Chapter Nine—Hylians at Hogwarts

Hermione's puffy eyes at breakfast the next morning indicated that it was not only the boys who had been up until all hours the night before, although Harry doubted that she and Zelda had been discussing the finer points of combat and adventuring. Despite it all, she wouldn't let exhaustion slow her down for a second, and as she sternly reminded Ron and Harry, they still had some reading to do before their first classes in two days.

Breakfast that day was the first meal that Zelda and Link had eaten at Hogwarts, and they were sufficiently impressed at the quantity and quality of the food, though it wasn't much by Hogwarts usual standards, since there were hardly any students to enjoy it. They were more amazed by far when a screech owl swooped down to land before Hermione and deliver the Daily Prophet; it took Harry and Ron a moment to realize why they were staring, until it occurred to them that owl post wasn't a common form of communication outside the wizarding world.

"Oh… We use owls to deliver letters and things," Hermione explained briefly. "And the newspaper."

"Everyone does?" Zelda asked.

The three Gryffindors bobbed their heads in agreement.

"Where do you get the owls?"

"People keep them as pets," Harry said. "I have one, Hedwig, and Ron has own named Pig. Pigwidgeon, I mean. Pig for short."

Zelda nodded slowly, and Harry could see her thinking the same thing he had done the first time he'd heard Pig's name.

"Owls… Wild," decided Link, shaking his head slightly as he turned back to the meal he didn't really need to eat.

Now, sitting in front of an essay he didn't really want to write, Harry would have liked to use the excuse that he had things to do with Link and Zelda in order to get out of work, but unfortunately they had already been summoned by Dumbledore for a meeting with the rest of the staff for introductions followed by exploration of the castle itself.

So the common room was silent, empty except for Harry, Ron and Hermione, just as if there hadn't been any new and exciting additions to their world. But Harry still wasn't doing homework.

He frowned at his eagle feather quill, examining the many different shades of grey along its length. He always noticed little details like that when he was thinking hard, especially when he was at a loss for words. Writing letters to Sirius had taught him a lot about his own quills; writing letters to Remus was teaching him even more. He looked down to remind himself what he had so far.

Dear Remus,

How are things going for you? I hope the full moon wasn't too bad.

I got your Christmas present, and Sirius', and I wanted to thank you for both of them. How was your Christmas? It must be nice at Grimmauld Place with all the Order people. Do they come by for Christmas dinner?

Life here is

And he was stuck. Where was he supposed to start? Well, the obvious place would be with what he had done during the full moon, but where would he go from there? I met an ancestor of mine from a civilization over nine thousand years old, who by the way happens to remind me more and more of Sirius every time I look him, so basically I'm spending my every waking moment trying not to scream. Other than that, same old routine.

He gave a sigh. The beginning was as good a place as any to start.

interesting. We have a couple of visitors up at the school, who are going to help out the Order. I really like them, but they're pretty different from anyone else on our side.

How much do you know about a place called Hyrule?

When the new term started and everyone came back to Hogwarts, they learned that there was to be a feast on the first evening, "to welcome two guests to the school." Before everyone else met them, though, the Gryffindors had to come face to face with the Hylians who were staying with them. In order to keep the arrival of the strangers from being too big of a shock, Harry, Ron and Hermione had instructed them to stay hidden in their dorms until the students arrived and received a preparatory speech.

Just as at the beginning of every new term, the Gryffindors stampeded into their common room in a flurry of commotion and excitement, greeting friends that they hadn't managed to find or finish catching up with on the train. Of course, the first place many of them wanted to go was up to the dorms to drop off their stuff, but that was the one place they couldn't go yet. It took Harry, Ron and Hermione all shouting at the top of their voices to quiet them. Hermione in particular was capable of commanding great volume when she tried, and the very surprise of being ordered into silence by a girl who, while she was a Prefect, was generally not known for her temper, made many people fall into order.

"Okay," said Harry, once they had managed to get the whole of Gryffindor house gathered around him attentively. He felt like he was leading the DA again, except that this group was much larger, and what he was about to tell them was much harder to put in plain words than any defensive magic. "You know how we're having that feast, to welcome the guests or whatever?"

There was a murmur of general agreement.

"Well…the guests are here. In Gryffindor Tower. They came over the Christmas break, and they're staying with us."

"Who are they?" spoke up Neville in a slightly nervous voice.

Harry gave a sideways, thoughtful frown. "It's kinda hard to explain… Does anyone remember that big book I was reading before?" he suggested.

Blank looks came back to him, until Seamus spoke up uncertainly, "It was a history book or something, wasn't it? The History of…something."

"Hyrule," Harry agreed with a nod. "It's an ancient civilization from nine thousand years ago. It's Atlantis."

Now the blank looks were dumbfounded more than anything else. Harry opened his mouth to explain further, but before he could—

"Hey, Harry, it's all quiet down there. Can we come out now?"

The Gryffindors all exchanged amazed and confused expressions at the sound of Link's voice, though he was still nowhere to be seen. Harry glanced at Ron and Hermione. The former shrugged, and the latter rolled her eyes.

"They might as well," Ron muttered. "It'll be easier to show them than to try to explain."

"Yeah, you're right," Harry agreed. Directing his voice up the two sets of stairs that led to the dorms, he called, "Okay, come on."

Every Gryffindor head swivelled to see who was coming down the stairs into the common room, and just about every jaw dropped when those two people came into sight.

"They're from Hyrule," Harry explained. "Everybody, meet Sir Link Hero I…"

"Hey. Nice to meet you."

"…And Queen Zelda Hyrule I."

"Hi. It's a pleasure."

Never had Harry borne witness to such a crowded room that was so silent. Both of the Hylians were attracting many stares, particularly from the opposite sex, but no one seemed to be able to find their voice.

"So…who wants to be the first to ask who we are, how we came from nine thousand years ago, and why we're weird-looking?"

Which confirmed Harry's suspicion that there were absolutely no circumstances under which Link could not break the ice. Nor any under which Zelda couldn't find the more tactful way to do so. She rolled her eyes with a small sigh at Link's mannerisms, though she seemed completely unsurprised by them even as she did, and smiled at the Gryffindors.

"I know you're all probably very confused, and maybe a little bit scared, and I can't blame you," she told them reassuringly. "I know I would be. But don't worry. Professor Dumbledore will explain everything tonight at the feast. We just thought you all might like to meet us first, since you'll probably be seeing us more than any of the Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, or Slytherins will. We'll try to stay out of your way while you get yourselves settled back into your rooms, and if you have any questions after dinner, we'll be around to answer them. All right?"

She and Link both gazed pleasantly around at the crowd, who had stopped looking so comically staggered. They now looked only mildly stunned, and quiet murmurs began to break out among them. Slowly but surely, the usual amount of talk, though far from its usual volume, resumed. Link and Zelda unobtrusively migrated to Harry, Ron and Hermione's sides as the others continued the process of resettling themselves at school.

"Oh, you should meet my sister," Ron said, craning to look out at the crowd and spot Weasley hair. "There she is… Ginny! Hey, Ginny!"

Hearing her brother's call, the fifth-year made her way through the bustling common room towards him. "Yes?"

"I want to introduce you," Ron explained. To the Hylians, he said, "This is my little sister, Ginny."

She smiled at them. "Hi," she said. "I thought I recognized you. Your pictures are in the book Harry was reading, weren't they? And I heard a few things about you, too."

"Yes, Ron's mentioned you to us as well," Zelda told her as the three of them exchanged handshakes.

"Oh, really?" she asked, glancing at her brother with raised eyebrows. "All good stuff, I hope."

"Well, we've only—"

"Hey, Ginny!"

Dean was calling from the stairway leading up to the boys' dorms. Ginny turned back and hollered, in a much more short tone than Harry personally thought was called for, "Just a second!" Returning to her first conversation, she explained wearily, "We broke up over Christmas. We were never seeing each other, there was really no point, so I ended it. Still a few things to sort out, though, 'cause he didn't take it very well." She sighed. "He didn't think there was anything wrong with the fact that we barely spoke anymore. Why is it men can't figure out what women want?" she muttered grudgingly.

Harry gave Link a small sideways glance, and saw him return it with a suppressed smirk.

"Ginny!" Dean called again.

"Fine, I'm coming!"

She stormed away to see what he wanted. Seconds later, there was a shout—"Oh, no!"—and loud crash from the stairway leading to the girls' dorms. Hermione jumped.

"Every year this happens," she muttered. "Some sort of disaster comes crashing down when we come back from summer or Christmas or Easter. I wonder what's broken this time."

She dashed away up the stairs, as Ginny returned.

"Ron, do you know where Dean put my Charms textbook?"

"Why would he have your Charms textbook? And why would I know where he put it?" Ron asked, bewildered.

"I don't know, he needed to look up some background or something," Ginny sighed, rolling her eyes. "I leant it to him before the Christmas break and now he can't find it, but he says he thinks he put it on your bed or something for you to give back to me…"

"Oh, maybe," Ron said, frowning as he thought about it. "I'll go check."

"Thanks."

Both Weasleys headed away towards where Dean stood at the foot of the boys' dorm stairs. Harry watched them go.

"What is it with True Heroes and redheads?" asked Zelda mildly.

"Huh?" Harry asked, blinking in confusion as he looked up at her.

She shrugged. "First Link and Malon, now you and Ginny…"

"What?!" Harry yelped, jumping. "No way! She's my best friend's sister!"

"And my husband is Link's brother," Zelda pointed out.

Gaping wordlessly, Harry turned to Link for support, but the Hero of Time was busy trying not to laugh as well.

"He knows what I'm talking about," Zelda said with a smile, jerking her head towards him. "Maybe you don't, Harry, but Link does."

"Then fill me in," Harry demanded, looking between them in annoyance. They were both acting like adults who understood some sort of joke that eluded the comprehension of a little boy like him, which was quite frustrating when they were so close to his own age, at least in appearance. "Why on earth do you think…me and Ginny…?"

Exchanging a look with Zelda, Link said, "It's just obvious. Like Zel said, maybe you don't know it, but…there's something going on. You like her."

"Sure, I like her," Harry admitted stubbornly, "as a friend."

"Of course as a friend," Zelda agreed. "You've got to start out being friends with someone. Well, okay, you don't have to, but it really helps."

Suddenly Harry remembered his own epiphany, the one that had come to him when Ron and Hermione had redefined their relationship. Friends first, then the rest would just happen.

"Look, Harry," said Link, pulling him down onto the couch so they could both sit and reason things through; Zelda sat in a nearby chair. "First of all, it's not like it's an insult or something. We're not making fun of you. But let's just think this over. Why are you getting so defensive?"

"Because…because it's not true!" Harry insisted.

"You're friends already, right? That's what you said?"

Harry nodded.

"How close are you?"

"I don't know. Not that close, I guess. Well, I mean, I'm close to her family, but not her specifically…"

His voice trailed off even as he spoke, because his memory was quickly rewinding. At the end of the previous year, she had been one of the ones to go with him to the Department of Mysteries. Earlier on that same year, when he had accidentally fallen into Snape's Pensieve, she had been the first one to notice that something was bothering him, and the first one he had confided in. When Mr Weasley had been hospitalized, he had been there with the Weasley family, witnessing their grief; he had seen her cry then. She had replaced him on the Quidditch team, and though she was undoubtedly talented, she had also been the first to insist that he would get his spot back, and this year he had put her back on the team. The summer before fourth year, when he had traveled with the Weasleys to the Quidditch World Cup, she had begun to open up in front of him, and since then she had been a welcome member of the group that habitually consisted of himself, Ron and Hermione. This was true not just at school, but at Grimmauld Place, like the time he had been worried about the possibility that he was being possessed by Lord Voldemort, she had been the one to assure him that this wasn't true, and she would know, because she had been possessed by—

At the memory of this, Harry felt slightly winded. More than anything else that they had been through together, there was the Chamber of Secrets. One of the biggest milestones in either of their lives, and also one of the only things that had involved just them, no one else. His first real venture into saving a life, an individual, someone trapped and enslaved by evil, and it had been her.

Like Link and Malon.

"No— But— I— She—" Harry stammered helplessly, his eyes darting between Link and Zelda. The only coherent sentence he could put together was, "She's Ron's little sister!"

"Yes," Zelda agreed patiently. "But she's also her own person."

Harry mouthed soundlessly. There was no response to this.

"We're not saying that you're destined to be together and you should run off and get married or something," Link pointed out. "We're just saying we've both seen that look before."

"And if we hadn't pointed it out, you might never have noticed it," Zelda added.

"There's nothing to notice," Harry insisted sullenly, folding his arms.

He was saved from completing the conversation by the return of everyone else, almost all at once: First Hermione, then Ron, then Ginny.

"Poor Lavender, her parents are going to be furious at her for breaking that model galaxy."

"Why would Dean think that just because he left the book on my bed, I would know I was supposed to give it to Ginny?"

"I've been back for less than an hour and already I'm behind…I hate fifth year!" she moaned, rubbing her face with her hands and dropping onto the couch next to Harry.

"Let's go down to the feast," Harry suggested, jumping to his feet immediately, as though he had been electrocuted. He determinedly avoided Link and Zelda's eyes, turning to head out the portrait hole.

Even though two hundred Gryffindors were acting like they were no big deal, the Hylians still attracted attention from everyone else. It was unavoidable; they were the only two people in the crowd of people making their way to the Great Hall who weren't dressed in black robes. Harry had gotten used to being stared at on occasion, and though it didn't happen much anymore, it made a nice chance to know that, for once, the staring wasn't because of him. In fact, while not a single student walked by without either performing a double take or overtly staring, none of them were looking at Harry.

It did annoy him, however, to pass Cho. She was holding hands with her boyfriend, Michael Corner, and goggled more openly at him that anyone else. This time last year, they had all but officially been a couple, and now here she was treating him like a freak. He refused to meet her gaze and continued to walk with a determined stride, Link and Zelda close behind him.

When they were out of earshot, Link asked quietly, "Er… Who was that?"

"Her name's Cho," Harry grumbled, knowing how bitter he sounded, "and that guy was her current boyfriend." He opted not to point out that Michael had previously been dating Ginny; who knew what Link and Zelda would do with that information.

"Is she an ex?"

Harry heard what sounded like Zelda punching Link in the arm for asking this question.

"I guess, sort of," Harry answered. "But now she's just annoying. Don't worry about it."

When they arrived at the feast, Link and Zelda continued to stick close to the three Gryffindors they knew, sitting next to each other and between Harry and Hermione. The also continued, with admirable skill, to completely ignore the hundreds of pairs of eyes fixed upon them with expressions ranging from confusion to horror to shock to pleasant surprise. Harry had a feeling that it was probably all Link could do to keep from taking advantage of the situation to do something outspoken and reckless, just because he could, and it would have been the type of thing he would find funny (though Zelda would have killed him for it as soon as they were out of public again).

Because everyone was eager to know the reason for this unexpected feast, it took Dumbledore no time at all to silence them all. As soon as he rose to his feet, any and all conversation died away.

"Welcome back," said the Headmaster sincerely, extending his arms out towards them with a smile. He always sounded like he truly meant it when he greeted the students after they had been away. "I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas, and are refreshed and ready to continue with your lessons." There was a twinkle in his eyes as he scanned the crowd which suggested that he knew full well just how much they were looking forward to the inevitable return to their textbooks.

"Now," he continued, "I am sure you all want to know what exactly has warranted a feast at this time of year. You were told we have visitors, but not much more than that. I am equally sure, however, that many of you have spotted the visitors in question by now. For those who haven't, I would like to present them to you."

He nodded towards Link and Zelda, who rose to their feet and approached the staff table, where the entire hall could see them.

"Allow my to introduce you to Queen Zelda Hyrule I and Sir Link Hero I," Dumbledore proclaimed proudly to the hundreds of gaping students before him. "How they have come to be here would take much more time than we have tonight to explain. Suffice it to say that they have come from a land that most of you have never heard of by its true name—Hyrule."

He paused, waiting for the expected murmurs of confusion.

"You have most likely heard of it under the better-known but less accurate name of Atlantis."

He paused again, this time as the quiet whispers of comprehension spread.

"Queen Zelda and Sir Hero were two of the greatest warriors of their time, not to mention some of the most magically powerful beings ever created. They have come to help us all in the war we have begun to wage, not only against Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters, but against their own undying adversary, a man by the name of King Ganondorf Dragmire. Ganon."

The crowd was silent, but it was not the same silence that had fallen at the beginning of Dumbledore's speech. This was thick with fear, rather than anticipation. Harry tried to see across the Great Hall to the Slytherin table, but it was too far away.

"That being said, we should not treat them any differently than we would treat anyone else that we host here," Dumbledore went on. "I would request that you offer them the same respect you give to your fellow students and your professors. Remember what I told you at the conclusion of the Triwizard Tournament nearly two years ago: Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open. So while these two may dress and behave differently from us, they are our allies and our friends. I encourage you to welcome them warmly.

"Once again, Queen Zelda Hyrule I and Sir Link Hero I."

There was respectful applause, and it sounded to Harry like the type of applause which indicated that the students really believed the two visitors warranted their respect. Link and Zelda waved and smiled in response, before returning to the Gryffindor table.

"All right, let's start dinner," Link said enthusiastically when he took his seat again.

"I thought you didn't need to eat," Hermione spoke up, furrowing her brow slightly.

"We don't. But we can if we want to. And it's been centuries since I had a really good feast."

Answering his summons, the tables suddenly filled with all the dishes Hogwarts was known for. This was, as Link had said, the first time that they had come to a feast since they had arrived at the castle, and this impressive meal was quite an improvement over the smaller ones they'd had thus far.

"I wish we'd figured out everything magic can do back in Hyrule," Zelda commented. "This would have made life much easier."

Having officially met the visitors and received word from Dumbledore that their presence was acceptable, as well as seeing the princess and the hero beginning to act like normal people, apparently heartened the Gryffindors. They were more willing to speak up now, and even ask questions. In fact, Harry wondered if anyone was actually eating.

"So how old are you? You can't be teenagers."

"No, we're about nine thousand."

"And you're the queen of Atlantis?"

"Hyrule, yes."

"And you're a knight?"

"Among other things."

"Are you married?"

"Yes."

"She meant to each other, Link."

"Oh. Then no."

"We're cousins."

"Are you a witch and wizard?"

"Yes, but we do magic a bit differently from you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, no wands, for one thing."

"And we have can play music that has magical powers, and stuff like that."

"How did you get here?"

"Harry and Alb—Professor Dumbledore brought us."

"Long story, don't ask."

"What's up with your ears?"

Link turned to Hermione with a smirk. "You wanna field that one?"