Lindsey stood facing Hogwarts castle with a look of awe. 'Awe' used in the strictest sense, as his jaw was hanging wide open and his eyes were slightly popped. Faith laughed, and bounded across the lawn like a six-year-old to embrace her old friend.

"Albus! It's so good to see you!" she shrieked, and gave Dumbledore an enormous hug around the middle that made him 'ooof' loudly. He smiled, and gave her a big hug in return.

"Welcome, Faith, welcome. It does my old heart good to have you here again."

Faith rolled her eyes. "You're not that old. You're still sharp as anything. And looking in prime shape," she added with a mischievous wink.

"Indeed?" Dumbledore chuckled into his beard. He held out a hand to Lindsey, who was still just staring.

"And you must be Lindsey. I'm Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Welcome to our world." At this he stretched forth a hand in a warm reception. Lindsey took the hand and shook it in greeting. He grinned.

"Thanks. I think I'll love it here."

Dumbledore chuckled, eyes twinkling. "I have to say, young man, you look remarkably like your father. Let's hope you don't make quite so much mischief as Mr Sirius Black did when he was here."

Faith smiled sadly and snickered. "Good Luck," she said sarcastically, knowing full well that Lindsey and trouble went hand-in-hand. They walked towards the boats on the lake together, where Hagrid was already waiting with the luggage. After Faith launched herself at Hagrid for another hugging fest and Lindsey had stopped gaping at Hagrid's size, they all set off across the lake towards the castle.

They had decided to stay back in Surrey until term started, because of all the things Faith had to do. For starters, she had to fake her own death, pack up everything, sell the house under a different name and organise how she was going to live from then on. It had been a very busy time. As well as that, Faith had to plan her classes. It had been a surprise at first, but when Albus had offered her the position of the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, she had been very willing. Now, it was 8:30 in the morning, and all the students would be arriving in a few short hours.

As they walked through the doors into the Great Hall, Faith was hit with an enormous wave of nostalgia. She remembered what it was like when she was here as a student, before the Dark Days, where she and Sirius had been happy and young. She bit her lip and pulled a face. She felt it was a bit immature, but Faith couldn't help but let out a long and drawn-out 'awwww' when she looked around.

Dumbledore frowned in thought, and appeared to be concentrating on something. Then he chuckled softly and held out an arm.

"Lindsey, Faith, would you care to accompany me up to the tower to meet Rose? I'm sure she would be delighted. She's never really had visitors before." Lindsey's face broke out into a wide grin.

"Yeah, that'd be great!"

Faith made another 'awwww' sound and smiled. "I haven't seen her since she was a little baby. That was 15 years ago! Let's go!"

However, Dumbledore was not finished yet.

"I must ask you, though, not to breathe a word about her to anyone- and I mean anyone. Even some people in the Order don't know about Rose. Her entire existence is a total secret." Lindsey looked oddly impressed, but nodded his consent.

Ten minutes later, they were standing outside a door. Lindsey looked expectantly towards Dumbledore for him to open it. Strangely though, Dumbledore was facing the opposite direction- a brick wall. There has to be some logic in that, Lindsey thought, but what? Then something caught his eye. Lodged deep in the fissure between two bricks was a tiny shard of crystal. When Dumbledore put his wand to it, the crystal glowed red and expanded into a large painting, bearing a crest with a Phoenix. Dumbledore pushed it aside quickly, and stepped inside.

It looked normal enough, except for the fact that everything in the room was white. A long white table, white chairs, white…well, you get the picture. Faith smiled.

"Oh, it's been ages since I was last here in the Meeting Room. Our last meeting here was so sad, though…this brings back a lot of memories." Dumbledore sighed.

"Yes. It's best not to dwell on the past though," he said quietly, and for a moment looked very old and sad. Then he shook his head slightly, as if to dispel any sad thoughts.

"Well, let's try to be happy for now," Then he walked to a door on the opposite side of the table and opened it, calling out.

"Rose, dear? You have visitors." There was a small silence, and Dumbledore stepped back inside the Meeting Room and seemed to be lost in thought again. Lindsey and Faith looked at each other. Faith just looked bewildered, but her son explained.

"She's telepathic, remember, mum. Rose is probably talking to him."

And Rose was indeed holding a private conversation with Dumbledore.

Visitors? Who? How do they know about me?

"Just come out and meet them, dear." Dumbledore directed the thought in her direction. The he smiled and turned to the two people standing in the doorway.

"I'm sorry, she's a little shy. Rose has never actually met anyone except me and a few Professors here before now. Ah, here she is."

There she was, in the doorway. Lindsey looked at her grinned. WOW. She was really something.

The girl standing in the doorway was of average height, and looked around the same age as Lindsey. She had the softest orange hair he had ever seen with golden-blonde highlights that hung loosely to her waist with gentle waves in it. Her skin was pure porcelain, and she had expressive sea-green eyes that peeked shyly up at him through thick lashes.

"Hi," she said brightly, and giggled. "You guys are my first visitors. I feel proud. Giddy. I'm getting a lot of warm fuzzy feelings. Yay for me. And now I'm babbling. So hi."

She said all of this in a bit of a rush. Faith squeaked and ran forward to give her a hug, exclaiming over how long it had been since she had seen her last, and how tall and pretty she had grown; that sort of thing. When she released Rose, Lindsey stepped froward and shook her hand warmly with a grin.

"Hey, I'm Lindsey. Pleased to meet you. I have to say, it's great to put a face to a voice."

"Yeah, likewise. Hope you like it here."

"I'm sure I will. I just have to get sorted."

At this, Dumbledore pulled a disk out of his robes with many swirling colours and raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Yes. Hmmm, I think we should be going soon. The rest of the students should be arriving any minute now. Mr Black, Faith, this way please. There is another new sixth year to be sorted as well. Come along."

Rose's face fell slightly, and she pouted like a little girl.

"Oh…well, be sure to visit me again!" she ended lightly, and started bouncing on the balls of her feet, smiling at the prospect of having a friend her age. "Bye bye now."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Terrible Trio of Harry, Ron and Hermione were standing in the entrance hall, dry for once. The two boys were in the middle of a debate over who was the greatest Quidditch chaser of all time, and Hermione was bored out of her mind. Really, she thought; if it weren't for sport, boys would never talk about anything. Musing over this strange fact, she let her eyes rove over the heads of all the people in the hall. Hermione was just about to walk over and say hello to Lavender Brown, a fellow Gryffindor, when someone slammed into her body, winding her.

"Ooooof!" she exclaimed loudly, and fell onto the flagstone floor. She rubbed her arm that she had fallen on, and looked up to see whom it was.

"Oh, I'm sooo sorry! I didn't see you there at all. Let me help you up," came a female voice full of remorse. Hermione gazed up into startling electric blue eyes, and held out her hand.

"No, no. it's fine, I'm just a little winded," Hermione said breathlessly, then raised her eyebrows with curiosity. "I'm sorry, are you new? I don't remember seeing you before, and you can't be a first year."

The girl smiled amicably. "You're right. I just came here. I'm starting as a sixth year with my cousin."

"Really? That's great! I know you'll love it here. I'm Hermione by the way. What's your name?"

"My name's Aurora," came the delighted reply. At this point Harry and Ron wandered over to try and get an opinion about Quidditch from Hermione. They stopped when they saw the girl she was talking to. Ron smiled and put an arm around his girlfriend's waist.

"Hey, 'Mione. Care to introduce us?"

Hermione grinned in return as she met Ron's gaze. "Sure. Guys, this is Aurora. She's new, starting as a sixth year with us. Aurora, this is Ron and over here is Harry."

Ron grinned warmly. "Hey, nice to meet you."

Harry gave a funny smile, and blinked before extending his hand. "Yeah, Welcome to Hogwarts." He pulled back his hand after shaking hers and, once she had engaged herself in conversation with Hermione again, stopped to have a long hard stare. She was pretty damn hot!

She was wearing normal Hogwarts robes, but she had no house colours on her yet. Her blue eyes burned with such intensity that she seemed to draw people in. She had straight, white-blonde hair that grew halfway down her back. The strange thing was, the last twelve centimetres of her hair seemed to be dyed a bright, almost fluorescent blue- the same hue as her eyes. He gave a small, indulgent smile. McGonnagal would not approve of that hair one bit.

Her musical laugh interrupted Harry's stare, and he stopped his reverie. He looked at his watch and realised that if they didn't go into the Great Hall very, very soon, they would miss the Sorting Ceremony. And that would be REALLY bad, considering Aurora had to be Sorted. Harry was just about to tell the others that they had to go when a voice stopped him.

"Misia? C'mon, we're going to be late."

Harry froze. He knew that voice. An icy claw gripped Harry's heart, and he groaned as he saw the unpleasantly familiar platinum head come closer. Yes. It was Public Enemy Number One: Draco Malfoy.

Draco came up to Aurora with the most peculiar expression on his face: It took Harry a moment to realise what it was. The face was nothing he had seen on Malfoy before: It wasn't shock, nor a sneer or a grimace. There was no hatred or anger anywhere on his countenance. It was official:

Draco Malfoy smiled at Aurora.

Draco came running up to Aurora and put a hand on her arm, grinning and rolling his eyes comically as he gasped for breath.

"There you are, Misia. I've been looking everywhere for you. We'd better hurry, the Sorting's about to start."

Aurora gave an apologetic face. "Sorry. I just got caught up talking."

The blonde boy nodded and was about to pull her away when he heard a cough from behind him. He turned and saw three people with very shocked faces staring at him. He frowned. Harry Potter? What the hell was he doing here?

Presently, the Boy-Who-Lived in question opened his mouth in disgust. "Malfoy, how do you know Aurora?"

Draco was just about to open his mouth to give a scathing reply when Professor McGonnagal stuck her head around the door into the Great Hall, calling to them in a very impatient, stressed manner.

"Please, you five, we're about to start! Take your places."

Not wishing to face her wrath, but nevertheless begrudgingly, the five complied. They ran through the doors and Aurora went to stand with the first years to be Sorted, leaving a lot of unanswered questions in the minds of Harry, Ron and Hermione…not to mention dread.

Author's notes

Do try to respond, I feel lonely. : P