Continue On

Kase-chan

Pairings: None yet... suggestions please?
Rating: PG-13 for adult situations and descriptive violence
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or other related works. Nor do I own Dune or any of those related works.
Summary: This is a Mary Sue... but I'll try to regulate it. Arcana Randel is a fourth-year Ravenclaw, known throughout Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff as the girl with her nose always in a Dune book. These are her adventures.
Fan works/Requests: Tell me you're doing it in a review or something, and then give me the address.
Review Status: Open!
Notes: I know most people aren't very happy with Mary Sue author(esse)s, but this was just floating around. I'll spell check and use proper grammar, I promise. Harry, Ron and Hermione are not in this fic often. There are mentions of them.
This is also a sixth-year fic; no mentions of canon characters are expected. Ummm... if you haven't died with boredom by now, here's my story.

Continue On Prologue; Underneath the Underneath

Our story starts in a small apartment in Magical London, in the Randel household. Living in this two-bedroom apartment is a two-person family, a father and a daughter. In the larger bedroom, a tall and gangly girl with high cheekbones and a soft gaze was reading a book. The print was small, and the paper was yellowed with age. Sections of the book were falling out, but the girl didn't mind. Her hair had spilt onto the pages, and with a little 'humph', was brushed off by an impatient hand. The silence of the house, still unbroken in the early morning hour of five, was shattered by a yell.

"Arcana!" The brown-haired girl stood, placing a bookmark in the page of the aging tale. Her gray eyes closed for a moment before the yell was repeated.

"Coming, Dad!" she yelled back. "Crap, I should have packed last night." she said, quieter, as she yanked a trunk from under the bed. A knock came from the door, and a man, so tall he had to duck to get through the door entered. He had golden-blond hair that stuck up all over, with blue eyes that shone with the grin that was plastered to his face.

James Randel was the epitome of the loving, big-city father. When Arcana, his daughter and only child, had been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, he'd bought her a whole new set of her favorite books.

"Reading Dune when you should have been packing, Arcana?" he asked, grabbing her textbooks and placing them in the trunk so they were quite organized. "What would your mother have said?" he asked, knowing his fourteen-year-old daughter wouldn't respond. But, for once, the brunette did.

"From what you've told me, Daddy, she would have been proud. Wasn't she a Ravenclaw just like me?" Arcana asked, as she dumped an armload of clothes into the trunk. She glanced at her Hufflepuff father from the corner of her eye as she picked up a stuffed bear. James sighed and changed the subject.

"Haven't I taught you all the organizing spells in the book?" he chided. "Scourgify!" The trunk organized itself, with the Dune series on top. Arcana shut the trunk and locked it, almost smiling at the satisfactory click. Then she stood, and checked the clock. It was about six. Four hours till she had to go to Hogwarts again.

"Arcana, would you like to go to Diagon Alley? I mean, since tomorrow is your birthday and I haven't gotten you a present yet, we could go and pick one out." Her father asked, stepping back so Arcana's pet kneazle, Yosh, could get through.

Yosh was a small and fuzzy creature. He had almost china blue fur, with a few white spots. His eyes were as green as grass, reminding the teenage girl of the few newspapers stamped with 'Collector's Edition' involving pictures of Harry Potter she'd found in the attic. Her father, while not a Harry Potter fanatic, was rather thankful that he stopped the war. Even though that hadn't been enough to stop her mother from dying, it seems...

Her mother, Emdi Randel, had been an Auror. She had been killed by some of the Dark Lord's supporters about two years after Potter vanquished the Dark Lord. Of course, now Voldemort's supporters were back, making Arcana rather unsure of her position in this fight. She disagreed mightily with the 'no- muggleborns' policy, but she sometimes wondered why everyone wanting a magic solution to their problems was so bad. Her Muggle friends often wondered where she went during their school year, and she longed to tell them.

"Arcana, come on. Grab your trunk and bring it out to the car. We need to get ready to go as soon as we get your gift." Mr. Randel called up the stairs of the apartment house, just as Arcana was standing to head down. She reached for the handle of the trunk and yanked it from the groove it had worn in the floor. Groaning with the effort, she pulled it down the steep stairs.

"Hey. Arcy!" yelled a deep baritone. A tall boy, probably sixth or seventh year, was walking down the steps with his trunk in hand. "You ready to get to Hogwarts?" he asked, putting his heavy trunk down on the landing where Arcana had stopped.

"Of course I am, Devereux." She responded, nodding at Devereux Chaney. He was a brown-haired, green-eyed Hufflepuff seventh year, and lived in the apartment just above hers. Arcana was often awakened late at night by his band practicing. She knew that the success of the 'Sun Demons', as they called themselves, depended upon their practice. So even though she had complained the first eight thousand times Chaney had done it since he'd moved in, she now was just quiet.

Arguing with Devereux Chaney and his band was like talking to a bunch of rocks. They were deaf and stubborn, always thinking that their bands ruled over everything else, including giving most of the light-sleeping tenants insomnia.

As they headed down the stairs, Devereux and Arcana were met with several other kids. Most were in third year, making poor Lita Carpentier, whom was a first year, feel alone. Devereux had headed over to talk to the pale blonde-haired girl, leaving Arcana in the mass of about eleven kids.

There was only one other Ravenclaw, Hinamoto Miho, who was in the year below Arcana. "Hey, um, Arcana-senpai!" called the petite Japanese student as she struggled to move her trunk faster down the stairs. "Do you know why we must all go leave for King's Cross so early when we live two blocks away from the place?" she asked.

Arcana looked at Miho for a second, before remembering. "Oh, I forgot you just moved here this Christmas! Miho, we all attend this big building party before we go the school! Kind of a group goodbye party." The elder girl explained, accidentally letting go of her trunk in her eagerness to explain to Miho.

"Arcana-senpai! Look out!" Miho yelled, pulling on Arcana's arm so that the trunk went cascading down the stairs. Mr. Randel, having just started to head down the stairs, gaped as the large, leather-bound trunk collided with a landing wall.

"Is anyone hurt?" he called, hoping they would answer in the negative. Everyone shook their heads.

"I'm so sorry, Daddy, I didn't mean to let go it's just that Miho didn't know about our building going-away party and I got so excited and..."

"It's okay. Everyone's done it at some point." James said, ruffling Arcana's muddy hair. Let's get going, huh Arc?" he said, lifting up an end of Lita's trunk while watching his only child race down and start dragging her trunk outside to his car.
Once they all had arrived in Diagon Alley, most people split up to pick up last-minute school supplies. Arcana herself was heading to get a set of books, entitled "A History of Magic" for some light reading.

The trip was over all to quickly, and soon Arcana and Miho, who was quite eager to return to Hogwarts, were heading to the back compartment.
"Hey, Miho, do you know who'll be Defense this year?"
"I heard it was a werewolf, Arcana-senpai."
"Professor Lupin?" Arcana asked, genuine surprise in her voice.