At approximately 6:00pm Judith showed up at the Leaky Cauldron with a few of her bags. There were not many of them because while in the bookstore the kind shop clerk tallying up her bill had noticed her large baggage. Judith had been struggling to balance the wrapped packages and her cauldron when he informed her that she could have the shop send her books and other packages to her residence quite safely and quickly. Immediately Judith had agreed, told him her the room number at the Leaky Cauldron that she was staying at and then went off into the Alley.

As she stepped further into the dinning area Fred and George very quickly made themselves visible by standing up and waving. She waved back just as enthusiastically, now very happy since the meeting with Malfoy had time to be pushed out of her mind and noticed that Dumbledore was also at the corner table the boys had chosen. Slowly he rose as well and she made her way to them. The bags were dropped at the corner of the table and she nodded her hello to the headmaster of her new school.

Dumbledore smiled and nodded back. "My my you have been busy …and returned back in one piece as well."

Judith suddenly remembered that she was supposed to have been with the twins during the day. "Oh sir! My apologies for brushing off the twins earlier in the day but I simply wanted to see the Alley by myself and…" A raised hand from him silenced her but his face held no anger.

"My dear not to worry. All was explained by the twins already and I went fairly easy on them." The hint of sarcasm made her take a double take of his features to make sure that he was indeed joking. A slight grin confirmed it.

"Now that you, the guest, have arrived it is about time that we order. Correct Fred? George?" The boys nodded and with a wave a barmaid came over and took their orders.

Throughout the main dish the topic of discussion centered around her adventures in Diagon Alley. What was the most interesting shop? The wizard craft shop. How many things she make explode in Ollivander's with her flicking and swishing? Nothing, to the great surprise and disappointment of the boys and the mysterious look from Dumbledore. The questions continued as such until desert when Dumbledore insisted that they each have a slice of the chocolate cheesecake.

When the delectable treat arrived they found he had not order himself a slice but he asked them eat so they did. While they slowly enjoyed the treat the headmaster's voice became more quite allowing only the occupants of the table to hear him.

"Judith in two days you will be waiting at Platform 9 and ¾ with the rest of the student body and then board the train to Hogwarts." Judith nodded already knowing this.

"It is always a very exciting time and noise is everywhere. Children pushing and shoving, shouting, the train attendants yelling and the whistle blowing. It can be very nerve racking."

She supposed it could be but she'd been in situations like that before and never had a problem. She'd always found situations like that energizing and interesting. What was her new headmaster getting at?

"Now for some one of the elven, whom have very powerful senses it can be extremely confusing."

Oh… Judith stopped eating and paid more close attention. Dumbledore was making this out to seem pretty important. Fred and George however continued to scarf down their desert while keeping their eyes on him.

"And at the moment your senses are at the level of the average individual, magical and muggle. But for you to go from that to the more attuned senses that have not been used, I am worried you will be more than overwhelmed." As Dumbledore spoke Fred was covertly moving the hand he wasn't using to shovel food, toward Judith's desert plate.

"I suppose." She said and stabbed her fork before Fred's fingers. The hand was pulled back to his lap immediately.

Dumbledore chuckled and using his own fork, stole a morsel of cake off her dish. Judith made no move to stop him and Fred gave a look of humorous outrage.
An extremely satisfied look passed over Dumbledore's face after he swallowed. "Uhm… Very good. But back to this problem. There is not much I can do Judith but I can restore your intended senses as soon as possible so you'll have tonight and tomorrow to adjust as best as possible. At the castle you will have little time for silence, even during the night." His look seemed far off for a moment and the smile returned again. "The reason you will have them returned is because you must become accustomed to your elven traits. Though your identity must not be revealed so your ears will be charmed to look human, you need to have your disguise removed so that your people will be able to recognize you by your aura of energy. No others will be able to detect what you are like other elven. However people like Voldemort," he whispered much quieter, "could find you out if they knew where to look with complex spells."

The information was absorbed and Judith looked up into the hopeful eyes of her headmaster.

"Beside even as your people, particularly the house elves employed by the castle, begin recognizing what and who you are they likely will begin seeking you out weather or not you accept your title.

"Now with most things considered… Are you still interested in going through with this?"

"Yes." There was no need to think about it.

A smile again and the headmaster raised himself. "Very well, now if you do not mind I think it would be best if I cast the spell in your room." Judith and the twins rose from their chairs, Fred give a last finger swipe over the crumbs on his plate and the headmaster carefully selected from his coin purse the cost of the meal.

After making their way up to the room Judith opened the door and sat on the bed. The boys flanked her on either side and Dumbledore softly closed the door behind them. Then he stepped up in front of them and his wand had materialized in his hand though no move for it had been made.

"I would like your undivided attention Miss Nichols as I perform the spell and even though it is early in the evening I advise that you try sleeping or in the least remain in your room to prevent yourself from becoming overwhelmed." He gave an encouraging smile and then raised his wand steadily and spoke a very strange verse of what Judith could only guess could be Latin.

There was a peculiar light that glowed only briefly but then it was gone and she could no longer care to examine where it originated from because suddenly her mind was a swirling cacophony of noise! Her hands immediately gripped the bed. The noise had hit her like a blow to her body. Drums. Beats. Screams. Notes. SLASH. TICK. CRASH. CREEEK. Here and there, next to her, inside of her, and miles around. Outwardly her face was a grimace, her entire body clenched and it worried the others; even in his experience Dumbledore had never performed the spell he had.
The throbbing brought about by the noise was the worst but as the impact wore down a little her other senses came to her. The bedsheets crumpled beneath her fingers were slightly more scratchy than she remembered.
With her eyes closed she could almost feel and see the energy of the objects around her. The most obvious 'auras' belonging to her companions. They seemed bright like colors but they weren't- they were energy. She'd experienced this before…. When she was younger. Only when she concentrated but never this bright or strongly-
There was a breeze. Funny since she hadn't noticed it before… The window wasn't open. But this small wind swirled beneath her nose a heavenly sent. She couldn't tell what it was and before she knew it her body had latched onto the source.
After opening her eyes to identify the source she realized that she was in close proximity to flesh and red hair. The source happened to be George's neck. She was surprised enough to quickly move away but with some disappointment of having the smell slightly muted.

George's blush was as red as his hair. The other two laughed while Judith nearly matched his blush. Her embarrassment was quickly over come though by the interesting colors and tiny details on her hand which she was staring down at. Oh! She'd never scene such colors… It was as though, before she had been looking at the world through a film but now it had been removed or she'd been given glasses and could properly see things.

"I see you are smitten with your new senses." Dumbledore said gently and the pounding of her head returned a little but it dimmed down again.

Judith absently nodded and focused more on her hearing. The throbbing came again but when she kind of studied it she could discern different things from it. She realized one of the sounds she heard was a heart beat and then after recognizing one she could hear 3 others which likely belonged to the twins and Albus Dumbledore. A scraping from a chair broke through the beating and Judith realized that that noise had come from someone leaving a table downstairs. It immediately fade out again and the beating returned. She tried focusing on something else -the auras- and the beating died out again. A smile broke over her features as she realized she could control this sense a little. It would simply take time to practice and become accustomed.

Opening her eyes she looked directly at the headmaster who was changed from before, like everything else, yet was still the same.

"I think I'll get the hang of his." She said confidently and momentarily wondered over the new properties of her voice.

"Good." Dumbledore said while slightly grinning. "But now that your are in your element we must take the necessary precautions to keep others from finding it out as well." Shuffling in his robes he moved over to the rooms provided dresser and picked up the mirror from Judith's vanity set. He then came in front of her and presented her with it.

When she glanced at the image she was astonished. Her skin had always been a sickly pale color, she had even joked at times she looked dead. The few acne scars she had were still there but they were nearly invisible, their slightly more reddish appearance had been toned down and now matched the off cream white of her complexion. It hadn't changed just seemed to have… brightened.
The strange but familiar yellow ring around her irises was brighter now and they contrasted with her gray eyes. Blazing auburn blonde hair had replaced her previous locks which were similar but seemed had been more dull. However the mass of hair still hung mid back and boringly limp.
While turning her head to gain the view of a different angle she finally noticed her ears. They were nothing drastically different, more of an oddity, but strangely- elegant on her. One of her long fingered hands appeared in the mirror image as she touched then. The point was curved instead of being knife sharp and the ears simply seemed like they had easily been pulled into their position. She smiled in acceptance of her appearance.

She laid the mirror down on her lap and look up expectantly at her headmaster. The twins remained respectively silent while starting at her, observing the small new changes about their new friend.

"The spell to change your ears is thankfully a simple one and it's counter is just as easy." Lifting his worn and old wand, Dumbledore pointed it at her as he spoke: " leehus vis day."

A tingling sensation that caused a ripple of a shiver went through her and then there was nothing more. Judith lifted her mirror and the tips of her ears had melted away and left what looked like her old ears. With Dumbledore's whispered: "seeus ear," the points returned.

"Wow."

Looking up from the mirror she found him handing her, her new wand. She carefully took it and marveled over the feeling of what she could only guess to be the tingle of her magical energy. It felt good. Natural.

Dumbledore took a step backward and gestured to her. "Try the spell."

Taking a deep breath she raised the wand, pointing it to her face, while she ran the pronunciation through her head. Opening her mouth she was interrupted before she made it past the second syllable.

"Wait!" George pulled her wand away. "Sir she's an underage witch. The ministry will be here in no time if she casts a spell!"

Judith's eyes filled with horror. Sugar! That was close. Where they were trying to make her appearance inconspicuous and she'd almost botched it. Dumbledore however was still smiling his impish smile and had raised his hand reassuringly.

"Exchange students from other dimensions are a strange thing Mr. Weasley. They are unknown and… Undetectable by the ministry." He gave a wink and then a encouraging nod toward Judith.

Hesitantly she raised her hand again and stared at her wand tip. 'God I hope I don't turn myself into something else.'

Closing her eyes she whispered the words, "leehus vis day" and she could sense no change but the slight tingle that told her it had worked. She gave a sigh as she opened her eyes. Fred gave a thumbs-up as she lifted the mirror. …Her ears were back to being humanoid.

"Well done." Dumbledore said. "Now, again, even though it is only…" He pulled on a chain Judith just now noticed, and from one of his pockets a beautiful old gold pocket watch appeared. "six in the afternoon, I think it would be best for us to leave you hear to rest and become accustomed to your senses." With a tilt of his head he walked to the door and exited with Fred and George waving and saying their good-byes as they followed.
When the door closed the hum of white noise rose again.

She twirled the white wand with her fingers. Without distraction she figured she study her new purchase. It wasn't bright white but more of a toned down cream. It felt quite comfortable in her grip. Raising the tip to her face she whispered the reverse of the last spell. After feeling the tingle at the tip of her ears she didn't see the need to lift the mirror she knew know how to tell if the spell worked. Once again she changed her ears back and then crawled over her bed to her trunk at the base of the bed.

I best write the smell down, she thought. Reaching for the thin binder she had packed the other night she tore off a corner of paper from one of the pages and then grabbed one of her muggle pens. Knowing my strange memory I'll likely forget the spell but find myself singing it in the shower the next day. Slowly she sounded the spell out and then wrote out the way it sounded. After she was done she put her supplies away and then carefully tucked the spell into her coin purse.

She then moved onto her brown paper wrapped packages from earlier.
Working carefully she removed all the paper and glanced over the purchases. A loving hand ran over her knew Hogwarts uniform but she quickly moved over onto her textbooks.
For half an hour she flipped and read the odd page of each book but then her mind settled on classes. Most specifically one mandatory course: Potions.
A shudder ran through her body. Then she was struck with the realization that professor Snape had likely assigned his sixth year students an essay or some other homework before the year end.

"No…" She groaned into the semi-silence. "I don't want homework!"

Even though she could already look forward to pissing off the potions master she grabbed the thick potions textbook and started reading.

When she laid it back down, four hours later by her wrist watch, she had surprisingly read nearly one sixth of the book. At least the author of the book wasn't as dry as what she expected her new professor to be.
…hum… Professor… It would be interesting not calling them teachers or for that matter by their last names. Heck! Everything was different. No more English, Math, French, History, and thank the lord… Biology and Chemistry! Well chemistry wasn't so bad but Biology with boring old Mr. E?! yuck!
Maybe Potions would be something like Chemistry? With the cauldrons like flasks and fires under them like Bunsen burners. Yeah… She could withstand hands on work; she was good at it. So long as she wasn't expected to write many essays, or at least the kind of essays her English teacher expected, she might be able to survive.

Just when she was getting sleepy, the thought of her intriguing new classes had her excited. Would she have muggle studies? Or Hermione Granger's favorite course: Arithmancy. She'd remember reading something that hinted that the class involved math and math definitely wasn't something she enjoyed.
Would she get Magical Creatures or that idiotic fortune telling class with Trellawny. Good lord she hoped not… Even if Ron Weasley and Harry Potter were suppose to be in that class she didn't think she'd be able to withstand it.

Finally sometime much later Judith Nichols was lulled asleep by her thoughts about her new school.



TBC

Sweetness! I finally got around to uploading! Don't worry I've got a few other's already finished. I'm just staring chapter 8 as this point in time. I've been thinking about updating on a particular day but I'm not sure. It'd be nice if I could spit out a chapter a week but I've just got another job on top of the one I have and it wouldn't leave me much time. I'll really think about it though!

Ciao darlings ;)