip to Hogwarts proved to be rather uneventful, barring when Ron almost choked on a jalapino flavored bertie bott's bean. There were no more sightings of farmiliar people (or unfarmiliar ones, for that matter) and they enjoyed an exciting game of exploding snap.
"Firs' years!" called a gruff voice from the Hogwarts platform. "Firs' years over here!" Harry smiled at hearing Hagrid calling out. Evidently he'd managed to make it back to Hogwarts from whatever he'd been doing in the summer. On the hill, Hogwarts loomed, looking friendly and frightening both.
Riding the carraiges up to the castle, Harry caught sight of a very odd-looking girl with long dirty blonde hair and a vacant expression. She seemed to be holding Neville's toad and looked for all the world like she had just wandered up and gotten into the carraige because it was there.
"Oh, I can't wait until classes start..." Hermione was saying. "I've been signed up for arinthmancy master classes, did you know they let me test out of the advanced class? I'm hoping to take the grand master classes next year."
"Hermione." Harry finally interrupted. "It's not like I don't think it's great and all, but I didn't even know Hogwarts HAD master and grand master arinthmancy classes."
"Oh Harry, of course they do, along with..." Harry shook his head and smiled, partially tuning her out. It was good to be home.
The Great Hall was absolutely gorgeous, as usual, with it's floating candles and starry-sky-ceiling. That night a full moon shone down on the feast as well, making Harry think of Professor Lupin, and then of DADA teachers in general.
"Who do you think will be the defense against the dark arts teacher this year?" he asked in the clamor before the new first-years were to be brought out.
"As long as it's not Snape, I don't care." Ron replied, glancing at the potions master.
"Well it's not." Hermione pointed out matter-of-factly. "There's a new person up there, who I've never seen before. She's got to be the new one." Harry squinted at the black-haired woman and turned back to Hermione.
"Are you sure? I've seen her before." He said. Hermione looked confused, but Ron snapped his fingers, remembering.
"Yea, she just graduated! She was a chaser on the Slytherin quidditch team!" He realized what he'd just said. "Oh great. Like we really need to deal with more Slytherins."
"Technically, Ron, she's not a Slytherin anymore if she graduated." Hermione replied. Ron looked to Harry for support on the matter, but the green-eyed boy shrugged.
"Hermione's got a point." Harry said. Ron opened his mouth to argue, but at that moment, the new first-years filed in. Harry was amused to find in the center of the line, four of them had managed to form a tight knot that Snape glared at vehemently.
The sorting hat was already set up and there was a long moment where nothing happened. The first-years mostly looked scared out of their skins. Then suddenly a rip near the brim opened, the hat looked around (well, it seemed like it looked around) and began to sing:
In times of old when I was new
And Hogwarts barely started
The founders of our noble school
Thought never to be parted:
United by a common goal,
They had the selfsame yearning,
To make the world's best magic school
And pass along the learning.
"Together we will build and teach!"
The four good friends decided
And never did they dream that they
Might someday be divided,
For were there such friends anywhere
As Slytherin and Gryffindor? (Harry glanced at Haley across the room)
Unless it was the second pair
Of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw?
So how could it have gone so wrong?
How could such friendships fail?
Why, I was there and so can tell
The whole sad, sorry tale.
Said Slytherin, "We'll teach just those
Whose ancestry is purest."
Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose
Intelligence is surest."
Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach those who
Have brave deeds to their name."
Said Hufflepuff, "I'll teach the lot,
And treat them just the same."
These differences caused little strife
When first they came to light,
For each of the four founders had
A House in which they might
Take only those they wanted, so,
For instance, Slytherin
Took only pure-blood wizards
Of great cunning, just like him.
And only those of sharpest mind
Were taught by Ravenclaw
While the bravest and the boldest
Went to daring Gryffindor.
Good Hufflepuff, she took the rest,
And taught them all she knew,
Thus the houses and their founders
Retained friendships firm and true.
So Hogwarts worked in harmony
For several happy years,
But then discord crept among us
Feeding on our faults and fears.
The Houses that, like pillars four,
Had once held up our school,
Now turned upon each other and,
Divided, sought to rule.
And for a while it seemed the school
Must meet an early end,
What with dueling and with fighting
And the clash of friend on friend
And at last there came a morning
When old Slytherin departed
And though the fighting then died out
He left us quite downhearted.
And never since the founders four
Were whittled down to three
Have the Houses been united
As they once were meant to be.
And now the Sorting Hat is here
And you all know the score:
I sort you into Houses
Because that is what I'm for.
But this year I'll go further,
Listen closely to my song:
Though condemned I am to split you
Still I worry that it's wrong,
Though I must fulfill my duty
And must quarter every year
Still I wonder whether sorting
May not bring the end I fear.
Oh, know the perils, read the signs,
The warning history shows,
For our Hogwarts is in danger
From external, deadly foes
And we must unite inside her
Or we'll crumble from within
I have told, you, I have warned you...
Let the sorting now begin.
There was a moment of silence after the hat went still, as the students at the four tables exchanged glances warily, unsure of what to do. Dumbledore began the applause, and when it rang, it rang clear and true, but the feeling was off and everybody knew. ((ahhh!!! no more rhyming!!!)) McGonagall, after getting a nod from Dumbledore, began the sorting, and the Great Hall was more silent than ever before.
"Asafoetida, Opal!" She called. The girl ran forward and set the hat on her head.
"RAVENCLAW!" cried the hat momentarily, and as the sorting began, the occupants of the room visibly relaxed. Harry partially tuned out the sorting, which seemed to go much faster than the previous year's. His ears, however, perked up every time a Gryffindor or Slytherin was sorted.
'Loneking, Apollo' went to the Gryffindor table, directly followed by 'Luna, Taiyou' and 'Luna, Tsuki' to the Slytherin. He noted that they were three of the four of the knot he had noticed earlier. 'Oceanking, Iro' went to Ravenclaw and was the last of those he was remotely interested in.
Soon the sorting was done with and so was the feast, and Hermione and Neville found themselves leading a group of droopy-eyed first years to the Gryffindor common room. Harry was so tired himelf that the moment his head touched the pillow, he was asleep.
AN: I know, I know. I totally skipped the feast. But it's ten pages already and I wanted to get this up and still leave it with a sence of mystery and yet contentment. ... Yea. ^^;;