A/N: I'm sorry that I took so long!!! I went through a temporary bout of writers' block, but hopefully it won't come back. Thank you for all your reviews; you don't know how much they mean to me! The chapters should (hopefully) start flowing more smoothly now, and this was SUPPOSED to be longer but I was taking so long writing it that I thought I'd just post this and write more later.
I found out how to do italics and stuff!!! Yay!!! So I'm going to redo the other chapters with the formatting.
Also, I was reading the fifth book over again and I remembered that Amelia Bones was the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, so I have to go back and give Avelus Cypress a different job. Umm...that's all for now, I guess.
Divided We Fall
Chapter 3- Arrival
By Topaz Waters
When Ron and Hermione entered the compartment, Luna immediately jumped up in front of Ron.
"Oh, hello Ron," she said, as if she had just noticed him standing there. "Had a nice summer, I suppose?"
"Er...yeah." Ginny was shaking with silent laughter. Hermione pulled out a book and very determinedly began to read, while Ron just stood there looking puzzled. Harry felt a laugh trying to escape his throat, and tried quickly to cut it off.
"Well," said Luna dreamily, heading for the compartment's sliding door, "I'm going to see if the snack cart is out yet."
When the door had slammed shut behind her, Ginny's giggles erupted into ringing laughter. Ron glared.
"What was that all about?" he asked.
She was giggling too hard to reply. Harry felt himself start to laugh, too. The corners of Hermione's mouth twitched a little.
"Don't you think its obvious, Ron?" She asked, her voice haughty, even if her eyes did show the slightest flicker of amusement.
"Er...no," he said flatly.
She slammed her book down onto her bag and put a hand to her forehead. "Honestly, Ron! I don't see how you could have survived this long with that brain of yours, Ron, I really don't..."
Ron's eyes flashed and he was about to snap at her, but Luna chose that particular moment to return with an armful of cauldron cakes and chocolate frogs.
"I have some for all of us," she said. "Here..." She handed two of each to Harry, Hermione, and Ginny. Ron, however, received three cauldron cakes and five frogs. He stared at them, and then at Luna...then his eyes turned to Ginny. She nodded, snickering behind Luna's back.
Harry watched the slow look of horror that crept across his best friend's face. Times like this made him see just why Hermione got so frustrated sometimes...
* * *
The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful; Ron and Harry played Exploding Snap, Hermione read from The Standard Book of Spells: Grade 6, and Ginny read a borrowed copy of a teen magazine called MMG (Modern Magical Generation). Luna alternated between reading The Quibbler and staring blankly out of the window.
When the train slowed approaching the gates to Hogwarts, there was a rustle of commotion as everyone scuttled to collect their belongings. Harry started when he saw the white-eyed thestrals harnessed to the Hogwarts carriages; they would probably take a little time to get used to. As when he last saw them, he marveled at how he could have thought they were anything but the graceful, beautiful creatures that they were. Luna passed him, glanced at the spot he was looking at, and smiled.
Harry was about to climb into the nearest carriage when he noticed that Ron and Hermione were no longer with him. He turned and saw them a little way away from the platform, staring at the carriages. He looked back at them, but saw nothing extraordinary. Besides the thestrals of course...but- of course!
"Ron! Hermione! Come on!" he yelled. Both of them were wide-eyed and staring at the skeletal black beasts. He went over to them.
"Wh-wh-what are those things?" Ron asked, his voiced tinged with alarm. Hermione said nothing, just staring at them in a mixture of awe and fear.
"They're thestrals, Ron," Harry answered.
"Thestrals? But I thought you can only see them if you've seen someone..."he stopped.
Harry had forgotten that they, too, had witnessed death firsthand now...
"So-so these are the things we were riding last year?" Hermione's voice was barely a whisper. "They're...well...they're..."
"Come on, we won't get a carriage if we don't hurry," Harry said gently. Ron took her arm and half-dragged the dazed Hermione to a nearby carriage and helped her inside.
"Come on, Hermione, it's all right; we've been around them before," he said. "They didn't hurt us then..."
She nodded blankly, her eyes glassy.
The ride to the school was a silent and uncomfortable one.
When they got to the Entrance Hall, Harry was quite startled when one of the drapes next to him sneezed. He told this to Ron, who raised a skeptical eyebrow and pulled the curtain aside.
Peeves was there, sobbing. Everyone in the Hall turned to stare at him. In return, he half-heartedly pitched the nearest candlestick at the crowd and flew off. After a moment's tittering from the occupants of the Hall, especially from those hit by the candlestick, people started moving towards the Great Hall again.
"What was that all about?" asked Harry.
"Dunno- Come on, I'm starving."
"What else is new," muttered Hermione. Harry realized after a moment that she hadn't spoken since seeing the thestrals.
They joined the dwindling throng of students heading for the Great Hall and made their way to the Gryffindor table. But the Gryffindor table, unfortunately, had been moved. Looking around, they saw that the entire setup of the Great Hall had been altered. The High Table was still at the front, but there were now 8 other tables lined up. The Great Hall itself looked a little bigger, too.
"They did a scaling spell, I guess," said Hermione. "There's probably spells on the dormitories too..."
"Which dorms are they sleeping in, do you think?" asked Ron.
"Well, whatever house they're sorted into, obviously."
"They have to be sorted?"
"Of course," Hermione replied. "It's Hogwarts' policy that all students to be taught in the castle must be sorted first."
"Great," said Ron moodily. "Now we'll have all of Malfoy's mates from the train in Slytherin. That's just all that the world needs, more Slytherins..."
"What are you talking about?" asked Harry.
Hermione and Ron proceeded to tell him what they had overheard on the train.
"...And it was so weird, they all knew each other and stuff...and they're all related to each other."
"That's what Sirius told me," Harry said, his voice wavering slightly. Hermione and Ron looked taken aback, Harry hadn't mentioned Sirius to them since last year...
After and awkward pause, they drifted with the crowd into the hall and found the Gryffindor table by following their classmates. The heads of Houses directed the new students to the other tables. One thing that Harry noticed was that the other wizarding schools were significantly smaller than Hogwarts. Hogwarts had hundreds and hundreds of students enrolled, whereas the others had about two hundred at most.
Hermione had an odd sort of shadow in her eyes, but she pulled out a book as usual. Ron was looking over at the new tables, craning his neck as though looking for something. Harry contented himself with staring at the gold plate set down in front of him, losing himself in the hum of chatter that echoed around the Hall. He was quite startled when a deep, familiar voice rang out:
"I would like to welcome you all," said Albus Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling, "students and guests- to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
A/N: Wow, reading it over, that didn't come out too good...What did you think? Please please please review!
A couple notes:
Once again, I am SOOOO sorry that I didn't update sooner. I wanted to make my chapters longer, like everyone keeps telling me, so it took a while.
I've been getting a lot of homework lately, it's the first week of school and the teachers are already thinking about MCAS tests, apparently. Now, I can only sneak onto my computer in the afternoon for so long, so it's gonna be tough to pump out these chapters, but I'll keep trying.
To all who have reviewed, I thank you so much and forever!!! It's just so uplifting to get an inbox full of ReviewAlerts when I come home from school.
On a final note: Though it may seem like it, I'm not trying for the generic HP sequel thingy, I just suck at exposition...I WILL try to get it darker in later chapters, I promise. I know that sounds stupid, when you consider the tone of the past three chapters, but it will (hopefully) swing around!!! Unfortunately, because of *dum dum duuum* SCHOOL, I won't be able to get chapters out easily...My brain hurts...and my braces too...ouch...I hope I haven't utterly confused anyone but myself... please R/R!!! Thanx ^_^