The Fifth House

Disclaimer: Still don't own Harry Potter, and yeah!

Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry, it's been kind of a while since I updated. This chapter rakes place at Hogwarts. The school year finally begins, oh joy! Thanx to the awesome reviewers and remember:

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Remember the 3R's because I'm running out of r's…

Curtains Up!

Chapter Ten

Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Kylie didn't talk through most of the carriage ride. Kylie wanted to, but was too nervous. She would stutter and everything would come out wrong, which was exactly what she didn't need to do at that moment in time. Hermione was leafing quickly through a book, making sure that she didn't forget any crucial spells. Ron was gazing out the window towards the lake, watching the giant squid swim around.

Harry was gazing out the other window, at the Quidditch pitch.

The road that wound up to the castle went right along the side of the pitch. Harry had never seen a Quidditch match from ground level, but he heard it was boring. He brought his gaze downward to shield his eyes from the sun. Then he saw something on the ground.

It was a rough looking grey rock that lay flat on the ground.

Harry looked at it curiously. It looked slightly familiar, but not like something you'd see at Hogwarts.

"Do you know what that rock thing is?" he asked Hermione.

"What rock? Harry I don't see anything," Hermione answered.

"There used to be a huge rock at my school. We used to climb on it; my friends and I even named it," Kylie said.

"What did you name a great big rock?" Ron asked.

"The Great Big Rock," answered Kylie lazily. "Harry, where'd you see it anyway?"

"Over around the pitch," Harry said.

"Oh. Okay," Kylie said. She looked as if she was trying to recall something.

"We're here!" Hermione called out enthusiastically.

Kylie gulped and looked up at the giant castle. Harry was nervous too.

But he had his own reasons.

* * * *

"Hold on!" Kylie yelled. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all turned and looked at her.

"What?" asked Hermione.

"I just remembered something! Hermione, you've read Hogwarts, a History, right?" Kylie asked her.

"She's memorized it. Carries it with her everywhere," Ron said.

"Yes, Kylie, I've read that book several times. I got it from the school library many times, than I finally got my own copy. Not like I needed it, it wasn't very popular in the library for some reason," Hermione said.

"Oh, you, you've only read that version. Then you wouldn't know about the old-" Kylie started, but her voice was drowned out by the sudden noise that came as the students entered the Great Hall.

"Second through seventh years to their house tables, please," said Professor McGonagall, her voice magnified with a charm.

"I'll tell you later Hermione," said Kylie as she sadly followed Malfoy to the Slytherin table.

The three looked after her as she sat down at the table next to Pansy Parkinson. Kylie looked over at them and smiled weakly.

"I hope she gets to finish telling us what she was saying, about the old something. I don't know where that came from, she suddenly thought we should know, so it must be important," Hermione said. Harry and Ron nodded.

The Sorting ceremony began. One by one, nervous first years came up to the stool and waited for their destiny at Hogwarts to begin.

It started with " Amero, Maura". The people in the hall watched as the hat yelled, "RAVENCLAW!"

The sorting continued, until there was only one student left.

One student to complete the Reborn circle.

"Zakharova, Sarah!" McGonagall shouted.

The last girl, who looked very nervous indeed, walked slowly to the hat. She took a deep breath, sat down in the chair, and winced slightly as the hat was placed on her head.

Harry noticed that the hat was taking a particularly long time to place her. It wasn't unusual, the hat had taken a long time with Harry as well.

But for Harry, the hat at least said something.

* * * *

After about ten minutes, Dumbledore got up off his chair and walked over to Sarah. He whispered something in her ear; she looked scared, sad, and then happy. No one could tell for sure what he was telling her.

Dumbledore stood up straight and addressed the school.

"It seems that since we have such a large first year class this year, that the Sorting Hat is simply tired out. We will allow it time to rest, then Miss Zakharova will be sorted." He paused here, while Professor McGonagall brought Sarah out of the hall. Once she was gone, Dumbledore continued. "I would ask you all to not bother her, as this is not an uncommon event. In two recent years, the same thing has happened, we have had larger classes."

That was the first time Albus Dumbledore ever lied.

Dumbledore carried on with his usual speech. Everything was the same, no one is allowed in the Forbidden Forest, anyone interested in trying out for Quidditch should contact Madame Hooch, all the same things. Finally he ended the oration with a final announcement.

"This is a year when you should be especially cautious. I need not to inform you that since Voldemort has returned, there will be more security in the castle and on the grounds. However, Hogwarts will be just as safe as it has been in the past years. I don't mean to frighten anyone further than I see some of you are, so I will end with that. Let the feast begin!"

"That was one of Dumbledore's more unusual speeches," Hermione said to Harry and Ron.

"Well Dumbledore's quite unusual himself, isn't he?" Harry said.

"Enough talk, let's eat!" Ron said.

It was true, Hogwarts feasts were truly magnificent. There were all kinds of foods, chicken, steak, pork chops, goulash, potatoes, a large salad, and several bowls of small candies. Harry was very excited to start eating, and dug in happily. Harry, Ron, and Hermione talked excitedly together and ate happily.

Things were different, however, at the Slytherin table.

Kylie was far less than pleased to be sitting with several Death Eaters' sons and daughters. To amuse herself, she went around the table, trying to remember the surname of everyone to determine if their parents were death eaters. After a while it got boring, so she strained herself to pay attention to what Pansy Parkinson was going on about.

"Well, you should definitely avoid Potter, Weasley, and Granger. They're the worst sort to been seen with," Pansy said.

"But they're my friends, and they're really nice, at least to me," Kylie said.

"Then cut it out, it'll ruin your reputation as a Slytherin. Plus, they only bring trouble. And why would you want to be around anyone who's as bigheaded as they are?" Pansy warned.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kylie asked her, trying to contain her anger.

"Honestly, you haven't realized it already?" Malfoy interrupted. "Granger thinks she's the smartest person in the school, and Weasley's father is obsessed with muggles. Then there's Potter, possibly the worst of all of them. He thinks he's so wonderful because he's got some stupid scar, and so what if he saved a few people's lives? Other people have done that too… Also, he's really weak, because he faints whenever a dementor is around."

"It isn't a sign of weakness to faint around a dementor. Have you ever even been near one? They make you freezing, on the outside and the inside, all the way to your heart," Kylie defended. "But, oh, I'm sorry, my mistake. How could a dementor possibly affect you? Your heart is already cold."

With that she stood up and quickly strode over to the doors to the entrance hall. Hermione saw her and called out her name.

"Kylie, whats's wrong? Come here for a minute," Hermione called.

Kylie walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat down next to Hermione.

"It's just Malfoy, he was just going on and on about how much he hates all of you. Didn't seem to be anything earth-shattering, so I left," Kylie explained.

"Yeah, we're his favorite foes, as he says," Harry said.

"Kylie, what were you saying before, after the carriage ride? About the old something…?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"Oh yes!" Kylie said. "You have the newer version of Hogwarts, a History, I'm talking about something in an older edition."

"There are editions?" Ron asked her. She nodded.

"Yeah, I have the eight edition, most people nowadays have the ninth, it's much more recent. It's actually banned to own a copy of the eight edition, but it's just something I have around, it was my grandfather's. Anyway, that old stone you saw Harry. You said it was grey, flat, and rough, right?" she asked him.

"Yeah, and hard to see through grass," he answered.

"In the eight edition of Hogwarts, a History, there is a chapter on the history of the Quidditch field. What Harry saw was a gravestone," Kylie explained in a whisper.

Hermione gasped loudly, Ron raised his eyebrows very high, and Harry's jaw sagged slightly.

"You, you mean..?" Ron stuttered.

"What I mean, is that the Quidditch pitch was built over an old cemetery. People are buried there,' Kylie interrupted in a hushed voice.

"Well, then why are copies of that edition banned, is it because of that?" Hermione asked, greatly concerned that she could not own a copy.

"Yeah, but there's other things too. That ban doesn't really mean much. Sure, it's illegal to buy in bookstores, but they wouldn't have it anyway. It's really old, so there are only a few copies around. It was banned because several house team players wouldn't play over dead bodies. It was getting hard to put teams together. The book also gave some information about more secretive things, like the Chamber of Secrets. Some students went looking for it and were never found. That was when the headmaster decided that a new edition should be made. It's hard to read anyway, it's over two thousand pages," Kylie explained.

"Hermione's dream book," Ron said.

"Yeah, well, I have to go back to my table, Snape's glaring at me for being at this table," Kylie said. "See you guys later."

"Harry, you've played Quidditch over a cemetery, and no one knew. You're still going to play, right?" Ron asked him.

"Yeah, of course," Harry answered. He was kind of freaked out, but he'd get over it.

Sarah Zakharova returned to the Great Hall and sat at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw her snap at a boy who motioned for her to pass the salt. It seemed very un-Hufflepuff of her.

But what Harry Potter didn't know was that Sarah wasn't in Hufflepuff, not really. She was the eighth student in Hogwart's thousand-year history to be in a different house. By saying nothing, the Sorting Hat had placed her in Terces.

* * * *

After the feast, students went to their dorms. But four students went to a different room. None of them knew how they got there, they just followed their instinct on direction in the halls.

But in the end, four of them were in a strange hall in a deep, hidden part of Hogwarts. You see, no one ever truly knows their way around all of Hogwarts.

Except the Circle Ones.

The four students had walked into a large hall, easily twice the size of the Great Hall. All along the walls there were portraits. Not of people, but of wolves, the sacred animal of Terces. There were drapes of a rich, dark, almost black shade of purple. The floor was solid stone. Not marble, not cobblestone, but something else. The ceiling was perhaps the most beautiful part of the hall. There was a swirling ceiling; it was like a liquid in it, like a whirlpool in the sky that never stopped. It was an opal color.

A voice boomed from somewhere in the room, the students looked around, but the voice had come from all around them, not one area.

"Accipio novellas sodalis!" it said.

It was a language that none of the four spoke before, but from this one phrase, they all learned it instantly. It spoke again, this time part was in English.

"Welcome to the Hetairia Lupinus, or as we call it, Terces."

The voice was very strange. It sounded not male, nor female. It wasn't too low or too high-pitched.

There were now eight people in the hall. They stood in a circle and looked up at the ceiling.

The voice spoke once more.

"Diffindo quadripertitus domini."

Curtains Close!

Author's Note: Whew! I had to use an online language translator for parts of that chapter! What did you all think? Good? Bad? Worst Ever?

By the way, "Diffindo quadripertitus domini" means "Open four powers" in another language. "Acciopio novellas sodalis" means "Welcom new society members" or something similar in the same other language. Someone will probably guess it, but I won't say what language I used.

If you have an opinion about this chapter, there's only one thing to do!

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Words of Wisdom: The right way to do something is almost always the hardest way.

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Ciao!
~Starry