The Fifth House
Disclaimer: I can't say it. No I won't even bother. It's too much to waste my precious finger strength
{lol} typing. So do me a favor and guess what I'd say {type?}.
Author's Note: Hi! I hope everyone has had a wonderful day! It was snowing in my city that no one's heard of, ever and I mean ever! Well, half snowing.
Anyway,
Read
Review
Recite
Recite? I really am losing R's. Suggest some in your reviews if you can…
Curtains Up!
Chapter Nine
Harry never did sleep that night. How could any one really expect him to? He was getting all these letters that say something evil would happen that night. It wasn't just the letters that got at Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
It was that they'd been written in blood…
Harry never truly learned that closing his eyes at night when he was fully awake was a bad idea. This time, though, it was different.
The whispers weren't the same this time.
Sure enough, a few seconds after Harry closed his eyes, the whispers returned. They sounded different tonight, not like Harry remembered the four whispering before. Since it was unlikely he'd get any sleep, he got up and walked to Ron's window. He saw four people on the street, and realized why the whispers had been different.
The children were different.
There were four of them, like Kylie, Tomas, Max, and Jade. They all looked different ages, though. One of them looked significantly younger than two of them Harry guessed had to be the oldest. The oldest, it seemed, looked very strange. She had long, brown hair, and wore it down. But her clothes somewhat resembled something you'd think Professor Trelawney would wear. She wore lots of jewelry, and white robes. The other three looked slightly different, also.
One wore dark robes that Harry couldn't determine the color of, but he also wore a necklace with a very odd amulet. Another girl wore scarlet robes, and Harry didn't notice at first that she had a snake draped around her shoulders like a scarf. The last boy wore shockingly blue robes, and he was the only normal looking one.
Harry couldn't tell what they were saying, but this time he wasn't sure he wanted to know.
He watched them for a while, but he kept feeling that he shouldn't, they didn't seem the type to spy on…
Not tonight, at least.
Harry was the one watching them, but he had a feeling that someone, somewhere, was watching him. He looked back into the room; Ron and Hermione were still sleeping, though restlessly. He turned back to the window, and to his surprise, one of the girls was staring at him.
It was a most unpleasant stare.
She looked not happy, not sad. She didn't look mad, but she didn't appear annoyed either. Harry looked into her eyes, then he realized the strangest thing about her.
She had dark amethyst colored eyes.
Harry noticed that he was now being stared at by all of them. One boy was shaking his head slowly. He didn't say anything, but Harry thought he could be thinking, 'You shouldn't have done that.'
But what had Harry done? It wasn't as if he had hexed them, he couldn't, it was still summer holiday. Actually, Harry looked as his watch, which read 12:18, today was September 1st, today Harry was returning to Hogwarts.
He couldn't believe that he hadn't realized it earlier. It was something he looked forward to every summer. Not the work part, but the part about being somewhere that he truly belonged. Harry didn't realize how lucky he was.
Because some people don't belong.
Finally, Harry had found something good in his life. His return to Hogwarts was like a miracle compared to the hard life Harry had over the summer.
Maybe at Hogwarts, he'd find out that everything was a dream. Maybe, just maybe, things could be okay.
But things can't be okay, not at the beginning, which is so confusing and perilous.
Harry had to get some sleep. He'd be awaking up early tomorrow, so he could catch the Express to Hogwarts.
He took a final few seconds looking at the children before returning to the room and drifting to sleep.
But the children watched him still.
* * * *
"Oh, Ronnie! Harry! Hermione! Fred! George! Ginny! Wake up!" Mrs. Weasley sang up the staircase.
From the numerous landings in this particular household groans could be heard. Yells of complaint echoed down the stairs. All over the house people were waking and stretching.
Harry, however, was happy to wake up. After the encounter with the strange children last night, he'd had a rough sleep. In his dreams he'd felt eyes on him. He felt like someone was monitoring his every move, but he never knew who it was.
He got up, stretched, and got dressed quickly. Ron was just getting out of his bed when Harry was leaving the room. "How can you be awake?" Ron asked him through a yawn.
"I'm just happy to get back to Hogwarts, that's all," Harry answered.
"Hogwarts is like your sanctuary, isn't it Harry?" asked Hermione from the doorway.
Harry nodded. It was true. It was difficult to feel unsafe there. As long as you're on school grounds.
Harry felt more enjoyment that morning than he had for most of the summer. He, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George all ate a tasty breakfast before traveling in cars, Mr. Weasley got them from the ministry, to Kings Cross Station.
It was quite a hassle trying to get all of them onto Platform 9 ¾ without the muggles getting too suspicious. They had to go through the barrier in groups pf two or three. Hermione, who was so excited to return to all the learning fun, accidentally ran into the wrong platform. The muggles were very suspicious.
Harry was excited too, but he'd already had experiences with running into platforms; he didn't need to be told twice to check the numbers. Even Fred and George were excited. It was their seventh year, and they had little time to terrorize the teachers a few last times. It was their last chance to drive the school crazy. Ginny didn't seem too happy to get back to lessons, but she was happy to see her friends again. Ron was more pessimistic about it, he only saw it as being trapped in more stuffy classrooms or freezing dungeons with cranky professors. Not to mention getting to see his favorite enemies again.
It took Harry a few seconds to discover why an expression of hate came over Ron's face. Then he turned around and saw Malfoy with his body guards he referred to as friends, Crabbe and Goyle.
"What do you want," Harry asked Malfoy.
"Since when is it illegal for a guy to try to bring up conversation with his favorite foe?" Malfoy asked.
"That would be a legitimate question, Malfoy, if you actually wanted to have a conversation with us. But you don't, obviously, so why don't you just leave?" Hermione suggested.
"That hurts, Granger, it really hurts right here," Malfoy feigned, bringing his fist to his heart. Then he, Crabbe, and Goyle sauntered off.
"Funny, I never knew his heart could hurt. Didn't know he had a heart, actually," Ron said.
If there was one thing Harry wasn't looking forward to at Hogwarts, it was the Slytherins. As a group they were just awful people. They all were either mean, conceited, annoying, or all of the above. Or at least most of them were. Harry didn't know for sure.
No one liked to mix with the Slytherins.
A high-pitched whistle blew from the engine of the train. Harry, Ron and Hermione were among the last to board; they were doomed to find a compartment that wasn't empty.
"Hey Hermione! Ron! Harry! Wait up, you guys!" a voice called from behind them.
The three turned around to see Kylie. She was getting help loading her luggage from a Hufflepuff prefect. She smiled and waved at them.
"Hi Kylie!" Hermione said, happily. "We almost thought you'd miss the train."
"I almost thought I'd miss the train, too. I got lost," Kylie said.
"Oh, that's too bad, where were you lost?" Hermione asked.
"I'm not sure where, but it seems apparent to me now that you can't trust anyone to give you directions these days," replied Kylie.
Hermione laughed and went on about how true it was. She and Kylie were about to go into a huge conversation about the topic, but then the whistle blew again and they had to board.
Harry had been slightly dreading this moment. By now there could be no empty seats. Maybe they could sit with Fred and George, they usually had their own compartment.
However, Fred and George were squeezed into a compartment with all of the other Gryffindor seventh years. Harry recognized Lee Jordan, a friend of Freda and George's, as well as Alicia Spinnet and Katie Bell, two chasers from the Gryffindor quidditch team.
They tried to find Ginny, but they decided she must be farther up the train with her friends. Finally, there was only one compartment left. They couldn't have prevented it. Even if they had gotten on the train earlier, they would still had to have introduced Kylie to everyone. There couldn't have been anything they could do to keep it from happening. No, Harry realized. It we hadn't had that little chat with Malfoy this wouldn't have happened. They wasted time, and now they had to face consequences.
There were only three people in the last compartment. They were Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. 'Everyone's favorite people,' Harry thought sarcastically.
"What do you want?" Malfoy asked them.
"There's a little problem, there isn't any more space on the train," Hermione explained.
Malfoy raised and eyebrow, then glared at them. "So we're stuck with you then?"
"More like we're trapped with you," Ron snapped.
Malfoy grinned evilly. "Well," he said, "At least if anything happens, Potter can save us all." His eyes glowed with malice.
Harry glared back at him. Ron and Hermione were both shooting death looks too.
"Excuse me, I hate to interrupt this, er, lovely conversation, but I'm confused," Kylie said from where she was standing next to Hermione.
"Who are you supposed to be?" Malfoy asked her. He looked surprised, he must've not seen her.
"I'm not supposed to be anyone, but I am Kylie D'Alessandro. Who are you?" she asked.
"The name's Malfoy. Draco Malfoy," he answered.
Kylie looked amused. "Are you trying to be James Bond?" she asked him, suppressing a grin.
"Who?" Malfoy asked.
"No one, it just reminded me of some movie star guy," Kylie answered. "You three wouldn't happen to be in Slytherin, would you?" she asked them.
"Yes, we are in Slytherin, what importance is that to you?" Malfoy asked with a glared.
Kylie groaned and shook her head with her eyes closed. "It's all a nightmare, it's all a nightmare…" she said. "Can I sit down by the way?"
"If you must," Malfoy said, rolling his eyes.
"Kylie, are you in Slytherin?" Hermione asked, sitting down next to her.
Kylie nodded yes. "I had a conversation with the sorting hat over a telephone Dumbledore hooked up somehow. It could've made a mistake. I don't think so."
"I know from experience, that the Sorting Hat can't make mistakes. It just doesn't happen," Harry said sadly. He didn't understand why she was in Slytherin. She was very nice. She was one of those people that you wouldn't think could sum up the guts to squish an ant. It didn't seem right.
"Wow, you sure don't act like a Slytherin," Ron said, obviously very surprised. Hermione glared at him. Kylie looked up.
"Slytherin's don't have the best reputations, do they?" she asked.
"Definitely not," Ron answered.
"Did you ever think through your thick head that maybe its all the other houses that have the bad names?" Draco spoke up.
"Well, the name generally is related to the word slither, which one would associate with a snake. Which isn't among the most liked of animals, and also is the Slytherin symbol," Hermione explained.
"Thank you so much for the joy you just brought me," Kylie said sarcastically.
Hermione looked surprised. That was a more Slytherin-like comment to come from Kylie.
"Well there's got to be something we can do! We have to talk to Dumbledore, or that crazy hat," Ron suggested. He was fighting a losing war. Harry could just picture all of them and Dumbledore having a conference with a hat. It may be the wizard world, but that doesn't make things any easier to make sense of.
"I've heard of the Sorting Hat before I transferred, Ron. There is absolutely nothing we can do to change it's mind, my dad told me so," Kylie said glumly.
"Did your dad got to Hogwarts?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, but he was where he was supposed to be. He had all these great friends from his house; he didn't know too many jerks. There were one or two people he hated, but whose life would be complete without a nemesis?" Kylie answered.
"What house was he in?" Harry asked again.
"You're pretty interested in this, aren't you?" Kylie asked him. "He was in Gryffindor. My mom didn't go to Hogwarts, but they had six different house things at her school, and she was in the one most similar to Slytherin, in case you wanted to know."
To be honest, Gryffindor was where Harry had thought Kylie would be. He was almost certain Hermione and Ron thought so too.
"Yeah, my mom used to tell me all these stories about her school. It isn't open anymore, they closed it about fifteen years ago. I've seen the building. All the windows are boarded up. You'd never think it was a school," Kylie said.
"What happened? I mean, why'd they close it?" Hermione asked her.
"One of the students was murdered."
"How? I don't want to know all of the details, but that doesn't usually happen."
"Voldemort." Kylie said the name as if it was no big deal.
"Oh, you, you don't care about his name?" Hermione asked.
"No one really cared too much about the name thing at my old school, it was too hard to say it every time. I never thought it was a good idea to be afraid of a name, anyway," Kylie said.
Harry was more interested in the actual subject. A student had been killed at a school? Fifty-something years ago, a girl had died at Hogwarts, but it was because a basilisk had looked her in the eye.
"Who was she?" Harry asked Kylie.
"I forget her name, but she was the daughter of an old friend of my mom's. It wasn't personal or anything, I guess, because her and my mom stopped talking to each other for some reason," Kylie said. Harry noticed she was shifting uncomfortably.
"Well that's a very good reason to close a school. Ours almost was closed in our second year, because a monster got free and was attacking muggle-borns. But it's okay now, Harry killed it and the Chamber of Secrets hasn't been opened since," Hermione said very quickly.
But who's to say it hasn't been opened?
Malfoy chose this particular part of the conversation to speak up. "Ah, yes, I remember. Super-Potter saved everyone yet again."
"You do know that everyone includes yourself, right?" Kylie asked him.
"Well, I was never in danger. I'm a pureblood, you see," he said, looking very proud.
"What's that all supposed to mean, about Harry always saving the day?" Kylie asked.
"Oh, nothing important, it's just that Potter here has only saved someone's life about once a year. It's all gotten very boring to us Slytherins, it's nothing we haven't heard before," Malfoy said lazily.
"Then why do you even talk about it, if it is really that boring?" Kylie asked him.
"It was something I thought you should know, as a Slytherin," Malfoy said, malice in his eyes.
"Thanks, but I think I'll learn things for myself. Generally, events in my life turns out better that way," Kylie said.
"It's true, Harry did save a lot of lives," Hermione said truthfully.
"I guess you're quite a hero then?" Kylie asked Harry, who glared at her.
Harry didn't know Kylie would get so offended by that.
"Sorry if you dislike credit for good things you've done. You know, if you have to be in the spotlight, at least be glad it's usually for something good you did. Some people I know are only credited for the bad." She looked at Malfoy while saying the last sentence.
Kylie had a point, Harry decided. Plus, there was no reason for getting on her bad side now. He didn't need someone else against him, especially not a Slytherin.
"Besides, you don't seem like the best person to be an enemy of," Kylie said to Harry.
"Sorry, it's just I get enough of it from him, and I really don't need any more of this about me being such a brave little hero all the time. It gets annoying, people paying attention to everything you do," Harry said.
"Tell be about it," Kylie said quietly under her breath.
Harry was about to question her when Hermione announced that they had arrived.
The seven sharing the compartment all got up at the same time and headed to the door, which caused there to be quite a roadblock. Everyone slammed into each other.
Once they had gotten off the train, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle made their way to the carriages. Kylie hung back for a minute to catch her breath. She looked up and saw a huge castle.
"It was everything he said it was," she whispered to herself.
"Kylie, you coming or not?" Harry asked her.
"Yeah, one minute," she said.
She had many random thoughts going through her head.
' It's not like they'll always believe I don't know why I'm in Slytherin, it'll all come out in the end. Who am I kidding, pretending to not know about all the stuff that's happened at Hogwarts. It's not like I have a choice really, I have an obligation to know what goes on here. And I actually told them that me and Mom were moving here because she wanted us too!'
Kylie looked up at the castle as she walked towards the carriages.
It looked back at her. It knew she would cause complications, and It knew what had to be done about it.
She had final thoughts as she ascended into the carriage.
'It's not like I'm not here for a reason.'
Curtains Close!
Author's Note: Whew, that was long. I'm trying to make more happiness in these next chapters, but I can't say that something big won't happen. I can't say that it will, the plan is ever-changing.
To my wonderful reviewers:
Timothy: You were my first reviewer! But you only reviewed chapter 1…
ME: I'm sorry; I can't say what will happen next. I wouldn't, even if I knew. I haven't planned this story too far in advance.
Violet Eyes: Thanx for the reviews! I read your Hp fics by the way, they're really good!
Dark Mage of the Element Dujour: You rhymed! Thank you so much! I didn't think anyone would! Then again, there were all those limericks…See you in school!
Ruffledowl:Thanx so much! Thanx for considering rhyming, or at least reading where I said that.
Whiteowl: Thanks for the review!
Ginny Anderson: Thanx for your review!
QuicksilverFallen: Thanks so much for all of your reviews! Keep writing your fics, too. They're really good!
Anime-girl mika: Thank you so much for the reviews!
Ryshora: One of the most flattering reviews Ever! Thanx so much!
Deis: Thanx for your review!
Starheart: Thanx for the review!
Black Rose: Thanks for the reviews!
Crazyhorse: Thanx for the reviews!
Anrion: Thanx for the review!
Amor18: Thanx for the review!
Yoriko-sakura chan: Thanx for your review!
Is that everyone? Thanx to all of you, anyway!
You guys know the drill, you read, now REVIEW!
Show me the reviews!
I love you all!
Ciao!
~Starry