E-Mail: lanirhys@aol.com
Authors Notes: aaaah i'm back at school *oh joy* and, as my teachers like to say every darn lesson i have GCSE's this year, *double joy*... ooo reviews YAY!!! **dances and hands out virtual cookies to all the reviewers**
charlie: lol, the plot is there.... it's just obvious to anyone without my mindmap of later chapters... it's sort of like a mystery story at the moment. but, i do see your point.... so i'll try and speed it up a bit.
Delphi: Look! See! More!
kirsty: stop being so lazy wonder woman and skip to the chapter you've read! oooo you like the characterisations? **jumps up and down doing the mighty danger mouse dance** YAY! I was pretty worried abou dumbledore and snape especially so i'm very happy now **nods, whilst grinning manically** :D
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
We walk down the street of dreams
A thousand doorways open there
A thousand voices sweet and clear
Emotions felt with a passion
Never felt before
Street of Dreams, Damned
Chapter Six
Orion sat in the Great Hall waiting for the rest of the school to arrive with abated breath. She hadn't been nervous until McGonagall announced they'd all be arriving in a matter of minutes: it was all her fault, she reasoned, rubbing the bridge of her nose nervously.
What if they were all really boring? What if they were all really smart type and didn't know how to have any fun? What if-
The doors bursting open interrupted her thoughts and the sounds of hundreds of children walking on hard stone echoed round her hearing at the same time as a mass of black robes filled the doorway and spilled into the Hall, splitting up into four sections for the four house tables.
It wasn't long before they'd all sat down and everybody, especially all the other Gryffindor's, were staring at her or pretending not to and whispering to each other.
Orion groaned. It had begun.
"Hullo, what's your name?" A voiced beside her asked.
The boy, whose black hair seemed like her hadn't bothered to brush or comb it in any way for a very long time, was looking at her curiously, not like she was the gum he stepped in.
"Orion, what's yours?"
"Harry." No need to explain the whole Boy-Who-Lived thing now, he thought, she probably already knows.
Orion, however, didn't say anything and just smiled.
"I'm Hermione," said a girl with very bushy hair.
"And I'm Ron, who're you?" Ron was sitting next to Hermione,
She blinked.
"Orion. Didn't I just say that?"
"Well yes," said Ron the redhead, "but you're new right? You haven't been here for the past four years, so who are you? Where've you been? Are you a transfer student?"
She stared at him blankly, if she hadn't here, wasn't it obvious she'd been somewhere else?
"Well done, I haven't been here for the last four years no, I congratulate you on your observation skills, and do I sound like a transfer student?" she said sarcastically, "I was 'overlooked', or something, and they only realised that sometime around when the summer holidays started, so they sent me a letter and somebody to pick me up, and before I knew it I'm learning magic as a witch.
"Now that's my life story. What's yours?"
Before Ron could answer, McGonagall walked in followed by a line of rather nervous looking First Years. A three-legged stool, placed on the raised platform where the teachers table now was by Snape, played host to the ragged and aging Sorting Hat that sorted her when she arrived at Hogwarts.
When all were gathered and the Hall was silent the Hat burst into song, singing about the four houses, how they were once united, and needed to be again if history wasn't going to be repeated.
Having never heard the hat, or any hat, sing before, Orion was clapping loudly along with the rest of the school when it was finished and taken a mini-hat-sized-bow at the tables.
Dumbledore rose from his table and the Hall fell silent -the aged headmaster had that sense of presence that commanded silence, whose voice could carry with little effort.
"Since the end of last year, the Ministry has been denying the 'rumour' that Voldemort has returned with its every breath, as has the Daily Prophet. I will not insult Cedric Diggory's memory; I stand by what I said before the summer holidays and what I have been saying throughout the past weeks: Voldemort has been bought back to power. He will, undoubtedly, be looking to attempt another take over of the Wizarding World again." he paused as numerous students cried out and or gasped, letting the words sink in. "He, and his followers, will be spreading discontent at every opportunity; it is for this reason that we must strive to nurture bonds between Houses, and encourage ties with other races and schools. We made a start last year with the TriWizard Tournament, I hope that, as a school and individually, you will, at least, not discourage them." he finished with a soft smile, "Now, I know I am feeling very partial to a plate of Yorkshire puddings and mint humbugs, as I am sure you all are -dinner is served!"
With a clap from Dumbledore, the tables filled with food (including mint humbugs and Yorkshire puddings) and every student made a grab for the nearest platter.
Ron, having entirely forgotten about Orion's request for his life story in the face of Dumbledores suggestion that they all get on with each other, which in turn meant the Slytherins and Malfoy, was now gawping at the said table in disgust.
"Get on? With them? That man's not just insane, he's off his blimin' rocker!"
Harry nodded in full agreement, waiting for Hermione to add her opinion, but she was preoccupied -busy staring at Orion and he and shaking her head.
Orion noticed it too: she kept looking at Harry, looking at her, then looking into a space between and above their heads, looking very thoughtful… and it was beginning to get on her nerves.
"Something wrong?"
She paused in eating her piece of chicken, "Excuse me?"
"You keep looking at me, and it's annoying the hell out of me, so could you quit it please?"
Hermione smiled, "Sorry, there's just something that I can't put my finger on… it's bugging me."
Ron laughed and Harry spluttered into his pumpkin juice,
"We've only been at school for a few hours and you're already thinking?" he said disbelief evident.
Hermione shrugged, still smiling, and Orion groaned inside, Hermione sounded like the smart-arse know-it-all of the class already. Things weren't looking good.
Despite this she didn't catch her looking again and settled into a conversation with Seamus about Quidditch, which she was still learning about, and then Dean interrupted saying football was better… the dispute went on until the end of the feast, eventually Orion gave up following how much better football was than Quidditch, and how Seamus couldn't understand how kicking one ball around a pitch on the ground was interesting.
When the end of the feast came Orion felt well and truly stuffed, the world was becoming slow and distant like it does when one is very tired. Blimey, thought Orion idly, it's hard work doing nothing. She trudged along, trying to look amused at some joke a girl called Lavender was telling, but it was hard because the joke wasn't very funny and because it wasn't very funny. Oh no, I'm repeating my own thoughts! Nevertheless she took her cue to laugh and Lavender grinned. As they walked past a torch the fire glinted off something shiny straight into her tired eyes, she grimaced and found the source of her temporary semi-blindness to be a badge on Hermione's robes. Lavender caught her looking and said,
"Hermione's Prefect, well no surprises there. She'll probably be Head Girl in our Seventh Year too -she knows everything and anything!"
Orion nodded and followed her up the stairs to their dormitory, noting that Hermione didn't follow, rather was directing the First Year's to their new dormitories ("Boy's up those stairs to your right, girls to your left.").
Parvati and Lavender set about sorting out their nightclothes, removing make-up and chatting mindlessly about some article about a Facial Conceal Charm in some magazine called 'Witch Weekly' that was, apparently, totally unreliable. Orion tuned them out and buried herself under the covers, drifting off to sleep, not noticing that Hermione didn't come up after issuing the directions.
A man and woman smiling.
Then there was crying and just a woman. She cried all the time; Orion wished she'd stop.
Laughter rumbled through the scene, a group of men, all dressed in black and all wearing masks.
The woman screamed and staggered to the floor, horribly still.
The men left, still laughing.
The woman lay still forever, and Orion hoped she was still alive but couldn't move to check -she was frozen in place ten feet away. Finally, a millennia or six later, the woman shuddered, arose, clutching something to her chest that Orion hadn't been able to see before and staggered down a set of stairs and out of the house, half-crawled, half-walked through alleys and back-streets until she saw the destination. A hospital.
The woman fell hard to the ground not three yards from the doors.
Orion watched from her position as paramedics and doctors and people rushed to the scene.
The thing in her arms screamed. A baby.
Orion awoke with a start, soaked in sweat and entangled in drenched she sheets, throwing them off, she lay back down and fell back asleep within minutes to barely remember anything the next morning.
*****
Harry sat by the hearth pleasantly stuffed from the feast he'd just enjoyed and watched Hermione direct the new Gryffindors in the right direction. She was doing it fine by herself, so there was no need to move from his very comfortable position.
Besides, it wasn't like there was any question that she would be a Prefect, and it was pretty obvious she had no objection doing the job. He yawned loudly; right now he wanted to go to bed.
"Harry."
Maybe not.
"Hermione?"
"Didn't you notice?"
He was supposed to notice something?
"Uh…"
"Hermione, it's the first day of term, our brains aren't in gear yet." Ron said from his seat opposite with only one eye open.
She huffed, "Ron, your brain is never in full gear. If your brain ever got into top speed, you'd probably die of shock that you were learning something."
Both eyes now fully open, Ron glared at her, "Speak for yourself -"
"What were you going to say, Hermione?" Harry cut in quickly, knowing his friends temper.
"I was asking if you noticed."
"Noticed what?"
"How similar you and Orion are."
He gave her a look that said, quite clearly, that he had no idea what she was talking about and when he exchanged a confused look with Ron, it was apparent that he was thinking the same.
"Don't tell me you didn't see it?"
Ron grinned, "Alright then we won't."
"Just, look tomorrow, Ron, okay?"
"Will you stop going on about it if I promise?"
"Yes."
A response was quickly sounded from Ron of, "I promise."
There was peace in the kingdom again.
Harry rose from his seat, and, in answer to their questioning glances said he was tired and going to bed.
Ten minutes later Ron came up too, distracting Harry from the photo album he had received from Remus and Sirius.
"You're getting obsessed with that, mate." he observed, flopping down next to Harry.
"I'm not obsessed: I'm interested."
"Oh, well that's a whole other story."
"Shut up Ron."
A voice came from behind Seamus' curtains, "Yeah, shut up Ron -some of us are trying to sleep."
Harry got his invisibility cloak from his trunk and made a gesture to the door. He no longer felt tired, and he needed some questions answered, or at least asked aloud.
Quietly, they left the dormitory; the cloak tucked under Harry's robes and the photo album under his arm, and edged down the stairway.
Fortunately, only Hermione was left in the Common Room, reading a book by the fire.
The cloak wasn't needed after all.
"Hey, Hermione."
"I thought you were both going to bed?"
Ron shrugged, "We lied. Oh, and there's Harry's latest obsess- interest."
Harry mock-glared at his red-haired friend, sat down in the same chair he had occupied not fifteen minutes earlier, and flicked through the album.
"I really need to talk to Sirius."
"We know that, Harry."
"No, more than before." He pointed to a photograph of his parents with Sirius and a girl they didn't know. "She's in loads of these photos, but nobody has ever mentioned her."
Hermione and Ron exchanged puzzles expressions. The latter asked, "So?"
"I think she's important."
"Why?"
"I don't know." He frowned, turning pages and pointing out more photos, "She and Sirius just seem, kinda, together."
"So? Harry," Hermione said, "Sirius is allowed to have girlfriends -especially since that," she pointed to the photo on the page where said couple were holding hands, "was probably about twenty years ago."
"I know, it's just… this is different. This is Sirius."
She tried a different tack, "Harry, what are you thinking?"
Shrugging, he gestured to thin air. "Like I said, I don't know. It's just a feeling I have -maybe she was a Deatheater, or something."
"You get Deatheater from a few school photos? You're being paranoid."
"Yeah, Harry, don't you think that if she was a known or highly suspected Deatheater, she wouldn't be in the album?"
"Yeah, I suppose, but I still want to send a letter to Sirius," he paused, thinking, "and Professor Lupin, since he helped put the whole thing together."
"And he was there then?"
"That too."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Post A/N: Hmmm don't know if I like this chapter, but i couldn't think of many ways to get it all out, and i hate writing dream scenes too... mainly cause i suck at it, lol.
I feel rather obligated ( to say something... this fic is gonna be long, lol. very long. Like, about 30 chapters long i'm thinking, 'cause i've planned up to chapter 11 on paper, and there's still so many things to do and that's only part of a sub-plot, let alone the actual plot which is, uh, a secret.
Just thought i'd give you all fair warning, lol. So this story is going to be a long-time in finishing, what with school and my other stories and new obsession (Andromeda), lol.
--Lani xxx